Marion Town Administrator Jay McGrail simply has not had time to attend a string of recent Sippican Elementary School budget subcommittee meetings, so the Finance Committee sought to appoint a member to act as the town’s liaison to the subcommittee.
The eventual appointment of FinCom member Karen Kevelson was only one of several made, as each member attending FinCom’s December 16 meeting left with a homework assignment.
Chairman Peter Winters handed off the meeting to committee member Shay Assad, who in turn engaged member Charles Larkin regarding the latter’s ongoing interests in creating a comprehensive financial report.
“Charlie has been really active in trying to gain a relationship with ORR,” said Assad, inviting Larkin to take the floor. Larkin confirmed that interest.
“I feel a little bit like Don Quixote here, but I have a vision of putting together with downloads from their mainframe a very user-friendly financial report,” explained Larkin. “Going back ‘x’ amount of years because I don’t know how far back we can go. If I could go back five, I would. And then the state sanctions exactly what departments they have so every school district has the same ones.”
Larkin continued, “I won’t get the numbers right, but Department 031 is like ‘the faculty in the shop room,’ and it’s that way for everybody. And, believe it or not, that information exists. It’s just not presented in a way that many of us really can understand.” He told the committee that he knows of examples of other municipalities in which the numbers are presented in “a great way for the school committee. It’s not really about financial oversight. It’s a great way for the school committee and the superintendent to present the information.”
Larkin would like to see such a presentation at least once a year, and, ideally, twice annually.
At the time of FinCom’s December 16 meeting, Larkin had yet to meet privately with new Superintendent Mike Nelson or Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations Howie Barber. They did meet at the Music Hall when FinCom invited ORR administration to present an overview. He had met earlier in the year with former Superintendent of Schools Doug White and his interim financial assistant, Lincoln Lynch, but is now starting over.
Waiting on an official appointment by FinCom to act as its liaison to ORR, Larkin envisions a creation that would require minimal tweaking for subsequent presentations.
Larkin estimates that approximately half of Marion’s budget goes to ORR and Sippican Elementary School. “If you’re going to start slaying dragons, to me, that’s where we need to start,” he said. “There’s far-reaching consequences to this; I don’t think there’s a lot of trust. I’m trying to go in with my hands open and try to be embraced as someone who wants to be additive. I know FinCom’s history is [to] challenge them, whereas what I’m trying to do is say, ‘Hey, look. There’s only so much money in the pie. Is it possible to reallocate?'”
Larkin continued, “What else could we do? But without the numbers, I can’t even begin to make any valuable contribution. And it turns out … of the 350 some-odd towns in Massachusetts, very few of them do this.”
Acknowledging the School Committee’s independence, Larkin referenced McGrail’s recent meeting of Tri-Town department heads and openly hoped that the same kind of collaboration can exist with the school district. He envisions a report featuring line items in each educational department, including expenses for administration, faculty, and supplies.
“If you could do some financial numbers, you might be able to help them, but, if nothing else, you’d be able to report back to the town in a way that is not very common,” said Larkin. “They have done a lot of work; it’s been really hard, and there’s been some stops and starts. I’m just trying to contribute, and so I just grabbed onto the schools … and I don’t really have a lot to show for it except I think I know what needs to be done. Even though I don’t know how to look at a school district, I’m used to a bunch of numbers on spreadsheets and sort of summarize … that complexity to digestible formats for people to have opinions on and vote on. So that’s sort of the impetus of it.”
Assad was pleased to hear Larkin’s rationale.
“A number of guys I know that on the committee have actually run a business, and you’ve got to scratch your head and say, ‘How could you actually run a business if you’re not doing the kinds of things that you describe?'” Assad said. “And that goes for how you actually competently establish a budget if you didn’t have that kind of information available to you so you could assess whether or not it’s being properly allocated. I think, if you can get there, it would be a home run, especially if it enabled them as a school committee to look at other school districts— and they may be doing very well compared to other school districts— nobody really knows.”
As an example, Larkin said that the Town of Weston allocates over 60 percent of its budget to its schools.
“I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but if you want to take a far-reaching concept so [that] we’re talking tactics and information and an esprit de corps— finance, town government, school committee, school leadership working together— really what you’re talking about is if a young family is going to choose the southeast coast if you don’t have a school system that is on the up,” said Larkin.
For Marion to attract younger families, Larkin says the quality of education has to be raised. Otherwise, the cost of living will continue to trend higher per capita. Larkin compared the value of detailed school expenditures to how valuable it would have been to the town to fully understand 10-15 years ago how much money it would cost to repair the sewer system.
“To me, it’s the only way forward,” he said.
McGrail told the committee that the ORR administration enjoyed the recent meeting with the Marion FinCom. “I think overall that was a really good meeting,” said McGrail, who told Nelson and Barber that Larkin would be reaching out, something that had not happened by December 16. “Things are insane right now. I talk to them every day, purely because of the pandemic. It’s a wild time for all of us, and it’s going to be hard to focus.”
McGrail recommended Larkin begin by attending budget subcommittee meetings and finding opportunities for informal conversation.
Larkin would eventually like to work closely with ORR administration and convey the message that, “We’re all in this thing together, we really are.”
McGrail concurred. “If I’ve gotten anything out of the pandemic, is that it solidified a relationship with that group that exists, with Marion, ORR, Sippican, and even the other two towns, certainly Rochester. I think it’s there,” he said, noting the administration’s daily preoccupation with the pandemic. “Right now, it’s just nuts; it’s COVID all day, every day.”
“It should work, it’s just going to take a little time,” said Assad.
With the Marion Police contract accomplished, McGrail is currently working on contracts with the Department of Public Works and clerical unions.
In addition to Larkin acting as liaison with the ORR budget subcommittee, FinCom deployed liaisons to town departments. Kevelson will act as FinCom’s liaison with Sippican School. Bill Marvel will work with the DPW, John Menzel with Capital Planning, Assad with Police, Margie Baldwin will stay on the Community Preservation Committee, and Winters will work with the Fire Department.
McGrail reported to the committee on a budget timeline. He has received all departmental budgets except for DPW and Sippican School. He is also waiting on ORR. He said, “Free cash at this point is pretty much certified,” and he expects by mid to late January to have a budget to send simultaneously to the Board of Selectmen and FinCom. Weekly budget hearings will angle toward a March conclusion.
The next meeting of the Marion Finance Committee is scheduled for January 20 at 7:00 pm.
Marion Finance Committee
By Mick Colageo