# finance-committee — 17 documents, concatenated for reading and search # # This is a CONVENIENCE BUNDLE, not a source. Every document below is # published separately and byte-identically; cite the individual file, # whose path is given in each header, rather than this bundle. # Index of all boards: https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/minutes/INDEX.txt # The town's own scanned original is linked per document. ======================================================================================== DOCUMENT : 2024-01-11-agenda-6325.txt BOARD : finance-committee DATE : 2024-01-11 KIND : agenda OUR COPY : https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/docs/minutes/text/finance-committee/2024-01-11-agenda-6325.txt TOWN PDF : https://www.lunenburgma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_01112024-6325 ======================================================================================== ===PAGE 1=== Town of Lunenburg Evan Watters, Chair Christopher Menard, Vice-Chair Jay Simeone Thomas Gray Jean Russell Dave Passios Tiffaney Tavares Lunenburg Finance Committee Thursday, January 11th, 2024 7:00 PM Bilotta Meeting Room, Lunenburg Town Hall Agenda 17 Main Street, P.O. Box 135 Lunenburg, MA 01462-0135 978.582.4139 FAX 978.582.4148 In accordance with the requirements of the Open Meeting Law, please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast over the Lunenburg Public Access channel and on Facebook Live on the Public Access Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Lunenburg-Public-Access- Cable-157427270975305). The following information is provided for members of the public that would like to participate in the meeting remotely: To Participate Remotely: From a computer, please use the link below to join the public meeting webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89876752952. From a telephone, dial the toll free number (888) 475-4499, enter Webinar ID: 898 7675 2952. If you have not registered with Zoom you will be asked for your name and an e-mail address. Note: No participant ID is needed, just press # when asked. Telephone users may dial *9 to request to speak after joining the meeting. Computer and app users may use the “raise hand” feature to request to speak. This agenda lists all the topics which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the Chair. Votes may be taken as a result of these discussions. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by Open Meeting Law. 1. Call to Order 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements a. Plan Lunenburg Survey: i. PlanLunenburg.org ii. Public Meeting 2/1/24 @ Adult Activity Center 1. Session 1: 4p-6p 2. Session 2: 6:30p-8:30p 4. Public Comment 5. Town Manager Report 6. Old Business a. CPC Final Recommendations 7. New Business a. Committee Reorganization b. Committee Liaisons c. FinCom Budget Review Discussion 8. Minutes a. 11/30/23 b. 12/7/23 9. Committee Reports 10. Topics for Future Meetings 11. Upcoming Meetings a. Jan 18th – 5 yr Financial Forecast & Capital Plan Recommendations b. Jan 25th c. Feb 8th d. Feb 15th – TM’s Preliminary Budget Presentation e. Feb 22nd – Land Use, Council on Aging, & Library f. Feb 29th – Information Technology & Police 12. Important Dates a. Jan 19th-20th (MMA Annual Meeting) b. Jan 9th-Mar 18th – Town Meeting Warrant c. Apr 2nd – FinCom Report for Warrant d. Mar 28th – FinCom Public Hearing e. May 4th – Annual Town Meeting f. May 18th – Annual Town Election 13. Public Comment 14. Adjourn ======================================================================================== DOCUMENT : 2024-01-11-minutes-6325.txt BOARD : finance-committee DATE : 2024-01-11 KIND : minutes OUR COPY : https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/docs/minutes/text/finance-committee/2024-01-11-minutes-6325.txt TOWN PDF : https://www.lunenburgma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_01112024-6325 ======================================================================================== ===PAGE 1=== Lunenburg Finance Committee Meeting Minutes January 11, 2024 Bilotta Meeting Room Lunenburg Town Hall Members Present: Chair Evan Watters, Tom Gray, Dave Passios, Jean Russell, Jay Simeone, Tiffaney Tavares. Absent: Vice-Chair Chris Menard 1. Call to Order The meeting opened at 7:01 PM. 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements Tiffaney Tavares has joined the Board as the 7th member. a. Plan Lunenburg Survey: i. PlanLunenburg,org- Survey is live until January 21st. ii. Public Meeting 2/1/24 @ Adult Activity Center -Informational Session 1. Session 1: 4 PM- 6 PM 2. Session 2: 6:30 PM-8:30 PM 4. Public Comment Dave Passios states that he witnessed inaccurate information at a recent meeting from a person of influence during a committee deliberation. Dave Passios stresses the importance of fact checking. Dave Passios shares a semi-prepared statement about the upcoming budget season. “This will be a challenge again this year with the knowns and unknowns in loss of grant funding and possibly state aid. Budget planning is a constant fluid process.” Dave Passios assures us that at the end of process the best possible budget will be brought forward for spring Town Meeting. 5. Town Manager Report Evan Watters spoke to Heather Lemieux and was informed that at the next Select Board meeting the Board will be interviewing a potential candidate for the Finance Director position. 6. Old Business a. CPC Final Recommendations ===PAGE 2=== Evan Watters provided a document with the Capital Planning Committee ranking priority for the Committee to review. Evan Watters asks if anyone has any comments or questions regarding the ranking. Tiffaney Tavares questions if additional information has been provided. Specifically, regarding a further breakdown of costs and how the costs were created. Dave Passios shares that the estimates for many items were collected during the cost escalations during the pandemic. Dave Passios believes these numbers need to be requested again because the costs are most likely lower. Evan Watters provides that the presentations and the Capital Planning meetings are available on Youtube. Dave Passios states that he has some concerns with several projects. Evan Watters questions about whether or not all of the top 13 projects will be able to get completed based on the current free cash situation. Evan Watters will ask the Town Manger if the departments heads can attend the next meeting to answer questions from the committee. 7. New Business a. Committee Reorganization & Committee Liaisons The committee reorganization and committee liaisons were tabled to the next meeting in order to have the full 7-member committee present. b. FinCom Budget Review Discussion During budget season (scheduled to start on February 15) the department heads will present their year-over-year changes, what they anticipated to accomplish, and their budget. This will follow with committee questions. The departments heads need to provide their presentations, spreadsheets, or supplemental information/documents 48 hours prior to their scheduled presentation. Evan Watters discusses the option of requesting the documents 72 hours prior to the presentation. Tiffaney Tavares suggests documents be provided a week prior to presentation. After discussion, the committee agrees to request budgetary lists a week prior to the meeting and presentations be provided 72 hours prior to the scheduled presentation. Additionally, Tom Gray requests the department heads provide historical data for the prior year and estimated year end budget. ===PAGE 3=== Evan Watters read an Email that was sent from Governor Healey to the town manager regarding budget cuts. “It appears that there will be no impact to Lunenburg at this time. We did not receive any ear marks through the state this fiscal year.” 8. Minutes a. 11/30/2023 & 12/7/2023 There was a motion to approve minutes from November 30, 2023, and December 7, 2023 by Tiffaney Tavares, seconded by Jay Simeone. Roll call vote. Unanimous. 9. Committee Reports Evan Watters states there is an issue with the scheduling of the School Committee presentation. The school committee vote regarding the budget is scheduled for March 20th. Their presentation with the Finance Committee is March 21st. This date may need to be switched. Evan Watters will reach out to the school department and the Town Manager to ask what the current healthcare costs are due to the suggestions that there will be inflation in healthcare costs. There was a Green Communities meeting that’s scheduled for the end of January. Dave Passios shares that there is a Facebook page for Green Communities that includes informational and historical data. Several department heads have reached out regarding upcoming projects and the potential for Green Community funding. 10. Topics for Future Meetings There are 2 more regular meetings before budget season starts and some topics are as follows: - Reorganization of board and liaisons. - List of Boards for liaisons. 11. Upcoming Meetings a. January 18th – 5 Year Financial Forecast & Capital Plan Recommendations b. January 25th c. February 8th d. February 15th – TM’s Preliminary Budget Presentation e. February 22nd Land Use, Council on Aging & Library f. February 29th – Information Technology & Police ===PAGE 4=== 12. Important Dates a. January 19th– 20th (MMA Annual Meeting) i. Evan Watters and Dave Passios are registered to attend. b. January 9th– March 18th – Town Meeting Warrant c. February 1st – Public meeting for the Master Steering Plan Committee d. March 28th – FinCom Public Hearing e. April 2nd – FinCom Report for Warrant f. May 4th – Annual Town meeting g. May 18th – Annual Town Election 13. Comments Public Comment Dave Passios shares that historical documents and materials were found in the vault in TC Passios. The documents have been released by the school committee and will be transferred to the historical society. These documents will be made available to the public in the near future. Committee Comment There are no comments from the committee. 14. Adjourn Motion to adjourn by Dave Passios, seconded by Jay Simeone. Roll call vote. Unanimous. The meeting closed at 8:14 PM. ======================================================================================== DOCUMENT : 2024-01-18-agenda-6367.txt BOARD : finance-committee DATE : 2024-01-18 KIND : agenda OUR COPY : https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/docs/minutes/text/finance-committee/2024-01-18-agenda-6367.txt TOWN PDF : https://www.lunenburgma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_01182024-6367 ======================================================================================== ===PAGE 1=== Town of Lunenburg Evan Watters, Chair Christopher Menard, Vice-Chair Jay Simeone Thomas Gray Jean Russell Dave Passios Tiffaney Tavares Lunenburg Finance Committee Thursday, January 18th, 2024 7:00 PM Bilotta Meeting Room, Lunenburg Town Hall Agenda 17 Main Street, P.O. Box 135 Lunenburg, MA 01462-0135 978.582.4139 FAX 978.582.4148 In accordance with the requirements of the Open Meeting Law, please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast over the Lunenburg Public Access channel and on Facebook Live on the Public Access Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Lunenburg-Public-Access- Cable-157427270975305). The following information is provided for members of the public that would like to participate in the meeting remotely: To Participate Remotely: From a computer, please use the link below to join the public meeting webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89876752952. From a telephone, dial the toll-free number (888) 475-4499, enter Webinar ID: 898 7675 2952. If you have not registered with Zoom you will be asked for your name and an e-mail address. Note: No participant ID is needed, just press # when asked. Telephone users may dial *9 to request to speak after joining the meeting. Computer and app users may use the “raise hand” feature to request to speak. This agenda lists all the topics which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the Chair. Votes may be taken as a result of these discussions. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by Open Meeting Law. 1. Call to Order 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements a. Plan Lunenburg Survey: i. PlanLunenburg.org ii. Public Meeting 2/1/24 @ Adult Activity Center 1. Session 1: 4p-6p 2. Session 2: 6:30p-8:30p 4. Public Comment 5. Town Manager Report 6. Old Business 7. New Business a. TM Capital Plan Recommendations b. Committee Reorganization c. Committee Liaisons 8. Minutes 9. Committee Reports 10. Topics for Future Meetings 11. Upcoming Meetings a. Jan 25th b. Feb 8th – 5 yr Financial Forecast c. Feb 15th – TM’s Preliminary Budget Presentation d. Feb 22nd – Land Use, Council on Aging, & Library e. Feb 29th – Information Technology & Police f. Mar 7th – DPW & Facilities g. Mar 14th – Fire & Lunenburg Public Schools h. Mar 20th – Monty Tech & Administration, Unclassified, & Debt Services i. Mar 21st – Public Access Committee, Sewer, & Other Monied Articles 12. Important Dates a. Jan 19th-20th (MMA Annual Meeting) b. Jan 9th-Mar 18th – Town Meeting Warrant c. Apr 2nd – FinCom Report for Warrant d. Mar 28th – FinCom Public Hearing e. May 4th – Annual Town Meeting f. May 18th – Annual Town Election 13. Public Comment 14. Adjourn ======================================================================================== DOCUMENT : 2024-01-18-minutes-6367.txt BOARD : finance-committee DATE : 2024-01-18 KIND : minutes OUR COPY : https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/docs/minutes/text/finance-committee/2024-01-18-minutes-6367.txt TOWN PDF : https://www.lunenburgma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_01182024-6367 ======================================================================================== ===PAGE 1=== Lunenburg Finance Committee Meeting Minutes Bilotta Meeting Room Lunenburg Town Hall January 18, 2024 Members Present: Chair Evan Watters, Vice Chair Chris Menard, Clerk Tiffaney Tavares, Board Member Tom Gray, Board Member Dave Passios, Board Member Jean Russell, Board Member Jay Simeone 1. Call to Order The meeting opened at 7:01 PM 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements a. Plan Lunenburg Survey: available until January 21st i. PlanLunenburg.org ii. Public Meeting 1/24 @ Adult Activity Center- This meeting will review the results of the survey and include a public discussion. 1. Session 1: 4p-6p 2. Session 2: 6:30p-8:30p 4. Comment a. Public Comment Anna Lockwood- 91 Main Street – states that she appreciates the Committees efforts and looks forward to the Committee continuing their work. b. Committee Comment Dave Passios watched a pre-recorded interview related to the state budget cuts and human resource services being affected by the cuts. During the meeting, it was said that there weren’t actual cuts happening, but portions were being paid to department heads or whoever oversaw the budget line items. There is also a claim that states a good portion of the money being spent wouldn’t be consumed within that fiscal year anyways. Dave Passios will request additional information at the upcoming MMA meeting. 5. Town Manager Report Heather Lemieux discussed the 9C cut decision that included a detailed list of cuts. Most of the cuts were ear marks that were cut by 50%. Another portion of money was put towards MassHealth. ===PAGE 2=== At the past Select Board meeting, a bid went out for the generator project. It came in at $99,940. Once this is ordered it will take 16-18 weeks for delivery. The public safety carpet project came in slightly under what was anticipated and is expected to be finished in March. A Finance Director was hired and is starting on February 5th. The 3rd quarter estimated tax bills went out and the re-evaluation project for assessments is on schedule. The town is awaiting an announcement from the state in regard to the storm flood costs incurred in the fall. There may be appropriated funding available. In the fall, part of a supplemental budget bill appropriated 5 million dollars to be put toward the September storms. Lunenburg did submit the paperwork for reimbursement. All the expenses were tracked and totaled over $100,000 dollars. Currently the town is waiting for FEMA allocation before the amount will be known. Tiffaney Tavares questions what gaps there are in staffing positions. Heather Lemieux states there has been no finance director since July, principal assessor position since June, and no land use director since October. Those are the 3 main positions that need to be filled. Tiffaney Tavares asks how the town is marketing for those positions. Heather Lemieux confirms they are using multiple resources including job fairs, temporary staffing agencies, social media, association websites. 6. Old Business There is no old business to discuss. 7. New Business a. TM Capital Plan Recommendations Heather Lemieux provided a presentation to the Committee prior to the meeting relating to the Capital Plan recommendations. The departments heads submitted their requests thru the ClearGov platform, and the Capital Planning Committee prioritized those 35 requests. Those 35 requests totaled over 3 million dollars. Below are the top 10 projects for FY 25 totaling over a million dollars: 1. Public Safety Radio System Phase 2: $315,263 2. Townwide Keying, Card Access, and Alarm System Upgrade for Town Buildings: $185,000 ===PAGE 3=== 3. Northfield Culvert Construction at Kellys Pond: $200,000 4. ADA Study for Renovations and Schematic Design for Turkey Hill Elementary School: $275,000 5. Marked Replacement of K9 Cruiser: $92, 211 6. Library Security Camera Phase 1: $36,000 7. Marked Replacement for the Traffic Cruiser: $73,627 8. Installation of 3M Window Safety Film for Turkey Hill: $33,569 9. Security Camera Upgrade at Town Building: $36,450 10. Wallace Park Basketball and Tennis Court: $70,000 For this budget year the Town Manager recommends using free cash and unexpected capital. The next steps include revisiting funding. Dave Passios questions where the funding for the school entrance came from. Heather Lemieux confirms the security was funded and the projects are to be completed by the end of the fiscal year. Dave Passios states he has reservations about repairing the basketball court at Wallace Park. He doesn’t believe that a band aid patch is worth the money and suggests a complete project to get a better understanding. Heather Lemieux will inquire into what was previously spent to repair the courts. Tiffaney Tavares requested a further breakdown about the cost of the ADA study of Turkey Hill Elementary. Heather Lemieux will check for further information. Brian Lehtinen from the School Committee stated the ADA compliance was a big concern being triggered with renovations. Dave Passios believes the scenario the School Committee was hoping for was to get the potential total dollar amount to renovate the school with a single project with the MSBA. Dave Passios requests a complete evaluation of the building including ADA design. Chris Menard believes in relation to fleet management that the front-end loader was bumped up higher than recommended. The Capital Planning committee generally didn’t believe that we were ready for that. Dave Passios states that the town has been growing thus requiring more equipment and personnel. Dave Passios also doesn’t understand how the town doesn’t own something as simple as a jack hammer and an air compressor and why these weren’t a priority. Chris Menard questions if the town could hire someone to write grants that the town could benefit from. Heather Lemieux agrees. Dave Passios questions if there is a municipal grant process that allows administration costs. ===PAGE 4=== Chris Menard asks if there is a grant for the bridge culvert project and the estimated costs. Evan Watters wants to know if these requests follow the fiscal year or the calendar year. Heather Lemieux confirms they follow the calendar year. b. Committee Reorganization There are 3 positions available to be filled: Chair, Vice Chair, and Clerk. Tiffaney Tavares expresses her interest in being the Clerk. Motion by Dave Passions to nominate Tiffaney Tavares for the clerk position, seconded by Chris Menard. Motion by Dave Passios for Evan Watters to remain as Chair, seconded by Tiffaney Tavares. Motion by Dave Passios for Chris Menard to remain as Vice chair, seconded by Jay Simeone. Evan Watters expressed interest to re-assess committee positions on a yearly basis. c. Committee Liaisons Evan Watters created and shared a document with a list of liaisons. Below are the assigned liaisons per board member: • Evan Watters: Board of Health, Master Plan Steering Committee, co-liaison for the School Committee • Chris Menard: Parks Commission, Capital Planning Committee • Tiffaney Tavares: Facilities, co-liaison for the School Committee • Dave Passios: Green Communities, DPW, co-liaisons for the Sewer Commission • Evan Watters: Board of Health, Master Plan Steering Committee, co-liaison for the School Committee • Tom Gray: Lunenburg Municipal Building Design Committee, Select Board • Jay Simeone: Council on Aging, Library, co-liaison for the Sewer Commission, Personnel Committee • Jean Russell: Police and Fire Departments 8. Minutes There was a recommendation to add the location of the meeting and which members are absent for each meeting. Motion to approve minutes with amendments by Dave Passios, seconded by Tiffaney Tavares. Vote of 6 to 1 for approval. ===PAGE 5=== 9. Committee Reports Dave Passios shares there is an upcoming Green Communities meeting scheduled for January 29 at 6:30 PM. 10. Topics for Future Meetings • Grant Writing Evan Watters requests the potential amount of time and cost for a grant writer as this is not a 40-hour position. Tiffaney Tavares suggests opening some sort of budget for a grant writer. Dave Passios asks if a contracted service would be an option. • School Committee Documents Tiffaney Tavares wants to follow up with the School Committee about getting financial documents and data in advance of the School Committee presentation. 11. Upcoming Meetings a. Jan 25th – tentative meeting b. Feb 8th – 5 yr Financial Forecast c. Feb 15th – TM’s Preliminary Budget Presentation d. Feb 22nd – Land Use, Council on Aging, & Library e. Feb 29th – Information Technology & Police f. Mar 7th – DPW & Facilities g. Mar 14th – Fire h. Mar 20th – Monty Tech & Administration, Unclassified, & Debt Services i. Mar 21st – Public Access Committee, Sewer, & Other Monied Articles, Lunenburg Public Schools 12. Important Dates a. Jan 19th-20th (MMA Annual Meeting) b. Jan 9th-Mar 18th – Town Meeting Warrant c. Apr 2nd – FinCom Report for Warrant d. Mar 28th – FinCom Public Hearing e. May 4th – Annual Town Meeting f. May 18th – Annual Town Election 13. Comment There was a brief discussion about spousal conflicts relative to liaison positions. The Committee agrees that there are no conflicts. 14. Adjourn ===PAGE 6=== Motion to adjourn by Chris Menard, seconded by Jay Simeone. The meeting closed at 9:41 PM. ======================================================================================== DOCUMENT : 2024-01-25-agenda-6378.txt BOARD : finance-committee DATE : 2024-01-25 KIND : agenda OUR COPY : https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/docs/minutes/text/finance-committee/2024-01-25-agenda-6378.txt TOWN PDF : https://www.lunenburgma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_01252024-6378 ======================================================================================== ===PAGE 1=== Town of Lunenburg Evan Watters, Chair Christopher Menard, Vice-Chair Tiffaney Tavares, Clerk Jay Simeone Thomas Gray Jean Russell Dave Passios Lunenburg Finance Committee Thursday, January 25th, 2024 7:00 PM Bilotta Meeting Room, Lunenburg Town Hall Agenda 17 Main Street, P.O. Box 135 Lunenburg, MA 01462-0135 978.582.4139 FAX 978.582.4148 In accordance with the requirements of the Open Meeting Law, please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast over the Lunenburg Public Access channel and on Facebook Live on the Public Access Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Lunenburg-Public-Access- Cable-157427270975305). The following information is provided for members of the public that would like to participate in the meeting remotely: To Participate Remotely: From a computer, please use the link below to join the public meeting webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89876752952. From a telephone, dial the toll-free number (888) 475-4499, enter Webinar ID: 898 7675 2952. If you have not registered with Zoom you will be asked for your name and an e-mail address. Note: No participant ID is needed, just press # when asked. Telephone users may dial *9 to request to speak after joining the meeting. Computer and app users may use the “raise hand” feature to request to speak. This agenda lists all the topics which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the Chair. Votes may be taken as a result of these discussions. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by Open Meeting Law. 1. Call to Order 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements a. Plan Lunenburg Public Meeting 2/1/24 @ Adult Activity Center i. Session 1: 4p-6p ii. Session 2: 6:30p-8:30p 4. Public Comment 5. Old Business a. Board of Assessors Liaison 6. New Business a. School Committee Budget Discussion i. FinCom Point Person ii. Public Q and A b. Town Grant Writer 7. Minutes 8. Committee Reports 9. Topics for Future Meetings 10. Upcoming Meetings a. Feb 8th – 5 yr Financial Forecast b. Feb 15th – TM’s Preliminary Budget Presentation c. Feb 22nd – Land Use, Council on Aging, & Library d. Feb 29th – Information Technology & Police e. Mar 7th – DPW & Facilities f. Mar 14th – Fire & Lunenburg Public Schools g. Mar 20th – Monty Tech & Administration, Unclassified, & Debt Services h. Mar 21st – Public Access Committee, Sewer, & Other Monied Articles – Lunenburg Public School Update 11. Important Dates a. Jan 19th-20th (MMA Annual Meeting) b. Jan 9th-Mar 18th – Town Meeting Warrant c. Mar 28th – FinCom Public Hearing d. Apr 2nd – FinCom Report for Warrant e. May 4th – Annual Town Meeting f. May 18th – Annual Town Election 12. Public Comment 13. Adjourn ======================================================================================== DOCUMENT : 2024-01-25-minutes-6378.txt BOARD : finance-committee DATE : 2024-01-25 KIND : minutes OUR COPY : https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/docs/minutes/text/finance-committee/2024-01-25-minutes-6378.txt TOWN PDF : https://www.lunenburgma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_01252024-6378 ======================================================================================== ===PAGE 1=== Lunenburg Finance Committee Meeting Minutes Bilotta Meeting Room Lunenburg Town Hall January 25, 2024 Members Present: Chair Evan Watters, Vice Chair Chris Menard, Clerk Tiffaney Tavares, Board Member Tom Gray, Board Member Dave Passios, Board Member Jean Russell, Board Member Jay Simeone 1. Call to Order The meeting opened at 7:00 PM 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements a. Plan Lunenburg Public Meeting 2/1/24 @ Adult Activity Center i. Session 1: 4p-6p ii. Session 2: 6:30p-8:30p 4. Public Comment Dave Passios- 56 Whiting Street -shares that this has been a challenging year with a lot of unknowns. Numbers are changing daily. It’s going to be a difficult year for the school district and the town people. Chris Sullivan- 108 Highland Street- attended the School Committee meeting and heard about the financial cuts. The school district is already doing so much. A responsibility of the town and a top priority is to properly fund our school. A 2.5% budget increase is not going to cut it. Chris Sullivan questions if there is anything the citizens in the town can do. 5. Old Business Board of Assessors Liaison Evan Watters received an email from Renee Emkey about the possibility of having a liaison for the Board of Assessors. 6. New Business a. School Committee Budget Discussion i. FinCom Point Person There was a discussion and Chris Menard believes that the public should be able to reach out to anyone on the board. Evan Watters is suggesting this person be the general point of contact for general questions, presenting ===PAGE 2=== information, and emails. Evan Watters states that this person is not be speak on behalf of the finance committee. Dave Passios agrees with Evan Watters that this will prevent any emails from falling through the cracks. Ultimately, the board agrees that a point person would be beneficial. Jean Russell volunteers to be the point person between the Committee and the public. ii. Public Q and A Prior to the question-and-answer session Dave Passios states the Finance Committee doesn’t develop the school department budget. It is the School Committee and the Superintendent. The Finance Committee is there to allow people to voice their opinions. It should be noted that the night before there was a School Committee Special Meeting. Evan Watters starts the Q and A by sharing the Town Revenue and Proposition 2 ½ presentation. In addition to this presentation, Chris Menard shares that there is a 2-hour presentation video on YouTube from October 28, 2021. This video shows a better understanding of how finances work. Chris Menard encourages residents to get involved and get up to speed and continue to go to the School Committee meetings. Information is just starting to trickle in and wants residents to be patient, respectful, and be part of discussions. Rhonda Lisio -181 Reservoir Road – attended the School Committee meeting and there was a claim by a resident that half of the student population is involved in athletic programs. Rhonda Lisio believes that athletic programs are only offered to grades 6-12. Rhonda Lisio requests the exact number of students who benefit from athletic programs versus academic programs that are beneficial to everyone. Mandy Gilman – had questions and is seeking clarity about the prop 2 ½ process. Mandy Gilman is requesting the Committee reach out to the Town Council to see if there is a different option. Evan Watters states the first part of overriding prop 2 ½ is to have the question added to the town ballet. The only way to get a question on the town ballot is for the Select Board to have a majority vote to put the question on the town ballet. The recommended budget is submitted by the Select Board and the Town Manager. It’s still up to the town to appropriate those funds and to accept the levy. Further ===PAGE 3=== discussion can be clarified by the Town Manager or the Town Moderator who consults with the Town Council. Another option is for the town to petition to get a warrant article for an override. This would require a number of signatures from residents. Evan Watters will check with town council to confirm. Peter Beardmore- 282 Pleasant Street- states that in the past there was a separate article on the warrant written with the language as described by statute which is an override article. There is an expiration as well. This is considered cleaner because we are not going into summer with an unbalanced budget. Peter Beardmore doesn’t want to pass an underfunded budget. Peter Beardmore requests some sort of opinion from the Town Council. Mandy Levine – 163 Island Road- feels there is a contradiction between what the Committee and the School Board are saying. Mandy Levine questions who sets the budgets and what is the Town Manager’s job versus the financial director. Heather Lemieux states the charter outlines that the Town Manager is tasked with developing the budget and presents a preliminary budget. The Finance Committee and the Select Board vote on recommendations for the articles on the Town Meeting Warrant including the budget articles. Mandy Levine questions who sets the tax rate. Evan Watters responds that the state sets the 2.5% which then goes to the Town Manager to distribute to all the departments heads. Then the department heads come up with their budget to try and fit within that 2.5 increase to their bottom line. Joe Mule-139 Cove Road- asks when the last time the town had an override. Mandy Levine believes it happened in the early 1990s. Evan Watters says that the legislature bill hasn’t been updated since 1980. Joe Mule believes this should be added to the warrant to inform residents. Joe Mule wants to know why this process didn’t start back in November. The budget comes out so close to the Town Meeting. He believes there is no good reason why the option of an override shouldn’t be provided to the voters. Evan Watters responds that the Committee is only an advisory board. We have no authority in the town whatsoever and we don’t put in the articles. We don’t make the budget. We are here to look at the budget. An override must be an article put into the warrant. Tiffaney Tavares ===PAGE 4=== requested residents to attend the Finance and School Committee meetings to share their opinion. Rhonda Lisio - 181 Reservoir Road – states that she appreciates the comments of Dave Passios about the emotions from the School Committee meeting the night before. Rhonda Lisio shares that she doesn’t support an override because 30 percent of the town’s population are senior citizens. She will not vote to increase their taxes. Chris Sullivan questions if there is a reason why we are losing out on grants and if there is something the residents can do. Heather Lemieux confirms this is a new development. Previously we received 40S funding as local aid from the state. This was received because the town adopted a smart growth district many years ago that made the town eligible for reimbursement for certain funds related to the district and students that go to Lunenburg schools within that district. After calculations were completed by the program, it was determined the town was no longer eligible. Heather Lemieux will share more information when it is known. This funding has been received for at least the last 10 years. Lou Franco – 250 Arbor Street – believes supporting prop 2.5 would be a last resort but might vote to get that question to the people. Board Comment Tom Gray wants to hear from the people about who is and is not interested in an override. Chris Menard states that are still 2 and a half more months of discussions and hearings ahead of the Committee. There are a lot of unknowns at this point. Chris Menard likes that the town has taken interest in and are engaging and asking questions. Dave Passios confirms these are new waters for the Finance Committee and encourages everyone to be involved and to get engaged. Evan Watters states that at this point he is against an override. Evan Watters will provide answers to the questions that he noted during the meeting. ===PAGE 5=== b. Town Grant Writer There were 3 members who attended the MMA conference. At the conference, there was a lot of pushing towards state funding and available funds regarding grant writing. There is a discussion that a grant writer could work for multiple boards and committees. Dave Passios shares that he was able to meet a lot of people from all over the state on different boards and committees. Generally, other towns are having the same challenges. Dave Passios believes that a grant writer essentially pays for themselves by the number of dollars that they bring into whatever entity that their writing grants for. Karin Menard- 672 Page Street- supports having a grant writer for the town. Based on her grant writing experience she states that there are other pieces that a writer can’t do alone. Additionally, Karin Menard asks if other towns have dedicated employees who write grants or are these employees being contracted. Motion to recommend that the Town Manager and the Select Board consider hiring or looking into a grant writer, seconded by Dave Passios. All in favor. Unanimous vote. This was an amended motion. 7. Minutes There are no minutes to approve. 8. Committee Reports Dave Passios shares that Green Communities has an upcoming meeting at the library on Monday. Kelly Brown, representative from Green Communities, will be in attendance as well as many department heads in town. There is a list of projects to discuss if they may be appropriate to put into their system. 9. Topics for Future Meetings This topic was tabled for this meeting. 10. Upcoming Meetings a. Feb 8th – 5 yr Financial Forecast b. Feb 15th – TM’s Preliminary Budget Presentation c. Feb 22nd – Land Use, Council on Aging, & Library d. Feb 29th – Information Technology & Police e. Mar 7th – DPW & Facilities ===PAGE 6=== f. Mar 14th – Fire & Lunenburg Public Schools g. Mar 20th – Monty Tech & Administration, Unclassified, & Debt Services h. Mar 21st – Public Access Committee, Sewer, & Other Monied Articles – Lunenburg Public School Update 11. Important Dates a. Jan 19th-20th (MMA Annual Meeting) b. Jan 9th -Mar 18th – Town Meeting Warrant c. Mar 28th – FinCom Public Hearing d. Apr 2nd – FinCom Report for Warrant e. May 4th – Annual Town Meeting f. May 18th – Annual Town Election 12. Public Comment Susannah Marcucci-245 Sunnyhill Road- doesn’t believe now is the time for austerity. It’s the time to invest in our future and provide the schools with the funds to provide the children with the best education possible. Not just an issue for parents but the responsibility of the town to educate children. Urges finance committee whatever way they seem fit to get the funds to the school. Tiffaney Tavares encourages parents to attend school committee meetings and get their voices heard. Chris Sullivan- 108 Highland Street- thanks the committee for the question and answers. Dave Passios encourages everyone to attend these meetings. All the meetings are available on YouTube in case you miss a meeting and want to catch up. 13. Adjourn Motion to adjourn by Dave Passios, seconded by Chris Menard. All in favor. The meeting closed at 9:27 PM. ======================================================================================== DOCUMENT : 2024-02-08-agenda-6403.txt BOARD : finance-committee DATE : 2024-02-08 KIND : agenda OUR COPY : https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/docs/minutes/text/finance-committee/2024-02-08-agenda-6403.txt TOWN PDF : https://www.lunenburgma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_02082024-6403 ======================================================================================== ===PAGE 1=== Town of Lunenburg Evan Watters, Chair Christopher Menard, Vice-Chair Tiffaney Tavares, Clerk Jay Simeone Thomas Gray Jean Russell Dave Passios Lunenburg Finance Committee Thursday, February 8th, 2024 7:00 PM Bilotta Meeting Room, Lunenburg Town Hall Agenda 17 Main Street, P.O. Box 135 Lunenburg, MA 01462-0135 978.582.4139 FAX 978.582.4148 In accordance with the requirements of the Open Meeting Law, please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast over the Lunenburg Public Access channel and on Facebook Live on the Public Access Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Lunenburg-Public-Access- Cable-157427270975305). The following information is provided for members of the public that would like to participate in the meeting remotely: To Participate Remotely: From a computer, please use the link below to join the public meeting webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89226887485. From a telephone, dial the toll-free number (888) 475-4499, enter Webinar ID: 892 2688 7485. If you have not registered with Zoom you will be asked for your name and an e-mail address. Note: No participant ID is needed, just press # when asked. Telephone users may dial *9 to request to speak after joining the meeting. Computer and app users may use the “raise hand” feature to request to speak. This agenda lists all the topics which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the Chair. Votes may be taken as a result of these discussions. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by Open Meeting Law. 1. Call to Order 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements 4. Public Comment 5. Old Business a. Town Grant Writer Letter b. FY25 Budget Update/Discussion i. Budget Options ii. Health Insurance Numbers iii. Department Consolidation/Sharing of Resources iv. Levy Override v. School Budget Point Person Update 6. New Business 7. Minutes a. 1/18/2024 b. 1/25/2024 8. Committee Reports 9. 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 13. Adjourn ======================================================================================== DOCUMENT : 2024-02-08-minutes-6403.txt BOARD : finance-committee DATE : 2024-02-08 KIND : minutes OUR COPY : https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/docs/minutes/text/finance-committee/2024-02-08-minutes-6403.txt TOWN PDF : https://www.lunenburgma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_02082024-6403 ======================================================================================== ===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. ======================================================================================== DOCUMENT : 2024-02-20-agenda-6416.txt BOARD : finance-committee DATE : 2024-02-20 KIND : agenda OUR COPY : https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/docs/minutes/text/finance-committee/2024-02-20-agenda-6416.txt TOWN PDF : https://www.lunenburgma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_02202024-6416 ======================================================================================== ===PAGE 1=== Town of Lunenburg Evan Watters, Chair Christopher Menard, Vice-Chair Tiffaney Tavares, Clerk Jay Simeone Thomas Gray Jean Russell Dave Passios Lunenburg Finance Committee **Joint Meeting with Select Board, School Committee, & State Delegation Representatives** Tuesday, February 20th, 2024 7:00 PM Bilotta Meeting Room, Lunenburg Town Hall Agenda 17 Main Street, P.O. Box 135 Lunenburg, MA 01462-0135 978.582.4139 FAX 978.582.4148 In accordance with the requirements of the Open Meeting Law, please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast over the Lunenburg Public Access channel and on Facebook Live on the Public Access Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Lunenburg-Public-Access- Cable-157427270975305). The following information is provided for members of the public that would like to participate in the meeting remotely: To Participate Remotely: From a computer, please use the link below to join the public meeting webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9091740347. From a telephone, dial the toll-free number (888) 475-4499, enter Webinar ID: 909 174 0347. If you have not registered with Zoom you will be asked for your name and an e-mail address. Note: No participant ID is needed, just press # when asked. Telephone users may dial *9 to request to speak after joining the meeting. Computer and app users may use the “raise hand” feature to request to speak. This agenda lists all the topics which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the Chair. Votes may be taken as a result of these discussions. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by Open Meeting Law. 1. Call to Order 2. Join meeting with the Select Board and School Committee to meet with Senator John Cronin, Representative Michael Kushmerek, and Representative Margaret Scarsdale 3. Adjourn ======================================================================================== DOCUMENT : 2024-02-20-minutes-6416.txt BOARD : finance-committee DATE : 2024-02-20 KIND : minutes OUR COPY : https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/docs/minutes/text/finance-committee/2024-02-20-minutes-6416.txt TOWN PDF : https://www.lunenburgma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_02202024-6416 ======================================================================================== ===PAGE 1=== Lunenburg Finance Committee Meeting Minutes Bilotta Meeting Room Lunenburg Town Hall February 20, 2024 Members Present: Chair Evan Watters, Vice Chair Chris Menard, Board Member Tom Gray, Board Member Dave Passios , Board Member Jean Russell, Board Member Jay Simeone Members Absent: Clerk Tiffaney Tavares 1. Call to Order The meeting opened at 7:13PM. 2. Join meeting with the Select Board and School Committee to meet with Senator John Cronin, Representative Michael Kushmerek, and Representative Margaret Scarsdale Senator John Cronin provided the following statement : Upon the onset of the covid -19 pandemic , 115 billion of federal aid and emergency relief funding made its way into Massachusetts t hrough PPP loans, cares act, Esser funds, ARPA money. This r esulted in years of surplus revenue at a state level that many have never seen before. That it not where we are no w with the fiscal year 25 budget process . The governor has issued fiscal year 24 9C cuts meaning the money appropriated last summer is being taken back because revenue collections are not keeping up with the projections. W e are not in a recession. There was a projected 1.6% growth in the Commonwealth for tax collections for fiscal year 24. Currently it ’s around a 1.2% growth. The s tabilization fund holds roughly 8 billion dollars. Due to us not being in a recession, that money will not be used because it will affect our bond rating in the states and the commonwealth ’s ability to borrow. A final budget won ’t get to Governor H ealy ’s desk until July. Ultimately, these meetings are important for leadership and for us to establish priorities. Representative Margaret S carsdale provided the following statement : Legislatively Margaret Scarsdale has voted to increase senior citizen circuit breaker from 1,000 to 2,000, increasing Department of Conservation and Recreation funding, and signed the senior citizen tax exemption bill. Lunenburg is 94 to 97% residential tax base meaning the budget generally falls on the backs of the taxpayers. Margaret Scarsdale is looking forward to ge tting to know and get a better understanding of the Town of Lunenburg. In addition to Lunenburg, there are 5 other towns that Margaret Scarsdale works with. Representative Michael Kushmerek provided the following statement: ===PAGE 2=== Michael Kushmerek has f iled 37 pieces of legislation in the last 37 months. He b elieves there is an overwhelming need for continued emphasis on funding for mental health. There have been 8 pieces of legislation filed related to mental health . The focus is to improve access and services for mental health and behavioral health, substance use and recovery. Additionally, he is p assionate about tackling Unitil and the increasing energy costs . He will u se every regulatory and legislative tool possible to ensure the rates are as low as possible. Finance Committee participation started 58 minutes into recording. Chris Menard : This is the first full budget submitted by the new governor. She ’s putting her effort into housing, climate, green energy, MBTA communities. During the Groton meeting there was a discussion about universal pre-k, free community college, infrastructure improvement. While these would all be great it doesn ’t seem like the right time to launch aggressive initiatives with the current financial situation. Environmental concerns make no sense for a town like Lunenburg that has a lot of conservation land which is a contributor to renewing the environment and to decarbonize the environment. It ’s almost disincentivizing for us to have forests by forcing us to have housing or an MBTA community. We have huge stormwater concerns that we need help with and can ’t do on our own. This one size fits all approach to government that Beacon Hill likes is a real problem. Senator John Cronin: All aspirations mentioned occur within the confines of a balanced budget and we are in a difficult fiscal environment. One of the concerns that legislators know is a priority is housing. We are in a housing crisis in Massachusetts. We want to increase smart growth which relies upon taking on the housing challenges. The second concern is the workforce. There is a significant shortage in the trades. Another significant headway on this session is raising the housing cap at Devens. He wants to incentivize people to come and invest in N orth C entral Massachusetts. That ’s how we will grow and that ’s the answer to all the budget strains that all communities are under right now. Chris Menard: A lot of what was discussed was more geared toward city type issues. We are conservation and land. We are not the building industry. What can you do for Lunenburg to share the wealth? Chris Menard questions where they stand on the free community college bill. Representative Michael Kushmerek : The legislature is very focused on the needs here. Those needs include helping our municipalities meet budget shortfalls, transportation, and education particularly k to 12. Everyone loves the idea of expanding childcare and creating more access. There is no affordable childcare and ===PAGE 3=== no availability. There are budget priorities that need to be funded today. The idea is to create zoning to make it easier particularly for rural and suburban communities to hold more dense housing populations. A long- term objective in the next 20 years will be a housing crisis if nothing is done. Lunenburg has been a beneficiary of smart growth funds and as tax valuations increase, tax excise increases. It ’s likely in FY 25 there will be a return to smart growth funding. Chris Menard: The predictability of the entitlement funding and the 40s funding makes it very difficult to read because the past few years are all over the map. Representative Michael Kushmerek : It is a challenge and depends on the precise student enrollment. Representative Margaret S carsdale : Education is transformational and fundament al in a person ’s life, and it needs to be invested in. W e are in a very tough financial situation with revenue being off for almost 8 months straight. All of our earmarks were cut by 50% in December because the Governors 9C cuts . We a re constitutionally required to present a balanced budget and that couldn ’t happen without those cuts. Many communities were counting on that money to fund projects and now must postpone it . The senator and state representative are focusing on how to help Lunenburg and that may not involve pre-k or free community college. Finance Committee participation ended at 1 hour and 19 minutes into recording. Closing Comments from the Committees at the 1 hours and 49-minute mark Evan Watters: There is frustration and disappointment with the lack of communication and how this meeting ran. This could have been time better spent. This was meant for the town of Lunenburg to express to you what our legislative needs. That was accomplished to a small extent. There was a large amount of here ’s what we ’re d oing for the entire area and region, but we are not a gateway city. Lunenburg is a small town, yet we are treated as if we were a very lucrative town. There needs to be a discussion and drilling down into details and that can ’t happen in 20 minutes or 90 minutes across the 3 different committees and boards. The legislative should have a chance to speak to the legislative branch of government. There are 7 members in our committee, and we only heard from 1 and we weren ’t allowed to speak because there wasn ’t enough time. Senator John Cronin represents 10 towns, Representative Michael Kushmerek represents 2 towns, and Representative Margaret Scarsdale represents 6 towns. Lunenburg is just 1 of those towns . T here needs to be a school committee meeting for 90 minutes within a 1-year period to just discuss school budget issues. The school budget is 56% of the town budget. ===PAGE 4=== Senator John Cronin : We have been asked as a delegation not to appear before any other committees except the executive committee and we respect that. You have my personal phone number, and I will give you 90 minutes any day to discuss anything you would like as it pertains to Lunenburg. Representative Michael Kushmerek ; During our first year in office, we met with both committees and walked away with competing and conflicting priorities that left us wondering what the ear mark priority is and questioned what the legislative priority is . He has shared that he is always happ y and available to talk one on one. He found today particularly helpful and learned where some aggregate issues are. Evan Watters: To push back against that there was no chance to have a discussion. There wasn ’t an opportunity to discuss back and forth. Select Board Chair Michael-Ray Jeffreys: Prior to this meeting there needs to be a discussion so we can all be heard through one voice. We should approach this internally and differently in the future. Michael-Ray Jeffreys invited the chairs to adjourn their meeting. 3. Adjourn Evan Watters requests a motion to adjourn the F inance C ommittee by ??????? , seconded b y ????. Roll Call Vote. Chris Menard disagrees with the adjournment and feels it ’s inappropriate for one member of the selectboard to say they ’re not allowed to meet with anyone . The meeting should continue due to the number of problems we are having. Michae l-Ray Jeffreys requested Evan Watters to move on to the next member and continue the voting. Dave Passios ay e , Ja y S imeone ay e , T om G ray ay e , E van W atters ay e. The meeting adjourned at 9 :1 5 PM . ======================================================================================== DOCUMENT : 2024-02-21-agenda-6417.txt BOARD : finance-committee DATE : 2024-02-21 KIND : agenda OUR COPY : https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/docs/minutes/text/finance-committee/2024-02-21-agenda-6417.txt TOWN PDF : https://www.lunenburgma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_02212024-6417 ======================================================================================== ===PAGE 1=== Town of Lunenburg Evan Watters, Chair Christopher Menard, Vice-Chair Tiffaney Tavares, Clerk Jay Simeone Thomas Gray Jean Russell Dave Passios Lunenburg Finance Committee Wednesday, February 21st, 2024 7:00 PM Bilotta Meeting Room, Lunenburg Town Hall Agenda 17 Main Street, P.O. Box 135 Lunenburg, MA 01462-0135 978.582.4139 FAX 978.582.4148 In accordance with the requirements of the Open Meeting Law, please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast over the Lunenburg Public Access channel and on Facebook Live on the Public Access Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Lunenburg-Public-Access- Cable-157427270975305). The following information is provided for members of the public that would like to participate in the meeting remotely: To Participate Remotely: From a computer, please use the link below to join the public meeting webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89226887485. From a telephone, dial the toll-free number (888) 475-4499, enter Webinar ID: 892 2688 7485. If you have not registered with Zoom you will be asked for your name and an e-mail address. Note: No participant ID is needed, just press # when asked. Telephone users may dial *9 to request to speak after joining the meeting. Computer and app users may use the “raise hand” feature to request to speak. This agenda lists all the topics which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the Chair. Votes may be taken as a result of these discussions. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by Open Meeting Law. 1. Call to Order 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements 4. Public Comment 5. Town Manager Report 6. Finance Director Report 7. Old Business a. Town Grant Writer Letter b. FY25 Budget Update/Discussion c. Overlay Account Balance and General Update 8. New Business a. Town Manager’s Preliminary Budget b. Town Manager’s 5 yr Financial Report 9. Minutes 10. Committee Reports 11. Topics for Future Meetings 12. Upcoming Meetings a. Feb 22nd – Land Use, Council on Aging, & Library b. Feb 29th – Information Technology & Police c. Mar 7th – DPW & Facilities d. Mar 14th – Fire & Lunenburg Public Schools e. Mar 20th – Monty Tech & Administration, Unclassified, & Debt Services f. Mar 21st – Public Access Committee, Sewer, & Other Monied Articles – Lunenburg Public School Update 13. 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 14. Public Comment 15. Adjourn ======================================================================================== DOCUMENT : 2024-02-21-minutes-6417.txt BOARD : finance-committee DATE : 2024-02-21 KIND : minutes OUR COPY : https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/docs/minutes/text/finance-committee/2024-02-21-minutes-6417.txt TOWN PDF : https://www.lunenburgma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_02212024-6417 ======================================================================================== ===PAGE 1=== Lunenburg Finance Committee Meeting Minutes Bilotta Meeting Room Lunenburg Town Hall Febr u ary 2 1 , 2024 Members Present: Chair Evan Watters, Vice Chair Chris Menard, Clerk Tiffaney Tavares, Board Member Tom Gray, Board Member Dave Passios, Board Member Jean Russell, Board Member Jay Simeone 1. Call to Order The meeting opened at 7:00 PM. 2. Pledge of Al legiance 3. Announcements There were no committee announcements . 4. Comment s Committee comment Dave Passios had a brief conversation about the prior night ’s meeting with the state delegates. This is the 3 rd year Dave Passios has sat through the states meeting and they have all been very similar. The programs and benefits are for towns other than Lunenburg. Public comment S able Kaufman , 27 O ak Avenue , prior to this meeting had sent an email to the committee. In this email she offered that it seems incongruous for the members of the Committee to describe the feasibility to budget increases for the town departments requesting 10% budget increases compared to what an equal increase would mean for the school ’s districts multi- million-dollar budget. Sable Kaufman b elieves we should be talking about percentage values rather than dollar amounts . Is a merit of a department ’s budget increase judged by its dollar sum over its relative percent increase if costs have risen so precipitously for all business operations ? Why would we so easily assume responsibility for one service sustaining increase over another ? Based on the meeting with the state delegation s it seemed that they are ready to help . The S chool C ommittee shared their concerns about per pupil spending, transportation monopolies among other things. Sable Kaufman appreciated that Evan Watters and Chris Menard advocated for the town. ===PAGE 2=== Laura Br zozoski , 21 Francis Avenue , is not happy with the town manager ’s proposed budget. It is not shared equally among the town ’s departments. The s chool is getting 2.94% which is more than the typical 2.5% and knows they are bound by proposition 2 ½ without an override. Other departments are being given a significantly larger budget than the schools. The schools are planning on cutting the IT contracted hours in half to save money. The town side is more than doubling the hours for their IT administrative assistant. Laura Brzozoski d oesn ’t agree with the town proposing to hire a town grant writer at this time . This position is a non-essential experimental position that ’s not a priority while the school is making drastic cuts. The E sser money was spent to meet a lot of mental health and behavioral issues needs but it is now gone and is still needed . There are 17 other school districts aside from charter schools and online only schools that spend less money per student than we do. Peter Beardmore , 282 P leasant Street, believes the town manager ’s budget is toned deaf and off ensive. After receiving the 2.94% increase in the town ’s budget there are 17 positions that need to be cut including teachers, guidance counseling , 1 secretary, reading specialist, special ed, custodians , maintenance worker, and title 1 coordinator . In order to not cut those additional 17 positions there would needs to be a 10% increase. This is a leadership problem . Tiffaney Tavares responded and stated this is heavy material to look over and impacts a lot of us. She believes that the grant writer position could open many avenues of income for the town. Currently there is only a certain dollar amount that the town has available to work with. Tiffaney Tavares thanked everyone who came out to voice their opinions. Evan Watters shares his deep concern about the cuts at the schools but there is still a town to run. The process is transparent, and everyone is encourage d to remain involved. 5. Town Manager Report There was no report from the Town Manager. 6. Finance Director Report A Finance Director was hired, Ezequiel Ayala , but has only been with the town for 2 weeks and doesn ’t have any reports yet. 7. Old Business a. Town Grant Writer Letter ===PAGE 3=== Tiffaney Tavares and Dave Passios are working on a letter for a grant writer, and they plan on presenting it at tomorrow night ’s meeting. Dave Passios doesn ’t anticipate that this grant writer will not be added to the town payroll and anticipates this position will pay for itself multiple times over . At the state reg meeting there was a discussion about legislation and allowing administrative costs to be included in the grants. b. FY 25 Budget Update/Discussion This topic will be skipped since the preliminary budget will be presented later in the meeting. c. Overlay Account Balance and General Update The overlay account has roughly $ 562,000 dollars . The re is no indication that the Board of Assessors doesn ’t have any funds that will be deemed as a surplus that could be returned. There is a spreadsheet provided to the B oard of Assessors that provides a history of all overlay abatement amounts and balances. The re is a suggested amount that should be kept in the overlap account provided by the DOR. At the present time, we are within that amount. 8. New Business a. Town Manager ’s Preliminary Budget Tonight is the start of the weekly budget presentations. The annual town meeting warrant will close on March 18 th . The finance committee will hold their public hearing on March 28 th to vote on the recommendation of the budget including C apital Pl an and other articles on the town meeting warrant that have financial impact. The a nnual town meeting will be on May 4 th and on that da y, voters will decide on the final outcome of the budget and other decisions on the town warrant. The i ndividual department presentations start on February 2 2 nd . These presentations include an in-depth review of their programs, services, and needs. The g oal for preliminary budget recommendation is to present a balanced budget that funds the operating budget using recurring revenues. Th e preliminary budget does not accomplish or meet the needs of the town or school department due to the loss of state aid and the loss of E sser funding . The Esser funds have supplemented the school budget for the last few years. It does address incremental changes in person ne l that address staffing shortages ===PAGE 4=== and community needs to ensure that the town is able to sustain these changes in the long term. There are 4 main revenues sources to address the target budget. This includes property taxes, state aid, local receipts, and other available funds. Property tax includes adding 2.5% to the prior year ’s levy , there is an estimated $ 400,000 for new growth and debt exclusion amounts. Local receipts include a $ 50,000 increase over previous F Y ’s estimated for motor vehicle excise tax, but level funded all other local receipt categories. Other available funds are cash and unexpected capital for the FY 25 Capital Plan, Sewer and Public Access Indirect costs, and artificial turf revenue for debt payment. Projected Revenues for FY 2025 - Property T ax- $32,587,335 - State Aid- $ 10,682,086 - Local Receipts- $3,266,491 - Other Available Funds - $2,431,884 o Totaling $48, 967,795 Expenditures are a r eflection of the cost of providing a level of service to residents of all ages in our community. Expenditures are divided into the following categories: - Departments - Non- appropriated costs: cherry sheet offset charges, allowance for abatements, tax title, retirement assessment. - Sewer Enterprise F und - Enterprise F und - Solid Waste Disposal Enterprise Fund - Cable Access Enterprise Fund - Other warrant articles with a financial impact include transfers into stabilization counts, OPEB trust fund and capital plan. PRELIMINARY BUDGET OUTLINE - General Govt: Funds an increase in hours for IT Administrative Assistant, includes adding a part time position in Assessors Department to assist with data collection, and includes $50K for grant writing contracted services . Overall increase of $197K . ===PAGE 5=== - Police : Includes funding for an Operations Lieutenant for ½ year as part of 10-year staffing plan; other contractual expenses. Decrease in Lock-Up Expenses. Overall increase of $129K . - Fire : Funds an increase in costs for EMS supplies and equipment line due to increased call volume, an increase in IT software specific to Fire. Overall increase of $36K . - Radio Watch : The assessment for Nashoba Dispatch decreased by $12K and the salary reserve line for desk coverage after the day shift was cut to fund the 2nd Lieutenant position, which will be available to come to the front desk during the second shift. Overall decrease of $55K. - Other Protection: Eliminates non-reoccurring expense of kennel behind PSB and change in personnel resulted in a reduction in salary costs. Overall decrease of $10K . - Facilities : Funds an increase in hours for the Recreation Director, an increase in landscaping costs, and adds a new line item for repairs and maintenance not covered by the incoming revenue for the TCP Building in the amount of $30,000. Overall increase of $50K . - DPW : Includes level service increases General Highway account for drainage related costs, stormwater projects and purchase of services and tree removal expense line; additional $50K for Pavement Management; a slight increase in the seasonal cemetery salaries line. Overall increase o f $99K. - COA : Funds an increase in hours for the Meal Site Manager. Overall increase of $35K . - Library : Increase in hours for Teen Librarian, $4K increase in programming line, increases the Library Materials line to meet the min.16% towards Library Materials that maintains certification. Includes certain IT requests in IT budget. Overall increase of $33K in library budget. - Worcester Reg. Retirement: 10.94% increase or $209K more than the previous FY. - Unclassified : Includes final rate increase for active employees of 5.7% and 6% rate increase for retirees. The other insurances are estimated at 5% and the Reserve and Salary Reserve Accounts are funded at $100K. The overall increase is $71K. to expiring debt, our overall debt is decreasing by $576K . ===PAGE 6=== - Lunenburg Public Schools : Recommendation includes increasing LPS budget by $673K (2.94%). This d oes not meet any of the budget scenarios provided by the Superintendent . The l oss of Esser funding has a large effect. - Mont achusett Tech High School : Recommendation includes a 3.75% increase of $44K. - Solid Waste/Recycling Program : Includes estimate of $17K increase. Funding currently available: - C ertified free cash- $ 1,870,612 - Current stabilization fund balance $ 2,862,006 - Current special purpose stabilization fund balance $ 2,211,683 - Current other post-employment benefits (OPEB) Fund balance $ 1,310,058 - Moody ’s Bond Rating – Aa3 - Standard and Poor (S&P) Bond rating AA+ - Unfunded Pension Liability - The Town increased its funded ratio for pension obligations from 43.4% in 2014 to 45.3% in 2018. Currently, the Town is scheduled to fully fund its pension liability in 2036 per State requirements. Free cash Free cash is defined as the close out of unexpected appropriations at the end of a fiscal year. There are multiple f actors that come into play . Free cash can come from e xcess receipts revenue , actuals versus estimated, taking in more money for tax titles, penalties, and interest. A cardinal rule of the budget is that free cash should not be used to fund operating expenses. Questions from the Committee Tiffaney Tavares asks about the increasing budget for Monty Tech and how that ’s related to the town. Heather Lemieux states that students from Lunenburg are part of the regional technical school. It ’s an assessment amount based on the students enrolled from Lunenburg. Th eir school committee votes on the assessment amounts for each town and the town can approve or not approve. Tiffaney Tavares questions who is responsible for that reconciliation where free cash ends up . Heather Lemieux states the responsibility is on the town accountant and then the DOR reviews and certifies. Tom Gray asks Heather Lemieux due to the reduction in income if she has thought about a hiring freeze for the year. Heather Lemieux believes that could be a possibility for FY 25 . Dave Passios asks if there was any unused capital and if any of that money was a complete project that was dropped off from previous years . Heather Lemieux confirms the public safety carport project was a complete project. It was put out to bid twice and both received bids far exceeded the appropriation. ===PAGE 7=== Evan Watters inquiries about the Chapter 70 formula. It seems like the state expects the town to pay more in taxes to cover it ourselves based on our assessment values, based on our income evaluation . Tom G ray thinks this may be happening in other towns and that the 2 ½ percent hasn ’t changed in over 40 years . We can and should fight with the state, but we probably won ’t get a lot of extra money . Chris Menard shares that the estimated inflations rate from 2011 and 2025 was 2.47%. Chapter 70 funding increased by 5% per year over those 15 years . This was a running average and not linear. Evan Watters asks how the Town Manager foresees th e effect o f insurance rates continuing to climb abov e the rate of 2 ½ percent what ab ility will there be to service the town and maintain town employees ’ salaries . Heather Lemieux had a recent meeting with the insurance rep resentative and broker, and we were the only community that saw a single digit out of every community they represent. It ’s going to be a continuing trend for a period . The health insurance stabilization account will be depleted with the FY 25 preliminary budget . Chris Menard requests the 10-year trends for health insurance increases. Evan Watters asks if a balanced budget is being presented this year. Heather Lemieux states that this is a continuing discussion. What the Town Manager is present ing tonight is a balanced budget, but it doesn ’t meet all the needs of the town, especially the schools. Evan Watters requested a level serviced budget for the town side. Heather Lemieux states the target budget was all contractual increases with existing staff, existing programs. b. Town Manager ’s 5 Year Financial Report This agenda topic was skipped due to the financial director starting just 2 weeks ago. 9. Minutes There is a m otion to approve the minutes from February 8 th as amended by Tiffaney Tavares , seconded by Dave Passios. Roll call vote. The motion passed with votes from Dave Passios, Tom Gray, Jay Simeone, Tiffaney Tavares . Evan Watters, Chris Menard, Jean Russell abstained. 10. Committee Reports Chris Menard attended a joint meeting with O pen S pace, P arks, and the S elect B oard regarding public access to the lake. There was no action taken during this meeting. 11. Topics for Future Meetings Discussion will continue relative to the g rant writing letter . 12. Upcoming Meetings ===PAGE 8=== a. Feb 22 nd – Land Use, Council on Aging , & Library Land use presentation was canceled b. Feb 29 th – Information Technology & Police c. March 7 th – DPW & Facilities d. Mar 14 th – Fire & Lunenburg Schools e. Mar 20 th – Monty Tech & Administration, Unclassified, & Debt Services f. Mar 21 st – Public Access Committee, Sewer, & Other Monied Articles – Lunenburg Public School Update 13. Important Dates a. Jan 9 th – Mar 18 th – Town Meeting Warrant Open b. Mar 28 th – FinCom Public Hearing c. April 2 nd – FinCom Report for Warrant d. May 4 th – Annual Town Meeting e. May 18 th – Annual Town Election 14. Public Comment Carol Archambault – 662 P age S treet- is in opp osition to the preliminary budget. The budget deficit on the school side is not all due to the E sser funding drying up. The Esser funds in FY 24 funded 8 full time teachin g support positions and 4 paraprofessionals . Currently the school has eliminated 6 of those positions, kept 2 social worker positions while cutting 2 budget funded guidance counsel ors and moved the payment for 4 paraprofessionals to the Title One Grant. Due to inflationary costs, health insurance , and some contractual agreements we find ourselves in the position of cutti ng 11.7 additional teachers, an assistant principal, an instructional coach, 4 part-time custodians, 2 maintenance people, 3 part time secretaries , and a full-time secretary as of February 7 th . Carol Archambault is having a d ifficult time wrapping her head around the town side adding and or increasing hours to positions while the school is disassembling 5 years of work that was beginning to show an increased achievement for students. This budget sho w s disregard for the school community. There must be another way, and something else that needs to be done. Committee comment Dave P assios believes there needs to be a conservation about correcting the problem of agenda posting . There is a p roblem with the submission or delivery of agendas. Dave Passios t hinks that the town employees need to be back to a 5-day work week . Evan Watters shared his frustration with the process of deliberation with the state delegates. As a town he believes we should present them with a unified legislative priority list . Everything is run through the executive and ===PAGE 9=== is ineffective. Additionally, he think s the school committee should have the ability to sit down with the delegates. After budget season, Ev an Watters plans to have a meeting with the delegates . There needs to be enough time for discussions and interactions , and cross communication. Evan Watters felt the meeting was rushed and should be run differently. Dave P assios suggests add ing a few meeting dates to the calendar in case of inclement weather, so meetings aren ’t missed. Evan Watters will speak with the Clerk about the possibility of Monday meetings. Evan Watters will request the committee to submit questions for the department heads in advance to prepare. 15. Adjourn There was a m otion to adjourn by Tiffaney Tavares , seconded by Dave Passios. Roll call vote. The meeting closed at 9:34 PM . ======================================================================================== DOCUMENT : 2024-02-22-agenda-6418.txt BOARD : finance-committee DATE : 2024-02-22 KIND : agenda OUR COPY : https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/docs/minutes/text/finance-committee/2024-02-22-agenda-6418.txt TOWN PDF : https://www.lunenburgma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_02222024-6418 ======================================================================================== ===PAGE 1=== Town of Lunenburg Evan Watters, Chair Christopher Menard, Vice-Chair Tiffaney Tavares, Clerk Jay Simeone Thomas Gray Jean Russell Dave Passios **REVISED** Lunenburg Finance Committee Thursday, February 22nd, 2024 7:00 PM Bilotta Meeting Room, Lunenburg Town Hall Agenda 17 Main Street, P.O. Box 135 Lunenburg, MA 01462-0135 978.582.4139 FAX 978.582.4148 In accordance with the requirements of the Open Meeting Law, please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast over the Lunenburg Public Access channel and on Facebook Live on the Public Access Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Lunenburg-Public-Access- Cable-157427270975305). The following information is provided for members of the public that would like to participate in the meeting remotely: To Participate Remotely: From a computer, please use the link below to join the public meeting webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89226887485. From a telephone, dial the toll-free number (888) 475-4499, enter Webinar ID: 892 2688 7485. If you have not registered with Zoom you will be asked for your name and an e-mail address. Note: No participant ID is needed, just press # when asked. Telephone users may dial *9 to request to speak after joining the meeting. Computer and app users may use the “raise hand” feature to request to speak. This agenda lists all the topics which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the Chair. Votes may be taken as a result of these discussions. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by Open Meeting Law. 1. Call to Order 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements 4. Public Comment 5. Town Manager Report 6. Finance Director Report 7. New Business a. Land Use Department FY25 Budget Presentation b. Council on Aging FY25 Budget Presentation c. Library FY25 Budget Presentation d. Town Manager’s 5 yr Financial Report 8. Old Business a. Town Grant Writer Letter b. FY25 Budget Update/Discussion c. Town Manager’s Preliminary FY25 Budget Follow-up 9. Minutes 10. Committee Reports 11. Topics for Future Meetings 12. Upcoming Meetings a. Feb 29th – Information Technology & Police b. Mar 7th – DPW & Facilities c. Mar 14th – Fire & Lunenburg Public Schools d. Mar 20th – Monty Tech & Administration, Unclassified, & Debt Services e. Mar 21st – Public Access Committee, Sewer, & Other Monied Articles – Lunenburg Public School Update 13. 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 14. Public Comment 15. Adjourn ======================================================================================== DOCUMENT : 2024-02-22-minutes-6418.txt BOARD : finance-committee DATE : 2024-02-22 KIND : minutes OUR COPY : https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/docs/minutes/text/finance-committee/2024-02-22-minutes-6418.txt TOWN PDF : https://www.lunenburgma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_02222024-6418 ======================================================================================== ===PAGE 1=== beaLunenburg Finance Committee Meeting Minutes Bilotta Meeting Room Lunenburg Town Hall February 22, 2024 Members Present: Chair Evan Watters, Vice Chair Chris Menard (Zoom), Clerk Tiffaney Tavares, Board Member Tom Gray, Board Member Dave Passios, Board Member Jean Russell, Board Member Jay Simeone 1. Call to Order The meeting opened at 7:00 PM. 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements Evan Watters states this is a revised agenda as the land use department will not be sharing their presentation tonight. 4. Public Comment Peter Beardmore, 282 Pleasant Street, provided a few comments to the committee for consideration. Relative to the meeting last night, there is concern about a pie chart that displayed the budget. The pie chart only included debt. This is non-discretionary spending and not part of what we would use to fund services of any form. That accounts for $163,000 of that $500,000 that comes right off the top of the taxes and is excludable debt. The regular debt service is roughly $335,000 and is from the sewer betterment agreement which is completely funded out of a revolving account. If you take the debt out of those pie charts the school is spending 55.4%. Regarding the override, it seems as though the schools are being targeted and expected to go for an override and lead the effort. When the Town Manager first discussed the override, it was specifically related to the school department budget. In reference to the grant writing topic, there is agreement that the position will pay for itself but there is an upfront investment associated. That money needs to be taken away from somewhere. 5. Town Manager Report There are no updates to report since the last meeting 24 hours prior. 6. Finance Director Report ===PAGE 2=== The FY 23 expenditure recap has been sent to the committee to review. This will be reviewed at the next meeting. 7. New Business a. Land Use Department FY 25 Budget Presentation This presentation was canceled prior to the meeting. b. Council on Aging FY 25 Budget Presentation The director of the Lunenburg Council on Aging, Sue Doherty, presented the budget. According to the 2020 consensus there are 3,120 people over the age of 60 making up approximately 30% of the Lunenburg population but the council on aging is still less than 1% of the town budget. The budget request includes an increase in the meal site mangers hours from 19.5 per week to 24 hours per week. That additional 4.5 hours will be adding Fridays to her schedule. This would increase the salary by $6,648 bringing the annual salary up to $25,858. A reason for the 4.5-hour increase is due to efficiency and the struggle to only run Monday through Thursday. The meal site manager makes everything from scratch and is locally sourced. Currently, the center offers lunch 2 days out of the week costing $5 and breakfast once a week at $3. Additionally, deliverys of meals on wheels occur 4 days out of the week. Theres an active nutrition program running 3 days a week that includes menu planning, shopping, cooking. The manager has 3 employees working under her and 2 volunteers that she supervises. Questions: Tiffaney Tavares questions if anyone has reached out to the high school to try to get more young people involved with the aging community. So, they can see different walks of life and perspectives. Sue Doherty states that the national honor society contacts them every year. The problem is that they have classes during the day. Last fiscal year there were 56 volunteers and 1 of which was a student from the national honor society. Chris Menard questioned if this is a pensioned position. There is a consensus that after 24 hours it turns into a benefited position. Chris Menard worries about additional costs and requests an alternative option. Tom Gray states this is a nationwide problem where lower paid people get the same level of health care benefits as someone who makes a lot more. The benefits become 30 to 40 percent ===PAGE 3=== of the actual salary. Tiffaney Tavares believes if teachers are worthy of a pension and health insurance then so should the people who are feeding our elderly. Deb Lincoln, who is the chairperson for the council on aging and volunteers in the kitchen provides her input. Deb Lincoln states that she doesn’t believe that more part time positions or more volunteer positions will be beneficial. It is a very small kitchen. Deb Lincoln reiterates that 1 percent of the budget is used for 30 percent of our community. These people have been here for decades, and some are struggling to stay in their homes, pay their unitil bills, and we are offering them this one place, that’s a home for them to come to have community and a reasonably priced beautiful meal. I think that we owe them that. We should not be fundraising and having Sue Doherty go out and get grants to pay people to be in the kitchen. This is something we give our seniors. We owe them that. Evan Watters agrees with Deb Lincoln and Sue Doherty. He has asked everyone in the committee this year to really dig into every number of every line not because we want to take things away from anybody. It’s just because there’s a public perception out there currently that money is being mismanaged. Sue Doherty confirms that she does apply for grants and has received money that was used to build the recreation area and fund the new handicap door. Dave Passios is concerned that everyone is wearing too many hats. He questions if this could go to a 40-hour position and encourages everyone to run every scenario possible. c. Library FY 25 Budget Presentation The budget request was presented by the Library Director, Muir Haman. The Lunenburg public library welcomes all and serves residents of the Lunenburg area as a hub for the community, enriching our lives through its collections, programs, services, facilities, and people. Previously the library received the LSTA Grant and received nearly $13,000 to help expand science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning opportunities in the community. In FY 24, there was an increase in visitors of 11% as compared to the prior year. The projected number of visitors in FY 24 is 65,000. In FY 23, the library offered 362 programs and had more than 6,400 attendees to those programs. A successful program is the summer reading program that occurs when there is no school. In the past more than 130 people attended those programs. ===PAGE 4=== The library request for FY 25 totals $613,100 and the Town mangers preliminary budget is $589,100. The budget request includes the needed replacement of hardware/technology. Additional funds are needed to install a hearing loop in the programming room. This totals $14,000. Additional funding for children’s programming supplies totaling $4,000. Programming request totaling $24,000 and professional development including funding for training and mileage totaling $4,000. Questions: Tiffaney Tavares questions how the 4 hours increase in hours for the young adult library position is beneficial. Muir Haman states the position runs the teen room where a lot of teens hand out. The room roughly fits 12 to 15 teens comfortably at any given time. There have been trends in behavior in this population. Tiffaney Tavares questions if that would have a positive impact especially due to our town’s budget and what policies they are enforcing. Muir Haman confirms this is a new staff member who has been with the library for 1 week. The library staff balances human behavior and creates a welcoming environment. There are acceptable use behaviors posted throughout the teen room. There is no snacking in the teen room but that continues to happen. Muir Haman thinks it would have a big impact and hopefully ensure that staff may stay in their position longer. Tiffaney Tavares questions if the IT request is a part of the town and what impact would that 14,000 dollars have. Muir Haman confirms it is a separate department and has its own budget. The request pays to replace staff workstations, computers, and hardware. Additionally, He is working with the IT department head to come up with a technology plan. This request also includes the cost for the hearing enhancement nook. Chirs Menard questions if there is a fee charged for programming. Muir Haman states the library offers free programming including art workshops that need equipment and supplies. All programs have been free since he has been there. Chris Menard suggests charging for some programs and this can be discussed for budget season next year. Dave Passios asks if there is a want rather than a need for the hearing loop. Also, questions what audio there is that needs to be repaired. Muir Haman states the current system has aged. Dave Passios asks if the hearing loop is worthless if the audio system isn’t upgraded. Muir Haman confirms that the hearing loop would not work without upgrades or repairs to the system. ===PAGE 5=== Evan Watters reiterates there is a 1.25% increase for the state required appropriation. He questions if that is the average for the municipal line or if it that the average off the total requested line including state aid. Muir Haman states this is just appropriated funds. Evan Watters asks if the library plans to reapply for the LSTA grant. Muir Haman does plan to apply for a LSTA grant in the civic engagement category. He hopes to partner with civics classes at the high school and nation honor society to help to explain how government works and how to engage and participate. The deadline is in April and typically results come out in July. Evan Watters questions if a grant writer would be beneficial to the library. Muir Haman agrees as he is currently the one writing the grants. Evan Watters asks if we are currently meeting the needs of the town with the preliminary budget. Muir Haman states just about everybody in town would benefit from something at the library, the preliminary budget does a great job meeting those needs. Tom Gray asked if there is still a trend with eBooks still being more expensive. Muir Haman confirms that is still the case. There is a bill at the state house that would alleviate some of those costs. d. Town Manager’s 5 Year Financial Report This topic was pushed until the next meeting. 8. Old Business a. Town Grant Writer Letter Tiffaney Tavares presented the letter she and Dave Passios worked on together. Evan Watters questioned where the 50,000-line item came from and if it’s a benefit position. Heather Lemieux states this is a rough estimate based on contracting services for a year’s salary. This would be a non-benefited position through a contract services. The hours would vary based on what type of grant is being applied for and the different vendors needed. It doesn’t have to be one particular entity as there are multiple departments looking for different services. Dave Passios shares the street light grant took many years to complete but what ultimately pushed the project was hiring a specialist in that field that knew all the players, had contacts with suppliers, and experience with writing. ===PAGE 6=== Evan Watters suggests creating some sort of secondary committee. A grant writing committee made up of department heads and anyone else interested. b. FY 25 Budget Update/Discussion Chris Menard questions if everyone can go to the upcoming school committee meeting and make comments. He wants to confirm that is okay as long as there are no deliberations among ourselves. Evan Watters states this is a gray and risky area. Heather Lemieux has reached out to town counsel for an answer and is currently waiting for a response. Evan Watters raised the idea of proposing a town warrant. There is great concern among the residents about the school committee budget, taxes, fixed incomes. There is a decent chance that someone is going to put forward a warrant article for an override. He suggests that article come from the finance committee directly. This is strictly to have the most accurate numbers and understanding of the entire process. The warrant closes on March 18th. The Select Board would need to have time to deliberate whether they want to move forward at their next meeting on the 5th. Evan Watters suggests looking over all the budgets and be in constant communication with the Town Manager and the superintendent. The goal is to work for both sides to find out where we are between a level service and a needs-based service override number. If we don’t need the article, we can pass over it. The budget doesn’t need to be fully budgeted with an override ahead of time. Chris Menard requests that someone come in and explain to us the prop 2 ½. He isn’t comfortable having this discussion until the superintendent’s budget is presented in 2 days. Evan Watters states the problem is waiting is that the superintendent budget is being presented 2 days after the warrant closes. Renee Emkey questions if we can have a special election for an override and not be tied to the May 18th election. Heather Lemieux confirms that is correct. Tom Gray states that the Select Board has the ultimate control. Any monied articles must be approved except a citizen’s petition. Tiffaney Tavares clarifies that since we as a committee are looking at all the department budgets then the committee could put something together that’s comprehensive instead of having a citizen’s petition. ===PAGE 7=== Evan Watters provided the statistics from across the state regarding overrides from the DLS website. From FY 15 to FY 24 there have been 315 attempts at an override across the state. 221 of those have passed and 94 of them have failed. In the state there has been 111 million dollars in overrides that won and 45 million that did not win. Renee Emkey did her own research and found that most of the overrides that passed were for new schools or buildings. It was a debt exclusion override. The overrider was a one-time event not an operational override. Chris Menard states that he is not supportive of making a motion. There was a motion by Evan Watters that the finance committee put together a warrant article to put forward an override to prop 2 ½ for town meeting to be discussed on March 7th and March 14th at a public hearing to create a needs- based service for the town, seconded by Tiffaney Tavares. Roll call vote. Chris Menard nay, Jean Russell aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone nay, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Evan Watters aye. c. Town Manager’s Preliminary FY 25 Budget Follow-up There is no additional discussion. 9. Minutes There are no new minutes to approve. 10. Committee Reports There were no new updates. 11. Topics for Future Meetings There are no additional topics aside from continuing discussion from tonight. 12. Upcoming Meetings a. Feb 29th – Information Technology & Police b. March 7th – DPW & Facilities c. Mar 14th – Fire & Lunenburg Schools d. Mar 20th – Monty Tech & Administration, Unclassified, & Debt Services e. Mar 21st – Public Access Committee, Sewer, & Other Monied Articles – Lunenburg Public School Update 13. Important Dates ===PAGE 8=== a. Jan 9th – Mar 18th – Town Meeting Warrant Open b. Mar 28th – FinCom Public Hearing c. April 2nd – FinCom Report for Warrant d. May 4th – Annual Town Meeting e. May 18th – Annual Town Election 14. Public Comment Anna Lockwood states there is a cost benefit that we need to understand that if we make Lunenburg very unattractive to retires, they are going to move out. The only way to keep adults with no children in school in town is to make these small and strange benefits attractive. Additionally request there be public comment after each presentation and not at just the end and beginning of the meeting. 15. Adjourn There was a motion by Tom Gray to adjourn, seconded by Tiffaney Tavares. Chris Menard aye, Jean Russell aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Evan Watters aye. The meeting closed at 11:07 PM. ======================================================================================== DOCUMENT : 2024-02-29-agenda-6441.txt BOARD : finance-committee DATE : 2024-02-29 KIND : agenda OUR COPY : https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/docs/minutes/text/finance-committee/2024-02-29-agenda-6441.txt TOWN PDF : https://www.lunenburgma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_02292024-6441 ======================================================================================== ===PAGE 1=== Town of Lunenburg Evan Watters, Chair Christopher Menard, Vice-Chair Tiffaney Tavares, Clerk Jay Simeone Thomas Gray Jean Russell Dave Passios Lunenburg Finance Committee Thursday, February 29th, 2024 7:00 PM Bilotta Meeting Room, Lunenburg Town Hall Agenda 17 Main Street, P.O. Box 135 Lunenburg, MA 01462-0135 978.582.4139 FAX 978.582.4148 In accordance with the requirements of the Open Meeting Law, please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast over the Lunenburg Public Access channel and on Facebook Live on the Public Access Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Lunenburg-Public-Access- Cable-157427270975305). The following information is provided for members of the public that would like to participate in the meeting remotely: To Participate Remotely: From a computer, please use the link below to join the public meeting webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89226887485. From a telephone, dial the toll-free number (888) 475-4499, enter Webinar ID: 892 2688 7485. If you have not registered with Zoom you will be asked for your name and an e-mail address. Note: No participant ID is needed, just press # when asked. Telephone users may dial *9 to request to speak after joining the meeting. Computer and app users may use the “raise hand” feature to request to speak. This agenda lists all the topics which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the Chair. Votes may be taken as a result of these discussions. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by Open Meeting Law. 1. Call to Order 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements 4. Public Comment 5. Finance Director Report 6. New Business a. Information Technology FY25 Budget Presentation b. Police FY25 Budget Presentation c. FY21-FY23 Revenue and Expenditures Recap Discussion 7. Public Comment on FY25 Budget Presentations 8. Old Business a. Town Grant Writer Letter – Vote b. FY25 Budget Update/Discussion i. Override Warrant Article Update 9. Minutes 10. Committee Reports 11. Topics for Future Meetings 12. Upcoming FY25 Budget Meetings a. Mar 5th – School Committee Meeting b. Mar 7th – DPW & Facilities (FinCom) c. Mar 14th – Fire & Lunenburg Public Schools (FinCom) d. Mar 20th – Monty Tech & Administration, Unclassified, & Debt Services (FinCom) e. Mar 21st – Public Access Committee, Sewer, & Other Monied Articles – Lunenburg Public Schools Update (FinCom) 13. Important Dates a. Jan 9th-Mar 18th – Town Meeting Warrant Open b. Mar 14th – FinCom Public Hearing c. Mar 28th – FinCom Public Hearing d. Apr 2nd – FinCom Report for Warrant e. May 4th – Annual Town Meeting f. May 18th – Annual Town Election 14. Public Comment 15. Adjourn ======================================================================================== DOCUMENT : 2024-02-29-minutes-6441.txt BOARD : finance-committee DATE : 2024-02-29 KIND : minutes OUR COPY : https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/docs/minutes/text/finance-committee/2024-02-29-minutes-6441.txt TOWN PDF : https://www.lunenburgma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_02292024-6441 ======================================================================================== ===PAGE 1=== Lunenburg Finance Committee Meeting Minutes Bilotta Meeting Room Lunenburg Town Hall February 29, 2024 Present Members : Chair Evan Watters, Vice Chair Chris Menard, Board Member Tom Gray, Board Member Dave Passios, Board Member Jean Russell, Board Member Jay Simeone Absent Member: Clerk Tiffaney Tavares 1. Call to Order The meeting opened at 7:00PM. 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements There were n o announcements . 4. Public Comment Rhonda Lisio , 181 Reservoir Road , states that she came close to filing an open meeting law violation complaint against the chair because of last week ’s meeting. She believes it ’s o utrageous that the committee had a discussion brief and a vote on an item so impactful on the town. This item was not added as an agenda item. If this item was posted on the agenda, she would have attended to voice her opinion. She questions what increases in tax bills can we expect from a combination of the budget override and the debt exclusion estimates needed for future projects. These items and details do matter, and she is r equesting numbers. 5. Finance Director Report There are no new updates or reports. 6. New Business a. Information Technology FY25 Budget Presentatio n The IT Director, Casey Chis holm , presented the bud get. The completed FY 24 initiatives are as follows:  Internet service upgrade in the town hall  Technical support position was filed.  The n ew website launched in October .  Munis M igration  H ardware M aintenance FY 25 Budget Requests ===PAGE 2=== Software maintenance includes any contractual increases/inflation for existing software . Hardware maintenance includes maintaining the device replacement cycle totaling $ 30,000 . Public safety phone system upgrade totaling $ 12,000 . This includes the completion of phase 2 and features for the phone system. Increased hours for the administrative assistant to aid in additional support for the department. Questions Ch ris M enard asks how training has been going. Casey Chisholm says training for Office 365 was 2 years ago and then a follow up training is conducted a year later. The v endor has provided pamphlets and brochure documentation about the phone system . Casey Chisholm this has not been completed yet and they are working on continuing training because t hey are still using some older file shares on the server. Chris Menard states the S chool C ommittee mentioned that their phone costs went up because there not sharing with the town side of the budget . Casey Chisholm states t he town no longer has a phone bill since moving to voiceover IP. Dave P assios asks why ther e is such a sizable increase in tech support . Casey Chisum states this has created a quicker response time and communication inter nally and externally. Dave Passio asks if the connection to the cloud is functioning properly. Casey Chisholm will investigate this, but she doesn ’t reca ll seeing any service requests. Dave Passios q uestions if there is a way to link the YouTube videos of m eetings to the minutes. Casey Chisholm will do some research and see if there is a better process for upload ing . Evan W atters asks if the tech support position is currently a benefit ed position. Casey Chisholm confirms it is not benefited. The position is currently 16 hours but IT i s requesting an increase to 32 hours. There is the question if it makes more sense to have a second part time position that would be less overheard but still accrue the same number of hours per week. Evan Watters asks what percent of the town assets need to be replaced. Casey Chisholm says it ’s typically 10%. Evan Watters asked how long the current internet contract is for and the answer is 3 years. b. Police FY25 Budget Presentation ===PAGE 3=== Chief Thomas Gammel presented the budget. Despite the increase in the town ’s population there is still a challenge with recruiting and retaining officers. Currently Lunenburg has 20 officers : 1 chief, 1 lieutenant, 4 sergeants, 11 patrol officers, 1 detective , 1 school resources officer , and 1 recruit officer. Chief Gammel provided an o rganizational chart in the presentation . This include d a 10-year plan showing where the current vacancies . In 2023 there were 23,000 calls for service resulting in 322 arrests . Last year there were 259 motor vehicle accidents, 3,059 motor vehicle stops, and 25 OUI arrests. In 2023 , the police responded to 122 domestic violence related incidents. Chris M enard asks if there is a reason why these numbers are high and if anything can be done. Chief Gammel says this is a tough question and not predictable. Some potential reasons include social issues, alcohol/drugs, and mental health issues. Chris Menard questions if overtime can be decreased . Chief Gammel stated we are obligated to cover shifts. Below is the breakdown of the budget:  Personnel is 83% or $2,375,310 of the budget. o Salaries are 73% or $1,723,937 . o Incentives are 10% or $250,078 . o Overtime is 13% or $301,680. This i ncludes community policing, court time and investigative field services. o Training is 4% or $ 9 9, 614 . Training is completed on a yearly basis and includes 40 hours of mandated training, 16 hours of firearm training, and 4 hours of less than lethal training. o Purchase of service is 1% or $ 21,950 Includes printing, postage, equipment maintenance and motorcycle lease.  R egional dispatch is 7% or $ 212,921 of the budget . o NVRDD  Purchase of services is 1% or $ 21,950 .  Supplies are 1% or $ 32,650 .  Other expenses total 1% or $ 34,700 .  Animal Control services total 2% or $ 46,125.  Lockup is 1% or $ 20,600 .  Radio Watch 2% or $ 56,502 .  Vehicle Maintenance is 2% or $ 67,000 . Potential Reductions ===PAGE 4=== Eliminate desk coverage to promote Lieutenant. The Lieutenant would be responsible for answering the phones and dealing with lobby complaints in addition to regular duties. This would eliminate the 3 to 7 shift front desk coverage. R eduction in lockup budget as someone will always in the building . Chris Menard asks what shift is the busiest . The answer is 3PM to 11PM . Evan Watters asks who sits at the front desk currently. Chief Gammel states there is a full-time person from 7 AM -3PM. Typically the 3 AM -7 PM shift is bid out to reserve officers first then it goes to the clerical union within the building, after that it gets put out to patrol . An unfunded request for FY 25 is to participate in the comfort dog program . The Town M anager s budget recommends $ 19,095 .09 The FY 25 rate for 1 k9 hander and or a comfort dog handler is $19,572.47. Currently, Officer McNamara offers comfort dog Hank as a volunteer. Hank is approaching retirement, and the department will be unable to fund the program. Chris Menard asks if the plan is to have another comfort dog. Chief Gammel confirms. Once that point comes and there is funding Officer McNamara has connections with the breeder of Hank a nd they will works with us on the cost of the dog and training . Evan Watters asks if there are any grant opportunities for a comfort dog. Chief Gammel states there are no comfort dog grant. There are patrol dog grants, but they are a 1-time grant. Chris Menard asks if payroll continues for a dog that retires. Chief Gammel states they are off the payroll at that point. The Capital plan for FY 25 includes replacing the k9 cruiser, replacing a traffic vehicle, MILO training system. Evan W atters asks if there are grants available for MILO training system . C hief Gammel states there are and there competitive and sometimes departments ou r size just don ’t compete. Dave Passios questions if there are any vehicles still left in the fleet that are not hybrid . Chief Gammel stated there are still some gas-powered vehicles. Evan Watters asked are their other towns and departments that could share the MILO training platform. Chief Gammel states there will be opportunities. The upcoming goals for the police department include : - Increasing staffing levels - Maintain and evaluate co-response team. - MPTC training to remain in compliance. - Citizens police academy ===PAGE 5=== - RAD/RAD Kids Program - Employee evaluation Evan W atters states the request budget versus preliminary budget has a $20,000 difference . Ultimately , there is the question of whether the preliminary budget mee ts the needs of the department . Chief Gammel states no as that $20,000 would be valuable to put towards a comfort dog. Aside from the comfort dog th e answer would be yes. c. FY21-FY23 Revenue and Expenditures Recap Discussion Chis M enard spoke with the Finance Director, Ezequiel Ayala, and discuss ed if it would be possible to start collecting totals to show trends. The suggestion is for this to be done in the off season. This will be added to future agendas at a topic. 7. Public Comment on FY25 Budget Presentations There were no comments from the public. 8. Old Business a. Town Grant Writer Letter – Vote Evan Watters has not ha d a chance to read through the new changes. The letter edited by Tiffaney Tavares, Dave Passios, and Jay Simeone was read aloud. There were minor edits. There was a motion to approve the letter to be sent to the Select Board by Chris Menard, seconded by Jean R ussell. Roll call vote. Jean Russel l aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, J ay Simeone aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye. Unanimous vote. b. FY25 Budget Update/Discussion i. Override Warrant Article Update Dave Passios shares that he will not be voting for an override. There was a vote by the school dept to support an override. Below are the 4 options that the S chool C ommittee provided as possible options.  Town M anagers budget was 2.94% of the budget .  Superintendent budget was 5.42% of the budget.  L evel service budget pl u s increased line expenses , personnel expense, c ost of living expense and considering the loss of E sser funds was 8.73% of the budget.  Level service budget with all positions and no position loses was 11.46% of the budget. Chris Menard has continued to request the T own C ouncil give advice to the Committee about an override and possible approaches . This still hasn ’t ===PAGE 6=== happened, and t he executive bran ch needs to come forward with recommendations. The C ommittee is requesting the T own C ouncil attend upcoming meetings. The options need to be explains relative to prop 2 ½ and the override. Tom G ray agrees with the fact that a warrant article would provide a voice for residents and an opportunity to vote. He d oesn ’t want people to feel like there wasn ’t a chance to hear each voice. It will help people accept whatever comes down. Chris Menard states the most critical aspect that hasn ’t been provided is the school ’s recommended budget. We don ’t have that yet but is Interested to see what select board comes up with that their next meeting. Chris M enard states there has been allegations that there have been health issues for the staff at TC Passios. He doesn ’t understand why that building hasn ’t been demolished. An additional discussion relating to a warrant article will be added to the agenda for the meeting on the 6 th . 9. Minutes There are n o minutes to review. 10. Committee Reports Jay Simeone observed the S ewer C ommission meeting last week. There was a significant ly costly overnight project that recently started. After starting the work, it was apparent there needed to be additional work and money to complete the project. Tom G ray watched the Board of Assessors meeting and there was discussion about a letter related to the evaluations on the assessor ’s website. It was important to note that evaluations were entered after the abatement changes were made for lake front properties. Dave Passios attended the Green Communities and there is now a full 5-seat board . There is a Fac ebook page now posted for G reen C ommunities. 11. Topics for Future Meetings Evan Watters took notes throughout the meeting on future topics. 12. Upcoming FY25 Budget Meetings a. Mar 5th – Select Board Meeting b. Mar 6 – S chool Committee Meeting ===PAGE 7=== c . Mar 7th – DPW & Facilities (FinCom) d . Mar 14th – Fire & Lunenburg Public Schools (FinCom) e . Mar 20th – Monty Tech & Administration, Unclassified, & Debt Services (FinCom) e. Mar 21st – Public Access Committee, Sewer, & Other Monied Articles – Lunenburg Public Schools Update (FinCom) 13. Important Dates a. Jan 9th-Mar 18th – Town Meeting Warrant Open b. Mar 14th – FinCom Public Hearing c. Mar 28th – FinCom Public Hearing d. Apr 2nd – FinCom Report for Warrant e. May 4th – Annual Town Meeting f. May 18th – Annual Town Election 14. Public Comment There were no public comments. 15. Adjourn There was a motion to adjourn by Chris Menard , seconded by Dave Passios . Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, J ay Simeone aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye. Unanimous vote. The meeting closed at 10:35PM . ======================================================================================== DOCUMENT : 2024-03-07-agenda-6452.txt BOARD : finance-committee DATE : 2024-03-07 KIND : agenda OUR COPY : https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/docs/minutes/text/finance-committee/2024-03-07-agenda-6452.txt TOWN PDF : https://www.lunenburgma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_03072024-6452 ======================================================================================== ===PAGE 1=== Town of Lunenburg Evan Watters, Chair Christopher Menard, Vice-Chair Tiffaney Tavares, Clerk Jay Simeone Thomas Gray Jean Russell Dave Passios Lunenburg Finance Committee Thursday, March 7th, 2024 7:00 PM Bilotta Meeting Room, Lunenburg Town Hall Agenda 17 Main Street, P.O. Box 135 Lunenburg, MA 01462-0135 978.582.4139 FAX 978.582.4148 In accordance with the requirements of the Open Meeting Law, please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast over the Lunenburg Public Access channel and on Facebook Live on the Public Access Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Lunenburg-Public-Access- Cable-157427270975305). The following information is provided for members of the public that would like to participate in the meeting remotely: To Participate Remotely: From a computer, please use the link below to join the public meeting webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89226887485. From a telephone, dial the toll-free number (888) 475-4499, enter Webinar ID: 892 2688 7485. If you have not registered with Zoom you will be asked for your name and an e-mail address. Note: No participant ID is needed, just press # when asked. Telephone users may dial *9 to request to speak after joining the meeting. Computer and app users may use the “raise hand” feature to request to speak. This agenda lists all the topics which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the Chair. Votes may be taken as a result of these discussions. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by Open Meeting Law. 1. Call to Order 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements 4. Public Comment 5. Town Manager Report 6. Finance Director Report 7. New Business a. DPW FY25 Budget Presentation b. Facilities FY25 Budget Presentation 8. Public Comment on FY25 Budget Presentations 9. Old Business a. FY21-FY23 Revenue and Expenditures Recap Discussion b. FY25 Budget Update/Discussion i. Previous FY25 Presentations ii. Upcoming FY25 Presentations iii. Override Warrant Article Update; Possible Vote 10. Minutes 11. Committee Reports 12. Topics for Future Meetings 13. Upcoming FY25 Budget Meetings a. Mar 12th – Select Board Meeting b. Mar 14th – Fire & Lunenburg Public Schools (FinCom) c. Mar 20th – Monty Tech & Administration, Sewer?, Unclassified, & Debt Services (FinCom) d. Mar 21st – Public Access Committee, Sewer, & Other Monied Articles – Lunenburg Public Schools Update (FinCom) 14. Important Dates a. Jan 9th-Mar 18th – Town Meeting Warrant Open b. Mar 14th – FinCom Public Hearing c. Mar 28th – FinCom Public Hearing d. Apr 2nd – FinCom Report for Warrant e. May 4th – Annual Town Meeting f. May 18th – Annual Town Election 15. Public Comment 16. Adjourn