HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-10-21-AC-min.pdf 10/21/2025 AC Minutes
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Minutes
Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee (AC)
October 21, 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; Car-
olyn Kosnoff, Assistant Town Manager, Finance (non-voting, ex officio); Anil Ahuja; John Barten-
stein; Eric Michelson; Sean Osborne; Vinita Verma
Members Absent: Lily Yan
Other Attendees: None
At 7:32 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
Ms. Verma reported that the Community Preservation Committee met the preceding Thursday, and
they had received an application from the Town Clerk to fund records preservation.
Committee Report to the 2025-2 Special Town Meeting
Ms. Kosnoff reported that the estimate of funds available for appropriation to the Capital Stabiliza-
tion Fund under Article 3 had been lowered due to a lower increase than previously expected in the
assessed value for 440 Bedford St. Although additional construction work has been done on the as-
yet unoccupied building, the resulting increase in value is mostly offset by a downturn in the com-
mercial real estate market for lab space.
The Committee reviewed and made edits to their draft report.
The draft write-up of Article 4 was noted to be incomplete. Mr. Parker said that a full description
and recommendation would be put in on Wednesday, October 22.
For Article 6, Mr. Parker reviewed additional details on the requests for the DPW Compost Opera-
tions Revolving Fund and the Lexington Tree Revolving Fund. Ms. Kosnoff discussed an additional
request under this article for the Health Programs Revolving Fund. Mr. Bartenstein expressed con-
cerns about an urban forest management plan that is the target of the additional funding for the Tree
Revolving Fund. Ms. Kosnoff noted that the increase for the DPW Compost Operations Revolving
Fund would fund purchase and installation of a security system and the increase for the Health Pro-
grams Revolving Fund would allow an expansion of the Health Department’s vaccination program.
For Article 7, Mr. Bartenstein discussed the details of how property tax exemptions for veterans are
categorized and funded, how many veterans are covered by certain exemptions, and estimates of the
total amount of the exemption increases (cost of living adjustments or COLAs).
For Article 8, Mr. Parker asked for any additional feedback on the wording of the writeup.
The Committee voted on all articles. For Articles 2–5, 7, and 8, the results were 8-0 in favor (Ms.
Yan was not present). For Article 6, the result was 7-0-1 with Mr. Bartenstein abstaining, pending
more information on the request to increase the spending limit for the Lexington Tree Revolving
Fund.
10/21/2025 AC Minutes
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The Committee voted 8-0 to accept the Consent Agenda with Articles 2, 5, 10, and 11.
Minutes of Prior Meetings
Minutes were approved for October 9, 2025, and October 15, 2025, by a vote of 8-0.
Future Meeting Schedule
The Committee agreed to meet again on Thursday, October 23, and at 7:00 p.m. prior to the start of
the 2025-2 Special Town Meeting.
Mr. Michelson and Mr. Osborne stated they would be unable to attend on October 23, but both gave
their approval to publish the report.
Adjourn
The meeting was adjourned by roll call vote at 8:57 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Glenn P. Parker
Approved: November 3, 2025
Exhibits
● Agenda, posted by Mr. Parker