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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-01-09-AC-min January 9, 2008 Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee January 9, 2008 Place and time: Town Office Building, Room G-15, 8:00 PM Members present: Alan Levine (Chair), John Bartenstein (Secretary), Deborah Brown, Richard Eurich, Pam Hoffman, Michael Kennealy, Susan McLeish, Eric Michelson, Rob Addelson (ex officio, non-voting) Also present: Tom Griffiths, member Lexington School Committee 1. The Chair noted that the resignation of Rod Cole has left the position of Vice- Chair open. The Committee resolved to discuss this and, hopefully, elect one of the present members at a future meeting. Eric Michelson volunteered to work with Deborah Brown on the financial projections that Rod was signed up to do. Rob Addelson’s Report. 2. At the next meeting of the Appropriation Committee, scheduled for January 16, 2008 after the Summit III meeting, Rob will present a Reserve Fund transfer request of $18,375 for the AC to consider. This request is for an October invoice covering labor counsel costs that was mistakenly overlooked when the last transfer request was presented to the AC. Labor counsel was necessary for a grievance case that is now in arbitration. Another labor case is pending appeal and will also be expensive. There is a third labor case that could end up in arbitration in the future th as well. At the Summit III meeting scheduled for January 16, the Town will recommend that a special SPED reserve fund for out-of-district tuition and transportation be added as a new line item separate from the school budget. SPED Reserve Fund 3. . At a previous meeting the AC voted in support of creating a reserve fund for SPED out-of-district tuition and transportation costs as a separate line item from the school budget. Tom Griffiths reported that the School Committee voted unanimously for this as well. The specific details of how to handle the reserves still need to be determined. Moderator-Sponsored Meetings in Preparation for Town Meeting. 3. The meeting for warrant article sponsors will be held Wednesday, March 12, 7:30 PM in the BOS meeting room. The workshop for new town meeting members will be held th Saturday, March 15, 10:00 AM in the BOS meeting room. The AC Chair is invited to attend these meetings. He will send a replacement if he is unable to attend. TheSchool Financial Review Committee. 4. Tom Griffiths reported that this committee, which has not been meeting frequently during the past several months due to conflicting commitments of the town and school financial officers in preparing the FY09 budgets, will be gearing up again soon. The issues on its agenda will include assessing recent progress made in the financial management of the schools and how best to respond to the recent Town Meeting resolution seeking financial reports. Al Levine would like - 1 - January 9, 2008 the School Financial Committee to be actively involved in deciding the content of the reports to be issued by the School Administration. Pam Hoffman is one of the AC liaisons to this committee. Eric Michelson will become the other liaison, replacing Rod Cole. AC Draft Letter to CPC. 5. The AC reviewedthe latest version of a proposed memorandum drafted by Deborah Brown, including edits by John Bartenstein, to the Community Preservation Committee (CPC). The memorandum would address a letter sent to the CPC by David Kelland on behalf of the Lexington Historical Commission encouraging the CPC to apply a narrower standard than actually required when selecting historic preservation projects to fund with CPC money.In information sessions to brief Town Meeting and Lexington residents before they voted to adopt the CPA, it was emphasized that CPC funds would be available to help fund CPA-eligible projects the Town deemed necessary, thereby leveraging taxpayer dollars. If the CPC follows the narrower standard suggested, it could reject Town-sponsored eligible projects which would then need to be funded within the Town’s operating and capital budgets. Suggestions were made to strengthen the draft letter, and Deborah will incorporate those suggestions into a new draft. The Committee planned on reviewing the final version of the letter and then voting to approve it during the meeting scheduled for January 16. Deborah will keep the Capital Expenditures Committee informed and will ask them if they would like to co-sign the letter. Minutes Approved. 6. The AC approved minutes of the meetings held on 4/30/07 and 10/08/07. Other. 7. The AC Meeting originally scheduled for Wednesday evening, February 27, was rescheduled to Tuesday evening, February 26, to avoid a conflict with a Stand For Children meeting on school financing issues scheduled for the evening of the th 27 which will be attended by Lexington’s State Representatives (Kaufman and Stanley) and State Senators (Fargo and Marzilli). The meeting was adjourned at 9:33 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Pam Hoffman Approved January 31, 2008 - 2 -