Back to Advisory Committee Minutes
January 19, 2010 Meeting Minutes
Hingham Town Hall
Present: Committee Members Seelen, Manning, Asher, Dwyer, Eldredge, Ellison, Farrell, Friedman, Innis, Johnson, Lauter, MacCune, Marwill, Mooradian, O’Meara
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1. Call to order
Chair Jerry Seelen called the Advisory Committee meeting to order at 7:33 PM.
2. Approval of Minutes for January 12th
The Committee reviewed and unanimously approved the minutes for January 12th as amended.
3. Financial and Budget Update
• The Chair presented and solicited input regarding the outline of a draft presentation from the Advisory Committee at the upcoming Town Economic Summit on January 31st. A draft of the full presentation will be prepared for review and discussion at the Committee’s January 26th meeting.
There was some discussion of what the target percentage of Expenditures the General Fund Balance should be, given the continual erosion of the Fund Balance since 2002. The Chair indicated that the Town Financial Policy will be updated when a proper target percentage is decided after further deliberation.
• Finance Director Ted Alexiades opined that—given current building-permit activity—New Growth for FY12 may improve by $100K-$200Kover the current $928.2K forecast.
Ted will contact School Business Director David Killory for further information regarding the magnitude of School FY11 contractual step-increases (~$600K) in relation to projected School Salaries & Wages (~$27.9M). The resulting ratio of 2.1% is significantly higher than the Municipal ratio of 0.8% (~$123.1K of step-increases/$14.6M of Municipal Salaries & Wages).
Ted also mentioned that the increase in Contributory Retirement costs from FY11 to FY12 may be several $100K less than the ~$1.5M currently projected due to 2009 investment gains of ~18% which somewhat offset the impact of mandatory pension-obligation re-evaluation. In addition, the timeframe for fully funding the plan has been extended by two years. In spite of the 2009 gains, the Town’s pension fund will still have lost ~22% of its 2008 pre-crash value.
4. Budget Hearings
The Committee heard FY11 budget presentations from the following departments:
Department |
% Change from FY10 |
Comments |
Elder Services |
-.45% |
Committee recommendation: Establish a revolving account for donations used to offset the expense of periodic program offerings |
Womansplace / South Shore Women’s Center |
0% |
Consistent funding contributions since FY08 |
Treasurer/Collector |
-3.7% |
A 5% budget cut would necessitate closing the Treasurer/Collector office to the public on Fridays. |
Debt Service |
-5.18% |
|
Contributory Group Insurance |
+5.7% |
Discussion of funding a Benefits Coordinator position for FY11 through inclusion in the Contributory Group Insurance budget will be deferred until Town Administrator Kevin Paicos is present. |
Contributory/Non-Contributory Retirement |
+3.6% |
A more accurate projection of the FY11 Contributory Retirement cost will be available by the end of March 2010 |
Workers Compensation |
0% |
The Workers Compensation fund deficit was reduced by $47K to ~$115.4K during FY10. The Finance Director will evaluate an insured rate for FY11 to verify that self-insurance is still cost-effective |
Unemployment Compensation |
TBD |
Not yet calculated due to uncertainty regarding the extent of layoffs vs. retirements |
Employers’ Medicare |
TBD |
Not yet calculated pending determination of grant-funded-employee Medicare-cost charge-backs to affected departments |
General Insurance |
TBD |
Will re-bid policies again this year and anticipate a $20K-$30K savings |
Unclassified |
-35.5% |
Based on withdrawal from South Shore Coalition purchasing cooperative |
5. General Business
The Chair requested that liaisons do not put off to the last minute meeting with their respective department heads and reminded members of the need to complete their ethics training and verification paperwork.
6. Adjourn
The Committee meeting adjourned at 10:31 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Jonathan R. Asher, Secretary