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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-11-01 Finance Committee Minutes TOWN OF NORTH ANDOVER FINANCE COMMITTEE Meeting Minutes Meeting Date November 1, 2016 Meeting Location: North Andover Police Station Bill Callahan, BC, Chairman X Sasha Weinreich, SW X Jennifer Goldman, JG, Vice Chair X Divya Bhatnagar, DB X Karin Blake, KB Angela Ciofolo, AC X Thomas Ringler, TR X Chris Nobile, CN X Timothy Tschirhart, X Liz Gerron, LG 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. Discussion starts on or about 6:47pm/000:25 on video time BC: Greatest cost we have in the town is with Personnel and when you throw in the benefits, salaries, wages, and pensions it probably is 70%plus. There is a Town Personnel Policy, but it applies to non union employees. Everything else is contained in the Collective Bargaining agreements. The Town employees about 700 people most of it is on the school side. We should think of it as the entire town as one entity. JG: Asked what is our goal for doing this; is it to understand staffing in more detail as it pertains to the budget and the staffing cost? BC: Responded it is how the Personnel Policy and contracts support our Fiscal goals. BC: Went on to say that he talked to Andrew Maylor and Maylor explained how positions get created and it usually is a year to year thing. BC: Most of the part-timers are in the library and if they work 18.5 hours or less they are not entitled to benefits and vesting. BC: I don't think we are going to get answers that are going to move numbers. 1 November 1,2016 TT: If you are going to do synergy to save money, the smart thing to do is to focus in on where you want your savings to go towards, such as in investing this savings. JG and TT spoke of various questions that they could put together regarding the Personnel Policy. CN: The purpose of this discussion is to have transparency and how employment impacts the overall finance of the town. Also, how two departments in the Town have lost positions and others Town departments gained positions. SW: Asked how do we stack up against our neighboring towns, and are we attracting the best talent for these positions, and are we getting the most for our dollar. CN: Those are great question SW and those should be questions that we should address to the HR Director. The Committee discussed shared services such as IT, Facilities and Accounting. CN: A question that could be asked is, if you skip ahead 10 years what efficiencies among or across the departments would you want to have to support one another. TR: Spoke of increasing productivity, reorganizing and combing departments. JG: I think it is important to communicate that we are not out to say that they should be cutting staff, but it is more a fiscal responsibility of thinking about staff and the big picture, and we should preface whatever set of questions we have with that. CN: Talked of outsourcing and what does the Town think of it. November 15th meeting is cancelled, but we will meet December 6th. Public Comment No public comments i����X� TT: Made a motion to adjourn CN: Second the motion All in Favor I ho R 201 *1. A Tale of two cities pension policies *2. Personnel issues of discussion (BC) * Hard copy/also on Google drive 2 November 1,2016