Commissioner - Regular Meeting

We will now call this March 12th I'm out of it tonight. Budget work session of the town council. We'll start with the citizens forum. Seeing no citizens, we will move on to budget discussion. All right. So, um, this will be the first budget work session, um, March 12th, 5:30 at the Liberty Building. I have a agenda attached starting with operating budgets, but there is a, um, paypoint salary study um, that we want to discuss for the current fiscal year. I was hoping I could move that to the top and then we could dive into the budget if that's okay. And the salary study is baked in, correct? To the budget as proposed. Okay. Yep. And there will be a presentation at next week's council meeting for that.

So before we dive in, yeah, just want to say because it's for a couple people your first budget process, we can go as line by line as you need to go, but I would recommend each week just sort of having your questions ready so that we can help guide the conversation in a way that makes sense. There's going to be plenty of it that we have no discussion or questions about and then tons of it that we want to save that time for. So, just so we're not here every Thursday for the next month for hours and hours on end, I would just say prepare your questions and just know that the finance team is available between these meetings, too. We don't have to wait. If you want to sit down with Karen and go through something, you can do that. Yes. I'm glad you brought that up because I've got lots of post-it notes for questions. I've got notes in here, too.

Would you prefer that we go to the department heads prior to the meeting? I think let's see how this first one goes and go from there. But I'm just saying if it's like a a ton of really specific things, it's okay to go to the department heads and get that information in between if it's helpful to you. But let's go to the salary study and then we'll just dig in.

And absolutely like Sandy and I met for a few hours today. Like anything I can answer premeating for you that you know, by all means. And in my office, I have Crystal and I have Kip. So I have public works and HR like Sandy was up there today and I was able to disseminate questions between all of us. So by all means um Crystal if you want to come up we'll start the So basically we have the compensation and salary study and we were we can implement a piece of this in the current fiscal year with the current funds and so that's what we wanted to discuss. The rest of what we're going to ask for and you'll see in the presentation next week is baked into the budget. Um but this is just Crystal going over that small piece we wanted to do um current year. Well, you pretty much explained it all, but uh No,

no, no handout, right? I I do not have a handout. I just didn't know if I need to follow. So, yeah, I would follow up with Crystal on that. So, I did see it. I met with Crystal and Carolyn to go over it. You know, it's got every town employee on it individually and what the salary study said. So, we're not gonna Yeah, it's very detailed. Very detailed.

Very detailed. So um but ultimately so um last year uh council approved for us to reach out to a third party uh company to conduct a compensation and classification study. So we were able to hire Paypoint HR uh to come and conduct this study for us. And so there were several pieces um of the study that was conducted and some of the recommendations that came out of that study included um a recommended salary scale, keeping still the merit system style and format, but making the salary scale more consistent across uh the the step increases. Um and also it would allow for better implementation for any um grade, you know, grade increases, promotions that so the spread is more consistent um on that salary scale. And so what the department heads and I had formulated in uh based on the study report and recommendation is and that was the data that I had presented to Ashley uh excuse me council president Kaiser and council vice president uh Jeffrey Keiel is

wow we're going real sorry um um is to basically show what the cost so the potential costs or the estimated cost for implementing the salary scale um for April 1st. So implementing it in this fiscal year, this current fiscal year was roughly 22,000. Um and I presented that to Karen to see what she could do to work in the budget. Um and she would be more uh able to discuss any type of budgetary impact that may have on the current fiscal year. But because the the study had so many pieces whether it was the salary scale as a recommendation or and you'll learn next week uh some of our additional recommendations of implementing um getting us to that market percentile for our staff. Um but tonight my main topic was to ask for um approval to implement the salary scale for an April 1st uh 2026 effective date. Um

can we do that? We do we need to do that in a council meeting? I think we probably should. But I think as part of the budget, we wanted to talk to you about and actually maybe bring it to your attention so that way it can be considered vote on this next week. Actually, considered for the next week during our real our official meeting for the this year, but then a better understanding that and you saw in the footnotes throughout that those salary changes are baked into this budget as presented. Yes, I saw it. And the cost could be he's Jeffrey. Sorry. The cost could be covered. Still calling you Jeffrey. Sorry, sir.

We can currently cover the cost with the interest earned in the general fund because we've only um asked for one one thing covering the interest in the general fund this year, right? And so we are able to cover right now, like I said at the last meeting when we were talking about interest, we are 80 grand above what we budgeted for interest and we still have five more months of interest to earn. So that would be the plan to cover the cost. We wanted to give you a week to if you had any questions before we came to the the 19th meeting with the rest of us. Yeah. And I'd recommend taking a look at the grid with Crystal if you have a chance this week just if that's okay. Yeah, absolutely. My door is open. Crystal, you bring in next week. You I'll see it. So we can actually see the

I'm saying go see it with Crystal between now and then. You all right with that? Yeah, that's not a problem. Yeah, the data is quite large. So, it's Jeff luckily has already seen the dollar. That's why he was late. Thank God. He knew he was square on this. Yeah. So, it's the surplus that we have that would pay for that.

So, it would be the the interest surplus. Yes. Above. So, we budgeted 75,000 in general and enterprise on what we thought interest would be. Um we are currently at 150,000 on each side. Um we still have five more months of interest to earn. So we have accumulated 70 like 77,000 above what we expected with still five months of interest to earn. So that would be how we would cover the um current fiscal year. Appreciate that. It's my understanding a couple other departments may have some capital expenditures yet this year that may have been budgeted for next year or planned for next year but wanting to do this year and those will that

surplus also help cover that? So the surplus will help the CPU on the enterprise side which they asked for last week and the operating budget itself in the streets department is what's covering the truck that was asked for last week. I don't believe there's any other asks we're doing for the current fiscal year as of now. Right. So the two from last week was the truck which we're covering within the current actual operating budget not the surplus because there was still room in his spending this year. And then the CPU on the enterprise side was what we were using the surplus uh piece of that to cover the 65,000 for that. Police chief was maybe talking about computers that price may go up if we don't do it before.

And so he did um give the quotes and what we put in the capital budget and what's inclusive of this already is inclusive of the radios and the computers. Computers. Yes. So they're already inclusive of the this not including the surplus in in this year for it's for 27 unless you have a discussion to go sooner.

You've got to come up to the mic if you're going to talk. Chief, sorry. Yeah. No, it's okay. Chief, no. That's why we always have the department for our massive viewing audience at home. Yeah. You need to be able to hear it. No. As far as the computers go, yes, it's a necessity, and yes, I would love to have them now because we're we're at a place where we need them now. Uh, however, if it's beneficial for the town to wait until we strike the budget for FY27, then that's just what it's going to be. Um, I'm fine either way. Um, we we'll just suffer through the next couple months. You only talk. Yes. As we love to hear. Yeah. Yeah. Let me ask you how the quote that you that you gave council at the last meeting. We got red binders. We're talking about suffering. This is not off to a good start.

That's bad. How long was that quote that you got good for? So, when I when I spoke to vendor, the quote that he gave me, he said was good for probably about two months. He said it'll go up maybe additional 5,000 depending on the economy and how tariffs work and the war and everything else that's going on right now. So, um he said that is a general estimate. It may go up an additional 5,000. That's just a estimate. I don't know. After July. After July. Yes. So as of now the quote was 73 and some change link 73 100 something like that. I think I had asked Karen to put in for 75 to a couple any additional little cables wires anything that might need to come along with it that we may

and so what you currently see is 70 and that's because I printed these before the quote came in. So the adjustment I told chief I said I'll make the adjustment on that after the first work session depending on how the conversation went for the fiscal year. Start bringing it up early. Okay. All right. Thank you. and dive in.

All right. So, just really quickly, um, on page one of the general fund budget, I just a quick overview. This is inclusive of the property tax rate at 53 and a half cents as what it was currently at last year. This is inclusive of the public utility tax being at $13 per 100 of assessed value, the same as last year. With all the asks, currently the general fund is in the positive 47. Sorry, I missed my page. 47,647 and the enterprise is in the black. $10,18. Um, I would say we should start on page five and this would be the legislative operating budget, which is all budget. Um, we didn't do a whole lot of adjustments here except to cover the the new the pension cost and then the new FAMLI expense that Crystal will go into more detail when we unless you want her to explain that now. But

I have a couple questions on this one. So on the very first line, the volunteer dinner, do we think keeping that static is enough given the rising cost of literally everything? No. Okay. Yeah, it needs it needs I don't know what our final totals were for this one and maybe Gay and I will look at that and adjust. Yeah, she's gonna send us. Yeah. So, we'll get our final bill and then we have the gifts and that and we'll we'll figure out that final.

I do think it's meaningful for our volunteers. I think it's money well spent, but I want to make sure that the budget reflects reality. And then my next question is on donations and appropriations. Not saying we're going to fund the two requests we have, but I couple things. One, I would like to overall table the discussion on donations until next week. I have several questions on well, I haven't even read the one we got tonight and I have several thoughts and questions on the other one and I would love an opportunity to ask the people that have asked for money to come in front of us and have that conversation. And I'm frankly disappointed in the arts council's request and I struggle with that because I love that organization a lot. But so I do think this donations line needs to go up. I think we need to really put some thought into how much we think that needs to go up. And then we really need to put some thought into what's the ideology around what we are and are not going to fund. But I personally I need some more time on that

and that you know certainly five years ago I think that budget was four or 5,000. Yeah, right. I remember it was in 2021 when it got zeroed out. Also, even prior to that, there were there was additional funding going to organizations and so I know you sent that to Sandy and I early this year. Perhaps we could have that for next week to really look at like the last 10 years maybe is because we kind of dropped it down to nothing five years ago. So, the preceding five years of what that looked like would be helpful. Yeah, I was getting ready to say that Kieran I actually did that but it was probably five years ago when I did that. So I probably have at least five years worth of that history and then we can do the remaining.

Yes. So it would be helpful for us all to have that next week if we could have that as part of that donations discussion and then if it's okay with you all could we ask staff to invite the two nonprofits that applied to come and speak to us and that would be the arts council and the historic and we did we got another request. Yeah. Um but from um the Rotary about the Rotary House. So I did respond to him and just say please complete the form and all that and so then the Rotary as well if they need to let's just have them all I mean we we ask the fire department to do that. We sort of ask

everyone to do that and and like I said I've got several questions on the arts councils and probably we'll have several once I can read the historic society's one but those are my questions on this page. Okay. And we, you know, the the donations line we had been discussing back and forth. A couple that and the volunteer were the two that we had talked about during, but we wanted to let you guys discuss to see what you thought. So, we can definitely I'll print um activity. Um I'll work on it. I'll send them out an email, but also print them for you guys to have um at the meeting.

Yeah, I think it might be helpful just to kind of like do a quick glance of fiscal year spending because it was just detailed like and you kind of had to see, well, how much do we spend every fiscal year? So if you could just group it, you know, and just show I mean if it was every year like in a colmer fashion then added it down say we spent five this year, two this year, whatever and you can just see which entities or which organizations I should say you know who have we given to in the last 10 years and then it's very easy to kind of look across that would be helpful. Yep. Cool. All right. Anybody any other questions in A10? Can I ask for the sake of time? Yeah.

Uh like I have questions on page two, three, and four. You just hop. No, we I usually do expense first and then we go back to revenue. But I'm if we can go back. No, let's let's go back. We can go back. Okay. One of the things that now cut me off and we did this privately like on page three. Uh highway user tax went up 13,000. Yeah. Could that be explained real briefly?

That's the highway user revenue money that comes from the state to work on the roads. Um it's consistently it's going back up finally, but for a long time it went away. Um and this is a fixed amount that state sends a letter every year and tells us how much they're going to give us. And so that's where the number comes from. Right now they say um 379863 could change. Every couple months we get a new letter. Um but right now what's in the budget is is that 379863. You'll also see the expense side in the streets when we get there. It will match what's in the revenue side. Okay. How about on page three? Also, the landfill tipping fee went up $12,000.

So, the landfill tipping fee is what residents see on their bill as the waste m or well, yeah, waste management. And so, the trash those who take the trash from us. And so, what you'll see is this line is the revenue that we take in from the bills. And then in the C22, when we get to the waste removal expense side, you'll also see the the expense that we pay to the company that takes the trash. I would expect that to increase this year. We'll be going out to bid um as our contract's currently ending. So, as the expense side de or increases, the revenue will as well because we don't earn or make money on this account. It's just to cover the services that we provide. Okay. Thank you.

I had to note on that also. Why is it called tipping fee? Because I was feeling guilty that because I go to the landfill twice and I think I need to start worried about that. Is that what has always been called? Got to come up. Kip. I'm I'm sorry. No, it's I I I had no idea what we're doing. I felt bad.

The tipping fee itself normally refers to how much it actually costs per ton to get rid of it at the landfill. It's just easier to lump it all under that the uh contract services and that type of stuff. We can break it down so you can see it. It's um so no tips. No tips. No tips. And we can So that's just industry jargon that I wasn't familiar with tipping.

And it's just it's the name of our account. You know, we could always adjust what we name it, but it's Yeah, it's the name of the revenue account. It's nothing that's set by the state or anything that says we have to name it that. I think it just was pulled from a contract years and years ago of what it was called in the contract that we um sign off on for the services. I'm I'm sure sure it was cuz if I remember correctly when I first started here uh the Trish uh budget was figured that so much for the contract with the hauler but then the town also paid separately to the landfill per ton what they were taking in. uh several years back we changed the contract uh or the RFP to um explain in there the tipping fees are now uh paid by the contractor. So that's figured right in his price and everything. This is the best way to do it for us because if the contractor comes in and picks up trash here and then leaves goes out of town and picks up more stops, you know. Yeah. The way it was before you just see a ticket and well this is how much the tonnage it dropped off. We're only paying for what they're picking up that's included in the contract. And this line has an automatic increase of 3% per year um based on resolution or ordinance from a few years ago. Again, when we bid out this year, obviously I believe that'll change, but we'll see how that goes. So,

because the contract Yeah. the contract price uh schedule, it goes up every year. So, and at the time the current contract we're working in and what it goes up, they fall right in line with each other. So, right. It's just a flow through, right? What you talking about here, whatever those costs are, it goes for the residents. Yeah, absolutely. Appreciate the explanation. They give my dog a treat in the back seat every time I go and I didn't know if I should be carrying cash. You're going to learn so much up here, friends. Anything else on revenues?

Can I just again one time I smiled opening graves went up $2,000 and I apologize for the Why would is that just inflation or what? But go ahead. It's the that particular fee in that um in that part of the department. It goes up and it goes down. And it depends on how many people get buried throughout the year. The cemetery is the toughest thing to budget. Absolutely. Oh, yes. Very much so. You just don't know. Yeah, it's a hard Yeah. Thank you. Um I have one question since we're on revenues. Yeah. I I guess this is because of Ashen Ember moving out of town. No cannabis sales tax. Yes.

Okay. Sandy and I just had that discussion today. I have that question. So the sales tax is only on retail and that with Ashen Ember moving out, we don't have a retail cannabis um location at least at the moment in Centerville. So that tax revenue we would we're receiving we will not anymore. Um the county told Caroline and I we can expect one more small payment but other than that unless there was a new retail that will there will not be an FY27. So that wasn't related to the manufacturing facility. No, it was related to the store that was in the business part to Graysonville. Oh, they're gone now. It was the income tax or the tax on the sales that of what they sold is what we had gotten. But no, they generated that much revenue.

Oh, yeah. And ours was a very small business. Maybe our new CEDA can attract a new dispensary. Another discussion we had pressure. Somehow everything comes back to economic development friends. All right. Well, I guess while we're on revenue on the general fund side, it um any other questions? I will tell you the property tax increase was based on not an increase in the our rate. It was the increase in assessable base. So, okay. All right. So, let's go to page. We good in A10 and we'll head to A70. Planning and zone.

Yeah. Okay. The transfer balance on page. Where did that come from? So, this is what this is what I'm telling you. The revenue is 10,000 higher than expenses. So, this would be what would go to the rainy day fund or at to the bank at the end of the year. So, we spent less than what we're saying take it in. Yeah. All right. So, page six. Everybody was okay with A10. I'm sorry. Yeah. All right. I mean, we're going to come back to it, but for tonight Yeah. All right. So, Peter, this is your budget. if you want to come up. Um, I'll I'll happy to leave.

Just um, one footnote, you'll see the legal fees increased by 12,000. That was based on um, some of the history and and how the spending went the TND. Okay. I think I mean just from my visual of being at play as far as just sharing, I think she she stepped in a lot relating to TND last year. just a matter of like her continuing engagement and Peter can speak better than this as far as just to kind of move things through planning and zoning. So it it facil she's really facilitator to kind of keep the discussion and get the documentation written. So how that will look next year, I don't know. But

yeah, that was my one question on here was what was just the cause of that steep of an increase. But that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. And I I'm actually curious to see if it is even that much this year with Peter here. I mean, Peter has does a lot of the writing now and sharing reviews, but she's not been really writing all the

right. So, I think it's more of a precaution because we're we're also doing more. So, you know, there's more meetings and longer meetings and I'm her her role for me is more reviewing. you know, I'm I'm writing the first drafts and and all of the stuff of the actual like ordinance language and then Sharon's reviewing it and, you know, doing the doing the backend stuff on that. But I also think we're going to potentially get more, you know, because I'm here full-time, like I have more time to dedicate to all that, especially with Providence and things like that. So, there'll be more technical complex discussions, I think. I mean, it makes sense. I just curious. Yeah.

All right. Any other questions for planning? Um, what I think I may have asked this of you Karen, but what is the MDIA contracted services? It just stayed flat at 25 even though we spent 97. If you multiply that by two to annualize 15. So, can you speak a little bit to that? Uh, I um MDIA is middle department inspection agency. So, they are the ones that the town contracts with to inspect when there's construction. So, we we pay them. And this is also a pass through. So the customer also pays for they pay a fee for MD MDIA when they submit a building permit and then we get build through and so it's it is more of a passive

but if we use them for a situation like the mill that falls under as well. Okay. Yeah. Everybody good. Peter, this might be the most painless I know budget experience in your life. He just sat there and looked at us. The coun the council waves the right to call you back. Thank you. Very similar to my um county planning commission meeting.

All right. Page 7 A81. Kip. Um this is the municipal buildings but mostly falls into the Liberty building. As you see there were no increases this year. Um and just based on spending we were able to reduce some of the lines is the bill. So again Kip is it in pretty good shape. There's nothing really that needs attention. I mean again to reduce it 14K I'm fine with that as long as there's nothing that and I will tell you we did the revenue generator anyway. Right. Correct. And then we did put in 100k last year to get the roof completed. Okay. We had the power wash. They've upgraded the laundry room. We did the doors. You guys approved? Yeah. So they've done I'm not saying Yeah. And they're done.

Is it do or done? Yeah. Okay. So with that stuff being done um we didn't feel we have any big Okay. money projects that need to be taken care of or maintenance there. Um, you may see uh through the year I may have to come to you and tell you, well, we had a heating uh air conditioning unit that went up or had to replace, but they're not big ticket items compared to a roof or something, right? Larger item. Okay, thank you.

All right, page eight. Um, Department of Administration. This is Gay's budget. Um I'll kind of just go through the footnotes a little bit quickly and then you guys can ask any questions. Um the first increase you'll see is in the salary line and this is just based on all the things we discussed with the salary scale. The 40th percentile for that scale any merit promotions cola all-incclusive. The second increase is you'll see is the FLI line. This is just the expenditure increase. It reflects the mid-year implementation of the program by the state which would be effective January 1st and the employer is responsible for the contribution 045% of covered wages um for all qualified employees. So right now what we have input in the budget is just the employers portion and then the the other portion the 045% or 50 would come out employees paychecks. Um, number three, overtime. We just did an increase there based on how the trending has been for the last few fiscal years. Um, the fourth footnote would be the increase in the pension expense, and that's just based on the salary amount. And the fifth footnote is just the increase for convention, meeting, and lodging and travel for MML, ILOM, and some HR conferences for the year.

It's gone way up. Yeah, just keep increasing. And I'm not like I'm not SC. So by all means any questions? I just wanted to give you an overview of the footnotes and ask anything. I just I my first question maybe my only one for A92 is what is community grant pass through? So that and it I know it's not from this year. Yeah. So we had a um grant with the town was a um a pass through for um give me one second. It'll come to me. Um Crossroads they did a grant and it had to be through a government agency. So we were the pass through. You might see more requests like that just because like all the federal earmark rules have changed for nonprofits and that's why we didn't want to municipalities.

Yeah. And we So we left leave the line there in case we end up using it to help so you can kind of Yep. Okay. Is the budget for salaries excuse I'm losing my voice. Um does that include any anticipated new hires this year that may or may not been approved yet? Yes. So it in A92? No. not in not A92 as an as an overall in the budget it would include if anybody is asking which you'll see in a further in further discussion but in A92 there is no new hires um for FY27 so A92 is just the admin team basically so everybody at town hall

yeah everybody at town hall Peter Crystal um all finance if anything was added relative to economic develment Would that be in this department? Yes, we need to discuss that. Yes. And I will just um just give you a heads up. A927440 GR NT um the grant writer actually passed away recently and so we will be removing that 2500 from the budget. She had just helped um Tanya with writing for the federal piece because she had so much federal background. Okay. So that 257440 GR NT I will for the next work session it'll be zero.

Can we and maybe it's in here somewhere. I don't remember when I went through this to make my notes but can we get a breakdown of the salaries in A92? Yeah. To help inform that discussion about economic development y that help and we can discuss that next can you Thank you. And I guess anywhere that there's headcount. Yeah, potential headcount addition. Let's get that. And she has um her spreadsheets by department, so it should be easy to Perfect. Thank you. I definitely want to have that conversation, but let's have all the information we need when we have it. Those can be more significant increases. So that's right. So then we're going to have to figure out where to cut some things and we're not in the Blackberry much. So

barely. Yeah. Yeah. Just had a question on special events. So there was a budget of 50,000. Was that for the fireworks? Yes. So estimated action will be higher. It'll come up closer because that'll have Well, that's July. So that'll happen. We'll be we've paid a deposit for the fireworks and then our before the fiscal year 27, we have to pay for the second half of the fireworks that falls in the FY26. Yeah. And that's why it drops down because we're only doing the fireworks for the 250th. And when I did the actual as of in February, um, we hadn't paid the first half deposit. That's why it's so low. kind of fun, but it'll catch. Yeah, we just

as I update each week, I try to update the actuals for the current year just so you can see how that progresses. So, when I print your packets for next week, that should be updated as of March.

So, any other A92 questions? We'll come back to it on the personnel front. All right. Page 11. Police Department Chief, come on up. Budget. I'm just going to quickly go through his footnotes and then any questions. Um first one is the salary the same as before. Um the same with the family line again the from the state of Maryland. Number oh sorry just on all of these were the YMCA fees somewhere else previously? They were in A92 all and we spread them all out. Yeah. So we wanted on the trial basis we just put it in A92 but now that we're going to continue

people are using it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We can then you can see trend like throughout department and stuff like that. Awesome. Okay. Um the personnel incre the pension increase is again just based on the number for the salary and the same with the health insurance just driven by the pos the filled positions. Um and chief's up here if you had any questions regarding any specific lines in his budget. It just look so maybe as far as the filling of FTEES or positions. So health insurance is you know bud budget over budget 103,000 over the salaries are over 88. So let me I'm sorry just that proportions maybe just the filling

it was actually a mispoke the health insurance is not based on well it is for positions but if there's no new positions the health insurance is also we budget it at a 14% increase due to trend until we get back um I should be getting the actual estimate hopefully before next week but um but it's the meeting in two weeks when we're making our decision or whatever. healthare related decisions. Yeah, I think yeah, first one in April. Yeah. And I didn't make I typically ask council um some like the first meeting in April for a a pre-approval for health insurance just so that Tanya and I can work on the open enrollment uh which begins in May.

Okay. So, these may adjust after Okay. Yep. I mean, um, my understanding is our estimated, um, cost is going to be between 11 and 13%, but we kept the 14% because that was what our original and I I missed the 14. I don't know how I missed that, so I'm sorry. Yeah. But yeah, the increase we didn't necessarily is that pretty typical each year that we're seeing increases

11 to 13% or 14%. Um it it depends upon the um the cost of claims. Um because we are self-insured, we have a little bit more control um and also more eyes. So that way I can actually see how the plan is going and see what we can do um to make more awareness and try to help you know lower cost of claims. Um I would say a lot of it too just it depends upon overall trends. So cost of prescriptions if those increase then you know then it's something out of our control.

Um I think last year it was maybe 8% or 9%. So it really can uh vary. Now, even with our increase, you know, we we did receive a surplus um because the actuarials that calculated what our premium cost total would be, our claims did not actually hit that mark. So, that does help. But the actuarials do try to have a cushion so that way we are not having to do a lot of cost uh cross share uh amongst other um health co-op members. And the plan is to bring the surplus and the recommendation from staff on how to use it at the same meeting um we do the health insurance discussion. Awesome.

Back to you, Chief. All right. Any questions for Chief on any specific lines? So, Chief, you're telling us you can wait till July one for your computers and walk. He said he could suffer until July. We want him to suffer a little bit, right? Yes. No. Um, are we in need? Yes, absolutely. Uh, has in looking at the budget, there are certain things that obviously need to be done more so than just getting the computers right now. Can we wait? Absolutely we can. Um, they are again, like I said, they're they're bandated up, but it's it's nothing that we can't wait till July to strike on. So, I think we'll be fine with that.

Did you do you have a lead time of how long it'll take for the computers to come in? So if so feeling like we should do this sooner. One of the things I talked to him about is maybe submitting a letter of intent to purchase so they could like or even trying to lock in that rate. He said we can't lock in the rate but um if I give him a letter of intent to purchase what if we um we approve it currently for 27 and we can prepay and move the expense to 27 once 27 happens. I to me I think the chief tries to be really thoughtful about spending which I really appreciate but I don't want the police department to suffer get them sooner and then they're only going to cost us more. And who said you're not going to have another failure of what we have now?

Well, so to give the council a more clear idea of where we're at, we have approximately 14 computers out of those 14 12 only are running at this time. Two are inoperable. And out of those 12 that are somewhat running, um, we're constantly limping three of those every other day. They're they're either shutting down, we have to keep rebooting, uh, while the officer is out on patrol, things of that nature. Things that we shouldn't have to do, but they're still working. Uh, it's just a lot of other things that have to go along with it that we shouldn't have to do. That would be So, they are on their last leg. Uh, definitely a need for new ones. Um, if we can make them work to July, great. If not, we'll figure it out.

Chief, the important question, no policeman or no citizen is in danger if we wait till July. No, there's no endangerment to to the community at all by waiting. It's just a matter of uh having the availability of the resources that they need to for reporting for incidents to to run uh registration checks, things of that nature. They do it all through these computers. Tag reader off of the computer too, right?

They do. Yes, they operate off of as well. So we actually you know with the current we haven't asked for um use of interest in the general fund except for the paypoint the computers and the paypoint request can be funded with the current surplus with the FY26 interest um if you wanted to go that route so that they could one use the cost we already have two get them replaced before Yeah. I mean I I'm in favor of that. Yeah, we need to address this and we need a memo. We need a memo from the chief for next meeting and Yep. And if you just add a line um for we can talk about you know but funding with the current interest surplus in FY26. Mrs. Luffman and I will get together we'll we'll get a

amendment. So formal tonight guys it's a work session tomorrow by noon. And so by doing this when I remove the 70,000 from the capital it will put 70,000 back in the general fund for FY27. Miss I'll adjust that. Will you be will you be available tomorrow? Yeah. Okay. I'll get with you tomorrow then. Okay. Okay. Yeah. And so we'll do that. Have the memo ready. Remove it from the capital. You won't it'll put 70,000 in the general fund. So it'll be in the positive over 100,000 then for FY27.

Can you also how what was the lead time did you say? So I if we if we give him the letter of intent to purchase uh let's say tomorrow u he says that he could probably get the whole package together and sent within two weeks. Oh wow. He said he said the items are in a warehouse. So he has a pull from a couple different warehouses but we we could it would be sent to us within two weeks. Please bring us a memo. Yep. They'll do is the 5,000 you're saving with K9 you're just feeding the dogs less?

No vetting. We're getting out of the winter weight into the summer weight. So, um, no. So, part of the K9 line and the reduction in that cost was because originally we anticipated on possibly adding a third K9 to our team. Uh, we've kind of backed off of that right now. Um, given her positions and interest, we have two perfectly active K9s and they're doing very well. So, we're going to leave it at that and then we can spare the 5,000 to that line. Good. Awesome. All right. Anything else for B10? All right. Page 13 is Goodwill Fire Department. Um, I just currently left the 75 that we did in the previous year, unless there's any any talk from Jeff. Okay, we can move on to the streets department.

Why' you just skip went right past me just that fast? I'll let you speak to No, I'm any I mean at this point we, you know, you guys can definitely have a discussion on how whatever way. I just They haven't come to us for anything. No, we don't. Okay. They didn't ask me to increase it either. Okay. All right. So, page 14, next up would be public works, streets department. Um, I'll go over the footnotes a little bit. The first four are pretty much similar in the rest of the departments. Go ahead. Um, number five for un Oh, sorry. You need to go.

Yeah, we can come back to anything that like we're not striking a budget tonight. We can come back to anything next week. That's why we have You're going to get a new budget book with any changes that we've made or or asked for. Oh, yeah. And we go through from beginning to end again every week until we feel good about it. Yes. I already told her I had to buy a bigger truck to haul this thing around. Oh, it gets heavier. Yeah. Yeah. It'll only get more like this. Sorry. Thank you. Happy birthday. Yes. Enjoy your day. Yes. Happy birthday. Enjoy the lobster, Fred. Yeah. I'm going to hang out. I want to go. Can we all just All right. So, do you have enough for all of us if we just adjourn now and come? Do house first tonight is lobster.

Oh my god. We've got a whole bunch of people. See, we're all drooling now. Yeah. Right. And we'll be here. Yeah. Suffering with the I know with the budget. All right. So, um number five increase was uniforms and clothing and that was increasing the vendor cost for the upcoming fiscal year. and six for repairs and maintenance increase is just kind of looking at trend and prior year um expenditures. So, if you all have any specific streets department questions, can I go back? Uh, snow removal was up 8,400. Kip, I guess I we should probably double that after this year.

Well, well, the thing with the snow is we haven't spent a whole lot of money in previous years and again, we had two storms and they ate this budget up and you just never know. We had I don't know how many probably eight or 10 years of nothing minimal. So,

the council did make it an encumbered line a few years ago. I will say he blasted through that this year, but that's why we added 8,400 just to try to in case something was to come up next year. What's scary about this budget overall, not at all this section, but just as we go through this, is like we we tax revenues are up because of assessments being up and the budget's barely in the black and we're not doing anything new or radical here. Like we're just keeping the lights on, you know. And and it's just concerning and a cost in the cost increase environment that we're in. So, appreciate the staff, you know, buckling down on this, but it's just not a great it's not a fun budget environment.

Yeah. And I will tell you, you know, we've been meeting since December and every week I went back to department heads. I'm so sorry, but I'm like, what can you cut this week? Yeah. We, you know, we wanted to present a balanced budget, but we also wanted to make sure you knew that what the needs were and Yeah. And it's helpful for us too to know some of those things that didn't make it in just so we can understand the from a little bit. But I don't have any specific questions on this one. Can I just ask Kip Kip streets and curbing up 133 this expenses or price of materials or what? Stricts and curb. Yeah, it it's so that's the HUR money. Yeah, the HUR money. Um that's based on the revenue that it's the exact same number.

That's the one we talked about earlier in the revenue piece. Yeah. All right, Sandy. Yeah. Um just in your footnote Karen and I see you Kip, there's two new FTEEs that have been budgeted here for this year. Can you can you speak to that? That would be the positions, Kip. The two new fulltime

Sorry. Yeah. Okay. Yes. Um with the services that the town's given and of course it's growing. People may not think that the town's grown much, but there's always services that the residents are wanting and we're adding. Um, so public works is pretty much working on a shoestring. I we finally got a uh public works crew that is knowledgeable. They're all working together. We can do much more of the uh like emergency repairs and stuff inhouse rather than contract out. But what that means is when the staff is all working on something like that, there's something else that isn't getting done that day or that week if it's a week-l long project. So, um, what we're asking for is two part-time people to help mow grass this year. Yeah, we'd love to have two more full-time people that we can start training up.

These are two full-time. Yeah. Oh, I thought we the two part time's already in. Okay. From they were approved previously. So, yeah, you just haven't been able to fill them. Yeah, basically because that's that's the next project problem that we have is uh getting qualified to stay staff to apply. So, what's your vacancy rate right now? How many FTEEs? Is it just these two part-time or is there other FT? One full-time we're missing right now. Just one and two part time. two seasonal seasonal and one full-time. Okay. And then these these two FTEEs, what's their job position? Utility worker.

Utility worker. So, they're both the same job code. Okay. Um, yeah, this is just um Okay, just to have more information there. The other is just on the the sidewalk because I know we added 50k this year and I know you done a study like I don't know a year whatever as far as like where's the need so not for now but I think we communicated as far as just how you're determining how to because I knew residents said you know this sidewalk needed repairing and stuff like that. So, I just didn't know how you were approaching it because I think today you spent 24 25,000. We're probably going to spend a total of 50 for the year. But

this time of year, we don't even look to see what needs to be fixed because with the freezing and thawing people using salt on the sidewalk and stuff, we could look at everything right now and then go back and look, you know, two months later and we could find half as many again that are maybe worse than the first half. we looked at. So, we'll be looking at that, like I say, about two months from now to get a better idea of where we are. I have a related question.

So, I know when we did the sidewalk ordinance, if the damage was caused by the resident, then it's still their or the property owner that it's still their problem. There's an area of town where it's clear they did something they shouldn't have to remove the ice and the sidewalks are an absolute mess. Brand new sidewalks. What do we do about that? Because it shouldn't be our problem. But the sidewalks on Vincent Street, the new sidewalk that's put in from the corner of well, like Little Kidwell extended up to Vincent are destroyed. I mean, they're like huge divots and just like gravel essentially sitting on top. It's clear they use some sort of product they shouldn't have on those sidewalks. What do we do about that? Do we send them a letter? Do we We can Yeah. Can we go look at those? Yep.

So you can see what I'm talking about. Okay. Sorry, Gary. see you writing a note, but if you could just swing past and I know it's the property because it's their sidewalks on their property are exact same issue. Yeah, but it's our but our sidewalk too. So just so from that you're just walking through the town all town areas and just visibly seeing where there's like major destruction to say where should we prioritize? Well, what I first do is take and reook revisit the study that we had study right from 2011 I think it was. So from that list that's kind of where I start. Okay.

But not only me but Gary and the rest of the staff as they're riding around they're looking for stuff like that too. Plus there there's always somebody calling wanting us to look at their sidewall. And didn't the study list the worst to the the worst? They listed the worst first, didn't they? They remember it's broken down into categories. Um by sections of town, right? Yeah. By sections of town. And it was like places that had to be replaced. There was places that um could just

shave because of the mismatching joints and stuff. Um there was places in there that were listed even if they only had like a quarter inch difference, which is isn't enough to call um that bad of a problem compared to the other cate two categories. So, okay. So, just to follow back up on the salaries, did I hear you correctly that if you hire these two FTEEs, contracted services are coming down because you're not having to outsource. Did I hear they've what I said was they've already come down because our staff has gotten proficient enough okay

that we've been doing a lot of the work in house for good couple years now so um compared to what it was before we had things that we just didn't have experienced staff or nothing the current staff so okay um but like I say when we're out making those repairs or on that work, that means something else isn't getting done. And it's usually the grass cutting that falls behind. Um or the snow plowing snow plowing in the winter time, things like that. So they had a water leak when when you had to pull people during during the when the Yeah. when they were trying to plow

first snow. All right. So elaborate on that, please. So, so snow plowing everybody's like hands on deck on the snow plowing or am I just wrong? No, every that's right now that's what it is. Everybody is plowing snow. Right. Right. So, we had a water leak. Had to stop plowing snow and to fix the water leak. Okay. So, then the snow's got not getting plowed. Got it. Or we keep plowing snow and the water keeps freezing on the road. So, okay. Right. 22. All right. So, pretty in and out, right?

Yeah. And basically what this is, we just kind of um broke out the how the services are, but this will go out for bid. Um so, we kind of just did a small percentage increase until it goes out to bid and we actually have an actual cost. All right. Page seven. Oh, yep. 17 D10. Um she wasn't doing the page. So C22 is the trash and they it's just in. So the only increase you'll see in D10 is contract services and that's just the contract costs for the current contractors. They're um annual increase. And what are those contractors? Uh landscape maintenance. Got it.

Um they keep uh keep the areas the beds clean. They keep them mulched. um do some work on the trails for us too is included, but that that covers all the parks that we have, not just Milream. Uh right. Like the pocket park and all that. The Yeah, the different park pocket parks that we have, trails, that kind of stuff. I love our parks. It's worth it. Yeah, I'm good. Yeah, questions. We're on page 18. Page 18, Main Street. Um, this is Carol's budget. So, Gay, I'll let you answer any questions. There are no increases.

Thank you. So, I don't know unless council has it. We need to revisit this in concert with A92 and and I say this every year. I'll just say it again. I want a breakdown of Main Street. Yeah, you got I'll make a note. You got that, Gay? We'll come back to this fully. Sorry, I want to

Her budget makes no sense to me and I I want to see it broken down in a way that makes sense in what comes in from grants, what goes out to what, what comes in for events, what goes out to what, because a lot of it's in and out, but and it's probably me because this just isn't how my mind works, but this one has never made sense to me. And I would love Let's make this the year it makes sense. Do you need her to come in or present or anything? Okay, Gay, if you me and you can work together and we can pull some activity and whatever you need. Yeah, I think Yay can handle it. Okay.

All right. Good. Revisiting next week when we All right. Page 19, cemetery. Um the only increase is just to contract services and based on trends. This, you know, we can't budget good enough for this sometimes. But did anybody has any questions? No. I mean, I have so many. So many every year, guys. The same one. But every year, I'm bringing the cemetery to you for something. Keeping on. Yeah. All right. Page 20 would be H90. Waterhed. The only increase you'll see is repairs and maintenance. And I think just keeps up with the anticipated costs for maintenance on the street sweeper.

Okay. All right. Not a lot to talk about there. So page 21 and 22 is just the um enterprise fund revenue. I will tell you we did the flat 5% um increase for sewer and water rates. We are in the process of finishing up the utility rate study. Kip, Carolyn, and I should be having and the rest of the gang, sorry. meeting with the team on March 19th um in preparation for the them to come to you guys either the first or second meeting in April with their findings from the study and so that could adjust how we how how these numbers look but in in the interim is there any questions on the revenue

explain for rookie here the sewer going up 84,000 water 74,000 so those are the actual 5% across the board increases that are automatically approved um resolution every they council had did that a few years back just to account for yeah like five plus years ago at this point to account for any increases the in your um supplemental pages in the back I did put the 26 rates and the upcoming 27 rates if you wanted to see the breakdown and that was just as a reminder we're still trying to catch up on a failure to raise rates when they should have been raised by past the 2016 rate study um we never fully implemented and so We're trying to Yeah. Def catching back. Yeah. We're playing catch up on

10 years ago previous bad decisions. Yeah. So, we did the rate study. We did small There were two. Yeah. There were two rate studies done and neither one did the full amount. Yeah. I'm probably sitting in the same boat again, but All right. Page 23. Sewward department. Um, no footnotes. Let's see. one through four is based on the salary, the new family expense, the pension and the health insurance. The line item five for contract services, you'll see the increase there and this was increase in cost of current operations contract for the plant and any other maintenance, drying beds,

maintenance of the water towers. Still cheaper than we could do it ourselves. Yes. Yes. Can you and explain that? $168,000 is a lot of money. Yeah. And so what that Yeah, that covers like the cleaning of the drying. And Kip, you can cut me off anytime. Yeah. Um sorry, I tried to take over. Uh yes, it there's a whole lot of stuff in there which includes uh contract lab fees, uh of course the operator's contract, um the um which currently expired. So we'll be going getting a new contract which you'll probably see an increase. So, we're trying to account for that,

right? So, uh the yeah, cleaning out the uh drying beds at the wastewater plant um fall under there, which is getting more expensive all the time, too. Um maintenance and stuff at the when we have a contractor come in to fix something at the plants or something like that at the waist. So, and I think cleaning out one drying bed cost over 100 grand, right? Yes. Just to give you an idea. It's in the neighborhood. There's three of them. Yeah. Yeah. We clean one a year. Have we thought about living like pioneers and not having one?

The new plant will have a whole different operation to it. So, and in this line, is this where Whitman is? Whitman. Yeah. They would be split between Yeah. Between the two. Between the two, right? So that's another cause related to the plan which again it's still cash it won't affect

again this is but as far as whether you know the type of work that they're doing now if they're doing design work on the plant from an accounting perspective Karen and I have talked about it to talk to her auditors because it can be part of capitalization relating to this plant and can be depreciated over the life of the plant. So I just say look at it again cash is the same. So that's where when we put these graphs together that we talked about at the budget retreat to kind of what's our cash looking like and our reserves that'll kind of help us think about how our balance sheet looks. But um it's something too to just look at from a perspective of how to account for it.

Yeah. And there's other other uh uh engineering costs in there. We're working with um Davis Bow and Fredell out of uh Salsbury and East. So, their fees are in there. Some of that's for the expansion of the holding pond. Uh we were working with them on a uh INI study and how to address places where we've got uh inflow and infiltration in the the pipes. So,

and you'll see the increase in the contract service on the water side. It's not as substantial because the like the dry embeds is a sewer, you know, if there's more sewer cost, but you'll see that in relation C24 has the same increase similar increase in contract service. It definitely costs more to treat waste water than it does to drink the water to drink water.

All right. Any other questions on sewer? All right. Page 26 is the water side. Pretty much everything here is mirror with the sewer side except obviously sewer does have its own cost and water. You know, we do there's a lot of 5050 splits here. So, any questions on water line items? I have none. Anybody? I will tell you the only um salary increase you'll see here is just based on ARPA funds running out in December and the project manager then comes yeah into fruition on as a employee instead of a contracting cost

and that came on but how long how long is that project uh we hired the project manager in 2022 two yeah I like I think it's 2022 yeah and so ARPA has funded it yeah basically yeah ARPA's funded it through half of this year and And after December 31st, I certainly feel like we need to keep it through. Oh, no, no, no. It's not that. It was more about the AR, but I was just super fun to talk about personnel expense. Yeah. So, I just wanted to let you know that's if you saw the increase in the set. There is no salary in there except Yeah, got it. Makes sense.

All right. And we can go to page 29. This is the farm. And there's back to 26, please, just for a second. Yeah. What page? 26. Two numbers jump out at you. $30,000 increase in chemicals and supplies. 61,78 for contract services. Someone just explain that or chemicals and supplies are the chemical. Yes. They're they're going through the roof just like you know like your pool chemical prices are. So, and the contract services water and sewer kind of split a lot of the cost. So, when there's an increase on one, there's an increase on the other.

Thank you. Page 29, the farm. Yep. So, overall went down. 29. Anybody have any questions on the farm? No, I don't at least. Anyone else? No.

All right. So, the next page, just to give you an idea, these are the rates over the last so many fiscal years. So, you can kind of see how they change. They would include social security and Medicare, obviously the pension and LEOPS, and then the workers comp rates. And then the final page in the operating packet I believe you all have is the debt. And this just lets you know how the debt cost of the debt for FY27 and what our debt balance will be after all payments made in 27. So, as of 6:30 2027, our debt balance will be down to 8,741,000, which is awesome. When I started here, it was 17 million, and that was probably it was 10 years ago. So, we're doing really good on the debt. Anybody have any questions? The debt is the payments for the principal and interest are already lumped inclusive of the operating debt that you see, but I just wanted you to see a breakdown of where it went. Okay. All right. So operating complete.

We table capital until next week. Just think we should have a full council for that. So the only other thing and you can definitely table I think we should have council member view here for that. Yes. No. No. I I just think because it's his first budget. Let's Oh yeah. And so what I'll do the only change I'll make is I'll move that the computer radios. Yeah. So it'll give us an opportunity to see a more clear picture. I'll bring you mute um on grants just quickly chief if you could I have a question on one of the ones for police.

Uh just as a reminder for some of us and as an FYI for you Fred, we I asked and we implemented a policy a few years ago that any grants the town is applying for come before the council to avoid a situation where applying for a grant and receiving funding could create policy was the situation that I felt we had. Um, so you know, we just take a look at these because let's say the town was asking for money for something that we don't want the town to have. Just because someone else is paying for it doesn't mean we're going to have it if the council doesn't think it's a a good expense. So, what do you envision using the police accountability, community, and transparency grant program for should you receive it?

Uh, we didn't apply for it the last couple years. Um, how because uh the juice wasn't with our squeeze. What we were going to use that grant for is to offset the cost of our annual fees for our IIA pro and the Lexipole which Lexipole is our policydriven application and software. The IIA pro is our internal affairs and uh transparency software for the police department. So the IIA pro anytime there's any type of incidents, complaints, uh compliments even uh it all gets stored in that software so we can track it. Uh, so we're going to use that to offset the cost of our annual subscription fees for those items. Okay, great. I just want to make sure, as you know, Yes, absolutely. We're not buying anything crazy. We're not I trust you, but I just we want to make

Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. You know, let's not apply for a grant and get like swear or something. Yeah. Okay. We've been down that road. Not with you, but with Chief's past. So, and I'm not interested. Well, with that grant, I will say there there's a lot of hurdles to jump through with that grant. So last year when we looked at it, it was just it was a lot and the juice, like I said, juice was once squeezed. We might have got $7,000, but the the work that was put into it was just it was not worth it.

Well, and I appreciate this broader like these are everything we're looking at and maybe we're not going to apply for them all. I like I like I like the system that we have going on here. I just want to remind you that to the extent that money creates policy, I would like things to come back before the council. So, if something in a grant starts to feel like, okay, we're doing something radical, and I don't mean radical in like a negative way, but just something new, really new, um, let's just talk about it. Sure. And I think the only thing that was added, which I wasn't sure if it was in here, Miss Wright added it in here, was the Motorola Solutions here. Um, and that was what I had talked about the last council meeting that if we could possibly get this grant, it would all set the cost of the portable radios that we had in our capital. Perfect.

So, but that's I think the only addition. All right. Thank you. Yeah. Can I stay with the grants just for a second? Karen, help me out. Many of the grants amount to be deter to be determined and that's to do we determine that or the grantee how does that amount appear? So like we ask for what we think we need for this or that, but they would ultimately determine how much we get. We like to do this as a blanket approval, not to to say we because we absolutely would come back with anything outside of the ordinary, but we're constant like the deadlines come sometimes and we're like, "Holy cow." And then we have to be, you know, so if we do take these ones that we apply for every year and try to get a blanket approval to at least apply for them and then we don't determine what it's going to be.

And then we might not know the match until like with a federal earmark, you might not know the match until you're in the process because it could be different based on the most random seeming things about how many residents are on, right? Yeah. EBT and SNAP can be part of it depending on where the money comes from. And also they are rewriting the earmark rules as applications are due. So we just don't know. And then that's the same thing with other grants is they might say you need a match or you don't or sometimes they wait. Municipalities over 50,000 people need a match but we don't or whatever it is. We just don't know until we get in it with the grant. Yeah.

We could go ahead tonight and and give because this is just a procedure we have. It's not like in the charter or anything. We could give them approval for all these grants and I would feel comfortable with that. Is there any objection to giving consensus that these grants are acceptable to apply for? No, they all look the reasonable to me. And then the um the earmark um for the 900,000 and I that kind of is that what we're talking about? Yeah, so we were we um I think we had an original um quote of 100. Was it 100 I and I and the last quote Kip got was about 900,000.

Yeah. So, we talked to um Senators Van Holland and um also Brooks office about applying for INI. It has to be put on MDE's intended use plan in order for it to be considered. So, I think that's what we're going to try and do this year. Get the INI on the IUP with MD the intended use plan with Maryland Department of Environment. um and see if we can get the money for this. Um and if not, we'll continue to also apply for a treatment plan, which we're doing right now. So, yeah. Um but yeah. Okay. Yeah. The deadline's this week.

Yes. Yeah. So, we're not applying for this year. For this year, we're doing because we're not in the intended use plan. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. I think this was put together before we realized that we had So, we'll be we are applying for the wastewater treatment plant this year. Okay. Um by March 15th, next week. Yeah. Um and it's a short it's they don't ask for a lot and then they ask for everything including your firstborn child after. Yes. And we did we missed um Congressman Harris's um like a week federal ear by a week. We didn't realize but there's a lot less ear marks going out in the House. So I think where the action is is the Senate this year anyway. So I wouldn't lose any sleep over that. Nice. We were trying. We were like Yeah, we were trying. Yeah,

we were trying. But yeah, the House keeps narrowing and narrowing and narrowing the rules. Okay, so um we'll call that, if that's okay, an end of work session one. Work session two is next Thursday right here at 5:30. We will adjourn before the Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. group the brands or do we we gave consensus which is fine. It doesn't have to be anything. Okay. Just I'm like formal. Yeah, you're good. Um so yeah, we'll we'll regroup next week. You guys know the things that we need. So breakdown of Main Street, breakdown of salaries in A92. Um

yeah, the activity the capital adjusted for the spend this year at the meeting. Council members are encouraged to meet with Crystal and look at the salary study and talk through that so that we can make some decisions next week. Healthcare information will be coming soon. Sandy, I know that I don't mean to interrupt you and I apolog Sorry, I'm getting very um there was I know that there was a discussion about the parking study if we are adjusting the capital. I don't know if you want that to stay in the capital or after your conversation with Peter if

I just need a little more time because Peter and I talked a little bit and I think it's probably something we don't and it wouldn't be actually capital would be an expense. So Karen and I talked about that earlier. It's not a piece of capital or something you can capitalize. So, um, I put it there so you could see it distinct visibly, but I if approved, I would move to operating, you know. But, um, so I just wanted to look I haven't had a chance to look at the because there was a parking study done 10 years ago and then there's parking study that's being done now. Um, for no cost, right? G, you want to come up, Peter, and talk to us a little bit about that? You thought you were home real quickly. We said we could bring you back. You know, as soon as I said it, you were going to be gone.

Um, yeah. So, I'm working with the GIS group out of Salsbury to do a parking study in conjunction with the accessory dwelling unit update. Um, it's going to be like GISbased. There's no out of the university. It's they're they're like a nonprofit that is housed through the university, I believe. Yeah. They do a ton of really cool GIS stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So, they're um creating a bunch of maps for me and then they're going right now and then we're going to working through that, do an analysis of like where the streets are wide enough for off- streetet parking. Um and that will allow us to create a waiver process which is required for the ADU stuff, etc. Right. You explained all that to me.

So, all of that and then as far as like the townwide parking, there was a parking study done for the central business district in 2011. Nothing has changed since 2011. There's 170ish free parking spaces in the CBD. Um, you know, that's that's a thing. There's there's not a um parking, you know, we know there's there's too much off street parking basically. um whether the council and the council or sorry and the planning commission does has gotten a lot of uh authority through the code to like modify those parking conditions up to 50% um and a bunch of other tools that the planning commission actually has to like help uh alleviate those concerns when a developer can like produce the data that shows that like I don't actually need this many parking studies. So um

Got it. So I think where we're going as far we probably not going to need it. we have enough information to do it to be informed for the the planning commission to give them the information they need. Peter mentioned it at our last work session about that was in the works that was going on. So I think between those two, you know, any modification to parking or as things are built, you know, I think we've got the information because again that 65,000 would be an expense. It wouldn't be capital. So it would it would impact revenue over expense that line item and it would go into negative if the 65 was actually budgeted. So yeah.

So what I Yeah, I would have essentially if you approved moved it under under A70 as an expense. I just wanted to be transparent so you could see it separately as what it was. Got it. Okay, great. Lots to do between now and Thursday. Yes, please bring your binders. I'll have new packets for you for another tab, but right be ready to dive in. We'll have all your session and thank you so much to the department heads and all the staff that brought us a budget that that makes it my first couple years we were not getting balanced budgets from the staff. We had a different town manager. It was a whole different process. And so I really appreciate this work. We didn't start out. Yeah. You know, I appreciate that a lot of that happens before it's here.

Yeah. And I agree as far as just what are some of the things that what are some of the pain points that we're not aware of because we're getting more of a balanced budget. So again, the big stuff like I think that's important to bring visibility to that as well. All right. Well, seeing no citizens for a citizens forum, do we have a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjourn. Okay. We're ajourned. All right. And then we'll just