 All right, we'll start. I am Christine Nashler, and I'm chair of the Conference of Finance Committee, calling on May 3, 2020 meeting at the committee's order. First, let me confirm attendance of members of the committee and confirm that everyone can hear me when I call your name. We respond in the affirmative and for those who are with us via Zoom, please let state that you are attending via Zoom. Jordan. Here. Shane. Here by zoom. Jennifer. Sophie. Brian. Here. Caroline Rebecca here. Here. Charlie. Here. John. Here on zoom. Darrell. Here. John. Here. Peggy. I'm here on zoom. El Tosti. Here. Here. Here and our executive secretary Tara here. Let me do the read the script on March 29, 2023, Governor Haley signed into law supplemental budget bill which among other things extends the temporary provisions of the open meeting law to March 31, 2025. The other extension allows public bodies to continue holding meetings remotely without a form of the body physically present at a meeting location so long as adequate alternative access to the deliberations of the meeting is provided to the public. Adequate alternative access includes providing public access through zoom video conferencing which we are doing tonight. This meeting will not feature public comment during public access does not ensure public comment or public participation. This meeting will not feature public comment. Those wishing to provide comments may do so by emailing our executive secretary Tara Bradley at T Bradley at town.browlington.ma.us. Please note that this meeting is being recorded and that some attendees are participating by video conference. We are aware that other folks may be able to see you and take care enough to screen share your computer. Anything that you broadcast may be captured by the recording. All supporting materials that have been provided members of this body are available on the town's website unless otherwise noted the public is encouraged to follow along using the post agenda unless the chair knows otherwise. The chair will introduce each speaker and then we'll recognize members wishing to provide any comments questions or motions please hold your name. Hold into your name's call. For those attending remotely. Please remember to mute your phone or computer when you are not speaking. Everyone please remember to speak clearly and in a way that helps generate active minutes. And each vote taken in this meeting will be conducted by a roll call vote. First order of business tonight it are the minutes of May 3. I've been able to have April 26 April 26 I'm sorry. Anybody have any comments, questions. Alright seeing none we'll take a vote on the minutes of April 26. Jordan. I'm staying I wasn't here. Shane. Jennifer's not here Sophie's not here Brian. Yes. Carolyn's not here Rebecca. Yes, Josh. Yes. Grant. Yes. Charlie. Yes. John. I'm staying. Daryl isn't here, Annie. Here. I mean yes. Sorry. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. 12 in the affirmative and zero in the negative and two extensions. All right. The minutes have been approved. All right. Recap of where we're at and tell me for those who aren't telling me members. We have. We did the department of budgets. That's our full 30. And the capital budget. There was a little hiccup with the DEI department. There was an effort to essentially defund that. that effort to defund that government fail. There was a successful motion to take $15,000 out of the capital budget that was intended for Bolo raps. And that was, those are the only two issues really for those articles. So now we go into the special town meeting and then we'll go back to finishing the fourth meeting and then the step board's articles and then the refailment board. And then we will start and get into our finance articles. I don't know if we'll actually reach the finance articles tonight, I think there's a possibility that I can get into that book. So that's where we are. Annie, right, Dr. Dawson is coming on Monday. Dr. Dawson is coming on Monday and I have been assured we will take a minute man budget before we plunge into article 12, which we'll take off. All right, so that is the update. This town meeting, the other update I want to give people is what's been happening. We've had the long range planning committee with respect to the override. For those of you who attended the long range planning committee jump in and finally venting out. The school, the select board has yet to vote to put it on. I care honestly to see if there's anything. That's fine, I'm not gonna read your long one. How many Microsoft engineers does it take to put a hundred people in one set of chairs, right? Five people to move one chair in person. Sorry, okay, all right. So the select board has yet to vote to put the override on the ballot. The idea, the thinking is that they will do that in June to put it on the ballot in late November or late October, early November. What the school department is doing right now is refining their strategic plan to present to both us and the board, the select board I'm not anticipating any changes in their dollar amounts that they're asking for, but they are, as I said, refining it. And what they would like to have and what I would like to have is a meeting with the school committee and the superintendent and us when they've done that. So sometime either at the end of May or the beginning of June, preferably the end of May, we'll have a meeting with them solely to talk about their current strategic plan and their ask and override. In June, the select board will take a vote. The date, and again, correct me if I heard wrong by the end of the long-range plan committee meeting. I think the idea was that the select board would vote maybe on June 12th to put the override on the ballot. And with the idea that we would then have a meeting ourselves to vote as to whether we were gonna support the override or not. And if the select board votes on the 12th, I would like to have a FINCOM meeting on the 14th. If the select board votes earlier in June, then we'll try to have an earlier meeting in June. But as it stands right now, I'm looking at a FINCOM meeting on the 14th and I'm hoping that everyone will be able to attend that because it's a really important discussion and a really important vote to take. So I'd like as many members as possible there on 14. What is certain, I think, is that the amount of the override will be $7 million and it will be a three-year override. We're also looking at a special town meeting in the fall. And if, among other things, I think there can be some zoning issues in the fall, but also they'll be conceivably a vote of town meaning to adjust the FY24 budgets based on this override. And town meeting might occur before the override or after the override. So we might have to pass, we finance committee might have to present a contingent budget. So the point of what I'm saying is that be prepared that we're gonna have to do some work in the fall because we're gonna have to do a report just tell me in the fall. So just keep that in mind in terms of scheduling. No set dates as to the override or town meaning, but I think the idea was sometime late October and early November. So that is everything I know, Alan. I don't know, Annie, I don't know if you wanna add anything. No, I mean, that's the schedule and we'll just have to, you know, hear the school committee out and then we'll see. So I'll, I mean, I've been talking to Kersi and I'll continue to talk to her about trying to schedule something with regard to our meeting with us in the school committee. So, and again, I'd like to do that earlier rather than later, but we'll see where they are. Madam Chair, isn't there a difference between school spending and the override? In other words, we'll vote on override or not. Let's say we vote the $7 million override, we're not voting for school spending that override. That's those spending decisions that are made by each town meeting. So maybe a commitment in the minds of the selectman, but it's not law. If we do a contingent budget, the town meeting passes on that. No, that's true for the first year. But I'm just saying in general, the $7 million is what we're voting for an override. If there's no school or if those ads aren't voted, it's not a three-year override, it's almost a five-year override. But the commitment to the voters would be x amount or x, x, y, and z. Just like we have been doing in the last... But I'm saying it's a town meeting decision. At each town meeting, it's a finance committee decision, at each finance committee session. It's not a law, it's a political statement by the select board. So isn't that true? Every commitment we make about an override? No, you can write it in. You can write it. No, no, you can't write the number in. You can have it straight to the number. That's the only thing we can do. Okay, we can't say anything about how it's going to be standard, how long it's going to last or anything else. But it's not, all I'm saying is it's a political statement by the select board. It's not... Everything that we say about the override, other than the number printed on the ballot, is a political statement. How we've done it. We have never failed to live off to those political statements that I know. I'm not arguing that. I'm just saying it's the amount, the spending, the commitment to do an override and the amount that's spent are made in different decisions. Yep, yep, yep. Anything else? All right, then moving on to something more fun. Alan? Will we be able to do the reserve fund transfers on the 14th also? That's what I would like to do, yeah. And also do officer elections to get to all our business. And then he done for... It's our fall, yep. So the end of year party. So first, so for new members, what we historically do is when we're finished with our business in June, we get together and have dinner and drinks and just relax and spend some time before we all break for the summer. And it's always been a very fun event. So I am looking for volunteers who want to work on that. And Tara has in the past helped a lot. Can I count on you to do that? So if I can get... I like organizing parties. Great, all right. Anybody else who wants to help out? I might join you. All right, so Carolyn, I heard you're... I don't know what I'm gonna do in June. Did you get a chair? You can have a dozen chairs. So the question is the date. So if we do it, and maybe we can present it. Jennifer and Tara can figure out what the dates are. Yep, in terms of dates. But I was... If we meet... If we do our final business on the 14th, then the next Monday the 19th is a holiday Juneteenth. So I don't want to meet them. So that would be the 21st and that's your wedding anniversary. I'm sorry. Isn't the 21st your wedding anniversary? Yeah, I don't know what that is. But I can get special dispensation. I'm going to hit a ton. You know, wedding anniversary. And if you invite her. Sounds like a long trip. I probably did that once. Sounds like the longest trip. So the other alternative is maybe doing it on a Thursday the 15th. Are people amenable to a possible Thursday date? Sure. Yeah. Yeah, all those dates are fine. All right, so why don't we look at... Ideally, I think maybe the 15th, just to do it earlier and Carolyn will have a problem with his wife. Then we'll do it on the 21st. That would be the only one who'd be in trouble with Barbara if we do that. I'm sorry. Share that. Nice. Where is it done? So it's a very good question. Okay, so is it restaurant? We've done it at Russ Ross. We can... The three of us and Carolyn can talk more. But we have some money we can use and so the three or four of us can talk. Okay. Possibilities. Okay. And yeah, and see what will work, which date, at which place that makes more sense. You take whatever the balance, the lesser offenders, and you get to use it. Yeah. Where we go? Let's do this part. I recommend that. We'll make a motion that we consider everybody shipping in 20 bucks to 30 bucks. Second. Yeah, that's a good idea. I don't think we'll have a problem. Bring the control. We have it. Bring her in here. I don't have anything more to discuss. Let's plan on meeting on next Monday. Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Okay.