Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Live reporting - Planning and Community Development

Planning and Community Development
Bryan Taberner

Nutting provides an overview
Secured 200,000 grant to clean up the Nustyle building
Secured the 100,000 grant to put solar on the Parmenter School (90,000 - Town kicks in 10,000)

Open Space plan completed
Technical Review Committee
Planner
Conservation agent

Taberner
down a half of a clerical person
almost 8% of total work hours, work still gets down but it gets shifted around

Beth Dahlstrom primary focus on planning and processing of planning items

Downtown improvement project is underway, requires quarterly reports
EPA and brownfields reporting
Taberner managing half time on economic development and half on grants

Cataldo- Question on how the income from grants balances the department expenses
Grant income far exceeds the department expenses, a great return on investment

Rivera - question on the economy and problems and how it reflects on the Town
Taberner - the Nustyle property will be good to get cleaned up and returned to the tax rolls, I work on the economic opportunity areas, attracts new business. Biotechnology bylaws streamlined to enhance the process to attract businesses. Marketing of Franklin area as business friendly.

Quinn - what is the status of the Downtown revitalization project?
Taberner - we have two grant, one $5 million Federal and one $1 million. A presentation is scheduled for Wednesday May 12th in the Municipal Bldg

About a total $7 and a quarter million project, downtown all the way out to the Brick School
Emmons, Dean, etc.

If all goes according to plan, the downtown would go back to two way traffic, with lights, etc.
Construction expected late 2012 or 2013

Motion to approve, passed 9-0


Franklin, MA

Live reporting - Elections

Elections
Debbie Pellegri

budget is up, election workers salary is slightly increased
programming for the election, even for the override (at just one question) they charge by the line
have a special machine for the handicap, was given us but the programming for the election is expensive and it hasn't been used for the last four years.

printing service, street lists, all necessary documents required by general law
cost to do the census, $6500

Steve Sherlock had a question on whether the senior work out program was used for elections, it is not.

motion to approve, passed 9-0




Franklin, MA

Live reporting - Town Clerk

Town Clerk
Debbie Pellegri

lost one full time due to retirement, switched the position to two part-time positions
which also saves on benefits

Pretty stable budget
binding of all the records, microfiche
cost of cartridges (i.e. printing)

Nutting
Several years ago, took on passport processing to generate additional revenue for the Town
98% of this budget is required by law

Pellegri
When the Board of Health agents are not available, the Town Clerks office steps up to help cover

What other professional services are used?
The code book is kept up to date, the consulting company actually does the printing, etc. for us
It is not really a consulting company more printing and legal review

Motion to approve - $70,770
passed 9-0


Motion to approve - $44,863
passed 9-0

Motion to approve - $13,800
passed 9-0



Franklin, MA

Live reporting - Board of Assessors

Board of Assessors
Kevin Doyle

Nutting provides an overview
This is a real success story of efficiency and effectiveness, online access
Bulk of budget is salary and expenses

Doyle
Mapping - maintains the files to drive the maps and GIS information, needs to be updated and required by law to be updated

Abstracts - pays for cost of deeds and plans to file at the Norfolk Land Court; maintains appropriate ownership of the parcels

Office supplies - pretty constant over the years, legal forms, etc.

triennial is due for FY 2011, they came before the FINCOM recently to get additional funding to cover some outside professional services, that is not included in this budget as it is already covered

18,000 for the support contract for database and records used for all the processing as well as enhancements to the software itself

motion to approve - $280,153 for Assessors

Franklin, MA

Live reporting - Board of Health/Health Services

Board of Health/Health Services
David McKearney

notable reduction in budget
did not backfill an individual who left, will be the first department to visibly supply less services due to the shortage

Milford Nursing Services (VNA) - $20,000 provides visiting nursing services as the Town does not have a nurse on duty to make visits and file the appropriate required reports.

Prior to FY 2010, the Town had two vehicles for the department to use
Now mileage is paid for the use of personal cars in lieu of getting a full vehicle

Brutus Cantorerrgi and John Lombardi get the credit for the analysis on using smaller older cars instead of using the older re0usable police cruisers

The lost person per the budget was not part of the submittal, rather than a adjustment to be made later
Training an existing administrative person to handle some of the inspector duties
David is handling most of the inspection work during the training

Minimal expense budget, has stayed pretty stable, usually turn money back in at end of year

The H1N1 program was covered primarily by the volunteers within the Town that stepped up to provide the service in a quality manner at minimal expense (due to the volunteer efforts and donations of materials).

Nutting - the Town stepped forward to provide the volunteer effort, many thanks to all involved.

Motion to recommend budget for Board of Health
Motion to recommend budget for Health Services
both motions passed 9-0


 Franklin, MA

Live reporting - debt stabilization

Roche - question on the debt stabilization fund
Nutting - explanation of the fund's use; to help even out the annual debt amount.

(This was also covered in the Budget hearing in January 2010
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/budget-workshop-collection-12510.html )

Roche - desires to keep one pool to avoid 'found' money, would like to close the account and roll the funds into the General Stabilization account
Nutting - Council would need a 2/3 vote to take out of one and put it into the other

Roche - would like to make a recommendation to close the account
Nutting - if you do this after this year, it would simply be less work and accomplish the same thing
I'd consider putting something from it against the fire truck. It think it should be given some discussion.

Roche - withdraws motion for recommendation



 Franklin, MA

Live reporting - Finance Committee

Present: Messere, Huempfner, Cataldo, Cameron, Roche, Rivera, Quinn, Goldsmith, Teixeira
Absent: Maire, Feldman

Action Items

1 - Transfer -  Snow and Ice Deficit: $231,252  from Free Cash

Motion to approve transfer, passed 9-0

2 - Transfer - $10,000 from Free Cash for the Special Election
Programming, election workers, ballots, food for workers, advertising, best case guess is a total of $10,000
For the override election which is totally Town funded, other State elections get subsidized by the State
19,200 voters, printing 18,000 ballots to ensure no shortage
Motion to approve transfer, passed 9-0




Franklin, MA