HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-10-16-AC-min 10/16/2017 AC Minutes
Minutes
Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee (AC)
October 16, 2017
Place and Time: Ellen Stone Room, Cary Memorial Building, 6:30 p.m.
Members Present: John Bartenstein, Chair; Alan Levine, Vice-Chair& Secretary; Ellen
Basch; Eric Michelson; Richard Neumeier; Sanjay Padaki; Andrei Radulescu-Banu; Lily
Manhua Yan; Jian Helen Yang; Carolyn Kosnoff, Assistant Town Manager, Finance
(non-voting, ex-officio)
Member(s)Absent: None
Other Attendees: None
The meeting was called to order at 6:35 p.m.
1. Announcements and Liaison Reports
Mr. Bartenstein reviewed logistics for the Special Town Meeting (STM) 2017-2 & -3
including the speaking assignments for the articles.
2. Finalizing Positions on STM 2017-3 Articles
• Article 12: Appropriate Community Preservation Act Projects: Purchase of
44 Adams Street: Mr. Bartenstein reported that the Board of Selectmen (BoS)
had not taken a position on the Adams Street purchase; it is on the agenda for
tomorrow's 5:00 p.m. BoS meeting. At a meeting of the Community Preservation
Committee (CPC)last Thursday, it was noted that the original appraisal of the
property did not take into account a conservation restriction that exists on part of
the property, and a CPC motion to support the purchase for $875,000 failed. A
second motion to approve $675,000 passed the CPC by a vote of 6-2-1. Both
amounts included $25,000 for legal expenses. Using $275,000 of the Open Space
Community Preservation Act(CPA)funds for the purchase would bring that CPA
funding component to $0 until new funds are received from the State. The
additional $400,000 could come from the CPA's Unbudgeted Reserve
component. It was agreed to revisit this article after the BoS has taken a position.
• Article 5: Amend FY2018 Operating and Enterprise Funds: Ms. Kosnoff
reported that the motion for this article would include a request for an additional
$4,300 for Water Enterprise Fund debt service as the result of a review of debt
schedules following the Annual Town Meeting.
• Article 6: Establish and Appropriate To and From Specified Stabilization
Funds: Ms. Kosnoff verified that this Committee's report reported the correct
amounts for these funds.
It was noted that although Article 2: Amend Zoning By-Law—45, 55, 65 Hayden Ave.
(Owner Petition) could have an impact on the tax base, this Committee does not generally
comment on zoning articles.
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10/16/2017 AC Minutes
3. Appropriation Committee's Report to the October 2017 STMs 2017-2 and
2017-3
Mr. Padaki added his affirmative vote to approve this Committee's report.
In response to questions about how to translate each excluded debt project into a dollar
amount on the tax bill for the home of median value, Ms. Kosnoff explained that the
amount of debt service for each project from Slide 3 in the finance modeling plan could
be divided by the total amount of debt service on that slide. That percent could be
multiplied by the excluded debt component of the tax bill from Slide 7 for the impact of
each project on the tax bill for the home of median value. She noted that the percentage
would vary from year-to-year and would also vary depending on the amount of
mitigation applied.
4. Minutes
It was agreed to postpone approval of the October 3 and October 9 minutes until the
October 18 meeting to allow for additional review.
The meeting adjourned at 7:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Sara Arnold, Recording Secretary
Approved: December 14, 2017
Exhibits
• Agenda, posted by John Bartenstein, Chair
• Capital Financing Model and Property Tax Mitigation Plan, dated 10/16/17
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