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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFCMeetingMinutes_03.23.06 Finance Committee ("FinCom") Meeting Minutes March 23, 2006 Attendance: Vice Chairman Mike Batsimm was the only Finance Committee member not in attendance. Jack Watkins ("JW") arrived at 6:35 pm. Town Finance Director Linda Casey was present, as were citizens "B" Fink and Peter Reed. I. Call to Order: Chairman Mitchell ("CM") called the meeting to order at 6:30 pm. II. Minutes: A) March 16,2006: Paul Stewart ("PS")made a motion, seconded by Eva Hamori, to approve the minutes as provided in the handout. The motion passed, 6-0-2 with Melinda Coppa("MC") and Mark Nichols ("MN") abstaining. B) Public Hearing Comments, March 21, 2006: CM noted that the Town Warrant includes a report on the FinCom's Public Hearing and these comments will be the basis for the report. PS made a motion, seconded by MN, to approve the comments as amended by the Secretary. The motion passed, 6-0-1 with Steve Dawe ("SD") abstaining. III. Old Business: A) Budget Analysis—Initial Report: Mike Giarratano ("MG") confirmed that the line item detail provided by the Superintendent of Schools for Salaries and Wages adds up to the FY07 Recommended Budget. He distributed hard copies of the FY07 budget information he received and added he does have the FY06 documentation should anyone wish to see it. MG expressed concern that this information was still not available in electronic form. He noted when he first asked the Superintendent for the information he was told it was done manually. While he offered to download the information onto his flash drive, the information provided was still in paper form only. He reiterated his desire to have in electronic form as it would be easier to analyze. During liscussion, MG highlighted some interesting findings on the salaries side, stating teachers salaries averaged higher than the $42,000 estimated by the Superintendent. In addition, Special Education Assistants were averaging $20,000 per year leading him to conclude the benefits were the attraction for these people. The discussion shifted to the Electricity and Natural gas analysis provided by the School Department. MG focused on the usage rate at some schools which raised additional questions. MG plans on taking the Town Manager up on his invitation to come look at the bills directly to answer these issues. Based on the information at hand, MG believes there is a possibility to save six figures in the utilities line. SD then highlighted information he received from the Town Account which, as of March 17, showed FY06 SpEd year-to-date spending of$5.474 million with an additional $1.521 Encumbered and$1.0 million in salaries. This information leads him to believe SpEd will cost $7.0-$8.0 million in FY06; meaning the School Department will come under budget, similar to FY05 actual,by S1.0-S1.3 million. SD also added that his investigation into gas prices had $151MMBTU in December(when the budget was done) and is now at$71MMBTU; a 10% decrease from last year. A brief discussion ensued about future prices. The FinCom shifted the discussion to Professional Development. PS highlighted the fact that this line item is cut every year and the staff needs to have some form of Professional Development. SD then added that there are a number of Professional Development lines throughout the budget. Citizen"B" Fink highlighted the recent School Department handout, identifying $1.6million in budget overruns that had Encumber salaries exceeding the amount already expended. This did not make sense considering where we are in the year. MG expressed his view that he may recommend to cut spending elsewhere to avoid teacher layoffs. SD highlighted the philosophy of budgeting conservatively is the right choice unless you have to cut teacher. He expressed his view that he would rather have a good faith budget that has a more accurate estimate and avoid large layoffs. He added, if this time next year the numbers were off, then the town could have an override and blame the State for not funding enough. JW stated his desire not to micromanage the department budgets,but is willing to adjust budget estimates if the information supports a change. The FinCom began discussing how the Circuit Breaker Special Revenues fall into the budget calculation. SD said his estimate for under spending FY06 Sped is approximately$2.1 million, when adding Circuit Breaker into the equation. Circuit Breaker is an unanticipated reserve in the FY06 Budget and it resides only on the green sheets. The group discussed the philosophical change from budgeting conservatively FinCom Meeting Minutes, March 23, 2006 Page 2 III. Old Business: A) Budget Analysis—Initial Report: to budgeting closer to expected actual; similar to the change in revenue projections. It was noted that this approach presented by SD would actually give the State Representatives one more year to work on the funding and is just a short term solution. CM noted that all FinCom members have a problem with the School Department budget estimate and continue to have questions. MC added her frustration that the Circuit Breaker number used in the FY07 budget equals those amounts received in FY06 and assumes no increases due to the number of children exceeding the threshold; noting that the formula calculation for FY06 had an increase of 12 children. In addition, she added that Unanticipated SpEd costs have not exceeded $600,000; therefore, keeping the full amount in reserve is not necessary and may reduce the number of teacher layoffs. She also added that the inclusion of a FY06 forecast in the budget format would have helped stream line the review process and we should look to incorporate forecasted data into next years budget. JW proposed taking a different approach with the School Department. Instead of always requesting support information,he suggests we present our findings and have the School Department defend their numbers. Following a brief discussion,JW motioned CM to send a letter to School Committee Chairman Al Perry stating the data provide on the Budget Control Report#.122 (copy attached) indicates that the year end FY06 SpEd will be approximately$7.7--$8.0 million. Given that this is $1.041.3 million less than budget, we question the FY07Budget of$9.8 million; which appears $1.5 million more than necessary. Please provide an explanation and justify the FY07 estimate. A discussion ensued on whether we wanted to add a comment about Circuit Breaker monies. The members agreed to keep as is and the motion passed unanimously. The FinCom then heard Liaison reports from MN and MC. MN highlighted the issues at Youth Services and noted the fees will have to increase and will hurt those children that need the service; presently 136 kids attend using a scholarship. He also noted the cut in the Conservation department may have long term costs as the loss of the staff makes it more difficult to identify or monitor potentially hazardous items. MC summarized the issues raised from the cuts in staff by Town Clerk, Assistant Treasurer, MIS Administrator and Assessor: Interestingly she noted the MIS Administrator's request to put back the Assistant Treasurer. JW then ?rovided an explanation on an overtime budgeting error done in previous years for the Fire Department. B) Public Hearing Follow-up: CM announced he received favorable feed back from the Town Moderator. In response to a question raised about excluding senior citizen's from a Proposition 2 % override, PS noted he could not locate such a provision in Mass. General Law. C) FY2007 Recommended Budgets: The FinCom discussed the adoption of the Hopkinton Bill which would allow the Assessor to bill the full value of property after the issuance of an occupancy permit and the value increases more than 50%. MC recapped her discussion with the Assessor on this topic. She also noted the Town Manager will present an analysis to the Board of Selectmen and recommended waiting to review this information first. The discussion shifted to New Growth and the low estimate compared to historical amounts averaging around $900,000. MN went through a list of projects that were considered when the Revenue/Fixed Cost Review Committee established a $750,000 estimate. The only projects effecting FY07 new growth are the Eaglewood shops and CVS. PS made a motion, seconded by SD, to increase this estimate to $900,000. After a brief discussion, the FinCom passed the motion 5-1-2, with MN voting against and MC and Eva Hamori abstaining. The FinCom did discuss a possible $604,000 increase in Chapter 70 monies but is waiting to receive written confirmation from the State Representatives. A discussion then ensued on what type of information to include in the Warrant. The FinCom agreed to discuss this more next week_ IV. Adjournment: The FinCom will meet Wednesday, March 29 and Thursday, March 30 at 6:30PM. JW made a motion to adjourn at 9:07pm. MN gave a second to the motion and all members voted unanimously in favor of adjourning. Approved: Vote: X: