Board of Selectmen Budget Workshop 3/12/2025

001good evening Portland it's now 7 o'clock I'd like to call our meeting to order tonight uh we'll be doing our uh Department budget Workshop tonight I'd like to start with Dr Brittain if you could please come up here you're welcome don't do that tonight 11 114 13 we need a drum roll yeah we're get there just pulling up though right there so um hello everyone nice to see you again see so I presented this uh last night um we I'm not sure if there are you know as we as I answer questions or or where you'd like me to start from you know the way I kind of had set this presentation up was I wanted to give you a snapshot of a building by Building look and then some um object line items in

002terms of the percent increases um so why why don't we leave this up and then as questions come up I can you know refer to the relevant slide and and we can go from that so this is our your I guess this is your opportunity to ask me questions about what's contained in the budget any questions concerns or or additional information that you need would you rather have us ask questions as we go along or or ask them at the end um why don't we ask them right now I you kind of want to go around and start there and you know otherwise I would just feel like I would be groundhog I'd be kind of doing the same presentation with you I'm happy to do it that way too if you should we start

003I have question just a quick one that came up as I was going through your the material that were given to us by Mike and the uh concut um education cost sharing it's a item 00101 it's on I'm sorry it's on page five of our yeah our budget it's the only one I have is it is that this one the same no no it looks like it looks like this yeah it's not a hard one I it go you show uh this is for Revenue it's actual revenue for 2022 23 23 24 2425 it jumps up a lot in by almost say 200,000 from 4,775 to 4,996 and in previous years it doesn't change very much at all I know you mentioned education cost sharing and there was some change is it that much yeah

004got it go to the next yeah yeah so um one more here we're talking about yes so we are we are expecting a 221,000 okay that is said okay and that that is set we know we we know we're getting that the one we don't know about is this is the ECF cost sharing gr that's the big one we get from the state right that one we know and that one's increasing 221,000 to about 5 million just shy 5 million right yeah the one we don't know of course is the excess cost reimb that that is one that the legisl is still haggling over right um Stephanie what do we budget at 70% for next year 70% and again that's a you know keep our fingers crossed this year it came in at but we

005just got the supplementals what is it 67 a littleit little yeah okay thank you but that that number set we know that for sure that's what I was curious we're pretty confident with that number right now great thank you it should be higher though I think we would agree it would be it would be nice if we shifted some of the burden back towards the state level so it didn't fall so heavily on local share but we can control what we can control it um I had a question question on the coaches salaries what was the reason for the big increase yeah that's a good question so last year when we were going through the budget deliberations if you remember we took 40,000 out of the budget because we were going to explore pay to

006play right lots of school districts in the state charge students for the number of sports that that they play um it ranges I think in Wallingford we pay about $260 for each of my kids to participate in soccer and Lacrosse and things that they do um so we took money out during what was a very difficult budget season last year and went back to the policy committee and the Board of Education to explore the possibility of implementing pay for play the Board of Education decided that we didn't want to do it we felt like it would just be too much of a burden on our families and we covered that $40,000 from other places in the budget um so this year you that increase is larger because we're putting it back and we're not going

007to explore pay to play this year so there's not a giant jump in the amount either of coaches that we have or money that coaches get played but we're trying to fill that hole in from a cut that we made last year and decisions not to implement pay to playay or otherwise charge our families and students for their Athletics the athletic cord what because it's still up from two years ago yeah yeah it's still up come on up 7 yes in this current budget the um the stien for the athletic coordinator was budget in the curric extracurricular line but we felt it was better to move it into the coaching line because it better with that so it's just a move out of 11015 into 11 1014 so the small increas is the 1% Interest

008really 1% increase in the actual stiens then add in the 40,000 for the makeup for the pay for play and then the around 18,000 is for the athletic coordinator but that's pulled out of if you look on line 11015 we're down 22,000 that's that coming out of there and moving up so it's just kind of a net swap which was that under line you just the one below it the one below just an extra ccal yeah that's the negative 22 so take about 18 out of that that got moved up probably SI um the question on the certified salaries of the 4.92% I assume that that is all contractual increases uh there's there's a contractual increases and we're moving some positions out of grant funding into the Ala so there are some increases in terms

009of FTE whereas this year we're using uh we have a mental health Grant and a a school Improvement Grant both of those grants are sunsetting at the end of the year we had to move the positions out of Grants into the aliot it is covered by the fifth grade position we did make we did net some of those out with some reductions in other places but there's some changes that and the increase in um we're increasing a 04 for health and a point4 for par high schools based on those are part-time positions but we're seeing an increase in student demand and we're going to be able to offer some additional programs like advanced placement for our students which is your question um I think you spoke to this last night I just want to make

010sure I'm thinking correctly line 73015 techn uh 73014 technology Hardware has a astronomical percentage jump is that the Chromebooks that you were talking about last night and getting those on a cycle correct so um we've been uh uh purchasing Chromebooks in the past with some connectivity Grant funds that became available to us and and a lot of that was related to the federal Co relief money that's go gone away now you know all of the the the federal money and other grants that we had been using have have sunsetted so we're we need to start a Chromebook replacement cycle in we've worked with the town and Tom in the past and done some leasing we're just not we think we have a better plan the plan would be every student who rises from fourth to

011fifth grade and every student who rises from 8th to nth grade will get a new chrombook right so we're gonna this year we have it's a relatively smaller number because the fourth grade class is is one of our smallest classes there are 76 students in so we're going to purchase 76 Chromebooks for each Rising fifth grader and we have about 100 0 or so current eighth graders go into nth grade so that's about 200 Chromebooks we'll purchase we'll give each fifth grader and each ninth grade or a Chromebook the Chromebooks come with a four-year warranty so that same Chromebook will stay with the students fifth sixth seventh eighth grade and then they'll turn that into us and then they'll get a new one for 9th 10th 11th and 12th grade we'll collect those they go

012down to they go down to third and fourth grade so our third and fourth graders will have the older out of warranty models but eventually as we catch up with the cycle students in fifth through 12th grade we'll have the devices under warranty and we've also made a decision to discontinue onetoone device for prek K1 and two our thinking about that is they're too young developmentally for screens we want to limit their exposure to um devices until they start third gr should I assume that buying these Chrome books in bulk you get some kind of a cost benefit and if so what does the Chromebook cost just roughly I $200 plus the warranty warranty put around 230 you take you have to pay for the Chromebook itself and then theof 230 bucks they're going to

013repurpose the the cases we still fit so they're going to use the cases from one okay okay that's what I thought it was but I I was looking at the large percentage I just wanted to confirm that's what it was yeah and that's what it is because we haven't done this in the past so that's why you see that I think it's about a 26% jump in that object line that of course will level out now once it's there for for future years and then the number will change that we purchase each year based on how many students are in fourth grade and eth grade from chrome so the new book the new Chromebooks as you purchase them down the road will roll into the fifth graders yeah they third and fourth grade okay no

014but I'm saying when you buy a new one where does the new one start at fifth grade or at freshman both both I gotcha because it's a four-year warranty yeah so f six 7th eth we turn that in you get a new one okay I see where you're going okay yeah you're trying to get on a four-year replacement cycle right with and and replace 25 at a w that way we have flat a flatter budget item going forward and then cut well know it makes sense right but we we've always had that we've had the ability to get grants so we could we could buy them you know in bulk and that made sense as well so yeah and I think the cycle makes sense and thank you for the tech department that educated me

015about it but you know so what'll happen is next year if we do this next year half of our devices will be out of warranty but in three years from now if we stick with the cycle all of our devices from 5 to 12 will be under warranty but we'll never have devices under warranty at third and fourth grade which is okay because generally at third and fourth grade the devices don't travel with the students as much so they don't they're not damaged in the same way or the same regularity is the fifth through 12th graders well you know they're dropping them or bringing them back and forth home but if they're under warranty you can have them fixed without the ining that additional charge yeah once you get deeper into the cycle of doing

016this you'll you'll be creating a surplus anyway so if something fails you'll have plenty to replace them so what happens next year the next fifth grade class you got to buy like whatever 80 more yeah so for so we're going to purchase the 76 for every fourth grader izing to fifth grade right and I think it's 110 next for every eth grade going to nth grade okay so Fifth and ninth graders will be under warranty next year students in 6th 7th 8th and 10th 11th 12th some of them have devices that have one more year of warranty so about half of our Fleet will be out of warranty which you know it just means for us that for the next two years until the cycle catches up you know we're going to have some really

017one of our it technicians doing a lot of screen replacements and you know it's going to look like a workshop as we try to repair them as best we can otherwise if they're beyond repair will have a surplus of older devices they just won't be as nice so well wait a minut this is what I'm asking so the next grade coming up then we'll have to put in the same amount so the kids that are in third grade right now when they go to fourth grade next year while these guys are so we plan on doing this for four years it's going to be it's going to be every year yeah for the but for the next four years then everything is new and then it just keeps going right so going forward right going

018forward we'll basically have almost every budget cycle we have a basically a request for 25% of the Chromebooks yeah so every four years they will all be replaced buy 100% no no they're going to get on that cycle that's what they're talking about next year they'll buy 25% and they'll start at fifth grade and you know kids going into fifth going into ninth right and then when those kids go up a grade they take those with them and then the kids going into Fifth and nth again we'll get another get a new years once you've done that for four years they will all have gotten a new one in those cycles and then going forward will now be on a 25% replacement cycle yeah perfect yeah how how well have the have the computers done

019for you like what's been the impact on education and on the other side has the maintenance of them uh been a hassle has it been costly like to keep the program going like what what been both the upsides and downside I hate to put it on I see Caitlyn over there Caitlyn how often do you use your Chromebook all day every day right Kaylin's a senior this year and I would imagine since you're a freshman probably every single class you're using Google classroom and pretty much all of your homework is done on it they're they're essential at this point Charles let's repeat what she said because they won't pick it up yeah oh okay all day every day in all of your classes right d put you on the spot but thing and maintenance of

020them keeping them up and running well it's helpful have them under warranty because when they're under warranty if if Caitlin accidentally spills coffee on it or drops them what we do is we pack it up ship it off to the manufacturer and they either repair or send us a new one um when they're not under warranty we have to replace if it's a screen or keyboard or things but sometimes if they're broken to the point that they're beyond repair you know if you spill your coffee on it and don't get it in rice quick enough it might end up being discarded so that's why it's essential that they're under warranty that helps us you keep the inventory um special ed and other costs that are unknowns um what what's the way that you're handling how

021are you looking at it what's what's the approach right now because it is such a question mark every year right it is so you know one of the stressors we have and we don't do this we every year our our student Support Services director will ask for us to put a ghost out placement in like you know we are budgeting for just the number of out placements we anticipate what would be a wise thing for us to do would be put you know maybe two placeholders in there for unanticipated expenses as a reminder we last year what got us into the deficit were new students who arrived in Portland that we didn't expect to arrive in out placements in other districts and and the way the laws are set up is that when the student

022becomes a resident of Portland and we become the Nexus we assume responsibility for that student's individualized program even if it's an outplacement right um so you know what might be smart would be for us to put a placeholder there to to build a hedge against that um of course some years of Works in our to our advantage too students might move out of town or age out of programs but what you see in the the budget that we brought for you is just what we have now and can anticipate and and we'll see if we get new students if we do you know those are days that Stephanie Sarah and I are having conversations about where we need to shuffle funds to to cover these expenses um but right now though budget contains 22 outplay

023students which are what we have now um and our fingers are cross one one question that jumped off as looking at page 11 um medical insurance um surprisingly that number was is you know basically down which I haven't seen the last you know you don't us see a negative I assume that's Personnel you know people versus I know the cost is up a little bit are all those numbers um in terms as we look at potential risks right in the coming year is that number firmed up that you know are we under contract with that or is there any risk of that number changing or going up sign we signed so yeah so we we are we we're going to have a new vendor next year we we went out to bid um I'm not

024sure if you Shar this or you want me to please do okay so our current vendor uh came in with a pretty high increase and the the insurance companies determine their increases based on usage like what our what our risk pool is and you know we our risk pool has been challenged over the past few years and our our current vendor came back I think at like 15.9 or so it was a a significant increase enough that our broker our our consultant recommended that we go out to bid which we did we open the bids um we are we've chosen the lowest bidder which is a 99.9% increase now I think that what you're seeing though is hey if we're getting a 99.9% increase on our health insurance how come we're only asking for 1.7%

025more overall right and that's a function of the census how many people are taking Insurance what we've done is we've hired a lot of young teachers who are under 26 and a lot of um young teachers who are under 26 will stay on their parents plans so what's interesting is we don't have as many of our teachers taking insurance year overy year which is why the numberers down now what happens is those teachers get older and when they can no longer be on their parents plans after 26 they'll come on ours so we expect that that number is going to go up in the future but this year we surveyed all of our faculty to ask people are you planning to jump on our insurance next year and if you're planning to jump on are

026you planning to take a onep person two person or family plan or if you're currently taking a one person or two person plan if had a child would you be taking a family plan which could increase those numbers so that number is unpredictable I mean that's based off of who we have right now people resign throughout the end of the years over the summer that's what happened this year you have a $200,000 Savings in that wine item right now because of who left over the summer and who higher which is how we can get so low right now but who knows it could be the complete opposite um next summer or it could be the same the unknown yeah we're just budgeting for what we anticipate based on on our Sur so that's no yeah

027I just I saw that and that's that's obviously in in an otherwise challenging year that's a helpful number I just wasn't sure what the risk level was but it sounds like that's pretty pretty certain right now at least as much as we can be same thing with do BU more an anticipation you know but if nobody leaves then we're showing more and that hasn't great thank you yeah I think that what's it's really I'm glad you point that out because there's certain risks in the budget and certain assumptions we're making we're trying to make those assumptions with the best evidence and information that we have which is why we did surveys and reached out to people um but sometimes the wind fill your sales and sometimes they uh they blow against us um you are

028we're going to hope that um our information is accurate but some of these are educated guests last last evening you spoke about the purchase of a van and I mean I'm the liazon to the board of EDS so I've heard you with this conversation and I think it makes perfect sense but would you be able to just give the group a just a synopsis of the purchase of that van and why so um uh the director of student services um sat with her administrative assistant and they looked at all the out placements all the in town um runs to try and figure out if we is it even worth us getting a third van because if we if we can't make it work there's no point in purchasing it um so with where people are

029placed now they were able to say that we can take three outplacement runs I don't want to say away from MJ but bring it back in house um and then they could help out to with some IND District runs and it's been fantastic with what we've had um you know as long as we can find a driver um we should be good savings with that and I believe we budgeted as if we were getting it so that is shown within um within the line items in student services that it is going to increase the um Administrative Assistant line 0.5 and but it all ends up being a net but it's I would assume in the next few years actually gonna be it's gonna pay for itself plus some after this year the first two the

030first van we had it pays for itself now now the second one it'll pay for itself and now with the third one probably in the next one to two years as long as you know the location of where those students are going stays where they are um um it's it was a no-brainer to do it and I know everybody always asks about transportation and how can we make it better and and not cheaper but easier um and that just seemed and I know we tried to get away from it a couple a few years ago but it made more sense now in doing it the van way than the Mini Bus way and I know there was so much to present last night we just kind of blasted over that but I just I thought

031it was important that everybody understand the reasoning behind them yeah it's a onee payback essentially really the investment at the end of this year it it will we will see much more sa just like we're seeing really good savings with the Vans now and as I recall from the Board of Education conversations with this when you're taking these children to their out placements they may be all over the place and having another van that where we can kind of control the where the van is going and work the schedules it it just seems to Sav money all around one L spend $42,000 I mean we're saving three Yeah by buying the van so okay are these new Vans yeah price pafic because you probably see them driving around town they have Portland bardette on the

032side of them and I got to tell you that the drivers are fabulous um we use one for our transition program one for our out placements and then this one there will be a second one for placements um they've been great you know and kudos to Sarah and Olivia for managing them re hired some really high quality band drivers we actually sharing one here with the senior center it's it's working out really well very very so give me an example of like a typical day how many outplaced students do you have to cart you know move and um how far are you going with them yeah we have 22 outplay students um some are going to Wallingford some are going to West Hartford so we're going down to Lime old Li so we're going to

033East Hampton Madison it it depends on the facility that we're sending them to which aligns with their the nature of then you have to go pick them up y I'm there about it's about two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon and then if there's any midday runs if you know uh some students are on early dismissal late going in or if there's sometimes they'll do um field trips for the kids so you know we try to keep them busy our full-time one we have one full-time and then two per DM so the full-time one um she do 5 75 hours a day two in the morning two in the afternoon and then we fill in in the middle and then for our transition program you're likely seeing our transition students at

034the senior center or all over town as we're helping them develop um skills these are postgraduate 18 to 20 kids how many do you how many can you put in the van for a trip I mean to a passenger a passenger and even they'll they'll put some cars seats in it too if they need to do a couple little prek runs need it work how many are in the postgraduate six one's graduating but I think there might be other yeah for for this year for we bu I there's six now okay aging out and we have one at least one coming up okay that's another one that we have to keep that threshold there to make it worthwhile like as supposed to be in the out placements we're seeing in that transition part in the

035future some ability to grow and bring in students from other towns so we might we might be seeing profit from that from our current um teacher in that program and so I have some I think brilliant ideas for how we're going to goow that program in the future and start bringing in some TSH hopefully not not for next year but down the road for hopefully um can you tell me what non-certified salaries are example and why that had a eight and a half percent increase so the non-certified salaries are um our par professionals our Administrative Assistant they're the van driver so we had to add three van drivers into there um all the increases um it's it's some non sort of um uh non-union Board of Ed members in central office so Jen and Trisha

036um the security guard the security guard the custodians are in there but that jump is because of the three van drivers that we had to add and oh the PA professionals so every year we budget for say 55 pair professionals but then they have to go to the board because students come in that need one to one peras so we throughout the year we have to add them in and then at the end of year ends we try to roll it in into the next year so right now we have 61 peras so that budget we cut for so I believe our budget last year only had 55 Paras so it's the additional Paras that were needed minus the four that we left so it's the additional Paras the van drivers and then just all

037the contractual increases really so that's everyone that's not a teacher pretty much basically or an administrator are they mostly full-time employees paying them benefits um van drivers are pum um a couple secretary one of the secretaries is part-time um but most mostly full they come under insurance and all the benefits well let's say the the yes um the bargaining unit employees do and do I don't think the full time off of done okay it's basically what 30 hours 30 hours of dep any more questions just one and it just jumped at me I was looking at the non-certified lines um line item 12022 substitute salaries I noticed that it's it's lower than it was two years ago and last year we didn't have anything in there can you explain that yeah you so this is

038the the substitute teacher in charge that's the the $1600 we're seeing a small amount that these are our substitute teachers but what we started doing last year is well yes last year um when our principles are out we we haven't there aren't substitutes for principles so what what's happened in the past is when a principal is absent often I will cover the building um Sarah will cover the building or Eric Martin formerly would cover the building because we're not comfortable without an administrator present to help manage any potential emergencies or that type of things we did have some situations where we need multiple coverages because principles were at conferences or other things so we came with a um I thought it was a pretty creative idea that some of our teachers who want to become

039administrators and have their administrator certification were're able to compensate them if they cover the building in those situations where we need to because either I Sarah or um in this case Eric so this is like a statement on this it's a small amount per DM that they would be paid they if they helped us manage the building for the day in the absence of a inter but if they do it and that's why I went lower this because so if you see the actual there was no budget in 2324 because it just started last year right I looked at the history from this year it hasn't been used as much there's some principles that have now left to with a lot of the ones that were out um so I kind of cut in half

040and that's that's just me kind of putting it out there and you know I like to cover everything that we spend money on um so thank you for that because I I I didn't even know how that we did that that makes perfect sense yeah and for the most part you know I actually enjoy it I'm mostly able to cover the buildings or Sarah won't take anymore I'll just do it because I enjoy it and want to see the kids and actually miss being principal after days but there are times when I can't and and we still need someone to be responsible fire happens or we need lock down otherwise have a disregulated students um workbooks what seems like that's gone up successively the last three years but a bit it's the new the new

041program so we got a grant to cover a good portion of it um but we have to fulfill the rest of the purchases so that's why the workbooks so it's for Tracy and Ryan's into reading so we had to Shi um for another state law from um an old reading program that was based in what was called Teachers College to a new reading program and that new reading program is called inter reading and actually this is the SEC we piloted it last year this is the first year of it the state gave all the districts a um partial Grant to help fund the transition uh which we used as part of the pilot and and now we need to you know from the workbooks that the kids use as part of their literacy and is

042that these workbooks are they for the elementary kids or K3 K it's a K3 problem and they're consum they work with kids right in and and oh okay so yeah it's one and done right so this will be going forward now are okay and while I have the floor um this tuition private sources 563 is that's the 22 that's the stent the that's 22 kids that are y okay and we budget net of excess cost so you know that's that's taking out what we're anticipating hopefully that could getting you know so that go up or down yeah yeah yeah this year was We were we were stressed about a month ago when we got the excess cost we budgeted 70 and it came in at 62 um I think that Harford heard a lot of

043us very clearly say we were disappointed with that because we were promising our tier the 70 but last week the the legislature pass the supplemental which gets us back to what we budgeted which is why we're in a much better mood now than we were three weeks ago and the same thing happened to us last year um so that's a number we watch very closely um and you know for us it's about predictability we we've said to our legislators you know we would like you to P onund it but more importantly what you promis us and that we put in our budget it doesn't help if in the middle of January we change R um so we just need we need predictability out of that and I think I included I'm not sure if you

044saw a letter that the board of AD signed and sent to um representative Carino and sening needleman asking for that level of stability and fullly funding with that excess cost gr because again that's that's one of those headwinds or Tailwinds depending on how much you received in that reimbursement and how many students exceed the threshold from which we get the okay thank you um question on on special ed uh budget and and handling that I know over the years since my time on board of it maybe 13 14 years ago uh we saw a need to do more in-house programs and that's developed wonderfully over the last 10 years or so um and I know it saved the town a lot of money um would the next step logically be if we can maybe bring

045some of those services in house over the next three to five years and then maybe make it a Nexus of services provided not only for our students but maybe students in this area is that something or discussion you've had and would that be something um that would have an impact on the budget in a positive way what's your thoughts on that yeah it's a really really good question um all of our schools have specialized programs now we have the ABA Lab at Valley View Li program at Gildersleeve um bridge program at Brownstone um and harbor program high school middle school as well as our life skills programs that's something that Sarah is always watching very carefully it's harder for us because we're so small right in in some cases is it gets to the point

046where depending on the need of the student if you have one or two students with that particular need that would require specialized programming it might make sense to outplay them but as soon as you get to three students with that then it might make sense to hire the teacher and clinician to bring it in house so um you know and of course every year that changes based on the age of the students and who whether people are moving in and out of school so the answer is yes when it makes sense but sometimes it does make sense to out place because you if you bring the program in house you have to hire The Faculty staff in house otherwise if you send them out you don't need to hire that staff but both Dawn and

047Sarah were brilliant at that watching that that those numbers closely um and when it makes sense to build the programs inhouse we do because that's a potential savings from out placement but it doesn't always work out and of course once you build that the program in house then certainly you could potentially tuition students in but that's also something that you know takes a lot of work in coordination with other towns we are moving towards that with our transition program but not at this point with any of our our other specialized thank you right some great questions today any others good is Mike Hernandez online any questions I might take okay yeah I'm online uh no no questions at this time oh no questions okay good good all right uh fur the questions uh thank you

048very much I appreciate both thank you thank you next up our fearless Director of Finance Tom Robinson welcome Tom going to start on page 19 that is Department one the board of selectman this uh budget is made up of the board of selectman's budget we increase the program Services um as a cost of running the meetings um continues to rise page 21 first selectman first selectman budget is made up of two full-time employees um other than that there were no changes can you repeat that Tom the first selectman budget yeah as two full-time employees there was no other changes okay sh okay uh page 23 ethics commission increased it by about $25 been increases in the PO Box costs p 245 probate there was a decrease this year in probate last year the probate allotment

049had a fire resistant cabinet purchase that they did and they didn't need to make that was a one-time purchase therefore it dropped slight decrease here in elections we continue to work through the early voting um you know decision within the state uh so you'll see some additional monies there for the part-time uh employees uh which are really the registrars and that's their time we also have election worker stiens for the election workers that that also have to participate in the deputies um and then we also are getting some new machines at some point so we expect an increase in the maintenance cost there uh as well and uh seems like election supplies continue to rise it's about a global 4.61% decrease it's not a presidential Year Mike is can I ask you a question I'm

050just curious Tom um line 147 that the lecture worker stiens actually decreased from last year my my gut tells me that with early voting now that maybe you don't need as many folks at the polls on Election Day can you explain why that drop of about eight grand for the stiens it's not a presidential election right so that would be the difference Tom do you know roughly how close we were to that 39,000 last year I don't have that information with me today okay but I'll try to get that for the uh deliberations do we Tom is early voting like for these municipal elections coming up we have to have early voting yes it appears a 14 days of early voting yeah the other thing too is we had we had you know um primary

051uh US senator last year so with a municipal year you know we wouldn't have likely not going to have a primary not going to have early voting for primary uh but the 14 days of early voting is for any general election at this point there's um there's talk up in the state of adjusting that for a municipal year but nothing's been said thanks for the reduction I just want to ask a question thanks M any and as we work through this I me these are you know more or less estimated guesses on these numbers on that line so we just thought due to the not being a presidential who would drop someone thanks uh finance department has the uh four uh full-time employees and a part-time benefits coordinator um the one of the line items

052that we have see an increase here is the rental use of building so um when the schools are utilized um the people the uh people get built out and that Revenue comes into to lease or rental Revenue um so the custodian that work those um jobs that are not related to park and wreck then they get charged to me my budget here so there's a revenue line item in that there's an expense line there's been more use of the schools and uh obviously contractual costs we haven't raised that um line too much but uh um we are definitely seeing a struggle in this fiscal year and then you know we're hedging the B there of educated guest at the number uh service contracts are made up of Ino priz ADP D value and um any

053other contracts that will arise during the year and that um data processing uh going up 500 that's uh the ECA reporting continues to rise each year uh that we have to do that the contracted service for that uh goes up to so that's the finance budget cleor of Revenue collector of Revenue is made up of the full-time collector uh the Water and Sewer cler is split between water and sewer but also helps in this but they don't get charged to this budget um this budget is made up of the The Collector and then the service contracts that uh more or less run the tax uh system um and then there's conference meetings dued for the education for both uh parties I believe the U Deputy is or the is uh trying to pursue getting a

054uh getting certification tax collector status um so she's working through that process that would be a charge to this budget page 33 is the assessor the assessor has two uh full-time uh positions a full-time assessor and a full-time assessor Administrative Assistant um they also have service contracts that run multiple uh different softwares with within the department also pay for various um in theory books but software systems that uh you know allow to help uh pricing guides and and things of that that he needs to to do his work uh then the conference means and dues as related to conference me dues for the assessor as well as the um if the um Board of assessment appeals goes any any training or if assessment appeals is up this year as it a reevaluation here uh Town

055Council uh Town Council is up slightly throughout here uh on the labor pension almost all of the contracts are up for negotiation um in fiscal 26 um we're going to try to do it within that number also pension matters are in that number as well that are not allowed the ones that are not allowed to get charged to the actual DB plans um the other increas is in general Council just a slight increase of 500 and then Planning and Development matters we've seen in the past few years this year 24 and and 25 continued increases in Planning Development matters we're seeing positives on the revenues but we're also seeing some of these uh cases that require uh expenditures there so that's why you're seeing the increase in that line right Tax Matters 39 Tax Matters

056Tax Matters are you know somewhat few and far between um it would be like if we had to do a foreclosure if there was a year where we do a foreclosure what we we do an alternative is we do tax sales generally um but um you know there can be some type of bankruptcy matters that will go into there so times when anytime there's bankruptcy matters we have to speak to the attorney about that but um that's the you know it's U if you if if a if a matter arises it would require that that's why the funds are there because you have to have the if there if the if the matter does arise It generally is uh vergent Andor can be costly quickly okay there there special um uh attorneys that we would

057use for some of those Tax Matters why did didn't we have any expenses and tax matters in previous years we had expenditures in previous years in the past two we've had we've haven't had any because we ran a tax sale so the tax sale would be run the expenditures would go to the people that need to pay the taxes so we didn't run a foreclosure we didn't run a strict forclosure if we run a strict foreclosure we have to pay the the attorne if we run a tax sale the actual people that haven't paid their taxes to get their money and or the buyer of the property I think we only had one property that sold all the other ones the people paid they would be required to pay all of his fees as well

058as you know any any other Associated fees with that uh tax sale okay so that's that's why they're um I guess thankfully there hasn't been too many bankruptcy charges as well in the past two years years all right the uh um Town clerks page 39 this is made up of two employees um the main issue here in the increases the index in recording um the current software um is uh they they no longer going to support that software and they're going to require us to change out of that um and the newer uh companies that are providing the service um are just are more expensive with a quality um software so uh the town clerk is going to uh we're going out to bid on those services and uh but the there is an expectation

059of uh an increased cost with a change in contract how many full-timers in that office two two Central service is a is a department that we purchase things for other U departments um so this your Postage and your advertising main things that are incre there postage continues to rise so we just increased it slightly um and then advertising more or less you to Advertiser than the current sometimes Middletown Press on uh bigger items um and those uh Publications continue to um you know be more expensive to advertise in so we use those to meet our our requirements and then there's also printing cost of multiple printing things that we would need either envelopes or or documents that or forms slight increase in that page uh 43 technology budget um we are back to being uh

060fully staffed in this uh Department which is great we have the director and the uh the assistant uh assistant director um as well as a part-timer um so that's a good thing I've been some transition in the past couple years with retirement and a couple other employee departs U so that's good news um the biggest items here are uh licensing software um there was some arpa funds that we utiliz to install new uh or are installing new types of softwares um many of them in the land use sector uh and they're required software service contracts um are are in this budget at 7600 for laser fish yearly 18,000 for the pering licensing software 3500 for the time Bond license for GI s uh 540 for Adobe licenses and there's quite a few other licenses that

061that are there many of the licenses are uh becoming subscription based um so those are uh the list of items that will uh be in uh that that are required to uh help run and operate the various software systems in the in the town so that's that's your big dump hit in that some of these you might not see in the when we look at the expense in 20 uh five yet uh because there are still an implementation um but we had budgeted I think 9,000 assuming this permitting and uh there's going to be that was when the bids came in it came out to an $188,000 uh annual fee there so just that that's that's one of the significant jumps in that in that budget otherwise the budget is U other than the salary

062it's remaining pretty pretty uh consistent the overtime uh has dropped has been some change in personnel and and different uh you know attempts and trying to limit overtime page 45 is the fire department um the uh one of the things is in this budget we put back the assistant chief and the captain of training uh I think that might have been removed whether um maybe it should or should not have been in 25 so we have that back in there in 26 uh budgeted positions so if they are needed to be filled the fire uh Department can f you know fill those and have funding um there is u in 3,000 uh 30,000 training there's a $2,000 increase I've been told by the U chief that there's additional training for his for for the team

063um the new new requirements the training is is also relatively costly uh we did increase the service contracts service contracts are throughout all the firehouses as well as some of the communication contracts you got HVAC and then also Communications and various other uh we did jump at a thousand hopefully it will hold there um that's a or be enough um that's a that's a tricky one to uh hit um and uh some of the state contracts have changed too so um it'll be interesting to see if um you know that'll be enough for not when we get there but we're going with that number now licensing software there have been some adjustment in the software so that should be the software cost of the of the new the newer software that's been in installed or

064being installed uh in this year in the um in the maintenance of that and the really is no major other adjustments in this this contract this department uh page uh 47 is the Fire Marshals the biggest adjustment here is they um they had put uh made a fire inspector a volunteer position this year um Chief sh Pro passed the uh fire inspector uh job there and uh now he is going to be added in as a fire inspector here in town so that should help the burden on the fire Marshall's office to address U various matters of mandates and uh projected uh scheduled projects that are going to break ground in the near future so that would be more or less it was just the increase of about 3% of salary and then some time

065for that position four hours per week $25 an hour page 49 is the emergency dispatch um the the big jump here is the contract with a dispatch that's been hitting you know going up yearly since we signed that um the cycle uh we have Valley Shores in this with the dispatch Johnson security controls for all um monitoring of all buildings in the town including schools and um we always have monitored the uh the Cory I the uh Cory I think it's one of the housing districts sorry I don't that remember that name on top of my head um and then we have the U Encore um is for the public works Highway garage and then the associated uh security is the Fire Company 2 monitoring so that's uh the monitoring cost for that and the

066increase in the Middletown dispatch contract that contract goes through 27 page uh 51 so 5251 has a full has all 13 uh officers uh in positions in there the there's a pending 13 officer um getting approved I think or possibly starting your future um so that was uh brought in at a higher level than initially budgeted did uh is uh so that uh that part of play a little bit in the differential and the increase in the uh salary line item and um so that'll be uh fully uh staffed at the 13 officers um the the Ser service contracts um does include some of the um camera um activity that needs to be in there for the uh traffic cameras but we needed additional funding for that so that although the expenses may not look

067um to be there but there's there's some monies in there for U the storage and and the wireless connections that are required uh for that licensing software is multiple different licenses that the police department uh needs to uh for their operations as well as their accreditation um there's a drop in the exam Services because um the the uh people have been hired but examination continues as there's um different report uh reporting requirements for uh like mental evaluations and things of that that continue although um exams are uh uh for the uh Academy should be hopefully uh hopefully I don't have to spend too too much there that's uh that's really the increas is that employee page 53 is Emergency Management um Reales the EOC coordinator um there really not much of a change here uh

068building department has a full-time building official and a halftime it's a full-time clerk but it's shared between them and the the planning and zoning department um we did not budget um any um Fillin uh position time I know this year we have a need for some Fillin uh time as the Director has been out um a little bit so but we did not budget that if that's something that you you know want to consider during deliberations to fund um but we we we went with the full-time position and the uh and the salaries of of those individuals that's the only change in that budget so now we've hit the public works so we're going to skip forward to uh 73 this is the planning department so this is the other U part of that other

069administrative assistant and then as well as the town planner um that is the increase in that budget was associated with the town planner page 75 uh so the zoning enforcement it's been uh we did hire a Zone enforcement officer in August 24 which is great um person's been working well with the team um reason for the increase in that L itm was during the hiring process here I think all increased the uh Board of theate the rate after the budget was passed so now that that rate that you guys all pass is you know into this budget um this zoning enforcement person is that a fulltime or parttime 20 hours 20 hours uh Planning and Zoning uh 42 there the the change in this is uh for the uh lcog the river the uh what's

070the name of that Mike lower Connecticut River Council I think it's called Council of government yeah Council of govern yeah okay call so uh I guess every five years there's a natural Hazard mitigation plan required um in the past sometimes we got hit with it after the fact this time they wanted to know that you had it budgeted so in the past sometimes we reduce contingency so in this year that's what there's a$ 5,380 amount that needs to be paid that they've telling us it's going to be um buil out in July or August for this uh fiveyear natural Hazard mitigation plan page 79 is the zoning board of appeals uh there's no change to this budget page 81 is the Inland Wetland coordinator the increase in this is in enforcement uh and this is

071just a a bump in time as it seems like it continues to go over budget with the number of hours that are required for Inland Wetland commissions it may or may not be uh for the enforcement officer it may not be enough but I mean it's uh you know we're trying to get that increased in just the number of uh sheer hours that are doing and that's not not with a change in the rate of the contractor it's just hours that the contractor is um um putting in page 883 is a Conservation Commission there's no change page 85 is the economic development Comm commission um slight change that requested a $500 increase in their marketing budget uh page 87 Capital commission there's no change uh page 51 the health department uh it's $136,000 this is

072on page 89 I said that 136,00 that increases it's a P99 Contin again it's a per capita increase uh that Cham health district well provides to us and we pay down with their services these 91 is more or less default page 93 um increases here related to the dial ride and the rural Transit District the budget letter comes in from the estu Estuary Transit District so we made um more or less the uh increases that they're selling us that we have to do to you know be part of that and then um on line 87006 um that's not right yeah that right 876 uh connection emergency shelter um they uh more or less they are the people that are connected with the Eddy shelter that's in Middle sex it's I guess it's the only homeless

073shelter that provides service in middlex County to single adult and men and women the 24 hours a day 365 um so they ask for an additional uh $300 ag95 Senior Center budget Senior Center budget has uh two full-time employees a full-time director and the administrative assistant um they also have a part-time clerk um to help uh cover You Know cover the area um and then uh the um their requesting an increase in the instructor fees they want to have more some additional classes uh hopefully they can generate generate additional revenues with that as well we did increase the electricity there seems to be more electricity usage since the U kitchen renovation project took place and there was also some additional like air filter U equipment put in um so it seems like some of that

074commercial equipment is just generating more uh usage as well as the rates of of electricity have gone up that is the uh increase in that budget uh Municipal agent the elderly uh they asked for a $2,000 in or the slman uh first slman put a $2,000 increase I believe there was a higher ask but we uh put a $2,000 increase this is for Dand driver statement uh Portland Library directors here did you want to goe have a little break come on give great I'm happy to give Tom a break to catch his breath this is the marathon um so for us the the biggest so in addition to the increase uh for electricity I think we're all kind of seeing that increase um personally as well as the city the town buildings um what I

075am requesting is a part-time an additional part-time staff person for the library so what do you currently have for full and parttime great question I have seven full-time staff and I have four part-time staff and so I was trying to since I'm so new to you all um I was looking at in 2016 there were six full-time staff and seven part-time staff and then 2005 there were six full-time staff and nine part-time staff so between 2005 and now I'm not missing but there's there's a reduction of Staff hours of 48.5 staff hours that I no longer that the library has been off operating without so per week or per month a week a week um and I know that there was a reduction in maybe open hours after that between between at some point between

0762005 and 2016 there was a reduction in hours and we're kind of not I I would I'm really hoping that we're not on the cusp of needing something like that again because we're all working um the the biggest impact I'd say is uh evening and weekend coverage for us our uh Union this the library staff's Union contract has done does three things that I'm going to kind of identify in there um they have bargained to work one in three weekends like that's the maximum rotation that they would be expected to work for you know balance of quality of life and trading off on that um but as soon as you have a staff absence or a program they're they're able to volunteer to work more and they do um but we're we're reaching a point

077where if we have um there's there's just no there's no give on any on any piece of that which is my concern um and if the the Char one of the charges that I've received is to apply for grants for to support programming but if I if I'm your only exempt person I can't be in two places at once so if I if I had had to meet Miss the voices of Portland event they would have carried on but I feel like it would have definitely like we when we agreed to help the the Historical Society apply for that as a partner part of what we put up for in kind Services was part of like a a little tiny slice of my salary which they have really they've really gotten their money's worth out

078of me on that one but um but if part of that is being present for that event they needed me on hand to be there that day and if we had had if we had had a if we had had somebody come down with covid or the flu or an emergency like there's no there's no cushion um and I would have been not able to fulfill my requirements that I agreed to for this grant so I I'm that makes me very nervous when I'm looking at applying for other grants so because I'm happy to do it um happy is a strong word I'm very it's a reasonable expectation for me to do it um but if if what you're putting up is the staff hours we need to have those staff hours to put up

079for it um I'd say that and the other thing I know it's a big scary percentage for mine but also last year there was a um a0 65% decrease because I'm slightly less expensive um you have you have a younger newer staff you've had some staff retirements and so you have you have people coming in at the bottom or closer to the bottom of the pay scale so it's kind of resettling from that um as well as in fiscal year 22 there was only 0.94% increase so I feel like we're some like some of that big number is just kind of balancing itself out but it is it is also a genuine request as a 15-hour librarian level staff person I think I have okay any any questions about that piece of it so yeah

080I do so the part-time the additional part- timer is the reason for the jump from 107 500 to 137500 yeah that and contractual increases they there's um you have newer staff members so they're getting their step increases as well as their Cola increases so like there it's a it's a little bit of both um and Tom double check checked my numbers on that which the part timer is how many hours right now I have four part- timers is working 82.5 hours a week okay and the the new one you want for how many hours 15 hours per I mean as many as you're willing to give me but 15 hours is what we figured was a a reasonable ask we also want to get somebody who like we we want someone 15 hours seemed like

081it was a reasonable like it's a master's level degree position and um it seemed like I looked at the the Connecticut library concern uh the and the the like the Statewide job posting board for librarians and so I I paid attention to what we were offering Sal we we would potentially offer salary-wise versus how many hours and I did some that seemed like it was a sweet spot where we'd get a lot of qualified candidates and I'd love to be choosy if I can be choosy so while I have you then on the regular payroll yes it's up 18 and 27 like yeah that's again that's again because of Step those steep increases and um and the the like the contract contractual ones okay that's pretty big from from previous years but in 2023 it

082was actually about the same point that's that that dip in that yeah what happened there when it went down the retire yeah you you're you had a bunch of you had a bunch of people you had Jan retired and I stepped in and I'm I'm a bargain so we're just getting back to where we were three years ago right closer yeah all right any any questions any yeah please just a question on that you you mentioned the contract changed we're workers now one every three weekends but they could volunteer does that include a sweetener if they volunteer like like so right now they it's right now it's they're just the sweetener is they're willing to do it because of the service part of it the the other piece of it is I think over over

083December when we really had we had like an Abrupt we had somebody out for medical leave and we really didn't want to close the library especially when kids were out on break and parents were like please please have your doors be open um so there there was but the staff came in and worked like a single overtime hour in rotation if we needed if I wasn't available essentally they went into over time yes and they and they were kind that that was kind of the but it was they were willing to do it for just a single hour but they but it's in the middle of their Saturdays so that was kind of the the balance the balance that we struck when we made the request to um uh at that point select M curly

084so thank you yeah um any any online questions since you have me they it's it no cool right thank you very much thank you you thank you all right so the next budget is the employee benefits budget um as uh they talked about uh the medical uh Chang before about a 9.9% increase on the uh medical um coverage we did have a change in we're having a change in carrier so we're working uh toward that plus it's just a change within the um the population we had some um know different uh different people take different uh coverage um we are having um in the DB plan the uh the town uh Pension Plan um there increase was an increase in the DB contribution uh about 26 is uh change in Personnel um and the required

085uh contribution uh goes up as um you know the time goes on here as the that one dwindles the contribution will probably tend to rise for a period of time um the um on the police pension um the required contribution had an increase to 346 560 um this year from uh last year of 253 800 it's about 92,000 increase and that was uh partially based upon the U increase of retirees uh into pay status so I think we had three people going to pay status um the volunteer fire plan uh decrease some of that was due to good investment returns and some was due to change in membership [Music] um the collective bargaining uh that one's uh we Dro that this year because it's a non OPB Val year so every two years there's a

086OPB valuation that's required uh fiscal 25 was the valuation year and 26 uh it is now but there's still continued um opep disclosures that are required um the 103 the uh every time I look at this one it makes me nervous that it says zero but I checked it a few times but uh we're going up in all the areas it just was a the cyber security number came in lower than we had anticipated so I think even with the increase we're able to be able to make that up within the number that we have there so that was a positive for that line page 105 is The Debt Service see a considerable drop here of the 36% uh the main thing there was the 2002 uh refunding of 9.5 million for the high school

087middle school complex dropped off that was uh the final payment was 46750 uh additionally um the Chromebook lease um dropped off for 76,000 397 so that was kind of the plan as uh Dr Britton had stated we uh picked up lease for them uh you know it went on for I think it was a four-year term and then in this year that when it drops on our side the Bor was supposed to pick up the uh payment into a purchase uh plan instead of a lease a straight up purchase so hopefully eliminate some of that um interest cost that you you find um with with a lease so I think it'll be uh it'll work out well into the plan system that they were talking about I think that will be a beneficial plan to

088start so the money came down from our side goes back into their side on that on that front and it's a pretty a nice transition as that was how the plan was designed um so that was the decrease there Tom I question um with the current bond that we have for the it says 2018 General town when is that paid off when's the last payment uh [Music] um the exact date on that I don't know if I have that on top of my head but it it was a 20 year B from 18 so long time that'll be like 30 yeah 38 maybe okay yeah it's I I looked at it today I me it's I was looking at an anization schedule it's like here's a page Turn the Page keep going yeah I was

089like like I don't think I really need to know this because this keeps going for quite a while okay I was just wondering because the one below it says you know five seventh annual payment yeah I mean usually on the bonds they don't in the in the budget we don't necess put it it's in the it's definitely disclosed in the financial statements yeah so when we go over that you'll definitely have all that that detail there for you this one here because usually it's a term that's shorter yeah you want to know it so that you know in theory the the theory is you plan one of these two years you do another lease yeah because this one's starting to creep down so you want to get one and so so that one is so

090far away we don't want to know yeah this one do you have this one this one's quite a away the only thing that's kind of good was that the rate seems to dropped off the coupon for a little bit yep those it's a floating it's a different rate so on and so forth but that's why you see the interest drop from the prior Year's interest on that one if you were looking at the prior year but you'd see a drop a little bit okay as the interest principal going down as well as the interest coupon decreased slightly so that was good too um and what we try to do is we're trying to move a lot of the debt if you see the increase in Capital what I try to do is move the lower

091the lowering of the dot over to Capital because you don't want to you want to either continue your debt to do bigger projects like we're doing like School construction projects and adding debt back on you want to keep that debt in your system to keep go flowing because you know that you need to have purchases of large value so you need to you know you know you need millions of dollars worth of improvements either a new school or improvements to your school so you want those to go on and you want your debt to be in the system and if you don't leave it in the system then you move it over to Capital to keep it in the budget so you don't build operations off of debt restriction so if you some years you

092some years you do do that because you you have to but when you don't you try not to do that because if then when you do need to purchase more into a bigger Endeavor then it's a pure like hit right to your you know that when you do that debt it's a it's a bigger number and it's not continual so um when you see the increase in the capital that was the thought process was if you're going to drop around 500 you want to try to move as much of that over to Capital to keep that as a concept until the next debt comes on otherwise that you will uh um You're Building operations off of your Deb you kind of cannibalize this that was kind of gets to my question will we be able

093to see a clear picture for where that in this case about 561,000 move I know some of it went into the HVAC for the high school I believe yeah I mean it's it will be 100% clear but if you go to the next page it's clear as it could be you know no if you look on page 90 uh 12 and 9 oh3 on the next page uh you we were at 516 we had for the town monies and we increased it to 813 you on page 107 I am right what are we looking at it's under 90012 is under the okay so it be transfer out to Capital non-recurring so when we go to the capital non-recurring there's 300,000 more there 300,000 more there and then the next line down is capital non recurring

094for the Board of Ed there was Zero there and there was 457 more or less yeah so it's not the whole amount so and did the rest of that go in to cover the budget to keep the percentage down yeah okay yep so that's U so many of these will you know will be in the next cycle because it's the these are most of part uh public works but I'll go to animal control and youth in a minute but I'll go hit the other ones that aren't uh hey Tom before we leave this leave where this pay down of this Bond yeah so was it a was it a specific project or school or something or the one that I said it was the refunding of the high school middle school complex yeah that's what

095I missed okay that's yeah the 2000 it was a 2012 refunding of the $9.5 million High School midle School complex okay so there was debt then we refunded it in 12 yeah to save five years quite a bit of money yeah we saved a lot of money then we refinanced it then it paid off uh there and uh this was the final payment of that debt okay yeah and then uh and then in this lease in the 2022 lease there were two pieces of it one piece was the Chromebook lease yeah and the other piece was the town stuff for the five to seven years we don't usually do that but the need of the Chromebooks were so dire we did that so that that was the plan of that and that's why there's but

096it was Blended together so that's why I kind of just you know made note of it so you knew that's what it dropped in it was you know uh it wasn't a separate we didn't show it as a separate lease in the schedule we just said it was Blended together okay okay thank you all right so uh the uh 9006 is a transfer out this is the only place where you'll see that 110,000 there's 50,000 that goes to the airline Trail there is um 58,000 750 that goes for the water department for fire hydrant upkeep um that we've uh done and then I believe it was $2,000 for the solidarity committee and then there's $50,000 for the open space and that's all for that now and the next page is 109 which is contingency so

097page 119 uh it's Animal Control still uh continue to struggle with trying to get a replacement for Middletown um would like to be able to generate more rental uh Revenue there I know that first suman's office and the Animal control officer continue to work through that and try to find um but it's is a challenge um so we uh then be we have the sale of the dog licenses uh the dog Sur charges and then we have the transfer in of uh to cover the rest of that budget we have one animal control officer um there are some parttime people that work on the weekends when dogs are there or animal you know if there's an animal that needs you know to be covered that we do that try to do that in Li of

098overtime so that it's a better Endeavor if we were able to utilize the part-time people for the town um that's more or less the benefits for that one person and and then um it's just the the remainder of the budget is the operations of I don't think there was very much change um from that cycle on page 124 is the youth service department cour fitk is the director of that um but uh we have uh we get grants from DCF um roughly around $29,000 worth uh DC DSS we get some payments from um Chris napala Tano is one of our our he's like our counselor that we have and U for some of his services that we pay out of the uh CRC ECC um there are some payments that get reimbursed uh through the

099was the Husky program or medic program one of the two and the money comes in on that uh we also see sometimes in the re uh the resource center fees those again would be fees that would come in from private pay people that pay for U Mr Met met mopolitan Services it could also be if we run a program and charge fees um haven't been doing that where the charging fees lately have been just running the programs for the grants um and then there's also some contribution revenues that are possible uh the employee the um there a change in U family I guess of the employee so that you see the increase in the one line item um so really the remainder of the uh the remainder of the stay is more or less consistent

100throughout the budget there it's well it's just a change in medical from to a family plan and those are all the other departments are associated with public works or park and wreck wish our next cycle questions any any questions or to because he hasn't talked enough I just have one question sure page 85 for the grants consultant contract under EDC yeah um are they the ones writing the grants for like the Steve grants and stuff like that what is that for that is a they do Economic Development Consulting for the town they do help in some of the grant writing yeah they help the Selectmen in some of it they they're working through the bar Grant uh process with them but it's like they're like our consultant for um Economic Development all type of Economic

101Development type matters it's all line items it's always been called Grant consultant but it's Economic Development all right um on 97 for the agent for the elderly are we Ma I mean I don't know if you would know it or you'd have to ask Sarah but are we maxed out on the rides we can give because I know we're over the number that we budget every year yeah I mean there a challenging one there this is a you know is that something we should go higher on because we're still below the 22 and 23 budget of what we actually spent yeah I mean so we do get Grant uh money for this and every year that there is a requirement to um not supp plant um so that would mean that we would uh you

102know if they're going to give us money we have to spend our money and uh you know keep spending the money that they give us to not lower our money okay so we continually generally increase this you know at a reasonable level you know a$1 to $2,000 a year uh Factor um we uh I we're Nally know necess want to be in the business of being a transportation company so we're trying to do our best to help as many people as we can but not also be in the business of being a transportation company for all could you increase this sure I mean there would probably be there could be as much um demand probably as you would like the harder probably probably trying to find drivers to do the demand if you were to

103fund it at 100 you know fund it as much as you could possibly fund it okay that's uh you know could it go up you probably could go up but but you're comfortable with it yeah I mean it's like I think that I think that you know we continue to get the funding which is good uh we continue to help many people which is good um and then generally if there are determined overages we usually can manage it within the global budget okay but it generally does require you know I think generally you see this probably as a fourth quarter transfer in yearly obviously you're seeing that by the expenses but and I'm sure that this year will be over the number the squad did as well okay [Music] okay any other questions I think

104I'm good right now I'm I'm good for now thank you all I'm good for now thanks Tom you very much thank you very much Tom I I got to thank Tom again um I had no idea how many hours he puts in and how much he cares about the town um and the work that he does he sweats every number and and takes it personal uh when they go up so uh thank you very much for all you do yeah I want to thank all the department heads to to get all the stuff in here to me and and to First Selman to we can't do it without them to provide us the information and uh you know answer our questions to help us throughout the process and so you know it's a team effort

105and we all try to participate so but thank you for those time absolutely very I thank you Tom um I see Captain Cunningham is in the back um do you have a couple minutes just uh just to give a quick rundown on the department and perhaps uh I know have new officer coming as well so this might be an opportunity to talk about that um so as you know we have been short officers for a little while but we are quickly uh filling all these voids it's very nice our our person that we hired who was an entry level he's due to graduate this month April or I'm sorry March 26 um at that point he he'll have about four months worth of field training that he needs to go through before he's going to

106be on his own on the road so it's a long process when they're an entry level when you're talking 10 months before you really start to get anything out of that position and then on I believe March 28th we have a new officer coming in retiree from East Hampton 20-year veteran he's a local resident and uh he's going to step right in he'll have about six weeks of training and then he'll be on the road by himself as well so at that point we'll be fully staffed um we're already starting to see great increases you know excuse me and what and what the guys can do their availability to get out out there do some speed enforcement things of that stuff that we haven't been able to do for about a year or so so

107it's been it's been positive in our department it's a nice turnaround and we're very happy I know it's been uh it's been a challenge getting all the shifts filled uh having two people on that one time was a goal for most not all the shifts so yeah I mean it's it's unfortunate it's still we're not quite there um our our guys they they pull their weight they do what they can and our town is always safe you never have to be concerned about that but we still rely on Middletown on occasion to help us out and they're they're more than happy to they have you know they have a lot of guys with some very good knowledge over there and uh we bounce a lot of things off from when we need to I spoke

108to their Chief today you guys have a great relationship yeah um we're on page 501 gentlemen um thank you on on some of the items that have been requested uh for next year the traffic cams yeah and others would you mind explaining they'll be this year right the traffic Hamas so what we have um what will be will be installed soon within within the next couple months or some traffic cameras um they're they're going to be various locations mostly intersections within our town uh there are three recourse systems which are plate readers and those Plate Reader cameras they will give a ding or a hit to our officers who are working or who aren't working um whether a car that is stolen or a plate that is stolen or a car that is of interest

109to another city or town as soon as it enters or leaves our town if it goes through this camera system and it reads the plate it'll notify our officers in the past a lot of our bigger crimes our high-profile type crimes have all been done by uh people using stolen cars so we we're going to consider this a great asset for our department it's going to be something that I think we can really work work with and uh help us deter some of these bigger bigger crimes on the other cameras one of them is going to be in front of the police department we don't have any coverage on the road right now that's an accreditation issue and then some of the other ones are at intersections where we have a lot of movement and

110a lot of incidences like 6617 um Grove Street and 66 because we're trying to cover the Boatyard down there and I believe uh high in 66 high in 6 6 we rely a lot on Cumberland Farms because they have a system but it doesn't cover Airline Avenue it doesn't give us great coverage in that area but the the system uh Sergeant nap did a wonderful job working with utility Communications and and formulating where they were all going to be laid out in in our town so really looking forward to having them implemented thank you Kevin just one last thing selecting um if you have any questions related to the budget specifically for him uh take a look right now otherwise we have to stay focused on that but thought was important to have you what

111you've done specific questions on budget for the new police cars for the capital budget Y how many is that two two that's two that's um was about 12,000 close to 12,000 for the installation removal of the old equipment and put it into the new car and now we have to have uh special rifle mounts into the the back of the car so and an upgrade of our computers so talking to our Tech Guy some of our computers laptop computers that we use in the car they cannot support Windows 11 so we have to start phasing those things out um does the payroll number include the the one new officer part time last year it was a half a position that we that we bumped it up okay um so next year it includes the full

11212month position for that new 13th officer and what about the part-time retired person you said um that's uh that was Captain Mardo or officer malardo as he's referred to now oh so yeah he's still with us um we keep that in there because if there's training that he's required to do we're obviously obligated to pay him while he's at that training so he is certified he helps us on the parades um he helps us on some private duty jobs he's there if we meet him so he's the the experienced part-time okay yeah nobody has reached uh that 40-year Mark yet he's got a lot of a lot of knowledge yeah do we have any of the other current retirees that are going to stay on for private duty work no no they were all offered

113that they uh they all turned it down Smart Guys yeah well I I don't know you can make some decent money and you know it makes the town some money too can use those guys but yeah it's after you put 20 years in you know in the profession sometimes you're just ready to turn the page and move on to something else absolutely we all good I'm good got the thank you very much for all do for the town we appreciate really do all right um that looks like we've covered everything we need to tonight everyone good with this well we got a lot more budget talk to do in the future our next our next one is coming up on Tuesday March 18th next week at 7 o'clock we have to go through Public Works

114Grounds Maintenance parks and long range Capital so um you guys focus on the numbers and uh get some rest I'll be calling in on that absolutely we'll have a lot of work to do next week all right everyone thank you for either watching on Zoom or coming here tonight we appreciate again Tom's help Captain Cunningham and all those have contributed tonight we appreciate it uh we're doing the we're doing the people's work to try to get the budget in line and ready for votes by the folks of Portland so we'll keep on doing our job and everyone else keep watching and paying attention we'll do this together I thank you very much good night and I need a motion to adjourn second all those in favor let do it