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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-03-04 Finance Committee MinutesTown of Reading Meeting Minutes B''� iHCOa*d"r Board - Committee - Commission - Council: Finance Committee Date: 2015 -03 -04 Building: Pleasant Street Senior Center Address: 49 Pleasant Street Purpose: General Business Attendees: Members - Present: Time: 7:00 PM Location: Great Room DECEIVED I OWN CLERK ; 2015103104 FINCOM Minutes Page 2 can be used the more revenue they will bring in as well. They have returned $600,000 in the past five years. Mr. LeLacheur said the next step will be to ask the Board of Selectmen on March 24th. He also wanted to make it known that the private money given to recreation is unbelievable, the community is very supportive. Ms. Perry said she thinks it is important for us to let the community know just how well the support is. Mr. McNeice asked if these are all the fields that need lighting or if there are more. Mr. Feudo said there are more but these are a good start for now. Mr. Dockser asked since there will be more lighting and more lights on for longer periods of time, how much will that affect how operating costs? Mr. Feudo said we will be switching to more efficient lights with this project however recreation is meeting on 17th to discuss that topic further. Mr. LeLacheur said it is a good area to invest in lights because it is not in a neighborhood so there won't be any disrupting homes. Mr. LeLacheur began to explain the budget and noted there is $898,000 in unfunded government requests. He said we need almost 20% more staffing. The RCASA grant was a huge help to the budget. FY17 budget will not be able to provide all the services we provide now at the current revenues. Mr. LeLacheur stated there has been no change in revenues since January and fixed costs are up 4 %. Assistant Town Manager Jean Delios noted that the Community Services Department is now being called Public Services. She also noted that she has 2 Assistant Department Heads, Jessie Wilson and John Feudo. Ms. Delios said the new program ViewPermit we are using has helped tremendously getting everyone on the same page and processing permits much quicker. Ms. Wilson worked long and hard on a Complete Streets Policy in which we are ranked 6th for. Town Meeting adopted the new Zoning Bylaw. Elder and Human services are currently working on a master plan for the large amount of seniors Reading will be dealing with in the near future. Ms. Delios noted the Regional Health Director and contract we had with Melrose and Wakefield has been terminated due to the lack of communication. It did not work for Reading because it is simply too much for one person to handle serving three communities. This will be the biggest reduction in the budget. Having someone full time will give us more service hours that we need. Veterans Services Officer position is going full time. We looked at regionalizing that position but didn't have any success because of lack of interest from other communities. Mr. Dockser asked if a regional Health Director that only dealt with 2 communities would work better? Ms. Delios said it is hard to say but it works for Wakefield and Melrose. Mr. LeLacheur commented regionalization is good but you need good partners and reliable staff. You also need to be picky with which positions you choose to regionalize because regionalization is not necessarily just about saving money but also to help offer better /more services. Barry Berman asked if there is a rebate for seniors on property taxes from the state and if the Town is actively advertising that so the seniors are aware of it? Elder Services Administrator Jane Burns answered yes we work with the assessor's office, it goes out in the newsletter and we advertise it at the senior center. Anika Scanlon, the Chair of the Conservation Commission, wanted to inform everyone that a full time Conservation Administrator would be greatly appreciated and is much needed because as of now, members of the Conservation Commission help fill in when the part time Administrator is not here. Page 1 2 Not much has changed in the Administrative the middle of hiring a department head. The have only corrected about one third of the Town Meeting because we have to mail out registered voter. 2015103104 FINCOM Minutes Page 3 Services Department except that they are in pay and class findings were surprising and we problem. There will be a $20,000 request at a new Charter to every household that has a Town Accountant Sharon Angstrom indicated the overall budget is up 3.7 %. The biggest increase came from the Assessors because the regional contract that we have with Wakefield went up. She also noted Finance expenses went up because of printing. Mr. LeLacheur noted Finance department is very busy because they deal with RMLD too as well as doing payroll for RMLD and the Schools. Police Chief Cormier, Deputy Chief Segalla, and Fire Chief Burns were present to discuss the Public Safety budget. Chief Cormier explained the Department just successfully went through a reorganization that included adding Deputy Chief Mark Segalla and he is pleased with the results. Chief Cormier stated he would like to add a second Resource Officer because of the recent substance abuse issues, bullying issues, and overall school safety. He said that request is not being funded but please keep it in mind because he will be asking for it again because it is important. They received a huge grant from RCASA for 5 years that was a huge help to their budget. Mr. Dockser asked if the second School Resource Officer would go into a middle school. Chief Cormier explained he has not figured out exactly where he would go, but both Officers would have a larger presence in all of the schools in hopes to stay on top of the drug issues we are experiencing. Mr. McNeice asked if other towns have multiple Officers. Chief Cormier said yes a lot of the towns around us have more than one Officer. Chief Cormier explained the increase in the Dispatch budget is because of two new full time personnel. He said they are looking into regionalization for Dispatch which seems like it will eventually happen but further down the road and not right now. We have a very good Dispatch system in Reading compared to our neighbors. Fire Chief Greg Burns explained the Department is looking into getting some reimbursement for some of the storms from the state. He has had no staffing changes. He is hoping to do a joint fire /police training next year. He noted he has three people out on injury, one vacancy for retirement, and two planned retirements coming up in the next couple months. Chief Burns said he is hoping to hire four new firefighters to get back to normal staffing. He also said he has a $21,000 capital request for new upgraded face masks. Mr. Moll asked if there was a way to get transfers to fill the four open spots to save money on training and putting new firefighters through the academy. Chief Burns said there is nowhere specifically to go and look for transfers, they usually just fall into place when a Firefighter needs to transfer, and the Chief would get a notice. Barry Berman asked if the Town has considered or talked about taking the Fire Department out of civil service like they did with the Police. Mr. LeLacheur said yes they have discussed it but both sides have just simply not been able to agree on everything. DPW Director Jeff Zager and Assistant DPW Director Joe Huggins were present to discuss the DPW budget. Mr. Zager started off thanking his staff for everything they have done this winter and all the long storms they worked. He noted there are not a lot of changes to the budget. There is a need to increase sidewalk construction and an increase for equipment Page 1 3 2015103104 FINCOM Minutes Page 4 repairs. There have been some staffing changes like the addition of Joe Huggins as Assistant Director. The classification plan upgraded one of his clerks to an Administrative Secretary. He lost three supervisors but has successfully filled those positions internally. Flower maintenance has been eliminated from the budget. The administration departments of Engineering and DPW are being combined to help better communication. There are 25 upcoming projects. The FY15 road paving program will begin in April and hopefully the West Street project, which was put on hold due to the weather, will be starting up again also in April. Our rubbish contract with JRM is ending next year and they have offered us an extension which we will be taking a look at. Mr. Zager said the budget is pretty well behaved except for snow and ice which is no surprise after the winter we had. Mr. Dockser asked if there was any way we can lock in these low gas prices. Mr. Zager said no that is something we go out to bid and contract for. Barry Berman asked if there was a benefit to going out to bid and looking at other options. better deal compared to signing a new cor probably do an RFP to check out others. extending the JRM trash contract rather than Mr. Zager explained the extension may be a tract with someone else, however they will Library Director Ruth Urell and Library Trustee Vicky Yablonsky were present to discuss the Library budget. Ms. Urell wanted to update everyone and say the library has a 90% activity level since the move. She noted there is a $28,000 increase in administration and a $3,000 increase for technology. Mr. Dockser asked why staffing is increasing if they are in a smaller space. Ms. Urell noted they are dealing with more complicated resources in technology and electronic use is way up but there is no drop in regular services so they require more training with these complex technological services needed. She also noted when they move into the new building it will be bigger and they will need the staff. Mr. Dockser asked if there were any opportunities for funding. Ms. Urell noted that all programming right now is funded completely with grants. Ms. Perry said there are a lot of young volunteers at the library and asked if the staff ever use them to help with learning new technology. Ms. Urell said yes they have seniors from the High School who come and sit one -on -one with adults and help them with technology and using the computers. Mr. McNeice made a motion to accept the minutes from 3anuary 14th, second by Ms. Perry and approved with an 8 -0 -0 vote. Ms. Perry made a motion to accept the minutes from 3anuary 21St, second by Mr. McNeice and approved with an 8 -0 -0 vote. Mr. Dockser noted the FINCOM Subcommittee should have a report soon about the RMLD investigation and they will report back to FINCOM as soon as they review it. Ms. Perry made a motion to adiourn at 10:00 PM second by Mr. McNeice and approved with an 8 -0 -0 vote. Respectfully submitted, Secretary 0 Page 1 4