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1/18/2024 AC Minutes <br />4 <br />Ms. Kosnoff reiterated that the Finance department staff keeps the books and performs the account- <br />ing for the AHT, and that the CPA requires tracking and financial reports on all funded projects, and <br />that the AHT will have grant agreements in place for any CPA-funded projects. The current request <br />can be seen as seed funding to help launch the AHT’s work. <br />The AHT is currently in the exploratory stage for a couple of projects, including a request under Ar- <br />ticle 33 (Authorize Affordable Housing Trust to Seek Affordable Housing). It will be difficult to pro- <br />vide an itemized budget while key approvals from Town Meeting are pending. <br />Mr. Bartenstein suggested that an annual report on spending by the AHT should be presented to <br />Town Meeting, and Ms. Kosnoff responded that her staff could provide that information, but it <br />could not speak to the deeper issues of how the AHT decides to do its work. Mr. Parker responded <br />that the AHT has not been in operation long enough to have any activities to report on. <br />Article 10(j) Projected Debt Service <br />The current request for $681,200 will close out the debt service for the Cary Memorial Building up- <br />grades. <br />An additional $2 million in debt was previously authorized for renovating Munroe Center for the <br />Arts as part of a $6.6 million project. Ms. Kosnoff stated that the project is currently focused on de- <br />sign and value engineering, so it will not be necessary to issue any debt in the coming fiscal year. <br />Mr. Levine asked if the project had received bids exceeding the prior appropriation. Ms. Kosnoff <br />replied that the Center had not yet put out a bid out for construction. After refining the original con- <br />struction estimates using design and construction documents, the Center determined that the initial <br />design proposal was too expensive. The current design and engineering is intended to bring the cost <br />within the originally approved budget. <br />Article 10(k) Administrative Budget <br />Ms. Fenollosa stated that the request for $150,000 would cover administrative costs for the coming <br />year, including administrative staff, legal expenses, land appraisals, and land planning. Mr. Michel- <br />son asked if he could see a history of administrative expenses for the CPC. Ms. Kosnoff stated that <br />the primary expense for the CPC is a single staff member, with occasional land appraisals, and other <br />minor expenses. She suggested that the information might be available in the report of the Capital <br />Expenditures Committee. Ms. Fenollosa located the information for prior years up to FY2022 and <br />offered to send it to Mr. Michelson. <br />Mr. Lamb complimented Ms. Fenollosa and the CPC on the publication of a 5-year capital plan, but <br />noted that the total of $48 million in potential requests exceeds the projected $40 million in pro- <br />jected revenue. <br />Mr. Bartenstein asked about the projected CPC funding for affordable housing set forth in the slide <br />deck, which jumps from $3.2 million in FY2025 to $6.5 million in FY2026. Ms. Fenollosa re- <br />sponded that the projections were based on information from the Affordable Housing Trust and the <br />Office of Economic Development. <br />Ms. Fenollosa stated that she would research questions from this meeting and send what she could <br />find to Mr. Parker to share with the Committee. <br />Review of Warrant Articles for the 2024 Annual Town Meeting <br />Mr. Padaki asked when the Committee would start voting on article recommendations. Mr. Parker <br />responded that he would like to have some draft article writeups available that summarize the posi- <br />tion of the Committee before formal voting but would be amenable to early straw votes if that