Board of Selectmen Budget Workshop Minutes of January 20, 2021 1
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Board of Selectmen Budget Workshop Minutes of January 20, 2021 MINUTES Town of Guilford, CT BOS Budget Workshops Wednesday, January 20, 2021, 9:00 am - 12:30 pm Zoom Meeting First Selectman Matt Hoey called the meeting to order at 9 a.m. Present: Board Members: Matthew Hoey, Susan Renner, Charles Havrda, Sandra Offredi and Louis Federici Town Officials: Jennifer Bernardo, Mitch Goldblatt, Maryjane Malavasi, Butch Hyatt, Rob McCoole, Barbara Hammarlund, Mark Larkins, Michael Ayles, Christopher Massey, Pamela Ellman, Robert Hartmann, Jonathan Trotta, Stephen Neydorff, Robert Welch, Karen Quercia, Clint Haverkampf, Janice Plaziak, Veronica Wallace. Joining the meeting in progress: Charles Herrschaft, Mike Shove, Ken Wilson, Jr. and Ken Gamerman 1. To meet with the following departments to discuss budget requests: 1. Assessor Assessor (Jennifer Bernardo) -.2 % or $425 decrease. Major changes include Reductions in printing and scanning and field work. Revenue - dropped down to $1,500 due to covid and smaller amount of traffic in the office. Ms. Renner said with regard to Education and training, last year it doubled and this year the request is level. Ms. Bernardo said it is because of changes in staffing. She needs two employees to go through education. She is hoping to get one person into two classes for one year, but covid put a damper on things. 2. Board of Assessment Appeals 1 Board of Selectmen Budget Workshop Minutes of January 20, 2021 Board of Assessment Appeals (Barbara Hammarlund): $25 or .6% increase in budget Only thing that increased is legal/advertising and public notice. Shore Publishing increased fees. Next revaluation for 2022, which means BOAA hearings would be March of 2023. The way the market has been lately, values have increased significantly. Depending on where market is there could be an influx of appeals. If the clerk to the board if works over certain number of hours she takes compensation time. If the get into the situation of 400-500 appeals, it becomes a great amount of work and if it came to that, there would not be enough hours to comp her time. Ms. Hammarlund said she would like the board to come up with a secondary scenario on how to handle that situation, possible reinstating a part-time salary. Mr. Hoey said this is something they need to consider, but it would be in the subsequent budgets. 3. Library Library (Rob McCoole): $1,813 or .2% increase He talked about a few things they were able to save. Allowing them to take a flexible approach with covid they were able to loan employees to other departments and saved about $50,000. He thanked the Friends of the Library and said he always warns there is going to be a year when they are not as successful. They brought in $75,000 less than previous year. He is asking for a modest increase in the book line and electronic materials line. Still saving on utilities so increase is not that large. Mr. Hoey said he appreciates the willingness of Mr. McCoole and his staff to continue to provide services during these times. Interactions with the public could put individuals health at risk, but he appreciated that they continue to maintain many of the services as possible. Mr. Trotta said some of the cost to maintain the roof got moved to another budget account and he asked how much. 2 Board of Selectmen Budget Workshop Minutes of January 20, 2021 Mr. McCoole said in the last few years it was $5,000 in capital. Last year it was moved into maintenance line. 4. Human Services Human Services (Pam Ellman): $21,000 or 23.4% increase Increase is due to the pandemic. They asked applicants how covid effected their ability to carry out missions and goals. Had 15 applicants this year. Guilford Before and After Care provided full day programs community center and church. Filled need for parents on days kids are distance learning. Fully support this request. Ken Gamerman joined at 9:23 a.m. Meals on Wheels despite increase in meals because of COVID did not ask for more funds. Serve100% Guilford residents and in addition to meal delivery, are a visual check in for residents. BH Care - Result of pandemic transitioned to telehealth for outpatient services. Were able to hold some in person appointments in summer, but have been scaled back because of increase in cases. Women and Family Life - Assists social service agencies in various towns in processing complex cases and provided covid fund. Ms. Ellman said all organizations tried to adapt to pandemic. They have never asked for an increase like the one this year, but this year has been like no other in the human services area. Mr. Hoey asked if these increases are related to covid activity, given the likelihood of the vaccine and widespread adoption before the expiration of the 2022 budget, he asked if they saw this as a temporary increase for these organizations. Ms. Ellman said they did see it as temporary. For example the Before and After Care is not like it was last spring now that elementary schools are back to four days. There may be fewer kids who need scholarships. Ms. Renner asked if the application process considers some of ways these organizations may have benefited from other covid resources. 3 Board of Selectmen Budget Workshop Minutes of January 20, 2021 Ms. Ellman said they asked if they received other covid resources. Most did not, but large ones like VNA did take advantage of it. Some don't have infrastructure or expertise in making the application. Mr. Havrda said maybe some volunteers would be willing to step in and help those organizations. Mr. Hartmann said he has done it on behalf of a number of charities. It behooves everyone to ask them and if they need help can find it for them. 5. Parks and Recreation The Parks and Recreation presentation has been moved to tomorrow. 6. Police Department/Municipal Animal Control Police Department/Municipal Animal Control (Butch Hyatt, Christopher Massey and Robert Welch): $85,954 or 1.7% increase in budget Chief Hyatt said he tried to keep the budget very close. Things that have impacted budget are covid and the police accountability bill. Most of the increases are related to either of those. Contractual salary increases. Civilian Salaries went down, lost a dispatcher and was replaced with lesser pay. Overtime also decreased, based on a three year average. Increase in Training Salaries line - Have some new personnel that need training. Sick Leave Exchange - Went down only a few people that still have that benefit. Education Benefits - Increase is contractually related. Utilities and Fuel is up slightly. Building Maintenance up slightly. Increase in Service Contracts - A couple of things added this year. Some contracts have gone up, have to do with IT and maintenance. Another area is the computerized fingerprint system provided by state. The state changed contractors this year. There is a service contract associated with it that the town has to pay for. They did add in money for a social media 4 Board of Selectmen Budget Workshop Minutes of January 20, 2021 archival service, takes screen shots of everything goes out and comes in. If there is an FOI request they can retrieve information. The cost is $4,500 a year. Increase in Health and Welfare - Impacted by police accountability bill. It requires at least one-fifth of department receive a mental health evaluation per year. For Guilford that is 8 people a year for about $300 a person. That will be every year going forward. Each officer is required to provide urinalysis. Prior to recertifying any police officer they need to take this which looks for drugs and steroids. Problem is there are so many steroids so the cost can range from $300 to $1,400 per person. They anticipate $300 to $500 per year, they will have 13 people per year. Increase in Operating Supplies - Food for MACO and two police canines. Also have vet fees. Medical Supplies line increased because of covid, they are going through gloves, masks, cleaning supplies, etc. Requesting reimbursement for some of the covid costs. Slight Increase in Computer Hardware - Refreshing hardware and desktops and buying a new server. Increase Training and Development - Try to have people in house that are trained as trainers. Equipment and items are needed for the training. Online training course is added in there, which provides ability to train people online in a number of areas. Increase in Vehicle Maintenance - Based on mileage and working with Public Works they are able to anticipate what is needed going forward. Revenue - Use a three year average. It has increased over the 2020-21 adopted budget, but is less than last year's estimate. Mr. Hoey asked if they already have a contract for the Social Media Archival Service. Chief Hyatt said this is in anticipation of that, but they are still discussing it. Mr. Hoey said he is entertaining a sales call regarding that for social media FOI requests and they should look at combining efforts. Mr. Hoey asked about the 20% increase on vehicle maintenance. Chief Hyatt said some numbers have increased because of age of vehicles, they have more maintenance schedules for older vehicles. They looked at 5 Board of Selectmen Budget Workshop Minutes of January 20, 2021 last several years of what we have done and asked Public Works what will need to be done in future. Towing costs have increased as well. Mr. Trotta said he was looking at vehicle maintenance line too. It is up to $52,000 from $31,000.