2023-07-11-AC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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07/11/2023 AC Minutes 1 Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee (AC) July 11, 2023 Place and Time: Remote participation via a Zoom teleconferencing session that was open to the public; 7:30 p.m. Members Present: Glenn Parker, Chair; Sanjay Padaki, Vice-Chair; Alan Levine, Secretary; John Bartenstein; Eric Michelson; Sean Osborne; Lily Manhua Yan; Carolyn Kosnoff, Assistant Town Manager, Finance (non-voting, ex officio) Members Absent: Anil Ahuja At 7:36 p.m. Mr. Parker called the meeting to order and took attendance by roll call. FY2023 End-of-Year Budget Adjustments Ms. Kosnoff led a discussion of the proposed FY2023 end-of-year budget adjustments which were briefly described in a document viewed via screen-sharing. There are four proposed adjustments. None of the proposed adjustments includes a transfer out of the Reserve Fund. There is also no snow and ice removal deficit that needs to be made up. The four adjustments include: 1) A transfer of $12,800 from the line item for Town Manager – Professional Services to that for Property & Liability Insurance. This transfer is needed because the premiums for builder’s risk insurance for the new Police Headquarters and Westview Cemetery buildings put the insurance budget over the appropriated budget. The total premium for FY2023 for the new police station is about $25,000. Mr. Michelson asked about the advantages and dis- advantages of carrying builder’s risk insurance as part of a construction project budget. Ms. Kosnoff noted that the Public Facilities Dept. manages construction projects while the Town Manager’s Office manages insurance policies. Mr. Bartenstein asked about approval authority for year-end transfers and about the status of funds that were unallocated during the process of developing the budget. This evolved into an extended conversation with Ms. Kosnoff who stated that the status of unallocated funds depends on whether the funds are part of free cash or current year tax levy revenue. Unallo- cated free cash is available from the time that the amount is certified by the Department of Revenue until the following June 30. Unallocated tax levy revenue may be appropriated un- til the Select Board sets the tax rate. 2) A transfer of $13,000 from the line item for Select Board – Professional Services to that for PEG Access – Lexmedia Contract Services. This transfer is needed because the expenses for utilities and rental of Kline Hall for Lexmedia as well as legal services expenses in regard to cable service licence renewals were higher than anticipated. 3) A transfer of $187,000 from the Salary Transfer Account to the line item for Police Personal Services. This follows the settlement of contracts with police employee unions and will fund the agreed-upon increases for prior fiscal years as well as FY2023. The present bal- ance in the Salary Transfer Account, before this transfer, is just over $900,000. All union contracts have been settled, but the financial implications, i.e., retroactive payments, from the settlement of contracts with Fire Dept. employees are still being calculated.