TranscriptTown Meeting 2016

annual town meeting of the town of Dorm. I'm Gary Wood. I was elected yesterday um as your moderator. And I'm just going to take a moment right now to introduce Joshua Klene Golden. Did I get that right? Joshua's over here. Um he has

been willing to come forward. He is a resident of Durham and uh a lawyer in Lisbon and he is it Lisbon or Lisbon Falls? All right, Lisbon Falls. That's closer. Um um he's been willing to come forward and uh phase in and we will start next year as a potential moderator for you. I can still jump up and off the stage, but you know any time now that's not going to happen. So, um, he's going to work with us next year and we'll run some articles for you and, uh, get to meet some of you folks and hopefully that will help with a transition to this very valuable and important position that I've been privileged to hold for about 34 years now. So, Joshua, thank you for coming today. Congratulations again on the birth like two days ago of his daughter. And he was good enough to come here today and introduce

what I'm going to do uh first is ask um for the pledge of allegiance, then we'll have Pastor Ron Parker to do the prayer for us and then we'll have some more announcements. So, please join me in the pledge of allegiance to the flag. 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. Pastor Marker,

uh we're going to have a car show in Durham here at Shiloh Chapel June 4th. and that's to benefit the Lake Food Pantry. I think there's probably people still in our community that do not know we have a food pantry in Lisbon Falls that services the towns of Bowden, Lisbon, and Durham. It's uh it's run by nine churches. We don't know how to agree on doctrine, but we know how to serve food. So, that's how it works. And uh but that car show is to benefit all the proceeds will benefit the Lake Food Pantry. So, if you want to mark that on your calendar, June 4th, Shiloh Chapel, pray for sunshine. Um, before we start, it's good to remember people that have been here and have served our community through the years. You see, uh, in the

book here, the dedication and then, and those four people are very special. We remember them at this time. And and I think as we remember them, we need to remember their families that go through the process of grief and loss and adjustment. Um you know, I think Connie would have liked to have been here today, but she misses her husband. It's just not the same. And for each one, they are going through a time of adjustment. A lot of you, of course, remember John White. He was our administrative assistant for nine years. He just recently passed away on March 25th. Uh so we want to remember these people. So before I pray, let's start with a moment of silence together please.

morning, uh I thank you for the blessings that we have in place right now. uh this facility to use, the freedom to use it. This is a remarkable process where we have a chance to come together and talk about these issues that are so important to us in this community. I thank you for this community. I I personally have seen your blessing on us as a community and we can't take our freedom for granted. I pray for the troops both at home and overseas that are working hard to guarantee our freedoms. Uh we live in a world that's so desperately in trouble and does not understand the value of freedom. Thank you we have this day together. Um Lord bless us as we go through this process today. A lot of items here they affect every one of us as taxpayers. We have differing opinions on what should or should not happen. Um so I pray you'll bless our dialogue and discussion. May we be able to be respectful to each other and listen even

to those that we may disagree with to hear their point of view. And then uh when it's all said and done, we're still neighbors together. We're still here living together in this great town. So just bless uh bless all that transpires here today. May it happen to your glory. Um Lord, you're good to us. I see your goodness all around us. As I mentioned, remember these families that have lost loved ones today. Some of course are not mentioned in the in the town book, but there's still that loss. We pray for comfort and peace for those that need it. We pray for your blessing on our newly elected officials as they seek to serve this community. May they do it with grace and dignity and your enablement. So we just ask for your presence and blessing here in all that we say and do. And I say this in Jesus name. Amen.

your remarks and the thoughts of for those folks who aren't here any longer and for Connie who is still with us but not here today. Um this is the first time she has missed a town meeting in 52 years. So some of you have a long ways to go to break that record but some of you are getting close. So, with that, I'll introduce uh Liz Fischer, who's Lee Fischer. I'm sorry. I know Liz Fischer. Lee Fischer, who's going to uh just speak to us briefly about the Denise Laflam scholarship effort.

Thank you, Mr. Moderator. So, when I think of tenacious, I'm going think of my good friend Terry Kirk. And when I think of someone who's hardworking, well, gosh, Corey Holt, you're right in front of me. When you think of someone who's had to work hard all their lives and just really gets up every day and jumps out of bed and goes after it, you also think of Denise Leaf Flem who served our community for years, born here, grew up here, raised her family here, PTA president, selectman for years, substitute teacher here for over 20 years. And when we lost her to pancreatic cancer, I know a lot of you were probably just as sad as we were. And it was it was it was tough. So we created a scholarship in her name. To raise the money for the scholarship, we made a quilt. Every dollar from the quilt raffle goes to help a kid from Durham Pel or Freeport who's like the rest of us gets out of bed every day and gives it our

all. Last year it was a young lady who was born in China. She was adopted. came here in for and during her high school career went to three different high schools. So you can just imagine the change that happened at that time in her life. Well, she is now going to Wheaten College. She um has a $1,200 scholarship and

nearly every dollar of that $1,200 scholarship was raised by the people of Durham. So, thank you. And um Bob Small just handed me a $5 bill and he challenges everybody else. Give me a dollar. If you don't have any money on you today, give me an IOU. I probably know where you live. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. business announcements. There are two handouts. If you didn't get your annual report, there are some right over on the left hand my left hand corner of the bleachers and there is a publication from the Durham Fire and Rescue Apparatus Committee. It's their report on E22 and it is um it talks about the fire truck that they're asking uh for money to to buy. So, make sure you get those handouts. Um, now to the meeting itself and and how we

run it. Uh, I'm just going to take a couple of minutes to go over things that I think have worked well, let you know the basic ground rules. I appreciate uh, Pastor Parker's comment, particularly uh, about when you come to the mic. Um, you're going to speak to a motion that's on the floor or make a motion if we haven't got one. We will in general have motions and I'll talk a little bit about that, but please please keep your remarks focused on the item before the town. Don't make them personal as to the former speaker or somebody who's right behind you. Um it doesn't really help the town's people in deciding how to vote to say, "Well, that person needs to, you know, go away and shouldn't live in Dorham who just spoke." And um what people want to know is uh whether you're in favor of a motion or against it and the reasons for your position. This is your meeting and I do my absolute best to make sure that you all

are welcome and feel comfortable here and willing to speak and come to the mic uh to do that. So as the meeting goes on, we will have to use the microphone. You have to get pretty close to it so that the people particularly in the back I think can hear what you have to say. I'll recognize the people at the mic. You may have to stand in line. Um when you get there would ask that you just state your name, where you live, um and your position on the motion that's before the body and uh

for against and as I just said and the reasons for it that will help us move along. And if you just agree with something someone else has said, you can just say that if you want or you can wait to vote on that um component of the motion. There's no sense in 10 people coming up and saying the same thing if we want to move along uh as efficiently as we can. If you have a question and

you you know if you if you can get to the mic and stand in line and just ask your question that will help because then everyone will hear the question. If you have trouble getting to the mic or you're a long ways away if you raise your hand or or raise your blue card and you should all have blue cards if you're going to vote here today. You had to go through the registration process. You're going to vote by holding those up and at the end of the meeting. Do you want them back?

Okay. Blue cards go back. is a frugal a frugal financial measure. Turn your cards in when you leave. Um but if if you have a question um and you you can't get to the mic easily, if you raise your card, I will try to see you and ask you uh what your question is, you'll have to say it loud enough for me to hear it so that I can repeat it and that way hopefully the information flow will be available to everyone. uh you ask the question, the town officials and budget committee members will answer them. In relation to motions, I'm going to ask uh because there's no disagreement between the budget committee and the selectman this year, I'll ask uh Jeff Wakeakeman, the selectman to make the motion, and we'll have a a second um from one member

of the board, another member of the board of of selectman. um that will that will just get things moving and and keep them moving. The uh the motions just to to think about a little is you can't come up to the mic and state a position and then call the question. Calling the question means you're asking for a vote. You want to go to vote on what what's in front of us. If you want to call a question, you just go to the mic and say, "Mr. moderator, I call a question." That gets a second. Somebody has to second it. And then we vote on whether you want to call the question, which means if that passes, then the question has been called and the main motion will be before you. I'll tell you what it is and and we'll vote on it. You can't just call the question and go right from there to ending the discussion. Um the uh we don't take negative motions. If you don't think an item is properly funded, you can you can move to uh uh 0

for a particular item. Um it it's also good to avoid a lot of amendments because that gets very confusing. If you don't like what's before the body, you can come to the mic and say, "I'm going to vote against this. I'd like to see X dollars appropriated for this instead of the amount that's been put forward." We vote that up or down. If it doesn't pass, I take another motion and another amount uh can be put forward. The uh I will do my best to call the vote from up here visually and and and look to my helpers here to make sure it's if it's really clear. If it's close and we can't call it uh from up here, then I will ask people to stand who are on one side or the other and we'll have to do a standing count so that we can tell um how to call the vote. There is at least one article here today that will require a written ballot. For that, we'll put the ballot box up here. You can circle them both ways. You'll get a

a square that says you've got your written ballots here. Okay. Yes or yes or no? Yeah. ask you to register. Okay, I'll try to count you. You can yell if I I miss you. Um, when we vote on the written ballot, do not put an X through either yes or no. Circle yes or

put a check mark by it. Or if it's no, circle no and put a check by it. Because if you put a cross, we can't tell what your intent is. If you cross out yes, did you mean to vote no? Blah blah blah. Um, so those are the basic ground rules. Um, the uh conversations if you if you're going to have them, please just go out into the hall. And in relation to that, we do have the Girl Scouts out there selling cookies. We've got the raffle going for the quilt. And um, as I said before, you can't uh bring food or drinks in here.

Now, that is about all I have to say in the rest of this meeting. is going to belong to you. So, that being said, I'm going to call for a vote on article 4. Oh, excuse me. I forgot the most important thing. The election results. Somebody was about to say something. And what? Oh, you have two awards. Oh, that I didn't know about. Okay. All right. We'll announce the election results and then I guess we have a couple of awards uh to make um or announce anyway. Um for the position of selectman, you have elected Jeffrey Wakeakeman with 500 votes and Mark Blake with 388 votes. Wade Kapplinger got 217 votes and Max

Harvey Gar Garcia got 121 votes. For budget committee, you have elected Kevin Neto with 671 votes. Mack far received 62 votes as a write in and is elected. And Rick Emmens received 57 votes as a right in and is elected. For the RSU board of directors, you have elected Michelle Richardson with a vote of 650 votes. On the referendum question, the referendum was defeated by a vote of 595

no, 259 yes. Total ballots cast was 870. All right, who wants to do the scholarship awards announcements? and I would like to call down Bailey Kins, please. the Durham scholarship committee, I'm pleased to present this award to Bailey Kins. It is the 2016 Town of Durham scholarship in the amount of $1,000. Congratulations and best wishes for a rewarding school year.

today is the Spirit of America award. It is an award that the uh town of Durham presents annually to um a person or a group that um does much in a community um with volunteerism. And this year we are presenting the award to the First Congregational Church of Durham um in general and specifically to Julie Wagner and Betty Catel for

their um work with um the home heating fund. Um, at least 14 years ago, Betty Catel founded Warm Winter Walks where the church would do a uh a walk-athon and raise money and they they donated 50% of the proceeds to the home heating fund here in the town. Um last year they donated 100% of the funds and also in August of last year the church council came up with an idea of getting the community together and offering community lunches on Tuesdays for a2 to4 donation. And so we'd like to present these awards to uh um Julie Wagner and

um we'll present Mrs. Patels to her husband Charlie as she passed away this last year. Thank you both very much. Thanks. I just would like to thank the selectmen for this award. Uh the community lunch is uh result of the volunteers of the members of our church, the first congregational church. Every lunch we have a wonderful time and also the volunteer effort of people right here in town who are not members of the church. And that's how we keep things going at our church by reaching out into the community and um building a community that's both within the church family and outside of the church family. If you've come to the community lunch, I'm sure you've had a great time. I invite all of you to come to the lunch. It's a great bargain. We have a book club on the first Tuesday of the month. I also wanted to just announce that our church is in the process of a major fundraising campaign because we need to replace the shingles

on our roof. It's a big project for a small church. And so, um, one of our members has donated a beautiful quilt. We do have raffle tickets for that outside in the lobby. Um, and so I invite you to support our church so we can continue to um, hold efforts like this to support our community like the warm winter walk and the community lunch. And I hope we see you all at the community lunch this coming Tuesday. Thank you.

ask for a motion on article 4 to see if the town will vote to adopt the main moderator's manual rule of procedure sixth edition as the rules of order for this meeting. May I have a motion, please? And the second we did you get those Shannon? You're all set right. Okay, we're all set on a motion and second on article 4. Any discussion? Seeing none, I'll call for a vote on the motion before you. All those in favor, raise your cards. All those opposed. Motion carries. I am now going to ask Jeff Wakeakeman to just give a brief overview of the municipal tax impact of the budget that's being presented to you before we get into those articles that would have a tax impact. Jeff.

All right. um because the because there are so many moving parts when it comes to figuring out your uh what the final mill rate's going to be and so on, it's really hard to project. But if we have if everything stayed the same last year other than the budget that we're going to pass today, the budget that we passed today will um will raise the mill rate about 1.03 or 5.9%. um of this 53% uh sorry 0.53 or about 3% is due to the increase in the budget and uh the other.5 or 2.9% is due to um a clerical

error which we will be discussing in a uh upcoming article. Um, also the uh the count we have the account county appropriation change and that's going to affect the mill rate by about 0.05 or about.3%. Um, this does not take into consideration any uh effects from either

the RSU5 budget or uh the fact that the homestead exemption this year is going from$10,000 to $15,000. And um the that homestead exemption actually could end up increasing the mill rate a bit because the state only covers half of that. So so uh it it looks good, but the money still has to be raised. So it just gets raised on the rest of the appropriate uh the rest of the valuation. So it kind of pushes the mill rate up just a bit.

Thank you. Thank you, Jeff. I'm now going to ask as a procedural matter for a motion to allow the following non-residents to speak. Ruth Glazier, the Durham administrative assistant, Calvin Monier, road commissioner, Paul Mains code enforcement officer, Sheriff Samson, and Elizabeth Hafrey of Community Concepts. May I have a motion to allow them to speak to the meeting? It's been moved and seconded that these individuals be allowed to speak to us today as non-residents of Durham. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, I'll call for a vote on the motion. All those in favor, raise your cards. Thank you. All those opposed. Motion carries. We are now going to go to article five, um, which is the article that says to see if the town will vote that all warrant articles over $40,000 be voted on by written ballot. This shall not include items such as contracts and bonds into which the town has previously entered

into in good faith. May I have a motion, please? pass Article 5 as written. Discussion on the article. Chuck, I can still see almost to the bleachers. Chuck Pollock, Newbrook Road. Get close to the Chuck Pollock Newbrook Road. Is Is this the article that that Donna Churches? And if it is, can we get a little bit more information on it? So, this article

is a result of the alternative warrant committee's uh action this year. Um, it is not the it is not the article that's going to uh that could affect future town meetings. It is for this town meeting only. And they were request the request was to put this on here um to um

require a written ballot every time for every article over $40,000. And um it was at the request of the committee. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Michelle Richardson, Patriot Way. Um, get a little closer. You might speak slowly. Okay. Everybody wants to hear what you have to say. It's all yours.

They don't. Um, my question is is that is there an estimate on how much time this adds to the meeting? It's about 15 minutes per vote. About 10 to 15 minutes per vote. And And how many warrants would this cover? I think it might be like six or seven. Four, five. Yeah. So you're you're talking uh probably between one to two hours that it could add to the meeting.

Okay. And is is the thought behind it that perhaps folks are voting differently how they feel than how they feel because of other people seeing how they vote? That is that is what was presented to us. Yes. I guess um if you're interested in people's opinion on the articles, I'm not in favor of this article. Thanks.

Thank you. Yes, Wayne. Uh Kevin Neto, Quaker Meeting House Road. U let me say I'm speaking for myself here. The budget committee did not discuss this issue. So this is just my opinion. Um I don't think this article is necessary. My count is actually 13 articles on the warrant this year. Um at about, you know, so you're talking closer to 4 hours of extended meeting time. I don't think it's necessary to put the town in a box and require a written ballot for everything over 40,000. There is always the option. there is now and there always has been for someone to get up and make a motion that a particular article will be considered on a written ballot. So if there's something that people feel is going to be particularly contentious and they're concerned about um people's they don't want the vote their vote to be seen then we can always move for a written ballot on that question. Uh but to box us into a corner to require it

for everything over $40,000 I think is uh not a good use of our time. Alice Alice McPeek Rabbit Road. Um it's very difficult obviously not for me but for other people to uh get up and give their opinions. They are intimidated. It is difficult. Um

we have proven I guess it was proven last year that a written ballot can actually change the outcome of a vote. And I do think it gives people the freedom people whose views disagree with them. It used to be, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, Gary, that any person could recommend a secret ballot.

Yeah. the the the procedural process for calling a secret or written ballot is for the motion to be made and seconded. Then we vote on whether we're going to run the written ballot that has to pass by a majority of those here voting.

Okay. Back before the new moderators rules or whatever, which are not new anymore, which are like 25 years old or something like this. Um, if I remember correctly, the case was I could say I want a written ballot on that and there did not have to be a majority vote. And when we a when the moderator's rules were amended, it took a majority vote in order to get a secret ballot.

Yeah, I my my recollection of history is a little different and it goes back as long as yours, which is a lot closer to 40 than 25. We won't even go there. But uh um the rule that I've just annunciated was always the rule that should have been followed. It when I took over we stopped and that was 34 years ago. We stopped doing it that way because

um even though the moderator's rules didn't call for that type of one person calling the town I do think had honored that or followed that before I was the moderator. Okay. And so I'm I'm the problem. You're never a problem, Gary. You're just a welcome addition to these meetings.

Anyway, um I just want to make sure that people feel the freedom to vote their consciences. Um obviously if you need a majority vote um in order to get a secret ballot, then in the majority of cases, people are not free to vote their consciences.

Yes, sir. Uh, Neil Berry Stack Pole Road. A little closer. Neil Berry Stack Pole Road. I don't understand how you call for a written ballot. Would you restate that? Yes. Um, if you come up to the um mic is during part of the discussion. Um, or if if if you don't want to come up to the mic, but you raise your card and I recognize you, then you say, "Mr. Moderator, I move that we vote by written ballot on this article and the motion before us." Somebody seconds that motion to call for a written ballot. We then vote on that motion. Are we going to use that method of voting or not? If it passes, then we do use the written ballot. People line up and they come up here and vote with the yes or no ballots. If it fails, then we don't use that process. I'll call for the vote. People will raise their cards. We will do our best to count them. And if it's uh if if we can call the vote comfortably, we call the vote. If we

can't, I can always call for a written ballot. And I do do that on occasion because the number is so close. Even when the counters come back, it's too close for me to call even though it might go one way or the other. So that can all happen after the article has been moved and seconded.

Um my my my calling of the written Yeah. If somebody After the article has been moved and seconded, I can come up and ask for a written ballot. Yes. All right, seeing none, I'm going to call on for a vote on the motion before you, which is to see if the town will vote that all warrant articles over $40,000 be voted on by written ballot. This shall not include items such as contracts and bonds into which the town has previously entered into in good faith. All those in favor of the motion, raise your cards. All those opposed. The motion fails.

as a procedural matter and to hopefully get folks out of here a little earlier. Kevin, and I apologize for calling him Wayne about two minutes ago, and I know I've only known you about 35 years. Uh um Kevin asked, and I agree, that if it is the pleasure of the town, we should now go to articles 36 to 39, which are also related to the concept of using another form of voting on certain expenditures. Those would require you to go to a referendum ballot if the selectman um accept and follow what would be an advisory vote to them. So that those articles that are described there and the amounts that are triggered, you would go to the polls just like you do for the elected officials positions, selectmen, the referendum question on the school that we announced earlier. You would actually vote on those items at a referendum election, which is also known as a secret ballot election. You would get a ballot that would say yes or

no, and the articles that some of which are on our town meeting today would show up on that referendum ballot. So, I'm going to ask Kevin to make the motion to take that those items up out of order because I think the discussion is going to be essentially the same. And uh we'll take a second. We'll have a discussion on it and then we'll vote on those items. For his motion to take something up out of order, it has to pass by 2/3 of those here in voting on that motion. Kevin, uh, Mr. Moderator, uh, I move we consider articles 36 through 39 out of order based upon the reasons you just articulated.

Is there a second? It's been moved and seconded that we take articles 36 to 39 up out of order. Is there any discussion on that motion? Seeing none, I'll call for a vote on the motion. All those in favor of the motion, raise your cards. Thank you. We put them down. All those opposed. The motion carries. We are now at article 36.

to recommend holding a secret ballot referendum election in accordance with title 30A and title 21A to be held after town meeting in 2017 to approve all warrant articles in excess of $50,000. This referendum shall not include items such as contracts and bonds into which the town has previously entered into in good faith, nor shall it include any initial votes to approve bonds. Note under article 36, this is an advisory vote and is not binding on the selectman per title 30A section 25501 without a charter. The method of voting and the conduct of a municipal election are governed by title 21A.

moved and seconded? Who's going to move it? Alice has made a motion. Is there a second? Donna, it's been moved in by Alice, seconded by Donna that the town pass article 36. Donna, did you want to speak these these articles?

Get really close. Get really close to the mic and tell us who you are and where you're on a church. Okay. Closer. Closer. Holy shoot. All right. um these article this started out to be something I thought was simple and what it the whole thing was what the whole thing was designed for was to get more participation get everybody a chance to vote that couldn't come to town meeting. There's an awful lot of spouses that couldn't show up because of babysitters. Um today there's some really good people that worked really hard on some of these articles. They couldn't show up for emergencies. So, all of this started out to just make it so everybody had a fair chance to vote. A lot of construction people work half a day on Saturday. Um, I had issues with the store once that I couldn't come in at all on morning, but I think for the amount of money that the town spends, everybody should have a fair say in the money. Um, we put a

committee together. We looked at different towns, how some of them do it because some of them do do that and vote on all the articles. Um, some of them were very overwhelming. So, the committee picked and chose the good points and the bad points and tried to put a real good comprehensive plan together which got more and more and more involved whether we liked it or not. There was so many rules and regulations. Um but anyway, to meet all the the criterias and stuff, we had to meet um we had to come up with absentee ballots, the secret ballots and everything. So that's kind of where all of these stem from was trying to give everybody an equal chance to just vote on all the on the articles. And of course, the bonds are a given. You can't really vote on those. They're already in there. So any amount of money on or above we're going to spend it just gives everybody else that can't make the meeting a fair

chance. Plus it gives everybody a chance to I want all the articles discussed so at least everybody has a chance to know what's going on before we even vote on them. So that's kind of general idea on what happened here. Thank you Donna. Anyone else care to speak on article 36? Yes ma'am.

Heather Roy. I live on Hollowell Road. I'd like to know if we have um an estimate of what this would cost to be able to to hold a ballot this way. Right. Can the clerk's office answer what a referendum election cost? Generally,

it's it's not really a referendum. So, it really I'm sorry. It's a It's a written ballot. It's a written ballot, but it's the same day that you vote on the municipal officers, right? Yes. Yeah. My terms of art are were off. It's a secret ballot election using a a printed ballot.

So, if u if it only went to one uh vote, it would it would not cost us any more to to do it. Um if there were items that were voted down and had to come back for another vote, I believe we figured it's about $1,000 per per vote. Um so, if we had to bring it back for another vote, it would be another thousand dollars or something like that. I am on the committee. Um what we found was that and we we have

a good turnout today for town meeting. Um last year I think there were 130 or 132 or something like this and we have I believe it's over 3,000 people that are entitled to vote in the town of Durham. So basically 130 people are deciding the bills for everybody else in this community. I mean when you think about it and I can't remember what the actual percentage was but it's like you know less than 1% of the people and only those that come to town meeting uh deciding everybody else's taxes which seem to us just wrong. Um,

granted, if they cared enough, they'd be here. Um, enough and have given up. Uh, there are some people who care enough and can't be here. So, this was an alternative. You asked how much additional time it would take if we voted today on sacred ballot for all of the items over 40,000 that were non-contractual.

except the time in the voting booth. So there is no additional time at town meeting. You still have the the discussion on the article so that everyone can be informed. There should be the way that the committee worked it out. no additional expense to the town of Durham except for possible printing costs. But if it all if it is all done on one ballot, so there's no additional expense. So all this is trying to do is to give more people the opportunity to vote.

Michelle Richardson. I closure closer. Really? I feel like I'm on top of this. You're all tall here today. I know. Or tip it up. Yeah, there we go. I'm I'm torn on this because I certainly agree with the premise of trying to increase our participation in um in the approval of the town budget. I think it's a I think it's a great idea to figure out how we do that. But my concern is more um I'm not sure where I heard the phrase, but something to the effect of the rule of unintended consequences. If we start having a vote on how many articles are there we would be voting on 30

what was the answer Kevin the question was how many articles for example in this year's warrant that would go to that written ballot Kevin Kevin will the way I counted it is uh based upon what's on this year's warrant if we were under those rules there'd be 13 uh articles that would be subject to that

and we don't vote on the full budget we vote article by article is that correct yes Okay. So, what happens when one or two or three of those articles fails? What like what's the procedure? Do the other ones go into effect, but we have to keep working on those? Um, and I'm going to guess Alice knows. Alice, the way it was presented, the way the committee um decided and what was presented to the uh board of selectmen was that it would be basically because of state rulings, you basically have an eitheror option, a yes or no option. The yes option would be whatever the board of selectmen and the uh budget committee recommended. The no option would be last

year's budget board of selectmen and the budget committee um had one item and everybody voted for that that would or the majority voted for that that would go through. If that failed, then no would mean we would go with last year's budget.

Thank you, Alice. Kevin, did you want to say something? Uh, yeah, that um that is not the way the articles appear on the warrant right now. Um the way they if if this passes, you'll notice there's two or three uh warrant articles that come after that. and they essentially say that uh until an article is passed um the town can spend a maximum of a three-year average of the previous years. So because most articles go up, you know, somewhat a couple percent at least uh most years, you wouldn't even be able to spend what you had spent the previous year. It would be an average of the previous three years. So there are subsequent articles that um that kind of detail that. And I I would also wonder under that scenario, what if the budget committee and the selectman differ on their recommendation? Uh do you then have three options? So, um I'm not sure how that works.

Yes, ma'am. and and you know generally most of our articles go up a reasonable amount because you guys do a great job in making sure that I mean if there was a year where we had an unusual expense that we weren't that's not recurring um and you know next year we're voting and we say yes this is the new number which in theory could be less than the prior year right so if last year we had a big purchase of something and this year we don't have that purchase but I still think this year's is too high if I vote no I'm voting for last year's big number. Like I I I feel like if we're voting no, then that article has to go back for discussion, re-evaluation, and then how do you guys know if people voted no because it was too high or voted no because it was too low because, you know, it's it's in the voting booth. So, you know, we can't have the discussion like you could here. Um I don't I don't know. I guess I I

understand the I understand the goal of more participation and I certainly am in favor of coming up with a way of of trying to do that. Um but I I'm not convinced that this is the way. And my other question on we talked about the cost of having the vote which um ideally would be no incremental cost because it's the same as the municipals if there are additional votes that would cost money but we would have to have a charter right. So has there these don't these aren't binding and you can't do them until we if we unless we had a charter. Is that correct?

Uh no they're not binding on the selectman but the selectman can choose can choose this option. So what does it say about the charter and bring it up? It's it has to be voted on every year and it's still not binding on the on the selectman. So the selectman could still choose to do a different way, but uh the selectman have the option to do this way. So if you vote for it, it wouldn't be wise of the selectman to do a different way next year, but it's not bind by state law, it's not binding on us. And and we wanted to make sure that was clear that by state law.

So if we had a charter, it would be binding. Is that what the what's the reference to the charter in the question for it? If we had a charter, we could write these things into the charter and then it would be combined. So, we don't have to have a charter to do this.

No, no, we don't have to have the charter. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Right up close to that mic. And you can tip the mic down a little. I think people should adjust that mic and get really close. I'm the shortest one to speak so far. Um, Antour Grosa Snow Road. My concern

is well, let me ask for a point of clarification. So the referendum would be before the town meeting. Is that correct? The referendum vote. Um so the the kind of plan that we have right now is uh the referendum vote we have to have open for 30 days for uh absentee ballot. And uh the actual vote day we'd probably still keep like the first Friday in April. We'd have the town meeting in the middle of March, uh, like the third somewhere around the third Saturday of March. And so it would have this town meeting would fall in the middle of the voting process. And we would also have a public information session during the town meeting to discuss the articles that would be on the ballot.

So here's my concern. I think that makes sense in that everyone who's at town meeting, so for example, um the fire chief this year is asking for a new fire truck and I want to hear him talk about that and tell me what the pros and cons are. The folks who need the secret ballot are the folks who are not going to be able to make it to the town meeting anyway. So, I'm not sure we're solving that problem. The folks who are at town meeting are those who are going to be the most educated, the most informed, able to listen to the pros and cons, and everybody speak in favor or against. The folks who need who I'm hearing need the secret ballot aren't those who are going to be sitting in the town meeting. The other thing, as Michelle identified, town meeting gives us a flexible approach where if we don't want to spend $200,000, but we want to spend $150,000, we can do that here without going back to the polls again and again, it's a

much more flexible process and efficient process, I think. Thank you. Thank you, Donna. the reason why this kind of got so complicated is because we didn't want to do a charter and get into a charter. Um so we were trying to get around all that. One of the things that they said is how are we going to choose when you got a budget or a selectman. And on one of the meetings um it had been brought up and agreed that we could do a alternating first a selectman then a budget number then alternating and a budget number. And then it was agreed that we would go with a three-year um average. So you'd have either the selectman number or the budget number and then you'd have your three-year average and that's what you'd vote on to get through that. The uh other part of it is um yeah, we do figure that most of

us can be here, but god forbid if there was a fire, half this place would be gone and they wouldn't get a chance to vote on everything. Um, so that was one of the things and like I said there there is I in my area I hear a lot of people stating afterwards, gee, how'd it go? I really wanted to be there um but I couldn't make it and and they are interested people that have participated. Jill Castingway is is wonderful. She was on the committee. She did a lot of work. She had medical emergencies today. she couldn't be here. And I know of a few others that really were interested in everything and they just can't participate. Um, let's see what was the other thing. So, I think I think I covered it, but the biggest thing was this got very complicated because of charters and trying to get away from a charter and try to get everybody to have a fair chance at it.

Thank you, Nor Kevin. uh if I if I understood what um Donna said correctly and first let me say I I share the sentiment of getting more people involved and I really appreciate the work that Donna and the committee did on this and and um appreciate the motivation behind it but I if I heard it correctly I'm troubled by the notion that there would be some sort of agreement to alternate yeartoear the budget committees and the selectman's recommendation on a particular article I mean the whole purpose this this year is not a great example because we happen to agree on just about everything. But on when on those times when there is a disagreement to say, well well this year it's the selectman's turn and that's the one we're going to put before the people. It if I might be hearing this wrong, maybe Donna can come back up and explain that. But um that the whole purpose of budget committee selectment committee is to in some cases

present two options and the arguments attached to them and then let the community decide. So I might be understanding that wrong. So she's saying I am. So maybe I didn't present it right obviously. Um anyway, it wasn't for like this year budget committee and this year selectman. No, it was every other article, you know, like you go through and you just they cuz we had

we do that now. So So every article wouldn't have both the selectman and the budget committee's recommendation. No. See, that's my problem. either have we would switch back and forth to do it evenly on it. And I think Jay might have more information on that. The other thing was um on the town to have the town meeting uh the voting after town meeting this way here. We used to do it that way and we it gave us a chance to to meet um the people that were trying to run for selectmen or budget committee or anything. They used to get up and introduce themselves and say who they were. So that was another reason for changing the voting and everything after town meeting. So

thank you. Yes, ma'am. Can you tip that right down and get very close? You almost have to bite it. Jane Rice, Bowie Hill. Um I guess my thought on if it went to a referendum or a vote um after the fact, people I think they're being said saying that people would be uninformed. the people that did not come to the meeting. I mean, we're having this videotaped. Why couldn't it be on the public channel so that people could educate themselves prior to going and doing the written ballot?

Thank you. Is there somebody that can answer that question? Are we videotaping and we it would be it could be on the town channel uh within a couple a couple days after the meeting. Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Paula Erdman Party from Hollowell Road. This sounds like this is going to start to change our way of government. And I have to say um being part of Durham and the town meeting and you know that's the whole process of a small town in a community and I really feel that this the it's a civic duty of everyone to be here. Um yeah there's a few people who can't make it but there's almost 4,000 people in town who aren't here and there are many people I know that say well I don't really care. Doesn't matter to me. So I I my concern is the change of government and I like the the town meeting concept and I you know I think that's why a lot of people are here. Um so just to just to throw that out there.

Thank you Eric. Eric Bowie Stackpole Road. I think we all know that we like to keep town meeting the way it was. It's very romantic. It's very unusual. Uh, I don't think I'd ever have heard it called for music. Oh, if you if you, you know, work with people who live in the city of Portland or Lewis now. Oh, it's so great to still have time. Isn't that a great time of year? It's just so wonderful. And it is. And we're very lucky and we're very privileged. We've had a lot of people who have worked very hard over the years to make this town uh continue to operate under that uh form of government. But I think 50 years ago when the town budget was probably $100,000, it was much easier to have a civil conversation about where we should spend our money because it was such a a lesser

impact on the overall spending of every household. And Jeff or Kevin or Mil can what what is the just roughly what what's the budget for the town? 4 million That's the municipal budget. That's the municipal bud. Okay. And and granted, we don't have as much say over the uh school budget, but the idea that a 100 people or 130 people

have the say of how to spend over $2 million just isn't maybe the way to proceed. And I do think that if anyone has interest in what the article stands for, there are they can talk to their neighbors, they can talk to their friends, they can be informed, and then they can go vote their conscience without feeling that. And the reason that people don't come to town meeting, it's become so contentious in so many ways that yeah, why go and ruin a Saturday morning listening to people fight over this and then and then stand up and feel like you're going to vote and then be judged on how you vote. And granted, we can do a secret ballot, but it's it it isn't reliable. a having a ballot to vote on these articles and and take it upon yourself to be informed on how to vote is probably is in my opinion the way that we should be looking at how to run this town. It's growing. It's getting bigger. We can

still have town meeting. We just need to maybe reconsider how we uh end up where we end up. So, thank you. Thank you, Eric. Uh Mike Fair, Pinkham Road. easy way, right? Um, by show of hands, can everyone who's not on the internet raise your hand, please? Who's not on the internet? Okay, we're in the information age, right? Um, the place where we moved from um been out here a couple years almost and very community has been very welcoming to our family and I'm appreciative of that. Uh but where we moved from uh furnished voter guides probably about 3/4 of an inch thick and made with recycled paper, very lightweight, very uh budget conscious if you will. Um but it would seem to me that a voter guide on these issues u that we have time to review and process and think through. Uh, I got this yesterday and I only had a chance to review it while I was waiting in line here this morning. Um, seemed like if we

had more time to think about these issues and and have a pro and con uh, discussion in the voter guide that we'd be able to make more informed decisions instead of, you know, in 30 seconds all in favor. You see what I'm saying? And so, and those who weren't online, they could request a written copy from the town office or pick it up at the town office. That way, we're actually making informed decisions when we do come here to vote.

Thank you, Chuck. Chuck Pollock Newbrook. for me. Um, the gentleman sat there and said that only 130 people are voting today. There's over 4,000 people in this town. They're saying that they're concerned that because of emergency reasons, they're not here. If you took 10% of that and said 10% of the 4,000 that aren't going to be here, that's still 3600 people that should be here to vote. It is your duty. It is your right. It is your choice whether you are here or not. The the rest of the people in the town are choosing not to be here. No matter how we change this or how we move it around, they still more than likely

you'll get some increase, but for the majority of them, they're still not going to be concerned enough to come and take the time to vote. Personally, I like the banter back and forth here. I think it is good. I think it educates all of us to a better to do a better vote. Yeah, some of some people are going to make a snap decision on their vote. The information is out there. Today is not was not your first day chance to get this book. I mean, they are out there prior to that. Um, just more people just need to be concerned and get the vote and I I I guess so I'm I I want it to stay the way it is and hopefully everybody else will go that rout.

you know. Yes, sir. Roland Reed Hollow Road. Uh, can you tip that mic up and get a little closer? There you go. Get Or you can pick the whole thing up. I guess if you Yeah. Don't if you pick it up too much then the shorter people can't There you go.

Last night's uh vote. Put it right up. Right up. Was that a secret ballot? Were secret ballots ballot out yesterday for the vote? Yes. Okay. I just recently moved here about a year and a half ago from Warner Robbins, Georgia. We have 165,000 people that lives in the town. We do not have this many people that shows up for the town meeting.

see yesterday's vote beside the RSU 5, I also selected my what they call selectman. Is that am I correct? So, I made my choice yesterday who's going to run my town and do my choices. If I don't like who I put in there, then I won't vote for him next time. It's just like our congressman and our senators and our president. They don't ask us every time they're going to do something. So, basically what I'm saying, Durham's got something really going on here. This town meeting, these people, this get together. I don't think we need to tie the hands of the people we selected to represent us. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Yes. Um I have a procedural question for the board. If if if we adopted this and say a handful of articles failed, what is the um timing and requirements with regard to um is another public hearing required and period of notice? Do you need another 30 days for absentee ballots? I mean, can you tell us a little bit about procedures if not every article passes on the first ballot?

Um, if we were to put it out and not just take the uh um the pre the average of the previous 3 years, we would need at least 30 days because we'd have to have another 30-day written ballot. We uh there's no requirement of public hearing or anything of that like that. But I'm sorry, there's no uh there's no requirement of a public hearing, but there is a 30-day requirement for uh um

absentee ballot balloting. Yeah. lose the banter. We do not lose the feeling of, you know, the town meeting. Um because all of the banter would happen at town meeting, the vote would be afterwards. Here are here are the obstacles that the committee faced. In order to have an absentee ballot, you need 30 days. Okay.

Um the other problem was the town meeting was the first Saturday in April. Today technically um the selectman was supposed to take office before the beginning of April. That was another technicality. We were only had the option of basically a yes or no vote if we didn't want what you're concerned about which is the multiple elections and which is what we were concerned about because we wanted this to be a minimal cost to the town of Dorm if any.

The question was could we have the voting for the municipal officers after town meeting? The answer was yes we could. We used to town officials used to be you had to adjourn the town meeting by 300 p.m. so that the polls could open so that we could vote for the officers. So there's that that was just a procedural question. We so we could do the election for the municipal officers and we could have those items. Let's face it, where do we get the controversy? We get the controversy if we're going to get a new firet truck. We get the controversy now we're going to have it if it, you know, if we get a new public works truck, the things that people wanted the secret ballot that we voted down for so that they could actually vote what they wanted. So that's why we picked the amount we didn't want to worry about the, you know, the cemetery fund for a couple thousand. We didn't want to have to worry about giving $500 to this

charitable organization. We figured, yeah, it's all right if less than 1% control those items. They're small. Basically, anything over and we chose the amount of $40,000. So, figure the problems we had. You have to have an absentee ballot. You have to have 30 days before the absentee ballot.

And I agree with the gentleman. These things don't come out until roughly what, a week before, 10 days if we're lucky. and then we can go to the town office or Durham get and go and pick up our copy of the warrant we wanted. So you've still got the discussion. I assume the people of Durm are intelligent enough that if we have one year before out of the three that is a spiked item where we spent an additional $100,000 that we wouldn't have normally that when they see the higher amount there and the selectman and budget committees recommendation there that they would vote for the lower amount which would be the selectman and the budget committees this year on this article. Is there any article where the selectman and the budget committee did not agree?

No, there is not one. There is not one. There is normally one or two. And the difference is going through old warrants is normally it's something like $500 because they think that, you know, the selectman think this ought to go or the budget committee wants to give an extra computer. There there is if you can find me one that goes over $1,000 difference between the committee budget committee and the selectman. It's rare. I don't remember any. I didn't find any. So, you know, to say that uh

we're taking away the the rights of either the selectman of the budget committee isn't the case. Not one article was at its agreement, which is wonderful. It means that you both were at CAD. You both came up with a common number.

Now I forget. Now I forget what I was going to say. Um, this is a typical town meeting here where there's a special item up that uh, okay, now we're going to get our special interest people come in and and crowd the town meeting. Not that this is a big crowd. Um, just like the vote yesterday, we had more than the normal town meeting votes uh because of the RSU vote. If

people are interested enough in the town to to say what they want to happen in the town, they'll show up to these meetings and vote. That's your duty. Like Chuck said, it's everybody's duty to come to these meetings, find out what you want to do, say your piece if you want to say your piece, and vote how you want to vote. I don't think anybody's ever been chided because they voted one way or the other by a hands vote here at this town meeting. I I just said I don't think but I I

personally would like to see that this um warrant article gets voted down. Thank you. Yes, sir. I'd like to call a question. Is there a second? All right, Fred. Did you see Fred call the question? Uh seconded. means we're going to vote on whether you want to vote on the motion to pass article 36. So calling the question

is, let's see, uh 2/3. So we're going to need 2/3 of those voting yes on this question, which is whether we're ready to vote on the other one. So, all those in favor of calling the question, raise your cards and hold them up. Thank you. All those opposed. Passes overwhelmingly. We are now at article 36 and the motion before you. Article 36. The motion seeks to pass the article which says to see if the town will vote to recommend holding a secret ballot referendum election in accordance with title 30A and title 21A to be held after town meeting in 2017 to approve all warrant articles in excess of $50,000. This referendum shall not include items such as contracts and bonds into which the town has previously entered into in good faith, nor shall it include any initial votes to approve bonds. The note says that this is an advisory vote and is not binding on the selection per title 3A section 25501

without a charter. The method of voting and the conduct of a municipal election are governed by title 21A. All those in favor of the motion to pass article 36 as written, raise your cards and hold them up. Thank you. All those opposed, the motion fails.

to move town meeting to the third Saturday in March 2000. Can I move to pass by all three of those? No. No. We're going to vote them. We have to move for passage in a second. If you don't want to pass it, vote no. Okay. But we're going to do it. They're all on the warrant articles. Uh all in the warrant. So, we're going to take them up one at a time and vote on them. I understand it's a housekeeping sort of measure. Do you have a question, ma'am? 447,

because they're on the warrant before you, we have to take an up and down vote on those articles. It'll be procedural and I think it will be quite quick. Article 37, to see if the town will vote to move town meeting to the 3rd Saturday, March 2017 to accommodate the referendum vote. May we have a motion, please? It's been moved by Jeff and seconded by Sarah that we pass Article 37. Is there any discussion or comment on this? If you voted no on the prior article, you will vote no on the motion before you. Everybody clear? All right. All those in favor of article 37 and the motion before you raise your cards. All those opposed. The motion fails. Article 38 to see if the town will vote to authorize the board of selectmen to spend an amount not to exceed an average of the past three accepted annual budget amounts for those budgets to be voted on by referendum except accepting public works until a

budget is passed. May I have a motion, please? It's been moved and seconded that we pass Article 38 as written. Your vote should be consistent with your prior votes. Any questions? All those in favor of passing article 38 as written, raise your cards. All those opposed, motion fails. Article 39 to see if the town will vote to authorize the board of selectment to spend an amount not to exceed an average of the past two accepted annual public works budget amounts until a budget is passed. May I have a motion, please? It's been moved and second that we pass article 39 as written. Discussion? Seeing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor of the motion, raise your card. All those opposed, the motion fails.

the cordiality of that discussion. It's an important one and I think people on both sides did a very nice job of presenting their case and arguing for or against it. Yes, sir. Do you have something? All right. Here's uh you can make that motion. If there's a second, we'll go through whether we want to take it out of order. All right. There's been a motion uh made and seconded to take article 33 out of order. This will require twothirds of those present in voting in order to pass. Comments and discussion. Yes, sir.

So, I'm not it's not clear to me why this is an upfront more in the warrant anyway because if this passes or fails, then it affects what we are allowed to levy for taxes. So, we'll be going through a whole bunch of articles that could get um reduced if the tax levy

limit is maintained. And by by the way, this Can you say that again and get closer cuz I I I heard you, but I think it was really it wasn't coming out over the speakers. So, so this is regarding a law passed and signed by Governor Bodachi in 2005 which is a tax levy limit on the municipalities. It was designed to limit the amount of growth in what the municipalities could uh tax uh the

citizens and it's a formula which is the average of the state income increase or decrease and the property value increase for the previous year and there is a worksheet that Ruth has filled out and come up with this number in that article which is $897,000 which is significantly less than what the town intends to levy. I think it's 1.3 million that the town intends to levy or something like that. So there's a huge difference between what the folks who passed this law thought was right and what the town is actually going to levy. So if we in if we enforce this levy, my understanding is the town cannot spend that money um over and above that. So again, to me, this article should be right up front. Now, maybe I don't think I'm misstating anything. Perhaps somebody could clarify that, but I think I'm right. Okay. Thank you. We're going to Any other comments or discussion on the motion before you, which is to take this

item up out of order. It's just we're going to deal with this right now. That's what we're talking about. Not the merits of the argument one way or the other, but I wanted to give the gentleman a chance just to explain why he wants to take it up out of order. Um any other questions about or discussion about taking this up out of order? Kevin,

um procedural question is do when we get is it at the tail end of the warrant because decisions we make uh on spending articles somehow inform a particular number that we that we have to raise the limit to. I don't know if there's somebody from selectment or administrator. Is is this article dependent upon things we do in earlier articles?

There's no number in this article that's dependent upon it. Um this are um so this article uh would have the same effect, you know, whether it's voted on now or whether it's voted on later, it it it would have the same effect.

and and have a discussion on this right now? That's what's in front of you. Just the method and timing of the vote, not the method, the timing of the vote. So, any further discussion on whether we're going to take this up out of order. We've already started, so we may as well keep on going, but that's just a non voters's opinion. So, any uh any further discussion? All those in favor of taking this up out of order, raise your cards. All those opposed. All right, we're going to have to count whether we're going to take this up out of order. All those in favor of taking this item up right now out of order, raise your cards and keep them up.

All those opposed, raise your cards and keep them up. One, two, three, try a visual count. Now, hold them way up because we're quite a ways off uh in our count. Oh, no. Glasses. No. All right. You may take your cards down. We have a a very substantial disagreement here in the number and in my mind it's too close to call. So, we're going to take a written ballot on whether you want to vote on this. I'm I'm sorry. Unless you want to take another vote on what was just before you. I don't want to call. You know what? I'll do a standing count. I'll do a standing count. Let's do that and see if that works. And if I'll apologize if I'm way off and get my glasses fixed, but okay. So, the motion before you, that's a good idea not to do the written ballot. Let's just do a standing count. Um, if you are in favor of the motion to take this article up right now, please stand and remain standing until counted.

Huh? Right. We're exactly on on that one. All right. Um my mic, you can uh let me see my Was anybody counting or not? Were we counting? Okay. All right. You're going to have to trust me. We'll see how close this one is. All right. Take your seat. And all those opposed to the motion, please stand and remain standing until counted. Uh-oh. Look at this one.

Oh my god. Okay. All right. We're right. All right. Thank you. You may be seated. Both of your counters have the motion failing by a substantial number given the twothirds requirement particularly. So, she was closer than I was, but uh not by much. Anyway, I I apologize for thinking about a written ballot. That was that was quite it was it was a margin of at least 15 to 20 votes um that that led to the the motion failing. So, we are now back at

article article two we've done. You've heard who your offices are. We are at article three. Um Let's see. To vote on Oh, yes. I'm sorry. Thank you. We took care of that. Four, five, article six to see if the town will vote to raise and or appropriate $50,000 for the RSU 5

withdrawal committee. This article is no longer one that can be passed given the referendum result that occurred yesterday. So, I am going to ask you to vote it down. And if you vote it up, it's not going to have any effect.

I move zero. You move zero. Okay. We'll have a motion to appropriate zero under article six. Uh made by Jeff, seconded by Sarah. Any comments or discussion? Seeing none, I'll call for a vote on the motion. All those in favor of the motion, raise your cards. Thank you. All those opposed? Motion carries to raise zero. All right. Article 7 to see if the town will vote to appropriate $195,587

clerical error for the budget year 2015. May I have a motion, please? So moved. It's been moved by Jeff, second by Sarah that we pass article 7 as written. The note under that article says, "During the 2015 commitment, the figures for appropriated funds and raised funds were inadvertently switched, causing a shortfall in the town's tax commitment of $195,587.

undesated funds for this shortfall." Is there discussion? Alan, Mr. Moderator, Alan Purrington, Day Road. Uh, one question I need to have Jeff uh, clarify. At the beginning of the meeting, he said that if we were voting to approve the articles, uh, we're looking at a 5.9% increase over last year's rate. And I'm just wondering, does that include uh, we have a bond article 21 for 474,000. We have article 30 for 1.1 million. Does that include those if those were passed?

Um, it does not in there would be no payment due on those this year. So, uh, what what I was reflecting is just what would be paid this year. So, those are not included in that calculation because we we don't know what the payments would be yet or anything. So, and the payments wouldn't start until next year on either of those.

Jeeoff, you got to get closer to the mic. Um the budget increase, the increase that I mentioned is only what's affecting this year and those two articles um are would not affect this year's budget because there would be no payments due until next year and would not be not be affecting taxes until next year.

Yes. Other questions, comments, discussion on um article seven on article seven uh the with regard to the clerical error. It was um an issue that was discovered during this year's audit. Um we the board of selectman was made aware of it I believe in late January or early February and uh as

stated in uh in the note below the article it was a matter of taking the wrong number and filling it into an equation um and the two numbers were off by $195,587. So in effect you uh last year last year's taxes didn't go up as much as they were supposed to and uh Right. Exactly. And and and so it will affect this year's taxes which uh when I mentioned the tax impact um I mentioned about half of the tax impact is going to be related to that amount of money and then the rest of it is the rest of the budget.

Thank you. Any comments? Yes, Chuck. Get ready. Jeff, quick question for this. All right. We we understand that the undesated funds is where it has to come out of, but in in the past, we always tried to keep a certain percentage in the undesated funds in case something like this occurred. Okay. You're going to have to replace this in undesated funds to keep that percentage back up to where we were trying to get it to. How will you replace this in undesated funds? So um in the last few years we have been

trying to increase undesated funds to a level so that we don't have to take tax anticipation notes before our commitment. Um and we haven't reached that point. This set us back. Um, typically what happens is um any unspent

funds from uh from articles other than fire department and public works will typically lapse back into undesated funds. That amount's usually fairly small. We also have what's called an overlay, which is um uh a percentage over the amount of the commitment. Um t I think recently we've used two or 2 and a.5% that's used to cover abatements or any or unpaid taxes and things like that. And um if if not

all of that is used, that will that will also stay in the undesated funds. And that's typically how those will be um boosted. And um so this year it it hurt us. This year our undesated fund balance fell by about $100,000. Um it's I believe around 700

uh it's it's a 781,000 um as of Janu January 1st this year. And eventually we want it to be, I believe, somewhere in the 1.3 1.4 million uh range. So we it's been a long process, but rather than try to hit everybody all at once and um do a do a taxation to

raise that up, we've been trying to do it um over the years, just letting it build up on its own. Um I forget. Do you remember how much approximately we paid in interest on the tax anticipation note last year? Yeah. Yeah. Less than $1,000 for our tax anticipation note. So um even though we have to do it, it's not a a heavy impact, but eventually we'd like to get away from having to do that. So

discussion or comments on article, let me get back to it. Here we go. Article 7 and the motion before you, which is to pass the article as written. Seeing none, I'll call for vote on the motion. All those in favor of the motion, raise your cards. Thank you. All those opposed? Motion passes.

Article 8. To see what sum of money the town will vote to raise and or appropriate for administration expenses. Both the budget committee and the selectman recommend the amount of $352,49 by transferring 98,762 from designated funds. Building permits 11,50 electrical permits 4,875. Plumbing permits 5,475. Delinquent tax interest 36,577.

Vehicle registrations $14,000. Tax exempt reimbursement 18,551. Town clerk fees $6,877. Miscellaneous revenues $1,357 and raise $253,647. It's been moved and seconded that we pass articles 8 as written. Comments, questions, and discussion. Alan, Mr. moderator. I think it would be beneficial to the town's people here today that we uh there would be some discussion from both the select men on a budget committee what the variance is on this from the previous year and if there was an increase or decrease uh where specifically did that affect.

Thank you. Do we have that number from last year's budget on this item, administrative expenses? we're asking for this year is a $24,500 increase in this line, approximately 7.5%. The majority of the there are two I believe there are two items that are driving the increase. Um,

there's one one major one that's that's in driving the increase and we are asking that our codes official uh be moved from a part-time position to a full-time position. Um at the beginning of the budget process, the codes official came to us and requested this um due to the fact that he um is having a hard time completing all of his all of his work in the time that's given him. Um in the last year

um the uh the amount of monies that were brought in from permitting uh went from um somewhere around $8,000 last year to over 20,000 this year. Um if you go back and look over the last uh few years um there were it was around 8,000 around 10,000 around 15,000. So even on the higher year higher years we still brought in uh over 20,000 in in uh

fees from codes this year. Um I believe there's two reasons for that. What the major reason is we've had a lot more permits being taken out and the other reason is we we did it um at the request of the codes officer we did do an adjustment on the fee schedule um be to

make it more accurate to what to what's being used when they when the uh permits are being taken out. Um, and so that that accounts for I would say close to uh 70 to 80% of the increase in this line. I'm looking for any other major

Yeah, you got to get closer to Mike. I'm looking for uh if there's any other major lines that increased as well, Let me see where are the Yes, sir. Yeah. Also, one of the uh active increases I believe was you have an extra week pay this year due to

Yeah. Oh, thank you. Yes. on on all the all the salaries um show an increase uh without any raises and we have we have put in uh for a in this budget we put in for a small raise pool as well but um this week is a 53-w week year um so in order to uh

cover that we've had to put a little extra in for that as well thank you I noticed that there is a uh reduction on town reports printing. Uh last year we had a budget of $2,200 and we expended $21.85 and this next year we're spending zero. How can that be?

Uh we move that to telecommunications budget. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. I had that same question. Get closer. All right. Um to the mic. Not to you. Okay. Um I had that same question. I know you I saw you moved it to telecommunication. Does Does that mean they're not going to be paper anymore?

No, they're still they're still going to be paper. So, they're not actually like Okay, got it. Um, and then the other one that I saw in here that went down a good amount to zero is the grounds, but it looked like maybe some other areas you guys moved things between how you categorize things. Is that correct?

The grounds was moved to public works. The public works has taken over that. It had been a contracted. Okay. So, that's a $5,000 reduction. Um, so it's just reallocated. So those 6,000 are actually still in the budget. They're somewhere else, right? So, um, the other thing that I saw that went up, and I'm going to guess it's because it's a presidential election year, is the election expenses went up a good amount. So,

yes. Um, yes, there were several reasons why that, but one of the major reasons is going to be it's a it's a it's a presidential election year. Also, because it's the June is June is also a primary. the RSU is not going to be covering the cost of our June election where if there's no primary, the RSU covers the cost of that election.

Okay. Um and can you tell us what the um it looked like health and insurance went up about 8%. Is that what you guys saw in an increase? Yes. Some went up 1% and some went up eight. So, I'm guessing maybe different people.

And part of it was due to uh budgeting uh errors last year getting the numbers quite right. They should. Yeah, typically you should see that they go up together, but um there were there were some numbers that were put in incorrectly or something last year. So that's why they don't you don't see the same jump.

They're not moving together, but roughly 8% was what you guys saw for an insurance increase this year for the I believe I believe that's roughly what the increase was. Yeah. Thank you. Yes, sir. Uh Jeff Dit, you get really close. Hi, Jeff. Get really close.

Close enough. A little closer. Closer. Okay. Uh Jeeoff, I just had a question about the increase for the anticipated extra hours for the code enforcement. Is that uh in anticipation of extending the hours? Has that decision been made to do that or is that another issue altogether?

It's an anticipation. We we we did not uh we were not going to make the decision until after. Okay. So, you haven't that this is in All right. So, we have another time to address that. I guess I I guess my um No, this is the time to address it. We we were not going to make the decision until a vote's been taken.

Okay. So, first off, you're voting to see if you will raise uh funds to uh allow for the extended hours, right? And and the the the actual decision is a decision of the board of selectmen whether to change the position to full-time.

Understood. Um, and then one other followup. I'm I'm in the building construction industry and I've seen pretty much a 30-year period of building in Durham. And many of you know that there's been times when it was crazy here, but we've just come off a time where there hasn't been a lot of activity. So, I guess another question is if we do this, will the funds come strictly from uh building permits? And if we don't have that kind of a year, where will the money come from? Um, get closer, Jeff.

The uh as No, no, I meant Jeff W. Sorry. Any uh any funds from from the fees would go to this position, but they do it does not cover it 100%. If we saw a decrease in the permits and the amount of work that was needed to to complete the job and so on, we would have to re-evaluate the position again. Okay. And and another thing that I would, you know, I can only speak for myself, but if there's any way building contractors within the community can contribute to uh maybe help um so that he doesn't have so many hours or it doesn't become uh you know a burden, I'm willing to do it because I guess uh anybody that knows me, I guess I come from the libertarian side and if we can keep things to a minimum so that everybody's served buy it and that would be my uh I'd like that. Thanks very much.

Thanks, Jeff. Yes, ma'am. Can you cost to get Rangale? Um I I just need a little help with the uh maybe some simple math. So, what we're asking for is incre you can't hear me. Increasing administrative cost by 24,000 for the position that is only pulling in 20,000. Um the let's so

raising the salary by $10,000 and then there would be the benefits that would go with uh with with full-time employment um looking for that line which would be about approximately uh 5,500 00. So 15,000 uh 15 to 16,000 of that 24,000 is

covered in that. Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Pull that link. Just twist it down a little. Get really close. Is that good? Yeah. Jane Rice Bowie Hill. Um so I just wanted to make it a point that it's just not the salary increase. There's also benefits involved. And then is Maine PERS also affected? Um I do not

person uh main pers would not be affected by this person I do not believe. However, if main pers is not affected then social security would be affected. Okay. So it's just not 106. Um the other piece and I ask every single year um health insurance. What is the town paying for our town employees? What percentage?

We're paying 80 80%. Uh the employees are paying 20. We did do we did do an evaluation again this year comparing us to other towns in the area and other towns of similar size and found that we were in the middle if not to the lower the lower end of what was being provided. We also did a um an evaluation if if we changed plans um to a higher deductible plan and then funded uh funded some of that deductible and it ended up showing that we'd actually for the first year we'd have to pay more to help fund to help fund the cost to cover the difference and in the in future years it might save us a little but that was all dependent on how much of that fund was used. So we did do some evaluations this year on it and um but we have not made any changes to the plan as of right now.

Thank you for taking the time. Thank you Jeff. Yes ma'am. Heather Roy Hollowal Road. I would just like to say that as a person who has utilized the previous code enforcement officer um to the current code enforcement officer. the previous code enforcement officer would um if anybody else has had experience would know this say if I'm not there within 24 hours you can keep going and as a person who was doing a lot of work on our own we actually needed we needed the opinion of a professional to say this is safe or this is not safe what you're doing um Paul has been a phenomenal resource for myself my family where we are um in the process of doing an addition as as well as um a home occupation, which I did with the previous code enforcement officer as well. So, I would just like to speak on behalf of Paul and say that I completely support um raising his position to a full-time position because

he has been an extremely important resource for myself personally. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Uh and Tora, in addition to being um just a citizen here today, I'm also the vice chair of the planning board. closer to the mic.

Vice chair of the planning board. Um, and I've worked closely with Paul as well as the former code officer. Um, I also I'm a municipal attorney. I work quite closely with code officers from a bunch of different municipalities. And um, Paul is one of the good ones. He is professional. He brings a lot to Durham. Earlier we heard about how Durham is growing and it is. In the past 10 or 15 years, we've seen Durham grow exponentially and that includes a lot of buildings. It includes a lot of um home occupations. It includes a lot of different folks coming in. Uh and I trust the selectman and our code officer that if he needs more time to deliver the level of service that this town needs, I agree with providing that.

Thank you. Any other comments? Yes, Alice. undoubtedly going to vote for this, but I want to get a bottom line, Jeff. Municipally, what is our tax increase expected to be for this year? Is it 5%? You're saying from from the municipal side, we can expect to see five uh almost 6%. Um,

and but that does not include what the school's going to come in after, right? which we assume is going to be someplace around two under the assumption that they don't. Yeah. But but that will that will affect the bottom the mill rate will go up approximately 1.03. Okay.

Uh due to the municipal budget. Okay. So but we're talking a 5% increase in our taxes. Six 6% increase in our taxes. Correct. Okay. I have no problem with this simply because we haven't given salary increases um to our employees for a very long period of time simply because we couldn't afford it. But now I mean it's just logical that they are entitled to increases. I also have no problem with uh code enforcement being increased but we have been complaining on other articles. Just remember, we're talking about a 6% increase in our taxes

after the multiple increases that we've had for the past four years, 5 years. And when you're considering these other articles, just know that there seriously are people in this community that can't afford the taxes they're being build now and definitely cannot afford another 6% over the increases that we've already had.

Thank you, Alice. Yes, ma'am. Sorry. Can I just reiterate that that 5 to 6% is only the municipal side does not include the bonds that won't affect us this year but will affect us next year and that has nothing to do with the RSU. So in reality our taxes are going up way more than five or 6%.

Yes, I think that is correct from everything that's been stated. Any other comments or discussion on article 8 and the motion before you which is to pass the article as written? Seeing none, I'll call for a vote on the motion. All those in favor of the motion, raise your cards. Thank you. All those opposed. The motion passes. Article 9 to see what sum of money the town will vote to raise and or appropriate for animal control. Both the budget committee and the selectman recommend the amount of $13,043 by transferring $129 from the designated fund balance animal control and raising $12,914. May I have a motion, please? It's been moved and seconded that we pass Article 9 as written. Comments, discussion, questions? Seeing none, I'll call for a vote on the motion. All those in favor of the motion, raise your cards. Thank you. All those opposed. Motion carries. Article 10 to see what sum of money the

town will vote to raise andor appropriate for assessing both the selection and budget committee recommend the amount of $20,50 which is to be raised. May I have a motion, please? It's been moved and uh we're Sarah moved it. I need a second. Mil Simon seconds it under article 10 to

pass the article as written. Any comments, discussions? Seeing none, I'll call for a vote on the motion. All those in favor of the motion, raise your cards. Thank you. All those opposed? Motion carries. Article 11. To see what sum of money the town will vote to raise andor appropriate for cemeteries, both the select and budget committee recommend the amount of $3,850 which is to be raised. May I have a motion, please? It's been moved and seconded that we pass Article 11 as written. Any comments or discussion? Seeing none, I'll call for a vote on the motion. All those in favor, raise your cards. Thank you. All those opposed. Motion carries. Article 12. to see what sum of money the town will vote to raise and or appropriate for conservation. Both the select and budget committee recommend the sum of $2,150 by transferring that amount from the designated fund balance for the recreation fund. May I have a motion,

please? It's been moved and seconded that we pass article 12 as written. Any comments or discussion? Seeing none, I'll call for a vote on the motion. All those in favor, raise your cards. Thank you. All those opposed? Motion passes.

Article 13 to see what sum of money the town will vote to raise and or appropriate for social and community service agencies. The selectman and budget committee recommend the sum of $3,000 by raising that amount with donations to be made to community concepts for $500. Western Main Transportation for $500.

$500. Seniors Plus $500 and Liflight $500. May I have a motion, please? It's been moved and seconded that we pass article 13 as written. Any comments or discussion? Yes, ma'am. Really close to that. Mike, put it. You can turn it. You can pick it up a little so that you can Yeah.

Yes. Hello. Yeah. Um my name is Elizabeth Haffy. um with Community Concepts and I just wanted to say that um we're happy to provide the town of Durham with emergency fuel assistance, transportation of elders and veterans to medical appointments and children and family services. Your contribution of $500 helps us give over $80,000 in services to your community and we would very much appreciate your continued support. Thank you.

Thank you. Any further discussion or comments on article 13 and the motion before you? Seeing none, I'll call for a vote on the motion. All those in favor of the motion, raise your card. Thank you. All those opposed. Motion passes. Article 14 to see what sum of money the town will vote to raise and or appropriate for their Eureka Community Center. Both the select and budget committee recommend the sum $5,436 by transferring $624 from the designated fund balance from Eureka Rentals and raising $4,812. May I have a motion, please? It's been moved and seconded that we pass Article 14 as written. Any comments, discussion?

Yes, sir. discussion. wiped out. It's a uh vinyl composition tile and there's a small group of um citizens that are going to be donating to uh installing a hardwood or a wood floor uh from local a little closer. Sorry. uh citizens are going to be donating a uh wood floor from local timber and trying to work with local mills to uh have that mil for the installation which should be uh donated as well. So if anyone has any ideas on that, approach me after the meeting. Thank you very much. Any other comments or discussion on article 14 in the motion before you which is to pass the article as written. Seeing none, I'll call for a vote on the motion. All those in favor raise your cards. Thank you. All those opposed. Motion carries. Article 15 to see what sum of money the town will vote to raise and or appropriate from the Eureka Community Center fundraising fund to reimburse the emergency fund which was utilized to

repair the sinkhole at the Eureka Center. Both the selectment and budget committee recommend the sum of $1,650 by transferring that amount from the designated fund balance for the Eureka fundraising to the emergency fund. Any May I have a motion, please? It's been moved and seconded we pass article 15 as written. Any comments or discussion? Are you going to did you want to say something, sir?

No. Okay. Um see yes. Um, is there a reason we didn't use our public works to fix the sinkhole? Um, they were not as available at the time. However, our uh public works director did go out and uh do the inspection on it and between him and the codes officer to kind of determine what needed to be done. But um we at that point it was early on in our new uh public works director's uh job and uh

just wasn't available to to do it at the time. Okay. Yeah. Thanks. Any other questions or comments on article 15 of the motion before you to pass that article as written? Seeing none, I'll call for vote of the motion. All those in favor of the motion, raise your cards. Thank you. All those opposed. The motion carries. Article 16.