Live reporting - Budget FY 2011

Jeff Nutting provided updates on the school building process
anticipating 50% reimbursement
debt exclusion override possible in Fall of 2011
construction could begin in 2013

$200,000 increase a far cry from the 2-3 M normally seen year to year

House Ways & Means cut another 525,000 from Chap 70
to be replaced this year with a one-time grant
not likely to be seen in 2012, so that budget year could be worse than this year

The budget is balanced, eliminates 9 Town positions
Employees are so far are increasing health insurance co-pays which will be a savings of $500,000

Town budget includes no cost of living raises other than what was already deferred from last year.

Copies of the budget are available on the website
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/04/fiscal-year-2011-budget-information.html

and at the library

questions should be sent to Jeff Nutting

Q - Mason what would the deficit be?
A - Nutting the gap is about 3.5 but 3 M in practical terms

Q - Mason I have some questions for Mr Roy
A - Roy, can I bring some assistance?

Jeff Roy - 7 elementary teachers, 8 middle school, increase athletic fees, doubling extra curricular activity fees
and an early release of elementary schools one day to reduce another 4 positions.

We have cut 110 positions since 2006, it is compelling. On top of these particular cuts, we are using some one time revenue so next year will be another problem

Musical programs have been reduced, physical education is reduced
We saved FHS teachers last year with a creative change in the schedule to go from 7 periods to 6 periods. Eliminated 80 elective courses and 4 physical ed teachers; phys ed requirements were met via athletic participation or other outside requirements.

We have been a high performing district due to the total program we offered which is now changed

Q - McGann - did you say you offer a program that is not mandated?
A - Roy - no, we offer programs that are required.
A - Sabolinski - I think that may have been in the discussion about full-day versus half-day, full day is not mandated. This has been discussed in regards to other communities where they have fee income but the program is different from what we do.

Note - the analysis of the full versus half-day was written up earlier
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/04/full-day-kindergarten-free-or-tuition.html

Q - Whalen - going with increases of fees reduces the participation, so only those with the wherewithal are getting the best of the education
Q - Roy - there is no question that on the School Committee we do not like imposing fees, but given the choice of cutting programs or imposing fees is tough. Last night, the option to eliminate the athletic program would save us $300,000. But if we do so, we would actually need to add back the 4 PE teachers at around $200,000 so our net savings would only be $100,000. Many students would say that is what keep them in school. There was no sentiment to eliminate athletics. In order to save positions, we need to increase fees. We try to accommodate where ever we can.

Q - Mason - What is the fee structure?
A - Roy - right now, the athletic fee is $125 per sport per student; the proposed tier fee structure would be $175 for track, $200 for all others, except for hockey which would be $400.

Q - Mason - what would the cuts due to class size?
A - Sabolinski - Class sizes would increase, (numbers to be added)

Q - Mason - what is the impact to the teachers and students
A - Sabolisnki - additional work, students at the edge will be the first to suffer as it gets increasingly hard to reach all of them with one-to-one attention in a larger class size.
A - Roy - We have students who are getting in to the top colleges because we prepare them well! Universally, we hear that they are well prepared for that experience. We would like to see this experience for every student from kindergarten on up!

Q - Zollo - how many teachers have decreased in the recent past?
A - Roy - over 8 years, 100 teachers cut, with 1000 more students in the same period

Q - how many town positions
Q - Nutting - from 303 to 253

Chart from School Budget presentation earlier this year provides some numbers
(link to be added)

Q - Mason - what percent of the total budget is salary?
A - Roy - 80%

Q - Mason - what is the percent on the Town side?
A - Nutting - not a fair comparison as we carry the debt, we have the DPW with salt and winter costs, we have positions that haven't been filled so 6 of the 9 are ones that we are not filling and cutting in this budget

3 DPW
3 dispatchers
1.5 clerical
.5 librarian
1 firefighter

Chief Williams
Police - My budget is 93% personnel costs
I have a double dispatch running, thousands of calls and radios transmissions are coming in
We are it for the town after 4:00, anything after hours we get. The dispatcher is able to do this.
Cut back to one dispatcher could in busy times have you talking to a machine

From 20,000 to 41,000 different incidents over the period

Q - Zollo - What is the state of Franklin?
A - Williams - We have a great town, I have seen an increase in violence, there are more people carrying weapons
I think we are playing with fire (and I don't want to steal his thunder)
there is a fear that something could happen and we are not prepared to handle it
Sending one man cars to a call doesn't cut it.
I am nervous where we are, we are down 5 officers from where we were in 2000
We have to work together as a town

Q - Zollo - is there an increase in juvenile activity?
A - In Norfolk county, we have the highest

Q - McGann - how many patrolman?
A - Williams - 28 officers, 24x7, at times there are 3 patrolmen on the 11-7 shift and that is what we had when I started

Q - Jones - last night there was discussion about cutting in the buses?
A - Roy - yes, that was one cut that I neglected to mention earlier. We have a pay to ride program, inevitably we have folks who have not signed up in the proper time frame, for those we would not be able to provide them a spot

A - we can't change a fee for anyone within a 2 mile radius for K-6

Q - Jones - none of these sound good, it affects all the parents, it affects the family life style; the bus reflects the only reasonable cut I have heard

Nutting - the Police budget was cut 250,000; Fire cut 250,000, DPW cut 300,000. These cuts occurred in my office as opposed to the public forum that the School Committee gets

Chief McCarragher - currently have open positions, no clerical support, last year funded 6.5% less than the previous year. We are looking to find people. 44% of our call volume happens back-to-back. If I have to tell you that we are in a queue, that is not good. we are trying to partner with our surrounding communities but they are having the same discussions with their selectmen etc. If we cut our second ambulance, we also cut revenue as we do get income from those service calls. Everyone says we don't have fires in Franklin but we get 20-40 of those every year.  The northern part of Franklin is growing, we are not serving them in a timely manner.

Vallee - calls are going down, I seen it on the net
McCarragher - not in Franklin, look at what they were, the inner cities. we are catching up with our growth spurt, fast forward 20 years, we didn't seen many years ago because we have new buildings, we are now seeing problems where the new equipment is going into the older houses.

We are in the opportunity business. We give every one the right opportunity

Zollo - We are talking about life and death
Roy - that's bone
Zollo - we are talking about our seniors, we are talking about our children, it can not be the same as it was 20-30 years ago. Our Town employees go above and beyond with less. I can't fathom how a reasonable person would disagree. You can get something from nothing.

Jones - I would hate to exclude Brutus, our roads are just as important

Cantoreggi - We are pretty good with dealing with the emergencies, the day to day issues are seriously short staffed, things are going to take longer and longer to get done.

five minute recess






 Franklin, MA

Live reporting - Financial Planning Committee Report

F. HEARINGS - none

G. LICENSE TRANSACTIONS - none

H. PRESENTATIONS/DISCUSSIONS
1. Report of the Financial Planning Committee
Doug Hardesty, Chair presents the update
Report link provided earlier
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/04/franklin-ma-mid-year-financial-update.html


Anticipated State Aid decrease of approx. $1.7 M

Page 4 - tells an accurate story of the forecast plus the adjustments

(Vallee arrives late)

fundamentally, about 1% off the original forecast but all adjustments are understood and explainable

Page 5 - The high school construction project, assuming it continues roughly on schedule would not significantly affect the forecast in the next five years. The bulk of that increase is assumed to hit just after.

An 8 M shortage is realistic, a range of 5 - 10 M is highly likely given the variability of the factors in the forecast.

Page 6 - of the neighboring communities, we are #1 in receipt of State Aid. 75% above the average for State Aid.

Property taxes lower than peers, school per pupil spending is less than peers, debt service is also below the peer average
There is not a category where are spending more than our peers, we are consistently spending less

Page 7 - Decline in services has been significant
Inflation 2-3 years down the road could change the forecast
Regionalization is an opportunity for cost containment, it takes time, cooperation, and negotiation

No questions from the Council...



 Franklin, MA

Live reporting - broadcast update

The cable broadcast is via Verizon and not Comcast due to technical difficulties.

You can also view via the internet
http://franklinma.virtualtownhall.net/Pages/FranklinMA_Webdocs/videoarchive



 Franklin, MA

Live reporting - Town Council

Present:  Kelly, Jones, Vallee, Whalen, Mason, McGann, Zollo, Powderly
Absent:  none


A. APPROVAL OF MINUTES – Executive Session- April 7, 2010

B. ANNOUNCEMENTS

C. PROCLAMATIONS/RECOGNITIONS

D. CITIZEN COMMENTS
Chief McCarragher - reminder on FEMA applications

E. APPOINTMENTS

Election Workers - motion to approve listing of names, passed 8-0

Historical Commission - motion to approve Eamon McCarthy Earls, passed 8-0

 Franklin, MA

Fiscal Year 2011 - Budget Information

The budget 'book' for the complete and school budget can be found on the Franklin website here

http://franklinma.virtualtownhall.net/Pages/FranklinMA_Admin/FY%2011%20Budget/




 Franklin, MA

Franklin has the most registed voters since 1982!

While the history shows that Franklin has passed only half of the debt exclusions offered to it and only one of the override questions, the numbers also show that Franklin today is different.

Franklin's population as of the end of 2009 had grown over 3,000 since the last debt exclusion in October 2000 and over 600 since the override in 2008.

It is note worthy that the percentage of population which is registered to vote stands at its highest percentage (60.5%).  The lowest percent of the population to register to vote occurred in both 1986 and 1987 at 48.1%. 

History has also shown us that a debt exclusion can pass with as little as 2.4% of the voters turning out to the polls and as many as 52.7%.

On the override side, the only one that passed succeeded with a 47.2% turnout. The override votes that failed did so with as little as 26.4% turning out and as much as 56.4% turning out.

Note: the data of population and registered voters come from the official Franklin records as provided by Town Clerk Debbie Pellegri and covers the years 1982 through 2009.

Note: the chart depicts the population with red/maroon columns, the voters with the light blue columns. Both population and voters columns should be read against the left scale. The right scale shows the percent of voters as of the total population and is depicted in the yellow line.

Franklin, MA: Mid-year Financial Update

The updated financial outlook prepared by the Financial Planning Committee for discussion at the Town Council, Wednesday, April 28, 2010.

Franklin, MA 2010 Midyear Financial Update

View more presentations from Steve Sherlock.