Select Board: April 15, 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.

0:04 Of April 15th to order. Let everyone know that this meeting is being recorded. We’ll start with public comment. If anyone wants to speak, you can just come to the center of the room. Just so you know the drill, name and address. Mark Tinzando, Dartmouth Road. President of the Marblehead Firefighters Union, Local 2043. The Marblehead Firefighters Union is deeply concerned that an agreement reached in good faith between both sides now appears to be unraveling at the 11th hour. This was a handshake agreement built on mutual trust and a shared commitment to do what’s right for our firefighters and the community. Our members negotiated fairly and made compromises with the expectation that the town would stand by its word. Instead, we are now facing uncertainty

0:50 around an agreement we believe was settled. The town has said that public safety is a critical part of Marblehead’s infrastructure. We agree, and now it’s time to stand behind that commitment. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Anybody else? Anyone online that’s not here? I don’t see anything in the entries. Okay. So we will close public comment and move on to fiscal 27 budget and override discussions, which was a continuation of last week. This, I think we have some more details on our tiers. So we have a presentation. Great. Why don’t you launch that and share it? We are going to… Are we going to do it this way? That’s fine. Or did we decide? I can do it. I can do it. It’s fine.

1:36 I’ll leave it on let me share.

1:45 Do you guys have a handout for folks to follow along? Not yet.

1:50 We can get you one after. Kyle’s on vacation. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Kyle’s on vacation, and I guess you can’t print from that computer. We can email. We can email. Yes. Yeah, I’ll email. And I’ve got one. Yeah. Okay. Three-tier override. We’re showing tier one at $9 million, tier two at $12 million, tier three at fifteen. The $9 million is in partial restore, not a full restore. The tier two is a build on top of our partial restore, and tier three is an invest, which includes our partial restore plus our builds.

2:27 So what’s in our partial restore? It restores 15 positions cut in the prior budget. It restores, the library to apply for waiver for accreditation. It fully restores the police school resource officer position. It restores the BDW cuts, Brecken Park groundskeeper to pick up the trash barrels, COAs, two positions, public buildings, two custodians, and it restores the community development director and laborer cemetery. And it restored our long-term financial and health contributions such as workers’ comp reserve, $26,000, $250,000 that we do to stabilization, our portion of the OPEB, funding, and we’re restoring back our workers’ compensation transfer back

3:15 reduce. So when you say our portion, I assume the school has on their side their portion? Yes. So it would do the whole… It would restore all the OPEB? Yes. Okay. So with, you remember you, it was presented last year, but we’ve had a nice elevation breakdown. Okay. The tier two, $12 million adds additional staff on top of those partial restores. It adds a maintenance division, an expansion of Council on Aging. So we added seven new positions, two firefighters to help with overtime, a police officer, an IT director, and one budget analyst, one part-time social worker, one GIS position from the Department of Public Works, 450,000 maintenance budget for buildings and rail trail, adding 50,000 for the rail trail, 400,000 for maintenance town

4:01 wide. It restores one special clerk in the town clerk’s department, one assistant planner, which was formerly the sustainability coordinator, one conservation agent, which was formerly the grants coordinator. Now, tier three, the $15 million invest. Includes everything in tier one and tier two and adds six additional new employees. Add two firefighters for a total of four. Another police officer. So that’s three, which would be a force of 33 officers. One foreman that would be used for stormwater. One specialized HEO, one grant writer to help bring in revenue for grants. 60,000 for mental health counseling every year.

4:47 Health department requests that 60,000 be needed for mental health, and also that’s mostly keep from what’s going on with mental health in the community. And $1 million for recurring capital investments, so the three articles that you would see the warrant every single year for equipment, leases, and other building improvements. These are recurring, so they happen. So one of the points on the tier three and the positions that are on there,

5:13 I wouldn’t even call them new. They’re just positions that have been cut from departments over a number of years. Mm-hmm. Right? So it’s a long range restore more than it is just creating new positions. Marblehead, along with many municipalities over the however many years, has been trimming and trimming and trimming. And so this tier is to try to restore back to however many years ago, the level of services that we once had and have since been trimmed away- Sure … over the years. Through the chair, please. Yeah, of course. The part-time social worker, is that police, Council on Aging, or?

5:58 That’s Council on Aging. Okay. Okay. And then I’m drawing a blank on-GIS position. That would be for the DPW. Okay. For the geographic information system. Yeah. Give us better maps and- Oh, yeah. I’m familiar with that. Okay. It would be shared with the other departments who all don’t have GIS. Okay. But that’s a new position, right? That would be- Okay. And I’m very familiar with the importance of GIS. Yeah. For the public emphasis, right? More and more, everything we do out in the streets, public ways, everything, we need to map, and precisely map, where all our infrastructure is. But the GIS also gives us the ability, it’s a database, it’s not just mapping. Every asset that’s out there, you

6:44 can attach to it all kinds of information about it, the condition, the age, all those factors. So we’re relying more and more of everything we do out in the public ways based on our GIS system. So it really is a critical function that municipalities need, maintaining that whole database system. Okay. And then just one last comment. The tier one is a partial restore. We all know that. Right. So 15 come back. What you may want to just highlight one way or the other in the other tiers is, in tier two, you get three of those back to the current situation. Mm-hmm. And then I think maybe one or two more back in tier three relative to just today. I think that’s an important piece of

7:32 information for people. Sure. What do I have today? I know what Thatcher said, what we had five years ago, and that’s also important. But when people are looking, what am I going to lose potentially on July 2nd that I had on June 30th? Maybe tracking what’s not with the current budget. Yeah. And that might be in the somebody put up, if I feel like. Yeah. I think- This is a good slide. Alicia, can you answer that one question about the library? I know there’s concerns about that. Can you talk about the library influence? Yeah. So tier one, just allows them to apply for the waiver for renovation. Yep. Tier two gives them a full restore- Okay … from their staffing, plus their materials. In addition, tier two also adds, they asked for one part-time assistant librarian they have, and she was going to increase her expenses.

8:19 Her first request had been a part-time assistant and a part-time custodian. She has since changed that to a part-time assistant librarian, and she’d like to use the remaining money for expenses. Yeah. And do you recall, speaking of the library, off the top of your head, tier one, how many FTEs that gets at the library? Four. Four, and it did nine. So like a total of 13.5. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, that’d probably be good to have in here. Yeah. We can continue- It might be in the other. Yeah. They’re different. Oh, thank you. They’re different. Are we jumping ahead? Sorry. Sorry. Okay. No, this is a good summary. Very good. Are people ready to move forward then? Yeah. I think we need to add tier two about the library. Yeah, the library’s missing in that one. Yep. That’ll be a full restore. Yep. Okay. So we just need to add that into our summary. Give some plus. Yep. So just make sure. Well said, definitely.

9:05 Good. Okay. And the next one, how the tiered override works. One question on the ballot with three tiers. You can vote yes on any of the tiers or whatever makes you the most comfortable. The tier with the highest dollar amount in majority vote is what is elected for the override. So at the bottom it says how the vote works. Vote yes on tier one only, nine million inactive. Vote yes on tier two, that covers tiers one and two, 12 million inactive. If you voted yes on tier three, that’s one and two, plus the additions in tier three.

9:40 So you want to vote on the tier that you’re going to choose and any tier below it also. Yeah. Yep. I guess we see. Yeah. Well, it’s like, they call it a pyramid. Mm-hmm. We’re seeing it. Yeah. And just one thing to verbalize, because I know there’s a lot of question on tiers, because that’s certainly a new concept here, is the vote at town meeting is whether just to bring the tiers to the ballot, not voting on tiers. And I just know that’s a- Right … bit of confusion around town because we’ve never done anything like this, so. So the clarification we get, town meeting vote votes what is the appropriation amount and what is the purpose of the appropriation. That’s all they vote.

10:28 Oh, that’s right. For the first year. For the first year. Okay. So, and we’ll probably go into a little bit later into that. At town meeting, the total, so what will be asked for at town meeting is the highest dollar value, tier three, for year one, for the purposes of general government and schools. And that’s what actually will be voted at town meeting. Okay. That’s the appropriate. Actually, that is a good point. That will require its own slide into itself. Yep. Oh, absolutely. And what is that amount right now? 4.3? Yeah. 4.3. Yeah. So it’s not going to be 15, because that covers for three years.

11:14 Because what town meeting is doing is appropriating those funds for fiscal ‘27 only. Contingent appropriation. Contingent upon the override passing. Yes. Right. It doesn’t appropriate ‘28, ‘29. So what would happen if any of these scenarios pass, that town meeting, once again, next year, has the choice to fully appropriate or not the additional amounts approved in an- Through our continuous budget appropriation. Yeah. Through the budget process. So, but to be clear, we will present this whole thing. Yes. And what we present at town meeting is what we’re going about. We’re going to be very transparent. Yep. But with the actual vote- That is a very good discussion because in fact, a constituent

12:02 called me today aboutThe appropriation piece and that constituent was going right down the slide of it’s- So I think what we will have in there is three different contingent appropriations, right? Because you have to, what adds on, that’ll be there. Yeah. The bulk will be on the 4.3, but there will be contingent appropriations on each tier. It’s a little confused. So we’re waiting on legal counsel to give us the specific language as to how best to go forward. Yeah. But I think the key point you’re making too, for transparency is to give the entire picture of what we’re asking for. Yes. Yeah. Even though town meeting only needs to approve- The highest … the highest of the one year.

12:50 One year is the- Yeah … key. You guys on the appropriation, yeah. And just hear me out on this, town meeting would have future control in year two and three.

13:02 So the scenario could be that the override, whatever tier passes- Yeah … that’s an authorization- Correct … to raise, but it ultimately is town meeting’s decision as to whether to actually raise it or not when they vote the budget- On an annual basis … on an annual basis.

13:24 We good? Yeah. Any other questions while we’re here?

13:31 No. Okay. I’m good. I think it was going to hold. Yeah, no, if you’re staying on the board. I will let people ask questions after. I know. Yeah. Here is the law town services by department. So library would lose their accreditation. There’d be no school resource officer. Overtime would continue to spike. Recreation and parks would be no groundskeeper to pick up 186 public trash barrels. Public works. The town clerk would lose a special clerk, so she’d be down to herself and one other staff. Public works would lose a part-time clerk, a heavy equipment operator, and a laborer,

14:19 and they would lose their 60,000 in asphalt for paving and patching roads. Council on Aging would lose their nutrition coordinator/laborer and a temporary help position. Community Development and Planning would lose the director, sustainability coordinator, and grants coordinator. Finance would lose a senior clerk in our treasurer’s office, which is very well needed. And we would lose replacement equipment that we need for our IT needs identified by the collaborative, and training for new staff that has been hired. Our public buildings would lose two custodians, one at Mary Alley and one at Abbott Hall. Building inspections, we cut their other professional technical, which funds

15:04 their LinguaScription copy and maintenance. There’d be zero capital. We have no capital funding this year except for our releases that are contractable. And our financial health and well-being, we did not fund stabilization, we did not fund OPEB. We had to cut the FinCon reserve, and we had to cut our workers’ comp to fund budgeting. So

15:31 Yeah. I started comments through this whole process of looking at each individual cut like, “That’s crazy.” It doesn’t make sense when you look at each individual case on its own. The reality is, looking at it from the big picture that we must, we are forced to have a balanced budget. Our revenues were determined, and we’ve had to make choices. So each item individually doesn’t make sense, but collectively, we are obligated under the law to have a balanced budget, and it just requires all these choices to be made.

16:15 Awesome. So this slide is a comparison between what we saw before, we can know where we were on, versus what Tier 1: Property Restore, the Tier 2: Rebuild, and the Tier 3: Invest. So you can see the accreditation, or if they can apply for the waiver, would come back. Let me just say, this chart, it’s an eye chart. Tammy, I think this document- It’s beautiful … is something that needs to be printed out and made available- Yeah … because it is the detail level of what will be taken out and what will be put in in each tier. So as a PowerPoint slide, it’s a challenge. Right. But I think as a printed document and made available,

17:02 is probably the most informative document. Yeah. There’s a lot there with the school city because they didn’t have as many different places. There was a lot easier. I think we- Yeah. Multiple pages. It’s readable on a 24-inch screen. And I think to Jim’s earlier point, if we take the bottom row there, and also put that on the first slide- Yeah … to summarize- Yeah … that would almost- Yeah … take care of what you were discussing, correct? Yeah. Yeah. Can you publish this today on both sides? Yeah. Sure. So number 21 does not include teachers, right? Correct. That’s correct. Outside only. Invest. Well, it’s for the town side. We can only present… So we’ll combine the two.

17:48 In the police department, you can see we restore the school resource officer back to Tier 1, add a new officer, plus the school resource officer in Tier 2, add two more officers, so he has 33 officers now. He’s been below historic staffing levels, so this would restore him back to historic staffing levels. This is basically the summary of those last two pages all in one. Yeah. I don’t think you need to- Yeah. I don’t personally, unless anyone else feels the need. Say that again I was saying I don’t think we need to go through this. We’ve already- No, we don’t need to go through it. I think it’s a great document to have. It is excellent for the package for people that want to dig in. Mm-hmm. And I think a lot of people want to dig in. Yeah. Inside. So what does it cost? So for the median,

18:34 998,600 homeowner, if we’re going to draw it out over three different years instead of drawing it out in one year. So $130 on your tax bill the first year, 533 the second, 256 the third year, for a total of $919 increase to your tax bill. Tier two for the 12 million is 280 the first year, 676 the second year, 274 the third year, for 1,230. And tier three is 430 the first year, 720 the second year, 318 the third year, for 1,530. You may ask yourself, “Why is it so low on year one?” Well, the schools are not. The schools opted not to ask for anything for the fiscal year ‘27 budget. So,

19:20 talking really about the scenario at town meeting,

19:24 and what would be appropriate. If

19:29 it’s appropriate at town meeting, and the tier three passes, the tax on the… This is the median house up there where it says bold and underlined. Because everybody wants to look at the median and the- Which is interesting. It’s $1,400 away from the million that you were looking at last week. For a million, yeah. I tried to do just the million- Yeah … for sake. But the point being that,

19:55 the tax increase, if the highest tier were to pass, it’s looking at a $430 increase on that average median home. Mm. Yeah. Because of the next slide now, instead of showing it with median, is on the average. So instead of 130, you’re at $38,168 the first year. Then 689, then 331, for 1,088. Instead of 280, you’re at 362 for the 12 million. Then 676 and 274 for a total of 1,000. I’m sorry. I’m going to the wrong slide. 362, 875, 553 for a total of 1,590. And then for the 15 million, 556 versus

20:40 430 on the median. Then 931 and 502 for a total of 1,933 for tier three. So we’ll have a factor in which any homeowner can look at the value of their home, multiply it by the factor, and know exactly what the numbers will be.

21:00 Another thing is, like, a simple calculator just on the website or something. Mm-hmm. It just- Yeah … does the same thing, but- I think we can probably put a link to the DOR one so that we’re making sure- Yeah. We- … as well. Okay. Maybe just have a link on the website. Yeah. So they can play with it a little better. Yeah. Just because of the fears. Okay. We can look. Whatever’s easiest. I trust our local media will probably publish the chart that you have, Alicia, that… I don’t know if it’s still in here, but of the 750, 850, and 950 to get rid of. Does it go on the next slide? There it is. Here it is. Yeah. So here’s the override tax. Now, that’s if we fully drew the total in the first year. Your tax bill for the nine million would’ve been 899. In tier two, it would’ve been

21:48 1,198. In tier three, it would’ve been 1,498 for the median home. For the average home, if we pulled the total amount, it would be 1,162 for 9 million. It would be 1,550 for 12 million, and it would be 1,937 for tier three. But as we went through in the previous slides, we’re not pulling it all at one time. We’re pulling it over the three years, which lessens that full impact in the first year. So this would be the example if we approach the override in, I call it, the traditional method. Having a number, you vote that one number up or down, and you fully implement whatever the override amount is. And at the different tier levels, that would be the impact. But again, to emphasize the earlier charts, we’re

22:34 drawing only a certain amount in year one, an additional amount in year two, and then finally the balance in year three so that the actual tax impact is much less than what’s presented in this slide. Yes. Okay. Yeah, I know it says it up top, but you might want to kick a box on there because this could confuse things. Yeah. To be able to- I would say instead of full year drawn, year one, cumulative effect after three years. Okay. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Because there’s no intention to- Yeah. We’re not going to agree, not to. Right. Yeah. Yeah. But what did that- What does that state for? Oh, but cumulative at the end of three years.

23:16 Just making notes. Right. That’s the total. Yeah. So this one, we’re going into the memorandum of understanding, for the select board. I don’t know if Dan or Moses would like to speak to this before I do, or we- And I think we spoke completely last week, but go for it. And what we… Yeah. So it outlines the basic concepts of the- Which is what we went through last week. Mm-hmm. Yeah, the main points, that we’re not going to do an override. We’re agreeing not to come back to the town for an override until, at the earliest, 2030. We have established our breakdown with the schools on any additional revenue, unrestricted revenue in the future, will go 62% to the schools, 38% to the town, based on the allocations that we did this year on the increase in benefits.

24:04 We do have a quarterly joint financial review where the town administrator and superintendent will update the chairs. And really, the goal here, or what’s going to happen here, is we’re going to reduce reliance on free cash, and any additional Overage on free cash will first go to stabilization funds until we build that 5% of the operating budget. Just one comment, that the ship has sailed on the MOU. It has covered a three-year period, but someone would ask, because people have asked me, that 62/38 could change over time. Mm-hmm. Particularly if you had significant changes, for instance, enrollment in schools. But that’s just something to think about. It’s an MOU, and it’s a guiding document. Guiding document. So- It makes reference at the- Yeah … at the third year that-

24:50 It does … there seems to be an evaluation of that ratio. Yeah. The only other thing I would add- Oh, that’s good. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That’s- Yeah. The ratio, even in the minimum, is not locked in forever. Sorry. It’s for the period of this MOU. Yes. If there’s a successor in a few years- Yeah … though, that ratio could be looked at and recalculated. That’s mostly it, yeah. Yeah. Look, I think what the MOU definitely does a great job doing is articulating this idea that what’s driving that 62/38% is the cost accountability measure. Okay. That basically means that if you look at the appropriately scaled costs in relation between

25:38 municipality and schools, that’s the ratio that we get, and that’s what drives the splits in revenue in the next year. Okay? So whatever that fully cost allocated budget looks like, that’s the ratio that is then applied to how the revenues get shared, right? That makes sense. And then again, we’re subtracting out the benefits, the appropriately projected benefits, to get to a point where we have a baseline number for how much cash is available, or I should say how much budget is available to the town. So alls I’m saying is we could do a better job in the MOU of kind of articulating, I think, a foundational idea in P&L accountability. So I think, at least in my mind, we’re going to

26:26 have a separate document- Yeah. That’s fine … after this with the schools, and I think that we’re going to take a little time to make sure that we get it where we need it to be. Yeah. The only thing I added, my suggested edit to the MOU, was just making sure the concept of the benefits is slightly different. Because this year we focus on the benefits in that split and that allocation, but what’s really driving it here is kind of what the real cost structure of the schools versus the municipality is at the end of any given fiscal year. And that’s all. Other than that description of how we got there, are you- Yeah … good with sticking with that for the three years? Yeah. I think so. Okay. But I think though, that to drive an appropriate three-year

27:11 projection, we have to do a budget projection that identifies the end of year split. I know we’re getting into the weeds right now, but I think, for example, if the school budget increases in fiscal year ‘28, the fully cost allocated increase from the schools goes from 62 to 64, let’s say. In the next year, they should get 64% of the allocated revenues, and vice versa if it decreases. It just makes sense, and it allows us to have a standard way to make a three-year projection properly.

27:58 And that’s all. It’s way in the weeds, and I think we do this anyway, but it’s something that we ought to, I think, as a select board, kind of acknowledge in terms of the fact that we have two business units in town, right? That’s the way I look at it, schools and the municipality, and we’ve got to figure out a way to split the revenue. I think once we get past town meeting- But it’s- … sit down with them and get this together, right? Because I think we’ve discussed that in the past, and then this prompted- We have. Yeah. But I think what’s really driving this- Mm-hmm … is the fact that we have a three-year projection, and so we’ve got to figure out a way,

28:34 how to split those revenues in our years. Correct. And the methodology, I think, should be based on the fully allocated cost budget of the school system. And I do want to acknowledge publicly, thank you for all the hard work. You guys have gone into the weeds in digging along with the finance committee- Well … this year. It has been really, really tough, and having your support in going through that has been really phenomenal, so thank you all. Well, it’s the team effort. Yeah, totally. Yeah. Totally. Totally. Okay. That’s the last item. That’s the last- That’s the last item? Yeah. You had some stuff you want to talk about? Yeah. Look, I want to

29:14 say to Alicia, and Beth, the details that goes into this is really extraordinary. So, there is so much to go through, so many different choices to make around, okay, what do we cut? Why? Setting the priorities, and that’s really the job of the select board and you guys, the designees, to evaluate that. And then, of course, making the decisions on what to restore or not to restore to fund the deficit is a really big deal. I want to say, in the three-year override, the only thing of that nine million, let’s just say tier one, of that nine million, this presentation only justifies three of them over a three-year period. There’s another six million

30:02 that we are not showing or justifying. Okay? Yeah. And that’s because the schools have nothing next year, but then they have another six million in the two out years. So it’s very, very important that if we’re going to go together-As we’ve collectively agreed, we need to have an integrated presentation that shows the justifications that we’ve gone through. Because, again, we don’t want to be in– And the schools have to step up and do this. If we don’t, we’re going to be in the same position we were in 2023 and 2024, where we have the town basically saying, “Well, we definitely need this $1 million,” and the school ending up asking

30:49 for $1.5 million because of this, that, and the town says, “Well, no,” because we don’t understand that side of the budget, right? And it makes it especially important that we be super disciplined around how the projections look, right? I’m just saying that we need to do this because those out years need to be validated by the schools. And I think that they have to be justified, just as you did here. Great detail, right? Wonderful work. But I think we also need to do that with the schools as well in year two. I think you’re kind of– We’ve just detailed that with the quarterly review that we’ll be involved in, along with the treasurer and superintendent. Yeah, I’m thinking more– Look, I’m just saying, sure, in terms of the

31:37 progress reports, all that’s great. All that’s really great. I’m just saying that the town meeting, right? At the end of the day, we know, and you’ve got how many we’ve got, basically, depending on whether you include the trash collection as an override, right? We’ve basically got a municipal draw over three years of $3 million for the town, with school draw of $6 million or $6.2, wherever it is right now. Right? So we have a big chunk of this that needs to be presented coherently, or at least a presentation done that has been discussed before town meeting, so that when we come to the town, we have some credibility

32:23 around that number. Together, right? I sent a message. She wants to be familiar. Okay. So I guess what I would say is that over the last three weeks, we’ve worked very quickly in that working group. Worked well with the schools, and I would recommend that we continue that working group to work on exactly what you’re saying, so that we come in- Yeah … together- Right … with it put together, similar to some of these other comments about number, so we can show the school and then the total. Right. Right? And the justification of where the money goes on first, as you said, based on the two- Right … two parts. I think that’s the piece of it. Yeah. Look, at the end of the day, too, I think we’ve got to project the actual budget, right? Not just put a bunch of numbers up that are driven by the expenses.

33:10 But I think we also owe the town a, “Hey, fiscal year ‘26, here was the budget. Fiscal year ‘27, balance, here was the budget. Fiscal year ‘28, here’s what the budget looks like.” School and town, and go through the projection. I’m pretty sure that we– Yeah. Is Alexa there? She still has a limited amount of time. Okay. Alexa, do you– Thank you. Of course, let’s go again. Alexa, can you hear us? Yes, I can hear you. There. Hey, Alexa. Do you want to, since you’re limited, why don’t you add what you would like to add? Yeah, I can hear. Yeah. No, I can hear Moses, so it’s fine. Go ahead. You had something, since you’re limited, because we’re sitting here. If you have something you want to add before we finish.

33:56 No, go ahead. I was listening. I don’t think he finished, so that’s fine. Thanks. That will be attached in our appendix, the MOU. Those three different budgets moving forward, the exact numbers. That is Appendix A, if I’m remembering right, and our MOU with that budget attached to it that you’re discussing. Okay. Yeah. So the additional details will be part of the memo, as in appendix. Okay. And- Yeah, because I think what’s super important for people to understand is that the override requests that we’re making in any given year, especially in a future year, especially about the school, because I go to them for $4.2 million next year, and another, whatever it is, $1.8 the following year,

34:41 right? That assumes that they are projecting their needs-based budget in a year from now, that is based on something, and that really is something to be explained. What do they think their number is going to be next year? What number is creating a deficit of $4.2 million? And I think that’s going to be something that we should understand. How we present it at town meeting is another question, but I think at the end of the day, we’re going to have to step up and show those numbers. Now, whether if it comes in, my understanding of the MOU, it’s really more oriented around the override layout itself, and the controls around that,

35:27 which I think is great. I think it’s necessarily good. So I’m just pointing to, I think,

35:38 around an expectation of what we can say at town meeting around a budget projection, okay? As opposed to just an override. So trash override is its own separate question. Would you like that in that whole integrated presentation or a separate presentation? Separate. Okay. Personally. Yeah. Yeah. I guess a lot. But we will have that, exactly what Moses talked about, as the appendix, the projected budgets- Right … per department in that MOU. Yeah. Look, for the sake of deliberation, obviously, I’m trying to speak from an informed position here, and I’ve taken all the hard work, sat down, and developed three-year projections based on a budget build methodology that we’ve done for over many, many years.I don’t want to dwell on it. It’s something that I just want to make part

36:27 of our deliberation. And when I say multi-year projection, I mean- Do you want this up on the screen? Well, it depends how much you want to go through. I mean, yeah. What do you think? It’s up to you. I think that maybe we discuss it, and I’d- Yeah … like to see it go into detail a bit on April 22nd. Right. Unless you feel like it’s not– I don’t want to stop you because it’s necessary to talk about today. Well, listen, I think what I can do is I can just talk to it. Okay. Broadly speaking, and just basically, I think one of the questions, and what I want to do is back up a little bit. Okay? Because I think we get very much in the weeds, and we get very focused on the municipal component of all of this. I think modeled headers, sometimes if it’s on a budget, 120 million, is it 106

37:14 million, is it 97 million, right? It’s all of the above. What we’re focused on is the 97 million, and the reason for that is, is that is the discretionary operating component of the budget that two entities control, principally, the schools and the town. And the question is, why are the schools and the town looked at separately? It’s because they are statutorily mandated to be separate by the state. They run both of them as parallel but separate operations and make cost allocation decisions independently from one another. Okay? That’s really important to say. There’s another thing that we’re emphasizing this year, and it comes back to the

38:01 MOU, that we’ve done in the past, but we’re emphasizing this year because we have a perfect storm on our hands. And that is a cost accountability format. Because if you look at the overall budget, the expense stack, if you will, of the municipal budget, it includes the employee benefits of the schools. Okay? And the reason is because it’s just an accounting convention. We provide benefit services to the schools, okay? But we have no control over those benefits and have no say in how they’re generated. So if you add the school benefits to the

38:45 school expense stack, you get a $62 million budget in fiscal year ‘26. Okay? And that leaves the town with a $38 million budget, discretionary budget, approximately. Okay? So the accounting format, I think, has been an endless source of confusion, that it’s based on an outdated tradition that we should bring to the public right now, get people to understand that really, the scale of the school budget is 62% of the overall operating budget, and the scale of the town budget is 38% of the operating budget. Okay? That’s principally there, and it’s backed up to us.

39:30 Now, every year, we go through a very systematic and rigorous operating budget build, if you will. And Thatcher has been doing this for years. We look at the last year’s operating budget, we add any revenues, and we do that with a revenue projection. We also look at the employee benefits cost projection because that’s roughly 20% of the overall operating budget. The town and the school do their level services expense budget, and if you add all of that up, it’s either a surplus or a deficit. Okay? If it’s a deficit, as it is this year, what we have to do is decide how we fund that

40:18 deficit. Are we going to do cuts, or are we going to do overrides? Now, one of the great things about the Proposition Two and a Half paradigm, as you might call it, or the discipline, is we are required by state law to generate a balanced budget. This year, we had 7.7, I know it’s been adjusted, but roughly a $7.7 million deficit. Okay? Alicia has run us through what needs to be cut. Very difficult. Huge. Kind of a big number, needs to be cut from both the town and the school budgets. And we’ve figured out a way this year to allocate which deficit the schools and the town are responsible for.

41:03 The schools have hit their bogey. We’ve hit our bogey. They’re big cuts. Okay? So fiscal year ‘27, there’s already been $4.2 million of cuts implemented, and we’re asking for a $3.5 million override in year one. Okay? What that does is it balances, it gets us to a balanced budget of 96, 97 million. I’m sorry. You said we’re running in tier one? Year one of tier one. Gotcha. Year one of tier one. Sorry. Yeah, I know. Sorry. No, I’m trying to follow. I’m inevitably going into the detail. No, that’s okay. But bottom line is for the year, and I think that’s why I’m focusing on one year of one tier, so that people understand that all of

41:50 these tiers are built the same way. Okay? You basically look at last year’s operating budget, revenue projection, employee cost projection, level service expense projection, and if you don’t have enough, if you’ve got more expenses than you do revenues from last year, then you’re going to end up in a deficit, and that’s where we’ve been this year. I just want to do a very– Just to let you know, the real takeaway to the town budget-building process, it is rigorous, right? And it’s enforced by Prop Two and a Half. And the multi-year projections, the reason I’m focusing on one year is just the multi-year projections are done in the same way.Okay? So what you’re basically doing is every year, on a multi-year basis, you’re building that budget the same way.

42:38 There’s a lot of detail around this. At the end of the day, I think we need to look at how budgets grow. And,

42:51 I think we need to show the town people the evolution of the town budget and the school budget in tier one, tier two, and tier three, so people understand what’s going to change in terms of the overall budget. Okay?

43:10 That’s basically a summary of the presentation. There’s very specific numbers around it that I think tie totally to what the FINBONS looked at and to what Alicia just generated.

43:25 Yeah. So I’ll leave it at that. I do have a presentation for the board to consider and look at. And I think at some point, we had a very complicated override, chairman override right now because we have three-year projections on three different tiers. Right? So it makes the story difficult in detail, and that’s one thing, as I’ve expressed to this board, that I’m concerned about. However, I think we can break it down by looking at one tier on a multi-year basis, explain that clearly, and then I think the tier two and tier three, three-year projections will have a lot more ability to say what the difference is between the two. So I went needlessly detailed

44:13 here. And I think without the presentation going up on the board, it’s tough to speak to it. But, that’s what I would ask us. And I’m thinking on by the 22nd of this month, that we have something, a fully blown presentation that drives off of both of these. Mm-hmm. Right? That the town can digest before we go into town meeting. I think that’s fair as well. It feels like it comp– A lot of your, this explanation of how we got here and the process. That’s correct. Right. And then when you combine it in here, I think it’s helpful, and different people have the ability to take in different things. Different people- Some people want more detail, others don’t. So I think we need to be careful to make sure we give both those for the people whose eyes glaze over when we start to look at some of these numbers.

45:00 So I think we want to have a combination. Exactly. Well, there’s obviously a fine line. Yeah. And I think having a more detailed presentation that leads people through in an intuitive way. People need to see that there’s something behind the override numbers. Mm-hmm. Why is that really being generated and what it means to them. So, I just worry about the risk that we’re showing now without a very clear articulation of how the three-year budget you generated. Okay? So that’s my concern. Thank you. Anybody… What I would propose we do, if we have a few more questions, open it up to public comment after that, and then we can move on.

45:46 I would like to see us vote on the MOU today because the schools did it last week, so we can do it, and the finance committee can do it. Yep. And then we have some articles to discuss. Yeah. I just wanted to say that Moses’, that very first slide was very good, breaking down the operating budget. Mm-hmm. Plus debt service, plus enterprise, because that is a- Yeah … a very confusing number when someone says 97, 120, 39. Right. That’s an orienting slide. Yeah. And a lot of those numbers have been thrown around in different presentations. Yeah. Great. Alexa, are you still there?

46:17 Is she on there or… We lost her. Okay. We lost her. If everyone’s giving a love for public comment. Absolutely. Okay. Absolutely. Leah, I think you had your hand up multiple times. But yeah. I have a couple of rapid fire questions. So, one thing we heard from a reader this week, and it’s a good question, and it may have to do with what you were talking about, Moses, is if the deficit is $7.7 million for FY27, why are you asking for $9 million the first year? We’re not. In the first year. The first- No, the first year … tier. The tier, which is unclear. Right. I think that. Thank you. Thanks. MOU is not binding. Correct? People were like, “It’s useless. It’s not binding.” Public promise. Public promise. Okay.

47:04 Can I add one thing, Brett, too, which was discussed. At the end of the day, the annual budget has to go to town meeting. Mm-hmm. So if the override was to pass, it raises the tax levy. But you can’t spend that, correct me if I’m wrong, unless town meeting each year says- That was my next question. Okay. Let’s say that people vote for, let’s just say, tier three, three years, right? So that’s the $15 million. So does town meeting have to re-approve that or approve the expenditure of that over the next two years? They have to approve the expenditures every year through town meeting. They approve our full budget. It’s done on a draw basis. Right. But as far as what town meeting approves, well, town meeting approves our budget. So-

47:50 I think I understand your question. So there will be, in the vote for the override, there will be a budget showing what the budget with the override would look like for each of those different options. But is it possible that this May or June, when we approve or whatever, let’s hypothetically approve a tier- Mm-hmm … that the funding won’t be approved down the road because it has to be approved at each town meeting? So- And you’re budgeting for three years. Right. So right now, what we’re going to do is we’re going to show the one year, the first year- Mm-hmm … goes to the voting legislature, which is opening meeting, town meeting. Right. We’re only going to borrow what we need based on that draw, and there will be a… You will see the budget for each of those. So for the $9 million first year, the $12 million first year, what does that look

48:36 like? The $15 million first year, if that’s what’s voted, what does that look like? That’s what we’re going to stick to for the first year. Then we come back again. I think what she’s asking is if we pass, say, tier three or $15 million-Town is appropriated- Yeah … and their contingencies and the override. Are we done for ? No. Well, you’re done for having to approve an override. Next year at town meeting, the town will have to approve the budget that we present, just like they’re approving the budget this year. Yeah. Every year, they have to approve the budget. So if they don’t approve the budget, we’re not going to pull down the levy because we don’t have the expenses. Yeah. Yeah. And Alicia, let me ask you this. So if an override was vote again, you would vote to raise the levy. Okay. We are. And that would be… But what was that? Hang on.

49:22 I think the key word is the override gives you the authority. Authority to do it. Yes. The authority, that’s the potential to spend. Correct. And then in the first year, it would be at this town meeting, we would have to vote to authorize- Authorize … appropriate, rather, appropriate for this year. But then next year- We have to do that, yeah … you’d have to vote to appropriate. And it could be some number of… The MOU says the number should be right here, no more. And that’s non-binding. But town meeting can- It’s binding. What? Yeah, binding is a committee. It’s, but town meeting gets to say- That’s what I’m saying … “Listen, you said in the MOU, this was going to be your number.” And if it’s not, then they have it right. Okay. And they can vote it.

50:07 I’ll hand it off. Oh, gee, what was it? Oh, what happens year four? I was just- What’s that? … chatting with my husband about it. What happens year four? We have one, two, three. What happens to the- So we make a promise that we’re not coming back. That we know, right. Right. So, but while we’re working, we’re going to still try to go within the constraints. If we can still live beyond those three years, we will. If we can’t, then we would come back. It’s our intention to go further. The intention is to stay within that and not have to- Right … change. So, but the numbers that you show are the increases per year. Correct. So on year four, is there no increase? No. So now, that’s a permanent tax increase, because now it’s going to grow at 2.5% every year. Okay. So it stays in levy forever. So like I said, we would try to live within that.

50:53 So the next year, we can build on that permanent base. Now we’ve got 2.5% on that, what does our budget look like now? Okay. So I would just like to further that. Part of that is we’re going to continue to find efficiencies and cost savings- Yep … everywhere we can so that we don’t have to come back to the town. We’ve known that we’ve gone 20 years without an override. Right. It is our intention to continue to work. We’ve started to work on some of those already, and to continue to work within those constraints. Have you guys looked at all about what is this impact of this override in 10 years? Let’s say tier three per year. How does it- It’s a simple math So, okay. Right. What is it? 2.5%. Wherever we land at the end of the three years’ levy, just increase it each year by 2.5%. But for a personal tax bill-

51:40 That’s what he’s- … say- Right. So if that, say you hate that $1,000 and we didn’t take it all out, and we spent money, and we hit it all at once, then that $900,000 stays forever, right? Got it. And it just goes to 2.5%. Okay. Got it. Let’s go to anybody else. Sarah, I think you were waving before. So just for clarification, the way the warrant articles have been worded and are currently worded, it says to raise, we’ll just talk about tier one because otherwise, it’s too complicated. To raise the tax levy effective July 1, 2026 to $9 million. So although you’re planning on only drawing on that number, and you’re saying in preceding years, which is correct, you need the authority of town meeting to expend that, because of the way that warrant

52:25 article is written, you would have the authority to draw $9 million on July 1- No, we would not … of this fiscal year. No, we would not, and I’ll clarify why. Again, because we have to show you an appropriated budget. So that 1.2 or 1.3 would be an appropriated budget in that article that would have to be passed, that had the legislature- So you don’t have to write it in every other year the exact way it’s been written? This is an override year. Again- We could authorize today. Yeah, we’ve had one year. Move on. It’s an approved appropriating budget, so for the nine, they’ll have the… The town meeting can vote the nine, or they can vote the 12 budget, or they can vote the 15. Yeah. Depending on what passes at the ballot, if it passes at the ballot, that would

53:11 be the budget that’s enacted. So we don’t, you can’t just draw $9 million because then you don’t- The budget that is enacted is the budget they vote at, at the ballot, the $9 million. The 9, the 12, or the 15. Yeah, 9, 12, or 15. Only preceding years would the trigger point be the base budget article that is per year. With that first appropriation, it is the $9 million. You don’t have to expend it. No, your body or legislature- Or if it passes- Okay. Guys, I prefer not to have an argument. Hold on, please stop. I prefer not to have an argument here. We’ll continue to talk with our legal counsel, and we’ll make sure we’ve got a little time to… So we appreciate that. Do you- Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. I could follow up- Yep … with just one question. Yep. Let’s say I’m a voter. I know, having looked at the projections, I’m all in

54:00 on tier one. I don’t want to vote tier two, I don’t want to vote tier three. Why would I vote for a $4.2 million one year tier three appropriation to get that back? Because you’re not voting until you get to the polls, right? So this allows us to put it there. So we’re going to have three different- It’s on the ballot … contingencies. The one- This is what’s on the ballot. So we’re going to have three different ones. Okay. So but we get, so what gets done at town meeting? So what gets done at town meeting is allowing us to- One … the three different, and you have to put the highest applicable one for the appropriation in case it passes. Otherwise, if you don’t have that highest one, we’d have to come back for a special town meeting. Understood. Yeah, yeah. That’s right. Right? So that’s the concept. And then you can choose at the polls. All you’re doing is allowing us to appropriate that money. Okay, and then- You can’t- Well, then the question is what…

54:46 Okay, but I’m a voter who sees the one and two and three-year projection. What’s to prevent, I guess, the question that I would have is what’s to prevent the town from using 4.2 that’s been appropriated, right? Because we don’t have the- Differently than what is shown in the draw or the override. We would not, because what you do, what the tax recap is, just so everyone knows, is what is voted annually by town meeting is exactly what is put in the tax recap that sets the rate. So your budget is what runs the tax rate. So if you vote a certain budget at town meeting, I cannot go in and then say, “I’m going to

55:32 raise $9 million.” I have to raise it based on the budget that was appropriated at town meeting. Just like every year. Correct. Yeah. I think what we’re going to need for the next meeting is just a couple slides of what you just said on what we’re going to see at town meeting, and how, in the end of the day, the legislative branch controls the money, how they’re going to control this, and it’s not the select board, it’s town meeting, that’s going to keep that from happening. Well, I think that’s right, based on- And it’s, yeah. Right. Based on- It’s fantastic that he’s detailing that commitment not only by the select board, but also the finance committee who are the financial watchdogs, and the school committee. So I think that that’s fantastic as a control as well. Great. So I would like to, if everyone’s ready to

56:19 move on. Are we good? Yeah. Okay. Would somebody like to– Could we have a motion to support the three-tiered override with the numbers that were presented, and to add that to the MOA? Well, with the caveat that we want to state, because there’s a big piece missing, and that’s the schools. Yeah. But the schools-

56:45 I know, but I’m saying in the briefing. Yeah. I get you. I hear what you’re saying. So the town side, our side of it, the schools vote at their class. That’s right. So our side of it, yes. And that is an important distinction, and I just personally need to make clear- Yeah … we’re only talking about the town side. Let’s put on the town side. Okay. Right. So the town side. Yeah. No, that makes sense.

57:08 Let’s do two steps here. So the first step is just to approve this. Let’s back out of that. So let’s restart this. Does someone want to, you want to make a motion? That the select board approves of the three-tiered override, tier one representing $9 million of allocation, tier two representing a full $12 million over three years of allocation, and tier three representing $15 million over three years. And that is based on what the schools voted for. That’s the motion, yeah. Ah. So do we have a second to discuss or? I’ll second. Confusing when we- I’ll second. Do the caveat. Second first one, yeah. And I just have actually a statement to make because- No, you’re fine. I need to be arms length on this one because it is combining the

57:56 schools, and I do have an immediate family member that works for the schools. And since this motion involves the schools side, per a past discussion with state ethics commission, I’m going to recuse myself from- Oh, okay. Fair … this specific vote because it involves, and there could be a potential perceived conflict of interest, and I think I’m just going to, while this vote is being taken, I’m going to step away from the table. Why don’t we wait until we finish the vote to see if that’s where we end up? Oh, okay. Yeah, not voting. When we vote, we’ll do it. We’ll have you here. Okay. Because I think that Moses should talk about it. Yeah. I think what would be helpful if we’re voting on a total unknown dollar number is if you understand how the fields, we all know the town and the schools, and we understand what that known unknown is, right?

58:41 It’d be helpful since we’re voting on a total number, yet we’ve only shown the defense of the municipal. But the schools did theirs, just for clarification for me. Yeah. The schools did theirs last year on the 6.2 for tier one. Right. So would you be more comfortable, so that we can keep this moving forward- Right … to separate, if we could get numbers of each of ours for each, might be the way to do it. It’s six and three. Even 6.2. Yeah. Six and three for the 9 million. Right. So. So the dollars represent the school and the town. Understood. What’s missing, I think, is just the detail from the school side. But I think, which is a good, valid point here, Camp, we’re only going to vote- Well, that- I think that’s what he’s saying. Well, that’s what I’m trying to say. Yeah. But we’re actually looking at a nine and 12. It actually is for us. It’s under our article.

59:28 It’s under our article. Correct. Yep. It is for us to vote on. Okay. So schools for the 12 million, 7.2, town, 4.8. I’m just rounding. Yeah. Right. Okay. Gotcha. So in tier one, it’s three municipality. Correct. And six schools. Correct. So far. Yep. In tier two, what is tier two now? 7.2 and 4.8 rounded. Okay. And tier three?

1:00:04 And this is what the schools have voted on. Schools is 8.5, and town is 6.5.

1:00:17 So Ms. Noonan, you brought a point that this is our article. We have to vote the whole amount. I would agree.

1:00:27 Okay. We can vote the whole article. Yeah. We can vote the whole article. Yeah, we’re going to. So we’ve had a motion and a second. Oh, and looks like Jim’s… Well, I guess he’s walking just over there. No, no. Oh. No, because remember he’s walking. You don’t know the difference between here and here. There’s like a Chinese firewall here, I guess. All in favor? All right. 3-0 with one not here, abstaining. Yeah. Yeah. It’s actually- Recused. Recused. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. So we actually, we have a motionTo approve the… Do you feel comfortable with the MOU between the school and the town, or you want to recuse yourself on that as well? I think I’m okay. Okay. I would think so. Before you vote the MOU, quick question.

1:01:12 Alicia, the second to last one, they will not come back and ask for a payroll right in 2030. Does that include- At least … inclusion override? No. No. No. So right under many of the resolutions, not until 2030. We’ll put this one about between ‘29 and ‘30, and I think that’s just going to be impossible to do. So I would say that, Jim and Alexa have done some good work- Yeah … on talking to department heads and across the board, as well as you guys, obviously. But we are compiling that, and I would recommend that on the April 22nd, we further that conversation. I think we have a bunch of things to talk about, the fundraising, all that. Yeah. That maybe you can talk about what you- What we- … Alexa and what these guys have found- Yeah … so that we can address that as well. We’ve talked to Alicia, we’ve talked to different departments.

1:01:58 Okay. So, it ain’t going. Yeah. But that’s a good question. Could somebody please just… Could I please have a motion to approve the MOU as presented with the schools? So moved. Can I have a second? Did you second motion? No. Okay, second. All in favor? Yeah. That passes unanimously. All right, moving on to articles. So we have, I think there were three articles? Three. Yeah. Why don’t you walk us through them since you have them right in front of you? Article 29, supplemental expenses. Just back up quickly. Three summaries. Yeah, I have the right ones. I recuse myself from this. Just above this. No. Supplemental. Let’s see over. That’s right. The only part in front of the original both through. So does it in the county.

1:02:43 Yeah. Article 34. Which is the administrative benefit. So why don’t we walk through each one? Sure. So article 29, we need to approve the numbers- Yes … correct? So we need to approve to put on the numbers there for an appropriation of $4.3 million. Is that correct? So I don’t have it in front of me, so I should have. On that. Is that correct, Alicia?

1:03:05 Another question. So we are on 29. I don’t. What the motion is, Becky? Okay. So I don’t. I haven’t been. Got to move it somewhere. Oh, here. I have it. I have it right here. No, I knew this, but I Is that where you think? Yeah. I have it. That’s fine. All right. Let’s see. Sorry. I think you can get the gymnastic reports. She said. I have one of them. Yeah, while we’re looking up that, the next one was? Article 31. Yeah. That one is administrative benefit amendment. I would first recommend it to your board to indefinitely postpone. I’ve reversed my opinion on that. I’ve met with the people who requested this, which are administrators, and the cost of this is

1:03:52 $12,000 to give them morale. It affects a couple of people, and their benefits have not been looked at in over 25 years. So- I, for $12,000, I would brush my stance and would say that’s- Should we look for a motion to revoke or a definite postponement- Yeah … from last week and to approve the- Recommended … the recommended- Yeah. What’s the amount? That comes out as 12,000. 12,000. Where does that money come from? Incumbency. Yes. Okay. Our last version coming, sir. Okay. Is there a motion for that? So moved. Second. All in favor? We also have- Oh. And then add- So we’re still on… While we’re there, I think that for 29, I would like to see us be a little more clear-

1:04:41 Yeah … on that. So let’s do that on the 22nd. Yeah. Yeah. So let’s leave the continually 29 and make sure that we have let’s make sure that that is correct. Yes. And I think we also have the other one that we had. Article 34. 34. Jim, would you like to discuss that? I’d like to make a motion to indefinitely postpone Article 34. I’ll second that.

1:05:04 Any discussion? No. All in favor on definitely postponing Article 34? In favor?

1:05:14 Any other questions or any other articles? I think that we cannot do Article 19 right now because we’re going into executive session. We’ve discussed that. 34. 30. 5. 35 is not our article. Excuse me. Right? Just changing. Yep. That’s under the pillow or… Yeah. Yep. Okay. So if I could have a motion to go into executive session under general JLC 30A section 21 for the purpose of discussing strategies as it relates to collective bargaining, International Association of Firefighters, AFL-CIO/CLE Local Number 2043, where the public discussion on the same may have a detrimental effect on the negotiating position of the public body, the board will not reconvene in open session. So moved. Second.

1:06:00 Let’s take a roll vote. Assistant. In favor. Integrator. In favor. Commissioner. In favor.

1:06:11 Ms. Abod. In favor. Mrs.