As the Rochester Finance Committee took care of old business on Monday night, August 9, and talked out its anticipation of the town’s October 18 Special Town Meeting, its members also voted to appoint Richard Munroe as FinCom’s new representative to the Capital Planning Committee.
Munroe is familiar to the Finance Committee as the recently retired president of Tibbetts Engineering Corporation in New Bedford.
“I think he’ll be very good on this,” said Town Administrator Suzanne Szyndlar.
In identifying Munroe as his father-in-law, FinCom member Jim Austin abstained from the vote but noted that Munroe is “extremely detail-oriented.”
The Finance Committee voted two FY21 year-end transfers of funds, one for $23,763.96 from group insurance that had gone unspent and therefore became available to other categories, the other transfer in the amount of $19,022.95 from the reserve fund to cover a snow removal and ice-treatment deficit.
Szyndlar told FinCom that Rochester had $53,405 remaining in its reserve fund prior to the transfer.
“We never know what [the snow and ice budget] is going to be,” said FinCom Chairman Kris Stoltenberg.
In the case of the group insurance transfer, Szyndlar cited scenarios in which town employees come off plans. “There’s a lot of moving parts in a year of a health-insurance budget,” she said, referencing a couple of retirements and resignations. Szyndlar also explained that the retirement of Assessor Chuck Shea triggered a payout of accrued vacation time from the regular budget.
Szyndlar told the committee that she plans to attend the August 25 meeting of Tri-Town finance committees that the Town of Marion will host to discuss the Old Rochester Regional agreement that has to pass in all three town meetings.
The agreement, built around a three-year average rather than being based on the prior fiscal year, has been approved by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).
The key talking point will be ORR’s request to establish a stabilization fund that presumably will cut the amount of red tape for smaller capital spending projects. Larger projects, such as the high school track rehabilitation that failed to pass, will presumably still be subject to borrowing, but the August 25 meeting of tri-town finance committees is meant to explain the agreement and answer any questions.
FinCom member David Arancio suggested that the ORR School Committee give the process transparency with town meeting voters by showing them how the new agreement would have affected last year’s assessments. As town moderator, Arancio told fellow committee members that transparency and thorough presentations would help limit questions on Town Meeting floor.
The next meeting of the Rochester Finance Committee is scheduled to be held in a joint session with Marion and Mattapoisett finance committees on Wednesday, August 25, at 7:00 pm.
Rochester Finance Committee
By Mick Colageo