Select Board - Regular Meeting

Meeting on 03/23/2026 held in the Select Board Meeting Room at Town Hall 10 Nickerson Avenue. We're being recorded by McCann for broadcast on Verizon and Comcast. It is 07:00. All calls are meeting to order. Please join me for the Pledge of allegiance. It All right. Anyone on the Board under announcements and recognitions?

Brian? Mr. Chair, just to announce that if anyone who has not renewed their dog license, I'm sorry, their dog's license, but not their license, but their dog's licenses, they're due by the March 31 without any penalty. So if you jump online and do your dog license renewal, I believe you can do it online. Really quick and simple get it done before that. So you don't have

to pay any fees. Thank you, Brian. Thank you. Anyone else from the board?

Mr. Chair, there was an announcement from the animal control today. Unfortunately, it's not in our packet yet. I'm not sure what day, but they're going to have the flying dogs on the town hall lawn. Did anybody else see that No. Pardon me? May. May. Okay. Thank you. So look forward to that. Sounds and it's a fundraiser for the animal shelter. You'll see more of it, I'm sure, on Facebook, and we'll be able to get you more information. Thank you.

Thank you, Tom. Anyone else on the Board? I just have one announcement. Join the town of Middleborough for the community baby shower on 03/28/2026. From 10AM to 2PM, all families are welcome to join for a community wide baby shower celebrating babies and those who care for them. This free event offers resources, giveaways and community support for families with infants that will be in the Town Hall Ballroom at 10 Nickerson Ave. This is a sponsored event by Indus with additional support from the Middleborough Elks. So thank you to those two. Anyone else? Okay, Nancy.

Hi, Nancy Kafalos, just citizen. I just want to remind people that there's candidate night on Wednesday at the COA at 07:00.

Thank you, Nitzi. Good evening, Glen.

Good evening, Select Board. Thank you. Glen Monteprep, Marion Road. I just wanted to make a brief thing that, March is blood drive month, and we are here to ask everyone to please donate blood. I am the blood drive leader for Mayflower Lodge of Freemasons, and we are having our annual blood drive on Sunday, March 29, right across the street from the town hall here.

And if you are in or if you or if you and you know anybody who's spent time in the hospital, you know how important blood is. And I'm asking people to sign up at the wwwredcrossblood.org. You can either search for March 29 or Mayflower Lodge and sign up to give blood. Successful donations get a free a one c testing plus a $15 Amazon gift card by email.

So Thank you.

Thank you, Glenn. Please give blood.

Glenn, through the chair. Glenn, could you walk in as just walk in or do you have to sign up?

You can walk in. It's, of course, preferable if we know how many people are coming. Mhmm. But you're gonna walk in, now we're gonna take your blood. Okay. Very good. With the nurses.

Thank you.

Thank you. The hours good question. Thank you for asking. The hours are from 8AM to 2PM. And if you schedule your time, it'll have multiple slots and you can pick your hours. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Matthew.

Thanks, Glenn. You always keep me laughing. Nancy Kefauwis, just for Tom, so he knows, it's May 9 at noon on the Middleborough Town Hall. It's the Flying High Dogs.

Thank you.

Thank you, Nancy.

And it's on the Town website.

Great. Anyone else under announcement recognitions in the audience?

This is chair. Brian. Can we double check our audio? Laurie, are we good? Someone just said we have no audio to me. Just double check. And we are recording it, so we can if for some reason audio doesn't work out there in an audio land, it'll come on a video that they can stream it. Alright. I just got a text message, that's why.

Alright. Thanks, Brian. Sorry. Alright. We don't have any minutes to approve. We're gonna move on to new business. We're gonna have discussion and a vote on the twenty twenty six election workers as listed. There are 75 names on here. So moved. Second. We have motion to second. Discussion on that from the Board. Are there any comments from the public on the election workers?

I'll just thank all those people that volunteered. Once again, I want to stress it's a volunteer position. Thank you, Tom.

I think it is.

I think we do compensate, but that's fine. Thank you to the election workers. Further discussion on the Board? Are there any comments from the public? Hearing none, all those in favor? Aye. Those opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Under our new business letter B, can I please get a motion to vote to approve a one day liquor license for the bartending services of New England, the Harrowing Festival to be held on April 11 and April 12 from 11AM to 4PM? So moved. The motion. Second. Second. This was on for last week, but there was some clarification I wanted to do a separate vote just to ensure this was done properly. Discussion, Glenn? Hello. Good evening.

We go.

My name

is Glenn Montefer and I'm here to invite everybody to the Middleborough Tourism Committee's eleventh no. Strike that. Thirteenth, knee glasses, annual Herring Run Festival for April, which is a Saturday and Sunday from twelve noon to 4PM at the Oliver Mill Park, which is on Domestic Street on Route 44 in Middleborough, Mass. It is free admission. It is free parking and free shuttle from both the Middleborough Town Hall, which is right here at 10 Nickerson Avenue, and also at the COA, which is at the 558 Plymouth.

Or you can pay $5 and park on 99 North Street and simply walk down the hill to the festival itself. You may enjoy two afternoons filled with merchants and artisan vendors, food vendors, a beer garden, live music for all, and kid activities. In fact, there is environmental exhibits, education booths, and of course, the star of the festival, the Herring. So but wait, there's more. Now that Leilani Dalpe is back on tourism, we are proud to have back the Herring Pond Wapnaug Nation singer and dancers.

They will kick off the thirteenth annual Herring Run Festival on April 11, which is a Saturday at 12:15. This is huge. This is a great thing for all to come and see, especially school children, so they can learn about the heritage of Middleborough. And we still do have a few vendor spots available, so if you wish to email herringrunfestival@yahoo.com, we will send you an application.

And how much is that again?

The It's $1.50 for the whole weekend.

How much does it cost to attend it though?

It's free. Free. Free for admission. Free for parking. Free for shuttle. Thank you for asking.

If it's free, it's for me. Yes.

Excuse me. Glenn, were you looking for your glasses?

I never find my glasses. Great. Thank you, Glenn. Thank you.

I appreciate it. Any further discussion from the audience? Okay. This is a Bear in Mine license. The application is filled out and we do have tip certification. Further discussion on the Board? Are there any comments from the public? Hearing none, all those in favor? Aye. Those opposed? Motion passes unanimously. On our new business letter C, we're going to have a discussion on the social media policy.

Mr. Chair. Brian. I requested this to be added to our agenda this evening, so we make sure that it's in here. This is a policy that was written back and adopted back in September 2015.

And what it talks about specifically is the dos and don'ts that if people people can do whatever they want, but they do so on their own. They don't represent anyone. They represent their own personal thoughts. And I think that in today's day and age on social media, when people get out on social media, they may say things. And if they say things that are or that gets us into a lawsuit, which specifically even talks about, they're on their own.

So I just wanted this to be brought up again to make sure that we have this and it's out there. It was like I said, it was ratified back in 2015 by the Select Board and it goes to Select Board as well as all the town unions and it actually had to be put through each one of those unions and that was one of the issues that I had way back when we did this. But so I just wanted it out here again.

Mr. Chair.

Good, Bill.

Through you, Brian, are there any changes from 2015 at all? None. No. Okay.

It's the standard social media policy.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. Discussion on the Board or any comments from the public? Was Good evening, Cheryl.

Cheryl Diamond from Wall Street. I had planned on on bringing up

a

post that I saw written for Middleborough News by you, Brian, about the library and the Friends.

By the editorial that I wrote?

Yes. Yeah. I I don't think that it was appropriate. Okay. I didn't at the time. And since we're talking about social media, I'm bringing it up now because it was too close to home.

Okay.

And I can see the people that normally attend these meetings and are friends might be offended. I just Okay. May maybe you should

I I I take correct

criticism. Your

input or take your own advice.

Well, I take my own advice. See, what happens is

I understand it was not an ad.

An editorial written by the editor. When you're outside of something, you're outside of it. And you can do things outside of things. And I have the right to do that as anyone else, and I have the right to stand behind that. I didn't say, I'm writing this on behalf of the board of selectmen.

No. You didn't.

I did not. It was I, the editor of and owner of the Middleborough News, I wrote that. And I was very clear on that. And the reason why is if you don't do that, you run the risk of getting the town into hot water.

And I noticed that. I read it more than once.

But

But I don't believe either that you offered the information that you were select for. I just thought it was inappropriate for it to be posted by you. You should have given it to your best writer, Alice over there or something.

Yeah. It was that's it was an editorial, which is why I wrote it.

I just said that two minutes ago. I understand. I'm offering my comments. Yes. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Sheryl. Lincoln, good evening.

Hi. Lincoln Andrews, 28 Sachem Street. Who authored this?

The Board of Selectmen in 2015. No, who authored it? Whoever was sitting on the Board back in 2015.

So we don't know who authored this way back ten years ago?

I know some of the people who were sitting on the Board. Who? Steve McKinnon was a very I don't want

to say They were the ones that drafted it.

Who drafted? I don't know who, town Yes. Council, who

Okay. So I got a few I read this and it looks to me it's a really poorly written document in my mind. So who is a judge jury judge and jury of this policy?

Depends upon this well, first of all, it depends upon who actually violates it.

Who state where is it stated? Who is if if somebody violates this policy, who is who is the stated enforcer?

The board of selectmen is the stated enforcer on anyone who's appointed by this board or is under the the union contract.

Who is currently appointed by this board to enforce the social media policy?

It would be someone who makes a complaint and comes before this board.

Okay. So now you walked into one of my unintentionally, you got right into one of the issues that I have. The town reserves the right to deny access. Nope. Not doing the other one actually.

Item number 10. The town prohibits taking adverse action against any employee for reporting a possible violation of this policy or for cooperating in an investigation. Any employee who retaliates against another for reporting a possible violation of this policy for cooperating for cooperating in an investigation will be subject to disciplinary action up to and including discharge in accordance with the applicable collective bargaining agreements. Okay. So the person that does the accusing is completely guarded.

And they can sit there and they can make false accusations according to this and I cannot if I'm sitting in that board and I have no right to retaliation and I don't even know who the hell is gonna make the make the judgment upon me as a person just making the post. That's not right.

So you mean so retaliation is not what you think it is, I don't think. Retaliation is if you take matters into your own hands.

Here's the thing. If you have to sit there and interpret it, how can anybody else understand? If if I don't understand it, somebody sees it in town government, how would you expect somebody else to understand it? And and this this is not a policy. This is a bunch of garbage that's been collected together that was a reactionary movement or react it was a reaction an action taken in as a result of social media, was just coming of age ten years ago.

It's not applicable anymore. The the rules of social media and how it's used are now entirely different. Do I think people should go out go out there and publish private information? Absolutely not. Do I think that I ought to know who the hell is accusing me, and then if I know that they're accusing me incorrectly, that I should be able to retaliate against them for for falsely accusing me. You're looking at somebody that's been falsely accused publicly.

And they're done.

Everybody knows my story. And if that happened by somebody in this town government in the same way, you're telling me that I'm gonna get fired for defending myself. No. Well, that's the way it reads. That's the problem.

Retaliation is not what you what you think

It's not what the intent is. It's how the law reads.

Right. Retaliation is when you take action against someone in your own hands.

Yeah. So I'm gonna take it so if somebody lies lies about me and they said that I did x y z and they reported to the town manager, whoever that may be, and this person is a newly hired person and that's working in whatever office and they don't like me, and they send off a letter, gee, you know, I think Lincoln's mean and I needed to be addressed and here here you go. And so now it's gonna go off to who? And who's gonna make that judgment? Is the town manager, whoever's sitting in that chair right now?

Is he the one that's gonna make the ultimate decision? Am I gonna have to come before the board of selectmen if I'm that town employee that's that's trying to I'm I'm speaking on behalf of town employees right now, not myself. Yeah. I'm just using I because I'm not gonna point to anybody else. So if I'm that town employee, what rates do I have? You told me all the rates I don't have, but you're not telling me any of the ones that I do have. And you're also, most importantly, not telling me that I have a right to address my accuser, and I do not even know who I who is gonna be the one that is going to be the judge as to whether or not I I I'm in violation of it, and whether or not I have any ability to to defend myself against the accusation.

Well, unfortunately

I I I said everything, so you can continue on.

May may I address that, Lincoln?

Go ahead, Don.

Yeah. I don't need

to be

up here anymore, but if you wanna

talk Well, you can sit down if you like. So I I didn't write the policy.

I know you didn't.

And I read it in our packet, but I didn't dissect it the way you did. But from my years of negotiating contracts and, you know, intent and purpose of the language. Right? How the language was written and what the intent and purpose was. That's one thing. And I don't know the exact intent and purpose because I didn't write it and I wasn't there. Now we go to if it's a union employee of the town, which we know we're heavily union, right, there's a procedure. They have to go through agreements procedure. Of course, they're going to know who their accuser is, etcetera, etcetera. So I'm just throwing that out there because no town employee is gonna be left hanging because they've got representation.

No. You're wrong on that. You're a 100% wrong. Okay. What what am I wrong about? Anybody that's an elected official in town is a town is technically a town employee. So you're telling that any any any talking about union Well, that's the problem. Right. It's not identified in here. That's why I'm going this whole scope. That's why I'm saying in general. I mean, we can get into it and dissect it part by part. And you just identified an exact problem because here you are, Mr. White, as a responsible selectman and you believe this covers everybody because of a union policy and it doesn't.

I was talking specifically about the unions and I said we're heavily union. So it doesn't cover a lot of people that are hired outside the union. In that respect, they don't have somebody to take up their but we have a human resource department and those people should be heard through human resources.

Who is the judge?

Lincoln Lincoln, I'm not defending

I know you're

not but

I just

I'm defending

the Who's the judge? Who's the judge? Well, if

it was an employee, if it's an employee that's not unionized, it would go through human resources and the the director of that department or if it was the director, then I guess the town manager would be the and and counsel would be the

So this is a human resources document then?

We didn't have human resources when that No.

Now it is. Is that what you're saying? It's a human resources document.

I'm I know I can't say that. I'm so what I'm saying is every employee has the right to go through a procedure. I mean, have you ever seen an employee just

Every employee that draws a paycheck from the town.

That has union representation, but outside of that outside of that, I I've never seen an employee in this town just kicked out with no no representation whatsoever. I I and again, Lincoln, I'm not arguing. I'm not defending the

I know, but there's a gap Let's rewrite it. Exactly.

Well, mister chair. Ryan. Can anyone in this room say they were standing in or been wins in the room that night that that came out or discussed or voted?

Were you there, Brian?

I was. I was standing at that podium. And the reason why is the Board of Selectmen has no authority over any elected position at all. The elected people of this town report to the people and only the people, whether it's the because I was on the school committee at the time. I sat up there and I said, do you think you're going to tell me I can't say what I want to say? And the answer was, yeah. I said, no, you can't. I answered to the people. And that was in fact, I believe someone did write an article. It was in the enterprise.

I think Aileen Rees wrote an article about it. It was very specific. And you can't stop people from speaking. But what you can say is if you speak out of turn, which part of this does cover, you speak at your own peril. Sometimes you'll you'll be the one personally responsible for your speech, which is one of the pieces of social media that is of this 2015 document, that's about the only piece I really think is the the the real truth of it is people speak at of at their own peril.

If you wanna go on and say stuff, you say what you want. You want to lie online, you can lie online all you want. You just you run the risk of getting sued. But if you do so and you do so under the guise of this town, you're doing so at your own peril. And the town may or may not represent you when that time comes.

Okay. Bob, good evening.

Mr. Chair, we're still in public comment,

We're discussing social media policy.

Okay. Thank you. My name

is Bob Sullivan, Cedar Street. Earlier, I believe Mr. Pike asked, this policy been reviewed since 2015? And I felt that it was no, it hasn't. Simple suggestion, I would suggest that after this many years that it should be reviewed, but that's up to the board.

It should

be pared down a little bit I think.

Nancy? Hi, Nancy Kefalis. I wasn't planning on saying anything on this, but when I was running to be elected and was elected, thank God, I had to call IT and try to get information on this because it sounded the way it reads, it sounded that as an elected official I could not say certain things on social media. So I converse back and forth with them. I was told by people that knew, Someone in this room knows most of that.

And I was informed, yes, I could have a page and it would be beneficial to have a page. But I also told that person, well I don't know what I can say on that page because according to this social media thing, I have no idea. So I had to go through IT, I had to tell them everything I wanted to put on my page, Then they had to ask legal if it was okay if I did that and they're like, well, we don't know. And I'm like, okay, well, don't know what I can put on my page either and I even actually messaged one of the select board members the other day saying, am I allowed to do this even though someone that knows most of the rules and regulations said I could. But I wanted to make sure.

So it's unclear is what I'm This whole document is very unclear. I can't get, I couldn't get any answers from IT going through legal. So if it's unclear and I'm new, then it probably does need to be looked at.

I agree. Mr. Chair, like I said, I sat in this room in September 2015 when this was finalized, and I said, you're not gonna shut me up. I sat sat at that podium and said, you're not gonna shut me up. You have no authority over me.

Mhmm.

I'm an elected official by the town. You can't say elected officials. And then I turned around and said, by the way, you can't just make this policy. And by the way, they wanted that policy so that people couldn't an employee couldn't complain about how bad the roads weren't plowed. That's the type of stuff they wanted to go after at the time. And I said, are you kidding me? You're gonna have to negotiate that into every contract. You can't just tell people they no longer have free speech. You're gonna have to get their permission to take their speech. I believe they did. I don't know how they ever did it. I wouldn't have. I would have said, no. I'm not gonna agree to this because I would never agree to someone taking taking it away. I understand what it says at the beginning, but it's I think it's pretty harsh.

But the idea is that one of the big things is that you say things, if you say something online, you're responsible for your speech. You don't represent the town. The town has a social media page called Town of Middleborough on Facebook. There's there's already a social media page out there. And some other people do have social media pages. I think tourism has a social media page that they they do their stuff on.

Mhmm.

Things like that. They have official pages. But no one speaks for the town except for those official pages, which there should be a list of those too. What are the official pages of the town? Mhmm. Social medias of the town, whether it's Instagram or, or or Facebook or wherever else. Those there should be a list somewhere with links to them so people know.

No, I get it. I appreciate it. But I'm just letting you know that I was afraid to post anything. I don't even know sometimes the stuff I post if it's okay. I'm waiting for someone and when I saw it on here, was like, oh boy, watch it, probably about me. I don't want it to be about me, but I'm just saying, because I'm posting everything and anything, anyone that sees my page knows I post everything that's going on. So I'm glad it's not about me, but it does need to be worked on or just I gotten rid mean, it's unclear.

Thank you, Nancy. Glenn?

Good evening, Glenn Monteprep, Marion Road. In the corporate world, it's not as easy as this. If you're in corporate and you're receiving a paycheck, you cannot go on social media media and say my boss, my company is the worst because then they have grounds to get rid of you. Simple as that. I believe in town in 2015, there was a lot of anger and that was going on to the Facebook where people in the same committee almost, similar to committees, were going after one another and it was getting ugly. So, the policy was brought forward.

Check the audio. I'm getting texts and it went out again.

Laurie was saying audio, please. Yeah.

On top of the

chair. Okay.

Thanks. Come on, Glenn. Sign language, please.

Took you over, I'm sorry. Sign language. When this was happening, it was just trying to create the hatred that was going through Facebook. If you're working together, you should not be attacking one another. You should not be calling out you as a board. You cannot call out employees during the meeting and use their name. That sort of should fill and also go forward through social media.

Mhmm.

Decencies, that's from 2015, I believe it was just to try to keep everything decent. We are one team, one group here, all working together. The infighting should not go out of the room and into social media and make it look ugly and bring the town down. And I think that's what I recall.

Don't step on your glasses.

I know. Right? Darn glasses.

It's got

them. It's got them.

Thank you.

Appreciate it. Any other comments on the discussion on the social media policy? Okay. Hearing none, we're going to move on to the Town Manager search update, please.

Mr. Chair, Mr. Mulcahy is in the process of putting together an RFP. And hopefully, by the end of the week, we'll have it finished, and it will be out shortly.

Do you have any idea when we'll have we have to advertise for thirty days, two weeks? Correct. Thirty days? Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you. We don't have any hearings, meetings or licenses. Tom Majorport?

Thank you. So in response to last week's Town Manager's report, I've put together a budget and operational correction plan. The slides will be up on the screen. I've provided this document to members of the Finance Committee and select Board. I think it's important to reiterate, it's been said many times, these numbers are proposed numbers.

These numbers fluctuate. We're operating on we don't guess, but we do have a baseline to start the process with and oftentimes estimates are allowable in this process. So I need to reiterate that the numbers will change. They have changed, but I want to address that. One of the issues I was hearing this week from a lot of residents and other professionals in the field is, hey, Joe, the state aid numbers oftentimes go up.

And I know that and I understand that. I understand that as of now looking at the numbers, we have a shortfall in the state aid estimate of $746,037 yes, 37. The historical data demonstrates a probable increase, a positive probable increase money we will receive from the state from the governor's proposed budget on the Cherry Street Cherry sheet to the final number that is obtained from the state sometime in July. But an increase is guaranteed. And I look back historically in 2024, we actually got $108,000 decrease from Governor's proposal to final.

In 2025, we had a $370,000 increase from Governor's proposal to final. And in 2026, we had a $455,000 increase from governor's proposed to final. The problem with that, the estate aid will go up and at the same time, so won't the state assessment. The fiscal year 2027 shortfall in the state assessment is $791,917 from what's reported on the cherry sheet to what was reported in the budget book. Historical data demonstrates a probable increase.

However, this increase is a negative one. It's what we owe from Governor's proposal to the final, but this is also not guaranteed. I looked at the last three years comparable to the state aid, what we're going to get and I compared them to what we're going to owe under the state assessment. In 2024, our assessment went down $63,000 In 2025, it went up $210,000 In 2026, it went up $327,000 So yes, I am aware that the numbers do fluctuate and everyone in town needs to know the numbers fluctuate. Up or down, I don't know.

That's why it's recommended to start the budget with Governor's proposal as the first number. That there, based on those numbers, we have a shortfall in both the local aid and the assessment. Any gains in state aid will be minimized if we get some. They'll be minimized versus what the town owes back to the state and assessments. And again, the gain will be minimal.

It will not be $1,500,000 Adjustments will be publicized and updated as the new data is reported to the town. The budget operational correction plan also addresses the health insurance. The additional increase of $650,000 at this year's special town meeting will bring the town's total twenty twenty six health insurance contribution to $12,938,249

Joe, can I interrupt you? Yes. Just for an announcement, Comcast is having an audio issue and they're working with tech support, but the live stream on McCann TV does work, if you're watching from home and the Verizon channels do work.

I don't know how people listening to Comcast will hear that. I just want to You might want to hold up a sign and tell them.

That's what Karen just sent that. So thank you, Karen.

So we are adding extra money to that contribution this year. Now last week I spoke about we needed to reevaluate the number that we were going to use as a placeholder for the 2027 budget. And I believe based on the new increased number for 2026 of $12,900,000 a 7% increase on twenty seven's expected health insurance contribution would need to be added to it. We went one step further this week. We examined actual employees enrolled as of March 2026 in specific plans and adjusted the accurate increases in those plans.

The 2027 health insurance contribution will be recalculated with an additional $637,845 in increases this year. So I have slides that I will demonstrate where we obtain that data. If we address this issue now, we will not have to go to next year's special town meeting and add funds that we may or may not have. We need to address the issue now instead of hoping that we have the free cash to do it next year. With the 2027 budget cuts or adjustments, health insurance may actually decrease.

However, any gains that will be made will be offset by unemployment insurance requirements. And if you go to the next slide, this is the GIC brokerage for the Town's health insurance. There are different plans that employees can pick from. And if you look in the highlighted box, FY 2027 rates, those are the rates that will be placed on the plans if selected by the employee. And then to the right of that yellow highlighted box is the percentage increase over the 2026 rates.

We just used the 7% number in estimating what we were underfunding the health insurance requirement by. So we needed to get the actual number. So we did look at it. Unfortunately, as you'll see in a moment, we have quite a few employees that actually chose the health insurance plans that have the largest increases. The next page, it's the same, it's the different packages.

I believe this is the Medicare portion. And then if you flip one more page, this is the actual breakdown by employee. So I've always encouraged people to check the math. If someone wants to take a deep dive and extrapolate all those numbers, I think we came up with a good number. It's not an estimate, the $604,637,000 dollars increase is what we believe the best number that we can apply to this issue.

The fourth issue was Bristol Plymouth High School. It's an $800,000 liability. I recommend that we continue the funding method into at least 2028. The only way we're going to be able to solve this issue, I have three long term solutions, the continued funding method. The drawback to that is if we're using free cash every year to pay this liability, this will restrict our free cash growth.

It will also prevent any capital improvements that we use with that free cash growth. So that is the drawback to doing that method. The second way to address this method, the 2027 budgetary cuts remain over time while restricting local governmental growth, you then may have enough money to properly fund the assessment. The last way you can deal with this issue is to attempt a debt exclusion. Now I put another.

I don't specifically remember if the first vote was an actual debt exclusion or a vote just to approve the construction of Bristol Plymouth High School. So I needed to qualify that. But the only way you're going to overcome this liability and it's about $800,000 a year And if it's a twenty year bond, that's $16,000,000 If it's a thirty year bond, it's 24,000,000 I don't know the number. I will get that number. But that number needs to be addressed.

Now people have asked that we're already we already fund Bristol Plymouth. We do. We fund we pay Bristol Plymouth for student enrollment and that number fluctuates. This other number is for the capital improvement of the new construction of Bristol Plymouth High School. That is an issue that will eventually come off the books.

So it should be there should be a different stabilized debt stabilization account for that particular liability that we're facing for the next, it's either 20 or 30 years and I don't know the number. Someone may have that, feel free to let me know. This is an issue that I spoke to every finance committee member and every select board member. I obviously didn't violate open meeting law. I called each one of them individually for many reasons, but this was the major reason.

I needed direction and needed to take the temperature on obviously the people who make the decisions on what we should do with this. And this is something that we will continue to do. Think unanimously decided that this is an issue that we're going to have to keep funding the same way we're funding it this year. But it needs to be addressed, especially now that we have this underfunding problem in the town of Middle Earl. Any questions on that?

All right.

With regards to that, mister chair with that Bristol Plymouth one, I recall we were paying it out of free cash. Every every fall, you'd you'd set aside the money for it. But it wasn't expected to be that way forever because there was no way it was you can never guarantee

It's not sustainable.

Right. It's something that would have to be a debt exclusion because unless you put it into your budget or you put it in your budget, it's pretty much what we're talking

If we put it in the budget, that's going to prevent any future recovery from the issues we're facing for 2027. So if you plan to recover, if you do grow responsibly, there really isn't a place to stick that $800,000 into the town's budget and expect to recover from whatever adjustments or cuts we need to make for 2027. So it's really kind of like as I explained to several of the Board members and Finance Committee members, this is a sword hanging over the town's head.

Mr. Chair. Two things. It is a thirty year. I looked it up. Then also

So that's $24,000,000

The other question I had is, right now, what is our stabilization fund amount and what is our free cash amount?

Our debt our stabilization fund is 6,600,000 Debt stabilization, that would be the 6.6 number.

And then the free cash right now? Do we know?

All right. So, do know. Free cash right now, if we were to address all the free cash capital requests that have been made this and we were to fund those, At the end of town meeting, would have $37,000 in free cash. Okay. Recommendation I have a recommendation moving forward. I will discuss that. That's part of what do we do next.

Okay. Thank

you. And there's nothing in the Bristol Plymouth stabilization account?

I'm not sure that maybe we need to check that, but I do think there's a little bit of money in there. That was a discussion we had Friday. And again, it doesn't really impact what we're trying to address but I do think there's something more in there.

Just a quick

question, Nathan Demers. Do we know what other surrounding communities have done regarding this? Do they do a debt exclusion?

I I on on specifically BP, this is what I've been told. Again, I haven't I've trusted the information, but I haven't verified it. Seven towns voted. Mhmm. Five towns voted yes. Two towns voted no. We will one of the no votes.

Mhmm. But with regards to are they doing are they doing a are they doing a

I don't know how they're funding it. They voted yes to approve the process, but I don't know how they are handling the bill that has come due because it's probably not the same bill for all towns. I don't know. Again, have limited information on this and I need to look at it further.

That's kind of what my question was. How would they handle and

again I know it's all different for different communities. This was one of five issues and this is I think the best issue to continue down the road we're going only because the adding this right now, I think it's catastrophic to add it.

It's not going away.

Mr. Chair? Theresa.

Berkeley approved a thirty year debt exclusion with an estimated $400 annual increase for the average home. Dighton estimated an annual increase of about $225 Rainham previously rejected the exclusion, which is what Middleborough did and forced the town to cut mid operating budget cuts. And Taunton is paying via current tax rates and the city budget with an estimated $194 annual cost for the average home. Looks like Freetown and a couple others are not clear, but those four are that's what they're doing.

Joe, do you want to take questions or you

want I would like to get through this because I think I might answer some people's questions once they get

I don't have a question just like an ask. Is it possible to have this put on with the other financial? That's all I was Again, going to

it's part of the plan. I want to get through the plan because I think a lot of questions will get answered. I anticipated some of these questions.

Yes. I just we guys will able to look at it like how you put everything else up.

All right.

Right. Go ahead, Joe.

So the fifth issue I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

You're let him finish the presentation, please.

Yes. No, that's fine. That's okay. No

worries. The fifth issue that I brought up last week is the local receipts estimate. I think this is the issue that causes the most confusion, with people that have come to me. Obviously, I I I encourage people to check the math and look at it. And again, they get to this and they don't really grasp it.

So the 2027 budget book, there was an estimate of $13,000,000 That number I believe is it's an aggressive number. And I also believe that it doesn't truly reflect the growth the increase growth is the wrong word, the increase in local receipts that we will gain. I think I believe that we will gain a lot more this year and I really want to break it down. This year's local receipt estimates fiscal year 2026 is likely to exceed the $11,500,000 placeholder we have in the 2026 budget. A lot of obviously, in town know that there's a lot of projects going on.

Two large commercial buildings are being built. And the local receipts that are collected from these projects usually come in the form of permitting. And permitting and the numbers could be big. Bob Whelan has the billing inspector has informed me that he believes the REXA number for their building permit will exceed $230,000 just in the building permit. I did have that conversation with him this week.

But that may come in, probably will come in prior to July 1. So that number is going to be used in the '26 estimate. So that 11.5 that we have now most likely will be more. But we can't count it twice. So if that was counted for '27, then you need to minus that.

It's like a scale, a balancing scale. So next year's local receipt estimates for fiscal year 2027, if we reset it from 13 to 11.5 revised placeholder, that estimate will probably be exceeded by some number. And again, I'll get into that in a minute. These collections that exceed estimates are to be considered one time spikes. Examples of these spikes include building permits such as REXA, Indus, the ADUs and any new construction people in the community see that have taken place around town.

Spikes or one time infusions should not be considered when calculating long term building blocks for operating budgets. These spikes or one time revenues should be saved or applied to one time expenditures, not operating budgets. New growth and I think this is another confusing term for people that have at least talked to me in the past week, new growth revenue is separate from local receipts. New building permits eventually become annual property tax collected by the town. That is the new growth number.

So while we have projects going on, their permits and fees are local receipts. They're collected one time. They are not to be used as building blocks for operating budgets. You can base the application or the future income gained from paying their property tax on the local on the on the what? I'm sorry, lost

it. I don't know if you were meant.

On the Growth. New growth. Thank you. New growth.

You're welcome.

A lot

of numbers and things running around my brain. And I've been talking to people that don't really grasp this. For the person at home who doesn't understand any of this, it's for example, if you were making $50,000 a year, you wouldn't do this in your own home. You're making $50,000 a year and you're living week to week paycheck to paycheck. That's really what the annual budget is.

We live year to year and we're right up against the number. You get a $10,000 bonus. You're not going to run out and buy a $70,000 vehicle because if you're not living within your means of the $50,000 you can't justify, I have $10,000 extra dollars, let's go hamper my ability to pay my bills for the next eight years, seven years, whenever you get the car loan for. If you take the $10,000 bonus and buy a $10,000 car, that's okay. That's the best way I can explain it to people.

The difference between new growth and local receipts. And that to me is, I think, really the problem in a nutshell. So moving on. One of the other complaints I received in past week is people who are speaking about the budget book and how difficult it is to examine numbers and compare numbers and to look at information. A lot of people who do have experience in this, obviously have an edge when they're trying to interpret what's in the budget book.

But to the regular citizen who just wants to look and see and see the numbers laid out, we took the numbers, the reevaluated numbers and just put them in a balance sheet. So the next slide up is the first page. So if we're looking at the first page, it's really what are we bringing in. And any adjustments we made from the issues that were discussed last week, we plugged in the new numbers and you'll see that on the right. So on the right, those are the budget book numbers that have been replaced and then to the far right in parentheses any shortfall that have occurred because of the correction in the numbers.

So as you look down, the first the second number on the right column, net estimated aid, the number that we have come up with is 27,840,255 million dollars The budget book, it was $28,586,292 that's a shortfall of $746,037 Local receipts, the next one down, we readjusted the $13,000,000 in $215,500,000 and that now creates the $1,500,000 shortfall. Next page, I'm sorry. Projected. Projected. Yes.

And it is projected shortfall. But again, if we're basing our operating budgets, our foundation, the numbers that we need, As an example I just gave, this is the best practice to establish operating budgets moving forward. The next page, indirect costs, they're all reimbursements that we receive through the enterprise portion of our government, G and E, water, wastewater, sanitation, they reimburse the town money. The town pays out all these this column of items and then the reimbursements come back from those enterprise funds. So that's counts as an indirect cost.

The next page is our expenditures page. If you look down and you get the total estimated expenditures on the bottom I'm sorry, did I skip? No. So on the right side, before you get to the bottom, if you look in the highlighted one, dollars 27,290,006 and 32 that reflects the employee fringe benefits, which was the additional $637,845 increase on health insurance.

The entire town?

For the entire town. Including the schools. Including the schools.

Thank

you. I didn't. I did not mention that. All the health insurance is covered. Again, your indirect costs, which we just talked about.

I'm just trying to overexplain this people who don't follow Correct. It as closely as we

Yes. Again, I don't think a lot of people look at this and really understand it. That's why I'm trying to take my time and explain it in Just layman's

trying to help.

So now you move down to total state estimates. Again, that number is reported and taken from the cherry sheet. That number can go up. It can go down. Against the number in the budget book, there's a $791,917 shortfall.

That brings the bottom line shortfall number down to $3,375,799 So the budget operational correction plan, what have we done so far? First thing we did, we confirmed the data and recalculated the balance sheet. That's the sheet that I just went through. On when sorry, on Tuesday, after last week's town meeting, we coincidentally, it was already scheduled, had a department head meeting at nine a. M.

I provided the department heads an update. Most of them did not watch the meeting, so they did not know. After the meeting, I sent out an e mail. I requested percentage impact reports from all the department heads. I wanted them to identify any cuts.

I'm sorry. The first thing I asked them to do is come up with any ideas, observations and things they see around town that they believe could be cut. Then I asked them for their own department's budget and I requested a 5%, 1020% cut. What the number was for that cut, it correlated with that percentage and I asked them for an impact, what those cuts would look like to their departments. And I asked them to have that for me midweek this week.

I spoke with each member of the Select Board and Finance Committee, making sure that I think it was an important to message the fact to the people in town that this is a process that needs to be a collaborative effort. I wanted to make sure that they all knew how to get in touch with me, knew how to talk to me and I was available to them at any time. We also spoke about the BP issue. I worked on this correctional plan and then I delivered hand delivered directives to the department heads and the directives outlined hiring freezes, any purchases over $1,000 and overtime restrictions. I'll have that up for you in a second.

And then the action I've taken, I've also submitted this document in rough draft form for topics minus the BP issue to appear, who obviously they don't go to BP, but he looked at it, he said the numbers look right. And that was really for me. That's to give me peace of mind and be confident that the numbers I was looking at were the same from an experienced person in his position. So I did do that. And then the next slide is the directive that I hand delivered to each department head minus one who was on vacation and one wasn't in her office.

So I did get to them and spoke to all of them. Moving forward, what are some of the recommendations? To execute this correction plan, it's my recommendation to postpone town meeting at least two weeks. Thoughtful consideration and collaboration are needed to implement these budget cuts. It also helps establish a timeline.

I don't believe that you can ask anyone to sit there and methodically look through people's budgets and ask for input and then just go and cut in the short amount of time we have between now and the original date the NOW meeting. Again, believe there has to be immense collaboration and cooperation between select board, finance committee and department heads to try and figure out the best approach to any cuts we make. I recommend that Finance Committee convene weekly meetings to assist with the thoughtful consideration and implementation of budget cuts with a representative from the select board present. Obviously, convene in both boards probably be difficult, but I think representation on either side. And I will say that for the people watching Finance Committee are sitting here tonight.

They move them they convene their meeting and then they adjourned and came here. And I'm not sure how we're going to proceed after this, but there was a comment that maybe we start working right away. I recommend we meet with the department heads and evaluate their budgets. They're the best people to identify where can they cut, what are the impacts. I think they can identify what exactly it is that cuts would do to their department and evaluate most importantly evaluate the impact it's going to have on the town of Middleborough.

Again, I expect every department head to aggressively defend their budget. But I do want it known that when I hand delivered the directives about three hours after the email, department heads already had they were already working on list. So I want the people in town to know that the department heads are looking and they do understand the severity of what's taken place. I also recommend that the town defer on all non critical capital expenditures requested using free cash in the upcoming town meeting. And I will update the balance sheet and the budget book as soon as new information comes in.

Any data that we get, it needs to be refreshed. I don't know if I mentioned it before when the complaints I got about the budget book and not being able to search it and have the information right at their fingertips is some people is a lot of effort. The document is, I don't know, 100 and some pages long. Putting or adopting that budget sheet into the budget book, I think would help immensely with people being able to go back and check the same data I'm looking at. Listen, if is people see something, a little thing that may correct, increase, prevent, whatever you see, let me know.

Because I I again, we're looking at it and I a lot of people are watching. A lot of people are looking at the numbers and I encourage that. I am not offended by that in any way. That's all I have.

Hey, Joe. One more quick thing. Can you just reiterate that you spoke to town council about town meeting?

Oh, I'm sorry, I did. So we did get a legal opinion from, Greg Kobo. He said that we can postpone town meeting up until June 29.

Mr. Chair, Brian. I'm going to apologize because I know what the town charter said and I know what Dan Murray said in the past. So I'm glad we got a new opinion from counsel that says we can do it. Is two weeks enough?

I don't know. I said at least. So again, I know I believe it should be done in May. I'm not telling you why. I think a collaborative effort with the people that need to be in a room, select board, fincom, department heads that needs obviously there's a lot of coordination in trying to get that. But if we don't do it, then there is no careful consideration.

Would you say it's at least two weeks that would be May 11 at the earliest?

Yes. I would not revisit this date in two Well, I think it's important too because we need to work off of some type of timeline. If we set a date in the May, I need to automatically walk back two weeks because we have to publish the warrant. So you need two weeks. And I don't think any town employee wants this decision made one in a silo by any one person and they don't want it to be done hastily,

that's

a great word. I think we owe it to the town employees and the people of Middleborough to again careful consideration and thought with collaboration how we approach these cuts.

So Mr. Chair, I think when we say town employees, we're talking about human beings with families and so it's I just need to say that. Mr.

Chair, so looking at the calendar, let's just say could we consensus why sitting here say no earlier than the May 11, most likely maybe even the eighteenth, which would be I think that's the May. That sounds like a real legit we might be able to be there. The reason why I say that is some people put this on their calendar. We definitely we're definitely not going to use the last fourth Monday in April at this point. I mean as a Board, I'm not taking a vote, I'm just saying consensus wise, but we all kind of agree to that May May 18 sounds like

May 18. May

I'm fine with

that.

Just as a consensus. Yeah, feel me.

Can we just I do think if we could ask just check-in with the Chair of the Finance Committee, For the date, time line wise.

It's a three week. Three week rather than two. Versus two

at minimum.

I would say I know better probably. We're meeting this Thursday. I haven't posted an agenda yet, but we're meeting this Thursday, giving a little time for a little bit of deliberation, and I can't speak for my entire board.

Yep. All right. Hey, real quick, can

we just confirm that's okay with the schools as they're tweaking their budget?

Good question. That was Glenn's point.

Also make sure that the high school is available.

Cheryl.

Cheryl Diamond. First, thank you, Joe. You're

I don't want to be thanks for this. Nothing I'm

I not

know my anxiety has has has dropped. I hope other peoples have. And, I certainly hope that the Select Board and the Fincom can work together.

Agreed. Mister chair.

Can we

I May I we

try to make that happen?

Well, I want you to know that the fin com unanimously voted to work together with all boards and I know this board feels the same way. So I think the overall Okay. Take

is I just personally have observed

Well, I want you to know that.

That has not been past practice.

I agree.

And it's gotta stop. We're all adults. We need to start acting like it. All of us. I agree. I did have another question and now I forgot it.

One second.

What what's our total shortfall now?

3.3.

3.375.

That include BP?

No. We so that does not include Bristol Plymouth that is

That's under the school. Is that still at 2.3 now?

So again, this is another discussion. The school didn't have they were given an allotment of money in their budget was exceeded that number of that number. That's not because any numbers were incorrect from the town side, it was they didn't have the money to cover what they wanted. This new $3,300,000 is a town wide shortfall. All town departments will have to cut.

Right. So it does not include the 2.3?

Correct. That's not a shortfall.

Right. I knew that.

Okay. That was not a deficit.

Okay. I I It

was their deficit.

Right. It was

What their they wanted versus what

they're getting. Deficit. Correct. Correct. Okay. I chose the wrong word. I have five questions, but it's not appropriate at this time. So thank you.

Thank you,

You don't want to be thanked.

I don't want to be. I wish this wasn't happening.

Mr. Chair. I wish you had. Yes. Thank you very much.

Having processed this for the last week, it's been a lot, and I know everyone feels the same. I just wanted to acknowledge that ultimately it does fall on this board and we as a town need to come together. So I just wanted to acknowledge that and apologize for just any part that I missed or whatever that looks like. But I just I don't want to walk away tonight without saying that to the public because you put me in the seat and we're in a place where I don't want to be and I know nobody else does either. So I just wanted to acknowledge it and be solution focused and continue to move forward with this Board and with Joe, with Fincom and school committee and whomever else is willing to sit at the table and make this as good as we can make it.

Thank you.

Mr. Chairman? Sue Panini to Muddock Lane, Middleborough. Couple of things. As far as the district's budget is concerned and the original 2.3 deficit that we realized when we knew what we were getting for revenues and we knew that's all there's a budget that's been created that will address that. So it's not what we wanted. Those cuts have already been made. So I don't want there to be some kind of something feeling coming out of here that we haven't already gone.

I recognize it, but the number that was given was prior to realizing that there was a deficit town wide. Yeah. Don't think it's if there was a request by the schools to have X and you were given Y, I mean, now we don't have anything. It's not it wasn't a deficit because of the numbers were different or wrong. It was because it was exceeded the allotment. Understood. Now there's a deficit townwide.

On the municipal side versus I the district

do know that the school didn't get what they wanted or requested.

Yes. No, understood. And thoroughly, I just didn't want there to be a thought out there that we weren't we've already gone through and we have a budget that's out there that goes through the cuts. But around timing and the town meeting and now I'm asking as Supanini from Two Medical. A question I have is this whole the difference between the original Cherry Seat and Chapter 70, the Governor's allotment for those numbers and the ultimate one at the end. When does that number come?

July.

That's really helpful.

Sometimes August. July. Yes. I've seen it August.

Again, they are projections and you have a starting point that's where you're supposed to start and they are subject to change, but they're not going to overcome the gap

that we have.

Sure. And then the other just as a sense from what you were saying before of the way that those monies can move and sometimes they go back and sometimes they go forward. And you may not have checked into this level, but so we have had updated projections on which some decisions were made. In those other instances, going when they increased or when they decreased, was the interim report or the interim projection consistent with what the ultimate number was?

It depends on what year you're looking at. I mean, each year is different. I don't think you can take a percentage of, okay, they went up nine percent one year and it's not consistent across the board. It's literally how much money the state wants to give us. It's different factors. Go ahead.

Can I add to this? Yes.

I made a lot of phone calls this week. One of them was to Lieutenant Governor, Kim Driscoll. We talked for quite a while about the past practice. This year is an indication that we're probably not going to see an increase. We historically do see an increase of about 3% and the legislature will decide not the Governor's budget. So the Governor won, we'll go through legislative process and may go up, may go down.

Okay. Which is different than

It indicate that nothing set in stone that there's probably not extra money this year for us,

That's helpful.

As well as every other town.

And when this budget process started was November. The cherry sheet came out. Anyone can look at the cherry sheet. You just type in MA cherry sheet and it will pop up as your first thing. You click on it and you look at the L. And it comes up with the Division of Local And you can even go back previous years and you can look at how it changed. But I will say in November when this started, there was a three I think it was about 3.5% was the assumed increase. Correct. And that's how that kind of got put in there. And it's only 0.98%.

In fact, out of the 43,150 that was the original 43,150,000 of the school budget, the general government portion of that was a 6.7% increase over last year because the general government put 1.175% into it. So in the state, we only put $225,000 into it. So in order to kind of make things almost a little bit whole, which was that average of that 3.25% number on the whole budget, general government's portion went up by $1,175,000 from 17,500,000 to 18,600,000 That's how that's how it got to where it was. Because and I was going through. I'm like, why can't we give more money to the schools?

Because I heard everyone say, we're cutting the schools. And I'm like, no. We actually gave 6.73% in general government money. The general government portion actually went up quite a bit compared to other budgets and that was before $3,300,000 now that number is going to adjust again. It's just crazy.

And just to clarify one important statement that I think that you made, you made many, but one I want to point to. When you speak of nomenclature here, think, really important, to taking in against some of the things that people are saying, bring all areas of the town together. And so we refer to different aspects of who we are in with different language. Sometimes people say the town and the schools, some people say the municipality and the district. I think I heard you say that there will be an adjustment to all of the town departments.

And when you say that, I think that you're saying both the municipality side and the school side. I am. Mhmm. Okay. I just want to and I'm not complaining. I'm I know.

It's a tough message to deliver.

I I

don't want to tell you this. I I This is what we have.

Yes. I just want to make sure I'm walking away from here clear because we're going to be preparing for a meeting on Thursday night in which we were hoping to be approving a budget, that's tough to do without knowing what your income is going

We've had conversations with the interim superintendent and he was made aware of this and he understood and I believe you guys had a subcommittee meeting tomorrow.

No, I already had it. I'm asking some questions.

Again, yes, so we did make that phone call and he did inform us that he had a subcommittee meeting with members of school committee and I think it was the finance subcommittee.

No. Yes, the finance subcommittee.

Which you have asked. I know, I understand you want to clarify things.

Yes.

I understand it.

Yes, that we're all on this. Bad message to the Yes, Trust understood. As long as we're all understanding the same message.

Don't shoot the message.

Not at all. Not at all. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, with regards to school also, the House Ways and Means Committee is meeting on the thirty first up at the State House and I was asked would I go up there. I'm providing a written testimony. Of the pieces I've done is I've identified $05,000,000,000 worth of cut in federal and the state government. It was an easy $05,000,000 I'm sorry $05,000,000,000 $500,000,000 and I've asked that they reallocate that directly to a per pupil contribution to every town because every town, every district in the state is struggling with this and with a million kids, there's a million kids right now approximately in the state going to school.

You could take that and that would be a really substantial amount of money per district. But that's what my letter specifically says to them, my testimony, because to ask them for more money when they have none, in fact it was just reported that they've lost $4,200,000,000 in people moving out of the state. High earners are moving out of the state, the IRS identified in 2023. So we're losing money right now revenue even on income tax. But by identifying an exact location where they could pull it from like that, which is what they added $350,000,000 to this past year, MBTA, I'm sorry.

The subsidy, if you took away $5.500000000 in that subsidy and put it towards the children, which is where it belongs, that's where I'm going with my testimony to the government. Because unfortunately, there is no more money at the state level as Mr. Germain when he was talking with the Lieutenant Governor last week just mentioned that there is no money left. It's not one of those years where they have this money, a little bit to spread around. There's nothing to spread around this year. And to me, I'd love to see them take that money and really put it towards the students.

Great. Thanks, Brian. Jessica, good evening.

Good evening. Jessica McEnough, seventeen Hillside. A couple of things. I've had my feathers ruffled about BP for some time, not because I don't believe in tech schools or trade schools. I am a trade school kid.

But I do I want to note and I don't know that anybody noticed it that in the 2026, for example, finance book that was issued and put out and even in the twenty twenty seven one is incorrect as published. I know we're changing that. Mister McGrail's numbers were 1 and a half million dollars off in those books for those assessments. So in 2026 book, he says the budget fully funds the Bristol Plymouth high school assessment at $2,100,000. It was like $3,200,000 according to their approved school committee budget book.

This year it's 3,400,000. They that is the current published thing on their site. Their site isn't very great. I don't think it's very informative. That's not our fault, but I think we should squawk about it as a region who fund who puts money into it. The other thing BP does is they charge us up for a of students and this might not be a budget problem, it is a budget problem. It comes down to a budget problem. They charge us for a percentage of students whether or not our students go there. So they say Middleborough is responsible for a percentage of the budget even if they don't give us that many kids. So we're paying for Taunton kids to go there really because Taunton's percentage is like you can see on their budget numbers.

If you look at BP Tech and you look up BP Tech budget, you can see it. It's a five page document. It's very simple. It's like five pages long. If somebody I think needs to fight that, if we're not sending kids there Mhmm. We shouldn't be paying for kids to go there. If Taunton is sending 500 kids and we're sending 150, we should be paying for a 150. We shouldn't be paying for a 186 at 10,000, 19,000, whatever, how many thousand dollars ahead it is. That is a budget driver and somebody should be having that conversation. This is Go ahead.

Can I Mister chair?

Hi, Theresa.

Only because I have done this work as well. Yeah. I had spoken to senator Kelly do Dooner as well as the BP representative and we were going back and forth in email the last few months because I was trying to understand that exact issue. And I was told that and I have it in writing. I was told that we would be assessed per student that gets in via lottery.

That's what she told me. So she said that number can change every year because this year, first year of the lottery, maybe 75 kids get in, we're going to pay for those 75 kids. So that might be a lower number. Next year, kids get luckier on the lottery, say 125 kids get in, we're paying for those a 125. It is that She made it very clear that we are

paying thing for though, like, they get in via lottery, but the other 100 that we approve to just get in for good grades, like, I know they're not supposed to do that, but that doesn't mean that some of it isn't, you know, when you have some a a kid that migrates in say in tenth grade Mhmm. They're getting approved. That's not a lottery system. That's we have a spot for you from Middleborough Mhmm. And you can migrate in.

My understanding is it's a it's straight lottery now.

That's what

Yeah. Agree. Yep. And I think that that's

a good thing because we are over otherwise we're overpaying and we're over assessed.

Right. I like I said, I had those exact same questions. Yeah. Because it was very concerning for us as a town. What are we paying for? If if we have children that aren't actually getting into the school, we're not paying for a 150 slots.

And I'm all for mutual respect, but I don't agree that we shouldn't be paying for kids that aren't going there. If Taunton sends 500 kids there, that's a Taunton problem. That's not a Middleborough problem. If you can't afford it, I'm sorry, Taunton, but we can't afford it either.

Exactly.

Brian, you look like

My my my comment is is you got to look at the October 1 enrollment. October 1 enrollment is the key number. Whoever's enrolled on October 1 at whatever location is where they are. If you want your head to really explode on October 15 when they get sent back to Middleborough, they still get the money.

Yes. And charter schools work similarly. Other thing I noticed and I have been drilling down into these numbers, I have shared them with finance committee, I've shared them with Theresa. I I think Joe it's made its way to you. I have been just drilling down on these numbers, not necessarily to analyze them although I'm capable because it's a little hard to analyze what goes in what bucket, but to just present them. Here's a five year snapshot of what every single thing looks like. Mhmm. And the and I just lost my train of thought.

You'll it. You'll get it. Five year look ahead.

It so so I've been well, I've been drilling down into the numbers and the I've got it. And the one thing I did see is that in the cherry sheet assessment, the state hit us with almost an additional $600,000 for charter school assessments. Now, I don't know that already has a revenue bucket inside the DLS web sheet or like the all the sheets and all the things that are in there. I'm curious and though I don't I don't think anybody knows the answer here, think it's worth asking somebody why that assessment went up so high because it was also assessed again with like a like a similar number And so I feel like something's going on with charter schools, maybe it was a law that was put through that kind of slipped under the radar, no one's been paying attention to and it hit our books. But that's a big number and if we're not sending kids to charter schools, we shouldn't be paying that either.

But that's the state and I know we can't control that part. So those are just my few observations of things that I've seen and I didn't do any of this for accolades. I just did it because it interests me and I'm gonna keep going on those spreadsheets and I'm gonna keep trying to find it. I'm gonna keep trying to see if there's a better way or there's a spot or there's something that jumps off the page. Why? Because I'm kind of bored and I'm good at it.

On the students, I'm told that with this new lottery system, there's no get even a guarantee that any Middleborough students could And be that's bizarre. There I wanna make everybody aware there's a petition going around on the Internet to sign to send to the governor to abolish this this in what I call foolish rule and get it back to grades and what children. I mean, I've got friends that their children work diligently to keep their grades up and do all the right things because they were told by their parents, if you want to be an electrician or a plumber, you want to go to trade school, this is how you get there. And they did it. And now they're being told that I did all this for nothing, that's just not right.

Yes. That's a rock and a hard place too, but that's even more bothersome because we if shouldn't you're not guaranteed to take a Middleborough kid in, then we are not guaranteed to have to pay you.

Why are we paying

We can we can give it to our schools.

I don't know I don't know how we fight it, but

it's So this finance committee needs that our

schools

need it. It's a fight being worth fighting. Literally.

So thank you very much.

I just mention something, Jessica? You. So can I mention something? Yeah. On the, BP audit of 06/30/2025, it says member communities assessment on page 51.

It says assessment of member communities consists of two types, minimum contributions and other school spending. Minimum contributions are the amount set by the Commonwealth Massachusetts Department of Education in connection with the Education Reform Law Chapter 70 and other school spending represents additional funding necessary to fund the foundation budget after the Commonwealth Masters its funding. I'm reading the word for word by the way. Other school spending transportation debt service non educational equipment is assessed to communities based on pupil enrollment of each member community attending the district as of October 1, like Brian These contributions combine the state aid and represent net school spending. So middle borrower for that fiscal year is 2,137,987 So it's $2,137,987 Did you say it was $3,000,000 The

BP budget as they presented it online was. And my concern in bringing that up is just if we do not present that number or prepare for that number, we end up I believe in this exact problem. So maybe it wasn't maybe their original number wasn't as much as say $1,400,000 but it ended up being an $800,000 right. So we have I think we also maybe should give BP a push to publish their school committee, their budget data. It's a little bit more transparent. It's easy to find because you can't currently even go and see 2026 data because they've already moved to 2027 and there's no historical information there.

I would recommend we reach out to BP. I will do that or ask Joe to and have someone come here and explain it to us.

I already did. I emailed them. And I was

like, when is

school committee meetings? I'd love to attend.

I I I do have to say, it was pointed out to me that it's been past practice to have Bristol Plymouth come in and when you do all the budget reviews, they present. I do remember them coming in. I don't know. Were they not scheduled this year? They were not. I mean

Let's invite them. Yeah.

And I just wanna reiterate, like, I am a Vogue School kid. I am for it. I went through all four years. I was supposed to be an electrician. Like, I am for it. I wanted my kids I want both of my kids to go there. One of them didn't make it. Like, I am a Vogue school kid. I am supportive of that. But if you're not doing it right and you're not showing up and you're not showing us numbers and everything is wonky and nobody can track it, that says we need a better relationship with you because if we are funding 18 or 30% or whatever of your school, you should be transparent with us about what that means.

We can make that call tomorrow and see if we

We can email everybody in the list here. Thanks.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate your help. Cheryl.

Cheryl Diamond, I remembered what I wanted to ask. I said I had more questions and I stopped. I'm very appreciative and I I would hope the work that everyone's done to get a recovery plan in place is is huge and foremost. But for me, who has spent the last week anxious, not specific for all of us, for every taxpayer in Middleborough. Mhmm.

I want accountability. Why can't we do that simultaneously? Has anyone reached out to the previous town manager and asked him to make a present he literally said that he was presenting a balanced budget and then gave us a budget with a huge structural deficit.

Projected deficit.

Okay. Add the word projected. Huge. How can you get those two terms mixed up though?

I spoke to Jay numerous times about the budget, how we got here. I know he spoke with Joe. I don't want to speak for Joe. He explained how he came up with his numbers to me. Nothing against Joe's numbers. He's a black and white kind of guy. I agree with his numbers. They are ultra conservative. That's how I would do it. But there are numbers that are not included in the presentation tonight. He gave us a worst case projected scenario. Those numbers will change. You said it five times.

Right.

I understand. The numbers we have tonight will not stay the same.

Correct.

Like the 13,000,000 local receipts to eleven five. I disagree with that number. It's going be twelve five. But that's just my 2¢. I'm not Tommy. So I'm not starting with Joe or with Jay. I'm just trying to find a path to move forward on and not there's no one person to blame for this except all of us, I guess.

That's a good quote.

So no one caught that

all of us.

And I'm not pointing the finger in any direction except that we have to identify what's wrong and fix it.

Mister chair. Bill. And to go along with that quote, it will take all of us shoulder to shoulder and team to get over this. And chair, I'll see

it for the record, if I can interrupt for a second. I can put all my differences aside with anyone in this room or outside of this room and work for a solution. I'm willing to do that any day, any night until we have a solution.

Awesome. Balance over here, structural deficit. I just don't know how

you're Not gonna get any more fighting.

Balance balance budgets and then give us this.

And part of part of that piece what I was talking about just when I was talking about the school piece was when this whole thing started in November, the budget process, when they started putting together, there was no cherry sheet and the number that was carried, I I figured back calculated was 3.5%

Correct.

Was was the estimate of four different pieces going up from the state because there is no

February?

So that the

The cherry

In November when they started putting the budget together. The

cherry sheet comes out

The cherry

sheet came

out January 28

this year.

And since we're go ahead,

Brian.

So that's why I was trying to figure out I was doing the same thing. How are we going to get to where we need to be, but how did we get here? Because if you can figure out how to unwind the knot sometimes, you can figure out how not to let it get knotted again. And that's my big concern is, we talked about this year, I'm looking at next year already and saying, I can't have it again next year.

Right. We can't have this happen again. We will lose our bond rating. We'll be on a a path to receivership. I mean, I'm sure that's a longer path, but

Yep. So that's that's how I figured that. He set up

Sheerish sheet came out before we were told we were being presented with a balanced budget. And Yep. May I'm not a numbers person, but

And those numbers will change again multiple times.

I get it. Alright.

It's tough to go off to hard numbers if we don't have hard numbers period. Okay.

Thank you very much everybody. Thank you. Especially your job.

Thank you.

Matt, good evening.

Matt Phillips, 95 Old Center Street, through the Chair to Interim Town Manager, Perkins.

Want that make I

didn't accidentally call you Town Manager, Perkins, like I did last week. Going back to BP, I had heard in the past, and I'm glad we have Finance Director, Sue Nickerson, here too, so maybe we can get some more clarification on this. I remember at a previous meeting last I believe it was last year, when we were talking about stabilization accounts. And I erroneously, when we were talking about the stabilization account to get us hopefully to upgrade our bond rating. And I mistakenly called it debt stabilization account.

And I was quickly corrected and said no debt stabilization account is four BP. So I vividly remember that. Said okay, well I misspoke. I meant stabilization as it pertained to the bond rating. But going back to debt stabilization, there was an acknowledgment that we had debt stabilization account for BP. A, do we still have said account? And if so, what's the amount?

So I asked specifically because I had in the presentation create a BP debt stabilization account. And I asked if do we have one. It's a debt stabilization account not specific to BP. But I did ask that. And we do not have a specific BP debt stabilization account.

Okay. So

So And that's actually Wait a minute. No, no. That's not true. Article III of the Falltown meeting of twenty five specifically moved $800,000 to the debt stabilization to the unclassified for that technical thing.

So But not a specific one named.

No. We created, but we never put any money in it. Correct.

There was no like BP, like to differentiate between other debt stabilization versus a specific targeted liability? That was the question. I tried to get the answer. There wasn't a BP one. My presentation, I removed it because I didn't have the answer in time.

All right. So there is a debt stabilization account not specifically earmarked for BP. Correct. How much do we have in the debt stabilization account?

Yes. 6,600,000

That is just the stabilization.

Just the stabilization, not debt That's for the bond rating. Yes.

Okay.

We'll get it for you.

Okay. All right. And so what other and I mean, this would be another question I expect an answer right now. What other items would that debt stabilization account be for considering it's not strictly for BP? So what other?

So the funding for any debt occurred goes through that account to pay whatever we need to pay, and it was moved. So we had, I believe, it was $10,000,000 Is this the $10,000,000 and they moved it back to $6,000,000 of $4,000,000 back to the enterprise accounts. That number went down. And I don't know if that's exactly what you're talking about. If you look in the budget book, there was some debt that was moved.

It was $10,600,000 I think. And they moved it last year. I believe it was about $4,000,000 and they put it back in the enterprise funds. The enterprise funds are going to pay their own debt out of the enterprise funds. Is that the question you're looking for? Yes. Okay. That's how it was explained to me.

Because I used to transfer it from like one to the next one. Correct. Correct.

Right. It's it's it's a cleaner line from what I was how it was explained to me.

That's how I understood. The more direct town.

Yes. Yes.

Bob, good evening.

Good evening, again. Mister Chaff, to the

Of course.

Interim town manager. There was a brief discussion well, wasn't brief. There was a discussion about the schools and we have CHF3.3 million maybe as a problem. Projected. Thank you. Has the school been so when the budget was starting back in November, they were given a three point something as a target. So out of that 3.3, has the school department been given a target? So as they look at what they need to do to help with this projected deficit that's still moving

It was increased to three twenty five with the additional offered $200,000 supplement from transportation, it went up. So the overall number that they were allotted to work with did go up and increase. But from the original number, their proposed budget requests exceeded the normal growth or what the number should have been estimated off of. So they were offered Y or they were offered X and they produced Y and it wasn't close by $2,200,000 That is the way I understand how that happened prior to identifying a $3,300,000 shortfall. It's a town wide shortfall.

So $3,300,000 projected, the whole town. The school submitted a budget. So do they have a target that they need to work on?

We haven't that's in the process of sitting down with people in this room and I did not include school committee. But obviously, we did talk to Mike today. That's a comment that's definitely a stakeholder that we are going to invite in and discuss and look at, maybe even appear for the subcommittee to be able to identify, okay, where are we? What are the numbers we're looking at townwide and get a good faith estimate on where we can identify cuts.

Thank you.

Thank you, Bob. Just

to maybe try to clarify. So we were originally the increase was a 2.75. That was the original percentage increase that we got. When Mike went through, he did the service level funding and realized that we were at a two point I think it was $2,400,000 deficit for the school budget. He took that. He made all the cuts and balanced the budget so that we were balanced.

At the 2.75%?

At the two seven five

So

we cut positions, we freeze positions, we did all of the things that's been in the public up on slides, we did all of those things. When the subcommittee was presented, we talked to Jay. He said that there was money in the transportation budget that had been under spent in years before and he thought there was plenty of room to give us to move that over into our budget which brought us up to a 3.25. So it went from 2.75 not 3% to 3.25%. And so we've been waiting.

And then there was also Mark, Jay, others said there may be other room and that's when they came to you and said, can you find room? You said, no, actually I can find some other things. To answer the question, Bob, the budget that you saw that you brought to the finance committee that you sat in is the same budget that we have now. We were just waiting for what if there was any change we were thinking up, but it looks like it's going go down. So we do not have any projection of what that is going to be. Does that help?

Would be what I discussed about the collaboration, thoughtful consideration of where do we cut.

And I have to say how

Those decisions haven't been made. Like that's part of the plan. That's the next step. Where do we go from here? We identified last week, we need to figure out what's the number. I mean, I came in and I believe I said, there's a $4,000,000 question mark and it's I believe the statement I made the budget I felt was out of whack. The technical financial term out of whack. Now that we have identified the number and plug what I believe are the correct numbers in, It obviously shows something we didn't expect. So now we have to go back to the drawing board. That's the best way I can explain it.

And I'm not the artist at the drawing board. There's a lot of other people that haven't put brush strokes on this.

And I have to say from tonight, the very positive thing that I've heard in something since I started on the school committee is the working together.

It has to be done that way. And I'm telling you and I've told every single member of finance committee and I told every member on the select board and I told all the department heads, these decisions are not going to be made in a silo. They're going to be however members however many select board members and however many fin com members standing shoulder to shoulder with the department heads when we decide what we're cutting that you need to stand united and people need to put their petty BS aside. Agreed. I can tell you right now, I'm hearing a lot of complaints and that's number one.

Yeah. It was number one before we even sat here.

Agreed. And also the one offs, people contacting people, it's great to bring suggestions and ask, hey, can you look at that, but then all of that should go back into the group discussions, not going off into sideboard discussions.

It's going to be difficult because there are decisions that obviously, one of the ideas we were talking about, when we speak with the and I've been a person cut twice in my career. I was laid off in 1990 here. I was one of the first people, they didn't have a problem. In 1991, we had a whole bunch more layoffs. And then in 1994 in Lake Ville.

So I have been laid off. And I could tell you when these conversations start happening, the employees, the anxiety level is out of control. And I have been there. And this is something that department heads and decision makers in this community seeing in fighting and squabbling and like cut the crap pretty much what people have said. And because this is going to be a difficult process, there are going to have to be department has a way in and we're going to sit down and look, what we talk about or what they bring to me and so I can bring to finance and Selectmen, the impacts of a 14% cut or a 10% cut to their budget.

How does that affect you? Tell me what will happen? How does it impact your delivery of services to the town of Middleborough? Those are conversations that like if people outside heard and we may not make those cuts, but we need to consider what those are, like those are conversations I don't want people to really hear about. It's really sitting down and looking at numbers.

But if the department is telling me, hey, this is what's going to happen, but yet it's not as drastic as we think it is or we're able to figure out and we had to look at nonessential versus essential. If we're looking at all that and we're gathering information and then taking that information and passing on making decisions, I'm not going to talk about the most radical cuts, but we got to have those conversations. I don't want people to panic. It creates increased in the already established anxiety that everyone's having. And additionally, if we do talk about it, I'm going to make sure every department head, I'm going to have them sign a little disclaimer, we talked about this.

What we talk about doesn't mean it's going to happen. We're gathering information. I don't need department heads going on saying, hey, Joe said we're going to get cut this, but this department is going to get cut that. Those conversations aren't happening. I can't allow that to

Fester.

Fester in the community. Once that information is obtained, we look at it and then we discuss how do we reduce that whatever the projected number will be. But we're starting here, like, you have to think about what a 3,300,000 deficit looks like in town government. There's only certain places you can cut. School is forty one nine Just under 41. Okay. Alright. That's school and I understand as a school community member you're defending your turf. That's what department heads are going to do.

Actually not. So I just want you to I'm not

do think that's important and people in the community like they, you know, where do we value education? You know, what's what's what's considered essential versus non essential? You know, we're going to have, I hate to say, Jess Mackinac issue, I just lost my train of thought. But we have to have those conversations and they have to be candid. Sure. And then bringing that information back to sitting down and looking at everything with the people who need to be a participant or a seat at the table having those conversations. That's how I envision the process to play out.

Yeah. And that's, I think, similar to what they did in the school thus far. I understand there may be more, but with the two, four that we already cut.

I do what I did remember what I was going say. So if you're looking at general town government versus education district, think is the term you used, there's only $27,000,000 that we need to look at. There's not a big pot of money.

You lost me, sorry.

So if you're looking at the town government, you go to page 11 on the budget book, you look at the first, it's public safety, it's culture, it's DPW. There's only five categories that you've got totaling in $27,000,000 So how do you how does how does a 3,300,000 problem get spread out over a kind of a small number? I believe it's like 14% looking at it just on government side, not including the district. That's why we have to have a conversation with the district as well.

And is that considering health putting the healthcare burdening that back on the when you're doing your how much is for the school and how much is are you

for I burdening think that's the term budget decisions like is it better for the school department pay the whole health insurance? Is that what you're talking about because that

was just saying when you're saying there's only $27,000,000 I'm trying to figure, ours is given what our budget is, which is 42,000,000 how can yours only be 27,000,000 if we only if because of the I see what you're saying, because of the contribution.

You can't cut debt, transportation, you can't there's other issues that are expenditures on the town government side. There are certain categories on page 11 that start with DPW culture. I I have it. That's okay. But there's only five public safety, there's only five categories you can cut from. So and then there's education. So those are the six areas where you're going to have to try and determine where the projected $3,300,000 number is going to come from.

Joe, do you want to?

Sure. Can I pass it over, please?

Nancy Kefalos.

Can I just real quick, the only places on Page 11, general government, public safety, DPW, human services and culture, that's it? And then education, that's $6,000,000 So total those numbers up, that's the number we get to work with to address a 3,300,000 shortfall.

Townwide. Nancy?

Hi. Through you to Joe. Thank you for the action items because it's appreciated.

Well, I don't want people to look in and saying there's a problem is one thing, but what do we do now is I think what people tuning in, they want to know what's the plan. I'm working, but this is what I've done so far.

But it helps because I mean, I look at budgeting, I've done budgeting, took classes in it for being a CPA type of thing years ago. But it helps having action items. And one of the things that was hard for me is not having them. So seeing them tonight actually brings things clearer. And that's what I was getting at that night that you guys met with the school committee was I wanted to know about the psychologist because it's an action item. There's not enough action items in their budget to see where things are going like transportation. We have different transportation. It's not just one. We have mini buses and we have first student or whoever it is now.

Five star.

Five star. So it should be separate. It really should. Things that are separated should be separated. Because even though it comes under one budget, as far as I remember, Middleborough schools, the town own the minibuses. And they see OA that helps sometimes. I don't know if they still do it, but they used to come and pick up students. So I don't know if they still do that. That was what happened when there wasn't enough mini buses. So it's just it should fall.

That's a PPS thing, transportation. And that's where it should fall. Like I'd like to I know you don't have any control over the school budget, but I'm just putting it out there because someone does. There's people that do.

I think there's representatives here that No,

no, no. But that's why I'm I

think again, the number one message I think is important to relay the people of the community like we need to unify and address this issue. And I think to me that's the biggest message that I can project tonight is that we're not going to do this in a silo. There's not going to be hopefully not too many turf wars, but it will be people would be defending their turf. But I think if we come together and we seek input from stakeholders that this is how we will proceed and address the issues. But I think bringing all the information to the table, this is what's important like those little things like that.

I've encouraged people since last week, what do you see? Is there anything that you recognize that, okay, this can get cut? And I think the more people that weigh in, the better idea that we have as people who are going to be in that room looking at the budget. Okay, what are you hearing? What do you think? What are people's priorities? What's nonessential versus essential? Some people's definition of those might be two different things. So again, my essentials might not be yours. But we need to again come together as a town and try and prioritize what's important and because I do believe these are going to be impactful. Mr. Right. Chair? Right.

With regards to school buses, I know what you're saying about the minibuses being something separate and it even breaks down even more homeless transportation, McKinney Vento, DFS. But I was told a long time ago when I first got there, the reason why the budget has it outside of the school budget is so that it doesn't get eliminated in the big buses because the big buses, although some biggie buses ride out of the high school with five or six kids on it because kids are staying after school for whatever reason, if we didn't have them, the the truancy rate would would be somewhere around 15% versus the foreign change where it is right now. Truancy meaning kids not going to sneaking it to school. And that's the reason why because Middleborough being the size that it is, parents wouldn't push their kids to school. I mean it happened.

So I think that was one of the reasons why it was pulled out and kind of kept separate a long time ago. And that's what it was explained to me was they want to make sure that because most towns what they'll do is they'll say, well, we don't have to put high school kids on a school bus. Or if you live within two miles, you can walk to school. We're a little we the kids to school. At two miles, don't know how many kids are walking to school for two miles. I did when I was a kid, today, but I don't know. Don't know

many So

that's kind of but I understand what you're saying about the breakdown of the minibuses. And when I was there at one point in time, I was asked the question why we didn't privatize the minibuses. And then I actually had a person who does this for a living say right to me. You're not serious about privatizing the minibuses because you didn't give us the data. So for whatever reason, the data wasn't given to these people so they could figure out how to schedule the minibuses and minibuses are very expensive. If you need one at the last second it can cost anywhere from 300 to $500 each way depending on where it's going a day.

Per student. Right. It's just an action item. It's just to figure out where the money is going.

That

was I get a whole bunch of them, but I mean that was one that I spoke about the other night to a few people was the bus Transportation. Thanks.

Thank you, Nancy. Have a workout for us. Anyone else? Any comments on the budget or presentation? No? All right. And move on to Committee Commission Boards. Anyone on the Board? No. No from the public under Committee Commission Boards? Okay. Hearing none, under our correspondence, Mr. Pike, anything corresponding? I don't have under correspondence. Brian, Mr. White? I'm going to hold off on Ms. Farley.

I'd like