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Home My WebLink About2020-02-12-CEC-min gnrj p Minutes of the Lexington Capital Expenditures Committee (CEC) Meeting . r February 12, 2020 APRIL 19" Location and Time: Town Office Building, Reed Room (111); 7:45 A.M. Members Present: Charles Lamb, Chair; David Kanter, Vice-Chair & Clerk; Sandy Beebee; Rod Cole; Wendy Manz; and Frank Smith Members Absent: None Others Present: Marilyn Fenollosa, Chair, Community Preservation Committee (CPC); Carolyn Kosnoff, Assistant Town Manager for Finance; Nick Nichols, Appropriation Committee (AC); Sara Arnold, Recording Secretary Documents Presented: • Notice of CEC Meeting, February 12, 2020 • Excerpt on Consent Agenda from Select Board's Agenda, 10 February 2020 • Community Preservation Fund Balances, 23 January 2020 • Community Preservation Act (CPA) Fund -- Projected Revenues and Debt Service, 23 January 2020 • CPA Fund Account Balances, 2020 Annual Town Meeting (ATM) • CPA Project Summaries-with Maps, second draft • Strawman CEC Report to 2020 ATM, January 24, 2020 • Draft #3 [although the header said Draft#2], Minutes of the CEC Meeting February 6, 2020 Call to Order Mr. Lamb called the meeting to order at 7:47 A.M. CPC's Debt–Service and Administrative-Funding Status Ms. Kosnoff reported that the State budget had a surplus so a supplemental distribution was made to municipalities that had adopted the CPA projects. Lexington received an additional $503,092, bringing the State's FY2020 contribution to $1,219,950. Lexington's current plan is to use some of those additional funds to pay down the costs for the new Center Track. Rather than issuing three, one-year, Bond Anticipation Notes (BANs), as was the initial plan in 2019, that debt will now be paid off with just 2 BANs. Weather has currently delayed construction of the project, which means the funds from the original BAN have not yet been expended; therefore, the next BAN, which will cover the balance of the project, will not be issued until June 2020. An action under Article 22 of this Annual Town Meeting (Amend FY2020 Operating, Enterprise and CPA Budgets) will recognize the supplemental distribution in the CPA Budget. Ms. Kosnoff affirmed the information this Committee had received at its last meeting on the results of the debt instruments the Town sold on February 5, 2020: true-interest-cost rates of 0.9362% for $9,570,000 in 10-year bonds and 1.03% for $5,268,223 in one-year BANs. Mr. Lamb asked whether those rates would alter the rates in the financial models used by the Town to project financing options—which currently assumes a 4.0% interest rate for bonds. Ms. Kosnoff cautioned that there is uncertainty as to whether such rates would be available in the future, although the Town may decide to issue bonds this spring for the Fire Pagel of 3 Minutes of the Lexington Capital Expenditures Committee (CEC) Meeting February 12, 2020 Headquarters ($6.0-7.0 million), Lexington Children's Place ($1.5 million), and Hastings Elementary School ($12.0 million), with the hope of receiving low rates. Ms. Fenollosa reported that there are some expensive recreation projects being brought to the CPC, and there is a potential major land acquisition that would require CPA funds to be readily available. Member Concerns and Liaison Report Mr. Kanter reported the latest status of the Police Headquarters Project (PHP): • The Select Board (SB), at its last meeting on the 10'", did not made a decision about supporting the placement of the PHP, which raises questions about that project being ready for presentation of the Construction Funding at a Special Town Meeting this fall, as previously anticipated. • The SB reviewed the latest cost estimate for replacing it at its current location versus moving it to the 173 Bedford Street location that is currently being used as swing space by the Fire Department, and previously contemplated to be swing space for the Police Headquarters. • Three members of the Historic Districts Commission (HDC) have expressed support for allowing the Town to completely demolish the current the current building (i.e., to remove two envelope walls whose retention had thought to have been required by the HDC) and to consider inclusion of solar-panels and batteries if they had a design reflecting those elements. The full demolition permitted an updated design which reduces costs for rebuilding on the current site. The SB is awaiting a formal, full-member, HDC statement to that effect. (It is known that the HDC has previously approved solar-panel installation in Lexington once having a design to review for those elements.) The SB was also withheld judgement until it had a formal reply supporting the new design and a location for the PHP from the Permanent Building Committee. • The estimated cost for building at the current site, which including $1.1 million for the move of the Hosmer House, is now comparable to building on 173 Bedford Street. It was noted by Mr. Nichols that the analysis does not include the potential for revenue from selling Bedford Street, which could be relevant because the Town is not likely to sell the current Police Headquarters building if the department is moved to Bedford Street, but probably could sell the Bedford Street facility in the reverse scenario. Minutes Mr. Kanter presented recommended edits to the Draft #3 Minutes of the CEC meeting on February 6, 2020—which including correcting the header mis-identification as Draft #2. A Motion was made and seconded to approve said Minutes, as amended. Vote: 6-0. CEC's Report to the 2020 ATM Mr. Kanter reported that Glenn Parker, Chair, Appropriation Committee (AC), had asked him to attend that committee's meeting tomorrow evening to review this Committee's positions on Articles/Sub-Articles that this Committee intends to include in its report. Using the Strawman report, Mr. Kanter led the Committee's review of each of those Articles and Sub- Articles. In the process, Mr. Kanter identified Articles whose inclusion had been chosen, but which addressed matters only remotely likely to have any substantial Capital significance. He proposed removing them now from our report and the rest of the Committee agreed. Page 2 of 3 Minutes of the Lexington Capital Expenditures Committee (CEC) Meeting February 12, 2020 When Article 12(j), Transportation Mitigation was being addressed—the one Article/Sub-Article this Committee had long opposed because of the substantial, cumulative, balance remaining from the past three years of appropriations for this purpose—Mr. Kanter reported that the SB also had reservation about the proposed, annual, $100,000 appropriation for the same reason, and chose to delete all of the General Fund (Free Cash) ($83,496) and only support for appropriation the balance ($16,504) that would be coming from the Transportation Network Company (TNC) Special Revenue Fund. (That revenue comes from the State-wide surcharge on the Uber/Lyft operations.) This Committee was then satisfied its concern had been reasonably resolved. During the discussion, Mr. Kanter reported those Articles/Sub-Articles that this Committee had voted to be nominees for the Consent Agenda at that ATM—which nominees had been forwarded to the SB for its consideration—were all submitted by the Town Manager as his recommended nominees. A Motion was made and seconded to preliminarily support all of the Articles/Sub-Articles now identified for inclusion in the CEC Report. Vote: 6-0. It was agreed that if that unanimous support prevails through a formal vote on the report, the "back matter"for the CEC Report (i.e., Article Explanations and Recommendations)—with its continued use of a quote from the FY2021 Recommended Budget & Financing Plan ("Brown Book) as being the often most-likely sufficient description of the purpose of the appropriation—would mostly obviate the need for Committee supplemental text. (That would usually be the case for any yearly "program" request.) Such text could still be proposed if there is something that is deemed important (e.g., an explanation for why this Committee supports the request). Mr. Kanter said he will prepare a summary of this Committee's preliminary positions to share with the AC and our Committee. Adjourn A Motion was made and seconded at 9:00 A.M. to adjourn. Vote: 6-0. This Minutes was approved by the CEC at its meeting on February 26, 2020. Page 3 of 3