TranscriptTown Meeting 2026

Yeah. Yeah. Are they ready? All right. the uh fiscal year 27 Durham Town meeting. I'd like to start by inviting the uh the fire department to post the colors. pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much. Please be seated.

Curtis was sworn in as moderator and she uh appointed me as her deputy moderator for the purposes of the meeting and I was sworn in earlier today. Let me go over the uh results of the election that we had recently for select board. Joe Roy was elected with 883 votes. John Talbot was elected with 891 votes. The RSU5 board of directors was um Anne Wear with 1126 votes. Budget

committee for a three-year term was Milt Simon with 819 votes, Donna Church with 986 votes, and there's a third um uh seat that was uh that will be determined by write in budget committee for a two-year term. Diana Demick was elected with 10 uh with 142 votes. So, I wish we'd give them a hand.

your moderator today. Um, I'd like to have the select board and the budget committee please introduce yourselves. board. Good morning, Debbie Oliver, second year. Good morning, Rebecca Pollster, first year. John Talbert.

I'm Milt Simon Live on the Stack Pole Road. I'm this year's chair of the budget committee. Neil Barry. Neil Barry, Stack Pole Road. Jeffrey Wakeakeman, Alan Purrington, Phyllis Brandon, Brookside Drive, Donna Church, Old Brunswick Road, Mark Der, Stack Ball Road. Very nice. And thank you all for your service. Um, I'd like to ask unanimous consent that we use the main moderators manual edition of 2021 as a guide for this meeting, for the procedure. Does anyone object? Terrific. I'll do that. I'd also ask that we dispense with reading the entire warrant articles uh word for word. Uh does anybody object? Great. Thank you. Um let's see.

point. You're going to do uh something. Is this on? Morning everybody. I got in at 1:00 this morning, so I made a little bit of noise in the mindset today. Uh, first off, thank you all so much for being here. It's really great to see our community come together and work on really tough issues and work on setting our priorities and we all agree to operate on here. So, I'm really excited to have everybody here. We're going to give a great presentation here on the kind of overview of where things sit from a financial matter and looking forward and then we're going to have our discussion on the budget and the warrant articles. And so one thing I want everyone to kind of do as we get beginning with this is understand that there's a lot of differing opinions in the room. And at the end of the day, we want to make sure that even though we might have differing opinions, we're still being respectful and kind to our

neighbors, our friends, the folks we go to church with, the folks we are on sports teams with, and everything like that. So, while we're going to have a nice debate, we're all still here as members of the same community. And so, we want to make sure we have that mutual respect for each other today during the debate process. So, I'm going to begin here with our annual town meeting presentation. I have a laser that kind of shows up here. And we're going to start off by talking about our municipal budget. And so every year I remind folks the budget we're voting on today is our municipal budget. Uh but it has elements that are voted on elsewhere. And so the three elements of our budget are the schools budget, the county assessment, and our municipal budget as well. And so largely the school budget gets voted on well the school budget gets voted on separately and the county tax is set by the county.

So those are two things that we inherit as we go through our budgeting process this year because we're now on a fiscal year. We have the actual school budget number built into the warrant art or built into the budget articles that you're going to see in the town report. All right. So the last couple years have been a little bit different than in the past because last We had an 18month budget. So all the figures we're presenting today are going to show you what the 18month budget number was, what the coming 12 month budget number is. And a percent change in this word normalized pops up a lot. And so what that means is we are comparing 12 months to a year's worth of expenses from the pre previous budget. And so sometimes if you have an expense that is occurred monthly, the previous 18-month budget is just that expense 18 times, once for every month. But in some instances, some of our previous budget expenditures only

occurred once or occurred twice because of the 18-month budget year. And our account has gone through and normalized all those values. So when we're talking about percent differences, the percent changes over here, that is compared to a one-year budget. last year, not the 18 months. So, you might be saying, I'm doing the math here and these two numbers aren't the 7.8% difference. Again, that's because we've normalized those values. And if at any point in time during the discussion today, you would like a little bit of uh refresher on that or have any questions about that, um you can direct those to the moderator. I'm sure he can find someone in the room who can answer those questions. So, generally speaking, this is all stuff that's already in the been out in the public. We versions of this at our select board meeting and on the website, but you'll see that our general government has seen a 7.8% increase.

Public safety a 10.2% increase. Public works 3.1% increase. Community services is a 50% increase, though it's a small budget line. Debt services is a 16.2% increase and a transfer reserve is a minus.5 for a total appropriation of a 6.4% increase. Our tax levy total appropriations receive a 6.4% increase like I said minus municipal revenue so that is what we generate here at the town level permits fees registrations things of that nature which is uh up 15.7% and then minus the use of our fund balance. So that uh healthy fund balance we have that we've been slowly spending down that is down 1.3%. For our municipal tax levy being down 9.3%. So we're continuing to find savings opportunities and increase revenue opportunities at the municipal level to help decrease the municipal uh tax less.

Now here comes the uh challenging side of the equation. While we're doing our work to decrease municipal expenditures, we are seeing election county. So our municipal operations are down 9.5%. But education is up 10% normalized from last year and county tax is up 12.6%.

And so when we look at these percentages, we also have to look at the raw number. Um our Education represents about 73% of our total budget. So a 10% increase there can gobble up a lot of savings we find elsewhere. Same with our county tax. That's about a million dollars approaching a million dollars. A large increase there can really gobble up a lot of savings we find at the municipal level. So when we add in the education component and the county tax component to our municipal budget, it's represented a 13.7% increase this year normalized to last year. And so a big question we always receive is where do my tax dollars go? And this is a really great example here. um just about 79% of every dollar that goes that you pay in property taxes goes towards your education expenses. About 15% of that goes towards every municipal percentage and about county tax about 6% of it goes towards the county tax. So

for every dollar you spend 78 cents go about 79 cents goes to the school and about 6 cents goes to the town. And really this section right here is where we to make cuts and make adjustments within this municipal side. our property tax dollars go. Um, this is this year's numbers. So, this was last year's numbers. This is this year's numbers. You'll see again about 79% to education. We're down to only 12% of your dollars going towards municipality, but we're now up to 9% of your dollars going towards county caps. So, we've been able to decrease the portion of the tax bill under this budget from 15% to about 12% which is what we're responsible for on the municipal side.

our fund balance. So, for those of you who might just be getting caught off or remembering uh our past discussions, the town has a fund balance which is more or less akin to kind of a savings account. And these are dollars that have been accumulated over the years that don't haven't been earmarked for anything in particular. About four or five years ago, the town began to spend down that fund balance to help give those dollars back to the uh community and help mitigate the use of tax funds. So, in a municipal setting, you want to really have make sure that the dollars you're asking people to pay in taxes are allocated for a purpose. The idea of gathering tax dollars and sitting them somewhere and not using them isn't really something that the board has been comfortable with because we want those dollars to be used before we're asking people for additional tax dollars. But we do want to maintain some sort of fund

balance to help manage things like cash flow or uh because the way we get most of our money is through taxes that now comes in twice a year and then we spend it down and then we get that next collection. So, by having a little bit of money set aside to help manage cash flow, we never h we can avoid having to pay temporary uh uh borrowing to pay those sorts of expenses. And so, working with our accountant over the last that we've been hired over the last several years, we've begun to spend this fund balance down. Now, his recommendation for a town like Durham, which has about three $13.3 million worth of expenditures, is to maintain a fund balance between 2 million and 3.3 million. And so, you can see this year based off of the budget of the select board proposals, we want to spend down that fund balance to 2.5 million. So that keeps us right in the middle of the accountant's recommendation for where we

should keep our uh fund balance, but ultimately that's a recommendation and us as a community to decide our comfort level there. The select board brought that expenditure to be around 2.5 million because we feel like we're nice in the we're really in the center of that recommended range. And over the last few years, we found that's around where we want to be so we can maintain those expenses and maintain cash flow throughout the year.

debt and we continue to not take out any new debt largely because of all the capital planning that the community has been participating in. And so, as you can see here, um over the next few years, we'll be paying off debt. And as long as we don't uh do anything to accumulate additional debt, the town shouldn't have any outstanding debts by 2031. And as you can see, things start dropping off again in 2029 and 2030. And so this right here is all money that we have to expend out of our budget because of previous borrowing. And our goal is to get our dollars stop going towards paying interest rates and just keeping them here in the town of Durham. And so we're continuing to pay off this debt and use our capital planning to help prevent the need for taking on additional debt. Break into this next discussion is our long-term capital planning. So all this information is available on the website.

We have it at printed documents as well. And the goal here with the long-term capital planning is every year the department heads lay out what they expect they need for capital expenditures over the next 10 years, what sort of equipment they might need, what their repair, what major repairs look like, and what facility repairs look like. And rather than waiting until that year comes up that they think they'll need to replace, let's say, a dump truck or a front end loader, we are saving annually towards those future expenses and then every year they're re-evaluating and determining what needs to be added on as the next 10 years come come along. And so this has been a really effective model and it's allowed us to purchase our equipment in with cash rather than having to finance equipment. So, for example, this year on the replacement schedule was a front-end loader which we were able to purchase

with uh all cash and not have to borrow anything, which has been really nice because it also gives us the flexibility as the town to get deals when they arise. So, if a piece of equipment becomes available at a really good price, um we can pursue that as long as the funds are available. But at the same time, we might have planned to replace a truck for, let's say, public works and we get to the replacement year and we found that the truck was still functioning and we don't need to replace it that year. We can now wait because those funds are set aside. So, we can stretch our equipment use longer based off of the condition of it rather than an arbitrary year to ask for uh replacement. And at the same time, we can really be mobile and get uh the best deals when those deals are available. And so the way we do this is we look at those 10-year needs and we just put in a um recommendation from to the community

to fund the uh uh long-term capital every year to start building up a fund for those needs. And so we have a municipal building reserve which currently has 147,144 dollars in it and we're we're recommending a $5,000 contribution. our public works, which currently has a balance of $289,000. We're recommending to continue to put $250,000 in there annually. And then our fire and rescue, our current balance is $567,000 and we're recommending to put $140,000 into the reserve for that account as well.

um projected. This is the outlay versus uh what we're raising. And so what we're trying to do is maintain a steady balance versus following these trends where we have these peaks. So if we were to follow this, we would see that the need to raise taxes would be low and then spike and then low and then spike and then low and then spike. And so what we're doing is we're trying to have a steady funding of these accounts so we can project in the future what those expenses are going to be rather than having those spikes so we can maintain some consistency and maintain some expectations. Same thing with the public works reserve. You can see we have maintained a funding level of about $250,000 annually and then our expenditures might spike up to uh somewhere between 500 and 600,000 and then down and then spike. But what we're showing here is this is why it's important to maintain that level funding. So when those spikes pop

up, we don't actually have to feel that spike that year. Same thing with our fire and rescue. All these spikes indicate expenditures to out of those accounts 2027 through 2047 and we're maintaining a relatively flat funding line for that. Other town reserves that we have are a reevaluation reserve. Uh we're in the process of getting a re-evaluation done on all all the units of all the town properties. That was a that has a large expense to it. It takes about three or four years to get on the schedule. So a reserve was built the last few years to fund that. So when that bill comes through, we don't we have the cash on hand. The Union Church Restoration Reserve, which is available to use to pay for restoration of the Union Church, has $6,743 in it. The grants matching reserve has $25,776 in it. That's designed because grant opportunities arise at the state and federal level as well as uh things like

non-government organizations. But oftent times to access a grant, you have to bring some money to the table and you might be able to get that match 3 to one. So, we want to make sure we have some money available when grant opportunities arise so we can leverage that to get the most bang for our buck coming back into the community because ultimately if grants become available at the state or federal level, those are largely funded by taxpayer dollars that you have already expended in your property in your uh your income tax or any other taxes you're paying. And our job is to bring as many of those dollars back here into the town of Durham. And then we have our contingency reserve balance uh $550,000. This is to help manage any sort of unexpected uh expenses that might arise during the uh budget year. Uh we try our best to make sure that we have our budget lined up to meet all of our expected expenses. But I think as

everyone knows there are unexpected expenses that oftentimes are largely out of our control that we have to absorb. And we have set aside money for this every year for the last three or four years to make it available should those issues arise. And one thing I want to note about our reserve accounts is this is developed by our professional staff, our town manager and all of our department heads. But ultimately they can't expend out of this without a select board approval. And what we've done in the past is we've brought that to the select board meeting. They presented all the quotes that they've received. They talk about the need for the equipment, the timing and all the balances and then the select board makes the ultimate decision at that time. So these are not expended by department heads without getting approval uh from the select board. All righty. Well, thank you all for participating today. Thank you all for

taking time out of your busy schedules. I know it's a beautiful day out. I know it's warm and I know that people have a lot of things that pull on their time and we really appreciate you all being here to participate in this with us today. So, nothing else to say. We'll get started here on our meeting.

Sure. Do you want to mention the scholarship? Oh, I need to get my notes. graduating. Um, this year the scholarship is awarded to Sean Gangway who is not here today, but we will be presenting that award to him at a future select board meeting and getting a picture of of that and getting it making sure it's on the website to recognize some of the outstanding scholars we have here in our community. Um, when Shawn comes in for his award, we're going to be able to also talk a little bit about his future plans and aspirations as we get to watch one of Durham's kids grow into an adult and head off to the real world. So, we really like that we can have uh community support for that and it's uh something that we want to make sure we acknowledge publicly because a lot of students put in a lot of hard work and we want to recognize when people's work is doing really good stuff. So,

Okay. sort of technical difficulty. So, please bear with us here. is also um I know I understand fully that I just showed you a bunch of slides with words on them and you all heard me ramble for a while, but we have some slides that are kind of um speak to the same language, but are largely graphical. Some of the feedback we received, it's it's hard to see some of the writing. So, we're also showing this in a graphical depiction so people are well aware. And so again, this is a graphical depiction of what we just talked about where your tax dollars go in this upcoming budget. And like we said, 76% go to the school, 15% to the

municipality, and 10% to the county. Sorry, 10% is discretionary. I can't see that bottom line. There it is. And so when we look at that, we also just wanted to point out where the employees that you support through your tax dollars are. So, of all the employees that are paid for by tax dollars that you're paying in your property tax, 370 of those employees are at the school district. 134 of those employees work for the county and then 13 of those employees work for the state. So, that's an important piece of information as we're looking Sorry, work for the town. My bad. I work for the state and get confused sometimes. Work for the town. And so it's an important piece of information to have here that this really isn't where our tax dollars are focusing on a on a personnel standpoint that's elsewhere in budgets that are are voted on elsewhere. And this is a graph that we wanted to show as well. This blue line is the um

well so first off we have the Durham Tax Assessment Index normalized over over every year to year. And like I said that normalized term is so we can compare yeartoyear. um and not take into consideration, you know, the 18-month budget and compare that to the budget as a normal 12 months. That's only normalized down to 12 months. And so the county index shows that the proportion of our taxes that's paid by that goes towards the county has continued to rise. Um this has been pretty common across the 16 counties and has talked a lot about um you might have seen some publications in the media about this. The school index has also continued to rise. And so as these two have continued to rise, Durham has as from municipal standpoint continued to decrease the percentage of our municipal taxes that go towards the town. So, we're as a select board quite proud of being able to continue having a decline in the

proportion of your tax dollars that go to the local municipality, but there is definitely an increase happening faster than we can absorb at the county and school level, which I think is something that most people here are well aware of. Again, another way to look at it is what drives your taxes. And this is how it's been changing year over year. And so after the tax bills go out, I oftentimes get feedback of the percentage of my bill going towards different expenditures has seemed to change. And that's because the the budgetary needs at the school and the county are growing differently than they're growing in this blue line at the municipal level. So this is just another graphical depiction kind of showing everything we're going to be talking about today. Now I'm done. Thank you very much.

start the business part of the meeting. I'd like to kind of lay out some rules for uh for the business part of the meeting and the debate. I I'd request that only one person at a time talk and I'll recognize you when it's your time to talk. And please, when you get to the microphone, introduce yourself. Tell us who you are and where you live. Um, when you're speaking, speak to me and ask questions of me. Don't speak to the group. Um, I'll try to find somebody who to answer your questions, but uh, if if you're speaking to me and asking questions of me, we'll have a more orderly meeting. So, I'd appreciate that. Um, please keep your remarks brief and to the point. That'll uh that'll keep the move meeting moving along. And remember that we're all neighbors here and we're all here because we care deeply about Durham. Um the meeting will go best if everyone is kind and stays orderly. So thank you very much. So to

start with um we have some nonvoters who may wish to speak and and give us uh valuable information. So, um, I request unanimous consent that we allow the following non-residents to speak at our town meeting. Robert Trip, Calvin Bomeier, Jerry Douglas, Tia Wilson, George Debarge, and Glenn Shed. Does anyone object?

I don't see why all Okay. Well, uh, will some I'll make a motion then that we allow these people to speak at town meeting. Is there a second? Second. I'd like if you uh It's been moved and seconded that we uh allow the the list of people to speak at town meeting.

Yes, please. That's a good idea. Let's have a we can have a discussion. Would you please identify who each of those individuals are, please? I can't hear you. Would you identify who those individuals are? Yes. Uh, Robert Trip, please identify

yourself. Oh, all right. What would you like? What do they do? What's their relevance to the town meeting? Okay. Would you please identify yourself and tell you or explain your re relevance to the town meeting? Robert Trip. Firefief. Still fire.

Tia Wilson. I don't see her. George Debarge is part of that district. So, it's been moved and seconded that we allow these folks. Is there further discussion? that we allow these folks to speak at our town meeting. Um, if you agree, please raise your green card.

agree, please raise your green card. It appears clear that more than 2/3 of uh the voters have voted to allow these people to speak. So, the motion passes. To see if the town will vote in the event that any proposed budget art budget articles in this warned are not approved, the town is authorized to raise and appropriate for the same purposes as pre previously approved an amount not to exceed the 12 month equivalent equivalent of the 2026 municipal budget. Do I have a motion?

It's been moved. Do I have a second? Second. It's been moved and seconded that we see uh if the town will vote in the event that any proposed budget articles in this warrant are not approved. Is there discussion? Everyone who approves of article 4, please raise your green card.

We'll take a step back. Please introduce my demic Emerson Road. I'd like to make a motion due to the fact that graduation's also going on at this time that we move voting to a ballot style in November. Point of order. There's already a motion on the table.

Yeah, that that's not gerine because it's really not uh associated with this motion that we're discussing right now. Okay. Um, so is there further discussion on article 4? Can you just of it being like jar lang tell us what exactly we're voting?

I will let uh the select person chair uh describe that. Thank you for that question. Um, essentially if the town does not vote to approve either of the numbers on any warrant article and both motions fail, both the select boards and the budget committees, we would revert back to uh last year's number, which would be the 18 months budget divided by 1.5 to bring it to a 12-month number. So it would revert back to the previous operating budget um as a default if the if they weren't voted on in positively for either the budget committee or the select board. Does that clear it up?

So what's the other option? So we don't agree with that. So if if neither the proposed budget passes and this motion were to fail, another mechanism would need to be brought forward and I'd have to defer to the uh moderator to see if he was aware of how that would function.

And just kind of uh evaluating that if this fails and another budget motion fails, we would probably need to have a special town meeting to substitute a different number. Does that Does that answer your question? Terrific.

What's that? Neil did. Neil, very, you made the motion, correct? Yeah. You're right. Okay. So, it's been moved and seconded that we see the town will vote in the event that any proposed budget articles in this warrant are not approved. Is there further discussion?

Everyone who approves of this article, please raise your green cards. not approve of the article, please raise your green cards. Okay. A majority having voted in the affirmative. Article four passes. motion? M Mr. moderator

I move that we Mr. Duffet or Mr. Barryation excuse me Mr. Barry addressed the moderator. Could Could you explain to the town meeting how these can be amended? I'm I'm not hearing you. Can you explain to the town meeting how these can be amended?

These can be amended on the floor. After a motion is made, it's subject to amendment, which means that um after a motion has been made and seconded and it's properly on the floor, somebody then can then make a motion to amend it if that's related to the uh initial motion. And then we'll vote on the motion to amend before we vote on the motion, the uh overriding motion.

And and they can only be amended down. Correct? Say it again. They can only be amended down. Uh correct. The well the uh the numbers that are listed in the in the body of the motion is a cap on the amount of money. The idea is that if somebody

read the warrant at home and um decided they were happy with however it came out with that as a cap, they could go fishing today and not bother to be here. So it can only be those numbers that are in the body of the motion can only be amended down.

Can I make a motion, Mr. Mutter? You may. I move on article five that we that we raise um that we raise and appropriate $763,39 for general government. Is there a second? Second. Okay. Did you get that? Yeah. Okay. It's been moved and seconded that article 5 is uh

passed to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate $763,39 for general government. Is there discussion? Moder. Yes, please. So, uh just want to explain the difference between the uh budget committee number and the select board number. Um although we're voting on the overall number, the reasoning uh for the difference is uh one the budget committee uh recommends removing the text messaging service. I believe I believe that was at $4,000. And we uh there was also um a line in

there for about there was $2,500 for select board tablets. And we would recommend that they uh maybe look for a grant or something like that um to try to cover the cost of the of the tablets there. Um last year there was quite a a bit of money um allocated for human resources consultant and they uh spent quite a bit of time putting together a handbook and several other items and we

uh we felt that the uh there shouldn't be the need as for as much time this year. So we uh recommended that down. I I don't remember by how much at this point. Um there was a unemployment line that was new in the budget. Um and we felt that if the need for un unemployment was to come up over the next year that could be taken from the contingency funds. And the the final um the final bit was um the town manager compensation and staffing decisions. Um over the last year the uh board

approved a raise for the town manager ex um exceeding 10% which was above the um increase outlined in his contract. Um and the board the uh budget committee felt that those types of decisions should be based on a a budget that was brought to the town and not done midyear. And um there were

several other places where they have made um salary changes or pay compensation changes over the last year that affect our budget. Um, and although they were they were they were allowed to do that because they were still within last year's budget, it affects budgets going on. And we uh felt that those types of decisions should be made on a budget that's presented to the um to the floor.

And I just um in our documentation uh that was sent to us uh as we were looking at the budget, I just wanted to note that all employee compensation um is up by 20% this year over the last year's over last year's normalized amount. Um and that is that is one of

the reasons why the uh budget committee decided to um make changes to to the budget in the uh in the compensation areas in several of the different lines. Thank you. Thank you. Is there further discussion? Yes, please approach the microphone. Gotcha.

Brianna Drive. I don't think that's working. Hello. Oh, okay. I'm Katherine Curtis. I live at 56 Brianna Drive. I wanted to speak to the administrative costs. Many of you may not know this, but the town of employees have been underpaid for years and years. So sometimes you do have to increase a little bit above. This won't happen again. That whatever it was 20% will likely not happen again. This is to bring folks up and it's important that we keep employees committed to our town. I work as the warden and I know firsthand that our employees are very committed to this town. So yes, you can reduce their salaries and they can go shop around for another job and you're going to have town facilities that are not maintained at the level they are right now. So although it sounds like a big number and you're thinking I didn't get a I'm on social security. I didn't get a 20% raise, but that's not the 100%

of what they're saying. Our town budget is such a small amount of the overall tax burden that we pay. It sounds good to to take all of these things out, but remember it's not going to make that much of an impact overall. So, I think at the very least, we should support our employees. And although it does sound like a big number, it's bringing those folks up. And my understanding is you're not going to see a 20% increase in their salaries every year. This is to put them in line with the the human resource recommendations and other towns of our size. So, that's that's all I wanted to say about that. Thank you very much. Uh, Mr. Roy,

I'll I'd defer to Robera first if that's okay. I'm sorry I didn't hear. I would give Roberto the floor first. Great. Okay, ma'am. Hi. Uh, Robera Brazinski, 52 Quaker Ridge Road. Um, I agree with the previous speaker and I won't be as articulate, but basically we can't lose our municipal employees.

They're already overworked. They're underpaid. It's a statewide problem that um people are losing, towns are losing municipal employees um because they're overworked and underpaid. And um anything for human resources. I don't know if everyone remembers, we had plenty of chaos in the town office in past years. We don't want that. We have a good staff and we want to keep them. And um so basically, and then as far as the text alerts, the messaging, I like getting text alerts. I think it's critical um for emergencies if nothing else. Um, that's basically it. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Is there further discussion? Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Uh, thank you, Jeff, for that insightful feedback. Um, and thank you for the previous two speakers. I just wanted to provide uh answers to each of the points that were made so far. Just to give folks the facts and figures and and leave the interpretation up to you all. So, the text messing services was something we added a few years ago after getting consistent feedback that folks wanted to be able to have more communication coming out of the town office. And so, that's what we entered into. It's a service that's used by a lot of the surrounding municipalities. So, it's tailored to municipal use and and the the when we entered into the contract a couple years ago, it's a three-year contract. So, we do have that as a contractual expense this year. Um the tablets uh were designed to uh provide us kind of with a electronic way to

provide documents to the select board also make compliance with freedom of information act requests easier uh which have been growing as of late and we could just hand over the tablets so the town clerk can collate all of the emails and discussion or documents that they are being requested. Um, and also the intent is that it will slowly replace the need for uh paper at our meetings. Generally speaking, our select board meetings have several hundred pages of paper printed out. And so that takes up a lot of um paper and ink, but also takes staff an hour or two a week just to like print and collate documents. And we'd like to find a way to get staff to spend time working on more meaningful things than printing, stapling, and building folders. uh the human resources uh that we're utilizing that is a budgeted item um but it's only expended if human resources are needed. So we are working with a

private contractor to provide those services. And so in a perfect world you don't need human resources because to to take action because there are no concerns. But we live in the real world where human resources issues arise um from time to time. And one of the major things the select board is and the town staff are responsible for is managing risk. Without adequate human resources, should a human resource concern come to fruition, it can be very costly and expensive. And if it had to get any sort of investigation done or anything, that would fall on our legal service line. And our leg our lawyer charges about four times an hour more than our human resources would charge us. And so those expenses would add up really quickly. and we just want to make sure we're mitigating risk. Uh to clarify some information about staffing decisions, uh in a select board town manager, town meeting form of government, the town

manager enters into a contract generally for 3 to 5 years. And so those are contractual expenses that need to be carried throughout the future. and our town manager entered into a contract last year which is the responsibility of the select board to um hire and retain a

town manager um employee compensation. I'm glad this was brought up this year. We undertook a large study and utilize outsour resources to evaluate employee compensation. And what we found when compared to local municipalities of similar size in similar location and others across the state is that consistently our town staff were paid in the bottom 25 percentile. So they are in the bottom quarter of people doing the same job in other municipalities and in other departments that has caused significant turnover and understaffing for 10 months last year. And so the select board utilizing the uh available research and utilizing the human resources went through and had a wage table developed and is proposing in this budget a wage adjustment to get people up to a little bit below average pay for their position. So with this wage adjustment, we still fall below uh most of the surrounding municipalities of the

same size and most of the surrounding municipalities that have the same budget as us. So we didn't go compare staff to Portland or Bangor or Lewon Auburn. We looked at the North Yarmas. We looked at the Cumberlands. We looked at these other municipalities that are around the same size as us and have the same um budget and are geographically located. The big challenge we're pressed with is whether we want to admit that we're competing with these large cities around us or not. we are because for the same for a 10-minute longer commute, you can go get 50% more pay. You know, we have staff leaving other departments who are leaving for $10 an hour more. And so, we can't match that. We try to make it up with a very cheery uh a town manager and a very cheery select board being thankful, but we do want to try to make some headway. And the goal is to get to around 50%. And our new wage table then lays out the next 8 years of wages. So

we can project that so we know that there will be consistent 3 or 4% increases moving forward and we can then have a nice level expenditure. Um recommendation is to cut expenses out of um contracts that we are obliged to play pay, we can't really do that. um we can't break that contract or we have to pay out the whole contract. And so when these recommendations come through and don't match what we can actually adjust, it creates a challenge of where we have to pull things from. If things like this were to pass, we would have to look into cutting services, possibly cutting hours at the town office, um possibly limiting time that we're doing other sorts of things and that would impact the municipality. And my final point is um Roberto and Katherine brought up the small portion of our budget that is municipal expenses and the very small differences between the budget committee recommendation and

the select board recommendation. And ultimately today, if we were to go with the lower number in every scenario on a home valued at $400,000, it would only be a $93 a year decrease in taxes or a $7 a month decrease in taxes. And so we have to ask ourselves, and that's a high value home for most of us, $400,000 value tax taxation. We have to ask ourselves, is $93 worth the added risk of losing staff and losing human resources? If you have a home valued at $200,000, ask yourself, is $46 a year worth the risk associated with those? And that's up for you to to decide, but we need to present something that really mitigates risk for our community. So, thank you for that.

Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Uh, Mr. Barry. So, it's a bit insulting to the taxpayers of Durham to tell me that the town manager is underpaid and overworked. He gets five weeks vacation. He makes $128,000 a year, which is significantly more than any town our size in the area. These are the towns that they used to survey against for for the wage wage study. Bath, Brunswick, Cumberland, Dammer, Scott, Durham, Freeport, Harpswell, Richmond, to Hopsson, Yarmouth. Three of the small towns have no rates less than us and none of the town managers make anything like our does. So, it's it really is insulting to me. The wages for the the uh office staff is depending on where you look, commensurate to other towns our size. So, it's to me it's insulting to say we're underpaying them and they're certainly not overworked. Um,

you. Yes, ma'am. Good morning, Diana Demick, Emerson Road. I just looked out a different perspective. I was an employee in the town for 25 years. Sometimes we didn't get any raise. Most of the times it was 2%. If we are really lucky it was three and a half. And I also don't believe people are leaving the town due to pay rates. So

I'll just leave it at that. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Roy. Thank you, Neil, for listing that and thank you Diana for um providing your personal experience. Uh so when we're looking at a data set like the surrounding towns, if you look at any data set, there are numbers that are higher and lower and that's where you come up with measuring the middle. And so I'm going to pull us all back to high school math, mean, median, and mode. And so what we're trying to do is establish something close to the median, which is 50% of what the pay range is. And so when you look at that data set and you look into the numbers that uh the previous speaker brought up, we are not trying to match Bath. We are not trying to match Brunswick. We are trying to get somewhere close to the middle of the pay range for the surrounding community. And that's what I want you to take into consideration. We would never ask for a

Bath salary here or a Bronswick salary here. It's just not it's not reasonable. Um, the other thing we need to talk about too is our staff. It's not always comparing apples to oranges. So, if you look at the town manager in Brunswick, for example, they have a full-time assistant town manager. They also have a de a tax collector and they also have an administrative assistant. And our town, our town manager is the tax collector. He doesn't have an assistant town manager. He doesn't have an administrative assistant. So, he's doing three jobs. That's one thing that we have done here in Durham to try to consolidate the need for additional staff is everyone has to wear multiple hats. And so even with them wearing multiple hats, they're still below the average wage for what one hat would pay them in the surrounding municipality. I we can speak to this a little bit later once we get to public works, but

uh our public works director can tell you for sure and attest for factually that the staff he has had leaving have told them it's because of salary. And our staff are constantly getting pressured from other municipalities to leave here to go make more money just five or 10 minutes away. And so we make up for that with many of other things, but really trying to develop a really good culture.

Thank you. Mr. Simon, did you want to speak? Milt Simon Stackpole Road. In case you didn't see it, there was a handout color graph um showing the wages that have been paid over the last couple of years. And in case any of the previous speakers

left you feeling that the town's been stingy towards paying its employees, the graph points out that in 2024, the town hall staff wages percent increase was 60.46%. A 60 over a 60% increase in their previous year's wages. The wage increase in 2026 was 5.29%. 29% and the proposed

wage increase for 2027 is 15.05. More importantly, I'd like to point out to you is something that you need to keep in mind throughout our voting this morning. It's article 14, which is going to take money out of the fund reserve.

Point of order. We're discussing a motion on article 5. I'm sorry, I didn't hear. I said point of order. We're discussing a motion on article 5. So talking about article 14 is not germanine. I think he's relating it to article five.

Thank you sir. Please go on Mr. SP Simon. Um, so the reason why it's only being presented as a little over 13% increase is because included is a $500,000 withdrawal from the fund reserve. The fund reserve is the the fund reserve is a very important account for this town. First of all, it makes money. It makes interest. It's also sort of serves as an emergency fund and a contingency fund. I personally I don't believe we should be withdrawing money from the fund reserve in order to keep your taxes

lower this year. If you feel, for example, that the town staff is underpaid and should be paid should be paid more, then pay for it in your taxes. Don't take it out of our fund reserve so that it seems like you're paying less in taxes. That's not what the fund reserve is for. The fund reserve is so that we don't have to take out loans. The fund reserve is in case an emergency comes up and we have a a pretty we we have a a huge bill that needs to be paid. If you want some of the increases that the select board is recommend recommending, then go then then pay for it. Don't take it out of the savings account. And that's that's in effect what we're doing. If if you if you um vote down the

budget committee and and approve the select boards committee, you're taking money out of the fund reserve in order to limit the amount of tax that you'll be paying this year. Thank you. Yes. just point out since we're talking about uh interest, the budget committee recommendation about taking money out of the capital reserve accounts costs us interest, makes us have to redo the total income we have, which makes the taxes go up then. Uh, so it's an expense, but it's a long-term expense this year that is making us money in the future and saves us from having to pay 6 8 10% interest when we have to buy an item that a town needs. Um, I also think it's disingenuous uh to say that we are taking this money out for the expenses. I would remind everybody that the budget presented by the select board was compiled with the assistance of the town manager, department heads, and the experts who reviewed it, made recommendations

based on what the select board that the town voted to elect asked for. that budget uh follows what the accountant recommended despite what we've seen elsewhere. The $500,000 that he recommended is not out of line. That's re I'm sorry, that's recommended in the budget is not out of line and not against what uh was recommended. Um the budget he's he's reviewed the budget, has had the opportunity to express concerns and is in support of it. Mr. Simon,

said it would be okay to use $500,000 from the fund reserve, but his recommendation was 300,000. moved on from article 5 at this point and this is a very valuable uh discussion to have, but I think we should have it when we're talking about the fund reserve and article 14.

I can't hear a word you're saying. I'm saying point of order. I think we've really shifted the discussion to article 14 at this point and I'd like to bring us back to article 5. I'll Oh, I didn't realize you were done. You weren't done. I'm sorry. I want to return to uh Josh and and let him uh finish. I apologize.

I I just want to say and and I'll finish with this. Uh I hear a lot of complaints about the the office, the town office not being open on Fridays, only being open late on one night. And I agree because I have a hard time getting in to the town office between 8 and 5 Monday through Friday because I work, I have a child in school, I have other obligations. cutting the budget to save uh $93.20

uh for a a home valued at $400,000. Um on a million-doll home, it's $233 a year. Uh to cut what that means is we're going to have to cut services and it's going to affect us all. Uh, and it's likely going to cost us more than that $233 on a million-doll home that very few of us would have to pay. Uh, so I understand nobody wants to pay more in taxes. U, but this line uh

is important because it's going to keep the town office open. It's going to keep the town running. Um, and I strongly disagree with the statement that people aren't leaving because of money because that's happening here and it's happening everywhere. Uh and uh we need to show

our employees who are overworked uh and are busting their butts for us to make this town what it is. Uh and we need to show them that they're worth it and they're valuable. And we need to show them that we understand that the service they're providing is important to us and make sure they're uh compensated in an appropriate manner and make sure that we're still providing those services that we've deemed necessary and that we want to have. Otherwise, we're going to lose the employees, we're going to lose the services, and then where are we going to be?

I apologize for cutting you off. Um let me let a couple members of the public speak. My name is Claire Ross. Can you hear me? I can hear you. Okay. Uh, I live on Oakidge Road and I concerned that we're we spoke at the beginning about being kind and finding a way to work together that were so divisive here um in our discussions. Um, I think it's really very much of a base of fear to move people to spend their tax dollars by saying that we're going to cut services. Um, that we're going to lose employees. We haven't lost employees. We've they've been separated. And I'll leave it there. Um, and I'm also very

concerned that we're comparing numbers with Cumberland County. We don't pay Cumberland County taxes. We pay taxes to Andrew Scoggin. And as far as loyalty of employees, I agree that some of our employees are extraordinarily loyal and have worked very hard. Um, and they're good people and they're trying to do their best. Um,

as long as people are treated well, I think they stay loyal. So, and not necessarily because of the dollar, Mr. Moderator. Um, and the accountant I wanted to echo the point about the accountant that the accountant's recommendation was not to take the 500,000 as I've heard different representations here today and I think we need to stay pretty clear about what actually happened. I do watch all your meetings. So, thank you very much.

Thank you. Yes, sir. Firewood Lane. You have to speak really close to that mic. Yeah, Paul Reed, Firewood Lane. I Yeah, I I get what you say. I mean, $93 doesn't seem like a whole lot of money, but if everybody's seen their tax bill, like I'm sure I've seen mine, then

they're huge. I mean, there every time $93 goes onto your tax bill, I mean, it it's been hundreds over the past few years. Every year, it's hundreds of dollars added to our tax bill. And now, I mean, you just sit there and go, "It's only $93." Well, there's 93 more on top of all the other hundreds that are added. And I get employees. I Everybody wants a decent rate. And if the contract says what the rate should be, then that's what the rate I think should be. Um, if it's 6%, then it's

six. If it's 10, then it should be 10. But if it's not 10, then it should be whatever the contract says. And as far as I mean, I I don't know. I mean, I'd love to have a 4 day work week. I mean, my my my weeks are 60 hours a week, every week. Tax dollars. I mean, it ain't just the towns. We got to think about how much money we're spending on not it ain't just our towns that that are calling for our tax dollars. Everything is increasing crazily increasing. So I mean to look at you basically on $93

if you based it on just $93 I'd be like what whatever. But it's not. It it's it's adding and adding and adding and piling on. I mean, my house now is like $89,000 for taxes. Like just just just the town of Durham. I mean,

gosh, I don't know where it stops, but I would not like to add 93 more to it. I mean, I I don't know about anybody else, but I mean, it's getting to the point now where I'm renting my own house. I don't know what the I don't know what the ceiling is, but I think I'm there. But uh anyway, so let's I just my my thoughts. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Yes, ma'am. and I just wanted to speak to the employment piece alone because you have to speak closer to the mic. Can you raise that mic up a little bit so that people have it easier? closer to their base.

Believe it or not, I've been told I'm softspoken my whole life and it's not exactly true. Um, we have 13 town employees. 13. We lost at least three last year in the last six months. We went public works this winter was down. And nobody doesn't want the road plowed. So, we can't not have public works employees. We can't have them working 20 hours. I don't know what the dynamics are of that but we just can't. So they the three that we lost was due to salaries and two of them that I'm aware of were town were town residents and they still left. So we have 13 employees that we're talking about 13. And if you were running a business and you lost three employees in the last year out of a staff of 13 you'd be upset too. So there is we have to make this is a show of a commitment to the town employees and I know that that's that's probably hard because everybody's struggling right now. And hey, I'm on social security and

my house taxes have doubled in the years I've lived here. But I'm still going to support the town staff. There's probably other ways we can cut the budget. on this article. I think we should move forward and support what's been presented by the select board there. That's their responsibility is to manage our town and manage staffing. So, I think we really really should support that article and maybe there's an opportunity to cut some other places, but like they've mentioned, it's going to be a minimal amount of impact on our no rate, but it would be a massive impact to the town employees. And that's what I'm trying to point out that this is a very small article. So I think we should just move forward with what's been presented by the select board.

Thank you. First off, thank you everyone who's provided feedback. Thank you to the budget committee. Thank you to the previous speakers. This is how we hear from the community. Um, a couple things I just wanted to touch on some some facts. the the fund balance cannot be expanded out of for emergencies. The select board does not have that authority. Um the the fund balance gets directed from the community as to where they want it to be invested in our community. So we do not have the ability to spend out of that as an emergency.

Um secondly, I just wanted to speak to the fact of a statement made that we have not lost staff. We have lost staff. I think our our road commissioner, public works director, and code enforcement officer Calvin could could attest to that. Um, and that was that loss was carried uh by the backs of our staff. There there are people who live in work here in Durham who were plowing 80 hours a week. Um, our our road commissioner was picking up all the slack for missing people and working 40 hours on top of his salaried wage at zero extra dollars when we talk about staff contribution. And I I hear you. There's a Everyone on our fire department has three jobs. A lot of our staff are picking up work elsewhere, too. Like, people are busting their butts and the dollars don't stretch the way they used to. And it it's painful. And what we're presenting here today is trying to figure out how to make sure we

are asking for the lowest amount to just provide the same services as last year and be respectful of those because when I say $93, $93 is $93. It's It's not chump change. It's it's it's not something that you might not feel if you are constrained in your household. And I don't want anyone here to think that we are wantingly asking for additional funds. Like we we we understand that $93 for a $400,000 house or 200 or $46 for a

$200,000 house. That's as tight as we can we can get it with with what people are asking us to provide. And that's what we're trying to do. Um the other thing I wanted to point out is I I thank the previous um the chair of the uh budget committee for pointing out the wages. I will say the document he is referencing was not made public until this morning. Our accountant cannot verify that these figures are accurate and I have quickly on the back of my uh paper here already done some math and found that much of this is not accurate. So I just want to clarify that this was not given to anyone until the select board found it on our tables this morning. So I I'm not sure where these figures have come from, but one thing I do want to point out is what I what we as a select board have presented is that the current budget puts our staff at less than average wage for their position. And so pointing out that a 60%

supposed increase occurred in 2024 and a 5% in 2029 and then supposedly a 15% this year. That goes to show you how huge the gap was between what was being offered and what it took to get us to less than average pay in every single category. Um so that is an important piece of consideration. This public service is not a job that makes you rich. Public service is service. Our staff are public servants. They serve you. They serve us. That comes with uh giving up certain salary

opportunities. It comes with giving up certain retirement opportunities, certain benefit opportunities. And it comes rooted really in a dedication to this community. And I know that when I go to the town office to pick up my mail from the mailbox that I receive from all of you, our staff are in there before they're on the clock. They're staying there until 9:00 at night when the select board chair doesn't stop talking during his meetings. Uh they're coming in late. They're picking up the phone on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. They're meeting with us. They're meeting us where we need. They are not eking by on, you know, 3 8 hour days.

They're budget they're they're scheduled in there 36 37 38 hours minimum and then they're picking up all that extra work uncompensated outside. That's just our admin staff are the the folks over at public works same thing. And so I just want to provide that information that they are really serving you as the public and what we're just trying to do is get them to average wages.

Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Um, I just want to point out people keep bringing up town staff leaving. Um, this particular article article that we're talking about, uh, for the administrative staff, um, doesn't cover the public works staff that have been leaving. The budget committee took that into consideration when we made our recommendations for article 7, which we'll get to. Um, but our recommendation for this particular article is based solely on the administrative part of the budget. and and we did have administrative staff leave this year. So, code code enforcement uh moved to a different position uh further down the coast.

Is there further discussion? Yes, sir. Uh Chief Trip, um you guys were just fooled. I don't know if you saw that. That was jazz hands. Seven strangers have showed up today to tell me what my raise is going to be. That's offensive. It really is. You You guys just got sucked right into wages. That's not why your tax bill is going up. It's not. If you work in this building, not across the street, if you work in this building, you're getting step raises, 3 to 6%, colas, all of it. If you're a bus driver, which is out of still your taxes, step raises, five more vacation days straight from them. If you work for the county,

Yes. Hang on just a second. Yes. You could have changed the school budget, but you weren't there. This this is comparing wages to the Hang on. Order order. Or order. Thank you, ma'am. um he's he's getting around to talking about uh uh article 5, but I' I'd encourage the speakers to keep your keep your uh points brief and to the point, please.

The the point is you you've been hoodwinkedked into talking about it. It's you you see all the other things. This is one particular. They're coming after wages. They're coming after the the 13 and one of them the town manager is under contract. So, they're coming after the dozen. You're going to see they're coming after municipal. They're going to come after me in the next article, but they're going to leave public works alone. You're going to see they agree with wage step increases, but then they don't, depending on which department you're in. You're going to see they agree with the select board, but then they don't, cuz it's personal. So, don't be fooled about wages. That's not why all the taxes are going up. It's really not. If you worked for the county sheriff, which you pay for, they get $10 an extra this year an hour. So, don't be fooled by this.

Thank you very much. Yes, sir. Morning. Spencer Reed, fire with Lane. I just wanted to ask a question and see if what's the average an employee stays with a company? Cuz let's look at it this way. We're talking about wages. We're talking about in our point of view, our tax dollars. This is a business. That's how we're looking at it. You're spending our money. It's it's the money that we hardearned to pay you guys for the services. So, we're paying this in the end run. So, what's the average an employee stays with the place of business

in in the town or in general? In general. Does anybody know the answer to that question? I I can't provide that because I know it varies largely from sector to sector. So all I can function within is the the municipal employees.

So I can't vet it. I can't prove it. Address your questions to me. Right now I oversee about a dozen people. I'm a branch manager at a company. The average length of employment is three years. You can pay an employee whatever the going rate is. But the moment they're as good as they are, other outfits start looking at them. If they want to jump ship, they're going to jump ship. You can't overpay just because you have to have somebody if the budget doesn't allow it. You can't. People leave. That's a fact of life. They leave. People come and go. You hire new people and you train them. You have to do it. But just raising so someone doesn't walk out the door doesn't fix anything. It doesn't necessarily mean the money spent needs to be spent. Thank you very much, Mr. Simon. I'm not sure if this is considered a point of order, but my interpretation of

the voters here today approving a non-resident to speak would be because of their association with a particular portion of the budget. Specifically, if the fire chief is being recognized, it seems to me it' be to recognize a question or concern about the fire department budget, not about the administrative budget or other things. I I think his his comments were out of line. We were not addressing the fire department budget. We were addressing article five, which is which is general government or administration.

Thank you. Would anybody else like to speak? Yes. Just want to thank the speaker from Reed Road. That's really important consideration to take in. Um if you've watched our meetings, one thing we talk about is the challenge when a municipality feels like they need to race to the top. So this person gets more over in my that town, we got to we got to beat that to keep them. This person gets more in the county, we got to beat that to keep them. The bus drivers get more, we got to try to compete there. Totally understand that. We can't win a race to the top and we're not going to try. Um, we can't do that in a municipal setting. We can't do that with our tax base. We're trying to get We're trying to race to the middle. This these changes are not a race to the top. We're trying to race to 50% the average wage. Um, and so I just want that to make really clear like the wage study we looked at with this new

proposal, we're still for most people under 50% and in maybe one case matching 50%. And that goes from town manager to clerk to every position uh to deputy clerk to every position in between. So I totally hear that concern about race to the top. that that's not what we're trying to do. But I appreciate that that perspective. It's really important to consider.

Yes, ma'am. I just want to say as far as saying that, you know, in a private business someone leaves within three or four years, is that what we want or do we want someone with knowledge of the town, institutional knowledge? Do we want to reinvent the uh

wheel every 3 years? Because it's very important to have experience, know the town, understand the town, know the people. These are relationships and they're important. And I say the longer someone stays in the job, uh, the better they understand the town.

Thank you very much. Yes, sir. Mr. Moderator, if I may, a question. Um, there's a lot of discussion about payraises. I guess I would ask, does the uh motion before us include a pay raise for employees? I didn't hear the question.

Uh, I'll try it without the mic. Does the motion before us include any kind of pay raise for the employees? Can someone answer that question? Mr. Moderator, I made the motion and it does include a pay raise, a 7 and a half% pay raise. Thank you

for the for the staff. Does that answer your and a 6% pay raise for the time manager? It does. And I guess I would, if I may, just follow up with that is uh my son is a is a policeman down in Buckton. Uh last summer they were the lowest paid uh police force in York uh county. They got a nice raise, took them up to where we'd like to take our employees, just below the middle. uh and then by April they were back at the lowest paid police force in the county. So to the comments that you can't chase that that that is in fact a truth. Um so what Buckton is doing is they're giving them a large another large increase on top of the year. And I would just like to say that I understand we have great employees and want to take care of them, but this isn't a panacea. uh this isn't going to solve all of our problems and we we may very well find ourselves in the same place next year having lost people because it is somewhat of a rat race. So

uh that's all. Thank you, Mr. Troy. Thank you for the uh that statement. I just need to say it's very important that we we can disagree, but the facts need to be factual. The previous statement about every employee getting a 7% raise just isn't fact. Um the raise is variable across employees and across classifications. There's now a wage table. Some folks are much closer to a cost of living because their raise was already close to 50% of what the average or what the average pay is. Other close were adjusted higher to bring them in. So uh you can feel how you want about the raises, but the facts are are important here. Um and to the previous speaker's comment about the race to the top, we are not the the select board's numbers here are not a race to the top. The numbers that we all discussed at our meeting, we made very clear are not a race to the top, it's a race to the middle.

Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Deborah Laravey, 797 Royalsboro Road. I I would like to comment that I hope that we can keep the discussions positive when the budget committee speaks on their part. They they're trying to do their part and the leutman are trying to do their part, but let's not be negative with each other and I think we've had enough discussion. I'd like to call for the question.

speaker. So there it may not be necessary to call the question. Is that correct? Jim Mclathlin, 131 Soaper Road. I'd like to call a question, please. I don't think it's necessary, but we could have a vote if you like. Yes, please.

Okay. Uh, is there a second? It's been moved that the uh that we call the question. There's a second. Did you see it? Good. Um everyone who's in favor of uh uh voting now on this current motion, please raise your cards. vote now on the motion that's before the uh the body.

We're voting to vote. voting right now, you're voting to vote on the on the motion. You're not voting on the motion. You're voting to vote on the motion. Does everybody understand that? Okay. So, you're voting now to vote on the motion that's before us. So, everyone who would like to do that, please raise your card. Got it. Everyone who would not like to do that, please raise your card. Got it. Okay. So, now we move on to a vote on the motion that's before us. And just to remind you, it's article 5 to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate the budget committee's recommendation of $763,39

and seconded. Everyone who would like to vote for that, please raise your card. that, please raise your card. The motion fails. Would someone like to make a different motion? I move we vote on the select board recommendation of $821,165.

Second. It's been moved and seconded that we vote to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate $821,165, the select board's recommendation for general government. Is there discussion? Everyone who's in favor of voting to raise and appropriate $821,165

your cards. opposed, please raise your cards. The motion carries. note. We just spent over an hour on that question and if we have 30 artic we have 30 warned articles to get through. So, uh, just keep that in mind. Article six to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate $776,90

for public safety. Is there a motion? I move that we vote on the select word recommended $776,90. Is there a second? It's been moved and seconded to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate $776,90 for public safety. Is there discussion?

the budget committee's thinking on our reduction. We recommended $36,000 625 $625 reduction. We took an acrosstheboard approach to wage increases to all departments more or less to do to to due to concerns about the level of raises recommended by the select board. The fire chief was originally hired at a competitive salary has received raises generally kept pace or or exceeded cost of living raises uh 2.8 to 3.8% for social security and federal employees. We proposed 6% increase this year which is higher than those benchmarks. We also recommended implementing the proposed wage scale adjustments for both full-time and part-time employees over a two-year period rather than all at once in one year. A phased approach would allow the town to remain competitive in attracting and retaining employees while reducing the immediate financial impact on taxpayers. Our recommendation is intended to balance fair employee

compensation with responsible budgeting and and consideration of for the taxpayers who ultimately fund these expenditures. So a 6% raise for the chief and a 8.2% raise for part-time staff. The total budget committee recommendation increase for wages for the fire department is 22.5%. We didn't change the full-time staff or overtime number. So the wages for the fire department is going up 22 and a2%. If if you if you take our number, the uh select board's number is 30% a 30% increase for fire department wages over last year. 30% increase.

Thank you. Yes, sir. wanted to make a comment going forward with all these articles that I know everybody has an opinion on every single one and for different reasonings, but if we vote through the higher number on every single article, then our taxes have no option or choice of going down. They will go up and up every single time. So if we can't, we didn't vote for the school, we didn't vote county, those are all going up no matter what. So right now, right today, the only thing we can control is our taxes. So, if we choose to vote the higher number through, I go with either number. Maybe we want it to be lower. Maybe we don't agree with the budget committee. We want it to be lower than that. If we vote them to go through on every single one, then our taxes are just going up. They're not going down. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Tom.

Yes. I thought you said Mr. Tom and I didn't see his hand up. the old I was looking at him and uh had a flashback. Um thank you for that feedback. You're right. Every proposal here is a tax increase. Um every lower number, if we went with all the lower numbers, it's a tax increase and it's only about.9% difference. So ultimately, we're talking about 13.7 or or 12.8 here. And both of

those numbers are high. And both of those numbers sting. Uh much like everyone's household expenses going up, we're not immune to expenses for operating going up as well. And that that's reflected here. The public safety again I just want to clarify staff are not getting a 30% raise. It is variable from position to position as always. uh the way our we as a select board have a responsibility to offer if the town asks us to offer public safety to offer public safety and we can't do that in name only. So right now the way it works is every day for 24 hours there is someone on call to provide EMT services or emergency uh services for 911 calls. Those are filled via two 12-hour shifts. One from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., one from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. Until we proposed this budget, what we were offering for those positions that require advanced training and experience was 75% lower than what is offered at the local Dairy Queen. And

so that was resulting in 30% of the time shifts going unfilled. mean that if you call 911 in the middle of the night, there's no one there at the station ready to respond. And we have to hope that the fire chief is uh available. We have to hope that one of our community members answers the call at 2 a.m. to come in. Uh and so we're we're not able to provide those emergency services without a wage increase. There's been some room in the budget this year to provide that wage increase through the last month. And we watched those shifts go from a 30% vacancy down to below a 10% vacancy. We had a and maybe chief can explain this a little bit, but we had a call of a heart attack. And chief, how long did it take for that response to come in?

Good grief. fire department? I'll ask you to be kind and keep your remarks. That was me being kind, sir. To to answer your question, um, Mr. Chair last month, we didn't have anyone at the fire station. And again, you can take my pay raise. You You can literally take it. I'm a servant leader. It needs to go to the 1enters. The EMT came in at 0512 in the

morning. Nobody at the fire station. Chest pain, not breathing normally, difficulty speaking, changing color, impale. 19 minutes and 46 seconds to get an ambulance there. 20 minutes for chest pain because I can't fill those EMT shifts. I'm asking for your help. Not from me. It's not about me. 11 minutes to get him out of the house because it was two people. 58 minutes to get him to the hospital. That's if there's no EMT there. We're still running one EMT.

So today, there's one guy trying to run an ambulance. Should be two. There's one tonight. Nobody. There's nobody signed up. There's nobody. You can't rely on mutual aid because you don't budget for something. There's nobody scheduled for tonight. I will be listening. I'm working 50 60 hours a week. That that pay that you're speaking of is literally for EMTs. They're not getting a 30% raise. I I can show you text messages calling out sick. Hey, another shift just opened somewhere else for two bucks more. I I know we can't chase it and we're going to be $4 an hour. Still less than Lisbon, but at least they're showing up. They're showing up for me and they're showing up for you. It is about the 1enters in the corner. Like I said, you can have my raise as long as you give it to the EMTs.

Thank you, Mr. Roy. Thank you for that, Chief. Um, what I'm trying to elucidate to the group here is that this is trying to get our EMTs to the middle and this gets us to a little bit below the middle. And already where we have been able to do that, we're seeing these shifts get filled. And ultimately it comes back to risk. Our job as this board is to m mitigate risk to limit risk. And I don't want someone to have a heart attack and say, "Well, if it takes 20 minutes to get here, 11 minutes for care, and then 20 minutes to the hospital, maybe I should just grin and bear it and try to drive myself." uh when I heard that call like that's what keeps me up at night as the chair chair of your select board is that there are people who are not going to be able to get the services that they want and this gets us to back to getting those services that you want and the services that the community deserves.

Thank you. Mr. Simon, did you wish to speak? I think it would be generous if the fire chief um contributed his his raise towards the EMS issue. Um first of all, the scenario that he presented tonight about tonight and not being coverage, there will be members of the fire department who will be responding to any EMS or fire call that takes place tonight. I can assure you that with my 30 years experience on the fire department, your town is covered. We may not have someone a predium who signed up for tonight's coverage, but I guarantee you that if you have are in need of our rescue this evening, you will have an appropriate response. Number two, I'll make reference to the chart that we had available on the table which shows um uh staff increases, wages increases.

The fire chief raise the fire chief got a raise of 5% in 2024, got a 3.5% raise in 2026, and is the proposed raise for 2027 is 17.47%. department employees, the volunteers, the proposed wage for this year is 13.61%. So I would accept the chief's offer to donate his raise to fund our EMS people

who, as he says, are not quite being paid what they might be paid at other towns. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Drive and I hope I'm not the only one that keeps coming up here, but I did want to mention, I don't know if residents really know this, but we've had three suicides in the last year. We've had three deaths in the last year. Those folks needed the services that were provided to them. And it's really really hard for the respon for the staff

to go to those kind of calls. So again, we're we're taking I don't it seems like the climate is that nobody gets raises this year because maybe you're not getting raises in your own job. I'm not sure exactly where the tone's coming from, but I think we're spending a whole lot of time on something that isn't going to impact our taxes all that much. So, I hope we can move this question along, but I'll let Heather speak as well. But again, I hope I'm not the only one that's going to get up here and talk on behalf of our staff.

Thank you. Yes, ma'am. the educators for your district and I run a behavior classroom, gentlemen, this is uncalled for. And if you need to take a break, step away and take a break. You're being rude and unkind to each other.

Thank you very much. Yes, ma'am. want to go back to at the be I mean at the beginning you pointed out that the select board has been decreasing our municipal spending over the years and I think it's important to sort of come back to that reminder. I'm really grateful to all of you on the budget committee for sort of being a eye in the back of their shoulder and I think it's important what you do. But at the same time, the fact that they're able to decrease our overall municipal spending while maintaining wages are attempting to get wages that are more livable wages. I think that's really admirable and I appreciate all of your work.

Thank you, ma'am. keeps saying there's no wages, there's no raises, there's no raises. In these figures, we did give raises. Um and we're not seven people that are strangers. Most of us know everybody in this town or have lived here forever. But when we went through this budget, we went line by line. There was extra fluff. There was fluff in there from the previous year and the previous year. The other thing is we all of us

we have elderly we're taken care of. We have kids at home we're taken care of. We have electricity that went up. We had heating bills that went up. We can't keep affording three and $400 a month for the taxes. It's just really hard. I know everybody wants. Everybody wants wants wants. My kids want. But you've got wants, needs, and desires. We went through this line by line by line. We gave extra. So, nobody would go without. It's just you're not going to have the bells and whistles. You're going to have everything you need. Just no bells and whistles.

Thank you. Yes, ma'am. to talk about um briefly why our taxes are going up on average in the state of Maine, not just in Durham, but statewide. And in general, they're increasing due to school budgets caused by inflation and state level funding increases um for social programs to offset unpredictable federal aid and federal aid cuts. So, our taxes aren't going up substantially due to these small pay increases for our town staff. There's a lot of things that are going on in the background that are resulting in increases in our taxes in Maine in general. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. brought to attention some of the passion that's flaring in the room. I think that that a symptom of uh how much people care both on on this committee, on this committee, and on that. And I think it's important that you ask us to be mindful on how we show that passion in a respectful manner. So, I appreciate that. Um I I just again when we talk about the wages, the the document that was handed out this morning by the budget committee unfortunately was not seen by anyone on the select board or by the town accountant. So, there's some uh in factual inaccuracies in here and the the meetings weren't recorded this year, so I wasn't able to watch the the discourse um like I have been able to in the past. So, I just have to go off of what's in front of me. When we talk about a 17.47% raise for the um fire chief, that's not

a percentage raise off of off of his salary. There was a stipen that he was also receiving and those got rolled into one line. So that made the line this number look a little bit higher. I think that's an important piece of information for everyone to know. Um again the theme here is increasing expenses which we're all feeling. But we're not asking for the bells and the whistles. We're asking for the meat and potatoes here. This is this is to offer the basic level services at a me wage that is the middle of the pack. And when we have staff who say, "Take my wage so my so we can keep you all safe and get people into your your ambulance service." We're we're already getting that gift of free time from our fire chief who who works about 60 to 80 hours a week. When when no one um when there's no one on tonight, the fire chief will cancel his dinner plans with the wife and and and cancel his his

vacation plans and sit there and respond as soon as that pops up. So, we're getting that um that gift of time uh and we just need to make sure we have the support with those meat and potatoes to provide those really important services and and that's what this budget is uh presenting.

Thank you. Yes, sir. Just a couple of things. Number one, uh somebody mentioned uh about the uh select board uh cutting the budgets and bringing it down. That's not what's happened. the the percentage of our tax dollars that goes to municipal budget has gone down, but our municipal budget has gone up every year. Uh number two, um the chair of the

select board uh mentioned that they put the uh the the new uh new wage table in effect for the fire for the fire department in the last month. Um, and they also hired a full-time um, employee, which they didn't have. They had a part-time employee, and um,

when that employee left, they hired a full-time employee. This is what we're getting at when we were saying they're making decisions that affect future budgets And that is the concern that we have as a budget committee that if this if this

keeps happening, they'll be making they make they'll make decisions and then we'll be tied into those decisions without even without having a a chance to vote on on on the budget with with that money in there. And that's that's some of the concerns we've had.

Thank you very much. Yes, sir. Jim Mclofflin, 131 Soaper Road. And I'd like to call for the question, please. All right. Is there a second? Did you get somebody? It's been moved and seconded that we vote on whether to vote on the uh motion. All in favor, please raise your cards.

opposed, please raise your cards. Okay. So, now we'll move on to a mo a vote on the motion itself. And this is article six to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate $776,90 for public safety. All in favor, please raise your cards.

opposed, please raise your cards. The motion uh passes. Article 7 to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate $1,979,352 So moved. Is there a second? It's been moved and seconded to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate1,979,352

Yes, Mr. Tom or Mr. Roy. I'm not nearly as good-looking as Mr. Tom, so I'll take that as a compliment. Thank you. I'd love to hear what Mr. Tom has to say. Um, before we get into this discussion, the select board comments are going to be the same as they have on the last two articles. our ideology was carried across every department in a fair manner and equally. Um, so I can respond to anything that I might be best suited to respond to, but I think you've seen our thought process in the previous two articles.

Thank you. Is there further discussion? Oh, this waste of time. Uh Mark there sack Paul Road. I just want to give a little uh background on the budget committee's thought on this article. Um we did as with most of the articles proposed a reduction. Um we did not

propose any reduction for the select board's proposed staff wages. Um we uh we did propose uh salary increase for the road commissioner plus additional for his extra duties as the um uh code enforcement officer. Um our reduction came in a recommendation to lower um a

town employee position that the select board just created from a full-time to a part-time position. um 4 hours a week uh reduction in that position uh would save us salary but also additional funding in um the required um benefits for that position. So that's where our reduction came in.

please come up to the mic. I heard the question was what's the position for? Uh so one of the positions uh that became vacant this year was code enforcement officer when the code enforcement officer chose to seek a code job elsewhere. Rather than posting that position as a full-time code enforcement officer, we posted it as a code administrative assistant and who will also assist with planning administration assistant. And we decreased that uh by about an hour a week, I believe, or decreased it 2 hours a week from what the code enforcement officer worked and decreased the pay by about $7 an hour because the administrative assistant wage um should be lower than the previous codes wage. That was done at the same time of shifting the actual code enforcement responsibilities to our uh road commissioner who is a also a certified code enforcement officer. And we saw this as an opportunity to say why have

our code enforcement off why have our public works director doing admin tasks when we can have those done at a much lower rate and have our public works director and now code enforcement officer focus on those highlevel tasks. And so the analogy that we often used at the um meeting was uh you wouldn't have

a doctor uh or a veterinarian clip your dog's toenails. That's what the technician is there for. And so by allowing our code enforcement officer to work at top of license, we're able to find some savings by having the previous code enforcement officer position be retoled down to an

administrative assistant to take work admin work off codes and planning so they can focus on bigger ticket items. Thank you. Is there further discussion? Yes, Mr. moderator, I'd like to point out two things that are part of this budget. One is that um and I think this is an important one that in the past we have paved uh anywhere from 3 to four miles of road. With this budget, we're only going to do about a mile and a quarter. Uh so with 40 miles of roads, it goes from about 10 years uh repaving to 40 plus. So that's a major point. And then the other one is um I guess the good news is that the solid waste does include uh trash day for next year. That's all.

Thank you. Is there Yes. Um thank you Mr. Talbot for that point. Yes. Uh we're talking a lot about increases and we're also talking about ways where we can tighten our budget. And the proposal from the uh staff was to consider decreasing the amount we're paving a little bit, especially at a time where our paving expenses are through the roof due to socio u global politics that are causing the tonnage for asphalt to be much higher. And so we're scheduling to pave a smaller amount, but also we did increase the line for crack ceiling to try to buy a little bit of time for ourselves there. Thank you. Is there further discussion? Seeing none, I'll call for vote. We're voting on article 7 to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate 1,979,352

please raise your cards. that, please raise your cards. The motion carries. Article 7 to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate $1,000 for community services. Is there a motion? So move. Is there a second? Second. It's been moved and seconded that we see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate $1,000 for community services. Is there discussion?

We agree. Seeing none, I'll call for a vote. All in favor, please raise your cards. Please put them down. All opposed, please raise your cards. Okay, the motion carries. to raise and appropriate $624,111 for debt service. Is there a motion?

So moved. Is there a second? It's been moved and seconded to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate $624,111 for debt service. Is there discussion? All all who uh approve that, please raise your cards. approve that, please raise your cards. Okay, the ma the measure passes.

to raise and appropriate $140,000 for the fire department capital reserve. Mr. moderator. So moved. Is there a second? Second. It's been moved and seconded to see if the town will vote to raise an appropriate $140,000 for the fire department capital reserve. Is there

moderator? Yes. In looking at these capital reserves, we kind of combine the fire department and public works. I realize we're talking about the fire department now. And I know that whenever we look at capital reserves, we're looking at the future and we're looking to raise these monies so that we do not have to borrow upon them. So in the budget committee's analysis on this to see what we thought was a priority between the two, we were looking at funding for one, which was the fire department. the needs were for 2029

versus when we were looking at the public works it was 2027. So we felt instead of raising the $140,000 we would reduce that by $100,000 and put off the purchase of that uh by another year at least. So that was our reasoning behind trying to reduce the expenditures on this. And many times we look we look at and some of the analysis would be well we're trying to retrofit. We're trying to just keep on improving on what we have. And that's what we're requesting that you do this for one more year. So, we would recommend that you vote down the $140,000 appropriation and

consider the budget committee's recommendation of 40,000. Thank you, Mr. Roy. Thank you. And thank you for that insight from the budget committee. Um, in order for us to save up for things that we are going to buy 5 6 7 8 9 10 years, we need to save every year for 5 6 7 8 9 or 10 years. So if we skip a year, that has to be made up when it comes time to purchase. And if we haven't set that money aside, that would have to be raised and appropriated that year or borrowed. And when we set these monies aside now, we still retain those dollars. They go into our bank account. They generate interest for us. So by setting them aside, we're breaking up those big purchases into 10 installments and we're making interest on the money that we're setting aside and avoiding interest when we have to go purchase those if we were to have to borrow them. And so this model only works if you continue to set aside every year as

you're saving up for something. Um it doesn't decrease the amount of money that you need in the future. Thank you. Is there further discussion? Mr. Sim, I have no um disagreement with Mr. Royy's comments. I'm in agreement. I just want to point out that what you're what we're really doing in part is moving monies from one savings account to another savings account because part of the soontobe voted on article 14 which takes $500,000 out of our reserve account. That's what is part partially paying for the $140,000

being requested for the capital reserve. If you didn't, your your taxes would be even higher if you were if you wanted to do this. Then you pay then you pay for it. But right now, we're just moving money to accomplish nothing. I mean, it's like I don't know if this is a good analogy, but it's like there are folks who use a credit card to pay off to pay another credit card. You don't you don't you don't make progress that way. We're not making progress taking money out of the fund balance to pay for funding a capital reserve. It's not I don't think that's uh the right way to do it. If you if something needs to be funded, then raise the money, which means your taxes would go up even higher. But that's all getting disguised once we get to article 14. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roy. Uh thank you, Mr. Chair, for those comments. Um I agree with Milt. This does move money. Uh but that's an important thing because we're allocating funds. So things like the fund balance are your tax dollars that have already been collected and we're now saying we would like to allocate that for future expenses at the fire department. So that is an important distinction. It's different than the analogy of paying off one credit card than the other because we're saying we're moving something we're taking dollars now moving them into a investment earning interest and then purchasing in the future. So this is more akin to saving up every month to buy a new truck and then buying it cash.

Yes, ma'am. Deb Blair, Royalsboro Road. I know from past experience that the chief and the the road commissioner usually have timelines for their uh vehicles that they're going to purchase. And I would like to ask Chief Trip and when it comes time for um public works the same if

what their timeline is for their next vehicles that need to be purchased. Thank you, Chief Trip. Do you have that uh information? in 3 years, uh, we're hoping to refurbish a 22-year-old pumper truck. So, that would be the next expense. And this really is a philosophical h how you spend your money, right? I mean, it really is. So, I'm not hot on it. This is all for you guys to decide how how you spend and save and where it comes from. But, we are requesting in in year 29 to to refurbish one of our pumper trucks. The next year would be year 30, which would be to buy a new ambulance. So those are the next two large ones. And again, in 29, it's just rehabbing at a cost of about 150,000, not purchasing new. I'm not trying to purchase new for pumper trucks and ladder trucks. So, uh, in 29, that that's the next for the fire department.

Thank you very much, Mr. Roy, and thank you for asking that question. Um that list is on the website uh and we discuss it regularly at town meeting at sorry at select board meetings and then we uh discuss it every year at the beginning of the budget at the beginning of the fiscal year as to what we're going to add. And so I think it's an important thing to look at because when we look at our current uh balance and then we look at our future expenditures, we want to make sure that our current balance meets our future expenditures the year we hit them. So, for example,

the fire department and all of our departments make everything work with what they've got. So, they are rehabbing a piece of equipment next year uh or in 2029 to the tune of 159,000, but the expend expected cost of the fire uh ambulance that needs to be replaced in 2030 is 710,000. So, if we're not putting away 140,000 every year between now and then, when that time comes, we have to make up for it. And so it's, you know, either spend it now, spend it in the future, or borrow it and then spend 10 years paying it off. And so this is totally how that you all want to vote today, but we're just explaining our logic because we think that this is the way to help maximize our return on investment and minimize our expenses while minimizing risk. Thank you. Is there further discussion?

We're voting on article 10 to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate $140,000 for the fire department capital reserve. If you favor that, please raise your green card. not favor that, please raise your green card.

to raise and appropriate $250,000 for the public works capital reserve. Is there a motion? Is there a second? It's been moved and seconded. Is there discussion? you are in favor of seeing if the town will vote to raise and appropriate $250,000 for the public works capital reserve, please raise your green card.

that, please raise your green card. Thank you. Please put them down. The motion carries. Article 12 to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate $5,000 for the mis for the municipal buildings capital reserve. Is there a motion?

So moved. Did you want to make a motion, Mr. Simon? Yes. Please make a motion. Uh the motion is to go along with the budget committee recommendation of $0. see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate zero dollars for the municipal buildings capital reserve. Is there discussion?

Mr. Maria, uh, who am I hearing? Yes, please. based on based on the actual actual factual money that is in the that particular account. We believe that there are and it it's not believed it's it's actual there are available funds to cover any planned projects for the next five years. So there's no reason to put additional monies into this fund.

Thank you. Is there further discussion? Mr. Roy, I just say that the Thank you for that feedback, Mr. Pington. Um, correct. We can expend the funds from that account for the next 5 years based off its current balance, but those funds aren't being replaced, and we are trying to think about things in a 10-year timeline, uh, a 10-year horizon. So, without those annual contributions at the same time of expenditures, we would get to the six-year mark and have to play a major catch-up. And so if you look six years out from now, we're talking a $57,000 expenditure uh fire station roof. If we don't save for that now or future years, it won't be there and we'll be in the same situation that we've discussed of trying to raise and appropriate in one year or borrow. Thank you. Is there further discussion?

article 12 to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate $0 for the mun for the municipal buildings capital reserve. If you agree with that, please raise your card. agree with that, please raise your card. have to count votes. Are you ready?

ready, I'll ask you to uh again raise your cards and keep them raised so that the vote counters can uh can get totals. see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate $0 for the municipal buildings capital reserve. If you are in favor of raising appropriating $0, please raise your green card and keep it up.

down. If you do not agree with spending 0 for the municipal buildings capital reserve, please raise your green card. you. We have 41 for no. Okay, so the motion carries. Thank you very much. town will vote to reduce the amounts authorized to be raised in taxes in the previous warrant articles by $3,65170

municipal revenues. Is there a motion? Is there a second? Second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Is there discussion? you're voting on article 13 to see if the town will vote to reduce the amounts authorized to be raised in taxes in the previous war articles by 3,651,770

revenues. If you agree with that, please raise your green card. with that, please raise your green card. The motion carries. authorize the select board to appropriate up to $500,000 from the general fund's existing fund balance to reduce the amounts authorized to be raised in taxes in the pre previous warrant articles. Is there a motion?

It's been moved and seconded. Is there discussion? Yes, please. So this is a little unusual because the budget committee is recommending less on this which will actually increase the taxes for this year. And the reasoning

behind that um is uh we don't want to overexpend overuse the general the uh unassigned fund balance. Um I I was a selectman in prior years and um we dangerously used this money and uh got actually ended up getting ourselves into trouble and uh caused pain for uh in future years

because we could we couldn't offset anything. Um we came up with so 3 we the uh town accountant recom actual recommendation was 300,000. Um we went with 350,000 which is actually almost dead center in where the um recommended

um the the recommended fund unassigned fund balance should be um if it was between uh 2 million and 3.3 million and uh that would have put it somewhere around 2.7 2.75 if I'm or somewhere in there that that range I think which is almost dead center in in that range and that that's why we're recommending this even though it will be a little bit more painful this year.

Is there further discussion? Yes to Roy. Thank you Jeff for that explanation. Fortunately, all of our meetings are recorded and so you can see the discussion we had with the town accountant. A town accountant is not a policy maker. The town accountant makes fiscal recommendations for our consideration and as a placeholder puts in some estimates and then we as a select board make suggestions to change that or keep that and same as the budget committee. And so in reviewing the footage from our video, the town accountant said spending down to 2.5 million is really the bottom of where you want to be because it keeps you within the safe range. And that's what we proposed. Uh and so I would not be in favor of this $350,000 expenditure. And to give you an idea of fiscal note based off of the votes we have right now, if we vote in favor for this $350,000 number as opposed to the uh $500,000 select board recommendation, taxes will

go up to 15.2% increase whereas if we vote for the select board recommendation, taxes will stay at 13.7% increase. Thank you. Is there further to Yes. Go ahead. Uh Mr. Moderator, just a point of information for the town. This is likely the last year we're able to use the fund balance because it's just going not going to be able to be spent next year. We won't have any fund balance to spend. So, the tax is going to go up more next year likely unless uh something interesting happens. Um, one of the reasons why I voted for this at the budget committee meeting was because I'm hoping we can restore the paving money that was cut by 50%.

Which we were told for decades. I've been here decades that we needed to do four miles a year of road paving. They're going to cut it back to less than two. So, that's a problem. I I hope we can take that $150,000 difference and put it back in the road fund next year.

Thank you, Mr. Roy. This vote would not restore uh anything in the public works budget from a paving perspective. Is there further discussion? Yes. I've been trying to reiterate uh so far this morning. the budget committee's recommendation, you're looking at, as Joe just said, a 15.2% increase. But it sounds like that's what you want. And I'm saying don't take the money out of savings to disguise what the tax increase is. If you were if you're if you if you're the ones that voted in favor of all the um

recommendations that have been passed so far this morning, then pay for it. Then then then accept a 15.2% increase in your taxes. Don't take it out of our savings account. that savings account, the reserve account, is earning us real good interest. We talked about this last year. I stood up at the at the floor and said the same thing when I believe we were taking I don't know was it 370,000 um out of the reserve and we thought that was like way way too much money and we need to cut that back and and the thought was well we won't need that much the following year. But here we are the following year and it went from whatever that figure was 370. It's going to $500,000 that we're pulling out of the reserve account. I don't think personally when you have a savings account, you want to keep that money in reserve. It's there for a purpose. It's

one of the thing that things that was also presented um at the well Neil just mentioned it. Um, so it was it was discussed at the select board with the account supplementing with the accountant was that because we be we'll be taking so much out of the reserve account this year, there's a good chance we won't be able to take any of that money take to to lower our taxes for next year. So all of the the minimal things that we need that we will be needing for 2028, you will have to pay for it. there won't be a reserve account that the chances are there won't be monies to take from the reserve account to filter that increase.

It it was stated at an April uh select board meeting that by by withdrawing $500,000 from the reserve account, next year's taxes are already going to increase by 5%. We're not even we're a year away, but we already know but that by depleting the reserve account by $500,000, we're already looking at a 5%

increase because the chances are we will not be able to use the reserve account to help keep our taxes lower next year. Thank you. Thank you. Is there further discussion? Yes. The money in the reserve account is your money. It was populated by your tax dollars. What the select board is proposing is that before we ask you for more tax dollars, we use some of the tax money you've already contributed to the town to decrease this year's uh budget. I understand the desire for strong savings account, but when you're dealing with municipal financing versus uh um budgeting, I want to return money to you so you can keep that in your personal savings account and do with it what you wish. I don't want to keep an extra balance in our account undesated just floating around because you already paid that money and I look at that reserve fund as previous overt taxation and we're trying to return those dollars

back to you. And so if you want to vote to at this point increase taxes uh 1.5% that's totally on on you but our proposal is to use those dollars so we can keep that number at the 13.7%. Thank you. Yes, sir. Uh Russ Kohl's new lost the road. You may have just answered my question, but I couldn't hear you. So, what's the difference in the percentage being taken out of the reserve account between the two different numbers?

Can somebody answer that? Just a thanks Russ clarifying. Are you asking the the difference in the percentage for your tax bill this year? So, the reserve account has an amount in it. Can you tell me what that amount is? $3 million. It's we're there's $3 million in it and we're saying to go to uh bring that down to $25 million. And so there's a there's about $150,000 difference between or there's $150,000 difference between the two recommendations.

So the uh bigger number leaves how much in the reserve account, please? 2.5 million. And the smaller number leaves would leave 2.65 million. Um, so savings accounts aren't meant to let money sit somewhere. Savings accounts are meant to be used for various purposes. And I believe that one of those purposes can be to kind of level out the bumps in the road. So, if

paving costs are extremely high right now and are expected to go down, it makes sense to me to wait a year to pay for the materials for increased paving as an example of bumps in the road, particularly our roads. No pun intended.

None. Talk about Stackpole Road. So, uh, think that our our bump and tax increase is kind of exceptionally high this year, higher than we've had in past years, and we can use our prepaid tax money to help level out that bump. That seems like an appropriate use of a savings account to me. Thank you, sir.

Yes, Mr. Simon. We're looking at a The bump is either going to be this year or next year, and it's how serious the bump is because if next year there isn't enough money in the fund reserve, the savings account, then the bump is going to be a lot bigger.

Thank you. Is there further discussion? Seeing none, you're going to vote on article 14 to see if the town will authorize the select board to appropriate up to $350,000 from the general fund's existing fund balance to reduce the amounts authorized to be raised in taxes. And that's the budget committee recommendation. All in favor, please raise your green cards.

please raise your green cards. I think we need to count again. So, relax for a second and we'll uh we'll vote and take a count. folks spread out all over. Uh, I and I just want to be safe and make sure we get the right result.

prefer this the budget committee recommendation of $350,000, please raise your green card now. budget committee's recommendation of $350,000, please raise your cards now and keep them up. Okay, so it was a close one. I'm glad I called for a count. Uh so article or article 14

at $350,000 passes. See, seeing as it's so close, can we request um a secret ballot? I can't hear what you said. Can Can we request a recount or secret ballot seeing as it was so close? Turn around and look at me. Can we request a second count seeing it one?

Uh, we can request You can request a secret ballot. Um if if you doubt the result and seven other people agree with you, you can um have a recount. You what? Uh I won't request a secret ballot at this time. Okay. Moving on to article 15. Shall an ordinance entitled Town of Durham Land use ordinance is adopted at town meeting April 5th, 2025. Proposed revisions for town meeting June 13, 2026 uh being enacted and re as recommended by the planning board uh to address the issues of back lots and private ways, expansion of non-conforming structures, subdivision road buffers, fire protection, water supplies, marijuana growing facilities loophole, state requirements for manufactured housing and accessory apartments, and road frontage calculations. Is there a motion?

Is there a second? Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Is there discussion about article 15? Yes, ma'am. Is there discussion about article 15? you may speak even closer to the mic because it's it's not a powerful mic, I guess. Thank you.

little bit? Okay. Brian Lana, Rabbit Road. Um I'm the chair of the planning board. Um these next three warrants um are u result of over a year's worth of work. Um and they're broken down into three sections. um um administrative changes

um minor policy changes and um codification of the ordinances. Um we've had four public meetings um to be fully transparent about what we've been going through. Um but this this particular article um article 15 um just going to briefly run through um each each u proposed change um for back

lots and private ways. This will stream streamline the review process uh the code officer's approval for single back lots. uh PL planning board approval for private ways serving multiple lots and reduces the single back lot driveway width from 20 ft to 16 ft.

Um expansion of nonconforming structures. This uh simplifies the standards for residential expansions and eliminates some confusing confusing language. Uh removes the planning board reviews of issues typically uh reserved um uh for the board of appeals.

subdivision road buffers. This grants the planning board um direct discretion to require vegetative uh vegetative buffers where new subdivision roads abut existing homes. The next one is fire protection water supply. This um eliminates water storage systems as an option. um equally allows for fire ponds, existing water sources or residential sprinklers and subdivisions. Um the next one um cannabis cultivation facilities uh establishes clear definitions and prohibits um aggregated growing operations that are exempt from state permitting requirements. Number six, manufactured housing and accessory apartments. Uh this brings local standards into compliance with state law on t tiny homes and standalone accessory apartments. Um and uh placement of mobile homes on individual lots and mobile home parks. And the last one uh road frontage determination. This clarifies how road frontage is measured on lots with curved

frontage uh on corner lots and how frontage is measured on a turnaround. That's it. That's that's the um conclusion of article 15 or a summary of article 15. Thank you very much. Is there further is there further discussion.

You're voting on article 15 as described as the uh conservation commission chairman uh described it. All who are in All who are in favor, please raise your green cards. please raise your green cards. Okay, the motion carries.

Town of Durham Landuce ordinance is adopted at town meeting April 25th, 2025? Proposed revisions for town meeting June 13, 2026. Part two administrative changes be enacted. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second?

Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Is there discussion? planning board? Are you planning board chairman? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Um so this is article 16. Um, these are proposed administrative changes. Um, and I'll just run through them a quick summary as I did for article 15. Um, subdivision road standards. Uh, this updates the design standards to reflect current engineering practices. Uh, number two, uh, driveway standards. Uh, clarifies the applicability of standards to various roads in town, updates for safety, and adopts mo sight distance standards. Uh number three, zoning boundary interpretation. This assigns interpretation authority to the planning board for zoning boundaries. Uh solid waste management. This requires a letter of readiness to serve um for um internal solid waste collection plans in subdivisions.

reduces the scope of planning board reviews to avoid duplication with state permitting. Number six, planning board general submission requirements. This adjusts deadlines and reduces printed copies um for the for the board uh and for the um applicant. Ordinance correction provisions. This delegates authority to the select board for non-substantive text corrections.

Number eight, proof of payment of taxes. This requires proof of payment of uh taxes uh with any planning board application. Number nine, conditional use submissions. This adds detailed submission requirements to uh the ordinance text. Uh this was um a checklist developed by the town attorney or reviewed by the town attorney and approved by the town attorney. And number 10, uh tree clearing in subdivisions. This clarifies that tree uh clearing trees for development purposes prior to final approval is a violation of the um of the applicant.

Terrific. Thank you very much. Is there further discussion? voting on article 16 as described by the planning board chairman. Everyone who favors this, please raise your green card. does not favor this, please raise your green card. Okay. Thank you. The motion carries. Article 17. Shall an ordinance entitled Town of Durham land use ordinances adopted at town meeting April 5th, 2025. Proposed revisions for town meeting June 13, 2026. Part three cotification.

And I'll I'll um let you know that uh or you should notice that it says in the second line from the last approved in warrant articles X and Y. That should be warranted articles 15 and 16. So it should read 15 and 16 to refer to the previous two articles. Is there a motion?

So moved. Is there a second? second. It's been moved and seconded that article 17 should pass. Um, is there discussion? to just say a couple words about what the effect of this is? Thank you. Um so this u basically we had a third party review come in and take a look at our land use ordinance and it made sure that all of the te's are crossed and eyes are dotted. Um it made sure that we had the proper cross references um um stated in in the

ordinance. Um really grammatical errors uh were included in that. Um, pretty simple. Nothing um, major there. Just like I said, grammatical um, and cross referencing. Terrific. Thank you very much. Yep. Is there further discussion?

Um, if you favor article 17 as described by the planning board chairman, please raise your green card. Terrific. Please put them down. If you oppose article 17, please raise your green card. Okay, the motion carries. Article 18. Yes,

Mr. Mod, can I make a motion that we uh vote on all of the business articles? You certainly may. And uh Oh, did you want to say something about that, sir? Similar. I make a motion that we vote on articles 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24,

25, and 26 leaving 27 paving reserve account as a separate vote. Do you just is your preference to leave article 27 out and to do the others all as all together? Correct. So although article 30 may require some. So I will ask for unanimous consent that we deal with all of the business articles except for article 27 in one motion. Does anybody oppose that?

Yes. Yes. Uh m Mr. Moderator, point of order. Uh you asked for unanimous consent and there there was not. So I think that the uh asking for unanimous consent failed. I can't see who's speaking. Oh, when you ask anybody. Well, I think they're going to talk to us now.

Um, just costa brianna drive. So, if could we also do article 21 as a separate vote? Um, if we're going to do 27 separately, would you uh would you favor doing all the rest as except for article 27 together? Yep. If 21 and 27 could be separate.

Okay. Then I would Yep. All right. I'm going to redo this. So, um I will ask that people um give unanimous consent to doing articles 18 through 30 all together with the exception of articles 21 and 27 which we'll do on their own. Is does anybody oppose that?

I'm confused on article 30. That's like a you got some choices there. How do we do that in in a in a group type deal? Would you would you support doing all the rest together if we accept article 30? Yes. Second. Okay. So, I'll ask unanimous consent that we do articles 18 through 29 together with the exception of article 27 and 21.

Does anybody oppose that? unanimous consent. Okay. So, what I'll do is I will read the gist of all of these articles and then we'll have one vote on all of them that we're going to do together. Then we'll do the votes on the on the ones that we're doing separately. So, article 18 to see if the town will vote to authorize a select. Well, actually, is there a motion for articles

18 through 29 with the exception of 21 and 27? So, move. Is there a second? Second. Okay, great. So, article 18 is to see if the town will vote to authorize the select board to appropriate and transfer to the Penguin Snowmobile Club in amount not to exceed the total funds received by the town from the state for snowmobile registrations. Article 19 to see if the town will vote to authorize select board to accept accept and disperse grant funds from private state or federal agencies. Article 20 to see what action the town will take to fix the rate of interest on delinquent taxes.

to authorize select board on behalf of the town to sell and/or dispose of any property acquired by tax leans. Article 23 to see if the town will vote to set the interest rate debate paid by the town on overpayment of abated taxes at 2%. Article 24 to see if the town will vote to authorize the tax collector to accept prepayments of taxes not yet due or assessed. Article 25 to see if the town will authorize the select board to resolve any disputes with parties having interest adverse to that of the town which do not involve the expenditure of public funds. Article 26 to see if the town will authorize the select board to move up to 5% of budget lines that have unexpended appropriations to other budget lines.

authorize the select board to transfer the proceeds from any sales of capital assets into the town's cap related capital reserve funds. Article 29 to see if the town will vote pursuant to 20ARS section 103 to establish that the term of newly elected school board members shall start on the 30th day of June immediately following the municipal election. Is there discussion on any of those articles?

Now remember, you're voting on all articles 18 through 29 with the exception of 21 and 27. Everyone who approves of all those articles, please raise your green card. not approve of all those articles, please raise your green card. Okay. Articles 18 through 29, with the exception of 27 and 21 are approved.

to authorize the select board to dispose of town property which they deem determine is no longer needed or usable by the town on such terms as it deems advisable. Is there a motion? Motion to approve. Is there a second? Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Is there discussion? 21. 21, Um, I would just ask I guess the select board what the process would be for determining um whether or not to sell town owned land. um what opportunity for public comment and um just from a personal perspective I'm ab budding some townland and we just had uh some baits college students come with wildlife cams and scent lures and we had bear we had bobcat we had coyote

you know along with the usual critters and um also the Conservation Commission is um developing an open space plan. And part of our plans would be to um take a look at town own land to see if any of it could be um preserved as open space

for possibly public um use, but also just to um you know provide for wildlife wildlife corridors. It's also um this is a budding um the power line. So there's a lot of movement of critters up and down the power line. So I I personally would not want to lose that land and not have a say in it. So I would ask the select board to talk about the process.

Terrific. Thank you. Yes. Thank you for that question. Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. Who's saying who's saying what? Uh Joe Roy. Yes. Okay. Um income broke round. Uh thank you for that question. My understanding is that this article has always been used with the intent for like town property. So when we bought uh the new uh front end loader, there's another there's the old frontend loader that we can use for trade in or stuff like that. Um, when it comes to land, I would say that knowing that there's discussion around open space and and how folks in town want to see the town owned parcels managed, I would not imagine that this body would be willing to list assets like that for sale without a robust public process. Um, so I would say if you trust the select board not to sell the land without a public hearing, that's what we would we would continue to um

uh evaluate when you're voting on this. But I I don't foresee this body voting to sell our town owned property like physical land assets without a process because we would hear loud and clear from folks if they want input.

Yeah. Would that extend to uh small properties, you know, an acre or something? Just properties period. Yes. Go ahead. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Katherine Curtis, Brianna Drive. Can we amend that to say excluding land so that

it's very clear? you uh uh a motion to amend that to say excluding real property would be in order. Okay. Did I make that motion? So, it's very clear that it's property, a dump truck or whatever. It's not a copier. It's not land.

So, you're moving to amend article 21 to say to see if the town will vote to authorize select board too dispose of town property except for real property. Is that what is that what land is called? Yeah. Okay. Then that's my motion.

Is there a second? Okay. It's been moved and seconded that we uh uh amend article 21. we amend article 21 to read to see if the town will vote to authorize a select board to dispose of town property except for real property which they determine is no longer needed or usable by the town on such terms as it deems advisable. Is there discussion on the amendment? Yes, Mr. Talba. Uh, yes. I my concern is that we are accumulating a lot of pieces of land that are off the tax records and I'd like to see us get as many of those as possible after a review of their value, but we're starting to own lots of pieces of land that they're no one is paying taxes on. So, I don't want to exclude land or have another way to, you know, to do that. There's another way to do it, I'm fine. But,

thank you. Yes, sir. Yeah, Michael Bullier, uh, 53 Puritan Lane. Um, just a question on the, um, the back lots and stuff like that. So, when you have a development and they have, um, open space, the town has acquired some of that open space. Correct.

Is there somebody who can answer that question? Yes, Mr. Roy. Yes. uh not since we haven't acquired any that the this the town has not acquired any land since I have been on the select board for the last three years. So I I can't provide insight to prior to that.

Okay. I just don't want if there was a open space that was turned over to the town because the people in that development didn't pay the taxes on that open space or they didn't acquire it or make a uh association for their property. I don't feel like the town should be able to sell that property. They should have gone to the people that own those uh properties in the development. They should have been the ones to take care of it and and they own it. Um is there any reason to not want

to sell those pieces of property so those land owners can keep it? If you'd like to answer, you may. Yes. My understanding of the motion is that this would remove the town's ability to sell property like that. So if property that was already allocated to the uh owners of the development.

So my understanding is that the only it would only place a restriction on property that's owned by the town of Durham and this would say that the town of Durham would not be allowed to sell that property without public input. Does does that answer your question?

Is this public input? Yes. Yes. I would say no. I would not want to see property be taken over from the town that was already allocated to the taxpayers that were paying on that road. Yeah. To be given to the or taken over to the town and then sold.

Yep. And I believe this would achieve that goal because if we if the town were to receive a parcel now um and we haven't received parcels for quite some time but if we were and then folks wanted to buy that parcel back we could not do as this is amended the town could not do that without a public input process. So I think I think it achieves your goal.

Okay. Just want to clarify. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yes ma'am. disposal of the property include the band stand down at the um where the flags are the veterans park? Can somebody answer that? Yes. Yeah, I can answer that. Um that parcel is owned by the town. So, as this has

been amended, the town would not be able to sell that parcel. Are you talking about the physical structure of the band? Talking about the physical structure, the band stand. Yeah. I know there's been a lot of discussion and I'm only in Maine 6 months and then I'm Florida 6 months. So I just track it

cuz I'm about the band stand and I' I'd hate to see it. I I can add some clarification to that as well. Okay. Yeah. Go ahead. Yeah. So there's $30,000 that's been allocated to uh repair and work on the band stand and the Durham Historical Society is actively working right now to develop a plan on that repair. Um we're working with some local volunteers and there's one select board member that's helping um them gather those things as well. So there's no intent to to sell off the band stand. We actually have money allocated to refurbish it.

Great. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. It wouldn't be a town meeting without the band stand coming up. So I'm glad we got to it. Yes, sir. Sorry to add to that question. Um it adding to the backlot property. the town is going to mandate that you have to have x amount of property and then the the development um goes to and they have the open space. The open space should stay open space once again and it shouldn't go up for auction even if the select border comes into um the town discussion. You guys are mandating or road commissioner whoever is mandating that this standard is set. To be honest, sir, um right now we're talking about um adding the words except for real property, which would which would mean the town can't sell land and buildings,

right? And we should and we shouldn't be able to, right? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. I think that goes stack road. I think you just clarified what I was going to ask. Could you provide a definition of real property?

Can somebody provide a definition of real property? Was your statement so uh but I'm not going to do it. I mean generally real property is land and buildings on on the property. So, I believe that the amendment still gives the town the ability to send sell things like equipment, stuff like that, but it doesn't provide for a mechanism at all ever for the town to sell real property. Just says you can't. And there is no mechanism in place with that amendment for the town to ever be able to sell real property. And I think that that needs to be addressed in the amendment. They could just say that the town will pursue, you know, a means to to do that. And and

then also um you know some things were brought up about developments and open space and maybe this isn't germanine to this exactly but the town should require easements if there are developments that have open space requirements.

Thank you sir. Yes. Go ahead. this is this article is only for the next year, correct? So, it's not something that goes on indefinitely. This is what the select board will be allowed to do in the next year. Yes. Yes, that's mine. We would vote on this again next year. So to the previous question, uh essentially what this is enshrining is that for the next 12 months, the uh select board could not vote to approve to sell real property at all. And if that became a concern and the select board thought that we were accumulating parcels that needed to be offloaded or things like that, I think the onus would fall on us to come next at the next town meeting and say, "Hey, we would like to present a plan for those properties." Um, and so thankfully I don't think that our select board was planning on selling any real property at all anyways this year. So I I'd be fully supportive of this because it it it's

not really deviating from our our norms. So okay, is there further discussion? amendment. So, you're going to vote right now on whether you want to add the words except for real property to article 21. You're not voting on the article itself. You're voting on whether you want to add those words to it. All in favor of adding the words except for real property to article 21. Please raise your green card. Please put them down. All opposed, please raise your or please raise your green card. Okay, the motion carries. So now article 21 reads to see if the town will vote to authorize the select board to dispose of town property except for real property which they determine is no longer needed or usable by the town on such terms as it deems advisable. Is there discussion?

in favor of article 21 as amended, please raise your green card. Thank you. Put them down. All opposed to article 21 as amended, please raise your green card. The motion carries. On to article 27 to see if the town will vote to establish a pasing paving reserve account. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Okay. Who was that? Who second? Great. It's been moved and seconded that uh article 21 is p or 27 rather is passed. Is there discussion? Yes, Mr. Roy.

Uh the intent of inclusion of this article is very much in line of what Russ had just spoken on. Um just seeing that the horizon is showing that uh paving costs are kind of experiencing a high due to things outside of our control. We had the discussion that there might come a point in time where we might want to consider not paving if the amount allocated for a mile and a half could only buy us a half a mile. And all this is doing is saying if that is if that decision is made, those dollars will be moved into a separate reserve account dedicated just for paving. So the following year when we're playing catchup, we already have those dollars set aside to pay uh for the previous year's paving. Um, so this just the select board can't do that without this authority. If we chose not to pave because of the expense, all that money would just go back into general uh undesated fund balance. And what we

heard from folks is that they'd like to see that go dedicated to future paving expenses. And this is uh to establish that reserve artic uh reserve funds. Is there further discussion? article 27 to see if the town will vote to establish a paving reserve account. If you favor this, please raise your green card.

not favor this, please raise your green card. Okay, the motion passes. on to article 30 to see if the town of Durham will vote to change its main public employees retirement system main PERS plan to adopt regular plan AC for eligible full-time employees and appointed officials effective July 1, 2026 for future service only. Is there a motion?

So moved. Is there a second? Second. It's been moved and seconded that article 30 is passed. Is there discussion? Yes, Mr. Roy. Uh so what this is hoping to do is currently uh full-time town staff are paying into a pension and it has been discovered that the pension program does not have a cost of living adjustment. So when folks would retire they would not get any annual adjustment and we are just asking to switch to a plan that provides for a cost of living adjustment. The other thing to note here is that since we are a pension system here, the staff do not pay into social security. So, they will not be able to draw off of social security. So, and the town does not offer 401k. So, this is their only retirement option. And so, we're just asking to ask have the town consider moving into a plan that does have a cost of living adjustment for full-time employees only.

Okay. Okay. Is there further discussion of article 30? Yes, Mr. Barry. Um, Mr. Monator, has the budget been the uh does it include the increase of the cost for this plan? Can somebody answer that? Yes, Mr. Roy. Yes. And how much was that?

Is there further discussion? Yes. Um the the dollar amount varies annually depending on the salary employees salary because your pension is based off of your salary. Um but it generally is what 1% it it's generally one or 2% more um

cost to cover to cover that and that's one or two% on that employees cost to the town. Is there further discussion? article 30 to see if the town Oh, I'm sorry. Didn't mean to blast past you. I'll read Firewood Lane. Um, so if we're going to So, this is going to change the monies then in the future on salaries, right? I mean,

can somebody answer that? Yes. Yeah. So, right now when we budget, we have to include the staff's wages, the uh health insurance benefits and and retirement benefits. And so, this means that one of those benefits that we have to adopt is the uh the annual expenditures that the town puts in towards um retirement. So, yes, it it is just saying we already pay for that. We're just paying now for a separate plan. And that is a 1 or 2% annual

increase on that line uh compared to other years. But it's it's variable because of the way the pension system works. But if the root of your question is does this have a cost increase from what is offered now? The answer is yes, a small cost increase. Okay.

And we just the budget we just voted on already absorbs that. So we've already budgeted for it and approved it in this budget. when they got well so the proposed um increases in their salaries they they're also getting a bump up in their retirements.

Can somebody answer that question? Yeah. So the retirement element is separate from the salary and it's considered as a total package. And so one of the things we discussed quite extensively at the select board meetings when we put this on was part of the reason why we're not we weren't pushing for more salary was because we felt that it would be better to offer the cost of living adjustment in retirement in lie of pushing for a higher salary.

But shouldn't have this been brought up before now? I I didn't I didn't hear what you asked sir. Well shouldn't have this been brought up before now? like, you know, we they got higher rate raises and every that all passed. I wonder if some people would have changed their mind if they known they were going to get a bump up in retirements, too.

And is that just a rhetorical question? It's an extra cost. So yeah, not only did the other stuff pass, now we hear that another 1 and 2% is going to be again on more more taxes in the future. I just wonder if the vote would have been a little different if they would have known that they were going to get this benefit as well. That's

and that your question doesn't really require an answer. You're just going to Well, I'm just I'm just Well, my question is is why wasn't this brought up with the other? Can somebody answer that? Yeah. Um I think it's a very fair point. And so this meeting has spent a lot of time talking about individual personnel which we usually avoid because of uh you know we are always transparent but people get pretty nervous when you're talking about them in particular. And so when we look at employees total compensation there's many elements that we didn't discuss earlier. So for example, health insurance premiums have increased and so that what that's an expense that goes into their um you know their salary is is an expense associated with them their retirement. And so we included the cost at the line of you know salary and benefits. We didn't break that. We haven't traditionally broke that down to what percentage of

salary and benefits is benefits, what percentage is retirement, and what percentage is, you know, uh, uh, health insurance and things like that. And so the line presented was the total cost that we anticipated, um, including all of those factors. And like we could break down every line in here to like you know office supplies, paper versus pencils versus staplers and things like that, but we have to like pick one scale at which we like include it. And so that's the scale we've in uh we've utilized since I've been here. So,

but what I'm getting at is this is an extra benefit. it it's something that was added for an extra I mean it they may not get the money now but as taxpayers we're going to be paying it into their into their retirement accounts. So I mean I get it when the health health insurance goes up for everybody and that's not a controlled cost. This is a benefit. It's something that we're that we didn't know that they were going to get and you sounds like you've already included it before it was even voted on. But

is that Are you questioning that? Well, yeah. I'm just It's It sounds like they already assumed it was going to pass and they already allowed for it in the budget. I I can answer that. So we have to work within the constraint of our town meeting format. And so our our budget articles are first and then these business articles are second. And so what we discussed very openly at our meetings was that we should budget for the business article passing. So then if the business article doesn't pass does pass, we're covered. If it doesn't pass, um we we are still covered. And it's not something that we can do like say before we vote on this line we want to insert this business article and it's it's just a a challenge of the system that we can't like you know put the cart before the horse. And so that's why we post this all in advance online and in the town warrant and stuff like that for folks in the town uh report for folks to

review to make sure that information is out there before we go into it. And so it's it's a derived from the way the system functions. Yeah, and that that makes sense. That makes sense. But for me, I would have rather have heard all this

when they were given all the employees the the raises and and all that rather than finding out that they're getting another benefit, you know, at the end of the whole circle, I guess. But thank you. Thank you, sir. I appreciate that feedback.

Yes, sir. I could speak to that. I It's not an added benefit. It's a correction of a previous error. I was here for over a decade before we just found out with our HR person that I was never going to get a COLA or cost of living adjustment after I retire. Had I known that, I promise you, I would have gone to another town a long time ago. We've checked to see how many other towns actually have this uh plan in place and it's extremely rare. This was adopted way back when I think the town only had like two people working part-time and uh

this was never designed to support a family or I I mean I'm sure all of you are going to get cost of living adjustments when you retire. So it's not like we're asking for something above and beyond. We're just asking to correct an error, an oversight that nobody even knew existed until we were just informed of it. So that's all we're not asking for. This is not an added benefit by any stretch of the imagination.

Thank you. Yes. It really is protection for these folks for your staff when they retire. They they'll get some sort of cost of living adjustment. Almost like everybody gets one if you're on social security. Although those colas aren't much, but at least you get one. Your town staff,

they could work here from age 35 to 65. When they retire from 65 to 85, whatever they get that first month they retire is what they're going to get for the next 15 years currently the way it is. And it's really not fair.

Thank you. Yes, sir. Yeah. Paul Reed, Firewood Lane. Um, yeah. And some of us don't get retirements at all. I mean, there are there are a lot of us out there that don't get retirements. No one no one's going to be putting into any fund for me uh or my wife or But so all I all I

asked was is that that this should have been brought up before. I I just I can't urge it enough. It's just, you know, and if you take a job, you see what it entails, you see what the benefits are, and if something comes up down the road that added to it, it's fine. But I just don't understand why it was separated. And it's and like like I said, not everybody gets a retirement. Not everybody has money in a 401k being piled on. I mean, it all depends on what kind of avenue you want to take. I took self-employment avenue. So, for me, I got to put it my own away. And if you take a job that doesn't have it, you accepted the job as it was, not I mean, but if it changes, fine. But to say that it's, you know, just the way it

is, I I just I just don't understand. Thank you, sir. Josh, did you want to address that? I just I I think the and I'm trying to figure out a way to say this respectfully without sounding like a jerk, but I think it was all it was all brought up at our meetings and I think Joe was right. It's it wasn't brought up before because it's the order of operation that we have to follow. Uh and and I would just use this opportunity to remind everybody we start our budget discussions in January. Uh and this was

brought up around that time. Um and and you know I I understand the frustration and seeing it now I agree and brought up a benefit we should like salary increasees you watch our meetings, pay attention. It's it's on the website and that's that's I mean that's that's that's what we got to do

then. So great. Thank you both. Yes sir. Darren Lec Pinkham Brook Road. Can someone just confirm when this agenda was posted online? There seems to be a lot of concern that people were unaware and I just want to make make sure people are aware when when we can find this stuff out and how we can inform ourselves um before these meetings. Two questions there I think. Can somebody tell us when uh this warrant was was made public and also how to stay better involved in in town affairs?

We're looking at the exact figuring out that exact date. They're going to get an answer for you. Uh yeah, June 2nd. So about two weeks before this meeting. Yeah. And how about ways to be the proposed language was made public I think a a month before that and so that was out there and then so it's been you know I think about 6 weeks that it's been available um in the public arena

and how about ways to be better involved in town affairs. have not only a wonderful uh newsletter that goes out to people where we have posted this multiple times, we also have the Durham Facebook page because I know there are many active Facebook users in this room. So definitely checking out the Facebook page of the Durham town and

um did we text it? Did we text it? We did for we texted about the town meeting using the wonderful text service that we have. Thank you. Great. Thank you very much. Is there further discussion about article 30? And I just want to clarify, we are statutoily required to post the warrant language 7 days before the municipal election. And so the final drafts are always posted 7 days prior, but we try to work with an open notebook and posting all of our our other stuff. Um, and we try to get that as out as as much as we can. But I do hear your frustration of I wish I would have seen that before I took that into consideration. And so moving forward while I'm in this role, I will, you know, commit to making sure that if there's future warrant articles that are being talked about during the budget articles that I encourage folks out loud say, please take some time to review the the the future warrant articles in the

business meeting. So we are all working off the same playing field. And I think it might be unfair of me to have made an assumption that everyone had read articles all the way to article 30 before that. And it was not by any intent trying to use any sort of smoke and mirrors to hide anything. And I really appreciate this feedback because we we want to make sure we're serving you all and being better at bringing the information to to the people. So

1.2% more than what we paid for retirement benefits last year. And so I' we'd have to crack open the the the art the the accountants books to figure out exactly what that number but that is a smaller number within the overall uh benefits package. So it's you know generally the way the pension system works is an employee contributes a certain percentage and the town contributes a certain percentage and that percentage that the town contributes is 1.2% higher this year than last year. And so it it don't 100% quote me on this, but I think usually it's somewhere around 16 or 18% of the of the uh salary that's contributed. So it might be I think 17 or 19% now. It's it's a it's a relatively small percentage um of that benefit and a very small percentage of the compensation package.

the number actually changes the dollar amount because it would stay the same if all employees stay put for one year. But if you have employees leave and different employees come in with different wages, the dollar amount changes, but the benefit stays the same. You you know what I'm getting at? It's like

now got like a two one-on-one conversation going here. Yeah. Actually, sir, if you're going to continue, I I'll ask you to come up to the mic. we don't know how much it added to the budget like right here. You don't know the figure though?

We we So the town knows. I don't remember how much on that one line it made the adjustment. Um I think at the time we were talk we brought this up we were talking about like a couple thousand like 2,000 or $3,000 across the entire $13 million budget was the impact. I can't rem or it might have been 9,000. It was not a massive number and I can't remember that off the top of my head, but we were presented that number and discussed that number and the actual fiscal impact when we considered putting this in the proposal. I just can't give you like I can't pull every number account, but it it was discussed in one of our recorded meetings and one of the questions I know that was asked was what is the dollar amount fiscal impact this year? Should we include this in the budget? And we had that number when we made the recommendation to include this. So it wasn't conceptual. Um and I recall the I believe the board

was a 41 approval on that because they were comfortable with that number. Um but it was Yeah. I can't give you the exact figure. Yeah. Right. So it's like a like a 1% for like each person like Yes. 1% for each person of like of their salary

because that's how we contribute. And to to Jerry's point, the reason like I don't like saying these numbers are going to change every year because we try to project very levely, but where it comes into play is if a sal if employee has been here for 10 years and they're making the maximum of their salary range and they leave and the new person comes in and is new,

it's the percentage that stays the same, but that dollar amount now is very different because that person might be 20,000 less. So that's where it we can't say exactly. So we could sit down and say we know if everyone stays put right

now this year that we know that this is how much it will be next year but we can't control all of those elements, right? Um does that does that answer and I I really appreciate these questions. So I'm not we're not bothered by them at all. This is this is what this meeting is for. So

Well, yeah. I mean we're I'm just trying to figure it all out. Oh no, that's that's exact this is the avenue to figure it out. So I appreciate this where our money's going. So that's fair. I'd like to Yes. to know. Thank you.

No problem. Yes, sir. Clint Gordon, 364 Cedar Pond. Uh, can we call a question? Well, does anybody else wish to speak? no need. Okay. So, you're voting on article 30 to see if the town of Durham will vote to change its main public employees retirement system. The main PERS plan to adopt regular plan AC for eligible full-time employees and appointed officials effective July 1st, 2026 for future service only. If you are in favor of that uh article 30, please raise your green cards.

30, please raise your green cards. Before you leave, we have uh one more thing to do. And we actually have two more things to do. We have to somebody has to make the motion that never fails. And uh somebody everybody else who is able uh if you can pick up the chairs and take do what with them? Take them off to the side.

That would be great. So, is there a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. Is there a second? It's been moved and seconded that we adjourn. All in favor, raise your green card. Please put them down. All opposed, raise your green card. At motion passes. Thank you very much, everybody.