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The Westport Finance Committee met on September 8, 2026, to welcome new member Gloria Cabral, appointed by the Town Moderator to replace Duncan Law, and to discuss preparations and improvements for the upcoming budget cycle. Chair Karen Raus shared updates from Town Administrator Chris Vitale regarding new digital budget software, potential revisions to the budget timeline, and plans for a joint meeting in October or November with the Select Board and School Committee. The committee also appointed Gloria Cabral to represent the Finance Committee on the Infrastructure Oversight Committee. Members engaged in wide-ranging discussions on municipal operations, including recommendations for future Town Meetings. They critiqued the use of separate pamphlets for Finance Committee recommendations and discussed adding plain-English summaries and clear "yes/no" vote explanations to warrant articles. The committee also reviewed municipal revenue collections, debating policies surrounding uncollected ambulance transport fees and harbor mooring fees, and discussed establishing a formal town-wide write-off policy. Additionally, the committee agreed to streamline January budget hearings by focusing primarily on major departments, revenue-generating entities, and those with substantial grant activity. The committee approved the minutes from the July 14, 2026 meeting before adjourning.
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Public / Other
Welcome everyone. This is the finance committee. It is Tuesday, September 8th, 2026. It's 6:40 p.m. Uh I'd like to start with a uh pledge of allegiance.
0:13Uh I pledge allegiance to the flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic it stands.
0:24One nation stands under one nation under God with liberty and justice.
0:30with liberty and justice for all.
0:33Under Mass General Law Chapter 30A section 20F, this meeting is being recorded. On March 28th, 2025, Governor Healey signed a law which extends the temporary provisions pertain pertaining to open meeting law to June 30th, 2027.
0:48Specifically, this extension allows public bodies to continue holding meetings remotely without a quorum of the public body physically present at a meeting location and to provide equal access to the remote meeting. The language does not make any substantive changes, just extending from March 31st, 2025 to June 30th, 2027.
1:07Well, welcome everyone.
1:10Hello.
1:11Hello. Hello. I'm going to start off um I'm going to start off with a roll call so we know who's here. uh for members.
1:18So, we've got myself, Karen Rouse, uh we've got Tony River, Cindy Brown, Al Le, and our newest member, Gloria Cabraw.
1:30So, right now absent is Zach Leu, Nancy Stan Cross, Kathy, and Gary are not here. So, uh that's who we have so far.
1:40So, I'd um I'd first want to um just uh let everyone know that Duncan Law after our last meeting, he resigned from the finance committee with other commitments that he uh he had. And so, the town moderator appointed Gloria Cabraw. And I think Gloria is here. If you get a chance, if you can put your camera on, that would be for some reason it some reason it will not go. I supposed to be, but next time
2:07I'll have it figured out. Okay, perfect.
2:10Well, um, what we'd like to do with new new members is if you could introduce yourself and let us know what brought you to the finance committee.
2:18I am Gloria Cabraw. Um, I recently retired. So, I guess when I hear that, people say, "Oh, you got more time to do something." And I just recently stepped down from um the Republican committee as a chair because I'm having knee surgery.
2:34So, Evan asks, "Hey, do you there's an opening? would you would you be interested? And I said, "Sure, I can do that." And uh so I'm I'm willing to learn. I've worked with Tony and Nancy before and I tend they're tending to teach me so much. So um that's basically I started going that way. And recently my other thing is I just joined an ethics committee uh for the Northeast
2:57region for my local chef. Well, it's not it's a worldwide chef organization. So keeping busy during retirement.
3:03All right. Well, good for you. Well, thanks for uh for for joining. Um I'm not sure when my retirement comes.
3:12I'm not sure what I would do, but h I'm not sure.
3:16I need to retire from retirement. It's It's very busy. I haven't stopped yet.
3:21So, I'm exhausted.
3:23This can become a full-time job in and of itself. That's for sure. Um all right. Well, before we get started on the agenda, Tony had, I guess, sent me an email and I never even noticed it.
3:35But, um, sorry about that. So, if you ever send me an email and I don't respond, that probably means I didn't see it. So, um, I just figured you I just figured you were thinking like, who the hell does he think he is?
3:46No, no, no. It really if if you don't get Cindy's really good at texting me to go, hey, did you see that email? And I'll go, no, I didn't see that. Um, so I you know we all get so many emails and it's not my primary email but um anyway so Tony had and we don't have a full committee here so it's difficult to um to actually make this decision but Tony
4:10I think you you indicated you the t the second Tuesday of the month is difficult for for your schedule.
4:17It's the one it's the one day of the month that's probably not good for me.
4:22any other day or time would be would be better. I mean, I could make it work if I have, you know, if I want to be on the I want to stay on the committee. So, so I just I had I had sent uh Karen an email wondering if there was any chance of just changing either the day or the Tuesday, you know, maybe the first Tuesday or another Tuesday or another
4:46day, but any other time except the second Tuesday.
4:51Okay. Well, you know, when we have a full committee, then um then we can look I mean, historically the second Tuesday of the month has always been the finance committees meeting and I think I think the town moderator should be letting every every member know that that is the schedule to make sure that it's not inherently a conflict. But just to say we we as a group could look to change
5:13the date if we all had something different on our schedule that we could do. Al also Karen uh when once we get into full season we'll be meeting every Tuesday.
5:24Yeah. So you're right. You're right.
5:26So this the second Tuesday becomes just another Tuesday.
5:30Right.
5:31Right. Tuesdays our are our our thing.
5:34But um when I sent you an Yeah. But that's Go ahead.
5:45No, I'm saying needing more than that.
5:46That's not the issue. The issue is just Oh, the second Tuesday.
5:50The second Tuesday again every month, you know, every month. Again, I could Well, we'll um when we get a full committee, miss one or two.
5:58Yeah. When we get a full committee, we can poll everybody to see um you know, if if there was a different date that, you know, that that could work for us or um or or we'll stick to the second Tuesday and then we'll have to figure out how you can make it work, Tony. And Karen, also I had uh emailed you or texted you to let you know that both Al
6:18and I would miss the December meeting.
6:22That's the second Tuesday on the 8th. He and I have a prior commitment that day.
6:27So we will not be able to make a FINCOM meeting on Tuesday, December 8th.
6:33Okay.
6:38Okay.
6:38You'll certainly have to remind me when that time comes.
6:41Thanks. Um, all right. So, um, I'm just trying to see if any other members joined us. I don't think so.
6:52Right.
6:54Um, not yet. Okay. Well, what this meeting tonight really, I think before we go on, um, we can get this out of the way. So, um Duncan had us had a um he Duncan Law the pre the previous member who is now no longer with uh the committee was appointed we we recommended to appoint him to the infrastructure the IOC the infrastructure oversight committee. So, um it would be so we need to appoint
7:30someone to that committee in his place and they're um they have a a meeting I think in a week or two. So, they're looking for a FinCom rep to do to add to that committee.
7:47Sorry about my dog. I'm going to put my my microphone.
7:50Oh, I didn't even hear him.
7:53So, um the easiest thing could be Gloria could could jump into that um jump into that so we don't have to rejigger committees.
8:01Okay.
8:02Does that work for you?
8:04And that's on what day?
8:05You know, that's a good question and I don't know. Um I don't know.
8:13I don't know that. I don't know when they meet.
8:16I don't know if they have a regular schedule.
8:19I'm not sure they do either. there.
8:21Okay, that's fine. We'll figure it out.
8:24Okay. Um if it doesn't if it doesn't work, then you can let us know and we'll just try to reassign and then we can just re reassign. Okay.
8:33Okay. So, we'll we'll um we'll appoint you to that committee and then again, if that doesn't work with the schedule, we'll we can reigure that at the next meeting, but at least they'll have some representation.
8:43Yeah. Okay, that's fine.
8:44Okay, great. Thank you. Um then and at the next meeting we'll look at uh Duncan also had um I think Duncan only had one department but it was the school committee as the department and um since we have three former school committee members here. I would really rather prefer someone other than you three who know the budget very well to be a leazison. So this way more of us understand the budget. So, um, we'll
9:16have to kind of rejig that one and reappoint that one. Um, but we can do that at our next meeting.
9:23Okay.
9:24Um, all right. So, what we were going to talk about tonight was really looking at our um our meetings as a whole, what what things we wanted to change. Uh, this was meant to be not led by me. So, this is meant to be kind of an open discussion um of what what what we w want to change and focus on in the upcoming year.
9:50I'll just give you a quick update and then I'm not going to lead the meeting, but I spoke with Chris Fatali today and just to give us up to speed on some of the things that he and the select board are doing. So, um, one of the things that we're going to see is they purchased a budget software, uh, system. So, they're going to have I I hope some really nice pre presented
10:16budgets this year rather than that really old Excel spreadsheet that was getting pretty difficult. So, um, so they're going to have a nice presentation, a digital budget book that will also be posted up on the town's website. though it'll be very easy for um the general public to look at the budgets as well. So, and they can dive into them uh more. So, um we'll be seeing that this year.
10:44Um Chris is also working to potentially change our budget timeline schedule. So, he'll be working with the select board.
10:53it maybe uh he's thinking of it being starting a little bit later than early October where it started and then to give a little more time before preparing budgets um but still meet our February uh February 20th select board date. So he's working on that. So he doesn't have the draft yet to share with us. Um so he's going to talk to the select board first and then present that to see if
11:19make sure that works for us as well. He is also trying to plan and schedule a joint meeting of the select board, the school committee and the finance committee. So sometime in the October, November time frame. So as we kick off the budget process, uh where Chris can talk about revenue projections and and and what's you know what's coming ahead for the budget. So he um will be working
11:49on that. Uh and we'll let us know when he has something scheduled for that. So um so those are some of the things that we've talked about to really kind of get um right out of the gate kind of a joint meeting. So he he'll be working on that and getting something scheduled.
12:06I think that's about all he shared with me. Um so that's all I have to to update so far.
12:15So anyway, so I'll let anybody else speak who wants to talk about what what sort of things that uh we'd like to do for upcoming meetings.
12:25Anything different than before?
12:30Hey Nancy. Hi. How are Hi all. I'm sorry I'm a little late. I'm learning two Zooms right now. So admin of neither. So I'm happy about that. Uh so we had talked about and we had kind of gone off the the the railroad tracks for a while the last meeting about um having conversations about things that making recommendations or suggestions of what we've seen based on um you know doing these budgets about what could
13:02help potentially make the town more run more efficiently. Um, and Zach had said it that I think it was Zach, it might have been, I'm not sure who it was, but they talked about um the warrant and how it was from another place that had a warrant article and what they would say is like a yes, no, a yes means this and a no means that.
13:26I really think that the warrant article last year and putting the FINCOM recommendations in a separate pamphlet, I saw more people in the crowds doing this and that. It was just something we've never had. I thought it was clumsy. It wasn't um it really wasn't um it wasn't easy for people to keep track of. So, I mean, so you can have your warrant article. select board says this, fin says this, a yes vote means this, a
13:59no vote means that. Um, under each one and if it has to continue into another section, so be it. But to have two, I don't know how other people felt about it. I felt having the FINCOM recommendations on, which was the first time I've ever seen it done that way, was just too it it didn't uh help people follow the meeting. That's just my thoughts on that.
14:22Yeah. And you know, I I agree too and um I I was sitting up on the stage trying to go back and forth between the two two and it was hard. Um, I think the the reason why Chris did it, and I come, you know, I commend his wanting to do it because it allowed more time for the finance committee and the select board to to make recommendations because otherwise when it's printed in the
14:51original document, it has to be approved maybe I think three weeks, three or four weeks prior to town meeting because you've got to get it finalized in the document and then get it printed.
15:03So by doing a separate by doing a separate uh handout allowed us and the select board to to do them make the recommendations is up to a week before town meeting and not have to worry about printing it. So it kind of it gave that more flexibility but it definitely made the town meeting more complicated. Well, yeah. And and not only that, what particular recommendation did I I can understand that have been a kathuffle
15:32during the sewer line and all of that, but I didn't see anything on that warrant that required or might put us into that separate pamphlet to have the opportunity to explain more thoroughly.
15:44And I so I think it might be meeting driven more, you know, depending on the complexity of the issue. But at the end end of the day, I think there'll be enough tangling about what is a yes, what does yes mean and what does no mean than anything else. Just trying to get those lines down.
16:02Yeah, it's going to be that is not going to be easy to do.
16:06No, no, no. Absolutely. And and I think and you're right, there was nothing in this particular warrant that was really complicated, but I think he's trying to set a process to just have every year.
16:17And when you have a a year like the water and sewer that it was definitely um you know you need Yeah, that that was a year but otherwise it's just hard to work through. People aren't familiar with it. I I mean I just didn't like the way it looked. Um but just I'm just one opinion. But I I do think the yes and no was pretty compelling for I don't know how I think
16:38everybody seemed to be on board on FinCom about it. Cindy, I think you had said that there was another town that had done something differently and I think you forwarded it to me. Um, right. Right. It was u I can't remember the name of the town, but when I was passing through, they were having their town meeting. And so I looked up their warrant and uh along the same lines that
17:03um Nancy was describing it, it didn't really say what a yes or a no vote is, but it kind of boiled it down to English. you know, town council requires certain language, of course, the state requires certain language, particularly when it comes to bylaws. Um, but they had a summary at the end. They had the recommendation and then a one paragraph summary of what this article means and
17:34why it's there. So I think a combination of what Nancy is describing and just some you know English plain English of understanding what you know if we do have something that's a little bit more complex than we've had in the past that would explain it. I mean look at the beginning of of last last year's meeting. There was that one article that we spent so much time just trying to
17:58figure that the speaker that was asking the question, you know, the moderator's hands, I guess, are tied to some degree. It used to be there used to be a lot more flexibility many years ago about if someone has a question that they could at least get the answer in English that you don't have to go through the process that we do. Okay, I get that. But if the, you know, if the moderator
18:26cooperates a little bit to so that people can understand what the heck they're voting on, that's the big question is that lots of times people don't understand yes or no. And as as Nancy had described, I mean, I think just that in of itself would be helpful, time consuming.
18:44I think I think that would be great assistance. I mean, um, it's only on moderator's second meeting, right? So I I know he's a lawyer and everybody says lawyers, you know, oh, he can just get up there and it's not simple. Um, and and to follow the process in the manner, it's a little bit different than running a meeting, a regular meeting here because and you know, I thought that
19:06town council should have been much more active than he was.
19:10We're paying him hourly. It should not be somebody from the select board correcting our moderator and telling him the way that she thinks he meant to say the motion. that's on town council and that needs to be cleaned up because I thought that that was the crossover there just wasn't right. It wasn't a good look. Um that should be town council making corrections as to form and the motion before. I do think that
19:36with the yes and no, we could even go as far as maybe not include the yes and no on the warrant, but perhaps have the mo have a yes and no separate pamphlet for a yes and no vote and have the moderator use those descriptions when profering the next article, saying you'll see in your attached pamphlet that a yes vote says this, that a no vote says that. kind of it humanizes
20:04him. It m it certainly from a you know from somebody that goes up and speaks in front of people all the time. It makes it more of a comfort zone because now you're grasping it. You're reaching out to people. You're helping them understand it. It would make the meeting flow a lot better. I mean we can do whatever variation they can do whatever they want. It's just that it was people complained.
20:26There was a lot of complaints after that meeting and I just think that we should, you know, recognize that, especially with the FINCOM thing. I don't want the recommendations to be in a separate pamphlet. So, I don't think it belongs there.
20:39I agree. I agree.
20:40Yeah.
20:40Thank you, Nancy. I mean, we've all seen ballots that had that, you know, that that had simple explanations on what it is you're voting for. So, I mean, it's only got to be a sentence or two. you know, yes, yes vote means, you know, we're not changing the current law, whatever. A no vote means we're going to change it to this. I mean, it should be very straightforward. And
21:02it it it should be pretty s Well, I think everything should be simple, but it's not. But no, I think it should be.
21:07I I I think it would be nice and clean.
21:09It would just make it easier for everybody. I mean, we talked about those personal property taxes. Oh my god, how long did that go on?
21:17Yeah, for now. I don't think anybody knew what anyone was talking about. It was crazy.
21:22Well, lost our way, right? That was that's a good example of just breaking it down to English, you know, so that people can understand what it is that they're talking about, right? And I think Yeah. And I think that can come from our moderator, too. like he can he can do that which will really give him a little bit more control of how that the question's framed once you explain it. Um so yeah just
21:49some thoughts. Yeah, I don't know if you all saw um it it it was Chris Vitali had done um a quick video um maybe a week or two before town meeting to really do a very simple plain English um yes what what it what each Warren article means and I think it was done so late that it might not have even hit circulation in time but um I think he's
22:19going to try to do something like that again. And it's it's sort of what we're talking about, too, to break down what does this Warren article mean? Let's let's say what it is in simple English.
22:29I mean, I don't know. Sometimes I read them five times and still don't even understand what what it is. And so, he did a really nice job of summarizing each Warren article in plain English.
22:41And then um and I I we can encourage him to do that again because I and if we could do it early enough then it gets the circulation in advance that people and then you you have the language and and maybe there's more presentations that get done at town meeting rather than read the motion ask for the finance committee recommendation that maybe that's when the select board takes that
23:06moment and it says in plain English this is what this article is like we go through the motion so fast and make it so legal ease that people don't even understand what it is and maybe there's needs to be some more presentations.
23:24Go ahead, Al. I think that, excuse me, makes a lot of sense because I'm I'm afraid that all the work and everything done uh for a video and whatnot, how many people realistically are are going to dial in um to see it where, you know, on the spot, people in the room making a decision and having uh just a twominut explanation, whatever it might be by the select board. Um, at least you had a
23:52captive audience at that point, not not hoping for the best.
23:58I agree.
24:02Yes. And then speaking of town meeting, and this is again not a finance committee thing, but what I found really complicated is is when someone went on the floor and made a motion to change an article and then the the the way the town moderator kind of didn't really recap to say, okay, this is a motion to vote if you want to change the motion, right? A yes vote means where we'll take this motion as a
24:32yes and then the second motion we would do to then approve it or not approve it.
24:36That got very confusing to me where it he would call for a motion call and but I what is the motion? What what are we voting on? And I was I was very confused on on some of them when things went back and forth. Um, so you know that might be just some some you know guidance as the again as the moderator gains more experience in it to really slow down to make sure everyone understands because
25:04if if you look around as as I was on the stage you look around and you can see everybody looking at each other going what what what are we doing and you could see people were very confused. No, I asked I asked um I asked him after the meeting and I was like you know you know there there was some hiccups there and he said yeah. He said I had my whole
25:26thing on my computer laptop with the motion the form of the motion I had worked on everything and then they didn't have the setup for him to put his laptop on. So he was not he he didn't have what he had prepared to work off of.
25:42So I completely understand that. So he needs to make sure that's on, you know, he said that's on me. I need to make sure that they set it up the right way because he came in and it just, you know, when you have your notes and everything and then somebody takes it from you, it makes it difficult. But again, it was, and he said it, he said it was the consistency of the manner in which I
26:05brought the motion each time. Sometimes I would change it. Nay, yay, whatever.
26:09He understood that, but he said he was like, I just wasn't working off my stuff. And so I was and and so when I was doing it that way, but then again, that's on town council that's sitting there saying, "Mr. moderator, the frame of the motion from this point on, the best way to do it was going to be a yay or a nay." That's what a good town council's supposed to do. They're not
26:28supposed to sit there and have Shauna tell the moderator what to do. I just don't that that that's the way we we should ride. And he that town council should be talked to before the meeting.
26:39I mean, again, we're paying these people. I'm not shy about telling somebody what they you know we're these people they make a lot of money they're sitting at town meeting they have a job to perform and it's not just to sit there and that was the meeting we could have used town council do you hear so I so I agree with NY's assessment about the town council so I I don't have
27:03anything to weigh in and the only thing I'll say about the moderator is there's there's a phrase that I use quite often or heard it um number of years ago. It's not what you expect, it's what you inspect. It was it's the moderator's responsibility to make sure that all of his gear is working properly, not not passing it off to, you know, to somebody else in hopes that when you're standing
27:28in front of three 400 people that, pardon me, you have the right information. So, I I would while I while I agree with explanations and nuance and and nuance isn't the right word, but explanation from town council who is getting paid extremely well. Uh the moderator needs to step up to the plate as well if if that's an issue.
27:48Yeah, it wasn't his gear though. Well, I'm probably not describing it. They literally took, you know, how you have the podium and then you have the step up like the other they took the section away from him so that it wasn't what he brought. It was just they couldn't make the connections because it was a whole three feet lower which he didn't fine then I then I stand corrected. If
28:09it wasn't his his gear then um then then you know strike what I just said on the second part as he said it w they had done that but as he said he should have when he went in when the meeting started made sure and I don't know if he talked to somebody about it but it was just like the whole section he it was missing.
28:30Yeah, I think that'll happen. We've been through two meetings. I I think the next one will be better. How many years did Steve Fors was he moderator?
28:3830 27.
28:40A long time. I don't know.
28:43I mean, okay. If I do something 20 some odd years, it's going to be seamless. I mean, I I would like to see some of Steve's first couple of meetings and see how they rolled. I They probably weren't all that smooth. So, I just I know that like he kind you know he recognized the issue but like I said I think the more pointed issue is that town council needs to be more active.
29:06Yeah.
29:06Yeah. I agree. I mean they should help guide to make sure that it's a productive meeting for the residents.
29:12That's what it's for. So yeah, I agree.
29:15who anybody who who who can should should assist and so and I think that's why Shauna jumped in because nobody else was but yeah but that's not that's that's not for her to do that town you know and he should be told I you know when you're doing the form of a motion and those forms are changing in the meeting itself that that's pretty much the like rule 101 of town council okay we got to get
29:41this done the right way.
29:42Yep. Yep. tonight.
29:47Okay, I'm done beating up on town council. Not that I'm looking for the job for today anyway.
29:53Full transparency. Not looking for his job.
29:57You don't want to be the town moderator?
29:59No, neither one moderator. Town council.
30:02No, thank you.
30:05Well, you know, I think so. Some of it's it's interesting, right? So, we're talking about town council and then some of this is is schedule related. I think the sooner and I'll be interested to see when Chris produces his revised schedule for things, but in my opinion, what it this is just my opinion that the the warrant is open too long and it doesn't close until the end of March. And so then then
30:37we're all in this free-for-all to try to get it finalized and get presentations together and and you're scrambling to get to town meeting where in my opinion the select board should be closing the warrant a little earlier so that it allows that administrative time to do the presentations to do all the things that need to get done um rather than hold the warrant open as long as they
31:03do. Um, but we'll we'll see what what Chris comes up with, but it's a scramble right at the end. It's always we're always, you know, when the finance committee gets the warrant on, it's supposed to be by March 10th. It's supposed to be a final warrant at that point. um it's supposed to have a a complete warrant with all the the text and numbers and everything in there. Um
31:36but we many times get a draft of a warrant that has just placeholders that doesn't even have warrant articles in there or there's a placeholder that the planning board's going to it, you know, come into these three. And that puts us all on a tail spin because we don't even have a warrant article warrant to look at to determine which ones are finance related and which ones are not. And then if we
32:04have to if they are complicated ones like water and sewer, we're we're really just behind the eightball. So anything that we want to do to be organized gets really difficult because we're just pressed for time.
32:17Well, I think all of these things we should bring up in the meeting, the joint meeting that we have.
32:22Yep.
32:26I had mentioned to Chris, I'll I was going to give him just a little summary of our notes and concerns and, you know, I can certainly add that on there so that he can um so this way we can he can think about addressing it too.
32:47Anything else anybody has on it?
32:51I'm still up on the ambulance thing. Are we got a collection agency on that? Is that going to happen? Did that suggestion get made to the select board?
33:04Uh I don't know what the fire chief may have done um or or if he, you know, agrees to do that or not. I don't I don't know. Um well so this is the stuff that I don't understand on how to navigate. Um I when he did the spreadsheet of the uncollected ambulance fees in this town, it kind of sickened me a little bit.
33:36And this year might have not been huge, but if you look at some other previous years, that's a lot of money. It way up in the six figure mark. I don't I don't think it hit the million, but it was close over a period of years. I don't know how we walk away and leave that on the table and don't have a discussion about it and and then oh, if the chief
33:56doesn't bring it up, then we never bring it up or we're going to allow people not to pay for ambulance rides in Westport.
34:03I just I I just think if we had a collection agency, we probably could hire somebody else to, you know, operate an ambulance. we we'd we'd get another person if we just collected the fees that are due. Um when we're always scraping to put somebody on always.
34:21From my from my from my understanding, there's been some reluctance to collect from people that don't have additional insurance that they will accept what the insurance covers if it covers it. If it's particularly if it's an in town person. Now, if if it was, you know, an accident on Route 88 and it involves someone from another town, he may feel a little bit differently, but from what I
34:48understand, he feels that the town taxpayers pay for the fire department and the call service. And to the extent that they have insurance that covers the fair, uh the the fee for the uh ambulance run, that's great. he'll collect that, but he's not of the mindset that he wants to go and collect additional funds, particularly if it's from an older person on fixed income that needed that ambulance ride. Uh they
35:19pay taxes already and he doesn't feel that they should have to pay more uh for additional fees. But that's my understanding. This is not this is not nothing. I mean, every town and city that I know uses collections for ambulances. I this I was shocked that we didn't. And then I don't So, one person's going to have discretion to look at a bill and say, "Oh, so and so, we won't because they're the little old
35:48lady from Pasadena." Um, people that don't have money to cover the ambulance costs, Mass Health picks up those costs.
35:57If in fact we ever did collection which would the next state so you get a collection letter right then it goes to small claims if you don't have the income in small claims you get discharged from the debt so the thought process of us taking money from some little old person that doesn't have it isn't the case and I don't necessarily think the town collectively would say we shouldn't collect for our ambulance
36:23service is that part of the deal like we're saying for our tax money. We gonna give Westport residents a free ride. But how about how about if you're you're rich and you don't have health insurance? Do you do you still pay the bill or Well, here's what I'm thinking, Nancy. I mean, I don't disagree with anything you're saying. I think I think that to me the approach to take is the town
36:48should have a write off policy of all all different revenues that it bills and if it doesn't collect it who has the authority to write it off or not collect it is it is it the department itself does it need to go through the select board to write it off so it really shouldn't be you know I've I've heard the same stories with I've heard marine services talk about that they're they
37:11have collect collect collection issues with with some some of their um boat moorings and and I was listening to them talk about that they um were behind in collections and to me well maybe in the spring it's paid in advance for the full year. Why does it need to be because if it here it is September if you haven't collected it now you know what's your likelihood? So to me it seems like the the town should
37:41have a write off policy of what revenue gets build and if it doesn't get collected who has the authority to write it off and that should be a formal policy adopted by the select board and then then the select board's accountable for um sorry my cat's walking through my there we go. then the select then then the select board can you know help be accountable for um it it and it
38:07shouldn't be judgment it shouldn't be oh I'll let you write it off but I'm going to charge you right there needs to be some sort of fair policy you can't you can't and then you go for t and you say taxes and we don't have enough money and you want to do a prop this and a prop that and I'm sorry I understand Westport ran on you know this you know we took care of each other
38:28and that's great but we've gotten too big to handle it the old way. And collection lawyers, especially for municipalities, they don't even get a fee unless they successfully collect it and then they get a percent of it. So, I'd rather give a lawyer 15 to 20% of what the bill is rather than not have the bill paid at all. And I just don't think I just don't think it's fair that
38:53Let me just tell you this. This is my experience. My office is in Fall River, so I'm not talking about Westport. But boy, when people understand there's a gig going and you're going to get something for free, kind of like the beach where they all jump out and there's like 10 people come out of the car and then the car leaves and we, you know, all of those things. People learn
39:11how to how how to get the system and and to outsmart the system. And when the system is running like it ran 50 years ago, yeah, you're going to miss out on some things. And I just think before we look at the taxpayers for anything, we have to look in our own house first.
39:28That's all.
39:29Karen, Karen, you mentioned the the harbor master collecting y moing fees. I mean, don't you uh don't you have to apply every year for that or renew it every year? Uh if somebody hasn't paid the prior year, they shouldn't get a renewal. I mean, I don't know.
39:47I think I think there was a problem with the administrative paperwork from the prior harbormaster that they don't h they didn't have a good record of who in fact had moorings. And so that's why even this past year he put a moratorum on new moorings so they could take an inventory in the rivers as to the moorings who they belong to and have they paid. So, he went to the select
40:15board and got a new fee schedule with some fairly stiff penalties if you don't pay by I think it's April 1st now, maybe it's May 1st. If you don't pay for your mooring in advance of the season, if you pay late, you pay a pretty stiff fine.
40:32If you don't pay at all and they catch you, the fine is even higher. So, it it really is a select board policy that they have to adopt. both, you know, both the harbor master and the fire chief report to the select board. So, if the select board makes a policy, either one of those department heads should adhere to it.
40:52Yeah. Yeah. And and Tony, I don't know all the details. I remember hearing the the the harbor master talk about that they had collection issues and but and again I so I think this goes back to the select board should have a formal policy on on billing and collection and if something is not collectible is it written off is it does it go to collections and and that should be you know they should administer that.
41:22Al you you go ahead.
41:24Yeah I just Yeah, I'm I'm agreeing with you, Karen, that I think there needs to be an overarching um policy andor possibly an an arbiter in in the situation. The worst thing that in any business, and let's face it, government is is a business, can do is to have the saleserson be the collection agent.
41:47And I mean, it it's just it just doesn't work. So, for example, we'll we'll take the harbor master. uh try to do the best that they can with the information that they have and the policy that they have and then at that point in time be able to kick it off to somebody within town government whether it's Chris, whether it's a select board, whether it is another committee, whatever it might be
42:10to handle it from there. I just uh uh it it's it's too tricky. And I you know you know fire chiefs same thing. I mean, their their job is to uh save lives, save property, and it's it's not to go out and be a collection agent. So, Yep. Okay. Well, we can put that on the on the agenda of of um uh looking at a policy for that. And if
42:43you'd like, I I have a meeting in the next week or two with the fire chief and so I'll um I'll talk to Dan about that and and report back at the next meeting.
42:54Yeah. No, that's great. I think, you know, I think this is a a to me that I have a very different tolerance for someone who needs an ambulance and they're sick and then maybe has difficulty paying it versus someone who is for recreational getting a mooring and using it for the summer and not paying. That's very big difference in those two scenarios.
43:17Very big.
43:19Um, all right.
43:21I mean, I'm just just a real quick back on the ambulance. Again, I haven't been around, so I'm really not sure how they do it. But I think if you live in town and you call an ambulance, I don't really I think our tax dollars pay for the ambulance. I don't think we should be paying twice for the ambulance. I don't know. That's just that's just me.
43:41Well, you know, they send you a bill if your house burn if you if you catch if your house catches on fire and they send a fire trucks, do they send you a bill to put the fire out? No. It's the same thing to me. I I used I used the ambulance service uh a couple of years ago. I'm not even sure my insurance company got built.
44:02But I agree with Tony's point. If you find if your house burns down, they're not going to send a bill to the insurance company.
44:09I mean, I think if you live in town and it's a town ambulance, I think that should that that to me that falls under I already paid for it.
44:18Well, you know, Tony, I don't disagree with you, but the same argument has been made in the past um uh about building permits.
44:28We fully fund, you know, the building department.
44:33It's it's a revenue stream for the uh for the town. I'm not making a value judgment. I'm simply saying that it's it's it's a revenue stream.
44:46No, I I get I mean these are things over the years that just accumulate. They have to start charging for everything to to fill in, you know, to to get the money for the budget. But uh you know, a lot of times there are ambulances that some to service Westport, you know, because there's not enough here. So you're getting an ambulance from Dartmouth or Fall River. They're going to bill you. So how about if I'm the
45:08person that I get I don't get build because I got the first Westport ambulance, but there's none left. So now I got to pay the bill because Dartmouth came to pick me up. It's just that that's a recipe for disaster. I I I can't think of any I I'd like to I'm going to research that if there's any town that doesn't charge for their ambulance service if they have have one in town. I
45:31think that would be an interesting that's interesting. I'd like to look at that. Sure.
45:43Um, okay.
45:44I just have one other small as we're thinking about the year. Um, so typically we um hold all our budget meetings in the January time frame and we've gone back and forth with different committee members. Um, so what we've been trying to do is every single department we have a a budget meeting with them. I've I've I've personally have never been necessarily in favor of having to do
46:15that because there's some budgets that are so small that really don't have really anything discretionary other than a person in it and we're taking up our own time and their time. And um I would be in favor of not holding a budget meeting for every single department, but certainly holding them for all the large ones and leaving a space open that if a department wanted to come in to see us
46:44or did have a discrepancy, they certainly have the ability to come in.
46:48But we wouldn't necessarily need to schedule, for example, the assessor's office to come in or the town accountant or the town clerk who have very very small budgets with almost no discretionary dollars and we're taking up we're taking up a lot of time. Um, and there's really there's just there's no meat on those bones.
47:13So, I would be I'd be okay with really, you know, looking at the big budgets like of of course police, fire, highway, school. Um I'm sure there's another one sticking to some big like the planning board is a very small budget, doesn't have have much. Um so there's several that council on aging would be one to come in, the library would be one to come in. Um but but some conservation
47:39has a very small budget so I wouldn't wouldn't say they would. Um go ahead Cindy.
47:45I I would I would agree with that. I guess the exception would be if there was a specific increase in any of those budgets like you know sometimes there's a big bump in one of them for software or whatnot but all those are already vetted though by the town administrator. So, I would tend to agree with with that as well that yeah, you know, some of those budgets, I mean, they're the same year after year after
48:14year. It's the same personnel. Their expenses really don't change uh because they know they have no wiggle room. And sometimes it's a piece of software that gets added to their budget. But if if it if it meets the if it's if it cuts the mustard with the town administrator I guess um then you know we should be apprised of that. But um other than that yeah I would agree with that Karen.
48:41Yeah I don't I don't disagree. I mean how much can you squeeze WB Mason right?
48:46I mean that's that's an awful lot of of what these the budgets that that you've spoken to uh you know are dealing with supplies and uh you know the the standardized if wrong word probably but um pay increases things like that. I mean we're we're just talking about um formulized um budgets.
49:10Mhm.
49:12Yeah. I think smaller departments I think they could just maybe just submit their budgets and you know they could have the prior year and you know whatever and we could look at them and if somebody had a question they could certainly you know go speak to that person.
49:27Yep. Okay. Good. Yeah. And and it could either go through the lean who may you know have the answer because they're more knowledgeable of the budget or if it was something we could ask them to come in but um but yeah that that sounds good. So when we go ahead and schedule, we'll we'll we'll pick the big ones and then um give a little relief this year for us.
49:50Yeah. I mean, I think any department that has revenue, uh we certainly should, you know, hear from and um or that has a lot of grants, uh we should hear from. So, you know, that covers council on aging, um, as well as, you know, tax collector, things like that. That would we would still want to um to meet with them.
50:14Sounds good.
50:19All right. Anything else?
50:28All right. Well, I'll put I'll um I'll put our notes together and then I'll circulate it to you all to to see if you want to make any edits to it and then we can send it off to Chris that just so he gets a heads up of kind of what we're we're thinking to to help support um support the process.
50:46I wanted to welcome Gloria because I wasn't here when Oh, we did.
50:50Hi, Gloria.
50:52Well, if we have all I can say is if we have in-person meetings, she's known to bring some baked goods. That's all I'm saying. I'm going to put it out there.
51:01Interesting.
51:02She's putting her order in, thinking about it.
51:08That's a good good idea, Nancy.
51:10I know. I remember.
51:12Interesting.
51:17Yes, we did. We did uh introduce Gloria right right up front. So, and then Yeah. And she has to get into the fin thing and you're gonna help her do that.
51:26Yeah. Yep. So, we'll we'll um Right. I didn't mention that. So, Gloria, we have um we have a Google Drive that we use for everything. So, um I'll contact Keith Novo so he can give you access to the Google Drive and that's where we put all our documents in there. So, we try not to email them so we don't clutter ourselves. Um, but they'll they'll all be in there.
51:49Okay. Thank you.
51:50Can you do it for me too, Karen? Because I lost it from last year. I was using your entry.
51:56Oh, okay. So, maybe I don't know if Tony Did you get it? Did Tony get it? Because he's new, too.
52:01Yeah. I just clicked on my drive and I I had finance stuff in there, finance committee stuff in there already. Yeah.
52:06Oh, good.
52:08I don't know how it happened, but it was there.
52:11Oh, good. Right. Because Keith should have set you up.
52:14So, Nancy, can you not access it or I use the I continually go back to the link that you sent me from a meeting.
52:22I get in on my own and I just never straightened it out because I always could get in through yours, but Okay.
52:27If you're doing I'm figuring he can send me an invite and Yeah, I'll send you the link again.
52:32Yeah, because you should be you should be on there. It's maybe just getting the access to know how to how to get to it.
52:41Yeah, I think so. Okay, I'll send I'll send a link around.
52:46Okay, great. All right, so moving on.
52:50Um, do we have any committee or leison updates to share?
52:58Uh, school building committee next Tuesday.
53:04Um, like I've been saying for five years, hopefully we'll be closing this up soon.
53:10Tony Tony don't even say it.
53:15No, you just jinx yourself.
53:18Well, we have to because we're we're getting very close to uh running out of money, but so yeah, they've been doing some uh work on the roof and uh we've paid uh most of that invoice. There's still some monies uh that we're holding back and uh basically this meeting next week is to kind of go over that work that that they've been doing.
53:40Hi.
53:41So, I know when I was on YouTube Oh, go ahead.
53:44Oh, sorry. When I was on the building committee, um Tony, so I know there were some questions where where it was going to go to bond council to determine are these expenses that you're still incurring, are they eligible for the bond or are they not? Did that get determined that?
54:03Yeah. Yes. No, Chris did Chris did speak to bond council uh I don't know last meeting or a couple of meetings ago and we did clarify some questions that the committee had. So I mean I I'm not I don't know exactly which one exactly you're asking about or I couldn't even remember them all but we we've squared them away with bound council as far as you know where we are.
54:26So I I mean we're good. I mean we're good on uh the ones that we had voted on in SP we're good.
54:34Great. Okay.
54:38What what's Yeah. So you should be you should be hearing from uh Dick Brewer I would think in the next few weeks about Yeah. He did send an email and he's going to set up a meeting I believe in September.
54:54Right. Usually September kicks off the season when um uh the town accountant should have most of their documents completed. So that's what that will be about. So good. I'm glad that that's got all hooked up. Great.
55:10Oh yeah. You're just happy that I'm going to do it now.
55:13Yes.
55:15Yes. I I am.
55:17I know.
55:19It's It's like having a cold. The only way you get rid of it is to give it to somebody else, you know.
55:24Yeah, that was my hazing. But don't worry, it'll soon be Gloria's or Tony's, you know. It's kind of like Gloria's actually Gloria's already served on the audit committee when she was on the school committee. So, she's already done her time.
55:38Yes. Done the time.
55:41No, I never did the audit committee.
55:44Oh, good. Tony, something you haven't served on among your boards.
55:49Well, I'll remember that. Thank you.
55:52Karen, I I have a a meeting on the 21st with uh uh with Chief Dunn to start working through his budget and sometime in Dece uh December. Yeah, September um the fire chief as well. I haven't reached out to Harbor Master yet only because they're still kind of busy within their season. So, I I was going to wait until October um you know to um to get with Bill.
56:23And when does the um capital improvement committee start up?
56:27I have not heard.
56:31I should dig into that tomorrow and just find out from Dick what uh what his thoughts are.
56:36Yeah.
56:37I think that process is going to change this year from my understanding from the town administrator. I think he's going to change the way that committee works or the timing on that committee as well.
56:49All right.
56:51Good. And hopefully hopefully some of those changes will help um the process actually get a good five-year capital plan. So really starting to ask all the departments to actually submit a real plan and kind of build uh build one. So um that will be hopefully happening this year. someone helping them build those plans. Karen, I'm sorry, Tony.
57:16What's that? Say that again.
57:17Somebody helping them. I mean, a capital improvement plan, people throw it around, but it really takes somebody with some type of skill to how to build that. Is is does Chris Vitali is he the one that would help them with that or do they are we leaving them to their own devices? Well, I I I would my expectation is so is that Chris would be providing some guidance on how they
57:42would prepare um a a more than one-year capital plan. So um so this way when the committee is gathering that from all departments, there's a consistency to the data. So, um, I would expect that he would be prov helping provide some guidance that that process has been it did begin last year. I mean, it's a long way away.
58:06I'm not saying that it's it's in stone, but we we do have uh and uh a spreadsheet that goes out uh in some cases up to five years. I'm not saying every single case, but it has been going and and with Chris's help and Dex and whatnot, you know, we should uh we're well on our way. I mean, clearly you can't uh look at the obvious things that come about when uh a truck blows up or
58:36whatever it might be, but in general, um um you know, there there is a thought process going on and and it's starting to go on paper.
58:46Great.
58:48So, do they have like a paper on the trucks and the heavy equipment? Um, Al, where like, you know, this is so many years old.
58:55Yes.
58:55Um, this needs to be replaced this year because I and I'm still and I and I'll say it again. I'm an I'm an advocate for line item uh security on certain things.
59:06I don't think we should wait for capital, you know, for cree cash every year to do this, right? building building our infrastructure in the budget itself with line items that are directly payable to that. So when we do have the feast and not, you know, on on the free cash, you know, we can put $75,000 to the bulldozer that we need to buy three years from now. And that's that's the kind of plan that I'm getting
59:34from Al his nodding information that that's what they're looking at that that that is being looked at that is being put on paper. Um one example of many is the uh is is the gas tank at Briggs Road Fire Station. um you know looking at boiler systems that are you know 10 years beyond their useful life etc etc as well as the big stuff you know the the the wish list
1:00:02of you know the the um the the fireboat which you know I I don't think will be coming anytime soon but that's only one person's opinion but yes th this there is a a laundry list of things from the small and mundane to the lodge that is is being fleshed out and u um hopefully we'll have a much better handle this year than we did last year um in terms of that.
1:00:31So yeah and and in the years uh I I was on the CIPC for I don't know five six years maybe and what I found very frustrating was for most of the time we were meeting you know to narrow narrow down everyone's picks and choices we never really knew how much money we were going to have. So it we were always kind of like just guessing. Um and and the other part I think that was
1:00:54more was also frustrating. I mean I I served as the the the school committee's rep on there. So you know my my I knew about what the school needed and they always wanted to like narrow down the school's needs. Hey, you changed from this year to this year. And my argument was always well the school changes every year because the students change and it's kind of hard to predict the the capital needs of the you know,
1:01:18of these certain departments, whatever.
1:01:20But what I found was that the decisions the committee made would then be the following meeting, they were changed.
1:01:26Somebody else changed them. Then they just kept changing, changing, changing, changing, changing. And often, many times, I'm like, why do we even have all these meetings? Because the stuff the the 10 items that we voted on three months ago are are no longer even on the list, you know? So, it just it was just like a free-for-all that I always thought.
1:01:43Yeah. I know. It's it's much more structured uh now than than it was when you when you were on as well. I mean, one of the things that we do do uh in conjunction with the department head is to code each capital request in a one, two, or three. In other words, this is immediate. This is going to blow up.
1:02:02This we really need in the next two to three years. this one. Um, we're we're going to kick that can down the road until, you know, the the next CIPC members come on. So, it it's not perfect. It is getting tightened up uh quite a bit. Uh, and and u um I'm pretty confident that you'll you will all like what you see after the um you know, after the series of meetings. So super
1:02:37al um and I know that that's so you're talking infrastructure buildings um uh equipment that type of stuff right and obviously um parking lot things of that that surround the buildings capital capital investments right but a point that you made in one of the meetings and it I thought it was a really good point was to do an analysis on our personnel and start building into these budgets.
1:03:06Yeah.
1:03:07To stay competitive, to hire people. You know, people are getting older. We don't live forever. Um people retire and there's an awful lot of it. So, you had made that point about us really not we just wait for it to happen and then we respond.
1:03:25I just I think being a better offense at that m makes a difference to not have that drop in your lap and say, "Hey, this person is, you know, we did it in the school department.
1:03:38We're like, okay, this person's five years out from retiring and they handle two jobs." You're not going to get anybody to handle these two jobs anymore. They've become too big, but they're handling them because they've been around in the system for all these years. Mhm.
1:03:50So now you've got to go just kind of you know so that and I don't know that's not really capital improvements like where does that thought process come from?
1:04:00Where does that happen? So that's really Yeah. It's not administrative.
1:04:05That's an HR succession.
1:04:07HR. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's not it's not CIPC, but but I I agree that it needs to go part and parcel because it still comes out of the overall 54 million or whatever whatever the number happens to be this year. And so one one affects well a lot of things. I mean, you pull $100,000 out for XYZ, that's a hundred grand that could have gone into raises, let's just say, or or new personnel. So,
1:04:36they have to work in conjunction, but it really should be a separate I think to Karen's point. um whether it's personnel, HR, administrator, um that needs to be worked out, but it does have to be done because when you walk down the pardon me, you walk down the halls of of the schools and the um and and the town hall, um you know, there's a lot of gray hair just like me.
1:05:04Yeah. I I I would make I would make a suggestion that particularly since we have so many new members um and relatively new members um the Mass Municipal Association MMA every year holds an annual uh finance committee um I want to call it convention a group that they sponsor in Vegas. Is it in Vegas?
1:05:27No, I wish I wish it was in Vegas.
1:05:30Hey, where you going to send me?
1:05:32Uh, unfortunately it usually takes place a full day on a Saturday in Sh in Sharon Massachusetts.
1:05:40Oh man, sign me up.
1:05:45I line for that.
1:05:46I know. I I did attend one of them and it it's very enlightening as to how different finance committees operate in different communities. So, for example, Arlington, which has a very good uh budget structure and whatnot, they automatically put uh 5 to 10% depending on how how much room they have in their budget. 5 to 10% in their budget is for capital expenses and it's part of their budget.
1:06:18It's not, you know, part of uh free cash. It's not it's part of their budget. they budget for that and they save their free cash for much bigger uh building projects go down the road. I mean, but that's just one example. Even things about salaries, you know, that they they try to anticipate uh retirements, things like that, like you just mentioned, Nancy. So, it's um it it was enlightening and I'm I don't
1:06:48think that they provide a online version of it. Maybe they do record it and after the meeting they show the speakers because the speakers are actually quite good because they talk about their experiences in their community and these are all communities. These are not big city budgets. For the most part they're communities and it's you know finance committee members all kind of ringing
1:07:11their hands as to how are we going to get through another budget year. So um I found it fascinating.
1:07:17An all day Saturday in October in Sharon is not fun though. I will tell you that.
1:07:22No, but you know you you're right with the fact that those meetings like I like to go because I like to collaborate with other people and I like to find people from another committee like you did you talk to them.
1:07:33Yeah, we did that at the schools. we we did something of that nature when all the COVID money was coming in and you know that's why we didn't have a problem with hiring personnel because we didn't because that was the first you know and we learned that from those types of meetings and then talking to other districts but I do think that the collaboration like you know what what
1:07:55bothers me is I read in the paper and I see Dartmouth and they saved I don't know $2.1 million in their health insurance and I think to myself I said geez we were in the group with Dartmouth And I know that we have a group of South Coast towns or whatever that collectively and that's how we bid out for our insurance, but it's GIC or the other one or we have the other one. But
1:08:19Dartmouth changed what they were doing and they found a two and a half million $2.1 million savings. It was in the paper and I'm like, well, if I saw that, the first thing I'd be doing is so what did you do? Like who did you talk to and and how did you pull out of the group?
1:08:34because I remember we had discussions on it years ago and it was like oh you can't pull out of the group you have to give them notice and it's all this other stuff but health insurance is another big thing along with personnel that if we don't get ahead of this and start handling this the way that like Al's saying on capital improve if we're not starting to do this it's going to be a
1:08:55problem because the template's not there the we to me I really am enjoying FIMCOM because I I'm looking at the saying the template can be there if we can get everybody on the same page working in the same because we're not always going to be here and you want somebody to be able to step in your seat and look at it and know how to drive the bus and right now I can't say that that's
1:09:22the case. So that's the goal, right? You know that's the goal.
1:09:27Yeah. So, I'm done talking tonight.
1:09:33Apparently, I didn't talk enough today.
1:09:35I'm sorry. I'm done.
1:09:38That was a day after Labor Day. You're just getting wound up.
1:09:40Yeah. Yeah. True.
1:09:45All right. Okay. Um I if nothing else for committees, then we can The next action is to approve the minutes from the July 14th, 2026 meeting.
1:09:59So moved.
1:10:00Second.
1:10:01Second. Any comment on those minutes?
1:10:05Nope. All right. So, I'll do a motion to approve. I'll do a roll call. Uh Nancy um I Nancy Stanton Cross.
1:10:14Thank you. Al El Le.
1:10:17Cindy.
1:10:18Cindy Brown. I um Tony, you would not have been at that Oh, you were at that meeting, right? You were. Yes, he was.
1:10:28Okay. So, Tony, hi Tony.
1:10:31Thank you. I'll skip Gloria because you were not at the meeting and Karen Rouse. I did I get everybody? I think I got everybody right. Okay, great. All right.
1:10:41So, um wrapping up. So, um the next item was our upcoming meeting schedule and topics for next agenda. So once we get to the October meeting is when I love to get our budget meeting scheduled for the season. So this way we've so every department knows when they're coming in. So we'll try to start that in October. Um Nancy, before you came in, Tony had was suggesting to uh the second Tuesday of the month might be
1:11:12problematic for his schedule, but um without a full committee here to to potentially discuss changing that date, we we can talk about it at the next second Tuesday of the month and then we can talk about that.
1:11:26Yeah, I don't have a problem if we say Tuesday if it's the third or the first or the fourth. I mean, that doesn't on Tuesday night's actually a really good night. So, whatever week it is, it doesn't matter to me.
1:11:36Yeah.
1:11:36Okay. Well, we'll coordinate with everybody, make sure um that that still works for everybody's schedule. So, okay. Um I have no other correspondents and I have no other topics that under 48 hours. I got nothing else to say.
1:11:51Motion to adjurnn.
1:11:52Second.
1:11:53All right. I'll do a roll call. Nancy Nancy Stanton Cross. Hi uh Gloria.
1:11:59Hi Gloria Brown.
1:12:01Al El Le Tony Tony I Cindy Cindy Brown I and Karen Rose. Thank you everyone. See you next month.