Hancock Advisory Committee Meeting

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Minutes

 

 

Present: Gail Hoffmann, Marsha Kono, Rich LeFebvre, Greg Lusted (Chair), Pat Payne.

 

The meeting convened at 6 p.m. at the Town Office.

 

At the Committee's request, Barbara Caverly, Town Administrator, attended to share latest developments on 2010 expense and revenue budgets, and also to answer Committee questions on the breakdown and disposition of significant unanticipated revenues received in 2009 – in the State revenue category and also Misc. Undesig. Inc. from Depts. – from the Jan. 19 version of the budgets.

 

Budget Progress--

Barbara passed out an up-to-date version (1/26) of the 2010 Expense and Revenue Budgets, reflecting a net decrease of $775 in budgeted expenses (vs. 1/19 version) and an increase in projected revenue of $5,450 (vs. 1/19 version.)

 

Initial review shows that the new (1/26) Expense Budget for 2010 is $1,724,472 – down $16,383 (down 0.9%) from the 2009 budget. However, 2010 projected revenues for $609,159 are $64,442 lower than the 2009 Revenue budget (9.6% lower). This indicates the gap between expenses and revenues is widening, even if there are no further cutbacks of State revenue sharing in 2010.

 

Warrant Articles–

Barbara also passed out draft materials on the 2010 Warrant Articles requested to date. Several were discussed.

 

*          The Committee noted two dealing with Meetinghouse maintenance/repair: The first a request for $5,000 for painting; the second a proposal to establish a Capital Reserve Fund for the Meetinghouse and fund it with an initial $5,000 appropriation.

 

Barbara said the Town is continuing to work with the Church on a strategy and alternative sources of funding for Meetinghouse preservation, including pursuit of an LCHIP matching grant ($3750) for 2010. A capital reserve fund would strengthen the case for grants by demonstrating the Town's funding commitment and also be a vehicle for accepting donations. Barbara said the capital reserve article would be presented first. If it passes the second article (specific to painting) would be withdrawn.

*          We noted two articles dealing with Police Special Details: The first to create a special revolving fund to receive special detail revenues and pay officers for special detail work, with any excess to accumulate separate from the Town's general fund. The second seeks an initial appropriation of $1,000 to the fund, if established. The Select Board has not yet decided if it supports this approach.

 

Barbara said Chief Andy Wood wants a way to pay officers immediately for special details worked, rather than wait until the Town is paid. Based on her past experience in NH town accounting, Committee member Gail Hoffmann commented that such a fund is unnecessary for immediate payment, and in her opinion is an unnecessary accounting complication. Other Committee members appeared to agree.

 

*          The Select Board is considering an article to change the way Land Use Change Tax (LUCT) funds are handled. Since 2004, half of the LUCT proceeds, up to $6,000 each year, go to the Hancock Conservation Fund dedicated to capturing open space for the Town. The warrant would rescind that set-aside and all land use change taxes would go to the Town's general fund.

 

Barbara said the Select Board's discussions included consideration of whether the Town has met its goals as to the amount of land under conservation easement, and also that the LUCT funds could appropriately be used to defray the bond costs for the Prospect Hill Land Purchase (currently $45,000 annually).

 

*          The only draft warrant article with a significant price tag is the request by Kurt Grassett, Director of Public Works, for $20,000 to rebuild the 1994 Mack Dump Truck, a request Kurt has previous explained to the Advisory Committee. At our Jan. 5 meeting, Kurt explained the rebuild request is instead of his projected 2011 replacement of that vehicle ($133,000 estimate). Kurt said the rebuild should delay replacement by 5 to 10 years. Several Committee members commented that the request seems reasonable (and thrifty).

Clarification of 2009 Unanticipated Revenue–

The Committee tried to get clarification of the sources and disposition of significant (over $350,000) unanticipated 2009 revenues which are included in the report of 2009 actual revenues. While the bulk of the amounts represent federal and state FEMA reimbursements, the Committee would like to understand more clearly the breakdown and disposition of these funds – specifically, whether/how they improve the overall position of the Town's fund balances. Barbara will ask Kurt Grassett to provide more information and said we may need to pursue this directly with the Select Board as well.

 

Committee Report/Recommendations to the Select Board–

The Committee briefly discussed the draft Advisory Committee Report, drafted by Rich LeFebvre and shared with Committee members by e-mail on Jan. 20. Committee members agreed we can't finalize our recommendation without clarification of a number of points with the Select Board (e.g., are there any employee raises included in the current (1/26 version) budget; do 09 expense actuals include town spending for the ice storm cleanup; disposition of Federal/NH FEMA reimbursements.)

 

The meeting adjourned at 8 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted, Marsha Kono

 

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