TranscriptSelect Board Meeting ~ November 18, 2025

with to the stands indivisible and justice for all. Uh meeting called to order here at 6:50 a few minutes late due to last minute need to move to Eureka Center. Um we have a quorum and uh for the first time joining us is Mr. Talbin. John was recently elected as special election to fill a vacancy. So we're happy to have John here after several years of dedicated service to the community both in the budget committee and the uh planning board. John has stepped up to the role of select board member and we're happy to have you. So uh your your sentence begins today. Um, do we have any amendments to the agenda?

session that's not on. All right. Yep. We will be adding an executive session uh pursuant to 36 MRS8412. Okay. Section 4056F. That's that's there any other amendments to the agenda? Um I would like to move uh the fire department discussion to ahead of old business uh to just have that right away so we can get chief up here. Uh Pronto, is anyone everyone all right with that?

Yeah. All right. Do I have a motion? Was there something else you were going to add? I saw an email. someone there did already make the agenda. Yeah, I'm going to just uh in my in my board member report uh make mention of that. So, thank you, John. But do we have a motion to move the fire department to uh immediately after approval of meeting minutes? So,

all right. Do I have a second? Second. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Any opposition? Seeing none, I don't see anyone here for public comment. All right. Do I have a motion to approve the meeting minutes from October 28, 2025 as submitted? So motion by Josh. Do I have a second?

Second. Deb. Any discussion? Any questions? I probably need to abstain. That's fine. Um, all in favor? Any oppositions? Any John. All right. Uh, we're going to have Chief come up right away here. deputy EMS for fire. Always bring back.

memorized. Okay. All right. Chief, you want to introduce this? Yeah, I do. Um, so as you know, we have a vacant position at the fire department. So the question before, I'm assuming that you read justification. The question what you need to discuss is um do we want to move that parttime position to a full-time position? It's been a part-time position for 25 plus 25 years. I think uh of course I haven't been here but it's my understanding that there have been requests through the years to make that full time the actual person in that position want to go full time certainly over 25 years the town has grown it's not what it used to be 25 years ago so you have an opportunity now where it's vacant to discuss whether you want to move that full time justification in front of you. The chief and I have talked about this, you know, probably for an hour or so in my office discussing, you know, is there

we both feel that if you're going to go full time if there's your dad in service, are you ready for it? I believe the chief's ready for it because very difficult for him all by himself to manage that whole department without that kind of help. So what we've added to this position is this position will take care of the other than the fire department needs this position will also take care of the safety program for the town that they'll also take care of public work safety of

the town office. So they'll have those activities justification of like what it's going to cost just depending if you do go fulltime eligible benefits. Um, but it's all kind of laid out here, the numbers, you know, they're budgetary. So, that's that's the discussion uh for you. Do you believe the town's ready for this or not? And Chief can explain how he feels about it, why he's asking

my my full support for a while. Uh there was two positions 20 year 25 years ago. It was on an Americanore grant. Uh the chief thought he needed help back then and there was two positions, right? They both got their EMS license. They were running calls as the town uh increased in size.

Um you know, the person that left was an advanced. We're looking at just an EMT. The paperwork is 30 40 hours a week for for running the rescue. Really, it's the EMS job. So it's the safety for the town. It's the rescue. Every member for us, 42 of them has four different files that all have to be up, you know, up to date at any minute. So, CPR to driver's license to insurance cards to um, you

know, current valid medical card, just all of it. Um, respiratory mandatories, that type of stuff. Um, perfect example, today I I had to use a vacation day and we had a PDM. I had to make six phone calls to make sure I had a driver in town that could respond. And of course, we've already had several calls.

Um, every time I'm out or training, vacation sick, I have to make sure there's someone to cover or I just don't take it really. Um, so this would be also in addition to the PDMs that we already have sort of that one person. This would be a Monday through Friday, 8 to 4, you know, the full-time position. EMS if we get a call, driver if we get a call. depends on what the the candidates are. We've already had several uh express interests, people that could drive fire trucks, just all of it. Um Friday, I'm alone. So, we have three volunteer sort of ambulance drivers in town, all north of 70 and two of them are north of 74. So, you know, there are doctor's appointments, they have lives, some people still work. So, I don't have a pretty on Friday. I'm just hoping that there's a driver in the area during the day that can take me. If there's not, we can go mutual aid. But the problem with that is the the town loses revenue. So

if there's a transport, it's up to $1,000. The town loses because we just can't do it ourselves. So the last great front for the fire department is is staffing. So So the fire side of things, we're doing well. I mean, it's a great core of of men and women. Um the ambulance is is just getting more difficult. And if you can imagine at any age trying to drive an ambulance to one of the five hospitals. We also just ran into uh Central Main Medical Center is downgrading their their trauma. So we're going to main more. So you know why can't the fire chief drive? Sure he can. But he's going to be gone two hours every call every day. That type of stuff. So um it just puts me behind. Not including you. I think I'm carrying know 88 hours in vacation just that can't use

uh budgetarily with the savings and the hourly we can go forward to July the question is the the benefits right so whether that person takes no insurance a single plane and a family I I don't know that I think we can cover it I'm I'm in that category I'm about 5% under spent of where we are in the budget so I I think we can do that. Um, and again that's saving on the last position. What am I missing?

a lot of additional experience duties where she was helping on like grant writing, ordering, completion of the grants and ordering those subject items the day in and day out, ordering of supplies in the house, paying the bills, that kind of stuff. one year like meshing in between to make sure that

um yes I mean these are just every day right so yesterday I think we went over you might have seen social media we went over to power to help them on a border structure fire that was everybody but you know having an EMS person at least we could still stop the rescue yesterday we took everybody Durham was without a rescue for an hour or two you know because of mutual aid and these things happen but um if we had the designated EMS mess person Monday to Friday and predominantly that's when 70% of our calls are Monday through Friday 8 to 4 that type of stuff um people cruising through the population increases schools in session that type of stuff um at night you know people come home I have drivers signed up is not an issue having a driver for the pertinium at night or weekends uh the core is just dedicated to that but you know Monday through Friday I think everybody leaves town right so um having a driver having a

second EMS when those PDMS will run at about 90% fill rate for PDMS. So when they don't take a spot, that full-time position will be, you know, the the EMS person. So there's still other, you know, statistics with it. Any questions? I'm sure there's budgets and numbers and questions.

Yeah. Anyone have any questions for Chief? I do. I was doing some stack bowl math. Your your words. So that's uh that's sort of predative. Um you subtract when you did the table for annual cost scenarios you subtracted out the I think 30,000 give or take.

Yes. That the prior did that person take medical? No. Okay. They weren't straight up hourly. Okay. But they were maxed out, right? So they were maxed out at like $28 an hour. and it took them 25 years to get there, but they were at 28. This position will be 22. Um, so there's a little savings for the next 6 months of of our budget type of stuff. Um, moving ahead 22 times the 2080, I think that's 45. Um, and then again,

benefits. Go ahead. I'm sorry. No, go ahead, John. It's fine. I was just going to say if of course the budget gets approved by the town come June. Sure. Is there if it doesn't get approved if they subtract whatever amount of money out is would that person under how would you handle that? I guess I know that's an if it might if and not saying it would but I I would we'd have to get creative. I'd have to talk to command security account manager about cutting the pdium sort of hours possibly, but having someone dedicated Monday through Friday in that role, you know, for Durham is the most appropriate for funding. Um I I don't suggest cutting or or anything and I understand the people's will in voting if you if you uh want to bring it up but we would have to do a perdm cut and if you can ask one more um being the new guy how many people do you have that are for lack of salaried is it you it would be this

position that so correct that's it so I'm salary at the chief pay. Um, and the other one, uh, that we lost was a part-time. Always been part-time. No benefits, hourly wage. Hourly, right? Yeah. Hourly. Yep. So, no, nothing else.

Okay. Um, that's good. Yeah. So, when you're talking staffing, it it's really it's covering the ambulance. It It really is. I'm not worried about fire trucks and whatnot. We We'll We'll get them there. Um, but this is about the ambulance. Durham runs the rescue. They do a fantastic job at it. Um, and recently, I think it was 2019 20, we had an enterprise account. I think I think the town voted to sort of take that revenue away and put it into the general fund every year. But that's a six-f figureure account. So, the ambulance produces I think last year 117 120 somewhere in there. Uh, revenue to the town. Uh, that isn't I mean, it's up to the budget, you all, and the town's people how they want to use that funding. I'm asking for roughly 15 to 30,000 of that ambulance revenue to come back to us just a staff sort of investment in in the business.

Rebecca, any questions? Yeah. So, Chief, um, so the part-timer was EMT and admin. Yes. So, because you're looking for a full-time position, is that going to be hard to staff because it's admin work as well? I've already had interest of internal candidates. Okay.

Um, Seriously, the town should hire paramedic firefighters. They really should. Bang for the buck, right? Um, we just don't have that type of funding. We're just not there yet. Uh, this would be an EMT basic, so that's why it's less money. Um, and admin, so at at the

discretion of the fire chief. And just know, I've looked up this job. There's four other communities around us all with the same position open from Fipps Fippsburg I think Turner had one they all had the same position open uh EMT staffing during the day and admin.

How long have those positions been open to you? They usually only go on MMA website and you can just you know under jobs under fire they'll come right up. It's they're usually open for 30 days but I do not know how long they've been. But you're saying that there's internal interest. So most likely it will be filled pretty quickly.

And and really that goes to to Dur. Good equipment, good culture, appreciated by the town. Um call volume still 400 or so. Um it's not inner city, but you know, there's calls. Yeah. You know, two not large, but um complex calls just today.

What's the breakdown of EMS versus fire calls? So nationally and in the state it's like 68% is EMS and last year we were at like 72 for Durham. So that includes car wrecks but 72% of what Durham Fire does is medically related. So whether that's a lift and assist, whether that's a transport or car wreck, it's it's medical 72%.

EMT goes to pretty much every structure fire. EMT if they weren't a fireman if EMT say admin they would still roll the rescue to a structure fire and they would staff rehab they can change bottles and if a firefighter's been injured they can transport

Josh did you have any questions I I mean I was hesitant question I I really want to question the the cost but I think you sold it to me something you said and you shook you were shaking your that uh it was really the safety of the community. Uh I think that really hit home to me. Uh I think I think that justifies the the the extra cost. Uh the my my concern is how do we pay for between now and July? Um, I think

going forward, uh, you know, I think all of the 150 or so people that show up at town meeting are going to understand the importance of having somebody there, right? I mean, it's, uh, more and more we're seeing the the accidents. Um, the the other the other calls, people are talking about it and to have someone there uh, frankly, to give you some rest. Uh because you know Jerry's told us multiple times that you know you're working you're working a lot. You're you're busy. You need help uh to keep you around to help the rest

of us and the people who who come through this town. Uh you know you you've sold me on it. I think I think I I think the town has an obligation to help the citizens. Um, and you know, other than, you know, sort of plowing the road, so it's, you know, safe passage, I'm not sure how else we can really step up and show people that we we care. We want them to be safe other than fill in this position because, uh, you know, you're talking about Friday and you know what what happens if uh, and that's a scary thought. What if it's what if it's me or my family or something like that? And you know that's selfish but it's also you know somebody else and it could happen and I I I worry about the same Josh.

I know you do. I know you do which is why we all appreciate you. I just appreciate let me give you some statistics basic statistics that are in my brain right now. Uh social media I can't explain to the town's people. Uh, we've had three fatal motor vehicle accidents in Durham this year. We've had three suicide by guns in Durham this year. We've had multiple structure fires in Durham this year. Sure, it's not the numbers of Lewis and Auburn, but it's the same and usually with two people,

you know, and it affects you even as it does even the small small things. Yes, it is. Uh and and so uh you know, like I said, I w I was hesitant when we walked in, but that really uh really sold it to me. And I think it's important. I think it's something that we ought to support and the town ought to support. And um you know, I think I said it during the last budget cycle, you know, we are pretty tight. uh we don't have a lot of extra uh money to move around. Um

but I think this is if there's anything left, this is a good reason to use it and the best way we can use it to keep uh keep our citizens and the people who travel through this town safe. Uh, so I appreciate you looking out for everybody and doing this and and so I I am I was hesitantly going to support it. Uh, but now full full steam ahead. I think it's a great idea. I think we got to support it and get this done as quickly as possible.

Deb, do you have any questions? Go ahead. I want to speak to the the fiscal responsibility and that sort of thing. As you know, when I first got here and looked at the the term budget and it process, and I think Joshua remembered this, there was no contingency line. Even though we said a contingency line of each department's budget is as fundamental as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west, and yet we get push back every year for contingency line. So not knowing what's going to happen throughout the year like this situation we have here where we may have to provide health insurance or asking well where do we get it. So this is a perfect example of a contingency you hope you don't have to use it but it's better to have it and need it and then need it and not have it. So I just say that going forward as being fiscally responsible for the town that you might want to consider that in your your

budget. Did you have any questions for chief? Um where did we say the revenue from the what we make off the ambulance trips goes now? That just goes back into your bucket undesated. So it's it's a revenue. It's it's just a

revenue that goes all together. Yeah. It used to be earmarked in its own separate like this was generated by the fire department but then it get changed to just it all goes into there. But we know that when we look at our revenue annually

you know 170 uh 120 roughly $120,000 is the revenue from that because we uh adjusted the billing structure on particularly EMS calls. uh two years ago I believe probably um you know did you have other questions though? No I I just make comment I feel like I'm in favor of this too. I think it serves the reason as well

and the staff. Yeah. It just it it doesn't go into the reserves. It go budget based upon $120,000. So So it goes into a revenue account. Y and then it just get then when we then it gets all put into like the general fund then we stop the budget. It's like dog licenses and everything else.

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. We lumped that a few years back just revenue does not go to the fire department does not go to any line of the fire department and anything we need goes through you budget and the tax people. So they can still vote on but uh it is reinvested in the in the business. So worst case scenario, if a person accepts the job requiring full insurance, we're an upper of what 30,000

27,000 a year. So it would be six months of that. Oh, it would be half of that. Yeah. So if you look at this table here, the health insurance column is what the cost would be for which health insurance they take, right? And then the total annual cost would be the full annual salary plus that health insurance line.

So going forward seven months the the this would be about an $8,000 increase at the minimum pay right up to about 22,000. And so what I heard you say chief was like right now at about 90% fill rate for that per DM. And so there's about 10% that you budgeted for for that per DM that you're usually not using.

Correct. Yeah. So that probably can build some liquidity. I'm also guessing that since the position's been open for a while and then the amount of hours the previous person was actually working versus what they were budgeted for, you've got a little liquidity there too.

We did there will be liquidity. We did have to pay out close to 40 hours of her time leave or paid time off type of stuff upon separation. So there was that. So that's almost two weeks pay. But yes, going forward, I'm looking to uh eventually um post it interviews and

and maybe bring on board. My best um hope is January 1st. So, six months of of half pay really and benefits. Yeah. And I think the fire department can absorb it. Okay. So you're thinking that if this gets filled January one based off of the other like how much you're under budget on the other staff lines that you depending on what they take for coverage you might be able to cover

Yep. that till June. We can certainly cover the wages. What's that? Oh yeah. Wages. Yeah. Wages. Can you swing it until a Jan January 1 hire? I mean that's a month and a half away. That's quite a while. Um, I mean that's pretty long.

separation of of the, uh, part-timer because we're a family across the street, 10 people came up to me and said, "What can I do? What what role can I fill? How can I help you?" From Milt Simon on down. So, um, if it's sooner, you know, better for all of us in the town. If not, uh, those people will continue to step up

and being an equal opportunity employer. So, remember, we're employed, right? So, we got to post the job. We got to give everybody an equal chance to get the job to be interviewed. You know, we document all this because if we don't, you could face trouble. So you figure a two week posting time, you know, maybe a two week interview time. That person has to give two weeks notice if they're coming from someplace else. So you're looking at six weeks anyway.

You know, it could be. So we'll do it as soon as we can, but we we definitely have to follow the label. Um, so proposed 40 hours at $22 an hour. That your target is someone who's a basic EMT with admin experience. Is that the top top dollar price there? Like if someone is paramedic, firefighter and they say, "I want this job, but I can't do it for that." Is it, "Sorry, this is what it offers."

I don't think we can afford it. Yeah. Okay. So, it's not a competitive wage. It's competitive for an EMT basic a higher license. Uh, no. Right. Average is 20 to 30 something for a paramedic. Could you explain the difference basic advanced and paramedic? So Maine has three levels of EMS basic. I think that it's 6 months, you know, couple hundred hours. You can get your advanced, that's another, you know, couple months of training uh in advance can do IV therapy, some EKG stuff, and then a paramedic, depending on what program you go to, but that that's up to two years as an associates degree. Um, currently we're looking the competitive 22. So we're paying, you know, a fire EMT 20 currently across the street. So this would be 22 full-time benefits in the area. Low but competitive. Um,

it's not firefighter EMT wages, you know, that's a that's a different union, full-time, that type of stuff. But an EMT license basic with some admin 22 um you know I think you can still go to Target for 20. Um and just know this this is the truth. Uh, come July, I was going to ask for drivers during the day for the very same reason, and I was going to ask for a bump in pay for everyone and a uh large increase in pay just because we're we're a third service. So, everybody's full-time job, you know, takes precedence. And then all these guys have three jobs, three per DM jobs. So, they'll go to the next highest because time is precious. And then they'll fit us into the schedule. It just so happens again, good people, good clients with Durham, good equipment, and a good culture with low pay. Um, but we'll we'll train you, you know, we'll send you to school. We have a larger training budget. Um, you know, a

mentorship type of stuff. If you're not full-time, we can help you get a get a full-time job. And we've done that all the way from John. I mean, there's dozens of people that have gone through our program. Do do you see benefits here chief in the sense that if you have a 40hour admin maybe build a little bit more capacity for hunting down grants and opportunities like that?

Yeah, as you know grants it's not about how many you can write it's about writing them you know the first time correct and and putting those hours in. Um, and that's really just time consuming. Even the ones with MMA, you know, the home runs one, you know, that we use and the volunteer fire wildland ones, those are hours and hours of of research and documentation and then followup. So, the town gets their money if they're matching grants. That's also hours of paperwork and followup. So, um, there's just not enough time in the day for for one person. The other thing I want to note here is when I read this proposal,

it means in my mind that Monday through Friday, 8 through 4, there's three people sitting over there. You doing your chief work, this person working on admin stuff, and then a per DM. So when an EMS call comes in, they're they're rolling the vehicle out the door in seconds as opposed to now either waiting for a driver or getting you. And when I look at our responsibility as a board, I think that our number one priority in Durham and I've said this at the time meeting and stuff like that is uh to limit risk and then manage our finances responsibly. And for me, this checks off both of those boxes. It's limiting risk um and it's creating opportunities to potentially give chief some breathing room to do work more at top of license rather than having to be at every single call. And so anything that comes across our agenda, those are my questions. Does this limit risk? Does this manage our resources in a fiscally responsible way?

To me, this is yes. Um, so I'm for it. I think that you've got some opportunities here to carry that expense based off the 90% fill rate for EMS and then the money that's generated from having it vacant for a little bit of time, coupled with a the $5 and change or almost $6 decrease in hourly wage and uh

a couple times you've mentioned good culture and I think that good culture can't be taken for granted has to be maintained and that something like this helps maintain that good culture of we might not have the highest wage but we have a really good team and we have a really good space for people to work and we can get a long way on good culture if we still maintain it and I think that this goes a lot towards that. So, um, that's that's all I have to say about it. And if anyone else doesn't have any questions for Chief, um, I would entertain a motion to approve the request.

Make a motion that we approve the the request to, uh, change the stop job description, make it a fulltime decision. Do I have a second? All right. So, any additional discussions or questions on the motion? Just for clarification, if we give you approval tonight, this job will be posted probably sometime next week. Then uh couple week turnaround on application window and then that sort of stuff.

Yep. I'm going to get with the town manager, human resource, you know who we contract with, make sure that we're checking all the boxes with all of it. But yes, we will be going forward in a quick pace. Yeah. Any other questions or discussion on the motion? All in favor of the motion? Any opposition? Seeing none, thank you for your time tonight. I know you have a lot of other stuff on your mind right now, so we want to feel

Thank you. Appreciate it. well. Yes, please. I will. Thank you. I I had my uniform off, too, but then uh all you got is your body. So, and a lot of people from Massachusetts were been here. Well, easy. Who said that? That's on camera. Don't say that.

Thank you guys. Thanks, Chief. Um, so we'll go back to old business here. Um, cash in health insurance uh discussion. So, uh, and I'll just give a brief reminder for everyone here and also for you John. I think you might have seen some of these. Yeah. Um I think some of those movies are Oscar worthy if you ask me.

But uh yeah, so Jerry, we had a presentation here. We had asked you to bring us some numbers of what the fiscal note would look like if we had changed to from a baseline 1,200 to a percentage value based off of the uh selfishure rate. And so

I think you have some scenarios pulled up for us. Yeah. So, you've asked me to put um some scenarios together for you um and some data. So, this is what you're looking at. Now, the the two here, one's for 25, one's for 26. Okay? So, we'll go over both of them. They're just different numbers, but it's really the same thing. So, currently the 2025 and I'll just go right over this so you understand. So right now currently in in the town for single coverage we have five people five employees taking zero

and zero with employee spouse and employee children have nobody taking that and two people that take family. Okay the dental same idea single we got three people taking it an employee spouse takes uh we have one that's taking dental zero employee children and two people with family dent. Okay. So, currently, and then we have four people that that don't take insurance, so they're in cash. They get 1,200. So, that equals that 127668 that you see. That's what we're currently paying right now. So, the scenarios down below. You've asked, well, what if we did 20%, 30%, 40% uh

instead of the 1,200. So that projected er cost that that's under 20% that's what a single employee you would get at 20%. In cash that's 20% of a single company. Could I just would you just tell me what an ER is? It's the employee rate. Okay. So the so that the cost over there is 9,000. So if you add those two numbers up it comes to that 12,32 which is what the coverages. Okay. If you decide to go 30% that 3715 would be what the employee E would get and the cost would be 14,60. Okay. So that's that's how you sort of read that on down through. All right. So the budget impact to the employer the employer at 20% currently if uh you did that it would be 5, 104. You see that down below?

Increase across all staff. Yep. Okay. Yeah. So, if you flip to the next page, because there was a question about, well, what if people jumped off, you know, and uh did cash in that would actually be a savings to the town. So these costs on the cycle page are all savings that the town would would see if the if people got off the single coverage and switch to cash and Okay. So like for me if I got off single coverage and took cash and lo, you'd save $9,96%.

Does everyone follow what Jerry's saying there? Okay. So that's current. This is probably a better one. It's the same numbers out of 2026. So this is the budget that we're going to be facing because we just got noticed that health insurance is going up 9% and dental is going up 5%. So these are the cost reflected increases. This is so currently if you do nothing else you don't increase anything your cost for health insurance and dental has gone from 127 to 164.

So I just I just got this today because we just got percentage the other day. the employee would get $2,6.99 the employer cost now that would be 10,796 and that' be a at a 20% 5,996 differential that would be a total $5,996 increase for us at the current number of people,

right? That those two numbers padded together is what the same would cost you. Is that what you're asking? Well, so at the bottom here, you have increased ER cost at 20 30 40 50 60%. Yep. That 5,996. Is that the increased cost total across all employees or just per employee?

That's the employer cost at 20%. For all of the employees that are currently taking It's a single coverage. Do we have any questions for Jerry? understand. Um, so let's just go back. So right now, if a town employee does not choose health insurance, they get a $1,200.

Yep. 1,200 each year. Okay. So roughly 10% of the insurance, right? And so the reason why we're addressing this issue is because we want to retain employee. It's a retention thing. And can we just Yep. So the reason why I'm looking at this is because your competitors, other towns offer much more fashionable insurance and the employee handbook is opened up right now because we're reviewing it. So it just I'm giving you the information and sharing with what the human resources person looks at all these other towns and said you know your cash is really low. If you want to be more competitive you ought to raise that. Doesn't mean you have to

but it's just information for the board to understand where they're at as compared to other uh municipalities. And I shared with you a lot of work that went into a spreadsheet that showed what like a whole bunch of other towns did.

Yeah. Do we remember what other um it was all over the place, but we were uh in the in the bottom third of what most towns in the general area were offering. Um sometimes we're offering 30 plus% of that single coverage rate. I know one. Oh, sorry. Go ahead.

I wish we knew beforehand like if there would be any current employees who would jump off the plan to go to the cash to show you know we know how much savings we might be taking. That's it. Well, I I'll tell you what I did. I asked my wife. I said, "What do you get for cash in blue if your husband partner

doesn't take it?" She says, "We get 50%." And I said to her, I said, "Oh, well, you should jump on my insurance. Take that 50%. We'll be $400 a month ahead." She said, "No, I like my insurance. I'm not going insurance." So, she become a bit better than the buck we was. So, I I stopped that. I said, "Okay, but we'll lose another 400 if we do that."

But it does drive a conversation between Absolutely. Partners. You bring up a good point though because like in my mind there's like if you're thinking about this not as from a personnel standpoint and making sure people have benefits they want if you're seeing it from a money standpoint the highest you can go if if you offer let's say 40% and you know that's going to incentivize half the town to go take the cash and l once until you get to 50% it's a 50% offering it's a break even cost for us at 40% if one person leaves

in selfinsure in those self-insured we save a lot of money because we are now retaining 60% as opposed to paying the full 13,496. So like there is that element. I don't know if 20% makes that change for anybody. Um but it is something to think about.

Josh or Rebecca, do you have any questions? No, I'm just trying to find I don't think I'm going to apply yet. John, any questions? No, I'm waiting for Jerry to finish up. No, I'm I'm Oh, okay. I'm pretty finished yet. Unless you have some clarification questions.

So, be the average of the state is 42%. Average is that need our It's a lot of work. That was uh was that MMA who pulled that together? No, that was town fun. Oh, yeah. Oh, wait. No, when would it go into effect? July 1.

So after it's something that we discussed. No, be part of part of the budget. It would be embedded in the article of like the general government So those lines are going up anyway. Those lines are going up because these health care costs are going up.

Exactly. I mean the healthcare dental that's going up 27,000 Well, let me ask the first question. Is there any numbers out there that say 10% what if if you raise it to something 20% 30% 10% more people will opt for the money you know take in lie of is there any kind of feeling okay so if we don't know that this actually cost us doesn't save us anything on healthare I'm missing something

I mean that's that's that's my issue with it too is it it could but I we have an issue now where um some of our employees are county employees employees and they get a different insurance than the state employees yet. And so they need what what their medical needs are covered by state insurance but not the county insurance. Uh so you know what they used to be. I think that the public insurance was better than everything else is always true. I don't think there's I mean

it's a it's just a risk that you take really all it's also about retention keeping the people who are great here and there's a lot of other towns but like some of the people who are here and we need to at least show that we are we care and which

we do get and supported But with this, we're only showing four people that we care, right? Yes. Those are Yeah. Not that they're not important. Yeah. But those are fulltime that it's We don't It's going to be more expensive if we lose them than this.

Haven't we given people their birthdays off now? It's more I I worked on my birthday and no one ever thought to give it, right? I mean, I know. I don't get a personal I I work or I take a vacation. You don't get personal.

I think what you're saying just is that we did extend a benefit to the employees. Yeah. to me I'm struggling a bit where you know I'd like to have a model like we're not raising taxes and that's hard to do when we're voting when we have an

option to you know keep the on a certain topic we have an option to not raise any additional tax revenue I mean we can't help it with insurance costs going up but this is an optional thing for For me, if we're going to help with

retention, it's something that should help everybody. And I don't think that this does it. I don't think it's going to give I think I mean, you go to 20%, it's an extra $6,000 next year. I mean to me that's it's not a huge but I don't think that that extra what what that would be an extra 154.99

how much of an incentive is that really going to be um are there better ways to do it and and so that's why I I still think uh if you ask me right now I'm I'm not in support of this I think if We really want to work on retention. We come up with a a way and that's going to help everybody. This helps four people. I don't think it's going to change anything else. It's just going to um I think we need to come up with something better. What that is, I don't know. But

yeah, I do think one thing that we need to be a little careful of is when we think about retaining employees, when we're in an organization this size and we have just a handful of employees, we start thinking, well, we know these four people aren't going to do this or we know they're going to do that. Um, and also when it comes to employee benefits, not every when you offer a slew of benefits, not every benefit is going to be applicable to every employee, but by offering a slew of benefits, you have the increased net of offering a benefit that may work for one person. So, a perfect example is um you know, your b your total compensation increases if you have a family plan because now the town is paying far more money towards your salary and your insurance on your behalf. And so, you know, some people could argue, well, offering family insurance doesn't benefit me because I'm not going to take it. So, there's the

flip side of that, too. So, I do think we want to think about the totality. And what really sparked this conversation um was hiring the HR consultant to look at how our employee handbook is existing in the sphere of uh other employee handbooks in the community in the immediate community. And so I do want to just keep that as a frame of reference as we think about this a little bit. Um that it's not just about this exact scenario right now, but about you know continuing to contribute to that culture we have in Durham of retention and making it a desirable place to work. I'm not saying that that's pushing me in favor for against this. I just think that's an important component to think about right now.

know it's a piece but we've been you have been you know approving birthdays be that's now an extra day off and so not everybody get as Josh said not so we've been you've been we've been providing more benefits and I guess we've been doing it kind of peace meal

and I guess and I think Josh maybe a couple meetings ago would be good some point in time and catch some breath to sit down and say what is the right benefit package to have. I don't think right now I don't think this is part of it and I appreciate the work Jerry you know did at our request but I'm I just not sure I can support this.

Yeah and we don't have to have a vote on this tonight. I think this is just part of this is reviewing that employee handbook is let's go through all these different recommendations and take into consideration what they are and then some of them we might be an easy yes you know the personal day wasn't a big a big lift for us to approve some of these might be we need to think about this and look at some other fiscal situations before we make a decision so I I'm don't think we need to vote on this tonight I think we can digest this information a little bit and uh think about other aspects of budget cycle moving forward. You know,

I I I think the extra personal day off is easy to take because there's no budget impact, right? slack, but they get sick. They take their kids an extra day out. Yeah. And I Well, I also think what's important with that personal day is that the general holiday schedule recognizes holidays that aren't celebrated by everyone. And so some people might feel the need to celebrate different holidays or have different reasons whether it's a day of memorial that's important to them or something like that. So that gives a little bit of flexibility kind of like a floating holiday. And um one other point

that I want you all to consider and think about is when you talk about the taxes and being raised the municipal budget hasn't raised those taxes like last year. Yeah. The municipal notes that relationship tax wondering here too is we have new information that we just got today. Sounds like health insurance premiums are going up 9%. Is that cost split evenly between the employer and the employee or is that 9% for both the employer and the employee?

That's 9% of the insurance cost you. Yeah. And so that's one thing to think about too is that if there were to be an increased cash in L, you're now looking at well there's decreased cash in L and if I don't take it, I'm also getting an increase in in my premium right now because premiums have gone up. So there's some economics that might be done in the household there. Um just just thinking about it out loud,

but understand What I would like to see if we're going to have a real conversation and internal circle where you say you ask, you know, are you thinking of leaving? Why? What? What? What changes would help address the issue? Something like that. So, we know that

I I I don't think that's I don't think that's appropriate at all. Yeah. Sorry. I think that puts a lot of pressure on people feeling like their employer is Yeah. clamping down on them. I I wouldn't be surprised if that was legal.

We have to check. is is is again what I would like to see not that we should do it but what I would like to see is to get what people would actually look for to help better the retention. Is it this? Is it a dollar more an hour? Is it you know give me some flex time do this? What what is it? Or is it you know I'm happy the way it is. you know that because to to me

this is this wouldn't change my opinion if I were for the town that makes yeah I'm not sure it's illegal if it was like asking what it's not illegal asking how to better my work environment that's fine that's a fine question

but asking would you get rid of insurance if we increase this I don't know if that's a no you cannot ask that I think what what do you want to see if anything in this position? Yeah, I think like Josh is referenced on employee retention survey like

you know where do we where where do we sit on these things? But I think if we were to say if we increase this to 10% would you leave or 20% would you get rid like that gets a little bit too I think because we're so small and if they pay attention to this video and I ask them they'll say what's going to make me say is I want more cash insurance. How's that? Right. I mean it's not a big organization where you can do like this survey where you know they don't know what's coming. I mean

I mean you have one employee right here that only takes 1,200. So if I ask her she may say well I would like more open. So it's so I mean the other thing too what I'm seeing here is we have five six seven 8 n 10 11 employees. So four out of 11's

what 38% or something like that. It's not an insignificant amount of employees either. You know, one thing that I think I just did math problem is when did this 1,200 come into play? What was the insurance cost then? And has that 1,200 kept up with the heights of insurance? Because the people that are taking insurance that benefit that cost more, but the folks that are taking the 1,200 that get stuck right there.

Let me ask it this way. Yeah. At what point is raising the taxes for employee retention going to say, "Okay, but my taxes are going up, so is it worth it to me?" Right? That that's that's the issue I have is, you know, if they live in town and we're raising taxes to help retain them, at what point does it start doing the opposite? Which is why I think a a different discussion needs to happen as to what what can we do?

Yes. Yeah, I think that's a point. But at the same time, if we're talking a total municipal budget increase of $10,000, this this is a tenth a tenth of a fraction of one penny on people's personal personal income. And now these things all add up. They absolutely do add up and that's something to be mindful of. But I don't think that the economics would be if I vote to increase my own salary, I'm gonna pay out more taxes than I'm now receiving an added benefit in this scenario. So, but I do see where you're going with with that question.

But but also I don't think $1,400 is what's going to get someone to say, "Okay, I'm not leaving. It'll take $5 more an hour three minutes down the road." Yeah, that's a fair point, too. it seems to be the way people take in lie of is somebody's spouse

pass a better deal whatever that may be and why the kids never get sick and they never get sick or and and that's what kind of brought that like you probably saw in the video too like looking at this from a perspective of just where are we sitting in line with our competitors is one thing but then when you start looking at it from the perspective of like well If that in lie of now is a larger increase than switching over to your spouses, how many of these people who are taking single have that option to switch over to somebody else either? You know those are those are questions

and that's why you know even anecdotally from other town managers or or other was her name Betsy the HR person what's your experience and when you do this do people how many people switch over because I I think we have employees and we have all the other citizens and we need to be mindful when we increase cost it has an impact on all the other citizens.

I I think her recommendation was 50%. Because at 50% that equalizes the compensation for people who choose not to take it or people who choose to take it because we're saying well we were budgeting for you fully exposed at like when we budget for a position we're budgeting for the salary plus the full cost of family or or sorry plus the full cost of single insurance. Correct.

No we're budgeting what you see right here which this is what you've done in the past. You don't you don't budget for you don't budget for things that you don't see coming. Well, I mean, if we were to post a new position,

what we would budget not just basic not just for the b the salary, we'd budget for the salary plus benefits. Correct. Yeah. But and when we when we when we create that budget for the salary plus benefits, what are we budgeting for? Are we budgeting for single family? We talked about this last year, the year before, we're budgeting for family now because we used to not

No, we're not. We're budgeting for what is currently in that position right now. So like the budget is is reflective of sitting in that seat right now and what are they taking single or family? We don't budget for the the most that it could be for a family.

But that's always a risk we're running too because then if you if someone leaves I'll give you a case in point. Yeah. Jessica. Jessica tries they try to poach Jessica over in Brunswick all the time. They just did it this week. So if she were to leave, right, she gets $1,200 in cash in L. The next person coming in could take family. That's $27,000. That's what it's going to cost you when it's not budgeted for,

right? That's that's but and I think that that's what but that's what you said earlier. We need a contingency. We should work on that this time around. So, but back to the insurance thing with Bets's recommendation being 50%. My understanding was because her argument was that if you were budgeting for a fully insured employee with a family insurance plan and then they come in and they say, "I don't need it." They're now saving you money because you budgeted for their full salary salary plus 27,775. And so, if they come in and take and say, "I don't need that." you're splitting the difference and you're still coming in under budget and you're now creating a more uh desirable position. That's my understanding of her logic on this.

It was because I think she's assuming that we budget for the family in every position like a lot of do but we don't do that here. So, but I think that I think that if moving forward if you were to come to us with a position, we would need to because you're not going to if you can't say, well, if we hire you and you take family, we can't afford to pay it, you know.

Yeah. I mean, you could take this serial tonight, you know, after uh you know, June, say in September, uh this had happened and uh they left and that person took 1,200. we'd be great after the budget approval, but we'd have no money in the budget if they decided we need family health because

I do think we're getting into a little bit different topic now. So, I want to bring us back into this discussion. It sounds like everyone wants to ruminate on this a little bit more. Um, and and just take this as a a piece of information because we have some other things related to um uh we have Betsy coming next meeting also to talk a little bit more about uh some of the other things in the handbook. So, I think that we want to see all of the recommendations from the handbook first and then we can maybe vote on some of these consider these things have a fiscal note. So,

and you have you have time. It's just that when we start doing the budget, we're going to want to know how we're going to move forward. That's Yeah. But I don't want to vote on anything with a fiscal note in reference to uh uh employee compensation until we know everything and then we can have a discussion about that. Does that work for folks?

Yeah. Josh, does that work for you? John, that is good. And is there anything that you more might need to do in the meantime? If Betsy could give us an idea in her experience of what percentage shift they see in in um and she might not have an answer, but if we could get an idea of she says, "Well, I've seen that when towns change to this, they have 10% of their staff switch it up." You know, if maybe she doesn't have that answer, maybe you can work your network of of uh town managers to see if any of them have any experience of what happened. Not that it's going to correlate exactly with what would happen here, but it's still additional information that I'd be interested in.

Does anyone else have any other ask for Jerry on this? This is a conversation that happens in towns all over the place, which is why that big spreadsheet got couldn't see that or I don't think I saw the movie that movie did because it doesn't show up on the TV.

Yeah. And like just real quick for every example like Brunswick I just looked quickly like Bath gives 2700 Brunswick gives 5,000 but like Bowden Ham I think gives nothing. So like these are just data points that don't necessarily need to mean end all be all but we can get that to you John. We've had to kick it around.

Yeah. And if it's sendable, I think this topic brings to light though too about employee retention efforts and things that we could be doing that would make our employees satisfied which I had sent after we first talked about this. I think I think I sent you something that I would be happy to be part of and meet with you on it. Just some ideas of things that we could just people's lives. I mean, I do think to Josh's point there, it might be an opportunity to do an staff survey that just asks, you know, series of questions like, you know, on a scale of 1 to five, how happy are you with your compensation, days off, health insurance, this or that. So, we can just get a temperature of how how staff feels. You know, we have limitations. We don't make widgets. We don't sell products. So we we don't have the ability to increase you know our our business or our product expense to offset wages. So we do work within the

constraints of the municipal government but those sorts of data points could be helpful especially for long-term planning I think but I don't know maybe maybe uh Betsy has some experience with that employee employee survey and she'll be here next week or next meeting

December December 9th. Yeah. So, if you could just flag that for her as something those two things as things we're interested in. Y I'd like to just volunteer to be as a select board rep on this topic of employee retention and stuff because I have a lot of ideas from where I work what things we do.

Okay. I have just one last question. Do we have a turnover problem? I mean, you know, nobody we did two years ago. I mean, in the office. You don't want to do that. I think we're trying to avoid a turnover problem because there has been some staff members and former actually former school board members who've been trying to poach people from town pretty regularly right now. So

that's what that's what's going on. We're trying to we're trying to get ahead of it, but we have to be careful because you know the Bucks Police got a new contract. They move to the top sort of middle third and a few months later they move back to the bottom and pay because everybody else got a new contract. So

yeah, it is a sliding sliding deal. So yeah. Okay. I've said it enough. No, I think that's good. That's a good point, John. All righty. Um, so we'll move on from this. I think that was a really good discussion. Um, into new business, uh, capital improvement policy discussion.

this? Yeah. Uh, so I kind of threw this together. Um, a little help uh, getting it polished up with AI. So I basically just put it together what we do right now as far as capital improvement. Um there is no policy. It would be nice to have one. Um so it's for you folks to

kind of look over it and decide what you want to do as far as um policy knowing that you're the policy developers and the policy imple. Does anyone have any question or Jerry? Is there anything you want to highlight to us from this document before we ask questions?

No, no, not really. My give you a summary of what we do, right? Well, I just say I think you did a good job with it. I think it outlines what we're doing and the reasons why we thought it was a good idea to do this. I mean I mean to me to to me the the third bold avoidance of debt and interest payments. I mean how much money are we going to save over five or 10 year period when we uh you know avoid those significant amounts of money uh that we can avoid or save the taxpayers. So

yeah I think that this process looks really good Jerry um for me what I think to Josh's point avoidance of debt and interest payments what stands out most to me and then fiscal responsibility and purchasing flexibility. I think over the last two years we've seen uh instances where having that uh flexibility to expend out of capital reserve accounts has allowed us to capture um a really good uh savings on things like um the rapid response vehicle um you know when there's the one right one available and the right price available last year or even um other capital expenditures which I think allows us to be much more flexible and flexibility can save money in the long run,

right? We're getting more use out of the out of the equipment because we can use it longer. So, yeah. Well, and the other thing too is like, you know, I go back to my limiting risk. Old equipment that breaks down becomes a safety liability and having to wait, you know, 12 months to get that replaced. That's that can be a challenge.

The income stream too from the interest. Yeah, absolutely. Um, the other thing I think it's really good about this policy is that it allows us to project over a 10-year period. Now, it's not static. Everything's a projection, but rather than coming to people in 10 years and asking for a bond for a new fire truck or a new uh plow truck, building that in. And I think that this really allows us to um respect the experience and knowledge of our department heads to bring forth what they're seeing in their industry. um you know and letting us let

letting them do giving them back the important work that they know that we don't know you know replacement schedules and stuff like that and I do appreciate that this still also gives them the opportunity that when it comes time to purchase something they're still bringing us several quotes they're still getting another additional level of approval there's a public uh comment process those sorts of things so this looks good to me I don't have any additional questions on it does anybody else have any additional questions on on it for any comments that they want to make.

No, I was just going to say the same thing, Josh. You did a great job with Yeah, I had a couple comments. Are we Is the intent here that we vote on and approve this? So, um we call it a capital improvement, but it's only right now focusing on equipment,

buildings and buildings. And buildings. Okay. comments on it? Um, all right. Well, if I don't have any other questions or comments, I take a motion to approve the town capital improvement policy. So, Josh motion. So, we have a second.

Second. Second from Mr. Tal. Any additional Yeah. Any additional questions or comments on the motion? Okay. Um, all in favor of the capital improvement policy motion. Any opposition? See none. That was that all in favor? Second.

All right. Seeing none, that passes unanimously. I'll quickly pass this down this version for us to sign. Today is 11 18. new business welcoming our new member. Uh, sorry, John. You did it already. I I did it already. And I will say I The reason I skipped over is that even though you're new here, John,

we hear you. We see you here mostly, but um yeah, we're really happy to have you. Yeah. I'm really excited to have you here. I appreciate your eagerness. Is there anything you wanted to say to the candy? Is there anything you want to say?

No, I'm just happy to be here. I worked, you know, it was great working with the planning board and the budget committee, but I'm happy to be here, too. Well, we're happy to have you, but it's going to be a big set of shoes to replace in that the roles you leave behind. I think that in no part in no small part to your leadership, especially on the planning board, they're in a really good position for you to have transitioned into this role. And so, I think that we're kind of in the best of both worlds here. So, I I'm really appreciative of that.

discussion. So this is something we've been uh working on as a board for about a month or so now. Um and we've got this laid out. John, I don't know if you've caught up to speed on this yet, but this is our with with our moving over to a June town meeting. Uh, we thought it would be a good idea to lay out what our budget process will look like for the year. And so, I just want to go through it here for folks at home who are watching or going to be watching at some point. Um first and foremost in the first week of this uh January, you know, per our new capital improvement policy, the town meeting manager is going to uh talk with the department heads to get an update schedule and costs. You know, we're extrapolating over 10 years. So when 2026 begins, we're now looking to 2036 rather than looking to 2035. We'll have our regular select board meeting on June January 13th, which will be our land use

amendment meeting. Uh on the 19th of January, the CIP is going to be due to the town manager and that's going to get forwarded to Mark, our accountant. We'll have another regular meeting on the 27th of January. And then in early February, the budget workbooks on the second is going to get to the department heads. We'll have two regular select board meetings. And then by the beginning of March, department heads are submitting the budget to the town manager. On the first meeting in March 310, 2026, the town manager is going to present the budget to the select board. And then the following two meetings, the 24th and uh then April 14th, the budget workshop with the select board department heads is going to commence as well as the budget workshop um where we finalize the budget. And then beginning on the 416, 2026, we will send our budget documents to the budget committee um for them to start doing their process. And so we'll

then review, we'll work into our normal uh drafting of warrant articles on the 28th of April. And then our annual report documents are going to be due on the 30th. And then one thing I wanted to do differently this year and I think we all talked about it a little bit is currently right now we develop our budget and we send it to the budget committee and then if the budget committee wants to they can invite us to a meeting ask a representative from the select board questions but we've been told that they you know they're in the driver's seat it's the questions they want to ask. We're only there to be spoken speak or be spoken to. And this process um has

been challenging over the last couple of years with you know people's voices getting raised, people yelling at people um people going on to suggest impropriy in the town manager and the select board in the budget process. And I think what would be a better process is if on after we've given our budget finalized budget on the four 16th of April to the budget committee. We then invite the budget committee in after they have had um almost a month to meet. They'll have a month to meet, develop all their questions, bring up all their concerns, and then we'll invite them to our meeting where we can answer all questions that they have um at the select board meeting. You know, that's those are televised and then we can um take into consideration any recommendations that they send to us after that meeting and then we will then go forward and uh finalize our our budget after that. So rather than hoping

that we get invited to speak, answer questions at the budget committee meeting and then hoping we're allowed to speak or hoping that we're addressed, I think it would be better for us as the uh uh executive body in the town to invite them in and ask them to provide us with their questions and answer opportunity in in in that capacity. Um what do folks think about that

Yeah, but I just wanted to go through this process before we and finalize it because Jerry and I tweaked a couple dates to make sure that it lines up and gives everyone the appropriate amount of time before we finalize this and send it to the budget committee. And I just want to make sure we're all on the same page.

Rebecca, did you have any questions? My only concern is um my glass on is not helping. The workshop is on the 5th of what is that? May. And then uh the expectations though the budget committee will vote and provide their recommendations two days later.

Yeah. That's an awful short Yeah. My opportunity and I'm not sure what the goal of the workshop is, but you know, so they that basically gives them a day to kind of Yeah. And that was why we wanted to initiate this process with a lot of lead time because we do have some constraints on when we need to get things to the u the printers and stuff like that. And my hope was if I can provide this to them with you know 7 months notice they could slot in now we're going to meet on five six to review so to review all the questions that were answered by the select board. So, this would allow them a month to meet before they have questions for us, create all their questions, have all their ducks in a row as to why is this like this, why is this like this? We'll have that meeting with them. We'll answer those questions and then they can have the turnar around the next day to have their meeting and say,

"Okay, this is the answers we got and here's how we want to change based off of the select board's answers or stuff like that." Provide us with their budget recommendations. and then the next day we can the next uh date meeting we can reconcile um their their recommendations and then move forward again. I I think the issue is is that last year we were told they wanted to have our the draft articles before they voted and so we're

not I mean we're not voting on that the draft articles until the 28th and so we have to have everything voted on by the 12th. So we have that one week in between and ideally we would be having them to have this conversation I think before the April 28th meeting but because the convers the information that we were given last year is they want those or those articles. Yeah, because

well I will defer to the the budget committee chair you know at the end of the day whether you know his you guys I'm sure we'll talk to him but the I would I've looked at the draft articles since that conversation the articles don't change

which is what we said last year you know so could we is there not a way if we just want to check a block with them or just because the only thing that ever changes is the amount the dollar value and then whether the select board and the budget committee agree

and that That's exactly our point we had made was you know cuz last year at the midnight hour I mean you were on the committee there's members who said I'm not voting until we have draft articles. This is the timeline we have to go through to have draft articles because essentially we need to finalize our budget and then make draft articles and then provide the budget committee with our budget. And I know last time when we mentioned that there was some very raised voices about being upset that we were going to draft articles without their input. But at the same time, if they're saying they don't want to comment on them until they have draft articles, this is the only way we can fit that timeline in. Um, and so this is

why we came up with this process. Uh, well, I think some of the concern about article language was my first year on the and maybe before when I used to watch on television, there was it it was in our article that would say, "We're gonna take money out of this fund. We're gonna take money out of that fund." you know, so someone's going to come inside the article and we do it differently now. Now it's it is here's the total it we're not saying where the money for fire is coming.

And so I think that was a concern is what reading in between the lines was the article itself had more uh requirements. Yeah. So you know we'll take it out of the fire reserve. will we'll take it from I mean I think it's may be not remembering right but there was discussion about well we'll take it out of the telecom telecommunications fund that's gone now it's just kind of it's coming out of it out of a fund in one fund and then we decide okay we're going to tax to get this amount and then we're going to take this amount out of the reserves in a general way if that makes sense. that that confusion about what was inside the article. Uh hopefully you agree with me.

Yeah, I think also you're thinking of ARPA funds too. There were a couple articles and ARPA funds were in there. Yeah, because it used to be each warrant was saying where those dollars were coming from as opposed to raise and appropriate or just expend and then we would say we're spending this out of our fund balance to offset and then bring to this rate. like which I totally get it used to be different but even with it being the way we're suggesting to do it now that's how it was last year and we still ran into that midnight hour of nope we're going to have a special meeting and you wait for the warrant language

some of it is you know the experience and again I defer to the the budget committee chair you know have that conversation maybe you could have that conversation with the chair yeah I mean one of the challenges too as you know having sat in the budget committee is that there's no legisl atively approved document dictating the policies of the budget committee. And so when there's just kind of a general sense of rules developed annually, like we're going to adopt this or we're going to change this, um we don't know what rules the budget committee wants to self-impose until their first meeting. And that's tough because like we have a dictated policy based off of state statute and the land use ordinance. Whereas the bud there's no mention of the budget committee and the land use ordinance. There's no mention in the budget committee state statute other than if one exists their recommendation has to be included. And so we don't have

to talk to the budget committee at all. We could just send them the and I'm not saying this is a good idea, but we could just send them the budget and say here's our budget. Let us know what you think and we'll put it on there. And so I think that this is a good way to address that. But

I I don't agree with you and I would just say that maybe a conversation between you and the chair of the budget committee at one time. I think last year was a discussion about chairs and vice chairs meeting and I I don't know if that's necessary but I think because

there's nine of them or eight I guess now you know hurting that that group of cats on a short notice could be even if they don't if they ask so I leave that to you know just make that comment. Well, I think that we can send if as long as people are good with this, we can send it to the chair and the vice chair of the budget committee and tell them that this is our proposed process. Um, and that if they want to

propose a different process with us, that we need to know that now because we're going to be locking this process in uh before December because that our our wheels start turning on this first month of Janu, first week of January. you know, getting to the revenue. Revenue is revenue is revenue. It's different pockets of revenue, right? So, it all adds up to revenue. So, regardless of what pocket you can take it out, doesn't really matter. I mean, it's like if you if you if you got a job and you cash a check and you put $5 in this pocket, $10 in that pocket, you can buy a cup of coffee or pocket, you take it out, it doesn't matter because it's on. Well, I think we've changed I tend to agree with you that uh I think there is some concern about protecting the reser the reserves which is a conversation we need to have because the reserves is probably one of the biggest if not the biggest you know thing we're

going to have to fund next year. How but I think if if it's all kind of if the chairs agree then I think you know the committee will agree. I get I understand. I don't know if the if the chairs agree, the committee would agree, but we we'll because I thought we've been there before, but we'll we'll see.

You both run a very strict show. So, uh and I agree with you, Jerry. I mean, I think but I think that in the past it was defined inside the article. It was. And that was a very old-fashioned way of doing things. Don't argue. No, I don't. And I think part of the reason, and I I may be misspeaking here, but I think part of the reason why the town wanted to move to a town manager formal government is to kind of bring you all into the 21st century without the town government.

And I think that's part of it, right? I mean, I'm not trying to be No. And I think that's part of the I don't know if it'll be the same concern this year. I mean I can't I don't want to speak for him but I think you know going in with the chair to say this way it's going to be and I the only thing I see changing from last year's articles is the total amount

and whether two boards two committees boards agree. Yeah. Well, I think I think here this is what my my thought is sometimes we've changed the process in the last we've changed the process drastically in the last 5 years between adding a town manager and changing up our everything but every year at the meeting we hear well we used to do it this way why aren't we doing it this way anymore this is our new proposed thing with the board's permission would everyone be all right if myself and the vice chair uh Josh here reached out to the chair and the vice chair of the of the budget committee and just said, "Hey, can we sit down because this is the process we want to go through with you all. Um, this is what we're proposing." I think it's great

because if their comfort level is, well, you know, the warrant language doesn't change it. That we can move up their their invitation to their invitation to come ask us for us to answer their questions and give them a little bit more lead time. But if they're saying that they want warrant language, then this is what they're going to have to deal with. And just frankly because of um you know frankly because of the behavior of some of the individuals on the committee the last two years. I'm not going to subject our town staff and and our board members to kind of uh exploration in in a seat three nights in a row raised voices yelling those sorts of things. It's not conducive to functioning of town business. And if that raised temperature just gets people a little too wound up. I think that this could be a process that achieves a better outcome and involves all the same voices. And so if if the board's okay

with this, you know, maybe Josh and I or Josh, if you were busy, someone else, myself, could meet with the chair and the vice chair of the budget committee, propose this process to them with the understanding that we're going to vote on this at our at our second December meeting as the process we're locking in for the year. And if they disagree with this or they need to make adjustments like we need to know beforehand. So does that work with the board?

Yeah. Cuz Josh John you reminded me they did vote last year to give the authority to their chair and vice chair to have a meeting with I think they were looking forward to it. Yeah. So I'll email them this week. I'll CC folks too.

Uh but before we meet no concerns on this process as proposed for the board right now. No concerns. to uh manager report. Okay. report on, the given tree applications are available December 1st and the tags will be available December 3rd. So, that means you got an application, come in and fill it out, you know, December 3rd, the tags will be there on the tree to take.

We do this every year. another thing that we're going to run around. So, for the last two weeks, we've had two community members, Kathy Center and Janine Costikin, collected food donations for Leo. And the turn up here in Durham was fantastic.

And uh the community really stepped out in a time of need. So, thanks to them and their wonderful support. How was that like on a Facebook page or something? The the Eureka. So, both of those um people are on the Eureka Community Center um committee and I think at one of their meetings they just decided to to get together and do that. Yeah.

Um one thing that you could be aware of is that Durham's doing the annual ornament parade. Um the annual Jessica could probably speak to it more, but it's the annual ornament parade. It's December 4th and it's at 9:00 a.m. What other school grades? So it's a prek and K. So they walk over in a in a slow line. So class by class they go over and usually the fire chief and Calvin will bring over a truck and like you know a dump truck and a fire truck. So each class will come over, they'll take pictures with the trucks and then they come into the building and they hang they make ornaments for our tree

and they hang their ornaments and then we give them a little bag and they walk back over. Yeah. It's the fourth year we've done it. So, so if you guys want to come that morning, it's a Thursday at 9 before we open Yeah, they don't have to take a bus.

Pretty cool. It's pretty cute. So, welcome in, check that out. Um, so December 3rd is uh an RSU 5 uh leadership meeting. Um, all attendance at night. It's at 6:30. that we discuss with other RSG 510 budgets and anything that we see that might add to the

budget. So did you go last year? I think I might have done last year. I'll go So I'll be doing that on I'll be going to that on December 3rd. Um the last thing that I got for you is that Josh and I attended the Northern GP cognitionship meeting. It was a pretty good meeting and uh the uh Josh may talk about this before. I don't want to put any pressure, but we seem to all have the same issues with uh social media misinformation. Um and some people, believe it or not, might have a little worse than me. So, I'll I'll leave it at that tonight. So, um other than that, um

anyone questions? Yep. Jessica post something. So, I just want to talk about election day because that was a huge day. You guys came, but so um we had a huge turnout. Okay, so we I'm just going to run some numbers here. So, 491 absent key ballots were cast. So, we processed those that day and then um 1389 that's the 1,389

people voted that day. So combined that's um you know that's a lot. So it's almost half the town. 1,88 people. Yes, that was total ballots cast. So um almost half the town shut in. So um and we lost power several times. I don't know if you remember that's when the power flickered. It was really windy. Um so luckily the ambits have a generator which I don't know if you remember but we the town donated some money towards that generator. So it kicked right on. It was awesome. Then it kicked off because of the flickering because of the power to come on and then go off and so I think it got confused. So it went off and I just kind of waited a little bit cuz the machine we use has a 2hour battery backup. Um so after about 45 minutes I got nervous and I made a call to the commander and he um rallied his people instantly. Within 10 minutes I had three people there. They got the generator running like that and then

throughout the day those three people kept checking in with me. Um, one of them brought me their personal power bank in case it we lost it again. So, they just were very supportive and just want you guys to know that they

they really did a great job making sure that we stayed running and there were no problems. So, I want to report that. I also want to report that um the lighting in the parking lot is not good. So, um, I talked to Calvin and next time because every other year, um, we'll be at the school. So, next time there's a referendum, we're going to, uh, rent some lights. So,

she need a bunch of It was very dark. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz that's right after the hour, the roll back of time. Yes. It was I was there. It was pitch black. Yeah. It was making me very nervous cuz um, people were kind of hanging out and talking and Yeah. So, it was crazy. And I want to thank my election workers because

that's a huge turnout. That was a huge turnout because um when you cast an abs ballot I don't know if you're aware but we have to handle that ballot several times. So even though you don't come like your ballots's being handled by several different people during that day. So it's a lot.

1880 ballots is a lot. Yeah. Yes. Yes. So, we have 3,500 registered voters. So, that was a great turnout. That's wonderful. That's amazing. I'm just grateful. Everything is stickers. Yeah, a lot of stickers. Um, you did a wonderful job.

Thank you. Thank you. And to everybody else, all the volunteers, everyone. Yes, they did a great job. Um, I had a couple of newbies and they just jumped right in. So, that's awesome. It's always whenever I go by to vote, it's always great to see how many different people are volunteering. I feel like every time I go, there's someone different.

Yes. Who's working the the check in or something like that? It takes a village, you know. I do. Yes. And I do have to start recruiting because um some of them are, you know, probably going to retire from election work. So,

yeah. Just going to put that out there. Um and also just um so I feel like any more on that day would put the ambit facility at capacity. So, just keep that in your mind. Yeah, that parking lot kind of accommodated many more cars.

Yeah, it was tight. Thank you, Jerry. Jesse, do you have anything else? She really wanted me to close the office. Close the office. Yeah, I did. So, I could have my deputy. Yeah, because something happened to me. Yeah. So it puts a lot of pressure on her, but yet I you know I didn't know really know where to go with that. You know it's a referendum vote and some did some don't. So I you know it's it's a it's a difficult call because I want to support her but I want the office to be open too. So because of our limited staff and

my more concern honestly is with staff versus having the office open. So in the future we may depending on like next year it'll be a Google party election. So more likely we're going to have to shut the office and have staff all

Yeah, we do. I didn't do it this time. No, last year the president. So I think anytime we're at the school where it's going to be a trial, we we're in a position now where we probably shut the office. Yeah. and I did kind of risk it, but she was she was nervous about that. So, not to be able to us capacity of our workforce, you may have to

the turnouts like that, I didn't think it was going to be that big. I didn't either. When I opened the doors and saw 50 people waiting in line, those are some of the calls. So, that's all I got. Um, so for my report, a couple things I wanted to say. Uh, the Sons of the Ambits have um gotten their signs uh for suicide awareness uh in and to put it the boat launch. Unfortunately, there's been a couple of uh suicides there this year and uh they took it upon themselves to get these uh signs pulled together. They received approval from us a little while back and those are going up um sometime soon once the signs get in uh somewhere around November 24th or 25th. And I just want to thank them a lot for that effort. It's really meaningful and really great to see them um even if it's for unfortunate reasons step up in that capacity. So I really appreciate that a lot. Mr.

Chair, can we put that on the the website? you know, the phone number awareness stuff, the suicide stuff. Yeah, I think that would be a good thing. Maybe already doing it. The weekly blast and other things. Yeah, might be a good idea to because I believe this month is suicide awareness month, too. Um, and so the signs could go up and uh we could we could just, you know, share the 988. So,

the other thing I want to say is a huge thank you to the AMVETS for that generator. Um, you know, my question is is, you know, that's their diesel in there running on that generator while we're there. And so, if there's an opportunity for us to indicate to them that they should maybe come ask for a reimbursement from the town for some of that because we use it for them, I would entertain that. I don't know about the rest of you all. Um, but, uh, I don't know how that works. um you know we don't have a recreational reserve or anything like that but you know that's above and beyond you know that's they that's them incurring a cost

yes for for us from us so I just want maybe that's something you can workshop a little bit for Jerry uh I want to say tomorrow so I'm I'm on a uh GP cog committee that's meeting tomorrow we're meeting on um tax stabilization

this calendar year or last year? Um, we attended a meeting last year where we all convened and kind of talked about the challenges that municipalities are having. And especially for municipalities our size and in this northern region, it's uh, you know, increasing tax burden largely due to um, schools and uh, county and stuff like that. And so everyone's hearing the same thing. What are you doing wrong at the municipal level because my taxes are going up? And here we've had a essentially stable tax uh uh uh tax

change in some cases almost a decrease for like two or three years at the municipal level, but that gets gobbled up by a large increase at uh the school in the county. And so the GP caucus pulled together a committee and asked if I would be on it um to start working on ways that we could figure out how to come up with strategies to stabilize the tax burden. We're all dealing with the same issue. Some of the larger municipalities are like, well, what we need is a local sales tax, but that doesn't do anything. If you're places like Durham, if Windham's charging a local sales tax and people are throwing out things like, well, if we're charging a local sales tax, maybe 20% of that can go to a county fund that then goes to municipalities who don't have a lot of local um uh uh commerce. And these are all things we're just getting, you know, throwing the kitchen sink at it. And tomorrow is our first meeting. And so

I'll let just let you all know how that goes. Um, you know, there's a lot of good ideas bouncing around there. there. GPCOG also has the ability to um advocate for legislation that could help with tax stabilization for seniors and things like that. And so I I'll report back on that, but other than that, I don't have anything else for my boardman member report. Mr. Josh, uh so Jar Jar and I went to that meeting, Jerry hosted it. Um, it was I think I think we looked at each other what every couple of minutes and just said, "Huh, we just talked about that at one of our meetings." Uh, so I think I think the entire region is kind of going through the same same thing. How to address um,

you know, the misinformation that's out there. I think I think it was North Yarmouth who has a section on their website where they post the misinformation and then the correct information. I think that was an interesting way to go.

Comment just the facts. Just the facts. Yeah. So I said we come up if if we ever did something like that we have a better name. So we have to work on that. I know I'm sure I know what you're thinking. There was there was a conversation about you know I think different ideas about that that we had talked about at our meeting. Was it the day prior or the week prior?

Yeah. Um and uh and this seemed like a much better idea than I don't think we we had even brought up. Uh I can't even remember. I had notes but I left them in my car. Um uh there was other things about uh you know economic development was an issue that that people are facing. Um so it was really interesting to see uh how all these communities in our region uh are really facing the same struggle. It's not just us. Um uh and I think uh you

know some of the things that Cumberland County is doing I think is interesting. It would be helpful if if we were in Camel County. So that was a little a little disappointing. Uh but uh um you know I think I think we're making good progress and I think that showed that you know we're addressing it and we're not alone. And you know, if there's a way for us to work together with these other communities, uh, I think we need to, you know, take advantage of it and, uh, and do that. And I think the the the usage of our membership in GBOG has expanded recently.

Uh, and I think that's a big plus for us and we needed to keep taking. Yeah, I know that Josh, when you and I first run the board, we kind of consider ourselves the black sheep of the GP car family, but if we look at the amount of value we've been able to extract from that membership over the last few years, it's increased exponentially.

Yeah. I mean, you know, all all the worship they've done, the stuff they help us with, the grants they work, I mean, all that, but also just I think the conversation of bringing us together, uh, it's it's you can't put a

price on it. And I just want to say also, you know, the election, I know you're busy. Everybody was very friendly. Everybody was still happy when I went, which was 5 5:30ish. Uh uh and so uh you know, again, you did a great job. I you know, I'm sympathetic because I I would have agreed with Jerry not to shut the office down because I um but uh

reports office. I I know. I know. But I I do agree with this number. I think surprised me that uh surprised me. I didn't you know when when you posted the results I looked at the number and I said to my wife, do we even have that many? It's like it seemed like it was, you know, other than the president presidential election, it was like two or three times what we normally get.

Yes. Um and so um so I do Jerry, I do think it's probably the right thing to do. I I hate it. Hate it. I wish we would hire more people to but you know but yeah I so I I did want to say thank you and uh and I agree with Joe your sentiments about the the signs from the suns of the u I think that's very generous of them I'm thankful that they did that

folks and Jessica's ro everybody volunteered or are they volunteers the um when they get okay everyone who worked at is was great. Um so I just did want to mention that Calvin and I met with Jerry a couple weeks ago to discuss um the automated trash pickup plan that Cassella has. Jerry had asked the solid waste committee to provide some recommendations be informed about what's coming up. So Calvin and I went which we always go but we went I think the meeting was the next day or maybe two days later. I had prepped some notes for that meeting and we had a really good meeting on that topic. So the solid waste committee meeting is putting together some questions. The Cassella rep is coming to the next meeting the first second week in December um to talk through that a bit and then the plan will be that waste committee chair and co-chair will come to the select board sometime right soon after that.

Thank you for your leadership on this step. It's really really great to have someone wrangle in that group together. Well, I'm sure wrangling. Okay. Thank you. We should we mention I probably should that automation that's coming much sooner than we thought. So that's

So we were notified the town was notified that three months earlier or more. So we're going to try to they want to get they have the truck. They're ready to go March 1st. They want to get going. March 1st. Well, I think we we were going to have about an upcoming meeting here. I don't I don't see it on these notes, but um yeah, we need to talk about that as a group, but we have we are doing some behind the scenes work to bring to the committee to the select board um to help you know with the discussion. Can I ask when you have when you go to solid waste committee, one of the issues that I see at least with my trash cans is, you know, I'm on the side of I put them on the side of a busy road

and they never are in the same general area that I put them on. Like they're in the ditch. You mean after they're empty? Yeah. just, you know, uh, you know, I I spent $200 on a new trash can, recycle bin, and two weeks later they were both destroyed.

Wow. Um, I bought a new one. I watched the guy break it the first time I put it on there. And so, I don't know. I don't know who does it. I don't know if people are hitting it, what, but um you know, for me, what what I would like to do, what I haven't done because this audit is like put something out there

because uh because otherwise, you know, in the middle of winter, I'm trudging through the snow into the woods to get them uh into the uh into the water. Uh this past Friday, you know, I got home. It was like six o'clock and I almost fell into the ditch trying to go down into the ditch to get it. Um and and so,

you know, they're going to start they're going to charge you if they're going to charge me uh for these things when they get hit. Uh and they're going to make me bring it across the street where I could leave at the end of my driveway um and uh and not have it hopefully be hit as much or go into a deep ditch in in the pitch black. Uh I'd like to know if there were ways to avoid that. So short of like putting concrete in the bottom so that people don't hit it and stuff like like that that's the point where I I been at like like they they barely work but because we're going to the system I haven't spent the $200 to get new homes.

Yeah. Okay. I'll I'll draft up some kind of question. Everybody knows a trigger from those the first one. But when someone hits it or if it disappear. Yeah, I'll put that. We've got a list of questions going. I'll I'll add that Catholic captain put them together.

If it disappears, you remember Jerry, you and I had a conversation for there was like six weeks where they said, "Put it on this side of the road. Put on this side of the road. Do this. Do that." There were three weeks where it didn't get picked up and then they told me move it to to my side of the street. I did. And then they yelled at me as I put on the other side of the street. And

what what street? What street you on? call. Yeah. And one thing that is on we want to encourage people to download the Cassella app. Right. Um I can't remember. Did I Is that Do we have that on the newsletter recently? Yeah, we do.

Okay. Because I should remember that. It's usually I actually That's right because I actually put a picture of it on the Durham Town site there. Po's using them now. Yes. Panel has that system and they the folks I've known seem happy with it. Yeah, there's some other there's a few questions I have there about um

we just gonna have a fiscal note watch revenue by the tags and stuff like that, but we can get we already organized that. I'll send you I don't need to have that discussion. That's okay. Thank you so much. Rebecca, do you have anything?

Yes. Uh a few things. Um, by the way, also thank you to Jessica and everyone cuz in the morning you guys were so chipper and it was early and the next they were chipper morning of the vote, not the morning after. Should have brought you guys coffee. Um the uh I have gone uh uh because you all

so wonderfully elected me to attend the early childhood education task force. Um she volunteered. It is actually very interesting and so it's going very well and there's some things Jerry that you're going to end up knowing from the meeting that you and Joe probably go to in terms of what the state the new state

law what we're already doing in RSU5 because we already have a prek program um but really implementing it and moving forward with it. So there may be some budgetary concerns but things are moving along and it's a very interesting conversation. Um the other

thing which I am pretty sure I sent to everybody I did attend or uh sat in on a communications seminar. So very similar to what you guys were talking about in terms of incorrect information out there. I sent you guys all the PowerPoint. I don't know if everyone had a chance to look through it. Um, from my standpoint, it was not the most interesting thing, but

I think from some people who don't necessarily know a lot about communications, this would be very good to take a look at. So, just you're an industry insider, so it's all Yeah. I mean, so you're pro. Um, but yeah, it I think it was it was good. It's Yes, we're not the only town who is uh in the middle of a social media stand up. Um and then a concerned

citizen who also um is on a board had mentioned and I think we've had a conversations about this in terms of signage for voting. So I think I I'm pretty sure we've talked about this in terms of where people go because there had been some questions whether to go to ambs or the school and I don't know if there's a way that we could also we also

there's always there's always I know there's always the only time we're ever going to be at the school is if we're voting for the governor or the president. No, no, no. I No, no, no. I I know this. I'm saying what was out there. And so other people

did, I'm not going to respond to that, but other people um did answer correctly on the all things Durham page, but this um but this person did have a good point in terms of maybe with the flashing light that we have uh for the uh um

driving speed speed limit to say voting at ambit or something like that. Don't we have that? It gives us a speed limit. But wasn't there sign? So we put on the sandwich had it on their board. I know. So anyone that 136 we did two attacks, I think, didn't we?

And we had it on glass and we had it and when people register, I tell them you will only ever go to the school if you're voting for the president or the governor. I know. I'm just I'm just there's only so many but I do appreciate you bringing it up. This is not the first time that some sort of need for a downtown community sign.

The school even puts a sign out or they used to. They put a white not here today go to the annex. year and like dress up in a fun outfit and have the voting stand outside or something stand at the corner there and don't go this way, go that way. Jerry, that could if you close the town office. Jerry could do

Oh god, Jerry. Just kidding. Jtown office is staying open. I got work to do. Um, Rebecca, one thing you just said that I'm really happy to hear. You said it, Josh said it, I said it. When we go to other things with other communities and we hear, "Wow, we're not the only ones.

We're not alone. Wow. Somebody some people in some ways have it way worse." Like I kind of feel relieved when I leave those meetings a little bit and I'm likeoo cuz I've had the same thing like I think you said Josh looking over at Jerry after a meeting and I leave and I go we're kind of locking out on this.

It was funny. There were at least like three things people were mentioning that we had talked about at the previous meeting and saying the exact same thing we were unbelievable. Oh and I have one more question. Um, there was Jessica, there was a uh I think he was Sun Journal was here uh at the end for voting.

Oh, the journalist taking pictures. He was from the Morning Star. The Morning Star. Yeah. What's the Morning Star? I don't know. RSU5 has a budget workshop tomorrow if you're interested? They usually telecast it. So, I'm sure they will begin discussing, you know, how much they're going to raise all the taxes and stuff like that. And then uh the other the other thing is um they're probably a lot more fun now that I'm gone, but I would recommend you watch the planning board meetings if you want to get some more in depth on what the way use ordinances are about.

So that's a good opportunity to get the nitty-gritty. Yeah, I agree. Are you planning on watching the budget RSC budget committee meeting? Uh I probably will because I have no life. I mean, no, that's called being a dedicated public servant.

Basically, no life. Well, we appreciate that. I I'll say we appreciate your dedication to the town. You can retrain it however you want. That's all I'm I think I've said it the way it is true. Um All right. Uh do I have a seen all the board member reports? I have a motion to approve and sign the AP warrant and the consent agenda.

agenda. You've got a couple because there are committee appointments. So maybe you don't consent to it. So yeah, let's take a look. the other one is conservation. I don't know. Justice, do you think there's any rush on approving this right now? Um, nope. So, the I looked it up. The conservation committee I think needs one more member. I think they have six. They have six members and I think their bylaws say they can have seven. And the other one is solid waste and that would probably be to replace the person that just got off. Um, Claire,

actually the solid waste has altered it. Now that would move into a permanent position. This person would be an alter. Yeah. does anyone want to pull this out for consideration at a later date or have any reason to go into executive session pursuant to these uh committee nominations?

Are there two of them? Yeah. motion. I'll second. Yeah. Um, I'm happy to vote on these. Uh I know the person who has applied for municipal I know the person at least I'm I I'm happy now to vote on the conservation committee because I am very well much aware of this person. Um Kelly Wall uh she's a environmental consultant project manager for a consulting firm I used to work for and has served on some nonprofit boards with me as well. I didn't realize she was applying, so I'm really happy to see her um apply. I'm comfortable on the conservation commission side of things. I might want to spend a little bit more time thinking about um the uh sound waste guys, a good

guy, a long time family uh work for Yarmouth, North of those two. He's good dude. Brings a lot of experience and it sounds like he's going to be an alternate. So if you if you have info that I I don't know the person. So if you have good feedback I I have very good feeling. Plus quite truthfully we need some younger blood. So I just say this is an agenda. So we're supposed to be having a conversation.

Oh we're having a conversation on the motion to approve the consent agenda. it's motion. Yes. No. Not a conversation. Yeah. Let's stop the conversation. Question questions on the motion is does anyone does everyone feel comfortable voting on the motion?

Yes. Yes. No. Okay. Um so what we know sorry just your hand No right. Yeah. And so did you want to say did you want to say why you want to hold off or um there seems to be a lot of talk amongst us and I don't think that we should if we're talking about it I don't think we should do it here. So, do you want to pull out the application appointment and just approve the um AP warrants then? Is that what you're suggesting?

Is a consent agenda which means you said yes. You don't get to discuss it and so there needs to be a vote yay or nay So I feel like just discussion on the motion when the motion is the I'm not going to argue with that's not like agenda there supposed to be discussion

there's no question or discussion it's just okay all right um all in favor of the consent agenda as moved what are we voting to vote to approve the to approve the consent agenda Any opposition? All right. So, we will now go back into discussion. I move we approve and sign the AP warrants.

Second. November 18th. All right. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion on the AP warrants? Seeing none, all in favor? Any opposition? Okay. Um, that leaves us the committee appointments. Is there a motion to uh table these or does someone want to move these into executive session to discussing appointments? It's 8:41. Uh I have to go get my kid. Um I I would move to tables to executive session.

There's no rush on them anyway. You said, right? Well, we need to go to executive session, right? Because there's we have to go to executive session anyway. if you're going to speak up. Well, and also we have another Yeah, we're going to the executives, but we have

I know that I know that the solid waste committee was looking forward to getting this person in in the discussion. Okay. Um I this is our only meeting this month. I would like to do it. uh if we have to move to executive session to do so and we have to make this a a quick

okay quick quick turnar around and if we ar if we can figure out in the first 10 minutes that it's not going to be quick we'll take a look okay that works for me um do you remember what the we we'll we'll pick it up again later if we take no action

because they're not employees so if they had a 4065 tag Would We talked about these. I know. I know. I don't know what the citation. and then we can figure that out. In the past, if we wanted to discuss a committee appointment and we discuss the the person, we didn't do that in an open setting. person if someone

personnel. So you can discuss considering of the employment appointment of an individual or group of public officials, appointees or employees. 4056A allows participant permitted deliberation session for any for appointment.

Okay. Okay. All righty. But can I just throw out I'm not going to be able to stay for this entire discussion. Um and if you're going to have the these two discussions, I think you need to extend the meeting past 9:00. Yeah.

I don't think it's going to go on 17. Well, that's that was going to be my next motion because our executive session topic for tonight does have a time sensitive matter that has to be responded to within 30 days and we won't have another meeting before that 30-day timeline uh pops up. So, we have to address that. Um, so

have them listed here, conservation commission on the 19th at 6:30, here at the Eureka Center, a committee at the December 3rd at the Eureka Center, solid waste committee December 8th at the Eureka Center, select board meeting December 9th at the fire station, planning board meeting December 10th at the fire station. Upcoming discussions of the following meetings, we're going to be working on the band stand. Um and then a discussion and then next meeting on the 9th the wage tables and retirement plan discussion with the HR consultant will be occurring. Um and so

we do need an executive session. So I move the select board enters executive session pursuant to 1 MRS 4056F to review confidential financial and personal records submitted in the support of property hardship abatement application and pursuant to 36 MRS8412 in connection with the board's consideration of the abatement application. The board will not take an action in executive session but we need to go into executive session to discuss. I just have a motion. Do I have a second on the motion?

I'll wait till the second? Do we have a second? Okay. So, we're going to move into executive session. I I think you need to extend the meeting before you go into executive session. Okay. Because I don't think it's appropriate to vote to meeting session.

Yeah. I don't think we can. That's good. Uh I'll withdraw my motion. I'll move that we extend the meeting until 9:30. Second. Second. All right. Any discussion? All in favor? Any opposition? Seeing none. All right. Now at 8:45 or 8:46, I move that the subboard under executive session pursuant to 456F to review confidential financial and personal records submitted in support of the property hardship abatement application pursuant to 36 MRS 8412 in connection with the board's consideration of the abatement application. Second. Any discussion? All

in favor? Any opposition? Seeing none.