Finance Committee
Meeting 1/3/2018
TAX COLLECTOR
Summary
~~~ * Agree with Select Board's recommended budget levels
~~~ *Recommend that Tax Collector be furnished with monthly P/L summaries
~~~ *Recommend that Qtrly. meeting with a Finance Committee member be scheduled with Tax Collector
Cemetery Maintainence and Soldiure"s Graves
Summary
~~~ * Agree with Select Board's recommended budget levels
~~~ *Recommend that Budget Manager be furnished with monthly P/L summaries
~~~ *Recommend that Qtrly. meeting with a Finance Committee member be scheduled with Department Manager
~~~ *A request was made for a $1k increase in budget. This should be considered when the maintainence contract is renewed
Tree Warden
~~~
Summary
~~~ * Agree with Select Board's recommended budget levels
~~~ *Recommend that Budget Manager be furnished with monthly P/L summaries
~~~ *Recommend that Qtrly. meeting with a Finance Committee member be scheduled with Department Manager
Comments
~~~ * it is not clear what the success criteria for this effort!!
Building Inspector
Summary
~~~ * Agree with Select Board's recommended budget levels
~~~ *Recommend that Budget Manager be furnished with monthly P/L summaries
~~~ *Recommend that Qtrly. meeting with a Finance Committee member be scheduled with Department Manager
Finance Committee
Meeting 1/3/2018
PARKS
SUMMARY
- Agree with Select Board’s Recommended Budget Levels
- Recommend that Commission head be furnished with monthly P&L summaries
- Recommend that there be a quarterly review by a member of the Finance Committee with the Commission head of the Parks’ budgets.
- Recommend that all Commission payments be made through the proper payments process and that there be no personal payments made to be reimbursed.
TOWN CLERK
SUMMARY
- Agree with Select Board’s Recommended Budget Levels
- Check to confirm that the Clerk’s salary is not less than the budgeted level
- Recommend that the Town Clerk be furnished with Monthly P&L summaries
- Recommend that there be a quarterly review by a member of the Finance Committee with the Town Clerk of the Budget status.
COUNCIL ON AGING
SUMMARY
- Agree with the Select Board’s Recommended Budget Levels.
- Review with the Town Accountant whether or not to expense the Elderly Transportation cost ($4845) against the State’s annual $5000 grant.
- Recognize that the Town has 367 residents (about 1/3 of the total population) are over 60 years of age.
- With such a large number of aging residents, it might be helpful to find more volunteers and/or Council members to be able to address the interests of this growing population group.
GRANTS
SUMMARY
- FY 2017 BUDGET = $18000 ACTUAL 2017 = $7464
- FY 2018 BUDGET = $15660 ACTUAL 2018 = $2204
- FY 2019 BUDGET = $10000 TOTALS = $9668
- EARNED GRANTS = $27,500
MISSED GRANTS:
- CURTIS ROAD = $1,000,000
- CULVERTS = $ 150,000
- OLD STONE DAM = $ 100,000
GRANTS APPLICATION PLANS:
- CURTIS ROAD =$1,000,000*
- FEMA – BRUSH TRUCK =$ 800,000
- FIRE DEPT EQUIPMENT =$ 75,000
- TECHNICAL GRANT =$ 200,000
- COMPLETE STREETS =$ 400,000
- SUBTOTAL =$2,625,000
*A QUESTIONABLE EFFORT IF TOWN IS PLANNING 10 TO 15 YEAR FIX
GRANT WRITER DOLLAR ALLOCATIONS
- $7000 (@$25/HR = 280 HOURS)**
- $3000 (@$25/HR = 120 HOURS)
** TOWN CLERK ALLOWED TO WORK ON GRANTS FOR 3 ½ HOURS PER WEEK BASED UPON PENSION PROVISIONS. 280 HOURS DIVIDED BY 3 ½ HOURS YEARS 80 WEEKS???
FINDINGS:
- EARNED GRANTS ALMOST 3 TO 1 BENEFIT VS. COSTS
- WHY REDUCE BUDGET WITH THIS KIND OF BENEFIT?
- VS. SIGNIFICANT LIST OF OTHER GRANT OPPORTUNITIES
- GRANT WRITER BUDGET ALLOCATION DOES NOT COMPUTE
- CAN MORE PROJECTS BE SOURCED?
The Finance Committee reviewed 4 budgets, here is a summary of our minutes.
~
FIRE Department and Public Works~& Facilities
The Finance Committee met with the Shawn On Monday Dec. 4, 2017@ 6:45PM. @Town Hall.
Shawn answered questions as he described functions, personnel and budget. Everything was explained in a way that was easy to understand. Shawn spent the time to explain the tradeoffs concerning road maintenance for hard top and dirt roads. A major portion of his expenditure is for this and plowing. We were impressed by his knowledge and the details/tradeoffs concerning his budget and operations.
~
The Finance Committee does not recommend any changes in the Public Works and Facilities budget.
~We also discussed the Fire Department Budget. The 3 items were easily understood. A lot of discussion centered on Fire Dept. Calls with no solution to having fewer Fire Dept.~~volunteers show up.
The Finance Committee does not recommend any changes in the Fire Department budget.
The Finance Committee met with the Police Chief On Monday Dec. 4, 2017@ 5:30PM. @Town Hall.
Gareth answered questions as he described functions, personnel and budget. Everything was explained in a way that was easy to understand.
We asked about a common IT person for the Town. Gareth said that since the s/w he uses is not the same as other departments, it was highly unlikely that any savings could be had. He may need to hire a IT consultant. The Finance Committee does not recommend any changes in the budget..
~
The Finance Committee met with the Board of Assessors On Sat. Dec. 2, 2017@9am@ Town Hall. Present were Don, Stan and Bob. The budget was presented and is clearly tied to on going operations and new requirements of the State. There was a request for discussion in reference the software costs- understood and agreed.
~The Fin. Comm. proposed that the stipends for the assessor committee board members be reduced to~$1.5k for 3 elected members or $4.5k total. The Finance Committee also voted to create a budget line item -Assessor's Temporary Employee @ $7.5k.
There was a discussion about contracting for an IT person for the Town. No action was taken.
A lenghty and heated discussion was undertaken to create a plan for when Don retires (2-5 years). Don & Stan agreed that hiring Mayflower would make sense. There was no agreement on whether an Assessors office should be staffed..
The Elected Assessors now $4.5k: was $15k;~a reduction of $10.5k. New line item: Assessors Temporary employee $7.5k
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