Special Selectboard Budget 11/25/24
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Monday,
November 25, 2024
7PM – 9 PM
Minutes
Approved on: Monday, December 2, 2024
Minutes
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Town of Richmond
Special Selectboard Meeting
Minutes of November 25, 2024
Members Present: Bard Hill, Adam Wood, David Sander, Jay Furr, Lisa Miller
Absent: None
Staff Present: Town ManagerJosh Arneson;Assistant to the Town ManagerDuncan Wardwell; Town Clerk Linda Parent; Finance Director Connie Bona, Fire Department Chief Dennis Gile, Highway Department Chief Pete Gosselin, Library Laurie Dana, Library Suzanne Krohn.
Others Present: MMCTV Erin Wagg, MMCTV Angelike Contis, June Heston, Jim Feinson, Cara LaBounty, Richmond racial equity Patty Brushett, Ian Bender
MMCTV Video: Recorded by MMCTV by Erin Wagg
https://youtu.be/U-10OYMzse4?si=KT4LS37xSdEgyiUH
Call to Order: 7:01 pm
Welcome by: Sander
Public Comment:
Brushite stated she would like Richmond Racial Equity to be on the Selectboard’s radar and she posed the question what could her organization do to support the police? Richmond Racial Equity would like to see the website maintained and more things included there. She requests that a full-time admin for the Police be hired.
Additions or Deletions to Agenda:
Timestamp: 0:04
Items for Presentation or Discussion with those present
Review options for loans to fund expenses from the July 2024 flood
Timestamp: 0:05
https://www.richmondvt.gov/fileadmin/files/Selectboard/Meetings/2024/11/3a2_Loan_Rates.pdf
People who participated in discussion: Sander, Arneson, Bona, Hill, Furr, LaBounty, Heston, Wood
Arneson reported that Bona has contacted several banks regarding short term loans for $750,000, $1 million, and $1.5 million, He read a letter from one of the Town attorney’s that stated: “the fact that the Town has paid flood expenses and its cash flow is adequate for the FY 25 budget indicates that the Town does not presently need a current expense note.” Arneson added because we didn't need to borrow immediately to pay for this [Flood 2024], we can't really borrow now, but we could borrow later in the year if our cash flow becomes tight. Hill wanted to know is there some sort of middle ground where we would have authority to utilize a line of credit? He continued, one possibility is to use some unspent dollars from last year, vacancy savings, use them to offset taxes, with a recognition that it is going to push us into a point where at some time in the next years, we will need to borrow money. Bona explained right now Unassigned funds are non-existent, so we can't put that towards the fiscal year 26 budget, unless we borrow more than the point where we hit 15% for our policies; to create Unassigned funds, we'd have to borrow more than 1.5 million. Furr and Hill iterated that they do not like to raise taxes and presently it looks like taxes need to be raised 20%, which will be voted down and the budget will have to be cut.
Bona stated that 75% of interest incurred on a loan would be reimbursable by FEMA. Arneson suggested looking at money that could be saved by looking at, for example, Police funds where the Town has already realized some money there. Bona added that an expense note does not need to be voted on, so she and Feinson would be able to get a note if suddenly cash is needed. Presently it’s unclear if we would even qualify for a Bond Bank loan. We will know more by next meeting how much was saved by the Police. LaBounty asked when the last time a loan was needed for cashflow expenses. To which Hill stated that Water and Sewer needed a loan for their tank in recent years. Arneson reiterated that FEMA reimbursement is only 75%, so the Town still has to pay 25% of the Flood repairs.
Hill reminded people that this is what happens with Unassigned funds being used to lower the tax rate. Bona replied that this was the perfect example of how we accrue Unassigned funds through fewer expenses, vacancy savings, but when all this FEMA money rolls in, we're going to have a lot of Unassigned funds and she would recommend at that point to put it towards your Reserves and help keep the taxes down for a longer period of time. LaBounty claimed the tax rate has never gone down, to which Furr vehemently disagreed and stated that the tax rate for the Town did go down the last two years. Heston said she disagreed with putting Unreserved funds into Reserve funds. She feels that you want to have money available when you need it, because once you put it into Reserve funds, you don't have it accessible. Wood added that the 15% policy may have been a bit misguided, knowing the unpredictable events that may happen. Furr added that he disagrees with taxing the Town more just to create a “rainy day” fund. Hill used the water tank as an example, where current Town’s people are paying off that tank, but future generations will have a free water tank. Bona said that the 15% policy was put in place last year and many people thought it should be more than 15%. Arneson said that we were above 15% at the time of last year’s flood. Bona reiterated that each Reserve has a specific use, when LaBounty suggested using Highway Reserves. Furr agreed that having just one large Reserve would be too confusing.
Review of draft FY26 Budget, with reductions in expenditures since last review
Timestamp: 0:41
People who participated in discussion: Sander, Arneson, Bona, Furr, Miller, LaBounty, Dana, Heston, Gosselin
Arneson stated that he and Bona have looked at ways they could reduce the budget, such as only having 3 Police Officers thus reducing the need by one police car, adding only a part-time admin for police, and keeping one Town admin assistant at 25 hours. He continued that there's nothing imminent in the Library reserve right now that is due so we could not fund that for a year and save that money. Similarly with the Fire equipment purchases where we are ahead and we can reduce that line item for the next year, and there is income from the sale of the brush truck. Hill agreed that we could dig deeper into the Reserve budget and pay ourselves back once the FEMA funds come back in. Furr and Miller agreed. Bona said that for the Highway department there are no big purchases coming along that would need to be ordered and purchased in the next year. Furr, Sander and Miller concurred.
Hill said that cutting funding may also result in cutting people and positions which is hard to swallow. LaBounty wanted to know the reason for a Library Reserve Fund, which Dana explained is for interior repairs, new flooring, and scheduled maintenance, such as cleaning carpets and fixing the elevator. Hall feels that reducing positions in the Police department should be discussed with Chief Cambridge. LaBounty wanted to know what Admin positions are being added to the Town. Arneson replied that he wasn’t asking to add any positions, just to rename Duncan’s position to Deputy Town Manager to better describe what he does, and to keep Linn as an Admin Assistant part-time but to reduce the proposed Admin Assistant time for the police to 20%.
Heston pondered if the Town employees’ amount they pay for health insurance could be raised, since employees that are fulltime pay 10% for health insurance. Bona explained that was higher than other towns who pay 100% of their employee’s health insurance premiums. Heston asked to see a breakdown of insurance premiums for the Town employees. Miller added when you had that benefit survey showing our positions against other competitors, where do we stand, what are the comparables. Arneson will get more information for the next meeting regarding employee benefits and health insurance.
Hill said if the voters vote down the budget we need a finer tooth comb. Furr said the target is to get the budget reduced so that the tax rate increase is below double digits. Gosselin lost 3 employees due to salary and benefits, other towns are paying higher wages and have better benefits packages as well as bonuses. He thinks there are some bridges and culverts that could wait and we could take money out of the Highway Bridge and Culvert Reserve fund. Bona wasn’t sure that was a helpful solution. LaBounty wanted to know how long it took to get fully staffed in the Highway Dept, to which he replied he is fully staffed now, and it took 6 weeks to hire three more people, one of which does not have a CDL. Miller pointed out that we have essentially the same number of residents as 20 years ago, so we need to attract people to Richmond to get the Town to grow, reducing taxes is one way.
Consideration of approval of warrants that were not voted on in the November 18, 2024 meeting
Timestamp: 1: 39
People who participated in discussion: Sander, Arneson,
Furr moved to approve the warrants that were originally presented at the November 18, 2024 Selectboard meeting. Hill seconded.
Roll Call Vote: Hill, Furr, Miller, Sander, Wood in favor. Motion approved.
Hill proposed to schedule another budget special Selectboard meeting for Dec. 17, 2024, as well as adding a meeting on January 7, 2025.
Adjourn
Furr moved to adjourn. Wood seconded.
Roll Call Vote: Hill, Furr, Miller, Sander, Wood in favor. Motion approved.
Meeting adjourned at: 8:45 pm
Chat file from Zoom: None
Agenda
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Special Meeting of the Town of Richmond Selectboard
November 25, 2024
Richmond Town Center Meeting Room, 3rd Floor – 203 Bridge Street, Richmond, VT.
Meeting may also be joined online or by phone
Join Zoom Meeting Online:
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Join by Phone: +1 929 205 6099 Meeting ID: 811 7153 7778 Passcode: 888886
7:00 PM 1. Welcome and Public Comment:
7:03 PM 2. Additions, Deletions, or Modifications to Agenda
7:05 PM 3. Items for Presentation or Discussion with those present
a) Review options for loans to fund expenses from the July 2024 flood # (30 min)
b) Review of draft FY26 Budget, with reductions in expenditures since last review # (30 min)
c) Consideration of approval of warrants that were not voted on in the November 18, 2024 meeting* (5 min)
8:10 PM 4. Adjourn
Time is available at each meeting for public comment. Documents related to this meeting are available at
www.richmondvt.gov/documents/selectboard-meeting-documents/ If you would like to schedule a time with the Board or need assistance to participate in the meeting, please call Josh Arneson, Richmond Town Manager at 434-5170 or email jarneson@richmondvt.gov. Links to videos of Selectboard meetings can be found at mtmansfieldctv.org
*Denotes Action Item # Indicates documents in the packet