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 MINUTES FINANCE Meeting 05/17/2021 Attendees: FINANCE Committee Members: Councilor Dan Rist, Chair Councilor Peg Conniff Councilor Gomez (joined at 5:20 pm) Other Attendees: Nicole LaChapelle, Mayor Dr. Allison LeClair - EPSD Superintendent Dayle Doiron - EPSD Finance Marin Goldstein, Finance Chair, School Committee Jennifer Gallant, City Treasurer Lindsi Mailler - Assistant to the Mayor Emily Russo - Director HR Meeting called to order at 5:00pm. The meeting was held remotely due to the COVID-19 pan- demic and was videotaped. April 28, 2021 and May 12, 2021 meeting minutes were approved. Motion (Gomez) second (Conniff) 3-0. Mayor Communication: None Public Speak: Carolyn Cushing requested an overview and more information about the budget process. Councilor Gomez offered to help anyone who had questions about the budget. New Business 1. BUDGET REVIEW FY22 FULL BUDGET CAN BE FOUND HERE: A. https://easthamptonma.gov/component/fileman/file/ FY22%20Proposed%20Budget%20Book.pdf.html? routed=1&container=fileman-attachments B. Education - $17,097,693. Councilor Rist asked about grant funding. Does it need to be used for specific things or can it fill gaps in budget? Dr LeClair responded ESSR 1 was used for COVID related expenses but there were some fairly broad guidelines about how to use the grant money. ESSR 2 is money to be applied for 2021/2022 school year. There are more guidelines around this grant money. 10% must be used for student mental health related expenses. This will also be used for before and after school related care expenses. ($140k). Rist: Does School Commit- tee need to approve the spending? Dr LeClair…the state department of education approves this. • Dr. LeClair reported that the year presented challenges because of COVID. Commended all the adults and employees of the district. Dr. LeClair ex- pressed concern that the budget is not showing growth. But it is likely ap- propriate because of the times. • Budget shows a reduction of 9 FTEs in order to decrease their budget by 2.5%. Lost 100 students because of the full remote learning that had to happen in COVID. Councilor Conniff asked what individual contracts FTEs are. They are OT, Technical staff, speech and language therapists, special ed facilitators. • Discussed student counts YOY. Also looked at trends related to Charter and Choice-Out costs v. Choice-in Tuition. The costs for choicing out is getting more expensive over time. Dr. LeClair mentioned that she expects that more children will likely choice in when the new school is completed. • In the technology line items, they are reduced because the new building budget will accommodate some of those expenses. • Discussion around the SPED expenses which are high • The Education budget is 44.75% of the entire City Budget. C. Debt & Interest - $5,368,738 (Debt). The budget shows the principal the city pays for various debt instruments. The largest portion is due to the new school. This ac- count has dropped from 2021 by $1.5 million. • Reviewed the State Statutory Debt Limit. Based on all properties the state by formula has determined the debt limit for Easthampton is $88,651,245. The actual debt that Easthampton is carrying is $55,418,957. D. Unclassified - • Contributory Retirement -$3,537,450. Contributory Retirement. This ac- count is up $200K. PERAC arrives at this number based on the assessment of the retirement plan for employees. • Workers Compensation - $194,112. The 111F for public safety. These rates are determined through workers comp audits. • Medicare - $310,356 - This is fixed and is determined by the Federal Gov- ernment.  • Employee Benefits - $4,917,317 - Premiums were reduced 2% for Medx and HMO. Dayle D mentioned that rates are also determined based on the financial health of the Trust. Conniff asked for a definition of 32B - it is Health Insurance. • Liability Insurance - $292,047 - This insurance is for general liability for cars, trucks, buildings etc. • Reserve Fund - $200,000 - Allows transfers to other accounts that are short throughout the year • Unemployment - $75,000 - The city is self insured and pays their own claims for unemployment. It does not rollover YOY. 6:20 pm - Meeting adjourned NEXT MEETING: May 20 @ 5:00pm