NOTTINGHAM BUDGET COMMITTEE MINUTES
AUGUST 16, 2007
PUBLIC SESSION
APPROVED BY THE COMMITTEE SEPTEMBER 27, 2007
PRESENT: ABSENT:
Mr. John Decker, Chair Mr. Kurt Duprey (Excused)
Ms. Amy Plante, School Board Representative
Ms. Mary Bonser, Selectmen's Representative
Mr. Chet Batchelder
Ms. Charlene Andersen
Mr. Philip Fernald
Ms. Gail Powell
Mr. Michael Koester
Mr. Scott Curry (Arrived 7:15pm)
OTHERS PRESENT:
Mr. Jack Caldon
Ms. Kelly Tivnan, Budget Committee Secretary
The Chair called the meeting to order at 7:05pm.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Ms. Andersen made a motion to accept the Budget Committee minutes from May 17, 2007 as amended. Mr. Koester seconded the motion. Mr. Decker, Ms. Plante, Mr. Batchelder, Ms. Andersen, Mr. Fernald, Ms. Powell and Mr. Koester voted in favor of the motion. Ms. Bonser abstained from the motion. The motion passed 7-0 with 1 abstention.
SCHOOL DISTRICT FINANCIAL STATEMENT:
Ms. Plante showed the Budget Committee the financial statement dated June 19, 2007. She said that the School Board had just gotten a more recent statement but since they hadn't really had time to look at it, she was showing the Budget Committee the previous statement. Mr. Decker said that he did not see any reason why the Budget Committee could not see the more recent statement. He said that it was public information and he didn't see why the School Board needed to review it before the Budget Committee saw it. He said that the Budget Committee had wanted to see the year end numbers and he noted that June 19th was just short of the year end. Ms. Plante said that the recent financial statement had not been completed until the previous Monday (8-13-07) and the School Board had not seen it until the night before
(8-15-07). Mr. Decker said that he thought the Budget Committee still should have received the newest version.
Ms. Plante said that the fund balance on the June 19, 2007 financial report was $301,000. She said that the fund balance for the financial report dated August 13, 2007 was $663,190. She said that a large part of that difference came from high school tuition. She said that there had been fewer kids enrolled in Dover High School than they had expected. She said that the School Board had budgeted for 183 students to attend Dover High School and only 168 students had actually attended. Mr. Decker asked where the students were going. Ms. Plante said that some students moved out of the district and some went to private schools and some were home schooled. She also noted that the cost per student for tuition was less under the new contract with Dover High School. She said that the tuition costs were
budgeted based on the current numbers of students. Mr. Koester asked if this significant gap between the number of expected high school students and the number of students attending high school was a trend. Ms. Plante said that she did not know. She said that she only had 2 years of experience on the School Board so she could not speak to trends. She said that the School Board was working on getting more accurate drop out numbers. Mr. Decker said that he was glad of that because that had been his concern, whether that large number of students were dropping out of school. Ms. Plante noted that it was a challenge for Nottingham to get accurate drop out numbers for their students since the town paid tuition at an out of district high school.
Ms. Plante said that the savings in Special Education totaled approximately $200,000. She said that the School District had contracted for an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher but she said that the students who had needed those services had left the district. She said that there had also been changes in the lines for the speech and language staff.
Ms. Plante said that most of the rest of the difference between the fund balance numbers came from staff changes and health insurance.
Mr. Koester asked about the ESL teacher position. Ms. Plante said that the ESL teacher position was not a full time position. She said that the district contracted for a certain number of hours.
Ms. Powell asked about the capital reserve funds. Ms. Plante said that the district had put $25,000 into the Special Education capital reserve fund and $25,000 into the building maintenance capital reserve fund.
Ms. Plante said that the revenue had been slightly more than they had anticipated. Mr. Decker asked how much money had been encumbered. Ms. Plante said that $32,000 had been encumbered. She said that $30,000 of that would go to repairing a soccer field that had been damaged in spring floods. She said that the other $2,000 was for various supplies and equipment scattered throughout the budget. Ms. Bonser asked if it was allowed to take money from the surplus to use for repairing an athletic field. Mr. Caldon said that use of the money had been approved by the Department of Revenue Administration. He said that the School Board had asked the DRA the question about whether this was an allowable use of funds and he said that the DRA had approved it. He said that there had been money in the approved
budget for the work on the field but he said that it was not enough and he said that the school district did have a healthy fund balance. He said that the field needed a lot of work and he said that the School Board had overwhelmingly supported the use of surplus funds for that purpose. Mr. Koester asked if insurance could have covered repairs to the sports fields. Mr. Caldon said that he was not aware of any insurance which would cover those repairs. Ms. Bonser asked about whether there was any FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) money that would cover those repairs. Mr. Caldon said that he was also not aware of any FEMA money available for the project the district wanted to do. He said that he wasn't sure of the details but that the school administration had looked into the possibility of FEMA money and he had been led to believe that the project they wanted to do on the fields was not allowable with FEMA money. Ms. Andersen asked
what the School Board planned to have done to the field. Mr. Caldon said that they wanted to reseed it, improve it and add more security to it so that people could not vandalize it as easily. He said that fixing the field would be a good investment of the town's money. Ms. Powell asked if money from the maintenance capital reserve fund could be used for the field. Ms. Plante said no. She said that the money from the maintenance capital reserve fund needed to be used for maintenance of the building.
Mr. Decker said that the Budget Committee would like the new financial statement as soon as possible.
Ms. Andersen asked if the School Board thought the costs for Dover High School would increase in the future. Ms. Plante said yes. She also noted that the next class of students to graduate from Nottingham School would be larger than the previous one. Mr. Batchelder noted that it would be a difference of 18 students. Ms. Plante said that the School Board had contracted with the New Hampshire School Administrators Association to do a census. She said that the School Board expected to have a rough draft of the census by the completion of the budget season.
DISCUSSION OF THE TOWN BUDGET:
Ms. Bonser said that the Board of Selectmen had talked about holding back on spending for the rest of the year. She said that the road budget was pretty well spent but work on the roads continued. She said that the town had received approximately $60,000 from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and she said that they expected to receive some more money from FEMA as well. Mr. Batchelder asked if expenses related to the spring flooding had been charged to the line labeled "flooding." Ms. Bonser said that the flooding had affected all the lines in the Highway Department budget. She said that most of the departments were doing very well with their budgets but she said that there was a strain on the Highway Department budget. Ms. Powell said that she was surprised there was still money in the
budget for Emergency Management. She said that she would have thought that would all have been spent. Ms. Bonser said that the Emergency Management Director was doing a great job. Ms. Andersen asked what was in the emergency management miscellaneous line. Ms. Bonser said that she did not know. Ms. Andersen said that since emergency management was a brand new department she thought the Board of Selectmen and the Budget Committee should try to monitor the true costs of it. She said that would help them establish how much was an appropriate amount to budget annually for that department.
Ms. Bonser said that the Conservation Commission had exceeded their budget. She noted that the Conservation Commission had a very small budget and she said that they did a lot of work for the town.
Mr. Batchelder asked why there hadn't been any money spent from the general assistance lines. Ms. Bonser said that the Welfare Coordinator was good at keeping costs to the community low. Mr. Decker noted that the vendor lines all stated $0 as well. Ms. Bonser said that the town waited for second request letters from the vendors before they paid out the money. She said that the organizations who requested money always got their second request letters in before the end of the year.
Mr. Decker said that it looked like the salary line for the Zoning Board of Adjustment Secretary was going to go over budget. Ms. Bonser said that she did not have that information in front of her. She said that the town was going to need additional staff in the Planning, Zoning and Board of Selectmen's offices. She said that it was becoming obvious that they were not able to get all the work done in those offices with only the current staff. Mr. Curry said that he was on the Planning Board and he said that the Planning and Zoning Board Secretary had an enormous amount of work to do. He said that sometimes it was slow progress in that office because of the amount of work involved. Ms. Andersen said that the Planning and Zoning Department could increase their fees. Ms. Bonser said that the
Planning/Zoning Department had already increased their fees. She said that there was offsetting revenue from the Planning and Zoning Departments.
Ms. Bonser said that smaller committees like the Conservation Commission really needed to look at their budgets and see if they needed to ask for more money.
Ms. Andersen asked if the Police Department had gotten their SUV (Sport Utility Vehicle). Ms. Bonser said yes. She said that it was a nice looking vehicle. Mr. Decker asked if the Police Department had gotten their new cruiser. Ms. Bonser said yes.
Mr. Curry said that he had some questions about the last page of the financial statement. Mr. Decker said that the numbers on the last page referred to warrant articles, debt services, capital reserves and other money that was not part of the regular budget. Ms. Bonser said that she was not sure how the software worked and she would ask about it.
Mr. Curry asked if there had been more abatements than expected. Ms. Bonser said that she did not remember a particular problem. She said that there had been a couple of mistakes but she said that the Board of Selectmen had not been signing more abatements than normal. She said that she would find out why it looked like the number of abatements had gone way up.
Mr. Decker said that he wanted to comment on the revenue page. He said that every year they budgeted for revenues and he wanted to know why that was not reflected on the worksheet. Ms. Bonser said that she did not know. She said that the Board of Selectmen had discussed revenues. Mr. Decker said that at a minimum, four to five rough numbers should be reflected. Mr. Curry noted that the revenues would change dramatically from year to year. Mr. Decker said that it was ok if they didn't predict correctly. He said that it was better to be wrong than not to even try to predict their revenues. He said that the Budget Committee wanted to be able to use the predicted numbers.
SCHEDULE:
Mr. Decker said that he really wanted the Budget Committee to have time to thoroughly review the budgets. He said that they needed to focus on the things that were givens, or numbers that they knew would not change based on history. He wondered what the Budget Committee could look at ahead of time so they were not scrambling at the end of the budget process. Ms. Powell said that there should be a joint meeting between the Board of Selectmen, the Budget Committee and the School Board. She said that they should talk about information and process. Mr. Decker said that there should be cost estimates available for big ticket items. Ms. Bonser said that there were some things the Budget Committee did not have control over. She cited the library as an example. Mr. Decker said that the Budget Committee
could look at the library budget early.
Mr. Caldon said that one of the major things for the school budget was that the School Board was looking to receive recommendations from their assessment study. He said that they would need to fold those recommendations into their budget. He said that there would be an impact. He said that the School Board would have to redo a lot of work if they started the budget process too early. He said that he did not see the School Board getting a handle on their budget until Thanksgiving. He said that the Budget Committee should make up a proposal regarding the schedule and they should send it to the Board of Selectmen and the School Board so they could discuss it.
Mr. Decker said that he wanted the Budget Committee to have appropriate time to review things. He said that they would like to see the default budget early. He said that the default budget should be set at the close of the year. He said that the Budget Committee always felt they needed to rush through their review of the default budget because they never got it until late in the budget season. Mr. Caldon said that they needed to see how the Budget Committee getting the default budget earlier would work for the School Board and for the new SAU Business Administrator. He said that the next School Board meeting would be held on September 5, 2007.
Ms. Plante said that during the previous year the School Board had submitted a draft budget to the Budget Committee at the end of October. She said that the School Board had barely seen it and submitting it early resulted in more revisions and more errors. Mr. Decker suggested that the School Board might need to meet more often during the budget season. Mr. Batchelder said that the Budget Committee could not get the first draft of the budget much later than the end of October. He emphasized the importance of the Budget Committee having proper time to review the budget.
Mr. Curry asked if the School Board thought the census would show that more students were coming. Mr. Caldon said that the School Board was doing an assessment and that the number of students was only a piece of that. He said that many of the recommendations would be about appropriate and applicable programming. Mr. Koester asked when the assessment would be completed. Mr. Caldon said that it would be November or December. Ms. Bonser said that the School Board might not be able to incorporate that information into the budget. Mr. Caldon said that the School Board would see what was appropriate as they got later into the season.
Mr. Batchelder suggested that the School Board ask for the default budget earlier. He said that the School Board could look at some of the discretionary things in the default budget early.
Ms. Bonser said that the School Board might want to make a plan for what they would do if the information from their assessment did not arrive in time for them to incorporate it into the budget. Ms. Plante said that the School Board had talked about that.
Mr. Koester suggested that maybe the Budget Committee could look at the town budget before the school budget. Mr. Caldon said that the School Board wished they had more time to discuss and digest the budget before it was given to the Budget Committee. He said that if there were opportunities for the town to present their budgets first the School Board would really appreciate it.
The Budget Committee had discussion about taking a schedule from the previous year and adapting it to fit the current year. Mr. Decker noted that the calendar of state deadlines was not posted on the internet yet. Mr. Batchelder noted that the schedule did not change much from year to year. Mr. Decker said that he would look at copies of previous years schedules and revise them to fit the current year. He said that he would forward that information to the School Board so they could suggest revisions as necessary and he said that the Budget Committee could also discuss the schedule and see if they wanted to make specific changes to reflect the current year.
RESIGNATION:
Mr. Decker said that he had received a letter of resignation from Denise Blaha. He read the letter out loud. The text of the letter is as follows.
John Decker, Chair
Nottingham Budget Committee
Nottingham, NH 03290
August 12, 2007
Dear John,
With many mixed emotions I am resigning my seat on the Nottingham Budget Committee effective immediately. I have thoroughly enjoyed my 4 years on the committee and our nitty-gritty work of examining municipal and school spending as well as the camaraderie among the members. I will miss you all.
But as you might know, I am very involved in the state in promoting awareness of climate change and the need for federal, local and residential action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This spring Nottingham joined 163 other towns throughout New Hampshire and passed the New Hampshire Climate Change Resolution. Ninety percent of the NH municipalities that had the resolution on the ballot approved it, and now I want to take that very loud statement to the presidential candidates and ensure that whoever is elected next year has a solid action plan for addressing climate change in his or her administration. Our planet cannot take, nor does it deserve, another administration that puts its head in the sand, hires petroleum lobbyists who then rewrite federal climate change reports, and sacrifices what little credibility we
have left on this issue by refusing to participate in any international agreement to constrain emissions. We CAN do better, and for the sake of future generations we must act quickly. With our first in the nation primary, New Hampshire can shape the tone and issues of the 2008 election. I am thoroughly enjoying being a part of this statewide effort to make climate change a top priority, but it is quite time consuming. In addition, I am trying to encourage residential carbon reductions through my own program, the New Hampshire Carbon Challenge (http://nhcarbonchallenge.org).
I wish you well and continued success as you begin the budget season.
Sincerely,
Denise
Mr. Koester made a motion to accept the resignation of Denise Blaha with regret. Ms. Powell seconded that motion. The present members of the Budget Committee voted unanimously in favor of the motion. The motion passed 9-0.
Mr. Decker said that the vacancy on the Budget Committee had been posted and he said that if anyone was interested in filling that vacancy, they should contact the town office.
Mr. Koester asked how long the Budget Committee would be appointing the replacement for. Mr. Decker said that the appointed replacement would serve a 1 year term.
MAIL:
Mr. Decker said that there was a workshop for Budget Committee members on September 25, 2007. He noted that date was a Tuesday and the workshop was an all day event. He said that Budget Committee members should contact the town office if they were interesting in attending that workshop and he encouraged that members who were interested should try to attend. Ms. Bonser said that if a member was unable to go to the workshop but they wanted to receive the book as reference material than they should also contact the town office and let them know that.
FORUM:
Mr. Batchelder said that it might be a good idea for the Budget Committee to submit their schedule to the Forum.
UPCOMING MEETINGS:
Ms. Powell asked if there was a move to reschedule a joint meeting between the Board of Selectmen, the School Board and the Budget Committee. Ms. Plante said that School Board had not heard about one.
Mr. Koester made a motion that the Budget Committee schedule a tentative meeting on September 13, 2007 at 7:00pm. Ms. Andersen seconded the motion. The present members of the Budget Committee voted unanimously in favor of the motion. The motion passed 9-0.
Mr. Koester made a motion that the Budget Committee schedule a meeting on September 27, 2007 at 7:00pm. Ms. Andersen seconded the motion. The present members of the Budget Committee voted unanimously in favor of the motion. The motion passed 9-0.
OTHER:
Ms. Plante said that there had been a question at the previous meeting about the use of public money to pay for mass mailings from the School Board. She said that she had talked to their legal counsel about this. She said that there had been a case that had gone in front of the Supreme Court. She said that the court had not given a full decision but that they had given some guidance. She said that according to the guidance from the court it was acceptable for the School Board to send mailings as long as they were facts and not strongly advocating one position over another. She said that the School Board had been careful when they sent their mailings that they did not tell people how to vote. She said that their mailings followed the court guidelines.
Mr. Koester said that he thought it was a valid proposal that the Budget Committee be allowed to review the default budget early in the budget season. He said that he would like to commend members of the Budget Committee for bringing up that idea.
Mr. Curry said that he appreciated the tolerance of the other members of the Budget Committee when he had a lot of questions. He noted that he was still learning about how the process worked.
Ms. Bonser made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:10pm. Ms. Andersen seconded the motion. The present members of the Budget Committee voted unanimously in favor of the motion. The motion passed 9-0.
Respectfully submitted,
Kelly Tivnan
Budget Committee Secretary
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