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Finance Committee Meeting Minutes
February 28, 2014
10 – 11:30am
Present: Donald Clawson, Dan Moriarity and Stanley Ross
- The minutes from February 20th were approved as written.
- The Committee reviewed the FY15 budget and discussed the following:
- Levy limits were reviewed. According to Don the total tax levy for last year was $3 million. According to his calculations our levy is $3,131,409.48 plus an excess capacity of $7,394.00. This levy number will be augmented by certified numbers. Stan stated that the rounded debt exclusion numbers will be $56,000 and $68,000 no one knew what the numbers would be for the grader as the Treasurer has been unresponsive to these requests for information.
- The Finance Committee expressed concern that the FY13 books still have not been reconciled. There is hope that most of what needs to be corrected and completed might be accomplished this week when former Accountant Barbara Gauthier comes in to help but the Committee noted that there is still a lot of frustration with the unresponsiveness of the current Treasurer and Accountant.
- Don questioned how old the cruiser is that is set to be replaced. Stan explained that it has been the practice to replace a cruiser every 3 years. The Committee will set up a meeting with the Chief to hear his rationale behind replacing the Ford. The Committee would also like more information from the Director of Operations on the rationale behind his request for a new truck.
- The Committee questioned why the Fire Department needs 4 defibrillators.
- Stan inquired as to if this is a good year to give raises. It was noted that 2 years ago the employees did not get raises and costs continue to rise at the grocery store, gas stations, etc. Stan questioned what the rationale was behind the ECAC’s recommendation for a 2% COLA increase and 2% merit increase. Dan didn’t want to discuss whether or not to give raises without the Select Board’s input. Stan reminded Dan that it is the Finance Committee’s job to make recommendations on the budget to the Select Board and he felt that in a year when we are close to our levy limit that all spending, including raises should be denied. It was noted that the New England COLA is at around 1.5%. Dan noted that the 2nd ½ of the increases for the Chief and Sergeant that were
proposed last year and are requested this year are not raises but increases to their salaries to bring them in line with the other towns and compensate them for their knowledge and training to deal with all types of emergency situations. Stan stated that money for training comes out of their expenses to which Dan argued that this money pays for a certain caliber of an officer instead of a “Barney Fife like” responder. Stan feels that a 4% raise is excessive and Dan agreed that it needs to be reviewed. The members of the ECAC committee will be asked to justify their recommendation. The increases to salaries as proposed right now will amount to $0.015 cents to the tax rate.
- Stan doesn’t agree with the proposal by the Select Board to only put $50,000 towards stabilization instead of $75,000, he actually would prefer that we put $100,000. Don agrees.
- Stan noted that a suggestion was made to him with regards to the Fire Department being paid for calls (which is currently $25/hour with a guaranteed minimum of 2 hours) and wanted to discuss it hypothetically: It was suggested that this line item should be handled the same as training and once the allocated budget is spent it’s spent; it was questioned what firemen wouldn’t go to a call and fulfill their emergency obligation even though they aren’t being paid for it. It was also noted that when the firemen went from volunteer to paid the Fire Chief at the time, Ray Tryon stated that this would be a fixed line item and if they were to run out of money in it prior to the end of the FY, the firemen would still respond to calls even though they were not being compensated. Don didn’t feel this was a
good idea and Dan felt it would create a bitterness among the firemen.
- The Parks Department’s request was discussed and their justification provided on their budget request sheet was reviewed.
- The Committee felt that the Tree’s Warden’s budget request was a reasonable and legitimate request.
- The Finance Committee is in hold mode until they meet with the Select Board next week and will schedule another meeting for next Thursday after checking their personal schedules.
Submitted by,
Melissa Noe, Executive Secretary
Via audio recording
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