City Council - Special Meeting

council meeting to order. Um, first on our agenda is council order number 04900, public hearing and action on the Ellsworth school budget resolutions for FY2027. We have a school superintendent here um as well and kick it off with Amy. Yeah, great.

Thank you everyone. Um, you do have version three and version four in front of you. I reprinted version three, which is what I had given you last presentation. And there is a change in version 4 that you may not even realize because the bottom lines are the same, but I did want to talk you through the changes. So at the top, student and staff services, you'll notice an increase in that line, which is offset by a decrease in the debt service line. Okay? So the 7.34% to 7.34% in the top is the same, but it's because we moved an item that I'll talk through with you. So, as you recall, we talked about our instructional technology panel where we upgrade all of our classrooms technology project. We had requested money be put in a reserve a year ago to pay for this project. And our plan was to finance that project over 3 to 5 years. And what had originally been in the FY27 payment uh FY27 budget was the first payment or estimated payment for us making a year one payment on that. When the bids came in, they came in less than we anticipated, which yay. And so instead, we actually will be able to do the project in the FY27 budget as planned without having to finance it and pay interest over time. So, we moved that budgeted amount in debt service to student and staff supports because we'll be able to use the reserve account and the student and staff support funding to get the project done in its entirety

without having to finance and add more debt to the school department and pay interest over time. So, that's the only change we've made from version three um to version four. The only other change that we would request um is in that student and staff support reserve. We do need an addition an additional $25,000 there from fund balance which will pay for the entirety of the project. We did not want to add the $25,000 to the budget to change the amount of tax appropriation that we would ask for. So we changed our ask for student and staff support reserve from 125,000 to 150,000. And so that entire student and staff support reserve will be allocated to this particular project. We will pay for the rest of it out of the student and staff service. So in closing, outside of those changes, everything else is the same from version three to version 4. Um, as I talked about at our presentation last week, we worked very hard on this budget to preserve um, a commitment to our community and to the students of our um, city. We felt like we made appropriate cuts to try to help offset things to taxpayers. Even though some of those decisions were really hard, this budget does still move us forward in our strategic plan, which was a big goal of ours. Um, and so we appreciate the feedback that you gave us along the way to try to keep this down.

Great. Thank you, Amy. Um, any questions from council for the superintendent? Okay. Um, anything from the city manager? No. Okay. Um well, unless there's any further questions or comments, um I would entertain a motion from anyone regarding um this matter. I'm curious what that motion would be because it's to refer it to the voters for referendum. Is there a um suggested I think it's it's it's a really an order move to order.

Yeah, it's reading through all the orders. All the orders have to be approved. Yeah. individually or in one? I think we can move for all of them in in mass. Um, they haven't been that way before. No. Yeah, you have to do each one, I believe. Okay. A through D, excuse me, A through D you have to do individually. E through I you can do as a group and then J on its own as well. Okay. So, A, B, C, D are individual. Yeah. E through I are together, right? And J is individual. Yeah. Okay. Sounds like we can each make two motions.

It is a lot of reading. And um do we have as written on our agenda? Is that sufficient? Um right here, this this language here is sufficient. Um I would Yes, I would say so. Okay. Um, typically I I will say typically the entire orders are read. Um, I don't know if it's done as a description and then you read that, but typically the entirety. Okay. I That's how we've done it. That's the way we did it last. That's what he was asking. Yeah. Does anyone have Okay. So, I don't have a copy of I have a I have it right on my computer.

Great. Okay. So for a item a order approving state and local EPS funding allocation for the public education from pre kindergarten to grade 12 for elsewhere schools FY2027 second motion. So, I just want to confirm there. I know there was a document in the packet that was sent out that had a more maybe more robust description if anyone has that. I think that's what you're talking about, Amy. So, what I don't have is the order numbers because that typically is put in. So, typically

you have to read this entire read the amount. Yep. Okay. Okay. I see that. All right. So, we're putting it all together. Um, is this a This is the full order here. It has an order number and each order number is associated with is it the and we're going to go with the same order number because they've all been listed under order numbers 0409 00.

Sorry. That's okay. We're getting there. public hearing part first or Yes. Thank you. I thought we forgot that. We noticed it as a public hearing. We noticed as a public hearing. Okay. Yeah. Okay. My gab's here. You have to do the public hearing, give anyone comment, and then for a you have to go through this and read that and say that amount and then go. Yeah.

Okay. Um, so and then just while we're talking about it, do we need a public hearing for each order? I don't remember. Um, she doesn't have it broken down that way. I think the public hearing is usually once. I believe we usually do it as one. I think the public hearing is for the totality of it. Anyone that wants to speak can speak, but then you have to vote for each.

Okay. So, I think we're we're there. I'm going to open the public hearing on the um council order number 0490. Public hearing and action on the Ellsworth school budget resolution for FY2027. Anyone from the public would like to provide comments on this matter? Please approach the DAS. Seeing none, I will close the public hearings. Now, council, we are going to work our way through these items. Um, items A through D need to be read um individually.

And we have and I guess it's all right here. So, why don't I if council's okay with it, I'll just read it and hopefully we'll get it done correctly. So, city order number 04900A ordered that the city will appropriate for the total cost of funding public education from pre kindergarten to grade 12 as described in the essential programs and services funding act recommended 8,471,82784 and to see what sum of the municipality will raise as the municipality ity's contribution to the total cost of funding public education from pre kindergarten to grade 12 as described in the Essential Programs and Service Funding Act in accordance with the main revised statutes title 28 section 15688.

Second. Further discussion from councel? All those in favor? Opposed? Abstain. Councelor Shay. Was that an oppose or oppose? Okay. Motion carries. Order approving non-state funded school construction debt service for Ellsworth schools for FY27. Council order number 040900B. ordered that the city will raise and appropriate for the annual amount payments on debt service previously approved by the legislative body for non-state funded school construction projects or non-state funded portions of school construction projects in the addition to the funds appropriated as the local share of the school administrative unit's contribution to the total cost of funding public education from pre kindergarten to grade 12. Have a second.

Second.

Second. Further discussion from councel. Seeing none. All those in favor? Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. C. Council order number 04900 C. ordered that the city of Ellsworth raise and appropriate $7,567,7182 in additional local funds which exceeds the state's essential programs and service services allocation model by 7 million87,567,7182 as required to fund the budget recommended by the school board. The school board recommends $7,567,7182 for additional local funds and gives the following reasons for exceeding the state's essential programs and service funding model by 7,562,7182. This amount is needed to cover the school department's expenses that are not recognized or fully funded by the state's funding model. facilities maintenance costs, special education costs, technology costs, transportation costs, professional development costs, and system administration costs.

Do I have a second? Second. Did I miss like Yeah, you had um potentially to make an amendment. You did say the right number once in there, but um you miss missed it. 750 7,562, not 67. Okay. Okay. Which you repeated a couple times. Okay. So to I'd like to make the amendment for 7,562,7182. Yeah. So amended. Okay. Um do we have a second? Second.

Second. Any further discussion from councel? Seeing none. All those in favor? Opposed? Abstain. Motion carries. D. City order number 04900D ordered that the city of Ellsworth will authorize the school board to expend for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2026 and ending June 30th, 2027 from the school administrative unit's contribution to the total cost of funding public education from pre kindergarten to grade 12 as described in the central programs and services funding act. Non-state funded school construction projects, additional local funds for school purposes under the main revised statutes, title 2A, section 15, section 15690, unexpended balances, tuition receipts, state subsidies, and other receipts for the support of schools. The school board recommends 34,413,78164.

Second. Second.

Any further discussion from councel? Seeing none, all those in favor? Opposed? Abstain. Motion carries. Okay, now we're on to E through I, which my understanding is we can take in one motion. Okay, so I am going to read motions E through I at once as a motion um to advance to the council. Council order number 040900E. ordered that the city of Ellsworth appropriate $237,119.3 for adult education and raise $237,119.3 as the local share with authorization to expend any additional incidental or miscellaneous receipts in the interest and for the well-being of the adult education program. Council order number 040900F ordered that the city authorizes this that the sum of $275,52.75 be height raised for the all other expenditures parenthesis the food services program for fiscal year 2026 2027 and that the Ellsworth school department is authorized to expend any unexpended balances and additional incidental or miscellaneous receipts in the interest and for the well-being of the food service program. Council order number 04900G ordered that in addition to amounts approved for the fiscal year 2026 2027 school operating budget, the school board be hereby authorized to expend such other sums as may be received from federal or state grants or programs or other sources during the fiscal year for school purposes, provided that such

grants, programs, or other sources do not require the expenditure of other funds not appropriate operated for the school operating budget. Council order number 04900H ordered that the city authorizes the school board to appropriate funds from the ending balance of the school general operating fund for fiscal year 2026 2027 to increase the existing reserve from HCTC minor capital project costs and authorizes the school board to expend those funds. The school board recommends $15,000. Council order number 04090H. Ordered that the city authorizes the school board to appropriate funds from the ending balance of the school general operating funds for fiscal year 2025 2026 to increase the existing reserve for special education costs and authorizes the school board to expend those funds. The school board recommends $25,000. Council order number 040900H ordered that the city authorizes the school board to appropriate funds from the existing balance of the school general operating funds for fiscal year 2025 2026 to increase the existing reserve for student transportation costs and authorizes the school board to expend those funds. The school board recommends $25,000 Council order number 040900H. Order that the city authorizes the school board to appropriate funds from the existing balance of the school general operating funds for fiscal year 2025 2026 to increase the existing reserve for student and staff support costs and authorizes the school board to expend those funds. The school board recommends $150,000.

Council order 0409 0. This says H again. Yeah, there are three H's. Three H's. Five. Okay, good. ordered that the city authorizes the school board to appropriate funds from the ending balance of the school general operating funds for fiscal year 2025 2026 to increase the existing reserve for food service costs and authorizes the school board to expend those funds. The school board recommends $10,000 and we can do I in that one as well, Sue?

Yes. Council order number 040900I, ordered that the city authorizes the school board to appropriate funds from the ending balance the school general operating funds for fiscal year 2025 2026 to establish a reserve for facilities and maintenance costs and authorizes the school board to expend those funds. The school board recommends $75,000. Do I have a second?

Second. Second. Any questions or discussion from council? Seeing none, all those in favor? Opposed? Abstain. Motion carries. Council bless you. Council order number 04900J. ordered that the event in the event the Ellsworth School Department receives more state education subsidy than the amount included in its budget, the school board be authorized to use all or part of the additional state subsidy to increase expenditures for school purposes and cost center or categories approved by the school board. increase the allocation of finances in a reserve fund approved by the school board and/or decrease the local cost share expectation as defined in title 20- section 15671- A sub one subb or local property taxpayers for funding public education as approved by the school board. Do I have a second?

Second. Any further discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor? Opposed? Abstain. Motion carries. Did it. Thank you very much. Incorrectly takes practice. Good reader. Yeah. Now voters. Uh well, school board employees, staff, thank you. Thank you for all your hard work. Yeah, I would say thank you to the school board. Yeah, everyone. Thank you everyone very much for your support. Thank you.

Now, you're welcome to stay for the remainder of the evening. Thank you all. Thank you. Bye guys. Thanks. Thank you.

Now it's the voters day. You guys uh did you see the big news about the new business in Ellsworth in the Bangor Daily News today? Oh, it's a very spicy Airbnb. It's a very spicy one. I saw the headline and didn't pursue it. Is that an Ellsworth? Oh my god. So tell us it said mid coast. Oh no. First sentence is like I saw the headline. I'm like I don't need to know about that. I Oh the Banger. New kind of short-term rental has arrived in Elford. FYI.

Hidden Honey Homes a company that outfits single family homes into adult only short-term rentals. Really? First location in Maine. one of four locations in the country owned by a Florida based. Are we are we live or We're still live. We're still in the midst of It's just the news again. I I saw the headline and thought I don't need to spend time on this. We should break. All right. Well, oh no, we got we got we got fire. We got to do fire. We got to do fire. Don't we have to We have to wait till 6:00 for this for fire. The fire was on.

Okay. And with that, that's a hard act to follow, Chief. Okay, we're on to our third agenda item. Council order number 04901, discussion and potential action on the request of the fire chief to execute a purchase agreement for a new fire truck. So, as you're all aware, back in October, um the council authorized the uh ban funds for the purchase of a replacement fire truck. Uh engine 7 is a reserve fire engine. It's 20 years old. It doesn't meet the needs of the Ellsworth Fire Department anymore, uh for a lot of different reasons. The frontline engine that's downstairs uh is coming to the end of its frontline service life life and is also costing us an exceptional amount of money. It's already up to I think I last checked it was at $18,000 so far this year for repairs uh by the end of quarter 3. Um we don't see that changing much. So once you uh authorize the bands this fall uh we put together an apparatus committee. that apparatus committee was given some very strict guidelines. Um, and they worked very diligently for to try and get everything done by the end of March. They did so they worked with several different vendors and ultimately they were able to come down to one manufacturer. Uh, we were going to pursue two different options. One was going to be an RFP and put it out for for quotes and or go through Sourcewell. At the end of the day, it was decided that Sourcewell was going to be the best option. that was the best pricing. They settled on Pierce Manufacturing. Uh we talked a little bit more with the vendor. They gave us some original pricing that was going to still put us in a 20 to 24 month uh build build time.

They came back to us a week later uh while the salesperson was out west and they f there was another municipality that had a firetruck and wasn't unable to gain the funds. So, this opened up a dealer allocated slot for us with an engine that is ready to be built. They are able to take our specs and finish building that truck and they will be able to deliver it in 13 months. Uh the total cost for that truck uh the way it sits if we agree to do 100% prepaid uh is going to be $866,18. Um this is a big big difference because what some of the original pricing was anywhere from 1.1 million all the way down to about $890,000. Uh most of which we discussed during uh workshop. So I come for you today to ask if we can go ahead and purchase a new firetruck to replace engine 7 and get engine two into reserve status within the next year. Thank you, Chief Gillo. Do we have any questions for the chief?

Humor me. I've talked with you about my dad who's a retired firefighter, and I was texting him some of this information. Also, he was the owner of a retire of a um antique American Le France uh firetruck that was used in my older sister's wedding a lifetime ago. So, he says, "H um high marks to peers for good price and local delivery time and local servicing. Is the fire apparatus a standard 1500 to 2,000 gallon per minute pumper? Correct. Thank you. You wanted to be able to answer my my It has been specked out as a 1500 gallon per minute pump with a thousandgalon tank which is larger than all the engines downstairs.

Okay. As you know, I I grew up as the daughter of a firefighter with the spectre the um calls going out KCC 493 Simsbury ERS on the signal with the firefighting or the um regular check-in. And with that, I would be willing to make the motion. Explain your driving too. Before we do that, I just want to make sure any Yeah. When we're ready.

Yeah. Just um just a little background. I know in last, I believe it was October, we did a ban authorization, a bond anticipation note to secure funding for this. We did a sort of I know Sarah's working on a 10-year capital uh improvement plan, which I believe we're coming to the council on shortly. We did a a workshop on it recently, but this was also from last year's budget cycle. For those counselors that weren't with us, this came to the front of the line as our most important um kind of one-year capital need uh was this. and then the school track uh which at the last capital or the last council meeting we moved forward with that bid on. So it's um I think we did another update with council on this I want to say at the December meeting uh as well. So and then we had a workshop on this last week. So I know the folks that may be watching uh you know just we have had a fair amount of discussion on on on this item already and um yeah I think it's I think thank you very much to Scott and the whole committee. I know we we heard from Captain Tyler as well uh last week on um all the options they considered uh and really really proud of the work the teams did.

Councilors, any further questions or comments on this matter? Councelor Howerin,

I think that the fire department has done an absolute wonderful job researching value, cost, frills, no frrills. Um, you have an aging fleet. I don't know if that's aging outside of standard fire practices or not, but it it seems like that the Pierce product is owned by Oshkosh Corporation and Oscos Corporation has been a military supplier forever. And um after Monday, I did a little more homework and I I think that the Pierce product, I know nothing about fire engines, but the Oshkosh company is an outstanding company that is known for wellbuilt products. And it appears that Pierce is a subsidiary of the Oshkosh Corporation. And on Monday night, um they at the workshop, um I I really liked how went down through and and threw out a few uh bells and whistles, but kept the the main um core product and bought a well-known product. Having said that, it's probably no surprise that I'm going to vote against it. And here's why. I think the city of Ellsworth needs a fire truck. I think that it's a reasonable purchase. I think it's a fair value. But I'm really disappointed in the city's priorities that that hasn't made a priority over some of these other what I consider crazy expenses.

And when you put it all together, it's adding more to the haywagon. The haywagon being the total city. I would like to vote for it. I think it's sensible. But because others have spent money way ahead and in my opinion very wastefully, I can't support it. One further thing is I would question the prepayment. I do know that there is a substantial savings with the prepayment option, but what if what if the city pumps out $800 and whatever thousand? What if what if there's a strike? What if there's a fire in the plant? What if there's all of those things? I think that needs to be considered. Um because yes, it costs more to wait and pay. I don't know what the deposit would be, but there's a lot of whatifs to send out almost a million dollars uh 13 months ahead of time. That's just a a thought. But again, your people did a great job going through that product. On Councelor Howerin's note about prepayment, you're going to enter into a contract, correct, to purchase it. Um, I think it's a fair point to make sure that language in the contract has provisions that if they don't if you make the payment and they don't fulfill the obligation that um the city's made whole. Abs.

Absolutely. I think that's a fair term that if it's not in there that you guys can negotiate pretty pretty easily. Any other counselor comments? Councelor Smith,

thank you. Two things come to mind. I'm I'm really appreciating being able to dive into the details during a work um a work meeting like we had workshop that we had on Monday and two things I came away with. One is a note in your memo about 125 years experience on the committee that worked to narrow this down. I think the value of that shows in the product that you have brought forward and also a note that we are saving 3.7% was my math at night that nobody else corrected um by prepaying and I think that looking at what um CDs are going for these days that's better than we could earn anywhere else in that savings. So, I support the prepaying um as one of the provisions of the motion that we'll be making tonight.

Great. Councelor Smith, any other further counselor comments or questions? Seeing none, I would entertain a motion on this. Councelor Schmid.

So, I will be reading from the final page of the 4926 special meeting packet. if folks want to read around along and um councelor White if you can watch me on the math because these are a lot of numbers. Uh recommended motion is in four parts. Move to authorize the city manager and fire chief to number one execute a purchase agreement with Pierce Manufacturing via the Sourcewell cooperative purchasing contract for one 226 fire engine in the amount of 866,118. Number two, utilize approved funding from the previously authorized band, which is a B uh bond authorization note. That was council number council order number 102501 for this acquisition. Part three, authorized the expenditure of remaining funds no greater than the amount of $133,822 from council order 102501 for necessary apparatus equipment, communications hardware, and mission ready outfitting. Finally, number four, designate engine 7 as now surplus property to be sold via the third party broker or public auction as the manufacturer has indicated no significant trade in value proceeds to be placed in the capital reserve account for future fire department capital expenses.

Can I make an amendment to that one? We did. We need I think we need a second first. Okay. Second. All right. Then I'd like to make an amendment for the remaining funds as 133,882. What did I say? 52 I think. Okay. I I am amendable to amendment per the final page of second. So amended. Okay. So we have a motion and a second with the amended motion. Any further discussion from council? Seeing none, all those in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you council. Congratulations. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks.

Um I was instructed by it. Now that we are and then we'll adjourn uh motion to adjourn this special council meeting. Make a motion to adjourn special meeting. Second. Second. All those in favor?