Board of Selectmen |
March 8, 2010 |
Regular Meeting |
Selectmen’s Hearing Room, Town Hall |
Present: |
Robert P. MacKendrick, Chairman |
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Arthur J. Bourque III, Selectman |
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Al Merritt, Selectman |
Chairman MacKendrick called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m.
Joint meeting with the School Committee
Members of the School Committee were in attendance for a joint meeting of that committee with the Board of Selectmen.
School Committee Chair Dorothy Presser nominated Chairman MacKendrick to serve as chair for the joint meeting. Her motion was seconded by Selectman Bourque and approved unanimously.
Ms. Presser explained that the School Committee believes going before the annual town meeting in April with an article on funding for a feasibility study for the Lynnfield High School addition project may be inadvisable. She said the Town is still waiting to hear form the Massachusetts School Building Authority on the cost of the study, and wants to have a well-defined cost and scope for that study.
Change of polling sites
The Board of Selectmen and School Committee continued in joint session to consider a change in the Town’s polling sites.
Ms. Presser said she is aware the Board has voted to hold the April town election at the Middle School. She said that for the next school year, the School Department had scheduled two professional development t days, and the Town is scheduled to hold three elections during that period. She said that if the High School could be made a safe and secure site, it might be preferable to hold the April election there as well.
Police Chief Joseph Dunn said that he had spoken to Superintendent of Schools Robert Hassett and visited the site and is convinced it can be made safe and secure for voting while students are in the building. In April, there will be no students in the building due to professional development day. Parking for voters will be in a designated area and disabled voters will be able to pull up to the school. One police officer will be in the building with another in the parking lot. A crossing guard could be placed on Essex Street to assist students parking on side streets with crossing.
On the motion of Selectman Bourque, seconded by Selectman Merritt, the Board voted to reconsider its previous vote to establish the polling site for precincts 1, 2, 3 and 4 as the Lynnfield Middle School.
On the motion of Selectman Bourque, seconded by Selectman Merritt, the Board voted to establish the polling site for precincts 1, 2, 3 and 4 as the Lynnfield High School.
On the motion of Selectman Bourque, seconded by Selectman Merritt, the members of the Board of Selectmen and School Committee voted to adjourn the joint meeting at 7:11 p.m.
Review of annual town meeting warrant articles
Moderator David Miller was on hand for a discussion of the annual town meeting warrant and town meeting procedures. He suggested that Articles 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 would be candidates for a consent agenda. Selectman Merritt said that Article 9, regarding the establishment of a new revolving fund for the Recreation Commission and the revoking of another type of revolving fund, should remain on the regular warrant and be considered separately.
Mr. Miller said that the April meeting is for the operating and capital budget and other financial items and the October meeting is for planning, zoning, land use and bylaw matters. He noted articles 13, 14 and 19 of the proposed warrant address bylaws.
Selectman Bourque said that the stormwater bylaw has returned from the October warrant because it could not be acted on after the quorum was lost. He said the alternative would be to wait a year, with the Town being out of compliance with federal regulations. Mr. Miller said he would be guided by the charter.
Selectman Bourque asked if the bylaws would be better placed on a special town meeting warrant. Mr. Miller said that in the case of emergencies, the rules are off. Selectman Bourque said that the intention of the authors of the charter was to try to split up what had been a four- to five-session single meeting into two sessions, spring and fall, in order to grant relief to the tedium of several sessions in April – not to create hard and fast rules on when certain articles could not be considered. A strict interpretation of those charter guidelines would interfere with the operation of town government. While the noise and motorcycle bylaws could be pushed off until October, the septic bylaw cannot be.
Mr. Miller said he would accept the Board’s statement that the septic bylaw article was being included on an emergency basis. If the moderator were suspicious of subterfuge, or found that the Board was using the emergency basis constantly, the moderator would rule differently.
Chairman MacKendrick noted that the charter states that if ten registered voters sign a petition for an article to be placed on the warrant, town meeting shall act on it. Mr. Miller said this creates a dilemma, and added that the thought that the obligation to hear a citizen petition article is greater than that for an article placed on the warrant by the Board of Selectmen. He suggested there may be case law on the issue.
Selectman Merritt said that putting the stormwater bylaw and vocational school issue on the October warrant showed the selectmen made a good-faith effort to comply with the spirit of the charter.
Chairman MacKendrick said that when the charter was drawn up, the town budget was on a calendar year basis. He said a charter change may be in order. Mr. Miller agreed that a charter review may be in order, and said citizens have an obligation to attend the meeting so the lack of a quorum does not hamper town meeting.
Mr. Gustus reviewed the proposed warrant articles briefly (see attached exhibit). He said Article 9, establishing a new revolving fund for the Recreation Commission, is needed in order to allow the Town to expend in the following fiscal year money collected for programs late in the fiscal year, as the Commission collects fees in June for summer programming.
Articles 13 and 14, the stormwater bylaw and the fine schedule, are needed as the Town is now out of compliance with the requirements of its federal non-point source permit. Other communities without a stormwater management bylaw in place are being fined for non-compliance.
On the motion of Selectman Bourque, seconded by Selectman Merritt, the Board voted to remove Articles 19 and 20, the motorcycle exhaust bylaw and the noise bylaw, respectively, from the warrant.
Thomas Manning of Main Street asked if these articles could be restored to the warrant by citizen petition. Mr. Gustus said the warrant is scheduled to be closed tonight, and that the Town Clerk must certify the voter signatures before a petition article is placed on the warrant. Selectman Bourque asked about the deadline for posting the warrant. Mr. Gustus said that the closing of the warrant could be postponed if the Board closed the warrant a week from this night on March 15. He also suggested a special meeting could be held on Friday, March 12 at 9 a.m. to close the warrant and accommodate petition articles.
Chairman MacKendrick agreed to call a meeting for that time and date.
Fiscal year 2011 budget
Mr. Gustus said that several changes had been made to the proposed budget after conversations with school officials. He added $180,000 above level funding to the School Department line item. Of that $30,000 would come out of the proposed capital appropriation set aside for school technology. The schools will use federal ARRA funds to acquire the additional items needed.
The proposed budget will allow enough funds to cover the negotiated one-percent increase in base teacher pay and additional special; education costs. The School Committee is ready to vote on this proposed budget tomorrow night if the Board approved it.
Selectman Bourque thanked the School Committee for making adjustments to its budget request and Selectman Merritt and Mr. Gustus for their work with school officials on the budget.
Selectman Merritt thanked the School Department and all Town departments for their cooperation on the budget. He said a team effort was required to reach the agreement given a major reduction in local aid. He said this is a good budget for the Town and an excellent budget given the circumstances.
Selectman Bourque asked what reserve funds would be used to fund the budget. Mr. Gustus said that he is proposing the use of $250,000 in stabilization funds, $100,000 from capital maintenance funds, and $541,000 in free cash. He said that would leave just over $2 million in aggregate reserves. A little more than five percent of the Town’s operating budget.
Mr. Gustus said the snow and ice deficit is about $175,000, and there will be an attempt to cover this shortfall within the current budget, although it may require changing behavior s and curtailing programs. The lion’s share can be covered from the existing Public Works budget. It would also be possible to cover the deficit by holding it over for Fiscal Year 2011, but this would make next years’ budget even tighter. This has not been done in recent years and is not the preferred course.
Mr. Gustus said that the capital budget he is proposing includes a supplemental budget to be funded if the state aid figure is greater than his current estimate, which calls for a 10 percent reduction. If the reduction is only five percent, an additional $250,000 will be available for capital items and other uses. He said he believes the Town should commit as much to the capital budget as it safely can. He is proposing spending an additional $200,000 on capital items in this scenario and using the additional $50,000 to help fund the snow and ice deficit.
Pension costs are another wild card, Mr. Gustus said, and money will be freed up for other uses if the schedule for fully funding pension liability is extended.
Selectman Merritt asked about the impact on the tax rate of the proposed spending plan. Mr. Gustus said that said the tax levy will go up slightly less than 2.5 percent, and that due to the retirement of a portion of Proposition 2-1/2 excluded debt, the tax increase for existing property owners will be closer to 2.2 or 2.3 percent.
Selectman Bourque noted that the Town will have spent $1.2 million from reserves in this and the following fiscal years, and said that it will be able to do this. But if state aid continues to fall, the Town will eat through its reserves quickly. He said it is important that the Town keep a close eye on its reserve status. The Town is in good shape financially, as department heads have brought in budgets at or near level funding. He also credited Mr. Gustus and the Finance Committee with achieving a good budget result.
Finance Committee Co-Chair Jack Dahlstedt asked Mr. Gustus to explain the shifting of $30,000 from school capital to school operating costs. Mr. Gustus said that the full $250,000 intended to be spent on school technology will still be expended, although a portion will come from federal stimulus funds.
On the motion of Selectman Bourque, seconded by Selectman Merritt, the Board approved a Fiscal Year 2011 operating budget recommendation of $40,087,496.80.
Capital budget
Mr. Gustus submitted his recommended capital budget to the Board of Selectmen and said the final budget will be up to the Board. He said the members would likely want to weigh in on this budget after considering the recommendations in the next weeks (see attached exhibit).
The recommended budget includes $220,000 for school technology, $33,000 for a police cruiser, $10,000 for firefighting gear, $4,966 for a database program for the Town Clerk’s office, and $2,900 for replacing instruments needed by the sealer of weights and measures, as his old equipment had been condemned. The total spending from the general fund would be $270,766,
He is also recommending the spending of $100,000 from the capital facilities maintenance fund for public works items to be prioritized by Director Dennis Roy. He said these will be available by the March 29 meeting. The $180,000 expenditure for a new ambulance would be funded through the Emergency Medical Services enterprise fund. He said he understands that there are some questions about this proposal and he has asked Chief Lennon for justification for the expenditure.
The total capital proposal amounts to $370,766.
The supplemental capital budget, based on a state aid cut of five percent instead of 10 percent, would include an additional $198,500 in spending. It would include a second police cruiser at $33,000, a fingerprint scanner for the police department at $16,500, an additional $130,000 for public works items to be prioritized by Mr. Roy, $7,000 for library equipment and $12,000 for a desktop virtualization program for the information and technology department.
Mr. Gustus said that departments had submitted many other worthy requests, but said the Town can get by for another year with its existing equipment, including infrared cameras. He said these requests cannot be pout off much longer, however. In Fiscal Year 2012, the Town should be looking at a major capital plan, which possibly could be funded in a different fashion.
In response to a question from the Finance Committee, Mr. Gustus said that the Fire Department hose replacement was not part of the recommended budget because the Town has regularly replaced hose as part of an ongoing program, and has miles of useable hose. The chief’s vehicle is 12 years old with 150,000 miles, but remains functional as many of the parts have been replaced. He said the police cruiser and public works truck are needed more.
The Finance Committee will be reviewing the capital budget and supplemental capital budget submitted by Mr. Gustus.
Patricia Campbell of Patrice Lane asked about the proposed $220,000 expenditure on school technology. Mr. Gustus said it is a subset of the $250,000 the schools will spend on technology. Replacing servers at the elementary schools will cost $40,000, and replacing all desktop computers at both elementary schools will cost $240,000. The elementary schools have been using hand-me-down computers and those purchased through the school building program are now seven years old. Fourteen LCD projectors will cost $22,750.
Selectman Merritt said that due to the purchased made with the school building project, the Town was able to go five to six years without purchasing school technology. He said that the Technology Committee was formed to come up with a five-year plan for technology replacement, and that it is being done in an organized fashion.
Mr. Dahlstedt said the plan is well thought out and that the schools are now cannibalizing their computers to keep them operational. The LCD projectors will be less costly than projected due to competitive bids. It will be more cost-effective to buy new projectors than to replace burned-out bulbs. He said the desktop virtualization program on the Town side could be a good model for the schools, and noted the Town and school information technology directors work well together.
Regular business
On the motion of Selectman Bourque, seconded by Selectman Merritt, the Board voted to proclaim April 30, 2010 as Arbor Day (see attached exhibit).
Selectman Merritt commented about the work done by the Tree Committee, the Department of Public Works and Townscape, Inc. in recent months on tree issues.
On the motion of Selectman Merritt, seconded by Selectman Bourque, the Board voted to proclaim the week of April 11, 2010 to April 17, 2010 as Holocaust Remembrance Week (see attached exhibit).
On the motion of Selectman Merritt, seconded by Selectman Bourque, the Board voted to proclaim April 27, 2010 as the Americans with Disabilities Act 20th Anniversary Day (see attached exhibit).
Selectman Merritt noted that this request was made by the Independent Living Center of the North Shore and Cape Ann, and recognized that group for its achievements.
Mr. Gustus announced the T-Mobile has scheduled a community meeting for Wednesday, March 10 at 7 p.m. at the Middle School on the proposed construction of a wireless communications tower at Messiah Lutheran Church.
Chairman MacKendrick noted that there was a recent meeting on the 300th anniversary celebration of the Meeting House. He said it is possibly the second oldest meeting house in the country and is likely to be the oldest that has continually been used as a meeting place. He said that those with ideas for the celebration should contact the Historical Commission or Historical Society.
Mrs. Campbell asked when the Board would be voting on the capital budget proposal. Mr. Gustus said that it would likely be before the end of the month. Selectman Bourque said the Board would like to find out what the state aid figures are first.
On the motion of Selectman Bourque, seconded by Selectman Merritt, the Board voted to adjourn at 8:31 p.m.
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