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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-10-05-AC-min 10/05/2023 AC Minutes 1 Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee (AC) October 5, 2023 Place and Time: Remote participation via a Zoom teleconferencing session that was open to the public; 7:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m. The starting time of the meeting was delayed to 8:00 p.m. Members Present: Glenn Parker, Chair; Sanjay Padaki, Vice-Chair; Alan Levine, Secretary; Anil Ahuja; John Bartenstein; Sean Osborne; Lily Manhua Yan (8:12 p.m.); Carolyn Kosnoff, Assistant Town Manager, Finance (non-voting, ex officio) Members Absent: Eric Michelson Other Attendees: David Kanter, Capital Expenditures Committee At 8:03 p.m. Mr. Parker called the meeting to order and took attendance by roll call. Preliminary The start of the meeting was delayed until 8:00 p.m. so that Ms. Kosnoff would not miss the first 30 minutes of the meeting due to a prior commitment. Mr. Parker announced that the meeting would be recorded in order to create a computer-generated transcript for the preparation of meeting minutes. Discussion of financial articles at Special Town Meeting 2023-1 Prior to the arrival of Ms. Kosnoff, Mr. Parker summarized the status of warrant articles where ac- tion is expected based on a prior phone conversation with Ms. Kosnoff. • Article 3 will include an appropriation of new growth revenue into the Capital Stabilization Fund. The Town expects to receive its certified new growth amount from the Department of Revenue within the next two weeks, at which time the exact dollar figures for the motion can be determined. • Article 4 will have a few adjustments to the FY2024 operating budget and enterprise fund budgets, but no changes to the CPA budget. • Article 6 may include an appropriation of funds received from the State Opioid Settlement. Mr. Parker noted that the Town is required to monitor how these funds are spent in case any- one is curious about the details. • Article 7, which would dedicate all future revenue from housing resale and rental monitor- ing fees to the Affordable Housing Trust, deserves further discussion due to the possible im- pact on the Town’s operating budget. Mr. Michelson has been working on this article but was unavailable for tonight’s meeting, so the discussion will be deferred. • Article 8, a pilot program for temporary speed humps, will be funded by the Traffic Mitiga- tion Stabilization Fund. Mr. Levine noted that the Transportation Safety Group (TSG) is re- sponsible for developing a budget for this proposal, but they are not ready to present it yet. The TSG will make its presentation to the Select Board on October 17. • Article 9, a citizen’s petition to initiate the use of ranked choice voting (RCV) for Town of- fices, has a small funding request. This means it must be included in the committee’s report. Mr. Parker has been in contact with the article proponent and will investigate the funding needed to implement RCV for local elections. 10/05/2023 AC Minutes 2 Ms. Kosnoff joined the meeting at 8:15 p.m. Article 9 Ms. Kosnoff noted that Article 9 would call for a home rule petition, which would, in turn, require action by the state legislature before RCV could be authorized in Lexington. As such, it is unlikely that any funding would be needed in FY2024, but this could impact the FY2025 operating budget. There was some further discussion about how RCV might be implemented in Lexington. Mr. Parker asserted that it would be very premature for Town Meeting to vote on any specific implementation details for RCV. He expects that the Town would form a committee to study the range of possibili- ties if the home rule petition is approved, after which the Town could begin to meaningfully weigh the use of RCV and any related expenses. Mr. Parker stated that he would be responsible for writing up Article 9. Article 3 The discussion returned to new growth revenue and an appropriation into the Capital Stabilization Fund (CSF). Mr. Bartenstein wanted to clarify how current policy is allocating new growth revenue to the CSF, and whether the Select Board retained the ability to adjust this policy in the face of other budget needs. Ms. Kosnoff stated that the current policy allocates portions of new growth rev- enue each year for recurring allocation to the CSF. In practice, this creates an allocation that grows larger every year the policy is used, and this limits the use of new growth revenue for other areas of the operating budget. The cumulative allocation from FY2022 and FY2023 is approximately $1.7 million, and the alloca- tion for FY2024 is expected to be approximately $2 million. Once appropriated into the CSF, the funds are legally constrained to be used for capital projects, but this is not strictly limited to the high school project. Ms. Kosnoff reminded the Committee that in order to include new growth revenue in the tax levy, it must first be appropriated. The CSF is one way to satisfy this requirement, but the Select Board al- ways retains the ability to direct revenue to other needs. The policy has been reviewed at past Budget Summits and will be a topic at the next Budget Summit on October 18 as well. Mr. Padaki requested that Ms. Kosnoff send him preliminary numbers for this article since final numbers might not become available for a week or two. Article 4 Mr. Parker asked Ms. Kosnoff to discuss changes to FY2024 budgets under Article 4. In regard to the operating budget, Ms. Kosnoff stated that the Town was incorporating the maintenance of sev- eral small existing buildings into the Department of Public Facilities (DPF) budget. This includes a shed near the water tank that houses Town radio equipment, the pool houses at the Center Recrea- tion Complex and the Old Res, a recently rebuilt structure adjacent to the high school track, and one other small building. Some of these buildings have suffered from deferral of maintenance, and the Town seeks a supplemental appropriation of approximately $85,000. The responsibility for seasonal opening of these buildings will be transferred from the Recreation Department to the DPF. Funding may be drawn in part from the Recreation Enterprise Fund, with the rest coming from the General Fund. Mr. Kanter asked for confirmation that no CPA budget adjustments were expected, which Ms. Kos- noff confirmed. 10/05/2023 AC Minutes 3 Ms. Kosnoff stated that there will be some routine adjustments for water and wastewater enterprise fund budgets based in part on the final MWRA assessments, which are slightly lower than the pre- liminary assessments used for the budgets at the time of the 2023 spring Annual Town Meeting. Article 6 Ms. Kosnoff stated that the Town would be receiving approximately $130,000 in new opioid settle- ment payments, which might not arrive until November, after the special town meeting has ended. There is also money from previous opioid settlement payments that must still be appropriated. Mr. Bartenstein asked if the Town had any plans on how to continue funding for opioid addiction services after the opioid settlement funds are exhausted. Ms. Kosnoff stated that the Town has not yet spent any of the money, but they are currently focused on one-time programs. If the Health De- partment wanted to add new staffing for this purpose, it would have to be included in the operating budget. The Town expects to receive around $2 million in opioid settlement payments over 15 years. Article 7 Ms. Kosnoff stated that the article refers to two revenue sources related to affordable housing, and these are currently directed into the General Fund. Rental monitoring fees result in approximately $10,000 of ongoing annual revenue. The housing resale fees are one-time payments made when a property in the affordable housing inventory changes ownership. These fees cover refiling paper- work to maintain the status of the affordable unit. The motion from the Board of the Affordable Housing Trust (AHT) will ask that these two funding sources be permanently dedicated to the AHT. Ms. Kosnoff noted that the fees currently cover ex- penses paid for out of the General Fund for services that are outsourced to the Regional Housing Services Organization. It is worth considering whether the related services should be covered by the AHT if is receiving these fees. Article 8 Ms. Kosnoff stated that the Planning Department has brought this article to create a pilot program with temporary (removeable) speed humps. If the pilot is deemed a success, they will ask for per- manent speed humps. The cost of the pilot will be approximately $50,000, or less. Funding would likely come from the Traffic Mitigation Stabilization Fund. Preferences for Budget Summit Participation Mr. Parker polled the Committee to determine who would prefer to attend the October 18 Budget Summit in person, rather than remotely. The meeting will use a hybrid format in Estabrook Hall on the lower level of the Cary Memorial Building. In-person: Mr. Parker, Mr. Levine, Mr. Bartenstein. Remote: Mr. Padaki, Mr. Ahuja, Mr. Osborne, Ms. Yan (joining at 7:30 p.m.). Announcements and Liaison Reports Mr. Levine reported that the School Building Committee is making steady progress, and that some helpful meeting recordings are available online. Interviews by the Designer Selection Panel were held two days ago, and Mr. Levine assumes a designer has been selected. The design work has been funded with $1.825 million so far. Ms. Kosnoff stated that the Town would begin paying debt service for design work within the next two years, and there will likely be another appropriation before the town-wide referendum to exclude the debt service for the project because the existing appropriation will be insufficient to advance the design process into 10/05/2023 AC Minutes 4 preliminary cost estimates. An approximate cost estimate will need to be presented before the debt exclusion referendum. Ms. Kosnoff stated that the rough plan is for a fall 2025 special town meet- ing to vote on construction funding, after which a town-wide debt-exclusion referendum must be held within 90 days, meaning sometime in November or December of 2025. Ms. Kosnoff stated that the long-term capital plan now includes an estimate for the total cost of the high school project from the Director of Public Facilities that has been revised upward to $450 mil- lion. Mr. Parker stated that the next meeting would be in one week on October 12. He also informed the Committee that he had created a document in Wdesk that can serve as a template for the Committee report to the special town meeting. Public Hearings Ms. Kosnoff reminded the committee that public hearings for water and wastewater rates will be held on October 16, along with the tax rate hearing. Final votes to set these rates cannot occur until after the special town meeting concludes, pending approval of changes to the operating and enter- prise fund budgets. Ms. Kosnoff hopes to proceed with these votes directly on the Monday follow- ing the special town meeting. Minutes of Prior Meetings Mr. Parker explained how the minutes were drafted, starting with a computer-generated transcript created from the Zoom recording of the previous meeting. Minutes from the Committee meeting on September 14 were approved by a roll call vote of 6-0. No other minutes for Committee meetings are outstanding. Adjourn The meeting was adjourned by roll call vote at 9:24 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Glenn P. Parker Approved: October 19, 2023 Exhibits ● Agenda, posted by Mr. Parker