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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-03-01 Finance Committee MinutesOFq •I C rs39+1NCOR4�� Town of Reading Meeting Minutes Board - Committee - Commission - Council: Finance Committee Date: 2017-03-01 Building: Reading Town Hall Address: 16 Lowell Street Purpose: General Business Attendees: Members - Present: Time: 7:30 PM F+j-4bIkG, Mf"."s ZOf1 OST 16 A I ::001 Location: Conference Room Session: Version: Chair Mark Dockser, Peter Lydecker, Eric Burkhart, Paula Perry, Anne Landry, David Neshat, Vanessa Alvarado Members - Not Present: Marc Moll, Paul McNeice Others Present: Town Manager Bob LeLacheur, Assistant Town Manager Jean Delios, Community Development Director Julie Mercier, Town Accountant Sharon Angstrom, Administrative Services Director Matt Kraunelis, Facilities Director Joe Huggins, Assistant Facilities Director Kevin Cabuzzi, Police Chief Mark Segalla, Deputy Chief David Clark, Fire Chief Greg Burns, Deputy Chief Paul Jackson,.DPW Director Jeff Zager, Assistant DPW Director Jane Kinsella Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Topics of Discussion: Chair Mark Dockser called the meeting to order: Public Services Assistant Town Manager Jean Delios Community Development Director Julie Mercier Ms. Delios noted that the Recreation Director John Feudo left. They reorganized his position into a few other positions including a part time Recreation Coordinator and a new position. There is a slight decrease overall in their budget. Public Services added a new position, the Economic Development Director. The building department did over a thousand. building permits. They promoted the Administrative Assistant to the Permits Coordinator which is working out well. They are able to issue a lot of permits the same day. They have also started doing inspections on Fridays so they have added a few hours to the inspector's positions.. Because of the amount of units in the new 40B project, the town will get a -year off' if the state approves the paperwork. One position in the department is going to part time. Mr. Dockser asked if she -thinks there are a lot of smaller projects going unpermitted. Ms. Delios noted she does not think it is that many; people. love to rat each other out. They get a lot of phones calls of people rating their neighbors out. Mr. Dockser asked if she thinks they are losing services since John Feudo left. Ms. Delios noted she does not. They hired a recreation coordinator which will deal only with recreation whereas John oversaw other departments as well. Elder services went down a little in the budget because they received more money from grant. We have a fairly significant aging population in town. Mr. Burkhart asked how many veterans we have in town. Page 1 1 Finance Committee Minutes - March 1, 2017 - Page 2 Ms. Delios.is not certain on the exact number however stated it has been fairly steady every yea r. Ms. Landry asked if the town is getting a year off. because we hit our affordable unit number. Ms. Delios noted not exactly. We hit a certain.target that allows us to take a break for a . yea r. Administrative Services Administrative Services Director Matt Kraunelis If you look at the organization chart the only difference is we added a purchasing agent. There was a small increase in expenses and a small decrease in -wages. We are cutting the pay"and class funding and reducing temporary help. They are asking for an increase in the legal counsel line. There's a decrease in the Town Manager's reserve fund. There's a large cut to professional services. They are hoping to fund our software upgrade. They are asking for 15,000 for electronic archives. There's a large cut in election workers this year simply due to the fact that there won't be as many elections as last year. Mr. Dockser commented that if we could break this down by FTE that would be easier to look at. Mr. Burkhart noted also seeing a dollar change as well as a percentage change would be nice. He also inquired about the permanent addition to the legal counsel line. Mr. LeLacheur noted our legal bills have been trending up and it would be good to prepare for it. Mr. Dockser asked if we should consider an in-house counsel. Mr. Kraunelis noted he does not think that is necessary for Reading. Ms. .Delios noted Miyares & Harrington are great and they are a pleasure to work with. Mr. Burkhart asked if Mr. Kraunelis thought we need more help in Human Resources. Mr. Kraunelis noted not yet. Without Sean Donahue, the HR Generalist, we would need more help but for now we are handling it. Finance Department Town Account Sharon Angstrom The department is picking up senior tax relief next year without adding any additional staff. There's a slight increase with our reg ional.assessor. We share him with Wakefield and his contract goes up 3% every year. Ms. Angstrom also wanted to mention that the Retirement Board will be putting. an article in front of Town Meeting. They are asking for an increase in the COLA base. The base has not changed since 1998. They will -specificallybe asking to increase the base to $14,000. Doing that would increase our liability to $1.5 M over the 12 years. Ms. Alvarado suggested explaining this extremely clearly to Town Meeting so they are able to wrap their heads around where the 1.5 M comes from. Public Safety - Police Police Chief Mark Segalla Deputy Chief David Clark Overtime is currently very high because the department is down 5 officers. There were several violent/felony crimes in Reading this past year. Overtime will stay high until November when some officers come out of. the academy. Mr. Burkhart asked how the growing elderly population affects the PD. Chief Segalla noted there will naturally be an increase in medical calls, welfare checks and assistance calls. He noted it probably affects the Fire.Department more. This year they did a citizens police academy and held RAD classes. The RPD is an accredited department which allows for more grants and lower insurance. RCASA is completely grant funded thru September of 2019. Page 1 2 Finance Committee Minutes - March 1, 2017 - Page3 The dispatchers' budget is up slightly with 1.8%. They have one head dispatcher and 10 others. Public Safety - Fire Fire Chief Greg Burns Deputy Chief Paul Jackson Salary is 96% of the Fire Departments budget. There is a slight increase in ambulance transports and medical calls which increases the revenues because they increased the fees. The town can get reimbursements from FEMA for major storms but sometimes it takes a lot of time to get that money back. There is an increase in cost of medical supplies simply because medications are costing more and we supply both the ambulances and fire trucks with supplies. The fire department's overtime is high as well because they are down two positions: The Town Manager approved $30,000 extra to their overtime line because -they recognized they were going to need it. Shared Costs Town Manager Bob LeLacheur There is a less than 4% increase. Health insurance came in at 5% but is still a_huge driver:. The State Aid number came in very low. It was very challenging to balance the capital budget with the High School litigation and Recreation department took the biggest.hit with that. The capital plan however, even with the high school litigation, is still pretty healthy. At the end of the day, the budget isn't completely awful however, it is pretty close. Mr. Lvdecker made a motion to adiourn at 10:30 P.M., second by Ms. Landry and approved with a 6-0-0 vote. Page 1 3