Good evening.

I'd like to call to order the Finance Committee sitting as the committee of the whole.

This evening we're joined by Councillors Daigle, Gamash, Hawkman, Manning Martin, Rosignal, Ladoff, and President Higgins.

You heard the motion, any discussion.

Seeing none, all in favor, any opposed, it's a vote.

I um here today to present kind of a little budget overview as to kind of where things stand now and what we project, at least as of now, in terms of our numbers, what we have looking at now and into the future.

And what I wanted to ask of the council, I figure tonight we'll be able to present again what we have, answer as many questions as we can.

There's probably going to be some questions we might not be able to answer at this time because we don't have all the information.

So I was thinking about working with uh Councilor Peach on having another meeting maybe at the end of April or maybe better even at the beginning of May before we bring forth the budget in June.

Um I have been mindful of the fact, and I and I and I think the criticism is correct that it's not really fair to kind of bring everything and drop it on everybody's plate in June.

Um try to review the budget at that time.

A lot of times we've hesitated and I've hesitated because we keep waiting for numbers from the state, and um usually we need those numbers to bring forth the final budget, of course.

So we've always kind of been hesitant and waiting on that, but I do think it's appropriate, particularly now as we're coming into a difficult budget season to try to have this meeting now, present what we have, have another meeting in maybe early May, and then present the full budget in June and go through the budget meetings at that time.

So wanted to go through a number of items today.

And again, uh Mike Jingris and I, our finance director, would be happy to answer any questions on any of the topics, and we'll do the best we can with the information we have currently.

Uh in terms of the process where we're at as a city in terms of our budget work, uh we sent out a letter at the end of February uh to all the department heads asking them to begin the preparation for their budget work.

Uh this year I did ask for the first time uh I've asked for a 5% reduction in their budget to present a five percent present uh 5% reduction in their operating budget, each department, and see where that lands and see how uh we can work with them on their budget.

So that's what I've asked.

I've never done that before.

I've always asked for a level funded budget.

This is the first time I've asked for a reduction budget.

Uh so we'll see how that works out.

We've asked them to pres or to work on the budget and present it to Mr.

Jingris uh by April 1st.

Uh so that is next week.

Everybody's supposed to turn in their budget at that time, and then we set up our budget meetings.

I anticipate uh that our budget meetings with the individual departments will start uh that first week of April.

Um probably not next week, but the week after.

We've already been meeting with a number of the major departments just to kind of start discussing items and planning ahead.

Uh but the real budget work uh will begin that second week in April.

In those budget meetings, uh Mike Jingris and I and Mary Martin, uh sometimes Dagmar Whitaker and others, depending on the issues, uh, will meet with our different department heads and review each line item.

Uh salaries, expenses, uh all the different costs related to their operation of their department.

Uh some of the smaller departments are can be half hour to an hour, police, fire, DPS, the big ones could be multiple days and are likely multiple days.

Um but that process will start uh that second week of April.

And already, as I said, we've already been meeting with some of the major department heads already on a number of a number of costs.

Um then in terms of the school committee, uh we had a presentation by Dr.

Vidala, a brief presentation at the last school committee meeting this past Tuesday.

Uh he presented kind of an overview of the budget, and we've set up our budget meetings for uh all the Tuesdays in April, and I anticipate that there will be other meetings as well that will fit in.

Uh but those meetings have been set and uh we'll be working on the school budget as we are working on this side with the city budget.

Uh so that's uh moving forward.

Uh we do have the state numbers from the governor in terms of unrestricted general government aid in chapter 70 uh and restricted general government aid, UGA money is the money that comes to um the city directly uh for use and um for all of our different city departments.

Chapter 70 is specific to education that goes to Dr.

Vidala and his team, and it's distributed uh according to his work with his departments and then the school committee.

Um so we did receive those numbers uh from uh the governor.

Uh we had hoped for better.

Um that is just the first number.

In April, we anticipate the State House number, and then in March we anticipate the Senate number, and then it would go back to the governor for a final number that would come to us.

Uh so we won't get the probably the final state numbers until end of May, uh early June.

And that's what's has been the past been a lot of the reason that uh we've been a little bit late uh getting everything over to you, but that's why I felt this meeting was important and the other meeting we'll have in May will be important as well.

So that's kind of where we stand in terms of our numbers.

Uh I'll break down all the different expenses in a moment in terms of the numbers we have received from some of our non-discretionary items as well as our discretionary items.

Um what we're running up into is proposition two and a half.

And it was very well spoken about at the last year's council meeting.

Uh so I know a number of you are are aware of it and ready for it, uh, but it's coming closer and closer to us.

And I think if you've seen the newspapers recently, uh all the different, well, I don't want to say all, but the ones that I've seen, um, all the different cities and towns are dealing with the very same questions that we're dealing with in terms of uh expenses, health insurance costs, uh, and just other items that are causing havoc on everybody's budget.

Uh Marblehead is uh looking at some uh serious decisions they have to make.

Uh Beverly, I saw this morning had an 8.4% school increase on their budget that they're gonna be working to on their school budget.

So a number of cities and towns are right where we are trying to figure things out, and uh I know there's gonna be a lot of work in other cities and towns over the next couple of months, and we'll be working together on that as well.

But SEC excess levy capacity and proposition two and a half are gonna be extremely important over the next couple of years, and I try to give as best I can.

Certainly, Mike can be uh explain it much better than I can, is much more articulate in terms of how to explain it.