 There are 247 town meeting members, 124 constitutes a quorum. The constable informs me that a quorum is present. The second session of the 260th annual town meeting will now come to order. Are there any new town meeting members who were not here on Monday night and therefore were not sworn in on Monday? If so, please stand. I don't see any. Good. Quick review of the schedule. I believe the select board intends to adjourn this evening and move to take things up again on Monday, May 7th. Then session four will be on Wednesday, May 9th. Session five on Monday, May 14th. Session six on Wednesday, May 16th. The auditorium has been reserved for seven additional dates beyond May 16th. Some seating reminders. The seats on the floor of the auditorium may be occupied only by town meeting members except for the front row, which may be used by members of the press and by members of town committees and town staff participating in the presentation or discussion of articles. Such persons must wear non-voter stickers which are available at the check-in table. The seats in front of me on the right are occupied by the five select board members, the town manager, the finance director, the assistant town manager, the assistant to the town manager and IT staff. The finance committee is seated to my left. Spectators and town residents who are not town meeting members may be seated in the bleachers to the rear of the auditorium. New information for town meeting members can be found on the back table to my left, the one over that way. Old information can be found on the back table to my right. Please be sure to pick up the legal-sized unfolded printed sheet from a table in the back room. This is the first draft of the League of Women Voters publication They Represent You. It is a list of elected officials in Amherst, also pick up the sheet from the League of Women Voters that tells you how to make corrections. The League needs to know whether the information for each person is correct before final publication. If there is an error or omission in your listing, you can correct it online at the League website or fill out a correction slip and put it in the box. That has League of Women Voters of Amherst written on it at the back table. Please have your corrections in by Monday, May 7th. Amherst Media provides gavel to gavel coverage of our proceedings on Public Access Channel 17. I would like to thank their staff and volunteers. Videos of town meeting sessions are replayed frequently and can also be viewed on the Amherst Media website. If you wish to... Pardon me. I hear a point of order. Mr. Moderator, one of the gentlemen who spoke Monday night, Mr. John Page, who said he was a registered voter, turned out not to be. And as per the town clerk's records as of this afternoon, and so I wonder if you would emphasize in your opening remarks that the town meeting welcomes comments from both registered voters and those who are not registered or who are from not in Amherst. So that people will feel comfortable who wish to speak but are not town meeting members in seeking recognition. And my recollection, Mr. Moderator, is that in the 40-some-odd years I've been a town meeting member, I think only once have we turned down a speaker, and that was a speaker from out of town. We have never turned down somebody who was from Amherst who was not a registered voter. Okay, thank you. If you wish to speak, you must raise your hand and be recognized. As per our bylaw change in the fall, you must hold up a card to indicate your position. Green indicates yes, red indicates no, and a white card indicates that you wish to speak without advocacy or ask a question. Are there people in the audience tonight who do not have a green card? Good. Are there people in the audience tonight who do not have a red card? No, I said who do not. Okay, good. And everybody should have a white card because you can use any old piece of paper. When you are called on, please first state your name in precinct. If you forget, I will interrupt and ask you to do so. If you need more than three minutes and more than five when speaking to your motion, you must request additional time before speaking. Town meeting will vote on your request. As the speaker just said, if you are registered voter in town, you may speak when recognized. If you are not a registered voter, you must get permission from the body. If you're speaking from the floor, please speak into a microphone that will be provided once you are recognized. This will allow the viewers outside the auditorium to hear you. The microphone will be on when it is handed to you. Please hold it close to your mouth when you speak. Non-members, I say this right here, non-members who wish to speak should stand at the rear of the right-hand aisle. Any registered voter of the town of Amherst who is recognized by the moderator may speak without special permission. Others may speak with the permission of a majority. There you go. If you are able, please stand when you're speaking. If you're physically unable to do so, I understand. But if you're able to stand when speaking, please do so. It really helps other people in the body to see who's talking and it helps to listen. If you're making an amendment to a motion, the amendment must be presented in writing with four copies submitted to the following people. Town clerk, moderator, town manager and staff, chair of the finance committee, or whichever board is seated to my left. Procedural motions such as a motion to refer or a motion to dismiss do not need to be presented in writing. If you're making an amendment to a portion of the operating budget, please specify the dollar amount greater or less than the amount in the finance committee motion. If you make any motion from the floor, it must be the first thing you do after you've been recognized and have identified yourself. You cannot speak first and then make a motion. If you've not already done so, please check your cell phone and make sure to silent start off. Little reminder about town meeting coordinating committee. The election of three members to the town meeting coordinating committee and nine members to the town meeting advisory committee will take place during the May 14th session of town meeting. If you wish to be a member of either committee or if you wish to nominate someone else, nomination papers can be downloaded from the town website. The nomination deadline is May 8th at 4.30 PM. You can submit nomination papers and candidate statements here at town meeting or at the town clerk's office. The town meeting coordinating committee is limited to town meeting members. The town meeting advisory committee is open to all residents of Amherst. If at any point in time, you are confused about the proceedings. It is appropriate to call a point of order and ask for a clarification. Also, it's always okay to phone me or send me an email or see me prior to town meeting if you need an explanation of any kind. We're now gonna do a quick test of our electronic voting system. We have a substitute operator of electronic voting system and he may be slower than Sean because he doesn't want to embarrass Sean and that's really the only reason. Okay, they're all point of orders. I don't give them personalities, so yes. Okay, a really nasty point of order. Mr. Moderator, Rob Custer, please. You made a very comprehensive list of the axioms but one thing that happens often is people forget to ask for additional time and maybe if you didn't mention it, I mentioned it before. I think I said that one. Well then I forgot, thank you. Okay. Okay, first of all, let me go through a couple things before you bring that on the screen. Okay, all votes at town meeting will initially be voice votes after a voice vote. If the moderator or any member so requests will take an electronic vote. Make sure your device is turned on. Everybody should see some numbers, the number of their device in the LED display on their device. If it's not there, press and release the power button at the bottom right hand corner. Is there anybody whose device is not on or they think it's not on? Good. The only functional buttons are one, two and three. One is yes, two is no, three is abstain. You never need to press any other buttons on the device. Other buttons will have no effect on your vote. A vote to abstain will be recorded but it will not count towards the results. There may be a lag time of a few seconds from when you press the button to when your vote is displayed. At the end of the voting window, I will check that everyone can see their vote displayed on their device. You may only vote with the device that has been assigned to you. At the end of the evening, please remember to power off your device before handing it in. To do so, you press and hold the power button until the LED display is clear. Always return your device when you leave town, return your device when you leave town meeting. If you do not return your device, you will get a call from the town clerk's office the next morning, requesting that you immediately bring your device into the town clerk's office. And now we're ready for our test vote. This is a majority vote. Yes, 57, no, 39. And the correct answer is no. Is there anybody who feels that their device is not working and who didn't see their vote on their screen? Great. Oh, the answer is no. It's A-N-N with no A. Couple other reminders. Actually just a quick reminder, tonight's agenda, we're beginning with article seven, the OPEB trust fund, and then we move into article eight, the operating budget, and we'll be going through that. We'll be skipping library and schools because those have been moved to a date and time certain next Monday. And maybe we'll get beyond article eight, we'll see. I now call on Mr. Sharma to make a motion under article seven. And I'm gonna also have you speak your motion right away and then the select board will go after you. I move in terms of the article. Motion's been made and seconded, you may speak your motion. As the time meeting knows, this is an important issue for the town because the estimates for OPEB liability range from about $50 million to about $100 million, which is essentially our collective liability. The estimates of the liability are sensitive to some assumptions built into modeling them. But whatever the assumptions, the liability will continue to be significant for the town our size. That is the total town budget is just over $92 million. The upper range of the OPEB liabilities is about $103 million, according to the estimate last done in July of 2016. The town set up the OPEB trust fund in 2013 and we have been funding this ever since, starting with $100,000 in the first year, then increasing that amount by $100,000 every year since. For FY19, the town has contributed, is projecting, contributing $500,000 and expect this amount to continue going forward. The town had a plan to start funding this at a more aggressive rate once the pension liabilities are paid off in about 20 years. This plan needs updating as things, especially health care, health plan specifics have changed recently and the town staff are on it. One more issue worth noting, state laws have changed such that the entire OPEB liability will now start showing up on the town's books. That is, this liability will no longer be hidden or off the books and it'll be fully visible. This is important because being on the books will keep the issue front and center so that the town's people and the town staff may continue monitoring and continue addressing it on a regular basis. And I don't know if you stated the finance committee's recommendation. Finances committee's recommendation was 601 absent in support of this article. Thank you. Mr. Slaughter for the select board. The select board voted unanimously to recommend this to you. A couple other points I'll bring up relative to the OPEB liability. It is a statement of the entire liability in total. So it's not something that we have to pay at one time. So it's a projection of all potential liability for the current retirees that we have as well as anyone working for us who may become a retiree for us. And so it is a very large number because of that. It's a projection out until we don't have to cover the current employees or the current retirees. So it's a very large number in that regard. The accounting rules that we follow and are required to follow require a reevaluation of that number every two years. This is the year in which we will revisit that which is also timely by virtue of the number of changes we've made to our health insurance for the coming year so that we'll have a significant impact on how this number gets projected for the coming years. The finance director wanted me to point out that the town audit which has recently been put on the, is it the accounting page, I believe? On the accounting page has a lot of great information relative to OPEB and that liability as well as a lot of other things relative to the town's finances. And so you should check that out. But again, the select board recommended unanimously that you pass this appropriation. Thank you. This requires a majority vote for passage. Is there discussion before we come to a vote? Yes, I see a hand on the aisle right there. Rudy Perkins, precinct two. Once this liability becomes visible on our books will that have an impact on our bond rating or our borrowing ability? I'm probably showing my ignorance here about both of them but if someone could answer, thanks. Yes, for the finance committee. The visibility on the books does not change the cash flows or the payment or anything like that. In fact, the fact that we have an OPEB trust fund where we are contributing monies is seen favorably. The S&P, the bonding agencies like that. So if anything, it kind of helps us. Thank you. Yes, third row right there in the center. Chris Riddle, precinct two, a question. Is the $2 million that we temporarily moved over onto our health account of last time? Is that a manifestation of this phenomenon? Mr. Buckerman. No, no, it isn't. There's no connection between the two. There's no connection between the two. Further discussion? Yes, I see a hand in the back corner there. Vince O'Connor, precinct one. Two questions. One is, how are the funds held and what? And the second question is, I assume that these projections are based on the current healthcare, the for-profit healthcare system where a quarter to a third of the payments really are going to the companies, the for-profit companies. And is there some way that we could or you could be encouraged to do a projection of those costs that would be based on a single payer, everybody insured healthcare system? Is there, so those two questions, if you would. Thank you. Yes, Miss, what's your name again? Miss Aldridge. Thank you. The funds are held in a separate trust fund, interest bearing trust fund and interest days with the account. I'm not sure I understand your second question. The actuary is based on the benefits that are in place at the time they do the actuary. There's no percentage from the health insurance payments that go into the trust fund. Thank you, Mr. Buckleman. So I think if the question is that, suppose there's a different type of healthcare system in place, what would our liability look like? We have not done that study and there are so many variables, it'd be hard for, we'd have to hire an actuarial company to figure out what those variables would be. But what they do, as Miss Aldridge said, is they look at what we're offering now and project that out with a medical inflation rate. And the other key thing on the audit that we receive, there is a sensitivity analysis. They show you the assumption that's in place and it says, well, what happens if you add 1% or delete 1%, you can see what the impact is. So it's an interesting document that's in our audit for the first time. Thank you. Is there further discussion? Yes, in the front row there. Yes, John Fox, precinct 10. Just further questions, because I know you look at this very carefully. But what assumptions are made in the expectation that 500,000 meets the current obligation? What assumptions are made that might change that variable? What are the sort of the things that you worry about most that could lead you to say, we really ought to put in a lot more than we're currently putting in? Thank you. Mr. Backelman. So the assumptions are what we can afford. And right now we've been increasing that contribution $100,000 a year. Plus we put additional funds in there at usually at a special town meeting when there's funds from our Medicare reimbursement and we have those funds that we had not accounted for. We put that into our liability as well. So the plan is that we are already moving towards fully funding our pension system. Once we fully fund our pension system, the money we've been dedicating to that will then be migrated over to the OPEP liability. As Mr. Slaughter I think said, it's a big number. We're just, but we get credit from the rating agencies, the fact that we have a trust fund that we're contributing and we have a plan to continue contributing to them. So those are all in our favor. Thank you. Further discussion before I vote? Yes, right there. Janet McGowan, precinct eight. I know that we've been contributing to OPEP as the town for the last couple of years and we're up to five million, which still seems small to me, but I know that the regional schools have barely contributed anything. If they don't fund, get the fund, the OPEP funds in there, are we as a town liable for like 85% of that unpaid funding? Could that come to kind of come back to haunt us in 10 or 20 years if the schools don't, the regional school doesn't pick up the pace? Anybody care to reply? You're not required to. Mr. McGowan. Potentially, and I think I don't have a really good answer to that honestly, so we haven't looked at that, but I think potentially there could be that liability, but I think, so I don't have a good answer for you on that one. Thank you. And in the back corner there again. Then so Connor, precinct one. So the reason that I asked the question about the single payer and would encourage the town to conduct such a study is that I believe that one, the greatest single savings that both the Commonwealth and its municipalities could achieve budgetarily would be to adopt a single payer healthcare system. And one of the ways that municipalities such as Amherst could encourage steps in that direction is to provide information through the kind of study that I've suggested. That would demonstrate to our legislators and the Commonwealth's executive branch the actual, the potential savings of a single payer healthcare system. I know that it would be complicated, I agree, to think about what assumptions should be done, but I think the long run benefits of putting additional information on the table that would be essentially getting people to think about moving in the single payer direction I think would ultimately far outweigh the cost of such a study. And I think that we should be doing it, other communities should be doing it because this is the only way to get enough information on the table so that the step that needs to be taken will finally be taken. Thank you. Further discussion before a vote? I see no hands, this requires a majority for passage. All those in favor for the motion under Article 7, please say aye. Opposed, please say no. Moderator, here's the unanimous vote. We now move on to Article 8, the operating budget and we're gonna begin with the finance committee presenting their report, which we granted them permission to do under Article 1. Mr. Moderator, may I have two extra minutes? Actually, yes you may. Thank you. We don't time you on this because it's a report from the finance committee. Okay, thank you. This is the final finance committee report to town meeting. The finance committee leaves knowing that the town is in a stable financial position thanks to the excellent management of the town manager and the town's financial staff and in addition to the competent and dedicated employees of the town, the schools, and the library, who deliver services within sustainable budgets, usually 2.5% which derives from the state's limit on property tax increases and also on the town's sound financial policies. The town has a double A plus bond rating from standard and poor's with total revenues of 12,757,589 dollars or 16.5% of general fund operating budget and is used to maintain, I'm sorry, the capital appropriation is 9% of the budget and that's used to maintain buildings and equipment that need to be restored or replaced. The town's debt is low. The anticipated revenues from new growth from private building projects will help sustain town services which was particularly true this year as such revenue was instrumental in offsetting the large increase in healthcare expenses. Marijuana revenue is still an unknown but it is hoped that it will produce some additional revenue. All of that is good. That however said, Amherst has some substantial challenges ahead and must plan and budget wisely. The rising cost of negotiated healthcare insurance place pressure on all FY19 budgets and continues to be addressed but as with all health insurance it may not be totally resolved. Other post-employment benefits, OPEB which you heard about earlier is a major obligation for the town to pay future healthcare costs of town, school and library retirees. Although the town has a plan and has begun to set aside money every year the town still has a very long way to go before this obligation is fully funded. Amherst property tax rate of $21.14 a thousand remains on the high end for state municipalities and presents continuing budgeting challenges so as not to exceed the state maximum which is $25 a thousand. In terms of capital, major capital projects estimated in the aggregate of over $100 million needs to be addressed in the upcoming few years. The over 100 year old Department of Public Works building needs to be replaced and relocated. It has many structural issues which cannot be addressed because of tripping code regulations. It is only 15% ADA which means American Disabilities Act compliant which is the poorest rating of town buildings. The 1929 soon to be 90 year old central fire station where firefighters who work alternating shifts live when not out on calls is only 15% ADA compliant also and does not come close to meeting current standards for a fire station such as not being able to properly vent fumes in the building for some vehicles. It is now in its third study. Both fire and DPW are being reviewed at the same time due to location issues. The 45 year old Fort River and Wildwood Elementary Schools opened in the early 70s and they are 85% ADA compliant but are considered safe but are not designed for current models of education and are in need of maintenance, renovating or replacing. The Jones Library and other two libraries are in need of major repairs and or renovations to provide up to date services and space for our residents. Although some money has been approved for the North Amherst Library, money may be needed for renovation and would be part of long-term capital planning. Driving here tonight as all of you did, it is apparent that there is a backlog of road repairs which is being addressed by the manager with money from chapter 90 and money from the capital fund. There is a schedule for continuing road and sidewalk improvement which will require funding. Looking farther into the future, there is a next generation of significant capital projects such as the community, senior center combination. The percentage of seniors in Amherst is increasing every year along with their need for space and senior services as was outlined by a previous speaker earlier at actually at Monday night's meeting. All of this information along with current needs were just one part of the budgeting process as sustainable budgets were crafted by the manager, superintendent and library director to meet the needs of our community. As we go through the budget, we encourage you to ask questions and after enlightened discussion, hope you will approve of the budget as proposed. Finally, for your many hours of reading, listening, discussing and voting on finance committee recommendations, the finance committee, thanks all of you. Thank you. I now call on the select board to make a brief statement. Thank you. Usually, I got me by surprise, Mr. Moderator because I usually make the statement with the first motion. In general, I just wanted to support all that the finance committee has just reported to you and to point out that this was a very difficult budget year. Every year, budget year has challenges. This year, the particular challenge you've heard about several times was the health insurance costs and the fact that health insurance costs have continued to rise, which affects our employees, unfortunately, but it also affects our employer units which are paid for in the budgets that you will be voting on. Because each of the budgets had to accommodate funds that were needed to meet that obligation, it put additional pressure on the town manager as the manager developed his budget to present to the finance committee and select board on the superintendent and on the library director to make the very hard decisions that would lead still to a balanced budget. And I think that we just wanna recognize the hard work that went into that on behalf by the individuals that I have mentioned, all of the staff that worked with them to craft those budgets. And with the library trustees and the school committee that worked on those two particular budgets. Thank you. Thank you. I now call on Mr. Kubiak to make a motion under the general government section of article eight. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. I move the town appropriates $7,855,219 for general government and that the salary of the moderator be fixed at $1,000. That's a select board chair at 2,000 and that is select board members at 1,500. That of the elector under the Oliver Smith will at 20 and to meet such appropriation, $7,726,883 be raised by taxation and $128,336 be transferred from the ambulance receipts reserved for appropriation account. I hear a second, you may speak to your motion. The detail on the general government budget is can be found on pages 18 and 19 of the finance committee report, which was billed to all of you a while ago. I want to point out the obvious that this budget has an 11.1% increase over last year. The reason for that is this budget which covers the overall operation of the town in terms of its administration, finance and policy also contains funds to pay the employer portion of health insurance as well as salary reserved for contract negotiations, upcoming contract negotiations, unemployment insurance and Medicare. So you'll see a $709,000 increase. $574,000, about 81% of that is due to health insurance and that again covers the employer's share of health insurance for all town employees. So that is the explanation for this pretty noticeable increase in the general government budget. Thank you. Thank you. And the statement from the select board, Mr. Steinberg. The select board unanimously supports and recommends this budget. Thank you. This requires a majority vote. As Mr. Kubiek said, the line items for general government are on page 18 of the finance committee report. My practice when dealing with the budget for those who are new is we will go through each line item and it will see if there are any questions or comments and it will accept a handful of them and then we'll move on to the next line item. I won't allow a motion for the previous question until we've at least heard a little bit for each line item. After we go through them all, I will then open it up to questions on any line item and at that point in time it would be acceptable. I would accept a motion for the previous question. So I'm going to start with the select board town manager line item. Is there any discussion on that? And I see a hand. Please try and remember to hold up white, green or red when you can, but I see, okay. Hilda Greenbaum precinct one. I see that there's a line item for the select board and the town manager. How will the salaries for the new town council and any expenses of today and counter be accommodated in the budget that we are voting now? Mr. Backelman. Thank you. At the time of the budget was formed, we did not know if there was going to be, if the charter was going to pass or not. So we built the budget when I presented it in January as a status quo budget as if we were going to continue with the form of government we had. There is a salary allowed for in the charter for the counselors that would be taken and the select board salaries would be prorated for the number of months. And we didn't know until last night how many months they will serve. And then the council will be brought in and they will, their salaries will be prorated. It'll have to come out of this budget line. Thank you. Further discussion on this section. Yes, I see a hand in the back corner there. Vince O'Connor, precinct one. I see that this is the part of the general government budget that includes the salary of the economic development director. And I have a question about the development director's activities, particularly with regard to the opening of the gambling casino in Springfield, which is due to happen just before the colleges get back in this fall. I wonder if what activities and what expenditures has a town engaged in with respect to the likelihood that that gambling casino will be seeking and perhaps providing free transportation from the various colleges, all five of the colleges, to the casino for the purpose of providing entertainment free food. They can't provide free drinks and hoping to get some return from their visitors. Have any studies been done? Have any particular things been engaged in that would prepare the town for the likely impact of this casino especially the college residents of the town? Mr. Buckleman. The economics development director has not devoted his time to working on anything on the casino. We don't anticipate a lot of impact on our businesses in town. If that were to change, he would obviously have some time to devote it to that. Thank you. For the discussion on this line item, let's move on then to town meeting finance committee. I see no hands there. Finance department. I see no hands there. Legal services, human resources, human rights, information technology, town clerk's office, elections and registration. I see a hand in the back corner there. Felicity Callahan, precinct nine. Excuse me for not standing. I'm curious about that 88.2% increase. It looks closer to 50% to me. And in general, how is that right hand column of percent change calculated further down? We have an increase of 10,000 over 80. That's one eighth, which is 12.5. I don't understand why these numbers don't reflect the percentage change. Somebody give a quick explanation. Mr. Slaughter. The basis for the percentage is the fiscal year 18 number. So when you're dividing to get the percentage, you're taking the fiscal 18 budgeted number as the basis. So the difference between the fiscal 19 and fiscal 18 is divided by the fiscal 18 number. And that's how the percentage is calculated. Thank you. Further questions on elections and registration? Facilities maintenance, general services. Okay, I'm now opening it up to general discussion. Is there further discussion on general government? I see no hands. This requires a majority vote. All those in favor of the motion on the screen before you please say aye. Opposed please say no. The ayes have it unanimously. We now move on to public safety and I call on Ms. Ratner to make a motion. I move that the town appropriate 10,446,161 dollars for public safety. And that to meet such appropriation 7,774,183 dollars be raised by taxation and 2,671,778 dollars be transferred from the Ambulance Receipts Reserve for Appropriation Account. Motion has been made and seconded. Mr. Jayne speaking to the motion, it looks like. Okay, you may speak to it. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. I was recommended by the finance committee by a vote of six in favor, zero opposed and one absent to approve the fiscal 19 budget for public safety. The new budget of 10,446,161 dollars represents an increase of 0.8% or 86,689 dollars from the previous fiscal year. The increase is primarily due to salary adjustments and higher operating expenses such as service agreements for emergency medical equipment. Public safety includes the police department, fire department, ambulance services, emergency dispatch and communication center as well as animal welfare services. All services to the town are provided 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. Thank you. Thank you, and Mr. Steinberg for the select board. The select board unanimously supported this and that was on a vote and all of these budget votes were the same. So I will only say this one's four to zero with one member absent on the night that we voted on the general budget motions. Thank you. This also requires a majority vote. I am now looking at page 20 of the finance committee report and is there discussion on the police facility line item in this budget? I see no hands. How about the police line item? Again, no hands, fire EMS. I see, yes, right there in the third row. Chris Riddle precinct, Chris Riddle precinct two. I remember at the last town meeting somewhat lengthy discussion, maybe it wasn't last, but about how the fire department was grossly in need of additional staffing, particularly for the ambulance end of the spectrum. And I had the feeling from the discussion that well, we couldn't solve it last time. Maybe I'm thinking of a year ago, but it doesn't see a 2% increase in the fire and emergency line item here. It just looks so feeble compared to the discussion that we had, I think it was maybe a year ago or maybe it was six months ago. Yes, Mr. Bachman. Thank you. So the number may look feeble, but the reason that it's not larger is that the settled contract number is not in this budget. So if there's an outstanding collective bargaining agreement, that's held in a different account. So when those contracts get settled, those monies will flow into this. And you're right that there was a discussion about fire staffing and the fire department funds runs the ambulances, emergency medical services as well as fire services. And we completed a study this fiscal year, which did recognize that there was a need for additional staffing in the fire department. We have had productive conversations with our collective bargaining group with the unit and have come up with a plan to begin to implement. If you have read recently, the town of Hadley has decided to, they may be deciding to move its ambulance service to a private vendor. Right now, we provide a regional service to four, five communities, Hammers plus our neighboring communities. Hadley accounts for about 20% of our ambulance calls, about 1,000 calls a year. So our firefighters are out on 5,000 calls a year just for the ambulance. This will reduce that about 20%, but not quite 20% because they're gonna need us during times when they haven't really staffed up adequately. So we don't know the full impact on it. But if you looked at my budget, the first ask, if additional funds were to be available, was to have additional staffing for public safety, specifically the fire department. Thank you. Further discussion on fire EMS? Yes, all the way in the back row there with the white card. I, Pat Church, precinct five. And I'm really sad to be speaking at the last town meeting. I wanna echo the concern was just raised. I've been a town meeting member for over 20 years and we've known for 20 years that the EMS service is not, these services are not really taking care of the way they should be. We've had the firemen come to the town meeting to ask even. And we've known from many studies that this was an issue. I just think that, look at the receipts, the ambulance receipts. It's up seven percent. We didn't have seven percent more people to do them. I wish we would still have a voice where we could say that these are our concerns. Thank you. Thank you. Further discussion on fire EMS? Yes, right in the center there. Alan Powell, precinct four. On page 18 under sources of funds, ambulance receipts, year over year, it appears that there's a $5,000 difference, but what it says in parentheses there is that there's a, there's a $64,000 difference resulting in a minus 51.9% for ambulance receipts. Can somebody explain that? Why it reads is only $5,000, but it indicates 64. Yes, Ms. Aldrich. Yes, thank you. That's actually an error in the formula. The formula didn't carry over right for this year and we picked up on that. The actual amount is $5,016 added in addition. And obviously we can't come and correct all the books, but it will be corrected on the finance committee book on the website. So could you clarify which numbers are an error and maybe even what they should be? The $64,000 negative should be $5,016 in the positive and the taxation number should be 74651518. Thank you. And I see a hand there, they're grow from the back. I have another question about the. Identify yourself please. Janet McGowan, precinct eight, sorry. Can you tell me more specifically what the study said? Are we two firefighters or ambulance people short? Did they talk about actually how many positions we needed to be safe? Mr. Bachmann. Thank you. The entire report is online, so you can read it for yourself. The, what it recommended was a impact shift, I think, to implement an entire new shift and the chief can correct me if I'm wrong. I think we need 12 firefighters to do a complete, add another crew across the board 24 hours a day. So as an implementation schedule to start to migrate into that, what they had said is you could take, add two firefighters a year to get up the four firefighters and that would allow you to have an ambulance running like eight hours a day during our busiest time. And that was sort of the implementation plan to start to build up until we could get up to additional staffing, does that make sense? So in order for us to hire 12 firefighters all at once, it would be a lot of money. And so we would do this, we would implement it over time. And so we would say hire two firefighters a year over time. It's not in this year's budget, but that's how we would implement it. And so, and you need four firefighters to be able to run an ambulance for eight hours a day. Thank you. I see right there along the aisle with the white card. So, Jacqueline Maidana, precinct five. So we really have known for a long time that we need additional EMT and firefighters. Why isn't it in this budget? I talked to the EMTs four years ago and they talked about how desperate they were for some relief. So I don't understand if it's on your wish list, why isn't it in the budget? Mr. Bachmann. This year, I think as the, Mr. Steinberg said, it was a very difficult budget year primarily driven by health insurance. So we just had no room to add staff at all in the budget. And so we didn't. That's a simple answer. I'll take a little more discussion on fire EMS. Yeah, I see a hand over there. Third row back. Nope, please stand up. Thank you. You didn't know how many persons three. Actually, I'm following up on the comment that we had before about the ambulance's receipts. Many of the items in that spreadsheet are wrong. Principally in taxation, there's a $90,000 difference. There are many other numbers that are wrong in that spreadsheet. So all the numbers should be followed up. Yes, Ms. Oliver. We did notice after the report was printed that some of the formulas that carry this over from other spreadsheets was off. But this section for sources is just to give, someone must have asked a long time ago if where all the money comes from for each department and some comes from taxation, some comes from local receipts. So we made our best attempt to let you know that a portion of licenses and permits go to each department, a portion of taxation goes to each department. But it doesn't really work out that way. This is just to give you an idea of where the funds are coming from. Once time meeting votes the appropriation, that is the number, the expenses, that's the hard number. As far as the sources are concerned, these are not hard numbers until the tax rate is set. So these move around a lot on the sources, depending on what state aid comes in, depending on what receipts come in the year before. So it's just basically to give you an idea of where the funding is coming from. This is not the only amount of the ambulance funding that the town receives. Thank you. I'm gonna move on and see if there's any discussion on communication center. I see no hands, how about animal welfare? I see people pointing, but I don't see the hands. So maybe they're not pointing. Any more discussion on public safety before we come to a vote? I see no hands, we'll now come to a vote this. Wait, oh I see a hand, okay. I'm waiting for the microphone please. Actually that's not who I called on. I called on the gentleman in the front corner here. We want Mr. Hayden to get his exercise. Alan Rood precinct five. I'm disturbed, I am now 85 years old. I've had to make use of the ambulance service in the past, it was very good. However, it seems to me that if there was a need for an increase in order to bring the ambulance services up to snuff from what I'm hearing, that that would be done rather than put particularly people my age and older at possible risk at some point. What do you do if things get really tough? And yes now I see a hand, we're over there. Thank you Mr. Moderator. Maureen Adams precinct 10. I first want to thank you for giving us the resources, the income that meets the expenditures. It's very useful to see that. I want to note before I make my question that we have a superb EMS and fire department. Like Mr. Root as I've aged, they've been extremely helpful to us at home and very, very quick in getting to us. So my question is if Hadley goes its own way to develop its own EMS fire department, is there a guess about how the loss of those revenues may be balanced by the loss of those calls? Mr. Bauchman. Well thank you and I agree with you that our fire EMS is the premier fire EMS in Western Massachusetts are none. I think everybody in this room would agree with that. We staff full paramedic ambulances. That is the chief likes to say delivers an emergency room to your doorstep and it's a remarkable service. In terms of Hadley, if they go their own way that will reduce our call volume for EMS by 20% which will relieve the pressure that has previously been identified. But I should note that the growth in call volume was really has been centered in Amherst. So we're getting more calls from Amherst. So that doesn't mean we're off the hook because that call volume in Amherst is gonna continue to grow and it gives us a little bit of time to start to address the staffing challenges that we face in the fire department. In terms of revenue, we're very conservative on how we fund ambulance revenues. So we didn't project any income in essence from ambulance receipts or from Hadley. We take last year's money that we already collected and then we use that this year. So money that we collected in FY18 will be spent to support the service in FY19. We will lose the money from Hadley which is the ambulance fees plus the contract we had with them. But we have time to figure out how that can be implemented. So we have time to figure out how to replace that revenue in essence. Thank you. For the discussion on public safety, I see one hand there. Paige Wilder, Precinct 10. What percentage of calls are to the UMass dorms? Anybody prepared to answer that question? Mr. Bachmann? Chief? Well, there he is. He's here. All righty. Oh, that's better, okay. Tim Nelson, fire chief. The question was how many to the dorms each year? We don't break it down to the dorms, we just break it down to how many times we go to UMass. So generally, it's about 5% of our calls, five to eight to the 8% of our total calls. If you want to break down even more last year for the UMass, UMass was approximately a little more, more than 10% of our calls. The fire calls are much lower, so that brings down to the total percentage. Thank you. You're welcome. For the discussion on public safety before we come to a vote, I see no hands. This requires a majority. All those in favor of the motion before you on the screen, please say aye. Opposed, please say no. The ayes have it. And we now move on to public works. And I call on Ms. Ratner to make a motion. I move that the town raise and appropriate $2,355,505 for public works. Motion is made and seconded. I call on Mr. Jane to speak to the motion. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. It was recommended by the Finance Committee by a vote of six in favor, zero opposed, one absent to approve the fiscal year 19 budget for public works. The new budget of $2,355,505 represents an increase of 1.2%, or $28,871 from the previous fiscal year. The increase to the budget covers cost of living adjustments as well as salary step increases. The Department of Public Works includes the highway division, snow and ice removal, street and traffic lights, equipment maintenance, and tree and grounds care services for the town of Amherst. Thank you. Thank you. And Mr. Steinberg for the select board. The select board, as with the other motions unanimously supported this particular motion in the operating budget, there was of course some concern expressed earlier about the needs for the streets we all drove on getting here to town meeting, but that will be discussed further with the Joint Capital Planning Committee report and the capital items. Thank you. Mr. Steinberg, that was the same four to zero, one absent? Yes, as I noted earlier, all of the votes were four, zero, one absent on these budget votes. Perfect, thank you. Okay, Public Works is on page 22 of your finance committee book. This will eventually require a majority vote for passage. Is there discussion on Public Works administration? I see no hands. On highway, I see no hands. Snow and ice removal, no hands. Street and traffic lights. I see a hand right there in front row. Rob Kessner, precinct three. I drove my bicycle here, but I did have to encounter potholes. On traffic, excuse me, on street lights, it's come up in a couple of town meetings that the new LED lights, as energy efficient as they are, are somewhat less shielded. I'm just wondering if this budget includes the opportunity to do a little more shielding, or is that a capital item we're gonna have to wait decades to get taken care of? Thank you. Mr. Moering, do you care to comment on that? Killford Moering, Superintendent of Public Works. That's actually carried in the capital item, which we actually ask, now we ask every two years for money to put by shielding, extra shielding, and to have replacement lighting. We are also looking at a device that we might put on some of the lights, especially in the outlying areas, which may dim the lights. We've been looking at that. The technology has been out there for about six years to have smart lights that dim and talk back and forth to each other. We're looking at that seriously now because it looks like that technology is coming to fruition. Thank you. For the discussion on street and traffic lights. And yes, I see a hand, second row from the back there. Paige Wilder, precinct 10. Looking at the traffic light budget, about doubled from 17 to 18. And I presume that was for the installation of the LED lights. But to next year, it doesn't go down very much at all. Is that because maintenance of those lights cost as much as to install them? Mr. Moering. That actually is part of a personnel shift we did last year. We had money and we took one of the electricians. The two electricians in our department were being paid solely out of the water and sewer fund, even though they did work in the journal fund side. And last year we corrected that. We put half of the salary of one of the electricians into the traffic light fund. We didn't split it between street lights and traffic light. But that increase was the fund, half of an electrician that does that type of work. And that's why it went up and it won't really go down unless we move one of those electricians away. Thank you. Anything else on street and traffic lights? How about equipment maintenance? And treene grounds maintenance? Any further discussion on public works before we come to a vote? Yes, fourth row back to one from the aisle. Hi, Jerry Weiss, precinct eight. I don't know which section this comes under, maybe even capital. This is kind of a pet project of mine about crack sealing. We bought a very expensive machine several years ago. And I don't know how much it's being used. I don't see a lot of evidence of it, but maybe Mr. Mooring will be able to correct me on that. And I know that we also hired a company to do crack sealing. So I'm just wondering if we're getting our money's worth from that big machine and what's the story on crack sealing? Mr. Mooring. The meeting is removing it on quite nicely. So I'll stay back here and talk. So the machine was about $50,000. We bought the machine about eight years ago. We used it pretty extensively and then we started to drop off about four years ago. Last year we were catching up with our crack sealing by bringing a company in to catch up. We still use the smaller machine that we have. We use that to do small repairs around that we don't want to contract out. When a contractor comes to town and he has to jump around and do small repairs, he charges us more money. If a contractor can come in town and work a whole street and do a good day's worth of work in one area and not have to move around, he's happier and the prices are lower. So we leverage both the contractor and the machine to try to get the best we can. One of the other things we've been doing and we'll talk about more in capital is we've been doing more shimming in town because we can do a quick shim coat faster and more efficiently than the bigger contractors because like I said, they like to do longer amounts of work. So we've been pulling the crew that would normally crack seal and they've been doing more shimming and doing more permanent repairs on potholes than just potholing. So those are the kind of things we're doing right now. Thank you. For the discussion on public works. Yes, third row from the back on the aisle there. Thank you, Mr. Monterey. Louis Main's a precinct tent. I intrude here because the work of public works and maybe it belongs on the Capitol, but the discussion and the concern is almost always upon the roads, perhaps because we all know someone who drove over a pothole and neither driver nor automobile was ever seen again. But there are many of us who also walk in town and the sidewalks tend to be the step sister. I'm not criticizing the budget which takes account of this, but we do want to encourage people to engage in a walking civilization. We're putting up new five story buildings in town, more people, so I do want to encourage the public works people, the budget people to bear in mind that cracks in the sidewalk, perhaps I moved because I have a neighbor who fell, broke a hip, has had years of agony. We have roots, wonderful roots sometimes, beautiful structures, but there are menace as you walk along and a tree root intrudes upon the sidewalk. So just a word of praise for sidewalks. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Further discussion on public works? Yes, I see a hand in the back corner there. That's on Connor precinct one. I move to refer the public works department budget to back to the select board and the finance committee. Thank you. Motion has been made and seconded. You may speak to your motion. So I've read the manager's budget, which had in the public works administration a very substantial increase of a couple million dollars and did not see it carried through in the finance committee budget. I have looked at article 14 where the amount of money of 900,000 for highway road repairs is, but that's money, chapter 90 money from the state. My concern is that this budget simply does not represent an adequate amount of money to both make the roads safe and usable and our sidewalks safe and usable. We're going to be here for at least a couple more weeks. And we have done this before once with the school committee budget when we were not satisfied with one aspect of the budget and I think this is an appropriate time to say to both bodies, the select board is in charge of the roads and the public ways and we have 11,000. To 13 million dollars in the bank. We are being told that one of the main, you know, one of the first things it was talked about in terms of capital program was a replacement public works headquarters will cost the estimate is total principal and interest cost over the next 25 years of 50 to 60 million dollars. And I just, I do not understand how I mean this budget does not reflect the reality of the town's roads and sidewalks or any, it does not appear to move us even minimally forward in addressing the state of both of those public facilities. And I simply don't believe that this budget is adequate for the job. I think that if we had a useful discussion on this that both the select board and the finance committee could take it into account and come back with some revised number. But what is proposed here will not do the job and the facilities in question, the roads and sidewalks are in terrible condition. The roads particularly and what is proposed in the capital budget is simply the chapter 90 money as far as I can see. So that is the reason for my motion. And I would hope that we could have a meaningful discussion about this so that those who are responsible for the budget could come back with something more appropriate. Okay, before we continue, I need to take a moment and maybe talk with the town manager to determine if I'm going to accept that motion. The problem being once you refer something it's disposed of and I don't believe there's a mechanism to bring it back in this town meeting which would leave us with no public works budget. No, I'm not taking discussion right now, I'm just telling you my thinking. And so I may or may not accept this motion. Just talk amongst yourselves, give me a moment to talk about it and think about it. So I first want to point out to the speaker that a discussion over the money we spend on repairing roads wouldn't happen here. It would happen in the capital portion. At least that's my opinion. Hang on, this is just me talking now. And I also am pretty confident that at least now here in this town meeting once something is referred under the opinion of this moderator it cannot then be brought back to town meeting it has been disposed of. And I'm not going to accept a motion to refer an entire portion of the town budget. I feel it's in violation of our charter transition rules among other things because it's making a significant change to the town budget. It's saying you're not going to pay for these normal functions of the town. And again, I don't believe referral offers a mechanism to bring it back in this town meeting. Once something is referred it is disposed of and it can no longer be brought back. That's my ruling and I hear a point of order but if it's to argue my ruling, I'm it's going to be a tricky one. Yes, what's the point of order? Microphone please. Alan Root, president five. I would hope that when the capital section of the budget comes up and specifically that would relate to what is being discussed here that we can then discuss it. I would ask that the town manager bring our attention to that so that we can further discuss this matter. I'm sure when the capital portion comes up there will be open discussion there but I am not accepting a motion to refer an entire section of the government budget. I hear a point of order but I'll take only one or two more and then we really need to proceed. That's O'Connor precinct one. My point of order is that this is the only part of the budget where we can increase the amount proposed. We can discuss the capital budget when we come to it but the amount of money that's proposed under article 14 is limited by the amount of money that is being proposed under article 14. We simply can't add two or three million to that amount. I don't understand how that's a point of order. If you or somebody else choose to you can make a motion under public works to increase the budget but I'm not going to accept a motion to refer an entire section of the budget. Formulating the budget should not be the responsibility of anyone but those who are responsible for the public ways of the select board in consultation with the finance committee. It's not our job to propose. No, I mean that all our job is to say the budget is inadequate and we need to see something different. Okay, I am standing by my ruling that I am not going to accept a motion to refer an entire section of the budget. Is there further discussion on public works before we come to a vote? I see no hands. This recall. Well, hang on, hang on. Okay, I'm sorry, you were standing. It was hard to see. Mr. Moderator, I actually have a question which a process question which comes up a number of times so it might be helpful to clarify. One, we for example, the other night postpone discussion of certain budget items till time certain next week. This is all a single article. Is there any way that once begun, I know that I believe in past you've ruled that once a different type of article, a non-budget article comes underway, there's no way to postpone its discussion. What about a budget section? So can we, could we move this section to a later point just as we've moved libraries and schools? I don't feel from a moderator perspective that there is a difference. And I would go by the opinion that I've expressed in the past that once we've opened up discussion and begun discussion, then it is too late to postpone, we have to dispose of this article. Having just to elaborate a little bit, yes you can, before it comes up, move a section of article eight to a date and time certain, we've already done that, so you know that. Is there further discussion before we come to a vote on public works? I see no hands, it's a majority vote. All those in favor of the motion before you on the screen, please say aye. Opposed, please say no. The ayes have it. And we now move on to conservation and development. Hang on, I gotta take my little. And I call on Ms. Pavanelli to make a motion. Hello, thank you Mr. Moderator. I move that the town raise and appropriate $1,439,099 for conservation and development. Motion is made and seconded, you may speak to your motion. Conservation and development plans and manages the conservation programs that protect the environmental and natural resources in the town of Amherst. This appropriation amount represents a 1.3 increase or $18,038 from the FY18 budget. This increase is the net result of decreases in the planning department budget due to retirement of a senior planner, the subsequent replacement by an associate planner and a small CDBG grant balanced against step and contractual increases in all areas. The finance committee recommends this article to you by a vote of six zero one absent. Thank you. And Mr. Steinberg's statement for the select board. Select board recommends this motion vote of four zero one member absent. Thank you. This will require a majority vote and we are on page 23 of your finance committee book. And is there discussion on the conservation portion of the budget? I see a hand sort of near the back there. Meg Gage, precinct one, having served on the Puppers Pond Committee and having made a whole bunch of recommendations, I'm just curious what the statuses of things we might do there. I'm looking at Mr. Zomek in terms of say, it's a fragile resource because conservation and recreation which are both done there are actually and done by the same people, appreciated by the same people are actually at odds with each other. And I'm curious where we are with that plan. Mrs. Zomek. Dave Zomek, assistant town manager, director of conservation and development. Thank you for the question. Yes, I was just at Puffers Pond about two hours ago and it was very well used this afternoon. We are actively working on that plan. In fact, this summer we will be getting going on some of the pre-permitting for the dredging work that is planned in out years. We do not have funding for that yet but staff from conservation will be doing a bathymetry study, a study of the water level as well as the sediment level in Puffers Pond. As you know, there are plans for replacement of a one-way bridge with pedestrian way on the Mill Street Bridge. So I'll be working with the town manager as well as Mr. Mooring on a plan for as well as the bridge, a pedestrian way around the difficult corner. And we're hoping to look at some of the parking, some of the two-way challenges we have on State Street there as well. So the next couple of years, I think there's gonna be quite a bit of focus on Puffers Pond. I will say that we do not have all of that funding together so citizens will be hearing more about how we put that together. We're hoping we may be able to use CPA funds in the future. We'll be seeking grants as well. So we have not forgotten about Puffers Pond. It definitely needs help. Thank you. Thank you and right at the top of the aisle there. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Adriene Turizzi, Precinct Seven. I'd like to follow up the question and ask about Markets Pond and Recreation Area down in Idillic, South Amherst. Can you give us a little update on it, Mr. Zomek? Mr. Zomek. The theme is ponds tonight. A Markets Pond is a small pond off of Pond View Drive in Orchard Valley. Again, we've been collaborating with a number of citizens, residents, who are there, and we've gotten great help, again, from Mr. Moring and his staff, so conservation staff, working with DPW, who have replaced a flow structure there. The pond that wasn't for many years now is a pond. So we're doing an ADA walkway there. We're doing some trail improvements. And again, thanks to DPW and some of the tree work we did there and some of the ADA walkway work. It should be, I hope, good for the next 20 or 30 years. Further discussion on conservation? How about planning? I see no hands. Oh, there's a hand, okay. Jim Oldham, P.C. 5. I have two questions related to the note in the finance booklet. Both, it says that part of the change in the amount of the budget for planning is a reduction because half of one position is being funded out of a community development block, grant money related to the building of the path from the apartments on East Hadley Road to the South, to Graph Park in the South Center. So I have a funding question, which is whether this is just a temporary reassignment, sort of assignment of that person and allocation of their budget out of block grant money. And we would presumably see the budget shift in the other direction after a year of it or once that path is completed. And secondly, specific to the path, I'm curious to know both the timeline and the planned route. Is it primarily following and filling in the existing sidewalks or is it doing something else? And when is it anticipated to be finished? Because I know we've been talking about that for quite some time. Mrs. Omic. I think I'll take the first part of that question. And I know our planning director, Christine Brestrup, is up back. Yes, it's a very exciting project. We are using CDBG funds this year to plan and build a multi-purpose path from approximately where West Street meets East Hadley Road at the Old Mill, Westward, all the way out along the, there is an existing sidewalk there. Again, we were talking sidewalks earlier, but that sidewalk is in very rough shape. So we're gonna build a multi-purpose path there, eight to 10 feet wide to help all the residents. There are many apartment complexes there, as well as the single-family homes on the north side. So we're gonna do a pretty major improvement to that sidewalk there. And at the same time, we'll be doing the Gulf Park renovation restoration with the new spray park and playground and pavilion. So the hope is really to connect those and help all people on East Hadley Road with a multi-purpose path. That work, again, thanks in large part to Mr. Mooring and the engineering staff at DPW. We'll hopefully get going later on this summer into the early fall. So that should be well underway. Just, I'm not seeing the reference that was noted regarding the staff person, but I wanna correct something that every year we are able to use a percentage of our CDBG grant to pay for some staffing. Some of you may know that we have a senior planner who is assigned to CDBG and part of the salary in the planning department goes to that staff person, but it's not specific to that project. Every year we're able to use a percentage of the CDBG grant toward some of the administrative costs within the planning department. I'm not sure if... And Ms. Brestrup, would you also like to respond? Chris Brestrup, planning director. Yes, I wanted to clarify that we do have half of one senior planner that is funded by CDBG and we also have an administrative staff person who's 100% funded by CDBG. So we're very fortunate there. We have $825,000 worth of CDBG money, which is well spent in town doing such projects as East Hadley Road and other things. A number of years ago we paved Shumway Street as well. So we really do get a lot of work out of that CDBG money. Anything else on planning? Is that a hand raised or not? Yes, corner there. There's been a reference to the funding by Vince O'Connor, precinct one, to funding some staff people with CDBG funds. I wonder if the planning director could explain the limitations that exist with respect to CDBG. How much can be used for staffing? How much can be used for human services? And then how much has to be used for sort of hard projects? Ms. Brestrup, if you care to, you can respond. I think Mr. Zomek may be more familiar with the percentage that is available for administrative use. I think it's somewhere around 18% of CDBG funds. Does that sound right, Mr. Zomek? Mr. Zomek? I believe the maximum is 18%. We often do not budget to the maximum, so we put more money into both social service funding as well as capital projects. I don't know, honestly, this year's percentage, but in years past, we've budgeted less than what is allowed by the CDBG program. Thank you. We're gonna jump on to inspection services, and I see a hand on the aisle there. I hold a green bomb precinct one, and I would like to ask about the impact on the expenses and the income on this budget for the rental registration program. Perhaps there are fewer cars being packed on the lawn, but I see some houses that have currently in worse repair than they were before we implemented this law. So I'd like to know how the enforcement of the rental registration is and how that money that we're all paying through the nose is being expended. Yes, I see a gentleman in the back who wishes to be recognized. Yes, Mr. Moore. Rob Moore, building commissioner. The rental registration program is functioning well. Several years later from its start in 2011, we have approximately 1,300 registered properties or registered properties at this moment. We do respond by complaint only. The program is based on a self-certification of the condition of the properties by the landlord, and we are there available for complaints by tenants, neighbors, landlords themselves often complain about the conditions of the property, and we respond to those. Thank you. Further discussion on anything in the concert innovation and development budget? I see no hands. We will come to a vote on the motion on the screen. This requires a majority. All in favor of the motion on the screen, please say aye. All opposed, please say no. Moderator, here's the majority. And we now move on to community services. And I call on Mr. Neal to make a motion. I move that the town raise and appropriate 1,748,486 dollars for community services. Second. Motion has been made and seconded. You may speak to your motion. I reference pages 24 and 25 in the Finance Committee report. Essentially, the summary of this department, there were several staffing retirements and some restructuring in an apartment, and a funding change in social services, which is outlined on page 25. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Steinberg for the select board. Select board unanimously supports this motion, vote of 401 member absent. Thank you. This will require a majority vote. I now call on Jennifer McKenna, who wishes to make a motion. My name is Jenny McKenna. I live in precinct eight. I moved here in 1980. I raised my kids here and my grandchildren. I'm sorry. You need to identify yourself and then make your motion. Just identify myself. Yeah, just name in precinct and then make a motion. Okay. I'm Jenny McKenna from precinct eight. I move that we amend the community service budget by increasing it by $60,000, bringing the total to 1,808,486 dollars with the intent to target youth services. This number equals approximately 0.0. I'm sorry. Your motion is read just the motion that you gave me. Okay. Which is I move and it ends with the money amounts. I hope you guys really like this motion. Pardon me. I hope they like it. I move that we amend the community services budget. No, I move to raise the community services budget. You want to read what you gave me? Yeah. I move to raise the community service budget by $60,000, which would bring the total to 1,808,486 dollars. Good job. Let me have my sheet back. Now you may speak to your motion. You have five minutes. Okay. As a body, we have often discussed the question of the appropriateness of having significant social services in the town budget. One thought is to rely on community development grant money for these services. Then the question arises, if these grants should provide or supplement the community service. Well, I'm extremely thankful for this money. I don't believe it is enough money, nor do I think it is adequately flexible. For instance, it restricts us to five grants. This year, while some of the programming will support children, and we have included LSSE subsidies elsewhere in the budget, there were no grants chosen that target youth programming specifically. In the town community development plan, which we submit to CDBG to qualify, youth development is listed as a town priority. I believe it is a town priority, hence the amendment to close this gap. It feels crucial to me that the budget reflect our community values. The specific values I see reflected here include, but are not limited to, respect for the efforts and wisdom of the people charged with creating the budget, the importance of upholding our financial responsibilities, the protection and nurturing of our children. This year, as we pass the baton to a new form of government, it seems more important than ever that our budget accurately represents our values and intentions. While I know that this body has no influence over line items, I believe that adding resources to this budget increases the opportunity for the town to consider partially funding the two grants that the CDBG committee was unable to include. While $60,000 can't fully fund the two proposals, one to big brothers and big sisters of Hampshire County and the other to the Boys and Girls Club, it seemed at once modest enough for the people who aren't eager to see the town providing social service support, yet generous enough to protect these vile services. A disclaimer, I know more about the big brothers, big sisters budget, because I've been their volunteer clinical consultant for 20 something years. These funds are precious and necessary to these agencies. They translate into actual children served. The funds are targeted in the big brothers, big sisters grant are targeted to Amherst kids directly, not the whole county, although it's a countywide program. This year, they applied for 40,000 to match 25 new never before matched children in the program and to provide ongoing case management support for 75 existing matches. We currently have nearly 200 children on our countywide wait list and about 40% or 80 of those children are from Amherst. The thing we hate most in the program is when people age out of the wait list. While people at big brothers, big sisters are at work trying to find alternative sources of revenue, if they don't close the gap, they will have to reduce staff hours and match fewer children overall next year. This is not the time to be withdrawing support from our young people in evidence-based prevention programs like big brothers, big sisters. I hope you'll vote to support this amendment. Thank you. I wanna talk a little bit about process here. First of all, we now have two different money amounts before us for the community services budget, 1,80846 and 1,748486. The way town meeting rules work with the budget is when we finally come to a vote, we will first vote on the larger amount. If it passes, we're done and we've disposed of this motion under the article. If it fails, we then drop down and have a vote on the lower amount. As Ms. McKenna alluded to, technically all we can vote on is the bottom line. We're not really voting on a line item. However, her intentions are fairly clear that she hopes the extra money if it's passed will go towards social services. And from my understanding, that's always been the case that the town manager has followed the recommendations. What I'd like to do now is actually first, make sure we just go through the other line items besides social services, just to see if anybody has any comments or questions on those. We'll just take a couple. And then when we're all done with everything else, then we'll talk about social services and the discussion can include your feelings for or against the extra money. Reasons is a good idea, reasons is a bad idea. And then eventually we'll come to a vote, as I said, on the larger amount and then the smaller amount. Everybody with me, everyone understand what we're doing? Good. In that case, any discussion on the public health line item in the community services budget? I see a hand. I can't see from here any card associated with that hand. It's not white. Do you want white? There you go. I see a white card. Okay, second row there. Gordon Fried precinct six. In public health, is there any expectation that the marijuana will affect this budget? Anybody care to comment on that? Yes, go ahead. This is only part of an answer, but we expect revenues to come to the town because we have as town meeting pass the 3% surcharge and then up to 3% of revenue in our host agreements that we've been implementing, but there is no revenue yet and there is a number of possible uses for those revenues directly related to enforcement, education and public health. So I think once there's a pot of money, I expect that departments and other service providers would be seeking the use of some of those funds, but we're kind of, it's not happening yet. Thank you. I hear a point of order. Wait for a microphone please. Maria Kapiki precinct eight. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall hearing the statements from the finance committee and the select board on the motion for this. I could be wrong, but an alternative motion was made. When do we hear from them? I'm sure we will once we get to the discussion on social services, but typically when an amended motion is made, I don't automatically call on them. I wait till the discussion opens and see if there's a hand. So I expect there will be a hand but I expect they're waiting until we get into the discussion of social services. They did comment on the main motion, but when an amended motion is made, I don't automatically call on the other boards until we get into the discussion. Mr. Neal? Yeah, I did comment on the main other and the finance committee voted 6-0 with one absent if I neglected to mention the vote. Yes, so any more discussion on public health? How about senior center? I see no hands. Veteran services? I see no hands. Leisure services and supplemental education? Yes, I see a white card there. Janet McGowan, precinct eight, trying to stand. I have a question. A bunch of years ago we added money as town meeting to the social services budget to fund summer camps for low income kids for LSSC summer camps. Is that now part of the budget permanently, this part of the budget? Or is it, was that just a one time thing? Mr. Bachmann? There's $105,000 that is incorporated into the budget from that action by town meeting previously. Yes, so the answer is yes. Any other discussion on LSSC? I see a hand in the corner there, right here, front room. Eleve Rood, precinct five. And listening to the speaker with the substitute motion, I am very much inclined to be very supportive of it. Hang on, excuse me, Mr. Rood, we're not yet talking about social services, okay? We're holding off on that until after we allow for some discussion on the other line items. So you can raise your hand again once we get into the social services discussion. Anything else for discussion on LSSC? Any discussion on pools? Any discussion on golf course? Okay. And now, any discussion on social services? And if either the select board or the finance committee want to comment on the amended motion, I would look to them now and then look to the body. So Mr. Steinberg? So the select board was not aware of the motion at the time that we voted and actually did not know about it when we had our meeting earlier this evening prior, that started prior to the session of town meeting. But I will make a couple of observations. One is that I reported on how difficult the budget process was this year and how many difficult decisions had to be made along the way. And the amount that was supported by the select board was the amount that is in the original motion by the finance committee. So we haven't specifically voted on the question of a higher amount, but I would also point out in regard to substantial discussion that happened earlier this evening when we were talking about public safety, that the town manager had indicated that if there was additional money to spend, that the highest priority needed to be for increases in firefighter and paramedical staffing. And the select board is very supportive of that as a policy statement. And I would just say, I guess as an individual, since I can't speak for the select board, just encourage you to consider that matter. Thank you. Okay, we are open up to discussion on social services in general, the pros and cons of the amended motion as well. So again, if you wanna speak for, against the amended motion, you should hold up a red or green card if you just have general comments, white card. And I see a card right in the aisle right there. Pat DiAngelo's precinct six. I just have a question on the one time appropriation to target the Latino community for assistance with food resources. I'm interested in why that's not being requested in the FY19 budget. Is the community's problem solved or? Mr. Bachmann. Thank you. We just signed a contract a couple of weeks ago with the survival center to provide that service for the $60,000. So that work really hasn't begun yet. And so that work can last into next fiscal year. So that work will be followed up. That need was identified by our social services group as being the highest need facing the community at this moment in time. For the discussion before we come to a vote. Yes, second in from the aisle in the background. Yes, Hank Vandenberg precinct four. I was hoping I would get a little bit of explanation and perhaps some insight into that first line of public health. It seems to be on a rather drastic decline over the past five years. It's wondering if you could explain that from almost 300,000 back in fiscal 15 down to 117,000 now in fiscal 19. Could we get some insight as to what's going on there and what was cut or what was moved? Thank you. Ms. Aldrich. If you recall the last few years we've been migrating staff from the health department over to the inspection services to be more centralized. All of the health inspectors were moved there and their salaries went and the last body to move there was the administrative assistant. I'm not sure if it happened last year or the year before. So that's the larger part of the decline. The decline this year is, as I mentioned with article four we had savings and community services to move into general government to cover the health insurance deficit and that was voluntary decrease in hours from the health director. She went from 37 and a half to 30 hours. Thank you. For the discussion. Yeah, third in from the aisle there. Jerry Weiss, precinct, there doesn't seem to be a lot of discussion about the amendment to raise the amount. I just wanna point out that due to our fine fiscal managers in our town we have, I believe, increased our reserves by over a million dollars a year for the past eight years. And I applaud that and at the same time we have to weigh that kind of increase against the needs of the community and $60,000 represents a tiny amount of that surplus that we seem to be getting pretty commonly good at a million or more a year. 60,000 is a tiny amount. And I realize that the policy is to grow our reserves and we are still doing it and we would still do it without the 60,000. Thank you. Mr. Bachmann. Thank you. I think everybody wants to do something like this but there are many compelling needs when we go through the budget process where they're weighed against each other in terms of what we can afford and what we want. I would like to mention, make sure people understand that if this is approved it doesn't mean that it will go to the two agencies that didn't get funding because that's not the way it works. We're not allowed to do that. It's illegal to actually say we're gonna give it money. The town meeting isn't allowed to say we're gonna give it to this agency. That's not permitted by law. But what we would do is we would again identify a need, seek an RFP and have agencies or whoever, however we're going to spend it, I don't know. This is new to us so we haven't this year. We haven't decided we'd have to have the conversation among staff in terms of where the need is. But just to be clear, we can't just say, oh, we didn't fund these two agencies under CDBG so now we can, we can't do that that way. Thank you. I see a hand over there against the wall. Jim Oldham, precinct five. I absolutely appreciate the manager's points about the thought that goes into the budgets and the competing needs. I want to call town meetings attention to the fact that we have a long history of supporting community services out of our own budget, not just relying on the federal government to take care of need in our town. We have a long precedent of that and sadly we have a history of constantly seeing that money taken out of the budget in subsequent years process. I made the motion a year ago to add 60,000. It was not my intention and I'm sure I spoke more or less what I'm saying today that we should have an ongoing commitment to do so. And so the comment found in the finance committee book that says it was a one-time thing was certainly not my intention. I can't speak for everyone else in this body who voted for it and this wasn't the first year, last year wasn't the first year that town meeting put back a small amount for social services that had been in previous years and then didn't appear in subsequent years. So there's been a regular statement by the legislative body over going back 20, 30 years that we have a commitment to the children of the town, to those who have low incomes, to those who make use of these services to put some of this money in. So the question to my mind shouldn't be now, is this the highest priority that got left out, the highest priority of what we could do with the next dollar? The real question is why was this priority that many of us believe is important? The town meeting has on multiple occasions by sizable majorities voted in favor of, why is this priority being zeroed out over and over again? And I hope that we will vote in favor of this amount that as Mr. Weiss has pointed out is insignificant relative to the surpluses and frankly it's within the error bar of the budget that we're going to have. If there is, I certainly would not put this against the need for additional firefighter or an emergency workers and would welcome a chance to reconsider that line item if given it because that also I believe would fit within, is a higher priority than adding another million to our surplus. Thank you. They're further discussion. Yes, all the way against the aisle over there with the white card. I hear a point of order, can we get a microphone there? Is your point of order that I told you I would call on you? I'll call on you next, I promise. I'm just, Lisa Berry precinct too. I'm wondering if we say yes to the 60,000, where would that come out of? Can you, I understand that it's unclear where it would go into, but I'm wondering if you can identify where that would come out of. Ms. Aldrich. We'd have to come from free cash. Is there further discussion? Mr. Root, this is where you're supposed to raise your hand. Yes, corner right there. Helen Root, precinct five. I can't help but think that if the children who would benefit from this $60,000 range right down here in front of you asking for your help for that $60,000 bucks, all right? They're in bed now that you would refuse them. It isn't a big sum of money. It honestly is not a big sum of money. Come on, we're not ready for the poor house yet. You've already gone through the amount of money that we have in reserve and so on. But let's not forget our children. Thank you. Are we ready to come to a vote? Yes, way in the back there, the green card. Hi, I'm Marla Jemait from precinct seven and I would just urge people to vote in favor of this amendment. You know, as a parent of two children, I hear quite a bit about what is happening among kids and in our community and I think kids are quite stressed these days as a result of many factors, including threats of gun violence, the need to participate at school in lockdown drills. We are introducing a new sort of unknown factor into this community with recreational marijuana and it will be awhile before we have revenues from that which could go towards programs that are protective or beneficial to children. So given that this is an opportunity to perhaps come to the aid of some children in this town through hopefully agencies that are expert in mentoring of kids and connecting them with positive influences, I think it's really important that we go ahead and take whatever steps we can. A great many changes are afloat here in Amherst and we don't really know what the future holds for social services and I think that it's important that we take the opportunity that's before us now. Thank you. Yes, third row back with the white card. Diana Stein, precinct nine. Could you inform us as to the amount of money in free cash and the amount of money in the stabilization fund? Thank you. And maybe what percent we are supposed to have in there at this time? Ms. Aldrich. Right now we have 1.8 million in free cash because we had just made a couple votes, a vote from free cash last Monday night and our stabilization fund and we have 9 million. Thank you. Right in the second row there with the green card. Carol Gray precinct seven. So I was just looking in the finance committee book and it says, as of July 1, 2018, the beginning of the current fiscal year, Amherst certified free cash was 5,162,239. Stabilization fund was 7,595,350. Total reserves over 12 million. I urge you to support this and I agree with Jim Oldham that this shouldn't be a discussion that we have to have every year and the new town council shouldn't have to have this discussion every year. I was in town meeting 10 years ago where we were giving double, actually I think it was close to triple the amount and little by little it got cut and why do we choose to cut the programs that are helping the neediest in our community? Why are we cutting those at all but let alone one of the first things? Is that, that's not our value system. Particularly in this era where Trump and his policies are crushing the immigrant community, crushing a lot of programs that are in dire need. This is where we should be doubling or tripling what we're giving but instead the proposal is to give exactly what we gave last year. This is a modest amount. We should make a statement about what our values are and this is, I remember a couple of years ago the proposal was to cut three librarians, no sorry, four part-time librarians. It was gonna save 30,000. We put the money back and I watched the next fiscal cycle to see how much was left over from that budget. It was over a million dollars left over from that budget year. So every year we put a million or close to it back into reserves. It's left over. It's the free cash at the end of the year. We can afford this and we should make money for this. This is where our priority should be particularly in these Trump years. This is absolutely where we should put our money. It's a modest amount. Please vote yes. And this will be the last time you get to vote yes to give money for community services. And we better hold the line when we get a new town council and make sure that they understand our community cares about poor people. Are we ready to come to a vote? Anybody who's raising their hand for something other than calling the question, keep your hand up. Okay, yes on the aisle right there. Hail to Green Bomb Precinct One. Other years we used to get a report from a committee that accepted applications from various nonprofit organizations applying for funds. I have not seen such a report this year. So I would like to know who applied for money this year and how much are we giving to other organizations in addition to the 60,000 or is the 60,000 the bottom line? Anybody care to respond to that? Mr. Bachman. So that is the CDBG funds and we do appropriate the maximum allowed for under social services. I don't have the amount in front of me. It's on our website for sure. And the entire, there's a whole CDBG page that shows who applied, who got funded and things like that. Are we ready to come to a vote? I see no hands. So we will now be voting on the larger amount which is 1,808,486. It requires a majority vote. If it passes, then we are done. If it fails, we would then vote on the lower amount. All those in favor of the larger amount under the community services budget, please say aye. Opposed, please say no. Moderator, here's a majority. Did somebody say they want an electronic vote? Okay, we will have an electronic vote. And your voting window is open, you may vote. Motion is passed, 108 yes, 24 no, nine abstain. We are going, I have a little misgiving about this. We're going to have a five minute break but everybody has to promise to come right back to your seats. We have more work to do tonight. So let's have a quick break and get back here and ready to go in five minutes. We are now picking up where we left off with the debt service portion of article eight. I call on Mr. Sharma to make a motion. Mr. Sharma, please make a motion under debt service. I moved to the town appropriate $2,187,844 for the payment of the town's general fund indebtedness. And to meet such appropriation, $1,867,001 be raised by taxation and $320,843 be appropriated and transferred from the community preservation fund annual revenues. Motion has been made and seconded. You may speak to your motion. The finance committee report details provide some details on page 26. So I can just highlight a few things which is that our total debt service projected for FY19 is 85% funded by two taxes and the rest about 14.7% funded through the CPA. I would also like to point out that the town has a total debt capacity of 111 million dollars, which is that we can in theory be able to borrow that much, although currently we only have about $16 million committed which means our debt situation is pretty good. Thank you. Thank you. I call on Mr. Steinberg for the select board. Select board unanimously supported in a vote of four zero with one member absent to recommend this to you and just wanna point out to you in addition that we're legally obligated to pay this money and we plead with you to let us do so. Thank you. This requires a majority vote. Page 26 of the finance committee has the line item details. I'm not gonna go through this line by line. Instead, I'm gonna just open it up to general discussion if there is any. Is there discussion from the floor before we pay the money that we owe? I see no hands. We will now come to immediate vote. This requires a majority. All those in favor of the motion before you under the debt service portion of article eight, please say aye. Opposed, please say no. Unanimous vote. We move on to the sewer fund and I call on Mr. Sharma to make a motion. I move that the town appropriate $4,177,666 for the sewer fund and that to meet such appropriation $4,085,298 be made available from sewer fund revenues of the current year and $92,376 be transferred from the sewer fund retained earnings. Motion has been made and seconded. You may speak your motion. The finance committee's report, page 27, has the details about this sewer fund. The sewer fund is actually an operating budget. So the main thing to point here is that the finance committee voted 601 absent and to recommend this. Thank you. And Mr. Steinberg for the select board. Yes, the select board voted again for zero and member absent to recommend this to you. This is the first of our enterprise fund budgets that we'll be discussing tonight and those are kind of freestanding revenue coming from sewer fees and the enterprise fund is essentially a business run by the town. It's a little bit different from the earlier budgets that we were voting in that regard. Thank you. This will require a majority vote for passage. Details are on the finance committee booklet, page 27. I'm not gonna go through line items, just open this up for discussion. Is there discussion on sewer fund before we come to a vote? And I see a hand there with a white card. Rudy Perkins, precinct two. If memory serves, there was a study a couple years ago about the possibility of biogas generation at a facility to be built near our water treatment plant, if I'm remembering right. And I'm wondered if any, I don't think that was done by the town, but I'm wondering if we've explored that possibility further to find another way to generate renewable energy. And thank you. Mr. Mooring. Gilford Mooring, superintendent. We have, that study was done. It went to the state did it. It did not come out very feasible for UMass to do it. It is being done supposedly at one of the penitentiaries that are closer on the eastern part of the state. We haven't delved into it any more than that because we're still waiting for our final permit to come out soon. Our nitrogen and phosphorus loadings may be a bigger issue for us to deal with than what to do with sludge and how to deal with electrical issues at this time. Thank you. For the discussion on sewer fund. I see no hands. Oh, I see a hand. Yes. Van Caner, precinct two. I just, I've been out of politics for a long time. So I just, I'd like some information about the sewer fund. Just how much is contributed through betterment funds or whether the income from just the services fee is enough to cover. For instance, Amherst Woods recently was sued. I'm just curious what the percentage is from betterment. Mr. Mooring. That's zero. The sewer fund is funded out of fees for services supplied. We do not charge a betterment fee for extending sewer to a neighborhood. There is a connection fee and there's a fee for larger developments such as some of these larger buildings that are going in. Their connection fee is based on the units and the residential's are based on a flat fee of either $1,000 or $2,000. Thank you. Further discussion before we come to a vote on sewer fund? I see no hands. This requires a majority. All those in favor of the motion before you on the screen, please hang on. Oh, there it is. All those in favor of the motion on the screen, please say aye. Opposed, please say no. Passes unanimously. We now move on to water fund and I call on Mr. Sharma to make a motion. I move that the town appropriate $3,996,578 for the water fund and to meet such appropriation, $3,996,578 be made available from the water fund revenues of the current year. Motion's been made and seconded. You may speak to your motion. The finance committee recommended to vote this, recommended to vote to this article with a 601 absent vote. The detailed information about this fund again is on page 28 of the finance committee report. Like the other enterprise funds, this is really an operating budget for the year. The one thing I will point out from this is that there is an allocation from this fund to the OPEB and projected for FY19 is $79,000. Thank you, Mr. Steinberg for the select board. The select board again unanimously recommends this to you, 401 member absent. Thank you. This requires a majority vote. Finance committee details are on page 28. Is there discussion of water fund before we come to a vote? I see no hands. We will now come to a vote. All those in favor of the motion before you on the screen for the water fund, please say aye. Opposed, please say no. The ayes have it unanimously. We're now up to the solid waste fund. I call on Mr. Sharma to make a motion. I move that the town appropriate $487,270 for the solid-based fund and to meet such appropriation, $487,270 being made available from solid-based fund revenues of the current year. Motion's been made. And seconded, you may speak to your motion. The finance committee recommended this article with a vote of 6-0 with one absent. The more information about this on page 29 of the finance committee report. The one thing to, there's a lot of data on that page. The one thing I can kind of highlight in this is that there were no change in FTE. It's a fairly small fund. And there was an increase of 3.7% from FY18. Thank you, Mr. Steinberg for the select board. Again, the select board unanimously recommends this motion to you, a 401 member absent. And this also requires a majority. And is there discussion on the floor before we come to a vote? I see a hand in the back row there. Pat Church, precinct five. I understand that there's a drastic reduction in reimbursement for many of our recyclables. And I'm wondering if that's been an issue in terms of your planning for next year. Mr. Moran. Thank you again. There has been a reduction in the market. Bottles and cans, we actually pay to get rid of those now. If you bring bottles and cans to the transfer station, that's sort of a no, doesn't make any money. The paper has been up and down. We as a community have stayed with single stream recycling. So not single stream, dual stream recycling, so that we have a paper pile and a bottles and can pile. Our paper is a much higher quality and we're actually able to sell it on the open market. It actually goes to Sonoco and Holyoke and we get a much better return on that when we do for mixed paper, if you were actually to do single stream, which many of the communities around us are doing. So we've modified a bit because some things have dropped and we get a better price for other things. The paper actually does pay for the bottles and cans, which is very nice. So we do make a little money, but not as much as we used to and we do cover all our expenses in the recycling side. Thank you. For the discussion on solid waste fund, I see no hands who will come to a vote. Motion is before us. All those in favor of the motion on the screen for a solid waste fund, please say aye. Opposed please say no. Moderator hears unanimous vote. In just a second I need to get a piece of paper out of here. We now move on to the transportation fund and I call on Mr. Sharma to make a motion. So this is the last of the four enterprise funds, which almost in reporting they kind of hang together. Oh, I'm sorry. I move that the town appropriate $819,121 for the transportation fund and to meet such appropriation, $819,121 be made available from the transportation fund revenues of the current year. Motion's been made and seconded. You may speak to your motion. So as I started saying earlier, this is the last of the four funds. The details about this fund, it's again an operating budget for the transportation related issues. The details are on page 30 of the finance committee report. Thank you. I call on Mr. Steinberg for the select board. Again, the select board recommends this budget to you on a vote of four, zero, one member absent. Thank you. This required a majority vote. And now I have before me somebody who wishes to make an amended motion. Mr. Kussner? Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Rob Kussner, precinct three. Did the motion make it up there? I wrote it out quickly and I want to recite it according to what's written. Miss, can we imply that to meet such appropriation? We would also add that amount of money to that. I mean, this is kind of an incomplete motion. Yeah, I realized I was running out of space to write and in fact... Yeah, which isn't doing anybody here a favor, to be perfectly honest. So do you want to take a minute and give us a motion that's complete? Well, the completion of the motion is and to raise such funds from the free cash in the transportation fund budget, which is indicated in your finance committee book on page 30 to amount to nearly $91,078 as of the beginning of the last fiscal year, of the current fiscal year. I'm not sure on the validity of the wording of your motion. Hang on. Cheryl, take a point of order while we ponder this. Well, doesn't he have to put the 869, 121 that the 819 has to be raised to 869, 121? Well, he's moving to raise it by 50,000 and really wants, I don't know the correct wording, but to take the additional funding from free cash. So he's proposing 819, 121 be made from transportation fund revenues and 50,000 from free cash. So we don't have to raise the total to 869? I'm not sure. Mr. Bachmann, do you have a comment on what a valid motion might be? I believe what the petitioner would like is to have the funds coming from the free cash transportation fund retained earnings, which is the free cash in essence just for the transportation fund. Yeah, if I may say, I'm using the language that was in the finance committee book. If the town manager has the correct language, I defer to him. Okay. Sorry. So Mr. Bachmann, does that look correct on the screen now? Yes. Okay. So Mr. Bachmann has been seconded. Seconded. And you may speak to your motion. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Modder. Thank you. I hesitated to do this. I asked a couple people in the back who I thought would be in some sense opposite sides of the coin to weigh in on this. That coin is a 25 cent coin every time you ride a PBTA bus. As you may know, for many years, the regional transit authorities, those are the authorities including the PBTA, but several others outside of the MBTA, which serves the Boston metro area. These transportation services have been backfunded. This year, again, their budget is extremely low. They're approximately eight million short in the governor's budget this year. And as the chair of the select board, I believe represents us, the PBTA knows the PBTA is slated on a 20% fare increase on all the buses. Amherst buses are fare free, so we won't see that increase directly. However, the number of the cuts that are also proposed to the PBTA will affect us in this area, particularly in summer months and on weekends when the university is off season. And so this is obviously again not, it can't be directed precisely to the public transit services. It's part of the bottom line of the budget. But I would hope that adding this buffer, which basically brings this coming fiscal year's budget back to the level that we had last year, would give us some flexibility to avoid the deepest service cuts. Obviously the university pays a great deal of, the university and the five colleges pay a great deal for the local services, but this is an attempt to at least provide some buffer in the event that the legislature, the state legislature doesn't raise the amount that the governor has proposed. And it looks like we'll be coming down to us in a very severe combination of service cuts and steep fare increases for people outside of Amherst. So I hope you'll support this, but it's something that I hope you'll debate and think about. Thank you. Process wise, again, we'll be voting on the larger amount first and then the original amount in the finance committee motion. And I'm opening to discussion. I call on Mr. Slaughter and the select board. So as Mr. Kester pointed out, I do serve on the PVTA advisory board and also serve on their finance and audit committee for our community. I would recommend against this personally, but we select more of obviously not taking a position on this seeing as the motion was just made. The rate increases actually do affect us a little bit. My enlarge the line share of the buses are during the school year, they don't charge a fare when you get on the bus, although in non-school times, they are supposed to charge fare. And those fares are going up. That's the first fare increase on PVTA buses since 2007. So they discussed a fare increase in 2012 and then decided against it. Fares amount for about 15% of the total revenue in the PVTA's operating budget. I think the difficulty with this proposal of $50,000 is that we pay relative to our partners, the five colleges incorporated and the university, a relatively small portion of our total assessment, which is based on the number of miles driven by the buses within our community. So this would not replace or restore very much service, relative to the total cost that's incurred. And I do know that the other two entities are funding their budgets and are constrained in ways like we are. The other problem with taking $50,000 from the transportation free cash, that's essentially the balance of money that is held by that fund, just like the other funds. So like in the water fund and the sewer fund, they use that sometimes for operating those services, but also to do the capital improvements that are necessary in the transportation fund. That is also true. We use that to fund capital projects related to parking meters, parking lots, and the like. And so when we are going to do the North Common and rework the North End of the North Common and it's parking area, some of the transportation fund free cash will be ultimately utilized for that. So we don't wanna deplete that too much in a one-time use for operating services when we may need it for capital programs in the future. Again, the PVTA voted some service changes for the summer. And yes, they do affect us and do affect a number of things in our community. However, we did delay implementation of those until September, so we will hold off on those changes, most of which would have taken effect in late June, but those changes won't take effect until September. And part of the reasoning behind that was in the hope that the legislature would raise the amount appropriated for the regional transit authorities. The governor's budget was flat from actually below last year's by a small amount, and that particularly hurts the PVTA. The House and Senate are still working on their budgets, and I believe the House budget had an additional chunk of money. There are some other discussions about other ways in which funding might be provided to the regional transit authorities in a little different mechanism than is usually the case. So I think it's still to be determined what the actual funding for the RTAs is going to be. So I think this, while well-intentioned, I think it may put us in a situation where we have a surplus in our budget that then we would wanna roll back into our free cash, which would be okay, but at the same time may not be necessary at this point in time and may constrain us in ways that we would not prefer in the fiscal year 19. Thank you. Further discussion? Yes, I see multiple colors being waved down there. Paul Wright precinct seven. I'm looking at the budget on the website, the manager's budget, and the manager's budget on the website actually has the appropriation that's equivalent to this. There's a difference between the capital program on the website, it's listed as being $110,000, and on the paper copy in front of us, it's listed as being $60,000. And I was wondering if there's an explanation for the difference between those two numbers. Ms. Aldrich. When we were putting the budget together for the transportation fund, we had intended to fund some of the capital improvement that's being bonded for in an article later on during this meeting. And we were using new revenues that we were expecting from the meter replacement and the violation increases. However, we are unsure of that revenue, so we thought it wise to back that out. Yes, fourth row back, third from the aisle there. Erica, Zika's precinct eight. I'm just curious why two of the four enterprise funds are allocating money to the OPEB trust fund into or not, or if it's just baked in somewhere else. Anybody care to comment on that? Ms. Aldrich. The solid waste fund hasn't generated enough revenue in order to do that in the past few years. Transportation fund, it does, I just gotta find it. Thank you. See a green card way over there. Morian Adams precinct 10. Actually, I have a green card and a white card because I have a comment and a question. The comment is I happen to know a number of people who use this bus service. Many of them are people who live, who are not people of means or their children who use the bus to come from outlying towns into Amherst to work at UMass or to work at other places in town and are deeply worried about the cuts because they don't know how they'll get to work. It's also the case that people who live in town use the bus to go to jobs in other towns. And so although some of the cuts may not directly affect internal Amherst, it does deeply affect Amherst residents who are not people of means or people who simply don't wish to drive to use the bus to get to Northampton, to get to Holyoke, to get to other places. So this is an issue where since we have urged people to walk, use bicycles or ride the buses, it seems particularly inopportune to participate in the cut of services. Now my question is, I don't know whether this 50,000 is needed as a bridge fund until things are solved in another year or as a put it in our pocket fund until we hear from the state or hear from other entities who would make up the difference. And so I don't know whether it's best to urge that we vote for this so that the money is there to serve the needs that I've mentioned or whether we would want a friendly amendment to say that we raise that 50,000 if we find we need it. So that's really a question to you, Mr. Moderator. Yeah, I think you either move to raise it or you don't. We allocate the money or we don't. We can't allocate if we need it. I wouldn't accept, no. Anybody care to respond to the question portion of that? No requirement to respond. Possibly that was the question reportion and I did respond, so we'll move on. Okay, further discussion on the aisle there with the red card. Jeff Blouse, time precinct six. I'm voting against this for the same reason that I nearly, if not always vote against increases in budget that come on the floor of town meeting. The budget has worked out over months, largely by the select board. And I think there's a time and a place when these things should be added to it. 50,000 here, 60,000 there, and suddenly we have a budget that's totally out of whack. So I'm definitely voting against this. Further discussion. Yan, the back corner there. Vince O'Connor, precinct one. So I support this because, as a matter of fact, because this is a transfer, this is a enterprise fund with its own reserves. It's not going to affect taxation. If the money is not needed because the legislature, I mean, I went to the hearing, the legislative hearing at the old chapel when the transportation, joint transportation committee of the legislature heard this matter. And the governor's budget was indeed $8 million short, which translates to a $3 million shortfall or plus shortfall for Western Mass. I tried to access the information about each of the routes. They, the PVTA website had the information about what services were going to be cut, but it does not have the information about what the cost of each or what the savings would be accomplished for each cut. In fact, they have, they show the service cuts by town. And so I think this is, in the absence of a final legislative determination, I think this is a wise course of action. We will not affect, we will not be taking money out of free cash to do this. We'll be taking it out of the transportation funds, free cash, if it's needed. But hopefully it will not be. And hopefully it might spur our legislators and others to put into at least one, either the House or the Senate budget, a sufficient amount of money to fund the regional transportation agencies, which the governor might veto, but the legislature has an absolutely outstanding record of overriding the governor's vetoes. And I think in this case, if we can get the money into the state budget, the governor's and the governor vetoes it, that veto will be overridden. But I do think we owe it to the folks. We have folks here in town who as a previous speaker or spoke of need the bus service. There is another category of people, people who cannot qualify for driver's license, whose children attend our schools, and who need to be able to shop and do other things and cannot drive and cannot own cars. And I would really urge this town meeting to make a wise decision to put a buffer fund in there, which will obviously will not be expended if it's not needed. And I think one of the things we ought to do when we leave this room is to call our state legislators and really ask them to put this at the top of their agenda. Mr. Slaughter. So I'd like to concur with that last sentiment of the last speaker, because I do think that's where we have the highest leverages to talk to our representatives in the legislature and get anybody you know to talk to their representatives in the legislature, because I think that's where we make a material effect. I think the difficulty we have with a $50,000 increase is that it will not have a sufficient effect, even in our own community, I think, to really make much change in bus service in our community. And here's one of the reasons why I say that. So for example, the previous speaker mentioned that you couldn't find a sort of per route cost. And the reason why is because they take those as an integrated whole with all the routes across all of the service area. They generally break it into Northern and Southern, Northern being the North Hampton, Emmer's sort of end of things, and the Southern being more the Holyoke, Chickpea, Springfield area. But they tend to knit those routes together and schedule drivers and try to economize the use as best they can by doing a holistic analysis of the entirety of the service. And so they can do the analysis on a single route, but if you do it that way, it takes the savings you get by a particular add or subtract to a single route. You don't get the effect of the integration of all the routes. And so you don't get as good an effect with regard to economizing in that way. And so they start with looking at individual routes to get a sense of the size of the problem and the number of things they would have to change in order to create a balanced budget. But then they work in an integrated whole to actually figure out the smallest amount of service cuts they can make and still operate within their revenues. So I'm not sure the 50,000 would have a material effect on adding much service back in our community because the way those routes are all integrated and overlapping in service and driver usage and that sort of thing. But I do agree that you should call the legislature and try to get them to appropriate more funding for the regional transit authorities. Thank you. Yes, I see a green card in the front row there. Rob Custner, precinct three again. I really do appreciate the debate, including the input from our representative to the PVTA. I never served as that representative, although for pretty much the three decades I've been an Amherst, I've been pretty heavily involved in local and regional transportation issues, including the two-wheeled variety, but largely the big bus variety. As many people have said, I hope this is money that stays in our pocket. That's really what I hope. And the source of the funding is something that's already in this enterprise fund and I hope it will stay there. Whether it's a symbolic act or an insurance policy or a buffer, as people have said, my intention is it should serve as all these things, should give us the kind of flexibility that we need because if we don't have sufficient revenue, service will be decreased significantly. On some of the routes that actually, she's not here tonight, but it's an older town meeting member, I helped her get on a bus in North Amherst just a day ago. It's one of the buses, which will probably operate at the same frequency during academic year weekdays, but its service will be cut drastically off academic year and some of the proposals have been to have the services on that line. It's the main line from North Amherst to Belcher Town. To Belcher Town Road, excuse me. It's the main line people use, not just students use, seven days a week year round. And on weekends, the headway was scheduled to move from half hour hour to more than two hours. So if you're an elderly person waiting for a bus, that bus that she needed had to go to the kneeling mode for an aborted, it'll be an extra two hour wait. I think this could buy us some insurance and I hope it comes back into our pockets and even pay some dividends. So I do hope you'll support this, thank you. Further discussion? Yes, third row there. Wait for the microphone please. Thank you, Jane Wald precinct one. I just have three comments. First, I'm not sure that adding $50,000 to our appropriation is the best pressure to put on the legislature if we want them to increase the budget for these services. Seems a little bit counterproductive. Second, I appreciate the explanation of the allocation of expenses and how the difficulty of understanding how additional funds will directly impact the restoration increase of services here within our community. And I find it very, very difficult to understand exactly what that impact will be. And then third, I wholeheartedly agree that our better strategy is to contact our legislators to provide an even greater increase than our own town of Amherst $50,000 will do. I think an insurance policy is a little bit different from a symbolic act and at $50,000, that's maybe a little bit too symbolic and a little bit too small an insurance policy. Thank you. For the discussion, yes, right in the second row there. Microphone up here, please. It's helpful if you can stand up if you're able to so they can see where you are. Seven. I live at Butternut Farm Apartments and there's a bus stop on West Street by Potwine that is literally inches away from the street where people, families have to wait. And so I'm thinking $50,000 may not be that much but it could help with respect to building bus shelters. Not all bus stops have bus shelters. And so I think that's one of the things that we could think about, especially when the Butternut Farm Apartments on Long Meadow Drive some years ago, the, that route was eliminated that went from Atkins Farms to Puffers Pond. So cutting off recreational access for people who don't have vehicles. So I speak in support of the increase. Thank you. Are we ready to come to a vote? I see no more hands. We are first going to vote on the larger amount which is before you, which is the total of 869,121. And if that passes, we've disposed of this motion. If that fails, we would fall back and vote on the lower amount. All those, and this requires a majority vote. All those in favor of the larger amount you see before you, please say aye. Opposed, please say no. Moderators, in doubt, we will have an electronic vote. The vote is yes, 61. No, 67. So we now will vote on the lower amount of 819,121. Can we get that main motion back on the screen please? So we're now looking at the top motion for the 819,121 amount requires a majority. All those in favor of the motion for the smaller amount, please say aye. Opposed, please say no. The ayes have it. Before I call on Mr. Slaughter, I have a couple reminders for people. First of all, a reminder that if we indeed adjourn till Monday to turn your electronic voting device off and then be sure to return it, a second reminder, please everybody stay in their seats and don't leave yet. A second reminder, we didn't reach a quorum until 7.14 tonight, which is only 14 minutes but it's the longest we've had to wait in all the years I've been a moderator. So for those of you who came and were in your seats by 7 o'clock, thank you. For those of you who came late, please do your best to come earlier. For those of you who are not here, who may be listening or maybe some of you in the audience, no people who aren't here, please remind them that they have a responsibility to be here next Monday at 7 o'clock to do the business that they were elected to do. Thank you. Mr. Slaughter. I move to adjourn till 7 p.m. Monday, May 7th. Motion adjourned and made and seconded. All those in favor, please say aye. Opposed, please say no. We are adjourned.