11/07/1989 FINANCE COMMITTEE Minutes

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Finance Committee Minutes November 7, 1989 Page 2. George Costa, Chairman of the Board of Health was present and asked to address the Finance Committee on the Board of Health Articles. The Selectmen proposed the creation of one 35-hour position that would be under the Selectmen's Account. This person would be a "floater", to be used 507. of the time in the Board of Health and 50% of the time in the Building Department. The Selectmen proposed that the Board of Health hire one 18-hour person part time. George informed the Committee that he had proposed an option to the Selectmen's position. George suggested that he increase his present 18-hour position to a 25-hour a week position and delete a new 18-hour person from the Board of Health and give that to the Building Department. The Town Accountant was present and she suggested having the person work 24 3/4 hours and then the person wouldn't have to participate in the pension fund. George was in agreement with this suggestion. He noted that his proposal would cost less than the Selectmen's proposal. George agreed to get new figures on his proposal to amend Article 24 to a 24 3/4 hour position. He would work up a motion. The figure he had originally presented to the Committee was $11,828, this however would be about 10% less when the pension money is removed. Ed Dolan noted that Article 20 would stand as it is written and would receive the support of the Finance Committee, even though the Selectmen j are not supporting this article at this time. Ed informed George that no official Finance Committee vote could be taken until the final draft of the i article is available. George Costa also asked to address the Finance Committee about dump stickers. At their meeting of October 24th the Finance Committee had rejected a Request for Transfer from the Reserve Account in the amount of $1,000 for dump stickers. George stressed that in the past these stickers had been purchased by the DPW, however in 1989 the BOH paid for them. Neither Department had put them in this year's budget. Jim Vaccaro motioned for reconsideration and approval of this Request, Carl Heller seconded this motion and all Finance Committee members agreed to the motion. The Personnel Board addressed the Finance Committee regarding a benefits package for part-time employees. After reviewing the proposed benefits, Committee members agreed that they felt that it needed to be reworked because there were no provisions for those individuals in the wage account. The Town Accountant took exception to the proposal stating that if Board Secretaries were to be covered, wage employees should also be covered by the benefit proposal. Board Secretary salaries come from wage money. Marilyn noted that the problem here is that Board Secretary positions are created by town meeting wage positions are not, thus nothing would be relegated for temporary personnel in the wage account. Members discussed that perhaps wage account people should be made permanent part-time- employees. The wage account was to hire people for peak-periods, it was to be flexible tool and not to be used for a consistent position. Committee members agreed there was a need to assess their the position on the wage account and classification of positions. Members were in agreement that Article 10 should be indefinitely postponed. The Finance Committee made note that there was $808,000 in Free Cash. Jim Vaccaro stated that he would like a figure that the Finance Committee would want to keep from Free Cash prior to consideration of the Warrant. The town currently has $130,000 in the stabilization fund. There is a need to save approximately $500,000 to pay back to state. The total of the warrant articles is $318,714.68.