earlier Kimberly may not so thank you everybody for joining us this evening this is the town of Andover Board of Finance special budget Workshop meeting for Wednesday April 3D 2024 we will start by calling the meeting to order and we'll recite the Pledge of Allegiance so we'll start I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation liberty and justice okay thank you our next agenda item is to open it up for public speak I know we have various members of the community we've asked to be here to kind of discuss the budget options is there anybody from the public that would like to speak Eric do you want to go around sure so first up would be Linda fish just here to listen I don't miss being there okay so on Linda Wally do you want to talk about anything other than how it relates to the registrar's office no okay carolie do you want to talk about anything other than your own respective position as the town clerk no thank you okay so next up is Jan muted hi everyone he Jen is it better now y y yep we can hear you okay good okay good Dan did you have anything to anything you wanted to bring before the board of Finance any public I I did so my name is Gian mashy I am a volunteer at the endover food pantry been doing it for a couple of years I guess we're currently open you know twice a week seeing about 200 families a month many of our families are senior citizens from from Andover but we're open you know we provide anybody that
comes we provide them with food so prior to covid we were getting all our food other than donation you know personal donations we were getting it from food chair in in Wallingford they were supplying everything to the pantries but that changed with covid and now we have to pay for items so our pantry the two you know with the 200 people we're we get a monthly order from food share and it's probably between 750 to ,000 a month so we've been scalling you know pretty much we do a you know the big pumpkin patch that's our biggest fundraiser the the issue probably were the holidays so for Thanksgiving food share helps us out a lot with turkeys and potatoes and vegetables and all that kind of stuff but for Christmas and like Easter they don't because it's you know they consider it a a not a Catholic holiday but you know a religious holiday and so therefore they don't so you know everybody's used to getting those items the hams and everything like that and you know it
it's just costing us a lot of extra money than we were used to so we're trying in in many ways to try to find as many fundraisers as possible I have a new one starting Connecticut Fu chair is doing a a wathon in May and if you if you make a donation on their website and you like indicate Andover food pantry 100% of that money goes to Andover food pantry so we're hoping but right now I'm going to say donations are really really low so you know I haven't been doing this very long but I had heard that there might be money at the town that they could help contribute to the food pantry and that's why I'm here so I'm here to request that if possible if there's if there's money and I'm not going to say extra money because I know everybody's tight but if there was any way that the town could you know put a line item in and give us some kind of money contribution I don't know even what to call it but to help us you know purchase some food for a couple of months or you know we are we're also in the process of trying to do some Renovations at the pantry I did put in a grant request to Connecticut
food chare for that you know it's just okay it's just hard to come up with money that's basically I would why I'm here so I was just wondering if there's any way that you could consider us yeah I think there's two there's two comments I would make so I bill I see your hand up just a second I'll give you floor the one is that this would really be a per a decision that would should go before the board of Selectmen and especially if you want something in this in this budget year which extends through the end of June so the board of Finance really doesn't have authority on Direct spend of the of the money we have approval responsibility over certain expenditures and we do have some control over the proposed budget which is what we're doing here now but that would not affect this budget year we we we don't we don't decide where the town spends the money we just decide how to fund the budget and then give some approval to certain Capital expenditures so that's kind of how that would work so we can probably talk about that offline but I
would suggest also approaching the board of Selectmen specifically about this because they're really the executive authority of the town so and and Bill you want to go ahead and comment on that or add to that yeah I I would say how first of all hi Jan miss having you on the zoning board of appeals so listen I'm involved with a charity through my church which is which is Trinity Covenant Church in Manchester we have a thing called hope for 10 and we give out free food once a month on a Friday it's called free food Friday and we get gobs of free food from the Midwest Food Bank of New England yeah and I we know about them but they're they're not taking any new okay they're not taking any new people right now okay all right just thought i' throw it out there CH Christa and Hein had given okay because I know I'm going on Monday yeah I mean you can put it in a good word for us but I know every time I go in there it's a giga Food Warehouse it's just just gobs of food I can't believe they're not taking anybody new it seems like they have more than enough food but anyways I'll leave it at that just thought I'd throw that out here and what was it name again it's in Manchester right it's the old Allied printing is Midwest food bank I have a phone number you want
it okay other Joan did you want to make a comment yeah I just wanted to add I mean I love to I'm glad you came before us just to speak of your needs so that you could get some suggestions Jan I was just going to maybe propose to Eric that that we send out one of our townwide messages you know this would be a great I know that everybody has giving hearts and if you're not thinking about it or you don't know about it you don't you know I think if we got a townwide message over the radio or over the little email or whatever I get just
saying that the food bank could really use some donations there's very low if anyone wants to give you know give the directions I would you know of where they can drop off food I mean it can't hurt I know that everybody like likes to give and in our own town that would be great so thank you Jan for coming before us tonight good luck okay thanks Jan Eric do you want to move on who else we have here I see Linda and I see Kimberly TR okay I believe that's it for everybody that's not appearing before you in an official Capac yeah you ask through everyone else did you want to ask Linda too Linda Derek sure Linda Derek do you want to comment on anything other than regist our stuff no thank you okay very good thank you Kim you joined us thanks for joining know you have a lot going on today okay we will move on to our next item on our agenda which is the audit review and corrective action plan discussion with AES don't know if we want to entertain any comment or business on that I know we still have a pending meeting that is scheduled I believe for Monday a week from Monday the 15th so or at least there's a meeting schedule yeah Joanne I was surprised to see this on the the agenda did did you request it
or I know I didn't maybe Eric wanted it I didn't it's probably just a hold over because oh okay I thought it was preliminary because I know we're going to meet and then we'll come back to the board and and discuss it so good to know thank you any other comments on Des before we move on okay we'll move into agenda item four which is to get into the me of the budget workshop for the fiscal year 2023 2024 we do have several visitors tonight we'll try to move through this quickly to allow you to go on with your with your lives we do appreciate you coming for the board of Finance we know it's your personal time here the board did have some questions we were hoping to hear from you about what you're looking for in the budget line we've got some requests for increases and it's just good for the board to hear directly from you about What what's prompting the request and how you feel about it and just any facts that we should have regarding that so we'll start with the town clerk so Carol you want to go ahead and kind of fill us in on what you're looking for here okay so basically all of the budget is the same except I did ask for a 5% increase in my salary line that's due to the a lot of the election responsibilities and duties have increased and are increasing which requires additional hours sometimes like yesterday just for the presidential preference primary obviously 5:30 in the morning till about 9:30 at night so you know when we have these events it's a 15 18 hour days and there's a lot coming down the
road as far as absente ballots of course you know about the early voting so that just puts a lot of additional duties on the office oh and I did just ask for the 5% because if you're last year you had given thank you very much very generous and you also gave the supplemental line so I just had asked for the 5% on the salary rather than do five on that line and five on the supplemental and that resulted in $310 more than would have been if each of the lines were by the 4% that was approved okay so to clarify just your requesting basically 5% on the regular salary line item but no increase on the supplemental correct okay all right thanks just wanted to make sure we had that clear because there's some confusion there okay anybody have any questions for Carol Jan yeah I just wanted to Echo your thank you all for coming tonight we also want to make it clear that if we ever do request for you to come forward like we'll work at your convenience you
know if if we pick a night and it's not good for you please let us know that we just wanted to you know as you know the board of selectman had put across a 4% pretty much raise for the nonunion people so it's always good to hear from you in particular so thanks again for coming forward and thank you for clarifying that it's not on the supplemental I think the spreadsheet had pointed that out and thank you that's all thank you okay other questions for Carol okay hearing none I guess we'll go ahead and move on thanks Carol we appreciate the time and the work that you do thank you right next we have
the regist drers so we have Wally and so again I think the same question basically from the board of Finance just kind of wanted to hear what your position was about the proposed increases you know as Carol mentioned we have the early voting we know that's what addition excuse me additional burden on the regist Arts as well so I don't know who wants to start first do you want to start I don't care Linda if you want to go first go ahead ladies first oh so yeah I mean I guess the first thing to say is that there's a lot of unknown and unpredictability about what the next year is going to look like for us we can I can tell you that we will with with a with the currently scheduled early voting there's seven days before the August primary seven 10 out well eight hour days 10 hour days it varies then there's 14 days prior to the November election so that's a lot of Staffing and and one of the unclarities is how much Staffing we need so it's hard to predict in this first experience of the four days prior to the
PPP we went with minimal Staffing just what we absolutely needed which is two registar a Republican and Democrat and a moderator and we had we we 20 people voted so then we had the PPP and what Wally maybe 2% of but it's it's a it's a peculiar event to judge the popularity of early voting because it was a sort of non-event event but when we come into the November preparation now we will have absentee ballots which Carol will be working on we'll have early voting and we'll have same day registration so that will require a little bit more Staffing different Staffing so we have we're in the process of training some people extra more staff because we we have great election workers for sure but this you know 14 days 10hour days and and a 12-h hour couple of 12-hour days is a is different than what most of us have been accustomed to so we just have to get used to that and and figure it out so there's a lot of unknown we you know you know about the $10,000 that weed from the state that every town received so that's in the budget while you can speak to that more as a line item and right now we're using that singularly for early voting so that we keep separate what we had budgeted for elections and so forth with the early voting next year we don't know there is talk of further funding from the state but it's not procured and it's not clear how it's going to get distributed we're a small town so proportionately it might be a small increment so Wall-E did his best in the budget to to make sure that we had enough that we
didn't have get in a situation where you know in in late October or at some point we suddenly run out of money so he tried to you know with our best guess make that budget reflect what we think we're going to need so Wally take it away all right thank you basically we're only looking for a 3% increase in our salary for our normal duties 5% overall for the registra budget increasing things like meals because of course you all know what it costs to go out to eat now and we do pay our election workers and as far as the elections last year we increased our budget substantially for election salaries knowing that this year we were going into the unknown of early voting and even though we got the 10,500 from the state we already anticipate that we will run out of that money for early voting prior to the November actual election date because of the number of days and hours the state requires and again election supplies is up because we have
to order extra materials and again meals for elections is up again we feed our people because what we pay them to get them to continue to come and work for us we figure at least one meal a day helps keep the election workers that we have so basically it's 5% increase on both budgets and we are using the early voting monies that we got from the state that was set up in a special account just for us to use for early voting to cover as much of this as we can before we have to go back to our regular budget and two other things when Linda talked to the unknown we have a brand new voter registration system due to roll out sometime this year and the election management system that we presently use is going to be modified as well the state has promised us training on those before they roll out but historically early voting we got our final instruction manual one week before early voting started so our fear is that some of these other changes will come very shortly before they're implemented and we'll have to run around to adapt to these new systems and again all of this is being mandated by the state of Connecticut and the Secretary of State's office it isn't that we want to do all this stuff it's that we're required to and willing to answer any questions okay thanks Wally it's helpful I think anybody have any questions or comments for Wally I probably I do I probably shouldn't know this but thank you both
for being here how many the two of you are the registers and then I know the the election workers that come in how many registar are there total two registar two deputies okay yeah we are technically full-time even though it's a part-time job Linda and I and we bring in the deputies when we need them and then the poll workers for the elections a really nice run system I know that and thank you for pointing out and those I think that's why I particularly had wanted to hear just remembering and you alluded to it that and Carol did too that last year luckily we were able to I believe you all had requested you know more of a sizable increase due to all the increased duties and in anticipation of what was coming and of course Carol last year we went through with her too when she laid it all out for us and we were able to give the sizable raise last year so that was the question this year that you know bringing you forward to speak to it so thanks again that's that's all my questions okay anybody else okay very good thank you for your help explaining guys and again thank you for the work that you do we'll
move on to the planning and zoning budgets so I guess that's thought we said J oh there he is okay yeah so the first com first item up was H you know discussion about the zoning agent and and he certainly does a lot of work for people other than the Planning and Zoning commission but I'd always thought that I use I could use up all the hours we had allotted to him by myself and and always felt a little bit guilty in doing that so for last year's budget I put a little addendum that just talked about the fact that I know and I haven't asked him specific hours but I know he puts in a lot more hours than we've been paying them for and we've got a couple of issues you know there a lot of enforcement issues with the the planning and zoning regulations and he's spending an awful lot of time working those issues and that could be very frustrating for you know the people that you know don't want to comply with the regulations just do what they want then we're trying to get that result without necessarily going to
court so I know you know the the classic example right now we're working hard to get the Gravel Pit across from Dollar General restored properly and and we're having a hard time dealing with the the property owner there to get that right the other thing that came along within the last year you know last year we passed that ordinance on blade and so that you know Jim's the guy who who takes care of all those blight issues as well and I think that's a very powerful tool for the town to get some things fixed up but again that's going to increase his workload and and each of those things things aren't the most fun task in the world to go get somebody in compliance with fixing up the property and again it always takes a lot of time and I know Jim works very hard to try and get the issues resolved without going to court because if we end up going to court with all the legal
fees and all that you know that really goes through the roof so with that you know my recommendation for last year's budget was to increase his hours from 15 to 20 I think Eric told me that you know this year's budget accounts for 19 hours I'm not sure why 19's better than 20 but but anyhow I do feel very strongly that you know Jim's working good for the town doing good things above and beyond what the Call of Duty is there and and we should pay him for a few more than we are right now yeah that's that's that's helpful explanation I think very good any anybody have any specific questions
about the zoning Agent salary hour increase okay I guess we'll go into open space fund okay open space probably a little harder to justify but you know the town used to have $50,000 a year in the budget to build up the open space account we haven't had that in several years and I don't know exactly when that went away but you know our plan of conservation and development talks about you know the last time we we created that document we're updating it now but people were asked what are you willing to pay more taxes for and there were three things one of which was open space the other was conservation which is very closely tied to open space and then the third was the school and so I thought that knowing that the rant budget you know was going down a little bit this would be a good time to try to get a little extra money put back in the budget $50,000 today isn't what $50,000 was five or 10 years ago but you know last year we tried to buy a piece of property leano property off of shotty Mill Road and you the the state's got a goal that we should have like 21% of our land in open space we've got to come up with 284 acres to do that the last plan of conservation and development thought that that would be very easy for us to do we haven't added much to the open space roles in the meantime and the state to encourage us to meet that goal you know at least on the Le property they were willing to pay 50% of the price so you know it's it's kind of
a bargain for us but we didn't have enough money in our account to raise our our opening bid if you will and so I thought it was time why we have a little break before I think in the future the education budgets might start going up again maybe we can't keep that money in the budget forever but we can build build on it why we can because that's what the people of the Town say they're in favor of doing okay very good helpful comments and context does anybody have any questions for Jed comments thank you for clarifying that that was that was well said and thank you for clarifying that that's what the taxpayers have voted on that's really important to me especially in this this year right where they would like their funds to go and and I hadn't been pushing the issue you know before now because the budgets had been very tight it's been hard but but that's what the people say they want and and I don't see it getting any better you know this is as good as it gets to put it in now and Jed we did ask Eric to provide us with the balances and all the funds so it's good to see that the open space fund does have you know some money already there and then to keep adding to it little by little so yep if if a great piece of property comes along and we've got a chance to get it it would be nice to be in a position where we'd be able to do so y thank you again thank you any other further questions or comments for Jed Jed sorry okay here we none I guess I guess we're good thanks very much we
appreciate it and again thank you for for what you guys do okay we will go ahead and move on to our agenda item 4D which is our actual budget review the intention tonight for the board was to try to go start to go through this line by line you know really kind of figure out any real concerns we have over specific line items work those through and eventually work our way to the end of the budget which is probably not going to happen tonight I know I don't have that kind of staying power and the hisory is any indicator it'll take some time to do that but we'll go ahead and get started so I'm going to share my screen just because I have in in front of me if that'll work Eric can you give me that ability sure I thought I already did hang on yeah it looks like I it says disabled try that now yep got it okay okay you should be seeing the the Excel file now I don't know is that readable for you guys can it get a little bigger or get a lot bigger it's just we lose a little little we lose a little bit on the outside yeah but I'll try to I'll try to bring it down so just the first point of order I think we had this well they I shared over email that the the original column K had a calculated increase differential had the formula was was misstated so
I think that that can go away so in this column L I'm just going to hide this column now so column L actually shows the corrected percentage increase the change to each line basically was if there was a small change year-over-year it really didn't drive much of a change in the percent difference if there was a large change it did drive you know a significant change in the percent difference you know nothing I think that was super huge but I think I think it just Bears you know mentioning that that's differential from what we had so all right I guess the first question I would have is let's kind of take maybe the revenue as a as a group I didn't have any specific questions on many of the revenue items except that there's there's a lot of Eric there's a lot of Assumption of increase on prior taxes lean taxes and interest taxes those just you know significant oh actually that's not right they're zeros why did I have that must have looked at something different never mind so for the record I I worked with the tax collector and we we are anticipating being more aggressive this year than we have been in the past and I think for one year we can increase that
number but as we work off some of the back stuff in in future years you know as we have less prior taxes to collect that number will go back down if that makes ense they those make sense okay yeah it's good to be aware of well I must have been looking at the previous year's budget hope do that sometimes skip the fact I may even do this to make it more viewable unless anybody really needs to look at 2122 or even 2223 yeah really well I like to keep some of them open I don't want to shut everything but do you but what why did you want to do that Mark I don't whatever you well just so we we for the ability to kind of check and read some of the notes that's all oh okay gotcha yeah there isn't much that and I can just scroll over yeah okay so if it's okay great to close at 22 23 if it's not yeah that one's fine I guess I just it that that's significant for you know because each year does help a little but that's yeah sometimes it's it's worth seeing the trend right we want to go back and check it out okay especially just just comparing one year is hard because we had I would like to see it if you don't mind right especially someone that wasn't here thank you yeah Mark maybe you don't mind those changes you want to see the other ones too okay no no I did take some time earlier today to take a look at this
but if if you could leave the 22 23 and onward yeah yeah really helpful to me all right so State miscellaneous Eric we've got quite a bit of increase here is that just says not set yet is there any just reason the reason we had that increase yeah there's there's a should be so in state miscellaneous there's that's a oh man I gotta I gotta look at what the the thing is but there's about a $5,000 increase we look like we're going to get and this is composed of a bunch of different little things we get that it never really seemed appropriate to list them all out because they're all too small but there is one $5,000 chunk that we're likely to get that we haven't gotten in the past and I can I can figure out the details on that if you want you've got a rationale for including it though I guess that was really just that wasn't really clear so that's that's helpful yeah you
know part of I mean it like part of that is for instance the fees we get back for nips that goes into State miscellaneous it's not a big amount of money but it comes in a couple times a year you know so that that's kind of like a catchall for all the stupid little things we get back from the state not stupid but you know fairly small things we get back from the state okay got it and Senior transportation Grand I'm just kind of going through my comments and we can we get back to see if anybody else has any others but you've got
$122,000 we didn't have anything in 2324 but you've got you know estimate based on previous is there any risk to or much risk to us getting that or there's no guarantees actually I think we'll get this one this coming year because we're in the the final year of our it's a multi-year allotment but we each year we have to give them based on we can get up to a percentage based on what we spend on driver's costs so it looks like we can get a little bit more because we spent more the last couple of
years on driver's costs so we can get a little bit more but that but you're right it's not a guarantee but we will probably end up getting that amount this year anybody have any other question on those Revenue items no I'm going to clear that out it sound sounds reasonable to me I just wanted to understand the kind of the rationale miscellaneous revenues up you know it's not a huge thing you just had a note here records Grant should it have its own line item I don't know what we're should we think about budgeting something differently there I mean it's only $5,000 so I mean I don't again that's a catchall that's composed of a few different fees just like you know rentals you know come from more than one source but I don't want to list out you know every small little Revenue source that we
have yeah so I would say no line item there in that case would make unless somebody feels differently we I wouldn't want to change it no no I agree the next one's a big increase right yeah there there is some rationale here for it so I know Eric if you want to talk to that 12,500 athletic field plus the you know so we have we rent essentially our soccer field out to Veil East which used to be called FC North we have an annual like contract with them so that's the bulk of what we pull in in rental income we also provide the elementary school the use of a senior Transportation vehicle and we just charge them essentially per trip because it's a lot less expensive than them using a transportation service to provide that service and since we already own multiple handicapped accessible Vehicles it's you know cheaper overall for the town so that is just the direct you know we know we're getting by contract $12,500 from Veil East and based on the last year's data we should be taking in right about you know $5,000 for the senior Transportation vehicle so that's what that is thank you few other changes mostly small stuff fees permits Etc but does add up
quite a bit and then of course we have this huge one here which is the interest Revenue line and that's all due to that stiff account right yeah correct which is nice yeah yeah so just amazing wow it is all credit to Cheryl and Eric for working at in thank you thank you thank you yeah no that's that's super cool the thing to keep in mind is that if we looked at like how much we're making today the number would even be higher than $140,000 what I'm doing with that is I'm assuming that over the next year there will be some federal interest rate reduction how much I don't know I mean you know the feds they make their reductions when they make their reductions and that does affect the stiff rate so I would expect next year we'll get less money than we're getting on a monthly basis right now is that based on the prime lending rate or something well something like that some index yeah it's it's something like that they put their money in a series of short-term investment vehicles but they are roughly they are somewhat depend on the overall interest rate okay I think you're talking about three from what I heard separate decreases in the interest rate but who knows how much they're going to be well it probably is wise to budget that conservatively yeah which sounds like we've done yeah I'm hoping that I'm budgeting it conservatively enough but but you know
we'll find out any other questions from the board on the revenue items here and keep keep in mind that you know all those revenues from the state there is no state budget yet so I mean all of that needs to be taken with some grain of salt you know it's unlikely that they're going to change but that doesn't mean that the state can't make a change you you know in something you know there's there's certainly a number of bills that would affect various different aspects of our budget that are still pending but you know as they are every year yeah that's all I was going to say is we sort of wait this out every year and luckily it's been coming through okay well if I can scroll down again if I if I move too fast or or you want to back up and talk to something else anybody on the board let me know we'll certainly do that so the next two line items are the ram education budget we have no say there it kind of is what
it is as Eric has noted here and I think Joan had asked this question or somebody asked this question a few meetings ago this does include the $119,000 credit that was announced after the original request so you can see that differential there and then the we have the AES Board of Education budget at 2.7% we had the presentation on that previously overall education budget in is actually a decrease of 2.4% thanks to the ram decrease which we've discussed before is only temporary and I thought Jed made a good point I had the exact same thought when he was going through there about the open space fund if we're going to fund it now that would be something to do this year but it would be something that would be something we definitely consider for removal maybe in the in future years if things got a little tighter Mark can I speak to that just that is it's interesting because I think there's going to be a lot of players go you know we do know that the ram budget will be down for a few years and then you know it'll go back up so that's to be very mindful of that as we're going through spending you know at the end I mean it's and there's going to be a lot of to me things that are going to be vying for that extra money or where where it should go so but it is it's nice for the town now but we have to be mindful that in the future it will go back up yep
yep okay found administrator 4% raise holy crap what's all this Administrative Assistant you've actually got a big reduction that says stip into to assistant tax collector I'm not sure we talked about that Eric did we what's what's the shift to there so traditionally this position has had a part-time admin assistant that position was for basically 19 hours or less no benefits I think right now when I look at what I need help with the most this is where talking about that project manager position manager yeah my goal is to basically assign that work to the tax collector in exchange for stien okay okay so this is not an actual position funding this $5,000 would be a stien to the assistant tax collector to carry out the duties of the administrative the administrative like administrative duties that you've got right because she is a union employee so if I'm adding something to her workload I am legally obligated to bargain with the Union over the impact of that I can I can just assign her the job I have the legal authority to do that but the union but I'm obligated to to bargain
over the impact of that so you know y sorry I think overall it's a lot cheaper to do that and what I would like to do do is basically free up a portion of that money to hire somebody on a very part-time basis to be a project manager for a couple specific projects just to take a few things off of my plate and really I think that's where I'm lacking the biggest issue I have is the ability to get projects across the finish line and administer them so that's what I'm hoping for and I I know I'm not going to find an admin assistant at what we're paying that's going to have that capability so I would be looking at hiring a you know a a very
part-time project manager and depending on the grant or the project some projects the money can be found from within the Project funding itself but not all so that that's where I'm going with that that's my desire Joan yeah I just just following up to that Eric I know so is this this is already happening now I believe right she already so what would the stapen be is it a flat $5,000 stapen has it increased was it 4,000 last year or what what well so I told I have not signed an agreement with Kate nor really can I unless it looks like you're going to budget it I mean the board of Selectmen has already approved this but it really has to be approved by Board of Selectmen and board of Finance because if you're not going to fund the line I'm not going to enter into an agreement with so that
so there's no contract that's already been signed I for some reason I thought at one of the board of Selectmen meetings maybe I heard when they approved you should handle it this way I mean they they they agreed with this basic concept right no it's a good concept I'm just asking the history and so it hasn't started yet so I I've had a conversation with the Union regarding that and with the employee and I know they'll agree to it at this level but no we haven't signed any sort of memorandum of understanding regarding this yet okay right because you have a stapen right there has to be a scope of work involved and everything and that's a sizable stapen for I mean I'm sure it's needed not talking about the price but that's pretty sizable in a stien amount I work with stiens all the time so there has to be a scope of work that you expect and and it's great that I understand that the person that would be doing this was your former Administrative Assistant now the tax collector so she had the knowledge of what's needed and it's it's probably a win-win for the town I'm not opposed I just wondered if it had started lower than that and then it went up to this amount thank you no there is no agreement in place at this point okay so it kind of leads us to the next
question if nobody's got any specific questions on that but you've got 15,000 from this project manager so to me they seemed like an unrealistically low number but then I think you just answered it I CL clarifying your note there that some of the projects will actually do some self-funding for such a position yeah and I'm this is not gonna be you really G get somebody to do this for $1,200 a month you know no but but also you have to understand that I'm not looking for you know I'm not expecting somebody working for me 20 hours a week doing this you know I'm going to pick off a few very specific Pro projects that I want help on and be able to pay for that help you know I I don't think I mean realistically you're not going to get
anybody that's you know for under about 50 bucks an hour that can be an actual PM I mean if we're being realistic so you're right we're not buying a whole ton of hours doing this but you know if you can pull a couple if we can get a couple things done faster than we're doing now I think that's worth it overall to the town and I look at it and say in my world you know it would be I mean in a perfect world I'd love a a full-time admin assistant and a PM that works for but I know we're not going to be able to so so the question is what is the
thing that I need the absolute most and and what can I live without and I can certainly live without a full-time admin assistant although I see some value in that you know it's just the fiscal reality says we can't really do both I would rather have that pool of money to be able to pay a PM than I would to have more assistance you know in the admin assistant role right so what I'm looking at Kate to do is all the web stuff and deal with meetings and agendas and stuff like that and that's it and basically I'll give up most of you know and I've been working that way for the last four or five months anyway to try it out before I put it in the budget so I'm pretty comfortable that I can get away with that is there some limitations yeah yeah is it inefficient sometimes if I'm doing something and not an admin efficient yes but what I need most is the PM help all right well I think that's good context I'll just point out for the board May recognize this but the this is really a budget neutral change if you look at it that way we have a $5,000 stien plus a $115,000 project manager wages line so that's $20,000 it's actually slightly less than the 2023 2024 budget for the administrative system so it's actually a little bit less comments questions from the board on any of the Town Administrator lines yeah Joan so I can appreciate what Eric is saying and I understand his reasoning behind it I often find as as a resident and someone looking in that sometimes in our small
small town you know that we're trying to make so much change and get so many things done that I can see that I feel like things aren't getting completed you know or there can't be enough manpower or followup and I kind of go more on let's do some things and get them completed well versus let's like I know and Jed LaRon is still on I know we still have the affordable housing thing going on what are they going to do there's just so many things in town that are half there and ideas that are coming forward so I only hesitate with maybe maybe slowing down a little bit and getting you know because we are so small and and yes we have a lot of projects going on now so if this is the solution and everyone agrees this as a solution I have no problem with that but it just gave me the opportunity to say that sometimes I feel like we keep going going going going going and we're not finishing finishing finishing and they AR said said that it's not a critique I give people credit for initiative of wanting to do so many things that's a great thing but I'm also a finisher in my own career so I get what it's like to have to complete things you know we have a lot of things
started so that's all that's my two cents so I'll have to juggle in my own mind what the better use of yeah and ultimately I think it's just kind of a board of selectman Slash all right true I just felt like it was my opportunity to say it out there because we tend to go go go and yeah thank you border of selectman I get it anybody else questions on the Town Administrator section okay we move down to the treasurer Financial so Eric obviously I think we talked a little bit about this one previously so we're looking at doubling basically the Treasurer salary we all know we have a very part-time very effective Treasurer right now she's not to stay around forever but I don't know if we have any more comments about that Eric no I I mean I I do think that sometime in this upcoming fiscal year you know we're going to end up Cheryl will eventually resign sometime in this year be my guest so we are in the background working on the replacement strategy for her I would rather retain her but I mean she just wants to kind of be retired yep okay and the town Treasurer clerk waves youve got a significant increase there I don't know if we have anything more to say about that yeah so the the part of that is the contractual Union wage but more of that is a recognition that you know most weeks she's ending up
working a little more than 30 hours anyway and the board of selectman agreed to take that position from 30 to 33 which was the recommendation from Cheryl the treasurer so that's what accounts for that just reflects that change then y plus the that was my question plus the the contractual increase okay right so that's based on what she would have been getting Eric and then just adding in up to 33 hours correct right with whatever the union negotiated okay yep thank you does anybody have any other line item questions regarding the treasur or financial section okay we can move down to the town clerk so we did hear from Carol earlier we do have a 5% increase applied in this proposed budget to both her salary and and to the supplemental
salary and if you caught earlier what she was saying she's really not asking for this line it or this 63 or $300 increase on the on supplemental she's proposing of $6,000 so you know it seems like it's a no-brainer to take that down to 6,000 so I I will say one thing just procedurally rather than make a motion for each individual line item it might if we're if we seem to be in general agreement if there's no opposition from board members I would say that we would go ahead and make corrections to the line items and then we would vote on them as a package if you guys are okay with at yeah yes yes I'm okay with that any dissent or concern over that that sounds like a good deal yeah sounds fine with me and and so we could if we had an issue with one particular line item that we changed at the end when we vote we could discuss it at that point U Mark yeah or what I would propose we do if there's if there's some real concern or just dissension over a particular change let's just make a
motion and on that particular I line item and just call that done Perfect all right and then we can then we can just do the rest of them that are not you know there's no no concern or just sension over if we're seem to be in full agreement if everyone agrees we'll just do that as a as a package motion at the end right okay so what I would propose is that we reduce this to $6,000 agreed agreed right since she's not asking for okay assistant town clerk salary Union set by the union conference seminars minor increase it's 40% but it's says the cost of conferences and seminars have increase I mean in my view I'm not sure most of these worth you know couple hundred dollars here and there are really worth spending a lot of time on you know yeah we're not in that unless somebody sees something just doesn't make any sense so if we're in agreement on this does anybody have any other comments about the town clerk section I would just add that I think Carol made a compelling statement appreciate them coming I mean going in I was thinking the 4% might have been okay based on you know we had given her a significant increase last year due to everything we went you know listen to but she did make a compelling I mean if it true I'm not there if it's truly true that there's some long long days like that and we're talking not a lot of money I would be okay with this 5% for this year you know
too that was I'm not going to nickel and but I think it's it is important when someone goes a little bit over what everybody else had gotten that we do listen to them yeah that's my take but y yeah I think that there's a I think we have to be a little careful because you know we could continue doing this and doing this and doing this and there's also the thing and and I'm just you know we pay for the position not necessarily for the experience but you know 5 10 years down the road you get a super experienc super competent person in there and then they leave and you get somebody who's spending less time as long as they're doing a job I guess it's okay but we will set a precedent with the salary I don't disagree with this frankly you know cost of living is increased I don't think that's a lot of money for a professional position these days you know and there are some long days there probably are some that are not so long but you know I'm okay with it I agree with the not yearby year that's why it's important you know to to
bring up the history like you know Kim wasn't on the board last year so she didn't sit through the whole what we you know the the the thing so that's that's a good point too Mark what was the increase last year six% I think it was is that right we we we added that supplemental significant because we had extra line for her it's a little bit buried in there so you know I was actually going to make the point that we might want to consider just consolidating that if this is going to be an ongoing thing you know we may as well rip the Band-Aid off and say what we're really doing is paying the the Tom clerk $63,750 oh I don't like that I like how we have it but that's because we were we had set the ground that if there for the future you know we'd be able to not offer the supplemental because we had the 10 years of experience would get the supplement m al again we can go back to
that if no I think that's fair you know it's fair nothing set in stone but I don't like to rip the Band-Aid off today I think that is kind of how we talked about it that it would be something 10 years yeah 10 years experience they'll get the supplemental you know I mean we can go Case by I don't know if we actually you know I I but it's it's a reasonable way to approach it I think and that was our good compromise of being able to give her a significant raise over 6% you know with the additional y also I'd like to add that we can't forget about all the volunteer stuff that she does for the town as well she's always there not asking for money for some for those items and again I I agree with that Louise but it's more we're not
supposed to be considering that kind of like those I get it like like we said this person's perfect in that role when like that we're supposed to pull ourselves away from the person but you're not wrong yeah we pay her for the job right so yeah it's the job more than the person and right yeah but you're you're not wrong any other questions or concerns over the town clerk section okay hearing none we'll move on down to the tax collector we actually have a reduction here and and an increase in the software maintenance is fairly significant Eric maybe you talked
about this but what's going on with the reduction so we went from an employee that was a certified tax collector to hiring somebody that is not but has to go through the training so what I did is I hired her but I made it very clear that I laid out all the steps between where she is now and we a certified tax collector and the arrangement I made with the Union is that at the point where she gets certified she goes back to the same hourly raage wage as the previous but until she's certified you know her salary increases with each step level she attains that okay because what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to incentivize the heck out of her for going through and getting all the training and getting certified yeah what kind of process timeline is that just
curious about three years okay but she can get about 80% or 85% of the difference before so so basically she can finish all her class work in about a year and that will get her basically to about 85 or 90% of the salary but she technically has to work three years in the role before she can be a certified tax collector got it so we'll probably see most of the financial impact of this reduction reversed in the next budget year or possibly assuming she gets that yes yes okay okay just trying to get an idea of the timeline yeah okay the other question I had think I highlighted here you notice this qds plus DMV but you also had a line down on row 97 here you mentioned the qds software that contract software manag is this used by both departments so you're just kind of splitting it out or what's the yeah so so we get builds separately for each office oh because not in every town does q do is qds used by both entities but most towns they are so we get a bill every year we pay bills for the assessor's office for qds and the same with the tax collector okay okay does anybody have any other questions are on the tax collector section here okay you're hearing none I guess we'll move to the assessor real sorry I saw driving to and from classes is that part of the credentials or whatever yeah okay yes
so in fact she was at class pretty much all day today that's good question Brian yeah so yep so are we we're paying her to go to go to the class as well or is that mileage so we p no I I just wonder if she's if she's going to if she's on the clock when she's in the class yep absolutely okay understood she's obviously the lower rate though so and that doesn't really change much for us as long as she's getting the job done I guess okay good questions other questions or comments okay let's move down to the assessor line we already talked about the qds software increases we got a small increase on the assessor and assistant assessor salary and then significant although you know just a few couple hundred bucks for the NADA book this is the Auto Dealers Association book that allows them to estimate the value of the of the automob of the cars and trucks
and stuff that are property tax related right yeah and and this is one where all the towns are getting screwed and that's one of the reasons why there are a bunch of reasons but why they want to get why there was an effort to shift away from NADA values for assessments on cars was because NADA got bought out and the cost they're charging the assessors Association in the state has gone up really dramatically so they're talking about going to a straight depreciation model instead of using NADA values that was supposed to have been implemented in this budget cycle but it's been delayed by the legislature twice and of course now the legislature is talking about eliminating car taxes totally so obvious we wouldn't need that if they eliminate car taxes
but I don't think that's actually going to happen yeah okay any questions on this section Eric any further things for discussion all right let's move down to the registar section we did hear from the registrars about some of the things that are going on in their world why they're requesting this 5% increase I will note that the values that are in there right now only represent a 4% increase so the values that are in there are not a 5% increase it sounds like they did request 5% but the calculation though is only bringing it to about a 4% so we can certainly change that to meet their
5% request now I'm not opposed these people work pretty hard they don't get paid that much well considering what you talked about Mark with the amount of days with the early voting and all the other things it sounds like they're going to be putting in a lot more hours so it doesn't seem unreasonable in my opinion anyways yeah it's a tough job too it's long how many people want to do it just want to note that I was one of the 20 people that voted today that should we i t to yeah I tend to agree with you on that because you know I do a lot I do some of the work over there as well and I see how much is involved so I don't think an extra one% is unreasonable we're talking just to
clarify we're talking talking about the salary line the 106 yes yeah you know you know what the difference computes to it's it's like 130 bucks yeah yeah that's I was gonna say you take 120 you know 12, Ma it's yeah 12978 I mean for goodness sakes let's do do trying to find the right keys on this keyboard is not Mark can you just highlight all the ones that you change that way I can go back in because I'm I mean the way the this spreadsheet Works you're meant to to do the individual Fields not the over it should be changed in the tab right so correct all right so I'll I'll highlight it in light blue okay which means do we highly we change anything up here we changed that one of the top yeah that one yeah there we
go kay hey look at that calculates to 5% we must have done something right there's further questions on the registar [Music] section nope okay moving down to elections you know we have we have some increases here mostly for election salaries again we kind of heard what the differentials were again it seems like big numbers but we're only talking about a $6,000 increase and it's not needed it won't get used I guess is some some one observation I would think anyway in terms of salaries and what you know I certainly don't dispute that these people need some pizza delivered to them in the middle of the work day or whatever they're when they're doing this work they're not they're not paid much and we have volunteers helping out whatever so yeah me I'm I'm good with all this but I'm I'm good okay I'm not sure this note here I just pointed out this is a little
confusing to me it says 10% increase check number from 2324 so was Eric were you thinking that that number that was in here was maybe not correct hang on let me pull up there again we're not we're only talking small differentials here but I just yeah that that 178 number I think was incorrect it's not it's not here okay all right okay so Sauk we're in agreement for leaving this right where it is then yes okay building department we've got a 7% increase the Wages that's contract admin same thing Inland Wetlands commission 1.1% no real change there not significant we do have an increase in the zoning Agent salary we heard from Jed on the reason for that I mean to me that's you know again 15 to 19 hours is that what it was yeah yeah correct yeah so I mean it says that there's actually a 31.7% increase so yeah it's slightly less than 33 than the 5 hours but doesn't sound like that's you know unwarranted and again I it was helpful to hear him talk about the need and and I certainly would agree with this these are not easy things to do when you're trying to manage that the blight ordinance and everything else so yeah and those are I think that's huge benefit to our
town frankly absolutely and just for the history of that the board of Select after last year's budget was adopted made the decision because they weren't getting enough done that they wanted on the on blight complaints and they basically motioned and made me increase that from 15 to 19 hours so we're actually he's been working 19 hours you know basically this whole budget year the whole current budget year oh the entire year yeah Jud said something about that but I okay yeah so we will overex expend this year on that we're not over yet but by the end of the year we will certainly be overexpanded in
this budget year but again that was a direct you know decision by the board of Select yeah just a followup Mark so I guess the whole 19h hour thing Eric is the benefits situation correct so mean why do we not 20 hours corre well no I mean I'm thinking I know that it's because Jed had said well I don't know why there's 20 and not you know 19 is significant so we we make sure that he does his 19 because of the benefit right he would have to offer benefits if he goes over yeah went up correct by we are required through the state what we we would not have to offer health care benefits but at 20 hours he would automatically be enrolled in the town's retirement program and murf and that's that's a big percentage okay yep so okay thank you and note on the permit link fees you've got a you got an explanation there was kind of hidden but I just opened it up this is an increase i' seen the earlier this is an expense increase but it's offset by charge of the customer through the permits that are issued right right everybody that pulls a permit pays a $15 fee when they pull a permit and that that fee essentially goes to permit link but we show it on the revenue side and we show it on the expense side okay all right any comments questions recommended changes to the building department okay hearing none we can move on the next section is the library we do have 6.3% increase in the wages noting minimum wage increase is affecting there so is that must be driving most of it I guess
yeah that that's the primary driver of that you know for the purposes of calculation I so and one of the things that's unfortunate is we don't know what minimum wage is going to be set at next year because the state hasn't made that determination yet like you know it went up to 15 something right now we're assuming it's going to go up a little bit so so that's why it's not 6.3% it's actually less than that comp compared to what they're making today but remember as of December 31st minimum wage increased based on state law so we had to respond to that yeah any questions or comments in the library section okay hearing hearing none we'll go on to the Civil preparedness we have a civil preparedness salary budget up at 4% 3% rounded up slightly paid twice per year you
know $30 differential over what it was previously I don't really see any issues here at least for me no so there is a slight chance that will go up significantly but it will only go up if we get the Civil preparedness Grant for the the state paying for that Sal So It Be offet by a Grant Line in the revenue side yeah so we it's not something we've ever asked for before but we can ask for and so we are going to ask for it this year and if we do get it we will increase the the stien for that and then be able to get more done who are you paying is it like a civil preparedness director or something like that yeah so I am technically the e Emergency Management director but there is an emergency management coordinator that is also the person that runs the CT program for the town so that is who that salary goes for and it's a it's a pretty small stipend
considering you know what they're actually required to do anybody have any questions or comments on the Civil preparedness ection okay so moving down we have town office building I just got to make a note that you know our subtotal here we're at about a 5% 5.8% increase for these Services obviously our line item at the end is significant for the town budget so we'll see we'll see some of this go up town office building payroll service is being dropped because we're transitioning away from Prime pay yeah we're not we can't eliminate all our costs from Prime pay because we're still using their time clocks we're considering other time clock methods or other time clock vendors because they're charging us an awful lot just to continue to use their time clocks but that's what the cost would be compared to you know what we were paying okay water testing going up the percentage is high but it's just you know $200 so requirements again elevator contract 6% couple bucks not really anything there so I had a question the permit y go ahead Louise it looks kind of weird and sort of funding is that is that a mistake Eric that is a mistake the the previous last year we did actually
budget $2,400 2223 we did not but our elevator permit is $240 a year not 2400 oh so that's correct but the earlier budget was a mistake you're saying correct we missed it in last year's budget oh okay so 240 is correct then correct okay you even have your annual state right all right I can't spell but I got you covered the 21 to 22 was also 240 right these were an error basically yeah and if you look yes correct all right computer tech support we got a cost of living increase Building Maintenance you know poster the actual cost of where building maintenance is saying so you're basically saying 4500 is a little more accurate it's only a couple hundred doll there Civic ready up Civic plus this is our website poster posting Place yeah Civic ready is that is the emergency alert and Civic plus is the website okay so we bined we pay for both of those Services we we do need a new contract for civic plus they are you know obviously they're trying to upsell us and go to a
fancier platform but we're we're basically saying no we're gonna we do have to migrate from our existing Drupal platform to a new Drupal platform because the one we're on now will no longer be supported but as long as we go Drupal to Drupal we don't don't have to do anything so that's what we're you know we don't have the the options that the fancier ones have and we've considered it and and looked through what what advantages it would be to pay more money and get a more sophisticated version of it but in the end I don't I just don't see the I don't see enough value for what for the cost difference so we're continuing on with the cheap version okay alarm moning 10 per is 50 bucks actual expense on postage based on 2023 increase assuming same number cents 5.7 so it's just a more realistic figure
you're saying post well that that's just the relative how much the post office fees have gone up you know per piece mailed and we just assume that our mailing will be about the same correct there's the early voting doesn't have any impact on that right so early voting no no but like how many Town meetings we hold you know that kind of stuff does does have a pretty big effect yeah okay Grass Drive drop a little bit just to more Rel reflect more accurately the prior Year's expense electricity so so we're a little bit off of the peak so it's actually dropped you're reducing that a little bit no more fuel oil switched to propane for building propane you're showing a $3,500 so there's a net reduction of the budget at $1,500 in fuel corre cost okay now the only thing that's a little touchy with propane is that un like fuel
oil fuel oil consistently the best time to lock in for the next next fiscal year is like The Descendant December to January and with propane it's always cheapest to lock in over the summer you know when the Futures Contract rates are the lowest so unlike fuel oil which we would have already locked in for now propane were not likely to lock in till after the budget year is started so that's a little bit more of a a gamble but 175 seems to be fairly realistic and something something bad Global happens okay is Community Center going to share the same fuel source or the community center will be exclusively
heat pump for heating the only the only propane for that will be for the commercial stove okay so it will just piggyback on we're not g to have a separate line item it just piggybacks off the same tank yeah it makes ense basically $2,000 increase or 57% on office supplies you're noting that we're consistently overspending this budget in Prior years so this is a more realistic figure makes sense and that pretty much brings us to the end I mean we have a increase too in the computer repair services it's probably just a market increase anybody have any questions that Eric hasn't already addressed or comments all set by me all set okay well let's go on to the community center this one might be a little more interesting so this is all new we
haven't had any of these expenses in our budget before I know some people were asking some questions about the wages for the director and asked about the job description and the kind of question came up about whether full-time director is needed you know I haven't looked at this question certainly but it does seem like a for a small town a full-time position out there is is a lot to me but I haven't done put a lot of thought into what we're asking them to do it seems like there's a lot of stuff outside of like normal just running the you know senior activities or something there's a fair amount on that job description and they're all it's all a benefit to the town so you know I'm I'm not feeling super strongly one way or other but this is a significant increase to the to the town's expense for sure now Town wanted this there's no doubt about that that was made very clear in a lot of meetings that I know all of you would have you know heard those those discussions but that that is means we got to pay for it it seems like in my opinion it's it's okay Mark that I mean you think about Carol Le's position how long she's been doing that job very important job a lot of
hours she's making less than that it just seems like a lot of money oh that's true she's making a little more with with the supplement but yeah well all right with something now but I mean again our town clerk for how many years and this is a brand new position I'm I'm just thinking myself like they're G to be scheduling events I I I don't know enough about the position it just seems like a lot of money in my opinion for the for the position but I don't know a lot about the position I'm for a brand new position I'm trying to justify in my head $60,000 I hadn't thought about that with the Carol angle yeah also lot of those things on the job description she does some of those things already too so like especially the recreation planning things like that for some of the stuff on there but two things one Carol isn't necessarily gonna be the down for all that much longer and the board of Selectmen wanted to switch the responsibility of that from Carol to whoever ran the comp Center so that way you do control it right especially if she were to move on or retire or something then yeah we don't I mean it's actually through the rec center not just through Carol through the rec commission I'm sorry not just through Carol I just had that in there I don't I don't want to take the
lead on this I want everybody else to speak I I definitely have some clear opinions on it because I kind of got swayed in a meeting so I'll listen to everybody else thought but but I do want to acknowledge that Bill's point about where the wage scale is I think it could be a little high too but but again I'm gonna sit back and then I definitely have some quick thoughts I want to extend one thing I would say about the wage scale is we have to be a little careful about comparing it to right what we have in place now right we also have to compare it to what the market is out there and that's what I'll speak to I've got Factory maintenance technicians that are making this much money yeah that's the way the world is right now this is a different job you know and it's a different orientation I understand that but I just want to make that point so we so we consider that as we as we evaluate it and again I don't know if Eric if you wanted for our benefit because I don't know all the details I mean could you discuss some of the other responsib abilities this person would have just so we get a better idea of what we're paying for sure so I looked at it as essentially providing three functions the first is for lack of a better term director of the SE of what would be a senior center that is managing senior Transportation you know which includes hiring firing drivers doing all the scheduling and dealing with the paperwork for C do for the grant programs you know managing the
luncheon program the senior trips program and then you know so so that's kind of the senior focused programming the other thing that I see is a really big shortfall of where we are now in terms of senior program programming is that we don't have any real active senior program you know we have Bingo and you know we have things of and we have movie night but there's nothing active and if you look at what most senior centers are doing they have a strong component towards exercise related stuff you know and that's something we don't do any of which we probably should so
that's one hat the second hat is all the programming and scheduling related to a normal community center right because this this facility is going to function as both and then the third thing is switching the recreational programming and scheduling you know onto one you know person you know that's accountable and that person as I see it is for lack of a better word one of the Three director level positions in the town one being myself one being Jay Tuttle one being whoever handles that end of things so that would mean getting the board of Selectmen directly out of the the field coordination stuff putting all that on that person that person should be doing coordination with with ahm both for summer programming and then starting to shift Services onsite here as opposed to making all the Andover residents go to Hein when they need ahm Services you know the board of Selectmen was adamant that they want to make that facility available for rental and special events and try to bring in some income doing that and that means somebody is going to have to to manage
that and that person you most senior community centers deal with their own grant writing because there's a fair amount of Revenue that's available for those types of entities and we're not going after a lot of that now you know and we should be you know I mean we just took delivery of $130,000 vehicle for senior transportation that we got because you know Kathy pazi wrote the grant with a little bit of help from me but not a lot and that's the kind of payoff we have so I see and they ought to be responsible for their budget and fiscal management for everything that happens in the community center and then the last thing is that eventually that building will be the town's emergency shelter and whoever runs that is going to have to have an active role in shelter operations when needed because we really need to transition that away from the school for for a bunch of different reasons but one of them being if you're using this school as a shelter you're not using it for its primary purpose which is educating kids so those are kind of the the general so I I see basically three distinct hats for this person you know Senior Services community services and Recreation Based Services as being their their job and them being a department head responsible for their own budgeting you know and then if we decide that that's more than we want to do then I think we're looking at a part-time position but I I don't know that I mean
if we were going to go to a part-time position I would probably try to find somebody that was retired and worked in a senior center or ran a senior center and wanted some part-time but you know that would not be a director level position and we would probably just strip it back to just the senior related stuff and drop everything else from the job description if you want to make it parttime so that's kind of how I look at it but you know all right yeah thanks Eric I'm gonna I'm gonna make a you know my I guess I'll comment on what my position would be on this this is new stuff as I said it was pretty clear that town wanted the community center the board of Selectmen working with Eric have kind of defined the roles and responsibilities and frankly there a lot there's a lot you know little pieces that they're thinking this person is going to be taking on so you know where's the salary need to be you know we can we quibble about that I think the real question is probably is it a full-time or part-time position I am in favor of leaving this right where it is for a couple of reasons like I said first the town told us that they wanted this community center this is an important aspect of of what we're doing as a town and I I'm kind of agnostic originally I looked at and said yeah gez you really need a full-time person but we have not I I
would be in favor of leaving it where it is we still have to have our hearing on the budget and we still have to have our budget meeting to me I think if the town taxpayers are very averse to paying for a full-time position they're going to make that you know this the opportunity is going to be there for them to voice that concern and to you know make the change during the town budget meeting should we decide to leave it at we can you know certainly once the budget hearing is is done we have our budget hearing meeting it's not usually that well attended but but hopefully we'll get some attention if we if we get you know some push back and saying you know hey you know we this is makees sense to do a full-time position you guys should reduce it we're hearing that elsewhere we can always take that action later after the meeting but I would be in favor of leaving it right where it is right now and kind of letting kind of letting the feedback come to us to see see what see where people are in the town I have a question on
that are the benefits of that person included in that 60,000 or is there going to be a separate line item for that no you if you went to the benefit Sub sub you would see that there there's I make two assumptions for this that this person will get murf so they will be enrolled in the retirement plan and they I you know just to be safe I said well assume for healthare benefits that they will be a one plus one a person for a spouse now maybe get really lucky and they want to do fee in Li of and that saves us a bunch of money but for Budget purposes you got to assume you know they're going to be both retirement and health care okay but if that goes down to a a part-time less than 20 hours which is probably not even reasonable that means the benefits would wouldn't be there right correct okay okay my thoughts on this this guys now that I had listened to the board of Selectmen too and I was more in favor of part-time at the beginning and starting slow but when you're in a role like this and you're responsible for so much in the way the town is just opening this community Senior Center we have so many seniors that have wanted this for so long so we want it to be done right we need to have a responsible person it's not scheduling either it's not just putting it on a calendar it's making sure all the permits are correct it's going to be you
know I don't know what kind of programs are going to go but there's a lot of things to it and I like the idea of when they talked about it it was scheduling for the whole town the fields the activities the PE you know programs at AES in the AES gym I mean we kind of do that where I work now obviously the school has first dibs on everything that you know that is in that building whether it's a library or the gym or whatever whatever activities are going on for the school but this person would work in concert with the school people like Eric had mentioned you know in consult with the Recreation Commission in consult with social services and hopefully everything that ahm could bring in concert with the senior center because all the people that are are involved in these things in our town are really close to retiring too and they're going to bring all that knowledge with them it's a big responsibility I could see I know
Eric set the goal high with the salary I've seen some advertised salaries Mark's right I mean it depends where you work you can get higher salaries wherever this is a small town I'm comparing it to what I've seen advertised for smaller towns I didn't quibble too much about the salary I think the salary could be a little bit lower but like you said that's not what we're here for for I mean you have to set up an office you have to set up all the paperwork you've got to get everything going you've got to get your plans ready you've got it's not just walking in and it's going to work I mean I just think you have to give a little grace to getting a whole program set up and running and it's a big undertaking for the town so that's my two cents initially I thought part-time all the way but then I was thinking of the backup work that has to be done and it's a lot you know and I'm more of it's a 40-hour position there's a few people in town I think Eric put something like 35 I'm not in favor of that for this I would think this would
definitely be a five day a week position maybe taking an afternoon off if they're going to do an evening event but that's you know so that's that's my thought I think there's a lot to this I also wanted to ask Eric I was big on I know that there's people in the building that get stiped not to take money away from someone but if you're going to have a position like this that is a big position then I wouldn't think people in the town that are doing senior luncheons or senior Transportation or getting stiens for that I think those will go away am I correct right now senior Transportation everything else related to seniors is running you know completely with volunteer the drivers get paid but those are the only paid positions I know there's a person but I don't want to name a person in this there's someone getting a stien for some of this work I would hope that stien you know would go away well no actually I don't think that should because I think that should be that is one role I do not want the senior center director I don't
want the senior center director being the social services person and in agent for the town I very definitely want those two roles separate I highly disagree but sorry it's not a it's not here for me to decide that but if you're going to bring on a full-time person and then have programs and things the person that's doing it now has her own job but again that's I I don't want to debate that but if we're gonna consider a big full-time there's definitely space in this that's those should be married I would think Eric can you can you expound on your reasons why you think they should be kept separate yeah because I I think you're you're dealing with kind of two you know in on the one hand you're running a facility and you're running a whole series of programs you know and on the other hand you're dealing with a bunch of things that are you know like like for instance anytime we get into a bad hoarding situation that's a social services person doing it the person that's you know getting people and dealing with operation fuel that's Social Services getting involved whenever we have a Vic that's Social Services that's not Community Center related stuff so I see those as two very distinct different job functions I I see exactly what you're
saying thank you Eric I'll have to have a private conversation with you because maybe I'm not understanding what I thought I was thinking so clearly that wouldn't be together I was I was thinking of more Social Services bringing in things to the community center that would so maybe maybe there's a huge need in our town that that person gets a stien for doing those things that you talked about I didn't know that thank you I guess I'll I'm GNA drop my original objection to the 60,000 and just let us move on here well this is our one chance to have a conversation I don't mind conflict or asking questions so I hope I'm not offputting but I I think our time to have a healthy debate yeah we should be talking about financing of this yeah that's what we're here for Brian did you have a comment yeah I'm not opposed to it I like the idea of putting it to the towns people that's that was like a brilliant idea because you know they're I thought it was a really good idea but you know I'm looking and I'm not debating whether the wage is too much part-time or any of that but like is one person G to a be able to handle all
these things what if they're sick you know there's seven days of the week instead of five people are going to be using it on the weekend I don't see an assistant there and maybe it makes more sense to have multiple part-time and I don't know the I don't know how many seniors we really have that necessitate and I don't know the what we anticipate for the community to come out to actually use the community center I don't know if there's been any surveys or anything so I don't know there's just a lot of questions and I don't think it's as straightforward a lot of these things are handled with various boards you know and I'm not sure I just I don't know it's tough to call because it's so new right yeah you know and there might be a little bit of the chicken in the egg thing it's like you know how much demand is there going to you know how much is going on there but if you had somebody promoting it and managing it maybe a lot more could go down there but how much how many people are really going to use it it's a it's a
tough it's a tough thing to kind of sus out yeah so that's where I'm at but I like your idea about putting it for the town to to also make it they get their their opinion on it other other comments questions or suggestions here well should we move on then do you guys want to kind of leave it as it is for now and this I think it's good that we got to just talk about it you know and and see because we received the the job descriptions that was good yeah it was it's good to have it's not our last whack at it we can come back and revisit we learn more think about it ruminate it I'm I'm good with moving on yeah yeah I think letting the town talk with us about it is a great idea yeah getting getting some input anyway yeah I definitely think that that's a good idea okay well I'm gonna make a suggestion and I'll leave this up to the board to vot we've we've done pretty well here we've actually gotten through quite a bit of this it's almost nine o'clock I'm running out of steam because I was picking somebody up at the airport again at midnight last night and at an early meeting so it's not about me but if I start to snore then you'll know why but I'm gonna propose that we consider bringing this to a close and picking up again in our next meeting we did make a lot of progress here I think we did well
I'll make the motion that we adjourn py I just one question before you do that is that is there anything you want that I haven't given you so far for the next meeting is there anybody you want to talk to specifically or anything you want to know prior to that meeting that I can supply not off the top anyone I'll just say thanks again Eric you add a lot of clarity to to so much of this so thank you I don't have anything else yeah I think we've we've asked for everything now it's just getting through it and then eventually you know the bottom line things yeah no good okay so you know I don't think we necessarily need a motion to and pass a motion on some of the adjustments we made in this meeting they won't become official until we do make a motion and vote on them but we can kind of hold them in as placeholders until we next regroup and then and then vote on it at that time if everybody's is okay with that just makes things a little more clean any other questions comments before we did we get a second on that motion to adjourn yeah Brian did okay Brian did okay thanks Brian any further discussion comments questions now's your chance okay we'll have a vote all those in favor say I I I any opposed no one no one wants to keep talking about this any exensions hearing none motion passes the
meeting is adjourned thank you very much everybody have a great weekend and again if you have questions you might want Eric or somebody else to entertain answering during in advance of our next meeting just by all means share those