This session of the radio show shares the Finance Committee meeting held on Wednesday, December 13, 2023. 

They met as scheduled to get an update on the State revenue forecast, take a “deep dive” into the Facilities budget, and get an update on grants for Town and School over the past 10 years.  

6 Finance Committee members participated; 4 in Chambers (Chair Conley, Hamilton, Riley & Nagel), 2 participated remotely (Keophannga & Sansoucy)

Quick recap:

• State revenue forecast for FY 2024 not meeting expectation, no cuts yet per Governor, does likely mean less revenue for next years budget although local aid is usually one of the last to get affected, something to stay tuned into
• Budget hearings for May 2024 were confirmed as May 6 for General Government, May 8 for Public safety (Police, Fire, & Dispatch) and DPW (water, sewer, storm water) and Schools on May 15. Proposed meeting calendar to be updated with this decision
• Deep dive into Facilities
• Discussion on the list of facilities provided, yes it is facilities not just the buildings
• Extended discussion on the Upper Union St solar farm which we don't own but for which we own the electrical output and which leads to credits on the Town electrical bill that are used for multiple other electrical improvements, upgrades
• This turned into a discussion on the heating efficiencies of some buildings; FHS for example was built with better insulation and the walls are R40, vs. the 3 middle school complex buildings are rated R19. This means the heating cots for those buildings are higher due to the less efficient (i.e. insulation factors)
• While mentioned in passing that the Master Plan Committee has a subcommittee on facilities, and the Schools are working on their long range comprehensive facilities plan, there were no further details added at this time. Members of the School Committee and Central office were present but did not get to provide any additional info
• The 10 year projection of expenses across the buildings was split evenly between Town and School per Chair Conley. It was not discussed how these expenses would be funded. It was mentioned that the Facilities budget is the first to get hit when a budget shortfall is needed to be adjusted for. Projects get postponed until funding is available (hence the listing of projects that exists, some of which have been awaiting for some time)
• Discussion on the 10 year report of grants received by the Town and Schools. These made for interesting reading although some of them are not purely "grants" (i.e. the cable access fees are included, they are present due to the accounting for them). One quick take away from the grant report is that the Town has been quite successful over time in obtaining grants and while they will continue to do so, the grant amounts are not sufficient to really make an impact on either the Town or School budget. Averaging approximately 4 million (combined Town & School) on a $150M budget is respectfully valuable but “small change”

The meeting recording runs about an hour & 20 minutes, so let’s listen to the Finance Committee meeting Dec 13, 2023.

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Agenda ->   https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif10036/f/agendas/dec_13_2023_fin_com_agenda.pdf 

Watch the Franklin TV video available for replay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4WDEAYIeJU 

Public Property & Building, aka “the Facilities Department”

i. FY24 Public Property & Buildings Budget  

https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif10036/f/uploads/fy24_public_property_buildings_budget.pdf 

ii. List of Town Owned Buildings  

https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif10036/f/uploads/list_of_town_owned_buildings_0.pdf 

iii. December 2020 Kaestle Boos study on school facilities current conditions  

https://www.franklinps.net/sites/g/files/vyhlif4431/f/uploads/franklin_comprehensive_facilities_assessment_-_final_updated_12.1.2020_1.pdf 

iv. Franklin School Department Redistricting Analysis 

https://www.franklinps.net/district/redistricting-analysis 

v. Comprehensive School Facilities Planning Subcommittee  

https://www.franklinps.net/district/school-committee/pages/subcommittees-and-liaisons 

vi. 10-year Capital Facilities Plan    

https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif10036/f/uploads/5a._vi_-_facilities_capital_improvement_plan_fy23.12.07.23.xlsx_-_10_year_plan.pdf 

b. Grants discussion

i. Ten-year municipal grants history  

https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif10036/f/uploads/5b._i_-_grant_reporting_project_for_fincom_-_town.pdf 

ii. Ten-year school grants history  

https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif10036/f/uploads/5b._ii_-_grant_reporting_project_for_fincom_-_school.pdf 

My notes captured via Twitter during the meeting and found in 1 PDF -> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Vn59WoX94X8yvI0CFWCqw1X6A9m5ePjd/view?usp=drive_link 

Link to Finance Committee => https://www.franklinma.gov/finance-committee 

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If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com

The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana"  c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission.

I hope you enjoy!

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