Members Present: Mona McCready, Carol Merrill, Thomas Gilligan, Jennifer Morin, William Barnett, Tom Irzyk and Brian Duchesne

Excused Absent: Robin McAfee, Peter Viar, and David Eaton

Unexcused Absent: Robin Pelletier and Ben Fontaine

Others Present: David Jodoin

Jennifer called the meeting to order at 7:03 p.m.

Jennifer noted to all that there is still one open seat on the Budget Committee, if anyone knows of anyone who may be interested in joining the committee, please invite them to our next meeting.

The first item on the agenda is to go through nominations for chairperson. Tom I. asked if the committee should wait until all members are present or if it should be done now.

Tom I. asked if Jennifer was interested in being the chairperson again this year, Jennifer stated that she would be based on finding out if she could vote. David J. stated that Jennifer could vote, but historically, the chair did not vote unless they broke a tie. But if the chair votes from the beginning of the year and carries it through, there is no reason why the chair could not vote.

Tom I. stated that if the chairperson voted, there would not be a tie. Jennifer stated that if everyone is comfortable with the chairperson voting, she would be interested in being the chair.

Tom G. asked if she wanted to take a straw poll of the board to see how they feel about the Chairperson voting? Yes.

Everyone felt it would be fine.

Tom I. nominated Jennifer Morin for chairperson, Tom G. seconded. There were no other nominations, the motion passed unanimously.

Jennifer then nominated Tom Gilligan for Vice Chairperson, Tom I. seconded. There were no other nominations, the motion passed unanimously.

Jennifer asked for nominations for Secretary. She stated that Mona had indicated that she did not want to be the Secretary again this year. Jennifer stated that Jeannine does the real minutes, so it would be only taking attendance, putting up the meeting notices, and keep track of the votes.

Tom I. made a motion to table the nomination for Secretary until the next meeting, Brian seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

Jennifer stated that the Committee will continue to meet on Thursday evenings and they will meet again in a month, the meeting night can be changed if it works better for everyone.

Tom I. stated that the School Board meets the second Thursday of every month, so the third Thursday would be better for him.

David J. asked if Tom I. was still going to be the school rep, yes.

Jennifer asked David J. to give everyone an update.

David stated that the sheet that was handed out shows the current budget for each department and shows the bottom line of the default budget of $2,915,811. The Selectmen met to go over all of this and basically, they went back to last year’s budget and tried to keep the raises in for the employees across the board. Everyone got a 2.5% increase.

We were fortunate that Jimmy Boisvert dropped his budget a little bit, but he took it out of paving, so if next year he paves Library Street it could be a $200,000 project because of the curve in the road.

The Police Department is going to take some money from capital reserve for the cruiser, this will leave the capital reserve fund dry, they may leave $1 in the fund to keep it open. They are going to get the cruiser, and they were able to put the prosecutor on this year, but if they come back next year with there budget where it was last year, with the new position…

Since we defaulted this year, we cut the budget, we bled and we were able to fix it with a band-aid. If we end up with a default budget next year, we will bleed even more.

The Police Department will not be able come back next year with the same staffing requirements without some real creative financing. Since they were able to use the money that was there for Shawn since he was not there. David stated that Shawn is officially back from the military, but he has not returned to work yet. He will be back by June1.

David stated that there was not a lot that he could cut from the Executive, but he did cut some money from supplies, he cut approximately $3,000.

Elections and Registrations - we removed $10,000 that the voters put in at Town meeting for the modification of the building. And $2,000 for the Town Clerk’s printer was also removed. If there is money at the end of the year, we may be able to get this then.

Finance – we removed $10,000 for the Assessing Contract. Hopefully, with the new computer system, we will not have to tweak the values like we have in the past couple of years.

Tom G. stated that he felt the voters would appreciate this.

David stated that there was a house that sold for $599,000 with a three-car garage, and there are some lots that are being sold for $80,000.

Personnel – the dollar amount increased because of the addition of the prosecutor. He had to add full time benefits, retirement, etc.

Planning and Zoning stayed the same.

General Government Building – the janitor’s hours were cut back 10 hours, from 20 to 10.

We will have to watch repairs, there was a $3,000 invoice because the pipes burst last winter. There was originally $6,000 budgeted.

Secretary – we cut out $10,000 and only left them with $500.

Insurance was fixed.

Advertising and Regional Planning was fixed.

The Police is not funding the evening secretarial position.

The Ambulance was a fixed contract, which stayed the same.

The Fire Department went back to last year’s budget with increases based on salaries and then gave them a little more money for repairs. We are getting killed on repairs.

All the vehicles just went through inspections and there was not a cruiser that did not need new breaks and routers.

Jennifer asked if the Fire Department would still be having the programs this summer? David stated that they will have the stipends for the weekend and night coverage. Chief Chaput felt that it was one of the most important items in the budget to leave in, in addition to the vehicle repairs. They will try to cut back on other areas.

Building Inspector – The Selectmen cut her hours back to 30 hours a week. David stated that he was not really happy about this. If everything happens that is going to happen, 36 new homes by Tom, 80 plus new homes in another area plus everything else going on, she had a listing of 35 zoning violations. She has changed her hours to be here for two hours on Monday nights. She will be here from 7-9 starting on Monday, April 19. She will also be scheduling actual office hours to be able to return calls, etc.

Tom G. stated that if you have a qualified Building Inspecting who is experienced enough and knows how to manage his/her time effectively, 30 hours a week is plenty for the work that they have. From his experience in working with the Building Inspector as a member of the Planning Board, there is enough advanced warning for any of this stuff that comes to the Town as new development and new construction, it is really time management.

Civil Defense – Chief Chaput cut back on Civil Defense, David thought that the money that was left in this budget is for the maintenance of the generators. They zeroed out the Forest Fire Line and this will be run from the Fire operating budget.

Highway stayed the same.

Sewer Department cut about $25,000, which is the new doors and windows they were going to put in for fuel efficiency.

Health – the Deputy Health Officer was the only thing cut from this budget. Services such as CAP and Visiting Nurse stay fixed.

Welfare was left the same as last year. The Welfare Director is going through and letting people know that welfare is not there forever, she is pushing them to work. She will still be working 30 hours, the Committee may see her salary line go over, but the prescription line and everything else is decreasing.

Parks and Rec has also been cut, they cut about $7,600 for lawn maintenance and a couple of other things. David stated that they have cut the lawn maintenance out of the Town budget for the Town Hall. The kids at PA have community service, one person was here today and started raking and anyone that we get on the juvenile program can also help.

Jennifer asked about insurance for the kid from the high school if they get hurt. David stated that they are not using the lawn mower, they are raking the lawn. Jimmy will take over mowing the lawn or Peter may mow the lawn at times.

Library stayed the same; they just had a 2.5% salary increase.

Economic Development stayed the same and the Selectmen cut money from the Debt service tax anticipation note line.

Tom I. asked what the increase in the Conservation line was. David stated that Conservation wanted to do mapping of all the open space and farming areas, all the available land listed, this would cost approximately $1,000 to $1,300. They also, as part of the Master Plan, wanted to put up signs saying "Welcome to Allenstown", so this money was left in. David stated that he originally cut the budget, but the Selectmen put it back in saying that they had really done a good job, etc.

Tom G. stated that they attend many of the Planning and Zoning Board meetings and give their input. Laura does a lot of research on her own on behalf of the Conservation Committee and they have even helped educate the Planning Board on different rules and regulations that the State and Federal EPA have.

David stated that on the actual expenditure sheet, the Committee will see that some lines are actually over before the cuts were made. For example, the Town Report printing came in $245 higher than it was cut down to. As long as the bottom line comes in at budget, we will be fine.

Jennifer stated that the Committee will continue to see this information at each meeting and people will continue to ask questions. She asked if there were a way we can indicate which lines have already been discussed. David said no, it is all preprogrammed.

David stated that the Budget is not in bad shape right now, we were fortunate that we did not get much snow during the winter, this will help quite a bit.

Jennifer thanked David for explaining all this to the Committee.

Jennifer asked Tom I. how the school was doing since the State has not put out the amount of funding yet.

Tom I. stated that the State has not yet come up with a funding formula for funding education that starts June 1. No funding has been guaranteed. This is being argued out in the legislature right now. There is a possibility that we may receive more funding or less funding we could end up having a special meeting and asking the Town for more money, it all depends on what the Governor does.

Tom also stated that the Town must do the NEAP testing and the Governor did not put any money in the budget to pay for this test. This is the testing for the 3^rd, 6^th and 10^th grade. The Governor put $1 in his budget for this expense. Measured Progress is the company that prepares the test for the State and they haven’t been paid and are not planning to process the test.

If we do not do the testing, then we fall into not getting funding from the federal government as well as the State Government.

Tom G. asked who from the School Board is working with the members of the Legislature and those committees to push for this funding? Tom I. stated that the NH School Boards Association (which we are a member of) and the SAU is working with them. Tom I. stated that everything goes back to the NH School Boards Association. David J. stated that it is a combined effort.

Tom G. stated that the thing that worries him about statewide efforts is little towns, especially Allenstown, even though we have greater needs, we are at the shorter end of the stick because we do not have a large enough contingency in Concord during the committee meetings and during the legislative meetings.

Jennifer stated that Frank Davis seems to be informed. David J. stated that Allenstown does not have a representative. Tom I. stated that Allenstown had been combined with Hooksett. David J. stated that the Selectmen had invited the entire representative to a meeting and only one showed up, David Hess from Hooksett.

Tom I. stated that there has not been any feedback on this issue yet. The modular will be installed on June 21 on the ARD playground. Tom I. also stated that the decision that was made by the School Board was based solely on the education of the kids. To split up one grade between two different schools would not be easy. One option was to put one fifth grade back to AES or two fifth grade classes back to AES and no one was happy about this. The class sizes at AES are down, but the class sizes at ARD are up. ARD is where the overcrowding is and part of the building construction was to get the fifth grade out of ARD and back to AES to alleviate the over crowing at ARD. That is what we are trying to succeed at and why the decision was made to go with the modular to keep that group of kids together.

There are still plans to go for a building addition again this year, a building committee has been put together at the school and any one is welcome to join that committee. They will start in June. We will revisit all the building construction plans that were done for the building addition at AES and see if we need to make any changes.

We are going to go to the Planning Board and some other boards for feedback and get a look at the future to see what is needed in the future. Since there are 38 houses going up in Tom’s area and if there will be homes going up at the top of Notre Dame, what will the ramification be for the School.

Jennifer stated they will need that information.

Tom I. stated that they would like to build something that they will not outgrow in two or three years and be in the same position we are in now.

Carol stated that there will not be any kids in that development, don’t you know that?? Tom I. said sure, absolutely.

Jennifer asked if this was the building project with all that percentage of help from the State? Tom I. stated yes, the one thing that hasn’t changed id the formula with the State construction aid. The Town would still be able to get 60% of building addition cost. The law is going into effect in 2005.

Tom I. stated that the State is holding back all types of funding until the last possible day to send out the payments.

David J. stated that if the Department of Motor Vehicle goes ahead with the on-line vehicle registration that could possible take as much as $600,000 worth of revenue from the Town.

Tom I. stated that they had to make some significant cuts due to the fact that the budget that was approved was lower than the default budget. One teacher was cut, the staff had to be moved around, one teacher took a year’s leave of absence. Some class sizes were reduced and increased some class sizes in the lower grades.

Tom G. asked about the Disciplinary program, Tom I. stated that the program was cut. The State requires that we have a Media Generalist, which is basically a Librarian certified person, we had one part-time and this position was cut. We are running the risk of the getting in trouble with the State, but they usually give us three years to comply, and by that time, the NH School Boards Association say that the laws will change, and we will not have to carry a Media Generalist that is certified and has a Masters.

You may hear that we got some laptops for the 8^th graders, what happened was we cut the $30,000 out of the budget and the Board gave up on it. Betsy Stebbing, ARD Principal, got in touch with Apple Computer and they offered the school a cart of laptops, fully furnished exactly as they are now. We were able to find money in this year’s Technology budget and we were able to get the computers for around $18,000. There were around 22 computers. We got a large sum of money through an educational grant with Apple, so they funded half of the purchase price.

All the laptops are covered by an insurance policy now. We had a meeting with the seventh grade class, and we are making the parents of the seventh grade class purchase insurance for the remainder of this year for $10. If the insurance is not paid, the laptops cannot be taken home. The parents are responsible for the $100 deductible.

Any parent and child who did not sign the waiver and the acknowledgement of understanding are not going to be allowed to take them out of the school. The full year cost for next year’s 7^th graders for insurance will be $51 and they will still be responsible for the $100 deductible.

The new group that was purchased for the 8^th grade will never leave the school because they will have to share them. Tom G. asked if they still had insurance on these, yes. Tom I. stated that many school districts are paying for this insurance, but if the students and parents are not held responsible for them, how are they going to take care of them? Since there are 76 students, it would cost quite a bit for insure the computers.

Tom G. stated that you couldn’t rent a laptop for a week for $51. Tom I. stated that Apple set up the entire wireless network throughout the school. You can see the kids already working on the computers in the cafeteria, etc. There is no area of the school that does not have coverage. It has been a big learning curve for both the teachers and the kids.

Mona stated that it is easy for the kids to pick this up. Tom I. stated that when they had the meeting the other night, the teachers were laughing because if they get stuck the kids are coming up and showing them how to do things. When the kids take the laptops home and they go on the Internet, they are still held to the standards that they signed at school for websites. When they bring the computers back in, the computer teacher will go through the laptop and if the kids are at any sites that were on the list, they lose their privilege of taking them home. The money for the insurance is not refundable.

There are also behavioral standards, detentions, if grades fall below a certain make, then they lose their privileges and they do not get to take the laptop home.

David J. asked if the School Board knew that the State is working on a program now for the default budget calculation? It will be dumped onto the Budget Committee as opposed to the School. Tom I. stated that there has been talk about that but he did not know if it would take effect or not. David J. stated that he had received notice today that they are working on it. The NH Municipal Association composed it, but the taxpayers association are pushing it and dumping it toward the Budget Committee as part of their responsibility.

Tom I. stated that he could not see this going through. It would be an added burden for the Town Budget Committees. David J. stated that they show exactly how they come up with the default budget and the school does also. They are saying that they want to put that responsibility on the budget committee.

Tom I. stated that it is hard enough to get a turnout to vote and go through the budgets never mind actually set them and then to set a default budget.

Tom I. stated that the School Board would like to know if the Budget Committee is going to continue with the subcommittees?

Jennifer stated that her experience from last year was that they did not work except for the school one. No Town department asked for the person who was in their subcommittee to come to a meeting.

David J. stated it usually works with the bigger departments, like the school and sewer. Tom I. stated that it worked well with all the departments the first year we had the subcommittees. He felt it helped the School Board quite a bit. It is not just him coming to a meeting and telling the Committee something, the subcommittee is there and they can verify that this was discussed, etc.

Tom G. stated that it helps the Committee’s understanding. He was on the School Board subcommittee and there was a lot of stuff that he thought was ridiculous and just by being there it changed his opinion on a lot of stuff because he saw what went into the line items and increases.

Tom I. stated that some of the things we are going to try to attack, and he felt he had raised this during the Town deliberative session, was the out of district placements. Our out of district expenses are sky high. We are spending close to half a million dollars to send kids to Massachusetts, to the Cape, up north and not only do we have to pay for them to go to that school, we have to pay the transportation to and from the school. Do you know what it costs to send two kids to school in Massachusetts, pick them up at their door and drive them to school, then back home? It is really expensive.

One of the things that Tom is going to do this year is sit in with the SAU and the Principal when they do budget development before they present it to the School Board. The School Board felt they wanted to have some insight into everything going forward, not to micromanage, but to just have a better understanding.

David J. asked if the Board had even thought of taking a different approach like looking at the $7 million budget and breaking it out showing all the fixed costs, teacher contract, special education, here are all the extra, books, pencils, etc.

Tom I. stated that they have done that.

Jennifer stated that they have done pie charts for the Committee. Tom I. stated that when you see the biggest increases in the budget in those fixed costs, right now in this year’s budget we just got a budget summary at our last meeting and we are looking at a $28,000 to $30,000 surplus. We are in deficit in high school tuition big time. There are too many of the kids staying in school. We have been stressing that point to stop the drop out rate, I think we are doing something right, because they are not leaving.

David J. stated that they like the new high school. Tom G. stated that if they want to get a job, they have to stay in school.

Tom I. stated that they had predicted that 18 kids would not stay in school this year, we are beyond the 18 staying in school, we have additions coming into Town that have stayed there.

David J. stated that you can tell all the departments here is the Town’s bottom line and then set up meetings. He feel that it may be easier for the Budget Committee to look at the bottom line then go forward instead of sitting with one department and saying ok to them, then going to another department, etc. Then we always end up at the end of the year approving too much and then going back.

Jennifer stated that she does not want the same schedule this year. She did not want Police going first like they always do. It is not fair to the other departments that are always at the end. David J. stated that the Selectmen like to handle it this way, because we know that the Police, Fire and Highway are the three biggest budgets and those go up front. Last year it took the Selectmen three nights to go over the Fire Department budget.

David stated he may ask departments to start working on the budget in July, turn then in by August and then start going through them. Granted there will be some things we won’t know until the end of the year, we can put in last year’s numbers, etc.

Jennifer stated that maybe the Committee should just get the budgets before the Department head is at the meeting and then they can bring it home to look at. David J. suggested that maybe the Committee could do two meetings a week and then it would give them more time for the warrant articles, for the default calculations, then it goes back after that.

Jennifer stated that maybe if we had done two meetings a week in October and the beginning of November; we wouldn’t have had all the problems we did. David J. stated that all the small one’s were at the end. Jennifer stated that attendance is an issue also. Once a week is hard enough to get a quorum.

Mona stated that if they were in by September 1 and then got the budgets to the committee it would be better. Jennifer stated that even it they said "draft" on them it would be better.

Tom G. stated that a suggestion would be to have all the department heads here at the same meeting, no excuses for not being here, get them all at the same meeting where we, the budget committee, can set their expectations based on what has been received so far. Look at what happened last year, all the work that we did was in vain, we can set their expectations. Don’t come to us and expect a blank check.

David J. stated that hopefully the Selectmen will set up the bottom line up front, that is what we defaulted at last year. He hoped they will tell everyone to go back and just submit last year’s budget. His experience has been, that once you default once, everyone starts looking at the gap a lot closer and you start seeing more and more warrant articles.

Jennifer stated that she hoped people will realize what happened this year with all the warrant articles, the deliberative session was ridiculous. Tom G. stated that there was only a 23% voter turn out. Then you had all the printing cost for the ballots that was four or five pages long, though it did preserve the democratic process. But there was a lot of money that could have been saved.

Mona stated that then department heads write articles in the paper saying they were only given four hours to speak, when then were allowed three nights.

Jennifer stated that the Debilitative Session turned out to be more of a negotiation night, and this will not happen again.

David J. stated that the fire department lost because they had too many warrant articles. It really got to be a personality conflict between fire and Town.

Tom I. stated that it has gone back to the fact that the whole department in the past, don’t agree with themselves. If the Chief had come to the Committee right away with the proposal for the two trucks, he would probably have supported it, because it made a lot of sense. But don’t come to the Committee the night before the Committee is going to the Town Deliberative Session.

Tom G. stated it was not a good way to sell the article and it made more sense then anything else he had presented because, spending $3,000 more a year to lock in the rate on two trucks that were needed made sense.

Jennifer felt the warrant article would have failed anyway. David J. stated that if he had just gone for one, it might have been better. He confused too many people.

Tom I. stated it got too personal. Tom G. stated that maybe we can do a better job of reeling him in sooner and help him present it in a better way so that he does not run into the same issues he ran into and also, so that he has some backing from the Budget Committee would makes sense.

Tom I. stated that it is why he feels the subcommittee portion is very important that the department heads should embrace the subcommittee instead of looking at the subcommittee as why are you sticking your nose in my business. If they take on the three member subcommittees and keep them involved and they know and are well informed, then they come back to us as a Board and we are well informed, then everything runs smoothly and no one is just pointing fingers. Tom I. stated that he does not vote for things if he does not have a full understanding of the issue.

David J. stated that the fire department also had a problem with the Selectmen, he had three no votes on the trucks at first. Then he came back, and David explained the cost savings, then it was two to one.

Mona stated that it had a lot to do with playing one department against the other, i.e. this department got something, so we should also be able to get something.

David J. stated that there must be a consistency with all the budgets. If the Selectmen state that no budgets will go up higher than 2%, then that is what should happen. You can’t have one department with a 5 or 7% increase and another department come in with a 2% increase.

Tom I. stated that if the Selectmen have the standard that nothing is going over 2.5% and the budget comes in over that, then they have to look at the department and say no, the increase is too high, go back and fix it.

Jennifer asked if they would be interested in having a representative during the presentation of the department head to the Selectmen. We miss all this and then the department head still asks the Committee for things and the Committee never knows what the Selectmen have said.

David J. stated that the Selectmen do not have a problem with anyone coming into the meetings to listen. Jennifer stated that it would only be to listen, because we miss that whole piece of information.

Tom G. stated then there are two conflicting sides to the story before this Committee when the budget is presented.

Tom I. stated that if the subcommittee goes into those meetings and participate as a listener, we talk about things, discuss things that they do not understand, we have also asked for input in prior years and we have had good dialogue.

David J. stated that it all comes down to moving things up.

Jennifer asked if we wanted to review some action items?

Reinstate subcommittees and have them work.

Have the department heads informed about subcommittees, which we will talk more about when we have a full group.

Assigned subcommittee members for a particular department would also be invited to the discussions that takes place between the Board of Selectmen and the department head during the first presentation of the budget.

Have the budgets available by September 1, even if it is a draft copy. Tom I. stated that the school budget would not be available by September 1, David J. stated that the sewer budget would probably not be available by September 1 either because they have to work with Pembroke on their budget.

Jennifer stated that it would fine not to have the School and Sewer until later. What the Committee really wants is the Town operational departments, to have them at the same time and look them over at the same time instead of always having the same department going first, then we have all the money and by the time the last department comes before the committee, there is no more money.

Jennifer stated that the department heads who usually go last have brought to her attention that it is unfair that they are always last.

Tom G. stated it would be very simple to fix this problem, we could either set the order and say this is the order next year, we could pick the department names out of a hat, that way there would be no bias, no one who has their own agenda. We would just say here is the order, so there would be no bias and no short end of the stick. All of this is a moot point if they give us the budgets on time and we get to look at them all together and way them fairly.

Jennifer stated that this committee may have to make a commitment to try to meet twice a week during October and early November.

Tom I. stated that maybe we could start a ½ hour earlier, do we really want to set a cut off time. Mona stated that 10 p.m. is really all we can handle. David J. stated that with the bigger departments that you know will take a longer time, maybe the Committee would meet two nights for just those departments. And the smaller departments, you could meet every other week, because they don’t take as long.

Peter can present our proposal to the Board of Selectmen after he reads these minutes.

The Committee will meet again on Thursday, May 20 and will probably not meet during June, July and August unless something comes up.

David J. stated that he would mail the budgets to committee members as soon as he has them.

David J. asked if the Committee still wanted to keep the tapes of the minutes because the committee will have to purchase some new ones. There are tapes from 2002. David stated that after the year is done, we could probably go back and erase the tapes. Tom G. stated that we are only required to keep the tapes until the minutes are written. Once the minutes are written, you can get rid of the tapes. Jennifer stated that there was a time, maybe 10 years ago, where they were needed. David J. stated that he does not remember ever going back to the tapes within the last three or four years.

Mona asked if David J. keeps a copy of the minutes that Jeannine types up, David said that she e-mails him a copy and he keeps a copy at the Town Hall. David reads them, and then puts one in the Selectmen’s rep box and then they are placed in a binder.

It was decided that the tapes from last year’s meetings would be kept, and the older ones erased. Jennifer stated that David E. can then bring the tapes to Jeannine.

Tom I. asked why there was a motion to recess instead of adjourn? Tom G. stated that adjourn is the entire budget season, recess is delaying the business of the Board until the next meeting.

Tom I. made a motion to recess the meeting at 8:10 p.m.