City Council - Finance Committee

Finance Committee Minutes May 12, 2025 Members present: Chair Tom Peake, Councilor Koni Denham, Councilor Peg Conni Members absent: None Also in Attendance: Chief Chris Norris, EFD; Hetal Patel - City Auditor; Emily Russo, HR Director; Brenda Therrien-Shoup, Supervisor/Dispatch; Cindy Perry, O ce Mgr, EPD; Eric Alexander, Det. Lieutenant EPD; Tom Gerry, Veteran Services; Michael Owens, Treasurer; Cynthia Trail, COA Director; Ryan Gri th, Health Director; Felicia Jadczak; Lindsi Sekula; Salem Derby Meeting called to order by Councilor Peake at 5:30 pm 1. Public Speak Time: No one from the public chose to speak 2. Approval of the Prior Meeting Minutes: Minutes from April 23, 2025 approved. Motion Councilor Conni , Second Councilor Denham 3. Mayor’s Communications: None 4. New Business: FY 2026 Budget review and discussion: 4.1 PUBLIC SAFETY 1. Police: Chief Chad Alexander reported that the FY26 budget is level funded. There will be some additions: Incentives and Social Worker. Salaries are increased as a result of union contractual agreements. 26/30 police have degrees. Some have gotten advanced degrees beyond their existing degrees. These degrees, per contract, increase salary. The %-age of o cers who are getting degrees has increased over time. Community Social Worker is a newly requested position. It was grant funded - 85% salaried and 15% are paid through opioid funds. Councilor Denham asked if Clerical sta have similar incentives for gaining a degree. The answer was yes. 2. Clerical hours went down from 40 to 34 hours/week. For ASCME unionized employees. It is currently in the process of being discussed with the union. The city will have nal decision since it is not a change to conditions. Mayor ff ffi ffi fi ff ffi ff  LaChapelle explained that this sta group has incrementally increased hours due to tasks added while sta vacancies existed. Impact to Community Social worker; Fire and Police Admins; COA admin (clerk and outreach worker). 3. Animal Control: Increase is due to rates with West eld Animal Control have gone up. 4. Crossing Guards: 3 - Virtually stays the same. (Supposed to have 5 but there have been resignations) 5. Dispatch: FY26 budget is level funded. A step increase will be given to all dispatchers. In FY25 received $425K grant. Applying for a similar grant for FY26. The money will be used for payroll and personnel costs. The grants covered about 80% of the payroll for last year. This model of regional support has been increasing and the work has been going on long before the grant was awarded. Councilor Denham asked if the Police/Dispatch budgets were fair and adequate. Chief Alexander and Dispatcher Brenda agreed that they were. 6. Fire: Chief Chris Norris walked through the line items. Level Budget for Fire and EMS. 37 FT employees cross trained for EMS/Fire. Of those, 5 are fully funded through a SAFER grant and regional Southampton grant. OT pay is used for shift coverage. OT Pay ER - coded for any signi cant events in city. OT Pay Training - for training outside regular shift training. (Example: Line re training is handled o site). Fire Captains Grade is when a Captain is not available, the person who responds gets the Captain’s pay rate. Vehicle Repairs: challenging line item. Increased from FY25 $10k to $25K in FY26. The retrucks are million dollar trucks and it is likely some things will break and it is largely an unknown. 1 FTE is clerical and are part of the ASCME union. 7. Ambulance: Chief Chris Norris walked through the line items. OT ALM/EMS was changed as to coding in the budget. It looks like it goes from $0 to $18k. $6000 is for yearly stipend for ALS coordinator. Remaining is for precasting potential new hires stipends. The paramedic preceptors become better paramedics by doing this service. fi fi ff fi ff ff fi  8. EMS: Certi cation fees - these are required. Misc. Prof and Tech services: Coastal Billing collect 2.99% in what EFD collects in medical charges. The remaining dollars that come in to the General Fund. On track to collect $1.5 M. Maint. agreements are a state requirement for licensing. Medical Supplies are higher since COVID. These are the disposable supplies. Amb. Supplies are hard supplied - stretchers straps, suction units etc. 4.2 BUILDING INSPECTION 1. Not a lot of increases. Department is stabilizing. Working to improve inspection process. Looking at revenues related to permitting. In the past, permits have been pulled and if inspections does not happen in a timely fashion, the city cannot collect fees. This is improving. Also looking to cap permitting fees for larger construction. This allows the project to continue knowing what the permit fees will be up front. A lot of cities surrounding Easthampton do the same and allows us to be competitive. 4.3 HUMAN SERVICES 1. HEALTH DEPARTMENT - Health Agents (2) are now Health Inspectors. Director, 2 Inspectors, public health nurse, social worker and part time admin asst. 2. COUNCIL ON AGING - Salaries line item = Director salary. FT Supervisory = 30 hour program manager and 34 hour Sr. Outreach Worker. FT Permanent = 34 hour Clerk and Activity Coordinator. PT Permanent - discontinued. PT Van Drivers = 4 drivers. Will have a volunteer for SHINE Program: Serving Health Insurance Needs of Everyone. Number of people utilizing the COA is increasing. Outreach services are labor intensive. Building Equip Repair is for things DPW did not budget for. Grants (Older Americans Grant) money comes through Fed to the State and then to Municipality. Grant monies applies to Full Time Supervisory, Full Time Permanent, PT Clerical. 3. VETERANS - YTD Expenses will happen in May and June. Added a permanent Clerical with a more experienced level so the dollars are higher in FY26. Veterans Cash Bene ts fi fi  i.e. Funerals @ $4K, Dental, other Cash Bene ts. Cash bene ts paid on needs based assistance. Also assist indigents and homeless vets. The dollars are reimbursed by the state in the year following the year the services were incurred. 4.4. UNCLASSIFIED 1. This includes areas like Contributory Retirement, Worker’s Comp, Medicare, Health Insurance (Largest increase YOY 18% increase on HMP and 20% increase on PPO). The increases stem from the introduction of the GLP-1 drugs. The uses outside of Diabetes has increased with no co- pays. $1400/mo per person. The reserve funds are being eaten up by the GLP1 drugs. Looking at options to mitigate the costs. Possibly a high deductible plan. Potentially looking at a co-pay. Taking care to ensure the Trust remains healthy. 2. Liability Insurance has been steady. 3. OPEB - Other post employment Bene ts - numbers are predetermined. 4. Unemployment Councilor Denham commented about the ASCME change for reduced hours. It is likely for the least paid employees and they are women. This is greatly concerning. 5. Supplemental Appropriation: - $41,916.00 to cover a shortfall in the Manhan Rail Trail Pavement Restoration Project Mayor LaChapelle explained that the restoration was started with a $330K grant plus $10K from Friends of the Manhan Trail. During restoration there were some costs that were not expected - like a need to extract roots - which meant additional paving. Motion to approve made by Councilor Denham, Second by Councilor Conni . Motion passed 3-0 6. Interdepartmental Transfer: - $822.77 for payment processing of FY ’24 credit card charges Treasurer Michael Owens explained that when he started as Treasurer he discovered some unpaid charges with interest against a credit card. In addition, some charges that should have been tax free but were not. This appropriation will cover the late fees, charges etc. Will be setting up some new procedures to ensure fi fi ff fi  that no one is spending money that they should not be spending. These are older charges that are now being taken care of. Motion to approve made by Councilor Conni , Second by Councilor Denham. Motion passed 3-0 6. Next Meeting: 5/13/25 @ 5:30pm No additional business to discuss. Councilor Conni made motion to adjourn, Councilor Denham seconded. Vote: 3-0. Meeting adjourned at 7:06 pm. Respectfully submitted, Councilor Peg Conni ff ff ff