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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-10-30-AC-min 10/30/2024 AC Minutes 1 Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee (AC) October 30, 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; Vinita Verma; Carolyn Kosnoff, Assistant Town Manager, Finance (non-voting, ex officio) Members Absent: Lily Yan Other Attendees: Charles Lamb, Capital Expenditures Cmte. (CEC); David Kanter, CEC; Lisah Rhodes, CEC 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 None. Anticipated Warrant Articles for Special Town Meeting 2024-1 Mr. Parker suggested that the Committee step through all articles on the warrant, providing feed- back on draft text and, where feasible, voting to establish a position. Tentative votes were captured in a spreadsheet and verified by a single vote at the end of this review. No objection was raised regarding Article 2, 3, or 4. Mr. Michelson opposed Article 5 based on concerns about the procedure to get pricing of the Police Headquarters solar canopy and the timing of the request. Mr. Ahuja, Mr. Osborne, Mr. Bartenstein, Mr. Padaki, Ms. Verma agreed with Mr. Michelson’s position. Mr. Levine stated that the Committee needed to review the latest developments in the project, which has seen significant updates since the last time Mr. Cronin discussed the project with the Commit- tee. Mr. Parker and Mr. Levine supported Article 5. No objections were raised in regard to Article 6. Regarding Article 7, Mr. Padaki asked if the report would mention two schematic designs for two types of playing surfaces at the new Harrington fields (artificial turf and natural grass). Mr. Osborne responded that the Recreation Committee’s intent is to hold public discussions to determine the pre- ferred playing surface before proceeding with the design work, and that only one design would be produced. No member raised an objection to Article 7. Mr. Parker asked the Committee to read the current draft of the report for Article 8 from the Wdesk web display. The Committee discussed further details about the high school project and how the proposal under Article 8 would impact it. The members present were all opposed to Article 8. The Committee discussed the motion under Article 9. Mr. Padaki asked if he and Mr. Ahuja would have to recuse themselves from the discussion or vote. Mr. Parker stated that recusal was not re- quired, based on advice from Town Counsel, but that the report would have to disclose their in- volvement as proponents of the article. 10/30/2024 AC Minutes 2 Mr. Padaki stated that he had requested a change to the official motion that would delay the funding request to FY2027, but the motion still asks for a design to be presented at the 2025 annual town meeting in the spring. The committee discussed the proposal in some depth, and eventually decided to split its recommendation into two parts, based on the two parts of the motion in its current form. A majority of the members present supported Article 9(a), and a majority opposed Article 9(b). Ms. Kosnoff joined the meeting at roughly 8:40 p.m. She described some of the changes to the Po- lice Headquarters solar canopy project, including a value-engineering pass to reduce the amount of steel, and a revised bid that combines all the elements into a single project, which will allow bidders to choose components as part of an integrated design. This last change is expected to reduce the cost and construction time. The Committee voted unanimously by roll call to confirm the votes taken during the meeting and summarized in the table below. Ar#- cle Topic Y N A Ahuja Bartenstein Levine Michelson Osborne Padaki Parker Verma Yan 2 Appropriate for Prior Years’ Unpaid Bills 8 0 0 Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y - 3 Establish, Amend, Dissolve and Appropriate To And From Specified StabilizaDon Funds 8 0 0 Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y - 4 Amend FY2025 OperaDng, Enterprise and CPA Budgets 8 0 0 Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y - 5 Appropriate for Authorized Capital Improvements 2 6 0 N N Y N N N Y N - 6 Establish, Amend and ConDnue Departmental Revolving Funds 8 0 0 Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y - 7 Appropriate for SchemaDc Design Funds - Harrington Ath- leDc Fields 8 0 0 Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y - 8 Delay MassachuseQs School Building Authority (MSBA) Filing ResoluDon 0 8 0 N N N N N N N N - 9a ResoluDon - Design Process of Crematory at Westview Cem- etery 5 3 0 Y N Y N Y Y N Y - 9b ResoluDon - Design Process of Crematory at Westview Cem- etery 3 5 0 Y N N N N Y N Y - Minutes of Prior Meetings Minutes from the Committee meeting on October 10, 2024, were approved by a vote of 8-0. Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 9:35 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Glenn P. Parker Approved: December 12, 2024 Exhibits ● Agenda, posted by Mr. Parker