Town of Becket Finance Committee
April 16, 2009 Minutes
Present: Mike Falk, Steve LaBelle, Jeremy Dunn, Amy Fyden
Absent: Ann Spadafora
Also Present: Tony Blair (Town Administrator candidate)
The meeting was called to order at 7:07pm.
- Minutes of 4/2/09 FinCom approved
- Highway Dept. salary classification review
Based on input from 10 neighboring towns, Becket’s Heavy Equipment Operator salary range is very competitive. Only 1 town of the 10 had an upper limit higher than Becket’s upper limit.
Motion: Inform Select Board of survey and recommend no change to current range. Passed.
Task: Mike to communicate to Select Board.
- Town Administrator Salary Classification review
7 towns replied to the inquiry; 5 have comparable positions; but some towns are much larger than Becket. Need more data to draw a conclusion.
- Update on Town Admin search
3 finalists were recommended by the Search Committee to the Select Board. Select Board will have open public interviews Weds April 22nd @ 7, 8, 9pm. One of the three finalists (Tony Blair, former Gt. Barrington Selectman), was present for the entire FinCom meeting.
- Transfers from Reserve Account
- $772 to Machinery account, to cover present balance. Passed
- $2500 to Ambulance Expense account. Currently overdrawn by $1308. Passed
- $466 to General Insurance to cover present balance. Passed
- $765 to Outreach to cover present balance. Passed
$12,000 was appropriated to Reserve Acct in FY2009. Balance remaining after transfers is $7,497.
Task: Steve to recommend a regular maintenance plan for the Ambulance, to Mark White
- Review of Warrant changes
- no changes to line items since last meeting. Select Board recommend in favor of FinCom budget at their last meeting.
- STM Article #5. Transfer $4,000 from Transfer Station to Municipal Utilities.
Motion: to recommend in favor. Passed
- ATM Article #8, to change bylaws making Tax Collector an appointed position.
Motion to recommend in favor. Passed
- ATM Article #10, to accept Jacob’s Hollow Rd as a Town Rd.
After lengthy discussion, agreed to make “No recommendation” on this article.
Task: Mike to discuss further with RichardF
- ATM Article #11 &12, re: Historical structures. Agreed to make “no recommendation”
- ATM Article #13, to amend CBRSD transportation agreement. Select Board recommends AGAINST. Motion: to recommend AGAINST. Passed
- ATM Article #14, to amend bylaws requiring printed valuations in annual report every 5 years. Motion: Recommend FOR motion (to change bylaws). Passed
- ATM Article #15, to authorize Select Board to appoint a Trench Officer per MGL. Motion to recommend in favor. Passed
- ATM Article #16 & 17, Community Preservation Act. After some discussion, Motion to take “no position” since there is no direct impact on Town finances. Passed.
- ATM Article #18, to officially accept MGL to allow elected town officials to become eligible for Worker’s Comp insurance. The town is already paying for this; it was never officially voted by the town. Motion to recommend in favor. Passed
- Review of latest Mass. House budget. Approximately $9,000 reduction in local aid to Becket compared to Governor’s budget. Becket budget is still in the black, despite this reduction.
- Review of draft remarks for ATM
All FinCom members to review and send input to Mike
A 10th child applied to a Voc. School, after the deadline. If accepted, this would extend an existing bus run. Town must pay tuition plus increased transportation costs, not currently budgeted. Determined to take no action at this time, since the Select Board has not yet voted to accept the application (submitted after the deadline); and since the child is not yet accepted to Voc. School.
- Follow-ups from last meeting:
a. Town Building Maintenance List. Task: Richard F to compose in time for ATM
b. New Growth. Task: Richard F to review budget numbers with Assessors
c. Fuel Account. Richard did confirm that Lenny T was comfortable with revised budget
- Cleanup from Winter Storm
Sealed bids were opened. Low bid is $207,400, based on estimated volume of material. If estimate is correct, town portion is ~$52,000, which is less than $85k budgeted. However the quantity of material may be higher. Select Board needs to review bids; probably will not award contract until their April 29th meeting.
- Review of Stabilization Acct
After paying 25% of winter cleanup, and assuming ATM passes the budget as written, may have as much as $300k in Stabilization. This is a big improvement over 5 years ago, but FinCom would like Stabilization to be higher, as much as the maximum allowed by law. (TBD: 15% of overall town budget? ~$750,000). We would also like to move towards having separate Stabilization accounts for different purposes.
- Review of Mass. tax rates
As of last year, Becket was 40th lowest of 350+ towns. About the 88th percentile. Becket is 11th lowest of 32 Berkshire County towns.
- Review of DOR page-at-a-glance for Becket
Shows that a majority of Becket’s revenue is from property taxes, mostly in 2nd homes. This means Becket is somewhat insulated from trend of declining business tax revenues and declining state aid.
Mass Highway approved the plans, now the project can be bid.
Was voted to be debt-excluded in FY2009.
TASK: for future FinCom meeting, discuss over what period to borrow the funds. Longer period is more expensive overall, but less impact to tax rate in each year.
- McNerney Rd. Contract was awarded; meeting held April 16th to begin process. Lenny T attended. Expectation is work to be completed and road opened before next winter.
- FinCom meeting schedule for remainder of 2009:
Thurs May 7th; Thurs June 11th; TUES July 7th; TUES Aug 4th; Thurs Sept 3rd; Thurs Oct 1st; Thurs Nov 5th; Thurs Dec 3rd
There was no public input.
Meeting was adjourned at 8:31 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Jeremy Dunn
Clerk
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