Why Take Home Vehicles?

Take-home vehicles may sound like a “perk” to some, but if you have a life threatening incident, like a house fire or a hostage stand-off (rare but not unheard of in Longmeadow) you will be glad an incident commander is on the scene as soon as possible. An armed intruder, a broken water main, a serious sewer back-up, a road collapse, a snow or wind storm, any event which requires coordination of people and perhaps agencies, requires an incident commander.

The recent concern about take-home vehicles has resulted in a thorough report to the Select Board about their usage in Longmeadow. Six people, all of whom are on-call 24/7 for emergencies, have vehicles which are taken home at night: the Fire and Police Chiefs, the DPW Director, the Highway Supervisor, the Buildings Supervisor, and the Water Supervisor. Since the vehicles have to be purchased and insured anyway, the cost of taking them home is based on how far away the user lives, an average use of 17.5 gallons per mile and a cost of $3.02 per gallon.
The total estimated cost for taking home these vehicles is $3,761.71 annually.

The Buildings Supervisor is on the road at 4:30 a.m. during winter snow and ice events so that he can report road, parking lot and sidewalk conditions to the Superintendent of Schools by 5:00 a.m. He has also responded in the middle of the night to intrusion alarms at school buildings (10 of them during 2008) and Greenwood Center and roof leaks reported at the High School after hours.
Cost to the town: $153.93 a year.

The Fire Chief responds directly to the scene for any structure fire, hazardous material incident, or any call that does not sound “routine.” He carries in his vehicle personal protective clothing, radio equipment, a fire extinguisher, a first aid kit and oxygen, pre-plans for buildings, maps and materials for establishing incident command. At least twice he has arrived on the scene before the truck and was able to minimize damage.
Cost to the town: $269.21 a year.

The Police Chief is able to monitor the situation from his cruiser as he responds to emergencies. He returns to the Police Department at least several times a week. The cruiser carries a variety of police related equipment, including weapons.
Cost to the town: $358.95 a year.

The Water Supervisor responds to every water main break and stays until the job is complete. He also comes in when the crew is flushing hydrants and responds to calls for suspected main breaks, low water pressure, checking pressure recorders, etc. In one case he came to oversee a water meter replacement for the Jewish Nursing Home in the middle of the night because the service could not be interrupted during the day.
Cost to the town: $1,036.46 a year.

The Highway Supervisor responds to every storm, trees down across roads or power lines, water main breaks, main line sewer blockages, sewer odor complaints, flooding, etc.
Cost to the town: $894.61 a year.

The DPW Director responds to all the emergencies that call out the Buildings Supervisor, the Water Supervisor and the Highway Supervisor. He is often contacted by the Police or Fire to report emergencies. Many occur late at night or early in the morning, on weekends and on holidays.
Cost to the town: $1,048.54 a year.

The public safety and public health benefits of the take-home vehicles seem obvious. The decreased response time for every kind of emergency mitigates the outcome. There is also another less obvious benefit to the town. We don’t garage these vehicles. (Picture the supervisor driving his own vehicle to the town yard or the public safety complex and chipping ice off it before he can respond to the emergency.) It is quite likely that the take-home policy provides better care for the vehicle and extends its life. Overall, the practice of take-home vehicles is probably more of a benefit to the town than to the employees.

By Kathleen Grady, Longmeadow Select Board Member

Town Manager's FY10 Budget

Town Manager Robin Crosbie presented the FY2010 Budget to the Select Board on February 23 for initial review and discussion.

A copy of the FY2010 Town Manager's Budget Report is now available online as well as the detailed FY2010 budget summary.

School Committee/ Select Board Broadcasts

If you are looking to watch the February 23 Select Board meeting, it is now available for web viewing on the LCTV website.

LCTV will be posting web rebroadcasts of both the School Committee and Select Board meetings on their website every week. Here is a direct link.

Two suggestions...

1. Check out the agenda on the Town Calendar on LongmeadowBiz.com to find agenda items of interest
2. Play the Windows Media Player version of the broadcast so that you can fast forward to the topic of interest.

FY2010 Budget Presentation/ 2-23-09 SB meeting

Because tonight's Select Board meeting was not be televised live on LCTV, I decided to attend to hear Robin Crosbie/ Town Manager review the FY2010 budget. A few copies of her presentation were handled out and I have asked for a copy (as well as a copy of the full budget report) to post on the Longmeadow.org website.

Note: Because the schedule called for live broadcast of the School Committee meeting, LCTV videotaped tonight's meeting for broadcast later this week.

The General Fund FY10 budget recommendation by the Town Manager is:

Total- $47,111,554 - an increase of $478K or 1.0% increase from FY09
School Dept- $28,452,158- an increase of $331K or 1.2% increase from FY09

[note: This increase in the School Dept budget varies from the $83K drop reported at the School Budget forum because this budget number is for the General Fund expenditures only. The total School Dept budget for FY10 as proposed at the forum is $31,239,338- which includes General Fund + other special school department revenues]

Here are some additional highlights from the TM's presentation...

• The FY10 budget is revenue based.
• The FY10 budget is balanced using current Free Cash
• Some unanticipated FY09 shortfalls (excess snow/ice removal costs + lower than expected revenue from excise taxes and investment income) affected the available free cash to be used to fund the FY10 budget.
• The budget is based upon the most recent revenue and state aid estimates which could easily change (--> lower) in the future.
• No cost of living adjustments (school or town) are included with the proposed budget. With town employee and school department teachers contracts expiring in June and August, there is a potential increase in overall costs of $300,000/ % increase in COLA.
• In spite of our recycling efforts, the cost of curbside waste collection is projected to increase by $46K in FY2010 ( a 6.4% increase) mostly because of the reduced value and revenue (-$43K) of recyclable materials.
• The Longmeadow School Dept budget as provided to the Town Manager was cut by $117K (FY10 requested = $28,569,837 vs. FY10 Recommended = $28,452,152).
• The planned capital allocation for FY10 was cut from $940,000 (2% of operating budget) to $831,311, a cut of $109,000. (Capital is not included as part of the operating budget.)

I was glad that the Select Board decided to spend more than the allocated 15 minutes (actually close to one hour) to listen to the TM's presentation and to ask questions about the budget. Paul Santaniello, SB chair indicated that this will be the first of a number of discussions over the next three weeks to finalize the budget for presentation at the Annual Town Meeting.

Overall, a good start by the Town Manager to a difficult budget process.

FY2010 Budget

Based upon the agenda for tomorrow's (2/23/09) Select Board meeting, it appears that we will be getting a 15 minute review of the Town Manager's FY2010 Budget Report.

I would encourage Longmeadow residents to watch this discussion on LCTV at 7:15 PM. Update: The SB meeting on 2/23 will not be broadcast LIVE.

With only 15 minutes, I suspect that our town manager will only be able to review overall budget highlights. 15 minutes seems much too short a time for such an important topic so hopefully the SB chairman will extend this allocated time.

I am particularly interested in how this budget report handles the potential shortfall in revenue to cover the upcoming town employee collective agreements that are expiring at the end of the current FY2009 year. I'm guessing that the proposed balanced budget will not include any provision for possible town employee related salary increases for the FY2010 budget nor budget any funds in this direction or include any contingency plans.

The Longmeadow School Department proposed budget for FY2010 that was approved last week by the School Committee which was $83K less than the current FY2009 also did not provide for any teacher salary COLA increases. The SC did acknowledge that any teacher salary increases must be met with additional school department budget cutbacks in order to meet the FY2010 budget commitment to the Select Board.

I would expect that the Town Manager and Select Board also need to work out the details on how to fund the FY2009 revenue shortfalls before they can fully understand all of the revenue sources such as "free cash" and the operational stabilization fund for FY2010.

Everything that I read in the newspaper seems to suggest "a not to worry attitude" and that Longmeadow is much better off than the rest of the town and cities in Massachusetts. That attitude seems strange given all of the budget issues that we have faced during the past couple of years.

Stay tuned for an interesting budget season.

Post-Identity politics & Paul Santaniello

Chairman Paul Santaniello sat down recently with me to discuss the economy and its challenges to our state and our town. Click HERE to watch the interview.

Reality Check

Below are some recent news headlines that paint a pretty dreary near term local economic future....

click here to read full story

click here to read full story online

Recent cutbacks in state aid by Governor Patrick (see previous LongmeadowBuzz blog postings) to Massachusetts cities and towns are strongly related to the worldwide recession and appear to be getting worse. In October, Gov. Patrick reduced FY09 spending by over 1 billion dollars and just recently announced additional large cutbacks in aid to cities and towns for both FY09 and FY10. My guess is that we haven't seen the whole story and more cuts should be anticipated.

Because of this trend in the global economy I believe that at least in the short term (next 1-2 years) the finances of Longmeadow will be stretched to the limit. Many of us have already reacted in our personal finances by significantly reducing spending and building contingency plans (increased savings, etc...) for financial survival.

This week's vote by the School Committee on the FY10 school budget ($31.2 million) and reported in this week's Longmeadow News highlighted the need for 11 staff layoffs in order to meet the FY10 budget guidelines set by the Select Board and the Town Manager.

I attended the recent public forum held by the School Committee at Longmeadow HS on the upcoming School Dept FY10 budget and was very impressed by the large amount of effort that was involved. The proposed budget included some difficult staffing reduction decisions in order to meet the budget guidelines. (The proposed FY10 budget is ~ $83,000 lower than FY09 budget.)

My concern is that the proposed budget did not include any allowance for "cost of living adjustments" (COLA) that might be involved with the upcoming teacher contract negotiations (the current contract expires at the end of this school year). In response to a question that I asked, Superintendent Hart indicated that she "hoped" that some agreeement could be reached before the Town Meeting in April to allow the budget process to be finalized.

(note: The last teacher's contract negotiation in Longmeadow extended more than one year past the prior contract expiration date and resulted in the need for a $2.1 million Proposition 2½ override .)

To put some economic prospective on this concern, professional salaries (I'm assuming mostly teachers) in the FY10 budget are $18.6 million dollars. (It should be noted that this number does not include health care and other related school dept employee benefits which according to the FY09 budget report was 3.8 million dollars) .

If a 2.5% COLA was negotiated it would add approximately $465,000 to the proposed FY10 budget. With current budget process, the likely way to achieve this savings would be through a reduction of teachers and/or other staff positions since salaries are ~75% of the total school budget. Obviously this approach would not be in the best interests of our schools or community.

While I do not know all of the specifics of the teacher salary structure, I do know that many teachers in our school system will receive "step increases" even if a 0% COLA was implemented.

If you have been following the budget process for the past couple of years, you will have become aware of the large impact of teacher and other town employees salaries on the budget of our town.

I believe that additional town employee contract negotiations are also underway which will put additional pressure on our FY10 budget.

Given the current economic conditions that surround us, I would like to propose a one year contract and freeze on salaries (that is, a 0% COLA for FY10) for both town and school employees so that we do not lose key people that are important to maintaining the quality of life in our town. Contracts for FY11 and FY12 can be negotiated once the economy stabilizes and future town revenues are more visible.

As a community we need to react in a prudent manner or else the future of our town may become very distressed caused by drastic cuts in town and school services dramatically affecting our quality of life.
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The LongmeadowBuzz blog invites both pro and con agruments to this proposal for posting. Comments are moderated but are more likely to appear if you add your name and address. Consider the posting of such comments on the LongmeadowBuzz blog as a Internet "letter to the editor".

Hometown Heroes

Eleanor Stolar, Ed Dzielenski and Mary Benoit Houser of Longmeadow were honored last night at the Log Cabin restaurant as recipients of The Reminder Hometown Heroes award for 2009 for their time and service commitments to our community.

See the complete story including photos at The Reminder website.

Eleanor was interviewed and appeared on last night's 11 PM news.













Click here to view the television interview.

Congratulations to Eleanor, Ed and Mary and this year's other recipients.

We thank all of them for their dedicated service to our community.

FY2010/ FY2011 Budgets

During the Massachusetts Municipal Association Conference the Governor stated that Chapter 70 money (State Aid for Education) would be "level-funded" under his proposal for FY2010 - with everything else as a potential cut target.

At the Regional Board of Selectmens' meeting last week, State Senator Canderas reinforced the Governor's comments and further added that the vibe in Boston was that 2011 would worse than 2010.

As we read, listen, and absorb experts' opinions on the impact of our daily and future economic condition - I would prefer to construct 'conservative' budgets. Therefore, in terms of the FY2010 and FY2011 budgets - to create the former without consideration of the latter would place Longmeadow in a precarious position to meet services, secure bonding, or generally function as a thriving concern.

My approach to budget strategies has always been to listen to each professional regarding their needs as they view them from their departments, weigh priorities and shared values/ missions, and finally craft an acceptable proposal. The key here is getting the 'best snapshot' projections as well as agreed upon priorities, gain consensus with committees/dept heads/taxpayers, and take action. I take this very seriously and will continue to gather the best information to make credible decisions.

Robert Barkett, Longmeadow Select Board

"....Longmeadow Face(s) hard choices on looming budget cuts

The following story appeared in The Republican on Thursday, January 29
“East Longmeadow, Hampden, Longmeadow, Ludlow and Wilbraham face hard choices on looming budget cuts” (click link to view full story)

Here are some excerpts…

Last week, Longmeadow Superintendent of Schools E. Jahn Hart announced the elimination of at least six teaching positions throughout the district for fiscal 2010. The School Department is currently working with a projected $31.2 million with $28 million coming from the town's general fund. Hart said she does not know what will happen with the layoffs.

"We respond to decisions at a town level, so we will see after the Monday night Select Board meeting what changes we will have to make," she said

Editor’s Note: While the $31.2 million proposed school dept budget for FY2010 is $83,000 less than the FY2009 budget it does not include a COLA increase for teacher’s salaries. A 3% COLA increase could add $550,000 to the school dept FY2010 budget.
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Longmeadow Finance Director Paul J. Pasterczyk said the town is currently working with a $47 million budget. He said the town will take an estimated hit of $335,000 in the next fiscal year, much less than the anticipated $950,000.

Town Manager Robin L. Crosbie said the governor's cuts will not have as big an impact on the budget as they expected."We had already planned for deeper cuts, so this isn't as bad as we initially thought," Crosbie said. "The accounts that were targeted are not ones that we get a lot of money from. We do not get any additional assistance and only a small amount of lottery aid, so this has a fairly minimal impact on us."

However, Crosbie said the town has to look at the future and the reduction in revenues. "There have already been drops in local receipts and because of that we have indefinitely stopped hiring for positions that have become open in town departments," she said.
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Editor’s Note: Hopefully, we may be getting some insight during Monday’s (February 2) Select Board meeting as to how the town plans to meet the expected shortfall in revenue for the current FY2009 budget estimated to be ~$400,000. However, looking at the SB meeting agenda, it doesn’t look like much time has been allocated for discussion of this subject.

Given that the economic situation at both the state and national levels seems to be worsening, the town should anticipate and plan contingencies for still greater cuts in state aid and other town income as we move forward.