2005-04-13-AC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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April 13, 2005 Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee Wednesday, April 13, 2005 Location: Room 105, Town Office Building Members present: John Bartenstein, Rod Cole, Richard Eurich, Paul Hamburger, David Kanter, Alan Levine (chair), Ron Pawliczek Also present (for part of the meeting): A. Friedlich, J. Frey, K. Longeteig, J. Wood The meeting was called to order at 6:40 PM by Chair A. Levine. A. Friedlich informed the Committee that he intends to bring up Article 7, Community Preservation Act (CPA), for reconsideration on April 27 and asked whether the Committee is willing to "take ownership" of estimates of effects of the CPA and an operating override on the tax rate in FY 2007. In response to a question, he also included the possible effects of a debt exclusion in his question to the Committee. In the discussion that followed, Committee members supported reporting about the CPA to the Town, but did not make a commitment about specifics. Representatives from the Tree Committee, John Frey, Karen Longeteig, and Jim Wood, presented a proposed amendment to the operating budget to increase the appropriation for 3100-3500 DPW General Expenses by $10,000 to be used for planting of trees. The drafting of the motion was discussed and simplifications were suggested by members of the A.C. Since this proposed amendment did not come with a proposed reduction elsewhere in the budget, budget balancing mechanisms were discussed. It was suggested that use of free cash would not be preferred. Upon suggestion by Committee members, the Tree Committee representatives stated that they would be satisfied with a reduction in the appropriation to the Stabilization Fund by $10,000 if their proposed amendment were to pass; they did not intend to propose to reduce a "real" expense instead. In general discussion of the proposed amendment, it was pointed out that some funds could be raised via private contributions and mitigation contributions to the Lexington Tree Fund, and that it could be worth waiting to see how much is deposited into the Fund. One response was that the Town has a moral obligation to maintain the stock of street trees. A motion to not support the proposed amendment to increase spending on trees by $10K passed (7-0). There was a brief discussion of distribution of A.C. meeting agendas. A motion to approve sending the agendas to the TMMA email list passed (7-0). - 1 -