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Home My WebLink About2017-10-03-AC-min10/3/17 AC Minutes Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee (AC) Oct 3, 2017 Place and Time: Parker Room, Town Office Building, 7:30 p.m. Members Present: John Bartenstein, Chair; Alan Levine, Vice -Chair & Secretary; Ellen Basch; Eric Michelson; Richard Neumeier, Andrei Radulescu-Banu; Sanjay Padaki; Lily Manhua Yan; Jian Helen Yang; Carolyn Kosnoff, Assistant Town Manager, Finance (non-voting, ex officio) Members Absent: None Other Attendees: Dawn McKenna, Tourism Committee Chair. The meeting was called to order at 7:38 p.m. 1. Announcements John Bartenstein distributed a draft Special Town Meeting (STM) article vote summary spreadsheet, listing article votes as of Oct 3, 2017 taken by Appropriation Committee (AC) members in past meetings and requested corrections. Mr. Levine and Mr. Bartenstein reported on a Chairs Plus One meeting they attended immediately before this meeting. Mr. Bartenstein summarized the positions taken by the School Committee (SC), the Capital Expenditures Committee (CEC) and the Board of Selectmen (BoS) on whether Article STM 2.2, Appropriate for Hastings School Construction, should be contingent on the results of the anticipated Prop. 2.5 debt exclusion referendum. Mr, Levine and Mr. Bartenstein noted that the attendees agreed it would be desirable for the AC and the other committees to come to a consensus on this issue before reporting to Town Meeting. They also noted that the Town Manager had suggested that if the debt exclusion referendum failed, a Special Town Meeting could still be called to consider funding the Hastings School construction within the levy, without necessarily jeopardizing support from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA). Assistant Town Manager for Finance Carolyn Kosnoff reported she expected to have available the following day an update to the financial model for capital projects funded with excluded debt. Taxpayer impact will be shown for the combined projects but not individually for each project. Helen Yang, Lily Yan and Richard Neumeier announced they would not be able to attend the upcoming Budget Summit on Thursday Oct 5. 2. Review of Prior Meeting Minutes Draft minutes from Tuesday Sept 14th and Thursday Sept 26th were reviewed. Eric Michelson, Alan Levine and Sanjay Padaki suggested minor adjustments. Motion to approve the minutes from Sept 14th and Sept 26th passed, 9-0-0. 10/3/17 AC Minutes 3. Planning for the AC report on Special Town Meetings No. 2 and No. 3. By close of business Friday Oct 6, Mr. Bartenstein would like to circulate the first complete draft of the AC report. Edits on that draft from other committee members are requested until midday Sunday Oct 8. A second draft of the AC report is expected to be ready by the night of Sunday Oct 8. The AC will meet Monday Oct 9, at 7:30 PM, for final approval of the AC report. Mr. Bartenstein presented a rough outline for the AC report introduction he is writing. Mr. Michelson suggested the report should have an Appendix with definition terms of the various phases of capital projects. He offered to write that Appendix. 4. Discussion of STM -3 Warrant Articles A discussion of STM3 warrant articles followed. Article 3.8, Design Funds for the Visitor Center was taken first. Dawn McKenna, Tourism Committee Chair, made a verbal presentation. She reported that the total project cost is $4.5M, but adjustments are being made to reduce that cost. Ms. McKenna reported that the BoS voted 4-1 to recommend $150,000 for Design Development for the Visitor Center under this Article, with source of funds being additional FY2018 revenue over the original estimates. She reported that the CEC has not taken a vote yet on this Article. Ms. McKenna stated that the Tourism Committee will discuss, at a future meeting, whether to ask for $200,000 additional funds under this Article for Construction Documents. Ms. McKenna reported that $38,000 remains from the previous appropriations for the Visitor Center, but part of that amount may be already encumbered to pay for already -completed schematic design work. Assistant Town Manager Carolyn Kosnoff indicated that the construction costs for this project, if ultimately approved, would be funded with 20 -year debt, within the levy. For projects of smaller size, it is preferable to use 20 -year or even 10 or 5 -year debt instead of the 30 -year debt used for very large capital projects. Ms. McKenna noted that hotel tax collections over the past six years totaled $5.7M, of which $700,000 represents new growth. She commented that the new growth portion derives mostly from week -end occupancy, which is more likely associated with tourism rather than business visits. Some elements of the project, Ms. McKenna reported, will be eligible for Community Preservation funding. Ms. McKenna is pursuing the possibility of seeking additional Visitor Center funds from the Federal Government and from the Mass Cultural Council. Motion to appropriate $150,000 in Design Development funds for the Visitor Center was approved 8-0-1, with Lily Yan abstaining. 4 10/3/17 AC Minutes Article 3.5, Amend FYI Operating Budget was next discussed. Ms. Kosnoff explained that, under this article, $258,355 in traffic mitigation from King Street Properties will be appropriated into the Transportation Management Overlay District (TMOD) Fund. Furthermore, $200,000 also from King Street Properties will be appropriated into the Traffic Mitigation Stabilization Fund. An additional payment of $83,793 also from King Street Properties will be appropriated into the Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Fund. And a payment of $42,972 from Avalon Bay will be appropriated also into the TDM Fund. Motion to approve Article 3.5 passed 9-0-0. Article 3.7, Amend Revolving Fund Authorization, will increase the spending limit of the Building Rental Revolving Fund from $475,000 to $525,000. The DPW Compost Operation Revolving Fund spending limit will also be increased under this article from $755,000 to $897,000. Motion to approve Article 3.7 was approved 9-0-0. Ms. Kosnoff reported that Articles 3.9 and 3.13 are expected to be Indefinitely Postponed. Article 3.11 represents a request for $31,000 for engineering design for enhanced security at LHS. Ms. Yan reported that an additional appropriation of $339,000 is expected during next Spring Town Meeting for installation funds. The total project cost is thus projected to be $370,000. Motion to approve Article 3.11 passed 9-0-0. Article 3.8, CPA projects, as reported by Ms. Basch, consists of a supplementary appropriation of $750,000 for the Lowell St. affordable housing project to be constructed by LexHab - for two buildings with three units each. LexHab has determined that public procurement and bidding need to be used for this project, at a total project cost increase of approximately 30%. In addition, LexHab would like to install solar panels at the cost of $50,000 on the units. The project cost per unit is now $399,000. The source of the requested appropriation will be CPA funds, possibly including CPA debt. Mr. Michelson and Mr. Radulescu-Banu questioned why the need for public bidding had not been expected at the time of the original appropriation. Mr. Radulescu-Banu expressed concern with the additional cost of solar panels. Ms. Basch explained that, initially, LexHab planned to lease solar panels, but now prefers to install its own solar panels. Mr. Bartenstein asked if all future affordable housing projects will now have to go through public bidding, and whether that will increase the cost of future LexHab projects. He suggested that it might be better for this appropriation to wait until the annual Spring Town Meeting. Ms. Basch stated that more discussion will be forthcoming in a future CPC meeting, and she would like to wait to hear that discussion before taking a position on the article. Motion to recommend approval of the affordable housing portion of CPA Article 3.8 failed on a vote of 2-4-2, with Mr. Padaki absent. Article 3.8, CPA also includes a request for the appropriation of funds for acquisition of a single- family dwelling lot at 44 Adams St, with the purpose of converting it into conservation land. The lot abuts other conservation land. The amount of the appropriation request is not yet finalized. 3 10/3/17 AC Minutes Ms. Yan was not present at the previous Appropriation Committee meeting where votes were taken on a number of Articles; she asked to add her vote to the existing votes as follows: abstain on Article STM 2.2, abstain on Article STM 2.3, yes on Article STM 2.4 and yes on Article STM 2.5. Future Meetings. The next meeting will be held on Monday October 9, 2017, at 7:30 PM. The meeting adjourned at 9:57 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Andrei Radulescu-Banu Approved: October 18, 2017 Exhibits Agenda, posted by John Bartenstein, Chair • DRAFT Fall 2017 STM Vote Summary as of 10/3/17 prepared by John Bartenstein M