APPROVED MINUTES
Chilmark Board of Selectman / Finance Committee Minutes February 15, 2006
Members present:
Board of Selectmen: Frank Fenner, Warren Doty and Riggs Parker
Finance Committee: Sarah Shipway, Doug Sederholm, Kathleen Cameron,
William Randol, Frank Yeomans, Katie Upson and Marshall Carroll (Chair).
Town Hall: Tim Carroll, Melanie Becker, Tom Wilson and Annette Anthony.
Chuck Hodgkinson – CAS & Personnel Board, David Norton – Fire Chief
Public: Personnel Board Members; Jennie Greene, Max McCreery, and Richard Williams, Brett Stearns – MV Water Coalition.
The meeting was called to order at 7:30 pm by Marshall C.
BOARD OF SELECTMEN, MAINTANENCE ACCOUNT:
Tim C. started a general discussion about increasing the BOS Maintenance Account, Other Purchased Services to $ 30,000.00 from $ 20,000.00. Frank F. said he thought it should be $ 30,000.00 and noted that there were many items the money could be used for, such as the Silva farm barn, which was a Town property, and there were some construction items that needed to be addressed. Warren D. said that budget was higher in the previous year because the Board had put in extra money to fix up the Police station. The Members agreed that the BOS maintenance would be $ 30,000.00 and Other Purchased Services $ 5,000.00 for a total of $ 35,000.00.
COMFORT STATION:
Tim C. said he reduced Comfort Station Other Purchased Services because the bid received for the cleaning and the trash services went down, and was split between 3 departments. Katie U. asked if the Refuse was just for the bathrooms and Tim C. said it was split between the Harbor and the Beach Depts. Katie U. asked about food service in Menemsha and wanted to know if those organizations had contributed to garbage pickup and Tim C. said no they did not. Tim C. explained that those organizations had a public trashcan out side their building. There was a discussion about trash in Menemsha, who seemed to create most of it, who paid to get rid of it, who was responsible to maintain it, and what businesses paid to take their own trash to the dump. Riggs P. said that there was a $ 3,000.00 reduction to the Comfort
Station’s Other Purchased Services budget but did not reduce the Harbor trash budget. He said that he felt it should be proportionate. He said he felt that each of the 3 departments should have $ 1,000.00 taken off their budget to make it more equal, not take the whole $ 3,000.00 from the Comfort Station budget. Warren D. said that the bottom line would stay the same; it was a matter of reducing each of the 3 budgets by $ 1,000.00, or 1 budget by $ 3,000.00. Tim C. explained why he wanted to reduce Comfort Station by $ 3,000.00 and not the other budgets by $1,000.00 each. Katie U. said she wanted to go on record that she was concerned about the amount of money the Town had paid for trash control / removal and the contribution of the businesses that generated most of the trash. Tim C. said that by raising the Common Victualler License fee might be a possible, fair way to pay for trash service.
Marshall C. suggested possibly raising the Food License fee from the Board of Health.
Frank F. said that there was still an issue of fish markets that had become restaurants. There was a very brief discussion about the fish markets in Menemsha that are acting as restaurants when they were not allowed to do so. Riggs P. said that it was a matter for the Board of Selectmen to address and he said that they would address the problem and others concerning Menemsha soon.
PERSONNEL BOARD:
Warren D. said the budget went down $ 29.00. Frank F. asked Jennie G. if $ 50.00 for postage was enough and Jennie G. said yes, more than enough, that they rarely mailed anything. There was brief discussion about if the Personnel Board had budgeted enough money for their items and Chuck H. said yes he thought they had budgeted accordingly.
COLA; COST OF LIVING ADJUSTMENT:
Chuck H. said that the Personnel Board worked long and hard to create a formula that they would be able to use from year to year to calculate the COLA. He said the formula was based on 9 months instead of 12. Frank F. asked why 9 months instead of a
12-month rolling average and Jennie G. said 12 months was not reality and that the data was too far back and did not get into the present. She said that generally the Board found that the average of using the 9 months was better than using 12 months. Chuck H. explained that the timing was off using the 12 months and that the COLA needed to be done in October of every year to be processed accordingly, therefore in October there was only January – September data available, the consumer price index. He said the Board had looked at making it a rolling 12-month total, which included the 4th quarter of the prior year, but found that the 4th quarter of the prior year really didn’t necessarily correspond to the track of the current year. He said that using year-old data didn’t help the
accuracy of the projection. Doug S. said that the real question was whether it correlated with the 4th quarter that was about to occur, not what the trend of the first 9 months was. He said that was an irrelevant comparison. He said he did not see the rationale for not using 12 months. Chuck H. said the Board had looked at the possibility of using the 3rd quarter of the current year data and use it as a 4th quarter, since it was the closest data they had to the 4th quarter. He said that doing that tended to inflate the index higher than it should have been. Doug S. said he felt that wouldn’t work because the 4th quarter was very peculiar. There was a very long specific discussion about whether the
9 month formula used by the Board to calculate the COLA was the right formula to use, the issue of calculating data that wouldn’t take effect for an additional 9 months, how the data was already 9 months old by the time it was actually used, what last years COLA was and how it was calculated, what the COLA would have been if the Board had used 12 months of data instead of 9, the rate of inflation and it’s effect on this years COLA, the rate of adjustment used to calculate the COLA, and how the Board felt that last year’s COLA was too low. Doug S. said he really didn’t understand why the Board decided to use the 9-month formula and asked Chuck H. to recalculate what the COLA would be by using the 12 months of data. Doug S. and Chuck H. agreed that the 12 months to be used would be from September – September and asked that he go back 4 years.
Riggs. P. said he though the 9-month calculated formula was a good one and said it was good that the Board had a formula that could be used yearly. Marshall C. stressed that it was important that they picked a formula that all could agree on and stick with it from year to year. Katie U. asked about longevity and Chuck H. explained how it worked.
He said that approximately half of the year-round employees had longevity.
Warren D. stated that the Housing Committee went to the Finance Committee and had asked for an increase in the Administrative Assistant’s hours and was told to go to the Personnel Board, and had done so, therefore Chuck H. said that it was just an increase of 2 hours per week mostly due to the Middle Line Road Project and that the Board would re-evaluate after 2 years.
Chuck H. said that the Board of Health had come to them with a re-structure of their office hours and compensation. He said that the total cost difference for the year would be $ 195.00. He said that the Health Inspector would now be available 5 days a week from 8:00 am – 2:30 pm, year-round. He said that Sylvia Y. would benefit from the restructure because she would no longer be paid as a sub-contractor for her fieldwork –inspections, instead her new hours included her time out in the field doing those inspections and the money she'd received would now count towards her retirement plan. He said that 32 ½ hours a week 5-days a week included all of her meeting coverage, all of the perc tests and all of her new duties for the Emergency Preparedness. He said this restructuring made a lot of sense for the
Board of Health for many reasons.
Kathleen C. asked to review what positions in the Town had requested to be expanded or added. Tim C. re-capped that 4 positions had expanded; Assessor’s request for an additional 2 hours a week, Housing for 2 hours a week, the Board of Health’s request for re-structure and the Harbormaster’s request for an Administrative Assistant for 240 hours a year, winter only. Riggs P. reminded the Board that the Harbormaster had changed his procedure for collecting monies for mooring and slips and now received the money in the winter and therefore the need for the Admin. Assistant during those off-season months. He also noted that that department would improve the computer software system so that the records for the Harbormaster would be better kept than the paper system, which was currently being used.
Chuck H. came back to the Board with the information Doug S. had asked him to get. He handed out a new worksheet with his calculations. He said he was able to do just 2 years to compare the 9-month CPI to the rolling 12-month CPI to the COLA that the Town had actually used. He said he only had the data from 2003-2004. He said that the numbers were about the same. There was a brief, general discussion about what the Town had given as a COLA percentage, and what the projected percentage was for this year. Bill R. said that the data for both years were pretty close and that he felt that the 9-month formula was not a bad way of calculating the COLA. Doug S. asked if the data was the straight 9 months or the 9 months with the adjustments and Chuck H. said the straight 9 months. Riggs P. moved to accept the formula Chuck H. had
presented, and Kathleen C. seconded the motion. Marshall C. reiterated that the motion was to try the formula presented and to stay with the formula this year and forward unless they changed it. Doug S. asked if it was with the adjustment every year, and Frank F. said no, that the adjustment was just a one-year deal. There was a brief discussion about the formula and whether or not the adjustment was from year to year or not.
Marshall C. stated that there was a motion on the floor for Riggs P. to accept the formula and a second from Kathleen C. and asked the Board to vote. No votes were Doug S., Frank F. and Katie U. Yes votes were Marshall C., Kathleen C., Sarah S., Bill R., Frank Y., Riggs P. and Warren D. Marshall C. stated that the motion was passed.
BUILDING INSPECTOR:
Tim C. said Lenny Jason was not available tonight and that he would answer any questions. There were no questions.
FINANCE COMMITTEE:
Tim C. said the only question before the Board was the Reserve Fund. He said it had been discussed whether to increase or decrease. He said the budget showed that there was $ 32,000.00 from Overlay Surplus and $ 8,000.00 from Free Cash. Warren D. said from 7/1/05 – 2/6/06 they went without making a single transfer. Tim C. reminded him that in the last 2 years they had to transfer. Warren D. reiterated that the policy had been that after the Finance Committee used up its funds they went to Town Meeting and asked for $ 20,000.00. Tim C. said that he gave out new budget changes prior to the meeting. He said that there was a $ 108,450.37 increase over last year, 1.87% for a total budget of $5.9 million and explained the changes from the handout sheet. Warren D. said he wanted to review the decrease in Health
Benefits, which was $ 45,00.00 less than estimated. Melanie B. explained why the decrease and said that at the time of the printing of the budget she didn’t not know exactly what the increases would be so she had put the figures in at a 15% increase, which would have been the worse case scenario. She said that in January 06 she got the actual figures rather that the estimate used and that the actual number had come in significantly lower than the estimated figure. Warren D. reiterated that the budget was $ 45,000.00 less than originally estimated, not $ 45,000.00 less than last year and Melanie B. said that was correct. Warren D. noted on the summary sheet that the total for Employee Benefits was down $ 5,000.00. Tim C. noted that this was because the Town retirement was down $ 15,569.00 due to early retirement. There was a brief conversation about the percentage increase to the actual budget from year to year. Tim C. said this was a good year for the Town. Warren D.
noted that of the
$ 108, 000.00 increase, $ 88,000.00 of that was in debt service, and noted that some of that increase in debt service was because of the new dock project. Marshall C. asked if the Board wanted to review all the changes one by one and and Warren D. noted that the Board had already reviewed the changes on the handout. Bill R. moved to accept all the changes presented on the handout page and Kathleen Cameron seconded the motion. All Members voted AYE.
WARRANT ARTICLES:
Tim C. said that the Board would review the Warrant Articles. He said that they would start with non-binding resolutions. He said Brett Stearns represented the Island Water Alliance and that Brett was present to discuss the non-binding resolution to the Board, which would be presented to every town on the Island. He said that the purpose of the resolution was awareness to a process, which had taken place in Chilmark. He said the Town had participated in the Massachusetts Estuaries Project. He said that his project was heavily involved in water quality studies. He said that nitrogen was one of the foremost issues on the Island right now. He explained that nitrogen turned into nitrate and got caught in the water system, which affected the quality of the water. He said they had created the resolution and then he read
the resolution aloud to the Board. He reminded the Board that the resolution was more of an awareness campaign.
There was much general discussion about the wording of the resolution, the fact that the resolution was non-binding, and that the resolution was a citizen petition backed by the MV Commission. Warren D. said that he felt the resolution didn’t do anything. He said the resolution didn’t have any meat to it. He said that the resolution just said that we’re all for good water quality, and that it had no teeth to it and that it didn’t do much. Jennie G. noted that the Board should be cautious about the wording in the resolution prior to the way they voted. Riggs P. said that he didn’t feel good about some of the wording in the resolution and suggested they change “consider” to “support”. Frank F. reiterated that the second line of the last paragraph of the resolution be
changed. Brett S. said he didn’t have a problem with changing words in the resolution. There was a general discussion about the nitrogen and the Estuaries Project. Tim C. said that the Board of Selectmen had until March 7th to approve wording, and noted that since this was not a financial matter that the Board could move to take no action. Marshall C. asked the Board if they wanted to vote. Sarah S. made a motion to taken no action and Kathleen C. seconded the motion. All Members voted AYE.
Tim C. gave a quick review of the Warrant Article sheet with minor changes. He said he added the acoustic ceiling tile for the Community Center and the Medex bill from prior fiscal year, for $ 684. 00. Warren D. said he would like to talk about some of the Articles. He said before the town considered putting $ 150,000.00 to reduce the borrowing for the dock he would like to discuss that after they discussed the tax rate. Tim C. said he had done an analysis for the Board on what it would cost the Town to borrow the money or not and what it will do to the tax rate, up or down asked Tim C. why they had a Medex bill to pay in April that should have been paid last June. Warren D. said he really didn’t like Warrant Articles in April to pay for a bill that the Town received before last June 30th. Tim C.
explained that this Medex bill pre-dated all of them. He said that the bill was from when the previous Accountant and Treasurer. Melanie B said the Town has been carrying this on the books for several years now. She said the bill predated her and Tom W. and said there was a dispute between the previous Treasurer and Accountant whether or not the money was owed to Medex. Melanie B explained what the dispute was over. She said that the Cape Cod Municipal Health Group continued to carry it as a bill and is asking the Health Group to review their paperwork to determine when the discrepancy actually occurred. She said she had created the Article to that it could finally be taken care of. There was a general conversation about this prior fiscal years bill, why the bill would be paid if it can’t be substantiated, and the proposal to set the money aside to pay if substantiated. Tim C. said this was the only discrepancy the Town has had in over 20 years. Riggs P.
asked if this was the only bill outstanding from a prior fiscal year and Tim C. said no, the Planning Board had a bill that they didn’t submit and should have and that they Planning Board had requested a Warrant Article for $ 2,000.00. He explained what the bill was for.
Tim C. said the next Article was from the Town of Aquinnah regarding the Tri-Town Ambulance. He said it was to see if the Town would establish an Enterprise Fund. Warren D. explained the Tri-Town Ambulance starting to collect insurance for its
ambulance runs. He said the money collected would be between $ 200,000.00 –
$ 300,000.00 a year and could be collected from Medicare, Medicaid and Blue Cross and other providers. There was a long, general discussion regarding how other towns collected insurance money for ambulance runs, what to do with the money collected what fund would be best to use, how to assist residents who had no means to pay, how the billing would work, fiscal controls on the Enterprise fund, what Town would hold the fund and whether or not the money taken in by charging residents could be used to reduce the operating budget.
Tim explained what kind of fund Tri-Town would set up to keep the funds and explained in detail, the difference between a revolving Fund and an Enterprise Fund.
Doug S. said he felt that there was not enough information to proceed. Tim C. said the underlying concept was that the Town was going to collect money for most ambulance runs. Doug S. asked if it was appropriate to make a motion on whether the Finance Committee recommended this Article. Tim C. said yes, and Doug S. moved that the Finance Committee recommended the concept of setting up an Enterprise Fund, details to be figured out later, and Bill R. seconded the motion. All votes re unanimous.
Warren D. said the next Article to discuss was Dukes County Regional Housing Authority. He said the Town had asked for a Home Roll Petition at the Sate Legislator, which allowed the Town to keep their deed riders permanent, therefore giving the Town permanent affordability for people up to 150% of medina income. Tim C. said the proposal was not ready yet. He said the DCRHA had 3 drafts but no actual proposal. There was a brief discussion bout the Housing Authorities powers to create a bylaw.
Tim C. said next on the list was the Fire Department stabilization fund, annual infusion of $ 30,000.00 into the fire stabilization fund. He said that was from free cash.
CPC transfer from Housing Residents Reserve into the Rental Assistance Program gave it another infusion of cash to move forward with of $ 55,000.00. Frank F. asked if that was only this years and Tim C. said yes.
$ 12,000.00 from CPC Historical Reserve and $ 3005.00 from a prior CPC article to make $ 15,005.00 for the stonewalls.
Dock repair this was the question whether or not to use the $ 150,000.00 to lower debt of borrowing $ 550,000.00 by using some free cash or the Town could use the $ 150,000.00 towards reducing the tax rate. Tim C. explained the 5.5 cent reduction if they decide to do so. There was brief discussion of how the low tax rate came to be.
Tim C. gave members information on borrowing and estimations. He said that it showed what the rates would be at an estimated percentage. He said if the Town borrowed the full amount over 10years @ 5% it would be $ 191,000.00 cost to the Town. He said if we were to take the $ 150,00.00 and used it to reduce the tax rate then the cost for the borrowing of that money was $ 191,000.00. He said if you used the money to pay down the tax rate then you would save $ 50.00 on a million dollar valuation. There was a general discussion about the borrowing of money at particular percentage rates, how the tax rate was based on last years valuation, the possible total amount needed to borrow for the Dock Project and the percentage rate at which it might be borrowed at.
Melanie B. said that last year the Town had considered doing a Bond for the money needed for the Dock, because at that time the Town was considering the purchase of the Homeport and to put both together would have been worth it to do the Bond. She said now looking at the dock loan of borrowing $ 750,000.00 or reducing it to $ 600,000.00 either way it doesn’t justify the $ 20,000.00 that it would cost to do the Bond. She said the Town was looking at borrowing the money through Permanent State House Notes. She said the Town could borrow for as long as 10years, 7 or 5. She said that the recommendation was not for the 10 years. There was a brief discussion about the number of years to carry the loan and at what percentage rate the loan would be for
Tim C. said the next figure to be discussed was $ 80,000.00 from Free Cash to fund whatever capital plan came out of the Capital Planning Committee. He said it was a comfortable number to start off the capital plan and said they could make the amount whatever they wanted to.
Tim C. said the number for the paving was $ 80,970.00 from the 2 years of State Aid, and $ 15,400.00 left over from old State Aid and a Highway Article form 2002 ATM for
$ 36,656.0, for a total of $ 133,00.00, plus the $ 120,000.00 requestis $ 253,000.00. He said at $ 187,000.00 per mile then that was 1.35 miles of paving. He described the area which needed to be finished paving.
Tim C. said the next on the list was the Community Center Maintenance Account.
The next one was just transferring money form Landfill Project back to the stabilization fund. He continued to review the list of items from the handout sheet that the Board was given at the beginning of the night. This included the Reserve Fund, the Acoustic Ceiling, Joint Maintenance Account, Town Hall computer system, Medex Bill, Planning Board prior fiscal year.
Riggs. P. said he was still trying to understand the “Other Funds Account” and mentioned the Waterway Improvements fund still had $ 41,000.00. He asked if any of that money would be available for the Dock Project. Tim C. said he would have to look at the statute to see what the authorization was before doing so. Tim said that the total budget was approximately 5.9 million dollars.
Melanie B. said she thought it was apparent that another meeting was needed.
Kathleen C. made a motion to adjourn, Marshall C. seconded the motion.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:50 pm
Respectfully submitted
Annette Anthony
Assistant to Executive Secretary
Approved 4-19-06
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