Wellfleet Finance Committee
Minutes of Meeting of October 13, 2010
Senior Center Conference Room, 7:00 p.m.
Present: Dennis Murphy, Chairman; Sam Bradford, Janet Loewenstein, Robert Kelly, John T. Morrissey, Sylvia Smith, Liz Sorrell
Regrets: Robert Wallace
Also Attending: Town Administrator Paul Sieloff, Town Accountant Marilyn Crary
Chairman Dennis Murphy called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
Shellfish Truck
Shellfish Warden Andrew Koch had submitted the Vehicle Rollover form 1 required for the purchase of a replacement truck. Koch was present and explained the Shellfish truck replacement process and answered questions about the new Ford Ranger on order. Finance Committee suggested that the DPW maintenance records be included for any future rollover forms. There was also a discussion of having the DPW hand down their used trucks to the Shellfish Department.
IT Presentation
Information Technology Consultant Cristian Patapie distributed a memo dated July 17, 2009 2 and a map of Town buildings that could be networked through fiber-optics. He presented a proposal for the Town to install a fiber optics system. Some of the money for the system would be provided by Comcast. Patapie said that Chatham has such a system. He had included some costs to the Town in his memo. A company that is interested in the project would like to see several towns connected, Patapie said. The estimated cost is around $125,000. He answered questions on changes in technology, a replacement schedule, telephone costs, condensed network security, increased productivity, multiple town changeover to fiber optic cable, above ground cables, and maintenance of the system. A decision on the
fiber optics system needs to be made for Annual Town Meeting.
FinCom Budget & Reserve Fund FY12
Bob Kelly moved to approve the Finance Committee’s Fiscal Year 2012 budget 3 of $250. Loewenstein seconded, and the motion carried 7-0.
Kelly moved to approve the Reserve Fiscal Year 2012 budget 4 of $20,000. Liz Sorrell seconded, and the motion carried 7-0.
Eastham Fire Dept. Budget FY11
Town Administrator Paul Sieloff had provided the Eastham Fiscal Year 11 Fire Department Budget. 5 FinCom studied the salary line, which reflected Eastham’s larger department. Discussion progressed to Wellfleet’s benefits and retirement system-wide. Sam Bradford said he was willing to do further comparison of other towns’ fire departments.
Review of Meeting with Selectmen 9/22/10
Finance Committee members said that the Town Administrator and Selectmen promised to develop a Free Cash policy.
Loewenstein moved that the Selectmen put a note in the Annual Town Meeting Warrant that the term “Free Cash” is replaced by “budgetary fund balance.” Kelly seconded, and the motion carried 7-0.
FinCom also discussed future trash disposal costs and transfer station revenue. Members are interested in seeing revenues by department for all departments even though the money goes into the General Fund. Sorrell suggested creating information checklists for department heads complete in advance of Budget sessions.
Legal Fees
Chairman Dennis Murphy had requested the legal fees for this year. Marilyn Crary provided a “Legal Budget and Costs” worksheet 6 comparing legal fees from 2003 to 2010 in Wellfleet and comparing Wellfleet to several other Lower Cape towns. Finance Committee discussed with Paul Sieloff the legal fees and method of listing them in the Budget. He addressed some of the high cost cases that raised the legal fee totals. In comparing Eastham’s legal costs with Wellfleet’s, FinCom would like to see the number of homes in Eastham.
Minutes of 9/15/10 and 9/22/10
Kelly moved to approve the minutes of September 15, 2010. Sorrell seconded, and the motion carried 7-0.
Bradford moved to approve the amended minutes of September 22, 2010. Kelly seconded, and the motion carried 6-0.
Mail
Copies of the October 2010 Beacon were available.
There were announcements of the Massachusetts Municipal Association’s annual meeting on October 21, 2010 and the Association of Town Finance Committees annual meeting on October 23, 2010.
Other Business
John Morrissey suggested discussing the Nauset Regional School changes at a future meeting. There was some discussion of the impact of Provincetown joining the regional system. Dennis Murphy will be meeting with the Nauset Regional Superintendent of Schools in November and will bring FinCom questions to the meeting.
Morrissey also had investigated percentages other towns keep in their Stabilization Funds. At another meeting he’d like to discuss establishing numbers and multiple stabilization funds for Wellfleet.
Paul Sieloff invited FinCom members to attend the Personnel Task Force meeting Monday, October 18, 2010.
Sieloff announced that the Police negotiations had been completed to his satisfaction.
Agenda for Next Meeting
The agenda was set for the next FinCom meeting to be held November 10, 2010.
Adjournment
Sorrell moved to adjourn. Morrissey seconded, and the motion carried 7-0. The meeting was adjourned at 9:50 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
____________________________ _________________________
Mary Rogers, Committee Secretary Dennis Murphy, Chairman
Finance Committee approved these minutes at the meeting held 11/10/10.
Public Record Materials from the meeting of 10/13/10
1.) Shellfish truck Vehicle Rollover form
2.) IT Map and Memo of 7/17/09
3.) Finance Committee Budget FY12
4.) Reserve Fund Budget FY12
5.) Town of Eastham Fire Department Budget FY11
6.) Legal Budget & Costs worksheet
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