It was candy for some, air kisses for others as the Finance Committee wrapped up its Valentine’s Day review of 18 requests for extra spending from town departments and committees.
In a session that lasted more than three hours, the committee rated eight requests for additional spending and 10 small warrant articles submitted by town departments earlier in the year.
Three spending requests were approved, three were partially funded, and two were denied (see Table 1 below). All but one of the requests came from the schools; the last was a Parks and Rec request for an unspecified amount to begin renovating town athletic fields. The approved requests add $62,490 to the level-service town budget that will be presented to Town Meeting on March 28.
Of 10 small warrant requests, the committee will recommend that eight be funded, adding another $149,792 above and beyond the omnibus budget in fiscal 2016 (see Table 2 below).
A penultimate gathering
All but one committee member was present for what has become one of FinCom’s penultimate gatherings. Finance Director Lorraine Leonard also attended as a nonvoting member. Outside, the temperature struggled to reach zero degrees Fahrenheit, but inside the discussion was warm, collegial, and focused, in spite of differences of opinion among members on some items.
Members used the same 10 criteria to rate both the spending and small warrant requests. The maximum conceivable score that could be assigned to a request was 264, though some of the criteria were mutually exclusive (a high score on one would result in a low score on another). The actual scores ranged from a low of 56 to a high of 184.
Three of the most highly rated requests have been mandated by the state. These provide money for a wellness instructor, occasional transport of students from Devens, and the cost of outfitting a new police officer (“I don’t want to see a policeman running around naked,” one member quipped). But small warrant article requests to pay a full-time planner and a part-time senior outreach worker also received high scores (see Tables 1 and 2 for details). Town Clerk Janet Vellante’s request for money to archive town documents received the lowest score of the day, on the argument that funds for the project were available from other sources.
Value versus funding
Two of the most discussed requests came from the schools, which had asked for money to employ a part-time music tutor for a second year and to increase the salary of technology coordinator and network manager Chris Boyle by $11,940 to better reflect the demands of his position. Committee members agreed that both positions had proved their worth. “The value of the position is not the question,” said Chairwoman Alice von Loesecke in reference to keeping a music tutor at Bromfield for a second year. “It’s a question of how it’s funded.” Should money for the position be added to the schools’ base budget, she asked, or should administrators look within that budget for the money they need? In the end, the committee decided to allocate $20,000 to the schools to help defray the cost of the two positions in the coming year.
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