00:00:07,360 S1: September 14th Finance Committee meeting. Seeing as we have a quorum, I'll open the meeting. We don't have any minutes to accept. Um, the only correspondence we have. I'll go over later. Um, no bills that I know of. And any meetings anyone's been to since our last meeting? Yeah, just a. 00:00:31,960 S2: Training. That's it. Just that open meeting. 00:00:36,440 Law training? S1: Yeah. That's not a meeting. 00:00:37,880 S2: Okay. 00:00:39,000 S1: Um, okay. So do business. First thing on the agenda is to vote on a chair and vice chair. Um, so any nominations for a chair? I'd like to nominate Jim Pennington for chair. 00:00:57,640 S3: I'll second that. Yeah. 00:01:03,120 Really? S1: Does anyone else have a nomination? 00:01:05,720 S3: You're happy with that? 00:01:08,200 S4: Well, I mean, if I didn't accept it or didn't want it, I would say it. 00:01:11,760 Right? S3: Yeah. That's true. You don't have to accept it. I guess if we. 00:01:15,000 S4: I liked your comment. 00:01:17,440 Oh, really? S3: Yeah. 00:01:19,080 S4: Okay. 00:01:20,120 S3: I know, I just didn't think that was something you'd want. 00:01:24,240 S1: Anybody else have a nomination? 00:01:26,920 S3: No. I'm good. 00:01:28,840 S1: Okay. All those in favor of Jim? 00:01:32,120 S4: Should I go outside the room? 00:01:33,840 S1: No. All those in favor? 00:01:37,720 S2: Aye. 00:01:38,600 S1: Aye. Opposed? Okay. Um, now we need vice chair. Um. 00:01:47,240 S4: I nominate Maureen. 00:01:49,200 S5: Uh, I don't want. 00:01:52,080 S5: I'll nominate Laura. Yeah, she's been in it, and she likes it. 00:01:55,200 S1: All right. I'll second Laura. 00:02:01,240 Anyone else? S1: All those in favor, Laura? 00:02:03,120 S3: I vote for myself. 00:02:07,280 S1: Anybody opposed? Okay, that's our new chair and vice chair. Um, I'm gonna take over from here. 00:02:16,000 S4: No, I'll wait till the next meeting. 00:02:18,160 S1: Next meeting? All right. So I'll just finish this out. We don't. 00:02:21,160 S4: Have any. 00:02:22,120 S1: We don't have any financial updates. Um, first thing we need to do is accept the resignation letter from Alec. 00:02:38,840 S1: Anyone wants to see. 00:02:40,200 S4: Did he move totally out of town? Did he anybody? No. 00:02:44,400 S1: Yes. He's moving to New York. 00:02:46,000 S3: I think he sold his house. No. Oh, no. He's going to rent. 00:02:49,640 S6: He maintains his property, but he's moving to Saratoga. 00:02:53,720 S5: Yeah. I thought he said he was in New York. 00:02:56,160 S6: Basically, I guess his business is more there, but he covers this area as well. 00:03:02,010 S3: Oh. 00:03:04,370 S1: Okay. 00:03:05,210 S7: Should we read his letter or just just pass it along? 00:03:07,690 S1: We can just just pass it around. We just have to accept his resignation. So can I get a motion to. 00:03:13,650 S7: I'll make a motion to accept his resignation. 00:03:16,530 S5: I'll second. 00:03:19,250 S1: Motion made and seconded to accept. 00:03:21,490 S3: The. 00:03:22,770 S1: Resignation. 00:03:24,570 S3: All those in favor? Aye. 00:03:26,770 S1: Opposed? Okay. Next is resignation letter from Tom Tracy. Pass that. 00:03:35,890 S7: I'll make a motion to accept the resignation letter of Thomas Tracy. 00:03:40,650 S4: Second. 00:03:41,930 S1: Okay. Discussion. 00:03:46,690 All those in favor? S7: Aye. 00:03:48,050 S1: Opposed? Okay. And next is to meet and interview Finance Committee applicants. We had two applicants. One is, was Tara Gordon. Um, she sent a letter of intent. I sent her an email telling her we were meeting tonight to interview the candidates and vote on them, and she replied back to me on September 8th that she's decided to wait until 2028 to join the committee because her husband's still working, and she felt that she'd have to recuse from. 00:04:31,450 S3: Certain votes. 00:04:32,250 S1: So it would be easier for her. So. 00:04:34,730 S5: Oh, he works. 00:04:35,250 S1: The only the only other applicant we have is Peter Mitro. So if anyone wants to see an application, I mean, we all know Peter. Mhm. So I'll. 00:04:53,090 S1: Open it up or you want to make a statement Peter, or. No. No. Okay. 00:04:58,730 S6: Well, my my application says. 00:05:01,250 S7: Yeah. 00:05:01,690 S1: I understand. 00:05:04,250 S3: And how long will this be for? 00:05:06,730 S1: Till the town meeting in the spring. 00:05:10,010 S3: Oh, just for one year. 00:05:11,730 S1: Just for one year. 00:05:13,530 S5: Yeah. You're you're filling the positions of the people that resigned. 00:05:17,770 S3: Right. And so he was up. 00:05:19,490 S5: Did were they both up at the. They were both. It doesn't matter. Right. 00:05:22,850 S1: It doesn't matter how long they were for, because we only fill them until the next regular town meeting. 00:05:30,730 S3: Oh, not. 00:05:32,050 S1: Until the next annual town meeting. 00:05:33,690 S3: Oh, okay. 00:05:34,530 S1: Right. And if we fill it with the only applicant we have, we're still going to be short one person. So just so people know we're whatever happens tonight, we're still short a finance committee member. 00:05:51,250 S3: Okay. 00:05:51,650 S1: Okay. Any motion? Uh. anyone want to ask Peter any questions? Probably not. No. Okay. 00:06:00,810 Someone want to make a motion? S7: I'll make a motion to accept Peter Mitchell for the Finance Committee. 00:06:04,050 S4: Second. 00:06:05,530 S1: Okay. Motion made and seconded. 00:06:11,450 Any discussion? S1: Okay. 00:06:14,770 All those in favor? S2: Aye. 00:06:15,810 S1: Opposed? Okay. He was on it. You'll have to get sworn in. I'll send an email to Mary tomorrow morning. 00:06:24,410 S6: And I'll sit down and get sworn in in the morning or something. Whatever. 00:06:29,170 S1: Okay. Um, next is, um, the draft warrant. We don't have that yet, because the town, the select board's not even closing the warrant now until the 17th, and they're not going to vote to accept it until the 22nd. So we won't be able to actually see the warrant until September 28th. 00:06:55,090 S7: Okay. 00:06:55,610 S1: And we're only going to have a week or two to. 00:06:59,530 S1: Go over it. 00:07:00,810 S7: Wow. So that's probably going to be a long meeting. 00:07:04,130 S3: Yeah. 00:07:05,650 S1: Now. 00:07:07,130 S5: Well, how do we do that if we don't see it. How do we question. 00:07:10,730 S3: Right. How are we going to have time to really look it over. 00:07:13,850 S1: I'm hoping that Jennifer, as soon as they approve it on the 22nd, we'll email it to everybody. 00:07:20,810 S7: Okay. 00:07:21,450 S1: And then if there's any questions, we can ask someone to be there or whatever to answer questions. 00:07:27,970 S3: So the next meeting is. 00:07:29,330 S1: The next meeting probably be the 28th. 00:07:31,690 S3: 28th? 00:07:32,410 S1: Yeah. Okay. 00:07:36,290 S5: The 28th. 00:07:36,890 S3: Okay. 00:07:38,930 S1: Then let's vote on discuss and vote on the Finance Committee. Representative to the Municipal Sustainability Task Force. Um. 00:07:50,010 S1: We only have about half the members now. So I know Ken had expressed interest, but he's not here to say if he's still interested. I don't know if anyone else wants to be on it that well, if he's. 00:08:05,660 S5: Interested, why don't we let him? Can we wait and wait till he. 00:08:09,500 S1: Can wait until then? It's getting late. To. 00:08:12,380 S3: When do they start? 00:08:14,660 S1: Ask Laura. She's already. 00:08:15,660 S7: On. So I'm on the task force, and I am the representative for Pathfinder on it. So, um, they have not told us when we are starting yet because they have to have the whole task force on it. So, um, I assume October maybe sooner probably. 00:08:34,860 S1: Yeah. 00:08:35,140 S4: So I think if Ken came forth and said something, he really he's going to do that. He's not going to come through and say something and back out of it. That's true. I don't think he's that way. 00:08:47,700 S3: And then if he doesn't really, then we'll take it away, you know. 00:08:51,580 S1: Well, if somebody wants to make a motion to put. 00:08:55,140 S3: I'll make a motion to appoint Ken to the municipal task force. 00:09:04,980 S7: And I'll second it. Um, just you're going to send him an email? Yeah. Okay. 00:09:09,620 S1: But. 00:09:10,900 S7: Um, he has to accept it. 00:09:12,740 S1: Right. Did anyone else want to. Just in case? Uh, no. All right. 00:09:21,180 So then all those in favor of Ken? S7: Aye. Aye. 00:09:22,100 S1: Aye. Opposed? No. Okay. 00:09:25,220 S3: Wait. Can I just ask? No. That's fine, but are you taking the minutes? Did didn't you say not you. 00:09:32,540 S1: Jim said it. 00:09:34,100 S7: Jim was the one that was. Well. 00:09:35,820 S1: We'll have to figure that out, too. Who's going to do the minutes? Uh, you know, we we could always watch the meeting again on TV and do the minutes from it that way. Yeah. Or like they were saying, Google Docs or Google does something with AI. AI. 00:09:52,860 S7: We'll look at Google meeting. 00:09:54,380 S1: Google meetings will do it. Something like that. 00:09:57,700 S3: Yeah. Yeah. 00:09:58,740 S1: We'll have to figure that out when everyone's here. 00:10:01,740 S5: Yeah. 00:10:02,820 S1: Uh. 00:10:06,860 S1: I, I just put a bunch of stuff on here just to make sure so that we weren't. 00:10:14,420 S7: Out of compliance. 00:10:15,220 S1: Right out of compliance with how we've had some complaints lately about the agenda. So, um, if anyone had anything they wanted to say about our last meeting, it's on here. 00:10:28,260 S5: Um. 00:10:39,020 S5: I don't have it in front of me. 00:10:42,620 S5: No, I'm our last meeting. 00:10:45,100 S1: Yeah. 00:10:49,900 S5: Know all of our minutes online, though. Well, we're back to that. I hate to go through that. Yeah. 00:10:56,980 S1: Okay. 00:10:57,740 S5: Because I'm not sure. 00:10:58,620 S6: The videos are available on M. 00:11:01,380 S5: Is that does that cover us though for having minutes. No it doesn't. Probably not. No. No. Yeah. I'm I'm really concerned that about um. 00:11:09,620 S3: Minutes. 00:11:10,220 S5: That are well that our secretary got taken away actually. So I mean now that you know, like the budget is coming forward, I'd like to know where we stand with maybe. 00:11:21,900 S1: Well, when when everyone's here, Sherry and Jennifer will. We'll put that forward. 00:11:27,780 S5: Yeah. 00:11:29,460 S1: Um, and then I put on here comments and discussion about the ESCO project, because that came up at our last meeting. And I sent you an email about the when at that meeting where we recommended against it, I did. 00:11:48,590 S2: I did look into it. I did not look at the town meeting. I looked at the Fincom meeting on May 5th before the town meeting. 00:12:02,190 I watched that whole video a couple times S2: because there was a comment made that, uh, and I may have misunderstood it, but I think that Jim Pennington was speaking during the town meeting and his mic was cut off. 00:12:12,230 S1: During our finance committee. 00:12:13,990 S3: Because. 00:12:14,590 S2: That's where I did end up seeing it. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I, um. 00:12:18,910 S1: Because we're meeting remotely at that time. 00:12:22,030 S2: And correct. 00:12:22,950 S1: His mic was cut off where he was against it. 00:12:27,030 S4: And second time I cut my mic off. Yeah. 00:12:30,790 S2: Yeah, I, I saw that, um, and I did see that and I did pull the warrant and the warrant for the May meeting did say that the finance Committee supported it. I'm sorry, I wasn't going to bring it up. 00:12:48,590 S1: We didn't support. 00:12:49,390 S7: It. No, we didn't support it. 00:12:50,430 S2: The vote was. The vote was 5 to 4. 00:12:53,830 S5: What? Well. 00:12:56,910 S2: At. Yeah. 00:12:58,870 S5: At what meeting? 00:13:00,110 S2: At the May 5th, 2021 meeting. Finance Committee meeting. Um, at 138, the agenda item was brought back because the week before you had all voted no. Yeah. Or the majority voted no. And I didn't I did not watch that meeting. Um, so one at one one hour and 38 minutes, um agenda item number 25 was um there was well one one hour and 36 minutes. There was a motion to reconsider. 25 and 26. And at one hour and 38 minutes, agenda item number 25 was, um, presented to be accepted as written by Ken. Um, there was a whole discussion with Siemens locking in the price. I think there was some concern with some members about prices going up because of Covid. And I think there was a lot of pressure to, um, to pass it. And the vote was five, five people voted yes and four people voted no. And then agenda item number 26 was the same. 00:14:07,910 S1: It doesn't that's that's actually well, Jim's Mike was cut off, so he couldn't even vote. He couldn't he couldn't vote. So that's why before the town meeting, we held another vote. 00:14:19,870 S2: Well, and and I'm going to say I didn't see that. Right. 00:14:23,110 S1: But that's that's where it's official. 00:14:25,030 S2: The Secretary had the secretary had repeated back how everybody was voting. And that's all I have to go by. 00:14:31,550 S1: Right. Well, what you have to go by is what our recommendation was at town meeting. 00:14:36,270 S5: And it was. 00:14:36,670 S1: No recommendation at town meeting was to not accept it. 00:14:43,230 S2: Okay. 00:14:44,110 S5: Did you. 00:14:44,470 S1: Watch? Watch If you watch the town meeting with. 00:14:47,470 S7: In the field. 00:14:48,150 S5: Grass on the field. 00:14:50,070 Did you watch? S2: No, I haven't watched. 00:14:50,990 S5: Oh, well. 00:14:51,590 S1: I sent her the exact time that that note was. 00:14:54,950 S2: I haven't watched that. 00:14:56,750 S5: And and I watch it. 00:14:58,950 S2: The warrant states that the Finance Committee supports it, which I understand that's printed in advance, you know. And so I guess I still have questions about it. 00:15:07,150 S5: Yeah. 00:15:07,750 S7: Which is I think is good that you have questions about it. And we did on I remember very distinctly that we did vote on the field. We voted against it. So it would be great when you have time to watch it. And I really like that you're looking into it and I. 00:15:21,990 S2: Well, yeah, and I will and, and I tried to go back to look for minutes because honestly, like everybody else, I don't have like unlimited amount of time. 00:15:30,350 S7: Absolutely. 00:15:31,390 S2: And I did try to go back for minutes and there are no minutes posted that far back. And so I'm not you know, that would have probably made things a lot simpler that I would have been able to see the minutes of the meeting right before town meeting without having to go into. And I and, you know, a 2 or 3 hour town meeting recording, you know. 00:15:49,710 S1: Like anything that you were at before. Well, you weren't at the meeting before the town meeting this year with us, but we also before town meeting meet me. And almost every time we make a change. Okay. And that's what happened is we met before the town meeting. We made the change. Our recommendation was no to the ESCO project. And for some reason, even people that were at that meeting still thinks we recommended it when it was a big argument. And Peter even had to say several times, if you're voting this way, you have to vote no to our recommendation to actually vote for it and then vote again to vote for it. And so there were two votes that day. And it was, you know, the School Committee was spearheading the vote for it. 00:16:50,160 S2: So it gets very confusing. I mean, it really does. 00:16:53,840 S4: The whole thing was confusing. 00:16:55,160 S5: Yeah. 00:16:55,680 S4: From day one. 00:16:56,680 S7: Yep. 00:16:57,160 S2: And I and I think there were some really great points that were brought up, at least as far as I've, you know, looked into it. I think there were some really great points brought up about it from the Finance Committee, some great questions that weren't answered. Um, and I think, like I said, it just felt like there was a lot of pressure on the finance committee. 00:17:14,080 S1: And we were unaware at the time. We didn't find out until probably a year later that the town had entered into a couple of net metering contracts to buy the full amount of electricity that we were using before the ESCO project. So we were obligated to buy that over 1,000,000 Million kilowatt hours a year of electricity, and that made the ESCO project to where it was impossible for you to save what was projected. Right. And we were never told that the town was obligated for that. 00:18:02,120 S1: That was the previous town administrator. 00:18:06,520 S2: Yeah. I think there it can be end up being a full time or time and a half job to try to keep track of everything. I'm realizing that I'm seeing that. 00:18:16,600 S1: Well, if you if you watch our meetings after that, you'll see that a lot of our meetings brought up the ESCO project. 00:18:26,480 S2: I, I saw the town meetings. It seemed like things always came up. Yes. 00:18:31,200 S5: Yeah, we had to we had to hire a consultant. Karen. Yes. Um, you know, Jamie was fantastic at trying to figure it out, but she even had, like, a lot of problems. There's there's just a lot of like entities involved outside of us and even outside of this building, you know, reporting where they report stuff, um, energy stuff. And she spent a lot of hours just trying to figure out where she could take all of these credits and, you know, disperse them within the town. And it got, it was so crazy. We, we hired a consultant. 00:19:10,680 S2: Well, you have, you'd have to. 00:19:12,680 S5: To go through this and, um, yeah, it's not, it's not what anyone wanted to happen. And, you know, I'm going to say that, you know, they can be bad and they can be good. I mean, if you look into I think it's Westfield, I don't know how many Westfield had that, you know, they never seemed to have a problem with them at all. It's certain ones. It just doesn't work out in your town. It didn't work out for us. 00:19:37,720 S1: Well, I think the major thing was the the net metering contracts. 00:19:41,400 S5: We didn't. Yeah. But we had no. 00:19:43,160 S1: We didn't know about that. 00:19:44,360 S5: But we really. Yeah. Didn't understand a lot of what was happening on the internal parts of the. 00:19:50,760 S2: You didn't have the full picture. 00:19:52,480 S3: Mhm. 00:19:54,280 S6: If I may. Um, it seems that the we lost track of the credits. They weren't adding up to the savings. Anticipated savings. Yes. Getting a up to date up to the minute. And I know the Finance Committee has asked for this. 00:20:17,920 S6: At least a half a dozen times. Um, and say, hey, where do we stand with this? And even from the s co people, um, they couldn't get a really, uh, understandable kind of report. 00:20:39,280 Their reports were always extremely confusing, weren't they? S7: Yep. 00:20:40,040 S6: So? 00:20:40,800 S1: Well, that they were supposed to have a website. We could go on to see it. And it never worked. 00:20:46,200 S6: That's right. 00:20:48,040 S2: I did see, I, I do know that multiple requests were made for that information, and they just never seemed to have it. Yeah. 00:20:56,920 S1: Okay. 00:20:58,880 S4: And the problem also was that money was paid kind of up front before work was being done, which is what a lot of contractors do. And then you have no recourse other than going back to a court of law to fight them about it. 00:21:15,320 S4: It was just it was something that we walked into a meeting. We were told about this as, as being the, you know, the best thing in the world, um, for the schools didn't say the town, but for the schools. And it was definitely pushed through by the schools and the superintendent. Um, and I, you know, the whole thing was just very questionable from the beginning. Um, the who, what whys and hows didn't add up. 00:21:49,570 S3: But wasn't it. 00:21:50,210 S4: That no matter how much we ask questions about it and complained about it, that things weren't right, nothing got straightened out, nothing in my mind, at least I didn't see anything changing or happening. Um, yeah, we got some information, but we were supposed to have a whole, like you said, a whole, uh, you know, website. Anybody could go on and look and see, and then the whole payback of money at the end was, was I'm going to call it a lie. You know, they didn't that wasn't the truth. What they told us, you know, that was based on a lot of different factors, which they never brought up to anybody. So we were operating in a dark, big time. And, and being pushed by the, the school and the super and the superintendent and the town administrator. 00:22:43,010 S3: It seems to me that you weren't you were not explained. No one explained to you how the bond was supposed to be set up and how it was going to be set up. And you thought you were going to save money. You were borrowing $5 million and you were going to bring in. 00:22:59,210 S5: I don't even think they thought there was going to be a bond. 00:23:01,770 S3: You knew it was. 00:23:02,530 S1: The way it was presented in the beginning. And this is what we were upset with for the second round was originally for the Spring Town meeting in 2020. It was paid for itself to where we didn't even have to take out a bond for it. Nothing that the savings was going to pay for. Right. Then we had to have an emergency meeting in September of 2020 because the attorney general said, you can't do that. You have to have a bond for this. Yes. 00:23:35,930 S6: The one item meeting. 00:23:37,330 S1: The one item meeting in September 19th, I think of 2020. 00:23:41,890 S6: Yeah, thereabouts. 00:23:43,090 S1: Right around there. 00:23:43,850 S3: And that's when you got an authorization for how much? 00:23:46,610 S1: It was 2.5 million. 00:23:48,330 S3: Two and a half at that time. 00:23:49,410 S1: At that time for the the phase one. 00:23:52,050 S3: Okay. 00:23:52,890 S1: And of course, they changed phase one. And the whole thing that brought it about was the dextrin filter at the pool. That was basically dehumidifier was obsolete, was breaking down and was going to cost a half $1 million to replace it. So that's what started that whole thing that we're going to replace that of course, there was no energy savings in replacing that. So they had to come up with another $2 million worth of infrastructure projects that was going to come up with the savings to pay for that dextrin filter over 20 years. 00:24:30,810 S3: Oh my God. 00:24:31,930 S5: And they involve different people. I mean, they they went to UMass schools went to UMass and they they had them, you know, talk with the Department of I think it was the Department of Energy was involved with it. You know, were these things could be beneficial to a town. And I don't think even those people that were involved with it understood the people who were putting it out as an RFP in this town. I don't think they understood. 00:24:54,890 S3: No, that doesn't sound like it to me. So then you borrowed another two and a half. 00:24:59,570 S1: Well, then it was phase two. And that date, wasn't it? Which is the one that we said no to. And of course, they presented phase two as phase one's not going to work if you don't buy phase two. 00:25:14,450 S3: Oh my God. 00:25:15,690 S1: Yes. And that's where. 00:25:18,050 S4: Or it's going to cost you a lot more to put this infrastructure in if you don't go with us, right. You know, it's a typical salesman walking in the door, giving you a price and then walking out the door and saying, oh, here's the price. Now. 00:25:32,450 S1: You know, our advice was to step back a year. Wait for it. See what happens. And then if you want to do phase two a year later, we'll reevaluate. We'll evaluate. 00:25:43,860 S4: The other crazy thing was, was that you couldn't tell whether or not there was any savings at all during the year. No, because you had to wait for a year plus months in order to get the information, and then they couldn't even give it to you. 00:25:59,140 S5: Final phase two was final in a year from that, right? You know. So then you're talking like three years down the road or almost four. It was. 00:26:08,620 S7: And we all had red flags. 00:26:10,660 S2: Well, I think at some point too, there was um information that was on a system and I can't, I'm sorry, I don't remember the name of the system that was on a system. And at some point someone was saying that that was really unreliable information. So it was in. So there was no information. None. 00:26:26,980 S3: Well, it's just that the town accountant didn't understand. 00:26:30,700 S1: Right. 00:26:32,780 S5: Okay, but you had just not the town accountant. You had the people up at the school that were supposed to have dashboards that they were, you know, there was all kinds of things going on with it, you know what I mean? Like the facility guy up at the school, he was supposed to be able to get reports and do things. I don't even know that that happened. And then we were wrapped into a whole nother financing deal with them that we had to pull out of. 00:26:59,180 S1: Well, plus the performance, the performance, you cut that one, the performance, the performance, which was another 800,000 over the 20 years for the guarantee. 00:27:10,020 S5: And we stepped away from that. 00:27:12,060 S1: Yes. 00:27:12,860 S3: Oh you did, thank God. 00:27:14,380 S5: Yeah. But that was years later. That was a few years later. Yeah, that was a few years later. 00:27:18,620 S1: Yeah. You discovered it because you got the contract. 00:27:21,260 S3: And you realized. 00:27:22,500 S5: There was just a lot. 00:27:23,660 S3: Yeah, yeah. 00:27:24,620 S5: I mean, you'd have to be like, um, a table full of lawyers. 00:27:27,660 S3: Yeah. Right. 00:27:28,380 S5: Yeah. Who specialized in those particular ESCO projects. 00:27:33,380 S3: Exactly. But I thought some towns did bring them to court. I thought there were some towns. 00:27:39,740 S1: Some that did. Yeah. 00:27:42,180 S5: I mean, there's been things like that where they, you know, say they're going to do their billing and stuff like that, and then the bills go out all wrong. And Michigan is big on that happened in Michigan, I think, and they sued. 00:27:52,140 S3: And I guess the bottom line is, is that we end up borrowing $5 million and we have to pay it back. Yeah. The bottom line. 00:27:59,500 S5: Mhm. 00:28:00,100 S1: By the time it well, it'll never see savings because we have to just keep building up net metering credits because we can't we have to buy them. 00:28:09,660 S3: That's not going to pay the bond. 00:28:11,180 S1: Never going to save that way. And everything will be obsolete. Right. Before it can save any money. 00:28:16,860 S5: And I'm not sure that we're, we're in any, um, different predicament than any town around here right now. And we can all say it's the ESCO project that put us here. But in actuality, it's not the ESCO project that's got us where we are. If you look at all the other towns that are going for overrides, they didn't have an ESCO project. That's not their problem. The problem is we're not getting money from the state the way we should. 00:28:41,860 S1: Well, it's unfunded mandates where you're mandating special needs and that. 00:28:46,300 S5: And prices have gone up for everything. Yeah. So we can look at it and say, oh, it's the ESCO project that you know it. Partially, yes, but it's not the full thing because if it was, all these other towns wouldn't be looking for all these overrides. 00:29:02,540 S3: No. 00:29:03,420 S5: We're in a difficult situation. Um, you know, it's it's cyclical. Mhm. Sometimes you have money and sometimes you don't. That's right. We're not we don't have it. Right. 00:29:12,620 S3: That's why that task force. 00:29:13,860 S4: But you know what the money is. The money is there in this state. It's just not being appropriated the right way. 00:29:21,020 S5: Right. 00:29:21,740 S4: That's the. 00:29:22,100 S5: Problem. Yeah. 00:29:23,740 S4: It's being appropriated to areas that have no business getting any money whatsoever. All right. And that's where our money's going to. I said before, a few years ago, Mary Healy was running around trying to say, what am I? How am I going to make my $84 million deficit up? That's her deficit, $84 million. You know how she made it up, took it away from the towns, took it away from the schools and gave it elsewhere. That's how it's being done. You ask any of the politicians, they'll start doing this, looking around and and looking funny when you start asking that question. She took the money and put it somewhere else to help another group of people who aren't supposed to be in this country. I'm sorry, but that's the reality. 00:30:13,420 S3: I don't know what's next on the agenda. 00:30:15,020 S7: Yeah, I was going to say, Jimmy, getting off talking about that. 00:30:18,620 S4: You go and look. 00:30:19,420 S1: It's there with Maureen's one of the Civic Plus. 00:30:23,820 S5: Oh yeah. 00:30:24,500 S1: The town website. But we don't have anyone. We can ask any questions tonight. 00:30:28,220 S5: Yeah, well. 00:30:30,110 S7: Put it on the next. 00:30:32,510 S5: I'm not sure what it is. I want to know what it is. Civic plus. 00:30:36,790 S3: Oh. Is that the software I don't. 00:30:39,550 S5: I don't know. So when you when you. Isn't that you'll see it at the top like at the top. And when you open up the website if you want to, I don't know, there's something there about like, if you want to have your own profile or account to get onto the website, but if you click on that, you come up with this civic plus. And then if you go into the director of finance, I believe it's on hers and you go to the left side, there's, um, you know, headers on the left side. And if you click on finance Director, I think it's that one if you're looking, but just click on them and you'll see the Civic Plus comes up. I've seen it on other town websites too. I don't know what it is. What are we paying for that and what is it doing. That's my question. 00:31:21,470 S3: I don't know. 00:31:23,230 S4: Consulting company. 00:31:24,270 S8: I'll bet I can speak. I don't know for certain, but I just am fairly familiar. Like Civic Plus is basically, like Nancy said, the software and the infrastructure of the town website. So employees have their logins to go into it and they upload documents or whatever through Civicplus, and they host our website, basically. And that's all the infrastructure of it. But I don't know any other specifics aside from that. 00:31:47,990 S3: Like if we're paying for that, obviously. 00:31:49,990 S8: I would, yeah, I would imagine. 00:31:50,990 S3: I mean. 00:31:51,510 S8: Something being paid for it. 00:31:52,750 S3: And I wonder how much. 00:31:54,790 S8: I have no idea how much. But and like you said, most towns use it. It's like the default thing that hosts for like municipal websites and stuff because you know, it's good at what it does supposedly. But. 00:32:08,630 S3: Right, right. Maybe. 00:32:10,550 S5: Well, maybe. Yeah. Yeah. I was just gonna say maybe because my, my question there is we heard last year like, well, I'm going to just wait till they come in because I think I asked this last year, and I think Jennifer made a statement that we had gotten somebody new to do our website. So it's like a civic. Plus the new person, maybe the old person, I mean. 00:32:33,030 S3: Yeah, I don't know. 00:32:33,950 S5: And what is it? If I can go in and set up an account, are you saying that any citizen can set up an account on it? 00:32:41,750 S8: I imagine it would have to go like it needs. 00:32:44,510 S3: Get approval. 00:32:45,150 S8: Approval through the town. So it's only like. 00:32:47,390 S5: Well, we need them to explain that I want. 00:32:48,990 S8: The only thing citizens can do is make a profile to like get notifications from like when things are uploaded to the agenda center, for example, and you can get like, oh, this just uploaded an agenda there and there's or other alerts like that, but that's the only interaction. 00:33:03,550 S5: You have an account on it. Did you do. 00:33:05,110 S8: It? I made one recently. Yeah. I mean, I usually check it anyways myself, but like you basically just provide an email address or your phone number and it can text you. 00:33:12,830 S3: Who do you work for the town? 00:33:14,430 S8: No, no, no, this is all just like you. 00:33:17,310 S9: But you're going to be on the you're going to be on. 00:33:18,910 S5: The committee though, right? 00:33:19,870 S8: The task force. Yeah. 00:33:20,590 S5: The task force. So you're saying so did you go in and set up an account under. That is what I'm saying. 00:33:27,310 S8: That's. I don't know how if it's considered an account or just like you're on the list of what gets sent an update for. 00:33:32,990 S7: He just put it in his personal email. 00:33:34,990 S6: I would think so. 00:33:37,070 S8: But yeah, like I don't have an account to log in or anything. No. And like, I've interacted with that before because sometimes people upload documents the wrong way to, and you would have to log in to view the document. And so I'm like, oh, you, you know, put that in the wrong folder and civic plus. And so like residents can't view it. Now. I like that. Like with the most recent audit, like that was uploaded wrong. So I had to be like, oh, hey, the like, can you upload it in Civic plus? And they're like, oh, thank you for pointing that out because Civic Plus confuses me sometimes. 00:34:04,990 S3: Oh my goodness. 00:34:07,070 S5: Yeah, I want that. I'd like to know more about that. And I'd like to know why. When you click on um the treasurer to the left, you go right to civic plus like I'm going. 00:34:18,070 S8: Yeah, that might be one of those instances where like it has the wrong pathway in civic plus. And so instead of it being like a public view. It's set to like a login view. Yeah, that might be incorrect. So yeah, that's worth bringing up a thing. 00:34:34,030 S5: I'm like, why is it over there too? 00:34:37,190 S6: I haven't done it recently. But, um, I'll say last year at one point I wanted to find some information and I went on the town website only to go to the old, oh, I. 00:34:52,790 S5: Did that too. And I got old information. 00:34:54,510 S6: As opposed to the new town of Monson. 00:34:59,070 S1: I've never seen. I've never told. 00:35:00,750 S5: You. 00:35:00,870 S1: About that. Yeah, I know you said it, but I. 00:35:03,190 S5: I called him up one day and I was just like, hey, Pete, like, help me out here. Because like, I had, we had all old people. Like, when I looked at the finance committee, it was like all these old, you know, old dates and, and I was just like scratching my head going, I don't get it. I went on the town of Monson website. Well, apparently, I think the answer I got was something like, well, once you have a something out there, it stays there, it stays. And I'm like. 00:35:30,680 S6: Somehow that can be taken down. Don't ask me how. 00:35:33,640 S5: I would think. 00:35:34,200 S4: So they can take it down for each year, for each cycle, for whatever. If they put new information in, they have to put something in there so that they can put it in. They can take it out. 00:35:45,640 S1: Yeah. But it has to be they changed the the address, the web address. And so there's an old address and a new URL. Yeah, yeah. 00:35:55,960 S5: Yeah. I thought I was like, I was like, oh man, are you kidding me? We had all these people in these even like the town employees were all like different people. I'm going, wait a minute. 00:36:07,560 S4: Well, so there's so many different places on that website that don't have phone numbers, no email addresses to contact anybody. You know, and it's horrible. 00:36:23,080 S5: I want to know more. 00:36:24,200 S1: All right. Well, we could talk about that. 00:36:27,120 S5: Maybe they can update us on that. 00:36:29,280 S7: Put it back on the agenda. 00:36:30,400 S5: We'll move that back to our agenda. Yeah. 00:36:33,080 S1: All right. Last thing was open session for topics not anticipated. Anybody have anything they want to add. 00:36:40,600 S7: The only thing I'm thinking about is the secretary and who has to post the next agenda for our next. 00:36:48,040 S1: I posted this one. 00:36:49,520 S7: Okay. 00:36:50,160 S1: And I mean, I'll work with Jim. 00:36:54,360 S7: Okay. 00:36:54,800 S1: For the next one. 00:36:56,120 S7: Okay. 00:36:57,320 S1: For the agenda. 00:36:58,760 S4: Which is, um. April. 00:37:00,320 S1: Do something with September 28th. 00:37:02,920 S7: Right. 00:37:03,160 S1: You said you have two weeks. 00:37:04,680 S7: Yeah. Okay. That's. 00:37:06,720 S2: You're the chair. That's what you say. 00:37:08,920 S1: Yeah. Okay. Peter. 00:37:13,320 S6: Um, do you have a list of everybody on the finance Committee and their contact info? 00:37:20,080 S1: Yeah, I have the one that you had given me? 00:37:22,400 S6: Well, yes, but it's outdated, obviously. Yeah. Um, if if that's available. 00:37:29,720 S1: I could send just email. And the only thing I have is your email address for contact info. 00:37:36,120 S2: Oh, do you want my phone number? I can give you that. Sure. 00:37:39,840 S1: Yeah, I'd say send it to me. You don't want to say it now? No. Right. 00:37:44,800 S6: It's not. It's not to be published. But, you know, right from time to time, you know. Um. 00:37:50,800 S4: Yeah, I got a phone call one time. Hey, we need one more person. 00:37:54,440 S6: I didn't say it. Um, the other question I had. How long has, uh, Tom Tracy been on the committee? Long time. Quite a long time. And I was just thinking, would it be appropriate for this committee or whomever to at least acknowledge that longevity? Because he's been around for several years? Yeah, I'd say giving up a lot of time to this committee. 00:38:22,720 S1: Um, they're probably close to ten years. 00:38:24,960 S7: I was going to say he came the year after me. 00:38:29,080 S4: And how long have you been. 00:38:32,360 Is that a mystery? S7: I'm thinking probably ten years. I'm not positive. 00:38:37,560 S1: I'm trying to think if I. 00:38:38,720 S4: I couldn't tell you. I know I followed him. 00:38:42,120 S6: I think he was here in 2016. So that's ten years or 11 years. Yeah. He might. And I think he was here before that. I'm not sure. I don't know. But it was uh. 00:38:55,720 S4: I know he was here during that list. 00:38:57,720 S6: I had, I put I had put down, uh, uh, you know, like you were pre 2000 or 3, 1990, you know. 00:39:08,120 S1: Yeah. 00:39:08,800 S6: Uh, and then, uh, you know, it was like the day you were appointed, uh, and whatnot, just. 00:39:21,010 S6: Just. That's just the question. 00:39:22,610 S1: Both him and Alec. You know, we do appreciate the time they. Yeah. The committee. 00:39:27,210 S7: Absolutely. 00:39:28,250 S1: Thank them both. 00:39:30,530 S5: I give them a plaque. 00:39:34,930 S5: What do you want to get him a plaque. Oh, no. No cake. A cake. 00:39:40,650 S6: I was thinking a simple certificate suitable for framing, you know. 00:39:45,570 S9: Yeah. 00:39:46,610 S6: I don't know. Uh. 00:39:48,130 S5: That's nice. 00:39:48,730 S6: Something along the lines that, uh, uh, we had done for Kurt Kaiser many years ago. 00:39:56,050 S4: Give him a pickleball racket. I'm serious. He'd love that more than a piece of paper, I bet. 00:40:03,930 S7: I'm gonna make a motion to adjourn. 00:40:06,930 S5: I'll second. 00:40:07,570 S4: You know. 00:40:09,450 S5: Nancy, what? 00:40:10,690 S4: Did you do that so well? 00:40:13,370 S3: I thought you said we were waiting. 00:40:14,570 S1: I'll second it. 00:40:15,410 S3: Okay. I thought you said we were waiting for Jennifer and them. 00:40:19,610 S5: I don't think anyone's. 00:40:20,650 S1: No, no, they're not coming. 00:40:21,610 S7: No, they're not coming. 00:40:22,210 S3: Oh, they're not coming. 00:40:22,810 S1: They're not coming. 00:40:23,330 S3: Okay. Oh, good. 00:40:25,130 S1: Okay. All those in favor of agenda? 00:40:28,370 S4: Um, I would before we before we adjourn as the incoming president. I'd like to thank the outgoing president for his 2 or 3 years of service. I don't know what it was that he was actually the chairman of it. 00:40:42,610 S5: At least three. 00:40:43,610 S7: At least. 00:40:43,970 S5: Three. 00:40:44,770 S1: Yeah. 00:40:45,090 S4: I don't know whether it was three years or what. 00:40:47,210 S5: Was it since 2020? 00:40:48,970 S4: It might have been longer, I don't know. 00:40:50,370 S1: 2021. 00:40:51,650 S4: No, I know he's been here longer time wise. I'm talking about as chair. Chair. 00:40:57,730 S7: Yeah I. 00:40:58,570 S4: Agree. I'd like to thank him for his service for the entire committee. Okay. Thank you. 00:41:03,610 S3: Yeah. Good job Peter. 00:41:05,570 S1: Thank you. Okay. All those in favor of adjourning? 00:41:09,570 S7: Yes, I. 00:41:12,170 S1: Thank you. 00:41:13,210 S10: All.