Town of Newbury
Finance Committee Meeting
Wednesday Sep 19, 2007— 7:00 pm, Town Hall
Meeting Summary
Committee: Bill Cooper, Larry Guay, Pete Morse, Frank Remley, and Anna Tenaglia
Ex-Officio: Chuck Kostro, Finance Director
1. Aug 8 meeting summary (attached): approved without further discussion
2. Aug Revenue and Expenditure Report: Due to vacations, the August report
was not yet ready for review. However, Chuck Kostro reported no immediate
issues requiring the FinCom’s attention, although
3. Update on collection of overdue taxes: Chuck Kostro reported that progress
is being made as per the attached summary report showing collections of back
taxes as of June 30. We have collected approximately $250,000 of the $660,000
outstanding as of June 30, 2006. However, there are still some large arrears still
outstanding. The next step is to publish names and addresses in the Daily News
and then proceed with placing of tax liens by Town Counsel.
4. Update on collection of PI Betterment fees: Collection of betterment fees are
progressing well. They are being paid along with RE tax payments for PI
properties. So far, there do not seem to be any outstanding issues.
5. Police Details—Update on Proposal to ensure collection of Police Detail
costs: There was nothing new to report on this issue. Chuck is working with
John Lucey to resolve the issue. The FinCom has asked to provide details on:
Process currently in place for accounting and collection of detail requests,
billing and payments
Current situation including $ amounts of arrears by specific debtor
Proposal for penalties for late payments in the future
Amounts owed to individual officers by date and debtor
Recommendations on who should handle this for the town in the future.
It was suggested by Bill Cooper that the town undertake the role of billing and
collection of detail expenses, and that a 10% percent administrative fee be
charged for these expenses. John Lucey had previously suggested that 5% of
this be withheld to cover bad debts.
6. Request for Transfer of $5000 to Legal Fund for Rt. 1A bridge closing
defense: No formal request submitted. This issue subsequently dropped as a
result of the Massachusetts Highway Commissioners pledge for an expedited
project.
7. Resolution of FEMA collections: Chuck reported that this issue has been
essentially resolved, although we are still expected some small residual
payments. The FEMA bills from the contractors for work performed have been
paid. We have received payment from FEMA for the sand screening work from
the most recent storm. We have not received payment from FEMA for the road
work on Plum Island from the 2006 storm. We have completed the borrowing of
$299,000 in State Aid Anticipation Notes for Chapter 90. Tim Leonard has
completed paving on Plum Island and we have bought two pieces of heavy
equipment. This amount clears up all of the Chapter 90 authorizations that had
previously expired.
8. Resolution of Fire Dept.’s claim of 3% wage increase: This was addressed in
a separate meeting with the Don Bade, Tony Penski, Chuck Kostro, Frank
Remley, Wally Zeihler, and Bill Pearson. All involved with this meeting agreed
that the 3% increase for call fire was warranted retroactive to July 1, especially
since it has been budgeted, and that they received no increase in FY 07.
Questions were raised as to whether the full time fire personnel should be
granted additional 3% increases since all others in the town were being delayed
until January due to having received compensation adjustments this past
January. Chuck agreed to determine how much each increase would impact the
budgets for the Fire companies, if at all.
9. Update on Little River project: additional questions for Beacon
Communities and Taintor Associates: Larry Guay reported that the
community presentation at Newbury Elementary School went well, but that, in
his opinion, the Finance Committee will need to make a strong statement on this
project at some point in the not-to-distant future—likely in a town meeting. He
expressed continued concern about some of the salient financial risks including
the number of school children it would generate, and the impact on services,
including fire and police. (NOTE: Subsequent to this, Frank and Larry attended a
meeting with Beacon Communities in which they revealed a new proposal for a
reduction in the number of housing units by about 18%, down to 164. They also
informed us that the tax revenue was understated due to a computational error
and would actually increase with fewer units. More will be reported later on this
as a meeting has been scheduled with Vince Russo for Oct. 1 to detail their
revised plan).
10. Other: Bill Cooper reported that he has to schedule a first meeting of the Capital
Planning Committee now that the Board of Selectmen has formally appointed all
nominees. Members include Chuck Kostro, Bill Cooper, Dave Newbert, Dick
Bazirgan, and Dr. Marc Simmons.
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