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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-11-16-AC-min November 16, 2006 Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee November 16, 2006 Place and time: Town Office Building, Selectmen’s Meeting Room, 7:30 p.m. for Budget Summit Meeting, then continued in Room G-15 Members present: Al Levine (Chair), Deborah Brown (Vice-Chair), John Bartenstein (Secretary), Rod Cole, Rick Eurich, Pam Hoffman, David Kanter, Mike Kennealy, Eric Michelson, Rob Addelson (ex officio, non-voting) Also present for continued meeting: Charles Lamb and Ted Edson (Capital Expenditures Committee), Tom Diaz and Tom Griffiths (School Committee) The Committee initially met jointly with the Board of Selectmen, the School Committee and the Capital Expenditures Committee for Budget Summit II. For a summary of matters discussed at the Summit meeting, please refer to the minutes of the Board of Selectmen. The Committee then continued its meeting, beginning at approximately 9:30 p.m., to discuss articles on the warrant for Special Town Meeting No. 1 (STM 1) and Special Town Meeting No. 2 (STM 2). The matters addressed in the continued meeting are summarized below. 1. STM 1, Article 2 (Amend FY2007 Operating Budget) Part (i), Additional Fee Revenue.This part of the article would allow the schools to spend fees already collected, and is a housekeeping item. The committee voted to support this appropriation 9-0. Part (ii), Supplemental Funds for Special Education. Tom Diaz and Tom Griffiths provided background information on the origin and nature of supplemental liabilities that the School Department has incurred for special education since the conclusion of the 2006 Annual Town Meeting. The committee supported the School Committee’s proposal first to use all available surpluses within other parts of the school budget, as well as additional METCO monies that have recently been received, to defray the deficit. The committee voted to support funding the entire remaining deficit with supplemental FY07 revenue, as set forth by the Town Manager at the Summit, 9-0. Part (iii) Additional Unemployment Coverage. Additional unemployment insurance costs arose from the layoffs following the failed override. Rob Addelson reported that the exact amount was not yet known, but was expected to be approximately $52,800. He also reported his expectation that the full amount would be covered not by appropriating additional money, but by a surplus in the Group Insurance line item also resulting from the layoffs. Given that no additional appropriation of funds would be needed, the committee voted 9-0 in favor of this part of the article. - 1 - November 16, 2006 2. STM 1, Article 7 (Joint Facilities Department). This article proposes acceptance of MGL Chapter 71, section 37M to allow the town to merge Municipal and School facilities departments. Acceptance would allow the town to merge these departments, but would not obligate the town to do so. The committee voted 9-0 in favor of this article. 3. STM 2, Article 2 (DPW Facility). This article seeks funding for a new DPW facility. A long discussion was held with Charles Lamb and many questions were put forth regarding such things as utility costs, phasing costs, issues of timing, and the current level of uncertainty in the cost estimates. Charles reported that new estimates were being vetted, and that the cost would likely be less than the current estimate of $30.5M. However no new estimate was officially on the table. Given the lack of answers to the many questions put forth by the Committee and the community, it was felt that a better approach was to finish the design stage first, thus allowing sufficient time for additional information to allow the Committee to make a future recommendation on the entire project. Based on the presentation previously made by representatives of the Permanent Building Committee, this should only introduce a short delay. A motion was made to recommend to the Board of Selectmen that they seek to appropriate at the Special Town Meeting only such additional design and engineering (D&E) money as would be reasonably necessary to complete the design process through construction documents. The motion passed 8-0, with one abstention. It was agreed that Al Levine and Charles Lamb should take a joint message to the Board of Selectmen to inform them of this Committee’s position on reducing the scope of Article 2. 4. STM 1, Article 4 (Community Preservation Fund). This article seeks approval for the use of CPA funding. Part (i) seeks to place funds from a settlement with a builder into the CPA fund for historic preservation. The committee voted 9-0 to support this part of the article. Part (ii) seeks approval to spend CPA funds on a study of the restoration of the Hancock-Clark House. There was considerable discussion of the issue of the propriety of spending public money on non-town-owned property. While there was agreement that in some cases funding such projects was appropriate, there was disagreement on whether or not they should be subject to a higher standard than projects for town-owned property. Regardless, it was felt that this project was sufficiently worthwhile to justify funding under any standard, and the committee voted to support this part of the article by a vote of 9-0. Part (iii) seeks approval to spend CPA funds to install an elevator in the Depot building. Discussion of this proposal as well focused on the question of how requests for CPA funds for non-town owned building should be treated. This - 2 - November 16, 2006 project was considered less important in the context of historical preservation than the Hancock-Clark House project. It was also the opinion of some that the Historical Society has the ability to raise these funds through alternative sources, such as fees for use of the property. Some members also expressed a preference to wait and see what else would be competing for these funds over the next year. The committee voted 5-1 not to support this part of the article, with three abstentions. 5. STM 1, Article 6 (Affordable Housing). This article seeks to appropriate for use by Lexhab $50,000 recently paid to the Town by Brookhaven under a commitment it had made, in connection with its recent expansion, to contribute $100,000 toward the creation of affordable housing (presumably in lieu of creating affordable units as part of its own expansion). After a short discussion, the committee voted 9-0 to support this article. 6. STM 1, Article 8 (Senior Volunteer Program). This article seeks additional funding for the senior volunteer program so that all seniors who have applied can be fully accommodated. After a short discussion, the committee voted 9-0 in favor of this article. The meeting adjourned at 11:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Rod Cole John Bartenstein Approved January 11, 2007 - 3 -