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Minutes of Council Budget Workshop on June 11, 2019 WORKSHOP MEETING OF THE AGAWAM CITY COUNCIL The following are the minutes from the: Agawam City Council Workshop Meeting Tuesday, June 11, 2019 at 7:00 P.M. Agawam Senior Center 954 Main Street, Agawam, MA The meeting was attended by eight City Councilors with Councilors Letellier, Rossi and Suffriti absent. Councilor Suffriti arrived late. Mayor Sapelli, School Committee member Anthony Bonavita and Auditor, Cheryl St. John, were also in attendance among others. The meeting was called to order at 7:03pm. Council President Johnson opened up the meeting with an explanation of what to expect on Monday, June 17th. Every year this happens with the potential of cuts and it made sense to meet this evening to discuss them. If the budget is adopted as it sits, it will raise the tax levy by 2 ½%. Councilor Sandlin asked about the over $1 million in carryovers and where that money goes if left unspent. Council President Johnson said they are carried over for a specific purpose or bill and any funds left over would into Free Cash. Councilor Sandlin mentioned that on the school side, if they haven’t used it or ordered it by a certain date, then it is not needed. She wondered why this happened on the town side. Council President Johnson stated that the carryovers exist either because there is a capital improvement project that was not yet complete and the money is necessary to carry over until completion or there are line items with bills to be paid that aren’t received until after the close of the fiscal year. Councilor Sandlin also asked about the waste water funds – do those go into the General Fund? Council President Johnson said no that is a revolving fund and would go back into Retained Earnings. Councilor Cavallo asked after everything is paid, what amount would go back into the General Fund or estimate the percentage that goes back into the General Fund? Auditor St. John stated that all but the Capital Improvement funds go back in. Council President said any balances left in carryover accounts go back to Free Cash. He asked Auditor St. John to find out how much money was left in account at the end of last year. Auditor will send out in an email tomorrow. The General Fund 100 closed $2,074,761.22 The School Fund 010/011/014 closed $1,999.58 The Water Fund closed $871,839.85 The Golf Fund closed $5,082.87 The Wastewater Fund closed $380,941.38 Please note unspent appropriations in the general fund factor into free cash calculation and unspent appropriations in enterprise funds factor into retained earnings calculation. Councilor Sandlin asked about the golf course paying back some of the money that has been given to them? They looked at the information in the Memo from the Auditor. Council President said we can pass the Golf budget as presented and can adjust later on if they make more money than anticipated noting that the FY20 budget cannot be greater than the receipts. Mayor Sapelli was optimistic that they golf course would make even more money than anticipated. Councilor Sandlin asked what a Revolving Account can do and Council President Johnson said that the revenue generated is earmarked for a specific item which is set by the Council. Councilor Sandlin then asked questions about the Ambulance Fund and if any of those funds could be used somewhere else. Council President Johnson said looking at the Fire Department budget personnel sheet and in theory that money could be increased but that would have to be done by the Mayor. There were several questions/comments about call fire fighters and what they do and how they get paid. Councilor Cavallo inquired about the Before and After School Care program and the funds in that account. Mayor Sapelli said the money used has to benefit the students at those specific schools – computers, lap top, playscapes, etc. The projected revenue for FY20 is about $352,000 however the expenses are greater than that so they are projected to spend more next year. Councilor Mineo asked how much overtime was paid for out of the ambulance fund. Auditor St. John will find out and email everyone tomorrow. Councilor Mercadante asked if the purchase of the new ambulance will help out with the amount of overtime. He also asked about the need for a fire truck to go out on every ambulance call and do those firefighters get extra money when they are already on shift? They do get paid separately if it is for a medical call and not a fire call. Councilor Suffriti explained most of this is based on in house safety policies and state protocol. Just for the record, being in the industry, Agawam is known to be one of the top in emergency responders. Councilor Mercadante noted that this would be primarily in contract negotiations that get them extra pay for these types of runs. Council President Johnson explained the history of how this came to be and why we needed to provide incentives maintaining the highest level of care for our residents. As of June 12, 2019 the amount of overtime charged to 22822 51030 Ambulance Overtime is $211,694.11 Council Vice President Calabrese inquired about the capital improvement funds left over in the police department budget to which the Auditor said it was not spent and held over. Council Vice President Calabrese asked for information regarding these capital improvements. Auditor is to find out and send in an email tomorrow. The Police Station Locker Room budget in the amount of $138,500 has not been utilized as of today because the Town is holding off because they are considering building a public safety complex. Councilor Cavallo asked about how many retirees in the school budget and were they all replaced. Mayor Sapelli said fourteen retirees and not all of them were replaced. Council President Johnson noted that the school budget showed that some positions were eliminated and some added. Mayor Sapelli clarified. Councilor Cavallo stated he had a problem with the hiring process as salaries make up 75% to 80% of the budget. He stated that teachers are making $70,000 and that is a lot of money. School Committee member Bonavita noted that they are always looking for the best candidate. Councilor Cavallo said there are about 400 teachers in the system and he had heard a teacher was hired a couple years ago only to retire in a short time. Councilor Mercadante asked about the police car situation and stated he was all for the purchase of the vehicles however again inquired about purchasing a less expensive, more fuel efficient vehicle. He asked about the price difference between Tahoes and Explorers. Mayor Sapelli stated that the Procurement Officer was in process of making this comparison and would be meeting with a car dealership this week. Be assured they will get the “best bang for their buck” with respect to these vehicles. Councilor Mercadante came up with about an $11,000 difference between the vehicles. Mayor Sapelli agreed that his concerns were legitimate and is taking a second look at the purchase. Councilor Sandlin asked for a matrix on the School Department and Council President Johnson told her it was already included and where to find it. Councilor Sandlin questioned the need for two more lead teachers. School Committee member Bonavita reminded her that the School Department had asked for four lead teachers last year and only two were included in last year’s budget so this year, they are asking for two more. Councilor Sandlin discussed the 400 enrolled students in one school and 250 in another – why would those needs be the same? She said it seems that every child has a need and where does this stop? School Committee member Bonavita said the School Committee had similar concerns and said Agawam is playing “catch up” with respect to addressing all these needs the kids have today. We can no longer say it is the parents’ fault. It doesn’t work that way anymore – the world has changed. Councilor Sandlin asked if it made more sense to hire social adjustment counselors instead of lead teachers and she is very concerned with this. School Committee member Bonavita said he can only tell her that they are being told it is working this way. Council Vice President Calabrese asked about the funds leftover with respect to voting machines and asked Auditor St. John to look into it. The clerk's office will be utilizing the balance to purchase handicap machines and poll pads. They are waiting for state approval for the purchase. Councilors Cavallo and Mercadante asked more questions about the School Department budget and asked if the numbers and needs would be increasing in the future or do they think the numbers are decreasing. Mayor Sapelli stated he would share what the Superintendent of Schools told him – that the numbers are not equal and they are looking again at redistricting. Councilor Magovern asked how many students are from other towns. Mayor Sapelli stated that 75-80 come into Agawam and about 35-40 go to out of town schools. Council President Johnson said that it was a netting process. Councilor Sandlin noted that charter schools hurt us. Mayor Sapelli said that the cost per student if $5000 and when a child leaves for a Charter School, it costs us what our cost per pupil is and for Agawam that is $16,000. This year we are losing $700,000 - $800,000 in funds from students going to Charter Schools with next year’s projection being nearly $1,000,000. Mayor Sapelli said we are not on a level playing field. Charter Schools don’t have the numbers of special needs students or many with issues. Councilor Sandlin asked why West Springfield’s cost per student is $15,000 when ours is $16,000 and the Mayor replied there are formulas for these calculations. Councilor Sandlin mentioned that West Springfield’s Chapter 70 money was nearly $2,000,000 when ours was $200,000 to $300,000 – the money is being funneled into inner city schools. Council President Johnson explained what would happen at Monday’s meeting for the benefit of the newer councilors. At Monday’s meeting, we would be voting to adopt the budget. As a reminder, the City Council only controls the bottom line for the School Department budget and can only reduce the budget by a specific dollar amount. For the town side, the City Council has to be more specific and reduce by identifying the line items they wish to cut. The City Council does not have the ability to add to the budget (except our own Council budget). We either adopt what has been presented or cut what is there. The City Council can make cuts. If the goal is to reduce the tax levy, the Mayor is under no obligation to do that however he has assured me that he would never play that game as his predecessor did. Mayor Sapelli stated if it is the will of the City Council to reduce the tax levy, he would act accordingly. Council President Johnson said that this past year, he has heard from more residents than any other year with regard to the increase in taxes. Agreed, some is due to the increase in evaluations however most of that affected our local businesses. The commercial rate is almost double that of the residential rate. At this point, because of years of putting more and more on the commercial/industrial side, we must now put more on the residents. Councilor Sandlin asked if the assessed values would be going up because people don’t understand and Mayor Sapelli stated they may go up and bottom line is people want to move to Agawam so that makes the values go up which is a good thing. Councilor Sandlin said most of the seniors don’t see that until they sell their homes which most don’t do and this raised their taxes. Council President Johnson stated that we are at the max on the commercial side – when residential values go up and the commercial stayed the same, it makes the taxes go up more on the residential side. Council President Johnson and Councilor Mercadante discussed commercial values increasing as well as residential. He also noted that the mill rate would go up 2 ½% if we adopt the budget as is. Councilor Mineo asked what the projected growth would be and the Mayor stated that the Assessor would evaluate this. School Committee member Bonavita wasn’t disagreeing with Council President Johnson however he hadn’t heard anything from residents regarding the increase in taxes. Council President Johnson said with all due respect, it is not reported that the School Committee raised taxes, only that the City Council is responsible and in the past year, he has heard it more than ever before. Bottom line is this is OUR job – the job of the City Council – and that’s why we would hear more about it than a School Committee member. Councilor Mercadante wanted to reiterate what Council President Johnson said about residential complaints. As a local business owner, he sees town residents on a daily basis and has for years. This year residents are really bothered about the tax increase. Basically, they only care what the bottom line is and how deep they have to reach into their pockets. Council President Johnson agreed and said the difference between then and now is we don’t have any newspaper reporters on a regular basis and there is no magnifying glass so the general public doesn’t hear anything and only sees the bottom line. Mayor Sapelli stated that on a plus side he hasn’t heard complaints but has heard a lot of praise about it being “about time we got to see where our tax money is being spent” and residents are happy about the sidewalks and roads being repaired. Council President Johnson asked if there were any more questions and thanked Mayor Sapelli, Anthony Bonavita and Cheryl St. John for attending the meeting. Motion to adjourn was moved by Councilor Magovern and seconded by Councilor Cavallo. The workshop was adjourned at 8:19pm Respectfully submitted, Christopher C. Johnson City Council President cc: Full Council, Mayor, Solicitor