Advisory Committee Present: David Lindsay
October 13, 2009 Burt Shnitzler
Randy Dinjian
Robert Czekanski
Connie Benjamin
Terry Abdalian
Linda Day, Town Secretary
The Advisory Committee met at the Town Hall at 7:30 p.m. Minutes of September 1, 2009 were read and approved.
FY10 TRANSFER REQUESTS
Library: On a motion made by Shnitzler and seconded by Czekanski, the Advisory Committee voted to approve the transfer request in the amount of $75.00 to the Library account #610, line item 5580 Books for the purchase of books. The amount of $75.00 was received as a donation and submitted to the general fund as required. This transfer request will replenish the Library account with the funds that were donated. (Lindsay – yes, Shnitzler – yes, Dinjian – yes, Czekanski –yes, Benjamin – yes, Abdalian - yes)~
On a motion made by Czekanski and seconded by Shnitzler, the Advisory Committee voted to approve the transfer request in the amount of $134.95 to the Library account #610, line item 5580 Books for the purchase of books. This amount of $134.95 was received as a donation and submitted to the general fund as required. This transfer request will replenish the Library account with the funds that were donated. (Lindsay – yes, Shnitzler – yes, Dinjian – yes, Benjamin – yes, Czekanski –yes, Abdalian - yes)~
FISCAL 2011 OPENING BUDGET DISCUSSION
The Committee reviewed the FY11 budget message distributed by Mr. Lowe, Town Administrator. Revenues are down; free cash was certified at $500,000 less than the current year, and the prediction is that FY11 will not be any better than FY10. Therefore, departments were asked to submit a level funded budget for FY11 if possible, with salary and wage budgets reflecting only appropriate step increases and/or contractual salary and wage adjustments. If departments have expenses that can’t be level funded, they were asked to provide an explanation with the request for increase, and if they had more than one line item that they requested be increased, the department was asked to prioritize the increases.
The Committee reviewed the preliminary fiscal 2011 budget and the revenue summary sheet prepared by Town Accountant Julie Costello. Mr. Lindsay provided a list of assumptions based on the budget and revenue summary sheets. Mr. Lindsay will ask Ms. Costello to include all step increases for employees, and contractual cost of living increases for the Department of Public Works as part of the spreadsheet for their next meeting on October 20, 2009. Ms. Costello will also be asked to provide the dollar amount breakdown of the step increases that are contractually obligated through the DPW agreement, the individual contracts of the Town Administrator, Police Chief, Town Accountant and Director of DPW, and step increases for employees as a result of town policy. Mr. Lindsay will contact Mr. Lowe
regarding the status of the review of the library shelver’s wages. Mr. Dinjian also noted that a comprehensive review of the salary schedule for non-union and non-contractual employees should be initiated soon.
Instead of having each department decrease their budget by a certain percent, the Advisory Committee discussed various scenarios for cuts to the budget such as skipping a year of road paving; eliminating the purchase of a cruiser for one year; eliminating an officer on the midnight shift; cutting the library open hours from 48 to 40 hours. Another suggestion was to have the entire budget broken out into different sections so that the various departments such as the school could be voted on separately. The Advisory Committee would like to have this discussion with the Board of Selectmen at next Advisory Committee meeting, which will be a joint one with the Board of Selectmen.
Mr. Shnitzler didn’t think that enough discussion took place at town meeting regarding the budget and suggested that a discussion take place at the next Tri-Town meeting to see how each town presents their budget at town meeting.
If the Selectmen vote to have an override, it was discussed that the Advisory Committee might want to be prepared to present a non-override budget.
On a motion made by Shnitzler and seconded by Benjamin, the Advisory Committee voted to adjourn at 9:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted, Linda L. Day
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