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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFinance Comm. 04/21/2022Town of Mansfield 6 Park Row, Mansfield, Massachusetts 02048 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes 4.21.2022 Present: Ms. Sara Walsh, Chair, Mr. Brian Eagle, Mr. Jack Cooney, Clerk, Mr. Michael DeSantis, Mr. Walter Wilk, Mr. Scott Feely, Vice Chair, and Mr. Michael Flaherty Guests: Assistant Town Manager/Finance Director, Mr. Barry LaCasse 1. Call the Meeting to order: Ms. Sara Walsh, Chair, called the meeting to order at 7:31 pm. 2. Approval of minutes:2/17/22 and 3/17/22 Motion: Ms. Walsh made a motion to accept the meeting minutes 3/17/22 Roll Call Vote: Mr. Flaherty — Yes, Mr. Cooney - Yes, Ms. Walsh —Yes, Mr. Feely — Yes, Mr. Wilk - Yes, Mr. Eagle — Yes Passes 6:0 (Feely/Eagle) Motion: Mr. Eagle made a motion to re -amend adding back in language referencing it and made a motion to approve the revised 2/17/22 minutes. Roll Call Vote: Mr. Flaherty — Yes, Mr. Cooney — Yes, Ms. Walsh — Yes, Mr. Feely — Yes, Mr. Wilk — Yes, Mr. Eagle — Yes Passes 6:0 (Eagle/Feely) 3. Review and Vote on FY23 Budget: Mr. LaCasse stated at the last Budget Subcommittee meeting, Mr. Donahue, Assistant Superintendent of Schools gave a workable solution to getting to balanced budget. The solution was to remove $900,000 from the school budget and then back fill a good portion of that with ARPA money. Path forward is to invite all the boards to the April 27th meeting and each board would vote to support and approve the budget. If that happens, Mr. LaCasse will start to make the Town Meeting motions. At a subsequent Finance Committee meeting the Finance Committee would vote on the Financial Town Articles which should bring us to Town Meeting for the FY2023 budget. FY2023 Budget numbers can be found the Town's website and printouts can be found at the Town Managers and Town Clerk's office. The Article Review of Town Meeting articles will be televised and people can ask questions in person, virtually or call in about the various articles. We have had success with this in the past and this actually prepares us for the actual Town Meeting. CIP (Capital improvement Projects) Committee had their first meeting with Police, Fire, MIS, DPW, School and Park & Recreation on April 14th. The next CIP meeting will be held on 4/28 for MMED (Mansfield Electric) and Airport. The CIP projects are on the Town's website for all to review. Mr. Wilk confirmed with Mr. LaCasse that there is a $1.28 million deficit in the budget right now without the ARPA money. That's to balance the budget now, and the back filling of the schools to balance the budget would come from the Bristol, County ARPA money through an, application process. FY2024 would be the heavy lift as they are anticipating a $2 million deficit. Ms. Walsh would like to make it clear at Town Meeting that the Finance Committee is in support of this because of Federal Funding that is available to meet the needs otherwise we wouldn't be able to use it for anything else. But we want to be clear that FY2024 will be a tough year. Mr. Eagle comment that he is not happy with budget. He would like to see an ARPA budget breakdown by Bristol and Town as they have already seen the school breakdown. Mr. Eagle also noted that when you use moneyto backfill FTEs, you must acknowledge that you are firing people in a couple of years or just not replacing layoffs and unless it's in writing he does not believe anybody. Mr. LaCasse requested to clear things up, and said the $900,000 is not to cover FTEs, it's really coming off what the school requested. Ms. Walsh stated that this is Federal Funding due to Coved, it's been tough and bought new demands to the school and if we don't spend it, it's not there. It's a need that the schools have identified now and we know that things will be changing over time. Mr. Eagle is concerned that we are not addressing this now verse FY24. Ms. Walsh stated there are a lot of unknowns and we are starting the FY24 budget in August and we will be very transparent and there is a lot of work to be done. And if there is Federal Covid money than they should use it. Mr. Eagle then stated did we really work hard to find alternate means, he is still bothered because he asked the Town Manager did we learn to live without anything and the answer was no. We need to look at our budget and spend and decide what we can happen. Ms. Walsh then stated that Mr. LaCasse went line by line trying to find historical spend information and budgeted things down and the Committee reviewed to acknowledge what was needed and found nothing to be exorable. Mr. Wilk asked about the uptick in revenue. Mr. LaCasse then stated that we learn to live without revenue replacement so that was what the Federal ARPA money was designed to do. He then thanked Walter for the segway into the reporting, on the plus side we are seeing an upward tick on different types of revenue like hotels, meals, marijuana tax and excise tax. Mr. LaCasse stated he's seeing revenue up ticks from pre FY2020 pandemic levels on a run rate which is good (revenue tanked in 2021 and now there's an uptick). So, we needed the Federal money to balance the budget and needed it for revenue replacement. So as that revenue begins to come back, we can now ween off Federal money. The tough question is that will it all happen in FY2024, it may take a couple of years. This is not a perfect budget but it's a budget that reflects what the true need is and that is revenue replacement and those revenues are coming back. Mr. LaCasse stated that the FY24 budget can be made up of revenue and budget cuts. Mr. Wilk is confident with the revenue protectories that we will come close to the $1.2 million or $800,000 that we need. Mr. Feely commented that we will need to be able to read and react to this next budget cycle because the numbers are going to change fast and furious. Mr. LaCasse said yes and the FY2024 budget is going to be front and center in our minds and all the variables howeverthey play outwill be apart of the budget. Mr. LaCasse had put conservative projections but already sees an increase in revenue for ambulance. During Covid less people were using ambulances and now there's an increase. The more time that goes by the more data we get to review to see what the trend is. Mr. Wilk asked how much aid we had left, Mr. LaCasse offered that we $4 million in total, $2 million left per the second tranche and it's for anything related to Covid. Mr. Eagle referred to the expense sheet and noted the Town side is going up 4.39%school side went up 1.82% and on a historical level, is that typical? Do they flip off, does it go up during a contract year etc.? Mr. LaCasse said yes, that's part of it and the personal line also contains salaries, overtime, longevity and all the other personal expenses that the school doesn't have to this extent (Example is Police and Fire overtime). Ms. Walsh stated that over time we should start to see these trends hopefully even out. Mr. Eagle then asked about inflation. Mr. LaCasse said this is based on contracts, by fuel, salaries and they are what they are. Mr. Wilk stated the Schools have contracts coming up, smaller ones for next year. Salaries will be an issue going forward due to longevity and increases. Ms. Walsh then discussed with Mr. LaCasse how the Budget Subcommittee slides would be ready the day before the meeting and that the meeting is open to the public and in the DPW, Public Safety Building at 6pm. Mr. LaCasse then discussed the process and if we mirror what we did last year, at Budget Subcommittee meeting next Wednesday, each board vote in support of their FY23 budget. As long as you have a quorum, you can vote. Ms. Walsh then stated the next meetings will be: April 27", Budget Subcommittee at 6pm, on May 121h Finance Committee at 7:30pm to review the articles and the CIP articles and May 19th, Town Meeting. Mr. Eagle stated that they had asked for a lot of data. Ms. Walsh said athe Budget Subcommittee will meet in June to go over the process for this what worked what didn't work, recommendations for next year, what we learned this year and data requests to help the town and the schools to let them know what we expect. We know the 99% of what we want to track and see which will give everyone transparency. Barry is tracking on revenue. Mr. LaCasse left at 8:18pm 4. Goal Discussion: • Budget: Initiate yearly cycle of engagement with each Town Department to understand current year objectives, future economic needs and how those influence budget planning and requests: Ms. Walsh stated they accomplished this. Budget: Work to understand revenue projections and forecasts to better inform long term budget planning: Ms. Walsh stated that Mr. DeSantis sent his spreadsheet to Mr. Dumas and Mr. LaCasse and it would be discussed after the Budget. Economic Development: Prepare recommendations for the Select Board regarding the right metrics to measure economic development/growth to aid in determining Mansfield's financial and economic strength: Ms. Walsh stated that we met with Economic Development Director, he had a presentation which was forwarded to this group and we would liketo have him on our agenda fortune or August. Mr. Feely suggested forthe Committee to review the presentation that the Director did for the last Select Board Meeting which was outstanding so they are better prepared with their own questions. • Communication: Review financial reporting through regular (monthly) distribution of town financial reports: Ms. Walsh stated that we are currently getting these monthly. Communication: Increase communication to public around Town budget and financial matters: Ms. Walsh stated that Mr. Eagle sent something to the group on this and that she is working with Ms. Zlatkova, the MIS Director for the Finance Committees updates to the Town Website, and the Towns Facebook page. Mr. Eagle threw together eight sample survey questions and spoke about using a CIR code or by post cards at Town Meeting. Mr. Wilk suggested to the create the code to use at town meeting and to get the poll up online. Mr. Eagle to look into this with Ms. Zlatkova, the MIS Director. Ms. Walsh thanked Mr. Eagle forthe questions and said she had comments. Long Term Matters: Review and discuss Town's process for disposition of Town -owned property (non- personal/surplus goods). Draft recommendations for process improvement to maximize financial return and achieve other town objectives: This was not discussed • Long Term Matters: Recommend 1-time and ongoing state and federal funding opportunities and develop plan for considering application and disposition: Ms. Walsh stated that is was discussed earlier. Long Term Matters: Request and review a capital/infrastructure (including cybersecurity) risk analysis to identify financial threats to Town finances and budget plans: Ms. Walsh stated we got some information and will take that up after Town meeting. She also mentioned it might be good to lay out a years' worth of agenda items that we will need to talk about. This will be a starting point to help us stay organized. Brian asked are there any warrant articles that we need to review. The Committee questioned if they had all the facts and the articles and said it might be good to have them come in and pitch it. Questions from the audience: Ms. Varricchione said there was no questions from the audience. 5. Items not known within 48 Hours • Mr. Wilk said the Finance Committee; Town Managers and the Select Boards Town presentation needs to be crisp and clean and directionally what we think will happen next year. • Mr. Eagle stated after Town meeting to discuss, tax properties what ever happened with the next tranche, lessons learned and the third tranche, where does this sit where does the process sit. • Mr. Eagle stated he is not happy with the budget, but does not have a good answer or recommendation. Does not like to hear that next year will be tough, what can be done now. Mr. Feely added we need a crystal ball and we have been living with uncertainty and it will be challenging but it could be favorable, we just don't know. Ms. Walsh reminded them we used the reserves and were able to put it back power back through it. We are in a good position right now. In addition, Mr. Feely also pointed out that we utilized the reserves through a Town vote with the Town residents, which is not a surprise and an accomplishment itself. Mr. Wilk added we have been transparent and we didn't put ourselves in this position, Covid did. Mr. Eagle said we should continue tell everyone what we know so there are no surprises. Next Meeting Dates: 4/27 Budget Subcommittee, 5/12 Finance Committee, 5/19 is Town Meeting. Finance Committee Power Point Deck slides for 5/19 Town Meeting: due to Ms. Griffin by 5/13 at 12pm. Adiournment: Motion: Ms. Walsh moved to adjourn the meeting at 8:38pm Roll Call Vote: Flaherty — Yes, Mr. Cooney —Yes, Ms. Walsh — Yes, Mr. Feely — Yes, Mr. Wilk — Yes, Mr. Eagle — Yes Passes 6:0(Eagle/Feely) J �Z 21 Date