Selectboard Minutes
Town of Greenfield
7 Sawmill Road, Greenfield, NH 03047
Selectboard’s Minutes
Thursday, October 28, 2023 – 5:30 PM
Budget Summit Minutes
Selectboard: Chairman Michael Borden, Selectman Tom Bascom, Selectman Mason Parker
Staff: Aaron Patt, Town Administrator; Caleb Hall, Recycling Center Supervisor; Brian Giammarino, Police Chief; Jim Morris, DPW Director; Jeff LaCourse, Fire Chief
Budget Committee: Kathy Seigars, Sean Sylvester
9:00 AM: Budget Summit
The Chair opened the meeting at 9:00 AM and provided opening remarks. The Budget Summit has been posted and is a chance for the Selectboard and Budget Advisory Committee members to hear from the Department Heads about the proposed 2024 budgets and to ask questions about the forecasts. The Chair noted that the Board intends to bring the topline request for projects and operational costs to the voters again in March at Town Meeting. The Board concurred and stated that the Board will provide guidance on which items residents can cut if they want to address the tax impact, but that the Board’s responsibility is to capture the actual costs necessary to run the town, care for the buildings, and maintain the roads.
At 9:05 AM, the Chair welcomed Caleb C.J. Hall to the meeting. Mr. Hall provided a proposed 2024 budget, which is coming in 2% lower than the 2023 budget. A brief budget narrative was also provided. The Selectboard discussed the 2024 budget with Mr. Hall and also went over the Board’s interest in executing on the 2023 “storage” Warrant Article. A discussion followed. At the conclusion of the discussion, the Board agreed to support the purchase of new storage trailers this year and if there are remaining funds to purchase concrete blocks for use with the storage trailers. (These are large construction ready blocks.) The board noted that the operations budget was lower but did not make any additional changes. At the conclusion of the discussion, the Board thanked Mr. Hall for his time.
At 10:35 AM, the Chair welcomed Chief Giammarino to the meeting. The Selectboard and Chief Giammarino discussed the Police Department’s proposed 2024 budget. The Selectboard reviewed the changes that pertain to the new police station at the Old Town Office building. The Board discussed the difficulties that the department is having staffing Part-Time positions. This is partly because the State of New Hampshire has stopped providing the Part-Time Academy and therefore, there is no pipeline of part-timers in the pipeline. There is no certainty regarding how long this situation will last. The Selectboard discussed the potential of bringing a Warrant Article to Town Meeting to see if the town would approve a fourth officer. With the inability of the department to locate Part-Time officers, due to market conditions, the Selectboard feels that a fourth officer is the best solution. A discussion followed on the department’s inability to address the backlog of vacation that has accumulated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Board believes that establishing a fourth full-time position will help the department schedule paid time off without negatively impacting service levels. At the conclusion of the discussion, the Board thanked Chief Giammarino for his time.
The Board discussed the operating budget for the town and held an extended conversation about the town’s legal budget, the use of the Legal ETF for extraordinary legal purposes, and the recent litigation involving the Planning Board. The Board determined that they would revisit the discussion about the legal budget at a future meeting.
The Board held a brief lunch break.
At 1:05 PM, the Chair welcomed Jim Morris, DPW Director to the meeting. The Selectboard and Mr. Morris discussed the proposed 2024 budget. The DPW operating budget is projected to come in 1.4% lower than in 2023. The significant drivers of the overall budget, however, for next year include the cost to pave the remaining section of New Boston Road. The paving Warrant Article for 2024 is increasing from $200,000 to $240,000. Mr. Morris stated that the paving companies have no ability to forecast the cost of asphalt. The quotes he has received cannot be relied on for pricing into next year and are budgetary advisements only for the purposes of entering placeholders. The Selectboard discussed the staffing issues at the department. The department theoretically functions with four full-time and two part-time positions. Currently the department has three full-time employees working and no part time employees. There is one seasonal plow driver to help with snow storms. The Selectboard stated that they were impressed with the amount of work that the DPW Director was able to get done this year in spite of the severe staff shortage and extraordianrily poor weather . The staffing issues complicate the Board’s vision for the amount of work that they had intended when they set the budget. The Board discussed several options for 2024 that could help the town reach its goals in 2024. These included increasing wages for part-time help, streamlining the municipal purchasing policy to allow for a roster of preferred service vendors that the Director could schedule during the year, and/or hiring another full-time employee for the department. The Board discussed the Parks and Recreation budget, the Buildings and Grounds line items for building and grounds maintenenace in the DPW budget, and the question of whether to break out the Parks and Recreation budget into smaller budgets or to add portions of the budget to the DPW budget. At the conclusion of these discussions, the Board was of a consensus to review the Parks and Recreation budget at a future meeting. At the end of the discussion, the Board thanked Mr. Morris for his time.
At 2:30 PM, the Chair welcomed Jeff LaCourse, Fire Chief to the meeting. Chief LaCourse provided a budget forecast for 2024 and explained that his budget was restructured to ensure that there was sufficient budget for each of the lines, but overall the budget is remaining the same. The Board discussed each of the line item changes with the Chief. The Board and the Chief held a lengthy discussion on the stipend for the volunteer fire fighters. The Board explained that they would prefer to see this line increase over time because the community’s needs are increasing and eventually the town may need to go to a call department. Selectman Parker explained that if they don’t increase the budget gradually, when the need for a call department materializes, the difference in cost will very significantly spike the tax rate. After some additional discussion, Chief LaCourse agreed to increase the stipend line to $50,000 from $40,000. At the conclusion of the meeting, the Board thanked Chief LaCourse for his time.
3:45 PM: Adjournment
At 3:45 pm, Selectman Bascom made a motion to adjourn the meeting; the motion was seconded by the Chair. The motion carried 3-0.