===PAGE 1=== Lunenburg Finance Committee Meeting Minutes Bilotta Meeting Room Lunenburg Town Hall February 8, 2024 Members Present: Chair Evan Watters, Vice Chair Chris Menard, Clerk Tiffaney Tavares, Board Member Dave Passios, Board Member Jean Russell, Board Member Jay Simeone Absent Members: Board Member Tom Gray 1. Call to Order The meeting opened at 7:00 PM. 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements No announcements. 4. Public Comment No public or Committee comment. 5. Old Business a. Town Grant Writer Letter Dave Passios is drafting a letter to submit to the Select Board and the Town Manager advocating for the position of grant writer. When the Committee inquired about this possibility the Town Manager stated it depends on funding availability. Dave Passios suggests a 19-hour part time non benefited position, or a 19- hour shared position between the school and the Town. He mentioned that for most of the grants there should be a way to write in the administrative costs. Dave Passios suggest that the Clerk, Tiffaney Tavares, formally finalize a letter and send on behalf of the Committee to the Board of Selectman and he Town Manager. Tiffaney Tavares is happy to send that email and will work on a draft. Tiffaney Tavares asks when the Committee would like to see this drafted. Chris Menard questions the timing of this request. Evan Watters is advocating that this request be added to the FY 25 budget. Laura Veran- 389 Mulpus Road- states there are 3,000 professional grant writers in the New England chapter. There is money out there, it’s just a matter of finding it. Laura Veran suggests creating a communication and organizing a way that this can be successfully executed. ===PAGE 2=== Anna Lockwood- 91 Main Street- suggests creating a grant writing committee within the town. Also, Anna Lockwood is suggesting that there be communications with the Green Community Committee as they have aware as to what grants may be available. b. FY25 Budget Update/Discussion i. Budget Options Tiffaney Tavares inquiries into how many departments are submitting budgets to the Finance Committee. Evan Watters confirms there are roughly 12 departments submitting budgets. The Town Manager requests a needs-based budget and a budget within the constraints of what’s being allocated for an increase year over year. The department heads then submit those budgets to the Town Manager who then sends them to the Committee. Evan Watters discusses publishing the spreadsheet used during the presentations to the website. Tiffaney Tavares and Chris Menard all agree that they should be published. ii. Health Insurance Numbers The percentage received relative to health insurance was 5.7% and the state average is 6.6%. iii. Department Consolidation/Sharing of Resources Evan Watters spoke to the Town Manager about combining departments and facilities. Heather Lemieux doesn’t think it makes financial sense to combine the departments. Chris Menard believes we should be sharing resources and the same IT department. In Heather Lemieux’s email, she states that she is open to hearing the pros and cons. Jay Simeone states that typically only schools and towns are separated. The Committee is requesting a meeting with the Superintendent and the Town Manger to discuss why we can or can’t consolidate facilities. Evan Watters thinks this may be a conversation to have after FY 26. iv. Levy Override ===PAGE 3=== Evan Watters reached out to the town’s attorney about the language and the necessary process for a levy override. He has yet to hear back. Dave Passios shares that at the last Select Board meeting there was only 1 member that spoke up about what he believed were excuses rather than solutions. Evan Watters emailed all department heads requesting a full level service budget. Evan Watters wants to know how the department heads feel about whether the town is providing the services that are needed and within the budget constraints they have been required to follow. Chis Menard thinks there are other ways of making up money. Chris Menard believes that the town has a millionaire’s tax that has driven away revenue from this town where the money is supposed to have gone to the school and infrastructure. The pressure needs to go on to beacon hill and he’s very disappointed in our legislators. For further discussion, this topic will be added to the upcoming meeting agendas. v. School Budget & Point Person Update Evan Watters received an email from the Superintendent with a level service budget. The Town Manager has requested a 2.5% increase which totals $575,961. The differential from the school departments for a level increase is 10.59% for a total of 2.4 million dollars. The Committee states that the school makes up 50% of the budget. Chris Menard questions why the electricity was up 66.2%. He doesn’t understand where this is coming from and didn’t think electricity rates went up that much. Evan Watters states that the previous school director greatly underestimated the needs. Tiffaney Tavares asks if a rate can be locked in with Unitil and if aggregated rates are offered. The Town Manager has already ===PAGE 4=== been in discussion for the renewal which happens in 2024. The rates are expected to go down from where they are now. Chris Menard asked why the building maintenance was up $100,000. Additionally, collaborative tuition was up $180,000 and there is question if that factors in any estimates on the circuit breaking. Dave Passios asked for a population breakdown of the last 3 years in the school district. Evan Watters states that student enrollment is available in the drive. There is a question of how many students are being affected by the staff cuts. Evan Watters states there has been discussion at the school meeting and the report for the class size has increased but not by much. Tiffaney Tavares asks why the line item for high school student counselor was raised so significantly. The Superintendent, Kate Burnham, will send an email addressing all the above referenced questions. The special ed director has prepared a presentation on circuit breaking and this will be provided at the next School Committee meeting on February 28th. 6. New Business No new business to discuss. 7. Minutes – 1/18/2024 & 1/25/2024 Motion to approve minutes from January 18th and January 25th by Chris Menard, seconded by Dave Passios. 5 to 1 vote. Chris Menard questions if all the minutes have been posted on the website. Evan Watters will look but believes all minutes have been received. 8. Committee Reports Dave Passios shares that the Green Community Committee had a meeting where he learned about grant rounds and that there is a grant cap of $200,000 per grant round. Additionally, all grants need to be closed out by a certain date. Regarding facilities, the facilities director has been in contact with Unitil. A request was submitted for an energy assessment and that is moving forward. ===PAGE 5=== Chris Menard watched the Board of Assessors meeting and there was a recommendation to vote to add $122,000 to the overlay account. Chris Menard is unclear why the Board wants to add that additional money since the account already has a large balance. There will be future discussions. Also discussed was that the assessment for condos were up about 20%. Dave Passios states that the Board has been very open and gives a very detail detailed explanation of exactly what they’re doing. Evan Watters states there was a Board of Health meeting, and the budget was up 10% to $60,000. 9. Topics for Future Meetings There was no discussion about topics for future meetings. 10. Upcoming Meetings a. Feb 15th – TM’s Preliminary Budget Presentation & 5 yr Financial Forecast b. Feb 22nd – Land Use, Council on Aging, & Library c. Feb 29th – Information Technology & Police d. Mar 7th – DPW & Facilities e. Mar 14th – Fire & Lunenburg Public Schools f. Mar 20th – Monty Tech & Administration, Unclassified, & Debt Services g. Mar 21st – Public Access Committee, Sewer, & Other Monied Articles – Lunenburg Public School Update 11. Important Dates a. Jan 9th-Mar 18th – Town Meeting Warrant Open b. Mar 28th – FinCom Public Hearing c. Apr 2nd – FinCom Report for Warrant d. May 4th – Annual Town Meeting e. May 18th – Annual Town Election 12. Public Comment Dave Passios states that he enjoyed the younger generation being involved in the town process, especially during budget season. Dave Passios is hoping they continue to be involved. ===PAGE 6=== 13. Adjourn Motion to adjourn by Chris Menard, seconded by Dave Passios. All in favor. The meeting closed at 9:11PM.