Finance Committee - Regular Meeting

Like to call the boarder to meet the federal finance committee, Thursday, 04/02/2026, 7PM. Small conference room, towel wall, 10 Neckerson Avenue. Sheriff or ignore. Viable, if you can. Settled with the offender.

I get a motion to approve the minutes from 03/23/2026. So vote? Second. Rescautious? Hearing none, all those in favor?

That aye. Aye.

Can I get a motion to approve the minutes from 03/03/2626? So a 100, right, six. Okay. I've watched on the third. Second.

Discussion? Hearing none, all this in favor? Aye. Aye. Yes.

Abstain. John?

Yes. Yep. Motion passes. Yeah. Next item on the agenda, we have a fiscal twenty seven budget discussions for the director of town managing, Joe Perkins.

Thank you, mister chair. Thank you for having me here. I want to provide an update to some of the points in the operational budget and correction plan. The budget book, I mentioned that we would update it as soon as we have the correct numbers. We've had the correct numbers.

It's the updating that has taken a little bit. We've been working with the vendor who is the one that has to input the information. I believe as of today, it is the revenue side of the book is complete and should be, if it's not already up, will be up tomorrow. I think it might be up today. I'm told that it's side by side with the previous budget book.

In this version, the comparable will be a much sleeker design with less information. I don't want to repeat the information that was already, you know, far as the narratives and definitions and different projects that were taking place that made up the 186 page budget book. This will be a lot more sleeker and I think easier to navigate and that was intentional. I think it's important that people look at exactly what they want to look at. It will be updated as the numbers change such as changes in the cherry sheet estimates that will happen in April, May, and eventually in July, but I don't know if if that would be the case if we update them after the budget's already in in has been executed.

I don't know. I'll look into that, but those will be two updates that'll be added. And eventually when we come to a conclusion on how to address the shortfall, obviously the expenditures of the operational department budgets will be added all at once at some point and we are discussing a timeline. And I'll get to the timeline shortly, discussions with HR and legal, there is a timeline that we do need to follow with how this process unfolds. Today, I met with both both police and fire unions, discussed their contracts.

Again, the information is limited, not only because we're still evaluating numbers overall, there really wasn't a lot that I could confidently state to the two unions because of, again, legal issues. They have collective bargaining agreements, and we need to follow established labor law and collective bargaining agreements when affecting potential layoffs. And I've invited HR director to assist me tonight. She's actually had contact with legal regarding the process of potential layoffs. I have met with all the department heads except Ross from assessors.

He's next door to me. It's just a matter of timing and convenience to him. He's really someone I can just pop in with and have a conversation. In light of last week in, the partial department head meeting evaluation and impact statements that I provided for you, we have discussed what is appropriate moving forward and I just have a couple little statements I want to read. I need to be clear about what I can and cannot discuss at this stage.

Under Massachusetts label law and our collective bargaining agreements, the potential changes affecting unionized employees must be addressed first through the appropriate bargaining process. What I've been told, if we're talking people in positions, that has to be done in a set process that the HR director will discuss based on a legal opinion from town council. I think more importantly, what I'm looking for from finance committee is an evaluation of the numbers and the impacts on the budget. Prioritization of budgets. Numbers.

That's your wheelhouse. That's your sandbox. How we get in effect those numbers or evaluate the numbers and address the shortfall when it comes to people, personnel, that's really HR's department and legal, and we do have a a process that we need to follow. I think your guidance is essential in navigating navigating this process, and I'm looking for your perspective on budget priorities and how we balance the fiscal responsibility with the service delivery and work workforce stability. I I have said it, I think, many times in my couple of updates and reports that I've given at the select board and with you.

Obviously, this is a time of anxiety. It's important that we consider the people. I think we owe it to our employees and to the residents to come up with a solid evaluation on how that's done. Again, I'm looking for your guidance on numbers and budget priorities. People is a whole different lane that certain people need to stay in, and I'd ask Allison to kinda touch upon what she received from labor council today.

So thank you, chair and members of the finance committee for the opportunity to speak tonight. I want to begin by acknowledging the human impact of the financial challenges we are facing. Please keep in mind, behind every budget line is a person, a colleague who serves this community with dedication, often quietly and without recognition. Our employees are the foundation of town operations, and any discussion about potential reductions weighs heavily on them and all of us who work alongside them. As the HR Director, my responsibility is to ensure that any potential workforce changes follow all required Massachusetts law and our collective bargaining agreements.

These procedures are not barriers. They are essential protections for not only the employees, but also for the town. I also want to speak to the importance of how we approach this process When employees see disagreement, blame or division among those responsible for guiding the town, it increases anxiety and erodes trust. Our staff look to us for steadiness. They look to us for clarity, and they look to us for reassurance that even in difficult times, we are working together towards solutions.

Our employees deserve to know that every possible option is being explored, that decisions will be made thoughtfully and that their well-being is the priority. They also deserve to see their leaders united in purpose even when these conversations are hard. I want to emphasize that the HR department is available to provide guidance and connect employees with support resources. We will communicate with compassion. We will follow all required processes, and we will do everything we can to minimize disruption to the people who will keep this town running.

I encourage all of us, elected officials, appointed officials, and department heads to approach this challenge not as separate entities, but as one team. Our employees and our residents are counting on all of us to work together. Thank you.

So in, you know, conversations today, we really we I want in the spirit of transparency and collaboration to be able to execute this process. I think, again, if we focus on what our responsibilities are in work and communicate with each other, Again, I'm looking for the guidance from the number side and budget priorities from each of you. I don't know how much discussion we can have. Again, labor council has stated there's a certain procedural issue on how we notify, and I think discussing those, potential cuts to personnel, I'm not sure if how much we can get done on the finance committee. So I would recommend that the members examine the budgets.

You don't need to be told by a department head what a five, ten, 20% cut is to the budgets. You all or you're not here if you didn't understand how to extrapolate the numbers. And then I think based on your common sense, you should be able to recognize impacts. With that in mind, I would ask you that you consider prioritizing where some of the issues lie with the budget, and please give me that guidance at some point, and we will help take everything into consideration. And then we will eventually have to, as a joint session of the select board and finance committee at some point, present a a budget that recognizes and addresses the shortfall that we're facing.

And I can't say the number because it it will change, but it is a big number. And I guess I would avail myself to you for any questions. I'm here for as much help and cooperation I can get.

I work through the chair and this is someone who's done this type of work for a long time, and I think, Joe, you and I have talked about this when looking at the budgets. It's really important to take the percentage that you are looking to have impact on, not as a whole number, but to segregate operational expenses in a budget and a head down expense. If you wrap them together, you really lose focus on to your point earlier about the human impact and trying to make thoughtful thoughtful cuts and doing it on an operational level first and then a headcount level second because if you if you assign a percentage to a department, and I've done this on a divisional and on corporate level, and you take a broad brush approach, people will ultimately be impacted by your recommendations when they may not have been needed to be impacted. So I would just urge you and caution you to Uh-huh. Take a departmental number, look at the expense side of house, the operations budget, Look at the employee side of the house, the expense budget, and make your analysis and your recommendations based on those two components separately.

And I I believe that's a good foundation and I I do consider that. And I would add an extra caveat to that, the impact on the community, most importantly. Obviously, I I need to look at overall services. What department affects the most people in town? There are issues that or departments that, you know, most people don't even understand what they do.

There's a lot of that that needs to be considered. There's, again, the guiding principles that, you know, as a resident, lifelong resident taxpayer as well, that's my perspective, and that's where I look at things. And I I unfortunately have to be placed in this position, but I'm I'm hopefully gonna use common sense as well.

Hey, Melisa. I'm sorry. I was, like, so deep in thought I forgot your name when I turned to you.

That's fine.

You know

I know your name. So

I'll take any other questions or any other suggestive guidance?

Mister chair? No? So

based on what I interpret, you said the Dallas and Silasbury. It may be premature for finance committee members to sit down with the bombing heads perhaps.

I've done that. And I think it in the spirit of transparency and collaboration last week, I started down that path and was quick quickly corrected that this isn't the way to go based on label law and collective bargaining agreements, because it did create a little bit of concern, and they were impact statements. They weren't people's names, but it was you can do I don't need to provide you with that. You should be able to look at those numbers. Look at a a overall department budget number, five ten twenty, realize subtract 20 with 10 and say, how are they gonna do that?

And it's not, and I've said this in the select board meeting, it's not gonna be a unilateral percentage across every department. We can't do that. Some departments can't survive with a 20. Some departments can't survive on a zero because they're already underfunded. But recognizing that and listening to bombing heads explain the service they provide, how they provide it, things like that, that those are the things that I'm getting, and I'm making an an evaluation, an informed decision on how best to proceed, I guess, is really how it is.

But any other, you know, words of wisdom you can give me, I would consider. That's what I'm here for. Thank you. Thank you.

Mister chair, so that's Ticcio. So looking at this, we need to look at kind of a a higher level. Looking at numbers, we're not gonna say how many folks in a particular department may be impacted. It's a number and I I realize I'm cold, that statement is out. I I don't mean it to be cold, but produce numbers that department head of this thing can look through how they might accomplish that or not. Correct. It might come back that some things can't be accomplished. Correct.

So Okay.

And and I I I do And I think they understand it too. That, you know, maybe at first there was a little bit, you know, the grief process. Denial's the first one, and there's a lot of denial but I think they're starting to understand the ramifications of the number. And again, the number is not fixed but I don't see us coming down significantly enough that we don't need to have the the frank discussion and look at everything. There is there's not gonna be some magic remedy to this problem.

And I I have to state again, we're not the only town. All you have to do is go on any website, local, and look around, and it's everywhere. Oh,

mister Beck. I just wanna ask a question that's a little bit more procedural. So we're gonna get basically an updated budget book and if we have specific questions about specific numbers in the budget book, what's the process for asking those questions? So I

so here's the issue, I encourage everybody, once that new sleeker version, appears next to the old, or the first version, side by side, I I recommend everybody to look at it, do the math, go through it. First thing I want you to do is call me if you notice a discrepancy. That's the number one thing that needs to happen. I've had it checked, we've double checked it, we've triple checked it. I think the the front side of the book or the revenue, the financial position of the town prior to executing operating budgets, that's what's on there.

Again, it's 99% what I've presented. It's cherry sheet number adjustment. It's the increased health insurance contribution, and it's the lowering of lowering the estimate of local receipts. And then those numbers applied, that's you could follow it right down. This is the number as of today.

Again, I I do think looking this is what again, as members of the finance committee, I think you can all look at the old budget book and you can read through and recognize the number one thing I was doing was looking at what are the increases from '26 to '27, and you look at the number and then you you go back and say why did that number go up x? Those little indicators, if you have a question about why is this number this when it wasn't that number last year, those are the things that we can look at, alright, is there a savings that we can realize by diving deeper into that budget? And that's what I've been doing and when each department head comes in, I bring up their budget that's in the budget book, we compare notes, make sure they're operating on the same number, making sure everything's matching up as far as what they proposed under the old budget. And now, okay, we need to find some areas where we can save money.

Just a follow-up on that. So call me.

So If you see something, just call me.

Just to follow-up on that though. So

And I encourage anyone in the community to call me if they see an an issue.

What's what's the process for if we are looking at areas individually, if we're looking for areas to that, you know, to cut, who who do we talk to to gain insight on what the domino effect

is So I for think that's a great question and I think procedurally on the Massachusetts label are not collective bargaining agreements. If you have an issue about personnel and funding, that's the type of a, hey, I have a question about this, call me. I can if I can't explain it, I'll talk to the department head, we'll, you know, evaluate it. Is it even a consideration in the addressing the budget shortfall overall, or it might not be. Again, I unless you find something specific, I've I've that's all I've been doing is looking at the budget.

Through the chair, that's why you wanna definitely look at, like, the operational side and see if you can mitigate the other end of the equation. Because you might find that in your departments, maybe you can squeeze more blood from a rock in the operations expense as opposed to someone actually came at impact.

Through the chair. To you, Joe, when you say that budget book's been updated, is it purely just the revenue side of the book? That's So So each department budget They're not

in there yet. The expenditures aren't in there. It's just the front side of okay, what do we know? We know we're getting this in local aid. We know this is a chapter 70 money. We know these are our offsets. We know this is the assessment. You know, these are the indirects. All those that you need to evaluate what you have before you can expend Correct. What you have.

Okay. So that is what it is. The one number from that backside, the operational expenditures or the department budgets, is taken from the old book, demonstrated in the new balance sheet compared to what we have, and that's how you arrive at the $3,300,000 number, which will change. It's not set in stone. Again, I think through increased local aid at some point, we need to look at, okay, the offset of what our assessments are.

It could it it will go up. Somebody may recognize, hey, this is something that, you know, it's not personnel, and I need to evaluate what my budgets are on the backside of the book. That's what I've had the department head start to do. Look at your department budget, evaluate it, find before you get to the people part of it, you look at, alright, what what is it that you you you don't need? Like, you can still operate with but you don't need to do this.

So it's just gonna be as far as revenue, just gonna be a cumulative number. It's not gonna be broken down like what

No. It is broken down. It is. Oh, yeah. It's Okay. You know, it's the new new growth. No. No. No.

I mean, as far as, like, the distribution of different departments.

It's just No. Correct. It's not the distribution of department budget yet. No. Okay. No. That's the other side and that's the process we're in now. Now that we have that side adjusted, now we're going to look at the the execution of the department's budget and how much they need to work and how much we need to make up to address that deficit. Fair enough. Thank you.

To the chair, one point of clarification. With regard to prior years that we may see in the budget book. I'm under the assumption that those are static numbers that are still in place from previous administration. So if we're looking at a static number from fiscal year '24, '25 or excuse me, '23 or '24, the assumption may be that number could be off.

It could be, but I think, I believe, based on a good found starting foundation of actually looking at the numbers we're getting this year. That's where you wanna look. That's where we're starting. Does that if there was a number that wasn't correct in the other budgets, Did we carry an unidentified small deficit that compounded? That could be helping Right. To address the issue of why we are here today. Yep. I have recognized that.

Yep.

But I disregard it because it doesn't matter as long as I start with the numbers that the state says we're getting.

There you go. Yep. That's kinda where I was driving at. So thanks for pointing

that Yep. Yep.

The next another question? Yes.

I'll do actually have a question. When when could we expect the updated?

So we're working on a timeline based on town council's Mhmm. Guidance. We need to have a a day that we notify the employees first.

You'd say unions

first. Unions first, then employees, and then that following Monday, we we would present the budget with those impacts affected or demonstrated in the budget, but they need to be told in a certain order. Unions, employees, and then they show the new budget at a joint meeting.

As chair so Joe, if if he tried to back that into a schedule and he turns up what when

I will have more information on Monday. I think talking with Allison and looking at the potential issues, there's gonna be an a lot of work that's gonna need to be done by HR and preparing notices, talking with unions. It's it's a big job. I'm going as fast as I can, but I don't wanna go too fast and make a mistake. So there's a lot of double checking of the work, making sure we're on firm ground as far as the process goes, not wanting to, you know, end up with a a grievance or unfair labor practice because we didn't do it the right way.

Because then it would just just be another problem for the town, and I'm doing everything in my ability to avoid any further problems for the town. So I think Monday, once we continue to do what we're doing, I think maybe for the Selectman's meeting, we may have a better idea on a timeline, but I I don't want to nail it down yet. But I think they need to have that type of information timeline wise so they can set town meeting. And we're gonna work back from a date, have once the town meeting is done or or scheduled, it's two weeks prior for publication. One week before that, we need to review the warrant, and then probably the week before that, we'd have to go through the budget publicly.

And then there's memorial days in there, and high school graduation is Yeah. But that's that first week in June, and the auditorium is not not available. I did get dates from Paul Brannigan. I forwarded them to the select board, so hopefully that'll come up on the whole business on Monday.

Through the chair, I think it's just worth worth noting that when you are in discussions with unions, that's all it is. It's a discussion because the membership has to ratify any decision. Correct. So you could have a union leader in and say, well, it sounds good, but ultimately it rests with membership. Correct. So I think that's important to know too.

In the conversations I conversations I had with the three unions today, the police supervisors, patrolmen's union, and fire union, you know, they were looking for more information just like everyone in town's looking for. I I until we have an idea on how we get to that number, I need to get to that number. I'm not at that number. So then we would evaluate, okay, the impacts of it, and then HR would kind of step in, and that's how we're

gonna do it based on legal opinion from town council. And then just one question for you from standpoint of our involvement here, is it necessary for us to be with the select board? Because it doesn't sound like it is anything

I think the only time that we have that joint meeting is during the presentation of, okay, here are all the departments and review each department one by one. This is the, you're at '27 original request, this is the updated '27 or revised '27 budget based on a $3,300,000 shortfall or whatever that number may be might be by the time we do this. Excellent. But I I would hope that you would be there and, again, I think having those questions that you might have as you're doing your part and you're calling me, you know, I I really do need that, and I think you'd have a little bit of, you know, an insight on where we're going and what we're looking at.

The

Finance Committee's role with the school department budget has certain limitations. Does the timeline that they need to follow, which they do have certain timelines working with their unions, will that be coinciding and be work I

have a 09:30 appointment with the interim superintendent tomorrow morning. And I've been talking to him the whole time. We're finally gonna sit down tomorrow and look at hard numbers. Just have some time. And again, he's a he's another resource. I'm that, you know, talking back and forth and trying to understand this again, guiding principles that I'm trying to apply from the perspective as a grandparent with children in the school, a lifelong resident, graduate of Middleborough High School, and taxpayer. Everything is on the table. We're talking everything through. Question of time limits. Yeah. But we'll meet tomorrow at 09:30.

So.

Didn't mister Perrone say he prefers acting superintendent?

I don't know what he wants be called. I just know he doesn't want to be called superintendent.

Any further questions, civil boy? Who else? We'll be on to That's all

I have. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Have a great night.

Thank you, Allison.

Thank you. Thanks, Allison. Double comment. I need to apologize.

Do you want me to state for public comment? Sure.

Go ahead.

Do you have any public comment? Sure.

You talk to me.

Oh, there's only three of

you in the room.

Dawned on your dog. Woah. It's here. It's a that by time likes messed up. It was I

can't follow this. Didn't pull agenda over my mind that

he and told him, yes, face the

Not

hours. Night. Would he ever just sleep. That's that part. It was not intentional. They just don't available to doctor Paul on the occasion.

See some for me at noon.

No. I've got to post an agenda for one. Okay? I will do the well on the board. I can demo for Tuesday inside the forty eight hour rule that said, please support or can go to Thursday timeline with a second to post something for that. Kinda out. If if the group is

on the Thursdays fine for me, it's the same. All probably need a little time to go through those numbers so we that doesn't mean if we're not having a meeting one day that we can't start those discussions with Joe, but things up for steam. Right? So those those things can kinda run on its own separate tracks. So I I I can Punker Thursday's okay, and I'll I'll probably come to listen to that that town managers update anyway. Just like where they will need this quite a bit.

Or words. Through the chair. That's why I asked in terms of how manager Perkins, like, if we need to be meeting with them because, frankly, I mean, to have us convene, he's not gonna be present here. So we're effectively spitballing without having the person we can speak with directly. So I think staying with the Thursday cadence makes the most sense because he has a, you know, demonstrated willingness to I mean, availability to meet with us on Thursday. So I think that's the best

path moving forward. I like there's this. My apologies again. I know I was supposed to have been just dawned on me. Mean, close the papers and I came with it. I'm trying to throw back. Apologies to that. Stella. Good. Well, it's was great that we'll be talking about Thursday and then John the other. Not if everybody wants to obviously attend the select board meeting.

Yeah. Of course. We can go as members of the public, you know. So that

that he any public congressional members of George? Mister Jack.

Our previous meeting caused me to really think about what's going on here.

I'll be

I sent a letter to the chairman. I think it was forwarded to members of finance committee, but I'm not

sure if it was I don't

know how that email thing works,

but I'd like to read it, sir. I guess I can't. It's Albert Garpen. There it is.

So I wrote this the day after the March 30 meeting. Dear mister chairman, I am writing following last evening's finance committee meeting to express serious concern regarding the conduct displayed during the latter portion of the meeting. The behavior that occurred, including inappropriate exchanges between members and the near escalation to a physical confrontation was unacceptable and does not reflect the standards expected of a public body entrusted with significant responsibility. At a time when the town of Minnalborough was facing one of the most challenging financial situations in the recent years, the residents, taxpayers, and students of our community are relying on this committee to demonstrate sound judgment, professionalism, and thoughtful deliberation. Incidents such as this risk undermining the public confidence in the finance committee's ability to fulfill its role effectively.

Equally concerning is the tone of discourse that preceded the incident which fell well short of respectful and constructive dialogue that should guide our work. I believe it is important that we address this matter promptly and directly. I respectfully suggest that the committee take immediate steps to reaffirm expectation of your guiding conduct, decoring, and mutual respect during meetings. Establishing clear expectations and adhering to them is essential to restoring and maintaining the confidence of the community we serve. We all share responsibility to ensure that our work is carried out in a manner that reflects the seriousness of the issues before us and the trust placed in us by the public.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. Bob Sullivan. Steven. Over some twenty eight years, I attended so many school board meetings, school committee meetings, select board meetings, finance committee meetings, capital planning committees, building committees. Someone asked me, have you ever seen anything like that?

I had to say, no, not during a session. So we are together, We're together next week, doesn't matter who wins, loses, we're together. And I know we could work together, but the false looking hunt and the prison that they see, I couldn't just sit back and say, well, let's hope it's better next week. So I I'm caught of the problem. So I had one suggestion, no one has this, I just put together some middle of our finance committee operating guidelines and if the chair would mind, could send it out to you, you could probably more efficiently send it out to the committee.

And just certain things, all the agenda, roll the chair, know, it's we are we're not going to complete, we're not going to adopt the Robert Rules of Order. We'll spend more time trying to interpret them than actually using them. But it's it's that kind of information that I

if we could share with you, I'll make sure to it to

you to send it to them. I'm not asking you just to, you know, just read it and maybe when we finally get together, it wait, I can send it to

you and have it too. Maybe

we can talk about it. I away and I didn't know what to do for a lot of money, and that's why.

That's all. That was my public tongue. Comment. If you wanna email this to me, what I'll is I'll I'll put it on the agenda for our next upcoming meeting and make sure that the man has a copy of it prior to that meeting and we'll discuss it if that would suffice. Would impact? No. The chair wants to or the board wants to get something. Sure.

It's the only thing to do.

That was my public comment. Spark, any other public comment from the Board?

Yeah. Mister chair, I'll I'll I'll comment. So I've been involved in town committees and boards for seven years, and you don't have to dis you don't have to agree with everybody. You have the right to disagree. But what happened on Monday was was unacceptable.

I I was an instigator, but my responsibility is is how I control my own actions, and I have to apologize to the community for not deescalating the situation I wasn't necessarily involved in. I think it's the conduct that's been displayed on this this committee for far far longer than I've been on it has been unacceptable. And, you know, when it goes on like that for that long, it erodes public trust, and it results in very qualified, intelligent, caring individuals from not wanting to participate in public service. It's been a this perfect example is this very committee. There's been people who are very qualified, intelligent people who left, resigned, became members of select board, didn't seek reelection.

Why is that? Like, well, it's not because of me. I never been I was only on this committee for three months. And the first meeting I I came here, the first meeting I had participated in, I said, I'm willing to talk to anybody. I'm willing to sit down and have a cup of coffee and discuss the town issues because that's what I'm here for.

I'm not here to bicker back and forth, but, you know, I wanna work together, 100%. But I think that you can't just keep you can't just view the time we're we're here in these meetings as a committee member in a in a in a committee in a vacuum, things that are said offline or online outside of this committee affects how this committee operates when we meet in person. I can't stand here and say, I wanna work a 100% with John. I wanna a 100% work with Matt. When I turn around and I see other people on this committee and other people in town attacked relentlessly with misinformation and conspiracies, How can I put that off to the side and come in here and work a 100% with everybody?

I don't know how anyone could do that. So that's my that's my thought on it. So I All I can say is I'll try my best and do better and, you know, and try my try to live better at deescalating situations, but it has to be everybody. It can't just be one person or two people. That's all I got.

Are there other public comments on members of board? From any members of the

I'm curious to see I'm sorry. Cheryl's on the street. I'm curious to see what Bob's list of decorum rolls are. But I guess I'll have to come back next week to see them.

K. I'll I'll place them on the agenda. I'll just

Yeah. Not a big fan of rules of decorum because I would say that everyone over here is over 40, over 35.

Over 35.

Need to be reminded at 35 plus how to how to act and interact with people in public. Like, I find that appalling. My granddaughter is six, and she already knows interaction roles. Well, she goes to a parochial school, so maybe that has something to do with it, but so I will I'll be curious to see because it looks like a big packet.

No. How much are parochial school too?

Say for high.

So, no, but

It only lasted in kindergarten, parochial, and then I was out. So, I guess that might say something.

Why were you out? No. Your son was not handed. Oh, yeah. Oh, I thought

you were gonna say.

That's what that's what they all say.

Oh, they they tried to force you to go right handed, your parents said no. Yeah.

Yeah. My mother almost beat up the nine, so just, you know. But

I was actually, I see my son were to to send his daughter to public school. So she's been around the world since shooting three black.

Like anybody else from other than Columbus?

Mr. Chairman.

President.

I think that the Planning Board has a code of conduct or court is code of conduct that we we run by as well as I know there were other boards in town that have codes of conduct. I think we have to realize that we're all human and humans are fallible. And I probably can honestly say there's not one person in this room that hasn't had a time or two that they wish they could do over. It's part of being human. So that being said, nobody's perfect.

And when you do have an obedient, I guess the, know, the best thing is just learn from it. You know, there's there's never gonna be a 100%, yay, we're all on board. But you can disagree civilly. And I I think that sometimes, you know, things get heated, and we just go down the wrong road. But the the outcome should be you get back on the path, on the premise that none of us are perfect.

So I think that it's been acknowledged that there was an issue. And now going forward, it's just fixing it. Coming making try to, you know, get together and go down a path that everybody can migrate in the same way. Finance Committee is not dead. It just got bent a little bit.

And so now it's up to a friend and community to put it all back together again and move forward. Because I I think even though you're an elected official, you're still not perfect. And as long as everybody is working for the good of the town and the residents, then I think things would would go super.

Tracy, your comment brings up yet another question. If other boards have a code of conduct, why has the the town dropped one code for everyone instead of So Erica, who is Every They're all elected to get to the awards. But it's it doesn't make any saddened tonight.

And if you do it by the law, But

they're they're elected by the people to be a bit to, you know, I mean, probably seeker unless it's by

Oh, they're appointed by the select board. They're not appointed. I

I was appointed because of the vacancy.

Right. Right.

But it's a

but in other cases, it's it's strictly elected.

And through you, mister chair. But does that necessarily mean that you can't have do you know offhanded to see how many boards have a code of business conduct? And that's a pretty standard form. My company that I worked for, Verizon, had one code of business conduct that applied to taking a while to stand 46,000 employees now.

Mister chair, through you. So

there's like a a boilerplate code of conduct, and this the select board's code of conduct would be different than the Planning Board's Code of Conduct. The boilerplate would be the same, but there's a section that specifically applies to the Planning Board, okay? And then because we do differently what from what the Selectmen does, the Finance Committee does differently from what the Planning Board does. So it's just a boilerplate, but then there's that section that deals with matters that would come to the Planning Board and discussions that we would have. So maybe everyone could look at the boilerplate and develop their own little specialized area, but I don't think one thing fits all.

Okay. So Verizon must be wrong. Doing one car business conduct for 26,000 plus people. I don't buy

it, but okay. I will look at the boilerplate and see what everybody

To make. I I mean, having a code of conduct is all well and good, but

I think if you need

a a code of conduct to be a a good, respectable person, then that's a reflection on who you are as as a person. I think if if that would have fixed the dysfunction of this committee over the last year, then they should have done that a long time ago. But I think until members learn how to treat each other with respect and become unified in the sole purpose of the of the of the committee, and not just doing things for clicks, then always continue the way it is.

It's just a piece of paper. My point is that.

I'll 100% sign

Sign it up. Leak for the public comment. It ring none. I play Washington Durance. So move to second. Favorite? Aye.