from MMA - July 11, 2016

Gov. Charlie Baker signed the fiscal 2017 state budget bill last Friday after vetoing $256 million in spending.
 
The $38.9 billion post-veto spending plan reflects the slack in state tax collections over the last half of fiscal 2016, a situation that is forecast to carry over into this year. Projected spending for fiscal 2017 increases by just 1.3 percent in the governor’s plan.
 
In his letter to the Legislature upon signing the budget, the governor wrote that preliminary estimates for tax collections in fiscal 2016 fell between $425 million and $475 million below projections, and that the forecast for the year that just began has been scaled back by $650 million to $950 million. While a part of the shortfall was accounted for in the Legislature’s budget bill, approved on June 30, the governor went further in cutting spending across the budget, including nearly 500 earmarked spending accounts.
 
The governor vetoed almost one-third of the law changes proposed in the budget bill.
 
In an important win for cities and towns, the vetoes included Section 45, which would have extended for an additional two years the freeze on contributions toward the cost of health insurance for retired local government employees. This rule would have applied to those cities and towns that used the provisions of the 2011 municipal health insurance reform law to reduce costs. The MMA will be asking the House and Senate to sustain the governor’s veto.
 
The governor approved funding for the main municipal and school aid accounts as appropriated by the Legislature. Unrestricted General Government Aid is funded at $1.02 billion, an increase of $42 million, the same amount recommended by the governor in January and approved by the House and Senate. Chapter 70 education aid is funded at $4.6 billion, an increase of $116 million.
 
The governor did veto $3.7 million in funding for special education “circuit breaker” reimbursements. The post-veto amount of $274 million falls short of the full funding amount calculated earlier in the year by as much as $10 million.
 
The governor also vetoed $216,000 in library aid, $8 million from the municipal regionalization grant program, $6.3 million from the state revolving fund contract assistance account, and a variety of smaller municipal and school accounts. The MMA is reviewing the impact on cities and towns.
 
The Legislature is expected to consider overrides of some vetoes this week.

posted by Jeff Bennett

Time to call state legislators and tell them it is time for them to fully fund these requirements. If the state wants to mandate special education requirements, then pay for it.

The document is dated October 30, 2015 and it shows a box with borrowing: BAN or bond anticipation note otherwise called short term borrowing. The fiscal year 2017 has a line item of $10,000.00 for short term interest but shows no short term debt. Back to the box, BAN utilized during construction of new school. Borrowing rate of 3.5%, for 28 years. Debt forecasts include the reduction of NRSD debt of $438,000.00 in FY 2018/2019. That is a budget line item, so it looks like the plan is to use that already going out the door expense will just shift over to pay for the school, rather than for the town to use for savings and other things. I think what needs to happen is to have that as an article for town meeting. Let the towns people vote on it and tell them clearly what is involved with no sales pitch.

posted by Jeff Bennett

Hi Jeff,

I don’t not have any paperwork on the new school.  Maybe the selectmen’s office or the school.  If you are looking for general ledger information that would be Kelli.

Kate Myers

Town of Templeton

Treasurer/Collector

PH 978.894.2764

FAX 978.894.2790

From: jpb01468@comcast.net [mailto:jpb01468@comcast.net]
Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2016 8:04 AM
To: Treasurer
Subject: Re: End of year transfers

Good Day,

       Kate,

   I am wondering do you have the latest project budget versus actual for the Templeton new elementary school? If you do and it is available electronically, could you send that to me? If it is not, please advise me when I could pick up a paper copy.

respectfully;

Jeff Bennett

How is it a Town Treasurer does not have any paperwork on a project of 47 million dollars? There has already been a vote of the Town on $1,050,000.00 and that money has been or is being spent now. That is a record of Town debt and a Town Treasurer has no paperwork? That seems to be a repeating problem, lack of process and procedure and transparency involving public money. 

posted by Jeff Bennett

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