Select Board-February 26, 2026

Good evening. Are we recording? Recording in progress. Good evening. I'll call to order the select board meeting of February 26, 2026. I'll rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for

Okay, we'll start this evening with Dedham residents open discussion. Is anyone here for open discussion this evening? Okay, feel free to come to the podium and state your name and address.

All right, hi, everybody. Keith Shapiro, 363 Mount Vernon. I'm a P4 town meeting member, also a father to an Oakdale second grader and a three-year-old who will eventually be in the dead Dedham Public School System, and I'm also a member of Build Dedham's Future. So I know that there is nothing officially being voted on tonight. when it pertains to the schools and the budget, but with Mr. Goodwin sharing his recommendation on the fiscal year 2027 budget, I thought it important to show up for my kids, for the children of Dedham, and to advocate for our schools. I've closely followed the development of our fiscal year 2027 school budget and I've either watched or attended all the meetings leading up to the school committee's recommendation of the level 0.5 funding. I applaud the new thinking they brought to the table by asking the question what restoring services could begin to look like for Dedham Public Schools.

But I'll admit to being frustrated with how the recommendation was ultimately received by the town. Superintendent Murphy has stated it plainly on multiple occasions that this year her job is to develop a fiscally responsible budget that allows the district to operate effectively and efficiently in service of our students. And the why behind that budget is really unmistakable. We are not where we want to be academically. Mental health data tells us that our kids are not okay. Teachers are stretched thin. Parents are unhappy, and I happen to be one of them. And Assistant Superintendent Kelly has stated that it is becoming harder for our educators to sustain the level of service our community expects within the constraints of our budget. We are failing our children if we continue down this path. We should not be placing our teachers, students, and staff in a position of chronic overwork just to maintain the bare minimum. The school committee's budget request was described as a need, not a want.

And this is where my frustration lies. At the January school committee meeting, Mr. Goodwin spoke and shared that one of the assumptions in the town's financial model to get us back to a sustainable budget by 2030 was that it only accounted for, I think it was around a 4% or 4.5% annual increase for our schools. This significantly underfunds our schools, which have continued to fall far behind where we should be as it has been chronically underfunded for the last seven years. And I'll just say sort of fiscal clips of side, which I certainly acknowledge, like the fact that there is or there was a plan to continue to underfund our schools for another three years is just kind of shocking to me. Furthermore, tonight, the presentation of the fiscal year 2027 budget presents the school committee's

level 0.5 recommendation, but also the level zero budget, which in my opinion continues to turn a blind eye to how dire the situation is within our schools. I've been deeply unhappy with the value our town has placed on our children and the importance of their education. And I do think that two things can be true at the same time. I can love my daughter's teachers and their administrators, but I can also believe and very strongly that we should be doing so much better for them and for our kids. If we're being perfectly honest, people aren't moving to Dedham for the public school system. And it does pain me to say that. They're moving to neighboring towns, or if they happen to live here, are having really difficult kitchen table conversations and weighing whether or not they need to move. That to me is like a blaring warning sign. And I'm here because I want to be part of the solution.

and I'm struggling with the way the school budget is being presented in some of the emails and things. And I do feel like it's currently being framed as like if the school committee asks for like X or this much, it means that we run through our excess tax levy this much sooner. and the truth is is that Dedham's collective budget will ultimately determine when we run through the excess tax levy and it's not any one department's fault. and if it's a concern, any and all budgets can be reduced to extend the excess levy further, not just the school budget. And lastly, sharing the school committee's budget request without context as simply a 5.29% increase or a 6.33% increase is, in my opinion, detrimental to the progress that Dedham must make to support its children. like details really matter here. Like we're not talking percentage points. We're talking about children and their education.

And that 1% is a massive difference. It begins to restore services that have been lost over the years and directly impacts teaching and learning by providing more classroom support, which our teachers and students desperately need. So why am I in front of all of you tonight? I would love to see more partnership and collaboration between the town, the select board, and the school committee. And specifically after the Oakdale vote, many of the residents called for more partnership, myself included, and specifically between the select board and the school committee. But so far, I can't say that I've personally seen that materialize in a meaningful way. Maybe that's happening behind the scenes, but I'm not seeing it. in public. And finally, and perhaps most importantly, I just really want to see more public advocacy for schools from you all, our elected officials.

Thank you. Anyone else here in person for public comment this evening? Anyone online? Okay. Town Manager's Report.

Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. So just a couple of updates tonight, and if it's okay with you all, we'll cover the budget under the budget presentation. but first I wanted to give just a huge shout out to the DPW, the facilities, public safety, everyone who worked their tails off during this blizzard. We've gotten, this is a real New England winter, and we're getting our fair share of snow, and really, the folks who are out there in the midst of it, when the rest of us are in our bunkers, is very impressive and they're doing a ton of work at night and really making things safe for all of us. So I just wanted to give them a shout out. also a shout out to Nancy and our communications director Amanda Smith who are communicating with the public and letting them know what we are doing and what we need from them. The public has been also excellent.

We know folks are out helping their neighbors. We know people are snow blowing and shoveling sidewalks and things like that to make sure that their neighbors can get around. that is a huge help to us because we are stretched thin and I think that's obvious. Everyone's stretched thin right now. There are still communities that are still digging out worse than us.

Sorry, there's no sound at home on the Zoom. I'm getting a text.

Do you want me to pause for a moment?

Yeah, we'll just confirm.

No sound on Zoom.

What about on cable?

I don't know. Oh, it's back.

I just thought it's back. OK.

Excellent. So again, just so again, shout out to them. We're working closely with DPW to monitor the budget as well. And I know we've been updating the select board on that. We've gone well beyond our budgeted amount, which is allowable under Massachusetts general law. We're allowed to deficit spend for snow and ice. That will be reflected against our free cash next year. we did anticipate a significant winter. I'm gonna reuse a joke that I told earlier today. I think Joe Flanagan is better than any groundhog, and he suggested we were going to have a heavy winter, so we planned on this. We didn't quite plan on this much, but we will have plenty of capacity within our free cash too to handle this. So again, kudos to the finance team for making that work as well. Happy to take any questions on that.

We will have one more night of parking ban this evening to allow for snow removal. We made that announcement earlier today. and again, appreciate everyone's cooperation with us. It's not easy always to move the vehicles around and park on the even side, but that's necessary to get the snow truck out of here and moved from the last remaining locations. hopefully after that everyone can get a rest and then we can get back back at melting and just cleaning things up so again happy to take questions on that before I move on to another topic

I have one question. I'm sorry if I missed this, trying to figure out the sound. So I echo everything you said, thanking all the hard work that was done. Question, I know how we try to prioritize schools, obviously, to get the kids back in school and the sidewalks and all of that. is there also a priority for I've been noticing and worried about folks taking the bus you know to you know people that work in the businesses in Dedham or live in Dedham that rely on the Bus, not just the kids, but adults for public transportation. Is that something that gets prioritized also?

Yeah, so there's sort of multiple tiers of prioritization. school parking lots, school walking routes, as well as the major arterial walking routes that get folks to public transit are in the top. Tiers. So we do prioritize those. The issue in this last storm was we did lose our sidewalk plow for a period of time and we only have one of those generally anyway. So I think that perhaps something we can address in the future is bringing another one of those into service and staffing that because again, We have a lot of miles of sidewalk to take care of and prioritize. And it's certainly something that's very noticeable to our residents when we can't get to that, especially with this much snow. So I think that's something we can look at in the future. But to answer your question, it is a priority to get those cleaned up.

Thank you. Are there comments or questions on snow removal before?

I was just going to quickly, I had down there to ask about what happened with the sidewalk plow and if we're planning on another piece of equipment. Of course, if we purchase, it won't snow for three to four years. So that would be wonderful. but just curious on what we should do for that. And then I also had heard, does the state's, and this might be the most ridiculous question so far tonight, does the state give any equipment, I was listening to the radio where the governor said something about they had so many pieces out and helping municipalities and things like that. Is that, did I misunderstand?

My understanding, and again, the state maintains certain areas within town that are state roadways. My understanding is that the state, through mutual aid as a result of the state of emergency, called in equipment from other states, New York, New Hampshire, and Vermont, I believe it was, and put those out in the communities where the state of emergency was declared. I don't think it's a general practice that the state is out there helping out or giving out equipment, but That's my understanding. I can certainly follow up on that for you, though.

I'm just curious on how that works. Yeah.

And I think it largely had to do with the state of emergency and the 36 to 38 inches of snow that fell in some communities, yeah.

Yeah, I thought that was pretty interesting. Okay, thank you. Anything else?

Just one thing that the, so when I get my MIMA report, on the situations. It never lists Dedham in Norfolk County location for a warming a warming site. So can we in the future make sure that we're getting the information to MEMA because that situational goes out to a lot of public safety folks. So make sure that Dedham is listed. And then secondly, the if you go to the National Weather Service, chart of amount of snow, Dedham is missing. So can we find out how we get to report that? Because I know we're talking to Joe, you mentioned that we had a certified total of 26 and a half inches. I like, you know, it's,

people want to know that so when you look at what we have and some people say well we didn't get that much or we did but we know that there are certified folks that actually do this type of work so I think it would be helpful to make sure that we get added to any of the publications that go out about what is happening especially people want to know what's what do we have?

Yeah, because again, kudos to the fire department who did run a warming shelter at the public safety building But if it's not ending up on the statewide list, then folks may not know about it. So we can certainly look into doing that and getting that on that list for MEMA.

Thank you. Yeah. And I just want to, again, shout out to DPW, Joe Flanagan's leadership. and so forth. There was an extraordinary amount of snow that fell very quickly, really, and the town was up and running for the most part quickly thereafter. and other towns in our state are still clearing out. Our neighboring states are still clearing out. And I did find a few spots of pavement today. So that's fantastic.

and also to remind folks, if you have a hydrant in front of your house, shovel it. There's no reason not to. I know people, not everybody wants to shovel their sidewalks. We get that. But if you have a hydrant, you have to shovel that hydrant. And if it's down the street from you, shovel it. And if you wanna see what happens when you don't, go watch this clip today from Taunton yesterday when that house explosion, they could not find a fire hydrant on the street because they were all buried. So that's, even though that was a catastrophic explosion, that's what happens, time lost looking for hydrogen. So please. Go outside tomorrow, the weekend, just make sure that it's clear all the way around. So if, God forbid, somebody needs to come to your neighborhood, they find it. Thank you.

Thank you. And that's a great point about the hydrants and making sure that our public safety folks can access those in times of need. another just a quick staffing update. So the building commissioner, Ken Cimino, we all know retired. after many, many years of dedicated service. The town worked with the UMass Collins Center to recruit for that position. We had two finalist candidates. We interviewed those internally after UMass vetted them. And we've made a conditional offer to William McGrady, who has 20 plus years of experience as a building official, He was more than four years in a community similar size to Dedham, and he's very excited to come here. join our department.

We have great staff in the department, existing staff, and I think he will be a good addition to that, but I'm happy to... take any questions from the board or explain the process a little bit more as well if you have questions about that.

Just one question. What are we doing in the meantime before we have a permanent building commissioner? who is interim building commissioner and what are their responsibilities and so forth?

So our existing assistant building commissioner is handling those responsibilities currently. We also have been in communication with our former building commissioner to see if he could come back on an interim basis if needed. We have not needed that to date, but that's a possibility that we could hire him on a per diem basis and we expect that Mr. McGrady will be able to start very soon. So we're hoping that between those three individuals we'll be all set. Thank you. Any other questions? All right, with that, that concludes my report.

Thank you. We have next consent agenda.

Move to approve the consent agenda including gift acceptance 3000 from Joseph Mueller in memory of Bill Mueller for a Council on Aging, one day beer and wine license and permission to display banners for the 41st James Joyce Ramble 42626. Request from Dedham Square Circle for all permits, signs, banner approvals, and parking restrictions for the 19th Summer and Fall Farmers Market Wednesday, 6-17 through 10-14, 2-6 p.m. use of the town green for a summer concert series on Tuesdays 6-9 through 9-1, 6-8 p.m. and a fall concert series on Saturdays 9-12 through 10-24, 4-6 p.m. Request from William O'Connor, DHS Band Director for Use of the Town Green for International Jazz Day, 4-30-26, 6-9 p.m., and Drain Layer Approval, Ed Musto Construction.

Second. Can I have discussion on that? So just a clarification on the parking restrictions. Is that just for the farmers market? Yes. and not for any of the concerts or anything?

No, it's the usual parking restrictions for accessibility for the market. Thank you. That was my only question.

Hearing a motion and a second, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed, no. Next, we have a discussion with the Decennial By-law Review Committee and report.

Thank you for this opportunity. thank you for this opportunity to discuss this with you and for putting me on the agenda early. Thank you. I assume you've all gotten a copy of this, which is very minor compared to what we did in the fall. So at this point, I think it's just easier if you have any questions for me. I forgot town council and police chief are here with me also.

Thank you. Could you just list so that those at home know which bylaw changes you're proposing? Yes.

With the Youth Commission, We are adding board in various places so that when people read the bylaws, they will be able to understand which is the youth commission, the department, and the youth commission, the board. and their clarifying gifts to the Youth Commission must be handled in accordance with Mass General Law, Chapter 44, Section 53, or 53A. The Youth Commission can accept the gifts, but the select board must authorize the expenditure. and we're making changes or we're suggesting changes in chapter 39 for finances.

established that debt capital includes capital projects at a cost of at least $250,000, which is increased from $100,000. They're correcting typos, require officers and boards to send to the director of finance within 14 days of receipt all bills, demands, drafts, and orders. add some flexibility to recognize that there are advances in technology that allow for different ways to approve bills. establish that all bills, demands, and orders must be clearly designated and accounted for. authorized departments to work with the town treasurer to establish process for petty cash.

add some flexibility to recognize that payments may be made from the town treasury other than by check and to ensure that all such payments are properly labeled and tracked. clarify that the excess and deficiency account will be managed in accordance with state law. to propose a new bylaw that aims to prevent so-called street takeovers. including trick and stunt riding, street takeovers, street racing, and which provides for enforcement through non-criminal disposition tickets of $300 for violation and under certain conditions creating a significant public safety issue based upon the nature of the violation, the location of the activity,

and whether the vehicle will be left on public or private property, whether the driver is licensed and more, the police department will be authorized to impound the vehicle being used. Thank you, Cecilia. You're welcome.

Do we have questions from board members?

Could you go?

Just related to the Youth Commission, is this changing anything how it operates in practice or more kind of cleaning up language to match what happens already?

It's bringing the language into what is happening. Okay, thank you. Other questions?

Sure, Celia, thanks very much for doing the work and going through this painstakingly. I know it's... not easy going through all the bylaws. We appreciate the work that you and the committee did. Thank you. My assumption is on chapter 39 that all those have been reviewed with the CFO and everybody's in agreement that these are necessary?

Yes, yes.

And I'm assuming also that the street takeover at addition is through the chief? Correct. Thank you.

Thanks for the questions, comments. Just to thank you and the committee for all the work on this. And I had the same question on the street enforcement. I was very happy to see that in there because, as we know, it's... in a major issue. So that's one advantage of having it snow outside, but that's not really going on right now. But just to make sure that We're actually going to follow through on that as well, too, that we've got that there and that we are going to enforce that as well, which I know is not bylaw, but I'm speaking, I guess, to the chief over there as well, too, that we do do this, right? I know it's a tool, but I think it's very well needed. and then the crypto kiosk policy as well is very interesting. But that's also now a major concern for us in keeping our residents safe. So thank you for all of that.

And if I could ask for a review of the crypto kiosk, since that was not part of the original proposal from the bylaw review. but can I also ask and confirm if that has since been, was that reviewed at the last bylaw meeting?

The chief brought it to our attention and town council felt it would be better for it to come from the planning board because there is a standalone ATM policy in Dedham already. and she felt it was better to connect it with that than to try to do a bylaw from us for a crypto ATM.

Thank you, so that's not on that one. We received some information about it, but it's not on tonight's agenda.

No, that will come from the planning board. Thank you.

I should clarify that. I just know that it's an important thing that we're moving on.

We've been doing work on that, and we've been working with the planner, and it will go before the planning board for the exact language. It's in a draft state at this point.

Thank you. Yes. Any further questions? Yes, thank you for the continued review of our bylaws. They're always needing editing, and I appreciate all of your expertise and effort from the committee that's put into this. Thank you.

Madam Chair, I move to accept the report and recommendations of the Dicennial By-law Review Committee. Set report and recommendation to be presented at the 2026 Springtown meeting for consideration and approval.

Hearing a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Great, thank you so much for coming this evening. Okay, next we have a presentation of a Hometown Heroes Banner Program from our VSO Joe Campbell.

Are we going to jump to them?

Nancy asked if we put them in.

Oh, okay. Okay, that's fine. Just like you see the other people sitting here, too.

Oh.

The Hilton.

Excellent. Good evening, Madam Chair, members of Select Board. I appreciate you having us tonight. This is Colleen Hines, who's a Dedham resident, Dedham veteran. She worked really hard on this with the committee that we put together. and we'd like to, I know you got a long night ahead of you, so we'll get through this.

There you go.

Finally. Yeah.

All right. The agenda is just the background and community value. We'll talk about our vendor, details on the banner, the banner examples, eligibility and application, collaboration and outreach, and Timeline, and Milestones. So just a brief history, the Hometown Hero Band is a program being in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 2006. and instills a sense of pride and patriotism in the town, shows gratitude for our service members. Dedham is and always has been a veteran-friendly and supportive Community, and the banners would compliment Historic Town. The vendor is Sign Design of Brockton.

They've created banners for Braintree, for Bridgewater, Brockton, and Milton. Double sided vinyl banners, two by four. Flexibility and Design prefer batch orders, but we'll do individuals as needed, and it's a pretty quick turnaround, seven to 10 business days. Again, I just want to point out Colleen did a lot of this work, so we wouldn't be here without her push. cost and life expectancy. So it's $147 per banner. That includes the hardware and a keepsake banner for the person or family who ordered the banner. expected to last two to three years depending on the weather and exposure. There is no warranty from the vendor. In our introductory year, the potential to

cover replacement fee if it's damaged in the first two years. I don't think that'll be an issue. And then once it's permanently retired, the banner, it'll be given to the veteran of the sponsor family. Replacement banner can be purchased. through the sponsor or donated funds. You can. Want to go?

So for the display locations, we would want the banners installed on utility lights, ideally from Memorial Day to just after Veterans Day. Joe did an inventory that looks to be about 50 plus. of those lights and so there would be Two main locations that we would like to start, which would be in Dedham Square, High Street and Washington Street, and then East Dedham Square, High Street, in that intersection of High Street, Plessy Street, and Milton Street. and then of course, depending on interest and space available, we could potentially expand in the future. and then for our financial considerations, we're not asking the town for any funds for this. We would like to cover this through sponsorship, donations and community fundraising.

We would like to set up a gift account with Dedham Veterans Services so that a sponsor or donor can make a payment and it would go into that gift account and then we could also use that account to make payments to the vendor. We would like to be able to accept payment from sponsor or donor through check or online through the town website. And I'll get to that in a minute. you know, ideally if we have a surplus of funds we would love to be able to offer financial assistance to anyone that might need that help. And these are just some of the banner examples. The first two are the ones that Sign Design did in another one. I'm just showing that one because it has medals on it, but ideally it has the rank, the name, branch of service, the era, the dates, and any...

of Honorable Medals, and we actually have a student from Dedham High School with the visual arts program, and he is really interested in photography, so he's agreed to help us with digital photo alterations and helping us with the graphic design, making sure stays consistent and dignified. And then obviously the vendor has a graphic designer too that will make sure everything's tight and just how we want it. And then for eligibility and application, in order to meet the eligibility criteria, this person would need to be any US military veteran that's living deceased or honorably discharged and who has lived in Dedham as a long-time resident in most of these programs use 10 years as long-time residency or someone that grew up in Dedham and went to finish through high school here and they moved on but their family would like to have one, we would consider that acceptable.

or if they're an active reserve member of the US military with that same residency criteria. and for the application process, we would like them to be able to either complete it on paper or online, give us a copy of their photo, proof of service and Joe will check to make sure that they meet the criteria. and then for order of approval, like I said, our goal would be about 50 banners. Most towns usually start with 30 to 75. So I think we're in a good window for that. This would be a first-come, first-served basis, and we would like to give priority to living World War II Korea and Vietnam veterans. and so for collaboration outreach, this is definitely something that is rooted in strong teamwork. So Joe has been in constant communication with DPW about this. are very supportive.

And we've discussed this with Nancy and Amanda, the communications director, about promoting the program and being able to set up that online mechanism to complete like a PDF for the application that way and collect the funds that way. And then we would like to share with the public. We figured some mechanisms would be like the Dedham Times, social media, online, any of our veterans' posts, the Senior Center. and we have strong support from the American Legion, the VFW and the Veterans Council and then we would be seeking support from the community, specifically those areas where the banners would be and our residents. I think I'm almost done here. Yeah, we're going through. So this timeline is not anything set in stone. It's a rough timeline. Like I said, we've communicated with DBW. we're presenting this to you tonight.

And pending any approval, we'll make any required adjustments that we need to, finalize our application form. I do have some of those application forms here if you ever want to look at them. work on our media advertisement, which we have a template for, and we'll begin our advertisement outreach, accepting applications in March. and continuing that advertisement and outreach. And then in April, our goal would be to finalize the banners and any photo edits, send the banners to the vendor and then coordinate with DPW on the final logistics. And then we would like to have them up for Memorial Day, but we understand things may have to change. It would be nice if they could be up before my day. So that would be Mayor Jones. And that actually concludes our presentation. Thank you very much for this opportunity.

I think this would be a great program for Dedham.

especially with big anniversary for the United States coming up, America 250. I know a lot of other towns have them and there's been a lot of ask to rote. throughout Dedham. Working with Grady has been great. Moving money around in the budget, not adding any money, so to get started with the program. Again, I think it's a long time coming for Dedham, and hopefully we can hit the ground running. Any questions?

Thank you so much. Questions from board members? Comments? I have a couple questions.

First, thank you so much for this. This is fabulous. I just love driving through other towns and seeing it. And I have a question on, for example, you said World War II, right? and just kind of made me think of my own dad and his hometown where none of us live anymore. So there wouldn't be any outreach. I wouldn't know unless I drove through that town to see that that program was available and then maybe sponsor something for him. so I get that you can't reach everybody and maybe there's no more family or anything like that but would there be any opportunity for someone to just maybe sponsor one that has just the names of the veterans, not the picture?

Yeah, absolutely. So again, it'll be a case by case basis and we have a lot of veterans who grew up in Dedham and have since moved out and if anybody wanted to reach out and sponsor and have their banner up, I think you'll find, I can't speak for Colleen, but is a veteran. You know, I wouldn't put my own picture up there. That's just how I am. And I think a lot of veterans are like that, but a lot of family members would absolutely love to see it. So I think, again, it's a program that's driven by the community. probably not too often you'll see a veteran putting up their own information and picture. You'll see their family members doing it as a way to say thanks and gratitude.

I think that's a great idea. I think that would be nice. Yes, it would. I haven't seen that, but I think that would be nice. Exactly.

and we're gonna work on a couple extra veteran parking spots through time and we'll be all set.

Any other questions or comments?

Sure, thanks. First of all, thank you very much for doing the work to get this done. This is something that has been talked about for a long time, but thanks for taking the initiative to actually do it, do the work, and to present something. I think it's going to, in a year or less, it's gonna, It's going to look great throughout the community. As Dimitria mentioned, I drive through many cities and towns throughout the state, and when I see it driving, it's like, wow. It's really impressive, and I know Dedham is a is a very welcoming community for veterans, and through Joe and many others, take care of them. Just on the approval, you mentioned that the priority would be given to living World War II, Korea, Vietnam veterans.

At what point do you think do we start, you know, for those that have passed on and families wanna, so how, you know, how we- So that would be immediately. Okay, so it's not just when it says...

There's so few World War II and Korean veterans that...

It'll probably mostly be Vietnam.

Yeah, so a lot of them would be Vietnam, yeah. so you really think that there will be, you know, whence the, X number of time goes by that you started this, then next, okay, opening it up to anyone who meets the qualifications. that you have here, because I think that when you talk about pictures, we all know that Franny O'Brien, the corners that are named for veterans throughout the community for those, that have passed. There's probably a few of those families that would love to put a picture up. I just think that it's you know, the one question I think it's gonna be a huge success and I'm glad Joe that you mentioned and Colleen that you've talked to Brady because since this is gonna be funneled through the gift account at Dedham Veteran Services.

I think that's really comforting to those that are gonna contribute to know that there are checks and balances within the town. that everything that is dedicated to this program will be spent for this program and I think that was terrific and thank the town for for willing to step up because many times there's friends of so-called that do it and it's not handled within the town. So thanks very much for thinking about that and doing it. Can't wait for you to get started. Mrs. Baker was big on that too.

Thank you. The reason why I'm in there a lot. Thank you.

I'll also just say thank you. I've seen these in a lot of other towns, too, and always admired them, so I'm glad to see. Thanks for your efforts and for such a professional and thorough presentation, putting it together. I know it's a lot of work. Thank you.

Yes, and thank you for taking the initiative to bring this to Dedham. It'll be so exciting to see it. And just one question around communications plan to advertise the application period. how will you get word out that people can apply for this?

Most of it through... Through Dedham Times, through our posts, and then obviously through the Town Hall website. Word of mouth. We still have a great meeting every fourth Monday of the month. Military Monday is up to anywhere from 20 to 30 participants every month. And much like the office, I think I got more and more people walking in from West Roxbury VA just because word of mouth gets around. And I'm sure this will be the same way.

Thank you.

Just one final thing. I know, Joe, you said that you wouldn't put your picture up. Is that true?

Yes, it's 100% true.

Colleen, will you put your picture up? No. but I'll tell you, I will sponsor each one of yours. Whatever you want put up, consider it done, that you two will be the first two that will be done. You figure out what you want

I'll take care of it. We'll see how that goes. Definitely.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much. Thank you for your time.

Move to support the Hometown Heroes banner program as presented in authorization via VSO and Committee to work with the necessary utility companies and the Public Works Department for all necessary permissions and permits.

Second. Hearing a motion and a second, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Okay, and we are right on time for our 715 hearing. We have a violation hearing with the Hilton at Dedham Place. I will invite representatives from the Hilton to come up to the desk. if you could just state your names for the record.

Bob Capetta.

Do you work for the Hilton?

Yes, I'm the current general manager of the property.

Thank you.

How are you doing? My name is Mark Bruce. I'm currently the food and beverage manager of the property.

Great. Thank you so much. And we'll... I just want to swear them in if they're going to... Oh, yes. If you're going to testify this evening, please stand and raise your right hand. You swear the testimony you are going to give this evening is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God. Yes. Thank you.

and we'll hear the report and you can let us know if you agree with the report or if you have some comments related to the report after the review.

On Monday, November 17th, at approximately 6.31 p.m., Officer Hillary and Officer Kozak were assigned to conduct an alcohol compliance check at 25 Alley Drive, Hilton Hotel. An underage operative was used to conduct this check. The underage operator possesses a valid under 21 vertical Massachusetts driver's license. She entered the establishment in order above light. The bartender did not request to see the operator's license but served her above light. Officer Kozak was made aware of this by the operative and entered the establishment. Officer Kozak informed the bartender that he just sold alcohol to an underage patron. The bartender completely disregarded what Officer Kozak said and carried on about serving food to patrons. The bartender began yelling at Officer Kozak in the middle of the restaurant. in saying that he was being targeted.

At that point, the bartender refused to answer any questions to provide any form of identification or TIP certification.

Thank you. and so do you, we're asking if you stipulate to the report, that means do you agree with what was written down?

Yes.

Yes, okay, thank you. And do you have any comments about the situation?

The person was put on probation pending investigation. which is what we do before we terminate someone and they lost sight of the person and never came back. They're no longer employed at the property.

Okay, thank you. Questions or comments from board members?

Joe, thank you. I'm sorry, you're the food and beverage manager. Are you the manager of record on the alcohol license? No, I'm not. Who is the manager of record on the alcohol license?

Grace Alexander.

and where is Grace? Where is Grace tonight? Why?

I was not aware that Grace was supposed to attend, I thought as a general manager.

Right, but you figured the manager on the license would show up, but if she wasn't told to be here, okay. We know that we've had a few other violations of this at the Hilton over the years. The thing that really bothers me about this one is the treatment of the Dedham Police Department on scene. It's inexcusable. the conduct shows to me a complete lack of oversight of management, not necessarily if you're not working, of the manager on scene and who should be there, you know, monitoring. And when there's no manager monitoring what goes on,

this is what happens that you don't have, you have people that aren't professional dealing with customers, because obviously this person has completely disregarded the Dedham Police Department, who was there to do their job. And to think that they were targeted These compliance checks, as you know, happened throughout the town. There were 56 compliance checks, and there were five that failed, of course, including the Hilton. I don't know what to say. Why does it keep on happening? Your manager... is clearly not paying attention to what's happening in the bar. And you as running a hospitality industry rely on management and the sale of food and beverage. and if you lose your license, that's a huge financial hit.

And I can't believe that the Hilton to this day still has not had proper oversight management to be back here time after time after time. It's really inexcusable that you haven't invested in training, are the tools to help your servers identify people that are coming up and trying to buy a drink. Nothing that I haven't said before to the Hilton that has been here. I don't know if you've been here before. I've said the same thing, sort of getting tired of saying the same thing because the message doesn't seem to be... going through, and as the manager of the food and beverage, what is your solution?

Well, my solution, I just came a part of the team. So when I was notified of the situation, of course, I was totally irate. And me and my other manager definitely had to sit down with Well this employee is no longer here but our employees now we definitely made sure that there's always going to be a manager up front at the bar at all times as long as it's open and we had to let them know that you have to check every ID. The bystander is supposed to be any age within 40 years, anything under 40, but we told them, listen, Even if it's a grandma, of course, you don't do that to a grandma, but even if they look old, you have to follow protocol, especially just by having these violations. I was just notified of the violations. As far as by just started, you know, GM in this issue week, the hotel.

and I feel as though that we're heading in the right direction. I said that happened before we got here and we definitely have all the card readers in place and they're definitely using it. Bob and I and another manager, probably 13 or 16 hours a day just to ensure that there's someone always on the floor because we have to make sure that that would never happen again.

Thank you.

I agree with you. And it's one of the reasons they brought me here. Where were you before, Dedham? 30 different properties. The Hilton?

Yeah. Do the Hilton, okay. Yes. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Other questions or comments from board members?

just to add on I appreciate the comments about the training and the standards that you're setting related to the checking the IDs but like Jim said hopefully some of that training is you know how to treat the law enforcement that's there trying to to keep everybody safe.

Right, exactly. They want to protect the property, so I can't believe that actually happened. I don't understand how somebody would feel comfortable with talking to a cop. It's crazy, man.

I'd like to apologize on behalf of the property. It was one rogue employee I totally agree with what you said. There should be respect for the police.

Thank you.

Thank you. And this is a public hearing. If there's any members of the public who would like to make comments or online. OK, I'll entertain a motion.

Now move to close the public hearing.

Second. Hearing a motion and a second, all those in favor say aye.

Aye. Madam Chair, I move to take the matter under advisement until March 12th, meeting of the board.

Hearing a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those no.

Thank you. You don't have to come back on the 12th if you don't want to. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for coming in. Thank you.

Okay, next up, we have a request for a common victual license from Umizen. Thank you. If you could state your name and your roles and tell us about the license application.

My name is . I'm the partner of the . and one of the owner and partner.

Thank you. And could you tell us about your application?

We have an application about the commercialization of alcohol for the open-air Japanese restaurant at 342 Washington Street. Blue Ribbon BBQ.

Okay.

Yeah.

Thank you. And so this restaurant would go into the space that Blue Ribbon currently occupies? Yes. Okay, great. Thank you. and do we have questions or comments from board members?

Tell us a little bit about your menu.

The menu gonna be Japanese and we have ramen sushi.

Do you have any other restaurants? Yes, we do. 29 Bistro across the street.

Right here, yeah. 29 Bistro across from the public safety building.

Oh, okay. It's my wife's favorite restaurant.

And we hope that we can open on April 1st.

April 1st. Oh, great.

Yeah. We love this town. That's great.

That's great.

I'm happier here.

Any other questions or comments?

Just that my family also enjoys your current restaurant and I'm excited to have another addition to the great diversity of international cuisine right here in Dedham Square. Welcome and good luck.

Okay, I'll entertain a motion.

move to approve the request for a common victual license for Umizen 342 Washington Street.

Second.

Hearing a motion and a second, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, no.

Good luck.

Thank you.

Yes. And I'll note, change the agenda, we have moved the discussion relative to DVAC. Can you speak? Spelling. Dedham Visionary Access Corporation. Thank you. To our next meeting on March 12th. and so resuming the agenda, next up we have the town managers FY27 budget message presentation.

Thank you so much.

for the slides.

No, that's fine.

I just thought. It'll just be in my bag, so I have it here.

all right thank you madam chair members of the board I want to also recognize that we have members of the finance and warrant committee that I see who are watching this as well so again thank them for uh for uh for being here as well and uh This is the, the town has been working on the budget for a couple of months now, but this is really the first public expression of the budget from the town side. I know the schools have had more discussions in public on these. and there will be many more opportunities which we'll discuss a little bit later in the presentation. But again, this really kicks off the public dialogue. And again, thank you for hearing this this evening as well as the Finance and War Committee members who are here this evening as well. So again, thanks to our communications director for making this presentation look nice for me. This was a difficult budget to pull together, to be honest with you all.

We've done a lot of work over the recent years to develop a strategy, develop a plan, identify some of the challenges we face. We've been talking about the structural deficit and the fact that are outpacing our revenues and that's something that we're really working hard toward and helping trying to communicate more about in public to to express that challenge to get the public feedback that we need to prioritize our limited funds. And this budget is the best that we can do analyzing all of that data but also trying to use best practices and and put us in a strong position to have a sustainable budget in the long run. This is the executive summary here on the first page. folks have one takeaway, this really should be it.

So for the FY27 budget, it's a 4.8% increase from FY26. we did some projections that would be about a $495 tax bill increase for the average single family homeowner. This, as I just said, this budget is backed by data. It's been developed based on some of the responses that we saw in the National Community Survey. It's guided by the town's long-range financial forecast. the deficit reduction study is reflected in here as well as a number of the community meetings that we've had where we had 40 plus individuals telling us what their priorities were. And so again, we tried to take all of that information and summarize it and put it forth in a budget, which is an expression of a community's values. as far as what we are prioritizing with our funds. This budget is an investment in education.

reflects the school committee's recommended budget of $64.7 million, which is a 6.33% increase over FY26. And that investment is, would increase personnel. It addresses student support issues and it also funds our special education at the level that the school is recommending. there are capital investments in this budget this year of about 7.35 million. historically about on trend. It's made perhaps a little bit lower. It's also less than what was recommended by the Capital Expenditure Committee. and that is a reflection of the fact that we are currently in the midst of a facilities master plan. Wide Facilities Master Plan, which is the first that the community has ever done that looks at all town and school buildings and is going to help us come up with a strategic plan to address our facility needs.

over the next 10 to 25 years. And I think that's a really big step for the town, but we also don't want to get out ahead of ourselves via capital investments now that without that strategy in place. So again, some of the decisions that were made in this budget reflect that work that's underway. major budget drivers, health insurance. We got much better numbers than we were anticipating. I think a couple of weeks ago I told you all that we were anticipating perhaps a 14% increase. HR Director Gail McCracken and I attended the West Suburban Health Group board meeting. We participated in that. The board ultimately voted to use some reserves, a responsible amount of reserves to lower that increased next year, as well as making some other adjustments to the plans that bring in our insurance increase at 7.2%. for the town of Dedham.

General liability insurance, 7.6% increase. Debt services, a 5.4% increase, and that reflects debt that was issued based on capital that was approved last year. So again, the budget priorities, they differ from year to year, but there are some consistent things within them. Again, we really were striving to use data to make decisions, and that's important to us as a team, as a finance team, and I know it's important to the select board as well. We wanted to create a sustainable financial plan. We don't want to put forward anything that will in essence cause, we don't want the ebb and flow. We want to have a smooth transition through these next couple of years this is an effort at that. We want to maintain services to taxpayers. I think one of the most consistent themes that I've recognized, certainly during my tenure as town manager here, but also more recently through the statistically valid survey and the community meetings,

that people appreciate the services they have currently and they don't want to see those services reduced. So we need to do whatever we can as a community to try to maintain services while also being mindful of our fiscal situation. and then again we do want to make some investments in our capital infrastructure as necessary but again keeping in mind the facilities master plan that we are working on. this is just a little bit more detail on the budget drivers. Again, 7.2% on health insurance, which is much better than we anticipated and much better than many communities. West Suburban Health Group did a lot of work to get to this. And we benefit by being part of that consortium with the nine other communities. We see around the state numbers much higher than this. Granted, this is higher than inflation in general, but as far as medical inflation goes, it's pretty good. Debt service at the 5.4%, and again, that reflects our AAA bond rating, the fact that we are

are a premier community as far as the cost of our borrowing and it reflects the hard work of the finance team, the Capital Expenditures Committee, and others who really are doing a good job managing our capital investments and the funding of those. And then the insurance, it's a really tough insurance market. We're seeing increases in our property insurance in particular. Workers' Compensation, it's a three year look back on that. We've got two good years and one not so good year. We're hoping that we'll have another good year and then we'll see some, the trend will improve there. But a 7.6% increase there again is, not great, but not bad given the market that we're in. So again, I think it's helpful to talk about the budget in the context of what we're trying to do.

And we often talk about a level service budget and I think it's important to explain what that means every year because people here, and they think level funding, which is not the same as level service. Level service is the amount of money that it will cost to provide the level of services this year as we did last year, baking in inflation and other cost increases. a level funded budget would mean holding the budget the same and likely decreasing service level because you can't afford as much this year as you could last year. we asked all departments to present level service budgets and they brought those forward and we also asked them to do what we call new initiatives which are innovative or new ideas or additions to programs that they will then bring forward to us and we work through those and discuss them. Occasionally, we are in a position to implement those.

Unfortunately, we're more often than not not able to implement those. but for the town side, the departments brought forward level service budgets that reflected a 5.1% increase over last year. the school department, the level of service budget would have been 5.29% and that would have maintained status quo. that's not the budget that was recommended by the school committee and not the budget that's reflected in the town manager's recommended budget. That is a, so after we worked with the town departments, we were able to reduce their budget requests down to 4.5% increase over last year. from the 5.1, and then the school department budget is actually a 6.33% increase over last year, which restores certain positions that were cut in prior fiscal years, as well as, again, building some capacity as a result of some of the challenges that the school is facing.

And the school did a great job detailing that in their budget presentation. So I don't go into detail in that, but that is, again, reflected in the budget. I think it's one of the things, the biggest takeaways that we need to talk about as a community is that we can afford the recommended budget this year. it would leave us with less excess levy capacity than the level service budget would. level service will leave us with about 1.65 million. We have 2.4 as we sit today. That would use about, the level service budget would use us, would use about 800,000. the recommended budget is using about 1.6 million, a little more. That puts us in a position next year where we're not gonna have that levy and unless we have a big surge in new growth

additional revenues, we're either going to need to cut things or increase our revenue via Prop 2 1⁄2 override. So I think that is very important for the town to consider, the select board, the school committee, Finance and Warrant Committee, as well as town meeting when we're making these decisions this year. This is just a chart showing budgets in recent years. I know that the residents have certainly felt the increases in their tax bills and we can see here we've had modest increases in certain years, we've had inflation driven increases in other years and this really just rolls that up and shows the school Department, as well as the municipal departments aggregated together. So you can see that.

So again, reductions that got us here, we didn't just roll forward the department request, we carefully, and kudos to the finance team who really does a great job helping us get to this point in time behind the scenes. really going through with a fine-tooth comb every department's line to figure out what is exactly a level service budget versus what is potentially an increase that isn't needed and we've made some reductions that will be felt to get to the 4.6, but we think that these are the reductions that will be felt the least. And again, if the community feels differently, we can add these things back in. We have a long process to go with the Finance and Warrant Committee. So some reductions that got us here just, to talk about them a little bit more. Position control, this is something we implemented as a result of last year's budget discussions, and we think it's working very well.

and more frequently the finance director, myself, and the HR director to review every vacant position. We look at that position and decide if under our policy we hold it open for 90 days. If it's not, A public safety position or needs to be imminently filled will cost us more money to leave open. So every position gets left open for 90 days as a default. We will make a decision to fill it if need be. then beyond that we look at the position and say is this needed in the long run? Is this strategically necessary for the organization? Are there changes that are needed? Do we need to work with the unions to make changes to it? And we do that for every position and I think it has resulted in some Good, sound decisions as a result of staffing. And we're planning on continuing that in the future. And as a result of that, we're able to be a little bit more lean with some of our personnel lines.

We're considering external funding sources for anything and everything. And again, our departments work really hard to seek out alternative funding sources, whether that be grants, gifts, things of that nature, state funds. and we are drawing in funds this year to help pay for things like our social worker in the COA, our social worker in the police department, Again, funding those with outside monies. They're greatly benefiting the community and not something we want to go away, but we're trying to find funds to supplement the budget in those areas. were reducing some maintenance work in consultation with the facilities department. Again, this isn't, we don't want to put ourselves in a position where we cost more money later, so we have to be very strategic about this.

but there are some areas where we thought we could cut back on some non-emergency facility repairs where it won't hurt us to defer the maintenance and we did make some adjustments there. working with the DPW and our conservation department, we were able to cut back a little bit on invasive species control, again, It's a nice to have, but it's something that we feel we can cut back on and not be super detrimental to the community. were reducing waste disposal options, unfortunately. Again, we do have a lot of opportunities through the DPW's creativity to get rid of waste, and this was a cost savings measure just because of the drastically increasing costs of holding some of these events. So we're cutting back a little bit there. were slowing the digitization of certain town records.

It would be wonderful if we could scan and digitize all of our building department records and all of our HR records that are in the case of the building department, they're in paper. In many cases, for HR, we were on microfiche, and it's cumbersome and difficult to find those records, and it would be great if we could get them all digitized, and we had a plan to do that. but again priority versus or need versus something that we can live with for a little while so we're cutting back on some of that digitization as it stands. and then we're working with, in particular, the police and fire departments to cut back on some optional training that incurs more overtime to try to reduce certain costs there. Again, we're making sure that everyone is adequately trained and are able to provide safe services to the community.

But where there are some optional trainings, we're cutting back on those a little bit in consultation with those department heads. Again, I think it's obvious to us who are involved in the day-to-day all of the things we've been doing to try to build a sustainable budget, to try to build transparency into our process, build more community engagement into the process. So I think this slide talks a little bit more about that deficit reduction strategy and the deficit reduction and committee that worked on that and helped inform that group. That was, I think, one of the best and all the budget projects I've ever worked on just because I think it really was grassroots and involved feedback from all of the department heads. It had the support from the UMass Collins Center. It was grant funded. That's great that it didn't cost us any money.

But then it also had the input from our working group members who really gave it Dedham context. And I think that was helpful. and then those same folks helped us facilitate the community meetings that in my opinion was just very successful in that we got great turnout and got a lot of good feedback that we're then able to, I think, we'll use that for years to come. And again, I think, I hope that the result is that people will want to come out to more of those events in the future and engage with us to help shape the town's future. We conducted the national community survey. Again, that was the first time the community's ever done a town-wide survey like that and gathered statistically valid data on what people's priorities are. and we've done a lot of surveys and asked people specific questions, but this was something that many communities do and it will help us, I think, hear from a wide range of residents that perhaps we don't always hear from. the long range financial forecast.

Again, Brady's in the room, our finance director has done a wonderful job on that. Again, that was another grant funded project that we started several years ago. and that Brady continues to update every year with new data to allow us to have a great tool that forecasts our revenues and expenditures into the future so that we can be planful instead of reactionary, which is super important, especially in this day and age. Position control committee, which I just explained, and then the community forums that, that really garnered a lot of great feedback. We were able to build on that through our Be Heard website as well as I think we're planning more community forums and we'll continue to hold them as we work on other important projects. And I think we learn every time we hold one of these how to better engage with the community and how to be more transparent. and how to reach populations that don't come to a select board meeting or a finance and work committee meeting.

Even those are important meetings, people have a hard time getting to those. So I think we're trying to come to them and tap into that resource in the community. This is a great slide because people often ask, where do my taxes go? And so I think, so out of every dollar, I'm just gonna call off a few things here. So general government, which is essentially your town hall type, 5 cents out of every dollar. The big three, the public schools, are 53 cents. We have employee benefits at 8 cents. And then public safety, police and fire, dispatch at 14 cents. down to debt service, $0.07, regional schools, $0.01. people are often surprised perhaps at where their taxes go to and they think perhaps some things should be more than they are and again but this is a

a nice representation and credit to Amanda Smith for doing this for us. So in Massachusetts, we have to present a balanced budget. So our revenues have to match our expenditures. And you will see that our revenues here are matching our expenditures exactly. We have state aid at the top, 2.5% increase, gross increase. But once we reflect some of the back charges, it's about a 1% net increase this year, which given the economic climate is a little tough because inflation is higher than that. We see local receipts going up a nice amount, and that reflects actuals from the last couple of years. So again, good work to our departments, who are largely responsible for bringing in those. We see major capital stabilization for debt service. That's the Robin Reyes fund.

One of the recommendations from the mass deficit reduction strategy was to increase that fund based on past year's performance of that revenue. So we were doing that and it helps us out here. And then we see the tax levy at a 5.2% increase. and then here's the expenditures and it's not broken down by department but it's broken down by use and you can see here, that it matches the 4.8% revenue increase. The general fund increase is 4.8%. Did I skip one? Nope. By request, we've added this in. This is just an overview of some of the shared expenses and how they are,

broken down between the municipal departments and the school department. Health insurance being the biggest one, $16 million. The school share of that is 8.4 million, 52%. the debt service, this one surprised me a little bit and I think out of 13.9 million, 3.2 is attributable to the school department. Insurance, we split this 50-50 because it was Honestly, it seemed equitable to do it that way based on the number of buildings, vehicles, et cetera, and the type of coverage we have. and then you see it going down to pension. Teachers pay their pension through the back charges to the state so it's a little bit different. This is the pension that non-education staff in the school department pays so that's at 27% of the overall.

and then at the top there are some, the revenues that come in as a result of the school as well which help offset the cost of providing education in town. The net there is 7.4 million. So again, capital improvement, I'm not going to go into great detail tonight because this is more involving the operating budget, but we are proposing a $7.3 million capital budget this year. The lion's share of that. $4.6 million is bonded, which means it'll be in future years we would be paying back that debt service. And then free cash, which are typically smaller purchases, we're proposing $656,000 worth of free cash usage this year. personnel, a big part of the budget is personnel. I think on the town side it's about 70% of our budget. On the school side it's about 80% of the budget.

Pretty much every department, analyzes their personnel every year. They make requests. You've seen some of these requests in the past. The fact that they're not funded does not mean they're not warranted. I think the police chief has made a very strong and solid argument for why we could use three additional police officers to help us cover some very busy parts of town. Many departments have added a crime analyst to help with the sophisticated analysis that's required these days to solve crimes. If we didn't have the fiscal constraints that we have, I think that those would be positions that we would have we would add. Same with the fire department and the chief's request for four additional firefighters and a deputy chief. But again, given the fiscal constraints that we're under, we list them here. They're super important.

We can't fund them this year, but I'm hoping that in future years we'll be able to find a way to get there. We have requests from, again, many other departments, including Youth Commission, Tax and Treasury, Health Inspector, COA. to either increase or fund additional services there. Super important, the community benefits from these. but given our limited funds, we couldn't do that this year. The ones that we did approve, we're recommending the addition of one civilian dispatcher to the dispatch department. And the reason why that's included there is multiple fold. But first of all, we have one supervisor there and that supervisor's a working supervisor.

It's very difficult for the supervisor to do their administrative work and be at the desk doing the important work of dispatchers. So this would free up a little bit of time for that person to do their administrative work and management work. it also would help us with the fact that we have almost constant vacancies in the dispatch center and it'll help us reduce some overtime. There's a lot of overtime, a lot of are frankly forced overtime there because we need the staffing. and we just don't have the folks available. So by increasing the number of folks that we have hopefully in the seat, we'll be able to bring down the overtime to essentially cover the cost of this. and then, I won't go into details, but the 6.33% increase to the school budget

largely funds these 18 FTEs that we're talking about on the school budget, and this is, paraprofessionals, and other student facing positions that would directly directly benefit the mental health challenges, some of the other special needs that the schools are seeing increase. and these positions have also been reduced over the last several fiscal years. So this is again, restoring some of those. So there are 18 new positions on the school side as part of this budget. Tax levy history. people are always interested in this slide, so we include it and update it.

We see the last, again, thanks to the work of the Finance and Work Committee, we had a 4% levy increase last year, and that was lower than the prior two years. The town manager's recommended budget this year projects a 4.9% increase to the tax levy. Again, this is a starting point, and we will work over the next... many weeks on refining that, and it's likely to be lower than that, but that's our starting point. I've already alluded to it earlier, but you can see the levy capacity unused starting in FY23. to FY24 to FY25, it's gone down substantially. We were able to sort of level that off in FY26 only using $400,000.

We're proposing to use 1.6 million this year, which would leave us with only 768,000 there. And again, that leads us to that situation next year where we're going to have to make some decisions whether to... reduce departments to increase revenues or to look at a Prop 2.5 override. average single family tax bill, Dedham continues to be ranked in the middle. So we are 13th out of 28 communities in Norfolk County in FY26, and that is consistent with the last dozen or so years. So again, I know that's been a lot thrown at you, but I'm gonna throw a little bit more at you, and then I'm happy to take questions. So for FY28 and beyond considerations, you can only do so much in a fiscal year budget.

we really I think as a community need to continue working together to address the structural deficit and the possible need for an operational override I think that can't be done in a vacuum and it can't be done by any one board it really needs to be a collaborative effort between the select board, the Finance and Warrant Committee, the School Committee, and all the staff and professionals that support that. It's a big decision for a community to talk about something like that and even more to go forward, it takes a lot of planning and effort and communication and engagement. And I think the deficit reduction strategy recommended a group or a collaboration between those three bodies to help set budgetary goals and I think this is perhaps the most important budgetary goal in consideration moving forward.

So something that I look forward to working with you all on as well as the other boards and committees to have these discussions early so that we can plan for next year. We talked about a page you throw trash program previously, recognizing that that's not a very popular thing. there's real need to try to figure out our trash situation, especially as we have our expiring hauler contract and our expiring disposal contracts at the end of next year. were expecting significant increases in both. And other communities have been able to shift out of their levy significant amounts of money. It could be close to $2 million for us, which could go to support some of those other priorities, if that's something that the community wanted to consider.

and these are some ideas from the deficit reduction strategy, exploring departmental reorganizations, regionalization opportunities, exploring additional revenue opportunities. Again, our departments are always doing that. reviewing all of our fees and other types of revenue source generating activities. The Parks and Rec Department increased their fees this year to help cover more of their operational costs, and I think you're gonna see many departments looking at that. to make sure that we're bringing in as much revenue as possible outside of the tax levy. Coordinating collective bargaining between the town and the school. we have a lot of collective bargaining groups in the town. We have a great relationship with the schools and we do a lot of collaboration, but there's definitely an opportunity to improve upon that and be even more planful to align

the benefits that we're approving as well as the costs and some of the COLAs and things like that to bring those under control. And then we can... we need to look at, and this is a tough thing to talk about, but just the cost of benefits is increasing so much. We need to look at the agreement we have with the unions and discuss whether there are changes that we could make to perhaps shift some of that cost or make changes in the long run to rein in the cost of health insurance. and then this was another idea from the deficit reduction plan, but many of our neighboring communities have in-house ambulance services. It's a possible revenue source that we need to explore.

there were certainly pros and cons and it's not a slam dunk but it's something that I think that we should consider to see if it would be a way of bringing in additional revenues that could perhaps help us increase staffing at the fire department. and that's something that I think that we can probably start looking at working on in the next couple of years as well as several of our neighbors are also looking at that as well. So I think it's something that many communities have on the floor. This is really just the beginning of the budget season, the public budget season as it is. We have the all-day budget hearing with the Finance and Work Committee on March 7th, starting at 8.30 a.m. here in Town Hall. that's hybrid. So folks can watch it on Zoom. They can come here to the building. It's it's a long day, but it's a really productive day where the finance and work committee gets to hear from every department except for the school department.

who goes on Tuesday, March 10th to discuss their budget and really just goes through every line, answers questions, talks about their goals and priorities for the next year and really I think helps the community and certainly the financial war committee understand what the budget is bringing and what priorities it's meeting. We'll also have a number of additional hearing dates that are listed there. All of those are on Zoom as well as in person. So folks have many opportunities to join and to offer feedback and then ultimately this will all culminate at Springtown meeting where 273 of Dedham's residents will come together and vote on the final budget. So that concludes our budget presentation this evening, but I'm happy to take questions, clarify. I know I've thrown a lot at you this evening.

This will all be on the website tomorrow. together with the budget memo and all the on the backing information as well.

Thank you, Leon. Questions and comments from board members?

Thank you. It is a lot, and I know it's a lot of work, even though some ways it feels like the beginning of the process. It really isn't. A lot has been going to get here. and a lot of community engagement, it seems to me in my memory, this early in the process. We've been hearing a lot from the community, both people showing up at meetings, even we can see in the work that's already been done, the incorporation from the deficit reduction plan, the community meetings, the poll call survey. So I think we have more community input at this stage than I remember in recent memory. Let's see. And I do see that incorporated in the budget, which I appreciate all the work from the deficit reduction and the community feedback, especially seeing that the town side is less than level service and the school side. is more than level service, which is something I think we're hearing pretty loudly from all the sources.

Some of the other... deficit reduction plan suggestions that I see in there, like on the revenue side. I know some of them are really more accounting than real money coming in, but it's important to have a more accurate reflection of the budget, so it's great to see those there. and then I'm also glad to see us laying out in the presentation even though it's not in this budget some of the longer term because I think that some of the it's productive but also frustrating right that some of the suggestions in the deficit reduction plan are really long-term solutions and it feels a little bit like too little too late because we are like you're saying if we go ahead with this budget we're going to be talking about a and override potentially to keep that up in future years. So it's just so important that we keep pressing forward on those long-term solutions. And I'm curious, I guess, about

the comments about an operational override being likely necessary next year, like what assumptions are in that, how far off we would be, you know, basically because we can't get some of the long term stuff done fast enough because what I worry about is even if there was an override, how long would that last? Could an override even pass? Is that even the right thing? All of those questions are out there, but I know watching the school side work on their budget, what they felt like they need to have the services they want was originally they're talking like 8%. And I think what it seemed to me what brought them down to the recommendation that they had have is not wanting that like yo-yo effect, right? Not wanting to make a budget this year, restore positions, and then next year need to cut them, right? So how do we get to like a sustainable budget rather than adding

for not so much adding, not cutting as much, and then needing to cut later. Sorry, there's a lot flowing through my head here. So I don't know, I think I see also just, again, back to the long-term thing, like a lot of the long-term solutions are really hard, but they're so important, the trash solutions. Department consolidation, school consolidation, the ambulance, you know, all of these are just really important to start the community dialogues around. and like I said before, can it happen soon enough to avoid needing an override? It would be ideally, right, what we'd be trying to do. So I just think it's really important for everyone to continue to stay really engaged in the rest of the process, the dates and things that you've thrown out there, and continuing to have the budget on the agenda for us to be weighing in. Because as you said, one of the

most important recommendations from the Collins Center was how we can work more collaboratively and earlier. And I think we have made progress, but how could we do that even sooner? in the budget process. I'll leave it at that for now. I don't know if there was a question in there.

I saw one question that was in there perhaps was that sort of where are we? Again, Brady and the financial team have done a lot of work with the financial forecast. We identify what the structural deficit would have been based on some assumptions, including historical growth rates for certain departments, and we projected that forward. Brady can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we would be looking at about a $2 million structural deficit for next year. and it grows by it's like one point. No. Oh, so it grows substantially. It's about $1.6 million bigger, I think, next year.

the structural deficit, which we'll have to solve for because we can't have a deficit, so we will solve for that, but that's sort of the difference, and I'll send that analysis to the board so you are fully aware of what the difference is based on the level service budget versus the proposed budget as far as the structural deficit for next year.

Right. So basically, just to make sure I understand, so you're saying like if we did this recommended budget, what that means for the projection for the structural deficit next year? and looking at what would be left for excess levy so that what that would mean would either have to be cut or an override.

That's right. Exactly.

Thank you.

Thank you. Other questions, comments?

Thank you. Thanks for the work putting this together and the analysis, I think. It sort of helps as a first step to explain the process, look at the challenges, and as a starting point, because we know when we start today, financing one, Warrant and Finance. I keep on saying finance until I check the charter and it's Warrant and Finance. That is the name, it's Warrant and Finance, not Finance and Warrant. and so I just discovered that by looking at the charter and if somebody wants to correct me, it's Warrant and Finance Committee. So as a warrant, and I'm trying to be disciplined and say that.

We're going to have no idea what committee you're talking about anymore.

Right, so as the as they start their work, it's going to be tough. And looking at the, just based on what you said and following up a little on what Michelle had said. You know, when I look at the budget drivers for this budget, which is approximately $2 million, and I look at if hypothetically the recommended budget was the one that was passed, which would leave us a $768,000 levy It's not a matter of will we have an override, it's that we will have an override next year. Unless there'd be dramatic cuts, because when you start talking about millions of dollars of cuts, that equals real cuts. That real cuts on the, as the town as a whole, we always break, we talk about the school side and the town side. It's the town's budget.

and when you look at the breakdown of where our money goes, some folks think that if you're saying that we're spending too much on education, that you're not for education. but I don't hear too many people say, and then people talk about the town side. Well, you need to cut more on the town side. but don't touch the school side. Don't touch the schools. And we just received an email today, by the way, from a resident that showed what Desi's came out with, what the cost per pupil. In the town of Dedham, the cost per pupil is $27,000. And if you look at the, and I would ask that Leon make sure that's shared with Finance and Warrant and others, that it shows that we're at the top. were at the top in the communities that were chosen.

So it's not that we're not spending money, and that's what sort of comes to, you know, What analysis are we doing on the money that we are spending and what are we getting? What are we getting in return? whether that's on education, whether that's on public safety, whether that's on public works, whether that's on the veteran services, whether that's on all the services that the town provides. And I appreciate the out of every dollar. And I would like to have really that as a lead slide to show where your tax dollar goes. I mean, it's pretty telling. It's pretty telling where our expenses are. And I do appreciate Leon and Brady adding the school sources and uses. because when we look at the education budget, we look at the town budget, there are a lot of shared services.

There's a lot of things that the taxpayers are paying that don't show in the budget. And if I just add my, just roughly, I'm looking at about $15 million additional that supports education in town that don't show in the education budget. So the budget really is the shared services and cost sometimes get lost in the equation of what we're spending. And as you mentioned, Leon, the drivers of health insurance and the like, things that... are beyond our control, but really are our budget drivers that benefit people. I don't have the answers. I know it's gonna be difficult. We have done the work the last few years.

The question is whether the town wants to continue to do the work and knowing that there's gonna be some pain, or do we want to just move forward and do what a lot of towns do and kick the can down the road and we'll talk about it next year when we have a levy of $768,000. that we have the budget driver's expenses, and I'm not even talking about contractual costs and expenses that continue to rise every single year. A lot of questions, a lot of work ahead, but I do appreciate the dimension of the town, select board, school committee, and Warrington Finance Committee working together to have a

don't have a consistent and cohesive voice when it comes down to town meeting. And that's gonna take some work. But thank you for the work and it's just beginning.

Thank you. I can't agree more with what you had to say, and I was going right there. With the graphic with the dollar, which I thought was a great graphic as well, too, I did see 53 cents goes into... Public Education. Did that 53 cents include insurance with that? I know that we say that it's separated out, but did that include?

No, because when you see employee benefits, so 52% of that would be the schools.

So 52% of that.

Eight cents.

Eight cents. Yeah. So that number would technically be even higher on that graph.

If you would have divided out that way, yeah.

If you would have divided out that way. Because I agree, it's not that we don't value education. There's just so much of the dollar that we can actually spend on things. So your level service, you went in with 5.1, schools you suggested 5.9. That was your recommendation of 5.29?

That's not my recommendation. My recommendation matched the school committee recommendation of 6.33.

So you did match the six points. So it was the level service, the schools would have been 5.29. That's correct. And you did not give that as a recommendation. I did not. At all. So schools being at 6.33 is what you're recommending to warrant to look at? Yes. you have a lot of work in front of you being in one committee looking at all that. So you also made a comment that you look at every line Do we look at every line from the schools? Do we receive that? What do we receive? What do you receive that goes into the budget to make your agreement with their recommendation? Is that beyond?

We've had... countless conversations with the school department. I attended their budget meeting as well. We don't get, well obviously the finance department can see every line on the school side, but when we do the budget review it's not, at the same level as the town side, per se, but I was comfortable after talking to the school, matching the school committee's recommendation based on their public conversations, and again, this being the beginning of the process, it made sense to do that versus just going with the level service because I thought they made a compelling argument as to that being a starting point, but again, it's a starting point.

That's information I think that we should look at because it would be very interesting as well. Also, full-time employees, what programs would be brought in. I think all those things need to be out there and those questions need to be answered. as far as $27,000 per student, so we do value the education. Then looking at the average single Family Tax Bill. It would be very interesting to see. I mean, we're in the middle, and I've always said that's wonderful we're in the middle, but we're behind Brookline, Wellesley, Dover, Cohasset, Needham, Westwood, Sharon, Medfield, Milton. and then we get into Norfolk, Walpole, Millis and then us. I'm wondering what the education breakdown is well for that because I do feel that we fund education. and in order for us to sustain other programs as well, snow removal.

We're going through that. What's going on with all the other services that we need? And I understand the concept of pay as you throw and all that. That's just moving a tax bill. That's really all it is, right? It's just instead of going up in the taxes to say we only went up this amount, we're just going to say, well, we only went up this amount, but now you're going to have this bill, right? So I kind of think it's just moving it all around. For the $495 average that the bill will go up if this gets approved, what was the average home value that was used for that? Can you come up to the microphone?

Do you mind if I just do a point of information before? So I just, I double-checked the cents on the dollar as including the school share of shared costs, so the 53 cents is including insurance. Oh, good. Just wanted to clarify that. I double checked before I, because that was not clear on that slide. So we can make a note on the bottom.

We can correct that.

Yeah. We can get the exact average home value this year. Last year, I know it was $760,000. This year, I think it's close to $900,000.

That's the average is $900,000. Okay. Thank you, Brady. Appreciate that. I also see that they recommended having a town's position control committee. Has that already started?

Yes.

Who's on that?

It's myself, the finance director, and the HR director.

Finance director and the HR director are on that. OK. and as far as things like you said limited training, travel all those things I'm assuming that on the town side we're going to start pulling back on as well too right going it's just not the time to be spending on those kinds of things I understand what has to be done but you know We really have to be taking a look at what we're spending on that for individuals. The National Community Survey, you mentioned that as well too. and that that was a survey and a tool that you're using. But I had a question, and I don't think we ever got it answered, on why they didn't use the online survey information when they gave you your information. I believe that that's what they had said, right? When they came up with their results, it did not include online. Only those that were sent to people with a code.

That's correct. Because they weren't part of the statistically valid sample population. We didn't disregard it. It's included in the report, but... it is self-selecting and it would skew the results. So that's why they sent them to 3,000 households and then they waited though, and then they're geographically, randomized, and then based on the self-reported demographic data, they did weight the results, again, to make it statistically valid, but versus a self-selecting group who chose to go online or fill out a paper form and give it to us, that would have skewed the results. So that's why we included it in the report and obviously it's always considered, just like any of our other surveys, but it's not part of the statistically valid report.

But you are taking those under consideration.

Yes. Yep. And it's posted online together with the national community survey itself.

Okay. All right. As you said, this is just the beginning. It's a very scary situation that we're in. We really have to look at that as a whole because buildings coming. We have our facility work group going on right now, and we've only really just begun and that's going to come hopefully with a good plan on what we need to do to get our buildings and all of them as you said it's the first time it's ever been done and it's a great plan and a great idea that to move that forward and look at everything that's going to have a dollar amount to it and there's only so much that everybody can really sustain. I don't know where we go. I don't know. I'd love to know how many other overrides have been out there that have passed and failed and how are these communities doing. It's difficult. and I think everybody has to realize how difficult it is for a veteran, a senior, a middle-aged.

I think people that are middle-income people, they're struggling right now. They might not be raising their hand, or they don't have the opportunity to raise their hand, but they are struggling. and they might be silent because you don't want to seem like you're against the police or the fire or the schools or the DPW because everybody works so hard. But those things really need to be taken into account when we make those decisions. And I think we know that. So thank you for this. Like we said, it's the beginning of that conversation.

Thank you. And I think we have had a really robust conversation here tonight. We have had a robust conversation on this at several points and time over the past year. And I know that's something that we absolutely need to continue and will continue. And what I appreciate is that we started talking about this and town staff has started thinking about this strategically years ago. which is getting us to where we are today. It doesn't make it any easier how to move forward, but at least we have a lot of that infrastructure in place that when you talk about things that we can do in the future, those are Those are options that have already been thought of, that there's an understanding of what would need to be done to implement those or move forward with those, or how to talk with the community about making some of those decisions.

I want to acknowledge that and that I really appreciate that you have used the data that the town has collected. and use that to shape the budget. And I genuinely believe you when you say that this is a very difficult budget to craft because it certainly is, you know, in just continuing some of the conversations that we have been having over the past year and more, continuing with those long-range forecasts because they are shifting. What I'm hearing tonight is even different than what we were talking about in the fall and is different than what we were talking about a year ago at town meeting. and so I'll just reiterate the question that I asked, I think it was just at the last meeting, if that was only two weeks ago. What does this look like in 10 years?

We started last year, we talked about tightening a belt for three years and now we're looking at needing to make significant cuts a year from now. I think we really need to be able to answer, benchmark our services and what these continued decisions due to that benchmark of the quality of services that we're providing our residents. If we were to continue down this path of chip, chip, chip. Have we really significantly deteriorated the quality of services that our residents expect? or are there areas that, yes, it's not what they once were, but we're okay with that. and so I think it's really, I'm just concerned that we're not looking at a one or two or three year

need for these types of decisions, but that I'm concerned that we're really looking at a new norm based on economic conditions and that and that if we don't, I think it's so important that we're doing that five year forecast, but I really think we need to look at a 10 year forecast. And I wanna make sure that we're not, looking at a very different landscape of how we serve our residents a decade from now in thinking that this is going to be easier to weather than it probably actually is. and I did have another train of thought that I'm forgetting. Just because I know that, oh, this is what I wanted to say. I've said this in past years, too. I want to just validate a range of experiences. in our town.

I think that it's both true that we have families and individuals in our towns who are finding it very hard to pay and afford taxes. And I also want to validate that it is very true that we have families and individuals, for instance, in our school system, that in looking at the recommendation from the school committee for 18 new personnel in grades K through three, I've heard from some of those parents and understand the conditions that have led to that recommendation and that the experience of needing some flex personnel in those grades also is true. And it doesn't make it any easier for us to navigate, but I want us to continue to feel partnered and collaborative as we make these decisions because they're not easy for anyone. and I think that that's important to say and put out there.

And along with that, I think that there have been several instances where we're looking to be more informed ourselves about the full budget, including the school budget. I think that a lot of detail has increased. and what we know about the school budget. And I always just think that the more that we know, the more that we all know the truth and understand what is and what isn't. and I think it would be helpful. I know that when we were talking about the potential of you know consolidating schools a year ago or a little more than a year ago now there are going to be cost savings associated with that in you know both removing a building that is expensive to maintain because it's past its appropriateness, that there's redundancies in staffing that are had when there are multiple buildings to maintain the conditions of our building

does increase the costs of that spending per student. And we have initiated a really important process with the Facilities Master Plan. and also the school committee's decision to revisit their ed plan and I think there'll be important outcomes from that and we put those in place. I wish that we had them in place now because now is when we really need some of those opportunities for operational costs and savings and also to keep those building costs at the lowest amount possible, which is only going to get more expensive from year to year. So I'll leave it at that, but just that I appreciate that this is this is being approached and has been being approached with data and strategically and that we're continuing to improve the way that we're collaborating with

the other committees, the school committee, the school department, etc., and appreciate your continued effort. This is a huge challenge, and I appreciate that you tackle it every day.

Thank you.

Just one final thing, Madam Chair. I can't find where I saw a warrant in financing. Maybe my eyes were crossed, but I know I saw it, and I will look at it again. It's finance and warrant and not e-government, but I saw it someplace and I will find it again. But finance and warrant committee. Thank you.

Can I ask one other question, Erin? Just sorry to extend this, but I was thinking of another question that kind of has come up from a few others, too. I don't even know if this is a... that's possible to answer. But related to this per student costs and what Aaron was just talking about our buildings, I remember in the past being on finance and Warren, and yes, are per student costs are high when you look at other comparable towns. I remember there being a chart that was also showing how some factors that might lead to that, right? one being that our salaries are on the higher end, one being that our student to teacher ratios are more favorable, one being that we have more buildings or square footage or both. and I'm curious how much of that is related to our issues with our buildings, both how old they are and that we frankly have probably one too many elementary schools. So I don't know if there's any way to true that up, right? Like if we had consolidated, if we do consolidate, who knows what the plan will say.

But if we consolidate it, is that one less principal, fewer staff, the economies of scale? that it brings. I don't know if there's even a way to answer that. There's so many variables. But it is important for people to keep in mind when they see that per student cost that those are some of the factors going into there. And is it fair to... keep quoting that and pulling away from services if it's really being impacted by the facilities issues. Just another thing to think about.

If I could, Madam Chair, I think that the profile is from Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. and there has to be you know all sorts of criteria that go into. So in this particular one that was sent to us, so it includes in district and out of district. So for instance, Dedham had 2,561 students. 258.7 teachers. Student-teacher ratio 9.9 to 1. And that's when the per pupil expenditure of 27,658. So for instance, Walpole, one of the ones that we mentioned here, 3,560 students. teachers 304.3, ratio 11.7 to one, per pupil expenditure 20,298.

So I'm sure that if the school department, they're getting, DESE is getting the data from what the school department is submitting. So I think your question is an excellent one of what goes in to make up that. Because, you know, like, Like with the budget, sometimes if you don't see it, you don't know it. So I think that would be definitely a great question to ask and just sort of to explain how they arrive at that number.

And just to even follow up on that, Michelle, when I was on the school committee, and it might not be the truth right now, it was always that our educational model was a more expensive model for whatever went into that. Of course, it could be the buildings. the size of the classrooms, how you have the kids in the different classrooms and the sizes. For example, Riverdale might have two very small classes, but you couldn't put them in one.

Well, and even because of our buildings, right? Some of that is forced because of our buildings. Even if we wanted the model to be different, we might not have the space for it right now.

Space to do that, right? So you might have two classrooms with 17 kids in there, but then you wouldn't want them to be the only building that had you know however many in that classroom so I think that there is a lot that goes into that.

and it's great that we're in the middle of both the educational model plan and the facilities master plan, but the timing is, I wish we knew all this information already.

And it might not help right now, with this budget, but I think eventually, yes, I think it's going to give a lot of answers or help us with some planning.

Thank you. Thanks for the discussion, everyone. Thank you. Thanks for the presentation.

900,000 is 810,871. So I just wanted to get that on the record for context. Thank you.

All right, next up we have sanctions, discussion and vote sanctions for Temizcal Tequila Cantina.

Madam Chair, I'd move to find that the licensee Temescal 660 Legacy Place did violate Mass General Law Chapter 138, Section 34, sale or delivery of alcohol to a person under 21 years of age. 204, CMR 2.052, permitting any disorder, disturbance, or illegality of any kind to take place in or on the licensed premises in the rules and regulations. For the holders of alcoholic beverage licenses in the Town of Dedham, Rules 21, sale or delivery of alcohol to a person under 21.

Hearing a motion and a second, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, no.

Madam Chair, as a result of the findings, I move that the all-alcoholic restaurant license issued to Teminskow 660 Legacy Place be suspended for a period of three days, two days to be held in abeyance for a period of one year, said one year to expire February 28th, 2027, and the one day to be served said one day to be served on Monday, March 9th, 2026.

Second. Hearing motion and second, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Okay, thank you. All right, we've arrived at old and new business. Anyone with old or new business?

Can I just ask a quick question? Can you remind me, Leon, the funding for the elevator, the boat that we took, where does that stand?

The Motherbrook elevator?

Yeah.

They no longer want to proceed with that project, and we were rescinding that authorization.

Are we going through that process? It's in the spring. It's in the spring. Okay, thank you.

That was my own business.

OK. Great. Anything else? We've all done a lot of mental gymnastics working through this budget.

And we're going to have the, Madam Chair, we are going to have the DVAC at the next meeting. Yes. And the contracts will be... When do we expect the contract?

It will be... are predicated on the availability of both attorneys. So I'm hoping for the second week in March, but it may not go to the first week in April.

Manager, I just want to remind folks if they've noticed that Dr. Teehan is not here tonight, he has a family, he's with a family issue that he is not able to make the meeting tonight. I just want to make sure people know where is Dennis.

Okay, hearing no other old or new business.

Motion to adjourn.

Second.

Hearing a motion and a second, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, no.

Thank you.

Thank you.