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North Adams Councils OKs Transfers to Close Out Fiscal 2016
By Tammy Daniels, iBerkshires Staff
02:21AM / Thursday, July 14, 2016
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The City Council on Tuesday approved $615,815.51 in internal transfers but referred ordinance changes to the solicitor.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The city is finishing out the fiscal year under budget and with the anticipation of free cash in its coffers.

Mayor Richard Alcombight on Tuesday night presented the City Council with some $615,815.51 in internal transfers to close out fiscal 2016, required by the end of this week.

"We were 1.6 percent under budget this year, which is always a good thing, and we are anticipating some free cash ... which should put us further under budget, which again is a good thing," the mayor said. "I want to thank our finance team and all the folks in City Hall and within city departments for trying to hold the line."

The funds came from the Transfer Station ($422,815.51) and the normally used reserve account ($75,000) to offset deficits in General Government ($23,104.91), Public Safety ($189,306.19), Public Services ($130,037.67), unclassifed ($91,806.47), Capital Items ($37,941.02), and retirement of debt ($25,619.25).  

The largest amount of excess cash came from the Transfer Station, which has seen an expected drop in volume of trash coming in and a corresponding decrease in cost to get rid of it.

The bulk of the accounts being covered are largely salaries, with overtime costs in police ($67,767.17) and fire ($65,246.48) the largest line items. The departments have been struggling with overtime issues for years because of injuries, vacation time and staffing.

The mayor said those overtime accounts had been pacing closer to $200,000 but had closed at around $130,000.

The other smaller salaries deficits were caused largely by payrolls catching up to the extra week in the leap year cycle along with 1 percent raises.

"The vast majority of why the salary accounts, why they are over, and they are over because virtually every department is over, is the one percent from July and the 1 percent from January," said the mayor. "But it's also reflective of the fact that every five years, the way we cyclically develop our payroll, we pay 53 weeks in one year."

Auditor David Fierro spent time trying to explain how the 53-week year comes up every five years. Some municipalities use a 52.2 week year that evens out the wages, he said, but North Adams goes by the 52 weeks, then a 53-week cycle to catch up.

The city is regulated by the compensation plan, he said, so it could not budget for an extra week. "We have to follow the comp plan as far as salaries go," he said.

In answer to questions from the councilors, the $22,820.41 in fire expenses (with the exception of about $1,000) was toward the new fire truck and $17,356.64 for work on some of the parks, nearly half on resodding and repairs at Joe Wolfe Field. Another $23,522.33 in expenses over budget was in snow and ice, and was because of repairs and equipment replacement such as sander units.

The retirement and pension costs were over by $14,793.66 because of billings from other municipalities for retired former city employees. The Council on Aging was over in salaries by $15,405.16 because of the need to find fill-ins for vacations and an aide that had been covered by a grant.

The School Department shifted an overage in salaries to expenses.

"This gave the School Department the ability to purchase some things and do some things at year end that they would have been unable to do otherwise," Alcombright said. "If we kept the money in there it would have flowed to free cash. What this allowed the school to do is utilize the $118,000 for purchases and allowed them to not use $118,000 out of school choice."

The school system has been relying heavily on school choice funding to fill out its budget over the past several years, including $250,000 for this fiscal year.

"That's not a healthy situation going forward and we want to maintain that school choice account as best we can," said the mayor.

The stabilization account is at $929,000 and the other restricted reserve accounts are "doing pretty well," he said.

"We're very proud of this. We've been finding ways to tuck away money, try to just be as fiscally responsible as we can, try not to use any reserves to close our budget," Alcombright said.

He anticipated coming in with requests to utilize the Parking Meter Reserve Account for the purchase of two police cruisers and work in the Center Street Parking Lot; and for transfers from stabilization to take down some blighted buildings outside the Community Development Block Grant radius and to match preservation funds for repairs at Notre Dame Church.

All the transfers passed unanimously; Councilor Nancy Bullett was absent.

The council also reviewed ordinance changes that included setting City Hall's summer hours, in place for years, as 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Fridays between Memorial Day and Labor Day, and eliminating set hours for the library. The changes also deleted an outdated and lengthy section on hours expected to be worked by employees (including those in the "city infirmary") and replaced it with "Normal working hours for employees covered under this Article shall not exceed 40 hours per week."

A section on vacation time earned inserted language allowing an employee to carry over 25 percent of one year's vacation with approval of the mayor. A section on bereavement allows up to five days for immediate family (up from three days and four days for police and fire) and two days for aunts, uncles and others. It also eliminates a 24-hour notification and maximum absence within a year.

Also removed were sections on compensation for holidays and Sundays and overtime (which are spelled out in contracts) and a section on call-in pay was simplified to state the minimum pay would be for four hours.

The councilors referred ordinance changes back to the city solicitor and the city's labor lawyer after Councilors Lisa Blackmer and Eric Buddington questioned a sentence about denying accumulated vacation time to terminated employees.

Blackmer, who has worked in human resources, believed that was wrong based her interactions with the Labor Board.

"It's not the answer I've received from the board in the last 35 years," she said.

Alcombright asked that it be referred back to their labor lawyer since he had overseen the changes. Since the sentence had been in there for years, Blackmer said she wanted a second opinion.

Councilor Kate Merrigan asked if the ordinances could be referred to both the solicitor and labor lawyer.

"We can do what we want," responded Blackmer. "We're the council."

North Adams Fiscal 2016 Transfers by iBerkshires.com on Scribd

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