Marion Town Administrator Jay McGrail addressed a joint session of the Board of Selectmen and the Finance Committee on February 12 to hear the Fiscal Year 2021 budget requests from the Town’s Fire and Police departments and the Department of Public Works.
After a 90-minute meeting with the school department early last week, McGrail told the joint session that FinCom member Charlie Larkin will receive from the school department the five-year financial information requested before Superintendent Doug White retires (June 30).
“The only thing I’d add is the idea of FinCom and all of us, we’re trying to be supportive, we’re trying to be available for analysis, we’re trying to be transparent and do our job and report into the townspeople what we found at ORR,” said Larkin.
“The focus,” said McGrail, “would be five years of spending and revenue at the district and how trends have grown and changed over the five years.”
Larkin added, “by business segment,” to which McGrail agreed.
“It was a good meeting. We made it pretty far, and they should have something to you… within a week,” said McGrail.
Mattapoisett and Rochester are not involved at this point, but the ORR School Committee will be involved next.
“The idea is (the other two towns) would get involved at some point,” said Larkin. “Let’s get Marion’s house in order, how we would approach it, get some feedback, and let’s go.”
“We’re just getting on board with what we’re all trying to do,” said McGrail.
Citing the June 30 expiration of the collective-bargaining agreement, Marion Chief of Police John B. Garcia estimated a two percent increase earmarked at salaries for sergeants and patrol officers. McGrail noted that Mattapoisett pays to have a police officer at ORR as the sending community. The money Marion pays Mattapoisett has been moved to become part of the assessment.
In light of the fact Marion does not have the funding to place a police officer at Sippican School, Garcia was asked how the police department manages security there.
“What we have done in the last two years is we have a designated school resource officer — we’re required to by law… but to have a greater presence in the school we have officers that go in at recess, they have lunch with the kids once or twice a week,” Garcia said.
Not including Garcia, there are 15 full-time and five part-time officers.
“Typically, we have three people on a shift, one person on the desk and two people on the road,” said Garcia. “During the day, we have the lieutenant and me. There’s two additional people on the road.”
Asked how the department forecasts overtime, Garcia said he looks back over the past two years to see in the computer system what the spending has been.
FinCom Chairman Peter Winters noted that overtime was high last year to cover the shifts of an officer out on disability who has since retired. Winters asked Garcia if he foresees a resulting reduction in overtime.
“No,” answered Garcia, explaining, “I started out the beginning of the year (with) the full complement, and we were doing really well with staying in the under. We were underspending that particular line (overtime). Then I had two officers resign,” said Garcia, who said he is filling the shifts mostly with overtime. “When we get to the end of this year, it may be difficult.”
Marion Police Department is in the hiring process. One hire, assistant harbormaster Peter Bourgault, is in the academy and therefore cannot yet serve the town.
“We have a couple of candidates that have the full-time academy (credential) so, if they work out with the pre-screenings and the background investigations, that’ll be a huge savings to the community because we’ll be able to get them in the field training and get them to work as opposed to sending them to the academy for 24 weeks,” explained Garcia.
The town is required to pay officers’ salaries while training at the academy and pay for their academy training.
Winters asked how many vehicles the department has. Garcia answered nine and said old vehicles are declared surplus. He prefers to trade them in to bring down the expense of new ones.
The animal-control officer falls under a separate budget. Her prior stipend is now part of her salary. She is also provided one of the department’s nine cruisers and carries a firearm.
“We’re no longer doing stipends as part of our policy,” said McGrail.
The uniform allowance increased because she is now fully outfitted as a patrol officer. Typically, an officer has three to four uniforms including winter and summer outfits. Jackets and raincoats cost up to $350.
Garcia was asked about the information-technology (IT) support he performs at the police station. He may be retiring, according to McGrail, so the town is looking into part-time IT support for Town House and Police.
“I’ve taken college courses in networking and it was just an interest, something I had done on my own,” said Garcia. “We’re not going to be getting another officer to be doing that.”
Marion Fire Chief Brian Jackvony addressed the joint session next.
Jackvony reported stability in general expenses for maintenance of the station and vehicles. He reported an increase of approximately $2,000 to $5,200-5,300 in the cost of improved technology in keeping up with the needs of connectivity and electronic reporting to the hospitals.
More significant increases come in salary and wages, uniforms and training.
“The town’s new personnel policy did drive some of the cost increase. We found that our paramedics, EMTs, firefighters, our lieutenants and CPNs were underpaid,” said Jackvony. “We need to remain competitive. As most of you know, the Fire Department is staffed entirely by per-diem help. We need to absolutely remain competitive because, if we don’t pay near the top wage for a paramedic, they can work in Carver, they can work in Mattapoisett, they can work in many other places.
“Most of the paramedics and EMTs work full time in other locations such as Bourne, Cohasset, Easton – they’re all around the state, and they work with us per diem. We have to remain competitive, and that’s what kind of drives our numbers here.”
The largest increase comes in Jackvony’s request for one additional full-time fire inspector/lieutenant, who would be trained as an EMT.
Jackvony reported that, in 2009, the Fire Department handled 512 calls. In 2018, there were 1,546 calls, and in 2019 it was 1,248. Weekdays are busiest and between the hours of 11:00 am and noon. Last year there were 195 “overlapping” (mutual-aid) calls, and 15.2 percent of the calls were simultaneous. Any calls to outside towns for an ambulance result in a loss of revenue for the town.
Currently, the Fire Department schedules out 336 hours per week with per-diem help for the ambulance at 48 hours per day staffed with a paramedic and a basic EMT. The department staffs paid, on-call firefighters at 66 hours per week. In the summer, those hours will increase to 82 hours per week.
Acknowledging the question as to whether Marion could staff the newly requested position with part-time help, Jackvony answered in the negative.
“If we added 40 more hours, we’d be staffing 458 hours per week with part-time help. And I cannot do that and maintain under 20 hours a week. We know by (Massachusetts) state law, if we go over 20 hours a week for any employee on a regular basis, naturally we have to offer sick time, we have to offer vacation, we have to offer pension, health care.
“It’s really not practical,” he concluded. “We’re kind of in a Catch-22 with our scheduling.”
In 2019, Marion Fire lost 13 members. Marion hired five over the same period. The town is recruiting paid, on-call firefighters and has six candidates, five of whom live outside Marion. The timeline to train and get into the workforce is two years.
Jackvony blames attrition on towns across the United States, including Marion, being overly reliant on aged firefighters.
“We’re just at the point where we cannot continue that trend,” he said.
According to Jackvony, the majority of Marion’s on-call firefighters work another full-time job during the day and come to work at 5:00 pm.
State law states that towns must assemble four firefighters before engaging a fire. “We don’t role an engine unless we have at least three people on it,” said Jackvony. “We need to maintain that two-in, two-out before we can begin operations.”
It’s during the day when Marion has been overly reliant on aged firefighters, said Jackvony.
Marion has not raised its ambulance fees since 2013.
Marion Fire generated over $16,000 in revenue last year. A basic life-support call costs a Marion resident $815, compared to nearby towns that bill $1,100, $1,200 and $938. For advanced life-support calls, Marion bills $1,157, compared to nearby towns that bill $1,400, $1,850 and $1,480.
Marion had 810 medical calls and 438 fire calls in 2019. There were 38 mutual-aid-received calls and 55 mutual-aid-given calls, the majority medically related. Many calls do not continue with transport, and those calls cannot be billed. The collection rate on billed calls is approximately 90 percent, according to McGrail.
Medicare and Mass Care costs are capped at $395 for basic medical; those calls account for 60 percent of the total. Only 15 percent are billable to third-party insurance companies, and 25 percent non-pay and non-collectible according to Jackvony. Raising rates would only affect the 15 percent billable to private insurers.
Most transports are taken to Tobey Hospital in Wareham. Cardiac calls are transported to Charlton Hospital in Fall River, and trauma calls to Rhode Island Hospital.
The Department of Public Works also reported, with highway, sewer and water departments reporting separately.
The highway report was given first.
For David Willett, director of Public Works, the “elephant in the kitchen” facing Marion’s DPW is the $420,000 price tag on curbside collection. He credited office manager Becky Tilden, highway foreman Joseph Ayers and utilities manager Frank Cooper for their work putting together his presentation.
Having noted a $75,000 place holder cost for paying for rubbish disposal, Willett presented a table showing the number of man-hours based on a 7.5-hour workday to perform the duties. In July, 16,978 man-hours were available. In January there were 15,297 man-hours available. In July, cemetery service and trash recycling are considered A-level services, according to Willett.
The table, he said, is not an all-conclusive document, but is a recurring exercise with the value of illustrating where the money is being spent.
Selectman John Waterman concluded that, because the DPW is down a person, by outsourcing trash pickup the town has freed up a net of 4,000 personnel hours.
Willett was happy to announce the success of the addition of modern equipment for pavement repair. He is also looking to manage the MS-4 permit (storm-water control) by running a program with internal resources and interns from Mass Maritime Academy. He hopes to cut the $107,000 expenditure as outsourced in half.
Citing 10 percent increases, Winters asked if anything can be done to decrease water and sewer rates. Having been on the job 10 months, Willett said he has yet to gain a feel for where that can be accomplished.
Waterman expects Marion will get some state money in the next year.
McGrail said water will add no capital expenses in FY2021.
Willett said depreciation will require investment. “We’re always looking for savings,” he said.
Contracted services, he said, requires investment in improved safety practices. The sewer workforce, according to McGrail, has doubled in size to four people.
Regarding the next meeting, Winters noted that February 26 is Ash Wednesday, but McGrail has secured commitments from the ORR and Sippican School Committee and indicated that, as long as there is a quorum, it would be better to move forward.
The next joint session of the Selectmen, FinCom and ORR and Sippican School Committee will be held Wednesday, February 26.
Marion Board of Selectmen Joint Session with Finance Committee
By Mick Colageo