Town of Farmington
Budget Committee Meeting
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Board Members Present: Members Absent:
Neil Johnson, Chairman Stan Freeda, School Board Rep.
Ann Titus, Vice Chairman Sam Cataldo
Jodi Connolly, Secretary
Brian St. Onge, Selectmen’s Rep.
Resta Detwiler
Stephen Henry
Sylvia Arcouette
Others Present:
Steve Welford, Superintendent (7:40 p.m.)
1). Call to Order:
Chairman Johnson called the meeting to order at 7 p.m.
2). Pledge of Allegiance:
All present stood for the Pledge of Allegiance.
3). Review of Minutes:
a). February 11, 2015- Town Budget Public Hearing-
Motion: (Titus, second Connolly) to approve the minutes as written passed 5-0-2 (Arcouette, Henry abstained).
b).March 25, 2015-Regular meeting-
Motion: (Titus, second Connolly) to approve the minutes as written passed 6-0-1 (Arcouette abstained).
c). January 14, 2015-Regular meeting-
Page 2, Article 3, 16th line, amend sentence “People need to understand why he said” to read “People need to understand why it will be significantly higher he said”.
Motion: (Connolly, second Titus) to approve the minutes as amended passed 6-0-1(Arcouette abstained).
4). Public Comment:
There were no comments from the public. Vice Chairman Titus asked if late-comers to the meeting would be allowed to speak. Chairman Johnson said it depends on the circumstances, but most likely they would be allowed to comment.
5). Discuss Answers to Questions Previously Posed to the School Board Rep.:
Chairman Johnson asked to move items 5 and 6 to later in the meeting as the Superintendent and the School Board Rep. were attending an SAU meeting and expected to attend this meeting following the SAU meeting.
6). Review School District and SAU Budget and Revenue Reports:
Moved to later in the meeting.
7). Discuss Answers to Questions Previously Posed to the Board of Selectmen Rep.: None.
8). Review Town Budget and Revenue Reports:
A). Remittance Report- There were no questions from the committee about this report. Chairman Johnson noted that the report provided is the monthly report for March 2015 and requested in the future, the town provide the Year- to- Date Remittance Report to the committee.
B). Expenses and Encumbrances Report-
Administrative support-secretary- Page 1, Line (01-4130-60-110) was overspent by $1,282.51. Chairman Johnson asked if it is because an additional secretary may have been called in to cover for the Selectmen’s Secretary while she was recovering from an accident.
Police Dispatch and Prosecution- Page 5, Line (01-4210-10-344) has $31,500 budgeted and $31,244.45 has already been expended. Jodi Connolly asked why there is only $255.55 is left in the line at this point and if the item is expected to go over budget. Selectman St. Onge speculated it may be due to the number of drug cases prosecuted, the case against the former Fire Chief, the case against two Police officers, Animal Control issues and the dispatch fee.
Per Diem Fire Day Coverage- Page 5, Line (01-4220-10-112) is twice over the amount budgeted ($43,680) and shows $95,116.19 already expended. Steve Henry noted that there are no expenses recorded in the EMS Coverage per diem and suggested some of the expenses may have been taken from the wrong line item. He also asked for more information about EMS and Fire stipends.
Codes Repairs to Vehicle- Page 6, Line (01-4240-10-660) has $500 budgeted but $614.18 has been expended. St. Onge said the expense was due to repairs of the damages to a Code Enforcement vehicle hit by another car while parked in the Municipal Building parking lot. He said the cost may be reimbursed by the town’s insurance coverage, but noted the policy includes a deductible amount.
Code Enforcement Mileage- Page 7, Line (01-4241-20-290) has no amount budgeted for the year. Jodi Connolly asked if this is due to the car being down for repairs.
Some members also questioned if it is permissible to spend from a line with zero funds budgeted and suggested there must be at least $1 in a line to expend funds from that line. Adding $ 1 to a zero budget line cannot be done at this time Chairman Johnson said.
Administration Highway and Streets-Outside Services- Page 7, Line (01-4311-10-146) is overspent by $2,033.54. St. Onge suggested this may be due the hiring of snow removal personnel for the downtown area.
Rental Highway Equipment- Page 7, Line (01-4311-10-440) has $2500 budgeted and is overspent by $861.25.
Highway New Equipment-Page 8, Line (01-4312-20-740) is a zero budgeted line and $1,888 has been spent from the line.
Parks and Recreation/Dental- Page 11, Line (01-4520-95-211) is over expended by $3,023.52. The line item has $1,405 budgeted and $4,428.52 has been spent so far this year. Members questioned the increase as there are only two full time employees in the Recreation Department. St. Onge suggested it may be due to an employee changing their coverage such as from single to family coverage. Ann Titus asked if an employee can change his/her coverage at any time. St. Onge said he believes changes are only allowed when due to some life event, such as marriage or having a child etc.
C). Parks and Recreation March Monthly Report-
Fireworks Fundraising- Steven Henry asked how the fundraising for the Hay Day fireworks is progressing. Events included Women’s Club Chili/Chowder Fest ($360 raised) and a play performed by the Farmington Town Players. The report states that presently, there is a total of $470 in the Fireworks Fund.
Senior/ Adult Trips – Chairman Johnson noted that the expenses for some of the trips far outweigh the total amount coming in and questioned if it is worth continuing them. St. Onge said Recreation Director Rick Conway must think they are worthwhile if he is running them. He suggested the committee invite Conway to the next meeting to discuss the matter with him.
Steve Henry said that a trip to Smitty’s (a movie theater) for six people (four residents who paid $10 each and two staff members) cost the town $268.94 in expenses.
Ann Titus suggested the department set a minimum number of participants for trips and if the minimum is not reached, the trip should be canceled.
Jodi Connolly said she hates to see programs cut, but this program is costing the taxpayers. She then suggested the low participation rates may be due to the bad weather during the month.
Selectman St. Onge reminded the committee that the Director submitted a budget, it was approved and now he is spending the money for programs. Steve Henry said he would rather discuss the issue now than during the next budget season and help find better use of the money to benefit more people.
Consensus of the committee showed they would like to discuss the matter with Conway at their next meeting. Chairman Johnson said he will contact Conway and ask him to attend.
Selectman St. Onge said he will try to provide answers to the committee’s questions regarding the Town expenditures at their next meeting.
5). Review of School District and SAU and Revenue Reports:
A). Revenue Report-
Food Service-Ann Titus asked how the Food Service Program is working out and if the program is “in the red” (losing money). Chairman Johnson said he heard the program is working well over the last couple of months, is in the black (not losing money) with new menus and more participation. He will ask Superintendent Welford for a status report on the program.
B). Grant and Special Revenues Funds- Discussion included the difficulty in reconciling the funds as the funds are distributed throughout the year, some expenditures for the funds were not listed and in which budget year the summer school program (takes place in July) is included.
C).Year To Date Expenditure Report/General Fund –
Health Insurance Reg. Ed/Dist -Page 1 (Line 16) and Premium Holiday Page 1 (Line 23) are both zero funded line items with expenditures.
Supplies GED Program- Page 2, Line 56 is over by $195 as $470 was budgeted and $665 was spent.
Superintendent Welford then arrived at the meeting at 7:40 p.m.
GED Program-Steve Henry asked if the district charges for the GED Program. Welford said the district does not charge for the program, but added that there is the possibility that in the future, when students from other districts are included, they will be charged a fee to participate. He said some of the expenses in that line are from the purchase of materials to change the test to a new test called “High Set Testing”.
Zero Line Items Expenditures- St. Onge asked Welford about the line items that are zero budgeted but have expenses drawn from them. Welford said it may be a case where something was charged to a line that it shouldn’t have been charged to. He said he recently saw the same thing in the SAU budget and said he will check with Business Administrator Laurie Verville to get an explanation of the charges. Welford added that he is not sure if it is a statutory requirement to put at least $1 in an account to charge against it. He said he will try to obtain an answer.
Food Service Program-Steve Henry asked Welford how food service program is going. Welford said that although the program is going well, he does not anticipate it will show a surplus to same degree as last year. This is because the cost of employee benefits is more due to the employees return to the district from the management company. He said he also does not anticipate the same amount of losses as last year because the district retained the company’s management services for the program. Program participation has increased slightly he said.
Pre-School Summer School-Jodi Connolly asked why the district offers pre-school summer school. Welford said it is because most of the children in pre-school are Special Education students who may have summer programs written into their Individual Education Plan (IEP). It is the school district’s responsibility to provide IEP’s beginning at age three he said. Some of the children have significant issues and summer programs help them to avoid recidivism from the skills they have learned. He added it is much more efficient to provide the services in our own pre-school programs that to send the children out to another district for service we are obligated to provide. If we were not offering a pre-school program, we would still need to provide the services needed for these children. Chairman Johnson agreed that it is almost always cheaper to
do something yourself than to pay someone else to do it.
Tuition SPED Other LEA’s NH FH-Page 7, Line 180 – Jodi Connolly asked why there is nothing left in the line. Welford said the district has some students who attend school in other public schools, which in the past, has been charged against the out of district tuition lines in the budget. But those lines are actually for private SPED schools. The students are attending SPED programs in a public school such as Gov. Wentworth in Wolfboro, and this is a way to put the expenditures in a line where it actually belongs. Next year’s budget will show an amount that was rolled into the SPED tuition for private schools spent at public schools in its own line for other LEA’s (Local Educational Agency). Connolly then asked if the $67,134 represents just one student. Welford said he thinks it for three students. Welford added that the district is
looking to improve its Autism Program so that Farmington students can receive those services here as well students from other towns and receive tuition funds from those districts.
Workman’s Comp- Page 11, lines 292-294- Jodi Connolly asked if there have been Workman’s Comp claims made. Welford said those actually depict the premiums paid to the program. The premiums are based on salary and have increased slightly he said.
Saturday Detention-Ann Titus asked if the district will provide Saturday detention in the schools next year. Welford said it has been budgeted for the coming year, but he was not sure if it will continue in the following year. In-school suspension has been eliminated to save money rather than make cuts from an academic program. He said the number of suspensions has been going down but it is still an issue. He added that when a student is sent out of school, they are not being taught so the idea was to come up with an alternative to allow them to stay in school and still meet the behavior expectations in school. He said reasons for suspensions are not in any one particular category, but are the things teenagers unfortunately sometimes get involved in. He noted that he is happy to say that suspensions for smoking are down this year. The
administrative staff will take a look at this issue because of inconsistencies from building to building and administrator to administrator in regards to expectations for student behavior and how they are achieved.
Guidance Counselor- Page 12, Line 305- Chairman Johnson asked why this line is overspent by $14,049. Welford said it is due to a one-time salary adjustment for one of the counselors because they had been placed at the wrong level of the salary scale.
Telephone, Farmington High School-Page 21, Line 548 –Jodi Connolly asked why this line is over expended by $7,877.96. Welford said the Middle and High schools and the SAU office have Voice-Over IP and the cost has increased at each building. The service was supposed to save the district money as there are no long distance charges, but it has not worked out that way and he said he is not sure why. He said administrators are looking at other providers for the entire district in an effort to save money. Long distance charges occur from contacting vendors, transferring students, athletic contests and there are additional charges for the Alert Now broadcast calls which all get charged back to the high school’s phone number. Welford said the district is also looking at other electricity providers following Eversource’s rate increase.
Health Insurance Custodian- Page 23, Line 581- Jodi Connolly asked if the district has hired a new custodian as $13,986 was budgeted for the line and $29,254 has been spent. Welford said two custodians were hired at the middle school and other custodians have been shifted around. He noted that one of the lines is over spent while another has a surplus due to the transfers and the new hires. When all is said and done it should all come out pretty even he said. The number of custodians is same as before as the new hires are replacements he said.
Maintenance Overtime-Welford said the district is lacking one maintenance person. Steve Henry asked if that is why the amount of overtime is up. Welford said overtime is up due to all of the snow storms we had this winter. He then told the committee the district has applied for reimbursement from FEMA for storm related costs and will receive payment for the purchase of three snow blowers, a portion of the snow plowing and over time for the custodians.
Athletic Field Repairs-Selectman St. Onge asked if the athletic fields at the high school have been repaired. Welford said that Hillside Landing is performing the work as the fields have now dried out enough to been the work. The company expects to have the field shaved and loam deposited within the next 10 days. One of the problems is the company that is excavating the loam for the landscaping company must wait for it dry out first before it can be sifted and then sent to the site. The baseball and softball fields are currently usable but the football-soccer field will be off limits for a year and will not be played on in the fall. The field will be sodded and not seeded so it should be a lush field next season he said.
Repairs to the Building, Henry Wilson Middle School- Page 24, Line 620- This line was over spent by $11,397. Welford said the $13,000 encumbered in the line is for the painting of the gym at the school which has not been done since it was constructed in 1959.The entire gym will be completed by Friday and is coming out spectacularly he said. The project was put out to bid, six bids were received and the School Board awarded the bid to the lowest bidder so that is why the line is over spent.
Steve Henry asked why the board decided to do this painting project now as it was not budgeted. Welford said we don’t expect to have the opportunity again to do it for several years and it was a mess. It had bright white walls with stains on them from the last 10 years. The new paint is two shades of beige and brown with an orange stripe around the entire gym and is washable he said. Welford said County prisoners were not asked to complete the paint work as they would not have the necessary equipment to safely paint the girders in the ceiling and rewrap the insulation on the pipes near the ceiling.
Diesel Fuel – Page 27, Line 702- Over spent by $1,402 Welford said this is due the extra fuel needed for the John Deere tractor used for snow removal.
Worker’s Comp. Bus Drivers- Page 27, Line 718- This line is over spent by $5,579. Welford said he is not sure why this line is over spent and said he will find out.
Diesel Fuel, Pupil Transport- Page 28, Line 728- Over spent by $7,052. This is because in the fall, there were no home games because the soccer and football field was unavailable and the teams had to be transported out of town to the games. There is a corresponding reduction in game expenses for referees, umpires, etc. because Farmington was the visiting team all fall Welford said.
Salary, Misc. Rec. Trips- Page 30, Line 779- This item is over spent by $3,458. Welford said this cost may be for summer trips run by the Recreation Dept. The dept. uses the school district’s buses and drivers for these trips and then the costs are reimbursed to the district. But he said he was not sure and will look into it.
School Bus/Van Repairs- The committee noted it was also a tough year for bus repairs. Over $9,000 was spent to repair the 2006 bus#3 ($7,000 was budgeted), $5,748 was spent to repair the 2010 bus#14 ($3,000 was budgeted) and repairs to the 2013 van (#11), the 2010 bus (#8), the 2014 bus (#15) and the 2014 bus (#16) also over spent their lines but to a much lesser degree. Welford said the age and mileage on some of the vehicles necessitates the amount of the repairs and suggested it may be time to look at leasing two new vehicles during the next budget process.
Middleton School Ground Breaking-Chairman Johnson asked if Middleton has broke ground for their new school. Welford said they have not, but hope to break ground sometime in May. Their schedule is off by a few weeks but it is not a significant development and is not a concern at this point. The school is expected to be ready in May 2016 he said. Chairman Johnson said if the school is not ready on time, it could cause some issues for Farmington. Welford said the problem comes if they fall out of schedule significantly and do not notify the Farmington district by December, it will affect the proposed budget required to be presented to the Budget Committee. He added that any teacher whose contract is not being renewed must be notified by April 15.Chairman Johnson added If Farmington is not notified by January that the Middleton school will
not be ready for occupancy on time and that their students will remain in the Farmington School District, this will create havoc with the budget process. Welford said Middleton is not going to be able to tell Farmington five or six months ahead of time that the building will not be ready to open the following September. Discussion also included Welford’s discussions with the state Commissioner of Education, what happens if teachers are let go and the Middleton students remain in Farmington, if the teachers are hired back are they to be hired for a full or partial year and how to pay for teachers and other costs related to the Middleton students if we find out they are remaining in Farmington after the budget process is completed. Welford said we could be stuck with a bare bones budget and school system designed for 1,000 students that is suddenly being made to accommodate 1,200 students. Then the “$64,000 question” is how much do we charge
them to stay here when the Area Agreement is gone he said.
Sylvia Arcouette asked if the state could give Middleton a deadline to inform Farmington what their plans are. Welford said he asked the same question to the Commissioner and she said the state Board of Education has the ability to tell Farmington we must keep the Middleton students, but it doesn’t have the ability to make Middleton let Farmington know by a certain date.
Jodi Connolly asked if Farmington has the right to set the tuition amount for Middleton students that may remain in the Farmington school system.
Chairman Johnson said the issue may not be what we charge them, but whether we could spend it. If the tuition agreement missed all of the budget deadlines it would not be approved as part of the budget process. You could take the funds in as unanticipated revenues but not be able to spend it because the expenditure was not budgeted he said.
Welford said money spent from an approved budget are appropriations and questioned if the district would have to hold a special School District Meeting to approve acceptance of the tuition funds and get authorization to expend them.
Middleton’s withdrawal date from the Farmington School District is June 30, 2015, but students in grades kindergarten through sixth grade will remain in Farmington for one more year. The Area Agreement is officially over on June 30, 2016 so the tuition agreement is in effect until that time. Welford said he does not know if Farmington can recoup costs related to a delayed opening of the new Middleton school because even the Commissioner could not answer the questions about how to establish tuition and whether to charge for a full or partial school year.
Steve Henry asked if the construction schedule is only off by one month, could Middleton delay the start of school until the end of September and then proceed with a normal school year. Welford said they could, if they are smart enough to pre-purchase materials and supplies to outfit the building in January and store them on site until construction is completed.
9). Any Other Business to Come before the Committee:
A). Copies of The Basics of Law and Budgeting were distributed to committee members. He advised the members the handout has a lot of useful material in it.
B). Chairman Johnson introduced Sylvia Arcouette as the newest member of the committee and noted there are two open positions on the committee. Anyone interested in becoming a member of the committee can fill out an application online or see Selectmen’s Secretary Megan Taylor-Fetter at the Municipal office building for an application.
C). Welford told the committee that Business Administrator Laurie Verville has been reappointed to the position for another two years.
D). Steve Henry noted that Middleton voted to withdraw from SAU 61 and asked if they are still a part of SAU 61. Welford said they will be a part of the SAU until June 30, 2016.The date is determined by one year from the withdrawal approval he said.
10). Next Regular Meeting- Wednesday, May 27, 2015 at 7 p.m.
11). Adjournment:
Motion: (Connolly, second Titus) to adjourn passed 7-0 at 8:40 p.m.
Respectively submitted,
Kathleen Magoon
Recording Secretary
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