Speaker numbers apply only to this recording. Names come from transcript evidence. “Possibly” marks uncertain attribution.
The Finance Committee of Great Barrington met remotely on Tuesday, December 16, 2025, at 6 p.m. All five committee members were present: Anna Dwyer, Madonna Meager, Milena Serna, Michelle Luber, and Chair Rich Guiler. The agenda covered Community Preservation Committee (CPC) updates, approval of prior minutes, reserve fund transfer requests, a new budget submission process, bond/debt information, and the FY27 budget action calendar.
So this is a meeting of the Finance Committee of Great Barrington on December 16th, 2025 at 6 p.m. Pursuant to Governor Baker's March 12, 2020 order suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law, general law 30A parent 18, and Governor Healy's March 13, 2025 order extending remote participation by all members in any meeting of a public body. This meeting of the finance committee will be conducted via remote participation. Specific information and the general guidelines for the remote participation by members of the public andor parties with a right and a requirement to attend this meeting can be found on town's website. For this meeting, members of the public and committee members may attend the meeting remotely, following the instructions at the top of this agenda, and every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via technological means. Also perserant to Mass General Law 7C30A section 20 parent F. After notifying the chair of the public body, any person may make a video or audio recording of an open session of a meeting of a public body or may transmit the meeting through any medium. At the beginning of the meeting, the chair shall inform other attendees of any such recordings. Any member of the public wishing to speak at the meeting must receive permission of the chair. The listings of agenda items are those reasonably anticipated by the chair, which may be discussed at the meeting. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed. And other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by law. So I know that we are recording uh this meeting for the town. Do we have any other people recording this meeting? I sense that the Berkshire Edge is identifying as a recording note taker. So I'm not sure if that's electronic or a person. And I am doing an audio recording just as a backup. Very good. Thank you. So I'll to call the meeting in order, I'll do a roll call of the committee members. Anna Dwyer. I'm here. Madonna Meager. I'm here. Milena Serna. Here. Michelle Luber. Here. Rich Guiler, I am here. So all are present. For committee member announcements or statements, I'd like to begin by saying we have so much on our agenda today. I am asking the public to wait until citizen speak time or media time for general comments. But of course, if we're going to vote on something, we will take uh questions from the public before we finalize our votes. Um is that uh acceptable to everyone in the committee? Yes, absolutely. Thank you. Very good. Also, I want to give you a brief update of the CPC meetings that I've been attending and will be continuing to attend. At CPC. Rich, can I just interrupt you before you go for it? Just a procedural question. Do you want me to monitor the hand raising or do you want to monitor that? Well, you can certainly help me. Okay, because just Melena has her hands. So Milena, did you want to say something? I just I just have a statement when you are finished.