(5/15/07) The Select Board met Monday at 5:30 p.m., prior to the 7:00 p.m. joint budget meeting of the Select Board, the School Committee, the Finance Committee and the Library Trustees. Gerry Weiss, Alisa Brewer, Hwei-Ling Greeney, Rob Kusner and Anne Awad were present, as was Town Manager Larry Shaffer.
Mr. Kusner said that the May 13th dedication of the UMass rail trail connector in honor of Arthur Swift had been “wonderful.” Mr. Kusner said he had spoken to Congressman John Olver at the event, and that there is a need to revitalize the Rail Trail Advisory Committee. He said it is not a Town committee but includes representatives from the Town, and said he would be seeking nominees for those positions.
Vince O'Connor said that lengthy memos had been written by Town Planning Director Jonathan Tucker in regards to Mr. O'Connor's petition articles on the Town Meeting warrant. Mr. O'Connor said that the one sent to the Town Commercial Relations Committee (TCRC) contained insulting remarks and that it was inappropriate for Town staff to include personal comments on such matters. Mr. O'Connor said he objected to the volume of the memos, the time being spent creating them, and their tone. He said that citizens won't want to participate in Town government if they have to deal with such a response from Town staff.
Mr. Shaffer said he had read the TCRC memo, and that Mr. Tucker had raised some good points but that the process would have been improved if Mr. Tucker had contacted Mr. O'Connor before writing the memo. He said that Mr. Tucker has the authority to comment and make clear his position on such topics to committees, and that he also has a responsibility to work with citizens who bring petitions.
Mr. Kusner said that the TCRC is a citizen committee and that the role of staff needs to be examined. He said that advice from staff is necessary, but that this situation suggested a lack of balance. He said he was tempted to move that the Town Manager look more deeply into this issue to see what is happening. He said this isn't the first time that this has happened and that other citizens who have put much effort into issues have had similar experiences over the years. Mr. Shaffer said he would look into it.
Report on Article 41 from the 2006 Town Meeting
Ms. Awad had drafted a report from the Select Board to Town Meeting, in response to last year's Article 41 request for a five-year financial plan for the Town. The report was not read or made available at the meeting. The members made edits and sought clarification on several points. The vote to approve presenting the report to Town Meeting was 4 in favor 1 opposed, with Ms. Brewer voting to oppose.
Mr. Weiss said that in preparation for the joint budget meeting, the Select Board would discuss what budget it wants to present to Town Meeting, and whether that would be the original 1% Shaffer-Musante budget, and he questioned whether that was the appropriate name for that budget.
Mr. Shaffer said he didn't want Mr. Musante to be blamed for it and that anything good in the budget was Mr. Musante's doing, and anything bad was his own.
Mr. Weiss said he wanted to determine if the Board would recommend or amend that budget.
Ms. Greeney said that Mr. Shaffer had said he expects to fund four of the five firefighter positions on the restoration list, and asked how much it would cost the Town to fund the fifth. Mr. Musante said it would cost $31,356. Ms. Greeney said that tax support for LSSE was $330,000 and asked how much the health insurance and retirement benefits increased that amount. Mr. Musante said that amount was $175,000. There was discussion about how such pay was represented in the Finance Committee Report (it is prorated by department) and how it is appropriated (through the Employee Pay and Benefits line of the General Government category.)
There was discussion about placeholder numbers being used in anticipation of collective bargaining and cost of living adjustments. Mr. Shaffer said those numbers were considered reasonable for moving forward with such discussions.
At this point, a woman in the audience who had missed the Public Comment period because of the early start of the meeting began speaking. She said that she is homeless and uses the Town Hall bathrooms to conduct her personal hygiene, and spoke at length about how she had been harassed and abused while doing so. Mr. Shaffer said his office had followed up via the fax number she had left as contact information, saying he would like to meet with her to help her find appropriate accommodation for bathing and changing, and said he would be happy to work with Community Services Director Roy Rosenblatt on the issue. She apologized for not having known about the fax, and it was determined that she would follow up with Mr. Shaffer.
Mr. Weiss asked if the members were prepared to recommend the Shaffer budget, and none were. Mr. Kusner said it was a starting point. Ms. Greeney suggested that they each describe their proposed budgets and goals, and then determine the Select Board's recommendation, and the others agreed.
Ms. Greeney said her priorities were to fund restoration of the fifth firefighter position for $31,000, to fund an Economic Development Director for $60,000, and to fund restoration of the two police officer positions for $82,000, and said her total was $171,000. Mr. Kusner said that when voting on recommended restorations for if the override had passed, the Select Board had already agreed to cut $10,000 from the Economic Development Director's position in anticipation of it only being filled for 10 months in FY08, and he suggested she use that figure, and she agreed. She added funding the pools for $64,000 as well, and said that gave her $225,000 in budget changes. To fund them, she recommended cutting money from LSSE as part of her proposal for a three-year phase out of its taxpayer support. After some initial confusion about numbers and explanations about the current state of the LSSE budget, Ms. Greeney said she wanted to cut $160,000 from LSSE. She said she would cut an additional $100,000 from the placeholder figure of $200,000 for cost of living adjustments.
Mr. Weiss asked if it would be possible to increase LSSE user fees in order to raise $160,000, and asked if it might require hearing from LSSE Director Linda Chalfant about the kind of impact such a cut would have on the program.
Mr. Shaffer said the cut would require a complete restructuring of LSSE and would leave only vestigial remnants of the programs the community has enjoyed. He said there would be little left after such a cut.
Mr. Musante said there have been a series of fee increases for LSSE programs in recent years, with substantial increases last year. He said that there are practical upper limits for fees based on what the market is willing to pay for such activities. He said there had been a program-by-program analysis, and said that some LSSE programs are designed to make money while others are not. He said that $160,000 would be a huge cut.
Ms. Greeney said she wanted everyone to present their lists without comment, and for the Select Board to then determine the best of the scenarios. She said she feels the commenting is unfair and that her proposal had been shut down. Mr. Weiss said that it was fair for the group to consider how a proposal would work, and that she hadn't been singled out, but had merely volunteered to go first.
Ms. Awad suggested they collaborate on the best way to use the remaining time, and that otherwise they would not have time to vote and craft recommendations. Mr. Weiss said that if they weren't done by the 7:00 meeting, the discussion could continue afterwards.
Mr. Kusner said he wanted to restore everything that had been on the Select Board's restoration list for if the override had passed. He said he didn't have those numbers, and Mr. Musante reviewed them, saying the Select Board had added $20,000 in funding to human service agencies, $12,000 for a seasonal worker at Puffer's Pond, $6,000 for LSSE special needs programs and $5,000 for LSSE's outdoor challenge program. Mr. Musante said their proposed cuts from the Town Manager's 3% budget to fund those restorations were $9,000 from the Health Department's community outreach worker, $10,000 from the police budget, $10,000 from the Economic Development Director position, and $14,000 from a Finance Department staff position.
Mr. Kusner said he would get the additional $380,000 by taking $100,000 from the capital budget and adding it to the general government budget. He said some capital needs could be deferred another year. He said he would cut the full $200,000 placeholder figure, and would cut $80,000 from LSSE.
Ms. Awad said her priorities were to restore the human services funding to last year's levels, which requires an additional $116,000, and to keep the War Memorial Pool open for $64,000. She said she would also advise LSSE to fund the special needs and outdoor challenge programs, and to do so by cutting $10,900 from LSSE's adult team sports programs. She said she would fund the rest by eliminating all the money for collective bargaining negotiations for next year. She said she wanted to reiterate her desire for the economic development role to be filled by an outside consultant. Mr. Weiss said her cuts left an extra $20,000 unspent, and she said Mr. Shaffer could find a way to use it.
Ms. Brewer did not have recommendations but asked for clarification. She said that when she was on the School Committee, it was her understanding that a certain amount needed to be budgeted in order to conduct collective bargaining in good faith. She referred to a past situation when the schools had done that but the Town had not, and that led to complicated discussions at Fall Town Meeting after the deliberations were complete. She asked what the actual requirement is, and whether the assumption is simply that the money will be found when needed.
Mr. Shaffer sad that he isn't an expert in these areas but knows that there are requirements for good faith negotiations, and that one of them is that the Town can't enter into negotiations encumbered by constraints in the terms and conditions of employment, which he said would include wages and benefits. He said that if it could be construed that constraints had been determined ahead of time, a case could be made for that being an unfair labor practice. He said that if the budget process doesn't anticipate or approve some amount for collective bargaining, that could be considered an unfair labor practice, and he cautioned that the Select Board be very careful with this issue. He said hypothetically that if they were to eliminate a specific number of dollars from compensation or benefits prior to collective bargaining, it was vulnerable to being perceived as an unfair practice.
Mr. Kusner said he wasn't proposing that but rather proposed a cut to general government as a whole, and said he hoped the Superintendent of Schools would consider a similar reduction.
Mr. Weiss said that he wanted to restore $79,000 in funding to human service agencies, and said that was based on a formula he had discussed with Mr. Rosenblatt. He said that total was $54,000 higher than the original recommendation from the Town Manager's 1% budget. He said he wants to restore funding for the War Memorial pool and the wading pools, saying how important those are to children and families who don't have backyard pools and can't afford summer vacations. He said he wants to restore funds to the LSSE subsidies of $10,900, and $10,000 to the DPW for line painting, because he said the road situation had become dangerous. He said he also wanted to restore one of the police positions, the fifth firefighter position and the seasonal Puffer's Pond worker. He said all his additions totaled about $220,000. He said he would fund that with a $100,000 cut to General Government, which he said could be implemented by Mr. Shaffer as he saw fit, and said he would get the rest from reserves. He said he finds it “unconscionable” for the Town to be putting hundreds of thousands of dollars in reserve funds while making “grotesque” cuts. He said he would like to see the reserves used like an endowment, and suggested taking 5-5.5% of them for operating use. He said that depending which reserve numbers were used, that would be about $168,000.
Mr. Kusner said he expects Town Meeting to demand funding both police officer positions, and said finding the funds for that should be anticipated. Mr. Weiss said that could be done through the reserves and said those reserves would be getting money back from the Health Care Trust Fund. He said that using 5.5% was standard for an endowment.
Ms. Greeney asked if the interest earned from the reserves gets factored in to the budget plans. Mr. Musante said that investment earnings get factored into several budget areas and said those for the stabilization fund get added back in to that fund by law, while proceeds from other cash investments end up in the general fund. He said that when preparing the proposed three-year plan, they didn't get into that level of specificity. He said that as general fund revenues, reserve interest helps the town to meet its needs, and that it doesn't specifically accrue to reserves. He said real question is whether you think it is or isn't a good idea to use money from the reserves, whether a big or small amount. Mr. Weiss said that free cash doesn't have to remain in free cash, and Mr. Musante said that it impacts the reserves because it is a general fund receipt.
Mr. Kusner asked about taking money from reserves versus delaying capital spending, and whether deferring new equipment for a year or until after Fall Town Meeting was more prudent than using reserve money.
Mr. Musante said that the recommendation from the Joint Capital Planning Committee was to try to allocate a fixed percentage of the levy to capital spending. He said that has fluctuated between 8-10%. He said that had the override passed, the recommendation from the Finance Committee was that money for the capital plan would not have increased, and that with its failure, the spending recommendation is decreased by almost $400,000. He said the current 7% recommended allocation is at an historic low. He said using such funds for funding recurring costs in the operating budget was worse than using them to provide a one-time fix. He said he does not recommend cutting the capital budget.
Mr. Shaffer said that he had heard from UMass that they are willing to negotiate an agreement to pay for services it is consuming that are currently being paid for by taxpayers. He said UMass has a detailed list he had sent regarding such costs, which he said include emergency services, children from tax-exempt University housing in the schools, and water and sewer costs. He said that the highlights of the communication are that UMass acknowledges its long-term relationship with the Town, and acknowledges the costs being borne by the Town, and is willing to enter into an agreement. He said he has met with the Superintendent of Schools, the Police and Fire Chiefs, and Mr. Musante to see what such an agreement might include, and that he will keep the Select Board apprised of progress. He said he is loathe to recommend using money from the reserves, but that it may be possible to anticipate what the amount from UMass will be, and to take only that much from reserves so that it can be replaced once that money is received.
Mr. Weiss said that if that occurred over the summer, it would be too late to use and would have to be added to the reserves. Mr. Shaffer said the revenues could not be booked without an executed agreement. Mr. Weiss said that up to $200,000 had the possibility of being requested.
This meeting adjourned at 7:00 p.m., and was scheduled to reconvene after the joint budget meeting. Those recaps will be posted separately.
-- Stephanie O'Keeffe
