Chilmark FinCom & Selectmen FY2016 Budget Hearing
February 4, 2015 Joint Meeting Minutes
FinCom Present: Chairman Marshall Carroll, Frank Yeomans, Jim Malkin, Vicky Divoll,
Susan Murphy, Linda Coutinho, Bruce Golden.
Selectmen Present: Chairman Bill Rossi, Jonathan Mayhew, Warren Doty,
Also: Tim Carroll, Melanie Becker, Ellen Biskis, Diana DeBlase, Chuck Hodgkinson,
Ebba Hierta, Janet Weidner, Ben Retmire, Ambulance Chief Paul Wilkins and Tracy Jones.
At 7:00 PM Chairman Marshall Carroll called meeting to order in the Selectmen’s meeting room.
Minutes:
Draft FinCom meeting minutes from October 8, 2014 were reviewed. Corrections were made. Mr. Yeomans requested further discussion on liability insurance section and distributed information for discussion during the February 10, 2015 budget hearing when the committees review insurance.
Mr. Malkin moved to approve minutes as corrected. Mr. Golden seconded the motion.
SO VOTED: 6 Ayes, 1 FinCom member was not present at the 10/08/14 meeting.
Draft FinCom meeting minutes from November 12, 2014 were reviewed. Mrs. Coutinho moved to approve minutes as written. Ms. Divoll seconded the motion. SO VOTED: 4 Ayes, 3 FinCom members were not present at the 11/12/14 meeting.
Chairman Marshall Carroll opened the hearing for the Chilmark Library.
#610 Library
Ebba Hierta Chilmark library director presented the FY16 proposed budget for the Chilmark Library. Ms. Hierta said the budget is mostly level funded except for the state mandated 20% materials increase. Ms. Hierta distributed an information chart with visual description of FY16 Budget request and Funding Sources.
Mr. Golden said that he loves his CLAMS card and is very pleased at the ease it allows him with borrowing and returning materials with being connected to so many libraries.
Ms. Hierta said line 5248 Software Maintenance / License is up $1,267.00 this is so we can have high-speed connection to our main server for CLAMS. The other line increases are for materials mentioned earlier.
Ms. Coutinho said she sees that line 5303 Professional Development of $800.00 has not been expended. Ms. Hierta said she would be travelling to Worcester Massachusetts once a moths as a volunteer on a board that is looking into tracking the States 20% mandate increase to libraries. Ms. Hierta said she will try to get that figure lowered for smaller communities like ours.
Ms. Hierta said this year we said goodbye to our Library Trustees director Norman Freed. Mr. Freed had dedicated decades of commitment to our community and the library we have today would not have been without Norman’s commitment.
#610 Library Continued…
Ms. Hierta said she is happy to say that Heather Quinn has joined the Trustees and said she will be taking out nomination papers for the April town Elections.
Mr. Doty said he wanted to mention that the Selectmen are implementing a senior citizens work off program. Mr. Doty said that the library would be a good recipient of senior citizens work off program. This program allows for a senior citizen (one who doesn’t hold an elected position) in Chilmark to work at minimum wage of $9.00 applied up to $750.00 deducted from their local real estate tax bill. Ms. Hierta said that would be wonderful and is happy the Selectmen are doing that for our community. Chairman Carroll thanked Ms. Hierta for coming and presenting the library FY16 budget tonight.
#171 Conservation Commission:
Chuck Hodgkinson the Assistant Administrator for the board presented the proposed fy16 budget for ConCom. This budget is level funded with the only increase being a step and COLA.
Mr. Hodgkinson spoke about the legal action an applicant is taking against the commission’s decision to deny an order of conditions. There is a stay at this time till May till the DEP has a recommendation. Mr. Hodgkinson thinks the applicant may reduce the application.
#176 Zoning Board of Appeals:
Mr. Hodgkinson said that the ZBA Commissioners have discussed the possibility to bill the applicant for the advertising of their hearings. Mr. Hodgkinson said they will schedule a public hearing concerning this idea and return to the Selectmen & FinCom with the decision.
#691 Historical Commission:
Mr. Hodgkinson presented the proposed FY16 budget for the Historical Commission. Accountant Ellen Biskis made a correction to the salaries total line should read $1,012.14 instead of the $1002.12. Mr. Hodgkinson said Jane Slater is the Chairman of the historical commission.
#179 Community Preservation Commission:
Mr. Hodgkinson distributed an explanation of what the CPA funds are being spent on and what we expect we will have in reserve for each of the three departments; Affordable Housing, Open Space and Historic Preservation.
#231 Tri Town Ambulance (TTA):
Ambulance Chief Paul Wilkins and Assistant Chief Ben Retmire presented the proposed FY16 budget for the TTA. Chief Wilkins distributed the FY16 Paramedic Staffing Plan, an Incident Summary Report, and the AmbuPro Dashboard Agency Overview. Chief Wilkins referred to the Staffing plan and said that they are short coverage of 3938 hours annually.
Chief Wilkins said he has been working every weekend as he is on salary. Assistant Chief Retmire said that the challenge is filling the shifts with per diem paramedics. Many of the per diem paramedics are coming from off island. Chief Wilkins said even with a new full time paramedic we would still need to hire per diem paramedics.
#231 Tri Town Ambulance (TTA) Continued…
The total increase being requested for the TTA fy16 budget up from last year is $139,555.34
$106,172.88 of that is the full time paramedic and a 20 hour a week clerical position.
Mrs. Murphy asked if we have the volunteers like we used to as EMTs. Tim Carroll said he believes ALS began in Chilmark in 2007. Mr. Retmire explained that ALS is Advanced Live Support, and BLS is Basic Life Support.
Mr. Doty said that the FY16 budget increase is 18% but that the assessment to the town of Chilmark is 38% he asked why that was. Chief Wilkins asked is Ms. Biskis or Mr. Carroll could help explain this. Mr. Carroll said we had some billing problems and we didn’t collect money so money that should have come in in the calendar year which is used for the next fiscal year has not come in yet so we are $100,000.00 and something short.
Assistant Chief Retmire said that the problem happened in the computer system we found that ComStar (our billing company) had not gotten our reports for over 4 months but we have corrected the problem and are expecting not to have that problem again. Mr. Doty said that we need to recall the insurance companies to keep after them to pay our bills to them.
Chief Wilkins said the clerical position that the TTA is seeking would be helping to work through the required paperwork and reports to make sure the town received the monies from the insurance companies.
Mr. Malkin asked if the majority of Incidents were in the summer. Chief Wilkins said about 75% take place in the summer. Mr. Malkin asked what are the full time ALS employees doing off season when we only have 25% of the incidents. Mr. Malkin said he has staffing concerns about TTA.
Assistant Chief Retmire said they are attending training and keeping up to date with requirements with the MV Hospital. Chief Wilkins said that the TTA utilized BLS employees every day. They are paid a stipend when they are called in to respond to an incident.
Mr. Mayhew said that the TTA does a fine job for our towns.
Chief Wilkins said he would make sure that Charlie 90 is fully serviced and ready before spring.
#198 Town Owned Property:
Tim Carroll explained that lines 5210 & 5211 are the Library utilities. These were moved to this department so they would not be part of the 20% increase materials requirement.
Line 5212 represents the meter credits we purchase to offset our utilities bills. Tim Carroll said that the Solar Array at our land fill has been operational for about 6 months and we have accrued credits that NSTAR has not given us yet but he expects a considerable credit soon.
#198 Town Owned Property:
Ms. Coutinho said that we can change a schedule z every month; she also recommended talking to Mitch Posin as he has been involved with this process for a while now. There are no increases proposed in this #198 FY16 budget.
#151 Legal:
Tim Carroll presented the proposed Legal FY16 budget. This budget is also level funded.
Ms. Biskis made a correction that total expenses should be changed to 0% not 14.41%.
The legal budget is $55,180.00
Mr. Doty said that our legal budget is very reasonable when we keep with our town counsel Ron Rappaport but when we have to go elsewhere, we really see high costs. Mr. Doty said that Mr. Rappaport often gives us a considerable discount.
Tim Carroll moved discussion to the balance sheet with FY15 and FY16 side by side for comparison. Tim Carroll pointed out that there seems to be a 1.57% increase up from FY15. Tim Carroll said that we have to add in our warrant articles yet but need to make sure we put funds into stabilization.
Town treasure Melanie Becker said she had just returned from a Cape Cod Municipal Health meeting. And that the employee health insurance rates are increasing 10% and that we have underfunded the employee health insurance line.
Mr. Yeomans moved to adjourn. Mr. Golden seconded the motion.
FinCom SO VOTED: 7 Ayes
Selectmen SO VOTED: 3 Ayes.
Meeting adjourned at 9:20 PM
Minutes respectfully submitted by Diana DeBlase. Approved 2/18/15
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