BC20110926

APPROVED

TOWN OF PELHAM

BUDGET COMM= ITTEE - MEETING MINUTES

Monday, September 26, 2011

APPROVED &#= 8211; October 17, 2011

CALL TO ORDER – 7:30pm

PRESENT:

Also Present:

Mr. Larry Hall, Mr. Dan= iel Guimond, Mr. Gregory Farris, Mr. John Lavallee, Mr. Dennis Viger, Mr. Rob= ert Sherman, Mr. Joe Puddister, Mr. David Cate, Mr. Ken Dunne, Selectmen Representative Edmund Gleason

Park & Recreation D= irector Brian Johnson, Police Chief Joseph Roark, Police Department Office Manage= r Celia Lingley, Town Finance Direc= tor Cindy Kelley

ABSENT:

School Board Representa= tive Meghan Larson

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

2012 BUDGET REVIEW AGENDA

Park & Recreation, Police, Retirement, Insurance<= /u>

Park & Recreation – Park & Recreation Director Br= ian Johnson came forward to discuss the 2012 Park & Recreation budget.

Park & Recreation

2012 Selectmen approved=

2012 Budget increase/(d= ecrease)

Salaries:

148,042

597

Supplies:

Telephone:

Gas/Oil

Repairs:

Rentals:

New Equipment:

Expenses:

Specials:

3,792

3,336

&nbs= p; 973

&nbs= p; 4,000

&nbs= p; 5,220

&nbs= p; 150

18= ,016

&nbs= p; 2 &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp;

&nbs= p; 0

(234)

&nbs= p; 0

(1,000)

&nbs= p; 0

Mr. Johnson provided the = Board with an overview of the Park & Recreation Department. He appreciated the cooperation bet= ween the programs and various groups in Town and discussed the work that had been done at the fields/parks by working together. This year there was approximately $34,000 spent on the fields and irrigation.

Mr. Farris asked for the = balance of the revolving fund. Mr. Jo= hnson said it was currently at $80,000 but the money would go out for the programs they had collected fees from. There was approximately $25,000, of which some would go toward landscaping at the= new soccer field. Mr. Farris aske= d if a spread sheet could be provided showing money going in and where it went out to. Mr. Johnson said he had a spread sheet showing revenues/expenses for programs that he could provide.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Mr. Farris wanted to see how much = they started the year with, how much came in and where it went out to. Mr. Johnson will provide the Board= with the information. He noted tha= t this year’s revenue was $251,000 and the expenditures (to date) have been $224,000.

Mr. Cate didn’t see= an allocation in the budget in the event of vandalism or alarms. He questioned if there was a conti= ngency fund available for what wasn’t covered by insurance. Mr. Johnson replied there was a mi= nor amount of money in the budget for vandalism.

Mr. Guimond asked if the = second egress at Muldoon Park was complete.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Mr. Johnson said it wasn’t complete but hoped it would be by the end of this fall. Mr. Gleason noted that the road wa= s in, but not yet drivable.

Mr. Farris asked if the improvements to the parks made it necessary to have additional Police patro= ls in those areas. Police Chief = Roark (seated in the public) said they found more problems in the conservation ar= eas because they were difficult for the Police to patrol.

Mr. Lavallee commented re= garding the Muldoon Park second egress. He said there was difficulty with = sight distance because of the overgrown vegetation along the street. Police Chief Roark expected that a= rea to be cut back significantly. He= noted that the first 20ft.-30ft. would be paved to avoid bringing gravel onto Nashua Road= . He believed improvements would be = seen at Nashua Road in terms of cutting the brush back, giving a clearly defined driveway that = lead into a gravel easement. Mr. G= uimond asked if any thought was given to adding signage to slow traffic at that intersection. Chief Roark bel= ieved the original approval of the Highway Safety Committee was to have the paved connection, gravel easement and appropriate signage. This would allow them to review th= e area and determine the best way to add signage.= It was noted that the egress would be for two-way traffic, although narrow. Mr. Sherman said R= 16;no parking’ signs should be installed along the roadway (at the easement= ). Mr. Johnson said new parking signs= would need to be installed.

Salaries – contract= ual obligations.

Telephone – adjuste= d for a better plan.

Mr. Sherman asked for the= age and mileage of the recreation truck. Mr. Johnson said the truck had 85,000 miles; they put approximately 3000 miles = per year on the truck.

The price for gas/oil wil= l be adjusted at reconsideration. =

Expenses - $1000 cut from= tree cutting/pruning in an effort to keep budget from having an increase. Mr. Farris asked if there was stil= l a milfoil problem at PVMP. Mr. Johnson said the cost was in the budget; it was shared with Massachusetts.

Mr. Sherman questioned if= the inmate program was in jeopardy. Mr. Johnson stated it had been cut out, but then within two weeks he received notice that it was back on. H= e said they had been in Town two weeks ago.

Mr. Johnson summarized th= at there was a small decrease in the budget of 0.35%.

Police Department – Police Chief Joseph Roark and Office Manager Celia Lingley came forward to discuss the 2012 Police Department budget.

Police Department

2012 Selectmen approved=

2012 Budget increase/(d= ecrease)

Salaries:

2,063,949

16,983

Supplies:

Telephone/Pagers:

Gas/Oil

Repairs:

Rentals:

New Equipment:

Expenses

Specials:

41= ,492

17= ,436

63= ,952

45= ,037

&nbs= p; 6,660

87= ,038

73= ,853

&nbs= p; 0 &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp;

1,600

&nbs= p; 0

14,704

(3= 24)

&nbs= p; 0

7,734

&nbs= p; 365

&nbs= p; 0

Chief Roark said the depa= rtment took it to heart to bring forth a zero growth budget; Ms. Lingley was very helpful. He said they rebuilt= their budget on actuals. Overall the budget was up approximately 2%; a majority was contractual obligations. Chief Roark felt they had done wel= l to cut back on a lot of the overtime and really look at what programs were wor= king and what programs were not. <= /p>

Mr. Dunne wanted to know = the result from and incident on Sherburne Road with a citizen holding himself within his residence. Chief Roark said no towns or agencies sought repayment through the Pelham Police Department. There was some discussion regarding attempting to recover the cost of the operation through the citizen. The RSA limits restitution to $10,= 000; the total operation cost approximately $50,000. The citizen is still negotiating t= heir plea, part of which will be to recover the $10,000 that would be prorated o= ut to each agency involved. In terms of the $50,000 spent, Chief Roark felt it was well spent. He said it was a dangerous situati= on, but they knew the citizen would eventually come out (of their residence). Chief Roark said he would much rat= her be front charged $50,000 than run into some type of excessive force complaints= or unjustified death.

Mr. Cate questioned the r= eason that gas/oil had increased approximately 30%. Chief Roark replied they had the s= ame vehicles for three years which had been very economical (with fuel). He said they used a $3.00/gallon p= lace keeper and additionally they determined (24month-36month) actuals and found they were using approximately eleven gallons per day more in fuel. With newer technology, Officers we= re doing their reports out in the field versus at the department. This wasn’t an economical is= sue with the vehicles; it was actuals based on the amount of patrol work was be= ing done.

Mr. Guimond asked if the = Town still had (cellular phone) dead spots.&nbs= p; Chief Roark said they had a problem with their cellular MDT’s = (for writing reports) in certain areas because of the cellular coverage. In terms of the portables they had approximately 98% coverage and mobile radios had 100% coverage.

Salaries – increase contract driven.

Mr. Farris questioned if = the increase for the fitness exam was due to more people taking it or the cost increasing. Chief Roark said = the figure was based on actuals; there were 21 people eligible for the optional fitness test.

Mr. Lavallee noticed that= the details in Town were being covered by surrounding towns and questioned why = that was happening. Chief Roark sa= id during the past summer there was an extraordinary amount of details in Pelh= am and surrounding towns. Office= rs could choose what they wanted to work.&nbs= p; Chief Roark said the Officers took their time off seriously. He said some details were ‘farmed’ to outside agencies; there was no cost to the Town for that, and also some Pelham Officers worked in other communities. He’s told the younger Office= rs not to expect the same number of outside details to go on perpetually.

Mr. Guimond asked why cou= rt time was reduced ($6307). Chief Ro= ark said they had cut out 125 over time hours. They reviewed three years and based the budget on actuals.

Mr. Viger questioned if a= ny progress had been made about doing arraignments from the cell, versus transporting prisoners. Chief= Roark said the court system was in ‘shambles’ right now. He said the budget was so thin, th= at the idea of that type of technology wasn’t coming through. He said Salem District Court had t= he ability for Brentwood Jail (in Rockingham) to video record arraignments of prisoner= s, but Valley Street (when Pelham’s prisoners went) didn’t have that ability. He said Pelham went to the district court in Rockingham County, but the Sup= erior Court was in Nashua and the County jail was in Man= chester. Pelham is the only town in Hillsborough County that worked out of Rockingh= am; there wasn’t a lot of incentive for Hillsborough to get a video link = to a Rockingham court.

Chief Roark told the Boar= d they had cut over 500 over time hours out of the budget; they broke the budget d= own and took medians rather than peaks. He reviewed the lines that had hour removed.

Mr. Farris saw that the K= -9 school search had been dropped. Chief Roark said they dropped it because the school hadn’t requested a search in the last year or two. He said if the school made a reque= st, the Police would find a way to fund it.&nb= sp; He said the MOU for any K-9 school search is a letter coming from the school requesting that the search be put together. Mr. Farris questioned if based on = Police experience outside the school, if the Police could request to the school it might be a good idea to have a look. Chief Roark said perhaps they could suggest to, but personally he preferred the school to judge on their own whether there was necessity for it. He might consider making a recommendation if the School Resource Officer suggested that perhaps it was needed based his intelligence and perspective. Mr. Farris asked what the average expectancy was of a new Officer staying in the department. Chief Roark felt it was an anomaly= to have people leave. There hadn’t been a lot of turnover except during the past year. It had been a stable department fr= om year-to-year.

Mr. Viger asked if during= the summer months the School Resource Officer (‘SRO’) would go on regular patrol versus being with the children at the parks. Chief Roark said they had always d= one a bit of a combination. The SRO wouldn’t be assigned to 10 weeks of summer camp; usually it takes approximately two weeks for the SRO to close out everything they had going during the school year. They = tried to do a mix of going to the Town camp and other summer programs around Town= as well as patrols to bolster a shift that may be running one/two cars. Mr. Viger asked if the SRO would be available for extra duty, such as at the skate board park. Chief Roark said the SRO would go = to where he was needed.

Mr. Gleason commented tha= t the Police budget was a zero based budget.&nbs= p; The Chief and Ms. Lingley began their budget review starting at zero= as opposed to taking last year’s budget and deleting items. They had done a complete and thoro= ugh analysis of their needs.

Mr. Dunne questioned why = the K-9 narcotic certification line was blank.&nbs= p; Chief Roark replied that they currently didn’t have a K-9 Unit; they were in the selection process. He said typically in the first year the dog was trained in patrol and tracking and as the dog became seasoned it would go into drug training as a secondary.

Mr. Sherman asked how the situation was as the animal control shelter. Chief Roark said the shelter was f= it for animals. Basic construction h= ad been done and a new drilled well had been put in. There was a new washing machine. Chief Roark recognized the contrib= utions of the Animal Rescue Network of New England.

Chief Roark discussed the= pagers and explained that all the overtime was paged out. He said the coverage was consisten= t 100% and everyone could be done at once; there could be no argument that a cell phone didn’t receive the information.

Gas/Oil – Chief Roa= rk reiterated that they were using eleven gallons more. He commented how well the Impalas = were doing.

Mr. Cate asked if the $3.00/gallon was an estimated or contract price. Chief Roark said it was just a pla= ce holder.

Mr. Farris asked if the Department was running three cars every shift. Chief Roark answered no. Three car= s were generally run during the midn= ight shift. He discussed why the s= hifts were set up as they were.

Repairs – The depar= tment was trying to determine the benchmarks on the Impala cruisers now that crui= sers were leased. The number has decreased from the previous year’s numbers.

Mr. Lavallee asked how the Department backed up their records. Chief Roark said they had servers; there wasn’t a secondary off-site saving. Mr. Lavallee suggested they look into having off-site storage. Chief Roark felt it was valid suggestion.

Mr. Dunne saw that tires = were separate from the fleet maintenance vehicle repair and questioned if there = was a reason for such. Chief Roark didn’t know when it was broken out in that manner. He asked if anyone objected to pla= cing it in the maintenance and repair. Mr. Lavallee said tires had always been separated out.

New Equipment – Chi= ef Roark stated they were at the end of their first 3-year lease for the Impalas. He discussed the condition of the = mobile radios inside the vehicles (that were approximately 12-15 years old), which= Motorola would no longer authorize them to be repaired. He noted that the portable radios, obtained in 1999 through a grant, were failing. The priorities were to get the fro= nt line cruisers new mobile radios. The radios currently in the cruisers would be put in storage and use their parts to repair the radios in the secondary (administrative) vehicles= . There was additional money in the = budget to be able to put new mobile radios in the cruisers coming on line next yea= r; that number would decrease (for the next lease cycle) in three years. Chief Roark pointed out that maintenance, repair and (per mile) fuel usage had decreased. The cars coming off line had value= ; the Department was getting to the point during the second cycle where they would have low mile cars coming up.

Mr. Viger commented that = the Code Enforcement Officer was currently driving an old cruiser. He asked what he would be driving = next year. Mr. Gleason believed the Planning Department budget contained a vehicle for the Code Officer. There was a brief discussion about= which departments had salvage cars they were using. Chief Roark told the Board that he strongly preferred that the Code Officer get out of driving anything that looked like a Police car. He = said in the long run it would help that program because it would have a less official and menacing presence. Mr. Viger asked that the surplus cars are included in the vehicle inventory bei= ng put together. Mr. Gleason sai= d he would find out how many old cars were in service and if they were included = in the vehicle inventory list.

Mr. Farris asked if the Department ever got confiscated vehicles that would be of any use to the Department. Chief Roark said = they seized vehicles if they were of value; they currently had three or four cars that were used a surveillance cars that would be discarded when they stopped working.

Expenses – Mr. Cate= asked what CALEA (Commission of Accreditation for Law Enforcement) was. Chief Roark explained that they had redone the Department’s policy manual, made changes to procedures and= the Police facility. They were lo= oking to become nationally accredited, which would lead to less liability, less claims to insurance and a better police department. There was some expense to having t= he Department evaluated.

Mr. Farris asked if the s= pace at Town Hall was adequate. Chief= Roark didn’t foresee the need for expansion in the immediate future. He said if they were to expand it = would most likely be in the evidence room. Mr. Farris asked if the items in the expansion area could be moved if the Town needed the space. Ch= ief Roark said the old paper records were in the expansion area. At this point he had no contingenc= y plan for them.

Retirement – Town Finance Director Cindy Kelley stated th= at the budget decreased approximately 12%.&nb= sp; The back up information contained a spread sheet breaking out the percentage changes.

Insurance – Town Finance Director Cindy Kelley said the budget had been level funded from last year because they didn’t have = new rates. The numbers will be modified once the numbers are received.

Mr. Cate asked how the in= surance figures were divided. Ms. Kel= ley said it was divided by the number of employees and what plan each one had.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Mr. Cate questioned if it was fund= ed 100%. Ms. Kelley answered yes= . Mr. Cate asked if only 90% of empl= oyees took it what would happen to the remaining 10%. Ms. Kelley said the budget was bas= ed on what was taken be each employee. Mr. Hall said the back up information would indicate the number of single plans, family plans etc.

ACTION ITEMS

Highway Department to submit a vehicle replacement schedule;
Highway Department to submit a listing of= all roads repaired in the past two years;
Mr. Gaydos to provide a copy of the Treasurer’s report;
Ms. Kelley to provide the Committee with a copy of the FSLA spreadsheet including what qualified;
Mr. Gleason will review to find out if all dumpsters (Town facilities) were with Allied Waste.
Park & Recreation will provide a spre= ad sheet showing the amount contained in the revolving fund, what came in= and where it went out to.
Mr. Gleason will find out how many old ca= rs were currently in service and if they were included in the vehicle inventory list.

ADJOURNMENT

MOTION:

(Lavallee/Sher= man)To adjourn the meeting.

VOTE:

(10-0-0) The motion carried.

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 9:00 pm.

= &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; = Respectfully submitted,

= &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; = Charity A. Landry Willis

= &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; = Recording Secretary