 Hello everyone and welcome I'm James Milan and this is town meeting matters a brief series that we are doing to prepare town meeting members for the extraordinary session they are due to have upcoming on June 15. Joining us right now, Adam chapter lane our town manager and frequent guests on a CMI Adam. Thanks for joining us. My pleasure. Good to see you. We are interested in getting we're getting to talk to several different folks who have their fingerprints all over the work of the budget that is going to be presented or most of the budgetary items that are going to be presented on the 15. But of course you are the person who kind of is aware of both the nitty gritty details I'm sure and also the larger picture what we're looking for, at least at the outset of this conversation is that a sense of that larger picture so from your own perspective kind of give us as it as as concisely as you can a sense of, you know, where we are at and as we go into this town meeting. So from a budgetary perspective, I'm assuming that's what you were, if it's where we're at from the pandemic I'm not sure how much I can. You're right, let's stick with the budget, but from a budgetary perspective, we, we know some things. And admittedly, there's a lot that we don't yet know. And what we know is what our own property tax collections are likely to be. I think we have a very good sense of projecting what our non tax receipts will be over the next year things we collect like motor vehicle excise motor, hotel motel meals, parking permits and another smaller collections we do locally. We know what our own free cash allocation is. That's our unencumbered money that we use a percentage out for operating funds every year. What we really don't know yet is what state aid will look like. We do know that state revenues for next year are projected to be very, very seriously impacted by the pandemic. We've heard numbers as high as 25% reductions in state revenue for fiscal year 21, which the same as us starts on July 1. So there's, there's a lot of, there's still a lot of questions and as opposed to answers out there in that regard. We've heard from the various groups that advise the state legislature and the governor, Mass Taxpayers Foundation, Beacon Hill Institute, other groups. Again, they're in that range 15, 20, 25% reductions in state revenue. Now we get a significant portion of our revenue from state aid, not a majority. What is that, you know, roughly speaking in normal circumstances, what is that? I believe it's about 17% of our budget. So an important piece, but not the majority piece. So what we are assuming for the FY 21 budget that will be presented to town meeting is that state aid across the board, both Chapter 70, which is Education Aid and UGA, which is called, it's called UGA, but it is unrestricted general government aid, will be cut by a collective 15%. That's a number that, you know, I've talked with my colleagues in other communities spoken with the MMA. It's hard for anybody, even our own legislators to really know what state aid will be cut. But where we're using that number of 15%, it's sort of a really middle of the road. I don't think it's overly conservative, but I also don't believe it's wishful thinking. Excuse me for the interrupting, but just to clarify quickly, you said that one of the sources that you're kind of consulting in order to come up with this is the MMA. What is that again? Oh, I'm sorry, the Massachusetts Municipal Association. Okay, so are there other town managers basically or? There are other town managers, select board members, city councilors, finance committee members. It's a wide sort of a big tent for local officials in Massachusetts. Okay, thanks. Sorry for the interruptions. That's a good question. I sometimes I swim in acronym soup and it's good to be put to be clear. So, so the assumption is we're putting we put together a new FY 21 budget assuming a 15% state aid cut. I don't believe the state is going to adopt a budget to give us clarity on that figure before July 1. In fact, from what we hear from the legislature, it's not likely that they'll adopt a budget before maybe August or September. They will likely adopt one 12 budgets or one month budgets, and until they have a better sense of what the economic recovery looks like. I think they're also waiting to see if there will be additional federal stimulus to help backfill state revenue. Because I, you know, rather than adopting the most draconian budget, I think they want to have a little more information before they do that. Again, we're making the assumption of a 15% state state aid cut. And what we, what we know will be the case is we will have to come back in the fall, not only to address all the matters that will be addressed now in this town meeting, but to likely make modifications to the budget based on what state aid actually is. So our overarching goal here is to maintain the stability of town services and school services that were really the core tenet of the override that was passed last year, while not bringing any closer in time when the next override is projected to be. So assuming those state aid cuts of 15%, looking at our spending and then looking at when we would need to look at an override again, again, we've tried to maintain core services, but not have an override any sooner than we were expecting. And that's, that's the balance that we've tried to bring to present the town meeting this year. I've got, I've got a question I'm wondering, what is the impact, if any, of the fact that, as you said, you will not know any more than you know right now about the amount of money coming from the state at the time that the, that you have your town meeting on the 15th, and one assumes that things will get passed and, you know, approved as roughly as they are. Usually I would think that that, that kind of sets the numbers and the, and the priorities for that next year. But you've said that more information is going to be coming in the ensuing months from the state, so that number may be significantly higher or lower than what you had assumed. What is the provision for the decisions that you make on the 15th that, that can take into account the changes that could happen after that? So I think in a sort of a summary form, if we end up in the fall in a worse position than what we've projected, we'll have to take a step back, look at town spending, look at school spending and look at reserves, and depending on how big the gap is make decisions about how we want to close that gap. We still will, we're not touching the money that we have in our long term stabilization fund as part of the plan that will be presented to town meeting. So that could be a conversation we have. And there's also, there will be further spending we can look at within, within budgets. So that will be what we do in that regard. If we do better, if there's federal stimulus or the recovery is faster than anybody's predicting, then we'll be able to, we'll have certainly a discussion about it. But I would imagine that we will try to put as much of that at that point surplus away for a future rainy day as opposed to spending it immediately given given the general uncertainty about the future as it relates to the pandemic. Right. And that also seems consistent with the way that Arlington has approached finances for as long as, you know, I've been keeping tabs on such things. Well, clearly, yes, the surplus would be a lovely surprise. And we're, I think people are less concerned about what will happen. In that case, of course. But it sounds then like the numbers will be firm in terms of the budget coming out of the of the meeting on the 15, and then whatever adjustments you need to make in terms of drawing from other sources, or other kinds of changes to how you're spending that money that needs any changes that need to be done because there's less money available, you'll just deal with as, as, as you can, as we move into the fall and thereafter. Yeah, that's fair. And I guess to say it another way, probably a better way than the way I chose. No, no, no, no, no, no, building a budget in uncertain times is hard, right. But the uncertainty cuts both ways. Being overly draconian right now with the absence of information would be tough to describe to people as to why you're making those decisions. Being overly optimistic in the absence of information would be hard to describe so that's why we're not really doing either. I think we're being moderately conservative in the expense reductions that we've taken understanding that it could get more severe and if it's more severe, I think we know the areas that we'll look at to trim that cost and that so we're not we're not going into the fall on a wing and a prayer right where we're going into the fall thinking we've made smart, prudent decisions given what we do know. And we're the good idea of what we'll look to do if we do have to make further cuts. And I don't mean that that sounds more guarded maybe than it's intended to be. We have vacancies and departments across across the town, and we're going to hold on to those vacancies for a little while rather than hiring new people that we might have to lay off depending on how things go. So we'll, we'll take a look at those vacancies and hold them so that if we do have to reduce more expenses we can think about eliminating those vacancies. Right, and I appreciate the fact that you might have you recognize that that might have sounded guarded so you wanted to give some details. And I'll just remind our audience that in another conversation in this series one with Al Tosti, the chairman of our finance committee he goes into gives a number of examples of where those, you know, if cuts need to happen or if money if expenditures need to be reduced, like where and what the nature of those will be. So if you're interested audience, just check out the Al Tosti interview and you can get more information in the interest of, you know, making the most of your own time here. Adam, let me ask you to to now take a step back and directly address your audience in a sense in in this particular case, which is town meeting members, perhaps veterans but certainly those newer to town meeting. Obviously the circumstances are unprecedented for all one and all. But what is it that you what message would you like to convey to town meeting members about how best to act between now and the 15th, as well as on that night. So the message the moderator is trying to send is, let's let's have this session be as short as it can be while allowing for public dialogue, so that we can maintain the operation of town government after July 1. But safe, you know, but then come back in the fall for more hefty policy discussions, assuming the pandemic has, you know, will allow us to in terms of a gathering. So I think the message I would send further than that is that the moderators also going to be very shortly asking for town meeting members to submit questions by email about the budgets and other financial matters that will be before them. And what we'll do is the moderator will decide who should answer those questions. I think he'll work with me on deciding whether it's me or department head or whoever it might appropriately be. We'll then post those questions publicly for our town meeting members to see, and we'll post the answers. So what we're trying to do what we will be trying to do is mimic a floor debate over a time elapsed over the course of the next few days. So that again we're not trying to limit debate, we just, we don't want to have people in close proximity, even though it'll be outside and hopefully most people will have masks. We don't want it to be any longer than it will need to be to accomplish what we're trying to accomplish. Okay, great. And we know that you guys are going to be tackling on the 15th basically purely fiscal issues and so and again I would point people there in, you know, these four conversations that we're having as part of this series will provide all of this information so we don't need to ask all of it from you. But the do you foresee at this point that there are any of the the budgetary items that are going to be coming up for discussion be that the CPA or Minuteman or town, town budgets, etc. Do you foresee at this point that that any of those are going to be, you know, tough, tough to work out. You know, clear sailing somewhere, obviously somewhere in between probably but you know anything that you need to alert folks to in terms of just being a tougher issue to resolve. I don't know that I would say that I think there are tough issues to resolve as I view the current budgets. The capital plan has been well vetted by the capital planning committee and then the finance committee input forward the CPA are only putting forward the things that they are deeming most urgent at this time and then planning to come back at a later date to ask for more. Most of the other articles the Minuteman article is for the operation the Minuteman schools, and then there's appropriations from various accounts, miscellaneous articles that we're looking at. What I see as potentially being an item or topic of controversy is the police budget, given everything that we're discussing and facing in the nation right now. I've received emails from some residents, and I know the chief has received more chief clarity has received more suggesting that we defund the police budget. And I understand what they're suggesting I understand the concerns they're raising, and I'm at least going to prepare myself for somebody on town meeting floor, or town meeting field this year to raise that at either as a substitute or ask questions in that regard. And my answer to that, though I'm still working through I think the details of the answer that I would give is that I think there are very important discussions that we should be having about how the police department operates, what it looks like, how it fits into maybe a more, you know, a mental health social work model. I mean, I think the Arlington Police Department has been a leader in that regard they've had social workers on staff for over five years, a nation nationally acclaimed opiate out opiate outreach and awareness campaign and program so I think we've been doing a lot of the right things, but we need to talk about it more. And I don't believe that simply reducing the police department's budget today for the sake of reducing it will get any of us where we want to go. And I think we have to be planful, thoughtful and analytical and and do the work to decide how we if we don't want to be spending the money in a certain way in the police department budget, what should we be doing and then where would we like to put those resources. I mentioned that that there will need to be a special town meeting in the fall to deal with all the issues that you can't deal with on the 15th. I'm wondering whether there are any among those that are going to be affected in terms of the warrant articles themselves what they're looking for. Are there any that are so timely that they'll be affected just by being just by being delayed until the fall. So I mean again on the topic that is the topic we're all talking about now related to race and policing. There was the study article in regards to a civilian review board. And I think that had that been proposing the establishment of a civilian review board the timeliness would have been problematic, given what we're facing, but that article was asking for the study of putting together a civilian review board. Again, that might be something that comes up at on town meeting floor this year, but I think the timing timeliness is less critical because it was asking to study the matter. Outside of that I may be mistaken but I mean I don't know that anybody who was advocating whether it was a town department or a resident likes that their matter is being delayed, but I don't think there's anything jumping off the page to me. But that's saying that we really should be taking care of it this this spring and can't wait for the fall and I say that because all of these things no matter where you come down on them. They deserve robust discussion. I don't believe any of them should be rushed. So, I think, you know, wait waiting till we can all safely come back together, or maybe even waiting until we've been able to work through some technological hurdles to see if we can all come together electronically in the fall and have a robust discussion one way or the other. I think all of these issues deserve more consideration and debate. Okay, and what, aside from the obvious uncertainty that the pandemic has kind of just superimposed on everything that we do. What are the, what will determine at what date you set that the fall town meeting the special town meeting in the fall for I think we'll watch health data will watch health guidance from the state in our own local public health officials. I think we'll see what the state is doing in terms of their budget. We'll see what is happening with the potential federal stimulus bill and see how those all work together. I mean, I think if, if health data points to the middle of October, but there's no new news from the state yet about budgets, maybe we wait a couple weeks. Right. But if we get clarity from the federal and state government in early September, and health data points to waiting another couple weeks, then I think we read a couple weeks right so I think we have to see how those how those interacting variables come together. There's a lot of different threads that have to kind of get get get blocked in in place. So, just very quickly, any pre anything that merits a preview that again has been is being deferred to the fall, anything that that kind of stands out for you is something that deserves mentioned even right now or should we just move on. I also I think we are going to have a hopefully over the summer we'll find the right way to have discussions about police accountability and the civilian review board or the chiefs, the chiefs, residents commission that she's trying to put together the committee. I think those are things that we are, you know, whether or not they're on town meeting floor we need to keep discussing. I think our plan is to continue to discuss zoning. I know the planning department, even in the midst of all this has been working hard to put out resident engagement opportunities and surveys about zoning. We're going to keep talking about those things. And then I'm sure I'm forgetting some things so I don't want to insult anybody, but nothing else outside of those to jump to mine is just being burning things that we need to address. But I think we will again we will be talking about those things that might be over zoom like you and I are talking right now but I think we'll be talking about those matters before they're taken up and hopefully we can try to. Solving some of these problems is much harder than it may seem but hopefully we can we can start to move the dialogue forward as we, you know, over the next couple of summer months. And you may think that I've already asked you my toughest questions but here's one. What signs of hope. What, what, you know, any sun, you can introduce into, you know, what are, you know, of course, practical and thoughtful reactions and responses to the circumstances, but nonetheless, tough stuff on the whole. Yeah, yeah. Any, any things you're optimistic about at this time. So, you know, this may sound naive it may be naive, but I am really optimistic that now is the time for us to really make progress on race in this country. I don't know what the culmination of factors are that have kept the national attention on this. I mean I have my suspicions that it is a lot of people are not in school is a good number of people not at work. The just visceral brutality of what happened to George Floyd. I think the combination of those things have captured the attention of a broader audience. It's sad but true that black and brown people in this country have been killed before by law enforcement, maybe not in the same manner but in as brutal a manner as George Floyd was and it didn't ignite the same reaction. But now that the reaction is ignited. I, I, I have hope. I think there is hope that we can make progress on this, not just as Arlington as a country. I think that people that hadn't paid any attention to this before even some of my own friends I'm seeing are paying attention to these issues in a way that they've never paid attention to them before. So, I, I have hope in that regard. And I think in Arlington I have hope that we have what are now thousands of people standing out on mass have on a nightly basis, looking for change. And I have hope because we have a select board, and we have a police chief, and we have a fire chief we have officers within the police department and more who agree that we need to make change. So I think we are well aligned in this community to make the changes that we need to make. It's not going to be easy. Some of the discussions are going to be very hard, and people having those discussions might not agree on every point. But if it was, if it was easy, it wouldn't be worth doing. And I think that I do believe that we have a sun shining down on us in this moment to make changes that are just so long overdue in this country. So I, in that regard, I have a lot of hope. Well, if that's naivete, it's a mighty clear eyed version of it so let's let it let us hope you're on to something there. Anything we've missed, Adam. The only thing I would add that I'm sure everybody else that you're interviewing for this will add in some shape or form is we are trying to conduct this town meeting in as safe a manner as possible from a public health point of view. We'll be protecting the workers checking people in as well as the people checking in with plexi shields. We'll be asking everyone to wear a mask if you're not going to wear a mask we'll be asking you to sit in a special non mask wearing section whether it be by your choice or your own health that doesn't allow you to wear a mask. So I think that hand sanitization will be allowing for social distancing we're going to really maximize under the guidance of the Health and Human Services Department, conducting this town meeting in a safe a safe manner as possible so I that said I'll understand some people won't want to come and I that that's the situation if the situation being what it is that's unfortunate but I want to ensure everybody we're paying a lot of attention to conducting this is safely as possible. I got to ask you one small question just on this topic to before before we finish and that is one of the challenges I think all of us have realized and I because I have an octogenarian mother living with me and I take her around certain degree. So bathroom facilities and access there to can be quite challenging when you're out in the world these days. Does town meeting have a plan for that. Yeah, so there are bathroom facilities available at the concession stand that are out on the field out on Pierce field. So we will be making sure that those are fully operational. And we'll also have a custodial detail to sanitize them after use so that we can have them available for people to use but also make sure that they can use them safely. Well, I'm sure I could have picked a more suitable topic with which to end our conversation but again, appreciate all the information and and your time and of course best of luck on the 15th and thereafter. Thank you very much. All right, I've been talking to Adam chapter lane our town manager. I'm James Milan. This is town meeting matters. Thanks for joining us.