A Feb. 24 story in the Harvard Press (“FinCom recommends cut to planner budget”) asserts that the Finance Committee cut the Planning Board budget for the fiscal 2018 town planner contract by 33 percent. This article could more appropriately have been titled “FinCom recommends not overspending on the town planner contract by 50 percent.” It is not the role of the Finance Committee (FinCom) to decide how departments and committees spend their budget dollars, unless they are asking to spend more than a requested level-service budget. It is our role, as an oversight committee, to recommend appropriate funding sources and to provide fiduciary oversight to make sure our tax dollars are spent efficiently and effectively. Town Meeting ultimately decides what gets funded.
The history of the town planner contract goes back to the Planning Board’s (PB) initial request in 2013 to establish the contracted position for fiscal 2014. Following is a brief summary of this contract over time:
Fiscal 2014
PB requests a contracted town planner. FinCom recommends $40,000 for the contract; PB supplements that amount with $20,000 of Master Plan funds and contracts a 20-hours-per-week position at $60 per hour.
Fiscal 2015
PB requests $60,000 to contract the position. FinCom, after much discussion and given the pressing need to finalize the Master Plan, agrees to $60,000 for the contract, but asks the PB to consider a salaried part-time (20 hours) position as a better means to funding.
Fiscal 2016
PB again requests $60,000 for a contractor for 20 hours per week. Given that the Master Plan Steering Committee (which I was a liaison to) was highly unsatisfied with the consultants contracted to write the plan and ultimately fired them, it was clear the town planner was going to be heavily involved in its completion. FinCom agreed to fund at $60,000 to retain a consistent contractor, but reiterated the desire to move toward a salaried 20-hours-per-week position.
During 2016
The PB submits a planner job description to the Personnel Board. Salary research by the assistant town administrator of full-time (40 hours per week) planners finds an upper-end salary range of $65,000 to $82,000 in towns with populations under 10,000. The highest end of this range equates to $41 per hour (about $48 per hour including benefits) for planners, many of whom have community development and supervisory responsibilities, neither of which are included in the PB job description. The Personnel Board rated the position at grade VII ($24.56 to $30 per hour or $51,275 to $62,643 annually) for a full-time (40 hours) position.
Fiscal 2017
PB again requests $60,000 for a 20-hours-per-week contract rather than a salaried position. FinCom, understanding that the Master Plan is nearly completed, votes to go back to the original $40,000 contract rate, more in line with the market rate of similar-sized surrounding towns. After meeting with the Planning Board, we all agreed to keep the same hourly rate ($40) but extend the hours contracted to 25 hours, for a total contract rate of $52,000. At the warrant vote on Town Meeting floor, a motion was made to increase this to $60,000 ($48 per hour), and although FinCom reiterated its reasons for keeping to the mutually agreed-upon rate, the motion passed.
This year the Planning Board is once again requesting a contracted planner at the $60,000 rate for 25 hours per week. We reviewed the invoices submitted by the contractor to date for fiscal 2017 and found that he averaged 20 hours per week. FinCom voted to recommend the original $40,000, which represents a prevailing market rate for a 20-hours-per-week position, and once again encouraged the Planning Board to move toward a salaried 20-hours-per-week position that we feel, even with benefits, would be a more fiscally sound way to fund this clearly needed position.
Don Ludwig is chairman of the Finance Committee.
