I call the session of the town meeting Natick to order.

There is a quorum present, Good evening, residents,

taxpayers, town officials, town meeting

members, and interested parties.

My name is Jeff Alderson, town Moderator.

My pronouns are he, him,

and I welcome everyone to this first session

of the 2026 Fall annual Town meeting.

And before we begin, I wanna make sure

that everyone here is able

to fully participate in tonight's meeting.

The town is committed to providing reasonable accommodations

in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

So if you need assistance at any point in tonight's meeting,

whether that includes seating, hearing assistance, access

to materials in an alternate format

or any other accommodation, please notify me.

The town clerk or any staff member will make every effort

to address your needs promptly.

For those using assistive listening devices,

they're available at the technology

console in the center of the room.

If you require visual access to motions

or materials, please note that they'll be displayed on the

large screen on stage

and they are posted to the town meeting webpage

and some motions available in print on tables

outside the auditorium.

When speaking, I ask that all participants come

to the microphone, whether in the back

or handed to you by a page.

Clearly state your name

and precinct if you're a member of the public,

state your name and address and speak at a reasonable pace.

This helps ensure that everyone,

including those using assistive technologies

or listening devices can follow the discussion.

If at any point you are unable to hear

or understand what's being said, please raise your hand

and rise to a point of order

and we'll make sure that the issue is addressed

because our goal is to conduct this meeting in a way

that is open, accessible, and respectful to all.

And I thank you for your

cooperation for the warrant service.

Thank you sir. I have

before me the official warrant signed by the Select Board

with a return of soft service.

For this meeting, it certifies

that the warrant was duly served in accordance with the law.

The return is accepted

and the town clerk will enter into the official

record of the town of Natick.

Thank you.

As we come to the squaring end

of new members, I wanna recognize something.

I wanna thank everyone that participated in the caucuses

to fill town meeting vacancies

that we held on September 17th.

Collectively, the city members

that were in precincts 1, 3, 8, 9,

and 10 were able to fill a combined nine vacancies,

which brings us up to a total

of 171 members seated out of 180.

And I encourage all the new members

that were voted in the caucuses

to pull papers officially run

for town meeting in the spring when

that opportunity comes up when your term

ends as appointed members.

And so at this time, I would like to ask

that any members present that have been recently elected

or appointed and who have not yet been sworn in, please rise

so that the town clerk may administer your oath of office.

Please raise your right hand and repeat

after me. I state your full name.

I

Do solemnly swear. Solemnly

Swear

And affirm th thy will faithfully and impartially

Faithfully

Discharge and perform, discharge

And

Perform all the duties incumbent upon me,

All duties upon upon

Me as a town meeting member as according

to the Home Rule Charter, the bylaws of the town of Natick,

the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the

Common Massachusetts

And the United States Constitution,

United States

Constitution.

So help me God. Congratulations.

So I also wanna take a minute

to recognize the 375th anniversary

of the establishment of Natick.

If you're not aware, this year marks the 375th

anniversary of Our town.

The The town was founded as the first

and largest praying town by Puritan Missionary John Elliot.

Over 375 years, Natick has grown

and changed enormously.

But one particular appropriate place

to recognize this anniversary is here at town Meeting

for Generations, the inhabitants

of this community have gathered to govern themselves,

to debate the questions

before them, to make decisions together

and to determine the future of Natick.

So tonight, as we begin another town meeting,

we recognize the people that came

before us, the many people

who have since made Natick their home

and the responsibility that we inherit

as temporary stewards of a community.

Now 375 years in the making,

I wanna recognize special guest honorable David Linsky,

your representative in the state legislature.

Welcome Mr. Linsky.

And at this time I'd like to invite Chaplain Major Benjamin

Hume of the US Army, NA Natick Soldier System Center

to the podium on the floor

to deliver an invocation for tonight's meeting.

Major Hume,

Join me in prayer. It's not on

Move the mic.

Click towards you sir.

Thank you. Join me in prayer.

Heavenly Father, we come before you.

In gratitude for the men and women

and their service to the Natick community, we are thankful

for the history of Natick

and the many government officials that seek

to make our lives better, better.

Through liberty and law, we ask for wisdom

and understanding to see each other's points of view

and to uphold these values

that have blessed us with prosperity.

May you continue to bless each member of this town meeting

to faithfully discharge their duties

and to help the native community continue

to be a beacon to those around them.

May we remember all that have sacrificed in

this divine pursuit of freedom.

In your holy name we pray. Amen.

Thank you sir. At this time, please rise

as we have our pledge of allegiance and moment of silence.

I would like to ask that we observe our traditional moment

of silence for those serving in the military

and other capacities both overseas

and at home on our behalf.

I pledge allegiance to the flag

of the United States of America

and to the republic for which it stands,

one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty

and justice for all.

You may be seated,

Our meeting is assembled as follows, on the stage, seated

to my right, Andrew Gore, town Clerk seated

to my left Grace Keeney finance committee member

to her left Todd Gillenwater Finance Committee chair

and to his left Caris North Town Council.

Seated in the well of the auditorium are Catherine Coughlin,

chair of the Select Board

and Jamie Erickson, town Administrator.

Our auditorium rules only water

is permitted in this auditorium.

No other food or drink is permitted.

And at this time please make sure to shut off

or mute your telephones, iPads, or other electronic devices.

Also, please make sure that you have it.

The ready, your electronic voting device, which is always on

and active town meeting members may sit anywhere

within the auditorium seating.

But note that there are three members seated elsewhere.

Two on the stage at the finance committee table

and one in the well of the hall in the select board seat.

The forward left hand and center sections

of the auditorium are reserved

for town meeting members only.

Further, the first row of the forward left hand section

of the auditorium is reserved

for the persons operating the projection

and electronic voting devices.

And the forward portion of the right hand section

of the auditorium seating is reserved

for senior town officials and department heads,

article sponsors

and certain speakers who are not town meeting members.

Once all town meeting members present are seated,

the unoccupied seating to the rear

of the auditorium is a available for residents, taxpayers,

observers, and interested persons allow me

to make one statement

for Before we get into the business this evening,

I wanna talk about something important, which is

how town meeting works

and more specifically

how you all can make town meeting work the way that you

as members want it to work.

Following the spring meeting, several members reached out

to me directly by email.

I appreciated that and shared thoughtful feedback

with me about the debate, voting participation, order

of articles, how members of recognized to speak

and I appreciated that feedback.

I wanna use it as an opportunity to remind everyone

of something very fundamental.

Town meeting governs itself.

Certainly the moderator manages procedure

and enforces the bylaws and and rules,

but members may collectively control the flow, timing,

and substance of the meeting.

If members believe an article should be heard on a different

night, members may move

to postpone consideration to a time certain.

If members want a different article taken up,

next members may move

to take up a different order of business.

If members wanna delay an article temporarily,

members may move to place it on the table.

If members want to end debate,

may members may move the question.

Conversely, if members want additional debate,

members may vote against moving the question.

And if members want to limit debate such

as reducing speaking time

or suspending the rules for a particular article,

that decision belongs to town meeting itself

through a required vote of the body.

I also wanna address questions about

how I recognize speakers.

My goal is always fairness, consistency,

and orderly debate, never a

discrimination based on viewpoint.

As moderator, I do not decide

who speaks based on whether I agree

or disagree on the substance of what they intend to say.

Instead, I use organizational methods

to manage the floor fairly and efficiently.

For example, I might generally recognize the maker

of the pending motion first followed

by any members making any secondary

or competing motions that are concurrently before the body.

And when a motion has been seconded,

I routinely check we whether the seconder wishes to speak

before moving on to additional speakers.

And after that I often organize the room visually such

as from the back of the hall to the front

or from the left to the right, simply

as a neutral way to maintain order.

And I also make note of members who contact me

before the meeting to indicate they wish

to speak on a specific article

or motion so that I can ensure I am watching for them when

that matter comes before the body on questions

to move on motions to move the question.

My practice will generally be to allow town meeting

to decide whether debate should continue

unless that motion comes clearly too early in the debate

to allow for reasonable discussion.

So in other words, I generally prefer

to let the body vote on whether it's ready

to proceed rather than having me

as moderator prevent the motion

to move the question from being made in the first place.

And I also wanna remind members

of another important parliamentary right regarding voting.

If the moderator announces the result of a hand count

and you doubt the result, you may immediately rise

and say, I doubt it.

At that point I'll ask other members

if they also doubt the vote.

If seven members rise in support, we'll retake

that vote electronically.

That safeguard belongs to you as members

and you should feel comfortable using it

whenever you genuinely question the result of a hand vote.

And finally, I wanna emphasize

that parliamentary procedure is not an

obstacle to participation.

It's the mechanism by which members themselves

exercise control over town.

Meeting the rules are there

to empower the body, not the moderator.

Town meeting works best when members understand the tools

available to them and actively use those tools

to shape debate, timing, procedure and outcomes.

And as I often say,

town meeting runs exactly the way town

meeting wants to run itself.

And with that, let's talk about

our rules for tonight's meeting.

The proceedings of Natick town meeting shall be governed

by Natick Town Meeting Time, fourth edition,

the Natick bylaws, the Town of Natick home rule charter

and the general laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

All residents and taxpayers of the town shall

and all town officers and employees whether

or not residents have the same right

to speak at town meeting as members.

However, they do not have the right to submit motions

for consideration at town meeting

nor vote on any matter before town meeting.

Non-residents may only speak at town meeting

after approval of town.

Meeting members speakers seeking recognition

by the moderator to speak shall rise at their seats.

Their attendees known to the moderator who have

provided advance notice they're unable to rise

or seated outside the moderator's view.

These attendees must raise their hand from their seat

to seek recognition from the moderator.

No person shall speak upon a debatable motion more than once

when any other person desires to be heard,

nor more than twice on the same debatable motion without

permission of town meeting

and no person shall speak more than 10 minutes at one time

without permission of town meeting.

All motions offered for consideration

of town meeting shall be in writing

if required by the moderator.

And all motions involving the expenditure

of money shall be in writing when required

by any town meeting member.

Written motions shall be presented

to the moderator on prescribed forms

consistent with the Natick bylaws.

Once a member is recognized, it's been the practice

of town meeting members to first ask questions,

then propose a motion

or debate The highest ranking motion

Once a speaker is called upon by the moderator,

the speaker's time will begin.

Time spent asking questions will be considered part

of the speaker's Time responses

to the speaker's question will not be considered part

of the speaker's requisite talk.

Each speaker will be limited to three questions,

whether they're stated singularly

or in a compound question such will be responded

to at the direction of the moderator.

Motions shall be made

and have precedence as listed in the table entitled

Precedents of Motions found in the Natick bylaws,

the Town Meeting Member Handbook and Town Meeting Time.

The motion for the previous question may be considered an in

order at the discretion of the town moderator in accordance

with town meeting time, any person having a monetary

or equitable interest in any matter under discussion at town

meeting and any person employed

by another having such an interest shall disclose the fact

of his or her interest or employment

before speaking thereon without objection,

the proceeding restatements are accepted

as rules of this town meeting.

Second,

I'm not hearing any objections.

We're good to go. Regarding advanced communications

of amendments or motions which may be presented at town

Meeting the clerk and I must receive a

draft of motions in advance.

48 hours before town meeting is to deliberate such.

In addition, when motions are complex,

we'd depreciate motions provided

to us in a document file format, either Word

or Google Doc so

that motions may be displayed on the stage screen.

And finally, as moderator, it's my role to accept

as in order or rule out of order, all motions.

Therefore complex motions that have not been reviewed by me,

the clerk or in some cases town counsel will likely cause a

delay at town meeting they may be unilaterally ruled out

of order by me or suggested

that town meeting postpone consideration

of the current question for a technical review

regarding waiving the readings of printed articles

and motions, I suggest the following, motion

for town meeting members consideration Move

to waive reading the text

of all 2026 fall annual town meeting warrant articles

and move to waive the reading, the text

of motions excluding amounts to be appropriated

and sources of set amounts

to be appropriated when motions are

provided in the text of the recommendations

of the Natick Finance Committee.

So moved by Mr. Sidney, seconded by Mr. Gaff.

All in favor of waiving the rules of articles

and motions waiving the readings of articles and motions.

Sorry. Any opposed?

That's unanimous. Thank you. Now for our practice vote,

have your clickers ready.

Have you ever been on a game show?

I know at least one person in this

room that's been on a game show

Town meeting.

I don't mean, I don't mean to put a member on the spot,

but I recall there was a town meeting member that

that was on jeopardy once in the way back.

One of the rea, the reason I'm asking that question is

I can't really tell you why,

but you really should watch the prices right on

December 23rd at 11:00 AM

I can't tell you why, but you really should watch.

The Price is Right, it's the Christmas special.

It's one of those episodes

and yes, I did go to some tapings

of some TV shows when I was in la.

It's where I bought these wonderful party like it's 19 like

like it's 1776 socks.

But yeah, I'm very curious

to see if anybody else has been on a show. What,

What days is that again?

Oh yeah, if you're watching people get their calendars

out December 23rd.

Price is right. CBS also on paramount for streaming.

We don't have DVR anymore.

I was also at a taping of Jeopardy for three days.

So November 9th, 10th,

and 11th, which was the veterans

of the episode was a fantastic, got

to see the special category, got to talk with Ken Jennings.

I asked Ken Jennings a question, I asked him if

he would please consider running for political office.

He said, Hmm, let me consider it.

No smart man.

Smart guy.

Alright, results of the vote.

R 16, yes.

No, 97 7 abstain. Ooh seven.

Other people have also signed

non-disclosure agreements to the seams.

Let's scroll that vote so we can see and share stories.

Oh

This is where I start to like go on YouTube

and look for some clips.

Ooh

Yeah,

yeah, we're all doing some YouTube deep

dives later, that's for sure.

Alright, I have a couple of announcements.

You may be able to receive assistance in paying a portion

of real estate taxes if you meet the criteria

and if adequate funding is available.

Massachusetts General Law chapter 60,

section 3D authorizes voluntary contributions by citizens

to a tax relief fund.

The purpose of the fund is to provide tax relief for elderly

and disabled low-income citizens.

The town of Natick Elderly

and Disabled taxation fund Taxation committee is responsible

for overseeing the fund and its distribution.

The timeframe for applications to be submitted

to the committee is between July 1st

and November 15th each fiscal year.

Please refer to the tax deferral

and exemptions programs tab on the assessor's website

or contact the assessor's office with any questions.

Another announcement. Please mark your calendar

for the Johnson interim use workshop set

for next Wednesday October 28th,

6:00 PM in the Mors Institute Library.

Unlike town meeting with discussion

before the vote, they're flipping the script.

They're gonna start with live polling so you can vote

or provide input on a potential temporary use at the Johnson

property and then the select board will moderate a

discussion based on those results

and your input will directly shape what happens next

with the Johnson property.

So we hope to see you there for For details, head

to natick ma.gov/johnson.

So let's get down to business.

I suggest the following Motion

for town meeting members consideration

regarding use of a consent agenda.

Motion Before I do that, Mr. Mr. Coburn point of order.

Thank you Mr. Moderator.

It's on.

It's on Good Dirk Coburn precinct for the

ground rules that we agreed to without objection,

will those be provided in writing for the

permanent record of this meeting?

They have been on the town meeting webpage

for the past two weeks,

but they are there for your review. Yes sir.

Thank you.

Regarding move.

Alright, so regarding use of a consent agenda,

I suggest the following Motion for Town meeting members

consideration move that a consent agenda shall be in order

during the first session of this fall annual town meeting.

Subject to the provisions below,

the moderator may propose a consent agenda in the form

of a motion listing all articles

and their respective main motions, which based on the advice

and public hearings of the finance committee

and the advice of town council, the moderator determines

to be appropriate for inclusion as non-controversial items.

The proposed consent agenda shall be published in the

finance committee recommendation book

or other official town meeting materials distributed

to town meeting members in the timeframe required

for the finance committee report

as described in bylaw Article 23, section four, prior

to the vote on the consent agenda,

the moderator shall provide an opportunity at town meeting

for town meeting members to request

that an article be removed from the consent agenda.

The moderator will separately call out each article on the

consent agenda and provide an opportunity

for town meeting members to make their request by show

of hands standing

or other method to have

that article removed from the consent agenda

upon the request of seven town meeting members

as counted by the moderator.

Such article shall be removed from the consent agenda

and shall be considered separately according

to Article three sections one through four of the bylaws

and practices of town meeting time.

All articles remaining on the consent agenda shall be acted

upon by a single vote without question or debate.

The vote required for passage

of the consent agenda shall be the highest voting threshold

required for any individual motion contained therein,

including without limitation, majority vote,

two thirds vote, or any other super majority requirement

applicable under law or bylaw.

The moderator shall announce the applicable voting threshold

prior to the vote.

So moved. Second.

Moved by Mr. Sidney, seconded by Mr.

Margi.

We can do this one with a show of hands.

All in favor of use of consent agenda.

Any opposed? That is unanimous.

Let's work on the consent agenda.

The consent agenda is in your finance

committee recommendation book.

The consent agenda for this session includes the following

articles,

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12,

and 17.

Each of these articles has

been reviewed by the finance committee.

There are no known requests for amendments

and no indication of controversy.

Here's how I'll proceed.

I'll read each article number on the consent

agenda one at a time.

If anytime meeting member wishes to hold an article

for separate debate and vote, please rise show hands

or call out hold and call out Hold clearly when I read the

article number, I'll pause briefly after each one.

If I hear a hold, I'll take count

of the members seeking a hold.

If I count seven members seeking hold,

that article will be removed from the consent agenda

and taken up in its regular order later in the warrant.

If I hear no hold

or count less than seven members seeking a hold,

the article remain on the consent agenda.

When we've gone through the list,

we'll take one vote on all the remaining articles.

Let's go through that now.

Article one, article

two, article three.

Hold

Please rise if you want

to be hold account eight.

Article three is held.

Article four, article

five,

article seven.

Hold.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. I see 10.

Article seven is held.

Article nine,

article 10, article

12 and Article 17.

Okay, the remaining consent agenda articles

are

1, 2, 4, 5, 9, 10, 12,

and 17.

Billy, can we pull that motion up?

This contention consent agenda motion will require a two

thirds vote because it's taking articles out of order.

We'll vote this motion at this time actually point of order.

Yeah, I I appreciate that Mr. Coburn. Go ahead.

Coburn Precinct four, will we edit it on the screen

before we vote it?

Are you able to edit the It's A PDF.

There should be a in the root folder.

We'll go up in the motion.

Actually if you scroll down the motions folder, Billy,

there's a Word document motion version

called consent Agenda Motion.

You should be able to find the word

version and make that edit.

We'll make that change and present it. Thank you.

That

Looks right.

Here's the edited motion

Move,

Move by Mr.

Sidney, seconded by Mr. Margel.

We will vote the motion at this time.

You may vote now.

Voting is now closed.

The results of the vote are 121 yes no,

zero one abstain.

The consent agenda motion passes by two thirds.

Vote As a sponsor of Article 11.

When that article comes to the floor,

I will step aside from the chair so

that I may present the article

and answer member's questions.

Therefore, I ask the town clerk to preside over the election

of a temporary moderator for consideration of this article.

Mr. Gillenwater, for what purpose do you seek the floor? Mr.

Moderator town meeting members, Todd Gillenwater

of Precinct five and I move

that Diane Packer be elected temporary moderator to preside

during the consideration of Article 11,

including all related motions, amendments,

and votes with moderator Alderson

to resume the chair when consideration

of the article concludes.

Good. So can we vote that?

So do we vote that? Do we do a hand vote?

Alright,

We'll do a hand vote in favor for Diane Packer to over

for Diane Packer to oversee Article 11.

All those in favor? Any opposed?

Motion passes.

Mr. Gullen water. For what purpose you seek the floor. Mr.

Moderator Town meeting members, I'm Todd Gillenwater

of Precinct five and I move that Article 11 be taken up

as the first order of business this evening.

Tuesday, October 20th, 2026.

Second

Move by Mr. Gillenwater, second by Mr.

Sydney, this procedural motion.

Any debate? Seeing none.

We'll vote this now with a hand vote.

All in favor of moving Article 11

to the first row of business this evening.

Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously.

Moderator packer, could you come to the podium please?

The game time?

Thank thanks. Oops.

Sort of can

temporary.

Oh, okay. Okay. Alright.

Okay. Thank you. It's nice to be back here. Sort of

Microphone. Microphone.

Can you help her get the microphone?

Oh, I think I need a little lower. Yeah,

A lot

Lower.

A lot lower. How do I, how do I make it clear?

How does it go down? Just like,

Just tear it apart.

Can you hear me now? Yeah, of course.

You know, I've never had trouble being heard.

So anyway, thank you for having confidence in me.

Article 11 is the next thing on the agenda, so if we can put

that up on the screen, that would be great.

And does the finance committee have a recommendation?

The finance committee recommends favorable action on the

matter of Article 11.

Motion A as presented on page 111

of the finance committee recommendation book.

And I so move second.

Mr. Alderson, do you have a

presentation that you'd like to give?

I do, yes ma'am. Go ahead

Billy, could you pull that up please?

Thank you. I'll be brief having just gone

through the process, I think we all have had some firsthand

experience in consent agendas if you hadn't before.

They have a proven track record here at town meeting.

They really have one established purse to

really help meetings move more effectively and efficiently.

We wanna be able to streamline our meetings, make great use

of our time, but also still talk substantively

about the issues that matter.

And this helps us

to streamline non-controversial items while preserving

your member rights.

And we already use it tonight.

At this point in the agenda, we've already accepted the

proposed consent agenda rules.

Those are the same rules that match the language

as proposed in this motion

that would be codified in our bylaws.

So what you voted tonight is exactly what's in this

proposal for the bylaw change.

And if we vote this mo,

if we vote this bylaw change tonight, we don't have to do

what we did tonight where we vote first on the use

of a consent agenda and then vote

on the consent agenda itself.

So yet it's another TI time savings for future meetings.

Next slide please. Motion A authors authorizes

the moderator to prepare consent agendas

for those non-controversial items.

It permits the use

of a consent agenda at any town meeting session.

It allows the moderator to have the discretion

to select those articles based on the finance committee

and town council advice.

You may recall from a few town meetings ago,

we also would have include the council of the town clerk

that's no longer included given the difference.

Now we have between this being a a, a hired

or appointed position versus elected

still has the same rules about publication in advance

in the recommendation book.

And it still uses the same discretion

that the moderator has always done for,

for choosing articles.

Next slide please. So the removal threshold is

not an accident.

You may notice that I made a point earlier in the evening

talking about if you doubt a hand vote as an example,

you have the ability to call out that you doubt a hand vote.

And if seven people doubt a hand vote, then

that gets moved to an electronic vote.

That's sort of why the threshold is sort

of pegged the way it is and it makes it so that it's not

so low that it sort of arbitrary

and defeats the purpose of the consent agenda.

The quantum of the vote needed for consent agendas

requires the highest voting threshold

for any included motion.

Or if the articles cause us to take the articles out

of order, it will require two thirds vote.

The case example you have to think about here is if we ever,

for whatever reason were to put unpaid bills on a consent

agenda that has like a four fifths requirement,

that would mean the entire

consent agenda would be four fifths.

I likely wouldn't in my own practice as moderate,

wouldn't do that to the meeting.

I wouldn't, I wouldn't put unpaid bills

and therefore change the vote.

Qa. Next slide please.

Actually that was motion A So let's actually if, if

Madam moderator, if you don't mind,

can I cover both motion A

and motion B at the same time? Yes,

I think that's a good idea.

Thank you ma'am. So motion B

that you'll hear later on is not related to consent agendas.

It relates to the take no action footnote.

And that's currently in our pre precedents

of motions tables that are in our bylaws.

It basically states that if town meeting were to vote,

take no action on an article for the purposes

of dissolving the town meeting.

It means that we have acted on that article.

It does not say that we approve

or disapprove of the content,

therefore we would be sort of having sort of, you know, a,

a negative action on the substance of that article

like we would with a zoning, right?

If you, if you take a negative action on a zoning article,

the specific statute that says you can't bring it back

to town meeting within a certain time period.

This is, this is information that we learned

through our charter and bylaw review committee process

and we had a recommendation to add this footnote

to clarify that action.

And also, as we know when we're in our bylaws

and making changes, we might wanna update some formatting.

If you've ever looked at this table, you'll notice

that the footnote markers are plus signs

and if you string a whole bunch of plus signs together,

you can't tell if it's, you know, footnote four

or if it's footnote one and footnote three.

So it really just decided to, to propose using

numeral scripts one through five.

And there was also a, a, a quantum of vote mention that

that needs to be anchored off the town

meeting time fourth edition.

So there's a little change there as well.

If you go to the next slide, please, Billy.

So both of these motions received

favorable action from the finance committee.

You'll note in the finance committee recommendation book

some of the discussion notes that the committee noted

that it's very much a beneficial

and useful tool for the flow of town.

Meeting one member did suggest

that we test drive the updates

to make sure that we know that it works.

You did that tonight. So if my, my ask for you is

to vote favorably on both motion A

and motion B, if you liked the way the consent agenda

process goes and it was a unanimous vote tonight,

then I ask you to vote also favorably on motion.

A Madam Moderator.

Thank you. Any discussion on motion?

A Mr. Munich down here in the front,

Julian Munich precinct five through you.

Madam Moderator, if passed,

would this bylaw allow

or preclude a moderator to create two

consent agendas?

I think, I think that's a counsel, legal counsel question.

The motion uses the singular, it says a consent agenda.

Thank you. I urge passage

of of motion.

A the reason for the question is potentially at a future

date someone may consider splitting articles

by quantum of vote,

but now we know that that can't happen,

so we'll save ourselves even more time in the future.

Thank you.

I'm sorry, go. I don't know your name, sorry. It's okay.

Hi, Victoria Grafflin

Precinct five through you.

Madam Moderator, may I ask a question? Sure.

How did the proposer moderator come up

with the number seven for how many people would be needed

to hold

Mr.

Alderon? Would you like to answer that?

I may consistent with, I was reminded

by a previous moderator that this aligns

to the practice we have in mass law,

mass general law about questioning the moderator's decision

on a hand vote of seven members rising

to doubt the hand vote.

Okay, so it didn't have to do with the proportion

of the membership in discussion.

Sure.

I'd like to propose if there's a way

to revise it to five people

That that would require a motion.

Okay. And you already started discussing it so

somebody else would have to make that motion.

Okay. Can I then revise my comment to say,

I think it might be a good idea to have a lower number,

a slightly lower number just

because having seven people would require those people

to probably coordinate among themselves prior to the meeting

and you know, not everybody may have the capacity

to get seven people on board.

So in the event that there were something

as there was tonight that was asked to be held,

I think it might be wise just to

make the threshold a little less, a little bit lower.

That's all I have. Say

Any other comments in the back right there.

Sorry. Thank you. I don't know your name.

I'm sitting next to Ms. Foss. Yes.

Well played,

Couldn't, couldn't resist that. Frank,

I could say something.

It's the beard.

I could say something, but I want

Frank. It's

The Beard Precinct 10.

It's wonderful to see you back on the day.

Thank you.

I might say that a que a question

or a little curious about the question that was posed

to town Council

Name and

Mr.

Margi name and precinct. Oh, name and precinct.

I said Frank Foss precinct 10.

It's too bad you weren't listening to me.

It's because I didn't, it was

because I didn't recognize you.

Oh no, I'll say that for dinner sometime.

The question that was asked of town council,

I a little curious, the town did use

two consent agendas at one time

and town meeting times permits, I think it mentions

the permit of, of multiple consent agendas.

If we pass this bylaw,

this bylaw then trumps our town meeting time.

Is that correct?

Yes.

Okay. So if we wanted to do,

to have that change, there are two options

before us that we could have multiple consent agendas not

pass this and continue using a rule which could be amended

at any time or amend this bylaw.

Is that correct?

Yes.

Thank you.

I I'm for the latter quite frankly that I would like to see

at least consideration of our members if they wanted

to have fewer members and wanted to have

multiple consent agendas.

So I think that this for consideration of the sponsor

and others that they may want to try and do that.

But I think this, having introduced the consent agenda into

this, this array, the town meeting, this is a wonderful tool

for us to use and I fully propose that everybody vote

for this if they, if they do seem inappropriate.

Thank you very much. Thank

You madam.

Mr. Foss. Mr. Linehan.

Thank you Mike Linehan 3, 6, 6 question.

Would, would this motion,

would it preclude a future town meeting from asking

for a division of the motion?

Can you, can you elaborate a little bit on that?

What do you mean by a division of the motion?

I, I believe that there is a motion, I believe

that there is an ability to divide motions.

I'm sure the Mr moderator could,

could explain it better than I.

But where you could split pieces,

You mean to, to divide it into two consent agendas on, on

The floor?

Yes. Whether it could be done in sort of real time.

Okay. I I just wanted to make sure

that was what you actually meant.

Yes, Ms.

North could, could this motion be divided into two separate

consent agendas on the floor? I

Believe that a motion to divide the consent agenda into

two consent agendas would be in order.

Thank you.

Thank you. I think Mr. Sidney was next.

Thank you Madam Moderator town meeting members.

Richard Sidney precinct eight.

I hardly support this motion

and I'd like to suggest that should a future moderator find

it reasonable to want to propose two consent agendas, he can

propose an amendment to this bylaw in the future.

It'll take a little while to go into effect,

but in the, in the interest of keeping town meeting speedy,

speedy, it makes sense to me to have only one consent agenda

because you know, how many times do we want to

vote on things that are relatively non-controversial?

We, if things are controversial, we can take them out.

We don't have to divide a consent agenda to get them out.

So I hardly support this motion.

And as I said, if the moderator chooses to come up

with an amendment to allow multiples, he can explain

to us why he wants to do that.

There's somebody up here in the back. I'm sorry.

Thank you.

Hello?

Yeah, that's on David Richardson precinct.

Thank you Madam Moderator through you Madam Moderator to

question either the sponsor or council should this pass,

what would the timeline for this going to effect be?

Would it be spring time meeting

27th?

It, it's, the AGS office has, I believe, 90 days or 60 days.

90 days, right. 90 days

after the bylaw would be submitted to them.

So it depends on, you know,

based on the election, et cetera, et cetera.

It would be depend on when it got submitted,

but it, they have 90 days to rule on it. Right.

Thank you. And then in debate, I

And then, and then it needs to be posted in the precincts

and then it would go into effect and,

and excuse me, Madam Moderator.

Yeah. The ag can also get an additional 90 days.

Yes, that's correct. The ag could ask

for additional 90 days,

which they have on other things in the past. So sorry

I, the micro the microphone wasn't on

but you covered it. Thank you.

Thank you. I I would like to ditto a previous speaker

that I heartily support this motion.

Thank you.

Oh, Mr. Evans in the back.

Bruce Evans precinct seven I, well just want,

I'm in support of this motion

and this is in regards to the number of people

to meet the threshold of behold.

So I did a little quick math, which was

120 members at town meeting average, let's say

seven members is 5.8% of those members present,

which I think is a reasonable threshold.

So I urge adoption.

Mr. Coburn is next.

I I is what the question is, is there other,

any other people I did not see any other people seeking.

I did see Mr. Lucenta wanted to speak first.

So let's, he did, he was standing previously.

So let's let him speak and then we can,

if there's no other comments we

can take the motion to question.

Thank you Brian Lunta, precinct four

through you Madam Moderator.

Is it true other towns do allow a question as opposed

to full removal of an article

before being voted on so

that they find it actually saves time?

I have absolutely no idea what other communities do.

Maybe Ms North knows something or Mr.

Alderson Buzz, but ev,

any community could have done their own bylaw

for this INS instance.

But

Was your question, do other communities allow questions

with respect to the consent agenda before they're taken off?

That is correct,

Yes.

In my experience, no, they do not.

They allow holds, but it's just like we do it.

May I ask what other rules may have been considered

but not implemented while,

while you were thinking through this article?

Mr. Alderson, would you like to respond to that?

I thank you Madam Moderator. I appreciate the question.

That was actually the thrust of my little

spiel at the beginning of the tonight's town meeting,

reminding the members about the rules

they already have access to.

I spent a good bit of time researching based on feedback

from the SPRINGTOWN meeting

and pointing to the parliamentarian procedure we have

and how I comport myself as moderator, making sure

that the rules are fully in effect.

I do not believe any additional rules are required.

My last question, basically it has to do

with the residents and people showing up

for the consent agenda.

Typically a resident is not well versed in

any sort of town politics.

They don't aren't gonna look at the town

website or anything like that.

I mean I am assuming, but I know I was not

before I got involved in town meeting

and I'm still fairly naive on many topics.

I'm not gonna pretend I know everything.

If a resident were to show up tonight

and the consent their, what they came

to speak on was on the consent agenda

and they left feeling

that they were not allowed to be heard.

Do you think we have done our job

as town meeting members if we approve this?

I think that's a question for each individual member,

but I would, I would defer to counsel,

but I certainly don't think

that any one person could answer that question.

Madam Moderator. I think that's really debate

and not a question. Thank you.

That's fine. In debate on Article 10 tonight

in the finance committee, recommendation book refers

to amend article.

This is on page 1 0 9,

amend bylaw article 54 sex offenders.

That's what we're writing on.

What we just voted on in the consent agenda was

to amend article 50.

I believe times like this could actually benefit if a simple

question we could have just clarified that.

But the article, Mr. Gilmar,

That was article nine.

We Article nine was on 50.

Article 10,

which was also on the consent agenda was Article 54.

Yes, but we just voted to amend article 50

and not if you look in the book,

but that's my point of why I thought

more eyes on these things can be beneficial.

A simple question could have saved us I not town council,

but voting in something that we didn't mean to vote.

Thank you Mr. Coburn, do you still wanna make your motion?

There's a motion to move the question however and second,

but there's nobody standing to speak,

so I don't believe we need to take that as a motion

to question right now.

Now we'll vote on article 11. Motion A.

Thanks Jeff.

Vote. Now

I never got to say that.

It's more time.

Yeah. Okay.

No, I'm half that

Time's up.

Thank you. Can you put the count up?

The motion passed 115 Yes.

No, three to abstain passed by a majority vote.

Now we'll take up motion B.

Mr. Gilmore, does the finance committee have

a recommendation?

Ms. Keeny? Sorry. That's okay.

The finance committee unanimously recommends favorable

action on the matter of Article 11, motion B

as presented in the finance committee recommendation book on

page 112 and ISO move second.

Move by Ms. Keeny and second by Mr. Water.

Can you put the motion up there? Thank you.

Motion B, any discussion questions?

Seeing none, we can vote on motion. B.

You may vote now.

Voting is complete.

Motion B passes one 18. Yes. No two.

One abstention motion B passes by majority vote. Thank you.

Thank you. Everybody

Turn it off.

Thank you Diane, for your service to the town.

That just doesn't seem to stop. May it never.

We'll now continue our business with article three.

Article three is on the subject of stabilization funds.

Member keeney. Does the finance committee have a

recommendation under article three?

Yes. The finance committee unanimously recommends

favorable action on the matter of article three

as presented on page 49

of the finance committee recommendation book

and the amount of 750,000 from fiscal year 2027.

Certified new growth broken out

between 600,000 from new growth for the purpose

of supplementing the capital stabilization fund

and 150,000 from new growth for the purpose

of supplementing the general

stabilization fund and ISO move. Second,

Move by member Keeny.

Second by Mr. Gillenwater to speak to the motion Mr.

Skye from town administration.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. This is fairly straightforward.

The as town traditionally does when we have ex,

when we have new growth above the budgeted number,

the budget was 1.5 million.

We ended up with about 2.2 million in new growth.

2.3, sorry, 2.3 million. Thank you.

Any new growth, we will take that excess new growth

and apply to different functions in the stabilization funds.

50,000 was spoken for with AIA project,

which you'll be considering later on.

So we had $750,000 left,

moved $150,000 into general stabilization that was

in compliance with the board's,

financial management principles

and 600,000 in capital stabilization

to be used at a later date.

Thank you Mr. Skye, to the floor for questions and debate.

Mr. Foss,

Frank Foss precinct 10.

A couple of questions if I could please.

Thank you for general, for the general public's knowledge.

Could you give a the elevator speech as to

what new growth is please?

Sure.

So proposition two

and a half as, as most people know,

limit the tax levy increase

to two point half percent per year.

That form is actually two and

a half percent plus new growth.

New growth is the capturing of value from new construction

additions to to, to buildings significant renovations

and so on that adjusts the value of those properties.

The new growth is con converted into a levy value.

Based on the the, the, the current tax rates,

we typically budget some amount of new growth every year

for a little, for a while.

The town budgeted a million a year.

We budgeted a million and a half this year.

More reflect, more reflect prior and recent activity.

We actually had a good year,

so we ended up about 2.3 million

To continue.

May I please to either Mr.

Sky or the select board chair,

could someone please give us an idea of

what your principles, the committees

or the board's principles state about new growth

and the use of such? Please.

Yeah, they're, I'm seeing, I was trying

to remember if they're in the, in

the finance committee book.

I don't believe they are. They're in

the budget document though.

The, the financial management principles are a series

of principles that the board adopts the recently we amended

them, as a matter of fact, to establish benchmarks

for the various stabilization funds, the protocol

for funding our pension commitments.

And then subsequent to that the OPE commitment,

which is post-retirement benefits as well as other matters

of just basic financial management

To continue, that's a

reasonably broad answer.

It wasn't really what I was looking

for without asking another question if I could.

Absolutely. If you're setting standards,

what are those standards to the members' question? There,

There, there's a number of them.

I could go through each one if you like.

There's quite a few. Yes. Okay. That's what I asked.

I'll take a moment, Mr. Moderator all up. Sure. Okay.

Oh, thank you. Thank you. So they're recently amended.

These are not gonna be the, the updated versions, John,

but they, they govern the use

and our recommended use of reserves

and balances establishing our, our various reserve funds

that we maintain for our fiscal health stabilization funds.

There's a general stabilization fund which deals

with catastrophic emergencies.

You generally don't wanna touch that.

An operational stabilization fund in case

of an economic downturn that affects revenue.

A capital stabilization fund, which as I mentioned is,

is a place where we park money to, to help

cash fund capital projects.

Each of those has a contribution standard

that is based on either prior revenue

or some, some select portion of general fund revenue.

There's also, I'm sorry, there's also several other

stabilization funds, the infiltration inflow,

the INI stabilization fund, the one the

FAR bonus stabilization fund and so on.

The, the, the principles also deal

with capital planning and budgeting.

They state, you know, will do a CIP five year capital plan.

The funding will be time to maximize efficiency

and then we use a minimum of,

of a 67% net general fund revenue to set aside annually

to fund capital needs, which is what we do every year.

And also that we maintain our

good practices per the credit rate credit agency

guidelines and so on.

What that's really about is maintaining

our, our high bond rating.

The section on debt issuance

and management, which deals with capital pro ca

basically states that large capital projects over a million

can be funded by debt cash,

smaller projects should be funded by cash whenever possible.

And that we refinance existing debt if rates, you know,

rates indicate and so on.

Which unfortunately right now that's not the case too much.

And then there's a section of financial planning

and forecasting, which deals with our long range forecast.

I'm sure everyone's seen the financial models

that we present to the select board on occasion.

Those are all based, based on, based on that principle,

a section on cash and investment management as well

as funding the retirement system.

Our retirement system is nearly funded at this point.

So the big focus of the recent amendments,

either the Flipboard did

and for this section was dealing

with opep post-retirement

health benefits and things like that.

And that, that established a policy to,

and a principle going forward for how to fund that.

And then other said is also section opep, which is the,

the other section I just talked about. So

In debate, sir, thank you very much.

I appreciate you going into greater detail. Happy.

That's very helpful because not all

of us have experienced it as, as much as others.

And we have a lot of new members.

So it, it is appropriate to,

to provide that information.

I, I'm a little concerned about the departure of how we used

to handle new growth or deal with new growth

and how we are now.

And as this is shuffling the new growth

into our STABILIZATIONS funds rather

than hold the new growth out to the spring and,

and then account for it then

or use it for a SIP program, our capital improvement program

specifically that it seems like this is not being targeted.

And I hear, and I'm, as it used to be for, for capital

and I'm a little concerned about about that.

The other point is I hear or have heard rumor

and talk about departments exceeding what might be

an amount for the fiscal year 28

and that that ex exceeded amount is

possibly being made up with either free cash or new growth

or some other funds that haven't been used before.

Just by putting this money in our stabilization funds

does not lock down or,

or leave that money for other departments

or specifically our largest department,

the native public schools to actually take that money,

that money and basically squeeze

or take it away from the purposes for which Mr.

Sky mentioned earlier here,

how do you plan and how do you budget

over a multiple fiscal years if you have that risk,

that political risk.

And I think here in this hall, we need

to start talking about this.

I did start to allude to it the last fiscal year

when there was a chart in there with all the deficits of

that was in, in the budget as proposed.

And I see that those, those deficits still remain

and they're actually being worrisome and getting worse.

So I hope that the select board, the administration

and all other department heads are putting their budgets

together now are weary that we need

to be careful how we use and park these funds

and that we hold to the principles

for which I fully support the board

of Selectman's principles and that we don't vary from that.

Thank you Mr. Moderator. Appreciate your ion

Thank you member Foss.

Mr. Greer down here in the front.

Thank you Mr. Moderator. Paul Grr, precinct seven.

Also a member of the board of assessors.

I would like to add from my perspective

one additional financial management principle,

which is when you have excess new growth in the spring,

we budgeted 1,000,004.

We don't know what the state's gonna,

or million five, I'm sorry, the state doesn't let us know

until the end of September what the real number is.

But if we didn't appropriate this 600,000

and this 150,000 under this article

and the 50,000 under the other article,

we would lose it for this year.

It's available tax levy

and it's, if we, if it isn't appropriated to someplace,

it doesn't get assessed, if it doesn't get assessed for

that year, it's lost.

So failing to appropriate this money is like losing seven

three quarters of a million dollars.

So it's actually one of the things I've actually,

it's been really tightened up in the last several years

that people are accounting for any excess new growth.

We come to fall town meeting and we appropriate it.

We we're not gonna stick it in an operating budget

because those were all funded in the spring.

You put it in a savings account like stabilization.

When we roll around to the spring

and we're right now, we're in fiscal 27,

so this money is going in part of the fiscal 27 tax levy.

When we get around to the spring

and start budgeting for fiscal 28, this eight,

this $750,000 will be there yet again.

And it could be appropriated for capital or for operation.

So the, the key is we have this,

we appropriate it, we don't lose it.

And that is to me, like all

of the other principles are like where you spend it.

But if you don't, if you don't

appropriate it, you can't spend it.

So I vote or would urge you

to vote in favor of this motion. Thank you.

Thank you. Member Gman.

Member Linehan in the center.

Thank you Mr. Moderating. Mike Len precinct six.

My question relates to what is it here?

The Warren article gives four possible places to put it,

general stabilization, operational stabilization,

capital stabilization, and ope.

And the motion covers only two of the stabilization funds.

Operational stabilization, I'm not too concerned with,

but the opep I am.

Why was Opep not funded at all?

What are the plans to cover opep, which

traditionally has been a, well, we'll worry about

that later issue.

So I, I guess your question is

why was no money put into opep?

Why do these take precedence over opep,

Mr.

Skye? To the member's question,

We typically use free cash towards opep

for cash has not been certified yet.

So we haven't don't have a number to,

to apply to EB for that.

That will be coming in the spring though,

To continue.

No, I'll, so is that the assumption that, that,

the second question will be, is the assumption

that when free, free cash presumably has not been

certified yet, correct.

That when in spring annual town meeting

that free cash will be used for OPE

or a good chunk of free cash will be used for opep

To the members' question, which

Is traditionally what we do.

Yes, sir. One thing I would also note is that the,

the contribution to the general stabilization,

that was the one category that we were a little bit,

a little bit low in terms of the policy.

The policy for general stabilization is two

to 5% of prior year revenue.

We're with the $150,000 we're putting in will be a 2.6.

So it could still be on the kind of the lower end

and the, the rest we're putting into George Capital

because frankly that's allows us

to provide some relief on the capital program

and then way to fund that helps us fund that later on.

Member Lynn hand in debate.

Oh, that's it.

Seeing no one else seeking the floor will

vote this motion at this time.

This requires a majority vote

main motion under article three.

You may vote now.

Voting is now closed. The results of the vote are 118. Yes.

Two, no, zero abstain. The motion passes by majority vote.

Our next order of business is Article six,

capital Equipment and Improvement.

Ms. Keeny does the finance committee have a

recommendation under Article six,

The finance committee unanimously re recommends favorable

action on the matter of Article six, motion A

as presented on page 58

of the finance committee recommendation book in the amount

of $3,556,000 from the

capital stabilization fund. And I so move.

Second, move by member Keeny.

Second by member Gillenwater to speak to the motion.

Mr. Marshall from town administration.

Thank you Mr. Moderator, town meeting members.

John Marshall, deputy Town Administrator for operations.

Can everyone hear me? Okay, great.

So I wanna thank Natick residents, town meeting members

and the finance committee for your ongoing engagement

and feedback throughout the capital planning process.

I do believe that this is truly a community effort

in presenting article six.

I want to acknowledge the countless hours of research

and planning staff have put into the development

of these project requests.

This doesn't happen overnight.

There's a lot of this talented staff that we have

that put in countless hours to make this happen.

In collaboration with our partners with the schools,

we are requesting funding for 25 projects this fall

that were identified as the most critical projects

or our tier one projects.

You might have heard that from when

we were speaking in the spring.

This is continuing forward with our tier one projects

under motion a requesting capital stabilization funds.

That's the funding source for infrastructure

lifecycle management projects.

I know that's kind of like a mouthful,

but these are basically items that we're looking to extend

as part of our buildings

or replace as they're at their end of their useful life.

These components make up our buildings, grounds,

our IT systems as well as replacing vehicle

and equipment that are at the end

of their useful life in town meeting members.

This information is in your finance committee book on

page 58.

For those of you who are following along,

I know there's details on each

of these items under motion A.

So with that Mr.

Moderator, I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you Mr. Marshall.

To the floor for questions and debate. Remember here

Through you Mr. Moderator

Name in and precinct please. Oh,

I'm sorry.

Terry Miller Precinct nine.

I have a question on, and I'm sure you've looked at this,

but I wanna know in especially in light of the current gas

and diesel prices that we are facing,

are you looking at more hybrid vehicles

or anything of that sort

To the members question?

Yes, great question. We actually have a vehicle

replacement program where we look at a,

we basically have a matrix that we walk through

with our vehicles.

We look at electric vehicles first, then we move through

through hybrid vehicles

and then higher fuel efficiency gas vehicles.

We've worked with all of our department heads

to navigate through that process.

So before we bring forward any of these vehicles

and equipment in front of you, we actually go through

that process with our departments to determine

what we're placing, replacing it with

In the back, click it towards you

to turn it on

and as you come, if people are using the microphones in the

back, you can leave it click forward so it's always on

for the next member to come to the microphone.

Adam Boardman precinct eight.

I have a question regarding the police

cruisers. Is that appropriate at

This time? Your question? Sure.

I'm wondering how many police cruisers are in the Natick

Police Department at this time?

To the member's question,

I know we have Kenny Fisher

with the equipment maintenance division I believe,

and I am gonna be off by maybe a number or two,

but I believe we have, I believe we have a total

of 22 Chief and Kenny is that

28.

So we have a total of 28 vehicles from marked cruisers

to our administrative vehicles as well

as some of the specialty vehicles.

For example, like the truck

that you might see out there, that goes more

Specifically 'cause there's two cruisers on

the in the motion.

So I was looking specifically for cruisers

To the member's question,

If

We're just looking it up, if you give us a minute,

10 10,

An approximate number would actually be satisfactory.

I believe the number is 10 10 10

And they're of various ages from different years.

Correct.

In debate.

I was just curious.

Mostly because I feel like every year there's always a

couple of police cruisers that need to be purchased

and I understand that they're in constant use

so I just was kind of curious to see

how many cruisers they were.

'cause we do seem to every year replace

say one or two of them.

So I was in my mind just trying

to figure out the rotation. Thank you very much.

Yeah and oh sorry. No, no

We're good.

I'd love to hear any further comments. We're

We're done.

Okay. Member Scott,

Roger Scott precinct 10.

Just a general question regarding this, we asked

to appropriate $3.556 million

and for, for, for these items

that we do eventually use the money on,

is there any disclosure to the public as to

what would actually cost for the cruiser invoice amount

and you know, published on so that people can actually see

where their funds, their taxes are being spent so that

we have an, an evaluation of if we underpaid, overpaid

or some kind of a situation that might evolve

To the member's question?

Yeah, so when vehicles are purchased we have an invoice

for what we pay for those items.

So we certainly have that information

And is that publicly, you know,

maybe on the Natick website

that we could put something like that.

We just bought a police cruiser and it costs us $69,000.

You know, something like that. So

we actually paid this amount.

Actually before I answer the, is there anything in the,

in either the town report

or the budget book that describes past years' line

items that would cover this

In the prior years' information we note

what was authorized.

I don't know if we know what was

actually purchased in in prior documents.

It's something we we can certainly put together.

I think that would be to the benefit of the taxpayer.

Appreciate it. Thank you. And

Thank you sir.

Member Sidney in the front.

Thank you. Mr. Moderator

and town meeting members, Richard Sidney precinct eight

returning to the police cruisers, how many of our,

I think you said ten eight

or 10 cruisers are almost

beyond their expected life

To the member's question?

Well certainly the two that we have in front of you

for fall town meeting, one

of the biggest challenges we've actually run into

with our cruisers at this point in time is the long lead

time that we have for them.

Prior dealers used to actually have vehicles on the lot.

Some of the information that we're hearing back from the

companies at this point in time is

that they're being penalized to have vehicles on lot,

which I think is adding to some of our lead time.

But these two for certain

and then I believe we also have two more

that are in order right now

and those vehicles are at their end

of their useful life as well.

So between those two that are on order

and the planning for that for

To continue.

Thank you. In past years I remember that we tried to cycle

three cruisers every year.

Are we under buying cruisers at this point

To the members question?

So the last couple

of cycles at Springtown meeting we requested two at fall

town meeting we requested two.

We had a lot of back and forth with the chief

and the equipment maintenance supervisor in public works

to see if we could get away with two.

We will certainly be back requesting three at Springtown

meeting, but we felt that we could do that

because everything's gone up.

All of our vehicles have gone up roughly 60% based on

what we were estimating about five years ago.

We can't purchase as much as we used

to be able to with the same dollars

To

Continue, we have to make choices.

Thank you. These,

these cruisers get a lot of abuse

and in the past when we ordered three every year

it was because we wore them out.

Now when they're used up they go to auction

and you know, presumably somebody buys 'em,

repairs 'em or whatever.

That's harder now because the

equipment is much more complicated.

It's also harder to get them

and so I suspect that some of our, and

and based on previous speaker's comments, I suspect

that some of our cruisers are getting pretty rough

and rough, rough edges now.

So I completely support this. Thank you.

Thank you member Cindy,

member in the center.

Thank you. Thank you.

David Margi precinct eight couple

of quick questions through you Mr.

Moderator with regard to the previous speaker,

I guess my, one of my questions is how much of the equipment

unrelated to the vehicle,

but all the equipment within the vehicle if transferred

to the new vehicle or does

that generally have to be replaced too?

Is that equipment that's part of, you know that,

that the police use within the vehicle that's not part

of the vehicle itself, does that also get replaced

or is that transferred over

To the member's?

Question about what we get for our money?

Yes, great question. We try to move as much as we can.

Unfortunately sometimes with the model change from one year

to another, we can't move over.

That specifically becomes a challenge when we're looking at

dimensions for instant, say the cages

in maybe the back of a cruiser.

We've looked at it a number of times to try to move it

but unfortunately, unfortunately

with the change in the model that's not always possible.

But we do try to move what we can with radios

and some of the other things over

To continue.

Yes. Another question with regard to the vehicles

that are replaced it, do we get any compensation

for those on, on the secondary market that

for the cost in any way our

ability to sell those our auction

To the members' question?

I think it was alluded to before

but there wasn't from the town's perspective.

Could you answer the secondary market question?

Sure, yeah. So we have a revolving fund

that we have set up with our equipment and and vehicles.

When a vehicle is no longer needed, we dispose of it.

Typically it goes out to auction for sale.

Those monies get deposited back into that revolving fund.

That revolving fund is helpful when utilizing, if there's

for instance a vehicle that's in an accident

and we need to have it replaced,

we're not getting the full value back for that vehicle.

So being able to have those funds

and access 'em is helpful at times.

We have also utilized that to purchase vehicles instead

of using the capital plan.

So it does go to good use

but it goes directly back to vehicles and equipment

To continue.

Thank you. One last question kind

of in maybe a nitpicky detail, but I just had to ask page

And

This is appropriate.

Lemme know if this is an appropriate question at this time

with regard to fire car four.

If not, I can hold it to another for later.

Is this on which, which line and which table?

Well it's PA page 60 in the book

and it talks about fire car four.

I don't believe it's under motion A,

but we've been discussing a lot of things

that are part of all the motions.

No, we are only focused on motion A.

Okay. All right. I can hold the question then. This is

If I can Mr.

Moderator, this is part of motion A, it

Is part of motion A so your question sir,

You it's J honestly it's just a question about the vehicle

having seven 74,810 miles

and 7,481 hours.

Those are almost the same number

and I was just wondering is the,

are those numbers actually the numbers

or is that some sort of strange transposition of

one is just 10 times the other one seems a little unlikely

To the member's.

Question on the accuracy of the service

hours of the fire truck.

If I'm understanding the question correctly

Related to the fire vehicle, I would have to double check.

Yeah, it could be that we duplicated the numbers.

Typically when we look at numbers, we look at miles driven

and we also look at engine hours.

A lot of times we put a lot of engine hours on our vehicles

that are idling, which is why we've tried to as much

as possible move to a hybrid type vehicle

where we don't have to have the gasoline running.

But I don't know if I have an answer for you,

but we could have, we could have transposed it

but those are the two items that we look at.

We look at miles and engine hours. Okay,

Thank you.

That's all. Thank you. In debate, remember de

mayo at the microphone in the back.

Thank. Thank you Mr.

Moderator, Patricia de

Deo precinct six through you Mr.

Moderator. Getting back to the useful life

of the police cruisers,

I thought the criteria was mostly based on mileage

so could somebody elaborate on that please

To the member's question? Yeah,

So typically the way we look at our vehicles is we try

to get either a hundred thousand miles

or 10 years out of our vehicles.

With police cruisers specifically, we're able to put close

to a hundred thousand miles on those vehicles

between two and two and a half years.

If they run on frontline, typically within that two

and a half to three years we try

to move those vehicles from frontline back

to a secondary use.

So it could be an SRO officer vehicle, it could be a

traffic officer vehicle, could be a detective vehicle.

So you know the first three years, two to three years

of use are extremely heavy when they're kind

of going out three shifts a day, seven days a week.

But once those vehicles get a little bit older

and higher miles, we move them within the fleet.

We typically get somewhere between I think five

and six years out of a vehicle

and moving it fully through from the different uses.

Thank

You. To continue.

No,

Only seeing member Grafflin

and then member Lunta.

So here first.

Hi vehicles again.

Name and precinct sir.

Oh I'm sorry. Victoria Grafflin precinct five.

Just to clarify on the procurement process for,

since somebody did ask about transparency in the pricing,

does the town of Natick participate in the collective

procurement program that I think MAPC used to run?

Yes, there's a number of different vehicle cooperative

programs that we participate in

and I know that Mr. Fisher and I have talked about this

and I can't think of the name off of the top of my head.

I think it's MHTL. Oh yeah,

GC

GBPC.

Yep. So we do look for those opportunities.

Sometimes depending on the vehicle, they might may

or may not be on those lists.

So if they aren't then we, you know,

would follow our standard bidding practices for that

To continue.

So I guess a follow up question, so general pricing

could be visible if, if, if a person were

to look at those programs which are publicly available,

even if maybe the exact make

and model wasn't there, if someone wanted to get a sense

of the general pricing through these collective purchasing

programs, they could look there. Is that correct? That

Is correct, yes, they are available.

My second question is about the utility body truck

and I didn't, I apologize, I didn't notice this earlier,

but it does look like this utility body truck on page 85 it

says it has 63,399 miles

and that the current vehicle has excessive corrosion

and wear requiring floor and body work

and the transmission is starting to slip.

My question is, will they be purchasing the

same kind of vehicle?

'cause it seems like maybe that wasn't the greatest vehicle.

It it would be a similar model.

I mean like anything, you know,

sometimes a vehicle might get into an accident.

A lot of these vehicles that you see as well are also used

for our plowing operation, which gets some really rough

and heavy use as part of that.

So you know, again our, our standard is we try to hit

that a hundred thousand miles, 10 years

by the time we actually receive this in hand it will be 10

years due to the lead time.

But yeah, sometimes you know, due to a accident

or something along those lines, we have issues

with the vehicles a little bit earlier than we would like

Intubate so much.

No, nothing.

Remember lunta in the center and

then remember Patel in the back.

Thank you Brian

Four

Back on.

I just wanted to take this time as someone who purchases

multiple similar vehicles a year

and signs all the repair bills,

you are doing a phenomenal job getting

a useful life outta this.

I mean we run the same thing about 10 years.

We mostly look at engine hours more so than that

with the pieces of equipment we want, we run.

But I just wanted to say thank you.

You guys are doing a great job.

We're getting our money's worth out of this stuff.

You're whoever's maintaining this stuff's doing a

phenomenal job and

Thank you.

Can I actually ask the page to check with the tech

to see if the batteries are going on?

That one? That's the third time that's

happened. Remember Patel in the back?

Jamie Patel precinct date.

Come right up to the microphone please.

Jamie Patel, precinct eight. There you go.

What makes a fire car significantly more expensive than

a police cruiser

Do the member's question.

So it depends on the out upfitting

for whatever the vehicle might require.

So the reason why a fire car might be more expensive than a

police cruiser is due to the radios

and some of the other systems that are different

between a police operation and a fire operation.

So they might seem sim similar,

but there are different nuances between the two

To continue. Thank

You.

And with regards to the vehicle usage,

it seems like we're able to get a hundred thousand out

of a police cruiser, but only 74

or 75,000 out of a fire vehicle Is, is the vehicle different

To the member's?

Question.

The vehicle is different.

The fire vehicle that we're replacing,

I, I actually have it in front of me.

It's a 2014 so it's actually older than 10 years.

So even though the miles are a little bit lower,

the years is what hurts us.

For any of you that have an older vehicle,

I know I've experienced it in the past, you have one thing

that starts going with the vehicle.

Everything goes so it's not just the engine,

it's the seatbelt, it's the seed, it's you know,

anything you open and close within it.

So you know beyond that 10 mark, 10 year mark, it's bonus

for us when we can extend that a little bit

and we were able to get a little

bit more time with this vehicle.

Appreciate that. Thank you. Thank

You.

Member Po Andre and then the member in the corner here.

Is it on? Can you hear me? Thank you Mr. Moderato.

Simon Precinct six.

It's It is,

It is still doing that isn't it?

Could, could we swap the microphone out?

There is definitely something.

Does this work? Yes sir. Right.

I'll restart Simon Business six.

I have a question that I hope is appropriate

and I apologize if I may have overlooked this.

So I'm looking at on page 71 of the book,

at the specifically at the proposal to replace the

coal north tur field.

We're not, we're only on motion A to start

if you have a question on, on that table,

you're talking about motion C

and that would be out of order at this time. It

Is our order.

Feel free to hand the microphone to the member

behind you there on your right sir.

Hey Shaylee Smith precinct four question three.

You moderator for the boiler repla replacement at Brown.

Does it align with our opt-in stretch code

and decarbonization goals?

Just gimme one moment here

Mr.

Moderator. It's under the stewardship plan.

Thank you. Found it to the member's question.

Yes it does. Great. Thank you.

Member Linehan in the center here.

Thank you

Document.

Mr moderator Glen Ann precinct six.

This is sort of an accounting question that is relevant

to several of the motions in motion.

A item six and seven, relatively small,

but when the town

fact, where the town reports

how much money is spent per student

or et cetera, are expenses such as this, which are

purely school department expenses

because they have to do with the buildings

because most of the town buildings

gets the majority of town building.

Do these get, do these expenses and those that are in B and

and the like get reported as to the state, for example,

as school related expenditures?

Or do they get, is it only money that's allocated

through the school committee budget that is reported

as school expenditures,

Mr. Marshall, possibly to Mr.

Gillis

Based on nonverbal cues with Mr.

Gillis? I don't believe that it does,

but I'm gonna have, sometimes you can misinterpret

nonverbal cues, so

I appreciate that.

Thank you. Matthew Gillis,

assistant superintendent for finance.

There are school expenditures

that get allocated from the town

and we report that back to Desi.

So whether it's health insurance or portion of snowplowing

or maintenance for the vehicles each year when,

when we're closing out the books

and we're reporting stuff with the state, whether it's me

to the department of elementary and secondary ed

or the town comptroller to the Department of Revenue,

there's allocations that happen.

So they, they keep an inventory of which vehicles are ours.

We know which employees are ours in the health

insurance for things of

that nature. So there's an allocation.

Okay, stay there to continue. Second question.

Yeah, the clarification.

I know like shared expenses, certain stuff gets allocated

to the school department, don't know the

fields do with whatever. My question is

When

This, this does be funny,

when becomes directly from either tax levy

or capital expenditure, the capital stabilization fund

or whatever, do those expenses not

the processing to move the

Yeah,

The question is does this, does this show up?

Does it go to share

Lin remember if,

if you could please swap the microphone out with a page

and let's retire that microphone for the evening if we can.

And

Thank you.

I hope it was the microphone and not me. Okay, thank you.

I'm not talking shared expenses.

I know there's a method mechanism for that.

The question is, is there a mechanism that when money

is expended by town meeting directly into buildings

or equipment that goes to the school committee

but does not go through the, that goes

to the school department but

not through the school committee?

Is that all, does that show up in reports to the state

To the member's? Question.

Yes, it, yes it does. Okay, thank you.

Not seeing anyone else seeking the floor.

We'll vote this motion at this time.

There's motion A under article, where are we at six

And you may vote now

I should have stated this requires a two thirds vote.

Voting is now closed.

The results of the vote are 120 Yes.

Zero no to abstain motion passes by two thirds vote.

Does the finance committee have a further recommendation

under article six?

The finance committee unanimously recommends favorable

action on the matter of article six.

Motion B as presented on page 60

of the finance committee recommendation book in the amount

of $3,900,000

of which $3,050,000 would be from tax levy borrowing

$600,000 from water sewer borrowing

and $250,000 from golf course borrowing and ISO move

Second.

Move by member Keeney.

Second by member Gil Water to speak

to the motion Mr. Marshall?

Thank you Mr. Moderator.

So under motion B, we're looking

for borrowing authorizations for in infrastructure projects

that require lifecycle management.

Two projects through the general fund borrowing the

replacement of a virtual server with the public schools

and our roadway and sidewalk supplemental.

As those of you may know, the supplemental is in addition

to the chapter 90 money

that we receive from the state each year,

which I believe is roughly 1.45 million right now.

A water and sewer project to rehab one

of our 35 pump stations town wide

and continuing with bunker renovations at Saam

and Trace golf course restoring,

which the second phase will complete the restoration

of 11 greenside bunkers.

Happy to answer any questions Mr. Moderator?

Thank you Mr. Marshall

to the floor for questions and debate.

Member lum in the center.

Push towards the end. There you go.

No.

Okay. T alarm

Or actually we've lost it.

Just push the button towards the business end

of the microphone and the up position.

Speak right into it. Let's hear it.

Hello? Yes,

So I think one of the things just

to point out for, for members benefit real close

to the mouth closer than you think you need it.

I think part of what we're hearing tonight is just

microphone etiquette

and not actually a misfunctioning microphone.

So let's, let's try to keep it close.

I have a question. I have a question about water

and sewer and hopefully this will be in scope,

but in,

I think it was 2024 had a,

I I'm sorry, remember could you hold on a second?

And I'm noticing it's only the microphones that have like

that new holder on them.

I don't know what's going on but can we

swap out the microphone again?

There's, there's something about that style

that's just not working tonight.

Yeah, can we, we might wanna just use one of them if we can.

Testing. Testing. Okay.

In 2024, EPA came up with regulation around PFAS,

strict regulation around PFAS

and I think at the time we were given three to five years to

become compliant with that

and I was wondering what in our effort to do that,

where we are in our effort to be in compliance with

that PFAS regulation.

I'm gonna hold for a second on that.

I don't know if any of the projects proposed under motion B

relate to PFAS abatement.

I'm gonna have to rule that question out of order.

Member FOSS in the center

then the two members on the right,

then the member on the back.

Frank Foss precinct 10 a question if I could Mr.

Moderator looking at motions B

and C, if it's permitted

Motions B are permitted,

Well okay, motion B has $3 million

of tax levy borrowing in it.

Another motion which I won't mention

has another million dollars proposed,

which is a total of 4 million.

How does that fit into our debt schedule?

That that is to say we should have some debt rolling off

so that as it rolls off, are we just replacing the debt?

Are we augmenting and adding to it

or where, where does this land us come spring

when we have to look at the next, next fiscal year

To the members'? Question about the debt schedule.

Thank you. Great question.

I want to give kudos and credit to our finance team.

We've worked really hard on this the last couple of years.

So to answer your question, it's a combination.

So we have some debt that's rolling off in the general side

of our budget that's not debt excluded

that we are able to repurpose as part of this,

but we've also committed over the next several years

to add $6 million worth of borrowing projects

that we will then fund.

So you know, the 4 million that you referenced,

we're not borrowing, we,

we don't need 4 million next year to pay for that.

It's a component of

that based on the life schedule and things that we have.

So we've anticipated somewhere, I believe in the 650

to $700,000 range that that will target as part of

that $6 million worth of borrowing

that we have over the course of the year,

between spring and fall

To continue.

Thank you. I couldn't find the, my book from the spring

so I apologize for asking this question.

Where was the debt level at that, at the,

after we had approved the, the, the budget.

How much money was were we holding for debt in that budget

To the member's question

In spring?

I believe it was, we planned a total

of 6 million over the course of the year.

So I think it was roughly around two.

Okay. And if you add, if I may for the third question.

Yes sir. If you can add along into that, the

above the line, which is of course the debt exclusions.

How much debt have we out there right now

that is carried on our budget to the member's question?

I'm sorry Mr. Moderator, could you,

could the member repeat the question?

Yeah, could you clarify or

Repeat the question please?

Understanding that there was a certain amount in the budget

book then this 4 million or plus whatever it's gonna be.

Then we also had above the line, which is debt for

for debt exclusions.

What is the total of those three things?

How's that that make it a little easier?

Thank you.

You got a bunch of document you got?

We got a second. I just have it.

Oh it's right there.

I had it through the budget

Document.

I had it a minute ago. Sorry, I need

to find the book that I had a minute ago.

You get my phone

Didn't slip.

Perfect.

We're clearly a well tuned machine here, Mr.

Foss, we just, I'm sorry. We're clearly

a well-oiled machine here.

We're going very, we're doing very well.

So the budget document does lay out debt service

and gives a pretty good idea of what the le within levy

and outside levy debt looks like.

So if you take a look it see's on page

what the documents see here.

2 23, 2 20 17, 2 23 moment.

I'll give you the correct numbers. Here we go.

Okay. Depending on through

from FY 27 to FY

3 31, the

outside levy debt service goes,

maintains pretty say about 300 and principles.

So about 450,000 goes down to about 360,000.

Might get to 31 the

debt service outside the levee.

So that would be all debt, right? I

Think my question was outside the leve, that's, that's

that that, that's the debt exclusion piece.

That's that exclusion piece. That's debt

exclusion. Oh, the debt

Exclusion, yes.

Okay, thank you. So, so levy within the debt goes,

starts out in FY 27 at about F

5.8 million

and by FY 31 it goes is down to about 4.2 million.

So these issuances

that we were talking about here we're all envisioned in the

CIP which was, you know, which was, which was envisioned

as part of this budget document.

Thank you very much in debate, sir. Thank you Mr.

Moderator. My my question really is about

asking about the debt.

Is this when we have debt

and we do borrowing, it squeezes what we can use out

of the levy in on the operational side of our budget?

Very simple. So it should be re we should have some report

whenever we do borrowing to at least give us a thumbnail of

where we are and what, what where our position is gonna be

because as we look, go further out

and has, it has been depicted in some of the documents

in the spring and in and in, in this book here

that we're gonna have a couple years,

we're gonna have some major deficits, alright?

And if we be careful about the amount of money that we use

for levy or take from levy and borrow with it

and then stretch our money out, we may, it may be something

that we're doing something a little bit better than

to start whacking people with a higher tax

or having to have an override

or having to stress more people

that are having problems affording

to live in this house in the,

in this this town in their homes.

So I, I urge you to use

and I raise this in the spring, I urge you to use to, to use

as little of the borrowing capacity

and as much of the override capacity that was actually voted

for capital purposes.

Thank you Mr. Moderator.

Member Grafflin, then member g Gly,

then the gentleman at the microphone.

Hi. And then Member Vickers,

Victoria Grafflin precinct five.

Possibly a really dumb question,

but could you just explain for those of us

who aren't accountants, when you say tax levy borrowing

or golf course borrowing, like what does

that mean versus just borrowing? Borrowing?

Sure. First question.

Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Moderator.

So when we talk about golf course

or we talk about water sewer, those are related

to those specific enterprise funds.

When we talk about tax levy borrowing, that's the borrowing

that we're talking about in Levy.

So those are the

So what does that mean in Levy though as opposed to just,

I think I'm not understanding like we're going out

to borrow money or to sell bonds as a town to fund this,

but we're categorizing it as like we can only sell

as many bonds under the tax levy limit or something.

Is that

It's

To the member's question. Sorry.

It, it's basically where the repayment comes from.

So where either repaying it through the tax levy

or we're repaying it through one of the enterprise funds.

Okay, thank you. Continue so much.

Member G Gly,

Jason

Gly, precinct nine.

I was just curious through you Ms.

Moderator, if there was any additional details about the

school district virtual server infrastructure.

I didn't see a slide for it in the, in the booklet.

All the other items seemed like

a little bit more straightforward.

Had some more details on it,

but that one seemed a little broad, a little vague

and maybe I missed the page. Sure. But

To the members' question description

of item number one. I did

In fact miss a page.

I believe it's on 74 in the finance committee book,

but I'm, I'm happy to talk to that.

I did in fact miss the page.

Thank you

Gentleman at the microphone in the back.

Paul Stockley precinct nine

about the golf course bunker renovation.

I'd just like to ask how many bunkers are actually

being renovated

To the member's question.

So this funding will allow us

to do seven greenside bunkers.

At a prior town meeting we had an appropriation from town

meeting that we just went out to bid for

and we received the ability,

or through that process we're renovating

for greenside bunkers.

So the seven that we're seeking appropriation

for will complete the 11 green side bunkers

that we have at the golf course

To continue.

And how much for each bunker renovation out of the seven,

how much for each of them

To the member's question.

I dunno if you've have that detail at this point. Well

Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Moderator. Great question.

I do not have the details in terms of

how much per bunker at this point in time.

The number we're requesting is an estimate.

We won't receive the actual price until we go up to bid

To continue. No

Good

Member Vickers.

Thank you. B Brinley Vickers precinct date through you Mr.

Mr Moderator.

Page 78, the roadway and sidewalk supplemental.

If I could get a little understanding is this

for Melin overlay is this to put sidewalks where

there aren't sidewalks?

Two different questions

To the member's.

Question details on that item.

So depending on the road

and the condition of the road, it could be any

of the three that you mentioned.

So a newer road that has a decent substructure underneath,

we might do a mill and overlay to be able

to extend the life of that.

If it is a road that is the substructure is in rough shape,

we might do a full depth reconstruction of that road.

And when we look at our road projects,

if there's an existing sidewalk,

we obviously look to keep that.

If it doesn't have a sidewalk

and depending on where it may connect in with some

of the other roads, that is something

that we would look at as part of the project

To continue.

Yes, I'm sure I'm supposed to know this answer

'cause I'm sure I've looked it up before,

but exactly how our residents on the streets notified

that this work is coming.

Do the members question.

So we typically start

with a flyering process with the butters

as part of that flyering process.

On the early stages, we try

to capture information from the residents

so we can continue communication going forward.

Once we have resident information, that's a lot easier

to communicate when we have email

addresses and things like that.

But the initial process is usually

through some type of flyering.

It could happen even

before we actually get to the roadway work

because sometimes utilities have to go in in advance of it.

Or we might have to go in ourselves to look at the water

and sewer infrastructure

and upgrade that in advance of any roadway project.

But typically it starts with a firing process.

That's enough. Thank you.

Hold for a second,

gentlemen at the back on this microphone.

Ernie Fit precinct nine.

The only thing that is common with these four

items that we're looking to spend

$3.9 million on is that we're borrowing,

why do we have 'em bundled together?

It feels like we're forcing,

things are unrelated to be voted on.

It's like a all

or nothing creates kind of a dilemma in my mind.

It's forcing us as members to have to accept something

that we may not be comfortable

with in order to get something else.

Doesn't really allow for much debate on any of these items

and allows fat to get through potentially here.

So I'm gonna answer that with pointing

to something I'd said earlier this evening.

Members are allowed

to do a parliamentary procedure

called dividing the question.

We're gonna have a lesson in that

and as soon as we get to motion C, if there's an item

that you see that you want to call out separately,

I would entertain a motion to divide the question.

But I would need to see that in writing

Like an email.

If I go back to my seat,

Like a motion form submitted in writing 48 hours

in advance of town meeting.

So nothing can be done at this point.

I would also entertain a motion to table this article

or to take it up at a time certain in the future.

I'm only saying these things explicitly

to remind the members of the power they have

access to in this meeting. Okay,

Yeah, I think that'd be a good idea then to, to table this

because a quarter million dollars to repair bunkers when

you know it's supposed to be a bunker, it's supposed

to be crappy, you know, maybe virtual servers could be a,

could be cloud, you know, it could be a cloud

services instead of spending, you know, quarter, you know,

three quarters of a million dollars.

Mr. Sidney with a point of water here.

Sorry, I didn't hear it earlier. Can you bring a microphone?

Thank you Mr. Moderator,

could you please explain the difference between tabling

and postponing

to a time certain procedurally and parliamentary?

I will do that.

A motion to place an article on the table means we set it

aside and move on to the next order of business

and it shall remain on the table

until such time another member makes a motion

and we vote to you all vote to take it from the table

and consider it a motion to postpone to a time certain is

of the form of postpone consideration of this article

until the first order of business on Thursday.

That would be a reasonable motion.

Then I make a motion.

What is your motion, sir?

To postpone this to a time Certain

What time?

Certain

What would you suggest?

Nope,

I

Next week I I appreciate the, I appreciate the interest.

Maybe another member will rise

and help you in making your motion,

but I I I have no

functional ability to help you in

creating a motion of substance.

Friday 1:00 PM

That is out of order.

We town meeting meets on Tuesdays

and Thursdays until business is done.

Okay. I

The the next next town meeting.

Next meeting of the, of the membership.

Mr. Moderator,

I, Mr.

Sidney's not recognized unless it's a point of order.

I admittedly am not hearing a motion that we can act on.

I

Point of order.

Mr. Sidney with a point of order. So

The, I wanna be clear, a,

a good motion to postpone

to a time certain would be in the form of I move

to postpone the subject matter of this article

until first order of business on Thursday night.

If that's what the member would choose

to do, would that be correct?

That would be correct to continue.

Okay. So can I adopt what he said?

No, it

To save time, right?

I really do need to hear a member make a motion.

Right? Make the motion to postpone this to

a time certain at the next meeting

on Thursday

That I'll accept the motion.

Do I hear a second point of order for Mr. Fos? What is

This

Motion point order to postpone

Mr.

Fos? I I appreciate the eye contact,

but I need the microphone as well, sir.

I I didn't actually hear half of the words. I apologize.

Is the mo what is this?

The member is making a motion to postpone consideration

of article six to Thursday first order business

Since we've already pa approved a

Motion.

BI

Think the maker as this is the point

of order not asking him, the maker is trying

to postpone motion B.

So this should be motion B,

Correct?

Yes sir. This is motion BI heard the motion

and again, I'm, I think Mr.

Sidney was correct in his point of order.

In the structure of the motion, I don't know if the intent

of the motion maker is to postpone consideration

of the entire article or just motion

BI don't wanna put words in their mouth. Yeah,

That's why I asked them what is

This, this then I appreciate your point

of order, but I don't know the answer to the question.

What is this to continue?

Is the, is the, so what is this Is the purpose of the motion

to postpone consideration of the entire article

or just motion B.

Motion B please

Do I hear a second.

Second.

Seconded by Mr.

Foss in debate of your motion

to consider on Thursday.

Why do you want,

Now you

have I'll, I'll, I'll help out.

Now you have to explain your position on this motion. Oh,

Because I don't agree with bundling for unrelated things

and pushing through items that are unrelated.

Some of them I may not agree with or other members as well.

Mr. Foss as a seconder of the motion? Yes sir.

Frank Foss precinct 10.

I would would hope that we can postpone consideration

of this so that we can divide this motion

and take up the, the items separately

and then vote them in case there's something that is

detracting or someone causing someone to

eliminate the whole motion because of one item.

And I think the maker made that statement.

Please vote for the postponement.

I'm gonna take Mr. Gillenwater first on the stage.

Todd Gillenwater, precinct five,

member of the finance committee.

The administration proposed these grouped the way they are

because of the method of funding these, this is,

this is borrowing,

this is borrowing from several different sources.

The other one was from stabilization.

It's not completely random the way they're organized,

but I understand that you your point of that some

of the items are functionally unrelated,

but there is an underlying logic to it.

Remember, we are only debating the motion

to postpone consideration.

Mr. Coburn and then Member Ostroff.

Thank you Mr. Moderator. Dirk Coburn precinct four.

You began to allude to some of the tools we have to address

the perceived issue that's been described here.

That's pro prompting this promotion.

There are others we could still, for example,

amend this motion.

We could split it, we could do any of those things tonight.

We, we could, we,

I will not be able to accept a motion to amend a

Okay.

Capital project without, so, so we can't do them tonight

In writing in advance of town meeting.

And you'll understand more context when we get to motion C.

Okay, well I I find this

a little frustrating because we, we do start a process.

We've had hearings

before, an advisory body for us in public.

It's been out for 10 days in our hands.

We've, we've had ample opportunity to

say to ourselves, this doesn't make sense to me

and to, to prepare and do something about it.

I'm not gonna vote for this

Member Ostroff.

Josh Ostroff precinct six through you Mr.

Moderator taken to heart

what you said about the power the time members have.

I feel there's also responsibility that we have to our,

our fellow Tom meeting members

and to the public to do our business thoughtfully

and efficiently and something that's been the subject

of hours and hours of public hearings

and that we've had in writing for two weeks.

I question whether it's the best use of our time

to ask detailed questions on the floor of Tom meeting

or to seek to divide.

If we don't fully grasp something,

we have the opportunity to do that.

And I feel like we owe that to our constituents to have

that advance warning to the administration.

I've got a concern, I've got a question.

Could we please come prepared

to discuss it rather than do it on the fly?

I feel that these are all, for the most part re you know,