Corrected and updated January 18, 2019
Residents who switched their TVs from coverage of the national trainwreck in Washington to their HCTV local cable channel Tuesday night would have been treated to a calm deliberation in upper Town Hall as Select Board and Finance Committee members began their work on the fiscal 2020 budget.
There were no threats of a government shutdown as the leaders of five town agencies—the Council on Aging, the town clerk’s office, police, fire, and ambulance—took their places one after the other at a T-shaped conference table to answer questions about their requests for the coming fiscal year. It’s likely this is the last time these department heads will be asked to appear in front of either board before Town Administrator Tim Bragan and the Select Board deliver a final fiscal 2020 budget to the Finance Committee for its review in early February.
So far there have been few surprises. The Select Board published guidelines in October that require departments to submit budgets that include only the spending needed to maintain a department’s current level of service. The new merit-based pay system and new contracts approved by the 2018 Town Meeting have led to above average increases in the salaries of the town clerk, fire chief, and assistant town administrator, among others, due to a regrading of their positions. These increases, when combined with annual cost-of-living increases specified by current teacher and municipal employee contracts, limit the amounts departments can request for other expenditures, such as an increase in the cost of office supplies or new equipment for firefighters. The Select Board has asked departments to hold the total increase in their spending over the current fiscal year to 2.5 percent—and look for ways to reduce costs.
So far, the results have been mixed. Assistant Town Administrator Marie Sobalvarro said in an email Wednesday that the COA, clerk, and police are on budget. The Fire Department is somewhat over budget due to the chief’s new contract. And the ambulance service? Hard to tell, she said, given the unpredictability of its calls and fee collections.
A night of Q&As
At Tuesday night’s meeting, Select Board and Finance Committee members were able to question the department heads face to face about their plans. The five had already provided written answers to questions put to them last month by members of both boards, and now Select Board Chair Lucy Wallace walked attendees through them—21 responses for COA, 19 for police, fire, and ambulance, and one for the town clerk— asking her colleagues and FinCom members whether they were satisfied with the responses. Of the 70 answers, only a few sparked discussion, among them a pending request from the COA to purchase a second van, the current policy of the Harvard Ambulance Service not to bill residents for unreimbursed ambulance transport, and the acquisition of Tasers for police officers.
The COA has proposed purchasing a second van with private funds and in a warrant article this spring will ask taxpayers to pick up the annual tab for operating it. The request is not part of the COA’s operating budget and falls outside this year’s guidelines. But Select Board member Kara Minar was keen to propose the van be used in the morning and evening as a commuter van to ferry residents between town and the Littleton MBTA station. COA Director Debbie Thompson said her organization would consider the request, though the van would have to be ready to transport seniors who needed it by 8 a.m. each weekday morning.
Ambulance service Co-directors Jason Cotting and Will Stevenson were asked to explain why they did not bill residents for the amounts not paid for by their medical insurance. It’s a policy that’s at least 10 years old, they answered, an agreement worked out between the ambulance service and the Board of Selectmen and one that predates the era of higher medical insurance deductibles. It would be up to the Select Board to change the policy, they said. Cotting said the service currently bills a patient’s insurance company, Medicare, or MassHealth, but if the patient has a high deductible, the company may not pay anything and the town absorbs the cost. Ditto when a patient has no medical insurance. Town Administrator Tim Bragan said it was time to review the policy.
A request for Tasers
Although a plan to purchase Tasers was one of the smaller items in the fiscal 2020 police budget, it was the topic that raised the most questions (six) from Select Board and FinComm members. In their written questions, they asked the police chief how often his officers had used a Taser or discharged a gun in town. Chief Ed Denmark responded that the department does not yet have any Tasers and so has never used them. Moreover, the only time officers had needed to fire their guns was to put down an injured animal.
Denmark explained his request for Tasers by noting that about 25 percent of officer-involved shootings nationwide involve citizens with mental health problems. Taser training, he wrote, allows officers to resolve situations that might escalate to violence without resorting to their guns. “Failure for us to equip officers in a manner consistent with the current best practices is ill advised,” he concluded.
Denmark said the total cost of the Taser program, including equipment, maintenance, and training, would be $18,508 spread over fiscal years from now until 2025.
Other police budget items that FinCom and the Select Board discussed included the timing of cruiser purchases, police overtime, and the need to revise personnel expenses later this calendar year, as the current police contract expires at the end of June.
More to come
Tuesday’s meeting was the first of a series in which the Select Board and FinCom will jointly review the budgets of every town department. (See schedule below) The reviews will come to an end Feb. 11 when the Select Board must decide on a fiscal 2020 budget. The document then goes to FinCom for review. FinCom members have until March 18 to make their recommendations to the Select Board. The Select Board must then resolve any differences it has with the Finance Committee, vote on a final budget, and add it to the 2019 Town Meeting warrant.
Marty Green contributed to this story.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated. Two additional meetings were added to the list of upcoming budget review meetings.
