Statement of Stoneham Interim Town Administrator Bob Markel

JESSICA SACCO ⋅ CITY/TOWN NEWS, CLIENT NEWS, FIRE NEWS ⋅ DEATH, STONEHAM, STONEHAM FIRE DEPARTMENT, STONEHAM FIREFIGHTER DAVID ATHERTON ⋅ 1 COMMENT

Town of Stoneham
Bob Markel, Interim Town Administrator
35 Central Street
Stoneham, MA 02180-2044

For Immediate Release

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Contact: John Guilfoil
Phone: 781-533-9398
Email: john@jgpr.net

Statement of Stoneham Interim Town Administrator Bob Markel

STONEHAM — Interim Town Administrator Bob Markel issues the following statement in response to the death of Stoneham Firefighter David Atherton:

“Today, our community is coming to grips with a tragedy that resulted in a young man losing his life. Firefighter David Atherton was only 24 years old but had already served his country as a National Guard veteran and his community as a firefighter. On behalf of the entire community, I offer my most sincere condolences to Firefighter Atherton’s family and friends and his fire department family during this difficult time. I was very proud and moved by the fire department’s response overnight, as firefighters lined the roadway in a show of respect to their brother firefighter.”

###

Posted: Tuesday, June 28, 2016 8:53 am | Updated: 8:56 am, Tue Jun 28, 2016.

By PATRICK BLAIS | 0 comments

© The Stoneham Independent

STONEHAM, MA - The Board of Selectmen last Thursday retained former Springfield Mayor Robert Markel, a seasoned municipal CEO with decades of leadership experience, to serve as temporary town administrator.

During a regularly scheduled meeting this week in Town Hall, the Board of Selectmen introduced the new hire to the public during an unplanned visit by the temporary town administrator, who officially begins his tenure in Stoneham this Thursday.

Markel beat out an unspecified number of other candidates vying for the temporary position. The selectmen, who voted to appoint him during a meeting in Town Hall’s second floor conference room last Thursday, did not disclose how long his employment pact will last.

Details about how much he is being compensated were also not divulged at the meeting this week, and calls placed by The Stoneham Independent to at least two selectmen for that information were not returned by presstime on Wednesday morning.

Most recently serving as the interim town manager in Templeton, Markel boasts an impressive resume, which includes serving as Springfield’s mayor, as well as a full-time town administrator in at least three small communities in Mass. and Maine.

Besides his most recent stint as town manager in Templeton, the career-long public servant also worked for a year in Northfield, another Central Mass. community, as an interim leader beginning in Nov. of 2013.

“He came in today, and I’d like the opportunity to introduce Mr. Markel,” said Board of Selectmen Chair Ann Marie O’Neill on Tuesday night. “He has a very extensive background [in leadership positions]. We’re very lucky to get him while we’re searching for a new town administrator.”

Markel is taking over the managerial reins from Town Administrator David Ragucci, whose contract is not being renewed when it expires on July 1.

The former Mayor of Everett, whose duties were being handled by Town Accountant and former Town Administrator Ron Florino, has already departed Stoneham, as he is taking vacation/leave time in advance of his contract lapsing.

According to Markel, who retired from his career as a full-time public servant in 2012, his heard about the vacancy in Stoneham just after submitting his notice to his employers in Templeton, where he as hired as interim town manager in Jan. of 2014.

“I gave my notice on June 11, and two days later, I applied for [this position]. And here I am,” he remarked. “I met today with all department heads, and I did a little walk around town.”

A long-time Springfield resident, the Notre Dame graduate, who has a doctorate in political science, served on the western mass. city’s School Committee and City Council, before being elected mayor between 1992 and 1996.

In 2001, he began a four-year stint as Norfolk’s town administrator, a position he departed in Feb. of 2005 upon being hired to manage government operations in the Town of Ipswich. He remained in that town administrator’s post until 2011, when he moved on to become town manager in Kittery, Maine.

He retired a year later.

posted by Jeff Bennett

Who is keeping track of Templeton debt?
Whose legal duties is it?
Why is it always different in Templeton?
Is that the core problem with Templeton finance?

This is an part of an email that sheds some light on this:

Holly is Holly Young, who works in the office of selectmen, so where is the Town Treasurer in all of this?

You beat me to the punch.  I was planning to send this info to you but the day got away from me. 

Attached is what I distributed and discussed at last night’s meeting.  The first page is the project budget, showing invoiced to date per budget line etc. The second page is the process that we go through in entering and tracking invoices through the propay  system.  The third page is a printout from the propay system showing the current status.  If you like I can discuss these with you. 

Currently Holly has done a great job getting the invoices into the propay system and getting things up to date.  At this point everything is as far as it can go until the MSBA allows her to enter the full budget into the system, currently only the Feasibility budget is in the Propay system.

Timothy Alix 
Project Manager
Project Management | Northeast
Main +1 413 592 0030 X123 | Mobile +1 860 930 5036 | Fax +1 413 285 8592 Tim.Alix@colliers.com

Colliers International

(formerly Strategic Building Solutions)
67 Hunt Street | Suite 119

Agawam, MA 01001 | United Stateswww.colliers.com/projectmanagementnortheast

posted by Jeff Bennett

Time to look at the financing that was put forward for the new elementary school in Templeton. The details may cause your head to spin. On a hand out from one meeting is the inclusion of current debt share of Templeton for Narragansett school district. It involves the end of NRSD debt payment from Templeton with the listed amount of $438,073.00. The document along with an article in the Gardner News, indicates Templeton shifting that money after the debt payments end, to use as partial payment for new school, this is an attempt to sell a low tax rate increase for new debt payment. I guess these people do not think Templeton should be able to take that debt payment money and put it toward savings for the Town. Also keep in mind that there will be increases in school assessment for NRSD and monty tech along with health insurance and retirement. Just keep Templeton down and keep sending every penny you have to us, because it is for the kids. I am looking through all the documentation I can find and will begin putting it forward. So you can see the things that you may have missed during the sales pitch by the "hired gun". By the way, on this document, it shows a yearly payment of $1,406,865.00 for a 24 million dollar loan for 28 years. Right now, a dollar on the tax rate raises about $550,000.00, so would $1.74 per thousand raise over one million dollars? NO, so how or where did the $!.74.00 come from? By telling you, the town, that you cannot save anything,

posted by Jeff Bennett

Massachusetts General Law

chapter 44

Section 53E1/2. Notwithstanding the provisions of section fifty-three, a city or town may annually authorize the use of one or more revolving funds by one or more municipal agency, board, department or office which shall be accounted for separately from all other monies in such city or town and to which shall be credited only the departmental receipts received in connection with the programs supported by such revolving fund. Expenditures may be made from such revolving fund without further appropriation, subject to the provisions of this section; provided, however, that expenditures shall not be made or liabilities incurred from any such revolving fund in excess of the balance of the fund nor in excess of the total authorized expenditures from such fund, nor shall any expenditures be made unless approved in accordance with sections forty-one, forty-two, fifty-two and fifty-six of chapter forty-one.

Interest earned on any revolving fund balance shall be treated as general fund revenue of the city or town. No revolving fund may be established pursuant to this section for receipts of a municipal water or sewer department or of a municipal hospital. No such revolving fund may be established if the aggregate limit of all revolving funds authorized under this section exceeds ten percent of the amount raised by taxation by the city or town in the most recent fiscal year for which a tax rate has been certified under section twenty-three of chapter fifty-nine. No revolving fund expenditures shall be made for the purpose of paying any wages or salaries for full time employees unless such revolving fund is also charged for the costs of fringe benefits associated with the wages or salaries so paid; provided, however, that such prohibition shall not apply to wages or salaries paid to full or part-time employees who are employed as drivers providing transportation for public school students; provided further, that only that portion of a revolving fund which is attributable to transportation fees may be used to pay such wages or salaries and provided, further, that any such wages or salaries so paid shall be reported in the budget submitted for the next fiscal year.

A revolving fund established under the provisions of this section shall be by vote of the annual town meeting in a town, upon recommendation of the board of selectmen, and by vote of the city council in a city, upon recommendation of the mayor or city manager, in Plan E cities, and in any other city or town by vote of the legislative body upon the recommendation of the chief administrative or executive officer. Such authorization shall be made annually prior to each respective fiscal year; provided, however, that each authorization for a revolving fund shall specify: (1) the programs and purposes for which the revolving fund may be expended; (2) the departmental receipts which shall be credited to the revolving fund; (3) the board, department or officer authorized to expend from such fund; (4) a limit on the total amount which may be expended from such fund in the ensuing fiscal year; and, provided, further, that no board, department or officer shall be authorized to expend in any one fiscal year from all revolving funds under its direct control more than one percent of the amount raised by taxation by the city or town in the most recent fiscal year for which a tax rate has been certified under section twenty-three of chapter fifty-nine. Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, whenever, during the course of any fiscal year, any new revenue source becomes available for the establishment of a revolving fund under this section, such a fund may be established in accordance with this section upon certification by the city auditor, town accountant, or other officer having similar duties, that the revenue source was not used in computing the most recent tax levy.

In any fiscal year the limit on the amount that may be spent from a revolving fund may be increased with the approval of the city council and mayor in a city, or with the approval of the selectmen and finance committee, if any, in a town; provided, however, that the one percent limit established by clause (4) of the third paragraph is not exceeded.

The board, department or officer having charge of such revolving fund shall report to the annual town meeting or to the city council and the board of selectmen, the mayor of a city or city manager in a Plan E city or in any other city or town to the legislative body and the chief administrative or executive officer, the total amount of receipts and expenditures for each revolving fund under its control for the prior fiscal year and for the current fiscal year through December thirty-first, or such later date as the town meeting or city council may, by vote determine, and the amount of any increases in spending authority granted during the prior and current fiscal years, together with such other information as the town meeting or city council may by vote require.

At the close of a fiscal year in which a revolving fund is not reauthorized for the following year, or in which a city or town changes the purposes for which money in a revolving fund may be spent in the following year, the balance in the fund at the end of the fiscal year shall revert to surplus revenue unless the annual town meeting or the city council and mayor or city manager in a Plan E city and in any other city or town the legislative body vote to transfer such balance to another revolving fund established under this section.

The director of accounts may issue guidelines further regulating revolving funds established under this section.

posted by Jeff Bennett

From the Massachusetts Finance Committee Handbook:

Budget Preparation and Submission
The prime function of the finance committee is reviewing departmental budgets and submitting a balanced budget to town meeting. All municipal officers authorized to spend money must annually
provide the finance committee with estimates of how much funding will be needed “for the prope r maintenance of the departments under their jurisdiction.” These estimates are submitted to the town accountant, or if there is none, to the finance committee or possibly the selectman
 (Chapter 42 s.59 M.G.L.).
These estimates are used in the preparation of a town’s annual operating and capital budgets . The Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) has ruled that finance committees are
responsible for preparing and submitting their municipality’s annual budget. (Chapter 39 s 16, Ch. 41, s 59 and s 60M.G.L), unless there is a charter or bylaw giving this authority to the board of selectman or town manager(DOR’s In Our Opinion, 93-310). The exact format of an annual town budget is community specific. DOR has determined that while the law regarding annual municipal budget format is directed to cities, it should also be followed by towns. The format found in the law addresses itself to budgetary basics. Almost all towns and cities in the Commonwealth go well beyond this in their annual budget presentation package (see Chapter 2). DOR has also ruled that only a town meeting — not the finance committee or selectmen — may determine the exact budget format to be used (see In Our Opinion, 92-145). The state also specifies that only town meeting may transfer appropriated monies. Town meeting cannot delegate this authority to the finance committee (Chapter 44 s33B M.G.L.) , see also In Our Opinion, 92-836). However, in 2006 the state allowed the Board of Selectmen, with the approval of the finance committee to transfer sums between May 1 and July 15. This does not apply to appropriations for the local or regional school systems or light boards. Transfers are limited to 3% of the department budget or $5,000, whichever is greater. Transfers are by majority vote. Further, the courts have ruled generally that even though a town bylaw calls for the finance committee to hold public hearings, these hearings are “incidental” to the proper function of the committee and are there fore not mandatory (Young v. Westport , 302 Mass.597, reaffirmed by Illig v. Plymouth, 337 Mass. 239).

posted by Jeff Bennett

Templeton town By-laws
article IV - Advisory Committee

Section 4. It shall be the duty of the Advisory Committee annually to consider the expenditures in previous years and the estimated requirements for the ensuing year of the several boards, officers and committees of the town, as prepared by them in such form and detail as may be prescribed by said committee. The said committee shall add to such statement of expenditures and estimates another column, giving the amounts which in its opinion should be appropriated for the ensuing year, and shall further add thereto such explanations and suggestions relating to the proposed appropriations as it may deem expedient, and report thereon as provided in section five of Article II.

 Section 5. In the discharge of its duty, said committee shall have free access to all books of record and accounts, bills and vouchers on which money has been or may be paid from the town treasury. Officers, boards, and committees of the town shall, upon request, furnish said committee with facts, figures, and any other information pertaining to their several activities.

The following addition to Town by-laws is shown on the report of Annual Town meeting of May 2014 but not in the general by-laws of the town on Templeton website. There was a question asked and it was forwarded to Town counsel and the legal opinion was forwarded back to the Advisory Committee and it basically states Templeton has conflicting by-laws on the subject of budget and offers a suggestion to fix the issue.

On a substitute motion duly made and seconded the Town voted that Article III “Town Officers“ of the Town By-laws be hereby amended:

4. “It shall be duty of the Town Administrator in conjunction with the BOS to consider expenditures and develop a budget for the ensuing fiscal year of the several boards, officers and committees of the town, as prepared by them in such form and detail as prescribed by the Town Administrator.”

Passed Unanimously/May 19^th @ 8:38pm

So it seems Templeton does not really have clear guidance on who is to prepare and present budget to Town meeting. As a MGL states, unless there is a by-law, it shall be the duty of Advisory Committee, but Templeton does have a by-law, several of them, that are in conflict, and need to be corrected so we can have a clear statement on how the process will go. Then we can go on with the most important part, the dollars and cents.

posted by Jeff Bennett