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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-01-11-AC-min 1/11/2024 AC Minutes 1 Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee (AC) January 11, 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; Sean Osborne; Lily Yan; Carolyn Kosnoff, Assistant Town Manager, Finance (non-voting, ex officio) Members Absent: None Other Attendees: Suzie Barry, Select Board and Lex250 Committee; Charles Lamb, Capital Ex- penditures Committee; David Kanter, Capital Expenditures Committee; Deepika Sawhney, School Committee At 7:32 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. Padaki announced that he had agreed to act as liaison to the Recreation Committee. Mr. Parker added that Lily Yan had agreed to act as liaison to Sustainable Lexington. Funding for Lex250 Celebration Ms. Barry, in her role as Chair of the Semiquincentennial Commission, discussed issues around funding for numerous events starting on April 19, 2024, and culminating over the 2025 Patriot’s Day weekend on April 19–20, 2025. The Lex250 Celebration Committee has made a request to the Select Board for funding to support these events at the upcoming 2024 Annual Town Meeting, and the Select Board approved the use of $500,000 of ARPA funds, but federal constraints on the use of ARPA funds will be very difficult to satisfy due to the nature and timing of the events. In particular, ARPA requires that all services must be under contract by the end of calendar year 2024, meaning that many of the anticipated expenses, such as overtime costs, will not qualify. The Town anticipates a modest amount of state funding for Lex250, on the order of $100,000 to $250,000, but our representatives have indicated that it is not guaranteed. Governor Healey recently announced reductions in state support for travel and tourism that will affect many communities. The Town of Concord expects to spend from $300,000 to $400,000 on public safety alone during the 2025 Patriot’s Day weekend, with staff assigned to 12-hour shifts over 5 days. Ms. Barry is in- vestigating whether Lexington should plan for a similar demand on public safety staffing. The Town will host the main re-enactment on Saturday, April 19, 2025, along with other events on Friday, Sunday, and Monday. This will include a parade, concerts, and possibly a naturalization cer- emony. Mr. Michelson asked how the $500,000 request would be spent. Ms. Barry responded that it would mostly likely go to staffing and supplies. Some items could be rented, but rental availability is lim- ited due to the overlap with the Boston Marathon. 1/11/2024 AC Minutes 2 Mr. Parker asked if the Select Board was prepared to redirect ARPA funding to upcoming capital projects in order to free up cash for other projects like the Lex250 Celebration. Ms. Barry declined to speak for the Select Board, but she stated that they will be discussing ARPA funding on February 5, 2024. Ms. Barry noted that the Select Board had recently cancelled plans for a dog park that would have used ARPA funds. Mr. Levine asked if the Select Board would provide an itemized list of spending for the $500,000 request. Ms. Barry responded that this was their intention. Program Improvement Requests Ms. Kosnoff discussed three program improvement requests that were expected to be included in the FY2025 operating budget, all of which involved adding new staff. Two of these requests were the direct result of prior actions by town meeting that resulted in additional workload for Town staff. The first position is an Assistant Superintendent of Public Grounds (ASoPG), who will assist in en- forcement of tree bylaws. This would be a full-time position. The second position is a Code Enforcement Officer, who would more likely serve as a non-uni- formed officer under the Police Department with a mandate to enforce noise bylaws such as the new restrictions on gas-powered leaf blowers. This would be a part-time position (≈0.4 FTE) with em- ployee benefits. The third position is a Lieutenant Fire Inspector, who would support the growing demand for in- spections of new commercial developments in Lexington. This position is a high priority for the Town and has been repeatedly requested over the past few years. This would be a full-time position. Mr. Bartenstein asked if the ASoPG would have any jurisdiction over trees on private land. Ms. Kosnoff responded that this position would only administer trees on town-owned land. Mr. Barten- stein asked if there was any potential to generate fees to support the cost of this new position. Ms. Kosnov responded that tree mitigation fees are fully dedicated to the Tree Revolving Fund which is used to fund tree planting. Funding a position like the ASoPG from the Tree Revolving Fund would require an update of the purpose of the fund by town meeting, but the Tree Committee is unlikely to endorse such a change. Mr. Osborne asked if it would be possible to cross-train existing staff to handle the Code Enforce- ment Officer position, rather than hiring a new staff member. Ms. Kosnoff responded that staff is already at full capacity, so a new hire will be needed. Mr. Osborne asked about part time positions that are being eliminated, but Ms. Kosnov noted those positions are not currently filled. The budget for the positions being eliminated will help to fund this new position. Mr. Michelson stated that he intends to carefully examine the fiscal impact of any proposed new by- laws with an eye towards additional budget demands that might result, and how they could be funded. Mr. Padaki asked if the Public Works and Fire Departments had any part-time positions that could be expanded to satisfy these new positions. Ms. Kosnoff noted that the Land Use, Health and Devel- opment budget had some part-time positions to handle inspections and similar tasks, but they have remained unfilled because most job applicants are seeking full-time employment. After closely re- viewing the FY2025 operating budget, which included culling positions like these, the Town Man- ager was able to reduce the operating budget by about $600,000 to $700,000, which will be used to 1/11/2024 AC Minutes 3 fund a few new program improvement requests. Mr. Padaki expressed support for Mr. Bartenstein’s point about using fees to fund inspectional services. Mr. Levine noted that one result of eliminating unused positions would be a reduction in free cash at the end of the year, which in turn would reduce the cash that can be directed to the Capital Stabi- lization Fund along with other one-time uses. Ms. Kosnoff agreed that this would affect free cash but noted that the Town has incorporated very few program improvement requests over the past few years, and these new positions will fill important new needs. On the positive side, the Town is cur- rently benefiting from higher interest rates on the balances held in accounts like the Capital Stabili- zation Fund. Mr. Bartenstein observed that we should not be relying on that free cash, since it was only available due to our inability to hire the previously mentioned part-time positions. Ms. Kosnoff noted that in recent budget cycles, almost all remaining free cash has gone towards capital projects. Stormwater Capital Ms. Kosnoff began by noting that stormwater-related capital requests have been presented as three distinct programs: storm drain improvements and NPDES (National Pollutant Discharge Elimina- tion System) compliance, stormwater management program, and culvert replacements. Over the past few years, the Town has considered the creation of a new stormwater management enterprise fund that would fund these capital projects under one umbrella. That idea has been put on pause while the Town faces some uncertainty in the future of stormwater management. In particular, the Town’s MS4 permit (Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems) was not updated as expected in the fall of 2023. Potential changes in the MS4 permit could have a major impact on the Town’s storm- water budget. The scale and complexity of stormwater projects in Lexington has made it difficult to provide fund- ing that is responsive to the needs of the Town under the current model. This has frequently re- quired the Town to delay projects for a year or more until sufficient funds could be banked to cover a complete project. The best fiscal management policy would be to fully fund a project when it is ready, allowing it to proceed immediately. The stormwater capital request for the 2024 ATM will combine these three categories into a single request, which will allow the DPW greater flexibility in carrying out stormwater projects. Mr. Padaki asked if prior, unencumbered appropriations could be repurposed to better suit our cur- rent stormwater capital needs. Ms. Kosnoff replied that it was a reasonable question, but that it would not be necessary. Sustainability Capital Ms. Kosnoff stated that there is a request from the Sustainability Director for an electric vehicle (EV) charging station behind the Town Office Building, but the estimated cost of $16,000 is below the Town’s standard threshold of $25,000 for capital. Nevertheless, since this may be only one of a series of installations of charging stations, this has been categorized as a capital request. In the fu- ture, there may be requests for multiple EV chargers plus additional support infrastructure that would generate a larger request. Staff would like to initiate a new capital program where future requests related to sustainability, such as EV charging stations, solar panels, and battery storage can all be coordinated. The 2024 ATM warrant will have an article for funding sustainability capital projects that will include the EV charger and a feasibility study for adding solar panels at Lincoln Fields. These two requests arise from separate departments, but staff feels it would be best to coordinate sustainablity-related re- quests under the Sustainability Director, which will mean working with multiple departments. 1/11/2024 AC Minutes 4 Ms. Kosnoff asked for feedback on how the article should be formatted, either as a single request or broken up into sub-sections like other capital articles. The consensus response was to provide sub- sections. A sustainability capital program also may involve providing some seed funding that can be used to launch projects that would qualify for grants, rebates, or partial funding from an agency. Mr. Padaki asked about whether the Town could access new federal grants for sustainable infra- structure projects announced by the Biden administration. Ms. Kosnoff was not sure if the Town would qualify, but she would research it. There is a revenue stream in the form of rebates from many of these installations. Mr. Michelson asked if the Town could establish a revolving fund to capture grant funds or funds from these re- bates and apply them to future sustainability capital projects. Ms. Kosnoff responded that she pur- sued this idea until she received discouraging feedback from the state Department of Revenue. However, other municipalities may be considering the idea as well, and she believes the Town would create a revolving fund if it became possible. Mr. Michelson stated that he is willing to fund the EV charger at this time, but over the next decade he expected the private sector to largely take over the provisioning of EV charging stations. Mr. Lamb stated that he expected the EV chargers would likely be installed by a private vendor, such as ChargePoint, so the program is already quasi-private. He also endorsed the use of two sub- motions for the article. He noted that the Capital Expenditures Committee has been happy to recog- nize EV chargers as capital in past projects, even though they fall below the $25,000 threshold. Mr. Lamb was happy to see that sustainability projects will be supported in a coordinated fashion through the Sustainability Officer. Review of Draft Warrant Articles for 2024 Annual Town Meeting Mr. Padaki noted that the Committee’s spreadsheet covering report assignments needed to be up- dated. Mr. Parker reminded him that it was his responsibility to manage the spreadsheet. Mr. Parker stated that he would be working on creating a skeleton report over the weekend in prepa- ration for article submissions from the members. Mr. Parker asked if there had been any progress on finding a Recording Secretary. Ms. Kosnoff stated that she had not had time to screen any candidates, but she would forward some resumes to Mr. Parker and Mr. Lamb. Approve Minutes of Prior Meetings Minutes from the Committee meetings on January 4 were approved by a vote of 8-0. Future Meeting Schedule Mr. Parker stated that the next meeting would be Thursday, January 18, and that Marilyn Fenollosa from the Community Preservation Committee would be discussing the CPC requests under Article 10. Mr. Parker expects to discuss technical support for the Committee’s report with Budget Officer Rosalyn Impink. Mr. Parker agreed to share documents regarding prefunding for the Affordable Housing Trust with the Committee and with Mr. Lamb once he has coordinated with Elaine Tung, Chair of the AHT. 1/11/2024 AC Minutes 5 Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Glenn P. Parker Approved: January 18, 2024 Exhibits ● Agenda, posted by Mr. Parker