Financial Forecast Minutes April 1 2019Minutes of the
Financial Forecast Committee
April 1, 2019
6:OOp.m.
City Hall — Conference Room B
In Attendance
Chairperson and City Councilor Estelle Rand, City Council Appointee Karen Fogarty, Finance Director
Bryant Ayles, School Committee Member Rachael Abell, City Councilor James Latter, Beverly School
Finance Director Jean Sherburne, and City Council Budget Analyst Gerard Perry.
Absent was School Committee Member Kelley Ferretti, Mayoral Appointee Paul Manzo, and School
Committee Appointee Medley Long. Also present was City Councilor David Lang.
Discussion
Chairperson Rand opened the meeting indicating that the committee would explore the expenditures of
the City of Beverly during this meeting, and that the meeting needed to adjourn around 6:45p.m. The
meeting records from the past meeting would be taken up at a future meeting.
Mr. Ayles began discussing the various expenditure line items submitted to the Committee. Mr. Ayles
explained that the salaries and wages incorporated a 1% increase for FY19, followed by 2.5% in FY20,
2% in FY21, FY22, and FY23. He advised that the salaries were made up of all municipal officials. Mr.
Ayles indicated that the Fire Department was currently under review by the Joint Labor Management
Council, and that this pending decision may not come in until June 2019. He further stated that the
Police were watching this decision, and would make their minds up on how to proceed when the Fire
decision comes in.
Mr. Ayles then proceeded to explain all the other categories, including expenses, capital outlay,
property /casualty insurance, sanitation, health insurance on the municipal side, debt, retirement, OPEB,
worker's compensation, state & county assessments, reserves, and roads & sidewalks. Mr. Ayles
indicated he needed to update the debt portion moving forward, noting a blank cell under FY23 in his
handout as well as more accurate numbers to report across row G for total debt due to timing of
offerings and other factors. Chairperson Rand inquired if the numbers included any projects like the
dredging of the Bass River. Mr. Ayles said they were planning for things like School Roofs and a few
"unforeseen" as well as the ability to re- prioritize during the year, which lead to a discussion about
funding for roads and sidewalks, and the fact that there were not sufficient funds to handle all the
requests for this category. Further discussion about insurance, experience ratings, and whether the city
did any charge -backs on insurance to departments about enterprise funds concluded that most was
indirectly charged back, but that the airport, for example, carried its own insurance for flying planes.
Chairperson Rand indicated that they hoped to discuss the school expenditures at the next meeting on
April 8, 2019. Motion made by Mr. Latter, seconded by Mr. Ayles, to adjourn the meeting at 6:45p.m.
Motion approved unanimously.
Respectfully Submitted,
Gerard D. Perry
City Council BudgetAnalyst
Documents:
Draft Forecast FY19 to FY23