Capital Improvement Policy Committee Meeting ~ December 7, 2022

2022-12-07 · Capital Improvement Committee · 2:32:08 · watch on YouTube →

The second Capital Improvement Program committee meeting of the FY23 cycle. Most of the first hour went to the mechanics of the process itself, prompted by the new town manager, Jerry Douglas, saying plainly that he cannot tell the committee what the town's capital reserve balances are because of administrator turnover and spreadsheets that do not agree; the auditor is not comfortable with the figures either. The committee worked through how reserve requests should be framed, settling on one aggregated reserve request per department with a written rationale rather than a separate reserve for each vehicle. The rest of the meeting was given to department heads answering the committee's questions on their applications: the road commissioner on the stream crossing that permitting has turned into a bridge and on a third one-ton truck, and the fire chief on two generators, a rehab of the 1994 Quint, a utility vehicle to replace his personal truck, and a diesel exhaust capture system. No projects were ranked; members will score the applications individually and return the sheets before the next meeting.

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. 0:02
   Introductions and the evening's plan

   Committee members introduced themselves, including Paul of Chester Hill Road, Joe Tomm and Michelle, with Peter as a new member. Also present were town manager Jerry Douglas, the fire chief, who introduced himself as Rob, and road commissioner Calvin Bowman. The plan was to talk through the CIP process, let department heads answer the questions gathered at the last meeting, and then explain scoring.

2. 0:02
   What the committee is for

   Each member completes a score sheet for every application, the sheets are collated, and the result is a ranking of projects. The ranking goes to the budget committee and the select board so they can decide, once the operating budget is set, how much is available and which projects to take first. The committee does not decide funding sources or amounts.

3. 0:02
   Reserve balances cannot be confirmed

   Jerry Douglas (?) said he had spoken with the auditor, who is not comfortable with the reserve balance figures, and that she would take it up with the town's bookkeeper. He asked the committee directly what numbers he is supposed to enter, saying he does not know what the town has in reserve.

4. 5:50
   Why the balances are unknown

   The town manager described a run of administrators leaving and Excel spreadsheets that do not match one another, and said he would not state a reserve figure he could not stand behind. Committee members agreed the reserves are a high priority because the process carries little weight without them, but concluded that ranking the projects can proceed in the meantime. The auditor is scheduled to report on the town's financial position on the 27th.

5. 10:53
   Picking a target for reserve contributions

   With no established balances, the committee's advice was to pick a target and adjust it over time. The aim is that a department saving a set amount each year has the money ready in the year the equipment is due, so the town is not surprised by a truck request at budget time. The town manager showed a schedule with purchase years highlighted and the annual saving needed to reach each one.

6. 16:01
   What the manager's schedule does and does not show

   The schedule shows planned purchases by year but not how much should go into reserve each year, and committee members said both are needed. Members also observed that voters will support infrastructure such as plow trucks and fire apparatus even while arguing over small sums.

7. 21:24
   Reserve balances belong in the schedules

   The policy asks that each department's schedule carry its reserve balance forward, and the committee said it has asked for that for three years without getting it. Members walked through how the balance should roll: a department funds the next several items on its list with one lump reserve request, and the balance carries into the following year. Figures discussed included about $431,000 of spending in FY23 against about $33,000 in 2032, and the tension between that and CIP's aim of levelling the tax rate.

8. 26:48
   The policy and the five-year plan

   Members acknowledged the policy has typos and that its five-year plan section is not well fleshed out, but said the fundamentals are there and that the repeated turnover of managers has meant the committee gets something different every year. The suggestion to the town manager was to offer his schedule as additional material this year rather than in place of the five-year plan the policy calls for. The committee also repeated its request from the last meeting to total the expenditures and the reserve requests so it can see what share of the requests is being funded.

9. 32:26
   One reserve request or one per vehicle

   Using the fire department as the example, a department saving $50,000 a year toward an apparatus costing about $400,000 in 2029 would make a single aggregated reserve request rather than a request per truck. Separately, anything to be bought or done in the coming year, such as the diesel exhaust removal system, is a project and needs its own warrant article.

10. 38:06
    The case against separate reserve accounts

    Paul (?) argued that creating an account per project produces orphan reserves that nobody can later account for, because the institutional knowledge of what the money was for disappears and voters then have to vote to move it. Consolidating into one reserve per department keeps the books manageable and leaves flexibility to decide, years out, whether the ambulance or the engine is the greater need. Members compared it to how the town appropriates a sum for roads without naming the roads on the warrant article.

11. 43:09
    Rationale for the reserve request, and a reserve account per department

    The committee told Calvin Bowman his reserve request itself was fine and that all it wanted was two or three sentences explaining how he arrived at the figure and roughly what it is for. The recommended first step was to establish a reserve account for each department in the town's chart of accounts, and to add finer distinctions later only if they prove necessary.

12. 43:09
    Does a funded request come out of reserve

    A member raised that the manager's sheet shows a $105,000 request reducing the reserve balance from about $216,000 to about $111,000, which reads as spending the reserve. The committee's understanding is that if the town funds the request it is new money, so the reserve balance should not drop. The policy's Figure 2 has columns for request, new cost, reserve before and reserve after, which would track this properly.

13. 48:54
    Level-loading the request

    The point of asking for a consistent figure each year, roughly $200,000 in the public works example, is to keep the budget level rather than swinging between years. The committee said the five-year plan should be derived from the departmental schedules so the whole town picture can be seen at once, and acknowledged the current template is not effective.

14. 54:49
    How to change the policy

    The town manager proposed a workshop to sort the forms out. The committee asked that he and the committee meet first, agree what needs changing, and then bring something concrete to the select board and amend the policy if needed.

15. 59:55
    Stream crossing: proving the crossing is a barrier

    Calvin Bowman answered the committee's question about who determined the stream was blocked for fish passage with photographs of the existing pipes perched half a foot to a foot above the water and a printout from the state database, which lists the crossing as blocked. A diagram compared the two three-foot pipes carrying the flow now with the span of the proposed structure.

16. 1:05:57
    The crossing becomes a bridge

    The new structure has a concrete deck 20 feet long with 18 to 20 inches of gravel and pavement over it, so it drives like a road, but the open span of 17.8 feet was deliberately kept under the 20-foot threshold that would make it a state bridge. The road floods and is closed two or three times a year. The existing culverts date from the early 2000s and were extended around 2008 by Cliff Laramie after a major blowout.

17. 1:05:57
    Cost and lead time on the crossing

    The classification of the streams as habitat brought the Army Corps in and changed the entire scope, making the project much larger than anticipated. The current figure is the engineer's estimate; Calvin Bowman (?) said he hopes it comes in around $250,000. Switching from metal to precast concrete made locally avoids the eight to twelve month lead time quoted for the metal structure.

18. 1:11:41
    Public works reserve request and a third one-ton truck

    Calvin Bowman had tied the $100,000 reserve request to a specific truck, understood at this meeting that an explanation is what is wanted instead, and will change it back. The department has two one-ton trucks and splits into two crews; if one truck is in for repair, a crew is stranded because public works jobs move down the road rather than staying in one place. He noted the fleet went from seven tandem trucks to six at the select board's request.

19. 1:11:41
    Whether trucks can be swapped between departments

    The committee raised the road commissioner's truck, due for replacement in a year or two, and the fire chief's vehicle request, and asked whether a swap makes more sense than buying three trucks. No answer was expected at this meeting; the committee asked the department heads and the town manager to work up a coordinated proposal, describing it as exactly the kind of cross-department problem a manager is for.

20. 1:17:43
    What happens to the truck being kept

    The 2008 truck would come off the replacement schedule and become a spare for the mechanic to fetch parts and move equipment, used less and run to exhaustion, then replaced in turn by the next retired truck. Calvin Bowman (?) said the alternative is staff using personal vehicles to tow trailers and carry materials inside work zones without proper lighting, which he does not want.

21. 1:17:43
    Town hall generator

    The town hall generator failed to start during a recent storm. It is a 48 kW unit manufactured in 2005 that came on a grant, it now has trouble starting, a relay has been ordered, and mice have chewed wiring. Only one quote was obtained, from Electrical Systems of Maine in Auburn, to get the process moving; the work would go out to bid if funded.

22. 1:23:41
    Generator quotes

    The town hall unit has 398 engine hours, and the quote is to downsize it to a 20 kW sized on business occupancy, at $22,800 covering removal, installation, electrical and propane rework and a seven-year extended warranty. The fire station has a 20 kW from 2001 at the twenty-year mark with overheat and electrical problems, and two options were quoted: about $16,000 for a 22 kW or almost $32,000 for a 48 kW. The larger unit is needed because the building is maxed out electrically and adding the exhaust removal system would push the load past the current generator.

23. 1:28:48
    Generator maintenance and monitoring

    Both generators are propane fed, self-test weekly and are serviced annually by Mid Coast Towing, a practice going back five to seven years, carried as a line item under administration. Committee members asked how anyone knows a generator has failed and whether the units report back to a network, which nobody could answer, and suggested at minimum checking them before a forecast storm.

24. 1:34:17
    Fire station electrical capacity

    The station was built in stages, with the last addition 20 years ago, and the electrical is a single 200 amp drop feeding multiple 100 amp services added as the building grew. Any tie-in raises state electrical code questions and possible upgrade costs that are not in the generator quote. The committee was told the new generator can be connected to the existing system as it stands, with the electrical work a separate issue.

25. 1:34:17
    Quotes, bidding and timing

    The two generators were quoted as a bundle and separately, in case only one is funded. Prices are good for about 30 days and town meeting is in April, so the numbers will have moved. The town manager confirmed the work would go out to competitive bid, and that nothing would be bought until after tax commitment, meaning August or September.

26. 1:39:18
    Quint rehab

    The request is $125,000 as a 2023 project to rehab the 1994 Quint. Its pump and both the ground ladders and the aerial passed their annual and NFPA tests, and three independent contractors plus the testing agency found the truck in unusually good condition. The industry standard life for an aerial is 30 years, and the rehab is intended to get seven to ten more years out of it.

27. 1:39:18
    What the Quint does for Durham

    The chief said the value is reach rather than height: an aerial gets to a chimney without putting firefighters on a metal roof, and the department runs many chimney fires. The Quint is also a pumper, so it can cover the town when the other two pumpers are out, carries the longest ground ladders, dewatering and technical rescue equipment, and seats seven with air tanks. It goes out on roughly 20 percent of fire calls, though not routinely to the town's roughly 50 motor vehicle accidents a year.

28. 1:44:34
    The Quint as the town's only utility truck

    With no light duty utility vehicle in the department, the Quint serves that role; the only vehicle most members can drive is the brush truck, which is also the only one that can tow. During the recent Nobrook Road washout the ladder truck was part of the state's required safety plan for two weeks, standing by as a high point to lower a rescue basket if a worker was injured.

29. 1:44:34
    Fire chief's utility vehicle

    The request is $60,000 for a used vehicle with a utility or Redding body, plus roughly $5,000 to $10,000 for lights, radios and lettering. The chief has been using his personal pickup for a $300 a month stipend since he was hired more than a year and a half ago on the understanding a vehicle would be sought, and said he has tried military surplus, state surplus, the Maine fire chiefs' surplus listings and local businesses without success.

30. 1:50:07
    Why an open utility body

    Turnout gear off-gasses and cannot go inside a passenger cab, air bottles cannot be tied down safely, and the truck is used to haul everyone's gear, frozen hose and spare bottles. The chief also noted the town's insurance does not cover his personal truck, which he parks at accident scenes as a block. A plow was raised as a useful extra given the town's 25 dry hydrants, some of which currently go unplowed.

31. 1:56:17
    Stipend offset and which department should get a new truck

    Giving up the $300 monthly stipend saves about $36,000 over ten years, more than half the purchase price, though members noted fuel and maintenance move to the department budget. On the swap question, members argued the direction should be reversed: a fire department utility truck that is washed and lightly used lasts ten or twelve years, while a public works truck that plows and sands would be worn out in two or three.

32. 1:56:17
    How the chief ranked his own requests

    The chief ranked the utility vehicle a priority three deliberately, saying he did not want to take anything ahead of the membership. Asked to help the committee make sense of the priorities, he said he polled his officers and got three different answers between the exhaust system, the Quint rehab and the utility vehicle.

33. 2:01:37
    Diesel exhaust capture system

    The current arrangement is a three-foot exhaust fan that pulls outside air through the bay and draws exhaust across gear and medical storage on its way out. The proposed system attaches at the tailpipe and vents outside directly, at a cost of about $50,000, which the chief framed as cancer prevention and his own first priority. He cited NFPA 1500 chapter 9, which requires departments to capture vehicle exhaust emissions at 100 percent effectiveness.

34. 2:01:37
    ARPA rationale

    At the committee's earlier request the chief wrote a one-page summary of how ARPA applies, arguing the funds were meant for emergency services and noting the department lost money on ambulance revenue over the covid period. He suggested ARPA for the utility vehicle and the exhaust system while acknowledging the funding source is not his decision.

35. 2:07:04
    Grant options and who decides the funding source

    A grant for the exhaust system depends on having overnight sleeping quarters, which the station does not have and is not planning in the short term; converting the double-wide out back could cost about $30,000 to chase a $50,000 grant with no guarantee. The committee repeated that identifying the source of funds is for the select board and town manager, in consultation with department heads, and not part of the committee's charge. The exhaust quote covers universal connection points for all six vehicles and is good for two years.

36. 2:12:30
    Revaluation timing and cost

    The assessor's written answers explained that waiting until 2025 is both about having the money and about there being no firm available, because many towns and cities are in the same position. Her figure was $139,000 in 2022 and she now expects between $150,000 and $200,000. She works independently and does not bid on revaluations herself, which members noted keeps her at arm's length.

37. 2:18:03
    Assessment ratio and the money already voted

    The town's ratio is now about 80 percent, which members said makes the revaluation unavoidable and framed as a question of fairness in how taxes are distributed rather than of raising them. The $60,000 voted last year for a market adjustment was not spent and went into the operating budget, so the town may need to vote to move it into reserve, or add a second $60,000 to have about $120,000 in hand to start.

38. 2:18:03
    Generator priority and the Emergency Operations Center

    Asked what happens without a new generator, the chief said the fire station is the town's Emergency Operations Center and heating center, houses redundant radio and dispatch equipment with battery backup, and carries county radio equipment on its tower. Without power he can barely get the trucks out, opening 12-foot doors by hand. A member asked whether the exhaust system could be done this year and the generator in a later year; the chief said that could work, though the town hall unit is the one currently failing.

39. 2:24:10
    Quint failed its state inspection

    The Quint failed its state inspection on Monday on electrical faults and goes in for repair next week to get a sticker. The rehab would replace the 30-year-old lighting plant and onboard generator, move to LED lighting, and deal with rust and paint, rather than touching the pump or the aerial.

40. 2:24:10
    Scoring the applications

    Each member scores every project individually against the criteria in the policy, after reading the applications, schedules and the department heads' answers. Paul (?) described the sheet as a rubric that guides rather than decides, and said members should look at the collated result and check whether it matches what they believe the priorities are. Michelle collates the sheets into a ranking and the committee then meets to make its recommendation to the select board.

41. 2:29:15
    Dates and record keeping

    Working back from a meeting on the 20th, an Excel scoring template will be circulated within a few days and completed sheets are due to Michelle by Friday the 16th. Members were reminded the score sheets are public records: they go to the town manager and into the CIP file, so a department head or resident can ask why a project ranked where it did. The meeting closed with a walk out to the apparatus bay to look at the equipment.

What was decided

• 26:48
  The committee asked the town manager to present his purchase schedule as additional material this year rather than in place of the five-year plan the policy calls for, and repeated its request that the expenditures and reserve requests be totalled.passed
• 43:09
  The committee's direction on reserves is one aggregated reserve request per department, supported by a short written rationale, rather than a separate reserve for each piece of equipment, with one reserve account per department set up in the town's chart of accounts as the first step.passed
• 54:49
  Rather than hold a workshop first, the town manager and the committee will meet to review the CIP policy together and bring anything concrete to the select board afterwards, amending the policy if needed.passed
• 1:11:41
  Calvin Bowman will revert the $100,000 public works request to an aggregated reserve request with an explanation of how the figure was reached, instead of tying it to a specific truck.passed
• 1:11:41
  No decision was taken on whether the road commissioner's truck could be passed to the fire department instead of buying separate vehicles. The department heads and the town manager were asked to work up a coordinated proposal for a later meeting.tabled
• 2:29:15
  Members will score the applications individually and return the sheets to Michelle by Friday the 16th, with the committee meeting on the 20th to agree its recommendation to the select board.passed
• 2:29:15
  Motion to adjourn, followed by a walk out to the apparatus bay.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

• 5:50
  The town manager told the committee he cannot say what Durham's capital reserve balances are. He described a run of departing administrators and spreadsheets that do not match, and said he would not put a figure in writing that he could not stand behind. The auditor is not comfortable with the numbers either and is due to report on the town's financial position on the 27th.
• 1:05:57
  The stream crossing has grown from two three-foot pipes into what is effectively a bridge, with an open span of 17.8 feet held deliberately under the 20-foot threshold that would make it a state bridge. The road it carries floods and closes two or three times a year.
• 1:56:17
  The fire chief has driven his personal pickup to nearly every call since he was hired, for a stipend of $300 a month. Dropping that stipend would save about $36,000 over ten years, more than half the $60,000 asked for a used utility vehicle.
• 2:18:03
  The town's assessment ratio is down to about 80 percent. The assessor put a revaluation at $139,000 in 2022 and now expects $150,000 to $200,000, with 2025 the earliest realistic date because firms are booked; $60,000 voted last year for a market adjustment was never spent and went into the operating budget.

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