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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-11-09-REPSC-min Residential Exemption Policy Study Committee (Ad hoc) Friday, November 9, 2018 Hudson Room, Cary Memorial Building Minutes Attendance Mark Andersen (chair), Vicki Blier, Sara Bothwell Allen (acting secretary), Howard Cloth, Katie Cutler, Thomas Whelan, John Zhao, Joe Pato (Selectmen liaison) Resident observers: Robert Pressman Mr. Andersen called the meeting to order at 8:03AM. Ms Bothwell Allen agreed to serve as acting secretary. Public Comment Period Mr. Cloth drew our attention to the Town Clerk's request that we submit minute files using the following file name format: year-month-day-REPSC-min. Mr. Zhao said he would make us a template as he prepares to submit the next set of minutes to the Town Clerk. Approval of minutes The Committee approved, with minor edits, the minutes from the October 26, 2018 meeting. Resident Survey The Committee agreed to close the survey to new responses at the conclusion of the meeting. We currently have 1469 responses. Mr. Andersen distributed several handouts summarizing charts produced from the survey and the document he and Ms Bothwell Allen produced highlighting charts of particular relevance to our Committee's work. Mr. Andersen emphasized that this analysis is preliminary due to the complexity of data management, needing further review to finalize. A final version should be available in one to two weeks. Mr. Andersen reviewed data handling to date, including creation of a group likely to qualify for a Means Tested exemption. The committee discussed the highlights document with focal hypotheses related to Committee charge, Residential Exemption impacts, Means Tested exemption impacts, and age-based differences in stress and migration likelihood. Mr. Zhao would like a more nuanced investigation of stress and migration. Mr. Andersen pointed out the stress responses was most different between owners and renters. Renters were about 10% of our respondents. Mr. Pato said that may be under-represented; renters are about 20% of the population. Mr. Andersen requested Committee members consider and communicate to him what additional key charts or analyses would be most helpful, related to this Committee's work going forward. Committee Outreach Mr. Andersen asked whether we should engage in outreach to other Town Committees (e.g. Finance, Appropriations, etc.) ahead of the Public Hearing, to familiarize them with what our work has been & where we are headed, to solicit their input on what key goals would be from their perspectives. The committee and Mr. Pressman agreed that this would be valuable. Mr. Andersen asked for anyone interested in speaking to particular committees to let him know. Senior Means-Tested Exemption Working Group Ms. Blier and Mr. Cloth shared an outline for various decision points necessary for drafting Means Tested exemption legislation for Lexington, and recommendations for each. The overall template should be the House4001/Sudbury/Concord models. Qualifications decision points are: income, age, ownership/residence, house value, benefit/cap, other assets, adoption/repeal. The Committee discussed and agreed with several of the recommendations put forward, but requested clarification on a couple of them. Ms. Blier agreed to provide that clarification, and additionally will circulate a chart illustrating how the recommendations presented today would play out for several theoretical cases. Members will send additional feedback to Ms. Blier. Mr. Andersen pointed out that this committee will not be able to investigate these many decision points of a Means Tested exemption proposal in the depth we did with the Residential Exemption, and we do not want to mislead or confuse the larger community at our Public Hearing. He asked whether presenting a"general shape of Means Tested exemption" proposal at the public hearing and in our final report would be appropriate, and Mr. Pato agreed it would be, given that we do not have a final piece of legislation to evaluate. Public Hearing Ms. Cutler will begin publicizing our Dec 11 Public Hearing, and coordinate with Mr. Pato regarding room reservation. Final Report Further discussion of the table of contents and assigning work deferred to the next meeting due to time constraints. Next meeting November 16, 8:OOAM. Meeting adjourned at 9:36AM. Meeting minutes respectfully submitted by Sara Bothwell Allen, acting secretary.