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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-03-07-AC-min 3/07/2024 AC Minutes 1 Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee (AC) March 7, 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: Sanjay Padaki, Vice-Chair; Alan Levine, Secretary; John Bartenstein; Anil Ahuja; Eric Michelson; Sean Osborne; Lily Yan; Carolyn Kosnoff, Assistant Town Manager, Fi- nance (non-voting, ex officio) Members Absent: Glenn Parker, Chair Other Attendees: David Kanter, Capital Expenditures Committee (CEC) At 7:36 p.m. Mr. Padaki called the meeting to order and took attendance by roll call. He stated that the meeting was being recorded for the purpose of preparing minutes. All votes recorded below were conducted by roll call. Announcements and Liaison Reports Ms. Kosnoff informed the Committee that no action was planned under Article 21 Amend FY2024 Operating, CPA, and Enterprise Budgets, and that the motion would be for indefinite postpone- ment. She also stated that the motion under Article 18 would call for the rescission of the $3 mil- lion bond authorization approved under Article 34 of the 1999 Annual Town Meeting. Ms. Kosnoff briefly described some of the material presented at the Community Forum of March 6 sponsored by the School Building Committee including a range of preliminary building massing sketches. The public’s comments involved requests for a new field house among a variety of other topics. There may be a summit meeting later in the spring to discuss aspects of financing the high school project. Warrant Articles for 2024 Annual Town Meeting Article 21 Amend FY2024 Operating, Enterprise, and CPA Budgets Ms. Kosnoff noted that while the police and fire overtime expenses and the election personal ser- vices of the Town Clerk’s office are trending high, overruns, if any, would most likely be managed in the end-of-year budget transfer process. Since there is no other action that is needed regarding FY2024 budgets, the recommendation is to indefinitely postpone this article. The Committee dis- cussed whether to include it on the Consent Agenda, which may be taken up at an early session of the town meeting, or to leave it off the Consent Agenda so that its consideration could be delayed until a late session in case of any further unanticipated changes in current year spending. A prefer- ence was expressed for the option to leave the article off the Consent Agenda. A motion to recom- mend approval of indefinite postponement was approved by a 7-0 vote. Article 18 Rescind Prior Borrowing Authorizations Ms. Kosnoff explained that the $3 million bond authorization was intended to be a place holder for a potential conservation land acquisition that would have needed town meeting approval. The Con- servation Commission supports rescission of the authorization. CPA funds, as opposed to General Fund monies, would most likely be used for future land acquisition for conservation. This article 3/07/2024 AC Minutes 2 will come off the Consent Agenda. A motion to recommend approval of this article was approved by a 7-0 vote. Article 10(d) FY2025 CPA – Lincoln Park Fitness Stations Equipment Mr. Levine explained why a response to the Committee’s question whether the Trustees of Public Trusts might contribute funds from the relevant trusts for the fitness path rehabilitation project had not been forthcoming. Of the three members of the Trustees, one died in early March and the other two resigned in February. Two new members were appointed by the Select Board on February 26. The sense of the Committee was to request that this section of Article 10 be separated out for later discussion and to leave this Committee’s recommendation pending. Ms. Kosnoff noted that there is much to do to get a new group of trustees up to speed. She will try to contact a newly appointed member of the Trustees to inquire about their ability to address the funding request before the end of the upcoming town meeting. Article 33 Authorize the Select Board to Seek Affordable Housing Mr. Bartenstein stated that he supports not taking a vote for or against Article 33 and instead doing a write-up to reflect the Committee’s views and concerns. The write up would identify categories of potential financial impacts of the projects, positive and negative, noting that they cannot be quanti- fied in the absence of more specific plans. It would also point out that if the requested authorization to the Select Board is approved, Town Meeting would not have a later opportunity to consider the project through the appropriation process. The sense of the Committee was in support of this ap- proach. Mr. Bartenstein said he would prepare the first draft of a write-up on this article, and that he expected Mr. Levine, Mr. Parker, and Mr. Padaki would also participate in the drafting so that a write-up representing all points of view can be made available for review well in advance of Mon- day evening’s meeting. The goal will be to include the write-up in the Wdesk version of the report by Sunday evening. Mr. Padaki noted that any comments or proposed edits from other committee members should not be placed into the document but held for discussion at the open meeting on Monday evening. Committee Report to the 2024 Annual Town Meeting Mr. Michelson pointed out that a table in the write up of Article 10 is missing numbers representing amounts from the General Fund to supplement the CPA funds for subsections (a) and (f). Mr. Pa- daki reviewed a list of comments on the status of subsections of the draft report from Mr. Parker. Mr. Osborne agreed to complete the write up of the shared expenses budget. Mr. Bartenstein indi- cated that he will complete the text for Article 13 on Friday. Ms. Yan or Ms. Kosnoff will contact the Semiquincentennial Commission to confirm the amount requested under Article 24. Mr. Michel- son noted that he needs to check one budget entry in order to complete the update of Appendix A. The Committee agreed that next year, the material on the Affordable Housing Trust in Appendix E (Specified Stabilization Funds) should be put into a separate appendix, and the bylaw establishing the revolving funds may need to be checked as it may still include funds that have been dissolved. Future Meeting Schedule The Committee was reminded that a meeting will be posted for Monday, March 11, to give final ap- proval to the report. Minutes of Prior Meetings Approval of the minutes from the Committee meeting on February 29 was deferred to the next meeting. 3/07/2024 AC Minutes 3 Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 9:43 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Alan M. Levine Approved: March 11, 2024 Exhibits ● Agenda, posted by Mr. Padaki