Wellfleet Finance Committee
Minutes of Meeting of December 16, 2009
Senior Center Conference Room, 7:00 p.m.
Present: Dennis Murphy, Chairman; Sylvia Smith, Sam Bradford, Liz Sorrell, John Morrissey, Donna Robertson, Janet Loewenstein.
Not Present: Robert Wallace, Robert Kelly
Also Attending: Dan Silverman
The meeting was called to order by Dennis Murphy at 7 p.m.
Chairman Dennis suggested moving the agenda around in order to accommodate Dan Silverman, Fire Chief.
Chief Silverman gave an overview of the Fire Department’s budget. He gave a thorough description of all parts of his budget.
Chief Silverman discussed the typical salary increases for the Fire Department are usually 3%. The contract negotiations are not complete.
There were questions regarding the overtime salaries. Chief Silverman explained that the bulk of the overtime goes to full time personnel. This is used to cover vacations, sick days, and training. There are also overtime charges for emergencies. There are 2 people on each shift. In order to staff the department adequately, there needs to be 2 people on each shift. Additional staffing (1 additional) would allow flexibility in filling the shifts, reduce the need to filling shifts with overtime. It would not reduce the overtime costs but the salary would offset the overtime cost. It is an attempt to staff the fire department adequately.
Chief Silverman discussed the SAFER grant application. He announced his intention to put a second request to be heard at the Board of Selectmen regarding the submission of the SAFER grant.
There was a discussion of the items reduced by the town administrator.
Chief Silverman identified priority #1 as Hydrant Valves. Priority #2 is to replace Tanker 96. This needs to be replaced now that there will be hydrants in parts of town and now that Truro and Eastham have tankers. The existing tanker is very large and difficult to operate. It is difficult to drive unless you are an experienced truck driver. It is too large for many smaller roads and driveways. The existing tanker is 20 years old with about 17,000 miles. The fire department looked at several options before recommending replacement.
The #3 priority is turnout gear.
There is a request for a storage shed 12 x14 for equipment, Priority #4.
Priority #5 is Water Supply Development
There is a cooperative agreement with the National Seashore. It is a revenue stream. The agreement is due for negotiation. The Chief would like to see that revenue increased. There are benefits that come through the National Seashore for supplies and seasonal man power when it is available.
Minutes of 12/3/09: John Morrissey made a motion to approve , it was seconded by Silvia Smith, all in favor, and none opposed.
Mail: Contract Services Backup materials were distributed.
There was a detailed discussion of the timeline for the Capital Improvement Plan and Budget. The Finance Committee would like to move the timeline for capital request to an earlier date for more thorough consideration of the capital requests.
Janet Loewenstein and Liz Sorrell will work to draft a proposed amendment to the Charter regarding budget timelines.
Capital Plan
The Capital Improvement Plan does not include authorized borrowing from previous town meeting. The Finance Committee needs to be updated on the status of authorized borrowing on quarterly basis.
The Finance Committee recommends removing the police vehicle from the operating budget. The committee further recommends that all capital items be removed from the operating budget.
Other Business
The Finance Committee agreed to meet at 6:00 p.m. on December 29, 2009. The purpose of the meeting is to review the Capital Improvement requests.
Janet will invite Chief Rosenthal to the January meeting. The committee will also invite Mark Vincent of DPW to the January meeting. The committee agreed to discuss the Marina future needs after the budget process. There will two meetings in January. January 20 and 27. The committee would like to invite the schools to the Finance Committee on February 11,2009.
A motion to adjourn was made by Janet Loewenstein and seconded by Sylvia Smith at 9:55 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by Liz Sorrell, substituting for Mary Rogers
Finance Committee approved these minutes at the meeting held 1/20/10.
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