5.14.2024 City Council - Committee on Finance

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like he heyy addicted crazy finance will come to order clerk will call the RO council is kadim yes Dion here Hart here Kilby Herrera here Hy Roso here Samson here president C here pursu to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit this meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised such recordings or Transmissions are being

made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and not deemed acknowledged and permissible there's no one who signed up for since its input time no so we'll move into item number two fiscal year 2024 quarter 3 budget report it was it was referred on April 23rd we'll hold discussion can you come down please

welcome can you please state your name and what department you in for the record please I know we know who you are but the public some people might be in watching for the first time Seth aen City administrator Bridget Alman CFO do you want to give us a review or you want to open up the questions what did you like to do so I I just I do have a few things to say okay should be

pretty quick okay right ahead so I just wanted to go over the third quarter book um through March we are about 74% you know 3/4 of the way collected and I mean just for to let you know the city sends out over 81,000 excise bills we just sent out since March another 10,000 um excise bills and we send out a total of 22,000 real estate bills we'll be sending out our demands in the next

couple of weeks and we also send out 780,000 personal property bills our local receipts have been strong due mostly to our excise tax Collections and our investment income overall all our departments are below 74% at this point for expenses and our department heads are working on tightening their projections and encumbrances needed through June 30th all on we've sent notifications to all departments to

review outstanding payables and any and any expenditures that have not been invoiced yet and we are monitoring costs and inflation numbers the finance team is working on reviewing all of the grants and special Revenue funds for deficits and outstanding Revenue not collected the capital projects we are still working with our director of operations to go through all of our inactive projects so

way we can re allocate to other projects and if anybody has any questions thank you CC se s counc proposal hello few questions just to for clarification if you could please so we'll start with um page one is local receipts and investment income it's a good number so if you want to just highlight that a little bit so when I came into the city um we looked at all of the the money that we had

available that we're we got through arpa and we put it to work so we um invested a lot of that in treasury bonds and we negotiated with banks for better interest rates and we've been monitoring our cash flow so that we can keep that money working for the city and that's why that money is is a very healthy number great good job uh next is snow removal um page four so it looks like it's

128% we um had to increase the actual the available budgets in the negative so any thoughts on that so that's the um you're allowed to go into a deficit on snow removal we will not need to raise that on the tax recap this year because we have enough sitting in our um streets and highways and and DCM budget to cover it okay fire 73% any reason for concern there um so

there's actually um an entry that has not um been booked yet so there was a if you remember you um there was a retro amount for arpa that was approved so that amount and it's a I think 51,000 that needs to be put back into that account but we actually met with fire last week and they will they'll be fine okay uh page six is retirement so about 1.6 million in the

negative again so so that will go into the negative and then there's several departments that we get recoveries from for retirement and so now all of that won't be booked until through the end of the year and then two lines down from there there property insurance 21,000 so property insurance came in uh much higher than than expected and again that's within the block so we'll be we'll be okay with

that um we had a new building come on that wasn't we didn't know that was going to fully be and again insurance rates have been astronomically increasing like 25% and we don't see them getting any better anytime soon uh I actually just had a conversation with one of our um with our broker this morning and we're hoping in 25 into 26 they should start leveling back out where we're not seeing these

double digit increases okay um page eight I got loud page eight the water Enterprise account I'm sorry the what account page the water Enterprise account we just trying to catch up here as far as timeline and and water and sewer bills are concerned or so Water and Sewer bills is a timing from when they get posted so we are always in conversations um with Mr ferland okay that's all I have thank you very much I

yield thank you Council counc T5 Council vice president per um Bridget what is the DI host uh it's on page nine in City expenses I think that's are you in the detail of the

so the um the computer environment that we operate in basically allows for uh if anybody's computer either implodes is hacked whatever it can be immediately rebuilt um because the computer itself is actually hosted on these servers um so it's called a virtual environment and so the hosting for the virtual environment and the server is the largest expense of it uh but it allows us to it's just one element of our

security uh our cyber security system uh in addition to that there's two Factor authentication all sorts of other things that basically keeps us from being ransomed out because the original appropriation was Zero transfers and adjustment zero revised budget zero and then year-to date expenses was like

399,000 so there are some uh we'll ask at budget time for MIT yeah I think what you're going to see at budget time is um there's a sign significant arpa um allotment that went essentially going to reimburse some of the expenses that MIT has to replace servers there was a server or two servers that were getting much older than they really needed to be it was a security issue uh it wasn't

something that we thought we would be able to do and then we decided to pull the trigger and do it with arpa in the last 12 months it's actually the BCT on Bristol County Treasury and we have to spend the money and we're waiting on the reimbursement from them okay for that so we've got reimbursement for that yeah we have reimbursements I don't know the ex dollar but there are reimbursements

coming for um it I you know I know that we did I voted for these quarterly reports to come out but to be honest with you to have a quarterly report just before we're going to go into a budget season and I'm hearing from several departments that doing these quarter reports takes a lot of time away from the normal day-to-day operation would you think doing it twice a year would be

beneficial I mean is am I hearing from departments that four times a year is a lot for them it's not just printing something through munus no it's I mean it's mostly falls on the AUD City a in mine in me is where it falls on I mean it is what it is I I mean I think the format I mean we could look at maybe making it a little bit easier because

it's it's the formatting of it it's not just the munus reports we could look at can you talk about that with administration because I do get you know concerns from other departments like gee again we have to bring all this stuff in and so so a lot of it is um you know putting it together and then formatting it in this format and having convers you know we have it's pushing out and having

more conversations with department heads and asking them for clarification but I will say that most of this falls on the city auditor to do point of information I doesn't the charter require quarterly updates right but they're in the process of changing the charter now so if that was something that they would look at they're not changing it not wait a minute go ahead excuse me excuse me

someone wants to speak please ask for permission through the chair to I'll yield to whoever wants to add on to this conversation you wish Enlighten us can I please so as um part of the charter review commission we're not changing the charter we're making recommendations I don't believe that's a recommendation to make I think people want their quarterly reports we know it's a lot but um so I

just we're not we're not changing yeah we're not changing the CH we'll be coming down with recommendations very soon but yeah council president I would just point out it probably help you in a formulation of the overall budget each year maybe that was a rationale for it I'm not too sure but um so put a quarterly report in I'm I'm just assuming that it assists your office in putting the budget

together so maybe so we actually look at things a little tighter than than this I mean this personally doesn't help us do the budget but it's so I mean we might be able to streamline the format I don't know how married everybody is to like this particular format that might we might be able to make it a little easier that way it's a little less time consuming but we've gotten a little

faster at it I think coun PR you have the floor okay and the other thing that I want to ask you because sometimes I hear things around City Hall I don't know if they're true or they're not but while you're here I was told that from someone in your department that you met with several of the banks and got better interest for us and made I don't know if they said2 million or $3 million extra

for the city based on investments Have You Done That Could you we did so the so myself and the um City Treasurer we met with all of the banks that we do relationships with and you know as interest rates were climbing we push them to also give us those better rates and to um give us better like so we have collateralization um with several Banks and we or we have um FDIC insurance or

and diff insurance so we've actually we have a lot we've had more meetings with banks so that we can get better rates good how much money have we made in interest so the city so far if you could tell us um cumulatively um the last year and a half it's about 7 million about 7 million yep well kudos congratulations that's um good news with that I yield Mr President thank you SE 7 did you your

hand your hand up did you want say yeah I I had a follow question thank you Mr President um regarding the capital inactive capital projects I don't know if I'm crazy here or not is is that seen that list as has gotten smaller it has gotten smaller okay where would it be possible to get an idea of where the rest of these inactive capital projects are at ahead of budget season so those

we took a loan authorization for something that has a 15 to 20 year useful life we have to then reallocate to a similar project that has the same useful life correct but as far as the projects themselves like for the first one on the list is Highland Kennedy Park an idle amount of $397 clearly that project's already done correct so it's just a matter of doing exactly what you just said so

would it be possible those small ones we can those smaller ones we can um reallocate um a lot easier okay yes so to Mr aen would it be possible to have the director of operations give us an updated list of where these projects stand on the inactive Capital list sure if you could please yeah Abol just ahead of budget seeson would be helpful okay thank you I yield thank you coun counc to

counc only a couple of questions because a couple were already asked um pay payment in L of taxes you were hoping for 450,000 we've got 9279 so that comes in so that payment and low of taxes is your housing authority that pays us and that's a formula that's based on um the federal government comes up with the formula that typically we get the bigger payment at the end of the year so that's why you

see that end of the year being June the end of June sometimes the fiscal year yes yeah yep okay that it doesn't come in evenly and never mhm um under local receipts also other departmental what is what what is other departmental for local receipts so other departmental will include everything from planning and Engineering um cemeteries like all of the other departments that have uh revenues

licensing um you know like monies from permitting and that sort of okay um let me see on City expens is Page 11 in the elections Department what is PF sl8m professional uh admin I mean I'm not I sponsor Co it's the second salary line I'm not I mean it's it's it's a salary line for someone for some I don't know exactly who's in that salary line I'll have to I have to look

yeah because the original appropriation was 115,000 and now it's at 107% that's professional is that reasonable for that department um well that there could be some election um like workers that worked in there that got paid through there I'm not I have to check on that I don't know okay that would be appreciated um and then the overtime budget and then I'm assuming elections overtime as well is that correct there's

too just under um Sal the temporary salaries there's an overtime line item and I'm assuming the next line item is also an overtime um line item of sorts so I do know that there's some election where they they uh like if there's DPW workers have to work the election that get charged them but again I'd have to look at the details I don't know that off the top of my head okay

because then there's also uh over I think it's overtime OT generally stands for personnel yeah can we get yeah Clarity on actually on all of that so that that is what it is so a lot of people don't realize that U I think what two years ago when Massachusetts put in a whole bunch of new regulations with elections it basically increase the amount of time that an election takes place over because of all the you know

balloting you know uh prev voting mail and ballots all that sort of thing as well as added other responsibilities to the elections office plus this year being a census year um the amount of overtime has been pretty significant so we have overtime for the staff which is budgeted as as the staff overtime and then there's overtime for election workers which include city workers uh so those are DCM

that will bring the balloting uh machines to different polling places um as well as some of the part-time workers that come in uh over and Beyond what their uh what their AED time is so they break it up just so they can basically for bookkeeping know what the overtime is for the the three staff members that are in the elections office uh and then everyone else that works on behalf of Elections

so it's a similar thing to how veterans pays uh some of the other departments to help them with different events and things and then on um page 15 the enironmental police how many how many I believe we had what five um positions only one was only four were vacant do how do we have two two now two okay so we have two um we're at 47% so we won't reach that

234,000 uh dollar Mark I would assume if we're only at 47% now that's fair to say okay that should be probably just what an additional 25% give or take give or take and on the next if you flip the page uh again salal overtime it's not a huge dollar amount I'm just curious what the Sal overtime is for the environmental police I would have to talk to the chief about that I don't know

I mean I'm assuming it's overtime for the environmental police I just don't know what caused it or why or I mean I would imagine because they're down and they don't have a full complement of environmental police so if you look on 15 salary permanent salary overtime so um it's basic it's overtime for the two environmental police officers that we have that's so the SL Sal is salary

so it's just for those two guys overtime is is parsed out okay thank you that's all I have I yield thank you any further questions okay being none we will move on to transfers and Appropriations item number one in accordance to the provisions of chapter 44 section 32 of the Massachusetts general laws I recommend the following appropriation to your honorable body that the sum of $189,300 transferred to the capital

project fund from the fiscal year 23 Surplus revenue is there a motion on a whole discussion motion full councel second we don't I'm sorry we don't need it's already in full Council we just whole discussion no questions no more question move on to item number two in accordance with the provisions of chapter 44 section 32 of the Massachusetts general laws I recommend the following Appropriations to your

honorable body that the sum of 179,0 $588 B in this I'm sorry I'm reading number three let's go back to item 11 B in accordance with the provisions of chapter 44 Section 3 Massachusetts general laws I recommend the F appropriation to your to your honorable body that the sum of 636 36 800 636,000

23 Surplus Revenue any discussion no questions okay we move on to item 11

C in accordance with the provisions of chapter 44 section 32 of the Massachusetts general laws I recommend the following appropriation to your honorable body that the sum of $179,500 being the same as here hereby appropriate ated to the Sewer fiscal year 24 operational budget from the Su stabilization fund question on that coun yeah I'm just curious if the reason for the transfer so um at the end of fiscal 23

there was a small deficit in the sewer fund and this is um what's required to then make that fund whole and then go on to the next year do we know the reason for the deficit um there was some incumbrance that were and some expenses that I mean Paul ferland would be able to better answer that but could we have Mr ferland come down no Mr thank you you clarify those expenses Mr

please good evening Mr fand good evening so if you could I'm just curious um the reason for the transfer and what some of those unexpected um expenditures may have been yeah so just recap FY 24 revenues came in uh just underwear expected but that was okay uh some of the expenses throughout the year and some of the things that we talked about um when we went into uh the budget year

last year was uh chemical increases and again chemicals as they went out last year in the FY 24 uh came in uh when we bid them uh because we can't bid them till we come almost up to the fiscal year but our budget is made prior uh so some of those came in higher than what was bud budgeted within the FY 24 budget um the other thing when you get to the

end of the fiscal year uh you carry over encumbrances for uh bills that uh may come in for the FY 24 year uh those sit on the uh encumbrance schedule and they get uh hit against the free cash once you typically it's electric or uh chemical bills or other bills like that that uh are encumbered so you encumbered what you estim imate them to be we always like to make sure we encumber

enough money once we pay those bills the encumbrances are closed out afterwards so okay all right and that answers my question i y thank you he1 CC um I don't have anything uh for that item can I go back to item 11a sure is that possible absolutely thank you Mr P thank uh just in terms of the so the 189,000 that's going from free cash to the capital project fund so I I just see

that the Watson School yes fund so who was that was that under our jurisdiction or was the school department managing that the school department was managing it um we knew it was going to come in as we knew that it was going to come in as a deficit we talked to them um but ultimately it's our building and okay but they so they had the conversation it wasn't they spent it down and then all

of a sudden we had the same conversation regarding the Ada improvements on the the small y yeah cuz I I see that one was pretty significant of 175,000 was that was that the window project or the elevator I don't I'm not sure I'm not positive what I think it was Windows but I'm not certain I I can get a clarification there was a couple of Watson projects going on all right thank you I yield thank you

councel any other discussion no okay that being said I'll obain a motion toj Finance motion to adjourn Finance has been made in seconded all in favor I any opposed Finance is now adjourned regular city council meeting will begin at 7 o'c 7 o'