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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-01-04-AC-min 1/4/2024 AC Minutes 1 Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee (AC) January 4, 2024 Place and Time: Remote participation via a Zoom teleconferencing session that was open to the public; 7:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m. Members Present: Glenn Parker, Chair; Sanjay Padaki, Vice-Chair; Alan Levine, Secretary; Anil Ahuja; John Bartenstein; Eric Michelson; Carolyn Kosnoff, Assistant Town Manager, Finance (non-voting, ex officio) Members Absent: Sean Osborne; Lily Manhua Yan Other Attendees: David Kanter, Capital Expenditures Committee; Bob Pressman, Community Preservation Committee At 7:34 p.m. Mr. Parker called the meeting to order and took attendance by roll call. All votes recorded below were conducted by roll call. Announcements and Liaison Reports Mr. Levine reported that the School Building Committee (SBC) has formed several sub-groups with added public participation to focus on various parts of the high school design. The sub-groups will be holding meetings in addition to the main committee, so there will be a lot of activity in the com- ing months. Ms. Kosnoff reported that the Town Manager has reconvened the Article 97 working group, now that we have a designer on board who can provide rough sketches of where construction might oc- cur. The goal of this working group is to determine the details of a “land swap” that will allow con- struction to proceed on land protected by Article 97 restrictions. Alan Levine is the Appropriation Committee’s liaison to this working group, which also includes representatives from the Recreation Committee. Mr. Bartenstein asked about the Article 97 process, and how a land swap would work if the new construction occupied more space than the original buildings. Ms. Kosnoff responded that the Town could incorporate additional land into the swap from other sites in Town. Mr. Levine noted that the new construction could provide more floor space in a smaller footprint by virtue of a more compact design that could, e.g., feature three floors in height. Mr. Parker reported that he had attended an SBC meeting in December and volunteered to partici- pate in the MEP/Sustainability sub-group (where MEP means “mechanical, electrical, plumbing”). The focus of that sub-group will be green technology and net zero energy usage. Ms. Kosnoff reported that the Town’s tax rate has been set and approved by the Department of Rev- enue, and tax bills have been sent out. Ms. Kosnoff reported that the Town will issue a small amount of debt in February with some bond anticipation notes coming due. More details will be provided later. Ms. Kosnoff stated that the Town has continued to refine the FY2025 budget, and the municipal and school departments are both satisfied with the results. As a result, some Select Board priorities may be able to be funded, and this will be covered at the Select Board meeting on January 22. The White 1/4/2024 AC Minutes 2 Book, which documents the preliminary budget, is targeted for release on Friday, January 19. He release will be followed by a Budget Summit on January 25. Mr. Levine asked about how an additional $480,000 in state revenue for street maintenance from the Fair Share Amendment would be applied to the Town’s road budget. Ms. Kosnoff responded that the Town has not yet determined how it will allocate the additional funds, but staff are working with the Town Engineer to develop a plan that might include additional capital projects connected to roads and transportation around the Town. Ms. Kosnoff noted that the Fair Share Amendment will also impact Chapter 70 funding for schools, and the Town could see an increase of up to $100 per student instead of the initial assumption of $30 per student. There is some concern about how reliable this extra funding will be in coming years, but Ms. Kos- noff feels that the state is committed to a formula-based system that will provide consistent funding going forward. Review of Draft Warrant Articles for 2024 Annual Town Meeting Ms. Kosnoff stated that she expects the Select Board to approve the final warrant for the annual town meeting on Wednesday, January 17, with publication on January 18. Ms. Kosnoff stated that the funding request for the semiquincentennial celebration has been esti- mated at $500,000, which the Select Board had planned to fund using ARPA money. Unfortunately, the rules for ARPA money require the funds to be contractually committed by the end of 2024, which is incompatible with how the Town had intended to spend most of that money, e.g., overtime pay and other event expenses in calendar year 2025. This will require allocating some additional non-ARPA funding for the celebration. The Chair of the Semiquincentennial Committee is Suzie Barry. Ms. Kosnoff stated that the Town still has a great deal of flexibility on how the ARPA funds are used, primarily because the Town is receiving less than $10 million, which lowers the reporting re- quirements. She is not worried about losing any of the money due to an inability to find suitable contracts. Invitations for Staff to Discuss the FY2025 Budget Mr. Parker reviewed the draft warrant articles and asked for suggestions on items where the Com- mittee would like to invite a proponent to attend a meeting. The following table summarizes the re- sults of the review. Topic Invitee 173 Bedford St. renovation, Library Mike Cronin, Jim Malloy, and possibly someone from the Recreation Committee regarding the overall plan CPA projects CPC Chair Semiquincentennial celebration Suzie Barry (Celeb. Comm. Chair) Affordable Housing Trust AHT Chair Recreation projects, Old Res. Bath- house, Fitness Path Melissa Battite (Recreation Dept.), Christian Boutwell (Recreation Comm.) Municipal capital, water and wastewater capital, information tech- nology David Pinsonneault (Dept. of Public Works), Dave Pavlik (Water/Sewer Supt.) 1/4/2024 AC Minutes 3 School operating budget Dr. Hackett (LPS Supt.), Dave Coelho (Asst. Supt. of Finance & Operations) Revised tree bylaws, noise bylaw To be determined Mr. Pressman suggested that the Committee should hear from additional members of the Commu- nity Preservation Committee regarding the appropriation to the Affordable Housing Trust. Mr. Parker suggested that he could arrange the guest list so that upcoming meetings featured two or three speakers from the list above. Liaisons from the Appropriation Committee Mr. Parker reported on a conversation he had with Ms. Kosnoff in which he suggested that he and Ms. Kosnoff should have a brief meeting prior to the main Committee meetings in which they coor- dinate topics and review issues that might come up. Ms. Kosnoff agreed that this would be helpful, but she also pointed out that the Committee would benefit from being more directly engaged with some of the activities related to finance in the Town. Mr. Parker noted that some Committee mem- bers are already very involved with specific topics, while some members do not routinely monitor or participate in outside committee meetings that impact the Town’s finances. Mr. Parker and Ms. Kosnoff are concerned that the Committee is too reliant on Ms. Kosnoff’s per- sonal reporting on the wide range of issues facing the Town. They feel that the Committee should cultivate its own perspective where feasible. In particular, the Committee does not have liaisons to the Community Preservation Committee, the Recreation Committee, or Sustainable Lexington. On occasion, the Planning Board also addresses issues that the Committee might want to follow, such as new fees or zoning changes intended to spur commercial growth. While the Committee does not routinely attend School Committee meetings, Mr. Parker feels that the participation by Mr. Levine and himself in the School Building Committee work is sufficient for now. Mr. Parker serves as liaison to the Capital Expenditures Committee and monitors the Select Board agendas, providing a highlighted version with extracts from the agenda packet to the Com- mittee. Mr. Bartenstein is very involved in all aspects of the Town’s Water and Wastewater sys- tems. Mr. Michelson monitors the Minuteman Regional High School and the Town’s small business climate. Mr. Parker asked Mr. Padaki and Mr. Ahuja to consider how they could participate in an outside committee. Both responded that attending meetings could be a challenge due to conflicts with their work schedules, but Mr. Parker suggested that there might be other ways to be engaged that would not directly conflict with work. Mr. Ahuja suggested that we could follow up offline. Proposed Changes to Tree Bylaws Mr. Michelson agreed to review all articles with proposed changes to the Town’s Tree Bylaws with an eye towards possible financial implications. Water and Wastewater Rates Review Mr. Bartenstein asked Ms. Kosnoff if a committee would be appointed to review how the Town sets rates for water and wastewater customers. Ms. Kosnoff responded that she had submitted a Program Improvement Request for this, which would fund an outside consultant to perform an in-depth re- view of the Town’s water use and rate-setting model, and whether going to quarterly billing would be advisable. 1/4/2024 AC Minutes 4 Approve Minutes of Prior Meetings Minutes from the Committee meeting on December 14 were approved by a vote of 6-0. Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 8:50 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Glenn P. Parker Approved: January 11, 2024 Exhibits ● Agenda, posted by Mr. Parker