NOTTINGHAM BUDGET COMMITTEE MINUTES
NOVEMBER 15, 2007
PUBLIC SESSION
APPROVED BY THE COMMITTEE DECEMBER 6, 2007
PRESENT: ABSENT:
Mr. John Decker, Chair Ms. Gail Powell (Excused)
Mr. Terry Bonser, School Board Representative Mr. Philip Fernald (Excused)
Ms. Mary Bonser, Selectmen's Representative
Mr. Kurt Duprey
Ms. Charlene Andersen
Mr. Kyle Barry
Mr. Chet Batchelder
Mr. Michael Koester
Mr. Scott Curry
OTHERS PRESENT:
Mr. Charles Brown, Town Administrator
Ms. Kelly Tivnan, Budget Committee Secretary
The Chair called the meeting to order at 7:05pm.
Mr. Decker said that since the meeting was being televised the Budget Committee members would introduce themselves.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Mr. Koester made a motion that the Budget Committee accept the minutes from November 8, 2007 as amended. Ms. Andersen seconded the motion. The present members of the Budget Committee voted unanimously in favor of the motion. The motion passed 9-0.
TOWN BUDGET OVERVIEW:
Mr. Brown said that the budget he was presenting was a preliminary budget. He said that he would give highlights and answer questions if he could. He said that the Board of Selectmen was scheduled to meet with the Department Heads the following week. He said that he had made a few changes to the budgets as they had been presented to him by the department heads but he said that he had not run those changes by the Board of Selectmen yet.
Mr. Brown said that the preliminary budget he was presenting did not have any entries for debt service. He also said that the COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment) was set at 2.3% in the preliminary budget. He said that some merit raises were expected to be awarded but he said that those amounts were not yet included in the preliminary budget. He said that the town wanted to hold the line on non essential items.
Mr. Brown said that they did not know what the operating costs of the new fire station would be so they were having to estimate on those budget items. Mr. Duprey asked what the town planned to do with the old fire station and town hall buildings. Mr. Brown said that they did not know yet. Ms. Bonser said that question would go in front of the Building Committee. Mr. Brown said that they wanted to have the bare minimum of utilities in the old town hall building. He said that the town would not rent out the building. He did say that he would not be surprised if there was some storage which was being done in the building. He noted the buildings were dry and in decent shape.
Mr. Brown said that the proposed budget for voter registration had increased because the line for election worker salaries had increased. Ms. Bonser noted that the increase in the salaries for election workers line was due to the large number of elections which were upcoming. She noted that there were 7 elections scheduled for 2008. Mr. Brown said that the number of elections could go higher. He said that the election costs would increase from the previous year.
Mr. Brown said that the proposed budget for Town Clerk postage would increase because they were starting to do renewals by mail. He said that the proposed budget for the restoration of vital records had decreased but the proposed budget for the cost of the auditors had been increased.
Mr. Brown said that the Assessing Coordinator was an existing part time position but that it had been moved within the budget. He pointed out the new location and he noted that there was not a proposed monetary change to the line.
Mr. Brown said that the town would be requesting a full time secretarial position for the town office. Mr. Decker asked if this would be an additional position or if it would mean making a part time position into a full time position. Mr. Brown said that it would be an additional position. He said that there was a need for more help in the office because they had lost their existing part time office help person.
Mr. Brown said that the proposed budget added $10,000 to the legal line to pay for the town attorney. Mr. Curry noted that the USA Springs Inc. litigation was winding down. Mr. Brown said that there was some residual impact from that litigation and he noted that the town had overspent their legal line for the current year. Mr. Curry said that a petitioned warrant article had been presented to the Budget Committee at the previous meeting. He asked if this article might have an impact on the legal line. Mr. Brown said that New Hampshire was not a home rule state. He said that the petitioned warrant article was not enforceable. He said that he did not see a need to add additional funds to the legal line in order to defend the petitioned warrant article.
Mr. Brown said that they expected a 10.7% increase in health insurance costs. Mr. Decker asked if the possible new full time person was calculated into the budget. Mr. Brown said no. He said that he would budget for a new person to take the family plan at a cost of $1,445 a month or approximately $17,000 for a year. He said that he had gone out for more bids on health insurance. He said that so far he had been able to talk to one provider and he noted the premiums were a bit less but that it would change their renewal date which would leave them with the possibility of a large increase mid year. He said that so far it looked as if they would be staying with their current health insurance provider. Mr. Duprey asked whether the town would continue to fund health insurance for their employees. Mr.
Brown said that they would probably start asking the town employees to contribute to their health insurance. Mr. Batchelder noted that they could tweak the copay instead of asking employees to contribute. Mr. Decker noted that some people would rather contribute regularly than deal with larger copays. He said that the town should talk to their employees about it.
Mr. Brown said that there would not be any significant changes to the Planning Board budget. He said that he had asked the Planning Board whether they wanted to continue with using their Town Planner. He said that he had not received any feedback on that yet so he had left the line in the proposed budget.
Mr. Brown said that the town might increase the mileage allowance by four cents to keep pace with the federal mileage allowance. He said that the town employees did not abuse their mileage privileges. He said that a four cent increase would not have a big impact on the overall proposed budget.
Mr. Brown said that the salary for the cleaning employee had only been increased by the cost of living adjustment. Mr. Koester asked about a line for town hall water. Mr. Brown said that line covered drinking water. He said that there would be a decrease in the proposed cemetery budget though there was a need for them to do some extra maintenance in the cemetery. He said that the new fire department building was covered by insurance but he said that the insurance company still needed to send someone out to get some actual numbers. He also said that the Board of Selectmen would be making changes to the Police Department budget as it had been submitted by the Chief of Police.
Mr. Brown said that there was a minimal increase in the proposed Fire Department budget. He said that they had proposed to increase the department stipend by $5,000. He also said that they wanted to make a change in compensation for the chiefs and deputy chiefs. He said that they would like to give the chief a $9,000 stipend and they would like to give each of the deputy chiefs $1,000. He noted this was a slight increase because previously the chief had received $10,000 and the deputy chiefs had not received an additional stipend beyond their part in the total department stipend. He said that the Fire Department wanted to put their ambulance money into a fund so that it was self supporting. He said that would reduce the overall vehicle maintenance lines. He said that putting the ambulance money into
a fund might require a warrant article. He also noted that they might need to replace their ambulance soon.
Mr. Brown noted the Code Enforcement and Emergency Management Departments and he said that there would be no increase in the Emergency Management Director's stipend.
Mr. Brown noted the Highway Department employees would all get a 2.3% cost of living adjustment increase. He said that the amount of money spent on repairs from the April 2007 floods had been $161,427.45. He said that they recouped 75% of that money. He said that at this time the total amount they had received back from FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) was $218,000. He said that they planned to get 50% back from the money they had spent on repairs to the Mill Pond Road Bridge. He said that the state would consider sending further reimbursements from their pool of money used for this purpose. Mr. Curry asked if it was possible that FEMA would pay to replace that bridge. Mr. Brown said yes. He said that a portion of that cost would be picked up by the bridge fund. He also
noted that there would be additional costs such as an engineering study and charges to decommission the Bailey Bridge, etc.
Mr. Brown said that they had reduced the solid waste collection fees. He said that they had reduced their municipal solid waste. He said that they were paying $13.50 as a fuel charge and he expected that to increase. He said that as the town grew, there would be more usage of the solid waste disposal services. Ms. Andersen noted that November 15th (the current day) was America Recycles Day. Mr. Brown reminded everyone listening that if an item could be recycled they shouldn't throw it in the compacter.
Mr. Brown said that a new waste oil furnace had been installed at the recycling center.
Mr. Brown noted the general assistance portion of the budget. He said that there were still four vendors which had not received their 2007 allocations. He said that the Board of Selectmen had asked him to double check on the services being provided by the vendors. He said that the town had also received two or three brand new requests from vendors who would like allocations.
Mr. Brown said that the Recreation Director would like for her position to be made full time. He said that she already worked full time but that the position was a part time position.
Mr. Brown said that the library was adding a performance award line. He said that there was a small increase to the line for the Conservation Commission. He said that it was not an unreasonable increase. He said that the proposed budget for Economic Development had been reduced to $500.
Mr. Brown said that they would be adding Mulligan Forest and the new Fire Department to the Debt Service section of the preliminary budget. He noted that the closing for Mulligan Forest would take place on November 16, 2007 at 3:30pm. He said that it would be at the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests building in Concord. Ms. Bonser said that Mulligan Forest would be a great asset to the town.
Mr. Curry asked a question about how to read the section on other financial uses. Mr. Brown explained that compensated absences were a liability that the town owed. He explained that compensated absences were owed to town employees for accrued vacation, sick leave, etc. He explained that those were the types of things included under other financial uses. He said that another thing included in that category was encumbering funds into the next year.
Mr. Brown noted that the cost of the fire/rescue facility had come in under $1,090,000.
Mr. Brown said that it was unlikely that the Budget Committee would get a written explanation of the revenue sheets but he said that he would try to explain them and answer any questions. He noted that the bottom line number was not accurate because the program had added the school information into the total. Mr. Decker said that the town needed to put their estimated revenues into the program. He said that they need to be able to see how they are doing compared with what they estimated. Mr. Brown said that the Town Treasurer did an excellent job. He said that the Town Treasurer got them $170,000 in interest.
Mr. Duprey asked about the lien lines. He wondered whether people were having trouble keeping up with their taxes. Mr. Brown said that according to the tax collector the number of liens had not increased significantly. Mr. Curry noted the assessing narratives and asked if there was anything on the revaluation. Mr. Brown said that the Assessing Coordinator position had been removed from the secretary section and placed in the assessing section where it belonged. He said that it would cost the town between $200,000 and $250,000 if as a result of the special town meeting they needed to have another assessing firm come to look at the work of their current assessing firm. He noted that it was very expensive to do a valuation of an entire town in one year. He said that assessing firms would hire temporary
personnel to get the work done in that time. He said that usually assessments and valuations were done over a period of three years. He said that it was not cost effective to do a valuation in one year. Ms. Andersen asked if the town had an assessing contract with Avitar. Mr. Brown said yes but he noted that it was an annual contract.
Mr. Decker noted that the department heads were slated to appear in front of the Budget Committee in early December. He said that the Budget Committee did not care what order the department heads presented in. He said that the Town Administrator could work that out with the department heads. Mr. Brown said that he would try to get one department head with a short presentation to present at the Budget Committee meeting on November 29, 2007 so that the meeting in early December would not be as long.
SCHOOL DISTRICT DEFAULT BUDGET AND OVERVIEW:
Mr. Bonser said that he was showing the Budget Committee a draft copy of the default budget. He noted that there had been errors when it had been presented to the School Board.
Mr. Bonser explained some of the lines in the default including a line for new textbooks. He noted that this was because the school had not met their adequate yearly progress requirements and so they were getting rid of the Literacy Collaborative program. He said that the money for the textbooks would buy enough textbooks for the new program.
Mr. Curry asked why the library server was in the default budget. Mr. Decker said that he had been going to ask the same question.
Mr. Duprey noted that the mandate was the reading program. He asked if there would be some savings if they switched one reading program out with another. Mr. Bonser said that the costs of the Literacy Collaborative program had varied widely throughout the years that they had been using the program but he said that currently the cost of the program was only about $7,500. He noted that the price had decreased over time. Ms. Andersen noted that one of the aspects of the Literacy Collaborative program was the school would send a teacher to be trained in the program and that teacher would train the other teachers. She asked if all the teachers would be trained in the new program. Mr. Bonser said that having all the teachers trained in the new program was their plan. Mr. Curry noted that the other two
schools in the SAU had gone through the reading program selection earlier while Nottingham had kept their previous program. Mr. Decker said that he hoped the cost savings from all three districts using the same reading program had not been the deciding factor when Nottingham had made their decision on a reading program. He said that he hoped the choice of program had been made for the right reasons. He said that Nottingham should possibly have jumped on the bandwagon and changed reading programs earlier since the district had the test results before they knew that they had not met their adequate yearly progress requirements.
Mr. Batchelder asked about a budget line on page 11 of the default budget. Mr. Bonser said that line possibly referred to a generator and he said that it should not be in the default budget. He said that the School Board had been talking about making the cost of the generator a warrant article.
Mr. Bonser noted that he had just received the default budget information in time for the Budget Committee meeting. He said that the School Board had seen some wrong numbers when they reviewed it at their meeting.
Mr. Curry asked whether in general all the described items should be included in the default budget. Mr. Decker said no. He said that it would be possible to argue in favor of some of them but certainly not all of them. Mr. Koester said that anticipated increases could not be included in the default budget. Mr. Duprey asked if that rule would apply to high school tuition as well. Mr. Decker said that the tuition rate was contractual but the number of students was an unknown. Mr. Bonser said that the proposed budget did not include additional possible students. He said that the proposed budget only included the current number of students.
Mr. Decker asked if the Budget Committee could get the default budget in Excel format. Mr. Bonser said that the Budget Committee should be able to get the numbers in the Excel format. Mr. Decker said that they did not want the PDF format because they would not be able to do any of their own work on the PDF file.
Mr. Duprey said that he would like an explanation of the increase in the net tuition line. Mr. Bonser said that the School Board was figuring there would be an 8% increase in the tuition for Coe-Brown. Mr. Duprey said that he thought that line should be eliminated and total head count of high school students should be put in the budget at the Dover High School tuition rate. Mr. Decker said that the default budget should reflect the net. He said that revenue came back to offset the expenses paid by the district to Coe-Brown.
Mr. Curry noted that there were large percent increases in some lines. He asked what was involved with that. Mr. Decker said that the Budget Committee would be able to use the narratives to help figure that out.
Ms. Bonser said that it worked out well for the Budget Committee to get the school district default budget early in the process. Mr. Decker said that the Budget Committee should get the default budget early with the audited statements. Mr. Bonser said that he would ask for the audited statements to be sent to the Budget Committee. Mr. Decker said that he was hoping that the early draft of the default budget received by the Budget Committee would be a better one than it was. Ms. Bonser said that she would like a better explanation of technology supplies. Mr. Decker suggested that the Budget Committee take the default budget home and look at it. He said that they would have more questions.
OTHER:
Mr. Decker said that the Budget Committee had received a nice letter from the Library Trustees. Attached to it was the library capital improvement plan. He said that each Budget Committee member had received a copy. Mr. Batchelder reported on the Capital Improvement Plan Committee meeting. He said that the Committee had received incomplete submissions or they had not received submissions from many eligible departments. He said that the Capital Improvement Plan Committee would meet again on Monday December 10, 2007. He said that he would report back to the Budget Committee after that meeting. Ms. Bonser said that she would send a letter to the department heads reminding them to submit any changes to their capital improvement plans. She said that they were going to do a capital improvement plan
for the years from 2008-2014.
Ms. Andersen said that she had filled out two information request forms. She said that one was for the library and the other was for the Town Office. She said that she would like copies of all the job descriptions, a blank copy of the existing performance review form and the qualifications of the person filling out the performance review evaluations. She said that she had asked for the information to be provided by December 13, 2007. Mr. Batchelder wondered whether the request for the qualifications of the evaluator went beyond the scope of the Budget Committee. Mr. Duprey said that he was worried about that as well. Mr. Decker asked Ms. Andersen if she could scratch that information from her request. Ms. Andersen agreed. Mr. Cury asked why Ms. Andersen was looking for that information.
Ms. Andersen said that she wanted to make sure there were evaluation systems in place which were effective and efficient since they were talking about giving raises based on merit.
Mr. Batchelder made a motion that the Budget Committee submit the specific request for information as suggested by Ms. Andersen. Mr. Curry seconded the motion. The present members of the Budget Committee voted unanimously in favor of the motion. The motion passed 9-0.
Ms. Bonser reminded everyone of all the upcoming elections.
12-15-07 9am Special Town Meeting (re: Property Assessments)
12-18-07 Special Primary to replace Representative Johnson from Rockingham County
January (TBA) Presidential Primary
1-22-08 General Election to replace Representative Johnson from Rockingham County
February (TBA) School District Meeting
3-11-08 Town/School Elections
3-15-08 Town Meeting
9-9-08 State/Federal Elections
11-4-08 Presidential Election
Ms. Andersen made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:15pm. Mr. Koester 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
| 
