 Hi, I'm George Tyler. I'm vice president of the Essex Junction Board of Trustees Village President Andrew Brown couldn't was supposed to do the presentation for us today about merger, but unfortunately he couldn't make it so I'm filling in for him and We're here and thanking town meeting TV very much for this opportunity to Reach out to our Essex Junction constituents And talk to them about the merger ballot question that is they should have been they should receive in the mail and Is on the ballot for this November? and joining me is the Chair of the Essex Town select board and former village trustee Elaine Haney. Hi Elaine George, thanks for having me. I'm here to your presentation and answer questions as they relate to the town and So I want to start out by saying that There the the merger ballot that's that village residents should have received just sort of like One half of a two-part symphony that's going to be happening over the next year The because we are two separate municipal governments on Essex Junction and Essex Town By state statute if we want to merge we both have to vote independently to merge and to dissolve our existing charters and create a new charter and the charter process that that we Decided on with the town Was to create a new town charter instead of just dissolving the village and merging just what was the village into the Existing town charter because there was so much revision required and it was an opportunity to sort of You know with a blank slate create a new charter community We decided to join with the town have the town join us in creating a new Essex town charter and so that's what I'm here to describe today and Without further ado, I think we can go up to our first slide. I don't know if that's up yet or not Is that online? Can't tell yes, go ahead George. Okay? I think that what the first one is expectations and then This gives you information and any a lot any information that you need regarding the village charter we have a Lot of information a lot of the background a lot of the facts and the figures and the numbers and the and the dates I mean how we got here on the s6 junction.org website if you go to s6 junction.org You'll see it. It's all laid out there and there's even a brief video that explains charter So I with that I'll go to the next slide and it shows a little history of how we got here Yeah, it's on okay, and you can see that really this where we are right now is a process that started in 2013-2014 when the village in the town decided to consolidate the manager's position We started consolidating the administrative positions the manager followed by the finance director the town and village clerk And then in 2015 and 16 we moved the s6 junction public works budget Into the town general fund which was a very big step The the trustees are still in charge of the public works department in the village and we still have oversight But and we set the budget But we have moved that budget into the town so now all of us s6 residents are paying For you know having the cost of the of taking care of the streets and sidewalks in the entire community distributed equally throughout the community in 2018 we things were working so well and we with other collaborations and consolidations that we With the town decided to create a governance subcommittee that would look into Changes it changes in the governing structure for the village in the town We looked at a bunch of different possible Governance structures merger wasn't the only one We looked at separation We looked at various forms of status quo We looked at just dissolving the village and moving village services into the town We looked at a variety of options But we settled on the merger that I discussed earlier where we would create a new town charter and Dissolve both existing governments and move everything into this new charter So that beat that process began in 2018 The governance subcommittee Consisted of two members of the select board who also lived in the town outside the village Two members of the trustees who obviously lived inside the village We hired a legal counsel To advise us and make sure that everything we were doing would be accepted by the Vermont legislature and so we began the process of over a year and a half of meeting and We we had little little goals along the way little things that we would achieve and every time we reached a major Juncture we would come back to the two full boards To review where we are and then we would get consensus for from both the select board and the trustees for moving on to the next step And then finally around the beginning of this year around February or so We came up with we were pretty much there We came up with a lot of the transition of plans and we came up with the really the broad outlines of how we were gonna Create this new merger charter Unfortunately We had anticipated holding a vote both the town and the village on the merger charter this November because we wanted to Take advantage of the presidential election Then the pandemic hit and that threw the whole process into a bit of confusion So that the long and the short of it was for the trustees We felt we wanted to move forward with the November date And the select board decided for their version of the of the Consolidation charter they needed to put it on hold They needed a little bit more time to sort some things out and Elaine can speak to that Elaine do you want to jump in right now talk about that I Would simply say that the select board wanted to take additional time to review the draft charter document in more detail We had more questions for the attorney that we engaged So we were able to do that We have gotten to the point where we're almost ready to sign off on this draft version The attorney is going to take one more look and we will be going out to the public in November for their feedback on the draft Very good. Okay, so I if we could move on to the next slide And let me let me get that up And this actually just talks about the highlights I'll actually actually go on to the next one And I think this should say key challenges for creating a unified charter and the two big challenges that we face Number one is taking all of the villages expenditures and moving them into the town general fund Right now we have a sort of a bi-level tax structure a bilateral tax structure Where village residents are also town residents and pay taxes to the town But town residents outside the village are not considered village residents So they do not pay taxes to the village So that means in terms of total municipal tax bill people in the village are paying two tax bills and Merger means moving taking that village portion of the of the tax bill and distributing it now throughout the entire community So in the past When this has sort of been a challenge because it's a pretty hefty increase for people in the town outside the village for the average Homeowner it would be about a three hundred and fifty three hundred and sixty dollar increase right off the bat and we thought that that was Maybe a little bit too much for people to swallow It would you know it would not go down well and not no one wants to see that kind of an increase That would have been for the average tax bill something like a twenty five percent tax increase So we decided in the merger chart of what we would do is we would integrate it over over about a decade Actually for 12 years The reason for the 12-year period is that the village also has a bonded debt We took out money back in 2013 to do some street repairs We have another 12 years to pay off that debt because it was just taken out by the village That means that debt has to just stay with village taxpayers. It can't be transferred over to the town So we thought well Since the village has to maintain a separate a little bit of a separate tax to pay off the debt for the next 12 years Why don't we talk about having the village also? Phase in its operating costs into the town instead of doing it over once so then the increase For the taxes for the homeowners outside the village in the town outside the village would be gradual and the decrease that village residency and Sharing that the village is tax burden with the rest of the community would be gradual over 12 years So it was a bit of a compromise But we thought it was a good way forward The other issue that we we spent a lot of time with was what kind of a representative legislative body do we need? Right now the village trustees are all elected at large from within the village the town select board Is elected all at large from within the town which includes the village? There was a lot of call for trying to create a board that had some guaranteed Representation for the town outside the village some guaranteed representation for that for within the village So how do we how do we what kind of a board did we want did we that meant setting up voting wars or districts? How are we going to do that? So that was one of the other questions we wrestled with so let's move on to the next slide So what we came up with is that there'll be two transitional periods in the first five years we're going to have a seven member elected board and Over the first five years will begin to integrate and consolidate all of the village in town services The other thing that we came up with the other period is it is the 12-year period I mentioned in which the village will pay back its bond to debt The villages operating expenditures will be slowly integrated into the town a general fund we also wanted to Maintain some of the some of the costs that the village presently has like Like side sidewalk plowing and sidewalk make sidewalk maintenance, which the town also does But they don't do it quite as intensely. It's a much larger area They they have sidewalks spread out throughout the community in the village Sidewalk plowing is a really big priority for us in the wintertime because we can't have people and kids walking on the streets So we said well the village will be declared a sidewalk district And so we'll have a slight a little bit extra tax raise just from village taxpayers to pay for sidewalk plowing We also said the village will be a capital improvement district so that some of the capital expenditure costs That the village currently has will stay with the village until we get some of those projects done They were again, they won't be transferred into the town And then we also because we're doing a lot of redevelopment in the village center There are some some incentives that we have in place some tax incentives That are just specific to the village center the village downtown to encourage development So we wanted to create a special downtown district So the village would also the village center will be considered a downtown District for the next 12 years and I'm going to stop there and ask Elaine if you want to jump in if I've missed anything significant here No, George, I think you've covered all the bases on this We talked a lot in the process of putting this together of making sure that the tax impact on Residents of in the town outside the village would be stretched out as much as possible So that the financial impact on their personal home budgets would not be as significant So that's why we went with the 12 years it coincides really nicely with the end of the villages Infrastructure bond and it equates to approximately $26 per household per year in the town outside the village We really wanted to offset the potential Increases so that those residents would be able to plan their personal finances accordingly Right and I think the the next slide sort of just again Re-emphasizes what Elaine and I were just saying the costs it will lower taxes for the average Home in the village by about $35 a year and it will increase taxes by about $25 a year for the For the average taxpayer outside the village in the town outside the village And that that will be every year that will be that that that will be added on but those costs are very much Within line of typical town and village Budget increases that we see in most given years cost of living increases So we thought that these were palatable and this was a good compromise for everybody So I'll let's move on to the to the next slide And again, I'm this is I think I this I'm going back over the This is reiterating the the three districts in the village and we had some questions at another meeting earlier Could these districts in over the course of the next 12 years could they be changed? Yes, they can They can't be eliminated because they're called for in the charter But there's a lot of interest in parts of the town that are close to the village They they want to have their sidewalks have a little bit more maintenance a little more intensive Plowing and maintenance of their sidewalks in the in the wintertime could they join the villages sidewalk district? Absolutely, that's something that the new elected board could do if they wanted to So I think we'll let's move on to the next slide And this one should show the village merger charter proposes two voting wards Ward one will be the town and ward two will be the village and the town charter The town version of the charter has the same features in it Elaine if I'm I'm understanding correctly So we're gonna have two voting wards, which is something we haven't had before here in Essex And right now what would happen is that there would be three represent three seats reserved on the new select board exclusively for people who live within the village three seats exclusively for people who live in the town outside the village and There will be one seat. So there'd be a seven-member board. There'd be one seat For anyone elected at large so you can be from the village or the town It'll be a competitive race for the entire community to create a seven-member board So this is a bit of a this is one of the differences right now that we haven't resolved between the village charter and the town charter And I'll let Elaine explain this in it in a moment But right now what the town is leaning towards is just having As I said the two wards a voting ward for the town a voting ward for the for the village But it would be only three seats from each ward and they would not have that at large seat So they would have an even numbers board the the We thought about joining them on this but we thought The guidance we had the legal guidance. We had said the legislature really wants to see even even numbered board I mean an odd numbered board and so we just decided to go with our odd numbered 3 3 1 Configuration and I'm going to let Elaine talk a little bit about the town's version of this go ahead Elaine Thanks George The significant difference between the town's version of the charter and the villages is in representation Last March are the town held a boat on a citizen backed initiative to have an even numbered select board the house government operations committee, which is the committee of jurisdiction over charter changes did not rule on Whether or not that charter change was something that we could implement So we are in a bit of limbo at the moment Waiting for them to weigh in on that The reason it is in our charter is because the voters of the town of Essex in its entirety did approve the even numbered board We are waiting to hear from the legislature if we hear from them prior to the March ballot when we expect to put the town's version of the charter on the ballot That may impact the content of the charter, but at this time we're expecting that We most likely will not have a resolution by then and so the town charter will have a vote in March, most likely and The committee would receive two approved charters assuming that the village voters approve their version and the town voters approve the town version and we would work with the committee to true up the differences And as I've said before the town is serving two masters on this topic. The legislature approves all charter changes and we can't go ahead and implement something that our residents voted on without their approval. But also the residents are are indicating what they want through a vote. So we need to kind of walk a line between which master to serve and it's it's awkward at the moment, but we expect resolution and we'll be able to move forward. Right. And I want to just repeat what that thanks Elaine what I want to repeat In voting for the two charters only the villages voting on the villages version of the charter this November right now and everyone in the village should have a ballot every every registered voter should have And but in March of next year. The vote for the town charter will be community wide and that means people in the village will vote in their role as town citizens as well as voters outside the village. One of the other features that had that we have in common on both charters is that we would no longer have our budgets determined by voice voted annual meeting our budget for the new community would be Settled by Australian ballot paper ballot, the way the school budget is is presently done. So we'd be moving away from the old traditional voice vote. Annual meeting. And the other issue is that if merger is approved next year, we would have an interim period. We don't immediately become a merge community because The, the, the funding for the existing town and village would have to go through goes through the year following The merger. So we would have to sort of slowly transition and we don't also don't have a budget for the For the new community, what we'd have to wait a year to set up the budget and have voters approved that budget. So there'll be a one year transition period. During that period, the five trustees and the five select board members would become a unified 10 member board and they would sort of represent the entire community and make legislative decisions on behalf of the entire community for the year following immediately following the merger. And I don't know if I'm leaving anything out the lane. Thank you. Good. Okay. I one other thing I wanted to mention because this comes up often is that one of the the features in the transitional charter that we approved is it maintains current water and sewer districts in the village in the town, the village in the town currently have a different water rates and water and sewer rates. It's because they have very different costs and water and sewer are actually not part of the general fund. They're not part of property taxes. They're paid from a different source. You get a separate bill in the mail. For water and sewer if you're in the town or the village. And so that's not going to change at least in the immediate future would eventually change. But it wouldn't change for the next few years. Let me just check and see if there's anything else we're going here. So one of the other questions is if if the village vote is no on the merger charter this November. What happens. What happens is that we have to have a community conversation because the legislature won't approve a merger unless both sides vote for the village has to vote for it. The town has to vote for it. So there's several different scenarios that we're going to have to go through. If the village, the village, if the village votes yes, that means that the town charter would go forward and we would all vote on that. If that's approved, then we have two yes votes and that goes to the legislature for For a new merger. If the village votes no I'm not sure what would happen if the town would go forward with their merger vote or not would have to have that discussion. If the village votes yes and the town vote is no Then there would be no merger. And then again, we'd have to have a community conversation about next steps. So It's a process, as I said, it's it's like an opera. It's going to play out over the next six or eight months and we'll see what happens. But the opening the opening piece. The overture is about to happen in November. And I hope we've answered some questions. And once again, any other questions, please go to the Essex Junction Website. It's got a ton of information. And we also created jointly with the select board, a greater Essex 2000 website. And there's a link from the village website on to that that has additional information and Elaine. I again believe it leave anything out anything you can think of. No, I appreciate the analogy to an opera. Yeah. While the village residents will be going to the polls on November 3 the town select board will be going to the public after that of November to hear feedback on the town version of the Charter. So by that time, we will also have heard what the village residents are thinking and we can move forward together from there. Okay. Okay, very good. And I know there are a lot of questions out there, but I think I should pause. I don't know if Channel 17 town meeting TV. If anyone has phoned in with a question or if our moderator has any questions. No questions. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I think it's, hopefully it's going to be a happy opera Elaine. It's been a lot of work. I think that this was something that was really two years into making it represents a really big collaborative effort between our two boards. And I think if, if let me finish by saying one thing, if merger isn't approved whether the village votes no in the town votes yes or the village votes yes the town votes no. If, if merger isn't approved what happens and what happens is basically in terms of of user services citizen, you know, municipal services, nothing happens. Everything stays status quo tax bills stay relatively the same municipal services stay the same fire department police public works everything stays the same. And we have also structured this so that if merger does happen what what big changes will you see again, not all that much. It's a change at the top. It's a change on the inside that and what slow gradual reorganization of management on the inside. And slow integration of the two budgets, but at the ground level in terms of public works recreation libraries fire departments. Police, all of that will stay we've designed it so all of that stays relatively the same. That was a condition both our boards wanted no one wanted felt that we wanted to hand someone a sacrifice or say someone has to give up a service or give something up. We tried to structure this in a way so that would be maximum stability for the foreseeable future. George, I'd like to add to that by saying that we have been on this path for many years as you out with with your your graphic at the beginning of this presentation, since we started working together we've saved Essex residents close to $3 million in taxes as a result of consolidations and right the important thing to note is the last time we talked about merger in our community in 2006, none of that consolidation had occurred and the vote was still yes. Yes, we know that the community is in favor of working together and with a vote that overturned our decision notwithstanding, we know that we can go forward together and we've already saved many millions of dollars and while the lowest hanging fruit has already been picked. We do know that there's a lot more efficiencies to be achieved a lot more duplication to continue eliminating and some of that may not be tangible in terms of we can actually predict by by a budget line item exactly how much money we're going to save. We know that those efficiencies have value. And so you're hoping to continue on the path that we've already been on for many years and just wait the process. Right and I will add and that's exactly right Elaine and good points to bring up all of them. And as I said at the beginning, we consolidated a lot of people think that that that there's this animosity going on this polarization between the village and the town, and that's simply not the case. No, we consolidated the manager, the manager's office back in 2014 and we've been operating under one administration a shared administration and our two boards have been meeting regularly since then. So we again, we are very close. I think this has been a great effort all around. And that you know in a time when the outside world and national politics are so stressful. The last thing we want to do is deliver a big dose of stress to the local community so we've tried to do everything status quo calm thoughtful intelligent creative way forward for both sides. Now the only other thing I would add George is that status quo is not acceptable anymore. Yeah, if we have a result where we are unable to move forward with emerged community. Status quo is not going to be maintained simply because it is unaffordable for half of the community. Yes, it is also not fair. So we'll continue working towards the best we can towards improving the situation, but working together with merger is is what we both board strongly feel is the best way forward for Right. Good. So I, I'm not sure how long we have here do we have a half an hour or an hour. Pretty sure we have a half an hour but we are hoping that we'll have some questions. Still no questions about 10 people watching the no questions. Okay, good. I would say then for the people who are watching and for anyone else who watches this recording later, please don't hesitate to reach out to the trustees or the select board with your questions and comments, and you're welcome to come to our audience online and share your thoughts there or you can email directly if you'd rather have something private. And we are here to answer your questions. So please don't hesitate to reach out with your Exactly, or with your concerns. Exactly. And I'm going to get my, my calendar up here. And on the 27th of October, I believe is our next public hearing on the for the Essex Junction trustees were doing an online public hearing on merger. Everybody in the village and the town is welcome to tune in. The instructions and the link for joining the meeting are on the Essex Junction website. And you can join in and ask any question you want the trustees will be there and we will be doing a lot with presenting a lot of the information we presented today. But you'll also have a chance to ask questions of the other trustees and of staff as well. Are we good. I, I don't know. I think we're good. George presentation and channel town meeting television. Thank you very much for giving us the time. We have a phone call. We have a phone call. All right, phone call. Okay. All right, go ahead, sir. Hi, thank you. Hi, hi folks. How are you? You're weren't getting any calls. I wasn't going to call in but I'm going to help you fill some airtime. Couple questions for you. Okay. I heard talk about a third transitional period. That was the one year transitional period. But I didn't see that on the slide. That's not about transitional period. So I'm kind of curious as to why that is missing. I'm not sure I understand. Did you have another question? Well, let me see if I can handle it. What, what's legally called for by, you know, by charter is we, we have a transitional period where we've formed a new community. We've got it. We, if, if, if let, if the legislative both folks are positive and it goes to the legislature. And another question. Okay, go ahead. Mentioned that the typical increase in taxes of the town outside the village will be about $25 per year per year increasing each year. And that's about the typical increase in taxes that happens normally. So my question is community we've got to get, get, get, get the legislative. I didn't, I didn't hear it. I didn't hear the rest of the question. I thought I heard him say, um, asking about three different transitional periods. And I think maybe what he was referring to as we have the, the interim transitional year with the interim governing board. Right. Then there's the 12 year taxation schedule. Right. There's the five year transition where the manager will be able to consolidate remaining departments, perhaps three different transitions he's referring to. Yeah. And I know it's confusing, but it really was something that the interim period is really something that is kind of required because we have budgets for the old communities for the current village in the town. And I don't have money for the new, for the new town. So there's a necessary transition from old to new that takes place over however many months are left between when the legislature approves the merger. And when we vote money for the new merger, and I guess it would be July or June of the following year. So the, the other transitional, the five and the 12 year are, they're sort of custom. Those are things that we put in because we thought they made sense in terms of integrating the village in the town services and in our finances. Those weren't required by law, but we thought they kind of make sense and 12 years is too long for the manager to wait to integrate all the village and town services, but we don't want to do it all at once. It's not gradual. So there's no big shocks. So we said that'd be about a five year plan is a good, good time limit for that. Right. And I think with the other question that he was trying to ask but couldn't quite get out on pointing out that town outside the village residents will see an approximate $25 per household on average increase for 12 years. Generally when we have our annual budget, that's around what it is in general anyway. Right. And so I'm guessing that his question was so are you saying we need to add those two together and that's what's going to happen. I mean, we cannot predict the annual increase of the town budget going forward. We never can do that. We always know that things like asphalt and salt and healthcare insurance and those kinds of costs are going to go up. They never go down. So we do need to have an accounting, an expectation that residents will see an additional increase, but that would be across the board for every resident. Whereas the merger related increases are limited to the town outside the village and they're temporary. They're only 12 years. Right. Right. Another phone call. Yes. Thank you, Kevin. All right, sir. Go ahead. Go ahead, sir. Go ahead. You're on the air. You can ask your question. Well, we're still, we're still responding to. Now that's a delay, sir. Go ahead and ask your question. Okay. Hi. Elaine, this is at Doblin. You know, I live in the village. I've lived in the village for many, many years. Yes. Hi. Merger versus separation is concerned. The last I knew it had not been warned in three places, three separate places. Is that going to be done? I'm not understanding your question. We're not voting on separation. Elaine, can you hear me? Yes, I can. We're not voting on separation ed. So I'm not sure what your question is, but I do know that the vote for the village will be warned appropriately in all of its locations. Did you get that, sir? I think he's having a problem with this delay, folks. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I'll follow up. If he. Is he still there? No, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. You know, we, we approved, um, warning the, uh, the ballot, uh, back at a meeting a while ago. So I, I'm sure it's been warned or it will be warned appropriately. Um, and people have asked, well, can't you put merger and separation can't, so people can pick pick one or the other. No, we can't do that. Um, any ballot has to be yes or no. There's no option available here. Okay. Okay. And this saying it has to be warned 30 days before the vote. Right. I believe it was. I, as far as I know, it was. So, um, I, I don't know. I'm not sure. Um, I'm not sure of all the places it was born. I think one of the places it was supposed to go into, um, the Burlington pre-press. And I do know that, that warning things is a little tricky in the community now. I'm, um, the, our, our local newspaper, the Essex reporter, um, is no longer printed and distributed throughout the community. It's online. Um, and so some of the traditional places that, uh, Essex junction and Essex town residents have looked for those kinds of warnings. I have disappeared and the, the town and village clerk have had to, uh, find others as far as I know, Elaine, is that I'm not sure all of the other places where they're warning, um, you know, planning commission meetings and, and trustee and select board meetings now. I believe they're also posting them on front porch forum, front porch forum. Exactly. Right. Okay. That's all we have for questions. Thank you. All right. Okay. Kevin. Thanks. Thank you very much town meeting television. Thank you, George. Thank you, Elaine. Take care.