Budget and Finance Subcommittee

RECEIVED By City Clerk at 4:57 pm, 2/10/22 AMESBURY CITY HALL 62 Friend Street Amesbury, MA 01913 City Council Finance Committee Meeting Minutes Tuesday, July 27, 2021 at 7:00 PM City Hall Auditorium Finance Committee Chair Stanganelli called the meeting to order at 7:10 PM. Roll Call was taken and present were: Councilor Einson, Councilor Gilday, Councilor Hogg, Councilor Mandeville, Councilor Rinaldi, Councilor Wheeler and Councilor Stanganelli Absent were: Councilor Kisieleski and Councilor Lennon *Councilor Lennon joined the meeting virtually at approximately 8:25 PM. Minutes for Approval: September 16, 2020, September 17, 2020, May 19, 2021, May 20, 2021, May 26, 2021, May 27, 2021 and June 1, 2021. Councilor Wheeler motioned to approve all minutes as presented. Councilor Hogg seconded this motion. Roll call was taken, 6 out of 7 members present voted in favor, one abstention (Gilday). Motion passed. Communications & Updates · Monthly Financial Reports · Free Cash Review · Review/Update on Past Actions · Workshop - Other Municipal Finance: · Presentation from Bartholomew about investing and funding the City’s OPEB.  Chief Financial Officer, Angel Wills, gave her monthly financial report and free cash review. o She has been working on the close out for FY21 she said it is looking promising so far. She believes there will be free cash in at least an excess of one million dollars this year. Department of Revenue (DOR) recommends free cash to be between 3% and 5% of the general operating budget which would be in the range of 1.9 million to 3.2 million. o Free cash is generated by appropriation turn backs and surplus in revenue. o She said although there is a downtick in excise, meals, rooms and hotels taxes, because the City was conservative with their FY21 budget, they came in with good numbers. o She said she will have the final FY21 numbers at the next Finance Committee meeting. 1   Councilor Einson asked where the excess revenue came from. o Angel responded by saying the bulk of the excess came from the cannabis excise ($620,000.00). She said the City budgeted $0 in revenue, so it was great news.  Councilor Gilday asked about the impact fee for cannabis, saying she understands it has been a highly controversial topic. She wanted to know if it has been decided that the City is not going to charge the community impact fee. o Angel deferred to the mayor’s office. o Chief of Staff, Paul Fahey, responded to Councilor Gilday; he said the discussion of the impact fee is an ongoing topic. The City has been collecting a small impact fee but not spending it. They need to talk to KP Law about how they can go about using the funds from the fee. They also did not want to charge the full amount they can because of the uncertainty of Covid.  Councilor Einson asked Angel to follow up on the impact fees. He wanted to confirm that the City is collecting it, but not spending it. He asked what will happen with the funds from the fees. o Angel replied the fees collected in the previous fiscal year went to the general fund revenue and closed out to free cash. She said this year there was instructions to not collect fees except for the $6,700.00 for the Rocky Hill Road study.  Councilor Stanganelli asked Angel if it was possible to retain the impact fee funds in some kind of escrow account, so it does not go into free cash, so if it is determined there are no impacts the money could returned back to the shops. o Angel said the funds are from previous fiscal years and have already been approved, voted on and returned to free cash. She said if the council wanted to return these fees they would have to make an appropriation from an available revenue source. She said when free cash is certified this year, they could certainly do that.  Councilor Stanganelli asked Angel, in general, regarding tax assessments, the City is in the process of doing a mass appraisal by an outside firm, does this include inspections? o Angel responded by saying, yes. Amesbury is in its tri-annual revaluation which is mandated by MA DOR. She said yes, there is an outside agency, Patriot Properties, assisting with it. She said hopefully all the revaluations will be completed by early fall. Brian Jamros, Vice President, and Kathleen Glowacki, Director of Investment Management Team gave a presentation about OPEB at Bartholomew & Company  Councilor Stanganelli asked Angel what is needed by the Council in order to go ahead with the OPEB. o Angel answered by saying all the Council needs to do at this point is adopt the investment policy. This will allow the Council to invest within the parameters the Council approves. o The investment policy will be approved and submitted to Council for approval. o Angel said Amesbury has many accounts with Bartholomew at present. Public Comment 2   There was no public comment at this time. 2021-093 An Ordinance to establish a licensing process for short term leases of residential units in the City of Amesbury. – Mayor Gove and Councilor Gilday sponsor  Councilor Gilday gave an update of the status of order 2021-093. She said the Ordinance Committee has continued it to their next meeting. [ Councilor] Scott Mandeville and [Director of OCED] Angela Cleveland are in the process of assembling a subcommittee to further dive into 2021-093 and 2021-105.  Councilor Mandeville stated he believes the most important thing to note about 2021-093 is that this is an order to establish a process. This is not setting any fees, this is not setting the process. Approving this order is to move forward with setting up the process. This is step one of a two-step process.  Councilor Stanganelli asked the liaison for the working group (Councilor Mandeville) if they would like any suggestions or opinions on any fee and/or fine amounts. o Councilor Mandeville said yes, they would accept suggestions and opinions. o Councilor Stanganelli stated page 7 of order 2021-093 has a fine for non- compliance of $250.00 a day against the property owner.  Councilor Rinaldi asked if this was a standard fine amount in other cities or towns.  Councilor Gilday replied, all of the numbers in the order are up for conversation, they are not based on any standard. She said her assumption is that this would be something the working group/subcommittee looks at. She said she would assume that the group would look at other municipalities, best practices, etc. She said that $250.00 is steep but it is designed to be a deterrent. o Councilor Stanganelli read from page five, item B: licensing fee of $200.00 per STRU annually.  Councilor Stanganelli asked Councilor Gilday if this number was taken from other communities.  Councilor Gilday said she does not remember where she pulled that number from.  Councilor Stanganelli asked if the bill will need to reference any other MGL.  Councilor Mandeville said he will get back to him on that.  Councilor Stanganelli asked what is the budget for promoting the awareness of these new rules; having inspectional services reach out to potential STRU’s that are advertised on the websites.  Paul Fahey responded by saying those are valid issues that will be addressed later on in the process of passing this bill. Councilor Mandeville motioned to send order 2021-093 back to City Council with a positive recommendation. Councilor Gilday seconded this motion. Roll call was taken, 6 out of 7 members present voted yes, one abstention (Stanganelli). Motion passed. 2021-100 An Order to authorize the Mayor and The City Council to accept and expend American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds in accordance with federal guidelines. - Mayor Sponsor 3   Angel Wills said the City is slated to receive $5,240,000.00. This money is split into two parts. $1,800,000.00 has already been allocated. The second portion is $3,400,000.00. o She said $1,200,000.00 has been appropriated for FY22 capital, that was IT capital, fire department capital and lost revenue, youth services and local receipts. o She said the guidelines for how to spend the funds incorporate a wide range of areas.  Councilor Mandeville asked if there is any match requirements. o Angel replied, no. Unlike the CARES Act funds, there is no need to get approval from the state, just approval internally. It is still subject to audit.  Councilor Gilday asked if there is a spending schedule for the funds. o Angel replied that she has been working closely with the mayor on a spending schedule. She said she projected weening the budget off of these funds by allocating 75% next fiscal year, 50% the next, and so on.  Councilor Einson asked if we have the funds already or if it is something the City will get reimbursed. o Angel replied, the state has wired 50% of the $1,800,000.00 already, the remaining 50% will be wired in April or May next year (2022). She has not heard details about the remaining $3,400,000.00.  Councilor Einson asked when the money goes up for spending will the Council have to approve it. o Angel replied no, it does not need to be approved by Council. o Councilor Einson said Council would like to know. o Councilor Stanganelli seconded that statement, saying he would like to be informed of where the money is going even if Council does not need to vote on it. Councilor Mandeville motioned to send 2021-100 back to City Council with a positive recommendation with the request that Finance Committee members receive line item expenditures of where the money is being spent. Councilor Wheeler seconded this motion. Roll call was taken, 8 out of 8 members present voted yes. Motion passed. 2021-103 An Order to transfer $15,700 from Cemetery Trust accounts to pay for tree maintenance in Old Corner Cemetery- Councilors Stanganelli, Rinaldi, and Hogg Sponsor.  Councilor Wheeler asked if this allocation of funds is just specifically for work to be done at Old Corner Cemetery or if it will help with the other cemeteries. o Paul Fahey said it is just for the Old Corner Cemetery. Councilor Wheeler motioned to send 2021-103 back to City Council with a positive recommendation. Councilor Hogg seconded this motion. Roll call was taken, 8 out of 8 members present voted yes. Motion passed. 2021-105 An Ordinance to establish zoning regulations for short term rentals of residential units in the City of Amesbury. - Mayor and Councilor Gilday Sponsor 4   Councilor Gilday stated a lot of what she has to say about bill 2021-105 is reiterating what she said about bill 2021-093.  She said 2021-105 is about regulations: o What type of dwelling is permissible as a short term rental unit o What is the residency requirement of the owner of the property o What is the minimum length of stay o What is the maximum amount of times that a unit can be rented in a single calendar year  She said, like bill 2021-093, this is with Ordinance and going through the working group. Councilor Wheeler motioned to continue order 2021-105 to the next regularly scheduled meeting on September 14th, 2021, pending the outcome of the working group/subcommittee discussion. Councilor Mandeville seconded this motion. Roll call was taken, 8 out of 8 members present voted yes. Motion passed. 2021-106 An Order to authorize the Mayor to enter into an inter-municipal agreement with the Town of Salisbury for the provision or regional animal control services. –Mayor Sponsor  Paul Fahey gave a brief overview of how the agreement came to be. He deferred questions to Police Chief Craig Bailey.  Councilor Stanganelli noted that the financial matters of this agreement are on page 3 and 4.  Chief Bailey explained that he believes that this is a good agreement that divides the financial responsibility of both towns fairly to what they owe.  Councilor Gilday asked where the ACO’s office is and where is the vehicle? o Chief Bailey responded, his office space is in Salisbury. The agreement states it is the Salisbury’s Police Chief’s responsibly to find the ACO an office. It is the Amesbury Police Chief’s responsibility to maintain the vehicle. Councilor Mandeville motioned to send order 2021-106 back to City Council with a positive recommendation. Councilor Gilday seconded this motion. Roll call was taken, 8 out of 8 members present voted yes. Motion passed. Councilor Lennon motioned to adjourn. Councilor Rinaldi seconded this motion. Roll call was taken, 8 out of 8 members present voted yes. Motion passed. Adjourn at 9:03pm Respectfully submitted by, Ellie Andersen, December 3, 2021 5