quark citizens import seventy five select means update seven fifteen audit committee discussion and vote adoption of financial policies seven forty five m p s l l c public hearing the discussion five barrels discussion vote on change of liquor license for home rule petition eight fifteen splitsville kevin o'brien discussion vote application for change of manager a twenty five bill keegan talmadge update  anybody here first citizens input anyone you want all development district held an open house and we're reaching out for resident concerns on one forty five as part of the one forty study from norton fox world they had about forty plus people come in to make recommendations and ask questions and a lot of them actually took an online survey that was funny the recommendations were fairly consistent and they range from the right turn only walnut street to roundabouts to traffic lights there was even a couple residents looking for new access roadways so they're going to take all that information they still have a meeting to go to town a man's field in norton over the next few weeks you'll see them out there doing traffic count counts and movement analysis  and they hope to be making recommendations by the end of the year anybody interested you can go on to the website for more information it is w w w s r p e d d dot org and you can get updated information on where they stand on that project and some others i want to congratulate andrew mcafee who recently achieved the rank of eagle scout for his eagle service project was directing a flagpole and raising the flag at the community updates should really be an open forum for the board as a group not to provide updates not only with going on in the community but also updates on other board meetings who are committee meetings that we may attend the b o s and school committee are the only meetings that are actually broadcast on cable access and may provide the community with some valuable updates and if you go to any thoughts on that maybe change it up a little bit you know i always look forward to  think like six or eight feet wide so there's tons of concrete in there so they erected they brought in the flag and three different five point three different sections in the putting it together so you see it laying flat on the comment and potentially tomorrow they're going to be putting it up  and then couple things associated with that the time capsule still going on we extended to till friday so rachel calories is collecting a lot of letters this week so hopefully we'll get some more towards the end of the week as well th to box under under the flagpole area to be opened in fifty years and then on memorial day where memorial day is about the veterans who are going to have that service as we always do for them and it turned into a small ceremony at the flag have a little ten coffee after that on the thirtieth so people want to come there i think that's going to be a great opportunity and that's when the flag will go off for the first time if anybody wants to get the perspective of what one hundred foot tall flag pole looks like you can we would propose this first off is the fact that this would fill our commitment for the community contact that the town signed with the governor's office to  show best practices in this particular area be able to check that off in addition to that it would satisfy expectations with the rating agency stamp corps they specifically call this out important is the fact that we will have finally memorialized put to writing them formally adopted by all the policy committees on formal financial guidance for the town so that as we all come and go and we will that the our people who fall behind us the best chance to continue on with the success that that we've had with these particular policies this is the backdrop rating agency and that credit rating has a very strong correlation to what what's it by investors for our bonds meaning the interest rates on favorable variable ratings result in lower plus and the town saved hundreds of thousands of dollars since then with that down here you can see that the full scale there are three different agencies on that other for the primary years rate freighters fitch top at double a plus in the s and p column so you know our bonds are considered very low credit risk and one more peg upgrade for us and you know we would achieve that triple a minimal credit risk so we're already in good territory this would just solidify asus leave as high as we can you know possibly go all of the words on this page here came directly from the  read with good financial policies and practices and good basically means that you know we have many of our policies documented in place you know the basics investment policies and our budget policies but the policies that they're looking to have formalizing adopted are the ones that affect the really the funds that the town is charged with it's undesignated fund balance its reserves what its policies are on debt and debt management we get rated good because we we have we demonstrated you know very good practices in the past strong would be that we've actually committed them to writing for the perp the third purpose that i mentioned earlier so that as we come and go that there's actually a roadmap for people to to use or for change so they highlighted our strong budgetary performance very strong budget flexibility very strong liquidity and very strong debt and contingent liability position contingent liability is our what some referred to as our unfunded liabilities that the pension liability that we have in the open or retiree benefits liability so they considered our positions in those two areas very strong and the last item a comment on is strong institutional framework and what in essence that is they're commenting on the form of government that we operate within here in massachusetts so the state of massachusetts in the form of government we i have here in the general you know nature of the economy and how we're supported w state revenues and how funds flow and how business it works in massachusetts so that was there that was the summary of the of their rating that back to double a plus oh and then everything on this page except for the the positive so based on new information that they gleaned from us in the training they thought boy things are looking up here and so you still double a plus rating but you know there's gradations within that stable positive or neutral so they moved us up the highest you could go in and double a plus and they stated that they based the outlook revision on a history of favorable operating performance very strong reserves very strong growing economy should fox balanced operations while continuing to add to reserves and here is the point that they made to us and should officials introduce formal financial policies we could raise the rating within our two year outlook timeframe so this is just six months ago so now since they're making a very strong suggestion that that's the last piece that the looking for from us they rate everything else you know very very strong but they also say of budgetary performance becomes unbalanced leading to a dry run reserves you know lower than the positions that we've demonstrated that we've achieved the past they could revise the outlook to stable it's going to please that they said stable and not to like a double layer double a minus or something like that so we're in you know we're doing very well we just need to continue what we're doing and and again formalize our policies in the specific policies that they're looking to have adopted our in the area of reserves which includes free cash the unfunded liabilities so pad and pension and our capital improvement approach and our debt management approach and that's what we're proposing so again we do receive credit for following very good practices in all of these areas but we can strengthen the finance financial industries view of us if we could formally adopt the policies reflecting our practices and and that's the key point that i want to know is that there's nothing new being proposed here there's no change of direction at all for the town hall were doing here is we're documenting what we've always done so there's no challenge to you know how we operate in the audit committee you know was very good too to shape the policies so that they were workable ranges but ranges that were still you know conservative enough where you would keep keep us on our toes financially so the process that we've followed to adopt the policies is on the to achieve a aaa rating in the lowest possible interest rate on the next bond offering and as you know we're planning to go to market within just a couple of weeks beginning of june already working on the prospectus and the offering  documents to fund the town hall project at six point eight six million and water treatment plant project that was just approved at the annual town meeting for sixteen a half million all of that being funded the debt service being funded by water receipts not general fund receipts so the total offering of twenty three point three six million so you know it'll be an offering that that will to get some interest certainly a lot more than that the town hall alone offering would have gotten and so was a good time for us to shine in and capture the the lowest interest rate we can so we presented to the advisory committee and they voted to to adopt the policies we also did the same with water and sewer commissioners they voted unanimously to do the same and last night we so what i've done on the or what we've done on the next two pages is to distill the ten page policy document which should all have in essence into a  report card and it's two pages on a slide but it's actually it's a one page handout and i call it a report card because it takes all of the key policies contained within this document and it turns them into metrics which means that we can easily report out on them at the end of every fiscal year and see exactly where we are so rather than just several pages of policy documentation we actually have something that we will and intend to report out on every year to all of the policy boards so that everybody is aware of where we are and you know whether we're within our within our our ranges and targets so this is the first half of  the report card in this for fiscal two thousand and fifteen obviously worse still within twenty sixteen so the books not closed on that yet but i'm not expecting any red x s in any of these columns for sixt reserves to just total fund balance but it's as as the accounting world has become more conservative with all the things that are going on the financial markets it's become a very much tighter definition of exactly what you can consider a sign which is in essence an reserve general fund equity comprised primarily of our stabilization fund in our free cash flow basically funds that we have available to us in the general fund not water or sewer in the general fund that are uncommitted in any way so the target that we've arrived that is something that's not less than seven and a half percent of actual budgetary expenditures they have in this reserve but with really a target range of ten to fifteen percent and i'll show you how we build to that we actually had an actual at the end of fiscal fifteen of fifteen point one nine percent or nine and a half million of actual budgetary expenses  of it this is really the raw look at what is on a sign they're adding in a actually an assigned piece when they do that in the piece at the ratting is when we commit free cash funds for the next year's budget they're counting that as as available but we know it's not because they're counting it that way because it's not spent yet and if you could redirect if you needed to and it was so we're in good shape here and again how that's comprised of is is our free cash balance or primarily f cash balance and we have a i think we've talked extensively with about free cash in the past about how we we under commit our local receipts the amount of funds that we expect to collect in the year in order to create this free cash recharge so in essence we're not spending every dollar that comes in our plant spend every dollar that comes and we're looking to reload this reserve so that we can then use it for the following years operating and capital budgets and that's what gives us a cushion that's what gives us the flexibility that they're referring to many of the communities will spend every dime that's coming in and you know that could result shortfalls doesn't come and we we conservative y forecast all the revenue is going to come in but then we consciously make a decision for those of you to spend you know the budget process now that we say ok we're going to reserve a million a half of the local receipts not to spend this year so we can recharge for cash the rest of it primarily comes from an expanded budgets which as you know we can't exceed the budget so there's always something that will drop out there and there is some minor changes on the balance sheet that impacted so this past year we had a free cash  balance certified but five point seven million we rolled forward about three million of so we didn't generate all that last year we rolled that forward because of the good times we've been having here in the community with all the commercial  development actually residential development and we had been using that after two thousand and eight to engineer a soft landing so that instead of cutting services we have to use some of this this reserve to the level things  about this is they're looking for five percent of your of your operating budget general fund operating budget which which we have and we've been maintaining with some modest increases to that as the budget grows and we increase it to maintain that ratio will probably increase it again next year slightly if you are one hundred eighty thousand but that equates to three million seventy thousand or five point three one percent of the operating budget and the that regulations have tightened after what happened in two thousand and eight in the financial industry any draw on that account is a disclosure of that to the to the rating agencies in the investment community so even though it may be something innocuous you know just you're going to borrow one hundred thousand this year you got to give give it back next year anything like that it can tend they might look at that as a leading indicator some stress within your financial picture and the primary use for that really pretty much the only use for that would be in a real disaster which i do not you know foresee in the near or intermediate term we would have funds to make our debt service payments and that's what they're you know that that's what they're looking for is that if you should hit hard times that you're we're going to be able to pay your debt because you can't pay your debt it's going to jeopardize your ability to get credit that you know that particular you know point in time so that's really the sort of the core foundation for us  so that you know three million of them in the five point seven in free cash and then there are some other smaller bits in the that are unassigned but that's how we get up to the to the nine and a half and half million so if we would have recharge say a million and a half plus the three million you'd be at really sort of the real the blossom of our range here the target of seven and a half but we should be able to recharge all things being equal at least two million and so  fund which is relatively new item for us and we have five hundred fifty thousand in that you know that is geared towards ongoing capital asset maintenance and replacement the suggestion for something like that is either some unanticipated you know expense of maintenance that has to be done on a building or most expensive assets an investment in the town other than the people and then more preferably to lower the cost on an excluded debt project so we can lower the burden on taxpayers when we have to go out for an excluded debt project which we will likely do say with the barrel school that will be excluded that project because we just won't be able to fit that debt service plus the town hall service within the operating budget so that would be at that point time but your recommendation for that but obviously it's subject to the whole process budget process hundred thousand minimum this is a new item for us we never really had this is fairly new would put it we put and a half a million years ago when we had a had a good year knowing that it didn't need to be in stabilisation but we did have capital needs so we thought let's put it here and it knowing that you had disclose anything that came in and out of general stabilization they were finally allowed to create other stabilization accounts and you could have weighed that with other funds that we wanted to sock away for major expenditure and so that's why a separate separate fund and one hundred thousand is because we're just we haven't been able to put into this since we've actually put the first half million dollars so i'm thinking with the central maintenance program the way that's been working now  contribute as the as we're as the sillies director is attending to all the blocking and tackling needs of all of our municipal buildings that we're going to avoid some more costly items and we're i think we're we're sufficiently funded in that account where in this year's our first year we may actually have a nice turn back on that and that could conceivably be added to this account as it was intended overlay research that's just a requirement of department of revenue and we set the tax rate  in order for us to cover two things one is exemptions we the town gives out annually on average approximately two hundred twenty thousand of exemptions for those who apply property tax exemptions  seniors veterans etc and then the other half of that the other two hundred twenty thousand that we target every year is for abatements you know people are certainly encouraged to apply apply for abatements we absolutely encourage it courage that the sessions office so we can have fair cash value across the board surveys paying their fair share we're not away from that and you're required by the department of revenue to to carry you know an amount like that and the range is higher than what we target every year for forty years because this is an item that doesn't happen at town meeting a town meeting we don't appropriate the overlay we don't fund the overlay reserve this is the last item that gets gets decided when we set the tax rate with with you at the classification  hearing it depends on all the different factors that have happened up to that point in time like state could change you know we've already finalized the budget a couple of weeks ago and but now there's four more innings to go if you will with the state process and that number's going to be different opera down so this is where you could capture that difference and the other major moving part for the town is in new growth taxes we do our best job to estimate that every year but that's not finalized  until october after the budget is closed and this year is probably the best example of of what what can happen with this account so this year we had an overachiever carried in the town store you know that's gotten about one hundred seventy five thousand now we carry about seventy five thousand there's not a need to carry a larger amount some private companies might carry something like one percent of their their budget to have a you know a good solid contingency we don't need something like that and we haven't had the need to have something that high because we have other mechanisms to balance the budget within the funds that we already have and one of them is whatever it was the town manager transfer authority to rent some legislation that was passed about eight years ago which allows the town manager to move up to three percent of a budget between line items other departments non school not enterprise you know if there's a correction you know that that's needed so that puts less pressure on the reserve fund to put money away there when you don't need it when you know you're probably going to have some some surplus somewhere else to cover over something and then the schools have something that's a lot broader than that something that the town manager ability provides and that is they have what's called bottom line autonomy that's what we vote one number at town meeting for the school department because legally they are allowed to do that and they have the flexibility to use those funds within any of their departments and their programs within the school so they have the ultimate flexibility within their budget so between that and other counts that they might have and what we can do in a split side seventy five thousand in the for the economy services is certainly in a workable number for us so those are all the reserves pieces and then this is the last piece  starting with the annual opeth appropriation again that's the retiree unfunded liability dedicated for retiree health benefits what we're targeting and what we're at that is the let's call the annual required contribution which is the actuarily determined amount that we need to fund every a year in addition to the page should go benefits which are paying every year which is about a million dollars a year which is different than this that's actually in the in the budget this is amount over and above that which is going to amortize the unfunded liability that we have and so seven hundred sixty four thousand is currently one hundred seven percent of the ar and we're actually going to budget for next year's taking that up to eight hundred sixty four thousand we get medical expenses increase so it's important to continue to talk to fund forward like that i'm hoping that we can plateau there and we'll know that when we do the next actuarial study which is required every two years at the end of fiscal seventeen and i'm hoping we'll will still be ahead of it maybe we can plateau that as you well know all of the seven hundred thousand of that number there is coming from meals tax and then the balance is going to roads the odd number of the sixty four thousand and change that's coming from water and sewer enterprise receipts that's not their share of that burden for the employees that they have associated with that the partment and they are fully funding at the arc as well so we're in very good shape here because of the plans that we put in place with the funding decisions as board is made in the plan redesign of the ministration has bargained with the union so we're down to twenty two point seven million down from sixty two from six two point two million back in for fiscal nine so that can fluctuate you know as as time marches on but we're good shape at this point time if we continue this funding level would be good shape and we're definitely the minority and it's look favorably on annual pension assessment we really don't have any control over this because it's presided over by the norfolk county retirement system which is the pension system for  all of the non educator employees in the town it's actually about half the workforce there are not an edge it employs on the school side as well and you know for a county retirement system has about twenty eight other member towns and they have their own board and they also are mandated to act actuarily to determine their liability every year and then divvy out the spro rather assessments to each of the communities and  we don't have a choice but to fund you know the assessment and they are funding their unfunded liability and they've got a schedule to fund by twenty thirty one not at this point so b as you know there are two different types of debt and the general fund that we carry excluded debt which is where voters go to the polls to raise their taxes to support a project like a building project and we have included that and that's  where we actually fit the debt service within the operating budget itself without going without going to the polls and asking the voters to raise taxes so we're currently at four point eight four percent of general fund expenses  our with our total total debt of debt service of two point eight million in the general fund i'm sorry with that with our excluded debt so that's you know right in the middle of our two to seven percent range that ratio will actually be less because expenditures will grow and we will will have amortize a lot of the excluded debt so that point is well also we'll probably be down maybe about forty or fifty basis points and four point eight four so we're in a good range doesn't compromise the town's ability  to to fund things but it puts parameters on things same thing with included at the range we establish years as zero to two percent where currently before the town our project at zero point four percent we had typically been up at about one and a half percent historically that there were several projects that were done included in the lower cost ones a senior center the landfill things like that and so as time has marched on we've amortize that debt it's created that capacity and really in fairness to the taxpayer rather than take those funds that are really you know part of our financial plan is part of funding some share of the debt service burden rather than put on excluded debt you know we would put some of some of our debt service back into the budget within that range you know of zero to two percent so the the the town hall project itself sorry for next year would bring us up something that it is looked at traditionally they're looking at a benchmark of how quickly how much is being paid off within the next ten years so a minimum they're looking for is fifty percent and you know art our target is sixty percent  greater we're currently at over seventy one percent a lot of that it has to do with the fact we have borrowed a while in about three years and so we're actually fifty one point eight percent in seven years and when we the and then the last item is really more of a statistical thing that is looked down they take a look at the towns equalised property value which is the value of all assessed property in the town and then it's equalized by the state to account for returning its various nuances of from town to town in assessing practice in the state comes out every two years with their equalized value and we're currently at just under one percent of the equalized value our general and debt and they're looking for a ratio of you know less than two and a half percent so we're certainly with well within that you know it's certainly should not be of risk of exceeding so those are in essence ones maybe shrink them down a little bit to give us you know a little tighter range so we didn't get over our skis i think the key thing to all these things is that there's plenty of levers and here you can see just on this page alone with the debt for example we have the ability to go to let's say sixteen percent of the expenses for debt service and if you think you can get cute and go to thirty year bonds in order to get that number or you know war so it doesn't hit the sixteen if you want to do more projects and take on more debt you track yourself by the bomb a tree one right that's right below it so then you know there's a lot of different levers in here to keep things in check from a financial perspective and that's the same thing on the first page with respect  year with all that excess cash flow in a free cash in on a sign fund balance and of course if those go hand in hand with how much debt service you can take on as well so everything kind of like fits together as you know randi looks at this on an ongoing basis and we assess assess the town each year i'm sure they'll be you know some adjustments to it along the way and we'll see where we actually come out along the way but i think right now this was not a set of policies that was very easy to just step over in when they were just you know lay ups i think they really were very thoughtful and and considered you know where we are today and how far we can be on the outside and still be safe in how much you know good planning we've done in the past to put ourselves in this these guys can do but you know having that on the advisory committee for a number of years i'm always i'm always teasing really taken a lot of the fun and excitement out of being on the advisory committee because what he's really put in place is a very careful and discipline and thoughtful approach to budgeting every year we know exactly what's going to happen you know i could probably pull out a calendar now and tell you exactly when randy going to come to us and talk to us about revenue and which department heads are going to come in in what order next year we do the same thing every single year and as a town we benefit tremendously from that and if you only have to look at what some of the towns around us are going through where they're closing schools laying off large numbers of teachers going for general overrides where where lucky that we don't have to do that i mean we are we're are lucky as a town in that we have resources but a lot of it also is just the philosophy that we have even doing things like paying for zero pad that's a lot of money every year that most towns don't don't do that and what it means is in those towns the future generations are going to have to pay for that and we're not doing that we're paying our own way now and it's just a it's a philosophy that we follow and i think that if we can live within these guidelines in the years to come we're not going to have self inflicted disasters come our way i mean there's always going to be the the two thousand eight downturns that we're going to see in the state aid fluctuating but for things that we control if we can stay with you know if we can stay within the policies in this report card i think you know i'm very optimistic that  done this is a the key thing here is that this is what this document is it is really a financial discipline and we have been practicing it for many many years and we've been and we've talked around the edges of this for a long time but this really puts it in perspective for you as to what we've been doing here for the past serves many years this is not just on the past two years is this is ten years plus of constant discipline as larry period in that document in terms of how well this is put together it's very detail that shows that it's lays out very reasonable you reasonably as well as it's easy to follow it's easy to show that john pointed out that there are different levels that you have to stay within and in order  to be successful and as a community and and you know it's really important because s and p looks at for this too is that not only do you show good discipline it in your spending practices what you actually do spend money because really important you constantly upgrade in your you can you improve way and it's also a sense of what notice to the economic development world that you're investing in yourself which is where why communities companies want to locate this community if we're doing that we're doing it well by the way that we're committees on the document itself s m p one eight and they saw that and we did that and in my former community they thought that was fabulous because it really it's by you know you're basically put your money where your mouth is by by signing off of these policy saying we're going to follow this document your policies well this is what i do this is how we we get to the end stage and say ok where is it in writing you know that's right and you don't always have it in writing it's just second nature this is how we've always operated so it's it's great to have it in writing and you know hopefully the rating that we deserved from them this is something that you know you can pick and choose where you can go to all of them but it's expensive you know every time you get rated you've got has about ten grand a shot so we double our cost if we went to the s and p and  moody's but i would just wasn't satisfied that we were really getting credit for you know what was being done here at a double a minus so working with our financial advisor would decide all right let's take our business to s and the the crisis that the whole world economy went through in two thousand and eight you know was fueled in large part by the aaa ratings that were stamped on those mortgage backed securities  people's opinion i think if you saw the picture here in the remember the visual on that one the analogy was they were blind i'm not saying that about the people who rate us but it's it's an interesting business where simpler than that so it's not that complicated our stuff is relatively simple but but i will say a final point on this jim is that you know s and p has more aaa ratings than moody's and you were right in the hunt with all of them on the financials where we're laggards a little bit on the socio economic piece of it it's just the nature of the community you can adjust for that so you know i never thought that's where moody's has a higher standard i think out of those that's i'm glad you asked the question because i you know it's a aaa rating from s and p although you know it's the highest you can go with them in my opinion we would never achieve a aaa with moody's just because of the socio economics of the community of the rating agencies jim just dealing with the myself from the in the public company world this clearly three of them there's a perception of the quality that each one brings the table he's the one that was back in the day they were there all paid with the same brush no given but really just mentioned and clearly it's an interesting business because you have to pay them to get a rating in order to do a bond issuance and the investors will buy your bond at lest you have a rating and so it is kind of like an incestuous process when the key thing is for us is to get the rating or to lower the financing cost how much or whether a aaa from s and p would be any different than a double a from moody's in terms of how the bonds get bed i don't know that but you may end up finding that you get more depth to the market with that s m p with maybe a double a plus in the same depth with the aaa from s and p and there's no sense probably wasting our money on having two or three rating agencies rate the bond to randy's point probably just better with one and they just needed to do it you need to do and hopefully you know getting a aaa rating from them will drop us twelve unhappy basis points twenty five basis points on a you know ten or twenty year it up through water and sewer school committee advisory committee now selectman so who's the stewards of this if next year and wanted to change and you wanted to change a two percent to a two point five percent what's that process who is the one who's responsible for that i think if  anybody obvious any of the policy boards can initiate that with the manager of the superintendent my suggestion is that we would take that back to the audit committee study that and come back to whichever policy board  made that suggestion come to some understanding and if a change is warranted my suggestion would be given the way that we've approached this is that you know we would then go around again and in and try to achieve you value waiters what the policies are with what you have to get to the point of what you have what kind of get skipped over every year a little bit it's kind of like the tail wagging the dog here is a level service or level funding right so every year  into what larry saying it's a comfortable process they're great policies the money going in and out in the money coming out is pretty well understood in foxborough so we jump from year to year with a two and a half percent and we'll get in a day or solution pay it off and you know and if we're lucky we'll pay off a bond earlier and then have decisions on what to do with that put to the point of we level service our level funding in the six years i've been here we've never had a robust discussion  this board and i don't think any of the other boards have it since i think the ability is to make that decision here we tried it one year and invited the public and i think nobody showed up but yet there's a lot of complaints that we're going to proceed with with all the revenue  win half percent every year where do we get that break is there room in this policy to codify that discussion in here so every year we have that discussion whether we want to or not and have the have the board say we we make  a conscious effort that we're going to go two and a half percent war this year since it's been discussed we go with two and a quarter percent and in push it down a little bit sure that's the we we currently do follow  process where that create has a form for that and that's when we discuss the revenue forecast in october with the usually it's a joint meeting with this board in the school committee and then we do it as well with the advisory committee and the intent is that's where that discussion is had you know whether we're looking to maintain services or level founder something in between and certainly any year any of the policy makers we do is it's really not our call to do that it's really the policy boards to do that and that's the form we already have that built into the process i will say that a true level funded budget is somewhat unrealistic just personally because given that sixty percent of all of the cost of municipal services me down in school is all wages and the expense piece is very absolutely that's you know that's that's for the policy boards to to take up here so what i'm getting behind is i'd say the policy board says we've looked at that and with school and roll in budgets as they are  in economic situation plus with the businesses coming in maybe this year we want to do it to want a quarter percent rather than two and a half percent is that going to throw that way out of whack or is that can that stay steadfast with the decision to make two  points on that one is that actually i have to just model that out and see how that you know affects you know where are our ability to meet our expenses and you know the projected natural you know progression of wages and see whether wage settlement a wage dispute if we are not levying to the limit we will lose the argument on whether we can afford it so that that risks so i get on the on  contractor will use allergies i understand that one point i would make is you know randy talked about how we don't spend everything that we bring in every year the temptation would be to try to level fund or approach level funding by eating into that because then no one feels any pain right that year but eventually over the next year you're going to the exactly exactly so you know i think if you're going to really look at at not going to full two and a half percent you really need to consider carefully what are the services that you're not going to offer yeah and you know obviously this isn't the forum for that right but i think that that's really the question it's not you know are we going to level finder not it's are there services that we can do without that the citizens of the town  decided that we can do without and i think you see at a town meeting every year where you know very few people say why are we spending money on this people have questions but very few people get up and say you know why are our classes so smaller you know why is the senior center open so many hours people are satisfied with the services that we offer other revenues pretty well to the revenues given the fact that we under forecasts some of the outset in particular like the stadium revenue our level funding on revenues versus level funding on expenses if you if you know if you don't set the hard back out a number and say look i want you to forecast you know the stadium revenue act and let's not like sandbag it by a million or  i think it's hard business to be a policy around that really variable revenue in order to think about level services or level funding but it's it's definitely a worthy you know discussion i mean that's the that's why the policy boards are and we decided to let's say level service it in the in the in the cost more roshon of that call it free cash then if that's the bit that's a directive then think you tell randy to budget that way and then you forecast what that looks like and then how walk and then we'll get a sense even before the year starts based on what we see in the forecast we're going to come on these with a level service budget and we may have a lower cash free cash balance maybe a dozen two million recharge maybe it's a million a year but level service at and you know say you do it to a quarter to two and a half we need the full two and a half in order to level service it and recharge their gas or two million you know maybe put all of that more in other places and reserves  discussion that's really hot which service don't you want but which seriously you want to reduce in the process and that's the part that i can tell you that when you talk to a person about a number they'll say i want to play this number but then i say ok here's what you  they were running a little behind because if james questions h revised general bylaws article five six and section six and also stadium rules and regulations will conduct a public hearing on tuesday may seventeenth twenty sixteen beginning at seven forty five two additional concerts for the summer of twenty sixteen friday july fifteenth and saturday july sixteenth for luke bryan kill the lights tour we've had brian at the stadium in the past we had in two thousand and fourteen and if you  call that was that sort of intense span of concerts that we had we had three one direction show and we ended that run with all the branches we have four shows in a row and it involved a tremendous amount of coronation  lynch the show went on sale back in march and the saturday show went on sale first sold out immediately so the capacity for that was right around fifty thousand shortly after that show sold out we will break into the second show back a day so it was the friday show and that show didn't sell quite as well so right now it's stalled out from a ticket sales standpoint we still do hope that the entire stadium will be open but we're certainly anticipating a much later crowd for nine fifty on the go up to one hundred twenty five dollars there's a small area that is ga about six hundred capacity at the front of the stage which is consistent with his his performance at the stadium and twenty fourteen where requesting our gates at four thirty in a start time of five thirty with an end time of eleven fifteen which is the town curfew standard parking operation walk time to be determined with public safety officials we will we have requested m b t train service but we don't know whether or not we're going to get approval on that they work with the board of health and approval of handy house deployments and they will also operate the cab stand as we have for the previous three years in the back of lot five  patients on their way out all that being said it's a relatively standard show that we can expect to see the same crowd in the same style event that we saw from him back in two thousand fourteen which is a young place to ensure that we can have the rail for more of our concerts because we just but honestly if it is meant to survive one it evens congestion on route one it provides a better experience for fans it gives them more options of alternatives to get to the stadium it's a greener alternative so it  it depends and it's funny you know you the artists that you would anticipate have a have you real requests for the ones that always are you know right now where we're working hopefully we will be able to use real or be on say because we're seeing a lot of customer service  the country shows typically not as much because people tend to make more of a day of it but it is it's a nice monday to have i mean it's one of the something i'd like to offer adopted and congratulations to everyone's leadership on one together couple towns over from here they're struggling tonight with an override so it's really nice to see how well you guys about rated gals thank you so little licenses  we have presented tonight i believe to you to home rule petition requests were forms crossing in the bill came back we submitted it was you know moved on we got a couple of breaks along the way but it went to third reading and they rewrote it would basically didn't change anything it's just that the gentlemen the chairs at committees and so he had to put his signature on it i've been assured that it will be passed as soon as you adopt  the new language tonight but it's the same deal it is specific to folks crossing of the europeans in but stay with it if a licensee you know leaves goes out of business that think i could see within the original language say that if the license was in use within seven years it's going to you you might be right to me i don't see that here i mean i've no problem with that yeah i mean i thought that was with a bunch of different things in it and want to was to green community ability to take your little licenses without having to go back to the state i don't think it's coming out people can fill up into six different committees and it's kind of been fragmented now and i'm sure that they'll try again next session but we haven't seen any movement on that particular piece of legislation to make it easy so you could be doing exactly what you're doing so it seems to be lately i did some for mansfield we've it was a year and a half ago where it's a specific where a zone and again the ones that were recently adopted last week are the same philosophy and strategy is economic development tools for the community will those ones that we it's taken a little bit more than a year but we had a an article at the town meeting last year in two thousand and fifteen to change some of the powers of the board of selectmen a town manager as it relates to water and s attended and i think well received the information they were able to gather directly from some of the folks that experience that roadway every day was was really helpful and i think this can be a lot of ideas the web portal has been very active with people going online which they're welcome to do to leave their comments and i think it last night i heard the number of three hundred responses so it's pretty significant and next week for those who weren't able to make it if you schedule permits next week we have a meeting monday boundaries you know the right of the whole idea of the roadway and safety and it is about safety and it's what i said to them and other people i think of the same it's the same people every need to drive we all know right you know i mean it's when you throw some new people into the mix that there's some confusion and you know about what whites and strategies of trying to calm it down a little bit that's really what we you know what we need to do but it was really great we had the c e o of stewart healthcare comments are repeat walnut street kept coming up commercial and it's nice so it's they the concerns and just coming from the our office bills office right they coming from people's homes right right and i think that's what they got a couple people described  happy to see that we got it started and will have to stay on top of them and work with them and can you continue that public you know input so if anybody gets you next week monday norton tuesday means field would be great those are the people that were there him and he's got interns working the summer in really doing the data collection and i just started soon because we want to get it's a little different in the summer than it is during you know spring and you know spring winter so we need to let me know that too i mean we have game traffic we have school traffic i mean there's a lot of things that go on there in both directions you get infinity going the other way with a lot of people get off i ninety five down one forty t p c with the labor day we can you can't build the stuff necessarily for the high peak times but again they're going to know the dynamics to change with the different events that are going on it's a busy busy road and as you all know everything that goes to it can get just as a result of it and i think when they see what's crossing going to that's a change i mean going out that's a change in the ice cream going up much different than what it what it appeared or what it was like to be but take for example the charter school they were there they were just complaining granted their contributor right but with those maps out they could actually point and they're talking about which properties they produce purchase what their options are how they're going to try to help it so to get everyone in one room times three towns you know they probably will circle back to you to bring everybody together you know to be in have one big meeting when it's presented and just to give them and you don't shout out yourself enough but i mean to get that together i know you had  and you hear some of the stories that you know gridlock and one side speeding you know coming off the highway and that's on the other side it is going to take about ten years probably to get through but this is a start of it doesn't come easy   understand the fact that it's so important that we need to collaborate together to get these things done because doing it one on one doesn't really work you know really just doesn't happen so we have to have this cooperative relationship and in order to be effective in the game the attention of the state and he's right we should like think this will also help set the example for other communities really working together i mean you got to do it and we got a very strong team of commerce representing the three communities a tri town you've got their little economic development committee each of the three towns now have their own individual groups that are meeting and talking you know some of the same people so that it really allows you know opportunity for everyone to participate in that feel you know shout out we're getting closer by the day with the solution forms in copeland drive with a roundabout and we're really hopeful that we're going to get that idea yes i would one of the things with the surplus study and i asked them that last night they do it in conjunction with the mass highway hires and you know and so when it's done it's kind of accepted just through the way it's done not that it's ok it's not a study and they throw it over in this pile it's their document so it really it shouldn't get dusty it will have solutions not only for what we have existing but for future you know opportunities for people to create and build and get again economic development that's what it's all about and that's really where you some assignments that dan signed up for for some recruitment for before the next meeting and also had a chance with the families from the town clerk office they gave me some of the bylaws and regulations that it was able to use as  training for some new managers that we have still some little little tidbits  there so how long have you been there so i work with would fill from two thousand and four two thousand and twelve in tampa florida down there and then i'm originally from massachusetts and i wanted to move back because i enjoy the cold and snow  three plays for a year on and then i was the general manager of a restaurant in newton for a restaurant group and then back in august i got back on board with splitsville since some of the managers want to move back to florida and they knew that i did not more and that kind of partnership to try to experiment and work together on something so that's what you guys they like to try to get some different groups involved to regain your location so they always are experimenting to try different things florida that i'm consciously checking with and they're out every couple weeks are flying through and staying in checking out the establishment  meeting i have to tell me so what i'd like to do is to it's a solicit applications from the public to serve on the committee from the from the general public at this point in time i have a few people have already submitted applications so but i don't know that we've and conservation and so much for anybody from any of the other boards at this point in time but recreation recreation recreation what i do have one as well so so i just want to make sure that we have all the town committees lined up in the town staff members are going to just service as his support staff for this process but i do need to get the be the most likely to participate at this point so i said i know that there are some people have already expressed interest but i'd like to get that formalized and get folks to to make a request to our office and then and then i'll review those applications makes recommendations the second thing  instruction is it has been halted for a period of time because we ran into some soil contamination issues that i'm told is actually pretty common when dealing with with with old sites like this i'm also told that this is not a major issue was just it's just a life process that we have to follow because there are regulations that you have to follow in order to go through that process so we are in a delay in a holding pattern interest at this point in time i'm told that we could very well the materials and getting those things lined up so we're still moving a lot but not it's not being as visible on the site we have a sign it's going to be going up probably within the next week or two on this show in the new design for the building everybody parking outside and people coming to do business you know initially it was a little rough but i think we've people sort of contact come to utilize it and get used to it we did put up additional science and only scientists when we saw it and people are following that we haven't seen a lot of structural problems so but they are actively using this time to the data with some other issues and they may actually do some some actual construction and maybe relocate some water lines things that nature you may see that  production in the next the next thirty days or so we should see some production activity on that and that will have actually helped to develop that will have will be available for all three towns to use as promotional tool for the for the entire region so  that and out was the group that's that's actually talks about thirty five thirty four communities along the route forty five corridor and that's a that's a much broader region thought to look at but it's last week i was to say congratulations to my son's team that made all the way to the final game of the region that region ten tournaments and they lost last night and so they did not make the world stage and caldwell serious but they actually broke a record and they won forty four closely with the personnel board now that the new bylaws updated where working hard to get some policies that will be bringing forth with you redefining some of the policies now that the  is a much smaller group but it's been a great exercise and i appreciate that ford's work and we're also in the process as you know midpoint with the police chief recruitment process we're halfway through posting not may first to assistant this is a unique opportunity for somebody it's a full time position that will report half to the assessors department and half to the veteran's department so it's a unique opportunity to get a town hall learn to departments  s replacement position and assessors a new condition budget for veterans also have an opening in the water department for services technician and two part time non benefit physicians posted subs due to library assistant that's a replacement position we had some promotions we had a retirement and several people promoted up and that's the position that's open and also i want you to help us with all these job postings a fifteen hour h r assistant that is posted today we're also i'll be working next week with the fire department on an all day assessment center to work on promoting fire officer that's again as a result of reorganization and retirements and where now at the end of our season all hired for d p w and recreation all the postings have closed working closely with parking lot for a on six ten twenty sixteen six twelve twenty sixteen and sixty eight twenty sixty second which made second question  the move to accept a gift donation in the amount of one hundred sixty one dollars to the has called grant program to be used for programs second which meet second question caution was in favor move to accept gifts donation in the amount of fifty dollars in memory of ralph monde from nancy williams and dzhokhar alone to be used second i'm actually going to abstain from this only and i'll be honest with you is this is a slight against thirty nine pages i just didn't have to put it aside to read images i just didn't get to read all that stuff i'm sure they're fine but i can't  do it's not an easy thing to fix unfortunately you know it's just one of those simple resolutions that we can because it is it isn't approved parking lot the truck the and the only the only issue the only way they could really resolve is they have a standard standby were packing situations charges against well i think i don't know that they have major problems with traffic of traffic getting in and out of sight so i don't think that they actually have a detail obviously for that reason but they do need one on site just to keep any police in force we keep people out of the to make a motion to approve the five three twenty sixteen board of selectmen minutes with changes second