Selectboard Meeting Notes: The Gartenstein School of Budget Realities

The Election Day edition of the Selectboard meeting was held in the studios of BCTV, one floor up from the polling stations that had taken over their regular meeting space. The board pressed on in their atypical surroundings, covering budgets, staffing, and development.

The budget discussion began with an optimistic sounding 1 cent increase, but then covered future FY16 financial issues, such as the cost shifting of garbage pickup. the need for new police and fire vehicles in addition to new facilities, and the possibility of cutting back on library or recreational services. By the end, budget reality had set in, and the selectboard was again looking to citizens for advice on hard decisions.

Five buildings in town may get an overhaul, you can have beer or wine with your pizza, and whispers of outsourcing aspects of the DPW rounded out the evening.

Preliminaries

As has been the case with many recent meetings, the proceedings got underway a bit late due to an executive session prior to the metting.

Chair David Gartenstein encouraged people to vote in the final hours of open polls.

Interim Town Manager Patrick Moreland had no general comment.

David Schoales  reported that the waste management district was looking over its budget for the coming year, and comparing costs of single vs. dual stream systems. So far the costs appear similar, he said.

Public Participation

Holland Mills, a resident of Elliot Street and neighbor of the Metropolis bar, came to inform the selectboard that things had changed in recent months, and the cocktail lounge had evolved into more of a loud nightclub. He said that they were violating the noise ordinance, and that the Brattleboro Police have yet to cite them with a ticket to the best of his knowledge.

Thursday nights were especially loud, he said. “The police give them a talking to,” he said, “and then they turn it up louder.”

Mills said that the bar had been a fine neighbor until renovations this spring. “It’s not the same establishment as earlier this year.”

David Gartenstein thanked him. “Hopefully the police and town manager can look into this and report back to us.”

Liquor Commissioners – Canal Street House of Pizza

We haven’t had one of these in a while. 

Canal Street House of Pizza, operated by Dimitris Leristis at 419 Canal Street, was granted a first class liquor license by a vote of 5-0.

This is a new restaurant in the space currently known as Georgio’s Pizza & Pasta, owned by George Leristis. Father George is retiring and son Dimitris is taking over with a new name for the restaurant.

Staffing Level Review – Police Department

We have, on the other hand, had one of these recently, in April.

The department’s structure remains as before, but with 24 officers on staff and 3 vacancies to fill.

Chief Fitzgerald said that the department has three shifts of ten hours each, with a minimum of three on per shift.  He noted again the long time it takes for new hires to be trained – eight months – before working a shift.

John Allen asked how long they had been down three officers. Fitzgerald said that two moved on to the Windham County Sheriff’s Department last month, and one was vacant in August as a result of the former Chief’s retirement.

Kate O’Connor asked where new officers enter the hierarchy of the department. Fitzgerald said that all but the Captain and Chief start at the bottom and work their way up, even with prior experience.

David Schoales asked how we could get them to stay. Fitzgerald noted that the budget was on the agenda later in the meeting. “We can talk about that,” he said with a smile.

“It just happens,” said John Allen.

Staffing Level Review – Department of Public Works

The Department of Public Works has a full time opening for a Highway Equipment Laborer 4/ Mechanic 4, with 51% of the employees time assigned to Highways and 49% to Maintenance. This information was part of the presentation by Hannah O’Connell to the board on staffing of the DPW.

The position was created when a full time maintenance position was eliminated in 2010, she said. “It’s a complicated position.” She said they had advertised in-house, but no one was fully qualified for the mechanical aspects of the position.

The DPW is divided into two workforces. Maintenance has a supervisor and two mechanics on staff to keep the DPW tools and approximately 40 vehicles of the DPW in operation. They also work on HVAC and furnaces and do some landscaping.

Highways has a supervisor and 12 staff for road and drainage work about town. They also handle snow plowing, summer mowing, and light construction.

John Allen asked if they outsource mechanical work. O’Connell said they do for more complex jobs, such as adding a new cab to a grader.

Allen then asked if outsourcing all work might be easier in the long run. O’Connell didn’t know.

David Gartenstein added the suggestion of looking at outsourcing plowing as a way to further reduce costs. “A very different operational model.”

No further contemplating on the subject occurred.

Community Development Block Grant Discussion

Kate O’Connor mentioned that she sits on the state Community Development board, and has an agreement to recuse herself there when local issues are presented here. With that matter aired, Connie Snow and Isaac Wagner of the Windham & Windsor Housing Trust (WWHT) described to the Brattleboro Selectboard a potential grant application with local implications.  

WWHT would like to apply to the Agency of Commerce and Community Development for a $425,000 loan for hard costs of construction to rehab five of their buildings The loan would be in the form of a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG).

Plans would call for WWHT to match the loan with nearly $2 million of funds from other sources, such as Efficiency Vermont, the Vermont Fuel Efficiency Partnership, US Department of HUD, Vermont Housing Finance Agency, NeighborWorks America, and Southeastern Community Action.

Five Brattleboro properties currently owned and maintained by WWHT would be rehabilitated as part of this project. WWHT officially calls it “a scattered site, rental housing, rehabilitation project” for historic buildings bought over 20 years ago. They are now used for affordable housing.

Which properties? 13 Canal Street, 11 Cross Street, 90 Clark Street, 109 Green Street, and 99 Green Street.

Snow said most of the work would be energy related. They would also be replacing finishes, fixing roofs, working on siding, and taking care of other needed repairs.

If Brattleboro approves, the town would become involved in the project as “pass through” agent, with WWHT staff handling all grant administration duties. Snow said the applicant must be a municipality.

John Allen said he had concerns. “I still don’t understand the trust as well as I should,” he said politely. “But you already own these.” Allen is frequently vocal in opposition to new affordable housing projects. “Any administrative costs for us?”

Wagner said the town could be reimbursed, or could use their grant administrator’s time as a match, showing additional support for the project.  The board was inclined to be reimbursed.

Snow didn’t know how many buildings or units were owned in Brattleboro, but guessed about 20. David Gartenstein asked her to return with the accurate figures on a future visit, and she agreed to get the numbers.

David Schoales asked if they tracked resident incomes to make sure people continue to qualify, Snow said they did.

She also said they pay taxes based on a formula devised years ago based on an income approach to establishing value. It’s based on HUD values for the rentals.

Allen asked if they hired locally. They said their general contractors usually come from the region, often New Hampshire, and that they, in turn, hire local subcontractors. Schoales suggested they could help the general contractors by making job openings openings local contractors.

The visit was informational; the grant will likely be back before the board for approval later this year.

FY16 Budget Discussion

On October 4, the Brattleboro Selectboard requested that three budget options for FY16 be developed. The first would show costs at the same level of service as the prior year. The second would keep the rates at or below the same level as the prior year but services would be reduced. The third would show no increase in taxes.

Interim Town Manager Patrick Moreland offered up a memo presenting one budget to accomplish the first two requests, and said he could, with modification, satisfy the third.

Moreland mentioned there were challenges to comparing FY 15 with FY16. In the prior year the town had some extra money transferred in that will not be in the FY 16 budget. In the coming year, our trash expenses are expected to change significantly when Pay As You Throw is implemented.

Moreland proposed budget includes a 2% salary increase for all union and non-union staff, assumes spending on limited capital items in need of replacement paid for in cash and with a five year note. This results, he says, in a budget with lower expenses than FY15 and a tax levy increase of less than $.01.

Moreland say that to have no tax levy increase, one or one and a half full time positions would need to be eliminated. He says his draft budget does not address Police or Fire Facility costs.

The town budget includes costs of items such as staffing, salary increases, departmental budgets, benefits, insurance, legal assistance, solid waste costs, debt and debt service payments, human services payments, and other expenses.

The budget(s) submitted included detailed notes from department heads regarding specific costs they know the town should anticipate.

…

David Gartenstein began the board discussion by saying that he’d like to review the more significant issues they’d be dealing with this year.

First he elaborated on Moreland’s mention of changes to solid waste disposal. He said the entirety of the nearly million dollar budget item would be transferred out of the general municipal budget into its own fund. That fund, he said, shows income of about $450,000 from the sale of garbage bags.

“It’s an expense borne out of people’s pockets,” he warned. “People will have to pay $2-3 per bag to throw out garbage. Every household will have to buy these bags. Every week, households will incur an additional expense.” He guessed it could add up to $100 to $250 per year.

The bigger point was that for the town budget to have no impact on Brattleboro wallets, taxes would need to be cut by that much. “The budget presented right now shows a penny increase, but the individual impact of the garbage fees looks like a tax increase. You’ll be paying extra. We need to take that into account.”

He said that to have a flat tax rate would “mask the fact that everyone has to pay out of pocket to throw away garbage next year.”

Gartenstein said the Police and Fire facilities need a plan. He said that the memos from department heads showed that there were “very pressing capital equipment needs we’re facing.” He said that the requests are for a police cruiser, a truck, a dump truck, and a grader, but actual needs go beyond the requests. A second police cruiser and a new fire engine are also needed. He wondered how they would be paid for.

Health insurance costs won’t be going up, but other insurance costs will rise, and “we need to decide on wage increases.”

Gartenstein brought up the perennial suggestion that service cuts should be examined, and that the recreation department and library are the most likely candidates for cuts, as everything else is essential.

“A one cent increase isn’t a good way to look at this, and we need to acknowledge it at the earliest possible time,” he said. “Sorry to be such a downer.”

David Schoales defended PAYT changes, saying that now households will have control over that cost. “Those who put out pay more,” he said. While it might be hard on those with, say, lots of diapers to dispose of, he felt people could leave packaging at stores to avoid throwing it out at home.

Patrick Moreland wanted to make the point that some households will have entirely different situations. He said commercial and industrial buildings and apartments over a certain size are not a part of the town’s trash contract. He added that the savings of PAYT over the previous budget is hidden by the $510,000 used last year to offset taxes.

John Allen said the “giant elephant in the room” was the Police Fire Facilities Project. “We need to get serious quickly about this. I don’t know how we can do a budget without knowing what will happen. What direction are we going? That’s the big elephant,” he said.

Kate O’Connor said the increasing property taxes remained her concern. She said she had no answers tonight,  but the board should “be very careful about what we do to figure this out. We need to continue to be thoughtful. We have a short window of time to figure out the Police and Fire project, and do we want to rush it?”

“My approach to budgetting is like my approach to life,” said Donna Macomber. She said they should start broad, and with memory of the previous budget meetings. “We have good minds. There is a sweet spot between understanding the needs of the community and attending to the process..” She said department heads guide them. She felt the Police and Fire project decision would “make itself” if the board gave the community a time and opportunity to weigh in again.

“We each look out for different things,” said Macomber. “Let’s not make this more difficult than it needs to be. We have a reasonable community. This is a good time, if you are fairly brilliant, to be proactive.” She encouraged community input at this juncture and throughout the budget process.

Gartenstein said he’d like to review possible service cuts at a future meeting. O’Connor suggested they start where they left off last year by reviewing former proposals to cut services.

Gartenstein said that an argument could be made for looking at the facilities projects, capital needs, and other needs from a long-term perspective, “and our community’s ability to pay for those expenses.” He said the new Town Manager would be working, in part, on long term obligation issues as well as investments in our infrastructure.

“He’s going to be inundated,” said Allen, adding “…it’s not all gloom and doom. We’ll get through this.”