Select Board Meeting ~ March 12, 2024

2024-03-12 · Select Board · 1:00:40 · watch on YouTube →

The Select Board met on March 12, 2024 with three members present and two members recorded as excused. The board reviewed the town meeting warrant but held signatures until its March 26 meeting so the full board could sign. Roberta Brezinski of the Conservation Commission asked for authority to apply for a $50,000 grant with no town match, to hire a consultant to write an open space plan for Durham; the board voted to let the commission and the town manager apply. Most of the meeting was spent going through the town meeting PowerPoint slide by slide, covering the unassigned fund balance, the mill rate, bond debt and the capital reserve schedules, with the board directing changes to several slides. During that review the board decided to split warrant article 17, leaving the appropriation in article 17 and creating a new article for authority to spend the Union Church restoration reserve. The board then accepted an amended consent agenda that included an appeals board appointment, and adjourned.

What was discussed

1. 2:10
   Call to order and agenda

   The chair opened the meeting, noted a quorum and that two members were excused. The agenda was updated so that consent agenda item eight included an appeals board appointment. No public comment was offered.

2. 2:10
   Review of town meeting warrant

   Board members said they had read through the articles and found nothing that needed changing at this point. Signatures were held for the March 26 meeting, when the full board would be present.

3. 7:49
   Conservation Commission grant application

   Roberta Brezinski, with Michael Friendly and Jess Costa present, asked the board to approve the basis for a $50,000 municipal grant application requiring no town match. The money would hire a consultant to develop an open space plan with public input, prioritising high-value areas for protection, which could later be adopted on its own or folded into the comprehensive plan. Brezinski said the commission had shifted its focus from emergency preparedness to protecting the environment because carrying out a preparedness plan would have required recruiting a team.

4. 13:14
   Review of town meeting PowerPoint

   Jerry Douglass and the chair walked the board through the slide deck prepared for town meeting. The first slides covered the overspent 2022 fire department article, covered from the general fund at $3,235, and the share of the tax bill met by non-tax revenues and the fund balance.

5. 18:33
   Fund balance and municipal budget slides

   The deck reported the unassigned fund balance at $3.7 million at the end of 2023, about 33 percent of 2024 appropriations, against a general recommendation of 16 to 20 percent, with the 2024 budget using $668,000 to bring it down. Figures given for the total municipal budget and revenues were spoken inconsistently in the recording. The board agreed the ARPA project detail would stay in the warrant rather than the presentation.

6. 23:34
   Bond debt and reserve graphs

   Josh Klein-Golden asked that the presentation state the year's bond payment and split it into principal and interest, saying the interest figure was the argument for funding reserves instead of borrowing. The board agreed to show the reserve graphs with a 3 percent cost-of-living slope rather than a flat line, keeping the flat version as backup.

7. 28:47
   Capital reserve schedules

   The slides set out annual amounts to be put aside for public works, fire and municipal buildings against replacement schedules. The board asked that the year counts be dropped from the sentences and a note added that the amounts would need adjusting every three to five years for inflation.

8. 33:50
   Union Church warrant articles

   Josh Klein-Golden asked whether article 17, the appropriation for the Union Church, and article 27, the transfer of the property, should sit together, and whether one was conditional on the other. The board concluded they must remain separate questions because town meeting could approve one and not the other, and that the explanatory note on article 17 assumed a transfer that had not yet been voted.

9. 44:35
   Future challenges and opportunities slide

   Jerry Douglass listed the property valuation process with an estimated completion of 2027, a possible move from a calendar to a fiscal budget year, a long-term solid waste plan, a GPCOG assessment of town properties and their use, town office space, and Eureka Center upgrades. Board members were asked for topics that might need research before town meeting and none were raised.

10. 50:31
    Adding the new ordinances to the presentation

    A board member said the new ordinances would likely be the most contentious item at town meeting and asked for a high-level slide or two on them. Jerry Douglass said he would draft bullet points and bring in the town planner, expected in on Tuesday, to review it early the following week.

11. 50:31
    Town manager report

    Jerry Douglass said the town office reconfiguration was largely complete, that Jessica had moved into his old office and taken over accounts payable, and that everyone now had a desk. He said he would be away for two days the week after the April 9 select board meeting. The board thanked staff for running the election.

12. 50:31
    Road washout and culverts

    A board member asked about a heavy washout the public works crew had repaired and whether the road would be paved this year; Jerry Douglass said it was already on the paving list. The board noted the recent storms were unprecedented, that Calvin had been surprised the road washed out, and that culverts replaced in recent years had held.

13. 56:07
    Consent agenda, announcements and adjournment

    The consent agenda was clarified to include elevating Byron Philbrick (?) from alternate to full voting member of the appeals board, along with the amendments and the accounts payable warrants. Announcements covered the March 26 select board meeting at the fire station, town meeting on April 6 and a planning board meeting on April 3. No executive session was held.

What was decided

• 2:10
  Hold signatures on the town meeting warrant until the March 26 meeting so the full board can signtabled
• 13:14
  Allow the Conservation Commission and the Town Manager to apply for the grant, moved by Josh Klein-Golden and seconded by Richard Georgepassed
• 33:50
  Amend the warrant so article 17 carries only the appropriation, with a new article created to authorise spending the Union Church restoration reserve fundspassed
• 56:07
  Accept the consent agenda as presented, including the appeals board appointment, moved by Josh Klein-Golden and seconded by Richard Georgepassed
• 56:07
  Adjourn the meeting at 7:38 pm, moved by Richard George and seconded by Josh Klein-Goldenpassed

An outcome reads "unclear" where the recording does not state it plainly. The recogniser drops short words, and "the motion does not carry" is one missing word from its opposite.

Motions the minutes record

The town's own written account of what was decided, taken from sb-meeting-minutes-03_12_24.txt. It owes nothing to the recording or to a model: the clerk typed it, with the vote. Where the summary above claims a decision this list does not carry, the summary is the part to doubt.

• allow the Conservation Commission and the Town Manager to apply for the grantcarried 3-0

  Moved by Josh Klein-Golden, seconded by Richard George

• accept the consent agenda as presentedcarried 3-0

  Moved by Josh Klein-Golden, seconded by Richard George

• adjourn the meeting at 7:38 pmcarried 3-0

  Moved by Richard George, seconded by Josh Klein-Golden

Worth knowing

• 7:49
  The grant is for $50,000 with no town match, of which $4,000 is set aside for the town's own administrative costs. The application deadline is March 29, which Brezinski said was tight because the commission still needed a consultant proposal, a timeline and letters of support from partners.
• 13:14
  Josh Klein-Golden pointed out that the slide claiming a 0 percent mill rate increase holds only for the select board's budget; he said the budget committee's version, which uses less of the fund balance, would raise the rate by about half a percent.
• 18:33
  The unassigned fund balance ended 2023 at $3.7 million, roughly 33 percent of 2024 appropriations, against a recommended range of 16 to 20 percent. The 2024 budget uses $668,000 of it to move toward that range.
• 39:10
  The Union Church figures were spoken inconsistently in the recording: the article 17 appropriation was given both as about $9,543 and as $954,000, and the resulting reserve total both as about $30,000 and as $31,175.

Elsewhere

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