Meeting transcript
BOS Special Meeting
April 3, 2020 · Watch on YouTube · All meetings
It's 03:00 we call it to order. Our first order of business is the COVID-nineteen town of Andover information briefing. Eric would you like to proceed?
Sure. As you know, we're kind of in the midst of a pandemic. So far, Andover has been relatively unscathed. We have no reports, no reported cases of COVID-nineteen in Andover. That doesn't mean we don't have any. It just means nobody here has gotten tested and has tested positive. So I sent some information to the board earlier, which was just the extrapolated data basically from the cases so far in Connecticut, both of the number of people who were sick and also the number of dead. You can consider that or not as at your leisure. So what the town has done is done two things. The first is prioritize putting in place a mechanism for food and food distribution to those that most need it, which tend to be the people that have been needing the food bank services.
As many of you know, we've shut down senior transportation because it's basically impossible to do a reasonable job of social distancing if you're transporting multiple people in vehicles. So we have instead switched to a mechanism for delivery of food to those people who use senior transportation to get food in the past. And we also have an arrangement in place with Ted's Market and the CERT team. So they're basically, you can call into the town, you'll be relayed to the CERT team, and you'll be able to essentially order food through Ted's market and have it delivered. And this again is a service for people who either are getting sick and really can't be out and about or are in an elderly really high risk category and don't have any family member that can supply them with food. So we're doing what we can to supply services to those people that need it the most. We are also at this point keeping the majority of town employees working from home and we've done two things with that. One, we've had our IT provider install the firewalls that we were purchasing anyway as part of the up the IT upgrade to the down mall. And Excuse the second thing is that we're enabling the off the employees to be able to remote into the office and work from home. And the way it's working is that employees are not prohibited from coming to the town hall. They're all having to come to the town hall at least a couple times a week to get what they need to do business, but to do as much of their work from home whenever they can. So that's most of what we've been doing on the town side. Does anybody have any specific questions about,
you know, kind of what we're doing and where we're at?
No, I would just like to sit there and talk to the other selectmen about, you know, with all of the issues going on, it's imperative that we sit there and communicate directly to our residents in one cohesive voice. So we all are members of the Board of Selectmen with opinions and with a vote. And so as we sit there and do this, I would ask that we allow Eric to be that one voice for us so we make the decisions, Eric implements the action and we all move forward. So I commend Eric on doing such a good job so far, Eric. You have to turn that phone on. It's called airplane mode. Okay, good. So anyway, as I was going, we make our decisions and we have Eric implement them as best he possibly can. In these times, it's very difficult for the community and I would sit there and give the other members of the board of selectmen who recommended very early on that we take some decisive action related to our seniors. I think it prevented some cases in town that could have been
difficult for our community to swallow. So early on the decision to prevent the St. Patrick's Day party I think was a very wise decision and I commend the other members who led that charge. So anyway, Eric, go ahead now. You can keep going. Anybody else with questions? Issues? Okay, so let's move to our next topic which is our town budget timeline number two. Eric, I know you have some issues. I know that we have some information provided us by the town attorney as to the process the governor has put in place for budget and getting budgets approved. So why don't you proceed to give us the highlights of what we need to get done?
Okay, so I'll give you the highlights of that and the town's attorney is also on with us. So if I say anything incorrectly Dennis feel free to correct me. But basically what the governor's executive order said was that the Board of Selectmen or as it pertains to Andover is that the Board of Selectmen shall empower the Board of Finance to pass a budget and set a mill rate. So didn't say might, didn't say if it's convenient said that's what towns have to do. So we got a legal opinion from the town's attorney and basically asked him to say is there any wiggle room are there other options available to us and Dennis can speak to that more directly but from from everything I know the answer is no that will be the procedure
that the town will have to follow And Dennis, do you have anything to add to that?
Yeah, in my view that's the procedure that the town will have to follow as of today. I mean, is obviously as you can see from the governor issuing orders on a daily basis, this is a moving target and things may change and hopefully we'll get lucky. You've already at your last meeting that I attended quite quietly, I heard you make a resolution to postpone the process by thirty days, which means that your next event in the process, you know, if it weren't for this coronavirus virus crisis, and the legal problems created by the governor's orders would be around the June 1 to the June 12. So you don't really have to do anything now unless you're not planning on meeting until after that point. And I doubt that that's the case
to issue any orders to the Board of Finance to follow my opinion in any way. And it's again, it is subject to change. I want to tell you that I, you know, when I first was asked by Eric to issue an opinion, I of course looked around everywhere I could possibly think and I've got a lot of experience, I know a lot of people, I know a lot of sources looking for to see if I could find anything else, any other legal opinions on this issue and I found nothing. Okay, I did talk to a policy person down at CCM about this. I didn't you know do this in a vacuum. I looked again today to see if there was anything other than my own opinion that I've sent to you And I haven't seen anything else. So as of now, my opinion stands. Mean, but it's, you know, again, it's a day to day thing. And you have done what you need to do up to now. But if you reach that point and there's been no change, the governor's order stays in place or isn't modified in a way to make it
things different. You would really have to, in my view, follow through with a resolution authorizing the budget making authority and in your town that is of course the Board of Finance to do the budget and hopefully to do the budget prior to the end of the fiscal year as it should. So there wouldn't be any town meeting, annual town meeting or referendum. And that's my opinion, you know, until I disagree with it for some other reason, some other somebody can talk me out of it or you know and of course you know you don't have to follow my opinions. I'm just an advisor. I'm not an elected member of the Board of Selectmen. I don't have the power.
But that's my advice and believe me I did study that matter very carefully and extensively. And, you know, I think you're up to speed so far. But you know, you may down the road, unless there's unless we get very lucky, and we're out of this thing and I don't have to stay home to protect myself and you don't have to do the same, you know, is the way it's going to be and the Board of Finance is going to be the budget maker and determiner this year without without official any control let's say by the town meeting or the referendum. On the other hand, under the under the governor's order seven B, there are lots of requirements that you have to fulfill in order to get all the public comment that is necessary. In other words, input. Input and control, of course, and I have to I have to make people in my town aware of that from time to time input does not equal control.
It's input. So Dennis, so if that is the case, then we just have to proceed along a timeline that makes sense for our community and get as much input as we possibly can. So okay, so your opinion is extremely thorough. A quick question,
Dennis you threw out the June timeframe. Yeah. Now that's, that would be for the, if we were normally to go to referendum it would be like the beginning of May. So you're saying we would if if the thirty day extension allows us to push this out until June?
Correct, Adrian. That would be the and that would be the first event in the process, which under your charter is the
annual town meeting? Well, would generally happen the end of or middle to end of April. We normally have a public comment with board of finance somewhere on the eighteenth to the twenty third, somewhere in there, that time frame, and then we would have a town meeting the last week of April. And then about ten days into May, we would actually have the referendum.
Well, my reading of the charter, I may be wrong. You've been living with it. You've been you've been chair of the board of finance. My reading of the charter is that your annual town meeting doesn't occur until May.
No. That's always been before that. It's it's it's definitely been gauged off of, the budget cycle like when we got stuff, because it there's a once you have the meeting you have to have the referendum within so many days you know.
So I think if you look at the charter and I was reviewing that again today I think your drop dead date per the charter given that you've allowed yourself a thirty day extension to make a decision is really the June 14. On the June 14 you have to have set the budget. I would suggest we don't wait till the very last day, and we give ourselves a little leeway, but in the end, on the June 14, the Board of Finance will have had to have approved the budget
and set the mill rate. What's the cutoff date for the the bills to go out on time?
So that's a good question is that sorry I that's another way of me saying I don't actually know but I would hope that if you knew it fifteen days in advance it would be in everybody's hands
July. It's not the budget itself. It's for setting the mill rate because all that has to go to the printers and then get printed and sent out. So I remember that and I I I didn't wanna say it because I was I'm I'm afraid that I'm gonna be off by a day or two, but I remember I thought it was like June 15. So I think your date may be fine, but
that was my concern. Well, we're gonna have a problem we're gonna have a problem with QDS anyway. I just sent out to all the members of the board of selectmen the the newest newest memo from the governor's office which relates to the tax delay, the payment delay. So we're going to have to get with QDS anyway, Adrian. So we'll have to find that answer out because they're going to have to make some adjustments in the software to allow for potential deferrals and deferments of payments. So we'll sit there and get through that but I don't think there's any time to really delay. You know, we may have a thirty day window to delay but the way that this virus is going and the way that this whole issue is going we're not really going to be able to
count on anything. So if we're going to open this budget discussion up for as much public input as possible, we really need to start setting a process and how we're going to go about doing it.
If I can cut in, I'd like to. Don't want to be rude, you know. Don't forget I'm from Will O Mantic. Anyway I thought you were originally from New Britain. I was originally from New Britain. The Mean Streets of New Britain. That's right. Got songs from New Britain a while ago. You'll have to take that into account when you when you entertain me at a meeting. Anyway, or entertain what I have to say. Anyway, I just want to make sure that Adrian isn't mixing up. And you know, with all due respect, Adrian. No, no, please. Public comment with town meeting because public comment can go on right now. Mean you can, the Board of Finance is, I would encourage the Board of Finance as they work through the budget to have you know substantial public comment. I think that's part of the
what the governor governor wants in his orders, which would be order. Yeah, it's mostly in seven b paragraph one. Okay, and you really you have to comply with that for this meeting that we're having right now. And this applies to all meetings. And you know, public comment is definitely a good idea all the way you know, and Jeff is right in that regard. That should be going on you know, now or soon as much as possible because if the public isn't going to get a chance to vote in a town meeting or in a referendum, they sure as heck need to have as much many opportunities for public comment as you can reasonably provide. I think that's what the governor's orders both by the letter and the spirit are aimed at.
Dennis, we're gonna talk in in a little bit later and what our plan is for soliciting feedback. Because we're going to work really hard to get as much public commentary as we absolutely can. You would like, and Amanda, you give me the ability to share my screen, I'll show you what I had of tentatively have in terms of dates, and we can discuss whether we think that's realistic. Amanda?
You're all set. Go ahead. Do you see on the bottom of your screen the green arrow? Yep, I got it.
Just while there's a lull here, we had our public hearing last year on April 23 and moved at that meeting to send a referendum after. Public hearing or
What we what we've always done in the past is have public is had the public hearing, the meeting, and then after that, we would immediately have a a meeting to then forward it to referendum.
So we had ours on the April 23 year. Yeah. I suppose there's nothing wrong with having it early. No I'm not proposing
that. No no I mean I'm talking about last year.
We've done that pretty much every year that I was involved that I know of so. Okay can everybody see that? Yes.
Okay. So, obviously, right now, it's about April 3. You know, I've put out to all of you before, but basically on April 22, that's RAM's drop dead date for passing their budget. Okay? So we will have the final RAM number on April 22. Our next regularly scheduled meeting is the thirteenth, and they're likely you're we're going to want to have at least one more budget workshop with the board of selectmen. My suggestion is that by April 27, the Board of Selectmen, you know, at a special meeting submits the budget to the Board of Finance and, you know, does an authorization to the Board of Finance to hold the public meeting, adopt a budget, set the mill rate. Okay? So that's kind of what I'm proposing for that. And, you know, and that's gonna dovetail with a plan, which we'll talk about a little later in how we get that information to the public and how we solicit comments. Because if if the residents can't vote, we need to do everything we can to enable their voices to be heard. So that would be my suggestion. And after that, it's the Board of Finance's responsibility. They have between April 22 and the May 20 to hold workshops and do their due diligence on the budget. The May 20 would be an online budget presentation slash public budget meeting for the Board of Finance. And then there will be an additional comment period and hopefully on around June 8, the Board of Finance adopts the budget and sets the mill rate.
That pushes out most of our thirty day window, still leaves a week of fallback if they get to the eighth and they still can't quite pass a budget. So that's what I would suggest giving yourselves enough time to work through the project or work through it in terms of a timeline. And then what myself and Barbara are going to need from the Board of Selectmen collectively is some guidance on where you want to go from the budget that was presented to you previously to a budget that you think would be acceptable.
Well the board of the board of finance at their last meeting asked asked the board of selectmen and and you were part of that conversation to try to get it down to a single digit number, and they also were looking for some, further reduction from the school. Now I I don't know that the schools had a meeting since then, so, obviously, they probably haven't had a chance to address it. But have you had a chance to work anything up that would meet their requirements yet, Eric?
I can certainly what I want, I can certainly present a budget to the board which satisfies that and minimizes the town budget without, you know, doing major sacrifices. It will put a bunch of our projects and priorities off to future dates, but it will minimize the impacts to taxpayers. What I can't do though, is I can't cut enough to account for the increase in the RAM budget.
No, don't think that's what they were asking but they were I think if I if I remember the board of finance notes correctly they were looking for a single digit increase. Correct. So we can get down you know to whatever the lowest number is in single digits that we can accomplish without obviously killing what you know what we need to do. Can you work something up like that? I mean obviously you're dealing with this stuff every day. We can propose a lot of things but you have to live with the consequences of that so it might make more sense for you to be the starting point at this point.
So I've certainly worked through a number of budget options and if you tell me roughly what you want me to present as a board I can present that in pretty short order within the next day or so.
Something under two mills I think would be nice. Anybody else?
Well, my issue Adrian is that our meetings have come together but at one meeting we sat there and requested a decrease from our own Board of Education of approximately $400,000 And we all voted unanimously on that. And then we just received a budget today and a new budget amount with a $55,000 decrease. So my question to the other members of the Board of Selectmen is when we go and we present anything back to the Board of Finance, the biggest issue ends up being we can continue to cut the priorities that we believe we set for the town to try to improve our road and to do maintenance on our buildings and to actually add staff where appropriate. But if we don't hold the Board of Education to the numbers that we talked about, then we're never going to have the money. We're just gonna end up cutting the town budget again and we're gonna get none of the things done that we all believed we should have gotten done this year. I just asked that question because we need to make a decision on that topic. What do we want to do related to our prior request to have the Board of Education cut $400,000 from their previous year's budget? No discussion.
I think Scott is trying to say something. Let me unmute him. Scott? Scott, you're muted. Can you see if you can unmute yourself from your end, please? Okay. There he goes. Okay. Go ahead, Scott. I feel the same way that you do, Jeff. That was easy. Good. Adrian?
I mean I agree with you that they I think there's more room for them to cut. I don't think $400,000 is doable without cutting in cutting into, you know, their mission to provide for this, you know, for the students. I I think maybe there's a happy medium in there, but I don't think you're I don't think asking for four is fair Okay. Personally. I mean, everyone's gonna have an opinion, but having been to the meetings and seen the work that they were doing, I just don't think they can get to four. I I just, you know, because I think that the response from the school is gonna be to cut teachers immediately and not dig into what their issues are, which is really more contractual problems personally. Okay. Paula?
Yeah, no, I agree. I've been going to the meetings and hearing the same thing and seeing the same thing. So I'm not sure that 400 is a fair number. I think it's got to be lower. All right. Murray? I concur.
Okay. So if we can agree that $400,000 is not the right number, is $55,000 the right number? 50,000 in addition to
what you mentioned earlier that they said they did 50 or your No, they have presented us with a number today that cuts their budget by $50,000 from the prior year. So my question is, is that the right number?
Well, I guess I'm going to answer your question with a question. And you all have a lot more experience with this than I do, but my thinking is the school's closed. I know they still have things that they're paying for. So how does that work with the school closed and maybe they're not spending money on supplies? I know that's this year's budget, but how does that affect? Can they push anything next year?
So let me interject one thing. One of the things the one of the governor's executive orders basically required towns to continue their contractual obligations as if all the kids are still employed. The town, whether it wants to or not, is paying all the custodial staff, paying all the support staff, paying most of the support services for the town, and they're required to negotiate with the bus company with DATCO for a reasonable settlement to continue paying them. So I don't think I think there will be some savings but I don't think it's going to be huge.
But I thought it was I thought it was bus company special education services and technology services.
It also covered custodial staff and a bunch of other things. I know they have to pay everyone that's staff based. Right.
Beyond that I thought there was room. Again even with that I don't know that it's going be a big number though.
The way I read that executive order was that they could negotiate for contracts for actual costs incurred. Yeah. But that goes to the point that the superintendent's office and the finance department at the Board of Education or at AES needs to negotiate those things. And I did call Sally this week and asked her to determine if there would be any overages in their budget line items so that we do exactly that, Paula, which is look at some of the potential money not spent to be utilized to offset next year's budget. I haven't gotten anything back on that just yet. So the first thing that we got today was the revised budget from the Board of Education. So that revised budget like I said was $55,000 decrease from the prior year. So we know that's their starting point. The question is do we present to the Board of Finance in a way that is lower than And we don't have to do that today at this meeting, but we do all need to be thinking about it. Because
if we as a community are gonna be able to minimize the impact to our residents on taxes and the mill rate going up this year, then we have to either find money, save money in other places or, you know, use whatever we can to minimize milling So, and I think that we're all probably on the same page that that's what we'd like to do. The only personally have is for the four previous years that I sat on this board, we failed to really move the town forward substance to improve the town. And this was the first opportunity we really probably had to do that. And COVID-nineteen has really impacted that. And personally, the issues and not just AES, but also. I always talk to the other members of Board and say, if you have customers, you have to cut your expenses that you can actually try to make money. And in this case, we have a decrease in students, we need to find appropriate levels of decreasing expenses. So I know that's difficult to come by, but it's actually something we as a community need to think about. And so I'm not asking for a decision to be made today but I do really believe that we need to look at the Board of Education and especially AS and look for additional cost savings.
Well they have a meeting scheduled next week and the Board of Finance did already pass a request over to them to take an additional, I think it was 45,000 off. Is that correct, Mark? Did you guys already send a letter over to them? Okay. Eric, did you communicate that over to them yet?
I did not because Mark originally at the meeting said he would discuss that with Shannon so I did not inject myself in that process.
Okay I mean I I know they're they've already been asked to take another $40.45 which would put about a 100 under. Are are we looking for it sounds like Jeff you're looking for more than that though. Do you have a number in mind?
Why why were we all involved in the four with the 400 and now we've all changed our mind? I don't I don't understand where where that's coming from. We all decided that the only way that anything's gonna happen in this town is to find money from someplace and stop taxing everyone. So we need to find some money from somewhere. That's my opinion.
Look, I I can't I can't speak for anyone else. I can only speak for myself. Okay? I have been going to the meetings, and I don't know that there's $400,000 there. Adrian, I went to a meeting also. So
I was at a meeting. I just if you asked if if if you asked me to try to make a recommendation right now, looking at their budget of where to cut $400,000 and granted I'm not an educator. I I I just to be clear, but if you ask me to come up with a $400,000 cut on that budget, I don't see it. I I would be hard pressed to give you a number that would not, you know, or $400,000 number I should say, that would not impact the students on a on a level that that I think is unacceptable, know. I know we need to find money, but I don't know that we need to find it all in one place. I think it's what I'm trying to say. Think Since you've been there what is the number?
Mean I'm not saying it has to be the balance. I'm just sitting and I'm not sure if it's the right number.
I mean, I can tell you per I personally wouldn't support more than 200. Anything above 200 I cannot support.
Okay. Well, we have our regular meeting on the thirteenth. I think we should all be coming to that meeting and get things out of the way so the Board of Finance can actually do it. I definitely think we need to sit there and push the school, you know, to sit there, try to look at those contracts that we all keep talking about that we believe are in the town's interest. Anybody else want to discuss this topic before we move on. Well if we're talking about numbers.
Go ahead. I'm sorry Jeff. Go ahead. I just I just want to say a few things. If we're going to ask for a large amount from the school, we should we should have equal heartburn on the town side. I mean, shouldn't ask the school to bear the brunt of these cuts. I mean, think there's things that we can get away with putting off this year. But I definitely think we need to concentrate on the roadwork and we need to concentrate on the Bunker Hill Bridge. Well, that's my comments.
Jeff, would you have any objection to asking Eric to put together that budget that the board of finance was looking forward to show us if he can do something like that?
Yeah, I think it's doable. I just I just think we need to find a couple 100,000 on our side just if we're going to ask the school for to make significant cuts we need to really look at our own budget and at the town side and then just to decide whether we need you know we need a new mower this year or we can get away with the other one for another year. And definitely think we need to do some roadwork. I mean that definitely needs to happen and we definitely need to move forward on the bridge.
I just I agree with you. I would like to have Eric put that together I guess, you know, and it kinda I I think we all come to that table with different priorities and I'd like him to be the one that has to live with the budget he puts together, You know, it's just it's just I know
we had some money set aside for the fire truck fund. We had some money set aside for the community center building. And I think we maybe need to look at putting that on hold and keeping that money in reserve because I mean this is unprecedented what we're going through and we really need to we really need to watch our pocketbook because I don't know what's going even happen next budget season. We need to be prepared for, you know, pretty much anything but we needed. We need to move the town ahead. So we need to work on those critical things and maybe just kind of tighten our purse strings a little bit with the other expenditures.
All right. So I'd like to I guess at this point we were I'd like to make a motion then we were at what 11% Eric something like that? Yeah we were yeah right around 11% total increase.
I'd like to make a motion then that we ask Eric to put a budget together that's under a 5% increase.
I mean, I can definitely do that. What I will tell you is that RAM alone is going to cost us about 1.6 mills right now. So that implies basically a level town budget. I mean we can move some stuff around and still make our priorities but that that's going to be basically a level town budget just so that you know. Not saying we can't do that and I'm not saying we can't get a lot of what we want done with that.
But can we I would I would I would want you as part of that as part of this motion to look at using reserve funds, but still keeping us above the the 10% that the board of finance has set as as a threshold. And if we need to collapse other funds or whatever we need to do to move that stuff around, that's what I'd like to see. At least give us a starting point for discussion when we come back to the table.
Okay. If that's what the board wants I'll supply that to you tomorrow. Can I get a second? What?
Can I get a second from another select board member? Well one thing I'm concerned about is I don't want to use I don't want to use our fund balance because we got into this discussion last year about using fund balance to fund the town's expenses. And if we get hit next year, I mean, we're just kind of that's kind of kicking the can down the road in the other direction.
I'd like to only use fund balance for the bridge, you know, things that are one time type things, the bridge, the trees and roadwork. I think that would be acceptable. Would that be acceptable to you, Jeff? That would be acceptable.
But I just I don't want to try to pay for real return expenses with one. No. I I said this is critical enough on balances for emergencies and I think we're in emergency situation at this. We're not touching
the emergency reserve unless you tell me to. No. I think I'm not including that. I think Jeff's point is not not even
we don't wanna pay for regular town expenses out of our overage balance. So if we're talking about adding a person to a department say, we're not funding that out of our savings. It needs to be
Is that correct, Jeff? Yeah. Like the I mean the trees with the I mean with the the caterpillars and the tree damage that we had. And that's going to be a one time thing. That's just something that happens. Those are the things we should try to cover with these because I think that's just going to be a one year hit or for the following years it won't be as bad. But I think this is we're going to have a big hit coming this year with the tree removal.
I agree. So Jeff would you be willing to second the motion to ask Eric to put that together. Sure I'll second it.
No, I just want to say I think makes more sense to do it this way. This is step one. And then step two, we think about what the number is and come up with it that way. So I'd like to see what Eric puts together and then that'll help me kind of with my thoughts about that number that we're going to talk about.
We need some discussion. We definitely need something so we can discuss. Yes Scott.
Yeah, you think that I need something I need to say something Adrian, right? You know, I've spoken to a lot of taxpayers lately and they're all still in favor of the senior slash community center, especially since this problem that we're having right now so I don't think that the community center just should be taken off to close at all. Not at all. They all they all almost unanimously everyone I spoke to I didn't speak about the tax the budget or anything I spoke about that expressly and they said that they still wanted to see that they all said that probably would have come in handy right now. So, and a lot of seniors, Republicans, Democrats, mostly Republicans, all said the same thing.
I listen, I don't agree. I don't, I personally don't disagree with you. I think it would have came in handy. I think having a kitchen to be able to prepare meals and stuff like that would be great right now but I don't know about anybody else. I know my wife hasn't had a check-in three weeks so you know.
Well, there's always issues and at least all I said it's a starting point and we can at least start to discuss a little bit more as to what we really wanna bring to the taxpayers. I mean, because personally, the issue that we're facing this year is that because this is such a different process, we have to be concerned of what we're going to ask our residents to incur. So we to look at this and be as, you know, we may have to push some of the things off that we all have to do right now for another year because we're gonna have to wait and see what really shakes out of all this. But we need a starting point. Let's get the starting point.
And I will tell you one thing, you know, we probably need to communicate as a board to RAM to make sure that RAM understands our issue of, you know, the situation that we're currently in and the town of Andover and then, you know, if Eric is saying that the room budget is going to increase our taxes by 1.6 mills, then we need to make a point to them that maybe they should think about doing the same things they wouldn't think about doing.
Well, I mean, it's a separate issue from this motion, but we I think we should use all the town's current media platforms to ask people to sign on to that RAM call that's coming up I think it's April 20 or twenty second something like that. April 20. Okay so I mean I think we should be using the town's media in every avenue we have to get residents to call into that call and let them know that you know. Unfortunately residents haven't been very vocal at those meetings. It's one or two people here and there so we need to get people mobilized for that.
So we have a motion in front of us. Would we like to any further discussion we'd like to vote? All set. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. So Eric you will sit there and help us through that process and get us a revision on your budget
document so you're if I understand correctly you want a budget that still funds the at least a portion of the bridge you want one that does road work and does some tree trimming and comes in under basically so we bring the total budget in under a 5% increase Is that correct?
Yes, yes. We'd like you to try to fulfill the things that we we know we need. So I think like land use has been a discussion we need we need hours there. We know that Kathy Palazzi has decided to step down as of June, so we need to figure out a solution for that. You know if if it's possible to include those things, but those things can't be funded out of they can't be funded out of reserve.
So Eric, you're gonna have to make some cuts and what we're asking you to do is you take the first crack at the cuts. Sure. So that we can evaluate what you've done and then determine if we like them, we don't like them, we need to make more. Then Understood.
We should probably schedule another meeting. Well, we have a meeting on the thirteenth. So what's today? Today is the third. We'll get back to it. Maybe we schedule another meeting next week after you get us your first crack at it. Okay. On Tuesday. Yeah. And
Scott, can I ask you, can you I I you guys haven't had a chance to have a meeting yet with the community thing, right?
Yeah. No. It's supposed to be the eleventh thing or no or the first.
But do we, I mean do you or Jeff have any indication as to a cost factor that we need? Mean and I know originally the state was talking about funding some of the grants again that we should have been back in line. Is there any opportunity in that to look at what we actually need for that community centersenior center if we're going in that direction. If that's what you'd like to try to put forward Scott.
Me and Jeff need to get to have a meeting.
Yeah, we need to schedule something. Now that we have a Zoom, we could probably do a meeting. And then one thing I wanted to add to Scott's question about the community centers. I think at the last budget meeting, we decided we were going to move the library fund money over for the community center. So that money is already dedicated for a building fund. So we really wouldn't be cutting that out of the budget because it's a dedicated fund.
Sure we are. If you're expecting me to come under 5% that money is getting repurposed and it's not getting repurposed for senior center.
Well, can we can we legally do that if it was it was it was meant for another for a building fund, it was dedicated fund?
Absolutely. Okay. If you're asking, is it legal to do it? Yes.
Well, it's legal as long as it would to be clear, so everyone understands, it would have to be spelled out as part of the budget document that we are taking a fund and moving it to another location. It couldn't just be done. It'd have to be noted in the budget document.
So the board of selectmen by charter has the authorization to move money out of existing funds.
Even one that was one that was passed as part of a budget? Sure. Yep. Okay. All right. Well,
to be really honest on that issue, Eric, if your thought is that you're going to move the library fund to do roadwork or something along that lines. I do believe we well, I'll go this way. We're going to discuss that issue. Sure. You can make that as one of your points and then in our next meeting we'll have a discussion about it as to where Absolutely.
I think to Jeff's point it's more palatable to have a building fund be moved to a community building fund rather than moving into something else.
And that's okay I mean I board of selectmen that would probably be one of the items that Eric might get pushed back on let's Understood. Right? Ultimately it's got to be the budget you push forward not the budget I want so Well let's see what yours looks like and then we'll figure it out. Sure. It's budget you need to support but it's a budget that you need to be able to operate the town effectively and efficiently and get some of the priority have done. Sure. And that's the key.
Just I'd like to have at least two or three days to sit with that budget before we have a meeting though you know. So I don't wanna come into a meeting that be handed a budget just so we're Yeah,
just in a preliminary, let's think about Friday because we can do that. It'll give Eric enough time to get it to us and then it'll give us enough time to go through it. We have So we been up to the process and the discussion? I'm assuming that we've already gone to item four. Eric, is that accurate?
Yes, I think we're basically on four. Now the only question I had is, does the board have any more feedback for me in terms of what the timeline? So I put out a timeline, you know, is that something, happy with that? Are you unhappy with that? You know, where do you want to go with it? Well,
given what given what Dennis is saying, I wouldn't mind adding a little bit of time to that cause that'll give us a chance to see what RAM really does and what the school does.
I thought Eric's timeline and Eric share your screen again please. Sure. Because I thought Eric's timeline had RAM as the decision by the end of April. Correct. We're gonna know what RAM is doing. Well, he alright.
Yeah so you'll know ram basically either the twentieth or the twenty second they may pass it after their budget meeting on the twentieth but they allowed themselves till the twenty second in case their members wanted to make significant changes prior to the adoption of the budget. So, but what I'm saying is that you should probably plan on handing over by the April 27, handing over to the Board of Finance a proposed budget, as well as a motion to authorize them to schedule an online meeting, solicit commentary,
pass a budget and set a mill rate. So that gives them enough time to do their jobs. As long as as long as we think Ram's gonna adopt by the twenty second I'm fine with that but I Yeah I was gonna say the same thing what if they stall? Right I mean I don't wanna be on the twenty seventh having to push a budget to BOF if we don't know where Ram's at at that point because there was a there there is a a belief right now, I think, that Ram is gonna try to jam a bunch of things in that budget given that they don't have to get approval now. You know.
Be there that ball field that everybody was talking about is approved. They put it in the budget. No. No. I
read it today. Redo the field. Yeah. I saw it in there.
Well, again, so those things are I think we have to be aware of and again it goes back to what I was saying we need to use all our platforms to get people on that call. With
all of this, this situation being so fluid it's not as if even if this is our timeline we can sit there and change it. Sure.
Here's the thing, Jeff. I know that you don't participate in social media but most people once they look at it once will not go back and look at your modified timeline. So if we put something out there, people are gonna remember that date and they're not gonna go back and look at it again and go, oh, oh, look they changed it. So. Right but we could we could always
we could update we can do a new post and update the information.
Right? I'll tell you what why don't we why don't we at our regularly scheduled meeting refine our timeline. Fine.
We don't have to decide it right now but I'm telling you, even though I'm not on social media, I do read the paper.
Scott and I both were pretty good at reading the paper. You don't read the paper because it's not being printed right now.
For reference. Doesn't it get mailed to me? I thought the post office could still work in Adrian. Yeah.
Well, there's no River East right now. Okay. Yeah. River East has shut down publication. You know that thing that comes in your mailbox
that you read? No. It has a lot of good editorial. And Adrian, when you get a minute when you get a minute, check their budget and you'll see that there was $3.50 or something to redo one field and a 100 and a quarter or something to redo a baseball field.
Okay so we have to address that so the timeline, let's try to set the timeline for next regularly scheduled meeting and then we can post it to social media and all the platforms we need to post it to so that we can let everybody participate as much as possible. Fair enough. Okay.
Is there anything else, Eric? Yeah. The other question I had is that we really kind of need decisions from you all on is how we plan on going about notifying the public, number one, and then soliciting comments. And I'm I'm sharing my screen right now, which shows kinda where we're going. Amanda has created a Google Doc which you should have all had to look at that will have all the budget information on it, as well as a reply form so the public can make commentary directly to that Google Doc. I think that's what Ram has done and that looks like a pretty effective method of doing it. We are also setting up a YouTube channel or correction, we have set up a YouTube channel. Thank you Paula and Amanda for that. And Nick Levine of the Community Voice Channel is recording all these meetings and they will all be available on the town of Andover's YouTube channel for all of eternity. The third thing is doing some sort of budget presentation online at some point. At some point, we're probably going to need either
either the Board of Finance to do it or somebody from the Board of Selectmen to do it to actually present the budget online, you know, and solicit feedback that could be done through the YouTube channel that could be done on Facebook live. There's a number of platforms to do it, but we would have to figure out who's going to do it and when you're going to do it. I think we should probably consider a mailer to all the residents that can be done very short term notice. Our printer, whose name I can't pronounce to save my life starts with a G, has said they right now have about a one day turnaround time because they're not that busy. So we would put out a mailer to all residents with information on how they can access the budget and provide feedback. We should have an email address. It's already set up now actually. It's budgetandoverct dot org that anybody can solicit comments to. What's going to happen is Amanda's basically going to condense all those contacts or those comments into a single document and then submit that to either the Board of Selectmen or the Board of Finance depending on where we are in the process. And then we're going to put the notices up on the town hall window, which we've been using as our official notice board since the town hall is closed. And then the other thing we've several people have asked me whether we would use the town's notice board because I guess for whatever reason the rec commission owns a notice board and
several people have suggested that we put the notice board at the transfer station exit. I'm personally not particularly in favor of that idea, but that's just me. Maybe that's a valid way to reach townspeople also and get the information to them. I have to tell you Eric I would disagree given our experiences
with political campaigns in town I think the transfer station is a fantastic place to get information across.
Well, if you want we can put up a notice board at the exit of the transfer station.
Yeah, wouldn't even be opposed to taping things on the compactors. Mean, I think that's the only place that people are going to right now is transfer station. Of the only No, you don't want people,
you know, because then people are just going to group up. Group up. Okay. Last thing you want to do is do it where they all get together. If they do it at the exit, they're going one at a time and they're in their cars. I mean social social media is definitely the platform to reach a majority of people so
maybe right now we can hold off on the transfer station until we
Well once once we have something in place to put out there I think the the exit board definitely maybe if we're if we don't want to put it up on the street we can always put it on the lower section there before you go up the hill somewhere you know.
Well the exit board maybe it could just be something like check the town website for information So it can be a general Yeah, budget information
available, town website, whatever, whatever. Yeah, it doesn't have to be detailed. Just check the town website or visit the Facebook page. Which I don't see this on here, can we add to this the town website? Sure. Did you finish fixing it yet Paul?
No, was waiting for you to jump back in. Derek, how many residents signed up for emergency notifications? Last time I checked around seven fifty.
Yeah, was going to say I think we need to use that too. Yeah, definitely. Do you have email addresses for most of those individuals? Most but not all. Mean Go ahead, sorry. Paul, after you.
So kind. Thank you. No, I would just say for that, again, push people to the website or the Facebook page, whatever the message is. It doesn't have to be a long email, just something, hey, it's budget season. We have a new plan in place. Please visit our website or our Facebook page for more information. Doesn't have to be a long you know document or something I'd like
like to yeah I'd like to see us somebody needs to prove that before it goes out because the last one was like you know a book.
Well So you want a novella not a novel is what you're saying? That would be a preference under 100 pages yes.
Listen I'm gonna cut Jeff off again I'm so sorry but here's my thing. If we want to build our audience on Facebook and we want people to go to our website, we have to use our other channels to say please visit and not put a whole bunch of info there. So if we keep it short and sweet, they're gonna know to go check that every once in a while, even when we don't send out a message. So So you're saying try use it as a channel driver? Yes, The emergency system or whatever. And then, of course, if there's something that we really need to get out there, you know, God forbid, then we use that with detailed info. But I think for something like this, let them know how the budget process is going to be, we push them to the website and the Facebook page.
Well, I think that we did that pretty well with some of the things. Amanda made some modifications to the posts so that the front page of the website pushed them with a direct link. I wonder if we can actually, if we can does anyone have an objection to putting a link on the town website to link back to the Facebook page?
No we should if it's possible but I mean with the new website we'll have the icon there but Can we do it on the old one on the front page? It's already on there. It is? Yes,
the link to the Facebook page is on the homepage of the website.
Okay. All right, go check it. Amanda, thank you very much then.
You're welcome. I would encourage you all to look at the homepage of the website. It has all information that our residents would need for dealing with this COVID crisis, so please let me know if you have any suggestions. I
think part of the problem is Amanda, I just went to it, it's it's at the bottom of your red column. Can you do an icon so that it actually shows up because right now the problem is everything is is text format.
So it's getting lost in that. No one's gonna see that. I don't know. I I this site is so archaic. I I don't know if it's possible, honestly. If only we had our new website.
Let me ask that question. When is that getting launched?
Well. Okay. So to be clear, it is possible because you have a link on the East Coast Greenway. So Amanda if you look and see how they did the East Coast Greenway link we should be able to do a Facebook link the same way. Okay I'll work on that make it happen. Please. Thank you. If there's something we can do to help you. Alright. There Oh, I'm sorry. Interrupted you. Go ahead. How rude. You didn't apologize to me.
I'm sorry. Did you say something, Jeff? I had you on mute. Yes, exactly. Eric, what is remaining for our meeting?
So is there anything in terms of does the plan we put forward in terms of notifying public and soliciting comments? Are you on board with it? Are you guys on board with us sending out a mailer? Is there anything you want to add or subtract from that list?
Yeah, I would say number 10, you got to put the emergency system in there. I think we definitely need to do a mailer. I don't know how much that's going to be. Maybe we can get a quote to see. If we can find a printer that's open.
Well, yeah, so we're all set with our standard printer is on board with doing it. Have a one day turnaround. I don't know what the exact cost is, but it's, I mean, the majority of the cost is just the cost of postage. Actually printing in single tabbing
a piece of paper is pretty cheap. I think if you reach out to Carol she'll probably give it to you off the top of her head.
Well we usually put on one for the budget referendum anyways and it doesn't sound like we're going to be putting one out for this year anyway. That's exactly that's a good point.
So what I will say is the money is there for it already budgeted. So it's not an issue with that. Just a question whether you want to do it or not. And my suggestion is we do it. All right. I agree. Yeah.
Alright. Eric, I we are in April now as well and we're talking budget. Have you started looking at where we are for this year and is it possible when considering your budget changes I've just sort of thought of this that you look at whatever shifting you can do this year to pick up stuff that was in there, you know. Yeah,
actually I was having a discussion with Barbara about that very thing this morning, and seeing what we could push on this year's because there are some areas that because we're just not doing as much right now, we're gonna have some savings.
Okay, I just thought I'd throw it out there. Yep.
Okay. So any other issues related to the notification of the public and soliciting comments? Anybody else? No, just have a quick question about number three. So
Facebook Live, would it be somebody doing it from their home because I'm not aware of how you can do it live with multiple accounts.
So I got that suggestion from Mark who's the administrator or town manager administrator I guess from Columbia and he said basically what they're doing is they're having a room with exactly three people on it and one of the meeting room web cameras and it's basically chair board of finance, finance director, and himself as town administrator and they're doing a budget presentation and receiving commentary on as one of their methods for notifying the residents. Now we don't have a, you know, that as a webcam, but it's not to say we couldn't get one.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know that we could probably figure out how to do it without a webcam but
that's something we can talk about down the road. I can get us a webcam that's not a problem. Look at you coming through.
Well, we can have the puppets do it Paula, let's have the puppets do it.
Yeah you could use a sock puppet, the two sock puppets giving the budget presentation. I don't know what you're talking about.
So back to our meeting, we will figure out how to do the Facebook Live so that everyone that's on social media can actually get updated as to our budget. And we'll sit there and continue to update you. If we come up with anything else on notifying the public we'll let you know what we can do. Sure.
I mean I'd even throw out there, I mean I can make myself available if you know people want a time to be able to reach out to us to talk you know I mean whether it's Facebook live or people can send in questions that we can answer you know, just make ourselves available to answer questions on something like that. So that it's not just a presentation and we can have something interactive if they'd like, you know, I'd be willing to put some time in for that if that'll help.
Alright, well we'll sit there and address that at our regular meeting on the thirteenth. Let's sit there and move this to the next step. So I think we actually What is the next section on our public comment related to this or do we have anything else that we wanna do? That's it for me. I have to get to my other computer to see my agendas. Okay, Amanda, do you handle public speak? See if there's any residents that would like to talk to us or talk at us. Please be aware that we're only going to have public speak for is two minutes acceptable to the rest of the members of the Board of Selectmen?
Yep. Okay. And I just want to say, so if you want to do public speak, I can't see everybody's face. So we'll have to just let you guys allow yourselves to unmute yourself. But if we start getting feedback, I'm going to have to mute everyone and we'll start over. Okay? I saw Elaine was up. Elaine?
I have to unmute myself. Okay. Hi. Yeah, Elaine Bookart, East Street. I just wanted to mention that I had requested that Amanda go ahead and record all of these meetings and they can just be sent to CVC and put on their YouTube like the ones that we were doing with camera. So these meetings are gonna go to CVC, and they're gonna be displayed just like when we had the cameras there.
Thank you, Elaine. We actually have Nick from CBC on the Zoom meeting today, and he is broadcasting this live, and then it will be available on the CBC site after the meeting. That's excellent. So it's a direct feed now? Yes. Perfect. Anyone else? Thanks for making that happen, Elaine. You're welcome.
Okay we've got an iPhone that popped up anybody else want to talk during public speaker?
It looks like you had Jed Larson opened up he's unmuted.
Okay. Well, if that is is there anyone else from the public who would like to speak to us? Oh, no. I think that's a pocket now. Yeah I just muted that. Right. So I think if no one else wants to sit there and participate and speak then I think we're ready during this meeting. Anyone like to make that motion? I motion to adjourn the meeting. Seconded.
All right. Further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Eric, you. Thank you. Appreciate all you do. Thank you. Stay happy. Thank you Paula. Stay safe.
You for all your social networking skills. You and Amanda. My pleasure. My pleasure.
Alright, guys. Be safe. Alright. Bye bye. Cheers. Bye bye.