[0:00] [Music]

[0:19] Good evening. I will call this meeting

[0:20] to order. Uh if you would kindly stand

[0:22] for the pledge of allegiance.

[0:25] Pledge allegiance to the flag of the

[0:27] United States of America and to the

[0:29] republic for which it stands. One nation

[0:32] under God, indivisible, with liberty and

[0:35] justice for all.

[0:38] Thank you very much. Madam clerk, would

[0:39] you kindly call the role?

[0:43] Laughen here. Rean here. Reynolds here.

[0:48] Tada here. Morose here.

[0:52] Uh so the format for tonight is going to

[0:56] be a little bit different than it's been

[0:57] in the past. Um this is the the evening

[1:00] for uh departments with specific

[1:02] questions from the council that the

[1:03] council wanted to talk to. Uh so we're

[1:06] just going to call out the lines in the

[1:07] budget. Uh those of you that are guests

[1:09] that are department heads, appreciate

[1:10] your attendance. You may or may not be

[1:11] required depending on the the nature of

[1:13] the question, you know, but that's

[1:14] between um uh you know, you and the

[1:16] mayor as far as how that that's going to

[1:18] work. So the first one we're going to

[1:20] start with is going to be capital appro

[1:21] and we'll hold all public questions to

[1:23] the end so the public will have an

[1:24] opportunity to ask questions but we'll

[1:25] save that to the end. Um so the first

[1:28] one is going to be capital

[1:29] appropriations and reserve questions on

[1:33] that. Councelor Tata. Thank you Mr.

[1:36] Chairman. Uh so just so we're all on the

[1:38] same page I'm looking at page 89 of the

[1:40] budget book.

[1:46] My question, my general question on this

[1:48] page is if all of the project projects

[1:52] that are listed here um are actually

[1:55] happening, if any of them have been

[1:56] closed out since this budget was

[1:59] submitted, and if we anticipate um the

[2:01] full expenditure of the bottom line,

[2:03] which is 1,70,164.

[2:10] Good evening.

[2:12] So this page

[2:15] is capital that was carried forward from

[2:18] the prior year plus capital this year

[2:22] that hasn't been spent yet.

[2:25] So these projects could be finished

[2:28] throughout the end of the year and then that's not this is what you

[2:33] appropriate tonight that 1 million not

[2:35] tonight but this

[2:36] 1,7164 is the highest it can be but if

[2:41] when all these when the year's closed

[2:43] out I go through all these accounts and

[2:45] any money that's spent does not get

[2:48] appropriated because then we'd be double

[2:50] spending so that they'll get that

[2:52] they'll all be reduced or you know if

[2:55] they haven't been spent they haven't

[2:56] been spent. So that money would

[2:58] automatically go back to the general

[2:59] fund or those these are the projects

[3:00] that get put on that list that we get by

[3:03] February 1st. No this this is not part

[3:06] of the cap and not okay this is general

[3:10] fund capital projects and then they

[3:12] either lapse

[3:14] or we do this so that they don't lapse.

[3:17] Okay but they projects would be gone.

[3:20] Got it. So automatically if there's

[3:21] leftover money or if something doesn't

[3:22] happen it just automatically goes back

[3:24] to the general fund. Correct. So usually

[3:26] I you know I contact them I try to get

[3:28] them to spend you know throughout the

[3:31] year you know so these are you know I

[3:34] went through and I thought these were

[3:36] projects that were still ongoing that

[3:39] probably needed to be carried forward.

[3:41] Okay. Perfect. Thank you. That's all I

[3:42] have for that Mr. Chairman. Anyone else

[3:45] on this

[3:46] topic? Okay. Moving on to

[3:51] Uh, board of assessment appeals.

[3:59] Council Ted. Yes. So, let's go get to

[4:01] that

[4:11] page. So, we're on page 19 of the budget

[4:14] book.

[4:17] My question on this one was I had never

[4:20] realized before, this might just be my

[4:22] own

[4:24] uh lack of realizing in the past, but it

[4:27] looks like this commission or this board

[4:30] um gets a stipend. And I don't recall I

[4:34] thought the only boards or commissions

[4:35] that received stipens were town council

[4:38] and public utilities commission. Um, so

[4:40] when I realized this this year, I just

[4:43] had never realized it before, but I also

[4:44] noticed that it looks like every year

[4:46] that stipent is fluctuating.

[4:49] Um, so year ended 2024, it looks like

[4:53] 6,978 was spent in their salary

[4:56] line, which I assume is the stipens

[5:00] because that's the only thing I see on

[5:02] the following page. And then the next

[5:05] year, I'm sorry, the current year it

[5:08] looks like it's

[5:10] 14,000. And then for this proposed

[5:12] budget, they requested 8,000 and the

[5:14] mayor approved 8,000. So I just wanted

[5:16] to know a little bit about the history

[5:17] of that, why they're getting a stipen,

[5:19] why the fluctuation in the rate.

[5:22] Not sure who's here to answer that. I

[5:24] can answer that for well some of that. I

[5:27] mean, they since they've always gotten a

[5:29] stipen, it's always been in the budget.

[5:31] It really only fluctuates on the year of

[5:35] revaluation. So it's usually

[5:38] 8,000 in all the budgets and then it

[5:41] gets bumped up in year revaluation

[5:43] because there's almost twice the amount

[5:46] of work. So how many meetings per year

[5:48] do they typically

[5:50] have? I mean I know that they have the

[5:53] they would have the um appeals they meet

[5:56] for the car taxes once. How how often

[5:59] are they meeting? Kev, can you come up

[6:02] and answer

[6:11] that? It's Kevin, the assessor. Uh they

[6:14] do board of assessment appeals meets the

[6:17] first um Saturday I believe in

[6:19] September. Um and they also um meet

[6:24] during the uh month of March. Uh this

[6:28] year there were uh about 240 appeals

[6:32] total. Not all of those were heard by

[6:34] the board of appeals because what many

[6:36] of those were over a million dollars. So

[6:39] but the volume was quite heavy this year

[6:41] for the board.

[6:43] So for this past March

[6:46] and they get paid extra because it was

[6:48] the reval year. So in a in a non-reval

[6:51] year, so basically every three years

[6:54] they're probably meeting twice per year.

[6:56] Does that sound about right? The the

[6:58] September and the March. Correct. Um we

[7:01] do a revaluation every five years. So

[7:04] five, I'm sorry. One out of four. Okay.

[7:07] So if you they're they're budgeted for

[7:10] 2,000 each and then there's a recording

[7:12] secretary. So depending on how much she

[7:15] works. So of that

[7:18] 8,000 6,000 is for the board members,

[7:21] 2,000 is for the recording secretary.

[7:23] Okay. And then in the

[7:25] revalure, how does that shift? So that

[7:28] was

[7:30] probably, was it 14? It was probably

[7:32] 12,000 for the stipens and 2,000 for the

[7:35] recording secretary. So they're they

[7:37] would each be getting 4,000 in the reval

[7:39] year. I mean, right. Yeah. 4,000. Yes.

[7:46] Okay.

[7:49] So, do we know that the the history of

[7:51] how this how that I mean I know there

[7:54] there's other boards and commissions

[7:54] that meet much more frequently that

[7:56] don't receive stipens. So, I just not

[7:58] sure what the history is why this board

[8:00] receives them and others do not.

[8:03] I do not know that. Do you know that,

[8:05] Mr. Coons? They've received stipens

[8:07] since I've been here and I've been here

[8:08] almost 20 years. So, just always been

[8:10] that way. Okay. Yeah. So, I don't I

[8:12] don't know the history. Okay. All right.

[8:16] That is all I have on that. Thank you,

[8:18] Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Cle.

[8:20] Appreciate it. Thank you. Anyone else on

[8:21] this topic?

[8:23] Okay. Next, we'll we'll go to um

[8:33] Kapan. Is that me again? Council Tata.

[8:36] Great. All right. So, two pages here.

[8:38] So, page 23 and then

[8:42] um again on page 83. So, I'll start on

[8:50] 23. I'm sorry. Actually, we'll go right

[8:52] to

[9:03] 83. All right. I'm assuming this is for

[9:05] Mr. Senna, but correct me if I'm wrong.

[9:08] The transfer is uh the line item

[9:11] transfer general fund. So, I know we

[9:12] have we have the electric division pilot

[9:15] um but then there's a line item transfer

[9:17] general fund and it looks like

[9:19] 500,000 was

[9:22] um expended in 2020 the fiscal year

[9:25] ending

[9:26] 2024 then

[9:29] nothing currently and then a request of

[9:33] 390,136 this year which the mayor

[9:35] approved in his budget. So I'm

[9:38] assuming that's just a choice that the

[9:40] administration makes and that's in order

[9:42] to balance to make all the projects on

[9:44] the next page to get those paid for.

[9:49] So the 500,000 in the prior year

[9:53] the Rob um public works needed more

[9:57] money for paving. Okay. So that's you

[10:01] know that's what that so his paving

[10:03] account is in the cabin nan. So you guys

[10:07] approved that transfer and and that's

[10:09] how that went there. So as we kind of

[10:13] discussed last night, the electric

[10:16] revenue keeps going down. You know,

[10:17] conservation's great, but it's generated

[10:21] on the cost. There's a formula that the

[10:24] electric division gives me that that

[10:27] number. So but that number keeps

[10:29] dwindling and the projects keep getting

[10:31] more and more. So to fund the the

[10:36] projects on the other

[10:37] page, the first number is the electric

[10:39] division number and then we needed the

[10:41] 390 136 to fund the rest of those

[10:44] projects.

[10:46] Okay. Okay. So if one of

[10:51] those All right, I understand. So so

[10:54] this

[10:55] 21101 that's coming out of here that's

[10:58] going to tie to the revenue of the the

[11:00] cap and non fun. Okay. So basically, if

[11:03] we took that if we did not take that

[11:05] transfer of 390 from the general fund,

[11:07] we would have to then go to the next

[11:09] page and pick $390,000 worth of projects

[11:12] that we would not be doing. Correct.

[11:15] Okay. All right. And then on

[11:17] that list of projects, this I'm not sure

[11:19] who these questions are going to be for

[11:20] depending on what line, but um

[11:23] the brick paper replacement that is not

[11:26] in this year, but it is scheduled for it

[11:28] looks like every other year. Um, this

[11:31] might be for Mr. Bramitis who was here

[11:33] last night, but um, not a question, but

[11:35] more of a comment. I know the Oh, maybe

[11:38] we do have somebody. I'm sorry.

[11:44] How are you? How are you, Alison

[11:46] Capachinsky, town engineer? Thank you

[11:48] very much. The brick pavers, are we

[11:51] actually replacing with bricks or have

[11:53] we looked at maybe doing stamped

[11:55] concrete that looks like bricks? Because

[11:56] I know the weeds and the the maintenance

[11:58] of the bricks has been an issue. So that

[12:00] line item um is funded for the resetting

[12:02] of brick pavers. So we do have to, you

[12:05] know, replace some bricks, but the goal

[12:07] is to remove the bricks, clean up the

[12:09] area, and put the same bricks back.

[12:10] Okay. So it's really for the labor.

[12:12] There is a little bit of material costs

[12:13] in there, too. Okay. So that's more

[12:15] maintenance of the existing ones.

[12:16] Exactly. Perfect.

[12:19] Um the this is I'm just going to go

[12:22] through what I think might be yours. Um

[12:24] the downtown parking lot improvements,

[12:26] that's $80,000 for this year. I'm

[12:28] assuming I think we talked about these

[12:30] last night. I'm assuming these are the

[12:31] ones that are behind um on Center

[12:33] Street, those rear lots. Is that

[12:35] accurate?

[12:37] Um I don't know that we've we know that

[12:41] a lot of them need to be addressed. So I

[12:42] don't know that we've picked exactly

[12:43] which ones. Um you know, it's kind of a

[12:46] fluid plan as far as I know. Um it will

[12:48] be a combined effort with me and public

[12:50] works. Okay. So then the 80,000 that's

[12:53] just where did that number come from if

[12:55] we don't have them the projects chosen

[12:57] yet? I think just to get us started we

[12:59] think we could at least you know repave

[13:00] some stuff but you know maybe some need

[13:02] uh guard rail um you know some could use

[13:05] some other improvements as well. So um

[13:07] to try to get us you know going in the

[13:09] right direction. Okay. So that's kind of

[13:10] just earmarked for that and then you'll

[13:12] decide what how far that money will get

[13:14] you basically. I think so. Yeah. And

[13:16] like there's always an opportunity to

[13:18] look for other funding as well and use

[13:19] that as part of a match. Okay. Got it.

[13:22] Uh the Gregory Road sidewalk extension,

[13:24] would you be able just to talk about

[13:25] that? So it looks like it's 70,000 in

[13:27] this budget and then

[13:29] $280,000 uh earmark for next year. Yeah.

[13:32] So that project we estimated to be

[13:35] $350,000. Um because there was, as you

[13:38] could tell, there are quite a bit of

[13:39] projects to be done this year. Um rather

[13:41] than picking and choosing whether we go

[13:43] with, you know, the traditional sidewalk

[13:46] replacement program or this Gregory Road

[13:49] sidewalk extension, um the strategy that

[13:52] the administration came up with was to

[13:54] fund 20% of it now and look for a grant

[13:56] this year. So then we'd have the match

[13:58] already here and then the grants always

[14:00] want you to have the uh entire project

[14:02] funded in the capital improvement plan.

[14:04] So it would show there. We'd say, you

[14:06] know, here's the rest of the funding,

[14:07] but hopefully get something from them.

[14:09] um and see if that works out. Okay. And

[14:12] that's to expand I'm sorry, I'm just not

[14:14] familiar with um that project that this

[14:16] is an expansion. Yeah. So, right now

[14:18] there's no sidewalks on uh Gregory Road

[14:21] and so we're going to um hopefully

[14:23] install sidewalk from uh Highland to

[14:27] Johnson. Um and then I believe it goes

[14:31] up maybe three houses on Highland. I

[14:34] don't have the plans with me, but it's

[14:35] about that scope. Was this the one that

[14:37] we were hearing about? There were people

[14:38] a few years ago where speed of cars they

[14:41] were have concerns. Okay. All right.

[14:43] Perfect. All right. Thank you. And um I

[14:45] apologize. I think that did come up last

[14:46] night. So I'm sorry if that was

[14:48] redundant.

[14:51] Uh this one I know

[14:54] about the library parking lot repairs we

[14:57] did discuss last

[15:00] night. I think that's all I

[15:04] have for that. Yes, I'm all set. Thank

[15:07] you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Appreciate

[15:09] it. Thank you. Anyone else on this

[15:11] topic? Thank you, Miss

[15:13] Capinski. Moving on to next, we'll go to

[15:15] uh pension. We can do pension uh

[15:18] employee

[15:19] insurance together.

[15:41] Good evening. Hello everybody. Jim

[15:42] Hottown, HR

[15:44] director, Council Tat. Thank you, Mr.

[15:47] Chairman. I'll do uh W do pension first

[15:49] and then see if anyone else has anything

[15:51] and then we'll go to the next.

[15:57] Okay. Get to the right page here.

[16:09] Okay. So, we're on page

[16:13] 27. Mr. I don't know if you know this

[16:15] off top of your head. I I should have

[16:16] looked up myself, but in the most recent

[16:19] audit, were there

[16:23] um I know there's not a surplus in the

[16:26] pension because it's obviously a fluid

[16:28] account, but what

[16:30] is does it look like? How does it look

[16:32] like we're funding this? Does it look

[16:33] like we have too much in it, not enough

[16:35] in it? What's the state of the pension

[16:37] fund? Basically,

[16:39] state of the pension fund or the line

[16:40] item because the pension fund is

[16:43] something different. Okay. So that's run

[16:46] through the pension commission, right?

[16:47] So if you're looking at the line items

[16:50] on page 27, I can tell you how we get

[16:52] there. Okay. Yeah. So you don't want

[16:55] Yeah. You're not here to speak on the

[16:57] pension, but So what we do is we do

[17:00] preliminary numbers when we're getting

[17:02] ready to submit the budget to the

[17:04] finance department for the mayor's

[17:07] review. And once we're done with that,

[17:11] the mayor and Tim go through the budget

[17:13] and um Tim will then let us know what

[17:18] positions on the town side are going to

[17:20] be funded and what that amount is and that includes full-time and

[17:24] part-time positions. So then what we do

[17:26] is we roll those numbers up. We add in

[17:31] the um what the board of ed provides us

[17:35] for their uh payroll for the

[17:37] consolidated pension plan. We do pay for

[17:39] the board of ed's pension contributions.

[17:42] Okay. And then those amounts get rolled

[17:44] up and we calculate the pension

[17:47] contribution for the town and the board

[17:49] of ed which this year is

[17:52] 25.3% and Medicare and social security

[17:56] for uh for those uh wage amounts social

[18:01] security for part-timer 6.2% and

[18:03] Medicare for everybody who's covered

[18:06] 1.45%.

[18:08] So that's how we come up with this and

[18:09] then our actuary gives us the value of

[18:13] what we put into the LOAP program.

[18:17] Okay. So thank you for that. That's very

[18:20] helpful.

[18:22] The I didn't realize that the board of

[18:24] ed pension is also on this side. So is

[18:27] that is that typical for municipalities

[18:29] that that would not be part of the board

[18:31] of ed's budget because I'm assuming

[18:33] that's a large part of this. It's like

[18:35] 12 million.

[18:37] Yeah,

[18:38] I can get it. I can get the number for

[18:40] you. Yeah, I don't need it right now.

[18:41] But just just to clarify, so that

[18:43] doesn't include teachers though because

[18:44] that does not include teachers. No, it's

[18:46] just the the non-certified personnel uh

[18:49] that are covered under the mirror

[18:50] statutes. Okay. But it wouldn't be 12

[18:53] million, Jim. The whole line I know is

[18:55] 12 million. Hold on. Let me see.

[19:03] So the

[19:04] 25.3 is also determined by the actuaries

[19:09] and the the

[19:10] 25.3 what number is that are you

[19:12] referring to? So for the on the town

[19:14] side Mhm. anyone who's in the pension

[19:18] all the

[19:19] salary. So every time we run payroll

[19:23] 25.3% will come out and go into the

[19:26] pension fund every week. Okay.

[19:30] Yes. So I can tell you the board of ed

[19:32] payroll that we

[19:35] uh use to set the pension contribution

[19:39] is

[19:41] 12,810 362. Okay. That's what we get

[19:44] from the board of ed. Sorry, that's the

[19:46] total payroll number. Sorry. Okay. And

[19:49] then it's the same percentage from that

[19:51] 25.3%. Yes. All right.

[19:56] Um, is that I don't know if you can

[19:58] speak to this or not. This is more for

[19:59] the pension commission, but the 25.3 is

[20:01] that is that typical is that like a

[20:03] normal range for municipality? That

[20:05] seems awfully high, but I mean I don't

[20:07] know. Maybe that's just typical. You

[20:09] know, that's probably a question for the

[20:12] actuaries. Okay. But

[20:14] um considering we've made some

[20:17] assumption changes over the years, the interest credit assumptions dropped

[20:22] from 8% I think we're down to 7% Tim

[20:24] right now and the amortization rate went

[20:27] from I think 25 to 24 years. So we're

[20:30] paying more to pair down what we owe.

[20:34] Okay. I assume that's something that

[20:36] you're looking at with contracts. I mean

[20:38] I'm because I I just I don't

[20:42] so employee wages wage increases you

[20:46] know brings this number up as well you

[20:49] know. Yeah. Okay. I don't I mean

[20:53] admittedly this is a subject I'm not

[20:55] very well versed in. I don't really

[20:57] understand, you know, pension like the

[20:58] workings of all of that. But I just my

[21:00] concern always is that

[21:03] um it becomes unaffordable or

[21:06] unsustainable over time because it's a large amount of money.

[21:10] Um you know, just this page alone is $12

[21:12] million. So that's annually, you know,

[21:15] almost $12 million that we're paying

[21:16] into this. So it's a huge it's a huge

[21:18] chunk of the budget.

[21:22] Um I think that's all I I have on the

[21:25] pension. So just to and just to um if I

[21:28] may u just to clarify so the pension

[21:30] contribution is simply the payroll

[21:33] multiplied times the

[21:35] actuarial percentage correct that's

[21:37] correct okay so so it's that simple so

[21:39] as we increase staff that's just

[21:41] naturally going to go up that's correct

[21:43] and so the the percentage could vary by

[21:45] year but that has to do with market

[21:46] performance etc etc correct that's

[21:48] correct yes correct it's a complicated

[21:51] right so so there's two ways you can do

[21:54] it they can calculate that the the match

[21:58] is $11 million and sometimes just put in

[22:01] the $11 million or the way we do it is

[22:06] if the payroll is not fully there,

[22:09] you're not paying extra, right? So,

[22:12] we're only paying what we're required to

[22:14] pay on the actual employees. Whereas if

[22:17] we just took the if they I'm just making

[22:19] up numbers but if they said 11 million

[22:22] is what's required your required

[22:24] contribution and we always make the

[22:26] required contribution. So we could just

[22:29] put the 11 million in or we could do it

[22:31] the way we do it. We find it more

[22:32] efficient to do it the way we do it.

[22:34] Okay. No understood. Anytime you say the

[22:36] word actuary it becomes very

[22:37] complicated. Right. Um, so does that

[22:39] mean then that this is so is this a

[22:41] fixed budget amount and that this is

[22:43] what we're going to spend or if we don't

[22:45] spend the payroll, do we then adjust the

[22:46] payment based on the actual payroll

[22:48] spend?

[22:50] So this is if every position was filled

[22:54] for every week, this is what we would

[22:57] pay. So So that that's

[23:00] No, that answered my question. Thank

[23:01] you.

[23:03] Any other questions this one? Yep. Mr.

[23:05] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Hut. Um, in

[23:08] the part of the world that I live in, we

[23:09] deal with loaded costs of employees,

[23:11] right? Do we have any semblance of a,

[23:14] you know, is it a 1.5 factor? Is it a,

[23:17] you know, is it somewhere on that scale

[23:19] that we can say for pension eligible

[23:22] employees, our our costs are X? So that

[23:25] when we take a look at headcount, we can

[23:28] adjust, you know, that number and those

[23:30] that that math becomes less complex. So

[23:33] I think the 25.3% is the number you

[23:36] would use for pension. Okay. Um but as

[23:40] far as a general is it you know you've

[23:42] got the FTE cost is the FTE cost. So

[23:45] that's a 1x factor and now we've got you

[23:48] know personal cell phones you've got any

[23:50] number or work cell phones you've got

[23:51] any number of different things benefits

[23:54] included in that conversation. Do we is

[23:57] there a target number that we work

[23:58] towards? No. No. Okay. Thank you. Thank

[24:01] you Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Anyone else

[24:03] on this topic? All right, moving on. And

[24:06] uh Jim, hang on a minute. So, the other

[24:08] one was uh pension and then

[24:12] employee employee insurance and other

[24:14] benefits.

[24:17] Council Tata, thank you. So, this is on

[24:19] page 28. I'm looking at a couple

[24:22] questions on this one.

[24:26] So under the program

[24:29] description, it says longevity and

[24:32] annual payment based upon years of

[24:33] service for general government employees

[24:36] except fire, police, public works, and

[24:38] public

[24:39] utilities. Why are those specific

[24:41] departments exempt from that? I do not

[24:44] know. This is how it's been since I

[24:46] started here. My guess is that because

[24:49] uh they they reside outside of town

[24:53] hall, but that's we've always budgeted

[24:56] for everybody but these departments for

[24:59] longevity. Okay. And what's the So those

[25:03] town those departments get longevity. It

[25:05] just gets paid out of their own

[25:06] department. Correct.

[25:08] They have their own. So So the

[25:10] firefighters that are eligible, they get

[25:12] longevity. It just gets paid out of the

[25:14] fire department budget. Okay. So, all of

[25:16] those other departments, yes, they Yes,

[25:18] they get it. They just It's not paid out

[25:20] of this line item. Okay. All right.

[25:22] Thank you. That makes

[25:25] sense.

[25:27] Um, is that also the same the next line

[25:31] down? It says the town provides life and

[25:32] health insurance for its employees in

[25:35] accordance with union contract

[25:36] provisions. Other benefits such as

[25:39] employee assistance program, tuition

[25:40] reimbursement, and training are

[25:41] included. So, that that would be for

[25:43] everybody would be budgeted in. So, we

[25:46] budget for everybody for life and health

[25:49] insurance except utilities. Okay. Um

[25:52] employee assistance program, we budget

[25:55] for the town. Utilities, police and fire

[25:58] have their own separate programs. And

[26:01] tuition reimbursement, we budget for the

[26:04] town employees. Okay? And police and

[26:07] fire, they have their own tuition uh

[26:09] language in their contracts. Okay? So

[26:11] basically every department has these

[26:14] benefits. It's just a matter of who's

[26:16] paying or where the money's coming from.

[26:18] So from the town side, tuition

[26:20] reimbursement, nonp police, non-fire,

[26:23] that's only limited to management

[26:24] employees. Okay, understood. Thank you.

[26:29] And you'll notice the longevity keeps

[26:31] going down because new hires are not

[26:34] eligible. So as people retire, they're

[26:37] off the books and then Okay. So that's

[26:40] what we use. So eventually that's going

[26:41] to get to zero. Okay. The um this came

[26:44] up last night, Mr. Hut. Um the fire

[26:47] department switched their health

[26:48] insurance I believe last year. Do you

[26:51] know how much that saved the town? So

[26:55] you know, as you know, we're in a

[26:56] contract negotiations with fire right

[26:58] now. When when we did move the initial

[27:02] move uh back in 2023, I believe it was

[27:07] uh July of 2023.

[27:10] what our our um insurance consultant

[27:14] projected for one year, I believe it was it was close to $300,000.

[27:20] Okay. And are there programs like that other departments might be able to

[27:29] enter into? I I've heard that there's

[27:32] state plans possibly like state health

[27:34] insurance plans. Is that anything that

[27:36] different I'm sure each union and each

[27:38] contract will be different, but is that

[27:39] something that we might look into or

[27:41] that they would want to look into to try

[27:43] to save some money and get them on

[27:45] different plans? So, so we're in

[27:47] negotiations with a variety of unions

[27:50] from time to time. Uh insurance

[27:53] proposals come from these unions that

[27:55] are not the town's plan. Right now, the

[27:58] only bargaining unit that has insurance

[28:01] outside of the town is the firefighters.

[28:05] Okay. And then I'm also assuming if we

[28:07] lose too many then would that make the

[28:10] town plan more expensive because now

[28:12] your pool is diminished? That may

[28:14] happen. We would have to get those, you

[28:16] know, that information from our

[28:18] insurance consultant. Okay. So, it's

[28:19] kind of a catch 22. Okay.

[28:23] Um, another benefit, I don't see it

[28:27] listed here, but I've heard that some

[28:29] departments have it. Military buyback.

[28:31] Is that anything that departments are

[28:33] offered or any levels are offered? So,

[28:36] back before um some some some union uh

[28:41] some pension contracts have that

[28:43] provision for employees hired as of a

[28:45] certain date. For the most part, that

[28:48] has been discontinued.

[28:50] uh police and fire never had military

[28:53] buyback that I know of. Uh and the

[28:56] reason being is they they already worked

[28:58] 23 and 22 years. So, but th those those

[29:02] unions have never had military buyback,

[29:04] but all the others did at one point. U

[29:07] I'm not sure that they have it right

[29:10] now. I think maybe some employees do,

[29:11] but then others do not. Okay. So, that

[29:13] would be something that would be

[29:14] negotiated at the union. That's correct.

[29:16] Contract. Yeah, that would have to be

[29:17] negotiated. have to be costed and uh but

[29:20] yeah that's that's correct. Okay. Thank

[29:23] you. That is all I have for that page.

[29:27] Mr. Chairman. All right. Anyone else on

[29:29] this topic?

[29:30] We'll go on next then to property

[29:32] casualty insurance.

[29:34] Mr. Chairman, if if I might ask um what

[29:37] what's left on the list? I have several

[29:39] department heads here and I just want to

[29:41] see which ones we can Sure. So we have

[29:43] mayor, finance, uh general fund revenue,

[29:46] debt service,

[29:48] uh contingency. Okay. And then we have a

[29:51] general question about the telephones.

[29:53] So

[29:54] yeah, it looks like recreation and

[29:56] engineering can leave. Yes. Yep. I think

[29:58] we're all set. Thank you so much. Thank

[30:00] you. Appreciate uh appreciate your

[30:06] attendance. Next, now we're on property

[30:08] casualty. Council Tat.

[30:17] Okay. So, page

[30:21] 29. So, this I'm I'm assuming I mean

[30:24] this is what it is, right? The insurance

[30:26] bill comes and there's not much we can

[30:28] do about this. I'm assuming. Correct.

[30:32] So, what you're looking at is the

[30:33] projected premiums for the insurance

[30:36] policies the the town has. Okay. So, we

[30:39] don't have them yet. This is our

[30:40] estimate of what they're going to be.

[30:42] No, we don't receive the actual uh

[30:44] premium invoices until July 1st. We're

[30:47] currently in the renewal cycle uh

[30:49] filling out our applications for

[30:50] renewal. Okay. And then have in the

[30:52] past, do you know historically have we

[30:54] usually been pretty close to our

[30:56] projections? Are we usually over? Uh we

[30:59] there have been years where the

[31:00] projections um have been slightly higher

[31:04] than the actual premiums. Okay. Uh but

[31:06] again, we're projecting these several

[31:09] months before the actual renewal data

[31:12] goes in. So there's a lot of factors

[31:13] that are involved in the actual renewal

[31:15] that would ultimately present with the

[31:17] premium. Okay. And my only other

[31:20] question on

[31:21] here

[31:25] the I have a couple actually the

[31:27] insurance deductible. So I noticed a

[31:29] couple departments have their own uh

[31:31] line item for that. Like last night we

[31:33] saw I think um FIRE had a $10,000

[31:35] deductible listed in theirs. So what

[31:37] does this what is the difference between

[31:39] this is that um how does that work?

[31:42] Basically who who is in this 50,000. So

[31:45] back in 2004 uh my office crafted a

[31:49] policy called a cost allocation program

[31:51] and what that did was it took the total

[31:53] premium that I budgeted for and spread

[31:56] it out amongst the departments so that

[31:58] departments had some accountability for

[31:59] that line item. Uh so what this

[32:02] represents is any department that's not

[32:04] covered under the cost allocation

[32:06] program and or just general policies

[32:09] that we don't allocate out to the

[32:11] specific departments. Okay, that's

[32:13] great. I like that that that's split out

[32:14] like that because I think it's more

[32:15] reflective of each department's budget.

[32:17] So that's good. My only other question,

[32:20] I notice here that um board of ed

[32:23] is

[32:25] 877,570 and that's in the general

[32:28] government budget, not in the board of

[32:30] ed budget. Is that typical that that

[32:33] would appear here? I'm just there's a

[32:34] there's several things I think we

[32:36] already mentioned one before where it's

[32:38] board of ed and it's in the general

[32:39] government budget. Um so it's kind of

[32:42] hard to get a picture of if I'm trying

[32:43] to look at board of ed spending and then

[32:45] there's

[32:45] $877,000 here. That's obviously a large

[32:48] amount of money. That's their

[32:50] expenditure. So, is the town paying that

[32:52] for the board of ed? Yeah. So,

[32:53] historically, uh, which as long as I've

[32:56] been here and predates me, the town has

[32:58] always budgeted for that. Uh, and we do

[33:01] pay those bills directly. We ultimately

[33:04] control that money. The board of

[33:05] education does not. Okay. And the reason

[33:09] for that is just historically that's

[33:10] what we've always done. The previous

[33:12] administration had decided that's how

[33:14] they wanted to carry that money. Okay.

[33:15] Uh so that's always resided uh on my

[33:18] side of the uh the ledger. Okay. Would

[33:20] you have an issue with that going to the

[33:22] board of ed side or Yes, you would.

[33:24] Okay. And what would that reason be?

[33:25] Well, the overall control. So if they

[33:28] have a budgeted number, they can budget

[33:30] a number, but they're not obligated to

[33:32] pay that premium. Correct. Okay. So this

[33:35] way here we we ensure that the bills get

[33:37] paid and uh ultimately the control lies

[33:39] with one department that can oversee the

[33:41] entire program. Understood. Makes sense.

[33:43] Thank you. Uh that is all I have Mr.

[33:45] Chairman. Any other questions on this

[33:46] item? Mr. Shriber, I just have a general

[33:49] question for you. So the obviously the

[33:51] property casualty like market is is

[33:53] pretty uh rough right now and we've seen

[33:56] some precipitous increases over the next

[33:57] few years. Do you have any idea from the

[33:59] consultant if we expect to see this turn

[34:01] around at any point? Um so we're in

[34:04] constant contact with them in regards I

[34:06] don't think that people understand that

[34:08] the external market forces that are in

[34:10] the entire industry do affect us

[34:12] locally. Uh and so we try to mitigate

[34:15] that with a number of different ways uh

[34:17] through loss control programs or

[34:19] different programs. Um they do market

[34:21] the program vastly for us to see if we

[34:23] can take advantage of any of that. Uh

[34:25] and so we are always looking at

[34:27] different ways of possibly reducing

[34:29] those increases um as they come through.

[34:32] Um you know again adding particular

[34:34] buildings. We did add two properties to

[34:35] the schedule this year. Uh so that in in

[34:38] itself will increase the you know the

[34:40] property line item. So, you know, and

[34:43] I'm not I'm not real familiar with

[34:44] commercial property. Um, if we have

[34:46] major renovation projects and buildings,

[34:48] does that potentially improve our lot

[34:52] with insurance? So, it's a double-edged

[34:54] sword because we routinely review the

[34:57] actual valuation of the buildings to

[34:59] make sure that we are insuring them to

[35:01] the proper level. So, when they are

[35:04] redone, that does increase some

[35:06] potential for their value to increase,

[35:09] right? Uh, so we we pull it's a poolled

[35:12] number that we use for our property. So,

[35:14] and that includes the utilities as well.

[35:17] Okay. Thank you very much, Council Tata.

[35:19] I'm sorry, one more thing. I just

[35:20] thought of

[35:22] the I'm assuming we ensure all buildings

[35:25] in town that we own despite who's

[35:29] occupying the buildings. Correct.

[35:31] Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[35:34] Thank you. Um, thank you very much,

[35:36] gentlemen.

[35:38] Do you have any other questions for me?

[35:40] Uh so the contingency. Yep. Did you have

[35:44] any I believe there items in the

[35:46] contingency related to HR

[35:52] and if not then then we're all set. Hang

[35:54] on just a second. Ch.

[36:02] Mr. Chairman. Um, we have the tax

[36:06] assessor here as well and I'm just

[36:08] wondering if there would be any

[36:11] questions with respect to his

[36:12] department. I don't see anything on the

[36:15] agenda that would indicate that. Uh,

[36:16] does anyone have questions for the tax

[36:17] assessor?

[36:19] Okay. Thank you very much.

[36:23] And my questions here are not Mr. H or

[36:28] Okay. So, none of the the questions are

[36:30] related to the your department. So,

[36:31] thank you very much. Thank you. Thank

[36:33] you. Appreciate it.

[36:38] All right. So, next uh we'll move on to

[36:41] contingency.

[36:44] Councelor T. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[36:46] So, this is page 64.

[36:51] Um

[36:53] the well first the first thing I noticed

[36:56] was that we don't have numbers for

[37:00] uh expended of fiscal year ended 630

[37:04] 24 or expended uh 25. I'm not sure was

[37:07] there a reason that wasn't there?

[37:09] Contingency by nature is not spent. It

[37:12] gets transferred to the appropriate

[37:13] account. Okay. So, if I wanted to look

[37:16] back and see last year we put in I let's

[37:20] just say we put in $500,000 and we ended

[37:23] up transferring out $300,000 during the

[37:27] year, we would have had 200,000 left.

[37:29] How would I find out how much we used of

[37:32] that? On the on the the monthly reports

[37:35] I give you, if you look at the

[37:37] contingency line item, the budget will

[37:40] be reduced, but it it will never be

[37:42] spent. You can't spend it at a

[37:44] contingency. It has to go to the proper

[37:46] account.

[37:48] Right. So there so there's transfers out

[37:50] of contingency into whatever account we

[37:52] Correct. Correct. So how would I know

[37:53] then what was transferred out of that

[37:55] account in a in a year?

[37:59] Take the original budget and subtract

[38:03] out the revised budget.

[38:06] So can we can I would you be able to get

[38:08] me those that number? I I think what I'm

[38:10] trying to see it say is if we let's say

[38:12] in the budget last year we said $500,000

[38:14] of contingency and then we didn't spend

[38:16] any of that but it went back to the

[38:18] general fund then I'm I'm trying to see

[38:20] how much historically we've spent of

[38:22] that. Well wait if I can interject for a

[38:25] second. So if you look at our budgets

[38:26] though every month we have transfers for

[38:28] different things. And if you look at

[38:29] especially the June budgets there's a

[38:31] lot of transfers in and out of

[38:33] contingency because we get revenue from

[38:34] other places that end up going into

[38:35] conting contingency. Correct. No,

[38:37] revenue doesn't go into contingency. I I

[38:40] can get you in the numbers. Do you want

[38:42] to know what was left in contingency for

[38:44] how many years?

[38:47] Would five years be asking too much?

[38:49] Nope. That's fine. So,

[38:52] one right in the current year though,

[38:55] you're not going to see money out of the

[38:57] acred wages for a reason and you're

[38:59] going to there's transfer is going to be

[39:01] coming soon.

[39:02] So, we had projected settled contracts

[39:07] last year. So, the the money wasn't in

[39:09] the departments. We've got to move that

[39:11] money in. Yes. I do not do that right

[39:13] away because if the department doesn't

[39:15] need the money and I put the money in

[39:16] there, then they start going, "Oh, my

[39:18] salary line has x amount of money." Then

[39:21] they start trying to transfer it out and

[39:23] do other stuff. So, that's probably the

[39:27] first meeting in May. Okay. Or maybe

[39:29] I'll wait till the second meeting in May

[39:31] because the first meeting in May is

[39:32] probably going to be the budget. We'll

[39:34] make those transfers. But there is

[39:36] salary that currently has to get moved

[39:40] from contingency into the proper line

[39:42] items. Okay, that makes sense. And if

[39:44] even if when you give me the numbers, if

[39:46] you don't want to include the current

[39:47] year, that's fine. I'm just kind of

[39:48] looking for a history. So that makes

[39:51] sense.

[39:52] So my next question, which you kind of

[39:54] just brought up, so there's two lines

[39:56] that make up contingency. There's the

[39:58] general purposes and then there's the

[40:00] acred expenses. Um the acred expenses

[40:03] I'm assuming is that's HRs. That's HR. But that's what you were just

[40:07] saying. Those are the wages contract.

[40:10] Without getting into contractual,

[40:14] you know, they're negotiating these

[40:16] contracts. So there's two contracts out

[40:19] that are they're out as of 6:30 20. So

[40:24] there's a full year they projected when

[40:26] it when this contract settled the year

[40:29] we're in is a full year of raises and

[40:32] then now you have to do the next year

[40:34] because so it's so that's why that

[40:37] number is so high is it's two years of these two contracts. So, and to be

[40:44] honest with you, the the number was

[40:47] higher and

[40:49] I kind of asked, you know, we we kind of

[40:53] trimmed it down a little bit. So,

[40:55] hopefully that is enough. Okay. And that

[40:58] you're specifically speaking to line

[40:59] 58821, right? So, the 1.2 million. Okay.

[41:02] You know that, you know, Jim's

[41:04] calculations were a little bit higher

[41:06] than that. And, you know, I said we

[41:08] can't we can't do that. We got to go

[41:10] let's go with this number. So fingers

[41:13] crossed. Okay. And then the other one,

[41:16] you know, we're at a $270 million bud

[41:18] budget. We had $300,000 to adjust on the

[41:22] fly. That's not very high.

[41:25] Okay, that's all I have. Thank you.

[41:28] Anyone else on this topic?

[41:31] Okay, moving on to Mayor

[41:47] council.

[41:57] Sorry, that's right. I assumed. Uh,

[42:00] thank you. Evening again, Mr. Mayor. The

[42:04] part-time

[42:06] um looks like there's a new part-time

[42:07] position. Can you just explain what that

[42:10] position is?

[42:13] that the the one at the bottom of the

[42:17] um on page 15 it shows part-time and

[42:20] then department request one mayor one

[42:22] and then it looks like on the following

[42:24] page it's the yeah it looks like it's

[42:27] the bottom one. It just says part-time.

[42:30] So, we have a part-time employee who

[42:34] um is working on clearing out our

[42:38] archives.

[42:41] Um and

[42:46] um she does cover phones at times if

[42:50] both of the administrative aid and the

[42:53] secretary are not in the office.

[42:56] Um she does work similar work for other

[42:59] departments in terms of uh going through

[43:02] uh there's a fair amount of purging to

[43:04] be done. There's a lot of paper that

[43:05] dates back to my birth.

[43:09] Um and she's really

[43:13] um done quite a bit in terms of purging

[43:17] what can be purged and

[43:21] um in some other or organizational

[43:25] functions that really um they've helped

[43:27] us. They've helped program planning um I

[43:30] think she spent some time in the clerk's

[43:32] office with a project. So, she does she

[43:35] does float a bit, but she stops into our

[43:38] office on the way in every morning that

[43:40] she works. Okay. And this is a this is a

[43:42] scheduled employee that there's set

[43:44] hours. It's a Yes. schedule. Okay. And

[43:47] then you anticipate this being a a

[43:48] permanent part-time employee. The end of

[43:52] the

[43:53] work is probably

[43:57] um will probably take us through next

[44:00] year. Okay. All right.

[44:03] Um, just while we're on that page, I

[44:04] just wanted to give

[44:06] um just kind of a a thanks to to you,

[44:09] but also to um your office. Your office

[44:12] staff has been has been great. So, um

[44:15] very efficient and um I know we you

[44:17] know, I end up kind of bothering them

[44:19] sometimes for stuff, but they've been phenomenal.

[44:22] So um so I I'll take the opportunity to

[44:25] say that we are

[44:28] three three people in that office new to

[44:31] our positions. Um and while Corey had

[44:35] been the executive secretary

[44:37] uh prior to becoming administrative aid,

[44:40] she had only been there a few years. Um,

[44:43] so all things considered,

[44:46] um, the

[44:48] relative I'm not going to say lack, but

[44:50] potential for a gap of institutional

[44:52] knowledge, um, I I think we're doing

[44:55] pretty well, and I

[44:58] I'm I'm not one to brag, but I'm pleased

[45:00] with the hires. Yeah. No, absolutely.

[45:02] And Corey specifically has been just

[45:04] very efficient, gets back to me right

[45:06] away. Um, pleasant, friendly. So, she's

[45:09] you have you have great staff in there.

[45:11] [Music]

[45:15] Um, oh, the office furniture. So, I know

[45:17] there's nothing in this budget, but that

[45:19] um that has all been purchased,

[45:21] expended. That's all. Um, I mean, it

[45:23] looks great. I've been in there. Um,

[45:25] well, thank you. Um, we we still have

[45:28] some furniture that that dates back to

[45:31] the 80s. Um, you know, I think the the

[45:35] wooden file cabinets um in the mayor's

[45:38] office proper. Um, but you know, we we

[45:41] replaced some chipboard furniture that

[45:44] really was at the end of its useful

[45:46] life. Yeah. Um, I think I think our

[45:48] conference table got repurposed

[45:51] somewhere. Um, but yeah, no, the the

[45:55] furniture that was replaced was in need

[45:57] of replacing. The the desk that I sit at

[46:00] um I couldn't get all the drawers to

[46:02] work. Yeah. So, and my it was Yeah.

[46:06] It was time. Um, but that but that

[46:08] was last year. That money's all Yeah,

[46:10] we're not we don't foresee that type of

[46:13] uh replacement anytime soon. Great.

[46:16] Okay, those were the only questions I

[46:18] had. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor.

[46:19] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Anyone else on

[46:21] this topic?

[46:23] Before we move on, I'd also like to say

[46:24] Corey and Dawn, your office have been

[46:26] fantastic to work with. Uh just super

[46:29] nice people, great attitudes, and uh

[46:31] very efficient. So now I'll find out if

[46:33] Corey watches the meeting because she'll

[46:34] have to mention or shout it.

[46:37] Thanks for saying that. And in case they

[46:40] didn't watch, I will make sure to let

[46:41] them know. All right. Thank you, Mayor.

[46:43] Um, moving on to uh finance.

[46:51] Council Tata. Yes. I'm just going to

[46:54] believe it's page 20. Yes. Well, it's a

[46:57] lot of pages, but it starts on

[46:59] 20. All right. I'm actually going to

[47:01] start on page 21.

[47:06] Uh line

[47:08] 566000. I feel like I asked about this

[47:10] every year, but then it looks like it

[47:12] went away for a few years, but now it's

[47:14] back. So microfilming is So it

[47:19] is, believe it or not, through after

[47:23] we're done paying all the bills, it's

[47:25] about 15 bankers boxes like this. So

[47:31] we're running out of room. So to get rid

[47:34] of them, I we need to microphone because

[47:36] I have to save them. So we were caught

[47:39] up and then we're a little behind. So

[47:42] I'm hoping this will take care of two

[47:43] years of it. Okay. In the the micro

[47:46] film, it's not really microf filming.

[47:48] They they put it on a fl, you know, a

[47:50] flash drive that Okay. That's I was just

[47:52] going to ask. It's not actually

[47:54] microfilm. Okay. All right. We're That's

[47:56] just what they call line. That was my

[47:57] next question. All right.

[48:00] um line 56720 purchase services data

[48:04] process. So it looks like you had kind

[48:05] of a a somewhat large expenditure there

[48:07] but then not this year is that so let me

[48:09] explain how that works.

[48:13] So as they they said last night that

[48:16] it people were moved into the IT budget.

[48:21] So it used to work in reverse. They were

[48:25] our IT people. So we would have to pay

[48:28] the electric division for that through

[48:30] proportionate charges. So somehow I was

[48:33] the lucky individual who who paid for

[48:35] that. So that now kind of got reversed.

[48:38] We're not paying for them anymore. We're

[48:40] charging them. Okay. So I look like a

[48:42] hero because my budget went down hero.

[48:46] All right. So yeah, I understand. So

[48:48] that works. um

[48:55] uh operating expenses line

[48:59] 58735. So it looks like it's a little

[49:03] your your current expenditure seems

[49:05] fairly low, but I I know that certainly

[49:07] could be because there's things that are

[49:08] not split out equally over 12 months. Is

[49:10] that what's happening there? So that

[49:13] that's you know I've got four divisions

[49:15] in the mail room. So that that's you

[49:18] know the mail mail room machines are

[49:21] 28,000 postage for the tax bills there's

[49:24] bank courier fees there's supplies you

[49:26] know and then just you know

[49:28] miscellaneous stuff but and everything

[49:30] is going up

[49:32] so you know price of stamps went up all

[49:36] materials are going up but um what we

[49:39] normally would do is you know at the end

[49:42] of the year if there's money in there

[49:45] we'll we'll pay for we'll load up the

[49:47] postage machine. Okay, got it. So, um,

[49:51] basically, so when we look at the

[49:52] expended column, I mean this, for lack

[49:54] of a better terms, you're basically on a

[49:55] cash basis, that's like what's actually

[49:56] expended as of that point in that

[49:59] column. So, if a if a major bill comes

[50:02] in um in May, that's going to that would

[50:07] be reflected later on. Correct. And that

[50:09] we're not that the tax bailing of the

[50:11] tax bills is going to happen in June.

[50:12] Yeah. So, that's going to be a big bill.

[50:14] Okay, that makes sense.

[50:18] the I know we've been talking about

[50:20] direct deposit and online bill pay is

[50:22] coming. Do you know as of yet is that

[50:25] going to result in efficiencies in your

[50:28] office or or not your office but in the

[50:30] finance department as a whole where we

[50:31] would be able to save positions because

[50:33] I'm think I'm just thinking that there's

[50:36] somebody reconciling hundreds of

[50:38] paychecks every week and things like

[50:39] that where it might be more efficient.

[50:40] Is that anything you foresee happening

[50:42] in the coming year? That would be the hope not the coming year. I our

[50:47] office is so busy right now with various

[50:49] projects that I can't I would love to

[50:53] snap my fingers and make everything

[50:54] happen. It's just physically impossible.

[50:56] It's the it's the same employees that

[50:59] are doing it. So right

[51:03] now will invoice cloud make it more

[51:06] efficient eventually.

[51:07] Yes. But the stuff still needs to be

[51:10] reconciled.

[51:12] So

[51:14] reconciling payroll checks is really not a big deal. The bank does that for

[51:18] you. They, you know, they send us a

[51:20] file. Okay.

[51:22] Our goal is to to get to direct deposit,

[51:26] but I've got my I've only got two

[51:28] payroll people and they have to crank

[51:30] out a weekly payroll every week and

[51:32] they're working on some other projects

[51:34] right now. So, my goal is to at least

[51:38] get the

[51:39] pensioners soon and then we'll we'll go

[51:41] from

[51:42] there. Okay. But, um I would think it's

[51:45] going to take a couple years because,

[51:47] you

[51:48] know, just invoice cloud, you know,

[51:51] hopefully it goes live and we we do it,

[51:53] but not everyone's going to use it. So,

[51:57] until you've

[51:59] got until it completely shifts, it's the same amount of work. It's

[52:04] actually we're adding more work because

[52:05] instead of just doing what we normally

[52:07] do now the money is coming

[52:09] electronically but we still have to make

[52:11] sure it hits the right accounts and gets

[52:12] posted properly. So it's still the same

[52:14] amount of work. It's just a different

[52:16] format. But I mean if

[52:20] they're I'm not going to have people sit

[52:23] there doing nothing. We will reprogram

[52:25] them or you know you know we'll figure

[52:28] something out.

[52:31] Okay. And then I apologize if you've

[52:34] already answered this. I haven't gone

[52:35] through the emails yet, but um open

[52:38] positions. There's

[52:41] if you already answered it, I I can look

[52:43] through my email. I don't need you. I

[52:44] don't mind answering it. Okay.

[52:47] So, I have one open position because

[52:50] today was her last day. Okay.

[52:54] So, I had one I have one in tax, but

[52:57] we've already gone through the whole

[52:58] process and she's walking, you know, on

[53:01] May 22nd. that she's coming in. Okay.

[53:04] So, I do have money in this budget for

[53:08] that position. I did not start the

[53:11] process. I don't want to give it up yet,

[53:14] but I'm hoping with some of the

[53:17] efficiencies

[53:18] with that if we roll it out to the

[53:21] departments that maybe this position

[53:23] won't be needed. But as of now, that's

[53:26] the only one I have open. Just the one.

[53:28] It's funded but I did not start the

[53:30] process yet. Okay, great. Thank you.

[53:33] That is all I have. Thank you, Mr.

[53:35] Chairman. Thank you. Anyone else on this

[53:37] topic?

[53:39] Moving on to general fund revenue.

[53:43] Can we do debt service first? Moving on

[53:45] to debt service before we before we

[53:48] switch gears.

[54:19] All right. Sorry. It says uh page 22.

[54:26] So, my question here, and I think I I

[54:29] think I've seen it on the the following

[54:31] pages, but the new police department

[54:34] bonding that's um I'm assuming that's

[54:37] now in reflected in this budget. And

[54:39] about how much is that annually?

[54:42] All right. So, I kind of figured that's

[54:45] what your question was going to be.

[54:47] So, so far we've bonded

[54:54] 23,674,074 for the police station

[54:55] project. We still have to bond the rest

[54:58] of it, which hopefully soon. I keep

[55:02] keeps getting pushed down a little bit.

[55:05] So, that's how much we've bonded. So in

[55:08] these numbers

[55:10] here 1.1 uh so we we bonded

[55:15] two two amount uh two times so one was a

[55:18] big amount one was a little bit combined

[55:21] in the principal portion of this one

[55:25] 183 is attributed to the new police

[55:29] station and for interest

[55:33] $927,060 is in the the interest line.

[55:37] Okay. And that is only for what was

[55:39] what's already been bonded. Correct.

[55:40] So if we if we do more bonding

[55:44] and then Well, we have to do more. Yeah.

[55:46] So when we do the more bonding to pay

[55:48] the bills, it's did we budget for that

[55:51] in here? No. I

[55:54] estimated in my numbers. I

[55:59] took what I know that we have to pay.

[56:02] Mhm. And I'm assume so I estimated that

[56:07] when I

[56:08] bond I was going to do $13 million which

[56:11] would be the police station I think one

[56:12] of the boilers and the four Fairfield

[56:14] Boulevard.

[56:16] So I just so I estimated if I do $13

[56:20] million at 20 years that'd be 650,000.

[56:24] So, I've added 650,000 into what I know

[56:27] we have to pay. Okay, great. I that's basically what I was getting. I

[56:30] want to make sure that that's um and

[56:32] then I for interest I did the same

[56:34] thing. I did the 13 million times, you

[56:36] know, I just used 4% and I added that to what is known. Okay. And then the 250

[56:43] in the the new debt financing, that's

[56:46] kind of if I'm off, that's where I would

[56:48] go to take that money. Okay, that makes

[56:50] And I can also use that money for, you

[56:52] know, if something came up, we could

[56:56] transfer that somewhere else to to pay

[56:58] for something an emergency instead of

[57:01] using debt for it. Yep. Got it. So

[57:04] basically the the so the police

[57:08] station without the additional bond we

[57:10] still need to do is it's over $2 million

[57:14] a year principal and interest just where

[57:17] we stand right now. And we still have to

[57:18] issue how many how much more in bonds?

[57:21] 13 million. So premium gets involved. So

[57:24] I would say it's probably going to be

[57:25] around 11 12 million. Okay. So that's um

[57:30] I just think it's an important number to

[57:31] note for we're look I know we're looking

[57:33] at projects

[57:34] um

[57:36] this you know there's been a lot of talk

[57:38] of bonding but that's that's adding a

[57:40] large amount to our um that's going to

[57:42] be correct. So

[57:44] bonding bonding spreads the expenditure

[57:48] over the 20 years, but it does cost more

[57:51] because you got to pay the interest.

[57:52] Yeah, exactly. But but it it doesn't

[57:55] create the spikes. So and you know, we

[57:58] do not like to bond rolling stock

[58:01] because it doesn't last that long. So

[58:03] you you're paying for it when it's out

[58:06] of service. Makes sense. Okay, that was

[58:09] what I had on police. And

[58:11] then out of this page, so the the grand

[58:15] total that we we the taxpayers pay um in

[58:20] bonding, uh the proposed

[58:23] is a little under $6.7 million per year.

[58:27] Do you know about how much of that is

[58:30] board of ed bonding? Because I assume

[58:31] that's included in this as well,

[58:33] correct? Yeah, actually if you go to the board of ed, you go to

[58:51] page

[58:54] 66, there's a memorandum page there. I'm

[58:57] sorry, I'm probably not talking to the

[58:58] mic. There's a memorandum page there

[59:00] that shows what the general government

[59:04] side is paying on behalf of the board of

[59:05] ed.

[59:08] Oh, perfect. And then that that pension

[59:10] that we were talking about before,

[59:11] that's in there, too. Correct.

[59:15] Actually, I have this page highlighted

[59:16] and I forgot it was here. So, thank you.

[59:18] Um, okay. So, total in the general

[59:20] government budget that belongs to board

[59:23] of ed, the prop in the proposed budget

[59:26] is $6.7 million. Correct. Okay.

[59:30] And that just for the benefit of anyone

[59:32] listening, that's made up of principle

[59:35] on bonds for the schools, interest on

[59:36] bonds for the schools, uh the

[59:39] non-certified pension contribution,

[59:41] which we were discussing earlier,

[59:42] property and casualty insurance we

[59:44] discussed earlier, and the school

[59:46] resource officers, which I believe are

[59:48] paid through the police department

[59:49] budget. Correct. Okay. So, that's what

[59:51] makes up that $6.7 million that's board

[59:53] of ed spending, but that's paid from the

[59:55] general government budget. All right.

[59:57] Thank you very much for that. Uh that

[1:00:00] was all I have for debt service. Thank

[1:00:02] you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Satan.

[1:00:03] Appreciate it. Anyone else on this

[1:00:05] topic? And moving on to

[1:00:07] uh general fund

[1:00:09] revenue. Councelor Tata.

[1:00:16] [Applause]

[1:00:17] So I believe this is pages 9 through 12.

[1:00:30] Okay. So, starting on page nine, there's

[1:00:33] uh page nine, section two, Roman numeral

[1:00:35] 2. There's pilots and other

[1:00:37] taxes. Um, I just want to kind of go

[1:00:40] through these. I think most of them are

[1:00:42] self-explanatory, but I just want to

[1:00:43] make sure I understand what they all

[1:00:44] are. So, um, there's a pilot for

[1:00:47] McKenna, Ashler. Uh, the Coanta one is

[1:00:51] done now. That's out of there. Yeah, I

[1:00:53] should have taken that line out. That's

[1:00:54] No, that's okay. I Yeah, I think they

[1:00:56] usually linger for a few years, right?

[1:00:59] Um,

[1:01:02] looks like Well, I I guess let me lump

[1:01:03] them. So, Mechanicore, Olberg Heights.

[1:01:06] Um, there's there's housing ones in

[1:01:07] there that they pay a pilot because is

[1:01:10] that paid through the state? Who's

[1:01:12] paying that? It's kind of tied

[1:01:16] to the water and sewer. So, there there

[1:01:20] is a formula for that. Okay. But they're

[1:01:23] those are housing those are those it's

[1:01:25] the housing authority. Okay. Instead of

[1:01:27] we don't tax them. So it's a calculated

[1:01:30] pilot is the reason we don't tax them is

[1:01:32] because it's um those are town owned or

[1:01:35] no? Are those are owned by the housing

[1:01:37] authority?

[1:01:39] I believe they're owned by the housing

[1:01:40] authority. Okay. But I'm not 100% sure

[1:01:43] on that one. Okay.

[1:01:46] Um, so basically if we did charge tax,

[1:01:49] who would I just because I'm trying to

[1:01:52] wonder I'm trying to figure out the

[1:01:53] history of why there is no tax is that

[1:01:55] if the housing authority, which is the

[1:01:57] town owns them, then the town would

[1:01:59] basically be paying it, taking money

[1:02:00] from itself to give back to itself. Is

[1:02:02] that the rationale there?

[1:02:05] Uh, it's before, you know, before my

[1:02:08] time, but I believe it's something in

[1:02:10] that that line. that it's a nonprofit,

[1:02:13] so you you can't tax them, but they

[1:02:15] agree to give us a payment. What we're

[1:02:18] learning, um, so we've been approached,

[1:02:21] uh, with respect to repurposing the old

[1:02:23] Genesis property on Kraki,

[1:02:26] um, what we're learning is that

[1:02:28] typically with public housing or

[1:02:30] low-income housing or variable income

[1:02:33] housing, um, there's a a a pilot

[1:02:37] negotiated, uh, instead of the typical

[1:02:40] assess tax formula.

[1:02:42] Okay. So, these were negotiated when

[1:02:44] they were built there. There's a formula

[1:02:46] for the housing authority um pilot

[1:02:50] payments. Okay. There's an agreement uh

[1:02:53] in a formula. Okay. Understood. Um

[1:02:57] Ashler Village, we know what that is.

[1:02:58] That was because of a well, we we know

[1:03:01] the history there. Um Transco, that's

[1:03:04] 65,000. What is I'm not familiar with

[1:03:06] that. Transco is a power company. Okay.

[1:03:11] So I D they

[1:03:14] I think it's plan the Pierce plan. Okay.

[1:03:17] Yes. Okay. I I know what that is.

[1:03:21] Um there's a line item 41110 pilot for

[1:03:25] college and hospitals. We don't have

[1:03:28] anything on that line item. Did Did we

[1:03:30] at one point? Yes. So the state

[1:03:35] used to break that out and now they just

[1:03:37] give us one amount which so that's in

[1:03:40] the So now all that that's part of the

[1:03:46] 41114 the pilot state owned property

[1:03:49] they just give us that amount they don't

[1:03:50] break it out by whether it's schools or

[1:03:53] whatever they used to break it they used

[1:03:55] to say this is for schools this is for

[1:03:57] hospitals now they just say this is our

[1:04:00] you know they just give us one number So

[1:04:02] what comprises that? What are they

[1:04:04] paying us? That they that's just the

[1:04:06] state tells us that we don't know. They

[1:04:09] that's what they their formula gives us.

[1:04:12] So is would that be basically in place

[1:04:14] of so I know there's the state law that

[1:04:16] you can't charge um you know like for

[1:04:19] educational or hospitals is does the state then give you money to

[1:04:22] offset that? Is that what that is? No,

[1:04:24] this is if the state buys property, so

[1:04:28] that's taking it off our tax roles,

[1:04:31] they're they're they're supposed to give

[1:04:32] us money. They are

[1:04:34] sorry, they are supposed to uh pay us

[1:04:38] for that, but then they don't, you know,

[1:04:40] they don't fund it. So, you know, when

[1:04:42] it program first started, they would pay

[1:04:44] you 70% of it. Now, you're lucky if

[1:04:46] they're paying you 30% of what they owe

[1:04:47] you. And it's it's a formula. So, you

[1:04:50] know, when the governor's budget comes

[1:04:52] out, I get sent a page telling us what

[1:04:54] the what the revenues are. Okay. But

[1:04:57] this isn't tied to specific properties

[1:04:59] though. It's It might be at the state

[1:05:01] level, but they don't give us that

[1:05:03] information. They just tell us how much

[1:05:05] we're getting.

[1:05:06] All right. That's That's interesting.

[1:05:09] All right. It's I mean, it's $57,000, so

[1:05:11] I'm not I'm not complaining. I would

[1:05:12] just love to know what the what the

[1:05:15] justification of it is or how they're

[1:05:16] coming to that. Um, it's kind of it's part of their formula grants that

[1:05:22] same thing with the ECS. It all comes,

[1:05:26] you know, that how I get the ECS number.

[1:05:28] That's how I get this number.

[1:05:30] Okay.

[1:05:32] [Music]

[1:05:34] Um, just going through the list

[1:05:43] here. All right. I think that's all I

[1:05:45] have for that page.

[1:05:48] on page 10, uh, line

[1:05:52] 44060. I believe I asked you this last

[1:05:54] year and I assume the list is the same,

[1:05:55] but that's rent of town property. It

[1:05:59] looks like our revenue is

[1:06:01] 55,44.

[1:06:03] [Music]

[1:06:04] Um, do you recall what properties that

[1:06:06] is? I I know some we we let use

[1:06:10] buildings for That's the $4. That's the

[1:06:13] $4, correct? Yep. Um

[1:06:16] there's I can get you that information.

[1:06:18] Okay. I'm assuming it's the same list as

[1:06:20] last year, but it's two different It's

[1:06:23] two properties.

[1:06:25] So,

[1:06:26] um I can get you that. I don't know off

[1:06:28] the top. I appreciate that cuz I know

[1:06:30] the ones that we that we let use the

[1:06:33] properties. I know that the Scow and

[1:06:35] STEM building is one, correct? And

[1:06:37] that's a nominal fee. And then uh the

[1:06:40] library. The library. Yep.

[1:06:43] the senior

[1:06:44] center and a daycare. And which one? The

[1:06:47] daycare. Oh, yes. Okay. Yep. Okay. Thank

[1:06:51] you. Yeah. If if you do have the the

[1:06:52] others, that would just be

[1:06:55] helpful.

[1:06:56] Uh the only other thing on that page I

[1:07:00] noticed the bottom line uh total state

[1:07:04] grant and aid that went down by about

[1:07:07] what 1.2 million this year.

[1:07:11] So that's not a good thing.

[1:07:14] So just another uh I just wanted to note

[1:07:17] make a note of that that that's we lost

[1:07:19] quite a bit there.

[1:07:22] Uh on page 11.

[1:07:25] So that that difference is there's a

[1:07:27] municipal sharing grant.

[1:07:30] Sometimes they fund it, sometimes they

[1:07:32] don't. So in 6:30 2024

[1:07:38] they they funded in in fiscal year end

[1:07:41] 23 and 24 which we didn't budget for

[1:07:45] when so when I was trying to make the

[1:07:48] budget for the

[1:07:49] 2425 talking to the CCM people without

[1:07:52] them telling me they you know wink wink

[1:07:55] told us you know we're not you're not

[1:07:58] getting that this year so that's why I

[1:07:59] didn't fund it okay so

[1:08:03] but so yeah we we got a bump for like

[1:08:06] two years but it's it's gone so It's, you know, it could come back and

[1:08:11] all the It'll be Yeah. Pleasant surprise

[1:08:13] if it does, but Okay. Um, on page

[1:08:17] 11, I

[1:08:21] don't I don't think I have questions on

[1:08:24] this page, but because we talked about

[1:08:25] it last night already, but

[1:08:26] um I had just made note of the So, we

[1:08:31] charge for certain services in town. Um,

[1:08:34] and the ones that kind of stand out that

[1:08:36] were

[1:08:37] the the big ones were the ambulance. Um,

[1:08:42] so I I got good news on the ambulance.

[1:08:44] So I was talking to Chief Buck today and

[1:08:46] I didn't take into account that extra

[1:08:48] run that they added recently. So you

[1:08:51] guys can probably bump that up about

[1:08:53] $200,000. Perfect. Which

[1:08:57] Yeah, he seemed to be alluding to that

[1:08:58] last night, too. So that's great. So, so

[1:09:00] the ambulance brings in 2.5 million in

[1:09:03] revenue that we can hopefully safely say

[1:09:05] 2.7 at this point. Correct. And then

[1:09:08] once we get better data, we'll hone that

[1:09:10] in. And that's a net number. So, they

[1:09:14] might

[1:09:15] bill 6 million, but the collections and

[1:09:20] stuff I I can't have the ins and outs on

[1:09:22] the budget. So, we try to guess what's

[1:09:25] the actual cash that's coming in. And

[1:09:26] that's how we come up with that number

[1:09:28] because for on the accounting side when

[1:09:30] I book the receivable I debit the

[1:09:32] accounts receivable and I credit

[1:09:34] deferred revenue. So it's a it's a wash.

[1:09:38] Yeah. Know so we we show that they owe

[1:09:40] it to us but we also show that we don't

[1:09:42] have it. Yeah. So well looks I mean it

[1:09:44] looks like you're almost spot on if you

[1:09:46] look at the prior the prior year and

[1:09:48] then what you're where you are this

[1:09:49] year. It looks like that'll probably be

[1:09:51] about Yeah. We try you know your

[1:09:53] projection seems like it's accurate.

[1:09:54] back at, you know, three years of

[1:09:56] history and, you know, I, you know, for

[1:09:58] the big numbers, I talk to the

[1:09:59] department heads and say, "Hey, do you

[1:10:00] know of any big projects? Should we bump

[1:10:02] this up or not?" And police, same thing.

[1:10:05] So, police brings in 7 Well, you're projecting or proposing 782. So,

[1:10:10] that's the the police extra duty and the car rentals. Yep. And again,

[1:10:15] that looks like you're pretty close to

[1:10:16] the That number came from them. Okay,

[1:10:18] perfect. Okay. Um,

[1:10:23] and then the I'll direct you while we're

[1:10:25] on this page. The there was a big jump

[1:10:28] in the proportionate charges. Where is

[1:10:30] that? I'm sorry. So that's uh Oh, the

[1:10:32] bottom of the page. Bottom.

[1:10:35] So what that is is that water electric

[1:10:38] have to pay their

[1:10:40] own they're supposed to pay everything

[1:10:42] on their own dime. So any services that

[1:10:45] they use that we do we bill back to

[1:10:47] them. Mhm. So, this number really hasn't

[1:10:50] been tred up in about 15 years. So, the

[1:10:54] utilities asked us to to true it up and

[1:10:56] I said, "You might not like the

[1:10:58] results." And it it worked out in our

[1:11:00] favor. So, you know, probably 20 years

[1:11:03] ago, someone came up with a method to do

[1:11:05] that and we probably been adding three

[1:11:07] or 4% a year. We've got backup to these

[1:11:11] numbers and and we'll we'll continue to

[1:11:12] kind of true it up. So I'll give props

[1:11:14] to the deputy controller for for doing

[1:11:16] that project. So but so basically you

[1:11:20] know we've calculated of the human

[1:11:23] resources

[1:11:26] department

[1:11:28] 26116 between water and electric they

[1:11:31] they've used they owe us that amount.

[1:11:36] Okay,

[1:11:41] great. That is all I have for that

[1:11:44] section. Thank you, Mr. Trman. Thank

[1:11:45] you, Mr. Senna. Anyone else in the

[1:11:47] general fund revenue?

[1:11:49] All right. And so the last one was a

[1:11:51] general question about the telephone.

[1:11:53] Yes, that was also me. Um I don't know

[1:11:56] if Mr. Mayor, if Mr. I don't know if you

[1:11:57] could uh speak to this, but I know we we

[1:11:59] spoke a little bit about it tomorrow

[1:12:00] night, but it just seems to me as I'm

[1:12:02] going through each department that the

[1:12:03] telephone line seems awfully high. Do

[1:12:06] what is now I know there's certain

[1:12:07] departments that have their own systems

[1:12:08] like we spoke about last night, but as a

[1:12:10] whole, it just seems like it's it just

[1:12:12] seems very high to me. Is there what's

[1:12:15] the system or what's is there a reason

[1:12:17] why or are we looking for a new system?

[1:12:19] Just any background you could give would

[1:12:20] be helpful.

[1:12:22] So it's it's kind of helter skelter

[1:12:25] because you're dealing with cell phones,

[1:12:28] right? So in an ideal world, we would

[1:12:33] and you know, we're probably I think

[1:12:35] we've had discussions on it is maybe we

[1:12:38] should try

[1:12:39] to have one department re this in and go

[1:12:43] say, "Hey, we want 50 phones of Verizon

[1:12:46] and try to do that." But

[1:12:49] these the previous administration the

[1:12:52] department head would say hey I need a

[1:12:54] cell phone and then they get permission

[1:12:56] to get a cell phone and they would just

[1:12:58] go do their own thing. So that's in that

[1:13:02] line. I think you've got the internet

[1:13:06] probably is in some of them. So like

[1:13:08] when you're when you're looking at fire,

[1:13:10] they've

[1:13:12] got devices out in the field that you

[1:13:15] know it's it's cellular service. You

[1:13:17] know when you look at it telephone it's

[1:13:20] because it's anything cellular is

[1:13:23] getting build into that right so they

[1:13:27] have iPads in the field that that you

[1:13:30] know they need something to connect to.

[1:13:32] So it's something we can look into. It's

[1:13:34] kind of deceiving, but if we the more

[1:13:36] objects we add, the the more pages and

[1:13:40] it's it's so maybe a better description,

[1:13:43] but I do believe, you know, it's

[1:13:46] probably going to be, you know, we will

[1:13:48] take a deep dive in at some point to try

[1:13:50] to see if we can get everybody on the

[1:13:53] same provider.

[1:13:55] Okay, that's help. I Yeah, I think the

[1:13:57] way you just explained it, maybe it's

[1:13:58] more of just the heading that's throwing

[1:14:00] me because I know even police last night

[1:14:02] were saying like his fiber runs are

[1:14:04] listed under telephone which is

[1:14:05] obviously very expensive but it's not

[1:14:08] really telephone, right? So, you know,

[1:14:10] these objects in the budget are been

[1:14:14] here forever and times have changed. So,

[1:14:16] like microfilming. Yeah. All right. That makes me feel better though that

[1:14:20] it's not purely telephones in that line.

[1:14:22] Uh, thank you. That was that was my only

[1:14:24] question on that.

[1:14:26] Anyone else on this one?

[1:14:30] Oh, okay. All right. Uh, questions on

[1:14:33] something else? Yeah. So, yeah, sorry.

[1:14:36] And I didn't submit this before

[1:14:37] anything. Uh, government TV. Um, the

[1:14:40] background behind the

[1:14:43] manager position.

[1:14:46] So, the the department has been

[1:14:48] operating on all part- timerrs.

[1:14:51] Um what we're finding is that while

[1:14:56] um Mr. Kinesi uh is kind enough to be

[1:15:00] the lead in the department um he

[1:15:03] really doesn't want this to be more than

[1:15:05] a part-time job.

[1:15:07] Um so and we have I think we have five

[1:15:11] or six part- timerrs uh at this point.

[1:15:14] There is a lot of administration that's

[1:15:17] going by the wayside. um we actually

[1:15:19] have pure reporting obligations that we

[1:15:22] really need somebody with expertise

[1:15:25] um to comply with. And we are also um

[1:15:30] missing grant funding

[1:15:32] opportunities in

[1:15:35] um you know for we by way of example we

[1:15:38] were able to uh purchase the audio

[1:15:41] equipment for the council chambers with

[1:15:42] an ARPA grant. Um there are other pieces

[1:15:46] of equipment that uh need to be uh

[1:15:50] updated or upgraded or kept current with

[1:15:52] for a variety of reasons. And in order

[1:15:56] to write those grant specifications,

[1:15:58] while we do have a grant coordinator,

[1:16:00] she does not have the specific expertise

[1:16:03] uh that you need to fill out the

[1:16:05] technical portions of a grant

[1:16:07] application.

[1:16:09] Um and

[1:16:12] just by and large the the

[1:16:16] um the

[1:16:17] operation is running okay. Um there

[1:16:21] seems to be more of a an interest in

[1:16:24] information from the public um through

[1:16:27] the government t TV the YouTube channel

[1:16:31] um and just to keep up with the whole

[1:16:34] juggling all the balls you know having

[1:16:37] two part- timerrs trying to manage that

[1:16:40] um is really proving to be uh a

[1:16:43] situation where we are experiencing lost

[1:16:46] opportunities that we need to stay on

[1:16:48] top of. Do we I because I agree

[1:16:50] everything's been running really well at

[1:16:52] least from our perspective, my

[1:16:54] perspective anyway. Um do do we think so

[1:16:59] it's it's listed at

[1:17:00] 83,000. Do we think there are grant

[1:17:04] opportunities available that would that

[1:17:07] would kind of get us back the 83,000 in equipment equivalency? Like what are

[1:17:11] we that's what I'm I'm I'm trying to

[1:17:13] pick out of all the you know the years

[1:17:15] and uh it's been going well. it's not

[1:17:18] broken. Uh I understand there's it

[1:17:20] sounds like there's a desire to kind of

[1:17:22] do something a little more advanced. Um

[1:17:25] I think we're all just kind of looking

[1:17:27] for ways to to understand what's going

[1:17:29] on. So I'm just I'm I'm trying to

[1:17:31] wrestle, I guess, with the idea

[1:17:34] that do we pay somebody 83,000 and what

[1:17:38] are we getting back? Like are we going

[1:17:40] to get grants? Are we going to get 83?

[1:17:42] Are we gonna get $60,000 in grants to

[1:17:44] pay for equipment when it could be

[1:17:46] cheaper to just pay $40,000 for new

[1:17:49] equipment and somebody else 20

[1:17:50] something,000 to write the pure

[1:17:53] specification as another assistant? Um

[1:17:56] that's all I I was just I was wondering

[1:17:58] where it came from. I guess. Yeah. No.

[1:18:00] And additionally,

[1:18:02] um, you know, between Tom Keshi and

[1:18:05] Susan Shot, they're managing the

[1:18:07] scheduling, right? Um, there are times

[1:18:11] that, um, you know, while we've

[1:18:14] scheduled some of the part- timerrs that

[1:18:16] uh, their operation to to record a

[1:18:19] meeting doesn't end up fully staffed for

[1:18:21] any variety of reasons. Um there are

[1:18:24] times that one of the part- timerrs runs

[1:18:27] up against exceeding the 19 and a half

[1:18:31] hours uh weekly. Uh if that continues to

[1:18:35] be a problem or if it if it continues to

[1:18:38] occur, it could turn into a problem. Um

[1:18:41] where we then have to treat that

[1:18:43] employee like a full-time employee. Uh

[1:18:46] and then suddenly we have the expense

[1:18:48] associated with a full-time employee.

[1:18:56] U that that answers the bas basics of my

[1:18:58] question so it's good enough for now but

[1:19:00] so thank you uh Mr. Senator separate

[1:19:06] comment but uh in my budget I did put in

[1:19:10] there for um budget software to get a

[1:19:13] prettier product for you guys. So we did

[1:19:16] not discuss that but that is in my

[1:19:18] budget. Much appreciated. So and um I'm

[1:19:22] going to we're closed Friday and I'm off

[1:19:24] tomorrow. So I'm I'll get your answers

[1:19:26] next week if that's okay. And if you

[1:19:29] don't mind if you could email me the

[1:19:31] questions so this way I definitely don't

[1:19:33] forget. Thank you.

[1:19:36] All right. Questions from the

[1:19:38] public. Mrs. Shardulo

[1:19:44] and please limit it to the topics we've

[1:19:46] discussed tonight. There'll be another

[1:19:47] opportunity at the public hearing, you

[1:19:48] know, to ask your questions of the

[1:19:50] department heads. Yes. Paul Shardillo,

[1:19:52] two Mayberry Drive. Yeah. I my questions and comments have to do

[1:19:58] with what's it's they're all listed

[1:20:00] here. So I I'm assuming I can question

[1:20:04] on that, right? Is that correct? I'm not

[1:20:07] sure what you mean, but go ahead and

[1:20:08] we'll we'll take them one by one. As an

[1:20:10] example, one of the issues I wanted to

[1:20:12] raise is the uh I wanted to ask uh

[1:20:16] either the mayor or probably Mr. Senna

[1:20:20] why we need a contingency fund in the

[1:20:23] budget. Now that's that's listed

[1:20:26] contingency. So that's what I'm looking

[1:20:28] for. Do we really need a contingency

[1:20:30] fund? Do we need a contingency? Yes.

[1:20:33] Okay. For for flexibility because when

[1:20:37] we make these budgets Yeah. four months

[1:20:40] in advance, things happen and you need

[1:20:43] to be able to adjust. Okay. Well, let me

[1:20:46] respond to that. Um, I don't agree with

[1:20:49] that and here's why. Uh, I think we

[1:20:52] already have a contingency fund. It's

[1:20:55] called the surplus. That's

[1:20:58] one. So, if you need money uh during the

[1:21:01] year, I I don't understand why you can't

[1:21:03] come to the council and ask them for it.

[1:21:06] And that's where they, you know, they

[1:21:08] allocate the funds. Uh the surplus fund

[1:21:12] is over, the unaudited portion is over

[1:21:15] by about 2 million, right? I think in

[1:21:17] the mayor's letter you said it was 222

[1:21:19] million. 10% of the budget's 20. So the

[1:21:23] money's there to be used if I understand

[1:21:25] what you're saying about things happen.

[1:21:28] The second reason I don't think and and

[1:21:30] so

[1:21:31] basically what we're doing is by putting

[1:21:35] it in the budget

[1:21:38] Mr. So this isn't public comment. This

[1:21:40] is a question and answer. You asked the

[1:21:42] question, he answered it. I thought it

[1:21:43] was a workshop. This is a workshop. This

[1:21:45] is a council workshop. So you're welcome

[1:21:46] to go on to the next question. No, I'm

[1:21:48] not going to the next question. I'm

[1:21:50] sorry. I am not. I want an answer to

[1:21:52] this question. You asked a workshop. Do

[1:21:54] we need a contingency? He answered the

[1:21:56] question. No, he didn't. Well, you

[1:21:57] didn't, sir. Allow me time to respond,

[1:22:00] sir. No. No, sir. You have not given me

[1:22:04] time to respond. You're not going to

[1:22:06] shut me down simply because you don't

[1:22:08] want to hear what I have to say. And I

[1:22:10] guess I would Mayor Mr. Charardullo.

[1:22:14] Yeah. You are out of order, sir. No, I

[1:22:16] don't think I am. You are. I'll adjourn

[1:22:18] the meeting and we'll go home. Okay. Go

[1:22:20] right ahead.

[1:22:21] Now, I want to give you the opportunity

[1:22:22] to answer your questions. Ask your

[1:22:24] question. Well, let me finish. However,

[1:22:26] we've heard this several times before,

[1:22:28] right? So, I I understand you don't like

[1:22:30] the contingency. No, you haven't heard

[1:22:31] it. He asked the question, he answered

[1:22:33] it. You're not giving me a chance to

[1:22:36] have an interaction with the controller.

[1:22:39] I guess I'll appeal to the

[1:22:41] council. Am I being treated properly

[1:22:44] here? I'm a taxpaying

[1:22:46] resident at a workshop and you're

[1:22:49] telling me I can't talk to the

[1:22:51] controller. You can talk to him. I said

[1:22:53] you asked the question which he

[1:22:54] answered. No, he did not. He answered it

[1:22:56] and it we're having a back and forth

[1:22:58] just like vice chair Christina has back

[1:23:02] and forth. That's how you that's how you

[1:23:04] discuss an issue and you come to a

[1:23:07] resolution or you come to an

[1:23:09] understanding. So at a prior meeting,

[1:23:10] Mr. Sen had offered to meet with you to

[1:23:12] discuss these topics. Correct.

[1:23:14] Listen, I don't want to go into that. I

[1:23:16] asked I don't want to I don't want to

[1:23:17] I'm not here to denigrate anybody. I'm

[1:23:20] trying to get a simple answer to some

[1:23:23] concerns that I have as a taxpaying

[1:23:28] resident who's looking at a 50% increase

[1:23:31] in taxes. I have a right to come here.

[1:23:34] It's the freedom of information, freedom

[1:23:37] of conversation. So, this is a council.

[1:23:39] You're trying to shut me down. I'm not

[1:23:40] trying to shut you down. I'm trying to

[1:23:41] get Well, then stop. Let me talk to him.

[1:23:44] So, Mr. Lard, you're done. Have a seat.

[1:23:46] I am shutting you down. You are way out

[1:23:48] of order. No, I'm not. I think the

[1:23:49] council wants to appeal my decision.

[1:23:51] They're welcome to. I think you're out

[1:23:52] of order, Mr. Per. Thank you very much.

[1:23:55] Have a good evening, sir. I I wish that

[1:23:57] we had our attorney here tonight. Are

[1:23:59] there any other questions from the

[1:24:00] public?

[1:24:06] Okay. I I'll defer to this gentleman. He

[1:24:08] can have the mic. Thank you. But I

[1:24:10] resent what you're doing. You're

[1:24:12] shutting down a public workshop question

[1:24:16] and answering session. You have not

[1:24:18] given me time to respond to Mr. Senna.

[1:24:22] Am I correct,

[1:24:24] sir?

[1:24:27] No.

[1:24:29] Okay. So, bottom line, Mr. Shardo,

[1:24:33] contingency fund, you're you're out of

[1:24:35] order. The other gentleman has the

[1:24:36] floor. The council should banish it.

[1:24:39] You'll reduce the taxes by $1.9

[1:24:43] million. You have a surplus. Thank you,

[1:24:46] sir. You come in every year under spent

[1:24:48] by3 to7 million. Why do you need a

[1:24:51] contingency fund?

[1:25:01] Good evening. My name is Tom Knight. I

[1:25:03] live on Brookiew Avenue. Uh just a

[1:25:05] couple of quick comments, please. I want

[1:25:07] to thank you, Mr. mayor for your quick

[1:25:10] response to come to the senior center

[1:25:11] last week. Uh, and although I didn't

[1:25:14] hear everything I wanted to hear because

[1:25:16] my taxes are going up 16% too and I'm

[1:25:19] not happy about it, but I you guys are

[1:25:20] all working hard on that. Um, one of the

[1:25:24] things that came up at

[1:25:26] that talk, the Q&A I'm sorry, Mr.

[1:25:29] Knight, if you could just speak into the

[1:25:30] microphone. They're not picking you up

[1:25:31] on TV. One of the things that came up at

[1:25:33] the Q&A at the senior center was the

[1:25:36] mention of Mary Mashinsk's House Bill

[1:25:39] 6804 regarding the possible taxation of CHO and like enterprises. How do I

[1:25:46] find out? I I went to the site and

[1:25:48] actually wrote a an email to Mary, you

[1:25:51] know, encouraging it, but how do I find

[1:25:54] out the status of it? Where it sits? Is

[1:25:57] it in process? Um, so you're talking

[1:26:00] about the status of the piece of

[1:26:01] legislation. Yes. So, if you go on to

[1:26:03] the state web page, I don't have the

[1:26:04] House Bill number handy, but I 6804.

[1:26:07] Okay. So, on the on the state

[1:26:09] legislature web page, uh, you can follow

[1:26:10] the progress of the of the bill. Yeah.

[1:26:12] Okay. I got to look harder. Um, also

[1:26:16] earlier there was conversation about

[1:26:18] praise for your staff and I echo that

[1:26:19] because I I stop in your office

[1:26:21] occasionally because every department in

[1:26:24] this building I get nothing but

[1:26:26] cooperation when I come here and I don't

[1:26:29] always see that at at other towns. I see

[1:26:31] a lot of abruptness and curt answers and

[1:26:35] things like that. So, um, my hats off to the staff here, all of you people.

[1:26:41] Also, when can we get this fixed so we

[1:26:45] can seat people in there? The balcony.

[1:26:50] That that uh is a building code

[1:26:52] challenge. Um it was so 1917 it was

[1:26:57] built and the building code was very

[1:26:59] different than it is now. Um it has to

[1:27:03] do with the the steepness of it and um

[1:27:07] and the proximity of the seating. you

[1:27:10] know, it was designed for a different

[1:27:12] time. So, that that that presents a

[1:27:15] challenge that I'm not sure how we get

[1:27:19] around. Yeah. It's too bad cuz it's, you

[1:27:22] know, I think for the things that they

[1:27:24] have here that attract the crowd that

[1:27:26] would enhance enhance it. It's a nice

[1:27:28] feature. So, okay. But thank you for

[1:27:31] that. That's all I have. Thank you.

[1:27:32] very much. Anyone else from

[1:27:35] the

[1:27:37] public, sir?

[1:27:46] Hi, Dave Pillo. Um, 40 Jolie

[1:27:50] Drive. I lived here 32 years and our

[1:27:54] taxes have been going up every year.

[1:27:57] And it seems that everybody

[1:28:00] gets what they

[1:28:01] want. I see public works need a loader

[1:28:05] 350,000 that they just got a new one.

[1:28:08] So, why do we need another one? There's

[1:28:10] other things that are on the list

[1:28:14] um that we didn't negotiate with

[1:28:16] anybody. We said, "Okay, it's there.

[1:28:19] It's written. I know the mayor went

[1:28:21] through it. Um you know, we should be

[1:28:23] holding back some of that stuff. You

[1:28:26] know, some of that stuff could wait

[1:28:27] another year. Give the tax people a

[1:28:30] little break instead of falling 19% what

[1:28:34] you're trying to say on households." And

[1:28:37] I don't get why if you look in your

[1:28:40] budget um only

[1:28:43] 30% went up in this industry tax. Okay,

[1:28:48] you got them using more of the roads,

[1:28:51] more of their equipment. Okay, heavy

[1:28:54] equipment that are going all over this

[1:28:57] road. Okay. We don't get any services of

[1:29:01] trash pickup because you want to have

[1:29:05] the contractors pick up our trash

[1:29:09] because they make money. Hampton has a

[1:29:12] pickup. North Haven has a pickup. It's

[1:29:14] in their town taxes and they're

[1:29:17] lower. And we got a lot of regulations

[1:29:20] that we don't let people build. So if

[1:29:24] you look at it, this town has been

[1:29:26] stagnant.

[1:29:27] because people were complaining, well, I

[1:29:29] don't want this there. I don't want that

[1:29:31] there. Or you can't build this there.

[1:29:33] There's no growth in this town. I don't

[1:29:35] see it. The only growth I see is near

[1:29:38] the church over there, which they're

[1:29:40] building two buildings over there, and

[1:29:42] they don't look too good next to the

[1:29:44] church. So, we need some type of um

[1:29:48] growth in this town. Now, we advertise

[1:29:52] it, but we don't get it. And the taxes

[1:29:55] every year seem to go up. That's what

[1:29:56] I'm going to complain about. The taxes

[1:29:58] do not stay, you know, for the last I've

[1:30:02] been here, like I say, 32 years and they

[1:30:04] have been going up. And that

[1:30:07] 19% I'm probably looking, you know, 19%

[1:30:11] of my taxes. I keep my house well. I'm

[1:30:14] on a corner. The public works plow snows

[1:30:18] against the my sidewalk all the time

[1:30:20] because it's a corner. I complain to

[1:30:23] them because it's full of ice. and they

[1:30:25] go, "Ah, it's not our

[1:30:27] problem." Well, why can't you move it

[1:30:29] out to the side? And then we got the

[1:30:32] public works. They're zooming down the

[1:30:34] street to make time. And then when I see

[1:30:38] we got 25 trucks in the public works, a

[1:30:41] line item, and we want another net a

[1:30:43] plow. Do we really need that plow this

[1:30:47] year? No. That's like a

[1:30:50] $300,000 truck. If we got 25 or we got

[1:30:54] it says the line item is

[1:30:57] 25, we got to look over the stuff and

[1:31:00] try to cut some of these things at least

[1:31:03] till next year if someone could wait.

[1:31:06] You know, there's just frivolous stuff

[1:31:08] that we don't need right away if we're

[1:31:10] going to go after the residents and try

[1:31:13] to make the

[1:31:14] taxes more enjoyable each year instead

[1:31:18] of all at once. That's all I say.

[1:31:22] You know, you know, everything's tough

[1:31:25] nowadays between tariffs and everything

[1:31:27] going up. I know food cost. You see all

[1:31:29] the food costs go up. I'm a senior. I do

[1:31:33] not get an increase. Only social

[1:31:35] security. I don't get my pension doesn't

[1:31:38] increase. Not an increase. All right.

[1:31:41] So, um, you know, there's no increase

[1:31:44] for me, you know. So when taxes go up,

[1:31:48] you know, and you know how many people

[1:31:50] do we have in this town?

[1:31:53] 45,000. That's been like that for the

[1:31:56] last 30

[1:31:58] years. And right now, half of them are

[1:32:02] seniors in this town. We got a school

[1:32:06] system. We got 16,000 kids. We got two

[1:32:10] schools. And those schools must be empty

[1:32:13] on the classrooms. Why can't we use

[1:32:16] those classrooms for something else? Why

[1:32:19] do we need a board of education that

[1:32:21] needs a building near Oakdale? Why?

[1:32:24] That's cost. We used to have the board

[1:32:27] of education in Shane. Why not? We must

[1:32:31] have the room. So, this is all cost that

[1:32:35] you're saying items. Oh, it's going

[1:32:37] against the town, not with the board of

[1:32:40] education. Why? because we're just

[1:32:42] giving everybody what they want. Someone

[1:32:45] has to go out there and say, "Do we need

[1:32:48] this? Do we need this lease that we're

[1:32:50] out in Oakdale and can we put them back

[1:32:52] in this school

[1:32:54] system?" You know, and then someone says

[1:32:56] on a new school, we need 30 to 40 acres

[1:32:59] to build a new

[1:33:00] school. Well, there is a site right

[1:33:04] where our school is.

[1:33:07] the church down the street is probably

[1:33:09] going to get rid of that church and you

[1:33:11] could expand sheen down that street. I'm

[1:33:14] sure they would take the money because

[1:33:17] they're you know people that go to

[1:33:19] church now are

[1:33:21] low. So you you do got

[1:33:25] spaces and you could be a second floor.

[1:33:27] I went to Hamna High School. We had over

[1:33:30] 2,000 kids in our school. We have less

[1:33:33] and less. But on that high school, if

[1:33:36] you look at it, they build up on the

[1:33:39] sides. They all that high school's been

[1:33:41] the same since

[1:33:43] 19 50. All right. That same school, they

[1:33:47] didn't build a new high school. They

[1:33:49] built a new uh middle school all in one,

[1:33:52] but they didn't build a high school.

[1:33:54] They added

[1:33:55] on.

[1:33:57] So you you know in some of these schools

[1:33:59] you do have room like I say and that's

[1:34:03] going to be another cost as we go

[1:34:04] through time. I'm just saying these

[1:34:07] things are going to pile up. New police

[1:34:09] station now that police station building

[1:34:12] what are we doing with that Donald? We

[1:34:15] got more parking spaces that are owned

[1:34:18] by the town that isn't even used but we

[1:34:21] take care of

[1:34:22] them. Well we we down near the train

[1:34:25] station. We got a parking lot. No one

[1:34:29] uses that. The people across the street use it and park their cars all

[1:34:33] the time where they used to park in

[1:34:35] their own lot. Now there's parking

[1:34:38] there. All right. Or it's a staging

[1:34:40] point for someone working around the

[1:34:42] town. Okay. We take care of all these.

[1:34:46] We got to repave them. Everything else.

[1:34:49] If you go in other towns, they have

[1:34:52] meters collecting money for that. We

[1:34:55] don't. Middletown has them. You New

[1:34:58] Haven, you go down there. That's why I

[1:35:00] don't go to New Haven. You're paying

[1:35:02] stuff down there. But we have all these

[1:35:05] things that we're taking on and it's

[1:35:08] going on to the taxpayer. You don't

[1:35:10] realize it. But, you know, I'm just

[1:35:13] trying to say it's I've been here

[1:35:16] watching this town the way it is.

[1:35:19] Um, and it's always every year, uh, we

[1:35:22] got to raise the taxes up. And, you

[1:35:24] know, now I can't blame this mayor. You

[1:35:28] know, you may blame the last mayor or

[1:35:30] the way everything's been running, but

[1:35:32] it shouldn't be, but he was cutting

[1:35:35] things in the end. Um, so that

[1:35:40] 19%, you know, is a hell of a lot. I

[1:35:42] just hope news people do something about

[1:35:45] that and try to make it as the years go

[1:35:48] on that you really need all that money

[1:35:51] right now or we could save somewhere

[1:35:53] else. So I think you be making taxpayers

[1:35:57] happy. I know if it doesn't come through

[1:36:00] like that, you're going to see the next

[1:36:03] mayor not be here, the mayor that's here

[1:36:05] because I'm sure everybody's going to be

[1:36:07] up in arms. You know, they're going to

[1:36:10] say one year I got this mayor in here

[1:36:13] and now it went up and I'm paying this

[1:36:18] much. I know there's re-evaluation

[1:36:20] because of re-evaluation because there's

[1:36:22] no one building anything in town.

[1:36:25] Everybody's over and paying the town.

[1:36:27] Yes. Because they want to live in

[1:36:29] Wallingford. But as you go get to that

[1:36:32] point, people are going to say, "Uh, I

[1:36:35] can't live here anymore." Like I say, I

[1:36:38] don't have any more kids going to

[1:36:40] school. But I like kids to have a nice

[1:36:42] school. Yes, but you're going to get

[1:36:45] arguments one this and the other. And

[1:36:47] then we took over child care in the

[1:36:50] morning for people that we never had. It

[1:36:52] was a government thing. We got the money

[1:36:55] from the beginning. Now we don't get the

[1:36:57] money. All right. So that's another

[1:36:59] expense been thrown out. I had to work

[1:37:02] all the time. Okay. and I had my wife

[1:37:06] stay home and watch the kids. Okay, I

[1:37:08] didn't have that stuff. So, but we're

[1:37:12] paying for it. So, all these things that

[1:37:15] are added on through the government, you

[1:37:17] know, that we have to do this. We really

[1:37:20] don't have to do this. You know, this is

[1:37:22] actually babysitting for people's kids.

[1:37:25] That's what it is. So the uh the board

[1:37:27] of ed will be back at the public hearing

[1:37:29] on the 28th if you wanted to ask them

[1:37:30] questions about how they run the I plan

[1:37:32] on going to that too. Um you know my

[1:37:35] wife was a pair. She went through the

[1:37:38] system for a number of years and the

[1:37:41] kids the behavioral part of the kids are

[1:37:45] real wrong. All right. There's no

[1:37:49] behavior. They have more problems with

[1:37:51] un the kids don't have a behavior that

[1:37:54] have a behavior problem. All right.

[1:37:56] There's a lot out there. There's a lot

[1:37:57] of single parents and they go to work

[1:38:00] and they expect the school system to do

[1:38:03] everything, you know, and and that's the

[1:38:06] way society is nowadays. It is that's where our cost comes from, too,

[1:38:12] you know. So, uh it's an all round

[1:38:14] thing. Um, but you know, I'm just saying

[1:38:18] on the tax part of it, I can't, you

[1:38:21] know, see, uh, you know, maybe I'll move

[1:38:23] out of here. But, uh, you know, I like

[1:38:26] the place. Like I say, I've been here so

[1:38:28] many years. My wife loves it. She works

[1:38:30] here. Um, you know, I worked for, you

[1:38:34] know, a utility myself. Even in

[1:38:36] utilities, they put in new meters there.

[1:38:39] Well, how come we

[1:38:41] couldn't put a transponder in those

[1:38:44] meters? So, we didn't have a meter

[1:38:45] reader run around. Why couldn't we pay

[1:38:47] for that service to get rid of a person

[1:38:50] that we have to hire to walk around and

[1:38:52] read the meters? We put in a new meter.

[1:38:55] The gas company does it. The electric

[1:38:57] company does it down in southern

[1:38:59] Connecticut. Why couldn't we upgrade

[1:39:02] that to that? We didn't upgrade it to

[1:39:04] save money. Same thing with this new

[1:39:06] system supposed to put in the computer

[1:39:08] system here. That's supposed to save

[1:39:11] money in the end. I hope it does. You

[1:39:14] know, it's supposed to really eliminate

[1:39:16] jobs hopefully where you don't need as

[1:39:19] many people. Well, it looks like we're

[1:39:21] adding people because well, we need

[1:39:23] someone for this. We need someone for

[1:39:25] that. So, so I appreciate your thoughts

[1:39:27] and you're certainly welcome back, you

[1:39:28] know, to the public hearing to ask the

[1:39:29] questions of the department. I just

[1:39:30] wanted a piece of my mind about it.

[1:39:33] Sorry to bother you about it, but uh I

[1:39:36] just say it's ridiculous to go up

[1:39:39] 19% in one year and shock everybody.

[1:39:43] Understood. Thank you so much. Anyone

[1:39:46] else from the public? Sir,

[1:39:52] uh Mr. Sher, do I recognize the

[1:39:53] gentleman behind you? Oh, I'm sorry. I

[1:39:56] thought you said you weren't coming in.

[1:39:57] Okay, good. I just want to make a

[1:39:59] parting comment to you to address a

[1:40:01] question that you keep directing to me.

[1:40:03] Sir, you don't have the floor. Let the gentleman speak.

[1:40:07] And if you'd like to speak to me

[1:40:08] afterwards, I'd be more than happy to.

[1:40:11] Hi. Uh my name is Bruce Hey. uh as a

[1:40:14] former broadcast combat correspondent

[1:40:16] for the United States Army and somebody

[1:40:19] who helps out a couple hours a week at

[1:40:20] the studio down the hill. Uh I'm

[1:40:23] somebody who's very interested in that

[1:40:25] full-time uh government channel

[1:40:28] position. Uh to address some issue

[1:40:31] regarding the uh grant

[1:40:33] situation, the current grant cycle has

[1:40:36] recently passed. So they're now on a

[1:40:39] two-year cycle. So, the next grant cycle

[1:40:42] will be in September of next year to be

[1:40:44] paid out the following June and the

[1:40:47] limit has been raised to

[1:40:51] $250,000. So, if there's need for

[1:40:53] equipment, so that's something to to

[1:40:56] keep in mind uh coming

[1:40:59] up. Um other than that, I don't really

[1:41:03] have any other information regarding

[1:41:05] that.

[1:41:06] Well, thank you very much.

[1:41:14] Paul Shardillo to Bayberry

[1:41:16] Drive on the issue of meeting with Mr.

[1:41:19] Senna. I want to clarify. Uh I a couple

[1:41:22] of weeks before this whole process

[1:41:24] started. I approached Mr. Senate in the

[1:41:26] hall and I asked him if I could meet

[1:41:27] with him to discuss some issues on the

[1:41:29] budget. He told me he was very busy

[1:41:32] during the budget season. I understood

[1:41:33] that and to see him after the budget was

[1:41:36] over. I have issues that are real

[1:41:39] issues. I believe they have to be

[1:41:41] discussed. Hey, if you don't want to do

[1:41:44] anything about it, fine. But I have a

[1:41:46] right to bring them forward to the

[1:41:47] council, give you my rationale. You make

[1:41:49] the decision. And I I don't understand

[1:41:52] why you shut me down here. I thought

[1:41:53] this was No, I'd be happy to explain.

[1:41:55] So, at the at a normal council meeting,

[1:41:56] we have the public question and answer,

[1:41:57] which you avail yourself of frequently.

[1:41:59] Correct. Yes. Okay. So, now you come

[1:42:01] tonight and you want to engage in a

[1:42:02] debate with the comproller over his

[1:42:04] budget philosophy. That's not what this

[1:42:05] meeting is for. This is a council

[1:42:07] workshop for the council to ask

[1:42:08] questions of the departments. We have

[1:42:10] public comment because I believe the

[1:42:11] public comment is valuable. But you want

[1:42:13] to rehash the same discussion about the um that that fund. I think

[1:42:19] it's necessary. The council thinks it's

[1:42:20] necessary. The controller thinks it's

[1:42:22] necessary. You can have whatever opinion

[1:42:23] you like. But it's been voted on and

[1:42:25] decided. So if anyone wants to cut it

[1:42:27] from the budget, they're more than

[1:42:28] welcome to make a motion. But I'm not

[1:42:30] going to have you engage in a debate

[1:42:31] with the comproller. And that's why I

[1:42:33] shut it down. One. Number two was you

[1:42:34] were extremely rude when I asked you to

[1:42:36] stop and you went on some sort of a

[1:42:38] tear. So that's the reason you got shut

[1:42:40] down. Just so we're all clear. Okay.

[1:42:42] Well, let me respond to you. No, no,

[1:42:43] we're done here. First now, who's being

[1:42:45] rude? Everyone have a lovely evening.

[1:42:47] This meeting is uh listen uh

[1:42:51] basically Okay.

[1:43:04] [Music]

Town Council - Budget Workshop - Wednesday, April 16, 2025

Transcript