 Good evening. I'm calling to order this meeting of the Arlington Select Board on Tuesday, October 17th. I am Select Board Chair Eric Helmuth. Tonight's meeting is being conducted in a hybrid format as provided by the Massachusetts Legislature. Before we begin, please note the following. First, this meeting is being conducted in the Select Board Chambers and over Zoom. It is being recorded and simultaneously broadcast on ACMI. Second, people wishing to join the meeting by Zoom can find information on how to do so on the town's website. A person participating by Zoom are reminded that you may be visible to others and that if you wish to participate, we'll ask you to provide your full name in the interest of developing a record of the meeting. However, tonight I do not anticipate opportunities for public comment. Third, all participants are advised that people may be listening who do not provide comment and those persons aren't required to identify themselves. Both Zoom participants and people watching on ACMI can follow the posted agenda materials found on the town's website, specifically the Select Board Agendas and Minutes page. Thank you very much. Thanks to my colleagues for making time for tonight's additional meeting. I know in addition to our normal quick procedural vote that we take that accommodates the Select Board's ability to gather with above reproach during the town meeting, we also had a couple of items of business. First item of business will be a public discussion with my colleagues and then following that we will move to an executive session in which time the broadcast will end. I will ask for a motion that will adjourn the entire meeting from executive session. Any comments, Mr. Attorney? No, thank you Mr. Chair. Thank you. Okay, so let's turn to item one, a review of the Select Board Override Commitments. So I have before you a suggestion for the Board to vote tonight for two very small changes to the overrides and I will explain the reason for them. But the substance of the change is really just for clarity, suggesting that we might for the title delete the words FY24, because that has always been a little bit ambiguous about whether or not. It's when we're going out for the override on the campaign and the election or whether or when it takes effect, but with the developments I'm about to detail it becomes even more ambiguous. And secondly, just an update on the effective date and I suggest the language which opened to edits reaffirming on today's date. And as I will detail everything else in the document I think does not need to be changed. So here are some informational remarks the sake of my colleagues and for the public. I will be repeating these remarks anticipated tonight at town meeting pending a vote of finance committee to happen at 730 that would be a no action vote on article two which appropriates or would have appropriated some funds from the coming override to fiscal year 24 for the schools. Earlier this month the typographical error was discovered on the ballot language for question one on November 7th as prepared on the direction of the town manager at the time and voted by the select board. Specifically, instead of specifying July 1st, 2023 to identify the fiscal year in which the override would take effect, it said 2024. As a result, the tax increase if approved by voters would take effect next July, not this winter and spring as originally planned. It also means that the town will ask voters for $7 million less between now and the end of fiscal year 26. When the error was discovered, the board had two options to change the language and delay the election to some extent or to proceed with the current language. After consulting with the town manager and his finance team, it became clear that we could proceed as is with the language as voted and still meet all the select board commitments to taxpayers for this override, maintaining level services in the town of schools, making specific new investments and most importantly, not asking for another override before fiscal 27 because we will still have a balanced budget through fiscal year 26. This course of action was made possible by two things. First, some very recent, positive, though likely one time financial developments that the town manager will detail shortly. It was also made possible because of the town's conservative budgeting practices that are designed to withstand unexpected events. Although it is clear that the town very much needs the override funds starting in fiscal year 25, I am pleased to report that I am very comfortable with this course of action that is good news for taxpayer wallets but remains a responsible financial approach that protects the town's ability to continue providing outstanding town and school services to our residents and to ensure responsible budgeting and financial practices for our future. So tonight, I invite discussion and our town manager will elaborate on some of the details that I alluded to. One question I have for the board is with the board's support, I would like to change the last bullet point of my remarks to say that I, instead of I am pleased to report myself, that I am pleased to report on the behalf of the select board that we are very comfortable with this course of action as is. But that's up to you. So I think the two items on our agenda for us to decide tonight are these edits to the commitments document and whether you support that change in my representation in the substance of all the remarks, honestly, on behalf of the board, because that's the only way I'm authorized to speak on your behalf. So, Mr. Afini, I'd invite you to make further elaborations at this point. Sure. Thank you, Mr. Chair. As you referenced, working with the finance team, we were able to update our financial plan based on newly available information. And we did determine the town would, in fact, be in a position to meet your stated override commitments for fiscal years 24 through 26 within the confines of an override that did not take effect until next year. So, as you folks are well aware, at this time of year, important figures come into focus for municipal finance. This includes our recessors office honing in on our new growth, which exceeded our estimate. We also learn about school enrollment, which is still growing, but to a lesser extent than was conservatively and prudently forecasted. And we also have our free cash certified by the Department of Revenue. The town's free cash position was particularly strong. I believe we heard about that in detail at our last meeting from our Comptroller, Eda Cody. Of course, we had a milder winter than normal. You just jinxed us for this winter. Go ahead. But we also benefited from other favorable, perhaps temporary economic circumstances outside of our control. Ever-increasing interest rates yielded significant returns on our sizable interest-bearing accounts. And frankly, the tight labor market resulted in delays filling open positions, creating a salary surplus. So given these and a number of other circumstances, we were able to balance the long-range plan through fiscal year 26, should the ballot question pass on November 7th. And of course, this will defer consideration of a school department budget adjustment, originally contemplated by Article 2, as the Chair noted, until the spring annual town meeting, when of course we will be even further along in the current fiscal year. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Feeney. One further night I would make just by way of a technical explanation. When we learned about this, it was outside of the, or within the 35 days of the election, which we could have met to change the ballot language, which we would have had to rescind our vote and delay the election to 35 days from that date. And although it was really down to the Chair to decide whether to convene the Board to do that, I think that I was comfortable making that decision based on the Town Manager and his team's input. Needless to say though, the power's still on the Board that if the Board would want to go down that other road, we could do that tonight. That would not be my personal recommendation, but at that I will leave it to Board discussion and questions for either myself or the Town Manager. Mr. Diggins. So I'm fine with this, but I am curious as to what were the options and the financial impact of those options? So for instance, where do we land in the five year time period of the long-range plan with this current situation versus what would have happened otherwise? Yeah, that's a very fair question. I'll answer the first part of that. The options were to just proceed as it is, which means that the override collections wouldn't start and it's basically collecting $7 million less than we would have over the three year period. And or to, you know, rescind the vote, delay the election and correct the language that would have started, restarted the override. I'll turn to the Town Manager though to represent what the financial long-range plan impacts of that options would have been. Sure, I think, thank you Mr. Chair and Mr. Diggins, as you refer to what we often call the out years of the long-range plan, as you know, this discussion is predicated on an override passing and the commitment being to pursue no overrides before fiscal year 27. So when you folks originally contemplated these commitments in the amounts, we were indeed projecting a deficit in fiscal year 27 back in June of about, about just shy of $17 million. At this point in time, given the ripple effects of some of the points that I outlined below, we are of course still showing a deficit in fiscal year 27, but that has in fact been reduced to just over $15 million. So certainly there will be food for thought at a later date. Thank you. Mrs. Mohan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First I'd like to move approval of the revised select board override commitment sheet statement. Second to your question, I appreciate, I think I saw all of our heads nodding that when you do address your remarks to tell meeting that this is a course that the entire board, select board agrees with, so I'd appreciate you relaying that unanimity. I said that word right. And thirdly, when I, well I have a third and a fourth, the fourth is easy. From this point going forward, if we could either with a quarterly or fiscal year end or fiscal start of report get as close to an approximate amount of our override stabilization account. I just think that something should go forward in years. Anyways, just so, you know, we're aware of it when we speak with people on the street. So, but I'd leave that to, and you know, perhaps Mr. DeCorsi can give some more guidance. When is the appropriate time? I'm not looking for every quarterly report. I want to see what the approximate, but as close to accurate override stabilization fund balance is, but whatever is the most physical, common, sensical time to do that, either at the beginning or the end, but I would like something between now and May 30th of next year. Whenever the town manager and chair think it's appropriate, whatever report to include it, I'm not asking for a separate thing on that. And then the third part, I'm very pleased that we're, you know, we have a solution we're continuing forward. There's been a lot of work that has been put into this. When I speak to people in the streets, I have hardly gotten anyone who has come back contradictory in terms of our teachers and our paraprofessionals on the school side, the rapid turnover that we seem to have, as well as the pay not even close to comparable or average and that needs to be corrected, as well as, and that's for our colleagues on the school committee to advocate more for and give details, but also on the same hand, the same on the town side, also same reflection on department heads and what they need to do to provide their services in the future, as well as the pay in direct order of if you go by, I haven't done it against the town manager 12, which is a different list, but the 10 communities that we use for our union employees, public works, police and fire, are just as low, if not the lowest on that list. And that's something that I know we're all committed to and we are kind of hindered on that because we are members of the select board, we're not the town manager and we're not town council and we're not the deputy town manager who's in negotiations, but I think moving forward like this gives me and my colleagues the best tools that we need to continue working on those and finding solutions for those and I think to pause and try to reset and redo wouldn't be beneficial to the town. So thank you. Sorry to be so verbose. Thank you, Mr. Hunt. Mr. Heard. Second the motion and happy to support their vice commitments. We talked about this. I mean, my comments sort of echo what I said in the last meeting is that going through the financial reports and seeing how well we're doing financially and there's certainly extenuating circumstances to our cash situation, but it shows great financial leadership. Again, gets a little bit of a delay in the bank to people's wallets and allows people to prepare for it for a couple of years. So I think that it's good that we're able to do this and it puts our residents in a better position. And I think it helps us convince voters one on election day why we need the override and that we've done everything we could. I think at the beginning of the process we put in our commitments that we wanted to show that we've exhausted all avenues to reduce spending and to make sure that we're operating on as lean a budget as we can while still providing the incredible services that the residents expect in the town. And I think this whole situation, notwithstanding the typo, I think proves that that even with a typo we can, we're able to salvage the situation. So I'm happy to move forward with the revised commitments as presented. Thank you, Mr. Herd, Mr. Degorsi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I also support Mrs. Mahan's motion and I want to thank you, Mr. Chair, for your leadership working with Mr. Feeney, Mr. McGee and the finance team to go through this and take a look once the issue was discovered. And just Mr. Feeney had mentioned the enrollment figures and just so the public's very clear, the timing of this, the enrollment figures that we look at are as of October 1. You don't get that information on October 1st. It comes out later. So this is truly a recent development. The free cash certification from the Department of Revenue came at the end of September. So again, this isn't something that was known months ago and there wasn't any action. This was very recent and that assisted your analysis and Mr. Feeney's analysis and just as Mr. Herd said, you take a look at it and you adjust and there's been excellent financial management and we've been able to take a look at that. And from the voter's perspective, as you said, instead of the additional 7 million hitting on the February and the May bill, if the override is successful, it will not hit until beginning on the August 1 preliminary bill for fiscal 25. So it's deferred. So to my way of thinking, I think similar to what Mr. Herd said, we all support the override, putting it on the ballot. There is now an even stronger argument for the override given the deferral here that the funds won't be requested until the next fiscal year is successful. By my way of thinking, an even stronger argument to support this or even showing of a greater need beginning of fiscal 25. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all. I think I'll add just a couple of further comments. First of all, I appreciate the board's support for this and you thoughtful remarks. And I agree wholeheartedly that this, fundamentally the mistake was a mistake and we all wish that it hadn't happened. But I think that first of all, our budgeting approach was successful in being able to absorb this and paid off. The second thing I would say is, to anyone who might say, well, you'll have good financial news every year, you don't need an override. I would say, first of all, that the economic history of municipal governance would say otherwise. But also that even if that were the case, but when we put this override in front of voters, it looked very much like we needed every dollar that we asked for. And that had that been the case and had we proceeded with the originally planned vote in language, if we had money, if we had surplus money that came into being, we would do what we've always done, which is make the override last longer. So we have always dealt with surpluses responsibly by telling voters, we won't come to you for at least three years. Sometimes it has been four, sometimes it's been five, sometimes it's been longer. And I couldn't agree more with Mr. Hurd's observation that now we can honestly say to the public, I think with this decision, that we are looking at all options, we are managing the money as carefully as we can, and we are not coming to the public for any more money than we really responsibly believe that we need. So I think that is that the discussion is good outcome. And I appreciate it. Any further discussion from the board? So we have a motion to make the edits that are also in the select board's agenda by the way for the public or they're watching it, and also to support my representing my previous comments on behalf of the board's home meeting by Mrs. Mahan is seconded by Mr. Hurd. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Unanimous vote. This point, our second item of business is an executive session, and I'll ask Mrs. Mahan for a motion that will take us into the executive session, adjourn us from an executive session, and also name the purpose of the executive session. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to make a motion to go into executive session to conduct strategy with respect to impending litigation. I would also like to move that when we adjourn from executive session, we also will be adjourning the regularly scheduled select board meeting of October 17, 2023, and that the select board will reconvene its town meeting session starting tonight at 8 p.m., and we will run concurrent with the duration of the special town meeting, and our adjournment for select board session at the special town meeting will be concurrent or coincide with the final night adjournment of this year's special town meeting. Thank you, do I have a second? Second. Joining on you. I just wanted to note too, Mr. Chair, through you that to have this type of open discussion regarding litigation and open session would have a detrimental impact on litigation. Thank you, sir. Yeah, it's an important rationale for the execution. Okay, so we have a vote for executive session under the parameters outlined by Mrs. Mohan, a second by Mr. DeCorsi. All in favor? Roll call. Roll call. Sorry. All done. Attorney Cunningham. Mrs. Mohan? Yes. Mr. Herd? Yes. Mr. Diggins? Yes. Mr. DeCorsi? Yes. We are an executive session.