The Waldoboro Board of Selectmen agreed to present voters with a budget that is not supported by the town’s budget committee, following a two-and-a-half-hour-long meeting July 18.
The joint meeting was held to find $106,000 in savings after voters rejected three articles in the June 11 annual town referendum vote.
Most of the meeting was spent in discussion of a proposal, made by Selectman Ronald Miller and supported by Selectmen Carl Cunningham and Craig Cooley, to cut $60,000 from the police department budget and $35,000 from the public works department budget, using $2710 in savings in benefits costs from the retirement and rehiring of finance director Eileen Dondlinger and $8290 from the fiscal year 2013 fund balance line to make up the remaining difference.
Selectmen Theodore Wooster and James Bodman opposed Miller’s proposal.
Town Manager John Spear offered the joint meeting a suggestion to cut $60,000 from the police budget, use the benefits savings, and take $40,000 from fund balance to meet the reduction goal.
He later said there is at least $40,000 in un-expended fund balance available, beyond the amount being put aside annually to build that account. Spear said the current fund balance was approximately $650,000, as of June 30.
“The goal is to get it to $1.2 million,” he said. Selectmen set that target as part of the fiscal year 2012 budget process.
During the public comment period at the start of the meeting Dale Smith asked why two of the three selectmen had been “blindsided” with Miller’s July 9 motion to cut $110,000 from the police budget. He said the choice to cut that line appeared to be “a personal decision.”
He urged voters to reject a budget request that includes any reduction to the police line, when they revisit the budget at an upcoming referendum vote.
“I don’t think gutting the police department is the solution,” Robert Butler said. “People don’t remember what the town was like five or six years ago. This appears as a vote of ‘no confidence’ in the police chief, town manager and all department heads.”
In response to a question from Cathrina Skov, Spear said the board could shorten the remaining budget process by choosing to hold a public town meeting, instead of a referendum. A referendum requires 45-days’ notice to the town clerk and a public hearing prior to balloting, while a public meeting would only require seven-days notice.
Bodman said repeatedly, during board deliberations, that he supported Spear’s proposal as “well thought out and balanced.”
“It’s not dependent on the police department,” Bodman said. “It’s dependent on Waldoboro as a town.” He said Spear and department heads worked hard to develop a compromise and asked the board to “at least discuss it.”
With a $60,000 reduction to the police budget, Detective Jason Benefield would help cover patrol functions during the week and take a patrol shift on Friday nights, saving $42,000 in the first year and approximately $54,000 per year thereafter.
As an alternative to using money from fund balance, Spear said the board could choose to eliminate one public works driver, saving $35,000 this year and $44,000 thereafter.
He said any of the proposals under discussion would negate the need for an LD1 override.
Bodman asked Miller how he arrived at his figures.
Miller said he and Cunningham spent three days knocking on doors, making 325 stops at residents’ homes between Route 1 and the Jefferson line on Route 32, a portion of Depot Street and approximately three-quarters of the northern section of Route 220. He said the major concern expressed was about the police budget.
He later said he obtained “a lot of information” from the International Association of Chiefs of Police and consulted town officials in regard to “delinquent taxes and ability of people to pay those taxes.”
There was applause when Emergency Management Director Kyle Santheson asked why Miller’s proposal did not cut funding for the finance department. Assistant Ambulance Service Director Michael Poli later said reduced police coverage could delay emergency responses in potentially violent situations that require law enforcement presence.
“Is this something you can live with?” Cooley asked Spear.
“It’s the board’s call,” Spear said. “My recommendation is the budget I gave you in March.” He said he has already issued a layoff notice to Police Officer John Lash, effective Aug. 4. “I want people to know there will be a time that you will call and there won’t be a Waldoboro Police officer.”
In June, Spear recommended closing the town office on Fridays and extending office hours on Wednesday until 6:30 p.m. Those changes would have cut 156 hours a year from the office schedule. Spear also had suggested closing the transfer station one day a week during 19 weeks in winter. This proposal would have saved $23,000, he said.
Under Miller’s proposal, there would be no Waldoboro police coverage for approximately 20 hours a week, Labombarde said. During that period, coverages would probably come from the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.
Wooster said Spear’s plan would “spread the difficulty among different areas.”
At that point in the meeting there were five audience members with hands in the air. Cooley told them to put their hands down, saying the public comment period for the board’s portion of the meeting had passed.
“Last spring the budget committee had its discussion before selectmen voted,” committee member Ted Mohlie said. “I found that useful.” Cooley rejected that suggestion.
Public Works Director John Daigle said a $35,000 reduction in his budget would mean one less driver to cover the town’s 103 miles of road. He said the state turned nine miles over to town maintenance last year.
At that point Cooley turned the meeting over to Budget Committee Chairman William Blodgett. Blodgett said he would recognize members of the public to speak.
Valdemar Skov said the town’s paid staff are professionals and the new proposal “is hacking convenient numbers. The alternative the town manager offered is management.”
Former Police Chief Leroy Jones said the proposal would return the department to service levels in place when he retired in 2007. He said he tried to increase his staff during his tenure.
“There were a lot of times we were behind the eight-ball,” Jones said. He said he supported current Chief Bill Labombarde’s staffing request. “He’s not asking for more than this town needs for public safety.”
Blodgett said three murders and a high number of drug-related crimes were a major concern in regard to any proposed cut in police services.
In response to a question from Bob Butler, Blodgett said the budget committee cannot alter the selectmen’s budget, or even make a specific recommendation, but can only use its vote to inform voters as to its position on that budget.
A suggestion to present voters with a line-item warrant for the $106,000 reduction was rejected.
The budget committee opposed the proposed $106,000 adjustment, 5 to 3, with Higgins, Craig Lewis and Morrell supporting the proposal
The committee supported a measure to treat the town clerk’s budget of $69,874 as a separate line item, 7 to 1, with Maxwell opposed, for the warrant. This amount was previously included in the finance and customer service line.
The next regular meeting of the Waldoboro Board of Selectmen will be Tuesday, Aug 13 at 6 p.m. at the Municipal Building. A meeting previously scheduled for July 23 was canceled.
The budget committee is not scheduled to meet again until the budget process commences for fiscal year 2015.
A public hearing on the proposed budget changes will be held Tuesday, Aug 27 at 6 p.m. at the municipal building. A secret ballot referendum will follow on Tuesday, Sept. 10. Polls will be open at the town office from 8 a.m. – 8 p.m.
For more information, call the Waldoboro Town Office at 832-5369.
