Saturday, August 29, 2015

The archives come in handy

A question on a Facebook forum on "why the 'general government' line item in the budget for FY 2009 grew about $6M over the prior year?" was one I thought I could answer. I recalled the discussion about moving the Facilities budget from the School side of the ledger to the Town side.

Why the Schools were managing all the Town's facilities (buildings) did not make much sense either then or now.  It had been the way. It got changed in FY 2009. Management of the school custodians moved from the School to the DPW. The line item in the budget moved from the Schools to the Town and has been there relatively unchanged since.

One oddity remains in that while the Town in their budget has all the facilities, the personnel, and the expenses for the maintenance; the one piece that the School budget retains is the Facility Director position and associated salary. It is not good or bad. It is. As long as it is properly accounted for (and it is), then it is okay.

Anyway, part of the answer to the question was found in the budget workshop held in January 2010 which I had recorded. Each recorded segment has links for the associated documents that are referenced. Spend a couple of hours and walk through an explanation of the entire Franklin budget both Town and School including the debt management, stabilization funds, water and sewer operating accounts... The story is all there.

How relevant is it? Well, some of the numbers may have changed since 2010 but the funding model is still the same. The cost drivers are generally still the same. 

So step back in time to learn a whole lot that still matters today.

You can find the 2010 posting here but I have re-copied it here to make it easier for you.

Enjoy!


*****

Franklin held conducted a budget workshop on Monday, Jan 25, 2010.  This is the collection of live reporting and audio recordings from the workshop.


Live reporting from the workshop can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/live-reporting-special-meeting-budget.html

and here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/live-reporting-budget-workshop.html


Parts 1 through 4 cover the Town portion of the budget with Jeff Nutting, Susan Gagner and Jim Dacey leading the discussion.

Part 1 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/fm-budget-workshop-12510-part-1.html

Part 2 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/02/fm-budget-workshop-part-2-12510.html

Part 3 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/02/fm-budget-workshop-part-3-12510.html 

Part 4 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/02/fm-budget-workshop-part-4-1252010.html


Parts 5 through 8 cover the Schools portion of the budget with Maureen Sabolinski, Miriam Goodman, Sally Winslow, and Beth Fitzmaurice leading the discussion.

Part 5 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/02/fm-budget-workshop-part-5-12510.html


Part 6 of the workshop recording can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/02/fm-budget-workshop-part-6-12510.html

Part 7 of the workshop recording can be found here

Part 8 of the workshop recording can be found here

In Part 9, Jeff Nutting provides some closing remarks and Bob Richer (citizen at large) provides some good feedback on the session.

The final segment, Part 9 of the workshop recording, can be found here

Also from Jan 2010 - The Davis Thayer scoreboard was redone
Also from Jan 2010 - The Davis Thayer scoreboard was redone by Glenn Jones


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