Selectboard Meeting Notes: Budget Plan Remains Undecided, Zoning, and The Return of PAYT

The FY15 budget was again the focus of discussion for the Brattleboro Selectboard. At their regular Tuesday meeting they refined their positions on what cuts to aim for, and instructed the Interim Town Manager to prepare and bring options to their next special meeting to discuss and decide on the budget. This, despite significant disagreement amongst board members over which way to proceed.

In other news, work will begin on a plan to implement some sort of Pay As You Throw system to comply with state law. The board decided to hire a consultant, quite likely Moss Kahler, to assist.

There was also ample discussion of heifers, bridges, the parking budget and more.

Preliminaries

Chair David Gartenstein began the meeting by thanking everyone who has participated in the FY15 budget process thus far, noting that last week’s meeting was well attended and productive.

He said the board was moving forward on issues relating to finishing the Waste Water Treatment Plant. Negotiations and work is continuing and there will be more information at an upcoming meeting.

In the search for a new Town Manager, 43 applications were received and the list was culled to seven applicants for first round interviews. The process will be the same as before, with departmental and citizen input into the process and two rounds of interviews. He said they hoped to make a final decision by the middle or end of June.

Interim Town Manager Patrick Moreland noted the story about town Fire Lieutenant Martin Rancourt saving a trapped man’s life and legs while on vacation recently.

John Allen, as a part of the regular Selectboard committee reports and comments, said the Police-Fire facility committee of which he is a member was in limbo.

David Schoales said the waste management district was taking steps to find an owner-agent to cover the landfill with solar panels. He also thanked people for participating in the budget discussion. He said he heard many good ideas, and a commitment to finding a way to make it work without damaging the town.

During Public Participation, Jane Southworth requested the town form a hub community committee to do research and report back in six to eight months on how the town could deal with the situation it is in.

Terry Carter thanked the board for the chance to speak last week, and for the time limits which she felt helped make thoughts concise. She noted they did a good job of limiting the time everyone spoke, except for two people near the end. She hoped everyone would be treated equally.

Liquor Commissioners

Northside Subs and More received an outside consumption permit for an enclosed area adjacent to the building at 686 Putney Road, with a couple of conditions attached.

The only concerns raised about the application came from Police Chief Wrinn. He worried about the employees ability to monitor behavior in the space. He reported that the area under consideration was not in clear view of employees and worried that those drinking might mingle with someone underage at the sandwich shop, especially with a fence that dropped to four feet at one end.

Owner Dottie Pond and cohort Mike reminded the board that they have a liquor license for the purposes of customers who’d like a beer with their food. They said they sell two cases a week on average, and are not a bar. They hoped to extend the convenience of a beer to those who sit on their patio. They said they were installing cameras so they could monitor the entire space, and were open to raising the fence to six feet.

There was some board discussion of previous licenses issued to others, and requirements demanded of them, but in the end the board decided to approve it, with condition of raising the fence to six feet in areas where it is now four feet tall, and subject to installation of the security camera.

Parade Permit for Heifers

Strolling of the Heifers was granted a parade permit for June 7, 2014, ensuring that young cows will walk up Main Street once again this year. It’s the 13th annual and will be held from 10 am to 11:30 am starting on Flat Street and heading up Main to Linden.

Up to 100 beasts from 20 farms, 50 farm tractors and trailers, and 100 marching units are expected. (Their parade application says 200+ people are expected to attend!)

Rick Chapin represented the group. He said the parade is short, and there would be activities at the expo after it ends.

Kate O’Connor said she had spoken with founding organizer Orly Munzing about making sure the police and fire departments are reimbursed for their services. Moreland said billing would be done at actual cost.

“It is important, as we deal with financials, that billings are reflective of cost to the town,” said Gartenstein. 

FY15 Budget

The Brattleboro Selectboard again took up the issue of what to do about presenting a revised budget to Representative Town Meeting.

David Gartenstein said that while everyone had articulated opinions, the board never asked for the Interim Town Manager to prepare a budget. He said they needed to decide what to have in it for him to prepare, and with that in mind, asked the board to weigh in with preliminary thoughts.

David Schoales said he wanted to present three options to town meeting representatives. One would have a reduced bond, to $7 million, another would hold off on the bond for reconsideration of the project’s problems, and the third would both hold off on the bond and make other substantial cuts to the budget.

He thought the $7 million bond option would allow the project to continue while saving some of the cost, noting that the parking garage bond would end in eight years and the Brooks House would eventually outgrow tax stabilization agreements. Schoales said delaying the project would end up costing more. He also said he didn’t like the idea of making any cuts without knowing what was being cut. 

Donna Macomber was next. She said she took extensive notes last week and she felt the majority did not want cuts to staff positions, but there were also concerns about keeping the heat on. “We have to do something.”

She liked the idea of a $7 million bond option, and offering representatives a range of options. She endorsed cutting one police cruiser purchase and ending the animal control officer position. She thought the community could come together and work to shovel neighborhood sidewalks, but admitted it could be work to coordinate.

Kate O’Connor said she had thought long and hard, but ultimately it was the words of Ronny Johnson that swayed her. O’Connor paraphrased Johnson as saying that she was normally against cuts, “but circumstances have changed.” She said that many are on fixed incomes. “The majority of us are.” She said that people talk of cutting out one cup of coffee a week, but many have already cut out that cup of coffee. “Those people concern me.”

O’Connor said there was no sense in providing services if there was no one to provide them to, so she was in favor of having no $9 million bond, some sort of cuts at the Library and Recreation & Parks departments, and no more animal control officer. “I’ve struggled with this and had lots of feedback. I think we need to be sensitive to the lot of us who want to live here, and make it possible.”

John Allen read a letter that he felt represented much of the feedback he had received. It said that we must decide between what we need versus what we can afford, and that high taxes make Brattleboro unattractive. Reducing services will be unpleasant, it said, but may be the only thing that saves the town. 

Allen said that the decisions they had to make were way overdue, and the problem goes back a long way. He said the meeting last Thursday confused his sense of what the town consensus was on the issue, but that the Police and Fire project “broke the camel’s back and forced us to look at these decisions.”

He reiterated his desire to go ahead with Central Station, as the project is ready to go. He also reiterated his plan to ask for between two and three hundred thousand dollars from the undesignated reserve fund. “It’s pouring and we can use rainy day money. It could come back to bite us, but we have to do it now.”  He didn’t think the board should offer options to town meeting reps, worrying that without firm guidance the tax rate might not drop enough and it wasn’t worth all the aggravation they had gone through if it doesn’t go down to zero to three percent.

Gartenstein said that two themes have stood out. One is that taxes are too high, and the other is that there is no stomach for service cuts. “That’s our bind.”

He was opposed to giving a range of options, feeling that they should make a decision and Town Meeting representatives would make theirs. He was also against arbitrarily coming up with a new, lower bond amount, saying time was needed to make a good decision. Instead, he suggested removing the $9 million bond, animal control position, extra sidewalk repair funds, and the second police cruiser. He said he had reconsidered his position on staff cuts.

Gartenstein warned that there could be a deficit this year because of winter storm and other expenses. He said the library should plan to use more of its endowment for budget costs, and that recreation and parks and the library need to determine the real costs of services provided to people from outside Brattleboro, so those users would pay “full-freight for those services.”

He said the board would need to consider having potential for staff cuts on table, but didn’t think they were realistic for this budget cycle. “They need to show how they can save costs.”

As for dipping into the reserve fund, he was generally opposed but said he might support a $150,000 request.

O’Connor said the board would have to do difficult things now, and next time around with next year’s budget. “Eventually, somethings got to give.”

Donna Macomber asked that the board take a quick poll to see where they agree. They decided to do that after hearing from the public.

….

Chris Chapman was first, asking that the board consider Pay As You Throw and keeping the animal control officer. He said many of the town’s capital problems stem from deferred maintenance, and putting things off tends to cost more in the long run.

Pat DeAngelo said that all town departments were important, but the library was the lifeblood and the greatest of all democratic institutions. She praised library management under Jerry Carbone, noting his large endowment comes from planning ahead, and doing projects only when money is in hand. “Reducing staff will reduce hours. You might as well set a time for book burning. The library is not yours to do with as you wish, it belongs to the people of town. It is your moral and ethical obligation to support the library.” She said if  changes were needed, “it should be restoration to their original numbers.”

Jane Southworth thought an across-the-board cut of 1% would be better than cutting specific positions. She liked the idea of options for town meeting representatives, furloughs rather than layoffs, a reconsideration of the 1% local option tax, and Pay As You Throw.

Police-Fire Committee member Phillip Chapman said the town needed to “bite the bullet.” We have surplus funds to help us when we need help, he said, and we need help now. He suggested a 2% across-the-board cut, and taking a million from the surplus funds. This would buy the board time to plan long-term, he told them. He said, speaking for himself and not the committee, that the Police and Fire project could be trimmed further. “Run it like a business, not be personal. There are times when you need to take a firm hand and do something about it.”

Terry Carter said she advocates for animals and the animal control officer position was much needed. She suggested the board look for someone to be on contract, or perhaps a volunteer, to handle issues that arise both day and night. She said that in regards to sidewalk clearing, kids used to shovel walks to earn money for the extras in their lives. If we “get off our sweet white butts” she said we might make a dent in obesity as well. “This is like a depression. We have to get out of la la land.”

Hyam Siegel said the problem was one of revenue, not spending. He was concerned that diminishing what we have will cause a loss in revenue down the line, liked the idea of choices for town meeting representatives, and a delay to the Police Fire project for a year. He asked that town department heads decide what to cut, with a percentage to aim for as guidance.

Marshall Wheelock cautioned that the problem will continue well into the future. “Society as a whole will be less affluent than the past,” he told the board. “We will see reductions.” He said the poet Frost said that it is hard to become accustomed to a lesser thing, “but we must do that.” He said the town infrastructure included employees, and suggested, like others, that the departments share an across the board cut.

His wife, Veronica Wheelock, spoke next. She said that by percentage, it was punitive to take such a large chunk out of the small budgets of the library and parks departments. Bigger departments, she said, would be hit less hard. She was against “attacking the endowment” of the library, saying that the goal of an endowment is to grow so it can produce more income. “When income drops, you don’t serve the end goal. Look in other places for savings.”

Ann Wright said she supported a 1% across-the-board cut. She agreed that it was a revenue problem and said soon there would be nothing left to cut. Her ideas for more revenue included PAYT and revisiting the local option tax. She also suggested larger non-profits such as the Hospital and Retreat be asked for payment in lieu of taxes. Wright asked that they don’t cut sidewalk plowing, and don’t forget that the town is also on a collision course with the closing of VY and loss of incomes from that industry.

Dora Bouboulis said that some cuts disproportionately impact low income residents. Taxes are to high, she said, and it is a long term issue for the town. She said side walk shoveling is difficult without a plow or snowblower, and it was probably cheaper for all to have the town do it. Bouboulis also warned of lawsuits due to sidewalks, and the cost of insurance going up as a result.

Ms. Andrews suggested getting young people involved, and suggested we create “a reality show and show the younger generation we are successful in this wonderful community.”

Ronnie Johnson spoke against presenting options to town meeting representatives. “It would be chaotic and counterproductive. How would that work?”

Police Chief Wrinn again noted his desire to keep the animal control position. With real crimes to work on, he said “we don’t want officers chasing cats and dogs.”

…

With public comments complete, the board polled themselves on their agreement over the ideas presented. All agreed that the extra $50,000 for sidewalk repairs could go. As to the rest, well, they differed in opinion.

Allen asked how soon PAYT could be implemented. Moreland said much remained to be done, and a slim possibility they’d beat the deadline of the beginning of FY16. The board decided against expecting savings for FY15.

The board asked Moreland to come back with a plan for a 1% across-the-board cut, as well as a menu of savings options based on their discussion. Moreland wanted everyone to know that departments had already taken significant cuts already to get to the rejected FY15 amount. “I’d hate for folks to think it hasn’t already taken place.”

Moreland said furloughs were the same as pay cuts, and those would lead to retention and new employee attraction problems.

The board set a special meeting for May 13 to finalize their budget work.

2013 Bridge Inspection Summary Report

Every year, Vermont inspect bridges over 20 feet in length and the results are summarized in a report to the town every two years.

The selectboard voted to accept the report.

Hannah O’Connell, Highway Superintendent, gave the board a summary of the summary, and pointed out where work would need to be done to repair and maintain local bridges.

There were four reports. The Sunset Lake/Halladay Brook bridge is being built now, the Ames Hill bridge has been repaired since the report, and Main Street over the Whetstone is in almost new condition. Only the bridge on Western Avenue over the Whetstone is considered a top priority for the state.

Before accepting the report. Anne Howes gave the board suggestions for building a redesigned, side-by-side, reinforced bridge to Hinsdale.

Parking Budget

Interim Town Manager Patrick Moreland explained the Parking Fund to the Selectboard and asked that it be approved.

The Parking Fund, he said, was an enterprise fund not supported by tax revenue. Money from meters and fines are primarily used to cover the costs, and the operation is separate from the General Fund. In FY15, the budget number will be $834,200.

The big variable year to year is the cost of plowing and snow removal. Moreland said that in seven years, the parking garage bond will be paid off and some of that money could then be used for the deferred maintenance the system will require.

Gartenstein noted the cost of employee salaries and health care going up. Moreland attributed it to variances in union contracts.

Chris Chapman suggested charging for parking on Sundays as a way to increase revenue. “It’s a pet peeve of mine that it is hard to shop downtown on Sundays and hard to find parking on Main Street on Sunday afternoon.” He wasn’t sure who would check those meters on Sundays.

Ann Wright asked about the $40,000 for new pay boxes, and whether they could accept credit or debit cards. Moreland said they would replace the machines at the busiest locations with new ones that take dollars, give change, and accept smart cards, and reshuffle others rather than retire them. He said transaction costs are currently too high to accept charges of 25 cents, but vendors send him constant information. “Once we pay off the transportation center we can look at improvements to parking system.”

Schoales noted a $400,000 cash balance for the fund and suggested they buy more machines sooner. Moreland said they had to keep cash on hand, and other expenses were expected.

Anne Howes told the board that people gamble in Vegas to alleviate tension. She asked if $306,000 could be used to retire the bond and alleviate that burden as a municipal federal tax payment on gambler’s winnings. “Is that possible?”

The board approved the Parking budget.

Zoning Regulation Re-Write

PlaceSense of Port Henry, NY will receive $36,000 for consultant services to rewrite the Brattleboro Zoning Regulations. They were the lowest of three bids, and their references checked out.

The rewrite will put the town’s zoning regulations in line with the Town Plan. PlaceSense is being asked to make the regulations clear, concise, and illustrative, and to incorporate state and national smart growth principles, while being responsive to the “context and form” of existing neighborhoods.

John Allen asked Planning Director Rod Francis if the work could be done in-house? “We already have ordinances in place.”

Francis said no. His department had other projects and obligations, and specialized technical skills and expensive software were required.

The project is expected to be completed by February 2015.

Gartenstein said the work was needed, as current regulations were “a tangled web and a roadblock to effective development.”

Francis said that 12 months would be an aggressive schedule. “The complexity and process needs someone to drive it along.”

John Allen asked how long new regulations would last. 

Francis said the current, 30 year old regulations were “a bowl of duct tape” and the town will “start from the beginning and overcome that.” He said that some aspects of our existing regulations were reasonably good, and other aspects were “convoluted and need to be rectified.”

“It’s an opportunity to review and smooth the process,” he said. “This should work for quite a while.”

Pay As You Throw Returns

Interim Town Manager Patrick Moreland gave the Brattleboro selectboard an overview of changes to state law regarding solid waste processing. Specifically, the state is asking via Act 148, a universal recycling law, that we develop a system of paying for solid waste processing based on weight or volume by July 1, 2015.

In order to prepare for the transition, Moreland said that a financial plan must be developed, but to do that the board would need to consider many questions concerning stickers, bags, retail outlets, markups, and contracts with Triple T.

The board must determine what costs it plans to defray with this program, he said. If the board overreaches, he warned, the public might find the program “displeasing.”

He said regardless of the approach, all systems like this use a proxy for payment, such as a sticker or special bag. What shall we use? Who handles distribution? Who enforces? Questions such as these, Moreland said, need answers.

Moreland suggested starting a committee or hiring a consultant to delve into the details

“Brattleboro is ahead of the game. We have curbside compost, recycling, and all we need to add is unit based pricing,” he said. “It’ll save the town money.”

He suggested Triple T, Windham Solid Waste, John O’Connor, and himself develop a plan. He said they would need help, and that while a committee could assist, Jane Southworth and Moss Kahler suggested hiring Moss Kahler as a consultant to expedite the process. Moreland said it would be not to exceed $7,500.

Donna Macomber asked if this would exclude having a committee. Moreland said that based on the comments tonight, the public wants this soon, so just assigning it to get done would be quicker and cleaner.

David Schoales said a committee would be good if it were a controversial issue, but the state says it has to happen anyway.

Kate O’Connor asked if there was an existing plan. Moreland said no. O’Connor said there was a rumor there were bags somewhere. Moreland said he was unaware of any bags.

Dora Bouboulis said that regardless of whether Kahler was hired, the ad hoc committee was necessary. For example, she said, there are many different ways to comply.

Jane Southworth said it would be more efficient to hire Kahler. Kahler said he was willing and eager to take on the challenge of being hired for the work, and agreed it would go quicker without a committee. He said others would help him and there were resources to tap into.

Peter Gaskill of Triple T praised Kahler’s work with curbside compost.

David Gartenstein said that big issues beyond cost-shifting and affordability might be resistance when implemented. He said people might take to dumping illegally, or just leaving trash out. “What sort of enforcement mechanisms are in place to deal with it? Its a real transition issue and could be a a problem.”

Kahler said that the town has been building toward this, with recycling and curbside compost. “Curbside compost users will be great supporters. There is much more support now than before. And it is state law.” He said that the next progression would be to pick up trash every other week. “Once we’re doing this well, trash pickup will be less necessary. Smelly stuff is picked up weekly.”

Gartenstein moved to hire a consultant, not to exceed $7,500.

Moreland said the consultant could facilitate a public meeting, or they could have a committee.

Kahler suggested that the consultant be retained after the change is enacted, too.

Bouboulis said the committee could help with outreach and education.

David Schoales said the board was over-thinking things. “Let’s get a consultant, get a committee and go.”

The board voted 4-1 to authorize the consultant and begin forming a committee. John Allen was against.

Committee and Board Vacancies

Time once again for the annual call for volunteers to become new members and fill vacancies on town committees.

David Gartenstein listed the long list of open slots (almost every committee), and said they’d publish the list.

The deadline for applications is May 29, filed with the Town Manager’s Office.