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Advisory Committee
January 30, 2007 Meeting Minutes

Town of Hingham
Advisory Committee
January 30, 2007 Meeting Minutes

Present:  Port, Bierwirth, Allinson, Burns, Ellison, Farrell, Kiernan, Lauter, O'Meara, Reardon, Seelen

Chair Linda Port called the meeting to order at 7:38PM in the Town Hall Building.

Chief Steve Carlson, Deputy Chiefs Tab Mills and Charlie Souther were in attendance to present the Police, Dispatch Services, Harbor Master, and, Animal Control FY2008 budgets.

Joe Bierwirth presented an overview of benchmarking efforts, initiated by the Selectmen, for the Police Department.  Hingham plus five additional Towns make up the study group.  Initial results are anticipated in the fall of 2008.

Chief Carlson presented in detail the budgets.  Special attention was given to the request for an addition of four officers:

. Growth of the Town
. Desire to dedicate officers to identified groups of people (e.g. Senior Citizens) and
. Return to having "beat officers" that are easily recognizable to Hingham citizens.

After an extensive discussion of Police Department expenses, an additional $2,411 was recommended to allow Chief Carlson to promote an existing officer. 

The Advisory Committee voted favorably on the Police, Dispatch Services, Harbor Master, Animal Control, and, Public Safety Utilities budgets as shown in Attachment A. 

Laura Burns introduced Jim O'Brien, Chair of the Housing Partnership, and provided an overview of their initiatives and pending Warrant Article.

Jim O'Brien introduced members of his Committee and Jim Watson, Chair Emeritus of the Housing Partnership.  He reviewed the background and concept of a "Hingham Affordable Housing Trust".  The "Trust" would allow funds earmarked for affordable housing to be deposited allowing the Partnership the ability to respond in a timely manner to market opportunities for affordable housing.  Today, in most cases, each opportunity must wait for a vote of Town Meeting to proceed.

The two options being considered are:

. Using the existing statute in the Commonwealth Laws (Chapter 44: Section 55C. Municipal Affordable Housing Trust Fund)
. Adapting the existing statute to meet the specific needs of Hingham

Laura Burns distributed a draft of the Warrant Article containing the potential wording for the "Trust".  Everyone was asked to provide comments back to Laura.  The concept was positively received by the Advisory Committee.  There was discussion about proposed allocation approach and pros/cons of lack of specificity.  Some members expressed a desire to retain more control for future town meetings, in particular for larger projects. 

Bill Reardon and Amy Farrell presented an overview of potential Community Preservation Committee (CPC) projects that Town Meeting may be asked to vote upon.   Bill reviewed the changes to personnel on the CPC.

The projects under discussion by the CPC fall in the following categories:

. Five (5) are Historic Preservation projects
. Ten (10) are Open Space
. Two (2) are Community Housing

Bill and Amy provided background on each of the projects under consideration.

The CPC is continuing its due diligence on each project and will be coming forth with final its recommendations.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:03PM.

Town of Hingham F2008 Budgets

Attachment A