Finance Committee Meeting
Minutes – February 25, 2008
Town Hall, Lower Level Hearing Room – 7:30 P.M.
Members Present: Joel Alpert, Maria Anderson, Brian Fitzgerald, Gordon Gladstone,
Charles Goodman, Jonathan Hitter, Josh Kiernan, Gregory Sydney
(Hamilton)
Absent: Joel Lessard, Ira Miller, Laura Nelson, Edward Philips
1. Joel Alpert chaired the meeting in Ira Miller’s absence. The agenda for the evening was the review of the Town Clerk’s budget, the School Department’s budget, and Paul Lauenstein speaking on Inclusionary Housing.
2. The first item on the agenda was the Town Clerk’s budget being presented by Marlene Chused, Town Clerk.
3. Marlene Chused stated that the level funded plus contractual budget would be needed in order to maintain everything in the Town Clerk’s office. Revenue generated by Town Clerk as of December 31, 2007, was $85,665. Up almost $15,000 from 2006. A lot of the revenue was from passports. The State Department has new fees. There was an increase by $5 and a decrease to the agency by $5. We will be collecting $25 for each application instead of $30. We’ll still be generating substantial revenue. Late fees are down for dog licenses. If anyone does any permitting, they have to file with the Clerk’s office. Postage is going up as of May 12.
4. There was considerable discussion held regarding increased revenue, Elections & Registration and how much time is spent on elections and if part of the Clerk’s salary can come from Elections & Registration. There was also discussion that a 2.5% plus contractual obligations would not meet statutory requirements. A suggestion was made to present revenue by fiscal year instead of calendar year.
5. The next item on the agenda was the School Department budget.
6. Making the presentation was Dr. Barbara Dunham, Acting Superintendent, and Sam Liao, School Committee Chair.
7. A brief overview of the educational reasons for the budget was presented. Level service budget. 4.5% over the three years, ’08, ’09, ’10. Health insurance plan changes. Great strides on the school side except the MTA. 80/20/10, higher co-pay, and new hires are 70/30/10. Enrollment projection. FY’10 decreasing and would decrease staff in the schools.
8. There was some discussion regarding the middle school with a suggestion to build a new high school on the land by the lake and transfer the middle school to the current high school.
9. Barbara Dunham responded that there are many current needs such as early childhood program location and the administrative building is old and possibly not safe, and with decreasing enrollment, a new high school may be far in the future.
10. Much discussion was held on the budget items especially the salaries of teachers, revolving funds, health insurance costs, kindergarten tuition and program.
11. There was much discussion regarding Special Education costs, out of district costs have gone down, in house programs which are more cost effective, and use of CHARMS Collaborative.
12. There was some discussion regarding a School Resource Officer for both the high school and middle school. The Police Department needed a three year commitment to add this position and the School Department didn’t have the funds for that long a time.
13. Barbara Dunham commented that the No Child Left Behind is a huge unfunded mandate and other expensive items that may come up are the all day kindergarten and the extended day.
14. The next item on the agenda was Paul Lauenstein discussing Inclusionary Housing.
15. Paul Lauenstein responded to ten comments by the Finance Committee regarding Inclusionary Housing. After this response, he suggested three changes to the Inclusionary Housing article proposed last fall: (1) Disallow off-site units. Affordable units must be integrated. (2) Increase exemption from five units to nine units (i.e. only developments of 10 units or more would be subject to Inclusionary Housing. (3) Exempt Sharon Hills to honor the development agreement.
16. There was some discussion regarding Sharon Hills and what would happen if the project wasn’t completed in time.
17. Chuck Goodman reported on an article from the February 17, “Boston Globe”, that clarified the 40B law. He stated that within 130 days seven decisions on 40B laws would be made by the State Supreme Judicial Court. 15 bills to amend or tweak the statute. Counting the number of affordable units. Brickstone could be considered affordable. This is all up in the air now. I would be putting a hold on doing anything. I wouldn’t be putting anything on 40B until you get 51 towns out of 351 that are in the 10%. Hold off until the fall. They may change the laws on 40B.
18. There was some discussion on this article.
19. The next meeting will be March 3.
20. It was MOVED and SECONDED to adjourn.
21. VOTED: 8-0-0.
22. The meeting was adjourned at 10:10 p.m.