Meeting Highlights:
Minutes read from last meeting, approved without changes
Budget Committee Reviewed EMA and E-911 Budgets…
These budgets are small. There were not many questions over EMA. Mainly over confusion of radios that were purchased under a separate warrant. The E-911 budget appeared like it could be reduced significantly by consolidating and or not using a home office arrangement. Further the labor could be saved by having the CEO could do the numbering as part of the building permit / occupancy process. Last year the E911 director used less than half of the allocated wages due to a slow year. The position estimates provided were for 4-5 hours per week.
Concerns were raised over the fact the older computer system was being used instead of the nearly new laptop purchased for the purpose. Further data back-up was a concern in either instance.
It was indicated that the Selectmen would not be making any changes to these budgets. They would remain as is, which brought discussion over the Budget Committee’s purpose. If the Selectmen would or will NOT be responsive to matters raised then all we could do is vote NO.
Concerns were raised over lack of participation by Selectmen as well as the absence of budget for next review at next weeks meeting. Next weeks meeting has been postponed and moved out until Feb 10, 2010 due to unavailability of budgets.
These first budgets submitted for review were virtually unchanged from previous year in total. The Budget Committee was anticipating some cuts and are hopeful the budgets to follow meet expectations.
An idea was raised to mark budget pages and other reports with a letter, number, or ID to make them easier to locate. That way when someone sees an item in question everyone can locate the page quickly and follow along. This would reduce confusion and keep the meeting on topic.
Rescue requested a meeting with the Budget Committee over the upcoming petition item for a new ambulance as the Fire Department had. It was felt that this could be done during warrant or budget review since the item is going to be on the Ballot anyway. In the case of the Fire Department they were looking for Budget Committee’s opinion to see if the they should request to have it put on the ballot.
There was some inquiry to eligibility for Health Insurance for the Town…. Laura Bragg said, Be an employee and work 32hrs week.
Meeting ran approximately 1 1/2 hrs
The Lebanon online video archive is available Here. Here you will find all of the Selectmen and Budget Committee meetings.
Watch 01-27-10 Lebanon Maine Budget Committee in News | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
4 responses so far ↓
1 Glen Stadig // Jan 29, 2010 at 8:56 am
Back when the Budget Committee first met and selected Wednesday as the meeting night, Selectmen Cole mentioned in passing, he had commitments with another board he serves on. I have been so busy it slipped my mind but thought I should clarify.
2 jasoncole // Jan 29, 2010 at 6:58 pm
Thanks Glen, I had watched the video of the budget committee meeting and just wanted to make sure people knew that I was elected by the district to represent District 1 on the York County Budget Committee. We were in deliberations this week and next week – I might be able to attend the next one on the 10th if we finish the budget before then.
3 chris gilpatrick // Jan 29, 2010 at 7:41 pm
jason,perhaps you could explain to the other two selectmen that the budget committees work is done ’til the rest of the budgets are finalized by the selectmen.budgets are due the first of january but we’re almost into february and most budgets aren’t done.maybe you could also explain that you may have other commitments the night we meet so one of the other two could attend to represent the selectmen to answer questions the committee may have,as was the case last wednesday.
4 striveforchange // Jan 29, 2010 at 7:52 pm
This is a wonderful thing, thanks Glen for videoing the budget committee.
Maybe the Planning Board could do this also……………….
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