Board of Selectmen Budget Workshop, March 27, 2024

Board succeeds in meeting default budget.

Chairman Morin opened the meeting saying that while this meeting was not an open forum for public discussion, members of the audience were welcome to suggest ways to reduce the budget. 

The Town Administrator updated the board on the process for holding a special meeting to present a new budget to the voters. This is what will have to happen if the board finds itself unable to agree to spending cuts necessary to to meet the default budget’s bottom line of $4.848 million. If the board does this, it will have to submit its proposed budget to the Budget Committee. Just as in the normal budgeting cycle, the committee will finalize and recommend a budget to the voters.

The largest portion of the meeting involved scrutinizing the police budget line by line, with the Police Chief saying that her proposed budget was bare bones and that there was nothing to cut, and with the Selectmen suggesting line items to cut. When it was proposed to remove the purchase of a new cruiser from the budget, the Chief reported that the cruiser had already been ordered and was about to be delivered. This led to a discussion of the chronic and severe mechanical problems the department has with its 2020 cruiser. The dealer has offered $3.5k as trade-in value for this problematic vehicle. 

The Chief pointed out uncertainties about budget items, such as cruiser maintenance. It’s impossible to predict everything that could go wrong. The Selectmen discussed the board’s need to review spending every month to ensure that they stayed within the budget allocated to them by the voters. 

The Fire Department budget was scrutinized. Chairman Morin pointed out that last year the department had a $15k budget for overtime but spent $45k. The Town Administrator said the overtime policy needed to be changed so that the Town wasn’t paying 3 hours of overtime each week to cover a standard shift. The board decided to put this on the agenda for its next meeting to change the overtime policy. 

Information previously released under a right-to-know request shows that the town’s former Interim Town Administrator, John Scruton, complained by February 15, 2023 that the town’s former Fire Chief, Jaye Vilchock, was not operating the department in compliance with the Town’s overtime policy. Firefighters working two 24-hour shifts per week were not being paid overtime - which is the typical practice of other municipalities - whereas the town’s policy called for overtime starting after 45 hours. This was promptly escalated to the board. Vilchock claimed that the town’s former Town Administrator, Chris Sterndale, had agreed to the 48-hour no-overtime system as part of the 2022 warrant article to increase staffing in the department to enable the Fire Station to be staffed 24/7 and that the Town Administrator had failed to update the documented policy. 

Chairman Morin began the discussion of the Highway Department budget review by commending the new Highway Director, Steven Rollins, for his work so far, particularly his handling of the severe rutting that occurred on the town’s dirt roads this spring. Citizens have noticed and have been saying so to the Selectmen. 

The use of plowing contractors was discussed. The town has only large trucks for snow plowing. These trucks are too big to plow many of the town’s dirt roads. The town contracts with companies with smaller trucks to plow these roads. 

Ultimately, the board was able to craft an operating budget within the fiscal constraints of the default budget through large numbers of mostly small reductions and tapping some ARPA funds. The Town Administrator will provide the board with budget status reports at the first meeting of each month so that the board can monitor expenditures. 

Chairman Morin concluded that the efforts made by the board and the department heads “justifies the future of default budgets…. We just proved to the people of Nottingham that we had extra money to cut.” Other Selectmen disputed this conclusion. A discussion of the various ways the newly agreed-upon operating budget entails a degradation in town services ensued, and how the public needs to be educated about this, and made aware that if the voters choose the default budget next year services will be further degraded. 

At the end of the meeting, a member of the public questioned why the town pays for public trash disposal. The questioner said they pay for their own trash disposal. Why should the taxpayers pay for others’ trash disposal? The Town Administrator responded that the Town is required by law to provide this. 

Watch the video: