Town Council - Regular Meeting

does since working here and every time it's like like four days there you go mister yeah you're unmuted up a bit. Oh.

budget meeting two in a row. First item, review and discuss proposed FY2027 budget in preparation for the annual financial town meeting which will be held on May 19th, 2026 at 7 p.m. at the Wolver McMahon school. At this point, I think I'll go with John McMe. Are there any other uh revisions that were made? I know we made some uh yet last night. There are any others, gone?

Uh so the uh let me just go through the revisions. so everybody's on the same page. So, first of all, the town council uh salaries were reduced back to the uh 26 levels. So, that number has been reduced in the budget to um what they were in the prior year. So, there's 21,828 showing up in the FY27 budget for town council.

And John, just to orient everybody, I think you're working through the document. It's a two sorry three-page document titled uh comparative amounts for FY26 budget town of Little Compton FY27 budget. Is that right thing for people to be looking at? Uh yeah, this is on the expense side.

Sorry. Thank you for having me. Uh the uh town clerk's uh budget was increased by the $82,000 which was reinstating the uh clerk uh in in her budget. So that budget now is at 319,916. Um, as we discussed last evening, there was some question as to whether the full amount of the allocation was being made to the senior uh services and in prior year there was a $16,000 contribution made. Um, I had initially uh reduced that by the amount of the grant that was coming in and I think I needed to gross that up. So, we've added 9,500 to the senior services line item. So, that line item now is at 89,700. And the last change was the um which we discussed last evening as well was the capital that will be funded through the general fund and that number is uh $218,000. the balance of uh 232 based on the budgeted capital expenditures for FY27 will be funded out of fund 420 uh the capital reserve fund. So those were the changes that were made on the uh expenditure side. The bottom line the operating expenses did not change. Um some of the uh items that were added I was able to reduce budgets elsewhere uh mostly in the uh town administrator's budget.

Um but um so the the bottom line is still the 18 million769350 which u matches the revenues that we're reporting uh in our budget as well. Thank you. Any other revisions to this budget from the council? No, I just want to thank for John with working with me at that senior seat senior citizen uh line to get that clarified. Thank you, John. Uh you're welcome. Yeah, John. Anything else you want to add before I take a vote on this? Uh no, not at this time.

I make a motion to send the amended budget to the clerk to deliver to the budget committee. Do I have a second? Second. We have a second. Any further discussion? All in favor? I. Thank you. Second vote to refer to the Tom Thor articles articles under the jurisdiction of the town council for inclusion on the warrant for the annual financial town meeting. And I think you'll find those in the handout here that you have. Are we talking about grants and charitable Patrick? That's right.

Okay. So, we went over that last night. I'll make a motion to approve them as written. We're talking about the outside of budget. Correct. So, we're not talking about all the warrant articles. We're just talking about the outside of budget ones at this moment. Under our jurisdiction? Yes. Well, but all of the warrant articles are under our jurisdiction. But you're you're specifically taking a vote only on the outside of budget items. Correct. Well, my motion is on the grants and charitable, which is Yep. 11. Do I have a motion? I don't see a second.

You got a second. Okay, we're in discussion. We'll take them one by one. And the first one that I see here is see if the town will appropriate the sum of $30,000 to assist in funding the little 250 celebrate. We should talk about that one or I would like to talk about that one a little bit. Um, so when I look at um last year for fiscal 26, the LC 350 organization asked for $15,000. Um, and this one LC250 is asking for double that for $30,000. Um, and I I I know that Patrick stated um last night that we're aware that they have a balance that they've carried over from the 350th. I think it's 29,000 and change. Um, so they have almost 30 to start with and they're asking for another 30. Um, I'm not against a 250th celebration obviously, but I I guess I just want to say I think the um LC 350 did a tremendous job. Um, we had a summerlong extravaganza and uh they also in addition to the monies that we gave them, they did substantial fundraising and found sponsors for some of the events. Um, and I just wonder given our uh current uh situation financially if we should be thinking maybe a little more conservatively about having another um you know several more parties um to the tune of $30,000. It just strikes me as as a as a big number. So I just open that up for other people's thoughts. Victoria, I had the same comment last night that the 350 celebration was

15,000 and the 250 celebration. I thought it should be the same as uh last year's celebration 15,000. I didn't realize they had that much money left over. And I also made a statement when Patrick said the fireworks were 25,000. And I said, "Well, we've got another stroke in here for$7,000 for fireworks. So, if we're going to put it in this um 250 celebration and we should take that 7,000 out that last stroke was on the last page of the booklet we went, that stroke should come out of there. I don't think we're going to have two celebration of these." So, um, when the, uh, Little Compton Celebrates 50, um, sent us their initial request, it was just a brief, um, narrative, um, stating the fact that they had been, um, appointed by the council to organize and celebrate the nation's 250th and requested $30,000. Um, when I saw that that was the only information that we got, I requested more information. So, in your binder, there's actually a um a budget, a spreadsheet budget that they provided for us that shows the events, and they have um a Friday event, uh a family day event, and a Sunday event. And all of them, it looks like totals out to $69,25. Um and they and we did ask the question if that included police and fire detail. Um and it does not. So, we know there'll be more than that. Um, again, they have roughly 30 to start with. Last year was 15. I don't know. It just strikes me as a number and I think we should discuss it.

Can I say something? Uh, I just want to finish with the council's thought here that absolutely. Do you have that? I don't You don't have your budget, do you?

No, I have my booklet and I was led to believe I wasn't have it out in the truck. I did go get it. I did see this last night and that's why I made the comment that $30,000 when last year was 15. There was a lot of contributions last year. So, I mean, I think that everybody's got to understand we just came out of a fiscally fiscal problem last year. And my thought is we need to start getting some money back in the general fund. And if the town feels the same way, then maybe they can contribute to some of these um fireworks and whatever that there is in this. So,

can you resend your motion to to do this as a block and and Yeah, I will. Let's uh I'm going to resend I'm going to resend my motion. Thank you. Andrew, can you I was I was led I was kind of led to believe that last night we were going to leave that 30,000 in. Let's do this. Gary, let's vote on everything. Every other um article on every other warrant on here under our jurisdiction is blocked and we'll leave this one. Do I have a motion to do that? Well, we're going to have to take it up at sometimes. Might as well get it over now.

Okay, that's fine. So my my thought was when nobody seemed to want to lower it from 30,000 I said well the budget committee you'll have something to say about it I'm sure cuz they're going to scrub this budget again that's for sure

right so this is you're absolutely right so this is uh draft of the budget this is our the council these five people's opinion uh then it goes to the budget committee uh for their recommendation um and then obviously to the town financial meeting so every person, a taxpayer gets in their mail a uh a warrant book and that warrant book says this is what the town council recommends and on the other side of it it says this is what the budget committee recommends and they'll put approve or not approve. So, I think it's thoughtful that we make a thoughtful decision here on any of these articles because when it goes in someone's mailbox, I got to know what the five people think up here about these articles. I don't know if this is the right time to propose this, but is there a way that we can authorize the expenditure of a sum of money and its distribution would be phased so that we can uh agree to give a sum of money in certain I'll call them crunches or certain portions and we can then evaluate I am concerned concerned that we have not yet solved our problem and the possibility exists that as we proceed through fiscal 27 we will find that we have planned for expenditures that we don't have revenues for. Now I I don't that's it's not a I don't think there's a skeleton in a closet or anything like that. It's just the fact that I would like to live out a portion of this before we say sure all of these what I'll call u discretionary decisions not paying for policemen or not paying for uh employees of the town

or not paying for things that are hard expenses these may come to pass in a in an amount or we may say in the midst of it we need to scale that back or we need to drop something out fireworks as an example. So could we could we say in our approval that we want to approve the expenditure of some sum of money in uh segments that will be quarterly for instance and and and the entity cannot request the entire sum at the outset of the fiscal year. It would be different. It isn't it isn't what we've done before.

I have a question. Are you suggesting just breaking the the dispersements into quarterly chunks to help with cash flow or are you suggesting that you break it into quarterly chunks so that we revisit it at every quarter to say can we afford this? Can we afford this?

I think the former I think the former would drive the latter in terms of we would then say any issue with releasing let's say quarter number two's uh distributions. I I I'm just speaking from a a hypothetical. I don't know if this is even legally enforcable, but it certainly is in in the fact that these are people uh outside of the town government requesting that the town fund certain things. And if the town is going to fund them, could they fund them in phased manner rather than uh block funding? I think for me it's it would be important to be clear and understand if we're just talking about quarterly payments that people can bank on because essentially they're giving us their budget and they need to know whether or not we're going to support their budget or are we saying quarterly payments if we if we have the money in which case they can't count on it for their budget. So I think we need to kind of determine what what we're going for with that suggestion. Right.

Well, I think as this aspect with the fireworks, you break it down quarterly. This is this is going to come up in August right after the in the first quarter. So, you'd have to give them the whole thing because yeah, other three quarters, the money's going to be there. They're not going to be able to utilize it on this one. Maybe some other ones we can bring it up to quarterly. But on this one, you got to give them either the whole amount or let them know what they think of what we think they're going to get. Like I say, the budget committee is certainly going to have the last crack at this. So, well, again, that the taxpayers will see what our crack is in their mailbox, right?

So, one other thing, and I think we all know this, that uh budget committee can reduce given, but they can't increase it. So, if there's anywhere in here that we think is absolutely needed or there's a question, it's better to put a little bit more in, let the budget committee reduce it because they can't increase any of these line items. They can only reduce them what we give them. So

I think if we're going to let make a point. Yeah. Uh just with regard to the budget committee's authority uh in the charter 502 does the committee shall have the authority to recommend the the increase decrease or elimination any request for appropriation or line item. So they have they have the power. I mean they can for instance propose an uh in order to meet a a number they can propose an increase in one and a decrease in another and come out the same. But the charter clearly says that they can increase and decrease

but they can't they can't increase the bottom line that we give them. No it says they it says they so if we give them a budget of 17 million they can spend $18 million. They could recommend 18 million. can make they can only make recommend recommendations. They're constrained by the same tax levy limit that your budget will be. So they I mean I'm just saying that the charter does give them the charter says that they recommend the budget to the town meeting. I believe you are suggesting and or or you are reflecting a past practice that was very very important to the health of the town's financial position

and it was the fact that we the council allowed that to not be the case right and the allowance is certainly within the charter that the that the budget committee could do that but I think this is an example of where we want to say this is this is say from the from this seat this is what we believe the budget is to be and changes should be rare quite frankly if we're working together

I think we've found out in past FTMs that we've recommended a budget that's right at the 4% and then somebody will stand up in the audience and say I want to raise that 250,000 then we're over the 4% and we have to take it out somewhere else.

That's when we took it out of the unrestricted fund and then go back and and slash it somewhere else to balance our budget. That's what got us into this mess. Did you have something? I know you got cut off. I just I just hope that if we do put the $30,000 in the budget tonight that the organization comes forward to the budget committee and presents other fundraising efforts because as as it stands it seems like the town and their existing budget seems to be propping up the whole affair and I think that that's a little much to ask of the town right now in the position that we're in. Um, I'd really like to see the committee, you know, do a little bit of fundraising to help with this effort.

I I was just going to add also that um, first of all, I think our town administrator and and finance director did an amazing job working on this budget and presenting us with a balanced budget for the first time that I'm aware of that reflected anticipated revenues that matched expenses. Um, and so I'm thankful for that. And and that that work that they did involved speaking with all the department chairs and having, you know, pretty sobering conversations about being conservative in in budget projections for their departments. And I I thank all the the department chairs for working with them on that and and being careful with their budgets. The outside of budget requests did not have the benefit of those conversations with our finance director or our town administrator. So this conversation is our opportunity to say how we how we view this, you know, from the council seat. And so I I don't again I don't mean to squash a party. I like to have a nice time. I think celebrating 250 is amazing, but it's it's a big number and I I really do think we need to take a serious look at it.

Hi, Michael Bookerelli, 510 West Main Road. Um, I just want to point out that the council funded 350 three years in a row. So, the amount I'm not saying one thing or another, I just want to point out that that 30,000 I think that the council funded 350 to the tune of $45,000. Um, because I think it was 10 uh it was $40,000 I think. Um, for me, I think the important thing to fund is the police and fire number because that's the responsibility of the town. And that's a big number, too. I think that was 31,000. Uh, so you're actually funding $60,000 for the 250 celebration, which um is proportionately a lot of money. So, thanks.

Thanks. I'm going to make a motion. I'm going to make a motion to appropriate uh $15,000 to the LC250. I'll second that. Further discussion. Not seeing anything. All I Thank you. Have a motion for the rest of the block carries.

Uh yeah, I don't think there's anything there that concerns us. Um you know, we're looking at a bottom line and we haven't heard anything from fire. It was 31,000 last year. So there's zero in there right now. I'm not sure what we want to do about that. It's just I mean I suspect it'll be a little lower because there are fewer far fewer events going on with the 250. This is the two-month long or I don't I don't know how long the the 350 was. It was like over the whole summer. So

it it actually expanded from January 1st of 2025 all the way through the second to third week of August with sporadic, you know, bulk of it was in August, but the majority I'm sorry, the majority was in August, but it there was random events all throughout the year. Yeah. And I'm not sure if 250 is doing a a huge parade the same way that we did last summer. No, they if you look in your book, you'll see. I mean, that must have been one of the bigger expenses for it.

All right. So, I'll make a motion to approve all the amounts and grants and and the charitable which there's 11 blocks and reduce the um uh 350 celebration to 15,000 11 block. Yeah, that motion's already been made for 15,000 and second bent.

You taking this one out. So you got one, two, three, four, six, seven, eight, nine. All right, I was corrected. There's nine and I'll make the motion to approve them as written. Second.

That's for the rest of them. And just to as we're in discussion here on that uh the question of the firing, I think that once the committee um gets a little further ahead from the from what they've given us, they they haven't told us how much. I think they'll need to come to the council for approval for that. And we'll vote on how much money to spend on fire uh and police detail. Patrick, let me just read these down so the public knows what we're talking about. The grants and they come in and ask the town council to approve them at the Brown L House was 10,000. Little Compton Food Bank 37500 which is level funded just like the Brown L House. Uh Little Compton Community Center Meals 30,000 last year 30,000 this year. Friends of Little Compton Nursing, 28,000 last year, 30,000 this year. Prevention Coalition 1,000 last year, 1,500 this year. Stay-at-home LC9 last year, 119 this year. Conservation District 1,500 last year, 1,500 this year. The Wildlife Clinic, which I don't think they did. They put a a request in.

I don't It was,78 last year. It's 544 this year. East Bay Community Action 750 last year, 750 this year. So Gary, I'm going to I made a mistake. I'm going to make this motion. Can you uh resend yours again? I have to have it. It has to be read correctly then what you're doing. If you don't mind. You want me to repeat? Yeah. No, no, just resend your vote. Just resend it. It's in my motion. Yeah, I resend. Second. Okay. All right. I think we're good. I'm gonna make a motion for the articles that are under the jurisdiction of the town council and refer them to the town clerk for inclusion in the warrant for the May 19th financial town meeting. Do I have a second? Second.

Any further discussion? All in favor? I. Thank you, Patrick. That was referring to just the nine that Gary just read, correct? Right. And uh we made a motion for 350 also include that in the just what did you just vote on now? I thought you said for all the articles under the purview of the council not just the nine all which would be include the two uh the 250 fund of the request of 15,000. Yeah. It's the whole packet of articles. Yeah. Yeah. whole packet,

not just the out of budget. I I just want to make sure that we're all clear on on that. Heather, are you clear on that? I'm not because I thought he was asking Gary to resend his motion. He did. He rescended it. Then I I made a motion. We were voting on the whole thing. Make a motion for the articles that are under the jurisdiction of the town council. You're trying to w all of the and refer them to the town clerk for inclusion in the warrant for the May 19th financial town meeting. I asked you if it was for the nine. You said yes. And Andrew just said he didn't. He was not aware that you were voting on the whole thing. Okay. And now you're you're saying it's not just the nine. It's the whole thing. It's the 10. It's the whole packet of articles. I'm saying the whole warrant. Every single article. The whole warrant. The whole warrant.

We did vote on it. Didn't get a chance to ask a question about it. Okay. like to just just just to be clear on So you're you just voted on the whole thing clear on that either. So now I'm I I just had anformational question I wanted to be uh is uh two things is the um is the lease article in here? I'm looking for this. Is that going to be handled separately? Voted on that last night. Voted on that last night. Okay. That is I think we sent that to the clerk.

Okay. And then I just wanted to acknowledge it looked to me that Heather had taken a version of of Carol's suggestion last night with regard to the advisory uh committees as they're called here and the way according each advisory bundle may be voted as an individual line item. That's that's new. Is that added was the language and they can edit it if they need to, but based on last night's meeting that was a suggestion that multiple said that that seemed like a good idea. Now, if their pleasure decides to change that language, they need to do so.

Well, so the only this is I'm just being I'm just nitpicking now. Bear with me. This is good in a way. this. So, I can I can live with this, but the the language I'm just looking at it from the moderator's point of view and following the literal language of the charter and also the voters's understanding and that we're consistent. The the language of our starter now says that uh voters may amend the total amount listed for any individual warrant item but may not end amend individual line items within such warrant item. Sort of a terminological thing but the the I I take this to mean that the warrant item is the article.

Mhm. This will be article whatever it is, article 25, let's say. You haven't numbered them yet. So, we're we're we're making a statement that's sort of contrary to what the charter literally says. This is article 23. Then we're adding a sentence to this article alone that says we're not saying he said despite what the charter says, we can vote on individ individual line item here. So technically we're making an exception for Excuse me. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Larry. No, you had a you had a point.

What I would like to say is I would like Ana to speak as a town administrator because she knows that we were very time crunched to get this document together and I believe she was going to be saying something about that with the way that the council will be presenting.

So again, this thising here's a suggestion. I have two suggestions. One is I made the point last night. These are just me. We call this category and we put a heading on it advisory boards. U I don't think this this format hasn't been there forever that that as I said these are these are uh appointed boards. They're appointed boards. Uh as I look at them they're not all advisory. They have different legal. So I have a suggestion again fine with me if we go this that we either call them appointed boards just just just substitute advisory just sort of appointed for advisory which is accurate for all of them and then this was this would be just to satisfy me. So if you don't do it, it's fine. But if we call this article, let's give it a number. Article 26 and then said something like 23 uh A through F and numbered and put those letters be each thing 23 A B CDE E F. I think there are six. Then we could say that the article is structured with instructions that are sort of more consistent with the charter. So uh that's just my suggestion. in Europe this is then we can say that you know we would just say uh each let's say appointed board budget may be voted as individual line item if we structured the article as one article u sub sub articles so it's just a suggestion and and that's uh if if this is progress if you do it this way but change the thing to just a through b and then put letters beside each then it's clear what we're doing there thank Thank you for uh working out. I appreciate

Yeah, I think it's fine to do that or to make them individual articles, whichever you prefer. But um I think the former was suggested by Carol to Heather for ease of or on your end anyway. And if you agree then, no, I I 100% agree with Larry and I actually am not trying to take his idea, but I as I was trying to type it at the last minute today. Um, that was one of my ideas, but I just got the language in there, so it could be discussed by the council how they prefer to have it done. And I will echo what Heather has said. We've been under a time crunch to recon.

I don't have the solicitor here to advise me on that. It's been reconsidered and add to my motion subject to formatting for warrant. That's an option I could do right now. Or I mean I don't have the solicitor here to tell me suggesting the the uh the charter says the the clerk makes the warrant. We're giving it to the clerk anyway to do that. I made a suggestion. Yeah. Leave it. Yeah. Fine. I'm trying to take it. The point's been taken, Mr.

So, Larry, just just to make make sure I'm clear. So, you'd have like 23 A would be uh the planning board. Mhm. A uh 23C would be Little Comptoning Housing Trust or the Zoning Board and but because when it says each a line item, it'll have each line with a number behind it.

Okay. So the and as Carol said last night, budget committee may recommend that we adopt everything with one vote or when or if not if we got to that uh article and we're doing it differently. Uh the budget committee for a citizen could all of them or some of them they can yeah they can pull something out. So there will be flexibility at time meeting as to how to how to deal with it.

So it's the page Gary in in the packet that is covered with a sheet that has at the top page that says book at the top breaking those out. Yeah, that that I just want to make sure I was clear on that. How deep in is that is that? Um 3/4 in. Halfway in.

I just didn't want Yeah. Okay. I just didn't you know there's no line items under those anyway. So they just want bigger. Just wanted to make sure that there wasn't two line items under one. They they can start picking that apart. So that's fine. I look forward to the formatting. I look forward to the formatting. Z Kennedy.

Uh, thank you. Uh, my name my name is Vincent Kennedy. I'm a resident of Big Drum Road. Um I have a question for purposes of clarity and that is with respect to the property tax line of 16601 and I want to understand if the 375,000 of pass due taxes and of interest is included within that number. John Johnw find the unmute button. Yeah, that included in the total uh tax number.

Thank you. Yep.

Thank you. Um, picking up on Bob's point about, uh, you know, a multi-year view, uh, Island General Law 4435-10 requires the town to produce a 5-year t uh, forecast. Um, and I was wondering if the town would consider it beneficial for the voters to have that in hand prior to financial town meetings so that they understand the the broader context. Uh, you know that we can place this in perspective. uh you know in my judgment or experience is that if you look year by year by year you rarely see the trends. Um so I would recommend the the council either develop or perhaps with a budget committee uh or the town administrator and finance director uh consider developing that five-year plan and have it available for the uh voters. Thank you for your time.

Can I speak to that just quickly? I I think that's a great idea. Thank you for that suggestion. I think one of the things that would be really great for folks to see is how we rebuild the general fund, right? That's that's the thing that we're all wanting to see that get healthy again, right? So, by taking the longer view, we could see how that how that how we can grow that back and how our spending impacts that. So, I think I think that's an excellent point. Anyone else? I'd be willing to work on evidence of help. I'm going to accept a motion to adjourn. Do I have I'll make it a motion to adjurnn. Are you think I think Heather is still

Are you clear on I'm okay. He's I just didn't realize he was at that point. Okay. Well, you've been working with blinders on. Set her head down. this I will I will make a motion. No, but Richie, are we So, you're not voting on any of these other items or you We did in one packet. We did the whole We did the whole All the articles. All the articles. I just want to make sure you're clear on the document. I made the motion. You want me to read the motion again? No, I'm okay. All right. I'll make a motion to adjurnn. We have a second. All in favor? Thank you.