A meeting convened at 7:31 PM in Town Hall.
Members in attendance: Bothwick, Carr, Croft, Herbster, Kenney, Martin, Putnam and Smith
Members absent: Swanson
Others present: Town Accountant, Town Administrator, BOS, Chair
Mr. Bothwick presided.
OPERATING BUDGETS
Assessors – The Assessor and a member of the Board of Assessors joined the meeting. The largest item is a new line for GIS (Geographic Information System). $3,000 is the annual cost which provides daily and weekly backup and monthly reports. $4,000 is for annual parcel updates, and $7,500 for an aerial photo, which was last done in 2005. If we purchase permit tracking software the Town can realize a potential cost savings. The question was raised whether the revaluation costs can be split over three years.
Treasurer/Collector and Debt – The Treasurer/Collector joined the meeting. Moody’s provides the Town’s bond rating, and we have not borrowed in several years. Referencing the current borrowing spreadsheet, the T/C will provide the interest rates to the Committee. In answer to whether to put all collections in this office, the Town Administrator responded that it will require adjusting department infrastructure first.
It was announced at the MA Municipal Annual Meeting that health insurance will increase 5% rather than the expected 12%. This decrease does not include experience, and the savings is offset by the proposed four new positions that are not included in the F’ 2009 budget requests. There is potential savings of $45,000 in changing the Medex level. The FinCom urges the Town Administrator to consider any savings in offering employees an incentive to participate in the spouse insurance plan. An addition that needs to be included in the retirement provision is to not allow an employee to opt in to Town insurance upon retirement if they were not on the plan while employed.
CPA – Mr. Bothwick reported from the CPC Chairman that they received five applications, all from the Town. They will meet on January 23 to finalize their votes, and then provide the FinCom with their decision.
CAPTIAL ITEMS – Mr. Bothwick recommended that the Committee and the BOS move their discussion of capital items up earlier than scheduled. There are known items that are not included in the list. The Town Administrator shared that the DPW Director has some suggested plans to relieve the cost of several capital items.
There was discussion about fixing the salt water infiltration first, since the Town has plenty of data from prior studies, although it may not identify specific locations. The Town Accountant will report back how much money has been spent in the last decade on Inflow & Infiltration.
BUDGET OVERVIEW – It has been the practice to use Free Cash from prior years to fund the next year’s budget. It is suggested to look at spreading out overrides in the future. The Town Accountant is in favor of continuing to use Free Cash for capital items.
It is a goal of the FinCom to communicate with the taxpayers the possibilities of overrides and debt and capital exclusion.
MINUTES – The minutes of 1/8/08 were unanimously adopted as written.
The meeting adjourned at 9:06 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Judith Sabella, Clerk
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