TOWN OF STOUGHTON COMMITTEE ON FINANCE AND TAXATION MARCH 9, 2017

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1 A public hearing of the Finance Committee was held jointly with Municipal Operations Committee on Thursday, March 9, 2017 in the Great Hall, third floor, at the Stoughton Town Hall. Finance Committee Chairman, Ed Trunfio, called the meeting to order at 7:21 p.m. and the following members of Finance Committee were present: Ed Trunfio John Anzivino Christine Howe David Lurie Vaughn Enokian Roberta Camacho Robert Desmond Benjamin A. Thomas John Roch Elliot Hansen Joseph Smith Absent: Joe Madden, Stephen Trovato, Dianne Dolan, and Scott Carrara. Motion made by John Anzivino, seconded by Bob Desmond to open the meeting. Motion unanimously passed. Motion made by John Anzivino, seconded by Bob Desmond, to open the hearing. Motion unanimously passed. Motion made by Jim Gearin, seconded by Dan McLaughlin, to open the Municipal Operations public hearing. Motion unanimously passed. Article 19 General Fund Capital Items 19e.1-5 IT Fire Ambulance Toughbook Ms. Shropshire said she received a new quote, which was less money. The requested amount is now $4,500 down from $8,000. She said only the ambulance needs one. Mr. Anzivino said a Toughbook is a really hard laptop. Town Hall Firewall Upgrades Ms. Shropshire said the new number on this is up slightly from $20,000 to $22,000. Municipal Firewall Fire 1 & 2, Police Dept. Library, and Cedar Hill Ms. Shropshire said the police station is the only location that is going to upgrade at this time so the new requested figure is $12,000. They are waiting until the new Library is completed. 1

2 Cedar Hill - POS Computer Smart Board for First Floor Conference Room The cost of this Smart Board is down to $5,500 from $10,000. Ms. Shropshire said she is purchasing a stripped down version. She wants to have the same Smart Board that is in the Town Hall currently. It is cumbersome to put in the elevator to move it into the conference room downstairs. Mr. Hansen asked why we could not utilize one of the Smart Boards from the schools that are not being used. She said she would like to have the same one downstairs that we have upstairs in the Great Hall. Mr. Lurie was concerned about the size of the Board fitting into the Conference Room. He felt a projection would be better for that space. Ms. Shropshire said a projector would need someone to turn it on ahead of time in order for it to be used for a meeting. The Smart Board is immediate. Ms. Tucker questioned whether this Smart Board is interactive. She said it would be frustrating if it were not. Ms. Shropshire said it was interactive just a stripped down version. 19f.1 Recreation AED Purchase & Install Mr. Denison and Mr. Davis presented this article. Mr. Denison said the Bathhouse recently underwent renovations and a representative from the American Red Cross suggested that we install a new AED. Mr. Hansen asked where would this be stored during the off-season. Mr. Denison said it would be stored at the Town Hall at the Recreation Department. Jody Smith said he was surprised there was no AED currently at this location. Ms. Howe asked if this was the only AED the recreation department has and whether or not it was portable. He said this is the only one they have but the schools have them available for use if needed. Mr. Thomas asked if there are any grants available to purchase this type of equipment. Mr. Davis said no. Mr. Desmond asked if the electrodes come with the purchase of the AED. Mr. Denison said yes. He would expect to receive the equipment ready to use. Mr. Trunfio asked if there is any money from any previous articles to pay for this equipment. Mr. Denison said he is not sure if he could use that money to buy equipment. 2

3 Dr. Camacho asked if there would be training involved and how much money that training would cost. Mr. Denison said the fire department would provide training. 19f.2 Recreation Renovate Novello Baseball Field Mr. Denison said the varsity baseball team uses this field and every 8-10 years they have a contractor come in to strip away the tuffs of grass, make sure the bases are inserted properly, and re-mound, etc. Mr. Hansen asked if there are any quotes available. Mr. Denison said this would go out to bid. Paul Smith asked if the Recreation Department has a maintenance budget. Mr. Denison said it does in the amount of $40,000, but that is for grounds maintenance. That money would not be sufficient to do this work and the rec department does not have the kind of personnel to complete this work. Mr. Denison said the $40,000 is stretched as it is by cutting, trimming, maintenance required for electrical needs. Mr. Trunfio asked if the construction of the high school would affect this area. Mr. Denison said the West School Complex is not the staging area. He went on to say the football field, soccer field, and track would be affected in the future by the construction. Article 20 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Consultants The Economic Developer, Pam McCarthy, spoke on behalf of this Article. She said the Town has never applied for a Community Block Grant and she would like to hire a consultant to assist her in applying for this Grant. These consultants are knowledgeable on they ways to best apply for these grants. Of the $25,000 she is requesting, $15,000 would go to creating guidelines needed for these grants and future projects. The remaining $10,000 would be used to hire the consultants. Mr. Anzivino said this sounds like a good idea. We have various people here at Town Hall that might be able to assist in applying for these grants. He asked what the chances for success would be. Ms. McCarthy said she is hopeful that economic development funding would be available in the future. She went on to say that due to the fact that some of the requirements have been relaxed, she thinks it is something we should apply for. Ms. McCarthy said since she has applied for them in the past, she knows how much work is involved in applying for this. There are a few firms that do this all the time, so they know exactly what is needed. Ms. McCarthy said she has investigated Stoughton chances and since we have never applied for this our chances are good. 3

4 Mr. Hansen asked if this funding is for new or existing projects. Ms. McCarthy said we would need to have a specific area. She went on to say target areas could be expanded and amended. We would be allowed to apply for up to $800,000 every other year. Mr. Enokian asked for clarification of how the $25,000 is being spent. Ms. McCarthy said the consultant fee of $10,000 is for multiple projects and the $15,000 is for the guidelines that we would use again. Article 21 Fixed Network Metering System This article was previous heard on February 22, The water department is requesting $600,000 to replace the existing equipment with a high performance metering system for commercial use. Article 22 Sewer Capital Mr. Rowe said this money is appropriated by Town Meeting for projects. Currently, there is $142, in the fund from receipts. Mr. Rowe said a few years back the Finance Committee did not want to borrow the money, and we did not have enough for authorization to receive the 75 percent back. He said we should add this amount to the $300,000 being requested. The Town receives 75 percent of the funds back from the State. Dr. Camacho asked who is responsible for collecting the fees. Mr. Tisdale said the Engineering Department collects the fees. He said they are working with the Building Department to ensure that anyone adding bedrooms to an existing home, Engineering is informed and the I & I fee is assessed to the homeowner. The cost for residents is $330 per bedroom. Dr. Camacho asked what happens if the fees go unpaid. Mr. Tisdale said they do not issue the permit. Article 23 South Street Drainage Culvert Mr. Tisdale said the existing culvert is a 4 by 6 and has been in place for about 100 years. It was closed down for repairs and so far the repair is holding, but it needs to be replaced. He said there are existing water lines and gas lines going through it. He said due to regulations, the new culvert would be larger than the existing one. Mr. Tisdale said if everything goes as planned, the cost should be about $300,000 but he is still requesting the $500,000 because he does not want to stop the project due to lack of funding. Mr. Gearin asked if town forces would complete the work or would an outside contractor. Mr. Tisdale said he would not know until they have the design. They are trying to save money if possible, so DPW may do some of the work. 4

5 Mr. Hansen asked if there are any existing grants available to complete this project. Mr. Tisdale said there might be some, but this is just too small. Mr. Tisdale said as soon as Town Meeting gives approval, he would start the design process. He is expecting the completion of the culvert to be done within a month. Article 25 Continued Vegetation Management of Ames Pond This is to continue the use of sonar and chemical to treat the vegetation at Ames Pond. Article 52P Street Acceptance: Gibson Way, Darney Drive, & Kinney Court Mr. Gitto said the reason for this petitioned article is to accept these roads so the town can maintain them. The intent is to get the roads up to standard. The Town currently holds $80,000 for this subdivision and with the $70,000 borrowed this work could be completed for these residents. However, the road continues to deteriorate the longer we wait. Mr. Gitto said this Article is going to be withdrawn from the Town Meeting floor for this year. The residents are trying to work with developer to complete the needed work. Mr. Gearin said this is a problem that continues to be experienced through the Town. We need to make these contractors responsible for the work before we issue them permits. Mr. Cohn said he sympathizes with these residents, but there are many streets that will line up if we open the door and accept this one. Municipal Operations adjourned. Article 15 Supplement Fiscal Year 2017 Department Budgets None at this time. Article 16 Unpaid Bills Mr. Rowe said there is just a bill from Verizon for FY 15 and FY 16 in the amounts of $ and $ Article 27 Establish Fire Apparatus Stabilization Fund Article 28 Funding Fire Apparatus Stabilization Fund This is a request to set up an account and take the first $75,000 to put in a Fire Apparatus Fund. 5

6 Mr. Trunfio said if we do this we would lose $75,000 from revenue. Mr. Hartman said we would be saving because we would not need to fund things for the fire department such as engines trucks, ambulances because money would be accumulating in the fund. Article 29 Establishing a Cable Public Access Enterprise Account Article 30 Funding a Cable Public Access Enterprise Account This should be revenue neutral. We would put money received into the account and return to SMAC. The Committee asked if we set up fund, could we be on the hook. Mr. Stagnone said SMAC would not draw more than it has. Dr. Camacho asked what the $385,000 is used for. This money is to administer the public access cable. SMAC is under contract to achieve this. They are a volunteer Board of Director with four employees. Mr. Hansen asked if there are any memberships or advertising. Mr. Stagnone said there are a few memberships for about $100. Article 31 Deposit into Stabilization Fund Article 32 Deposit into Building Stabilization Fund Mr. Trunfio said the Committee would wait until we know how much we can put in these accounts. Article 17 Rescinded Unissued Borrowing Authorization Mr. Trunfio said these are old articles that we appropriate but did not need. We would be closing them out. By doing this we are helping with our borrowing rate but it would not affect our rating. Some of these have been borrowed and the money is left over so we are trying to clean things up. Mr. Lurie asked how it is determined what gets rescinded. Mr. Rowe sends out an to department heads, and if he receives no response back he closes it out. Article 34 Bus Contract with Possible 5-year Contract Currently, the Superintendent can only enter into contracts for 3 years. She would like to enter into a bus contract for 5-years so she could possibly save some money and has been told the transportation company would be able to invest in new equipment with the commitment from Stoughton. 6

7 Article 33 Personal Property Minimum Value This is to set a floor value for personal property. This is for all small stuff. The Town would not tax property for values $2,500 or less. This is so we do not waste time chasing bills for $100. We would use the time wisely by using manpower to chase unpaid real estate taxes. Mr. Enokian asked why we are setting the threshold at $2,500 and reallocating to other people. Dr. Camacho said she spoke against this at Town Meeting last year and still does not think it is fair and questioned why other owners have to pay. Ms. Howe said it is a lose/lose situation because we are paying employees to track these small amounts down. Mr. Hartman said the Town would be essentially exempting the first $2,500 and start taxing $2,501. Howard Hansen said there is another way to try to collect, but it must be done through the legislature. He felt it should be more like an excise tax and be a yearly bill not just a small bill, for small money. Mr. Lurie said he feels it is an ethical thing and people who pay their bill should not get penalized. Mr. Trunfio said there are meeting scheduled for next Tuesday and Thursday. Mr. Thomas asked if the Finance Committee could place the firefighter personnel money in the Finance Committee Reserve Fund in case the Finance Committee decided to eliminate the funding from the Department Budget. Mr. Thomas said the funding could then be appropriated through Town Meeting later if the Department did not win the SAFER Grant. Mr. Trunfio said he could look into whether the funding could be saved but he believed no. Motion made by John Roch, seconded by John Anzivino, To adjourn. Motion unanimously passed at 10:01 p.m. 7