Chris Shipps, Director of Human Resources, and administration staff briefed the Town Council on May 5 about the FY26 HR proposal, which they described as roughly level-funded across administration, benefits, veterans' benefits, and celebrations programs. Shipps said the administration trimmed a mid-year vacant payroll supervision position and instead reallocated responsibilities, explaining part of the year-over-year variance in administrative lines.

Shipps and administration staff emphasized two long-term cost drivers: pension contributions and health-insurance expenses. They said the town requested and obtained a one-year extension on the retirement-system funding schedule to smooth a projected fiscal spike; as a result, pension year-over-year increases have been set at about 7.1% in the funding schedule, lowering a steeper near-term budget impact.

On health care, staff explained that most activity is managed through the town's medical trust fund (the health-insurance trust). The town appropriates the general-fund share into that trust; the trust also receives contributions from employees, retirees, enterprise funds, and stop-loss/rebate recoveries. Administration described a plan to reset a reserve policy for the trust and target a 20% to 25% reserve balance going forward. Staff noted the trust started FY25 with a reserve level of roughly 54% of projected net expenses, giving the town capacity to moderate FY26 appropriations while maintaining prudent reserves. The presentation assumed an 8% baseline growth rate for the medical-trust expenses in multi-year forecasts.

Shipps told the council that the town has held health-premium increases to about 5% in the recent yearnoting that other communities faced double-digit increases. Councilors asked for public access to trust balances and forecasts; staff said the information is included in the town's annual financial reports and bond/disclosure documents and offered to prepare a clearer, public-facing forecast for council review.

The HR briefing also covered veterans' benefits, where staff said current spending trends were lower than FY25 projections and that the Veterans' Service Officer position remained open and under active recruitment. Councilors expressed interest in stronger outreach to younger veterans to ensure available benefits are used.