HomeMy WebLinkAboutFCMeetingMinutes_01.07.15
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TOWN OF NORTH ANDOVER
FINANCE COMMITTEE
Meeting Minutes
Meeting Date January 7, 2015
nd
Meeting Location: 2 floor Conf Room
Bill Callahan, BC Chairman Susan Almono SA
X X
Marta Solof MS Timothy Tschirhart TT
X X
Karin Blake KB Liz Gerron LG
X X
Thomas Ringler TR
X
Chris Nobile CN Pat Sifferlen, PS, Admin
X X
Donald Elliot DE Vice Chair
X
Non FinCom Members in Attendance
OTHERS: LS,RS,AM
Note: All FINCOM votes are subject to change upon receipt of new information.
Note: Documents used in this meeting are listed in Document Table, herein.
II. Previous Minutes Approved
December 10, 2014
Motion by KB2 nd by
LG to approve
minutes as presented
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ESCO DISCUSSION
AGENDA B
KB gives ESCO overview for new members We have a guarantee with an ESCO. Town signs a
contract. ESCO has to sign guarantee that the town will get a return on its investment to at least
cover the cost of changing over lighting and heating system.
2012 Town Meeting Finance Committee was not ready to give recommendation for ESCO there
were long recovery periods. Town meeting did not pass.
Following year, new plan had shortened recovery periods especially for lighting. Boilers had to be
replaced, steam traps. 17 buildings all together. Trimmed down to $4. 1 million. Fincom
approved this project to be done by an ESCO. 2013 Town Meeting it passed. We are now 18
months into it and would like to know our savings.
RS: reads email sent to BC about energy contracts for electric and natural gas to answer questions
about rising cost of energy. We are in a consortium with CREST. Contract runs thru December
2015 cost is 8.5 cents per kw hour looking into bids for 12-24 months beyond this period. The
consortium with natural gas runs thru Oct 2015 Solicited bids and have executed a two year
contract beginning Nov 2015-Oct. 2017 at a cost of 9.634 per DTH.
Gives brief summary of what an ESCO is. In 2012 Town signed with AMERESCO.
Projects reduced to 3.4 Million for Schools and 678K for municipal projected annual savings is
$287110 for schools and 678K for municipal. Payback period is less than 11 years.
2 Significant changes 1) process included open bidding by 3 different companies. 2) mark-up
would be based on actual cost of that measure, .not estimate
Based on changes actual cost of all projects was 3.8 million a savings of 250K. In addition to
rebates of 445K final cost of ESCO project will be approximately 3.5 Million.
Project to be completed in 13 months.
KB Can you give us a number for utilities cost reduction for this year.
KR 287K for schools and 678K for municipal we believe that will be higher.
LG Who tracks Savings.
RS dual system we have someone on board and Ameresco has someone because every year need
to file report with DOR
Buildings are monitored, daily reports read by Facilities Manager.
DE: Savings from schools will that be used to pay bond?
RS: Town Manager announced that he is going to allow each department to maintain their savings.
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Agenda E New Business
No new business
IV. Next Meetings
January 14, 2015
V. Adjournment-
Motion: DE Unanimous
Seconded: LG Time: 9:00
TYPE FROM TO SUBJECT COMMENTS
ITEM #
1 CIP book Town Manager
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Agenda C Review and Discuss CIP with Town Manager
AM Capital plan for fiscal 16-fiscal 20 What you see from year to year even though a five year plan is
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what you see in previous years. Tell departments to look ahead to the next 5-7 years. Very comparable to
Last year.
Emphasis to maintain fiscal stability/sustainability is to make sure debt services at or below 5%
FY 16 is at 4.1% total debt payments compared to revenue within our budgets this is low and not
Expected to maintain in the long term. Over entire 5 year plan on the general side we do not
exceed 5%.
Couple notable projects
1)800K to replace turf fields at high school notable because we developed a stabilization fund
With the ability to put dollars aside to start thinking about maintaining and replacing our
Assets.
2)Atkinson School roof replacement when was the capital plan actually assumed we would
Change one of our assets four years in advance.
The center piece of all of this is Facilities Master plan a 25million dollar investment in our assets.
Mentioned there is a Facilities Master plan2
Recommended $6 million in street and sidewalk improvements.
Getting funding from CPC for parks and playgrounds. Every playground will eventually get something
Investment in technology with School department and throughout town and upgrade public safety
reporting system.
The recommended CIP for FY16-FY20 is $35,344.390 with $27,495,390 of this is dedicated to general fund,
$6,449,000 for projects in the Water Enterprise Fund and $1,400,000 for the Sewer Enterprise Fund.
$5,266,000 will be funded from outside sources
DE: DPW building was that on original facilities?
AM : we review master plan on an annual basis to decide if next project makes sense. Next project was
school classrooms they were not ready for that. Changed order DPW building is priority over senior
center. Did not change commitment to senior center there is just a priority for DPW.
BC Does the School Building Committee do they make reports on their analysis of school needs?
AM space needs/enrollments would be done by Jim Mealey.
SA Can you give process about upgrade/renovation of DPW building. So much money to upgrade when
we may not want them there for very long.
AM Nature of construction is different Cost of replacement based on the data is substantial. We would
need to buy land. More expensive for town to buy land. This renovation may give us 15-20 years on site.
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Agenda D Discuss and Vote on Finance Committee Guidelines for Budget Presentation
BC: what we will be expecting in budget presentation. Do we need to make additions and deletions?
TT Does Lyne sees anything that is unnecessary?
LS most items are within budget document. Will help outline items as to where you can find in budget
Book
TT Critical part is lining up what was approved in 2015 budget comparing that to where we end up going
into FY2016 so we can see apples to apples.
LS Transfer between line items, you can see within budget book. There is the actual operating budget, and
then the adjusted budget, bottom line remains same but you can see any movement within lines.
Money?
AM: money would end up in shuffle of line items. Lyne reviews department reports and if it is left to
Long she looks to move. To cover large expenses like snow and ice.
BC reads introduction of draft document.
CN there are groups of departments and there are hundreds of communities within the state that have
Comparable departments are there a way to ask how they benchmark themselves. How do we see
Ourselves? Are we best in class middle of class. As taxpayers what are we getting back
SA: I think it is a great question. How should the department look? what are the best practices for each
Department?
AM: Some of this if you go into that level of detail will not fit in budget deliberation. If you include
School department it would be a four meeting discussion.
LG Have we checked the Mass. Municipal Association.? I will be glad to look into this and see if other
communities benchmark.
KB when you sit down with department heads what are you asking?
AM When we sit down with BOS they give us a list of items they want focused on. I give these items to
dollars I give them a percentage
make sure goals are aligned with BOS strategic plan and let them decide how they are going to spend.
BC Should we circulate some more thoughts for next meeting?
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