Back to Advisory Committee Minutes
March 2, 2010 Meeting Minutes
Hingham Town Hall
Present: Committee Members Seelen, Manning, Asher, Dwyer, Eldredge, Farrell, Friedman, Innis, Johnson, Lauter, MacCune, Marwill, Mooradian
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1. Call to order
Chair Jerry Seelen called the Advisory Committee meeting to order at 7:08 PM.
2. Approval of Minutes for February 24th and 25th
The Committee reviewed and unanimously approved the minutes for February 24th and February 25th 2010.
3. Stimulus Money and Tax Rate Discussion
At the request of the Chair, Town Auditor Michael Nelligan and Town Counsel Jim Toomey appeared before the Committee to render opinions on what constraints, if any, exist regarding use of the $965K American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 2009 (ARRA) stimulus fund grant the Town expects to receive this spring.
Michael Nelligan stated that ARRA funds:
• must be spent on education-related activities
o cannot be put aside for a ‘rainy day’
• should be spent in accordance with the associated grant application
• can be used in 2010 and 2011
• cannot be earmarked specifically for tax-relief but the effect of the grant could free up general funds to be used for tax-relief
In response to questions regarding possible ‘linkage’ of ARRA funds to tax-relief by virtue of the March 25th 2009 Stimulus Money Statement co-signed by the Board of Selectmen, School Committee, and Advisory Committee, Town Counsel Jim Toomey observed that he did not see a problem provided that the School Department/Committee expended any grant funds received within the scope of the grant request authorized by the State Department of Education.
The Chair summarized that, on the advice of Messrs. Nelligan and Toomey, the intent of the March 25th 2009 Stimulus Money Statement could be honored if the Town chose to do so.
4. Budget Hearing – Capital Outlay Recommendation
Capital Outlay Committee (COC) Chair Ray Eisenbies presented the FY11 Five-Year Capital Plan.
Of ~$3.3M in capital requests, the COC recommended for FY11:
• $1,080,325 of capital expenditures funded from the Tax Levy
• $236,000 of capital expenditures funded from User Rates/Charges
o The departments funded in this manner are Recreation, the Sewer Commission, and the South Shore Country Club
• $1,316,325 of total capital projects
• $200,000 be added to the Reserve Fund to offset possible ‘capital emergencies,’ given the magnitude of requests which were not endorsed
The Committee requested that the COC work with the School Committee to ensure that the School’s FY12-FY15 capital plan reflects intended expenditures during the plan time-horizon. COC’s minutes of February 16th document its intent to effect this clarification.
The Committee unanimously voted an FY11 budget of $1,316,325 for total capital projects.
5. Vote all Municipal Budgets
The Committee voted all FY11 Warrant Article #6 budgets except Education as follows:
• $20,251,885 for all Municipal departments excluding the user-funded Sewer Commission and South Shore Country Club
o A 2% reduction from FY10 with a level-funded Reserve Fund
o A 1.4% reduction from FY10 with a capital emergency-supplemented Reserve Fund
o Dennis Friedman asked to be recorded as voting ‘Nay’ on the Library budget
o Amy Farrell recused herself from the Library budget vote
o Greg MacCune recused himself from the Recreation Commission budget vote
• $43,833,507 for all budgets except Education
o A 1.6% increase due to a $1.3M increase in Employee Benefits
In response to the concern that the Committee’s votes would basically determine the Education budget, the Chair noted that several decisions must yet be made which would influence the Education budget, including:
• the magnitude of the Town’s Fund Balance contribution
• the use to which ARRA stimulus grant funds will be put
• whether and/or how to address the March 25th 2009 Stimulus Money Statement
• the fact that voted budgets could be re-voted, if necessary
School Department/Committee members also expressed concerns about voting their budget prior to Board of Selectmen and Advisory Committee votes on the decisions yet to be made. The suggestion was made that the School Committee vote could be postponed, but, regardless, they were encouraged to vote a budget which took into account the magnitude of budget cuts to the Municipal departments. Differences, if any, among the Board of Selectmen, School Committee, and Advisory Committee Education budgets could be reconciled prior to Town Meeting.
The Committee requested that, for FY12, the Police Department should benchmark similar towns regarding staffing levels and job evaluations to update a now-dated study. Town Finance Director commented that it was his understanding all the Town departments would be asked to benchmark as part of the FY12 budget process.
6. Warrant Articles
The following proposed Warrant articles were reviewed and voted.
# Proposed Article Committee Vote
9 DCR Liability Affirmative – Unanimous
12 Reserve Fund No Action
16 By-Law re: Capital Outlay Committee Affirmative – Unanimous
66 Treasurer/Collector Demand Fees Affirmative – Unanimous
7. General Business
The Committee will next meet at 8:00 PM on March 3rd.
8. Adjourn
The meeting was adjourned at 10:26 PM.
Respectfully submitted, Jonathan R. Asher, Secretary