Special Board of Finance Meeting

001I'm here to talk about how I think the Board of Ed budget is already too lean I don't think there's a lot of room in there for cuts because that's typically what happens after our budget fails over the 11 years I've lived here I know when budget cuts they got rid of the third language at the high school the class sizes have been up and down they've been very marginal and I'd like to reflect back on 20 May 2015 when we had a budget where there was so many people in the auditorium and people were holding money in their hand saying please raise my taxes because I don't want these cuts to come through my children I have twins that were going into kindergarten that year there were only classes they really needed nine you

002could tell by here that was their grade David you know they were oversized that year they had 21 in a class when the recommendation was between 17 and 20 I also like to point out my sixth grader who started out of the seven years she's been in school five years have been the class sizes have been over there what they recommended so when you say in classes class rollin is declining maybe that took it to school my kids have been directly affected I don't and that's because the budget has always been so lean I'd also like to point out I looked up well you know how much is the median income in this town I looked up on the Connecticut decd website Brookfield the median household income is 112 thousand dollars how does that rank

003with the Connecticut I know some people shaking their head they say I don't make a hundred twelve thousand dollars but you know what that's an average some people make more some people make less we rank sixteen out of 167 towns in the state that puts us in the top ten percent just to put that in perspective I have the printout from the town from the state website I'm an engineer I like facts that go on facts these are facts I just asked you to please not cut the school budget it is really thin and there's no room for error the kids are gonna suffer especially the kids that need a special education are going to suffer the most say thank you thank you here Orban Laure RPN 95 Stony Hill Road and I'm here to

004ask that you return a budget with no cuts to a vote and I'm making this request for two reasons one is that I think we've had extenuating circumstances that have prevented to town from having a fair vote the vote on May 15 should not have been considered an official and complete vote I think we all understand why but I did consult with the Secretary of State because I was getting conflicting answers about with what the reason was and she said she agreed that there might be a case to be made that voters rights were limited but regardless that happened the Board of Finance reduced the first budget and returned it for a second vote and during the two weeks between the first and second vote most residents had no power for a week no internet

005access for a week many were displaced there was a lot of confusion about the status of the first vote and even during yesterday's vote there were a lot of residents asking whether or not they needed to vote again so I think that the effects of the storm continued into yesterday's vote and the Charter makes a provision for this so it's article 8 section see a three letter seat it says upon rejection of one or both parts of the budget by referendum the budget shall be reconsidered by the Board of Finance the more Finance shall then approve the same or a revised budget for presentation at the next Renderman referendum so it says the same to me that says that the Charter was written with the thought in mind that there could be rare situations where

006it makes sense to return the same budget to the town and if this isn't one of those situations I don't know what would be but the second reason is this budget that we have now is responsible and and anything less is not our town and and specifically our schools have suffered from years of neglect and we've been told to hold our nose and vote yes because if we didn't it was going to get worse and the budget was going to get cut again but we all know that that the past budgets have not adequately funded our schools and it that has to end and we need to do more to make this budget understood not cut it because people didn't understand what was in it and why it was necessary and it's not if they're

007not extravagant expenses better better we're asking for in this budget it's like bare minimum and and its expenses their expenses we need to pay as a town so I hope that you'll return this budget to the town and let us have a chance for one fair both with a reasonable two week lead time and give us a chance to get residents out thank you Betsie McIlvain one to seven Longmeadow hill I I actually came to thank the Board of Finance for having the courage actually to present as close to the original budget as you did and make logical changes in it I personally and I think with a large number of people in town and deeply disappointed that the budget didn't pass but I I think it took a lot of effort on your part

008as the Board of Finance and and the Board of Selectmen to have that vote and I think it's going to be even harder on you now to try and present a budget that will pass and it will not be the best or even a very good budget for the town I'm sorry to say let's hope we get it past the next time because we need to thank you I wish the best which is a look at 32 great hair in Lane first let me start off with I saw an article in the paper about facts and I just like to try to clarify things and offer the following facts the robocall that I received and that many of my neighbors received stated that Brookfield would have the highest tax increase not the highest taxes which

009was a quote in the article in the paper also last week when I was here I heard the first selectmen say that the issue of the fire EMT over budget the $50,000 that was added in he said that he only learned about that two weeks ago and I found that to be a little intriguing since I talked to him about it each of the last two years that they had that extra money in there so again so much for the facts I guess with all due respect to the previous speakers we've had two votes and the people have spoken and I think we you folks talked last week and I think mr. Rooney made a argument for listening to the electorate you know I can appreciate that people who want something but the people have

010spoken twice and when you look at the breakdown of the votes the majority of people not only voted no in a clear majority but they also voted in the majority too high which is saying to you you got to cut spending and there's a lot of places as I've shared with you before that you can and I think you have to think about this we have people who are out of their homes displaced and we had Greg Dombrowski say last week that the town is looking at a minimum two and a half million dollar cleanup cost how do you then keep things like travel and conference money in a budget how do you explain that to those people we're gonna we're going to keep that we're gonna have raise your taxes probably and yet we're

011gonna keep these travel and conference funds in the budget in both the town and the Board of Ed side you know that's outrageous I think I don't know how you in good conscience explain that to people you have the library last week we had a speaker say it was illegal to use the endowment and yet the chair of the library board said they chose not to use endowment funds you didn't say anything about legal so if they can choose not to use the funds they can choose to use the funds so you got good fifty thousand to a hundred thousand dollars you can cut right there and they still have almost a half a million dollars in the endowment so there's a lot of places there's places in the Board of Ed budget professional development

012funds again I'm a former teacher I never had a colleague go rusty or go bad because he or she for a year didn't have professional development or didn't go to a conference so you can cut that you can use professional development you can use professional development within this thank you so again I think you need to make a significant cut next on that list I play Bob Beldon seven Red Barn playing a full disclosure I'm on the board of education but I'm not here to speak as a Board of Education member but rather as a prior member of the Board of Finance you guys have a really hard job and I wanted to give a voice to that tonight in the following way it's important as you're deliberating tonight to remember that each of you

013represent all of the residents and all of the taxpayers of our town that doesn't mean you represent a faction who's just maybe once great schools or once you know lower taxes they you have to River have to represent all of them I am sure each of you walked into the table like many of the residents with one point of view or another and it's important as you're deliberating that you're thinking about both of those and it's a hard deliberation if you're looking at this strictly from a tax rate point of view you're focusing on the destination not the journey that got us there you're looking at the number at the end you could have had the best budget in the world and if it was a five percent tax increase that's a concern we hear

014that I heard that at your last meeting I've heard that met in numerous times if on the other hand you're focused on the services of our town you're focused on the journey your what you don't want to make sure the class sizes are right that we have the right parks that we have good roads that we have safe and secure fire and police support you're focused on what book field is about and many of those people could care less of whether the tax rates 3% 4% 5% the problem is you have to think about both groups and we count on you to think about both groups now I tend to be a person who is wants to have tight tax rates but great schools that's a hard confident patient it was always hard for me

015on the board of Board of Finance what I'll ask you to do is a couple of things first of all we have a tight budget every upset through a lot of the meetings the budgets that were presented to you were tight to start with you have a very cautious and frugal for selectmen and Superintendent of Schools the boards that have reviewed them so far have done a good job of scrubbing them and exercising them don't pretend it's easy right if you have to make cuts to hard cuts don't take the easy way out don't just cut contingency and and a revenue line if you have to make cuts it should be hard things we're reducing services if we're going to reduce spending on the other hand make sure it's worth it right that that's something

016that you all can stand up and in defend lastly don't walk out of here tonight and stop working on it there's 90 percent of the population in Brookfield who get their news on what's happening on the budget through one faction or another and not from you all I would urge mr. chairman that you give a quote to our intrepid reporter here before you leave tonight and I would urge the board to actually write a piece on the news times so thank you Thanks all right was there anyone else they wanted to give comment that I didn't get a chance to sign up Catherine malloc for Apache Drive so I didn't prepare anything and when I don't prepare I put my foot in my mouth so I hope that I don't do that so I'm going

017to try to give a little history I've been on I've been working for the budget for years and years and years yes disclosure I am a para at huckleberry hills school but I also fight for the budget because I'm a resident because I care for our kids but I was fighting for the budget because of PTO and this is history but ten years ago this is a flyer we put out we had lost 36 staff positions since the 2005-2006 school year so 10 years ago neighboring budgets increases Newtown was 5% Ridgeville 4.5% you Fairfield 3.7% Bethel 4.14 we were 1.2 for the following year we were minus 0.26 remember our - increase okay we have not had significant increases since then we are still fighting we are still trying to build from this a few

018years ago we had a zero percent increase because of expected enrollment decline then apartments started being built after that it was a below maintenance okay so we're still trying to catch up this was an extraordinary year with special education costs I truly wish that message was presented better that these are cost we have to pay these are costs because the state cut us a lot these cut other towns to one other piece of history I want to say education cost sharing we always when I got on the PTO I was like this isn't fair why don't we get as much as other towns I spoke I did lots of research I spoke with the state and I spoke with a gentleman who said it's called educational cost sharing it's based on what you can afford

019and what you are willing to pay he said why should we as a state give you extra money when your voters are not willing to get extra money this is a different thing this year they cut a lot just because the states in trouble but there's a couple things I wanted to point out that I've heard from being on Facebook somebody wrote that she voted yes to hi and her reasoning was that the state should be paying the special education costs more and she was upset that we had to take up that cost that's a good point I don't think anyone else thought like that but maybe they did so I want you to consider that and the other thing is it is a big deal that we are the lowest per pupil spending it

020is a big deal if we had more money we would have more money in the pool and we would not have had to cut enrichment and perhaps the septic tanks the smell in huckleberry could get fixed perhaps the sinks could get fixed is that three minutes really yes just want to tell you I was on the state website and I did see that we do have lower scores than Greenidge and I would like yeah okay is there anyone else that wanted to give public comment that didn't get a chance to speak in the past 20 men okay all right thank you everyone in this room joining us tonight and hopefully folks that are watching at home or on their phones or what have you we appreciate any and all attendance wherever you are so thank

021you for that we have a couple items on the agenda tonight one of which we don't have the chance to get to but next we will be discussing the results of the budget referendum vote and shame on me for not having that pull up right in front of me Oh two seconds ah yeah I got the I got it sent to me I apologize so he's gonna want a second I'm gonna get it to myself so it's on the big screen here and I can grab that cable and share it with everybody yeah well we're working on that may I make a comment yep um the tax increases for surrounding towns you can't simply look at the final tax increase in the mill rate because if you look at Bethel their actual increase in expenditures

022is up over five percent but they did have a significant amount of development that lowered it down to two point something Brookfield did not have that New Milford was two point something but they use money from their waste management fund to offset an increase of four points something in their actual expenditures so you have to look at all the numbers to get the true story the final mill rate doesn't tell you everything the second thing is I did an analysis and I put it in front of the board members the state issues reports called the equalized mill rate and if you look at this report Brookfield's tax rate is the lowest of all five surrounding towns and in one case two cases Bethel in new town by 13 percent and 21 percent these are my

023numbers these come from decd comes from the state office of policy management and they go through and they look at every single town and then they equalize the mill rate so if one town offers garbage collection as part of their services they'll take it out for that town to make it equal with Brookfield where we pay for it privately so I think we can count on their records and if you look at it 20 new towns taxes for the same house or twenty one percent higher than ours that just goes to say that Brookfield has done a very good job over the years in keeping our tax rates low and sometimes we do have when you have special education costs and cuts in grants you're going to get a bump like we had this year

024that's why like that's it all right sorry about that okay so we had okay first question I believe it's on education we had 1641 votes against 1376 vote for the advisory question I had a total of 1583 folks saying it was too high 688 folks saying it was adequate and 694 voters saying it was too low okay the next question is on the town government portion we had 1571 folks 1571 folks against and 1436 folks for okay and then the next advisory question we had 1500 11 voters saying that the town budget proposed was too high 1075 saying it was adequate and 363 saying it was too low okay and that is a recap of yesterday's referendum and why we are here tonight okay does anyone have any comment that they would like to make

025on this before we move into the next agenda item all right so the next item that was posted on the agenda was set to nil rate based on the results of the referendum we will not be doing that tonight what we'll be moving on to is reconsidering as a board the budget for submission to voters and a referendum on June 12 2008 that is a date that's prescribed by the Charter the way this process works is until we have an approved budget we will have a referendum on the 12th and if need be we'll have one two weeks from then which would make it the what 24th yep 26 27 Matthew needs of it and after that should we not have a budget that that passes we will default to the operating budget for the

026current fiscal year that we're in right now until we do get a budget that passes okay tonight we will have a meaningful discussion that has board will share our thoughts no number of to do good research database throughout the day with meeting and shut other so I think that we will be able to have a meaningful and productive discussion will give everyone a chance to speak their piece again have meaningful fruitful discussion and I'd like to sooner than later put things to board vote okay is there anyone that would like to open and share their thoughts alright I can go ahead and start I did have a chance to consider some things so given where we are right now there are some things that I would like us to consider I'll start off on the

027approved capital tab okay we have in the approved capital some capital that's paid for in cash okay that's not bonded unbonded capital expense so I went through here and I mean these aren't you know to mr. Feldman's credit these aren't easy things to to bring up for discussion but these are areas that I feel we should discuss and we'll see if anyone else feels that way we have a number of reserves for our fire companies right we have two apparatus reserve so for trucks and things of that nature perhaps a boat for Candlewood right that could fall under there I would propose that we do reduce each one of those three reserves by thirty thousand okay so the ambulance reserve the apparatus reserve and the other apparatus reserve which would gain us an efficiency of

028ninety thousand okay knowing that the board could still uphold its commitment to the fire companies that when the time comes their needs would be met not only through the cash reserve but also bonding and then other items on this list you do have that I would like to consider insulating the second Attic at Candlewood that's 11,000 so right there through those reserves for those two areas plus that second attic that's over $100,000 to be gained in efficiency okay and then to leave this tab on this day of I have some others no wait hold on Ian before I leave this tale the professional services we have the assessor's office for evaluation we do expect a big expense in the next revaluation year which i think is in three three or four years from now four

029years from now yeah and that's six to seven thousand five hundred again it's not something that we would like to do but it could possibly be somewhere where we could gain some efficiency okay so if you look at those items of capital that we would pay for in cash or set aside right now that's $90,000 in apparatus and ambulance plus 11,000 in in the Attic and then I'd like to consider the other 67,500 and that gets us a hundred seventy eight thousand to consider without necessarily impacting services immediately so okay of course sure so first a comment and then some additions so the comment would be those are not really cuts those are pushing things forward and and and we'll be removing one expense from a year to another it does assist with this year's

030mill rate discussion but I don't think they're cuts and I don't think that's what the voters have been asking us to do for the last couple weeks so I think those are good starting points but I think there's more to be done so I'd like to add other things for discussion on the list please if you don't mind in Parks and Rec this twenty five thousand four tennis court resealing I think that's something that should be considered as a cut for the year second air-conditioner at the library is something that we can consider miscellaneous repairs of townhall 10,000 something that can be considered flying 6484 $8,500 for a computer replacement something to consider this one pains me line 75 the choral risers something to consider line one upgrading the network $13,000 something to consider those

031are the ones that I highlighted and when you combine those with the ones that you put to consider I come up with about two hundred thirty-nine thousand dollars of cash expense or reserve expense that we can consider on the stage in my mind but aren't we just pushing those off to someone yeah I mean then the network upgrades correct me if I'm wrong that discussion was that it had to be done this year because we were going to lose the licenses they would our licenses we're gonna be outdated with that software license not old not an hour I think yes that's a software license life yeah it's the software license thank you very much so are we willing to sacrifice the possible loose school for pushing these things down we did a study and we

032stacked all of our debt with this new school down the road and it showed down the road we're gonna take on huge amount of debt so are we gonna take this year and stack more debt on down the road to deal with we got a deal with school as well something's gotta give you can't keep piling it on down the road you know that we got to buy fire trucks by certain times it has to happen so are we gonna buy it full-blown and keep picking out of these concentric sea funds that we have we gonna pay full-blown were put into school we don't know the cost of a new school but I've heard it's not quite the thirty-five million that we talked about it's gonna be in excess of thirty five million so are

033we gonna take expenditures now and stack them on that pile and break the camel's back five years down the road I don't think anyone well I think the only the only place that that would add to bonding later it would be that ninety thousand in I'm saying as a general if we do this in other areas we keep doing this you can't you can't keep putting debt down if we're gonna pit we need to make cuts we were talking about ninety thousand not not the whole not the whole list that we were talking about that station off 92 just talkin 90 thought make it up later I mean these other items are postponements they're not they're not bonding them they're just postponing them like we've been doing year after you I mean most of these

034things that we approved were items that have already been postponed for years which is why we said maybe now's the time to do them I don't think we're pushing to find it so if you listen to the speakers they say we've been postponing things to the schools for years - so where we postpone everybody's postponing everything at what point do we listen and say we got to make sure so what are we cut and we're not adding new things to the town or not building new buildings at this point we're not we're replacing a meeting I mean we've looked at this for maintaining assets if you look at column D we're not adding new things to maintain or we're just maintaining the assets and so that's where it becomes really hard if you don't practice

035till the tennis courts this is a safety issue that's gonna kick you in the butt down the road because some group gets injured or you have to close the courts and they agree how do you I'm struggling with how you make those decisions it's not like we're adding assets the town were for maintaining and replacing things that haven't given my skin I mean that's right it's not an excessive I know it's an excessive tax increase or it seems that way but we're not adding major things to to our town so this afternoon I got our final report on the damage from the storm and we're looking at about 4.5 million but in there we had trouble the air conditioner at the library we have a fair chance of getting that replaced under insurance because if

036they get damaged in the storm I'd say it's about a 50% chance they're looking at it there's checking it but that's something if insurance covered it they will it's only ten thousand dollars but regarding the the tennis courts I think we did we did bring that up thing at the last meeting I asked if it was a safety concern I think both people that answered which yeah it's a lunker in the sea of the smaller things in that column so I did notice it yep but those words were kind of buzzing around in my head safety which is why I wasn't I wasn't in my mind though looking at this yes it's it's pushing off and maybe we can add those things back to this line for next year but I don't see these things

037as cutting services for the school or necessarily cutting services for the town which is why I was going at this one a little harder because I don't agree with the discussion of course but those aren't things that you know we're not talking about carving out of the operating for not not not right now and the things for this tablet we're not talking about carving out of town operations we're not talking about carving out of education operations but we're pushing on you just said - next year China what's our debt and what up next year debt payment going up next year above this year's budget 1 million how much what's our increase this year on our budget overall we're gonna increase two and a half percent right out of the gate without any obligations next if

038you're already how can you say here we're gonna take this money this year and look at it putting it in next year when next year we're already gonna be running at a four percent increase status quo nothing changes absolutely nothing if we don't make cuts to operating costs right now next year we're looking at the same boat we're already there we haven't even left this year and our debt that we're bringing on and our operating costs that we know are contractual we're looking at four percent next year out of this game already right now today you're looking at four percent so you can't put anything - next year next year is already steps to the fullest amount and the same thing when we're looking to bring on a school down the road if we're looking

039to bring on a school which I'm for let me be clear I am one a new school okay we can't keep pushing debt further down the road if we're gonna take on these obligations we gotta make a hard decision you're gonna have to get into operation you're gonna have to get into overheads and there's gonna have to be some belt-tightening or you're not gonna get what you want in the long run you're gonna shorten you're gonna look at this year and you're gonna cut your notice off to spite your face because you're not going to get the end goal and Bob spoke pretty eloquently about the journey and about the end goal and if our end goal is to get new schools for our kids or upgrade the schools because I think there are in

040poor condition if Bob's you know if that's our end goal you can't kick cans down the road you got to make the decisions now we can't take we'd be out of by firetrucks it taking that 90,000 now it doesn't do anything for us it softens a little bit of the this year but you're not going to put it on next year so when the bill comes five years from now when we're looking to bond schools we got a paid-up on that's not all I think that's what the voters said I think the voters didn't say move it around and I think they said you got to look at this and make it come that's just my opinion if the voters said too high on both fronts right this is part of it this rolls into

041the town side which was also voted down we voted too high I mean this is just one of one of three tabs there all right I get it but I just can't see the taking expenses and pushing them out as a true cut in an expenditure I think that's just putting it and I think we're gonna have bigger expenses we're looking at 4.5 million on the cleanup possibly a three million dollar hit to our general fund s 5.5 million in it we don't have the luxury of kicking things down the road we have the luxury of we gotta make decisions I mean it's sad don't get me wrong but it's reality and to take money and say well we get if we weren't buying fire trucks I'd be like all right I get it we'd

042have to buy I hear you no one's saying we're not gonna buy these are just proposals for now that's all did anyone else have anything to propose let's say on this tab I want to make sure we got our thoughts out we were able to analyze them comprehensively and cohesively I think this tab here was the one pass or failed by the least amount on both votes I think the people were pretty clear that this one was the one that needed though this was not a second phone on a set of the first vote it was one of the ones that came I apologize right that it was the least one I think more people are behind us on this tab than the other tabs they're fine but what we're considering here is part of

043the town it's not part of that that I know Sebastian right but it was a question on the first referendum sure and it was the closest to passing as we had who is a really really handsome say we're ready to move to expenditures okay do you mind if I go first the increase was forty seven thousand three hundred ten we get to where that was so we can all see it but we had put in the initial proposal one part time and additional hours for an existing staffer so that's there that represents 40 7310 I believe or we could make we could get to the root of what I was if it wasn't all just those two ones and then the Community Development I would see if that position can be reduced in half and

044that could represent let's say a thirty nine thousand dollar savings you take those to keep the library where it was that's 47:39 so that's almost 90,000 right there in addition to what was already proposed so everything that I've gone over in those two tabs represents 250 almost 200 55,000 then we want to go next with ideas if I can just jump in I'm not trying to be parochial but making a staffing cut like that it's incredibly disruptive to both the staffer and the town and our Community Development Manager has done a phenomenal job of reaching out to our community she got over fifty firms on in this town to put together a list in a week of all their damages an incredible amount of work she did a really really good job [Music] I'd like

045to look at the the dues and travel and conferences collectively that's ninety four thousand five hundred and thirty two dollars and I know the Jews are something that has to be paid but the opportunities essentially for online conferences maybe take out some of the travel expenses that go want to talk about that it's done by Department I if you go through the actual spreadsheet you could see where it is dues we can't change that in that but I think that you should be an area of reduction not knowing how much of that part is dues cuz it's all back together you know my office it's 4,000 but that's some dues mostly contingency travel if you look at all the other ones we're talking about 4,000 just three thousand thousand 2500 yes probably talking eleven twelve

046thousand dollars total we could add it up this 25 be seen under just even here yeah probably 12,000 in that line four do her travel that's that's partly travel but a lot of it is continuing education that's required for people who are in CEUs and keep all their certifications up quantified but you imagine you know lose some of the CEUs to be earned by online courses and that type of thing versus traveling and having travel expenses that virtually no one travels outside of Connecticut except for the immunised conference everyone else does it in-state and some of these class I'm sure that's possible we can check and see if they're offered online but people are driving for the day to Hartford and taking a class not a huge expense occasionally somebody oh it's a two-day class

047we'll spend the night somewhere we can look at that and break that out with a little more detail for each department and I'd suggest we do that before we make any decision on that and those are continuing education we absolutely I understand that I have to continue to do that if and when we're ready we can take an administrator siesta Lydia [Music] I'd like to understand the elderly tax relief and how we've covered it this year where it wasn't an item in the budget as compared to yeah it's been a line item in the budget every year except last year primarily because we just simply made narrower shape in there yeah it's an obligation of the town we have no choice state law yeah we have to pay it if you take take it out

048of the budget we're so penny in it but where are we paying it for this year I think that's the part that I'm trying to fight and figure out so we don't have it budgeted in but we're covering the cost of this the other side it's going to come out as a general fund that's where it's gonna come so you took him out of managing the budget and say yeah I think it will but first it comes out of general fund right and at the end of the year we say okay in the budget we have money left over right and I think we'll be under budget altogether but it's gonna be a bit the cost is about five hundred thousand it is but what's gonna drive that scenic here what's gonna drive these lines

049in 1718 to drop five hundred thousand to the general fund and that's the question because remember we put a spending freeze on for about five months right where we didn't spend any money and we are gonna be over and - we're going to be over in health insurance we're gonna be over legal but all the other departments we still kept the line on all our expenses so that's what's going to pay for it or it's going to come out of the general so what are we sacrificing maybe that with that freeze what was not bought it if we don't have this in here I'm gonna have another spending freeze next year make up for it I don't understand miss out on what what things were frozen and what you know what what was sacrificed on

050behalf of the town in order to to do this free what types mm you know when the schools did their spending freeze for the special education that they postponed does the same thing it's been across every department we can go through and get your list of everything that we've made savings on are some of those savings possible bullets I have happen again this year yeah something like we cut out some travel some supplies some equipment some forms and things that the department's need you know these are like books one time we could bouquet we can push it off we can't push it off indefinitely so on the revenue side though it's as though the elderly tax relief doesn't exist or we just accounted for week that's not in the budget that's not immigrants for this

051coming year not concern with the grants but for the actual for the actual tax revenue that we expect wouldn't we have a reduction in the revenue for those residents that take I guess I'm trying to figure out the accounting behind those that actually get me overly tax relief if it's actually being accounted for in a revenue already yeah is that's why it's at the very bottom of the line so up where we show sixty-two million dollars sorry 60 million 62 million nine hundred eleven thousand right that includes the elderly tax relief that we're gonna have to get so we're taxing every house the same way every residents the same way so it's already in the red it's in the sixty two and nine just like that it's in the sixty two 911 right every house

052is in there and then we have to get 485 back but it's just how does that sound adding to [Music] doesn't make sometimes built that way okay this is a tax on the property and any individual rebate you gross it up as opposed to forcing analogous we did get an idea that we can evaluate Ken case and there's no different presentation we can certainly evaluate that you know for next year read rejigging this for now not my task oh man I'm just trying to make if someone was living there that was elderly when you're sold the house the next year we're not redoing the map in the house so the house is built to the tax rate and then when they people apply it comes out on another fun so you're not going rejiggering your

053who's living in a house how old are they that people have to apply that it meet the requirements so the house stays tax sorry so in the spreadsheets revenue there is somewhere in the revenue where it shows here's a reduction of the elderly tax relief yes the 435 line it's who the tax actually elderly tax relief that's where we give the money back so now sensible budget I'm talking about the actual revenue tab no that's not in here it would be built into this number up here oh yeah okay the 62 911 look at the actual tax income tax income expected tax income so you can look at the general property taxes current yeah sixty-two million nine hundred eleven thousand and you right underneath it you could put elderly tax relief - four hundred eighty

054five thousand and come up with the net number it was simply what we've had this it was an error we thought it was a duplication and it wasn't a duplication the number was strikingly similar I'll tell you exactly the number was directly similar to this number here okay that we had in last year's budget you know we conferred and we thought it was the same thing so we went ahead and we took it out in good faith that it was an honest double count it turns out that it wasn't so there it is again I mean that's there's no more to it than that and my only point is that if that savings was found in this existing year's budget if there are some things that were that we froze that maybe we could aren't

055just postponements but are actual things that you know help can make up that difference maybe that scenario I don't know where those savings occurred and we haven't seen them in the revenue expenses well you see this that against our budget right yeah where we are and we're going to end up in a few departments under I believe you know a lot of departments try to spend more money in June to get up you see running we try to discourage that completely and ask them to encumber those things those expenses that are carrying over one year to the next but I don't I don't think we're gonna end up with as much money left over as last year I don't think we are okay do we have the what was the most recent yes so at

056the next meeting you can get an idea we'll look at the expenditure line items and compare the savings and then we can go into the GL detail and see what's been spent year to date what's available and like Steve said we had a freeze so we have some savings that we are unanticipated at the end of the year and some of those things might be necessities they still may need to spend that money so we'll have to take those on an individual basis about seven months ago we gave the board's a list of all those things water could save money we can send that to you again I don't have it with so to summarize with certainty the funds that we gathered due to freezes in the current budget you're not going to we're not

057going to see in the current proposed budget that's what you're saying yes and I'm talking strictly operating as far as capital I haven't moved all those funds into the non-recurring capital fund doesn't make any sense to look at the 10 month report I try to get by the line items where those savings were and drill down and see their closet for minister give me a minute to pull it up seoeon do that yep is that a worthwhile exercise is not waste time I would recommend waiting till the next meeting okay I don't have that okay if you want to pull it up oh I don't have the detail at all to you look in it Oh dummy wait Glen you're closing your eyes are wasting time probably I can stop looking if we don't want

058to look into this that I can stop looking through here all night yeah I mean we can look at it but I don't think you're gonna see the story you want to see I think what you're gonna see is the same thing on a school side you know everything that was frozen got put back into this year's budget in fact I don't think the talent go back as much as the the school site did he wanted the truth the school pays falling a lot of stuff which we all agreed on so not saying but that question to Steve Steve did it put as much in I think the school has more than was postponed that would be more you know relative to that type of scrutiny I think this year the town said you're gonna

059find when we wash out the town site we're gonna be darn near to penny that's outside between the state funding that was cutting that's why I asked the questions today and I sort of we got our wires funky serenity because I we got state funding that was less than we budgeted for we got the elderly tax relief that we didn't put in for we got the health benefits it over railing another at concert over there's not gonna be any money left in the town saying it's gonna be zero by the time it we're running into three four referendums right now that weren't budgeted for at some point the town side of this budget is running out you know if you remember turn to the last financial report we gave you muscled items we're running right

060at the monthly run rate that we serve except for the two that were over turning us want to share the thoughts of memory just a question that I think we asked Ramez nothing please it was added in Teresa she said we're in it you know I don't know if there's from from a dirty standpoint to quote mr. Beldon there's not much more to look at now its matter whether the destination is appropriate and you know you've done the bottoms up is that or do we now do we say to be top down and here's the number that we need and I don't know I don't know that's just I'm just should be in top rickielee side ideas ideas ideas opinions everyone's out on we know this but you got I think that the town is

061going to be operating on a very lean margin especially with these unexpected expenses that have that on the balance so I am absolutely open to some of the capital projects that you mentioned Shawn but I think beyond that you know in terms of the operating budget for the time I think it's already a very tight situation especially since this unexpected expense is weighing in on whatever wiggle room we might have in the unassigned fund balance I'm sure Kimberly could express it more technically than that please do all right we have my thoughts out there and I think Steve rattled off about $12,000 that we'd have to go line by line and pick apart perhaps doesn't matter because you can do departmental transfers if we were to clip 12 from one of them you can always

062do interdepartmental transfers for that amount and I think the last charter revision that we did raise the movement on those right so you wouldn't have to seek your approval for every single one of those transfers if we if you do that themselves yeah all right then we have I'll say proposals on the table for about fifty nine thousand I'll call it sixty thousand on the town side All Things Considered that's looking about 300,000 that's on the table now between capital and expenditures on the con side I also go back to the nine kilos and out of they died of their fire shucks it's not a production I mean you're throwing it in there to make it sound like we're moving its needle three hundred thousand dollars we ever moved in two hundred thousand dollars yeah

063that ninety thousand I don't think you can count I don't think that's a fair assessment I don't think that's taken into account what the voters told us again we're sitting here and we're not taking into account the voters I was sitting back I want to listen I've been the most vocal board member I want to hear some things here and I'm not hearing anything I'm not hearin G the voters came out twice and told us twice what they want and I'm hearing nickels and dimes I haven't heard the G let's get into the meat of this thing I haven't heard you know we're taking away we're kicking the can down the road a ninety thousand over table that's not a cut that's not an expense right I hear you I hear you so let's go

064let's go right now we're on the biggest line again our honor we're on the education line Marimo should have put it to vote the way it is if we're gonna dance around 12,000 to kick the can down we didn't make a move might as well put it to vote you might as well not even get into the $12,000 of $4,000 thank you so now we've gone through people are given their opinions capital unbonded capital expenditures in the town side well so I'm not don't I don't I don't I I don't think we made the heart I have I agree with God so we have not I I know so i solicit so so let's go but we're here let's let's go let's go through it let's see where we're are there any increases where are

065the not even increases where are their expenses that not only can we think about cutting the increase but we're being asked to make to have a lower budget and that's going to require cuts not just cuts in increases but most likely cuts period so just looking at where the where the largest increases are isn't the way to go I don't so so III think that we as a board need to either get guidance from the town management where those cuts can happen or we got to stay here for hours and go through and find them just to be fair you got this board and the Board of Selectmen have gone through the town budget Lima yes we have penny I know that but we're not having a conversation about the schools and we have to

066we haven't gotten there yet okay we haven't gotten there yet I completely agree the whole picture yes we haven't gotten there yet so fine alright I mean if you if you if you're gonna just give the schools a percentage right give me a percentage and let me come back to you to tell you what about that cause we'll be right I know I know a little bit better in more detail and I'll tell you the effect because then you've got two weeks now so you don't have to do this complete it tonight I know it you don't want to get together but you want to make the best informed decision that you can I would like to give a percentage with some education but not with some knowledge behind it as to what that percentage

067means both on the town side and the school set this is just saying you know here's here's the number that I think we need or here's a number I think is approvable that doesn't feel that doesn't feel right I would like to be able to do it at the same time well on the town side on the budget we have to have a line-by-line budget for you to move because we can't move a lot of stuff around so I have to give you my my line department by department and so we don't have anything prepared to overtime not to that level here you want proactive there is a report 2014 about the muna system sent to the state we got the grant while we got the grant itself it shows that we can take the

068school side of the town site back office finances put them together we have two holes in our finance department right now we have two positions that are open in the finance department if we were to combine the Board of Ed finance department along with the town finance department which is outlined in this report known by 2014 done to the state you might be able to save a position of a hundred thousand dollars but this is a true expense cut this does not affect any services this does not affect any the guide line is here it was written out and it's something that we can look at it group the Board of Ed can sit down with Steve wood Kimberly and maybe reduce a position not hire it into next year's budget it's outlined here on

069what it would do how it broke there's a road map to this document these are the things I was hoping people would bring forth tonight to this thing and they'd say hey but let's make real cuts let's do proactive efficiencies let's do it together that's what I was waiting here you named your copy yes this was a report that was written in and whether it has validity or not these are the type of things we gonna look at we have two big positions in the finance department right now if we were to mold the Board of Ed finance group along with the town finance group somehow we do have the summertime to put this into implementation and be ready to go by September it would strengthen the two groups the Board of Ed finance department

070it would strengthen Kimberly's grew up in to get me up to opens there's a possible $80,000 in savings there without clutching a needle I think you know I don't have an objection to a combined finance department at all I think it would serve the town and the Board of Ed very well if we had one group of people looking at all these accounts but I think we would have you'd have to get agreement from the board that I agree but that's what we're sitting here now we're looking at art cuts hard decisions and ways to be more efficient and that's what I was sort of hoping to hear and that's where I wasn't here in kicking the can down the road to me it's not the solution you mean a more efficient it's you want

071us to propose a town hall finance restructuring we're going over the budget that's what that is that's a nice truck I'm saying office there is a cost reduction that can be made we have to open positions that we have to hire for so where you're gonna make that cut until until you even if you decided to put both finances partners together it's going to take months to get everybody working on the same page and so where you're gonna make an $80,000 cut the next year's budget I have widened why do I have to hire to finance people at that point if I could figure out a way to give me one finance person now I'm gonna be in a world of hurt I'm not giving you on combining departments how many finances people are on

072the board of that side - well business manager John payroll bookkeeper a people come here yeah money bookkeepers right Tommy any we have in the town side we're running on the same system this was brought up by previous people to look at why are we finding this and saying why aren't we looking at this and saying gee instead of cutting a teacher cutting a position cutting something why are we looking at and it says this plan is written through attrition the plan is written the same we're going to achieve the savings by attrition you have to attrition positions right now they're open so you think we can just snap our fingers and put two finance departments together in three weeks you're going to snap your fingers have put two bodies in two positions and try

073to get them off much everything merging to complete finance departments much different it is and you have to get the buy-in from the board of it so you want me to sit without somebody while we wait for the Board of Ed to make a decision as to whether they agree we should have combined finance departments with two weeks before we have a bunch of folk this is not the time to bring this up nor do nor do you make a snap decision in my opinion tonight oh well we're not going to get learn take one of Steve's people away because we're gonna merge them at some time in the future there'll be six months from now so saving Steve tell me where we're sitting on the table the voters watered down the budget twice we're

074dancing around $12,000 where are you gonna get saving Steve where are you are we just gonna stop your moment but I have suggested dozens of things we've cut the town budget to the bone this year we have and I can't in good conscience make any more recommendations to you without digging into my personnel and I think I need the people I have I do right now the town said we were looking at three hundred ten thousand dollars in cuts I know part of it was capital right I think you should probably look at this this is my opinion only where do you think this budget needs to be to get passed by the voters what kind of increase maybe look at it that way because now we're going to get things a little bit here

075and a little bit here a little bit here where do you need to be where will voters pass I mean if you look at the board of that budget from this year to last year if you add the four hundred and seventy thousand five hundred dollars that we had to give them for the special ed costs which the cost was much higher they paid for a lot of things by themselves by cutting their budgets cutting books things like that the increase from last year to this coming me from this year to the coming year right and the board of that budget if you keep just the four hundred seventy thousand and not the other six hundred thousand or so the Board of Ed actually hadn't expenses unspecial it that increase would be three point four

076percent our residents are not understanding that we already gave the Board of Ed four hundred seventy thousand dollars for expenses they did not expect if you added that to this year's base they're requested increase for next year is three point four percent now take that on top of the grant grant cuts and we as we said before we got a perfect storm you know given where we are I think you should look at top level damn where do you think you need to be in order to get a budget that will pass my personal opinion is you can't just do it with capital and you can't just do with the town there's got to be a pretty good fair sized cut on the school side and I don't like that just be honest with you

077there are two thirds of our budget so to your point state my spoke to one of his who is a long-standing president of Brookfield at least 25 years he spent here I'm assuming I wasn't privy to the conversation I heard the outtake that he is expecting your budget to be within the two to three percent range I'm sure he must have voted it down twice already so my thought is and I hate to think that we're by by trying to back into a percentage that were not giving full consideration to how we get there because I am very concerned about how we get there but I think you probably for it to be something that the town is comfortable with based on the results of these two votes you're probably looking at three to three

078and a quarter that's probably where we need to be to get most residents comfortable with the increase to that point though with oblique gave axis will have 470 plus the 485 L total tax relief we have to add back in that adds up to a total increase of about one and a half percent just in things that should have been in there last year so I don't see two or three percent happening it's just we have to take that into consideration and those who vote down the budget need to take that into consideration too that there were errors that are being mended and it's going to cost you when do you expect to hire reset up the finance department well it's in my Monday you will by Monday both yep full-time yes our goal is

079to read so we had a we had a teeth a greater margin on the on the failed budgets the first go-around the margin has tightened up so our effort was definitely recognized according to what the voters told us so the the margin on the school site is two hundred and sixty-five voters ahead in terms of failing the budget on its outside was 135 voters so the voters are giving us the information that we needed they recognized obviously they recognize the effort that we made to trim the budget to the percent that we did there look again and I think a good target would be about three to three and a quarter percent stay free that would be one little video for 1.1 million dollars so we have to come up with to get to that

080level okay we're at four point six six five the last go-round right so every point two percent tax increase would be it would be strip at one point 1 million dollars out of us I think if we can get the memory down to the number increase down to four percent that we could flip enough voters to pass the budget and I think that's what we're looking for is to pass the budget not by a huge margin we just need it to pass so do you think that percentage I hope so and I hope it pressures those that forgot to vote or didn't vote thinking off their asses and go vote well we did we did get a good turnout it wasn't good enough because the library referendum did better as a shame well it was

081definitely a good turnout based on what people expect it says we the school budget original yes votes was 895 now it's 36 you just can't use this I'm saying this is how many folks came out to vote YES for the school budget just the other day right yeah but they're pairing it's a sentiment 15th mr. senator no no I'm saying that we already attracted and received the many additional voters that you guys said we're not able to get to the polls to do so now we have a spread of about 265 it is it's it's a close margin but we have to ensure that the budget passes so I don't know that we can take a half measure maybe it's not a million point one in terms of overall production so maybe we come somewhere

082close but I think we need a number that's in the three percent area I think you should speak this number sidekick Ricky did some work today that okay because I hear perfect I'm all yours yeah I mean it doing the math I mean if we can if we drop 450,000 off the budget that gets us below our 4% increase if we factor in the fact that we have to add back in the elderly in tax relief we didn't have to add that back in that's three point two five percent increase so it's a matter of marketing and then if we take that other four seventy into account that would give back the schools that's another decrease that gets us into two percent range I mean we we can't afford to to look at this as

083a straight year-over-year comparison because this it's just false we have to take into account that one and a half percent of this budget it's just crap that's left over from last year that we have to fund no matter what we can't get we can't lose that we've already taken a hit as a town because of that so we're putting that back in and the rest of that so whatever armillary increase attract one and a half percent of that that's your true mill rate increase so if we can get to four percent it's really four at two and a half percent that's that's my take on it so and that's I think that's as far as I'm willing to go is to get it to 4% increase because I was here with you guys what are

084you factoring in for sure I just hope I know that that's not necessarily I understand that but that's up to you know the town and the people who want to drive the vote a certain way to be able to market it they have to be able to sell this thing not rely on you know just the news times to misquote certain things into here and the but you know they can't just rely on what they read in the paper or what they hear and see in the comment section they've gotta actually pay attention the meetings which majority of people don't everything it becomes second it's all type of gimmick telephone so they don't hear the facts all they see is the final number it has to come with an asterisk and they have to understand

085what's behind that asterisk all good discussion all good I can get on board with Ricky's thought process if we don't take a can down the road if you take that number the heat produced right now and we make true cuts I'm ok with that type of a number I'm okay with putting that forth and put that the voters come out again and put it forth that I don't want to kick can down and included a number but I think Ricky's not first that up to me it's just my opinion I think he did some work he looked at it I think that the way he analyzed it I liked the process and I'd be willing to get behind it I'm not willing to take money and kick it down the road now I also think

086Steve's right we hit the town pretty pretty hard at last so we took a lot out so it's a decision it's a tough one to make not saying it's easy but I can go along with Ricky's logic I think Ricky's right I think he got you under for mm-hmm I think it has to be true under for I think he's right in the selling of it the 495 is a mistake that we made that people should be penalized for but we got that same thing going forward next year like I said in the net ratio that it's it's a needle that we can't get away from and we can't it's going to be looking at us next year so we have to make to me what I call a true reduction that's why I go

087along with Ricky I don't want to go to a million I don't want go to 700,000 I think Ricky logic makes sense to me how's that point to them now we have to get to the place where you point to it all in here Steve s for Steve s for percentage all we can give it all we can give the board as a percentage so I thought if I'm good with that so here's some hold up SP a logic I don't know if it's right but I'm gonna throw it out there based on the increase that is being asked from each side if we do kind of a weighted average increase to both of them or a weighted average cut too close to town and of the schools it would be a cup of three

088hundred and eighty seven thousand of schools and sixty-three thousand over the town I'm not saying that's what we go with I'm just throwing it out there isn't numbers okay can we go to the to the military tab just to see what the number is to get to Fort Worth did it at nothing yeah sure come up with something higher now I'm okay we they can leave it some of the school taking some off the Capitol line yeah so let's be clear under the mixing and matching so what did show I mean this is a get below for yeah I was rounding Oh [Music] this is just for illustrative purposes all right time wrong so about 450 gets you below [Music] to be a 401 let's say to gage here just below 4% for 25 okay

0893.96 this is a okay so it's like for 25 in total Zen they don't want to make moves on they feel comfortable making moves in the capital tabs with not that out of way we can get to the heart of operations well right just to you said library AC 10k we could potentially gamble on that and insurance might pay for that and then Ted 12 K of travel blanket that did you make it 15 K that's 25 k traveling looking at 4 mm yeah I can try I can try you come gonna do it I'll do it I just have to I want to go back and make sure that my continuing education is covered I don't want people getting these certified Yeah right what so the air can be air conditioner or an air

090conditioner at the library is it sheltering in the library now remember last July one blue we have two of them and we had it was 92 degrees library it has to be what's the implication of the air conditioner that just went down if it stays down and we don't get insurance we'll have to replace it if the insurance company agrees to replace it be right around 10,000 what are the decisions in the library right now because the AC is down I'm sorry say again what are the conditions in the library right now because the AC is down right now it's okay but it's gonna build up you get three or four 90-degree days we begin to like today was a pretty good day we had the problem last year one of the air conditioners went

091down it was in high 80s in the library the old one thank God and what about the heat pumps at town hall is that a replacement plan or doesn't that was a replacement plan so they're not not functioning right now it's just that they're functioning but very reduce at a reduced level you've seen the one in the selectmen conference room though for fans and stuff we're going these are very old units there's one in my office I have to turn the system off to have a conference room because it's so loud so you know am I gonna die no can't we do the same process can we do a percentage process on Capitol and fell you know to lose some capital yeah and let you decide no capital you you're gonna have to decide if

092you're gonna make cuts to the capital you need to do it so here's what we'll do yeah there's not many things going on there on the cash babble on the cash so we'll go through each one will is a rise or fall on its own merits disabuse that Dan and I brought up let's do them all we'll go through real quick okay and that we make move to to decrease or cut and we will then we'll do that okay you can't see that very well can you case Oh and I know that's how I was picking them off all right all those in favor of we're changing all those in favor of wait sorry can we just go through them first and then go back to the table so that we can number on the

093tennis court crowd cheering you put it off last year yeah we put the crack seal off last year and it's not only a safety issue but in the winter ice water gets in there and freezes so that would one I would say maybe try to keep we're going to just give me a second to format this so they can all see it all right taking it from the top the tennis courts was in for 25000 replacing old AC unit that Public Works was in for 5,000 place - heat pumps at townhall 12,000 cash to pave roads 850,000 replaced second air conditioner at the library 10,000 miscellaneous repairs at Old Town Hall which is Parks and Rec 10,000 computer software for the police 61,000 a traffic radar 4,300 apparatus reserved at Candlewood fire 75,000 insulate the

094second Attic at Candlewood fire 11,000 apparatus reserved at center fire 75,000 ambulance reserved at center fire sixty nine thousand four hundred fifty-eight the gas detector meter replacement twelve thousand computer replacement at the library in five hundred replaced the coral risers fifteen thousand normal computer replacement hall five thousand network upgrades thirteen thousand computer software licenses 20100 and printers mm then finally we have the assessor's office revaluation reserving for the expense that comes in five years at sixty seven thousand five hundred a year okay can we bring to Jo and ask the question I want the police now we're gonna get there I kind of just askin for the capital yeah free capital I'm sure I don't think we should touch the police I just want to die last wash it to the board and I don't

095know the answer the police have their side fund that they do the work for that they helpless outside those type occasions with the outside services this is something we could use outside I hate to do it I'm not saying it's the right way but is this something we could utilize some outside services offset $61,000 typically we allow the police department and the Police Commission to make the determination as to what equipment they want to use and services for and our agreement is to leave a hundred and fifty thousand in that account two years ago we got agreement to bring it down to 50 but we could certainly ask Jay to come I'm not saying to do what I'm saying is that our away and I would expect he said no I would respect that he

096said yes I'm just saying we're looking at a $61,000 chief herself know if that's something that you would request to you lies your outside service fund for yeah sure come on up with us if you don't mind come to computer software that you've requested I hope you get the outside services fun I do not know the exact amount that's in there now I know that it's in the area of a couple hundred thousand could we use the outside services fund to fund the technology capital expense by the language in the town policy we can utilize those funds for capital items for the police department we believe that the sixty one thousand and sixty thousand and change technology item is is necessary it's critical for our operation so could we use it yes short answer yes

097would you be comfortable easy I mean this is it's not we're trying to figure out ways there it's really what it was designed to do is to kind of soften the blow sometimes understanding that sometimes the town budget can't afford it these monies are derived from outside companies who utilize our vehicles and part of the money is accounted for by a service charge that we do I think yes we've utilized this for computer hardly finger we use it for the APIs we used it for a vehicle for the second k9 we've used it for the architectural study there are a whole host of reasons we've used it with the with the technology item be applicable the answer is yes thank you very much thank you or gates they're taking reducing can you can't have a

098rope okay but we're all comfortable with the list as it's been run through yes all those in favor of reducing the be a high school crack seal on the tennis court indicate by saying aye those opposed okay next up all those in favor of reducing the replace AC unit the garage that's 30 years old you came by saying aye okay both replacing two heat pumps at town hall for 12,000 all those in favor of reducing that indicate by saying aye Capo's good alright paving roads cash portion 850,000 all those in favor of reducing that about a hundred thousand indicate by saying aye credit posed sorry okay replacing second air conditioner at the library for ten thousand all those in favor of reducing that zero and eight by saying hi hi about Steve mentioned maybe covered

099by insurance that's the problem concerned I don't want to say you look it could last another year we might get it covered by the insurance I think it's reasonable we did last time to figure got blown out of the water but the other unit lasted so I think it's a reasonable bet to take it out I would suggest you take it right uninterrupted this time all those in favor of reducing replaced second air conditioner at the library indicate by saying aye okay opposed can I ask before you vote in the next one what the miscellaneous repairs that the Town Hall work yeah there's a lot of wood that needs replace some of the windows are in bad shape I would not suggest you take the full amount out because I'd like to prevent further damage

100so if we could get three or four thousand you know to replace and repair the wood and paint it and make sure that it's protected at least keep it in a status quo more than $10,000 anyways no it is well talked about back to redo Annika lazing and these are real all my medicine and we're getting water time and so I'd like to at least prevent further damage all right all those in favor of reducing the miscellaneous repairs at Town Hall indicate by saying aye okay posed did you have did you have another absolutely anything a fire all those hurt all right so scratch that then a few on the specific amount all those in favor of reducing the miscellaneous repairs at Old Town Hall by five thousand EFSA my high proposed then you're in

101good with the five all right all those in favor of reducing to zero the computer software requested by the police when you get by saying aye whereas I'm sorry while those in favor of reducing the candle or fire apparatus reserved by 30,000 indicate by saying hi pose okay okay all those in favor reducing what we started to that also fall under that that 61 the traffic radar traffic radar Jeff revenue Alan is that anything to do with the traffic suit no okay no it doesn't Network all those in favor of reducing the traffic radar to zero and you get by saying i okay hosed right so we'll do that one house is all those in favor of reducing candle wood fire insulated second addict to zero and you keep my saying hi it's in again

102now so that's four okay opposed to okay [Music] - enter fire all those in favor of reducing the apparatus reserved by 30,000 indicated by saying hi opposed all those in favor of reducing the analyst reserve by 30,000 indicate by saying hi I opposed because is all those in favor of reducing to zero the gas detector meter replacement okay by saying hi that pose okay push games yeah okay through sessions about abstains I was in Tabor reducing the computer placement the Public Library zero indicate by saying aye so that's the host three or three Steve the motion was to reduce the computer placement library I'm opposed to reducing that okay public education replace coral risers for 15,000 all those in favor of reducing that to zero indicate by saying aye plant Kenzie is is the if

103when the Board of Ed is given their number will this be on the will they have the ability to include this in their in their house rushing I mean this is unfair this is a downside though if they right going to full 15,000 from their operating budget thing can they get out of their operating budget this is this at the town side all those in favor of reducing choral risers to zero indicate by saying aye okay opposed I say reduce it of the tailor producing no computer replacement at townhall 5000 and K by saying aye okay hosed that one in favor of reducing to zero now we're cup grades our tongue all indicate by saying aye okay opposed pretty Jew abstentions software licenses 20100 all those in favor of reducing to zero indicate by saying

104aye okay opposed as is I was in favor reducing the printer spend to 0 through 2050 by saying aye opposed extensions okay yeah just the printers and then last but certainly not least all those in favor of reducing the assessor's office revaluation reserve to zero from 6070 thousand five hundred indicate by saying aye okay do we have do we have to reduce it to zero but this is another one loggers move we need this expenditure it's gonna hit us in some year a number that we derived by dividing that let's let's carry out the motion on the table and then if you would like to how does it take another one quick closing table reduce them to zero indicate by saying aye okay opposed why but the computers being stretched out computers neither here you

105not lose the computer they're not getting new ones for one how old are they and that'll talk to Tommy about that yeah look um I had my replace this year was about seven years old um typically it's what 12,000 I think we cut it down five or six years no Steve the poor to select an icon as well if they live that's true what option why yeah not going forward every year yeah that's what we're doing 13 we're trying to about 13 14 percent per year it's a 78 year are you talking about Town Hall in the library oh my burrito no the miracle town hall was 5,000 right that library was the 12 pass right that recovery the the total of that reduction hundred two thousand one hundred seventy-three 173 or 137 one thing

106intact another 130 sale leaves us to find 320 2863 anything mine byline anyone felt comfortable discussing here I'm the town operation side we feel more comfortable throwing out a percentage to Steve and reconvening I'm not exactly comfortable with that and that it delays it delays what community but we can certainly take a vote as the house the first one giving a percentage and heavens any later because that's or communications things like that which and that's that's my life well how quickly I was I was open for this week actually I'm you ready figure it out we aborted life on being Monday so that's would be difficult for me to attend boat okay I just have to tell me what you want I can have it to you by Friday I probably have it to you

107tomorrow were saying just a blanket number across what that's it was proposed well you were talking about getting under 4 right right are you counting the capital against that yeah yeah it's an operating expense okay so we chose a number of for a chance with that go back that right we're going back mounted what you had so right there we chose a number of 425 right as a goal all right whatever back that number as I can't read that's for 25 you know took out the hundred and two to two ish to get the 320 doing well you got to split that amongst the divide exactly let's go into town what's going aboard of that you guys say come back yep so that that's the number that dictates the end goal Ricky how did you

108get to your split when you did the 387 proportion well I know I was coming up about the leanest exciting fix everything at its 86% town this video talking 2/3 2/3 almost you know that studies that taking into account all the all the messaging that you're talking about yeah I was actually gonna burst in a town in the other direction and rather than even have to be proportional with the budget have it just be 50/50 maybe I suggest so are you saying two-thirds one-third no I'm saying that if there's a clue I think that's not a burden on the town to take half of the law so we have half the budget I just do I did that's on there town budget is the dad in front anything to towel over the last X number

109of years town budget was increased more than that school by Johnny percent basis [Music] go back to it some sort of definitive why do we have the questions I'm the charger then we both said they both said but I mean you take proportions or thought to numbers proportions that town was closer passing then I'm just saying why do we use that data but we don't use that data why is it there why is it even in the thing if we're not going to utilize it it's a good question but to Lisa's point somebody voted yes - hi right people have very different motivations for the way they fill out those questions I think most people fill it out just the way no I think it's - I even if I voted yes why do we

110do indicators I don't get the data that we're governed by if we deal that way that the data is no good and I don't I didn't say you have to say it's indicative it's it's good or it isn't good either we look at it is it's telling us what the voters you know voted for or not voted for 50/50 is not really what the voters voted for line item I think that's looking into it creating an suggesting I mean it was too high on both as weathers by origin of 500 or margin of three the bottom line is both were too high I think it's taking too deep of the dive to consider further the spread of of how many folks voted too high on which one I mean if it's a bunch of the

111boss by and resounding about it's a 47 [Music] it was a lot closer than the last time perhaps but my only point here is if you split this 3:23 that you want to finally divide out by half the town is paying more than twice the percentage that the schools are because we're only one happened their budget so if you wait the 322 863 and if you want to it would be 277 662 reduction on the school side forty-five thousand two hundred and one reduction on the town side weighted based on the increases that they asked for in the budget that's how I decided to weigh that you can play around with how you want to wait that but it's almost a little unfair that the capital projects all we're looking at Lee oh no no

112it's a capital ship that's already taken out and if you smooth it out and we say it's only 275 you're adding 2,000 back to them if another 2,000 production into a town so if we did 275 to the school's forty seven thousand eight hundred eighty three reduction of town sure come on wrap it Ricky I looked at the brita so the percentage increases based on the whatever the mill rate increases how much of it was town size how much of it was school side and I'm tryna I'm waiting the reduction based on that is the school increase really grease for the school increase your a year without taking do count the 12 is the town increase the real increase because they have five 495,000 to decline same all right see we're talking you're talking based

113on your your weights and measures and scales and abacuses and feel free to come up with a different 48,000 maybe an increase that the library asked for was 47,000 it's just about there my family are huge patrons of the library we use it all the time perhaps now's not the right time to step up there's your legit cut so right there it's right in that way that sweet spot so the downside to the downside or we could do we could do that travel for 12 right 35 on the library still gets enough that some hours they're so I don't want to string this out I understand that you know I actually applauded the library for their strategy or three part-time employees getaway Sherrill time and it's office like this to me was was what the

114type of energy I'm looking for in all of these budgets so G they had a problem it was a known problem and they figured out a plan to do three part-timers to work it in and to me that's what needs to drive us going forward for our future that I gotta say shut down just explain and then put forth legit actions then I say let's keep the site that's legit action give him the number let Steve come back it's meeting in new mark358 call 48 yeah well we said on that set on 48 I would like it to be higher so can we discuss that yes I I think I think I understand the the methodology that Ricky used I don't know I don't agree but that's what you'd be used I think that I

115apologize that I'm in front me but the over the last five years the boarded the town budget has increased more than the within the school budget I believe I don't know if I don't know that for a fact I wish I did but just I I think that that there's more than $48,000 it needs to be cut out of it outside so I'm going to end it 50/50 on the 322 is unfair I'm gonna go with pro rata on budget size now that need criticized 6633 yes that's reasonable my thing so it would be a hundred seven hundred eight if you take if you divide 4:42 nine inside about 43% town because ready to Kathleen 3d common okay that's to 6633 on the remain very 2/3 yes [Music] and we know that a lot of

116the drivers in the school side at night we consider also out of their control I mean that specialist any all those mandates I know that those aren't funded that means other programs that are cut from the non special ed kids I mean that's it's a number that it's not like they've inflated their I know that you have your thoughts on it that there's my HP found in different places but you know there when you look at their increases there legitimate areas they're not they hardly asked for a new program so a new staff they have the neat those staffing needs that they asked for our make complete sense and so I haven't agree on more that type of weed [Music] all right any further discussion I originally that it was 25,000 these 63 of the

117town sites of that just if you could reiterate what that was based on that was before we were just on a 2,000 yeah no I'm just saying well there was a chef was the same way to family yeah the increase in which side was attributable to that percentage in 63 nobody according up for the 63 cab so here was our yeah nothing 63k was the townsite reading based on actually a number of 450 sits now for 25 - the 102 so we're 323 now we're gonna do choosers month looks good but this previously you had calculated as a percentage of the acreage yeah and that was 36% was attributable to this was this was based on budget increase they didn't waiting on this one I'm gonna get different ways sorry no but this one was

118based on the proportion of the budget yeah yeah - nose which was since 86 final boss I'm not happy we are where we are this has been voted down twice we have to get it where people have a comfort level and you know sell it to the town maybe we haven't done that room well enough you know we've had the storm didn't help in getting information out on the second budget didn't help but having the vote the day after a holiday didn't help but I think you guys are doing the right thing I'm not happy with it you know that's gonna cause some pain on my side it's gonna cause a lot of pain but it is where it is we have to get there god we have to get this budget passed the schools

119are gonna on the Capitol will already back to another summer where they don't have trouble getting projects done because we can't have the capital budget in the middle of July it is what it is but and we worked really hard to avoid that and man the Capitol is closed capital but English get your school that was our first up I think we've we went over these things enough I think it's time that we can I think have a discussion if this is this is direction we're moving let's have a discussion on the education side I think that's all oh you know what let's uh let's take a five-minute recess if you don't mind at this for a couple minutes rest your friend so we will recess for five five minutes take the house I had

120seen this on you're good I'm not gonna be here all right and we are back we have joining us the chair of the Board of Ed collector I had asked collapse this morning to come up with just ideas all right nothing is in stone I believe the board hasn't met to discuss these things but just ideas right we found ourselves in this situation what happened welcome you know what are some ideas right you know nothing has been moved on by the Board of Finance but I think we're at the point where we did we beat up the town pretty good and beat up the Capitol pretty well but you know we'd like the same opportunity with you okay um first just to reiterate that that the board still has a hundred and ninety one thousand

121dollars of reductions that we're looking at from the initial 180 reduction and in the hundred and seven thousand of last week it was our full intention to meet and identify those reductions prior to this vote but unfortunately because the Board of Finance was unavoidably delayed in meeting that set us back and so by the time we would have noticed that it gave us three days and we had board members out of state out of country and we just couldn't reach quorum so we find yourself in the position that we do have the hundred ninety one thousand yet to identify as well because we have a met I can't speak in definitive and thank you for Sean for clarifying that I can just toss ideas of things that we might be discussing as a board but

122this does has to have to come through there the first thing that we do would be exactly what you did with the town when you met last week and that's look at efficiencies that might be found since we initiated the budget and I can tell you from there we do have some that have been identified districts are working together to see what kind of efficiencies they can find district-wide and we have found that through shared transportation with Newtown we're going we would be able to have transportation to not a walk and and find a thirty thousand dollar efficiency there we are going to find probably about 12 and a half thousand dollars as well differential with the principle the center slow principle leaving and huckleberry principle leaving or I'm sorry or writing I have been

123looking as the whole board has been looking very carefully at our teacher retirements and resignations we do build in about an eighty thousand dollar savings on retirements and resignations right now we have had them coming in we have not filled those positions yet we base that on staff coming in an m7 level which is about a sixty seven thousand dollar staff level based on that right now we're looking at about sixty six thousand dollars in savings so we haven't quite met the eighty thousand we hope to do it but but we can't assume any other savings today are at this point so that's that's savings according to that's built into the budget right now so that is not real savings yet um after that we have to start looking at what's mandated versus what's not

124mandate and then find our reductions from there a lot of this we discussed when we had the exercise and and I think Shawn and Glen were the only ones there last September when we took a look we thought we might have the EC s completely cut out and the $2,000,000 and teacher retirements that would be on us we did an exercise or we did every half a percent what would it look like in different tiers so some of the things we would look at would be coming from there unfortunately we've gone quite a few tiers down in that exercise as it is now but we would be looking at a couple years ago we eliminated pay to participate we would maybe have to examine that again see if it's worthwhile we believe that would be

125about seventy eighty thousand dollars we're also looking at maybe not filling vacancies we have a secretarial position that could not go that could go unfilled you know you're looking at increased workload and decreased services but that's also an option um what is uh position all in secretary position what savings yes looking 45,000 I'd have to check that to make sure um 45 yes that's what I thought it was 45 um we could reduce stipends for extracurriculars and all the different schools so therefore that would be you know decreased extracurriculars decreased club activities that would be about fifty thousand that we think we could do it wouldn't eliminate all of them it would it would be noticeable but it wouldn't be devastating we would have to put school right in Richmond on the table again found

126that's something that we've really identified we feel like we've neglected for a while but again everything is on the table so we might have to examine that when we spoke last time about making reductions because we did as a board make some some hard reductions to the initial superintendent's budget as well we discussed library clerks we might have to discuss looking at those positions again if we go deep into it we might have to look at fourth grade band we could examine the specials at center and huckleberry you know we we must provide a certain amount maybe the efficiencies we can go fine we'd have to take a look at that middle school sports you also have to examine that these are not easy once you know we would also take a look at some

127of the things [Music] professional development travel everything else as well to see how we can minimize student impact - just the ones you were able to loosely quantify yes that's from transportation down to extracurricular stipends let's say again I'm loosely quantified not committed that adds up to around it two hundred eighteen thousand five hundred the June through the sixth [Music] retirement savings no that's built into the budget um I haven't completely added up if you've been adding it up of long I'm just the one I was just throwing ideas out because they're asked for ideas again I hate to give you a list of what it would equal because that is a decision that the board has to make so I can't you know bring it here and say this is what would happen in

128this is nobody I think that that fits the request thank you what was the final outcome of the savings from the previous school year but is that still considered yes that would hold over what was that seventy nine thousand that's built in with the 180,000 without was reduced there was a seventy nine thousand from that there's a sixteen Oh 16400 that we identified through a district fund of the Student Activity account that we're using to offset student classroom libraries and then the eighty four thousand remainder that we added to the one hundred and seven thousand of the reduction that was made last place they're facing almost even 1/2 million okay 90th wish you we found a solution for mmm-hmm I have pulled up in case anyone is interested the exercise we did last the Board

129of Finance did last year and mr. Beldon made the presentation of the reductions that were made he is when I'm sorry I don't have enough for everyone at the table I don't think just so you can take a look of what was considered then and how it figures are now and how loud are the reductions that are getting made how many do I have one there's long as I have one sometimes I am doing some hobbies sorry guys but I had enough but the budget the way it is you can't afford it you making something but these were the tears in the exercise that we did last time looking at every half percent and you can see at that time we thought okay the first tear was going to be really no student impact and

130then as you got further along it was significantly increased in impact we've essentially with the reduction in the custodian and the and the administrator got into a different ear this one's different from theirs so we were almost down to the fourth tier already we haven't looked at the cloth that's in the third tier and that's one of them that I discuss with you as well again these are all and I want to stress these are to everyone you know watching as well these are not definitive cuts these are just things that you would ask for examples that I'm putting on the table that the board may be discussing when we meet next week questions comments concerns questions so I know what you're going through the budget I'm sorry months ago there's a lot of conversation

131about curriculum development professional development process we will be considering everything curriculum is something that we have we have cut several years in a row we have to rewrite the courage but again everything will be considered everything is considered so Shawn could you just outline for and for the public's benefit how we total out to at estimated dollar cut over half a million so it's 191 that's carried over from is that right 191 is carried over from the remainder of the hundred and eighty that was initially reduced by the Board of Finance of Board of Selectmen and the 107,000 that was reduced last week so there's a hundred and ninety one thousand of reductions that we have yet to identify prior to tonight's meeting right and then the 107 represents the the 25 basis points the

132one quarter yes four since that we have to push through exactly this far okay and then the balance of that is how do we get to for $5,000,000 problem for the $90,000 solution or a half a million dollar problem with $9,000 solution I support for $10,000 top overall thank you are there any more questions for mr. okay hey Raj so Steve with our special meeting noticing requirements there's no way we can make tomorrow night you know so it has to be a Friday okay it's not an emergency here right not alone I don't get paid extra to mean on Fridays we do it right everybody gets paid actually okay I'm good with Friday if you want to meet Friday I'll find me that I'm not comfortable with pushing it out till next week can everyone

133make a Friday I mean I think it depends on sir we're basically giving the First Selectman all the latitude to point out that one hundred nine thousand seven hundred seventy-three and then we have to agree with it because it's a recommendation that we would essentially be taking and that's that for there to be a little discussion and then we would have to as a board in education the and then final right fine I'll increase they are asking that sounds his shoulder 1/3 decreased and I think it should be at the discretion of the first time because we're now asking for a larger amount we started out with the lower percentage and now so I think it should be at the First Selectman sister technicality it's at his recommendation recommend there's it's not that I wanted

134to hash it out from now yeah I think we should allow him the courtesy to do that and then to recommend what he what he has in mind because it's now a bigger number then when we started the meeting short bigger number there are a mountain emotion [Music] good don't feel comfortable moving on education without do we need to make a motion on this little person this is essentially this is table until Friday night [Music] education and I oh I mean we'll move on everything together you're right the comments no does not work on me that's one's Windham not trying to give any finalized everything all that works then we will table this discussion out like okay but Friday we're saying that we'll have a bare quorum here I'm not really okay with that is

135there any way to make the meeting earlier does that help anyone to attend open on a Friday night because I know Friday night is everyone's personal truck how long you expecting your board selected me Celeste on Monday is not a super long time half an hour 45 minutes hour tops so you could do Monday night at 8:00 if you wanted to that meeting I'll double-check it but we don't have a daddy agenda it's summertime villages our conference room upstairs all right so then we will table this agenda item but until Monday night so my date will just share up the location next order of business there's a discussion and possible action on 2018-19 capital improvement plan okay we have a recommendation from the first limiter Wow we have a recommendation from the First Selectman to

136push forward the capital improvements plan unchanged from the first referendum so I will make I'll make a motion that we approve the Board of Selectmen recommendation to move recommendation on the fiscal 2018-19 capital improvement project in the amount of two million five hundred seventy eight thousand fifty dollars for consideration at the referendum on Tuesday July 24th 2018 a second discussion I was an ugly motion I apologize before so this was as I mentioned this was unchanged from the initial referendum last call for discussion on this matter we don't have any information obviously yet about this high school generator no I think in the best case we could we put it for it yeah do the capital improvement plan and they're not just like 24th exactly and it hits if it comes through exactly we don't

137spend it and it's less that actually gets bonded online itself so we just we can we don't have to use this amount this is just the ceiling for the amasses what we're just is the ceiling correct any further discussion all right hearing none all those in favor of the motion on the table indicate by saying aye aye okay motion carries six all right any blows my leisure oh the favor I'm gonna say hi hi [Music]