Canton, Massachusetts · Saved source text

February 12, 2020, Finance Committee Meeting. Minutes

Finance Committee · Record date 2020-02-12 · Record c0ed5bb5f51f1bd463

Saved text from 4 source pages. Transcription and OCR may contain errors; verify figures and wording against the original. Retrieved 2026-10-15.

Canton Finance Committee                          Minutes Voted on: 2/26/20
                                                Meeting Minutes                              Vote: 6-0-1
                                               February 12, 2020

Finance Committee Members Present: Christos Arsondiadis, David Clough, Dan Cole, Emilio Mauro, Tim
McKenna, Barbara Saint Andre, Cindy Thomas and Wai Wong.


Finance Committee Members Absent: Rob Barker.


Guests Present:
Kathy Butters, Town Accountant
Andrea Capone, Library Director
Tracy Kenney, Town Clerk
Regen Milani, Conservation Agent
Randy Scollins, Finance Director
Ellen Jones, Finance Committee Secretary

Opening: Mr. McKenna called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m. in the Salah Meeting Room of Town Hall.

A.       Approval of Agenda - Mr. McKenna reviewed the agenda.

B.       Announcements -There were no announcements.

C.       New Business

Town Clerk &Elections Budgets FY21—Discussion with Tracy Kenney, Town Clerk
Ms. Kenney is requesting a budget increase of $10,200 for FY21. The following are highlights of the discussion:
   • Ms. Kenney decreased many of her budget line items for expenses to cover increases to the Elections
        budget.
   • Increase of $675 to the Town Clerk budget to cover the cost of a 20-year 5%step increase for the
        Assistant Town Clerk.
   • Increase of $9,525 to the Elections budget to cover three elections in FY21, extra costs for early voting in
        February for the Presidential Primary election and the costs to cover the increased minimum wage per
        hour rates of pay for the elections workers.
   • Increase to the Board of Registrars salaries from $600 to $850 each. This is based on a Massachusetts
        General Law which states $50 per $1,000 of every registered voter. The total number of registered voters
        is 16,593.
   • Increase to Purchase of Services budget line item to cover an increase to the annual warranty for the
        election poll pads/computers.

Accounting Division of Finance Department Budget FY21—Discussion with Kathv Butters. Town Accountant
Ms. Butters is requesting a budget increase of $37,493 for additional staffing and department changes. The
following are highlights of the discussion:
    • The existing union Accounting Senior Specialist position would be replaced with an Assistant Town
         Accountant. Ms. Butters has already negotiated this position change with the AFSCME union. An increase
         of $11,000 is being requested to bring the annual salary of the Assistant Town Accountant to $72,000.
         The Assistant Town Accountant position will be required to become a Certified Government Accountant
         with an eventual promotion to Town Accountant. Ms. Butters had the HR Department a salary survey for
         an Assistant Town Accountant position in surrounding towns. The average salary is $74,383 which would
         have been Ms. Butters' first choice for the salary but the former Finance Director was not in support of
        the higher amount.
    • Anew 20-hour part-time Accounts Payable Clerk position with an annually salary of $26,281 is being
         requested.



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•    Because of staff turnover in the Accounting Division the Town Accountant has been busy training
         employees as well as backing up staff while trying to complete tasks under her own position.
    •    The Town Accountant has been unable to keep up with deadlines for state and federal filings.
    •    The Town Accountant has been unable to take a full week of vacation in February until recently.
    •    School payroll encumbrances has added an extra burden to her division.
    •    The Division is under resourced for all of its responsibilities.
    •    The Accounting Division currently utilizes one of the Town's senior volunteers but also oversees the senior
         tax program.

Mitigation Funds as of 11/12/2019 —Discussion with Kathy Butters and Randy Scollins
   • The current balance of seven mitigation funds is $2,752,475. The Finance Director provided a
        spreadsheet of these seven balances but with no detail of how the funds had been spent to date.
   • The mitigation funds are controlled by the BOS. Victor DelVecchio had presented a PowerPoint
        presentation in 2017 to Town Meeting identifying the uses of these various funds.
   • The $2,752,475 is not in the General Fund. This total is held in various funds and is not part of the Town's
        reserves.
   • Once such recent use was the matching of funds by the BOS from the mitigation funds to funds that had
        been requested from the Reserve Fund. These combined funds were used for the pool project (Owner's
        Project Manager).
   • These mitigation funds are mostly discretionary funds, however, there could be some uses identified in
        the mitigation agreements.

Library Budget FY21—Discussion with Andrea Capone, Library Director
Ms. Capone is requesting a budget increase of $52,310 for FY21.
    • Increase of $29,000 to the library assistant salaries line item. This would be fora 25-hours per week
          Library Technician position. This position would help support additional hours for circulation staff. There
          has been increased activity in printed material at the circulation desk.
    • There has been a significant increase in teens and tweens(35-50) utilizing the library every day in the
         afternoons. Canton does not have a youth center. There have been staffing level issues to assure the
         teens have appropriate level of service and trained adults on site to serve other patrons as well. The
          Library is open 60 hours per week and there is only one 35-hour per week staff person dedicated to youth
         services. Noise, foot traffic and food in the building have become a challenge. The School Department
          has been generous to the Library by lending a school resource officer to the Library, especially on half
         days. The Library is taking steps to helps solve problems by reaching out to community partners.
    • The Library has not had a staffing increase in 12 years. The Director's goal is to make sure the 36,000
         square foot building is safe and appropriately staffed.
    • The Library is requesting an increase of $23,000 for materials. Of this an increase of $4,000 to the books
         and periodicals budget line item is being requested. This will support staffing in the collections area. The
         Library needs to purchase materials (such as research databases, on-line subscriptions to newspapers, E-
         books) to keep up with demand. The Library spent $35,000 last year on E-books and expects to spend
         a pproximately $40,000 this year. The state's state aid grant helps to supplement the Library's expenses in
         this area.
    • The Library is looking to redesign the Library space to accommodate more meeting space. The art and
         m usic room items are being moved to the second floor to change the room to meeting space for evenings
         and a quiet space for adults to study during the day.
    • The Library keeps a $35 execution fee for every passport that is processed at the Library. Out of the
         execution fee the Library has to pay a stipend to the individual that executes the passport, any mailing
         fees and any supplies us to execute the passport. In FY19 the Library generated revenue of $55,780 less
         any expenses, stipends and supplies. The Library uses part of the passport revenue to supplement their
         m aterials budget line item. In order to meet the State's standards for the Library to be certified the
         Library has to spend approximately $200,000 on materials or digital materials every year. This is based on
         a state formula.



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Conservation Commission Budget FY21—Discussion with Re~en Milani, Conservation Agent
Ms. Milani is requesting an FY21 budget increase of $16,444 for salaries, which would increase support staff from
32 hours per week to 50 hours per week.
    • The agent is requesting that the 32-hour per week Administrative Assistant position be increased by 3
        hours to 35 hours per week. This position would no longer be the recording secretary for the
        Commission.
        The agent is also requesting that the three hours previously worked by the Administrative Assistant be
        i ncreased to 15 hours per week for a new board secretary/clerical position. This position would attend
        two night meetings per month along with preparing the minutes for the Conservation Commission
        meetings. A Finance Committee member who has worked with many boards questioned the 15 hours
        being requested for the board secretary position, given that the Commission is only meeting two hours
        per week for only two weeks of the month.
        Ms. Milani stated that these staffing changes would help to provide at least the minimum services to
        residents as well as keep in compliance with federal, state and local laws. The Agent has been working
        diligently to close out escrow accounts.

     Article 38 — Stormwater Management By-Law —There is an article on the Town Meeting warrant to change
     the square footage of soil and disturbance from 5,000 to 20,000. Ms. Milani stated that this by-law was put in
     place by her predecessor, which may not have been acting in the best interests of the Town. Article 38 will
     streamline the very costly permitting process making it easier for homeowners with single and two-family
     projects eliminating. Ms. Milani is unaware of another community with as strict a process as Canton.

D.       Old Business —The BOS would be voting on the budget requests at an upcoming meeting. The FY21
budget requests will have to be reduced by the BOS by approximately $108,000 in order to meet the municipal
budget target number. The BOS would be presenting their budget recommendation to the Finance Committee at a
later date. Mr. Mauro would reach out to Gene Manning of the Economic Development Committee regarding
Article 53(43D Priority Development Sites).


E.       Approval of Minutes -There were no minutes approved at the meeting.

F.      Next Meeting Date: The next Finance Committee meeting would take place on February 19, 2020 at
7:00 p.m. at the Armando Recreation Center.

Adjournment: A motion made by Ms. Saint Andre to adjourn the meeting at 8:56 p.m. was seconded by
M r. Clough. Vote: 8-0-0.

Minutes review    :David Clough
Respe ~rNy submitted,^
                   /~     ~
                                            _1

Tim McKenna
Chair, Canton Finance Committee




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Canton Finance Committee Meeting
                                                 February 12, 2020
                                                Meeting Documents

Please note: Some meeting documents may be found on the Town's website under the Posted Minutes section
(Laser Fiche).

Budget documents may be found on the Town's website under the Finance Committee section.
https://www.town.canton.ma.us/407/Municipal-Bud~et-Capital-Information

Agenda for February 12, 2020 (1 page).

M itigation Funds Summary as of 11/12/19.

Memorandum from Josh Cohen, Chairman of the Conservation Commission to the Finance Committee regarding
FY21 Budget Request(1 page).




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