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Home My WebLink About2026-01-29-AC-min.pdf1/29/2026 AC Minutes Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee (AC) January 29, 2026 Place and Time: Remote participation via a Zoom teleconferencing session that was open to the public; 7:30 p.m. Members Present: Glenn Parker, Chair; Sanjay Padaki, Vice -Chair (joined at 8:25 p.m.); Alan Lev- ine, 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: John Livsey, Town Engineer; Derek Sencabaugh, Fire Chief; Robert Rotberg All votes recorded below were conducted by roll call. At 7:35 p.m. Mr. Parker called the meeting to order and took attendance by roll call. Announcements and Liaison Reports Mr. Levine stated that the School Building Committee plans to meet on Monday, February 2, 2026, on Zoom only. He also reported that he attended the Permanent Building Committee meeting that started at 6 p.m. The discussion was about details of the Lexington High School project targeted value design and value engineering efforts. Planning for the Committee's Report to the 2026 Annual Town Meeting Article 4 School Budget Mr. Parker suggested that it would be useful to have further discussions of budgets with the Super- intendent of Schools after hearing her plea for additional funding at the January 28 summit. The sense of the Committee is that while the School Budget may be formally balanced, it is based in part on risky assumptions. The most questionable assumption appears to be that school bargaining units will be willing to enter into new contracts this coming year with increases of not much more than 2.5%. The argument, presented at the summit, that Circuit Breaker funds are analogous to free cash so that one must agree with "You don't want to cut into your free cash, but we're cutting to our free cash" was met with skepticism. In response to a question about the request for $700,000 as a one-time funding of materials to allow use of a new curriculum in the schools, Ms. Kosnoff noted that ordinarily curriculum development and materials are funded in the school operating budget, but the new curriculum is unusual in that it is a mandate from the State that was imposed relatively recently. Revenue Projection Mr. Levine asked Ms. Kosnoff about the interest rate assumed when projecting that interest income in FY2027 will be at least $2.5 million. She replied that she had not made the projection by apply- ing an interest rate to an average balance; rather, she had looked at the interest income that the Town had earned in recent fiscal years and saw that it has been well over $2.5 million For example, in FY2024 it was about $7 million and in FY2025 about $6.5 million. Article 4 Debt Service 1/29/2026 AC Minutes In response to a question, Ms. Kosnoff said that payments to date for high school project design ser- vices have been made using funds raised by issuing bond anticipation notes (BANs). The amounts borrowed, i.e., the total principal of the BANs, will be rolled into long-term bonds this year. Interest payments on the BANs and on bonds for the high school through FY2026 have been and will be made using within -levy funds. All BAN and bond principal payments and all interest payments starting in FY2027 will be made as excluded debt service. The Town will receive MSBA reim- bursements for eligible expenses; interest is not considered to be an eligible expense. Article 5 Enterprise Funds Ms. Kosnoff noted that the enterprise funds retained earnings have not yet been certified by the state Department of Revenue (DoR). The retained earnings are in the final levels of review at that agency. The DoR usually doesn't adjust the enterprise fund retained earnings like they do when cer- tifying the General Fund unrestricted available fund balance (free cash). The General Fund free cash is not just the fund balance that's left over after the close of a fiscal year. Any deficits in revolving funds, special revenue funds, or other accounts as well as receivables will count against the free cash balance. Whatever the enterprise fund balance is at the end of the year is essentially what gets certified as retained earnings. Article 4 Reserve Fund Mr. Padaki asked about the increase in the recommended appropriation for the Reserve Fund. Ms. Kosnoff said that $1 million was appropriated into the Reserve Fund annually for several years. The amount was reduced during several years of tight budgets. She said that the recommended Reserve Fund amount has been returned to $1 million because the poor condition of the existing high school building implies there is substantial risk of an extraordinary and unforeseen need for funds, and the FY2027 operating budget is particularly tight. Discussion of Financial Articles for the 2026 Annual Town Meeting Article 28 Speed Humps — Walnut Street (citizen petition) Mr. Rotberg presented his case regarding traffic and pedestrian safety on Walnut Street. The street is narrow and hilly without sidewalks and is dangerous for both vehicle traffic and pedestrians. Mr. Rotberg advocated for the installation of speed humps or cushions as an effective solution for slow- ing down the traffic on the street. He expressed the view that there would not be sufficient width in the roadway to install median islands, that even if islands could be installed they would not be suffi- ciently effective for traffic calming, and that the existing median island where Walnut St. meets Concord Ave. has been damaged by trucks and even by cars which suggests that accidents would occur at any newly installed median islands. Mr. Livsey stated that the intention is to implement traffic calming measures on Walnut St. that are consistent with the recommendations of the consulting firm TEC that has been retained by the Transportation Safety Group. At present, the Town has a contract with TEC to design median is- lands to do the traffic calming, and that the design and implementation would be funded by the street improvement budget. He also said the street improvement budget could fund either traffic is- lands or speed humps which would have similar costs. He explained speed bumps, humps, and cushions, and traffic islands, and added that traffic islands could be designed to deflect vehicles and slow traffic without impeding emergency vehicles. 1/29/2026 AC Minutes Chief Sencabaugh expressed concerns about emergency response times, vehicle wear and tear from driving over speed humps or other vertical alterations of the road, and of potential jolting of patients when an ambulance traverses a speed hump. He noted that fire engine drivers attempt to choose routes to emergency sites that avoid Shade St. because it has a number of speed humps. In response to comments that Cambridge and Somerville have many streets with speed humps and speed tables, the Chief noted that in cities each fire station may cover an area much smaller than ei- ther area covered by Lexington's two fire stations. The smaller response areas may yield fast emer- gency responses even when some of the streets have speed humps. Mr. Osborne asked whether there is any concrete data linking road treatments to increased mainte- nance costs. Chief Sencabaugh responded that they haven't seen a direct correlation between road changes and maintenance frequency. The conversation ended with a discussion about Walnut Street. The Chief explained that while it's not a primary route for emergency vehicles, there are two group homes on Walnut near the Wal- tham line that often call for medical aid and Walnut St. is a route to Potter Pond. Walnut St. also serves as a key access point for mutual aid from Waltham's Engine 8. Minutes of Prior Meetings Minutes for the meeting of January 22, 2026, were approved by a vote of 9-0. Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 9:25 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Alan M. Levine Approved: February 5, 2026 Exhibits Agenda, posted by Mr. Parker