Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
The Great Barrington Finance Committee met on October 28, 2026, at 6:00 PM in person and via Zoom. The committee discussed financial reports, the recent special town meeting (including Cook's Garage and ambulance funding), budget process goals, and citizen concerns. Votes included approval of prior minutes and scheduling changes.
Six o'clock. It's now six o'clock. We are October 28th, 6 p.m. This is the finance committee meeting in person and in Zoom. Hello, Doug. And pursuant to mass general law after notifying the chair of a 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 intendees of any such recordings. Any member of the public wishing to speak at the meeting must receive permission from the chair. The listings of agenda items or 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 be brought up uh for discussion to the extent permitted by law. So I am going to do a roll call vote, Rayo. Jeff? Michelle? Yeah. Doug? And I'm Madonna here 5-0 here. Okay. So we're gonna I'm gonna try to run a tight ship. I don't know if it's possible, but we'll give it a shot. Um we're gonna do committee member announcements or statements. Does anybody have a an announcement or a statement? Just a quick statement. Um, the last meeting we had a lot of citizen contribution to the conversation. Um, not the meeting you had a joint meeting on September 29th, the meeting files, and I was present. And um, one thing I've seen in various meetings, citizens will go to citizens speak and talk about something they can't get a response, and they shouldn't because I'm developing meanwhile, yeah, engage. So at some point, just as a housekeeping measure, some sort of procedure with regard to citizens can introduce something at a meeting, but say, Madam Chair, I would like to have this on an upcoming agenda, and what do we do at that point? How is that handle? I myself have requested items on uh other boards' agendas and not gotten a response or have been told no with no explanation why, and I find it's getting a little sloppy, not with this, you know, committee, but I think that would be helpful um for citizens if they had a heavy weighted topic uh and they only have three minutes and they could go to the chair and say, madam chair, and respectfully requesting that this be placed on an upcoming agenda. Doesn't mean the next agenda or the agenda after that, but also means it's been brought to the chair's attention. It may save and be a little more efficient as far as our meetings go because as you know as many citizens try to cram everything into that right into the three and it's hard for us after a long meeting to absorb everything, correct? Yeah, yeah. So it's just a housekeeping thing when we're doing some, you know, for the new year or whatever like that, um, you know, addressing it. Okay. Thank you. Jeff, nothing, Rayo? Nothing. I have nothing, nothing. Doug. Okay, all righty. So thank you, Michelle. And that is good advice. Um, and I'll try to do that tonight.