“…There’s money left on the table…”

During the December 14 meeting of the Mattapoisett Finance Committee, Selectman Paul Silva brought to the committee’s attention that many residences where public sewer service is now available never tied into the system.

“There are 149 developed lots in town that have not tied into the sewer,” Silva reported, adding, “That equals about $74,000 on the table; they aren’t paying usage fees.” While the town is paying for the capacity, those who have not tied-in are not offsetting those expenses, he explained.

Selectmen Jordan Collyer said that it’s implied “a handshake agreement,” that property owners of developed lots had two years to hook into the system but apparently enforcement was vague.

Collyer and Silva discussed that some homeowners whose private septic systems needed repair or replacement prior to sewer projects in their neighborhood spent a great deal of money so that when the public sewer system came along, “They never tied-in,” said Collyer.

FinCom members asked if there were contractual agreements that would force the homeowner to use the public system. Town Administrator Michael Gagne said there were sewer bylaws, but it seemed that an amendment would be required to enforce utilizing the public system.

Silva said, “The sewer commissioners need to look at this.”

            In other matters, Gagne stated, “I thought we should chit chat about FY18,” saying he had been meeting with town department heads discussing health care costs and long-term personnel planning. “It’s good to know who might be planning on retiring,” he said.

Gagne said that recently there had been some difficulty hiring staff for what he called positions requiring “specialized” training and that it made sense to try and hire from within, giving staff members ample opportunity to be trained by the outgoing employee. He pointed out that the selectmen had developed a three-year plan with the clerical union that would recognize those persons who wished to move up in their departments to give them time to be trained.

“Promotion from within makes sense,” he said.

Gagne has also asked the department heads to identify any anomalies in their budgets such as fuel, salt/sand, et cetera that might blow up a level-funded functional area. He has also begun the process of running the numbers on revenue versus expenditures for a mid-January review.

Regarding state aid, Gagne said that funding in FY17 was down by 5 percent and anticipated the same for the coming year. Local receipts, he said, “have done well,” but projections for growth in 2018 showed a slowing trend.

To help understand the financial health and wellbeing of the town’s many balance sheets, Gagne said he wanted to segregate expenditures by department. Such costs as post-employment benefits, pensions, Medicare, property, as well as liability and group health insurance were all areas that he said could be pulled apart and allocated directly to departments.

Once again sounding the warning gong on rising health care costs, Gagne said that those expenses are growing at an unsustainable rate and that long-term pension assessment would make adoption of a stabilization fund reasonable. He said that the average age of the town’s employees was 50 years of age. Collyer said, “We need to take a long hard look at what other towns are doing about co-pays.”

The committee also discussed the three at-large open seats that presently exist at the conference table. They said letters of interest can be submitted to the selectmen’s office and hoped that several would be received in the coming year.

The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Finance Committee is scheduled for January 11 at 6:30 pm in the town hall conference room.

By Marilou Newell

 

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