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Advisory Committee
February 17, 2009 Meeting Minutes

Hingham Town Hall
Present:  Committee Members Lauter, Seelen, Asher, Dwyer, Eldredge, Farrell, Friedman, Innis, Johnson, MacCune, Manning, Marwill, Mooradian, O’Meara
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• Call to order

Chair Irma Lauter called the Advisory Committee meeting to order at 7:07 PM.

• Approval of minutes for February 12, 2009

The Committee reviewed and approved minutes as amended from the meeting on February 12, 2009.

• FY 2010 Budget Presentation

The following departments each presented their budget options and votes were taken as noted.  

• Treasurer/Collector.  Jean Montgomery

Jean indicated that in order to meet the Finance-Recommended budget, the staff was willing to take reduced hours and/or comp time.
The Committee queried the status of Town guidelines for compensatory time and recommended that the intended review of comp-time policy by the new Town Administrator include a discussion with the Personnel Board.
The Committee voted to approve an FY10 operating budget of $325,498.

• Elder Services.  Barbara Farnsworth, Director of Elder Affairs 

Barbara informed the Committee that the department serves about 30% of the ~5,000 Town residents who are age 60 or older.
The department receives ~$22,000 annually in donations to its gift account; it projects ~$37,000 in FY10 expenditures from the gift account. 
Barbara acknowledged that the department may be forced to scale back future gift account expenditures to meet its Board of Director’s policy to maintain a minimum balance of $15,000.
The Committee requested that Barbara add to the department’s benchmarks a comparison of the number of vans utilized for elder services travel.
The Committee voted to approve an FY10 operating budget of $244,524.

•  Veterans Services.  Michael Cunningham, Veterans Agent 

Michael made the point that the veterans’ services portion of the budget ($184,000 for FY10) is reimbursed at 75% from the State.
Michael noted that the Veterans’ Council in Hingham also has a gift account.
The Committee voted to approve an FY10 operating budget of $237,845.

• Health Department.  Bruce Capman, Executive Health Officer 

Bruce indicated that the ~$1,500 budget cut would be achieved by reducing overtime, advertising, and immunizations for non-senior, healthy individuals.
The Committee voted to approve an FY10 operating budget of $298,576.

• DPW.  Randy Sylvester, Interim Superintendent 

Randy would achieve the Finance-Recommended budget through $99.5K in payroll reductions (unfilled vacant positions, reduced hours) and $96.8K in reduced mostly-outsourced services (sidewalk rebuilding, crack-sealing, pavement-marking, tree maintenance, etc.).
However, Randy proposed two additions to the Finance-Recommended operating budget totaling $60,000 which would enable a $295,000 reduction in the department’s FY10 requested capital budget.

• A $148K street-sweeper now in the FY10 capital budget would be deferred for one year if a $30K operating budget increase were approved to provide a trial year of outsourced street-sweeping.
• The $30K outsourced street-sweeping expense represents a $1,911 savings from current street-sweeping operation costs.
• A $147K catch-basin cleaner in the FY10 capital budget would be deferred for two years if a $25K operating budget increase were approved for repairs to extend existing vehicle life.

The Committee requested that Randy track the time DPW spends on maintenance of fields controlled variously by the Recreation Department, the Board of Selectmen, and the School Department to enable evaluation of possible future implementation of cost charge-backs.
Snow & Ice is currently $580K over its FY09 $250K budget.
No budget vote was taken.

• Landfill/Recycling.  Randy Sylvester, Asst. Superintendent                                                                                           

Randy would meet the Finance-Recommended budget by reducing the budgets for equipment repair, trash removal, site monitoring, and recycling.  He indicated that if trash-hauling fees exceed $100/ton, the budget would be at risk.
Were the department’s FY10 capital request for a $75,000 scale to be approved, new revenue could be obtained by increasing intake of commercial construction & demolition waste at a competitive markup above the trash-hauling fee.
Irma requested that Committee members examine the proposed DPW and Landfill budgets in greater detail and send any questions to Andy Mooradian and/or Mary Jane O’Meara. 
No budget vote was taken.

• Employee Benefits.  Ted Alexiades, Town Accountant
• Contributory Retirement.      $2,850,254
• Non-Contributory Pensions.  $14,897
• Worker’s Compensation.       $300,000
• Mandatory Medicare.            $559,020

     The Committee voted to approve these four FY10 Employee Benefits budgets.

• Unclassified.  Ted Alexiades, Town Accountant
• Insurance.                               $422,500
• Claims and Incidentals.                   $11,250

    The Committee voted to approve these two FY10 Unclassified budgets.

• Weights and Measures.                    $11,598
• Womansplace Crisis Center.           $2,500
• South Shore Women’s Center.        $3,500

    The Committee voted to approve these three FY10 budgets.

• Warrant Article Discussion and Vote

The Committee reviewed and approved the following proposed Warrant Articles:

• #2 – Plymouth County Cooperative Extension
• #8 – DCR Liability
• #9 – Building Department Revolving Fund
• #12 – Stabilization Fund
• #13 – Disbursement of Electric Light Department Receipts
• Adjourn

The meeting was adjourned at 11:05 PM.

Respectfully submitted,
Jonathan R. Asher, Secretary