[0:01] see are they too loud

[0:04] now they might be too loud

[0:07] now no we're

[0:10] fine is that too loud no that's good

[0:13] okay nice and loud now all right all

[0:15] right we ready yeah recording in

[0:20] progress good evening I'm Naomi Miller

[0:23] chair of the Sha select board and I am

[0:26] calling to order uh this special meeting

[0:30] on Wednesday January 15 2025 6m at Cole

[0:34] Hall and on

[0:37] Zoom does anybody have a conflict of

[0:40] interest with anything on this agenda no no good are there any public does not

[0:49] seem so so we can't get any public

[0:51] comments

[0:54] no first order after those things is

[0:58] Select board vote on the FY 26

[1:03] budget

[1:06] so okay do you want me to share the

[1:08] Excel can you share the Exel yes I'm

[1:10] going to share share the

[1:13] Excel can you fol hear me through my M

[1:17] yes go let dip it up to the

[1:27] top okay

[1:31] so when last we spoke about this on

[1:34] Monday night we had the only changes we

[1:37] made

[1:38] was or were

[1:40] [Music]

[1:42] um sorry to make you dizzy Public Safety

[1:47] libraries law enforcement right and we

[1:51] had bumped it up to 990,000 to be prent

[1:54] in keeping it to the 24 hours yeah yep

[2:00] so that and let me so I just want on

[2:04] that I just want to note that when we

[2:06] run those numbers yeah uh 24 hours for

[2:10] 52 weeks comes up to basically 100,000

[2:13] so I just want to make sure if someone

[2:14] questions us on

[2:16] that I we have to you know we're not

[2:18] exactly getting so let me just do the

[2:20] math real quick here at

[2:22] 90 hours at

[2:27] $90,000 so if you divide that by 50

[2:31] 2 and then divide that's

[2:34] $1,730

[2:36] uh divide so that would be divided by 24

[2:39] I

[2:40] guess that would only be 72 so we're

[2:43] still not quite at 8 uh 24 hours a week

[2:45] for 52 weeks so someone were

[2:49] to like if you do the let's see I

[2:53] calculated like

[2:56] $80 per 24 hours per times off in our

[3:01] calculations fact that this has not been

[3:03] a full year

[3:05] right 80 * 24 is, 1920 that times 52 is

[3:11] just shy of 100 it's

[3:13] 99,8

[3:15] 40 oh wow okay I don't want to get

[3:18] caught in the middle of the meeting

[3:20] saying hey we got 24 and then someone

[3:21] could do the

[3:23] math

[3:26] okay we could just we could say it

[3:28] differently we could say this is for uh

[3:30] you know we can figure out how many

[3:33] hours that is over the course of the

[3:35] year you know we'll just rather than say

[3:37] it's 24 hours a week we can say this is

[3:39] for you know X number of hours for the

[3:42] fiscal year of

[3:44] 2026

[3:45] okay let me just erase this over

[3:49] here all right I mean it's gonna be

[3:52] different you know anyway if they do

[3:55] like overnight right yeah I just don't

[3:57] want to we get there'll be people every

[3:59] year there's someone the audience who

[4:00] finds like an arithmetic error somewhere

[4:02] in oh you said it was $50 but it's only

[4:05] 25 and it just you know it happens so

[4:08] just because law enforcement's on a

[4:09] topic I don't want to be we could be

[4:11] accused of like over promising what

[4:12] we're delivering but we are we' we we've

[4:15] increased it

[4:16] anyway right yeah increased it and also

[4:20] we're doing something new which I think

[4:23] we need to talk to people about when

[4:25] this comes up at town meeting which is

[4:27] that Paula and the sheriff are are

[4:31] talking regularly about how to adjust

[4:34] the hours based on meeting right and

[4:37] that used to happen um not very much

[4:41] there used to be just a sort of basic he

[4:43] was filling with hours right right but

[4:46] like like I said to sheriff Gully you're

[4:48] going to know if a problem exists before

[4:50] I will they'll get the phone calls then

[4:52] I'll get the phone calls so the

[4:56] way right I think we say it the way if

[4:59] we say so $90,000 divided by 80 is

[5:02] ,25 so we could just say you know for

[5:05] fiscal year 2026 we have 1125 Sheriff

[5:08] hours right rather than and so if we

[5:11] divide that by 52 that's actually 21.6

[5:16] hours a week but rather than rather than

[5:18] talk about the weekly hours maybe we

[5:20] could just say you know we have 1125

[5:23] share of hours for the year of 2026

[5:25] which is roughly 22 hours a week we

[5:28] could round up to

[5:30] but uh just with it and yes and that's a good way to think about because

[5:35] it will be varying there will some weeks

[5:38] when it goes under 21 and we might even

[5:41] know that you know if we need a bunch of

[5:43] like overnight shifts for some reason

[5:45] that we're going to be trimming other

[5:47] weeks coverage to to compensate for that

[5:50] s from Peter pay Paul yeah definitely

[5:53] well what was encouraging I think for

[5:55] the people on U twitchell Hill was the

[5:59] fact that there were working with the

[6:00] state police and they were feing them

[6:03] information so I think that's

[6:06] important yeah yeah we will continue to

[6:09] be doing yeah and then right after that meeting

[6:13] things died down a lot yeah a lot a lot

[6:17] of the changes and him them working with

[6:20] the

[6:21] neighbors and you're right about the

[6:23] fact that it'll move from one place to

[6:26] another well yeah yeah and I would imagine it's likely to

[6:33] stay in you know in some proximity to to

[6:38] 7A with

[6:39] [Music]

[6:41] 67 so yeah yeah yeah no I think you're

[6:45] right Mike thank you y no problem I just

[6:48] don't want to get caught making it no

[6:50] absolutely thank that's wonderful yeah no you're right and I don't think

[6:55] 100,000 I think a 100,000 would be like

[6:59] yeah that would be a little over over

[7:02] much um let me just scroll down to see

[7:05] where we ended with

[7:07] that and that change brought us

[7:11] too right now we're at 5.9 we're just

[7:14] under six yeah I want to point out that

[7:18] as as we're hearing about the other

[7:20] Town's budgets we are exactly in line

[7:22] with everybody else

[7:25] yes and one thing to note about if if it

[7:27] comes up you know in the way inflation

[7:30] you know we're we're compensating for

[7:32] inflation now for 2026 that happened you

[7:34] know in

[7:35] 2023 and four you know we're our budgets

[7:38] are always kind of behind the inflation

[7:40] ball

[7:41] so so the reason it's up now is because

[7:44] of inflation that happened you know 12

[7:46] 15 months ago yeah good that's a good

[7:49] point yeah because we can always hope

[7:52] that inflation is going to go down now

[7:55] right the budget our budget cycle will

[7:57] always be

[8:00] April

[8:01] exactly it's a

[8:04] guess um what what else is there

[8:07] anything else we really does anybody

[8:09] have any last thoughts about this

[8:15] [Music]

[8:18] budget very good good

[8:21] job thank you

[8:25] Paul to make your way through a budget

[8:28] like this for the

[8:30] without without anybody who has seen it

[8:33] through before at your I think is really

[8:37] quite an exerting it's just accomplish

[8:38] bunch of numbers you and Martha helped a

[8:40] lot just to go over with it and bounce

[8:41] stuff off of

[8:43] so um and and next year it'll be like a

[8:46] turkey in the

[8:49] OV Thanksgiving yeah it'll be in the OV

[8:52] with the turkey y much much

[8:55] earlier believe

[8:57] me I

[8:59] it'll amazing yeah okay um so are we

[9:02] ready to take a vote on

[9:05] this yeah yes can I have a motion to

[9:10] approve the fiscal year

[9:14] 25 shaftsberry budget

[9:17] as uh presented wait this is the 26th

[9:21] isn't it I'm

[9:24] sorry yeah so that's the motion I want

[9:27] right I oh go ahead okay I'll make a

[9:32] motion to accept this uh fiscal year 26

[9:36] budget as

[9:40] written a second I'll second that thank

[9:44] you moved by Martha seconded by

[9:47] Mike any final

[9:50] discussion

[9:53] no okay all in favor say I I I

[10:01] congratulations we've got a budget to

[10:03] propose to the voters good to Paula

[10:07] thank you Paula thank you thank you

[10:10] you're

[10:12] welcome okay uh other

[10:16] business anybody have anything to bring

[10:18] up at this

[10:23] Junction

[10:25] no thank you Martha for Martha thank you

[10:28] for um getting those people in line and

[10:33] about about the

[10:34] information you know I yeah thank you I

[10:39] think I think we we need to continue to

[10:41] say and what I didn't think of last

[10:44] night when I or Monday night is that we

[10:46] live in a really fractured media

[10:48] environment I think that's way to say it

[10:51] and getting information to people is

[10:54] very difficult now there is not you know

[10:56] not everybody's watching the Nightly

[10:58] News not everybody it's the Bennington

[11:00] Banner you know we as a town I think are

[11:03] caught between

[11:06] um doing things in kind of an analog way

[11:09] and then doing things in a digital way

[11:11] and are trying to hit and reach as many

[11:13] people as possible and you know

[11:15] especially on the digital side the town

[11:18] is doing much much more than it ever had

[11:21] you know even 10 years ago

[11:24] so continue to talk about that that you

[11:28] know there are so many ways that you can

[11:30] get things and you know to encourage

[11:33] people to engage in a way that feels

[11:35] authentic to them and at at the moment

[11:38] in time I didn't think as succinctly as

[11:41] I am right now about saying it that way

[11:43] but to continue to kind of encourage

[11:45] folks to to either do a social media

[11:48] thing or the front porch Forum or if

[11:51] they are you know Avid Bennington Banner

[11:54] readers that we are going to continue to

[11:57] work to try to get out um as much as we

[12:00] can in a very kind of fractured

[12:03] environment and and I think my research

[12:06] has shown that only a third of the

[12:10] population is not in touch the other

[12:13] third is in touch and then the other and

[12:16] then the top third are way ahead so yeah

[12:20] I mean you know just just we have to you

[12:22] know and I turned around and asked Cinda

[12:26] you know what what will work and she

[12:28] goes maybe I need to get in touch you

[12:31] know and I said you can zoom you

[12:35] know so I the onus is on them yeah yeah

[12:40] and also I think something that people

[12:41] don't yet have in their handy repertoire

[12:45] is logging on to the website at their

[12:49] leisure in the middle of the night on

[12:51] the way to and just playing the zoom you

[12:53] can even just get the audio Yeah of the

[12:56] zoom and it's always there on our

[12:58] website so you know it's practically a

[13:02] podcast

[13:05] yeah that would be interesting wouldn't

[13:07] it shacksbury I do know somebody who

[13:09] listens to it on our way to work you w

[13:13] we all have our things we

[13:22] do okay um any other other

[13:27] business no okay okay um review of

[13:31] action

[13:32] [Music]

[13:34] items I'm assuming this budget is going

[13:37] to go to uh to marleene and into the

[13:40] town report now that it's

[13:44] finalized

[13:46] yeah yeah great and I don't know if it's

[13:50] possible to do or if it adds more money

[13:53] um in the kind of printing of the page

[13:56] but if there is a way to have like um

[14:01] lines has have I already asked if that's

[14:04] possible in the printing of things so it

[14:06] looks kind of like the Excel spreadsheet

[14:08] that is there it's very difficult to

[14:10] read at least

[14:12] in I understand what you're saying

[14:14] because when I read it in the book I'm

[14:15] like why are there just it drives me

[14:17] nuts that there aren't Excel lines like

[14:19] yeah there's just spaces and so if

[14:21] there's a way you have to almost take it

[14:23] with a ruler um I think it's because the

[14:27] Excel sheet was probably changed to a PF

[14:29] and then the lines disappear I see so I

[14:32] will do my best to get lines because it

[14:35] will drive me not yeah because there's a

[14:37] way to um to put in all the lines and

[14:40] then when you print it then it's you

[14:43] know has all the lines in it and then

[14:44] maybe that goes gets converted into a

[14:48] PDF right on it

[14:52] readability yep I get

[14:55] it good um so

[14:59] at this point I would entertain a motion

[15:02] to enter executive

[15:04] session so move talk about legal issues

[15:09] not so moved thank you Mike figure how

[15:13] to do that um thank you Tony for

[15:16] seconding um and Marie thank you for

[15:19] being here when we come back we will be

[15:22] taking action if you want to you know

[15:26] hang around for it but we're going to

[15:28] mute our ourselves

[15:29] [Music]

[15:31] now I can put them in the waiting

[15:34] room and then that or you're going to

[15:38] have to mute and then call US no you

[15:40] can't do that

Shaftsbury Special Board Meeting // 1-15-25

Transcript