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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-03-14-AC-min March 14, 2011 Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee March 14, 2011 Place and Time Town Office Building, Room G15, 7 30 p m Members Present. Glenn Parker, Chair; John Bartenstein, Vice-Chair and Secretary; Joe Pato, Vice Chair; Robert Cohen, Alan Levine, Mollie Garberg, Susan McLeish, Eric Michelson, Richard Neumeier Other Attendees. Patrick Mehr; Pat Goddard, Director of Facilities, Micah Niemy, Budget Officer; Joe Nugent, Assessor; Barry Orenstein The meeting was called to order at 7 36 p m 1 Minutes Minutes from the 3/7/2011 meeting were approved as edited with a vote of 8-0-1 2 Article 37 Commercial Assessments (Patrick Mehr). Mr Mehr discussed his rationale for this article, i e , that it appears the Assessors do not increase the assessment of a property after it has been up-zoned and before new construction has been completed Mr Mehr contends that the Town should receive a benefit in terms of new growth tax revenue when a property is up-zoned at the request of the owner and the market value of the property increases Mr Mehr and the Committee discussed a number of aspects of the proposed motion These included the regulations of the DOR and guidance that it has provided in an informational guideline release (IGR) In Mr Mehr's opinion, the IGR should be reevaluated and changed by the DOR to provide tax fairness in this regard The Committee discussed whether up-zoning would be considered new growth, how up-zoning might be defined, and how rezoning impacts assessed value Mr Nugent explained that if there is a change in zoning, the assessment of the value of the land for the next year would be expected to change as a reflection of the change in permitted uses He emphasized that assessments are based on the results of his office's analysis and that cost does not necessarily equal value Also, real estate markets can undergo dramatic changes, so that assessments do not always compare with expectations The Committee briefly discussed the Planning Board's involvement. Mr Mehr has suggested that the Planning Board provide a fiscal impact analysis for each up-zoning but he has not yet made a presentation to that Board The Committee discussed what can be reasonably asked of DOR and other aspects of the assessment process Committee members expressed diverse views about supporting or not supporting the motion Mr Neumeier moved to table the Committee vote in this regard in order to find out whether the Selectmen take a position or otherwise provide useful information, and to have more time to think about and deliberate on the issue, his motion was approved 6-2-1 3 Article 38 Residential Assessments (Patrick Mehr) Mr Mehr expressed concern about assessments of larger homes Mr Mehr presented statistics for the 333 houses that sold in Lexington in 2006 and a 4 "bucket" method for categorizing the sales by dollar amount. He stated that his analysis shows that, in FY 2010, the sale March 1-4, 2011 prices of 13% of larger homes (worth $1 5 million and up) exceeded their assessed values by 10% to 30% whereas the prices of generally all smaller homes exceeded their assessed values by only 5% to 10% He concludes that 40% of larger houses were under-assessed in 2007 and that 13% are currently under-assessed There was general discussion of abatement rules, process, and statistics Mr Nugent said that annual residential abatement requests have diminished over time, that now there are about 140 per year, and that there are about 30 commercial abatement applications per year Mr Cohen pointed out that recently 1 in 3 homes in Lexington traded at over $1 m Mr Nugent explained the system for checks and balances that assessments have to meet in the annual analysis, including the restriction that they not be complicated by time adjustments over more than one year The analysis has to stand up in tests by DOR. Mr Michelson moved to recommend support of this Article Mr Cohen seconded the motion Mr Levine and Ms Garberg stated they felt the broadly worded nature of the motion is preferable to a more specific request and gives latitude to the DOR. Vote Approved 8-0-1 4 Update on PCB Mitigation Spending (Pat Goddard) Mr Goddard distributed financial spreadsheets that summarize spending on PCB mitigation at Estabrook School The spending was funded through the Public Facilities Dept. budget and included a total of $400,000 that was transferred to that budget from the Reserve Fund in August and September of 2010 The overall expenditures for PCB work are projected to come in about $41 k less than allotted for the year Mr Goddard informed the Committee that a sample from Bridge School tested positive for PCBs Other testing indicates that any PCB contamination at Bridge must be much less extensive than that at Estabrook. Funds are needed to manage the limited effort involved with the contamination that was found Therefore Mr Goddard proposes to reallocate funds from the unused balance for the Estabrook remediation project for use at Bridge and Bowman The Committee discussed the prior transfer from the Reserve Fund to Facilities and whether the funds may be used for work other than PCB remediation at Estabrook. Mr Niemy will inform Mr Addelson that the Committee supports this reallocation of funds and a formal motion can be made at a future meeting if necessary Mr Goddard left a copy of an Environmental Health & Engineering (EH&E) proposal to provide PCB Air Bulk Sampling at the Bridge School with the Committee 5 Reserve Fund Transfer to Human Services Budget for Veteran's Assistance (Micah Niemy). Mr Niemy reviewed a request for $20k to support the growing demand from veterans living in Lexington for assistance as provided under applicable State laws This amount was set to cover any expenses in excess of the FY 2011 appropriation of $25K that may be needed through about May 4, 2011 As of March 18, $34k had been spent or obligated for veteran's assistance An appropriation to cover additional expenses may be sought at Town Meeting under Article 24, but that would likely not be effective until the May 4 date Mr Niemy distributed a memorandum from Charlotte Rodgers, Director of Human Services, regarding Veterans Services Officer (VSO) background and recommendations, which indicates an upward trend in the hours for the VSO to serve the increased number of individuals seeking assistance in this regard Mr Michelson confirmed the Reserve Fund balance is $500k. Mr Neumeier 2 March 1-4, 2011 moved to recommend approval of this request. Ms Garberg seconded the Motion Vote Approved 9-0-0 Mr Parker signed the Request for Transfer from the Reserve Fund 6 Discussion of Warrant Articles in the 2011 Annual Town Meeting Article 5 -Appropriate FY2012 Enterpnse Funds Budget A motion to recommend approval of this article as it relates to recreation was made and seconded Vote Approved 8-0-1 Article 7- Establish and Continue Departmental Revolving Funds A motion to recommend approval of this article was made and seconded Vote Approved 8-0-1 Article 9 -Appropriate for Recreation Capital Projects A motion to recommend approval of this article was made and seconded Vote Approved 8-0-1 Mr Pato added an affirmative vote on all prior voted items from 3/7/11, except for Article 28 as there was no write-up This includes Articles 12, 14, 16, 21, 27, and 33 Article 22 -Appropriate from Debt Service Stabilization Fund A motion to recommend approval of this article was made and seconded Vote Approved 8-0-1 Article 30 -Amend Bylaw- Town Meeting Procedure A motion to table this was made and seconded Vote Approved 9-0-0 Article 36 -Analyze Employee Health Benefits (Citizen Article) Mr Pato gave a summary of his write up The Committee discussed the request that they develop a plan for this or develop other options, whether they should be responsible in this regard and legal implications A motion to recommend approval of this article was made and seconded Vote Not approved 0-9-0 Article 8 -Appropriate the FY12 CPC Operating Budget and CPA Projects. Motions were made to recommend approval of the following parts of the Article and were seconded 8(a) Vote Approved 8-0-1 8(b) Vote Approved 8-0-1 8(d) Vote Approved 8-0-1 Last year the Committee recommended that something like the current proposal would be preferable to supporting acquisitions that had already been completed by LexHAB 8(e) Vote Approved 8-0-1 8(g) Vote Approved 8-0-1 8(i) Vote Approved 8-0-1 80) Vote Approved 9-0-0 3 March 1-4, 2011 8(k) Vote Approved 9-0-0 If Article 33 is approved and the grant funds are received in time, $800k will be from CPC and $500k from grant funds 8(l) Vote Approved 8-0-1 As the State match is falling, Mr Michelson will check to see if there is an anticipated net surplus from the prior year Article 13(b) through (I) -Appropriate for Public Facilities Capital Projects It was noted that for component (b) - Estabrook School Feasibility and Related Street Access Improvements, the dollar amount for the road improvements part is now $100,000 rather than $200,000 and it only covers design and engineering A motion to recommend approval of components (b) through (I) of this article was made and seconded Vote Approved 8-0-1 Article 13(a) -Appropnate for Public Facilities Capital Projects Bndge and Bowman Schools Renovation Design, Development and Engineering A motion to recommend approval was made and seconded Vote Approved 7-0-2 Article 17- Reduce Community Preservation Act (CPA) Surcharge (Citizen Article) A motion to recommend approval of this article was made and seconded There was further discussion of the proposed reduction including its repercussions on debt exclusions for other projects A motion was made and seconded to table this Vote Approved 8-1-0 Article 4 -Appropriate FY2012 Operating Budget Mr Niemy distributed a draft motion updated 3/11/11 in which the use of free cash was updated to include the amount that was unallocated during the summit process The Committee would like to be informed of what the offsetting revenue reduction will be to balance this Mr Niemy will ask Mr Addelson The meeting adjourned at 10 26 p m A list of documents and exhibits used at the meeting is attached Respectfully submitted, Andrea Yepez Recording Secretary Approved March 23, 2011 4 March 14, 2011 Exhibits Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee March 14, 2011 1 Agenda posted by Glenn Parker, Chair 2 DPF Financial Statements for Estabrook PCB remediation project outlining activity, expenses and budget indicating total projections as of 3/11/11, distributed by Pat Goddard, Director DFP 3 EH&E proposal to provide PCB Air Bulk Sampling at the Bridge School, dated 2/16/11, distributed by Pat Goddard, Director DFP 4 Memorandum from Charlotte Rodgers, Director of Human Services, dated 3/9/11, regarding Veterans Services Officer Background and Recommendations 5 Draft Motion updated 3/11/11 regarding Article 4 Appropriate FY 2012 Operating Budget, distributed by Micah Niemy, Budget Officer 6 Request for Transfer from the Reserve Fund Memorandum for signature by the Committee Chair, dated 3/14/11, distributed by Micah Niemy, Budget Officer 5