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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - AC - 02/24/2016 Cohasset Advisory Committee Minutes for February 24, 2016 Time: 7:04-10:10pm Place: Cohasset Town Hall, BOS Room Attendees: Nan Roth, Chair Tanya Bodell George Chamillard John Chapman Rich Fitzpatrick Leland Jenkins (arrived at 8:12pm) Helene Lieb Peter Pescatore Presenters: Brian Joyce, Facilities Robert Silvia, Fire Department Chief Paula Linhares, treasurer/collector Chris Senior, Town Manager Mary Gallagher, Finance 1. Call to order at 7:04pm by Nan Roth, Chair of the Advisory Committee 2. DPW/Facilities - Brian Joyce. Reviewed the FY17 Budgets for all departments including the Transfer Station, Snow and Ice Removal, Street lighting, DPW Administration, Highway, and Tree and Part Departments. Peter stated that he would like to see one line item for each department for a clearer understanding of the finances of the departments. Upcoming projects include the Jacobs metal gate ($9000 proposal). Chris Senior said that we are 5 years out from significant retirements in the DPW/facilities department. He stated that it may be more cost effective to do more contracting of services. Brian stated that the snow and ice budget is where we need to be. The street lights are now mapped in GIS. Couldn't find about 100 locations initially. Going to get reimbursed by National Grid for the lights that are not working. Goal is to buy the street lights. The Alternative Energy Committee informed Chris that it will cost approximately $250,000 to convert to LED lightning. Chris reported that we should own the street lights by the end of 2016. Switching to LED lightning, according to Chris wouldn't happen until this time next year. Brian reported that we are back to full staff at the RTF. We can contract out for bags and save money. Mary Gallagher thinks that we should not have to be a distributor of bags. There has been a change in licensure and certification so that is why there is an additional $2000 needed under this line item. In the facilities management overview, we are now back up to full capacity in staff. The FY17 budget reflects adding the new senior center costs to the budget. The recent hires in the areas of plumbing, concrete work, HVAC have been very helpful to the department according to Brian. John asked some questions regarding electricity and heating costs. Brian stated that not all costs are consolidated. The schools pay for their costs. 3. Fire Department FY17- Chief Robert Silvia. Receipts up just a little overall. As of this coming Monday, 22 line firefighters on staff which is a full staff. The FY17 overtime budget request is 1% less than last year. He stated that Cohasset water is eating the inside of the fire department pumps. Engine 1- 21 year old truck which now needs some work. $30,000 spent to replace the pump. It now has the biggest pump in the fleet. The plan is to send it back to the manufacture in Wisconsin for maintenance and updating including replacing seats, adding air conditioning and more at a cost of $185,000. The goal is to extend the truck's life for another 10 years. Chief Silvia plans to request two capital items- fixing the 50 year old concrete floors by resurfacing them (the main fire department concrete floor) and the purchase of the Lucas Chest Compression System (which the department is now demoing) This system has been shown to help save lives in cases of pre-hospital cardiac arrest. 4. Reserve Fund Policies. The financial goal for the general reserve fund is to achieve and maintain a minimum Advisory Reserve Fund balance of 1% of the prior year's property tax levy . Peter thinks that $200,000 in the General Reserve Fund is a good place to be. The goal is to reach 15% of expenditures to help receive the AAA score. S&P requires a minimum unassigned plus assigned fund balance of 15% of expenditures to receive the highest budget flexibility score. Chris reported that we are $820,000-850,000 short right now. Motion made by Tanya and seconded by Lee to modify the goal of$200,000 in the General Reserve Fund to the "goal of achieving 1% of the prior year's property tax levy with adjustments within the next 5 years". Approved by a vote of 8-0. Peter expressed concern that the reserve fund would become a "slush fund". Chris said that the Advisory Committee has to approve use of money from the reserve fund. John made the motion, and Rich seconded, to "add additional source of funding as a line item in budget appropriation at the annual town meeting". Approved by a vote of 8-0. Peter recommended that supplement aggregate operating budget only if a deficit exists. Peter stated that we should never accept a structural deficit. Peter also stated that he doesn't see the need for free cash. Chris believes that we should always have a cushion of revenue. Free cash allows that cushion. 3% of the annual operating budget excluding enterprise funds is the lowest amount that Chris would recommend. Chris'goal is to achieve 3% cash balance at the end of the year. Chris thinks that he could make that goal this year. Peter made a motion, seconded by Helene to change the number to 3-5% in the financial goal of free cash to read "to achieve and maintain a free cash balance of 3-5% of the annual operating budget excluding enterprise funds". Approved by a vote of 8-0. Peter recommended that we tap into the stabilization fund only if there is a deficit. Chris stated that the stabilization fund is not a "piggy bank". It is suppose to be used as a "raining day"fund. John made a motion which was seconded by Peter to "supplement operating budget if and only to the extent that revenue growth is less than 2% ". Approved by a vote of 8-0. Tanya made the motion, seconded by Peter to change the financial goal of unassigned fund by adding "the equivalent of" therefore reading "to achieve and maintain the equivalent of a minimum Unassigned plus assigned fund balance of 15% of the Town's expenditures". Approved by a vote of 8-0. 5. Warrant Article- Citizens Petition. Peter wants the petition to be put in as an Advisory Committee warrant article The intent of the article is that the money generating by the meal and room taxes would not go into operating costs. It is already a warrant article as a citizen petition. Peter would want the citizen petition to be indefinitely postponed and replaced in the same language as an Advisory Committee article. Chris said that if the article was approved, the town would get only 10 months of additional revenue the first year. George recommended to put all the additional revenue in OPEB. Rich agrees that this additional revenue should not go into operating costs. Nan said that there is a group of parents that want this additional revenue to go to the schools. 6. The next Advisory Meeting is March 2, 2016. IT and the Library will present FY17 budgets. March 9- Chris will present Town Hall budget. March 16- Sewer . March 30- School. Budget for schools is now at a 5.43% increase for FY17. Also Nan distributed the latest school enrollment and staff figures (additional 56 students and 25 FTE staff). 7. Review of February 10,2016 Minutes. Changes : 1. misspelled Rich. 2. omit last two lines when talking about the senior center budget and add "Rich questioned the increase in senior center programming budget offsetting the $27,000 which was previously spent on rent which was removed from the budget". 3. add "Police budget presentation didn't include the raises required by the new contract". Also correct the numbering of items 5.6.7. 8. Motion to adjourn the meeting at 10:10pm by Tanya, seconded by John. Approved 8-0.