Monday, December 1, 2008

FINANCIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE September 18, 2008

FINANCIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE
September 18, 2008

The meeting was called to order at 7:03 pm by Vice Chair Doug Hardesty.

Members present:
Councilors Deborah Bartlett and Steve Whalen, Finance Committee member Rebecca
Cameron, School Committee Members, Roberta Trahan and Matt Kelley. Residents,
Doug Hardesty and Gwynne Wilschek.

Members not in attendance: Finance Chair Jim Roche and Councilor Shannon Zollo.

Town Administrator Jeff Nutting handed out a spreadsheet of the fiscal model and
reviewed the initial assumptions.

Fire Chief McCarraher presented his model for the department. He explained that his
model is based on response time and trends in the number of times the department
responds to emergencies in a given year. The model is based on a 4% growth rate, but
currently, the trends are flat so that his proposal could be moved out a few years.

He explained the attempted regionalization of dispatch and the barriers that prevented a
successful implementation. He also discussed staffing the department both in terms of
firefighting and ambulance calls. The ambulance produces about $700,000 a year in
revenue. $125,000 is set aside for ambulance replacement and the rest is turned over to
the general fund.

Police Chief Williams discussed his request for additional staffing that would return the
department to 2000 levels. The department has been able to “hold their own” with the use
of technology and the hard work of the staff. However, demand is increasing on all
fronts. Franklin’s staffing is well below comparative communities, as well as our per
capita spending on police. On any given shift, they can be shorthanded when an
emergency arises. They do belong to a regional police group for large-scale issues but
have insufficient staff for the daily demands on the department.

He requested two additional officers in FY 10 and on additional officer the following two
years.

Meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm

No comments:

Post a Comment