2001 FinCom Report

Finance Committee

During 2001, the Finance Committee was chaired by Allan Tosti assisted by vice chairs Richard C. Fanning, Abigail DuBois, and Charles T. Foskett. Peter B. Howard served as secretary. The Finance Committee has twenty-one positions, one for each precinct. Of these, only one was vacant during this year. The appointing authority (Moderator, Trust Fund Commissioners Chair, Finance Committee Chair) acted to reappoint all members whose terms were completed.

The Finance Committee began its annual effort to develop a comprehensive balanced budget recommendation for Town Meeting in late January after receiving the proposed town budgets. The budget of each department was reviewed with the department head. The school budget subcommittee attended School Committee meetings in order to gain an understanding of the school budget. Hearings were held on all Warrant Articles that required an appropriation or had a financial impact. Fifteen full committee meetings were held which, when combined with numerous subcommittee meetings, made for a busy winter schedule. In addition, the committee met for a half hour before each Town Meeting session to formulate a recommendation on last minute proposals.

A new issue this year was the purchase of Symmes Hospital using bonds issued under a new debt exclusion override. The Finance Committee listened to the advocates of this process and voted to support the referendum that subsequently was accepted by the voters with a large margin. Charles Foskett, one of the Finance Committee vice chairs, contributed to this effort and was appointed, together with Steven DeCoursey, to the Symmes Advisory Committee established by the Town Meeting to develop a utilization plan for the site. Mr. Foskett was subsequently selected to chair that committee. The Finance Committee has followed the purchase negotiations closely through the involvement of Mr. Foskett and Mr. DeCoursey. By the end of the year, these negotiations had resulted in a purchase and sale agreement.

For many years the Finance Committee has been concerned with the cost of the Minuteman Regional High School budget and the Town's limited ability to control this cost. Under new leadership, the Minuteman School Committee confirmed the end of the inequitable Choice program and reached a compromise budget proposal. Although the cost to Arlington was not as low as it could have been if the Town acted independently as it had in recent years, the Finance Committee, and later the Town Meeting, supported the proposal at the recommendation of the Arlington representative to the Minuteman School Committee. The Finance Committee expects that the new spirit of cooperation will lead to better cost control. To further encourage this process, town leaders recommended that Erin Phelps, a long-time Finance Committee member who has followed Minuteman affairs closely, be appointed to the Minuteman School Committee. After her appointment by the Moderator, Ms. Phelps resigned from the Finance Committee. Her presence will be missed.

The Finance Committee also continued to monitor other ongoing activities that could have a large financial impact. The Finance Committee followed the progress of the school renovation projects and the Reed's Brook project through regular reports by the responsible town officials.

The effort begun two years ago with the Deputy Town Manager and the Director of Data Processing has resulted in an improved budget process. The resulting document, however, needed to be improved. Several meetings of an ad hoc subcommittee with town officials have resulted in a promising format that will be both accurate and readable and, using up-to-date computerization, less expensive to produce. Whether this promise will be realized will be seen next year.

In addition to the matters already mentioned, future challenges will involve limits on State Aid with the economic recession; funding for the next round of school renovations given the rapid inflation of construction costs; the renovation of the town's fire stations; and the increasing costs of health insurance for current and retired employees.