Let's call the Brattleboro Select Board special meeting to order.

This is a special listening session at the Brooks Memorial Library, and the topic is the budget.

So, John, has this meeting been officially worn?

Yes.

Great.

I have a few remarks.

First, I would like to welcome you all here, and I would like to thank the library for hosting us.

The library has asked me to read the following messages.

It's library sign-up month.

Cards are free to all Brattleboro residents, and Star Electronica, our librarian, is happy to make cards for anyone who would like this evening.

So that's nice.

And there's really very few rules.

There's a sign-up sheet.

I have half of it here, but please avail yourself of the sign-up sheet.

And as people come in, and if I don't catch them, maybe you can mention that to them.

And everyone will have up to five minutes to speak and one opportunity to do that speaking.

And I just have one budget related opening remark to make, and that is that in the newspaper, there's been a lot of talk about double digit tax increase.

But I just wanted to clarify that last year the increased tax rate due to the municipal budget was an increase of 8.9%.

When that tax was factored together with the school for the total property tax rate increase, that increase was only 2.7% total overall.

So I just think that it's nice to start with the facts.

And what else?

Well, John, do you have managers' comments?

No, I don't have anything.

Great.

And how about my colleagues?

Do you have remarks that you'd like to make before we start?

Austin.

Hello?

Hi.

I just want to say glad to see you all here.

I'm looking forward to doing this and hearing what you have to say.

We did get some comments last time when we did this in the spring, that some people would have preferred to do this after seeing a draft budget when there was something to respond to.

Our plan at the moment is to do that once we release the draft budget, we'll do a second one of these.

So there'll be a second opportunity then.

Other than that, I'm just looking forward to hearing what you have to say.

Thank you.

Good evening, everyone, and thanks for being here.

You know, when I was growing up here, I think I read once that there that Brattleboro was one of the top five towns in the country, one of the top five small towns to live in.

And you know, I I came back here because of my family and because of the natural beauty here and because of the community we have.

And I don't know if right now that Brattleboro will be rated one of the top five towns in the country, but I do believe that through processes like these of creating a budget together and with public participation, that helps make a community strong.

That helps us be the best town that we can be.

And I really appreciate your showing up here and participating.

We had a listening session like this on April 8th.

And I took a bunch of notes.

I know we reviewed them.

It was really helpful to hear what values are what you value, what's important to you in this budget and in the process.

And I'm really proud of this group because uh just last month we had a retreat and we identified five priorities for the next coming several months, and one of them was financial responsibility and health.

And that's fundamental to everything that we want to do as a town.

So as we listen to your priorities, that's going to be one of the things that I'm thinking about, as well as everything else that we hear.

So thank you.

Oh, one more thing.

I can't let the date go with that.

One more thing I wanted to say was to um mark that today is September 11th, and we need to honor the solemn occasion that it is.

So if members of the public, this is the public participation portion of our meeting.

If there are members who would like to discuss something that is not the budget, please raise your hand.

You made several comments Tuesday.

The one I didn't hear was uh the piece with the railroad for the right of way.

Hopefully, you have an answer for that, or we're making progress there.

The second thing, I was disappointed when we're discussing the charter on uh when to have the meetings, and that a lot of the political wonks in our town seem to be condescending to our community members to say that they can't figure out the process and what we're gonna vote for.

I was really disappointed.

It's like dumbing down the town that you live in, and you know it all, and we don't.

So I hope that we can stay away from the rhetoric of the community can't figure it out, and uh all the fear-mongering that might happen if you vote this way or this goes away or that doesn't.

I don't care what ends up happening.

What I want people to do is vote, and I want you to vote for what you think is best for you, what affects you and how you think it will be better for you after your vote, not what somebody tells you you should vote for, not talk about all the things that people are gonna bring up.

You make your decision on what's best for you.

It was really disappointing for me to sit there Tuesday because I respect all the people that spoke, but I didn't respect what they said because I felt it was a disservice to the community that I love and the people I love in this town, because they're gonna be able to figure it out without somebody holding them by the hand and go pick this item here.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jim.

Good evening.

I am Nile K.

Wade.

Uh and uh local uh literary artist uh and a uh humanities educator for many years, um the founder of what was called Alana Community Organization and served as the executive director to talk about what is community and areas for ages eight to eighty, no, eight to a hundred and four.

Uh and what I'm doing now is as a um creative aging teaching artist.

I'm working with a program called Legacies, Reckoning and Resilience, that I am interested in continuing here.

Uh I sort of spent a lot of time working with it uh here at the library and received a grant from um several arts organizations at the state level and uh private funding, which is really very good, and it's it's sort of one of the things that someone who's been in Vermont since 1964, and through schooled and seeing all of these different changes and no faces, you know.

I knew you when you were a little boy with your parents over at West Brattleboro with the Darthia and stuff and Stockwells.

Okay, so one of the areas that I'm working with is what is community with all of the changes that is going on in the community, and one of the things that the arts councils have asked me to do is they really like the idea of chasing it, facing it, and having some idea of what our community is, and I'm very very thankful that the project kicked off last summer here uh at the library, uh and it went very well.

Most of them were supposed to be over 60, but somehow they ended up with their kids and babies, and I mean, and grandparents and all of that.

So it was really very good.

What I'd like to ask is that you consider because I've been told that municipalities and libraries are eligible for grants.

And as someone who is doing this, and someone who bridges the community divides, I'd like an opportunity to present it that you could consider wherever it has to go from here to take a look at the program and allow you to have the grant.

Thank you very much.

Anyone else who does not intend to speak about the budget?

All right.

I think we're ready to roll.

Regular business is the FY27 general fund budget development.

And we have a draft schedule.

John, would you like to explain the draft schedule?

Absolutely.

Yeah, so this is sort of a kickoff to developing the FY27 budget, although a lot of work has already been done on that front and is currently being done.

All of the departments in the town have been pulling pulling together their thoughts on what the fiscal 27 general fund budget should look like, including uh what the what we should be doing for capital planning.

And so uh that's kind of going through a process right now internally where uh the departments are speaking with their staff, trying to understand what the needs are, what they're hearing in terms of demands for services coming from people from all of you, and uh what they would need to deliver on those services.

So this uh in this schedule, the first item is tonight.

So the first the first of two select board listening sessions to get a sense of um sort of early uh feedback from anybody who has thoughts on the developing the budget, including if you have thoughts on this this schedule that I'm describing right now.

That would be helpful as well.

Then uh our plan is to work through all of uh the department budgets and the central budgets to put together a an initial draft and a budget presentation for November 6th.

So that would be the first select board meeting in November, which I'm I have 11, I have November 6th down there, kind of assuming if you if the board wants to move it.

Oh, actually, um depending on where the charter goes, it may actually be on November 4th.

So the so at that at that budget presentation will bring uh our initial thoughts on what a budget is, what uh what it could look like for fiscal 27 along with uh one other thing we're working on is a five-year projection on that budget, so that would also be included with the information that goes to the select board on either November 4th or November 6th.

Uh and uh see, then in addition, we are working on a 25-year projection of capital capital improvements that are necessary.

And so that will also hopefully be ready by that meeting to share with everybody.

Once that information is presented to the select board and available online and in your packets, the uh there will be a second select board listening session after that, so that you the select board will be able to hear initial uh responses or uh thoughts or suggestions, ideas on um on that that information presented on the fourth or the sixth, and that will be on November 12th.

The board at its retreat in August asked that we uh develop a uh process here that has individual departments coming before the select board at a select board meeting to talk about uh what is in each department budget, and so this schedule on your agenda is uh broken out into three nights where that will happen.

Uh the first is on November 18th, and that will be the fire and police budget.

So the fire chief and the police chief will come on November 18th and uh answer questions at the board maybe they'll make a uh presentation on what's in their budgets, what services they deliver, and then answer any questions that the select board or or any of you have at that night next on uh December 2nd.

There uh will be a similar presentation, but from the Department of Public Works, the library, and the recreation and parks department.

So on December 2nd, same thing, each of those departments will make a presentation and uh and be available for questions on their budgets.

And then finally on December 16th, all the other departments uh will be available then.

So town clerks, uh assessors, finance department, town manager's office, uh all of the smaller budgets will um I'm not sure if the board will want a presentation from each one.

We're certainly happy to do that, but um we'll all be available for any questions on those parts of the general fund budget.

Then the plan after following that and getting feedback on all each of that that kind of breakdown of the budget.

Um there will be a discussion by the select board on January 6th uh and uh discussion about any budget revisions that they'd like to see, and then finally on uh January 20th.

Uh the uh we'll be seeking the select board's approval on uh what's in the fiscal 27 general fund budget.

That is the plan as it stands, and I would say that if we are part way through this, and the select board feels like they need additional information or additional time, uh, we'll certainly be flexible to schedule additional meetings or whatever the board needs.

So that's all I had.

I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, John.

Uh does anyone have on the board have any questions about the schedule?

Anyone in the public have questions?

Neil.

Thank you.

Thanks.

My name is Neil Matthews.

I'm not in District 7th.

Um, first of all, I want to thank the board for doing this.

Um I'm really concerned about the fact that I look around and I see about 26 people here, which is great.

And thank you all for coming.

But we have over 5,000 voters in town whose what you decide in terms of budget will have a direct impact on them.

I really think that we need to have a system by which you become more active rather than passive.

I applaud your passiveness by offering meetings.

However, I think reaching out to other organizations and places around the community would be a way to help people understand what's happening with the budget.

This year is going to be incredibly confusing.

Uh, what with the town charter, what with the two petitions for open and Australian ballot, and possibly even a third petition for an RTM vote.

So I think the town needs to begin to understand what's going on.

I'd encourage you, for example, to reach out to the Elks, who read out three out to the lion, reach out to the various fraternal organizations around town that uh may be able to uh listen to you.

How about the senior home housing in town?

Many of the seniors uh how about uh doing some edit some editorials in the local papers in terms of this is what we're looking at with the new town charter.

Does it make sense?

You can hear it or have an explanation of it so that voters have an idea of what's going on.

Reach out to the high school.

We now allow 16-year-olds to vote in Brattleboro.

Um, is there any program in the high school currently that addresses town governance?

If not, then let's get one in there so that we have this the young people in this town who we hope will come back and live here once they determine their educational levels and and funding.

This is what's going to be affecting them as much as us.

So if you could do that, that I think would be really helpful.

Um in terms of just the budget itself.

We can't, I can't spend the whole money.

So please, in your wisdom, try to restrict the budget this year as much as possible.

But also please bring in your your citizenry to help you decide so that we don't end up like we did last year, where you go to an open town or you go to a town meeting and you suddenly get a whole bunch of people standing up who read maybe the town budget the night before and come in and say about I don't like that article, let's amend it.

I would like to see that budget come up, and yes, you can have some discussions as you're building the budget, not at the end when you everybody has sort of thrown their 10 cents worth in.

So thank you.

Thank you, N.

Um.

All right.

So anyone else have comments on the schedule?

See none?

All right, the FY27 budget listening session.

Um we've provided three suggested questions, which are essentially prompts, and they were the question same questions that we asked in April.

And so I'm just gonna read them, and you know, of course, you're not bound to them in any way, but they set a nice tone.

Number one, what values do you want to see reflected in the FY27 budget?

What you most want to see changed in the FY27 budget, and are there any town services that you want protected in the FY27 budget?

So I have the initial list of people who would like to speak, and of course, there's an additional sign-up sheet over there on the table if inspiration um hits anyone.

But again, only talk once, please.

Okay, number one, Ken Faye.

Mr.

Faye.

Good evening, Ken Faye District 8.

Uh, I guess my first off, I want to thank the library for hosting this.

Um I also hope from budgeting for next year that the library is uh kept tall and uh no cuts will be made to it, but that's minor in the big scheme of things.

Uh second thing is the um public safety and bar uh brat uh the downtown that was all the hundreds of thousands of dollars that were passed were because of an emergency.

I'm curious, and it's been mentioned before.

Uh, are there any metrics and um you know uh information and numbers that will determine when the emergency ends?

Um because to me, an emergency is an event uh or it's it's a finite, it's the timing or the or the duration is finite.

And so I'm curious as to if administration and the board have thought about okay when is when is when I guess um and that's all thanks all right.

Um next question.

Oh, can your question will be answered when the as identified in this schedule when the police chief comes.

Um Neil Monders again.

Do you do you have something additional to say?

No, I'm quite thank you.

Okay, great.

Thank you very much.

Uh Susan Belvin.

Can I defer my time to another slide?

Sure, thank you.

I'm gonna move you to the end.

Thank you.

Uh moving right along, Jean Walsh.

Thanks, I'm just listening.

Very good.

Uh Karen Tyler.

Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't put my hands on speed.

Okay.

We are moving right along.

Um, Aaron Smith.

I thought it was a sign-up sheet.

Just a sign-in.

Oh, same way.

This is great.

All right.

Um, Jennifer Smith.

Ditto, yeah, okay.

Mary White.

Same thing.

Same thing.

Sign in to speak.

All right, all right.

Well, there's a lesson learned, I'm sure.

Um, Millicent Cooley.

Me too.

All right.

Randy Blatchett.

There you go.

Ah, we have a participant.

I'll echo also thank you to the library for hosting this.

It's wonderful as always.

Um, thank you for bringing up 9-11.

I had lost high school friends in that tragedy, so it's always good to just remember everyone from that horrible tragedy.

Brattleboro faces a critical juncture due to the confluence of evolving economic conditions, demographic shifts, drug addiction, and unprecedented surge in demand for essential services.

While these challenges can be addressed individually, their combined impact has strained town government and its taxpayers to the brink.

Whether homeownership or rental, the escalating burden of real estate taxes, cost of living has left many residents wondering how to pay their bills.

Regrettably, Brattleboro ranks among the top five states for taxation in the United States.

A common refrain among residents I encounter is that their tax obligations exceed their mortgage payments.

Many expressed uncertainty about their ability to continue residing in this town.

Furthermore, small businesses are grappling with the same challenges, including reduced foot traffic, increased operational cost, and a decline in local purchasing power.

Consequently, some medium to large employers are considering relocating due to the high burden of all the benefits for their employees, the cost of living, and scarcity of housing.

To address these pressing issues, Brattleboro must adopt a more efficient and cost-effective approach to governance.

Programs and services with high costs should be reevaluated and discontinued if the outcomes are below a predefined threshold.

The notion of simply increasing annual expenditures without a tangible improvement is no longer viable.

A comprehensive overhaul of town government is imperative.

This transformation should encompass adopting technology, enhancing efficiency, and attracting new businesses and professionals to create more employment.

By doing so, Brattleboro can create a living wage for its citizens without the necessity of multiple jobs.

Collaborative efforts with partners in the community, partners in the state are essential to foster economic development within Brattleboro.

In response to the upcoming fiscal year 2027 budget, I propose a 0% increase.

Additionally, I strongly advocate for a discontinuation of the solid waste curbside collection contract currently under negotiation.

The remaining 7% of the FY26 budget or any other amount available should be utilized to reduce taxes moving forward.

To achieve this, I appro I propose that residents be empowered to find their own methods of waste disposal, whether through contracted services or by utilizing transfer centers.

Currently, we've basically have a monopoly situation that hinders competition and efficiency.

If other haulers are permitted to compete for a share of the waste pickup contract, it would foster a more competitive market.

Furthermore, I suggest implementing various measures to reduce town real estate taxes.

These include a two to three cent per gallon gasoline tax, EV charger tax, diesel fuel tax to capture different additional revenue from tourist traffic, a continued push for the state to receive our full 1% of the sales tax rather than the current two-thirds share of 1% that we're receiving.

A tax on Airbnb rentals, increased fees for town services that exceed basic needs.

Additionally, we should explore revenue opportunities for water sales and waste treatment for neighboring towns or businesses.

Furthermore, we should identify town properties that could be sold or leased to generate additional tax revenue.

Over the next five to ten year plans, we should focus on reducing staff size through attrition, identifying cost-effective ways to save taxpayers more money.

The primary services essential for our town are fire, emergency medical services, department of public works, and police services.

I'm concerned that many of our services are perceived as Cadillac services by both residents and visitors.

We should prioritize prioritize services that deliver effective results and avoid the embarrassment of the highest taxes in the region.

Thank you.

Thank you, Randy.

All right.

Eric Karen.

I signed up for um after Sue, so I'll let her go before me.

Sue, are you ready?

Oh.

Okay.

I think uh you and Eric are trying to outmaneuver each other.

I didn't see the list.

I just know I came after her.

Following the list.

Didn't you have another?

Madam Chair, I think that Sue wanted to answer another question on here.

No, there's there's no question specific.

Oh, okay.

These are suggested topics.

Okay, well, I'll I'll go if she felt comfortable going.

You go right ahead, Eric.

Okay.

Yeah.

I your your chivalry is not lost on us.

Sure, that way I can go into the mic and not knock it over.

There's a podium.

Let's see the three questions.

I'm Eric Karen, District 7.

Values.

What are my values?

I I have to say, I think these three questions that you brought up.

One was values, the last one was what uh services do I want to save.

What was the middle one?

Uh what services do you want to change?

Ah, so what services are am I willing to cut or let go?

I think this whole framework is what we saw last year on the budget, and I think it's very unhelpful.

I know you said it was at a good tone, but I don't think it does.

In fact, I think what it hurts is transparency, and it hurts creativity.

Um, and and it actually puts people against each other.

For example, if I say something like, I think that fire and I think EMS and I think police should look at their budgets and try to find a way to cut them since they're the largest uh users of our funds.

Then somebody else will get up after me and say, you know, you're not respecting police, and you're not respecting our fire department.

You don't care about those hardworking people that put their lives at risk.

I'm not allowed to ask them to be fiscally responsible.

I feel like as if my my um values are somehow bad because I want us to be transparent and physically responsible.

Well, I came from a home that was blue-collar and not very wealthy, and we had to make very tough decisions about food and about transportation and about clothing.

I wore my sister's hand-me-downs for years.

This town has uh is a wonderful place, but I think about I wasn't here for this meeting, but I hope I don't get these facts wrong, but it's been bothering me ever since I missed it.

There was a discussion about the um the new uh fire car.

And um and it could be repaired for I don't know, $12,000 and get a three-year warranty.

The car was old, like 10 years.

And we did that, and instead of doing that, we bought a brand new one, shiny, beautiful.

That's great.

I mean, our our fire chief is a wonderful person.

My values say respect fire.

Absolutely, we need that service.

But I also know that the average car in America is way over 13 years old.

And I live with cars much older, and a good quality car doesn't have to be brand new and beautiful.

And if we make every decision one after the other where we don't take into consideration our financial needs of this town, and we say our values, you know, we can't cut services, we can't reduce things, you know.

What do you want?

You want fire to not have good equipment?

No.

I want us to be responsible and transparent, and and to value that we all need to take part, including the important services and the essential services.

That's basically all I have to say, but I I guess I I kind of made me feel like if that had been a public works vehicle, and it was 10 years old and it could be 11,000 to fix it or replace it for 72,000.

Would we have done it?

Or would we have paid the lower amount, got the got the warranty, and moved on?

Or somehow fire and please.

Well, I'm sure somebody will get up and tell me that as a community member I don't have the right values.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you, Eric.

Well, Sue, the time has come Susan Bellveld, District 8.

Um, I don't usually make notes uh at this time because I wanted to stick to the uh questions at hand.

I thought it was important to um get a focus on why we're here tonight and the fact that the select board and hopefully department heads want to hear what we all have to say about what's going on what town government is costing us.

One of the key things that I think the board and department heads and the community needs to focus on is getting back to basics that we need to start with the foundation of what is required to run the town of Brattleboro.

Uh we need um access to public safety and emergency services, public infrastructure, and water and sewer.

Those are the basics for what this community needs.

We should not be in a position where we're facing crisis after crisis around infrastructure.

Those need to be built into the five-year plan so that we're not suffering from water loss or sewer access for all of the all of the neighborhoods that have that.

We also deserve safe sidewalks for everybody, and we deserve good roads.

And that's what our public works department is for.

So one of the other things that I've brought up before, but I've never made a huge issue of it as in from this forum from a speaker.

I mentioned it to a number of people.

From EMS services down to something as simple as bills for the health and safety inspection of multifamilies.

They're not being collected.

Fines that are assessed for uh code and uh zoning violations are not being collected.

That is something that should really be top of the list.

I know that rescue, when you don't pay your bill for rescue, they'll sell your debt to a collection agency.

We have that right too in this community to make sure that our services are paid and the town is made whole for those costs.

So I really would like to also.

Oh, one other very important thing, and Randy touched on it.

We need to manage expectations for the people of the town of Brattleboro.

We have a finite amount of money.

We have a not uh we have a finite method of collecting it and resources to get it from.

We need to manage expectations of the whole community so that we're not trying to appease everybody and making others suffer.

We need to make sure that the whole community is protected and not just certain special interest groups.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Sue.

Uh now this we have two more speakers.

I would like to ask Tom Franks to come to the podium.

And after that, Ian Wright.

Thank you.

Franks District 9.

I too thought the sign-up was just a sign, but we're glad to talk at any given moment.

And I'll just say that I have a couple core principles for municipal services.

I believe there are essential services, they've been enumerated already.

The essential services are health and safety, in other words, fire, EMS, public safety, and department of public works.

I would add personally, because I strongly believe that our community our community and our nation need education and information.

Right now, in this time and all times, a library is an essential service for me.

And I think it is for our community.

You know, we don't have civics as I understand in school.

We are woefully ignorant on a lot of as a popular populace on many things of government, and we have a lot of need to talk together.

I think the library does a great service.

Not to say I want to cut anything else.

I mean, all of the things we do are important to somebody, but I think it's a challenge, and I just want to thank you for taking it on.

And uh unlike I mean I I think your schedule, your openness, and what you're trying to do is to be commended.

You're trying to listen to the community before we start yelling at you.

Which I really, you know, I'm glad to yell at you, but I'd rather talk to you in advance.

And I appreciate the fact that you're trying to make that as accessible as possible.

And I also want to commend the select board as a whole.

You know, I know some of you made choices to be here tonight, missed other meetings.

Fun ones, and I want to thank you for that.

So thank you very much.

Thank you, Tom.

Uh Ann Wright.

Hi, I'm Ann Wright.

I believe I'm district nine, former district three.

Um, I still want to be district three.

I don't know why, but I'm having a hard time with the adjustment after all these years.

So a couple of things.

I want to thank everybody who spoke before me, and in support of everything that I have heard tonight.

Thank you all for being here.

Um excuse me, a couple of things that I want to share about my own personal thoughts and values about this uh the town budget.

Last year there were many discussions about um put the potential to cut positions or do wage freezing.

I would like that option to be strongly considered for the process for this year.

Uh it's something that I've had to go through personally myself, both as an employee and as a um forget the term, as a salaried employee.

I've had to have my wages present, I've had to have my wages cut.

I don't see any reason why we are not considering that for town, the managers as well.

The other thing that I want to address is that Brattleboro as an old town with many old houses has a lot of multifamily homes that are like people like myself, two, three, and four families where we are able to afford our homes by uh having apartments and renting them out.

I we're not landlords on a scale of like a Jason Cooper or something like that.

And I would I I would like to ask the board to keep that in mind as you go through the budgeting process, knowing that you know, we are also going through a town-wide assessment this coming year, and our property taxes are going to be addressed as part of evaluation of our homes.

That um I currently am in the position right now of having to flip an apartment, and I have kept my rents for the last four years, haven't raised my rent.

This year, what happened with taxes uh forced me to do that.

Um I just want you to keep in mind those of us who who are able to afford to live in our homes and provide housing for other people, that there is a direct correlation between the town taxes and then what we have to pass on as rents.

That makes it um that's just contributing to the unaffordability of housing in this area.

So I want to speak, you know, to that population for those of us who provide that service to this town.

So thank you.

Thank you, Ian.

And yes, that is a very valuable service that you provide.

Um, Mr.

DeGreg.

We're gonna reliever again.

Um because we have so much time, well, I'm gonna ask I'd ask for more time, but uh I'm sure everybody here would say, Here, Dick, take mine.

Uh, I'm gonna ask to hear five minutes from each one of you about what you're thinking as we head into this budget process.

Uh, I think that's important for us sitting here, and maybe some of that uh people are watching, and it'll get in the paper to hear what your thoughts are.

Uh I heard several things that struck a bell.

One was talking about being uh villainized for speaking out against a certain department.

Um the board made some cuts last year, and then as we were going through the budget process, a group of people would come in.

The library was one, and you know, maybe people don't realize what the process is, and all the departments are asked what can you what can you give up in this process?

And Starr gave a list of things that she could give up.

And Starr has a pretty good wallet in her back pocket that she could have paid for a lot of the things that were on the list that were initially cut.

And the board, after several people came, put the money back in the budget.

The board needs to have courage.

The arts department, the arts funding, which was $20,000, I think off the top of my head, was cut $15,000.

A few people came in and said the arts are important in Brotherburg.

Everybody in Broadboro knows the arts are important.

You're not cutting it because you want to cut it, you're cutting it because there are other needs in the budget that prioritize that.

And I would call the arts as important as it is as an elective, an extra.

I'm buying a car, you know what?

I can afford the cigarette lighter.

The reality is the job that you have is difficult.

I went through eight of these budgets, and I went through four up at the high school.

So I know what it's like to sit there and go, boy, I'm gonna take some heat there.

But you wanted to sit there.

And I think you know, when I look at some of the things that happened, the increases for uh the administrative staff, the last two years is unheard of, unheard of.

And as I've said before, you know, somebody said, Well, we're trying to keep our staff, they're good people.

I don't disagree with that, but it's about affordability for everybody in this room that we've heard.

And if you don't, if you think you want to make more money, then go find another job.

We're gonna replace you because everybody that's left in my 30 years of paying close attention, guess what?

We fill them with equal or better people.

So money shouldn't be an object to keep someone here.

If you don't want to be here, leave.

Plain and simple.

One of the things they talked about trash.

I don't think we should have trash pickup.

I really don't.

When you own a commercial building, or you own a uh which is an apartment building of five or more, if you don't know that, we are subsidizing trash pickup in the town.

50% of the town for trash pickup is being subsidized by commercial properties because they don't get trash pickup.

So if you have an apartment building and there's five or more apartments, you're paying for trash pickup, and you're paying for a dumpster for your tenants.

And so, guess what?

They're paying for that trash dumpster, and they're paying for your for the trash pickup of everybody in town.

We can figure out a way to do something else than spend um one what is it, 1.1 million dollars.

So as we go through this, I'm interested in hearing what you have to say when I'm done, unless there's somebody behind me, because we have so much time, and maybe that will spur some more questions for you.

But I think it's important to hear what you have to say about the process that we're looking forward to in the next month and a half.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Dina, please.

Sorry, I just wanted to.

So yes, may I ask a question?

Should we put the sheet again?

Because I think we're starting to roll and it's it is still up there.

Anyone who would like to speak can walk over and sign up.

And uh let me in the meantime, Dina, please speak to me.

Hi, Dina Chadwitz, District 9.

Um, I just wanted to come here prepared or anything.

I just wanted to hear what you guys had to say.

Um, and I would wait, and I gotta go because I have another meeting to get to.

But um, listen to every, you know, I want to speak to everyone that's here, not just the board.

We all have the same finish line here.

It doesn't matter whether you're for this or for that.

We all have the same finish line.

Like Anne, I help subsidize my business with a very low rent, a single woman that lives above me.

I keep the rent extremely low for her, utilities included.

I'm not trying to float my boat or pat myself on the back, but I know it's hard out there.

But as a landlord, if the taxes keep rising, I'm gonna have to hire her rent.

There's no way around it, and I don't want to do that because I know how hard it is.

Everybody knows how hard it is.

So, you know, we need to take a hard look at everything, but what nobody has mentioned today, and maybe this is not a time, and I will email all of you guys with some ideas, is about revenue that doesn't include raising our taxes.

Like, let's talk about that.

Uh Peter, you said something about getting internet a while ago, town wide internet.

Where are we on that?

Is that happening?

Is that gonna, I mean, Chester has it, they make money from it.

Maybe we should talk to their board, see what's happening with that.

Um that would be a source of revenue.

Also, the land that you guys are talking about selling, you know, there's different ways around, you know, you can sell it, you can get a lump sum, which would you know just boost your money for a little bit and then you'll get taxes for it, or possibly you could lease it to a developer that's willing to put in 55 and older um living because you know that's an issue in this area is people that want to downsize the houses, don't have a place to go.

Um I had a client that is you know just waiting for somebody to sell their house at morningside because they don't want to take care of their house anymore, and they want a condo living situation.

So I don't know what land you guys have available, or if you could lease it, and then you could have control of it.

I'm just spitballing ideas.

I'll email you later with more details.

But let's talk about revenue beyond taxing people because I understand that prices keep going up and up and up and up, and you know, we all want the things that make our community whole, but you know, okay.

Thank you.

Thank you guys for doing all the hard work, appreciate it.

District one, and I am a homeowner.

Uh and uh I have had a business here, Wade Consulting Teaching Services International for over 35 years.

So I have paid my taxes completely, and I have a home business uh as a owner of a conduit at Morningside Common.

We're talking about revenue, and revenue can be seen in different ways as coming in to us as a community of everyone.

Okay.

Um everyone always thinks that here are my values.

My first my values are called human values.

First one is just tell me the truth.

The second one is right action or right action, the third one is peace, the fourth one is nonviolence, and the fifth one is love, and not the ooh ooh, baby kind of love.

I'm not talking about that.

I'm talking about a sense of there are crees a lot of creative revenue available right now.

One of the areas that I've been involved in is Vermont at the state level and at all of the national level and international level, is to create revenue for a creative add to a creative economy, networking, not networking, collaboration, networking is I know you, you know me.

I'm not talking about that.

I'm talking about an offer that municipalities can take a look at that I saw a list.

I mean, and this was it was a major list a couple of days ago of revenue because municipalities have not been on that list.

You are now on the list as eligible for money to help sort of address this.

You can't do this, you can't do that.

You know, we can have all of those.

We need all of those things, and I agree with everybody about what we need as someone who you know have to, you know, recycling and all of these things.

I love it, environmental, but what I'm trying to ask you to do is to open up other revenue streams, and if you need some help with that, that's why I spoke, and that's why I'm here, and I've been here a long time, and I've seen the changes, and I see the good changes, and I see what what's going on, and trying to address some of the confusion, you know.

Uh uh, or the you can't have this, you can't have that.

You know, there's space available.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Um Jacob Henn.

Maybe Jacob thought this was a sign-up sheet and not necessarily speaking sheet.

Oh, I didn't know I just you're you're not alone, Jacob.

All right, so um again, uh anyone else who would like to speak.

Neil.

I just want to address the second question you have on here.

What would you most like to see changed in the FY27 budget?

I've been involved or attending to a lot of your meetings, and I've heard a lot of what's going on with the uh with the town charter and some of the items in that.

Uh, one of the things that the RTM did in the past was to create that fund for human resources.

It was approximately a half a million dollars of donation to various organizations around town.

I'd like to see that gone entirely.

If we need to put some money into it, that's one thing.

But I think most of these organizations are doing their own fundraising, and in many cases, as was evidenced tonight by somebody saying uh the librarian already had the money in her back pocket to be able to do what she needed to do.

I think many of the other organizations are in similar straits.

So I would like to see you do as best you can to at least reduce that, if not eliminate it totally.

The other little spot that I have is I looked at I drive by um the park frequently in the mornings and see the swimming pool.

And this summer it seemed to me that the pool was open for about six weeks.

We spent about a hundred thousand dollars on that pool for six weeks.

Now, I'm not saying this town shouldn't have a swimming pool, but I'm saying if you're gonna have a pool, make it available so that it's usable year-round by all residents rather than just sort of the summer school six-week people.

So either I'm hoping you can do something that either elongates that and doesn't cost as much, or we come up with some other kinds of funding that we can do with that.

And then the third thing is again, I've I said this last year, and I say it again this year resources, resources, resources, get them in here, get creative as best you can.

I heard a couple of kind of cool ideas here in terms I'm not sure I would agree with raising uh gasoline taxes, but you know, that's an idea.

So think of those kinds of things.

Um, you know, putting a toll gate on I-91 would be great, but we can't do that.

But so there's our thank you.

My husband's wanted a toll booth for years, Richard.

Uh Richard Davis.

I wanted to just comment on something that doesn't quite fit into all those categories, but it's possible that it may affect the budget significantly.

And Darrell Pillsbury and I have been running the Rinman County Heat Front for 20 years.

Um generally what we do is we supplement at the beginning and the end of the eating season what people might get for fuel assistance.

So the federal program funding usually kicks in the end of November, and most people stretch it out to maybe the rest of the eating season.

A lot of them can't, and then we'll help them out maybe in March or April.

This year there's something going on that nobody really has the answer to, and this is what scares me is that um nobody knows for sure whether or not the lie heap money from the low-income home and energy assistance program, federal program is gonna make its way to the space.

What's happened is as far as I can tell, I've spoken to people in uh Bernie Sanders office and Peter Welch and state level people, and what I can tell is happening is the money, which is about uh I think 2.1 billion dollars nationwide is has been appropriated, but Trump fired all the people that work in the department that dolls out the money.

So it's not clear if that money is gonna sit somewhere and never move.

Nobody knows whether that can change.

Bernie and Peter Wells pleaded with the administration early on to make reinstate those people.

But we don't know.

Um the bottom line for Vermont is that last year to save Vermont are at roughly 21 million dollars in Lightheap funding.

I spoke to the major fuel dealers in Brattleboro.

The majority of their customers receive fuel assistance.

So what does this mean in terms of uh now?

I spoke to Josh Davis today at Safka.

He's much more optimistic than I am, and he believes that the money's gonna come through and everything will be fine.

I spoke to a woman this morning who needed help, and she told me she spoke to somebody at the state who told her that the money was coming in, don't worry, everything's fine.

But I spoke to the people that administer the program in Vermont and they told me they don't know.

So basically it's a shit show.

That's the only way to describe it.

So what I'm saying in terms of the budget is I hope it works out and everything is fine.

My organization tried to raise extra money.

I don't know how much extra risk.

But if the bad side happens, if if the money doesn't come through, um a lot of people in Brown are gonna die.

I mean, it's not an exaggeration.

I mean, there are already a lot of people that um don't ask for help.

Some people do.

Um I don't know what's gonna happen.

There's also implications for EMS.

I mean, there may be a lot of people that are, you know, we may have an epidemic of hypothermia.

I don't know.

The other possibility is related to this is that 45,000 people in Vermont are gonna lose Medicaid.

There's a serious chunk of money that is reimbursed your Medicaid for the EMS service, and a lot of those people do use EMS services.

So, what's gonna happen if uh let's say 10 or 20 percent of the normal revenue of the of the EMS and Brotherburg is cut because these people aren't gonna be able to pay.

You know, they don't have they know they no longer have insurance.

So, and then on top of that, food stamps is cut.

So, really what's going on is is like you know, let's kill people because everything will work out better for the people at the top.

But just anyway, I just wanted to throw that out.

And we're having a fundraiser Sunday night at seven o'clock at the Heart Roads Club because we have a GoFundMe page for the heat fund, and we're trying to supplement the normal money that we usually raise.

In case this is just nobody else is being proactive.

So I thought I'm gonna be proactive and try to uh work at the look at the worst-case scenario and try to do something.

So that's what we're doing.

So if you want to come, there's no admission charge just by donation.

Um get some nice music, it's gonna be a concert.

The other thing that I would urge people is there's a lot of program honors in the winter that will not ask for help.

Now, if you know somebody who's either you know, put wearing six blankets walking around their kitchen because they've closed off the rest of their house, or uh, you know, if you're you're aware that somebody's run out of fuel, call me, we'll take care of them.

If they're too proud to ask for help, you know, we can find out who their fuel dealer is and have a delivery arrangement.

Very few people are gonna turn down a delivery when they see the truck in their driveway.

They don't have to know where it came from.

And uh, you know, tell them Santa Claus said it.

So anyway, that's a Richard.

Thank you very much for that sobering bit of context.

Um, so again, um this is a listening session.

Uh the select board will be talking at all the meetings that were outlined.

Uh the select board is going to uh really digest and understand all the comments that were made, and um you'll be hearing from us.

And I appreciate you very much.

I think we all do that you came here tonight and spoke your mind, and we just need more of that throughout this budget season, so that um there aren't any surprises, and um we're all working very hard to uh make this municipal government work.

So thank you and good night.

Here's a question there is I wonder if any of the select board would like to answer Dick's question.

Not at this time.

Okay.

Thank you.

And Rick, you missed your chance, but I'm sure people will be talking afterwards.

Thank you all very much.

Good night.

Actually, I wanted to say some things that I heard because I think it would be good to echo back and summarize a little bit of what we heard so people know that they were heard.

Well, I think there's plenty of opportunities to do that throughout the year throughout this budget season, and I think we all need a chance to digest what we've heard.

So I I'm not going to bail us all to those at that time.

And I would like a motion to adjourn.

Well, you've heard sure.

That's part of the reason why we're here.

Just to hear your thoughts as well as our.

All right, fine.

Oscar?

Amanda?

Isaac, you have a comments?

I I would like to just say one thing.

Um, it's not going to be very comprehensive right now, but maybe others um it'll come back to me.

Um, feel free to email us.

Um, you can also get all of our any contact information on the town website or exchange information while we're here.

Um, I, for example, am a farmer, so text me or call me, email me.

I'm a little slow.

Um, but and maybe we can just talk about, you know, just just know that we want to hear from you.

It's ongoing.

Um, and things will come up at various times, so keep bringing them up.

Um, and I'm gonna turn my mic off now and see who wants to respond to Isaac Dix.

You wanted to skip.

Yeah, so I I wanted to first of all just note a couple of factual corrections of things that were said rather than letting them sit around people's minds.

Um, so with the arts fund, the town arts fund, there in the past, it was I think it was last the previous budget cycle is $20,000 was in there.

The previous select board for this current fiscal year that we're in had eliminated it.

It wasn't cut by 15,000, it was eliminated completely.

And this current board that you're seeing restored 10,000 of it.

So we put it back to half of what it had been the previous year.

Um the other thing is I heard a couple people say something about the library having um or the the director of the library having uh something about um in her back pocket, and there is an endowment that the library has a um which can draw some money from, but it's not like you know, I think that to expect that the departments are going to somehow personally or um fund their own departments apart from revenue from the town isn't a realistic expectation.

Um a few notes that I heard about the process were I really appreciate that Mr.

Manders, you mentioned the idea that we can be proactive like this event tonight, but you know, reaching out to other other groups.

You mentioned fraternal orders, um, you mentioned the high school.

Um there's um also you mentioned writing opinion, you know, op eds or editorials like these are and I would encourage people here that you can do that as well, and you can tell people about coming here tonight and let people know this schedule for the people to show up.

Um I also want just to appreciate what Mr.

Frank said about community the value of communication with one another here and beyond that how important that is for our community to talk to each other about our priorities.

And then Eric, you you talked about like feeling like you can share your values, and I want you to know that I'm interested in hearing what you have to say.

I'm interested in hearing what everybody has to say.

We may not agree about it, but there needs to be some basic safety and sense of respect in here for us to be able to share what is important to us, and and and also where you see opportunities for cutting.

Um of the themes that I heard tonight was the importance of financial responsibility and frugality of us the real cons real concerns and real fears about what's going on with the economy and and also what's happening with um cuts by the federal government to essential services things that affect heat and health care and basics for folks in our community.

So that's something that we'll want to be mindful as we are putting together this budget.

Well, I I also heard um Ms.

Bellville, you mentioned the idea of really thinking about the infrastructure of our town.

But we want to make sure that we're being thinking about our sidewalks, our roads, and not delaying things that can be more expensive later on by when we're having to respond to emergencies.

I'm I'm since you directly addressed me, I'm going to address you.

I really feel that this particular conversation is inappropriate at this time.

I'm asking you to not validate people's discussion and let the whole board absorb it and use their that information to move forward with the budget process.

But I do think that it's really important.

This is feedback that I got after the last listening session.

It's people said I feel like we shared all this stuff about what's important to us.

But we didn't know, is it going in one ear out the other?

It doesn't seem like you took it seriously, and I want you to know that you're heard.

And I think the best way for people to know they're heard is to hear back.

So I will refrain from addressing anybody individually, but just say that I heard a theme of that there's interest in being really mindful about the increase in taxes and avoiding significant increases in taxes.

And also that there's interest in creativity around potential gas tax, selling or leasing um land or properties, and looking at how can we um increase revenue in addition or other ways besides taxes.

Um again, thank you so much for coming out here and just want to echo the appreciation from my my colleagues here express.

Do you want to say something?

I suppose well, I don't have anything prepared, and I'm also hearing sort of conflicting things about whether people want to hear from us at this time.

But I don't have fixed thoughts on how this budget is going to go.

Very much of it is going to depend on what we see when we have a draft budget to look at.

Um I am hopeful that it's not going to be as stressful as we think, that things will look better and we won't have to make the kinds of hard decisions we made.

So I I really don't have.

Yeah, I'm not coming in here with a thing in mind that needs to be changed.

A department that has a problem that needs to be solved.

I think in general, our town staff works very hard to run a tight ship, and there are few things in our budget you can find that people are not going to fight hard for.

And people, including myself, who think, oh, there's something that maybe I don't use that would be an easy change to make.

I think you will be surprised to find how big a constituency there is for that exact thing, possibly outside of one's own personal bubble.

So there are really no obvious easy changes to make.

So I'm hoping that we will be looking at a better landscape when we see the draft budget, and I'll have much more to say then.

I'm happy to stick around and talk and hear more from all of you.

And I hope we can keep talking like this throughout the fall and the winter.

So thank you.

Peter.

And anybody who's been listening to me throughout the last process in this process knows I'm not the guy you want to come to for cuts.

I don't think cuts to people's jobs, their livelihoods, their well-being is the correct course of action.

Uh for my entire life, I have been a man who's been hired to find revenue sources, to find streams of money, to create those sources, those revenue things.

Um, and I've been saying this for the better part of 40 years.

Uh, revenue solves a lot of problems.

That's my focus on this budget process, not to find the minutiae of the cuts, the the adding the $10,000 versus $20,000 back in for the arts to find a way to that the arts can generate that money and and and pay for itself, or we find the extra money through a gas tax through uh Wi-Fi, town Wi-Fi service, uh, through selling off plots of lands, um, through extra taxes for Airbnbs, going as much as we can pull from resources of people who do not live here, who use who use our town, who use our municipality.

money and and and pay for itself or we find the extra money through a gas tax um through a Wi-Fi town Wi-Fi service uh through selling off plots of lands um through extra taxes for Airbnbs going as much as we can pull from resources of people who do not live here who use who use our town who use our municipality if we can get them to pay for half of that I feel like that's a real um revenue source that's my focus on this whole um budget I I hear everybody's concerns I appreciate everybody's concerns there's not a person out there that has spoken tonight whose point I have hasn't resonated with me and that I look to invalidate I don't invalidate anybody that's the way you feel and if there's one thing I've learned in my life I don't get to tell you how to feel so when you bring something up it is valid to me but just know I'm not gonna participate in conversations that cut things I'm gonna participate participate in conversations that grow things so that's my angle on this budget.

Thank you all right thank you um again everyone had very interesting things to say uh we also there are some additional ideas that were brought up at the end of the last uh budget discussion uh ideas for revenue sharing ideas for use of town lands etc um there are ideas brought forth in the select board retreat and so um all of this all of your comments all of our ideas they'll all be brought forward in the stew that is our municipal budget and there'll be plenty of time to um ask more questions hear from us about um what has been and what will be I will also note that there are budget negotiations going on this year and there are health care costs that are rising so all of that uh and the context that Richard Davis brought up all of this is very important to um make us all understand the importance of the budget this year and the five of us the six of us are all extremely focused on on the doing the best for Brattleboro keeping the taxes as low as possible and providing the appropriate services that a municipal government should have um with that being said I thank you all once again and I ask for a motion to adjourn.

Oh motion uh Peter has moved to adjourn also like board members in favor please raise your hand and say aye all right here you go once again thank you very much and thank you to Starr and the entire library staff and BCTV and I always thank Seth Thomas