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Wellfleet Finance Committee
Minutes of Meeting of March 14, 2002
Senior Center, Long Pond Room
Present: Ira Wood, Chair; Berta Bruinooge, Patricia Foley, Tim Woodman,
Arlene Kirsch, Anne Suggs, Deborah Davis; Michael Parlante, Chair,
Board of Selectmen; Bob Costa, Barbara Echeverria
Absent: Ben Zehnder
Chair Ira Wood called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.
Public Hearing on FY 2003 Capital Improvement Plan: Chair Wood opened the Public Hearing on the FY 2003 Capital Improvement Plan (version dated 2/27/02) by asking for comment from the floor. Barbara Echeverria suggested that the hearing notice should be posted in more than one place (citing o I. Maturing Debt & Interesto II. General Governmento III. Elementary Schoolo V. Public Works & Facilitieso VI. Marina Services Enterprise FundChair Wood closed the public hearing segment of the meeting at 7:45 p.m. Tim Woodman moved and Berta Bruinooge seconded that Finance Committee approve the Capital Improvement Plan for FY2003 for $1,190,038 as presented in the document dated February 22, 2002. Unanimously passed, 7-0.
Other Business:
1. Arlene Kirsch informed the Committee that Wellfleet has been fined $5000 to contribute to the clean-up of a Vermont waste site which the town uses.
2. Kirsch also cited a Cape Cod Times article of 3/13/02 which discussed the fact that the town of Barnstable will be charging elementary school parents for certain school services such as busing, music, sports and all-day kindergarten .
3. Kirsch announced that on 3/18/02 the Selectmen, acting as Water Commissioners, would be discussing a privatization of the water system. She objected to this on the following grounds:
a. money voted for a municipal system is being used to fund this study
b. the town voted for a municipal system
c. the town voted that only specific buildings be served.
Chair Wood asked if privatization was specifically excluded from the town vote on the water system; Bruinooge, reading Article 5 from the Fall Special Town Meeting, noted that it specifically used the word public. Tim Woodman asserted that it was not the FinCom4. Pat Foley stated that the ZBA is faced with its fourth lawsuit this year and warned FinCom to keep a 5. Tim Woodman, speaking of the statement which should be on the reverse side of the application for transfers from the reserve fund, stated his willingness to draft one; Ms. Kirsch recalled a statement from the Fall of 2000 and volunteered to try to find it.
Recommendations for Town Meeting Warrant
Article # Decision Vote Moved/Seconded
1 Recommends 7-0 Kirsch/Woodman
4 Recommends 7-0 Bruinooge/Foley
5 Recommends 7-0 Foley/Kirsch
6 Recommends 7-0 Woodman/Suggs
7 Recommends 7-0 Woodman/Kirsch
8 Recommends 7-0 Bruinooge/Foley
9 Recommends 7-0 Bruinooge/Davis
10 Recommends 7-0 Bruinooge/Suggs
11 Recommends 7-0 Davis/Woodman
12 Recommends 7-0 Kirsch/Foley
13 Recommends 7-0 Foley/Davis
14 Does Not Recommend 5-2 Woodman/Wood
15 Does Not Recommend 6-1 Kirsch/Foley
16 Does Not Recommend 6-1 Bruinooge/Foley
17 Recommends 7-0 Kirsch/Woodman
18 Recommends 7-0 Bruinooge/Kirsch
19 Reserves Recommendation 7-0 Kirsch/Davis
20 Recommends 7-0 Foley/Kirsch
27 Recommends 7-0 Wood/Woodman
29 Recommends 5-1-1 Bruinooge/Woodman
30 Recommends 5-0-2 Kirsch/Foley
32 Does Not Recommend 7-0 Woodman/Bruinooge
33 Reserves Recommendation 7-0 Kirsch/Davis
34 Does Not Recommend 7-0 Woodman/Foley
Notes: FinCom proposes to submit for inclusion in the warrant explanatory notes on each article, defining and sometimes elaborating on its position concerning the articles.
o To further this end, the secretary has been asked to ascertain the current amount of free cash available (Article 1) [$303,906], the percentage of salary increase proposed for elected officials (Article 7) [Town Clerko Discussion returned to the Housing Authority Budget; Chair Wood related that the Town Administrator had explained that the Housing Authority currently has about $12,000 on the books from the last two fiscal years and that it was deemed that $5,000 would be an adequate budget amount for FY2003. Members requested the secretary to inquire of Smith whether the surplus money was encumbered. (Ans.o Considering Article 14, the proposal to fund 2 new firefighter/paramedic positions, Berta Bruinooge wondered if this would cause an even greater increase in the overtime budget. Arlene Kirsch stated that Chief Hight had made the case that it was very difficult to attract call firefighters, that the current call people were becoming burned out, and that there would be a problem of insufficient staff should a big fire and an ambulance call occur simultaneously. Tim Woodman stated that this dilemma speaks for enough emergency personnel to staff two simultaneous emergencies; he paralleled FinComof the elementary school budget, featuring a low teacher-student ratio, and argued for consistency. Chair Wood stated that Wellfleet should be part of regional police and fire department but that all of the small towns of the Outer Cape wanted to preserve their own autonomies.
o Bob Costa, speaking of his conversations with members of the fire and police departments, stated that all departments on the Outer Cape suffer from political pressure. He continued that he disapproved of the budget method used nowo Tim Woodman observed that the FinCom comments on articles must not be political.
o On Article 17, paving services, it was noted that the state reimburses part of the paving fees.
o Concerning the Stormwater Remediation Project, Article 18, Michael Parlante commented concerning the grant money reimbursement.
o It was requested that the Open Space Committee be invited to the March 27 meeting to explain the acquisition of land proposed in Article 19; FinCom members were unsure about the reimbursement of funds.
o Deborah Davis stated that she had questions about what was being spent in Article 29, transferring funds into a Capital Budget.
o Article 30 proposes to move the Nauset Regional School Districto Article 32, sponsored by the Open Space Committee, proposes to transfer 5 parcels of town-owned land to ConsCom control management for o It was noted that this is the first year that the proposal for funding the Juice Bar, always previously a petitioned article (this year petitioned Article 34), has been written into the budget; it was judged that the budget line would be sufficient funding.
Minutes of February 26, 2002
Chair Wood moved and Mr. Woodman seconded a motion to adjourn; the meeting adjourned at 9:35 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
__________________________________ _____________________________
Frances J. Castillo, Assistant to the Ira Wood, Chair
Committee Secretary
_____________________Date
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