Town boards vote to siphon savings
Published on October 13th, 2004
STONEHAM, MA - The town’s Finance Board and Board of Selectmen endorsed Town Administrator Ron Florino’s budget plan to utilize nearly $1.2 million in free cash at October Town Meeting last night.
Placing nothing into the town’s stabilization account, Florino told members of both boards that he tried his best to limit the amount of add-backs to municipal and town departments.
But with the town facing a $400,000 FY05 deficit alone for accounting mistakes and erroneous stabilization account withdrawals at last May’s Town Meeting, the Town Administrator saw no way to avoid spending virtually every available penny in the town’s free cash coffers.
Exacerbating the problem, Florino explained that “unrealistic” local receipt figures for FY05 demanded that he level end-of-the-year revenue projections — a correction carrying another $300,000 price tag.
“In essence, what I’m doing is replacing inflated local receipt numbers to make them more conservative,” said Florino. “We’re looking at a budget that’s already $285,000 out of balance and a $146,000 shortfall in the Fire Department that would require 4 additional layoffs [if it wasn’t addressed].”
While Florino’s proposal would add a combined $100,000 to the Fire and Police Department’s overtime budgets, the safety offices’ two chiefs warned that the limited add-backs fell far short of what was needed.
According to Police Chief Gregory O’Keefe, he would need at least $134,000 in additional funds to keep three officers on the street at all times.
“I don’t care if there’s not one call during a shift, you need three people on the street. Usually when your personnel account goes down, your overtime goes up. In this case, both went down,” said O’Keefe. “We’re trying to get blood out of a rock here and it’s only a matter of time before you get nothing.”
Arguing along the same lines, Fire Chief Lawrence Lamey said he would need at least $103,000 more to maintain the town’s participation in the MetroFire mutual aid system, fulfill contractual overtime obligations, and staff three pieces of fire apparatus with eight firefighters at all times.
“We’ve gambled and gambled and we’re winning the game. But what happens when we lose?” Lamey commented, adding that without the funds, the fire department would
operate with only one engine company 35 percent of the year. “It’s my job to stay within the budget. But I just point out to you the ramification of living within this budget. If it means more layoffs, I’ll do that.”
While Finance Board Chairman Richard Gregorio appealed for a compromise that would take $25,000 away from the $100,000 in additional funds promised to the schools, and another $25,000 from the $88,000 planned to be placed in the reserve account, Florino and the School Committee resisted the request.
Pointing to dropping MCAS scores over the past three-years, School Committee Chairwoman Cheryl Walsh and Superintendent Dr. Joseph Connelly argued that the schools had a dire need for every dollar earmarked for the school system.
“Obviously we sympathize with the Fire Department and all the boards here. But what we’re very much afraid of is some of the ripple effects we’re starting to see. For example, when the MCAS scores came out in 2002 we ranked fifth. In 2003 we were ranked sixth. And in 2004, we’re down to ninth. Where is that coming from? It’s the support staff we’ve lost, the positions we’ve lost,” said Walsh.
Taking Walsh’s argument a step further, Connelly warned that the school system could very well be placed on the state’s warning list next year if MCAS scores continued to drop.
“I don’t think it’s fair to this generation of children. This year we were not on that list because you need to have non-performing schools for two years. But potentially, next year we could be on that list,” the Superintendent remarked.
While several members of the Finance Board including Anne Mooney and Eric Rubin questioned whether all the town’s free cash should be spent given the difficulties facing the town in FY06, their attempt to vote down Florino’s proposal was stifled when Gregorio stepped down as Chairman to endorse the plan.
Offering their opposition after Florino explained that the town would see a FY06 deficit of at least $1 million and at most $2 million — leading to additional municipal layoffs — the Finance Board members questioned the sense of adding back positions when they would only be eliminated again the following year.
“I would like to see some of the numbers reworked. I’m not in favor of this,” said Rubin. “I don’t know how much damage control we’re going to be able to do between now and November. It’s tough to set us up for another big override next year.”
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