North Adams Needs New Ordinance for Sewer Fee
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Mayor Richard Alcombright told the Finance Committee last Thursday that the legislation needed to allow the city to expend monies from the watershed account is at the State House but instituting a sewer fee will require a new ordinance.
The city's ordinances authorize the commissioner of public works to set a water fee with the approval of the City Council but there's no mention of a sewer fee to be found.
"We had to write an ordinance so the commissioner of public works can set a sewer fee," said Alcombright. "Then we'll have to go to a second hearing ... [I will] have to call a special meeting July 8 to bring forward a sewer rate."
The 10 percent increase in the water rate, the sewer fee (expected to be 42 percent of the water rate) and the special legislation to use watershed funds (left from the sale of the city's watershed lands in Pownal, Vt.) are being used to plug a gap in the coming year's $35 million budget.
The mayor said the actual percentage is a 1.01 percent increase for the operating budget and a 1.54 percent increase in the school budget. The city's had to grapple with 4 percent cuts in state aid across the board, increases in health insurance costs (in large part to cover runout for this year's insurance and a settlement over insurance with the unions), a nearly $100,000 jump in veterans services, $70,000 in snow and ice and $60,000 in assessments to McCann Technical School.
Another "big nut" is the folding of the $985,000 Hoosac Water Quality District assessment into the operating budget rather than treating it as a separate expense.
"We're hoping to be in the black at the end of the year," said Alcombright of the fast-approaching end of fiscal 2010 on June 30. However, he said, "I did a very, very quick projection for 2012 and we're going to be in the same situation."
The city could be looking at $1 million in the hole for 2012, he said, although there are strong indications Massachusetts is recovering from the recession fastest among the states.
The mayor's more immediate concern is the city's lack of cash. Cheshire, he noted, just transferred more in its free cash to lower property taxes than the city has in its stabilization fund. "Our cash position is very, very scary."
The coming year's budget was based on what was expended in the last year, not what was budgeted, he said. "I didn't want to carry over numbers. I didn't think this was the year to be doing it.
"The divine powers are going to build the reserves in this budget, not me."
The committee, which recommended the budget at its meeting the week before, OK'd the new compensation and classification plans referred from the last City Council meeting. Alcombright said positions and compensation were aligned to reflect actual responsibilities. There were a few minor changes to classify an administrative assistant, animal control officer and the four-day assessor.
"We found out there are many positions here that are no longer valid," he said. "My understanding is that the pension board needs it from a review perspective."
The City Council on Tuesday night will be asked to approve that $35,930,626 be raised and appropriated for fiscal 2010 and that water rates be raised 10 percent, or from $3.18 per hundred cubic foot to $3.50, about $25 more a year.
For the full agenda and related orders and communications, see below:
North Adams City Council Agenda: June 22, 2010
