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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-09-16 Finance Committee MinutesFR f ' 0 639: ]NCORpO� Town of Reading Meeting Minutes Board - Committee - Commission - Council: Finance Committee Date: 2015 -09 -16 Time: 7:30 PM 1�L;;E Iv E U RUTPIIINU� A I Irics. j 21 AID 23' Building: School - Coolidge Location: Conference Room Address: 89 Birch Meadow Drive Purpose: Financial Forum Session: Attendees: Members - Present: Chairman Mark Dockser, Vice Chair Paul McNeice, Paula Perry, Peter Lydecker, Marc Moll, Craig Merry, David Neshat, Vanessa Alvarado, Anne Landry Members - Not Present: Others Present: Town Manager Bob LeLacheur, Town Accountant Sharon Angstrom, Superintendent of Schools John Doherty, Facilities Director Joe Huggins, Assistant DPW Director Jane Kinsella, Director of Finance of Schools Martha Sybert, School Committee Members Linda Snow Dockser, Chuck Robinson, Elaine Webb, Gary Nihan, Jeanne Borawski and Julianne Joyce, Selectmen Kevin Sexton, Dan Ensminger and Barry Berman, Administrative Assistant Caitlin Saunders, Nancy Docktor, Bill Brown and Stephen Crook. Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Topics of Discussion: Chairman Mark Dockser called the meeting to order right after 7:30 PM. Chairman Chuck Robinson called the School Committee to order. Town Manager Bob LeLacheur explained that he and Superintended John Doherty have been talking about restructuring the Facilities Department. The restructuring would consist of creating a new Town Facilities Department that would be overseen by the Facilities Director and Supervised by both the Superintendent and Town Manager. The Town budget will increase with facilities being added. Number wise, nothing will change with facilities, it will just be where it is shown in the budget. The Town added an Assistant Facilities Director position and another custodian. The new line M1 in the proposed FY16 will need to be voted on since it is truly shared costs. Joe Huggins is going back to his position as Facilities Director and will answer to Mr. LeLacheur and Dr. Doherty. Chairman Dan Ensminger called the Board of Selectmen to order at 7:45 PM. Mr. LeLacheur then explained the changes being proposed to November Town Meeting under Article 5. The Article proposed a net increase of $977,250 to the FY16 budgets. A total of $478,250 of Capital is being requested for technology and DPW equipment. An addition of $150,000 is being requested for FINCOM reserves in case the modular classrooms exceed their budget. Ongoing legal expenses in the amount of $75,000 are being requested for RMHS litigation. There is a transfer request of $25,000 from the Permits Revolving Fund to Public Services to complete the Hazard Mitigation Planning work. The last Page 1 1 2015 -09 -16 FINCOM Minutes Page 2 request of the total is $88,000 for consulting help for the Assessor's tri- annual revaluation. All of those expenses would be one -time. Mr. LeLacheur stated the Town and Schools are agreeing to share one more Human Resources person. Mr. Ensminger suggested using a graph to present this to Town Meeting. The meeting then talked about Article 5 which would be to see if Town Meeting will vote to amend the Town's Operating Budget. Line B99 would reduce the benefits cost. Technology would be using a large chunk for a shared disaster recovering system with the school and a phone project. Line G91, Administrative Services Wages, the Business Analyst position is being upgraded to a Procurement Officer. Mr. LeLacheur said the sewer projects came in higher than expected. Mr. Robinson asked what free cash is and Mr. LeLacheur said to subtract $850k from what the free cash number is today. He also noted it is possible we may use a little less depending on how the tax rates are set up. Ms. Alvarado asked where the money to fund all these new positions will come from next year after the initial money we use from free cash. Mr. LeLacheur noted they will go into the budget next year because they are reoccurring costs. Ms. Alvarado then asked when all the projects we weren't able to do, get done, what will that do to free cash. Mr. LeLacheur said we will have to do less in those years. Ms. Alvarado asked when the committee will be able to see the free cash number. Ms. Angstrom said hopefully in October. Bill Brown asked if the new Facilities Director will have any impact on the new Assistant DPW Director position and Mr. LeLacheur answered no, the positions do not have anything to do with each other. Mr. Dockser noted he would like to get a handle on what is going on with the RMHS litigation and suggested a joint executive session to discuss it if possible. Taking a look at the warrant outline for Subsequent Town Meeting in November, Mr. LeLacheur explained Article 3 is to amend the FY16 -26 Capital Improvements program. A lot of numbers are being moved around because they are being deferred to other years. FY17 and beyond will have debt for sewer stations. Article 4 is to vote to approve funds to pay a very large invoice in the RMHS litigation that we were not expecting to be so high and did not have the funds to pay immediately. Article 12 will recommend Town Meeting to settle this litigation and pay the $125k which will most likely come from free cash. Article 13 is to see if the Town will approve to borrow $1.2 million for a new cemetery garage. Mr. LeLacheur noted on September 23 the Permanent Building Committee will be set up. He also asked if anyone has any ideas on how to present the new facilities to Town Meeting, feel free to suggest them. Mr. Ensminger made a motion to accept shared facilities, second by Mr. Berman and approved with a 3 -0 -0 vote. Ms. Borawski made a motion to accept shared facilities, second by Mr. Nihan and approved with a 6 -0 -0 vote. Page 1 2 2015 -09 -16 FINCOM Minutes Page 3 Mr. Sexton made a motion for the Board of Selectmen to adiourn at 8:15 PM second by Mr. Berman and approved with a 3 -0 -0 vote. Dr. Doherty noted the Killiam kids will be in their modulars on Monday and all of the modulars will be up and running by the end of the month. The original plan approved $1.2 million for this project. The modulars were a little over a million which did not leave a lot to use on other things. Dr. Doherty explained with all the change orders they are at their $1.2 Million so tonight they are asking for $75,000 reserve fund transfer. Ms. Sybert explained there were unforeseen site conditions that required us to approve about $55,000 in change orders. They had to change the ramps at one of the schools and that cost $6,000. Then the project had 4" pipes but the Town standard is 6" so that was a $10,000 change order. Dr. Doherty said they also hired a project manager. Mr. McNeice asked about the delay of the project and if the days we lost are legitimate. Dr. Doherty noted they approved a certain amount of days that had legitimate reasons and they also denied days for reasons they felt were their own doing in delays. Ms. Landry asked where the kids who will be going into the modulars are currently and Dr. Doherty said they have set up temporary classrooms in the gymnasium. Mr. McNeice made a motion to transfer $75,000 for modulars, second by Mr. Lvdecker and approved with a 9 -0 -0 vote. Ms. Borawski made a motion for the School Committee to adiourn at 8:30PM, second by Ms. Webb and approved with a 6 -0 -0 vote. Mr. Dockser commented he does not feel comfortable making a recommendation on the RMHS litigation. He would like to look into seeing if we have any other options since we keep paying out so much money. Mr. Neshat asked how we budget for this and Mr. Dockser said we don't because we just don't know how much it will be. Mr. LeLacheur noted we had money set aside but we cannot use it anymore so now we have to use the town legal budget to pay. Ms. Landry asked if the new facilities will cost the town money and Mr. LeLacheur noted yes because it is a restructuring but it will save money in the capital plan because we will have less project managers. Mr. Neshat noted he went to the Library Building meeting and said he is not a construction expert but he was very impressed with the process. He said Bob Labrecque seemed like he is very hands on with the project and said the move -in date is pushed out about 6 weeks. Mr. Moll noted they're close to budget so everything seems good from a financial standpoint. Mr. LeLacheur commented that Joe Huggins and Bob Labrecque are a great team and they meet all the time. He said they come to him very often with updates every step of the way. Mr. Dockser said the Permanent Building Committee is for projects over $2 Million so we will have to discuss if we want the cemetery building to go in front of them. Page 1 3 2015 -09 -16 FINCOM Minutes Page 4 Ms. Alvarado made a comment that she was surprised to learn the Library Trustees are using donations to pay for basic supplies. Ms. Johnson - Landry noted schools are not in compliance with English Language Learner Services so she would not be surprised to see a request for money to correct that coming before us at some point. Ms. Perry made a motion to accept the minutes from 6/24 as amended, second by Mr. Moll and approved with an 8 -0 -1 with Ms. Johnson - Landry abstaining. Mr. Lvdecker made a motion to adiourn at 9:00112M, second by Ms. Johnson - Landry and annroved with a 9 -0 -0 vote. Respectfully submitted, Secretary Page 1 4