2012-01-26-AC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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January 26, 2012 Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee Meeting January 26, 2012 Time and Location: G -15, Town Office Building, 7:3 0 p.m. Members Present: Glenn Parker, Chair; John Bartenstein, Vice Chair and Secretary; Robert Cohen; Mollie Garberg; Joe Pato, Vice Chair; Alan Levine; Eric Michelson; Jonina Schonfeld Others in Attendance: Theo Kalivas, Budget Officer The meeting was called to order at 7:37 p.m. Eric Michelson agreed to take minutes. 1. Minutes The status of minutes from previous meetings was reviewed. John reported that outstanding are one set from fall 2011 and the summit meetings. He is still waiting for the Board of Selectmen to release their summit minutes so that he can incorporate them into A.C. minutes of those meetings. Glenn will look into the status of the process to hire a replacement for Andrea Yepez. 2. Committee policy regarding political activity in town elections Glenn and Jonina have been working on a draft policy document to present to the Committee. That exercise is not complete but has produced some additional information. One resource of particular interest is a comprehensive advisory recently issued by the State Ethics Commission that addresses limitations imposed by the state conflict of interest law, G.L. c. 268A, on the conduct of "special municipal employees," including political activity. All members of the Appropriation Committee are considered to be "special town employees," having been so designated by the Board of Selectmen. An important distinction made in this advisory is whether elected or appointed officials, including members of this Committee, have a "policy- making" role. Glenn and Jonina will circulate a link to the State Ethics Commission advisory. From there they will produce a draft policy for committee review. For the time being, the current policy will remain in place. The Committee agreed that this issue could be postponed until after the March 2012 Annual Town Meeting. 3. Review of Proposed Town Budget. There was a brief discussion of the status of the FY2013 budget. The only changes from the White Book anticipated at this time result from the passage of the debt - exclusion referendum for the Estabrook, Bridge, and Bowman school projects, which will allow design monies previously appropriated in the General Fund to be re- characterized as excluded debt. 4. Report to the 2012 Annual Town Meeting The following deadlines were agreed to for production of the report: • March 13 — completion of voting on all articles • March 21 — Committee approval of the report