- Re:2007 Town Budget - Wolfeboro Community Forums

Well folks it is budget preparation time in Wolfeboro without a Town Manager or a Finance Director. Maybe you should think about going to some BudCom and BOS meetings. Let me give you something to think about. The DPW has the gasoline supply for the town vehicles. The Police Dept has gasoline needs for their cruisers and they fill up at the DPW. Okay, now the DPW budget has a line item for the total gasoline purchase for the year INCLUDING the Police Department portion. However the Police Department also has a line item for their gasoline. Everyone see what that is? DOUBLE BOOKING is what it is called. As a result for 2006, there is an extra $25,000 in the budget, nice little slush fund for something. This was identified by the Town Treasurer which is what he should be doing, finding inconsistencies in the books. However when two BudCom members brought this up, neither the Town Treasurer (a BudCom member, nor the long time BudCom Chair would take any action to correct this issue. It is my belief that the BudCom is an elected board in Wolfeboro to create a budget that accurately depicts the cost to operate the town in an efficient and cost effective manner. The fact that they will not correct this error makes me wonder what else is double booked in the budget???? The former Finance Officer (and former Interim Town Manager) when asked about the issue said "how else would we do it" and took no further action. Hey how about letting DPW budget for all gasoline as they do now and have an allocation quantity of that amount earmarked for Police use. Then Police would sign a chit for each fillup and a simple computer spread sheet could check they don't overrun their annual allotment. Not rocket science in my book!

That was a very good catch OC and a good suggestion as to how to handle it. How wacky that they wouldn't fix a problem just because they didn't know how else to do it!

Did you make your recommendation at the meeting? I doubt anyone on the Budcom checks in over here - if they do, speak up.

I don't want to change the subject within this thread but what is going on with the Town Manager position? OC, did you consider throwing your hat in?

well it wasn't my catch, I am just doing publicity on it. As I said, it was the Town Treasurer who made the call and he was correct. It is not right to be double counting expenses, and asking the taxpayers for the additional money that isn't justified. How many other line items in the budget are the same? It was brought up at BudCom by two sitting members of the BudCom, one of whom is still on the panel. Documentation was given and yet the Chair chose to ignore the request to fix the budget to reflect actual gasoline usage. How a veteran Chair of some ten years can ignore a technically sound suggestion to make the budget more accurate is beyond me!
As for me running for office or seeking a job, I am retired and intend to stay that way. I go to Florida in the winter for a while and don't think anyone who does go ought to hold elected office. Phoning in your opinions from the beach in Miami is not a valid role for an elected offical.
My contribution, as the Planning Board Chair once said to me, is apparently to be an "agitator" in the hopes I will get through to enough taxpayers that they will get mad, stand up and demand more from elected officals and town employees.
With regards to the TM job, silence is deafening from our BOS. They have decided not to fill any other jobs, such as DPW, and will let the new TM do that. TM now won't have much input into town budget for 2007 which is underway in development. Guess it is second string Intermim Town Manager and the Asst. Interim Town Manager along with Town Treasurer that must be doing the leg work to get things ready for BOS public hearings later this fall. Who knows?!? The curtain of silence has fallen.

Did anyone catch in the BOS minutes for 9/6, the fact that Interim Town Manager II has "concerns" about 2007 department budgets which were due to him by 9/14. I had a feeling this budget cycle won't go smoothly. No finance director, Interim TM II and Asst TM, and no TM candidate announced by BOS. Who is in charge? Who is leading the chorus? Stay tuned, this could get interesting.

Well it's no surprise!

Everyday when I start a conversation with Rob Houseman and ask how he's doing his response is "I'm barely keeping my head above water". How can he consider anything as thought provoking and thought consuming as the budget if he is busy treading water.

We need a life guard standing on the beach to help us out of this mess!

I nominate CW to take over the town of Wolfeboro. After all he knows it all, just ask him.

Come on - in all seriousness - who's in the running other then the overwhelmed Town Planner. He has no experience - he's just seeing big dollar signs.

I watched our own version of Comedy Central today, the latest BOS meeting on Wolfeboro TV. Seems 8 department heads didn't meet the 9/14 date to have their budgets in. Will we do anything about accountibility? Of course not, the joke of the day is the Police Department never gets their budget in on time. I tell you where I worked I'd have been reprimanded big time for missing a budget submittal deadline! And I expect a lot of you too. Anyway other news from the tape was that the Interim Town Manager II, to differentiate him from the other Interim Town Manager, has bowed out of the budget process. Claims he is uncomfortable as he is a "peer" of other department heads and lacks historical experience at budget preps. So the BOS will not get a Town Manager organized budget but rather the raw wish lists from the departments. I doubt there was forethought to give the department heads a budget target so it should be interesting in October when BOS starts reviewing the requests. We'll see who isn't tuned in to the fact there will be some 8 digit bond warrants for water and sewer in March. Oh speaking of sewer, the real comedy line of the night was the notice that the Attorney General sent a letter to BOS asking if the Wolfeboro sewer moratorium applied to the Mill Bldg on Center Street!!!!! Remember the State took the building by eminent domain for the period of the bridge work and had said all along they would sell it after the bridge was done. I hope they damn well have to sit on it for years to come. What a stupid question from a stupid Concord public official. Why didn't he just ask NHDES right down the hall?????

Well the Town will tell the Attorney General there were people in the building prior to the moratorium so there was historical reference to the amount of gallons used.

I'm not sure, and you're probably not either, but did the State ever take the building for sure? Did they ever give it back for sure? I know our property across the street at 85 Center Street is still going before the Board of Tax & Land Appeals (BTLA) because the State offer us such a pittance for what they took from us. I tried to find out what the state paid Duco and what they sold it back to Duco for and so far have not been successful in unearthing any hard cold facts. So my point is that just because the pretty work is done doesn't mean the deals have been made and formalized (paid for).

I also wonder if the Attorney General had indeed gone down the hall and asked the NHDES and knew the answer prior to sending the letter? Maybe it's a management technique used to inquire rather then just slapping them on the wrist right away.

I say what about Brewster? What about the Child Advocacy Center? What about The Laker? What about the Historical Society? What about a planned expansion at the Hospital? On and on and on . . . the ease of process and the decsisions made are uneven at best.

As for the Department Head budgets, I'd think this is one more reason not to vote to put RH in as TM. Is this just a precursor to what we'll see? Will his answer for everything be that he can't effectively manage these other Dept. Heads because he's uncomfortable with his peers? Oh Oh!

And Ol C. - would you please use paragraphs? I love reading your posts because I think you post valuable informaiton for us to chew on but it's so difficult to read or re-read them as just one block of gray.

Did I understand you correctly? Brenda is Town Manager II and is supposed to do the Budget and Rob is Town Manager I?

The newspaper today alluded TM II is in charge of the budget?

Here is the lineup. I refer to Houseman as Interim Town Manager II because Smith was the first Interim Town Manager. I refer to LaPointe as Asst Interim Town Manager, she has specific duties to help with the "major workload". Houseman would be the person who normally would take all the department budget submittals and package them for presentation to the BOS. If you watch the tape of the 9/25 meeting, you'll see that Houseman has asked to be relieved of that assignment, claiming (a) that he doesn't have the historical budget perspective and (b) he is a "peer" of the department heads and feels uncomfortable.
Now think about that response. The man has put his cap in the ring to be the new permanent Town Manager. Why wouldn't he want to be involved in the 2007 budget preps? It would be (a) a chance to gain experience should he be selected and therefore better prepared for 2008 and (b) would be an oppotunity to show the BOS and the Town what he is capable of doing. In my mind his decision indicates someone that is nervous about responsibility and not eager for a challenge. Therefore how can he be a viable candidate to become Town Manager????

Therefore how can he be a viable candidate to be Town Manager?

That's simple - he can't.

Thanks for the clarification. I forgot Scott Smith was Interim TM I. He didn't last long.

But regardless, I do agree with you about his unwillingness to perform already!

Glad to see we have a new poster - gokartmozart. . . interesting.

Here's some more budget news. It came as a surprize to BudCom members, except the Chair, that the Town has hired Carol Piper, a former town employee, to sheperd the budget process. Wonder how much that is costing us? Did we make a formal announcement of this anywhere?

BOS will review the budget at 7PM on the following days, Oct 11, 19, 25 and Nov 2, all meetings at the Town Hall. Now bear in mind they expect to go through the whole budget in four sessions, without a TM sort first. And bear in mind they continue to use the outdated method of comparing the proposed budget to the last years budget rather than the generally accepted method of "zero base" budgeting where the departments have to justify the whole sum each year, not just the incremental annual increase.

BudCom will review the budget the BOS sends them on Nov 20, 27, and 30, Dec 4, 11, 14 and then hold a public hearing on Jan 8.

There is also news on the Capital Improvements Plan (CIP) front. The proposed CIP is front end loaded, that is it proposes spending 13 million in '07 and 21 million in '08! Wow, what do you think the chances are of that?? I expect to get a copy soon and will post the big hitters for '07 and '08.

Actually zero based budgets have serious draw backs:

http://www.accts.com/baseline.htm

Well DNF, I did you to your link and looked at the "disadvantages". However I have not changed my mind. I don't advocate a zero based approach every year but with a new Town Manager, a new Finance Director and such, this is a perfect time to flush out all those cubbyholes that may be in a long time town budget (my repeated example is double budgeting gasoline). Let's do a zero based budget, we certainly have more than adequate historical information, we can make the extra time by starting earlier next year with defined schedules and holding department head's feet to the fire to meet them, and we do have a handle on the infrequent one time expenses in our CIP that we now have. This is not a little town anymore, not when the CIP proposes $21,000,000 for capital improvements in 2008 time frame. Lets put the time and effort into developing a good solid zero base budget for 2008 and then do it, say every 5-10 years to reset. I didn't see anything on that link that says it won't work here other than the old Wolfeboro dirge of "we always did it this way" or "oh that's too hard or two complicated". Sort of like the letter from a citizen who has great credentials as an accountant who wrote a letter to the BOS LAST YEAR about improving the budget process. The letter FINALLY got to the BudCom at this week's meeting and the Town Treasurer remarked "he didn't understand it" and the BudCom dismissed the whole affair without so much as an intelligent discussion. So much for informed citizen input,eh?

Tell me more about a zero based approach? What's the deal? You start at zero and justify every nickle & dime?

OC you raise a good point about so many new ones in their positions it might be a good year but it could also be very burdensome for someone new to try to do all the research required if they don't know where to find the info. Given the vacancies it might exacerbate the employee time issues and hinder other projects or cause other issues to be ignored. However OC in the purest definition of a zero based budget the historical data and costs are ignored and you start from scratch.

DF every thing starts at zero and not just justify but research every nickel and dime. It is hugely time consuming. In the purest sense, you ignore all the historical data you have and start anew every year for everything.

Instead of saying we spent $8000 for office supplies last year and there is no reason to see it increase or decrease this year. Zero based would have you say we expect to use 100 boxes of office paper at a cost of $40 per box and 15 boxes of paper clips at $5 a box etc. etc. and it totals viola $7995. It took 3 hours of employee time research to compile that total and you do it for every line. It can be extremely time consuming and as the above example shows it can cost more to calculate than you save.

Another way which is not zero based would be with gasoline, look at how much you spent the last year, factor in what changes might be (like the fire department is replacing a gasoline powered vehicle with a diesel) and then look at where prices are heading to calculate how much you anticipate to spend.

I am not saying there aren't times it is a good idea. It was buzz when Reagan said the federal budget was going to be zero based. Many places are moving away from it to one where you still justify everything but you look at historical data and trends to reach your budget.

You biggest typical cost is personnel. It makes little sense to burden the employees to the point they have fewer hours to do their normal assignments.