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 10/19/2020 MINUTES FINANCE Meeting 10/19/2020 Attendees: FINANCE Committee Members*: Councilor Dan Rist, Chair Councilor Peg Conniff Other Attendees: Nicole LaChapelle - Mayor Homar Gomez, City Councilor - Precinct 2 Jen Gallant, City Treasurer Greg Nuttelman, Director DPW Val Bernier, City Auditor Meeting called to order at 5:00pm. The meeting was videotaped. Minutes from 9/30/2020 meeting were approved. NEW BUSINESS: 1. Request to amend FY ‘2021 budget (Cultural & Recreation and Debt & Interest) - The city must set the Library budget to a state minimum. We typically had set a budget with the assumption that Williston Northampton would gift the city $10,000. That gift was often aligned to the Library budget. This year it was given with a directive to use for professional development of department heads. Will be applied to The Mayor’s pledge and the CRC. New budget number is $563,320.14. - Under Debt and Interest, a reduction of $114,471.53 due to June refinance of High School bonds, reducing excluded debt payment. New Budget numbers are $6,751,099.47. Motion that Finance Committee make a recommendation to the full council to revise the FY 2021 Budget for Cultural & Recreation (+$3000) and Debt and Interest (-$114,471.53) Mo- tion: Councilor Rist, Seconded by Councilor Conniff. Passed 2-0 - Request to create a Revolving Account that will allow for the collection of fees generated from the Electric Vehicle Charging Stations. These fees will be used to maintain these charger stations. In addition, this account will be used for the maintenance and upkeep of the Valley Bike Share stations. - DPW will own this account and will keep track of the charges and the expenses. Step One: City Council will need to adopt the ordinance MGL Chapter 44 Section 53E 1/2. Step Two: City Council approve the maximum amount that may be spent during FY 2021 Motion to accept MGL and to approve the creation of the revolving account for Electric Vehi- cle charging stations & bike share program. Motion: Councilor Rist, Seconded by Councilor Conniff. Passed 2-0 OLD BUSINESS: 1. Review of Salaries and Stipends per Charter 2-4 (a) • Councilor Rist presented the 3 changes to be discussed by the full City Council. • Mayor Salary: $90,000 (from $75,000) • School Committee Members: $2,000 (from $1400) • City Council President: $4,500 (from $4,000) Motion to recommend increases in Mayoral, School Committee and City Council President salary and stipends. Motion: Councilor Rist, Seconded by Councilor Conniff. Passed 2-0 2. Review monthly fiscal report • Val Bernier, Auditor: Free Cash is in good shape $2.2M • Revenue: Should be at about 25% of the annual numbers which we are at this time. • Question regarding the City Council budget. 5:35 pm - Motion to adjourn by Councilor Rist Next Meeting: Monday, 11/02/2020 at 5:00pm