 Okay. Good afternoon. It is. January 24th. And this is the finance committee meeting. And. I am temporarily chairing it because each year. As the. Committees are. Appointed. Which they, that happened last week. We reorganize and we. Elect a chair and vice chair. So. On November 7th. The legislature. Extended the open meeting law that allows us to meet virtually. This meeting is accessible by zoom. By phone. Or amish. Amherst media. I'm going to go ahead and call on the members of the committee. And make sure they can hear us. And we can hear them. I'm going to start with Anna Devon got here. Hi, everybody. I can hear. Lynn Griesmer is present. Kathy Shane. Here. Andy Steinberg. Present. And our non voiding. Non voting residents. But highly valuable members. Bob Higner. I'm here. Bernie Kubiak. Present. Matt Holloway. Present. Okay. And I just want to make sure David, can you hear us? Yes. Yes. And Holly. Yes, I'm here. Okay. So with that, I'm going to open the floor for nominations for chair of the finance committee. You can nominate yourself. You can volunteer yourself. You can be nominated by someone else. And if nobody puts their hand up, I'm going to just do it. Nobody put their hand up. All right. I nominate Andy Steinberg. Oops. We have an attendee who is in. I'm going to open the floor for nominations for chair of the finance committee. You can nominate yourself. You can volunteer yourself. You can nominate yourself. You can be nominated by someone else. You can be nominated by someone else. Alicia Walker needs to be brought in before we start. Hi. Hi, Alicia. Can you hear us? Yeah, thank you. Okay. And so Alicia, the floor is now open for nominations for chair of the finance committee. And then we'll move on to vice chair. And then I will turn the meeting over to the chair. So I'm the floor is open for nominations. I'm the floor is open for nominations for chair of the finance committee. All volunteers and all nominations. And since I'm not seeing any hands, I'm going to nominate. Andy Steinberg. Shane seconds. Actually, it doesn't even need a second, but that's great. Andy, do you accept the nomination? I will accept the nomination. Yes. Are there any other people who would like to nominate or would like to nominate? I'm going to go ahead and make a motion. That Andy Steinberg be elected. As chair of finance. And that has been seconded. Kathy second. Yes. Okay. So we're going to take a roll call vote. We'll start with Anna Devlin. Got here. I. Let's see. Lynn grease bears an eye. Kathy Shane. Yes. Okay. And I'm going to ask our. Resident members if they want to concur. And that's Bob Higner. Concur. Bernie Kubiak. With great enthusiasm. I concur. And that hallway. With all the enthusiasm I can muster, I concur. Oh, no. Are you okay? All right. We're now going to go on to nominations for vice chair. Again, the floor is open for volunteers for people to be nominated. And. I'm waiting for hands. And if people aren't going to do it, then I'll just do it myself since I'm a member of the committee. Link. Can I just say something first? Okay. I'm willing to continue. I have been vice chair. I'm willing to continue. But I also am wondering whether any of the resident members might like to be vice chair because I double checked with Andy. I don't think there's anything in our rules. What that would. Prohibit that. So since we in the past have always done counselors. I just wanted to see if anyone might be interested. I have been vice chair for. The whole time. Four years. Four years. Okay. I'm willing to continue. I have been vice chair. But I also am wondering whether any of the resident members might like to be vice chair. I'm willing to continue. I have been vice chair for four years. Four years. Counting. Okay. It's open for the resident members. They're all. All right. I'm not on a Kathy Shane. That does not require a second. Are there any other nominations. Then seeing none Kathy, do you accept the nomination? Yes, I do. Okay. I have a motion that Kathy Shane, the vice chair of finance. And we're going to start with Anna Devlin, got here. How about seconding that motion first? I thought you said it didn't need the second. No, that one needs a second. Okay. And then Anna. Okay. Lynn Greece, Ms. And I. Kathy Shane. Yes. Andy Steinberg. Yes. Alicia Walker. Yes. Bob Hagner. I concur. Again with great enthusiasm. I concur. And Matt Holloway. I concur. Okay. I'm done. Andy. It's your meeting. Well, thank you. And. I've been not as chair as long as. Kathy's been vice chair. I've been a team. And we'll try to continue to be. I want to find asks and it's the third item on the agenda is public comment, whether there are any members of the public who wish to make a comment on any matter that. Relevant to the finance committee. It does not have to pertain to today's agenda. So I'll give a pause to see if. Any members of the public wish to make comment. Okay. Seeing none. Then we'll go on to. The next item. Did we ever, I checked the packet earlier. And I did not see the budget reports. Sean. Yeah. So I added it. About an hour ago. There's some miscommunication. I thought it already been added. So I'll ask members of the committee. Does anyone. Want to ask for a couple of minutes for them to download. And. We take a pause in the meeting or should we just turn it off? The first quarter of the second quarter reports have been added. And so has the. Real proper surplus real property policy. So they're in the packet now apologize for the. Miss communication. So I'll ask members of the committee. To make a presentation. And we take a pause in the meeting or should we just turn it over to Sonia and ask her to make a presentation and come back. So actually Holly is going to give the presentation today. We're, we're in a rare time where we're fortunate to have two controllers. So. I'll ask them to come back to the committee. Would it be helpful. To take them for anybody to take a minute. Pause. To get to the packet. And we're also going to put it up on the screen and. Okay. If that's a request run and we. Then. Holly hi. So I'm Holly Drake. I'm excited to present my first quarter of the report as comptroller. As you, you all know, Sonia as our long time comptroller is retiring in the near future and we're in the. Transition stage. To myself, I've been working for the town for 24 years. The last 19 years I've been assistant comptroller with Sonia. And I'm excited for a, for a new chapter here. So on the report here, both the first quarter and the second quarter reports are available on the accounting department's page of the website. And all of the details can be accessed there. I'm just going to give a sort of brief overview of some of the highlights, some of the things that are. Well beyond the. 50% benchmark that you would expect us to be at halfway through the fiscal year. You know, this is the second quarter. We're at the halfway point of FY 23. Although many departments are starting to feel some of the stresses of rising costs of utilities and fuel and other commodities. Most of the variances are due to timing issues. But we will be monitoring budgets very closely over the next few months as things are, you know, beginning to get tight. We'll have a better idea when the third quarter report is complete as to where we are projecting. We'll fall at the end of FY 23. So on the revenue side, I'm just going to point out a couple of things. Things like transfers in and pilot payments payments and lieu of taxes. They were posted at the beginning of the fiscal year. So they're already at 100% or close to it. Investment income is slightly elevated right now. So we're going to have to go back to the fiscal year. Due to the fact that we need to wait for all of our December bank statements to come in before I can allocate out interest to the other funds such as the enterprise funds. Although I do expect this to be well over our budgeted revenues this year. If the investment rates continue to climb as we've seen in the first half of this fiscal year, our interest rates on investments are much higher than they have been in the last couple of fiscal years. So that's not going to be extremely low at this time, but that's just a timing issue as the collector's office issuing out the motor vehicle excise tax bills at the end of February or early March. And that's the normal timeframe and then a large amount of that revenue will come in before the end of the fiscal year. So on the enterprise revenue side, they're all hovering right around the 50% mark with the exception of the solid waste fund. The difference in the solid waste fund is that we did increase the price of the landfill stickers this year. And it also is a timing issue as those expat landfill stickers expire July 1st of every year. So we tend to sell the majority of them in July, August and September early in the fiscal year. And then they sort of trail off for the remainder of the fiscal year and, you know, timing wise, those will catch up. And then on the expense side, you'll see a few of the higher percentages are mostly due to timing issues again, such as the miscellaneous and insurance category. We pay our full insurance bill for the year at the beginning of the fiscal year. And then we need to allocate those costs out to the schools, the library and the enterprise funds. I'm in the process of completing that right now. So we'll be back to normal percentages for the next report. Snow and ice typically shows is overspent at this time of year, but that is due to large encumbrances when we go out to contract for our prices on snow and ice, chemicals, sand and salt. We'll put in a placeholder for the entire fiscal year, but then we'll adjust it to just our actual expenses and our actual deliveries at the end of the snow season. Same thing with debt. You will see that debt is actually one of our lowest percentages right now. And that's just due to the timing of debt payments. Debt payments are typically in the spring, I believe they're mostly in April and June, I believe. And then those payments will catch up and get more towards a normal trend. And then the enterprise fund expenditures, they're all over the 50% mark right now, but many of those are also due to encumbrances that we'll put in for the entire year and then we'll balance out at year end. And we are, we are closely monitoring the enterprise funds as cluster rising. It is a bit concerning, but we will have a better picture again at the end of the third quarter. And a better idea if the consumption is going to rebound for the water and then the related sewer charges. You know, we may need to make some adjustments there or ask for a supplemental appropriation. The enterprise funds are still struggling a bit. And then there is also a chart of at the end that shows the revenues for the past several fiscal years at this same time frame just to see, you know, where we are on track with prior years, remembering that 2021 and, you know, a portion of 2022 we were affected by the pandemic, but things are, we are seeing things bounce back in most areas back to where we would expect them to be. So there's not a lot of concern really on the revenue side. So I'm going to just leave it there, leave it brief. You know, again, these reports are available on the website. And, you know, we are happy to answer any questions that you have and specific to the report. Or at a subsequent meeting once folks get a chance to read more closely through it. Andy, do you want me to just keep slowly scrolling through it in case anything. Yeah, I'm just going to go to questions. So this report, just, I think I'll explain it, but this is one that Sony added a couple of years ago. That's very interesting. It shows through this point in the year, how revenues are doing. So compared to prior years. This one's a good one to focus on to the southern X size. These are a couple of our big economic indicators, the hotel, hotel and tax. See for the most part they're getting back to pre pandemic levels. Cannabis. Yeah, cannabis is the one that the trend is for. It doesn't seem to be just Amherst. I've heard from some other. An outside group that cannabis sales are recreational cannabis sales are trending down. And they're trying to figure out what's causing it. And we're seeing we are seeing that here too. Too many dispensaries. Yeah, that and I've heard when, when the law passes, it's not going to be a good one for there be a sales to be maybe elevated for the first couple of years. Once the law, once it's legal, and then for to start to. Wendell a little bit from there. So the enterprise funds. The ironic thing is that a solid waste fund is probably the one that's doing the best, which is not been the case for many years. That's right. That continues on until this year. We've heard a lot of things. But there's a lot more to do now, too, with this all array. That's going to bring in some more revenue for them. So. So I'll do questions. Just in order of how. I'm pregnant. Yeah. I just, you know, we raise the parking fees. Starting this year. I'm wondering where we are with parking fees. That last page. Yeah, let me show you. They are up, which is good. We haven't seen a full year yet, but it is higher. So if you look at the parking permits right here, the section, you can see what we've brought in so far through the first six months. And so, you know, for this town center resident, we were bringing in $5,000, $6,000. This year we brought in 43 so far. So that we, we were a little concerned, would we see a drop off and then purchase it's a little bit lower than what we were expecting, but it's not, but you can see the revenue still clearly there. Great. Thanks. Yeah. Yeah, two questions. One is it regarding investments is because bond rates are higher right now and that's generally where we invest. Yeah, so there's there's sort of two sides to the investment income so the investment income you saw in this chart is what we earn on bank accounts and CDs and things like that sort of current current year revenue. Those things have all gone up, as I think you said, as the Fed has raised rates. I think we're looking at CDs and the four or 5% range, which we haven't done that and I don't think since I've been here with the town in general. So those rates are really good. So the investments that are actually invested in the stock market, those not so good obviously 2022 I think I've heard was the worst, the third worst year on record in terms of performance and for those for funds that are invested. So where you'll see that at some point is we will have, if there's, if we have a net overall loss it'll get posted to our funds as a unrealized loss potentially in the future. And you look to see at the end of the fiscal year. So you'll see, I haven't looked at the, I'll have to look at it closer to see if the number was for FY 22, because we'll have the FY 22 audit for you ready for you guys to look at pretty soon. But you'll probably see it as FY 23. You might see a market correction because what happened in the stock market. So the treasure ultimately is responsible but we work with depending on the different pot of money we have different advisors so our OPEB funds are invested with the state with frame and with through Parac. And our general reserves we have an investment advisor Abby capital, who helps us implement our investment policy and make sure the funds are invested in accordance with that investment policy. So my second question, actually, my second question is, if we were to do a supplemental with that amount of operating reserves. And the enterprise funds. Yeah, yeah, come out of retained earnings if we were to do a supplemental appropriation this year, we're hoping to not have to do it we're hoping to find ways to get by this year without it. But if we are, if we're in a position where we have to come out of retained earnings. But I also assume we might have to do a supplemental just because of rising costs for department expenses. So we already did that already. So we're hoping the general fund budget will be in good shape but we haven't we're not seeing a general fund budget center in the same shape as the sewer fund for the enterprise funds so yeah if you remember we did do that extra half per percent a few months ago. Okay. Final question. Just watching the federal scene and reading the very excellent comments from our senator. I mean from our congressman. Are we, you know I assume that, like everybody else, if the government defaults we could be in some serious trouble. The direct impacts on us. I'm not. I'm not. I don't have any quantifiable direct impacts on us I'm sure there will be ripple effects that will will, especially as we go out and we're looking at these four building projects and we go out. If there's some sort of default that affects the market and creates turmoil there that could certainly have negative impacts on the town. It's a to be seen to be watched. Thank you. And Holly I just want to say congratulations and thank you for your first report. Thank you. So, I have, having looked at these reports, all these years, I have just a notational question first. When we first see revenues, the role in parentheses, and I, I'm always used to seeing as a parent as a negative. And then when we see revenues later, the parentheses are removed. So that summary table. Is there a reason we do that and I was actually asked by another counselor she thought those were negatives and I said no those revenues those are positives. So I just have a question of why we, and that's on that very first table, estimated revenues actual use. So just why that, why that is the way we show it up. So our accounting system shows revenues as negatives revenues as revenues are technically credits and accounting and so our accounting system shows them as credit so a lot of the reports that we generate we pull straight from our accounting system. And rather than having to, you know, create some sort of other report that converts all of them we just keep it. So it just, I, that was kind of the answer I gave without knowing why. I'll pass my question about revenues from the permits. I'm so wondering whether on excise taxes I know we don't do those until February ish, but I wonder if you're going to be able to see whether there was a shift because it's, if you are getting a resident permit and didn't have your car registered here and you moved it over. Will you be able to see that potentially third quarter and you know, as a bumper, we've able to distinguish any revenues from excise taxes. Yeah, that's a good question I know we have continued to sort of make people aware of it when they come to pay for their permits. I think we've heard of a couple cases were at least that we know of where they have looked into switching it. And we can certainly look at the number of excise tax bills that are generated but I'm not sure if that will, you know, I'm not sure if that'll be a one to one that this led. Just, you know, we, that sits there and people may not realize it. And then my last one is I looked at revenues. When you were flashing Bob I also downloaded it from our parking meters were not yet back up to 2020 so it looks, you know if you use that as another indicator of downtown activity. They're coming down to see a movie and I see it Namer cinema. The movies just don't begin to have the people, you know, and they were all generating fees, you know I'm parking meter so I'll be interested to see what third quarter brings as some of the restaurants that were closed start opening again. So that's, that's to me a good. It's not a lot of money but it's a good economic indicator of getting back to whatever the new normal is. Yeah, nothing something we're watching closely. Kathy your first question one thing I'll check with our treasure collector. We also gave people the option that if they paid the full permit fee, and then they changed the registration throughout the year we could. We would make the adjustment for them so I can see at the end of the year how many of those she's aware of where we had to go in and adjust it. That would be one way to get a count. It's not a big issue we just were looking. Yeah, see if it's see the policy is might be. Yeah, thank you. Andy, did you say me sorry. Yes, I did. Thank you. Okay, so I only have two post it's worth which is really exciting. First one to follow that trend that Kathy brought up why so I'm looking at the. I'm just going to look at the meter credit card revenues for now. Why is the 2023 budget so high and I don't say that I'm not trying to sound snarky about it. I don't know why or even then the 2020 actuals. So is that how do you how do you determine that. I think it's 110. How do you determine that number and what what is supposed to get us to that point that just growth and expected growth in parking. So that are you looking at words. 187 2356 that one. So those first four numbers those are only receipts through December 30, 31. The 110 is the full year budget so you can see how it's doing relative to the full year. Thank you. Yeah, should explain that better. You're fine. Yeah. And again, that is that we're not back to FY 21 comes to. Yeah. Okay, cool. Thank you so much. A couple of really small things. Excuse me. That next page, the parking violation since 2007 that's like 60 bucks a year 45 bucks a year. Is that just overdue like people like me who forget that they have a parking ticket. So it's when, when something gets paid that was committed back then it will post it to the year that it was technically recorded. Yeah. And then the late fee goes to a different. That's why those are so low because I would assume. Okay. One really small thing. It still says Lord Jeff parking fees on page 14 and that's if we could switch that that'd be, that'd be great. Just in the name and the budget. I don't know if that's possible. Holly, can you, can you make a note to update that account name and units. Yep, absolutely. Okay. Almost done a promise I'm sorry I'm trying to try to go fast. What is the cell tower rental, and I didn't mark the page. What is that on for solid waste. Yeah, what is that. So, we have space at the landfill and at ruckston, where communication companies have rented land to put a cell tower up, or at least plan to put a cell tower up and in exchange for that they make a payment to the town each year. And then in addition, they rent the communication companies they rent space on that tower to other other companies and then we also get a percentage of the revenue that they collect on this. Thank you. Thank you for everyone's patience in my learning. Last, last three here. So, I already talked about parking the there's some things that have been listed under non recurring, recurring revenues that definitely seem to be recurring. And I know that that probably just means we can't necessarily expect them, but I'm just curious about if we could just talk to now I lost it sorry. Those go to, I believe free cash right so okay so it's. Yeah okay thank you Holly so homeless transportation and then I don't know what the HM occupancy fees are. If you could just explain both of those. So, homeless transportation to Okay, so homeless transportation is the children who are in a homeless shelter or in foster care the town will get the state reimburses a portion of the transportation costs to get them to school. Great. So that's that one. That's the McKinney vento. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The reference recently. The governor pledge full funding of that. That would be the reference that I heard. And then you mass of that those are the, the UMass has agreed to give us occupancy fee for revenue generated at the hotel on campus for non UMass accounts. So, you're probably, you're probably right that some of these, you know the miscellaneous not recurring sounds like it doesn't happen every year some of these. They're not technically set in stone but they are at this point they become sort of a courage so we can take a look at these and see if. I don't shift to another category but generally that's they kind of they got there because they weren't sort of things that were set in stone like the opioid settlement that's a new one. Right. That's a good example one that we're going to get every year for the next 2223 years, but it'll go away completely. So, that makes sense. But that's how they've gotten there. That's a good question I promise you had mentioned Holly in the very beginning I think something about rentals fluctuating. And is that just timeline of rental registration fees being due or why, why would rental income from, I'm assuming it's registrations why would that fluctuate. I don't remember mentioning the rental income specifically but that is those are not rental registration correct those are rentals for properties that we lease out to other agencies. Then I get it. Thank you. I appreciate it during the pandemic we had a couple of renters leave. Yeah, like their brothers and sisters. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. An observation. Car sales for 2022 or off new car sales rough by at least 8% which made it the worst year and 11 years so I think we should be watching auto excise very carefully in addition people holding out of their cars. The typical car is now on the road for like 10 years, which means the excise on that is minimal. So I think we have to watch that very carefully. I want to thank Kelly for her presentation and offer all kinds of gratitude to Sonia for the work she's done. And it's, it's a crazy me position is how we will find out. I'm just been able to handle it and I, I think we really need to recognize the value folks like her. Bring to the town and town taxpayers so thank you son. Thank you. I concur totally. I'm sure the entire committee does and welcome Holly and appreciate what you did. One thing that came up last night was a question nice. So I can re ask it on behalf of the council in general. Because the subject came up of the disability access advisory board wanting to become a commission, and that they would be entitled then to the parking tickets for the traffic. So as far as the parking handicap parking space violations, is that tracked? Do we track that particular violation and You don't track it as a separate revenue account. I don't believe, but I have asked our collector to pull some numbers. They can, they can go into the details of the violations to find some prior years and how much was collected in those years. and so that's something they are actively doing now. It's kind of a number you want to put out yet. I've seen, I've asked them to go a little bit further back. I've seen 2022, which was a pretty small number, but we weren't sure if that was indicative of what it was like before the pandemic. So I've asked them to go back. It's not in the tens of thousands of dollars. It's a relatively small number, but whether it's hundreds or thousands, I'm still trying to get a couple years with the data to give Paul an estimate. Okay. No, that's helpful to know. Thank you. I guess it's just a broad question. Is any of you, this goes to Sonia Holly and John, as you look at lines, are there particular lines that you're watching closely right now because of concerns or indications of what they might mean? Well, Holly, you can go first. I think in particular, we'd be looking at the utility lines, heating oil, gas, propane, electricity, fuel, gasoline and diesel. Those are the ones that we're paying particular attention to right now, the utilities are especially with the price of electricity going up. January 1st was a big rate increase, and so we're going to have to pay particular attention to those. Yeah, I think, Sonia, do you want to go? I don't know, Andy, did you mean on the revenue sign? Either side, actually, because we'd seen that there would be some lines on both, but the fuel question makes absolute sense. Well, the revenue side, our revenue seems to be doing better, but that's because we're recovering from the pandemic. So it's kind of hard to tell. We always do watch the economic growth revenues like building permits and motor vehicle excise to see if they start dropping. Then we know that's an indication from the economy going down or up, but we look at these pretty much once a month to see what's coming in and we take note. That's why we do the quarterly report so we can report back to the council and the management on where we're at with revenues and if we see any issues that might come up. Okay, thank you. Anything else in the way of questions from the committee? It's not a question. I just, this report is so, despite my 20,000 questions, so clear and really helpful in explaining why things are where they are. So thank you very, very much. Come. And as you go through spend time going through the report and if there are additional questions, don't hesitate to bring them forward to, you know, maybe just do it as an email to Sean as they vet the best way. So don't have to leave them hanging because especially since we haven't had much time to go through them in advance. And so just for all committee members to know that if you have questions, don't hesitate to bring them forward. And if they're of interest to the entire committee, we'll try and find a space to get them reported back. So having said that, I don't know that we have anything else to do in the quarterly reports. I don't see any other, any other hands up. And so Sonia, first of all, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for all of the prior years and we gonna miss you a bit and wish you well. Thank you. Whatever you're going next. And Holly, you've been working with Sonia a long time and we welcome you into your new role and look forward to working with you in the future. You got another five weeks of Sonia, so. If she's not going anywhere fast, don't worry. She'll be here helping me for a bit. Don't make me cry. It's not a hard stop either. It'll be a gradual process. Sonia needs that as much as we do. She needs a gradual. This is the last quarterly report. Maybe. We'll see. We'll never know. I don't mind helping out with the reports. It might be my last meetings. That would be awful. Are you going to be with us on the audit this year? Sure. Since it was my year, 2022. I don't know if you're staying with me. Holly, you're staying with the meeting, but I gather our firm now has a new name, but we still. Yeah. I don't know. It's off the top of my head. It's too new. Mark. Mark them. Mark them. Yeah. Yeah. Do we have ideas to when they're going to be back to the committee? Well, we're promised the report by the end of January. They've had. There are some weights that are out of our control. We had to wait for Hampshire County retirement to finish their financial statements. We had to wait for the OPEB report. And there's a few missing items that were still gathering. And as soon as we have that, they're pretty close though. So by the end of this, by the end of this week, maybe, maybe next week, we'll have a draft at least that I need to review and then get back to them on. So. Yeah. So probably the, probably later in February, Andy, we would look to whenever we have finance committee around that time, have the audit committee. Lynn, do you have something? Similarly, I am getting the message that CPA will probably come to the council on the 6th of February, which if anybody on the finance committee just help me remember. I don't think we did a big presentation at the council. I think we waited and we did it at the finance committee last year. And that seemed to work pretty well. And then we brought it back to the council. So, Andy, in addition to the sixth being a meeting where we'll get the referral for CPA, we will also start getting referrals related to the school financing as well. Yeah, I had the schedule from the slide from last night. Yeah. And I just confirmed it for Paul that that was the slide that Sean developed back in December, I think. So, okay, so CPA will come to finance on, for February 7th. And we need to decide whether we want to do a presentation, whether we want CPA to do a presentation then. And then in addition to that, we're saying the audit probably will come to us what, the end of February, beginning of March? Okay. Definitely. And I believe that's an automatic referral. Yeah. That's it. Holly, if you've been staffed to the committee this year, CPA? I've been backing Sonya up. She's done most of the meetings, but I've been trying to stay in touch with it. Okay. Kathy, you have a question? It's just a question on February 7th is a pretty packed agenda. And I'm wondering whether we should tentatively post, think of meeting the following Tuesday if we don't get through it. So I'm, there's, there's a lot of things to discuss on the school. So, Andy, we usually are just meet, and I don't know whether that's the vacation week. So I didn't look at my calendar right now, but I'm just the basic point is we might not, we might need to meet more often because of some discussions we need to have. I agree with that. Yeah. We are jumping a little bit ahead because we're kind of jumping into item number six on the agenda. It's just hearing those two things. I mean, we need Sean for, clearly for all of the above. And I'm not sure what sports Holly, but that was just my comment hearing what's coming to us for the 7th. Yeah. And I believe the school vacation week would be two weeks after that. Okay. Thanks. Yeah. Okay, we'll come back to the schedule and try and resolve that. And if we need to get extra time in there, CPA, we, we generally have time with we try and take it up a little bit early to get, get it out of the way and advance to the rest of the budget. But the ones that need the most attention or anything that's connected to a time specific like the school, since there is a recommendation that's related. So shall we go on just stay with the agenda order? So I think that then we're onto discussion of just briefly really, I think it is its first discussion of the surplus property disposition policy. And David was the one who worked with the select board on developing that policy. And I gather playing a key role in working with the policy. I didn't look at it a little bit, David have some thoughts about it. I don't know if you have any introductory comments you want to give. But yeah, thanks, Andy. I really didn't prepare anything, but you know, I think I believe the date was I think 2018. Was it December 2018? When it finally, I think is in March, there was a memo and then the policy actually kind of worked its way through the select board and was adopted by the select board. I think looking at it now, I think we all agree that it probably needs some updating. As far as I know, we really did not apply the policy to any properties to date. The one property that was moving through various boards and committees at the time was the East Street School property that we now know the town is working closely with wayfinders to create affordable and market rate housing at the two properties, one on East Street and one at the East Street School and one on Belcham Road. So, you know, we really have not activated the policy to any great extent. I know my staff and I have kind of ongoing assessments on properties throughout Amherst. We know that, you know, we're working on a comprehensive plan for Hickory Ridge, any of the buildable land at Hickory Ridge. We've talked in recent months about that site as likely and very doable site for a South Amherst fire station. We have looked, my staff and I, in the planning department have looked at the South Amherst campus down on the Common and South Amherst. We have some property off of Strong Street that we're looking at for possible affordable housing. We have a small piece of property on Old Farm Road that is, we just got a wetlands assessment on that is, you know, 70% wetlands and not buildable. Of course, the Wildwood School at some point will be available for other uses, at least that property and or that building. And then when a new fire station is built, we would of course have central fire. So, I think the one message I wanted to get out there today is that there, I think there's somewhat of, somewhat of a misunderstanding in some quarters that we have lots of surplus property that is unused. And as I look at the GIS and know our town properties pretty well, I really don't see that there are that many properties. The old Hitchcock Center building, it comes up very frequently in my work. And that building is owned by the town, but in fact the land under it is conservation land. And that building, we are likely moving toward a demolition of that building at some point. It is the, we've done some building assessment of it and it is really in quite durable shape and not a good investment for the town to keep or to invest in for another entity. So I guess that's my quick overview that I think the policy needs some updating. I think we're poised to look at some of the properties we do have, but there really aren't as many properties as one might think. And as we move through the school project and DPW and fire project, there may be other properties that come to us in terms of being surplus, but right now there aren't that many on the list. Okay, well I have a preliminary observation and question and then I want to turn it over to the other members of the committee who raised their hands. The observation is that as I looked at the policy again in preparation for today's meeting, it really does need updating. I thought through my first look at it, I said, oh, I just have to figure out where it says town meeting, town manager, select board, how do we, how do we plug in that not only became more complicated in realizing that the select board was the executive branch and the town managers now the executive branch. So that's a substitution that we need to be thinking about very carefully is what we're recommending on that score. The second thing that I noted is that there are statutory problems that we need to be thinking about too, because when you look at background, you know, the first substantive paragraph after the summary sentence, it refers to MGL chapter 40, section four, that pertains only to towns that does not pertain to cities. So I think we're going to have to, I started to look at it a little bit and see if I could find an equivalent statutory section for cities, but I ran out of time, because I was doing it with a very limited time availability this morning. But I think that we are going to have to really look at that with care and it may require that we ask Paul to refer it at some point, not off the top, but at some point to KP law to make sure because they probably have the experience of helping a city develop such a policy. So they may have something that can assist us in the bill to make that part of the task easier. And I guess the only question that I had, so as I said in the question, the question was we had set up essentially a committee, which you were going to chair that it has the committee actually met at all or is it not going to need to. So let me just comment on your your first observation about the policy and I completely agree, Andy, and I've had some preliminary conversations with attorney Sharon Everett at KP law, who is kind of the real estate expert for KP. And we've worked with her for years and we have some other more pressing things that we're working on with her. But I think when Paul is ready, we will certainly engage, when we're ready, we'll engage Sharon in looking at this policy with a fresh set of eyes now that we are under a different form of government and a small city. So I think all of that is spot on. The committee really has not met. We have certainly had our hands full doing a lot of the pre-work and the assessment work, as I said, of, you know, of, you know, we took ownership of Hickory Ridge. We are doing and have done some significant work on the property on Strong Street, Old Farm Road, the Old Farm Road property. So part of this committee work is to do some of that due diligence because a committee really can't make any decisions just from looking at the GIS or looking at a property map or a survey. You really need to know what is the zoning? You know, do you really, does the town really own what it thinks it owns? What are some of the environmental constraints, topographic constraints, water sewer, all those factors? So I guess the short answer is the planning staff and I have done a lot of the background work on these properties. So informally, I guess you could say we've met, we've had numerous, numerous meetings on Strong Street. We've done wetlands, we've done rare species work there. We have looked extensively, as I said, at the wetlands and Old Farm Road, but, and we've done some preliminary work on the South Amherst campus. So we've met, I guess you could say we've met, but we have not taken those properties any further than that at this point. So I, again, I think it's a good time to, you know, take a close look at the policy and then see where we go from there. Thank you, Kathy. So Andy, you covered my initial comments that it clearly, every time it says one entity, we need to be changing it. So I looked at when you get to the committee, there's a list of people and one of the positions doesn't exist. At least it doesn't exist right now. And that's the economic developer position. So I have a question about the group as we're in the context of looking forward to what we potentially face over the next three or four years, which you listed them, Dave, some major properties, you know, rather than some smaller properties. But, but I also think, you know, the South Street School that when we talked about maybe using that as a temporary headquarters for Amherst meeting, it turns out it needed too much money to be put into it to be used that way. I think we, if we're not going to use it, we should be thinking of what are we going to do with it. So my question is, this is a policy document. Would we focus potentially on who is who are members of this group, for example, put one person from finance on it from the finance committee. And if you have this as the group that's in general, would you create an an active group, a different kind of group when you have a particular property in mind that's in action. And the one I'm familiar of only because I'm reading the Gazette East Hampton clustered several together and had some particular development ideas and went through. Do we go this way, do we go the way there was a lot of public involvement. And then they came up with what they potentially want to do and could RFP it. And I think I saw it up in Deerfield too. So at the point of property was actually active. It wasn't just a committee of staff, it was a larger committee. So I have a question of we do we think of that in this context, or is that something that becomes an adjunct to your group. And my final question is, you just noted that you've gathered a lot of information on some of these properties. Do you then have a file a document. So if we wanted to say tell me more about Strong Street tell me more about. So is each of these kind of an internal memo that says, you know, we really only have a quarter of an acre here because of wetlands, or we've got more than we thought, but there's X, Y, or Z, or is that, you know, in multiple people's file cabinets. So that's my last question, you know, as you go along and you're, as I said, kind of your meeting, but you're not meeting per se to dispose of it, you're meeting to just take a look at the property and have enough knowledge. So I will stop with that. And it is a question of should there be more written into this, or do we wait and say that's not more of an ad hoc group we bring together and we would do it when the timing is right. Well, I would I would defer to Paul on some of the questions about, you know, composition and all of that might I guess my only thought would be, Gavine, if I think I heard you write it, it almost sounded like having two layers, maybe two groups and that my initial thought is, wow, just I just can't imagine working with two groups on kind of surplus policy. But again, I think I'll defer to Paul on that. I think a smaller, you know, a smaller nimble group that then does its work, you know, all of the due diligence work behind the scenes makes a recommendation and that recommendation is supported by, you know, by studies and surveys and whatnot to a larger body, you know, that's kind of I think the direction we were headed way back when this was all started. I will answer your quick question. So almost everything we do now is electronic. So yes, we do have electronic files, if you will, on on these properties, some more than others, if there were wetlands done, if there were surveys done, if there were, you know, other other studies done, yes. So that is all part of the due diligence of putting together a packet for each of the properties we own. Okay, just, Paul, I want to let you talk, but I didn't really mean two layers. I meant when we have a larger decision to make, that it's not just waiting for the staff group to come up with ideas, but it there's a way to get input on on it before the ideas come. So instead of, oh, but there are two other things. And so it wouldn't have to be in this policy document. So I'm sure. And obviously, you know, an acre and a half of Old Farm Road versus the Wildwood School, two completely different scales of properties here. So yeah, I was going to add to say some of the other things is that when we have, you know, the fire station or a Wildwood School, that's a different scale. That's a major policy decision by the council, ultimately, because you're the ones who can dispose of property. Um, so I think this is a group that's really doing the grunt work in advance of that. When it comes up to what are we going to do with Wildwood School, that's going to, that's going to have to have a standalone active group, or however the council wants would help, whatever, however we can assemble the information for the council to make an informed decision and whatever path that is. Okay, and Paul, just the other question I had is we don't have an economic developer. Would you ever think of a person from finance being on it, or is it better to just have it in an internal staff? I mean, it was created as all, everyone listed was a staff person. Yeah, we certainly consider that. I mean, economic development was a purposeful addition. It wasn't just a finance person. It was a very economic development. So, you know, maybe someday we can get the economic development person back. So we can think about what's the best way to handle that skill set that we want at the table. Okay, thank you. Rudy. Thanks, Andy. Yeah, I think Dave's observation that we don't have that much real property that we may consider using or disposing of is a good one. Like many towns in New England, we haven't made those kinds of strategic investments in open space for something other than conservation. I mean, we don't have a development plan per se. And, you know, we'll bump up against that over and over and over again. This may give us a chance to have a development plan. The first part of the policy here conforms completely as far as I can see to the Inspector General's 30B manual, which was written two years before the policy and hasn't changed since then. And so that $35,000 figure still holds, even though that's kind of silly with land values the way they are now. My suggestion would be this will convert fairly easily to city form. Chapter 40, Section 4 does talk about C&D cities and making changes appropriate to the Charter. So that's, you know, and I'm sure that Sirin, who's a very competent attorney, can set us on a straight path for that very quickly. My suggestion would be simplify, simplify. We don't need to have a cast of thousands doing this review. We should have a smaller nimble committee that meets regularly, even if it is just to review their previous work. I think if you have a committee that sits out there and doesn't meet at all, it becomes sort of a mystery and people lose interest. So, you know, having a small nimble committee that can review this stuff and flag when it becomes a larger policy issue like Wildwood School. So that's, those are my suggestions. Thanks. So my question is about on page three, number five, and six. So when we think about current and foreseeable use of a property, I'm curious what bounds are placed on that. So would a, and I know I'm speaking in hypotheticals, but my recommendation say this property could be used for X, but the zoning would have to change. This property could be used for Y, but I'm thinking about what recently happened in Holyoke, where there was a, you know, a commitment from a buyer of what they were going to do with a property. Once they changed the zoning, the zoning was changed, the buyer then is turning around and selling the property to someone to do something totally different with. And so I'm curious, what are the, kind of, what are the bounds placed on those recommendations when you are examining current or when you're examining really future use, and can we maybe possibly create something that would be consistently applied? Some sort of, you know, looking at these four different things, either like based on the zoning, this is what's possible. If zoning were to change, this is, it's a rabbit hole. And so I'm not quite sure where to cut it off. But I think something that's important is that this is a consistent formula that whatever committee is looking at this is applying when they're, when they're considering future uses of property. And this also is a really great place to make sure that we've got that equity lens that we talk about and the climate lens that we talk about consistently applied. That's, that's one of the key spots. I'd love to see those really specifically placed in there. Could I respond to that quickly, Andy? No, thank you, Anna. No, it's really, really good point and a good reminder as we, as we kind of blow the dust off this and, and revamp it for, for the form of government we currently have. I think, I think those lenses that you talked about are really good ones to, to, to apply to this. And, and really, I mean, as you were talking, I was thinking of, so what are our purposes for surplusing? What, what does any municipality, when they, when they are analyzing, assessing these properties, what are their goals with regard to these properties? Are they trying to activate them for residential use? Are they trying to create more affordable housing? Are they, is the town trying to generate revenue, get them back on the tax rolls, because they're currently not paying taxes? And all of those need to be considerations. And, and to your point or your question, I guess, about consistency, yes, I think we, we need to, we need to look at all of those consistently. I will say that each of these properties is going to be unique in its own way. And whether it's zoning, whether it's topography, whether it's water and sewer, whether it's wetlands, how buildable are these properties? Do they have buildings on them? What are buildings? We look at the South Amherst campus as a great example. We look at that as, wow, this, this wonderful, beautiful old school building with a 1950s, 1960s addition to the south, which maybe isn't quite so beautiful. But a developer, I will tell you, does not look at that building as an asset. They look at that as a liability. And, and, you know, we've worked very creatively and, and effectively, I think with wayfinders and, and that project for the street school, that building will be re reused for four to six units. And that's wonderful. But it's not a slam dunk. It's not, that's not an easy ask sometimes. And so we, we also have to be realistic, I think, in what, what are our goals? What are we trying to achieve in these properties? We would, we would love it if somebody offered us millions of dollars for some of these properties. But the reality is that that's probably not going to happen that a developer might, the promise might be, I'll get this property on the tax rules for you, and you will be able to tax this use, this building for X. We also need to put the municipal lens on and say, do we have needs as you outlined? Are there other needs in the community that have yet to be achieved that we might want to reserve this property to help us achieve goal A or B or C? And, and as you said, looking at through the equity lens as well as the sustainability lens makes perfect sense. So I think that's, that's all good. And, and I think it's a great time to do that. Thanks, Dave. I think it's yeah, I think just expanding a list of those questions to all the things you just mentioned. Yeah, thank you. I think this is a very excellent conversation. And it's the first time except to talk about an inventory of property that the this form of government has ever talked about property. And so this was one of the things that I actually had a pretty high priority on as we went into financial guidelines, so that I'm going to just step back and say, what's our next step? And I think our next step is to get this policy revised so that it reflects our form of government, and then also get into some of the details within the policy. It does seem to me, maybe I'm wrong, but this has to become a policy of the town council that then is used as we look at these various properties we're talking about. Now, Paul, you may disagree with that. And I, you know, we, I, we should talk about that now, whether or not this is because, as you know, we all know, you shared the executive with the select board and the town meeting was the legislative branch. We kind of cleaned that up a little bit with the this form of government by not having the select board kind of sitting in that middle situation. So my bottom line is, what's the next step to get this policy shaped? And then what's the process to get it adopted or put in place? And then how do we apply it and where? Those are, I'm sorry. I can't raise my hand. So I was just going to recommend next steps. I think when you write the conversation has been really good so far. I think Dave, you probably have enough to take a first pass at updating the policy to reflect the comments here, make sure it's consistent with the law and then bring it back to this committee to review an updated version of the policy. And I'll respond to that too. So I think you're right, Lynn, on all your points. I think the care and custody of the land is in the responsibility of the executive, the disposition of land. If we're going to sell something is the responsibility of the legislative branch, which is a council. Right now, this is an executive policy that we're looking at. I think, just as Sean said, having the first cut at that, getting that back, welcome your comments on that and then go from there. Okay. Thank you. That helps me clarify because I, it's hopefully by midnight on May 2nd, this will become an even more important policy. Thank you. Bernie, you have something more? Yeah. The part of the policy, there's two pieces of the policy that I think are going to need focus. One is the, who is, who the final authority is for disposition of the property. The statute speaks to the ability of the town manager to contract. And so Sharon can opine on whether that means the manager gets the final say as to what property is disposed of or the city council, which is also an option for under different types of charters. The body of the policy is consistent with what exists now in chapter 30, 30 B, section 16, I believe. So you really don't have to worry about, you know, the inspector generals hasn't changed anything and the legislature hasn't changed anything in the intervening time period. I think what you really need to focus is, what is the town, what's the town doing? Who's going to be on the committee? How does the information get compiled? And how does that get communicated? That's, you could probably just incorporate the IG's manual by reference and take care of the first three paragraphs of the policy. So that's what I'll be looking for is, how are we going to implement it here, as opposed to what the statutory obligations are? Andy, go ahead, Dave. No, no, this has been very helpful. So I think, you know, I'll work closely with Paul and Sean on kind of next steps as outlined here today. Yeah, I did just want to maybe end too. Bernie, you mentioned a couple of things a minute ago that kind of prompted, you know, just some thinking from me and I think this is very exciting to kind of look at this policy now, given some of the demands we have on our capital budget and our operating budgets and how can we translate some of these properties that we have into their assets now, but how can they be activated in a way that either, you know, perhaps they are sold and we realize that revenue and put those into other uses that we have and priorities, perhaps they are brought back on the tax rolls through creative other measures. I think we've been pretty strategic. So I think our track record is good. I was just jotting down, Bernie, as you were talking, I was thinking about Paul will think I'm a broken record on this, but that wonderful gas station we brought up in North Amherst, when many people kind of said, wow, why did we, you know, why did we buy that gas station? But I still believe that we will make a new intersection there and make traffic flow much safer and more effective. And we have a wonderful new addition to the North Amherst library that wouldn't have been possible without that strategic purchase of that gas station. Likewise on Belcher Town Road, when we bought the land on Belcher Town Road, we we package that with the East Street School and either neither one of them alone would have provided the density for wayfinders to jump in with us and partner on affordable housing and market rate housing there. But our hope is to get 70 units. And then of course, Hickory Ridge and the strategic purchase of the VFW site. So I think we need to apply some of those same principles and due diligence to look at all of these sites as Anna indicated with with these different lenses and say, okay, you know, what is what's in our crystal ball of needs moving, you know, next five years, 10 years, 25 years and and then say, okay, how do we either dispose of this property in a in a responsible way for the following, you know, to achieve these goals, or do we hold on to that property because we know we have needs that this property will will fit. So I think it's an exciting time to kind of take a fresh look at this. Yeah, and all those efforts are appreciated, I don't mean to Oh, no, no, I didn't take it. But it's not it's it's atypical for a town in New England to say set aside property for industrial development or set aside, you know, by property because it may we may need to use it in the future and larger chunks of it. You've been in and Paul's been very strategic in terms of picking our spots here, and offer all for good purpose. And it would be nice to see if we get exercise, some of the strategic vision to, to produce some economic development as well. I mean, all these all these projects have had had real benefit to the gap, not denying that would be nice to see if we can now realize some some economic growth in it kind of in some some tax dollars from strategic purposes. Absolutely. So we're talking about really a little bit more than just real property disposition is this is really a real property management policy we're looking towards. No, I think my opinion is this is about disposition. That's the question that was raised. And we want to focus this policy, there might be a subsequent policy, but at this moment, this is about what properties do we want to dispose of? That's how I look at Andy. Again, I just wanted to make get it out there and make sure that we were all together on that and make see if there was any but you had a different vision of it. It was what the policy was when developed. And is outdated and needs to be brought up to date. And that's what we're specific referral was. So I think that at this point, if you're beginning to work on a little bit on our behalf that's greatly appreciated. I think through Sean, you can keep us informed as to when it should next come back for another round on the agenda. It might be interesting for I would probably do it just because I'm always curious to do these things is to look at some other cities and see what they have. If anything, my suspicion is that it may be harder to find a good policy than you think because I wonder how many cities really have policies, but at least you can find it might be worth doing some fishing. Anybody else who wants to do that or if you want to do that too. We definitely will. And if anybody finds anything interesting by all means, send it send it my way or Sean's way. And we did do that back when we developed this in 2018. And it was pretty spotty as to what we found out there. There was not any great examples to really draw from, but perhaps in the ensuing years, there's there's been some some development of those policies, but we'll certainly do some do some searching and outreach to other other cities and towns. I think I remember kind of a little bit of that observation when it came to the select board, but it's been long enough that my memory doesn't really work all that well. Okay. So anything else that people want to raise on this? Otherwise, I think we can get on to sort of what our work plan process is going to be for the next months. And also in scheduling meetings, and that's pretty much what we have left and the what what was on last night on this on the milestone schedule for the schools of finance committee was mentioned multiple times in that document. February 7th is noted being the first time it comes up for discuss and recommend action on that exclusion. Then February 28th was further discussion of debt authorization. March 21st was discussed and recommend action on debt authorization. And then with with going back to the town council in each step of the way. I don't know if you want to add to that Sean or or fill it out in any way or No, I think those are the main things. I don't think that you mentioned CPA earlier about we've been CPA into it as well and how that'll fit into the school vote as well. So I think those are the major things. And to fill out what we said last night when we were talking about this is that that we usually do get a presentation on the recommendations of CPA committee, but we don't always take all of the CPA recommendations as a single block vote. We may, but if there is a reason like with the library there was to have it as a separate date or if there's a grant process that requires that there be a deadline date that the grant is driving it, we will also do that. I think one other thing, Andy, quickly, if there if anyone does it, if anybody does have questions on the debt exclusion, you know, we're working on the information we're going to present. If you want to send those questions into Andy and I, we can make sure you get those answered. I know Bob, you did a good job. You sent some along that will make sure that we address. If anybody else has any questions they know they're going to have now feel free to send them along and we'll make sure to address them. I assume that MSBA will be fairly prescriptive about the language for both that exclusion and debt authorization. Yeah, they have templates on their website. I believe, I know for the debt authorization, I believe for both have templates on their website. And it does seem to me that I know, Kathy, you stressed this last night and I agree with you. We want to give the nod if we're going to about the CPA money that's related to the elementary school. So we probably should go ahead and see if we can schedule the CPA committee for the 7th, February 7th as well. And so the and if we need another meeting, as Kathy has already suggested, do February 14th so that it can come back to the council or it's a late February meeting, which I think is the 20th. That sounds about right. So we could do CPA by then. The debt language, the debt language, again being prescribed, I think the main thing that the committee may need to do is understand what all of these things are. Since this is the first time the town has done it. And I think it's important that the finance committee be seen as knowledgeable about the language and what each of those things are. And so I think then we start next week or whenever it is that we would want to make sure that we do a little bit of a primer on those issues as well. So is it possible for us to do the February 7th for CPA and also that a big lift? Yeah, that seems a lot for one meeting. Well, the other is we go ahead and schedule the 14th and that gives us we can do the CPA on the 14th and then that gives us the opportunity to bring it back to the council. Yeah. So the other thing is I look at the list that we put together of in it's in item six mentions Community Preservation Act which we've discussed regional school budget operating budget and capital improvement plan. We have a template that we've worked on pretty well for the operating budget and capital improvement plan that they really flow after the beginning of May when Paul's required to provide the budget to the committee to the council and the committee. So question and the other thing that we do know we try and handle during April is regional school budget and I think we all know that the four town meeting is coming up which will give us a lot of context and information for that discussion when it comes up because it usually by then getting a fairly good idea of what it is. So those are the items that come up. We have generally been under an agreement that we're going to try and meet on the day on the Tuesday after council meetings and I want to make sure that that still is okay and it's not in what's coming forward as we need an additional date. The next council meeting is February 6th which is where the February 7th date comes from the next council meeting after that according to the schedule is February 27th which makes February 28th the next meeting and so that is a long period that seems like there's a feeling that we need to get one additional meeting in there and so the question is was it better to do it on the school holiday week or not do it on the school holiday week and we don't have to necessarily make the decision now but I certainly if not will have to send out a poll to ask for indications of preference on that because it may affect the work schedule and availability of members of the committee. So that's kind of where we're at. Kathy I see your hand up. Yeah so I just want to make sure I'm clear on what we're saying. I think we need a meeting on the 14th which is the 6th and the 14th. The 14th is not the school vacation week and so my thinking Lynn is on CPA and Sean you can correct me. I don't think there are too many controversial items on the list. You know sometimes something is pulled off under do we really want to do that so I'm not sure how long it will take but there's some there was some interesting ways we made the two big housing proposals projects work and Sean can explain that but Lynn if if we had that and we had enough time to make sure we all understand what that exclusion is you know look at the language we send questions in then what I think I would like what I'm proposing is the 14th and I don't care what the mix is I want to look at the townshare and talk about what how much of that needs to be a debt exclusion and and talk about some of the pieces Margaret started to feature them and have a discussion without a decision on it but just a discussion of it on the 14th so that would be in the context of already understanding what a debt exclusion is so that just would be my thinking so that isn't the vacation week that's the Tuesday before the vacation week so I don't know Andy if you were saying another meeting on the 21st but we would be otherwise meeting on the 28th so if we met on the 7th the 14th and then again on the 28th no I was really trying to get at was it's the 7th it would either be the 14th or the 21st I didn't know if there was people who had a preference for the 21st for some reason and so I was really okay and so I just want to say the other thing last night for those of you I think everyone here was listening um I'm going to get Margaret to confirm it but we send this large document into MSBA it's due by March the beginning of March March 1st and well before April 26th there is a meeting between our designer and answer on the formula um you know so it won't be we won't get the official reading until April 26th but we will get a good reading on the math that you saw last night and I'm just going to confirm that so that's the going in hypothesis that we would be looking at in these finance you know we're not going to have anything more whether it's the 21st or the 14th so I would just like to make sure where we raise any questions we get you know get Sean to explain all of this to us and what we can and can't do would be great on the financing so I mean my preference is the 14th but I don't really care I don't have any conflict on the 14th or the 21st I it's fine with me and I will stop there I do have a conflict on the 14th I would not be able to join that day I would be able to join on the 21st I apologize yeah Matt thanks Andy I could do either one of those days 21st is fine um I wanted to ask Kathy did you have a a rough date for that ballpark meeting that you just described or a time frame I'm sure there's not a date but a time frame Matt I'm going to ask them again we have we have a form tomorrow morning so I was trying not to interfere so I'll ask Margaret loosely last night say mid-march to late-march you know so I'm just going to one of the issues is the actual entity MSBA has in our experience over the last year and it's not just our experience they're more short staff than they used to be so they're not as quick on some things um so um I will you know get I'll get my reading on them on we know what the due date is for the larger report got it okay mid-to-late mark thank you um yeah hold on um I want to make sure we check in with lisha who is not only has children but teachers so um whether or not that school vacation week is kind of put aside for her lisha um thank you Lynn so I am actually available on both dates my only question that I have is what time uh because it actually works better for me when we meet at three as opposed to 3 30 because during the school days I am also teaching after school which starts at four so when we start at 3 30 typically I cannot like I can only join for 30 minutes it works better for me if we start at three okay no that's helpful that you said that would it work better for you Alicia if we started at two I could do 230 but um I'll still be teaching at two I'll be finished at 230 so I could do 230 or three um and then I would have just a hard cut off at four but both of those dates I'm available do you have a preference for 230 and should we be polling the committee to see if 230 is an acceptable time or not I think whichever works best for everybody else I would be okay if a majority of people couldn't come for 230 and could be there for three I'd be okay with doing three um but I think I just prefer whatever a majority of other people can do and do you want to just ask for a show of hands like this kind of hand could anyone not make 230 um I guess would be an honest gutter hand up I'm really cutting into my work today already I really can't push it sooner I'm sorry yeah so three is more is a preferable yeah okay sounds like we're three o'clock is what therefore is coming out unless I'm looking to see if there are other hands of people who have comments john um so that's what a clarifier are we inviting uh the cpa chair of the cpa committee to a particular meeting did we agree on the 21st for that no I think I was suggesting this yeah Lynn you go ahead I I would suggest that we start the conversation about the schools on this seventh so that if we have any additional questions that we could clear clean them up on the 14th and that we focus strictly on cpa on the 14th but actually it's the 21st now no the 21st yeah 14th didn't work for Anna oh that's right the 21st and and then that allows us to bring both back to the council on the 27th okay so c so cpa 21st as I can if everyone's good with that I'll reach out to the chair and make sure that works for for him thank you okay and and let me just also say as we have done in the past given that Alicia really is only with us from three to four that we make sure that we pack as much into that time that we'd like to make sure she gets to weigh in on yeah the other thing that I've done in the past and I'm going to try and get back to is when we have a general list of topics if there's any items that are particularly important to Alicia and she wants us to schedule first I want to I've tried to at least consider that as carefully as I can in order to honor her participation and her wishes because I know that it's been hard for her and I appreciate that she's stuck with us and sticking with us again so with that I don't you know I think the other thing I'm just going to mention is if there's anybody who can help out with doing is willing to take on one or two sets of minutes don't have to volunteer now just send me an email because I want to really get cleaned up on the minutes I'm finding that it is taking a little bit of time for each meeting I actually do have two that I probably could have pushed for today but I decided to just hold back I think the one that I'm absolutely ready on and I think that I have have completed all of the edits and they were nothing major is October 4th and we're very close on May 19th because that was when the Kathy's looked at too because she chaired that meeting it was one that I had to be absent for a substantial portion of the only problem is you didn't list those on the agenda for today everything's listed on the agenda there are they're all on the agenda actually absolutely right sorry I was looking at the wrong agenda so we could take a motion to um approve those two but the others need review and I'm sure that we're getting getting more drafts from it from Athena and the which which dates are those October May 19th and October 4th of A and B of the first two I'm going to make a motion that we approve those two second motion made and seconded and none of them the changes are not substantive they're all editorial you know types of things but that substance changes from the draft that has been floating for some time um so I'll go through do a quick photo on that um and then I think we're ready to adjourn unless there's other business I have done I don't know if anybody else is on an anticipated business that they want to bring up um so um usually do it alphabetically by last name um and I don't know if you want to abstain it's absolutely understand but it starts with you I do have the same thank you okay Lynn approve um support matt support support um Kathy yes of a yes and lisha yeah okay so we have um of the the voting members four yes one abstain and support from three um resident members of the committee so anybody else have on anticipated business I have done to bring forward at this point seeing none then I declare the uh meeting adjourned for today and appreciated we did a lot of uh work to get going and um so thank you and thank you thanks everyone bye