Finance Committee: March 17, 2025

Transcript captured from MHTV’s Vimeo auto-captioning. No speaker labels; proper names and dollar figures occasionally misheard. Click any timecode to jump to that moment in the source video.

0:02 The main piece of our agenda tonight is night, one of our three Monday night budget hearings. We always have in March. Tonight we have retirement assessors, cemetery, water, and sewer. Um, we’ve had liaison meetings with all of these groups. We’ve all shared notes with one another. Share liaisons about those meetings. So you’ve been briefed on the budgets that we’ll be reviewing in lab person tonight, and we’ll be voting officially. Uh, these are votes that roll up for each of these departments, budgets that roll up into the main balanced budget. That will be in, forget the exact article, maybe 22, somewhere around there. Um, before we get going with the budget hearing, I’d just like to, uh, approve the prior, um, our prior meeting minutes

0:48 for the December 16th, 2024 meeting. Linda shared those all in the email. We’ve all had a chance to provide comments back, um, like to make a motion to accept those minutes. Second, do I just go around the room quick? Uh, We don’t have to because we’re all in the room. No, no. Tim’s online. Oh, Tim. Oh, yes, he is. Okay. Sorry. Hello. Okay. Hi, Tim. All right. Mike O’Neill. I was not there. So I’ll staying. Abstain. Abstain. Um, Michael Janko Group. Molly, yes. Yes, yes. Eric. Yes. Lindsay? Yes. Tim Abstain.

1:33 Great. That handles the meeting minutes. Um, I’m open to taking whoever would like to go first. Uh, I think retirement’s listed first. I don’t know if Linda, you’re the representative tonight or somebody else we could go with retirement. Yeah, I’m here and three of my board members. Oh, great. So our, even our cheerleaders on it respect Lindsay. Yep. Yes. So if you guys want to come up to the table, at least one person, you probably don’t get everybody. You’re welcome to all join.

2:13 Yeah. So, Lindsay, I don’t know, um, this one’s pretty simple. It’s based on formula, but if you wanna kind of remind us all about what goes into the building and this budget. Sure. Um, so I met Linda, um, to go over the retirement budget, which was already voted on by the retirement board. Uh, fiscal year 26, um, has an appropriation of five $5,380,525, which is a 10.2% increase roughly from, uh, fiscal year 25. Um, this is based on the, um, actuarial evaluation, which is completed in January of 2024. And that’s done, um, bi-annually, um,

2:58 which is based on a formula of a 7% investment return, um, and 8.6% cost increase and a $14,000 cost of living adjustments. Um, I can keep going. Um, uh, the, the state has a mandate that that has fully funded by 2040 and based on the actuarial evaluation, um, plan will be fully funded by 26. Yeah, I would just add to that, um, you’ll see the fiscal year 26 requested amount of about 5.4 million. Um, we also printed out and shared with the full committee the, the, the schedule, is that

3:44 What you call it? Yeah, the funding Schedule. Funding schedule. Um, only 80% of the total cost included in the funding schedule shows up in the general government budget. I believe 20% is covered by the enterprise funds. Is that what it’s, and housing authority. So what’s interesting is we talked a lot about this being one of the large expense cost drivers that’s growing at, um, a rate much larger than our property tax revenues grow by. Um, and we talked about 8.6% as you mentioned. Um, my first question was why is it going up 10.2%? But I would say that I quickly did the math on that. And the 80% of prior year budget, the total that went to the general fund was about 79.8%. And the 80% of this year was about 81 point

4:31 or 80, 80.9%. So that kind of 1% variance is what’s driving that minor difference in 8.6 versus 10. But effectively it’s going up by 8.6% every year on average. Um, do you guys have anything to add? Charles Gesner, remember the retirement and, and alumni of your organization?

4:57 I just remind you that A, we don’t cover teachers, it’s at the state level, and B, this is driven by a state mandate that we have to be fully funded by a year that they tell us and then they move it. So we proceed towards it and then they move it. Okay. That’s helpful. Thank you. Eric wanted Everybody to be, uh, fully funded by 2035, but the law says 2040. So 2036 ain’t that.

5:31 Well, if you lived in some of these communities that are at 20 or 30%, you can clearly see that they’ll never get there. Yeah. So, although I guess we’re Around 70 something, Although the cost is going up by 8.6%, it could be a lot worse is what you’re saying in other communities. So it’s a challenge, but maybe less of a challenge because of some good planning over the years, which is Great. Well, the joke, if I can take 30 seconds, of course. I don’t know, a decade or so ago, we were at 90, I don’t remember, 95, 90 6% when the stock market got crushed. The people who weren’t anywhere near that, they could care less. One of the actuarials who we contracted with, they come in and make a proposal to us. We didn’t contract with him, we just asked for a proposal.

6:18 He made the comment. He said, those of you that were close to getting fully funded were the ones who paid the price,

6:27 the law of unintended consequence.

6:34 So I recommend the, Okay. Yeah. Does anybody else have any further questions? Yeah, just that, and, and it’s probably just a typo, but the summary sheet here, it’s a a hundred dollars difference. Um, it says 6 25 instead of 5 25 in your notes. So that’s probably just a al So are we probing the 6 25? Yeah, the six 20 five’s coming out of clear gov. So that’s what’s in the balance. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Perfect. That’s all. Okay, thanks. So you wanna make an uh, go ahead Object. Just a quick question. Um, do you, uh, the retirement board have anything to do with the EP funding and where are we vis-a-vis fully funding that Which funding op

7:20 Other post-employment benefits? Uh, no, I think that’s a town liability. No, Thank you.

7:29 Okay. Yeah. Do you wanna make an official motion? I know you sort of Sure. Um, I, I would recommend Google of the budget of $5,380,625. Second. Michael O’Neal? Yes. Michael Chanko. Yes. Molly? Yes. Alec? Yes. Pat? Yes. Eric? Yes. Lindsey? Yes. And Tim? Yes. Thank You. Thanks for your time. Thank very.

8:01 Next up we’ll go with cemetery department.

8:11 Just me. Hi, Catherine. Hi, how are you? Good, thanks. Good buddy. Good, good. Happy soon, Patrick. Thanks. Thank you. Um, I can’t remember who the liaison said again.

8:29 Um, so I met with Kathy, um, last week to go over the cemetery budget. Um, the most significant, uh, expense, again, salaries, um, which, um, based on the mix of employees get results in just a small incremental increase, uh, year over year. Um, and also there are no other expense increases across the board. So total expense increase there only about $3,000 total, um, for the year. And then we discussed some potential capital needs, uh, eventually, but not for fiscal year 26. Um, so the proposed budget, uh, for the cemetery

9:16 is, um, $495,759 and 40 cents. And I would recommend,

9:27 Yeah. So this looks like a pretty level funded budgets within $3,000 of last year. Um, so it looks like that because Last year we, we increased those items that had never, hadn’t been increased in 10 years. Right. Um, so we did act actual expenditure rather than, you know, just going into reserve fund when we were over. Right. And How’s the, uh, 20, 25 year? It’s Working fine Now. Seems like your own pace and it’s working well, And we’ll probably turn money back, which is what we used to do before we were, we had to stop, you know, increasing anything in our budgets. Yeah. And then, and then the mix on the salaries and wages is just certain turnover within departments. Certain lines are going down, certain lines are going up based on contractual Yes. Salaries

10:12 is just, is because of the step increases and the cola raises for the admin because MME doesn’t have the contract. Right. Offset by there’s actually some lines going down. ‘cause it might be like a younger person coming in. Yeah. Plus we got a couple new employees. So there’s salaries a little bit lower. Right. That’s, yeah. Okay. Um, And then I think there’s two capital articles this year. We don’t have to go in depth on them tonight, but I think I saw Yeah. Um, Alicia allowed us to do kind of like a blind one Yeah. For, um, coming out of 80,000 out of Perpetual Care. Yeah. And a hundred from sale of lots because with the new board and with me being on family medical leave, we didn’t get any, any prices for anything. Okay. So, um, we’re with that, we’re gonna do the beginnings

10:57 of a few of the projects that we have. Okay. And then keep going from there. Okay. Yeah. So we can discuss those more when we get to the warrant hearing. But I did review that again today and I just thought I’d mention it. Um, again, this is one of our smaller budgets that we vote on. Um, it seems pretty straightforward this year. There’s not a lot of differences. Um, but does anybody else have additional questions? Okay. Um, couple of quick questions. I apologize for missing the liaison meeting ‘cause of the scheduling conflict on We can, um, I, I noticed the, that your salary is increasing by 5.6%. I have a particular issue with that. Just a question. Uh, I know the target that everyone was given with 2% In a step increase, it’s the two 2% for the admin cola.

11:46 And then it’s also the step increase, which is effective in September For me, that’s my date. Perfect. Thank you. Yeah. And one thing, uh, Plin, I forgot I wasn’t sharing my screen. So I’ll do that from now on. Do you mind getting access to that? I think as the host, um, Are you able to? I, I am. But I thought you had this.

12:08 Lemme see here. Don’t think there’s a lot of people online, but at least Make CoBooks. Do you wanna make Alec? Tim could see it all? Can You, can you see me? No, we can’t see you. Alec moves me is the cohot. Now I don’t know why that is. We could see your title, but that’s all. Okay. I apologize. That’s not the way I meet it. Be. Yeah, no worries. No worries. That’s All right. ‘cause he’s sharing a screen. We wouldn’t see him.

12:44 So Tim, I’m now sharing the screen. Yeah, I can, I can see that, but I can see you. Okay. Um, yeah, I don’t have any further questions on this one. Does anybody else,

12:59 Well, just a reminder, so on the, the sale of lots, does that go into a revolving fund? No. Or Okay. It’s just, it’s reserved for appropriation. At at, Okay. So that’s what you’d be drawing from, from those warrants under? Yes. Okay. Yes. So there’s still money. They’re available to us, but we’re only taking a hundred of it to, to get us started. Okay. And does that typically used for capital improvements? It’s for capital improvements. It’s for any anything buildings. It’s for, it’s for the equipment, it’s for vehicles. We fund all of ours. We, we usually don’t get approved in, in any of the, um, articles in the capital improvement or the fleet schedules, all that. It’s always funded from the sale of lots. And there’s usually transfer every year

13:46 of that during the year. Um, for operating expenses, like 26,000 issues, That was the perpetual care, um, we would put, that would be the part of the interest that we would put towards to offset our budget. But this year she Alicia’s holding that back so that we can take that money to, to make the 80,000 available to us so that we can start some, some projects. Okay. So that’ll be part of that capital request or part, partly to fund that. Yeah, that’s, yeah. So that’ll be coming right to us. So that’s gonna be something coming from the town budget, that’ll be 26,000 that won’t be back into, into funds for, you know, we won’t be contributing that to the, to the overall budget anymore this year anyway. Okay. Alicia Can explain that It’s not budgeted for in the operating, please.

14:33 Yep. Okay. Any other questions?

14:39 No. Um, I recommend, uh, approving the budget of 495,700, $1,500 and 43. Sorry, O’Neal? Yes. Michael jco. Yes. Molly? Yes. Ronald Yes. F yes. Yes. Lindsay. Yeah. Tim. Yes. Thank you. Thanks so much. Have a great night. Thank you. Say Patrick’s day. You too,

15:09 Assessor is next.

15:18 Bye. Hello everybody.

15:22 So I’m the chair of this one. Um, Alec and I met with, uh, the new department head, Todd Ry rear. Um, he’s new to the department this year. Uh, John Kelly, the chair of the board was also there as well. Um, I’ll, I’ll just run through kind of the, uh, the high points, um, a couple of questions we had on line items and then, um, turn it over to Todd. Just kinda give a background like we just talked about on Friday. Um, uh, a couple things that, you know, bring new to the, um, new to the department and, um, just a little bit of your experience be, be great. Um, and then we can open it up to anyone for, for questions. So we, um, you know, kind of wanna reiterate every year, the, the, the job, you know, the assessor’s department required by Massachusetts law

16:09 to listing value all real, real and personal property located in Mar within our annual basis basis. Um, and that’s by January 1st of each year. And it’s supposed to be, uh, the assessed values are supposed to be based on a hundred percent of their fair market values. Um, the department consists of Todd and the two senior clerks, and we briefly discussed abatement activity. Similar level similar to that of, uh, fiscal year 25. We had around, uh, 300 requests this year. Um, so for salaries, the, you know, usually the largest part of any budget. This one specifically the senior clerk and senior senior clerk two, they’re both union positions. Estimated 2% increase are in there.

16:56 Um, but the final number be based on contractual obligations. Contract was still being negotiated, usually. Usually the case, um, leading up to the town meeting or even maybe after. Um, and the department head salary was discussed and improvement. Todd joined the department in, in this fall of 24. That was October, right? I started in the last week of October. Yeah, October. Um, and then a couple questions we went over the individual line items that kind of popped out. Um, first all we’ll start by saying that this is a certification year, so every five years this happens. Uh, and then there is a jump, um, in both, you know, I think it got broken out this year, and I’m not sure how it usually is presented in a certification year,

17:41 but I think the, the main expenses that relate to this, and I’ll let you kind of touch a little bit more in detail on it, but that’s the, uh, real estate appraisers line item, and then the other professional technical line item. Both those, um, together, I think the jump in that line, those line items kind of directly correlate to that being this being a certification year. Yes. Um, and I’ll, I’ll again, you kind of explain what that actually Is. Do you wanna just kind of give a brief background of, we’ve talked about this many times, but some members are newer than others. These certification cares require more, um, expertise and, and external valuations effectively. Maybe provide a better background than I just did on that. Yeah, Sure. So, um, every year, what they call interim years

18:28 between every fifth year, um, every property, all the properties in town get reassessed based on basically sales and then, you know, the cost approach to value, um, with, and then on your, you know, your fifth year, you know, we submit our sales data every year to the Department of Revenue division of local services. There’d be, you know, one person from their team that I deal with directly. Um, on the fifth year. It’s kind of more of a deeper dive, more of an audit on our methodology within, you know, our processes of what we do. And there’s just, you know, more, more reports to run, more information to send to them just so they can kinda, um, scour over our database

19:13 and making sure that, you know, we’re looking to achieve, you know, full fair market value. Um, so in terms of our budget, you know, ba you know, we’re basically pretty bare bones. It’s, um, you know, salaries and then what our, our vendor costs are. So typically, um, in Marblehead, they’ve sort of farmed out all of their, uh, work just ‘cause of the, the workload and the, um, you know, the size of the office. It’s, you know, surprisingly very busy from what I anticipating. But, um, you know, they hire, uh, Patriot Properties who is our software provider. They also, uh, offer services to manage our database in terms of, they’ll do the analysis on the sales,

19:59 they’ll take a look at the building permits to try to pick up, um, growth, which I know is a big thing here in town, which we’re trying to get on track. And, um, you know, my thoughts are a little different than that. I’m trying to bring more of this stuff in house and it’s gonna take, you know, another year or so until I can kind of get through 300 abatements and, you know, look at everything else that’s going on in the office. We’ve got a lot of, uh, processes that I think need to be kind of streamlined and fine tuned, especially, uh, with the, uh, boat excise tax in this town. It’s just, uh, it’s very overwhelming to my staff right now. So we’re gonna try to figure out a way to clean everything up and make it a little easier for everybody and a little more beneficial at the end to,

20:45 uh, the town itself. So, um, with, you know, within this five year reval, um, that’s, you know, the, the cost of that is with what happened last year, Marblehead pony up to, um, pay patriot to kind of clean up a lot of issues that, um, had happened in certain neighborhoods. Um, but again, it’s, this works is mandatory by the state for them to, you know, for us to provide a certain reports and do this certain analysis. So that’s kind of where that cost is. Um, some of the other bumps are, you know, I’m a big fan of, uh, education and continuing education. I sit on the board, the executive board for the Essex County, um, assessor’s Association. And, um, you know, in order to maintain

21:33 my Mass Assessor’s association designation, I have to have a certain amount of hours every two years. Like most organizations. Um, so, you know, I’m trying to get my group who’s sharp, um, you know, allow them kind of an opportunity to better their careers and get the more, the more we all know in the office, um, I think it’s a better, uh, product for the town, for the people that come to the window. So, um, we asked Alicia to bump up our education budget a little bit just so we can, I can get some of these guys, um, some of this classwork that I think would be beneficial, uh, for them, for me and for the taxpayers here in town. So, um, you know, there’s certain classes that you need

22:21 to take to get your designation, and there’s other ones that are available as continuing ed just to, you know, give your, just a better grasp of how the process works. So, um, that was a, a little bit of the bump. And then I think maybe, um, you know, the GIS in town, which is the, um, you know, kind of the online mapping system, um, in addition to us being in a rebell year, a certification year where the Department of Revenue requires us to print maps like individual, uh, map, uh, law and law and, uh, plot maps for the townspeople to look at, they need to be available, um, in the handheld printed out version. So that’s a little bit of a cost. And then just, um, I think there’s gonna be some updates to,

23:08 uh, to the, uh, website as well to some of the tax people to kind of get their hands on things. So it Needs certification years, there’s additional reporting required. Um, correct me if I’m wrong, but there’s also like certain utilities and things like that that are valued in these years, whereas they’re maybe not looked at as closely in the other four years of the fund. Yeah. So we need to have, uh, professional appraisals done per state guidelines for, there’s marbles, got two utilities. It’s basically the gas companies, um, you know, gas and electric and other towns. But, uh, you know, that’s all personal property and that’s stuff that needs to be counted tabulated and, um, Patriot provides that service. So that’s, uh, you know, and then The only other thing I’d add is we discussed Friday when

23:54 we met, um, so on top of it being a certification year where kind of the baseline level of cost from these vendors is going up because there’s more work being done and additional vendors being, um, working with the town and whatnot, but, um, the fees, just general fees of these vendors are also going up, right? Correct. I think Patriot has gone through an acqui, they’ve been acquired like four or five years ago and, you know, yeah. Their new owners may be raising fees and things like that. So we talked with Todd about, you know, and, um, John Kelly about whether we thought the services we were receiving, um, were the right services for Marblehead. I think Patriot is has recently in the last year, um, done a lot of additional work to make our process even better.

24:40 Yeah. And scrubbed everything due to last year’s kind of, um, fun, uh, public issues that, that were brought to light. Um, so, you know, they thought very, I mean, you, you can speak for yourself, but on Friday you articulated that you thought Patriot was the right, um, company To keep. Yeah, I do. They are, they’re local. They know the town. Um, they’ve been working with the town since probably its inception. Um, I’ve been in other communities that, uh, have other software I’ve done, you know, I’ve used them both. Um, these guys, you know, especially the work that they did last year to correct some of the issues that happen. Um, you know, they, uh, some valuables the, the, the help that they can give. And again, to have them know the community the way they do, it’s beneficial.

25:27 So I would say yes, they’re doing a great job.

25:33 Yeah. So basically covered, um, you know, everything I was gonna point out in terms of the line item, um, it, you know, bump over year over year. We did talk about this last year, um, you know, to expect this bump and then obviously every, before every five years that’ll happen again. I’m supposed to expect you to drop that drop back down next year. Um, so I guess I will open it up to the rest of the committee members if you had any additional questions. Um, actually one thing that I, we didn’t go over is, might be a better question for, for John, but the overlay, um, in terms of getting into the, uh, the abatement, um, point, do we think that, um, where, I guess where we are in the process of the abatement filings, and then do we think we will, um, be a, a cost

26:21 to cover any granted, it’s gonna be able to be covered by that overlay? Yeah. Yeah. We should, we we should be fine. More than, Okay. Yeah. Alright. What I just add a small question. It’s, it’s a small absolute number, but the relative jump just jumped on at me. Yeah. The, uh, instate travel is zap 140%. That’s the, that’s where the education costs we were talking about is, are captured. Okay. So it used to be that used to be, you know, um, education and actual stay, stay, uh, you know, cost to cover the hotel where wherever, because a lot of these classes are in person, I think may have changed a little bit since Covid, but yeah. Um, that used to be, that’s why that was labeled that. So those are the, those are education

27:10 Answered one of my two questions. Inform, Yes. Lisa, Alicia. Hi Todd. Good evening Finances committee. Sorry, I was in a conference, but I jumped on after I could get out of it. Um, I did put increased money in overlay for next year for two reasons, uh, for this and for the potential impact due to the veterans exemptions that are gonna be on town meeting. So those were also factored in. Thank You. Thank you, Alicia. Um, Mike, remind me there, there’s a new expense in this budget that used to be carried elsewhere. Did you say to w Covered? Um, I believe, yeah, this was two years or last year this changed. So two years ago I think the GIS expense was partially picked up by water and sewer.

27:55 Yeah. And, uh, but year over year, I think it was included in last year’s budget in this disability. So I guess, um, my other question would be, um, as we look at fiscal year 26 specifically, like the real estate appraiser, appraisers and other professional technical goes up a significant amount. Right. Um, we probably wouldn’t expect it to come back down to what was budgeted in fiscal year 25, maybe because of the inflationary impact of these vendor expenses just in normal years. But could we expect it to come down ki kind of 40, $50,000? Um, I would have to look to see, you know, typically what they charge on, on a, you know, The recertification Yeah. On a, you know, interim year. Um, but it is significantly.

28:45 Okay. Okay. Yeah, that might just be a follow up before we do the main thing. So I have a question. Yeah. Um, Todd, um, I’m sure you have been spending an inordinate amount of time, uh, cleaning up and going through, um, the assessments from previous years. Given what you walked into, um, what percentage of the records would you estimate have now been cleaned up and are reasonably accurate? Are we at a hundred percent? I think so. Yeah. They, uh, they did, so they did a, what they call a full revaluation. So, um, I mean, from my understanding, from what I’m seeing, you know, there was only a few neighborhoods in town and it was basically land values that were adjusted and properly.

29:32 So, um, that was one of the first things that they, they did and corrected. But with that, they just went through the whole town. And, um, you know, one of the reasons why we have so many abatements, ‘cause in addition to that, um, you know, recalculating the land values, um, the building values, uh, went up because the cost of materials these days, it’s all reflective on, you know, the methodology and it’s the real estate market’s been booming and, um, and so has cost of materials. So that’s kind of another factor you can use with cost manuals to determine what values of properties are. And, um, you know, the cost of materials is up as well. So it’s like, you know, what, what’s it gonna cost to build a rep in a house, less depreciation

30:20 and, um, it’s gonna cost a lot of money. So that was, you know, the building costs and additional land values have gone up across the board in town. That’s why we’re so busy at the moment. Thank you. One of the reasons. You’re welcome. Thank you. Yeah. And As Todd referenced, we did discuss, um, we’ve talked about this in the last year or so on this committee about new growth, how challenging it is at Marblehead town’s built out. Um, that being said, we wanna make sure we’re capturing new growth that is happening. Um, and I think Todd’s been out on the ground himself a lot and his team a lot more than maybe the most more recent years. And that’s just the start. And he and John Kelly both acknowledged that that’s something they’re working on. Yeah. You know, improving because there’s always room for improvement in any process. Yeah. And you know, it’s going,

31:05 I thought I was gonna be able to kind of handle a lot of the stuff myself, and I’m gonna give it one more year, but patriot handle the workload that they’ve been working with. And then, um, I’m gonna kinda reevaluate how we’re doing next year, and maybe I can start bringing some more of this stuff that they do in-house and remove that off the budget as well. But we’ll see Another question if I can. Yep. Um, last year, given the travails that the assessing department went through, and there was a large number of abatements that were granted, um, but fortunately with the adjustments, it wasn’t a large budgetary impact. Do you have any sense of, of these 300 abatements

31:51 that you’re currently working through, uh, if there’s going to be a significant impact, uh, to town revenue? Or do you think it’s going to shake out about even? Um, well, I don’t think it’s gonna be anywhere near what it was last year, just because everything’s been corrected and, uh, you know, Listen, nobody likes to pay taxes. It’s just, you know, it is what it is. And as long as I can on our end prove, um, and validate our, our values and where they’re at, um, you know, they’re, they have to do the same on their side too, and I’m willing to work with ‘em. And, um, but, you know, unfortunately can’t just say my taxes went up, you know, whatever percent, like it’s all over

32:37 Essex County, it’s all over, you know, the whole country really. So, um, you know, prove to me that, uh, our methodology is wrong. Prove to me that, you know, with comps of sales that are legit, that, you know, you’ve got an argument and I’ll certainly take a look at it and make an adjustment. I’m trying to get out to as many of, if I have my own way, I’m gonna get to all 300 of these, um, kind of busting my hump to do it. But, um, it’s what needs to be done. You need to get in and look at these houses and listen to these people and trying to get, uh, you know, be as transparent as possible. And, um, you know, just, I treat people the way I would like to be treated. So if, um, if I had a gripe, and it’s not easy basic things, it’s

33:23 not rocket science either, but it’s, um, you know, there’s a lot to it. So if I can spend time in somebody’s house and explain to them, go over their record card and why things went up and, you know, what I think might be able to be adjusted in their benefit, that I’m certainly gonna do that. And I’ll spend, you know, a little bit of time with them. But I, you know, it’s getting close. We’ve got, uh, three months to act. So as they come in, we timestamp ‘em and we’ve got three months from when they come in. So I, I go out and try to set appointments as they come in and, um, just trying to get through ‘em and try to give people their time and, you know, their opportunity to present whatever they need to present to me. And, um, and then I present to the board and they, they vote on it. So, um, I’m doing my best to try to give people in town here at the time to

34:12 make a, make an argument. So if, if I Heard you correctly, you don’t anticipate a significant impact of these abatement requests on The revenue? I do not. No. Thank you. Thank you.

34:27 So, hi, I’m Pat Franklin. Um, Todd, so you said you are going and visiting each one of these, how I think this is great to, that you’re taking the time and, and putting in the effort to really drill down. Um, and in terms of looking for revenue growth, quote unquote, and, and I, when you first took over, I think there was your, your goal was to be able to take every house in town and, and really do a and I don’t know if this is an in, in-house inspection, maybe like you’re doing for these people that have requested the abatement. I’m just wondering, do when you go in and do you find any surprises? Like, um, suddenly if you something that

35:16 where there was a, a kitchen remodel or something that was d didn’t, um, show up in your record cards or, Yeah. Um, you get that everywhere. I mean, I’ve worked, I’ve worked in Amesbury, I’ve been in Lexington, um, you know, I’ve been here, um, Hamilton Ham, it happens. People, uh, you know, when people ask me, I’m straight up with ‘em. They say, you know, what should I be letting the assessor in? I mean, you know, you know, but, uh, it is what it is, you know, but, um, but you have to make an assessment on their right, um, abatement request. So, um, my policy is if you file for an abatement, I’m coming in and, um, you know,

36:04 if you don’t wanna let me in, and I’ve, I’ve had it in other communities that that’s, I’ll go to the Appellate Tax board with you and I’ll tell, I’ll tell them they didn’t let me in. And so we denied it ‘cause I have no idea what’s in there. And, um, you know, people pull permits all the time. They finish their basements on their own and whatever. There’s nothing we can do about it. Um, I try to just, whether it’s a building permit or whether it’s a cyclical visit or a sale, you know, properties turn over and that’s an opportunity for us to look at ‘em. I’m trying to work closely with the building department when people do. Yeah, great. Uh, you know, pull building permits and, um, I try not to be invasive with things. So I try to, when the building department goes through an inspection, I’m gonna try to, um, uh, which I’ve done in other communities, kind of hop piggyback

36:50 with them, just so I’m not really walking with the homeowner. I’m walking with the building people who are, you know, checking the work, signing on, signing it off and everything. And yeah, that allows me to get a chance to kind of see the quality work, what’s in there and make the, the adjustments accordingly. And, um, you know, it’s, it’s mass appraisal, it’s how everything is compared to everything else in town. So, um, the more you get out and get and get a feel for the quality of work in town, the more of an understanding you’re gonna have with how to grade these things and put condition factors on stuff. So, um, you know, I’m getting out. It’s big for me. And, um, again, I try not to be invasive with people if they don’t want me in. I fully understand and it’s something I can do about it,

37:38 but I’ll just make assumptions and, um, hopefully I’ll be accurate. Yeah. And the cyclical, um, inspections that you No, the state requires that we make an effort to get into every property once every 10 years, um, just to, you know, keep, keep the records up to date and whether you get in or not, you can still kind of just walk around and, you know, measure the house, make sure we’ve got the right square footage on the property, and you can kind of tell the condition of the house just by walking around. So, you know, so that’s once every 10 years. That’s, yeah, that’s pretty liberal actually. So what’s, you know, with our certification here, what one of the first things they’re gonna require me to do is, uh, run a report for Visit History, and then they’re gonna take a look at it and dissect it.

38:23 And, you know, if there’s, like, when I was in Hamilton and Wenham, um, you know, Wenham was a part-time assessor and, um, their properties hadn’t been looked at in a long time. So I had, you know, a couple hundred that he wanted me to go look at. And, you know, they try to look at properties, they look at sales, they look at similar houses within the community, and they, um, they compare ‘em and make sure that, you know, our we’re we’re doing our job correctly.

38:53 Well, this will be clearly a busy year because it’s a certification year, but I think it’s in, in juxtaposition with the issues that we’ve had recently in the, in the plan going forward. I, this is great. Yeah, thanks. Yeah, we’re trying. Um, I get a great staff. I’m fortunate, you know, they’re sharp, they know the business, they know the work, so it’s easy to kind of rely on them to be able to let them do their thing and I can kind of do mine. Thank you. Right. Thanks. Yeah, thanks. And thanks for elaborating beyond just the budget. I know it’s pretty straightforward budget, but yeah, I also know that there’s a big revenue sign to this as well. It’s helpful to just, you know, talk once a year at least with the full Yeah, absolutely. Happy to do it. Sorry, I talked so much about Thank you.

39:38 Appreciate your guys, uh, taking foot time forth for the town, doing what you guys do. That’s solid. Amy, did you have a Question? Wan ker quick clarification. Uh, water and sewer is still paying for the portions of the server. They’ve always paid for, they’re still paying for a part of the plots that happen on the upgrades, so we haven’t cut anything as far as their budget. But what has happened is the runtime license that they used to have, they used to have four, they cut it down to two a few years ago. Yeah. Um, that only really allows, uh, Patriot property to kind of reach in and do things. It doesn’t allow them to run maps and do things like that. So as our GIS is expanding, all the departments are gonna see if they wanna use it more, they have to pay for a license that allows them to pull those things out. So that might be where their increases, I’m not sure,

40:23 but it’s not because what Yeah, I figured Anyway. Okay. Yes, I mean, that point was just something that I got from, from Karen last year. She made that point. Um, so thank you for clarifying. Um, and does anyone else have any questions? I’m good. Yeah. So Todd, thank you. Appreciate it. We have one more question, Todd. Um, is new growth just something that needs to be handled in a way between building and assessors? Uh, yeah. A portion of it, I mean, new growth is anything that hasn’t previously been taxed. So, um, I go out on an abatement and I see a really nice patio with, you know,

41:08 a built-in fireplace out there that’s not on their record card. Then I’ll measure it and put it on the card and, um, put a, you know, a year built on it. I’ll probably research when they put the thing in there. And that’s new growth. So, um, you know, it’s, it can be a, a, you know, simple as picking up a porch that we didn’t have on there before a wood deck or, you know, somebody got in their house and, um, totally remodeling it. So that’s why it’s important to get out and look at things and, you know, try to pick up. I did, um, a few things I did Ask Todd a similar question, um, how building department assessors and finance all connect. And it sounds like it is part of your job to figure out

41:56 that new growth number, maybe not calculate its impact on the tax rate. Alicia might work with you on that, but like, the number that goes into the assessed value, that’s new growth that can go up and increase our taxes above two and a half percent is kind of a big part of it is, is you of course, Right? Yep. Yeah. So I don’t know if that was similar. It seems, it seems like building’s probably the biggest source of new growth Or Yes. Or they have access to the building permit of a new house or, or an addition. Yeah. For many don’t, but, and then we’re doing flyovers still in town. Um, that I don’t know. I mean, there are software packages available that do allow you, I know Alicia, um, yeah, Alicia’s talked about That. Yeah.

42:42 I think something said in the past that we’ve done that, but is there a connection between building and assessors to make sure that we don’t miss any more Negro? Yeah. So, um, you know, I’ve just had a conversation in the hall the other day that the, I’m gonna try to get out other communities. I’ve been able to access the building inspector’s calendar, so when they’re going to do final walkthroughs, I can go with them and just, you know, again, not drive homeowners nuts by me lurking around, but, um, we’re gonna, they’re gonna start when they have, uh, occupancy certificate of occupancy, they’re gonna, um, bring it by our office. So, you know, and we’re trying to figure fine tune it, figure out a way where they can kind of code things that, um, they’re worthwhile for me to go to.

43:30 It’s not just, you know, somebody put a gas stove in or whatever. It’s Yeah. But most of the new growth you do capture is coming from permits, so it’s just, you know, if you can also do a site visit, it’s only gonna help. Right, exactly. It’s a permanent of value, right? Yeah. But it’s just, you know, all you’re really doing is letting a software calculate that, you know, if it’s, you know, they’re adding another bathroom and it’s a certain grade, then it’s got a certain dollar amount on it, and that’s your growth right there. Thank You. Yep. Yeah, I think that’s a, a really good idea of the seal coordinating with that means, you know, they either did a complete, um, new build or met a major project. So if you’re coordinating with them when they’re going in to give that person, you know, access back to the house,

44:15 I think that’s definitely a good way to catch the major projects. Yeah, That’s pretty, that’s the typical protocol from every community I’ve been in. That’s how we’ve done it and it just seems to work well. So, Alicia, did you have something to add on that process? I know you’re sort of involved as well. Yeah, so we have a subscription to Near Maps, and so NM Maps is the flyover that does, uh, looks at the different changes over the years. And then I ask those subscribe to Push Pin, and what Push Pin does is they do report, they look at the building permits that were recorded, and then they compare the flyover data with the changes to see if there was any builds done that did not pull a permit. And then I give that data over to the building inspector. So it, it’s awesome. It’s new software I’ve also given That’s new, that’s newer since you’ve been here, some of it, right?

45:00 All of it, yeah. So I’ve given, um, taught access and been access to be trained on the Nmap software. I don’t use that, but I subscribe to it so they can utilize it. And then the push pin only gets done annually once a year for them to do that comparative, and that goes straight over to the building department. Okay. So since we’ve kind of, um, those are newer subscriptions, maybe the results have not come out yet exactly how successful they may have been in terms of like analytics year over year, if, if we’ve actually captured anything new, Um, they did for the last time we’ve used it, so now I’m waiting for the most updated data and they’re gonna send us a report over once it’s available. Okay. Sounds good. Sounds like in-house is being uplifted as well

45:46 as some softwares as well. Yep. That’s great. And the only reason I ask is that it’s, we’re pretty much starting from a dead stop on, on n not the new growth number, but how to, how to collect new growth data. Yep. Thank you. That’s it for us. All right. Again, Todd, thank you for your time. Alright, thank you for background. Um, I’d like to make a motion to move the fiscal year 26 assessor department budget of $394,221 Second. Mike O’Neill. Yes. Michael Chenko. Yes. Yes. A yes. Pat, yes. Eric? Yes. Lindsay. Yes. Tim? Yes. Thank you. Thanks again. Thanks everybody.

46:45 Last but not Least to Water Bill.

46:53 Not getting paid for handouts.

47:04 Did you see my last email, Alice? I had I received, received out? Lisa would.

47:14 Sure it’s not. I have, I sent it like 6 0 3. Oh. Um, some of us were grabbing a quick dinner. I might have opened it right Before. I can’t remember. It does We’ll make sure we both the right numbers.

47:34 Yep. Okay, good.

47:38 And thank you for creating these. I know that the clear gov numbers are still moving on enterprise, so we trust your numbers better than me deciding which column to pole, Right? No. And clear gov gets locked once they submit it. Yeah, We’ll Figure it out by the warrant hearing to make sure everything’s absolutely all tied in. And as well know, water and Sew is always waiting for, or two big nights. Yeah, I mean, so it’s not, they cleared up slowing anything down, not parts that I’ve done updates.

48:10 Okay. Um, I sent up my notes. Um, Tim and I met with, um, the water and sewer commissioners and, um, and Beth, um, Bethany on March 4th for the official, um, liaison subcommittee coordination meeting with the commissioners, following their approval of, uh, their, both their water and sewed budgets. At least at that time. There has like most every year, um, moving targets. And there had at that point, um, um, Amy had, Amy and, and Bethany had not received the final assessments from either MWRA or SESD.

48:57 We now have the final number from SESD. We still don’t have the final number from, um, MWRA. So, um, as typical, these numbers are the best information we have at this point. Um, I just noticed that there’s even been a couple of changes since, since my summaries in the water and sewer departments. They’re very minor changes. I’m not exactly sure what the differences are, but, um, they’re, you know, whole, some of it are just rounding up to the next whole dollar on at least two cases. But there was one case on the sewer department that looks,

49:43 uh, on the salaries that looks um, different. And again, it’s by what, uh, $3 or no a thousand. And so anyway, we’ll, we’ll get into that. I’m sure Amy can, uh, walk us through that. But again, enter water and sewer, both enterprise departments, um, kind of a standard summary, um, information. Um, there, they’re, they don’t roll up into the town tax levy. Their budgets rather they’re, um, established, um, and paid by the establishment of their water and sewer rates, which come later in the year. Um, so I’m not sure if there’s um,

50:30 anything too specific to go over. It’s very similar to previous years.

50:38 And, um, the biggest, um, contributors are often the, um, MWRA and SESD summary numbers where, um, the advantage or taking advantage of 0% interest loans that were available from through the MWRA for the, for several years have, um, the payments for those are a substantial portion of the overall budget for the water department. Similarly for the sewer department. And this year, um, the sewer department is, um, is the, making the final payment of the 10 year,

51:23 um, loan for the, uh, pipeline replacement from Salem Harbor. So, um, in general, um, very straightforward and, um, if, if either Amy or or Bethany would like to make any specific gun comments, um, Tim, Tim and I, you know, um, had had a chance to go through this line by line in with, with, um, the depart with Amy and the commissioners in February when they had, uh, draft budget review of theirs. So Tim and I as private citizens just attended as interested parties.

52:08 We were both there, so it was great. Um, and they were very, um, uh, helpful and, and um, letting us ask questions even at that meeting. So appreciate that. And then when we, that was like an hour and a half or two hour meeting, then the, um, commissioner’s meeting on the fourth was quite straightforward, only dealt with differences from the February meeting. And um, this is the result is the, are the budgets that you’ve been just provided. So Amy, the one and or Bethany. So the one thing you’re gonna see different in this budget, uh, was requested by my commission was, um, rather than just go line by line, which is how Clear UP does it, so all the salary, you know, you start

52:55 with your first code 61, which is water, then you go to your project code and then you have that four digit code at the end, which is actually given by the state that’s we’re following a state code. Um, so you kinda have to fit into those. Um, they don’t necessarily lump things together so that you can kind of look at them in sections and see side by side how things are going. My commission really asked if we could do that rather than look at the whole salary number. They wanted to know what their admin costs was, what their field costs were, what. So that’s what you’ll see different in this budget than I’ve done in the past. So right now we have like an admin salary line and we’ll have a total for that. So if you, you know, you can see differences in the percentages there, you can see what happens as far as like support and uh, we also have done that down in the operation and maintenance.

53:41 Not a lot of the line items shifted and you can always just put them back. It, you’ll see when you go to clear gov, they’re not gonna be broken out like this. They’ll all be in order by the four digit number and numerical orders. Yeah, yeah. But, um, so that’s, you know, the bottom lines are all the same. It’s just that they’re broken out so that they could see, um, the different workings and how they compare. So that was all that, and I really wanna thank our, um, liaisons. They do come early, they sit through long conversations about one item and you know, they’re extremely helpful. They found, uh, I found an error in Clear go from FY 25, so, you know, uh, which I still talk to Alicia about. But, um, you know, it went back to the approved budget that we had here and which was the correct budget.

54:28 So we’ll be fixing that. I just wanna say Amy doesn’t give herself enough credit. This, this, uh, was a lot of work to do and it really made going through the whole budget process, uh, a lot easier. I mean, I think I’ve been on this committee, this subcommittee for four or five years and um, it was a big lift and it very much appreciated. Great. Thanks. It was very helpful. And then the other, uh, piece that I think we wanna talk about is, um, MWA has that 0% loan. Uh, our commission had always been paid as you go. They didn’t wanna have to incur costs for interest, they didn’t wanna have to charge for the peers more than what they were actually getting.

55:15 Um, so we did have money that is built up on the 0% loan. It’s um, it’s almost like retained earnings. It’s, they give back to the community for any money that they have and they keep collecting it so that they can give back. Uh, so you get a percentage given to you each year. It’s kind of just held there. It has to go through a big process. It has to, uh, first they come up with an amount. Then if you decide that you wanna use it, you have to go to town meeting, you have to get that appropriated. Then my board has to decide they’re actually gonna approve it and then you have to apply for it and ENDRA has to approve it. So it’s not like, like right now we have um, I think two appropriations from town meeting that we haven’t touched yet. Um, and whether we would or not is always up to the board.

56:00 But MWRA this year has, um, expanded their loan program to help with letting copper. Uh, Marblehead does not have any lead service lines. We have not found any lead service lines. We do, however, have galvanized iron service lines and EPA wants everybody to replace those. So, um, the water and sewer commission owns from the main to the curb, which is basically a property line. And then there’s a piece of pipe that runs from that stop at the property line into their house that’s owned by the owner that needs to be replaced too. Um, so to kind of put the onus on everybody to replace one person’s water service when someone else might have already upgraded it, our commission was only really willing to replace their side. MWA noticed that and they are noticed that with all the community

56:47 and they are giving us, uh, a 25% grant if you replace more. So when we go to do the services, as long as we have a loan running, they’ll give us 25% to go all the way into the house of that needed. It’s a small amount for Marblehead and there’s not a lot of them to do, but it’s definitely worthwhile. It’s gonna give those homeowners, you know, an added edge, they’ll be able to get the whole thing done and we’ll put it through the 0%. So that’s why you see, um, and we still have got to go through the next two steps to get the next million dollars to be borrowed. Um, it’s already past town meeting, but my commission hasn’t done it. We haven’t applied to a for M February, but I’m carrying in the budget ‘cause I would expect it’s gonna go through, especially with that benefit. So that is the one thing that you’ll see. Um, the only other thing is,

57:32 Sue, I really want to talk about. So we put the pipeline across, it affected everybody’s rate, it doubled everybody’s sew rate. Marvel had had to pay for it all by themselves. It’s the only, it’s an SESD asset, but only Marvel head uses it. Um, so this is the last year of it. It’s a million dollar payment. We, uh, instead of taking 20 years, we saved a million dollars in interest and went to 10. But we also now have an EPA administrative order that is gonna kick in that’s requiring us to spend a million dollars in-house lining. You’ve already seen some of the lining projects that have started. Um, and then we have 28 pump stations, which we’ve replaced eight, but they’re all need to be, they’re all in to be replaced and those are running between 800,000

58:17 to two a million dollars to replace. So that million dollars that we’ve now paid for the pipeline is most likely gonna shift right back into capital improvements in Marblehead. The other thing is we have a force main, the one that broke under the harbor, well that also runs from the harbor all the way to Beach Street. And that is now under design to be replaced. So that’s another 15 to $30 million project that we’re looking at. So, um, you know, I did, I just, when people see a loan going off and they expect that to drop off and rates to drop off. They’re really not gonna, there’s, so there’s Gonna be something else that will come To, whether it be right in town or it’d be an SESD asset. Um, and the one other thing that we did find out when, uh,

59:03 and that’s the question. When, when you get these budgets from SESD? From MWRA, so SESD, which I was not, uh, privy to that they were gonna do it this year, has decided to replace the bar rack system and another system over at Beach Street Pump Station. That’s an SESD asset. But Marvel Head uses it alone. So we had to pay the whole thing. So that was an increase in the budget that went above. That’s why it went above that. I expected it to be 4%. It’s, you know, 4% for everybody else. But because we have this extra capital improvement project coming, ours one level,

59:38 that’s the only thing I can think of. And, uh, uh, $1,400 in the salary was, um, which we still have to fix. We had a retirement, an unexpected retirement last year that should have been carried all in water. And it was split between water and sewer. And then it got carried into this year’s budget. So I took it out. ‘cause I don’t expect a retirement and sewer. I do expect wind water though. So we’re carrying retirement money, uh, in water.

1:00:07 Any questions from the Yes. Um, Amy, I, I noticed that there’s, um, a 7.5%, uh, in increase in the water department for health insurance, medicare, retirement, and, uh, in the sewer department it’s 8.2%. Is that because you’ve got, um, some personnel that are either water only or sewer only that are on to retiring or a step increase that for that individual who’s not a shared resource? Yep. So that expense, uh, with the health insurance, Medicare, and retirement, retirement, we just got our numbers and sewer is higher. We have more retired beefs that are on the sewer side than we do on the water side.

1:00:54 Um, and we do have employees that are paid either by water or by sewer. That’s all the work they do. That’s how, um, that’s how our budget is set up. So that water money, water revenue goes to water, sewer revenue goes to sewer. Um, the only other thing I can say about this, which I don’t have this number yet, is we carry 10% for health. Um, while I was away, I heard that number one up. So that’s not reflected in this. So I don’t know about those insurance numbers ‘cause we haven’t gotten that hard number yet. But I did bump it up once already. 10% when You get those from, from Alicia. From from Alicia, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we’ll be having our select board liaison meetings, what, next week? The weekend Monday. Yeah. So, um, we’ll find more about that. So we can certainly make sure that she follows up with you as well. Right. And the only other insurance increase you’re gonna

1:01:39 see is that Maya went from, um, our deductible being like 2000 to 5,000. So I bumped up that insurance number in case we have any issues. Right. Expect my condolences of the loss of your chair. Big loss. That is a huge loss. The history, the, the, he, he could do it all by road. I mean, he understood everything intensely and was really a great advocate for all the workers in water and sewer. Definitely a big loss for the whole town too, for all the other things. But for Warren sewer in particular. Absolute. Any other questions?

1:02:18 All right. Um, so what I’ll, um, request each department separately. I think that’s the right way to do it. I will just either total amount and in both cases, just again, a caveat that, um, there are estimates in these, number one, so the, so the numbers will change. Hopefully we’ll have everything nailed down before town meeting. Also, the numbers that I’m requesting tonight that the fin com approved have not officially been approved by, uh, commissioners yet because their numbers are so new. So at their next meeting, the commissioners I’m sure will review. I think we’ve Had to like revote minor changes.

1:03:03 So it’s just a tracker between the vote tonight and where you land. Correct. That’s my, the Changes is all waiting to review. Yeah. Right. Because both SESB and MWA were right now in the reviews, the advisory boards and the boards are all sitting looking at them and they’ll give them back. So they’re gonna probably change a little bit. Okay, great. Thank you very much. Um, so for the water department, um, I’d like to recommend that the, uh, finance committee approve $6,457,789 for the fiscal 26, uh, budget. So I can

1:03:42 Recording? Yes. Chen? Yes. Molly? Yes. A yes. Uh, yes. Eric? Yes. Lindsey? Yes. And Sam? Yes. And for the sewer department, uh, similarly I’d like to recommend, um, finance committee approval of, of the sewer department budget in the amount of $5,619,529. Dr. We’ve Neil. Yes. Michael Jacobs. Yes. Paul? Yes. Howard? Yes. Pat? Yes. Eric? Yes. Lindsay. Yeah. Tim? Yes. Thank you. Thank again much talk Soon.

1:04:35 I’m not sure if we have any public online, but I will give a moment for last public comment. Do not Anybody in the audience here, having

1:04:48 anybody on the fin comm have any last words questions about in the next few weeks.

1:04:55 Okay. So I’ll you our meeting at 8 0 5. Thanks everybody. You Are viewing a meeting. Alec Goolsby has stopped screen share. Alicia Benjamin has left the meeting. Alec Goby has left.