TranscriptBudget Committee Meeting ~ March 4, 2024

as you see fit I just to make sure I got these numbers down right so originally the use of the fund balance as recommended by the selectwood was going to be 63445 I think it was 633 475 that was our recommendation our recommendation was 628

28475 yeah and you're saying so the and now the new recommendation is an even 668,000 that's reduction of the $5,000 to match the solid waste and the increase in the tax estimate the um yeah County County tax estimation that came in or value that came in I should say okay what would the mill rate change if

we didn't change the fund balance did you guys determine that we did not determine that is there a way to determine that evening well I have yeah if you get the answer the P of an answer okay so in the meantime while this is going on we learned that the school budget's been out actually for a while and it's significantly more than was estimated so what I did was I put the

real numbers in what we believe to be the real numbers for the county and the school so what's the school estimating to be the school is is saying they're they're having a 6 and half% increase ouch so what's their number do you know that number is 6 million

918 keep in mind though last year I think they had a I think they had a 4.9% increase at the school General announced and our portion of that was five something so our portion of this maybe more maybe less than the 6.5 they've announced we don't know for sure I guess I don't know how when we find that out exactly but it's close enough or so what I did was I put those real numbers in and I took on the

summary uh worksheet that Mark put together I I took education out because typically we don't deal with education in our budget the town on the town floor they look at everything but education as far as increases and so forth so I took education out and

a half% this is I'm looking at the summary the summary spreadsheet total funding requirements the funding requirements variance to budget is 12 a. half% and I think I've done this right uh the variance to actual was 15% this is for 23 24 this is without the school the school has an overweight influence on the total

budget um can you repeat those numbers again sorry so the 23 to 24 with with this education out right the 23 to 24 variance to budget is 12 a half% and the variance to actual is 15% so but I I got to say part of the influence on the actual was there was 100 Grand that that the road depart the Public Works didn't spend on roads that got put back in this year and that would have reduced that 15% to whatever 133% or I don't know what it is 13 and a half something so anyway it's going up a lot

um so then I added it back in I added education back in to the total uh and there was an increase there that the to that the select board had previously voted on that would have brought the property tax levy up to 8, 29,000 which was a 2.3% over last year 2 2.3% increase over last year and the mill rate would go up

right they just willy-nilly make up their number and pass it along we do elect County Commissioners with by District so there may be somebody who C the dura may be in somebody's District right but we don't get to vote on the budget we just get to vote on the representatives that goes um has the select board taken up any

discussion of long-term use of our fund balance there's been a lot of discussion of trying to change to a fiscal year and not a calendar year yeah we we've we did discuss the fiscal year um um quickly with Jerry and um you know he he had made the recommendation that uh we wait until the re-evaluation is done um and so we're trying to get that done first and then move to a fiscal year otherwise it's somewhat of a I'll use the word moving Target um you know we'd rather have the the the um re-evaluation done

first and then move is what his what the recommendation was and I believe we pretty much on board with that um uh so the only other longterm item that um will more than likely be on the radar coming up is expanding the town hall um and and and looking at the footprint of office space uh for the employees so um you know I say the town hall it could be something different than that but that would to me be the largest um um funding need in say the

next couple years that we would have to uh probably look at seriously and and possibly use some of the fund balance for that to offset the cost for the taxpayers you know there was a plan in what 2007 to do that and that got you know mo ball that didn't didn't move any any forward at all so um probably be putting a committee together and and dusting off those plans to start with and see if that that meets the needs and if it does then we we'd be looking next year to you know maybe fund up fund something from there and that's the L that's the only thing right now that we we have um that we'd consider at this point there's nothing else emergent that we're aware

from the fund balance to help reduce the tax by Allen and second by um agree with the select board's recommendation to use $668,000 from the fund balance to offset the 2024 budget discussion question yes oh so going excuse me going back to the County taxes it was estimated at 3% correct how how was that determined because it was more than the year before we didn't have the actual number um you we we just that that's what the estimation was was 3% going into this budget cycle and we have we we have no clue nothing was given as to how it went from 3% to 9.6 we do not know that would be a question for the representatives so we know we don't know any background information on how what drove that number to that increase we'd be guessing at this point who's our representative find out okay 3% was the

number Jerry picked right that was kind of and that's what I was asking is how did that come about and that was just it sounds like just an estimation that a number it was a number that was estim I think it was based on historical yeah you know what they've historically have gone up that sort of thing I don't think it was truly a willy-nilly estimate I

was yeah educated guesstimate has it ever been this high before do not that I recall I think they typically use 3% when figuring out our budget that but so did anyone like even question it question one you can't question why the bill was so high wouldn't I mean if you got the bill at home and it was that much off wouldn't you make a phone call and say holy crap what went into it what went into that but nobody we didn't did our 40-hour Patrol get put into that no okay a you know somebody's got to ask so I just i' let you know ahead of time that's not

discussion continuously saying let's just take it out of the fund balance because accountable when that happens it's kind of like yeah we went over yep we'll do that um I don't know I I feel like this year in particular we're

not digging deep enough it's all been put out on the table and things are combined and um I I don't know I just have a hard time doing it um it's the easy way and I'm a taxpayer I want my bill not to go to go up but are we being shortsighted in the long run I don't know I think I I agree with you on that and there's a lot of unknowns in this budget because of Department changes and they different numbers than we saw last year so comparisons were difficult and we may come out with a surplus issue which I think is what Mark is suggesting to replenish the fund balance but I don't think we know for sure and I'd feel more comfortable yes but there was a lot of Roundup he everything was rounded up I mean if the estimate was 6,000 he rounded to 10 yeah I agree if he had an estimate of 12 he rounded it to 15 there was and it wasn't hundreds of dollars he rounded everything up thousands to every single item and then you know we didn't

have anything to say over 10% raise on top of everything else I mean I don't think anybody's been fiscally responsible on any of this and I hear a lot of talk about you know the budget committee people really rely on us to kind of dig and probe and and help and I feel like we'll basically be a new to it I

mean I've sat in a lot in the past and I've seen a lot and we've really dug into into a lot and Jane's been finding like she found a telephone that been sitting there at the at the the yeah Union Church at the yeah at one of the places and run around Pond they found some other wasted money and everybody was but this year I'm kind of surprised that there's um it's just overall and we got a match and that's really been emphasized to match match match and we just kind of go and since I didn't ask some questions properly that just it goes so I don't know I I'm feeling the same way she is I don't feel like we have been really digging into anything or holding anybody accountable well I think some of us gave the town some Grace and some trust because we were we were rearranging how things as Neil said how things were posted and how things were described um personally though without details I

don't feel like I want to give that Grace to the county and I think the only way to bring it to the town's people attention is by us not matching so that it makes the town's people go who what where when how why um not matching what the county what's that the select board oh not matching the select boards not matching the select board yeah we don't have a choice when it comes to the county but um and yes I understand that we have a surplus in our fund balance but I'm now leaning towards Milt because

this is our second or third meeting that we've met just to change the fund balance because oh we got new money to spend so okay we'll just cover cover it with the fund balance and I think at some point in time we need to become we need to have a game plan for that fund balance and know what our future is and how we plan on using it because there is a lot of Big Ticket items coming to the people and if you're going to go from a calendar year to a fiscal year me personally I would love to use that fund balance to help out the town's people do that without feeling it in their pocketbook within a one-year schedule I think that's a better gift than allowing everybody to just constantly increase their budget because we have extra funds so being new to the to this board or to this committee how do we get a surplus in the fun balance how does that happen we under we overestimated what things would

cost and because of us budgeting what something is going to cost we then have to determine how much money we need to take in and the money we need to take in is from the property taxes and so when things don't cost as much but you still charged everybody that price you end up with extra money in the coffers so it sounds like what Donna was talking about that we overestimate yes and that's where we get the money and so are we thinking because that's an overestimation it's a a saving

account that and because it's there as extra Surplus we can just spend it right I think it's not it's not just Surplus it's well I mean I'm using that word there's two parts to what I what I look at I think Mark would agree we need a 2 million doll buffer approximately for to run the town need you need $2 million in cash that we always have to have which gives us 1.7 to use we're use 6 700,000 this of

it this year which leaves us a million and maybe the end of the year we're going to have 1.1 million I don't know we we don't know yet we'll have to wait and see right but from my perspective on on the taxing thing is we've probably been taxing it at about what we should have been taxing because of the capital money that we're spending or now saving for that we weren't saving for in previous years so the money that we're being taxed at now is going to Capital that we were previously taxed at is going to pay for Capital stuff and we'll need in two or three years if we do this again we're going to start running out of that so the taxes going to have to go up to match that right so I don't think you know the answers yet so I don't know I but I I agree I don't want I don't want to I want to match this like Bo I want so one more question sorry one more question so the buffer that you're talking about is is that because we're

not on a is it a calendar year fiscal year fiscal year every town has to have a buffer oh well I okay I was just trying to understand because we don't have we don't know what school is until in June and because we're not in the fiscal year so that's not I've learned it to be that we need a slightly larger buffer because there's big chunks of our budget that don't become known until after we've created the budget so that's kind of I've interpreted that yeah yes and because tax bills even though we vote on our budget in April we have to wait for everybody else's budget to come in so the tax bills don't go out until August July and aren't due till August so we have to run the town for eight months off of

interpreted one of the reasons why we need a bigger buffer I think if we are on a fiscal year year we wouldn't need as deep or as big of a buffer because we could be asking people to pay sooner but I could be wrong that's just my hope and

assumption so I want to acknowledge um um no go ahead finish you doing I me I just get my thought I want to acknowledge thank you for so I don't have to get on give reive restate my soap box speech from the previous two meetings um mean I'm in agreement with Jill I mean so the select board's strategy was to try you know because we have we had a surplus more than we anticipated in the fund balance so my saying was the select board wanted to Flat fund this year

because we'd already we've already taxed money so we're just using previous monies that were taxed that that were were to hold the line and I think and we tried we tried our best to do that but I agree with Jill I don't believe we need to cover the 9% to me that's that's an easy explanation to the town of why their taxes are going up we did our best to you know we may have over taxed not and you know the the town obviously did everything with the the best interest of of the residents in mind but we raised more money than we needed to we did our best to come in at a zero tax but

we it's not our role to cover for the county that 9% and we C and nor is it to cover for the school so if the taxes are going to go up this year which which I said on my soap box that it's unrealistic to think that taxes wouldn't go up at least we we can say that we did our part to hold the municipal line flat what's causing your taxes to go up is your county and your school and I don't think we should be covering that I think I S so there was Joe thene John and then Neil no I was gonna just just indicate

the same thing you just said mil is that you know we we um um you know the idea that the select board had was to Flat fund it so we wouldn't see an increase this this this year um it is the people's money um the the town Town's um

uh folks money um that we're we're holding and it is in excess of uh where we thought we actually were so using some of their own money to you know everybody's money to actually cover that um SLU board felt comfortable uh in doing so so it was it was um you know County taxes we we really don't have any say over it um so increasing it didn't

didn't seem too farfetched um with the way we've been moving here but I do agree that you know later on our our taxes will go up in the next couple years it's going to happen um this was just one more year reprieve before that occurred is is what we're looking at John I was going to say a couple things I think the getting another 40 and I agree I to

some extent about not bailing out and we're not really bailing out the county we're we're bailing out our taxpayers and uh with that 44,000 so I'm still supportive of doing that but it's not all just that we over taxed the the residents we took in um

$270,000 more in Revenue that we had budgeted so you know maybe shame on us for not having known that or budgeted but we did it wasn't all just tax money that was coming in so was over a quarter million dollars in that regard and I'll Echo I think Jill or somebody else I think you know talking about what else do we want to look at in the coming year I think setting what do we want for the

the reserve fund safety fund general fund to be is it 2 billion is it 1.7 is it three billion because if we don't think we're really going to use $3 million then we probably ought to do things to help the taxpayers in terms of buying stuff going forward or whatever I don't think we should just set on $3 million when you know standard practices says 17 to 18% of your budget should be in the reserves which is like 1.7 1.8 so two is

well above what we need so that's just something we should take a look at and decide and not have to have you know the next year we can say you know we had 3 million we think two million is enough so let's put another $200,000 and all by the way all we're doing it is moving it from one Reserve to another we keep talking about having spent that money but all we've done has changed the bank account that it's sitting in at this point so Neil

my yeah I forgot actually about the Govern side of that of that question philis because it has been higher every year than we anticipated and it's going to be this year as well because they used last year's Revenue I thought he increased it by a percentage I thought Mark increased it by a percentage well the the the uh valuation is the same

376 it's going to be warm yeah well is an increase of 12% this year because whatever the intergovernmental line covers that's up almost 23% the rest are couple of went down on permits and fees other other revenues whatever they may be but um I mean I I agree with NE we've got a whole bunch of houses that are we can complain about them but a whole bunch of houses that are coming online to start paying taxes we've approved the subdivision last year Lots that's $650,000 of assess value that is coming online this year per what that it's 50,00 they assess it at 50,000 a lot right now it's probably it was pay ,000 in taxes and the other part of um there's going to be a tax increase this year unless I don't know I don't know how Jerry missed this but the school budget's been out for a while and that's there's I don't think he was saying there wouldn't be a tax increase I think he was saying that he didn't want there

to be a municipal tax inase oh really I catch that yeah anyway $120,000 increase in school funding over what was in the budget because so that's going to increase the bill rate the whole Levy conversation does that take into account the school budget well yeah that was it was in there okay I'm just clarifying out loud the summary sheet that they use to calculate the mill rate included the school budget right it'll be interesting how normally when we in the past when we have presented things for the towns people usually there's been discrepancy between the select board and the budget committee and whenever we do that a lot of times the people will look at the budget Comm and say well we're going to go to the budget committee because it reduces our taxes this particular item that we're talking about you're looking at the budget committee with a if we stay with our original motion you're looking at the budget committee

with a lower amount than the select board and it's going to increase your taxes and that's going to be an interesting argument I understand where it's coming from I know the accounting that we've done this year I think we've kind of stabilized it accounting the accounting practice and we don't have a lot of experience under our belt with the current Eon practice we're not saving anybody any taxes we're just delaying the tax correct the spendings not changing right and that's what I'm a little concerned about is yes there has been an increase in the municipal spending and now we've got a almost 7% increase in the County spending and kind of to Neil's point or Milton's point we could have you know a zero change in the mill rate this year but if we don't continue to support the bad habit every year at some point we're going to see all of a sudden we're going to feel a 10% increase from the county tax and a

8% increase from the town tax that we got to figure out how we're not all of a sudden having a jump in taxes to pay it if we don't have the funds to transfer but there's certain things like right now the credit union stuff is six month CD they pay him 4% on yeah and the town manager is looking into that he should have looked into it it's six months go get the money look how much money is being wasted we1 something thousand may have already could have gone against a lot of this or could have gone against the CIP or something you know that's that's been out there for months now

board's issue right they're the ones responsible to invest at TR stra in the responsibility to be scrutinizing the well to some degree we have limited we just we just talk right we just recommend we just make recommendations and we only do it after we get we we our recommendations are based on the select board Bo we don't we don't precede anything call for

motion um I have to have a second to do that it's been moved by Allan and seconded by John to call the motion any discussion all those in favor so we're voting for the higher amount voting to vote we can vote all right that pass um

so the motion on the floor is to match the uh select board's recommendation of using 668,000 from the fund balance to offset the 2024 budget all those in favor of the fails what if we all abstain you got to ask for no you're assuming we're going to say okay all those I could beain right okay I'm all those opposed so there's no abstain it failed one one to seven there's nothing else we need to on finan because we've already voted we would be staying with our original motion correct and we don't have warn articles to make those official so all right so moving on to the agenda that a quick meeting no Mr chair do you have an ETA or sh shall I uh use the bay for our meeting um you can use your office if you'd like I have a few suggestions but okay do you have a ETA I use your what's on our agenda I didn't see we have two more items to discuss two more items one of um a review of our B laws and a possible

recommendation to the select board regarding a warrant deadline Chief when's your meeting officers meeting at 7 but we can use the B we're just double we're just double build here that's all we're uh we apologize no look wor

but it's okay say we'd spend money to get you something but we the budget committee I wouldn't even ask is it warm in there you want to make sure it's warm I put on the record I did uh uh call the chief at 11:30 this morning to let him know that there were additional items on the agenda and I anticipated our meeting going beyond the third Beyond 30 minutes no I think number two when this meeting was Set uh both the town manager and myself checked the fire department calendar and there was nothing scheduled for this room for this evening you're exer on the record for the record all right so the second um agenda item was um it was requested that we review our our bylaws in the email uh that um Neil sent out

was he feels that we should consider revising them to restate on what we are voting it says currently the bylaw say that we're voting on each warrant article but we haven't had warrant article for the last couple of years um and so although he feels maybe we don't necessarily need to change our bylaws this evening that perhaps the discussion could could get started do you have a copy of said bylaws one area that under May under section two under organization second paragraph down meting no I sent them out she be called by the chair of the budget committee as you read down through that it says post a notice of the meeting at the town office and I think we should add tosite L I'm trying to find this

link I apologize if you go to the town's hear what you said I was distracting I apologize section two in the second paragraph section two second paragraph when it talks about the first meeting that the chair or vice chair shall as you read down through that first sentence posst a notice of the meeting at the town office and I recommend putting website I know it's being done it's not in our we get a new chair

a new chair and new individuals coming on board they have something to follow detail and the other area when we look under responsibilities we talk about the first paragraph and I I'm concerned that certainly concerned that we haven't had War articles and I see no reason why we shouldn't have them but since we haven't and make recommendations regarding each warrant item I guess if we're okay with not

having the articles not no I see no reason not to have them because you could as far as I'm concerned you could basically take the previous year and present that to the budget committee because a lot of those articles are standard so you know that's up to the the select board to look at something like that if we're looking at our bylaws we can only work on what is to us even this year it was I thought it was kind of difficult looking at we were looking at individual departments but what's the warrant article going to

time for us to sure you can you can do a draft one and you can revise it as as you progress for meetings there no reason why not you have draft articles you have draft articles we have draft articles now I think a lot of because we asked for the draft articles for tonight right and would decline so we don't have them well no but we but they're out there for us to have them I'm

that the warrant if we're going to continue the practice that we have this year change the board articles to items yeah want article that um I should make a note that prior to or or to initiate that the the the the first time the budget committee meets for review of the of the 2025 budget we probably should start with a review and and recommended changes of our bylaws yeah talk simple I just because I just s I'm wired we're not doing what it says and we should come close to what it says that's throw another IDE up should we meet between now and then and talk about things like if and I know it's a select Bo decision

but should we be putting together recommendations for things like what's the minimum general fund balance that we want to have and other things that we want to recommend to the select board ahead of because once we get in the budget it's you know that's what we think about there's you know so is it worth being being an advisory position which addition me but there may be other topics that we want to discuss well one of one of our responsibilities is to review the audence report when it comes out used a good auditor is going to tell you whether

a challenging position as to what is in your fund balance and that that alone by us reviewing that we would answer that answer that question yeah I'm not sure it does well because I mean if if we have $3 million they're going to say you're in a hell of a good position but do we need $3 million well that's what they're going they should they have in the past that told us what our balance is and they're saying to be fiscally responsible this is what your balance should be and uh based on the audit reports that I've seen in the past and I know there's been some that have been scary and we could could run into problems the money's prior to the taxes being issued we've had that in the past haven't we well we've issued uh t t tax

anticipation it's just that's because of a cash FL when does this Auditor's report come out depends on how quickly usually the fall the books are closed yeah she just started um last week theoretically we're supposed to have all of our ducks in a row so that she pretty much all she has to do now is look at the paper make a check box and she you know make a report and she's done whereas in the past years they've had months and months and months of needing to find the paperwork so my assumption is typically we H I think the latest I've heard we've gotten it is December or like the fall but I thought she said if or Mark said that if all the paperwork is done properly ahead of time it should just be a matter of like six to eight weeks type of thing from when they start to so did this committee meet look at the auditor's report the last Auditor's report say that again did this committee see the auditor report the last auditor

we were invited to the meeting it was held here in December so did it wasn't this committee because this committee didn't oh no we were invited wasn't it this December or was that last year last year oh my apologies didn't seem to me that Mark gave a presentation yeah Mark gave a presentation like last I was say December so we did get we did get inputs oh so he was like that was like the auditor report I think a lot of his input was proper accounting practices right he really wasn't doing an audit Well he kind of was but it wasn't a formal report we will

2023 at a select board I believe which started a whole bunch of conversations and that was the last one what we going to do the next one I don't know I would imagine it should be easier this year was should be me a schedule and why why will it be easier is it because we because Mike knows what he's doing okay so we've been told he

does no I'm just saying if everything goes the way we've been told it should be going then there should be an easy Auditor's re so like all the codes that go into Trio and all of that stuff that you're talking about yeah that's why there's been all that shifting around on our reports of right not really being able to compare app confusing but if we get it in the summer does it really

guidelines to for the rest of the year that you can really look at and be I guess more have more confidence in the numbers that you're presenting for the bud next yeah I was thinking like September which is three or four months ahead of what we're I mean doesn't matter to me oh as far as scheduling a next meeting yeah I mean if we if we get that review in the fall I know this room is usually pretty cold I think August is a good

it sounds like there's been a couple of ideas uh for consideration to amend that this committee's bylaws um when would be an appropriate time to do that prior to next year's budget review uh maybe perhaps time it for sometime after the release of the auditor's report so that the meeting would have two items on its Agenda One to review the auditor's report and then two to um update our bylaws that's a good idea y okay so we thinking the month of September oh we don't know when the audit report's coming out oh how about within 90 days of the audit report coming out make it sound official 60 yeah everything's 90 that's why we should make it 60 60 days 90 days

30 37 minutes of it coming out I say 60 to 90 days you're just going to make that decision for us are you yeah that works all right is that enough is that enough discussion that all right now I I'm going to let you discuss the item three on the of on the agenda which was recommending an additional warrant article to the select board yeah I don't mean this year necessarily but it seems like every the meeting I have been watching the meetings believe not it's I don't know why but ENT uh and it seems like every other meeting there's there's a what can we spend type of question comes up and and um so I I thought there should be some Foundation information for us on what they can do for spending and there's been this issue of being able to pay bills that haven't been properly budgeted or funded like and we have I I know what it is ,000 you deal with yeah something like that

that has to be paid and so there's there's a $166,000 emergency fund which nobody can touch I thought we could as long as the select board and the and the budget committee got together that's how it was presented to us that was a that was a warrant article and warrant articles expire the

year the warrant every year so my thing would be to do an ordinance but annual warrant article would be okay too um but I I want to give them the authority to spend money where they have to spend it I don't want discretion the language I want if they have to spend the money let them spend the money I don't know I don't know what the right language is but um because one man's definition of have to is another woman's definition a contract a contract would be one the the the trash things a contract right they're gonna pay it right and that's been that was a Bugaboo for them a few months ago and the the U what was the

tax thing work as comp work as comp that's something you have to do they got to spend that yeah I just want I want to give them the authority to spend money they have to that's all I have to say about it but what would happen question um if we overspent I

mean we wouldn't want to make that the rule but if we needed to overspend because it was an emergency I don't know what's happened in my voice came up and we would overspend and then that would be that would be presented at the next at the next year I mean not again that shouldn't be the plan to overspend but if we had to why couldn't we does happen yeah I thought that was my understanding there's there's writing the check it's just they bringing it up at the next town meeting so you're saying you don't want it brought up at the next town meeting to let the town's people know I don't think I don't think she have to just it's just an article warrant that we don't need it's G it's going to happen anyway oh so either way but there there are other overspenders I think the chief over spent some money a couple years ago that was I'm not talking about that kind of overspending I'm talking about a bill

that has to be paid you know like solid waste and that would take some pain out of the budgeting process at least a little bit and and and mark mentioned there's several ways you're can approach this he mentioned some of the last un which I think satisfi because nobody thought they pass but I think I think we should give this like some discretion I don't want to use that word money did you say in your email you wanted to dissolve the emergency Reserve

fund it's no nobody can touch it legally nobody can touch it right now and it's not going to change this year so you put that where to the I just back where did that money come from we established it oh and the first year we established it or the second year we put money into it and said the select board budget committee could vote use it it expired never been talked about again well that's one of those things that the the select board could create their own article for the upcoming town meeting and they could move that into the unassigned fund yeah so if you just said that that went away so didn't that 200 Reserve fund it didn't go back to the general

defining what we were to use use that for too same thing right what why was that money put aside nobody necessarily had the answer right on the tip of their tongue to backfill that history at the time I think the town meeting said if the select board's going to be involved and the budget committee is going to be involved they'll

like there's a hole in the roof and it needs to be patched it wasn't already on the budget but that's been other things since Mark's Jerry's come on board it sounds like you guys can spend money if something like that happens you don't need anybody's permission for Capital we we could we can fix something in that case and we can spend up to I believe $10,000 $999,000 I don't know where you get that number but that's that's Fus you can spend as long as money in the capital reserve you can spend on anything you want it's spent for the right purpose so there's Capital Equipment and capital buildings what was in my and they can spend it the RO blows off they can fix it and and that's the intent of what we're putting money into the fire reserve the the Public Works Reserve which is when we do that then the call to actually spend it be on the hands of Select it would not have to go to it could but doesn't have to go to

the Mee and and I think that's where Mark was heading to do like 5% um but you know be able to spend up to 5% of each budget why which would give you latitude and the extra funds to do that speaking to the capital reserve right and the cap we could yeah but that helps that case is really what my point is yes but the MR Title 30

AAP 223 Municipal finances sub chapter 7 Reserve fund SS 582 that you put in your email says that m officers other Trustees of the reserve fund right so that would also include the emergency Reserve fund so we wouldn't need an it's not a capital fund it doesn't say Capital it says of the reserve fund the capital reserve fund no it says of the reserve and some place else it says Capital the examples that you gave

ne's recommending is that we make a recommendation to the select board that they formalize that process it's not our no I I understand I'm just wondering if the process has already been formalized based on this municip so so the law says Reserve funds A municipality May establish a reserve fund consisting of one of more accounts one Reserve fund one or more accounts by appropriating money and putting it in the f Improvement account Capital Equipment account credit Reserve account which you don't want to get into a s a sying fund which is to pay bonds so it's really just two we have them we and we have more than one account so we have a capital Improvement account and a Capital Equipment account so if something blows up they can they can spend Capital money to fix it they don't need ourmission to do it because they have trustee do a lot

pay the sanitary was overun something they story we send I put an email together and you can bless it say agre send it to Joe Jerry and Joe and they can do what they want all we do is recommend it doesn't mean that all of us individually will approve it in the end right I

think George was concerned that they did something like this before and it got blown off the budget worth behind it I don't think this is radical this is I think it's more the lack of understanding and perhaps the lack of Fai of those

than meeting for