Finance Committee: March 24, 2025

Transcript captured from MHTV’s Vimeo auto-captioning. No speaker labels; proper names and dollar figures occasionally misheard. Click any timecode to jump to that moment in the source video.

0:00 Alright, so tonight is a second of our three full Fin comm budget hearing nights where we’ll be, uh, no worries. Uh, reviewing and voting as a full fin comm, um, both the library and rec and park budgets that roll up into the balanced budget of town meeting. So we voted three or four last week. This will be our next two, and then there’s three or four more to go next week. And by the end of our meeting next Monday night, we have voted each individual department that is in the balanced budget that will be presented, I believe it’s article, article 22, maybe 21, somewhere in there this year. As I always say, that’s about 80 to 90% of what the does is all of the work that leads up into the review and vote

0:47 and approval effectively of a balanced budget. And, and this is a big part of that step. So, uh, we’ll get right into it. I don’t think we have any meeting minutes to review since we voted ‘em all last week. We probably don’t have ‘em from last week yet. We Do not. Um, so we’ll get right into it and we can start with the library if that works for everybody. Cool. Um, so I do need to share my screen. Um, I will make you co-host. Okay.

1:34 So I’m just gonna come over here so it’ll be a little bit easier.

2:02 Michael can’t make it. I didn’t see it. She, no, she, yeah, she’s on.

2:15 See. Can everyone see that? Okay. Alright. So, um,

2:44 So, um, tonight we are, uh, since we last met in March, there’s just been a couple of little updates. So, um, so we basically had a slight difference in the total salary and the total expenses, and that is due to a cut in the salary. Um, we had asked for a part-time, uh, temporary library system that did not happen. So we changed the number and the expenses went up $802 due to a noble fee, um, confirmation. So we wanted to make sure those numbers were correct. So this is, um, where we are with the fiscal 26 budget.

3:30 It’s, um, essentially about $109 or $109,000, $270, uh, more than the fiscal year 25 budget. Uh, and you can see, uh, a slight increase in expenses. It’s about almost $50,000 more. And that’s due to a couple things that I get into. And the salary line is an increase, um, due to step changes and pull increases. I’ll get into that in a little bit too.

4:04 So one of the things I always like to review, um, every year are the certification requirements for the library. And in order to be certified, um, we need to meet the municipal preparation requirement. We need to meet minimum standards of free library service, uh, which is 200, but for 20,000 it’s 50 hours per week. And then we submit annual reports and forms to show this compliance,

4:37 Um, our salary line and represents the 2% COLA increase in schedule, scheduled, set changes. Um, we have 23 staff members, which is a little, actually a little tight when it comes to serving, you know, filling those 52 hours. But, um, we are very grateful for the addition of a new, um, part-time custodian that is a completely essential requirement for this new building and to keep it clean and pleasant. Um, we have two positions, um, that we asked for that were not included, and that was a temporary library assistant, as I mentioned, and the part-time reference librarian. Um, in fiscal year 27, we will likely upgrade our request for another full-time librarian, librarian, um, who will do reference work, um,

5:25 tech services and programming. How many of those 23 folks are full-time? Full-time? Um, there are roughly full-time, oops, uh, about 11 union full-time. And so it’s about 14.

5:51 Yeah, About 14.

6:00 So I, I just really wanted to stress that this is the, what the building looks like only with one custodian. Um, we get a lot of complaints about our bathrooms and floors and so on, so it’s really hard to keep up. Um, um, this picture over here is our storage room, which I personally have been working with moving things around, getting that to work, but if I had another custodian, I I’d really appreciate that heavy lifting. Um, so that’ll be a tremendous improvement and it will help us maintain this building and provide good service. So our maintenance lines have also increased. Um, the utilities have gone up a little bit, um,

6:46 equalized a little bit between electric and gas. Um, but mostly our, our service contracts are where we’re seeing a big increase this year, um, especially for the HVAC maintenance. So that’s been a very important thing. Um, the second part of the expense line increase are the materials. Um, so that line is very carefully monitored to ensure that we meet the requirements for state aid. Um, and we’re basically asking for another $18,000 to be on pace with the rising materials spending requirements. Um, this helps us to close the existing gap. It’s actually a little bit less than 66,000 and interesting. Municipal contribution for materials

7:33 for the library has not increased since 2018. Um, so it, it’s, it’s really, um, appreciated that we can increase.

7:51 Here’s a little bit of an explanation about what State Aid does for us and how it works and how the formula works. Um, it, you know, it’s basically 15% of the total appropriate municipal, municipal income, um, which comes up, you know, over $223,000 for municipal budget increases to 160,000. Then we only have about 63,000, not 66 as the slide mentioned before. And how do we, how do we do that? How do we, how do we make up that difference? Well, we do have some private funding and that is accepted within the state aid certification process. Um, second Century Fund contributes friends

8:36 with the library contributes. Um, second Century Fund contributes twice, once for Overdrive and Noble and the other for, um, direct access to technology. So, for example, they help both us with their hotspots and laptop purchases, just things like that. And then what’s left is the state aid library municipal equalization grant, um, to fill in that piece. And the more the town can contribute to materials, uh, the less we rely on all the other pieces, but it also all works together with formula.

9:23 So that’s, that’s pretty much my basic presentation. Um, trying to see if there’s anything else I can add to it. Does anyone have any questions or did you wanna say anything else there? Uh, yes. Uh, Tara, Michael and I met with the director, Ken grad and, and Mr. William. And we’ve, uh, went over, uh, in great detail the library’s requests and, uh, also, uh, spent quite a bit of time focusing on the evolving role of the library libraries in modern world. I, I have to say, I was deeply impressed with, uh, how the library has continued to adapt and grow and faced our newer technological challenges, uh,

10:12 with rather limited resources. And it is truly impressive, um, the services that you’re able to provide to this community. I just want to point that. Yeah. Is it strictly a financial matter why you’re not open on Sundays? Well, essentially yes. If we had more staff, we’d be able to parcel out the hours and be able to open. And if we did have more staff, we’d be able to, you know, you only have, so they can only work so many hours in a week and it becomes very difficult to try to make that happen.

10:52 And, you know, whereas we’re, we’re required to be open 50 hours, we managed to squeeze in another two. So we’re actually open 52.5 hours. Okay. And I, I do believe that is our limit. We, the staff keeps asking me to reduce the hours because it’s very hard if someone calls out sick or some vacation, the balance gets thrown off and the work gets, uh, it gets a little difficult to, to provide service. And we’ve actually been forced to close on, on occasion then we don’t have enough staff in the building On, on that point. Um, Alicia was forced to cut the request for the part-time librarian, uh, in order to arrive at the balance budget.

11:40 Uh, but she was certainly very sympathetic I felt to the Denise, uh, as was just epip.

11:49 Yeah. So with respect to funded positions, um, year over year, last year’s budget versus this year’s, we remained, all positions funded last year are funded plus a part-time custodian. Is that? Mm-hmm. Okay. Um, and then the only other thing I had on the salaries was it looks like you’ve reclassed, um, the assistant department head to head of public services, different title. Well, it’s really just a title change. Yeah. It was never made classified. It was a title change and then when that person resigned, it went back to it referred to the original title. Okay. To So it’s the same position as It was the same position. Yes.

12:41 Yeah. Unless anybody else has any other question, I would like to make a motion that the finance committee approve the library’s budget request of $1,493,292 for fiscal year.

12:59 We do have one on online, so yes. Go. Mr. Meyer? Yes. Mr. Rome? Yes. Mr. Knight? Yes. Mr. Goby? Yes. Ms. Samuels? Yes. Ms. Tes? Yes. Mr. Franklin? Yes. Lindsey? Yes. Awesome. Thanks for all your help. Thank you. Appreciate the work that you do. And thank Happy. Thank You. Thanks. Thank you.

13:33 Done. Unless you want stick around monkey.

13:42 Okay,

13:45 Sure.

13:49 I can share my screen to put your, uh, budget up on, if that works. You’re welcome to join. Stay there whenever you’re more comfortable.

14:00 Okay. All right. So I’m trying to share my screen. Hi. You should be able to, yeah. And I’ll make it a little bit bigger.

14:14 So I’ve got up on the screen, I know you all can’t see what’s up there, but right now the salaries. Salaries, um,

14:28 and who is the chair liaison?

14:34 You wanna, you want me to give an overview? However you wanna do it and then we can go on.

14:46 That’s good. Alright. So the um, recreation and parks sub committee was myself, Uh, Michael Ko and Lindsay. Uh, we all met with, um, Peter, James and Jamie Block, as well as two of the members of the recreation park commission, uh, Rosanna and Karen on March 10th. Uh, I would say overall there are not a lot of changes to this budget, uh, from the last budget. And, um, looking specifically at salaries, um, there was one increase around, uh, a night clerk stipend to accommodate two meetings a week. It’s an increase of $1,800. Uh, there was a request for two part-time clerks,

15:36 which initially was, um, moving forward, but unfortunately, um, has been taken out in order to balance this budget. Uh, just a little history. There had been a senior clerk, that person was let go and then now there’s been, um, a recurring desire to have a clerk position. Currently the view is to have two part-time clerks, which manages the hours better. It also is a cost savings for the town in that there would be no, um, benefits associated with those roles. So that may be something that we look at again in FY 27. And then otherwise overall increases 3.4699999999999998%

16:25 and that is based on step increases, grade increases, and 2% co.

16:34 Yeah, so that’s on the salary side. So we’ve got level funded position. Sounds like a stipend went up and we’ve adjusted for our best estimate of, um, increases, probably some of which are pending negotiations. Correct. Um, on the expense side. Yeah, on the expense side. Um, I guess a similar story to the library. The biggest increase is in the line item. That’s other professional and technical. And that is enhanced cleaning services. Um, cleaning, I know we’ve talked about this in prior years, has been a real stress point, um, for the facilities. And so increasing that budget.

17:21 Uh, and then the other increases are related to electricity and heating gas. Uh, that was actually underestimated. Uh, the new FY 26 budget amounts, which looked like a large increase, are actually very close to the FY 24 actuals. So now we’re budgeting for the most recent year actions. And Alicia had asked all departments to do that. Um, the reserves for, for utilities are now out of the, the overall budget. So you’ll see this, um, probably next week in a lot of the select board budgets as well, helping with the schools. Well, they’re a little different. They, they have a reserve themselves. Um, the, the goal here is to get these line items

18:11 as accurate as possible and, and not be relying on a utilities reserve. Um, that being said, our overall fin income reserve is going up, um, $300,000. So we’ve sort of migrated some reserves that are baked into various line items in the overall budget into what we believe is a more transparent fin income reserve. So that 1 44 that I’m sure over the last 10 years, you guys maybe have drawn from it once or twice, um, it’ll now be a lot larger. So any department, you shouldn’t be scared at the beginning of the year if something comes up to say, oh, there’s only 144 for the whole year. We have, you know, 4 44 now. So going forward it creates a little bit more flexibility and to me it’s better transparency

18:56 and, and checks and balances. ‘cause it would go through select board and review. Um, so just a little TMI, but that’s probably why you’ll see the increase on the U utilities for a lot of departments. Um, and then really the only other change is around, um, landscaping supplies. You know, the costs have gone up. Um, another thing I just wanna note from the landscaping, if you look at current year actuals, the spend on landscaping is in the spring season. So we’ve spent significantly less than half of that budget for this year. But we’re still thinking that’s right because it’s just a seasonal spend and it’s spent in the second half.

19:45 So, uh, you know, that comes up to the general expenses increasing 15.53%. But, uh, you know, the, the actual changes are, are really just reflective. I think more of the, the real cost, not any new items. The, um, 15,000 for the cleaning services was actually funded this year, but it’s, it was in the, um, building department. Yeah, we saw that. We had a, a long meeting with this board earlier, but we saw that my 15 I meant to mention that. So thank you. Yeah. Um, is, is that the other professional and technical? Yes. Okay. That’s, that’s please. So the kids captured on that one. Yeah, so I mean, to me that it seems like a large amount, but that’s a reclass from another area.

20:31 And then effectively the increase of 8,000 on the utilities is a reclass from a reserve. And actually, so it’s, it’s not as large as it appears at that base. Yeah. I tried last year. I tried to adjust that best I could and I guess a little low on Yeah. Increases. Yeah. I mean you’re seeing it in all departments. The expense side, it’s not huge increases, but each line item we, there’s inflation going for sure. So, And as the custodial just we, that is only 50%. ‘cause both the Council on Aging and Recreation and Parks are picking up the split of that another 25% each to be able to support the building throughout the entire year. Okay. And this increase isn’t like the,

21:17 they’re getting more custodial services. We had zero custodial services. So now we have a custodial com a company and the split is with, Is it going well? Yes. Better. It’s been a couple weeks and I was like,

21:33 I, I mean it really does make, I mean to have, well these Are things that just assume are happening. Yeah, Yeah. And to, and to be able to be more proud of, to walk into your building, to have a rental, to have a program, kids are all getting on the ground, you know, all ages. So I felt that way when I cleaned my house. Yeah.

21:52 So, so I have to say, I think this is my fourth budget season. I’ve been with you guys all the way through and so this is next, the fourth time that we’ve seen the special or the part-time clerks. Yeah. So it does not seem like there’s been sort of any, any progress on that. Was there any discussion about adding one clerk or was there There was no. Okay. So, so when it sounded like it was like sort of making progress. No, we just said, I try again next year because things may be different. They might, But we have no, just to kind of put on the table, we do not have a clerk, so that means everything from permitting to, you know, with your bills and your pa like we do not have a clerk. Let’s also, we have to charge for night meetings

22:38 and any departments that wanna use our building at night, I mean they have to pay for it because we actually have to pay the staff out of money we earn, you know. So it really does, I think have also an impact on the town, um, as a cost to other departments.

22:55 Sorry. And how about, um, the recreation side on the, we do not review and approve or vote on it, but the revolving side, how’s that all working out? I mean, so we can only spend the money we have, we do have a cap, um, and the cap when we get, as we get into the year and every costs have gone up that we can only spend that cap even if we have more money. We are, we did put forth to raise it from 1.5 million to 2 million. Yeah. To be able to spend in a year because we can’t add anything or do any large projects that would benefit the town if we’re worried about not being able, not that we don’t have the money, that we hit our cap to not be able to pay for the supplies or the staff that we need. So we’re hoping this next year in FY 26 with a raised cap,

23:41 um, that we’ll really be able to contribute back to the town with some of our, Yeah. So how does that, um, request for cap increase Work? Um, we put it through, it’s at town meeting. It’s on a different cloud. Yes. So it doesn’t come through you guys? Yeah, it goes with anyone who’s increasing it and I always think it gets misunderstood that they think we’re asking for more money. No, it’s, we’re just asking to Spend, so be able to spend. Yeah. No, that’s, We can’t spend anything. We don’t have, um, and recreation, It’s not specific to rec, it’s, it’s that one on award article With all. Yeah, I gotcha. And since the only funded salary right now, if recreation is mine, every time we add a program, a, you know, a week long, you know, speak to face staff and supplies. So we can’t, we don’t have.

24:25 And are there any rec costs in this budget that, um, are paid out? The general fund? No, just Only, just only the, my salary.

24:36 Sounds good. Well, another thing I’d like to add that’s not in this budget, but just for everyone to know that um, rec park has secured a $92,000 state grant for handicap accessibility at the beach. So we’re gonna have improved, uh, accessibility at the beach and it is not coming out of the town budget. Yeah. Gotcha. Can you tell me today? Oh, we got all that because we’re doing away with all that boardwalk that are around, used to be around the playground, uh, replacing ‘em with all Moby mats. So it’ll be a lot more accessible for everybody. Oh, nice. This is de Yep. Making the, making the bathrooms more handicap accessible. Hand river, uh, the handicap spots in the main lot more handicap access accessible.

25:23 Um, so what’s going on by the, uh, baseball stand across from Star of the Sea? Those are some excavators and stuff like tennis court. Is that you guys? No, that’s, uh, people that were doing work on one of the side roads we get, had given permission to store their stuff there. A little, a little longer than we expected, but that’s, that’s what the, I have a question. Yep. This, uh, state grant that you just received, yay. Uh, would that be imperiled if the town doesn’t pass the MBTA, um, article? I do not believe it is. I, I believe ‘cause I know a lot State grants Federal. Yeah. If that doesn’t pass, no, I, excellent.

26:10 I’m pretty sure it’s not. Was that grant your department apply for it? How, how did that come about? Uh, actually, uh, Logan, the sustainability coordinator, yeah, he worked on it with myself and um, the Disabilities committee. Um, we did apply for it last year and we didn’t get it. So we tried again this year specifically just for Denver Beach and we were lucky enough to be awarded. And do you find that that just because we had a four hour meeting earlier today, part select board departments, um, so it’s fresh in our mind, do you find that process was helpful to have him facilitating that? Yeah, huge. Helped us greatly. And you, you’ve probably applied for grants over the years,

26:57 so it’s a lot more time consuming Potentially, yeah. Okay. Yeah, because we, we don’t have anybody that really can write grants, so, and then the grant coordinator they have now too is very helpful. So Yeah, I was gonna ask that that person is involved as well. Yeah. Thank you. Have you already received the funding for the beach or is that I believe we have, yeah, because we’ve got some invoices that are now due, so I’m hoping to get paid. I’m pretty sure there was already been, I know Chris had already, uh, created budget codes. So I believe we do have, this just goes back to Eric’s question about the, you know, is it in jeopardy

27:42 for non compliance or non three eight? No long as you’ve got the money already Yeah. At the party. Yeah. We actually have a deadline just spent. Yeah. That has to be spent by the end of June. So we probably hope half of that half of that has been spent. So yes. More get it spent to do

28:08 On much needed improvements for accessibility. So I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tripped up that four does town on the old Lins there, it’s like forecast that is owned by the town. Okay. Um, it’s, but it’s rented out through the slick wood. You can lease it out if you want. Thank you. Is the lease coming up? There’s barbecue. I think they something on social media about it being someone offering out.

28:46 Um, I was just gonna say Peter, so I know you’re, um, gonna be retiring and that upcoming year, so, you know, we’ll miss you. Thank you for everything you’ve done for, for Yes.

29:08 So with that, um, I move that the finance committee approve the reparation parks at Y 26, total budget of 1,037,027. Second.

29:24 Um, Tara? Yes. Molly, yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And Lindsay? Yes.

29:43 Thank you very much. Thank,

29:48 well unless anybody has any other questions on the, as we head into, um, next week we have probably a much longer night.

30:06 Did you wanna ask now or? So we would want very short.

30:18 Oh, you mean tonight? No, Of course.

30:22 Oh, you should be good. Uh, at the warrant hearing. Yeah. Um, unless you have your own article. I don’t think so. Right. Yeah, so, so I’ll just basically present kind of, um, a summary of the overall budget and the process we went through, including letting people know we have this meeting. Um, I probably won’t highlight the library too much. There’s not too much to high, there’s no not significant increases or anything. Um, you won’t have to present There in case anyone You’re welcome to join. Yeah. And, and with, um, should utilities. Yeah. Since We in this building, you know, we need a year to analyze everything. Yeah. So could you review what you were telling the parents?

31:09 I’m sorry, Kim, could you speak up just a little please? Sorry. Thank you. So I’m curious to know what you were talking about, about reserve fund, about, Yes. So they were, um, through fiscal year 25, the current budget we’re in, there were specific town wide energy reserve funds that I’m sure the library has had to request from over the years. Right. So we don’t have those anymore. And town wide, Alicia is hopeful that most departments have moved their budgets to as close as accurate as possible. Fingers Crossed. That being said, yeah. We’ve increased our fin comm reserve, which is a reserve where again, the library has probably come to us at some point over the years. Maybe not since year, maybe. Yeah.

31:54 Well, but the roof of the school, we definitely came to you. Yeah, yeah. Oh, there we go. Yeah. Good example. Right. So that has been 144,000 for like 20 years and now it’s 400 for 50,000. So, oh, okay. So although there’s no utility reserves, if all else failed, we’ve increased a different reserve Fund. So if our calculations just way off, we can come to you and and apply for this. Yeah, that would probably, yeah. Yeah. Exactly. But the hope is that most departments have moved their utilities, um, as close to actuals as possible if we’re trying to get out the habit of budgeting the same way we budgeted last year, knowing that we’re gonna draw from a reserve, because we’ve heard that from departments and I don’t think that’s very good budgeting.

32:41 I think we should budget for what we think we’re Gonna, so As I go through this exercise of analyzing the year’s worth of utility bills Yeah. We’ll, we’ll surely be in a more knowledgeable Place. Yeah. When you, when you create your budget next year, if it goes way up and, and you have justification that our actual last year were this and our trends right now are saying this, then I would put exactly what you think you need next Year.

33:09 Right? Yeah, exactly. Okay, great. Thank you. I appreciate that. We all know that budgeting is, is a dark article. All right. Thanks Lindsay and Alicia. Um, are we Adjourning? Nevermind. We’re not turning it off yet. Nope.

33:25 Okay. We have a problem. Yeah. The, um, the final number just For parking, 1,037,027. No, that’s, that’s the number including this 50. So when I looked at Clear Go, this number was different. That general expenses was 2 36. I downloaded this one today. Yeah. I looked at Clear Go today. 1 0 3 7. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Thank you. The same double? Sure. I double, this is double. That was double in here. We’re all good. Meeting adjourned. Good.