All right, so good evening, everyone.

Um welcome to our second night of the budget review.

Um Monday night we had the primary the um public safety departments today.

We have more of the town government departments here in this building and um other general town government um departments and line items.

So what I was thinking is we'll look at we'll go by each department, we'll look at the summary page.

If there's any specific questions, um these departments historically are smaller.

Um so if there's a significant increase, I'll bring attention to the items, and if anyone has any de pet questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

If I start going too fast, please don't hesitate to tell me to slow down.

So the first department that we're gonna talk about is the town manager department.

Um you do see that there is a request for an increase in legal services from 125 to 150.

Um while there is a lot of legal matters that do expose the town to large financial financial risks.

Um there has been an increase in caseloads over the past two years, which I'm hoping will start to decrease, but we've had a lot or many um land use and tax cases that have been ongoing for some time.

And this current fiscal year we had three union contracts that were settled.

We do have labor matters that do arise that take time and um consultation from our labor attorneys.

And we have quite frankly, in one of the most most freedom of information requests that I've ever seen.

Um we average about one a week.

And so what we can't pull together, we pull together on our own, but often um depending on the nature of that request, we do send it to our legal team to review it to make sure that everything that needs to be redacted is redacted, and that we don't provide anyone's information that should not be provided.

Um yes, so that's something there I want to bring your attention to.

Um I have mentioned at the previous um meetings about an HR consultant.

I know that um it has been identified that HR needs we need to expand it.

Right now, it's not really happening, not much of it's happening.

Um I'm trying my best to do as much as I can, but there is just a tremendous amount that that needs to be done.

And I was aware early on that there is concern about having additional positions in this budget since we are in a very tight fiscal year.

Um so I did speak to other municipalities to see how they handle HR services.

I was fortunate enough to um I have a good relationship with Carl Fortuna um in Old Seabrook, and they use a consulting firm in Milford that has been tremendous to work with.

So I did reach out to them.

I shared with the council that they're gonna be performing an HR audit um on our about three months it'll take to go through everything.

We are starting with them having meetings with department heads.

Um but they did give us a quote based on what we think our needs are.

So it's about 38,000.

It's a team of 14 people, so we get 14 people who would be working for us.

Um all of them have um different strengths, so some of them are in FMLA, some of them are in labor negotiations, some of them are in hiring and onboarding.

So it doesn't cost the town any additional funds for retirement or pension or any of that.

So this is a great start for us.

I'm hoping that this will meet our needs, and this is where we can stay.

Of course.

Is that an annual contract or that it's um it's annual, so we would review it at the end.

And that's their quote.

So that's based on their initial review of everything of what they they think is.

I just didn't know.

So if they um it's not hourly, it's you know, like the H the Um handbook review and updating the handbook is part of it.

It's it's like a r I don't want to say it's like a retainer, it's just a lump sum, and then they'll parcel it out based on what we need.

So we may not use it all, we may use it all, but I think initially we have to update our handbook.

We have a lot of trainings that have to get done.

Um all of our employee files need to be reviewed and put into an electric database, which right now they're in literally boxes.

Um all of those are one-time things that we need to do.

So once those are done, I anticipate the needs to be more of a more diminished and more of a case-by-case basis.

If I have an employee that needs to go on FMLA, I call them.

They work that with that employee to take them through the process, make sure they have proper uh paperwork and communication with their doctors and things like that.

Umboarding, hiring, they do all the background checks.

Right now, currently we are not doing background checks for employees or the ones who work with children in the recreation department.

Those are all things that we need to be doing.

Um and they also stay on top of legislation and best practice.

So as something maybe is coming down or a law changes, they will make sure they're in touch with us and that we are in compliance with that law.

Would they handle grievances also?

Um they will assist in them, but labor negotiations and contracts and grievances will all come through me, but they will be a party at the table to help navigate that as well.

So it will save on some legal fees because right now we do use our labor attorney for some of those matters, depending on the knock on what I haven't had any grievances, but um based on the nature of the grievance, if it's just two parties coming together and trying to talk through and get some clarity on a language in a contract, that's something they can help with.

But if it's something a little more significant, then we would um consult our labor attorney.

So one of the priorities of the council that have pointed out to you, the town manager is risk mitigation to manage risk.

We for a lot of reasons we talk about alcohol on the property, legal issues.