HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-03-04-AC-min 3/4/2025 AC Minutes
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Minutes
Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee (AC)
March 4, 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; Alan Levine, Secretary; Anil
Ahuja; John Bartenstein; Eric Michelson; Vinita Verma; Lily Yan; Carolyn Kosnoff, Assistant
Town Manager, Finance (non-voting, ex officio)
Members Absent: Sean Osborne
Other Attendees: Steve Bartha, Lexington Town Manager; Elaine Tung, Affordable Housing Trust;
Mark Sandeen, Select Board
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. Bartenstein reported that discussions on a compromise motion for Article 2 of the 2025-1 Spe-
cial Town Meeting were ongoing, but no resolution has been reached yet.
Ms. Kosnoff announced that the motions for most of the financial articles of the 2025 Annual Town
Meeting have been posted to the Town website, with a few still under final review.
Discussion of the Report to the 2025-1 Special Town Meeting
The Committee agreed to wait until a follow-up meeting on March 10 to finalize and approve the
report on Article 2.
Mr. Bartha provided feedback on the report, cautioning against using estimates for potential housing
unit development and school costs that could be perceived as unjustifiably high. He noted that he
had discussed what may be reasonable assumptions with the consultant who has been tasked with
preparing a report on impacts of MBTA housing development, and that he hoped to be able to share
most of a first draft next week.
Mr. Levine clarified the methodology behind the figures used in the report, and also stated that
while 14,000 units is the EOHLC model capacity estimate, a more realistic figure for housing devel-
opment is around 9,000 units.
The Committee discussed the potential impacts of housing development on town infrastructure and
finances. Mr. Michelson suggested clarifying the difference in scope between this Committee’s re-
port and the study commissioned by the Town.
Mr. Michelson commented that the Committee should consider making changes in the 5-year finan-
cial projection due to the coming housing development.
Discussion of Articles at the 2025 Annual Town Meeting
Article 23 Dispose of 116 Vine Street
The Committee reviewed an email from Carol Kowalski regarding the 116 Vine Street property.
Ms. Tung provided insights from the Affordable Housing Trust’s (AHT) perspective, noting that the
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Vine Street project likely will be too small to obtain financial assistance from tax credits or other
types of subsidies, and therefore a developer would likely request a contribution from the Town to
make the project financially viable. Funding such a contribution from the AHT would require ap-
proval from its board.
Article 4 Appropriate FY2026 Operating Budget
Mr. Levine raised a concern about ongoing discrepancies between annual LPS operating budget
projections for staffing and actual staffing in the associated fiscal years. While most of the school
operating budget is a single line item in the budget, health benefits for LPS as well as other Town
staff are carried under Shared Expenses. The budget for health benefits is not small, and it is based
on the expected number of employees with health insurance. Additions of staff beyond projections
increase insurance costs significantly, putting pressure on the operating budget.
Consent Agenda
There was a motion and second to recommend approval of the Consent Agenda. Committee ap-
proval means that all members are in favor of all of the articles in that agenda and recommend that
it be presented to Town Meeting in that form. The vote was 8-0.
Future Meeting Schedule
The next meeting will be on March 10, 2025, at 7:30 PM. Meetings will also be held on March 13,
17, and 19.
Minutes of Prior Meetings
No minutes were ready for review.
Adjourn
The meeting was adjourned at 9:05 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Glenn P. Parker
Approved: March 24, 2025
Exhibits
● Agenda, posted by Mr. Parker