Town Council approves FY 24 budget after 9 hours over 2 nights, plan for schools to get $700K more (audio)

FM #1000 = This is the Franklin Matters radio show, number 1000 in the series. 

This session of the radio show shares the Town Council meeting held in Council Chambers on Thursday, May 25, 2023. All 9 members of the Council were present in the Council Chambers.

The first budget hearing did not complete on Wednesday evening, so Thursday's session opens to complete the first hearing and then starts the second hearing. When the second hearing completes, the legislation for action commences to record the various approvals as noted below.

Quick recap

• Police to add to their staff to alleviate a scheduling issue that should help reduce the overtime cost and help moral by reducing the amount of forced overtime

• Fire to add to their staff to help provide a third ambulance for coverage during four days of peak call volume. The staff increase is partially offset by additional ambulance revenues

• Senior Center gets approval for a van driver for half the year as a step towards full time 

• Town administration gets approval for a shift from an assistant town administrator to a Deputy Administrator along with a half year funding for an Arts & Culture Director

• The Franklin school budget gets an increase of approximately $700K over the $1.1m initially allocated. These funds will be part of a two resolution vote being scheduled for the June 7 Council meeting. 24 school personnel positions were cut this week by the School District to meet their expected budget shortfall of over $2M. Some of those are due to the continued declining enrollment, some of those can be restored with the additional funds being allocated. As was made clear a few times during the hearings, the Town Council only provides a line item of funding to the Schools. The School district and School Committee have the full responsibility for choices on how that money is spent

• The Joint Budget Subcommittee will begin meeting (schedule TBD) to work on a strategic plan to address the systemic issues across both the Town and Schools budget requirements. There was consensus on increasing the revenue. Some of the increase can come from a variety of measures (storm water fee, sewer rate increase, zoning changes to increase density, etc.) as well as consideration of a possible override ballot question. In order to get to the override question, the amount of increased revenue (i.e. property taxes revenue) needs to be explored and agreed to put before the taxpayers for their approval. There are already a number of increases planned (or expected) and that needs to be part of the consideration.

Planned

• storm water begins July 1, 2023

• sewer rate increase for next three years beginning July 1, 2023 to pay for the Beaver St interceptor replacement. Construction along RT 140 begins later this year

• possible debt exclusion for Tri-County RVTHS building replacement (amount expected in Aug 2023, vote anticipated in Oct 2023)

Expected

• water rate increase to pay for PFAS mitigations

• potential debt exclusion for renovation of Davis Thayer (DT) for town use (to make it ADA accessible). Decision on potential use anticipated by Dec 2023 from subcommittee appointed to determine recommendations

• potential debt exclusion for new Police station or renovation of existing, committee appointed and soon to begin work on this; their work will include the DT decision as applicable

• potential operational override to address systemic revenue issues

The recording runs about 3 hours and 42 minutes. Let’s listen to the Town Council meeting on May 25, 2023.  Audio file -> https://franklin-ma-matters.captivate.fm/episode/fm-1000-town-council-fy-24-budget-hearing-2-05-25-23

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The full agenda and documents associated with it can be found online ->    https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif10036/f/agendas/may_25_2023_town_council_agenda_1.pdf

The Fy 2024 budget document folder ->

https://www.franklinma.gov/town-budget/webforms/fy-24-budget-materials 

The Franklin TV video replay for both sessions is available

• Wednesday -> https://www.youtube.com/live/P5MzuZ7r7gA?feature=share 

• Thursday -> https://www.youtube.com/live/BLXhaMDHJDk?feature=share 

My Twitter notes captured during the meetings can be found here

• Wednesday ->   https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hmk9G_oo0RXsmkV0KOiHADAXXgXbNGxk/view?usp=drive_link 

• Thursday ->   https://drive.google.com/file/d/1haEf0ELqCsOMNlz0labwYxe8yBtqsoN9/view?usp=drive_link 

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We are now producing this in collaboration with Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm) or 102.9 on the Franklin area radio dial.  

This podcast is my public service effort for Franklin but we can't do it alone. We can always use your help.

 

How can you help?

• If you can use the information that you find here, please tell your friends and neighbors

• If you don't like something here, please let me know

Through this feedback loop we can continue to make improvements. I thank you for listening.

For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.org/ or www.franklin.news/

If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com

The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana"  c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission.

I hope you enjoy!

------------------

You can also subscribe and listen to Franklin Matters audio on iTunes or your favorite podcast app; search in "podcasts" for "Franklin Matters"

Town Council approves FY 24 budget after 9 hours over 2 nights, plan for schools to get $700K more (audio)

Town Council approves FY 24 budget after 9 hours over 2 nights, plan for schools to get $700K more (video)

The Franklin Town Council held their two public hearing on the FY 2024 budget this week spending 5 hours Wednesday and almost 4 hours on Thursday to get inside the requests understanding the cost drivers and revenue restrictions creating hard choices for the total $150 million budget.

Quick summary of the outcome and budget choices approved:

• Police to add to their staff to alleviate a scheduling issue that should help reduce the overtime cost and help moral by reducing the amount of forced overtime
• Fire adding to their staff to help provide a third ambulance for coverage during four days of peak call volume. The staff increase is partially offset by additional ambulance revenues
• Senior Center gets approval for a van driver for half the year as a step towards fulltime
• Town administration gets approval for a shift from an assistant town administrator to a Deputy Administrator along with a half year funding for an Arts & Culture Director
• The Franklin school budget gets an increase of approximately $700K over the $1.1m initially allocated. These funds will be part of a two resolution vote being scheduled for the June 7 Council meeting. 24 school personnel positions were cut this week by the School District to meet their expected budget shortfall of over $2M. Some of those are due to the continued declining enrollment, some of those can be restored with the additional funds being allocated. As was made clear a few times during the hearings, the Town Council only provides a line item of funding to the Schools. The School district and School Committee have the full responsibility for choices on how that money is spent
• The Joint Budget Subcommittee will begin meeting (schedule TBD) to work on a strategic plan to address the systemic issues across both the Town and Schools budget requirements. There was consensus on increasing the revenue. Some of the increase can come from a variety of measures (storm water fee, sewer rate increase, zoning changes to increase density, etc.) as well as consideration of a possible override ballot question. In order to get to the override question, the amount of increased revenue (i.e. property taxes revenue) needs to be explored and agreed to put before the taxpayers for their approval. There are already a number of increases planned (or expected) and that needs to be part of the consideration.
• Planned
• storm water begins July 1, 2023
• sewer rate increase for next three years beginning July 1, 2023 to pay for the Beaver St interceptor replacement. Construction along RT 140 begins later this year
• possible debt exclusion for Tri-County RVTHS building replacement (amount expected in Aug 2023, vote anticipated in Oct 2023)
• Expected
• water rate increase to pay for PFAS mitigations
• potential debt exclusion for renovation of Davis Thayer (DT) for town use (to make it ADA accessible). Decision on potential use anticipated by Dec 2023 from subcommittee appointed to determine recommendations
• potential debt exclusion for new Police station or renovation of existing, committee appointed and soon to begin work on this; their work will include the DT decision as applicable
• potential operational override to address systemic revenue issues

The Franklin TV video replay for both sessions is available

• Wednesday -> https://www.youtube.com/live/P5MzuZ7r7gA?feature=share
• Thursday -> https://www.youtube.com/live/BLXhaMDHJDk?feature=share

My Twitter notes captured during the meetings can be found here

• Wednesday ->   https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hmk9G_oo0RXsmkV0KOiHADAXXgXbNGxk/view?usp=drive_link
• Thursday ->   https://drive.google.com/file/d/1haEf0ELqCsOMNlz0labwYxe8yBtqsoN9/view?usp=drive_link

The audio recording and expanded notes will be available in a couple of days

• Franklin TV recording of Wednesday's session

 

•  Franklin TV recording of Thursday's session

   

Town Council approves FY 24 budget after 9 hours over 2 nights

Override & debt exclusion info in the archives

Now that the "O" word (override) has been mentioned, there is a bunch of information in these  archives that may be useful to provide the historical perspective. 

Long time readers may recall that Franklin Matters came to be during the 2007 override and the domain officially was born in Nov 2007. 

The 2007 Override is noteworthy as it is the only successful override Franklin has passed in its history to date. It passed because there was unified support across the Town Council and School Committee. The succeeding overrides (2008 & 2010) failed because that unity did not exist. Some naysayers among the Council and School Committee created enough doubt and discord that success was unattainable. 

There also was a special ballot question on the State election of 2014 to provide $1.5 million to fund road maintenance that failed significantly. As it was a Sate election, Franklin turned out at 59% (normal for State elections) and 8289 voters said No, 3583 said Yes. https://www.franklinmatters.org/2014/10/ballot-question-5-dedicated-override-to.html

Coming out of the 2008 override failure there was recognition that a long term financial plan needed to be developed. A committee was created and began work on that in early 2010. The Financial Planning Committee changed to the Long Range Planning Committee. The first report they produced is now what we see each year when the Town Administrator publishes their 5 year outlook.

The Joint Budget Committee is the current working group to help with these long range and financial planning matters. They have not met frequently enough so we find ourselves now in a position where some folks understand the situation and many do not. The Joint Budget should meet more frequently (at least quarterly, in my view) rather than the annual meeting they have had in recent years.

The archive has links to collect the information pasted for each of the elections. 

• Franklin Override - 2007
• Franklin Override - 2008
• Franklin Override - 2010

There is also a spreadsheet with the specific ballot question history for both the debt exclusions (i.e. schools) and override votes. 

• Franklin Override - Debt Exclusion Vote History

Some of the links break as the Town and School pages were updated twice since then (and neither upgrade maintained link integrity). 

If you find a link that might be valuable for your research, let me know, I might have the individual document in my own archives and can find and update the link accordingly.

Additional archive links can be found in the Key Link tab https://www.franklinmatters.org/p/important-links.html

Lincoln St road work during Aug 2014

the budget season, Franklin's quality of life, and more are discussed in this episode of Talk Franklin (audio)

FM #997 = This is the Franklin Matters radio show, number 997 in the series. 

This session of the radio show shares my "Talk Franklin" session with Town Administrator Jamie Hellen. We had our conversation via Zoom on Thursday, May 11, 2023.  

Topics for this session

Budget season  FY 2024

Finance Committee budget hearings held May 8, 10, & 11

Town Council hearings scheduled for May 24 & 25

Quality of life

Town role vs community role for “O” (override) word

The recording runs about 27 minutes. Let’s listen to my conversation with Jamie on Thursday, May 11, 2023

Audio file -> https://franklin-ma-matters.captivate.fm/episode/fm-997-talk-franklin-05-11-23

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Town FY 2024 budget page -> https://www.franklinma.gov/town-budget/webforms/fy-24-budget-materials 

Town Administrator page -> https://www.franklinma.gov/administrator

Talk Franklin podcast page -> https://anchor.fm/letstalkfranklin 

--------------

We are now producing this in collaboration with Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm) or 102.9 on the Franklin area radio dial.  

This podcast is my public service effort for Franklin but we can't do it alone. We can always use your help.

How can you help?

• If you can use the information that you find here, please tell your friends and neighbors

• If you don't like something here, please let me know

Through this feedback loop we can continue to make improvements. I thank you for listening.

For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.org/ or www.franklin.news/

If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com

The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana"  c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission.

I hope you enjoy!

------------------

You can also subscribe and listen to Franklin Matters audio on iTunes or your favorite podcast app; search in "podcasts" for "Franklin Matters"

the budget season, Franklin's quality of life, and more are discussed in this episode of Talk Franklin (audio)

Finance Cmte completes FY 2024 budget hearing series, approves it as proposed, TA Hellen indicates possible additions for School's budget in summer (audio)

FM #996 = This is the Franklin Matters radio show, number 996 in the series. 

This session of the radio show shares the Finance Committee meeting and last of three budget hearings for the FY 2024 budget year. The meeting was held on Thursday, May 11, 2023. 

Eight members of the Finance Committee participated (1 absent - Koke); 6 present in the Council Chambers, 2 remote. Town Administrator Jamie Hellen, Comptroller Chris Sandini, Treasurer/Collector Kerri Bertone. 

Quick recap:

• Police Chief TJ Lynch lays out the case for adding four officers to the total to address systemic issues with the schedule and to reduce overtime that results from it

• Ideally, he would add a minimum of 2 more (to remove the ‘bad’ shift remaining), along with 2 more dedicated to traffic control 

• Fire Chief James McLaughlin makes the case for adding 2, 1 EMS Captain, and 1 firefighter/paramedic. This would be an interim step towards enabling a 3rd ambulance. Calls for 2022 exceeded 5,000 for the first time, 2023 on pace to exceed that total. 44% of the calls result in a patient transport to the hospital. 

• These two would be positioned at the downtown station, and during their normal 5 day shift could respond as a third ambulance. To bring on a full time 3rd ambulance for all shifts requires staffing of 10 (8 more than these 2)

• Gary Primo, Metacomet Emergency Call Center (MECC), provides the regional dispatch function for 6 communities. Potential for more growth, expanding within their existing footprint to provide the space for that. It will take time to negotiation with the other communities to jin, as well as time to set up the connections for implementation.

• Gus Brown, Building Inspector, minor adjustments to the budget, actually doing better than a couple of years ago (after restructuring) 

• Committee vote 8-0-1 (1 absent, Koke) to approve the budget and enterprise funds as proposed. 

• Town Administrator Jamie Hellen then outlined the possible addition of approx. $800K to the school budget. He would wait until the State budget is finalized this summer (July/Aug) before doing so to ensure the funding as proposed is possible. Desire is to get the funding to the Schools before September. 

• Question unanswered is what the Schools will be able to do without a confirmation of their additional $800K funding? Would they still need to make the cuts and then adjust during the summer (assuming the additions did happen)?

The meeting recording runs about an hour and 40 minutes, so let’s listen to the Finance Committee meeting May 11, 2023.

Audio file -> https://franklin-ma-matters.captivate.fm/episode/fm-996-finance-cmte-budget-hearing-3-05-11-23

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Meeting agenda document ->   

https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif10036/f/agendas/may_11th_fin_com_agenda.pdf 

FY 2024 budget information -> https://www.franklinma.gov/town-budget/webforms/fy-24-budget-materials 

Jamie's slides with the plan for "next steps" for the School budget (presentation to be put on the Town page, in meantime, here are photo captures) ->   https://photos.app.goo.gl/dMZ92X98eWdrABoS9

Franklin TV YouTube link -> https://www.youtube.com/live/cAvlHmmmccQ?feature=share

FY24 Town Administrator Budget Materials website  ->  https://www.franklinma.gov/town-budget/webforms/fy-24-budget-materials

My notes can be found in one PDF ->   https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ByHzZZz4KS0i985Vf4ncWVnJE8d3j7iu/view?usp=share_link

Link to Finance Committee => https://www.franklinma.gov/finance-committee 

--------------

We are now producing this in collaboration with Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm) or 102.9 on the Franklin area radio dial.  

This podcast is my public service effort for Franklin but we can't do it alone. We can always use your help.

 

How can you help?

• If you can use the information that you find here, please tell your friends and neighbors

• If you don't like something here, please let me know

Through this feedback loop we can continue to make improvements. I thank you for listening.

For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.org/ or www.franklin.news/

If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com

The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana"  c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission.

I hope you enjoy!

------------------

You can also subscribe and listen to Franklin Matters audio on iTunes or your favorite podcast app; search in "podcasts" for "Franklin Matters"

TA Hellen indicates possible additions for School's budget in summer - p1 

TA Hellen indicates possible additions for School's budget in summer - p2

Inside the Town of Franklin Budget Cycle & Financial Terms (audio)

This shares my conversation with Town of Franklin Finance Director/Comptroller Chris Sandini and Treasurer/Collector Kerri Bertone. We had this conversation in the Franklin studio on Thursday, April 14, 2022.  

We cover the following key topics

A typical day for Finance Director/Comptroller

A typical day for Treasurer//Collector

The budget cycle, and fiscal year (July to June)

Three financial years; past, current, and future all in the mix

Our conversation runs about 62 minutes. Links to the documents referenced during this meeting are included in the show notes.  Let’s listen to this recording of my conversation with Kerri and Chris. 

Audio file -> https://franklin-ma-matters.captivate.fm/episode/fm-780-town-of-franklin-budget-cycle-finance-terms-04-14-22

Note: the one change since we recorded this, the Town did achieve the AAA bond rating we talked of some day getting in this session. The Town was notified one month later.

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Town of Franklin budget page -> https://www.franklinma.gov/town-budget 

Budget process flow chart -> https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif6896/f/uploads/new_budget_process.pdf 

MA Division of Local Services (DLS) Municipal Finance Glossary -> https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2016/08/qc/dlsmfgl.pdf 

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Town of Franklin budget cycle