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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFINCOM MIN 08272009 Town of Mansfield Finance Committee Minutes of August 27, 2009 ! ;, ,r ,.. __ j "L:U lfrn ....l-U' '"'II.., :' 0 /\ '(1. ,... 7 ,"",_. "''1 ,.. '.~ n :~'.t : ('f ..-f J iv Attending: Charlene Lavin Andres Gazzolo Karl Chambers Tommy Ratliff Jack Goldberg James Lazzara Motion: To Open at 7:30p.m. (Chambers - Lavin) 6 - 0 Passes Mr. Gazzolo began the meeting with a review of the agenda. He said that year to date the town is short approximately $75,000; about $10,000 for election, $15,000 for fire contracts and $50,000 for insurance. He said that Ms. Kearney is currently working to finish closing out the 2009 budget now. Mr. Lazzara mentioned that the school's did not buy the chillers that were included in the 2009 budget; he asked if that money would be returned to the reserve fund. Mr. Gazzolo responded that the state will need to certify the money so that it can be re-appropriated to the schools again. Mr. Lazzara mentioned that the schools were working on the figures for the fire exits; Mr. Gazzolo mentioned that they may not have the money to assign to that right now. Mr. Gazzolo said that the members of the Finance Committee are currently working on several projects and noted that the Finance Committee can only make recommendations, they can not take actions. Mr. Gazzolo said that he asked if they could possibly take the payroll system out of the town and privatize it. He said that they are looking into its cost effectiveness. Mr. Goldberg mentioned that if privatizing the payroll does not lower head count than it defeats the purpose of privatizing it. Health Care Review Mr. Lazzara said that there is a group that is looking at the Bristol County Healthcare Collaborative compared to what else is available, what other towns have, and what the state is offering. He said that there is a member of the Board of Selectmen that are collecting on these benefits and that he feels they are not a disinterested party, he suggested that the Finance Committee draft a memo to the Board of Selectmen in regards to this. Mr. Gazzolo said that there is a group in place looking into this and that the Board of Selectmen have been thinking to expand to a larger new group. Mr. Goldberg mentioned that because someone has a personal interest in the results of the findings it is a conflict of interest. Mr. Gazzolo said that the Finance Committee has been asked to put one representative on this new committee. Vote Motion to decline to participate in a new committee being formed, beyond the one in existence, to look into healthcare alternatives as it could potentially pose a conflict of interest. (Goldberg - Lavin) 6 - 0 Passes Mr. Gazzolo said that the group that is currently in place looking into health care options is on track to have a recommendation on this by the proposed deadline of October. Ambulance Service Mr. Ratliff said that he looked at a breakdown of keeping the ambulance service in town versus going out for services. He said that the bottom-line the revenue for staying in house should be $68,000 and that if they were to privatize services it would still end up costing the town money since they would still need to ". have two people respond to each call. He said that most towns are paying somewhere between $200,000 and $700,000 to have out of town service. Chief Boldrighini said that most ambulance services keep one vehicle in town and then stage a second vehicle somewhere between two towns that they service. This could cause a long wait for response time to a call and that the town would still be sending a truck with a firefighter to respond. Chief Boldrighini said that independent of the quality of service the costs alone show that the service should stay within the town. Vote Motion to send a memo to the Board of Selectmen recommending that the ambulance service be maintained within the town. (Ratliff - Goldberg) 6 - 0 Passes Mr. Lazzara asked if there was anyway that they could add in a revenue expectation for the service; Mr. Goldberg responded that the town would need an enterprise account for that. Mr. Goldberg inquired on the immediate condition of the ambulances. Chief Boldrighini said that both ambulances will probably need to be replaced within a year. He said that they were in similar condition to the two fire trucks that were recently replaced, and that similarly to buying fire trucks it takes about a year for the town to receive a new ambulance once it has been ordered. Light Department Mr. Gazzolo said that he spoke with Mr. Aptowitz, the chair of the light department, and that there is a deficit for this year. He said that they were looking at whether the town can justify having a light department or if it should be sold. He said that they could possibly sell the light department for between $80 and $100 million and they could use that money to start earning interest as well as fill in some of the budget holes. Mr. Lazzara asked about the market value of the light department, but that is unknown. Mr. Lazzara said that he agreed this should be looked into; however, he is concerned that the money from the sale of the light department would be depleted by other expenses and not used to earn interest for the future. GIS Mr. Costa and Ms. Jin made a presentation to the Finance Committee on GIS. Mr. Costa said that it costs the town less than $75,000 per year to maintain the GIS internally and that it would be a minimum of $150,000 to outsource the maintenance. He compared Mansfield to Dedham, and explained that Dedham outsourced their GIS and then went back to maintaining it in house because there was no savings. Ms. Jin explained how the GIS works and how the different departments within the town are able to share information. She gave a demonstration of how the GIS system works using the high school and a building in the industrial park. Mr. Lazzara asked who completes the data upgrades. Ms. Jin said that the fire department has mobile GIS where they do the update and then it is synchronized to the software so that other departments can access that information. Mr. Costa explained that there are two databases, one for the residences and one for the town employees. Mr. Ratliff asked about how much information is still being collected. Ms. Jin said that about 5% of the information is changing. Mr. Sullivan, the town engineer and a member of the GIS Steering Committee, spoke to the Finance Committee and said that in the beginning of the GIS development the Steering Committee made sure that everything would be done in house so that the town does not have to rely on outside consultants. He said that it would cost the town about three times as much to have the system maintained outside the town. .., " Mr. Goldberg said that the Finance Committee needs more information than just the base salary. Ms. Jin said that the GIS help the schools with the bus system. Mr. Gazzolo asked if there were any major upgrades planned. Mr. Costa said that people are always coming to GIS with special projects. Mr. Lazzara asked if there were any internal transfers to GIS from other departments. Mr. Costa said that the staff is paid for through the GIS budget but that the other costs are broken out to the other areas and that it is partially paid for through enterprise accounts. Discussion Vote Motion to approve the transfer of $375.26 from vehicular supplies to secretarial/clerical. (Lavin - Lazzara) 6 - 0 Passes Vote Motion to approve the transfer of $75.00 from repair equipment to overtime. (Lazzara - Lavin) 6 - 0 Passes Vote Motion to approve the transfer of $453.29 from office supplies to seasonal service. (Lavin - Lazzara) 6 - 0 Passes Mr. Goldberg said that the town accountant search committee interviewed five or six candidates that previous Monday evening. He said that they have invited three of those candidates to participate in a situational questionnaire. Mr. Goldberg said that Jason Porter was confirmed to the audit committee the previous evening. He also said that he received an inquiry from another town about forming an audit committee and that they wanted to know how Mansfield went about forming theirs. Mr. Goldberg said that the town is hoping for at least a week of overlap between Ms. Kearney and the new town accountant. He said that Ms. Kearney would like to leave in early October. Mr. Gazzolo said that the search company for the town manager position has received 30 to 40 applications and that they will be narrowing those down and providing some applicants to the town in the near future. He said that he thinks it will be at least December before they have someone. Mr. Goldberg questioned who would be doing the town budget. He said that Mr. Riccio would be doing this with the assistance of Ms. Kearney and the Finance Committee. Mr. Gazzolo said that the Finance Committee needs to update the five year forecast; he said that they will put it together even though they have not received the numbers from the state. He said that he is concerned about the expense side. Motion: To Close at 8:35p.m. (Lavin - Lazzara) 6 - 0 Passes I 0 ; J [~) l )et Date of Approval - . ..