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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFINCOM03022013 Town of Mansfield Finance Committee Minutes of March 2, 20X4-c---,-1■FD :1.-HcS OFF ICE Present: Chairman Walter Wilk; Vice Chairman Steve Sc 'j( Ich,5LizrnChiisa4 Clerk; Members: James Bazinet, Scott Feely and Yogen Chemburkar. Others present ,inc ed.,B.tll Ross, Town Manager; John Stanbrook, Town Accountant, �� • Arthur O'Neil, Chief of Police,ol� e, .I�,i�il�l�l t- �a , Fire Chief; Lee Azinheira, Director of Public Works; Mark Cook, Highway Division IVfanaget; Kur daffney, Water Department Manager, Betty Peter, DPW Office Manager, Mike Ahern, Public Building Special Projects Manager, Ken Hackett, WWTP Manager Absent: Michael O'Brien, Member Call to Order: Chairman Wilk called the meeting to order at 9:13 AM Bill Ross will present Electric Department budget if there is enough time. Electric Department budget does not go to Town Meeting. Walter Wilk and Board Members thank Police Chief for his service to the town of Mansfield. Presentation'aid Review of Police Department Budget Arthur O'Neil, Chief of Police Chief O'Neil says there are a lot of changes in the Town. The budget shows no growth in terms of personnel. Police has had several hires this year due to retirements. He is not asking for any additional vehicles or capital projects. The budget is not expanding. Walter Wilk asks what Police budget will look like long term. The personnel in 3-5 years should be at 38-40 people. Steve Schoonveld suggests there should be opportunities of additional vehicles through Parking Fund. Chief O'Neill says the long-term goal is to re-build the whole area and install street lights and build a parking garage in commuter parking lot area. There will be an RFP going out to look at design of commuter area. Walter Wilk asked when talking about 3-5 year plan, would 3-5 vehicles over the next two years be included in long term budget. Arthur says policy has always been to go with cheap budget. Chief said 3 vehicles are in the budget. Arthur says police vehicles need to be rock solid vehicles. The telephones at the Police Department are only a few years old. The telephone system does not need to be replaced. The Police Department uses a Bristol County telephone system that has a reverse 911 resource. Lengthy discussion of police fleet, repairs, and cars that need to be replaced. Paul Waite, Highway Mechanic, has been fantastic working on the vehicles. He has saved the Town a lot of money and should be commended. Page I 1 Finance Committee Meeting March 2,2013 • presentation and Review.of Fire!Department Budget I Neil Boldrighini, Fire Chief Fire chief says there are not significant item changes in budget. The biggest thing is replacement of equipment and money is already reserved for the replacement. Scott Feely commends the fire chief in regards to forecasting future plan. Fire chief has quotes from several vendors with 80% increase in equipment costs. Fire Chief feels he is happy with what they have purchased and they were able to save $110,000. Walter Wilk says fire went through a well thought out process of budgeting and through a number of decision making processes to save money for the town. Fire has gotten a lot of donations through the industrial park. Neil likes to look outside of the box and he came up with a plan that every 4 years he can replace ambulance through funding. Neil stated that in last 10-15 years the run volume has doubled. However, manpower has not. They use a system of 8 men per shift. Many times due to illness, etc. they run short. Fire Chief states that Mansfield is a very unique town. Mansfield has five elderly housing in town. The Fire Department has received donations from elderly housing. The Fire Chief is asking for in an increase in personnel. He feels there should be 10 per shift; with 10 people on a shift it will assure that he has 8 people on duty. Walter wants to know what will be cost down the road. The Fire Chief would have to hire 8 additional people to guarantee 10 people per shift. Bill Ross states that we are spending a lot of money in overtime to keep 8 per platoon. It may save actually money by hiring more because we will not be paying more overtime. Fire Department is looking to opt out of Blue Cross Blue Shield Plan. Medicare plus 200% is what most communities have. Medicare revenue would increase $140,000. Chief says the insurance companies pay ambulance costs. John Stanbrook suggests down the road, they can create an enterprise fund for ambulance. Steve Schoonveld asks how Fire Chief feels about moving the fire station. Fire Chief is fine with it. Presentation and Review of Department of Public Works Budget Lee Azinheira, DPW Director Walter Wilk explains what Finance Committee is trying to accomplish. Scott Feely adds that when making investments in equipment and infrastructure, the DPW has to take the brunt of that with less funding and not having the right equipment. Not using monies has put a strain on the DPW much more than other departments. Water Lee Azinheira introduces Kurt Gaffney, Water Operations Manager. Revenues this year are doing well. Water Department will finish off at the end of the fiscal year with $400,000. Water Department has implemented a 6% increases in rates per year. Lee Azinheira says there are big changes in the budget for FY13 to FY14. All well projects are 99% complete. Albertini and Walsh are operating now. No significant Page i 2 Finance Committee Meeting March 2,2013 changes for budget. Now they have addressed the treatment plants, the Water Department is looking at the transite piping in town. Once it starts to break in one place, they seem to break in others. We will be gradually updating the pipes. Lee Azinheira will be developing a long-term plan on piping. Bill Ross states that contracts are up June 30th this year. Liz Christo asks if going the Water Department is changing to monthly billing. Lee Azinheira states that sometime during FY14, the Water Department will transition everyone to monthly billing. Monthly billing will make it easier for people to budget and also residents will be able to identify leaks sooner. Bill Ross states the Town may consolidate the reading process with Electric Department. Kurt Gaffney invites Finance Committee to attend the May 15th open house at new treatment plant. WWTP Revenues for this year are consistent. No change in the budget. WWTP reduced 2 positions when they relocated to Norton but we are looking forward to expansion. This budget is level funded. Increase is from pumps in west Mansfield. Capacity of plant and work we that is done is to take ground water out of system. Lee Azinheira suggests that Inflow & Infiltration (I&I) need to be looked at. The next phase is to do additional monitoring to find out where the problems are. Last spring was too dry. Walter Wilk asks if I&I is in budget. Bill Ross says that it is. Scott Feely asks what the ramifications are over the years. Lee I&I is an ongoing problem. Jim Bazinet asks if sewer expansion program is place. No plan to extend sewer expansion at time. Bill Ross says that is complicated. West Mansfield has no extension plan because the septic works and soils are good. DEP has encouraged excess flow and going back to ground. WWTP is a biological process. It needs flow and material to keep the bugs alive. It is a very complicated biological process. Bill Ross invites everyone to visit the plant. Highway Lee Azinheira and Mark Cook, Highway Division Manager ASME unit contracts come up this year. In the long-term we are looking to add another skilled laborer. We are doing more roads with less people. Lee Azinheira says some work is sub-contracted. The long-term goal would be to add another laborer and have two crews. Highway Division has been challenged over the years. The have been trying to keep up on the roads. The roads need improvements. After winter season, we always take a look and find out what roads have deteriorated over the winter. Walter Wilk asks if we put contracts out for this work. Lee Azinheira talks about SERGES contract for supplies. Mark Cook says chip seal, for example, the prep work is done in house; the chip seal is outsourced. SERGES makes quantity of materials affordable. Larger projects are outsourced. Patching of potholes are done in house. Catch basin cleaning out has to be done. It has been put off for a while. Discussions on wish list process. Public Buildings/Special Projects- Mike Ahern Page 13 Finance Committee Meeting March 2,2013 PBSP is responsible for all public buildings excluding schools. Public buildings increase in budget is due to much needed maintenance on public buildings. There is not request for additional staff, however, in the five-year plan, he would like additional staff. DPW administration and parking— Betty Peter, Office Manager FY 14 will include the Engineering Budget. This is a major change. The trash and recycling program was originally budgeted for $20,000 in the red and with current numbers it is $50,000 in the red. That money will be transferred within departments. Parking The rate was changed last July from $4 to $2 ($2 for residents and $4 for out of town). This did not bring revenues down because more residents went back to parking lots. Parking garage feasibility study is being looked into. Bill Ross asked Lee Azinheira if this account could absorb one police car every 5-7 years. John Stanbrook will look into whether this is legal. More discussion on vehicles. Fl osm Z;Z Motion:To adjourn meeting at 12pm (Chemburkar/Schoonveld); Approved Roll call vote: Christo aye, Bazinet aye, Chemburkar aye; Schoonveld aye, Feely aye, Chairman Wilk aye. Cij/r 4 / 3 Signat re of Clerk Date of Approval Page 14 Finance Committee Meeting March 2,2013