Wellfleet Board of Selectmen and Finance Committee
Minutes of Joint Meeting of October 7, 2003
Town Hall Hearing Room
Present: BOS: Dale Donovan, Chair; Michael May, Jerry Houk, Helen Miranda Wilson, Ira Wood
FinCom: Berta Bruinooge, Chair; Arlene Kirsch, John Makely,
Sylvia Smith, Nancy Bone, MacGregor Hay
Excused: FinCom: Patricia Foley, Carl Caruso.
Absent: FinCom: Anne Suggs.
Also Present: Timothy Smith, Town Administrator; Dawn Rickman, Town Clerk/Treasurer; Marilyn Crary, Town Accountant; Nancy Vail, Town Assessor; Marianne Nickerson, Town Collector; Becky Rosenburg, Director of Recreation; Angel Robinson, Assistant Director of Recreation.
Chair Dale Donovan called the Board of Selectmen to order at 7:00 p.m. Chair Berta Bruinooge called the Finance Committee to order at 7:00 p.m., welcoming new member Nancy Bone to the Committee. The Pre-Budget Meetings commenced.
Accounting Department--Marilyn Crary. Mrs. Crary noted the following:
1. Services: the department is now working in 3 fiscal years; this is the first year the general ledger has been on the computer; the recap sheet has been okayed by the state, within a few thousand of having a revenue deficit in FY2004; the Department of Revenue warns that Wellfleet may have a deficit in the coming fiscal year, which must be watched; the tax rate has been set and is low; there may be no free cash; the accounting department, along with the treasurer, the assessor, and the town collector, have been working very closely with the Town Administrator.
2. Personnel: the department consists of two persons, the accountant (35 hour week) and her assistant (30 hour week); Crary noted that 5 hours/week are available to apply to a clerk's position.
3. Future: a possible payroll system in-house?
4. Capital Expenses: possible replacement of a small copier.
Town Collector Department--Marianne Nickerson. Ms. Nickerson presented:
1. Duties of Collector's Office: Ms. Nickerson noted that the function of the office is laid out in the general laws. Taxes are collected on real estate, personal property, automobiles and boats; delinquent accounts are monitoried; the tax rate is set (bills will be mailed next week, a bit earlier than usual); the summer season is traditionally a slower time, although less so lately; the interest rates dictate that work for the office, since the office produces municipal lien forms for real estate closings.
2. Credit card tax payments. The public has been requesting payment of taxes by credit card and Nickerson has been exploring methods to do this without expense to the town; "e-billing" on the internet, in which taxes could be paid through debit to credit cards, seems a possibility. Nickerson will wait to see how this system works in other towns.
3. Expenses. Departmental expenses include the collector's salary, a part-time clerk position's salary, and the computer charges.
Questions from the boards included a query on abatements (Ans.-- with exemptions last year, total on this was $5900), the number of people in arrears (Ans.--for the year 2001, 14 accounts had recently been sent to the tax attorneys; 90% of taxpayers pay on time), and the possibility of quarterly tax bills (Ans.--this would cause significant increase in expenses).
Assessing Department--Nancy Vail. Ms. Vail presented her department's information:
1. Services: the Assessing Department values all real property, maintains maps, plans, and detailed records on every parcel, inspects building permits, cyclically visits every parcel in town every 7 years, produces abutters' lists for town boards, processes abatements for elderly, blind and veterans, conducts a state-mandated re-assessment every 3 years.
2. Staffing: one full-time assessor, one full-time data collector, one full-time clerk (a vacant post which will not be filled), and use of a consultant for number crunching and commercial assessment. The latter position costs $15,000 annually; Vail feels that it is a more valuable and cost-effective position than that of a clerk.
3. Future Needs: these are technology-oriented: a GIS system conducted jointly with other town departments, a website for on-line public access, and a continuation of automation of other functions, e.g., recent automation of motor vehicle records.
Questions from the boards included the implication upon town revenues of the state legislature's doing away with auto excise tax (Ans.--this would significantly cut down on revenues which would have to be made up on real estate tax), amount of money in exemptions (Ans.--last year $26,000, of which the town got back about $7000), and a request that the BOS write letters to state representatives explaining that taking away vehicle excise tax is harmful to towns without public transportation such as Wellfleet.
Town Clerk/Treasurer--Dawn Rickman. Ms. Rickman presented the following:
1. Services. This is the financial records office, the hub for everything, with bi-weekly payroll processing for 225-250 employees, bills payable, and accounts receivable for all departments. The Clerk invests town funds, is custodian of bank accounts, keeps all vital statistics and all departmental records. A recent project has been the computerizing of all Zoning Bylaws for all years (with 2 years yet to go); all vital statistics from 1763 to present have been computerized. The office deals with delinquent taxes (land with unpaid taxes goes into Tax Title); in December 2002, Rickman held a land auction for 60 low-value parcels and sold 17, which were then returned to the town tax rolls. Currently, 13 properties are in Tax Title
petitioned for foreclosure.
2. Departmental Budget. This includes insurance and retirement, payroll reports, and salaries (staffing includes herself and one full-time clerk). Rickman is looking into the possibility of raising her fee schedule.
3. Future. The department is working on computer networking with other town hall departments to avoid necessity for duplication of data entry (Tim Smith confirmed that the groundwork had been laid). Rickman would like to get new voting booths, needs to get a vital statistic book repaired, and hopes to obtain improved storage for town documents.
Questions ascertained that there was no duplication of tasks between the clerk's office and other departments and that all town records had to be stored in hard copy (e.g., payroll, tax records, board minutes, etc.).
Recreation Department--Becky Rosenberg and Angel Robinson. Ms. Rosenberg distributed information on programs, facilities, staff, goals and importance of the Recreation Department, noting that the programs at Baker's Field have increased in three years, with 95-125 children per day participating in morning recreation. Elements of the discussion between Ms. Rosenberg and the boards follows:
1. Staff listing--individual job responsibilities and hours worked
2. Current after-school activities--recreational soccer K-6, open gym for high school, tennis lessons twice weekly
3. Softball games for older players? Teenagers vs. police/firemen?
4. Attempts to involve youth who congregate downtown in programs--aid in organizing concerts, functions; touch football
5. Reasons for not offering program registration on line--done at school, summer programs would be too large with on-line registration, e-commerce would take approximately 40 hours/week of someone's time and represent no significant savings
6. Winter dances--3 last year, about 100 students attended.
The Boards thanked the department heads for their presentations. The Selectmen took a short recess at 8:05 p.m.
Finance Committee then discussed whether or not to hold its regular meeting on Wednesday, October 22 at 7:30 p.m. Arlene Kirsch recommended doing so, since the Committee had some business to attend to, including liaisons; the other members of the Committee agreed. Arlene Kirsch moved that the Joint Meeting of FinCom and the Selectmen be adjourned; Sylvia Smith seconded; the meeting was unanimously adjourned at 8:09 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
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Frances J. Castillo, Committee Secretary Dale Donovan, Chair, Board of Selectmen
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Berta Bruinooge, Chair, Finance Committee
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