Town of Princeton, Mass. – April 2, 2018 – 7:30 PM
Selectboard – Town Hall Annex
– Meeting w/Adv. Cmte. in Town Hall Annex
Present: Chair Richard Bisk, Edith Morgan & Jon Fudeman w/ TA Nina Nazarian. Adv. Cmte. members: Chair John Shipman, Wayne Adams, George Handy, Judy Dino, Bill Lawton, Jim O’Coin
Minutes approved 7:30 PM – Meeting was opened by Jon F. who then resigned as SB Chair.
Action: Edith and Jon then voted, with Richy abstaining, to elect Richy SB chair through the remainder of Jon’s term.
Action: Board voted all in favor to approve minutes from March 19, 26 and 27 as most recently amended.
Joint Meeting with Advisory Committee – Nina presented budget spreadsheets that reflected increases of no more than between 2.5 and 3 percent, per the Selectboard’s request. There is a quoted 28 percent increase in health insurance for FY19, mostly due to adverse experience according to Fallon. The Treasurer/Collector is reviewing alternative options, along with our insurance broker. A question about joining the state’s group health insurance came up, and it had proved not to be cost effective some years ago. Other group plans may be researched, such as the Massachusetts Interlocal Insurance Association (MIIA).
There had been some savings due to some debt maturities and less legal counsel needs, given that the cable franchise had been negotiated. The Fire Department’s request for new turn-out gear and a replacement police cruiser were included. This left no room for the proposed addition of a full-time maintenance person, a limited increase in hours for additional IT support. Several options were discussed regarding space for Council on Aging—the current basement at P.O. Place with some renovations or the former Sonoma space which would require a rehab. At Nina’s request, Linda Farineau, Jim O’Coin and David Cruise are reviewing P.O. Place options.
The fire chief is asking for some weekend staffing for the ambulance, which is now manned on-call only on weekends and nights. Richy and George asked about response times at various times and days/nights, to ascertain if extra weekend staffing is worth it. Police actually arrive at emergencies first and some are EMTs. Boards also discussed lease vs. purchase of police cruisers and whether vehicle cost should come under operating budget or capital expense.
George H. verbalized an analysis he performed which suggested that general government spending went up 65 percent in the last five years and the entire non-school budget was up 44 percent. School spending increased 5.5 percent in five years. He contended that fiscal control was lacking in municipal spending. Tax revenues increased 6.7 percent over last year. Jon advised looking at the recap sheet. Richy expects Adv. Cmte. to give push-back (because) that’s their job. Jim O. recommended drilling down on the numbers and eliminating whatever’s not essential. While Nina had not seen the analysis verbalized by George, she reminded the boards that some of the comparisons were not apple to apple (e.g. spent dollars vs. budgeted dollars and recategorizations between
departments such as the moving of half of the building maintenance salary from the public works category to the general government category). Adv. Cmte. wants to go over draft of the capital budget plan at their next meeting (in two days) before offering any comments. Wayne asked why the integrated financial software was pushed out a year, and Nina noted that the financial staff recommends holding off for one year on integrating new financial software due to time concerns. The Adv. Cmte. adjourned.
Mechanics Hall 9:10 PM The S.B. wants to put sale of Mechanics Hall on the ATM warrant but agreed they should discuss any issues related to a sale with the Friends of Mech. Hall first. Richy noted that he felt that it would be beneficial to have an understanding of what town meeting felt should be done with the building. Nina will develop a warrant article and invite the Friends into a meeting.
Calamint Hill Road 9:15 PM Nina explained that the Road Adv. Cmte. is in full support of paving a portion of Calamint Hill Road North as erosion has increased as development (now at 34 houses) has progressed, presenting the request that the Selectboard authorize the TA to sign the engineering proposal to design the road reconstruction. Road was impassable at a couple of points this winter. It’s very narrow, lined with stone walls, some large trees, and many residents’ wells are close to road’s edge. A few residents from the road were in and stated that the surface is well-maintained as a gravel roadway and suggested that annual costs are about $10,000. One resident from the road expressed support for paving the
road. There is a need to get a public meeting that would include R.A.C, the Highway Department, road residents and possibly engineers. The Selectboard agreed that they needed more information, such as the feasibility of having the road remain gravel, before they could make a decision on the expense of the engineering plans.
Project updates 9:50 PM The Route 140 in East Princeton upgrade and bridge is moving forward and 22 of 24 property owners have received notice of compensation for their land takings. An update on Charter Cable has gone out on Town news. Charter has received the request for them to consider reimbursing the town $178k in additional make ready costs, less the (appx.) $50k from Verizon, which was originally $158k, but final pole work brought it up to $178k. Nina is waiting to hear back for opportunity to discuss next steps with Charter.
Facilities Steering Cmte. The five options crafted by the FAC are expected to be on the ATM warrant as five articles, two are major capital spending and three are fix-up. The S.B. needs to address the financial scenarios. Richy wanted to know if the town’s borrowing articles could impact the chance at getting Bond Bill monies—and whether funding design/engineering or construction would make a difference. He agreed to ask Kim Ferguson that question and Nina said she would ask Harriette Chandler.
Adv. Cmte. Review Cmte. Discussion Jon Fudeman made the following statement for the record:
The ACRC had basis for its opinion from an experience perspective. It made five recommendations, three of which were rock solid. However, there was no evidence of recourse to authoritative literature, in particular, the DLS Guide on Financial Management or the Finance Committee Handbook. Nor did it look at other towns in detail or investigate best practices. Of the 295 towns in Massachusetts 30 have the Selectboard appoint finance or advisory committee members. This is based both on DLS data and a study by Harry Pape. The Committee recommended capital planning but failed to consider MGL chapter 41, section 106B relating to the establishment of a town capital planning committee. The Committee did not consider that the Advisory Committee was the financial watchdog of
Princeton and apparently was unaware that the DLS Guide stated the opposite. The first line of its section on the role of a finance committee was that it was the "official fiscal watchdog" of a town. The charge of the Committee was two-part: investigate operating methods and meet with the Selectboard first. The ACRC did neither. There was no discussion of historical deficiencies of Advisory Committee performance relative to its charge as stated in MGL Chapter 39, section 16 and authoritative literature. In particular, Princeton municipal operations over the past decade spent over $12 million of resident/taxpayer money without benefit. There was no long-term financial planning or the examination of municipal questions beyond those appearing on the warrant. The Selectboard by default has had the task of long-term financial planning and has failed to execute. Furthermore, there is a legitimate question as to whether the Selectboard can prepare a long term financial plan
without bias due to agendas of Selectboard members. The preparation of a long term financial plan and strategic planning in general requires a lot of time. Based on my experience neither the town administrator nor the Selectboard have sufficient disposable time. There is a risk of concentrating excessive power in the Selectboard and this can have a demotivating influence with respect to Advisory Committee members. The Selectboard has historically considered the Advisory Committee primarily as an advisor to the Selectboard but in reality, and according to MGL, the Advisory Committee is a town function reporting to the town. There is no reason not to modify our current bylaw with 21 additional words clarifying the function Advisory Committee by including verbatim the exact words contained in the MGL.
TA evaluation Jon suggested the town administrator evaluation process could incorporate simpler ratings and he offered to condense the evaluation checklist.
Road Race The board voted all in favor to approve the 26th Annual Wachusett Mountain Road Race on May 26th, subject to the requirements of the Police Chief.
Ambulance abatement request S.B. voted all in favor to abate $102.06 billed to a resident for an ambulance ride on Aug. 1, 2017.
Public comments on FSC report Resident Jim Morton from Bullock Lane questioned the final report from JWA and wanted to know if all improvements were justified. The final report to the FSC includes needs identified by departments, and the square footage information developed by the consultant. The report will be posted online soon. He wanted a ‘return on investment’ assessment for proposed public safety facilities especially.
Meeting Thursday S.B. will meet with the fire chief on Thursday, April 5, at 2:30 PM in the Annex and will also discuss his contract in executive session.
Adjourned 11 PM
Respectfully submitted, Marie Auger, Admin. Asst.
BOS Referenced Documents: Draft FY’19 budget; budget spreadsheets showing a 2.5-3 percent increase; proposed warrant articles for ATM; engineering proposal for Calamint Hill Road North; ambulance abatement request.
| 
