The selectmen this week adopted five strategic goals for the coming fiscal year, buttressed by a series of actions that BOS Vice Chairman Bill Johnson likes to call “smart goals,” goals that are achievable with outcomes that are measurable.
High on the list are moves by the board to reduce the town’s structural deficit—an annual estimated difference of $200,000 between town revenues and expenses—in coming years and to encourage town committees, boards, and departments to submit five-year plans with their budgets so the town can do a better job of planning for large capital outlays. The BOS must also oversee work on two large projects—the town center sewer, likely to get under way sometime in August, as well as the renovation of Town Hall and Hildreth House, and the long-term disposition of the old library.
Finally, the selectmen, working with Town Administrator Tim Bragan, have identified several ways to improve the efficiency of town operations, ranging from the appointment of a facilities manager to oversee maintenance of Harvard’s schools and other municipal buildings, to identification of town transactions—such as annual payment of a Transfer Station fee—that could be handled online, without a trip to Town Hall.
The list was approved unanimously by the BOS. Next step is to assign each listed action to a BOS member. Here’s the complete list:
1. Initiate joint goal-setting
- Initiate and lead the process to encourage long-range integrated joint planning for departments, boards, and committees
- Integrate budget process and reporting (with Finance Committee, School Committee, and Capital Committee)
2. Address the structural deficit
- Engage in comprehensive fee and rate review
- Explore enterprise fund mechanism for Transfer Station and other entities, and resolve by 2012 Annual Town Meeting (ATM)
- Pursue regionalization efforts, inclusive of, but not limited to, JBOS
- Evaluate current and prospective tax-deferral and tax-offset programs for seniors
- Support other financing mechanisms and initiatives for fiscal 2012 (e.g., possible Community Preservation Act surcharge change; dedicated sustainable funding source for capital fund)
3. Coordinate sewer implementation
- Coordinate implementation activities to streamline the process and minimize disruption, in conjunction with existing sewer committees and affected departments and committees (e.g., DPW, School), and residents (inside and outside the district).
4. Advance municipal buildings initiative
- Establish building committee (or committees) to complete schematic design process by 2012 ATM, with agreed-upon integration points with selectmen and financing committees.
- Develop disposition plan for old library
5. Continuously improve town operations
- Create and fill a town facilities manager position and charge it with development of a townwide facilities management strategy
- Prioritize DOR/DLS recommendations and establish implementation timetable
- Establish document management, retention, and online access strategy for property, financial, and legal documents; price and select document management program(s) for fiscal 2013 purchase
- Review Town Hall transactions to determine which should be offered via online processing to increase efficiency and resident convenience.
