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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFINCOM11072013Town of Mansfield Finance Committee Minutes of November 7, 2013 Present: Chairman Walter Wilk; Steve Schoonveld, Vice Chairman; Members: Michael O'Brien,, Scott Feely, James Bazinet and Yogen Chemburkar. Bill Ross, Town Manager; John Stahlarook, Town Accountant Absent: Liz Christo, Clerk Call to Order: Chairman Wilk called the meeting to order at 7:30 pm Review of Policies and Procedures Yogen Chemburkar reviewed two policies and procedures with input from Scott Feely. Scott Feely made some changes of wording for more clarification. Yogen Chemburkar sent the changes to John Stanbrook and John did not have any problems with the any of the changes. Walter Wilk feels the big changes are the percentages and Walter would like John Stanbrook and Bill Ross to look at the percentages and make sure they are reasonable. Walter Wilk asks John Stanbrook and Bill Ross to review the policies and procedures and get sign off to be able to present policies and procedures to the Board of Selectmen in January or February 2013. Bill Ross wants the School Committee to sign off on - olices and procedures as well. Scott Feely had some questions on the Free Cash Policy although he feels it should say "operating expenditures ". On the debt policy that was given to Scott Feely at CIP, the 10% ceiling on debt services seems to be reasonable. However, the floor needs additional discussion. John Stanbrook wanted to have a bracket between numbers to try to keep some debt going and not have it all in operating. Scott Feely asks if the people at S & P offered specific guidance for policies and procedures. John Stanbrook says they just wanted to see policies the Town was going to follow. Walter Wilk asks Bill Ross and John Stanbrook if it is reasonable to get this passed by February 1s`. They responded yes. Steve Schoonveld asks what needs to be done to make this happen. Bill Ross responds that the Finance Committee needs to make their recommendation as well as he and John Stanbrook and take to the School Committee and Board of Selectmen and get their recommendation as well. For policies and procedures to get voted through all three parties need to sign of on policies and procedures for them to be adopted. John Stanbrook will work on a draft of policies and procedures for debt on the enterprise accounts. Finance Committee needs to be involved in this. CIP Page I I Finance Committee Meeting November 7, 2013 Walter Wilk asks about the High School Wall and is it following the original parameters or is the cost increasing. Bill Ross says they are still working on it and the cost will be about around $200,000 above what was expected. Cott Feely updates CIP. There are a significant number of requests for CIP totaling $14,075,000 which is overstated by about $350,000 because the Fire Dept emergency vehicle is coming out of a revolving fund. $12.5million is for the design and construction of the DPW Facility. We are looking at about $1.5 million of other items and it does include road money. Free cash could cover all of this. Potentially we could cover all of CIP requests and put some money in stabilization fund. Walter Wilk asks about North Common, flagpole and concrete sidewalks. This is not in CIP. Bill Ross says this needs to be discussed if we have extra cash as well as discuss the re -doing of Oakland Street and converting Oakland Street back into two lanes and a round -a -bout. This is the whole reconstruction of North Common. This will be good for the Town. It will get rid of a lot of trucks and open up about 35 more parking spaces on Mansfield Avenue and the traffic flow will be a lot smoother in that area. Doug Annino has been working with the Town on the conceptual design of the North Common. This will encourage re- development for the private sector. Bill Ross anticipates within the next three weeks he will have some drawings to show the Finance Committee. Conceptual study on parking deck is the next step which will cost $60,000 - $70,000. Bill Ross said one of the bigger projects is Maple Street and replace electric conduit and water main next spring. FAA has given grants to remove trees from Airport. Scott Feely likes the request from Parks and Recreation for $20,000 for playground equipment. . ive -Year Plan Conservative, aggressive and moderate assumptions are prepared by John Stanbrook. Miscellaneous revenues are up. Walter asks about FY 16 budgets. Are there any surprises from the Town or the Schools that the Finance Committee should know about? Bill Ross says all the contracts will be open from the general fund this spring. We will be negotiating. They will be expiring on June 30, 2014. Bill Ross and Selectmen have agreed on a contract with the DPW ASCME Unit. The increases are 2 %, 2% and 3 %. Police, Fire, Supervisory, Non - Supervisory and Clerical all expire on June 30, 2014. Bill Ross anticipates negotiating all those units in the spring. All employees are covered under the South East Mass Health Group including teachers. Steve Schoonveld talks about health care being very different than GIS. Bill Ross says the Town is driven by State Law 32B. We are required by State Law to provide an indemnity plan which is considered a PPO. We do provide an HMO as an alternative which the bulk of employees have at their choice. We are also required also to bargain all of these changes. Steve Schoonveld asks Bill Ross to discuss his personal healthcare plan. HMO blue value plan plus office visit $25 co -pay; scans are $75 co -pay but if you go to Shields or independent MRI there are no co -pays; ER are $100 co -pay; day surgery is a $250 co -pay; hospital stay is $500; prescriptions are $15 for generic (90 -day supply); $30 for prescriptions and $50 for pecialty drugs. The PPO enhanced value is the same. The cost for employees for HMO blue value plan Page 12 Finance Committee Meeting November 7, 2013 p us for family per month is $2,421.11 and the Town pays $1,694.75; the employee pays monthly $726.36; In ividual per month is $974 and Town pays $682 and the employee pays $292. The split is 70/30. Retirees vA are required to cover them under state law. :eve Schoonveld discusses his personal health care package. Walter Wilk has a high pay deductible plan too. Yogen does not have HMO either. Scott Feely's is similar to Town's plan. Steve Schoonveld says the point of this discussion is to be aware of health care and Cadillac tax when negotiating contracts in the future. The Town of Mansfield is required to have health insurance options no less than what the current GIC offers. State law provides that and the unions know that. Steve Schoonveld suggests getting a consultant to analyze the Cadillac tax in the future. It could potentially impact employees in the future. Audit Committee Update from James Bazinet Only two sets of minutes for the Audit Committee on record from the Town Clerk's office. The last minutes on record are from January 2013. James Bazinet is searching to find out who is responsible for that. He is researching the audit committee's role. Also waiting to hear from other Town's in regards to their audit committee. For the record James wants to request a meeting with Walter Wilk and Jess Aptowitz to discuss several issues that should not be discussed in open meeting. James Bazinet says he is not the audit committee's chairman be cause it is not on the website nor are there any minutes from the audit committee's meeting to back that up. Walter Wilk asks Bill Ross to see if he can get those minutes. Once the minutes are generated, James Bazinet plans on sitting down with Bill Ross to discuss the blue prints of Malloy report. ,ill Ross states the auditors are doing the general fund audit now and we anticipate having it by the end of the year. Bill Ross' understanding of the audit committee role is that it works with the auditor hired by the Town and address any deficiencies that are found and accept the audit and give that report to Board of Selectmen and School Committee. James Bazinet is trying to formalize the audit plan. Update on Selling of Town land (John Stanbrook) Roxanne Donovan, Town Treasurer, is researching five parcels for the tax examiner and should be done by the end of the year. The plan is to auction those five parcels in the spring. Adjourn Motion to Adjourn at 9:30pm (O'Brien / Bazinet) Approved Roll call vote: Chemburkar aye; Schoonveld aye, Feely aye, O'Brien; Bazinet aye; and Chairman Wilk aye a,� I /Z 311 Page 13 Finance Committee Meeting November 7, 2013