Select Board Meeting ~ Budget 2016

date not recorded · Select Board · 46:32 · watch on YouTube →

A Select Board budget workshop on the fire and rescue department's 2016 request, presented by the fire chief. He walked the board through the operating budget line by line, from the labor lines to workers compensation, working from his own more detailed sheets alongside the board's summary version. No capital plan had been submitted; he brought a cover sheet of proposed projects instead and asked the board for a sense of direction on whether station trim, painting and the meeting room floor should be treated as capital or maintenance before he put numbers to them. Two extended discussions dominated the session: whether rescue billing revenue should pay for the billing service that generates it, and how a replacement engine would be financed. A board member found that the chief's salary line calculated to about a 5 percent increase rather than the 2 percent described. The board agreed to reconvene the following Monday and Tuesday at 6:00 to go through the rest of the departments.

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. 0:03
   Two sets of budget sheets

   The chief distributed his own version of the budget alongside the board's, noting the totals differ by a couple of dollars from rounding. His sheets break single lines such as building maintenance and equipment maintenance into their component parts; the board's summary sheet is where adjustments would actually be made.

2. 0:03
   No capital plan submitted

   The chief said he had submitted a cover sheet listing the projects he would like to do rather than a capital plan with numbers, because he did not want to build figures around a direction the board had not agreed to. A member noted that past capital plans showed departmental revenue as well as expense, and he saw none here.

3. 0:03
   Departmental revenue

   The chief said revenue generated came to about $62,000 after subtracting costs, most of it rescue billing. The exact figure he read out is garbled in the recording.

4. 0:03
   Call volume

   Call volume had been declining for two or three years and came back up in 2015 to about where it had been. The chief expected the town report to show slightly more than one call a day on average.

5. 0:03
   Labor lines

   Every pay line was increased 2 percent. The chief's own pay is 2 percent plus one extra week because the year has 53 pay periods, which he said was the only line affected by the extra period.

6. 0:03
   Part-time labour and apparatus maintenance

   The board had discussed using part-time staff, referred to as Mike, for equipment maintenance. The chief left that money in the equipment maintenance line rather than moving it to payroll, saying he had to get the maintenance done either way and would rather keep the flexibility of a bottom-line budget until the arrangement was proven.

7. 5:09
   Deputy chiefs and hourly rates

   Deputy chiefs' stipends went up 2 percent. There was a brief exchange over whether the hourly rate line had been set at 2 or 3 percent; the chief first said 3 percent to cover call volume, then settled on 2 percent for the deputies.

8. 5:09
   Retirement, FICA and Medicare

   The retirement rate steps up partway through the year, from about 5.6 percent to 6.5 percent on July 1. Rather than splitting the year the chief used an average of about 6.1 percent across all pay. FICA applies to the other labour lines but not to the chief's pay; Medicare applies to all payroll.

9. 5:09
   Supplemental accident insurance

   The insurance line is supplemental coverage in the nature of workers compensation, carried on the department's people to cover duties that workers compensation does not.

10. 5:09
    Light bill and propane

    The light bill was left at $5,280, roughly what was spent, on the assumption rates hold or fall. Propane consumption and cost both came in under estimate on a mild winter. The station is on the town building contract but currently buying at cash rack price.

11. 5:09
    Building maintenance

    The line took a beating last year, mainly because of the phase converter for the breathing air compressor. The request is a couple of hundred dollars higher overall, with some component lines cut and others raised.

12. 5:09
    Water testing and septic pumping

    The station alternates water testing one year and the septic the next. A long exchange followed on how often a thousand-gallon tank should be pumped, with members comparing their own households; the chief said $200 to $300 every two years is cheap against replacing a system, and undertook to check with the septic contractor.

13. 10:21
    Equipment maintenance

    The line ran high last year on repairs to the rescue unit and engine 22. The request is about $2,300 more than last year's budget but roughly $2,000 to $2,100 less than was actually spent. The chief again recommended pursuing the in-house maintenance arrangement while leaving the money in this line.

14. 10:21
    Overhead doors

    Asked what the $500 door maintenance covers, the chief said it pays a contractor to come in and adjust the overhead doors. Last year's $860 expenditure was a bottom panel, damaged when a quick release got tangled with an apparatus leaving the station during a power failure. Annual servicing was described as cheaper than replacing panels.

15. 10:21
    Training

    Of $7,700 budgeted, $6,152 was spent. The chief said he wanted the shortfall corrected rather than treated as a saving, because the money is there to move existing people forward and to train new ones.

16. 10:21
    Fuel line renamed

    The line previously called diesel was renamed fuel, because only the small engines still take gasoline and the line covers both.

17. 10:21
    Transport services

    The line ran over budget. The chief said this was not from intercepts, since one or two neighbouring services had cut their intercept fee and one no longer charges at all under a mutual aid agreement. The overrun came from the billing service, which is paid per call, on a year when call volume rose.

18. 15:24
    Where rescue billing revenue goes

    A member questioned why the town raises money for the billing service while the revenue those bills generate goes straight to the capital account. The answer was that this was set by a town vote, so the money cannot be touched once it is in capital, and changing it would take an article at town meeting to let the transport line be paid first.

19. 15:24
    The chief's argument for leaving it alone

    The chief urged that the arrangement stand, describing it as the department's only reliable savings plan for capital and noting that in years when the town appropriated nothing to the capital account, billing revenue was still going in. He said if this revenue were applied to operating expenses the same argument would follow for equipment maintenance and EMS supplies.

20. 15:24
    History of the billing article and state legislation

    The chief said the article and the capital account date from about when the first responder service started, and that a town ordinance allowing a fee structure for fire department services was dropped six or seven years earlier because insurers reject the invoices and most policies have a ceiling. He referred to legislators discussing a state law on billing insurers, and to pending changes in EMS reimbursement rates that would matter to Durham because of its region and its long transport turnarounds.

21. 20:46
    Fuel budget and the buying arrangement

    The fuel figure is based on last year's usage of about 8,600 gallons at $2.50, which is $780 below last year's budget and about $370 below what was spent. Asked about buying through GPCOG, the chief said the saving worked out to a fraction of a cent, there were delivery difficulties, and roads would have had to move at the same time; supply is through Down East rather than Durham Oil, and the town still pays the tax and applies for the reimbursement.

22. 20:46
    Cumberland County Chiefs membership

    The chief said that although the department does more mutual aid with Cumberland County, no officer has time to attend meetings or participate actively, so membership was not worth carrying. Mutual aid continues regardless.

23. 20:46
    Southern Maine EMS service fee

    The fee was $671 last year and is budgeted at $800, which the chief said may still not be enough given the rise in transports. Maine has six EMS regions and a transporting service must belong to one; Durham sits in Androscoggin but is licensed through Southern Maine EMS because most of its transports go to Brunswick and Portland hospitals. Asked what the town gets for it, he said less than it used to, but there is no option.

24. 20:46
    Laboratory and medical waste registration

    The line covers a registration the department must hold because it generates medical waste. It renews every two years at roughly $300. Nothing was spent last year because no invoice arrived, and the chief said he was not going to ask why.

25. 25:54
    Chief's expenses and prevention

    Chief's expenses were down on mileage but left unchanged, because fire inspector classes have him commuting to Augusta weekly with the next class in Brunswick. Prevention was budgeted at $700 against $420 spent and left at $700.

26. 25:54
    Personal safety and turnout gear

    About $11,445 was spent against roughly $15,000 budgeted, and the request is $15,011. The chief explained that the $4,469 shown was all turnout gear including gloves and suspenders, not the three full sets at $1,600 the column implies. He said he could not recommend cutting the line because the gear is now about eleven years old, most of it obtained on a grant.

27. 25:54
    Dispatch, supplies and the handbook

    Repeater repairs were cut to $200 to offset the dispatch contract, which runs at $3 per capita; the chief said he trimmed wherever he could within that line. Supplies were high last year because of the department handbook, about three-quarters proofed and to be printed in-house rather than sent out. He said he would not regard the handbook as ever finished, since it needs updating and copies for new people.

28. 25:54
    Software contracts

    The software line is renewals, not new purchases: EMS patient run report software and the IMC dispatch contract. The $1,048.75 shown is the IMC renewal and does not include the Image Trend licence, which the chief believed was paid at the end of the previous year.

29. 30:59
    Workers compensation

    The chief called this either the largest or second largest increase in the budget, rising by close to half. Asked for a reason, he said the experience modifier runs back three years and now takes in 2014, a year in which the department had a claim.

30. 30:59
    The chief's salary calculation

    A member said the salary request appeared to calculate to a 5 percent increase plus the extra pay period rather than the 2 percent described, and a second member said he had reached the same figure. The chief said the intention was two and one and that $57,500 would be 2 percent plus the 53-week year, a figure a member had computed at about $57,499.

31. 30:59
    Scheduling the rest of the budget

    Rather than go line by line that night, the board set two working sessions for the following week. Roads was already down for Tuesday, so administration, fire and everything else would be taken Monday at 6:00 and run until finished.

32. 30:59
    Capital versus operating, in general

    The chief said he did not want to build a capital plan on a direction the board did not share, and recalled the trouble last year over whether station work counted as capital or operational. He asked for a sense of direction before pricing the projects.

33. 36:27
    Meeting room floor

    The floor has been repaired more than once. The chief wants the tiles taken up, the old concrete jackhammered out and repoured, cured, and new tile laid, because the levelling layer over the old truck-bay concrete separates and lifts the tiles, bringing pieces of concrete with them. The insurance risk services inspection raised it, and the town had replied that it was looking into costs.

34. 36:27
    Security cameras lapsed

    Money appropriated from capital for security cameras last year was never spent and lapsed back into the capital account. A member said it would be worth discussing whether to put it back in the budget at all. The figure last year was $3,000 in total.

35. 36:27
    Station trim and painting

    The trim replacement, quoted at $9,000 on last year's prices and not re-quoted this year, covers wooden trim around the doors, some roof and sign trim, in composite. The chief said the block is losing its seal and the building needs paint, and that the worst rot is on the shaded back of the building. Trim was struck from last year's budget while the hood was funded; the cameras were left short.

36. 36:27
    Whether the trim work is capital

    The chief said he thought the argument last year had been semantics, and that the size of the number makes it capital. Two members agreed on the record that it now looked like capital, one adding that last year the job had seemed smaller and more like maintenance and may have grown because it was not done. The chief said he was not asking for a vote, only a direction before he assembles the package and prices.

37. 41:45
    Floor cost and curing time

    About $2,000 remains for the floor work, to jackhammer up a room roughly ten by ten or twelve by twelve. The chief has a quote, obtained before the risk services inspection, and said the new concrete would need two or three months to cure before tile could go down because of dampness coming through.

38. 41:45
    Financing a new engine

    The old capital plan carried the engine at six years and $80,000 a year. Asked what the annual payment would be starting in 2017, the chief expected $85,000 to $90,000, with interest of perhaps $30,000 to $35,000 and total payments around $500,000 to $510,000; he thought a rate above 3 percent unlikely. He offered the alternative of seven years at a lower payment but would not recommend either without the capital budget in front of him.

39. 41:45
    What the last engine cost

    Engine 21 was bought in 2004 for about $150,000, of which the town paid $25,000 because of a grant. Members put the current price near $250,000 and observed that prices had roughly doubled in eleven or twelve years. The chief said the two trucks are close in features, the new one carrying a CAFS system where engine 21 has a light tower, so the comparison holds.

40. 41:45
    Motion, and a question about the dealer

    A motion was seconded and declared carried, but the recording does not contain the wording of the motion itself. Discussion then continued past it, with a member asking who the recommended dealer for the engine would be; the chief said he had deliberately not named one and that the field was down to two.

What was decided

• 15:24
  No change was made to the practice of paying rescue billing revenue into the capital account rather than offsetting the cost of the billing service. No motion was made. The chief urged that it be left alone and the member who raised it said he was trying to understand it rather than make a point, but the exchange ends without a stated resolution.outcome unclear
• 30:59
  On the chief's salary line, the board established that the figure on the sheet works out to roughly 5 percent plus the extra pay period rather than the 2 percent intended, and that $57,500 is the 2-percent-plus-a-week amount. No vote was taken and no instruction to change the sheet is audible; the chief's reply includes the words 'unless you want to leave it'.outcome unclear
• 30:59
  Hold two budget working sessions the following week, Monday and Tuesday at 6:00, with roads on Tuesday and administration, fire and the remaining departments on Monday. All present confirmed they could attend both.passed
• 36:27
  On whether the station trim replacement and painting should be presented as a capital project rather than maintenance, the chief asked only for a sense of direction and said explicitly he was not asking for a vote. Two members said on the record that it looked like capital to them; the third response trails off mid-sentence.outcome unclear
• 41:45
  A motion was made, seconded and declared carried near the end of the session, immediately after the board confirmed Monday at 6:00. The recording captures only the second, the call for the vote and the words 'motion carries'; what was moved is not audible, so the substance of this decision cannot be reported.outcome unclear

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

• 15:24
  Rescue billing revenue, about $62,000 last year, is directed by a town vote straight into the fire and rescue capital account. It cannot be used to pay the billing service or the intercept fees that generate it, so the town raises those costs in the operating budget while the income is locked away. Changing that would take an article at town meeting.
• 30:59
  Workers compensation was one of the two largest increases in the request, up by close to half. The reason given is the experience modifier, which runs back three years and now includes 2014, a year with a claim against the department.
• 30:59
  A board member checked the chief's salary line and found it calculated to about a 5 percent increase plus the extra pay period, not the 2 percent the chief had described. A second member said he had got the same result. The correct 2-percent-plus-a-week figure was put at $57,500.
• 41:45
  Engine 21 was bought in 2004 at about $150,000, of which the town paid $25,000 because a grant covered the rest. A comparable replacement was discussed at roughly $250,000, financed over six years at $85,000 to $90,000 a year, with total payments near $500,000 to $510,000. There is no grant in the current figures.

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