Finance Committee: March 28, 2026

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 So we’re all aware of…

0:06 But scheduling-wise, we’re trying to get through library by noon before lunchtime. My proposal is that we go into the lunch hour to get through library before pizza is served, because I think we need a scheduled to make sure when we pick back up at 1:00, that we can cover where we are. Yeah. So we might be able to do it by noon, but we’ve got assessors, park and rec, and library to walk through in the next hour and 10 minutes.

0:39 Todd, if you want to come up. Molly’s coming back here in a second.

0:45 Can someone get Tim?

0:50 There’s food. Yeah. That’s a distraction. Yeah.

1:00 Is Tim coming? Tim, whenever you’re ready.

1:19 How’s it going? It’s going. How about you? Doing well, thanks. Good. Sir, wise, in terms of what was submitted versus where we are today, I do not see any adjustments from State of the Town unless I missed one. No. Okay, so there’s no significant cuts- No … coming out of that process. Your salaries, remind me the number of FTEs in your department. Two. Two total. Three. Three. Three. Three. You have to include yourself. You and two. Yeah. Me. Three of us. Okay. And so that line up 3.8% is contractual obligations. And then Mike, I guess you’ve had a good summary. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for your time. Absolutely. Thank you for your time.

2:06 So yeah. 3.8% increase, contractual obligation with step increases. And then, outside of that, so the one main point here that kind of varies from year to year, if you’re looking five years is, this will year ‘26 is a certification year. So that line item, it equates to about 17,000 increase in expense. And that was last year, so this year it dropped by that much. We’re expecting it to be that a little bit for this year’s expense moving forward for fiscal year ‘27 to ‘30, and then jumping up again in fiscal year ‘31. So that’s the reason for the expense line going down is we had a certification year last year, which requires more kind of specialty valuation.

2:51 Yeah. The reporting. So overall, the department’s budget of three people and expenses is down 2% this year. And I know that there was some potential cuts on the line at one point, but to me, a very important function in this town is- Yeah … is making sure our revenue is where it needs to be in terms of new growth and whatnot. So I think cutting anything from a three-person department that’s probably our biggest revenue line item and supports that function would be catastrophic, so. Thank you. I agree. I support not cutting that as well. So let me add, here’s the real threat of not fully sustaining that function is in your abatements as we saw. When there were challenges of the past, the database, maintaining the database, keeping everything

3:40 accurate, created, I’ll call it a kerfuffle, couple years ago that saw a significant increase in abatement applications, which we have to set aside for an estimate. But through the work, of Todd and Lee and Victoria in there, really sort of clean things up, put things in order, and put our abatement process back into a nominal and normal condition. But that’s the real financial threat is if that’s not functioning well, it shows up in that other area. And I know you’re very focused on training the team and making sure that they’re kind of equipped to do things that you are doing yourself.

4:27 Correct. And I do want to say I’ve heard, I’ve seen, because we met once at my house. Yeah. And I’ve heard from many people that you are very much out and on-site at houses. And I think that was something we were maybe lacking prior to Todd joining, so that’s much appreciative. Yeah, sure. There’s only so much you can do with that line item, with Prop 2.5, but, we have to at least make sure we’re capturing that new growth- Yeah … as effective as we can, and I know you’re focused on trying to improve that as well. We are, yes. Yeah. Mike, were there others? I think… Yeah. To pop a point in, coordinating with the town striker, I think you’re doing a great job with that in terms of, compared to what was done in the past and actively monitoring OpenGov. We’ve talked about that as well, the permanent

5:13 software. Again, to Todd’s point, any way we can capture that new growth, that references to the past, sort of a lifeline. Anything you can go up and above the 2.5% is super important, especially in years like this. And then the abatement activity was down a little bit this year compared to ‘24 and ‘25, but just wanted to mention that around 85 requests compared to 300 the prior year. So, kind of good to see that in terms of, it kind of speaks to how the assessment was done year over year. It was less confused this year.

5:58 Then just compared with to ‘26IT costs increased a little bit from fiscal year ‘25 to ‘26. That was when Catalyst took over Patriot Properties. That’s now flat compared to last year. Student C, all the other increases that have been assessed at fairly small amount, assessor dues and everything included in that. Expense lag of our level funding from 26. And Johnny spoke about the focus on this year going forward with staff is to get them out in the field with you and inspecting properties, get some hands-on experience, but potentially, possibly take some services away from Patriot Properties, if possible. Not there yet.

6:46 Yeah. Obviously, we talked about that, but anything that we could do to decrease that expense, those efforts are definitely applauded. So appreciate that. And I just want to, I guess, ask a question on how we implemented some of that satellite software to capture that new growth, Eagle View, I think it was called. That was new last year, and throughout the year, we had that this year. Any material gains we see from that? Or- Yeah. We get better findings. Yeah. That we can identify things. Yeah. I just know off the top of my head, $30,000 in

7:32 growth, just from using that and then me getting out and looking, just picking up small things, patios, decks, little, maybe small additions that weren’t picked up. And the last few years, things have been sliding through the cracks, and now that we’re at full office now, it’s coming together, so we’re getting a little more organized. So it’s been helpful, that software, yes. Better tools, better data. Right. Steve, I’d like to just say a couple words for your office. I want to thank Todd. It’s been incredible to work with him. I’m included in their group. They share lots of information with us. I see a lot better efficiencies than we’ve ever had before with their department. He’s put on the brand new Catalyst software. So before we had some very antiquated stuff that’s going on.

8:18 Yeah. Munis is getting built for him currently right now, so the Munis between us, the GL, the treasurer, and the assessor’s office will all speak together, which has never happened before.

8:32 He’s getting his staff trained and educated, one passed the test already. Yep. The abatements, those over 300 he did himself, which is unbelievable in saying itself, and then to get that down to the amount that he’s gotten it down to is incredible. I also see all the requests that come in from the public to his office daily, and he’s very proactive in responding to the citizens and going out there firsthand. So thank you, Todd. Sure. Of course. Thank you. Any other questions? Yeah, Mike. So were you falling through the cracks of that? Like someone who put a deck on their house but didn’t apply for a permit? No, just we contract Patriot to go out and look at our building permits. That would

9:20 be something that we’d love to keep in-house, but it’s just there’s too much work. The staff isn’t big enough. So we do need them to go out and look at that, but you need the department head to look over, to audit what they’re doing. And, I know in ‘24, there wasn’t an assessor, so that type of stuff. So now we’re still picking up the pieces from that. It’s going to be this calendar year will be where I’m hopefully getting back on track, where some of the stuff that– I live in town. I’m looking at things constantly, and I write myself notes and send myself emails to go check on things to make sure that this construction that I know of, we have the building permits.

10:05 We’re tracking it, we’re picking up on it. We’re going to go look at it. So that type of stuff. What we’re also doing through the building inspections department is in the database they use for permitting, is doing some reconfigurations in there to sort of separate those permits that have potential for new growth revenues from sort of standard permits that don’t qualify. And so that when they’re looking at the data for both departments, more easily identify the type of projects that have new growth potential so they can focus on those. So I guess falling through the cracks, one example would be based on the permit description in the system may or may not

10:52 signal to the assessors, “Hey, this has potential for new growth.” Changes we’re making there means it’s more efficient, get the clutter out of the way, and be able to focus on those activities out in the street that he can then go out and look at and capture the new growth that we may have been missing in the past. So there’s a lot of small examples that add up to a much more efficient system. So Steve in the building department set me up to, I get direct emails from building occupancy permits or just building permits that they’re going to look at. They come across my desk. I can look at them. I can look at the property, make sure that we have that

11:38 building permit on our record card, and then I can go follow up and have the Patriot guys look at it, and then I’ll check their work afterwards. Yeah, so those are two different things. There’s a legal permitting process, and then you’re checking to make sure that it’s all accurate. Yeah. Do you ever see people throwing things on without the permitting process, and then we capture it somehow? Is there a process? No, that doesn’t happen. Yeah. Constantly. That’s why you have to go out and do the inspections, because it happens all the time. I’m sure someone’s done it in the history of time, right? Yes. Okay. Just real quick. We’ve heard for the past few years about how with the new software and satellite technology- Fly over

12:23 … that would help to… Pardon? It’s fly over airplane. Fly over airplane. Mm-hmm. That would help to be able to capture more of this revenue. Has that played out? Yep. Great. Yeah. Okay. So much so. Especially, there’s properties that you can’t access the backyard. You can’t access them. You don’t want to be too intrusive when you’re- Right … so it’s nice to be able to get these overhead views and see what’s in the backyard and make sure that what we have is what’s there. So the software does, they do regular flyovers. A lot of municipalities use this service. So they’re taking a picture, and they use whatever software to identify. And then you have one snapshot period of time. The next snapshot, it looks at what’s changed, and

13:11 then it identifies the addresses. And so it helps us identify if somebody put in a pool or something in the backyard, maybe out of getting a permit. When we see that change that’s new, then we can follow up. So that has been happening. Yes. Okay. Yes. Use GIS for that? Is it a- It’s a service that we- Pushpin. I- Yeah … implemented Pushpin, so they’ve integrated with somebody else. And what they do is they run processes. They take that flyover data, they look at before and after, like Thatcher said. Yeah. They provide a spreadsheet that identifies that, and I provide that over to you. They use some type of GIS to identify the addresses that- Yeah … gets fed to us. Yeah, because it has property lines. Okay. Yeah. I just had one update for you, actually.

13:58 So you and Lee and your office were so helpful in the crafting of the senior property tax exemption, the means-tested senior property tax exemption. And I reached out to Representative Ermini for an update on where that is. And so she said, so it’s progressing through the legislative process in that house committee, on bills in its third reading, and then it will go to the Senate. And she and Senator Fryden are committed to getting that on the governor’s desk and signed for fiscal ‘27. Great. So that’s something that I look forward to- Cool. Yeah … working with you- All right … on that. Let’s go. Yeah. Thank you again. Thank you to Lee Sherman- Of course. Yeah … for helping with that. Yeah, he’s great. Very lucky to have our staff. Any other questions?

14:43 Mike? All right. So I’d like to propose a motion, that the finance committee approve the requested fiscal year ‘27 budget, assessor budget number of $388,003. Second. Second. All in favor?

15:05 Thanks for your time on the weekend. Yes, of course. Thanks, you guys. Thanks guys. Your time- Appreciate it … and efforts, really appreciate it. All right. Park and Rec is up next.

15:19 M. So I will start. Oh, before we start- Oh, sure … I need to announce our public meeting. Oh, okay. Fair enough. So, I would like to officially open the Rec and Parks public meeting. We have three members here present, and no one online. Awesome. Thanks. Sure. So I’ll just start with, like I did everybody else here, kind of tracking throughout the process what was submitted back in October through January timeframe, and then where we are today. Sure. Molly will look at some year over year changes, and then we’ll let you comment. What I see here is a lot of budget adjustments between now and then, but the only thing really identified as a true cut is an FTE park

16:06 groundskeeper for $45,000. And if you could just help me kind of understand, is that a full-time position? Mm-hmm. And would you equate that to one FTE, and is that person kind of employed right now? So that is one FT, full-time position. Yeah. And because of recent internal promotions, and kind of that’s what I have to speak to, that position is unfilled, but you’re talking within the last four weeks- Yeah … because we had a retirement and then moves. So- But it was a funded position where someone was working in the last four weeks. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Oh, one, essential to our full operations if we maintain as we are.

16:48 So we’re up to 10.5 in this meeting today of FTEs. Molly, do you have any questions? Could you walk us through what would happen if that position- Yeah. Yeah. So we had… So as we present the Recreation and Parks FY27 budget, we want to acknowledge the financial challenges facing the town of Marblehead and our responsibility to be part of the solution in presenting a balanced budget to the town. The Recreation and Parks budget is lean and primarily reflects contractual obligation and rising costs. We have very few areas where our reductions can be made without impacting essential services. Our priority must remain on maintaining parks, athletic fields, playgrounds, school grounds, beaches, and facilities that the community relies on. To meet the required $45,000 reduction, we made the difficult decision to eliminate a

17:37 recently unfilled park maintenance position. This position is currently vacant due to internal promotions. We want to explain how this decision will impact the community. Without that position, we’ll no longer have the staffing capacity to service the approximately 187 public trash barrels throughout the town. This is a labor-intensive manual process that requires significant staff time, especially during peak season. Trash pickup will continue in areas where Recreation and Parks programming is actively taking place, as well as the beach during the season while staffed.Additionally, eliminating the service means we’ll no longer need to move forward with replacing the trash truck that was at a minimum $100,000 capital request for FY27,

18:22 as the current vehicle is at the end of its useful life. We understand this is a visible service and that this change will be noticed. This was not an easy decision but allows us to protect essential operations while contributing a meaningful savings. We appreciate the community’s understanding as we navigate these constraints. Thank you. And I think there’s some changes in the– Can you walk us through? I mean, you’re now the department head. Yes. Peter retired, maybe just a high level kind of how the organization has changed. You’re talking about the structural changes? Yeah. Okay. So at a point in time, we had two superintendents, one covering mainly parks, and I was the superintendent of recreation. We now went with both reporting

19:10 to the commission. So we went to a superintendent of recreation and parks completely. And then we hired and created a position called the parks facilities and maintenance director. So with that, that’s the two in the office. Yeah. And I just want to note that, I believe there’s savings regarding that. Yes. Yes. So with that, because of retirement- Yeah … you had a 39-year employee- Right … in that superintendent- Right … grade 10 role. Yeah. And now I’m not a 39, I mean nine years in 30 years later, nine years. And then the working foreman who had been the working foreman for nine years, had been on our grounds crew for 11, so 20 years. We’re so excited to have him in the position, doing an incredible job for the last five weeks, moved

19:55 into the parks facilities and the permits director position. And that’s the position he replaces former position. And then one of our grounds crew, who actually started when I started, moved into the working foreman’s position. So although everybody kind of has the same, there was some reorganization, really the same grades, steps mainly changed from longtime employees in positions moving into a new position. So the savings is driven by Peter and his 40 years retiring. Exactly. So as everybody moved around, but he is with us on a part-time basis, so you will see him around if you- I think I saw him last night. You might have seen him last night handing out cookies. But helping. I mean, it’s really nice to have somebody with that depth of experience to be able to still be part of our team.

20:41 Absolutely. Yeah, the other adjustments were just budget adjustments between then and now. Yeah. Rising cost of utilities. Yeah. Overall, we’ve got- We’ve accepted a couple more properties that have irrigation, so that will continue. We see wages down 6% driven by the cut. I don’t think they would’ve been as high as some other departments otherwise because of those savings, even if we put that back in. Expenses are up 4.6%. Doesn’t seem egregiously higher than prior years’ increases to me. Feels like you’re operating pretty lean. We are very lean in terms of with– I mean, if anything goes up, we’re tight. But we do work with the revolving fund as well. Right. I think it’s important to note too that we do

21:30 give back to the town. Last year, I think it was $268,000 back to the general public. Yeah. So I have our local receipts. So we do float permits, park permits, kayak permits, and we do a split revenue, but with the beach as well. Yeah. So. Yep. And many of those staffing that covers the permits is actually covered by revolving fund staff. Yeah. And I just see budget to actual in ‘25 was about $70,000 less, so that would’ve gone into free cash as well. So, Lindsay, I didn’t remember who was liaison, so anything to add there? Lindsay and I have been in touch.

22:09 We did, I mean, in terms of what they do give back to the town, they have also tried to, well, implement increased fees for non-residents for park permits and things like that to try and- Park permits and beach parking both have resident and non-resident fees because we want to keep it lower to our community, but also people are using it as amenity, and a lot of times it’s almost double to get a wedding permit at Chandler Puppy. Yeah. So it helps support your own function as well as the town’s share of those increases. Right. And our permits within our park permits, that our commission can set the fees for that, which is really great. So they look at it year to year. We just had a significant increase. We increased in I think 2020 or 2021, the

22:57 float storage, we were way under, but then we did a five-year hold, so we’re ending the five years of holding at that fee because it was pretty significant to the people who had float storage. We will be reassessing it again. It will not jump like it did because we were way under market value. Now we’re right in the mix, but so the people who store could absorb that. And so we constantly look at the park permits, what is the value throughout other local communities and surrounding areas. And then, yeah. So I’d like to add, I thought that it was great working with Jamie and her board members, especially during the budget process as to highlight the way that they reorganized, just like Amy had reorganized to show savings and the minimal amount of asks to really get their programs going and

23:45 working with the town, so I can’t thank them enough. Thank you.

23:51 Just real quick, Jamie. Yes. You mentioned that, with that composition, that something, 187 trash containers, will they be removed so there’s not a lot of them? Yes. So the plan would, because again, right now this is unfilled, but yeah, we’re going to try to fill with some seasonal versus hire somebody in a full-time position and then have to… But yes, we would be in the process of removal once we’ve gone to town meeting and a decision orThe vote is taken. So they will remain trash pickup, as I said, will remain for recreation and parks programming or any place that there is a fee, like the beaches where people pay to park there will remain during season when staffed. But it’s a manual process. You’re driving a truck, you’re manually pulling it into a

24:39 truck that has to then go to the transfer station to be manually unloaded. So it’s quite labor intensive. Amy? Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So I just want everyone to realize that when you start looking at these other departments, they do affect our snow operations. And unfortunately, these other departments affect them more drastically. So we divide the town up into routes. The major routes have two people on them, and most of them are done by the DPW. The smaller routes, which are your neighborhood routes, might have one person going out and doing that route. So when you cut this person, you are essentially cutting a whole neighborhood route because it goes to the other departments who do the smaller neighborhood routes. So that is happening, and when they

25:25 had their adjustment and they had that empty, I had to cancel or hold a lot of vacation time that was requested, and so do these people by their union contract, but I had to hold them to confirm that there was no snow coming to two days before, because I didn’t have that one person to backfill. So, to back with those things, it does affect and it will affect the snow operations going forward. Not every cut that you’re talking about does it right now, so. Right. I’ll just be raising my hand if you want me to. Yeah. So it’s the indirect impact on other things outside of Parks and Rec at this count. Right. Thank you for that comment. What’s interesting about this position is that Rec and Parks has responsibility for these barrels, which is 187, which I don’t know if anybody realized how many barrels are around town.

26:12 It’s a lot of trash bags. Yeah, it’s a lot. And so one of the things that if this position comes back, whether it comes back to Recreation and Parks or it comes back to another department that’s better suited to handle trash, I don’t know. It’s kind of, I guess, a community and board’s discussion, but, it’s kind of an interesting thing that we are responsible for trash. Is that like all them, the ones on Atlantic Ave? And so all those trash containers are going to be lost. Correct. I will be honest, what we find mainly in those trash barrels is people bring home trash, dog waste, that’s actually by town bylaw not supposed to be in there. So that’s where really… They’ll be finding it on the sidewalks. Well, it’s a shame if people choose to litter. That’s kind of how I look at it.

26:57 When we take barrels in for the season and people– because there’s no way in the winter to support it all without seasonal help, because we do have, if you see in our budget, we have seasonal grounds crew because that’s the time when grass is growing and all facilities need to be maintained, that we find trash after the season where people once had a barrel. And we want to have pride in our town. So there might be some type of compromise, right? So maybe it’s not 187, maybe it’s 50 barrels at certain locations. I think this kind of creates a discussion point as to does the community want to have barrels around town? And then if so, there’s obviously a cost to that, or is it a carry-in, carry-out type of scenario like some communities do do. So I think that just kind of opens up other later discussion.

27:44 Nothing, no decisions to be made here, but I do think it’s 187 barrels is quite a thing, and as Jamie mentioned, we have a truck that is at its end of life, which is $100,000. Minimum. Right. So again, wherever this position goes, whether it’s with Rec and Parks or a different department, that’s the impact is the trash. So reinstating the position potentially in an override scenario, the

28:15 truck would go to a capital ask, is that…? Well, we have capital requests anyway. Capital requests. And so to be able to continue no matter what, we would need, no matter where it would be, we’d need a new trash truck. And does that same vehicle support Amy’s plowing? No, that vehicle cannot plow. Cannot plow. Well, I don’t know if a future vehicle could plow, but that vehicle is not on a plow list now- That’s it. That’s a different quote … because that’s not a vehicle that could handle plowing. Okay, so it’s the personnel that’s not available for Amy to be able- Well, you just- From your department. Got it. Yeah. Okay. Cool. Thank you. And then last thing, then Amy can go, but, yeah, while it’s a difficult capital

29:01 request of the town to say, “Hey, replace this truck,” but if you don’t pass this other thing, nobody’s going to be available to drive the truck. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Is that where we’re at? Yeah. They kind of go together. They go together. So basically if we… We’re probably going to be- Put their different warrants articles. Yeah. You know? However, it is a good point about the plowing. So maybe there is, I don’t know anything about trash or DPW, but maybe there is a truck that can serve both needs. And so that would be an efficiency that could come out of that or justification to meet that need. So again, these are things to explore- Yes … in the event that this comes back. Sorry. Everyone seems to touch something I do. Ding, dong. I just want to say removal of those barrels, right, is going to affect our storm water. And the way it does that is we test every outfall. Every catch basin you see in that street runs to a beach or

29:48 to a wetlands or to the ocean directly. We have had tests that have been poor. We are looking for where the problem is, but every time you drop a poop bag down that, you are affecting the water quality that comes out at that beach. That’s why those signs are up at Riverhead, and that sign goes up at Grays all over. So removing those trash barrels is going to affect water quality and how the storm water works. So-

30:18 But just kind of-… honest, kind of go back up is we have other trucks that go out to plow, not the trash truck. So that’s not a vehicle lost. It’s a manpower lost for- To be able to … to plow, but not a vehicle- Yeah … because we still have vehicles that plow and would remain with that same amount of vehicles that plow from Rec and Parks. Here we go. It’s not, I don’t have anybody to pull a vehicle. Correct. Right. But we have no extra vehicles for plowing. We are pulling things, you know- Yeah. Yeah. Well, it sounds like maybe- The same vehicle we plow or keeping some- Maybe the vehicle is necessary even if the person is cut. That’s kind of where I’m at. But this isn’t a capital- Those are two different, like the trash truck and our vehicle are two different, that goes to plow, are two different vehicles. But like you said, there could be some sort of-

31:05 Yeah … compromise. Sorry, I didn’t mean to- No … derail the…

31:11 All right. Any other questions? Yep. Just for unintended consequences. So if you think about the other trash issue and people having to pay to get their trash picked up, and then you have all these barrels out, what would happen, right? I’m figuring that a lot of people would just say, “Well, I’m going to use these because they have-“ And that, it is- That’s happening already … between the businesses and home trash, that is the main thing we’re picking up and why they were getting overflow and having to do multiple is… I mean, I’m out there, anyone who’s out on the rail trail every day, and I’m watching people stop their cars, and I’m like, “You can’t put that in there.” Yeah. “Stop bringing it out of your car and throwing that huge bag.” And again, we’re not, like it would be even wasteful of our time if we’re going to start opening and try to figure out who it all belongs to. Right.

31:57 But don’t worry, our staff would like to open the trash. Yes. Because it’s a lot of work and a lot of time. I- So yeah. There’s an intersection there between- Yeah … this trash is- So many barrels. Yeah. So many. All right. Any other questions for Rec and Park?

32:16 Turn it over to Lindsay. Do you have the number? Yeah.

32:22 Absolutely. For the Japan president for Rec and Parks of $1,003,034. Second. All in favor? Library. Thank you. Thank you so much.

32:42 Chair. Yes, Lindsay. Well, yeah, I believe

32:55 in Rec and Parks. Who? Who is it? Yeah, so- Fourth item. Sorry. I just need to do a motion to adjourn for the- Okay … Rec and Parks meeting. Sorry about that. No worries. Thank you, Lindsay. Second.

33:15 All right. So before- I’d like to call the roll on this … if you have a quorum. Yeah. But before you share your screen after you call to quorum, maybe I can just start with the same way I’ve started each meeting, and then, of course, we’ll turn it over. But do you want to call the roll? Yeah. I’ll call the roll. We have the board trustees. We have the public library. We have three members here and one on Zoom. Okay.

33:42 So what I have here, I don’t know if you guys have been here for a little while, but I’ve started each meeting with where the budget was at when it was submitted through that October through January timeframe, as presented at the end of January at State of the Town, and then what we’re actually reviewing for a budget today. Yeah. So I have, that’s not what’s on screen, but I have my tracker- Oh, okay … because I’ve been paying attention. Yeah. And what I see here is a cut in wages of those two data points of about 530,000. Yes. Which is the largest cut, certainly, in terms of FTEs, on the town side of this process today. I think I just said we were at 10 and a half positions before we get to the library. So obviously the library is most

34:30 impacted from an FTE position by our challenging budget situation this year. And I know there’s been some iterative versions throughout the liaison meeting process, and I’m sure, Kim, your presentation will probably allude to this. But what I’m trying to do as the watchdog here is really help define the truth of the FTEs that are coming out of this whole budget. Yeah. So when I talk about that change from January 31st until now of 530,000, I know that you’re tackling that in a number of ways. There’s probably certain positions that are fully cut or others are coming down to part-time. Is there an estimate of the FTEs that are impacted, if you had to estimate it?

35:16 Because I was looking at it early in this process, more of how many positions, FTEs, are funded in from the general fund total of the library last year and this year before these cuts. And then I’m doing it based off of wages percentage to say about seven to eight positions. But, I’d love to better understand that, and maybe your presentation will allude to that. It may or it may not. Okay. Give me a second here to pull this information for you. I did see a broad chart with some- Yeah … pencil markups to it. In this one I didn’t… Okay. My main concern with that is that there are so many considerations with the union, and my choice to cut part-time positions and then

36:03 bring full-time positions- Right … to part-time. Right. But to be honest, I don’t think that’s a viable way to do this because we have to restructure. Right. And if this budget comes to fruition, much more consideration must be taken before we can commit to those decisions. Correct. So IBelieve I can find some FTE information for you. And maybe it’s a range at this point. Yeah. Yeah. Well, okay. We know it will be devastating no matter what it is, so it would– But it does help us to plan. We need to make sure that taxpayers understand- Yeah … what’s at stake and what’s in this balanced budget versus what was in it

36:49 last year. Mm-hmm. So it doesn’t have to be a perfect 0.25, but if it’s a six to eight range or an eight to 10 or whatever it may be. But I’ll let you kind of– Well, I’ll try to answer that before I head into this presentation because it’s in different data places.

37:16 And the question is, can I actually find it? I don’t know if I can find this for you, but I will. Well, was what was presented at the liaison meeting to Eric, is that the most active people? Yeah. When was that liaison meeting? I can give you that. That was on March 25th. Because I think you sent me something, and I kind of looked at it, and I did my back of the envelope, and I think- You came up with 7.25 FTEs. But that was based on- As a conglomeration of the different companies. Yeah, that was based on an org chart with pencil. So like, obviously that’s not final, right? No, and there’s different versions of it. Yeah. So. Okay. And then before I turn it over, I do think there’s also another significant cut since then to materials of $170-ish thousand as well.

38:04 Yes. So we’re talking about- Yes … total library cuts of- Right. So here, if you all- $700,000. I found sort of what I had proposed. So we have 24 staff members right now. Three of them are not filled. Can I ask one question? Yes. When you say 24, can you just try to say how much is funded by the general fund last year? Last year? It would be all of it. All of it? Okay. I didn’t know if any of the wages were funded from other funding sources. No. Okay. No, we don’t have any of that right now. Okay. Go ahead. So 14 full-time staff members, 10 part-time positions. Currently, of the three vacancies and we’ll have one more.

38:49 So that brings us down to 20. So we can discuss once we see the chart, I’ll be able to- Okay … show you a little bit more. Okay. Okay. All right. Let me go back to this.

39:05 Now, are you in the Zoom to share your screen? Yeah. Okay. So I will stop sharing. No, that’s not the one I wanted to share. Oops. You want to share this one? I’ll stop sharing. Oh, okay. You took over.

39:20 Okay. Okay. So. It’s good. Right. So first of all, I want you to take a look at this photo and see if you recognize what it is. Yeah. It’s right here. Right. This room. So this is the original Abbott Public Library, which was established here at Abbott Hall in 1877. So this is my first formal presentation, so I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak here today. I appreciate being able to share all of this with you. So personally, I’m heartbroken to think that we would be in this position of such a strict cut to this budget. Professionally, I’m shocked that we’re at this crossroads. We’ve been working tirelessly to preserve this library as a historic

40:07 fixture, investing $10 million to bring 21st century service to this 17th century town. Since moving back, we’ve delivered modern infrastructure. We have the most reliable HVAC system of any town building. We have the strongest Wi-Fi, mobile hotspots, and sophisticated audiovisual equipment. This building has remained flood-free since our return, and I remember that was one thing that everybody wanted to have, and we have it. We’re also very proud of the fact that we’ve achieved high usage. So in fiscal year ‘25, we welcomed 80,000 visitors into the library and hosted about 500 programs attended by 8,500 people. Our meeting rooms were used by over 2,800 people and over 205,000 items

40:55 circulated. We have about 9,200 cardholders. So as we approach the 150th anniversary of this library, we should be celebrating those milestones, not planning for their erasure.

41:10 I am incredibly proud of the work that we’ve done. My staff, we’re currently down to 20 members, continues to provide exceptional reference services, collection procurement, and expansion of programs, including the launch of our 3D printing in the Thompson Makerspace. And even as our full-time children’s librarian prepares for retirement and three other positions remain unfilled, this team refuses to let the quality of service drop. So I must be very clear. I’m here to outline the consequences this budget will have on our staff, our services, and the risks we face if the override efforts do not succeed. We’re currently facing the most significant threat to our institutional continuity in 150 years.

41:55 This plan puts the future of the library at risk. If it does not meet our materials appropriation requirement for salaries, expenses and materials, or hours of service, this library would not, or the town would not qualify for state certification.

42:12 So this is what the budget has been reduced to. The expense line remains pretty much the same as our level funded budget, with the exception, as you mentioned, the $168,000 reflection. So if we look at those numbers, we’re falling short almost $600,000 in ourMaterials appropriation requirement. And for those who want to figure out what that means, it’s the average of the last three years of the total municipal appropriation, plus 2.5%. And you can see we’re falling quite short of that.

42:55 Sorry. I don’t know if it was a misspoken, I’m not following. You mentioned you’re missing by 600, but there was a cut of 168. No, that’s only to the materials budget. Okay. This is, and I moved- I thought you were on to all this. This is the impact of all the cuts. Okay. And usually, with materials, you can make that up with private funds. You can’t really use the private funds for anything else. And just to be clear, you can’t have volunteers run the library. That’s not okay either. They’re not. So just in case people were wondering. And you can’t charge a fee for using the library because we’re a free and public space. So just want to get those things out. Can I ask one clarification, too, on the shortfall of 600,000?

43:41 Yeah. So I think, when you came to our meeting on Monday, you had mentioned a 310,000 number. Right. Well- Is that- No … different than this? No. That’s a completely different- Different … scenario. This is the scenario that we’re looking at, that we’ve been given. I’ll come around to that at the end- Okay … of the presentation. Thank you. Okay. Just so you see where I’m going with this. Good. Thank you. Okay. So, what I would like to just go through. I’ve been trying to get this down to six bullets. Is it possible? This is so complicated because we’re not just like a regular department, we’re an institution. So when you look at all of this, it has massive repercussions. It’s very risky.

44:29 So the contingency budget requires a massive restructuring of operations, likely resulting in significantly reduced hours, making it very difficult to keep the building open. So we also have a stranded investment. So the $10 million of taxpayer dollars, it’s going to sit underutilized if the library closes. No certification means no state aid. No lending or borrowing privileges for residents. And then I think it’s a threat to local democracy because the town would forfeit access to statewide resource sharing network, creating an information silo, and that

45:17 disenfranchises residents who cannot afford private access to the verified data, educational tools, and neutral civic space required for an informed electorate. What’s the name of that network? Is that NOBLE? That’s NOBLE. NOBLE. That’s awesome. But it also brings us out of interlibrary loan. I think we had like 28,000 instances of interlibrary loan last year. Oh, did- Yeah. When you say no state aid, can you give me a range of what you get annually that- About forty- … this would lose? Yeah. About $44,000. And if I could make one clarifying point. When you say no lending or borrowing privileges for residents, you’re referring to libraries outside of Abbott itself. In other words, residents could still borrow that which is in the collection, but not

46:04 library sharing or access to those resources provided by other libraries. Yes. Not suggesting this is in any way a good thing. I just want to make sure we’re clear- Right … on what that means. That’s right. Thank you. The benefit of having a shared resource, shared network, is just that you have access to so much more. 17 public libraries in NOBLE, which is our North of Boston Library Exchange, provide that service, and it’s really pretty cool that we can do that. I know there are libraries out there that don’t belong to a network, but they don’t have the resources. By belonging to NOBLE, we would have an excellent… We already have an excellent base of resources,

46:50 and we leaned on that when we were in the interim space, too, because we didn’t have the room for all the books, so people could get holds from other libraries and continue on from there now. So

47:04 this was our original budget.

47:10 That was everything. And as with all the departments now, we really need to be mindful of the cost of living raise, the step changes for staff, and that just adds into this. That’s why it’s so complicated. Expenses. That shows the materials line, and here’s the chart of all the staff. That’s the chart. Yeah. So what I would be proposing is, we really would have to check with the union and see how this all works out with the other departments. But we could cut our library assistants, and those are in green. We would cut our pages. Those are in orange.

47:58 And then anybody in purple here, those are the part-time union positions.

48:05 And then anybody in blue is what’s left for full-time professional staff members. Anywhere from three librarians here, marketing communications coordinator, administrative assistant, custodian, and then an excellent technical services department, and circulation supervisor, as well as a media specialist. All those folks have different roles in the library, making everything work, purchasing materials, getting them out on the shelves, answering reference questions, running story time, all of that. I mean, it’s-This is it right here.

48:48 So in the original budget, there were some increases for contract and services with Noble, our tech services for computers, and then utilities. And this was the original. We were doing great. We would’ve exceeded the MAR by over $100,000. Would you explain what the MAR is? Yes. It’s the average of the last three years’ total municipal appropriations plus 2.5%. That’s what this calculation is here. Oops, sorry. I think it’s minimum appropriation requirement. Municipal appropriation requirement is the average of the last three years’ total municipal appropriations plus 2.5.

49:35 It generally means just from COLA. And so that’s necessary to be certified. Mm-hmm. And we’ve talked about that for many years. Yeah. I’ve presented the same thing. Yeah. We’ve never been in this position before. Right. And then we look at the total expenditure for materials. It can actually be anywhere from 12 to 15% to qualify for state aid, and we meet that in several different ways. We have Second Century Fund contributes to paying for OverDrive, that’s your e-book service. We have museum passes paid by the Friends of Edwards Library. We have the Second Century Fund who contributes to more OverDrive fees, and materials, and hotspots. And then we

50:24 actually use the state aid to pay for materials, which is why we had asked the town to provide more in the materials budget, and we were getting closer to that. Just historically, we were trying to get that up a little bit. So we were asking for last year $160,000. This year we were going to ask for $168,000, getting it to this point where we could maybe not have to use the state aid so much for materials, so it’s have a better balance. And so every year we may have a little remainder, so we may have to ask for private funds to help. Okay. So

51:06 does anyone have any questions about certification requirements?

51:13 Does anyone have any consequences about decertification for a municipality? I’d just like to make one point to buttress that. In preparing for my liaison meetings with the library, I contacted the Board of Library Commissioners in Boston and really had an in-depth conversation with them about what certification means. And the key takeaway, not to waste anybody’s time, that I took from that was if Marbleheads Library becomes decertified, we become one of only five libraries in Massachusetts that are decertified. The other four are in Western Massachusetts and

51:59 don’t even really have anything that could be remotely described as a modern library. Their towns are just too tiny. So we would join four towns in Western Massachusetts as having a decertified library. So we’d lose our state aid for 44. Yeah. We’re using that currently on materials, although you would’ve liked to have been able to use it in other ways absent in the last few years. Mm-hmm. Yes. We lose Noble, and- Eventually … eventually, and I’m not as dialed into what that means. So it sounds like as part of that, our citizens would lose access to materials and access to other libraries in that network. Yes. That’s right. Well- But also, is it a software too, or?

52:45 Well, software does provide us with our

52:51 patron database and all the ways that we reached cataloging. So that’s a significant piece. However, the Noble libraries have the right to vote to deny access to decertified municipalities, which they are likely to do based on conversations that I’ve had with them. Towns want to be able to support libraries and municipalities that are also supporting their libraries. So they don’t want to have to take on the burden of library service from another municipality if the municipality isn’t going to pay for their library. So I’ve heard lots and lots of comments about that, like, “Hey, couldn’t we help

53:38 out down in Swampscott or Salem?” But it doesn’t really work that way. I guess my question is, and- Yeah … apologize because I probably should’ve known this before, but- It’s okay … what is Noble providing in- Okay … three to five bullets? That like, is this like- Mm … you can’t even deliver services to residents, or is this an aspect of services you can’t deliver to residents? Okay. Yeah. So it’s actually extremely vital to our operations. Okay. So if we didn’t have Noble, we would have to buy all of the pieces to that puzzle to catalog books, make a database of books that are available in the system. We would not go back to card catalogs. Right. We would have to have, you know- Yeah. Okay … a database. So there’s a software aspect to this.

54:24 Software aspect. That’s shared by- That’s what I thought … Boston. And then we get shared resources like buying technology, so we purchase in bulk, and we get discounts. The libraries talk to each other through this, basically. Yes. To share resources. Right. And they share database resources like from EBSCO, so- Yeah. For researchThe interlibrary loan system won’t work, the holds, you couldn’t get a book from another system. And they really do provide a lot of professional services to us, like staff training, group projects. They fit in the Aspen catalog, which is a new overlay, which is very effective. So they do a lot of back-end management for the library. If we had to do that ourselves, the cost,

55:12 it’d be probably another $300,000 for us to put all that in and- 250. Yeah. We’d have to hire new people. Yeah. We’d even need a process to transition that. Yeah. It would be massive and really taking a huge step backwards. Kim, didn’t you also say that NOBLE provides your internet connectivity? Oh, yes. That’s right. Which is kind of important. Yeah. We need our own server. We need our own infrastructure. Thanks. Yeah. Yeah. And NOBLE- Says the IT guy … they will vote. They are a group of libraries, like- There’s a board … so it’s 100% if this budget is passed, that we will not have access to anything that NOBLE offers? Or you’re saying they may decide, “Well, no, you know what? We don’t want to support your town, so we’re not going to let you have access to

55:58 your own- No … internet provider.” I’m just trying to understand. Okay. That sounds a little bit- We are members of NOBLE up until a certain point when our subscription runs out, and then we have to decide- When is that? It runs out at the end of June 2027. So we have to decide by June 2026 if we’re going to continue with our membership with NOBLE. So what we would essentially have, if we didn’t have reciprocal lending privileges and all of that, all we would have would be our database. That would be it. But then we’d have to decide if we’re continuing membership, and they might have to decide whether we are going to be allowed to be members as well. If we had our own database, could you check out books from the

56:44 library? If I went in, if you were not a member of NOBLE, could I bring my kids in and still check out a book that’s physically in the library? Existing books, yes, but nothing new. Nothing new. Because we get a bank book for the next 10 years. We’d build a bank book. Okay. You don’t get any other books at any other library within the NOBLE consortium. Okay. So essentially it turns our library into just an entity. Silo. Yeah. It’s a little silo. Siloed information. Okay. But you’d be able to use the catalog? We could, but only for our- Only for our … own books. Which is only about 70,000. And what is the NOBLE fee annually, roughly? Oh, goodness.

57:30 40, 50. 68. Yeah. Something like that. It’s around 50 something. And so you would still consider paying for that so that you could use this kind of silo level of service? Yes, but I think that- But it might be different. Yeah. I don’t know. I do think that NOBLE would have to decide whether we’re still members or not because- There would be a decision out of your control. I think so. Look at Nahant. Nahant is an associated member of NOBLE right now, and they’re very excited to be able to have access to the NOBLE catalog. So that’s the whole point of belonging to NOBLE is to have access to the shared catalog. So if we are not members anymore, then all we have is our catalog, and why would anyone-

58:16 And that’s what I was asking. Is the catalog tied to NOBLE? Yes. So you have to use it no matter what, or is there a way to ship the catalog out of NOBLE into something? Well, that would be something that would be very expensive and take a lot of time and effort to create our own. I haven’t done those costs yet, but that would be, like I said, probably $300,000 to go out on our own. We don’t have that, so. Right. Wait, I’m sorry. So wait, when you say catalog, you mean the catalog of the books physically in Abbott Library? Yes. That would cost $300,000. Well, to create our own cataloging system- Okay … not shared by NOBLE. Well, that’s what I was saying. Can you be de-certified and still use the NOBLE catalog for Mardale

59:03 only or not? That’s kind of- I think for a time you could, but then I think you’d want to make a decision whether you’re going to still process. Another point I’d like to make,

59:16 vis-à-vis certification is, if the Abbott Library were de-certified this year and next year the funding was restored to whatever formulaic levels, it would still require an additional three years before the Commonwealth would re-certify the library. So we can’t look at this as a one-and-done situation. The library could limp along for a year. In fact, the knock-on effects would be an additional three years, and there’s no knowledge yet that’s been shared with me that if we were kicked out of NOBLE for being de-certified this year, that even if the funding were restored next year,

1:00:05 that they would allow us back in absent state certification. If you know anything different than what I’ve just said, please correct me. I was just going to say that there’s a way out of this. We went completely on the other side. The way out of this is to have a little bit more money in the budget, and then you could apply for a waiver. That’s the 300 and- Right … change. Okay. Absolutely. They’re- brought me back. Thank you. Yeah. So in terms of the waiver, because I think we talked about this a little bit, you thought it would maybe be unlikely to get a waiver? Oh, with the scenario that we’ve started with today?

1:00:52 No, we couldn’t get a waiver. Okay. Because our cuts are so much more disproportionate than the other cuts in the town. If everybody in town got cut 10%, we could apply for a waiver, and they’d see that it was just the town-wide thing. Because we’re getting so disproportionate cut, they would see that as being unfair, and they would- I see … yeah. Okay. Wouldn’t approve our waiver. Okay. As we’ve been . When they look at in terms of proportion, what are they looking at? Like percentage of total budget? If the town is in financial trouble or needs to make cuts, if they see it cut across the evenly. It’s tricky, right, though? Because not every department, the measure our select board decides, right? They have to look at all the services all the way across.

1:01:38 And there’s- They might know the public safety … cuts like in the school department, right? Different types of- And then police, right? So it’s interesting that they take that approach because, unfortunately, in an awful budget situation like this, there’s rationing, right? And our select board has to make that decision. Sure. Where do we have to ration that will impact… And they decide to have to prioritize public safety, as you will, right? Okay. Understood. I don’t know that I, not that it matters, but I don’t love that frame work. But to see it from their side, they’re in the interest of the library. They’re protecting the library. So that’s They have tried to avoid this exact situation. 2029. 100%. Right. I don’t blame them at all. I don’t blame them at all. None of us want to be here. We don’t set these rules, but that’s telling. I was just in the library. And I love the library.

1:02:26 My kids, I’ve grown up there. So I- We talk about books a lot, but I think the staff cuts would reduce our hours, and that’s really the biggest impact because people that work wouldn’t be able to use the library because they’ll be closed in evening hours, and we’ll definitely cut those. We’ll cut Saturdays. So those were fully working families who like to use access to the library. And just being there for meetings, all the community groups that use the library evening meetings, rent our study rooms to visualizers. There’s no place to go for their students. It’s probably more than this, but what I’m hearing is there’s two very significant impacts of these cuts. One is access to the library because you don’t have as many people to- Interesting … keep open the same number of hours.

1:03:11 But then it’s the services you even get within the reduced hours library could be significantly impacted by a decertification. Our teen room might have to close. We might be able to keep that circulation desk, but our teen room, our children’s room will have to close. And then the noble too, like losing access to that. You wouldn’t be getting the same services that you were partially now than you were full-time before. If you go beyond the point, from the threshold level, the thing falls on its face. Yeah. And that might just be this year. What do you do for the next two years or three years? Right. How do you continue? Yeah. You’re always going to be on the edge. Right. Michael’s been trying to make a point. Yeah, sorry. I just want to clarify. The additional 3%. Mm-hmm. Does that mean that you’re able to certify with a waiver or? Yes.

1:03:56 Okay. I believe we- That’s the minimum to get a waiver. I believe that we would be in the extreme case, which would mean we’d need to do presentations,

1:04:09 to the Board of Library Commissioners and provide the last three years of the town’s entire budget. There’s a worksheet. There’s paperwork. It’s like an audit, but you have to go through that. But the good thing is that if you do go through all that, it’s likely that we would be able to get a waiver.

1:04:30 What happens to the following years? Having done that for this year, what happens to next year and the year after that? You have five years. Oh. You can operate in a waiver situation for five years. Then what? Then you have to come back. Mm-hmm. So yeah. It is tricky. Apparently, there had been libraries that lived and breathed waiver situations for a long time, and they had to cut that off. So just to give you the idea of the accommodation, so our absolute minimum for service is 45, for the size of this town. We offer 52.5 right now. And the absolute minimum for materials are at 13%

1:05:15 of the total municipal appropriation. Now, the only thing that you need to know with the accommodation, so let’s say we couldn’t meet 45 hours, and we couldn’t meet the minimum materials. The only thing that would happen is that we wouldn’t get as much… We’re not getting as much state aid. But these are the minimums. You don’t even have to fill out a form for this. It just comes out in the annual reporting statistics. So it’s a little bit more gracious.

1:05:53 So this was the plan that was rejected.

1:05:58 Adding $310,000,

1:06:03 about a 25% reduction of the original request.

1:06:08 So here’s what we could do. We’d reduce our total staff from 24 to 16. We’d have 14 full-time members and nine part-time and one page. So there’d still be books everywhere. Because people, we wouldn’t be able to put all the books back on the shelves properly, but we’d do our best. And then we have to take into consideration the NME salaries. We could do the 45 hours. We’d still not be able to offer Saturday or evenings. And then we’d do this, I said 12 to 13% of the munici– And that’s what we could do

1:06:54 if we could-But I understand that this is a difficult situation. I want to be clear that I understand that. I understand that it’s not likely that this will happen because there isn’t much wiggle room in this budget. So that’s the outcome if you got the 310? Yeah. Oh, that’s considered for- Okay … potential attrition among staff- Yeah … when you’re operating a library at this level. I mean, it’s hard to think that we even further- We won’t be able to attract good employees and the people that are there now with its salary Yeah, that to me, operationally, if it lands in that world, you’re going to have to think about who’s full-time and who’s part-time- Right … because some people don’t want a part-time job. Right? So.

1:07:40 And I do think we have a wonderful staff right now. We worked really hard to get them all there. We did search after search. I spent the last four to six months working, and I was really proud of the fact that we had finally… And one of the greatest things we have right now is a new technology resource specialist, and he is starting our makerspace, which everybody wanted in this library. Now we have it. We’re offering 3D printing classes. We’re offering all sorts of STEM and STEAM programs for the kids, and it’s really wonderful. And the room looks great. And yeah. So it’s like I said, it’s a little painful to think about that. I would say the 310 number that you’re talking about, that gets us

1:08:29 through this year, or would get us through. Right. Okay, so now you have the cost of living and the other steps that come next year. So we’re going to go through this again. Yeah. Thank you. I want to thank you all for actually taking the time for meeting with us this morning. And I just want to ask you, in addition to losing state funding- Mm-hmm … and the investment of town to the library that we all voted for, what will be the cost of actually pursuing recertification, in given if we actually go the route we’re actually losing? Yeah. Well, it’s going to depend on the calculations of what was the municipal appropriation requirement. All of those calculations will have to be

1:09:15 redone, and it’s hard for me to say how that would run at this point. I can’t even really give you a number. You don’t have a quantifiable number. No. Like no. I’m not sure if they would take the average of the reduced- Yeah … funding years and then start to rebuild after that, or if they would look back however many years to your previous salaries and then try to- Yeah … maybe you could finally find money to reach that. We’re in uncharted territory here. Yeah. That’s okay. Thank you. We could probably look into that, but it’d be somewhere, one of those probably two scenarios. Thank you. I’ll try to keep this quick. Sure. So basically what you’re saying, this will impact how, well, I mean,

1:10:01 even if we do approve this with a limited budget- Yes … we are guaranteed to lose Saturdays and evening hours. Absolutely. And pretty much guaranteed to lose our certification. Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. So we’ll be left with going to Abbott with this card, or we can go down to Boston with this one. That’s right.

1:10:29 Okay. That’s without a number. And that is approving this budget. Right. And where I wanted to go. So- That’s approving that- Yeah, I was going to say- … with the 310. So let me make a point. So this slide is helpful, but that’s not what we’re voting on. No. That’s right. So I’d love to know the consequences of without the 310. Yeah. I know we’re losing certification then, which is not on that, but are we reducing hours by more than that slide we were just looking at? Oh, yeah. Like I said, I started the piece saying that we can’t even do that. So I’m going to go back to this again. So that’s where I’m going with this. Well- I have to define what’s in front of me until there’s an adjustment to the budget, right? Yeah. And there isn’t an adjustment as I sit here right now, right? The number is

1:11:17 857,633. Yeah. And my questions are, if we can’t get them today, the FTEs that would be reduced as a result of that, that budget- Yeah … as compared to last year or today, and I’m talking about funded positions, even if they’re vacant, right? Right. Well, yeah. And then on top of that, so that’s very helpful for us to understand. And then on top of that, at some point two weeks ago, you said 857,633 meant we can’t open the door to the library. And I want to know if that’s true, because- I think it might be really hard. I thought maybe if we had reduced staff from 24 to 13, sorry, I don’t have the FT calculation,

1:12:02 it would be all part-time staff, 13 staff members. We might open 25 hours a week with no evening or Saturday service. We’d have no municipal funding for new books, movies, or digital subscriptions. We would not be able to use volunteers and private donations for municipal salaries.

1:12:24 And then residents would be barred from using libraries in surrounding towns. Access to the NOBLE network would drop to zero eventually, and there would be no interlibrary loans. Marblehead then forfeits all the state tax-funded grants. That’s the state aid. And then it would take at least three years of meeting standards to be recertified. Right. And the cost of building IT infrastructure is at home. How many hours would you be open? I was estimating 25. Oh, a week? Yeah. Okay. So that confirms for me that you would only be able to even offer part-time staff, right? Right. What we had said previously, we said we would close in December, and the thought was we’d either limp along with a half staff, or we could

1:13:12 Keep everyone fully employed three to four months. And then likely- I mean, yeah. Because our- When I heard that, to be honest, this is the situation we’re in. This isn’t an opinion, but that made no sense to me. Why is that? Because if you’re going to close in December, why aren’t we just closing now, right? In terms of a budget shortfall, we’re asking for an override. If we’re going to just close in December, who’s going to vote to say, “I want to allocate all these cuts outside of the library just so we can keep it open for six months, and then next year, all the…” You know what I mean? So, that didn’t make sense to me. But it sounds like, is that the case? Like would you close or not? Our thought is, well, if we do the limping along with

1:13:58 the half time and limited hours, we think attrition is going to be the biggest problem. Right. We’re going to lose a lot of staff. If someone called in sick, we can’t staff the library. We have to close doors for that day anyway because we don’t have enough people to cover everything. Right. So that situation just becomes untenable. It just becomes- Right … almost impossible to manage. So we could either keep things going as long as we could, hope- Is it possible, if this is where it stays, that we can have a conclusion so I can let taxpayer knows what’s at stake, whether you’re closing on 12/31 or you’re operating at 25 hours a year next year? Not that, I’m sure there’s many different things in between it could land, but some sort of conclusion. Well, I guess if we need to make that decision today, I don’t

1:14:44 know. Not today. We have a board meeting to decide that. Yeah, for sure. We’re trying to- I just want- Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised. But yeah. The Fin Com does not decide cuts, right? But we do need to know what’s at stake. And if I’m sitting at town meeting in the audience and I’m wondering if the library’s going to be open on January 1st or not, that’s not clarity to me, right? So we’re trying to let people know what will happen with this budget. Is it closing or is it not closing? With this budget and no override, it will be significantly impacted. 100%. I don’t want to say it’s going to close, because I hope something- There would happen. Yeah … down the road, whether it’s a special election or something. Yeah. Nothing. Nothing, it will close, yeah,

1:15:30 after this point. Yeah. We can’t survive on the budget we’re talking here, so. So that’s a conclusion. So it will close 12/31.

1:15:41 We- We just need to say it. We don’t want to say it, but let’s… Yeah. It’s- Because the way we worked it out, it would actually be the end of November. Okay. Okay. So let’s be clear. Not that any one of us want this outcome. What I just heard, Kim, was if this budget is what is voted upon at town meeting and there is no additional funds for override, I just heard you say the library will close in November of 2026. That’s what I heard. And how do you say it, end of November or December 1st? December 1st is easier to say. So- This year. This year. I don’t want to come off as controversial here, but I guess my recommendation to the leaders of the town would be,

1:16:29 are we really going to cut all these other things and let the library close? Or are we just going to close July 1st? Nobody wants to close the library, right? Yeah. But because come July 1st next year, now we have a zero budget library, right? And now you can bring all those things back in six months, right? So I don’t know. That’s just something to consider is all. Well, I think- If it’s my point … it would be really helpful to see, so the chart that you had that showed like, this is what happens if we get this additional 310,000. At this point in the budget process, I don’t see… The select board has already appropriated money, so there’s really nowhere for that money to come from at this point. So I wish that wasn’t the answer. Right. I really do. But what would be helpful is to see,

1:17:16 this is what a slide like what you had up, this is with 310,000. Without it, this is what our library looks like. It either closes in November or it limps along with these very basic level of options for the full year. And be able to really tell the community what it looks like. I think that’s kind of what you’re trying to get at. Because- Yeah … what’s not helpful, and again, such a horrible budget situation, is having big statements thrown out without the facts behind them. And so our role here is really to dig down on those facts. Yeah. So I think that’s why Alec is pushing so hard to understand. And the taxpayers need to understand exactly what they’re paying for

1:18:01 and exactly what they are losing. Crystal clarity on that. The thing is, you can’t guarantee the staff is going to remain there all the way through to the point where the door closes and the locks go on. Because that’s, you can just see- Yeah, that could be a risk factor. Yeah, absolutely. And it’s normal, right? But what I’m saying is you could present it to, hypothetically, as this would be the plan without closing our doors, would be this amount of weeks. But we also always at all times would have the risk of losing staff to then not even be able to deliver on that. That feels like that’s where we are at right now. And sick and vacation time has to be entered into that formula, that if an employee is suddenly unavailable, the

1:18:46 library is not open on that day. That is a significant risk factor that I think, again, the townspeople need to be made aware of. So- If you do lose staff or they resign, do they still get some pay, any benefits at all? Nothing. Even if they’re- Not if they resign. If they resign. If they’re laid off- They’ve got … they have unemployment benefits. Okay. Let me just, to your point- These numbers, when they were set, was based on the scenario that it would be reduced hours.

1:19:26 And that’s what those numbers- Exactly … represent. That’s what was my understanding. And if… Right. And so we’ve continued on that assumption, even though there’s been a lot of open conversation as to what are the alternatives. Yeah. But once we set that scenario, that’s how we present, unless there’s some significant change to- Right … the plan. Right. So, to kind of wrap this up. Yeah. So it sounds like what we need to do is create this solid plan, 25 hours a week, no certification. These are the hours, this is the number of staff. Like I said, I have to go back. I have to look at that and see-

1:20:12 Yeah, you’ve got to figure out who’s in what … figure out all of that, and- And you still close- And what that- … end of November, beginning of December. If we did the 25 hours a week or 20 hours a week- It just de-certifies you. Right. Yeah. This is what we could offer, but we would always have risk of losing half of the people that are left, right? Yes. And I think that’s the best we can do. Yeah. And I think when you do that, if you can be, just for my sake, not that I need anything. You guys are doing great right now. But the FTEs as of last year’s budget- Mm-hmm … part-time is not a full-time FTE, so whatever that person is, assign them a number, .25, .5, .75. And then that

1:20:58 plan, how many FTEs would be in that plan? Which is a risk that they leave, but in an ideal world, that would be in that plan, and then that’ll help me add to my checklist today, unfortunately. And then I will put together the scenario of who’s left and how we run the library- Yeah … in 20 to 25 hours. Exactly. And what services you’ll be offering. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. The noble impact, everything. Yeah. Right? It needs to be clearly quantified to whatever maximum extent you can. So again, the taxpayers understanding exactly what they’re getting for the money that’s appropriated and what they’re losing if they don’t approve an

1:21:46 override. Yes. It’s got to be crystal clear.

1:21:52 And I do know that- My opinion … I think there have been other overrides that have included maybe even 100% of the library in one town. So if there’s any way that we can support you guys in asking about… I don’t know if there’s any tips from those libraries, how they approached that cut themselves. Is that fair, Molly? Stoneham was one- Yeah … that faced a similar situation. Yeah. And then their override did pass this year. But they also applied for a waiver, and they had a 13% cut overall, and they did succeed. So their cut was not as drastic. Right. But they were still among the highest in the state last year. In terms of cuts. Yes. Yeah. We’re at the top of the list now, unfortunately. Yeah. Okay, so we’re exceeding any of those.

1:22:39 Yeah. I didn’t know the extent of their cut. Linfield also went 40 something percent. 45%. So a lot bigger than 13%. Exactly. We’re at the bottom. Okay.

1:22:50 We’re trying our best as an all-text, no plowing library. Well, so you need to get this from me pretty soon, I would imagine. Well, so our next meeting today is the warrant hearing, where, I guess TBD if there’s a detailed override presented there or not. We usually have a warrant hearing night, too, in case certain articles are not ready by then. So I guess that’s a little out of our control, but in the next few weeks, but certainly before town meeting, because I plan on getting up and defining for everybody exactly what’s in that tier one, tier two. This is up. Of town meeting? Yeah.

1:23:35 The warrant hearing is April 6th. Excellent. And then May, the first Monday in May, which is the 4th. Okay. So- 300 … will the board be presenting at town meeting? Yeah. I would encourage you, maybe not your own presentation, but as part of an override presentation, as the highest cuts on the town side, I would think the library should get a few minutes to explain that. And I’m happy to get up there with you and sign off on my understanding of those cuts, because I think that the watchdog signing off on what you’re saying is helpful context to taxpayers. All right. Absolutely. My assignment is to clarify. I’ve been trying to clarify for the past month. No.

1:24:21 But like I said, it’s pretty complicated and- For sure. It’s dire, but we will- Okay … clarify. And Kim, if you think that bouncing ideas off of me, or even role-playing off of me as the chair, the liaison. Well, the problem is that you were the one who said keep it to TikTok. TikTok attention span, exactly. So maybe TikTok. Not being disrespectful to anybody, but TikTok attention span. TikTok attention span. So I’ll try to… That is a tough thing to do. I understand. I mean, it’s… All right. Yeah. I guess we know what to do. You’re the chair. I am. No.

1:25:07 Yeah. And I want to thank Michael and Lindsay for their participation in the process, along with the trustees and Kim for their clarity on the dire situation. I have never wanted to recommend a budget number less But I am going to recommend that the finance committee approve the $1,003,000… Oh, I’m sorry. I’m reading the wrong line. You are. Sorry. 857. Alex cursed, it was in the wrong one. No, it wasn’t. I’ll make it last. That’s great. Thank you. I saw Alex cursed, and I started reading that number. Thank you. The $857,633 that had been posed

1:25:53 for the Abbott Public Library for FY25. Exciting. Awesome. All in favor?

1:26:02 Thanks. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. All right. Cemetery is up next. Okay.

1:26:11 The 80s. Want me to do the honor?

1:26:24 Sure. Now, I have paper copies of what I forwarded to Aaron. I have what’s in the balanced budget right here. Does it tie to that?

1:26:36 Yes. 410,539. Well, I don’t know, because Alicia’s figuring it differently than I did. So, by way of introduction. I know. But I’ve never met him in person. Oh. It’s like always Zoom. We’ve only Zoomed with each other, so nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. When Mike O’Neill, Tim, and I- Mm-hmm … met with Kathy via Zoom, it very quickly became clear that, and no criticism intended towards anybody, that the budget numbers that we had been sent from the town and what the cemetery commission had voted were not the same. So, that made it extraordinarily difficult for us as a

1:27:22 liaison committee to go through the numbers with you because we were working off of different sets of numbers. So, with that introduction, I would like Kathy to take it from here. And hopefully, the cemetery department and the finance department have reconciled their numbers and we are on the same page.

1:27:47 Well, what we’re doing is the board has voted to fund, and instead of cutting an actual position or hours or anything like that, we’re funding it through the sale of lots. So we’re going to keep the original. We’re taking out

1:28:08 the seasonal, so that we are cutting the seasonal. But the full-time employees, we’re not going to take away the general labor, and we’re not going to cut the hours of the superintendent. We’re just going to take all that from the sale of lots. Right. But for purposes of our budget- Mm-hmm … there are one and a half FTE cuts from the general fund. It’s coming out of the department head’s- … salary in the general fund budget was at the state of the town about 119 or 120, and now it’s about 60. Because that’s half of the hours. Right. But we’re funding- You’re… Yeah … we’re keeping the full position. We’re funding that, and according to Alicia, the total

1:28:56 from the sale- Yeah … of lots is going to be 84,504. So, yeah. So what I’m saying is it’s still a cut from the tax base, right? It’s cut out of the tax base and then it’s paid for in another way, right? Yes. The line item year over year is different, right? It’s going down in our budget. We don’t vote on our budget- Yeah … for the cemetery sale of lots. Do you get what I’m saying? Not really. Okay. That’s okay. So the budget for the department head- Yep … in the budget presented at town meetings, the balanced general fund budget, absent any adjustment to that was 119,957, and now that line item is 59,978. The difference will be paid for in a different area. Yep.

1:29:41 But it’s been cut from the general fund. Yes. From that, yeah. Yeah. From the- And then similarly- For the general labor … general labor went from 124,817 to 66,125, which is a- Yeah, because it’s two positions … $59,000 cut. One position was cut, yeah. And that is a full FTE cut- Yep … from taxpayer dollars. Okay. Right? Yep. It’s being paid for now in a different way it sounds like, but to me, it’s still a cut from the balanced budget. Yep. Is that a good way to describe it? Yeah. Okay. So what I have here, just because I’ve been doing this all day, is one and a half FTEs have been cut out of the general fund. Yep. Now, sounds like you might be addressing those costs in a different way. But for now, I’m tallying up what’s coming out-

1:30:26 Yep … the general fund. Okay. And I guess one other point, you mentioned that you’re going to get rid of seasonal help. Correct? Yep. And we discussed that in the liaison meeting, but in this budget, so… Yeah, because I said if she… So I didn’t know they were getting rid of seasonal help. So now we would have an unbalanced budget if she’s to do that today. Okay. After the select board already voted all the rest. Yes. So let me ask this. What do you think the general fund budget is on your paper? Because I have 410,539 in this document that Alicia sent me today. Well, our figures were different. I didn’t have any of those numbers. No, you did because I sent them to every department head twice. And that was what I questioned the general labor, which

1:31:15 I didn’t know we were supposed to be cutting. That was the additional one? Yep. And that is the, let’s see. Is it this? So I tied with yours. The only difference is yours- This is it. Wow. Yeah. Or is this just the full thing, or is this just wages?Looks very close. 375,206- Yeah … versus 374,906. Yeah. $200. That’s all workforce, no expenses. And then where- Here are the expenses.

1:31:42 I printed out what you sent me, Kathy, and that’s what- Yeah … Alec is looking at now. I have paper copies of all that if anyone wants to see it. Okay. So what I have here, I have on this line, sorry, the second page first. I have 35,333. Yep. That’s in my file that I have on screen right now as expense. So we align there. Yep. And then what’s… Oh, I have the exact number. So then I have between officials’ expense and salaries, I have 375,206, and I see that right here. Yep. So we’re aligned. Yep. All right. It was just- It’s just you were saying it in a way I didn’t get it. Yeah. No, I just wanted to be clear that in order for us to balance, one and a half FTEs had to come out of the tax rate,

1:32:28 right? Yep. Now, other departments have other revenue sources to pay for positions as well, and oftentimes when they cut out of the general fund, they address it elsewhere, right? Mm-hmm. So, it’s fair to say that these people are not being relieved of their duties or reduction of their hours. However, in terms of tax rates, they are. For the general fund budget. Yep. Because you’re- Yeah … finding a way to pay for it with what sounds like a revolving account. No, she’s a trust fund. No, it’s a trust fund. Yeah. So, how this is going to work- Yeah, can you just- Just to throw a wrench in, so how this is going to work is it’s another revenue source- Okay … that was transferred into the general fund, which means I have to increase your appropriation by 84,504, and then the offset is that revenue. It’s just like the tr-

1:33:13 So we have to increase the operating budget- Yep, I’d have to go back to the select board- … to include that … tell them that they need to increase it by 84,504 because they’re giving us a new revenue source. So when Mike took that vote earlier, and he said X amount of the waste budget to be funded by effectively tax dollars and X amount to be funded by this. Yeah. Is it the, we do the same guy? Same thing. It’s just that it’s not a new thing. It’s being funded by something that existed before. Correct. Correct. But it still needs to go back to the select board- Yep … for approval. It needs to, yep. Right. They have to revote that. Thank you. Okay. So Alicia, can you tell us more about this fund? How much is currently in it? What are the revenue? I gave you. Yep, I gave you those figures on, um- This is the sale of lots fund?

1:33:59 Yep. Do you want one of these? So, I gave you all the revenue on the- No, that’s okay. I think Jeremy has it. Yeah. That’s it. Oh, there it is. Yes. Oh, perfect. Yeah. We’re all sharing that. I’m printing out a copy. If you have a couple, sure. Yeah.

1:34:14 Yes. I’ll take another one. Still a lot to- Right. Balance these four. They have to. The revenues, then Dave takes. Thank you so much, Tom.

1:34:29 And we still- Just so everybody knows. I’m sorry, Dave, what was that? Just so everybody knows, we have an expansion capital outlet, it’s going to be done this year, and I think it’s 100 or so graves left. And this’ll be 200 or more graves. So this fund will be increasing quite a bit over the next few years. In terms of selling. It’s going to- The revenue will increase. Yeah. Yeah. So if we’re- There’s still a lot you’ll see that it’s low. You know what I’m saying? So we’re going to be selling a lot. What is the pink highlight, though? It says as of 06/30/25 unexpendable. That’s the balance of the unexpendable fund. What does that mean? There’s a fund, that’s the fund that we can’t touch, and any

1:35:17 interest is what we are allowed to appropriate. That’s the perpetual care fund. That’s the trust fund. Yep, that’s the perpetual care. You cannot spend their principal, but you can- Right … spend the interest or just leave it. What do you use it for? Maintenance, improvements. It’s for some of the- You can’t spend its principal on what? On anything. It stays. Forever? For ever, yes. Yep. So in the case of, say it again? A mass lot. A mass lot. Yeah. Every cemetery is. Okay. All right. So, when we’re seeing that big balance, we’re not saying we could address more of the cemetery’s costs with this. Yep. You’re only allowed to do the interest from that. Yep. Okay. And the same thing with the flower endowment fund. Those are both unexpendable funds. And- It’s interest that goes for us to use. So then the annual interest, is that the

1:36:03 139,133 from the perpetual care fund? Yep, that’s what we have available to be appropriated through town meeting. And when you say a fund’s available for TM appropriation, you mean for 27? Correct, yeah. Okay. Yep. Yep. And you’re going to be using basically 100,000 of this to cover salaries that we’re being- Not of the perpetual care. The sale of lots we’ll use. 234. The 234. Oh, okay, got it. Yep. Got it. And, um- And that’s the fund that Dave was referring to, which will grow pretty quickly once we develop. I’m actually meeting next week with the contractor. And what do you typically use the sale of lots fund for when not this solution?

1:36:48 Same thing. For all of our equipment. Correct. For any kind of major- Capital. Capital. Yes. Yeah. Small improvements, yep. Which we need to. Yeah. So you’re saying you’re expecting to sell more, which will increase it, but you also have needs- Yeah … on the general fund to spend as well. Yeah. We’ve put a hold on pre-need sales because we only have 130 grave spaces available right now. So those are for emergency only. So what we did is we put a hold on any pre-need sales, and the second we open up that new area and open up pre-need sales again, we’ve got a list of people that are waiting- Yeah, just call someone and- … to come in and buy two grave lots. And each two grave lot is $4,000. 2,000 goes into the perpetual care, 2,000 goes into the sale of lots. So the sale of lots will grow fast, and that’s what we use most

1:37:37 of the time. The perpetual care we don’t use as often, but the sale of lots is what we go to first. Kathy, the- Mm-hmm … 2,000 that goes into the Sale of lots fund. Does that become part of that unexpendable trust? There’s no unexpendable for the sale of lot. That’s always available. Just… Good. Thank you. Yep. And can you give us an idea what the balance is in that fund right now? Of the sale of lot? Yeah. Yep. It’s the 234. Yeah, because it’s fully expendable. Yep. So do you spend it all every year? No. Nope. No, that’s available. We only- Oh, that’s available. Yeah, we only vote on what we want appropriated, and then town meeting votes. Okay. Yeah. Well, so that’s probably in the list of the maximum amount to be spent from that article.

1:38:23 It doesn’t lock you into how much you spend on it. Mm-hmm. It gives you the maximum amount that you can. That’s- Probably well in front of a million. Yeah. That’s in that article? There’s an article where we say the maximum- Yeah … amount from these accounts to be spended. Well, no, they have their own separate article. No, but- Oh, they have their own. So they can spend up to their total interest amount. They can. Last time they just looked at their- I’m talking about the sale of lots fund. Is there an article related to that? No. Last time we used money from both the sale of lots and perpetual care in the article for their capital needs. Okay. As long as they- So for your capital needs. Yeah. Capital needs. But there is a town meeting question for that stuff renewed? Yes. There is town… There’s an article. Oh, do you have it? Did you find it? We don’t have an article in, so we can use what’s available down here. They don’t, nope. So the sale of lot- He said if we don’t have an article on the warrant.

1:39:09 For the transfer. We have, but we’ve got available to us right now for improvements, we have 80,720 and we’ve got 14,974 that is not encumbered for anything else right now. So we can use that. Budget revenues. But to be clear, the 234 that’s in the sale of lots funds- Mm-hmm … you can expend as much or nothing from that fund without having to go outside of the cemetery commission for approval. Yeah. Is that correct? We, right. They’re completely unencumbered and available for your use. We don’t have an article to use any of that money, so we have to use what has already been appropriated last year, which is down at the bottom in the blue.

1:39:56 It’s the 80 and the 14. So it was appropriated for fiscal year ‘26, and then that’s allowed to be used for ‘27. It rolls over, yeah. Okay, so that’s where this- Is it balanced? So we’ve cut- We’ve covered- You know, 118,671 has been cut from general fund. That covers it. Yeah. 50 plus 80. Or that, or you- But that appropriation was meant for specific improvements, right? Correct. No. Well- So Cathy, what I would do is in article 23 of the budget, I would just cite it to be voted by the town as a revenue source, which offsets the appropriation. I think what I’m trying to understand is, these are recurring

1:40:42 expenses. Yep. Right? And so I’m having trouble getting comfort that there is a recurring revenue that it’s going to be, we may see a bump up from funds from the sale of lots, but it’s hard for me to see, to know that just these transferred expenses, $100,000, it’s kind of a lot, it’s sustainable, right? It’s not just, you can fund it for a couple of years, and then you may not be able to afford to anymore. Do you see what I’m saying? Like, I’m trying to- That’s what happened with perpetual care. So with perpetual care, we were doing that. It used to be that 9,000 from your Com Com and another 26,000 from perpetual care every year into the budget, which was 35,000. I cut that down to just Com Com so that they could build money to do their capital needs that they needed, that they couldn’t keep perpetually doing that as an offset because of their capital.

1:41:29 So I think for this one, I can put it in as a revenue source for the town to vote. The select board just has to revote what they voted for them. But I would not suggest you take money, like anything appropriated in those articles from before was for capital needs, so you couldn’t use that for salaries. But I can use it as a revenue source that gets voted on as part of the budget process along with the appropriation. Okay.

1:41:58 Okay. So based on that, you feel pretty good about what you just said? That that’ll work? Yes. So then should we be voting on top of the 410,539 a separate number today to be appropriated from- So we have to change- Different funds … the expenditures. And the revenues. And the revenue. Correct. Yeah. And also before that, I mean, just going back to the seasonal help, that’s still in that number. That’s coming out. Yeah. The seasonal help is still in. Seasonal help is coming out. We’re not- But it’s in the 410. So maybe you don’t have to spend as much out of your cemetery as you- That’s what I told her. Right. Only do 84,505. 84,505 was the first figure. Yeah. Okay. And so you’re comfortable with this framework, like that funds will be used as they were

1:42:46 intended, and that covering these salaries is the appropriate use of these funds. It’s a question as our finance director, I just wanted to clear that. Here’s my answer. It gets us through this year- Right … to assess how do we go forward- Yeah … with this in the future. If you’re fine with that. Okay. Yep. Okay.

1:43:11 Any other questions for cemetery? Mike, you on this one? Yeah. Eric is here, but- Eric’s here … yeah, Peter. Yeah. It’s just, that’s it. I think. Outside those- So the law states for you that those sale lots are for, cemetery plots are not meant for general town expenses. They are legally restricted to cemetery maintenance, improvement, and the accumulation of a permanent care fund.

1:43:36 So- That just shoot a hole in that then. Yeah. Does not sound like it could be used to pay for salaries. That’s what it says it cannot. Oh, boy. That just shoots a hole in the whole budget. Well, so let me put it this way. I think we have a follow-up item here, but today we’ll be voting 410, and then if we need to… I mean, it sounds like ifIf we need a follow-up item, then the select board would have to revote, and then we can revote as well. Yeah. Sure. Needs more homework. Sure. Okay. Whether it’s that solution or some other solution. Right. So we’re going to vote on it as if we just did it? Well, the number that the select board voted on was 410. We’re going to vote as if it- So 39 … intended. That was correct. Yeah. And then maybe things work out, it would require select board to do another vote-

1:44:23 Oh, okay … or then we would do it. Which we could do a quick vote before the warrant. Before the warrant. Yeah.

1:44:30 Yeah. Okay. So any other questions on cemetery outside of that?

1:44:36 No. Outside of those two spots, it’s a general allocation for staffing needs, and then- Yeah. There was nothing added outside of those cuts- Yeah. No … right? Okay. All right. Eric, do you want to make a motion? We just get different. I just want to thank Cemetery Commission because that one full-time spot would be a bottom position. Yeah. Thank you. You’re welcome. So I move that we approve the 2027 budget for the Cemetery Commission as presented for $410,539. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks a lot, guys. Same to you.

1:45:21 We have the numbers we want. We got them. Town clerk elections. She’s not in this room. Sorry, the select board doesn’t vote

1:45:42 on. That’s the board. Yesterday, the select board voted on everything. Everything. For the first time. The budget to be presented to town meeting. So, it’s the entirety of all the budgets. They voted yesterday on a school number. Yeah. And every other number. The select just puts the article on the warrant, and so they voted the article. So that’s the budgets that we’re- Yeah. Those are the four budgets. Yeah, exactly. Yes. Yeah. Are we good on Zoom? Are we good on Zoom? Great question. You are. Oh, yeah. Hold on. We’re on Zoom. That’s working. That’s not. That device is having a crisis.

1:46:28 Oh, okay.

1:46:31 All right. So I’m not sure who we have for town elections to present. Robin. Oh, Robin’s on.

1:46:43 She’s on. Okay. Well, I can assume devices- If you want to- I don’t know. You’re still on. You want to defer town clerk and see if Robin comes back? She still alive. How did we do that? Yeah. All right. Let’s… Oh, I’m still on. With my dig. Oops. Now we’re on here.

1:47:17 So Robin has to unmute. Robin has to unmute. Yeah.

1:47:25 You’re leaving. I just hit that button.

1:47:32 Under that. We should hear her through here.

1:47:38 Robin, can you hear us? She’s still muted.

1:47:44 Robin, can you unmute yourself?

1:47:48 Maybe someone can text her? I don’t know. She’s gone now. Do you know her budget, Alicia? Yes. We were- Yeah. We were prepared. Yes. Okay. We can do that. Perfect. All right. So we’re going to move forward and discuss this budget with Alicia representing it, and then there was also a liaison committee that met with them as well. So, I’ll start where I’ve started every other budget. I’ve been tracking these budgets from what was submitted in the October through January process all the way till today. There’s been some budget adjustments during that timeframe to six or seven lines through that process. However, the one main actual cut would be an FTE clerk’s office

1:48:33 and that is somebody currently sitting in a seat. So that would be a one FTE. So my tally that I’ve tallied up for today of positions that have been defunded from the general fund, assuming eight for the library, which was very unclear, but I’m going to leave my assumption of eight for now, would be 21, of which we just learned 1.5 potentially are just cuts from the general fund to be funded from the cemetery lot funds, if legal. But we’re at 21 right now, defunded positions from the general fund, subject to the library confirmation I asked for and the

1:49:18 whole situation with the cemetery. So.

1:49:23 Most of the adjustments that were made were based on prior year spending. Mm-hmm. We made those adjustments close to actuals.

1:49:32 Right. Those adjustments between state of the town and now. Yeah. Yeah. And then, were there any other things that jumped out, Molly, in terms of budget to budget items rather than cuts? Just the two I noticed that other professional technical line was up a lot- Yeah … and then the other expense. Were those just based on actuals? Yeah, those were based on actuals and needs. Yes, and those were adjustments between January and now too. So- Oh, they were So you met with her? Yeah. And you feel comfortable with– These aren’t huge numbers, but they went up- Yes … up there in terms of percentages. Yeah. And I know that she’s not happy about the cut, as you know, for the full-time person, because they need it in their office. I’m sure if she was here, she’d be advocating for that.

1:50:18 But I’m comfortable with every single line. Well, what can you tell us about the role that this position filled, what they did? Yeah. So she’s got two special clerks in there, and they help her with everything from elections, town meeting, running day-to-day operations, and she said they’re vital. She needs both of them.

1:50:46 Having met with her be-before, the committee was unable to meet with her this year. Having met with her in years past, I know that it is a tight ship that she’d run. It was like if she would be talking about how she’s going to run an election with just one other person. I do see Robin in the meeting, just muted. Yeah. Yeah. She’s trying to unmute, unable to unmute. For whatever reason. Can she call in and talk on somebody’s phone?

1:51:20 Or just call in. Just call in. Yeah. Maybe she’s hearing us have this conversation. Yeah. Alone.

1:51:29 This does not affect my bond.

1:51:35 That’s good. Does it impact Paul? Nope, this one does not. No problem. When you do get to elections, it was the same. It was all based on actual spending and speaking to her on what she could expect to spend out of elections. So when you see- I see a huge increase. Yeah. There you go. She’s on. Yeah. Specific increases- Yep … because- Hi Hey. It’s Alex from the Finance. Yeah. Oh, hi. I’m unmuting. We’re unmuting you. She’s un– We’re unmuted. I can’t unmute. I’ve tried. Yeah, no worries. We can hear you. So, we’re talking town clerk. We can hear you. So we’re talking town clerk. Don’t hurt her. Yeah, you should- She’s showing off her body … unmute your computer first. Yeah, I’m trying. I’m just going to shut it off.

1:52:22 Okay. It’s actually… That old school way with technology. Sorry.

1:52:37 There we go. All right. So- It’s a skill.

1:52:44 I knew I shouldn’t have done this. I just got out of the hospital like two days ago. No worries. I don’t hear an echo anymore. Okay. So we were discussing, if you couldn’t hear us,

1:52:57 town clerk, special clerk, actual full FT cut. So if you have anything to say about that. I do. We can’t operate with two people.

1:53:13 There’s no way. The state will come in and run that election.

1:53:24 So you have three now, and you’re saying if you have two… When you say there’s no way, we need a little bit more explanation as to what that means. I’ve got two people. One’s been there 17 years, one’s been there 14 years. Yep. Okay. When they look at this in ‘01, ‘02, they came in, and they looked at what our workload was, what we needed, and they said, “We’re not cutting from you because there’s no way you can get it done.” We process all of those vote by mails. We process,

1:53:59 open every single one, enter all the applications in. We’re like a retail business during the week. Mm-hmm. So it’s not just elections, it’s also you get dog licenses, birth certificates- Right … marriage certificates. And two people out, like this time, I was out of the office for three weeks. Yeah. So when you say they came in, who is they? The state has gone into other communities and took over the elections. Oh. Okay. I don’t know the why. So- But I can tell you that will happen. Okay. So what you’re saying is this cut, the ramifications of it, are risking Marblehead of having the state come in and taking

1:54:45 over the elections, which means that- Which means that they’re going to run it. So we don’t have to pay for it. I’m not sure how that works. It’s never happened here, but it’s happened in other communities. We’re in charge. Okay. We’re the smallest budget. You’re asking to take out- Yeah … roughly $66,000 for one position. On top of that, you’re asking me to pay an expense for town meeting for close to that amount for technology for two or three nights.

1:55:20 I’m not asking. The select board voted this budget. I’m trying to define for the taxpayer- Yeah. Right … what’s coming up. I think that if there’s two people, the office is going to close at some point during the day. We don’t have a choice then. Right. It would be reduced hours, it sounds like. Yeah. Right. But there’s stuff we do every single day. Right. You can’t…

1:55:46 Okay. I hear it’s detrimental to the office, obviously, losing 33% of the FTs, right? The three of you. If you’ve got long-term employees there, I don’t care. They wanted to transfer out. It sounds like in ‘01 or ‘02, they could’ve gone to another department, bumped somebody, and kept their job. That doesn’t sound like what’s happening with that.

1:56:13 Yeah. So I guess I hear the ramifications in terms of the ability to deliver the service, which is not surprising given you only have three and you’d be moving to two. I guess I’m a little confused on what that means for the election and registration budget, but it doesn’t sound like we have clarity on that. All together. I mean, what is it, when you think about it? Yeah. But elections is huge. I don’t have a choice. It’s all mandated. I also see a $61,000 increase to that budget year over year. So is that helpful? What do you mean? We’re making at least 61,000. On the election and registration. Mailing voting. And some of them are reimbursed as well. Ballots being mailed in

1:57:00 is now required, and that requires increased postage and those costs for her ballots. So that’s the primary drivers of those costs. Okay. Yeah. Robin, you seem confused by what I just asked. The budget for elections and- Yeah.

1:57:20 Okay. It’s all- What I’m saying, though, is that you’re asking us

1:57:27 to cut a position that I only found out because it’s not in there. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like the salary then? Yeah, the salaries are way down, right? But the election and registration department’s up to 86%. That’s all I was asking. Okay.

1:57:46 But the position’s used for both. It’s not just used for- Yes, but- … elections … he’s not asking about that, Robin. He’s just asking why your elections and registration budget is increasing so much. And so I told him about the mandated mail-in ballots and the postage- Yeah … rising costs. Yeah. And then you have in there state primary, and then you have in there, because your postage went way up by 15,000, and we did that based off of looking at what your actuals were last year. And then we cut- But the fonts, they go up last year. Yeah, exactly.

1:58:24 Yeah. Which is out of our control.

1:58:28 If that’s what you’re asking then. Yeah. So the increase in this year’s close to stuff, 1.25 during an off-year election, that’s close to actuals. Is that why that increase- Mm-hmm … occurred? Yeah, because we only had the town election last. Well, we had the referendum as well. Yeah, so- Then the shared referendum and then town… Sorry, I’m like… Yeah. So I don’t know if you were here when I spoke to the library or not. Not that you had to be, but- No. I was coming on right after, so I got on when I was asked. Yeah. No worries. But, I’m almost speaking to the FinCom here, but- Okay. Sorry … as the watchdog here, I’m trying to best understand what these cuts mean. We’re not to override yet. Yeah. Nothing’s been presented to us, but we’re to a balanced budget, and I’m trying to

1:59:16 figure out what these mean, and we hear you in terms of your operational capabilities. What I would ask is the best you can before the warrant hearing and/or town meeting. You made comments earlier about, “Well, we just can’t do that. The state will come in and take us over.” That doesn’t provide a lot of clarity to me or taxpayers, a concrete answer as to what that means to a budget. And, I asked the same thing of the library. Does the FinCom understand where I’m going with this? Yeah. So I need to explain the taxpayers, if the state came in and took over elections, does that mean we’re removing 132,000 from the budget then? Which is the elections- Pay. Right. So

2:00:02 I guess that would be something that I would take away in trying to figure out if that’s true and what it means. Yeah. I just know that there is a point, and it happened during COVID, that people, they came in and they took it over. We were threatened because I did not get help on what I needed. And once that happened and the Secretary of State’s involved, I got help. Yeah. Well- And I’ve had the three people. Yeah. I’m just not following what taking over means and how that’s actually detrimental.

2:00:38 Well, you’d never want the state to come in and run your elections. Right. But why?

2:00:46 Because it’s not a good look for the town. All right. It’s just new information to me, so I’m just trying to process it. Yeah. You would know. Yeah. I would’ve passed that on if I was able to. Yeah. All right. Any questions for Robin while we have her? No. I would just like to restate what you said, Alec, that I think it is very important for the townspeople to have clarity on what it means for the state to come in and take over the election. Again, what would they lose if that happens? Mm-hmm. So the taxpayers need to understand if this is cut, this is what will happen.

2:01:33 Or because this is cut. Or because this is cut. Yeah. This is what will happen. Not what might happen, what will happen. Because I think if you’re going to ask the taxpayers to pay more money, they need to have clarity on what is the risk side and what is the benefit side so that they can make an informed decision.

2:01:59 My other… Can I make one more statement? Absolutely. Yeah. As far as closing the office, I don’t know how you’re going to get meetings posted. I mean, that’s something that comes in Monday and Tuesday. I recommend anyone coming in spending several days in the office and see what we actually do, because until you’re there, you don’t know what happens in that office. You mean in terms of less capacity to remain open? Well, actually, it’s just that- Yeah. Correct. Yeah. Like how do you get the meetings hosted? How do you get- Yeah. So, same

2:02:33 conversation as with the library where they’re open a certain number of days a week or hours a week now, and we’re very adamant that with the cut that they’re taking, we need a very defined, this is the service offering before, and this is the service offering or hours offered after. If you could maybe kind of map that out, what the cut of this position would mean. Not today necessarily, but as we move forward through this process. Yeah. And also, you think about it, I’m going to tell someone they can’t post their meeting because we’re not open due to staff cuts? Well, we’d have to know the reduction in hours available before that’s the case. Right. Yeah. Right. And then- They would just have less of a time window to have a meeting posted, right?

2:03:21 Yeah. And then on top of that, if you can’t file your ZBA, you can’t get your birth certificate, you can’t get this, a lot of people are going to be upset. Yeah. I think- And if- A lot of the services being lost here, they’re going to be upset about. Yeah. No, I think fair. But two of us being out at the same time, the door, it’s not going to be open. Okay. So that’s my take on it. Okay. So I think when we try to define this, I mean, Robin, and you all to- So,

2:03:57 here’s part of the approach, and again, assuming all other systems fail, right? Yeah. Because obviously this is all part of a restore option. Right. Looking at it is, both sides, the two offices in this building, select board office and the clerk’s office, right? Continuous flow of people in and out. So that is a challenge. As far as the elections, that’s a specific period of time. There are other election people that are part-time or volunteer that can help. But what we also looked at is, as far as their processing during election time, is floating some people in, say, from our side of the

2:04:44 hall in to help them during those peak periods for the elections. So we’re all overwhelmed on a normal basis. When they have their peak moments, the idea being that we would be able to float in- Not ideal … get them through. Yeah. Again, that’s based on all else fails, everything else is cut also, that’s the patch. Worst case scenario. Yeah. Okay. Worst case scenario, you really need that institutional knowledge for a lot of stuff that happens. And that’s across the board, but for our office, you can’t just have someone come in and go into a state computer and start entering stuff. You can’t. Right. There are functions that certain people have to do,

2:05:33 and then others float in, can be assigned other duties to take the burden off of those who are required to do the specific function. That’s just part of floating and managing. Yep.

2:05:48 All right. Any other questions for Robin or anybody else?

2:05:55 All right. Thank you, Robin. I’m going to give Jason his phone back. Sorry. At least you didn’t have any emergency then. Hopefully you haven’t texting either. No. I just clicked the red button.

2:06:10 All right. So who’s the chair in this one? Got the number? I don’t have- I’ll make it really big for you to see. Do we usually do these separate probably, right? Yeah. They’re two separate- All right. So can you see that? Yeah. That’s town clerk. Yeah. I’d like to make a motion that- … we accept the budget of $201,877 for the town- Town clerk … town clerk. See, things- Second. All live. And then-

2:06:47 I’d like to make a motion that we accept a number of $132,200 for the budget for the elections office. Second. Second. All in favor.

2:07:03 All good. Thank you. Who we got? Schools. Up next. Do you have who you need here? Or we can wait till 2:00 if not. Yeah, I’m here. We’re ready. You got it? Okay. We’re ready to go. All right. I actually don’t… I have the school budget, I think the bottom line might be in this document, but I’ll turn the floor over to you all. 4762. Yeah, that’s what they give. Yeah. Okay. So, well, good afternoon. Thanks for having us here today. I just want to say up front that I appreciate the ongoing dialogue and the ongoing work that has been had to get us to where we are today. Schools, as I’ve stated several times, are committed to collaborating with the town

2:07:49 to get us to where we need to do as a budget town wide. So I just want to say I appreciate that up front. Our committee voted our budget yesterday, so about 24 hours ago. And that bottom line number is what’s being presented today. We’ll go over, like put together a quick slideshow for the committee, basically outlining where we started, where the initial cuts were, and where we ended, and where the committee voted that number yesterday, which you are all aware of what the number is, and we’ll share that. We do not have a line item budget that’s been created to reflect the reductions that were made as minutes. That was yesterday. We have a school committee meeting scheduled for April 9th. And at that meeting, we’re charged with bringing back the updated

2:08:35 line item budget to that meeting, which will include how we’re going to get to the further reduction of the 1.5 that we were asked to reduce in addition to 1.7. Yeah. And just in terms of timing, I think- We have the April 6th warrant hearing- Yeah … where we’re going to vote a number today, and then the town wide. And- Okay … I will probably outline some cuts at that warrant hearing, like the summary of today. Mm-hmm. Not in eight hours, but in like- Yeah … 15 minutes. So I think I can work with you to maybe not communicate that yet and just say that that’s pending, and then we usually have a follow-up warrant hearing where we could discuss that even before town meeting. Yeah, I think that follow-up warrant hearing would be helpful.

2:09:20 Like the end of April before. Yeah. That would be helpful for us so we’re not- Okay. So I can probably communicate at least the cuts you made from kind of level down to even. Correct. And just the as of April 6th, you’ll have a meeting later in the week to vote on the difference. Yes. Yes. Okay. Exactly. So I have handouts if you’d like. We also have it on the screen. Mike’s trying to pull it up. One second. Alec, you might have to unshare to let Mike share. Okay, I’ll unshare. Sharing. In sharing,

2:10:02 sent.

2:10:07 And this is just what we just passed out, what Mike’s getting on screen, just a brief overview of basically what we had discussed previously up until yesterday’s school committee meeting, and the numbers that go along with it. As I just stated, we’ll talk about some of the cuts that we got, how we got to level funded. And the further cuts to get to the reduction of the additional 1.5 million will be outlined specifically at our school committee meeting. So, yeah. Okay. So in the first page of your packet, level service budget, which is where we were in November 2025, total of $51,686,625. That was an increase of 2.5, roughly $2.6 million

2:10:52 over the previous year’s budget, which was a 5.22% increase. That consisted of contractual salary obligations, which includes the steps and the COLAs increases for all our staff. And it included a special education on the district tuition of approximately 6% increase. We had a 2% increase on supplies, contracted services, professional development, and training. That’s best practice to figure out utilities, supplies for the classroom, supplies for all of our different departments that are encompassed within the school district. Professional development and training is a big piece of what we need to do to have people licensed to teach our students. So that was the 2% add-on on there. That’s what the level service budget was in November that we’ve been

2:11:39 able to do. We

2:11:45 understood that a level services budget was part, when we were working on that. Some of the next pages, the offsets where they’re applied to the level funded reductions. And Mike, maybe you can jump into this one. This was before we got to level funded. Yeah. This is just to show that we looked at our revolving accounts, we looked at our circuit breaker, we looked at everything that we could

2:12:10 tap into- To address it … to address already. But this was done at a level of service. This is something that we do every year. Correct. Regardless of what the financial situation is. So we increased our special education circuit breaker allotment or allowance. We’re allowed to keep one year of circuit breaker in reserve. This year we received $2 million in circuit breaker, so we can only keep $2 million in there at any given time. So we reduced it so we would not have any more than what we’re allowed to have. Okay. In our budget, we put a retirement savings number in there. That’s when people retire, we understand that there is a savings to that, to them retiring, from a salary standpoint. We just don’t have very many retirements happening this year. So we had to reduce that to some extent.

2:12:56 Yep. And then we increased our offset to the kindergarten, pre-kindergarten, revolving account. We almost doubled the offset that was in the budget from the previous year. I’m telling you, this is not long-term sustainable. Right. Where circuit breaker is probably long-term sustainable, this one is not. This is one of those that we might be able to do this for two more budget cycles, and then we will be in a point where we won’t have any reserves. Right. We won’t be able to allocate beyond what we can project to come in. Got you. And then the other part is that we did level fund federal and state grants. I know that’s a risk right now, especially at the federal level.

2:13:37 On the ESSER grants or the Title I, II, III, IV grants, those I haven’t heard too much about. Mm. Some people are projecting it’s a 10 to 20% reduction, but we don’t get a ton of money in that area. The one that concerns me more is the special education IDEA grants. We get $700,000, $800,000 in IDEA grants. A 10% reduction could be $80,000. That goes against some of the transportation costs, too, right? Because of the transportation, we use it to offset lines in our budget. Transportation, supplies- Equipment … we try not to put salaries in there for me, because when you put salaries in there, the retirement department wants their 9%. Right. So to me, it’s like a 9% tax. We just lose that money right to retirement.

2:14:23 So that’s money we can’t spend on other things. We try not to put salaries in there. Cost. Yeah. I think the retirement department has enough money.

2:14:32 To thrive on this.

2:14:35 So that was some of the offsets we had created for the level services. And then the conversation was around the level funded budget. So, basically we were tasked with level funding our budget. So our current budget is 49,120,285, and that’s what we had been asked to do for the fiscal year ‘27. So in order to do that, we identified 14.75 FTEs that needed to be eitherUnfilled or vacant positions that we’re not going to be filling for. Yeah. So just to confirm, those FTEs were in your budget last year. Correct. So you just got here, but I’ve been tallying along actual FTE cuts throughout every single budget town

2:15:21 wide. Mm-hmm. Up until the schools, we have an estimated 21 because there was one follow-up with the library coming on, but I put eight in there for now. So we had 21 on the town side, and now we’re at 35.75 FTEs before the schools figure out what they’re going to do at their next meeting with 1.5, which could be more. Yes. I will just reiterate again, these are not scare tactics. These are funded positions town wide coming out of the balanced budget, and we’re at almost 36 positions at this point in the balanced budget situation with potentially more to come on the school side. Right. I just want to make sure the audience and the public listening in are hearing that the situation we’re in is real and these cuts have already been found, and

2:16:07 there could be more to come. Absolutely, more to come. And those will be outlined further at the April 9th meeting. And what I will say that the cuts that we make at the school side directly impact students. We’re in the business of students, directly impact students, so it’s important for me as the educational leader of the district to continue to iterate that. And I will continue to do so because that’s just what I do and who I am. So 14.75 FTEs, then we reallocated general fund budget items to special education grants and revolving accounts. We had new copier lease savings. We level funded a majority of our supplies. So that previous 2% and the increase for the level services, we took that out of the equation for all the contractor service professional development lines, and then we reduced

2:16:55 the natural gas and electricity budget. We were able to lock in lower rates. Mike, do you want to speak to anything there, maybe more specific? Sure. We locked in the natural gas rate back a couple of months ago, and we got it in for three years. So we locked in. We buy natural gas in two ways. One, we pay for the supply, and one, we pay for the delivery. We are able to lock in the supply rate. The delivery is something that we can negotiate- Yeah … or lock in. But we were able to lock in. We were able to lock in lower than we would’ve been locked in three years ago. And it’s timing. We’ve were fortunate to be able to lock in- Yes … a lower rate at the right time. Fortunately, before- It’s a 50/50 call. We had- It’s nice. That is natural gas. I think when petrol goes up- Yeah … I think natural gas follows. Yeah. Yes, the delivery piece.

2:17:41 Take the wind. Take the wind. Yeah. And just to reiterate, we did this back in February. On February 5th, we did that. And then the reduced funding budget, which is what we’ve all been working on together to get to this number. So that previous number, minus 1.5 million, totals out at 47,620,285. You may have 287 on your side. I know we’re like $2 different for some reason, but we left it at the 285. So that was voted upon. That number was voted by the school committee yesterday as the budget number that we’re moving forward with. And again, just want to reiterate, between now and April 9th, myself and our admin team will figure out what the further reductions are. Typically, we would have that at this meeting, but you know, time didn’t allow, so. And just for a little numerical summary,

2:18:29 so if I start with your level service at 50, which would’ve been what you submitted to the town if you were any other town department, that’s what would’ve gone to state of the town. Right? Correct. I think it was around there in that presentation anyways. Mm-hmm. And then where you are today, still working towards the specifics of the last 1.5. Mm-hmm. That’s a $2,566,000 cut to the level service, which is, you need 5% more, 5.2, I think. And we’re actually 5.22 down. It happens to be the exact same number by the math I just did. So, obviously devastating cuts to the school budget- Yes … both the first phase and whatever’s to come.

2:19:14 So, very understood that this was a very hard cycle, and you’re still here. So. And one thing, I know you guys were very good sports when we pushed you. We met multiple times this budget season, starting very early on, and pushed hard on getting FTE data. And, from what we saw, first of all, thank you for providing all the data that we asked for. But also, from my view, the cuts that you’ve made to get to the level funded number, so prior to the 1.5, really showed a right sizing of the cost structure of the schools to the enrollment- Yeah … that we’ve seen with recent trends. So I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but that’s something that, because of

2:20:02 the numbers that I was able to see, that I- Yeah … got comfortable with. Yeah. And I appreciate you bringing that up, Molly. Basically, the enrollment, there’s been a discussion about the enrollment declining, but the FTEs haven’t, and they actually have been declining both in the same trajectory, and in even more so right sizing, so to speak, moving forward with the already reduced and the upcoming reduction, it’ll be a much closer line. And obviously you never want to get to the point where your FTE reduction is greater than your enrollment reductions, then we’re really going to have a problem. So I just will say this, that any further reductions in our school personnel will affect school students, both between classroom sizes, services that we’re able to provide, resources that are available,

2:20:48 and safety and security starts getting affected. And that’s not hyperbole, that’s fact. So I just- And I’ll reiterate a little bit that we’ve looked at the DESE data that’s available. We know that it’s always kind of a year behind, right? If I’m right. Mm-hmm. But I’ve heard it said at select board meetings, I’ve said it at our meetings, we’ve talked about it together at liaison meetings. None of that data suggests even the mostThe most recent budget numbers or actual numbers that were reported in that data a year or two ago, whatever date that is as of, none of that data suggests that the schools are over-funded compared to their comparable communities, or necessarily under-funded. Sort of in the median or average, right? Yeah. And same goes with

2:21:33 staffing to student ratios and whatnot. And, I know that the declining enrollment has been a topic that when I first met you two a few years ago, I said, “People are asking about this.” And then I think we’ve had some additional declining enrollment since then. So I think the data that we’ve seen publicly doesn’t suggest that we’re overstaffed compared to comparable communities, and you’ve taken a situation as the experts here, as we talked about when we first met, in this first level to actually right-size a little bit. And what we’re hearing now, or what I’m hearing, is that anything further than this is going to start to get real hard. Yeah. If it’s FDEs. For sure. And I appreciate you saying that. And the caveat to that as well is, when we look at Marblehead, people come to move to Marblehead, and it’s a beautiful community.

2:22:19 It’s got a great school system. We compare ourselves to all the W’s and stuff. We compare ourselves to the different school districts. And to be able to do that is because we have the staff, the resources, the funding to be able to stay in that upper echelon of services and academics to our students. So there is a delta there where you start chipping away at those resources, and you’ll see a decline in, not enrollment decline, but if we start cutting the staff and the resources, the numbers and how we compare to those other districts will also start going down, in the same manner. So there’s a follow-up from these things that are not just detrimental now, but in future. For future years, you’re going to start seeing a

2:23:05 decline in some of the scores and how we compare to those other districts. So, I’d just share that as well. I’d hold up my kids’ experience through the school district so far as an example. Yeah. Yeah. I’ve said this, maybe not this year, but, and I’m not a huge thank you, thank you guys. You probably guys know. But my experience- … with public schools is just phenomenal. My daughter comes home every day so happy to be at school. She happens to really love school. I know some kids don’t, but, yeah, I couldn’t be more happy with the services that we’re receiving as a family. Yeah. My boys are thriving. That’s great. And that’s all the way through. And I just want to make sure we keep that intact. So I appreciate all the discussion and going back and forth. And obviously if we need us to come back with more specifics at a later date,

2:23:50 other than the warrant hearing, we’re certainly happy to do that. Yeah. And I guess I have one other comment on just the logistics of the next few weeks, but I guess I’ll open the floor if there’s any other questions at this time for the school group. Speaking as a proud graduate of Marblehead High School, we wish you well. Thank you for your cooperative efforts to achieve these very painful goals. And I wish you the best and keep our schools great. Thank you. I think the only other comment I would make too is, we did do, we spoke earlier on some of the shared benefits. We did a lot of great work analyzing that data. And so, in my opinion, and in agreement with, I

2:24:36 think, your long-term goal or ultimate goal, hopefully maybe next fiscal ‘28, of actually shifting those expenses from the town side budget to the school budget because that does actually reflect the operating reality. So, I think there was a lot of good work. So thank you to Mike and Alicia for making that happen. Yeah. And like I said- Yeah … I don’t have an objection to that shifting either. To me, from my perspective, it’s a presentational thing on our side, but I know there’s some ramifications with bottom-line budget and whatnot. But if the two sides can work that out moving forward, then okay. Yeah. And as I said yesterday, I think as long as we have those conversations early on, get through this budget season, everybody feeling the pain, doing what we need

2:25:21 to do, and hopefully get an override. And as we move into next year, having those conversations early on so we can be planned for. Like right now, we decided not to even pursue that because there’s not really enough time to do that in a planful, meaningful way. So, I think it’s good. But I think the more conversations we have with the right people in the room, in an ongoing way will just help this town move forward together.

2:25:46 Any other questions? All right. So logistically, again, we don’t have to decide this today. We’re here to vote a balanced budget today. So we have a number in front of us that the school committee has also voted. So it’s actually a pretty easy vote, right? But logistically, it sounds like, the details of the 1.5 from even the last year down to the number we’re about to vote have not been deliberated publicly yet, right? Correct. And even fully determined, right? Haven’t been fully determined. And it sounds like that meeting’s happening on April 9th. Correct. So, like I said, April 6th is our warrant hearing where we generally make a recommendation vote on any and all articles with financial implications. Mm-hmm. So,

2:26:31 the bottom line balanced budget we can recommend on because we know that number. I think it’ll get really difficult for the schools if it gets there to participate in an override and us make a vote on that night if you haven’t even identified what’s coming out of the budget and then determined what you’re asking for back. So I know that there’s this working group that I think was created last week through a vote of the select board to involve school representatives, I think. Health and Waste might have a representative select board, FinCom maybe. I think we need to figure outAt the warrant hearing, is it even feasible for an override request, assuming there is one, to even be voted upon that night, or is that a warrant article that we know there is one right now, but maybe that’s one we have to table that night

2:27:17 for warrant night number two, which usually happens the Monday night before town meeting, so the last Monday in April. So I’m just thinking about the timing here, and I think it would be really hard for the schools, if you were to participate in an override request on your own or with the town, you wouldn’t necessarily even know that number before you have your own discussion about your balanced budget. Yeah. So it’s a little cart before the horse, but I believe, I don’t want to speak for the school committee, but I believe we’re working towards a combined override. Okay. We can talk about that over next week, but just it might be one of those things where that warrant article, if there is one, it’s not passed by the town, which it doesn’t feel like that’s the direction, that we might have to not vote on that on April 6th. We would have to have an additional two or three weeks to do that.

2:28:07 Earlier is better. Yeah. All right. Any other last questions? Molly?

2:28:16 I don’t even remember what I say. I recommend for that the… Make a recommendation. I make a recommendation that the finance committee approve a fiscal year 27 general fund budget of $47,620,287. Second. Excellent. There’ll be a question. He’s second. Buy yourself a coke. Okay. You can buy yourself a coke. Second. I’ll move. Thanks so much for coming in on Saturday. Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah. You got $2 more than- You know. Thank you. You got- Now the budget’s out of whack. The chart. All right, Jeff. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Take care.

2:29:01 You can close out of the meeting. No problem. Sign out of the meeting. All right. What do we have on next? Retirement. I’ll take you out. I’m leaving right now. All right. So last agenda item is, I think, the last, or am I- Yes, it is … Retirement.

2:29:24 Is that you, Linda? Yeah. Well, me or Alicia.

2:29:30 All right. And Mike, do you want to… Let’s just let folks shatter at the video first. Yeah. Nobody has those?

2:29:40 It looked like you wanted to speak. Well, maybe that was the one. It’s a mark on that. You were affected.

2:29:48 Where is it? Contributory under other general government. Other general. Up top or at the bottom? That’s very slow. Yeah.

2:30:00 No, it’s not under there. It is. It’s contributory retirement. Oh. Let’s see. Oh, so we already voted on the bottom line. We did vote. Okay. I thought it had its own line for some reason. Okay. All right. This is based on a- You’re done … an actuary report that is getting refreshed this year. Correct. So the report that was done two years ago had our assigned contribution to it. As I mentioned, moving forward, it’s going to be breaking out the schools since we went through that exercise. It’s an 8.6% increase, $462,735. It’s actually as part of the other general government budget that we already voted, so I don’t know that we have to do another vote today. Is there anything else we want to talk about this?

2:30:47 Yeah. I’ll just say in the liaison meeting- Yeah … that we talked about funding status. We’re about in the middle of the pack as far as Massachusetts schools are, 70.5%. So there’s been funding. You mentioned it previously. Yeah. Funding, funding. Yeah. They keep moving the goal posts, but right now it’s 2036, reach fully funded status. I asked the question just because of what I had done outside with my own job, what our options are once the pension is fully funded, once we reach 100% funding status. I don’t know if it’s possible here on the public side, but I know on the private side, there’s a lot of options to get out from under that once you reach

2:31:33 that funding status. I can’t wait for it to reach, but Alicia and I talked about potentially doing some research on that, finding out what the town’s options are once we reach fully funded status. Right. And it’s safe to say that potentially that line item could drop, not to zero after that date, but- Yeah, just our regular costs. It is a big drop, but I think Michael made some great points on how to mitigate the risk from all those big dips and dives as they are right now. Yeah. And then it’s fair to say that us funding OPEB at 250 or 0 in 2036, we might have to start funding that higher. Correct. And we’ll come up with a funding schedule for that funding plan. And I will guesstimate that the Commonwealth will probably- Have … much like the retirement, make it mandatory-

2:32:20 Yeah … funding for OPEB. They’re waiting for the municipalities to get out from under- Yeah, and that was actually the number I referenced earlier that- Oh … was the OPEB. And I want to say that was 80. Yeah. $80 million or something. It’s crazy. Yeah. Alan, just a silly question, but why is street lighting first? Is that code for something? No. That is real. The electric bills to turn on the streetlights. Maintenance. Oh, maintenance. Yeah, we already voted on other general. The retirement? No, no, no. This is- This is other general government. This is other general government. Their line item is under retirement. Right. I thought we… I just… It’s- No, no, no. Getting them all. Yeah. I should have remembered that the retirement line item of other general government- Yeah … we have a separate liaison meeting for and vote, but it’s fine. We vote at the way town meeting votes, so.

2:33:06 Okay. Other general government. So any last questions here before we wrap up? What is this, 51 minutes early? Outstanding.

2:33:18 Thought it might be longer. So all right. Meeting adjourned