MEETING: A meeting was held on Thursday, February 27, 2014 at 7:30 PM Town Hall Office Building, 50 Billerica Road, Chelmsford

Transcription

1 CHELMSFORD FINANCE COMMITTEE MINUTES February 27, 2014 MEETING: A meeting was held on Thursday, February 27, 2014 at 7:30 PM Town Hall Office Building, 50 Billerica Road, Chelmsford PRESENT: ABSENT: T. Gilroy, R. Treible, P. Kimera, S. Bonakdar, S. Dukakis and C. Jeannotte S. Pichette ALSO PRESENT: P. Cohen, G. Persichetti, K. Canavan, N. Parlee HANDOUTS: The meeting was called to order at 7:32 PM. FY2015 Budget: Public Facilities: S. Dukakis asked if K. Canavan could explain what the Public Facilities Department did. K. Canavan replied that the role of Public Facilities was to oversee the operation and maintenance of the 30 buildings in town. She explained that the Facilities Department had a group of 11 union personnel and one administrative assistant. She stated that she oversaw the contractors as well as the energy services management contract. C. Jeannotte asked if K. Canavan could tell the Finance Committee a little bit about herself. K. Canavan replied that she has a background in architecture working in the private sector. She stated that she started this position in May of T. Gilroy asked what buildings K. Canavan oversaw. She replied that she oversaw all of the town buildings including the schools, library, police, fire, town offices and the town halls. S. Dukakis asked if she knew what the total square footage of all of the buildings was. She replied that it was about 1 million square feet. K. Canavan reported that the total personnel line item was increasing by $25,646 which was a 3.58% increase. She explained that much of this was from contractual salary increased as well as longevity and wellness. She stated that they had also added 17.5 hours for a playground coordinator. She explained that they had increased the hours of the recycling coordinator to be a full-time position split between recycling and playgrounds. She explained that he already had benefits in his role as the recycling coordinator so they brought his hours to full time by adding the second part-time position. C. Jeannotte asked what the job of the playground coordinator entailed. K. Canavan replied that the position would oversee the inspection and safety of the playgrounds and recreational areas. She added that this included the school playgrounds as well as recreational areas such as Varney Park and Robert s Field. T. Gilroy asked if the position

2 CHELMSFORD FINANCE COMMITTEE MINUTES 2/27/2014 Page 2 would also be responsible for the repair of equipment. K. Canavan replied in the affirmative. She added that N. Parlee had taken a course over the winter in preparation for this role. K. Canavan pointed out that since he was on the facilities staff she would be able to coordinate the work with the rest of the staff. K. Canavan reported that much of the expense budget for Public Facilities was remaining the same. She pointed out that the gasoline line item was increasing by $2,750 to $34,000 which was an increase of 8.8%. She added that the Dues and Subscriptions line item was increasing by $2,175 to $3,400 which was an increase of 177.6%. She explained that this was due to a greater demand for professional development. K. Canavan pointed out that the largest increase in expenses was the new line item of playground maintenance budgeted at $20,000. She explained that this was to support the new position; however, she noted that there would still be fundraising efforts and volunteers working at the playgrounds and fields. T. Gilroy commented that the South Row School did a great job raising money after the fire. G. Persichetti agreed noting that the DPW had helped with a lot with the South Row School playground. C. Jeannotte commented that not a lot of town money has gone to the playgrounds. K. Canavan replied that she would have a better sense of funding for playground maintenance after this year. K. Canavan reported that the total increase in the Facilities budget was $50,571 which was a 4.01% increase. G. Persichetti stated that the prior Facilities Manager, D. Callahan had been a HVAC mechanic and he had done a wonderful job, however, G. Persichetti noted that he wasn t into the political end of things and meetings and decided to go back to working in the trade. He explained that K. Canavan replaced D. Callahan in his old position as Facilities Manager. DPW/Solid Waste: G. Persichetti reported that personnel services under Town Engineer were increasing by $45,703 to $388,718. He indicated that much of this increase was due to the addition of an assistant town engineer. He explained that a clerical position (Clerk II) had left and they chose not to replace this position, but rather to redirect the funds to use to fund an assistant town engineer. He stated that ½ of the assistant engineer would be funded from the engineer budget. G. Persichetti stated that there were increasing demands on engineering coming from federal and state guidelines such as the town being responsible for catch basin cleaning, water quality and oil and water separators. He added that they were also working on inputting everything into the GIS system which was used by many. T. Gilroy asked if G. Persichetti could briefly explain for the audience what the GIS system did. G. Persichetti explained that it was a mapping system with all the layers which allowed you to see what is going on at a particular site. C. Jeannotte asked where the funding for the other ½ of the assistant town engineer was coming from. G. Persichetti replied that the other half would be funded by the Sewer Enterprise. S. Dukakis asked what the cost differential was between the clerical position which they didn t replace and the assistant engineer. G. Persichetti replied that the clerical position had been $40,600 and the assistant engineer was $64,800 so the additional cost was about $23,000. C. Jeannotte commented that when the budget had been presented the understanding was that there were no increases in FTE. She noted that even though they didn t replace the clerical position this was an addition of a different level of personnel. G. Persichetti replied that he tried to be as cost-effective as he could be in all areas and they made an early decision not to replace the clerical position. S. Dukakis asked how long the clerical person that they replaced had been in the position. G. Persichetti

3 CHELMSFORD FINANCE COMMITTEE MINUTES 2/27/2014 Page 3 replied that she had been there about 7 years and he reiterated that she had left on her own. P. Cohen stated that Chelmsford worked as part of a collaborative with 9 communities and he noted that they were able to see the federal guidelines that came out for New Hampshire and they were not trivial. He imagined the guidelines for Massachusetts would be similar. T. Gilroy asked if there would be the need for additional personnel with the addition of the new federal regulations, noting that most mandates did not come with funding. G. Persichetti replied that he would first see how much they could handle. P. Cohen added that some mandates could also add significant costs. He gave an example of one requirement where roads must be swept four times per year if sand is used for snow. He added that another requirement was the testing of storm water outflows. P. Cohen stated that the regulations could become a significant issue for municipalities to address. S. Dukakis asked how the DPW was doing with the pot holes in town. G. Persichetti replied that this has been a harsh winter in that usually they had time between storms to allow the holes to dry out before filling. He explained that this year they were having a battle because there wasn t time between storms and without that time to dry the patching doesn t hold. He noted that he had 2 crews out working on it. T. Gilroy asked how the snow & ice budget was doing overall. G. Persichetti replied that the snow and ice budget would go over budget. He noted that compared to other DPW s he has been in contact with Chelmsford is tracking very well as some municipalities had already gone over budget. T. Gilroy complimented the DPW for the work they had done with snow & ice this year. G. Persichetti reported that there were no changes to the Public Trees Division with the budget remaining at $67,000. C. Jeannotte asked how these funds were used. G. Persichetti replied that they did tree trimming, were taking a tree inventory and have a replacement policy of planting one tree for every tree removed. P. Cohen commented that Chelmsford had preliminary approval of the designation of being a tree city. C. Jeannotte commented that for a long time there was no management of public trees, so she was glad to see the tree funding being used. G. Persichetti reported that the Street Lighting Division was decreasing from $200,000 to $102,000. He explained that a 6 year loan for the current lighting had been paid off and with the new LED s that they had installed there was about a $1,000 per month savings. N. Parlee reported that the total waste collection budget was increasing by $93,591. He explained that there was an increase of $1,046 in personnel services while under expenses there was an increase of $141,198 for the waste contract as well as nominal increases of a $200 increase in telephone and a $100 increase in offices supplies. He reported that line items that were decreasing were waste disposal (-$45,953), waste bins/containers (-$1,500) and newspaper advertisements (-$1,500). N. Parlee reported that Chelmsford was in the last year of their trash contract. He explained that there was a decrease in the waste disposal line item because the 3 year contract was extended for an additional 2 years at a reduced tipping fee. He explained that the tipping fee would go from $74 to $71 per ton. N. Parlee reported that Chelmsford would be switching recycling vendors from IPR to Waste Management at the end of the 3 year contract. He explained that they had not been happy with

4 CHELMSFORD FINANCE COMMITTEE MINUTES 2/27/2014 Page 4 the service provided by IPR. He noted that the contract with Waste Management for recycling would be a 2 year contract which would be somewhat of a trial period. S. Bonakdar asked where the revenue went from the overflow bags. G. Persichetti replied that it went into the general fund. He reported that in FY2013 the revenue from the bags was $14,770 and in FY2014 thus far it was $12,800. S. Bonakdar asked if there had been any cost savings from the reduction in barrels. N. Parlee replied that there had been significant impact from the reduction to 2 barrels and going to single stream recycling. He explained that in 2011 trash was over 1,000 tons per week and now it was in the low 900 s. He noted that even though trash amounts had started creeping back up with the improving economy Chelmsford was still staying under 1,000 tons. G. Persichetti reported that the total Highway Division budget was increasing by $101,055 with an increase of $40,505 in personnel services and $69,550 in expenses. G. Persichetti pointed out that $20,000 of the increase in expenses was in the vehicle maintenance line item. He added that other increases were $24,800 in diesel fuel and another $8,750 in gasoline. He noted that he had taken the current billing for gasoline and diesel and extrapolated it out for the amounts in the budget. T. Gilroy asked how many vehicles were in the fleet and what the average age and expected life was on the vehicles. G. Persichetti replied that the average age was 8 to 10 years. He said that he did not know the total, but could get the number if needed. T. Gilroy asked if there would be potential replacements going forward. G. Persichetti replied that he was removing 2 vehicles and replacing them with 1 vehicle. He explained that the sander truck sits all summer which he does not think is a good thing, so he thought that it made more sense to have a sander that could operate as a work truck off-season. T. Gilroy asked what percentage of snow removal was done by the town versus contractors. G. Persichetti replied that it was a 60/40 split with the town doing 60% of the plowing and contractors doing the other 40%. He commented that at the Alpha Road facility they had the luxury of parking these vehicles indoors which would extend their life. G. Persichetti reported that there were no changes to the Snow & Ice budget. C. Jeannotte asked if G. Persichetti was comfortable leaving the budget at that level. G. Persichetti replied that he was. He added that it was an unusual year. C. Jeannotte added that the budget could not be decreased. P. Cohen agreed that you could expend over the snow & ice budget, but could not decrease it. He added that it was based on a 5 year average and 3 of the 5 years had gone over budget. G. Persichetti reported that the Parks Division budget was decreasing by $21,599. He stated that there was a slight increase in personnel services of $1,251 and a decrease in expenses of $22,850. He explained that the decrease was mostly from $18,000 in outlay for a mower that was removed from the budget. He noted that electricity and gasoline had been removed from this budget due to the shut down of the old location. G. Persichetti reported that the increase for the Public Buildings was $2,465. He stated that there were decreases in electricity, vehicle maintenance, telephone and outlay while building maintenance, custodial supplies and copier expense increased. He stated that building maintenance for the two town halls was increasing by $20,000. He noted that now that they

5 CHELMSFORD FINANCE COMMITTEE MINUTES 2/27/2014 Page 5 were re-opened and in use there were inspections and repairs to be done for things like elevators and fire and sprinkler systems. G. Persichetti reported that the total Sewer Enterprise budget was increasing by $70,978 with a $2,741 increase in personnel services. He pointed out that there was the addition of ½ of the assistant town engineer, but they had also moved the safety and plumbing inspector to a contracted position since the sewer construction was completed and the number of inspections left in order to connect to the sewer was small. G. Persichetti reported that electricity was decreasing by $63,000 and gas heat was decreasing by $8,800 due to the move to the new location. He stated that equipment repair was increasing by $30,000. He added that they had a program to deep clean wet wells to extend the life of the pump. S. Dukakis asked if employees were used for repairs or contractors. G. Persichetti replied that it was a combination of both. He added that there could also the need for police details when there was a break in the system. T. Gilroy asked if there was any pattern with the breaks they have seen. G. Persichetti replied that most of the issues have been with the section which is now 20 years old. G. Persichetti reported that the user fee for Lowell had increased by $71,539 to $1,502,334. C. Jeannotte asked if there wasn t an issue with instability in Lowell s billing practices. G. Persichetti replied that there was, but it was a little better than it had been. P. Cohen added that they had tried to straighten things out when they entered into a septic sharing contract with Lowell. G. Persichetti added that Chelmsford was in the second year of a 20 year agreement with Lowell. G. Persichetti pointed out that OPEB liability had been budgeted for $49,387 which he indicated was 100% of annual OPEB liability for the Sewer Enterprise. C. Jeannotte asked how many employees were in the Sewer Enterprise. G. Persichetti replied that there were 14 FTE s in the Sewer Enterprise. C. Jeannotte asked if that was the same FTE as the prior year. G. Persichetti replied that it was. S. Bonakdar asked why the decision was made to put OPEB liability into this budget. P. Cohen replied that it was because it was an enterprise fund and they could cover 100% of the liability for these 14 specific employees. P. Cohen noted that this is the first year he has included OPEB in the budget. T. Gilroy pointed out the $40,000 increase under contract services and asked what this covered. G. Persichetti replied that contracted services included the maintenance of the pumps and generators at pumping stations. He added that a couple of pumps needed to be rebuilt. C. Jeannotte asked if the $400,000 outlay was enough to maintain what they needed. G. Persichetti replied that it was. He stated that they needed to replace 2 generators and a controller at Progress Ave. and also needed to continue with the SCADA system. C. Jeannotte asked what the debt service was from which started in FY2012. P. Cohen replied that it was from $1.2 million for the Sewer Enterprise portion of getting into Alpha Road. He added that there was probably another 18 years left on the debt service. G. Persichetti added that they shouldn t be adding to it unless Lowell had a huge capital project for which Chelmsford

6 CHELMSFORD FINANCE COMMITTEE MINUTES 2/27/2014 Page 6 would need to carry a percentage of the burden. C. Jeannotte asked what the indirect expenses administrative/other charges included. P. Cohen replied that this covered a portion of the salaries for a number of people involved with the Sewer Enterprise such as P. Cohen, J. Sousa, G. Persichetti and a clerical position. C. Jeannotte asked what the cost was to build a pump station. G. Persichetti replied that they were looking into this now as they needed one on Mill Road as it wasn t sufficient for the planned development. He stated that it would cost about $550,000. S. Bonakdar asked what the net impact would be to the residents from the FY2015 sewer budget. G. Persichetti replied that it would be an average increase of $15 per house. He added that there was a 5% increase in user fees this year; noting that last year the increase had been 2%. T. Gilroy asked who would monitor the savings from the energy management project. G. Persichetti replied that Johnson Controls did. He added that it was an 18 month project and at the completion they needed to meet the numbers or they would have to write the town a check. G. Persichetti noted that he knew of two instances where they had not met the required savings and they either came back in to see what else could be done for additional savings or they wrote the town a check. G. Persichetti added that the DOER oversaw these types of projects, but both he and K. Canavan would also be watchdogs of the savings. Other Business: S. Dukakis announced that he would be meeting with the school superintendent tomorrow at 2:00 PM. He stated that all Finance Committee members were welcomed to attend if they would like. R. Treible asked what the purpose was to having the Nashoba budget be its own warrant article. P. Cohen replied that the Board of Selectmen had been scheduled to sign the warrant on Monday night, but they didn t because the suggestion had been made to have the Nashoba budget segregated as its own stand-alone article. He suggested that the purpose of this was to draw attention to the Nashoba budget. P. Cohen noted that he did not agree with the suggestion because the operating budget was the operating budget for the town. He added that the comment had also been made that the Nashoba superintendent did not attend all Town Meeting nights in the past and this would allow the Nashoba budget to be passed over until she and/or other Nashoba representatives were present. S. Dukakis stated that he did not agree with P. Cohen. He noted that Nashoba was like a town and it made sense for them to have a separate assessment or budget. He added that people should be able to ask questions regarding their budget. R. Treible asked if they couldn t ask questions anyway even with Nashoba part of the town operating budget. C. Jeannotte stated that S. Pichette wanted to put this topic on the agenda next week. S. Bonakdar asked if Chelmsford didn t have to pay the assessment anyway. S. Dukakis replied that a majority of the district towns needed to approve their budget. P. Cohen commented that there was no difference on what discussion could take place depending on where the budget was. He added that in his opinion the Nashoba budget should be part of the operating

7 CHELMSFORD FINANCE COMMITTEE MINUTES 2/27/2014 Page 7 budget and should be considered as part of that totality. He noted that other assessments such as NMCOG were part of the operating budget. C. Jeannotte questioned if P. Cohen would be bringing a deficit budget to Town Meeting or if it would be a balanced budget by then. P. Cohen replied that there was a logistics problem in that he did not have all of the numbers yet and the book needed to be printed before he would have all of the figures. He stated that he was fine-tuning the budget as he had numbers noting that he should have the health insurance number sometime in March. He noted that he was confident that the budget was just about there and the numbers would not be less than what was presented in the Governor s budget. C. Jeannotte suggested a more efficient process for sending out department budgets that would insure that everyone was looking at the same document and that what was being presented was the same as what the Finance Committee had. P. Kimera reported that he had forwarded an to the Finance Committee members from D. Siriani, Director of the Council on Aging, regarding her response to the justification of the second van. Approval of Meeting Minutes: January 15, 2014: P. Kimera made a motion to accept the minutes of January 15, 2014 as written. R. Treible seconded the motion. All voted in favor. The minutes were approved as written. January 23, 2014: Corrections were made to the minutes of January 23, P. Kimera made a motion to accept the minutes of January 23, 2014 as amended. R. Treible seconded the motion. P. Kimera, S. Bonakdar, C. Jeannotte, R. Treible and S. Dukakis voted in favor. T. Gilroy abstained as he was not present at the meeting. The minutes were approved as amended. January 30, 2014: P. Kimera made a motion to accept the minutes of January 30, 2014 as written. S. Dukakis seconded the motion. P. Kimera, C. Jeannotte and S. Dukakis voted in favor. T. Gilroy, S. Bonakdar, R. Treible abstained as they were not present at the meeting. The minutes were approved as written. Next Meetings: Finance Committee Meeting Thursday, 3/6/2014 7:30 PM, Town Hall Office Building, Room 205 Finance Committee Meeting Thursday, 3/13/2014 7:30 PM, Town Hall Office Building, Room 205

8 CHELMSFORD FINANCE COMMITTEE MINUTES 2/27/2014 Page 8 R. Treible made a motion to adjourn. S. Bonakdar seconded the motion. All voted in favor. The meeting adjourned at 9:02 PM. Respectfully submitted Pamela A. Morrison