2019-07-09-AC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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07/9/2019 AC Minutes • Reserve Fund Transfer: This account is the responsibility of this Committee and may be used to address unforeseen or extraordinary expenses. None of the appropriated $900,000 was used in FY2019, so the entire amount will flow to free cash. • Interdepartmental Transfers: The Select Board, with the concurrence of the finance committee, may transfer appropriated funds between departments or between compensation and expenses within the last two months of, or fifteen days after, the end of the fiscal year. (The previous restriction limiting transfers from or within a department to 3% of that department's budget was eliminated by the Municipal Modernization Act of 2016.) One such transfer is proposed in the FY2019 budget, involving the transfer of$43,000 from personal services to expenses within the budget of the Fire Department to help fund the purchase of a hybrid vehicle for the new Fire Chief. This will allow the department to shift the fleet and retire another vehicle that has reached the end of its useful life. • Increase in Revolving Fund Limits: If more revenue is received in a Revolving Fund than the annual spending limit established by Town Meeting, the spending limit may be increased at any time during the fiscal year with the approval of the Select Board and the finance committee. In FY2019, the revenue received from equipment rental activities at the DPW's Hartwell Avenue facility exceeded the $10,000 spending limit of the Regional Cache- Hartwell Avenue revolving fund by 100%. Therefore the spending limit for this revolving fund will be increased by $10,000 to match the increase in revenue. A motion was made and seconded to support/approve all of the FY2019 transfers as presented by Ms. Kosnoff The motion passed. VOTE: 5-0 (Note: This vote was taken before Mr. Michelson arrived.) Mr. Parker signed all of the related paperwork. Financial Projections Mr. Nichols reported that he and Mr. Michelson had met with Ms. Kosnoff and Jennifer Hewitt, Lexington's Budget Officer, to learn more about the financial projections made by town staff and to discuss the financial projections that this Committee creates for its report to the Annual Town Meeting. It was agreed that those proj ecti ons do not get used by staff or this Committee, and it is not clear whether they are useful to Town Meeting members. The Town By-Laws direct this Committee to produce projections, but those By-Laws were enacted at a time when Town staff did not do their own projections and they do not detail either the form or purpose of the projections. As a result, depending on the changes this Committee may decide would be desirable, it may not be necessary to amend the By-Laws. There was discussion about how to identify the most useful data for this effort; how conservative projections should be; and whether large capital projects, such as a new Lexington High School (LHS), should be incorporated into the projections. Mr. Nichols agreed to pursue this issue further and report back to this Committee in late August or September. Initially, he and Mr. Michelson will compare past projections made by the Committee and Town staff with actual income and expenses. 2019 Special Town Meeting (STM) Mr. Parker reported that the Board of Selectmen (BoS) met last night and indicated that a funding request for a new Police Headquarters would not be ready for an early fall 2019 STM, as initially considered. It is possible that there will be a late-fall STM, which would likely include articles relating to the proposed rezoning at 186 Bedford Street and recommendations prepared by the Crematory Study Committee. 2