$55M budget for FY04
Published on May 14th, 2003
STONEHAM, MA - Residents gathered at last Thursday's annual Town Meeting approved five of six budget related articles, including a $55 million blueprint for the town's 2004 school and town department expenditures, and an article authorizing the use of the town's stabilization fund.
While the town will eliminate the equivalent of 17 workers through direct layoffs, hour reductions and keeping job vacancies unfilled, selectman Tony Kennedy applauded the efforts of town officials for introducing a balanced budget that will not result in drastic municipal job cuts.
"As people know, there's been a lot of discussion about the budget over the months...What we were able to do was through the Town Administrator and extensive meetings, come up with a balanced budget despite the hard times that we're having," said Kennedy.
"We are very proud of that, because we're not asking the town to make extreme cuts to teachers, police, and fire. After hundreds of hours of analysis and time, we feel it's a good budget and we're asking the town to approve it," he continued. "It's only $55 million," joked Kennedy.
While Kennedy's kidding around was taken in good spirits by the crowd, Stoneham resident Larry Rotondi took issue with such a small turnout of citizens for the important budget article, suggesting that the town should consider another government forum.
"It's just mind boggling that there's less than 200 people here and we're going to vote on a $55 million budget. Yet, people will show up to vote down a building project that will bring the town $2 million in property taxes...Maybe we should look for a different forum because this is ridiculous," exclaimed Rotondi.
While debate surrounding the budget articles was limited in comparison to the attention paid to the first nine warrant articles last Monday night, several citizens questioned specific budget line items and expenditures.
In a line item that Zoning Board of Appeals Chairman Bill Sullivan protested in the weeks prior to the town meeting, several townspeople challenged the decision of town officials to reduce planning board secretary Cathy DelloRusso's hours from twenty-hours to nineteen.
"I look through Town Hall, Town Counsel, and the Board of Selectmen and none of the cuts are in personnel, it's all in operating," argued Sullivan.
Yet, Finance and Advisory Board Chairman Richard Gregario countered Sullivan by explaining that DelloRusso agreed to the reductions, which would make her ineligible for employee benefits and potentially save the town $7,000 in health insurance costs.
"The reason why the current employee does not wish to have health insurance is because she is covered under her husband," said Gregorio. "This position would in the future no longer require health insurance...it has a potential savings of $7,000. I know that sounds wrong, but we really need to reduce costs," he added.
While audience members appeared to accept the individual sacrifice that was being made by the secretary, they rejected the proposition that future employees would not have health care coverage.
"Taking away benefits and the options for health insurance is wrong...And to give an employee only nineteen hours so we don't have to give primarily women who need this health coverage is wrong," stated Stoneham resident Martha-Panther Buckley.
Requesting a vote for an amendment that would return the benefits to the position, town resident Marcia Wengen of 56 Washington St. suggested that $812 be shifted from personnel to operating costs, a motion passed by the crowd.
Perplexed by another expenditure in the budget, Stoneham resident Frank Pignone dismissed the idea that school officials were spending $30,000 for gasoline used during school hours.
"I noticed in perusing the school contracts that in there is $30,000 in money for [gasoline]. I'm asking what is that for? That's about 447,000 miles of travel," said Pignone. "What do they have a spaceship?" he asked.
Responding to Pignone by saying the money paid for travel that athletic directors, school principals, and school administrators make on a regular basis, Finance and Advisory Board member John Warren claimed that the reimbursements were standard business practice.
Furthering that all reimbursements must be documented by the individuals when they file yearly with the IRS, Warren told the audience that adequate protections were in place to avoid the mismanagement of funds. However, Pignone adamantly disagreed with Warren.
"That explanation of yours doesn't hold a lot of salt-water...If you have a contract that says in the language 'for reimbursement', there had better be a plan in place for accountability for the use of that gasoline," Pignone shot back, before introducing a unanswered bid to transfer $12,000 in gasoline reimbursement monies to fully fund the salaries of four traffic directors slated to be laid-off.
Before passing the primary budget article, the town meeting also approved the $1,051,000 use of the town's stabilization fund, monies that along with the town's water and sewer surpluses will be used to balance the remaining budget deficit.
While the stabilization article, number 16, passed with little debate, a few audience members felt that the town was draining too much in the wake of even larger budget holes in the upcoming years.
"I understand it's tough times, but I'm a little concerned about the rate of expenditures of this account...What took us eight years to save up, we're spending in six months," argued resident and former Selectman Darin Leahy.
"That bothers me. It's like if your boss calls you in and says you have to take a five-percent pay cut this year and you go to the bank and drain your savings account," Lahey added, before the assembly voted in favor of the rainy day fund's use.
In addition to using the stabilization fund as a budget-balancer, the town has also proposed utilizing approximately $950,000 in water and sewer surpluses. While the particular use of those funds will not be debated until next October's town meeting, two articles passed will allow the $950,000 to flow into free-cash accounts.
Articles 26 and 27, which propose to establish enterprise funds for water and sewer surpluses, passed in the town meeting along with seven other articles during a last-minute lightning session at the end of Thursday night's meeting.
Specifically, under these two articles, $350,000 of the $1.4 million in water and sewer surpluses will be placed in two accounts to offset future water and sewer costs. The remaining $1,050,000 not placed into the account will then flow into a general account before transferring to free cash in October.
Articles also included in that flash session were measures that would appropriate funds for several water and sewer construction projects, pay off the prior year's invoices, and provide funding for MWRA assessments.
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