Advisory Committee Present: Randy Dinjian
January 4, 2011 Bob Czekanski
Connie Benjamin
Naveen Rohatgi
Michael Zelenkov
Linda Day, Town Secretary
The Advisory Committee met at the Town Hall at 7:30 p.m.
Present: David Lindsay, member of the Board of Selectmen
FY12 BUDGET REVIEW
The budget review process is underway for FY12.
The Board of Selectmen and Advisory Committee requested that all departments submit a level funded budget for next year with a contingency plan to be prepared to discuss a 3% budget reduction if necessary.
After submittal of the level funded budget, the trends that the town was seeing relative to expenses for the FY12 budget were much higher than anticipated and all departments were asked to submit budgets that reflected a 3% reduction from the FY’11 budget.
ANIMAL CONTROL OFFICER
Present: Susan Latham, Animal Control Officer and Pamela Powell, Town Clerk
The Advisory Committee reviewed the FY12 budget with Ms. Latham. Ms. Latham stated that Bolton currently uses the Stow kennel but that the kennel is currently closed because they are dealing with a heating issue. Ms. Latham is concerned about what she will do if she is in need of a kennel during this time. The Advisory Committee informed Ms. Latham that they would be in favor of a transfer from the reserve fund if necessary.
The following revisions were made to the Animal Control budget with the understanding that Ms. Latham could return to the Committee for a reserve fund transfer if one were necessary:
Baseline level funded budget: no changes
3% department reduction budget: Purchase of Service $1,100 to $800
Supplies $800 to $600
TOWN CLERK
Present: Pamela Powell, Town Clerk
The Advisory Committee reviewed the FY12 budget with Ms. Powell. Ms. Powell stated that her baseline budget for the Town Clerk’s budget (161) reflected a 2.5% decrease from FY11 because she decided to outsource the census and reduce the hours of the Assistant Town Clerk.
Therefore, she did not submit a 3% reduction scenario as requested. The Advisory Committee was very pleased with the voluntary reduction in the baseline budget but felt that in fairness to all departments she needed to reduce her budget by 3%.
The Election (162) and Registrar (163) budgets were fine as is.
Ms. Powell will come back to the Advisory Committee with her proposed 3% reductions.
ENERGY COMMITTEE
Present: Martha Broad and Burt Shnitzler, Energy Committee members
The mission of the Energy Committee is to help to reduce the energy usage and costs for the Town. The Committee focuses primarily on municipal buildings. The solar panels placed on the Florence Sawyer School were funded with a grant received by the Committee. The Committee would like to be able to pursue other grants and conduct a limited amount of studies but could not identify any specific uses for the funds that they were requesting for FY12. It was also noted that their FY11 budget showed a balance of $3,250.00.
The following revisions were made to the Energy Committee budget with the understanding that they could return to the Advisory Committee for a reserve fund transfer if one were necessary:
Baseline level funded budget: Purchase of Service from $2,500 to $1,500
3% department reduction budget: Purchase of Service from $2,500 to $1,500
Supplies from $300 to $0
ASSESSORS
Present: Jeff Nichols, Susan Mason and Charlotte Johnson, Board of Assessors and Cynthia Bradbury, Assistant Assessor
The following revisions were made to the Board of Assessors budget:
Baseline level funded budget: GIS from $5,000 to $2,500
3% department reduction budget: no changes
New Growth: The Board of Assessor’s have recommended new growth at $125,000 versus the $100,000 shown on the budget spreadsheet. The Assessor’s will verify the $125,000 figure and inform Ms. Costello if it should be revised.
The Board of Assessors has looked at the valuations to assessment which are at a 95 to 96 percentile which is good. Sales in 2010 have been pretty close to sales in 2009.
Overlay Reserve: $878,594.23 is the present balance in the overlay account. There is well over $600,000 that is at risk with the wireless telecommunications issue. It is unlikely that this issue will be resolved for the May town meeting.
BUDGET SUMMARY DISCUSSION
Mr. Dinjian shared a FY12 Budget Summary Spreadsheet with the Advisory Committee members that showed a Version A (baseline level funded) budget with a deficit of $66,659 and a Version B (3% department reduction) budget with a deficit of $171,207. Mr. Dinjian provided a list of potential reductions in the budget that totaled approximately $159,056.
LIBRARY
Transfer Request: Review of this transfer from the reserve fund was deferred until the Library Trustees meet with the Advisory Committee.
Municipal Appropriation Requirements for Massachusetts Public Libraries: The Advisory Committee requested information from the Library Trustees regarding the municipality’s required appropriation to the library based on the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners policies and regulations.
On a motion made by Czekanski and seconded by Benjamin, the Advisory Committee voted to adjourn at 10:00 p.m. (Dinjian – yes, Czekanski – yes, Benjamin – yes, Rohatgi – yes, Zelenkov – yes)
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