Shutesbury Finance Committee
Minutes from 4/30/2003 meeting at Town Hall
APPROVED MINUTES
Present: Chair Eric Stocker, members Al Beswick, Nancy Beswick, Rita Farrell, and Steve Hasbrouck (recording minutes). Guests included Patrick Callahan, Ralph Armstrong, and Leslie Bracebridge.
We started the meeting at 7:05 PM.
We wanted to organize how we would address the budget issue at the Annual Town Meeting on Saturday, May 3, 2003. We have already decided to have a special town meeting on May 27th, at 7:00 PM, at the elementary school to vote on the budget. By then we should have a better idea what kind of money we are to receive from the Commonwealth. We should also have a clearer picture on what our assessment from the regional school might be. This Saturday we would just be having a discussion with the voters about the budget. Patrick expressed interest in having this discussion occur around 11:00 AM when he reckoned the most voters would be present. Eric had prepared a pretty good summary/explanation sheet about free cash, the FY04 budget’s expected shortfall, and the various consequences of using free cash and/or an override to pay for the shortfall. After some brainstorming we came up with some changes to the sheet we felt would help improve the presentation at the meeting.
We then looked over the warrant. There were four articles that pertained to spending issues. We decided to NOT vote on any spending articles at the Saturday Town Meeting. We reasoned that since we didn’t know how much free cash we would need in terms of the anticipated shortfall, it would be best to tackle all spending issues at the same time when we have more information. When the four articles come up on the floor on Saturday, that will be our opportunity to present information about the budget and the various options on making up the shortfall. It was pointed out that we should emphasize to voters Saturday that we have been told that as bad as FY04 will be, FY05 will be worse. We will talk with David Ames Friday about our plans to have all voting on financial matters put off to May 27th. We all intend to meet at the high school library on with the regional superintendent to talk about our assessment. This figure will impact our budget dramatically.
Our guests departed and we Finance Committee members went on with our meeting. A transfer to purchase two air filters for the Town Hall to enable people with MCS to attend meetings there was tabled pending additional research. We wondered if 1) MCS is covered by the ADA?, 2) is this really part of a larger picture we should be looking at in terms of implementing compliance with the ADA?, and 3) ought we have a line item in the budget or in Capital Planning that funds whatever compliance might be necessary? We will work on finding the answers to these questions.
We reviewed David Kielson’s expense report as of 4/30/2003 and no particular expenses seemed to jump out. We know snow removal wages went over budget. We may be able to get some FEMA money to help pay for them. We also have money in the Fin. Comm. reserve to help pay for the overage when a transfer is presented.
Nancy Beswick reported that after a second meeting in the police contract negotiations, a mediator appeared to take our case on. Brian Harrington is the mediator. Nancy and other members of the negotiating group had expressed surprise that a mediator had been called in. We have budgeted a 2% increase for the police. Negotiations are still ongoing.
We mentioned again that we have a posted meeting for Friday after we visit with the regional superintendent. We will decide then what future meetings we will need to get the budget ready for the May 27th vote. We adjourned at 8:30 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Steve Hasbrouck