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Notes provided by: Colleen Kirby Cho Board of Selectmen Meeting January 26, 2004 school (and finance) related information Sen. Bob Havern addressed the board and said that it looked like local aid would be level funded this year (not level service funded). He expressed interest in forming a group of legislators meeting with officials from various towns to give our legislators a sense of what the cuts have meant in terms of lost services. The goal is to get information quickly so the legislators can release budget figures in March. The board said they'd be glad to host such an information forum. Bob said he had been unaware that our art teachers were replaced by volunteers in the schools. There was a request for $105,000 to upgrade the schools to a fiber optic system like the one the town is already using. The schools themselves already have the cables, but there is a need for hardware and installation to interface is what I understood them to be talking about. They discussed using the $45,000 available in the town's technology/cable fund provided by the $15,000 per year the current cable contract provides. Thoughts about providing an independent cable access television station through Arlington Community Inc. similar to the one in Newton was also discussed. I think the board decided to have the relevant committees come up with a comprehensive plan for the upcoming negotiations to renew the cable contract with Comcast (and RCN?) and to request both help in setting up an independent Arlington cable access studio and upgrading the schools. Later in the meeting it was discussed that it might be a good use of the technology funds to pay for an 18 month salary to reinstate a school information officer (web and internet news) which was lost in last year's budget cuts (see below). Report from the School Budget Workshop held on January 11 included a unanimous approval by the School Committee to go ahead with the Dallin rebuild. The proposed school budget includes an increase in sports and music fees of $50 with a cap of $500 per family? The proposed budget is considered a skeleton budget with a request to restore contractual obligations required to the tune of $800,000. This sounded like a big bang for the buck as it included reading specialists, art teachers, middle and high school teachers to cover classes instead of "directed studies", the ACE program in elementary and middle schools, but the loss of the elementary Spanish program, among other positions. The school committee is ranking the add-backs in case there is only a partial restoration. Recommendation for an increase in Water/Sewer rates in town. Rates have not been increased for 10 years although many improvements have ensued plus personnel expenses have increased in this time period. In addition those rates were approved for a period of 7 years and it has already been 10 years. Also less usage last year meant revenues were down. The recommendation for a 25% increase beginning July 4th was approved with an additional increase of 5% each of the following two years. Charlie Lyons requested that we make sure that these rate increases include all costs to the Water/Sewer system for the next 10 years so that we have a first class water/sewer department. It was decided that the rates would be looked at and amended in a few years if costs were not being covered by the revenues. Our water/sewer bill includes all operation and maintenance costs of the Arlington system. The MWRA bill we get on our town tax bill includes the debt on the big projects including the water treatment facility in the Harbor and is not included in this discussion. The board set up a meeting for February 12th at 6:00pm for all departments to get together so a complete budget can be given to the Finance Committee. And to determine town priorities. There will also be a February 7th meeting from 10-12 for the BoS and School Committee to get together and discuss joint goals and objectives, to discuss the Dallin rebuild and the O'Neill formula. Also about budget savings from retirements. New parking fees have generated an additional $180,000 in revenues so far and an increasing headache for the Selectmen's office. There are talks to be held with the BoS and the Treasurer's office to try and make the collecting function work more efficiently. There was a quick discussion of the school rebuilds with Treasurer Bilafer. He wants to see a funding source in hand (actual passed legislation). He did say we can use a BAN for interim use. Mr. Lyons asked Mr. Bilafer to consider that as the Symmes sale is nearly approved that perhaps we can begin counting that expected revenue to offset any current need to use reserves as the bonding companies look at long term fiscal plans when doing rating. Recent Municipal Relief Legislation allows Town Managers to set fees with the approval of the Board of Selectmen rather than Town Meeting. This will enable fees to change during the course of a year as costs change and should be more efficient according to Nancy Galkowski. Now only Parking and Traffic fees go through the BoS. John Maher will talk about this idea with the Finance Committee. Charlie Lyons submitted a 30 page report concerning the dismissal of Bob Sprague as town webmaster. He did a complete examination of the parties involved and concluded that there was a grave miscommunication between Bob and the town. The decision to refocus the webmaster position was not done in consultation with the Board of Selectmen. And he concluded that Mr. Sprague was mistreated by the process. He said no employee of our town should be treated in this manner. He said that the town "messed up". He suggested that the town could rehire Mr. Sprague for the School Information Officer position that he lost due to budget cuts by using the dedicated technology funds described above. He also suggested that Mr. Sprague be given back pay for the time he was let go but Mr. Maher said that would not be legally possible. Mr. Lyons says that Mr. Sprague brought great value to the position and that since his dismissal the content on the website has suffered. Mr. Lyons also said that such public positions that interface with our residents are sensitive in nature and any changes must be discussed with the Board of Selectmen. Annie LaCourt spoke about the formation of a Technology Committee in town and it was decided they would meet informally before being more formally approved at Town Meeting. Their goal is to determine comprehensively the needs for technology and information across the town and would include helping to define the needs for our webpage and internet services. These are my notes, taken to best of my ability and are no way official minutes or notes of any of the boards or individuals sited in my report. SPOT
offers these notes as a service to the community. |
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