2026-10-05 - Board of Finance
Summary
Written by Claude from the auto-generated captions of a short recording that begins mid-sentence; names and figures may be misheard.
- The Board of Finance met Monday, October 5, 2026, beginning at 5:32 p.m. and adjourned at 5:45 p.m. The agenda and consent agenda were approved; no one spoke in public forum.
- Annual Capital Improvement Bond Authorization was the only deliberative item. The finance department asked for authority to borrow the usual $7 million annual amount: $2 million for general fund capital needs and $2 million for the school district, with the remainder for the airport, which borrows under the city's stronger credit rating. A last round of the $20 million general obligation note authorized two years ago is also planned.
- Uses cited for the annual borrowing included a fuel depot at 645 Pine, police station HVAC, the local match for the Winooski bridge, software and project management, design planning for a community health and safety building, ramp work at fire stations, and $100,000 for North Champlain Street transportation planning.
- The resolutions, prepared by bond counsel, let the administration accept interest rates up to 7%; staff said they do not expect rates that high but want to move now to limit exposure to market volatility.
- In response to a councilor's question, staff said debt service on bonds sold this year is not due until fiscal 2028, so it is not in the fiscal 2027 tax rate. Staff promised to send the council tax-impact and spending details.
- On a motion by Councilor Barlo, seconded by Councilor Bergman as captioned, the board voted unanimously to approve and recommend that the City Council waive the reading.
Sources
Video
Transcript
These are auto-generated captions; names and numbers may be misheard.
Transcript
00:00meeting on Monday, October 5th, 2026 at
00:035:32 p.m. And our first item is the
00:05agenda. Is there a motion on the agenda?
00:09>> Moved by councelor Carpenter,
00:12>> second by councelor Barlo.
00:14>> Yes.
00:14>> Any discussion before we vote?
00:18Seeing none, all in favor indicate by
00:19saying I.
00:20>> I.
00:21>> Any oppose? Nay. Motion carries. Thank
00:24you. Our second item is the public forum
00:26for board of finance. It is our practice
00:28to go first in the room. members of the
00:30public and then online. Not seeing any
00:32members of the public staff. So, we will
00:35go online and
00:38>> are we for real?
00:40>> Okay. Maybe our time change has
00:45attendee
00:50public.
00:57>> Usually she will make comments upstairs.
01:01She wants us to know that we miss her.
01:02She's just watching afar. Um okay. Well,
01:06then if they're here to address the
01:07board of finance, I will close public
01:09forum and we'll move on to the consent
01:11agenda. Is there a motion on the consent
01:12agenda?
01:25Consent agenda is not it's as
01:28consent agenda take the action.
01:31>> Thank you councelor seconded by
01:33councelor. Thank you. Any discussion on
01:35the consent agenda before
01:38seeing none all in favor indicate by
01:40saying I oppose nay. Motion carries
01:44unanimously. On to our one and only item
01:47on the deliberative agenda which is item
01:494.1 of our department of finance
01:51administration which is the
01:52authorization for capital improvement
01:54bond to student public
02:02our
02:05time to sell the kind of known bonds or
02:09bonds that we've had in the queue.
02:13Um, by that I mean we do annual
02:16borrowing in the amount of $7 million
02:20every year
02:24that is authorized uh for us to take up.
02:26This year we are proposing that we do go
02:30forth to borrow 7 million 2 million of
02:33that um is to go towards our general
02:38fund or city capital improvement needs.
02:43um
02:443 million goes to be. We allow them to
02:49borrow under our debt cut under our
02:54banner, if you will, because uh we have
02:56a higher credit rate as the whole city
03:01and $2 million
03:03um is also available for school
03:07district. And much of this, if not all
03:11of these dollars, go towards the
03:15maintenance of the
03:19various facilities and assets that need
03:22to be maintained.
03:24Um, I do have a list uh which I'll get
03:28to and I'll try to
03:31forward to the group I suppose because
03:34it might be easier to look at. Um,
03:38in addition to our annual borrowing, we
03:41are doing the,
03:44I believe, last round of the
03:48$20 million general obligation note that
03:51was passed
03:53two years ago. So, the second round,
03:56there'll be one more in the upcoming
03:59fiscal year. Um that is
04:03all planned usage to go towards
04:09public art.
04:12some towards 645 Pine, specifically a
04:15fuel depot and uh the police station
04:19HVAC
04:22streaming u makes up another large
04:26portion of it nearly $4 million of that
04:296.5 million. The Wooki Bridge local
04:33match is 1.2 2 million
04:36and
04:40that makes up the entirety of the 6.5
04:43million bond in the annual amount. uh
04:48which really um is uh directed towards
04:53maintenance or current construction
04:55process would be for uh a couple of
05:00software items,
05:03project management costs and the
05:08planning around a potential design phase
05:12one and two of the community health and
05:15safety billing uh building as as well as
05:18uh ramp work at fire stations 1, four,
05:23and five.
05:25And the remaining $100,000
05:28would be going towards transportation
05:31planning of the
05:33North Champlain PDL phase 2.
05:37Um
05:40for
05:41just some general context, we ask the
05:44board of finance and the city council
05:46for the authority to pledge the credit
05:49of the city in these amounts. The
05:52resolutions attached um are prepared by
05:55our bond council which is uh Thomas
05:58Maloney at PFC and the actual selling of
06:04the bonds is uh under the operation of
06:09our investment advisor PFM.
06:12[clears throat]
06:12Um and we put in our memo and in the
06:17resolution itself that we have the
06:22essentially the board of finance, city
06:24council is allowing the authority of uh
06:28us the city administration to accept
06:32bond prices up to 7%.
06:35Um, we do not expect that high of an
06:40interest rate to come across our door,
06:44but as a result of current market
06:46conditions, which is also the reason why
06:49I believe um we are hoping to go current
06:53tonight is the sort of out there, the
06:56less exposure we have to um the general
06:59overall market
07:02volatility that
07:04entire country is experiencing right
07:06now. Um,
07:09councelor Bergman, I was just trying to
07:12um get to the specific tax implications
07:16we do. I will make a note of that uh for
07:20our future
07:22kind of recurring ask which this is. So,
07:24we'll include that information in the
07:27memo for next year. But I will have to
07:29quickly follow up with you just two
07:31minutes from now about what that actual
07:34taxation would be in this meeting
07:37>> or not possibly. I mean this is the only
07:39item. So the item might adjourn uh
07:43before I'm able to give you I apologize.
07:46I I uh saw the
07:51what the uses are but I just the other
07:53question.
07:55Not a problem. I I think that that
07:57information should go to
07:59>> Sure. Ask the board council.
08:02I appreciate
08:03>> Yeah.
08:05Ask.
08:07>> Oh, good.
08:08>> Is the tax implication already embedded
08:10in the task tax that we asked for?
08:14>> I mean, it is
08:17to the ex um because these items are
08:20recurring and they're the same numbers
08:22that we asked for last year.
08:25They are
08:29you could get to the numbers but no the
08:31the dollars themselves aren't included
08:33in the debt service that we asked for
08:35for the fiscal year 27 budget.
08:38>> What would happen is we would sell the
08:39bonds this year.
08:40>> Yeah.
08:41>> And our debt service wouldn't be due
08:42until fiscal 28.
08:44>> So the similar action that we took
08:47>> the previous year.
08:49>> Okay. those amounts are included in the
08:51debt service calculation uh for the tax
08:54rate in fiscal year 27. So it's always a
08:57year behind.
08:58>> Okay.
09:00>> Do we use the bond bank or privately
09:02place these or
09:03>> we uh it depends a little but um I
09:08believe these won't
09:11I couldn't speak to what these will be.
09:13I don't know what the market will
09:14dictate but it can be
09:18>> anything else counselor
09:21>> actually I'm just curious under
09:27>> that I would have to get back to you on
09:30um the uh folks at that at PF to take
09:36care of those things and I can't recall
09:37if they do their own underwriting they
09:41have
09:44I just
09:48>> any other questions or comments on this
09:50item?
09:52>> I want to thank you just for being
09:55responsive to that. I got confused when
09:57I read it. I
09:59proceeded to ask questions.
10:02Good questions.
10:04>> The first meeting
10:07that's what we're here for. Okay. Any
10:10further comments before there might be a
10:11motion?
10:15I would move to approve and recommend
10:17that the council wave the reading
10:21related to the FY27.
10:24>> Thank you, Councelor Barlo. Is there a
10:25second?
10:27>> Second.
10:27>> Second by councelor Burkeman. Thank you.
10:29Any final discussion before we vote?
10:31just to have not only the tax
10:33implications but then what the spending
10:36is going to go for you know
10:41would be part
10:42>> yeah and it'll be good for you to have
10:44that information I just read out what it
10:47is but
10:48>> exact I think very important people
10:53why this is important
10:57>> if I might ask to send that to the
10:59council
11:00upstairs. So hopefully taking action
11:02upstairs as well.
11:04>> All right. See no further comments. I
11:09will call questions. So all in favor
11:10indicate by saying I.
11:11>> I.
11:12>> If those nay. Motion carries
11:14unanimously. Thank you.
11:16And with no other items on the board of
11:19agenda, I will adjourn the meeting at
11:2154.
11:28>> 5:45. not get used to that.
11:34>> I run it pretty
11:46[music]
11:57>> [music]
12:03[music]
12:14[music]
12:15>> Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey.