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April 4, 2011 Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee April 4, 2011 Time and location: Ellen Stone Room, Cary Hall, 6:45 p.m. Members present: Glenn Parker, Chair; John Bartenstein, Vice Chair and Secretary; Joe Pato, Vice Chair; Robert Cohen; Mollie Garberg; Alan Levine; Eric Michelson; Susan McLeish; Richard Neumeier; Rob Addelson (non-voting, ex officio) Also present: Micah Niemy, Budget Officer The meeting was called to order at 6:50 p.m. Reserve Transfer for PCB Mitigation 1.. Following up on a discussion with Facilities Director Pat Goddard at the Committee’s meeting on March 14, 2011,Micah Niemy addressed the question whether further Committee action isrequired to approve the use of $41,000 remaining from the PCB remediation effort at EstabrookSchool for related work now being undertaken at the Bridge School. He distributed a spreadsheet showing thatthe $400k transferred by the Appropriation Committee from the Reserve Fund for use at Estabrook was fully spent prior to the appropriation made at the November 2010 Special Town Meeting. The balance in the DPF budget of $41,260 represents unused funds appropriated at the Special Town Meeting for use by the Department of Public Facilities that were not restricted to the Estabrook PCB mitigation project. Under the circumstances, it was agreed that there is no need for the Committee to act. Any unused funds will flow to free cash at the end of the fiscal year. Article Discussion and Presentations. 2.The Committee discussedseveral warrant articles expected to come up later in the evening at Town Meeting and the presentationsto be made, including: Articles 37 and 38 –Commercial and Residential Assessments. Ms. McLeish changed her abstention to a no vote on Article 37. Final vote on Article 37 is now: 4-5-0. The Committee discussed the presentation of majority and minority positions on both Articles 37 and 38, the validityof the data presented in support of the articles,what additional information might supportmore persuasively the relief requested, and what procedures might be followed to develop such information if the matter were disapproved at this year’s Annual Town Meeting. Mr. Addelson reported that the Board of Assessors had voted to recommend disapproval ofArticle 37: 0-2-1 and Article38: 0- 3-0. The Committee briefly discussed assessment methods as well as concerns and issues with the requests being made through these articles. Article 24 –Amend FY2011 Operating and Enterprise Budgets. Mr. Addelson summarized proposed amendments tothe FY2011 operating budgets, including a decrease in the health benefits budget of $65,000, an increase in the unemployment 1