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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-06-12-AC-min.pdf 6/12/2025 AC Minutes 1 Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee (AC) June 12, 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; Sean Osborne; Vinita Verma; Lily Yan; Carolyn Kosnoff, Assistant Town Manager, Finance (non-voting, ex officio) Members Absent: none Other Attendees: Charles Hornig, Planning Board; Charles Lamb, Capital Expenditures Committee (CEC); Lisah Rhodes, CEC At 7:35 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. Padaki reported that the Recreation Committee plans to meet at the same time as this meeting and has an agenda item to discuss the Valley Road tennis courts resurfacing project which needs ad- ditional capital support. The Recreation Department approached the United States Tennis Associa- tion (USTA) as a possible source of funds, but that organization will only support projects that are exclusively for tennis, meaning that pickleball would be excluded. As the liaison to that committee, Mr. Ahuja reported that the Crematory Study Committee will hold meetings monthly, and expects to produce a report in about a year. Mr. Levine reported that the School Committee interviewed four candidates for the Director of Fi- nance. The job has been offered to Justin MacCutcheon, who is expected to start in July. Mr. Levine and Mr. Lamb each noted that Mr. MacCutcheon has a strong finance background. Review Draft Memorandum “Growth in Lexington in the Coming Decade” The Committee reviewed the latest draft of the memorandum. Mr. Parker explained that, in re- sponse to the draft that was posted, he received feedback from staff via Ms. Kosnoff and also from Mr. Padaki, Mr. Osborne, and Tom Shiple. He revised the memorandum; the preface was most heavily edited. Several members stated that they would prefer to delete a particular paragraph in the preface, as it did not reflect their view of the role of the Committee. Mr. Osborne criticized the discussion in the memorandum of possible infrastructure needs as going beyond reasonable statements given present knowledge and cited a section on water usage for displaying a lack of technical expertise. Ms. Kosnoff clarified that the Fougere report was not intended to be a full buildout analysis but was intended to estimate incremental operating costs for a given number of new multifamily housing units. She acknowledged that some of the memo’s critiques of the Residential Impact Study report were valid. Mr. Levine stated, and Ms. Kosnoff confirmed, that the Town will not be obligated to collect trash from new multifamily developments. Members acknowledged that water and sewer infrastructure is funded by user fees through the enterprise funds and such funding will not be limited, e.g., by a 6/12/2025 AC Minutes 2 Proposition 2.5 rule. The MBTA Communities regulations specifically state that developers can be required to pay for water/sewer upgrades to service their developments. However, it is not clear that the Town can require developers to upgrade public ways or traffic signals especially if those im- pacted by traffic increases are not immediately next to a new development or water/sewer infra- structure needs that are remote from new developments. Several members supported calling for the identification of “breakpoints”, i.e., those circumstances when additional infrastructure or schools might be needed. Ms. Yan and Mr. Levine urged the Committee to publish the memo despite its imperfections, stress- ing their fiscal responsibility to raise awareness. Mr. Padaki suggested most of the memo is accepta- ble and proposed focusing on refining the “How Can We Prepare for Change” section. Despite concerns about a lack of time and committee review, Mr. Parker agreed to issue a revised version on behalf of the Committee. Mr. Osborne agreed to send his detailed critique to Mr. Parker. Lexington High School Project Update Mr. Levine reported on discussions regarding solar infrastructure in the new high school project. A compromise was reached to expand solar capacity while excluding a solar canopy over the parking lot nearest the main entrance. The School Building Committee accepted the compromise plan. A new cost estimate for the entire project based on the results of the schematic design work is ex- pected mid-July. Financing for solar panels in regard to excluded vs. non-excluded debt and use of revenue was discussed, including some concerns about the timing of reimbursements. Ms. Kosnoff noted that the financial benefits of the solar panels will be primarily due to cost avoidance rather than revenue generation which has implications for financial modelling of the project. She also is concerned that the operating costs of a new high school could be higher than those of the current high school. Future Meeting Schedule On Monday, June 16, at 6:30 p.m., the Committee will attend a joint Summit Meeting in person with the Select Board, Capital Expenditures Committee, and School Committee. On June 26 the Committee expects to review and approve the FY2025 year-end budget adjustments, with July 10 as backup date. Minutes of Prior Meetings Minutes for April 24, 2025, and May 15, 2025, were approved by a vote of 9–0. Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 9:10 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Glenn P. Parker Approved: September 25, 2025 Exhibits ● Agenda, posted by Mr. Parker ● Draft memo on Growth in Lexington, shared on the screen by Mr. Parker (note: this docu- ment was recreated after the meeting with the help of the video recording)