AVON TOWN COUNCIL
SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES
May 21, 2008
CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. at the Avon Town Hall, in the Selectmen's Chambers by Chairman Carlson. Members present: Messrs. Pena, Zacchio and Shea.
V. OLD BUSINESS
07/08-12 FY 08/09 Budget: Review and Discussion: Reductions
Chairman Carlson stated this meeting is to discuss the budget and to figure out where the budget cuts were going to be made to make up the $180,591.00 that is needed to be cut.
Mr. Zacchio questioned what other Town operating expenses might be options if we were not to take any money out of the Capital Improvement Program. The Town Manager stated there are no other large items to take out. We would be going through and deleting professional development items. We would push back further any recruiting of people. The CIP reductions, you should know, are not going to impact the scope of any one project. What happened, and you may remember, on the Verville Road sewer project, that it is divided into two components, one being funded out of the Sewer Budget and one being funded out of the Operating Budget. The portion being funded out of the sewer budget is the portion that is actually related to the sewer piping. The portion being funded out of the
Capital Improvement Program is the roadwork, drainage and paving. You may remember you recommended to the Board of Finance, and they approved, the request of the Water Pollution Control Authority that we budget $20,000 for borings. Those boring results have come in and the bottom line of it is that the Engineering department thinks we can reduce $95,000 out of the total project cost because the borings at this point in time do not show any significant rock in there. We would reduce that portion of it. If we run into rock in different areas where they didn't do borings, then we will be coming back in asking for extra money later in the year. The $20,000 for the Senior Center roof, the Assistant to the Town Manager can talk to you about that.
The Assistant to the Town Manager reported the low bid for this roof project came in mid-March for $155,000. The Architect and the Public Works staff, working with them, we looked at how they are actually going to do the project and the materials used and negotiated a $20,000 decrease to $135,000. That is the $20,000 you see here. The only concern about that is those bids were taken on March 14th and the 90 days for the bids ends June 15th, so hopefully if the next Referendum passes at the June 5th Town Council meeting this can be approved. If we go to a third Referendum there is a chance that they may not want to hold there prices.
The Town Manager stated we are taking risks with both of the Capital Improvement Program items and if we are wrong we are going to be back looking for money. We do not believe we are wrong but there is more risk then what we would normally want to take. Back to your original questions; do not know where we would take $115,000. We would have to through line item by line item. You can see other than the brush collection most of these are small items. We would probably be delaying the hiring of the Library Technical Services Director until January, which would be $6,000 or $7,000. We may come in and recommend that you eliminate all Sunday hours at the Library. That is $500 per Sunday and there are 32 Sundays. The recommendation here is after discussions with the Librarian, we
are eliminating 11 of the 32 Sundays, and we are keeping 21 Sundays. We are eliminating the Sundays in April, May and October.
Mr. Zacchio stated it is not that he doesn't support the Capital Improvement reductions and that the balance doesn't make sense to me, more thinking towards how should we or will we impress upon the voting public what is at stake if this budget doesn't pass. I don't advocate but should we be having items on the CIP budget that we chose to reduce to save these operating items. We are at the point where we really don't have a lot of choices to pull from.
Mr. Shea reported having been through this before he would hate to put something out there that could be misunderstood or that could be changed in a period of three to four weeks. The Council shares your concern and you're planning of thought. We should proceed with caution. Mr. Zacchio stated he agrees and does not think we should put out a list and say here are items that are going to be taken away. Do not advocate that at all but for discussionary purposes and for conversation.
Chairman Carlson stated let me make an assumption this is always dangerous, the Council agrees, the four of us, that we are comfortable with the recommendations, the question that the public has every right to ask and we should be prepared to answer is what else did we look at? Comments like closing the Library beyond the initial 11 Sundays to more. Senior Center hours may be something we need to look at in the future. Capital projects we may need to stretch out on some projects from two years to three. This may increase the prices on some projects in some cases. There ought to be a list in our minds of other things. Someone tonight may say they are not comfortable with this list, and then we will need to look at other things.
Mr. Shea stated he is comfortable with the list and is not trying to preclude any more discussion it is appropriate at this time to say we don't want to compromise Public Safety and we are hesitant to compromise our roads, we are hesitant to compromise Social Services. In these tough economic times are when the most burdens on departments are like that. Therefore, everything is on the table. Mr. Carlson will be answering questions like that, as will the Town Manager, it is fair to say everything but Public Safety and Social Services for the most needed will be closely scrutinized, closely looked at and will be on the table. If the public is interested in us starting discussion about us affecting Public Safety, we should be very hesitant. This is the fabric of the town.
The Town Manager reported the Council should be aware that with the Library items, after my discussion yesterday with the Librarian, she already discussed it with the Library Board and tonight had an email from Mary Suter from the Library Board upset that we are cutting Sunday hours at the Library. It is just a recommendation and she thinks it is a done deal, she was advised it is strictly a recommendation. Mr. Shea stated it is fair that the public understands that when a budget is defeated it is not a penalty; it is more or less decisions. Government is about choices and things like the Library and the Senior Center and other areas are affected. Chairman Carlson reported the Council will probably receive some letters regarding the brush collection.
Mr. Pena questioned if the Library reduces the number of Sunday hours on its schedule, will that affect the expansion of the Library and the grant, since we will not be open all the days? The Town Manager reported this would be strictly an operational decision and will not affect the possible grant.
Mr. Zacchio reported he was not around for the brush collection issue or the increase in the landfill fees, but in light of removing the brush collection from a service we offer the Town it might come up to us at some point that we should not be charging to take brush to the landfill by residents on their own. It seems prudent when we were doing brush collection. As soon as we started talking about brush collection with someone they immediately said well now you are charging for it, you need to rethink that. Chairman Carlson questioned what the revenues are that are charged? The Town Manager reported it is not much. When we did this before, and this is some of my rational for picking some of the items that we did, these are some of the items that we reduced the last time back in FY 2003/2004, and
what we did that time to mitigate the affect on people and we did not charge for brush coming in and increased the hours in the spring and the fall. There is a corresponding increase in our costs since we have to pay overtime for someone to be there and you are losing revenues at the same time. At the landfill we are charging $15.00 per carload for brush, $20.00 for a small pickup, $30.00 for a full size pickup, $50.00 for a small dump truck. Then we have trailer sizes. It is $20.00 for a 6 ft. trailer, $30.00 for a 40 ft. trailer.
Mr. Zacchio reported these are new fees for brush that the Council just passed. The Assistant to the Town Manager reported the conversation that was had was that the cell in the landfill is filling up quickly and we want to extend the life of it as long as we can so we are trying to mitigate what come in there. Mr. Zacchio further stated when we get to that point we can be creative with an approach. Maybe leave a month or a period of time or after major storm events maybe a couple of week's period of time. Chairman Carlson reported the Council has done that in the past. Mr. Zacchio reported this may curb the enthusiasm for it to be abused, whereas, even if you limit it to one per resident per month or something. Some people are up there six to seven times a week and we do need to
control that somehow. The Town Manager stated that we did not charge for these before we had the increase. The fees that we did collect for some of the services, for example, for sheetrock, construction demolition debris we collected $16,000. Mr. Shea reported he thought they should leave it how it is, and there will be some difficult conversations but then we leave ourselves out there for what about this fee and the other fee.
Mr. Zacchio reported the other fees were already in place at the landfill, the brush collection charge is new. He would support all of the fees, aside from the brush one, now that we are taking it out of the budget. To me this justifies, put your brush out and we will collect it, if not you have to bring it to the landfill. Taking that away may open up some difficult situations.
Mr. Pena questioned how many people actually utilize the service. If you look at the fact that you have, using a round number, $50,000 and something like 250 use it. The Assistant to the Town Manager stated if people had the largest pile that could and you divide the size of the pile by the amount collected it came out to 250 households. With just driving around town you can tell there is more than that. Mr. Pena reported he understands that it needs to be spread among everyone and does understand that $50,000 is a large chunk of the budget. Taking out $50,000 at one time verses picking through and taking out $5,000 or $1,000 or what have you. Last time it was taken out, you heard about it. Chairman Carlson reported the Council will hear about it. My test for approving or disapproving any of
these is, does it cut into the fabric of the community and do not think any of these cuts do. Secondly, we could have sat here and not done any of these operating cuts and we could have just raised revenues. We could have raised all of the fees and however am opposed to that. The clear message is we want the costs to go down and not have any hidden taxes if you will, and therefore did not see anything else large in the budget that we could have cut unless we start cutting personnel. With this consideration, the Council can get to $180,000 without personnel cuts.
The Town Manager stated as a point of clarification, if you have 250 households at the maximum of $50.00, which is a small dump truck or a 12 ft. trailer, it is $12,000. Mr. Shea reported it is a lot more the 250 households, it is all over town and there are some liberal approaches to the concept of the brush pickup. Mr. Zacchio reported he totally supports the brush pickup coming out of the budget at this point and was just sensitive to the fact that the Town is now charging for this service at the landfill. The Council may think about opening the landfill for a period of time or after major storms.
Mr. Pena stated he understands taking it out but thinks there are other people in Town that this may cause a hardship to. If you spread it out it may only cost you $50.00 but to arrange to have someone pick it up, and we all have landscapers and they do it for us, but not everyone does. You also have to have the means to take it to the landfill and not everyone does. Mr. Shea reported that the Council has to be sensitive to all the cuts. There is not one item on the list that they should be more or less sensitive to. It is about choices, they are difficult choices. As this process goes forward we may be faced with more difficult choices. Hopefully this will pass and we will move forward and we will weather the storm on every one of these cuts. This is the compromise of government.
David Goldsholl, 57 Old Kings Road, reported at one of the meetings it was mentioned what would happen if the management of the landfill was outsourced. It was a way to maintain the service but it was a savings of about $250,000. Chairman Carlson reported it was discussed in the three board meeting and as a long term project it may be something to look at. There are certain benefits to it. It would be something that we could not implement now. It would be something on a long term basis that would be worth an investigation. The Town Manager reported it is something that is being done with all recreational facilities. You lease it to a company with a 30 year lease and they charge what fees they want to charge but you lose all control over it and people want public facilities and
with this they would not be under our control.
Mr. Pena questioned the last time the brush collection was cut did they increase the hours that residents could bring the brush to the landfill? The Town Manager reported on Saturday afternoons they did, not for the whole year but in the spring and the fall. It usually closes at 1:00 p.m. on Saturdays and we kept it open till 3:00 p.m. Mr. Zacchio reported he would not advocate doing that again. That would be a cost to us with overtime. It is a service we provide to the residents and if they want to use it, the hours are the hours; they need to make sure they get up there when it is open.
Chairman Carlson reported if the Council is comfortable then we need to have a motion to accept the Town Manager's recommendations. Mr. Shea reported at the meeting we shared the thoughts of not using surplus and not increasing fees and thought you may find it appropriate to make sure it is in the minutes of this evenings meeting. The meeting that we shared that was with the Board of Finance at the workshop. Chairman Carlson reported he already shared his feelings with the increasing of fees. Regarding the surplus, it has been suggested by at least one resident to look into the surplus. In the year before Revaluation there is a lot of risk in doing so. Secondly, the budget now has been pared down to the point where we have some risk in the budget as the year goes on. If the
Capital Projects come in at a higher price than we anticipate, then we will need to go into the surplus for that money. To raid it to support the operating budget is a foolhearted so therefore, am opposed. In my mind surplus is used for two things, emergency purposes and to offset one-time expenditures. Mr. Zacchio reported he is in agreement with this. Mr. Pena stated the same. Mr. Shea reported they are all in agreement.
Mr. Pena questioned the uniform cuts. The Assistant to the Town Manager reported it is two things. First, we bid out the uniforms because the contract is ending in June and the pricing was more competitive then what we have been paying. The second is with the changes we are making to not replace two employees that are retiring. We will have two less people to outfit for the year. It is a combination of those two and with looking at those accounts we feel comfortable with reducing them by that amount. Mr. Pena questioned if the union mandated the providing of uniforms? The Assistant to the Town Manager reported this is just for Public Works. The Police uniforms are cleaned through a contract with Battiston's.
On a motion made by Mr. Shea seconded Mr. Pena by it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council approved the acceptance of the revised Town Manager's recommendations for reductions in Fiscal Year 2008/2009 Budget. A copy is attached and made part of these minutes.
Messrs. Carlson, Shea, Pena, and Zacchio voted in favor.
Chairman Carlson reviewed the slides for the Tuesday, May 27, 2008, Public Hearing. He requested that a column be added to slide #2 and #5, that shows the increase/decrease of the proposed April 9th Budget. The column that you see there is the increase/decrease off of the Fiscal Year 07/08 Budget. Need to show people where we are taking the money from where we start at a high level and the next slide will show what we went after and why and will talk about the items we spoke about early regarding Public Safety. Mr. Zacchio reported it can not be stressed enough on how important this budget is and how we believe we are cutting into operating and service programs and the choices will only get more difficult.
ADJOURN
The meeting was adjourned at 7:38 p.m.
Attest:
Caroline B. LaMonica
Clerk
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