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Meeting Minutes
Minutes Accepted and filed with the Town Clerk on 3/7/2017 by a vote of 5-0
7:00p.m. – February 21, 2017
Sutton Town Hall, Selectmen’s Meeting Room
Members in Attendance:
Chairman John Hebert, Vice-Chair Paul Maynard, Clerk Jesse Limanek and Selectmen David Hall & Michael Kenney
Town Administrator James Smith & Deb Jacques, secretary
Chairman Hebert calls the meeting to order at 7:00pm followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.
Forum: no comments
Selectman Limanek motions to accept as amended minutes from February 7, 2017 Selectmen’s meeting, Vice Chair Maynard seconds passes 3-0-2 (Hebert & Kenney abstain, absent from 2/7/17 meeting)
FY18 Budget Presentation: TA Smith begins by saying this is his 10th budget presentation to the Town of Sutton, this budget is currently balanced. This is due in part to the significant new growth from last year. For FY18 the total budget is $31,390,056. which is an increase of $499,000. Or 1.62% over FY17. Revenues have increased $625,000. and expenses have increased $800,000. Any surplus will go towards debt to lower our recurring expenses. The school dept. will receive an additional $350,000. over their preliminary budget. A brief review of the overall changes includes dept. changes (wages), Police Sgt. position being filled, employee benefit increases & educational increases. In healthcare we are looking at a 13.3% increase if we have no
plan design changes, we are looking to adopt a deductible plan which will result in lower premiums for the employees as well as the town. The town has a very attractive Health Insurance plan and only 4 employees have opted out of the insurance, it is time to look at changes. TA Smith states we have a Cadillac plan on a Chevy budget. This will be discussed in a few weeks at an IAC meeting in which all unions are represented. This is the first year where we have eliminated free cash from the revenues, the challenge is to keep our expenses at or below our revenue (live below your means). Some of the other items discussed are the funding of the new Police Station which will cost approximately 7 million; eliminating the Tree Warden position held by Joe Camarra and the Highway superintendent will take over these responsibilities, a compensation study recently done showed 6 of the Dept. Heads wages were not in line with the salary study, they will receive small increases to
bring them up to where they should be, purchasing Code Red for emergency notification ($4500.), purchasing an acre of land at Pigeon Hill cemetery ($22,000.) to expand the cemetery as well as erect a communication tower on this site. Our local receipts have grown steadily with the lease of the Manchaug Library, SRECS and the IMA’s for nursing services. The Enterprise Funds (Trans Station & Sewer) continue to have healthy retained earnings. The Capital Plan for FY18 is $696,300. We have a solid stabilization fund (a little over 2 million) and we continue to fund OPEB. Selectman Hall says it is great news to start off the presentation saying the budget is balanced, that is really encouraging but he focused more on the long term picture (the next 3-5 years). Coaching the residents with the issues that will be in front of us is the right thing to do. Dave goes on to say he is glad the Police Station has the support from the Board and is happy to see
Matt Stencel branching out with the tree warden position. Vice Chair Maynard says balanced budget, great, 10th year presenting, great. Paul thanks Jim for the Code Red and says the FY18 budget looks great, many positives. Selectman Limanek says wonderful presentation, this speaks volumes of Jim, Tim and the financial team. Excellent work all around. Selectman Kenney asks if there are any health insurance plans Jim is looking at and agrees the town offers very attractive health insurance, we may have to look into a plan more like what the private sector has. Mike asked about Matt Stencel becoming the tree warden and the duties involved. Mike is looking forward to the Finance Committee hearings. Chairman Hebert said it is nice that Jim brought some awareness to issues we may have in 2019, 2020 and 2021. It is good to look ahead cautiously, it is because of this that the town of Sutton is ahead of the curve in a lot of areas. John says it is a long time coming for a new
Police Station. John also says with Jim having a feasibility study on the surrounding town dept. heads shows his unselfishness, thank you to Jim, Tim and all the staff.
TA Update:
- FY18 Budget update- Finance & Warrant committee will meet Feb 28 @ 6:30pm- public hearings will begin March 16th
- Police Station Building project: Tecton has been awarded the project for design. There will be a tour of the Wilbraham Police Station on March 1st with some of the police station building committee as well as some of the police dept. personnel.
- Meals on wheels- March is the 15th year for this program, if any of the BOS are interested in participating the week of March 20-24th please contact Kristin McCarthy.
Announcements/Round Table/Correspondence:
- Selectman Hall says it is important to come to an agreement about the health insurance, the potential cost is unsustainable. Dave goes on to say the history of funding from the state decreasing has the burden falling more on the residents.
- Selectman Kenney says Selectman Hall made great points in regards to the health insurance, you have to take in to consideration when negotiating that you do not want to make staff cuts so changes in the insurance may be the way to go.
Vice Chair Maynard motions to adjourn, Selectman Limanek seconds passes 5-0 8:00 p.m.
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