Meeting transcript
Board of Selectmen - Special Meeting Part 1
June 24, 2021 · Watch on YouTube · All meetings
I will press the stopwatch and get ourselves started. The first thing we're going to do is we're calling to order the Board of Selectmen Special Meeting for Thursday, 06/24/2021. The first thing we're going do is do the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag
of The United States. To the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, liberty,
justice for all. All right, thank you very much. And we're gonna get started right now with public speak. So Mike Palazzi and Kathy Palazzi, you were first on the meeting. So you're up first. No we're okay right now. You're okay? Right. Liz Loecki.
Hope I said Loecki. I'm going set the record straight. Sure. It's low catch. Low catch. Like my husband explained to me the night we met.
It's like catching the ball low. Low catch. Low catch. I, you know, I I will absolutely remember that one.
Yeah, I, yep, I don't have anything for this, moment but thank you. Thank you very much. Diane Greiner. I'm all set. I'm a happy buckaroo. Thank you. The Stanleys. We're, we're okay. Okay, all right. Kimberly Prasad. I'm all set right now, thank you. Okay. Kathleen Barrett. All set, thank you. Melissa Kilquist. Not at this time, thank you.
Diane Choquette. I'm all set, thanks. All right, thank you. Oh my God, I have to stop the stopwatch, hold on. I didn't even catch you there. All right, so 203. Linda. Little fish, okay. You're okay? Yep. Sarah Warnier. All set now, thank you. Okay, Louise Goodwin. Okay, Jerry. All set, Jeff, thanks. Yep, Joanne Ebert.
One quick comment. I just wanted to mention that a lot of people seem to think that when the budget gets cut, any of them, you know, with the problem that we're having with getting a budget passed, that somehow the teachers won't be paid or contracted salaries won't be paid. And unfortunately we didn't educate anybody last night. I know the superintendent was asked, well, what's going to happen with the salaries? That's the largest part of the budget, but it's definitely going to be covered because I don't have the exact percentage, but I think the cuts would unfortunately, you know, come from other areas. So it'd be nice for the public and for us to all get educated that of course the teacher salaries and benefits will be paid.
Thank you.
Okay. Gerald Creme and Anne Creme because I know you're on there.
All right, no comment at this time. Thank you for calling on me. No problem. Or us. Nothing, okay. And Valerie Bruno. I'm all set, Jeff, thank you. Okay.
Sheri, I believe you'll participate in our meeting when necessary and Eric is on there. Did I miss anyone? There's a phone number.
I don't know. They're unmuted. If you're calling in on a phone, can you tell us who you are and if you're participating in public speak Dennis O'Brien. Ah Mr. O'Brien okay I'm all set so far.
You got it. Thank you, Dennis. Okay, our first item on the agenda, we cannot do add and deletes, is discuss and act upon the Board of Finance recommendations for setting the mill rate for twenty twenty one-twenty twenty two. Eric and Sherri, could you just explain to us what the current procedure is for this?
Sure. In absence of having a budget on July 1, the Board of Selectmen is empowered to, by charter and state law, to set a mill rate. Therefore, we can collect taxes and have the smooth running of the town government.
Okay, and what is the recommended, the Board of Finance recommended mill rate?
The Board of Finance did not actually motion a particular mill rate to suggest to you at this meeting. However, the mill rate for the budget that they pushed to the next town meeting would be 35.88 mills, which equates to a total budget of $12,427,430
They really did suggest that last night. They suggested what? 35.88. Well, they agreed to a
budget. That's the only mill rate that was brought up.
Correct. But they didn't actually, they motioned and that motion failed. So they didn't officially motion to recommend that to you if I'm Officially, recommended that to the Board. But
can you clarify that, Scott? Because Scott is saying one thing and you're saying another. So they made a motion to recommend the 3,588 and it failed?
So no, there was a lot of discussion on the Board of Finance about whether they wanted to set it there or whether they wanted to set it higher or split the difference between this recommendation and what they previously sent to referendum. I suggested that one thing they could do is simply round it off to an even 36 mills, which would give them basically about $30,000 of leeway. They made a motion to that effect. The motion was basically a tie vote because Mark Brinker was not there. So it was a three-three vote, which fails. And then they did not remotion to set it at 35.88 mills. So in effect, there was no legal motion, but it's only a recommendation to the board anyway. It's ultimately the board of selectman's decision to either set a mill rate or I guess not set a mill rate. What was last year's mill rate? Think it was 35.61. Hang on, two secs and I'll tell you. Correct, thirty five point six thirty five point six one, yes. Yep.
Well, our total dollars that we're looking to raise from taxation is based upon what's currently going on is not increasing, is it?
Yes, because you're not using funds the balance to offset. What was the one that we just sent that failed? What was that mill rate?
I don't know off the top of my head. It was over 36. I want to say it was 36.2, 36.5 something like that. It was just under a mil increase if I remember right. No, was just over a mil increase. So it would have been 36.6 something.
$6.07, okay. That's what we're seeing in the chat. And Sherry, if I'm correct, you had said that it's better for us to be over than under in the discussion. Yeah. Is that correct? That is correct. Okay. Could you explain the mechanism for that for for those of us that, you know, in case there's people listening or watching this as to why we might wanna be over versus under?
Well, we're not sure which way the vote's gonna go. That would certainly cover us either way. And then
so so is it easier to is it easier to refund than it is to send out a supplemental? Is that what you're saying? Yes.
Okay. We don't per state law and per legal precedent, the town, if it was a small enough difference, wouldn't actually have to do a refund because we can just make it up to the taxpayer, basically refund them in the following year's tax bill, which is what's normally done if it's not a large amount. If you guess under and you have to send a supplemental, that costs the town about $4,500 to reprocess and to send out new tax bills. So if you guess over, it's free. If you guess under, it has a potential of costing you $4,500
I wouldn't say free, Eric. We do live in a farming community. They have pitchforks. So you might want to refund them. Just saying.
Well, we're going to sit there and the reason why I was asking about last year's number, and it obviously won't work Is leave it the same, right? Our assessed value went up. Our total assessment went up by what number, Eric or Sherry? I don't care which one.
Well, the grand list went up from $264,000,000 to $2.71. So I could do the math on that real quick if you want. It's not enough. 3%. Yeah, it's 3% increase. That's right. Yeah, ballpark. Yep. So,
no. Alright. So the issue for us is if they didn't give us a number that they wanted to go to, I mean, I I do believe that we should we should make the mill rate 36.67 or 36.5, something in that ballpark. We may as well be over depending upon where we Yeah, don't, Jeff, that is way over. It is.
What do you want? So, if you want to sit there and you want to come back to last year's number. I am gonna do something that I never do. You're welcome. And I'm gonna say that I agree with Eric that 30 six is the correct number. I would say the same thing. Woah.
Can't believe the two of us are agreeing on this so early. Yeah,
exactly. This is a good night. I'm willing to understand that. So, okay. So, wanted to go high and we now come to the middle. We're high but we're minuscule high and hopefully we're on the right side. High enough. As
long as you're high enough to cover what ends up coming down the road, I'm okay with it.
Sheri, what do you think, Sheri? Do you think that's enough wiggle room? I think so. Okay. Yeah. Round it off. Right. 358836.
Does anyone want to make a motion to that one?
I will make the motion that the town set the mill rate at 36 mills for the coming fiscal year to be addressed or adjusted according to budget referendums as needed. I'll second.
Scott was supposed to second that, but that's okay. We'll let you do it. Paula wants in on the action. Thanks, Thanks, Paula. Right. Any further discussion on that number? No, I
think it's a good number. All right. All those in favor, aye. All those opposed, all those with an extension, we'll move on. All right. The next issue is four, discuss and act upon other Board of Finance recommendations. I know at the meeting yesterday, there was some discussion about federal COVID aid that is being sent to the town. I'd like to discuss that openly in front of everybody. Eric, explain again, just so everybody understands the total dollars that the COVID relief money is potentially coming to the town.
As far as we know currently, the town will get two allotments that will each be $478,000
Okay, 478,000 times two. So basically, you're getting pretty close to $958,000 or $956,000 federal. For
clarification, we have not received any of that, right? No, none.
Let's be clear. Let me be clear my position so everybody can understand it. That money is COVID relief. That is not supposed to be utilized to offset taxes. We have to make use of those dollars in accordance with the regulations that are out there. Discussions that I've had with other people on this call, I do not expect any of those dollars to be used to offset any items that are out there that are currently under taxation. So there's been recommendations that AIM might be used to be offset those costs. I personally, as one vote on this board, do not believe that that is the right use of those funds. The right use of those funds is in accordance with the outline that they're there. And if I had my way, I would use them on some capital project
that we as a board or future boards are going to come back to the taxpayers and ask for money, such as culverts and such as even if you wanted to extend it out to building the community center. I would have zero problem with that. I have an incredible problem with people and residents looking for those dollars to offset structural problems in other areas. So, to me, there's no sense in talking about those dollars as a way to offset operational problems that if not corrected, whether they're town or whether educational persist. So, that's my opinion. I've expressed that before to other members of the board. I've expressed that to the town administrator. So, I want the residents to understand that those dollars are monies that are great, they're fabulous, that we have the opportunity to receive those. But if I had my way and it was only my decision, we would be utilizing those dollars to improve the culverts in our community because this board or other boards are going to come back to the residents and ask for not just 900 and some odd thousand dollars to fix those, but millions of dollars to potentially fix those down the road. So I'll second that, Jeff McGuire.
Yeah. Thank you. So
I've got a lot of questions and I've been kind of putting a lot of thought into this because I didn't take the time to look at the document. I know that I believe Adrian looked at the document, Eric looked at the document, Diane's looked at the document, Jeff Murray's looked at the document. So I just have a bunch of questions tonight that maybe we've kind of gone over in the past, but I think to wrap my brain around it and I've been getting a lot of questions that I don't know how to answer some of this so bear with me if it's stuff that we've already talked about but it's good to talk again because I want to make sure I understand. So I think I don't know if Adrian said or Jeff said we haven't gotten the money yet. So is the concern that we don't want to, we haven't gotten the money yet because are we putting the town at risk or what's the what's concern around that?
They just haven't sent us the money yet. We'll have the money when they send it. It's nothing on us. We've done the paperwork to get the money. They just, the state physically has to do a electronic transfer and put $478,000 in our bank account.
Well, but to be clear, the state changes its mind on things all the time. And although these are federal dollars, that doesn't mean that they can't rejiggle the way that they feel that they're being allotted. And so just like they do with ECS money, and they tie that up in a budget fight, they can do the same thing with this. So you could, you could theoretically try to use this even forget about the school for a second. If you just talk about saying we want to use this on a town project, right? Or a town thing. Until we have the money in the bank, aligning that to anything is a bad idea. Because until you have it, you don't know you have it with the state of Connecticut. And I think every person that has lived in the state for any length of time would agree on that. You know, you wait until that money's in the bank, and you know, it's yours, before you even start spending it. I think it would be just a disaster for us to to plan on something and then the state decides to hold it or jiggle it or whatever, you know? It's it's just Connecticut unfortunately. So. I would have Sorry,
go ahead, Eric. I was gonna say I would agree to be somewhat skeptical about the second tranche of money. Because certainly there's a discussion at the federal level about taking some of that money back to fund some of the greater infrastructure. But I would be fairly confident that we'll end up getting the first tranche, you know, or first 470,000, but it is not in our bank account. I'm not telling you it's there, it's not. Does that answer that question, Paula? Yeah,
it's not there because we just asked for the money last week by 05:00 on Wednesday. And we did what we were instructed to do right On the website. And when I talked to Martin today, who was from OPM, he said they're just waiting for the US Treasury to give them the money so they can
transfer the money to all the districts. Right. But they don't know when the Treasury is going to give it to them either.
No, no, we don't know, you know, a lot of things, you know, but I'm just telling you what I was asked to do and I did everything. I filed everything appropriately. Listen, and and we appreciate. I have no reason. On top of that. We're gonna get the money. Reasons to believe that we won't get that first trench. Yeah. We're gonna get the. Eric's right. Eric's right with the second trench, they absolutely could pull it back or adjust it or do anything they want with it. Right. Well, I think the first trench we can safely say that we're going to get that. It's just a matter of when, what day.
Pardon me for being a pessimist, but, you know, I like most people, including yourself, I've lived in Connecticut long enough to question everything until I see it. Okay.
So we Thank you for getting the paperwork done and in on time and all that. Mean, that's always step one with all of this stuff, so Doctor. Yes, it is. Doctor. Anyway,
issue is, Paula, that we will get the money. The mechanism to decide how to spend it is the next question. Right. Yeah,
that was my next question, but finish your thought. No, that's the next question. We're going to get this money. Number one, and I'll go to Adrian because, and Eric, from all my understanding, we cannot use this money to offset taxation. Yes or no? You cannot. Eric? I think there's some gray area.
Gray area and everything. That's absolutely the truth. But the basics of this is not to offset taxation. If we sit there and as a board decide to use this to offset taxation, we're setting ourselves up for a huge future problem. It's just not
The the goal funds was to very specifically encourage towns to spend money, to spend this money and that's why there's a time limit on how long it can be how long it has to be spent with them. It's to get the economy back up and running. And so the bill and guidelines, if you actually go through the document are very much geared towards new initiatives. It's not to fund your old initiatives. You know, it's, it's, it's to build new initiatives. So, you know, you know, and I and there are a lot of little pet projects, things put in there. So like, you know, there are some things in there, Erica has looked at as far as infrastructure, specifically related to water courses and water, you know, public water systems. Know, But most of that public water stuff was put in there to benefit cities and towns that have water and structural issues. In fact, if anyone read the River East, there was a, you know, there was some conversation about, you know, Portland's having some issue with their water. And they're hoping to use a bunch of that money to update their infrastructure as a new project initiative and help pay for it. But it was even designed for bigger cities like Detroit is still struggling with lead in their water. So one of the whole reason the water system stuff was put in there was to allow Detroit to use a bunch of this money,
you know, as it comes in to help upgrade theirs. So we're gonna, we're gonna be struggling even for the idea of using it for co verts. That may be something that's a, you know, we may not qualify for. Well, you actually have to go through and do a bunch of EPA stuff to qualify for that covert stuff. So there's a lot of hoops to jump through no matter what you decide to use it for.
How come in previous meetings or conversations, is it an interpretation thing when somebody's reading the document? Some people are saying the document is lenient and then other people are saying it's not as lenient and what you can use it for. Is it, do you think, what are you, what is everybody's thoughts? I mean, like I said, I haven't looked through it thoroughly, but it's just very confusing when someone's saying it's lenient and then someone else is saying that's not lenient. Isn't everything the federal government does confusing?
Can I answer that? It's Diane Choquette because I read all this stuff. Please, Diane. So I'll just tell you everybody's looking at press releases and fact sheets. Okay, those are high level executive summary documents designed to give you a framework. You really have to read the regulation to know all the hoops you have to jump through to be an eligible spend for that project. So you have to do the work to read the regulation. You probably already signed a document when you applied for the funds that you're going to comply with the treasury regulation And you're gonna keep all the records and you're gonna do all the reporting because that was part of the requirements.
You Hang on Diane, was that the case, Sherry, that we had to apply and sign something?
Yeah. And we have to, in any situation like this, when you draw down money from the federal government, you have to agree to the conditions that they set forth. So it's an old procedure.
So, you know, does everybody have to read the, you know, Treasury regulation? It's 137 pages in a PDF. It's long. It's boring. You know, should a group of people read it and do an executive summary for people may be a good idea, you know, to get the facts out because there's a lot of conditions in that regulation and you have to take the conditions and apply them to our situation
in order to figure out what you could spend the money on. And not for nothing, Diane, if you don't mind, is it okay if I tell people what you did before you retired and came and got more involved? Yeah, can do that. I read treasury regulations and implemented them for banks. So her background is literally doing this type of stuff and making sure banks were in compliance when they dealt with the treasury. So I that's why I'm I'm, you know, when Diane says that, you know, we had a concern about how this stuff was spent, I took the time to read the regulations. You know, Jeff Murray also took the time to read them and I concur with what she was finding. So, it's a little more involved than I think people
were saying. So. I mean, we'll just have to do our legwork and our due diligence on this to make the right decisions. That's also be a little bit of work. Right.
Did I understand I was on the board of finance call last night and I don't know who brought it up. It was either maybe it was a conversation between Diane and Sherry. I thought somebody said there was a contact that you can ask questions to. Is that did I hear that right? And
I called him today, Martin half, which is the one that has been forwarding all the documents to me and he's from opm he said opm cannot help us. They are just a minute administering the documents and everything from the US Treasury. Right. If you have particular questions or want their approval cannot for something, you have to contact them, the US Treasury, and put it in writing. And they will render a decision.
My experience on working with the Treasury, so they will always give you contact information. You are going to call in there, you're going to email somebody, and they're going to cite you the section of the regulation to go read. That's all they'll do for you. They're not going to opine on anything for you. So if you want a legal opinion, you're going to have to hire an attorney, which is a lot of money. So, but I think there's enough in that regulation for us to figure out how it applies to us, and then get the information then make decisions from there. There's just a little bit of legwork to do. But the key and
reading through the document is that the bulk of it is focused on new initiatives specifically, right? Yes. That's what their goal is. Their goal is to get you to do things that maybe otherwise wouldn't have done and implement them. And it's really a lot of it is written to bigger suburban districts, but certainly we can find areas to work with it here within the town. You know, for instance, one of the conversations we've been having is, you know, whether or not it's a possibility to use those funds to bring the community center to fruition, right? Because it is a new initiative. It is not something that is currently involved in taxes. So it's not, we're not lowering taxes by doing that, we're not offsetting taxes by doing that. So we may be able to use some of those funds for helping to build the community center because that really fits in the crux of what this bill was, which is how to serve
areas of a community which are currently not being served right now. Right? And so that would actually serve the whole community, you know, and it will allow us to do some things that we're not currently doing, bringing in state resources, for both, you know, the kids know, and for the seniors by having a fixed location. And if we were able to do some of this, it may allow us to take some of the money we have currently put away and use that to help offset bringing in a community services director, you know, for a couple of years, so that we could have not just a building, but someone to functionally make that building more efficient for this community. You know, whether it's bringing in all the outside resources that we haven't had spaces for. I mean there are programs for bringing in people to help do taxes, bringing in a dental clinic, bringing in a health screening clinic, know bringing in you know other kid programs and working with and working with cool and some other bigger, bigger, higher level stuff that we don't have dedicated space for,
that once that building is up, we will. So being able to look at benefiting the whole community by doing that is something that we're really trying to focus on. Currently that the RFP for the community center is up on the town website. And we are putting it out to bid to get some numbers to see what that looks like. And that will hopefully give us some direction as to whether or not, the funds would fall into that category and what we can or can't use for it is sort of the next step. So, I mean, that's just one idea. I know Eric had some ideas also and so we have some things that are out there that we're working on. We're not just letting it sit, we're actively trying to pursue this.
But the decision will be made on what to spend it on when we got it. All right, Paula, next question. Just
one last question from off the top of my head. So Eric gave us some recommendations we're going look at on how to spend the money. Can we reconsider other areas once we get the money or are we locked in? Do we have to tell them we're using it for a specific reason when they give us the money or can we decide when we get it?
The way that I understand it is we can decide whatever we want to do with it. We just have to present it, and Sherri would know from the submission standpoint. We're going to have to submit to the federal government that this is how we decided to spend it, and then they're gonna evaluate that and determine if it falls within their guidelines.
Yeah. There'll be reporting requirements that we will get notification of once we determine how to spend the money that we have to fill out those reports and send them in. I believe they're going to be a quarterly basis.
For us, the first report will be due 10/01/2021. We have for now until October to figure out what we're going do with the money. Yeah, we don't have anything in writing yet, but yeah,
absolutely. We don't even have to spend that. What is the timeline for spending the money? First tranche is what, two years?
Three years. Think if you were building a project, can go out to 2026, but I think that's for big projects. Right.
Okay. All right. Any other questions, Paula, related to that? Does that answer your question, Paula? Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Thank you.
Do we have anything else that we want to discuss related to the Board of Finance and the recommendations they had at last night's meeting? Okay. Then we have Item five, which is an executive session for the town administrators and review. Does anyone have
a problem if I allow public speak before we do that? No, I think it'd be appropriate because we don't know how long we're going to be an executive.
All right. So let's go through this again, Kathy and Mike Pelosi. No? No, we're all set. Thank you. Thank you. Liz Loquetch. Yeah, I got do.
Just wanna throw this out there. What about business development or something for COVID money, try to bring new business into the town, whatever might be necessary to try to get something going in this town so that we poor taxpayers are not the only one paying this bill. Just a thought. All right, thank you. Diane Greiner.
I'm all set. Thank you. All right, the Stanleys. I have a question about why
we don't know what the actual budget vote was. We got the same thing saying you're doing it again next week and there's and that there was a recount that I couldn't find any place that actually said what the vote was and I'm curious about that.
Eric, do you have the recount stuff from Carol? Otherwise, I can try to find it. Yeah. Give me two seconds.
The biggest thing I think needs to be said about the whole reason we went into recount is, we apparently had a tape that needed to be changed on one of the tabulators, And so when it printed out, it was really hard to read the numbers. And so someone misread the numbers and put them up accordingly. Was really good. Because I never I looked all over the place and I couldn't find the numbers. So there were some numbers posted on Facebook and then because I think we went into a recount I mean, what was posted on Facebook was preliminary. Once they decided to do a recount, it makes no sense to put up the numbers because those are not certified. Until they did finish the recount and they were certified, really it's not appropriate to put numbers up. I mean, to be honest, putting numbers up early in this case actually caused a problem because they weren't correct and it was it was a human error. Some of it human error on the part of the the you know, with the the tape, but also some of it was human error in the way that some people filled out the ballots instead of filling in the the circle. They made a circle around it. If the circle happened to go through the
through where the oval was, then it counted it. But if they missed it, it didn't count it. Eric, do you have the numbers?
Yes. The June 22 budget referendum final results to 95 voted yes. Three eighty seven voted no for ballots had blanks. You know, so there's a slight difference between when the machine tabulated a blank and when people tabulated a blank because when the registrars look at something where it's clearly circled, they call that circled the yes. But if the machine does not see anything in the oval, it does not call it a yes. So that was the final result. There were six eighty six votes. It was absolutely my fault for issuing the first incorrect vote total. And I apologize for that. It was late at night. I mean, did the math wrong. Okay, but to be fair,
that printout was extremely light and when they looked at it, realized what the issue was.
So we can answer the Stanley's question directly. Can you give them the other five questions and just put it out there on this meeting? Those numbers did not change.
Okay, they haven't been posted, then they can't see it. Yeah, I'm sorry, Jeff, you're correct.
Okay, so what do you want me to do? Advisory questions can you give those totals please?
Honestly I only have the machine print out. I do not have the I can pull it up. You know what, but I know the what I put out before for a document was correct. So yeah for that. I will talk you through it. So non binding question number one, is the elementary school budget too high or too low? Too high was $4.25, too low was 160, and the rest were blanks. On the question, is the Andover budget too high, $3.19, too low, 199. On the answer, should the resident state trooper program be eliminated? Yes, two twelve, no, four forty five. Question number four, should the Andover Elementary School and town budgets be voted on separately? Yes, four twenty one. No, two twenty four.
Those were the results. And those included a total of 18 absentee ballots, by the way. 18 absentee ballots.
Correct. That does not include the several of the ballots samples that got mailed to people's houses announcing that there was a vote coming up where people just filled out the sample ballot that they were given and returned that to the town. Those do not count.
Okay. Did that answer your question? Yes, it did. Thank you. Sorry about that. We'll try to get that posted up in the future so that you can see those results. Kimberly Persong? Nothing right now. Thank you. Okay. We have a phone number that ends in 3529. Oh, no comment right now. Thank you. Dennis O'Brien, I'm going to skip you. Melissa Kalkwist.
Yes, I have my husband here, Derek, who would like to speak.
I believe Carl last night at the finance meeting brought up that he would like to see transparency and what what you guys are spending it on and I think that's a great idea. Okay, thank you very much. Diane Choquette.
No comment, just I will volunteer my time if you need any assistance in researching the regulations and anything on this or putting together an executive summary. Thank you very much. Thank you thank Linda fish all set thank you thank you Sarah Warnier. All set, thank you. Louise Goodwin. All set, thanks. Joanne Ebert.
Think it was important that the last vote we all know it didn't pass by a lot and the Board of Finance did want the feedback from the questions so that was great to have that input. So I hope that the people that said they were waiting for the input, certain individuals, you know, will take that to heart. I don't know if that's going to happen. And just, I want to make sure that we can believe in our leaders And one of our leaders was asked a question last night and that's why I'm making this point twice because I think it's really important because I know it and I want our leader to present it to the audience whether it reflects good or bad on what she wants to happen. But when it was asked you know what's going to happen with the contracts what's going to happen with the salaries you know it wasn't brought up of course there's going to be a cut to the budget when one of the questions
you know is so you know in order to get past that they want to see some cuts you know just like it's been talking about so I just want to make sure that I want her to say of course the salaries will be paid in contracts that's the biggest part of the budget but we've never let that I just was so shocked that that wasn't talked about. Other things would have to be cut, but not the for salaries. Thanks.
All right. Thank you. Gerald Cremay and Anne Cremay, I'm sorry. Thank you for the opportunity for being there for us.
All right, thank you for all you do, Jerry. Marcy Miner.
Hi, I just want to say the last town meeting that we had, I really was impressed with how well it was ran even though it was still, there were still some problems, but I felt like it was a lot better. Thank you Jeff for making sure that people behaved and Paula. I thought you did a pretty good job at moderating. I know it's really difficult and I just one thing that I'm thinking about when I'm thinking about the meeting coming up is. You know everyone's concerned about passing it at town meeting and not at referendum and one of the things that bothered me was having a hand vote for everything. And I feel like if we did for all the votes, we, you know, did those by ballot, we might be, it might work a little better. I don't know. That's my thought. I prefer that all the votes were done by ballot. Eric, you had some input on that? Sure,
you as a member of the public can request any motion, any, the members of the public are not obligated to vote via hand if you choose and a significant fraction of the population wants to vote by secret ballot, that is what would happen. But you in the audience have to request that for a measure. Dennis, am I correct in that?
Yes, that's right. According to Robert's rules, you know, the the the norm is to vote by either standing or raising hands, but a motion for a secret ballot can be made. And if it passes by a majority vote, that's what happens.
Yeah. You just basically have to ask to move the motion to paper ballot. Okay. Correct. Thank you. Okay. Kathleen Barrett.
Hi, thanks for giving me the chance to listen in and participate. I would comment that I really appreciated the opportunity as a voter to be able to express my preferences in a way that felt comfortable through the ballot questions on the referendum. So I commend you for inviting that kind of opinion of the voters I would be glad for more opportunities for that And I hope you all take really seriously as you take your next steps what kind of opinions the voters expressed to the best of your ability. So thank you. Thank you for voting. You're welcome. Erin Boris? No comment. Thank you. And Caitlin McIntosh. It all started. Thank you. All
right. Valerie Bruno is last. Would you like to comment or add anything to our meeting? Yes, thank you. I know Ms. Hebert said that I didn't answer a question last night. So I do want to be clear. The question was asked, what happens if the budget's not passed with the school? That was the question that was posed last night. And the answer was that we continued with the existing budget that everybody would still be getting paid. That was the question that was asked was what we do if the budgets not passed. As for the conversation tonight, I do have to speak on behalf of the school after, you know, the decision was made to cut 97,000 and move forward to the town meeting. It is very disappointing that the whole million would be hoarded for optional projects and after a variety of people, including Mr Mandeville had expected
staff to be cut at AES and that conversation had been going on since January to now tonight here that the plan for the $478,000 is to finish the community center and potentially hire a director is very difficult. And I think it's going to be very difficult for parents moving forward on Tuesday as well to hear that that money would be hoarded solely for optional projects and that there would be absolutely no consideration of the $97,000 that was cut. Well, to be clear, Valerie. Adrian,
point of order, it's public speak. Yeah. Let's let it finish. All right, let's go. Valerie, continue, please.
So I think that it's not an issue of people wanting to drag this out and wanting to vote no on Tuesday. I just think that as many people tonight have said, there are a variety of people in this community and we need to consider all of the voters. And there were voters that said the school budget was too high and there were voters that said the town budget was too high. And as a result of last night and tonight, the school is what's getting cut 97,000 and the town has been given $478,000 for two years and for it to result in the conversation being let's hire director and finish the community center, that's going to be a very, very difficult thing for people to accept. Thank you. Adrian, would you like to Jeff,
my name was mentioned and also she just gave false information and so I'm kind of we need to address these things as they come up. The town budget has also been cut by the Board of Finance. Eric, what was the actual number last night? I'm sorry, didn't stay on the whole call. With extra money coming in though, Adrian. Valerie.
I listen, both of you. Stop it. No, how much was the town budget cut, Eric? Thousand dollars So the town budget was cut 50,000 and the school budget was cut $97,000 Now let's have an actual conversation about how much money the school had. They had $186,000 on May 12 to decide what they wanted to spend on. You still have $54,000
in leftover COVID funds from that alignment. We don't have that money, Adrienne. You made it a point earlier to say money in hand. That money is not in hand. You have $54,000 No. In We do not have $54,000
in our account. I'm sorry. So on the May 12 meeting, you gave incorrect information because you said you have meeting discussed
Excuse me. I'm done with I'm done with this. But you did have a $136,000 Adrian, excuse me. Excuse me. Pound money. You two would like to if you two would like to have a conversation after this meeting, I that seems appropriate to me. But to sit there and do this on right now The problem is my frustration Jeff is that we keep having these conversations come up in public meetings and no one addresses the fact that they had $136,000
in leftover money and they've decided to spend it on other projects. They weren't worried about this year's budget. They were worried about spending it on other things. So it's disingenuous for them. They still have $54,000 in COVID funds. If they're not in their account yet, that's fine. But they have allotted to spend it for stuff. So they have $186,000 but now they're saying oh we want the town money too and I don't think that's fair to the town and it's disingenuous for them to come after the town funds when they've spent their money already that it's wrong If they were worried about this year's budget, then maybe they should have addressed that with that extra funds or come to the Board of Finance, which has been very reasonable over the years and said, hey, we're worried about adjusting our budget as we go forward. Can we ask for that money to be transferred into next year or rolled over? And they didn't do that. Instead, they decided to spend it. And now they're coming after town funds to fill in the gap. That's not right. All right. I have a problem with it. Okay, understood.
And thank you. So Valerie, thank you very much. Appreciate your time. Is there anyone else that I missed for public speak? Okay. Paula, I'm gonna make a motion that we go into executive session right now. So if you could, everyone, thank you for attending. I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Hey, are we we going in? Are we going to No, you still got Liz. Session with without Eric first and then we're going to invite him in. Yeah, you still got to get Liz and a couple others off Eric, the
you hear me out? Yeah, if you can, we're going to just sit there and quickly do this and then we'll bring you right back in. It won't be very long. Yeah, give us fifteen minutes or so, Eric. Yeah, go have a snack. We'll text you. Go have a Wally break, a cigarette break. Hang on, guys. Are we leaving Dennis on?
Don't think Dennis needs to participate. Don't think did. Did you turn the recording off?
Yes. Not yet. You have to make a motion for it. Who's that last number? Dennis.
But you have to make your motion to go. I did. I made a motion to go on executive session. I'll second it. Second that. All right. It is 752. Okay. I'm gonna stop. Recording? Yep.