Back to Advisory Committee Minutes
March 22, 2010 Meeting Minutes
Hingham Town Hall
Present: Committee Members Seelen, Manning, Asher, Dwyer, Eldredge, Ellison, 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 7:01 PM.
2. Approval of Minutes for March 18th
The Committee reviewed and unanimously approved the minutes for March 18th 2010.
3. Warrant Articles
The following proposed Warrant articles were reviewed and voted.
# Proposed Article Committee Vote
37 HAHT Allocation Plan Affirmative – Unanimous
Representatives of the HAHT declared their intent to review and revise its By-Law to ensure consistency with the functioning of any upcoming fiscal-year’s Allocation Plan.
31 Special Legislation – Industrial/Office Park Area Sewer District Connection Affirmative – Unanimous
32
Industrial/Office Park Sewer District Affirmative – Unanimous
57 Meals Tax Affirmative, as amended
Laura Marwill asked to be recorded as voting ‘Nay’
35 Cable TV Public Access Fees No Action – Unanimous
36 To Reduce Cable TV Costs Affirmative,
Karen Johnson and Dennis Friedman asked to be recorded as voting ‘Nay’
The previously-voted Warrant articles were re-opened, amended, and re-voted affirmatively.
• Audit Committee
• Salaries of Town Officers
4. Reserve Fund Transfer
The Public Safety Utilities department requested $29,178 be transferred to the Emergency Water account to reflect an Aquarion rate increase—delivered after the FY10 budget had been voted.
The Committee voted unanimously to approve the request.
5. Re-consider Miscellaneous Budget Items
The Committee reviewed a memorandum, dated March 22nd, from Town Finance Director Ted Alexiades to the Town Administrator, the Board of Selectmen, and the Advisory Committee, recommending five amendments to the FY11 proposed budget.
The net budget increase—if all five amendments were approved as recommended—would be $25,159, funded from the $60,000 made available through School Department assumption of FY11 fringe-benefit budget costs for Kids-In-Action employees.
The previously-voted FY11 Contributory Group Insurance budget of $6,779,621 would be reduced by $60,000.
Department Amount Purpose
Board of Selectmen $5,000 Cost of two interns
Town Accountant $15,787 10 hours/week System Analyst funding
Assessors -$25,000 Reduction of consulting services cost for commercial property revaluations
Department of Elder Services $10,372 Restoration of budget cut funded by gift account
Library $19,000 Restoration of funding for Sunday hours
After much discussion, and a friendly amendment to change the Library amount to $14,930, a motion to vote all the recommendations as a block was unanimously defeated.
A subsequent motion to vote only a Library addition of $14,930, for the restoration of two part-time technicians, was defeated by one vote.
A final motion to vote the Town Accountant addition of $15,787 failed for lack of a second.
6. General Business
The Chair requested that any members who have been recorded as voting the minority position on a budget or Warrant article inform him and Tom O’Donnell if they intend to speak at Town Meeting.
The Committee will next meet at 7:00 PM on Thursday, March 25th.
7. Adjourn
The meeting was adjourned at 10:38 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Jonathan R. Asher, Secretary