2015-03-11
Budget Committee Meeting – 2015-03-11
TOWN OF BERLIN
BUDGET COMMITTEE MEETING
REGULAR MEETING
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Board of Education Conference Room @ 6:00 p.m.
A. CALL TO ORDER
Chairman William Rasmussen, Jr. called the Budget Committee meeting to order at 6:00
p.m.
B. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
C. ROLL CALL
Those in attendance were: Councilor David Evans (6:05 p.m.)
Councilor Brenden Luddy
Councilor Margaret Morelli (6:27 p.m.)
Councilor Charles Paonessa
Chairman William Rasmussen, Jr.
Mayor Rachel Rochette
Councilor Peter Rosso
Also in attendance: Town Manager Denise McNair
Finance Director Jim Wren
Budget Analyst Len Zielinski
D. DISCUSSION ON DEPARTMENT BUDGETS
1. Development Services/ZBA/Conservation Commission – Account 1014, 1016, 1018
Conservation Commission Account #1018
Presenting the Conservation Commission budget:
Michael DeLorenzo, Chairman of the Conservation Commission
Hellyn Riggins, Director of Development Services
Public Education – Acct. 53440
Requested $3,000
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Michael DeLorenzo stated that the Conservation Commission is basically level with last
year’s budget. They are continuing the public education for the hiking and open space areas.
They have some trail maintenance issues and ongoing open space signage issues.
Michael DeLorenzo added that our former Economic Development Director Jim Mahoney
put a lot of effort into the open space grants, signage and the trails and they will need
someone else to help if Jim is no longer available to help.
Town Manager McNair stated that the Town has invested a lot in the acquisition of open
space and it is important to have someone help with all the things involved with the open
space.
This concluded the presentation on the Conservation Commission budget.
Zoning Board of Appeals – Account #1016
Presenting the Zoning Board of Appeals budget:
Hellyn Riggins, Director of Development Services
Hellyn Riggins stated that the budget is basically level with last year’s budget.
Supplies – Acct. #53201
Requested $0 – merged with Development Services
Commission Secretaries – Acct. #51305
Requested $1,225 – the ZBA tends to have very long meetings
Development Services Account 1014
Presenting the Development Services budget:
Hellyn Riggins, Director of Development Services
Supplies – Acct. #53201
Requested $2,850 – this is a decrease from the last year’s budget – purchase the code books
out of this account
Professional Development – Acct. #53916
Requested $2,236 – a slight decrease due to the Asst. Planner attending less conferences
This concluded the presentation on the Development Services budget.
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Budget Committee Meeting – 2015-03-11
Planning and Zoning Commission – Account 1015
Presenting the Planning and Zoning Commission budget:
Hellyn Riggins, Director of Development Services
Hellyn Riggins stated that the budget is basically level with last year’s budget.
Historic District Commission – Account 1024
Presenting the Historic District Commission budget:
Hellyn Riggins, Director of Development Services
Commission Secretaries – Acct. #51305
Requested $1,200 – reduced to $800 by Town Manager
Hellyn Riggins stated that with the $800 the most times they can meet per year is eight times and
she is working with that commission to reduce the amount of meetings but she is concerned that
this figure may be a little low.
Development Services Revenues
:
Hellyn Riggins stated that her Planning/Building Department revenues go into one fund and the
Zoning Board of Appeals is separate from those departments. She suggested separating the
Planning revenues from the Building revenues to better estimate the revenues.
Planning/Building Revenues –
Building Revenues -$224,554 – of that Planning has brought in $17,800.
Hellyn Riggins stated that this year the revenues are low compared to what she had projected,
but they are going into their building season now and there should be an increase in their
st
revenues. She does not have any major plans coming up between now and July 1. The only
major project they had this year was Depot Crossing. She stated that if the sport complex goes
through then there should be a lot of permitting fees from that project. There is also the
subdivision of the Petow property which will help bring in more revenues and they also have
Beckley Farms project which is moving into phase III.
Councilor Paonessa inquired if it is possible to combine some of the clerical positions.
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Budget Committee Meeting – 2015-03-11
Hellyn Riggins stated that she does not have a clerical position in the Planning Office. If we
went down to two staff in the Building Department, they would both have to be inspectors and
then one would have to be trained to work the counter. She has to have coverage if the building
inspector is out; she currently has 1.5 building inspectors. She would like to have the current
Zoning Enforcement Officer as the full-time Asst. Planner and have a new position of Building
Inspector/ Zoning Enforcement Officer because she currently has to send two people out for the
same job to address different issues.
She added that some towns have morning hours to do their permits and afternoon hours to do
their inspecting; this would allow her to have a part-time clerk instead of a full-time clerk. There
has been some discussion about building permits being purchased online, this would also be a
big help.
This concluded the presentation on the Development Services budgets.
2. Library – Account 2544
Presenting the Library budget:
Helen Malinka, Library Board Director
Helen Malinka stated that back in 1991, when their book budget was $80,000 they pretty much
just had to buy a book ($9.82) however, these days they cannot just buy a book, they have to buy
a downloadable e-book, the book on CD, buy the DVD, the actual book, the MP3, and a large
print copy of said book ($277.67). They do not buy all formats of the book for every title but it
is very stressful trying to determine what books will be needed in what format.
Helen Malinka stated that their book budget for this year is $87,000 and that is only $7,000 more
than they had in 1991. Last year, their book budget was cut by $6,000 and she put in this year to
raise it by $3,000; she is trying to get it back to $93,000. If this is restored it will help them
serve the people of Berlin much better.
She stated that she would also like to speak about technology. By rearranging some of the duties
of the Reference Department she was able to create a 17-hour position for digital services. This
position handles all of technology along with working their reference desk and would like to add
three hours to this position.
Mayor Rochette inquired as to the amount of circulation for books and other items.
Helen Malinka stated that the use of e-books has risen tremendously; other circulation is down
slightly. She added that she was able to save a lot this year in technology costs. She also
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explained that the library is a part of a global network of thirty libraries and things that they
purchase can be borrowed by any of those libraries.
Councilor Evans inquired if the cost for the e-books represent one year.
Helen Malinka replied that some publishers do allow them to buy a title and it will last for a
certain number of checkouts, some limit the title for only two years, and others sell the title
outright.
CAPITAL OUTLAYS:
Helen Malinka stated that the meeting room is heavily used by outside groups and we also hold
group meetings there. The sound system is very poor, the microphones are broken, and there is
no way to assist hearing impaired patrons. They have obtained a few estimates from local
companies for the upgrade to the meeting room.
This concluded the presentation on the Berlin Peck Memorial Library budget.
East Berlin Library
Presenting the East Berlin Library budget:
Joanne Clark, Librarian
Joanne Clark stated that all they have at the East Berlin Library is books; they do not have any
CDs, e-books, DVDS, etc. The library is attached to the East Berlin Firehouse and they kindly
pay for the heat and the electricity of the library. She is here to ask to have the $500 restored to
their budget that was cut last year. They are only open 8 hours a week but they serve a lot of
people, especially senior citizens and children. The large print books are borrowed from the
State Library at no cost and they no longer purchase any magazines. She would like her budget
restored back to the $3,500.
The library does receive donations throughout the year and they donate some of their books to
other libraries.
This concluded the presentation on the East Berlin Library.
3. Nursing, Private Schools, School Expenses – Accounts 3053, 3559, 3561
Presenting the Nursing Budget:
Linda Colella, Nursing Director
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Budget Committee Meeting – 2015-03-11
Pamela Bobrowski, President of the VNA Board
Sharon Lyons, Vice-President of the VNA Board
Linda Colella stated that last year they had a decrease of 8% in patients and they are in major
competition with other agencies in the area. She has put in a very aggressive market plan and
went out and spoke with the people that had sent them referrals. They were averaging about 80-
85 patients but now they are averaging 100-105 patients and this is the highest they have ever
been. She is working on trying to maintain this increase in patients.
Due to the Affordable Care Act, Homecare has received 17% less in Medicare reimbursements
and they are constantly auditing information and denying claims.
This year their Medicare Revenue was up and 58% of their revenues were from Medicare; in
addition their costs were down. Their Medicare profit margin share was 14.17% and this was an
increase over last year’s 10.38%. They are scrutinizing every Medicare chart looking for
accuracy and keeping their patient costs down.
This year she has also included the total costs of unreimbursed services and the total was slightly
over $86,000. They continue to provide informational sessions, flu clinics, blood pressure
clinics, and family meetings about Homecare. They have received an award for their services
and for their best practices that they provide and they were in the top 25% of patient satisfaction.
She stated that the other major change is with the telemonitors. They have been leasing the
telemonitors from VNA Healthcare but she has a feeling that she will not be able to get these
monitors from them anymore. She would like to do a 3-year lease with Honeywell for six
telemonitors with a cost savings of $28,107.00, and after the third year is completed they have
the option of buying the telemonitors for $1 each. The current telemonitors they are using are
over eight years old.
The last major change was removing the Medical Biller position due to all the problems they had
and to go with an outside company to do the billing; they are working out very well.
Chairman Rasmussen, Jr. asked if the Nursing Director is comfortable with the revenue
projections for the upcoming budget.
Linda Colella replied that she has kept the revenue projection the same for the past three years
and she will do her best to reach her projection.
Typically agencies were allowed to give Home Health Care; whether it was a shower, or bath, or
a little homemaking. The State has now changed that the Home Health Aid Services and the
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Budget Committee Meeting – 2015-03-11
Homemaking need to be separate entities. They currently have 17 patients that are getting
homemaking because Medicaid will still order Home Health Aid Services, skilled nursing and
homemaking. She would like to continue offering all three services because it is an opportunity
to make more revenue. They will have to separate the services and the documentation associated
with it.
Private Schools – Account 3559
Presenting the Private School Nursing budget:
Linda Colella, Nursing Director
Linda Colella stated that this budget is basically level with last year’s budget other than the
increases in salaries and benefits.
School Expense – Account 3561
Presenting the Private School Nursing budget:
Linda Colella, Nursing Director
Linda Colella stated that this budget is basically level with last year’s budget.
This concluded the presentation on the Nursing budget.
4. Recreation – Account 2542
Presenting the Recreation budget:
Jim Capodice, Director of Community Services
Debbie Dennis, Asst. Director of Community Services
Jim Capodice gave a brief overview of the programs that are run by the Parks and Recreation
Department. The overall Parks and Recreation budget is up 2.8% over last year’s budget due to
salaries, benefits, contractual and part-time accounts.
Computer Support – Acct. #53813
Requested $3,222 – Increase due to the cost of their software program
Summer Pool Programs:
Jim Capodice stated that the Summer Pool Program runs about eight weeks and his Asst.
Director will give an overview on the program
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Debbie Dennis stated that the Aquatic Poolside is trying to provide general swim for people and
last year they had almost 400 hundred children in the swim program with 14 swim instructors.
The Swim Team is very popular; they have 115 members in the program that includes both
Juniors and Seniors.
She thanked the Council for giving them funds to hire additional staff for the Summer Program
last year and the participants went from 105 to 122.
Jim Capodice stated that due to the construction scheduled for Griswold School this summer they
will be forced to take that summer program out of the school and bring it over to the Community
Center on Percival Avenue.
Councilor Evans inquired as to how their costs for these programs compare to the cost of child
care.
Debbie Dennis stated that their prices very low and they may look at increasing the fees in the
future.
Councilor Paonessa inquired about the Extra Duty Police Officer account.
Debbie Dennis stated that the amount in this line item is for the Police services for special
events. The Tinsel Run requires for officers and the other events require only one but they have
to pay them overtime for these events.
This concluded the presentation on the Recreation budget.
E. ADJOURNMENT
Councilor Rosso moved to adjourn the meeting at 7:57 p.m.
Seconded by Councilor Evans.
Vote being 7-0. (MOTION CARRIED)
Submitted,
Kathryn J. Wall _____________________________
Clerk of the Meeting William Rasmussen, Jr. Chairman
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