Westport News

Present:    Warren Messier (WM), Tony Vieira (TV), Hugh Morton (HM), Lisa Arnold (LA), Charles Baron (CB), Tracy Priestner (TP), John Miller (JM)

Absent:     Bob McCarthy (BM), Jack Baughan (JB),

1.    TV, Chair, opened the meeting at 7:00 p.m. with the traditional salute to the flag.

2.    Minutes:    WM made a motion to accept the minutes of November 10th as is.  LA seconded the motion and all were in favor with CB abstaining because he was not in attendance.

WM made a motion to accept the minutes of November 24th as corrected.  LA seconded the motion and all were in favor.

WM made a motion to accept the minutes of December 1st as is.  LA seconded the motion and all were in favor.

3.    Highway Department:        JM started by saying that the action committee of himself, Jack Sisson, Sue Maynard and Paul Schmid (PS) has been meeting every two weeks. These biweekly meetings of PS and JM are the mentoring team.  In addition, an advisory committee is being formed to meet bimonthly or as required.  They have been working diligently on the report from Roselli and Associates.  They have made great strides with the addition of Sue as Clerk.  They have computerized budget and license tracking and Chapter 90.  They are looking into a shop inventory system that would assist in equipment tracking and costing.  They are going to put together a capital needs plan.  As for Snow & Ice, they have instituted a second shift of 4 guys till the end of March.  All north end contractors are on-line with proper paperwork.  The committee feels that at this time, a mentor is no longer necessary.  

4.    Transfer Station:    TV said the report from DEP is not to be ready until late December or early January.  As for the stickers, the chair of the BOH said they are not planing to make any changes until they read the report from the DEP.

5.    Contracts:    JM brought up the subject of the newly signed Police and Fire contracts.  He handed out a spreadsheet of potential financial impact of the Police contract.  He would like the Fincom to form a committee to review any contracts before they are signed to look at the financial impact if signing the contract.  LA would like to stop the habit of the Fincom getting the contracts after they have been signed and trying to find the money to cover them.  TV spoke to both chiefs and they said this one-year contract cost is to be absorbed into their current budgets.  JM thinks the Fincom should hold an executive session to provide objectives for future labor contracts.  LA would like a financial input of contracts.

6.    Budgets:    The BOS is looking to Fincom and Mike Coughlin (MC) for guidance in the FY11 budgets.  George Foster (GF) said there is another 8% increase expected in health insurance.  PS said he is hoping that a furlough across the board will be looked at in lieu of any layoffs.  TV handed out many sheets from the benchmarking report that was done a few years ago.  WM would like to assign a liaison to the BOS to assist in budgeting.  TV stated that he is not going to rubber stamp the budgets as some members felt we were asked to do last year at the annual town meeting and more recently at the two special town meetings.   JM and MC are to work on revenue projections for the next meeting.  Also, the Treasurer, Collector, Assesors and Accountant are to be invited to the next meeting to discuss revenue for FY11.  TV wants everyone, between now and January, to look over all budgets and trends and look at current contracts to see what cuts and budgets can be made.  LA would like to see for all budgets, a P & L including all fees collected, grants, revolving and any other account used by those departments.

7.    Other:    A letter was received from Craig Dutra for a member of Fincom to be appointed to an ad hoc committee on town government.  LA would like to be on the committee.  WM made a motion that LA is appointed to that committee.  TP seconded the motion and all were in favor.  TV asked the clerk to send a letter to the BOS stating our candidate for the position.  PS said this is based on a Clyde Barrow’s study and the auditor’s letters and the committee will be to review all recommendations of these studies and to act on them.
        PS said he spoke to GF regarding CIPC and the bond issue.  Right now the bond costs are very low and he feels it will be this low for a while in the future.  Also, construction costs are low at this time and should remain stable for at least a year.  This is a good time for considering capital needs.  The BOS is asking all departments to put together a package of needs, not wants, for the upcoming year.

Adjournment and next meeting: There being no further business to come before this meeting, JM moved and LA seconded a motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:35pm.  The vote in favor was unanimous.  The next regular meeting will be on January 12th at 7:00 p.m.
                            
Respectfully submitted,
Nicole Botelho, Recording Secretary