Meeting transcript
Board of Finance - Special Meeting Budget Workshop
March 30, 2022 · Watch on YouTube · All meetings
Record. Okay. Thank you, Eric. We'll call this meeting to order. This is the 03/30/2022, of Andover Board of Finance special budget meeting. Go ahead and go to the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation. Indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Thank
you. We will move to Item two, which is public speak. Normally we do a round robin, but I don't see any of the members of the public in the meeting. So I think we can go ahead and bypass that option or bypass go skip that agenda item going to number three. Yep, Joanne.
I apologize, was having connection trouble and I know I came in when Eric was talking about the minutes, which I kind of liked, I thought they were good. Do we not have a clerk yet? Is that We do, I was just introducing Amy Knox who will be doing the minutes for the Board of Finance meetings going forward,
who is on this call, but labeled as Turner, which is her son's name. Thank you. Or in her
All right, I thought I missed that. Okay, thanks. Yep. No
worries. Okay, we'll go on to agenda item three, which is the budget workshop for the fiscal year twenty twenty two-twenty twenty three. So we had an updated budget file from Sherry sent I think yesterday. So we also I know you guys have looked through the public works plan for last week. So I guess we'll just open this up. Eric, is there anything that you or Sherry want to add or point to in this budget updated file that you provided? Yes, I want to go over some notes
based on our last meeting, things that you asked us to supply you into look at. I don't have an updated budget file. There was just a revenue report, so I guess I'm confused.
Yeah, there wasn't one set. It was okay, no changes so I didn't feel that I need this. Okay,
perfect. Okay. Yeah, I'm on the right one. Oh, I'm sorry. My apologies.
I, I since I wasn't at the meeting last week I saw it from Sherry before I was. Yeah, that was came in since my last meeting and I didn't look at the date that's what kind of week it's been. All right, my apologies. I didn't need to confuse everybody.
So if you wanted to let me share the screen, I'll talk you through kind of what we've looked at between the last meeting and this meeting. And then you also talked me to ask for a big overview and basically the five biggest budgetary changes. So I would go over that and then it's pretty much wherever you want to go. If you want me to do that first. Sounds reasonable to me. Works for me.
Alrighty. Let me pull that up. Whoops. Okay. Do you see something that says Board of Finance notes? Yeah. Hopefully. Okay. Good. All right. So, just so that you know where we are with the budget right now, the town budget is presented is a $378,000 increase, which is about 11%. Last year's budget obviously was flat. So, at some point the Board of Selectmen is going to have to do a gut check and decide what you think is actually realistic. And then, you know, either as is or, you know, some other level and then, you know, we all collectively start working on it. So, one of the tasks last week was to track electrical usage. This was because of two things. One, in light of a very significant year over year increase in supplies fees because those track with energy. So, I'll talk about that in a little bit. So, thing is before I had an estimated cost for the building official, I finally got essentially a contract going forward for the building official and what it would be. The good news is my number was within, my estimate was within $10 of the fee they came back with. So, no change there. Good. The second thing was mowing. Mowing is a catchall category that encompasses Andover Landscaping who mow a lot of our properties, plus the money we spend with Hebron Parks and Recs maintaining our fields. One of the things the board has asked to do differently this year is this person, Richard Clarco, used to be the kind of director for Hebron Parks and Recs, and he's now retired from Hebron and gone out on his own. So, have sub hired Mr. Clarco
to do basically the knowledge part of maintaining the fields and then using Hebron Parks and Recs for the actual work. So, we've been trying to get contracts out of them for a while. We've had the number from Rich Clarko. We don't have the number from Andover Landscaping. We've tried repeatedly to get ahold of Matt Cordner, but he doesn't work a lot in the off season and he's almost impossible to get ahold of. We finally got the firm numbers today from Hebron Parks and Recs. So, I laid it out under item number two, mowing. Fixed costs, dollars 2,300 contract signed with Richard Clarco for monitoring of the fields. The quote from Hebron Parks and Recs, that is an estimate based on
current costs and last year's actual number of hours they spent maintaining our fields. So, suspect the hours number is pretty good. You know, the cost numbers for materials are up pretty substantially. I mean, seed costs are way up, fertilizer costs are way up. So, has gone up. I mean, practically that bill has gone from $13,300 to about $17,177 As you know, we were budgeting $21,500 for that, which depending on what we get back from Andover Landscaping may still work, but it also gives us zero wiggle room if we have any sprinkler problems with the system. And, you know, off and on, a bunch of years we have had sprinkler systems. So, out of the last five years, I think two years, we've had significant costs for dealing with sprinkler systems. In a couple of years, we've had essentially no costs. So, that's that. My recommendation would be to bump that budget up to 23,000. And I would also recommend because we rent, we charge a company called FC North for use of the field because they're nonprofit soccer organization, but they charge for membership. So, we charge them to use. So, when this new budget year goes in, I think I suggested to the board that they need to figure out what percentage of those costs, you know, they want FC North to cover. Currently, North has been covering about 7,500, which has been about half the cost of Hebron Parks and Recs
services. So, that would be my recommendation for that. Second, we spend a lot of time going over electrical usage. And electrical usage is difficult to categorize. So, the reason is there's two components. There's a supply component and there's a distribution component. And we don't know what either of those is going to cost going forward. I can tell you that we did a spreadsheet of all the departments year over year what our costs were. And ballpark across the board, our costs are up about 25% year to year from last year to this year. And if you'll notice that most of my budgets from last year for electrical usage are going to be over about 25% because we were just not anticipating that increase in the current budget when we made the budget last year. Because remember, we're not trying to figure out what costs are going to be four months from now at the start of the budget. We're trying to forecast what costs are going to be sixteen months from now. You know, and none of the rates, like the utility rates are generally done in six months increments. So right now I basically know what our costs are for. I have a pretty good estimate for for streetlight costs for the next, you know, eleven months and I have a pretty good estimate for our utility costs for the next, you know, four months for supply. But after that, you know, I have no idea what the utility commission is going to be. So what I did is I projected out what this year's actual costs would be
added 15% to that and suggest that we use that as a target for next year. Now, whether that's going to be high or low, you know, I have no idea. I mean, you know, we could increase it more and be more conservative. You know, I don't know what your thoughts are, but I will send this to you immediately after the presentation. We can either adjust the budget to these values, you know, or we can do whatever you want to do. And I'd be happy to share the full spreadsheet with you if you want to go through all the graphs and trends and all that. But this is just a summary of what the electrical usage costs are projected and likely to be. Questions?
Shu. So, these numbers are not in or have not been updated yet, and these are the numbers you're Correct. So, these are your recommended numbers. I guess I would ask that they be put into the budget spreadsheet so we can consider them there and see what the impact is. Yeah.
What's in the current budget now? Is there an estimate that's lower than this then?
Across the board, our estimates are lower. I have a copy of the budget that I can share in just a sec, which has those numbers highlighted. So we could go update them pretty quickly if you wanted to do that. I just didn't feel since we're far enough along in the budget, I don't wanna be showing a budget showing numbers that were different than you've actually approved and talked about.
But we can certainly do Yeah, I haven't approved anything yet really. So I guess. Right. If if you think these are reasonable estimates based on your calculations and these little notes are very helpful, you know, I would update the spreadsheet and I paste these little short notes that into the notes column. That'll just kind of show how you got to that number. Yeah. Mean, that makes sense also.
Yeah. We can certainly do that. I mean, you know, the good thing is we're looking at, you know, not a ton of money. You know, we're looking at 3 to 4,000, which is not insignificant, but it's not like in the grand scheme of the budget, it's not earth shaking. Well, say 5 or 6,000 total. So in terms of other things we didn't have before, these are the kind of things we've figured out. We finally got a good number from Hebron Parks and Recs. We finally got a good number for the cost basis for the building official. And then the details on the electrical usage. So, since the last meeting, that's really what we've had in terms of the things we've identified based on the commentary in the last meeting. The other thing you guys asked me to do as a group is talk about where the biggest increases are. And that's really easy. I mean, there's two big areas which are kind of the bulk of the overall increase. The first is public works and town garage, which we've gone over. All total between public works and the town garage, as it is now with the addition of a full time employee and a part time employee, that is $164,000 $500 increase. And the other thing is the overall capital funding is up $195,000 So I guess what I would say is that given that the largest increases are those two, if you're really going to cut, any significant expenditures are going to have to cut from one of those two spots because you're not going to cut enough to make a meaningful difference
without frankly tapping one of those. And so ballpark numbers, you know, the cost of the full time hire is about a $70,000 change. The cost of the part time helper is an increase of about $15,000 I mean, the total budget for the part time helper is about $20,000 But even if we don't hire like somebody all summer, there are always times when we need part time help. So, we're always going to spend some money out of that category. The other thing we can consider, and we haven't really talked about it, but we recommended setting the contingency budget for 75,000 from 50. And that's just a reality of, you know, when you're when you have a 3 plus million dollar budget,
you know, trying to trying to be accurate and budgeting within $50,000 is a really low percentage to hit and that's probably not realistic given the variability, the overall variability in our budgets based on utility costs, you know, I mean one employee that quits and is replaced by somebody with with a family, you know, can be a $20,000 swing. So, when you only have a $50,000 contingency, that's tough on a town's basis. But you can consider that if you so desire. And then as far as capital funds, you know, I didn't want to make this decision myself. I asked, you know, the Public Works director where he thought of the things he was concerned with. Where could they absorb the cuts the most? Basic recommendation was they could they could absorb the cut in the tree work fund better than in roads. So, if it came down to one or the other, he would prefer the tree work fund. The other thing I would say is if we had to reduce the building maintenance fund, I mean, spending money in the building maintenance fund in large part depends on our abilities to plan and manage projects. And given the time availability, you know, we know we have a lot more needs than we have budgeted, but it's also difficult to get it all the way through to a shovel ready project. So we could potentially absorb some cuts there. And then I think we could we could deal with little cuts in some of the other funds. You know, beyond that it gets more painful.
So that's really what I wanted to say on that. Those are the kind of big ticket items. And then I'm sorry, I screwed up. I brought the wrong graph home. So these current balances are not correct in this, which is kind of irritating me because I have the correct one sitting on my work computer, but that's beside the point. So that's pretty much it. I'll stop sharing my screen unless you have more questions on this, or I can bring up the budget screen if that helps.
Question, you said contract planner $5,000 I didn't think we had a planner in our budget. So what are you talking about for there?
So the board of selectmen in the budget made a decision that they didn't want to have an hourly, you know, somebody there for a set number of hours, but they asked to put in the budget of $5,000 allotment. So for an individual project, they could use a contract. They could hire a planner for a specific project if one arose.
So where is that in the budget then because I didn't see that so it's under the zoning board of appeals. It's Road 626 in the budget. Thanks Mark.
Yeah. Yeah, don't remember that that would zero it out last year. It's it's a new line there. I contract my home. Yeah, planning and zoning commission, sorry. Zoning board appeals to planning to have plenty of zoning. So that was 66 to six. Yeah. 803320 is the count.
Right. Yep. Then the only other thing I wanted to do
with the plan of conservation development that we have to do, right? No. Okay. No.
So, what's going on right now with the commission is they are required to draft an affordable housing plan. And we do have a grant that I secured, you know, for the writing the affordable housing plan. But there's a bunch of things that would have to happen to actually change our regulations to enable some of the elements of the affordable housing plan to be put into effect. And frankly, there's a bunch of changes that we know we need to make because our current zoning don't comply with state law after the last set of regulatory changes made by, you know, the state house in passed by the house last year. So, we're going to end up spending some money to accomplish that either with the planner or with our town's attorney. You know, outside of our normal legal, you know, legal board budget.
So if we have that on the to do list, where are we making the in the budget, the money for it? Because obviously we're gonna hire a contract, a ten ninety nine person to do it for us. It's not gonna be a town employee.
Right. That's why there's a 5,000 line for contract planner right now. Okay. But that's not attorney?
No. If you look above We're take these two, right? There's a line item for legal and professional, and that we've increased also. So, that is shared by all the land use agencies. So, planning and zoning, inland wetlands, zoning board of appeals, and potentially the conservation commission for legal advice. So that money is shared between all. And it was set at 5,000 for, you know, before I was on the Planning and Zoning Commission. So, had been 5,000 for the last, you know, umpteen years. And, you know, we've always had trouble, in years where lots of regulatory change have to occur meeting that. And right now we're in a period where a lot of regulatory things have to change. And if we're not going to have an actual staff member as a planner, you know, the kind of solution for that
is to, you know, at least put some money aside for contract planner and increase the legal professional line item somewhat.
Okay. Because that legal professional line item is one of my questions that I reviewed because I'm looking at this 30 increase. And year to date, we've already spent $6,604 So we've overspent what you're recommending for. So and I didn't know there were other things. I was just thinking that was just the shared expense from all the land use departments. So if you're telling me this also includes updating regulations, then that seems like that's not a good number.
Well, the majority of that, more than anything else, that money is spent on updating regulations. There are times in cases like I'm sure right now for the commercial application and site plan review, you know, we've sought legal guidance on that with our land use attorney. You know, one of the things that we've done, you know, and we've also, that legal slash professional line item also covers some of the costs if we have to use an engineer to review. Like in this latest case, we referred that to the town's engineer. So that would normally get charged against the legal and professional line item. Now, since we're so far over it, we will probably, and we're probably going to have some leftover in our, the town's engineering budget, we'll suck that extra into the town's engineering budget. But that's part of the reason why the contract planner is there is because instead of taking it out of the professional line item and taking it away from the legal portion of the budget, you know, we have some budgeted for a planner. And in some cases, it's more cost economical to have a planner suggest the changes, then use the town's attorney. We use the town's attorney because he used to be a planner
before he became an attorney. So, he, you know, he's a land use attorney, but, you know, he's also has pretty impeccable planning credentials. Joanne, I think you had a question.
So that, well, I have a question at 03:20 then that contract planner. That is really professional services for a planner. Correct.
Okay. Which we don't have in our budget now. I'm just really concerned that we're professional because we're already over year to date. So why are we putting a number in that we may not even meet next year? That's not even correct. Well
Can I ask a follow-up before we Go ahead, Joanne? Sorry. My internet is going in and out, I think I lost you, so I hope this wasn't asked. Since we're talking employees and stuff, are we making it perfectly clear when we bring on like a contracted ten ninety nine employee or you know that kind of very part time employee that they're not a staff member? I just don't want them in that not to to say a lot of things, but I just do have some concerns after reading kind of some of the personnel policies that they're very vague. So, do we make it clear? Do they get written letters? Just, I was wondering how that goes.
I mean, typically in, so over the years I was involved with the planning and zoning commission. We either, we have a standard arrangement with Mark Brantz, who's an attorney at Halloran and Sage. He just, you know, he has hourly rate and we are simply charged by the hour for his services. For planning services, we've interacted with a couple of planners over the last ten years. Mostly we farm stuff out to a guy named Bill Warner. And what we do with Bill is we do it on a project basis. So we, like with the plan for affordable housing, we went out to RFP. We selected Bill Warner as the lowest cost vendor for the services and, you know, because he's actually really good at it. And we entered into a contract with him that the attorney reviewed beforehand. So, that's normally what, you know, with a contract planner, you know, for most things we are going to, you know, we're going to basically hire them for a project at a fixed cost.
Yeah, just I just want to make sure I It's just the way the language is and if people are needed for more hours or something, just to make sure there's no loopholes or little wiggle room. Okay, contract Thank by you.
So I'm going back to that. I can't let this go. This legal professional line again because it it blows my mind. We're recommending $6,500, but we've already spent more than that year to date, and we're not done with the year. So how do what's the justification, I guess, to say that it's not going to be greater than, I mean, I don't wanna put a number in there that we know it's gonna be more than that. I'd rather put the correct number in, what we think it's gonna be. So
Because people are going to look at these line items. They're going to see look at these big increases and they're and, know, they're just going to want to make sense out of it. That's all. That's all I'm trying to just make sense out of it. That's all I'm trying Right. To right. And I think, so we're going to get a couple of big things done this year. We're going to have the affordable housing,
you know, thing complete and as part of our plan of conservation design. We're going to have our sign regulations up and modified and as part of our plan and done in this budget year. That's a big chunk of what Mark has been done. Because frankly our existing sign regulations, which were written about fifteen years ago and hadn't really been updated, don't meet the Supreme Court's, you know, recent decisions. So, we've had to go back and modify our regulations in light of, you know, more recent Supreme Court decisions on what we can do and what we can't do. And that's a super controversial, I'm sure that's chewed up a fair amount of money, you know, in legal advice, frankly. So those are the next thing we really need to tackle is that there are some regulatory changes that go into effect December 1 of this coming year
that we have to deal with that deal with multifamily houses, as well as accessory dwelling units, granny pods, you know, attached and detached structures, apartments, you know, on your own property. So, we are going to spend some money on that. In talking to the chairman of the commission, those are really the big things that we have on the plate. Much of that is baked into the current budget, you know, the affordable housing stuff was a standalone grant. Mark Brantz has already done most of the legal background work for the sign regulation changes. So, I mean, I think between the legal professional line and the contract planner line, they can get as much done as, you know, you know, as is, as the commission needs, But, I you know, it's, but maybe a month from now somebody walks in with a 30 unit subdivision in town that's, you know, one of the affordable housing subdivisions, and we spend the next year in court. I mean, I can't, you know.
I guess I'm trying to just looking at our year to date spend. It's just not making sense to me. I know you saw the contract plan, but I don't know what the difference between contract planner as legal and professional is. Contract planner is doing what for us? Writing regulations?
Typically, the attorney review them? A contract planner would be helping the commission conceptualize and draft a regulation. We would tend to, after we were done with that, have the attorney review. But most of the time, if the planners come up with the regulation, you know, there's not a ton of legal money involved. It's mostly on the planning end of it. Whereas in often cases we end up using MARC for both the kind of planning and conceptual idea part and the legal part, which gets more expensive. Eric,
if I could ask you a quick question, I think may help all of us understand a little bit better and may help clarify this going forward but by contract planner. This is not a position that's planning contracts. Correct. This is a planner that is under contract. Right. So I think that the language is a little confusing given that we have a legal and professional. Know, account category so there might be a way to change that wording in the, the budget line item to planner dash contract or something like that, know, or consultant might even be a better word to use. Professional services. Consulting planner or something, yeah, because that's going to probably be, it's just a little confusing, I think. I mean, you could also very legitimately
just combine those two and put all the money in the legal professional category if you want it.
Know, and then Is this expected to be an ongoing expense year to year? If we don't think it will be, then I would say it probably belongs to legal profession. I would say it probably does anyway, frankly. Don't know why you'd spike it out separately.
So I can tell you that in ten years when I was on the Planning and Zoning Commission, we were under the $5,000 cap overall, probably seven of those years. We got sued one year and we were way over. You know, we probably spent 12 or $14,000 One we took on a major rewrite of the regs where we ran about $12,000 over. But also a couple of those times we had put in specific planner money dollars because we knew we needed a planner to tackle certain subjects. So, I mean, that's kind of the ballpark. I mean, I think in a good year with nothing major happening, meeting a $5,000 legal budget isn't that bad overall for the land use commissions. It's only when they're undergoing lots of regulatory change or they're having very controversial applications, you know, that they really need to run up, you know, run up money.
Since we know we have these regulatory issues that we have to deal with in this next fiscal year, then we should plan for them. We should put the correct number under legal professional and have that be attorneys or whatever contract professional services we hire for and increase it to what the number we think it should be. And then put an explanation as why it spiked to this year. And the reason because there is this deadline that we have to get this certain stuff done by December 1. It may not happen again next year. We can't account for lawsuits. We never know when that's gonna happen. But if we know there's regulatory change that we have to update for, we're planning to do that this year, those numbers should be in the budget.
Right. And I think that that was the goal to accommodate those between the contract planner and the legal and professional line item. Now, whether you call that all one line item or whether you identify them together.
I would rather put it in one line item so I have a trend. So, I can see from year to year. Rather than creating a new line item. I don't know what anybody else thinks about that, but I would rather have it there and then have an explanation of why that number is so high this year because we know we have specific things that have to be done. Yeah, I agree, it is, it is a legal or professional service,
you know if it were $20,000 or something significant amount really out of the ordinary and we really wanted to call it as a separate line item and to me it would make sense but you know I think one of the things we tried to do this year was to reduce the number of accounts and things that we were using and not expressing so maybe consolidate and I don't know if that helps to have it separated there.
It's good for us to try because we should be able to plan for regulatory change because we know when it's going to happen. So there is going to be spikes year over year because of that. We can't plan for a lawsuit. We have no idea when that's gonna happen. Well,
what we can't do is figure out what's going to pass in the legislature in any one year. So I mean, I can't tell you what the- onset.
The regulations passed, we know what we have to do next.
Correct. Okay. Does that is that so that's you're okay with that moving the 5,000 to that line item and just leave it there. And then board members disagree with that strategy? Yeah. Okay.
Make sure we have good explanation notes because I think the notes are going to be very important for this budget year because we've got a lot of changes.
Concur. Okay, what else do you want to review or talk about?
I have things all over the spreadsheet, so I don't want to get off on a tangent. I don't know how if we want to do it by department or how we want to organize this because I have a lot of things, account numbers that are on here that we don't have that account number in our current reports. I've made notes on that because I don't know why they're different. And then some numbers that don't jive with year to date expenses and things like that. So I don't wanna jump around everywhere. It's kind of
think Do you want to Diane, if you gave us a list of all those things, I would do exactly what we did at this meeting and come back to you with a detailed explanation of each, if that makes more sense, rather than going through them one at a time.
I think especially in the number discrepancies, that probably makes sense if there's anything where we have questions about the account structure or what an account means. You know that there may be something that you enter cherry can answer right off the top and get that one out of the way. But otherwise I would agree discrepancies and things you're not going to have the answer for. It might be easier to deal with that with a separate inquiry.
I can certainly my spreadsheet, I've highlighted everything in yellow and put a comments column in for myself with my questions. So I can send that out to everybody so you could see. Okay. That'd be good.
So can I just, before we go any further, ask for kind of a board of finance, like gut check? What all do you think is doable, reasonable? Where are you? Are you thinking we're going to put something like this before the public? Do you think we're looking at large decreases? What are your expectations at this point?
I think that I would to I think it makes sense to go ahead and pull the Board of Finance members in turn, and if you don't have any opinion you don't have any opinion. I'll go first. Think it's a big increase, so I think that it's going to be very difficult to get this entire thing through. I personally don't have any quibble with the budget as it is because I think that it's reasonable and some of this stuff is needed. So, know, I'll go on the record right there saying that that's that's kind of my position but what did we end up with a 10 and a half 11% increase. Yeah, we're looking we're a little over 11%
right now. Yeah, so that's that's a that's it's a tough one right so I think that it's we've got to find some place to dial that back to some degree and I know that that's not going to be easy so I'm I'll go down in order board members on my screen Diane you're listed next do you want to put in your 2¢.
I think it's a big number. I don't have an opinion yet because I'm trying to make sure like one of the issues we have, I'm just trying to make sure the numbers we have are realistic and accurate. And I have gone through, I spent the whole day Monday going through, and I went and looked at these numbers and I compared them to what we spent last fiscal year and what we spent year to date so far through February. Because I wanted the most current numbers to try and get a handle. And sometimes I could make sense out of it and sometimes I can't. So I think the message to the public is that they're gonna they're gonna wanna make sense out of it too.
So until we get those, I still have some salary numbers that are wrong on here that don't match the salary spreadsheet. So I don't know what those are. I've made those notes in my spreadsheet. So where we would cut, I don't know. I think the things that we've asked for are things we've planned for and we want them. I don't think this budget will pass first round. So I'm pretty sure it won't pass. All right, but we do.
Really going to have to do the cuts because I think if we get some feedback it will help us.
Yeah. Linda I have you up next you have any input.
Where am I. Hi, I just think the town's going to see 10 or 11% and they're just going to automatically vote it down. I know things are Tight and some individual households, but then things are tight in town to and we've let things go so long. I don't know what's going to happen. But as it is I don't think it'll pass.
Okay. Thank you. Oh, everyone, it keeps slipping on me, depending on who spoke last. Rob, you're up next.
Sure. You know, I think back to last year, I think back to all the effort that we put in to try and find a reasonable mid ground last year, And we kicked the can again on capital and we got zeroed out anyway. For what it's worth, I think 10%. I think last year we came in the original budget ask last year was lower than this terms of a percentage increase. And I knew that was flatly unpassable. And so this one is too. I have very little, at this point quite frustrated. So I'll just say we're obviously going to have to cut this. We have to find ways to cut things in ways that will do the least damage. Apropos of what Eric was talking about before with, if you have to cut something in public works, cut trees, not roads, that's what we're gonna end up having to do. But I don't actually mind the idea of bringing a budget we know won't pass to the town if we think it's the right budget and trying to educate people that the longer this goes on and the longer we underfund certain things, the more we're shooting ourselves in the foot down the road. That's my take. I'm done.
All right, thanks. Greg is Kurt. Is the next up on my screen.
My take is that, you know, 10%, 11% increase is not going to pass first time. I do have a question on where does the school budget stand right now? You know, we don't it seems every year we we come through with something and we start pitting the school against the town and or or vice versa. I haven't heard a whole lot of grumblings in regards to the school budget. You know, and I'm still trying to catch up from my absence, but I have been reading a lot of things. But have an alternate plan of where we do need to cut. If, you know, if the townspeople turn it down, you know, right off the bat, which they said, well, that that amount of increase, I think they will.
I think the school budget is, you know, roughly 5% increase proposed. 5.65, yeah, it's on the line. It's similar. I think it's like half, you know, the town and the school are both looking at significant increases. And that's how you get to a 1011% total budget increase.
And most of the school increase is attributable to largely to the contracts increasing. Looks like generally they've held most of their other expenses flat and then they had an outplacement they had to account for. Okay,
yeah, that's that's my take. Yeah, it's a it's a wait and see thing. Know, times are times are tough and everything's going up every day. So try to set a set a cost figure for, you know, fuel and propane and everything else. Forget it. You know? It's just it it you know, watch the markets. It varies every day. So
I will say this is there's more volatility right now certainly than, you know, and I and if you look at the current budget compared to what we, you know, we were in, we had been coming out of a long period of relatively stable cost basis, you know. And, you know, last year we put out a budget and then we ended up with a, you know, what a 7.8% increase in the consumer price index. I mean, that's pretty hard to deal with, you know, when you weren't anticipating and we're definitely feeling the effects of that in this year's budget. There's no question. Sure.
Alright, I'll keep going around. Joanne, I have you up next.
You're on mute. You're on mute. I'm trying to get it. Okay, there we go. Yeah, I mean, I can appreciate everybody's comments that they've said so far, but I and truthfully, I'm just a realist. We've got to admit this budget will never pass. I, you know, put a lot of time and effort in attending all the town meetings and everything. So I definitely hope that if we're going to meet week after week, look at this stuff, that we do something with our time, you know, if we really think it's not going to pass. I mean, I get because there's going to be several more weeks before we get to the town meeting or the town hearing. I do get that we need a lot of things too in the town, so that's why I would rather, you know, I wish we could prioritize and this was great. We did ask Eric to come forward with the definite priorities and where they wanted to see the funds spent. The other thing to take into consideration with the inflation that, you know, that's hitting families too, and the other thing with the reval this is just such a tough year because you know in years past if you all look at your and I think the reval did a good good job I love real estate so I think they were spot on in a lot of houses that I've spot checked around town I think they did a really really good job so
it's just normally you might get say you have an increase and every year your taxes might go up maybe two fifty I was just looking at my own which I'm not putting myself in this picture but just to compare maybe $20 a month more people are looking at if this budget passes significant you know a couple thousand or something you know you have to look at so you know they have to budget that monthly into their monthly homes it's not that little $20 a month increase to support everything it's going to be a big chunk for a lot of people So I get that we need a lot of the things and, you know, I'll sit back and listen to you more experienced board members, but I put a lot of time into listening already and studying, and I know we all have to catch up there and we will,
but maybe we should make a little bit of a cut before we go to the meeting because then I just feel like we're going to be rushing the cuts after that I don't know.
Okay, just, I just want to remind everybody that the process is that we have a public hearing before we actually go to town meeting. So one of the things that we could do is have that public hearing, and then make any cuts based on kind of what we're hearing from the public. Now I doubt you're going to have a lot of public come in and say you need to raise the budget. Have to kind of understand, you know that there there may not necessarily be a representative sample at the meetings or Boise but, but that is part of the process so something to consider. But isn't that three
weeks or something we still have three weeks before the here I definitely know about the hearing part and then the meetings.
Mean we're certainly whatever we take to the hearing that you we can we can present a different budget than what we have on the table now. There's nothing preventing us from doing that. I mean, one of the things that we could try to do going into that meeting. Oh, sorry, go ahead. I was just gonna I just we we haven't given Louise a chance to speak. Oh, I'm gonna if I could let her do that. Sorry, Louise. And then we'll go back to Rob.
No problem. I know last year was a fiasco, but I thought it was good that how because it was high, Eric actually did like a bare bones type of budget. And then we kind of came up from there. Sounded like that's something that we might want to look at for this year before we do go to public hearing. That way we can kind of at least tell the public that we kind of went on both ends and tried to meet in the middle. Because I think at this point, I think it is a little high. Okay. And that's my view on it. Okay. Rob, so that you know, the
total by taxation is increasing, let's see, the 3.5%, it's 5.2%. So, total taxation is going up 5.2% when you add in the aggregate of everything.
So even though our operating budget and capital expenditure and whatnot is going on like 10%, the actual taxation level is only rising half of that. Correct. Correct.
Now, is that no, last year we had the reval kicking in. Is what's the what's the difference for the what's the reason for the difference between those two things this year?
So the the first thing is if you look at reval, so so the reval you know what? Let me just share my screen again and I'll bring that up. Okay. So the the last year, 1 mil, you know, created $271,000 worth of revenue. This year one mill creates $310,000 worth of revenue. So the mill rate with the budget that we're currently presented will drop from 35.87 down to 33.02. Okay,
but the mill rate doesn't really affect the tax dollars.
That's not what really matters to people. So Right. Right. Everybody's taxes is going up. Right. You you asked about the mill rate. But No. I didn't. I asked about you said the total taxation increase was five point some odd percent. Correct. Total expenditure increase of something like 10. So what I was saying is, you know, one of the big things I think people need to understand is the why the what the difference is between that. Are we getting more grant money? Are we, you know, there's a once off, you know, what is it that creates a disconnect?
There's an increase in revenue. Like, if you go up to Well, yeah. I mean, everything is taxes ultimately,
you know, you get Oh, that's right down to federal grant money or something. Yes. And that's Well, but that's taxes too. Sure. But it's not what I mean is people's real estate taxes in town, Eric, I know you I know you're right. Oh, right. It's not the real estate taxes that's going up. It's the it's the it's
the personal property taxes that would have the biggest impact because the grand list increased due to autumn automobiles. I am I guessing right there or understanding standing there driving that? Well, that the
personal property for automobiles has increased pretty dramatically, but the real estate has gone up, you know, overall real estate is up around 15%. And since that's the majority of the tax money that's collected, that's the bigger factor. I
guess the point would make and I'm even really trying to make a point. I'm trying to zero in on something, but up the point of make is so I got my revaluation, my property value went up, ergo everything else being equal, my taxes go up. Right? That's fine. I'm not complaining about it. I'm just noting it. Okay? Then we have a budget where you say the total increase in taxation is X, right? 5% or whatever it is. That's really important. But if we have a expenditure increase that's higher, clearly the difference between those two is made up by something else. Like? Like increase The grand list increase.
Not grand list increase because grand list increase is just what sets the mill rate. The budget, you know, this number down here, this number right here, which is how much we need to collect in taxes. This is how much we collect in taxes. There's only two things that factor into that One, what our budget is, and two, what our revenue is. So, you know, the way you get this number down is to increase revenue or decrease Decrease spending. Got it. Okay. Right. Okay. I I feel like we're
So that's irrelevant of the bill rate. Feel it's my fault, but I maybe we're talking past each other a little bit. I think we lost Joanne, so she just texted me. She just wants to make sure she hears what you guys are saying. Okay. No
you know I may have gone down a rabbit hole here because ultimately what people are going to look at is the increase in their taxation more than anything But when we, when we plan, you know, we know that that's only part of the, the picture. Right. I was trying to, to, I was trying to fully understand the difference between the 5.2%. Right? Right. And the 11% that was talked about before in terms of expenditure.
Okay, because see from a from a what we discussed standpoint, the only thing I'm really discussing right now is the town's portion of the budget. But remember the town's portion of the budget's only 20%, 27% of the overall budget. Right, so the school budget's difference. Yeah, if that's the answer, that's the answer. Don't forget the RAM budgets is actually reduced. Down,
yeah, although, yeah, probably it's largely about the enrollment change. They actually went up slightly, I think. Right? But was such a small increase in We're our
not talking about the total budget here. You know, we we should have been It's
the end over, you know, portion. I get it. Right. So look, if we take this the point is, if we take this budget to town meeting, right? This budget right here, we're asking for a 5.2% increase, not so much. Right? Or is that the 5.2? That is correct. Just the town.
No, that is where we're winding up. Is the total the total amount of money we're talking about collecting in taxes right now between the town and over elementary school and Ram is 10,247,000.
Good. So that is not as crazy as, you know, you know, a 10% number. So I wish you, you know, I'm not saying 5.2% is gonna pass. I'm just saying that it's a lot less eye popping than, you know, 10 or 11% or something. 10 or 11% being the town only. Okay. Yeah.
Yeah. We weren't thinking about the next step or whatever. You know, when we think about going to a an informational meeting, and what I was gonna say before before I got totally sidetracked and confused was that, you know, we can go to a meeting as a board with some options that we can lay out. Here's what we're being told we need. And as experienced the people who've been at this for a few years, we know that we've underfunded capital. We know that we have these needs, but we can prioritize and help us prioritize. Should we cut this? Should we cut that? If you want us to get this number down, that's one thing we could do. Or we could just go in with the numbers and let it happen. But there's couple of ways of going about it. That's all I'm thinking.
Think the hearing is just really a way to get public input. I don't know that we would want to go to vote on option A or B or C or have people get on with post. It sounds like you just enlarge the committee of the Board of Finance when you start doing that. I'd be a little hesitant about that approach. Understand what you're saying. I do think we need to get that input. And just for a matter of this is a matter of point of information, you know, just the total taxation to be raised at 10.247. What that basically gives you at a 4.2% increase for every 100 ks you drop out of there, it's about a 1% increase reduction. So So for example, if you were going to drop out if we were going to Erica thrown some things out there like okay if we wanted to remove the full time budget for the full time position in the Department of Public Works and maybe reduce the contingency fee the two of those is about 100 ks. So that would take it from about 5.2 to 4.2 so that's something we have in our back pocket, so to speak, if if it seems like this 5.2% overall is going to be just completely unpalatable to people. I just wanted to point that out. It's just kind of a scope of where the differentials end up running, you start producing. I think maybe even a question. You know, you're you're probably gonna have to do $50.50 to a $100,000.
Can I just interrupt for one minute? I apologize at the most important time that I wanted to hear what you all were saying. Everything just blacked out on my computer. And you know, I probably could miss other times because I've heard about it, but this is. I and I don't. Eric was just starting to talk about the mill rate and I get it. I don't want to back you all the way back there, but happy to It's sort of like down a rabbit hole. It's not that I don't think it's, missed all that much actually.
But this is now, was just. So I, you zeroing in on the actual percentage increase to be raised by taxation, you know, which you know is the 5.2% number which we're looking at right now.
Okay, that's what I really was want gone for a while as I was trying every computer. Yeah, I'm sorry to hear that. That's annoying. Well, especially because it's the part that I wanted to hear. But Joanne, I I I can recap really quickly. Yeah. Don't wanna make but thank you. Right. That's fine. It's more the spending that I guess I have con you know, once we my concern was I didn't want to miss and thank you Eric you know once we pass a budget the town will always have that spending whether the you know I mean you can cut it drastically if you try but it's what people get used to. So, with the reval and all, right now we're at a high with the taxation coming in. We all know there's trends. I mean, so thank you, Eric. I'll listen.
Well, guess all I was saying is that when we talk about the town's portion of the budget, right now we're talking about a roughly 11% increase in the town's portion of the budget. But the town only controls 27% of the budget, plus or minus. The rest is education. So, when you take in AES and RAM and the town, combine them all, you know, we're looking at a smaller increase. But part of that is also due to the fact that we have some increase in revenues that helps offset the additional spending. So when you take in the increased revenue along with the fact of all three budgets together, overall what we're asking the public for right now is a 5.2% increase in taxation, which translates into a specific mill rate. In this case, it translates into a mill rate about 33 based on the current grand list. But we don't budget on mill rate. We budget on expenses and we budget on revenue.
And spending. Well, Budget on. Yep. You so much. I'll sit back that was panic Louise had a couple questions okay
yeah yeah thanks eric for explaining that that makes a lot more sense with the 5.2 with that in mind I'm going to recap I'm going to go back to what I was saying before and change it. Know people have gone through the reval process and real estate as far as cars and all that have gone up, I think people are expecting taxes to go up a little bit, so I don't think I think the 5.2. And I think basically because we didn't do a heck of a lot last year, people are going to expect that we have to do more this year So I know it's only your part of the budget, the town part of the budget, but I'm going to say that I think we should probably go in at something close to this and see what happens. As long as we explained to people about you know last year and all these other changes have gone on. I think people might be a little more acceptable to something that like 5.2 instead of what we were talking about a few minutes ago. So thanks for that explanation, Eric. Sure. Other comments?
I have some. One of the things we have to do a better job at, because I don't think we do a good job at it right now, is this has got to be summed up in a way this budget as it stands now is a budget set up to do a lot of public works projects and a lot of road projects and to put the resources to do that because we didn't do it last year and we didn't do it the year before. And then that becomes the taxpayers choice whether they want to invest into the town for that or not.
But I think we have to clearly explain to them what this budget is and what it's meant to accomplish. And then it's their choice whether they want to do that work or not. I mean because we've got bridges coming down the road. We've got culverts coming down the road. That isn't even in this budget. You know, this is just doing the roadwork stuff. Well, there's a bunch of that money in this budget.
You know, I mean, we are putting money away in culverts, and we are putting away money for the Bunker Hill Bridge.
Right. But it's not gonna probably cover everything unless we get grants. So True.
I mean, so so I mean, I just think the people need to know this budget represents planning for the road work.
With all due respect, we try to do that every year. Give a good cogent explanation of why we need to do this and that and why we need the money. It just doesn't always work.
That's a good point. Joanne, you had your hand up.
I think, and all of those are good points. I just wondered, it sounded like you were saying how much would have to be cut to even, like you said, the five to, when I got back on Mark, I think you were saying there'd have to be significant. I'm not saying we're going to do that, but in order to even dent the percentage we'd have to cut I mean I could do the math too but like 50 to 100,000 is that what you were saying I yeah roughly
at this at this level $100,000 is a percentage point Okay, that's good to know. Yeah. From the difference percentage point. So it just gives us kind of a scope of what from an optics perspective, it looks, what it would look like, and actually make people think, you move the needle a little bit.
Right. If you're looking if your if your target's 3%, you're gonna cut $200. That's the idea. Yep. Yep.
You know, my personal feeling on this is that we probably, you know, 5.2% is a lot. Know, it's not 10 or 12, but you know, we can I feel like we could go into a hearing with this and see what the feedback is? And then, you know, we did during the hearing and then even more in the budget meeting we we make we pull out all the stops to explain it as Diane pointed out to make sure it's as clear as can be, you know what we're trying to accomplish here. And we focus on the big changes, the ones where we really think, know, let's not spend a lot of time in the small stuff. Let's focus on the big ones and really talk about what it's, you know, all about what's really making the impact and and you know we we go from there.
It is unfortunate that we can never get because I know the other towns are kind of saying that the ram budget clearly is high again. And it's unfortunate that even if you tried, I mean, a little publicity gets out there, I've had, you know, reading in the River East, I was reading how the Hebron town manager thought the RAM budget was too high this year too and different things. If we could lose a little bit there, could do more in the town of Andover, but, because that's the biggest driver of the budget.
Yeah. That's always an issue every year. Absolutely. Said, of all years, this is a tough year. I mean, I've I've been down on RAM in the past. This year, I can't remember their overall budget number this year, but I feel like it was in this, you know Over 30,000,000. No.
No. I'm talking about increase. But Oh, sorry. I feel like It's there actually reduction
because of the Oh, not having to make that bond payment anymore. Then 1.4% under.
Right. And our enrollment is down too. So we, you know, adjust our figures. Yeah. Yeah. You know, of all years, like there have been years where I was extremely frustrated with RAM because they weren't getting it. And I feel like that's actually the warmest kind of turn. But, you know the fact is that there are legacy. You know when you if we if we're if we were right about our concerns in the RAM in the past and that they overspent then even now when they start to get it we have that sort of hangover effect And I feel that's kind of like where we're at now. They actually this budget actually really isn't terrible from from from the standpoint of when I've been on the board compared to other RAM budgets. But Well fact of the matter has been it's 40 some odd percent of our budget,
even small tweaks really matter.
Right. Except for the fact that, I mean, if their budget for everything other than the bond payments had come in the same as last year, we would be looking at a 2 and $90,000 decrease in the RAM budget, not a $70,000 increase in the budget. So, the actual increase in our portion of their budget, you know, is a little over $200,000 which is basically the same as the elementary school. And the other thing I would point out is we're getting close in enrollment right now that by next year, the elementary school enrollment is going to be basically equal to RAM enrollment and we're going to have, you know, a $4,100,000 elementary school budget and a $5,100,000 RAM budget. Yep. You know, and you start to say those are getting a little out of whack, you know, when you really look at that. Yep. No no argument there. You're right.
And the numbers on our spreadsheet are gonna go up because there's numbers that have to come up with the stuff that Eric brought forward today. They're lower numbers in the spreadsheet. Right. Five point two is just gonna go up. Right. So
maybe it's 5.5 instead of 5.2 or something? Right. Not probably not that much.
No. Maybe that's gonna go up. We're talking about are not big changes. You got maybe maybe fifteen, twenty thousand.
Oh, okay. That's not good. That's so 5.3 instead of 5.2. Right.
Let's it's 15 or 25. $20,000 is lot of money to us. Hey. Look.
Thousand Yep. Dollars here and $20,000 there. Soon you're talking about real money. I get it. Yeah. I was waiting for that one. Yeah. You know you know it's coming. No. You're not wrong, Lane. We have to nail it all down and tighten it up before we go to the public with it. Louise
has her hand up. I'd like to let her talk.
Yeah. The new project that's in town, Dollar General, supposedly. Just curious what kind of impact that might be on this budget, or would it actually be on next year's budget if that does go through?
It depends on when the project gets completed or mostly.
Mostly I don't think it's going to positively affect this year's budget. But by next year, we'll see some increase in the grand list. But it's not going to be huge. You know, in a $310,000,000 grand list, you might get a $500,000 bump for that building, something in that range.
Okay. Well, take it. Yeah. Yes. Take it. Yep. Building it proper. Right? All means. Okay. Thanks.
Was just gonna say, oh, sorry. I think we're gonna face a lot of what I've seen you all face in the past. Know, we're gonna have everybody that's gonna question the school budget. I mean, we have to be realistic. I was one of them, know, just like Ram, if they could cut a little, even if Ram would cut $50 or $70, there you go somewhere, even piecing it together. Think I you're gonna have everybody question the school budget and they're gonna ask all the questions of Valerie and then it's gonna be interesting how we propose the town side, like you said. Mhmm. Yep. When is the RAM referendum again? Believe it's March 3. Oh, Monday is the March. April 3.
March 3? I mean May 3. Sorry. May 3. Thank you. I was like, wait a minute. I kinda missed an important vote there. I missed it. Yeah. May 3. So that may be something to point people to. That's coming up. If you're concerned about our budget numbers, don't forget to participate. That's always the thing we try to remind people of, I think. Because once once we go to town meeting with our budget, that's done. And it's the single largest chunk. So kind of important.
Right. Yep. No. Typically, by the time we get to town budget meeting, 40% of our budget is already set in stone.
Correct, Amundo. And it's always a frustration because there are always people who are annoyed about it, but it's done.
Right. We wrote letters last year and I know they have a new board who, you know, if I had time, I would love to listen to their meetings because I read about the people that got elected. Just, I can't fit in more meetings in the evening, but, but yeah, so it's gonna be interesting how the tide goes. I don't think their budget is finalized yet.
No, and I can check tomorrow, you know, before we give you the next budget document, we'll give it to you with the stuff we talked about for electrical tonight. You know, and if, Diane, if you give us every, you know, all the areas that you're concerned or you have questions, we'll give you responses to that. And then I will check and see whether RAM, cause I know they've they're having budget meetings regularly, whether the superintendent has a new, you know, working budget number that's changed.
So the board of Ed is supposed to vote on it on Monday, the RAM board of Ed. This month coming Monday? Yep, the Okay. So
I don't think they're gonna reduce it. So depending, so that would give us a good halfway decent number, right? What they approve. Also in the last meeting, we talked about the diesel fuel number for public works and trying to figure out that number. Was that number only public works because it's shared? You know, that diesel is all shared between other departments that I wanted to make sure that we just had the costs for public works in public works.
You know what, that's a good question. And I still have not gotten to the bottom of that. Okay. Let me put that back on my to do list.
Mark, what we talked about last week was there's a diesel fuel, which we know we have a contract for, but we have one tank that gets filled up and that's shared with the school, the fire department and public works. So the number that's in public works, I just want to make sure it's just their expense because the other people pay their own.
Fire commission gets the report from town hall, I think whether it's monthly or bimonthly. And, we just we we pay that amount Yeah. Once you get the number from Sherry. Meter usage. I'm sorry. Yes. There is. There's a every truck is metered for the for its amount of use of fuel.
But I just wanna make sure that number that's in our spreadsheet is just public works costs.
Yeah, I took a look at the account and I do see the different departments putting in the money that they have been billed. Other thing is we're gonna do is spreadsheet on that diesel fuel because the electricity is already done, so diesel fuel is next. I have it on my list too to put together how it works. I have a question. Do have a quick question just for clarification.
My question is not how it works because I get how it works. I just want to make sure the number we have in our spreadsheet is only public works. I get that other people pay into Yeah, the
that's fine. Everything will be included, but I know what you're after. The year to date figures, do you want them brought up to February or March? I mean, because by the time we do it, it's gonna be March, ending March soon.
I think that's an excellent idea because I think the public will want to see the year to date numbers.
Okay, so March we're talking. Yeah. And then periodically keep updating as we go along. Is that correct? Okay. Will do. Joanne?
Only if this is the time to ask this question. So are we thinking whatever else we discussed tonight, we'll get Sherry will update the figures, and Eric will put in whatever we talk tonight, and maybe next week we'll finally see the see the real I mean, it won't differ that much, but we'll take a look at that next week. Is that what we're?
I think that would be a good approach is I think we got to we have to start doing that. I do agree that we want to see the proposed changes that Eric had in his sheet Today we'll get updated, you know, month end numbers if possible, Sherry will have them then and, you know, to me, makes sense that we start we start going through it. And hopefully at that point, too, we'll also have an answer to any discrepancies that Diane's identified.
Yeah, I will email my spreadsheet out and I'll just include everybody in the email so everybody That'd be good. Yeah, good. Thanks. That'll be good. That first thing tomorrow morning. All right.
Sure. It's gonna be time to get down into the nitty gritty, make sure that we're comfortable with the numbers and make a decision about whether we wanna change anything or in our recommended budget that we take to the town hearing. And then we'll have another opportunity to obviously change that before we go to town meeting.
Also, could I have Joanne Heber email me her question from the last meeting on the school? If you could.
Oh, from what what I tried to ask last week? Yeah. No problem. Yeah. I kind I kind of figured So it
she wants to make sure that we get that answer to you. Oh, thank you. Yep. Yep. I will. Yeah. Thank you, Sherry. Thank you.
Okay. So it sounds like we have a plan for the next week. Hopefully, it sounds like a lot to get through, if we can get all that in, that would be great. Any other discussion tonight or questions?
Are there any other particular focus areas that you all want information back from us?
You know, I'm going to ask you a question that came up earlier just because this is not this is not an answer to your response to your question right there, Eric. But you mentioned that in the on the the town fields and stuff that you were talking about increasing the cost of that football club. To the soccer club? I'd suggest doing it. Sure. Yeah. Where does that revenue fall under? That's really what my question was. That's a good question. Where do we rent out for the rentals? That's a revenue line item called rentals.
Oh. Oh, okay. Well So it's not in there now? Because It's only 1,500 in there now. Okay. So it would be a significant that's gotta be moved in. Right. Okay. Okay. All right. Thanks, Sherry. That makes sense. I actually looked all the way down. Didn't I didn't see that that probably would have been the obvious one. So,
sorry to derail the question there but Eric asked if there's anything else that any larger areas or any specific areas that he should be focusing on to answer questions. I don't have any at this point. When we're going to get our audit.
So, was working on things today for the auditor and questions they had. They are probably going to have to take another extension, and it'll be sometime in April they're shooting for. Any indication we're going to have surprising results?
Not that I know of. Things are checking me out as we go along, So there hasn't been any
I think on any unexpended funds that exceed a 100,000, we put a 100,000 placeholder in there. We gotta give it back. So I just wanna know if we have anything more than that to add back.
They're not at that point yet. So they're going through all We have to pull things. We have to pull invoices. We have to because they got to do that test and any revenue, they're going to pull that and any payroll items. So we're going to get the open item list and then we're going to go through and pull all those for them for the test.
I do have notes on the revenue tab too for revenue items because there's some things that I don't understand on there too. Okay. Okay.
I did add a column in my spreadsheet so it'll be different than yours. Sure. When you send out that updated revenue report, I updated and put it in the actual revenues from that report into a column on this down that revenue tab just so I could benchmark where we're at. So Okay.
Other questions or comments? I do. I have one farther final question here. Sorry. Go ahead Joanne.
I'm cutting, sorry, the computer problem. So I guess I feel like we have enough information as long as everything is updated so that we can, from Eric, that, and you're gonna send us that sheet that you said at the beginning of the meeting you had. So you'll send that after the meeting, the board of finance. And then just personally, because I hate to miss anything, did I miss any discussion at the beginning of the meeting? You know, leaving off. I know you introduced the new person. So did I miss anything there? I don't think so.
I don't think so. I I agree. I don't think you really missed anything of substance. Thank you very much for putting up with me. Tonight's not been my best night here with computer problems and Frustrating stuff. Trying to just get it all. Yeah. It happens to the best of us. I know, and I don't wanna miss the thing, you know, of course you miss the things that you were waiting to hear or whatever. Nope,
thank you. I think we're good. So I do have one other question, and that is because at the next meeting, you're going to have to decide and set a date for the, you know, your public hearing. So, that's not a problem. My question for you is, do you all intend to do that via Zoom or do you intend to do that in person? What is your thoughts or call on that? That's a very good question. I vote Zoom. You vote Zoom?
I mean, it's certainly a lot more convenient. More access by more people. There's maybe a segment of the population that's not comfortable with it. Well, I'll say have a differing opinion?
I'm neutral on it. I've gotten used to Zoom. I'm comfortable with doing Zoom, but I also understand some people like the, you know, personal interaction. And, you know, I can roll either way. So, you know, all this is to say, have no opinion. So do as you will, everyone else. I am seeing towns doing hybrid,
Zoom, and in person. So I've seen that happening lately too.
Yeah. Yeah. It's a little low. I don't know if we're quite set up to do that, but probably
could. Yeah. We're not unfortunately real well set up for that. I mean, we had gotten a grant and bought a whole bunch of fancy camera equipment that I honestly for hybrid meetings is already out of date, which is kind of irritating to me. You know, we have a really cool camera for filming things, but you know, in terms of setting up for an actual hybrid meeting, we're not well set up for that. And the other problem is our normal spot for doing it is the community room. You know, and the acoustics are pretty horrible in that room. So, it's not an easy fit in that room.
Yeah, you know, I'm I'm fine. I'm I'm kind of like Rob. I'm I'm neutral on this one. You know, obviously, the town meeting is gonna be in person, And I think that that's the more important piece. You know the hearing is just an opportunity for us to gather feedback and and kind of see see where people have if anyone has any ideas or for meeting a lot more resistance in some areas, whether underfunded or overfunded. I'm I'm I'm okay with a virtual meeting.
I'm okay too. Everybody. Depends on how COVID is too at that point. If it's only a couple weeks away, it's not that much of a difference, but a lot of the meetings are kind of looking at that as well. All right. Anybody have any other anything We're
looking at May. Right? We're talking about May or are we talking for the the original meet the first meeting, are we in April?
Gotta be like third week of April. So so we're not sure. Okay.
I'm sorry. I'm just looking at my calendar and I just got some information in about May that I was trying to I'm trying to schedule around. That's all. You know, so if we, you know, April is fine. You know, town meeting is usually the final when we bring the budget to the town that's usually in early May right early to mid May. Be May 4. Okay okay. Very good.
Thanks. I think we have to do our public meeting somewhere that third week in the 20s there. Think there's the charter says how many days before. Right. Yeah, no. Right. So the week after Easter.
I don't know when Easter is. So The seventeenth, eighteenth.
April 17. Sorry. I don't know. I'm looking at the calendar. I'm fine with that. I just wanted to I just wanted to have that in my head. Thanks, guys. I if I don't put it in my phone these days, I swear. Yeah. I can't. Yeah. It's always good to have that calendar. It it it's bad because otherwise, it just it leaks right out of my brain.
So the just as the route looks like the ram referendum my head into my calendar is May 3. So we may have mentioned that already so the town budget meeting with them be the following day and we wouldn't necessarily. We probably have the results right so yeah we would not until like the, you know, we'll know what it is. If we don't know, won't know what it is but
yeah, but it'll be real close it'll be real tight.
Yeah. Okay. So to go back to the hearing dates, suggested had a date for that, Eric, or did you submit? I did.
Gave you think a there's a little of sheet there that you sent out. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, the thirteenth is a we have a special meeting scheduled. It could be that day or it could do I'd rather not have it at the twentieth just because, you know, I can do what it needs to be. It's a family birthday that day, not a big deal. Twenty seventh is our normally scheduled meeting also. I mean, I don't think we have to decide today, but I think we should have a pretty good idea of the schedule and
agree on it by tomorrow or by next week. I think the twenty seventh is too late. Think it's got to be the week before the week before that one of the yeah, you're right. It's got it. Yeah.
And I would suggest the hearing probably on the on the thirteenth would be an appropriate time.
I think that's a good time to get good feedback if we're not, you know, from the public. I agree. Eric, is that a sigh of Let
me just hang on two secs because I put out a suggested schedule. Yeah. Was trying find that. Had suggested either April 25 or twenty sixth for the public hearing because that's not less than sixty days before the end of the fiscal year. And then that means you would also have to send the vote to budget to town meeting on the twenty sixth so the mailers could go out. So that's the actual last time you could do it. Could back So it drop dead, you got to do it no later than the April 26, which is a Tuesday earlier,
which is a Tuesday, just so everyone knows. But speaking,
we have the hearing then that doesn't allow us to a meeting, I guess we have a meeting scheduled the next day on the twenty seventh, the regularly scheduled meeting, but if we want to make changes post hearing, we're going to need some time.
I mean, we need a meeting to discuss the outcome. Also, I would just say that Mondays and Tuesdays are particularly bad for me. So if we can back that up to the week prior, I personally would appreciate it. That's just me, though. You guys, of course, can do this without me if you need to.
So you wanna do it the weekend that starts on the thirteenth? Sometime between the thirteenth and the eighteenth is what you would like to do. Wait. Wait. Wait. Hold up. The thirteenth is Oh, the sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Wrong month. My bad.
So when I'm looking at this, the twenty fifth and April 26 are Monday, Tuesday. Right? Right. So you're looking at the weekend starting the eighteenth between the eighteenth and the twenty second. The eighteenth is the day after Easter. Right. Which is why I mentioned it because it's got it's just on my phone calendar for some reason. I don't know if that's a holiday or whatever, but nineteenth, twentieth, twenty first, twenty second, you know, well, twenty second is a Friday. People don't usually do things on a Friday, but I personally can do things on, say, the twentieth or the twenty first that are way easier than doing them on the twenty fifth or twenty sixth.
Well, we can do it the Wednesday before, like the thirteenth. Right? We can go earlier. Well, the twentieth.
Yeah. I'm I'm gonna be out of town starting the twentieth through the twenty fifth, so I'm not really. Well, then.
But I think we need some time with the pup. Oh, you are. Yeah. Here, dear. I think we need some time with the public input, know, then to take actions like Mark was saying. I feel pressured to make all the decisions, like, in two days. If we have so my that's all.
I mean, you know. I'd rather keep our normal Wednesday schedule. I mean, I'm fine Monday and Tuesday, but it's problematic for others. You know, I will be out of town, you know, it's twentieth. Could I could make it sound a great day and first thing in the next morning I'm leaving, really so through the twenty fifth, so those dates are out. Not good for me. If we held the hearing on the thirteenth, that does give us, you know, some time to come up with a, you know, we can we can set the, you know, gives us another two weeks basically to have a meeting if we need to. Have a meeting, a regular scheduled meeting on the twenty seventh. And then
we look at sounds good for the public hearing and then we can, if we need to, can schedule another workshop to schedule another workshop.
With that, have our regular meeting on the twenty seventh to come up with a final budget. And then the town budget meeting would be the fourth.
Okay, so you're going to make a motion to set the public hearing to the thirteenth. And that means our next budget meeting, which is the sixth, you will have to have a budget finalized to go to public hearing.
That's what we're talking about. That is what we're talking about, yeah. It's two weeks from tonight.
Yep, you're going have a, so next weekend, next Wednesday, which is the sixth, you'll have to officially, you know, motion to send a budget to public hearing,
if you're going to do that. And it doesn't mean it's the final one. It just means it's the one that's going to public hearing. So, you know, there's things we need to tweak. As long as they're not material, I don't think it's a huge issue. And we haven't- Anybody have a concern about that schedule?
Well, the only thing is we haven't talked anything about the school. We always usually kind of put, we haven't had a discussion about the school budget yet either. So we're going do that all next ones
week? Well, we can't change the school budget until after the hearing for the charter. Correct.
So we really have to have that hearing and then we can change the school budget, believe, after that. It's a little quirky in there, but yeah, we looked at that and it got brought up. I'm not sure that's what we did last time. May have been, but.
And now we talked about the school budget last last year or so, but I don't remember what day that was.
Well, I'm okay with that schedule. I'm okay with making our next meeting probably our toughest so far. Yeah. Yeah. It's not final, but it is we do have something that's pretty close to it when we go to hearing. No. We got yeah. We have to tighten some things up and make some decisions next time, and I'm I'm up for that. You know, honestly, sometimes it's just important to put things on the calendar and make it happen. So Save it happen. I'm in. And with Mark's you know, Mark being away and then, you know, some issues I've got coming up. Yeah. Let's just get it going. Anybody want to make a motion?
I'll make a motion to have the annual public meeting Board of Finance on April 13 at 7PM. I will second that motion. Be a zoom, I'm presuming based on the discussion.
I'm I vote zoom. I don't know what anybody else wants. Yeah, let's let's have that motion.
Let's. Me, let me restate that if I could so Diane is presented a motion to hold the. Of finance budget hearing for the twenty twenty two twenty twenty three budget at 7PM on April 13. Correct. Anybody want to second the motion. I'll second it. Yeah, Robin seconded, I think. Any discussion? Okay, we'll take a vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any
opposed? Any abstentions? Okay, thank you. We have a date. All right, it's good. Appreciate it. Thank you. Okay, any further discussion on the budget for this round?
I sent my spreadsheet out to everyone. If anybody has any questions, I'm usually available during the day, so you can
give me a call. Yep, I see it in my inbox. Thanks Dan. Oh, great.
Okay, so sounds like no more discussion relative to the budget. The next agenda item is correspondence. I haven't received any. Does anybody else have any they want to present to the board? No? Okay, we'll move on to item five, which is public speak. Again, it looks like we do not have any members of the public in attendance at this time. Okay, the next agenda item is adjournment. Would anybody like to make a motion to adjourn? I'll make Okay, the
Louise, you made a motion to adjourn. Any second? Go ahead Joanne. I'll second it. You were right there. Right. Any discussion? Okay, all those in favor say aye. Aye. The opposed? Anybody abstaining? Okay, the meeting is adjourned. Thank you everybody. I appreciate your help. We're moving us down the road a little bit. It's a lot of work ahead of us, but I think we're getting there. Thanks. Have a good week everybody. Thanks. Bye everyone. Cheers.