Aldermen, Board of

SPECIAL BOARD OF ALDERMEN PUBLIC HEARING JUNE 3, 2013 A Public Hearing was conducted by the Board of Aldermen on Monday, June 3, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. at the Nashua High School South Auditorium, 36 Riverside Street, Nashua, New Hampshire. President Brian S. McCarthy presided; City Clerk Paul R. Bergeron recorded. The roll call was taken with 11 members of the Board of Aldermen present; Aldermen Tabacsko, Dowd, Craffey and Chasse were recorded absent. Her Honor Mayor Donnalee Lozeau was also in attendance. PUBLIC HEARING R-13-123 RELATIVE TO THE ADOPTION OF THE FISCAL YEAR 2014 PROPOSED BUDGET FOR THE CITY OF NASHUA GENERAL, ENTERPRISE, AND SPECIAL REVENUE FUNDS Sequence in Which City Department Budgets will be Discussed: GENERAL GOVERNMENT DIVISION 101 MAYOR'S OFFICE Fred Teeboom Good evening. My name is Fred Teeboom, 24 Cheyenne Drive. First question. What is that overview of the budget like it has always been provided? Mayor since that's in your budget I guess the Budget Chairman has an answer. Mayor Lozeau You know Mr. Teeboom I know that you've asked that. This isn't the first time. When you asked it tonight, it made me think that you've asked it before. I've never done a presentation of the budget before the public hearing. I'd be happy to give you a snapshot in general terms. Fred Teeboom Not even (inaudible - not speaking into a microphone) common courtesy and somewhat traditional. I've tracked it the last four or five years. It's always been for years and year - at least 20 years it's been tradition to provide an overview. I think we ought to see an overview. We ought to just see an overview. Thank you. I'll make some more comments. Chairman McCarthy Let the record show that Alderman Sheehan has joined us. Any other comments on the Mayor's Office? We'll move on to Board of Aldermen on page 60 in the budget. 102 BOARD OF ALDERMEN Fred Teeboom Well it's me again. I hope I don't have to keep popping up. I put it to my last comment before it went to the aldermanic budget, how about just sticking it in the Mayor's budget. What happened to the overview? 1 Mayor Lozeau My apologies Mr. Teeboom. I thought you might never mind. Fred Teeboom (inaudible). Mayor Lozeau In a general sense, I'll tell you that this budget as usual is below the spending cap. The amount the below the spending cap is approximately $340,000. This budget represents a one percent or less increase from all the departments and divisions - well all the divisions with the exception of Police, Fire, and School but when taking out the money for negotiations, they too came in at the requested one percent or below number. The format of this budget you'll see it somewhat differently. Early in this budget you'll see a summary sheet by accounts throughout the City. You'll also see health care costs attributed to the various budgets which is unusual for this year. You will also see fuel for Police, Fire, and groups like that also in their budgets with an attribution. The other thing that comes to the top of my head that's different in this budget is in the back of the budget book, the trust funds begin with a summary sheet that compares the funds since 2009. A convenient way to be able to see that. It's on page 237. So those are kind of the big highlights of what is different in this year's budget. Primarily its information based. Fred Teeboom Well that's not much of an overview but I guess that's all you can do. What happened to the budget books that are normally handed out and are required by Charter to be handed out? Mayor Lozeau The budget books are here. Fred Teeboom Are they here? Mayor Lozeau Yes of course. Fred Teeboom They're sitting in a box. Does anybody know they're there? Mayor Lozeau There's a box on each side. There's a budget on top of each box. That was helpful to indicate that the budget was there. Fred Teeboom Well since you provided a minimum overview Mayor, let me provide you my overview. There's only 4 members sitting there so if the Chairman doesn't mind, I'll hand you 4 copies of my overview. I won't take up too much time this evening because to provide a really good overview, you need a view craft presentation, you need a projection like we always used to have but apparently we don't get now. Let me make a couple of points. First off I think the way the budget is presented in 2014 is an outstanding method of presentation. When I was an alderman, I spent years trying to figure out exactly how the overhead correlated to the operating budget (inaudible) no longer in that portion of the budget. It was always extremely difficult to figure out. This budget lays that out. It separates the overhead by different department so you can see what department costs are what - not just standard costs but overhead costs. I think the School Department is an example that comes in at around $140 - $145 million. Not the $96 million people normally talk about. 2 Now looking at the sheet I provided you, what I did was I laid out a comparison of the budget because what I'm concerned about is the spending cap. I spent a lot of time on the spending cap. It is now State law as you know. The entire spending cap in Nashua is adopted through State law and grandfathered in. I battled that before the New Hampshire Supreme Court and we prevailed. What I did is I laid on the colored spreadsheet you see in front of you. The comparison to fiscal 2009 through fiscal 2014. So 6 years because as you yourself pointed Mayor, you like to make that comparison. You made a comparison I found in the newspaper against 2007. It actually goes back another year. If you look at the top line, you'll see the combined annual municipal budget this year went up by 2.2 percent. If you consider that the CPI, the weighted CPI (inaudible) is 2.3 percent. Just below the limit. In fact if you analyze the way it's done, and it's done in the budget book I believe page if anybody wants to track it is done very well. I have worked out the format with the previous Financial Director on page 11. If anybody wants to track these things, there's a nice summary of how the spending cap is computed and what is exempted. The reason for that is there's some exemptions under Ordinance O-94-76 in paragraph 5 of the ordinances. So if you analyze all that, you'll see that the margin in the spending cap as you mentioned - you mentioned the figures $243,000 on the $14,000. So you're $343,000 under the spending cap. What that means is you can increase the budget as a supplemental budget during the year by $343,000 with a simple majority vote of the Board of Aldermen. After that, it takes 2/3 of the Board. Ten votes if 15 members are present. Ten members no matter how many are present. That was a Charter change. Now this may not sound so good. The $343,000 sounds like a lot of money but if you consider that you have a $250 million budget plus, that is not a lot of money. If you look at it backwards, and that's what I cross on the spreadsheet on the crossover, last year after there was some slight increase between the proposed budget and the adopted budget, the margin was $476,000 - $477,000 rounded up. So almost 50 percent higher margin that have to date proposed. The year before that, there was a $979,000 margin. The year before that, there was a $1.2 million margin. The year before that was a $1.4 million margin. That's why I said the margin is important because that margin allows you to supplement the budget without requiring 10 members to override the spending cap. I would say that $343,000 which is less than all these figures years from the previous 6 years is too low. It is inadequate. Let me point out. I read in the paper for instance it was an argument about an emergency fund you wanted to establish. I'm for an emergency fund. I think it's a good thing to do. If you budget emergency fund, it's there. You don't sit and an override on it. You don't do supplemental budget on it. It's there. It's a good thing to have. For somebody and I think its Alderman Donchess argued, I don't want emergency funds then if you have an emergency what do you do? Well the first thing you have to do is you got to go against the margin in the spending cap and if you go more than that, I think you proposed something like $500,000, then you have to get your 10 votes and now you're over the cap. Mayor Lozeau Mr. Teeboom excuse me. As you know, that's never happened. Fred Teeboom Not on your watch but I think the $500,000 is a good thing to do. I think taking it out is not a good thing to do. You have it in the budget now I believe correct? Mayor Lozeau But you can also add in the contingency of $300,000. Fred Teeboom Can I ask you what is your contingency fund? Mayor Lozeau $300,000. Fred Teeboom And that's also not very much. You still have contingency $500,000 - $600,000. This is a very tight budget. You're running a very tight margin. I'm not comfortable. If I were an alderman, I would not be comfortable with this budget. I would put up at least $1 million of the operating money and put that entire million as a margin against the cap. I would 3 keep in the $500,000 as an emergency reserve fund. That is just prudent planning for a $250 - $260 million budget. That is my overview. Thank you. Chairman McCarthy We're currently on the Board of Aldermen's budget on page 60. Are there any other comments on the Board of Aldermen? 103 LEGAL DEPARTMENT 105 CITI-STAT Dan Richardson Dan Richardson, 70 Berkeley Street, Nashua, NH. I guess I'm going to pretty much ask the same question as I've asked before. What kind of product are we getting for the money that we're spending on Citi-Stat? Every time I've asked that question previously, I have gotten a (inaudible). They're doing good things for me. They're checking into things. Nowhere have I ever seen a product come out that would represent a work product from Citi-Stat. Maybe that's hidden behind the scenes. There's no evidence that the spending which has been for the past 5 years anyhow of over $100,000 on Citi-Stat. Nowhere has there been evidence to the public, the public's benefit. So I ask you, what is its benefit? What can you point to that says that spending that kind of money is worth it? Where can you point to? What document? What report? Make it by year. For last year that time frame, what was produced? Mayor Lozeau Mr. Richardson I'll give you the same answer I give you ever year when you ask this question because the answer is still the same answer. So as you know I did away with the Administrative Services Division, which by the way cost more than the Citi-Stat program cost. Citi-Stat is a performance base measurement driven system. It provides for us analyses and other things that make decisions. That book in your hand, every year is produced based on a lot of the work that Citi-Stat does. The work with us; they work with managers; they work with Directors; they work on specific tasks that I ask them to do. There's an analysis actually that has been asked for by some members of the Board of Aldermen that they're going to see that's a result of some of the type of work that Citi-Stat does. They will continue to be a valuable asset to the City. The efficiencies and other things that we have saved in this budget over the years and the budgets before it are a true testament to the value of that program. Dan Richardson Thank you Mayor for the rhetorical response and it's what I did expect, and it's what I've heard in the past which is a lot of words and very little meaning. There is not work product that you can point to. You say that there's been assistance putting this together. It was put together in the past. There is no value that I can see and you haven't shown anything. Thank you very much. Chairman McCarthy Any other comments on Citi-Stat? Fred Teeboom Fred Teeboom, 24 Cheyenne Drive. I haven't tried to analyze this budget like I typically do. I have not gone through details. I did happen to catch the Budget meeting when the Board asked a lot of questions of the Citi-Stat Manager. The question was effectively - it's from former Alderman Richardson said, where's your product? Citi-Stat starts with city statistics. It started I think in the City of Baltimore which originally modeled on the City of Baltimore when it was first proposed in the former (inaudible). At that time, I remember asking where is your product. Where is the statistical data that you produced? I know you don't get into the Police Department. I know you showed all them in the School Department. You're basically getting into Public Works. It's primarily Public Works that you're able to get into, get the visibility where you have yourself to control because you don't have the control of the School Board and you don't have control of the Police board, and you don't have control of the Fire board but you do have control of the Public Works Board because you Chair it. So basically her answer is generally I have looked and she still talks about keeping track of work products that are generated to clear up a pothole some place. You also talk about the cameras where you talk back and forth. The fact is 4 there is no report I've ever seen. There's no report anyone has ever seen. There's just been a lot of hand waving about what she does. She may be a very nice lady. She may be very capable and very bright but it's a lot of hand waving of what she does. She can't show a single product that you'd expect to see of a city statistics. Mayor Lozeau Mr. Teeboom, with all due respect, I see the work product. The managers see the work product. When there are aldermen that ask for specific things from time to time, they see the work product. Citi-Stat - that's my only regret is naming it Citi-Stat because people are going to assume that it's the same as the program that you've mentioned. It is similar but I use it differently. When I learned about Citi-Stat the first year that I was Mayor, actually before I took office when I went to a conference that they had for new Mayors, and it actually started in New York City in the Police Department and then Baltimore adopted it after the Chief of Police in New York did it. So one of the ways that some of those programs work is they bring staff in every week, and they put up their statistics about their overtime, and things like that. There are things that we do like that on a regular basis with DPW. We analyze longevity. We analyze sick time. We analyze retirement times. We analyze dollars compared to other things. I think that you're one of the people that know how hard I work and how high my expectations are. This is a right hand position for what I do and what I'm able to do. Think about it. When you look at this budget and you look at the times that we've been in, so I've put together 6 budgets now. I've put them together after the first one during a terrible recession. We lot double digits and millions of dollars from both the State and the local revenue. In spite of that and in spite of costs that have been passed down such as the 35 percent that the State used to pay in retirement costs that it no longer pays, it's now zero; the 26 percent increase, 16 percent a few years back. In spite of all those things, the cost of fuel going up - all those things, if you look at the operating budget that I've produced, that we've produced - I appreciate my staff being here tonight, we look at that. We are about a half of a million dollars below 2007 levels. Salaries, wages, health care, those kinds of things that we can't manage, I'm not counting that number because as I said, those things have happened. Our employees have given us double the contribution in their health care. Some of those analysis have been done by Citi-Stat in order for us to understand what we can ask for working with Financial Services. These things happen all the time. I think we've delivered something pretty remarkable. Fred Teeboom Mayor are you saying the operating budget is lower than it was in 2007? Mayor Lozeau That's correct. Fred Teeboom For the City? Mayor Lozeau That's correct. Fred Teeboom One second. Mayor Lozeau So as you look at your analysis that you've done, it's different than the analysis that we've done. So this is what I'm trying to say just so we're clear, if you take out salaries, wages, health care, and pensions costs, those things that we can't control - we do control to some degree salaries, but there are other drivers there. If you take those out and go strictly to the operating budget without those, it is $500,000 less than 2007. Fred Teeboom Without wages, without benefits, without... 5 Mayor Lozeau The things we can control. Fred Teeboom That includes overtime? Mayor Lozeau No overtime is in salaries. As you know, there's a limited amount of overtime that I can control. Fred Teeboom So what does that include then? That's one percent... Mayor Lozeau That's everything left in the budget. Seventy-five percent of the budget is salaries as you know. Fred Teeboom If you take the salaries out, and you take the overhead out, and take the benefits out, what's left? Mayor Lozeau I'd be happy to provide you with the same document that I provided the Aldermen in demonstrating this number. Fred Teeboom That's why we needed the overview Mayor because when they say receipt of statistics, this is the position. If you want to make this a staff position because you need help in your office to manage a $250 million corporation, that's what you're managing - a quarter of a billion dollar corporation. Mayor Lozeau I recognize that. Fred Teeboom That's a large corporation. You can't run with a minimal staff. Look at Pennichuck, that was a $30 million operation and they had so much staff they came out the windows. It was over $30 million. You're running an operation that's 9 times larger than Pennichuck with maybe the same staff. If it's a staff position you need to analyze what you're doing and you say okay these are costs I can't control. These are costs I do control. I can understand that. That's an analysis and if that's what the person does, maybe you should rename it as a staff position because you call it a statistical position and former Richardson is an engineer, a Harvard engineer. Cookson is an engineer. I forgot how many other engineers there are. If someone saw a statistical report, I think Alderman McCarthy has a science degree, if you say statistical position, you look for a statistical report. If you look for a staff member to assist you in operating more efficiently, a quarter of a billion dollar corporation, that's a different matter. Mayor Lozeau As I've said Mr. Teeboom, eliminating the Administrative Services Division and replacing it with a performance based management staff that costs less than Administrative Services done has been very successful. As I said, I regret calling it "Citi-Stat". Fred Teeboom All right. You're talking about Maureen. It used to be Administrative Services Director. 6 Mayor Lozeau That's correct. Fred Teeboom Lemieux and her staff? So two or three people? Mayor Lozeau That's correct. So I operate without those 2 or 3 people and I operate now with 2 people - an Analyst and a Director. Fred Teeboom Then the Board ought to think about talking about changing the definition and the operating position. Mayor Lozeau I think Citi-Stat doesn't have to be run the same way every city does to still have some of those answers. There are some statistics but it's primarily performance based. Fred Teeboom Thank you. Mayor Lozeau You're welcome. Chairman McCarthy Alderman Moriarty joined us some time ago at this point. Are there any other comments on Citi-Stat? 107 CITY CLERK’S OFFICE 109 CIVIC AND COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES 111 HUMAN RESOURCES 113 BENEFITS 115 CITYWIDE PENSIONS 118 OTHER GENERAL GOVERNMENT 156 EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT Fred Teeboom I have a question probably from the Mayor perhaps could answer that. When I work as an alderman, we worked very hard to get the Nashua Community Television up and running, and built a studio, and all that good stuff. There were also plans in place, maybe 3 or 4 years ago when John Barker was here - a big loss when he left but when he was here, we worked on integrating the community television operations with the Emergency Management which is the Police Department right across. What has happened to that? Is there any plan to put to integrate the community television studio with the Emergency Management function? Mayor Lozeau I'm not sure I understand the question Mr. Teeboom. Emergency Management used to be down in the city with different staff, people generally one from Police and Fire, or one from the Mayor's Office and police, or one from the Mayor's Office and Fire who part time received a stipend in their salaries for performing that function. We've changed it to a full time Emergency Management Director who's taken responsibility for emergency preparedness plans, getting a group of volunteers certified for emergencies. There's been a lot of growth there. I'm not sure how the television studio connects to that. 7 Fred Teeboom I can see that. So what I suggest you do is next time you the Chief of the Fire Department - Morrissey. Mayor Lozeau That's Chief Morrissey. I do see him from time to time. Fred Teeboom Chief Morrissey, I think he's the Emergency Management Representative from the Cable Television Board. Maybe not. Mayor Lozeau No he's not. Emergency Director is... Fred Teeboom Maybe he is and Chief Morrissey. Morrissey used to be part of that group and is familiar with all that took place. The intent was that if there was an emergency in the City, it could start by telling Channel 16, 96, and 99. Mayor Lozeau You mean to announce it? Fred Teeboom No it be a meeting room set up, it could be information presented, and it can be in local television absolutely. Mayor Lozeau We have an emergency operation center that opens in an emergency. We provide information. We put it on the website when necessary. Fred Teeboom That's all on the website. I'm talking about community television. Mayor Lozeau When necessary, we also put it on TV16 and actually one of the new things we're doing this year is putting in real time maps. Fred Teeboom Okay so that's going to be on television 16? There's an emergency... Mayor Lozeau The potential is there if necessary. Fred Teeboom It's more than potential. The potential was there 4 years ago. I'm talking about what's happened? That was my question. If you're not quite up to date, it's okay. It's just a minor thing. Talk to Chief Morrissey on that. Mayor Lozeau I'll do that. 8 Fred Teeboom Thank you. 183 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FINANCIAL SERVICES DIVISION 126 FINANCIAL SERVICES 128 RISK MANAGEMENT Dan Richardson Dan Richardson, 70 Berkeley Street, Nashua, NH. I see that in 2013 we had 5 people in Risk Management and proposed for 2014, there are also 5. One of the positions disappeared. The Risk Management Specialist II. I'd like to know what happened to that necessary position. Mayor Lozeau It has become a Property and Casualty Adjuster. So there are now two of those positions versus the Risk Management Specialist II. Dan Richardson Was the individual in the position of Risk Management Specialist II now moved into the position of Property and Casualty Adjuster? Mayor Lozeau No. The person that was in that position retired from the City. The positions were analyzed and the Risk Manager and the CFO recommended two Property Casualty Adjusters. Dan Richardson Thank you. Mayor Lozeau You're welcome. 129 CITY BUILDINGS 130 PURCHASING DEPARTMENT 131 HUNT BUILDING 132 ASSESSING 134 GIS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) DIVISION 120 TELECOMMUNICATIONS 122 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY POLICE 150 POLICE DEPARTMENT FIRE 152 FIRE DEPARTMENT PUBLIC SAFETY DIVISION 9 157 CITYWIDE COMMUNICATIONS 159 OTHER PUBLIC SAFETY-HYDRANTS 162 STREET LIGHTING Dan Richardson Dan Richardson. You move mighty fast. I'd like to address the prior subject. Street Lighting. It looks like we're going from $704,000 total budget for 2013 to $775,000 for 2014. The actuals through 2013 at the end of March was $504,000. So I want to ask what's driving that cost? Is it escalation and rates? Is it the Public Utilities Commission granting increases? What's causing that? Is it more street lights? Mayor Lozeau Yes there are more street lights. This number reflects the actual for 8 months. There's legislation and for an additional $40,000 because street lights actually knew are going to increase. The demand charge is increasing. So when we budgeted last year at the $700,000, we increased contingency and the general contingency knowing that we were likely going to have to come back to get an increase. So this primarily represents both new street lights and an increase in demand charges. Dan Richardson What do you anticipate for end of the year total? Mayor Lozeau About $740,000. Dan Richardson So $740,000, so you're anticipating a small increment above that for growth in the number of street lights... Mayor Lozeau Demand charge and growth in street lights. Dan Richardson Thank you. Mayor Lozeau You're welcome. Fred Teeboom Alderman McCarthy you go awful fast there. I'm slow these days. I just have a question. Back to the Police and back to the Fire. Some discussion I read in the newspaper, which I do more than watching TV16 unfortunately these days. The Police got a 5 percent increase. The Police Chief is going from $124,317 to $129,312. That a 4 percent increase. The Fire Chief who is also here - these are nice layouts by the way. Very nice to read. Easy to read - is going above $5,000. So they both go up about 4 percent. Could you tell us why when the cost of living is around 2.2 percent. Why are they getting 4 percent increases and many merit increases are 3 percent or less. Union increases are less than 3 percent. Why are these 2 individuals getting 4 percent. Mayor Lozeau Mr. Teeboom I think the best response to that question is both Police and Fire should speak to what they recommended for the Chiefs. I know that the Fire Chief back when the merit employees took a .5 percent, the Fire Chief did that. I think that was 2 years ago. So tomorrow evening at the start of the budget meeting, we'll be having wage discussions and that might be worthwhile for you if you can't watch it, record it. 10 Fred Teeboom If everybody gets 3 percent, the cost of living is 2.3 percent, lots of people getting no percent. Mayor Lozeau Well the merit employees based on where they are on the salary grid, a lot of them are looking at a 3 percent increase. Fred Teeboom Well this is 3 percent. Mayor Lozeau I'm just saying. Fred Teeboom This needs to be checked. I said you need to get more money in reserve is one place. We're talking about $4,000 to $5,000 on quarter of a million dollar budget - especially overhead and all that. Again, it's an image that's projected here. That gets reported and (inaudible) well why are these people getting 5 percent and the others are only getting 3. Maybe you've done a study and found out communities the size of Nashua, the background of these individuals have responsibility to have the staff they have. It ought to be just more than hey some board told me to give them the increase. Thank you. Mayor Lozeau I think you know how it works. Chairman McCarthy Would one of the Police Commissioners like to address that question? Commissioner Pappas Commissioner Pappas. I couldn't be here this evening but I'd like to comment on Mr. Teeboom's question if I could. There was actually 3 1/2 percent that was put in by the Police Commission versus the 4 percent. It was 3 1/2 percent because we had received a half a percent pay raise at the end of the previous fiscal year which was not seen in the budget book. A 3 1/2 percent was put in some months ago when we were preparing the budget. I can tell you right now that we have not received that pay raise and certainly I don't anticipate receiving anything even close to that. I do know that there's a certain amount put in for unaffiliated in the Police Department and it was just an amount that the Commission wanted to be able to use if they saw fit. Based on where we are today and the fact that no contracts had been approved, I anticipate that any pay raise that we get will be far less than that. Thank you. PUBLIC HEALTH & COMMUNITY SERVICES DIVISION 171 COMMUNITY SERVICES Dan Richardson Dan Richardson, 70 Berkeley Street. I guess we're on Community Services is that correct? Chairman McCarthy Yes. 11 Dan Richardson I'm looking at page 121. Page 121 you have an Administrative Assistant II that's gone from 60 percent of a person to 100 percent of a person full time. Where does the overhead for that person show up? Could you point that out to me? Mayor Lozeau Meaning benefits Mr. Richardson? Dan Richardson Yes. My understanding is that going to full time, they'll be a benefits increase. Mayor Lozeau Well not necessarily. I mean you're making an assumption that the individual in that position may have benefits. That's not necessarily a fact than evidence. That's always been a full time position. It's just that the other .40 percent was attributed to other locations within that Division. It's not being fully carried in the Community Services part of that budget. Dan Richardson So you're saying I'll find a .4 person deficit someplace else? Mayor Lozeau No you would have found .4 of that position somewhere else in the budget. That's correct and the benefits for all the positions in that department are on page 123. For Community Services, the total benefits is $64,367, which may or may not include that person. Dan Richardson Thank you. Chairman McCarthy Other comments on Community Services? 172 COMMUNITY HEALTH 173 ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH 174 WELFARE ADMINISTRATION 175 WELFARE ASSISTANCE PUBLIC WORKS AND ENGINEERING DIVISION 160 PUBLIC WORKS AND ENGINEERING 161 STREET DEPARTMENT 177 PARKS AND RECREATION PUBLIC SERVICES DIVISION 140 PINEWOOD CEMETERY 142 WOODLAWN CEMETERIES 144 EDGEWOOD CEMETERY Dan Richardson Mr. Chairman, this is the most frustrating book to deal with that I've ever come across. Some of these departments have the individual labor categories or titles stated fully giving a full time equivalence in that position. Others are rolled up into 12 a ball of wags. You have no idea how many people are involved in that line. I'm trying to understand what rationale was put together in having some departments detailed and other departments just here's a bunch of money for some people. You don't even know how many people. Mayor Lozeau Mr. Richardson every Division has a sheet in front of it that tells you the answers. There are none of them rolled up. You need to look by Division and not by department. Dan Richardson That's what I'm doing. Chairman McCarthy Which department are you looking at Mr. Richardson? Dan Richardson For instance going onto the next one go to Building Inspection on page 164, wages full time $367,000. I have no idea how many people are in there. Chairman McCarthy Because the positions for that one are rolled up at the beginning of the Division. I f you look at page 161, you'll find the position sheet for building inspections. Mayor Lozeau In front of every Division, you'll find that. Dan Richardson Okay thank you. 145 SUBURBAN CEMETERY 148 NASHUA AIRPORT AUTHORITY 179 PUBLIC LIBRARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIVISION 153 BUILDING INSPECTION Dan Richardson Dan Richards, 70 Berkeley Street. Could you tell me where I find the Division Director line item? Mayor Lozeau Division Director line item is under Community Development. It's on page 162 under Department 181, Community Development. Dan Richardson It looks like the Community Development Director has gone from $110,000 to $113,000. That's been a very highly paid position for as long as I can remember ever since the Streeter administration. I observed over the years not much coming out of that position. That position is a figure head position. That position sits over many different departments. It's a layer of bureaucracy. It's expensive. I'm trying to figure out what is produced out of that layer of management that is worth that kind of money. 13 Mayor Lozeau Mr. Richardson I clearly don't agree with you on that position. That position is a valuable position in the City. I would agree that the pay is high. That pay has followed a step on the grid with a satisfactory performance review every year as any merit employee would receive with the exception of one year under my time when all the Division Directors took a zero percent in fiscal 2011. What's produced from that Director is not only what happens in that shop, which by the way is a significant piece of this community both Planning, Zoning, Building all of those things happen under the watch of that Director. In addition, that Director is part of the overall city picture for planning, for different quadrants of the city, works very closely with Economic Development. Many other departments have played a key role on rail - has been on the State committee on that for many years. There are a significant amount of things produced from that position. You and I won't see eye to eye on that this evening I'm sure. Dan Richardson Are you saying the person in that position is being paid to participate in rail discussions with various interest groups, with government groups for the purpose of rail? Mayor Lozeau As you may recall Mr. Richards, the State created a New Hampshire Rail Transit Authority. It actually began as the Nashua Rail Authority. That committee was created and it had a Mayor designee position on it from Nashua. Mayor Streeter appointed our Community Development Director for that position. So yes. Dan Richardson The city is paying for that? Mayor Lozeau The City pays that person's salary and that's one of that person's responsibilities. Dan Richardson Well each and every department that that department is over has a responsible department head fully qualified and adequate to manage their department. If they are not, then they shouldn't be in that position. I am still trying to discern what comes out of that layer of management that is worth that kind of money? Mayor Lozeau Mr. Richardson you and I both know clearly. I'm not going to give you answer that's going to satisfy you. So I'll quit while I'm ahead. Dan Richardson Thank you for the rhetorical answer. Fred Teeboom Fred Teeboom, 24 Cheyenne. Where is Bob Sullivan when we need him? On the same point, Mayor you are in charge of a quarter of a billion dollar operation. Mayor Lozeau You keep reminding me and making me concerned Mr. Teeboom. Fred Teeboom I know I'd be nervous. 14 Mayor Lozeau I didn't say nervous. I said concerned. Fred Teeboom But you're doing a very good job at it and I think your budgets reflect it. You haven't once gone over the spending cap as opposed to Mayor Streeter who went over half the time he was in office but there's nothing written in stone that anybody has to make the same amount of money you made last year plus some more. What I don't understand is I'm looking at the budget book and I'm going back to page 56, pardon me Mr. McCarthy, and it says Mayor $110,000. Why is the Mayor making less money than the Divisions Director that works for her? Mayor Lozeau It's been that way since I got here. Fred Teeboom You've probably been asked that question. I think this is a question that the Board of Aldermen really need to think about. It's the image of these things like I mentioned earlier about the Chief of Police. Why does the Mayor make less money than the Division Director who works for her directly and is under her control? Where is it written that because you made the salary last year you have to make that plus more next year? Mayor Lozeau Under the merit plan. The merit plan is a contract for our merit employees and it's... Fred Teeboom I'm not sure it applies to the Division Directors. Mayor Lozeau Well it does. They are merit employees under the city system. So short of a change in resolution, which I brought in as you recall back in 2010 to have the Directors get zero and others get .5, they are entitled as long as they have a satisfactory performance evaluation to move to the next step. Fred Teeboom Well when I was alderman, we changed the merit plan. Mayor Lozeau I understand. Fred Teeboom Deane probably could remember we had some battles on the merit plan and we won all the battles. By the way, the HR Director quit and couldn't take it. Mayor Lozeau Mr. Teeboom the merit plan changed on January 1st of 2008 to include a $750 increase to make the merit employees whole when they increased their share of health care, like many other city employees the same thing happened. That $750 was built into the grid after that. I started 5 days later and the grid below that incorporated the $750 and that will be part of tomorrow evening's discussion as well. Fred Teeboom Are you a merit employee? 15  Mayor Lozeau I am a merit employee. Fred Teeboom But you can still bring in the budget - this comes in on the resolution so you can change anything here you wish. Mayor Lozeau I understand that. I just would not advocate that we do not compensate our merit employees. Fred Teeboom I didn't say that either. What I started saying was the Mayor makes less money than the Division Director. That can be fixed. It ought to be fixed. It's an image problem Mayor. You can argue the Division Director, Community Development, is a well run Division. I tried to put an addition on my house and I was stopped before I got too far because I had to get a variance. Somebody in that department caught that. They were on the ball. I didn't even know I needed a variance. It's all one department. It's not a question if it's a well run department. It's not a question whether Kathy Hersh is capable. She's very capable. I've worked with her many a times. She's very supportive. The question is why is the Mayor making less money and that is the question you ought to consider and the Board of Aldermen particular. It proves this resolution ought to consider. Thank you. Chairman McCarthy Any other questions on Building Inspection? 155 CODE ENFORCEMENT 166 PARKING LOTS 181 COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT 182 PLANNING & ZONING 186 TRANSPORTATION EDUCATION 191 SCHOOL DEPARTMENT Dan Richardson Dan Richardson, 70 Berkeley Street, Nashua, NH. I'm looking at page 176, wages full time for the school. I'm looking at full time equivalence. We have a small increase for the number of secretaries. We have a one person increase for number of custodians. We have a 6 person increase in paraprofessionals. We have a 3 person increase for the number of teachers and I'm looking at these and wondering we're going from a total of 1,592 to 1,602 in round numbers. They're actually fractional representations. I'm trying to understand on a public schools continue and unabatedly to have less and less children as a group why do we have an increase in the number of teachers, paraprofessionals, other staff. Why does the head count grow? Mark Conrad Mark Conrad, Superintendent. I have with me Dan Donovan, our Chief Operating Officer. So some of what you're seeing Mr. Richardson I think is more accurate accounting with our new accounting system in FY2014 over where we are now. If you look at our budget for the current year, we have not added any secretarial positions. We have not added any custodial positions. We actually haven't added any paraeducator positions. I think some of that difficult maybe you have part time positions that have been accounted for differently moving forward than they are now. The area we have added positions in the current year is in our teaching positions. We've reduced 5 high school positions. We actually brought those positions back. Its kindergarten teachers because we've not this year declined from where we were last year in our elementary levels. Those numbers have been very high over any number of years. We have kindergarten classrooms in our Title I, our high poverty schools, with 25 students. So this year finally we've said we need 16 to reduce those class sizes and we need to be able to serve more children in their home schools where right now too many students are being pushed to other areas of the city because we don't have space in our classrooms for them. So we have added 5 kindergarten teachers into the budget, which were really offset with loss of high school positions. You see 3 teachers there. One of those is a psychologist position which falls under the teaching contract reflecting the increase in the number of students with significant disabilities. Two of those positions are elementary teachers that haven't been assigned yet. We're going to see where enrollments fall this summer. If you look at our class sizes, a majority of our grade 5 classrooms next year will have 25 to 28 students in a classroom. We have a number of grade 4 classrooms next year. We're projecting a similar size and we have 3 - when I say classrooms, I mean grade levels within a school. So a majority of our grade 5 classrooms across are different elementary schools we'll have 25 to 28 students. Three of our elementary schools will have 25/26 students at the 4th grade level and 3 of our schools will have 24/25 students in classes at the 1st and 2nd grade level. So we've continued over the years to have very high elementary class sizes and that hasn't changed. We have seen declines over time principally 3 or 4 years ago, we actually eliminated 16 teaching positions at the middle school level and those numbers are more reasonable now. At the high school, we have as I said decreased teaching positions this year. In order to reduce our kindergarten class sizes, we've also last year eliminated two guidance positions as a result of decreases in student enrollment. That's where we are with that. Chairman McCarthy Mr. Conrad could you address the enrollment from last year to this year? Mark Conrad We were one of the few communities in the State - if you look at this year versus last year, we fell within 1 student from that enrollment. So essentially there's been no change in student enrollments. There has been a decline over the years primarily at the secondary level. Next year among the three different levels, we're looking at a decline of approximately 90 students. So we are projecting a slowing in the decline and in fact we had no decline really this year compared to last year was probably reflects that fact we have a large affordable rental market and we're finding other communities like Manchester where there's more affordable housing. They're not seeing the decline in numbers either that other communities around the State are. Dan Richardson I have to ask the question, again, in a different way. I understood for 2014 is a very good explanation too. Thank you Sir. I have to ask the question from here on out, what's the projections look like as far staffing goes? Mark Conrad Staffing projections would be based on student enrollment projections. We also have some other specific areas where we know we have concerns. For example, we have a three year budget process and that's on our website. You can look at that. We've proposed a number of positions over time. For example, not next year but the following year, we've proposed adding a reading specialist at Elm Street Middle School because we have a shortfall there. We actively look at our enrollment year to year as far as classroom teachers. So we don't have a long-term projection for that in part because find in recent years our student projections for decreases haven't materialized to the extent they were projected. So we look year to year and that's why I say last year is one example. We eliminated a number of guidance positions at the high school because we had smaller enrollments there. We've eliminated a number of teachings positions at the middle school and the high school level over time where we could. Our preference would be at the elementary level if we began to see a decline in class sizes. At least I would recommend to the Board and I know the Board is very concerned about the class sizes at the elementary level, that we allow that decline to result in small class sizes. I think if we see further declines at the middle school level, we would probably look at proposing some elimination of positions there where we have reasonable class sizes right now and will continue to actively look at the high school. So we don't have a long-term staffing projection cuz it's really based each year on enrollments but we do with the Board of Education look very closely at those enrollments level by level in putting our budget together and the Board looks very closely at those as well. Dan Richardson I have on last question if you'd be so kind. Back a number of years ago the school engaged in a facility study and based on projections, it looked like it would be reasonable to close a facility. I was wondering capacity utilization. Where do we stand on that? 17 Mark Conrad Actually just prior to my time coming to the District, there was a board lead facility study that looked at our facilities and really identified the fact that we were utilizing a higher rate of classrooms than people think. I think much of that was driven by the fact that we had a large number of portable classrooms prior to the transition to the new high schools and the middle school configuration. So when we moved grade 6 out of our elementary schools years ago, all we did in many cases was in most cases was just reduce overcrowding or eliminate the need for portables. Since then over time, we have seen a growth in the number of intensive needs program or preschool programs in our special education programs over the years. Not so much in recent years, although next year we are looking at one additional intensive needs classroom and we did fund it from a reduction within special education. As we've increased the number of intensive needs classrooms or preschool classrooms coupled with the fact we've not been able to reduce elementary teachers, I would say at this point in some instances we have classrooms here or there. In other cases, we really have with those kindergarten teachers coming in for example, in some schools you'll be near or at maximum capacity. So we don't see the ability to close a school at this point given the utilization of classes that we're seeing. Dan Richardson I can see why everybody that I talk to likes the Superintendent. He's very good. Thank you very much Sir. You gave a concise answer and you answered the question. I appreciate that. Fred Teeboom Fred Teeboom, 24 Cheyenne. Well remember that Mr. Conrad used to be the Financial Director for the school before he became Superintendent. He was an excellent Financial Director. I would first make a comment of the Superintendent's salary on page 176 even though it's the highest in the city. It did go up by $40,000. I think it went up by a little over one and a half thousand. A little less than one percent just as a comment. I have a question of Mr. Conrad. What I like about this budget book is that it ties all the overhead together, which is very nice. When I go to page 182 and I add the two figures - I add the debt service to the school costs, it went up $129 million plus and $17.8 million debt and $147,046,362 to operate the school. What I'm using is a round number and you have what 12,000 students. So it's a little over $12,000 per student per year. It's actually right around the State average. It's actually slightly below. Here's the question - how does that number compare with the MS22 form, which is what the State gets and is supposedly the figure to add all figures for the School Department. Is this number close to, exact, above or below the MS22 number? Mayor Lozeau Well before you answer Superintendent, Mr. Teeboom just so you know that number that you just quoted on page 182 is not just school debt. That's total city debt including schools. So you wouldn't take that number and add it directly to the schools. Fred Teeboom I thought it was school debt service? Mayor Lozeau No it's city-wide debt service. Fred Teeboom You mean the debt service... Mayor Lozeau I didn't want the Superintendent to be thinking that somehow he... Fred Teeboom So the debt service is not included under the school number? 18 Mayor Lozeau That number includes the whole city debt service. Fred Teeboom Okay back to the $129,178,710... Mayor Lozeau Basically the $17.8 million is the payment on the debt service. Fred Teeboom What's that $129 million mean then on the MS22? Now I'm all wet. Could you explain that Mr. Conrad? Mayor Lozeau The 129? Fred Teeboom Yeah I'm looking at $129 million and that's on page 181. Mark Conrad I think our total operating budget is roughly $139 - $140 million this year with debt service specific to the School Department along with all the benefits and other shared costs. The MS22 you're referring to is the annual report we make to the Department of Education regarding appropriations. I assume you're referring to the cost per pupil question. We haven't filed the MS22 yet because the budget hasn't been set but when we do file the MS22 which should reflect - that's where we get the $139 million number from because it does take into account all costs pertaining to the school district, including debt service, employee benefits, payroll taxes, shared costs in areas like legal services. So it is a comprehensive number. It may not match to what you'll see on the Department of Education website regarding costs per pupil because there are certain costs that they exclude from that like interdistrict tuition transfers and transportation. So our actual cost per pupil is a little higher. Generally when somebody asks what that is, we us the MS22 figure which is pretty accurate. Fred Teeboom So the number is $138 million? Mark Conrad I think its $139 million would be the closer number if you were to look at the MS22 this year. Fred Teeboom In general, that is the debt service not included with the operating costs like if Public Works had a debt service. Mayor Lozeau That's correct. It's carried... Fred Teeboom But that's where it is on that building. 19 Mayor Lozeau If look Mr. Teeboom on page 183 through page 185 shows all the debt service by individual bonds, costs, maturity date, and all that information. So to put it in perspective for you if you look at the school bonded debt as you know, they're allowed a 6 percent margin. There it's 17 1/2 percent of that 6 percent. For the city, we're allowed 2 percent and we're at 19.5 percent of that 2 percent. In the percentages and I know that we've talked about before when you asked that question, that where it stands. Fred Teeboom Well 2 percent of your net assessed value. Mayor Lozeau It's your every year assessed value. That's right. I'm just telling you what the school number is and what the rest of the city number is. Fred Teeboom Okay so the overhead that we talked about for all of these departments does not include the debt service? Mayor Lozeau That's correct. Fred Teeboom And why is that? Why did you not include that? Mayor Lozeau You can only move one mountain at a time. Chairman McCarthy It's also not clear that all of those facilities are necessarily attributed to the use of a single department. Maybe it's much more clearer in the School Department's case and in fact the numbers you were looking for there can be found at the bottom of page 185. The school debt services $9,118,907 on the principle and $3,283,054 on the interest for a total of $12,401,961. Fred Teeboom I understand that and it's very easy to read. I'm not talking and questioning clarity of the budget. What I'm questioning is and what (inaudible) this is school costs of $129 million. In fact, $129.2 million (inaudible) the school costs including the debt service or the schools $138 million. If you're going to take apples and apples, it ought to be included somewhere that ought be included with the overall costs. You did have in affect in the enterprise funds when we get to that part where you have not separated out the debt service. Mayor Lozeau As Alderman McCarthy said Mr. Teeboom if you take the two numbers on page 185 and you add them to the bottom line with the school, I would show you. Chairman McCarthy With regard to some of the other debt for example - to pick an example that's near and dear to your heart the Broad Street Parkway, we wouldn't necessarily credit that debt towards the Public Works Division because that's a city improvement. You can make a nexus that fire stations and the police station should go with those departments but there are a lot of general improvements that are not really part of the expense of the department that you might link them with or that built them but rather with the general city infrastructure. 20 Fred Teeboom I disagree with you on that. The Broad Street Parkway is managed by that the Aldermen are paid the priority over and over again. The Broad Street Parkway once the Aldermen have approved it is under the direct management of the Board of Public Works. Chairman McCarthy Right but we're not building it for the use of that department. It's not a facility for the Department of Public Works. It is a public facility that happens to be managed by them. The schools are used for schools. The fire stations are used for fire. The police station is used for police but some of the other things are not so clear, which is one of the reasons why we don't necessarily roll all of that up into the departments but keep it centralized as debt service. Fred Teeboom The Aldermen can take a look at that and decide whether they should roll that in. It seems to me that anything the city does ought to be rolled into some department. If you say the Broad Street Parkway doesn't cover Public Works, that ought to be a department of infrastructure let's say. It ought to roll somewhere so you can - this budget book goes a long way to its clarity which we didn't have. I suggest perhaps somehow that could be further...cuz it shows up in the school department. The School Department does not cost the city $129 million, it costs the city $138 million. Thank you. Chairman McCarthy Other comments on the School Department? DEBT SERVICE 193 DEBT SERVICE Dan Richardson Dan Richardson, 70 Berkeley Street, Nashua, NH. I'm looking at the debt service, general fund, city debt. I'm looking at the Broad Street Parkway for new debts to be issued. This is in I believe the upcoming year. It says year of issue 2013. I presume it's that which had been approved. Do I understand that to be correct? New debts to be issued, are those approved? Mayor Lozeau The Broad Street Parkway debt that has been approved by the Board of Aldermen is approximately $37 million. The amount that you see there... Dan Richardson 184 Mayor Lozeau Once it's in this book, that's telling you either the bonds that we've already let or the ones that we will let. So if it's 2013, it's been let. Dan Richardson Even though it says "new debts to be issued"? Mayor Lozeau If it says 2013, that's our expectation. It's in the equation. Dan Richardson So what is to be let for 2014? 21 Mayor Lozeau It depends on where we are in the bill. It also depends on how much the city has to pay. Dan Richardson I'm looking at the amount for 2013 is $1,469,000. Mayor Lozeau Right. Dan Richardson We seem to be dragging along with this project. By now we were to be building and you don't get much for $1,400,000. What will be done? Mayor Lozeau Well actually Mr. Richardson we try really hard to spend the federal money that's been put aside for this project before we spend our city dollars. We've gotten quite a bit for the work we've done already. We've done Palm Street, Pine Street and that work. We've also done some of the work related to a right of way acquisition. We're at 90 percent engineered on the plans. We've been working on all three of the bridges. You'll see demo in the next month or so on 44 Broad Street. The property across from that has been taken. I've worked with the rail. So actually we're moving along quite nicely. Our hope is that you'll be able to drive on this road in December of 2014. What could impact that is our discussions around right of way and final approval from Federal Highway. It's quite a challenge to be working with both Federal Highway and DOT every step of the way. We have to sign off from both of those entities. As you know, we've done the chimney. We've done a significant amount of work there. We've taken down the Boiler House. We've designed the plans for within the Millyard. We've worked with the businesses. I'm feeling pretty great about how far we've come on the parkway. I would hate to bond it any sooner than we have to. Dan Richardson I understand it Mayor. I appreciate the litany of past things. I was asking about the upcoming year. What is to be done in the upcoming year for $1,400,000? Mayor Lozeau We're probably do more in the upcoming year than $1.4 million. I'll repeat some of those because those are still ongoing. We have to complete the engineering and design of the parkway. We have to make a decision around the chimney. We're going to begin on the north side as I was describing. We're going to do some demo now and we're going to start to build. A lot of the build won't be seen. It will be starting at the north end heading toward the Millyard. We're going to make some decisions and do the work around Baldwin Street and Fairmount Street. Those bridges will be done in the coming 4 to 6 months. Work will start and probably complete. Those are the things that we're doing. So as we can make those things happen, we do. Dan Richardson I'd like to direct your attention to the Public Works Department - the administration and engineering. I presume it's somebody in that department who is managing the Broad Street Parkway? Do I take that correctly? Mayor Lozeau The management of that parkway is happening in multiple places. It is primarily the responsibility of Public Works as you know. We also have a project manager on board Mr. Jon Vancour. I'm sure you're aware of him. He's been coming to meetings both at Board of Public Works and at Infrastructure over the years who is primarily responsible for this. 22 Dan Richardson Are those people paid out of the bonded funds? Mayor Lozeau They are. Dan Richardson Thank you. Mayor Lozeau You're welcome. Well except for the people of Public Works. The staff at Public Works is not paid out of the bonded funds. I thought that was obvious. My apologies. Dan Richardson Is staff working on the Broad Street Parkway... Mayor Lozeau The staff working on Broad Street Parkway that already worked for the city are not being paid out of the bond. It's part of their responsibilities. Dan Richardson Can you give me a figure for how much is being expended in that Department for the Broad Street Parkway? Mayor Lozeau Do you mean the staff costs? Dan Richardson Yes. Mayor Lozeau No I cannot. They are the responsibilities of the Public Works Director, the City Engineer, and others in that department. They're just part of their job Mr. Richardson. Three years from now when the parkway is done and there's another project going, that is also part of their job. Dan Richardson Thank you. Mayor Lozeau You're welcome. Fred Teeboom I thank to Mr. Richardson for that question. The Broad Street Parkway - the charts used to hold that it would be completed in 2013. Now what's the new completion projection? Mayor Lozeau Since I've been involved with the project Mr. Teeboom, it was December of 2014. 23 Fred Teeboom December of 2014? Mayor Lozeau Was when it was supposed to be completed - so drivable but that project won't be done in 2014. As Mr. Kennison used to tell us, there's a long tail on getting that work all signed off, all the paperwork done and everything, reviewed but it should be drivable is the goal of 2014. As I said what may impact that is approvals that we need as we move down the path of completing right of way acquisition. That tends to be one of our biggest challenges right now having enough appraisers and others that can help us, and then things like the chimney come up, and they take some time that we didn't anticipate. Fred Teeboom Yeah I can remember 2013 used to be the number but maybe that's way back. Mayor Lozeau Not since I came along. Fred Teeboom So you're still in 2014 that's your hope to drive a portion of it? Mayor Lozeau It's important to have a goal even if we can't reach it but we're pretty confident that we're pretty close. Fred Teeboom What about the budget, the city's part was around 299 or 366. Mayor Lozeau It was just about $37 million that was authorized for bonding. Fred Teeboom It was authorized through the bond? Mayor Lozeau Right. So we've probably if I had to off the top of my head, we've probably spent about $4 million in city funds I would say. Fred Teeboom What you're trying to do is do the federal money before the city money. Mayor Lozeau Right. We always try to do the federal money first unless it makes sense to use city money so that we don't get caught up into the process that you might have to go through. That could, as you know, time is money affect the completion date. Fred Teeboom It makes sense before the federal government declares bankruptcy. It makes sense to me. Chairman McCarthy Any other comments on Debt Service. 24  CONTINGENCY 194 CONTINGENCIES Fred Teeboom I haven't looked at that closely but is the $1.9 million contingency part of your operating budget? Mayor Lozeau It is. Fred Teeboom That's a very good number. So when I said you have to put about $1 million, you have sort of taken care of that because that's a very good contingency number. It's almost $2 million. That's a sound contingency number. I'd hate to see less. When I made the comment earlier about your other bonded million, I was not aware. That's more use of the previous contingency if you look at 2013, it was $600,000. Mayor Lozeau Although I appreciate the comment Mr. Teeboom and I happen to think the budget is okay where it was when you gave you earlier comments, it's fair of me to point out to you that a significant amount of this contingency is for negotiations for unsettled things. If you look down at contingency negotiations, there's 1.5 of that... Fred Teeboom Well I take it all back. Mayor Lozeau Not all of it. I'll convince you later. Chairman McCarthy Never let it be said we accepted a compliment from you without arguing. Mayor Lozeau I just wanted to be straight up. INTERFUND TRANSFERS 198 TRUST FUND TRANSFERS CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS ENTERPRISE FUNDS BUDGET DETAIL - (Green Section) 6000 SOLID WASTE DISPOSAL SYSTEM FUND Dan Richardson Dan Richardson, 70 Berkeley Street, Nashua, NH. Is it this department that gets a subsidy from the city? Chairman McCarthy Yes. 25 Dan Richardson How much is that subsidy this year? Chairman McCarthy It was covered in a department about two seconds ago and found on page 187. If you look on page 187, we used to log it in the interfund transfers. It's now just logged as an item in the Enterprise Fund and I'll ask Mr. Griffin to show you where it is this year. John Griffin The way that value is calculated, it's the total appropriations operating budget minus the anticipated revenue. If everything goes according to plan, that number will be $3.9 million in fiscal 2014. Dan Richardson What was it last year? John Griffin $3.69 million. Dan Richardson It seems we have a growing deficit problem. A number of years ago I was familiar it was more in the order of $2 million. John Griffin That may have been several years ago. Not since I've been here and reviewed the prior year - the most years. Dan Richardson So with the continuing, and I don't know why it's continuing subsidy, why is that the case? Why is this truly not an enterprise fund? Chairman McCarthy Because the revenues that are brought into it are not associated with the expenses that go out of it. While the fund covers both curbside collection and disposal and maintenance at the landfill, the revenues that are logged to that account are only the tipping fees that are paid by commercial haulers in the landfill. So basically the subsidy is collection is essentially entirely paid out of the general fund. Dan Richardson So why don't we raise the tipping fees? Chairman McCarthy Because no one would tip there if we raised them substantially more than they are now. It is not possible to balance that enterprise fund. Dan Richardson How do we know that? Chairman McCarthy Because we know what happens when we raise the tipping fees and the amount that we lose and analysis have been done of what the tipping fees could be. We actually have them set on the high side because we're not interested in selling out the landfill space to balance the budget because the next landfill will be significantly more expensive. 26 Dan Richardson I absolutely agree with that motivation. You're saying that an analysis is available that was done... Chairman McCarthy I didn't say it's available. I said it's been done. You'd have to ask the Public Works Management whether they still have the data that was done. It was done some time ago. Dan Richardson I guess I'm testing the validity of the assertion. Chairman McCarthy Well there was analysis done as to what the sensitivity was at some point in the past. I don't know what the numbers were because whatever I saw at the time, I've long since forgotten. The numbers that we're charging are in the $100 a ton range. If you look at our tipping, we would have to greatly increase that at which point the viability of trucking to the turnkey facility in Rochester or some other facility becomes much more beneficial to the haulers than tipping in the Nashua landfill. Dan Richardson You know I was looking at the information that's posted on a commercial website - it's actually Casella. They're posting it and the information had to do with the prospects of landfills in Massachusetts and the near term filling up, closing, and capping. The boosting of rates with the available existing landfills thereafter. I don't know about the assertion about the tipping rates. I think we ought to take a look at that again. There really is no reason why we should continue to give this enterprise fund a subsidy. If is not an enterprise fund in truth, then it's not an enterprise fund. Thank you. Chairman McCarthy I would agree with that. It is not an enterprise fund. Fred Teeboom Can I direct you to page 195. This is probably a question for Mr. Griffin. When you did the analysis on the spending cap which you have a spreadsheet in front of you, because I handed it out to you earlier, it says operating budget $654 million. In fact, that goes into the spending cap calculation. There's a petition about the budget before I do the exclusions. Why is the $400,000 not included with the operating budget? John Griffin Those are capital expenditures. Fred Teeboom They're not budgeted? John Griffin They're budgeted but not part of the calculation. Fred Teeboom Now why is that? I'm holding in front of me the - I have the resolution and I realize it snuck in last year when I wasn't here. I didn't attend the budget meeting. I don't recognize necessarily the capital improvements because capital improvements in the city are part of the costs - are part of the budget as well. If you look at the spending cap exclusions section 2A38, the new paragraph is now 5145, paragraph b, which is the new paragraph. It talks about exclusions. Are all capital projects funded by bonds - the 700 account? Once you pay for the bond as an annual payment, but the project itself if it's bonded then you spend $1 million. That million dollars isn't counted against the budget. This $400,000 is that against the bond that you bonded somewhere or that $400,000 what you're going to spend on capital improvements this year? 27 John Griffin That isn't part of a bond. Fred Teeboom Then this should become part of the enterprise fund. Mayor Lozeau Part of the enterprise fund, it's the soil wall and the gas collection system. Fred Teeboom Then let's just pay for - it's paid for with user fees? User fees are excluded. If it's text based account not reimbursed through user fees in (inaudible). That is part of the budget. Mayor Lozeau We'll take a look at that. Fred Teeboom Yeah you need to take a look at that. I'll come back to that with the other fund. Chairman McCarthy Any other questions on solid waste disposal fund? 6200 WASTEWATER USER FUND Fred Teeboom This is the same related question. If you go to page 205, you'll see that there is an operating budget of $11.696 million which is deep account of the spending cap calculation. If you look at my spreadsheet, you'll see it on the bottom right where the two items are itemized - solid waste and wastewater fund. Now we have an additional $60,430,000. There's enough $400,000 than the other one. You have $60,430,000. If these are capital projects paid by bonds, which in turn are paid for by the user fees, they're excluded. Is $60 million make part of the tax rate calculation? If $60 million makes a part of the tax rate calculations, it's like $400,000 makes a part of the tax rate calculation, then it's not ex excluded. Again, you probably have to take a look at that. Mayor Lozeau We will but - I don't know where you're seeing $60 million. Fred Teeboom yeah. Look at page ... Chairman McCarthy It's the line items at the bottom of page 205. Fred Teeboom You count $11 million when you counted the enterprise fund costs in your calculation for the spending cap which should not include that. It raises the total budget. It also raises the total exemption. I'm not trying to save or not save money, I'm trying to apples to apples. So you take a look at this and give me a phone call. I don't quite know what's all included in this. Again if its user related, it does not make part of the tax rate calculation as we pay as part of our tax bill. It does not exclude it. 28 Mayor Lozeau Both the revenues and the appropriations are the same. So I don't think it is but we'll take a look. Fred Teeboom Yeah (inaudible) in other words, essentially millions collected because we're collecting infrastructure - vehicles its infrastructure. I don't really know what it is so I can't tell but you can tell and Mr. Griffin can tell if he looks at the details. That's all I'm asking. Thank you. Chairman McCarthy Anything else on the Wastewater Enterprise Fund? SPECIAL REVENUE FUNDS - (Pink Section) CITY SPECIAL REVENUE FUNDS: 2501 PUBLIC HEALTH CLIENT FEES FUND 2502 POLICE LAW ENFORCEMENT TRAINING FUND 2503 PARKS & RECREATION PROGRAMS FUND 2504 HOLMAN STADIUM EVENTS FUND 2505 GOVERNMENT & EDUCATION CHANNELS FUND Fred Teeboom Cable TV. I presume that covers the public channel. Chairman McCarthy 2505 is the government and the education channels. Mayor Lozeau Public television Mr. Teeboom is included with the Civic and Community Services and it's in there again this year. Fred Teeboom When is the franchise get renegotiated? Mayor Lozeau We just had that conversation the other day. I want to say it's 2015. Fred Teeboom So it's a little ways off. Mayor Lozeau It is. They gave us the 30 month notice some time ago. Fred Teeboom Are you still the Mayor at that time? 29 Mayor Lozeau I believe I am going to still be the Mayor in 2015 unless I get run over by a bus. Fred Teeboom Keep your eyes on that because that's where Comcast ought to pay. Mayor Lozeau I think there's a lot of people keeping an eye on it. 2506 HUNT BUILDING FACILITY RENTALS FUND 2510 PENNICHUCK CORPORATION ACQUISITION FUND SCHOOL SPECIAL REVENUE FUNDS: 2100 FOOD SERVICES 2120 SUMMER FEEDING PROGRAM 2201 DRIVER’ EDUCATION 2204 SUMMER SCHOOL 2207 ADULT CONTINUING EDUCATION 2212 ATHLETIC REVENUE FUND 2217 SCHOOL FACILITIES RENTAL 2222 AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM 2227 NORTH STUDENT SHOP 2232 SOUTH STUDENT SHOP 2247 CULINARY ARTS 2252 DAY CARE 2257 SPECIAL EDUCATION - LOCAL TUITION SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION - (Blue Section) OTHER FUNDING SOURCES APPROPRIATED EXPENDABLE TRUST & RESERVE FUNDS GENERAL GOVERNMENT FINANCIAL SERVICES POLICE FIRE PUBLIC HEALTH & COMMUNITY SERVICES PUBLIC WORKS PUBLIC SERVICES PUBLIC LIBRARY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT TRANSIT GRANTS URBAN PROGRAM GRANTS SCHOOL DEPARTMENT SOLID WASTE Fred Teeboom Yeah I'd like to make a final comment. The budget is quite transparent and I don't like the fact it's that tight. Contingency is less than $500,000. The few times I've watched channel 16, I was struck by in the budget discussions of which you Chair of a lot of irrelevant micromanagement. Second guess the Mayor on a little piciuny things and missing the big picture things. Why this debt, why this expense here, why is there a large amount of expense here? Examples come to mind. You have a lot of patience I must say. One of the Alderman who is not a member of the Budget Committee therefore does not vote on Budget Committee spent at least 20 minutes talking about some vent and gave her a cold which has nothing to do with the budget. If it did, there's no discussion which line item should be added, or subtracted, or 30  changed. That discussion took at least 20 minutes. I don't watch Channel 16 that much because frankly I'd rather just read a book and the Bachelorette. I really think you ought to tighten down the discussion and keep it relevant and germane to the budget on the items we just went over tonight. Thank you. ADJOURNMENT MOTION BY ALDERMAN DEANE THAT THE JUNE 3, 2013 SPECIAL MEETING OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN BE ADJOURNED MOTION CARRIED The meeting was declared adjourned at 8:45 p.m. Attest: Paul R. Bergeron, City Clerk 31  City of Nashua Combined Budget Analysis to the Mayor's FY! 1 Proposed Budget Combined Annual Municipal Budget Cakulafcw j g r T j a w n g O r d i n a n c e j 5 - 1 4 5 ) F Y 2009 F Y 2010 FY20II FY2ÛI2 FYÎ0I3 FY2014 Aldermanle % % % % % Mayor Adjusted Change Mayor Adjusted Change Mayor Adjusted Change Mayor Adjusted Change Mayor Adjusted Change Approved General Fund Operating Budget $ JI3.060.662 S 217,886,3« 24% S 223496,153 2.5% S 227412,971 1.7% $ 230,684,530 14% S 236,048,064 24% Increase in Dollars $ 5.509,811 S 3,816,818 5 3,471,559 5 5,363.534 Enterprise Fundi Operating Budget S 14,140,665 S 18,308,856 295% S 17,010,248 7,1% S 16,988,011 0.1% S 17,111 130 0.7% S 18451,229 7.2% Less New Wastewater Debt Paid by 1 ser Fees (1,704.786) (2.194,955) (2403,977) (2,161,689) (3,246480) (t.ser feci f-xetript--see below) Total Enterprise Fundi Optmting Budget S »4,140,665 S 15,604,070 0.3% S 14,815493 -5.1% S 14,784,035 0.2% S 14,949,441 1.1% $ 15, : 04349 1.0% (Adjusted Tor New Debt Funded by User Fees) Combined Annual Municipal Budget r i i r m 1 > rq r $ 227,201427 S 233,490,412 24% S 238,211,446 7.0% $ 241,997,U06 1.6% S 245,633,971 )4W $ 251,152,913 2,2% Increase in Pollara $ 6.289,085 S 4,721.034 S 3,785,560 [ S 3,636,965 $ 5418,942 S p r a d i a f - C a p Calculation PHOT Year Combined Annual Municipal Budget S 227,201,327 S 233,490,412 $ 238,211,446 $ 241,997,006 S 245*33,971 Add Prior Year Supplemental Appropriations SJOjOOO 207,698 Pnor Year Combined Annual Municipal Budget $ 227,201,327 S 234440,412 $ 238411,446 S 141,997,006 S 245441,669 Including Supplemental Appropriations L*|g.3-Years Annual A v r r a j f C P I - l N o r t h ™ ! Region 3.4% 2.2% 2.0% 1.7% 24% Allowable Spending Over Print Year! ombined Annus! Municipal Budget S 7,724,845 $ 5,155,489 S 4,764,229 $ 4,113,949 I 5,654458 I Maximum Budget Allowed (Prior Year + Allowable Spending) S 234.926,172 S 239,495,901 5 242,975,675 S 246,110,955 $ 251,496,027 Cembtnod Annual Municir : BuJftd Currep! Y e n $ 233.490,412 S 238,2 11,4+6 S l4t,Wj»6 1 24!.633.971 S 251,152,913 M i r o i r , Proposed Combined Annual Municipal Budget 4 1,435,76« 5 1484,455 S 978,669 S 476,9RJ S 343.114 1 nder the Spending Con Exempted Exempted Exempted Exempted Exempted Account* Account* Account* Account* Account* FY2010 FY2011 FY2012 FY2013 FY2013 Principal & Interest-Wet Weather Flow tirentment Facility £2,45*436 SI.147.247 51,147,247 $1,125450 $1.103,852 Principal & Interest-Disinfectant facility (Interest Only) $246450 S246450 $246,250 $246,250 $0 Principal & Interest—Haines Street — S113,685 SI 13.685 $53,73« $52,686 Principal & Interest-Sludgi Digester _ S687.773 $667,182 5646,591 $626,000 Pnncipal & Interest-Net Metering Project — _ $29,613 «29,613 $2»,3«3 Principal & Interest-Harbor Ave Sewer Separation — _ — $59.949 $386,040 Principel & lnlerest-Stonige Tank $460411 Principle & Interest-Aeration Bio' $332483.00 principle & Interest-Dewmering £ $255445.00 Principle 4 Intcicji—Aeration Bio- Exempt from the Spending C ap; Paid with ( i i t r f^ S2,7«4.TS:6 2,194.955 $2403,977] ] 52,161,6891 f 53,246.38a] Annual Average 3 year Avenge CPI Change year CPI Chang* % H 1 i : or the Spending Cap ( alcuiatlon) Average CP! 2912 l.W nrn Changs 2010, 2011 24 EnternrUinr Fundi Oneraline Oudeet FY0I3 FY0I4 2012 Mil 3.05 FY13 Average CPI Clung f.7 Solid Waste S 6,645.634 ï 6.654.281 page 195 MID 10a FY12 Average CPI Chang 2 Wastewater Treatment S 10,465.496 $ 11,696.948 page 205 2009 0.04 FY1I Avenge CPI Chang 2.2 Total S 17,111.130 S 18.351.229 2008 j-M FY10 Averaga CPI Chang 3.4 200? 258 FY09 Average CPI Cuence 33 2Û06 363 FYW Avenge CPI Chanjji 36 200$ 364 FYOf Average CPt Crianot 33 2004 3 46 FY06 Average CPI ChmnjI 28 2003 262 2002 joe