[Rich, 02:13]
Avast! The decks have been cleared for the budget clash.

• Called to order at 20:02.
• Ms. Mahon said there would be a discussion about increasing state aid to the schools on 1 June at 19:30 in the BoS hearing room on the 2^nd floor of Town Hall. She also read a BoS resolution honoring Minuteman Superintendant Fitzgerald on his impending retirement.
• Dr. Fitzgerald thanked the BoS and Town Meeting and said Arlington is the most important Town in Minuteman and that Arlington families make good use of the school. He thanked Town Meeting for what it has done for the school over the years despite the clashes in the 1990s.
• Article 93 - Resolution on Education:
  • BoS recommended a vote as set forth in its report.
  • Ms. Mahon said the resolution would send a strong message to our state and federal legislators and that the BoS endorsed the resolution.
  • Mr. Schlichtman thanked SPOT for getting the article inserted. He pointed out the Town is subject to a host of mandates but it not given the resources to meet them. He said that with some of the put-backs the schools will be better next year but still fall below minimum standards. He applauded the Town's representatives for supporting the moratorium on charter schools.
  • State Senator Havern said the Hancock decision will cost the state $1.7bil and that if revenues are not expanded or the distribution formula changed, the Town will be hurt badly. He said he would vote for a tax increase to go towards education. He urged passage of the resolution and said education is a fundamental government expenditure.
  • Mr. Quinn moved the previous question - debate terminated.
  • BoS recommendation approved.
• Article 53 - Appropriation/Minuteman:
  • FinComm recommendated an appropriation as set forth in its report.
  • Mr. Tosti thanked Dr. Fitzgerald for his work. He said his own son attends Minuteman.
  • Mr. DeCoursey said the FinComm recommendation was again based on the education reform calculation this year. He said Arlington sent an additional 23 FTE students to Minuteman this year.
  • Ms. E. Phelps said this was Dr. Fitzgerald's last town meeting ever, as the other 15 Minuteman towns had already handled their Minuteman assessments. She said he is leaving the school in great shape and has managed the transition from a traditional vo-tech school to one necessarily more focussed on high-tech. She said over 50% of Minuteman students are SPED and that the school has programs to help SPED students to succeed in ways regular high schools cannot. She named Kelly Meister and John Sullivan as Arlington students at the school who have won state and national awards in vo-tech competitions. She said Dr. Fitzgerald and Minuteman have responded to member towns' budgetary concerns and that in-district enrollment has actually increased. She thanked Dr. Fitzgerald for his work.
  • Mr. Carreiro asked if the FinComm recommendation represented an acceptance of the Minuteman budget. Mr. DeCoursey said it did.
  • Ms. LaCourt noted that Minuteman spends about $15,000 per pupil and asked what AHS spent. Mr. Schlichtman said $7,800. Mr. LaCourt said AHS spent $10,000 on science equipment and asked what Minuteman spends. Dr. Fitzgerald says a significant amount of the $15,000 is transportation costs. He said science equipment costs are zero as they are entirely covered by donations and grants. Ms. LaCourt asked how much is spent per class on science supplies. Dr. Fitzgerald said their is no set number as it is determined class by class. Ms. LaCourt said she wanted to compare AHS science spending with Minuteman spending.
  • Ms. J. Phelps asked what the arrows mean in Chart 5 of the Minuteman handout. Dr. Fitzgerald said it was a cue to remind him and other Minuteman officials that there are other factors besides raw enrollments affecting a town's assessment. Ms. Phelps asked if SPED and regular students were always assessed differently. Dr. Fitzgerald said that when Minuteman started SPED costs were averaged in, but that 15-20 years ago when SPED students topped 30%, the school realized that was not fair across towns and began to surcharge a town for its SPED students (currently $4,250/student). In addition, when a student causes the school to incur extraordinary costs, those costs are billed directly to that town. Ms. Phelps asked what some small type on Chart 5 said. Dr. Fitzgerald read it. Ms. Phelps asked why some towns' assessments are decreasing. Dr. Fitzgerald said it was a function of the state education reform formula.
  • Mr. Kazarian asked if Minuteman could sue the state for not funding 100% of transportation costs as the law requires. Dr. Fitzgerald pointed out the law says the funding is subject to appropriation, so there is nothing to sue over. He said the state Board of Education recommended the transportation funding cut and that Rep. Marzilli and Sen. Havern are trying to reverse some of it.
  • Mr. Bernardin moved the previous question - debate terminated.
  • FinComm recommendation approved.
• Article 61 - Alternatives Regarding School Rebuilds:
  • BoS recommended a vote of no action as set forth in its report.
  • Ms. Mahon moved to postpone to 26 May.
  • Motion to postpone approved.
• Article 50 - Committee/Reserve Fund/Spending Policies
  • BoS recommended a vote to create the committee as set forth in its report.
  • Mr. Bilafer said that Town spending tends to follow the economic health of the Commonwealth. He said the current downturn has hurt the schools, people with no children in the schools, and town employees. He said he would like to see reserves managed so that cycles could be moderated. He said he believes such a committee's analysis would helpp FinComm and that now would be a good time to commence such an analysis.
  • Mr. Tosti said FinComm has done a good job of building up reserves in the past and budgets conservatively. He said it is not that other communities have done better dealing with the downturn but that they intrinsically had more resources. He said that the underlying problem is the Town's problems are causes by losses on continuing revenues while reserve funds can only make up for those losses for a small number of years. He said that FinComm has done a good job and does not need the help of the committee, but if it is established that FinComm would work with it.
  • Mr. Jamieson asked if the committee would address reserve policy, spending or both and if it would set up spending priorities. Mr. Bilafer said it would address both reserve policy and spending patterns but would not set priorities. Mr. Jamieson said he did not like management by formula. Mr. Bilafer said the committee would not be about that but could help monitor patterns of expenditures. He gave an example of how after an early retirement program staff levels were supposed to be held down for 10 years to amortize the buyout costs, but after merely four years staffing was back to its pre-buyout level.
  • Mr. Bernardin asked why the BoS was against forming a committee under Article 48 but for the committee proposed here. Ms. Mahon, reminding the meeting that she voted for the Article 48 committee, said the BoS believes the situations are different. She said the BoS believes the Budget Review Task Force does the things the Article 48 committee would have done but that no one does what this proposed committee would do.
  • Mr. Canaday asked who FinComm would work with on this issue of the committee was not created. Mr. Tosti said FinComm would work with the Arlington Coalition, sub-committees of the BoS, and others. He said as long as the proposed work could be scheduled between July and December FinComm could do it.
  • Mr. Deyst, also a FinComm member, said he believes FinComm would suffer if it had to work with another committee.
  • Mr. McCabe asked if the committee would consider reserve funds in general or the Reserve Fund (which is a fund which puts some slack in the budgets -- departments can come to FinComm during the year and ask for extra cash which FinComm can appropriate out of the Reserve Fund without having to come back to Town Meeting. At the end of the year any unspent monies roll into the general fund). Mr. Bilafer it was reserve funds in general. Mr. McCabe said he did not like the Reserve Fund being mentioned and asked if the committee would try to change how the Reserve Fund is handled. Mr. Bilafer said the committee would try to moderate cycles and that it would not try to change Reserve Fund operations. Mr. McCabe asked for the Reserve Fund balance. Mr. Tosti said it was about $326,000 but would be under $100,00 by the end of the current fiscal year.
  • Mr. Gilligan moved the previous question - debate terminated.
  • BoS recommendation defeated, challenged, and defeated 67-95.
• Article 40 - Endorsement of CDBG Allocations:
  • BoS recommended a vote as set forth in their CDBG memo.
  • Mr. O'Brien said the BoS had to allocate $1,558,000 of funds across $2,370,000 of requests. He said some highlights were the committment to affordable housing, funding athletic scholarships and performing arts scholarships, finishing the Crosby tennis courts and soft-topping the Thompson playground, and funding a Mass Ave Corridor Study which would propose a comprehensive solution to Mass Ave issues from Mill Street to the Cambridge line.
  • Ms. LaCourt asked if the BoS considers if partially funding a program might leave it ineffective. Mr. O'Brien says it does. He also noted that especially with capital projects a underfund in one year will be made up the following year. Ms. LaCourt asked why only hockey players were getting a set of scholarships. Mr. O'Brien said no other requests were made.
  • Mr. Berkowitz said the reflecting pond works irregularly and asked if it could be fixed with CDBG funds. Mr. O'Brien said it was repaired and restored with CDBG funds but is now a regular operating budget issue.
  • Mr. Streitfeld asked if the study would be recommending that Mass Ave be made one lane each way. Mr. O'Brien said no such conclusion has been made but the study would consider that option.
  • Mr. Cleinman asked if the $1,588,000 the Town received was what the Town applied for. Mr. O'Brien said there is no application -- the Town is told what it will be receiving. Mr. Cleinman expressed concern that the funding period bridges the federal fiscal year-end. Mr. O'Brien said the CDBG law allows that to happen and it is not a problem.
  • Ms. Harrington asked how much CDBG funds go to the Director of Planning's (i.e. Mr. O'Brien's) salary. Mr. O'Brien said about $5,000. Ms. Harrington asked what the bolded lines on the report were. Mr. O'Brien said they represented new requests.
  • Mr. Gilligan moved the previous question - debate terminated.
  • BoS recommendation approved unanimously.
• Article 13 - Zoning Bylaw/Field Signs:
  • ARB recommended a vote of no action as set forth in its report.
  • Ms. Mayer withdrew her original substitute motion and presented a new one which would only allow APS teams to put up sponsored signs and would only allow them to be up for the duration of a game at a time. She said the original substitute motion was flawed and that this was closer to the original intent. She said the experiment would be useful and it would help offset the cost of APS atheletic programs.
  • Mr. Chaput said the ARB was against the original substitute motion but did not have significant problems with the new one and that it would be OK to approve it.
  • Mr. Caccavaro said he had problems with the motion -- that it was never put before the Parks and Recreation Commission and that it would hurt existing fundraisers. He said he was against it.
  • Mr. Pachter said he was strongly against the original substitute motion and was weekly against this one. He said it needed to have standards about sign size. He urged a no action vote and suggested the proponents try against next year with a more concrete proposal.
  • Mr. Carreiro asked if the issues about incorporating regulations by reference were resolved. Mr. Moderator said they were. Mr. Carreiro asked if each use of a sign had to be permitted or would one permit cover the whole season. Ms. Mayer said the latter. Mr. Carreiro said the he was in favor of the original substitute motion (with a put-up-take-down change) and was in favor of the new one.
  • Mr. Bernardin moved the previous question - debate terminated.
  • Motion to substitute defeated, challenged, approved 89-79.
  • ARB recommendation as substituted defeated.
• Article 15 - Bylaw Amendment/Field Signs
  • BoS originally recommended a vote as set forth in its report.
  • Ms. Mahon said that given the Article 13 vote, the BoS had changed its recommendation to no action.
  • BoS recommendation of no action approved.
• Article 77 - Appropriation/Library Way:
  • FinComm recommended a vote of no action as set forth in its report.
  • Mr. Judd offered a resolution that Town Meeting would urge the BoS to do all things necessary to put a light in at the Library Way intersection and synchronize all the Arlington Center traffic lights.
  • Mr. Kohl said he was against the resolution as it presupposes a light should go there. He said no specific course of action should be pushed until the relevant committees study the situation.
  • Mr. Taber moved the previous question - debate terminated.
  • Judd resolution defeated.
  • FinComm recommendation approved.
• Article 79 - Appropriation/Park Ave Bridge:
  • FinComm recommended a vote of no action as set forth in its report.
  • Mr. Judd offered a resolution that Town Meeting would urge the BoS to do all things necessary to put a pedestrial walkway on the bridge and signalize Downing Square.
  • Mr. Tosti said a light would not be expensive but that adding a walkway would be tremendously expensive. He said the real problem is the intersection and that is something the BoS can handle.
  • Mr. Chaput said he opposed the resolution. He said the traffic committee should deal with it and that pressure for a particular solution should not be applied until the committee had a chance to deliberate on it.
  • Mr. Abbott said the battle was lost when Mass Highway got the bridge built before people realized the problem with the design. He said that it would be very expensive to add the walkway and that the walkway issue is nothing compared with Downing Square. He opposed the resolution.
  • Mr. McCabe asked if the Town could get money from the county since Park Avenue is a county road. Mr. Moderator pointed out that Middlesex County no longer exists. DPW Director Sanchez said that for many years county roads have been the responsibility of cities and towns. Mr. McCabe asked if Mr. Sanchez would try to look into funds for the work. Mr. Sanchez said he would.
  • Mr. Carreiro moved the previous question - debate terminated.
  • Judd resolution defeated.
  • FinComm recommendation approved.
• Article 80 - Trash Collection:
  • BoS recommended a vote of no action as set forth in its report.
  • Ms. Mahon said a committee is currently studing the PAYT issue and will have a report in the fall. She said the BoS wants to defer any action until after that report.
  • Mr. Tosti said FinComm also recommends no action as it is not the right time for PAYT. He thanked the proponents of the article for excellent presentations and said that it needs to continue to be studied.
  • BoS recommendation approved.
• Article 81 - Trash Collection Fee:
  • BoS recommended a vote of no action as set forth in its report.
  • BoS recommendation approved unanimously.
• Article 82 - Trash Collection Plan:
  • BoS recommended a vote of no action as set forth in its report.
  • BoS recommendation approved.
• Article 88 - Transfer of Funds/Cemetery:
  • FinComm originally recommended a vote of no action but changed that to recommending a $70,000 transfer from "Lots and Graves" to the capital budget.
  • Ms. Fiore asked if the money would be used to push the cemetery further into Meadowbrook park. Deputy Town Manager Galkowski said it was to fund the capital budget item of two pickup trucks.
  • FinComm recommendation approved unanimously.
• Motion to adjourn - approved.
• Adjourned at 22:56 to 20:00 on 26 May.