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3/07/2024 AC Minutes 1 Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee (AC) March 7, 2024 Place and Time: Remote participation via a Zoom teleconferencing session that was open to the public; 7:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m. Members Present: Sanjay Padaki, Vice-Chair; Alan Levine, Secretary; John Bartenstein; Anil Ahuja; Eric Michelson; Sean Osborne; Lily Yan; Carolyn Kosnoff, Assistant Town Manager, Fi- nance (non-voting, ex officio) Members Absent: Glenn Parker, Chair Other Attendees: David Kanter, Capital Expenditures Committee (CEC) At 7:36 p.m. Mr. Padaki called the meeting to order and took attendance by roll call. He stated that the meeting was being recorded for the purpose of preparing minutes. All votes recorded below were conducted by roll call. Announcements and Liaison Reports Ms. Kosnoff informed the Committee that no action was planned under Article 21 Amend FY2024 Operating, CPA, and Enterprise Budgets, and that the motion would be for indefinite postpone- ment. She also stated that the motion under Article 18 would call for the rescission of the $3 mil- lion bond authorization approved under Article 34 of the 1999 Annual Town Meeting. Ms. Kosnoff briefly described some of the material presented at the Community Forum of March 6 sponsored by the School Building Committee including a range of preliminary building massing sketches. The public’s comments involved requests for a new field house among a variety of other topics. There may be a summit meeting later in the spring to discuss aspects of financing the high school project. Warrant Articles for 2024 Annual Town Meeting Article 21 Amend FY2024 Operating, Enterprise, and CPA Budgets Ms. Kosnoff noted that while the police and fire overtime expenses and the election personal ser- vices of the Town Clerk’s office are trending high, overruns, if any, would most likely be managed in the end-of-year budget transfer process. Since there is no other action that is needed regarding FY2024 budgets, the recommendation is to indefinitely postpone this article. The Committee dis- cussed whether to include it on the Consent Agenda, which may be taken up at an early session of the town meeting, or to leave it off the Consent Agenda so that its consideration could be delayed until a late session in case of any further unanticipated changes in current year spending. A prefer- ence was expressed for the option to leave the article off the Consent Agenda. A motion to recom- mend approval of indefinite postponement was approved by a 7-0 vote. Article 18 Rescind Prior Borrowing Authorizations Ms. Kosnoff explained that the $3 million bond authorization was intended to be a place holder for a potential conservation land acquisition that would have needed town meeting approval. The Con- servation Commission supports rescission of the authorization. CPA funds, as opposed to General Fund monies, would most likely be used for future land acquisition for conservation. This article