HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-01-21 Board of Selectmen Minutes Board of Selectmen Meeting
January 21,2006
For ease of archiving, the order that items appear in these .Minutes reflects the order in
which the items appeared on the agenda for that meeting, and are not necessarily the
order in which any item was taken up by the Board.
The meeting convened at 9:15 a.m. in the Town Hall Conference Room, 16 Lowell
Street, Reading Massachusetts. Present were Chairman Camille Anthony, Vice
Chairman Richard Schubert, Secretary Joseph Duffy, Selectmen James Bonazoli
and Ben Tafoya as well as Board of Assessors' Members Tom Ryan, Bob Nostrand and
Ralph Colorusso. Also present were Assistant Town Manager/Finance Director Bob
LeLacheur, Town Manager Peter Hechenbleikner, .Town Accountant Gail LaPointe,
DPW Director Ted McIntire, Police Chief James Cormier, Fire Chief Greg Burns and
Appraiser Dave Billard. (Library Director Ruth Urell arrived at 9:45 a.m.)
Discussion/Action Items
Review FY 2007 Budgets - Town Accountant Gail LaPointe presented an update on the
FY07 revenue forecast. We should know more about the State Aid figure within a week
when the Governor releases his budget for the Commonwealth for FY07. Chairman
Camille Anthony expressed some concern about the $270K drop in MSBA
reimbursement(for the expected audit results of the two middle schools).
On the expense side, the Assistant Town Manager presented an overview of the budget.
The expense budget for the Town is comprised of level service costs in a green column,
and additional requests in a blue column. As submitted, the level service budget cannot
be funded by the expected Town revenues based upon historic expense allocations among
School/Town/Building Maintenance.
Library Director Ruth Urell arrived (despite a previous commitment) and mentioned that
the Board of Library Trustees is posted to meet on Saturday, January 28th as previously
agreed, and she would prefer to defer all discussion on that budget until next week. The
Board of Selectmen agreed.
The first budget presented in detail was that of the Assessors in order to make the most
efficient use of the Board of Assessors' time. For FY07, the Board of Assessors
submitted requests for a $28,400 to fund an outside consultant to recollect the personal
property(a requirement for FY08), and another$18,000 (plus benefits)to turn a part-time
position of Associate Appraiser into a full-time position. After this presentation, the
Board of Assessors and Appraiser left the meeting.
Chairman Camille Anthony asked to present the remainder of the department budgets to
allow some Department Heads to also be able to leave the meeting. The Town Manager
responded that members were there as a team, as re-enforced by a Retreat on the previous
day, and all would prefer to stay for the duration.
Board of Selectmen Meeting—January 21, 2006—Page 2
The following budgets were then presented: Accounting, Public Safety(Police, Fire and
Dispatchers), Public Works, Community Services and Finance. The Board came up with
a list of requests for additional information from each department for next week.
On motion by Schubert seconded by Duffy,the Board of Selectmen voted to adiourn
their meeting.of January 21,2006 at 12:00 noon by a vote of 5-0-0.
Respectfully submitted,
- I