David Gartenstein will end six years of Selectboard service at the end of his current term. He announced his intentions not to seek re-election at the start of a long, first Selectboard meeting of 2017.
Most of the meeting was spent discussing budget loose ends and lingering questions regarding the FY18 budget. The board also heard about facilities project updates, had a late-evening welcome for our new Town Clerk and took up a few matters related to Representative Town Meeting.
Preliminaries
Chair David Gartenstein said the board would have a decision regarding the Bittersweet Lane reconsideration question by the end of the week. He also announced he would not be seeking re-election.
“After 6 years of serving,” he explained, “I’m not standing for re-election.” He encouraged people to take out petitions and run for an available seat. “There’s at least one open slot on the Selectboard. I hope to see a spirited race for that spot.”
Town Manager Peter Elwell had no preliminary remarks and there were no selectboard comments and committee reports.
During public participation, two people addressed the board regarding their recent recycling decisions. Daniel Quipp said he and 350 Brattleboro had collected comments from some residents that indicated people were confused, unhappy, and uncertain. He quoted from a few that had questions about collection containers, the end of recycling, and the end of the MRF recycling facility. Some wanted a more public process and an opportunity to weigh in. Other were concerned that rates would rise, trucking was inefficient, and prices would be at the whim of outsiders once our facility closed.
David Schoales, former appointee to the Windham Solid Waste District, tried to clear up a few of the concerns. He said recycling would remain the same in Brattleboro as it is now, with few exceptions. The bins on Fairground Road would go away, plastics and paper will be able to be mixed together in your bin, and all plastics would be collected.
He said closure of the MRF was inevitable and a matter of public discussion for years. It had been running at a loss, needed millions of dollars of upgrades, and “was going to close anyway” — it was a matter of ‘when and how.”
Gartenstein replied that there had been at least a dozen substantive public discussions on the issue over the last couple of years, and that from his view, the former system was unfairly charging Brattleboro and the district refused to alter its assessment structure. “We have the right system in place,” he said of the new way of doing recycling in Brattleboro which will now be trucked to Rutland instead of being processed here.
Police and Fire facilities Projects Updates
West Brattleboro Station is on schedule with no issues, and most of the work is now taking place indoors. The Fire Department can move in and use it in February.
Central Station site work and foundation preparation continues, and steel is expected to be delivered. The Fire Department is expected to move in to this new building in November of 2017.
The new Police Station at Black Mountain Road is getting underway to do the fit-up of tenant space so the Reformer can move into their new offices. The Police can start using this building in August of 2017.
The Town Manager’s report continues to contain an updated list of expenses under $5,000 that have been authorized by the Town, such as phone service, bond counsel fees, insurance, and similar smaller expenses.
FY18 Budget – The Explicitly Unresolved
Gartenstein said there were six remaining FY18 issues for the board to discuss, “three or four substantive, meaty issues to discuss.”
Town Manager Elwell termed them “explicitly unresolved” budget matters. Those, he said, are the issues that the board asked questions about previously and to which staff owed answers.
Gartenstein led the board through a series of questions designed to gather opinions but not yet vote on any specific item. By the end, four semi-decisions had been suggested for the Town Manager to consider.
The first discussion was about energy improvements at the Municipal Center and Library, especially a plan for a shared pellet boiler between the two buildings. This led to a threat by Dick DeGray to withhold support from the entire budget if any municipal center energy improvements took place before the board decided on whether to stay in the building. John Allen agreed, and the discussion drifted to whether or not the Town would continue to occupy the building.
There were some hints that excess Municipal Center space would be rented in the next few months, but no one wanted to say anything with any certainty at this time. Adding pressure to the decision about energy improvements were two other pesky facts: a 25% rebate for wood pellet systems would only apply this year, and the Library’s boiler is near death.
The wood pellet boiler was a suggestion in the Energy Audit conducted recently, which also led to discussion of whether and why the report should be acted upon. DeGray felt, for example, that a simple $50,000 boiler for the library would suffice, rather than a $215,000 joint project.
David Schoales said that energy savings and improvements were the only area of the budget that could be considered an investment that returns money to the town over time, reducing the budget. “It’s the only area in the budget where we can invest to reduce taxes in the long run.”
“Who’s to say pellet prices won’t go up?” countered John Allen. Schoales answered that it was local, sustainable, and eliminated reliance on international politics for fuel prices.
In the end, Gartenstein and O’Connor were unsure of what to do, Schoales was strongly in favor of the improvements, and the others seemed against them at this time.
…
On the matter of purchasing a new fire engine/pumper, there was a question of whether to borrow or pay with cash from the fund balance that had an unusually good-sized surplus last year. The Town Manager suggested paying for it with cash.
All board members wanted to buy the new truck (after some reminders from the Chief and Assistant Chief of the urgent need), but they were somewhat split on how best to pay for it. Allen and DeGray wanted to use Fund Balance cash as suggested, but Gartenstein suggested and convinced O’Connor and Schoales that paying partially with cash and partially with borrowed funds might be better.
There’s currently $1,163,933 of available fund balance after accounting for a 10% reserve for emergencies. About $135,000 of it has been set aide to help with tax stabilization this year and another $1 million was assigned to catching up on capital investments in the original budget.
If bought with cash, said Elwell, it would free up about $65,000 each year for ten years from the operating budget that would previously have been spent on loan payments for that fire truck. He said the downside would be less cash for capital improvements this year, and the town needs desperately to do those improvements after years of neglect and putting things off. He estimated a need for a million dollars in catch-up work each year for the next few years before the situation stabilizes.
Gartenstein then stated his objection to the overall budget seemingly leading to almost a 5 cent increase over last year’s tax rate, to close to $1.23 or so. He wanted the increase to be limited to no more than 3 cents, or about $1.21. He said that the new police and fire facilities should count toward this year’s infrastructure improvements. He suggested more fund balance be applied to tax relief.
“I don’t disagree,” said Elwell.” You properly recited facts about expenditures and taxes and that it is being driven by increased commitment to capital which we need to make and maintain. We’re making up for lost time, of current and deferred needs.” He suggested they cut items from the capital program, however, rather than use surplus funds to reduce taxes.
Elwell added that our aging infrastructure likely holds more emergency work in the next few years. “We shouldn’t be shocked if something comes up.” He also pointed out that staff did their best to spread out urgent needs over a long period of time.
The mention of a possible 5 cent tax rate increase had begun to sunk in and other board members expressed their concerns.
Kate O’Connor said Brattleboro’s population was not growing. “There will be a breaking point, and we have to find where it is. People can’t afford to live here.”
“It’s gut check time” said DeGray who said they do the same thing every year for 30 years – discuss projects with big “prices tags that cause cold feet.” The commitment to the capital project was new, he said. He suggested cutting utility rates as a way to give taxpayers some savings, and objected to using the fund balance for tax relief, preferring instead to invest in promoting downtown restaurants to increase the rooms and meals tax income.
Elwell said he was relieved to hear a resistance to using the fund balance for tax relief. “It’s a terrible habit to get in, where we can’t maintain steady services.”
The third question became something along the lines of “where should the tax rate end up, ideally?” Gartenstein and Schoales said 3 cents, Allen and O’Connor said 3 or lower, and DeGray said he was fine with it where it was.
With this discussion taking them past 8 pm, a five minute break was called.
Welcoming the New Town Clerk
Hilary Francis was sworn in as Brattleboro’s new Town Clerk on Friday, December 30, 2016.
She was welcomed by the board somewhat clumsily Tuesday night when they returned from their break. She had waited patiently through budget issues before her brief welcome from the Town Manager and Chair.
“We’re delighted to have you aboard,” said Elwell. “Thanks for your endurance this evening.”
“We wish you a long tenure” said Gartenstein. “We’ll see ya.”
Back to Budget Questions
Questions from the board about how funds are transfered from the Parking Fund to the General Fund led to some investigation and review. The questions were whether revenue from parking tickets issued by police officers should go to the Parking Fund, and whether the Parking Fund should help pay for a new street sweeper.
Between 5 and 10% of parking ticket revenue comes from patrol officers and the rest come from parking enforcers, and similarly the street sweeper is used about 10% of the time for parking lots. With these low percentages, staff suggested that the numbers are correct and should be approved as presented. Board members disagreed and wanted the Parking Fund to, at least, contribute a bit to the street sweeper. Elwell said 20,000 could be transferred, but that the Parking Fund still had debt payments on the Transportation Center for a few more years. After that ends, there will be some cash flow to work with.
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On the question of issuing an RFP or RFQ for legal services, the board was informed that while technically allowable, it is not staff’s recommendation to undertake this effort prior to this year’s Representative Town Meeting. Elwell suggested doing it later in the year if the board is so inclined and they agreed.
…..
On the question of continuing to fund a Town Energy Coordinator, many options were presented, and Energy Committee Chair Michael Bosworth read a list of summary of the work and savings generated by the Energy Coordinator position thus far. He said the committee would like another coordinator to help with grants, data gathering, and energy audit follow-through, and said that there may be people or non-profits willing to step in to help.
O’Connor said she preferred doing it the way it had been done in the past. DeGray felt it an opportunity to correct an imbalance in committees by eliminating any paid positions. Allen and Schoales felt the work necessary and a great value to the town. Gartenstein said he’d prefer a paid town position, though he had concerns that the savings being quoted might not be accurate.
They decided to take up the issue at a future meeting.
Operating hours for the pool and possible rental of Creamery Bridge are two remaining issues left to discuss. The board will take them up at a special meeting next Tuesday at 5:30 pm.
Other notes: the Library Endowment Fund report has been given to the board ($1.877,416.38!), and IT Improvement Plan will be presented later this month, and electricity will be provide to the West Brattleboro Village Green from the Fire Station.
Representative Town Meeting Articles
The Brattleboro Selectboard certified the appointment of the new Town Clerk at their meeting Tuesday, as well as appointments of John O’Connor as Town Treasurer, and Fisher & Fisher as Town Attorney.
Town Meeting Representatives at Representative Town Meeting get the final say with their vote.
Approve Contract Town Attorney
The Brattleboro Selectboard approved a 1 year extension of the contract with Fisher & Fisher for legal services in 2017-2018.
It’s a 1.46% increase, for a total of $104,000 per year.
Scattered Site Grant – Windham & Windsor Housing Trust Revolving Loan Program
The board approved of accepting $340,000 in additional funds from the Agency of Commerce and Community Development to support the home repair program of the Windham Windsor Housing Trust. The Southeast Vermont Rehab Loan Fund is funded for another year, and is available for residential rehabilitations, home ownership assistance, and counseling advocacy services.
Special Meeting To Approve Representative Town Meeting Warning
Brattleboro’s Representative Town meeting is scheduled for March 25, 2017. Town Meeting is March 7 in Vermont.
The Brattleboro Selectboard will set the warning for the Representative Town Meeting at a meeting on January 31 at 5:30 pm.
Committee Appointments
The Selectboard made a few committee appointments before adjourning to a executive session.
Dawn Chattin will join the Arts Committee. Laurie Callahan and Jennifer Latham join the Conservation Commission. Jessica Gelter and Shawn Tao join the Planning Commission.
Asking the Right Question
Franz Reichsman ended the evening with a story from his days in medical school. One of his professors quizzed students on the pronunciation of the capital of Kentucky. Was it Loo-ee-ville or Loo-iss-ville? The students would reply that it was Loo-ee-ville.
The professor would then say that he understood the correct pronunciation of the capital of Kentucky to be Frankfurt.
The lesson was ask the right question to get the right answer, said Reichsman, who suggested that if $2.5 million in energy savings opportunities were available, the correct question is “how do we get it?” not how to save $10,000.
Sometimes I think there ought
Sometimes I think there ought to be two Selectboard meetings just a couple days apart. The first would be exactly like the ones we have now. The second would be to fill in the blanks created in the first. For instance, the Board, (Gartenstein?) states that $135,000 of ‘excess’ reserve funds have been set aside to return to taxpayers. Moments later they are talking about where they will find the funds for a new fire truck. Shall they pay in cash from the budget or take out a loan? The report doesn’t reveal how much the truck cost but the Town Manager is quoted as saying the interest will be $65,000 for each of the next ten years or presumably $650,000 overall. The suggested compromise is to split it between cash and a loan. Nobody is recorded suggesting what the split will be. For arguments sake let’s say it’s 50/50. Half cash, half loan. Now the interest is only $325,000. So we return $135,000 in tax relief and then add $325,000 in avoidable interest payments! Is this another example of the Selectboard fulfilling it’s fiduciary responsibilities?
Immediately ensuing is the discussion on the tax increase. According to this account Mr Gartenstein objected to a budget that was seemingly leading to a 5 cent increase in the tax rate. That is, if I interpret correctly, this is what it would be if the budget is passed as it now stands. No reason is recorded as to why 5 cents is too high. Nor did he provide a reason for stating that 3 cents was the right amount. However, to get from 5 to 3 cents he did suggest using more reserve funds. This would mean reducing the reserve fund about another $220,000.
I did quite a lot of investigating of standard municipal finance practices during my 5 yr tenure on the Finance Committee and among the many things I learned was that it was very highly recommended to not use reserve funds for tax relief but strongly advocated to use excess funds for capital projects, as our Town Manager recommends. One of the reasons is that using them on capital projects enables funding in cash rather than loans which saves municipalities a ton of money in interest payments and helps contain debt. Low debt provides access to lower interest loans (because lenders believe a grantee with low debt is less risk) which saves even more money in the long run.
Selectboard Member O’Connor chimed in that “there has to be a breaking point and we have to find where it is.” I imagine that if you asked 50 different people to read this section of the report and write what they think she means by “breaking point” you would get 50 different answers. It is necessary to know the definition of “breaking point” and, if it is indeed something to worry about, what she will be proposing. One also needs to know how she reconciles her belief that people can’t afford to live here and the fact that the population has been perfectly stable for 60 years.
Selectboard Member DeGray suggests that we cut utility rates without suggesting how much to cut and how that amount would effect the operation of the utilities.
The one thing they do seem to agree upon is that sound fiduciary responsibility is mainly an expression of your gut feeling. Burps, farts and stomach rumbles. Doesn’t that tell you everything you need to know?
a few answers
Pumper Rescue Truck is $550,000 (cash). Various splits were discussed and none decided. Gartenstein suggested around 300k cash.
(Remember there is another truck, a ladder truck, that may or may not be bought depending on if we get a grant for the majority of it. This is not that truck.)
DeGray would like to look into Utility rate cuts, and presumably will get a report on numbers later on. I’d expect that discussion in the coming months.
one more
Elwell reminded the board that they and Representative Town Meeting approved plans for the Police and Fire project with estimates in front of them anticipating a 6.8 cent increase.this year. He was pointing out to them how much had already been trimmed to get to the “nickel” increase.
correction
After listening to the tape on BCTV and following up with a call to town Finance Director John O’Connor an error in the report here was revealed. The $65,000 ten year annual payment for the fire truck was not solely interest. That is the total payment combining the principal and interest. Thus borrowing for the truck adds $100,000 not $650,000.
Also relevant but not in this story: The extraordinarily high surplus last year, for which some of the reasons were enumerated, pushed the fund to $2.7 million. We have a policy of maintaining for emergency purposes an amount in that fund equal to at least ten percent of our budget. That ten percent would be about $1.6 million. Tropical Storm Irene has already proven that that is a reasonable if not critical level of “rainy day” funds to have on hand. However, subtracting that still leaves a $1.1 million surplus in the fund. There is plenty of money in the fund to pay cash for the fire truck. It saves the town $100,000 to use it in this way. The Town Manager indicated that there are some short term downsides to using cash but it would not place undue strain on the budget and the financial benefits in the longer run are thoroughly sufficient to qualify as very sound fiscal responsibility.
Ahem
Allow me to defend my reporting a bit.
First, this meeting is all about answers to questions raised at previous meetings. The pumper truck costs and financing was a subject of a previous meeting and this was clearing up some final questions. Go back through the FY18 Budget reporting here on this site or watch older meetings on BCTV to find out more.
I didn’t said the $65k was interest only. The previous reporting had the numbers, and here I say: “If bought with cash, said Elwell, it would free up about $65,000 each year for ten years from the operating budget that would previously have been spent on loan payments for that fire truck.” In the comments I added the cash-only price for the truck.
And, I did point out the high surplus and reserve here (“from the fund balance that had an unusually good-sized surplus last year ” and “There’s currently $1,163,933 of available fund balance after accounting for a 10% reserve for emergencies.”) and (again) in previous stories here on the FY18 budget.
I am glad this is starting to get a bit of attention, albeit a bit late.
One other aspect that Kate and others brought up that you haven’t touched on yet is that the combined pumper rescue eliminates two vehicles from future cap purchases. Even if it isn’t paid entirely with cash, there are some other savings to think about.
You're quite right, Chris.
You’re quite right, Chris. My apologies. I may have been reading from my own first comment where I went astray. There is another issue as well that I’m giving another stream.
Not a problem
No problem. It is confusing, even if one sits through each and every meeting. Multiple payment options, multiple trucks, many numbers bounced around…and then varying arguments for and against each option.
The Representative Town Meeting Finance Committee has been attending and participating, which is good. I haven’t seen many Town Reps at these meetings asking questions or offering views.