reporting to the cloud. Hi everybody. Okay, so this is the Board of Finance special budget workshop, April 8th, 2026. Hopefully our last, but we'll see.
I'm going to start it off with the pledge of allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
All right. As I was mentioning, I don't know if everybody heard because people were still joining. Kim had emailed saying she wasn't going to make it. you know, hopefully it was going to be a short meeting, didn't need her, etc. so as I was saying to Liz, I just emailed her. I was looking at the last draft of the presentation and I think there's a discrepancy on two slides relating to RAM.
We have slide four and slide 11.
And so what I'm going to do, I'm going to share my screen. Did you want to go through public speak first or
Oh, my bad. Hang on. I I I keep forgetting to look at the agenda. I'm just like, let's go. My apologies. The only one I think we have we have Ron and Lisa. So, we'll go. Ron, do you have public speak?
Yeah, I'm just listening in, guys.
Appreciate it.
Okay. Thank you.
hey, Lisa, thank you for making it.
You're welcome. I'm sorry. I'm finishing my dinner.
Yeah. Ma mji eat. So anyway, we were looking I was looking at the presentation as I was saying. and I do think the RAM numbers are a little screwy on at least one of these slides. So could very well be share my screen.
Hey, while you're doing that, can you guys know like will they just lower our levy or are we to get a check? Do you guys know how that's to be handled yet?
All right. So I am super confused. I I remember we talked about how there was a meeting Monday night and I couldn't make it and Liz couldn't make it either. So, what I ended up doing, I was at the town hall today paying my taxes and then I popped it. I was talking to various people and Roberta had it up and said, "Here's the recording." And we kind of went through the the beginning bit where they were talking about the levy and and the offset
and it just wasn't clear to me from that recording unless I just missed it. My specific question, and I've asked this before, and I just I emailed Colin again today asking it again. What number will appear on the referendum? Because the offset is that's fine. We know we can plan for that. We know we don't need to tax, you know, as much. But I think personally that the the their full cost, the full cost levy, the the 4.2 2 million and change. That's what should be on the ballot because otherwise you're kind of hiding it. You know, you're kind of masking it with this. It would look like a reduction and it's not,
right?
so I asked that. I don't see a response as yet. I mean, I didn't I don't I don't think I got that email off until 4 in the afternoon. So, you know, I'm not going to be calling up about that. But I just didn't get from that meeting clarity.
I know what the number is. the numbers clear.
Yeah, but I just wonder like
how are they going to handle it exactly is still to me to my mind a little fuzzy.
Yeah.
Okay.
okay folks, let's let's go through this thing. This is this is just it, you know, process slide. Same thing here. second Tuesday in May. We did we verify that date?
I I did. Yeah, I called.
The second Tuesday is is the 12th, isn't it?
You're right. You know what? I fixed it on one. It's supposed to be the first.
So, it's the first. Yeah.
So, am I editing?
you edit yours. I have this up. I think I pulled this up from the email. I saved yours to my drive, but you edit
o first.
Thank you. Yep. First.
No problem. First. So now the first thing that comes to mind is this. So this number looks right to me.
I can't remember if this I this might be right. I knew it was about 3%. I thought it was a little different than that, but bear with me. This number I believe is the correct number based on the levy chart. What I said I emailed you that levy chart, right?
Yep.
So that's the number from there.
you know what? I don't know if I relooked at that partic this particular slide. I looked at the other slide. So, hold on.
It's 11 that I got a real issue with, but this one I just want to make sure it's right. I think that is the right number. And I think we just want to have that number firmly in our heads because a what we just talked about.
what that number is the total expenditures for RAM,
the total and over levy, which is two components, right? You've got the you've got the ops and then you got to add the 63250 for a capital.
You got to add them together.
Oh, that might be where I went wrong.
I think this is the the number added together. I remember it being 4.25 something.
So, I think that number is right.
Yeah.
So, that is correct. So, but if we go to 11 and I'll come back to the other slides, but I just want to go straight to the the issue that I saw this here.
That's not the right number, I don't think. And that's why it's producing this odd
change.
Yep.
Okay. So, the proposed
also and this one too, this is off too. This is 399 something and this should be 42 blah blah blah blah,
right? So it should be 42
58 ahead
4258178.
Yeah,
it should be 4258178 and 00. Is it 00 or we doing pennies or no?
I believe it's 0.
Yeah, we said no pennies.
Okay. And then
and and then you know this number here is wrong too now because what you did I think you subtracted the the offset from the wrong number
55 or 289 whatever it is.
Yeah. So if memory serves what these numbers should end up as this should end up as plus like 3% and this should end up like minus 3%. Instead of plus 75 and minus 5 and a half.
I think you're probably right.
cuz that's what we had and then I think you went through it again and you got mixed up a little bit. Yes, I did. I went I went Yeah. 39999302.
So, which which number? The
below it. Just
Yeah, the one taking away the 258. Yeah, that should be
Yeah, these are both off and they're throwing off the percentage.
Yeah.
Can you Can you say that number again? 399.
Sure. 3999302.
Okay. And then
so Rob, why don't you put that other number above it? The right number.
I'm going to
Oh.
I just, you know, this isn't the this isn't the real working draft since we're having I was keeping I was having since Liz had it, I was going to have her
keep, you know, keep ownership for now. her edits are the going to be the ones that matter.
So there's no math in the chart there.
There's no math in the chart. This is a copy paste from a spreadsheet. You got to fix it on the Excel and then paste it back in.
I got you.
Okay. So then the increases would
math out.
These are these are just off. I mean they're just
And then these will and then down here these will probably recalculate as well.
Oh, so you're just going to put in the the Excel sheet and then recopy that and put it in here.
Yes. Oh, copy it back over. Yeah,
I got you. Yeah, because you I don't think in PowerPoint you can make it do Excel things.
I don't think you can do it. Yeah.
No.
So, what what are those numbers like plus three and minus three?
Yeah, roughly. I had it earlier.
2.97.
Yeah, this one's this one's like Yeah.
And then minus 3.29.
I know we went over and over and over that. I can't believe that I got that wrong.
You know, I did something like this earlier, too. It's like when you have multiple drafts, you know.
Yes, that's the problem. Okay, so 4,258 178 and then 3. Oh, I've got it right on here. I think I just said I think I copied the wrong one. So, the proposed without offset turns out to be 2.26. Is that right?
No, it shouldn't be. It should be 2.97. Okay.
What is the What do you have for the 2526 Ram levy number? So
Oh, see I 4135 532 is what I have.
What?
4135 532.
I think that's
really close. But
hat's Yeah.
4135
32. And if that's the case, then that's going to recalculate. Damn it. Okay. Yep.
So then this might recalculate. This might recalculate all the formulas.
4153 or 4135.
I have 4135532.
That's what's in the budget book.
Oh, there you go. Sorry.
So that makes it a 2.97% correct
increase and then a negative 3.29.
That sounds right.
Okay, that's correct. And then total increase So, and all the formulas should hopefully once you put the right numbers in, right, all the formulas are in there in the Excel chart, right?
Yep.
Okay. Okay. Okay. So, does that do anything down here, Liz?
let me see. Does it do anything?
Because we, if we change this, this, and this, does it change these, and therefore these?
You know what? When we I think when we talked about it, we decided to not use that second line, but I can put it in.
Yeah. I thought we decided Oops, sorry. I thought we decided forget this. This This here is is a nonsense line. Yes. Because it's the offset. It's a oneshot deal.
Correct.
Yeah. So, the increase since 2021 equals 969 I'm sorry, negative 969 633. equals. So let me just
Now when you say 21 and I said 21, what I meant I think was 2020
to 2021. All right. I just wanted to make sure because it it gets confusing.
So So it's D. Let me just make sure I'm doing this.
Yeah, it's it's you know it's this versus this.
I want to make sure. Y make sure
it's definitely a decrease. It's just a question whether it's that. I think this is right, but
D29 minus total increase. So equals D29 minus Yeah, I think that's wrong. Okay, so the difference from the current proposed budget and the 2020 2021 number
is 969 633. And that's 18.55%.
Okay. So, that's what it'll look like once we've got this fixed. The only other one that needs to be looked at, Liz, is this here because we changed this number. So, this number here should recalculate.
Assuming, of course, I have the right numbers in here. Remember, I went through Hebrin's budgets and pulled these. So, I hope they're I think they're right, but I hope they're right. Hold on. I wasn't looking at what you were
Oh, okay. Sorry. The change percentage year to year.
Can you just I just want to copy and paste this over right now. So that as we move on to the next slide. So this is right. Okay. So slide 11.
That 33 can't be right because the number's going down.
Yeah. Yeah. It's like it's like zero.
Yeah, it's essentially it's going to be like a negative point. It's like I thought it was this or something like that.
I just did it quick and I got 0.0035.
So you call it zero.
Yeah.
So what what is 0.035?
That change
the year the year-over-year change number, right?
From 2425 to 2526 here in this column. You see what I'm highlighting? It's not like truly zero, but it's pretty close to
Yeah, it's so close to zero. It's a rounding error. I mean, it's you get 200.
Oh, the 25 26.
It's like that.
Yeah. Yeah. Let me see.
Yeah.
actually, mine comes out to 35%. So Lisa, what number? Sorry, Lisa, what number do you have for 2425 actual levy?
2425. Hold on. 425 RAM. 4150106.
Yep, that's what we got.
Okay. And 4135532.
413532. basically an arrow.
Yeah.
Hilda in front of the zero.
Say like Yeah. Right. Like
Yeah.
Like that.
That's good.
I realized what the problem is. I don't have the calculation in there. It's just it was just a hard number.
So that Oh, that it goes to still goes to 0.35%.
I have 0.0035.
Yeah, that would be right.
Yeah,
it might be off. There might be a decimal place issue here.
I I think that tilda zero.
What was that?
Why do
Yeah, it seems like it's so small though. I think like the tilda zero works because if we put zero, people are going to question why. But we're saying with the tilda, it's like approximately zero. That's how I
it is point Lisa's numbers right. So there's a there's a formula error in there Liz.
if it's producing
for the formula. Okay. So my formula is
2025-26
minus 2425
divided by this
divided divided by 24 and I get 0.35%.
Yeah. 0.35
percent 0.35% is the change percentage.
Oh. Oh, wait. Not okay.
Okay. I think that's actually probably right.
Yeah,
that's it. That's it. That's it. That's right.
That's the same as zero. Yes.
Fun with decimal places. Got it. Percentage. Yes, that's right.
Okay.
Yep. The other thing I did is I just stuck dollar signs up here. I I don't know. It just doesn't matter. But they weren't in
stuck dollar signs where
on in front of all these RAM levy numbers just in the p the past numbers they didn't have. So I just had them that it doesn't
I don't know what the heck happened. What I'm looking at has I don't know what happened guys. I'm sorry.
It's okay. I
Hey, I I've definitely sent out things where I thought I had fixed something and then like you caught it and
yeah,
try, you know, just let's tighten it up. It's fine. It's no big deal. so I'm going to Are we being good with this slide for now? Like for you're going to you're going to fix it
based on us.
Yep.
And then what I think we can do is if you can fix it while we're talking and email it around again, I'll pull up that one and then we can see it. Oh,
but I was going to go back while you're doing that.
this the budget snapshot. I think this is all correct.
Oh, that's the other issue. This thing here. So, okay. Did you see the email I forwarded you from Jodie about the the spreadsheet error?
I did. And I went back and forth and back and forth. Should we fix it? Should we not fix it? you know, the difference makes that's really up to you whether we should actually fix them.
Based on I'd like to fix it since we're fixing stuff and and get it right and then we're all on the same page and then we don't have I don't want to have an argument over two grand or whatever it was,
right?
what do we fix it to? Do we fix it what their budget actually adds up to or what has been reported? What was what was actually passed by the town as their budget?
what what is the issue? It didn't it
Oh, not sorry. Not this. It's not it's not this number. This is the number they're requesting. Sorry. Let me go to
Yeah, it goes to the previous year. Yes, it's it's it's this one that we're showing a slight difference between this what the school had as their number and what Liz had calculated as their number based on a school spreadsheet. but I know that I think the budget number, the actual budget that was passed is slightly different than that number right there. And it's just it's 2,000 bucks. I think it's 4565 something or other instead of four 563.
And I just think like they're sorting out where where they went wrong. But
yeah. so actually the 2024 2025 and the 2025 2026 numbers don't add up correctly in the budget that we received from them in the PDF that they that we received from them.
Right?
So just for everybodyification, Liz took that and put it took that PDF and dumped it into an Excel chart and did the sum formula
nd they didn't didn't match the totals,
right?
Right. So, the difference, the dollar difference, okay, so when you add up all the columns, let me just say it this way. When you add up, the 2025 2026 adopted budget, when you actually do the math through an Excel spreadsheet, it adds up to 4 million 563 659.60,
which is the number you have on this slide.
Yep. But in the PDF bud in the PDF budget that we received the bottom line totaled in their total was4 million 565 669 and60. So it's a difference of $210.
Now the question I'm trying to remember now is what did what did we have in the budget document last year
that was actually passed I looked at that. did I save it?
My figure is 4565532 and that's what's in QuickBooks. That's all I'm telling you is that's what was put in for a budget integration.
532 even.
That's all is 0. Yeah,
you should always go zero. Round it up to this.
Yep.
Well, okay, whatever. So,
I'd be tempted to use that number. Even though I I like you're not wrong about the the addition, but
No,
I think it's confusing and I think it's such a small difference, but I don't
Wait a minute. My my amount is a little I was reading the last digits from below. It's It's close to that. It's Hold on. 4565462.
This
Yep.
I'm getting confused. 4 million 565462.
Yeah, that was that's what I have in QuickBooks. Yeah.
Is that what we passed?
we'd have to go on to
Hang on. I'm going to do that right now. I'm just not going to share my screen while I do it.
Yep. And so to make things even more confusing, the same thing the same problem happened in the 2425 adopted. That number also added up incorrectly. So, that amount is off by $1,600. All right. So, budget going to referendum 125 is the last document on the town website. Oh, and it just gave me an error. It won't open the file. Okay.
Oh, I was just I was just in it earlier. Did you scroll down?
Hang on. It's opening this time. I just had to back up and try again.
Right. But did you notice that there's a whole bunch of different dates of budgets on that?
Yeah.
20. Okay.
I did. There's a whole list of them. And what I picked was the the latest date.
Okay.
The one that went to referendum on the 27th of May, which I believe was the one that passed.
The number that's in here is 456546090.
Yeah. and mine rounded to 462. So that's what I have too.
Oh, so that was for the 2526.
That's what we actually passed. Now the 2425 it's in here as you know the past year number is 4 348058.
What? which is must be an actual.
That's what they have.
Yes. No. No. That's what they had. That was I think their budget because my actual my actual for 2425 is only 4,046948.
All right. Hang on a minute here.
Yeah. So, so the number that you just read,
Rob,
the 3 million 34 4 million
348. It's the exact number that's in your chart.
Yeah, that's that's exactly what they have.
Yeah.
Yep. I used their number and I probably should have gone back and used their number as well for 25 26. I mean, I don't know.
I I mean, I I prefer so there's no discrepancy for between
things, but it's not shoot. You know, again, either way, it's such a small change, but I I would go with this number, which is what was in there. I understand that Lisa is off by a buck 40. but this is what was in there that we I think we actually passed. I don't know quite what happened with the $200 here, you know, or or rather not $200, you know, $1,800
2,000 whatever. Okay. So I would put this
and that's in slide slide number what?
This is in slide nine
and that will change the percentage increase and it'll propagate down. Hopefully all the formulas are in the spec sheet.
Yeah, they are. it should
Okay. So all right. So to to review
Okay. Okay. So, we're keeping the 2425 number and then for the 2526 it's going to be 4 million 565
460 46
1 it should be because it's 0.90. So, I'll round it. So, it'll be four five65 461.
Okay.
Because there's ends in 90 cents. So,
sure. I would think rolling it up to one.
Sure.
Okay. So, that is good. yeah, that's good. that.
And so this should 58. That should be 5%. That's exactly right. It should be 5%. because that's what we that's what we did remember. So okay and then the question is whether the cumulative numbers are right.
So I get accumulative 1699% is that oh okay 16 99% that would make sense
and then 26
Yep. 16.99. So 17
% Yep.
And then
is that 10.91?
Is that cumulative number still correct?
We just I just double checked it on my I just double checked the math. Yes,
it's good. Okay.
Yep. So that's 1091, right? 10.91.
And that'll match them and then it's not confusing.
and then Yep. then everything else
number I haven't verified the last number yet either.
so D Okay. Increase if passed. If passed equals
Yep. Correct. All right. I just want to quickly check one thing then.
So back on slide Four. The percent change number 499991. Is that right? 499991. The change and the percentage were and that. Oh, and this here too. We got to No, this is right. So, it's just these two numbers. We need to verify now cuz yours you you had 96 in here and we just altered it. So, it's 91. And I just want to make sure this number is therefore correct.
Correct.
Yes. Are are we are we good?
I don't know. You verifying the RAM number and all that stuff.
No, I was I I'm going back to slide four.
Yep. the AES BOE the endover BOE because we changed to 10.91% right because we just altered the the numbers down there instead of 10.96 because you had 10.96 here I typed in 10.91 but I just want to double check this raw dollar figure the 4990140 is accurate that's the change
last year the same
so Good point. Okay. I should really be doing this upstairs in the office so I can use multiple
screens. This is
monitors.
Yeah. Okay. So, we went from AES. Where is it?
63651.
Okay. So, AES, right? So the proposed is now 10.91.
See I get 498 190
63. Hold on. 651. can you go back to the other screen that shows last year for one second? Thank you. Okay. 498190. Is that what you got?
That's what I got.
That's what I got, too. I'm sorry. I've got to do this math over. I don't know what happened to Then we you know I think this chart should be fine. This is town operating capital. I think all these numbers are fine. got the right levy number in. We fixed this slide already. So, if it's helpful, I just saved this with all my changes so we could always compare. RAM total budget history. This is their big time. This is their big boy budget. This is the full budget. Okay. question.
Yeah.
On that, can you go back a slide? We're talking about the sources. So, state and federal All right, never mind. I was going to say state and federal grants. Does that like include the road money that we get from the state at just
I don't think that our revenue number has ever included town aid road.
Yeah, that's what I was saying. But you could also mention it there or put it there or something. I don't know.
I you know I if people ask about road spending I'll I'll mention like look what you see in our capital budget we add 385 that's not the sum total of what road work we do. The problem is I don't know off the I don't recall off the top of my head what how much we get in town aid road a year.
It's a little opaque to me.
Okay.
So it's a little hard for me to talk about it intelligently. U obviously if I could be provided that number then I'd be happy to talk about it. But we've never we've for some reason we've never had it in the budget
should be in there. And it's funny that we don't know that number like
yeah I think that's something I want to work on. I want to work on
e of those special funds that I haven't been able to reconcile reconcile yet.
So I hate to give a number that is incorrect.
Yeah.
it is is recorded here much differently than I have ever recorded it. So I'm not confident giving that number either because I don't
understand what they did why they did it. So I don't want to give out a false number. We just got in 123,000, but did we get another one last fall, which would be 246,000? I don't know. I haven't had time to go back and look. So,
yeah. I don't know how many installments we get,
right? And if they're the same, even if they're different amounts or two of the same amount. I I can't tell from what's been recorded. So, I have to go in and do some research.
Sorry about that. I just haven't I can't I can't get there. So the last slides here guys are you know between Liz and I we kind of worked out like explaining to people what this means to them. This is a snapshot of okay this is our mill rate calculation like taken from that chart that we use but then you know an explanation of okay the grand list for motor vehicles therefore this is how much you can raise for motor vehicles total this is this then leaves how much we have to raise from other taxation and we have this as our
list for real estate.
And then so then we did a real estate assessment value. You know, if your house is valued this, this this this, here's what you paid last year, here's what you would go ahead and pay this year if we passed this budget. And here's your difference. and then with the auto assessment. Oh, this was the other thing. Do you remember this was this looks weird because it's 7,600. Why? Why? These are nice round numbers. wise this year. Yeah, that's my car. I was I was verifying and making sure it's right. So, and as Liz helpfully said, that's Rob's beater. So, we could take that off. I think
I took the name off, though. I didn't say anything.
You did. You took off, but I I just think it looks weird.
we could take it out.
Yeah. I mean, it was just for me. It was me trying to verify. How do I delete a a row in this? Can I delete a row? It doesn't matter because I'm going to do it on the on the master here anyway.
Yeah.
Okay, that's fine. I'm just saving my own version just so I have it. but you you will have the master. But I would take that out because it was weird.
We leave it in there. People might have cars that are le, you know, less than $10,000,
right? If we were going to leave it in there, I' I'd change it,
you know, I'd change it to make it, you know, because this is just weird. Why 76?
Yeah. 7500's nice.
Maybe make it a $5,500 car.
I don't know. I don't know who's got that, but yeah, sure. I don't care. It's just this one sticks out because it's a weird number in comparison to these. And it was just me saying, "All right, am I doing this right? Does this check out?" And I looked up my taxes. Yep, that's what I pay. Da da da. That's what I owe this year. So, it was just
it was a change to 55.
I'll change it to 5,500.
I mean, either do I would say either do 5,000 or 7500. You know what I mean? Because it's nice. Like, we have 10, we have 20, we have 30. I don't know who's got a $5,000 assessment on their car, but if you did.
Okay. All right. So, 7500.
Yeah, let's do 7500.
All right.
And so, it'll be it'll be slightly different. It'll be, you know, 230 something blah blah blah. As you can see, the differences here are poultry. It's the the the meat of course is in your house. And then that's it. That's just the
Looks good. Okay. So, we'll fix this.
If we go back to the budget snapshot.
Sure. Hang on.
That dollar number does change because the dollar the the difference changes to four.
Shoot.
I had 4981 190. 4981 190.
Is that right? Is that what you get?
Yep.
All right. I I think this thing is I think we've sorted it out. The budget breakdown these this chart shouldn't be altered by any of what we just did because this is a this year only and using this year's requests. So, this should all be fine. Okay,
we don't have the totals there, but we have them on like every other slide, so whatever. yeah. I mean, honestly, I think this is good to go now with those alterations. you know, the only other thing I was considering this line here, you know, maintenance is not a driver. I, you know, if it's you're just maintaining, that's not driving an increase. That was the thing I I kind of said I I might well, you know, pull that.
So, here's here's what's my thought about that. my thought about that is we know that a lot of we know the COVID funding is going away and they and probably every other school in Connecticut have counted on u that money for special education needs and probably other things. So that's my interpretation of what that means. Maintenance of special education costs despite the fact that the fund funding is going away.
yeah, you still have the obligation whether or not you get help with it. Okay. So we I'm happy to leave it to I was just like maintenance. Okay. I think I think the word maintenance is what was messing with my head. That's cool.
this here I'm just putting it for my own notification. This is my understanding of the grant the specific grants that were lost.
One is lost. I think the 45,000 for the psychologist was flat out lost. It just expires at the end of June. And then this my understanding is there was a reduction. I don't know the order of magnitude of that as I wasn't I didn't have time to get that information and I I suspect it's not as as much but I I can't I don't know off the top of my head. I think our other numbers add up nicely. Did we have a town? Hang on. Ram budget levy. We didn't really have a driver, you know, page for the town budget, did we?
That's okay. We can talk about that.
I was going to ask that
because it's mostly it's mostly salary increases.
Yeah, except for there's a $44,000 increase because of the 21% insurance and it's mentioned in
it's the insurance. It is. It absolutely is. It's the insurance and it's raises.
You should probably
raises benefits and the healthcare insurance increase that that AS is dealing with as well,
right?
You probably should put a slide in there. I mean, if you show the school, you should probably show the right.
Yeah,
you know, basically
Yeah, I could have sworn we had a slide.
I did too. There was one the other day, wasn't there?
Yeah, we should. We should get that back.
Oh, those would be my three bullets. My three bullets would be salary increases salary and benefits SL salary/benefits or salary increases benefit costs and then you could either do it as a separate line or a parenthetical with benefits saying 21% healthcare increase same as with affects town too or something like that.
Yep.
Those are the drivers as far as I can tell. I I don't think there's much else in there that's worth a bullet point. We've we made some little tweaks here or there to this that the other.
so I have little tweaks.
Oh yeah. Hi Louise.
Yeah. I still think we should put the superintendent salary in there
as a driver because it's not a 3% increase. It's 11% increase. And yes, it is contract. But does the public know? I mean, they're going to figure, okay, contract is 3%. And they're going to figure, okay, she's getting 3%, too. So, I really think, you know, we're we're doing a a disjust what's the word?
Disservice.
Disservice for not Yeah. to the public for not just putting that bullet on there. And you know, my disagreement with that is just the order of magnitude. It's $10,000. There are multiple things in the town budget that we're not singling out a particular employee and saying they're getting 10 grand. I mean,
this is not this is an employee, but it's a superintendent. And
that's different than like,
you know, when we when we went back and forth with with Lisa type of situation. That's different because well, I already wrote everything on that. I just feel pretty strong about having it on there because you're blindfolding the public.
I don't I I don't believe we're blindfolding them at all. It's in the BOE budget. It's been discussed repeatedly. They've had they came back to it at repeated meetings. I mean, and I think it's been all around town, but I I really don't think it's being hidden. It's just to me, it just doesn't make the the cut. Everything else on this list is is more money than that. So that's why I did it the way I did it. that's my take. Oh, by the way, we got to fix this one right here. 10.91
on this here
on this slide. This is eight.
Oh, BOE.
Yeah. Okay.
We changed we fixed that.
Can you still hear?
So that's my take. I understand your take, Louise. I mean, we've kind of gone back and forth on it.
is it going to be in the BOE presentation where they go through all the different things that we have as I don't think they're going to be able to have a presentation. I was just texting back and forth with Caitlyn tonight. She wanted to do a presentation,
but nothing got put on the town website. She had contacted I guess she had been talking to Jeff Magcguire and thought things something was going to be sent out about it to do a 6:30 start time so they could do a thing and none of that ever happened and now we're 24 hours out.
So I think they're going to be there and they can answer questions from the public but I don't think they're going to there's no setup for them to do a presentation and I don't think
yeah the public's not going to see the line by line of the BOE then. Well, they wanted to print their budget out for handouts. They That's the other thing they were asking about today, and I want to try to make sure that that happens at town hall tomorrow,
that we print out a bunch of those.
Does anyone else on the board feel the same as I do, or is it just me?
Well, Kim was with you. She's not here tonight, but she I know she voiced her agreement.
Yeah, I'm with you as well.
I I think there's other other issues that I have surrounding the way that all happened.
whether or not
Heather, how do you feel, Heather?
I was going to say I I don't agree only because someone else on the town is getting the same dollar amount budget and we we like that and we agree with that so we're not calling it out. But this one some of us don't like or we don't like so we are calling it out. That doesn't seem fair. Well, based on what the other person did, it's it's way under what she should be getting in the first place.
I agree. I agree. We all agree. See, this is the thing whether we threw enough money into that,
right? I agree. I just feel like we can't be calling out one and not the other.
Can I could I just before we come back to this issue, just before I forget about it, just apologies, my brain's ping ponging. Liz, when we add a slide for the bullet points for the budget drivers for the town budget,
I would put it between six and seven
or between seven and eight.
Oh, okay. Between seven and eight.
Actually, yeah, between six and seven or seven and eight because I'm trying to find the best spot to say, okay, where's the the town budget driver? Because we do, if you look at where the AES board of education budget
Yep. It's there. Actually, we could put it we could put it Where's our Andover? We could put it between five and six
because we have town operating capital below it. We have the numbers below it. So, it could be between five and six,
right? So, it should it'll be the new slide number.
The idea being like it's the same format of we explained the budget drivers for this, here's the numbers, then we explained the budget drivers for AES, here's the numbers. So, it's consistent.
Yep. So, it'll go right after budget breakdown the with the chart
right right after the pie chart. That would be I think that's the place to put it.
Salary increases.
Ron, I see you got your hand up. Give me a moment here. I let me just get through this bit and I'll call on you.
I think we're not in public speak right now.
Yeah, I know we're not. So, I think there's public speak at the end. I'll get to you. So, I just wanted to say that to Louise, I totally agree that the other person should be getting at maybe possibly more than what they're getting. So, I don't disagree with that.
Right.
And and I'll just add to that, but a lot of people make the case that Val is underpaid, too. She's the lowest paid superintendent in the in the school in the state. I mean,
right. My people,
yeah, we can't we can't call out one and not the other because we agree with one and not the other or whatever. So I just
hat's part of
that's that's sort of my take and and as well but I wasn't my main driver. My main my main explanation for why I did it the way I did it. It's just that it doesn't make the cut in terms of you know raw dollar value. So I mean the fifth grade teacher what's that 50 60 grand in salary probably plus benefits. The psychologist you know that's it's 45 really you know we have the 90,000 for the psychologist but it's really you know it's the the loss of the $45,000 grant. All of these are multiples of 10,000. So that's why I did what I did. I think that's the right call. And I don't want to set up I I really don't want a situation where we call out a particular yes, she's the superintendent, but a particular person and then what is it? We're going to go through we're going to pick at every individual salary increase on the town side too to you know get into that.
So that's why I did it the way I did it. That's my that's my take. I'll let you guys finish what you guys want to discuss. and then hopefully we could
We haven't heard from Nick.
Yeah,
I was just wondering, is that even kind of our spot to comment? It seems like we elected the BOE to essentially make decisions on that behalf.
We It's their call to to put it in their budget that we could we could highlight. This is our this is ourformational slide. So, no, it's not that we can't put something on there. I just don't think it's I I just don't want to do it for the reasons already given. But I think, you know, there's nothing preventing us from like they made they're the ones who made the call in at in their meeting to hand out that raise and put that in their budget. That's their take.
U but it's the same thing for any part of their budget that they've approved. It doesn't mean that it can't be listed in a bullet point. you know, that's that's not how I would think of it.
You you said they they are handing out their budget line by line so people can
I want to I want to get that as a handout and let me just double check something. because I thought I was getting
Yeah, it should be passed out. Usually there's copies at the front of the room.
Yeah, hang on. I was talking to Caitlyn and here it is. Caitlyn was texting me tonight asking if we have copies of the school budget printed for people for reference. you know, for months we've been saying we'd have a Q&A da da da. So, tomorrow, one of the things I need to make sure we do is print out an appropriate number of the school budget document. so that we can hand it out as a handout. I need to get down to town hall and get that done.
so would that be a line by line or would that be like a summary? It
I'd have to look at what they sent us again. hang on a minute.
Yeah, it probably be the the PDF that they sent us. I'm guessing
it's on their website, right? Because that's where I got the figures from was on their website.
They had also sent us something. hang on a minute. I just got to find there's been a lot of emails.
We used to have the school print them for us and then bring them to the meeting. I hate to have you do the work and town hall do the work when it's their budget and they want to present it.
Well, I thought I thought they always said that they they printed it at the town. I now I'm confused as to who printed what.
I Well, they I mean I don't know. I mean, you weren't here last year. I I don't recall.
I don't recall because I didn't run it.
No, I'm just saying where I worked before. They always provided
where you where you worked before. Yeah.
It was a beautiful budget. it was color and it was, you know, bound together and all this stuff with all these explanations, but we just do black and white. So, but the school office provided it so that we didn't have to print it.
There it is. Jodianne sent us a Yeah, the the the chart on the 7th yesterday. So, let me save this to my drive.
Can you share that, Rob?
One moment.
Okay. I just wanted to get it saved and then too many things can people see hang on just looking for this looks pretty line by line. Just looking for superintendent. Hang on. Will it let you control F?
So my problem with this is
it it should be populated fully. The last column should be fully populated so it's transparent to the voters.
This year they just did the subtotals.
Yes.
If I if I had done this chart I would have done it that way. You're right.
So it doesn't reflect 11%.
What? It just
it doesn't reflect 11% for the superintendent.
It just it's kind of buried into the calculation of all of them.
So the three Yeah. 3% is going to bring down a lot. The 11%.
3%. What do you mean?
Well, the other It's
Oh, you found it.
It's It's here,
right?
And it's 5,000. Oh, I think what it was is, didn't they give her It was It was multiple years. Is it's a multi-year contract, I think.
Yes.
So, this year it's 5,000.
I think that's supposed to be
it was 10,
but I thought it was for some reason I thought she was at 90 and and was going up.
I I don't know if that's next year.
That's what I thought, too.
wait a minute. I thought everything they sent over showed 90 to 100.
Yes. I I Is that an older one you're looking at?
This is literally She emailed this yesterday. Jod emailed us yesterday.
That's not right.
Showing 2025 2026. It's not the 20.
It's supposed to be 26 27. That's the wrong
26 recommended. Oh, okay. This is This is last year's.
Yeah, it's wrong.
This is supposed to be 26 27 because it is 100,000.
Yep. Oh, yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. I see what happened here. This was an email that I pulled from looking at when we were trying to find out that $2,000 discrepancy that Liz and I were talking about earlier. That's what happened. My fault, guys.
All right.
Can I just make a comment on on that
only because well, what I find is you were worried about the percentages. What I find is like if someone has a very small budget of $800, even a $100 change looks like they're getting, you know, a 10%. It's best if you could put the difference, the decrease or increase and then the percentage because something that might say 7%age of last year for one row might only be $25 and it might be 7% for another row of $2,500. So, by not putting that increase and decrease in there, it's kind of not really showing what they're going up and down.
It's just giving you a percentage. It depends on the size of that row. Yep.
To what that percentage is.
Good point, Lisa.
So, it it's kind of hard because people look at, oh my gosh, that's 10%. Well, it might only be $10 because your total bill was $100.
So, if you just put a percentage, it kind of doesn't tell people where the real money is. like in ours, I picked up right away and said, "Oh, 44,000 went up 21%, went up 44,000." But you can't do that in this budget. You don't know how much that percentage is because there's no dollars for an increased decrease.
I pulled their budget. I pulled the budget from their website. so we can see this year's. Just give me a moment.
I agree with Lisa though. That's a great way for people to get hung up.
Yeah. And it might be to their benefit even at some points because, you know, people are saying, "Oh, it went up 10%." Well, like I said, that money if you have a $100 line item, that's only $10. So, you really can't complain about a 10% increase if it's only $10.
That's like what Liz was saying, this whole that whole last column should be filled in,
right?
But well,
what what Lisa is saying, Heather, is that you see a big percentage that only represents a few dollars,
right? It should be dollar the dollars and the percentages should be
two difference in dollars and percentage.
Can you maybe Rob ask them if
they're going to they they should print out their budget and could they have two columns at the end? One with the dollar difference and this percentage difference populated throughout the document.
I I can ask I mean at this at this this is the wrong one. Hang on. I had it up.
Well, if they have they haven't printed them yet.
I literally had it up. Hang on. Nope.
Oh, I see. Oh, it said it only has percentage. Yeah, they should have a row for dollars for sure.
Should have a row for dollars and percentages.
There. Here it is.
If they want help, I can just forward the I just forward the Excel spreadsheet. I sent
Yeah, help us. I'm willing to help.
We're willing to help.
I could sit on a call with someone in two seconds and we could go through this.
It would be so fast and easy in Excel. It'd be
Is that already a dollar change? Yes, subtotal. They subt this year. This year has the subtotals, but again, it's only subtotal. It's only subt. It's not throughout the whole thing. It's just the subtotals. But there there it is.
If they could just populate that all the way, that would be really helpful.
That would be helpful. And an Excel spreadsheet take minutes to do that to Nick's point, right? You get the you drag it down. Yep.
It's just Yeah. I already did it. I got it right here.
You got it
even quicker if you steal Liz's formula.
I uploaded it.
I just don't know if there's there's time for you know Jodianne to do that tomorrow and then and then for us to print it. But I I agree with you guys. It's it's a nice
to have the the both the percentage and the raw dollar value in in every field.
Yeah,
I think that is a nicer way.
It doesn't take any time to do it. second.
I mean, for them to print it, even if they printed it from their admin system, it's probably a snap. Otherwise, I mean, I could share this Excel spreadsheet and it would be done. It's just you're get they have to copy it anyway.
I am in the spreadsheet now, though, too. And I see they did reflect the salary correctly.
Yeah, it's in there, right? It's just I had to get the right budget. That was that was, you know, my mistake.
I was I was racing.
All right. I have this saved now. so I
updated I updated the drivers, too. I found the the what you call it the slide from the other the original and the
Oh, for the end of the town the town.
Yeah. And the drivers that we had were increased legal retainer fees due to anticipated easement projects.
Oh, right.
Contractual slashstandard salary increases, additional funding for for potential new admin assistant for town administrator, additional funding for assistant to community and senior center director. increased funding for community and senior center programs and decreased capital 2.92%.
Oh, that's right. So, those are much smaller drivers, you know, on the town side. I mean, just I mean, I don't know if there are really bigger ones to to add than that, but those Yeah. Okay. Some of those
add the insurance one to that.
Yeah, we got to add the insurance.
Yeah, the insurance isn't in there.
You know, healthcare cost increase. you know, plus 21%. all right. So, how do you want me to? Okay. So, number one, I could ask, you know, the board of edjodval for a version of this chart with, you know, with all the with all the fields filled in instead of just the subtotals and then work on getting them printed out. I was kicking around how many printouts we might want to have available for the meeting. I was asking people down in town hall today, how many do we normally do? Somebody threw out a number of 30 and I thought that was low.
That's way too low.
People share. People can share like if they're couples, but that still seems low to me. And I think we
like a 100 would be needed. No,
I I would think at least 100, right?
That's what we used was to deal with 100,000.
Yeah. Better to have too many than too little. And even at 100, I think that I think that's probably not going to be enough. I mean, we should tell each family only to take one, obviously.
Yeah, definitely. We want people to share.
Yeah.
I mean, I People usually do,
but that's why we had the school do their own printing, too. And then the town didn't have to do 200.
So,
Well, that's true. They should do their own.
Yeah.
Just a question. What I don't know what what they've got for printers, but I'll ask them.
I'm sure they I know they have printers. I just I don't know why in the past. I know that in the past or at least I think that in the past that it's the basically all the stuff for the for the town budget meeting was printed on a town hall. But I I'll ask about that. So my takeaways from this is to talk to them about this chart. See if we can get it a little get a little more details in there propagated throughout it. It's just pull up your Excel and, you know, fill in the fields, which as we've discussed is is a five minute issue, and then repdf it, I guess, and get it printed out. there's five pages. It's not too bad. It's not too bad. I think they've got a different number in here. This is the discussion we had. But,
so I'll talk to send that to you. Would they do would they even entertain that possibility or
Sure. I mean, if you want to send it to me, I can I can at least dangle that as an option. Like, hey, you know, we did we did it oursel. You know, Liz did it and you know, we think it's right.
Don't use my name. Don't use my name.
This your work, Rob. Well, I had some help with it. anyway, no, really, I I'll I'll offer. So, I'll try to work on that. I'm also going to try to get one of the documents I was thinking of printing out as a handout is Lisa and I worked on it a little bit yesterday. The the sum what I would call our sort of taxation summary spreadsheet. The one that used to be a tab on our budget spreadsheet, the one with the mil rate calculation and the two raised by taxation calculations. That's a one pager, right? It struck me as a good snapshot handout. So, I was thinking about printing out a bunch of those. Wait, say that again. I'm sorry. I I
No, the the Excel chart that it's it's entitled like mill rate calculation or something like that. But it has
Oh, yes.
the taxation. It's a one-page document.
It's got what we're raising by taxation and stuff about the mill rate.
It's a little confusing because of course that page has a combined mill rate, but we can talk about that.
We explain it at in in depth in our presentation. I was thinking as a handout that might be useful
because it's a snapshot.
Yep.
So, I have a I have a physical copy of it and I have a copy of it. You know, Lisa's got a copy of it and you know, so if I'm in there at town hall tomorrow getting things printed out, that's that could be one of them.
Kate already did it.
Oh, Kate already did.
Yeah, it's at the end of the packet and I think it's posted at the end of the packet, too. Okay.
End of the budget book because you said you wanted it yesterday, so we went with it.
Okay. Bless her. Bless her. We need to bring her flowers.
She's amazing.
A great check today. But of
course, this morning, Rob, I called her at 8:15. I said, "Don't print it yet. I have to look at that lap last page because I thought I put in the page that I printed for me with my other calculations." And I said, "Nope, go ahead, Kate. Go ahead. Go
ahead." Okay. So, we've got that. and then Liz, you had talked about we had talked about information, theformational kind of where to look up certain things, slides. What do you what are we doing with that?
Yep. I sent that to you separately as handouts. How to find how to find where how to find their assessment.
Yeah. like those. Did you want to pass those out or
I think those are those are nice to have. where All right, hang on a minute. Latest and greatest. No, that's not that. It was an earlier email than the
It was in one of the recent ones. I mean, I can send it again if you need me to.
Hang on. I'm just checking. I'm just looking at my emails. I'm looking for an attachment. That's all. Y
because there's a there's been a fair bit of chatter. I don't I don't see I don't I'm sorry. I don't see a separate
I can resend them.
Okay. Did you send them? If you just if you type in my name, you might have gotten my personal email. Maybe
that could happen sometimes.
That was the sheet that had like
the town on it and you showed where to look it up. That I saw that.
I don't I don't know why I'm not finding it. That's weird.
Why? What?
You know, I'll just send it again.
Yeah. Thanks. Send it again. I'm going to make notes here to print out. Okay. So there were two, right? One for one for assessment, one for taxes.
Yep, I found it. Right. Great. Great. So, I could I can forward them to Kate to be so she has them and I I can also go over I'll have my laptop with me. I'll go town hall and between the two of us, we'll make sure that those get done if those are useful. So, I have a question in regards to the hearing. If someone were to make a motion to reduce a budget, are we going to vote or not vote on it?
The motions at the town budget, I mean, people, we vote. We don't vote like that. The the whole
I thought that Yeah. I thought last year because of the charter I thought
he what the charter is is that that at the end of the town budget meeting it's going to referendum but
yeah that I know
if a motion were to pass at town meeting my understanding is that would take effect
and then it goes to referendum that way.
Absolutely. Anybody can make a motion. It'll be seconded, discussed and voted on at that meeting. The difference between the the process that started last year, the charter change, it used to be town meeting could just reject it and send it back. Now it's going to go on a referendum one way or the other, but with the caveat that if a motion to cut something passes, that goes in.
It passes.
Okay.
Somebody go down, right? You can't go up.
Can't go up. Can't go up. We're going to address that to the public, right?
Always. We always say that. In fact,
is that in the slide presentation?
I don't remember if it's in the slide, but Wally always says it when he's made me say it.
I'll I'll probably mention it at the end, you know.
Yeah, I would.
It's a charter thing. It's a charter thing. You can
Okay.
You can make a motion to cut something. This is this is not a place where you can make a motion to increase something.
That's just straight from the charter. Rob, did we want to talk about that BAA situation?
That's right. We wanted to talk about that again. We wanted to circle back on that 300 bucks we cut from the
$320.
We do this, we change all our numbers again.
no, we don't. No, we No, we do not. Nope. We I We can take $320 from something else.
Wasn't it 300 even?
It's 320, I believe. I think it's 320. Pretty sure pretty I'm just gonna pull up my my chart. But hold on.
That's the mill rate. That's the RAM offset board budget prelim 24 I think is the last 324 is the last one I had. So they had asked for 300 or 320 whatever it is. to be able to look up it's like a VIN lookup, right, for people's auto evaluation assessments.
Yes. and we got talked into cutting that. but Liz, remind me, we were talking about it and we kind of, the two of us kind of were like, "Wait a minute, is that the right answer?" So, we wanted to raise it again.
We kind of felt like they need this to be able to do their job and it costs them money if they want to look it up and they only have like a limited number. And I think the town's opinion is that if a person disagrees with their valuation of their car, they need to come and show the proof. And so basically the BAA is just going to say, "Okay, well they can't prove them wrong because they can't get access to the system to do it." so their opinion would be that we'll just have to pass it along. and I don't know, $320 seems pretty pretty pency to me, and I think we should allow them to have the $320, and we take $320 out of either the rec commission or the garden. The rec commission budget is up kind of pretty high this year.
I'm sorry, Liz. The what?
The commission what budget?
The the recck commission. either the rec commission commission
or the garden or the garden.
and just wonder what you guys thought about that.
I kind of agree that they should have the proper tools and it was explained to us that supposedly is the burden's on the person, right? The homeowner or the auto owner is how it was explained to us. But a board that's doing a review should have the proper tools
to do the job. And for $320, to your point, Liz, it's $320. Not going to move and and we could take it easily from another budget like you said. So,
I almost want to write him a check and just say, "Here, go get what you need,
you know." But I mean, $32.
I think it's 384
if I remember right. I thought the amount was 384.
Sorry. All right. I'm gonna I'm looking back at the older old at older spreadsheets. I'll see if I can find where we cut where we actually
and instead of changing all the numbers. I would agree, Liz, let's just take it from one budget and move it to another if we're going to do that. I guess we have to have a motion to do that, right?
Yeah, we're going to have to this is going to if if we want to do this, we'll have to move and we'll have to move to take it from here to there and so forth. Just give me a moment, guys. I'm trying to find I'm back I'm backing up into early March to find
the the chart where I saved our cut. You are correct. 380.
I would have bet money on 320
and I was here. I thought 300. So guess what?
380 is the number that they had requested.
Wasn't there another
We did cut the garden slightly for their request.
Yeah.
wasn't there wasn't there another issue?
Wasn't a huge cut, but we did do a little bit of a cut there already.
hey guys.
Yeah.
Wasn't there also an issue though raised that the assessor has that software and the board of assessment appeals should be able to use it or something like that?
Then he will not let them. He will not let them.
Nope. He will not let them.
That's crazy. That's just
I know. It's ridiculous.
It's like
I don't know what's I don't really know what's going on there.
you cannot It It's one of those positions that you can't even fight. So, it's not even worth it.
Well, like again, for $380, is it worth the fight? I guess. But
I mean, it's really just a it's really, you know, can we have $380 so we can, you know, when somebody comes in a town hall, we can help them out and show them the information. And, you know, my just my general approach to things would be sure, here, let me look that up for you. You know, that's just how I would approach it if it were me. So, I would do it. My only question is to make this balance out like where I mean I honestly if we had more time I I might even say just stick 380 back in. It's it's such a small number.
Just pull from somewhere else. You want to find cuts so we don't have to redo all our math.
Just pull from somewhere else. I would I would take it out a community garden because I believe their the seeds was like in the 300 something and they were given seeds, donated seeds. So they I would take it out of that.
Why doesn't somebody make a motion? A complete motion.
Wait, I had a Didn't I thought I thought the seeds I agree with Louise, but then I thought they didn't take it out of their budget for or that they already did. I'm sorry. That they already did. They were donated. The seats were all donated,
right? But I thought they already took that number out of their budget, but they didn't.
No, I $300 in their budget for that.
I know. So, that's a good spot to take it from.
We had they had requested originally 37.85 and we cut that down to 3560. Okay. which was last year's number. just FYI. Now there's also there's another increase in in the budget for programs. It says
programs for the rec committee.
Rec commission. That's rec commission. Sorry.
Yep. registration. They they had an answer for this. There was a concert and a registration was $1,400 and 900 for registration for something acronym I don't know. And additional concert $500. So, you know, if at this point like we we had we had gotten the community garden to a zero increase, if we cut them additionally, then we would be actually cutting their budget. Just just to be clear so everybody understands what we're doing.
can I just have a question on so when they present their budget like any of the departments and then we went through it. When did they when did they find out what we like that we agreed with their budget or we don't or like do they already think we
Well, they could be on any of these calls, Heather, or they'll find out when the budget passes. Okay. Nothing's official. Nothing's official until the budget passes anyway. Right. Okay. I'd rather cut from the garden than the wreck because I think the wreck department actually accommodates more of the public than the garden.
That's true.
I'm just thinking if there's any way we could distribute this, but okay. I mean that if you want to do a one for one, I mean I'm not going to
I mean the up is up $1,400. That's I don't know. It seems like a
Yeah, there was there were two items there. It was a $500 and a $900 justification for that. Yeah,
for the concert.
Concert was 500 bucks and then registration for again there's an acronym that I don't recall. I'm sorry. I don't
I know. WSC. I don't remember what that is.
I remember Yeah, I remember that too.
There it is. W I CSC. so I don't want to mess with that because that sounds like it's backed up and I know we talked about it. I just, you know, we I Yeah. So, all right. Rather than I mean, it's $380 and we're spending a fair bit of time here. So, do we want to just somebody want to make a motion and we'll figure it out and if I feel bad about it later, I'll donate something to community garden.
There you go. I'll make a motion to cut the community bark garden by $380 and to fund the BAA line for the software they need.
I'll second it.
Yeah, let me just So, just so everybody understands, it's a cut to 603870 community garden proposed by Liz, seconded by Bill with transferring that 380, decreasing that line by $380 and then take taking it up to let me find it so we have it for the notes.
It's line it
4155.
It's 155- question mark because it doesn't exist. So now, do you want us to reprint those 50 budgets that we already printed because of this change?
Oh no. Oh god.
Oh no.
Well, I didn't think there we didn't think there were going to be changes tonight. And if people people have already come into town hall and asked for a copy of the budget because they didn't want to print it.
All right. You know what? Then
you know, we just so we just we just told them at the beginning of the at the meeting that there was a slight change. So, if you've if you've already printed, you've already have a copy of the budget, make this change.
Could we just do that?
We could.
Part of me is like
if we could figure out what two pages we might have to change and insert them, we could do that. But again, that's just I don't know.
It's a real pain. Yeah,
it makes more makes more sense that we just to Liz's point just tell people that change this to this number, change this line item to this number.
Make another note on the It's already on the website. It's on the town website, too, I believe. So, we'd have to change that one, too.
Okay.
You said there Wait a sec. You said 50 of them are already printed.
Yes.
So, what if I come in tomorrow and just make hand change notes on those 50? I don't
Oh my gosh. You don't want to do that, Liz.
You get a cramp. It's It's 50. It's 50 pages. Two numbers. Two little numbers.
I can help you.
I'm kidding.
I mean,
so that we don't have to reprint them is what I'm saying.
Yeah. We don't want to. So,
I'll be at the meeting, but I'm not there at the town hall. So, if you want to talk to I don't I'm not sure, Kate. I don't know.
Right. Or or we simply make a little announcement or print off a notice for the front of those pages and say, "Please note a change this change to these two lines."
Could type that up. Yep.
And then just attach that to those that are already printed
like an addendum.
Yeah. Yeah,
that works, I think. Right.
I like I like that word.
Indentum. Sure. Good word, Louise.
Thank you.
All right. the motion on the floor is to reduce 603-890 community garden by $380 and to increase line 115- well question mark because it doesn't exist right now by $380 for DMV lookup access for the BAA. Liz motioned, bill seconded. We've discussed. Does anybody have anything further on this motion or should we vote? There's nothing further. I'll take a vote. Bill,
yay.
Liz,
yes.
Heather,
yay.
Nick,
yes.
And I too will Oh, Louise,
yes.
And I'll vote yes as well. That's 6.
One in favor. Yeah.
I'll I'll give my mayor a culpas next time I see the community garden folks. okay. So, that's done and we'll one way or another sort it out tomorrow so that people aren't confused. I think that was the only change that we contemplated tonight, Liz, right?
Yeah.
Yep.
When we met.
So, so it's 4155- We don't know, right?
Yeah.
4155-
for what? Community garden, Liz. Or for what? So for the court of assessment appeals okay that's way down the bottom I can get it for you
I have
it's it's
115-336 it would be
sorry 4155 is the overall
thing and then underneath that it's 155 well
335 for training so it would have to be to be determined because we don't have it yet
right
can we just make it oh TBD it's gonna be TBD not okay
I'm gonna have to search for That was how it was in the budget document when we first got it.
Yep.
That's right. Okay. so Liz, you'll send around once you've completed your edits, you'll send around the presentation again.
Yep.
the final.
Yep.
Awesome. And yeah, do do resend me thoseformational slides because I don't know why in the world I can't find them in my email. I apologize, but I just can't find I will try and talk to AS folks tonight, tomorrow regarding adding a little more information to the budget as we discussed and getting those printed. do we have anything further or can we move on to public speak? I can let finally let Ron talk.
I certainly move on to public speak. His arm must be killing him.
His AI arm.
All right, I'm gonna I'm gonna go ahead and do that then. Sorry, Ron, for all that waiting.
No, not a problem. Not a problem. Great job with this. The only thing I was going to agree with was what Louise was saying, too. But I can see now from what you're showing on the BOE, it does show her salary in there. Everything should be transparent so people can make their own decisions when they're there. Please get them to fill out the two lines because I also agree, Louise, that the price the the the percentage versus the amount of money can be a big difference sometimes. Okay. So that way people have a full layout of it and and I think great job taking it from the garden people and giving what they need to have people justify their car tax. But that was my only thing is I I it should be posted even if the other person even if you had to put the person that's underpaid in in the town budget and know and say this is an increase and this is why and then have Valerie's on there but since Valerie's salary is is written out
in there and what it is people can actually see it and theirs just so everything is just transparent to everybody in town. That's important that people understand. That's
great job. Great job and hard work everybody. Thank you for doing that.
You're welcome. Thanks. So yeah, I'll work on getting the the the raw dollar value and the percentage values, you know, throughout that chart instead of just subtotaled. I'll ask them if we can get ahead and do that. And Liz, if you have a your own chart where you've done it already, you want to email that to me, I'll take it. And
Y
and say, you know, we actually already did it if you want ours.
Yep. I will get that to you.
Joanne is in the audience, too.
Joanne, I'm sorry. When did you join? I didn't see you. hi public speak.
Hello.
I joined like five minutes in. I think I was logging into the wrong meeting and just sitting in there. Just a couple quick things, guys, because this year's highly unusual with there's never usually a budget workshop meeting so close to the town meeting. We, you know, we've usually, it definitely was needed, but I think that's kind of to give courtesy to the town office staff and like you're going to be requesting that the board of ed make copies and everything just to be cognizant of asking everybody to make the copies. another thing, we didn't get a town mailer this year and I'm thinking that goes along. So, that's highly disappointing. I didn't want to bring it up because I'm thinking about it because I know but we have Yeah,
it just goes along with everything I've been saying with all the new people in maybe different positions. I don't know who took care of that, like if that's a town clerk thing that we make sure, cuz I remember them saying, "Ooh, we have to finalize this cuz we need 5 days for the mailer and all those kind of things were running through my head, but I don't want to bring up everything in public speak, you know, and I I figured that was happening." So, I don't think anybody got a mailer this time, but I heard that it was advertised in the paper, so the town meeting can be
legitim legitimate.
Yeah. and then just a quick thing that I was going to bring up. sorry, let me just look at my note real quick. Oh, I hope it sounds like some of the copies are already made, but you guys did do a few since you were talking about salary items in general and some of the lines you kept extra things in that probably weren't contractual. I had sent one email. So I hope when you have time you get to put notes in those things just so that you all remember like when you're giving someone a salary but you kept I had thought in the admin assistant
some of those changes were contractual some of those were not contractual and some of them were just consolidation of positions and you know in lines we we consolidated the stipen
right you you kept it in so it might just be helpful to know you're not married to that one line but you did keep the stipen in it could be the same person that's hired as the admin assistant and just gets additional money. So, you could have done something with that stipen, but you kept it in. So, since there's more money in that line, maybe just put a little note there.
Okay.
Yeah.
one last thing, you did put the I remember when I did an assessment appeal thing, it was on the homeowner wasn't in this town. You had to kind of get all the info. You had to go down to the town hall. You had to find the stuff. So great that they get what they need for their job, but I'm just saying they could probably do the same thing that I did and look through the town records if they had to verify things.
Real estate, the real estate, well, the assessment is pretty opaque, I think, for a car. The real estate assessment, you know, you can log individual appraisal. That's one of the the slides that Liz and I talked about making. And I think the other thing with a challenging I've never done it, but if you challenge your house assessment, I think you have to have your independent appraisal done.
You have to pay for that out of your pocket. So it's a whole
I think you have to come in with a few you have to bring in examples you have to print other examples where you compare your house to theirs.
I think from talking
try to fight your own like little battle of trying to again wasn't in this town
trying to lower your taxes which raises everybody else's honestly. So look yeah if if that's
yeah and I'm I'm good you know I just wanted to mention those couple things.
you know good luck with everything. Thank you. Very good.
Okay. very good. So, if there's nothing further, I mean, I'm going to try, just FYI, guys, I'm going to try to get in there into school gym, you know, early. I don't know how early, but well beforehand. Make sure that between my laptop and Liz, when you get you get there, your laptop, which is definitely in better condition, you know, to do the presentation, have it all set up to our to our satisfaction. So, I'll I'll probably try to be there, you know, well well ahead of time. and I'll probably be running around the afternoon town hall, etc. so if anybody wants to, you know, thinks that something wants to text me, whatever. The issue with the flyer with not getting a mailer, you know, it's fun something funny. It's one of the things that Caitlyn was texting me about earlier tonight, like we didn't get a mailer. What's going on this year? So, yeah, we're a little discombobulated. It's the reality. I think that's the lack of an Eric.
Exactly.
It wasn't you, Rob. Don't take it on the board of finance.
I'm not I'm not I'm not saying
the town hall, you know, people that have been there have to think about it.
It's what we were just talking about. There's just
Yeah. I just didn't want you guys to take on more. You've done a great job. You know, you can't remember everything.
Yeah.
I'm just clarifying. So, okay. If we're good and everybody's kind of I've got some to-dos. Liz has some to-dos. but I think we're good. I mean, do we have a do we have a motion to adjurnn?
Motion to.
I'll make a motion.
We both do.
Bill moves. Louise, you seconding?
I'll second.
All right. Very good. I'm going to go reverse order. Louise.
yes. But first, Liz, if you need help at the town hall tomorrow, if you're going to do anything, let me know.
Okay. Thanks.
I'll be right.
I will. I'm I'm taking a half day in the afternoon. I have to go to work in the morning. So, I'll be there probably early afternoon, midafter afternoon.
Okay.
Motion to adjurnn.
Yes. Sorry, mute was stuck. yes.
Okay.
Hi there.
Yes.
Liz.
Yes. That's what I thought. Bill.
Yes.
And I'm a yes. Very good. We adjourn at 8:34. That's like a record for us this year.