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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-01-16-AC-min 1/16/2025 AC Minutes 1 Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee (AC) January 16, 2025 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 (7:45 p.m.); Alan Levine, Secre- tary; Anil Ahuja; John Bartenstein; Vinita Verma; Lily Yan; Carolyn Kosnoff, Assistant Town Manager, Finance (non-voting, ex officio) Members Absent: Eric Michelson; Sean Osborne Other Attendees: Charles Lamb, Capital Expenditures Committee (CEC); Lisah Rhodes (CEC); Dawn McKenna; Michaela Barnes; Tom Shiple 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 Mr. Levine reported that the School Building Committee (SBC) met on January 13. One main topic of that meeting was the use of “mass timber” to partially replace steel and concrete. Using the mate- rial can lower the carbon footprint of a building, and it can create a warmer building, but it may be more expensive. The SBC also discussed the add-reno plan for the fieldhouse. Ms. Kosnoff reported that the White Book would be published on Friday, January 24, and the next budget summit was scheduled for Thursday, January 30. Mr. Parker noted that he would not be able to attend the budget summit, but Mr. Padaki was prepared to serve as acting chair. Review Committee Memorandum Mr. Bartenstein described the Planning Board process leading up to the 2025-1 Special Town Meet- ing (STM). There will be a public hearing on February 12 that will likely be continued to February 26, after which the Planning Board will publish a report in early March. The STM will start discus- sion of the zoning article on March 17. Mr. Levine discussed his calculations of per-student costs in the draft memorandum. His number was $29,600 for FY2025, while DESE reported $22,700 for 2022, presumably FY2022. The DESE number does not include debt service or expenses for fixed assets. Mr. Levine extrapolated the FY2022 DESE number using the actual rate of growth for the school budget over the last three years and arrived at $28,500 (which still does not include debt service). He stated that per-student debt service is currently about $2,300 per year, but then he noticed other school-related capital pro- jects that were missing from his calculation. His conclusion is that the estimate of $29,600 per-stu- dent cost is probably low. Ms. Kosnoff discussed how the Finance Department works to supply DESE with the data it needs to calculate per-student costs but noted that how they use that data is out of her hands. Mr. Parker commented that including debt service in the per-student costs can be problematic be- cause debt service is not directly related to enrollment. In other words, the debt service for an exist- ing building does not grow (or shrink) based on how many students are using it. In the short term, 1/16/2025 AC Minutes 2 absent any new capital spending, the per-student cost of debt service actually declines as enrollment increases. This highlights the question of when new school capital spending might be required, and the abrupt increase in debt service that would result. The memorandum’s cost model currently assumes that per-student debt service is a constant, but the reality is that debt service follows a “step function” with critical break points where new capital spending becomes necessary. Mr. Levine replied that if the school enrollment increases by a thousand students, that could trigger the need for new construction somewhere in the LPS. He also noted that the model presented in the draft memorandum is intended to show the rough order of magnitude of possible cost increases and should not be used to project actual costs. 2025 Annual Town Meeting Mr. Parker worked with members to develop a list of articles for the 2025 ATM consent agenda, and to assign Committee author and reviewer roles for the articles for the Committee’s report to the 2025 Annual Town Meeting. The results are captured in a table in an attached document. Mr. Parker agreed to revisit the assignments to balance the assigned amounts of work and to add suggested re- viewers. Mr. Bartenstein asked if the CPC budget for FY2026 includes any debt service. Ms. Kosnoff replied that there was no debt service in the current CPC budget, but that there is still an outstanding debt authorization of $2 million for the Munroe School project as part of a $6 million project. No debt will need to be issued for that project before the 2026 annual town meeting. Mr. Parker noted that Article 10(h) for the Harrington Fields might not go forward at this town meeting due to insufficient funding. Mr. Parker stated that the Select Board intended to defer the article to initiate an Article 97 land swap for the LHS project until the fall special town meeting, so this article may be removed from the final warrant. An article regarding 116 Vine Street would give the Select Board the authority to dispose of the property. The process is likely to be similar to that used for the property on Lowell St. under Article 33 of the 2024 ATM, in which case there will be no need for further action specific to this parcel by town meeting. A request for proposals would be issued, and it is expected that LexHAB and similar organizations would respond. The selected organization could then apply to the Affordable Hous- ing Trust to fund construction of new dwelling units on the property. Ms. Kosnoff stated that, as of now, there are no proposed changes to the FY2025 budget. Minutes of Prior Meetings Minutes from the Committee meeting on December 18, 2024, were approved by a vote of 7-0. Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 8:49 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Glenn P. Parker Approved: January 23, 2025 1/16/2025 AC Minutes 3 Exhibits ● Agenda, posted by Mr. Parker ● Table of article assignments