Finance Committee Meeting February 12, 2026

Um, let me call the meeting to order for the finance committee on February 12th.

You know, Gary, I noticed you took the pledge of allegiance off the agenda.

Oh, was I I don't think I ever put it on there.

Used to be at one time.

Really? I That was a while ago.

I could put it on there. Absolutely.

That's okay because I'm going to stand up and we're going to do the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Uh, this meeting is in person and is being recorded.

So, finance committee handbook.

Yes. Did we all stay up late reading every word?

And memorize everything.

Will you be able to pass a quiz?

Probably not.

It's open book. We'll pass it.

So, I don't want to go over it word by word. Gary, can you zoom it up a little when a eyesight and that white text on black is makes me crazy actually.

So, personally, I only found one thing that I had to fix. Everything else is a personal choice of course. But if you go down to the second paragraph, application procedure for membership.

Uh and you'll see the sentence, the residents who are interested in being considered for appointment should submit a letter of interest. The email address was incorrect. I had an extra dot in there.

Oh, I knew.

So now it's at, you know, dartmouth mass.gov of because otherwise she wouldn't get uh any of those resumes that I know are pouring in every time we have an opening.

I know.

So that's the only thing that I personally found and most of what would be considered newer content would be Gary, can you scroll to the uh Dartmouth board committee chart there? Right there. So I split that apart because we had talked about that.

So it's split in between voting and nonvoting roles. So the top part is you know liaison roles and then if Gary who's scroll scroll down a little bit more those are the voting roles. I don't put assignments in there because that obviously changes. Yeah.

You know can change yearly actually. So that's just what people could expect if they become a finance committee member that they would serve in one of those roles. Mhm.

So I changed that and then mostly the last couple I think we had already gone over public statements and email the last two sections.

Yes.

And then resources for professional development. I had um I think polished it off to make it sound okay. Mhm.

Um, did anybody else I don't want to read it word for word because I think we did a couple meetings ago.

Yes, this is the newer section, but it still doesn't require me reading every sentence because I know they had good time over the week to read it.

We did.

So, tell me about Robert's rules of order Carrie.

I'm kidding. She said she wouldn't pass a quiz.

There's a whole book on that.

There's a whole book on that. That is correct. I do appreciate you putting all of the time and effort into this. I know that this took you a long time and I really appreciate it.

I appreciate that. It was Car Terry's child that she gave birth to this thought and then we took it off the ground and finished it. And I like the fact that it's only three pages. pages and it's a lot easier to cover it's a lot easier to read than the full handbook that the state right that governs finance committees yeah correct I mean that's something yes you know especially as a new member you

should certainly go through it at some point in time and to make sure you understand you know how finance committees function at a state level um but this talks about you know us specifically and I hopefully it'll be good for folks who are considering joining the finance committee and want to have some kind of, you know, background on what we do and how we spend our time and that kind of thing.

A bridged version. This is good.

So, did anybody have anything that they felt needed to be changed?

Just uh one comment under uh the training um training training.

Um well, personal development, I'm sorry.

Thank you. It's under personal development. It's uh by state ethics rules within 30 days of an appointment, you need to take the state ethics uh conflict of interest training.

Oh.

Um so I just add that there that's not elective, you know, like what you're quoting here. That's right. Right. Uh although I don't think there's the uh enforcement police out there but well I think and I don't It does say within 30 days you're supposed to complete that.

I have to ask the new Well, Dearra, you're the newest.

When you were sworn in, did someone tell you to take that?

It um I knew of it when I got back home.

It was there on the computer. I took it on the computer and sent it away and printed and So it was sent to you by the town clerk or by the town moderator? I got it from the book. It's all electronic now. The ethics.

Okay.

Okay.

You pick up you pick this up.

You pick up your handbook and you pick up that and I picked up all sorts of good things. I rated the office and you get your oath of office, too.

Okay. So, I've been a member for six years.

Yeah. I remember.

Do you only have to take it once or do you have to take it every year?

Every two or three years, I think.

I think so because I just got an email to redo mine. So I think I may have to do it next time.

Well, interesting cuz I probably haven't seen that since I first joined.

I am.

I just said to do that because it's been a while since so I I thought it should be No, no, I will. I'll I'll add that. Um, good point.

Just trying to think where does it flow the best by appointments with uh you may just consider writing a quick No, it's it's a sentence. I get paragraph, you know, check with the clerk for mandatory whatever. I'll worry about it. I'll worry about it after check application procedure.

Candidates must pass a It's called the Massachusetts Con conflict of interest law training.

All righty. Good. That's a good catch.

Thank you.

All right, that's it. We're good. We're ready for publication.

Very nice.

I'll fix that sentence. Send it out to everybody again.

Send another copy to the town moderator and see if there's any input.

All right. Good.

And wrap that up.

Okay, I think you're up.

Okay.

So, um typically we do this uh process um in the uh April time frame. If you look at the calendar, you'll see that that's we're usually reviewing uh the budget in April. So, we're we're obviously a little bit early this year.

Um and um instead I think instead of going through every single line item, uh both Cody and I would would touch upon what we think are the bigger um items to discuss. Um and then because this is still preliminary, we're still working with the schools and still working on this budget as a preliminary draft. So I wouldn't want to do that at this point, go through every single line item in

detail. U as I said, we're still tweaking a lot of these numbers. Health insurance uh being a big one. Um the schools and then um you know, property insurance we're looking at, too. So, I do have I do have a question though, Gary. Um, since you already presented the select board and it's not really complete, was there any issues brought up by the select board that saying, well, this is

nice, but where's the rest of it or did they have any comment to that effect on the presentation that I gave? So, the presentation that I gave uh especially with the um revenues uh was still preliminary. Obviously, waiting for the state to come in with their final uh draft of that the budget. It's still in the governor's phase right now. Now, they haven't even made it out of that

yet. So, as I mentioned, you know, to be cautious about what we're putting in for state aid. Uh, pretty much we looked at a 1.7% increase. We talked about that at the meeting. Um, uh, but the spend rate is at like 4.4%. Uh, and revenues coming in at 2.9% with the state. But this being the first part of the calendar year, a lot of those revenues start to

come in. So, um, you know, we have to be very cautious with that to make sure that we're not putting in numbers for state aid. Uh, that's going to be uh off the off the benchmark. Uh so you know Cody and I have looked at that. We're tracking this almost every single day as far as what we think would be an appropriate number for state aid as we get closer and closer as the Senate and

the House has their budgets. It goes to House Ways and Means. So uh for Dartmouth it was a 1.7% increase which is very minimal, very minimal. Um probably the lowest increase that we've seen in in quite some time. And you've seen the graphs that I put up in the in the past where state aid has been flat.

uh we've shown that over the last couple years in the last tw 10 15 years state aid has been really minimal. So um we we we you know we're still look working on those revenues. Also in part of that uh uh presentation was also the the the u expenses we see we're still in inflationary period you know was averaging about 12% inflation. Uh we just got our Mayer rate uh renewal rates

in from three 3 to 14 and a half%.

um you know we're looking at somewhere probably in the middle of that uh but we're still looking at the opportunity to go out in other commas joint purchase agreements to try to lower that cost even further. So those are things that we're working on now. So I think to go detail line by line um really that's going to change.

No I understand. Did you get any sense of the state aid for other uh like communities? I I would say on I would say on average what I did was went through a lot of other communities and and the example that I gave uh was like the city of New Bedford and and Forever uh there 700 million this I think puts things in perspective their $700 million budgets $600 million in Forever. If you

looked at a at a at a percentage increase that they're getting, it's a $20 million increase on average. That seems like a lot of money, but not when your budget's $700 million, right?

So, the commitment from from the state to the locals wasn't there this year in my opinion. You know, it it just wasn't there. We usually see a little bit more in state aid. Um but, you know, it's it's just not happening. And I think what the the key is, and um Mr. O'Neal had brought it up on the select board was what happens in you know in 2008 when we had the nine C cuts under the

Romney administration that was devastating to a lot of a lot of budgets because that was a midyear cut we had to actually cut budgets it meant layoffs to school teachers uh you know fire police so what does that mean for towns like like Dartmouth do we keep do we ratchet that up in anticipation that there won't be a budget gap at the state level I I think there's going to be a budget gap

especially if revenues are coming in low and they're spending at at a higher rate. So we that's something we really have to focus on.

And you me of course you mentioned fixed expenses but you don't really get into the variable expense because you're still formulating those. Correct.

Yeah. So it's not really we don't really know where we stand yet.

Yeah. I mean if you look at that fixed the the list of fix fixed costs that we put up that's a substantial amount of money you know and those those are just items we can't we have to pay the pension assessment. We have to pay our debt.

Mhm.

Um, so we're we're we're we're being cautious at this moment to to, you know, keep on looking at these revenues and try to get as much as we can and then also look at ways that we can generate revenue in town. That that's another key to this.

Mhm.

Was there the 1.7% increase in state aid, was it in one particular area and or did another go down?

Uh, no. It was it was relatively um we don't have any charter school charter tuition reimbursement this year um in the budget. So that's I mean you lost 37,000 there. Not significant. We saw a minimal increase um in chapter 70. Your unrest unrestricted government aid you know $75,000 increase $80,000 increase veterans benefits which again that's actually just a repayment of what we've put out

to an extent. And so a minimal increase there, but we're obviously putting out more. Um we saw a small increase in um exempt VBS and elderly. And our stateowned land, which we we have a lot of stateowned land in Dartmouth, is flat uh in the in the governor's budget.

And the stateowned land is is there any pilot money for or UMass Dartmouth or anything?

Just through this we have any additional pilots or anything?

Nothing like that. All right. Thank you very much. Typically when the governor releases our budget, uh the budget from the governor, um it is it is the highest budget. Um so what's concerning is is that the budget that's been released is at a minimal level. So and then it usually gets paired down from there. So we're wondering what's going to happen when it goes to the Senate, goes to the

House, goes to the House Ways and Means, and then gets maybe even paired down more from what she's because you wouldn't expect it to go up at that point.

No.

going to go up is the per pupil possibly out of the Senate that waits till all the 9C if they're 9C cuts it's not coming out of the Senate but the the longer we go on in the process you know as fe as March comes in and April comes in and and the uh income numbers come in from the state those numbers will get tweaked so as we get closer to the end of the fiscal year

they'll make a determination on whether or not what you know we would hope that they don't touch state aid further further than what what we've got now what what you See though to Bill's point, you know, we we don't have a um we have preliminary idea of expenses, but we have a pretty good idea of revenue, which is good and bad. It's good because we have a good idea. The

bad thing is it's not great, right? We we're not seeing the additional support from the state. Um and you know, the economy has slowed down. We look at local receipts, local receipts aren't growing as as much as they were. uh motor vehicle excise which is our largest kind of um means of local receipts is was flat last year and that's again that that so so we're not seeing the growth the new growth has

been steadily declining um we estimate 800,000 that's that's really aggressive to be honest with you look at new growth last year it was less than 800,000 um pro closer to that 600,000 700,000 mark so we're being aggressive even with that um and we we've had the ability over the past few years to be very conservative which has allowed us to be in the spot we are now we don't have that ability um anymore

and um the revenue kind of is is what it is. So we we haven't had a good idea of which why it's 113.2 2 million um in revenue for for next year, which is still substantial growth um compared to what% Yeah. Compared to what a lot of other communities are are seeing, it just doesn't keep up. You know, we can't keep up pace um with some of these expenses depending on what health insurance is. Um preliminary

conversations on property liability are 7 8%. Uh so, and those are those are huge. uh Plymouth, I'm sorry, Bristol County retirement is six or seven percent.

And like we've discussed, those are all your fixed costs.

And then so you think, okay, 4% is pretty good. Well, now you you actually reduce your fixed costs, apply that what's left across your general fund, and now it's more like 3%.

Because you have to dig into that percentage to make up the 8%s, the 10%s that we're seeing on our fixed costs. Is there anything coming off of debt? or how's the debt?

Well, we slowly reduce our debt. I mean, obviously, we don't have a lot of debt on the books at the moment. Uh, so I mean, but you know, that's that's above and beyond what what's considered in the revenue picture because that was all those are all debt exclusions.

Yeah, we don't have um much non-excluded debt. Most of our debt is excluded.

So, most of the debt is excluded.

And are you at the debt capacity?

Far from the debt cap.

Thank God. We have 7 uh 7 about a 7.5 billion in um assessed value and the last time I had looked I think it was like 200 and some million in borrowing capacity.

So yeah, in in some sense, as Cody had mentioned, we're we're in a good position, I think, and this is kind of the what I wanted to get across the other night when I gave uh that presentation is that we're in a good position to to move forward with borrowing and move forward with those kind of initiatives, but we also have to be cautious on how we we're doing this, you know, uh and we continue

to put money away stabilization. We continue to put money in the long-term capital stabilization fund. So we're, you know, we're not those communities that have gone and, you know, try to go for an override. 83 communities last year and then now that's doubled. So again, the pressures are being put back onto the local municipalities in Massachusetts to try to make up those revenue gaps, you know,

and they probably always will be for the near near future. They probably will be, you know, we're talking about the Romney administration. We're like, what?

I mean, so if you look at it, that that's how long ago 2008, you know, it's happening again. So it's all cyclical.

It happens in in phases, you know.

Yep. So the good news is is is is state aid is up 1 is is is up 1.7. The bad news is up 1.7. So it's good and bad to an extent because the 9C cuts would only be at the 1.7% level if you will. So it's it's it's a it's a it's an economic kind of you know fall that you're looking through trying to learn the trends in the past while trending in the future.

But where are we right now and the capital needs are significant in town.

So Now, we spoke about we spoke about um like capital and you know building a brand new school, building a wastewater treatment plant. Obviously, those would have to be debt exclusions because the budget couldn't support that. Those would have to be borrowings that have to go to the voters. You know, that's those but we do have the capacity to do that.

I think you gave a good explanation. I watched the capital meeting and I thought you gave a pretty good explanation on how that could be approached to do the debt exclusions because I personally I think it's inevitable. M but has to be voted on by everybody. So, but that I would look at that as being good news and that we could and that we have the money, but I understand it has to be approached

in a very uh I don't know educational delicate manner.

Absolutely.

I'd be interested in the unexcluded debt.

Why why was that why was that excluded versus unexcluded? Well, it's probably some smaller.

Yeah, we had the we had the ability to build it into the budget if we if we had the flexibility. Now, there's certainly some projects where we'd probably go out and borrow um and build it. We just don't have the the the ability to add additional debt.

Gotcha. Within the general front.

Yeah. I mean, if you're looking at a, you know, it's like any like a mortgage payment. If you're looking at a 30-year mortgage, uh you know, we're talking about a $200 million. Let's say we build a school for $200 million.

Uh those those payments are substantial.

Yeah. substantial every month every year. So that's principal and interest just like a mortgage. So we don't have that capacity in the budget.

Gotcha.

Now if we floated bonds against some of these projects like a new school I talked about that before. I read an article in New York Times about these communities that are doing floating bonds. We never really got into it on this committee. I don't know what you guys think about that. It was something we should look into or because we have good credit. Well, we had that conversation I think a couple of years

ago when we started the talking about new schools and and and uh wastewater treatment plants, but we do go to the bond market. So when when we're when we're when we go out for debt, it is at the bond it is in the bond market.

That that's that's what that's so is it a municipal bond?

Yes.

So we are floating Okay. We are floating bond and the rates are actually quite favorable for municipalities right now.

Absolutely.

They're going to get better.

Yeah. Oh yeah. So Gary gets a report monthly on kind of who's borrowing, how much they're borrowing, and what they're borrowing at. And there's been some in the in the high twos, um, which which pretty good.

Yeah.

Everything on your MSBA list gets funded now.

Yeah. AAA communities, if you if you're like a double A or or stable, three, four, you Yeah. Some of them are on five depending on your rating. So if you think about that gap of 2% on a $200 million project, that's a lot of money.

So we're lucky to be AAA. I'm lucky to be able to have the capacity to do it.

That's why I was when the time is right excluded. Like what can you inflation?

Yep.

Cool. Good stuff.

So, I don't know if anyone had any questions particularly on the on what I sent out. I mean, I sent out uh uh the general fund. I also sent out uh waterways and um uh I mean I don't know if you had like any specific questions to go through every single one. I think you went it was DCTV the other DCV and then yeah Tim will be in next week next week.

Oh I do have a question Gary on the fixed cost.

Yes.

How much is that VTEC assessment up from last year? Do we know what percentage of increase from last year?

Well preliminarily right now.

Yeah preliminarily it's up. So um we're there still they're still in a draft form. So, every year I budget an additional $300,000 in anticipation of any new students that may come in. Now, we've heard preliminarily that the student count is down. Uh, but I would be hesitant to touch that number right now because that is still a draft number. Uh, but we if that number does change, we will we will make that change

accordingly.

So, we we did get information that the headcount was down because that's a real heavy hitter besides and that could be too because of the lottery system. uh the um I think they have now they have the lottery system that could have changed the dynamics of the headcount there.

So um you know I it would help us if if if it was down. Um Gary, on these um on the like this chat here, is there a way we can see the 2025 budgeted and the 2025 actual? Um because I see it has the 2026 original and 2026 revised and then the 2026 actual, but like obviously the 2026 actual, it doesn't really give us a, you know, picture because we don't

know where we're going to end up at the end of the fiscal year.

So you want to see 2025 budgeted budgeted versus actual. So we can kind of see what we had budgeted versus what we spent, right? We'll give you I'll give you what was voted at town meeting.

Yeah, that would be great. Thank you.

I'll add that in.

It's going to It'll be a little bit bigger. The report will be a little bit smaller, the font, but that's okay.

So, generally speaking, um obviously schools not being included and the enterprise funds not being included.

It's if you look through this, it's it's minimal increases. Um it's really level funded pretty much across the board. The only again with the caveat the only salary increases are for step increases because we have a negotiated contracts.

So you can expect some percentage increase there.

Um and as far as the general fund going again minus schools you'll see um the addition of 1.75 new positions. That is uh 0.5 in the conservation department.

For years we've been hearing that they need administrative support. Um, I'm actually not planning to we're not going to hire that person until we have a new director of environmental affairs. We're budgeting that way there. They can make their own determination if if they feel like they need that position or not. But the the director of environmental affairs who's been there for almost um

he's been for the town for about 10 years has repeatedly told us that he needs they need more support down there.

So, we're going to budget for a halftime. Um so you see that we within the um DPW administration you'll see $25,000 towards the DPW business manager. So this is something we desperately need over there is someone to handle the you saw this with the um the midyear rate increase. You saw this with the deficit. You need with an operation that large you need someone to handle the business side of things over

at DPW. It's very common in municipalities.

So nobody has that role now, right? Or part of Yeah. falls on the director, um the assistant director, but you don't have someone dedicated to really overseeing the business side of things, rates and the financial things. So, um the proposal is to add that position. It's supporting the enterprise funds. So, it actually will be funded equally 25, we're estimating about $100,000 right

now. Uh 25,000 from the three enterprise funds and then 25,000 from admin. Uh and then the last the full-time position is facilities director. We do not have anyone to oversee facilities um in town right now. So um we have lots of facilities and we see this uh as a area of great need um in the town. the previous director of parks and recreation did it. Um it was never formalized and essentially the the

compensation was he would work a lot of extra hours and it was through comp time and at the end of the year he would essentially cash out that comp time and that kind of served as as the compensation. The the position was never formalized to include that. Uh we also aren't sure if that would be the best fit for it too given the vast needs of our facilities in town and um and also

the we have a new parks and recreation director who is really qualified in that field but has no sort of kind of facilities management or any of that experience. So we we um we need that desperately and I think it's something that'll help us long term. I'll give you the example of the Allen Street garage project. Um was initially approved by town meeting I think in 2022.

We went out um we didn't again we don't really have a facilities director to oversee these things. So it's kind of who whoever is available. Unfortunately took longer than it should have. We went out to bid didn't have the money. It sat around for two years. We now just went back to town meeting this fall for the additional money. Initially it was a $600,000 project. Now it's almost a million dollars.

I think if we had someone really overseeing that that probably would have happened a couple years ago and the project would have would have moved forward. So where would that fall on the org chart?

Is that a whole separate department?

Yeah, it is director.

Yeah. So we have a facilities division right now. We just don't have anyone managing the formally managing. So we have several facilities staff members that were technically fall under the town hall budget. So when if you look at the town hall budget, there's a facilities line item for a couple hundred,000 and that that's when we consolidated facilities a few years back, that's all under there. Um so the

facilities director would report directly to the town administrator and then the facilities staff, interestingly enough, really do both. They do facilities and parks and wreck. So we would we would continue that method. I think it works. We don't need to bring on additional staff if we don't need to.

Um but we we do need someone just to manage these things. our our operating systems, our maintenance contracts, all of those things. Right now, it's it's broken up. Um, and it's not efficient and I think we're losing money.

So, whose budget will that fall under?

Will it fall under the box department or will it fall under town hall building?

There's a facilities line item and so you'll see it in the request this year.

It's an it's You mentioned somebody that's already doing the job but isn't qualified to do the No, no, we don't have anyone doing the job right now, right?

Yeah. Well, Parkso did hire somebody last year to do um we hired a parks foreman.

Yeah, the foreman, right? So, that foreman right now is under um select board, right?

That is well, not select board. It's town. It's town facilities. Are you going to move that back to parks? We are keeping that where it should be because that's how come well because the foreman is kind of like the crew chief essentially of the day-to-day staff. Yeah.

And the day-to-day staff will continue to do both.

But who does he report to? Does he report to parks or town?

It's really a quasi reporting structure and it'll be that way with the with the facilities director. I know where this is coming from. The parks and recreation meeting. Yeah.

Um, you know, I I think we my methodology is we are the town of Dartmouth and we all need to support the town of Dartmouth. Whether you are parks and wreck, whether you are GPW, um, there is no us is in a particular department. It is us, the town of Dartmouth. And so the mentality of having something under your budget for control doesn't sit well with me.

And so, so we we are not going to move things under budgets. So, someone has control over that position or not control over that position. Um, I think we have a system that works now and it I don't see it not continuing to work. Uh, and I would say the same with the facility staff.

The parks and wreck doesn't really have any full-time maintenance staff.

Yep.

There's nothing under there. It's all under facilities. However, it's it's always been that they they help out both and that has worked. Um, and so I if I think if something isn't broke, we don't need to necessarily change it.

I think um, and I don't I don't want to stay on this topic for a long time, but I think that the animosity that I heard at the meeting was more that it got moved for other reasons and they just wanted it moved back historically.

It's never been under their budget.

That's a new position that was created under the previous administration and it's always been under where it is budgeted. So it's never been under the parks and that's no problem. I just wanted to clarify and um also to advocate for the you know I think it works best the town works best when we communicate well and we're transparent with each other and and we need to get um over the silos because it it doesn't work.

Yeah.

You know we again we are the town of Dartmouth. It is all tax dollars unless it's an enterprise fund then you're rate funded but again that's still public funds.

Um and so the the idea of whose equipment is this? It's the town of Dartmouth's equipment. that's who you know whose equipment it is. Who are these staff members? They support the town of Dartmouth. Um, and I I I will I feel very strongly that I will never accept the idea of, well, I'm only going to support this department because I'm only in this department or my budget's out of this

department because then what'll happen is I'll have to come to you and say, okay, I need five more individuals to help my facilities department.

Well, I don't why? That doesn't make sense. Well, because because their line item is under parks and wreck, they're not going to work for facilities. That's not that's not efficient or effective.

Um, and we also we don't we don't need that.

We we need kind of that collaboration which I think we we have generally across the board, but we need to continue that.

It's in my opinion that's a step in the wrong direction.

Thank you for your explanation.

Yeah, no problem.

The other piece too, we talked about it.

you see a slight increase in IT um over the over the last year.

These are systems in place that we have to guard against you know everything that that could be potentially happening to outside forces coming into the town.

Uh so um and we you know we share as much we share a lot of services you know I don't say a lot but we kind of try to share as many services with the schools and other you know library so and other other um departments as much as we can.

I'm curious though how does moving the money from one budget to another affect the ability to share?

Um it depends who the stakeholders are involved.

The stakeholders are the community.

Well, no. Who oversees the that aspect of the budget?

Okay. All right. It's confusing. I just Yeah. Thank you for your explanation.

Just going back to the MIS increase, is that is that based on increases of the um service existing software that's already in place? Yes.

Yeah. Is there a way and I don't I just spitballing off the top of my head. Is there is there a way to sort of cap like as as we're negotiating entering into if we're getting new software for example is there a way in that negotiation process to to sort of have a to set out upfront sort of what those increases will be over time like for a set period of years. Does that already happen?

We do that with existing contracts. The challenge is is we can't enter into long-term contracts under Mass General law. We're not allowed to enter into you know 10-year contracts for instance. So, um, I'll give you the example of the the budgeting platform that we're going to be introducing, the the transparency portal that I've talked about. Uh, we negotiated a multi-year contract that

caps our increase at 2 and a half% recognizing that we prop two and a half so that that we are able to negotiate that. However, it's only for the three-year term of the contract because we can't go beyond a three-year contract.

At which at which point we typically see the larger than 2 and a half% increases because what are we averaging like seven or eight% on some of the it software?

Yeah, it varies. Um, generally we're seeing about five. Five is kind of industry standard. Um but anytime we can you know negotiate flat rates or we negotiate contracts we always we try to do that.

Yeah. We also push the fact that you know especially like for Munis software that we've been clients for for decades now decades since 1980. We push the fact that when we renegotiate these contracts every year that you know we've been clients forever and there are other players in the game but we you know we try to get the most we can out of them.

You know if they say in a 7% war why not 5%. You know we've been customers forever.

That does happen.

The other interesting piece there is that the Tyler for example technology mun is same same company. It's $184,000 on an annual contract each and every year.

So they have the marketplace. Munis Tyler has the marketplace for municipal software. So every single municipality has this expense. So we're all trying to push back, but it runs everything that you need it to run. So it's expensive.

Now, does those contracts does that cover upgrades? What's the contract actually cover within within a year? Like from Munice, it would cover any any support, any upgrades, uh upgrades, everything. Y um I had a question. I I was looking at um the legal services um line because I know in recent years we've had a concern about that um you know, budget and where it was going to go and it actually looks

pretty good this year. And I just didn't know if it was because we hadn't had, you know, too many issues as far as 40Bs go or or any other area or is it like a billing thing that they bill at a certain time or is it just are we just in good shape this year because we haven't had many issues to build.

Um I think we've uh decreased our reliance on general counsel significantly over the past um six to eight months. And so that's where you're seeing the biggest savings. Okay. Um we we've on average our um non-litigation general town council was averaging you know somewhere around $30,000 a month over the past couple years. We're down to about 20 22,000 a month.

So how did you go about lowering that?

Um I'm I mean obviously things eb and flow. You know litigation is a big piece that we don't you I can't predict. Um sometimes we we're in more latitigious periods than others. So, we've been fortunate with not a ton of litigation.

Um, and then generally, you know, make the the streamlining of um making sure that departments are following uh the the correct process and and essentially all town council requests get approved by my office. And so, there's a lot of things that I've been able to identify that probably shouldn't go to town council. Um, things that we should be doing rather than send something to town

council to draft. Well, we will draft it and have council council review it, right? Things like that. Um, so that's it's it's been twofold. It hasn't just been those things, but the part of it's been No, that makes sense. So, are you saying that you implemented that? That wasn't happening before.

It was in place. It was definitely in place. Um, I I it just um some departments got away from it to an extent and we're just reaching out directly to council um trying to get things done in in the essence of time, too.

Understood. Yeah.

Could I ask a followup? um that this just gets to a board, a commission versus a department head.

Does the board or the commission have direct access to this line item for a general counsel? They would have to come to you as well.

So any disagreements between boards or councils with one another, boards or commissions with one another, they still have to go to you.

Yeah, just it's just a request for we have agree. I'm just making sure.

Yeah. any any um work that attorney Savastasano or his associate attorney Cruz or any of our legal counsel works on um we have a form has to be filled out and and I have to sign off on it just saying that you can the council can work on this.

Wonderful. Thank you.

So the only the only change it's it's minimal, but you'll see we um is labor council. We're we're hopeful that all of our um collective baring agreements will be wrapped up and actually that's going to be hit on this year's budget. But if not and it goes into next fiscal year, that's that's the reason there.

Sure.

How much did the health insurance go up from uh last year?

We don't have you don't have any uh we have a range that we were given a range of roughly 3 to 14%.

So, but yeah, but we also keep in mind though, Bill, we're looking at other alternatives. I hope so.

So, maybe that'll change a little bit. I just had a conversation with a retiree and she said it's exorbitant like $500 a month she has to pay for that's a lot.

Wow.

Has that new committee met met yet? The we're in the process right now of getting we actually just got uh back some data um and we're going to meet with one of the local JPA soon. So I would say that probably maybe March early March early March we we'll convene that group and start talking about what what we've got and um I know at one point you had mentioned that um going into a new JPA

uh is it there was like a buyin that could have been kind of prohibitive costwise. Is that still something that might be prohibitive or is it going to be beneficial that it's like the cost is going to increase so much that we'll pay the buyin because it's worth it for us?

Yeah, one of the groups that we had looked at um you know I don't want to mention anything off you know right now because still preliminarily but we've looked at groups that are offering buyins. We looked at groups that are not offering uh that really don't have a buyin. Okay.

So we've got to weigh those costs out and is it better long term to maybe pay a buyin and work that into the rate or just go into a group now that doesn't have a buy in. And then we also have Maya. I mean Mia has come back with the range. So this is everything we're putting together now to hopefully have the we'll have the meeting as Cody mentioned in the first week of March,

second week of March and start discussing what the best alternatives are for this. But we we've seen a hybrid approach on both on all the all the groups.

Sure.

The other thing I'd mention about the buyins is guaranteed rates for a period of time. So you buy in and you guarantee that rate for three years versus buying in it's up 10 anyway the following year.

Yeah. There's a there's a lot of different uh different scenarios that we we're looking at. So yeah, it's tough.

So was there any other maybe questions generally on what was sent out? Um as I mentioned, this is these are preliminary numbers. The majority of these numbers, as Cody mentioned and kind of I've been saying is, you know, even the utility costs, we've seen some increase on those. Um a lot of the departments have tried to level fund that those line items as much as they can, but you know,

we see it. Gas and electric are are now higher than ever. So, are you still tracking it every day?

I know for a while you you could spit out the cost every single day.

Well, when we were doing the agreement with um with our energy manager, I think it was last year we were Yeah.

We were looking at it was almost daily I'd get the rate play the markets.

Yeah.

So obviously when we start making adjustments to these numbers and and we we we start fine-tuning them even more obvious you know as I mentioned you both both K and I mentioned this you know this was really took place in April but I think it gives a sense to the committee of what where we are right now uh and this will change obviously going forward and get adjusted uh we anticipating

the money that we give to new benefit for water to come down this year right because the wells are going to be activated or at least back on track. Is that Yeah, we're supposed to have a a number of our penelli wells back online um by the end of this fiscal year.

What I will say though is you know that that's good. That's definitely a good thing. But then we enter peak season um in which May to August we have a number of our wells that actually get shut down more more often than not due to um the level of the Pasamanset River. So we have several wells that we have monitoring in the past commandset. Once the water level gets down to a certain

level, D tells us you got to shut those walls off completely. We have to shut them down completely. So yes, we may have more water that we're able to produce on our own this year compared to last year. However, I don't it's still going to be something we're going to be buying potentially significant water from from New Bedford this year.

What was what was last year? Over a million dollars or something?

Close to million.

2 million. about over two million, two 2.1 million, give or take.

Um, so you you'll see that when when Tim Barber represents the um the enterprise fund budgets, you'll see an increase there because to be to be honest, we we haven't budgeted enough the past couple years.

So, we need to make sure that the budget reflects our actual expected cost.

And you've seen that both when we when we talked about the rates, how there were years where there was zero rate increases.

Yeah. You know, you can't that's hard to that's a hard sell when you're trying to support an enterprise fund, especially when it's built on the rates, right?

You know, and expenses are increasing at x amount inflation. Even though there was less inflation maybe 5 years ago, there was still some number in there that needed to be c uh built in. But they didn't build anything above the water rates for capital improvements or they Well, yeah. The zero rate increase, you're not you're not even you're barely making enough to support the I don't think we'll be seeing that

again. No, ever.

Oh god.

So, um that that so this is where we stand right now with this. I mean, obviously, like I said, we're going to be updating the committee once we get closer.

Are we going to look specifically at the two that you sent us, which I think was waterways and um waterways and DCTV?

Yeah. Again, there's really not much.

Um, see, I just had a very specific question about DCTVs.

Okay. DCTV start with media.

They had put one of their in the in the Brian form.

What?

Oh, are you talking about the um the budget forms?

I'm talking about the the supplementary forms that you sent to go with this.

It's classic. It will be called Brian Brian FS forever more. That's what Gary called them when he sent them out.

Yeah.

Yeah. Just in case you're looking for the name. Okay.

That is what he called it.

Okay. Yeah, it is funny.

Anyway, I had a question. Excuse me. And excuse the cough drop in my mouth, but that's the only way I have a voice. Um, I thought it was interesting the compliance objective that he had and I didn't know if anybody, maybe you, Cody, can talk about that a little bit more. I thought that was interesting. I know there's no cost associated with it.

Where's that Janina?

Uh, it's under major goals.

Right there.

Okay. Right here. There you go.

Yes. So, we um this is a federal requirement. Um we're we're fortunate that we fall into the latter category, which is municipalities under 50,000.

So, we actually have until April of 27, I think it is. Um if you are a municipality over 50,000, you had until you have until April of 26 to come into compliance. But this is going to affect um not just uh DCTV. you you may see something in our in the budget for even our website because there's essentially um you have to come into significant compli ADA standards with a lot of uh

audiovisisual things uh Adobe uh PDF documents which there's some requirement now but they become a little bit more uh strict there is the live closed captioning which is a challenge for live closed captioning um so essentially in this room right know, there will have to be a screen that that has closed captioning of everything that we're saying so someone in the audience can read. So, there's going to certainly be

some equipment costs with that. Um, and the audio descriptions is something that Peter, Chase, and I have really had conversations about because that is very challenging. Um, and and we're not quite sure how we're going to accomplish that. The good thing is we're not in that alone. A lot of municipalities are having this conversation of, you know, there's certainly ways to accomplish live closed

captioning. There's going to be a cost associated with it, but the audio descriptions is another story where we're not quite sure what that may look like. Um, so we can't even apply begin to apply the cost to that. But I will say you you can certainly expect some costs to be associated with um with these requirements.

It seems like it would be significant.

Actually, we're hoping that we can find some um unique uh opportunities that maybe we're able to build a system uh somewhat of our own that that may work. But we're we're certainly looking at it all all of our options.

Seems like it takes a very special kind of expertise. I guess I'm wondering, do we have that now?

I think we we do not have a system right now.

No, but I meant the expertise.

Oh, I think so. Yeah. Yeah. I think our team in place will be able to handle it.

Um there's been, you know, some communities do this for like town meeting for instance. They'll have their town meeting, they'll have screens set up and they'll then they'll have closed captioning as the moderator speaks and it gets picked up. So there are um one of the ways you can do it is you can do set up a Zoom meeting for every single meeting you have and then you set up live close captioning on the Zoom

meeting and you just have that set up on a screen.

Is that the best way? Probably not, right? But it is ways that those are the types of ways we're going to continue to look at.

Does it get you past the the compliance though with a Zoom meeting?

If we have a screen up that has live closed captioning that like a YouTube channel.

Yeah. Right. So YouTube is able to to do it. But the problem with YouTube is there's there's a little bit of a lag.

Even when we live stream to YouTube, there's a couple second lag. So, we can't have we can't YouTube stream this meeting and and have it showing in this room with closed captioning because it's going to be off.

It's not it's not going to be 100% accurate. It's not going to be picking up the mics and then going directly into that screen and then sharing it. It's going to be going through YouTube live and then transmitting onto the screen.

So that's there's some challenges, but um so I think Pete just wanted to make sure that everyone was aware that this is something No, I thought it was interesting. That's why I asked the questions.

Yeah, it's it's a very good question.

The other DCTV factor is um the you've been hearing this, but cable revenues continue to decrease.

Um they've we we felt uh through our analysis that we would have probably about five more years of solid operations.

We're not so sure that's the case anymore. Uh our most recent cable revenues this quarter were down 7%.

That's that's pretty big. That's that's a big decrease that we weren't expecting. So Gary and I and and Peter Chase are are running um that model out to see at what point what what are we going to do? What what is the future in the sustainability of DCTV look like?

Because I think I think the town really benefits from DCTV and it's something we absolutely uh but what is that model going to look like?

I think it's less on cable television though and more on YouTube like because you can live stream it off of YouTube.

Well, yeah. That's and that's the reason why position, right? That's what happens. We get a percentage of only cable revenue.

So, people who who cut cable and just have internet, we don't get any percentage of that.

And that's why we've seen the cable revenue significantly decrease over the years. That that's one of the questions I'm somewhat jumping ahead, but the the chart you put together for the retained earnings over the past several years, I think it would be good to see what is the the revenue of each of those enterprise funds, too, particularly DCTV, so we can visually see that reduction in revenue over time as it

relates to our retained earnings. I think that would be helpful information.

Yep. Mhm.

Anybody else have any questions regarding Dartmouth Media or their the supporting document that came with it?

No, but I appreciate that you picked up on that.

Things like that catch my attention. I'm a nerd at heart, thankfully.

I don't know. We can look at it afterwards. That's the same with Robs.

Okay. So, um Madam Chair, we have the um next thing on this So Nate last um meeting had asked me to put together a um us to put together a um retained earnings and free cash schedule. So as you see here um uh we've broken it I've broken it out general we've broken out general fund water sewer solid waste waterways and DCTV and then uh for the last several fiscal

years. So you'll see that um on the general fund for instance we we're certifying what's the same we had a we had a larger increase in FY26 because we um you know addressed a lot of the open articles that were out there and we continue to do that every year. That's not something that's that's new. Um so uh you know if you if you looked at that that's 40 50 million in certified uh

free cash over the last several years for that for the general fund which as I mentioned in the um presentation that I gave gave a lot of that has gone back to infrastructure needs in the town whether we're buying uh equipment um you know vehicles etc. uh the water enterprise fund as you see that's uh been on a decline mainly for the reasons that we just spoke about you know rates in the

zeros uh increased water uh charges from the city of New Bedford. Uh so that's left us with a minimal amount in in um FY26 Gary what's the the plan to replenish that?

So we're working on we're working with Tim right now to to look at what we need to do for the next fiscal year.

Actually, we had a meeting today to look at where they are, you know, in this budget cycle, what maybe the rates need to be. It's still preliminarily uh still a little bit early to talk about the new rates for FY26 uh 27, but we we definitely need to build in some factor for um increasing this account because this account is what I mentioned, you allows us to to to buy equipment to,

you know, do the smaller um capital items on the plant and and so on and so forth. So the plan is, you know, to at least maybe be sustainable on on the rate to do that. We have to we have to look at what that rate's going to be. We we don't have that information as of yet, though, but we're working on it.

I think the other important thing that we got to keep an eye on in terms of um this this chart which is I think super helpful and then also as it relates to our CPC capital uh requests um is what is baked into the rates for example sewer solid sewer enterprise fund solid waste water enterprise fund what is what is baked into those rates uh in terms of capital.

So, for example, in the the solid waste enterprise fund, we're seeing sorry, the sewer enterprise fund, we're seeing that grow right from a low of $247,000 in FY23, we're seeing it up to 1.1 million, which feels good, right? Um but part of that rate in that rate is uh budgeted for the $50 million of a wastewater treatment plant, right? So if we go about spending from that retained earnings for other

capital stuff that is not that that what that's earmarked for, we're going to find ourselves in in trouble when when it comes time to build a a sewer treatment plant. So I think just having the context of what is built into the rates um for cap future capital needs of those enterprise funds as it relates to the current balance in those enterprise funds I think is important for everyone

to to really understand so that we can be feel comfortable recommending a spend for capital on those those types of items. Yeah, I think it's part of the rate study um that we did have uh that was part of that that um you know that that process of what what piece of the rate is associated with exactly you know um capital outlay and that's important because as you mentioned you know even though we even though a

portion of this may be for capital what does CIPC have left to spend on the you know I want to say the the day-to-day uh fixes and the and the shorter term items but when uh they did do the rate study that was part of that uh analysis. So, I would assume that we're going to continue that process going forward when when we look at the new rates. You know,

a portion of that rate needs to be for capital capital capital improvements and that's conversations that both Cody and I have had with Tim.

Yep.

But none of it's for long-term capital large capital improvements. So, you mentioned like the wastewater treatment plant, none of the existing rate um is for that. We have we have nothing that can that would be able to even come close to paying the debt for that. So that's different than what was said at least at one of the DPW meetings and then the DPW um community meeting uh a different statement was made.

Well, the the rate study did look at that but the existing structure does not account for that. So the so the both are true in that the study did look at that um and that's something that was considered and recommended. However, it's not. And you can even you can you can see, you know, the 247 was because there was some um appropriations made in FY23. That's why it dropped down to 247.

That wasn't a result of the operation uh the the annual position of the operation. Um and you see a gradual buildup, but even with that buildup, that's just enough to cover our annual capital costs. There's nothing in that buildup that's going to cover a largecale project like the wastewater treatment plant. And then water. I mean, water's is barely a sustainable operation up until this year. So,

there's certainly nothing there. Um, now as we go forward, we will make sure we build something into that.

And like I said, it was part of the rate study, but there's nothing existing in that rate structure that would that allows for debt in, let's say, five years for a $50 million wastewater treatment plant. Not right now.

that that's very that's it's good to know but that is a very different statement than what was made in other public meetings. So I think I don't recall exactly. I know we've talked about the rate study and it looked at that. However, but if you look at on paper there is nothing built in there. I mean the the a million dollars in in sewer enterprise is nothing.

Right. You you have a we have a conveyor belt for our bioolids that a new conveyor belt is a million dollars.

I was going to say it probably doesn't handle repeat. Right. So that's why I say there's there's there's stuff built in now to the sewer enterprise fund for your typical capital but there is nothing built into the existing rate structure for that large scale project.

There will be but it it not right now.

Well you mentioned also Cody to an extent you may have to float a bond or something like that.

Oh absolutely. Yeah to go.

Oh yeah you definitely will the parameters but you increase the capacity within your operating budget to pay the debt right. So you increase rates, your revenue increases and you can pay what your annual debt service would be for for a wastewater treatment plant.

So what are you telling me that uh it would be the responsibility of those enterprise funds to pay back the bond?

Yes.

Yes. That under the law that's that's what's required because the you know the argument is is that in in Dartmouth in particular an enterprise fund um being self-sufficient we don't service the whole town right? So, and essentially what you would be saying is that a someone who has a private septic their tax dollars if you pulled out of the general fund would be supporting someone who ha who

pays a sewer bill and is connected to private sewer. So, that's why enterprise funds typically support the debt um through user fees.

And that was the problem when I read that article about municipal bonds is being able to put enough aside so when the bond matures you can pay it off. I mean it varies. Could be 20%, could be it depends. And looking at that, I don't know how you'd be able to.

It's like swinging the CQ ball. Not going to get any out of it really. So it's going to be hard to do it that way.

Yeah. I mean, if if you're talking a $65 million treatment plant, obviously the rates to would have to would increase a portion of that rate would be for cap for long-term capital and then whatever is left for the retained earnings would be used for shorter term projects.

Yeah.

Can you populate the enterprise funds with nonfee money?

The only one would be DCTV and they got cable revenue. Yeah.

But but they don't have they had extra money in the general fund at the end of June 30th and you say, you know, we need to put some money away in enterprise funds with water because of what we're facing.

Revenue. Okay.

You can't do it now.

Okay. That's too bad. We don't we don't have we never have extra money anyways.

I you know that I you know what I mean.

You know what I mean?

Don't say extra money.

I'm I used extra don't overidual funds unused in a departmental line item.

I know if you I mean if you look at this box if you look at the general fund we the majority of that every single year from 20 to 26 has been used for capital items. The majority of we we we do use some of it for, you know, stabilization fund funding uh and stuff like that, but the majority of that has been capital improvement to capital items across the town.

Yeah, never mind. I'll ask you later.

What happens uh when we do borrow money for a large capital project underwater or any of these enterprise funds 20 30 year payment on that? Who makes that payment?

Do the rateayers make the payment or does the general does every taxpayer making that payment? So the rateayers are making that payment through taxes or through their rate.

So if it's a 30-year note and each each payment each year is I don't know 1.2 million with um with interest involved that gets that gets split out amongst all the rate rate users.

So that would require a override.

No, no, not an override. It would require it to go to town meeting authorization to borrow essentially.

All right.

And the debt schedule is represented by the rates. That's why I'm trying to like can't you put money in there? Can't you put some general fund?

Yeah. No, you can't.

Oil. We didn't use form an enterprise fund.

The enterprise funds were developed just because of that point. It's a self-supportive um uh business. I mean, if if you think about it, it's you know, you have to raise the rates and then the expenses come out of that fund.

Yeah. I mean I can remember when it wasn't that way but you could say that about schools students. Yeah, right. You can you can make the argument we all pay for schools, but who's the one benefits? The only people that you know the immediate beneficiary is the people who have children in their current essentially society benefits. I'm not questioning that. We all benefit from kids getting an education and being in

school. But the expense is you could apply it to schools.

You know, why am I paying for schools?

I'm not using it. The rate pays.

You're right. Except the only difference being we have a legal we're bound to provide public education. we have to we don't have to provide sewer we don't have to provide water we do not have have to provide solid waste we do not have to provide DCTV we do not have to provide provide any sort of waterway services so that's you know those are they're in particularly in Dartmas yeah we have to but there's no legal

obligation lots of towns don't provide public utilities um and it's completely on you know it's completely on the residents to put in you know septics wells so on so forth yeah at some point along along the line the town you know had decided let's split out the general fund into enterprise funds. And it could have been that, you know, the the the the process was just become becoming too large, you

know, growth in the in the town. They needed some of those facilities. So, it's probably what why it happened to begin with.

So, for my memory, we have the police station we're still paying for and the library.

Library was a a hybrid. So they um part of the library the I think it was the association of of public library Massachusetts library building and then there was some uh I believe there's some donations on that too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So is that the only thing we have that's considered a debt exclusion right now?

And the the the um high school just came off.

Right. That was two years though I think since the high school came off. So what's the terms left on those ballpark?

Do you know?

I'd have to look I can get that information on I'm curious. This is not I believe the police station is already 10 years.

Is it already?

Probably been I know 10 years already.

I know it's fast time. Yeah.

What is it like 20 years? Probably might have been a 20 year note. I'd have to look.

Okay. I was just curious.

I don't have it here on I can look it up but I don't have it.

I was just curious when I was thinking about what we still had.

And obviously the payments declining over years widgets.

Yeah.

Yeah. That it looks like that's the only That exclusion is uh is the police station.

So not the library anymore.

Yeah. The library was done library wasn't done through a exclusion not at all through um it was funded by whatever library association.

Yeah. And that was in um voted in 2017 fiscal 19. So about eight years we've been with the police station.

Yeah.

Look at all that money we have to spend.

It's a better way to build. Not a better way. I'm sorry. There goes my vernacular again. I'm sorry.

So, the CIC the CIP the CI the capital committee is meeting to spend those items in water, sewer and solid. Would they necessarily have to come out of these certified retained earnings in those three or could we say you know we really should be saving that and then anything they need fund out a little differently as a strategy just to build reserves I guess. We've talked about that over the last couple years more so

when we're talking about that this year's CIPC meetings that um you know let's let's let's take water let's take uh water for instance and um are there projects that we can we can do as a package like you know water sewer um can we can we bundle those as a borrowing or so that you know we have limited funds obviously if you look at this we can't do the big projects as Cody mentioned

that need to be done so the conversation now is on those bigger projects we'll have to do a borrowing you know um and keep these for the smaller uh one-offs like the yearly uh projects that we're doing. But yeah, the conversation has been we may have to go for a we have to go for a borrowing and and and even on the short like we talk about the like the stadium uh the school we have the

school uh the track. So those are those aren't really longer term projects.

Those are probably like the five to 10 years, but those would have to be borrowed because you're talking about a $7 million borrowing, a $4 million borrowing. So they start to add up. Uh those would have to be a conventional borrowing and excluded.

Yeah. And then we also have the long-term capital stabilization. We're putting money into for let's say we were to do the school roof and you know it was a $7 million project, we could do a hybrid where we we we spend some of that money down and we borrow for the rest.

So, we're trying to think think longer term when when we're using some of this money and that's where this money that's where those funds get funded from are these uh funds that are available to us.

Okay.

Any other questions on this?

No. I just think it's good that you have that, you know, foresight because a lot of towns don't and, you know, it's like we see the pinch and it's like I can't imagine being in their shoes where it's like you don't even have the foresight to look at this stuff and you really are going to be in it.

Yeah. And and a lot of if you look at a lot of communities and I I look and study a lot of other communities, they're using these funds to for operations for for operation for payroll and for because they're at the point where this is the only funds that they have. So they're using legal.

It's legal. It's not recommended. not recommended.

Okay.

But it is it is legal. So the the problem is like for instance, let's say you were to take $2 million of free cash and put it into the budget. You now have created a structural deficit for the next fiscal year. So now that two two million is now three million and then it just grows and grows and grows until you run out of free cash.

Unfortunately, they're the same communities that used COVID money for salaries, too. So they're just slam.

They're they're doubledigiting, if you will. Yeah, we have strong fin we have strong financial polic policies in the town and this is in my opinion the reason why you see balances like this and you see you know um us able to do things that maybe other communities can't.

So um I know Cody's going to run to another yeah couple more minutes.

Okay. Um anything else on Jimmy?

No I'm Nate come on you wanted this one.

We can tweak this with revenues if you I think it would be helpful.

We can add that in there.

Just see.

No problem.

You That would be good. And also a column of what's remaining because we made a several appropriations.

Oh yeah. Yeah. We I have the um I have that if you want to look at it real quick. I do you want to do administrative?

I don't really have much to update. We just met last week. Um we've just been uh Gary mentioned we've been working with Tim Barber. We you're going to see at the uh Springtown meeting several adjustments to their current year budget so we don't run deficits again. Uh revenues are are actually in a good spot, but the appropriation wasn't done.

We we didn't budget right last year essentially. Um we we we needed to increase in areas where we didn't increase.

So you'll see several of those coming before you guys for the June town meeting um where we need to make additional appropriations to the enterprise funds particularly at DPW.

Um can you talk a little bit Cody because you talked about at the select board meeting on Monday night the econom economic development committee.

Oh yes absolutely. Um so the bo the select board approved the charge for an economic development committee. Um there will be one seat open to a member of the finance committee. So that's something you might want to put on a future agenda. Uh and really it's something that we've heard the community um has a desire for and and we want to be much more proactive. I gave kind of an economic development update to the

finance committee a month or two ago. So this um this will be really be a coordinated effort through this economic development committee. Um the the main contact is going to be the assistant town administrator which we do not have right now. So it's not really going to take off until we fill that position, but we want to uh lay the groundwork and and start that process. Great.

Which leads me to the question, how is that search going?

Uh we have just revertised the position.

So, unfortunately, our first advertisement um did not we didn't find any candidate candidates that we thought would be a great fit for the town.

The economic develop commission or committee, whatever you call it. Um are they going to have a budget at all?

What's Well, um not necessarily. What I'll say is if there's certain initiatives or things that um are going to cost, you know, it's a it's a board committee under the select board. And so we certainly have some funds within the select board department um that we will we can look to utilize some of that.

The so selectman set a mission statement or goals for the whole committee charge.

I can share with the finance committ.

So just to break out that little schedule that we had even further what this is what I present the CIPC before we when we have our first meeting. Uh, and what it does is breaks down if you if you notice you recognize the numbers at the top there, the top column, that's what was certified free cash or retained earnings. So from there, I back off what was spent at uh appropriated at the fall

town meeting. You'll see that 3.6 million was spent for capital. Then we did a few transfers. So um that totals five 5 million roughly. So they have $3.1 million to spend. And this is the question I think Dra was asking now. So, um, that's what they have going into the springtime meeting. So, they're meeting they're determining what priorities are for a lot of these projects. Uh, and and obviously, as

we've mentioned before, the projects that are being submitted exceed well over $3 million. So, um, so on and so forth. Every single one of these is the same scenario, the same meth methodology.

Can you tell us the total balance of the stabilization fund after that 250 transfer and the total balance of the long-term stabilization fund after the 600 um 500?

So the long-term has a million in it and long-term capital stabilization capital stabilization has a million in it and I can get you the exact amount for the um 13 million right about 13 million 13 million.

Wow.

And and over the years, you've noticed that we've ratcheted down the number amount of money we put into the uh stabilization fund, the regular stabilization fund, because we already met through the financial policies the 10% uh threshold. So that allows us to free up some of that free cash for other initiatives.

The 10% threshold is 13 million set by I'm sorry, that's 10% of the revenue. So that's set by 10% of the budget really. So, we're set by that's set by the financial policies that the finance committee and the select board have made and that we haven't um changed that in a long time.

And that's by the town versus the state like excess and deficiency at the regional. Okay.

So, that's just a break out of that that sheet.

Anybody have any other questions on this?

No. Thank you.

The only other thing I think would be interesting knowledge is what makes up right so we certified 8.1 million 8.2 two million of free cash la last year. You know, what is the breakdown? What is the pie chart of that? You know, some of it was closed uh appropriations from previous years. Some of it's turnback, some of it's fuzzy math. You know, that was not fuzzy math, but the majority complicated math.

Yeah. The majority of is was turnback.

So, if we average around $5.5 million a year in certified free cash, that kind of put us a little bit over that. Uh and the major the rest of that are turnbacks from the departments or line items in the budget. So I think having that sort of that pie chart of how that breaks, you can even have like an other pie.

Yeah, we can give you a rough idea. It's not going to be perfect. And I only say that because when we certify free cash, you would think it would be as simple as, okay, here's how much you turned back. Here's how much your revenue um exceeded your estimates and here's how much you closed out in other articles.

It's not. You have all these liabilities that are considered. Um that's the stuff I was calling fuzzy.

Yeah. So we can give you a an idea.

And I'm I'm I'm fine with not perfect like an approximation. I think it would be helpful for understand 50 60% comes from uh turnbacks. The rest of it comes from you know because you'd have to look at the the calculations from the that the state that you know we don't really even see that behind the scenes when they get that.

Yeah. I'm fine with a pie that says other. Yeah. And an approximation. I just think it's helpful to to have that visibility.

Yeah, we can do that.

perhaps as something included in the finance committee's letter to town town meeting and there are no other stabilizations to the town except for the long-term at a million and stabilization at 13 and these here the collective bargaining stabilization fund y but that's it here okay opioid stabilization fund right opioid yeah opioid set opioid settlement stabilization fund Um that's

but but that fund there is not for the capital.

It's a special purpose. They don't they don't they don't oversee that.

So the next um uh meeting we will be having is on 219 with the DPW. Tim Baba the director will be in to talk about you know the administration water sewer trash. And then on 35 we've confirmed with um schools K will be in to speak on this budget.

come in after day.

No.

And we still have the uh the tour on the third. Correct.

Yes. Yes, still on.

That is still on. I'm still formalizing the u schedule. So that's why you haven't gotten a formal invite yet.

We also talked about having Vulcan. So we scheduled to show that probably after the 5th after the schools like the next meeting. Oh we have greater than vote to come in.

Oh okay.

Yeah it's a big line item.

Yeah we haven't heard from them in a while. I mean they haven't they haven't presented them in a while. I mean just presentation at least speak about what's going on at the school.

They had a nice Can we ask them why New Bedford doesn't pay more than we do?

I did. It's a it's state.

So want to be prepared with that question right up front.

We'll open with it.

Yeah. Yeah. So, we can have them in.

I'll schedule that for the week after.

We can have them in.

And um that is all I have.

Gary, can you just give us a a brief update of what's happening in the next couple meetings as far as who's going to be talking? I know it was just the schools. Who's next?

Sure. So, we'll have police um and then we'll have uh the next meeting is Let me just get it. One second. I'll No, for the capital meetings.

Oh, sorry.

I find it interesting if you want to get a background on Yeah, I'll I'll get it for you. Those are during the day.

They are, but they're recorded on YouTube.

Yes, they are. They on they're on DCTV now. So, on the 18th, we'll be uh meeting with police.

So, we've already we've met with the schools. On the 18th, we're meeting with police. On um the 25th, I've scheduled Harbor, Library, DCTV, Pox, and Wreck.

So, obviously, these are the departments that have come in.

I was going to say they're not coming with a big list. Obviously, they're small department so we can group them into one meeting, but they're half an hour interval. So, okay. Um and then uh that that wraps up uh February 18th, March 25th, DPW.

And they're usually Wednesday mornings.

Is that the Yeah, typically Wednesday morning calling Tim's coming in.

I think they met at 8 8 or 9 in the morning. Is that when 89? Yeah.

9. That's if you need to be there.

9:00 on the 18th.

See, I got I'll get back to you on the date for for DPW.

Yeah, that'd be a good one.

I just think it's very good background for everyone so you have knowledge before we start 32 at um 9:00 am will be uh DPW.

Great.

So we'll have those wrapped up. We'll have the CIPC meetings wrapped up probably uh the second week with the departments and then we'll then they'll start deliberating you know deliberating whatever uh they see as far as um priorities and spending the actually you see up there on the screen.

We had a brief conversation. It was probably Nate and I. So it was a very brief conversation on perhaps the capital request for fixing that screen.

Oh yeah.

Committee now has a capital.

It's not free cash.

Should be out here more. But well, you know, we're not the only ones who use this room.

Donations from the How the pass that happened finance committee right?

So, yeah, it should be on the ceiling, not on the wall, right?

Yeah, it's it's a little close.

Distorted.

Yeah.

You know, and I think it the issue with running cables and Right. I understand.

Take down half the ceiling with it or Yeah.

Yeah.

Here's a fresh coat of paint.

Cheap rock.

Lazison reports.

Yes. Lazison reports. Anyone?

Yes. Just a real big shout out to DPW with respect to the snow, the ice, the weather, the wind, the sleet, the hail, the fog, you name it.

That was their fault.

No, just the fog. Um, they've been out and about. Uh, they had a water mane break yesterday uh at Bryant Street, I believe. Uh, the notification went out on Facebook, so that was really great.

They've had a rough winter. I think the last time we were meeting with them, they had a a water mane break on Allen Street that we were talking about, there's a lot of um cast iron in the ground and so they're experiencing some of that. So, a real big shout out to them. Um I kind of beep at them and wave. They have no idea who I am, but I'm always waving at them. So, they will

know.

But a real big shout out. They're they're unsung heroes and they belong as part of public safety. So, yay. That's my liaison report. But I also wanted to thank everybody for this. So, when I first came to Dartmouth, these were fabulous. My whole family got one. It has everything here as to your story about Dartmouth. They're absolutely wonderful. And then I also play the board so that I know where I am. So, the

the board the board is awesome as are these. So, thank you to Dartmouth for putting these out as well.

That's my report.

Very nice.

Thank you.

Uh in terms of schools, the schools did present their uh draft budget um on Monday to the full school committee. Um it's going to be a challenge challenging year to be quite honest. Um their level service budget uh requires a 5% increase. Um the school choice reliance reduction plan um is about another44% to wean them off of the school choice.

Uh and then to move them forward uh towards achieving their um for progressing towards their strategic plan would require another uh 1.39% uh increase uh for a total of 6.85% for everyone that's keeping track. Uh which is a lot.

Million.

Yeah, just on just shy of four million.

Um so that's where they're at right now.

They just presented that. I would encourage everyone to listen to that bud budget presentation. Um, you know, when is that?

What's that?

When is it?

Uh, this was this past Monday. So, it's on the recording up now.

It's on the not DCTV's YouTube channel, but the school's YouTube channel.

Google, you'll find it.

So, it's definitely worth uh watching that um to get more of a detailed explanation as to what that is.

Um, I'll send you the link, but that's the update from the schools.

No, I I mean I highly recommend you watch that, especially before Jim Kylie comes before us because it'll give you good background.

I agree.

We can, you know, ask him questions where we have some knowledge behind them.

I I think it's important to note that even with that 6.85% 85% increase. And this is really for the town to understand that we're still behind our teacher student ratio, significantly behind all other, you know, the the average of the whole state of Massachusetts. So kudos to our teachers for always picking up the slack and always doing the best to our students because we still have really high

achieving students despite our tight budget.

What's the ratio, Carrie?

Is it Is the ratio Give me one second.

I think it's 12 to1.

is 12 to one.

Yeah, I think it's 12 to1, but that's not really that's the that's the adult to student.

Yeah, the adult to student, not really the teacher.

There's no classes with 12 students.

I got to say that's no class about 22.

That's the adult to student ratio. The other interesting thing that he pointed out, middle and high school, that's the difference. Yeah. The other interesting thing that he pointed out is, you know, we've heard year after year after year of where we are in terms of the as it compares to the state average um and and the gap is actually despite these numbers that we're talking about, the

gap is actually widening. So we are falling further behind um than where we were say last or the the I think I forget the the comparison year. I think FY24 is the latest state information that's available. But well, how does that compare with other communities? Isn't that they're going through the same thing? Suburbs are going through So what we're talking about what I'm talking about is the the

state average, right? So that which includes municipalities, right?

Which includes the entire state all 319 actually should be looking at what's um harmonious to or in congruent to congruent, excuse me, to a suburb.

Not in other words, if you throw in municipalities, that throws off the average.

Yeah. I'm just saying state average per per saying like compare us to West behavior the gap is wide. Yeah, I get what you're saying.

Um is the point I was trying to below them.

Jim Kylie makes it much more than I do. But it's definitely worth listening to. But there's some interesting points um things that we've talked about in the past, things that um many people in the community uh are passionate about. Yeah.

Um, you know, it's it's we're talking about our children's future, you know, so it's a important important stuff and the future of Dartmouth because the children are the future of Dartmouth, right? Like the children here aren't going to be the adults here when it all comes back around to money and you only have a certain pie. So you get you get up on everything. It's it's not an easy puzzle.

Nope.

Not at all.

Nope. You're right.

Not going to solve that tonight.

No, you're not.

You can't. I'm going home on March 5th, but okay.

Anyway, uh anybody else? Leaison, anything?

Oh, yeah.

See, CPC met this week. We've got um five applications for this funding round totaling over $4 million.

We'll have public hearings month, next month, and then shortly after that making recommendations to u meeting. So big surprise like you know uh it's a big round you know some big numbers I'm sure we've got I think five over $5 million um so we could fund every project. I don't know what the committee will do. Uh but it's a it's a big it's a big request this when do they normally make that decision

forgiveness later. Uh well, we got a recommended town meeting. So, we're having public hearings on those um over the next month.

Next month. Okay. And then within a couple weeks, we should be making uh decisions on that.

Carrie, did you have something?

Yep. So, um I did go to the parks meeting and um so they updated us on they put an automatic gate on the beach which has been they've gotten some very f positive feedback from the community with that. Um so that's been good. They are looking at maybe trying to do that at some of the other parks or beaches as well. Uh they're looking at doing an it's like an automatic counter that

could possibly be put online for how many people are at the beach in the summer so that you'd be able to see how many parking spaces are available at the beach.

How does that so when they go through the gates?

Yeah. So there'd be like an entrance when you enter it'll track you and then when you leave it'll track you. Not necessarily your license plate number, just numbers, counts in general. And I think it's just uh a way to for people to be able to see what's happening.

All I could think when you said that was what the police chief said about all the stolen cars in town with the license plate.

We'll be driving through that gate.

Finding more stolen cars.

Well, they are talking also about that about um instead of and this is just in it's there's no definite but they threw the idea out there of instead of having like a beach pass it would be a license.

they would scan your license plate and so your beach sticker would be um linked to your license plate, not to a sticker on your car. So, uh there was some talk about possibly doing that in the future.

Um but that sounds like they need equipment.

Yes, that does. And that's why I'm bringing that to finance committee. They would need equipment for that. They've done some it's pretty it's pretty cheap. We're looking at building out our own system.

Um, and the benefit of that is potentially reduction in staffing.

Gate would automatically open.

It sounds interesting.

Certainly people would love to know piggy back on someone and go in.

Yeah, probably.

Yeah. Uh, they discussed whether or not they would cap off the um, you know, the amount of people, how the amount of stickers they pass out, but as of right now, they are not. There's no they're not going to do that.

I thought they did. So they've never kept the amount of money.

I think they have in the past, but I don't think they are now.

During CO, but I don't think other than that.

Yeah, during CO. You're right. But I don't think that they do anymore.

Yeah.

Sounds like it was Black Friday to get a beach sticker.

Okay.

Yeah. And so that's So that's about it. There was a lot of talk at the meeting like what you were talking about about um about moving the the line item for their foreman, for lack of a better word. Um so you guys will figure that out. I'm I'm not here to I'm just here to bring it to the table. Um and that's about it.

I did miss the Department of Public Health meeting by any chance. Did you get it?

Not. Oh, darn it. It was yesterday, so I'll have to next meeting. Yes, I can jump on that one though if you'd like.

Um, yeah, I missed that one. I realized it today that I missed it. So, two tried.

Okay.

Can't really Two out of three is not bad.

I made it to schools. I made it to parks.

That's good.

Two out of three.

Very good.

I'll do better next month. I swear.

Why are we getting raided? Uh oh. No. Let's wait a couple weeks and then we'll see how we're rated.

Not very high.

Uh that's it. Gary, do we have any minutes?

No minutes for this meeting.

No minutes at this point. Anything else somebody is inclined to bring up at this point? I I just want to say that at the next meeting, I think that you know, seeing that we're going to have DPW in, uh we won't have the the handbook is pretty much that's been that's we're okay with that. Uh I would only say that we keep that agenda maybe light because that's

going to be a big that'll be a a big presentation. So, oh yeah, I think last year we made the mistake of bundling that with something big.

Before it was police, maybe it was just Yeah, police. That was that was way too much.

Way too much in one night.

We keep that on the agenda and then um uh I would say that that we keep that meeting just focused on the DPW.

I didn't know what it was.

Um if possible, and I was just thinking of this, so let me know. If you have questions that you want to ask Tim and you know them in advance, perhaps it would be nice to give him a heads up because he has so much data to present to us. So rather than have it be a quiz for poor Tim if we have questions that we could compile.

Yeah, I'll send you his budget. Um that'd be great.

So you have it obviously that way at least you can have a heads up if there's something incredible.

You send it to me and then I can forward it to Tim.

Awesome.

Yes. Exactly. Exactly. because it's just so much that he has to present to us from all those departments and I know we'll all have questions no doubt so we can think about it ahead of time and then also um uh uh Jim Kylie's uh there's got an issue there's an issue at the schools with a diesel generator right now um I'll be putting together uh a reserve fund transfer for the next meeting if

for the committee to consider because it was unexpected you know I think you might have heard him talk about that so other than That that's that's it.

Does someone want to make a motion to adjurnn?

So moved.

Second.

Second.

Okay.

All in favor? I We are adjourned.