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Town of Becket Finance Committee
December 17, 2009 Minutes
FinCom Members Present: Mike Falk, Ann Spadafora, Amy Fyden, Steve LaBelle, Jeremy Dunn
Also Present: Tony Blair, Bill Cavanaugh, Amy Lane (town Accountant). Present until 8:10 pm: Jim Stankiewicz, Marge Foster (CBRSD Admin); John Les, Dana Welts (CBRSD Becket reps)
The meeting was called to order at 7:00pm.
- CBRSD presentation & discussion:
- Presentation of District Improvement Plan as approved by CBRSD school committee
- Discuss possibility of District Vocational School
Would save tuition & transportation costs for 7 member towns.
JimS: says he is in active dialog with Jeff Wheeler at DOE; they gave ok to do this. District voc. school would be designated as primary school for subjects offered there. Must be adopted as a policy by CBRSD school committee. Jim feels Taconic would welcome the additional students and revenue.
Question: can we designate a primary voc. School per town? Most voc. Students in Cummington attend Smith, which is closer.
TonyB: urged CBRSD to adopt Taconic, not to give authority to designate primary school to the towns, which could create conflict.
DanaW: says CBRSD school committee has will to & votes to make this change. Active discussion in FY2010 for implementation in FY2011. Education sub-committee is investigating in more depth and considering impact on all towns, education programs, etc.
Next steps: JimS to discuss with DOE; School committee to continue discussion and vote. DOE gave sample motion. Intention is to allow students currently enrolled in another voc. School to remain there until graduation.
- Questions on Trend of declining enrollments & push for Super-regionalization
DanaW: says enrollment is flat for past 3 years. Mass. has backed off push for super-regionalization; they are looking to find savings in transportation.
- Group Insurance Coverage (GIC). CBRSD adopted Section 19 to allow group bargaining for GIC. Hard to predict if there will be savings.
- Chapter 71 Transportation cuts. State cut $302,000 in FY2010; covered by E&D.
- E & D Certification @ $1,449,000, which exceeded 5% max by $118,000. School committee voted to return excess to towns. Becket will receive $10,081. Last year E&D totaled $404,000. Nearly $1M increase due to cost savings, early retirements, locked-in fuel contracts, and increased federal stimulus dollars. Health insurance over-budgeted by $300k due to retirements; offset by state cuts in Chap 71 Transportation.
- FY2011 budget. Expecting and budgeting for zero federal stimulus in FY2011. No preliminary numbers available yet; 1st budget meeting is week of 12/21. No more easy-cuts – if revenue is not available, cuts must come from staff. Fewer retirements are expected; staff are working longer due to recessionary climate. Assumption that state aid may be cut 5-15%, and transportation will continue to be funded at 29% level, despite statute that requires 100% funding.
- Other initiatives.
- CBRSD is member of Mass. Assn. of Regional Schools (81 districts). Will lobby for reinstatement of transport funding and other issues, but has limited influence.
- CBRSD purchased Van & found driver. Will continue to seek transportation savings. Has consolidated 3x bus runs in the past 2 yrs by using software to find efficiencies.
- CBRSD member of S. Berkshire Educ. Collaborative – seeking collective transportation bargaining. Not successful this year but will continue trying.
- Possible school closures. Consensus is that closing Becket/Washington school will not happen in forseeable future. Likely that Becket kids would choice-out to neighboring towns. Main issue is repayment of loan. JohnL: says majority of school committee in favor of school remaining open. Possible Gateway (Chester/Huntington/Worthington) closure may increase Cummington & Becket enrollments
- Follow-up on tasks from November FinCom meeting – none
- Minutes of November 12, 2009 FinCom approved.
- FY 2010 mid-year review
- FY2009 close-out. Books are in order. (2) open issues: no cash reconciliation (should be done monthly); no receivable reconciliation (should be done quarterly). Treasurer has balanced bank statements. Accountant is working on reconcilations and closing FY2009. Goal is to complete by Jan 15, 2010. Typically this would be complete by mid-August.
- Tax Rate. Assessors have completed revaluation and submitted; waiting in Boston for approval. DOR granted 1 month extension till 1/31/10 to send 3Q10 tax bill. Goal is to set tax rate prior to that so bill is “actual”; otherwise 4Q bill could be much higher. However Becket is authorized by DOR to do 3Q estimated bill if necessary. TonyB asked Chris Bleu (Treasurer) to do cash-flow analysis – will we need to borrow? Might borrow $150-250,000 on short-term basis; costs would be minimal as interest rates are currently quite low.
- Ice Storm Cleanup Finances. Tony will sign MEMA paperwork on 12/18. Will get FEMA final reimbursement of ~$250k within 2-3 weeks. Following this Becket has 60 days to appeal any FEMA decision. Tony in active dialog with BRD re: remaining invoices; will draft memo to FEMA by 12/23, send to FinCom for review prior to submission.
- Free Cash. No certification or estimates yet, but Tony & AmyL expect some free cash.
- Budget Summary. With projected revenue from spring 2010 land auction, and with allowance for up to $45k in FY09 Ice & Snow overruns, budget still shows ~$8k surplus. This is due in large part to ~$39,600 state reimbursement for ice storm cleanup. (Clerk note: totals as presented do not appear to include $10,000 CBRSD refund. )
TonyB created spreadsheet of FY2011, but insufficient information is available to do meaningful projections. Need to have final FY09 Ice & Snow overrun; free cash certification; resolution of ice storm cleanup costs; and initial CBRSD budget prior to first FinCom discussion of FY2011 budget.
- FY2011 – FY2015 Capital Budget projections
TonyB presented estimated capital spending for the next 5 fiscal years, based on input from Ambulance, Fire, Police, Highway, and Town Hall. Recommendation is to budget $150,000 / year, with possibility of Prop 2 ½ overrides for some larger items if grants are not received.
Ann & Jeremy stated they were not in favor of Prop 2 ½ overrides except in very unusual circumstances.
Summary: (a) Debt Exclusion overrides and (b) Capital Project overrides do not permanently increase the levy limit; they only increase it for the length of the debt service. (c) ordinary overrides do permanently increase the town’s levy limit.)
- 2009 Finance Committee annual report
Mike distributed a first draft of FinCom comments for review by FinCom members. It is difficult to know how to write certain items until FY09 is closed.
TASK: all FinCom members to review draft and send feedback to Mike.
- Review of Town Administrator probationary performance per goals in memo of 7/7/09. Deferred till future meeting.
There was no public input.
Meeting was adjourned at 9:40 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Jeremy Dunn
Clerk
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