Select Board - April 30, 2026

I will call the April 30th Select Board Meeting to order. First item on the agenda is Pledge of Allegiance. First item on the agenda is Dedham Citizens Open Discussions. We do have a couple that have signed in. So, Richard Lewis, please. Yeah. come up there. Yeah, because that's easier to be seen. Just your name and address. And we have a three minutes or so limit.

I'll keep it quick. I appreciate the select board's time. My name is Rich Barrett. I live at 383 Westfield Street in Dedham. I'm joined today by my neighbor, Louis Diamond. He lives at 437. 437. Westfield Street. So it's about the same issue. You're all in receipt of a letter from my attorney from two weeks ago regarding enforcement of zoning about illegal short-term rentals in Dedham. specifically an Airbnb that's operating at 427 Westfield Street. Short-term rentals like Airbnbs are illegal in Dedham. and one exists there. It is a well-known party house. We've had to call the police multiple times. there is litter all over the place. A bonfire was out of control. And it's been well known around, at least for the Dedham police, that the Mass State Police stopped a street, make up where they drive around crazy and stuff like this.

This was going to be the house for it back in October, and they stopped it. If anybody's got a question for that, they should talk to the Dedham Police Department because the Mass State Police know all about it. This is dangerous. It's illegal and it's dangerous and it's against our law, but no one's doing anything about it. I went down there in early September. I've been there four times. Lou's been there multiple times. I've called the police multiple times. There's no action. It's pretty black and white here. These are not allowed. When I went in September, there were 14. I actually showed up in the building department. There were 14. I told them where I lived. There were 14 properties that came out on a yellow piece of paper. They knew where they were. We were number 11, the one I complained about. Today there's about 44. I was informed today by the town manager that the state, the MassDOR has provided Dedham with a listing of approximately 44 or 45 properties and how much hospitality tax that they've collected on these illegal properties.

and no one has done a damn thing, excuse my language. When you go down there and hear that it's a lengthy process, when you go down there and hear that it's difficult to get something through the housing court, when you go down there and hear to your face that there's nothing we can do that is unacceptable. What I'm asking the select board, and you guys are elected officials with day jobs and I appreciate your time, but I'm asking you to enforce a law that protects our town. there were 14 in September, there's 45 today, there'll be 145 in six months. And the World Cup is at our door and our town is about to have a massive problem because we didn't address this a year ago when it was well known. I appreciate your time. I'm open to any questions that you might have. But this is a serious issue, and I want the town to act on it immediately.

Thank you. Lewis?

Yeah.

Lou Diamond, 437 Westfield Street. We are a direct abutter to this property. Up until just over a year ago, it was for sale and everything, and it finally passed papers. So I went to introduce myself to the gentleman that purchased it, and he gave me the indication that he was moving into this property with his wife and children. and I said, oh, that's great. How many kids do you have and this and that? Do you have any dogs? Because we have pets. And he gave me no indication that he was gonna run a hotel. So since then, One of the first issues we had was food being dropped off at the end of our driveway. people were renting there and they were calling orders in and not picking up the food at the end of the driveway. It would tend to rot, the animals would get in it, make a mess with the trash. That was the beginning of it. I'm like, geez, is anybody living over there? What's going on? We were unaware that he did this.

Then, At three o'clock in the morning one night, our doorbell rings. Our dogs are going crazy. She woke the whole house up. It was a European girl who was here for a retreat. and was lost. She was at the wrong house. I said, well, let me get everything settled down and I'll help you. I proceeded to escort her next door to the house to see that she get in pitch black dark. She had the code to get in the house and I made it sure that she got in okay. But the fact that she was at our door at three o'clock in the morning is really, really out of bounds. Since then, they've had corporate parties there. They had a Dunkin' Donuts corporate party there. They had inflatable signs, signage all over. the property impeding on our property.

We own the easement to both these properties. They're abusing it terribly. They park on our grass, they leave trash, beer cans, it's out of control. So I don't know what we're gonna do about this, but something's really gotta be done. We're not gonna go through our whole summer like this. It just, it was nice. The Akers that lived there, they were very, very nice people. They had two daughters. Everything was perfect, of course. I mean, their daughters lived in New York. No issues at all. Well, they took sick and since have gone. So, like I said, we had no idea. We thought we were gonna get, you know, oh, maybe we'll get some nice neighbors, you know what I mean? And we don't mind children, we don't mind pets. We're pretty quiet. And if you've ever viewed Westfield Street, it's very rural. You know, people walking up and down, walking their pets and all this type of thing.

And that can be tolerated as well. This is a little different. I mean, you can't, it's like just out of control. Did you want to say anything about it, John?

Can I ask you just to come up and identify yourself? My wife, John.

We didn't move to... Hi, name please. My name is Jennifer Signore-Diamond. We didn't move to Dedham to the home that we bought with the land that we bought for the privacy that we were seeking and to be in the area that we chose to live in, to live next door to a party house. and we come home and to sit in the backyard and have people in and out, in and out Oh, they had an off-dog leash. One of their people staying at the house had a pet and it wasn't leashed and it ran into our yard. and our dogs attacked it. It was very, very scary. We shouldn't be afraid sitting in our backyard that we have to worry about the renters next door's pets aren't leashed. I mean, it's just,

Our quality of life decision when we moved here, I mean, it's just, we're living next door to a hotel.

And this is the only thing I'd add, I think. There's a website. It's rented out for the next three months. It's in the letter. You all got a copy. Everybody seems to know about it. Nothing's being done about it. We're asking you to enforce the law. I'm asking specifically for immediate cease and desist orders to go out. The town needs to take action to protect ourselves and enforce our own laws. This will be 150 in six months. Thank you.

Thank you, thanks for coming in. Usually we don't, I was gonna ask Leon to address this during his, if you hang for a minute while he gives his town manager's report, he'll include some comments in this town manager's report. So next item on is the town manager's report.

I just have, sorry, can I have one more second? Sure. Sorry. That's fine. I just wanna talk about the easement really quick. So the easement, is at the base of the road and it's a split driveway. Now we own approximately 60 feet of this easement. He's having his landscapers cut our trees, mow our lawn. Plough the snow up into our yard and all that type of thing. So I've spoken with an attorney about it, you know, and it's clearly an abuse of the easement. It's in black and white. He can't you can't use it for commercial use for one thing and for another thing it's just like you know and they're parking on our grass so I mean for me to put a gate up and block it would be against the law and then I'd go to court with them or whatever. I mean, do we really want to do that? I don't. But I can't have this stuff going on like this, you know?

So like I said, we own the easement. The easement goes with our property. So that's all. Thank you.

Thank you. Leon, town manager's report. So if the board will indulge, and again, So I know we don't normally address these matters on the spot, but I do want to give you a little bit of an update and the board as well. We learned of this, I think, back in last September when you folks called and brought it to our attention, the building department's attention. At that time, our former building commissioner worked with KP Law. We drafted a cease and desist letter. It was my understanding that that cease and distance letter had been delivered. I apologize. We did some research today, and it doesn't look like it actually went out. And so, again, that's on us, and I apologize for that. This is completely unacceptable. be this kind of activity happening in a residential neighborhood like that? It is against the zoning ordinance. We have a permissive zoning code in Dedham, which means that if things are not explicitly permitted, and Listed, they're not allowed.

And this is clearly not allowed in a residential zoning district and you folks shouldn't have to put up with that. So we have a draft letter drafted by KP Law. Our new building commissioner will sign that letter tomorrow. We'll get it in the mail and we will take appropriate action to make sure we're enforcing our zoning ordinance.

And again, Can I ask you to let the board have their conversation first, okay? We don't engage back and forth with the town manager, okay?

No, thank you. Go ahead. So again, there is a process after a cease and desist letter is sent. and we're hoping that the owner will comply with that. If not, we will have to go to court. That can be a lengthy process, but it's something the town is willing to enable and obligated to do in these kinds of cases, so we're willing to do that.

Thank you for coming this evening. This has been something that has been on my agenda for a really long time. To the point where we had this happen at town meeting where the planning board tried to change zoning and make it stronger. I shouldn't say change but make the wording stronger in town meeting absolutely said no to it. We had people in town meeting who stood up and said that they can't afford their mortgages unless they do Airbnb. and Town Meeting went with it and they pulled back from it. So, my suggestion is that you also contact Town Meeting members and I appreciate that we're doing this, but the theme has been We don't want, we're okay with it.

So I'm pretty upset right now hearing this, hearing what you're going through because I also had neighbors who had complained about this. I don't care what section of town we're from, to be honest with you, because everybody spends money on their home and they don't want that living. There are some that are quiet and that it's great, you never know that it's an Airbnb there and that people are transient and coming in and out. And then there have been other people that have also had these issues that we did not take care of. I mean, I'm just calling that out there right now. So hopefully going forward, we really, make a decision in this town. And I strongly advise you to pay attention to and contact town meeting members so that they understand that it's also what you're feeling. And what is the community feeling on this? Right now, that's all I have to say about it. I thank you for your time, Mr. Chairman.

Thanks. Questions for Leon?

I just have a question about the list of additional Airbnbs that we have. Are letters being sent to all known operators?

Yeah, we're going to take this one and the other ones that we've received complaints on and deal with those ones first, but the plan is to utilize that list to send the cease and desist to all known operators. And just to address Dimitria's comments. I absolutely agree. I think there was an opportunity at town meeting to strengthen our position and make it clear. That doesn't change the fact that we do have the zoning ordinance the way it is. a number of communities, and again, this is sort of going outside of our scope of what we normally talk about here, but a number of communities have allowed Airbnbs in certain areas under certain parameters, making sure they're inspected and safe and there's a procedure and perhaps that might be a middle ground to have a conversation about in the future, but as of right today, they're not allowed and that's quite clear, so I think we can...

I think as a community, if the community wants to allow them under certain parameters and they're safe and they don't impact their neighbor's important property rights, that's one way, but that's not what we have here in Dedham.

Michelle?

Yeah, I have a question, and if you don't know the answer now, because I know this wasn't on our agenda, but I'm curious of the number of Airbnbs that we do have on this list, how many we are getting complaints about, because I do wonder about... the cease and desist letters make sense, but the enforcement, it would make sense to prioritize those that we are hearing complaints about. I know other people are relying on them for income and other reasons. owners can have discretion about who they rent to and things like that. But hoping that we can address those where people are really seeing parties and issues and interfering with their way of life.

Yeah, and talking to our building commissioner, I'm aware that there's a short list of Airbnbs that have received complaints in the few weeks that he's been here, and he's dealing with those. Again, the longer term plan would be to reach out to everyone who's operating these that we're now aware of. And again, the state has provided us with a list of folks who are paying the short-term rental tax, so we have a pretty definitive list of at least those are the ones who are on the books doing it legally according to the state, but there are probably many more than that. And certainly it would be a big enforcement undertaking, so that's why we're going to prioritize the ones we receive complaints on, but the goal would be to get to them all eventually.

and Mr. Chairman, I mean, letting it happen in our town changes the fabric of our town. And again, there are, there are neighbors who have complained before and nothing happened, right? And nothing happens. and once it's okay, like who makes up, you know, and who makes up the area that we're gonna allow it to happen and once it's okay, it's okay and it's in the books and that's the area. So I just have a lot of concern and We really need to take a look at this and really publicize if that's the direction of thought of making this legal in our town. be completely wrong and it could be the will and there could be five of us in this room who don't think that we should have Airbnbs. Thank you.

I wasn't suggesting that we make it legal. I was saying that if that was the the opinion of town, meaning there is a path to go down, some other towns have gone down, but it's still really, you need to have safeguards in place to make sure that you're not impacting your neighbors and the fabric of the community is what I was saying. Anyway. if I may continue with, or is there other topics?

No, so I think that, just to follow up, that the cease and desist will go out tomorrow. In my sense, it's not just regular mail, certified mail. hand deliver it to the house even though who knows who's going to be there. We have to make sure that they are contacted. And if we have a phone number for the owner of the property, you need to call the owner. and leave a message. And then as we go forward, the next time that there is a, that we need to have a building commissioner visit that location for the next few weeks, and if there's something going on, then we need to shut it down and have, I don't know whether it's Dedham Police, whether they have the authority, but the authority to shut it down and just to continue to to get them to stop one way or another, either through the courts or on their own.

I don't know what the answer is, but I do agree with Dimitria that when we had that town meeting during COVID, at the Dedham Health, this is where this article came up by the planning board to put forth, to put strong, and there was a lot of sympathetic people in the audience who thought that it shouldn't happen and town meeting voted, again, town meeting didn't vote and maybe that's something we can also reach out to the planning board and ask them to reconsider drafting or redrafting that and submitting it for the next town meeting, which would be in November. In my opinion, that's probably the way in which we should also go and then notify those that have been impacted to invite them to come and to speak and to share

there because I don't think people, unless you're impacted by it, it's out of sight.

If I can pause for a moment, I think if we're going to have a policy discussion about short-term rentals, that needs to be an agenda item.

Thank you. Thank you. and Mr. Chair and members of the board. So continue on the town manager's report. Moving to a lighter topic. As I've been reporting, we've been working on the town green. The community porch is now substantially complete. The fence is down. The area has been mulched and cleaned and it's looking wonderful. There was actually a jazz concert tonight but unfortunately it's been cancelled due to the weather. But on Saturday we will the Friends of the Dedham Town Green which is a non-profit group that was established to help support the town green in the long term is hosting a spring fling on the green from 2 to 4 and they'll have live music, some refreshments and lawn games, and it's free to everyone to attend. So that's Saturday, 2 to 4. And I believe that they have a Facebook invite and things like that. So that's exciting news.

I think it's very important that we recognize that today was Chief Spillane's last day as our fire chief. He's been an incredible presence in town for over 40 years, 42 years. 14 is the chief. He has provided really steady leadership to the department. He cared deeply about the town of Dedham and the fire department and the firefighters. I think one of the biggest impacts that he made to the fire department was the focus on the health and safety of the firefighters and whether that was through the wellness program that he established, again, with the support of the board, or the cancer screening more recently that he helped get running, or even the new building, which really is a physical testament to our commitment to their health and safety. That building is so much safer and better for everyone who works in it. Again, I think Chief Spillane deserves a lot of

appreciation and credit for his service to the town. 42 years is an incredible an incredible amount of time to dedicate to that career and we thank him for that. We're having a celebration in honor of his retirement on Monday, May 4th from 4.30 to 6.30 at the Endicott Estate and the public is welcome to attend that. Again, there will be refreshments at that. And again, it's the least we can do to thank him for his service. That concludes my report, but I'm happy to take additional questions if you have them.

Any questions? Seeing none, move on to the consent agenda. Is there a motion, please?

Move to approve the consent agenda including request for the use of Town Green Dan O'Neill Juneteenth celebration 6-2026 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Is there a second? Second.

Discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Abstained? Thank you. Was there an item not on the agenda?

Move to take an item not on the agenda.

Do I second? Second. Discussion? Anyone not in all those in favor?

Aye.

Thank you.

Move to approve the request of placing facilities master plan lawn signs on town property until the completion of the facilities master plan. Second.

Discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor? Aye. Thank you. Okay, next item on the agenda, the public hearing request for a change of manager. at Temescal. Council?

Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the board. For the record, my name is Kevin Cloutier. I'm an attorney. located at 1990 Center Street in West Roxbury. I'm joined by Wagner DeLima, who's the applicant for the licensee Temizcal to become the new manager. Just very briefly, of course we're asking this board to approve our request to change the manager of record to add Mr. DeLima. as you know, Rebel Restaurant. Well, Temezcal here is part of the Rebel Restaurant family, includes nine restaurants located in Boston, in the greater Boston area. With Temezcal here and Dedham being one of the most the busiest restaurants, kind of a flagship restaurant after we recently closed the ones in the seaport. Mr. DeLeman, I'm gonna let him introduce himself very briefly. He's 38, he spent 20 years, you know, as soon as he was 18 in the hospitality industry. His experience has primarily been in the back of the house.

He's been with Rebel Restaurant for the past six years and in that capacity has been an executive chef at more than one of our locations in Tony C's and some Tempest Cows. and obviously had executive chef experience prior to coming to Rebel Restaurants. We feel very confident in his ability to run the back of a house, to run a kitchen, and to manage the employees and the very compliance heavy part of the restaurant dealing with food preparation, allergens, et cetera. that skill set will translate well to the front of the house. He has transitioned to the front recently in Dedham where he's been taking on more of a day-to-day role pending this board's approval. We're just... excited to have him. And Wagner, if you just want to say hello, introduce yourself, and answer any questions would be great.

Good evening. Thanks for having me today. Yeah, so it's a pleasure to be with the company for a while now, and I'm very confident that I'll be able to deliver the expectations for the town. and yeah, so been with the company for over three years now, multiple locations, mainly as an executive chef, but lately for the last few months, I've been joined different concepts of our company and be more involved with the front of house team. Thank you.

Any questions? Just have one question. Back of the house, great. Terrific product you put out, but when you're in the front of the house, it's a little different. You're dealing with staff. You're dealing with overseeing the operation and the service of liquor. So just tell me if you can, two minutes, what is your approach to the service of liquor now that you would be the manager of record in everything it rests with you.

What would be my approach to, excuse me?

Yes, yeah, how would you deal, how are you gonna deal with your staff in the service of liquor?

Yeah, first of all, so first I think that it just comes back to the basics. I know that it's a very different back of the house, in front of the house idea, but at the end of the day, it's all about training. If you do the proper training, proper coach, and also have the management team more involved, with the staff, I think that's something that I'm heavily looking for. This is the way I've been doing business on the back of the house for a while. It has been worked out very well. And I have my expectations very high for my team. So this is exactly what I'll be looking for. It's like coaching, training, and constantly be involved with the staff.

Okay, thank you. This is a public hearing, anybody? If not, entertain a motion, please.

Move to close the public hearing.

Is there a second?

Second.

Discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor?

Aye.

Where's the wish of the board?

Move to approve a change of manager from Amy Wagner to Wagner, Vieira, de Lima, for Rebel Restaurants, Inc., DBA, Tab Macal, Tequila, Cantina, 660 Legacy Place.

Is there a second?

Second.

Discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor? Aye. Good luck. Thank you. Thank you very much. Good night. Next item on the agenda is a discussion with Mike Butler, statement of net position. Welcome.

Thank you. Good to be here. Thanks for the invitation, Mr. Chair. My name is Mike Butler, former member of the Dedham Select Board. After listening to Mr. DeLima, I'm a little bit hungry. I'm thinking... I would have liked to have gone up to , right? So as I have in previous years, both in front of the Finance and Honor Committee and this board, have spent a few minutes giving people an update on Dedham's statement in that position. The statement in that position, if you go to the next slide, described it here. It really is a balance sheet. That's the old school term that that I became accustomed to, list assets and liabilities. And every year by June 30th, it's updated for every community as required by law.

and it gives accurate relevant information to describe the overall financial position of a town at a given moment in time. I look at it in a number of ways. One of the most important ones, important factors I consider is that it measures our inter-period or intergenerational equity. So we're all interested in taking care of services today to residents, but also making sure that we leave the town a little bit better than it was when we started in our roles. as I said to the Finance and Honor Committee, I think it's appropriate that 95% of their deliberations is on the upcoming operating budget. But I do feel it's important to take a few minutes every year just to step back, like you do at home. Periodically you look at what you have for your savings, what you have left on your mortgage, what's for your retirement, those sorts of things.

So that's the reason why I like to come before the town once a year, just to give people an update. I started doing this in 2020. and have done it every year since then, except I think a year or two during COVID. So I've been looking at the statement's in that position for all 28 communities in the county since 2018. So what's that, seven years now I have. And it's been interesting now that you can see trends start to emerge. and by the end of the month I'll be circulating a more in-depth report on what that looks like over seven years. There's a draft that just started to circulate today to a couple of people who have a background in municipal finance, Brady included. Leon will get it tomorrow, because I didn't want to give it to him today before his select board meeting. So, okay, next slide.

Okay, so we'll go through assets, liabilities, there's a bunch of bar charts. What you'll see for the next several slides, as we've seen in the past, is Dedham is in the middle. So for assets, this just looks at the assets that are on Dedham's balance sheet, which in 2024, as you can see in the right side, were $287 million, and when you divide that by the population of 25,000 people, it's about $11,300. So it's gone up a little bit since 2018. What's interesting is countywide, when you look at what's going on countywide, there was a huge amount of construction in the six years. You can see assets. were 5.5 billion countywide, and in 2024, they're 8.4 billion, so almost an increase of three billion, really remarkable. Just wanna note, some people might say, well, why aren't you doing 25 and 26? Why are you looking at 24? Well, 26, we're still in 26, right?

So that won't be available for a while. even though the fiscal year 25 ended June 30th, 2025, half the towns, two thirds of the town, half the towns have not published their financial statements yet. That's why I'm not talking about them. So even back in January, February, just a couple of months ago, I was still looking for the financial statements from June 30th, 2024 from five towns. we got them eventually, just some towns take longer to make them public. So that's why we're talking about July 30th, June 30th, 2024. So overall across the county, capital expenditures went up and cash and investments also improved quite a bit. Liabilities were in the middle, in fact,

You can see we've started to drop a bit from 23 to 24, from $10,500 to $9,000 per person. And I take all the financial statements and convert them to per capita numbers to normalize the data. It's not perfect, but there's really no other way you're gonna be able to compare towns unless you do something like this. Countywide, there was a big increase in total liabilities of a couple of billion dollars, mostly for debt, which was used to pay off buildings, with one exception, which I'll come back to in a couple of minutes. Next slide. So when you select, when you subtract liabilities from assets, you get net position. Dedham's in the middle. about $2,400 per person, which is pretty good. We were, a couple years ago, up at $2,800.

and I did put in, this is the one slide where I put in FY 2025 because Dedham's report's already out there for 2025. We're back up to 2700. Now it's very interesting, countywide back in 2018, that position for the county as a whole was a negative 547 million. Now for the county as a whole, it's 349 million to the good, which was really remarkable. That's an increase of $900 million. most of it because of the new capital investment. There's still, there's five towns, six towns that are negative still. You can read them. It's Quincy, Weymouth, Randolph, Braintree. So that's Stoughton and Rentham. Okay, next page. I'm going through these kind of quickly because we've seen them before.

Happy to take questions afterwards too because there's some other comments I wanted to make. Bonds and notes, this is Dedham's debt. Dedham's a little bit to the left of center, not as high as we once were. A few years ago, we were fourth on the list, but I was on the heels of taking out bonds to build the ECEC and the Public Safety Building, but that's been declining a little bit every year. So now we are sixth on the list. As I mentioned before, countywide, there was a huge increase in debt. Remember interest rates were low? Three, four, two, three, four percent. That was a good time to build. coming out of the recession from 2009, 2010. You know it takes a while to get the wheels turning in the municipal construction world. So all across the county there was a lot of construction going on. Next slide.

Dedham's third from the right at $829 per capita for net pension liability. to the right of Dedham, Dedham's in the gold, to the right of Dedham is Quincy, and the far right is Milton. Milton achieved full funding of its pension in 2024. and I think that's something we might have, did we hear that from the peer rec reps? I don't know if we, I don't think we heard that from the peer rec reps. That's something that we looked at, Brady and I and the retirement board looked at that separately a couple months ago. Quincy is low because they issued what's called a pension obligation bond back in 2021 for 400 million. So they borrowed $400 million, which went on to their debt. long-term debt in order to pay down their pension liability. Some towns do it, and it's generally not recommended. We'll see if it works for Quincy or not.

So it was sort of very different. And Dedham has been in good shape. One of the reasons we're in good shape, I understand, from John Fontana at the retirement board, Dedham really, when it became a requirement to start funding it, Dedham started as soon as, really soon, really early, a couple years earlier than a lot of other communities and at a higher rate. So that explains why we're in relatively good shape but it's a challenging environment for sure, the pension world. One of the things I learned in looking at it in more detail is that one of the reasons why Dedham, Needham, and a couple other communities. Milton, Save Money is invested in PRIT, which is a state-run investment vehicle, and they're very well-run, one of the best, if not the best in the country.

and they generally have averaged a return somewhere around eight, eight and a half percent on the investments for years. Really, really good. and the target rate of return for Dedham and the towns I just mentioned is somewhere around seven, seven and a quarter, so you tend to be making a little bit more progress than you would otherwise. 19 of the communities in Norfolk County are members of the Norfolk County Retirement System. And their return on investment is in the high sevens, mid sevens. and their target rate of return is mid sevens, high sevens, so they're not making a lot of progress. Next slide. OPEB. OPEB has other post-employment benefits. This is health insurance for retirees.

Once someone retires from employment, they're eligible for Continuing Health Insurance, they pay a portion of the premium, the town pays a portion of a premium. Our OPEB liability, and you have actuaries calculating this just like you do for pensions. Our OPEB liability is $27.96 per person. You can see it's to the right of the midpoint, which is a good place to be. the planned fiduciary net position. That is percent funded. We're at 32%, which is pretty good. I think when I started this, we were at 26 or 27%. and because of the stock market, because of the investments that Pritt has made, it's not just the stock market, it's real estate, it's private equity, it's lumber. All around the world they go, those investment returns

kept us climbing up in terms of percent funded. So our net liability there is $71 million, okay? And then if you put it all together, Remember, debt was kinda high, pension was kinda low, OPEB was a little bit low. Put them all together, we're in the middle. It's a recurring theme. It's not part of some grand strategy. It's just that we're very prudent. We tend to be kind of conservative, middle of the road in our approach to running the town. And that's why we end up in the middle here. Okay, next page. I did want to make a pitch for continuing OPEB appropriations at some level. You can see I provided a little bit of history. for OPEB and pension contributions or appropriations from town meeting the last few years going back FY20.

You can see the pension pretty much increasing two or 3% a year. OPEB and FY20 was a million 680. That was, you know, COVID hit that year. Now we started funding the complete contribution for OPEB, which would allow us to pay it down, I think around 2013 or 14. We were able to do that because there was a round of municipal health care, municipal health insurance reform, and when we implemented it, we saved $2 million. So, state law required, that a quarter of that be set aside for emergency catastrophic

situations where an employee might need some sort of financial assistance to make it through a difficult health situation. The other million, six, we directed to OPEB. and that's how we got to OPEB million five, million six for several years. I think we can see it there from 2013 to 2019. And then with COVID, and all the hammer blows to the budget that it delivered into the economy, we started to back off on that. And, So COVID, we all know, had the revenue impact, and then coming out of that, the inflation impact, which we're still feeling. It's really amazing when you think of it, how long it's taking. the impact of the pandemic and then the recovery package to work its way through the economy. I mean, 2020, right? It was March, February, 2020, six years ago.

and at times it seems like it was last weekend and other times you're going, why are we still feeling the impact of that pandemic? It's really something. So I bring up the OPEB situation because, as I mentioned in an earlier slide, the comment about intergenerational equity, if you're not funding OPEB, what it means is you are delaying an expense that you really incurred today, but you're not gonna pay for it until later. So you're handing off that expense to someone down the road. So when you're incurring a cost, in this case you're promising that a health insurance benefit be paid after retirement, but not actually putting money in the bank today so that it's available down the road, that's a case where you're not abiding by the value of intergenerational equity.

So we're making good progress on pensions. and you can see when we did in FY20 we were at 5% of the operating budget. The pressures on OPEB are not going away. as good as much as it tries, all the communities, we've not been able to get a handle on rising healthcare costs. And that's what feeds into OPEB. That liability's only gonna grow and grow and grow. So I'm recommending, and I asked the Finance and Water Committee to consider some level of appropriation greater than zero for FY27, so at least we continue putting some money into the pot. as a reminder to people that we have it, this obligation, and we don't want it to grow. So I think eventually, longer term, too, we want to figure out a way in line with what the PIRAC representative said when they came before you about six weeks ago to establish what they called a retirement slot.

So some percent of your budget went to some combination of OPEB and pension. So whether it's, I think, 4% is sort of gonna be the minimum. Probably when you do all the actuarial stuff, you say 4.5%, you know, is probably a better target to aim for. Getting a little raspy here. Sorry about that. Just getting over a cold. Next slide. Presented this waterfall chart the last couple of years. The blue shows the... increase the amount of tax levy unused, going back to 14 all the way to 2020. We're plateaued for a couple of years and then coming out of COVID, we started to consume some of that unused tax levy and on the far right you can see a shaded section in gold that's a negative 1.7.

That's the recommended town budget. and Finance and Warrant Committee voted on that to consume $1.7 million for the FY27 budget, which leaves an excess levy of $768,000. Okay, next slide. I want to remind people every opportunity we can that as far as the property tax bill goes, we're in the middle. It's about just under $10,000. Just some comments. Here's the history of average single family property tax increases. So let's see, what can I say about this? FY 23, 24, remember that was a difficult time.

Commercial property values were dropping. As a result, residential homeowners picked up a little bit more of the pie on top of the regular cost increases needed to keep the town running. FY25, FY26, town meeting, finance and warrants, select board, school committee, came in with increases under $400, and as it stands now, it looks like what goes, what will be in front of town meeting is around an increase of $495, give or take. So, some comments, you know, I know the Collins Center report took up a lot of people's time. It was time well spent, I think, and I really appreciate everybody going through that effort. It was a lot of work. very important, I think it was well communicated, very public. The conclusion I drew is the budget's pretty tightly managed. Everybody knows where every penny goes.

and you know that because the ideas for reducing cost really provoked comments from the public. and the way I explain it is a tenth of a percent increase in cost or a tenth of a percent increase in revenue is a big deal. That's $150,000. And people scratch and they claw and they brainstorm. How do we find $150,000 more? How can we cut costs to $150,000? People work at it really, really hard. I also believe that personal costs are the main driver. and that's not only salaries, it is health insurance which runs, everybody knows health insurance is fiercely expensive. Pension and OPEB add 50% to the cost of salaries not as well known because the impact takes a while to calculate and to be seen is the impact on pension and OPEB liabilities.

particularly the increase in total plan liability and the impact on when full funding actually occurs. So when, as this budget does, a headcount of an additional 18 people is proposed on a base of somewhere around 800 people between schools and schools. and town, that's 2.2%. And we struggled to find a tenth of a percent, and we're looking to add headcount of 2.2%. The implications of that will be felt for a long time. and because we're adding staff but not adding to the budget, the incremental cost of those people's pension, OPEB, those are additional costs that we're not paying today, but instead pushing off to future periods. Next slide.

There was one comment here that I don't know, I thought I put it on there. First thing we have to do is look for more state aid. The state rep, McMurtry, State Senator Rush, I know this year's state budget You know, it's pretty tight. The amount of state aid, the growth in state aid's not that great. We really need more. $150,000 makes a big difference. $300,000 makes a big difference. and it'd be great to be able to see more than that. I will remind people, a couple years ago on the town green, we had an earmark for 200,000. and it was cut to 100,000 by the government with nine C cuts. and you know, several months later, the state filed a supplemental budget of several billion dollars and that was not made up. That earmark was not put back in for us.

So, and I think there's been supplemental budgets at the state level for several years running. Sometimes we get some local aid from those supplemental budgets or extra money for roads and stuff. but I really would ask the elected boards to reach out to their colleagues on Beacon Hill to say, hey, we need another 300,000 or 400,000, just like every other town in the state does. Now, the bigger picture, which we all wrestle with, are shown in the next three bullets. A lot of work going on with the Facilities Master Plan. Thank you. meeting last night. I had to turn the volume down on my computer. It was a high energy meeting. It was a great meeting. So, well done. That was good.

And the facilities, and the education model review, pivotal because they're going to have a big impact on our operating costs. And we have a big impact on our operating costs with how we invest our capital the next few years. It's a really complex environment, really complex environment. So I said, will the town's operating revenues grow sufficiently to deliver services residents want support a capital investment program and fund the pension and OPEB contributions in the years ahead? That's a really, really difficult question to answer. The master plan work, the model review work, integral to answering that question. Because we have now an FY27 tax increase, apparently in the vicinity of $500.

and then comments that an override will be needed in FY28 and following that, a debt exclusion for some level of capital investment in a building or two of who knows what size. and we know that last April, voters rejected a debt exclusion for New School. We read the newspapers, we know that by and large, among Massachusetts voters are rejecting overrides. They just feel the pinch, the health insurance that we pay, automobile insurance, home insurance, grocery store, I told you just a few minutes ago, I'm getting over a cold. I went to CVS to buy some Mucinex. I was floored. I was floored by how much money I was paying. It was like $40. for 30 or 40 tablets, and I'm going.

So, but, That's the world we're in. And when you talk to people, this is what you're hearing. This is what you're hearing. So I think it's really... something to think about. Because when I think about it, I'm going, OK, so people are going to open their tax bills in January 27. You're going to see an increase. OK, it'll be 5% or so. How does that position us for an override? do we think it's even worth going for an override? Or are we gonna say, you know, if we're only gonna get one of, we're only gonna get the public to support an override or a debt exclusion, but on both, what do you wanna go for? So a lot of discussions.

A lot of discussions with residents coming off the report from the Carlin Center, which is good, and I think it's gonna continue. The communications effort is gonna be even more important over the next year. Next slide. thank you for your continuing efforts on behalf of the residents of Dedham.

Thanks, Mike. Appreciate you coming in and sharing what you have. Consistently come in and share with not only this board, but with Finance and Warrant and others I know. The analysis that you do is pretty in-depth, so thank you. I'm sure there are comments or questions, so I will open it up. Who wants to go first?

I'm happy to go. Thank you for presenting, Mike. I appreciate it, as always. It's good to have this overview. I mean, a few things. I mean, one, I really appreciate that you as a resident, a citizen of Dedham, are tracking this and helping us and our community to understand our financial picture. And I think it's really meaningful that it's coming from a concerned and engaged resident. And so as we hear discussions about our town budget and taxes, and are they too much, or are we not getting the services that we need, is the budget being managed properly that we have through consultants, multiple consultants, our auditors, representatives from

other entities that the town has worked with over the past and our residents have been keeping a tight eye on this budget and all agree that this town has done a very good job of managing its resources. And I think that that's important and impactful to come from an outside voice, a resident, so I appreciate that. that you offered that to us tonight. And a lot of work goes into coming up with these and you have, how many years do you think of these you have in your historical record where you've been?

I have seven years now, FY18, and you'll see by the end of the month. I gave a draft to Jim, to the chair tonight because He'll talk about it with some of the people at his office about it. Because I need some comments and suggestions on it. and I'm sending a call to Leon, I mentioned earlier, I asked Bill Keegan to take a look at it, a former town manager too, to take a look at it. So seven years, 28 communities. You know, if you look at one or two years, you really don't see much, right, because it's just, but over seven years, you can really start to see sort of like the, like the NFC East and the NFC West and the NFC South, the different divisions, everybody's going and frankly, there are some towns that are doing really well and we know who they are. They started off in a good position and there are towns that are struggling.

I'd like to compile it every January, February, and initially the reason I started is because I want to see what other towns are doing. There are good ideas everywhere, and so what I'm trying to do is find those good ideas and bring them to Dedham.

We appreciate your continued volunteer hours to do that for us. and so just a couple of comments. One, I think it's really helpful. to see Dedham in that broader picture of Norfolk County. And I just chuckled a little bit because Anecdotally, I often have people come up to me and say, oh, well, this town or that town or this town does a better job of managing finances than Dedham, yet the data shows that actually Dedham is quite good at its management. And net positions of some of these anecdotal other towns are not as strong as ours, so it's good to have the data in numbers. to paint that picture and support that, so thank you.

I mean, as I think, all of us not only want to know what's happening today in FY27, but we're trying constantly to look at that. look at that future and make predictions about where we'll be and the path that we need to take to get there. So I want to continue to just make sure that we raise that. Last year we had presented a particular forecast about what the next few years look like. and I'm sure we can get an update from Brady on that coming up, but the forecast, regardless of what direction we take is not going to be easy.

As you've noted, we're looking at adding or subtracting services that people really care about. while also that word intergenerational equity. We're doing a little catch up work on some of our buildings. in needing to, we've been investing heavily for 25, 20 years, 25 years now in doing that catch-up work and continue to have to be facing that as well. So just a couple notes, high level notes on that as we continue to wade through these difficult decisions over the next couple of years. Thank you.

Thanks, Simon. Who's next? Sure, Michelle.

Thanks, Mike. I don't have any questions, but just a few comments. I think that I actually now have heard every presentation before on the Finance and Warrant Committee and now here, so I always look forward to it because I do think It's always important, but especially in the challenging times and the challenging decisions we have coming ahead of us to make sure we do have the history and the facts. and we're really fortunate that you continue to put in the work to do all of this. And I think as we do, like Erin mentioned, I think it's surprising to residents that look to look at this to see how strong a position Dedham is in and that is coupled with residents that really struggle also. I think it's fitting that we also have on the agenda tonight the appointment for the Tax Relief Committee because how do we continue to push our town in the right direction financially while also making sure we're taking care of those that struggle while we make the hard decisions we have to make there. So thanks again for the presentation, and I look forward to reading the more detailed report as well.

Thank you. Stephen?

Thank you Mike for presenting this. Just one quick question. Looking at the waterfall of the excess levee, is that a trend that is consistent across Norfolk County. Are other communities a little bit more stable in terms of the change in excess levy? And I know overrides and debt exclusions can kind of factor into that.

Most towns have been taxing, most of the communities in Norfolk County have been taxing to the max throughout the life of my research. So if you went back to 2018, most towns had no excess capacity. even going back to 2012, 13, 14. And since then, if you look at that report which is on the Mass Department of Revenue, Division of Local Services, Municipal Data Bank, and go back in the history for Foxboro, Walpole, all those towns. Like a $30,000, $40,000 excess capacity. for 10 or 12 years, 15 years. That's where they've been. Only a few towns have been as high as Dedham with excess capacity. it's because we came out of that recession, 2009, 2010, all cylinders firing, low inflation, the meals and hotel room tax a couple other things.

So the math goes something like this. If you are two and a half plus new growth, which is another percent, percent and a half, is at four percent, and if inflation is 1%, 2%, you have headwinds of 2%. Remember when I was saying 1 10th of a percent is a big deal? We had 2%. or even 1%, if you have a gap of 1% between your revenues and your inflation, this is good. This is really good. All the other towns were at the max throughout. There's only a few towns that approach. I can send you the information. I have it. I have it. We were the only ones that got to 9 million. It was phenomenal.

And the interesting part is, 15, 16, and 17, we did not know, we could not predict how far we would go in any given year. We just didn't know.

All set, Steven? Thanks. Meet you.

Thank you, of course. Thank you for everything you do here. You give us a clear picture of where we are here. What stands out to me in looking at it is that we're using up our excess levy capacity, long-term liabilities remain significant. and the decisions that we're making now obviously impact us down the road. We all know that. We're doing a good job. I agree with that. I agree with what you said that we are doing a good job. but math is math and there's not much that we can do with that and when we add positions at this particular time, the decisions that we make right now, they're gonna carry on. So I think a lot of times people, 18 more positions coming into the budget, what does that mean for retirement as well? There are all these little building blocks.

and that's what really gets concerning and where we have to be very careful and we have to be very responsible with the decisions that we make because each year we're adding. and we keep adding and we keep adding and what you had said where we're gonna add maybe 5% this year and we're probably gonna have to have a two and a half over next year, right? And then a few years later, then we're going to say, well, we need to build something. Where does it end? How do people do it? That's the concern. We're in an extremely expensive place where we live in Massachusetts, but those little decisions I think that we make now that they may seem difficult right now, are they worse next year? if you have to pull back this year, right? If you fund everything this year, what happens next year? Then you take more. So it's just really, really concerning.

Again, I just think math is math at the end. I think being clear and transparent with people in the community, which we are, I don't know how you avoid an override. I think a lot of discussions have to happen now talking about the possibility of an override. being very intentional instead of reacting under pressure is very important as well too. So thank you for all of this. And my message from taking this is we're in a good position, comparatively. It's not a good position. It's a difficult position. And the tax is increasing and increasing. We've got to make decisions now where we want to be in the next few years and what we can actually afford on our homeowners.

Yeah, Mr. Chair. Please. I may respond. 100% accurate, 110% accurate. Let's see, a couple of comments. you'll hear comments, information about OPEB and pension. It'll only be X thousands of dollars per year for that 18. That's only one question. The other question is, go to the actuaries and say, how much is this increasing our total plan liability? That's a very different number, and it's a much bigger number. And you want the answer for pension, the impact on your pension plan, and how, Long, it will push out full funding. Might be three months. It might be a year. Don't know. The math is very complicated. and you wanna ask the same question for the OPEB. It's not just the annual incremental cost that we should be paying, but we're not paying because we're not paying anything according to this budget, which is a mistake, my opinion.

asked the same question about OPEB. What's the impact on total plan liability, not just what the expense is next year? And how does that affect funding dates? taxes are 10 grand a year. That's a lot of money, a lot of money. I don't know if the fact that we came in at 99.74 is different than if we came in at 10,050. Next year, taxes will be 10.5. The average will be 10.5. And to your point, the year after, what are they going to be for FY28? 11. 11-1, 11-2, will that be enough? Or do we need an override for FY28? The other thing to talk about with the state rep and state senator is health insurance. I mean, I talked to them about health insurance 12 years ago, for Pete's sakes. And at that time, we thought it couldn't go up much higher.

We're still. seeing it every year. At the state level, they're unsuccessful at keeping healthcare cost increases within the target range. So if you could bring health insurance down a little bit, will flatline it, get state aid up a little bit. But we hear it, $10,000 a year, that's the average. It is expensive, and it's not a good place to be. We can look and say we're in the middle, but it's a really expensive area to live, we know that. We get great services, but man, oh man, you have to say to yourself, what can we do?

Again, thanks very much, Mike, for the work and for the detail. God bless you. And I think it's important that we continue to share this information and get it out because there's nothing that's being hidden here about where our money goes, not only where we stand with others, but where we stand ourselves. You know, to me, one of the most troubling Slide, and Stephen touched on it, it's the levy, where we're going to be next year. $768,000. So it's no longer a question of, If we're going to have an override, not a debt exclusion, an override, which is permanent, but how much is it gonna be?

and on top of that, so if you look at where we have our budget, the increase in taxes, potentially $495 in FY27. And if you jump ahead to next year and you talk, let's say hypothetically it's $500, but then you're gonna probably have to have additional for the debt exclusion. And that gives you a sense of money, and I could be wrong, it's a one-time infusion of cash. because then it becomes, then it gets built on the budget going forward so it then becomes a part of what we spend. and then even to the next year, do we need another override? And when you get to the point of whatever facility we're gonna have, another override. and so I think what we're seeing in some other parts of the state and even some very affluent communities is people are saying no.

They're saying no. and everybody's struggling and I think that this is why this is important for folks to see of where we were where we are and then where are we going to be going? Because we're not even talking about the inflationary, the impact of energy. Look at the energy impact. of not only gasoline, but electricity. People are being, there's just so much that's happening. and I'll just end with, so when Mike and I spoke about this two or three weeks ago, I was in a meeting with the with the LG and the Secretary of A&F, and we were talking about some local stuff, and I said to him, I said, see, I gotta show you something that a friend of mine from Dedham, they said, what does he do for work?

what is he, why is he, I said because this is what he does, and I did mention that you were on debt affordability, Mike was the treasurer's representative on the state debt affordability board. So when I said that he remembered, but sort of to share this information not only internally, I shared it with them, So because I think that not only what we're doing here in Dedham, this needs to be done and it gets to the point of when you get to the state rep or the state senator. And you say, this is what we're seeing, but these are what your other constituents are seeing. And I'm just gonna end with one comment I heard from somebody up on the hill. was that the cities and towns don't need money because a lot of them wasted the COVID relief funds. They spent it and they didn't plan. They just spent it.

so whether that is still the sense of some folks of the accountability of that money, but I thought it was sort of something I hadn't heard before but an interesting point of Why are they asking when they had an opportunity of, for some, a lot of money? I appreciate your time, your effort. I think we all do. And thank you. Okay, thanks.

Okay. All right, now we'll move on to Brady.

And thanks, Dan Driscoll, former moderator, for sitting and listening.

Challenge is ahead, Dan.

OK, good evening. Brady Winston, director of finance. So we're here tonight to do the third quarter budget update for the general fund. So as usual, this is a high level overview of expenditures and revenues. and then at the end I did add a note about the meals and hotels tax. As you all know, the third quarter is very important to make sure both the expenditure side and the revenue side are on target. and I'm happy to say that we are. We're tracking to end the year within our budget on both counts, which is good news. So we can start on the general fund revenues. So through the third quarter, revenues were 4% higher than this time last year. You'll notice on this list that building permit revenue is notably lower than last year. We've been talking about this throughout the quarters, and it continues to be true. We've issued around the same number of permits, but the value per permit is lower.

So that just indicates there are different types of projects going on this year, not as many high value construction or renovation projects. The other notable thing here is the Endicotta State is also having a lower revenue year. The director reports that that's sort of a sector-wide impact. and what I noted the decrease to her she said that sounds exactly like what she's been hearing sort of in events and weddings overall. So one additional note on this list, other than the property taxes, this list we call local receipt revenue that we use in our budgeting process every year, as you all know. To date, we've collected about 98% of our budgeted local receipts. So almost all the revenues from the fourth quarter will go towards our free cash certification. And I got some good questions about revenue that I'd be happy to take more at the end but

I got one question about the timing of different revenues and it is notable that one of the biggest lines in this grouping is the motor vehicle excise and those are almost all collected by this time and that's almost $4 million of the $7.5 million. So that's one reason why we're so highly collected right now. All right, so on the expenditure side, departmental budgets are 70% expended, which is the same as this time last year. At this point in the year, departments are looking toward the last quarter there. planning for the rest of the year to end within their budget if necessary. They request line item transfers from the Springtown meeting. So both the fire department and the police department will request funding transfers for overtime. and that's mostly due to paid time off, injuries and sick leave. The other notable expenditure this year is snow and ice removal.

So to date we've spent over two million dollars on snow and ice removal and about one and a half million of that is recommended to be funded through free cash. And then so the last department I wanted to highlight is the Parks and Recreation Department. So as you all know, during last year's budget process, it was recommended to increase the parks and rec fees to cover more of their operating costs. and We had stated that if this wasn't successful that we would be able to provide an operating budget transfer. So we're happy to say that through the first three quarters, the Parks and Recreation budget, both the operating budget and the two revolving funds are doing very well and they will not need and any supplementary transfers. The Parks and Recreation Commission as well as the department staff are doing a lot of really good work identifying ways that they can cover costs and plan for both operating and future capital needs.

So I would say that's good news on that front. Okay, and then the last thing I'll touch on is the local rooms tax and the local meals tax. through the third quarter the trends are continuing we've seen this year so the room occupancy tax is down 14% from this time last year and the meals tax is up 1% over last year So if the fourth quarter collection follows this trend, we will still collect about $2.5 million, which is what we had in our five-year forecast. So although revenues are down, they're not down more than we had projected, which is a little bit of good news. So I'll stop there and take any questions you have.

Thank you. Questions for Reilly?

Sure, Michelle.

Thank you so much, Brady. Just a few questions. One is, remind me, I believe, from being on the Deficit Reduction Committee, one of the suggestions on the revenue side was about fees. And so I'm curious, I don't know if it would fall under building inspection or planning or both, but are we, and I maybe should know this answer already, but how and when are we working on that and has anything happened? I don't think so that it would be reflected here or is that an opportunity to come for additional revenue?

I think there were a few recommendations. One was to increase fees and one was to increase our revenue budget. So we did increase the revenue budget for next year, about $800,000. And then fees, we're setting up a schedule so that We want departments to be on a rolling, maybe three year schedule so they're just updating regularly so we don't have to, it doesn't have to be so manually, it's just automatic process that all the fees get reviewed and updated regularly.

comparing to other towns and what they're doing.

Exactly.

And you feel comfortable with the increases you made and the predictions based on what's happened this year?

I feel comfortable that we'll collect that revenue. I think all else constant, we will have a lower free cash certification next year. But it did help us balance this budget, so that's good.

and then just a comment about the Parks and Rec. That's really great to hear. I know that was a hard change to start and we kind of took one step towards where I think maybe, we think we maybe, some folks think we maybe should be eventually, and again, with the deficit reduction report kind of, you know, suggested. So it's good to see, you know, and I know there's still things that are working out in ways they want to do it differently, but at least from a financial standpoint, it's good to see that it's gotten what they needed out of that. and what was my third thing? Oh, just kudos on the forecast for the meals. and room occupancy. It's unfortunate that it's not growing more, but it's good to know that our forecast is working, that you have accurately predicted that.

Yeah, I mean, we'd always like to exceed projections, but that's why we budget conservatively. yeah that's why we're hesitant to push those things too high because if we come in under budget then there's negative impacts to the tax levy and we don't want that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Steve, anything? Just one quick question, and thank you for getting back to me on one of the earlier questions on local receipts. But just looking at that last page on the and I guess it's sort of relevant now just based off of conversation that was at public comment and maybe more of a question for the town manager. Do we have a sense of How much of the room occupancy tax is coming in through a short-term rental that's not a hotel? We knocked up those figures.

I don't believe we're getting anything from that because that would be an additional local tax that we would have to raise. I can certainly check with the state on that to see what the exact number.

Yeah, it was my understanding that an Airbnb, through the platform, that they collect the fees and that the state then administers it. And then there's an additional up to 3% local option.

I will say on the on the room occupancy front from the hotels I've been talking with our building commissioner it looks like the the former Fairfield is going to be coming back online as a hotel in the near future. So that will add rooms to our and hopefully that will help out with our room occupancy tax because that one has been off the rolls for some time.

Thank you. Rachel?

No, just thank you for all the work on it. as we're seeing your projections and being fiscal and responsible, I'm still stuck on the presentation we had before. So I did have one question that I forgot to ask in that one. I just wanted to make a comment that might have gone with this as well, too. My house values go up next year. Is that the reason for my tax increase? Because I see that all the time, and I hear that all the time, and I just have to address that out here, right? Is, oh, well, my house values went up, so my taxes are going up.

No. Yeah, your taxes are going up because our overall tax levy is growing and that's divided by The tax rate generally goes down while your value goes up.

But if the other happens, then the tax rate's going up and your value is going down. Thank you.

Oh, sorry, I didn't.

Oh, I'm sorry. No, just Steven had been thinking exactly along the lines of what I had been thinking, that if there are properties operating as short-term rentals and they are paying room tax to the state. Is there money owed to Dedham if they've been operating in that capacity? and what that might be, or if they have been operating unlawfully in that way, is there an opportunity for the town to look to what's the word I'm looking for, recoup those funds that would have been due to us had they been properly paying that local tax.

I can confirm this but my understanding is that so like our local option hotel tax is above and beyond what the state charges and so that's built into the patrons bill when they pay for their room. The same thing with a restaurant. It's above and beyond. It's a percentage above and beyond what the state charges. again my understanding is that there is an option for municipalities to charge up to three percent additional on top of that short-term rental fee that the state or the tax that the state imposes but we haven't adopted that here in Dedham so I don't believe if the state is collecting anything on our behalf. nor would there be anything to remit to us because they haven't collected that, but I can certainly verify with that.

Well, and also, I mean, if the platform is allowing unlawful listings for short-term rentals, can we look to the companies for recoupment for listing these properties unlawfully and not collecting our local...

I think that and again I haven't looked at this in a long time and I can certainly look into it with council and and we can that property owners are verifying that this is a legal use when they listed on there. So they're shifting that responsibility onto the property owners to verify that. But I can double check that and make sure.

Thank you. Just as Mike had said, every tenth of a percentage makes a difference. So if they have been reaping benefits from this type of activity and not contributing to our local occupancy tax, then that's something that should be looked into.

I think that's an excellent point, because just as what Julian was saying is that, is there something that the town needs to adopt in order to tax short-term rentals. I know if you look at down the Cape, So if you rent a cottage down the Cape now, they have that local option tax that was adopted by the towns down the Cape, and that money goes to not only the local town, but it also goes to their infrastructure because they have you know stuff in their water and they're trying to clean it so I mean that's something that I don't think we've really thought about what you just mentioned and maybe maybe you have but that's definitely something we should find out and while we the public listing for the Airbnbs, DOR should have that listing.

I mean, they should, but I think it's a conversation for the Department of Revenue. because while we cannot, we don't know what people, which tax payers, if they're collecting tax pay, because the DOI doesn't tell us, like even in the restaurants, our locals, we don't know which restaurants are paying, they just send a lump sum, but they have an enforcement bureau that These are the list. Hey, are you collecting? maybe reach out to not only to DOR but to the representative and get a conversation with Department of Revenue. One is to understand the process and then two, talk about the issue of the collection.

So DOR did give me the list of what they consider short-term rentals. They didn't give me the amounts they're paying because, again, they consider that confidential. But they did give us a list of all the entities that are considered short-term rentals or Airbnbs in the town of Dedham. And how many were there? Just under 50. And I've shared that with the building commissioner.

Okay. I think the tax issue is still something we should follow up on, but thanks.

Okay.

You all set? Make sure they catch you off.

No, no, no, you didn't cut me off. You good? No, I'm good.

Thank you. All right. Thank you. All right, Jeremy. a letter of support to follow up to a meeting we had at the last board meeting on the Dedham Mass Works project.

Please. Good evening. Hi. Thanks for having me back, Mr. Chair, members. I presented last time on April 16th, requesting a letter of support from the select... Jesus. I'm okay.

Was that a sign? I didn't know that I was going to do that. I apologize.

My time is over. seeking letter of support for ultimately a submission by the end of May for a Mass Works construction grant for the signalization of Elm Street and National Drive. And for folks who don't know National Drive, that is the other main way out onto Elm Street from Legacy Boulevard, right behind the cinemas. Since the last meeting, as discussed, I similarly presented the project and request for a letter of support to the planning board on April 22nd. The board appreciated the efforts of all the property owners to develop solutions to the roadway and pedestrian infrastructure. The planning board voted unanimously to provide a letter of support. and hopefully what's before you in your packets is the letter based on some updates from the planning board and suggested edits. That should be before you, so it's revised. As mentioned to the select board, the grant will be seeking an estimated $2 million to construct that intersection.

The town will not be providing any financial match, nor is there any prospective funding from the town of Dedham. We are expecting this to be fully funded of the state. In addition, if awarded the grant, public hearings will be required by the select board and the planning board, and likely approval by town meeting of any potential takings, easements, et cetera. Again, thank you for taking this time. Ultimately, I think it's important, and especially in the light of this conversation we just heard, this transportation infrastructure improvements will not just address current situations, but it will also allow capacity for future economic growth of this area. As I've said at the last meeting, this is a place where folks want to make investment in Dedham.

and by improving the infrastructure will allow future capacity for economic growth in this area which hopefully will lead to new tax revenue for this town. Thank you. Any questions?

Okay, seeing none, is there a motion?

Move to approve the submission of a letter of support from the Select Board for the Dedham Mass Works Project Elm Street and National Drive signalization. Is there a second? Second.

Any discussion?

Mr. Chair.

Yes.

Just one quick note. I think I mentioned it last time. It may just be worth highlighting that this district either is a budding or part of the MBTA communities district that we vote, just as an additional.

Yeah, I know we acknowledge that we were one of the first communities to receive the designation, but I don't think we addressed your question, which is very valid.

Yeah, I just think it's important this grant will go directly towards supporting infrastructure to enhance that district. I think that's just important to note that I think all the other comments about the district are great and will provide a lot of color. I think that's just one little note that may give an edge.

Yeah, thank you.

I apologize for leaving that out. Thank you. So you will make the adjustment that Stephen brings up. Thank you. Any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Thank you. Thank you members. Next item on the agenda, Appointment of Senior Property Tax Study Committee. So I was appointed about a month ago, two months ago. And then we had a new member get elected who was a sponsor of the article at town meeting that's currently under discussion. So, and I had I'd be happy to step aside if Stephen is interested or anybody else is interested in doing it.

I would certainly be interested, but if other members are, then happy to discuss as well.

Is there a motion?

Move to appoint Select Board Member Steve Acosta to the Senior Property Tax Study Committee.

Is there a second?

Second.

Discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Thank you. Thank you very much. Old and new business. Who wants to start?

Mr. Chairman, I'll just start. I just want to give a very brief update. Last night the Facilities Master Plan Steering Committee had their community listening session last night right here in Town Hall. We had 93 participants between in-person and online, correct? They also had kids activities while the meeting was going on. that also helped for people that had childcare issues or anything like that too, so that was great. It was a wonderful outreach for the evening. It was very interactive. and I believe it was very well received. We got a lot of input from community members after, meaning today, that they enjoyed the conversation. The sections, the tables that they were, the conversation was actually happening, which was great. And it wasn't just sitting in a room watching a presentation. You were actually involved in it, and even in the Zoom.

I know Aaron was online as well that you were involved. in the whole conversation. It was excellent, yes. Very well constructed and run. I definitely want to thank the town team. Arrow Street, our co-chair, Anthony, worked really hard on it as well, too, in the outreach subcommittee. for all of their efforts in making it such a success too. It was really putting everybody's heads together and coming up with a great A great time. So there's going to be others that will be coming up. And in the next update, we'll have more details with that. We have the survey. The survey is live right now, right? And you can get it on the Be Heard page.

There's also a news post. on the town website.

That has it there and Facebook posts and the social media and all that will be going out. So encourage everybody to do it. The more voices that we hear, we can make the right decisions going forward.

For clarification, there's a survey for both this and for the education model, right? I know some people think, oh, I did the survey, but there's two, right? Correct.

So maybe we could just note that in any promotion that you may have taken the ED model survey, but this is a second survey to provide a complete picture.

Good, thank you. I think that's it, thank you. Anything else? Nope.

Mr. Chair. Yes, please, Steve. To build on that, I had in my notes to just bring up that the school committee as part of their educational model review is conducting a survey. And I just want to note because there has been some confusion that that survey is open completely to the community. You do not have to have kids actively. in the schools, or recently, or at all. So that you can find on the school website by searching educational model review. And they also have some listening sessions. I know there's been some really great engagement with the facilities master plan. We heard from Mike Butler today both of those projects are incredibly important to the financial health of the town so I would encourage all residents to participate in both. And then just real quick, there are two great community events coming up this Sunday at 9 a.m. in Green Lodge. There's the Green Lodge 5K in honor of Mark Carney. This will commemorate his legacy as a long-time Dedham resident and educator.

and the race will raise funds for a memorial to mark at Dedham High School and Green Lodge and then any additional funds will go towards the purchase and donation of AEDs across town. Mr. Carney was a big proponent of Heart Health and Heart Safety, so this is great to see. And then shortly after, also on Sunday, Dedham is hosting an inclusive sports open house in partnership with the Special Olympics of Massachusetts. This event will take place Sunday at 10 a.m. at the Dedham High Track and Field Conference. I just wanted to make sure the community is aware. I just encourage people to participate.

Thank you. Michelle? All set? Just two things. So my wife came up to the public safety building to drop off some drugs that were no longer needed and used until there's a drop off. and I think there was something last week. But her one complaint, and she's made this complaint to me before, and I tell her, why don't you call one of the other selectmen and tell them about it? is that, she goes, I have no place to park. I said, what do you mean you have no place to park? It says reserved parking. and she says, I don't want to park and get the car towed. I said, well, anybody can park there. She says, but it says reserve parking. And there was other signs that say municipal only. So I think we have to find a way.

I don't know why we have reserved parking in spaces. that anybody can pack in. So just something to, not looking to spend any money to do it, but something to think about when we're restriping it or looking at the packing situation. and maybe let's see if there's anything that we can do sign-wise, signs that say anybody can park here. So I mean that's, people come to the Public Safety Building to do business. they should be able to not worry about packing. So that's just one thing. And the second, just want to follow up. I forwarded to the members of the board an email that I got the other night at 10 o'clock. concerning the noise at National Grid, the truck noise, and I think we all listened to it, and it's pretty outrageous.

that our residents have to listen to this, and this has been an ongoing issue, but I just want to bring up that I have talked with Leon, and Leon, if you could just briefly, talk about the outreach that you have made and looking to get a meeting together, if you could, please.

Sure. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So again, thank you for forwarding that to all of us. we had the railroad tie issue last summer recall and we were able to deal with that and resolve that and then there was also this national grid issue and it had gone sort of quiet for a little while then we heard that it has certainly come back to light and it's bothering folks not only that one person who's emailing us but throughout the neighborhood so I've been working with our town departments that might have some regulatory influence there and our board of health director talked to MassDEP who believes that although Boston regulations and Dedham regulations wouldn't necessarily apply to that operation because it's a utility. that DEP regulations do as far as noise, so we're working on that angle. We've also had contact with Rep. McMurtry's office, and they've already had conversations with the national grid liaison, the legislative liaison, and we're setting up a meeting with them.

so that we can talk through, even outside of what regulatory authority you have, how can they be a better neighbor? So we'll be setting up a meeting in the near future with them to make some improvements out there. just to be a good neighbor and to give these folks the peace that they deserve. And I think to that end, I know that the state rep and the senator take this very seriously well, so they're gonna keep on pushing on this through that angle as well. and Jeremy already left, but I know that he and the building commissioner went out there today and looked at it and tried to document exactly what's happening out there to make sure that there haven't been any significant changes that would require approvals or things of that nature. Again, this is happening in Boston, but it's impacting folks in Dedham, so we may need to work with Boston as well on this.

Can we also just confirm that the you know, this site is all in Boston? Because I'm hearing that there could be some in Dedham. So just so you know, if the building commission, Jeremy, were down there today, I'm sure they... I think that's what they were looking at as well too, to confirm that, yeah. Define the... of the municipality that it belonged to, and I'm sure Boston will help us out as well. Thank you. That's all I have. Anybody have anything else? Is there a motion to adjourn?

Second.

Discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Thank you. Reminding, our next meeting is going to be on a Tuesday night, May 12th.

Thank you.