Town Council - Regular Meeting

All set, Madam Clerk. All right. Good evening, everybody, and welcome to the February 9th, 2026 Portsouth Town Council meeting. In the event of emergency, you will we'll ask you to please evacuate the building either through the door you came through, the one that's in the back lefthand corner of the room, or the one that's behind Mr. Reese, if we can get out that door. Um, we will head over to the school department building and wait for further instructions from our first responders. If you would all now, please rise and join me in our pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence for our men and women in harm's way. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all.

Fantastic. Thank you everyone. On that note, it's 708. Madam clerk, roll call, please. Here, here, here, here, here. I am here.

Tonight we had an executive session. Uh we were updated on any legal proceedings or some of the legal proceedings that we have going on. There were no votes taken uh during the executive session. Um, yesterday was a special day. It was Carrian Beth Nelson's uh, birthday and last week on Sunday, we had a beautiful uh, celebration of life for Carrian. And Mr. Gleason would like a few moments to say a few words for about Carrian.

Thank you, Mr. President. Two weeks ago at the January, excuse me, 27th town council meeting, excuse me, we presented a proclamation honoring the life and legacy of Carrian Nelson. The year before this council had proclaimed February 8th of 2025 Carrian Nelson Day, also known as Cancer Warrior Day. Yesterday would have been her 25th birthday and has been said she accomplished so much and touched so many in that brief time. I want to thank Mr. to him council president and uh councelor McDow for speaking about Carrian at the last. I will tell you that I was just too emotional to speak but felt that I had to say something tonight. Having met her was an honor. Having heard her sing an unbelievable pleasure. Listening to all who spoke and sang at her celebration of life the previous weekend was beautiful and emotional. I just wanted to bring up her memory again tonight and I will continue to do so for every year that I'm on this council and I just want to say thank you Carrian for your inspiration. It was a beautiful person. I I do want to say one thing. Um, we were told that the the Connor River uh bridge lights were going to be on last night in her memory. And I had I can see them from my house, but I had no intentions of going over the bridge, but as as things turn out, somebody called me. They had a problem with their car over in Tibetan. And I end up going over the bridge. And that's all I can think of was I was meant to do that, you know, and they were they were beautiful. So, thank you for the opportunity to say some nice words about Carrian.

Thank you, Mr. Gleason. Very well said. had some good news on the Carrian front. She uh was a tireless advocate for um more money being put towards children's cancer. And just last week, Congress finally got around and actually applied more funding through the advocacy that Carrian and others like her had put forth. So, it's great news that uh childhood cancer is getting more research dollars to help find a cure for that awful disease. So, great job, Carrian. Next up, we have our consent agenda. Do we have a motion to approve as presented?

Uh, Mr. President, in this case, we have to approve, excuse me, yeah, see consent items, agendas one and two and place on file. There a second. There's a motion. Second. All those in favor? I I opposed. Motion passes six to zero and then we have to approve item number three. Motion to approve the mobile uh pedals license to mobile food establishment uh as a renewal to Yapa LLC doing business as TLIA food truck 39 Rhode Island Avenue unit 3 in Newport. Second. All those in favor? I oppose. Motion passes.

Just one comment if I may. Uh just want to say thanks to all the committees that have submitted their minutes. Uh they're now here on the uh under the consent agenda. Very helpful. Speaking of minutes, we have minutes for our 127 2026 meeting. Motion to approve. Second. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion passes 6 to zero. And we have our town administrator's report. Mr. Rener.

Good evening, Mr. President. Town council. Ladies and gentlemen, uh, with regard to the transportation and curbside, uh, program, as of January 31st, 93 households on Prudence Island have signed up and 2,36 mainland households are using the Headley Street transfer station and 3,222 have signed up for curbside. Uh just a reminder, the transfer station will be closed and there will be no per curbside pickup next Monday, February 16th, due to the President's Day President's Day holiday. All curbside pickups will be delayed uh one day, including uh Friday's pickup, which will be done on Saturday. Um the Portsouth Police Department is currently accepting applications for its 2026 Citizens Police Academy. As a reminder, this is a 10-week program that offers residents a behindthescenes look at modern policing and the day-to-day work of our police department. The academy will meet Thursday evenings from March 19th through May 21st and will include hands-on events, demonstrations, and open discussions with department personnel. This program has been very wellreceived in the past, and it's a great opportunity for residents to learn more about law enforcement and community policing in Portsouth. Applications will be accepted through February 17th and are available on the police department's website. With respect to our next fiscal uh year budget, um we've completed our review of time department budgets and received all civic support requests. We're now finalizing the capital improvement plan and the special revenue and enterprise fund portions of the budget. The town has also issued a request for proposals in accordance with the auditor general uh regulations uh for auditing services uh beginning next summer. Proposals are due later this month and we will present the bid results to the council in March. Any updated auditing costs will be incorporated into the fiscal 27 fiscal 2027 budget.

Work is also continuing on implementing the town's updated assess uh property values uh which should wrap up later in March. As we noted during the January budget briefing, the next budget will reflect recent property revaluations. This will update assessments to current market conditions uh but it does not by itself generate new revenue since the tax rate uh is adjusted to achieve the adopted levy. The school committee begins the first of its three budget meetings tomorrow evening. Overall, the process is on schedule and remain we remain on track to present a proposed fiscal year 2027 budget to the council at the end of March consistent with the timeline uh that we have internally disclosed. Town hall uh will be closed as I'd mentioned next Monday, February 16th in observance of the President's Day holiday. Um lastly uh I would like to note with sadness the passing of Maline Pensac who served the town as por of Porsch as register of voters for over nine years. Meline performed her work with professionalism, kindness and a deep respect for the importance of fair and accessible elections. Her years of public service were greatly appreciated by the town and by those who had the pleasure of working with her. On behalf of the town, I extend our sincere condolences to her family and friends. That concludes my report. Mr. President,

thank you. Mr. Mr. President, Mr. Ree, I have one more question for Mr. Rainer. Mr. Rain, I have just I have a quick question. Um, what's the um status of the certificate of occupancy on the senior center? Is that still a temporary situation?

Yeah, that will remain as a is it'll be regularly updated. Um there is a TCO uh the current one is good through I believe February 26 the end of this month a couple days before the building official will go out to make sure that no conditions have changed and reissue the TCO. The TCO will remain in effect until there can be a certificate of occupancy issued for the entire building which we anticipate won't be until spring. Well, the reason I asked that is um the senior center provides annual tax help and this is important to the seniors and I understand there's people showing up right now to get that help and there's no clear and safe way to access park or even enter the building and then there's no defined workspace to date but yet they're still I believe taking people in to help them with their taxes.

I'll be certainly uh willing to look into that. Uh they can access the building and the space can be used. So, I have no reason to believe that. Well, there's chain link fence around the whole thing as a security. They don't know how to get in. Is there any way they could have an area in the town hall possibly to to work? Well, let's look to see what we can do at the senior center first and then we'll we'll move from there. But it's safe for the outside public to use this. All right. Yeah, the north side is accessible, not the southside. People don't know.

Go to the area. the chain link fence isn't there, but maybe we can put some signs up if we need to. Right. Um, I would like to thank uh since Paul is sitting over there in the corner of the DPW for another nice job all night long out taking care of the snow removal. Um, especially with this storm, there was a lot of drifting and the guys are out there all night long and all morning long getting it ready. I know they they rushed a little bit this year this time to get back for the awful Super Bowl that we all were not very happy about. But but thank all the guys for a great job uh taking care of the roads. Next up we have resignations and appointments. We have two resignations from the dog committee for Mr. Mrs. Kurland.

Mr. President, uh motion is to receive with regret regret the resignations of David Kurland and Carrie Mathers Kurland. Second. All those in favor I opposed. Motion passes six to zero. Yes. His request. Okay. All right. We will skip over that one then. Next up, we have a reappoint for Miss Alan Vadney on the board of canvasers. Motion to re reappoint Ellen Vadney to the board of canvases. Second. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion passes six to zero. And then we have a another dog park committee reappointment.

Motion to reappoint Jennifer McInley to the dog park committee. Second. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion passes six to zero. Next up we have our new business and we have our presentation of our fiscal year 2025 audited financial statements. Welcome back Mary. Thank you for all your help in getting this done on time and into the state on time. I believe we were the first town to get them in.

You were. And I believe there at this time or at least as of the end of December, there may have only been eight submitted.

Yeah. There's a few towns that haven't done last year. So, we won't go there. Uh that is that is correct that there are a few 24s that are still out there. None with our firm at the moment, but there are definitely a few 20 24 is still out there. Um but thank you for having me here again this evening. Um I really want to thank your staff as well. Um your finance staff um and certainly your administrator. Um they are a great help with getting this audit done and getting it done timely. As well as Chris at the school department. Um all of the information is provided to the firm timely. Um all the answers are answered timely. Um so it's a great team effort. So thank you.

So I'll go through the financial statements um as I have in prior years. I know you all have it in advance. So if anyone has any questions um you can certainly jump in and and ask the questions as I go along. Um, again, it's 200 plus page documents, so I'm not going to bore you with all of the details on it, but um I will go through it um with some um degree of explaining the information in the statements themselves. So, the statement itself is set up in the same format as it's been set up for the last number of years. There's an introduction section um which includes the transmitt letter because as you remember um your financial statements are submitted to the GFOA for certification and you have each and every year received that letter of excellence or the certificate of excellence from the GFOA. So um you received it again for your FY24 financial statements and I believe the town has um since submitted the 25 financial statements. So that's what's included in the introduction section. Um the next section is the independent auditor's report. That's where we appine on the financial statements. And again you have a clean opinion here. U management discussion and analysis is where management has the opportunity to write in layman's terms a summary of the um results of the 24 audit and in some instances comparing some of that data to the 23 audit. um that section um may change or is changing to some extent with a new GASBY Gazby 103 that has been um um awarded and um approved by the GFOA and will be effective for the 26 order. So you may see some changes in

the format going forward. The basic financial statements include the um statement of net position and the statement of activities. That's the acrruel basis statements that are included in your financial statements. The fund financial statements is what all of you are really familiar with. That's your general fund. That's your school unrestricted fund and then all of your capital project funds and special revenue funds. The notes um are a requirement. They really describe more in detail of all of the basic financial statements that we just spoke about and we'll talk about um a couple of those notes as we go through the document itself. And then the required supplementary information. Um for the town here it would be the budget and actual for both the general fund as well as the school unrestricted and it will be all of the information on each of the pension plans that the state maintains as well as the town pension plan and the other postemployment benefit plan. So that's what's included in your RSI. And then the state of Rhode Island requires you to include supplementary information. And here it is the summary of or the detail I really should say of all of the funds that are maintained by the town. So you'll see a section on the town gen the town special revenue funds, the school department special revenue funds, the same with the capital projects, the custodial funds, the permanent funds. They're all described um in the detail of the financial statement. Because you are um a community that is a comprehensive financial statement, you're required to include statistical information and that information um is financial in aspect for the majority of that statist statistical information,

but it also includes some demographic information that's provided by the town. Um and it's in audit unudited. Um so as I said the introduction section oh next sorry as I said the introduction section includes the transmitt letter um that is prepared by the town and included in the document again because it's a submission to the GFOA the organization chart is included um as well as a listing of all of you in terms of the elected officials both for the town side and the school side and um we include a copy of the prior year certificate and you will see that um on the next page. So I guess next um the financial statements have two report letters. Um again the same report letters that you would normally see. The first report letter is where we appine on the financial statements themselves. So whether we really state that the financial statements present fairly um in all material respects the financial position of the town. So we don't look at 100% of all the transactions. We select the transactions based on the concept of materiality. um we look at those transactions and we applying that in this instance and in all instances here within the town um that your financial statements um fairly present um the financial position of the town. There's also a second reported in the report. It's called an internal control report. In your case, it's on page 202 of the financial de um document itself. and it is a report that reports on the internal controls of the community as well as compliance with

laws and regulations. And so again, in both instances, um, the town received no findings and have an unmodified or clean report. The next three slides, um, I'm think next four slides, I think you've seen them in the past. Um it just takes the um report letter itself um and breaks it down into the um opinion paragraph. If you remember back not last year was the first year the opinion paragraph changed where it started starts the um report itself in prior years you'd find the opinion as the last paragraph of the report. Um but again here we're stating um that the financial statements um that we're presenting here or that you're presenting here because in essence they're your financial statements um um have um no findings and um refer to the respect um of material respect that they are in compliance with um generally accepted governmental accounting. learning principles. Um, just a couple of things to point out. Um, again, the responsibility of management in these financial statements. You know, a lot of times communities and the public forget that their financial statements are the community's financial statements and they think they're the auditor's financial statements, but remember that we're just opining on these financial statements and that they are the work um of your staff who again have worked diligently to put together the information necessary um to provide this. Realistically, um, in the town of Portsouth, um, you really should be proud of the fact that you have very few audit adjustments and the couple of audit adjustments that you

did have this come this year um, related to new Gazsbies that were put into place um, that needed the adjustment into the general ledger for the um, governmentwide um, statements as opposed to the fund statements. So what you receive from the um finance department on a monthly or quarterly basis regarding the finances is quite accurate um and doesn't need adjustments at year end. Um again our our responsibility is to appine on these statements um and um in terms of the statements that are also required the required supplementary I I gave you a little bit of analysis of that already. It is the budget comparison for the school department as well as the town and it's the pension and oped related disclosures that are included in it. And the supplementary information is um just what we described. It's the combining individual statements as well as what's referred to as the MTP2 which is a um report that the town um submits to the state for verification and it's included in the document here. Um, basically what that report does is allows the state to compare um the same data in the same format with all of the communities um in the state and it's referred to the MPT2 report and it's included in this report as as simply um an addition to the supplementary information. And then I spoke briefly about the internal control um report that's on page 202 as I indicated um that is where we are stating that you are in compliance with you have good internal controls and in you're in compliance

with laws and regulations here um within the town. So the financial statements once we get past the management discussion and analysis. So again that is the um section of the financial statements where the town has the ability to write in layman's terms a summary of what occurred over this past year. uh and that particular um M MDNA as we refer to it as um is very similar from community to community. So what happened back in the day and I may have said this last year to you but what happened back in the day when this Gatsby was originally put in place. This was intended to be um written in a very narrative format and it is in the sense that it is set up in that way but what has turned out over the years is it's turned out to be more of a template and every everyone follows the template. So in a lot of instances there's not a lot of narrative in it. So, one of the things that this new standard's going to do, it's going to require the town to have more input in the MDNA. So, the financial statements basically begin on page 15 of the report. So the statement of net position is the statement where the primary government which is all of your town funds get together with the business type actived on the acrruel basis of accounting. So that basis of accounting is slightly different because we're going to pick up assets and we're going to pick up debt um than the governmental funds that you

will see um in the basic financial statements. So just a couple of things to point out here. your capital assets. Um, you had $7.3 million placed in service this year that were part of the construction and progress last year. Information on those capital assets can be found in note five on page 51. Um, another thing to point out here is your receivables that were due for your property taxes at the end of last year were 1.3 million where this year they're 1.4 million. So, no significant change in the receivables. Um, the collections from your tax collector um have has done well. um you have a a few dollars worth of taxes paid in advance this past year, but for the most part, you're very consistent with your collections from one year to the next. Um moving on to page 16, that would be your liabilities and your net position. Um your liabilities here, um your largest liability of course is going to be your bonds and notes. Those are going to be found on page seven or note seven rather on page 51. Um there was no new debt. The town did not take out any new debt in the fiscal 25. Um and um they had about $2 million $3 million worth of payments that were um scheduled to be paid and were paid timely. the um net pension um liability decreased from um six 68.7 million to 61.3 million and the details of that can be found

on page 98. Uh what else can I tell you? um the total net position um increased from a negative 39.3 million to a negative 29.5 million. Um, some of that has to do with an the increase in the net investment in capital assets that was about $2 million. And again, that's because you had no new debt this year. Um, and you placed in service um the last of or not the last of it because you still have some construction in progress, but a a chunk of that capital project for the school project you placed in service. And I think that was a little bit over $7 million this past year. um the um deferred American Rescue money that's um as you know that's your opera money that you've been spending down that you were were required to spend the rest of it down this past year. Um you were had a liability at the end of last year or deferred amount at the end of last year of 1.3 million. As of June, it was at 663,000 and I'm assuming it was completely spent by December 31st, which was the deadline for it to be completely spent.

This year, right? No, 26. You got to the end of this fiscal year, this calendar year, right? Yes. Yeah. So, June, you still had 600,000, right? We have through the end of 2026, right? Oh, I'm sorry. That's correct. That's correct. We haven't spent it all yet, but we have it all allocated to be spent.

Perfect. Perfect. Um so moving on page um 17 um and page 18 is um the statement of activities. It's where you break out the expenses against the charges um and operating and capital grants to come to the net cost, if you will, of governmental activities. And then you offset that with those general revenues primarily in the town here are going to be your real estate personal property taxes and then of your abatements um which is 64.8 million this year as compared to 62.4 million in the prior year and your state aid to towns which is 3.7 million this year. So, moving on to your fund financial statements. I guess let's see. I always like to do this without the slides. And you know what that does for me? Um, so your governmental funds, um, this is what you do your budgeting from. So, these are your, um, governmental funds. They're your general fund, your unrestricted school fund. In this particular case, based on the format that is required for determination by the governmental standards for major funds, your school bond project is still considered a major fund. And then your non- major funds is your aggregated um town special revenue, school special revenue, town and school capital projects, as well as your permanent funds. So, a couple of things to point out here, um, is this past year, um, your

committed amount, the council passed an order to appropriate as committed some portion of the fund balance. And in this case, it um was calculated to be $285,680 for OPEB and pension. The school bond, as we spoke about just briefly, in FY24, you had $11 million left of fund balance. At the end of 25, you have $3.7 million, and that's because that project is continuing to be spent down. Um, as far as your non- major um funds, all of your funds, $7.7 million of the 7.9 basically are considered restricted. Um, you have unassigned of $97,000 worth of deficits. And you can see in note three on page 48 that list of those funds that had expenditures that exceeded their revenues for the fiscal year 25. On page 21, um it's what is referred to as the statement of revenues, expenditures, and changes in fund balance. This is basically your profit and loss. You can see here um again the biggest increase on the revenue side was your property taxes going from 62 million to 64.8 million. Um on your expense side um the um largest increase for the most part is going to be in two areas. Um it's going to be of course in school. Um it the school expenditures in fiscal 24 were

44.8 8 million and in fiscal 25 they're 46.8 million and then the other increase or the other substantial difference is going to be public safety. So public safety um and you know all this because you pass the budget and you see the expenses on a regular basis. So this is really no surprise. Public safety increased from 14.9 um to 16.1 million. Now the next group of funds are referred to as the proprietary funds. These are what are the in the enterprise funds. So the only thing I will bring to your attention here because there's not a significant change in these except that as you know you have a new program that's your curbside collection program and in this fiscal year fiscal um 25 you had revenue of $1.3 million. you only expended $1,000 worth of expenses. And so this particular fund um had an ending fund net position of $1.3 million. Um the transfer station had um $400,000. It started the year with $400,000 worth of equity. Um it did have um expenses that exceeded what you brought in for the transfer station this past year. um showing a current year shortfall of $152,000. Um ending the year with $291,000 in equity. Any questions so far? Okay. The last group of funds are your fiduciary funds. So these are the funds that you hold on behalf of others. So, your major fiduciary funds of course are your employment benefit trust funds.

That's a combination of the pension trust fund and the OPED trust fund. Um the detail of those can be found um on pages 99 and 100. And then you also have some monies that are being held um on behalf of others in the custodial funds. Um and those funds are detailed on pages um 174 and 175. If you're interested in reading the details of all of those, that's where you can find them. Um on the custodial funds, the largest one is the so soil erosion fund. Um and that um is on page 175. So following the basic financial statements are the notes to the financial statements. So as I indicated earlier, they are really um in the document itself to give the reader more information with regard to um a lot of the accounts that we just spoke about. So as I indicated earlier, the um um capital assets are going to be found um in note five. Um that will detail the capital assets and the depreciation for the town. So, that's where you will see the $7 million placed in service for the construction in progress. Um, and then the small amount that you're holding in your business type activities. Note seven describes each of your pieces of debt that you have outstanding. And again, in fiscal 25, you had no new debt that you placed in service. So it is really the same debt and the ammonization of those debts or the payment of those debt that those debts um both the um lease obligations as well as the bonding um for this fiscal year.

Um note 55 I should say page 55 which is going to be note nine that's your interfund activity. So that's where you're having interfund activity with all the other fund types. So between the general fund and the unrestricted school fund, um you have activities back and forth with the um special revenue funds as well as the proprietary funds. But what we added to the document itself to um help it to be a little bit more transparent and understandable to the readers um because this question has come up is on the transfers back and forth. The biggest transfer of course is the general fund $40 million to the school. But the other transfers that existed this past year, we labeled them um together with the town and identified them in a legend. So you can see what the purpose of those were. So um the $800,000 from the school fund was really to transfer the 20122 series Ebond interest. Um, four would have been the $1.9 million in the town capital project that was to fund um capital improvements and then the remaining deficit, remember that deficit that you've been paying down for years, the remaining deficit for the um 12-13 warrant. So, that information um we added to that note just to make it a little clearer to the reader as to what the transfers were for. on note 10 has been required over the years. That is the um detail of the fund balances. Um the debt service as you know would be the school bond um on the school or on this town special revenue.

Um the largest surplus would be the flower wind project. So you've got $500,000 in that fund balance account. um as well as the impact aid fund. Um that fund you have 659,000 and those are all described in much more detail in the supplementary section of the document. And then for the public safety um it's fund 274 and the majority of that is the public safety capital fund. So that's where you're you've got some surpluses still in those funds um available to be spent. And then on the town and the school capital project side um those details are are um further explained in the supplementary information and on the town side I mean on the school side of of the 1.5 million 1.4 for is phase two um that has been approved. Um following that are all the notes um as they relate to all your pension plans. You have a multiple um number of pension plans in addition to the town plan, you have the teacher the municipal plan, the teacher plan, you have the survivor benefit plans. You have a number of plans. um and that that information is all detailed there for you. And then as I indicated the detail of all the funds um are further back in the supplementary. Um the only other page that I'll just bring to your attention because I think it's important to is in the section of required supplementary. The

budgetary comparison is going to start on page 104. And as I indicated earlier, most of what you can see here is going to be um information that you have already been provided by your finance team on a regular basis. But again, we tried to this year um put in some um legends, if you will, for all of the amendments to make it a little bit more transparent and answer questions maybe before they're asked in terms of um where the transfers came from and what they were for. So, we included um th that information and that legend um is on the bottom of page 106. So, if anyone has any questions and in fiscal 25 um from a budgetary point of view, you had a surplus of 571,000. On the school side, um same information is provided in terms of their original budget, their final budget as compared to their um actual res results. And here, um, the school actually had expended $683,000 more than they had budgeted. Um, and so they had, um, a $683,000 deficit this year. Um, it didn't bring them into into a deficit because they did have fund balance going forward or coming into the year of 1.3 million. So, they still have a surplus. Um, but they did transfer some monies out for their capital needs and they were using fund balance to do that. Um, any questions?

So, just to clarify that the school spent more money than they budgeted, but they did not end a year in a deficit because they had money. Specifically, we're talking about the roof replacement. That's correct. That's correct. So that's they didn't overspend the budget that they originally had, but since we had a major catastrophe with the roof, they did spend more money than they were originally allocated. That's correct. So if you were to to again look at I think it's 106, but I go back. Um they had a surplus on their revenue side of 210,000. They did overspend um their expenditures by 156, but um what you're speaking to is this $900,000 that they used out of their fund balance for that repair.

Mr. Gleason, thank you. Could you go back to slide uh 14? 14. Yeah, 14. And at the risk of sounding ignorant, I I apologize. I just please don't because I talk too fast too. So go ahead. So much you're talking fast. Some of the stuff goes a lot of over a lot of numbers.

Uh God bless the people that get into this profession. So uh the first statement of the town's net position increased by $1.9 million for governmental activities and increase by $317 for a combined increase. So I I don't get an increase or I actually get a decrease. So, help me understand that and maybe you can tell me where that is in the actual audit. Does that make sense to you?

Yeah, it does. But I think that I might have an error in that. And if I add the two numbers, I get 2.2 million. And I don't I don't know if that's a correct number or not. Well, I really apologize because that page I don't think was updated um by my staff. Um so I do apologize. So if you go to page 18

18 in the audit book in the audit book the governmental activities um the net position change the increase was 6.9 million and the business type activities the increase was 1.1 million for a Total increase of 8,059. So that paragraph didn't get updated for some reason. Okay. Yeah. 8 million 59,448. Yes. Okay. Exactly. I apologize for that.

It's okay. I I just it look kind of funny. Totally good with these numbers, but uh just didn't jive. No, I I do apologize. And and again on the on the um on the town side um some of it had to do with paying down the debt and no new assets. So you had no new assets, no new debt. You paid down debt. So that's why you had the increase basically. Gotcha. Thank you. Any other questions for Miss Shahadi? So again, our our surplus on the talent side at the end of the year was 571,000. We took half of that, which is the 285.

That's correct. And we're putting 40% and 10% for away for the OPED and the pension. Pensions. That's correct. And we finally got rid of the dreaded 12 and 13 warrant last year. And that's gone. You do have um if you uh I don't remember what page it's on. Um, you have two small um, deficits that you probably should take care of as well. Um, they're back in 2009. Yeah, we'll have to clear those up with there's a couple of see if they've spent that money or not. Small amounts that should probably get cleared up um because they're just going to get carried forward from and that's it.

Not not as big as the uh Oh, no. the the 123 one was was was a problem. I don't remember off the top of my head, but I think they're both around like 29,000 or something like that. 27,000. And yeah, they're very small. They're very small amounts. I believe there's some questions from Mr. Grieve behind you. I don't see any from council at this point, but we'll ask a few questions and Okay. Hope to get you out of here shortly. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And again, as always, if you know, I know it's a big document, believe me, and I know I talk fast sometimes, but if any of you have any questions, you can either contact me directly um or through the finance office.

You've been reading.

Yes, sorry. My mic on Mr. Tom Greb, 110 Third Drive. I'd like to do something a little different this year if you'll indulge me. Um, I have a handout and I'd like to give it Miss Blank and just have it it'll get all the way around the corner to Miss Haiti if that clerk can need one for the record. So, just give them to the clerk and she can hand spending too much money on paper very thick. Um uh this year I I would like to draw your attention to an issue uh in the audited comprehensive annual financial report which I will from now on call the audit that deserves closer scrutiny. Not because it reflects a single year problem but because it suggests a developing structural concern that has largely gone unexamined. The audit stated on page 21 that there was a year-end general fund balance or fund balance of approximately 12.7 million and that there was an operating surplus of roughly $600,000. On its face, that is quite positive. However, elsewhere in the audit on page 55, it shows that the general fund owes approximately $7.6 6 million to other town funds, primarily special revenue funds. This interfund obligation increased by

about $2.6 million in fiscal year 2 point to two 2025. If you look at the general fund total obligations to other funds, the second column on the handout you have, you see that for the last six audits, it has steadily increased from nothing in 20 in 2020 to the present amount $6.7 million in just five years. increasing interfund borrowing of this magnitude, particularly without prior disclosure of the source and use of the funds and a repayment method, raises serious transparency and sustainability concerns. Large and continually growing loans to the general fund is typically an indication that other town funds are being used to support general fund operations rather than being applied to their intended purposes. When that occurs, a significant portion of the reported fund balance is obligated for repayment of those funds of those loans and it is not truly unrestricted and available for general appropriation. As a result, the town's actual unrestricted and available financial capacity may be substantially less than the headline fund balance in the a that the audit suggests. It could even be below the ordinance mandated minimum fund balance which is set at 8% of the previous year's budget. While the audits have presented the numbers, neither this audit nor any prior audit has alerted the council to this emerging issue or its potential policy implications.

Without that information, you as policymakers have no practical way to assess the borrowing's impact on the individual funds involved, nor to understand how the repayments could affect upcoming budgets. The reported operating surplus also needs to be viewed cautiously. While the general fund shows an approximate $600,000 surplus last year, the outstanding interfund obligations increased by $2.6 million during the same period. In other words, the surplus did not actually translate into increased discretionary fi financial capacity for the town because it coincided with an even greater increase in borrowing by the general fund. This is not an accounting issue. This is a governance issue. Interfund borrowing is allowed and can be appropriate for short-term cash man as a for short-term cash management tool. But when it, as shown in the handout, becomes si systemic, grows substantially year after year after year, and lacks the transparency of any formal oversight, it obscures the town's true financial position and limits information deci informed decisionmaking by the council. I would therefore recommend several steps to strengthen the fiscal accountability and transparency. First, that any future borrowing by the general fund, including interfund borrowing, require explicit council approval.

I'm going to stop you there for a second so we can all get on. I'm almost done. Please second at the next council meeting that the inner fund obligations of the general fund be clearly identified by individual fund year borrowed what what borrowed for and the repayment plan if any taken together. These steps would not only imp improve transparency, but also give the council and residents a more accurate and reliable picture of the town's true financial condition that will support sound budgeting, long-term fiscal stability, and properly informed decision-making.

Thank you.

Thank you. I'm hoping to be able to clear this up quickly. I believe the term general fund is used relatively loosely in the accounting and there's two separate general funds. There's a general fund that is our bank account that we pay our bills with every day. Then there's an unrestricted general fund which is the 12,659,139. And I'm going to get corrected by Mary if I'm wrong. and the funds due from others are in our checking account general fund that would go to pay down debts that we have and that we really do have $12 million in our general fund and we're not using any money to pay down debts with that or borrowing money between to pay down but I'll let Mary explain it hopefully better than I did and you have to do it at the microphone so all the folks at home and the children at sea can hear Yes, that is correct. So, if you again look on page 55, if you look on page 55, you will see where we're disclosing the due to and due from other funds. So, I will just use um the town special revenue is a portion of the $7 million. It's $4.6 million. Um if you go to the um special revenue funds that start on page 136, you'll notice that it is the pulled cash accounts. So none of your special revenue funds have individual cash accounts. So as you just indicated where the checking account is one checking account. So, if you look at any one of these funds, um, starting on page 136 for the special revenue funds, they all say due from other funds because they're being utilized as part of pulled cash and the pulled cash account. And you'll notice that none of them have any

cash. So, it's not a loan situation where one fund is borrowing against another fund. it's that you're using one combined pulled cash account in the general cash account and each one of these funds that you have are utilizing a pulled concept in the due to do from account. So it is really not um as um Mr. Greavves indicated um a loan situation. You're not borrowing money. It's part of the pulled cash and it's cash in those accounts. And the same would be true looking at page 55 for the town capital projects as well as the um school capital projects. That's another 1.4 million of the total and 1.6 million of the total. And the the curbside collection is a perfect example that doesn't have its own cash account. And so that is also part of the due to do from account. Did that help?

It helps me. Okay. That we do have $12,659,139 somewhat and the $7 million 7.5 million due to other funds is in a separate account and have some of the money or has the money there to pay it. We just haven't paid it yet. Like you mentioned the $1.3 million. It's a perfect example because by itself, right, we had $1.3 million at the end of the year because everybody bought their stick. Well, not everybody. Most people bought their stickers for their barrels and it was sitting there as a fund and now it's been expended. So we would expect that $7.5 million has gone down a lot because we've had to pay the vendor. Correct. This degree.

Okay. that that light difference in height. Um that that does explain um what's happening but it doesn't explain the fact that the um the money let let me give you an example. Um you Mr. Hamilton uh many years ago uh started uh a a thing where we would take the any leftover snow removal money and put it into a fund and we would use that fund for years probably like this year probably uh when we would go over the snow removal budget which is hard to do in June and uh that would smooth out the the the the ups and downs over time so that um we didn't have us going into um more the fund balance to get money for an emergency purpose because we just had too much snow

or or shifting money between departments to pick up that slack. If you look at the special revenue fund which you set up, there's $233,000 in it which is close to the cap I think you set of 250. Correct.

However, if you then look further into the details, no cash is in that fund. The value of that fund is an IOU from the general fund. I'm going to let Mary explain it to you again. There's there is a general fund and then there's an unre and there is our rainy day fund. We're going to stop with the general fund. There's a general fund that's our checking account. Then there's the rainy day fund which is the 12 million $659,000. That's right.

That is separate. That is on its own. That is not being touched and we're not borrowing against that to pay any other bills. that restricted account of $239 is sitting in whatever bank account that we have it sitting in or money market and is there and available for us to take out and utilize. I I beg to differ with you because I believe that $2.7 million is sitting there. I It truly is sitting there, but it's sitting there because other funds have been borrowed to put the cash there and that cash. So, so are you accusing the town and staff of I don't know a Ponzi scheme is what it sounds like that we're

No, I'm I I I'm I'm not at all. What I'm saying is that we have increased this borrowing year after year and that becomes I can see where you use this very much like your your snow removal to smooth things out uh and and do um uh short-term, you know, uh cash needs um cash flow needs. We're we're not doing any short-term cash flow needs in between accounts. Mary, I don't know if you can come explain this better, but we have revenue that comes in, whether it be from taxes or fees, and they pay the bills. At the end of the year, whatever is left over goes into that general fund balance, which is our

Yeah. And yes, and and if if you look at the the the sheet that I gave you, I the sheet that I gave you. I'm looking at the sheet that you gave me. Okay. I've got to get my my coffee over here. Essentially says that our fund balance is actually $5 million and not No, I don't know whether it is or not because I don't know what's restricted and unrestricted.

I know that it's $12,659,39 is in our unrestricted fund balance. My point here is that in 2020, we had a $9.3 million uh $9.3 million um general fund bal or fund balance. Mhm. Today we have 12.659. Correct. That's, you know, roughly $3.3 million more. Mhm. Yet the borrowing that has happened, there's no borrowing against the general fund. I think that's where you're confused.

It's it's due it's it's not borrowing against the general fund. It's borrowing from the other funds like your snow removal fund. No. Yes. Okay. I'm gonna I'm gonna ask the accountant, the CPA who who does this, but we are not borrowing against any other funds. You bring it bring it down again, Mary. Thanks.

You're Exactly. You're not borrowing against any other funds. You're you don't have and and rightfully so because the accounting for it and the workload would be I mean the hours would be crazy. If you look at the general fund, you've got $20 million worth of cash. That $20 million, if you want to do the math here, takes 7.5 of it. And that goes to all these other funds that we're talking about. And so what you would be left with, right, is you would be left with approximately $13 million worth of cash. The receivables equal the payables. That's your $13 million worth of fund balance. Does that make sense? that you've rounded up but

right right I mean because I'm obviously rounding out the receivables and the other payables but if you look at that due to due from account in essence that's the cash that's sitting in the investment accounts that you have here in the town as you described earlier the one bank account um for the $20 million that reflects all of the cash that is assigned to all of these other funds. So, utilizing this snow removal fund that we're talking about, um I couldn't find it real quickly in the document, but I'm sure it's here. Um that fund that fund would have no cash, but it would have um a due to due from account. So, in this case, it would have a receivable account and that would represent the cash that is sitting in the bank accounts. That is one bank account or I mean there's more than one but in the bank accounts of the town. So it's not

Miss McDow you question or you going to help us iron this out? I wish I could help you iron it. Um what you're saying is is is the the general fund m what what you're say saying is the general fund is really 20 20 million 20 million. Mhm. which is the 7 million six plus the 12 million. That's correct. If you take out the other receivables and payables that so there's another there's another fund which is not then not reported on in the

Yes. Because the receivable if you go to page 55 it shows you well just use your your your um curbside collection. It's the easiest one to look at because it's one fund, but but curbside collection is is different because that's being paid out, but it's the same thing. It doesn't show the cash. It shows the due to do from account. Okay?

So, it's the same thing. The cash is in this 20 million because that's where all the cash is held. But if you look at that curbside collection, you're going to see that it has, and I'll show you because they're both name

both the same name confusing. Yes. I understand that. Yes. But but to to to your point, Mr. Grieve, if if if we're looking at this the 7.5 and the and the 12.6 next year, we would expect Well, it probably wouldn't be. We would expect it. No, because the curb side is in there. So, I would expect it to remain flat unless there's other accounts that maybe interest has built on. It's going to be actually I would think it's going to go down because

I'm going to go out on a limb and I agree with you that that 239 is probably going to get tapped into this year for the for the snow removal. We're we're pretty close.

We might tap into that $500,000 that's in there as well. Yes. separate and correct. Okay.

So, so we we'll use the example as is perfectly as she just played out and we're going to round, but there's $20 million in the checking account. 12 of it we can do whatever the heck we want with it. 700 we have to do for specific things like curbside. Well, the 500, we can do whatever we want with it, but the curbside, the the whatever. So, it's in the general fund, but it is somewhat restricted for the most part because it is allocated for other like our capital improvement fund, the restricted fund, and then there's a handful of those little accounts that are in there like the cemetery fund and stuff like that that we don't touch. The the clerk's uh records keeping fund, right? Is that all those? And is the change from 2020 that this was more needed to be accounted for? Is that why we had zero back then and we started accounting for it in 2021 or

that you go back to those audits the cash is actually ins

so I'm going to say that's because the people who do accounting, and this is not a knock on you, Mary, like to make things confusing so we can't figure out what they're doing so they keep their jobs.

We will and hopefully we can show it to you back and forth and go from there. Don't go too far. Mr. Fitz Morris, you have a couple questions. Barry, you want to start? Okay. Mr. Fitz Morris, have a seat. Well, Mr. Well,

so um my idea of interfund borrowing is that it is common u practice with municipalities. Um but my other familiarity with it is it's always like paid back or you get back to a zero. So, I'm just trying to figure this out that in 2020 we had a zero and and it and it increases each year. I mean, I I don't even know. I mean, you're you're I don't know how you even get this stuff, but I'm I'm taking it that you've gone back to audits and done this. So I guess my only question is for me to understand how does it increase

because we have started other programs that have added into that account that we don't. So the enterprise funds are in there. So, if there's a balance in the enterprise fund at the end of the year, which there would be because everybody's paying their fees for their stickers for both the transfer station and for right

the curb side plus Prudence Island plus there's 500 for the uh that's always been there for the wind turbine, not wind turbine. Yeah, South Coast. So next year I would expect it to be somewhere in the same because people are going to be paying for their sticker fees before the end of the fiscal year. So that money will be there to be paid out. And if we looked at that number right now, if we had due from other funds, it would be down because people aren't paying their fees anymore and we're actually paying the vendor. So that 7.5 number is probably somewhere around I don't know with the both funds probably around 4.5

at this point in the year because we've used our checkbook to pay those bills.

Confused it. If you taking a loan to me is taking a home equity loan. buying buying $30,000 worth of windows with it, which really hurt um to pay for those windows. And I had them in my account, my checking account for the time that they were doing the work until they were done. And when they were done, I wrote the check to pay those bills. The money that people spent to get curbside pickup or the transfer station sticker was sitting there at the end of the year on June 30th, which is when these numbers are done. come the next day on July 1st, we had to make payments and that number went down. I can't tell you what the number went down to, but that's

so the checking account in a nutshell. So just yeah. So instead of having 150 bank accounts, the town has a handful of bank accounts so they can invest the money and get the best returns.

And so by doing that, they have these accounts on the books as opposed to having cash in every one of these funds and having separate bank accounts. So, could they have had a bank account set up for we'll go back to curbside? Could they have set up another bank account, put those receipts specifically in another bank account? Yes, they could have, but instead they're using a handful of accounts so they can get the best interest. So all the cash is in the $20 million as general fund in the general banking accounts and not in 20 back and I would have to go back and look but I won't believe that um this schedule is properly they were including the cash in all of the funds but some funds particularly funds where youend the money first and then looking for reimbursement from the state. They were negative amounts. The state doesn't allow you to have negative amounts, right? Because you can't overspend cash, but realistically you could if you had um a fund or a grant that you received the authority to spend but had nothing. So there was, you know, some that were negative, some that were positive. They weren't specific. So it made more sense to show all the activity the cash and all the investment in the one meaning. So that's why we can look at $20 million worth of cash balance.

Yeah. Yeah. So so that see how over the years on this sheet anyways it's increased. So does that mean um it's going to continue to increase? It just depends. So it increase particularly in from 24 to 25 because curbside $1.3 million 1.3 but

so I don't know next year will it increase? It will definitely decrease if you're expending that 1.3. It will decrease if you spend the 200 and whatever you have in snow. But you could have another program that you could bring on board. You could have cash receipts prior to June 30, but not any expenditures. And so the same thing would happen. So we will because people will start paying for their stickers.

There you go. So you will again. So this year the big increase of course was the 1.3. You also had the big increase the year you got your opera money. So in one year you got your opera money. It came in to the bank, but you didn't expend it in that year. You've been expending it over time, but that would have increased in that year. Yeah, she she hit the nail on the head, Mr. President. I mean, we we're forgetting. I mean, there's impact fees which have grown. Uh public sa we established the public safety capital account. So, you got your ambulance re revenue going in there. You've got the ARPA money, the curbside money. Um, and if you go back a number of years, which Mary eloquently explained, there was a time when we had well over a hundred bank accounts. It was it was insane trying to manage that and we weren't reaping the benefits of having one bigger account to leverage that money for the interest. This is another reason why our interest income has grown so so heavily. So this is why we're doing it. So you're seeing zero due two froms because the money is sitting in the restricted fund balance. So the headings on Mr. Gre's report really should say unrestricted fund balance plus restricted fund balance equals those two together. And those last two columns uh are really meaningless.

Yes. It's clear as mud. Got it. this screen. The reason it didn't say that is because that's not identified in the audit. Again, it's very it's very hard to to do this if if you if you don't have the information. I'll go back to which is why I come up here and this was good information, but I mean, don't take offense at somebody misunderstanding something that wasn't put down in in the audit. And I'll go back to those dastardly accountants doing things in a way that make us all confused. No offense, Mary and Kayla.

Thanks, Mr. President. Larry Fmorris, 50 Christian Court, and I'll be reasonably short. I agree with Mr. Hamilton. Terminology in these things is the devil. Um but I do suggest that we not that we have over 100 accounts but I do suggest that we have two separate accounts at least if we have two general funds and one is restricted or partially restricted or whatever the terminology is you can't spend it freely and then the other one would be the general fund which is the principal part of the budget so that we can understand this business but the Um, you know, we don't have in in our budgets a clear statement of where the money goes when it gets borrowed out of these funds or transferred out of these funds or whatever terminology we want to use. So, we don't know where it goes, which is the problem, one of the problems. And that's why we get confused every year if we get confused. But we have this discussion year after year is usually associated with the special funds.

I I maybe I'll try and explain it a different way. We have two general funds. One is our checking account that we do day-to-day business with that we pay our bills whether it's to staples or gasoline or whatever. And then we have a savings account which is these accounts. And as we need to pay down these accounts, we move the money from the savings to the checking and pay them down. Am I confusing it more, Kayla? Unfortunately, that's not quite true. We do have a general fund.

What I process payables out of comes out of there. I do not have a a segregated fund just for special revenue. If I were to do that, I would have to process two different vouchers every week and it is displayed on our voucher listing all the um accounts that I do take out of. So, say I take out of the public safety, that's account 274. that is displayed on my um finance report. But accounting wise, it would be too difficult to just have a special revenue voucher versus a general fund voucher. And when you do your monthly finance reports, it's listed on there with fund transfers.

All the accounts are listed on there. And if I do a fund balance transfer, which I do not pulled by the town council, um I do have a separate section in my report that says I am doing a uh transfer like the $600,000 for the pension fund. Correct. When you um make these transfers, especially in the restricted funds, what is the town's policy regarding oversight here? Is the council the one that makes the decision? But well, some of these funds aren't restricted. Well, they're enterprise funds. Understand? But still, if you're transferring it from one fund to another, well, they're Well, we'll use the because we have

we'll use the public safety fund when any whenever any money is asked to be expended. They come forth and say, "We would like to buy a new ambulance for $350,000 and take it out of this fund." That is approved by this council. Yes. Well, that's that's we can find that in the budget. It's a capital fund. So, I'm talking about a lot of this, you know, this one what is it? One page one. Um, you know, we've been we've been up here talking about this for years and we can't trace any of the money where it goes. So, we don't know what happens if there's money's withdrawn from these things. Which which page

is a decline or uh whatever the special fund starts at 160? I think it's 1609. What page? 139. Problem is I'm also getting old enough where I can't read most of this. Uh that's why I use a computer and blow it up really big. Um, so if you're talking about special revenue funds like the cemetery fund, um, yeah, I am clerks. Yes, sir. Special records funds. I'm not making up off the top of my head. Okay, this is from memory.

That's so doesn't appear to be the right number page number, but it's in there somewhere. And it's a multiple pages. There's number of lines. you know, we go down through a number of pages and uh we just don't know where this stuff goes. If it is declining because of cash flow issues, that's one answer, which we've gotten in previous years. But the uh if we're borrowing money from one fund and putting it in another fund, then that should show up somewhere in this budget. We we are we are not borrowing any money from we are not robbing Peter to pay Paul. It is not happening. I can dispel that rumor or thought process at all.

Okay. Town is financially solid. We are not robbing Peter the pay Paul. We're not trying to hate to use the word Ponzi Screen, but we're not, you know, it's a different word, but Well, I'm I'm talking about line items, not the whole budget, but the No, no. Right. But the um you know it's we're back to the same discussion that we have here every year when we bring forward a problem. Generally we end up being told that we just misinterpreted the terminology or we didn't look at page 55 and we should have looked at page 128 or whatever the term may be. So,

so when you when you look at things and I'm going to go on to page 137 and you have your town special revenue funds broken out. So, back up on 135. You have town special revenue funds. Hang on a second. Yep. 135. Start on 135. I'm going to try to explain as best I can in general layman's terms. Well, I've been doing this for a long time. I should be able to follow you. Go ahead. Subheading, town special revenue funds where they where they came from, what they are. 2.32538 million. What we expend 135. Yep.

Just the first column. I'm only going down the first column. Okay. What we spent them on. So we have all of our federal grants, charges, everything that was in that fund. Then we expended them. biggest one 9 point 9 $946,000 on a fire engine.

So those are all lined out there. Those are within the budget. When Mr. Rener brings those forward to us, they are enumerated in the budget. If you go down further to page 136, next page down, you'll see some of the balances that are still in there. So, fireboat repair and maintenance has 28 $29,840 in there. If the chief needed to repair the fireboat, he would say, "I need to spend $500,000, excuse me, $5,000 of that 29840 to buy a new engine for the fireboat." He would come to us, ask us for that money andor it would be put into Mr. Rainer's budget.

Are you looking at the same one I am? Yes. The same document? Yep. Okay. Where's the fire boat? Right in the middle. Fireboat repair maintenance. You blow that up a little bit bigger, Kathy. Oh, okay. Thank you. Y I was on the left hand column. There we go. Yeah. I'm sorry. Okay. I I switched columns on you. I I stopped going down straight down. No, it it's fine. So then the townwide contingency which has been started if if there was a I don't know at pick an event we needed to to go out and spend some money on something that wasn't in the budget we would have to come forward and borrow money out of that. It would come to the council. Okay.

There's there's no spending out of any of these accounts that hasn't been approved by the council either in the budget process. Now, when when we we appear not to ever approve because I'm going to change a little bit here. We I'm just it sparked a question. I we don't I don't recall transfers of funds between the the town's municipal departments. We haven't done any in the past five, six, seven, eight, nine years. Yeah, we we we have in the past and that's that goes back to the special revenue fund for the snow removal. Yeah.

At the end of the year, we'd be, oh, what are we going to do to pay for that extra $100,000 in snow removal or the extra $50,000 in overtime for X department? We would have to say, well, understand the snow removal business. But either way, we have we had a good year in snow removal and it didn't snow at all. So to overcome the overtime administrator would have to come to us in May or June and say we have extra money in a soul removal but we have to make up the deficit in overtime for the police department. So I'm asking to move that money from here to there. We haven't done that in years. Okay.

I don't want I don't want to bother the council anymore with this discussion. But I would like to well I'm willing to listen to the town administrator. May I just appine for one moment. I just wanted to clarify I when I spend say out of the fireboat account account 203 there was a $640 charge on one of the vouchers tonight. I do not seek approval for $640. I just want to clarify that that every time there's a small expense taken from these special revenue accounts those do not need approval. But

however, when I did my um when we did the radio replacement program and I moved funds from the general fund to create that u program last year, I did seek approval for that. And and next year when we have our well this 99 97,572 for property reevaluation we've spent over the past year. We've put we typically put aside the 100 grand or 50 grand a year to cover that cost when it comes up for the the property re property reevaluation. Yes. Yes. We put money a year aside every year to go into that fund so that when it comes up we're not having a $150 $300,000 and it's earmarked specially for that. Correct. All

all of that is things we understand just fine.

Just if I may, Mr. President, just to clarify something obviously is you can track where we're spending the money. I mean, there's a there's a number of important documents. The very first is the approved budget, right? So, we're not spending money that hasn't been approved by the council in the budget process. The second is every meeting you get the vouchers. The very first page of the voucher tells you what funds money has been expended from. And then if you want to know exactly what the money is being spent on, you go look at the individual vouchers. And if you look at the account line, the very first uh three numbers will tell you what fund it came from. So it's there there's nothing being hidden here. And then the money that is being spent and accounted for is coming from the appropriate accounts that have been approved and set up by the council and also approved uh and authorized for spending in the council's annual spending plan. Uh I don't know how else to say it. I'm good.

You had other questions, Mr. Fitz? No, but I will say just a closing comment. Uh, and thank you for everyone in their explanations. Um, I say this every year, so I'll say it again this year. This audit in our budget are complicated beyond belief. And the average citizen doesn't have a prayer figuring out anything by reading it. And God knows Mr. Hamilton is correct in large part when he criticizes the accounting business because everything is labeled general fund. So that's a problem to begin with for the uh people like me that don't have an accounting degree and that leads us into these problems a lot of the time. Many of these issues we we figure it out before we get here. But it's uh yeah any anything to do with clarity is a virtue in this business and the council and the administration should remember and I remind everybody every year that this this audit is ordered by the charter which is written by the people and it's for the people and the people should be able to read the damn thing. And that's that's not the case. We've been studying it for years and we still have our problems. So, anything in the in the in the in the cause of clarity will be welcome. Thank you,

Mr. Fishbs. I want I'll thank you because as Mary had mentioned, a lot of the suggestions that you've made in the past, we have put into these budgets to help clarify it better. Yes. But I I should have I should always acknowledge that every year. When we get to the budget, we will acknowledge it again. But it does improve year-over-year. And we have a far better budget. It's far easier to read than some other communities that I won't mention. We we have probably the easiest budget to read if you look across the areas. I mean, it's I have a lot of catchall categories in a lot of town budgets. I have. Yeah, I have read them. Thank you,

M. Mcdow. Well, I just I I was going to ask I mean you see his point do you see his point about the confusion and is there a way we can rectify this confusion going forward in maybe a small way I don't know it sure would help I guess well we're we're pretty much limited to presenting the financial statements in the same format that pretty much every other community across the United States is presenting the financial statements. I mean, I suppose in terms of the reference to the general fund checking account and the general fund, I mean, maybe you rename the general fund checking account at least reference to it. But I, you know,

it is what it is. I mean, the financial statements, what we did do this year, um, to go back to the comment that was just made on the transfers is we did add, you know, footnotes both on the budget page and on the, um, note to the financial statements with regard to the transfers so that you could see exactly what they were for as opposed to prior years where, um, the requirement is really just the total. Um, but we thought if we added those footnotes, it would help. Um, and I I think the easiest thing in in my head is if the if our general reserve fund was labeled the rainy day fund,

but we could I mean, we could work on doing that, but maybe parenthesis. Yeah. Right. We could do that. We we could help him do that. But we do try to add something. So, if somebody has an idea and they want to add it, as long as it's not in non-compliance with the reporting requirements, then we're happy to try to accommodate the town and and add whatever disclosures we can help to make it easier. Maybe just in your report that you give to us say this is the rainy day and this is available going to other or assigned to other funds but is sitting in that rainy day balance so to speak.

I think I know what you're talking about and um we we could potentially add to the note to the financials describing that or just even your presentation next. Right. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Greb. and we'll put this hopefully put this to I I have one thing that I think will help me clarify in my mind how you're doing this and it's really I think for Miss Marsden if you go to page uh 146 um to the Mayflower wind 146 my computer catch up uh to the Mayflower wind

you notice that there's both the do from other funds and cash. Why would that happen based on what what was being said before of this all goes into the checking account, right? So, I don't know. Um there was uh trying to think there was studies being done where we were um told that if we paid the upfront cost of the 13,000, the company that um holds the Mayflower Wind, correct me, I don't know their name,

South Coast. South Coast Win was to pay us back. So, we paid the 13,620 and South Coast Win is to pay us back to make us whole at the 500,000. That's not cash though, is it? Isn't it? Oh. Oh, a receivable. I'm sorry. You're you're correct. Okay. The receivable is Okay, that's what's coming in. That make sense? Thank you very much. Thank you. That being said, any other questions to the council? If none, do I have a motion to receive and place on file? So moved. Second. All those in favor? I opposed.

Motion passes six to zero. Mary, thank you very much again. Hopefully we'll be next year. Let me find myself again in here. All right. New business number two, Naragans Electric and Verizon New England Incorporated. has permission to relocate pole 9 P19-90 42 ft west of existing location and installing a 12T anchor at Fair View Lane. No, we're getting it out of the way. Okay. Is there a motion to approve? Yes, there is. No move. Second.

All those in favor? I opposed. Motion passes six to zero. Don't go too far. This is the big one for you now. New business number three, decision on proposed plans for the 3S properties. We have in front of us the good, better, best strategy for the 3S properties to get something going there before corn gets planted again.

I'll go ahead and kick off President. So through this agenda item, we're asking for the council directions uh on how and whether to move forward with the development of the 3S sports fields. As people know, the town has owned this property for a long time with the intent of eventually creating multisport fields primarily for soccer and lacrosse. Because the site is under a conservation easement and has some challenging soil and elevation challen changes, uh this isn't as simple as clearing uh the field and buying goalposts. Uh there are permitting requirements with DEM and some significant site work uh that'll be involved. So at the council's request uh Paul the director of public works developed three conceptual options that range from uh a very minimal buildout to a more complete configuration. These options are planning level estimates. Final pricing would come through a formal RFP process, but they do give us a realistic sense of the scope uh and cost involved. From a staff perspective, we believe option two, two fields with a dedicated parking lot and access roadway is the most responsible path that the council wants to proceed. Building a sports field without a proper access and park without proper access and parking uh would likely create safety and operational issues and uh shift impact to the surrounding area. If we're going to invest in this site, it makes sense to do it in a way that is functional and sustainable. Uh, as we've uh heard, uh, we do have $500,000 available in the South Coast Wind Host Community Account that could be applied towards this project. Any remaining balance could be incorporated into the upcoming capital plan as part of the fiscal year 2027 budget proposal. So the decision before you tonight is essentially whether to move forward uh with one of these options and if so to authorize us to begin the permitting, engineering and procurement steps needed to bring uh back final pricing and

implementation details to the council. So uh Paul will now brief the three options that we've come up with. So because we are excavating and expanding in the more than one acre area, storm water and DM per permits are required and because we're doing that also retention ponds and field drains need to be added. So VHB's a proposal is to do that. Do all the permitting, the DEM permits and all the drawings, the construction documents, the meetings and support and expenses that would get us going and they would do an RFP to put out for the final cost. All the options are listed there. The option one is for the two fields. Option two is for the two fields, a parking lot and the roadway back to the parking lot. The third option would be just adding a restroom to that area.

Yeah, that's the expensive part. That's the expensive part. Um the restroom and the septic tank and all that good stuff would be separate and away from this anyway. So we we could do this in the stages that you have placed forth. Okay. The parking lot and roadway. We're planning on putting a parking lot roadway behind the two fields so closer towards cog shell where people could correct. Okay. Um and Trinity Cemetery first. Okay. And I know that is from personal experience of running through there 40 years ago is some of the wetest areas in the back there. Okay. Mr. Gleason, you set this you kicked this snowball down the hill.

Oh yeah. This is a long one. For people that don't know, this started in 2007. had nothing to do with Mr. Rainer. He's just trying to finish this up like I am. Um, and you know, the main driver for me is that this was passed by the public in a bond referendum. Uh, you were probably sitting here. You weren't in yet. Okay. I wasn't in yet. This this predates even me. That's a long time.

So So anyways, it's something that I I would like to see happen. Uh, I um appreciate all the work that's been done so far. Uh things haven't haven't gone that smooth. We we thought we could start um bringing in some dirt and some seed. Um then we ended up with with somebody that planted corn again. Our tenant didn't get the get the memo. So uh anyways, it's just as well this process laid out like it has. Um my ideas for what it's worth uh as far as the parking goes the plan has never been very affordable and maybe that's why other councils have kicked it down the road. You know to plant 500 arborite trees is going to be one expensive proposition and that's what they were suggesting. The b the bottom line is wherever this parking lot goes, the land trust doesn't want to see any cars from Sandy Point Avenue. So somehow we have to have a road that goes into the property that can't be viewed from Sandy Point is my understanding. So my thoughts was to be able to save money is to carve out the parking lot amongst all the overgrowth that's been there since 2007, you know, and avoid the wet areas because the further you go south, you hit the you hit a pond area there. It's not so much it was laid out. It's it's dry in the middle. It just has not it just does not have good soil for putting a soccer field, which is why we've talked about moving it to a different location.

Correct. And you know, in in that vein, we've put up we've put uh a plan in effect that has two uh fields that are parallel to Sandy Point. I mean, we could even explore the um the possibility of putting one field that's essentially north and then south of that if the land topography was flatter. I mean, I'm just I'm just spitballing ideas, but the bottom line to me is we need to get out and get an RFP to see what the actual dollar is going to be. you know, hopefully they're going to come in cheaper here. Um, but we don't know. So, we got to start that process. We could get the n numbers back and they could be triple this and we say we can't do this, which I'm not expecting, but we have to start somewhere. So, my thoughts are to go with the option two. Um, you could come back later and put in the restroom, but but most of our soccer fields now have a porta porta potty and I think that would be sufficient for two fields there, you know.

Multiple portaotties. So, yes, multiple multiple. Yeah. Well, whatever. So, that's that's my thoughts. Um, would you like to make Excuse me. Would you like to make that a motion? Yes. Uh, definitely. Yep. That's okay. No, I was going to say, Paul, um I would think if you're going to have um soccer fields, grass, and all that, you'd want to have irrigation. And I see that the last one did, but nobody's priced it. Nobody's priced out irrigation. I It hasn't been priced out. You got to put in a water line, but they had a down there for 220,000. It wasn't priced out because soccer association was going to raise funds for that.

Okay. So, it'll work without irrigation. No, they'll they would they would fund the irrigation portion of the two. Oh, you can do that after, but you'd have to put the water line in first. Correct. Okay. So, that you'd have to add that to the option two then because that doesn't have the water line listed. I don't believe Mr. Rogers, if I may, I think the water line is for the restroom, the a solid cinder block building. you if you went without option three, which is why you see a $220,000 water line, you're going to have some expense for a water line into the into the proposed irrigation line, but it would be lesser amount. Correct. Is that correct? Yeah.

And that's if you still want to put in the restroom later on, we'd still need the water line put in now. Want to put the water line in now? Well, there'll be a water line for the irrigation, but it won't be the water line that we need for the restroom. Probably put a 3 in. The water lines would probably be in two separate locations anyways. Okay. Yeah. All right, Miss McDell.

So, the um conceptual design that you've dealt with, you're you're saying that this could change if you have the fields in different locations because of uh water issues. I was saying it and it's just a thought that you know one of the things that's been brought up is there's a 15inch difference I believe between one side of the field. So you better raise one or lower one. You got to get a flat playing surface. Excuse me. If if in fact the field instead of having the fields here and here and this field right here is flatter, you could look at that potential. But

so it's just a thought. Yeah. And there's also issues with the YC soil alone. The dirt itself is not very conducive to being drainage. It's kind of clay get your feet stuck when you're walking in it kind of stuff. So to be conducive to really get the field to take and live for a long period of time, we need to bring extra lom and dirt in on top of what's already there. But if you go drive by and look, you can you can see the slant in the in the in the uh corn field. So these the figures that we have for these three different options you know um the first part of all of them are the same. But when we we got these figures is that by going to three different companies or just one company or how how do we how do we get these figures? I guess what was your thought process?

We got those figures from VHB who did the original plans. So we just got quotes from them. They're not exact. So, engineering firms have their own estimators when they go out to do projects and they just kind of throw some numbers out there and then Yeah, I guess that's what I'm saying. Like I I've gone to engineers for the same project and I get a in, you know, a variety of quotes. So, we we don't know whether this is high, low, or we will get we'll get a variety of quotes back for the RFPs that will be here, here, and here. Then you throw out the one that's incredibly high. You throw out the one that's incredibly low. And we usually go something in the middle. Okay. Unfortunately. Yeah.

We went with VHB because they did prior work and that would lessen the price on the on the quoting. Right. And um of these costs here, is there anything that um like DPW will be able to do to mitigate some of these expenses? There's certainly a possibility. Yes. Not that we have time to do it, but what's that? Not that we have the time to do it. We're not asking you to do it in winter time. It opens up some snow hopefully while we do this. I mean, you that is a possibility. Correct. Correct. Yeah. If we have the machinery to do the job.

I think that's the biggest thing is the amount of land that we're going to have to move. You really need the equipment to do it. Just interjecting. It's it's not just manpower and and don't forget when we would be doing this everybody in DPW is working right now right when they take their vacation times and their time off is when we would be doing this kind of project one and then second that this requires excavating equipment which we don't have so we would have to procure it somewhere so uh saying that we can do something it's not like we can go dig fence posts this is a big project and it's it's a lot more than 15 inches this is a lot of dirt y

it's just the time and We our crew doesn't have expertise in this. It would take them twice as long to do a project than it would that somebody's already in the business of doing that.

This um we did mention uh having ported johns. Is that a significant cost that we should also roll in or and consider? That would probably be come under the um recreation budget. At last check, they're about 100 bucks a month. Yeah. Depending on how much we're considering that making sure we and on how many times they're serviced. Yep. I just have a a question as far as um you know once we get the RFPs and everything, this is probably a project for next year or next fall fall time. Yeah.

Okay. Right now, just the DEM permitting is over six months. Okay, good. Good to know. Thank you. Mr. Furillo is behind you. He'd like to say a few words. Our director of our chairman of the parks and recck committee.

Hello, David Furillo. Uh 45 Hamilton Drive, uh chair of the parks and recck committee. Um just wanted to just throw uh my two cents in on this uh and thank Paul for doing all this work. Um, I know we've walked to the field once before to look at it. It It is a tricky field to do this project. Um, you know, we've walked it. We've looked at how wet the area is, no matter where you are on the 3S field. Um, I know Dave was mentioning about possibly moving the parking to the left. I would say left of the cornfield where that brush is. Um, I've walked through that field many times. Well, around that it is it's very wet. So, I think no matter where the parking goes, it's going to be tricky and I think these numbers are going to be a lot higher than what we're seeing. Um, I'm all for the going forward with this 3S. Anything parks and wreck related, uh, I am I am all game for. Um, I just what I'm here to talk about right now, uh, is this, but also I just want to just remind this council of the other recreational fields that are in need of repair before we decide to move forward with a new project. I think um there is I've walked with you know the baseball fields with uh the head of um Sean Stalls and there's a lot of repairs that need to be done to the baseball fields. They're down two fields to begin with. Um, you know, I did see in here that possibly the $500,000 from South Coast Wind could be allocated to 3S and that would be great, but I also think that that could be used for other uh recreational uses considering the fact that again uh uh Little League is down two fields

from uh it being taken away from the senior center and at Terran Pike. Um, I did have the chance to walk around the field and I I did mention this to Paul uh late fall, but there was a lot of fence repair that should be taken care of before before any it's been brought to the attention of DPW and and town staff and that's going to be looked at. There were some things that were put off because there may have been some major changes on those fields. Uh which are probably not going to happen and good news is we may be able to move with other field options for little league but okay I don't want to spoil the surprise.

I love a good surprise. Um, I I just want to make sure that, you know, I'm just bringing forward the fact that there is other needs and I know there was also talk about the horse rank and the cow stall and there's either repairs or we're taking down. I just was seeing that the money from South Coast if rather than putting it all towards 3S, we should spread the love across the town and repair things before we start a new project. That's all. Appreciate that. That's it. Thank you. We are keeping an eye on all of that stuff. Thank you. Mr. Gleason, you started a motion, but Mr. Reese,

so my motion would be to proceed with the proposed plan for option two for two playing fields on the 3s property starting with utilizing the South Coast money. I'll second your motion. Any further discussion? Feel this is good good use of the South Coast money. Okay. Should have been a million dollars, but we only got 500. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion passes six to zero. Thank you, Paul. Thank you very much.

I have a new business for that. I just clicked out, but I know it's about selection process for certain boards. Madame Clerk and Madame Planner, until I get back to Good evening. Good evening. How are you?

I'm good. It was about a year ago that um there was an opening on the planning board and I had asked that there be a policy that um you interview the planning board members and that had moved forward um where the the planning board people that had applied were interviewed and that was exactly one year ago today. Uh, fast forward to um the latest opening and um I was hoping that the same process would move forward and um it seems as though I need to uh formalize a policy for the the immediate um boards that my department um is liaison to or or immediately staffs. So, I'm moving forward asking that we um discuss and adopt a policy that I have um prepared as um in in the world that we live in. um the the planning board, zoning board, and design review board um really need to have um members that have a skill set that um not only helps me, but I can help them in terms of um having a range of um fields that maybe not um you really know when a a person of interest fills out on a letter of application or a resume. So, I really

ask that you interview these uh potential applicants that they um stand at the podium here and just process them. um that you actually advertise a little bit more than just accepting the first person that that submits an application and that there be a better policy implemented. Um hopefully you had the opportunity to read my memo. I am just trying to ask that you do this now because I I thought I had did it I had done it last year um but I it didn't get implemented the way I thought it had. Mr. Reese.

Yes. Are you going to go and review all the people that are presently on there to make sure they meet the same standards? I mean, that I don't think that's necessary. You could have conflicts and that wouldn't be fair to the people that are you're interviewing that there's people on that. I think this is a moving forward basis. Mr. Ree. Okay. Miss Mcdal.

Yeah. Um, first of all, thanks for bringing this policy um, forward and I am into established policies and procedures for transparency purposes and for consistency purposes. So seeing this policy makes me feel that transparency and consistency is being addressed as to how we operate when it comes to committee appointments. We appointed a person to the planning board last year. We had the opportunity to speak with them and ask them questions. We appointed a person to the zoning board of review in September. That person was present at our meeting to answer questions and none was asked of him. He was appointed without discussion or comment. No policy was brought forth a year ago or in August until two people had applied for this vacancy. About a month ago, we accepted the resignation of a planning board member. And as past practice would have it, we accepted applications immediately. When these applications were submitted, there was no mention that we would be that there would be a new policy that we would be potentially working on which may or may not affect the applicants. It is my understanding that two applicants applied and eventually were told when they inquired about the delay that the town was going to broaden the applicant pool by advertising and extending the time to accept applications. Definitely a diversion from past practice. This this just doesn't feel right to me as what happens in situations like these there there can be several interpretations move and I have unfortunately heard a few of them which does not bode well for

the town. Rather than leave us open to criticism for the timing of this policy, I would like to suggest that we move forward with the applications that we have and ask the applicants to come in and speak to their qualifications and vote accordingly. Once that is done, we look at this policy with the hope of approving the one presented or a variation thereof at a subsequent meeting. I think this is the fairest way to proceed at this point. I do want to state, however, that I am sincerely grateful for the work that was done by Leah to research and craft this policy. Hopefully, we can pass a policy that would be applicable across the board for all boards, not just these boards, commissions, and committees. Board policies that will help set expectations, consistent guidelines, and help with accountability of board committee members. Thanks. Okay. So, what I think your suggestion is we pass this policy and use the policy at the next meeting is what I heard. But I I don't think we need to use a stringent interview policy for the parks and recck committee or the agricultural committee. The difference with these these two committees and also the you know tax review board are these are policy setting committees that many times we get blamed for because the planning board passed the housing project. They need to be people who are able to keep up with all the changes that are going on at the state level. Go be able to go out and research and sit and go and check out the properties. Um, a lot of what these boards do change the character of the town more

than we do as a council. So, it is very important that we review these. It's probably a policy that should have been put in place 30 years ago. And now Leah is now trying to correct that. And I think we should pass a policy. Now, South Kings is a little bit different how it's worded. Um, but because I think it covers all their boards and committees and we try to fill them as quickly as possible as you mentioned as opposed to having application timelines of October appointments, which is weird, but I would like to see us pass some sort of a policy this evening, if not have a policy written to be passed at the first part of next meeting. Miss Ben.

Yeah. Um, I also agree with Mary. So when I um I had sent an email over uh to find out if anyone had put in any applications for uh this position and then that's when I was told um that they were asked to put him on hold for now um and that the one person that resigned on the planning board uh was going to sit in after the council accept his resignation. Um I do feel that the two applicants that put in their res I mean their applications should be able to have the same applica you know process interview process. Um, you know, I don't know if they were even notified that they're not qualified or or if any letters have even went out.

We have to go on the agenda that they agenda whatever agenda. Okay. According to my email, one was not. None of them have been denied or it was discussed on them, but that nothing was nothing was decided.

Okay, that's not what my email says, but okay. Um, so I mean, I also agree with Mary and I think that the two applicants should um, you know, have that option. And I would like, you know, I agree with the policy. Um, I think that, you know, we should go forward with having a policy so that we're all on the same page and when applicants come in, you know, we know that they're either being put on or put into the file for whenever another position is available. And does that policy include advertising?

Oh, of course. Yes. Yeah. And and I don't know if we can make our advertising more robust to, you know, specifically look for folks with engineering degrees or design degrees and things like that, but I know we just kind of put in planning board, zoning board, agriculture committee. Okay, Mr. Him, I think the current uh the current solicitation has more details than we've seen in the past. Yeah. So, that was an that was an improvement. Okay. Mice,

I just had a question. Does this require a charter change? I I'd have to go back and review that. I don't think so. All right. Because I didn't know whether they referenced how they were done. The appointment for folks for the the planning board and zoning boards are set more in state law than they are in in our charter. Okay.

And their rules and and subject matter is more derived from the state level than ours. I'm getting a nod from our legal team. So, I'm I'm feeling good about this. So, uh would you be able to draft a Portouthized policy to bring back forth for us for next meeting which would be the 23rd and we'll do our interviews on the 23rd after we revise the policy and vote on the policy. So, the current applications that are filed. Yes. any applications that come in before next Tuesday is that Wednesday Tuesday. Yeah. Well, it's the agenda deadline. So, okay.

Just by noon on Tuesday. This is an unrelated question. Um, is the planning board taking training now? Because when we were in Middletown, they referred that uh they were having trouble getting the state training for what they needed for all these new laws. There's supposed to be training being provided by the state, but they're lax on doing that. Um I sent out the email to the planning board and zoning board. Uh there's training um that's in March and April. Okay. And I would love if the planning board and zoning board signed up.

It's required training. It's virtual. But I think I think it that that's what is coming up. But there was supposedly, you know, they were talking about what had happened a few months before. Maybe it was just getting ramped up. It was just getting ramped up a couple months ago, but the email from the state has come out about the upcoming training. Yeah. because I don't know how they expect us to make all these decisions on these new laws when they really haven't trained everybody and that's what they're doing. There's a lot of things coming through now which are affected by the laws but these people are not up to speed yet.

Um our consultant Weston and Samson had multiple um trainings and not trainings but went through all the changes with the zoning board and the planning board last year in 2024. Would that be a requirement that the zoning the planning board members have have met certain training criteria so that you know that they're up to at least the state requires that the planning board um have three hours of of training every year. That's it. Should be more and they're more than they're more than welcome to go to workshops. I forward them tons of workshop opportunities.

Tough to be a volunteer nowadays. It's it is again it's it's an unpaid board. Metall question. Yeah. So um just clarify how we're going to move forward then. We're going to have a policy um portsmithized off of what um the planner has put forth specifically for planning, zoning, and design review. Yep. So do we need a motion to So it it will not be I mean it'll be a variation there. I mean how are we going all I want to do is is what will be the process of approving the policy because

we will we will approve it next week. I mean next meeting it will come out to us. It'll be on the agenda with the 24th 3rd 3rd 23rd and then we will approve it and you can make changes. If you see something in there you don't like we can word smith it and it'll be an adopted approved policy of the council and then we will use that policy to appoint the next people on it. So we won't put the the planning board appointments will be after we adopt this policy or zoning board whatever ones we have to do.

Can I can I just ask I'm confused because if you do those appointments after you're not saying at the same meeting yes but wouldn't they have to advertise or do other things and we don't know what the process would be. I don't think those I don't think those appointments would meet the standards. You might want to do those first and then approve the policy as it go forward. Well, either way, I think we should interview the the applicants, which has been the biggest part of the policy. Yeah. Yes. Yes.

So, I guess I would ask, could we interview the the applicants that we have? How many do we have now, Jen? Yep. Yep. Um, so interview the the people by the way we interviewed last year or uh and and probably use some guidance from the outline that Leah has in terms of questioning because if I remember correctly the last the last time we did this I mean there there weren't any heavy duty questions that we asked of the applicants but uh given and what we're reading from Leah. I mean, we could be more um could ask more pointed questions about the specific job that they would be doing and then look at this policy because I I went through the policy. I went through South Kingston's too and I' I'd love to have some clarity on some of the things and I I did speak with Leah today about some of it um that I think a good discussion would be very helpful in developing this this um policy using the stuff as a base.

Mr. Gleason, thank you. Um this is going to be a kind of a generic policy besides the the three main boards here that um get involved in in state matters so to speak. Um we're going to keep the applications on file for a year now for all boards as received proposed. Right.

Okay. Thank you. That's that's a plus for me. Um the the advertising thing is a little gray to me. Um, if we advertise January through March and we don't have an open position on one of these three boards, does that just means we're going to accept applications and then leave them in a file till next open position and then that's that's that's not Kingston's policy. We don't have No, no, but I mean it's something that we need to consider what we're going to put in there for language. I mean right now when there's a position open, we don't just go to the file and look for people, right? So, if we leave them there for a year, then we can do that for one thing.

It seems like we're not going to move forward with that type of process. I'm sorry. It seems like we're not going to move forward with the the South Kingston type of process. The way I'm hearing everybody's Oh, comments. I'm just telling you what I see as pluses. And, you know, the the advertising is a gray area to me. I'm not really sure how you want to handle that. the advertising pure just it it seems like it would delay the process if we had multiple vacancies and we advertised in October and we appointed somebody generally we're losing a couple meetings.

Jen uh Ms. uh West can you explain how you currently advertise when there's openings? We've got a section that has all of the openings um under the boards and section. Um we put out an app when we have a usually there's there are certainities that we're always looking for people. Um if there's one that comes up where there is um more um speciality required, we try to advertise that so that we're looking for the zoning board planning board because a lot of times even though it's on the it's on the website people don't and so you know sometimes we advertise for a month and we get for anything we put it on the door we have it in the office and there's only so many things you can So you know if there's something you know we try to bunch things especially for things where there's no restriction on numbers. So, you know, we're conscious of that. We're conscious of when it's needed. Um, we're conscious of the cost of advertising. Um, we are, you know, when people are leaving, we're also hoping that, you know, they might um

put anybody in that place until that other person. Sometimes somebody design. So we need somebody randomly said oh I'm going to resign but then there's actually open. So, good ideas. Maybe you can put something together, you know, when you portraitize this thing. Um, that'll help you to help us. The other thing is, you know, if we have three applicants for the planning board and we we pick one, whether you'd consider keeping the other two on file for the next time around, that's something you consider. Was that have a a value to you? You know what I mean? To propose in this I I can answer that. I think that's a very um important thing and we I think we should keep them on file because you never know if somebody moves, if somebody immediately resigns. Um I think they should be kept on file. That's why I I put in there kept on file for a year.

Yeah, I would agree. Okay. And um Mr. Reese uh his original question I I wanted to allude that I think that when existing members um go up for reappointments, I think they should be um interviewed for reappointment and either myself or the chair should um opine on um how many meetings they've attended. Um include information like that. So you have some information um upon their interview. Okay,

we have a comment from behind. I'm sure you go. There's going to be another You're going to have to raise the microphone up, sir.

Good evening, Mr. President, members of the Kelts. name.

Oh, I'm sorry. Frank Rigo, 40 Jesse Drive, Portsouth. Um, I prepared a statement because I want to make sure that this is concise and clear. Mr. President, members of the town council, and members of the public, my name is Frank Rigo, and I'm here tonight to speak regarding the handling of my application to serve on the Porsche Planning Board. I come before you not out of anger, but out of respect for this town, its residents, and the integrity of its public institutions, I applied in good faith for an open position on the planning board, believing the process would be fair, transparent, and consistent with the town code and charter. After submitting my application, which when I submitted January 15th at 12:43 p.m., I was there told that it would go on the next agenda for vote at the next meeting in this office. I learned later after submitting my application, I learned that there were two qualified applicants. I later learned the council was informed by staff that there was only one applicant. And this is what I was told after speaking to individuals. Shortly thereafter, an item was placed on the agenda to review and change the appointment process itself. I then called and was informed that the a vote a appointment would not take place at this meeting. It's being held for the next meeting to or till other applicants apply. the sequence shortly thereafter uh the item was put on. This sequence of events raises serious concerns. Under Portman Code section 105, the authority to

appoint planning board members rests solely with this council. It does not belong to staff. It does not belong to any individual department. It belongs to you as elected representatives of the people. No ordinance authorizes the town clerk or the town planner to exclude applicants, redefine qualifications or manipulate the process by which candidates are presented to this body. Yet that is effectively what occurred. I am also aware of internal communications were exchanged regarding my application that focused on presenting on preventing my consideration as a candidate. If confirmed, this is not merely inappropriate, it's unacceptable. I sent an email to every council member based on the email that's in this town website explaining when I'm attaching my resume, my application, explaining the reasoning behind my application and my extensive experience to sit on the planning board, which it is extensive. be more than happy to interview with any of you and even take a test if you like. Public service appointments must be based on merit, qualifications, and fairness. They must never be influenced by personal preferences, internal politics, or undisclosed agendas. When the process is altered, after applicants are submitted, when and when applicants are misrepresented to the council, public trust is damaged. This is bigger than my application. This is about what residents would whether residents can have confidence that opportunities to serve their community are administered honestly and without

bias. I am asking this council to do three things. First, to formally review how my application and the related agenda item were handled. Second, to obtain and examine all relevant communications between staff and members between staff members concerning this matter. Third, to reaffirm appointments to boards and commissions will be conducted strictly in accordance with the town code with full transparency and accountability. I'm not asking for special treatment. I'm asking for equal treatment. I'm asking for the same fair consideration that any qualified resident deserves. I am proud to live in this town. I have five I go back six almost six generations here. I believe in this community and I believe this council is capable of addressing the issue with integrity and courage. I appreciate your time, your attention, and your willingness to uphold the principles of open and honest government. I trust that you will do the right thing. I'll be mailing all of you a copy of the letter for the formal request as well as a copy for the formal records request. Um, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir. All right. So we are establishing a policy to do number three to make it more transparent and open. So I think that is already covered. Uh if you want to put your app request in, it would go to the administrator's office as per the new policy that will be discussed tomorrow morning at the staff meeting and go to Rebecca to track. Correct. Okay. At this point, do we have a motion to request We don't I don't think we need a motion, but to request the policy be created and put forth on the next agenda. That's all we're here to do tonight. So moved. Second.

All those in favor? I opposed. Motion passes 6 to zero. So we'll have those discussions on the 23rd. I close out the agenda again, but I think all we have left is correspondence. Is there anything that anybody sees on there that they would like to discuss? Motion to receive and place on file. Second. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion passes six to zero. So, we have our future meetings which will be the 23rd. We have March 9th which will be our regular council meeting. And then on the 16th, we'll be discussing our uh newly put forth sign ordinance. We have a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second.

All those in favor? I opposed.