Budget Committee - Regular Meeting

budget committee to order at 6:01 on Tuesday, October 28th. Thank you for coming. We have corn, so we're good to go. Start off with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. So, our new business today, I'm not really sure if this is how long this is going to go, but um to it says review the budget. I'm really personally more focused on the second new business item, which is basically to talk about our goals and procedures, how how we're going to work over the next five meetings where we're going to meet with department heads and experts to go over line by line of what the goals. I don't think we need a motion for this at this point. I think we can just have a general discussion. Someone has a different opinion, please speak up. Did did I have not spent much time yet going over the budget so I don't have any did anyone want to bring anything I mean it's on the agenda so I'll ask review select board proposed budget did anyone have any specific lines I was going to I was waiting to when we open up the sections and go over with the department ad so I wasn't planning to but if anyone else wants to bring something up that is on the agenda. Well, I I've kind of skimmed it and but I think there are a number of places where there a number of line items where there have been huge increases, but I think

it's probably just best to wait and hear the explanation. I agree with you. So, um, so let's move to the second item in the new on on the agenda for new business, which is to review our goals and procedures and how we're going to proceed. So, in past years, we have discussed if we wanted to set a specific numerical goal for, you know, limiting an increase to the overall budget or something like that. Um, I personally don't think that's going to work. So, I'm not proposing that, but if someone else thinks otherwise, please speak up.

I just don't think it's realistic for us to do that. No, I don't either. I I I don't know that it works well for us and even if it did that with the with the um some of the other changes in there, it would be hard to implement. Which which kind of brings me to what I'd like to talk about, which is kind of the procedures and how I've been thinking about it and I'll try not to ramble for too long, but always a danger. Thank you, Chris. [laughter] You have your time. Wait, can we do that? [laughter]

Um, I mean, everyone as taxpayers, folks are worried about their tax bill. And so, we focus, they focus on what have we done to minimize the budget, and in reality, it's how much money needs to be raised by taxes. So, I've been struggling with how do we how did we differentiate that? I mean, a great example is the four new positions in the fire department. It's making a big increase in the budget, but we're not anticipating it's going to impact the tax effort at all. They're not because paid for through the [clears throat] Exactly. Exactly. So, this revenues,

right? So, so how do we how do we I'm trying to think about how is how can we help point that out to the town's people so that when we present the budget and we and we post it and they get a chance to look at it or they show up at the public meeting that we that we show that um well well given that given that inflation is is still with us and this budget is what 4% increase I mean I think that simple response to any any taxpayer that criticizes this is kind of twofold. One, it's not us, it's the school system. And and well, for their tax bill, right? Right. Well,

and and and and number two, what services would would you like to do without because we're this is this is basically level funding with with accounting for inflation. So, I mean I I don't know as you know there's no there's no um there's no fluff in it. Oh, I don't think at least described by the select board last week.

I I maybe it's already there. Maybe I'm maybe I'm because again I haven't spent a lot of time looking at the detail line. I was thinking that for the most part when we ask for a comment, we usually get a comment about this has changed or this is what's going on. I was thinking maybe we also needed to add in on a couple of the lines for you know this this is anticipated to be funded by a grant not by tax dollars or this is being ant this is being funded by dedicated revenue and is not expected to does that make sense in there as spec well as specific as we can get obviously I believe the firefighter ones are in there okay

um You're telling me it's already. So, you can bet you can bet those numbers out from the firefighters and do the math and that's where we came up with it's under 4%. If I remember right and that's less than last year. Last year's increase was more that was the final right proposed budget at town meeting and there was what five minutes of discussion. Yeah. it. Um, it does say, so if you look at lines 120 through 123, those are the four new lines. They say 2025 was half year budget and then a half year and then budget offset by contracted revenues. Okay. So that's already

So I can change it if it's if you'd like some better wording, I can fix that. But

so so let me let me say what I'm saying. It sounds like it's already handled. I just want to comment or respond to your comment, Scott. I I hear what you're saying. I was personally I was a little bit surprised that that happened last year and and and what I'm what I'm not sure is can we count on that happening again? So, I just wanted to try to be as open and and communicative as possible so that that I can't stop people from being unhappy, but I don't want them to have the answer that hey, you didn't explain this or this doesn't make sense or that that you take some of that complaint reason to complain away. [clears throat]

So, one suggestion I would make is we can when you do your presentation, we discuss it at the beginning. Yeah. Last year town meeting we voted on these four hiring fire right that added this much. When you back this up this is the number that's it's increasing by and you're right up front with them that you can't gohead. I was going to say that we've talked about um at the select board level doing a little bit of pigraphs or something more showing um the changes and what percentage of the budget goes towards what things too. So maybe that's where

there's two things there though. One that body voted to do this. We're not making that decision. The body voted to do this last year. And the other one is I believe when represented this whole thing is if the funding goes away that we would reduce the workforce. So right those are I mean that pretty much wraps it up I would think.

Right. And and the reason it's such a big increase is because it was only half a year right we um this year is only half a year that and we were able to get the select board to vote and move those lines into your budget. So otherwise it was a lot bigger increases. So but um but we cleaned it up and made and put them in the budget with the 2025 half a year. So

I I think just to piggy back off [clears throat] what Sean had said um there's a couple things at play. Um if if the budget [clears throat] after we go through line by line and determine reasonleness for things, it's going to add up to a number. Um with the positions for the fire department, which is self-funded, that really needs to be excluded from the total percentage. So you get down to sort of a net percentage of what is the budget really going up. What I noticed from last year, what I've noticed at other town meetings, there's a fair amount of seniors that are in the audience

and you know, they can certainly relate to the fact that their social security is going to be going up 2.8% starting in January. So using that as a comparable that, you know, here's here's what's happening out in the rest of the world and the budget is going up net 3.4% 4% or whatever it is. I think it'll help people understand that the the change is not materially extremely significant. not misleading them, but just sort of put it into a way that it's easy to understand because I have found in the past with too much information, it creates a lot of questions and misunderstanding and possibly just no votes because people don't feel comfortable that they're understanding what's happening.

I'm smiling because I felt like that last comment you you weren't, but I felt like it was directed to me because I do have that problem. I tend to over communicate. So I'll take that as a personal suggestion, which is a good one. [laughter] I I just I mean I I since last week only I get up early in the morning and I get bored a little bit. I I've gone through it four times line by line and from from my perspective I made notes for myself on things that I just want to better understand. Sure. But overall that doesn't look like a super long list though.

Yeah. No, but overall, you know, my initial reaction is very reasonable and I just want to hear from the folks that are going to be responsible for the spending to understand like, okay, what does this actually mean? Okay. Does anyone else have anything they want to comment or suggest about for goals and procedures or we pretty much taken care of that one? Seeing head shaking. Yes. So, this going to be quickly. Mhm. Okay. Oh, what a bummer. [laughter]

You can stay. [laughter] I was always to get a lot of work done. All right. So, I think that's it for the two items under new business. Not hearing any other uh comments. Why don't we go ahead and move on to the next item, which is approving the minutes from um the previous two meetings. So, let's start. I'll make a motion to uh approve the minutes of the October 14th meeting and then we'll I think that motion was made and then tabled. So, we need to reopen that, right? Make a motion to reopen consideration of the minutes of the October 14th meeting.

Second.

All right. Um I think I don't you are going to I'm expecting you to have some comments. I think the rest of us did get the minutes and made our comments already. So why don't we go ahead and look at your comments for the 14th. Um, in the in new business, the first paragraph, the last two lines down here at the bottom of the page, um, this is just a lawyer speaking. Um, it says, "Mrs. Chadwick stated that PAS works primarily with family courts. Technically, there is a single family court and it has sessions in various courouses. So, that should be it it should read with the family court and its judges." Okay.

Um, at the top of the next page, in the at the end of the very first line, the word council is spelled with an S. It should be a C. Okay. Yeah. And and directly the next line in the middle of the line, the same thing appears. And should not that be advisory council, not advisor counsel? I didn't know. But no, it's Yeah, it's the advisory council. I'm just trying to find the second council with an S in it. It's right in the middle of the second line from the top of the page. Oh, okay. I got the second one first. I got to go back and find the first one. I got it now. I got it.

Yeah. And then, two, on the the at the end of the fourth line down, there's another one right against the line. Yep. Well, uh, and then this is kind of a recurring problem. Um, uh, I guess Shannon prepared these and she uses she tends to insert define terms for like Bristol United Church of Christ and she puts BUCC. Um, but then she she's inconsistent in using the term and if and if you're going to put in the the definition, then you should just use the definition thereafter.

So about five lines, six lines up from the bottom of that carry paragraph, you should delete Bristol United Community Church and the parenthetical. So you just have BBC and [clears throat] it's not Bristol United Community Church. Bristol United Church of Christ. Church of Christ. Oh, okay. That's actually what it does say. So, another reason to delete it. Oh, I see. You're right. On the second one, it's not correct.

Yeah, I didn't even notice that. Jeez. Um, okay. In in Lakes Region Mental Health about 2/ird of the way down. [snorts] Um, she's got a definition SAM HSA, but it's never used, so you can delete it. Okay. Um, and in the the next page, Lakes Region Visiting Nurses Association. In the first paragraph, one, two, three, six lines down, there is another definition, GMS. At the very end of the line, that should be deleted. I I didn't see that it was used either. So just to clarify what you're saying, it makes sense to me is the first time we use we we mention an organization, we should state their complete name, right?

And then if we're going to use it again and want to stop it, you can put the anacronym in parenthesis and then use the anacronym for all future. It just saves It just saves. But But if you're not going to use that, if you're not ever going to use those words again, then you don't shouldn't be putting the acronym. And there's another thing that that she does that I mean, you you would do it in a in a legal contract, but you don't need to do it in minutes. And that's like when it says 24 member towns and then she'll put the parenthetical 24. You don't really need that. We're supposed to under 10. So I Oh, you had to do it under anything that's the number under the number 10. So zero through Oh, okay. All right. You you

I didn't I didn't know. But you're right. Y

but I'm just trying to save some ink. Um at the top of the the pages aren't numbered, but at the top of the next page, this is the page that has Pasquani Garden Club on it. [snorts] Um oh, never mind. Um, in in the in the header for Pascuani Gardener Club, there should be a definition after the word club. It should be a parenthetical and PGC, close friends, because that one is used fairly regularly. [snorts] And in the second line of that paragraph, she states that the Pasquani government club is a nonprofit organization and it is a 501c3. you can delete that it is a 501c3 because that's

that's redundant. There's only one way to be nonprofit. [snorts] Um uh in the down at the bottom Hemi River Local Advisory Committee four lines down I just got to read the sentence but the sentence didn't make sense but at some point in there it says designated in 1991 designated as what volunteer committee focus focused on maintaining the water quality kind of come river designated in 1991. It it just it's the committee that was designated but we can fix

then it's designated by who? Yeah. But it it's it right right now it doesn't make any sense. [snorts] I think you can just if you're okay with it just end it at the Pemosa River period and delete the rest of that sentence. That's fine. [snorts] I think the extending or thought to camping was something about where their their responsibilities were, but but that was part of whatever they were designated as and I I couldn't remember. [snorts] I like I like Christina's suggestion. Put a period after the word river and then delete designated and extending all of that stuff.

Fine. Yeah. Um the very top of the next page there's a definition after lakes region planning commission and again it's never used so you can delete it. Okay. And [snorts] in um under transportation central 1 2 3 4 5 six lines down there's [snorts] reference to the department of transportation. I think you should say the New Hampshire Department of Transportation because we also have a federal department of transportation and the typical an acronym for for um New Hampshire Department of Transportation is NHDOT.

I I agree. DOT to me is a federal organization. Yeah. So I think then the an acronym as it appears there and in a couple of other places should be NH DOT. It appears again one, two, three, four lines up from the bottom. Okay.

And [snorts] then um or five lines up and four lines up from the bottom there's a reference to the Internal Revenue Service and then the an acronym IRS. It's never used so you can delete that. And likewise in the in [snorts] the penultimate line on the page there's there's a an acronym for Department of Agriculture and one for food assistance program. Neither one of which appear again. So they they're not necessary. And [snorts] in two lines down on the on the next page um there's an an acronym for community action resource coordinators. And again, that's can be deleted. It never appears.

Okay. Um, sorry about all this. Um, in um, Voices Against Violence and the first line, Mrs. Huckkins stated, "Voices against violence serves should be an S after the word or on the word serve." Gotcha. And then singular and and eastern should be lowercase E serves lowercase E Eastern capital G Bratton County.

Right. And then directly below that in the next line um sexual violence, stalking, and human trafficking. [cough and clears throat] And only one one more. Okay. [snorts]

Um then under member select board comments in the second paragraph [snorts] there's an anacronym for cost of living adjustment and again it's never used so you don't need to you can delete cola. Okay. Anyone else have any additional modifications to propose for the minutes of the October 14th meeting? Not hearing any. Let's go ahead and vote to approve the minutes as amended. As amended. Thank you, F. All in favor?

I opposed. Abstain. 5-0. Minutes are approved as amended. So our next will be to talk about the minutes for the last week's meeting on the 21st. Make a motion to approve the budget committee minutes of October 21, 2025 as written. Second.

Motion by Scott, seconded by Brian. Does anyone have any suggested modifications to those draft minutes? I read through them last week when I got them and I didn't have any notes and I haven't read them again since then. I don't believe I do. Buzz does. Buzz, you like you like words the way I like numbers. We got no problem with this. Uh um in the on the first page under others present yes

it's capital improvement program not projects. Well it should be cap um isn't it going to be so CIP stands for capital improvement program

capital the RSA says capital improvement program. You are right. So it's the CIP committee capital improvement program committee chair. Okay. [snorts] Um in the select board proposed budget presentation [clears throat] one two three four five six lines down it says including four new fire department hires. Um delete which are and then insert in instead of which are the latter l a t e r being offset by corresponding revenues and then the next sentence should be deleted because it's redundant. In other words, it appears twice.

Yes. Oh, yes. Good catch. I don't know how you did this. Um, then I had a I got to read the sentence. It's the It's the next to the last sentence on the page. So, Miss Goodwin stated Yeah. Oops.

Oh, I think it's missing something. It It's um I think you need to put after it after the including notes. I think you need to put something like would be explained or whatever because it it doesn't make any sense. There's something missing. Miss Goodwin noted that any budget items that increased or decreased by more than 3% including adjustments made by the select board on their meetings on the 14th and the 16th including notes would be explained to clarify the reasons for any changes or would be footnoted or something but there's something missing there before to clarify. I think

back going back to elementary school, they're called action verbs, right? Can we have her number the pages? Yeah, it should be numbered. I'm not sure why they're not, but we will fix that. Do you know what you would be? So, so how does this sound, Buzz? Let me try. Sorry. So, Ms. Goodwin noted that yada yada yada includ include notes strike the comma to clarify the reasons is that what I think that's what we're trying to say oh yeah I think that's better all right y

that works on the on the third page page the um the capital improvements caption there's the word program is missing should be capital improvements program committee presentation

yeah cip committee okay y [snorts] on the next page the first full paragraph that begins in response to Mr. Gallagher's questions. Yeah.

About five lines down there's the capital improvements program report. You all and then parenthesis CIP. You can delete capital improvements program and delete the parenthetical and just say B C report here. Um in the next paragraph discussion it begins discussion followed um county state and then period then it said the board and committee highlighted it should be the select board members present and and committee highlighted because the it wasn't a select board meeting they were here as our guests. So I I'm not I hear what you're saying. So where it says the board, it should say the select board

members members present. But then don't we also have to clarify committee? Well, the committee is is us. Oh, our committee committee. So, okay. And we're supposed to be there. So, yes. Gotcha. Okay. Um I was thinking committee referred to Dawn as the CIP. Okay. And that's and that's why I was confused, but committee is us for budget committee. Gotcha. All I have.

Okay. Thank you. Anyone else have any comments or suggestions or questions? Not hearing any. Let's go ahead and vote now to approve the minutes as amended. All in favor?

I opposed. Abstained. 5. The minutes of the meeting on the 28th are approved as amended. Uh correspondence. I can tell you that I got a correspondence which I am Am I supposed to print these out and hand them out or can I just I'm talking about the one from the the finance guy at the uh visiting nurse. You were copied on that. Christina, I think we need to I need to mention that, right? They probably should have been shared with the committee members. The You mean the responses? Yeah. Yeah, they should have been shared with the committee members.

Okay. So, I dropped the ball there. No. Um, but when you talking at the next meeting, you're going to be talking about them. We should make sure that those are shared, okay, in their packets. So, I I can turn them we can turn them into PDFs and get them out to everybody.

On Friday, the gentleman who's the finance head for the Lakes Region Visiting Nurse Association was here. And on Friday, he sent an email to myself, Sue, Shannon, and Christina and said, "Hey, when we were in the ME meeting, somebody mentioned that maybe our building could be used for the new school district administrative offices. If the town wants to buy the building, let me know. We'd certainly like to be good community citizens, and we would certainly consider that." So, I was away for the weekend. I read the note yesterday and I wrote him a response and I copied the people that he had originally and I said the school we're in we're in a regional school district. The SAU4 is separate from the town and so the town is not interested in buying the building. I said I personally like the idea and I might look for an opportunity to pass that suggestion on to the superintendent but my personal expectation is that they will say that building is not large enough for their needs that I don't think that there's a good fit here but if he disagre if he thinks there's anything to go I'm going to suggest to him that I'll give him your contact information and he can follow up directly with you. So, that's a piece of correspondence that you guys all need to know about,

but he sent the note out Friday and I read it on Monday and I said, "Nobody else responded. We need to respond to this guy." [clears throat] So, I wrote a response, which was a mixture of budget committee stuff and Paul's opinion. And I tried I tried to make sure he knew which where the difference was. So, I think it's great. I just think I don't think that building is any bigger than I'm not pointing the right direction than the building at next to TD Bank. So I don't know why they would go for require an addition.

No. So um I think that we also got something in the past week with trying to respond to Sue's questions about how do your finances work and how much is covered by insurance. And I thought that's what I thought you were talking about. There was something from lakes region visiting nurses and there was something from lakes region mental health responding to Sue's question about can you give me more detail about how much of your when you bill things how much is covered by insurance how much is not covered by insurance um business

I'm not trying to personally I'm not trying to get into the details of how they run their business so I only glanced at it but that's something again that should be forwarded to all of the committee members. So, we'll turn those into PDFs and get them out at some point so you guys can see them and be aware that that they're there. Since we're going to be covering that in our next meeting, which is in 3 weeks, we'll get that to you beforehand in case it causes you to think of some of the additional questions to ask. I think that's it for correspondence for me. Does anyone else have any correspondence they want? I just said um this is another thank you that came in from Lakesian visiting nurses. pretty much they just wanted to thank for their 2025 appropriation. Okay. So,

unless you want to say something. No, no. Budget meeting must be next week. No, it's not next week. It's not next week. All right. So, I think that's it for correspondence. Not hearing any disagreements. We'll move on. Is it out that far? What? It must be. Yep. Never mind. Sorry. I thought November 18th was far. It is. It's three weeks. Yeah. So, um, now we'll go through comments. Um, anything going on? You had another select board meeting. Anything you need to share with us? Um, Brian, anything you want to share? Nothing tonight.

Thank you for putting on the list. [laughter] Anything you want to share? I I I'm trying to remember past practice, but it strikes me as odd that we're getting the thank you notes for the 2025 contribution the week after they came and asked for 2026. Shouldn't Shouldn't it if they're really sincere, shouldn't they thank us right after the budget is adopted? Well, the problem is, as I understand it, the problem is that what what happened was we realized that just because so the budget authorizes us to spend money, it doesn't Oh, so the the money doesn't go to the end of the year.

So, so what happened was what happened is if they don't submit a request an invoice, a request for payment, we don't send out the money. And they didn't all understand that. So Christina realized that and sent a note to them saying, "Hey, if you asked for money and we agreed to give it to you, you need to understand you're not getting it until you send an invoice." And that Am I misstating? You're right. I was just going to add and um we are trying to be careful about cash flow, too. So we will not pay the nonprofits after July 1st because um that was the way it used to be. it stopped happening and they were paying them automatically and I put it back in place because tax bills don't start coming in

until until June July they're due by July 1st. So we put them back on that we don't pay you till after July 1st. So if you don't submit an invoice, we can't pay you either because we have we have to we have to have an invoice to pay. So are any of them any of the ones that were in the budget uh have any of them not submitted invoices? Um um I can't remember from that list. Let me look because um there were while you're looking that up just so I think what happened was is that that the town Christina and the town sent out notes to people saying if you are expecting to get money from us you need to set it invoice notified.

So they got that in late August, early September. They have now recently submitted their invoices and actually gotten their money which is why we're getting the thank you. Yeah. Um, [clears throat] also some of these some one of the notes came in. They saying thank you. The last one I told you about while you guys were not meeting. So I hang on to them to let you know that they've said thank you also. But yeah, I remember there was one from Kasa last week that you acknowledged but just it struck me as kind of we also added it to your letter. Voices Against Violence doesn't look like it's been paid. Um,

I know that that was the case back in September, but I don't know what the latest is. Let me see if it's been paid yet. But should we put a note in the when we send out the requests um in advance of the start of the next year's budget session requesting them to give us what they want? I I believe Christina took that a line to your letter saying that they that they have to submit invoices to get paid. So good. Um [clears throat] because we had an issue with Transport Central who asked for last year's money and I said no. Um I said funding had last

right the funding I can't pay you from last year's budget. Their budget year runs different than ours. And I said we run we pay you January to December. So you need to submit your request. I even have I had to edit their request when it came in because it still said the wrong year. But um but we asked and we finally got this year's request and then they submitted next year's request too. So, sorry it's my computer is not being nice. Can we ask you I don't think it's something we need right at the moment. Can we ask you to provide that to Shannon and she can include it with the u information for the meeting in three weeks?

Yep. Well, I'll be here. Does that work for you, Buzz? Okay. That that'll answer your question eventually, but y All right. Um, do you have any comments you wanted to make? I do not. Okay. And I do not either. St. uh, Christina comment. Anything you wanted to bring up? I was just going to ask you too if when you talk about outside agencies if you're going to talk about um the ones that didn't respond and haven't responded for two years now if you take them off the list going forward if you're going to do that. I had brought it up at the last meeting that it's something I would like the

committee to consider but we haven't discussed it and we certainly haven't voted on it. So, um I think we will do that next at the next meeting when we handle the outside agencies. Um everybody's paid now, but Oh, no. Voices against balance. I've asked them twice. So, I can try again. Um as long as I get an invoice by the end of the year, I'll try I'll ask her again. So,

so before we adjourn, I'll just point out to everyone that we've now met for three weeks in a row and now we have a good gap. Um, we're next our next meeting is uh Tuesday, November 18th. The normal um rhythm would be the second and the fourth Tuesday of the month, but the second Tuesday is Octo November 11th, which is Veterans Day. the town office is closed and all the town employees are on holiday and so we decided we wouldn't force Christina to come in on a day off and open the building and have us allow us to have a meeting. Yes. And your agenda is wrong.

I want to keep living. [laughter] I know where Paul lives actually. Wait, I might know where all of you live. [laughter] If you don't, it's right downstairs. [laughter] All right, I think that's it. Is there anything else we need to cover tonight before we adjourn?

Your agenda is wrong for the next meeting. I took your regional, just so you know, the regional associations, you're not you don't do them with the nonprofits. So, I put it in to do with the when I do the executive budgets and took them out of there. So you're just doing health agencies and other outside agencies at your next meeting. So Okay. So

I I I will mentioned I think some of [clears throat] you heard when I made a suggestion. I looked over the schedule and had a suggestion to change something. If you want to feel free to look over the agenda. Um but the I guess this is mostly for Brian because you're new. You haven't done this. So we we have five meetings coming up where we should at between those five meetings discuss every section in the budget. That's fair. Okay. Someone would like to make a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second.

Motion by Brian. Seconded by Buzz to adjurnn. All in favor? I. Thank you for coming. Have a good night. Is it