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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1991-06-12 Finance Committee MinutesRECEIVED TOWN CLERK READING, MASS. MINUTES OF THE Ju, 2 o °l READING FINANCE COMMITTEE JUNE 12, 1991 This meeting of the Reading Finance Committee was held in the Selectmen's Conference Room of Reading Town Hall. The meeting was called to order by Chairman Bill Buditt at 7:34 P.M. MEMBERS PRESENT: Bill Burditt, Chairman Liz Greene, Vice Chairman Nick Agneta Pete Dahl Gerry MacDonald Marty McWilliams Nate White Fred Van Magness I. BUSINESS A. The Budget Prepared for the Town Meeting ® Bill Burditt opened this meeting by stating that he had received many telephone calls from interested citizens from the Town of Reading, all urging their support of the present budget before the Town Meeting. All indicated to Bill that the budget should not change - it should stand as voted. ® Bill stated that suggesting "zero" salary increase is unfair and he is not in favor of a 5% reduction. ® The school psychologists' positions were brought up and it was indicated that Dr. Munnelly indicated that they are needed very much. e The members of the Reading Taxpayers' Association told Bill to talk to the citizens of the Town of Reading. Bill stated that he has talked to the citizens and that they are urging full support of the budget that has been presented to Town Meeting. 0 With regard to more communications from the Townspeople, Mr. Nick Agneta spoke of receiving some telephone calls from voters all in favor of the budget presented. Nick did review the comments made by the Reading Taxpayers' Association statement of Monday evening but feels that the reduction is too much of a burden for employees. Nick stated that he intends, as a member of the Finance Committee to support this budget. • Fred Van Magness spoke of the telephone calls and visits he received. Each one of the people asked for support for the continuation of the budget presented by the Finance Committee. Fred endorsed totally the budget in force as a balanced budget and fully intends to recommend this budget to the Town Meeting. ® Liz Greene received a letter and a telephone call, both of which recommended that approval be given to the budget. Liz indicated having a balanced budget now and she is planning not to change her mind about the budget. Liz will support the budget as presented by the Finance Committee. ® Pete Dahl received telephone calls for the first time after last Monday evening's meeting and all were in favor of the budget that was presented. In all cases, the majority supported the Committee in presention of a balanced budget. ® Nate White told of receiving three telephone calls from the Townspeople who have children in the school system and also showed concern for the schools. Nate went through the list of Reading Taxpayers' Association proposed changes, but claims all issues were discussed before at our Finance Committee budget hearings. Nate clarified that all committeemen went through the recommendations with open minds, but all things were already discussed and Nate saw nothing factual in the presentation by the ( Reading Taxpayers' Association to change his position at all. • Bill Burditt mentioned that he had a cross-section of age-groups call who had watched the cable televised meeting on Monday night. ® Gerry MacDonald was asked about receiving word from any of Townspeople, and here Gerry declined to comment until the end of the meeting, after listening to what the Reading Taxpayers' Association had further to say regarding budget details. ® Marty McWilliams had received some telephone calls also. Marty is supporting the budget as presented to Town Meeting. II. READING TAXPAYERS' PRESENTATION ® Mr. Ken Little of the Reading Taxpayers' Association took the floor in introduction of Dick Dulong who read a letter from Ken King, who was a member of the Solid Waste Committee. The letter was with regard to the subject of trash. e After the letter was read, Mr. Dulong asked members of the Finance Committee for a tally of the pros and cons of the telephone calls and letters and visits so he could tabulate. 2 ® Here, Mr. Little indicated that he had received 47 telephone calls in favor of a budget change from that presented at Town Meeting. ® At this time, Mr. Little presented a handout to the Finance Committee. a Mr. Van Magness here questioned fiscal 92 projection of expenditures and he and Mr. Little had a question and answer session regarding the document handout presented by the Reading Taxpayers' Association to the members of the Finance Committee. ® Mr. Van Magness simply stated looking at facts. He indicated that the "magic" document presented by.Mr. Little fails in a budget forecast. e Mr. Murphy from the audience was called upon to speak. Mr. Murphy introduced himself as a student now attaining an MBA degree and he is a new member of the Reading community and is very disturbed by what he sees from Reading Taxpayers' Association President Little. Mr. Murphy came to Reading three months ago with his family, saw children in the library, saw recyclling buckets in front of houses and businesses, and saw a community in which he chose to live in with his family. But, he is disturbed by what the RTA is proposing and voiced opinion. e Here, Mr. Burditt indicated that going back to the 1987 projection is not a smart thing to do and he and Mr. Little discussed the $37 million dollars. ® john Price of the RTA asked how the Finance Committee can sit there before the Townspeople and not look back at the budget when the Townspeople have asked to do the budget over again. • Mr. Price made mention here of the town of Tewksbury agreeing to a 6.7% reduction across the board. He asked how the Reading Finance Committee can ignore this. He indicated that a 5% reduction is totally necessary. • Mr. Van Magness asked Mr. Little about a statement of tracking. The document presented is not tracking but simply put together four years ago with no revelence. Here, Fred Van Magness indicated he did not to take 5% off salaries at this time with so many layoffs. 3 a Bill Burditt commented, again, on the 5% reduction suggestion and he is not in favor of this and asked to look at this like industry. Industry gets peres, whereas town employees receive none. o Mr. Burditt is against any reductions and will not support a zero increase. a Mr. Dulong talked of the dune debate and indicated that when times are tough economically, you automatically must take a cut in salary. Companies take care of people when times are good. Employees of Town cannot ever be rewarded like industry in good times. a Pete Dahl took the microphone now and mentioned his entrepreneurial company and his recent 10% pay cut. Incentives allow working with reductions because there is something at the end of the tunnel. a Mr. Murphy, again from the audience, rose and asked the Town to support its Town Manager and the Finance Committee. a John Shannon spoke of information being attained before this time ...and attending budget Finance Committee meetings. a After Mr. Shannon spoke, Mr. Price began again by saying that some of the concerns of the Town are groups, like the School Committee, not listening to the Reading people. ® Here, Chairman Burditt mentioned the telephone calls in support of the budget and many were parents with children in the Reading Schools. All approved of the school budget. a Mr. Graham, Chairman of the Selectmen of the Town of Reading. spoke of his days serving on the Finance Committee. He indicated that listening and considering a budget presented from a non-elected body is an injustice of the Charter of the Town of Reading. Elected policy makers were never given any material from the Reading Taxpayers' Association. The Reading Taxpayers' Association, according to Mr. Graham, were invited to attend a Selectmen's meeting but did not attend. a Bill Burditt announced his intention of accepting the budget at this meeting tonight. o Pete Dahl also spoke about what has been done and that now the Finance Committee is in a position to make a decision on the budget. e Mr. Dulong of RTA commented to Mr. Graham about participation. Mr. Graham then mentioned to Dulong the open meeting law in the State of Massachusetts. All meetings are posted for all the people. 4 MOTION: Liz Greene moved to approve Line Items 1-129 of FY92 budget, as voted by Town Meeting, in the amount of $35 million, 317,296 and Pete Dahl seconded the motion to approve the budget. DISCUSSION: Here, Mr. MacDonald, who had earlier declined to voice an opinion until hearing the meeting con- tent, spoke of listening to all of the comments and of receiving six telephone calls this evening in favor of the budget. He received two phone calls not in favor of the budget. He spoke of the issues of senior citizens and having heard all tonight, he indicated that no one seems to be pulling together in this scenario. Mr. MacDonand told the audience how hard it is to look at the whole picture. The Finance Committee discusses all things - discusses each and every item. We must all pull together and get together on this issue of budget. He further elaborated that no one wants higher taxes and that all the members of the Finance Committee are also taxpayers of the Town of Reading. Gerry asked for the help of the Reading Taxpayers' Association to come to the Finance Committee meetings and listen to what goes on and give your input. He indicated that there are several times during an evening when he votes totally against the others - that is the democratic process. But, in the final analysis, we have all worked hard and come to a balanced budget. Mr. MacDonald indicated that he would vote for the budget this evening. VOTE: 8 - 0 - 0 approved ® After the voting process and the statement made by Finance Committee Member MacDonald, Mr. John Price took the floor and announced his willingness to work together with Finance Committee. a Mr. Graham, Chairman of Board of Selectmen, publicly thanked the Finance Committee for the long hours that they have given and indicated the group worked above and beyond the call of duty. ® Nick Agneta made a comment here regarding information and 5 some curious Townspeople being interested in knowing what is going on at meetings. A significant source of information as to what has come up and what is to come up can be found if people will read the minutes of each of the meetings of the Finance Committee. ® Here, Mr. MacDonald asked Bill Burditt if serious consideration could be made with regard to televising the budget hearings of the Reading Finance Committee in the future. e Mr. Van Magness endorsed this MacDonald recommendation. ® Before adjournment,Mrs. Woods, Town Meeting member, asked the Finance Committee about the procedure that would be used for the Special Election and there was discussion with Peter Hechenbleikner regarding the election of next Tuesday and facts procedurally. It was agreed that as much information as possible should be given in advance in explanation of the process so that people coming into Town Meeting would be comfortable and informed. III. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Gerry MacDonald moved to adjourn this meeting of the Reading Finance Committee at 9:24 P.M. and Fred Van Magness seconded the motion. VOTE: 8 - 0 - 0 approved. ® The meeting was then adjourned at 9.:24 P.M. Respectfully submitted, S~~ nnll , ReWcording Clerk Reading Finance Committee 6