2020-03-12-AC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

03/12/2020 AC Minutes Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee (AC) March 12, 2020 Place and Time: Cary Memorial Building, Hudson Room, 7:30 p.m. Members Present: Glenn Parker, Chair; Sanjay Padaki, Vice-Chair (remote participation); Alan Levine, Secretary; John Bartenstein; Eric Michelson; Meg Muckenhoupt; Nick Nichols; Lily Manhua Yan(remote participation); Carolyn Kosnoff, Assistant Town Manager, Finance (non-voting, ex officio) Members)Absent: None Other Attendees: None The meeting was called to order at 7:37 p.m. Announcements and Liaison Reports Mr. Parker announced the following: • Ms. Yan and Mr. Padaki will participate remotely, and any votes taken during this meeting will be taken by a roll call. • The Town Manager may be requesting a Reserve Fund transfer to cover costs associated with addressing the spread of the virus COVID-19. Ms. Kosnoff explained that it is not yet known whether funds beyond those included in the current budget will be needed, and it is unlikely that this will be known before this Committee's next meeting. It was noted that the FY2020 budget includes $900,000 for the Reserve Fund; the request in the FY2021 recommended budget is reduced to $750,000. Annual Town Meeting (ATM) Process: Mr. Parker reported the following regarding the COVID-19 pandemic as it relates to the ATM: • Deborah Brown, Town Moderator, has proposed holding a virtual ATM; only staff would be present. Roll call votes would be required in all cases and would be particularly time consuming. Accommodating extended discussion would be challenging. • Ms. Brown's proposal includes truncating the actions to be taken at the ATM by combining most of the articles into several clusters of consent agenda items, as presented in her Proposed Article Dispositions, ATM, spring 2020. Nothing would be included on a consent agenda without unanimous support from both finance committees and the Select Board (SB). Her goal is twofold: ➢ To act on those articles that need action for the Town to function and that are time sensitive for various reasons, such as serious financial implications if postponed. ➢ To postpone those articles that could be addressed at a subsequent town meeting. • Ms. Brown would like the ATM to be completed in one evening, although she acknowledges that it may take additional time. She is currently seeking consensus from the critical committees. Discussion points made by AC committee members included, but were not limited to, the following: • Whether Article 4, Appropriate FY2021 Operating Budget, should be included on a consent agenda: Mr. Bartenstein expressed concern about packaging almost all of the articles that 1