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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFCMeetingMinutes_11.21.02 APPROVED FINANCE COMMITTEE MINUTES November 21,2002 Meeting ATTENDANCE: The following members were present: Jack Watkins, Chairman,Bernice Fink,Vice Chairman, Paul Stewart, Steve Dawe, Keith Mitchell,Mark Nichols,Melinda Coppa,Paula Porten and Mike Batsimm. Also present were Finance Director Chuck Benevento and Susan Donato, a North Andover resident. CALL TO ORDER: Jack called the meeting to order at 7:03 PM. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES: The approval of the November 14 Minutes was deferred until the next FinCom meeting. At Jack's request,the FinCom agreed to change the order of the Agenda items and begin the meeting with Old Business,Warrant Articles. OLD BUSINESS Article 1: Appropriate from Free Cash to Public Works,Expenses: To see if the Town will vote to appropriate from Free Cash, an additional$75,000 to Fixed Expenses,Unemployment Expenses, for current fiscal year; or take any other action relative thereto. After a brief discussion,Paul MOVED to recommend favorable action on Article 1, seconded by Jack and voted unanimously. Article 2: Appropriate from Free Cash to Public Works, Expenses; To see if the Town will vote to appropriate from Free Cash, an additional $40,000 to Public Works,Expenses for the current fiscal year, (Street Light Expenses); or take any other action relative thereto. Paul MOVED to recommend favorable action on this Article as long as the Town Meeting Motion does not contain the parenthesized expression"(Street Light Expenses)". Keith seconded and it passed unanimously. Article 3: Aro riate from Free Cash to General Government Ex enses: To see if the Town will vote to appropriate from Free Cash, an additional $20,000 to General Government, Expenses for the current fiscal year(Veteran's benefits); or take any other action relative thereto. Paul MOVED to recommend favorable action on Article 3 as long as the Town Meeting Motion does not contain the parenthesized expression"(Veteran's benefits)". Keith seconded and the Article passed unanimously. Article 4: Appropriate from Free Cash to Public Safety,Personnel: To see if the Town will vote to appropriate from Free Cash,an additional $10,000 to Public Safety,Personnel for the current fiscal year (Communications Officer's contract); or take any other action relative thereto. Keith MOVED to recommend favorable action on Article 4. Paula seconded and the vote passed unanimously. Article 5: Appropriate from Overlay Surplus to Fixed Expenses,Liability Insurance: To see if the Town will vote to appropriate from Overlay Surplus,an additional $93,000 to Fixed Expenses,Liability Insurance,for current fiscal year; or take any other action relative thereto. Keith MOVED to recommend favorable action on Article 5 as is. Mike seconded and it passed unanimously Article 6:Apprgpriate from Free Cash and Overla Spolus to Reserve Fund: To see if the Town will appropriate from Free Cash, $172,000 and from Overlay Surplus an additional $158,000 to General Government, Finance Committee Reserve Fund for the current fiscal year(potential snow&ice and special education deficits); or take any other action relative thereto. Paul MOVED that the FinCom vote to approve this Article only if the text of the Motion made at Town Meeting makes no mention of the purposes to which this money may(or may not)be put. And further,the Finance Committee notes that the total that will be in the Finance Committee Reserve with the passage of this Article is still insufficient to pay anticipated snow and ice and special education deficits, much less any other extraordinary or unforeseen expenses for which this reserve is intended. Paula seconded the MOTION as revised,and the vote passed unanimously. Article 7: Transfer from Salary Reserve to Personnel Line Items: To see if the Town will vote to transfer $470,450 from General Government Salary Reserve to the following Fiscal Year 2003 budget Iine items: General Government Personnel: $135,044 Public Safety Personnel: $264,548 Public Works Personnel: $ 70,858 Or take any other action relative thereto. Keith MOVED to recommend favorable action on Article 7 as written. Paula seconded and the group voted unanimously. Article 8: Aro riate from Overlay Su lus to General Government Ex enses: To see if the Town will vote to appropriate from Overlay Surplus, an additional$62,756.38 to General Government Expenses (Assessors Expenses)for the current fiscal year; or take any other action relative thereto. Keith MOVED to recommend favorable action on this Article as written. Paula seconded and it passed by unanimous vote. Article 9: Borrowing Authorization—Johnson Circle Sanitga Sewer Pmping Station Sewer Enterprise Fund): To see if the Town will vote to authorize the treasurer/collector, with the approval of the Board of Selectmen to borrow under the provisions of Chapter 44 of the Massachusetts General Laws or any other authority an amount of$90,000 to be spent under the direction of the Town Manager for the purpose of providing additional funding for the replacement of the Johnson Circle Sanitary Sewer Pumping Station; or take any other action relative thereto. Keith MOVED and"B" seconded to recommend favorable action on this Article. Chuck explained that there was a question as to whether the parenthesized expression in the title was meaningful and suggested that the wording should be put into the Motion. On the basis of that understanding, the vote was unanimous. Article 10: Prior Years Unpaid Bills: To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate, transfer from available funds or otherwise provide a sum or sums of money for the purpose of paying unpaid bills from prior years of the Town; or take any other action relative thereto. Keith MOVED for favorable action on this Article. Jack seconded and the vote was unanimous. The FinCom then noted that Articles 11, 12 and 13 do not require this committee's authorization. Article 14: Acquisition of Land—English Circle: To see if the Town will authorize the Board of Selectmen to acquire by gift,purchase or eminent domain approximately 1,842 square feet of land being shown as Parcel "X" on a plan of land entitled"Subdivision Plan, English Circle in North Andover, Mass., drawn for Gene L. English, Scale 1"=40', dated August 1989,revised September 1989, Merrimack Engineering Services", which said plan is recorded with Essex 2 North District Registry of Deeds as Plan No. 11878 and to award no damages for said eminent domain taking; or take any other action relative thereto. The FinCom had a lengthy discussion concerning the acquisition of land by eminent domain approximately by Town Manager Rees at the previous meeting, opens the Town up to unlimited liability if the owner challenges the amount proffered. With the understanding that this particular acquisition is a friendly transaction,the group agreed to make no recommendation on Article 14. Article 15: Land Acquisition—Great Pond Road Adjacent to Water Treatment Plant Water Enterprise Fund): To see if the Town will authorize the Board of Selectmen to acquire by gift, purchase or eminent domain approximately 53,250 square feet of land adjacent to the North Andover Water Treatment Plant located on Great Pond Road and more fully described on a plan on file with the Town Clerk's Office labeled"Site Plan, Figure 1,North Andover Water Treatment Plan prepared by Weston& Sampson Engineers,Inc. dated October 2001, and to award damages in an amount not to exceed$30,000 for said eminent domain taking and, furthermore, said$30,000 be raised and appropriated from the Water Enterprise Fund; or take any other action relative thereto. Paul noted that here again the Town opens itself up to unlimited financial liability except that this case is worse in that the Manager has said that the owner is opposed to this transaction. Paul noted that this is 1.2 acres of waterfront property; possibly not the best location in North Andover but still worth a whole lot more than$30,000, and to approve this Article is to implicitly open the Town to a lot more than$30K of liability. With that in mind, Paul MOVED that the Finance Committee recommend that the Selectmen work with the owner to agree on a price or with legal counsel to find a way to put a reasonable bound around our liability and that the Selectmen then come back to the next Town Meeting with a request for that amount; and that the FinCom recommend unfavorable action on this Article at this time. The hope was expressed that the selectmen might reach an agreement with the owner or clarify this Article before the Town Meeting. Jack stated that it was a good thing for the Selectmen and the Townspeople,possibly through a newspaper article, to consider this Article and how much the Town needs this property. He expressed the possibility that, if the Finance Committee recommended unfavorable action on this Article at this time,thereby preventing it from being considered by the Special Town Meeting, that this would undesirably stunt debate. Paul noted that simply having the Unfavorable Motion on the table would provide an incentive to clarify and justify the Article before the Town Meeting. MOVED to table this Article, seconded by Mike and that MOTION passed unanimously. Article 16: Petition to State Legislature-Prohibition of Alcoholic Beverage License to Adult Entertainment Businesses: To see if the Town will vote instruct the Town's Representatives to the General Court to file a Horne Rule Petition to prohibit the Town of North Andover from 3 issuing any alcoholic beverage license for any premises or establishment at which adult entertainment is conducted or occurs; or take any action relative thereto. The group agreed to abstain from voting on Article 16. Article 17: Acceptance of Massachusetts General Laws Cha ter 40 Section 22F—Setting of License Fees and Service Charges. To see if the Town will vote to adopt Massachusetts General Law Chapter 40, Section 22F, "License Fees—Services Charges"; or take any other action relative thereto. Paul MOVED that the Finance Committee approve and recommend this Article as providing necessary and desirable financial flexibility to the Town"but there was no second. Discussion of the effect of the Article and various similar provisions ensued. Keith recommended the FinCom vote on this Article at Town Meeting. Keith volunteered to call counsel to clarify some issues. Free Cash Based on discussions at the previous meeting, Paul made a MOTION to recommend that the CPA pay interest to the General Fund in the amount that the General Fund could have earned on that money at the time,AND the Finance Committee recommends similar treatment in all cases where the interest on a loan between the General Fund,the CPA, or any Enterprise Fund(s) equals or exceeds $1,000. Keith MOVED to accept Paul's motion to amend. The FinCom voted in favor(Steve and Keith opposed, Paul abstained). The amended motion passed by a vote of 5-2-1. School Department Administrative Offices The School Department requires separate space for the Administrative Offices. The SBAB does not reimburse municipalities for expenditures on Administrative Offices. The FinCom discussed different options for office space. A discussion then ensued on the Bradstreet School. Steve said he was uncomfortable with the decision to close the Bradstreet School. Jack said he would call Dan Murphy to organize a tour of North Andover schools. The FinCom agreed that a tour would furnish members with a better understanding of current school issues. The Finance Committee agreed that their next meeting would be one hour before the start of the Special Town Meeting. , FY04 Budget Calendar There are no changes to the Budget Calendar. School Security Installations Susan Donato, a North Andover resident, asked whether the Finance Committee would grant the School Department additional funds for security installations. After a brief discussion,the Committee stated that it has received no formal request for such funds but that the School Department has the right to use funds from elsewhere in its budget without any action by the Finance Committee or the Town Meeting for security installations if it so chooses. 4 Finance Director's Comments Chuck Benevento asked the FinCom what the group wanted for the required"department budget requests". Based on Chuck's assurance that the "department requests"which are included in the Town Manager's budget recommendation document were the request received,not some negotiated modified request,the Committee asked Chuck to give them a brief summary as he receives the requests from the departments. There was also a discussion of whether the Manager's budget should be in a new format specified by the Finance Committee. it was.noted that B Fink had discussed a revised budget format at the previous meeting. Paul,however, recalled that Jack said that the newest members of the FinCom(Melinda, Mark and Mike) are best suited for budget analysis due to their professional experience and had hoped that they would take a crack at a revised budget. Chuck then distributed the Tax Rate Analysis for FY2002. He then gave the group a memo and report from the Town Accountant, Lyne Savage. At this time, Jack Watkins left the meeting. Vice Chairman Bernice Fink then assumed the chair. NEW BUSYNESS ATFC Meeting Report Mike Batsimm and Mark Nichols attended the ATFC'seminar last week. Each made comments on the benefits of attending such a conference. The FinCom received copies of the ATFC Handbook(in a new CD format). Financial Policies (Bernice Fink) B led a short discussion of the Town's Financial Policies but the discussion was deferred until a later meeting when Chuck pointed out that B had not noticed several changes (on a separate later page)to the policies she had started to discuss. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business,Keith made a MOTION, seconded by Melinda,to adjourn the meeting. The vote passed unanimously to adjourn the meeting at 9:40 PM. 5