NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Despite a year of pandemic uncertainty, the city's fiscal health is "good," said Mayor Thomas Bernard.

 

Collections of local receipts are up, there's more than $300,000 in revenues from new growth and personal property, and $3.7 million in federal funds are on the way.

 

Bernard cautioned that his presentation was from somewhere between the 10,000- to 250,000-foot high level, but that the signs were promising.

 

"We're trending ahead of prior years in terms of our year-to-date collections," the mayor told the Finance Committee on Monday. "At this point in the prior two fiscal years, our FY2019 collections were at just under 55 percent and in FY20 just under 51 percent. 

 

"This year, we're currently at almost 62 percent."

 

However, the total amount collected is anticipated be lower because of the pandemic: parking revenues are down, as are occupancy taxes, and license fees after the Licensing Board did a one-time reduction.

 

Another big indicator will be motor vehicle excise taxes which will be coming in in the next quarter.  

 

"I haven't asked staff to put hiring or spending freezes in place, but we could conceivably do that in the final two or three months of the fiscal year, depending on how the the next trend looks," Bernard said.

 

The mayor said department heads are preparing draft budgets and he's asked that their "first pass to be unrealistic."

 

"Usually I try and tell them not to exceed the basic cost increases but I wanted to see what the areas that department heads really think are important investment areas," he said, noting councilors have discussed some of these, such as more manpower in the Water Department. "I just wanted to get a sense of that and then what we will present to the committee will be the version that's been through a fairly significant internal review."

 

Some of the expected increases include health insurance up $68,000, or 1.38 percent; the retirement pension line up $112,000; and the McCann Technical School assessment up $170,127.

 

The mayor said a half percent was shaved off the insurance increase by bundling in a vision benefit and that the public schools budget will be level-funded through federal funding.

 

There's also expected to be an increase in transfer station fees to reflect actual costs.

 

"I don't anticipate at this time doing what we did with the FY21 budget, which is to bring in use of our reserve accounts to balance, certain budget lines," he said. "So, as much as possible I plan to hold those reserves in reserve."

 

Last year, $340,000 in reserves was used to offset the budget. This coming year, the city will have an estimated $3,724,790 in American Recovery Act funds designed to support communities in recovering from the pandemic.

 

Bernard said the details on the use of the funds will be forthcoming but in general they can be targeted toward infrastructure, revenue reductions, and impacts on local industry such as hospitality and tourism. These funds may give the city some breathing room to address some needs.

 

"Over the years there have been discussions at different times about migrating water and sewer to an enterprise fund and this may be the year to do that," Bernard said.

 

Other considerations in the coming fiscal year are exploring options for a public safety building and dealing with staffing changes.

 

The city has applied for state District Local Technical Assistance funds to do preliminary siting studies of potential properties in the city.

 

The staffing issue, the mayor said, "has a financial component but it has an operational component as well, and a fairly significant and critical one." 

 

There has been some turnover in higher level positions, especially in the past year with the departures of the administrative officer, city clerk and now the city assessor to other opportunities.

 

"One of the reasons that some of these positions have transitioned, is because folks can take their skill set and go to a community where the compensation is higher," Bernard said. "They are undercompensated for the level of work they do both compared to other communities, but also because over the years we have trimmed staff to the point where the workload on department heads as well as every other staff in the city is greater, and we have not recognized that additional work properly with either either merit or equity increases in those key places."

 

He's recommending reviewing the classification and compensation plan to see where changes might be made.

 

The committee also discussed the need to update the fee schedule (a project put on hold because of COVID-19 and the departure of the previous administrative officer) and why the city is receiving so much less in ARA funds compared to Pittsfield. Bernard said it was a federal calculation but Councilor Marie T. Harpin, who raised the issue, thought they should contact U.S. Rep. Richie Neal anyways.