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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-10-20-AC-min 10/20/2022 AC Minutes 1 Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee (AC) October 20, 2022 Place and Time: Remote Participation: in accordance with “An Act Relative to Extending Certain State of Emergency Accommodations”, signed into law by Gov. Baker on July 16, 2022, 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; Anil Ahuja; John Bartenstein; Alan Levine, Secretary; Eric Michelson; Sean Osborne; Lily Manhua Yan; Carolyn Kosnoff, Assistant Town Manager, Finance (non-voting, ex officio) Member(s) Absent: none At 7:35 p.m. Mr. Parker called the meeting to order, confirmed attendance by roll call, and stated that the meeting would be recorded for the purpose of creating minutes. Mr. Levine agreed to take minutes in the absence of a recording secretary. Announcements and Liaison Reports Ms. Kosnoff reported that Town staff have submitted Capital Improvement Proposals (CIPs) for review and that they have been shared with the Capital Expenditures Committee. Committee Report to the November Special Town Meeting The Committee discussed several of the articles in the warrant for the November special town meeting and the draft of the Committee’s report. To start the discussion, Ms. Kosnoff displayed an updated one-page summary of the financial actions to be requested at the special town meeting. She stated that she expects no further changes in the numbers before the upcoming special town meeting, with the possible exception of the amount to be appropriated to the Opioid Settlement Account under Article 9. The changes in the summary from the version of October 14 were highlighted. Article 3: Specified Stabilization Funds The Finance Department and Assessor’s Office have nearly completed their estimate of new growth in the tax levy, and the Town’s report on this will soon be submitted to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DoR). The DoR usually takes two to three weeks to review such reports. The portion of the increase in new growth earmarked for appropriation to the Capital Stabilization Fund under this article has been revised from $1,600,000 to $1,675,999. Ms. Kosnoff noted that the motion under this article would appropriate out the entire remaining balance of the Debt Service Stabilization Fund and provide for dissolution of that fund. She also noted that the motion would authorize the automatic transfer of future short-term rental community impact fee revenue into the Affordable Housing Stabilization Fund without the need for further town meeting action. There was a motion and a second to recommend approval of Article 3. The motion was approved by a roll call vote. VOTE: 8-0. Article 4: Amend FY2023 Budgets Ms. Kosnoff’s updated summary of the financial actions to be taken at the Special Town Meeting identified two additional line-item changes that will need to be addressed in the Committee’s report. The first is a $10,000 increase in the Finance Department’s expense budget, which covers all Town 10/20/2022 AC Minutes 2 Office Building postage expenses. Those expenses have increased substantially because of the state law changes allowing mail-in voting. The second is a reduction of the temporary borrowing budget by $287,071. This reduction is enabled by three developments since the ATM: (a) interest rates on some of the temporary bond anticipation notes (BAN’s) issued in June were lower than anticipated; (b) the issuance of some BAN’s planned for FY2022 was deferred to FY2023 because the associated projects were not yet ready to move forward; BAN’s issued in FY2023 will not lead to interest or principal costs in FY2023 as they are generally for a term of 12 months and interest is not due until the end of the term; and (c) temporary borrowing previously authorized to cover design costs for the new Police Station was reclassified from within-levy debt to exempt debt, as permitted by state law, following approval in June of the debt exclusion. The reduced budget line is a precise number for FY2023 temporary borrowing costs as opposed to the estimate used in April at the annual town meeting. Ms. Kosnoff explained that such reductions in budgeted temporary borrowing costs are usually applied to reduce the amount of borrowing. This year, the reduction allowed all new expenditures recommended for appropriation at this special town meeting to be done without borrowing. There was a motion and a second to recommend approval of Article 4. The motion was approved by a roll call vote. VOTE: 8-0. Article 10: Pool Complex Domestic Hot Water Heater Ms. Kosnoff stated that the funding source for this $60,000 appropriation would be the tax levy. There was a motion and a second to recommend approval of Article 10. The motion was approved by a roll call vote. VOTE: 8-0. Article 11: Center Sidewalk Extensions It was stated that the proposed sidewalk extension work, in addition to aesthetic benefits, will bring additional sidewalks in Lexington Center into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA. There was a brief discussion of whether there are other sidewalks in the Center that should be brought up to ADA standards. It was noted that the side-street concrete sidewalks on the south side of Massachusetts Avenue were replaced and upgraded in an earlier streetscape improvement project and are in relatively good condition. The concrete sidewalks on the north side of the avenue now proposed for replacement with brick are in very poor condition. Mr. Osborne noted that brick sidewalks may need more maintenance than other types of sidewalks. There was a motion and a second to recommend approval of Article 11. The motion was approved by a roll call vote. VOTE: 8-0. Article 14: LexHAB Reorganization Mr. Michelson noted that the motion under this article, for which the Committee had already voted to recommend approval, will be revised to state that all nominations to the board of the reorganized LexHAB, including the nomination of future successor members made by the LexHAB board, will be subject to Select Board confirmation. Town Counsel has advised that the reorganized entity would still be recognized as being independent of the Town of Lexington even with this provision in place. Additional Notes There was discussion of ways to more accurately or more articulately express some of the points in the sections of the draft report on Articles 9 Opioid Settlements and Article 12 Housing Trust. 10/20/2022 AC Minutes 3 There was a motion and a second to recommend approval of the report with the understanding that reasonable non-substantial edits would be allowed. The motion was approved by a roll call vote. VOTE: 8-0. Mr. Parker asked that each Committee member review and, if necessary, revise their assigned sections in the report per the discussions in this meeting, ideally before Monday, and that he would like to publish it on Tuesday, October 25. The report will be distributed electronically. A few hard copies may be made for archival purposes. Future Meetings An AC meeting will be posted for Tuesday evening, October 25, immediately before the first session of the special town meeting; it will be cancelled if there is no business to be conducted that evening. As is the usual practice, Mr. Parker will post meetings for 7 p.m. before each scheduled session of the upcoming special town meeting. Adjourn The meeting was adjourned by roll call vote at 9:10 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Alan Levine Approved: November 1, 2022 Exhibits ● Agenda, posted by Mr. Parker ● Summary of FY2023 Budget Adjustments for the 2022-3 Special Town Meeting dated 10/20/2022