Months of frustration came to an end this week as town officials and the Parks and Recreation Commission agreed to a formula that promises to make the summer beach program financially self-sufficient, eliminating the deficits that have threatened its future for the past two years.
By unanimous vote Tuesday night, the five Parks and Rec commissioners voted to continue paying for lifeguards, swim instructors, and other beach expenses with the fees it collects from the sale of parking stickers, swimming and boating lessons, and storage rentals. A Town Meeting warrant article that would have asked taxpayers to pay the salaries of beach personnel has been withdrawn. Instead, the commissioners will increase fees for swim lessons and canoe and kayak storage to ensure their revenues can cover costs. And finally, the town will create a new beach-only revolving fund that will allow the commission to maintain a balance from one fiscal year to the next.
The result? A safe beach, staffed with trained lifeguards and instructors, and alive with morning classes and recreational swimmers and boaters. Beach users will have to pay 25 percent more for kayak and canoe storage and 50 percent more for swimming lessons (see table), but the amounts remain modest compared to those charged by other towns. By not asking the 2019 Annual Town Meeting to pay for lifeguards, the amount of the request, $28,000, is now available to balance other parts of the fiscal 2020 annual budget. The switch to a new beach-only fund requires the approval of Town Meeting in May.
“It’s a risk, but one worth taking,” said new commissioner and treasurer Michelle Lauria, summing up the hour-long Monday night debate. With a revolving fund, she said, the commission would continue to have complete control of its spending and could accumulate extra money for the purchase of boats and equipment without asking taxpayers for money. The risk, Lauria said, was that beach fees would not cover expenses, but if that happened, the commission could return to Town Meeting next year and ask for taxpayer help.
A change of heart
The new arrangement reverses the stance adopted by the commission earlier this year. While the town already pays for a beach director and appropriates money each year for beach and field maintenance, the commission has found itself operating at a deficit for the past two years. A July 2018 review of commission operations recommended that lifeguards be paid by the town and that the commission consider raising its fees. At a January meeting commissioners voted to adopt the first option and submitted a warrant article to the Select Board asking Town Meeting to approve $28,000 to pay for beach safety personnel.
Several factors contributed to the commissioners’ change of heart. First, a fresh report compiled this year by Town Administrator Tim Bragan showed that when beach revenues and expenses were separated from other commission activity, the program had ended the 2018 calendar year with a surplus of $9,000, in contrast to an estimated $6,000 deficit reported in July 2018. In reviewing fees collected for the entire 2018 summer season, commissioner Bob O’Shea found that by increasing a few beach fees, the $6,000 deficit could be eliminated, as long as money in the account was not swept at the end of the fiscal year.
It so happens that the Municipal Modernization Act of 2016 makes such sweep-free accounts possible, a change motivated by problems experienced by Parks and Rec commissions throughout the state, Bragan told the Press this week. The act amends a chapter of Massachusetts General Law to allow the creation of revolving funds for specific departmental programs, such as a beach program. The town must set a cap for such a fund each year and the controlling board cannot spend more than it receives, but the account can carry a balance from one fiscal year to the next without its cash being swept into town coffers. With a thumbs up from Parks and Rec, Bragan has drafted a warrant article that would amend Harvard’s bylaws to create a beach fund. Voters will decide its fate in six weeks.
A self-sustaining program
O’Shea estimates the cost of the beach program is $56,000 per year, an amount he believes can be raised by the fees the commission collects for parking, storage, rentals, and classes. He has recommended, however, that the fund be capped at $65,000 for fiscal 2020 to allow the accumulation of a surplus, money that could be used to purchase new sailboats and other equipment for program activities.
Arguably, the new arrangement is not new at all. Parks and Rec has always paid for beach programs with its fees and collected that money in a revolving fund, but a decision made by then Finance Director Lorraine Leonard two years ago to sweep the fund at fiscal year-end created a deficit that the commission has not been able to erase. Revolving funds are not permitted by state law to spend more than they receive, and last spring then Finance Director David Nalchajian threatened to shut down the beach program until the commission eliminated its shortfall.
Fragmented methods and responsibilities for collecting and recording fees have always made it difficult to track beach finances, but moving to an online payment system last year appears to have eliminated those problems. And while creation of a new beach-specific revolving fund will eliminate the dreaded annual sweep, that’s a change that could have been made two years ago.
