BOARD OF FINANCE

001ok ladies and germs it is 702 on April 14 2018 I call this regular meeting of the road Billboard Finance to order to please rise and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation thank you everyone for joining Washington's we have a very full agenda this evening I believe we have some folks here to give us some presentations I making a motion that we move presentation okay second discussion okay all those in favor of moving new business two and three which are the presentations of the economic development Economic Community Development and W PCA - next okay motion carries okay we are joined tonight by Betsy painter economic hi good evening thank you for having me

002I figured tonight the best way to present the activity for the Year in Review so that would be the first slide just that we've had a very busy year we completed fight a few projects and a lot more of the queue to come up for the next year or two so it's been quite hectic and Town Hall the first you might remember back in June we kicked off our fiscal year with the phase 1 streetscape groundbreaking so this some pictures from the event the business owners it was very exciting time for Brookfield to get the streetscape off and running so with that project kind of staying on the streetscape I worked very closely with a lot of business owners to bring their signage and if you recall the signs down there we're very tall and

003high up in the sky and older signs with our new regulations they're more of a New England looking fields I work closely with businesses to revamp their signage the lamppost went in which create this New England charm we had holiday lighting up there we've created themed banners of iconic fields and images that are hanging there today and we're working right now to have some floral plants hanging for this summer probably not all the lampposts we're going to work slowly with a local landscaper and Parks and Rec so here's our design artist we're switching out this snowflake one for a boating image that we come from the sky but anyway so the the state did look quite nice though in the snow with the lighting continuing on so I worked very closely with the Brookfield Town

004Center for business it's a group that kind of resurrected since the groundbreaking from the silver the Greenway Kathi Crichton and a lot of the business owners down in the area from Angela with the cleaners etc has pulled this group together their goals hard to create in the town center to give the businesses and of course give back to the community they're a great source of resource for us construction so that's been a great relationship building that's been happening down that area really creating a buzz and then moving forward like I said save the date here for June 1st celebrate the streetscape and also the opening of Brookfield Village and your invitation will be coming the business group is putting together a block party to keep that celebration going through the weekend which will be Sunday

005June 3rd so June 1st 11 o'clock also this year back in July of 2017 I worked on putting together an application with the state to gain affordable housing moratorium so that was successful you have to gain at least 2% of your housing stock has to be fall within affordable housing so we gather those points together and we were successful and granted the moratorium in July so that will expire in 2021 and so I work deal of annually - with the developments that have affordable housing destination that they're falling within the compliance that they're meeting but there are tenants that are supposed to be under the right appropriate criteria is happening and that's mostly a Tom Brokaw men's Laurel Hill Brookfield Village and Orchard Street and we're the midst right now we're kind of coming towards

006the end of the zoning regulation rewrite we started in January with an ad hoc committee which had the chairs of the Zoning Commission planning zeebee a land use staff and Steve and we went through the regulations and then handed over in January to the Zoning Commission to review each section which they're doing now so hopefully they'll be done in mid-june and then they'll have to set a public hearing date and hopefully the new regulations will be adopted and they fall September October sometimes xx Station Road that's been a brownfield site it's been blighted and condemned since 2011 I prepared a grant application we gave in a word for $145,000 from the department of economic and Community Development for a brownfield assessment grant that's wrapping up now so we're determined what can be done with that

007property with a developer or whatever in the future uses but most importantly we just want to get it cleaned up because it's really it's right in the middle of the town center and it's I work with the farmers market we just recently received a grant for $2,500 to help market the farmers market this is their sixth seed season and they really have been working just on the volunteers and the money that they get from vendors to put back into mark it's been very successful there so now we have this grant to help really get you know being traffic and the best part is our match is all the volunteers time so they're already spending the time doing it there's a value to their time which is a lot of our in kind match so that

008will help and other grants that I've been working with too we did prepare the small cities which is helping for those families that have income eligibility to prepare you know to remodel or just updating their house at their home about 10 to 12 houses we can support with that I've been working at Lisa Lowe associates the consultant that had that grant I did prepare a Connecticut d-o-t connectivity grant to extend the Greenway and which would be great and bring it up through the towns municipal campus area to also pave that parking area between the town hall and the police or the fire and but with COC funding right now those grants have been put on the back burner so hopefully again I'm also staff support to the Planning Commission so I worked closely with John

009to advise and on the POC D action items right now you know this year we had because of our application that was out there for affordable housing anybody that had property you know came forward quickly to get their application in so that's been busy this past year with the Planning Commission I also a staff support to the facilities ad hoc committee so we had the committee's charge was to look at all the town on property to determine what would be best field you know some sort of sporting fields yes so we prepared a report for that but a lot of that research I just handed over to my loan for the Board of Ed to do some research so that work is now helping them out as well sustainable Brookfield that's a new ad hoc

010committee we just put together there's an effort from the state to have all hundred and 69 towns become sustainable which then would roll up and have the whole state be sustainable so looking at things of flow to be energy open space business support things that just create a vibrant community so I've been we had a second meeting yesterday hoc committee so it's future thinking planning John and I from paying commissions on that looking into so so on a daily basis I help support developers business owners and commercial property owners as their needs arise we continue to build relationships with commercial brokers resource resources out there regional planning etc we did put together Brookfield a I don't know if you're familiar in October they have the you know the Yankee fair and the Craft Center open

011house and the Gursky farm farm fascinating but that bundle that together to kind of create a bigger event for Brookfield work to the volunteer day with Ginny volunteers in September and our new website now has a community calendar which gives an opportunity for local nonprofits to post their happenings in the town so we're trying to draw that attention to the town website for the community to have an opportunity to together so community communication since we don't have a newspaper he's having Brookfield Journal trying to find ways to get clear communication out to the community I have an Economic Development website or Facebook page that trying to post resources on Brookfield news but the Brookfield matters newsletter something that we're looking at right now to give it a facelift trying to shorten it get relevant information

012so look for that in the future and we're trying to gain increased readership on that as well okay like I mentioned the town website there's a lot of information that's house there for resources we want to get that information out to the community so so for the Economic Development Commission I'm staff support to them helping the Commission to move forward they have a great website for fill DDC word that's really our prime marketing tool for this house for economic development and business owners and so this is just opportunity for us to say that we're open for business and how to learn about Brookfield I can help with the assistant of the website maintenance updating images and copy etc and we have other marketing outreach programs that we do and do articles for doing the real

013estate journal Fairfield County Business Journal and their local advertising so this is the EDC we're working together and online back there ABC as well they're currently working on updating their mission statement goals and our action items for this time for the PLC D we just created this logo so you know some branding for the Economic Development Commission this is our first ad that we kind of reach out to entrepreneurs in the community get them to come to the website and learn the resources that are there I've worked with the assessor's mailing of their property commercial property tax bill that they do it put an insert in there to let businesses know that this website is their Network here at home this is a new relationship with the library that the EDC is doing with score

014which is service for of retired executives providing seminars in town at the library for entrepreneurs and small business owners that need help with various different financing marketing etc so we just had home - they're very well attended and we have another one coming up on Monday and then we constantly have a business retention and expansion program so we're always trying to reach out to meet the local business owners and manufacturers to see how we can help them possibly where their work for workforce needs or expansions or anything that they may need to grow and stay here in Brookfield and most importantly just to thank them like I said you know Rose so we don't want them to move you know leave your opponent's our tax base so economic gardening is what we're all about trying

015to grow and attract new thank you very much the programs that you put on like that for sponsoring the swirl workshop does that cost anything to participate no no that's a I got partnerships with local banks so they supply the the refreshments or whatever so many times they anything with our partners in this one any of the programs that you listed there they cost anything to go to a party field a well Brooke Valdez doesn't there's no cost that's all volunteer the black party is run by the Business Association and they're working with other businesses to get boots and to get like the vendor booths or whatever that for them making sure and she says we got that done real really much quicker than I thought and I want to thank Betsy for doing that

016there's a lot of boxes no in fact they're very excited the Greenway has been a great attraction down in that area and the sidewalk connects kind of right down to the arena and Phase two will really literally connect it but it brings people down to the area yeah a lot of these business we had a meeting last night with a four corners group and talking in some of the property owners they really want the second phase of our sidewalks to go in because people walk up the silvery mine get on the sidewalk and walk right up to their businesses so that's gonna be next spring so it's working well I think they're all very positive to a to a business I haven't heard anybody complained they a little bit you know when we blocked off

017their driveway and people couldn't get access but otherwise I'm all very very happy with it and they see a lot of potential and they were worried about 25 businesses there last night easy which we had not gotten audience now so that's they're encouraged by that as well thank you very much thank you next we are welcoming Nelson Mallett's of the WPC a to give us a brief overview the proposed 2019 WBC a budget Danny able to turn on the lights ok awesome Alice I'm Shanna of the flyover of the budget the we have a full board eight members on the board and then we use we have our own staff in the field and in the office for planning operation and collecting funds but we outsource the engineering accounting legal and other support is needed

018so we just pay for what we use our systems we are making really heavy use of the GIS system towns and saw that for the tax assessor about five years ago and but we're we have our own layer and then our fellows and go out with our tablets that can see what's underground real-time in any spot in Brookfield and so we've upgraded our systems to be able to make more efficient with the employees that we have we have our own accountant and our own bank account so we operate financially we first a guidance and and so we don't take any money from the town we give money to the town but emotion to pay bills and that's it the WPC has tripled over the last 15 years in terms of infrastructure on the ground and

019a number of customers and so but we try we maintain the same staff recently we did hire a part-time director future then we we're also the other thing that's happening this year is we've arranged to purchase a building space I'll be moving out that place right now was 205 285 square feet it was designed as a storage closet and now we space in the last 30 years and so it's going into 2004 the future so it's not a construction now but the harsh winter has been a bit away from the builders expectations the cost of the building it'll be a 25 year mortgage for future customers that's just um I think a smarter way to do business we just finished up project less punched on the drawing board active project has been to reroute the

020source system and rollingwood they had a pump station that was quite a lot of dated and it was two pounds and so just a hair tomorrow the sword will be the water flowing the sewer from the instead of usually the pumps downhill and you don't really know what the course is going to be told this come in so that was that all the sort out project and every other sort of project is paid for by the people that are on it in terms of the infrastructure and each one has its own we call the district each one has its own financial silo that's on bank account that resolution and so that's paid for by the by the people that are that are benefited by that sir district so we also did some the support Betsy

021you got the support Betsy some infrastructure increases in the north area of the town to take care of the town center district so the very North Station one at seven seven seven and and improve to handle the increased flow solar ready for whatever might come down the road and so that was simply that was paid for actually there's a federal of North District so we paid for by those that are coming on and it'll cover the costs without having any more assessments the okay we pca we have a rate increase in two thousand two to three hundred eighty dollars per unit charge by unit I want households one unit and then there's calculation but and 2017 we jumped half percent and we don't expect any more increases for a while the there's a there's a

022number well the apartments and condos if you have your any business considered to be one like one apartment yeah one apartment there's one households one unit we're looking to modify that we did find that one bedroom houses and condos use 85% of the water that too and more bedrooms to more better doesn't see in the matter so now the families sophisticated study done by tiny pond to see where we were on that and so we're looking to redo the whole thing and take commercial customers learning their water usage charge based on water usage based on instead of Aquarion just sort of last few years finished all customers will come on so we have a bit of a tedious project so but you're not charging it based on usage that only happens in a little bit

023and not everybody's on it so not everybody has water meters so a lot of people have wells and they're just so in some jurisdictions they make them put a water meter on so you can make this complicated building infrastructure change it's not easy one all of the waste all the waste is sent to Danbury for treatment there's a regional wastewater treatment plant and so phosphorus coming out of there please Gina plant and it's got that whole project for one hundred million dollars to Danbury will reduce the amount of phosphorus in Lakeland Anoa coming off the river by seven percent so it may even be measurable but it's 100,000 on the lesson our ticket to ride on that is about three main house anyway we're right now we're on the hook for 15% what eventually all

024in 2002 car the engineering fees which is about three of the three hundred fifty thousand dollars and we've been collecting that with a supplemental fee and putting on a set our bank account same outside and we if you look at maybe the our expenses about 20% of about almost 1 million hours for the next year that's that's what we will be taking in expect and then the dam break the pieces about three hundred fifty thousand or twenty percent the employee costs are about thirty nine percent as you know sir a big factor that includes that's we're expecting the operating cost includes the electric bill takes some electricity to pump the water and then the administration costs actually includes the legal and accounting and and cost like that that we contract out the contribution of capital

025ends up being what we can use in order to use it to fix the infrastructures so basically you don't say profit profit from the operations and then some of the capital items are on page three of that report but will be our final station which is affectionately called the cows or cattle or station of us right there I know me and it's to put a meter in and reconfigure it we have a pipe right there about three Christmases ago repair but it's not a permanent repair so that's roughly 90,000 dollars and we we did pick up Commerce Road was a old sources in there and well some skeletons in the closet $20,000 fixes and stuff like that so that ends up with total rainy day and we put aside buying a truck we'll probably need

026that next year instead of doing another project we do we do about 10 manholes a year in order to touch them up and a lot of them there's a dip you know in the road and you're prepared with so we fix them up get them all nice and level and so we have scheduled or we do that anyway lastly sir business pro field but we business supports are all of commercial and industrial activity so and there's a number of residents on it and a lot of the projects also some oversight by the state so we have to pay attention to that and and I'm and I'm here we are everything you know go down so ok that's my comment is there anything I think I know the answer is there anything at risk the WPC

027a can't cover any costs that are coming the WPC one co2 carbon at the time we go hook for yes and no ok well they're all gonna be on the hook for is for about three billion dollars of cost for the Danbury plant so that'll be about the year 2022 then we did that we just made a special assessment attached to this regular you spill in order to pay the loan that we have to get on the state that okay that three million dollars to Danbury paying 15% anyway that is I think that that is a net including expected grants which may or may not come through so on that Nelson are you currently planning to offer the same type of plan when you put these assessments through that people can pay them cash right

028upfront or pay them over a period of time I've made a decision on it yeah probably what will be done is just put okay long they'll be pay hopefully got a clean water fine lawn for two percent make me dated years ago and then that would be put into the you spill to pay the loan would it be a special assessment that's a little more complicated constructed it's that's what we did the years passed and when that loan one away in 2015 we dropped that use charge so actually went down half the cost is simply to upgrade our plant because so the for the three hundred fifty thousand dollars that student 2019 for the cost so that there's a $44 per unit per year additional plant charge that will be added and that's based on

029four thousand units with all the new development that's coming well the new folks be assess this forty four dollars that busy way over that three hundred fifty thousand dollars facing the larger bill in 2022 whatever comes in they'll be it'll just offset I said that will be set aside won't go as profits it'll go towards the next yeah stay in a special Danbury plant farm account and for use and just offset we just want to keep it to a crew against it and pay later or just pay when it comes and but it's happening or building we're sort of a small fashion we have a town sir right Bethel Newtown this field also as well okay total revenue there's some total revenues on page one of hanging for citizens site the six line down so

030any other questions for Nelson thank you okay the next order of business is public comment four minutes per speaker and any members of the public that would like to comment call my ross at channel 6 big book lane my comments will be applicable to the discussions on the town budget I felt a review of budgets that are being proposed from all surrounding town shows that all the budgets are significantly below the five point six percent increase in Brookfield's proposed 2018-2019 budgets and the information I'll share with you is all from the town's latest websites and from the Danbury news times beginning on their April 1st edition so Danbury April 4th mountain cuts property taxes the headline he proposes a modest increase of 2.6 percent in the 2018-2019 budget property taxes will decline from the increase

031in the city's tax base Bethel a member from their finance board is quoted as saying that the challenge to consider residents who would struggle to pay for the tax increase the referendum going to budget shows an increase of 2.7 6% new town 117 million budget will increase taxes by a little over 1% and whether the expense portion of that but budget is an increase of 2.4% New Milford the New Milford budget is the most extensive budget I've seen in the 10 there are over 240 pages that detail the can budget the town is now looking at a budget of just over 1% now I'll give you some examples that they have in there the utility expenses it down compared to Brookfield utility expenses are up they state that their electricity rate and the budget is

032oay to 9 per kilowatt hour that the diesel closer $1 96 a gallon and that gasoline is a dollar 90 a gallon I've looked at the forward markets for these prices and these are reasonable so I'd like to ask what is in our town budget for these three items the school budget is going up but the salaries in the school budget show an increase of 0.15 percent and it reflects a reduction of eight point four five full-time equivalent positions the 750,000 dollars that they reduced the school budget for in 28 and 2017 and 2018 were not put into their 2018 2019 budget unlike Brookfield where the efficiencies that we realized in our school budgets was almost totally put into the 2018 2019 budget New Fairfield an increase of three point two two percent no contingency

033no contingency funds are in their budget as a matter of fact I couldn't find any contingency funds in any budget except New Milford New Milford at 250,000 specifically for snow removal but a statement that if it's not used it's not spent Richfield rich realist created surpluses over the past few years and surpluses and this is a quote from one of their slides surpluses have been created by taxpayers we like to give as much of it back to current taxpayers they are giving back 1.6 million dollars back to the current act so the taxpayers now if these if these towns can have budgets of this magnitude why are we sitting here with a 5.6 4% increase in the assessment rate that translates to an increase of 5.6 more percent you know budgets so I'd like to

034propose the following items eliminate the contingency budget two hundred and fifty thousand dollars actual expenditures in the Year 2015 and 2016 were about a million dollars under the budget take care of that and give it back that reduces the overall budget by 1% take the school budget where the efficiencies realized in 2017 2018 will put back into 2018 2019 take that out it's another two hundred thousand take a look at the utility expenses in the town and use the forward and walk it as a basis to lock in prices anyone needs any help I could do it my background is in energy for 40 years that's time sir that's because that was my I would like to just make one I know I talked to Matt Nick marker bevel and they actually had a five-point

035some-odd percent increase but because of the massive development say that they were able to bring it down to two points we just don't have that yet we will get that over the next few years one of the developers did come in today and started applying for permits which is very good that'll be about a 1012 million dollar project so it's very hard to compare one town to another because you have to look at the entire picture look at the development in a town what's going on in the town what kind of cuts they got in grants do you really have to analyze using just numbers off the top sometimes doesn't tell the whole story compare our mill rate to theirs but if you look at new muffler things / 12 jobs on the downside they

036they're slashing the education budget quite a bit do you get that point so you really have to look at everything they come to do it to see you can't just look at a number that there's five point six percent or ten percent you really have to look underneath and what's driving those numbers that's just my opinion oh very fair points is there anyone else that would like to get comment okay all right moving on communications and correspondence received we received quite a bit of Correspondence kill me stick your boobs I also like the next like to make a motion for the approval of the minutes so we have minutes from March 15th our regular board are about regular Board of Finance meeting and then we've had a special board - meetings of March 1928 21st

037and 22nd and then our public Oh the discussion on the minutes as they've been presented okay hearing none all those in favor of approving the minutes for March 15th 19 20th 21st 22nd April 3rd indicate by saying aye aye motion carries move on to the report of the first election yes sir yeah we're working on with a lot of the developers as I said earlier we had one come in today that is finally applying for permits after about seven years planning the project that's really good we had a meeting today with Brookfield Village to try to move forward on their plan not only to add the two additional buildings on federal road but the townhouse and apartment developments behind those that would be 40 units total we're trying to move that forward and help them

038do that we are also working very closely as we described earlier with the local business community on the June third block party because we want to start one of the problems we have is in our new downtown you need people eating businesses you need both together so the block party will help they did that four years ago and it was very successful and we hope to do that again we also have a lot of belief that the silver Greenway you know last October and the weekends we're getting over 900 people a day that's just gonna grow and that's going to drive people walking into the downtown there is the supermarket property that they're still working on we're working with them to get that property developed and we're working with them to hopefully establish some public

039parking they're on 20 Station Road Betsy painter and I but Betsy did the application we got one hundred forty five thousand to study through study it to see what it needs from a remediation standpoint we are now moving forward on that property because it is blighted and we want that property to be either repaired fixed or taken care of it's I don't know if you drew my last week somebody thumped a cup of washing machines on the property so it's really blighted and we're gonna go after them on that the owner we're not trying to be vindictive but this property is remain that way for many years it needs to be taken care of it it's in our downtown and it's really an eyesore look at me let go laughter we have a blight committee

040and new blight regulations so we can say to people you need to clean up this property you need to get it off there standard one of the criteria for creating a blight condition is lowering the value of neighboring properties and there's clearly no doubt in our mind that that property does lower the value of neighboring properties it's it's an eyesore it's dangerous sometimes we have kids trying to get in there it needs to be fixed and that's what we can do that if they don't fix the property then we levy fines on them that's our last choice we rather we worked with about eight different properties over the last year most of them have been cooperative in cleaning up their properties and getting them through a condition that is acceptable to the neighbors and it's

041not affecting their neighbors outside one of them is one high rate road I don't know if you could buy that it's right on 133 it was just a mess for years and years and years and people on high ridge you're trying to sell our houses and you drive by this property that's clearly derelict and people don't want to live on that road they don't want and that's really affecting people's values so we're using it very judiciously and for the really difficult problem properties and it's working pretty well it's working pretty well so we're gonna go forward on that because our downtown that building needs to go you either have to fix it up or you have to take it down one of the two and the property itself it seems that there are some businesses

042that are using that property as a parking space you know for their commercial vehicles we put a stop to that so we're getting there bit by bit as you know the audit is finished the budget is almost finished so we're doing a pretty good there we're working with our auditors it was a very good idea they're gonna be coming in probably on a quarterly basis just to come in look at our books how are we doing are we where we need to be and I think that's a really good idea we should be doing that we shouldn't do that for years waffle so you mention that working with a developer those the first inventions are you able to comment where what when book a village right is they have this development that's going in behind

043the existing buildings right they have a an initial plan for it and we're trying to help them get it through the Inland Wetlands obviously we don't can't throw wetlands what to do but we can use the power suasion to move forward we think this is a really good project you know it's all market rate so many 20 townhouses 20 apartments looks really nice well cool is just not a very good job I think in maybe building buildings that are New England like in character you know the quality is good and we'd like to see that move forward you know 40 20 apartments in twenty ten houses if a townhouse goes to 250,000 you're talking five million dollars just for the townhouses and the apartments similar you know you use discounted cash flow rate to determine

044the value of those and we're looking to encourage that doesn't want people in our downtown that will attract the restaurants and businesses Muirfield Village is now about 75 80 percent rented in the first two buildings they have a number of businesses coming in so that's a good commercial residential they had no problem with at all they were worried about the commercial yeah yeah a couple people so when they do that once we hit the 70 percent mark they have one year to start the second two buildings right you mentioned I had media village today mentioned not at this time it's so early I don't wanna I know it's in the newspaper that there was you're gonna look for approval to sell 18 yes that's a good question eighteen Junction Road was left in a town

045by a former chairman of the conservation committee a very dedicated resident who has lived here for 40 or 50 years it is a single family residence in a residential area he left it for the town for furtherance of conservation in particular Kirksey we have rented that property out for a number of years it's at the point where it's gonna need some significant work the conservation committee does not believe that they really should be in the business of renting properties so what their desire and goal is is to sell that property and you then use that money to fix up kersky it will be dedicated to Kirksey will be in a separate account and they're looking they need money for Kirksey so we think it would be very fitting and meeting the goals of the person

046who left that property to us to do exactly that so we're gonna have we had a hearing on it and then I'm probably gonna move forward with that and we welcome comment from anyone if you know if the property was adjacent to our ski or on Gursky or next to some other open space I'd say you know we should probably keep it and figure out a use for it this is just in a residential area it's just a house in residence it's not about two acres no it can't be anything about a single-family house no no good evening we have the March 2018 financials so I'm gonna discuss with the drivers and then turn to the section of the grants so the main driver in the revenue is tax collection fifty-five million nine one nine

047three sixty four ninety three percent on the expenditures we have the additional legal and that is legal fees at 88% I have a note there that that budget line had been reduced regional services the same at ninety five percent those are prepaid items regional animal control probate court can Walaker thority Brookfield veteran sweetheart senior transportation and hve Co regional social services at a hundred percent those are also prepaid items abilities beyond disabilities the Women's Center hospice and there are some other services in there that we prepay employee benefits at 83% again projected to be over at 90 K the life insurance and the medical and the Oh pad which is fully fully funded so that's at 100% on the agenda tonight also have the review of the grants so if you turn to the revenues

048section from I don't know what the times we had and certainly looking to that you're asking what was legal fees for last year I think $30,000 in 175 to 145 in one of the categories yes on the legal fees line yeah this is we tweaked last year by it's kind of hard to say because the litigation we're going through the primary drivers are at land use we knew that we talked about it last year with the a 30 g housing we have two entities suing us for not granting them that permits that's going to be a pretty long drawn-out process we're not we're sticking to our guns we believe we're we're in the right here so those fees have gone up smoke some small expenses with 49 that whole road and then we let all

049the tax litigation for the revo right and those are the drivers for that I it's hard to predict where we're end up the me Val litigation is still going on with four properties right now those are some bigger property owners in town that they have you know entire 30 teen 30 people on a team legal teams and they just take it as far as they can all of the most of virtually all of the residential suits and complaints that we have have been settled so I had to take a guess I think we're gonna head up around 200,000 if I have to guess it's gonna be a very loose guess we just don't know what those fees are gonna come in it depends on when this entity files that they file in court we have

050to respond and that could take six to eight hours if they don't file till July then it would be a next year's budget so it's very hard to tell yeah that's correct and just keep in mind fiscal year ends and it all comes in you might get a report that doesn't reflect an expenditure that we may have to go back and book after the presentation so you might see a jump after the fact I don't have any real additional information fortunately tonight on the grants I am watching a few of the accounts I have a note into my contact at the states but not much has changed so we're looking at Lowe's up and these are the key accounts that I'm keeping on the ECS the town aid so those are the main drivers there

051that we you know we're interested aiding that revenue to come in but I don't have an update for you Louise been in touch with the state I'm probably about by weekly basis and they just they don't know where because the legislature hasn't and that's exactly what they say we just don't know so but we're gonna so that's it on our financials any questions for Kimberly so we have any report and I apologize that it went out late or just our first time first go at it we just got this software just one second - can you describe what the software is so this is a capital software so we have we have a fixed asset software which is connected to our immune system and that's for completed projects and fixed assets right and then we

052have a capital projects module which is for construction and progress so we have loaded in there these 1718 we are going to go back now and Savannah did a great job putting this together when you go back and put the 16/17 in and so basically this is the formats this relies on manual entry it's not connected to munis but it's a good tool for us to use during audit as well it's easy to understand so you have your budget you have your actual year-to-date expenditures now those numbers come right from unis and we can pull a report to pull those and then the over and under and then percentage of the budget so this is 1718 projects yes it is so does anyone have any comments is everyone happy with the format please that's great

053I I can look into that but I don't believe so you know once we have our your set up we put these in once so great the line is ready this month we had an additional hundred thousand dollars in paving we put that in so I don't think it'll be overly burden supposed to keep this up on my own basis and I think it's gonna be a very good tool to make sure we're on track and where we are with every single project though yeah so I believe this same software is used by Newton presented to their board finance and they're very pleased with it looking at last year's capital and just a little bit okay the grand total yeah okay okay we'll take a look at is is it you know the short-term financing

054no the short-term financing at night we can try and incorporate that oh is that why you think it's off okay so we'll take a look at that all right so the actual spend though that's key to that is Keaton yes what are you reconciling that - that would be reconciled to fun seven and Fundy where our spending is or for the capital project so the total of fun seven fun date would be here today yeah it should tie up well we had a we had free make any other year budget I mean the things like the reserves right because we have a bunch of reserves and here heavy-duty reserves for stop so we don't actually have that reserve account anymore although we're still labeling as reserve in our budget we've eliminated those through the audit

055process this year and so has they has a request comes up that's when they get funded but that has now been consolidated in fund 7 which is the non-recurring capital but the money is there so like this so for example Center Fire EMS ambulance Reserve got a budget of thirty three thousand seventy five we have enough money and fun seven to cover that reserve so I guess the question is we're taking that money we are allocating at the fun seven and leaving their cigarette what was in the reserve fund was allocated to fund seven that answer your question do I don't know if you publishes offline but do what a grants falling to here okay if we're getting a grant does that ever factor in - not compatible with the software and also in the

056fund accounting it's it would we do keep track of like of the streetscape every grant all for grants against that versus all expenditures and then we net out the actual amount further down but if I may we have now Steve and I have written a new grant policy we're going to centralize the grants and and so I think that was the original report so once we have that in place we can try and incorporate that somehow into this reporting if you'd like to see the grants as well you may we could work with Ricky to be up with a formatting that wouldn't come to my office sure excellent okay any questions or additional information yeah and their grant money the quick glance are going to be down about 400,000 I don't know yes we're down

057yes I mean I think we'll get this 505 yes we'll probably get tallied road money definitely the 152 mm-hmm the other areas well they're not material but are you referring to missile revenue sharing that's gone famous right now we're down 1.17 billion okay right from unbudgeted numbers yes all I see is picking up is about maybe 700 800 thousand of that are we prepared for the three four hundred thousand on the backside of that hmm I don't think we'll be down four hundred thousand dollars where are you gonna pick it up here though because the numbers lay out pretty good here yeah I believe our grants are gonna come in pretty close to where we happen that's what I believe right if they if and when they tell us we're not getting that money then

058we'll have to look at it okay sound we're gonna different the 494 on the state miscellaneous is gone that's not even listed anywhere we're not getting that so the other ones that hear that they're coming in at 98 percent we're not going to probably get two percent on that 77 we'll probably be lucky to pick that up two percent on another one what I'm saying is do we have a plan if we look at I don't see you get I don't see you getting anywhere near 1.17 billion I don't it's not were the case I'm not concerned at this point entering the last quarter I mean possibly revisit the question next month but at this time looking at these numbers and where these individual departments are I'm okay with that for March next month is

059April there's not a lot of time to recover hundreds of thousands of dollars is all I'm saying I mean shift sale from the point of I don't see how you're going to come back to the grandma I can't see the the connection of at least two to three hundred thousand dollars and all I'm saying is what is our plan to cover that as we have extra revenue somewhere else that you're that we're right on par with revenues right we do have some positions that haven't been filled we do have some expenses that have not been made yet we have to we can cut back on some of those you can see here there's quite a few projects that we have not undertaken that our cash projects and we will just start to we happen we

060have to hit the budget the Kwan's point is there any I'm sorry did is there any of these that we can say we're definitely not going to be able this morning time I don't have a recommendation we can look at that do we have a contingency fund scorecard up-to-date there's about there's about one hundred seventy two thousand dollars left if that's yeah versus what we earmarked for various expense right right now there's about 170 mm you guys got that report to board yeah no ii send it back out to you again no no exchange right now and then how we run it on this salt and sand we are sold sand is fine okay done that over time we're going to be over a little bit but we're making some adjustments in other areas from

061the snow so we might end up right around we have got the final numbers from our mind up about ten thousand dollars over on overtime so we should be ten twelve thousand we should be in pretty good shape there it's a lot less than I I've been watching it's not equally basis it's less than week and we would have been pretty good except a lot of these storms came on weekends you know we love a storm to come Monday morning at 8 o'clock then only because our staff is already in we'd have a lot of weekends we pay time and a half and double time because these guys are out there for hours and hours and hours so we're pretty good there yeah I'm also comfortable with next year's numbers you know that's one of

062those ones employee benefits we're estimating only a 90,000 overrun right now yeah and that was the lesson I got sitting down with the HR and reviewing those numbers does that paid quarterly or how was that paid monthly so if you take what we've been paying it's like quite a bit per month it'll run us way over to run us a million over if we pay our current right if you take the 3:191 by nine months what's the run rate on that let me get you my detail if you pay it monthly I think it's going to be more than that so something's four point two six five if you were to use that they're not a potential 210,000 yeah we're bigger than the 90 well that's all that's all clean so constant of course yeah

063we don't need an answer now just guess the answer that's all the numbers in front you just make sure the numbers good that's all it's not a dating it's just to make sure we're March right you're those slices I agree I just did I'm upright there's a lot of other items in there not just if you can look at it to see totally understand it just how much I understand it yeah I do and they're they're pretty much you know they're close to target there's other items in there that are pushing the line over they you know we've fully funded our pension that's in there just wants number out that's my end we'll send you a report that gives you more detail right that's double check any surprises or anything we want to know what

064the surprise is gonna be soon as we had a little bit more time to deal with any other questions of our finance director was there anything to cover would it make sense for next meeting to have a recap of where we are on debt service where we're going to end up for the year compared to budget I think we know the aim is over in Maine right yeah a third of the surplus though from audit that just concluded was that service about two hundred seventy seven thousand you get the same spot for the eighteen your end or not good next we have reported please all right if committee chair is not here he's basking the sons of California idea if he even got there through there I've seen mention do it was complete I mentioned

065last week that it was done a month ahead last year making strides to make sure we can get earlier he's coming here I like the idea in terms working to see I can't believe it's even better so the interim work yeah anything to report on from the hoc reporting height no kind of read touched upon it they've had the standardized reporting from their new software like she said work with her to further if you know we want to see the grass put in there that would be definitely helpful for us this one that's pretty easy really adds to it just is this is really the only team that I received or all reports it kind of know yet other reports are gonna be a similar format okay cool alright there's any old business table anything

066from last time no problem there so move on to a new business 2018-19 Talon Brophy low budget we had our public hearing we had some feedback there a handful of emails after that is there anything anyone would like to discuss I think in my opinion so let me clear we put forth a budget that aligned with our leader strategic thought processes we took for what Steve has strategically and we took forth what the border that has strategically planned when I don't want it to see is the town going into oh my god a panic if we were to have to cut a hundred thousand dollars on a 67 million dollar budget panic won't set it I do think again we met the strategic goals of our leaders that we put into place to make these

067decisions but some of these letters are like oh we have any kind of cuts it's gonna be so devastating I do don't think a hundred thousand two hundred thousand three hundred thousand in a 67 million dollar budget is catastrophic not saying oh that we did agree as a group for the strategic initiatives of the leaders that before the budgets to us and we all agreed to him so I think well again what we did is we took our leaders strategic points we've reviewed their budget and align them with their what they wanted so I don't like a saddle somebody's letter that oh my god you know if we lose this money it's gonna be detrimental it won't be the skies falling but it won't allow the leaders to meet their initiatives as well so that's

068all I wanted to say on that for my opponent you that's a great point thanks for bringing up yes you don't have to yeah I just want to give everyone ample time to exercise your rights board members that's all he just well just this month's budget how far we think we make you know the potential miss will had on grants just for this year just highlights the need to be conservative in the bushing process and assuming we're gonna receive everything from the state and that's I think that's what we did it you know eliminating trend rulinea as much at risk as possible and hey if we get more great I'd love to give some money back to the town if this happens to give us way more than we expected but it's not it's not

069worth the risk when the numbers come in throughout the year next year we go through the courts and everything we get our funding from two shots right most of it two shots a big numbers big big not the school's shots of how things are coming in and what plays out we're so in my opinion I think that we get a great deal in this town for all the services that were provided in the levels of services that are provided by everyone that's employed and volunteers about this town and I still feel that way budget okay I don't have anything okay around there's nothing else all right and I will make a motion that the Board of Finance approve the 2018-19 town of Brookfield budget as presented at the public hearing for referendum any further discussion

070on the topic okay hearing none all those in favor of approving the budget as was presented for a referendum okay by saying hi hi hi okay motion carries five over the next order of business is prove the agenda where the presentations those are moved this on the tick list for the April regular meeting we did have a review of elected officials salary I would like to table that to next month any objections to that I would like then to be here when we have that discussion I think everyone would have an opinion on the matter no and I would just like to make sure that if in does have an opinion he's gets to voice it that's all so I have a full complement of the board well they're all probably on the phone motion

071can we get a list of that you prepared for this yeah the elect I know yes just that's in our budget but just a clean list of elected officials well this particular one as it's written is only the first selectmen so that's why it's it's intentionally apostrophe s instead of s apostrophe s only one so it yes so we'll have a lot of documentation I imagine to support a discussion or we can have a full complement same thing with the next item I like the table that as well dan had brought that up it would be a good idea to have Dan here he's very interested yeah well you know we sent out the the draft agenda out to the group and that was something he felt very strongly about discussing and he's not here

072so we'll just save these for the next meeting well I would like to mention that Dan did share his thoughts with the board on the budget over email are there any other anything that we may have left off the agenda anything that anyone wants to inadvertently let doesn't or anything that came up I think just for next month you talked to during the budget deliberations about having a policy maybe even working on that with the fire trucks and our support you know it was foolish the firetruck reserved instead of having to reserve but that the town would support the new vehicles based on the schedule assembly this it turns out that having council review things such as policies takes a little longer than we thought so but as far as getting anything enacted so having

073counsel comfortable though probably take us into the summer I'm more than happy okay no discussion on the matter one thing we didn't discuss whether short-term financing police cars and John and I have discussed something we just missed it John and I discussed that and we're what we decided to do is actually go for short-term financing go for three years we don't have the problem of the rating agencies we did when we originally proposed this because we did not want to kick off a credit review from the rating agencies in from the bank and so we're going to apply put a three year short term financing to meet the goals of what the Board of Finance said requests the backup there's no issue as far as having a bank lien on those we'll go through that

074you know if we have to just take a loan right and not specifically against the cars well we'll work through that if he comes egregious we're gonna come back and say okay this is not gonna work we will come up with another plan so we'll start that process John you agree right yes okay and we should then we should think about that for all the we we worked in the future see what the complications are other matters like to discuss or anything moving on we do have public comment next if anyone would care to get public comment you're more than welcome to now okay it's time you being honest four minutes four minutes I gave them five before thought of doing a budget is to see what is fiscally responsible in what is affordable I

075understand the viewpoint of doing it from a strategic point of view but every business and every individual has to look at what they can afford when putting their budget together I just want to mention that over 20 percent of the citizens in Brookfield are senior citizens significant amount of individuals representing is a significant portion of the population in our social security increase this year was two and a half percent get back to the five point six four percent budget increase in taxes on my resident and on my car that I'm paying I have to pull money out of my savings I don't think this is a budget for everyone in the town I don't think most senior citizens can afford it I would ask you to really look at what's affordable on a go-forward basis

076and don't just build a budget from the expense up and just assume that whatever increases you get you're passing on to the citizens to the tax base and they're going to pay for it because not everyone can afford it the strategic point of view is a great way to present the budget it represents our view over the long term I can't wait to see what the budget is for next year although I'll tell you myself and many other citizens a real struggling to stay here and it's a viable possibility that we won't be here over the next few years consider us when you sit down and do your budget when a person is working it's one thing when there are two people and family working it's another thing but when you're a senior citizen and

077all your expenses are going up I expected cam the Finance Board to take the steps to minimize the growth of the budget just as I have to do for my own personal budget and I'll end up on this one though using 2015 and 2016 actual expenses which were 1 million dollars below the budget and looking at increases over the next two over over this year over three years becomes that book fields budget is up 13% Social Security increases in that three year time frame or 2.5% it's this fiscally responsible for everyone this is a strategic point of view for our senior citizens where's all the efficiencies that were promised in the budget where's the savings from the purchasing agent that that was hired where the cut in supplies which the two percent efficiency gains each

078year that business is recognized from their IT expenditures and expenses I don't see any of this in our budget all I see it's a normal ongoing you know brothers annual budget where everyone puts in their amounts and I don't think there are enough challenges that that are put back on the department's actually now I think that the town has an opportunity when they see five point six four percent compared to the surrounding towns and when the budget referendum comes and you know people vote further against it I hope the Finance Board in the selectmen have a plan to reduce the budget if it's if it's voted down and if it's voting it up I could tie up you won't see me at another meeting because I know my voice doesn't mean it anything Jackie flying

079away buying drive for the record I am a senior citizen thank you for putting forward a budget you know some people will have heard this before yeah I'm a grumpy old guy myself but you know government is very different from private industry we are in the service business you know and we provide necessary services that the town decides that they want and I truly hope that the that you will be proud of the vote that he took tonight and I hope that that this budget will pass bill Davidson former First Selectman famously said in a letter to the editor that he wrote to the news times a number of years ago budgets go down things will only get worse things will only get taken away we are you know to you know to a statement

080that one of the board members made earlier we are you know we are not just going up and up and up we are restoring things that were taken away we are we are finally getting to implement things that we have put off so long that we really can't put them off any further I will remind us of the half-a-million-dollar arbitrary reduction that previous First Selectman made that cause you know enough people to show up to a town meeting to be there to reduce you know to have a motion a motion on the floor to actually reduce the first Lightman's salary they were so upset with that decision those kinds of arbitrary cuts and sometimes difficult cuts you know come back to haunt us and it's time you know I believe to go to the town

081with what we really need to restore what we've lost to finally implement some of what we've done and I think this is the time to do that so thank you again last point I would make is that while while you can't spend public financing on asking for a yes vote so you can't you can't you know pay to spend a postcard saying please vote a certain way technically you shouldn't even be encouraging people as elected officials to vote while you're talking using town resources you have individual voices you can you have a first you know you have an amendment rights to say whatever you want to and I would encourage those of you who really want you know who believe in this budget to communicate write letters to the editors explain why this is a

082good investment in the town why this stretch is is necessary at this time to help move this down forward so thank you I encourage you to continue to support this no their business on our Jennifer make motion to adjourn all those in favor gave us a nice hi thank you very much hungry