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North Adams Officials Plugging Budget Hole With Free Cash
By Tammy Daniels, iBerkshires Staff
03:31PM / Saturday, April 23, 2016
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Finance Committee members Ronald Boucher, left, Chairwoman Lisa Blackmer and Keith Bona quizzed the finance team on line items.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — City officials are looking to plug an estimated $300,000 health insurance shortfall for fiscal 2017 with a one-time shot of free cash.

And it means putting "everything on the table" to find more cost savings in insurance premiums
for the following year.

"We were projecting a 7 percent increase in health insurance costs but it came in at 12.8 ... that shot our budget about $300,000 out of balance," Mayor Richard Alcombright told the Finance Committee on Wednesday.

Every percentage increase costs about $50,000 to the city.

Rather than cut jobs, he said he will ask the City Council to approve using $250,000 of the $300,000 or so in anticipated free cash.

"It's the only way to rescue it this year," he said. "It's not the rest of the budget that's bothering us, it's the insurance number that's bothering us. ...

"My plan to commit a quarter-million in free cash to cover this shortfall in insurance is also a committment in October to look at our plan."

The city had kept costs down for several years through the Massachusetts Municipal Assocation's municipal insurance pools but the rates are continuing to rise. MIIA, the Massachusets Interlocal Insurance Association, will be reviewing its health plans but the mayor said the city will also be working with insurance broker Holly Taylor from True North Insurance to find more cost-effective options.

"We're going to have to look at the whole thing," the mayor said, including higher co-pays and premium splits.

The city could raise the split on Medex retirees, currently at 75/25, but the mayor said he did want to have to do that.

Auditor David Fierro Jr. said any savings would be minimal because only 10 percent of those insured were on Medex. The bulk of those with health insurance benefits were active employees.

Alcombright said the reserve accounts are currently "pretty solid." He expects to ask the council in May to transfer the $787,752 in free cash into the stabilization account, bringing it up to $929,252.

"It's practical to do that and it gives you legislative control over how it's used," he said, because it will require a 2/3 vote by the council to move the money.

The status of the rest of the reserve accounts are: Municipal Access Tech, $184,653; Parking Meter Reserve, $131,000; Landfill Reserve, $161,900; Cemetery Lots, $79, 424; and Tinker Trust (cemetery), $44,610.

Funds in the parking meter reserve are being targeted for a new police cruiser ($40,000) and work in the Center Street parking lot. The cruiser purchase is part of the ongoing and annual replacement program. The Center Street work does not have price attached yet but will include fixing up the entrance at Holden Street where the pavement is collapsing around the manholes, and shaving down the islands near the two banks to open up access for cars.


Administrative Officer Michael Canales, Auditor David Fierro and Mayor Richard Alcombright present the overall budget.

The tech account is being allowed to accumulate in anticipation of needing new desktops and servers in the near futre.

In response to questions from Chairwoman Lisa Blackmer, the mayor said a request for qualifications is being prepared for a new city website.

Both agreed the site was cluttered and not user-friendly. Blackmer thought there should be outreach, such as a survey, to see what the community would want in a website. "It would be nice to get some input from people outside City Hall," she said, adding that it should also be useful to visitors.

"We have to consider one side for people looking for government needs and people coming to look at what's going on in North Adams," Administrative Officer Michael Canales said. "People want to know what's going on in the commuity and we have to address that."

Alcombright said the designer selection process would likely include public presentations on what could be done and how the community could be involved.

The fiscal 2017 bugdet also anticipates adding two 30-hour positions one for a planner/project manager and another for a maintainance specialist.

Planner will replace a 20-hour planning position that is currently vacant. Alcombright said 20 hours had been too little time but 40 hours seemed too much.

"We changed the job description to someone with project level management experience because with the amount of projects that are going on, we don't have enough time," he said.

The $43,000 position is subsidized through Community Development Block Grants so the job description has to be approved by the program.

The maintainance position, at $39,000, will be responsible for city buildings including the skating rink and Western Gateway Heritage State Park. The post will be filled by the individual currently upgrading the buildings to be in compliance Americans with Disabilities Act, as ordered by the U.S. Department of Justice.

"We own a lot of buildings with a lot of maintenance to be done," said Canales. Work had been assigned out to whoever had time to do them, but "we have lists of projects we're not getting to."

"Having somebody dedicated that we can just assign work to we think is a small price to pay to get there."

The mayor also wants to add a full-time police officer to bring the department up to 24 and is looking into replacing an information systems assistant. He said department heads will be bringing their budgets in for presentation.

The committee also discussed a proposal by Councilor Keith Bona, a member of the committee, to find a tax incentive for home improvements as a way to fight blight. Bona had found some examples from other communities that used a home-rule petition to adopt certain abatements.

Canales cautioned, however, that significantly reducing taxes on one group of homeowners would mean others would have to pay more. Bona thought the few that would be eligible would not be significant amount and that the city could "freeze" a tax bill in the same it does for businesses.

"I'd be willing to pay a penny [on the tax rate] to see a house get fixed up," he said. "We pay to have them torn down."

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