Rochester’s Finance Committee Monday approved over $134,000 in FY2023 transfers but not before one panel member questioned why the board can’t get more information on such motions sooner.
“I’m a process kind of guy,” David Arancio said. “And I feel we’ve got to get a narrative that explains transactions like this better. We’re required to take votes on these matters. It would be helpful to get the information we need more in advance.”
Finance Director Suzanne Szyndlar responded she receives the necessary numbers from departments for a fiscal year-end transfer only a few days before she must act on them. Departments have salary and expense needs that are unpredictable and change quickly. For instance, the fire chief doesn’t know his exact spending on EMT calls and salaries until the end of the fiscal year.
Arancio said these are factors the Finance Committee could have been informed about in December. Szyndlar responded, “We can’t do this December. The Fire Department is on call. Its salary expense is unpredictable.”
Arancio emphasized the need for better information for better decision-making to better answer the public’s questions about town budget actions. “We need information to be better prepared,” he insisted. “More information is critical.”
FinCom Chairman Kris Stoltenberg said he agrees with Szyndlar’s explanation that she doesn’t get those kinds of numbers so quickly. She works only three days a week, he pointed out. “We don’t know the precise numbers so soon,” Stoltenberg said. “There’s a practical aspect to this process.”
Transfers such as these, Szyndlar noted, represent less than 1% of the town’s estimated $24,000,000 budget.
The committee floated the idea that any overspending over $1,000 be notice that the department should include a narrative explanation or bullet sheet. Stoltenberg rebuffed this idea by asking, “When will Suzanne know the number in question?”
The board made no further progress on this issue by the time it approved transferring $134,647.35 from Legal Services Salaries and Employee Group Insurance to: Legal Services expenses, part-time Registrar Salaries, Board of Appeals expenses, Police expenses, Fire salaries and expenses, EMT expenses, Cemetery expenses, Tri-Town Veterans’ salaries and Debt Service (pay-down on Fire Truck and Short-Term Debt interest.)
Szyndlar explained Legal Services salaries money had to be moved to Legal expenses because Town Counsel has changed from being an individual to being a firm, and there was an unexpected surplus in the Group Insurance account. The debt service for the new fire truck was due for a “premium pay-down” payment.
The Finance Committee then transferred $41,644.74 from the town’s Reserve Fund to Police Expense ($21,134.44) and town Gasoline ($20,530.30.) The purpose, according to the Request for Reserve Fund Transfer form, is police-vehicle maintenance and a gasoline-account deficit due to price increases.
The board’s next Reserve Account decision, however, went in the other direction. The panel reversed its November 7, 2022, vote to transfer $7,600 from that account for the Council on Aging director’s salary. Stoltenberg explained he wanted this reversal because a Reserve Fund transfer should not be used for funding that becomes an ongoing expense such as a salary rather than a one-time need.
The Reserve Fund policy itself then closed out the committee’s meeting. The policy change would state that a Reserve Fund transfer shall not be used to fund a salary negotiated for an existing employee. The committee chose to not vote to support or recommend the change.
Arancio advised caution because the method might come in handy to solve a future town budget problem. Szyndlar agreed that using the option for the COA director’s salary did avoid a crisis at the time. Stoltenberg said the transfer policy is the Select Board’s, not the Finance Committee’s. “It’s not our policy,” he said.
The Rochester Finance Committee did not set a next meeting, noting it will need to meet again only before a potential Fall Town Meeting that Town Administrator Glenn Cannon said might be scheduled for October or November.
Rochester Finance Committee
By Michael J. DeCicco