Advisory Committee: Meeting Minutes

Advisory Committee
Meeting Minutes

March 25, 2010 Meeting Minutes

Hingham Town Hall
Present: Committee Members Manning, Asher, Eldredge, Friedman, Johnson, Lauter, MacCune, Marwill, Mooradian, O’Meara
____________________________________________________________________

1. Call to order

Vice Chair Jack Manning called the Advisory Committee meeting to order at 7:06 PM.

2. Approval of Minutes for March 22nd

The Committee reviewed and unanimously approved the minutes for March 22nd 2010.

3. Re-consider Miscellaneous Budget Items

In response to the provision of amplifying information from Town Finance Director/Accountant Ted Alexiades and Town Administrator Kevin Paicos—as well as the Board of Selectmen’s vote in favor of the budget adjustments—the Committee voted to re-open the FY11 Article 6 budget for re-consideration of the budget adjustments recommended in the Accounting Department memo dated March 22nd.

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 budget for two part-time technicians

With assistance from Selectman Bruce Rabuffo, several issues raised during the Committee’s previous discussion of March 22nd were clarified:

At the request of the Board of Selectmen, Ted and Kevin had reviewed the FY11 budgets of all departments in preparing the March 22nd memo
The Capital Outlay Committee’s move of the server virtualization project back to FY11 from FY12 at its February 25th meeting was the relatively late-breaking impetus for restoration of System Analyst funding
Reduction of the Assessor’s budget for consulting services is predicated on a 20% increase over the previous contract’s cost, with the understanding that a Reserve Fund Transfer would be requested were the award to exceed the $25,000 budgeted
The $19,000 increase in the Library budget is to replace the amount previously sourced from the Trustees’ account

The Committee voted unanimously to approve the requested budget adjustments for a net total increase of $25,159.
However, Committee members requested that—in future—a list of budget cuts be maintained so that if additional funds are subsequently identified, the budget-adjustment process can be streamlined. Earlier identification of proposed budget adjustments as well as attendance of a knowledgeable individual to answer questions would also facilitate the process.
The Committee voted unanimously to decrease the Contributory Group Insurance budget by an amount equivalent to the Municipal budget increase, $25,159.

4. General Business

Karen Johnson requested that any questions or issues regarding the proposed Fort Hill Street acquisition by Father Bills Mainspring be forwarded to her.
The Committee will next meet at 7:00 PM on Tuesday, April 13th.

5. Adjourn

The meeting was adjourned at 7:48 PM.

Respectfully submitted,
Jonathan R. Asher, Secretary

Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes

Advisory Committee
Meeting Minutes