Budget and Finance Subcommittee

RECEIVED By City Clerk at 4:58 pm, 2/10/22 AMESBURY CITY HALL 62 Friend Street Amesbury, MA 01913 City Council Finance Committee Meeting Minutes Tuesday, October 26, 2021 at 7:00 PM Virtual Meeting Finance Committee Chair Stanganelli called the meeting to order at 7:02 PM. Roll Call was taken Present were: Councilor Einson, Councilor Gilday, Councilor Hogg, Councilor Lennon, Councilor Mandeville, Councilor Rinaldi and Councilor Stanganelli Absent were: Councilor Kisieleski and Councilor Wheeler Minutes for Approval: none at this time Communications & Updates  Chief Financial Officer, Angel Wills, gave her monthly financial report: o She began with FY22 first quarter meals, rooms, hotels and cannabis excise from the state. All categories are trending up from last year.  Meals tax is up 38%  Rooms tax is up 35%  Vehicle excise is up 6%  Cannabis is up 58% o Free cash was certified for this year at 1.9 million dollars.  Councilor Lennon asked Angel what departments she is seeing overages in this year. o Angel replied by saying the Fire Department, they had staffing shortages and had to backfill with overtime and Building Department.  Angel said free cash has been certified by the DOR (Department of Revenue). She said it is up to 1.9 million dollars which is a significant increase over last fiscal year. o Cannabis excise was around $600,000.00 o Appropriation turn backs were around 1 million dollars  Angel said the state recommends free cash be between 3% and 5%. She said Amesbury has been below that for several years and even with doing well this past fiscal year they are only at 2.89%. o She said the state recommends all the reserves be between 5% and 7% of the general operating budget. Amesbury is still very far below that as well.  Councilor Einson asked Angel to confirm the bond rate is 1.58%. o Angel confirmed, yes, it is. She said it is a completive bid process. Investors get to bid on our bond and the financial analyst takes all the bids, weighs them out between the premium interest costs.  Councilor Stanganelli noted he would like the free cash chart Angel prepared for the committee in the minutes. Please see attachment #1. 1  o Councilor Stanganelli wanted to highlight that in 2019 the free cash was around $638,000.00, the stabilization fund yearend balance close to 1.6 million, combined the total would be just under 2.3 million. The operating budget at that time was around 64.7 million dollars. Free cash represented 1%. o He said the highest amount of free cash was in 2016. And we are just over 1% less than that for 2021.  Angel wanted to note that the stimulus money from the federal government had no effect on free cash or reserve funds.  Councilor Einson asked about the turn backs from the departments. He wanted to know if that is an unusually high number and which departments turned back the most. o Angel replied saying it seemed to her to be the typical departments that went over and under. She said she saw turn backs from the Police Department, DPW, and a big health savings with the free month of health care. She said it was a little higher than she was expecting but it was trending with previous years. Discussion of Proposed OPEB Investment Policy Statement and Resolution  Councilor Rinaldi asked Councilor Stanganelli if both investment companies were local o Councilor Stanganelli said the two firms are greater Boston based.  Councilor Lennon stated that she preferred the former group [Bartholomew]. She said the former was more environmentally conscious. Discussion of FY2023 Proposed Operating and Capital Budget Priorities  Councilor Lennon suggested that the committee get some sort of preliminary document outlining the capital improvements objectives for the next fiscal year, including ARPA funds, bonds, and other things contributing to the operating budget.  Councilor Stanganelli said his vision is to have the administration provide a projection of the operating budget and a five-year projection of the capital improvements budget. There may be things folks feel they would like to see reflected in the budget. o Councilor Stanganelli gave an example of something he would like the administration to consider when creating the budget: He would like to see the Powder House Restoration. He said the historical landmark is slowly deteriorating. o He said he has also had many people calling about rodents. He suggested maybe having pest control as a line item in the capital improvement budget. He said he does not know what it would look like but it is something of concern to the citizens of the city.  Councilor Lennon asked Councilor Stanganelli for an outline of how the Council should talk about budgeting prior to the budget hearings. o Councilor Stanganelli stated he will make a document for the councilors to add what they would like to speak about at meetings.  Angel suggested she could talk about what she is envisioning for the next year. o She said the bond that we just got was for FY22 capital that was already approved there are no extra funds in there for future capital. o She said she was envisioning they would not do another general obligation borrowing next year. She said she believes the city will wait for some of the existing debt to taper off before borrowing more. o She said the priorities of the projects could be discussed with Council. Public Comment  James N. Thivierge of 8 School Street, gave a public comment. 2  2021-135 A Resolution to Request Release of State-Appropriation for Construction of Soccer Fields at Woodsom Farm – Councilors Stanganelli, Rinaldi and Hogg Sponsor  Councilor Einson asked if there had been prior attempts to have these funds released. o Chief of Staff, Paul Fahey, responded by saying yes. Both state representatives are aware of this request.  Councilor Stanganelli said this has been an ongoing issue. He said it would be in the better interest of getting this project started if the Council were to supplement the mayor’s attempts with this resolution. Councilor Lennon motioned to send order 2021-135 back to City Council with a positive recommendation. Councilor Gilday seconded the motion. Roll call was taken, all members present voted in favor (7). Motion passed. 2021-136 An Order to approve payment from the FY ’22 general fund operating budget for the below listed prior year invoices. – Mayor Sponsor  Angel stated that this bill is compiled of outstanding invoices that were received after year end. o She said these are departments that turned back surplus appropriations last fiscal year. They are going to need to fund these through their current year operating budget.  Councilor Stanganelli stated the total of the invoices is $41,863.41  Councilor Einson noted that the services were done prior to the end of the year but the invoice was not received until the end of the fiscal year. He asked is there any tracking method for invoices that haven’t been billed yet. o Angel explained part of her year-end procedures is to reach out to department heads and remind that the end of the fiscal is nearing. She said she suggests keeping track of all expenditures in a spread sheet.  Councilor Einson asked about late fees. o Angel replied there are none. Councilor Lennon motioned to send order 2021-136 back to Cityy Council with a positive recommendation. Councilor Hogg seconded this motion. Roll call was taken, all members present voted in favor (7). Motion passed. 2021-137 An Order to authorize the transfer of $145,000 from Ambulance Receipts Reserved for Appropriation to support the FY 22 Fire/Ambulance operating budget.- Mayor Sponsor Councilor Lennon motioned to send order 2021-137 back to City Council with a positive recommendation. Councilor Einson seconded the motion. Roll call was taken, all members present voted in favor (7). Motion passed. 2021-138 An Order to authorize the Mayor to expend a Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) grant to replace the Amesbury Elementary School (AES) with a new building. - Mayor Sponsor Councilor Lennon motioned to send order 2021-138 back to City Council with a positive recommendation. Councilor Einson seconded the motion. Roll call was taken, 6 members voted in favor, 1 member voted not in favor (Stanganelli). Motion passed. 3 2021-139 An Order to authorize the Mayor to accept and expend a FY22 Municipal Road Safety (MRS) Program grant from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Executive Office of Public Safety & Security, Office of Grants & Research (OGR). – Mayor Sponsor  Police Chief, Craig Bailey, said this bill is identical to the one from last year. It is broken down into two parts, one part is $19,971.00 for traffic safety enforcement overtime, that overtime is broken down into 5 different programs: o Winter impaired driving o Distracted Driving o Click it or Ticket o Summer speed o Summer impaired driving  There is also an equipment portion of the grant for a total of $9,798.00 which includes 2 all traffic radar signs and a handheld radar gun.  Councilor Stanganelli asked about additional signage for the “25 MPH speed limit city wide” if it is covered in the Police Department budget or the DPW budget. o Chief Bailey said that is the DPW budget. Councilor Lennon motioned to send order 2021-139 back to City Council with a positive recommendation. Councilor Gilday seconded the motion. Roll call was taken, all members present voted in favor (7). Motion passed. 2021-140 An Order to authorize the Mayor to accept and expend a FY2022 Community Compact Best Practices Grant from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Revenue, Division of Local Services. – Mayor Sponsor  Paul Fahey said this would be worked on by the current HR coordinator for the city. They had a conversation with her and asked what a good start would be, and her response was policy and procedures.  Councilor Stanganelli asked how the HR department is structured, will some responsibility be in the administration and finance department as it previously was, or will there be more people hired in the future. o Paul responded when the previous individual who handled benefits and payroll left, they assigned the payroll to the school system’s payroll coordinator freeing up the position in the city to become more of an HR coordinator.  The HR will be working on a more standardized performance review. Councilor Lennon motioned to send order 2021-140 back to City Council with a positive recommendation. Councilor Gilday seconded the motion. Roll call was taken, all members present voted yes (7). Motion passed. 2021-141 An Order to authorize the Mayor to accept and expend a FY2022 Legislative Earmark Grant Award from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Executive Office of Elder Affairs. – Mayor Sponsor  Paul Fahey said it is something we have received in the past. COA (Council on Aging) Director is unavailable right now to comment.  Councilor Stanganelli asked if there is a match o Paul replied, no. 4  Councilor Lennon motioned to send order 2021-141 back to City Council with a positive recommendation. Councilor Hogg seconded the motion. Roll call was taken, all members present voted in favor (7). Motion passed. 2021-142 An Order to authorize the Mayor to expend, for its second year, a Drug Free Communities Support Program Grant from the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP). – Mayor Sponsor  Paul Fahey said this is a multiyear grant, one of the conditions talked about last year when it was accepted was that it would be brought up on a yearly basis.  Paul introduced Kael Brooks, project coordinator. o She said things are going well. She gave an overview of different things the grant was allowing the program to do.  Councilor Lennon asked what city departments they are working with and whom do they report to regarding the grant. o She replied saying the program is part of a regional organization called, Essex County Asset Builder Association. She said our direct grant reporting is through them, they are based out of Newburyport. o She said in terms of departments they have been working with the schools, council on aging, police department, etc. Councilor Lennon motioned to send order 2021-140 back to City Council with a positive recommendation. Councilor Hogg seconded the motion. Roll call was taken, all members present voted in favor (7). Motion passed. 2021-144 An Ordinance to authorize the City to create an Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Station Revolving Fund for the collection of revenue obtained from sponsorships of advertising on EV charging stations and energy sales revenue. – Mayor and Councilor Rinaldi Sponsor  Councilor Rinaldi said they receive a payment every month from Charge Point, the company that monitor the stations, from that the electric bill is paid, he said the revenue is about 10%. o He said they have been looking at asking local shops and restaurants about advertising options. Each charging unit has a small screen to display advertisements.  Councilor Einson asked about a forecast for revenue through the advertising. o Councilor Rinaldi responded, no.  Councilor Einson asked if other communities do this type of advertising. o Councilor Rinaldi responded, yes. Councilor Lennon motioned to send order 2021-140 back to City Council with a positive recommendation. Councilor Rinaldi seconded the motion. Roll call was taken, all members present voted in favor (7). Motion passed. 2021-145 An Order to amend Council Order 2021-075 for purchase of portable Police Department radios – Mayor Sponsor  Chief Bailey explained about the capital improvement request for the radio tower upgrade. The upgrade was broken down into two parts, the actual upgrade of the tower site for $22.259.00 the second part was going to cost roughly $34,000.00 and that 5  was the upgrade of the police officers portables. The state said they would come in and upgrade the tower site. The police department is requesting the use of the money saved for the portables upgrade. Councilor Lennon motioned to send order 2021-145 back to City Council with a positive recommendation. Councilor Rinaldi seconded the motion. Roll call was taken, all members present voted in favor (7). Motion passed. Councilor Lennon motioned to adjourn. Councilor Einson seconded this motion. Roll call was taken, all members present voted in favor (7). Motion passed. Adjourn at 8:48pm. Respectfully Submitted by, Ellie Andersen, December 20, 2021 6