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03/11/2021 AC Minutes Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee (AC) March 11, 2021 Place and Time: Remote Participation: in accordance with the Governor's March 12, 2020 Order Suspending Certain Provisions of the Open Meeting Law; communication took place 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; Meg Muckenhoupt; Lily Manhua Yan (arrived 8:01 p.m.); Carolyn Kosnoff, Assistant Town Manager, Finance (non-voting, ex officio) Member(s)Absent: None Other Attendees: David Kanter, Capital Expenditures Committee; Sara Arnold, Recording Secretary Mr. Parker confirmed attendance, reviewed the authorization for meeting remotely, noted that the meeting was being called to order at 7:32 p.m. on March 11, 2021, and stated that the meeting was being recorded for the purpose of creating minutes. He also noted that materials for the meeting were available on-line. AC Report to Annual Town Meeting (ATM)2021 (Report) Mr. Padaki added his affirmative vote in support of recommending approval of the following articles: • Article 19, Establish, Amend, Dissolve and Appropriate to and from Specified Stabilization Funds; • Article 21, Amend FY2021 Operating, Enterprise and CPA Budgets; • Article 34, Amend General Bylaws-Tree Bylaw Fees and Mitigation Payments; • Article 36, Authorize Special Legislation-Development Surcharge for Affordable Housing (Citizen Petition). Mr. Michelson asked that this Committee's vote recommending support of Article 32, Amend General Bylaws-Receive Appraised Value for Removed Trees be rescinded to allow an opportunity to hear discussion at the ATM before taking a position. He noted that the Town Manager is concerned about the administrative demands on the Select Board and staff that may be triggered by this article, while the Tree Committee has issued a rebuttal to this concern. Additionally, the SB has not yet taken a position on the article. A motion was made and seconded to rescind this Committee's recommended support of Article 32, and to make this Committee's position pending. After discussion, there was a roll call vote. The motion was approved. VOTE: 6-0 (Note: This vote was taken prior to Ms. Yan's arrival.) Mr. Parker led a page-by-page review of the draft report version v5. Edits were discussed and some additional changes/clarifications were incorporated. Text in the report triggered discussion about several issues, including the following: • Ensuring that the report clearly explains the $3.0 million in free cash that was set aside for potential expenses associated with Covid-related needs in FY2021 and the $2.0 million that is being similarly held for FY2022. • Use of the Special Education Stabilization Fund for supplementing revenue to cover the School Department operating expenses. 1