Finance Committee - Regular Meeting

all the Wednesday March 12 2025 meeting of the Gardner city council finance committee to order the clerk will police call the role councelor JN owitz present councelor heglin present councelor Mack present uh announcement of open meeting minute open meeting recordings uh any person may make a video or audio recording of an open session of a meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium subject to reasonable requirements of the chair as to the number placement and operation of equipment used as do not interfere with the con conduct of the meeting any person intending to make such recording shall notify the chair forth with all documents and Exhibits used or referenced at the meeting must be submitted in duplicate to the city clerk as they become part of the meeting minutes is anyone other than staff here recording there none to down number one uh review and approval of meeting minutes there are no meeting minutes on to section two first time on the agenda item 11507 our report rep from the Ronald F cor Memorial committee I'd like to welcome the chair of committee James paulse and the clerk Alan anelli you like to come up well I asked the clerk of because there may be things that uh I miss but that's unlikely I I highly doubt it um it was a thorough letter I want to State before we start here um the minutes uh as expected with thorough as well as assum done by former clerk Elli um I do want to thank the both of you for serving as well as uh former uh counselor Neil Jansen and especially Marcel for for serving on the uh the committee um I don't know if you guys want to speak to U what the committee did there is one other thing that if I may Mr chairman um the the report that was submitted had

appended to a the language that we voted on to recommend for the plaque in question uh the style of that that is it's enclosed in is not the style that was voted on by the committee because we the clerk wasn't able to get that language into the version of the plaque that we recommended so I have a copy I've made three copies of the ver version that we recommended that's the style that we voted on in to recommend with the language that's contained in the uh with the report that I that was submitted other than that I think the report speaks for itself uh the committee recommended uh we met on three occasions voted on the style the uh voted first of all to have a plaque placed in memory of councelor kier's service to the community uh the style of the plaque you have now the language that we recommend is on the plaque uh is is attached rather and the U the other vote that was made specifically on the issue of whether the committee would recommend that the council chamber be uh named in honor of councilor Kier uh we voted in deference primarily to the wishes of the family that not be named the Cil chamber not be named in his honor but rather that an appropriate back be placed in in his honor and uh that was in particular in defference to his widow Marcel but also the wishes of family and also the committee's discussion and particularly raised by uh Mrs Kier uh that there have been so many in the past who have honored the city with

their work and for years that it would be inappropriate just to that the council chamber be named specifically for him so this is something that the committee considered thoroughly and uh chose to vote in in this manner thank you happy to answer any questions that you may have open up to councilors U I don't have any questions but I just want to thank the committee for the hard work of time the diligence the care and thought that went into this I really appreciate the letter I think it it's a really nice design proposed um so thank you and I would just like i' like to repeat the same um expression of of gratitude to the committee and um their recommendation to the finance committee um and how we will then proceed from here is the other thing is that depending upon the uh budget that we didn't want to get into the cost of the plaque because we didn't know what the budget requirements would be for that and the size that the council would choose to and I'm sure the mayor would be able to find money in an appropriate way for this particular purpose but uh but we leave that to you a good judgment thank you I have nothing further to add I need to do but as everyone else here to thank you for and everyone in the committee for their hard work and um I I think this is an appropriate uh appropriate plaque um councelor ma yeah I'm going to make a motion that we keep this on our agenda for now um I don't want to bring it to the full Council to do the resend the vote because we would have to resend the vote that was already taking place on the council chamber name we already voted to name the chamber so we would have to resend that I think the clerk may have something to say on that instead of resending the vote you can amend something previously adopted so you present it as such under Roberts r b you can something previously adopted you can do that as well at the same time once you adopted you would still need to send a resolution to the mayor because I believe the mayor received the original

resolution for his signature yeah yeah he did um oh that's that finally did occur I understand that it did occur eventually um and that uh Council can amend that because nothing has been formally done you can put a plaque up you can spend money Etc so it's not beyond your uh control beyond your ability to change your prior vote uh I think the other thing it would be per for us to um out of respect for the mayor to allow him the time to get prices for a plaque because a bronze plaque is I already done some research and it is extremely C you know I did a little research too in the wording and whatnot and um so we're in my in my research I think we're talking probably about the the $4,000 I'm sure you're very purchasing agent I would like to you know I would like to give some time and then so it's when it's everything's presented it's it everything's done in its entirety and if there's no objection no by the committee I have done no seeing there's no objection I think we just wait on um further information um is that something I said the purchasing director nodding his head is that something that's been looked going to be looked into no yeah okay um I didn't know if I know if you already started okay I didn't know if you noding that you were looked into our radi you would look into it um so something that you can work on absolutely uh the design is consistent with the plaque that we have up here for former mayor fet and the plaque that's in Perry Auditorium for former mayor Perry um so it's I'm sure we can find something that works it okay well thank you for the opportunity to for coming out today Youk than you so item 11507 will remain on our calendar y on to the next item item 11510 in order authorizing the creation of an economic development finance manager for the position uh for the Community Development and planning department and

approving the job description for said position uh Mr Man thank you very much Mr chairman uh in the review of the department that director Stevens has undertaken uh the recommendation has been made to combine the economic development coordinator position and the budget project manager position uh these are two positions that were funded uh different ways the economic development coordinator was funded fully out the general fund where the budget project manager was funded a portion out of cdbg a portion from the gardenary Development Authority and a portion from the general fund as well um the uh in order to increase Department efficiencies the uh suggestion have been made to combine the two positions um at a new rate that has been um I agreee with the position I think it's in the best move of the city to move forward with such uh the job description for the position that director Stevens and director Morse came up uh with together is included in your packet as well as the compensation schedule ordinance uh which is the next item uh that would be uh in conjunction with this move should the council vote to approve this um the uh where the cost breakdown is for the salary I'll get into more when we get to the compensation ordinance itself uh but uh the city code under the new recent amendments to the city code that were adopted in December uh does require that the council approve the creation of any positions and their job descriptions uh before any movements move forward and if any amendments are made to any job descriptions moving forward to those also do require approval of the city council so that's what this item is here before you very similar to the new HR manager position that we took where we Consolidated positions together into one as well any further add direct receivings or is that all no I think that pretty much covers it I do think there is leeway for a lot of overlap between the two job responsibilities themselves in terms of economic development in my time here even when the economic development coordinator prior was here uh there is a

lot of overlap between my oversight and work alongside with that so I I don't see any issue with uh moving forward with the positions being combined thank you counselors questions just on the job description um is it truly just both jobs pushed into one was anything reallocated to another staff or the assistant or yourself or was there any loss of like duties or roles or was it a true merge it was a true merge um but again like I said for most of the things under Economic Development also fall under my purview um so dependent on their availability uh say as an example um I may step in to help out with uh facilitating correspondence with any local business businesses that are looking to start up or help facilitate meetings with members in City Hall um Etc thank um there are also other items like the uh previous budget budget project manager was doing the time sheets for the Department that has been reassigned to the clerical staff member of the department now um there's other internal payroll sheets time sheets things like that that have been taken out of the Budget Finance manager's position and given to the clerical staff just like we do in all the other departments in the city that's it for me than Ma I I just think um I'm all for combining Physicians if they're going to make the department run more effectively and efficient and in your short period of time to be able to see the need for this and that this um you know could be a cost-saving effort as well as um help your department um I'm all in favor of it thank you I have a I have nothing further to the two councils h on it I think as the mayor said we did this at the HR department just recently um combining some roles together some C saing and making things more efficient so I think all those things are good and I would entertain emotion just curiosity um is it depending on how the other item goes

does it make sense to more time this and I don't know if there's a good answer to this just depending on how we want to do the other one or is the job ordinance I guess truly separate from the salary enough that we could do one depending on what happen to the other they might both go through I don't know yet but I I would think it the orders especially our level is inconsequential um we're making a recommendation for passage um we can reorder if we think it's necessary but um obiously if we don't fund it the job description kind of is the OWN void you right but that would just remain so I would move to authorize the then second motion made by councelor Heen second by councelor Matt to authorize to recommend authorizing order to the F Council all those in favor say I I opposed the motion carries item 11511 in ordinance to amend the code of the city of gardener chapter 171 thereof entitled Personnel to amend Schedule E therefore entitled non-un compensation schedule to add the position of Economic Development and finance manager Mr Mayor further ad uh just that you'll see that the breakdown listed in the ordinance for this position uh does include the full amount of uh block grant funding uh the full amount from the Redevelopment Authority and the difference from the general fund uh the reason for that is the uh block rant for the year has already been assigned and appropriated so this will get us to the end of the fiscal year we're currently in the budget process for fiscal 26 um and uh the auditor director Stevens and I are going to be sitting down and talking about you know does this make sense to have this fully Grant funded or with you know some of the concerns at the federal level do we shift it back to the general fund and free up the grant funding uh for there those are conversations that'll come up uh but this is something that the uh salary ordinance has to be voted on annually by the city council in order to authorize the payments of the uh compensation for all non-union staff members uh so this is a vote that does come up in June for July 1st date anyway uh so this will just get us through the end of this current fiscal year and if there's any changes to those allocations that'll happen with the um budget

process for when the FY 26 budget gets submitted C Sav is anything yet nothing okay um those are some of the concerns I had we I saw it as an opportunity to move away from grant funding um at least for a large portion of this um we had about 66,000 $67,000 from the general fund um at this point under the current plan we have about 25 5,000 um as the mayor said um this money's already been allocated so we're going to use it as set forth for this calendar Year and hope to see us shift um excuse me fiscal year sorry um for this fiscal year I hope to see the shift um even if we don't fully funded from the general fund that would bring the grand funding for this position down to below $10,000 um which I think is a good a good move and step towards um moving salaries away from grant funding I don't if there's other sentiments from the counselors no I as I've always said in the past uh funding salaries from Grants is never best practice and I I agree I'd like to see it move as much away from um yeah couple just a couple things I was curious um you know looking at the previous salaries it was 118,000 and change plus the benefits we're now looking like we going be saving about 43,000 there's never anything wrong with that um but I am definitely worried about getting bang for our buck so if we're saving that much money this is only at 75 um it's a lot of Duties it's a lot of responsibility we've seen based on our previous director and thankfully our current director is making some good changes um there's just been a lot of issues there been a lot of mistakes things have fallen through so in terms of attracting I think good competent qualified candidates I am just worried that this might not be competitive or comparable I don't know if we've looked at other municipalities and the Departments and setups um um and similar salaries for similar positions if such

exist um but I think for me that's something that's I think still lacking with this you know with the hr1 you're right we merged them but there was no law there's no savings there but there was there was no increase but I think there's precedent to say you know it could be comparable or more money um but I do worry that you know 10,000 isn't L I don't know if there was any thought to that process how we arrived to that number um so there was some comparison with other communities that were had similar roles but also just checking the salary range with that of the director and the assistant director um where those are the two positions within the department um that would have oversight over this position as well um so those were the two factors that went into that proposal what's the assistant at 80 80 okay thank you I think coun he is up a good point because the one thing that has been a negative is the amount of open within the department so with the um hiring in that position whatever we can do to get people some more longevity there it's going to be for the Department's gr yeah I'm pulling that out of my memory so I'll be happy to get you with the director the assistant director Mi thank you um for Monday's meeting so if there's any um of you have any the information on other communties I'm going to do my own research too but if you have anything in hand that' be off at least what was reflected in the survey study I know I was looking at that to reference the pay scale for the positions that are non-union in in my department I believe the assistant director is at just at 75 um for for their pay so it would be on equal leveling for that and I think in terms of the level of responsibility comparable to the both positions I think they're they're quite comparable so I believe that the document I was looking at was was most up to date but like

mayor said we'll get the most up toate number and make sure that that's that's correct I had some of the similar concerns that councel he Council Mack of the amount I did get a chance to speak with director Stevens and director moris today about um about the role and if they thought it was competitive um they they were confident that they they believe they could get someone to fill the role um I hope that is the case I think that that will be the case um it's something I something the best practice for us to revisit um but um I I think this is U something I'd like to go at least personally I would like to go forward with um but the further information about um that the mayor and the director five will be very helpful as all I'll entertain a motion of item 11511 uh ordinance being um recommended to the full Council second by councel Max by councel heglin to recommend passes of the ordinance to the full council is there any further discussion hearing none all those in favor say I I those opposed carries Mr chairman 75 75,000 for the assistant director 75,000 for the assistant director thank you um on to section three in subcommittee item 11477 discussions in regard to the internal working groups review of the salary study any further updates from thank you director s any further updates from the mayor in regards to this no not any questions for the mayor uh I just have one I'm just I know that the department heads put what their um projection from the S their group review of the salour study into their FY 26 budget I have concerns of what this is going to do to the budget and what it's

going to do to the counselors who have not seen this when it comes to us and the confusion is going to cause yeah some did some didn't the auditor and I are currently reviewing the first draft of the budget um a lot of okay like I said some went into the wish list category but then we still have the other category there when you look at the full item of the um Department full request versus what we have in projected Revenue there's about $8 million Delta uh we got it down on the mayor's side up to about $1.2 million Delta at this time so it's something that we're still working on now which is normal this time of the year actually quite frankly this point it's normally at a 2.4 million I think that's where we were around this time last year um because we're still just taking the preliminary looks at it um so it's something that I do expect will be close to last year's time frame with the May time frame for things coming before the council um that way we'd have most of May and then all of June to look at the budget proposal that's there um but it's something that we're just still in the internal final product do you foresee us you know I uh the way you submit the budget which I love you you know the mayor you submit us yeah a line of us saying you know with it and without it you know what I mean so we can you know so that it's distinguished yeah that that I just think that's going to that would be very helpful abut um and um it you know and and as I I have have said I just I I don't see what has been you know I see what has been done as a draft I don't see it it's it's anything that's you know is ready to go to anybody right now and it still needs a lot of work work so um but I just I just don't want it to cause the budget process to be delayed or make it go longer or as I said more confus be more confusing than it already needs to be yeah I don't think so I think it should be fine great thank you further councel okay um I'd like to no objection keep this item on our on our calendar for future discussions um

he no objections it will stay on our calendar item 11 482 discussions regarding the City's health insurance payments and trust fund is there any further update Mr Mayor the Health Trust Fund stole out about a 1.47 yeah 1.7 at the end of February um we're currently working with our Brokers right now to renew our plan for the new fiscal year so we should you know be having rates around the same time that the budget gets submitted um which is again earlier than we had before because we we're going from the October start date to the fiscal year start date um so we'll have better budgeting planning at least for that matter um that's that's pretty much the only update we have at this point is we're still waiting for information from the broker and that we're the health insurance trust fund right now is at a healthy level any questions from the council um May I add I also looked into the uh schedu a utility and I was able to put that so I said another another reminder so I get two reminders to do the monthly uh um journal entries so no concern there no thank you for all your appreciate you nothing else for you back nothing else I know there were some discussions during the school communte meeting about health insurance are those was any in relation to this the trust fund and the that was the earlier conversations that we were having with the health insurance trust fund okay um same the same thing that the council got the school Community got okay all right just wanted to make sure everyone home um again I'd like to keep this on our our calendar if there no objection agreed I agree item 11482 will stay on the calendar thank you Mr Robert right you uh final item on our agenda agenda 11503 in order of taking for easements temporary Andor permanent by imminent domain for the purpose of safe roots to school project for various properties located on Elm Street in the area between Temple Street and Cherry Street this is back before us as there need to be some additional edits to it I know city solicitor uh poer is here I think

attorney tree is here as well U for one of the items um where there's a appearance of a conflict um mayor or I don't if you yeah this is the uh the edits um to the um saford school takings have been made uh though there were issues with um one of the references to tyin bond um from a template that was used before uh who was not the company that drafted the orders of taking uh those have all been corrected there were a couple spelling mistakes that have been corrected um overall uh the final product is what s in front of you anything further that we did we reviewed that we uh verified uh uh taking identification numbers square footages with the maps uh and there was one additional uh point that uh Mr cmore just pointed out to me uh my office just made that correction I'm representing the city in connection with all the orders accept the property located at uh 157 Elm Street 153 153 Elm Street attorney tree has agreed to help us with that uh and I greatly appreciate her um first of all capability just to kind of jump into the flow of the project um there's really not a conflict there I have had some prior dealings with uh three of four current owners um and uh but we just thought it would be best to avoid the respectfully we were taking something understood um and then I will for 153 Elm Street just represent that I've reviewed the title um I reviewed the map I find the designation to be accurate um I did make a change to the proposed order and that's because this parcel is going uh through a partition action in court right now so we've had to designate the commissioner um as one of the owners for and then uh represent the decree entered in the court um so

that it passes appropriately the other interesting thing having spoken today with that commissioner um is that the property is about to be sold um so uh I I will just uh put everybody on notice that if the timing of the recording works out the wrong way we may that we may be back for an amended order to designate the new orders we'll have to see how the facts work out and all those issues made it even more clear to me I spoke to the commissioner myself and actually I corresponded with him and I just felt after I corresponded with him that we should just simply just have turny Tre step in and take care of and I appreciate it very much thank you as do we thank you ATT thank you you're welcome so aside from those things should be all set okay um is there the newest copy is this the accurate copy going to the council that we have this is the document we have right here so I just would want to this is what BR just did you have the additional one from attorney TR uh yeah that's at the bottom the last one the specific one that I did for that with the long name that you sent me I hand that to you or we canile one of the other there I thank you okay this is with the clerk or will be with the clerk as well will be with the um are there any further any questions from the uh counselors yeah um thank you obviously for all the work on this I know it's a lot um just curious I know two quick questions um some of the changes I noticed I think on the first P here the now therefore be I ordered that that looked pretty different from the first round I was just curious what led to that what you know the um so we have had various transmittal communication issues uh between Adobe and Microsoft

Word and cutting and pasting and the formatting and if I was to say to you that that was an initial challenge I think I would misuse the word challenge so um um uh the staff in my office have been working with with Mr cmore and we that out so that was the big issue the joice of one things don't speak to each other one Microsoft versus pdf and going between back and forth some things got muffled up but we were able to um come together and fix it so that should be the right order in front of you today thank you thank you um I noticed the school was now in there as one of the properties but it wasn't before feels like a big oversight the biggest build on the street but I was just curious what changed what happened or uh so if you remember you uh Council voted to accept the donation from the school committee uh at a previous meeting so just to make it all clean with what's being filed that was included in there so the council already voted to accept the donation at a previous meeting this just makes it consistent across the board thank you this packet contains two donations one from a gentleman who resides on Elm Street uh named Calvin Brooks and one from the school department so we got both donations in there both are designated as donations and the award of Damages is recorded uh with a SC bre through I no further questions I'm just quickly I just the answer is give her a few moments I see it was roughly not roughly there were 19 takings is that correct 20 20 must Miss in the school yeah believe is what I was total expenditures just over $3,000 what's actually expended for we worked with the auditor we reviewed the um account reported on those orders those uh the amount in the account is

sufficient to cover the awarded damages let um all Council Max get through what's sort of the timeline so whatever happens here assuming it goes to PO Council what happens after that it gets submitted to mass do after they get reported with the registry um and Dot kind of takes over the process from there it's the identical process to what happened to the Uptown project the takings are for the temporary takings are for a period of three or five years five and they will allow do the opportunity over the course of the next five years to to make those uh improvements I I'm noticing um on property 137 it's it's totally much more expansive in the listing this is what we had and this is the the names on the new copy we added uh some records from the register okay all right give was a number of probates involved with that uh piece of prop I'm glad we asked for additional time uh there is a spelling error on 163 um Elm Street with gner I just want to point that out for clerical purposes sorry it's a teacher just a typ you be too I miss

and I think that's it for me in my first plan SC any further ad Mr Mayor no any further questions from the council I've for the committee I have this time entertain a motion attain a motion that um we take item 11503 and bring it uh back to the full Council for um approval seconded motion made by councelor Max seconded by councel heglin to send item 11503 back to the full Council for passage those in FA is there any further discussion yeah I just want to make a a comment if there are any clerical changes anything that needs to be done please get it to the CL for our our pack for our packet for that goes out on Thursday Thursday yeah Thursday so that everything we have for the vote on Monday is accurate okay thank you I think just to go with that um you know I think it's totally normal to catch mistakes and subcommittee um we are all human it happens uh especially with those many things I think you all have on your plates but I do hope sort of moving forward especially when there's money or legal things involved that we can get even a cleaner version here I think there's still even some aesthetic in small things in there um and just want to put our our best foot forward and for things to be as I think professional um and as excellent as possible open just have a little more diligence in doing our due course and getting things done but as a way of the process and and so we're all alling it together and thank you everyone for your effort but hopefully moving forward we can have less you know issues if possible um but teachable woman thank you that's it any further councel Ma I have nothing so all those in favor say hi hi hi opposed motion passes a motion to adjourn so mve second motion made by councelor Ma second by

councel Hein all those in favor say I I opposed stand