City Council - Finance Committee

CITY OF EASTHAMPTON OFFICE OF THE CITY COUNCIL Easthampton Municipal Building 50 Payson Ave., Ste. 100 Easthampton, Massachusetts 01027-2260 Telephone #: (413) 529-1460 Fax #: (413) 529-1417 Finance Committee meeting 5-19-2020 Chair – Dan Rist Members –Bill Lynch (Clerk) – Peg Conniff Councilor Rist called the meeting to order at 5:30 pm through Zoom application Minutes: A Motion was made by councilor Conniff, second by councilor Lynch to approve the Minutes for meeting on 5-14-2020 – Pass 3-0 Mayor Update – None Public communications – None New Business – None Budget conversation – The Education budget was reviewed and Superintendent Dr. Allison LeClair discussed that the department was level funded and there was no increase over last year. She said that there will be only one lay off of a PT tech teacher at the High School. Other positions were going to be reviewed and adjusted to where the need is. The Pre K classes are smaller but the middle school increased so the positions would shift to where the need is. Also, noted was the choice out students and the amount of money that is shipped out, it ends up being around a 2.7 million dollar loss to the City. There was discussion around the COVID issues and that there is savings as well as different spends that are all new. There was a conversation around collaborating with the Parks and Rec department to help balance out the workers to support the additional sanitary needs. Marin Goldstein from the School committee raised the concerns with the budget but felt that they could manage with the proposed budget. Laurie Garcia raised concerns around how low the budget was and as an educator there was a lot of concerns that the City could be in trouble depending on how everything pans out with the State budget. Debt and Interest was reviewed and it was noted that it went up about 140K and that was due to the increase in Principal Temp loans, WWTP phase II and Sewer Outfalls. These Debts went up per the bond agreement but the interests went down. The New K-8 School Net went down vs. LY due to the interest going down. The Debt per the bond agreement went up but interest went down more leaving a lower balance. Going forward it was noted that the K-8 Debt will go down each year. There was questions and requests to have the balance and remaining bond agreements sent to the Council to review the remaining payments. Continuing Business – None Salaries and Stipends – Continued Proposal of MGL Chapter 44B - Continued Councilor Conniff made a motion to adjourn second by Councilor Lynch and it passed 3-0 Next meeting 5-21-2020 at 5:30 pm Submitted by, Bill Lynch