Budget Review Committee

BUDGET REVIEW COMMITTEE JUNE 8, 2011 A meeting of the Budget Review Committee was held Wednesday, June 8, 2011 at 7:42 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber. Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane, Chair presided. Members of Committee present: Alderman-at-Large Mark S. Cookson, Vice Chair Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire Alderman Jeffrey T. Cox Alderman Diane Sheehan Alderman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja Members not in Attendance: Alderman Richard P. Flynn Also in Attendance: Mayor Donnalee Lozeau Alderman-at-Large Brian S. McCarthy Alderman-at-Large Barbara Pressly John Griffin, Chief Financial Officer/Comptroller PUBLIC COMMENT – None DEPARTMENTAL REVIEWS Financial Services Insurance-Employee Benefits (508) Chairman Deane That starts on page 68 in your budget book. Mayor Lozeau Thank you Mr. Chairman. Chairman Deane You are welcome. Mayor Lozeau If you would let me, I just thought I would share a bit of news with the committee. Chairman Deane Is it good news? Mayor Lozeau It is good news. Chairman Deane Then we will listen. Budget Review – 06/08/11 Page 2 Mayor Lozeau I just wanted to let you know that just a few moments ago the Nashua Teachers’ Union has voted to accept the contract. The School Board hasn’t voted yet. They will be taking that up later this evening, but I just thought the committee might be interested in knowing that just took place. Chairman Deane Was a cost analysis offered? Did they offer the services of the CFO for a cost analysis on the contract prior to their… Mayor Lozeau They have been working together on the cost analysis. That was provided to the Board of Education… Chairman Deane So the Board of Education took advantage of the city’s services with the cost analysis? Mayor Lozeau That they did. Chairman Deane That is good. Mayor Lozeau Thank you. Under employee benefits; as all of you are aware, we are a self-insured program for our employee benefits. We added the information on page 68. This is a new page. Last year was its first year and this is the second year. It is just to put it all together for you to be able to see all of the information in one place, and then the second page walks through the costs associated with the employee benefit program. Both the reimbursements, the Medicaid, the prescription, and then the operations costs, which includes the staff and the supplies and different insurance policies that we have as backup to our self- insurance. Mr. Chairman if you want to ask specific questions, we will do our best to answer them. Chairman Deane So the self-insurance appropriations we see on page 68, the bottom line number of $27,421,889 can also be found on the bottom of page 71. Those line items that start on page 69, 70, and finish on 71 are the total? Mayor Lozeau Correct. Budget Review – 06/08/11 Page 3 Chairman Deane So our health insurance increase is at what percentage? Mayor Lozeau Eleven percent. Chairman Deane It is at 11%. Mayor Lozeau The change you see there in some of these pages, the change for whatever reason in the system doesn’t necessarily reflect the whole change, but we put it in with an 11% increase assumed. Chairman Deane Is that the total…is each line like 83010, 83011, 83012, and 83013 are those all 11% increases right across the board… Mayor Lozeau No. Chairman Deane …or is it all of them combined? Mayor Lozeau It is all of them combined. Chairman Deane And the employee’s portion of the plan? Mayor Lozeau Currently, as you know, the employee portion they pay 10% and the City pays the remaining 90%. Chairman Deane I understand that, but where do we see the portion…where is the total dollar amount that they pay? What does that equate to? Mayor Lozeau You won’t see that in the budget book. We have not ever put that in the budget book. Budget Review – 06/08/11 Page 4 Chairman Deane I understand, but do you happen to know what that dollar amount is? Mayor Lozeau Ten percent of what you see there. Chairman Deane Ten percent of what I see… Mayor Lozeau Is that fair John to do it… John Griffin It is approximately $3 million. Mayor Lozeau Approximately $3 million Mr. Griffin said. Chairman Deane Okay so what lines would I take? Mayor Lozeau You would take the $27,421,889… Chairman Deane The five digits, would I take 83010 down to where? Mayor Lozeau I don’t think that you have to do it that way. I think you take that total $27 million… Alderman Sheehan Where is the $27 million? Mayor Lozeau The $27 million is on page 68 in the total insurance employee benefits… Chairman Deane Right, but that is a percentage of the benefit cost not the health insurance cost. Budget Review – 06/08/11 Page 5 Mayor Lozeau What are you looking for? What the individual… Chairman Deane I’m wondering what the 10% is that the employees pay compared to the total dollar amount that the City pays at 100%. Mayor Lozeau Mr. Griffin said he thought it was about $3 million. Chairman Deane Pardon me? John Griffin It is approximately $3 million. Chairman Deane So the employee contribution is $3 million. Mayor Lozeau Remember when we did the presentation on the financial snapshot and we requested…I mentioned that we were asking for a 10% increase and that 10% increase was just over $3 million. Currently they are paying 10%. That would make sense. Chairman Deane How are we trending today with what we budgeted last year? John Griffin The budget that was created last year for the health insurance portion of this budget is trending pretty close to the expenses equaling the budget amount. Chairman Deane So have there been any healthcare holidays given out at all this year to the employees? John Griffin No. Chairman Deane So there is not going to be… Budget Review – 06/08/11 Page 6 John Griffin There will be a loss ratio calculation done at the close of the year similar to the last several years. Chairman Deane And the working rates that we charge them… Mayor Lozeau Yes. Chairman Deane That is part of the loss ration right? John Griffin That is correct. Chairman Deane The way I understand it is the premiums that are figured, the City can’t go back and ask the employee…if the figures in the premiums are low they can’t go back and ask the employees to… Mayor Lozeau Make up that shortfall. Chairman Deane …make up that shortage. But if the City operates on the side of caution it is a lot easier to return the dollars back to those who paid into the plan than it is to…they are not going to pay it so it is easier to give it back. Where are we with the working rates for this year? John Griffin The FY11 working rates? Chairman Deane Yes. John Griffin They are trending pretty close to what our experience has been both in terms of claims, administration costs, and stop loss, premium costs. Budget Review – 06/08/11 Page 7 Mayor Lozeau So last year, Alderman Deane just to put it in some perspective, for FY10, the loss ratio return was about $217,000. Chairman Deane And we divide that into what? Mayor Lozeau It is divided differently depending on what plan employees are on and what percentage they may pay. Chairman Deane But if we took the total number of employees city-wide… Mayor Lozeau We have 2,807 employees. There are approximately 200 of them that are not on insurance. Chairman Deane In this budget you are showing your stop loss is going from $973,000 down to $868,000. Mayor Lozeau The stop loss is different than the loss ratio. Chairman Deane I understand that. Mayor Lozeau Okay. Chairman Deane The stop loss is the premium we pay after a certain threshold of dollars have been spent on a claim and then the stop loss is a policy that kicks in that covers the balance of whatever the claim is. Is that right? Mayor Lozeau Right, but we were just talking about loss ration so I… Chairman Deane I’m kind of floating around here a little bit, so you had $217,000 in FY10 is that what you said. Budget Review – 06/08/11 Page 8 Mayor Lozeau Right. Chairman Deane Pardon me? Mayor Lozeau Correct. John Griffin That was the amount that was given back to the active employees. Chairman Deane That doesn’t include retirees does it? Mayor Lozeau No. Retirees pay totally for their program. Chairman Deane But they are still factored into the working rates. Mayor Lozeau Right. They are attributed into what our group number is. Chairman Deane Pays for premiums. Mayor Lozeau Right. Chairman Deane Does anyone have any questions in this area? Pensions (507) Chairman Deane We will go to page 67, which is pensions. You are showing a 13.8% increase. Budget Review – 06/08/11 Page 9 Mayor Lozeau Mr. Chairman those are based on the changes that the retirement system gave us in the rates, the rate percentages. For example in 2011 the percentage for teachers was 8.02%, but for 2012 it is going to be 10.46%. For police in 2011 it was 14.63% and in 2012 it will be 19.18%. Then for fire in … Chairman Deane What was teachers again? Mayor Lozeau It was 8.02% and in 2012 it is 10.46%. Then the last group fire fighters, it was 18.52% and in 2012 it will be 23.18%. Those are the three big groups. That is really the driver here is the cost that we are given as employer that we have to pay. Chairman Deane And the Public Works pension plan increased why by $90,000? Mayor Lozeau That was the number that the pension board gave us. As you know, their pension is… Chairman Deane I know. I used to chair that committee. I’m just wondering why it went up $90,000. Why did that happen? Mayor Lozeau I have to tell you that we took the number from the board and that is what they gave us. Mr. Fredette… Chairman Deane Did Mr. Griffin see the actuarial report? John Griffin Treasurer Fredette was the one that assisted the Mayor and me in this particular line item and recommended the $540,000. Chairman Deane There was no increase on the City side or the employee side to the plan. Mayor Lozeau No. Budget Review – 06/08/11 Page 10 John Griffin That is correct. Chairman Deane That has to be done by ordinance. I will ask Mr. Fredette. Does anyone have any questions on pensions? Alderman Cookson I just need to get the figures for the police again please. Mayor Lozeau In 2011 they were 14.63% and in 2012 it is going to 19.18%. Chairman Deane Public Works is what 9%? John Griffin It is 9.15%. Alderman Pressly Could you just explain what the driving force of this is and who determines these increases and what if anything we can do about it? The 13% is this the highest percentage of any item? I haven’t been at all of the meetings, but … Mayor Lozeau The way the pension systems works Alderman Pressly, the New Hampshire Retirement Board sets the rates. Alderman Pressly The State does this then? Mayor Lozeau Well it is a little bit different. The State Legislature has some authority with what they can do as far as employers and employees, but the New Hampshire Retirement System, which is somewhat independent from the State, sets the rates, and as I think you will recall discussions that we had, the system is very underfunded. They are at about a 52% rate of funded so they’ve got a very very significant gap in what they need to have in the pension. Some of that is driven because some would argue that the employer rates didn’t increase when they should have, some would argue that the employee rate didn’t increase when it should have, and some would talk about the $900 million that was given out of the fund when they thought that the fund was in better shape, for cost of living increases and things like that. So there are a whole lot of different perspectives on why there is a problem, but we’re given a rate and we have to follow that rate. Budget Review – 06/08/11 Page 11 As you may recall me talking about when we provided the financial snapshot of the City, the State had been carrying a 35% share so when I gave you those numbers, the State had been carrying a 35% share of that number and that has changed. It went from 35% down to 30% down to 25% and it was supposed to sunset this year and go back to the 35%. It didn’t do that. The Governor’s budget proposed having their contribution be 0% and the House and the Senate have been going back and forth on it. We have budgeted as though we are carrying the same 25% level. We have budgeted carrying that extra 10%. From the discussions that we have had with key legislators that are in a position of impacting this, we’re pretty confident that we have it right. Next year is anyone’s guess what will happen. Alderman Pressly Is that sort of one of the variables and that we should sort of be prepared that it would increase? Mayor Lozeau Yes, we should be prepared that it may increase, and how they increase it, for instance this year the House and Senate versions are different. They are anticipating that they are going to give an increase to the employees, which will offset an increase to the municipalities. But either way the State’s contribution is going to change. Whether it is picked up by the employees or the employer or it is shared, we anticipate for FY13 that will be one of the nuts that we’re… Alderman Pressly The news is not likely to be good. Mayor Lozeau It is not likely to be good because the system is not properly funded, and as you know a lot of discussion has surrounded what can be included in the cost of people’s pensions, should it be their base salary, should it be their three year average of their high, should it be a five year average, should overtime be included. All of those different items are on the table for discussion and have been going back and forth. The legislation that I believe is going to pass, SB3, which Senator Bradley brought in, may not do everything people would like, but it moves the ball forward, and that was before them today. I don’t know the status of whether that passed or not. We made it clear to our delegation that we supported those changes and that we understood that it wasn’t everything that people wanted, but it was a step in the right direction. Alderman Pressly Thank you. Mayor Lozeau You are welcome. Chairman Deane I believe New Hampshire is ranked #4 for the largest liability, with their state pension plan, in the country. Budget Review – 06/08/11 Page 12 Alderman Pressly With the State’s liability or the municipality? Chairman Deane The plan’s liability, period. We are ranked #4 in the country of the worst. Mayor Lozeau When the plan was first started, the State actively pursued municipalities to get into the plan with them when they created it thinking of course economies of scale if everybody is in we could save dollars, we could have a solid plan that is financially secure, and municipalities all got in because they though that was the thing to do. Now, today you look at it and think…you know. Because we don’t really have as active of a role as I think we could have and the reports and the actuary work and all of those types of things that have been done in the past seem to hide is not the right word because that leaves one to believe that somebody did something wrong and they didn’t, but the way the formula worked it kind of masked some of the costs that people weren’t aware that we had. I think it is hard to point a finger at who did it wrong. Bottom line is where we are is we have a system that, as Alderman Deane said, ranks in the top 5 of being in trouble, which is not a rank that New Hampshire is customarily in. Usually when we are in the top 10 it is all for good stuff. They are working it, trying to fix it. Alderman Pressly Thank you. Mayor Lozeau You are welcome. Chairman Deane I believe trying to get somebody on that Board of Trustees that is not in the system, they have tried in vain to get that to happen. Mayor Lozeau It is more work that needs to be done. Chairman Deane I don’t want to get into it. It is a disaster, an absolute disaster. Plus their investments didn’t pan out too well either along with their actuary reports. There were some significant issues up there that went on for a long long time. Are there any other questions in the pension area? Budget Review – 06/08/11 Page 13 Contingencies General Contingencies (591) Contingency-Retirements (596) Contingency-Negotiations (597) Chairman Deane We are moving on to page 198, which is Department 591, General Contingencies. Would you like to speak to this Mayor? Mayor Lozeau Certainly. As you know, each year we put in an amount that we think will serve the City well for unforeseen circumstances or other things that may come up, some of which we know like the contingency for negotiations. We know that negotiations are taking place and we put funds aside. Last year some of you may recall that with the police grant we had made an assumption that they didn’t need the contingency put aside, but they did so this year we made sure that we put it back. You will see an increase in the general contingency from the $300,000 that we had in for the current fiscal year to $325,000 for the coming fiscal year, and that was done because we are looking at water rates and other potential utility costs that I want us to be prepared for. Then you will see an increase in the City Retirement Expendable Trust Fund from the $500,000 that we put in last year to $700,000 this year because we are seeing an increase in people taking their retirement this year, and certainly that is largely due in part to what is going on at the State level and people being concerned about what shape their retirement will be in when the time comes. We have reflected an increase there as well. Chairman Deane And that covers every department except for school. Mayor Lozeau Except for schools. Chairman Deane And your contingency negotiations? Mayor Lozeau Yes, that covers everybody including the school. Chairman Deane This covers everybody but the school district? Mayor Lozeau No, it includes the school district. That is everybody. We took it out of the school budget and put it there. Budget Review – 06/08/11 Page 14 Chairman Deane And the other $1.6 million is coming out of the employee’s contribution to healthcare that is coming out of…where is that coming out of, what account number? Mayor Lozeau I’m not sure I understand that. Chairman Deane The R-11-115 resolution. Mayor Lozeau Oh the $1.6 million. Chairman Deane Where is that money coming from? Mayor Lozeau That money is coming all throughout the budget. As you saw with the library contract, that $26,000 that had been cut from theirs is looking at being returned. Chairman Deane So it is coming from the Employee Benefits Expendable Trust Fund… Mayor Lozeau There are two items Alderman Deane. One is the $1.4 million, which is money that needs to go to the Employee Benefit Fund and… Chairman Deane The $1.6 million was requested in the operating budgets and it was transferred from the request in here into the Employee Benefits Expendable Trust Fund? Mayor Lozeau No. Chairman Deane You did a departmental operational budget based on a formula that uses the amount of funds available for the transfer up to $1.6 million. Budget Review – 06/08/11 Page 15 Mayor Lozeau We are trying to cover a $3 million problem in healthcare and of course we had the problem with retirement, all of those numbers that I showed you when we did the financial snapshot prior to bringing in the budget. I have cut $1.6 million out of the various operating budgets, as you have heard as we have done our presentations. Then I have put $1.4 million in the Employee Benefit Fund as a negative that says requested health concessions for $1.4 million. When dollars are returned through that legislation that you referenced, a portion will go into the healthcare $1.4 million and a portion will go into the $1.6 million for the operating budget to return some of the services that were cut. That is how that is designed to work. Chairman Deane And this will only take place if 8 unions decide to… Mayor Lozeau Well it depends. Chairman Deane Is that language in the teachers’ contract too? Mayor Lozeau I don’t have the language to provide tonight. Chairman Deane Like the library contract? Is it similar? Mayor Lozeau I can’t provide that information tonight until the school board takes their vote, which I anticipate is probably happening as we speak, but you will see that tomorrow. Alderman Sheehan My understanding is the library contract was done before that legislation was drafted, if that makes an impact in your question. Chairman Deane It is still part of this program that is being brought forth with this resolution because that was included in the title of the resolution, correct? Alderman Sheehan Yes. Budget Review – 06/08/11 Page 16 Mayor Lozeau But there are two components of this as well. The requested healthcare concessions were both an increase in the employee’s contribution so from the 10% to the 20% and also plan design changes. As you saw in the library contract, they are handled very differently. The increased contribution happens right away, July 1st with the expiration of the contract. The plan design changes are the ones Alderman Deane that are dependent on how many employees and/or how many unions have agreed to these changes. The request is for those increased contributions to go up right away. You will see an amendment coming in tomorrow on the merit plan to address that for the merit employees as well. Chairman Deane Any questions? Alderman Cookson Thank you. I had a question about your contingency for negotiations whereas you indicated that these monies have been taken out of particular budgets; police, fire, teacher, library, etc., and been put in a single spot here. When we looked at for example the Board of Education’s budget the other evening, we saw their budget at 0% increase. Does that account for the removal of whatever funds they had set aside for contingency? Mayor Lozeau They are still at 0% even with that out. Alderman Cookson How does that work mathematically? Mayor Lozeau How does that work mathematically? Alderman Cookson If they are at 0% and you had removed X amount of dollars, $100,000 whatever that, for example $100,000, you removed $100,000 out of their budget and they are still at 0% increase. Mayor Lozeau That had been discussion prior to the completion of their budget that it would move over here so they are at 0% with those dollars in; moving them out makes them probably less than zero. I think Mr. Griffin is probably looking to see what the book says, but those dollars were in the calculation of level funded. Everybody’s budget was looked at that way. It is something that I changed when I got here because contingencies for negotiations during a contract year were in everybody’s budget, it was… Alderman Cookson Understood, and they knew exactly the dollar amount that they had for negotiations. Budget Review – 06/08/11 Page 17 Mayor Lozeau It made it difficult for a negotiation. I will follow your example, let’s just say that when they did their budget they calculated in what they thought they were going to spend on negotiations and that dollar figure was in their budget and in spite of that they still came in level. I reached in when we did the budget, took that contingency money out and moved it here to this line. Alderman Cookson So without this line on page 198, the Board of Education’s budget, the Fire Department’s budget, the Police Department’s budget would not be at the percent which is indicated in the budget book. Mayor Lozeau Am I explaining it correctly Mr. Griffin? John Griffin As you can imagine, when we were trying to craft this budget there was a lot of discussion and a lot of items that needed to be taken care of and the Mayor worked with the Board of Education and the leadership team over there to request that level funded budget. There were a few moving parts as you heard the other night; the portables were put back in. The Board of Education moved their contingency amounts, basically eliminated it from their budget, and the City picked up, in this particular contingency account, an estimate of what those numbers would be. If we look on page, for those purposes of discussion, 193, there is a difference between the Aldermanic approved FY11 budget and FY12 budget as the Mayor worked with the Board of Education and adjusted it downward. That is a slight reduction, but when you divide the difference by a significant number for the starting point, $93.4 million, it rounds off to a 0%. Alderman Cookson So is your departmental adjustment is that the money that is being…it is being transferred out, is that what is going into… Mayor Lozeau That is not what you are seeing there. Alderman Cookson Okay. John Griffin If I may, that particular number is, as the school department indicated the other night, is the facility rental, and the hope there is that is a conservative number and with certain events that will take place they will try to maximize that. Budget Review – 06/08/11 Page 18 Alderman Cookson So let me just try to summarize; each one of the groups that you worked with came to and met your request whether it be school at zero or some other department at their percentage, they met those requirements and then it was only after they met that that the contingency figure was removed from their budget and placed on page 198 within our budget. Mayor Lozeau That is correct. Alderman Cookson Okay. Thank you. Mayor Lozeau You are welcome. Chairman Deane So the budget the way it sits, if it passed with no changes, the tax rate would be around 3% increase? Mayor Lozeau Should be just about that yes. It won’t exceed 3%. Chairman Deane It won’t exceed 3%. And that is with the use of no undesignated fund balance? Mayor Lozeau No I didn’t say that Alderman Deane. Chairman Deane What is the plan… Mayor Lozeau I don’t know what I am going to use. It depends on what the surplus is. Chairman Deane Thank you. Mayor Lozeau As required by ordinance, all of that information has to be provided to you before September 1st. After you receive all of that information and we do the math on well first whether you adopt them or not or change Budget Review – 06/08/11 Page 19 them or however that works, and then the DRA will get forms from us sometime in October and then they will work on getting the tax rate set for us. Chairman Deane That is the same with overlay too. Mayor Lozeau That is the same yes. I would anticipate… Chairman Deane NRO 5-136. Mayor Lozeau I would anticipate using surplus and potentially, depending on what is available for undesignated fund balance likely using some of that as well. Chairman Deane Thank you. Mayor Lozeau You are welcome. Excuse me Mr. Chairman, if I could. There were just a couple of other items that the committee wanted so I just wanted to give you a couple of things. I passed out the paper earlier that you had requested about the senior staff and who didn’t get a step increase last year. Chairman Deane Thank you. Mayor Lozeau I also had, when the committee asked about the H.R. Director, we had thought that it was a grade 20, step 12. In fact it is a grade 19, step 12. You had asked me how high grade 20 went and I think I told you $113,000 and that was correct. You had also asked about the balance in the police special fund and whether there was a balance there. There is no fund balance. It is not really seen by Mrs. Evans as a fund balance. The money gets paid in and the costs associated with that police detail get paid to the employee and to the State retirement system and however else it is allocated, and it doesn’t carry a balance. At the end of the year should there be more in it than they anticipated, it would lapse, but it is not considered a fund the way we look at our other funds. It is money in, money out. I just wanted to let you know that. Chairman Deane That is for special police details and stuff? Budget Review – 06/08/11 Page 20 Mayor Lozeau Right. And the last thing that you asked about was the Local Government Center and the way that we had… Chairman Deane They have a contract that exceeded $10,000. Mayor Lozeau Right. It wasn’t a contract, it was something that Mr. Gilbar had set up for somebody to come in and act as the Interim Director. We had an agreement with them for a rate per hour/per diem per day kind of thing, 2- 3 days a week. What really happened when I looked closely at it is we were not exceeding the $10,000 amount, which would have sent us into Finance. I think when Mr. Gilbar started the contract we didn’t anticipate it would last, and I use the term contract lightly because we didn’t sign a contract, but when we made the arrangement he didn’t anticipate it going over the $10,000. In the time that Mr. Gilbar left and Mr. Griffin came on is the period of time where we exceeded the $10,000. That is how that happened. It was just under $15,000 for the service we received. Chairman Deane Was the arrangement a signed document? Mayor Lozeau I don’t believe it was. We’ve been looking and we haven’t found… Chairman Deane Do you know that though? We haven’t found anything? Mayor Lozeau We have not. John Griffin No. Chairman Deane The details of the service and the amount of money that was being paid and the services that were being provided for that money isn’t… Mayor Lozeau That is what we are looking for. We have called Mr. Gilbar to ask him if he might know where it would be, but it is just an arrangement that he had made when we were trying to take care of that problem. Budget Review – 06/08/11 Page 21 Chairman Deane Thank you. Mayor Lozeau You are welcome. Alderman Cookson Thank you. I had also asked about commodity code 31 and seeing it throughout the entire budget. Any progress made on that? Mayor Lozeau Well we are looking at whether we can do it. So far we are not having a whole lot of luck. It might have to come as separate from each department. We are trying to see if we can put something together that would be useful for you to look at. No I haven’t had a lot of progress with it. As you know, we have been working on the budget and the costing and some of those items and… Alderman Cookson Understood. Mayor Lozeau …just don’t have the bodies to put it together yet. Alderman Cookson What format are you looking potentially to provide it, if you are able to do it? Mayor Lozeau What I would like to do is be able to give you a snapshot of FY10, FY11, and what we are anticipating for FY12 citywide. That is what we are trying to do. Alderman Cookson Thank you. Mayor Lozeau You are welcome. That would meet your… Alderman Cookson It would. Budget Review – 06/08/11 Page 22 Mayor Lozeau Okay. Chairman Deane Is the compensation manager or people down in payroll, are they still working on the cost analysis for these collective bargaining agreements or is that work all being done by Mr. Griffin? John Griffin I’m working on them. Chairman Deane So the compensation people don’t have anything to do with it anymore? John Griffin They help. They help with data and information, but I am the one that puts together the cost sheets. As we mentioned earlier, with the school department I work very closely with Mr. Donovan. Chairman Deane Doreen Beaulieu used to do them didn’t she? John Griffin I’m not sure. Mayor Lozeau Yes. Chairman Deane Yes? Mayor Lozeau When I got here she was the one doing them. Then we changed the model, as you know, with Mr. Griffin to do it differently, and we have improved that model over the last couple of years, and when Mr. Griffin came in Mr. Gilbar and he looked at the forms and Mr. Griffin has tweaked it a little bit more too. He has taken responsibility for that. Alderman Cookson Thank you. I just wanted to make a comment about that. One of the things that I noticed, and I don’t have the library contract in front of me, but when I looked at the cost analysis sheet for that and you got to a particular row within that sheet and it was identified as a .5% increase in FY12 and a .5% increase in FY13, your final column was to 1 decimal point, and when you summed those up it looked like .4%, .5% equated Budget Review – 06/08/11 Page 23 to a 1%, but I would suggest to you, and I’m sure you know the direction I’m going right now, I think it needs to be 2 decimal points because you are actually compounding year over year and it is not summative. It looked like .5, .5 and the result was 1 when actually it is 1.01, and we are missing that compound. If that final column could be 2 decimal points instead I think that might be helpful for other contracts that we see in the future. Chairman Deane Thank you. COMMUNICATIONS - None UNFINISHED BUSINESS – RESOLUTIONS MOTION BY ALDERMAN DEANE TO RECONSIDER R-11-119 MOTION CARRIED R-11-119 Endorsers: Alderman-At-Large Brian S. McCarthy Alderman-At-Large Ben Clemons Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire Alderman Diane Sheehan Alderman Jeffrey T. Cox Alderman Michael J. Tabacsko APPROVING THE COST ITEMS OF A COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE NASHUA PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD OF TRUSTEES AND THE NASHUA PUBLIC LIBRARY EMPLOYEES, AFT, FPE, LOCAL #4831 FROM JULY 1, 2011 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2013 MOTION BY ALDERMAN DEANE TO AMEND R-11-119 BY REPLACING ARTICLE 38 WITH THE CORRECTED VERSION RECEIVED FROM ATTORNEY BENNETT ON THE QUESTION Chairman Deane As you know, Article 38 had a mathematical error and this is doing nothing more. It has been corrected. I spent some time today going through this today with my .5s and it was changed, numbers added up. That was one of the issues. I figured it would be easier to reconsider the resolution, make this amendment to it, and just add it to it. That way it is all corrected so when it moves forward it will be easier to deal with. Alderman Cookson Just one comment; I don’t believe it is part of the contract, I believe it is just Attorney Bennett’s summary of the cost items. If you look at 21 – Health Insurance, City Contribution, down at letter (c) it identifies $200 and it has two hundred and fifty in parenthesis. It is two hundred and fifty dollars per person and five hundred dollars per two person family I believe is what he stated at our last meeting. Chairman Deane 21 when you go down to c? Budget Review – 06/08/11 Page 24 Alderman Cookson Correct. Paragraph C, it states written out two hundred dollars, but in parenthesis it is two hundred and fifty dollars. I believe two hundred and fifty dollars is the correct figure for per person. Alderman Cox So they left out “and fifty”. Chairman Deane MOTION BY ALDERMAN DEANE TO FURTHER AMEND BY ADDING THE WORDS “AND FIFTY” AFTER THE WORD “HUNDRED” IN SECTION 21, ITEM C MOTION CARRIED MOTION BY ALDERMAN DEANE TO RECOMMEND FINAL PASSAGE OF R-11-119 AS AMENDED MOTION CARRIED UNFINISHED BUSINESS – ORDINANCES – None NEW BUSINESS - None TABLED IN COMMITTEE R-10-66 Endorser: Alderman Diane Sheehan RELATIVE TO THE TRANSFER OF $92,000 FROM ACCOUNT 591-86005 “FY2011 GENERAL CONTINGENCY” INTO ACCOUNT 577-11 “CODE ENFORCEMENT, PAYROLL – FULL TIME” • Tabled 1/10/11 R-11-114 Endorser: Mayor Donnalee Lozeau RELATIVE TO THE ADOPTION OF FISCAL YEAR 2012 PROPOSED BUDGET FOR THE CITY OF NASHUA GENERAL, ENTERPRISE, AND SPECIAL REVENUE FUNDS • Public Hearing scheduled for 6/13/11 at 7:00 p.m. at NHS-North Auditorium • Tabled 5/23/11 R-11-115 Endorsers: Mayor Donnalee Lozeau Alderman-at-Large Brian S. McCarthy Alderman Kathryn D. Vitale Alderman Richard LaRose Alderman Arthur T. Craffey, Jr. Alderman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja Alderman Jeffrey T. Cox AGREEMENT TO TRANSFER FUNDS BACK TO DEPARTMENTS BASED ON HEALTH CARE CONCESSIONS • Tabled 5/23/11 Budget Review – 06/08/11 Page 25 O-10-23 Endorser: Alderman-at-Large Barbara Pressly ESTABLISHING AN OMBUDSMAN FOR THE CITY OF NASHUA AND AUTHORIZING THE TRANSFER OF $60,000 FROM ACCOUNT 591-86005 “FY2011 GENERAL CONTINGENCY” INTO ACCOUNT 501-53 “MAYOR’S OFFICE – PROFESSIONAL SERVICES” • Tabled 8/5/10 • Also assigned to the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee; Tabled 8/12/10 GENERAL DISCUSSION Alderman Pressly At the wrap-up, where is it appropriate to bring up something of concern just on an item on the budget? I’m not sure exactly where it shows up. Is it here? It is not on what is under consideration now. Chairman Deane Is it part of this operating budget? Alderman Pressly Yes. Chairman Deane We will do it at wrap-up. Alderman Pressly And when is that going to be? Chairman Deane I believe it is the 15th and 16th of June. The public hearing is on the 13th. Alderman Pressly Oh okay so it will be after that. Chairman Deane It will be after that. We will have a public hearing and then we will go through this again and any changes or whatever… Alderman Pressly Okay. Or any concerns that we have or just to make sure that we understand what we are doing. Thank you. Budget Review – 06/08/11 Page 26 Alderman Sheehan I would just like to take a moment to thank the people at the Greater Nashua Humane Society that offered a tour to give us a better understanding of their vendor relationship that they have with the City for some of the services they provide that are lawfully mandated; a good tour of the facility and the role that they play and kind of the problems with some of the things we have going on in this City are creating. I look forward to trying to address some of those and I would like to thank them because they did a lot of preparation work for the information to share with us. They will be forwarding it out to the entire board as well, but they did an excellent job, and I just wanted to recognize them for that effort. Chairman Deane I believe everyone received the e-mail. I just had work commitments I just can’t get out of during the next, next to impossible. It sounds like you attended so that is good… Alderman Sheehan A few did. Chairman Deane …I did speak with the director though a couple of times. And that is part of this operating budget. During that wrap-up session we can bring that up. Is there any other general discussion? Alderman Cox I did as well and let her know that last time I took the tour I went home with a dog. I very graciously passed on the tour this year, but extended my support for their operation. They do do a great job. Alderman Pressly Is that the dog that is going to start going to the dog park? Alderman Cox Gunner, yes. Alderman Pressly Thank you. Alderman Sheehan They knew mine they didn’t try to send me home with another one again. Chairman Deane Is there any more general discussion? PUBLIC COMMENT - None Budget Review – 06/08/11 Page 27 REMARKS BY THE ALDERMEN Alderman Cox Just want to thank you very much for moving your meeting to this evening while four of us were here instead of Friday. Thank you. Chairman Deane The one thing I would like to say is I haven’t heard from Alderman Flynn’s family. I have not contacted them either. It is a real personal matter and I hope he is doing well. I hope to find something out shortly. ADJOURNMENT MOTION BY ALDERMAN WILSHIRE TO ADJOURN MOTION CARRIED The meeting was declared closed at 8:26 p.m. Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane Chairman, Budget Review Committee  City of Nashua Budget Committee Information Request Q. Provide the names of the individuals that were not provided a step increase in FY2011. A. Department 1 Office of the Mayor Mayor Donnalee Lozeau 2 City Clerk Pau I Bergeron 3 Legal James McNamee 4 CitiStat Susan Valaitis 5 Economic Development Thomas Galligani 6 Information Technology John Barker 7 Community Development Katherine Hersh 8 Public Health Kerran Vigroux 9 Chief Financial Officer Formerly Michael Gilbar 10 Public Works Formerly Leon Kennison