articles for the june town meeting last part of that floyd carmen town treasurer is going to make a brief presentation about article twenty six and we will then proceed to discuss some vote on the articles that we have voted on already in an order that i have determined that will probably be from articles that require the least discussion to get them out of the way up to the articles that require more discussion but the retirement board members were covered  will so it would read school committee chair if you were reported that she may be late for wednesday's me year when you look at the free cash model if you look at the proposal that's being made to move a man you know us in a free cash going to get us down into the three percent range always the concern i have this kind of concerns me is when we you know drop down into you know a full little bit of work from the state the state which could be a little bit higher but there's lots of additional cost so that's that's an uncertainty at this stage of the game it will not be an uncertainty in november when we get those final numbers and john failing makes a presentation to a special town meeting and we vote on it also at that time we'll have our free cash certified ads of june thirtieth we'll have a much cash so now it looks like it's going to be seventy eight thousand at this point and god knows what could happen over the next six weeks it's always the uncertainty of things to just pop out of the woodwork now i'm not going to say stand here and tell you that if we make one boob move that that would have an impact for play ready but we're probably about two and a half years away from bonding and you know you get a couple of boo boos and that they kick us to something i don't know what the something is that's that's the conservative cautious side of me i'm always preaching is to the select n on an ongoing basis and that is i've been on this job for twelve years i've had ten conference calls with moody's they haven't been one moody's employee either hasn't come from belmont hell about my high school or they live in a town so they are around and they monitor the decisions and kind of the flow of stuff that goes on in all of these small communities i always always well aware of that i'm always careful in what i say you know how i articulate a position now i'm going to close by saying this i support increasing the stabilization reserve i just don't support it in june seventeenth for this town meeting i would much rather take a hard look at what our free cash looks like what's the cost of those m better day much better from a ship and and we appear to be a lot smile the concern i always have to get money in a stabilization museum we have a blip i don't want to take money out of the stabilization research because if you take money out they're going to say well i thought the stabilization reserve was for you over right now you take it out to cover an operating need and you can say well we have lots of free cash why worry about it well used that very additional free cash we would have we still have you know we still have six weeks left in the calendar year so that's that's kind of where i am where i am but coming out on this now the final point is when we get to that stage where we're going to make a decision on a modulus you know when we were looking at a ma something that we put on the table and save the main three for i don't want to let too many cats out of the bag but you know there's an emory group that's like a yet for major capital projects trying to come up with a rough idea of what it's going to cost from those four major capital projects and we're also kicking around some of the things we might be able to do in the short term to extend the life of a few of those buildings there might be a point where that mean three might fit into a strategy there but the main three will not go back to free cash so you know given you have any uncertainty i would much rather take a conservative approach and i would not say i personally would not support moving any money into the stabilization reserve until june meeting but depending on how level is the level is drastically changed i mean clearly we're up four or five hundred thousand when we were a year ago you know and i have no idea what the final number is going to be  you know i try to keep around to man because the cost of going out the ball and you get a little premium money but you know it still cost him it cost him debt service that's what it that's what you know how long the useful life is but if we get this hypothetical so i don't want to put words in john failing to file for the school committee but if they if they come out and make the final decision and say ok these life we have no idea what the cost of that could be but you know that's an option to put on the table the single skill that the single concern i have about some of these buildings is there are are there  you know anywhere anywhere between one and a half or two percent so he's attacked inflation it's neutral or negative you know when i have two percent but the larger you stretch it out becomes a different ballgame bit more oh ok well given the i don't care i'm sorry that station is the distinction you're making tonight that if the cost of the one point six then free cash would only be if that was the number there would only be a need for three hundred thousand credits as opposed to left there if one point he or four hundred forty two million two million dollars a we it was like eight hundred thousand i still want to get one point for that that's crazy that was the only thing but then the police radios came along so we ended up bonnie for about two million dollars but you know there's a point in time that really agencies l i could give you two minutes to give you a quick recap of the three pants came in and he gave eight hundred thousand so we're going to clean it up that's another one two hundred fifty five thousand get that off of the twenty seven six million dollars so that three hundred fifty dollars just fell off the table so those syria nothing more than just clean up items all all focused on getting me an authorized that article twenty four is the the police radio bonding that i just described in so we just review the purpose of revolving funds these are basically self funding activities that are paid for by user fees and subscriptions for example the the only i know well there are two items here that might get some discussion at a town meeting one is the salary if you want to call it that for the town moderator was increased from two hundred dollars to four hundred fifty try to see what other communities are doing well and yeah i believe there were a few calls made some were higher some were lower and this seemed to be i wasn't involved in it this was kind of in the middle hadn't changed for decades and decades and decades and the other is the salary for the town clerk i the median pay range defined by a group of comparables and i assume she's quite close to the median of this point but i don't know for sure she's not at the median and she the town treasurer does getting a two percent cola color that's it he's above the median she's not yet at the meeting and both of them are compared to the other department heads but because their reluctance they're not union mates so they're being compared to the lovely team which of the other department heads she's not yet at the median for level eighteen not at the median union employee would be eligible for two percent cola and four percent  raise and it's for merit compensation depending on what was determined in terms of merit so anyway so this reflects a two percent cola and a two percent comments comments on this article one is that if someone were naive you know he really did take a look at that they may think of the town treasury town court with the highest paid employees in town but in fact we have a lot of we don't have a lot we have some number of of employees who are who or who are not elected within the school and within of the town of the parts that are that are paid more than this so so we should lose track of that and then second just taking a look at the board of assessors it's a board that meets on a regular basis they they they rely on a paid an executive director at staff to do their work they they have you know they have they have an association of other responsibility with that and they're being paid three thousand and thirty dollars for the chair and two two thousand two hundred four for the members so if we just sort of keep that in mind as we sort of move down the list a list of but it doesn't affect any of the monetary amounts of articles we just peace of mind ok do we need to vote a and b separately in article twelve if someone we've worked on right so yes article thirteen just to be clear the budget appropriation for each of the town departments plus debt and interest and minuteman school and not public school so again we could vote on see i'd like to have a separate vote on o let's go through then one by one article thirteen part a is general government four million six hundred two thousand seven hundred twenty three dollars the motion second s be alright yeah i move that the word committee to recommend favorable action on article thirteen eat the school department appropriation based on the draft three budget approved by the school committee on tuesday may twenty third just to be clear is that jeffrey budget i take it that does not change the number that's in part is that right credit just as you know just as a as a fun fact this  is fifty two million nine hundred sixty nine thousand four hundred eighty five dollars the school budget is fifty two million nine hundred sixty nine dollars sixty nine thousand four hundred eighty four  well you know i know i passed i've been i've been giving you a couple of of memos over the course of the past the past few few few weeks as this has been going on i watched the a a portion of the school and two to the school budget for the special education reserve fund and how that would that would create the draft three zero of the budget that the school committee was going to going to vote on last night and and and  and he also presented that with a zero dollar value in that new account after his presentation the school committee with with was at least chairing quickly quickly in approach approved two motions one was to it he established a special education really served on an action that the school committee must do a long with town town town and meeting town meeting voting town meeting voting favorably as well that that's going to be on article eight eighteen but both of those bodies must vote favorably to be able to create the fund and then they also voted to a to adopt a draft three budget that tony had talked about with this specific line for the special education reserve fund so it would be in place for the future but they put zero dollars  i'm i'm happy that they that they voted to to establish this the special education fund i think i think it is i think that is a much needed tool for town town a meeting to help to understand and oversee sped cos so out so so when it comes up i'll certainly be favored voting in favor of that and then also i mean i'm i'm i'm always i'm always looking on the bright side i'm always on hopeful and i'm hopeful that the adoption of the draft free budget is a potential favorable action in that it's a step in the right on through the it that that it's a step in the right of direction and since there wasn't any real public conversation on camera about it i hope that they're waiting to see with the conversation here is it's like that we know that from superintendent failings most recent email that was addressed to roy and the rest of us gero in in an e mail to me on may ninth that he was i was looking at the possibility of having a positive number in that in ration and he put out a number possibly of two hundred thousand dollars to be in in that line item before the budget gets voted on five by a town town i'm eating if it were up to me i  would want to see four hundred thousand dollars dollars out there we are looking at having a seven hundred thousand dollars balance and circuit breaker fund at the end of this this year so i think keeping three hundred thousand in a circuit breaker account that could be accessed quickly by the school and then putting putting the next four hundred thousand dollars in a to this new vehicle that the state has made has made a real bill to us is a good way of way of on dealing with been some there have been some hick hic pickups this year in terms in terms of sort of tracking the full spending coming from last years circuit breaker funds that were carried over so i just think that bedspread reserve fund offers a better vehicle for that second tier of a cushion and i do realize that i mean i have i have made this clear to the members of the school in committee and that they they are right now at the zero point rather than at the four hundred thousand dollars point there is also a financial case for a two hundred thousand to two hundred thousand dollar dollar number we need sort of when you look if you read the memo that i passed out last week there were two it and of what we were doing was we were we really hoping to have a conversation this spring about how to come up with an appropriate way of figuring out with a bunch of process should and should be how to make sure that the budget showed what our best guess of what spread cost will be and then create a separate cushion to deal with on the expected cost that would be held in the circuit breaker i basically when i when i plug in the numbers that i get from school and and sort of work work us through this that i see that the question could be about four numbers now but just to say that it is not just a political case for a two hundred thousand dollars which is the way we have talked about it at some at some point but there is a financial you know there's a series of series some financial there's a series some financial analysis that also gets us to a two hundred thousand dollars case there's question as to you know we're always looking at this would come from within this within there's an appropriation t fifty two million nine hundred sixty nine thousand four hundred eighty five number and so there's a question of you know do we have do we have do we have a room there and once again i reference back to the conversations we had we had in january when you take a look at financial task force model what it targeted the fiscal eighteen school budget was going to be in the package in the end of the material that went out to the voters it was six hundred fifty thousand dollars less than what we're voting on voting on not now and so within that six hundred fifty thousand dollars you know i think there's room for a two hundred thousand dollars dollar allocation that stays within the school but it's just a segregated account not a not a co mingled account for the the for the special ed costs and and then just sort of finally in terms of timing i mean a couple people asked me why why why do i keep chasing this it's this car here and and it and it really is out of out of a series of respect for the anal town meeting process this is the time when we when we make to to have this bed reserve funding process be part of the annual budget process because it makes sense in context with everything else it's part of the school school budget so you know to put it off for a special town meeting in the fall  just seems out of out of sync we should get in the practice of dealing with this on a on a year in year out basis similarly raising the concerns about what two thousand and twenty will look like with its three budget cycles down down at the road once we go through this year and find out where we are with sped we can revisit in re sync with the fiscal nineteen budget will look like can make sure that we are appropriate sufficient funds to have a cushion there for i mean for the following years  just to vote vote one way or the other on the on the on my on my record recommendation or someone else but i would like you to consider a yes vote should mean administration takes that as a signal that we want to have some further in for them conversation and to think about whether whether we can have a positive positive positive on the dollars dollar value in the budget act that goes to the months down the road from after strive to want to be sure i understand why it doesn't make sense to wait until special town meeting i mean as as i said i mean we that we have we have a very good handle handle on where things are these you know the suspended costs change you know gradually for the most part and then there can be shocks as well as a new student or annuities or come come in you have no control over over over over that time and so it is so i mean so i go back to you know this should reserve fund allows quicker much faster access because it's just needs the vote of the of the school committee and the board is what can that meet that need several that meet several several several one times times eight times a month so i so i just like that in the first year we are creating it start off on the right foot and make sure it is it is thought of as a financial matter not just a political matter because the more the committee i mean we're a financial body that is acting on behalf of a political body but in town i'm ten and i mean and so we have to balance both but it's just an accident that there's going to be a town meeting last this is even an option to defer action i think are at least in my mind some aspects of the special education special education funding reserving policy that are not clear to me i don't mind having more time to think about it at least in the initial year but my expectation certainly for fiscal nineteen and beyond is that this process will be understood in that there will be properly funded  at the time the rest of the budget is for the spring because you can't expect to do this in the fall and definitely i think this fact is a one o school committee and school department to establish some guidelines not rigid policy but some guidelines as to how much they deposited to this account and how much and what protocol to go through to withdraw it as well and i think it's a little premature to do that right now i think it should be a very thoughtful process and so i would certainly be willing to have this as a transition year i don't see the same urgency on as jim does this year but going forward in the f one thousand budget and beyond i think we should be as part of this annual cycle yes i would just add a few recall and superintendent freeman was here and he was saying that we're finally at a position of operating from strength and it took a couple of years to get to this position because of the nature of funds and projected funds don't turn into actual funds at the same time that we have these meetings so we are finally at a position where we can budget and forecast from this position of not having to come to town meeting you know asking for special funds because we are already budgeting for them because we know already how we can project so if everything aligned then the stars all work the way our town meeting system worked that would be delightful and simple it just doesn't work that way i did not sure understand it all but i think i tend to agree with you but my concern is that way then i would encourage you to signal signal your inclination to sort of see whether or not negative number could be added by by stating that even if two hundred thousand dollars was exactly the right number there wouldn't be an opportunity to really explain it and i think there's something to be said for at least the first time around a way that everybody knows what's going on and they'll be kind of a broad hopefully a broad consensus on this question i am concerned i share bob's concern about voting essentially voting down  the school budget on what is a technicality and a technicality which in dollar amounts is a really a very small fraction of the total amount it just i think it's going to confuse town meeting extremely actually putting some money into it now if it's a technicality or two to two hundred thousand dollars and where here we're plus six hundred fifty thousand from the original proposed numbers which i'm kind of curious why why we are that budget six hundred fifty thousand dollars special ed out of district two wishing bill so the director of finance you know when when that bill shows up has a choice of which which young account to charge it to and it's and  within the circuit breaker world it's fully discretional whether that bill gets charged against a circuit breaker account which is increasing i mean which would draw down the circuit breaker account and leave the general fund balance on untouched versus making the bill flow through the general fund account which would which would which would drive drive the drive the remaining funds in the general account there was a surplus of three hundred twenty six thousand dollars two thousand of that got put on the general fund side and so the schools return two thousand dollars to the town that fell through f free cash the other three hundred twenty four thousand dollars stayed within the school within the circuit breaker my account to be rolled over to next year and that was actually the cleage this that was the first year does that happen in a magnitude that showing up on the control reports that we were getting that's why i had proposed you know needing to change page forty two of our you know account because because because it with is it it was one charging against last year some sort of great jim i just i really don't see a way to explain and explain this is the reason we're voting against the ad budget when to come back in september october and explain this to us once again and then we plant our flag on the ground in the forum and i think as a group we can speak more confidently about what we think should be done just to help clarify the reasons behind the zero and so forth the school committee every year holds a public hearing when the school committee votes to approve the budget and that was held on april twenty fifth and the budget number is the same as it is here it's not change said when we had our meeting tuesday of this week may twenty third we did not change the budget line if we had decided to put funds you know moving things internally etc that would have transparent we had our public budget hearing back a month ago so there's zero for and it's like a back to the future kind of time travel vehicle that we fund hasn't even been approved by town meeting at school committee votes to establish it first we approve it town meeting with and approve it so it would be premature to say we're able to put anything into it until it's even an existing thing that's why it might not seem to have teeth but there's nothing no count yet if that helps make sense  during a meeting to claim their point of view or i would encourage members to speak up right now i mean i think that's one of the reasons on the work many we have the representative the school committee here so i would just encourage lisa you to go back to your colleagues and within the school department school committee if you want to convey the conversation i don't think it has to be done four million a vote because i would certainly encourage us all to approve this school budget this year like i understanding is once the school committee gives these fifty two million dollars they can move it around without one if this vote passed one that condition i think you'd be depriving them of their ability to move it around in any way which is being consistent would discussion in the fall as well like i think would be more appropriate if we're going to approve the budget to approve the motion as written and then be prepared to make a more formal you know this jay public services thirteen million four hundred sixteen thousand seven hundred fifty nine seconds all in favor  doing all right that is the first part of article thirteen  the appropriation portion yes then there's the transfers yes we can do this i hope this one  consolidated but this would be a transfer of three million eight hundred twenty two thousand four hundred seventy one dollars from various reserve funds to the operating budget not off i trust my list anymore fourteen which is the chapter ninety highway improvements five hundred thirty five thousand and eighty nine dollars state money for highways second of all those in favor ok next this article twenty six is because i'm strong so we discussed this a bit last week we heard from the town treasurer th i mean if if we had an an increased need to spend more on capital then we only do we could we could fund that through the annual budget process and just draw down more from the general  our capital many in our capital spending all of our means cost because of you know if if there was a deterioration that we wanted to incorporate into next year's budget you know drawing money from the general stabilization fund it was part of that normal budget process so in the with where i'm going with that is that i don't i personally don't see exactly where the red flag will be for the for drawing see the point that was made earlier about the unique circumstances where we're confident there will be a fall townie address capital item that we know is pending some citizens and bed results to come back before the town meeting  that would be an opportunity to talk about any other hand discussions for the town to look at what plans might be out there for short term and long term solutions that are  elementary school coming up you know there are issues with the other major capital projects where we might want to look at alternative short term medium term solutions and the signaling i've been hearing is that we may not be replenishing free cash at the rate that we have and so if we're going to get squeezed from this way and squeezed in this way i can understand how there is more uncertainty than that has been even when we had one of our most recent meetings where there were four positions that were potentially being looked at for which had been really very very tied in the town and so i sort of feel like the screens and discipline that these these ones this time around and i just i just feel that there are you know that if we don't create some discipline around this that that money will be put somewhere else and this is free cash that was derived from you know a more revenues and expected less expensive than expected reading which then i think you'll should she go back into the operating budget or into the stabilization fund to be used to support  plus the potential capital request coming in the fall is something that's going to take a lot of thought and these projects will not be undertaken lightly i can assure you of that but they are very because i'm part of this committee i've been meeting virtually weekly since february and the goal is to have a will be an initial report in june and then as the delivery board as possible in the fall and we we have retained here we are retaining an engineering slash architectural consultant to help us with feasibility and tentative budget in of we can get as far as a concrete proposal the town meeting could act on in the fall i would hope it were presented to the ends and and some common scheme and some it resonated and into trigger triggered some some additional thoughts and thoughts on yours i mean this is we are talking about free cash that was certified last last summer which was based on the two thousand and sixteen turn backs which was the first year under under the under under operating with the override tax proceeds and last year in fiscal year sixteen we had the largest revenue and expense turned back that we've had in eight eight years it was more than four four zero four million dollars whereas in the other years a range somewhere between one point two up to up to three three seven i guess is the second highest so in the context of this this was money that was generated by the override the theme of the override campaign was that surplus should go to the stabilization fund it just sort of seems like  this is this citizens petition is not in consistent with that with that th recreate with the sentiment there but i would like still like the full information as the treasurer was suggesting in november i think if things are looking good in november i would fully support that as much as we can into that stabilization fund but all those opposed to unfavorable action a so i'm not sure it's anything more than that meeting i trust you all have any further discussion of these articles at this time i think we could talk about them to talk about all three well i would just do the arithmetic and the da florida just looks and feels a lot more like the assessors and we're paying them roughly the same that that they're currently being paid to live we've been think for about variable action here and the well i guess my view is that this is one of the areas where the argument is should try to estimate what a what a competitive wages with these things and i had no idea what i was going to find when i went to the bird web site and let me just make clear that the towns on the list that i circulated came from the towns identified in the education sub and i agree with bob's characterization of a three thousand dollars is largely in the middle of the pack and this adjustment i think with it it's certainly allowed by state action but it's not mandated  the remaining articles article twenty one and twenty two are various survivor benefits and discussion of articles twenty one twenty two because of the timing of the retirement of them does not entitle to something and so forth but what's really missing is and you probably can't get at it but i don't know whether we're voting an increase for somebody who retired from fighting about an age fifty circumstances of these people i don't know how many there are and it's been described as a trap i don't understand what the trap is but i'm not sure it's actually necessary and that again this is an area where as a matter of policy because if there's three people this year maybe it will be four people next year it seems to me that the benefits as they are are not  grossly out of line with the other towns that i for which i have the data and there is an impact starting fiscal in one thousand of additional contributions that would be required what's an increased current portion as a result of increasing these benefits and the circumstances for fiscal one thing in twenty and beyond are serious enough that i i don't see a compelling enough case to increase the funny for these benefits which just to pick a metric in years in recent years has been equal to our sidewalk budget has been equal to or a tree budget exceeds capital for classrooms and second we have to hold wind and not create you know create new create new and live liabilities for us the only difference between a lie bill feet and and and putting putting an item in the budget that we're going to pay for this this year is that we're you know that we're still spending it we're just asking someone else to pay for it and and and i would like us to move closer to the reality where we the current tax payers pay for all of the services and all of that all of the compensation costs and all of that all of the benefits that we are providing to them to are up to on time employees so so i'd be  view this as you know it's clear you know adding a liability is functionally the same in my mind as spending spending some more dollars i'm just i'm just spending some future future  taxpayers dollars rather than my own but i would also mention that as i was researching through the parent website my impression was that some of the towns on the list here which actually are maxed out in terms of offering the highest benefit in each category are ones where i would have significant questions about their overall  financial probity because at least one of them is still calculating their unfunded liabilities assuming eight percent actuarial return which you know that i think that's a very unwise policy and even some of the towns which are on the conservative side of this list are assuming i return as low as seven so we've reached the retirement board lowered the target return in the last year from seven and three quarters of the seven and a half but if i am concerned that we won't even meet seven and a half over the next ten year horizon in which case the problem of funding the unfunded portion of the pension by two thousand and twenty nine is going to be a very significant one indeed and anything that would get in the way of taking care of the problem that we currently have i think each one i think if i may tell has employees newtown has retirees from time to time we we find people who are affected by different retirement benefit the survivor benefit there are four survivors who would be impacted by the exceptions of this law for the state teachers retirement system in the state employees retirement system this increases automatic and according to our actuary the exceptions would have a de minimus impact on the system's unfunded liability so i think that the town is  hundred sixty million dollar corporation with a three hundred forty million dollars balance sheet despite the issues that it has its both its retirement obligation and its health care obligation due to its own under funding of those obligations in the past to think about its retirees and it's not that something like this goes unnoticed by armed police either so when you have something that has been done on an automatic basis by the state teachers retirement system in the state employees retirement system and we have four people trapped in this situation it seems to me that commonsense expenditure but i'm i think to be a better approach to ask whether this is a discretionary increase that was quite created by state law or not by any change that we know of in the circumstances in belmont i would agree if you're talking about four hundred people but we're talking about four but i don't see that that i any more or less unfair because for people who are involved four hundred people are involved we are paying a benefit that is in line with many other comparable towns and i don't see any reason just a general comment it's not just the tax pays it's not just the well it is the employees throughout the country pension funds are being restructured because there's not enough money to pay the people and people are being asked to take a less in their pensions so the extent that we have being conservative as we possibly can be and not having a lot of belief we're protecting the town employees and looking for this and make sure we're solvent don't have to restructure at some time i mean but i would agree with you if it was a larger number but this is this law changed in two thousand and eleven it's affected for people who work for us and they're our retirees there's eight thousand five hundred houses in the home  are seventeen thousand voters and therefore people who could use this benefit in ice i think the right thing to do is to approve it of course retirees would be happier with more money rather than less money but we don't at least i don't have any particular insights into the individual circumstances of any of these people i can only look at this as a matter of policy for the town as a whole and i think with the hounds doing is reasonable without any change yes because i mean just the fact that the legislature act doesn't necessarily mean that we have to follow  us but that's one consideration if the law had passed we may not be thinking about it but i would argue that we should think about it since for people who are affected in the amount of money we're talking about is de minimus and they are our employees  our retirees the reason the town is in this position is because the town didn't funded pension funds in the past and we've done a lot of we made a lot of arranging that i mean how would you mean going to explain you know you know right twenty one is an ongoing benefit increases no i understand that but what i'm saying is you have to have you should think about it in my mind and in the larger picture the reason we have the pension liability at  forty nine percent is is because of the way we chose to manage the pension fund in the fast that's just a fact it's not really it's not even arguable that i'm sort of twenty one or twenty two are not connected to the i know they are they are if you're arguing because we're in the position we're in with our pension fund that we can't grant for people relief that being proposed here by the retirement board the retirement board is not an irresponsible board the they're proposing this for a reason because they represent the end the retirees but they're also our retirees so it's not as if we're at war with them it's they're bringing this to our attention and they're asking for us to make corrections we're not asking for  these two particular cases they're not asking for the moon there's saying we have retirees who need this attention and they're coming to the town now tell me to move out on this but they're coming to the various committees and they're saying ok this is what we think needs to be done because here's the number of people with the facts we have the actual where else to calculate the kind of you don't need to know what the individual you know if the individual person has seven streams of them i don't think they do but it's not it's not relevant this is more about us than it is about the retirees i don't see how you can characterize this as a correction when the majority of towns on the list chose not to increase this benefit well it's because i don't i don't tend to think of whether something should or shouldn't be done because somebody else does or doesn't do it i don't think that way i think you know we are who we are these are our employees they're our retirees and we're the ones that are in this situation i don't need to know what wellesley thinks about it or well and i'm not interested right i think if we have four people in this situation we should have the gratitude for the time that they spent with us the situation there in in allow them to have this benefit because the cost is de minimus in my own mind i'm able to uncouple  stopping with the people who are in the weakest positions in our retirement so i don't know for example if i were going to address this problem i would rather focus on the increase in the expense budget that's three point eight percent year over year when i know for a fact that that's not sustainable i would rather see that at two and a half percent and i ask myself why isn't the management of the town addressing that instead of trying to save money around for people in our retirement system you know i i know the answer not happy with the answer but i think if we were really concerned about the big picture for the town we should be focusing on the expenses we should be keeping at less than two and a half percent and you're not going to do that by denying four people benefits that the state and the teachers union have granted automatically in two thousand and eleven which was six years  i can't move to abstain action on article twenty one think all those opposed to unfavorable action on article twenty one are right that brings us to article twenty two which is the  one all those in support of unfavorable action on article twenty two  a really real