out of view work on fiscal 2017 budget:

I have spoken with the town administrator.

Our budget numbers work. There was a summing error in one of the codes. He has told me he is fixing it and we should have correct print outs. 

Gordon

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

From: Robert Markel Sent: Friday, May 13, 2016 3:01 PM To: Barrieau, Mark; Bartolomeo, Bev; Fulton, Katharine; Greene, Michael; jpb01468; Moore, Gordon; Spring, Wil Reply To: Robert Markel Subject: Budget

I was about to print the FY'17 budget with Advisory Committee recommendations.  Decided to check all formulas and found that the TAB budget recommendation is $19K over. 
Recommend that you convene tomorrow and vote changes.  The Selectmen are going to vote the change that I implemented with regard to the Veterans Services budget, although they have already approved the changes. 

Bob
Robert T. Markel
Interim Town Administrator
Town of Templeton
160 Patriots Road
East Templeton, MA 01438
(978)894-2753

posted by Jeff Bennett

in case you missed it:

From: Robert Markel <townadministrator@templeton1.org>
To: "Brooks, Diane" <seldhaleybrooks@templeton1.org>, "Columbus, John" <seljcolumbus@templeton1.org>, John Caplis <selectmen.caplis@templeton1.org>, "Morrison, Doug" <seldmorrison@templeton1.org>, "Richard, Julie" <seljrichard@templeton1.org>
Date: May 12, 2016 at 11:20 AM
Subject: Advisory Committee Recommendations

The proposed operating budget for Fiscal 2017 with Advisory Committee recommendations is attached.  

Their approach is based upon a reduction in expected revenue from New Growth.  For Fiscal 2016, new growth brought in an additional $94,000.  In the prior year, it was $69,000.  

I estimated new growth producing an additional $80,000 in revenue for FY'17.  Thought that this was a conservative estimate, below the current year, in an economy that is doing better.  The Advisory Committee cut the expected new growth revenue to $50,000, and they reduce the Town Administrator salary to $52,000 from $80,000 and they reduce the line item for wage and salary adjustments from $35,000 to $12,000 while giving a raise to the Deputy Assessor, the only Town employee given a raise directly in the budget of the Advisory Committee.  

Assessors are always ultra-conservative about estimating new growth.  Have never encountered Assessors who do it differently.  If our Assessors stand up at Town Meeting and support the lower number, the ATM will likely go along with Advisory Committee recommendations.  Singling out their Deputy Assessor for a raise will likely increase the pressure on the Assessors to support the AC new growth figure.

The BoS and I have supported a higher salary for the Deputy Assessor during the past year.  Her salary in FY'15 was $43K.  She was given two increases in FY'16 that brought her salary to $54K, and she was given an additional $2K in t our FY'17 budget.  Luanne is an excellent employee and she deserves a good salary.  I question why a $12K increase over two fiscal years is inadequate.  Is the AC attempting to influence the Assessors to support for their view of new growth?

I had $25,000 in the Selectmen's budget for raises for non-unionized employees.  It was raised to $35,000 in case we need to increase the Fire Chief's salary during recruitment.  The current Chief is paid $64K.  I put $70K in the FY'17 budget and an additional $10 buried in the BoS budget in case we need it.  

Also, the BoS has said that they want to recruit a permanent T.A. during Fiscal '17.  Why reduce the T.A. salary in the budget when it will have to be raised back to $80K or beyond during recruitment?

Kelli said that Jeff Bennett prevailed upon the AC to raise the budget for Veterans Benefits to $95K.  Not sure why.  AC supports the revolving fund which will use state reimbursements to fund Veterans Benefits.

Rm

Two days before Annual Town meeting and politics at play for the budget. Looks like selectmen wanted to make sure it was their budget that got voted on. 

posted by Jeff Bennett

According to the annual town report of 2015 for Templeton and the budget for 2017, there is an item of $4,000.00 for Templeton scholarship fund. This item appears under the "operating budget and salaries of the Town. So here is the question; is this proper? A scholarship fund is not required for the town to run. It is a nice gesture and has been appropriated in the past, as a separate warrant article. As a matter of good business practice, perhaps it would be best to keep the business expenses and gifts separate and have separate articles. It was going to be a separate article this year, but the selectmen forgot to put the article on the warrant so at the last minute, it was put into the operating budget. On a budget spread sheet dated April 20, 2016, it was listed under warrant article appropriations and if you look at the Town budget spread sheet on the Templeton website, you will find scholarship under "total miscellaneous" which is different from what the selectmen voted. Yup, everything is fine with Templeton finance.

posted by Jeff Bennett