Select Board Meeting ~ February 9, 2015

2015-02-09 · Select Board · 2:06:40 · watch on YouTube →

A Select Board budget workshop with four of the five selectmen present, working line by line through the roads, planning and fire budgets for 2015. Roads were taken first because road commissioner Sean had to be at a Pownal selectmen's meeting; the board trimmed small tools, equipment maintenance, the road commissioner's shared salary and a truck rental line, bringing the roads total from about $1.291 million to roughly $1.273 million, close to the $1,252,581 spent in 2013. State representative Paul Chase attended and answered questions on the governor's tax package, the loss of revenue sharing and the Androscoggin County charter dispute. The fire chief's revised budget was reviewed, including the cost of adding a ladder truck and a large jump in workers compensation. The board set the raise pool at 2% rather than 3%, department by department, and left the allocation of individual raises to an executive session in April; final numbers were to be voted the following night.

No written minutes could be matched to this meeting. The transcript records that the speaker changed but never who was speaking, so any name attached to a statement below is inferred from context and is marked (?).

What was discussed

1. 0:28
   Opening and order of business

   The chair called the meeting to order with four of the five selectmen present, giving a quorum, and continued the budget workshops. Roads were taken first because road commissioner Sean had to be at a Pownal selectmen's meeting by seven. State representative Paul Chase, attending for the first time after two months of scheduling conflicts, was introduced.

2. 5:45
   Roads budget against 2013

   The 2013 roads figure was $1,252,581; the proposal on the table was $1.291 million, roughly 3% higher over two years. Last year about $50,000 had been cut, essentially from the paving line. A member said the town had repeatedly been told that starting its own public works department would not cost more, and that creeping over that in year one would cut into the board's credibility; another noted the plowing contract had been rising 5% a year.

3. 5:45
   Labour options and the winter assumption

   Ruth (?) had prepared several labour options, and the working version was a mix of options four and six with a 3% raise built in. December payroll was $30,000 and January $33,000, so the options turn on whether four or five months of heavy winter are budgeted, a swing of about $30,000.

4. 10:52
   Overtime and truck maintenance

   A member asked whether the crew could be sent home once they hit 40 hours in a week of good weather, saying he did not want to pay overtime for washing trucks. Sean (?) said the crew take the work for the winter overtime and that preventive maintenance is what suffers when hours are heavy. It was noted that a calendar budget year lets the town adjust in summer once the winter is known.

5. 10:52
   Equipment maintenance and small tools

   Equipment maintenance was proposed at a 51% increase over the $35,000 spent in a partial year; a cut of $5,000 was proposed, bringing it to $48,000. The small tools line was proposed to triple from $2,000 to $6,000, against $3,500 spent in eight months; a member asked whether it could be doubled instead.

6. 16:14
   Spreading equipment purchases and the target figure

   Members argued that a new department should buy the workable tool chest rather than the dream one and spread purchases over years; Sean listed a chop saw, hydraulic press and bench grinder as the specific items. The target discussed was to come in near the 2013 figure of about $1.25 million, since 2014 had been deliberately held low by cutting paving.

7. 16:14
   Fuel line examined

   January fuel came to almost $10,800 at about $3.50 a gallon, and February looked similar; June to October averaged $3,400 a month. Four winter months at $10,000 plus eight summer months at about $27,000 works out near $67,000, so the board concluded there was little room and left the line as proposed.

8. 21:21
   Technology line and the road commissioner's salary

   The technology line was kept at $2,000, covering Freightliner software, after $940 of $1,000 was used. The road commissioner's salary had been guessed at about $75,000 with Durham carrying $45,000; MMA figures suggested a public works director makes about $55,000 to $57,000, though members noted the position covers two towns' roads and crews.

9. 26:38
   Recalculating Durham's share at 60/40

   The road commissioner's costs had been built at a 40% split. Recalculated at 60/40, Durham's portion of the salary drops from $45,000 to $39,000, with corresponding reductions to Maine PERS, Medicare and workers compensation, freeing about $6,000 and bringing the roads subtotal to roughly $1.278 million.

10. 26:38
    Health insurance for employees' families

    Members noted that the town paying a portion of family coverage is the budget committee's perennial objection. Dropping family coverage entirely would save roughly $8,000 for each employee who uses it, which is how most municipalities do it; the town also offers an opt-out worth about $100 a month.

11. 31:59
    Truck rental and sharing vehicles with Pownal

    The $4,500 rental line for the road commissioner's truck was removed on the basis that he can use a town vehicle, with the two boards to work out how the trucks are shared. That brought the working total to about $1,273,185, roughly $21,000 above 2013 or about 1% a year.

12. 31:59
    Preventive maintenance and the ditching workload

    A member said he did not want labour cut to the point that preventive maintenance and washing are skipped, arguing well-maintained equipment lasts and holds trade-in value. Sean (?) said the workload is fixed regardless: about 46 miles of road in each of the two towns still need ditching.

13. 37:15
    Tree work, salt and plow blades

    Tree cutting ran over because of last year's ice storm; the line was kept for work beyond what the crew and its equipment can handle. The salt figure had been corrected upward by $15,000 from an earlier spreadsheet. Plow blades were cut $8,000 after switching to carbide edges, which are lasting as expected.

14. 37:15
    Bond term and what the plow contract would have cost

    The board shortened the bond term rather than take the full term allowed under the warrant, saving interest but raising the annual payment by roughly the $20,000 now at issue. Had the plowing contract been renewed, the town would have been paying close to $737,000, about 60% of the budget, against 45 to 50% now.

15. 42:24
    Feedback on the road crew

    A member relayed that a resident who had publicly doubted the new crew asked him to pass on that he is happy with their work. Others reported mixed comments, and one member said the roads are not what they were under the previous contractor while allowing that the winter had been hard.

16. 42:24
    Planning board: state of the town's ordinances

    A speaker relaying the planning board's last meeting said Durham's ordinances are an uncontrollable mess, almost impossible to adjudicate, with redundancies and passages that contradict each other. The planning board has no time to work on them alongside applications, and its chairman had resigned without a replacement being elected.

17. 47:32
    Options for ordinance help

    The proposal was a three-tiered approach starting with removing inconsistencies and redundancies without structural change, aimed at next year's town meeting. The suggested route was an inter-town arrangement with Bowdoinham to use its town planner, Nicole Brienne (?), at roughly $60 to $70 an hour. The board asked whether GPCOG membership already buys ordinance review; the response was that the previous arrangement with AVCOG cost about $4,500 and produced little beyond definitions and contract extensions.

18. 52:51
    How much to put in the ordinance review line

    A figure of $5,000 to $8,000 was floated, with $5,000 described as the most the budget could stretch to, buying perhaps 150 hours. Because it would be a contract, there would be no FICA or Medicare on it. Members also noted the school is projecting another 9 to 10% increase while the municipal side has been held to 1 or 2%, and had a 2% decrease last year.

19. 52:51
    Androscoggin County charter dispute

    The county charter passed in the last two or three years took commissioners from three to seven and the budget committee from about nine to fourteen. The budget committee cut commissioner compensation to about $3,000 and removed health benefits; the commissioners obtained a legal opinion and overrode that decision. Twelve of the fourteen towns wrote letters of complaint, the attorney general replied that it was not his jurisdiction, and a four-page response from the commissioners was due at the next night's meeting.

20. 57:52
    Taxing nonprofits and land trusts

    Under the proposal, nonprofits with valuation above $500,000 would become taxable, with religious entities excluded. A member asked how land trusts would be treated, since they hold significant property but have no income; the answer was that it depends on whether the property is owned or held in trust and that the question is still open.

21. 57:52
    Revenue sharing, income tax and the homestead exemption

    Durham has roughly $130,000 to $140,000 at stake if revenue sharing is eliminated. The package would cut income tax from about 8% to 6.5% and 5.75% depending on threshold, remove the $10,000 homestead exemption for households under 65 and raise it to $20,000 where someone is over 65. Estimates put the average family a few hundred dollars ahead overall while property tax rises about $200, but members noted revenue sharing disappears faster than the income tax cut arrives.

22. 1:03:46
    Who the shift falls on

    Members raised retirees with no taxable income, who would lose the homestead exemption and gain nothing from an income tax cut, and argued sales and property taxes are the least progressive. It was noted that collectively Durham residents might save $1.2 to $1.4 million in income tax against roughly $140,000 of revenue sharing, but that the two do not fall on the same households.

23. 1:09:02
    Sales tax and the expanded base

    Sales tax would go from 5.5% to 6.5% with the scheduled June sunset eliminated; lodging stays at 8%; the fuel tax is likely to be revisited; and the base would extend to professional services such as accountants and lawyers. Dr. Mike Allen, described as the architect of the plan, had appeared before the taxation committee that afternoon to explain the modelling.

24. 1:09:02
    Bedroom towns and the RSU

    Members observed there are 493 communities in Maine and that towns like Durham and Pownal, without a nonprofit base, do worse under the package than Portland, Auburn or Lewiston. Within the RSU there is no parity between Freeport, Pownal and Durham on school spending. Flat funding of K-12 was raised as a further pressure on property tax.

25. 1:14:18
    The representative's own bills

    Asked whether he had proposed legislation, Paul Chase (?) said he had filed two bills, one to allow Sunday hunting in wildlife management districts with populations under 50,000, as a two-year study running to 2017 measuring licence sales and lodging. He invited the board to contact him and said the governor's administration had been encouraged to hold a public session locally.

26. 1:19:54
    Fire department budget: the increase

    The fire chief brought an updated sheet reflecting only the two changes the board had asked for. Setting aside about $11,500 of workers compensation moved over from administration, the budget is still about $20,000 above last year, of which roughly $15,000 is firefighter labour with the associated workers compensation, Medicare and FICA, and about $2,800 is the chief's salary increase. Call volume was cited at around 50 calls in 40 days.

27. 1:25:05
    Part-time station coverage

    The labour line adds four hours a week in total, taking the covered days from six hours to seven and giving coverage four days a week; Monday the chief is solo. The chief said he had looked at adding Monday but a short day would not attract anyone. The pay scales raise the ceiling for part-time and volunteer staff, who are bunched at the top, while leaving the base unchanged.

28. 1:30:15
    Ladder truck testing and maintenance

    Equipment maintenance rises mainly because of the ladder truck. Vendors advise maintenance increases of several hundred to a few thousand dollars, and annual ladder testing takes the cost from about $600 or $700 to $1,600 or $1,700. All ladders in the department must be tested annually by an outside agency, with in-house inspections in between.

29. 1:30:15
    Personal safety, uniforms and the handbook

    The personal safety line is up, with uniforms now listed under it. Printing and distribution of the handbook is the other change from the way the department has budgeted before.

30. 1:30:15
    Weekend burn permit coverage

    The department staffs the station from nine to eleven on Saturday and Sunday to write burn permits, at about $40 a weekend, which the chief and his officers question the value of, particularly in winter. Permits can now be obtained online from the state for $7; the town cannot charge for a permit itself, though a fee for inspection and record keeping has been done in the past.

31. 1:35:20
    Workers compensation and the coming audit

    Last year the town spent $12,556, all under administration; this year it is split as about $21,000 for public works and $11,488 for fire plus $1,600, roughly $33,000. The insurer's bill estimates summer roads payroll at $75,382 and winter roads at $45,262, about $125,000, against the town's own estimate of $250,000, so the audit is expected to catch up; $1,100 was added to cover last year's shortfall. A member pressed at length on why the figure is nearly three times last year's.

32. 1:40:31
    Fire capital plan

    The chief requested $50,000, against $35,000 last year when he had asked for $40,000. He revised the plan to push a replacement engine out a year and pull the station paving in, putting $40,000 in one year instead of two years of $20,000. The plan rises in $5,000 steps to $100,000 and then holds, running out to about 2030.

33. 1:40:31
    Ambulance transport revenue

    Asked whether the town is reimbursed, the chief said billing is at a paramedic level and revenue from transports goes into the capital account. He said that on higher-cost calls, and depending on what insurance a patient carries, the town is probably not fully covering what the call costs it.

34. 1:45:37
    A capital fund for public works equipment

    A member raised setting money aside toward replacing public works equipment, noting four or five relatively old pieces will need replacing over the next few years. It was left as something to think about once this budget is finished.

35. 1:45:37
    How to handle the workers compensation estimate

    The choice was between paying what the insurer has billed and taking the audit adjustment next year, or budgeting the higher figure now. Members reasoned that deferring would mean carrying $10,000 forward on top of next year's increase, and that anything overpaid comes back as a refund or credit.

36. 1:50:47
    Raises: the roads crew and retroactivity

    A member asked, as devil's advocate, whether a roads crew hired in April and starting in May should get raises at all. It was confirmed that none of the raises are retroactive and that they take effect after town meeting, so the chief's own figure is inflated by assuming a full year. One crew member had already been given a raise at his 90-day review, having been hired at the bottom of the scale.

37. 1:50:47
    Size and structure of the raise pool

    The initial figure was 3%; with COLA cited at 1.34%, members settled on 2%. The board chose a separate pool for each of administration, fire and roads rather than one overall pool, because last year the budget committee had cut the pool and then cut individual salary lines as well, double-cutting. The pool is calculated on base pay, not total payroll including overtime.

38. 1:56:10
    Working with the budget committee

    A member repeated a suggestion that the budget committee meet with the selectmen three or four times a year rather than once, so that the same confusion does not recur at the end of the cycle. Another proposal was to show the pool as a single line in each department's expenses so the committee can see and adjust one figure.

39. 2:01:26
    Where the pool money sits and treating requests equally

    The pool would be spread across the lines each employee is paid from: John under telecommunications, Jill across administration, planning board and telecom, Bri also under Eureka, with Pam and Shannon in administration. The chief had asked for 5% and Jill for $1,550, a little over 2%; the board decided a 2% pool applies across the board rather than honouring individual requests.

40. 2:01:26
    Closing and next steps

    Even after the evening's cuts the overall budget is still running at about a 5.3 to 5.4% increase. Final numbers were to be produced for the following night, when the board would vote on each article in turn. Individual raise allocations would be settled in executive session in April if the pool passes.

What was decided

• 16:14
  Cut $2,000 from the small tools and minor equipment line, taking it from the proposed $6,000 down to $4,000.passed
• 16:14
  Cut $5,000 from the Public Works equipment maintenance line, bringing it to $48,000.passed
• 16:14
  Leave the Public Works fuel line as proposed, after working through winter and summer usage and concluding there was little room in it.passed
• 26:38
  Recalculate the shared road commissioner's cost on a 60/40 split rather than the 40% used in the draft, dropping Durham's portion of the salary from $45,000 to $39,000 with matching reductions to Maine PERS, Medicare and workers compensation.passed
• 31:59
  Remove the $4,500 truck rental line for the road commissioner, on the basis that he can use a town truck, with the arrangement between Durham and Pownal to be worked out by the two boards.passed
• 52:51
  Put $5,000 into the planning board's ordinance review line to hire outside help. The figure was discussed and the line identified as still available, but no assent from the board was recorded on the tape.outcome unclear
• 1:45:37
  Leave the fire department's capital projects request at $50,000 rather than trim it, on the view that the budget committee will cut it anyway.passed
• 1:45:37
  Budget the higher workers compensation figure now rather than pay the insurer's billed estimate and take the adjustment at audit next year, on the basis that anything overpaid comes back as a credit.passed
• 1:50:47
  Set the raise pool at 2% rather than the 3% first proposed, with a separate pool for each of administration, fire and roads, calculated on base pay.passed
• 2:01:26
  Apply the 2% across the board rather than granting the individual requests, which included 5% for the fire chief and $1,550 for one office employee. Allocation of individual raises to be settled in executive session in April.passed
• 2:01:26
  Hold the votes on each budget article over to the following night's meeting, once final numbers reflecting the evening's cuts are produced.passed
• 2:01:26
  A motion was seconded and carried at the very end of the recording. The motion itself is not audible, and the surrounding talk is about switching off equipment.passed

An outcome reads "unclear" where the recording does not state it plainly. The recogniser drops short words, and "the motion does not carry" is one missing word from its opposite.

Worth knowing

• 5:45
  The roads budget came in at $1.291 million against $1,252,581 spent in 2013. A member said the town had been told repeatedly that running its own public works department would cost the same, and that making excuses for an increase in the first full year would damage the board's credibility. After the evening's cuts the figure came down to about $1,273,185.
• 37:15
  Had the town renewed the plowing contract instead of forming its own crew, it would have been paying close to $737,000, around 60% of the roads budget. The plowing share is now nearer 45 to 50%.
• 57:52
  Durham has roughly $130,000 to $140,000 of revenue sharing at stake under the governor's budget. Residents would collectively save an estimated $1.2 to $1.4 million in income tax, but members noted revenue sharing disappears faster than the income tax cut phases in, and that retirees with no taxable income would lose the homestead exemption without gaining anything.
• 1:35:20
  Workers compensation goes from $12,556 last year to about $33,000. The insurer's payroll estimate for roads, $75,382 for summer and $45,262 for winter, is roughly half the town's own estimate of $250,000, so a substantial audit adjustment is expected.

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