Board of Selectmen Budget Workshop Meeting 3/11/26

001Good evening everyone. It's 7 o'clock. We're going to start our budget workshop in a moment. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please be seated. All right. The budget process starts tonight and we are gonna go right to Mr. Robinson. Oh, excuse me. You're right, Dr. Britain. It's all yours. Yes. >> I'll come on right up there. >> Bring Stephy with me. She knows where every >> Absolutely. So, do you want Nick, do you still have the um the slide from last night? >> No. Okay. It's hard. Um I was thinking we we could work from that. Otherwise, we could, you know, just kind

002of go through the the the object codes. >> Okay. Stephanie, why don't you help? That'll >> be starting our book on page 11. All right, if we could uh turn to page and um why don't we work through the the salaries line item which is reflecting the 3.25% increase. That's again I we could if you if you can find the slides we'll put them up here. If not, um these are all of our our certified salaries, non-certified salaries, coaching, extracurricular, temporary salaries. Again, these reflect the reduction of one teaching position, one paraprofessional position, um our BCBA position, some of our stipens, um and extracurricular reductions. Um but otherwise, they do also reflect the general wage and step increase in the contracts across all of our bargaining units. Um and that's the the 3.25% increase. Pause

003there. And do you want to just do it this way? Go section by section through. >> I think that'll be good. And then we'll roll into questions as they come up. >> Okay. >> Great. >> Any questions about the the positions we're asking for then? >> Anybody? No. >> All right. So, the next section then is um this is the big one. You know, this was the I explained it last night the um 19.7% uh increase. >> Sorry. Um I I realized that I had a question mark there on the um >> tutor salaries. Am I reading right the the 5,000? It's saying a 400% increase. So typically our tutors were covered in the past under open choice when we had an exuberant amount of students and we had enough funding. But because our reduction

004or our funding has been reduced in because of the number of students we have, I get nervous that we aren't going to have enough money to pay for it. So I kind of shifted it back into our budget. So that covers like you'll see in the past it was zero because we were able to absorb it with open choice. But not knowing where we're going to be at next year because we're under this year. I was nervous consider I mean it's not a lot of money but I was nervous keeping it in open choice if we didn't have the money to pay for it. >> Yeah. Just so that makes it the history of it being like you said zero and then it was five but but if because Charles mentioned the um 11 positions

005that we want I mean 11 slots for open choice that we want. So then that could bring that back. >> Correct. Right. So, if we end up getting the full 59 at the $10,000 a piece, then I would ship that into open choice. >> Okay. >> But I have to think of where we're at now, which is potentially only having 48 and being at $8,000 a student, so I have to just I have to again, it's 18 months when we did this in advance, so it's hard. >> Okay. >> But yes, that would shift into open choice if we got the students we needed at $10,000. >> Yeah, they have it up there. Oh, perfect. So N I'll keep forwarding slides. I'll let you know when to stop. >> We're at uh the salaries. Keep

006going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Salary. Yeah. Right. That's the one we're working from now. >> And that's why it looks like 400% just because you're going from one to five, >> right? Okay. Now, why don't you shift the benefits now? If it's back >> should be perfect. >> Yeah. So, again, I just want to point out in this section, this 13% increase reflects the the not the real model, right? We we we had to build this before we had the actual this is when, you know, originally we started with an 8% placeholder. We heard the shocking 26 number. I you know and sent our broker back to rebid it and and uh look explore the state partnership plan and twist the arm of Anthem to say that we simply cannot afford a 26%

007increase. At that time I asked Stephanie to adjust it to 13%. Um uh subsequently we found out um that it was 19.7. That's the final number of the payment. So the actual is 15% in this slide Adam um but it's it's showing 13. Now this as a reminder the the the budget that you have in front of you because of this and the settlement of the paraprofessional contract and the transportation contract is in a deficit position. We're already $146,000 underwater. Now I I believe and Steph and I talked about this today. you know, we we're we're comfortable not asking you to add money back, right? And we didn't go back to the board and ask them to amend their budget upwards. We're we're we're confident that we can write the ship with that and and

008you know, we're going to have to look under every cushion and potentially, you know, make cuts elsewhere. But the real number here should be that 15.68. But that's why you're seeing in your budget book the um 13.07 there um which it is cost because we we built the budget before we had the actual number. I'm hope I'm being clear. >> Yes. >> And again, these are uh you know, >> it's based off of who is in the plan right now. We don't know if we're going to lose people. We don't know if we're going to hire new people. We don't know what plan they're going to take. That's based off of the census we had at in December. >> We asked all of our people. we send out a survey and say, "Hey, during the

009open enrollment period, are you going to join? Are you going to leave? You know, are are you going to change? Did you have children? And do you need a family plan now?" Um, and as I mentioned last night, a lot of our young teachers are having babies, which is great, but that that means for our purposes that sometimes they're going from a twoerson plan with their spouse, now they're going to need a family plan to take care of their their children, too. So, we some of these numbers reflect census changes. Um, and but the large part of it is is that that large increase that we're going to have to exhaust. >> And typically over the summer, we lose at least 10 people between Paris and certified. So there's no way of telling. >> Any

010questions on benefits? Just just uh Monica, what's the what's the typical cost difference between a family plan and a indivi I guess an individual because I know we talked once they have kids it it changes the nature of that. Is it significantly more? Is it >> So currently a single plan is around $12,000, a family plan is around $24,000 and a family plan is around $46,000. >> Okay, big number. So with the increase, I think I calculated we're up in the 50s for family, low high 20s for the two person and single went to like 16 or 17. >> That's the the total. Then you had to do the cost share obviously. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. And and the total amount varies by bargaining unit in terms of what the negotiated cost shares are.

011Um so it's different. Um but you know a family plan is going to be almost $50,000 next year which is >> crazy >> criminal. What are some of the cost shares? Do you know >> they range from anywhere from 14% to 22% >> depending on the bargaining unit. >> Thank you. >> All right, Nick, why don't you jump to Where are we at here? Purchase. >> Purchase services. Okay. Um and here again the this jump here 17% jump as I explained last night a lot of this is the investment we're we're trying to make in the um house right right here right we'll see it right next to the police station beautiful property our hope is that by um paying for renting the house essentially paying for a lease on the house and we're still

012developing the lease and we have to go through zoning and I'm thank Bob and we've done a lot of work we've looked at the house and we're getting it set up to make for a beautiful transition program. Once we stand that program up, we stand a benefit for two ways. One, it becomes attractive to other towns in our efforts to recruit people and and we would be charging a tuition for that. You know, if even one tuition student would easily cover the cost of the rent, two or three, you know, would start to develop a revenue stream. But additionally, by moving our transition program out of where it is now, which is currently at the high school, it opens that space up. And as a matter of fact, tomorrow afternoon at two o'clock, I'm meeting

013with an attorney to talk about developing a lease to rent that space to educational outfit called Sabbrook Reading. Um, so the $50,000 investment here, which looks large, looks like a 17% increase, I believe, is going to pay for itself and then some, possibly and significantly some um as we start to open revenue streams from tuition students and leasing space at the high school, but even more importantly, creating an amazing opportunity for the transition program right here on Main Street. Otherwise, the um that's the big jump is the lease there, but you also see um some adjustments reflecting minimum wage increases um and some of our other other >> information. Well, to the point of AOS, so AOS we just went into agreement with this year. It's our IT service. We used employ somebody. So, currently

014in this budget this year, there's a salary piece. So, for next year's budget, a piece of that also is shifting. It's it's a net net zero because it's going from salaries to here, but that's also a piece of the purchase services is the 51,000, right? Whatever that whatever the cost is for that. So that's why it looks like it's $140,000. So knowing that there is a net zero going from salaries to there for the outsourcing of the IT services because it was more beneficial for us to source out that than hire an employee internally >> and more important and logistically that's our network administrator service whereas we're hiring someone we get eight hours of network administration a day by outsourcing it we get 247 365 network monitor. Um, so there's both a cost benefit to

015it, but the quality of of oversight of our networks in case of malware spyware or vicious attacks that might happen round the clock. Our systems are monitored all the time. >> Charles, is there an idea of what the renovations would cost if you do lease that building on Main Street? >> Uh, so we the family has been very good generous. We've had lots of great conversations. they are doing the work on the house to get it ready for us. Um, and then would just be passing along those costs to us through the rent. They're not asking us to pay anything to um, update the space and anything. They've been great, by the way. I'm really excited to partner with them. >> Um, if that comes to fruition and students from out of town go there

016or the program with the saber reading goes in, where does that money go to? want to come. >> Interesting enough, we've been talking to Tom about that. You're gonna hear more about it because we do need some town meetings and things to discuss it. So, so more to come. Uh the tuition would go to would go to >> some grand. >> Yeah. So, the uh the Sabbrook reading that that that 50,000 is actually in our operating in our property rental this year. So, he's got it in his we have the revenue expected in ours. So that's that's already shown up in in the budget in our uh in our property rental. Um the other uh program when you know if it was uh becomes tuition uh revenue it would probably go into a special revenue

017fund associated with um that project the expenditures related to that would go in there. It would be like an offset to the expenditure be a revenue source in and then it would offset the expenditure of the of the um the rent and then the uh related expenditures to run the program um is it's a direct relationship to the program. Um so when it's a that they're renting the building on their own um and uh then so that program would work that way. when it's a school getting rented, our re, you know, the revenue comes into town. >> Thanks. >> And I did just see the the promotional materials for it today. Sarah did a great job and and she's very confident that there are going to be some school districts that are going to be

018very interested in this. >> So, question, how long is the lease that you're looking to sign on that building, Main Street? >> Year by year. I think we're >> it's going to be year by year. And is that our option to stay at that point or I guess what I'm getting you stand a program up and we start having people that have signed up to it etc. If all of a sudden the individual decided not to lease it, uh what does that what what position would that put us in if we had a functioning program and we've now committed the space to another entity in the school? Uh what's our risks there? >> H um I know it's a year year-by-year lease. So, you're saying that if at the end of a year our program

019is doing great, but the owners decide to sell it or tell us >> it's it's happened. >> I think that's a risk we would take and if that happened, we would be looking for other rentals. >> You have to look for another rental cuz that that's just was just thinking we may have a functioning program and the space would have been leased out to something, you know, to another entity at this point. >> It that's a risk. I think that that we have to recognize that that that could happen. I hope not. I haven't I haven't in my um initial conversations with the landlord, I haven't gotten any indication that that they would be inclined to do that. As a matter of fact, I think they're very excited to partner with us and more to

020come on that. I think it fits in with some bigger vision they have for their entire property over there. So hopefully this is the start of a a a great relationship and a long-term sustained um program that that meets their their purposes. No, it sounds like a great idea. I think these are the types of things we need to do >> to be generating some revenue and to be knocking down some other costs. It's, you know, I I think it's a smart idea. I was just curious about that. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> I'm sure something will be written in the contract. You know, you have to give us XYZ number of days. If you want to >> sell it to us or move on or, you know, something like that, but >> something that

021gives us enough time to react, we're going to help. Yeah. >> Thank you. That's a good point. That's good. >> And we're working on a lease now. Note that >> any other questions on purchase services? >> Yeah, just um Dr. Brennon the book um I I think that I read this if you could just confirm for me the the bump up in professional development. Does that have to do with that um accreditation? >> That where you put the NAS? >> No, that's that's just the Chuck's professional development. Yes, teachers. Part of the the bump there that we need is um we're undergoing a big change in our our literacy programming. Um the state has thought a lot we are thinking a lot differently now about the way that k that kids learn to read and

022we've invested heavily in a new um uh K through three reading program. We're also looking at making a big change to our math curriculum particularly for grades five through eight. So, our director of teaching and learning, I know he is very interested that as soon as we buy a new curriculum, which we're looking at three and kind of um test driving them now, that's gonna the teachers are going to need a certain amount of support and training and how to actualize that new curriculum. So, I think that that 10,000 reflects what Mr. Hersan is thinking about in terms of the level of support once we get to a point where we're deciding on a new math curriculum. When you say 10,000, you're talking about >> the increase >> over last year. >> Correct. >> Yeah.

023>> And it's also some administrative professional development because every year when the the schools have to cut their budgets, they always go straight to their PD and it's very important for the administrators to get just as much professional development as the teachers. So, I believe that they also did leave in some of the funding for the principles as well. Oh, should we jump ahead? >> Let's go. >> Okay. Um, can you bring us to repairs and maintenance? And Mr. Shay is here um to answer any questions about that as well. >> But again, you know, you do do see here a a decrease. You know, unfortunately, um, Bob is in the unenviable position of of being one of those things that we can't say we have to do it because they're IEP based services or

024we have to pay it because it's insurance related. He's he's one of the only areas where um there's no laws saying that we can't cut them. And I know he need he will tell you if he wants to come up here, ask him, he could probably use three times more than than than this amount. But, you know, again, our our our hope is that we're in a a very different place next year if we do our work um and and and impress upon the community um the need to to renovate to new our schools. Um we will be once again just kind of holding things together as we do plan for some significant infrastructure work that that we must do soon here in Portland. Um Mr. Shay, do you want to comment on that at

025all? just about the kind of borrow time we're on. I don't know what else to say. >> Yeah, >> Bob, do you want to go just go up field, sir? Speak to the home. >> Hi. Um, so about 100,000 stuff cut overall. Really difficult year for me coming up. Uh there's, you know, above and beyond what we need to do with our entire district, which we hope we move forward with that, which will be very helpful. Um we still have that whole year to get through um where I might be able to, you know, recoup some savings um as we start to make those improvements, but it's going to be a difficult year at these numbers. We we talked about this quite oft uh over great lengths and like you said my as well as

026other departments have those areas where you know you find that line item is the only place you can cut versus other ones that are you need to fund based on law statute. It's going to be difficult. We're making some projections for the end of the year that might not as of today they're not there. We're hoping that we can um have savings across the district that will allow me to do some end of the year purchases that will help me through next year. Uh but I will say um probably since I've started in this position, I think this is going to be our most difficult year at those numbers. I we took a $100,000 of a cut out of my line item that I thought that I had already cut that we really made some

027heavy cuts to get to that number and we took another hundred away. So that's, you know, it's important for you to know that we we'll do our best. We do every day. Um, you know, we're looking we were in much better shape last year, although I was concerned, but we're doing okay. um even with this crazy winter that we had and a lot of things breaking because of it. But yeah, it's important for you to know that, you know, we're running a fine line in in the maintenance um category. If you go I just, you know, go back um years um and see what we uh were funding and maybe see what we've done to try to reduce those numbers, but I'm still considerably lower than than what was previously budgeted for those line items.

028But we're we're we're doing our best. I'm working hard to keep that um and make it happen where we are. Just trying to keep the schools open and everybody safe. So, >> fair to say we'll be banking on a renovation otherwise. >> Yeah, it's going to be hard. You know, the whole year will be hard, but even after that, it's going to be hard to even sit and talk about where we go from there. So, that's the biggest part. And then next year, you know, I'll be relying on a lot of help to try to get things done. We're moving in the right direction. We've made a lot of repairs over the past four years um that we've really moved forward secondary school, you know, and that's the other thing you have to understand. But

029really through this whole process, I've been focusing on making sure that we're spending our tax money on the buildings that we know that are going to be there. We've had many discussions and you don't know where you're going. So, you want to focus on making sure you're making improvements on stuff that's going to stay. And we know the secondary school is there for quite a while. So, I've kind of been focusing on those repairs. And with that said, the other schools are kind of weaning back and some of those things are really coming to the front of the line and I'm hoping that we can get the boilers for one. Um, who knew that our boilers were going to fail in the middle before we can make a change if if that's the case. And,

030you know, that's a $325,000 expense that we didn't expect. So, schools are big. Um, and they have an awful lot of expenses to run them. They run, they hold a lot of people, like I said in our last meeting, many more than your home does. And you make improvements in your house that may manage four to five people. And these manage hundreds of people a day. So things break a lot faster. So okay, >> questions. Thank you, Bob. Thank you. So again, you see in repairs and maintenance, that was the um initial flat funding and then a reduction. And that's >> I should have just made I don't know why I did a couple hundred bucks less. That's my fault. >> I should have just made the same. >> So should we move to transportation?

031>> Yes. Yes. >> Okay. So um again here you see a a slight reduction in point. >> Next slide. >> Oh yeah. Where? >> There you go. So here in these um we other services this is where we put um a lot of different things our transportation our insurance um and then of course our our tuitions for out placements. You do see a reduction here which is a kind of a reflection of of um some projections we're making. Um it does also reflect our new transportation contract. Some of the offsetting savings there have been we've done a really good job with these three minivans. Um, a lot of credit to Sarah and Olivia and we have some great drivers now um, who are are, you know, helping keep some costs down whereas if we were

032paying Ambassador or M&J or um, other limousine or or student transportation services um, it would be more. We we we've made some some nice headway there. Um, but overall that that you know these also reflect um, some of our special education um, out outplacement expenses. Um, and again, I just want to remind you last night, one of the anticipated revenues here is that um, excess cost reimbursement we put at 72%. Now, I'm a little stressed. I have anxiety because as a reminder that two years ago when we were in that, you know, at one point it was a million-doll deficit position and and I was really in a bad state of mind, but we we whittleled that down to remember at the end of the year we ended up at about a $300,000 deficit. Thank

033you for the supplemental and bailing us out on that. But what what had caused that was the state promising us 72% at that time. Stephanie even had been conservative I think in what did you put >> uh 68 >> 68 and they came in at at 59 that year and um I have some choice words choice words for that day um when when they sent us that email and said, "Oh, we don't have enough money and and we're we're cutting you." Um, we did put it back. Last year we got a good chunk. We were and this year they they they did a good job because they heard me and every board of education and every superintendent scream about it and and our legislation legislators did respond. And again, this year we're hearing that that

034Hartford has has heard don't don't cut that excess cost. Those are placeholders we put in our budget that we anticipate. But again, it's is a little bit of a gamble here. If it comes in below that 72% number, um yeah, there the ether will be filled with some choice words from from Charles's office. Um but let's hope that doesn't happen. >> Only you can only go off of what you know. Last year they gave a supple it it was only I think 69 last year, but they gave a supplemental because so many people complained and somehow they came up with some money to get us up to the 72 and we got we're getting the 72 this year. Now, as of December, it was I know everybody had us to do their second filing March

0351st. So, that's when they go back in and look at the pot of money and see the changes that the school districts make, whether they increase or decrease. So, hopefully there's not too much of a change between December and and March. Um, and then they usually catch you up at the end because you have to submit again in June 30. And then they they catch that in the following year if you either owe back money or you get more money. and that comes in your um ECS grant. U but we've been we've actually gotten additional funds in the past um because it was in our favor that our expenses end up being more than the first recording. So I mean it's last year and this year so we hope that it's going to be the

036same, you know, next year. >> Yeah. And and you know for for anybody hearing this or if you're thinking like I I really don't know exactly what you guys are talking about and that that's fair. It's incredibly complicated, right? the the work that Stephanie does is is difficult because we're building budgets hoping that the state comes through with funding that they're promising us, but they don't always fund it at that amount because they're considering the pool all districts in the state, you know, and if if all the districts in the state ask for what they anticipate or less, we're going to get what we want. But if everybody in the state clamors for more, then they reduce everybody. Um, and that's that that is a really difficult way to run a budget that you and

037that's what that that was a function. You probably saw that in the letters that the board of ed wrote and um you know we've every legislative breakfast and lobbying group I've been to, we've said if you tell us it's going to be there, we're building budgets anticipating and expecting it to be there. You can't cut us in March. like you cannot send us that email in in March when especially in March. I don't have any year left to to do anything, right? It's it's it it's a kick in the gut. Um it's just but they were better this year and and they were better last year and we're hoping that the message was received and they are now going to be better going forward. >> Let's hope like I said it was March March now.

038That's right. But, you know, all things considered, that is down down slightly, but but roughly the same. But there been talking a little too much. Happy to answer any questions about special education outplacement costs, tuition costs, or legal services, property. I mean, that's not here. Property insurance or transportation. >> What was the final number for the bus contract for? >> Yeah, I don't have them right in front of me. They were pretty close, a little lower than what we shared with you. We we went back and we were able to spread that increase out over the the over the five years of the contract. Um I will have that I we' hope to have it done by the end of February. It took a little bit longer. It's done now. I'm going to have that

039contract in front of the board I think at the next meeting. >> Well, I'm just wondering because with the the deficit on one of the slides last night, it said that the bus contract is like 164 higher. So this should just have 164 added to it. This number. >> No, that's that's in here, right? No, you're right. >> No, it's not. This is This is the old number. So, this is not >> It would have the 164 addit. You're correct. Thank you. >> Yeah, it needs 16,400 more here. Same as the Good catch. Thank you, Bobby. You're exactly right. Um but we'll we'll do our best. We'll we will we will get we will find other places to >> because again, that's a contractual number. I don't I don't have flexibility with that. I'll probably

040cut it from Bob. My only other question, what is included in the travel lines? >> So, this is where um >> that's the mileage reimbursement. >> People that travel between the schools, our IT technicians, our teachers that go between schools um >> because we have five schools and we have to pay them to go back and forth. >> Yeah. >> Because it's in their contract. And then also too, if they go on professional developments, we also reimburse for mileage as well. So, and we're after COVID, you know, there's kind of was a halt with people doing PD and there's a lot of virtual ones, too, but you know, we're trying to get teachers and everybody to go more to the the PDS and so that's a little bit of mileage for them too. >> Almost

041double. >> Yes. >> A majority of it is our student services shared people, our OTP, the ELLL teacher that and the pair professionals that go from the bridge program that's at Gildersleeve and Brownstone. Every day they put in for their mileage. It's I see their mileage forms that come in bi-weekly. you know, it's it's small amounts each time, but it adds up. And that's why I keep telling Sarah, we have to increase it because I mean, they're entitled to it. It's in their contract, and a lot of them don't take advantage of it. So, it could be a lot higher in all honesty. Um, but there's, you know, certain ones and they're they're supposed to get it. So, there's and they put in for it. >> Yeah. And and the I think it's the IRS

042sets that rate. It went up, too. Was like 62 cents a mile or something. Now, >> it's No, I think it's 70. It goes up every year, >> but it's really it's drive. Once we get once we can have less schools, that's less driving. All honesty, >> also for me, there must be an explanation you're that you're going to tell me all of a sudden this tuition to magnet schools 65, but it was like $1,500. >> Yep. So there's one student who is out it's not really an out placement they go to a magnet school and so if we have just like in when Hartford kids come to us we bill Hartford for any special ed services so we have certain students who are special ed that go to correct schools so then they in

043turn bill us for the same services so that's to cover the expenses for that. Yeah, I'm willing to bet that that's probably a paraprofessional and speech and language, but I'm I'm just guessing that that number seems about what a district would charge for a parah and speech and language services. But not knowing the student, that's a guess. >> Continue on. >> All right, Nick, can we go to um books and supplies? >> Yeah. Again, very kind of a, you know, situation that Bob's in. This is the one area where we we do have some discretion over, right? And and as I explained, you know, initially we went to flat funding and then I I asked everybody to cut and you know, this is one of the only places that that we have have to cut.

044These are the um you know u general supplies, post-it notes that those kinds of things. But it does also >> Did I know we were going to go to war and gas was going to be almost $4 a gallon? Oh, >> not in November. >> Yeah, I know, right? We were doing great on gas. Yeah, we were also it was also a very cold winter, by the way. So, >> you know, there's there's some also assumptions built in here, but you know, would I would I like to add money to that based on what we're seeing now at the pump? Um, and you know, maybe this winter was just kind of an anomaly in being as cold as it was. Um hopefully next year we'll get back to a little closer to normal and and

045certainly hopefully we won't be dropping bombs on tan anymore and that'll all work out. Um but these reflect what we were thinking about the state of the world three months ago. Um >> so I think probably we might have a concern on those lines. Not only hit the whole the town could speak to I that right because all anything that went into these budgets about gas or any of that was before February whatever >> before last week >> right yeah horrifying sorry >> so those I think are would be an issue >> unless this gets over Please God. Thank you. >> The resources media line that's another one where there's 100% there's a blank number. What what's going on there? >> I just don't think that's like you know like the DVDs. No, those schools

046don't use that stuff anymore. It's all online materials. >> So that dude just no money associated there at all then. >> It was $80 from 80. >> I didn't know if we spent it to be honest. There was probably one school that put it in their budget for something they wanted. I'd have to go back and look and see if we actually >> that much missing. I thought maybe it was an error. Okay. >> I think next >> buildings and equipment >> again you see um an an increase here and and this is just as a reminder last year and I'm was very happy. >> Next slide. >> There it is. Thank you. So you do see see an increase here and again just as a reminder what we did last year which I think

047was very smart in years past we've kind of gone down a we've explored a lots of different options for Chromebooks right we did leases one year we used um certainly COVID relief funding years we had grants certain years but that's that what that created is sort of a how do I describe a Frankenstein's monster of different Chromebook models all under different types of warranty keys, right? Um, last year what we did for the first time is we put in our budget the number that we need to purchase all of our fifth graders and all of our ninth graders a Chromebook. Right? So, all of our current fifth and nth graders have a new Chromebook that they are now going to bring with them into sixth and tth grade year and then into their seventh and

04811th grade year and then into ninth or eighth and and 12th grade year. Then we'll collect those ones back and send them down to Gildersleeve, right? Um but then this year we are going to again purchase our fifth and our ninth graders a new Chromebook that's under warranty for four years. So um you know fortunately our our incoming fifth grade class is a little smaller. I think there's only 79 or 80 kids in that class. So this number is a little lower but we you know just count the number of kids that we anticipate we're going to need and that's where you see the Chromebook. But now we've run into the pickle with not having any >> Well, let's not let's not confuse anybody with Yeah, we're running into issues with Chromebooks because of supply

049chain and chips that are difficult and it might be hard to get them Chromebooks. Is it there's an issue with Chromebook being able to buy them? And >> so we're going to work hard and hopefully we can get to the front of the lines. But um more to come on that >> the Chromebook. >> They're under 73014. >> Okay. Are there similar excess issues with the software as well as the chips and the hardware? I think Steve >> Okay. Should we go to dues and fees then? >> Let's do it. >> All right. So, dues and fees. increases. Is this the NIAK? >> That one. Yeah. >> Roman N. Yeah. So, this one here is a as a reminder, our our high school is going through its dennial every once every 10 years um accreditation

050visit with the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. >> I can't wait for this group to come. We're going to impress them. Boy, Kate Lawson and her team up there have been working very hard. We are perfectly aligned to those standards. I think we're really going to impress them. Um, but of course in the year that they come, our dues are doubled because that you get a a double whack on your dues. >> 6,000 a year, just to put into perspective, we pay 6,000 a year every year >> for that. Then it goes to 12. >> It goes to 12 and then we have to um >> we have we have to cover cover that cost. I will say though, I don't I don't complain about that. I I really believe the accreditation process

051is is amazing. It really generates some reflection. I hope the police department is having the same experience. It it it does really get you to consider best practices. It's worth it to be accredited by them. And we have to have it because having that seal on our students transcripts is what makes those transcripts worth the paper they're written on when college admissions office consider our students. Without that accreditation, um our kids would have a really hard time marketing themselves to colleges and universities. No questions. That all of them. I think we got it. That's it. Last chance. Any questions? Bobby, anybody? Good. >> All right. Good. Thank you very much. So, I see Tom is not here now. So, while All right. So, sir, do you want to Here it comes. Perfect timing. Tom Right.

052Good evening. >> We're starting uh page 19 of the booklet, >> right? So page 19 is the board of selectman budget. There's a 2.27% increase here. Uh small amount for board clerk. Uh small amount the program services for the recordings of the uh of the meetings throughout the town. Page 21 of everybody. Um, so how are we going to so charter revision commission has nothing but we've talked about how we're doing a charter review. So >> right >> how are we >> I think I think we'll need to discuss that. Um the last charter revision I think we need to look at what was spent on there. We have talked about doing that uh and include it then and so I think we need to add that to our discussion for next week how much

053that's going to be what the cost is and I think >> okay I just want to point out no absolutely >> we have nothing in there. >> Absolutely. Thank you as well. We're on page uh 21. Uh this first selectman budget, first selectman budget as the first selectman and the administrative assistant um has um various uh uh programs and conference CCM the cost middle sex chamber of commerce uh program services for various uh program type activities that the first selectman's office runs. um in this budget has a 4.88 uh percent increase this year. Page 23 is the ethics commission. Um ethics commission has more or less they more or less just pay for a PO box. They have some miscellaneous supplies. They also have a board clerk when needed. Um so there's a zero change

054to that budget. Page 25 is the probate court. This is a amount that we get um town of Marorrow assign you know provides us what we need to budget here uh based on the letter that we received from them. Uh there's a 1.1% 1% increase here. Page 27 is elections. In the elections, we have one state election with a 14-day early voting period. Two party primaries with seven day uh election early voting period and then one budget referendum expectation. Um the budget, you know, majority of the things here for supplies andor voting machines and then the people cost to uh run to run that department. >> Good question. >> Sure. Um, what exactly I just did and maybe the is voter canvasing? What does that what is that? What does that mean? Because I just

055saw that we >> Yeah, go up. >> You have to go up. Yep. You have to go up there so people at home can listen. Thank you. >> Every year we get a list from the state. They they require us as a state mandate that we have to man canvas once a year. They we have programs like ERIC which is used to be six states that applied to this. This is people that have moved out of town who have not voted in four years. Um you canvas to make sure that they're still living here. Uh, and there's um the in town moves. Sometimes we don't pick up in town moves. We use a program called roast and that is associated with the NCAA and that um gives us our list of people to canvas but

056it is a state requirement that we do this. Okay. It's not that we pick this. Yeah, I just want you to, you know, realize >> my question is so that it hasn't been done in this budget year then cuz 100 >> We're working on it now. It has to be done anywhere from January until um it used to be May, now it's April. >> Oh, that's great. Thank you. >> Okay. So, it's done every year around this time. >> Thank you. And I have one other question on this page. Um the voting machine maintenance like it has this increased, but aren't our voting machines new? >> You want me to answer? You're going to answer. So the the voting machines they are new but they require service agreements. So there's a service agreements that the

057state has put in place and those are the fees that uh that the department's estimated are >> just higher than what we used to pay even though they're new machines. >> Yeah. Yeah. And we have more. >> Yeah. More of them too. Yeah. More. >> Okay. >> Thank you Mike. Like a great deal. Uh page 29 is a finance department. It's made up of a finance director, uh three um three other fulltime employees, and then a part-time benefits administrator. Um we have our our software system, our ADP payroll, our ADP uh system for payroll. Um the uh increases, one of the increases here is for rental uses of buildings. So what the resol use of buildings is for it's it's more or less the use of um schools that it's it's the overtime for use

058of schools uh by people that are not the board of ed and not parks and wreck affiliated. So those people get charged uh for the overtime and then that goes into property rental. So the people's the custodial's overtime gets charged to this budget and then we bring the revenue in in property rental. Um but that's what that is. That's why that's increasing. It seems like after co you know and and as well as you know continual increases of contracts the amount of that we're you know being you know the custodians are making now uh is higher. I think there's a more there's also more rental use and then you know the revenues we're bringing in are uh the board of ed doing a job of bringing those revenues back for us. So wanted to try

059to capture some of that increasing that number a little bit here. Um and then we have the and uh the auditary bank fees and processing various processing components that we need for doing our uh reporting various uh 1095 reportings and uh and other reportings here. I have a question. Sorry. Keep going. I have a um I know this is Mike. Um Tom, what is like miscellaneous? Um >> miscellaneous is it accounts for various things that come up that that um that might need to acquire. So many times during the year we we buy technology through that. Um we there's furniture issues. Um evictions go through that. um um any you know if there's a special consultant that might be needed for financial purposes we might go through there. So it's a it's you know it's

060it's an it's an aotment. Yeah. It's an aotment that we use where it's more or less we try to accomplish what's needed and then we get it accomplished. If if there's nothing's needed then we we don't spend. Okay. Page 31 is the collector of revenue federal revenue. Uh this is just the the actual collector herself and um the other clerk that's in the office that's split between water and sewer. So that's uh the the collector and then uh the service contract is QDS. We have their their supply service as well as their online customer and then also the DMV we have to pay a fee to um then it's conference and meetings and dues training. Um and then that could be for both parties because the you know the CL the assistant is trying to

061become more certified which is excellent you know for the town if if that becomes a an item. Page 33 is the assessor's budget. Assessor's budget is made up of the assessor and the admin administrative assistant. Um the service contracts is the main component of this budget other than the actual personnel personal cost. They have Tyler um is a is a the uh the system that we have the QDS is part of this Q public uh there's another company called Khan u NADAS we we have to pay as well and then the training this is also training for the assessor uh his assistant as well as all the board of assessment appeals 35 the assess board of assessment appeals it has an increase this is going to be a reval year so it's going to show

062slight increase there because it's revalure. >> So their stipens increase because it's a reval year. >> Yeah. When there's when it's a reval year, they get a little bit like very a little bit more, but yeah. >> Oh, stipens like per meeting, not >> they get No, they get a stipen. They get a stipen amount uh there's what there's three of them, I think. And then, you know, on nonrevaluers, it's an amount and on reval, yeah, it's like a small amount, $100 maybe or something. Page 37. Uh, this is a challenging one. I think Mike was trying to be uh, you know, trying to keep the budget as close as possible, but this is a a tough one here. Um, you know, legal fees, you know, they continue to rise. Hopefully, many of the contracts

063will hopefully be, uh, you know, uh, for labor will be done this year. So, that hopefully we'll keep it. you know, pension costs with when and and when and if they are needed. You know, the pension attorneys are uh very expensive. Um any any uh employment law attorney is is is very expensive because it's a very shortage of them and it's a very specialized group. Um the uh we have the general town council. Uh it's Kleina uh or Harris Beach Murtha I should say. Um, and they also are planning and development matters attorney. So that's a 0% funding. Uh, 39 is the town clerk. It has the uh payroll of of the town clerk and uh the assistant town clerk. Uh, that line does have an adjustment in there as uh as noted. And then

064um the service uh contracts it's it's what we usually pay for our ordinance system MUN code. Um the index and recording we will be having a new system um soon called IQS. Uh the implementation of that was for the functionality uh compliance of the actual software. Um and um it's more online more uh more appears more municipalities have been using that here recently in Connecticut. Um and u and um so that that that change is going to be going on. Um Mike will be uh leading that and u indexing obviously as all that as the recording components of the IQS contract as well as uh supplies, binders and any other items that uh Mike and his team may utilize within the vault. So the that bump up is really because this is new a new

065software system. >> Yeah. It's a new >> correct >> indexing and >> Yep. Yeah. That's why it was bumped and then that is going to be implemented in the springish and then uh you know then we'll convert over to that system. If you know if that if there was if all the world was equal and there was no change which there needed to be a change that software the the incumbent would have gone up as well. It was just a >> it was a we had a good contract for a longer period of time and it expired and then that's >> no new means more. >> Tom, is the uh uh dog licensing software in in that uh software package or is that good? >> Yeah. >> Michael says yes. >> Oh, I'll defer to

066Michael on this. All right. Uh page 41 is our central service line item. This is where we do, you know, mostly it's uh my office will cope and minister this and um it's kind of we buy things centrally for the town. Um service contracts. It has some of the things for Foley and uh all the various testing for the drug and alcohol testings. That's requirement. One of the major components there is also the rental of the copier fleet on the town side. Uh I think that maybe needing to be uh updated. And so there's the possibility of I think if I did a slight increase fully uh fees have been increased slightly just due to requirements changes as well slight increase there. Um postage although you know we try not to do postage as much

067but there still we have to do a lot of mailings for various uh tax bills as well as our uh checks and things of that nature. And every year postage does continue to uh creep to a you know it continues to rise actually quite quite a bit. So we're we're trying to put an increase here because uh of the need. Um and there's no other changes to that budget. Uh page 43 is the technology budget. The payroll is the uh is the actual director and the assistant. Uh part-time payroll is uh for our uh we have a part-time uh clerk that helps with um you know it situations helps us run into all the gov deals uh where we sell all the assets in the town and generate significant revenue that goes into the capital

068fund. Um and helps with uh special needs with the uh police accountability act and and and various uh things of that nature. uh as well as there is uh some funds for students that work on this the town program. Um the overtime is there for needs of of overtime. Uh the uh the main item here increase was in the licensing uh fee. Um, we did have we did have uh one of our longtime uh vendors had uh left the market uh for our for our service and um and then uh we went through the bid uh process working still working through that but we kind of aware of where the um fees are are going and there's a you know expected um $12,000 will be on an increase overall. So, it's a total of a

069$24,000 fee for our uh computer uh management software, remote monitoring, and security. That's a annual uh fee that we have in there as well. And this uh that that that also has in our Microsoft licenses, the land use GIS web hosted, the land use uh leiser fish uh electronic records, the online permitting systems, uh public Wi-Fi, um the Adobe Acrobat Pros, uh some backup software for the UDES, police UDE, constant contact outreach, uh email servicing, licensing, server operations, system licenses, web hosting, web security, Zoom, it's just the list goes on and on. It's just as well as the board had said and on our side, it's a similar way. A lot many things are becoming subscription based. Um it's just you have to and then a lot of the surfaces if we have a a

070program where we're running uh you know new new programs and whatnot we have to have the the um subscription and then as well as we have to have the u the cyber uh the cyber security for our remote managed detection and of that um similar that's why we uh increase the computer network is the hourly per rate uh we actually low we usually did an 8 hour per week we lowered that slightly because the actual hours went up. We're trying to mitigate the difference without still getting enough support um that we that we need here in this department. So, those are the reasons why um that department has gone up. It's uh more or less the $12,000 swing up in remote monitoring and um in detection and then uh the u the change in the

071computer network the actual it'll be upcoming change expected in vendors page 45 is the fire department you know we obviously we have a volunteer fire department here in the town um regular payroll there that's a 10% alloc ification of an administrative assistant that also is the 90% is the police department. Um the part-time payroll has in it the fire chief, the deputy chief, uh the assistant um and then the uh EMS coordinators and then also um this is where the stipens are paid for by the for the firemen, the $2,000 stipen for the for the members there. And then I think this year there was a potential uh add in there was an ask by the fire department for uh the lieutenants I think was to get nine of the lieutenants to be paid $500.

072Um and uh three of the captains to be paid $1,000 stipen. And that's uh those guy I guess those guys are all people that are considered in leadership roles. Just u something to um show the support and the differentiation of them in a leadership role. um service contracts between HVAC, between the communication softwares. Um those service contracts just continue to to go up and and and rise and um so we uh we put a little bit of money there. Licensing software is their software. They got a little bit better of a deal there. So we were able to lower uh that one. And then more or less I think he's going pretty flat the remainder of the way here on this budget. fire marshall. This is page 47. This has in it uh um the

073various people that make up the fire marshals department. Um and then um the conference and and some dues for the dues that they're required to have. Um gasoline for their vehicles. And then fire prevention week is some stuff they do for fire prevention week for the I think it's for the kids. and um equipment supplies and some uniforms. Uh page 49 is the emergency dispatch line item. This has in it the dispatch services, the fire alarm monitoring for all uh town buildings. Um and then um a regional uh medic u medic dispatch uh service fee as well. Um, so the dispatch is a contract agreement we have with Middletown that runs through June of 2027. So I guess we work on an extension for that. Next year uh police department police department is uh fully

074staffed with the 13 full-time officers. Got one captain, two sergeants, detective, and then nine other officers. Um the big components here um are service contracts and licensing are things that are are going up and um service contracts you have like the fingerprinting. So there's HVAC building uh fire alarms, extinguishers, pest control, elevators, first aid. Uh then there's solar service for the lights that are the u the the cameras that are on the lights. There's some wireless connectors for the uh cameras on the lights. There's some storage required for that and then fingerprint machine as a service contract. So that's that component of it on the service uh for the uh the licensing for software. There's various softwares that they need to run. And then the new the m the the jump here is like about

075$10,000 to $11,000 for the body cameras that we've had for the long-term um we we did on a long-term agreement with the we had bought like a the licensing included in the initial agreement. Those are running out. So, we're going to do a one year on those and then the incar uh the incar license as well. So, we're working on those licenses. there's a $10,000 requirement there to be added in because those license are now due to be renewed. Um, so we're working working on that and then the the captain will work on as the the the updates to the cameras need to go. That'll be a capital model uh increase there. Um uniforms uh we jumped that slightly just because the cost of uniforms continue to rise as well as their the more um

076you know the fully staff with the with the crew there. Um equipment and then uh electricity electricity um we had a nice 4year deal that was from 1221 till 1130 uh 25 with NG. Um it was a 77 it was it was more or less the I think it was 07735 was a it was a 7735 with a kilowatt and now it's I think 009706 per kilowatt. So it it went up by that.1971 which is around a 25% increase. So postcoid um the energy market had jumped up. During CO it had gone way up. Um and then uh we had gotten in before the increase back in 21 had a nice ride for the four years went out um to bid with um we use a CCM partnership and they ran the bidding cycle. NG

077was again the low better and uh the uh 9 uh the 9706 was the rate. So that's this supply. So you'll see throughout the bid the the the uh on our side of the budget you'll see the electricity going up and it it varies kind of based on location. I kind of try to do things based off of last year's actuals and try to I didn't put the 25 on it. I tried to do some type of a a spin between 12 and a half and maybe like 15 because of in theory the demand the demand's not in theory should be going up. That already went up last year. It's the supply. So hopefully we're doing that. Okay. And and but you'll see that throughout the budget. Um page 53 is emergency management. This is

078the EOC director and uh and there's a there's an off there's a partial offsetting grant from the uh from emergency management um in the in the revenue side of this. Page uh 55 is the building office. Really the only main change here was the change in personnel. Um so there was a new uh new director. We're going to skip 57 to uh 71. Those will be colored next week. So we have the planning department which is on page 73. It's made of the planner and a halftime assistant um that's split between that and the building department. So you have the the assistant split between the building department and planning and then this is the uh planner and then the um plan consultant is for various items for the the GIS on line. Um there's another

079GIS updating that's required and then there's also uh possible fees for like a Jacobson or there's another consultant that they use that that would be various things that they have for consulting. Page 75 is the zoning enforcement. We do have the zoning enforcement officer. Now that's a a great a good thing a great addition. We had not had that for a few years. That was challenging. Um so uh slight increase for conference meetings and dues and then it was just more or less uh just the you know the rate increase 77 planning and zoning. Main change here was the decrease in the elog fee and that was because we did not need to do we did the natural hazard mitigation plan payout this year and that's not that's a different it's a year it's a

080span of time before you have to do that again and so that was able to come out that was about $5,300 that's a good uh drop uh page 79 zoning board of appeals there's No uh change here to this budget. Inland Wetland Commission, just a slight change on the uh enforcement officer. Um P and then uh that's it. 83 is the conservation commission. Uh 50% increase. Whoa. $300. We got a $300 change in dues and conference meetings. So that blows that right out of the water. 46 is the economic development commission. Uh t this is tiki planning uh as well as marketing program activity. Um so that's no change the uh capital the capital expenditure commission. Um that's uh went up from uh went up by $400. Looks like they use the board clerk. Now

081uh page 89 is our Cadam Health District. This is another one where Chattam Health District says, "Hey, pay this." And I guess we have to pay that. So this is what we're doing. Page 93 is social services. These are various social services that we that you know help our uh town residents and um the first selectman chooses to support them um in there. Um things such as the the fair, the historical the historical society, the veterans activities, the um memorial day parade, uh the connection emergency shelter um and then the various others. This is also the red car dialer ride program and the rural uh transit district program that we know as part of the river valley part of the estuary transit district. Um the river valley uh transit operates these two programs that we

082are a part of and they're kind of pay this contractually. Age good enough. Age 95 is the senior center. Senior center is made up of the director and a full-time assistant. There is a part-time uh payroll of an 8h hour uh position. Uh the increases in this year was from service contracts. Service contracts. We have elevators, a first aid, pest control, fire alarm, sprinklers, um the kitchen exhaust system, the HVAC system, my senior center uh um software, and then the kitchen suppressant system. So, we had some after we did the program, um we ran, you know, we there was various things that we needed some additional service contracts for. So this uh this year we're we're uh kind of finding those out and and um and uh that's why we had put that as as

083we were taking a little bit of a hit this year on service contracts. Uh instructor fees that's uh instructor fees is when the uh they have programs where where fee revenue uh becomes generated and and creates fee revenues in the general fund. The actual instructor fees then are charged out of uh this line item where the fees are generating the revenue. Conference meetings and dues are the various conference associated with the senior center and for the um for the the uh director and any of the assistant of where they need telecommunications is for the more or less the u various uh activity the TVs and and the various communication we have there. electricity. This is uh showing that 2600 bump. Last year we took a hit with the system being fully functional as well as

084the distribution was higher high that that year and now um we're getting hit again with that that change in the contract. So we seeing that uh water we're keeping uh the same um heating fuel um we we we left that the same. And then uh there was a $1,000 uh increase in uh the uh program services for a uh I think it was a I believe it was veterans uh programming that that uh the the department wanted to add in. >> I'm sorry. I didn't hear what program services is. It's program services is is very is any um different programs that may not generate revenue that are that are things that um that the director and her team runs there. So um you know if you're if you have a a program you know they're

085celebrating an event um they would buy the supplies out of that. um that if they were having a gathering where they had to uh have a type of refreshment, they would do that. They if they had to pay like a someone to come in, but they weren't going to charge a revenue fee, but they had to pay a vendor, then they would pay from there. So, it's it's it's many many things. It's a this is kind of like their their kind of where they can spend things to do programming for the for the residents um or and the members of this as well as uh and those not may may generate but they generally do not generate the fee. The fee is generally in the instructor fees. If so a program that's generating fees would

086be you get you pay the instructor and then they generate fees. If you don't have that then generally it's a program service. Okay. Misable grant and aid. This is the uh budget where we have pay the band uh driver stipens. Um we show a uh $1,700 increase on this budget as well as a uh the the gas and diesel has stayed the same. So we put about a 3.91. There is usually generally revenue that will come in from partial of a partial of this for grant. So we generally need to show an increase in these type of budgets um as uh you know as the money comes in we can't like supplant. >> Yeah Tom I and I know I mean there just must be a reason for it but I found it confusing that

087that that these line items are listed under the category of municipal agent for the elderly. Like why aren't those cautious in the >> this is a missable agent elderly budget that is that's like the intent of the missible agent budgetation >> correct? >> Yeah. >> That's how it's always been. It's just that is the department. If you look at the mission it's the help the the that you're the mima agent of the elderly on that. It's just two budgets. They have they have the senior center budget and then it's this for that. I think a lot of that I think a lot of it has to do with that grant that u the director has on the other side. So they'd like to see you know you want you don't really want to cloud that

088budget. You would want to see that separated out here because this is this is specifically for the van driver stipens to drive and then the gasoline. That's all this the budget's for really. >> Okay. >> It's run by the senior center but it has its own page. >> Yes. >> Yeah. That's well just the description though does whatever it's fine. No, I I mean I get it. It's just >> page 99 is the uh library budget. This has the um payroll full-time payroll for the based on the the census of the people that are at the full-time payroll and the part-time payroll uh based with their uh administrative uh with the uh expected but the expected increases here. Uh again, service contracts, we are increasing as you can see, we've had a challenge hitting that

089number. Um HVAC is always a challenge and in uh as prices continue to rise, even though some of the equipment is okay, some of it is aged and and therefore cause it. There's also other types of service contracts that we do have in that line item as well. um conference to meetings and dues. The some of the uh participants um in the in the town there wanted to do some contra uh some education and uh for the contract they're uh able to ask for that. So there was a bump in that. Um other line the electricity we did go up uh slightly on the number. uh we they've done better on the the actual so we didn't have to go up on the budget as much as we would have if they had not been

090doing better on the actual. So that was uh good for good on them and there was really no other significant changes there. Page 101 is our employee uh fringe benefit page. um various uh so the the uh vacation pays we have various contracts where there's vacation payouts so we estimate have an estimated amount there that often doesn't change and it fluctuates up and down uh longevity is based on the longevity that we have to pay sick time is another one based on people that have their sick time and uh and the payout it fluctuates based on who has what how who earns when the longevity is and termination pay. That's for people when they leave. That's more or less all departments when they leave except the the board of ed, but would be all departments

091of termination pay there. Uh medical insurance um is a you know people have spoken about that. There's an increase in that line item. Uh dental insurance did is doing pretty well. Life is doing pretty well. Disability those are for the blinds we have there. Fant Medicare is for all the general fund employees. The town pension plan has two components. The older um plan is a defined benefit plan that kind of has been shut off but there's still active and um so that is actuarily determined the contribution and then there's a uh DC plan where we contribute in 6% of the employee salaries that will not this year but the next year will jump to seven. Um but that's uh so you have two components into that line item. um as well as a a financial

092advisor. And then there's police pension is a DB plan. Defined benefit plan that's actuarily determined. So that's an actually determined number. The volunteer fire plan is an act determined number. So the actuary says this is the number. That's the number we put in. Um workers comp is what we have to pay into Kerma for workers comp for the town. Unemployment is what we allocate for unemployment. Sometimes you have good years, sometimes you have bad years, but we just more or less leave a $7,000 number there. Uh collective bargaining is usually what we do for the OPEB valuation or the OPB is other pension or uh other pension obligations. Uh and more or less that's like the um it's it's obligations that would be like for health insurance and and even the implicit value of those

093health insurance we have to do a uh a bianual uh valuation and um so this year is the year on for that and then every year we have to also pay for fees um associated with um there's um what's called like footnote disclosure ures that are required to be done for the audit and so every year we have to have pay for them to do the footnote disclosure updates usually our actuary has been USI consultant so our fringe benefit line item is increasing up 5.64% 64% globally. 103 was the risk management. This is kerma. This is more or less what we we pay for kerma for um our lap, our liability, our auto, our uh personal property, our insurance. We have have to have insurance for the airline trail um uh for Eversource. So we

094have have that. Um, we also have excess uh liability coverage that we have as as and we also have cyber security for the town and the board. Um, and we uh we have that in this uh in this budget as well. The U and then we also um so this one you know going just with a 1.2% 2% I usually base off the the estimates of what we were getting probably expecting somewhere between a four five or 6% increase but hopefully we can mitigate that within this uh incre within the number that we have here. So I think that that'll hopefully work out well. Page 105 is debt service. We have the current bond that we are paying. The bond uh the principal payment for next year is 525,000. Interest payment is 28,000 around 188.

095We have a capital lease payment. We're in year six of 7 on 197,449. Principal interest of 4488. Uh miscellaneous. Normally there's usually $1,000 there for rounding in case there's an issue on a payment. Why? There's $115,000 $116,000 there is we have $115,000 budgeted for bond issue costs for those potential board of ed bonding that would uh possibly get approved by the voters. um we would need to we budgeted miscellaneous we budgeted other revenue of $115,000 which we may get from a bond pro premium and therefore we had to budget the issuance cost within this budget. Um so there was a a budgeted revenue and a related budgeted expenditure but that is uh kind of assuming that the board of ed uh bond would pass. Um, this would possibly be an issuance that would have to

096occur in 27. Um, >> Tom, I just have one question on that. >> Sure. >> For the 2018 town bond. >> Yes, sir. >> What year are we in on that payment? >> Like I wouldn't have the top of my head. Um, >> okay. >> So, in 2018, well, yeah, it'll be 18 minus eight years in. Yeah. >> Could could we add that in the future like we do on the one below it just so anyone that looks at it knows how many years we have left to pay on it? >> Yeah, I can try to come up with something. Yeah, it's in the audit. I just didn't think about it. Put it here. >> That's fine. >> Yeah. In the footnote disclosure of the audit, it'll tell us. We don't know exactly where that

097is, but um Good question. Yeah, good question. Even if I even something like if it's like ending year, whatever, something like that. >> Yeah, >> that would be good enough. >> Yep. >> Yeah. >> That's probably easier than trying to >> Yeah. As long as people Yeah. know where we stand on it, right? Like we're at the beginning, we're at the end. Yeah. Right. Yep. kind of early. >> Yeah. >> In it. So, it's quite a few years left. All right. That's why it's showing the 7.5 is the issuance cost here. Otherwise, you wouldn't really see that. The just the TR I'll go over the transfers just so you know what they are for some of the newer newer members. So, the transfers out are what we transfer to the other um departments. some of

098them within the budget, some of them are just other funds that we have elsewhere. Um, so this one that's in this budget is the you'll have a transfer to animal control, which is our fund for, you'll see that. Then there's a transfer for youth service, which is our youth service department, fund 7. We'll have the building maintenance fund, fund 11. That's a share between the town and the board. We get we get 41, they get 41. Um, you have the that doesn't do it. The resource recovery is our resource recovery facility. So, we have to transfer money to that. I'm going to jump other for a second and then go back to it. Park and wreck is for the transfer out to our park and wreck uh fund. There's a I think it's an ordinance

099that says we need to send $50,000 to our open space. So, we do that annually. And then in the capital um tried to leave the capital more or less at the level of where we were at last year because of the whole debt situation. We try to leave the capital and the debt. Um when you when you lower debt, you try to leave the capital the same. Would have liked to try to do that when we lowered a little bit capital this year to actually raise it, but due to the the net impact on the grand list, we couldn't do that. But the only really difference here why this dropped by 4,000 was because resource the transfer uh e the the capital amount for resource recovery went up to 8,000 from 4,000. So the transfer

100to the resource recovery went up by 4,000. So we had to pull it out of this line item to go up. So that's why that dropped by the four. So it didn't equal exactly. So the other going backwards to other. So there's 58 uh 750 that we transfer to the water fund for fire hydrant upkeep. That's just been a thing that the town has has done for years now and it's it's warranted and good. Um, it also includes the $50,000 to the airline trail. We're trying to put money aside so we have enough money for the match when this goes to to pop off to be done through the grant pro. Hopefully a grant would be awarded and generally there's a requirement to have a a match there. And then uh we uh transferred $2,000

101annually into fund 84 for the uh solidarity committee. So that's uh that's fund that's what page 107's about. The uh next page is contingency. This is monies that we set aside. $100,000 we set aside for uh things that that come up unexpected. Um, so kind of things like like snow this year being so so very high that's you know kind of using up that contingency already is is that the overtime is just so so high. So hopefully no more snow on the weekends and on Sundays and holidays. So, >> should should we look at like increasing this a certain percentage every year to like keep pace with the budget because this has been $100,000 as long as I can remember. >> Yeah. I mean, we could I mean, we've been it's not a bad idea,

102no doubt. Um uh it's uh it's been it's worked for us. Yeah. For for a while now. So, it's been good. You know, we've been we've been you been doing okay. Um, this year might be a little bit of a challenge. Um, the current year we're in because of the overtime. I haven't seen a year like this in a long time. >> Um, but yeah, it's something to probably consider. I don't know. I don't know if I would do it this year >> because of the Milin effect, but I mean, if you, you know, in a in a future year, sure, that might not be a bad thing to to bump up because, right, because 100,000 doesn't take it as uh >> No, that goes pretty fast now. >> It goes pretty fast now. it

103is. But okay, and then uh we're going to jump over to um so we're going to skip the uh the stuff that's water and sewer as those are for public works. So um kind of going with that transfer page, page 119. This is the animal control fund. Um Mike and uh his team continues to try to uh get some property rental in. We used to have great property rental when the city of Middletown rented our our depot or our uh what do you call it? >> Pound. >> Yeah. Yeah. Pound. There you go. Thank you. Um we had that. It's been it's been a challenge to get that since I guess this is somewhat of a placeholder hoping for rental. Um the there's the income here is for the sale of the dog license more

104or less. the dog charges um some miscellaneous fees and donations when the people uh pick the dogs up and then the transfer in from the general fund. The uh page 120 which really makes this fund up is employee. This is the animal control officer. They do have to have part-time uh people that come in on the weekends. Um if there's if there are animals housed there, you have to obviously take care of them in the weekend. Um that's similar to what overtime is there more or less for as well or if the person's called in later. Um the remainder is more or less the benefits associated with that. Service contracts is uh sometimes that's kind of that's getting rid of the animals as well as other types of services. But talk about that too much.

105Uh veterary fees would be if when the animals are ill or sick, we we have that. Um municipal insurance is the allocation of insurance and more or less we go through and and just you know we didn't we don't really change this budget too much. Um just just trying to uh match it up with whatever the you know alloc allocable amounts are um on that um andor uh and and with electricity as as it you know we try to keep it as low as we can with with you know to help guess keep the animals going. Page 124 is youth service. Um this is uh so there u I think there recently probably will have a change in personnel in this department. So I think that Mike is working on filling the u that position.

106Um so this generally there is a grant here in this in this in this uh uh that that runs uh about 29,000 or so of this um is related to a grant from a DC DCF for the youth service bureau. Uh DSS money is monies that have been brought in for um services. Um there's a like a consultant that sometimes works with us and there's and he um bills out um and then some fees come back on that uh some of that and the resource center fees that can be al programmatic fees of you know if there's some fees run programmatically it also can be something of a component of a private pay of that uh other consultant that we spoke of and then we have the transfer in uh this department has had the

107one has the one employee budgeted in it. uh related insurance and then the um the conferences and uh the conferences and the meetings uh and the dues and then uh the utilities to this the commodities of the the department and then the uh there is a there are miscellaneous programs that they run and uh and then there's a CRC consultant. Um that one was always been a uh kind of a 20 to 30,000. This year it has jumped uh a little bit quite a bit. Um it has generated some additional revenues. I believe that first leton's been reviewing and monitoring this and uh you know we'll we'll continue to review that. Um we're budgeting it more in line where it had been um to where it might be right now. Um so uh anticipating it

108may go back to where what it was uh and how that was set up. Um the uh but that's why you're seeing the increase was just the increase to um to increase up that fee and and then the increase up in the revenue. So as you look to the general fund effect, there was only about a 10,000 general fund effect on that. The change was an increase in the revenue as well. Um, so, uh, that's kind of what's going on there. Um, the this is kind of our best estimate. The, um, director was out during this time, so we're trying to kind of kind of come up with what we were thinking based on on a kind of past history. And then that is the um that that would conclude the components of the items

109that I would speak of tonight. And then we will have uh we'll do the public works uh and capital stuff next time. >> Great. Um any questions at all before Tom goes? Thank you very much, Tom, by the way. >> Thank you a lot. Um any questions? >> That's a lot of notes taking Tom and thank you for being so thorough on that. All right, we all good. Thank >> Thanks. Appreciate it. All right. So, um Sarah, I know you wanted to Right. Okay. I'll make it quick. Thank you guys. I know everybody's tired and Thanks, Tom. Okay. Um, so I just wanted to provide a a visual so it's a little more digestible for a better understanding of what actually takes place at the senior center and reduce the very large stigma surrounding the

110center and older adults as a whole in this community and what we do there. Um, so I wanted to provide a data-driven review of program scope, community impact, and professional credentials. And most importantly, I wanted to advocate for our older population and speak for them. Next slide. We can Yep. And we can skip over that. That's just, you know, my credentials and, you know, areas of expertise that I offer there. Okay. Next slide, please. We'll skip that. We'll go to the more important part. Does anybody want to read that? You guys all have your copy? >> Yep, we're good. >> Okay. >> All right. So, that brings us to program and delivery and community impact. >> Okay. Okay. Um, so here I describe what a program session is. A program session represents each individual occurrence

111of a class, workshop, activity, or outing. A class meeting three times per week counts as three programs per session. So, as you can see, I run or we run over 100 sessions per month, 1,200 per year. Um, so relative volume is 2 and a half time four times the baseline. Portland delivers approximately um in many municipalities with similar population sizes um which is obviously an achievement. Next slide, please. And so membership growth um so July 2024 to February 25 we had 67 new members. July 25 to fe this February we had 155 which is a total of 88 new members which is a growth rate of 131%. I'm just going to go through it really quick. So if you have questions just interrupt me. Next slide. Okay, so this brings us to our transportation services.

112Um, so rides provided the same time frame, July 24 to February were 656 um of 25 and then July 25 to February 26, 7 um 58 rides. So average per week we do about 17 now. Uh last year when we were meeting about this it was about 12 to 14. And so we get two to three requests that we have to decline per week. Um so as you can see this is a 15 and a half growth in transportation demand year overyear. So with um the decline rides. >> Sarah, can I ask you a question before we go forward on that? Because I know >> last year we specifically put some additional dollars in right to try to help and the bottleneck was making sure you had time. Mhm. >> Is the bottleneck this year

113still driver hours or is it the timing of those where we would need another vehicle? Like what's the where's what's the bottleneck that's holding us up on some of those? >> Um they're really it's not time, it's not drivers. The drivers are willing to take on more hours. It's it's funding. >> No, no, that that's what I think that's what I was getting at. I didn't know if those if it was having more driver time. Would that work with the number of vehicles we have to try to answer more of those requests or are we getting to a point where we're pro where we're able to provide more hours and more rides, but we're going to we're on the border of whether or not we've got enough vehicles to do that. That's what I'm trying

114to get at. Um, you know, it is a good question, but I would say if I if you know, you're looking for an answer, I would say on the border because if we were able to do more rides, then we would need more vehicles. >> That's that's >> Yeah. >> And they have to be um ADA accessible as well. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Sorry to interrupt you. >> Oh, no, that's okay. Interrupt away because you know how I like to public speak. >> Okay. >> Very nice. >> Okay. So if we were to um you know increase the rides you know there there's always layers to everything as you guys know um that certainly would be reflective of more support staff that we need that you know um a lot of other senior centers

115have transportation coordinators which would be helpful too. Okay, next slide please. Okay, so this one is really interesting and it's really important for everybody to know this. So, registered voters in 2025 were 7,196. And that's just registered voters. Now, age 55 and up are 3,54. That makes 49%. So, that's a substantial amount. And um so nearly one in two voters in Portland is directly served by the senior center, making this a sing the single largest voting um uh in town. Okay, next slide. Um, so these are statewide demographics that you know I pulled up. So adults aed 60 and older represent the fastest growing population group across Connecticut, outpacing all other age cohorts in the rate of growth. And then by 2030, approximately one in four Connecticut residents will be aged 60 or older, dramatically

116reshaping demand for community service and public resources, increasing service demand. Um, so this demographic shift is accelerating demand for senior programming, transportation, aging and place resources, caregiver support, and social engagement opportunities statewide. Um, so the increased uh participation seen at the Portland Waverly Senior Center directly reflects this broader statewide trend and the trajectory is projected to continue to um just continue to grow and grow and grow as we see. Um, let's see. Oh, and I just I just um had another senior center um get back to me today. So, in Stamford, their population is 140,000 and ours and they do uh 260 programs per month and our population is 9,000 approximately 9,421 and I do over a 100 programs a month. So, >> very good. huge difference. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. And next slide, please.

117And this is just a visual for you. I mean, I don't think I really need to uh read it to you guys, but um you know, it's it's based on regional senior service leadership comparison. Okay. Does anybody have any questions? All right. And then um part of our needs, we we definitely need more support in the the office. So this is a comparison that you guys can look at later about um all different towns, different demographics, and how many employees they have. Um I was really impressed with East Lime in Ellington. They have 60 volunteers in East Lime in Ellington 65. We we have some volunteers but they're not consistent with um hours or a schedule. Sarah kind of random the slide because you're talking to the next slide. I >> Nick right >> there

118you go. >> Yep. Okay. So that's what I just talked about. I'm not going to do it again. Okay. Um, >> feel about public speaking. >> All right. So, um, the next slide, please. Under key observation. >> Great. Okay. Um, so as I mentioned with a population, it's approximate 9,421 port in Portland is among the smaller municipalities in comparison. Yet, it leads the region in annual program sessions by a significant margin. And again, it's uh 1,200 a year, 100 per month. So, um what this means is that the Waverly Senior Centers program output is significantly higher than many municipalities of comparable size. Um its service level is more consistent with towns serving populations of 15,000 to 30,000 residents, double or quadruple Portland's actual size. Yep. So, yeah, that's that. I don't have to read the

119whole thing. And um so next one is our summary page. Thank you. Um so what I didn't cover is um the transportation demand. I think I or actually I mentioned I touched on this 15.5% growth and then membership enrollment is 131%. So that and then I'm not going to read the last page for you guys. you have it. >> So, so let me ask you this. What What would be the highlight? What What's the biggest message you want this board and maybe people watching at home to know? >> Um, I guess it would say I would say to really look this over. This is hard data that determines that there is growth and it's going to continue to grow. Um, also with the anticipated of 200 to 355 and up with our staff that we

120have now, we we will not be able to provide service and do it well. And if you want to bring older adults in town, you have to have a a great senior center. And I do think that a lot of seniors in town, they pay taxes. and everybody like myself, you know, I'm concerned about the schools and where my tax dollars are going because that's the age I am and that's what's important to me right now. Um, obviously the seniors are too, but um, you know, it's really important to think of them and not overlook them, which I feel happens every day. I see it every day. I hear the comments, the stigma. So, >> what >> I think they >> What do you think that folks out there that have kids in the in

121the classrooms don't know about the senior center? Because you've said a couple things to me about um most people don't understand how much happens there, but what's the thing that they should know about? >> Uh we're building on our intergenerational programs like we work with the transition students. We're doing a lot of that. Um and it's a great opportunity for older adults and the kids to connect and and form that community bond. Short and sweet. >> It wasn't that bad, was it? >> It was horrible. It was really I'm not >> You did great. You did great. >> Sarah Sarah, can you repeat the cards? >> No. No. Can you please repeat that? >> Thank you very much. >> That That was spicy, Jill. I like that. >> All right. That was great. You did

122great. Um I see also our library directors here as well. I just asked her to say a few things. I know we've been talking for a while. coming up on 9:00. Uh we're drowning in numbers, but I think it'd be important to have you give us a quick overview on some things that we should know. >> Great job, Sarah. >> Hi, I'm Jen Billingsley, the library director. I actually Tom really covered all of my pieces of this. He hit all of the pieces where it increased. If people have questions for me, I'm happy to take them or we can go through the the places where there are increases, but Tom really kind of covered all of it. So, if you have other and and I'll be back next week for when the the other pieces

123of the discussion are happening because it is almost 9 p.m. and I want to be respectful of your time. I think my final comment about your budget is um all the department heads do a great job at putting it together, but you've got a lot of eyes on that budget and um I have not been concerned in the two huge number of years I've been doing this and looking at budgets uh in this position, but I feel comfortable with the budget you've put together, but if you could just maybe just give a couple highlights on maybe some changes this year versus last year or some things that you would like to get accomplished in this budget maybe that you didn't do last year. >> Yeah, absolutely. Um for us uh the biggest piece of this

124is the salary line uh because the biggest that's the biggest increase. Um and those are contracts that are currently being negotiated. So we gave a our best estimate. Um thank you again Tom for double-checking numbers uh as I cried into a spreadsheet. Um the the big piece for here the other the other bigger ticket piece for here is uh the service contracts line. A lot of that um Perfect Temp is great. are super super responsive, but when mechanicals break down, they break down bad. So that's that's a bigger piece of that for uh this. So just increasing that line to kind of keep up with what the costs have been over the ca past couple of years as opposed to being desperate and stressed when it's happening uh as reflected in that line. Um we

125have had a lot of staff uh a number of staff members retire. We're a small team, but we've had a number of staff members retire. And so we have younger and uh or newer to these position staff. Um so the professional the conferences meeting in D's line um in included in the libraries contract is a certain amount of professional development that they are uh supposed to be able to have access to. So we're sending three staff members to the state library conference. I'm actually not going this year. We're sending just all other staff members and they're very very excited. Um I think for two for two of the staff members have gone before but one hasn't in a very long time and one of them has never gone. This will be her first uh state

126library conference and her first library conference and so she's very excited. Um I'm trying to think of um our so library connection incorporated is our consortium. Um we are migrating systems. Uh currently this year we are migrating from one integrated library system to another library system. All of the libraries in our consortium are doing that. The bulk of that is being handled by library connection which is great because I would collapse on the floor. Um but the so the there's a small increase included in that piece of it because all of the different we're getting a much better uh circulation system. It's like that's where every single record of of uh everybody every human's record, every user that has a library card as well as every object that we circulate um is included in that.

127So, uh it's a big change for every single one of the library. It's like there's 39 of us, I think, in the system. So, it's a big it's a big shift um and for not a huge increase in that piece of that service contract or that um data processing line. So, um, yeah, electricity is in there. We're trying to keep that heating fuel because we had a brutally cold winter inside of there. Um, discs, videos, and digital media. I'm asking for a $600 increase just to keep up with use. We we have uh the most expensive thing that we have is our um is our ebooks and our e uh digital audio books. Um there is currently legislation that passed um last legislative session that but it's trigger language. It doesn't take effect until um

128I think it's three other states of a larger size than us pass similar enough reg uh legislation to kind of put some parameters around the costs of e- resources because we lease e- resources. We don't own them. So, when you purchase a book um in the library, oh, we just found an American Girl book that I think was 20 like that actual physical book was 20 years old and we were like, well, maybe we buy a replacement copy for Felicity. It's time. Um that American Girl has seen a lot. And but it's uh but when you buy an ebook or an e audio book of a similar title to that, you are uh often purchasing there's like it's a metered access. you only have it for 12 months and then you have to purchase it

129again. Um because there's no parameters or or guidelines on what publishers can charge libraries for that. And they say, well, if everybody has it at the library, they'll never buy a book again. Even though that actually is not true. Um but so there's some of that in the back end, but people really value e- resources. They go out really well here. Uh and so there there's a very slight um increase in that line to accommodate for use. Um uh and then newspapers. Are newspaper costs drastically increased? Um currently we have I said I'd be brief and here I am. So please feel free to cut me off if you'all need to go home. Um so we currently subscribe to the Hartford Current Middletown Press, the New York Times, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal.

130Um, and those get used uh in the library. If you walk around uh in different times of the day, you'll see people sitting and reading them in the library. I think it's important to have a print copy of your newspapers locally in your libraries connect uh collection, especially right now. Um, and but that those costs are really I mean I'm sure anybody that subscribes at home you see what the individual costs are and they charge libraries more because again the more you have in the libraries they're like oh no we're going to charge you more because you're a library. So um so that has really substantially increased and so we're trying to increase um that's what the request for that line it's really it's almost just to cover the cost of newspapers. If we don't

131get that increase, we'll probably have to cancel at least one of the subscriptions, if not more. So, any questions? >> Think I think it's a hard no. >> Thank you very much. That was perfect. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Appreciate that. >> So, I see a couple other departments that's out there, but I'm not going to ask them to go up. They don't want to. >> That's that's a lot of lot of headshake and nos. All right. >> So, listen, we are we're going to wind it down. um our next meeting. >> I just I have one question for Tom. >> Oh, please. >> Um actually, it's just something to find you to find out for me for next week. >> Uh one is the money from the senior center rides. Could you find

132out how much that was for last year or on average like what we collect from that >> money you money in the senior center goes to a different fund. >> Yeah. >> That uh that is utilized to purchase the new vehicles. >> Okay. >> So it doesn't go to the general fund. >> All right. I was just wondering roughly what we get a year from it. That's all. >> Yeah. I mean we can get you that. >> Um the other one is the category for the rental property income. >> Yeah. Could we get a breakdown of like how much is from the Corey, how much is from, you know, school gymnasiums? Not each thing, but I it'd be nice to see some of the bigger ones broken. >> Yeah. I mean, the maj the majority

133Okay. Yeah, I could. The majority of them is the is obviously brownstone exploration. >> And then the another the next biggest one is Oakill. The next biggest one, if applicable, would be the the the Sabbrook reading. And the next biggest one out of that probably would be the parking lease at the marijuana facility. >> Okay. >> And then there's a small one for Mercy Housing that pays a small rental of a space. And then everything else would be like gym or like if the play if they did a play and all that stuff. Yeah. >> So, um you know, I I can get you like last year's u the the Brownstone exploration, you know, if you want I can we can shoot you that an email or whatever if you want to see that. But

134>> yeah, I mean that's the >> what the big ones are that >> that's your biggest number. Yeah. >> The other ones are in the you know that's in the hund you know hundreds of thousands. The other ones are under 100,000. >> Okay. >> And then and then uh 50 you know what I mean? Then lower. Mhm. >> So I mean it's really brownstone oakill. >> Yep. >> This uh Sbrook reading if it comes to fruition marijuana parking. >> Okay. >> I that's I mean it's it there's no you know there are other ones. It's all it's all that stuff of the rental the thing that's coming in from us. It's coming in from park and rack on the the rental use of buildings and stuff like that. Is that Did I answer it enough

135or >> I I just wanted to see the what the big numbers are from each one. >> Okay. >> Um and with the back to the senior center besides what they paying, can you tell us what the balance is in that account towards buying a new vehicle roughly next week? Uh we we bought one recently. So I would assume it needs to like build up because that's your bus. So So we because you need you guys wanted that and you wanted a replacement vehicle and and there was I think it was I think there was some ARPA money involved. >> Some money there was ARPA money involved. We utilize that as the match. So that's kind of what we generally do is we utilize it as a match. So it's the match of your bus

136when so every periodically um Sarah would put together a grant to get a get a bus but I think we did an ARPA one in lie of that >> and then I think there was another ARPA funding. So I think there was an ARPA funding for the bus. We we I think we did ARPA funding from our ARPA aotment for a bus. Then we got a supplemental ARPA grant that helped us buy the Chrysler Pacifica. >> Those are all those matching components. Then the next in theory would be the next would be when she does the grant for uh the there's like a federal grant but the next u big bus would in theory be what you would be that's what you'd be in theory banking for. >> Yeah. >> In that um s has

137that number but I can get you that number as well. >> Okay. Thank you. Good questions. >> Yeah. I think I have one and I don't know if it's expressly would be Tom or um when we talk about you know like the the MTA we have the dialer ride and we have the bus service >> and the bus service we know is important for a lot of our folks to get around but the dialeride kind of got two services right now that we're working with. We've got the service that we're doing through the senior center which I think has given very personalized um timely service to our residents. The dialer ride I think has just benefits in terms of get gets people where they got to go, but there's times where they're now really waiting.

138You know, there's not we we're hearing stories, you know, two to four hours sometimes people are waiting to get a ride home. Um, if we backed off of the dialeride piece, how does that impact the other part of the contract for the bus? Because that's a critical service for some people to get to work. subsidize them too, >> right? Like can we can we dial back on the dialeride >> and enhance the services that we have that are performing better for our residents or is that going to have a negative impact on the bus service people other than seniors? >> It it does but we that's what we're talking about too. >> Yeah. >> But you get we're I mean this is Mike's budget but I'll attempt to speak on something here. >> Yeah. But

139>> top, >> you know, we're part, you know, we're a community, right? >> We're a community that has to support many different people. >> Yeah. >> The social service in the social service contract, which is Mike's budget, the dial ride and the other, those are components of the of the transit district. We are part of the transit district similar to like you're part of Chattam Health, similar to you're part of this other, you know, the the probate court. These guys kind of tell you this is what you pay, >> right? >> This is what you pay if you want to participate. Yeah. If you want to participate and you I'm pretty confident you want to participate. >> Definitely don't want to. >> Yeah. You know what I mean? You want to participate in those that's

140kind of what you're paying. It's a budgeted letter that comes out and it just says, you know, here is the amount that you're paying. You know what I mean? >> So, it's not it's not an allocation per service for us. We don't have it's basically either participate on both components or don't. But in in in fairness to to the question though what I have asked them to do is to try to give me as much data as I ca as they can on yeah how many rides are taken what's the demographic it does skew to a lot of people that are taking that to work and other things as well. So I've asked for that because I'm because I'm curious as well. >> Well my concern is the time that people are waiting you know

141we there's been there's some very long >> when they came in for the presentation they were very vague on every number they gave us. >> Yeah. >> Like how many how many rides do you do a month? I don't know, five to six00 like you have no idea how many rides you're giving to people in Portland >> that they are doing everything they expect people to go online service but you need to explore >> which is exactly what the because the riders I have are more more digitally aware, they're more technically savvy and they can figure that out. So, you're right, it's two different age groups, but they do have the data um because because they are using the cards and they are using those. So, they have so I've asked for that. When I

142get that, I will share that with the board. So, that can be part of the deliberations. We should have that for next week. >> That'll be helpful. >> Absolutely. It's a good question asked. >> And thank you, Tom. Good answers. >> So, any other questions while we're here? >> Yes. >> A couple minutes after nine. We've all spent our two hours. Are we good? All right. Next next meeting will be Tuesday at 7 o'clock open to the public. Um we'll talk about the rest of the budget and then the week uh and then the day after that next Wednesday we uh started the workshops. So exciting time >> that we're not doing. >> Oh um we'll do it on the next one. I think that's what I think. Yeah. I think people All right. So

143I need someone to make a motion. Bob, >> make a motion. We adjourn. >> I second. >> All right. Second. All those in favor. >> Opposed extension. Motion passes. Thank you everyone for coming