ATM Warrant / Budget Cuts

Posted on June 10, 2020 | Comments Off on ATM Warrant / Budget Cuts

MHS field-2

Annual Town Meeting set for 11 AM June 27 on MHS field

The COVID-19 delayed 2020 annual town meeting (ATM) will take place on Saturday, June 27 at 11 AM outdoors on the Medfield High School turf field, with a rain date on June 29.  The warrant for the ATM has been pared down to just the articles needed to enact the FY21 budget, with the intention to hold a special town meeting when the virus permits, perhaps in the fall, to deal with any other necessary town business.

The Select Board voted last night to recommend approval of all the articles.  The Warrant Committee had already voted to recommend approval of all but one or two of the articles, and is expected to recommend approval of the remaining ones when they receive the final numbers related to those articles.

The town’s budget is built off a guess that the town’s state aid will be reduced by 10% next year.  It is a guess because the state legislature is not able to give the town guidance on what to expect, because the federal government has yet to share with the state what to expect by way of federal assistance – creating this uncertainty for every American city and town is not the way government should run.

The Select Board is expected at its next meeting on June 16 to vote to make use of the legislation passed this past week that allows the ATM quorum to be reduced to just 10% of the usual quorum – our quorum is 250.

See the 2020 ATM warrant articles here –

20200609-KT-BOS ATM DRAFT 06082020

Budget cuts

Also at the Select Board meeting last night, the Town Administrator, Kristine Trierweiler, recommended and the Select Board approved the following town side budget cuts in order to balance the town’s FY21 budget:

Town Administrator's Recommended Budget Cuts Department Amount Details All departments $8,279 All office supplies accounts cut by 20% Town Administrator $17,321 Reduce TA Overtime Account to $1,000 (this account pays for OT as well as Retirement Seperations) Town Administrator $5,000 No contractual increase for TA Staff reduction ‐ Town Accountant $25,267 Eliminate (2) part time employees Hours reduction‐Payroll $21,998 Reduced hours for an FT employee Merit/COLA $41,113 Managerial Merit (24 Positions)* Merit/COLA $105,425 All Non Union Town employees 2% COLA (Water and Sewer Listed Below for Enterprise, Police and Fire would have to be addressed in CBA) IT $25,000 Eliminate funding for Network Consultant and capital equipment replacement (both funded for emergency purposes) Facilities ‐ Hiring Freeze $35,000 Facilities 0.6 employee Police ‐ Staff Reduction $54,476 Reduced request by one police officer Building Department ‐ Reduced hours $1,057 Adjust part‐time employee hours DPW ‐ Hiring Freeze $53,102 Vacant full time position DPW Highway Materials $25,000 Level fund from FY20 DPW New position $70,387 No new position at DPW Council on Aging $10,135 Allocated expenses from Revolving Fund (budget offset) Budget adjustments $10,836 Reduced budget requests in various departments Library ‐ hiring freeze $14,710 Vacant part time position Parks and Recreation $48,942 Cut swim pond salaries from the General Fund. Any swim pond related salaries to be paid from the Parks and Recreation Revolving Fund, which receives camp and swim pond fee revenue Police Officer Medical bill $58,000 Make payment in FY20, rather than FY21 ‐ this was planned to be a monetary article Total $631,048 Free Cash Usage Amount Details Stabilization Fund $200,000 Cut annual payment of Free Cash into the Stabilization Fund from $200,000 to $0. CARES/FEMA money (non revolving fund) to be put into stabilization Enterprise Funds Amount Details Water/Sewer ‐ COLA $15,420 No 2% COLA for water/sewer employees

FY21 Town Budget Cuts_KT631 (002)

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