50 jobs to be cut in $57 million budget
Published on February 26th, 2003
STONEHAM, MA - As days pass in the halls of Stoneham Town Hall, a dreary fiscal snapshot is coming into more clear focus as officials begin to talk real numbers. In a memo presented to the Stoneham Board of Selectmen, Town Administrator Dave Berry outlined approximately $1 million in cuts to a currently balanced FY04 town budget of approximately $57 million(4.7 percent increase over FY03.
The wide ranging cuts include cutting five full-time policemen, four full-time firefighter positions and eliminating three full-time DPW positions. In addition, each of the three departments would not fill a full-time vacancy.
?This is certainly not by any means a finished product, and this should be looked at as something to start from,? said Berry of the plan that calls for the layoff of approximately 22 full-time equivalent Town employees. ?I usually have pride of authorship, but I certainly don?t when it comes to this budget. I would love to see a lot of changes made to the document.?
The current budget for FY04 includes several difficult layoffs:
?elimination of an 8-hour Board of Selectmen clerk.
?elimination of a 15-hour Administrative clerk in the Town Administrator?s office and reduction of part-time seasonal help by $15,000.
?reduction of a part-time Town Accountant Office Assistant by five hours.
?Reduction of the part-time Principal Office Assistant in the Treasurer?s Office by 4 hours.
?Reduction of one part-time Elections clerk by 8 hours.
?Reduction of two part-time assistants in the Grants office to fifteen hours.
?elimination of five full-time police officers, elimination of one vacant position and elimination of a half-time clerk.
?elimination of four full-time firefighters and elimination of one vacant firefighter position.
?reduction of a half-time office assistant in the Inspections office by nine hours.
?elimination of three DPW workers and elimination of one vacant DPW position.
?reduction of one part-time nurse by nine hours.
?reduction of a Council on Aging part-time clerk by 7.5 hours.
?reduction of a part-time seasonal employee in the Rec Department by $10,000.
?elimination of some part-time employees and the Assistant Library Director position at the Stoneham Public Library.
?elimination of one full-time groundskeeper at Unicorn Golf Course.
?elimination of one half-time supervisor at the Unicorn Arena.
In addition to the cuts, Berry stated that he made many estimations as favorably to the town as possible, and also raided $1 million from the stabilization fund to balance the budget.
?Such an approach is not an ideal approach, and certainly not one I would normally take,? wrote Berry in the memo. ?But these are not normal times, and so extraordinary actions are necessary and, I believe, justified.?
The extraordinary actions continue throughout as capital improvements have been funded at a low level-funded $42,248, the Reserve Fund has been funded at the minimum of $43,000, the non-departmental discretionary spending has been cut to virtually nothing, and the overlay reserve has been dropped from $600,000 to $400,000.
In order to bridge a cavernous budget gap, Berry has also accounted for a 2.5 percent increase in both local tax receipts and $370,000 in additional revenue from additional fees, rescinded warrant articles, conversion of old trust funds to operating budgets and the sale of a specific town-owned building lot, utilization of an additional $200,000 in likely available surplus, and using $1 million in the $1.2 million stabilization.
Both Town Treasurer Tom Ciccatelli and Town Accountant Ron Florino have expressed extreme caution in using the stabilization, and fear for the repercussions.
?We may lose our AA bond rating if we use the stabilization fund,? said Ciccatelli. ?It could end costing us a lot more than the $1 million in the long run.?
While several Selectmen praised Berry for spreading the cuts equally across the Board, others were critical for the very same reason.
?I totally disagree with the cuts and where you made them,? said Selectman Cosmo Ciccarello. ?Public safety (and when I say public safety I mean fire, police and DPW) is the very last place where you make harmful cuts.?
Selectman Mary Pecararo also agreed with Ciccarello, and wondered how a barebones public safety team could survive.
?We are talking about departments that are shorthanded to begin with, and now we?re talking about cutting them further,? said Pecararo. ?Fires have always scared me, and they particularly scare after the tragedy in Rhode Island last week.?
The Selectmen plan to present the budget, department by department, at a public hearing at Stoneham High School on Monday, March 3, at 7 p.m. A combination of ideas and theories are expected to be collected and used to stave off some of the harmful cuts.
?I?ve been crunching some numbers, and I think I?ve come up with some ways to consolidate services and save money,? said Selectman Charlie Smith. ?We?re not talking about a million dollars, but we might be talking about good people?s jobs.?
The School Committee, in a budget summit meeting prior to the Board of Selectmen meeting, outlined $1.3 million in cuts to their budget. According to Berry?s figures, the number may be closer to $900,000 after his FY04 budget work.
According to Connolly, the school department would only get $20,000 value for each $30,000 position cut because of unemployment compensation. With this in mind, Connolly outlined approximately $1.4 million in personnel cuts amounting to approximately 30 teaching positions.
In addition to the salaries, Connolly outlines a complete cut of the transportation program, $75 to materials and supplies, and approximately $60,000 to professional development.
The School Department did not have revised numbers to address the new figure of an approximate $1 million cut, but Connolly indicated the change wouldn?t be significant.
?I think what the voters have to ask themselves is if these choices are consistent with the reasons they moved to the town of Stoneham in the first place,? said Connolly. ?We?re talking a drastic reduction in service to the people of Stoneham.?
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