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April 6, 2011 Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee April 6, 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; Mollie Garberg; Alan Levine; Eric Michelson; Susan McLeish; Rob Addelson (non-voting, ex officio) The meeting was called to order at 6:50 p.m. Minutes 1.. Minutes from the 3/17/11, 3/21/11, 3/22/11, 3/23/11 and 3/28/11 meetings were approved as edited with a vote of 7-0-0. ArticlePresentationsand Discussion. 2. Article 37 –Commercial Assessments. The Committee discussed the proposal to request DOR to develop guidelines to reassess commercial property based on owner- requested up-zoning at the next available cycle for assessment. Mr. Pato said that, while working on the oral presentation for this article, his thinking had evolved, and that he would like to take a revote. He has come to the view that, because informal communication from the DOR suggests that it is not likely to act favorably on this request in its current form, the request should not be submitted unless it can be put into a form that will allow for a favorable response. A revote was taken on the Article 37 motion. Final vote: to recommend disapproval 3-6-0. The Committee explored what might be done, if this article is not approved, to look into commercial assessments, what the process might be, and who would be interested in working on the issue. In this context, some members asked what might be needed to produce an acceptable request for the next Town Meetingand whether, given that the current rules for assessing up-zoned properties are unclear, it could be usefulto ask the DOR either to provide guidelines or methodology that the assessors may validly use to capture this value or to rule that this type of assessment is definitely not permissible. An alternate view was that the Committee would need to have a deeper understanding of the issues before deciding whether it is appropriate to involve the DOR and Town Meeting. The Committee agreed it is not fully their responsibility or within their expertise to drive the issueforward, but that one or two members would have to develop sufficient knowledge about thetopic to evaluate any future proposal. It was also agreed to discuss the topic further at the next meeting. Article 4 –FY2012 Operating Budget. The Committee discussed how the newly revised amendmentproposedfor this article addressing formation of a study group examining best practices for working with projections might proceed. The Town Manager’s concern that staff time isalready fully committed was noted. The Town Manager has observed that support for the proposedstudy group may require additional resources 1