[0:22] All right. Good evening, and welcome to the September 9th, 2026 select board

[0:27] meeting. If you could rise, if you're able, and please join us in the pledge of

[0:30] allegiance.

[0:34] I pledge allegiance, to the Flag, of the United States of America, and to the

[0:39] Republic, for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with

[0:45] liberty and justice for all.

[0:51] All right. We're going to start this meeting tonight, I think, just with a quick

[0:56] update on the anti-hate task force.

[1:00] So Diana, if you wouldn't mind.

[1:08] Hi.

[1:09] Hi.

[1:10] Thanks for having me here tonight to talk about the work that we've been doing over

[1:14] the summer with the anti-hate task force, as we move and transition to more

[1:19] permanent structure, hopefully within the town of Lynnfield.

[1:22] So over the summer, the task force has been-

[1:24] Can you turn on the mic?

[1:25] There you go.

[1:26] Thanks. I don't have to start over again, do I?

[1:29] No.

[1:31] Over the summer, we've spent significant time looking at different structures in

[1:34] surrounding communities. We've looked at Danvers, Winchester, Melrose, and

[1:38] Lexington to start to formulate what our recommendations would look like for the

[1:42] town of Lynnfield. That's with our entire task force and our consultant, Darnisa

[1:46] Amonte Jackson.

[1:48] We've agreed that

[1:51] that group will stay together as we move from recommendations to implementation, so

[1:55] that group's not just going to go away.

[1:57] We're going to work through this process as we're trying to formulate what the

[2:00] actual body will look like within our town.

[2:05] So they'll stay connected as we finalize the proposed structure, as we go through

[2:08] recruitment of members, and the recruitment process for a human rights commission.

[2:12] We're engaging residents and screening applicants.

[2:16] So over the next few weeks, we're going to continue working with a consultant, and

[2:22] we're going to be putting together some documents for the town and for the select

[2:26] board to review, and hopefully be back here on the 21st with formal recommendations

[2:30] from the task force. That will include a public information packet, the purpose of

[2:35] the commission, what the commission is and what it isn't, which I think has been a

[2:39] big part and a lot that we've discussed over the summer, anticipated

[2:43] responsibilities, time commitment, and how residents can get involved.

[2:47] We'll be going over everything from communication to the public, whether that's

[2:50] through a dedicated town webpage, what the recruitment process will look like, a

[2:56] rubric for screening potential candidates for a human rights commission, and we'll

[3:01] package all of that and present it to the select board.

[3:06] Our hope would be, and I believe it's on the agenda tonight, our hope would be for

[3:09] it to be on a town meeting, which fall or spring, but

[3:14] we'll navigate that once the select board decides what we're doing moving forward.

[3:21] We've talked about it being up to nine members,

[3:24] and that we don't need to necessarily start at nine.

[3:27] We want to be very intentful with what we're doing.

[3:30] As we're building that committee, we don't want to put people on it just to put

[3:33] people on it. We have specific roles we're looking for, specific skill sets that

[3:38] we're looking for,

[3:40] and we're going to make sure that we take the time to go through that and make sure

[3:43] everything is written up the way it should be when we present it to all of you.

[3:47] We've talked about a student representative and student alternate.

[3:51] We really want to make sure we have youth voice.

[3:54] And then also, it's very important to us to have a majority Lynnfield resident

[3:57] requirement. So these are just some specifics that we're looking at in regards to

[4:01] the proposed structure. And then there's obvious skills we're looking at,

[4:05] communication, active listening, conflict navigation.

[4:09] So as I said, we'd like to hopefully be back here on September 21st to present a

[4:15] more formal process and plan to all of you.

[4:19] So we'll spend the next couple of weeks really finalizing that proposed structure,

[4:23] finalizing the recruitment selection criteria, talking about that information

[4:27] packet. So even though we said that the task force would finish its work at the end

[4:31] of August, we're still going to take the next couple of weeks to make sure we're

[4:33] being thoughtful with what we're bringing forward to the select board, and then to

[4:37] residents in the town to vote on. And then, depending on if this is a

[4:43] fall town meeting or a spring town meeting item, things might look a little

[4:47] different. So if it's not a fall town meeting, for whatever reason, we're not going

[4:53] to stop the work just because of that.

[4:54] So we have a very thoughtful plan in place from October to April, where the task

[4:59] force can work with the select board to still go public, launch a public

[5:04] information page, start the recruitment process of an advisory committee, and

[5:09] really have that be the body that's in place until we can formalize a human rights

[5:13] commission, hopefully in the spring.

[5:14] So those are the conversations that we've had in our last two recent meetings.

[5:19] And if you have any questions around any of that, I'm happy to answer.

[5:24] Thank you. I think we'll expect probably more in-depth at the next meeting.

[5:29] Yes.

[5:30] Just so you're aware, I think we might be changing the date of it, so just stay

[5:32] tuned on the date.

[5:33] Okay.

[5:34] Just because it is a holiday for some folks.

[5:35] Okay.

[5:37] Thank you. That's normally the update that Rob gives, but we had Diana here today,

[5:39] so we figured we'd utilize her work there. So thank you.

[5:42] Awesome. If you have any questions, just let me know.

[5:44] Thanks, Diana.

[5:45] Thanks.

[5:47] All right. Moving through the agenda.

[5:48] So we have a review of the proposed state zoning changes and ADU.

[5:53] I believe you have Emily here today. Thank you.

[5:57] Mm-hmm.

[5:57] Mm-hmm. And so the goal of this is for us to just be able to review and discuss it

[6:03] with Emily. So Emily, the floor is yours. Thank you.

[6:07] So I guess in the last few years, Massachusetts has continued to throw

[6:12] curve balls at municipalities in terms of changing zoning

[6:16] and the rules that they hope will facilitate housing production across the state.

[6:21] I think everybody remembers the,

[6:24] I don't know, outrage, confusion, chaos created by the MBTA Zoning Act.

[6:30] Lynnfield successfully navigated that. We comply with that state law.

[6:33] We adopted that zoning successfully in 2021.

[6:36] Or, sorry, it was the state law was 2021, and our bylaw was passed in the fall of

[6:41] 2024.

[6:43] But in 2024, the state threw us another curve ball, and they adopted the Affordable

[6:49] Homes Act, which made ADUs, which are accessory dwelling units, be allowed

[6:55] by right in all municipalities across Massachusetts.

[6:59] Use by right means you don't need any special relief. You need a building permit.

[7:03] You don't need a special permit. You don't need a variance.

[7:05] If you have a single-family home or even a commercial property, you can put an

[7:10] accessory dwelling unit on your property.

[7:13] The state, when they first did that, shocked a lot of people because most

[7:16] municipalities like Lynnfield, we have single families only zoning.

[7:19] We don't have two families zoning. We don't have apartments necessarily.

[7:22] We only had allowed in-law apartments up until that time. The state took some time.

[7:28] They got some regulations on the books, and once they did that, Lynnfield knew what

[7:33] we could and couldn't regulate, and we went to town meeting, and we adopted a bylaw

[7:37] last fall, which granted site plan review to the Zoning Board of Appeals.

[7:42] So if you come to Lynnfield and you want to build an accessory dwelling unit, you

[7:47] need to go through site plan review with the Zoning Board of Appeals.

[7:51] Site plan review for an ADU is a little bit less cumbersome and

[7:57] burdensome than it would be, for example, for building a commercial property.

[8:01] And the reason that is, is the state said to towns, "You can only sort of skim the

[8:06] surface of what you can regulate in terms of this." It has to be allowed.

[8:10] You can't say no. But what we did in our zoning bylaw is we tried to put into

[8:16] place things that would minimize the impacts of the creation of these units

[8:22] on existing neighborhoods and neighbors and homes in Lynnfield.

[8:27] Somebody's neighborhood, everybody has a single-family house.

[8:30] They might have a pool. They might have a garage.

[8:31] It's sort of what everyone expects.

[8:34] But if suddenly everybody starts putting up additional buildings, essentially, it

[8:38] could be a smaller second home on your lot.

[8:43] The point of site plan review is to minimize

[8:46] How that construction may impact your neighbors, the environment, stormwater, you

[8:51] name it. It's meant to cover all the bases.

[8:53] That's what zoning does in Massachusetts.

[8:55] Mm-hmm.

[8:55] It gives the town the right to allow things to be built, but without

[9:01] harm to others. So we adopted that at fall town meeting last year, and we've been

[9:07] working through the process, trying to get people used to what that means.

[9:12] And recently, a multi-department group and multi-board group got together to come

[9:18] up with an application checklist to try to help that process be a little bit more

[9:22] clear for applicants and engineers and lawyers locally.

[9:27] And that will be a checklist that will go before the zoning board, potentially in

[9:31] October,

[9:33] to discuss and adopt formally. So applicants will have an understanding of

[9:39] what to come forward with when they show up at a zoning board meeting and apply.

[9:43] There was some confusion initially, "Hey, I thought ADUs were by right.

[9:46] Why do I have to do any of this?" And we still hear that a lot, but people are

[9:51] getting used to it. I've had some very constructive conversations.

[9:54] I actually just got off the phone with an engineer from one of the firms that files

[9:57] most of the applications here in town, and we just talked about it for half an

[10:01] hour. "Hey, what are you guys doing? What's going on?

[10:03] This is new." And I said, "Yes, it is new. The law is new.

[10:07] This is new to Lynnfield. We're trying to make sure that these can be allowed, but

[10:13] when they are built, that they don't cause problems for your neighbors or for the

[10:18] town." So it's a work in progress. I think it's getting better.

[10:23] And just as we thought we were almost there, the state announced this week that

[10:28] they're going to change the regulations and what towns can and can't do.

[10:32] Because some towns apparently have adopted regulations that are too strict and

[10:37] don't meet the state statute. I don't think we're in that boat, but they are about

[10:42] to announce the new regulations, and we'll have to double-check that what we're

[10:45] doing is still within the law, and we will do that and make any changes if we need

[10:50] to. In the meantime, I'll tell you that we have issued there are six active, either

[10:56] under construction or completed units, and six more in the pipeline.

[10:59] So people are coming to Lynnfield to build these. They want them.

[11:03] They're clamoring for them, and they're coming in.

[11:06] So the zoning board and the chairman's here speak to the fact that they're learning

[11:10] how to do it. It's been slippery, difficult, and sometimes argumentative among some

[11:15] folks, but it's a big change for Lynnfield, and the board is learning how to do it,

[11:21] and we're trying to do it well and equitably for both the applicant and the

[11:26] neighborhood that they're being proposed in.

[11:30] So hopefully,

[11:32] what the state changes this year, we'll be in compliance with, and we won't have to

[11:37] make any significant changes. I will say, however, the state is also

[11:43] potentially going to have some additional changes coming forward.

[11:49] With the budget in July, they already amended the zoning act again with the intent

[11:53] to boost housing production across the state.

[11:56] So far,

[11:59] we haven't seen it have a huge impact here.

[12:02] They lowered the standard for getting a variance, for any kind of variance, but the

[12:07] idea was supposed to be focused on housing.

[12:10] We don't know if that's how it's going to play out yet.

[12:13] They made a lot of technical nitty-gritty changes to the zoning act, which all are

[12:17] meant to make it easier to build.

[12:22] And I'm not going to get into the details because for most folks, the zoning

[12:25] vocabulary is like Greek, right? But they essentially made changes to the State Act

[12:30] to try to help people build more houses, whether it be multifamily, single family,

[12:35] altering your existing non-conforming house, anything you can think of, they

[12:40] tweaked to try to make it easier. So I'm expecting to see that in incremental

[12:44] changes for units to be produced here in town.

[12:50] More dramatic changes are potentially lumped with the economic development bill,

[12:54] which is still pending. It's made it halfway through the process.

[12:57] It's been in deliberation still at the state level. We might see it the next month.

[13:02] We don't know which parts of this will make it through the cutting room floor here.

[13:08] They have suggested, or what is included right now is two-family by right in every

[13:13] town in Massachusetts. That would be a pretty dramatic shift for Lynnfield.

[13:18] We don't know if that'll make the final cut.

[13:21] They are going to give grant preferences for communities that are facilitating

[13:27] housing production. So if towns don't meet certain criteria, it will be

[13:33] a slash mark on any grant applications we apply for.

[13:38] They're making it easier to convert commercial properties to residential.

[13:44] I don't know if that will have an impact here in Lynnfield, but I think that's

[13:48] really to convert underutilized commercial properties in some municipalities into

[13:52] housing.

[13:54] And they're also going to, the law would make all of our timelines

[14:00] for projects faster. Towns will have to react quicker and respond and issue

[14:06] permits faster, especially for bigger projects.

[14:10] None of this is finished, but those are within the next month or so, we might see

[14:14] those changes. So Lynnfield's just got to keep up with the state and its

[14:20] ever-changing landscape. But I think so far we're doing it.

[14:25] I'm not on the zoning board. I don't go to those meetings.

[14:28] I know they've been long, and some of them have been argumentative because folks

[14:32] are getting used to having new rules on the books, and

[14:37] we're all getting used to it. So if anyone has any questions, I'm happy to help.

[14:43] Thank you. That's challenging with it always changing.

[14:46] The state is definitely making it.

[14:48] Yeah.

[14:49] Zoning changes at the state level now, there's 2021, 2024, 2025, 2026.

[14:55] The Zoning Act hasn't been changed in 50 years.

[14:59] It was pretty much adopted and just a little change here and there.

[15:03] And in the last five years, they're just-

[15:06] Yeah

[15:06] ... changing all over the place. So, it's making it challenging for local

[15:11] municipalities to keep current and adopt, and adapt, I should say, to how

[15:16] it might have to change things locally.

[15:19] Okay. Any questions?

[15:22] Just one question, Elise.

[15:23] Sure.

[15:23] So as you were talking, I was thinking that at least it's my impression that most

[15:28] homes in Lynnfield are

[15:31] restrained by the septic system. So that would still be the case, I would

[15:37] imagine.

[15:38] It is still the case. We have had some applications come in where they've had

[15:44] the room and the capacity to make their system bigger.

[15:47] And as part of their ADU construction, have upgraded their septic system.

[15:52] We've had some properties where the system could not be made any larger based on

[15:56] its location. And then in that case, they have to modify the home to reduce a

[16:02] bedroom. So we've had one where if you build the ADU, you take out a wall, and you

[16:07] lose a bedroom in the house. So,

[16:11] that's hard for a lot of people to understand.

[16:14] "Hey, I want to build this for my mother." "You can't." "Why can't I?" And in

[16:20] Lynnfield, there are certain parts of town where your septic system cannot be made

[16:24] larger, and that's a groundwater protection district protection that's in place.

[16:29] And also, for drinking water, a lot of Lynnfield's wetlands are tributary to

[16:34] drinking water. And if that's the case, you can't make your system larger.

[16:38] So overall, in Lynnfield, there are a lot of properties where you have what you

[16:42] have for capacity, and that's all you can have.

[16:45] So if you want to add that bedroom by building an ADU, you have to take it out of

[16:49] your house. So, that's been a challenge for folks to understand, but that's

[16:54] definitely going to be the biggest controlling factor here in Lynnfield.

[16:58] Thank you.

[17:01] Thank you for the comprehensive breakdown.

[17:03] I just had three hopefully quick questions.

[17:06] In terms of Lynnfield ADUs, it sounds like there's been kind of a new flood of

[17:10] people applying. Do you have a sense of roughly what kind of ADUs they are?

[17:15] Is it rentals or getting your in-laws on property or?

[17:20] When someone applies, they don't always tell us.

[17:22] And I've seen most of them have been detached, I will say that.

[17:27] I've seen one that was an existing in-law from when we used to have in-laws that

[17:32] was modified and made larger within a dwelling, I believe for a family member.

[17:40] I've seen one that they didn't say whether it was...

[17:43] And it didn't look like it was for a family person.

[17:47] And we've had other folks tell us very specifically because sometimes they're in a

[17:51] hurry or concerned, and they really want to do it faster.

[17:54] It is for an aging parent.

[17:56] Mm-hmm.

[17:56] So I think we've had a mix. Um, is the only thing I can say. It's not required.

[18:02] They don't have to tell us, because we're not allowed to control how it's used.

[18:08] So it's not part of the application always.

[18:11] Interesting. And the only other two things, in terms of the basic change that's

[18:15] been done as a result of all this, one of the changes, is the only substantial

[18:19] change to add the site plan review, or are there other-

[18:23] So in terms for ADUs, yes, because a by-right use, you can't really do anything

[18:28] else.

[18:28] Okay.

[18:29] It's a building permit and a site plan review, is what you do when you-

[18:33] And it used to be just a building permit, basically.

[18:36] It's-

[18:36] If we hadn't changed the zoning bylaw, yes, it would only be a building permit.

[18:40] Okay.

[18:40] But because we wanted to have a little bit of control,

[18:46] not because we wanted to stop them, but because we, like I said, we wanted them to

[18:51] sort of be the best they can be. The only thing that you can do is site plan

[18:56] approval under the state law.

[18:58] Okay. The only other question I had, I think I know one of the goals of the

[19:02] committee that's giving things just to bring, as I understand, correct me if I'm

[19:05] wrong, like a bylaw change to fall town meeting.

[19:08] And I know they have to review tomorrow's change.

[19:10] It sounds like it's kind of shifting, but I guess-

[19:12] Right

[19:12] ... do you think you're, are you still on track to-

[19:15] So what we might, what we were thinking about for fall or spring town meeting, ADU

[19:21] sort of brought to light the need to more uniformly address drainage and stormwater

[19:27] across all residential construction.

[19:29] Right now in Lynnfield, we really only deal with stormwater on commercial

[19:32] properties, or large subdivisions, for example.

[19:37] But incremental changes on individual single-family lots we're realizing are adding

[19:42] up. And so as part of the ADU zoning, we are incorporating

[19:49] drainage review as part of that. And what we would like to do at town meeting is

[19:54] sort of bring that to all residential construction over a certain size.

[19:58] If you're building an ADU, 1,200 square feet of roof,

[20:03] and you have to comply, but your neighbor's putting in a 1,200 square foot garage

[20:07] and he doesn't, it doesn't really make any sense. It's the same amount of water.

[20:12] It's going to cause the same amount of problems. The use shouldn't matter.

[20:16] And so, that would require a general bylaw change so that we can

[20:22] address infiltration and drainage components of any major construction, whether

[20:27] it's an ADU, an addition, a garage.

[20:31] Right now we're missing that. We're capturing it on commercial properties.

[20:35] We're now capturing it on ADUs. But people are building big houses in Lynnfield,

[20:40] and big driveways, and big patios, and big pools, and

[20:44] we don't have a bylaw for that right now.

[20:46] So we would like to treat all properties equitably,

[20:52] regardless of what they're being used for.

[20:55] So it sounds like you're on track to kind of finalize whatever recommendations by

[20:58] late October then, before-

[21:00] Potentially. Yeah.

[21:02] I know we got to see because it sounds like the things are changing on a daily

[21:05] basis almost.

[21:07] Yeah.

[21:08] Okay. All right.

[21:08] But any changes to the ADU site plan approval process right now,

[21:15] well, I can't say that they won't have to go to town meeting. I don't know yet.

[21:18] Yep. Okay. Thank you.

[21:20] Until the state releases those changes, we won't know.

[21:22] All right. Awesome. Thank you so much.

[21:23] Yep.

[21:25] Thank you.

[21:29] All right. Next up is a vote to authorize the town to accept funds for the open

[21:33] space and rec, sorry, open space and recreation working group.

[21:38] Emily. Emily?

[21:39] Emily.

[21:40] Oh, excuse me.

[21:41] Open space.

[21:42] You're on two. You're on two.

[21:45] Nice try, though.

[21:48] Thank you.

[21:48] She's stalking me.

[21:51] All right. Sorry. Thank you. Could you say it one more time?

[21:55] Open space and recreation working group.

[21:57] Right. Okay. Currently on the town's website, you can donate to the

[22:03] war memorial via a button. At one point, we added, with permission, a button to

[22:09] donate to the Partridge Island Boardwalk potential reconstruction.

[22:14] And the open space working group, we've had other folks come to us and say, "Well,

[22:17] what if I want to donate to Beaver Dam Brook," or, "What if I want to donate to a

[22:21] different property?" Right now, the Town of Lynnfield has the conservation fund,

[22:26] which is sort of an unrestricted fund that is, once money's in it, it's

[22:32] at the discretion of the commission to spend it. We've used it to buy property.

[22:36] We've used it to amend or correct problems at properties.

[22:41] But some people feel they want to give to a particular project.

[22:45] And in order for us to create those dedicated funds, the commission needs select

[22:50] board approval. And so the open space working group has asked for approval to

[22:56] be able to create, I know specifically a fund for Beaver Dam Brook Reservation.

[23:00] I don't know if we need your approval for each type of fund-

[23:06] Mm-hmm

[23:07] ... or if we are just looking to be able to create more than one button,

[23:12] essentially. Right now, the only specific, you can either donate to the commission,

[23:16] and the conservation fund, and overall, or you can donate only to Partridge Island

[23:21] as a dedicated expense account. And the open space working group, because they're

[23:24] working so much on the Beaver Dam Brook Reservation, and people have been

[23:27] interested in that property, they would like to be able to have a dedicated fund

[23:31] for that purpose.

[23:34] Do you know the answer if we need separate accounts or if we, uh-

[23:37] So it can't put in the conservation fund.

[23:39] That's one's for gift funds, so you have to accept the gift.

[23:42] So if we're doing multiple gifts, it would have to be multiple funds that we set

[23:46] up, and multiple buttons. But if we just have one gift for

[23:51] conservation open planning, we put it in there, and then you guys can decide what

[23:54] to do with it.

[23:56] So they can manage it and keep track of it-

[23:58] Correct

[23:58] ... where it was specifically asked to go?

[24:00] Right. So if somebody wanted it to go to a specific purpose, we can do that

[24:04] internally into the fund, and then keep track of that versus-

[24:08] Okay

[24:08] ... the gift account, which would be differently controlled, right?

[24:12] Yeah. This would be a gift fund. That's all it can be is a gift fund.

[24:15] Okay.

[24:16] So it can't go in the conservation. It can't go in open space.

[24:18] It has to go to a gift fund.

[24:19] And there wouldn't be all these separate funds.

[24:20] We just can have the one, and we can keep track of everything.

[24:24] Just the one.

[24:24] Okay. So just the vote tonight would only be to accept the funds, to allow them to

[24:27] accept the funds.

[24:29] Any questions from folks? Nope? All right, I'll take a motion then.

[24:34] All right. I'll move that the select board authorize the Town of Lynnfield to

[24:38] accept funds on behalf of...

[24:43] Is this where the wording changes from what was proposed?

[24:47] What are they accepting the funds on behalf of?

[24:49] Because I heard a couple of different things.

[24:51] It would be, I guess, it would be open space and conservation committee or working

[24:56] group.

[24:56] Okay. Can you explain-

[24:57] So it can be for the group itself, not have to be-

[25:00] For the group itself, but the group doesn't have any spending authority, so it

[25:03] would have to be someone who's a committee in town that has spending authority.

[25:08] But who would that be in this case?

[25:09] Yeah. In the motion.

[25:12] Is it the planning department or the parks committee?

[25:14] The planning department.

[25:14] Planning department.

[25:15] Planning department. Okay.

[25:15] All right. So I'll move that the select board authorize the Town of Lynnfield to

[25:19] accept funds on behalf of the open space and recreation working group and

[25:25] the planning commission?

[25:28] Planning department.

[25:29] Department, to support open space and recreational planning initiatives.

[25:34] And I'll second.

[25:34] Okay. Motion's been made and seconded. All those in favor?

[25:36] Aye.

[25:37] Aye. Okay. Motion passes. Thank you.

[25:39] Thanks, Emily.

[25:41] All right. Next up, we have an update from the DPW.

[25:46] I believe John John is here for that.

[25:53] Good evening. Thanks for having me back.

[25:57] A lot of what our department does is a

[26:01] routine based on the season we're in. There's a lot of cutting grass.

[26:05] There's a lot of grooming of baseball fields, lining of fields, picking up of trash

[26:09] that happens on a day-to-day basis.

[26:12] But in the summer, we really make a big push to improve the community and work with

[26:18] a lot of groups across the community, and these one-off projects.

[26:22] So what I'd like to do this evening really briefly is show you some photographs and

[26:28] quickly update the community on some of these projects that have been going on in

[26:32] addition to the day-to-day routine of the department.

[26:35] So Eric, if you could guide us through.

[26:40] That used to be the site of the old substation.

[26:42] It's now the post office, the USPS building.

[26:48] That building's under lease for up to 20 years with USPS.

[26:54] It's a standalone building now. We took the substation away from it.

[26:59] Eric can go to the next slide as well

[27:04] Close it up and now it's a standalone building.

[27:07] On the site of South Station is where, starting end of next week, definitely the

[27:13] week after, we'll be

[27:15] concluding that last piece of the public safety project, which is

[27:21] construction of a parking lot. It'll be a public parking lot behind fire

[27:25] headquarters for use by the community at fire

[27:31] headquarters or any other business in that area. Next slide, Eric.

[27:38] The old South Library, which we upgraded and

[27:44] which housed the fire department administrative operations for a few years, was

[27:49] sold. Town meeting appropriated that money to be used at the

[27:55] library.

[27:57] This summer, we completed a full roof replacement.

[28:01] That wasn't just the asphalt shingles.

[28:03] That was removal of three layers of asphalt shingles, and in many cases, like you

[28:08] can see here, the wood underlayment and some structural pieces

[28:14] to the roof. Next slide, Eric.

[28:19] So it wasn't just an asphalt shingle roof replacement project.

[28:22] It was really the first significant upgrade to the library from the top down.

[28:29] The project is substantially complete. It's under budget.

[28:32] There are some leftover funds that we'll work with the library trustees on

[28:38] figuring out how to invest, that will be invested back into the building to some

[28:42] extent.

[28:44] But that project was started and completed this summer. Next slide.

[28:50] We worked, as I said, with many community groups.

[28:52] This was a donation from Winfield Little League.

[28:55] It's been in the works for a long time, but it's a press box at the Little League

[29:00] field at New Hall.

[29:03] All of those banners are district banners that Little League has won through the

[29:06] years. But the great part is because of this press box, because of the partnership

[29:10] with Little League and the high level of maintenance at that facility, these kids

[29:14] are now able to play at home, at least in the early rounds of the district

[29:19] tournament. That was never the case 10, 12 years ago, when my oldest

[29:25] was playing Little League. So it's nice for them to be able to host local teams in

[29:30] the summer. It's a great spot in the summer, and this press box is another good

[29:34] amenity that will continue that for the years to come. Next slide.

[29:38] This was a storage room off the gym.

[29:42] This was another partnership, this time with the Winfield Middle

[29:47] School PE teachers. They came up with this idea to turn a closet into

[29:53] a small weight wellness room that they could incorporate into their

[29:59] curriculum in the middle school.

[30:02] So it started as a closet, and next slide, it turned into a small little weight

[30:07] room for middle school students. I'm not sure how they're incorporating it into the

[30:13] curriculum yet in this open house.

[30:16] But it is being used. It is open, and this was fully funded through a state

[30:21] earmark. So it was done off the tax base.

[30:23] It was done through work with our state representative and the state legislature.

[30:28] Next slide. This is another similar funded project.

[30:33] This is at Glen Meadow. The infield of this project, through use and

[30:40] through the years, was holding a lot of water.

[30:43] We were able to rebuild the entire infield, and this was done, again, through an

[30:48] earmark fund off the budget. And you could quickly go through the next few slides,

[30:53] Eric.

[30:56] You can see that we made improvements there, and in that right corner is a batting

[31:01] tunnel. So the kids never had adequate space to warm up.

[31:06] So we've created that at Glen Meadow. Glen Meadow is the 50/70 baseball field.

[31:12] So Little League is at New Hall, 50/70.

[31:14] They could play here, or they could play Little League here.

[31:17] That's in between the 90-foot diamond and

[31:23] New Hall. Next slide.

[31:26] At the athletic complex, a lot of people forget,

[31:32] at the time, it was a million-dollar investment the community made through various

[31:37] funds for an amenities building. Inside that amenities building, there are outdoor

[31:42] locker rooms. There are trainers' rooms, coaches' rooms.

[31:47] This was built 11 years ago. It was starting to show its wear and tear, so this

[31:51] summer we painted it. Next slide. This is one of the two locker rooms

[31:57] in that area as well. So I know that high school sports are now using it.

[32:02] Over the summer, we rented it. There was a semi-pro soccer team that's affiliated

[32:07] with one of the clubs in the areas that actually played home here and used this

[32:12] facility. So it's all painted and, again, investing in items that are starting to

[32:17] show wear and tear, and we can keep the value of these properties up. Next slide.

[32:23] This is a cross-country route. So this is something, actually, I'm pretty proud of.

[32:29] The cross-country coaches last year-- Cross-country historically has run through

[32:34] the grant. They start in the grant, they end in the grant.

[32:37] There's no connection between anything they're doing and the high school, contrary

[32:42] to our other programs that play at the high school, are able to play a game

[32:48] and have a football team walk by their game, things like that.

[32:51] The cross-country team now has the ability to start and end races right in front of

[32:56] the concession building at the high school.

[32:58] This was a brainstorm by the former athletic director with the cross-country

[33:03] coaches, and we were able to go in and manipulate some of that area in blue to

[33:08] allow the kids to use it as cross-country, and I think they're about to run their

[33:13] first meet there in a few weeks. Next slide.

[33:17] We worked with the open space group and the planning group.

[33:22] We did plant 25 trees. We've since planted at least another dozen

[33:28] for the 250th celebration. We hope this is a tradition to continue.

[33:32] That's what the trees looked like.

[33:33] It was planting the trees, it was adding the ribbon, it was watering and

[33:37] maintaining them at least two to three times a week. So it was a work in itself.

[33:42] Next slide. So over the spring and summer,

[33:47] this is another off-the-budget investment.

[33:50] We've added software, and we've created a program to manage our work orders and

[33:56] also to look at a little bit of asset management in our buildings.

[34:01] I've spoken about this two or three times, but what I'm here to update you is that

[34:05] it's ready to launch. We'll be doing some significant training in the next two,

[34:09] three weeks. We hope to launch it internally with all our departments on October

[34:13] 1st. Next slide.

[34:17] The rail trail has been spoken about more than three times.

[34:21] It's been spoken about for a couple of decades.

[34:25] We were able to bring that to the bid phase this summer, as anticipated.

[34:30] We do have a low bidder. MassDOT's currently-- It's within budget, and

[34:36] MassDOT's currently reviewing qualifications approach, and we hope to soon be

[34:41] notified of who they intend to award to and start to prepare next steps

[34:47] with the trail. I still anticipate construction starting likely

[34:54] tail end of winter, early spring, but we'll see what the contractor wants to do and

[34:58] how he wants to do it. Once we know who it is, there'll be a lot of community

[35:01] outreach, there'll be a lot of updating of abutters that takes place.

[35:06] We've spoken a lot in

[35:09] what-ifs or a lot of we assume, but now with a

[35:14] contractor, we're going to be able to create some definity in what this is going to

[35:19] look like in the next 12 to 18 months until it's opened and turned over to the

[35:25] town. Next slide.

[35:29] In the summer, there aren't kids in school, so this is our shot to really provide

[35:34] some update and keep the buildings clean.

[35:37] Everybody thinks summer's so long, but from a public works maintenance perspective,

[35:42] we really have from just after 4th of July to just about the middle of

[35:48] August to really have the buildings to ourself. God bless community schools.

[35:53] They took over three-quarters of the school until two weeks before.

[35:57] So we had the high school even less, but that's a program that supports

[36:02] school budget and a way that'll work around them.

[36:04] But- You'll see the next two or three slides.

[36:08] Eric, you can quickly go through them.

[36:09] These are all gymnasiums that were refinished. The floors were refinished.

[36:14] They see a lot of use throughout the year.

[36:18] Fall, it's volleyball, chair, dance.

[36:22] Winter, it turns over to basketball. In the spring, it's always spring sports.

[36:26] They can't get outside, they're back inside. More basketball and AAU.

[36:31] So they're constantly used, and this is a good chance to refinish them. Next slide.

[36:37] We were also able to work with the Summer Street PTO.

[36:40] This is the opening last week.

[36:44] A lot of planning for three weeks of work, but we were able to schedule it very

[36:49] aggressively,

[36:51] in very great detail, and I applaud everyone that was involved with this at Summer

[36:55] Street, who did a great job in planning the equipment.

[36:58] Equipment doesn't always come perfect.

[37:02] 90% of this did, and the 10%, we had a little bit of wiggle room to overcome.

[37:07] So the preschool playground is complete, is renovated, is open for use.

[37:13] Next slide. This is the auditorium at the high

[37:18] school. When I sent this picture the day we finished up this work, I sent it to the

[37:24] principal at the high school. And she was like, "Wow, it's like night and day."

[37:27] With no pun intended in that joke, because it literally was.

[37:31] These are the house lights that are upgraded at the

[37:36] high school. This was also done with an earmark.

[37:40] This is the millionaire's tax, the

[37:43] economic... What was it? Millionaire's tax.

[37:48] Fish YES.

[37:49] Yeah. Fish YES. Fish YES, right. So this also came from the state.

[37:55] We are going to do a little more work at the high school, and then the middle

[37:58] school is going to see similar house light improvements.

[38:02] And the middle school's also going to get about $150,000 of theater

[38:07] improvements between money that we appropriated last year and earmarks in

[38:13] fiscal '27 that we're about to sign. So we're really looking forward to that.

[38:18] I should have a proposal to the middle school theater group within the next couple

[38:23] of weeks on what's going to happen.

[38:24] But house lights are already in the works, and we hope to have them in place

[38:30] within the month. Next slide.

[38:34] The middle school is over 20 years old, hasn't been painted yet.

[38:37] So we've started a program where we're painting a grade per opportunity.

[38:43] Let's put it this way. In the summer, we had the opportunity to do the seventh

[38:46] grade wing. So all those classrooms, bathrooms, hallways were redone.

[38:51] We'll take a similar approach to the rest of the school. Next slide.

[38:56] Huckleberry's office, it was over 22 years old.

[39:00] This also was painted with a new rug. Next slide.

[39:04] Winfield Community Schools is a tiny little office in the corner of the high school

[39:08] that tends to get forgotten. A new ceiling, new rugs, new paint.

[39:13] And this school, which sees a ton of foot traffic with parents of all

[39:19] ages coming in and out, registering for things, is now completely renovated.

[39:23] Next slide.

[39:25] Sometimes the little things we do make a big difference. We did this in-house.

[39:30] We upgraded all the trash facilities to hide them away.

[39:34] Little, small things, small money, but they make a big difference. Next slide.

[39:40] The senior center floors were all upgraded, all the carpet in the main floor.

[39:46] This was done through CIP funding, town CIP funding.

[39:50] The main room hardwood floor was refinished.

[39:57] The

[39:59] tiles were waxed, and all the rug was upgraded and replaced.

[40:04] And we had a little bit of a lag between when we started the work and when the

[40:08] carpet showed up. We had about a week, and we actually repainted the entire

[40:12] facility as well. So senior center is in good shape. Next slide.

[40:18] This is the home of an upgraded thrift shop.

[40:21] But this was before they brought all their stuff back in.

[40:24] So they've done a really nice job. Kelly's done a tremendous job, and it's nice to

[40:28] put some improvements into that building.

[40:30] We've been working with the Historic Commission, the Pope Bridges house, restoring

[40:35] that after we've used it for police. We redid it.

[40:38] We renovated the inside, all the floors. We repainted the inside.

[40:42] We did some work on the outside in terms of landscaping and we worked with

[40:47] conservation in selecting some planting in and around that area. Next slide.

[40:52] And we've been working with the historic group to turn this into the historic

[40:56] museum you heard about a couple of weeks ago.

[41:01] A big chunk of the spring and the summer was on roadwork.

[41:06] All in all, round numbers, we probably invested about $2

[41:11] million of funding on roads and road infrastructure.

[41:17] A half a million of it came from Complete Streets.

[41:20] That was two years of our own town investment.

[41:23] And then Chapter 90 was about a $700,000, $800,000 investment on top of that.

[41:29] It's a very unique year in where we didn't do roadwork last year, so we're able to

[41:33] carry money over, but still. Edwards out and Coleman out were repaved.

[41:40] Summer Street and Salem Street's the Complete Street project that we completed.

[41:44] Summer Street from Parsons to the South Common, that was right in front of here,

[41:49] was done, some of which was done with the public safety project.

[41:53] Tedford Lane was completed. Baldwin and Russet.

[41:57] We upgraded sidewalks along Walnut Street, which were treacherous to walk on from

[42:02] Salem Street to Saugus. And we did parking lot work, a little bit of parking lot

[42:08] work at the fire headquarters. They'll be completed this fall, and we were able to

[42:12] complete all the parking lots in and around this area, which really closed and

[42:16] completed the public safety project correctly.

[42:19] We worked with National Grid to repave the stretch of Summer Street in front of the

[42:24] library as well. So soon, in the next couple of weeks, we'll be headed

[42:30] back to Apple Hill. This time to do Apple Hill, to complete roadwork on Apple Hill.

[42:35] We'll be completing work on Sparhawk.

[42:38] That work started three years ago with National Grid upgrades.

[42:43] Winfield San Awata District has funded 80% of the curb-to-curb repair of

[42:49] Bay State Road because of water main improvements they performed a couple of years

[42:54] back, and to connect with Wakefield MWRA Water.

[42:58] We're also going to be doing some patchwork on Essex Street.

[43:02] Eric, you can go through these slides quickly, but these are some photos of

[43:05] roadwork. This is roadwork that recently took place this past few

[43:11] months.

[43:18] And that's the Complete Street project.

[43:22] This community really stepped up to the plate and helped invest in new equipment

[43:27] for public work so we could do our job both in the winter and throughout the year.

[43:33] We funded eight pieces with

[43:37] the funding that we created, but we were able, through some very aggressive

[43:43] procurement, we were able to get up to 11 pieces of new equipment for public works.

[43:48] And they're all seasonal. Everything that we've purchased can be used throughout

[43:52] the year, including the sidewalk tractor that's used mainly for plowing, but we

[43:57] bought different attachments. We were out cutting grass with it three weeks ago.

[44:02] It can be used to fall clean up. It can be used to help us at the high school to

[44:06] maintain that complex as well. So we really looked to

[44:12] purchase diverse equipment, things that we can use throughout all aspects of our

[44:18] work, and we were able to stretch that dollar pretty aggressively where we got an

[44:22] extra three pieces of equipment. Next slide.

[44:28] So what's next?

[44:31] Like I said, we're going to be doing the headquarters parking lot.

[44:34] We have upgrades to the DPW break room and bathrooms that were funded through CIP.

[44:40] That will start in a few weeks. We'll be sealing and repainting the tennis court

[44:44] and the pickleball courts at the middle school this fall.

[44:48] We're continuing to work at trying to solve some neighborhood drainage issues so

[44:54] that we can present those to CIP for the upcoming year, including other stormwater

[45:00] initiatives and improvements. Rail Trail award and construction is imminent.

[45:05] A formal notice of that is. Continue to work with Historic at reopening Pope

[45:10] Bridges House. We think that should be happening in the next month.

[45:15] And a big one for our administration is we're going to be looking to start

[45:21] negotiating a new trash contract to go into effect on July 1st of

[45:26] 2027, and we're going to be working with recreation to look at some opportunities,

[45:31] whether it's through,

[45:34] mainly at the concession stand, work with LAA and recreation to see if we can

[45:39] utilize that resource a little more down there to create some additional revenue,

[45:45] but also to make sure there are resources in play for activities throughout the

[45:50] year.

[45:51] Okay. Thank you for the update. Glad to see a lot of the progress on the roads

[45:56] especially too. That's a great update to see. So, questions, comments?

[46:00] No, thank you for a comprehensive report.

[46:03] Yeah, very impressive.

[46:04] Thank you.

[46:05] You guys have been busy.

[46:07] All right.

[46:09] We're going to move on to our early voting schedule.

[46:15] You going to talk about early voting schedule?

[46:17] Stephanie.

[46:18] Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry, Stephanie. Yeah, come on up.

[46:26] Good evening. My name is Stephanie. I'm the town clerk.

[46:30] Good evening. My name is Stephanie.

[46:31] I'm the town clerk here in Lynnfield, and I'm here to get the early voting schedule

[46:36] for the November 3rd state election approved by the select board.

[46:40] If you have a look, both Saturdays offer six hours each.

[46:44] The first week is on a modified schedule, about 65% of our normal business hours,

[46:49] and the second week is our full business hours as required.

[46:56] Thank you. Any questions?

[46:57] Nope.

[46:58] All right. With that, I will take a motion.

[47:01] I'll move that the select board approve the in-person early voting schedule,

[47:06] location, and operating hours for the upcoming state election as submitted by the

[47:10] town clerk.

[47:11] I second.

[47:12] Okay. Motion's made and seconded. All those in favor?

[47:14] Aye.

[47:15] Thank you.

[47:16] Thank you.

[47:16] Thanks, Stephanie.

[47:18] Just for folks at home, the schedule will be posted, but it starts on Saturday,

[47:22] October 17th, and runs through Friday, October 30th.

[47:25] Voting here at Town Hall for early voting.

[47:29] All right. Next up, we have facilities use permit requests.

[47:33] So I think we have, let's see, one for the tree committee, friends of the library,

[47:38] See the Good Walk, Turkey Trot. Everyone's getting in early this year.

[47:42] Northeast R 5K, and a one-day liquor license for the fall gathering at Market

[47:47] Street.

[47:49] Any questions or comments on any of the applications?

[47:52] Okay. With that, I'll take a motion.

[47:54] I'll move that the select board

[47:57] approve the submitted facility and field use permit applications.

[48:03] I second.

[48:05] Okay. Motion's made and seconded. All those in favor?

[48:07] Aye.

[48:09] Aye.

[48:09] All right. Next up, we have the golf committee, sorry, the golf equipment

[48:12] contracts, not the committee. Rob?

[48:15] Just maintenance equipment. It's on budget, and obviously you have to approve the

[48:19] contracts for the golf course.

[48:23] Any questions for Rob?

[48:24] None.

[48:28] Nope.

[48:28] I'll move that the select board approve the contracts for golf maintenance and

[48:31] operations equipment for the Reading Meadow Golf Course as presented.

[48:35] Second.

[48:35] Okay. Motion's made and seconded. All those in favor?

[48:37] Aye.

[48:38] Aye.

[48:38] Aye. Motion passes.

[48:41] All right. I think next up we need to have a discussion on special town meeting in

[48:45] the fall.

[48:48] And then decide. We're deciding tonight, yes? Yes. Okay.

[48:52] So if, Rob, you want to kick us off?

[48:54] Sure.

[48:54] Thank you.

[48:55] So unlike most years, we don't have a lot of potential articles at town meeting, so

[48:59] the question for the board is whether or not we want to invest in another town

[49:04] meeting, whether or not

[49:07] 120, 175 people attend, and that's a decision for tonight.

[49:13] Also, is the movement of the town meeting to the 9th, as we note usually in

[49:18] October. That's for us to better prepare, because some of these things are very

[49:21] last minute. Right now, we have a local business who is looking to expand parking,

[49:26] which would require a change in zoning voted by town meeting.

[49:30] We have the Human Rights Commission.

[49:33] That would need to be approved, to make the commission as part of the bylaw.

[49:38] They could operate as a committee until the spring, but that's a decision the board

[49:42] has to make. We have a fire contract that we settled that we could fund and then

[49:46] come back in April to refill that pot.

[49:51] And then Emily is working on the stormwater that she discussed.

[49:56] So right now, those are the only four-

[50:01] Potential

[50:02] ... potential. Each of them are a little shaky, but

[50:04] those are what we have right now. And of course, any citizen petition, but we've

[50:08] not received any.

[50:09] Okay.

[50:09] So the board needs to decide whether they want to move the date and whether or not

[50:13] they think it's worthy of the investment and the time to have a town meeting.

[50:17] And what does it cost us per town meeting?

[50:19] It's about $20,000. I mean, we can reduce the clickers,

[50:25] and obviously the TV production sound are the two most important things.

[50:29] Mm-hmm.

[50:29] The election workers that we have that night are a cost.

[50:34] They work for very low pay, and we appreciate them.

[50:37] So it comes out to about $20,000.

[50:39] And if I may, if we don't get a quorum and we go another night, it's double the

[50:43] cost.

[50:44] Yeah.

[50:44] Because we have to pay for everything again.

[50:46] Okay.

[50:49] All right. Thoughts?

[50:50] Well, it concerns me, because none of the issues are going to draw people to the

[50:55] meeting, I would think.

[50:57] Mm-hmm.

[50:58] And so the chance of getting a quorum would be jeopardized.

[51:03] But the one thing I heard tonight that did concern me, if we did not have the

[51:08] November meeting, was a couple of things that Emily referred to with getting some

[51:14] rules and regs in place.

[51:15] Mm-hmm.

[51:16] And I don't know if that being put off till April is worth

[51:22] considering.

[51:23] And some of those are still continuing to change, so-

[51:26] Mm-hmm

[51:26] ... I think maybe some of it should be ready for October, but I'm curious if the

[51:30] state's still working through what they've got to work through.

[51:32] Well, it sounds like the state-

[51:33] And it's going to be a waterfall

[51:34] ... is still flexing, so.

[51:34] Yeah. It's going to be waterfall effect.

[51:39] Is there any information on what the impact would be to the applications if we held

[51:43] off till April on those?

[51:44] She, I talked to her about that.

[51:45] Yeah.

[51:46] She

[51:47] wasn't overly concerned. One, the subcommittee that he created hasn't met yet, but

[51:52] also, she is looking at possible some regulations that don't need to go to

[51:58] town meeting.

[51:59] Okay.

[51:59] And she shared that tonight.

[52:00] Yeah.

[52:00] That's her concern. She felt comfortable that-

[52:03] Okay

[52:03] ... if we waited.

[52:05] Okay.

[52:06] Alex, if I may, too. We really have a deadline too, for town meeting too.

[52:10] We have to have it done by a certain day because we have to have the classification

[52:13] hearing, we have to submit the tax rate by December 1st.

[52:16] So legally we can't submit a tax rate until five days after special town meeting,

[52:21] so we're kind of up against the wall with the dates too.

[52:24] And I believe that those weeks that we haven't town meeting is the tournaments at

[52:29] high school sports, soccer, field hockey and so forth, too.

[52:35] If we didn't have the special town meeting, we could set that one meeting too by

[52:39] the deadline as well.

[52:40] Right. So I think we have the classification hearing going on November 16th.

[52:46] Okay. Right after that, yeah. Okay.

[52:48] So.

[52:49] Okay. Jeff?

[52:50] I guess my thought is I'm very wary of...

[52:55] I know it hasn't been scheduled, but essentially canceling the tradition of town

[52:58] meeting. I do think that the HRC would bring people out, to your point.

[53:03] I'm not sure that it would bring out 200, 500 people.

[53:07] But I do think that if we scheduled it, I'm also kind of wary of, I know there

[53:12] haven't been any citizen petitions.

[53:14] I don't know if anybody was planning to submit anything, but

[53:18] not letting people at least submit a petition, go through the process.

[53:22] Mm-hmm.

[53:23] I haven't heard, just anecdotally about anything else that would be coming.

[53:28] And I also think I'm wary of, like in April, if there are more articles, if it ends

[53:33] up being a incredibly long town meeting.

[53:36] And I actually thought we were going to only have two items.

[53:39] I'm glad we would have four, but I think, can we clear the decks for April, so that

[53:44] it's not like a progressively longer town meeting. Does that make sense?

[53:48] Mm-hmm. Yeah.

[53:49] If I may.

[53:50] Yeah.

[53:50] We do have four. The only issue I have is that the business we're talking about

[53:54] hasn't even begun the process of submitting a plan yet.

[53:58] And like Dave said, not only does this board have to have a meeting, we have to

[54:02] schedule a meeting with zoning and public-

[54:05] Zoning, public hearing. We have all deadlines that we need

[54:06] ... 30 days. So we do have four, which is a good thing.

[54:09] That's true.

[54:10] It could be three, it could be one, it could be two, it could be five.

[54:15] Either way, we do what we have to do.

[54:17] Mm-hmm.

[54:18] But I've never had a town meeting like this where it's so kind of up in the air.

[54:21] Yeah.

[54:22] I guess, just curious logistically, if we decided to have a town meeting, because I

[54:26] think that if we schedule it, lock it down, publicize, people know about it.

[54:31] Is there a deadline by which we could cancel it later if one or three of these

[54:36] fall through? Because I think it is a good point that some of them are kind of

[54:41] shaky for, yeah.

[54:43] If I may, through the chair. Stephanie, do you have a deadline for the clickers?

[54:47] I do. So within probably two months

[54:51] Today.

[54:53] Today.

[54:55] So the 9th of September.

[54:57] Yeah, today.

[54:58] We have to secure the clickers, and obviously if we don't sign a quote, they're

[55:02] just going to outsource them to another community, so sooner rather than later.

[55:06] You know, two months, so today. In theory, though, we don't need clickers to run

[55:10] town meetings. I recall there was one town meeting where the clickers weren't

[55:13] there. They did hand votes. We don't need them, but a lot of people like to use

[55:18] them. Okay. Yeah.

[55:21] And I think that Diana mentioned, too, the recommendations from the Anti-Hate Task

[55:26] Force. They're prepared to recommend either way so they can continue the work and

[55:29] continue to move forward and continue with the formation, in a different capacity

[55:33] with the recommendation to us. So they're looking at all aspects of how to operate

[55:38] in the event that we didn't have it.

[55:41] I guess one other question, and it was kind of an open question, what are we

[55:44] anticipating for spring town meeting at this point?

[55:46] Are there any other common things would be these, if these four went through, they

[55:50] would shift to April? And is there anything else?

[55:55] Budget as usual.

[55:55] Budget.

[55:56] Yep.

[55:57] And everything that I'm going to be talking about tonight-

[55:59] Yeah

[55:59] ... which potentially-

[56:01] That's one way, spring town meeting traditionally or I think by law, it's like

[56:05] there's five kind of houses

[56:06] It's true. Fall is usually zoning and things like that, and spring is usually

[56:10] everything else.

[56:11] Yeah.

[56:11] And we did do some cleanup on what we had to bring to town meeting versus what we

[56:14] could decide on here, too, so hopefully it won't be that long list of fees and

[56:19] everything like that. We won't have to go through those items anymore.

[56:21] No, we only had 19 articles at the annual town meeting.

[56:24] I don't see it being-

[56:25] I think more this time

[56:26] ... more than 20.

[56:29] Yeah.

[56:29] Because we're not going to have big capital budgets.

[56:31] We're not going to have-

[56:31] Mm-hmm

[56:32] ... those things.

[56:34] I guess, for me, and I think we can discuss it, the two that I'm most interested

[56:39] in, that I was aware of was the stormwater one and the HRC.

[56:42] The HRC, I can follow up with Diana, but I do have questions about where it's at,

[56:48] when we're going to actually be able to review it.

[56:51] It is two months away, so I'm not sure that they'd be able to finalize everything.

[56:55] It sounds like they're planning on it, but I just have questions.

[56:58] I'm sure planning to come to the next meeting-

[56:59] The ninth

[57:00] ... with a recommendation.

[57:01] Yeah.

[57:01] In this next meeting.

[57:03] But with everything in place, like this is the number of members, this is the

[57:06] charge, this is-

[57:07] The recommendation, yeah.

[57:08] Okay.

[57:08] Mm-hmm. We would have to decide on it. They're not going to decide.

[57:11] We're going to decide. But they would come ready for that meeting.

[57:13] Yeah.

[57:15] Hmm.

[57:16] I guess, just speaking for myself, obviously, I lean towards having it.

[57:21] I know it's an additional expense.

[57:22] It's

[57:24] risky, but I do think, again, if we schedule the date, publicly communicate the

[57:29] date, ask neighbors and friends to say, "Hey, can you commit to going on this day?"

[57:33] I think we could get quorum.

[57:36] Mm-hmm.

[57:36] And again, I'm wary of letting these things slip to April.

[57:40] Mm-hmm.

[57:41] Obviously, I respect my fellow board members and the will.

[57:46] No, it's a good discussion. And it's what we had to weigh tonight, so we had to

[57:49] figure it out because we've got to decide on clickers by the end of tonight,

[57:52] probably.

[57:54] In 20 minutes.

[57:54] 20 minutes, yeah.

[57:55] Yeah.

[57:55] So,

[57:58] I would personally lean towards not having it, just because I do feel like a lot of

[58:02] these things can operate, and one of them, especially the stormwater, which was a

[58:04] concern as well, does feel like it's still in a bit of

[58:08] flux. If Emily was very concerned about it, I think I'd be leaning more towards-

[58:12] Right

[58:12] ... supporting that and supporting what we need to get those done.

[58:15] Yep.

[58:16] But it does sound like the state is in a bit of flux, too, so I'm not entirely sold

[58:20] that that's going to be fully ready and fully baked for us to be able to get to,

[58:22] too. And it sounds like the Anti-Hate Task Force has a plan for how to move

[58:26] forward, regardless of whether we have it.

[58:28] So I'm in the camp of possibly not needing it.

[58:31] I think maybe-

[58:32] And I have the same reasons, really.

[58:34] I think if Emily had expressed some concern-

[58:37] Yeah

[58:37] ... I would definitely run for the meeting.

[58:40] And I think HRC has done their planning, so I think we're covered on really the two

[58:46] major ones.

[58:47] Yeah. I think the one thing I'd ask if we don't have fall town meeting for the HRC

[58:53] is just better definition, because I thought that they were going to appoint, or we

[58:58] might appoint a temporary HRC advisory group separate from the task force, which

[59:02] would be a bridge between the task force and the HRC.

[59:07] That is the plan. So what we would do, October, November, ask for

[59:12] applicants.

[59:13] Okay.

[59:13] Go through that process. The board would vote.

[59:15] The intent, hopefully, is that the people who are appointed would then become the

[59:20] Human Rights Commission. They'd be appointed in December, and then we-

[59:25] Yeah, January.

[59:25] January.

[59:25] Review the applications December, appointments in January.

[59:27] Appoint January, then the committee starts until April, in which they're formalized

[59:31] as a bylaw committee.

[59:32] And I think they have that timeline kind of mapped out for what that would look

[59:34] like as well.

[59:38] Are everyone good with questions? Ready to make a motion or however that lands?

[59:44] Well, do we need to make a motion?

[59:46] Yeah, we-

[59:47] If it's in the negative.

[59:49] Right.

[59:49] Oh, do we need to make a motion to even to have it at all, or do we need to make a

[59:52] motion to not have it?

[59:53] I would make a motion not to have it.

[59:55] Okay. All right. I'll move that the select board forego the

[1:00:01] fall town meeting for 2026.

[1:00:07] Okay. I'll second it. Motion's been made and seconded. All those in favor?

[1:00:11] Aye.

[1:00:12] Aye. All those opposed?

[1:00:13] Nay.

[1:00:19] Okay.

[1:00:21] Yep. So next on the agenda, we have appointing an interim building commissioner.

[1:00:27] It's our intent to offer you two to three candidates on the 24th of September to

[1:00:32] appoint as our full-time building commissioner.

[1:00:34] Until then, I want to thank the town administrator of Middleton and Scott

[1:00:38] Fitzpatrick, who's their building commissioner, to work for us in his own

[1:00:44] personal hours after hours until we can find that full-time building commissioner.

[1:00:50] Okay.

[1:00:50] I would just-

[1:00:53] Yeah. You said it

[1:00:55] ... second.

[1:00:55] All right, I'll move that the select board appoint Scott Fitzpatrick as interim

[1:01:00] building commissioner, effective immediately, to serve until a permanent

[1:01:03] appointment is made.

[1:01:05] Second.

[1:01:05] Motion's been made and seconded. All those in favor?

[1:01:07] Aye.

[1:01:08] Aye. Motion passes. Okay, so next up we have our joint meeting with the select

[1:01:12] board and the FinCom for Lynnfield to discuss the

[1:01:18] initial budget process. So-

[1:01:19] We'll have to find a recess then

[1:01:21] ... okay, find a recess. I'll have to find a recess, and then we'll start that.

[1:01:24] Be right back.

[1:01:33] Okay, thanks. All right. Welcome back.

[1:01:36] So we have our joint meeting with the FinCom tonight.

[1:01:43] I'll move that the select board enter into a joint session with the finance

[1:01:47] committee.

[1:01:48] I second.

[1:01:49] Okay. Motion's been made and seconded. All those in favor?

[1:01:51] Aye.

[1:01:52] Aye.

[1:01:52] I'll move that Alexis Leahy be chair of the joint committee meeting.

[1:01:56] I second.

[1:01:57] Okay, motion's been made and seconded. All those in favor?

[1:01:59] Aye.

[1:01:59] Okay. So part of the reason we're doing this earlier in the process, you might have

[1:02:05] noticed, for all those keeping track of the dates,

[1:02:08] some of the vision for the select board was it really being open about the budget

[1:02:11] process and hopefully to add to the understanding of folks in town and

[1:02:15] understanding where we're coming from and seeing the discussion.

[1:02:18] We're starting now instead of probably really close to the holidays, to ensure that

[1:02:22] this process really does go year-round, and that we're consistently checking in

[1:02:25] with the finance committee,

[1:02:28] reviewing extended projections, and looking at revisions as they unfold.

[1:02:33] The goal is really to have discussion on some of the information proposed tonight.

[1:02:38] So our town administrator and our director of finance are both going to present

[1:02:42] tonight. And we're going to talk through some of the three-year projections as well

[1:02:46] as the process and what both committees as the responsible bodies for

[1:02:51] managing the town's finance position really want to see out of this process, and

[1:02:56] talk through some of that as well. So with that, I'll start with town

[1:03:01] administrator.

[1:03:07] Thanks, Chairman Leahy.

[1:03:09] As the new chairman,

[1:03:12] Chair Leahy has been clear about wanting to start this process earlier.

[1:03:16] I think every year we've started the process a little bit earlier.

[1:03:21] Over the past few years, we really started it towards the holidays.

[1:03:24] But I look at this event, which I hope we can do every year at this time, as in

[1:03:29] municipal government, really Labor Day is our calendar year.

[1:03:33] It's our new year, with everyone coming back.

[1:03:35] So in the past, we used the budget summit as a starting point.

[1:03:39] We could still have a budget summit, but we hope moving forward that the budget

[1:03:44] process for the following fiscal year starts right after Labor Day.

[1:03:48] So when creating a multi-year budget analysis, particularly in the public sector,

[1:03:53] we're using many educated assumptions.

[1:03:56] So what you're hearing and see here is not gospel

[1:04:00] They are based upon assumptions of past actuals, trends,

[1:04:06] and in some cases, our own professional judgment and predictions derived from

[1:04:12] limited information available to us.

[1:04:14] In fact, most of the larger items outside of contracts are assumptions.

[1:04:20] So these numbers could shift toward our benefit or detriment daily, weekly, and

[1:04:26] monthly as we move forward.

[1:04:28] So what are the goals for tonight? In April, we presented a three-year budget

[1:04:33] analysis publicly to the select board. This analysis covered FY27, 28, 29.

[1:04:38] What we have tonight is the more updated model, and which Dave was even updating

[1:04:43] yesterday for FY28 and 29. My presentation focuses not only on the people

[1:04:49] around the room, but also, and more importantly, citizens at home.

[1:04:53] I want this to be understandable and user-friendly.

[1:04:57] So what are the questions I think people are asking, as you are?

[1:05:00] One, what were the goals of the past override?

[1:05:04] Did we meet those objectives, and what was not part of the override?

[1:05:07] Secondly, what are the causes of the historic number of overrides in Massachusetts,

[1:05:12] and how are those causes impacting Lynnfield finances?

[1:05:16] Average question I hear most, didn't we just do this?

[1:05:20] What issues are not driving the budget challenges in Lynnfield?

[1:05:24] That's another important question.

[1:05:26] The next is, what is Lynnfield doing to create new revenue or reform outside the

[1:05:30] property tax? Are we running to the taxpayer and not putting in full efforts?

[1:05:36] Where does Lynnfield taxes stand in comparison to comparable communities?

[1:05:41] No one here is saying that Lynnfield has low taxes. We do not.

[1:05:45] And it's certainly understandable that those taxes have risen.

[1:05:48] But it's important to look at our peers and see what they're doing.

[1:05:53] And lastly, I think we're offering from a 10,000 feet point right now, because we

[1:05:58] have such little information. We're only two years into the current fiscal year of

[1:06:01] 27. What could

[1:06:04] some of the options possibly be moving forward?

[1:06:08] So,

[1:06:10] I think both boards, when we leave here tonight, need to define their own path,

[1:06:14] either independently as two groups or through a small subcommittee, to take a

[1:06:19] deeper dive into every piece of the information that I share to you tonight.

[1:06:24] But either way, tonight is the official beginning, although we just went through

[1:06:27] this at town meeting in April, for the next fiscal year, FY28.

[1:06:32] So the first question is, what was promised in the last override?

[1:06:36] First, the override would last for two years. That was the commitment.

[1:06:40] The override would allow the school committee, which was in negotiations, myself

[1:06:44] included, to settle a three-year teacher's contract expiring in September of 2028.

[1:06:51] We made a commitment to restore the senior center hours of service and maintain the

[1:06:54] current in-house meal program. We made a commitment to maintain library state

[1:06:59] certification and restore most hours of operation.

[1:07:04] We agreed to hire one police officer to lower overtime costs, which it did.

[1:07:09] And we made sure that we had the funding to maintain fire staffing that allows for

[1:07:14] two pieces of apparatus, fire and/or EMS, to operate

[1:07:20] 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to protect the town.

[1:07:23] And lastly, to provide the Lynnfield Public Schools with a recommended budget

[1:07:28] increase of 4% to maintain their good work and advance operations.

[1:07:32] That was the commitment. We have achieved all of those commitments.

[1:07:38] What was not achieved, what was not promised in the override a few years

[1:07:43] back,

[1:07:45] that it would last for two years, more than two years.

[1:07:48] So again, we said again and again, FY26, FY27.

[1:07:52] It did not fund the assistant director position at the senior center that was

[1:07:55] permanently cut. It did not fund the assistant director position at the Lynnfield

[1:07:59] Public Library or all service hours, which were permanently cut.

[1:08:02] It did not restore DPW management positions that were cut.

[1:08:08] Did not allow for more than a 4% increase in the operating budget of the Lynnfield

[1:08:12] Public Schools over FY26 and 27. It did not allocate money to

[1:08:17] maintain the four SAFER grant positions in the Lynnfield Fire Department after the

[1:08:22] grant finished. And it did not dedicate funds to address the unknown increase in

[1:08:27] the trash contract, which expires next fiscal year, and we begin

[1:08:32] negotiations in a few months. Those are the things, that's the starting point as we

[1:08:38] entered the last two fiscal years.

[1:08:40] So why are we seeing historic property tax overrides in Massachusetts that has

[1:08:46] now hit Lynnfield?

[1:08:48] I have lived through, as a mayor or a manager, 9/11, the great crash of '08.

[1:08:54] I was on city council on earlier times that were difficult,

[1:09:00] and COVID. And I look at the economy, and although there are struggles, it's really

[1:09:06] not that bad. The stock market's doing well.

[1:09:08] So why

[1:09:10] is almost every community dealing with the override question?

[1:09:14] Towns from Malden to Marblehead to Lynnfield, Bedford, big and small,

[1:09:20] medium, industrial, rural. Well, it's not that difficult because most of these

[1:09:25] things are affecting our own lives. First, inflation rates.

[1:09:28] Since COVID, inflation rates have consistently exceeded revenue growth in the

[1:09:31] Proposition Two-and-a-Half. It's energy costs, service costs, product costs, and

[1:09:35] everything in between. You see it in your own energy bills.

[1:09:38] You see it in your own trips to the grocery store. The second is healthcare.

[1:09:43] Group Insurance Commission yearly increases are now over 10%.

[1:09:48] For the first 16 years of municipal partnership with the state,

[1:09:54] the average increases were between 3% and 6%.

[1:09:58] That is an incredible increase over a short period of time.

[1:10:02] And the unfortunate part is that local management cannot unilaterally change plan

[1:10:08] designs. Only the state can do that.

[1:10:11] Anything that we do has to be negotiated with a union in which we need 50% of all

[1:10:17] the unions to agree.

[1:10:20] That's probably the single greatest challenge we have, healthcare.

[1:10:25] Cautious new growth. Lynnfield correctly has a very cautious new growth

[1:10:30] policy that favors single family homes, and that places a

[1:10:36] disproportionate pressure on residential property taxes compared to towns with

[1:10:41] higher commercial bases, additional building, and consistent new growth.

[1:10:46] That is a choice we're making.

[1:10:49] Trash and recycling. The trash and recycling crisis has caused, with our

[1:10:54] taking surveys, increases of 30-plus percent per community on

[1:11:00] contracts that are ending now. There is less competition in the market.

[1:11:06] There is aggressive elimination of human staff.

[1:11:09] And there's this transition away from human work and to

[1:11:14] the arm and the barrel. So I think you see it when you drive to work.

[1:11:18] We don't have that here. What we have is a premium product that is only getting

[1:11:22] more expensive.

[1:11:25] Local aid and assessments. Now, we face stagnant local aid increases and

[1:11:30] significant state assessment increases.

[1:11:33] As the state giveth, the state taketh away, the backend.

[1:11:37] And at the end with a wash, we usually end up with 1%, 2%, or 3% depending on the

[1:11:42] line, of increase. Obviously, that doesn't cut it.

[1:11:47] So these increases are minimal, and they're consistently minimal, while

[1:11:53] vocational school assessments alone went up 39.37%,

[1:11:59] which was $271,155 one year.

[1:12:03] Now, that's not a knock against the vocational school. It's an exceptional school.

[1:12:08] But that is a major hit for a town that brings in a little bit more than a million

[1:12:13] in new taxes and approximately half. State regulations and revenues.

[1:12:19] The state is also in trouble. With the changes in Washington in terms of Medicaid

[1:12:25] reimbursements, we will see, if these things continue, depending on perhaps the

[1:12:30] election in a few months,

[1:12:33] more pressure on the state budget to deliver services for our most needy.

[1:12:37] Also, for locally, the state makes it incredibly difficult for us to make

[1:12:42] management reforms and create new revenue under Proposition Two-and-a-Half.

[1:12:48] They have every angle covered. And when we do, we have to go for a special

[1:12:51] legislation. Also, again, we have collective bargaining coming up.

[1:12:56] It's easy to say, "Well, I'll give employees a zero or one." But the fact

[1:13:02] is, the public sector has collective bargaining laws that require

[1:13:07] us to negotiate with unions that have a constituency, and this constituency is

[1:13:13] looking at the same challenges that we all face in our home.

[1:13:17] In many cases, a 3% pay raise is a reduction in pay considering.

[1:13:23] But if we do not negotiate with unions, we will see labor unrest that has been seen

[1:13:29] in other communities. The question is, if we want to toe the line-- And by the way,

[1:13:33] since I've been here, we've never signed a contract COLA of over 3%.

[1:13:37] On average, it's been about 2 to 2.5.

[1:13:39] If anyone thinks that is an excessive raise, I would certainly question that.

[1:13:47] So what items there are not causing this revenue shortfall?

[1:13:51] Well, our capital projects are not causing the revenue shortfall.

[1:13:56] We have funded those projects, be it the schools, this town hall we're in right

[1:14:01] now, or the fire police stations, with a debt exclusion, which is off budget, with

[1:14:05] a separate funding source to fund those things.

[1:14:09] So that commitment that the people made is not impacting the need to fund schools,

[1:14:14] public safety, or DPW. Second is staffing increases.

[1:14:20] Over the past few fiscal years, and it's probably only, I looked at two, but three,

[1:14:25] we have only hired, on the town side, one new staff person.

[1:14:29] That is a police officer. That is it.

[1:14:33] We've reformed almost every department, but one new staff person.

[1:14:38] Spending outside of fixed costs. Well, I think if you saw the budget we passed,

[1:14:45] the town side of the budget, about 2.4% increase.

[1:14:50] Irresponsible labor contracts, I told you, that's not impacting us.

[1:14:53] We have responsible labor contracts.

[1:14:56] And certainly, it's not from a lack of planning.

[1:14:58] And just over the last few years, and it was just off the top of my head, we've

[1:15:02] really improved the budget process as it pertains to timing over the last few

[1:15:06] years. We have done, at least since I've been here, consistent three-year analysis

[1:15:10] financials. We were making capital decisions based on submissions and then pick

[1:15:16] what we need. We now have a very comprehensive capital improvement plan.

[1:15:21] When I came here, we did a strategic plan, worked over three years, accomplished

[1:15:26] that. We're not running from the hazardous environmental issues in our

[1:15:31] community or flooding. We now have a plan to fund them using federal money.

[1:15:36] And we just don't pick roads based upon who calls us the most.

[1:15:40] We have an independent road analysis and ranking on how we spend our money.

[1:15:45] Those are all significant changes.

[1:15:50] So, the next question is, are we sitting here and when we have a problem, just go

[1:15:54] to the taxpayers? Well, the answer is no, and I'll just go through.

[1:15:59] Some of the things that we have done to try to close gaps and avoid overrides or

[1:16:04] deficits, or not deficits, but shortfalls in revenue expenditures.

[1:16:09] One is working with the legislature to secure targeted grants and funding for

[1:16:13] specific projects. Over the last few years, we have targeted grants and brought in

[1:16:19] millions of new dollars for this town that Lynnfield had never received before.

[1:16:24] Examples, the Veterans Memorial, school playgrounds, ball fields, the auditorium,

[1:16:30] full rehabs of the middle school and the high school, school wellness centers,

[1:16:34] health and wellness programming, and over the last three years, we received over $1

[1:16:38] million in pedestrian safety grants. Those are just a few.

[1:16:43] I want to keep this moving. We also have applied and received recently two

[1:16:48] incredibly large federal grants that I'll be announcing in the next few weeks.

[1:16:52] The first is from FEMA. Only three were awarded in the country.

[1:16:57] A $1 million public safety project grant that, as we go through this process, could

[1:17:02] mean reimbursement on our buildings.

[1:17:05] The second is a $1 million PFAS water grant,

[1:17:09] with John Schena with the LCWD, that will make

[1:17:15] significant advances in meeting PFAS water grant regulations, which

[1:17:21] is affecting every place in the country right now.

[1:17:25] So we've also, and I know it's been a point of calm in the

[1:17:31] FinCon, is funding indirect costs off our enterprise funds.

[1:17:36] In golf, which was once unable to even buy a lawnmower, this year is writing a

[1:17:41] check for $284,000 to the operating budget of our town.

[1:17:47] It's working for us for really our first time substantially.

[1:17:50] And our ambulance enterprise fund is submitting a check for $137,000 for our

[1:17:56] operating budget. That's a first for Lynnfield. The meals tax.

[1:18:01] The town of Lynnfield has submitted the first in the state, a special legislation

[1:18:06] for home rule petition to the legislature, adjusting a tax for local benefit.

[1:18:12] That would bring in, if it passes the state house, $600,000 into revenue.

[1:18:18] I don't want to say it out loud because I thought this would be a real challenge,

[1:18:22] but it is in the eighth inning of a nine-inning game,

[1:18:26] and it would be a first.

[1:18:28] And we're seeing some positive results.

[1:18:33] Usually, they don't like localities taxing outside of almost everything.

[1:18:40] But I'm hoping we can do that. That's a big benefit if we get that.

[1:18:45] Field replacement. So one of the big liabilities of the town is a multi-year

[1:18:49] replacement of the fields that we invested in, I think in 2013.

[1:18:53] The governor signed special legislation creating a new revenue source outside the

[1:18:57] tax base of up to 100,000 per year for our field replacement costs that will bring

[1:19:02] in $1 million over the next decade, which will substantially help that and relieve

[1:19:07] the taxpayers which would be responsible for that.

[1:19:10] So I think what we're also doing is adhering to strict financial policies

[1:19:17] designed by the FinCom and the select board.

[1:19:19] We're still, despite challenges, keeping revenue strong.

[1:19:23] Number one thing, we are not using one-time revenue for ongoing operating expenses.

[1:19:29] That turns a challenge into a crisis.

[1:19:34] It's irresponsible. We have avoided structural deficits. People use that word.

[1:19:39] We are avoiding structural deficits.

[1:19:41] We are simply spending more than we're bringing in, mainly being fixed costs.

[1:19:45] And we're maintaining a strong bond rating that has resulted in $7 million in

[1:19:50] savings on the public safety building.

[1:19:54] That's substantial stuff, even if it is over 30 years.

[1:19:57] So property sales, I thought it was very creative when we were unable to fix the

[1:20:01] library roof, which as John said earlier, is not a roof, but a full construction of

[1:20:05] the rot underneath. We were able to sell the old library for almost

[1:20:11] 500,000, and we brought in a project of 300,000, and now we're able to use some of

[1:20:17] that extra money to do more improvements to the library off the tax base.

[1:20:21] Strategic new growth. Now, as I talked about before, Lynnfield is not supportive of

[1:20:25] growth, but we've targeted new growth management within the desires of the town.

[1:20:30] Over the next two years, you'll see very high for Lynnfield new growth numbers.

[1:20:34] After that ends, which is Sagamore, that will fall off the cliff, and we'll be back

[1:20:39] to pre-Market Street, 275 threes a year.

[1:20:44] We've created quality service and regulatory practices.

[1:20:47] Now, this is why this is important.

[1:20:49] And the gentlemen who are here work municipal government.

[1:20:52] We offer excellent schools, good services, a beautiful community.

[1:20:57] We drive property values. And I know real estate is crazy everywhere, but if you

[1:21:01] look at the statistics, the increase in property values in the town of Lynnfield

[1:21:06] supersede anyone in our area. Anyone.

[1:21:10] And I think that's because of the good work of the people around this table that we

[1:21:14] were able to manage. We've taken departments off budget, like the rec.

[1:21:20] We've regionalized with assessing, and we partnered with our school department,

[1:21:24] particularly in busing, to save a significant amount of money simply by

[1:21:29] consolidating our use of the senior shuttle after hours for the excellent athletes

[1:21:34] of Lynnfield High School. And by investing in the Lynnfield Theater, middle school

[1:21:39] and high school, and the athletic complex with the new field in the middle, we need

[1:21:43] to even be more aggressive in terms of rentals, and I think we can be that.

[1:21:46] I think the theaters are a particular opportunity.

[1:21:49] And the next slide is a list of comparable tax rates.

[1:21:54] The reason for this slide is not to show that the town of Lynnfield pays low taxes.

[1:21:58] They do not. No. But when we look at 10 communities, Wakefield, Reading,

[1:22:03] Marblehead, Swampscott, North Reading, Middleton, Lynnfield, Manchester-by-the-Sea,

[1:22:06] Winchester, and Belmont, they're basically considered by the state comps to

[1:22:10] Lynnfield. And if you look at this chart What you will see is Linfield is fifth in

[1:22:15] home values. It's sixth in average tax rate per thousand at 1146.

[1:22:22] It is tied for fourth and fifth with Middleton for average single family tax

[1:22:28] bill, and it's sixth in

[1:22:33] terms of new growth. So outside

[1:22:38] of a few communities that have about 265,000 new growth,

[1:22:44] like Marblehead and Milton, Linfield has 581,308.

[1:22:49] And in the future, obviously, after this piece of land is built upon, I would

[1:22:55] let us all think in our own minds for a few seconds, what's left to build in

[1:22:58] Linfield?

[1:23:00] So I'm going to turn it over to Dave before I talk about options, to talk a little

[1:23:03] bit about the three-year analysis and the deficits.

[1:23:08] Thank you. So just to start, this is a little different from the Select

[1:23:14] board. When we did the presentation to Select board, we didn't have the state aid

[1:23:19] back in May, and we didn't have final receipt numbers until we closed the books in

[1:23:23] June or July. So it's updated based on that.

[1:23:30] So the top part didn't change, really, as far as the tax levy and the taxes coming

[1:23:35] in. What changed is local receipts.

[1:23:38] So what you see here right now for local receipts is what right now was on the tax

[1:23:43] rate.

[1:23:46] We have to put the actual receipts on page two of the tax rate,

[1:23:52] and we put our estimated. And when the numbers finally came in,

[1:23:57] it was a struggle to get the 5,825,000 for local receipts.

[1:24:02] Most of our free cash in the past several years have come from motor vehicle excise

[1:24:07] and from investment income.

[1:24:11] I'm eating most of that up right now because motor vehicle had increased almost to

[1:24:16] the max that we collected, and we have a drop-off in the investment income due to

[1:24:20] the $65 million for the public safety bills.

[1:24:23] Now that it's all paid off, we don't have that money in the bank earning interest

[1:24:26] anymore. So these numbers right now that are on here is what will be shown on

[1:24:32] the tax rate, and the projections that we have to the left will project off of

[1:24:36] those moving forward. So that's a change from what the Select boards saw earlier.

[1:24:43] So grand total revenues for

[1:24:47] right there for the '27, '28, and '29, and we'll get down to the expenses.

[1:24:51] Nothing has changed in the expenses. I just want to go down to the fire department.

[1:24:58] That has changed. We have settled the contracts.

[1:25:01] I increased this by the amount of money that we need to fund.

[1:25:06] We will pull that at the annual town meeting from another budget.

[1:25:11] But I thought it would be good to put in here because we need the actual number

[1:25:15] that we need to project forward. So that number right there is the number that we

[1:25:20] would need for the fire for this year. Carry that forward.

[1:25:25] I did sit with Glenn, who was here, and with that number and looking at the

[1:25:29] projections, we're pretty much right on for the next two years with his budget,

[1:25:33] almost to the penny, with the projection.

[1:25:39] And I know this is the finance committee's first time seeing this, but if you have

[1:25:42] any questions, just stop me as I go through.

[1:25:46] The debt is the actual debt costs going throughout, and that includes the BAN that

[1:25:50] we did for the public works projects that we just did

[1:25:56] and also for the fire engine pumper. We'll look to bond next year.

[1:26:02] We chose to do a BAN again due to the interest rates and so forth, so we think

[1:26:07] we'll have better luck as we make pay downs on the pumper engine and

[1:26:11] bond next year. Education, initially, when this went to the Select board, it was at

[1:26:19] 4.5%. We've had discussions with Superintendent Geary.

[1:26:24] In those discussions, we agreed that we would lower it to 4% in the projection

[1:26:29] moving forward.

[1:26:32] Like Rob said, in the treasury sheet assessments, you can see that we had a huge

[1:26:36] increase again this year for the treasury sheet assessments.

[1:26:41] So we're increasing it now based off of that 2% and so forth going forward.

[1:26:45] And it shows currently,

[1:26:49] we have $118,000 excess capacity right now.

[1:26:51] Plus, if you add the $60,000 in for the fire department, we'll have about somewhere

[1:26:56] around 170, 180. It all depends when we do the tax rate and we put the overlay

[1:27:00] number. It automatically adjusts. It rounds.

[1:27:03] So it might affect that a little bit, 10,000 to 15,000 either way.

[1:27:07] But as you can see, looking at FY28, we're in a deficit of

[1:27:11] $2,096,653, and in FY29, we're in a deficit of

[1:27:16] $4,424,831.

[1:27:22] We've gone through this over and over again, sat with Superintendent Geary at least

[1:27:26] three times on this, gone through every number over and over, and we're

[1:27:32] pretty adamant this is a solid forecast moving forward.

[1:27:39] Do you want to take a minute for any questions for Dave?

[1:27:42] Just while he's got it up, and any specific budget questions.

[1:27:46] I would hope just that we're open. If you want to have some meetings just to dive

[1:27:52] down just the fincom to get really into it, we're open to attending any meeting.

[1:27:58] This is probably not the time if you feel like you haven't got into it yourself.

[1:28:04] So just let us know and we'll be there.

[1:28:06] And I think Tom has the Excel, so you can unhide the columns.

[1:28:09] You can see the previous years, so you can see the increases, based on your

[1:28:12] assessments and so forth.

[1:28:15] Dave, just one question on fire. So it's 13%

[1:28:20] increase FY28, and then 12% FY29. Is that the

[1:28:25] four-

[1:28:27] So we're adding $200,000 in FY28 and another 200,000 into

[1:28:32] FY29.

[1:28:34] It ends January of '28. So it's half a fiscal year each. So that includes that.

[1:28:44] So, I'm sorry. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

[1:28:47] On trash, is that suggesting we're going automated?

[1:28:52] We are going to aggressively bid the current service we have and automated.

[1:28:58] I think our preference, if we can pull it off, is to keep trash as it is.

[1:29:02] But as Brian has talked to us about is lower tonnage.

[1:29:05] Create some real tonnage restraints. We might be able to pull that off.

[1:29:10] But we have already been told by some companies they will not bid if we want to

[1:29:16] keep our own service. So we've given ourselves enough time.

[1:29:20] We're literally starting this process in a couple of weeks.

[1:29:23] So we're going to try both. And I know you've been through it.

[1:29:26] And our friends in North Reading, theirs went up, like, 40%.

[1:29:29] So the other problem with the arms, do you guys have arms?

[1:29:33] Yeah, you have to buy the barrels, which is very expensive. I don't know.

[1:29:38] We're going to find out. We're going to find out real quick.

[1:29:42] I'll go, yeah.

[1:29:43] I have an arm where I live. I actually like it.

[1:29:46] I think it's neater and more efficient. But everyone has their own opinions.

[1:29:50] That's just me, but obviously, my kids are leaving the house, not coming in the

[1:29:55] house. So let's talk about, if we could, options.

[1:29:59] I also want to say this again, because I know what the headline will be.

[1:30:03] The numbers we have here are based upon reasonable assumptions on the higher

[1:30:09] side, meaning insurance might not be over

[1:30:15] 10%. Who the heck knows what's going to happen?

[1:30:17] They may change things at the state and give more local aid. We just don't know.

[1:30:21] The trash contract could come in. We have a lot of good citizens that own trash

[1:30:26] companies in this town. Please help us. All those things.

[1:30:29] So again, these are educated ballparks.

[1:30:33] So year one, if we were to use the figures we're presenting tonight,

[1:30:40] year would be a two-year override.

[1:30:42] Year one would be $410.55,

[1:30:46] and year two would be $464.58. So it'll be a two-year

[1:30:51] override, each around 400 somewhat dollars. Okay?

[1:30:59] That would be everything we're presenting to you tonight in terms of numbers.

[1:31:04] No reductions across the board

[1:31:07] in the assumptions we're using tonight.

[1:31:09] So that is the highest number in case something God awful happens in the country or

[1:31:15] in the

[1:31:17] industries that we use. But that's where we are today in terms of option one.

[1:31:21] So if we want to go straight to override, those are the numbers

[1:31:26] If we do not want to have an override, any override, I can't give you

[1:31:31] exactly what we need to do to get to that number, because a lot of these

[1:31:37] things are way up in the air, but I'll give you a general sense what has to happen.

[1:31:43] One, the meals tax special legislation passes. That's $600,000.

[1:31:48] The Board of Selectmen would have to contemplate the implementation of something

[1:31:52] that is very common in Massachusetts, which is a trash fee, that offsets trash or

[1:31:57] recycling costs, and implement significant tonnage controls.

[1:32:03] Third, Dave and I, we have some ideas.

[1:32:06] This wouldn't help us immediately, but draft some new special local option

[1:32:11] legislations to allow us to raise revenue.

[1:32:15] Second,

[1:32:17] we would have to, and I'd rather not get very specific today because it involves

[1:32:21] people's lives, we are studying department mergers where

[1:32:27] applicable.

[1:32:29] We would currently need to negotiate with the unions a significant

[1:32:35] giveback on health insurance.

[1:32:39] Now, we would need 50 plus 1% to get that.

[1:32:44] Our partners, the teachers, hold majority control over that.

[1:32:49] This is no one's fault that gets their insurance through the town, but when the

[1:32:54] town of Lynnfield went into the GIC, they created a situation, at no fault to

[1:32:59] anyone, the retirees, that basically if you take the 85/15 split and the

[1:33:05] 50% reimbursement from Medicare,

[1:33:10] our retirees who outnumber our active employees, which in itself is odd,

[1:33:15] pay nothing outside of co-pay for insurance.

[1:33:20] And

[1:33:22] it's not their fault, it was a good deal at the time, but it's a budget buster for

[1:33:27] us. The rest of employees who are active full-time employees pay

[1:33:33] 25%, 75/25. Again, I could make that pitch and they could say no and

[1:33:39] the debate ends, but there has to be an understanding as we'll present that in

[1:33:44] order to maintain staff and services, there needs to be, or at least we recommend,

[1:33:49] some moderate

[1:33:51] negotiated giveback. And perhaps we can do something for them.

[1:33:55] That negotiation begins next month.

[1:34:01] We need to eliminate one bus that Superintendent Gary and John and I were able to

[1:34:06] do. That's $100,000. We pay $100,000 per bus.

[1:34:11] We spend millions in buses.

[1:34:16] Most of it is required by law, but there's a lot that isn't, right?

[1:34:20] It's a tough business.

[1:34:24] We would need to, as a town, reexamine our development and growth policies,

[1:34:33] particularly as they relate to state zoning reforms in targeted areas of our town

[1:34:39] to promote new growth.

[1:34:41] Now, to think that we can do nothing and keep

[1:34:47] burdening the taxpayer,

[1:34:51] then this is really only one of two ways out of this mess.

[1:34:55] One is an override, and one is new growth.

[1:35:00] We can only increase ambulance fees so much, or building permits.

[1:35:05] So, personally, where I live, I think they've done that to an extreme, and

[1:35:11] I think a lot of ways they've ruined the place that I grew up and dedicated my life

[1:35:15] to because of irresponsible growth.

[1:35:17] But that doesn't mean we can't take a second look and at least have a discussion

[1:35:23] about reevaluation, okay?

[1:35:27] So,

[1:35:29] the two biggest departments, obviously, here are fire and schools.

[1:35:34] So we would have to reduce all department costs substantially, but these two

[1:35:40] departments are the largest, therefore, we have to look at them.

[1:35:45] We would have to reduce the safer grant firefighter significantly.

[1:35:49] We would have to become more reliant to our old system that we lived with for 100

[1:35:54] years, which our Chief Glenn Davis and our firefighters and all of us at the table

[1:35:58] worked so hard.

[1:36:02] We would have to be more reliant on a smaller call system, which is slowly

[1:36:07] decreasing. We would have to eliminate the guarantee of two pieces of

[1:36:12] equipment at all times. That can no longer be guaranteed.

[1:36:17] And we would have to look and examine at options for our EMS service.

[1:36:23] Everything has to be on the table. And by the way, I could make the argument to be

[1:36:27] against every single one of the things I'm saying tonight, right?

[1:36:30] So there's holes everywhere. There's trade-offs.

[1:36:34] We need to eliminate one police officer. They have minimum manning or staffing.

[1:36:39] We need to look at the privatization of several DPW

[1:36:44] services and departments, particularly in our schools, to eliminate not

[1:36:50] just costs, but health insurance policies.

[1:36:54] We would need to significantly lower the requested school budget request that we

[1:36:59] used in this analyst, that we've worked hard with Tom on, and we need to reduce all

[1:37:03] town budgets, including the targeted elimination of not just positions, but service

[1:37:09] hour reductions across all our town departments.

[1:37:13] Now,

[1:37:17] one or two of these things doesn't solve the problem.

[1:37:23] We would have to do a number of them.

[1:37:26] But I think what the third option would be, would be targeted cuts as far as we can

[1:37:32] go,

[1:37:33] come to a number, and have a significantly lower override that is targeted towards

[1:37:39] specific services, be it fire or schools or library, whatever

[1:37:45] you think.

[1:37:47] That is the more balanced approach.

[1:37:50] So those are the three options we have, and again, we need to start hitting that

[1:37:55] symbol. So I just want to finish quickly by saying what will not save the

[1:38:00] community in financial challenges, because I've lived it and I've seen other

[1:38:04] communities go through it, not considering all ideas respectfully and openly.

[1:38:09] That sounds obvious, but there are no sacred cows.

[1:38:12] We have to talk about everything. Pitting one department against another and scare

[1:38:16] tactics don't ever work, and I'm not going to do that.

[1:38:21] A lack of respect for the collective bargaining process and the honest realization

[1:38:26] that Massachusetts state laws are really hard to work with, and that the mandates

[1:38:31] that govern us are stifling and expensive.

[1:38:36] Using one-time money for ongoing operating expenses to kick the can down the road

[1:38:41] is a massive mistake and a financial gimmick that will turn this town very quickly

[1:38:47] into something that's not sustainable at all.

[1:38:50] Pointing out the problems without attempting to offer solutions

[1:38:55] can't be accepted. There are no easy answers here.

[1:38:58] We can't cut two people in DPW and say everything's okay.

[1:39:02] It's not going to be that way.

[1:39:04] We really can't overestimate our revenues because that will fully eliminate free

[1:39:09] cash, which happened in Lynnfield for many years before Market Street, because at

[1:39:13] that point, you stop preventive maintenance and you are not able to

[1:39:19] invest in the things that we've been able to invest in by budgeting properly, and

[1:39:23] slowly, the entire town crumbles with benign neglect.

[1:39:27] So by not acknowledging how rising costs and impacts of our small town inflation

[1:39:32] and the relationship with the flaws of Prop Two and a half, and the need to correct

[1:39:37] or adjust some of those flaws, affect how we work.

[1:39:41] We have not had inflation in my professional lifetime,

[1:39:46] and Barbara Anderson, who wrote Proposition Two and a half, publicly stated that

[1:39:49] Two and a half does not work with inflation.

[1:39:52] We haven't had inflation probably since the '70s.

[1:39:57] But we have it now, and we have it tenfold.

[1:40:01] And that's a problem we also have to deal with.

[1:40:04] And lastly, of course, my hope is that any committee we have is on TV.

[1:40:09] All our committees are on TV, and it's public and open, and we welcome

[1:40:14] contributions from the town because we cannot only tax our way out of this.

[1:40:19] We can't only cut our way. We can't only reform or grow our way out of this

[1:40:23] challenge. The solution's got to require a combination of every one of those

[1:40:27] things, to sustain Lynnfield through this, now into the future.

[1:40:32] So again, we'll answer questions.

[1:40:34] My hope is that we then send back either a subcommittee of the two groups or a

[1:40:38] committee to try to mine down every one of these with the help of department heads.

[1:40:42] So thank you for your time.

[1:40:45] I'll open the floor for any questions.

[1:40:51] First of all, thanks Dave and Rob for putting this together so early.

[1:40:54] It's been really helpful already to start up the conversation.

[1:40:58] So thank you very much.

[1:41:01] Just as we start to think about

[1:41:05] discussing override and the magnitude of an override,

[1:41:09] there was a number of items that were big unknowns over the last year or two,

[1:41:14] fire, the rubbish contract,

[1:41:19] healthcare costs, and then,

[1:41:24] I think those are the primary three drivers.

[1:41:27] We also have a contract expiring in '29.

[1:41:31] Yes. And of course, day-to-day. Just what level of

[1:41:38] visibility do you think you have at this point into that?

[1:41:40] And what levers or what kind of categories are you watching most closely that could

[1:41:45] really swing that deficit either to a much more significant level or maybe moderate

[1:41:51] it slightly?

[1:41:52] I think that special legislation is a game changer.

[1:41:56] I was on the GIC board for 10 years. I'm watching their meetings every month to see

[1:42:01] what trends they're in. They eliminated GLPs, so we're saving $20 million.

[1:42:05] That's important.

[1:42:07] Unless you're using

[1:42:10] But lastly is trash contracts. Can't do anything more than

[1:42:15] that. And hitting new growth at Sagamore.

[1:42:19] Yeah, hitting the growth. We have 18 lots of a new growth up at Sagamore that

[1:42:25] haven't pulled permits yet. So that's basically,

[1:42:31] we take a snapshot on June 30th of next year.

[1:42:34] So as long as those are pulled into significant buildings, we can grab the new

[1:42:37] growth. We have the increased building fees,

[1:42:41] that would help that also.

[1:42:44] The one thing is, like Rob reiterated, the retiree insurance.

[1:42:49] There's

[1:42:51] 330 or so retirees

[1:42:54] that don't pay anything for health insurance.

[1:42:57] We do also have a 75/25 split on PPO plans and HMOs are

[1:43:03] 85/15. So it's a combination of getting the 85/15s down,

[1:43:09] but again, like Rob said, the school does control the vote.

[1:43:13] So,

[1:43:14] there's 164 people that are active employees that would go from

[1:43:20] 85 to 80 or 85 to 75 to match what the other ones are.

[1:43:25] And then that would also help out with the

[1:43:29] retirees. So even if we change the retirees' insurance right now, they may pay $10

[1:43:34] a month.

[1:43:35] Yeah. I think that's key, because that might scare people today.

[1:43:38] And then you add 10% of that each year, but it's still something that we're getting

[1:43:42] where we're not getting anything right now.

[1:43:45] And then the variability you see in that deficit, we're talking a couple million

[1:43:48] dollars, a million dollars.

[1:43:51] No, we should gain, on the health insurance alone, we should gain maybe $200,000 to

[1:43:56] $300,000 of room. I would also say this.

[1:44:00] If we either don't want an override, which I could totally understand if we had

[1:44:04] one, or if we want to make it much lower than it is right now, we need to implement

[1:44:09] a trash fee. That's the only way around it. It's the only significant dent, Dave.

[1:44:15] Yeah. We need to offset trash as an operating cost, which a large

[1:44:21] number of communities have already done.

[1:44:22] Coupled with

[1:44:27] really cutting back on tonnage, which people can control.

[1:44:31] Where I live, my trash fee was $200 a year.

[1:44:35] Now it's $475, and I get one barrel. North Reading is the same way.

[1:44:40] I know it's foreign to Lynnfield, but it is an option that should be

[1:44:45] discussed,

[1:44:48] outside of an override, which may be undesirable in that it sets the new base of

[1:44:53] taxation forever. This would be one fee that you could either do quarterly.

[1:44:57] But again, it's just everything we're talking about here are options.

[1:45:02] I know the calls I'm going to get tomorrow, but they're options .

[1:45:05] And then, sorry, one last one. Just the timeline.

[1:45:07] So what key events and negotiations take place over the next six or so months that

[1:45:12] give you much more certainty over-

[1:45:15] So we're trying to accelerate trash.

[1:45:17] We're trying to accelerate negotiations with the union, which could be one meeting

[1:45:21] or several. Another big number in December, the mid-year report from the GIC is

[1:45:27] super important. Because they usually come in higher in that report, and then they

[1:45:32] adjust as they look at plan design on their end.

[1:45:36] So last year, the number was like 16 or 18, and it came

[1:45:41] down as they usually do in the ninth inning.

[1:45:45] So that's an important marker for us to better adjust what we have.

[1:45:48] When you say accelerate trash, is that pull it into this calendar year?

[1:45:52] We start negotiation ASAP.

[1:45:55] Okay.

[1:45:55] So I don't think it should take very long.

[1:45:57] We've got to find out what we got, and there aren't a lot of companies anymore, so

[1:46:01] it's not like we're going to get seven bids.

[1:46:03] I don't know how many bids you guys got, but I do know the big players are

[1:46:07] Republic, who won't negotiate with us on anything other than...

[1:46:10] There is Casella, and there is Capital. Those are the big three, I think.

[1:46:15] Oh, I forgot about Waste Management, absolutely. Yeah.

[1:46:19] Thank you.

[1:46:21] So I have just a couple of observations, and maybe there's a question buried in

[1:46:25] here somewhere. But first of all, want to compliment the town administration and

[1:46:29] the select board because this is much more lead time and much more dialogue than

[1:46:34] we've had in the past. And certainly several years ago, I feel like we were having

[1:46:39] this discussion in January. I'm not sure of the exact date, but it certainly wasn't

[1:46:44] September.

[1:46:46] So definitely compliments there.

[1:46:50] Just a couple of philosophical observations, like where we talk about we may have

[1:46:56] to go to a trash fee, and that might lower the override.

[1:47:00] It's a tax on the person who's paying.

[1:47:04] So philosophically, do we want to adopt drawing more lines

[1:47:10] for benefits and services? It could be buses, it could be trash.

[1:47:16] For folks that have been on this committee as long as I have, there was a time when

[1:47:19] folks paid for kindergarten, and I know that's not going to happen and we don't

[1:47:23] want it to happen, but again, there were certain instances where that could

[1:47:29] happen. The other thing, and this is just more of an observation, having been on

[1:47:33] the Fin Com for a long time, there was a notion that some less affluent

[1:47:38] communities rejected overrides.

[1:47:41] Typically, a lot of the blue-collar towns and cities and those types of things.

[1:47:45] And places like the W communities that we've often referred to, the Wellesleys and

[1:47:50] Winchesters and Waylands and Marbleheads were okay with overrides, and they had

[1:47:55] them on a quite regular occurrence, and they were approved. The paradigm shifted.

[1:48:00] Winchester rejected their override last year, I believe.

[1:48:04] Marblehead may have reduced it, or so on and so forth.

[1:48:06] So

[1:48:07] with that in mind, we're similar.

[1:48:13] The worst outcome here to me would be

[1:48:20] shoot for an override that at the end of the day doesn't pass, and then there's a

[1:48:26] lot of very tough decisions that affect students' lives,

[1:48:31] employees' lives, all those types of things.

[1:48:32] So just with that backdrop, I think there's just a lot

[1:48:38] of work to be done and creativity and rolling up of sleeves on all ends here.

[1:48:44] Gene, you're right. A rose by any other name is still a rose. It's still a tax.

[1:48:48] It's still a fee. The Commonwealth under Governor Raem used a lot of fees,

[1:48:54] service fees. We can't choose not to have any trash, but I understand all those

[1:48:59] ones. We could reduce our way out of this.

[1:49:02] It would be severe, but it can be done.

[1:49:06] There's a thousand options here.

[1:49:09] None of them are great. But there are a number of communities around us that have

[1:49:14] used millions in free cash, one-time money, to fill in the holes because they

[1:49:19] didn't want to make hard decisions or have overrides.

[1:49:22] And one's right next to us, and they're in a lot of trouble.

[1:49:28] And I just don't ever want to put this community in a situation where we can't dig

[1:49:33] ourselves out of the hole.

[1:49:37] And we do an override not based on what you said, evaluating services, busing,

[1:49:41] kindergarten, or whatever it may be,

[1:49:45] with a gun to our heads. You know what I mean?

[1:49:48] I'm sorry to editorialize.

[1:49:50] That's my exact point. Again, that wasn't so much a question as much as

[1:49:54] observations.

[1:49:55] I understand your question.

[1:50:00] I got a couple questions for you guys.

[1:50:02] First, thanks for having us, providing the insights early on.

[1:50:06] Much appreciated, to Jeanne's point.

[1:50:10] Looking at the projection file that we reviewed and was sent over,

[1:50:16] given that we're in the current fiscal year '27, I think this is generally a

[1:50:21] three-year projection, so we got two years.

[1:50:23] Any idea when we would expect to see the third year rolled onto the file?

[1:50:28] Oh, we do it...

[1:50:31] We just had it started '27, '28, '29.

[1:50:34] Yeah, the reason why I ask, and I understand.

[1:50:37] '27 is good. We're doing fine. July of '27.

[1:50:42] There's a genuine reason why I ask, and I can explain.

[1:50:45] So if you look at the projections and the deficit,

[1:50:50] obviously this current year we're fine.

[1:50:51] In the next two years, we're here talking about options for overrides.

[1:50:57] So that number, give or take 2 million, and then FY29 goes to 4 million.

[1:51:03] So my first question is, what does FY30 look like, and is that 6 million?

[1:51:09] Probably don't know, so I don't want to ask for an answer, but that's my thought

[1:51:13] process behind asking for the three year.

[1:51:15] Well, I'll tell you the answer is probably yes, because if we're going to

[1:51:19] anticipate the school department needing, say, 4.5% a year or 4% a year, whatever

[1:51:25] it may be, we're anticipating health insurance costs to be over 10%, which I have

[1:51:30] no reason to believe we shouldn't do that, right?

[1:51:34] Then yeah, that alone, and I know we have our friends on the school committee

[1:51:40] here, but the reality with most districts like Lynnfield is that the request of the

[1:51:44] school department, which doesn't mean it's too much, is more than the entire amount

[1:51:48] that we bring in in Prop 2 and a half. The entire amount.

[1:51:52] That's not just Lynnfield. That's in a lot of places.

[1:51:55] And

[1:51:57] that's where towns you mentioned are suffering the most because the drive

[1:52:03] of schools, be it special education costs, teachers' contracts,

[1:52:08] require, I think by giving them, Dave, I think they said

[1:52:13] just to cover contracts, it's almost 3.8.

[1:52:18] So there's a challenge everywhere.

[1:52:21] And the reason why I went to the towns is because we only have 30 employ- we have

[1:52:24] 14 firemen and...

[1:52:29] I'm done.

[1:52:31] That's good.

[1:52:31] So Brian, once we get the budgets in, we

[1:52:36] cut budgets for '28. That's when we'll add it into there and project out.

[1:52:43] Okay.

[1:52:45] One thing conceptually that might help folks, the community when they start

[1:52:49] thinking about, and we start communicating overrides, and people start to think

[1:52:52] about that more proactively this year.

[1:52:56] Just a suggestion. It would be neat if we could do some sort of, let's call it a

[1:53:01] heat map or some way to articulate visually what's costing more, what are

[1:53:07] driving the costs and the need for an override,

[1:53:11] instead of showing bullets. Just something visually that people can resonate with,

[1:53:15] understand, as we ask them and propose the need for overrides.

[1:53:20] We actually have that on the website.

[1:53:22] Perfect.

[1:53:22] If you go to my page, there's a financial transparency.

[1:53:25] You can go there and you can see general government, you can see health insurance,

[1:53:28] you can see all that stuff, and it graphs everything out for you.

[1:53:31] But Brian, obviously I'm a bullet guy.

[1:53:36] There's no criticism.

[1:53:37] No, no, but that's my aspect. I know Joe, everyone, but Joe particularly has helped

[1:53:41] us with that. You could help us with that.

[1:53:43] Whatever you think that can visually show people of all ages what we're dealing

[1:53:48] with, we need help.

[1:53:51] Yeah. Okay.

[1:53:52] I heard a little bit about on the bullet, and I heard you reference a couple times

[1:53:56] the work with the school district, the analysis, and the increase of requests of

[1:54:01] funding. Obviously, that would be part of the override.

[1:54:05] And in spirit of forecasts, do we have any insights to what forecasting may look

[1:54:10] like for the school district for one, for two, three years ahead?

[1:54:13] Like we are here looking at town.

[1:54:16] Right now, we started at 4.5%. As of right now, it's 4%.

[1:54:21] Mm-hmm.

[1:54:22] That's from the superintendent. Did we take a deep dive into that?

[1:54:26] No, because that's part of the budget process, so we asked the superintendent to

[1:54:31] estimate what he could live with,

[1:54:35] in terms of what he thinks our vulnerabilities are, obviously.

[1:54:39] Special ed being top for most.

[1:54:42] Okay.

[1:54:43] And potential class size.

[1:54:45] And also just one logistical thing, and Chris correct me on the date, but school

[1:54:49] committee is also having this as part of their meeting next week.

[1:54:53] Yeah. Lucky people in the back get to hear. I can just show the video if you...

[1:54:58] But

[1:55:00] we want to make sure the school committee's part.

[1:55:01] We're doing this exact same presentation and offering whatever questions they have.

[1:55:05] At that time, they'll have that opportunity.

[1:55:07] And the intent wasn't to leave any group out.

[1:55:11] The intent was this is really probably finance committee and select board to manage

[1:55:16] the whole town, right? So not if we have one department, we should have every

[1:55:19] department there. So this was more just for our collective.

[1:55:22] We'll have our traditional discussions with each of the groups, I think, as we go

[1:55:25] through the budget process, but just wanted to start here.

[1:55:28] That makes sense. Just given the magnitude of the budget that's allocated to

[1:55:33] schools, I'd like to see a forecast that's thought out of what

[1:55:39] funds are being requested, where they would spend.

[1:55:41] I think the taxpayers

[1:55:44] should expect to see that detail.

[1:55:48] The other question I have is around, we've heard some news

[1:55:54] recently

[1:55:56] related to Chapter 70 funding coming back in that was in excess of what we were

[1:56:02] expecting. Is that included in these options?

[1:56:05] Has that been part of the analysis, or is that just too new and not part of that?

[1:56:11] No, it's something-

[1:56:12] Yeah

[1:56:12] ... exactly as we got.

[1:56:14] To the budget of the governor's side.

[1:56:16] Yeah.

[1:56:18] Okay.

[1:56:22] Just following up on his point.

[1:56:26] When you're putting those visualizations together, it should also be what are the

[1:56:30] drivers. It would be helpful for people not just to see the dollars on trash or

[1:56:36] recycling, but also the actual units, the number of tons that we put out there.

[1:56:42] And also on the schools,

[1:56:46] the student population. It would be useful for the school department to

[1:56:51] show what their enrollment is that they submit to the state every year, and then

[1:56:56] what they project. Because the school population has continued to stay the same.

[1:57:03] But it would be very useful for the schools to put those drivers out there so

[1:57:08] people can see what

[1:57:11] it's costing.

[1:57:15] And just back to the Chapter 70 money.

[1:57:17] For FY27, just to give a number that was published, was $347,000.

[1:57:23] And considering that there's an increase request of 4.5 from 4, that's where I

[1:57:28] think it's really important to understand where these funds are going, how they're

[1:57:31] being used. Just transparency I think would be really key for folks to understand

[1:57:37] and have some trust in what they are being asked to approve.

[1:57:41] So wanted to provide that number so I was specific enough so you know what I'm

[1:57:44] talking about.

[1:57:47] So again, not looking for the answer now, but it would be good to have that insight

[1:57:52] and understanding.

[1:57:54] Thank you.

[1:58:01] That's it. Thanks.

[1:58:05] Any other thoughts, questions, comments?

[1:58:10] Mm-hmm.

[1:58:11] So one quick question.

[1:58:14] The finance committee last year at town meeting put out a note in their annual

[1:58:19] report that detailed nine recommendations.

[1:58:26] Has anything been done with those?

[1:58:28] I'm sure that a lot of them are probably part of the presentation.

[1:58:32] Yep.

[1:58:33] I'd have to re-look. I just don't recall them right now. I'm sure they're there.

[1:58:38] Things that we've been talking about for a very long time.

[1:58:40] Right. And-

[1:58:41] We probably have done or will be mostly. We just have to take another look at it.

[1:58:46] Okay.

[1:58:50] One in particular,

[1:58:52] it's just the consolidation of IT, and there were a couple of others on there.

[1:58:58] So

[1:59:00] you don't have to discuss it now-

[1:59:01] No, that's okay

[1:59:02] ... if you don't. Okay.

[1:59:05] I mean, the ones we can discuss, the next time we meet jointly, maybe we can walk

[1:59:09] through some of those. And if there's any others that you all are discussing,

[1:59:13] just through your regular meetings that you come up with, obviously we'll have a

[1:59:17] discussion on it, but maybe we can walk through those next time. Cool.

[1:59:23] Just maybe one more quick one that we didn't at joint session here.

[1:59:26] Can you just remind us why we look at overrides kind of in two-year increments

[1:59:32] versus one or three, or is it visibility, or is it-

[1:59:36] No, it's just a choice. And we can change that.

[1:59:38] This is just a starting point for discussion.

[1:59:41] What's interesting is that if I were not lost, but they decided to do a five-year

[1:59:46] comprehensive override. Communities have done, where I live, multiple choice

[1:59:51] overrides. Some communities like Soto have done two option overrides.

[1:59:58] This is just a starting point of the discussion.

[2:00:00] What we were looking at is how can we separate it a little bit and how can we make

[2:00:05] something awful suddenly less awful?

[2:00:09] But again, I think where we have to leave here, and I don't think we have to make a

[2:00:13] decision now, is what path are we taking as juniors?

[2:00:17] This is the leadership of the town. Do we want to have a joint committee?

[2:00:21] Do we want to have separate rails? Do we want to have a combination of both?

[2:00:24] And how do we get to that final answer?

[2:00:27] Because when we have the override matters, how or not have an override,

[2:00:33] we do not have an override. I need to know that soon, too, because then we've got

[2:00:37] to make some more serious decisions with things like the bargaining and people,

[2:00:41] which we need to vet, all of those things.

[2:00:45] So I don't want to leave here thinking we're going right to the O word.

[2:00:49] We're starting because that is an option. There's a thousand different options.

[2:00:54] But as a community, we need to not be afraid to discuss any and every word is

[2:00:58] important. Please, discussions are welcome.

[2:01:05] Thank you.

[2:01:06] I would just say, Rob, my personal opinion would be more collaboration and sooner

[2:01:12] is always better.

[2:01:15] Just again, probably means more meetings, which nobody necessarily likes, but it

[2:01:21] may end up with a better result.

[2:01:24] Agreed.

[2:01:24] In everyone's package, there is a draft of the budget calendar.

[2:01:27] Yeah.

[2:01:28] Which, between our committees and also the school committee, we have to just iron

[2:01:33] down those dates.

[2:01:36] I want to put this all at once. I want to try and stick to the dates if we can,

[2:01:39] because if we adjust, we had a lot of adjustment last year.

[2:01:42] I want to keep it so that we know what the process is going through, and the

[2:01:45] finance knows the process, and you all know the processes as we go through, and we

[2:01:50] do everything on time, so we can get that budget out early, get it to print to get

[2:01:55] everything and all recommendations in, so we're not at town meeting, making

[2:01:58] recommendations before town meeting.

[2:02:01] So, you all, if in your individual meetings you want to talk about it, you can talk

[2:02:06] about it. We just have to iron down those dates.

[2:02:14] One thing I'd like to put on folks' radar, and I think now's a good time to do it

[2:02:20] as we're looking at some multi-year projections here is,

[2:02:25] I think we've done great work with the CIP and coming up with the capital needs for

[2:02:30] the town over the next five years. It's an unfunded liability of over $30 million.

[2:02:36] So when we're talking about potentially doing override, do we want to do it just

[2:02:41] for two years? If we want to do it for longer than that,

[2:02:45] there are opportunities in that CIP to spend money now that will save,

[2:02:52] spend nickels and dimes now that will save dollars in the future. Right?

[2:02:57] I think of the project that Chief Davis brought forward to redo the pumper truck to

[2:03:03] extend its useful life, right? Spend money now to extend the useful life.

[2:03:07] There's projects in there that can do the same thing, and if we under-invest in

[2:03:11] capital,

[2:03:13] it's going to hit us or the next generation that is coming through this town.

[2:03:19] So when we're thinking about where we need to raise money and

[2:03:25] what we need to spend it on, I think

[2:03:27] we obviously need to focus on here and the now and how we're going to operate over

[2:03:31] the next two years, but we also have to have a mindset and longer-term view on some

[2:03:36] of the capital needs that we've laid out.

[2:03:40] And Tom, to answer your question, we did have a projection where we did throw the

[2:03:43] reoccurring capital into the override.

[2:03:47] So IT for the town, IT for the school, the roads into the DPW budget, just to

[2:03:53] get that number so it's in the budget now, and then this one that builds on that

[2:03:56] and then reaches. So we have looked, not to the extent you're looking at, just the

[2:04:00] reoccurring stuff.

[2:04:03] As we said at the debate, nothing

[2:04:06] is cheaper than it is today, right?

[2:04:08] And so if you could imagine if the town didn't make the capital investments it made

[2:04:11] in the last few years, the cost would be absolutely astronomical.

[2:04:16] And construction never goes down. Costs never go down.

[2:04:20] So I think we should at least put in options, as Tom says, though, including

[2:04:26] everything, balancing what we can pass or not, or afford.

[2:04:31] Mm-hmm.

[2:04:37] Just want to say, sorry, are we done? Yeah.

[2:04:43] I'm sorry.

[2:04:43] I didn't want to cut you off. Sorry.

[2:04:45] I'm listening.

[2:04:49] Thanks for putting the calendar together. This is really helpful.

[2:04:53] Really just shows the proactiveness that's happening, which is really good.

[2:04:59] Thinking about our meeting tonight,

[2:05:02] and looking at the calendar, I don't see another one on that calendar.

[2:05:06] So is this our first and last, or would we have another one jointly to-

[2:05:12] One of my notes to come out of this session is to figure out how we want to do this

[2:05:15] going forward.

[2:05:16] Yeah. Okay. All right. I'll leave that up to you then.

[2:05:19] What would be the optimal time to, looking at this calendar, what would be the

[2:05:22] optimal time for this group to be back together?

[2:05:24] Yeah. Perfect. Thank you.

[2:05:30] So I'll take a look at it. I don't know.

[2:05:31] If you all want to have a recommendation, too, if you guys can look at it in your

[2:05:33] meeting as well, and think about what would be the optimal time for us to do this

[2:05:38] again,

[2:05:40] and have some updated projections possibly after.

[2:05:43] I was looking at possibly after we have some more final information from the state.

[2:05:49] That might be good, but probably before next year.

[2:05:53] So maybe we'll come back together, and Tom and I will talk about what each of our

[2:05:59] discussions come out with,

[2:06:02] and go from there.

[2:06:07] Thanks.

[2:06:09] One thing I just throw out there, overrides are tough to get. I certainly know.

[2:06:13] I live in this business, but

[2:06:16] I think four years is a nice target number.

[2:06:20] To go back every two, I think is going to be too much. I don't think there...

[2:06:23] Eventually, we'll get pushback on that.

[2:06:25] One of the things I brought up before, and I know the school committee probably

[2:06:28] doesn't want, I was playing initially in Waltham, doesn't want to have to come to

[2:06:31] this select board to ask about an education stabilization fund.

[2:06:34] I'm going to bring it up again. I have one where I work, and it's working.

[2:06:38] The money goes into the bank, it collects interest until you need it, or what it

[2:06:41] allows you to do is extend the override.

[2:06:43] So if you're asking for, if we need $4 million or $5 million, maybe we ask for

[2:06:47] three, and we ask for two to go into an education stabilization fund.

[2:06:50] That money allows us to sit there, gain interest, and then we can tap into it to

[2:06:53] extend that override three, four years out.

[2:06:56] It's good practice, and the schools obviously are the biggest driver of our

[2:07:00] expenses other than health insurance.

[2:07:02] But just something to consider, I think, as we're moving forward.

[2:07:04] I think that along with cuts is really the only way we're going to get through

[2:07:07] this, but I think that's

[2:07:09] something we should consider.

[2:07:10] Thank you.

[2:07:11] No.

[2:07:13] Can I just ask one other question on the override, where it has year one and year

[2:07:16] two? Are we saying authorize four and a half, but only tax 2.1?

[2:07:22] Yeah.

[2:07:22] All right. Thanks.

[2:07:24] As an option.

[2:07:26] Yeah.

[2:07:28] Irelan does that. Irelan continuously does that.

[2:07:32] They do multi-year overrides, and they calculate specifically each year.

[2:07:37] And that makes it much better. Everyone knows what they're getting almost for it.

[2:07:43] And to Tom's point, if you were to tax more or all of it, you could stabilize the

[2:07:48] override, whether or not we do something with the school system.

[2:07:52] Yeah.

[2:07:53] To get a third year.

[2:07:59] All right. If nothing else, thank you everybody. Really appreciate the discussion.

[2:08:03] Look forward to future discussions. I'll entertain a motion to close the meeting.

[2:08:09] I'll-

[2:08:10] Sorry.

[2:08:13] I'll move that we adjourn the meeting.

[2:08:16] Second.

[2:08:16] All right. Motion's been made and seconded. All those in favor?

[2:08:19] Aye.

Select Board Meeting 9-9-26

Transcript