Budget Workshop #1
Uh this is the budget first of two budget workshops uh going over our initial budget request for the 2027 budget. Uh just a couple things. This is a workshop. This is not a formal board meeting. There will be no public comments. There is no open to the public. Um we have a lot we have to hear from tonight. So we're going to try and stick to the schedule. Um, I understand, you know, we have questions, so it's going to go a little bit over. Um, but if we could have up first Donna Comr from Assessing. Um, yeah, you would like to start going over yours. We'll begin there.
Sure. I'll just give you a quick overview. So, tonight we're going to hear from Assessing, Finance Department, HR, Information Technology, Parks and Recreation, Justice Court, and Communic and the Communications Department. Um, I should say that the budget does not include COLA adjustments for the employees because the union contracts all all are expiring at the end of 2026 and we're in the process of negotiating new contracts. Once we know that number, we'll put it in. So, here is Donna's budget. Donna.
Okay. So, the top two lines are the assessor and the assistant assessor's salaries, and those are um reflecting last year's rates for the reasons that Paul just explained. If you notice, the part-time employees and then the full-time employees lines um both have changed in opposite directions. What I'm doing is taking a full-time employee that is in uh 2026 budget and moving it to a part-time line in the 2027 budget. So, that's the explanation of the increase on the part-time employees and as we get down to the full-time employees, you'll you'll notice that that decreased. Um, the board of assessment review has uh gone up and that's because we are anticipating in 2027 to have additional members. You know, that's an item on your agenda for the the next town board meeting. We'll have that discussion at that time, but my budget needs to reflect this. So this is my best guess right now based on trying to anticipate what you might be deciding. So I may ask to come back and revisit this line before you finalize the budget depending on how that conversation goes. But we do anticipate having a a larger than normal interest in grievance in 2027. And so we're trying to budget those wages accordingly. And that's that's what is
reflected here that you see. I'm not asking for any capital purchases for the year 2027. And other than that, most things I think are pretty well stabilized. The contractual services line is going down because we have been crafting a particular custom software that uh should be wrapped up this calendar year. That would just be like maintenance going forward for the 4500 on the line marked 4024. appraisal and legal contractual expenses below that has decreased because I had included some appraisals in the 2026 budget and so there will be fewer of those I hope in the 2027 and that's a decrease as well. The reassessments is the largest difference in lines between 26 and 27. That reflects that we will be paying our revaluation contractor a full 12 months in 2026 and we will not be paying them a full 12 months in 2027. That 83,000 will disappear in 2028 as um as far as our current plan is going. Legal consulting is going up just a little bit to reflect the fact that we
anticipate having more people interested in the grievance process and filings going forward and maybe some extra appraisals and time for our our council for the board of assessment review and our office and everything else is pretty stable. Oh, the the the car that we have is going to need a little repair. Um it's time for brakes and things. We have done nothing but an oil change with it since we purchased it 3 years ago. So, it's going to be time to um have some maintenance items on that. So, I'm just forecasting that for you. Do you have any questions for me?
No, it's a pretty significant um decrease. So, thank you very much for that.
Yeah, I got nothing.
Well, the decrease is just a function of the assessment and being done paying for the services. So,
if you saw the 25, you would see that the 26 is the high year. That's the spike year. and I'm coming back down closer to normal and it'll go down. I anticipate it would decrease a little bit further next year just because that 83,000 would diminish if not go away.
Okay. In any event, it's nice to see the budget go in that direction. So, thank you very much.
Um,
you're welcome.
And I'm the liaison to assessing and um Donna worked very diligently on her budget. she always does and used a datadriven approach to come up with the estimated hours of h potentially how many um revaluations might be grieved and how long each of those um I guess discussions take when they come to the board of assessment review. So, I think that, you know, while that number may adjust, she she definitely put some work into coming up with that number. Was it just a shot in the dark cuz she thinks it's going to be higher or we know it's going to be higher.
Yeah, it'll be definitely higher than previous years. But, um, one thing that makes our department a little bit unique is that it's all reactionary. We can't predict. You know, the highway department may know how many miles they need to pay, for example. I do not know how many people may want to grieve and the expense that's going to put on our staff and our time and our wages and things um or how many are going to file in Supreme Court and how many we're going to need to defend at that level and that affects the attorney's line. Everything that we do is reactionary. So, um it's just our best guess based on past practices and anticipating a flux in the schedule. So is that impact really on the board of assessment review line and the legal consulting line is mainly where that comes through.
The board of assessment review line, the reassessment line and the legal consulting are a reflection of the revaluation. The consulting line is a software.
Yeah, I just meant the grievances.
Oh, I'm sorry. The contractual line is just those two then. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
Yep.
All right. Anything else? Um, just thinking a little bit more long term, and I know we're getting slightly off topic, but just with regards to a reassessment, reevaluation in the future, is there some thought being had about a potential schedule just to mitigate some of the kind of shock? I know it's been 20 years since our previous one. Um, just to kind of set ourselves up for future success.
Yes, there is. Um, if I can remind you of the memorandum of understanding that was recently signed by the assessor and the supervisor in the state of New York. in there there is a paragraph and there's a schedule laid out and if I'm remembering correctly it is by January of 2027 that I would need to put together a plan to and give it to the state of New York for um a cyclical assessment and if the board wishes to fit into their funding um schedule so that we would routinely get some funding back from them um and I know that that is the topic that we're talking about here but before you get all excited about those dollars it's really small by comparison of the expense um because they're they're paying for that across the state and it does depend and fluctuate um it depends on how many municipalities are doing revaluations that particular year year as to how they can aortion it among those municipalities. So, um there would be a cyclical plan and then the goal would be that we could work that into having a municipal um consultant such as KW or a couple of the others. We could always go back and have another company quote for us. The Alakart menu, maybe we just need them to help us with one particular thing. But
this year going forward, we know that everything needed attention. We won't be needing to review all of that going forward in the cyclical plan because we will have laid out that plan to say how are we going to take this cycle of years and what will we do on each of those potentially off years to get ready for that on year and that's that type of plan that needs to be laid out. Um honestly being so busy with the project in front of me I have not quite worked out those details. They're just back burner ideas that I have at the moment. So, I will bring that forth to the board at the right time.
Donna, thank you so much.
You're welcome.
All right. Up next, thank you, Donna. Uh, up next is, uh, Paul Adams for finance. So, Paul, I mean, if you want to give a brief description of your budget here. All right. Okay. Got the right screen on. All right. As I mentioned, the uh [clears throat] the salaries have 0% cola. Uh the first few lines are all compensation. If the employees were in line for a step increase, those step increases have been incorporated into the budget. Uh so I do have three full-time employees and one part-time. Uh we have Paulo who works 10 to 12 hours a week. um which helps us out with a with a variety of things around the office. Uh capital furnishings uh just kept that about the same as last year. Computer equipment that includes all the software licenses and I'm planning on purchasing one computer. uh the soft the uh seminars and conferences include some of the various
events that we go to throughout the year which include GFOA uh association of towns uh Perma who's our workers comp carrier um I I try to encourage the employees to continue their education um I think it pays dividends um in fact Kim Hendy the town accountant she's been working on her GFI I which is uh a government finance institute which is uh you achieve various qualifications through the uh GFOA which is government finance officers association. So she's already achieved one of one of those levels and she's working on the advanced level. So uh financial software tools $4,900 that includes our fixed asset database. Uh we also utilize a software called lease crunch uh which uh which does actuarial calculations to comply with a couple of the gazsbies that are out there. Uh governmental accounting is [clears throat] driven by governmental accounting standard board uh publications which uh give you guidelines for the for the rules of
accounting around government. Uh so the the Gazsby 87 and 96 or surround have to do with leases. So we're required to do an actuarial calculation each year in regard to the various leases that the town has on hand. All right. Financial consultants. I've got that one in here for $16,800. Uh that includes more actuarial services for u other postemployment benefits. Uh that's to comply with GSB75. Uh there's money in here for the HSA and HA administration which are health savings accounts. Uh there's some money in here for bond consultant. We utilize municipal solutions to assist us with our borrowings uh which are various uh bond anticipation notes and the serial bonds that we issue uh on an annual basis. There's also $6,000 in here to engage a consultant to serve as the town's mun systems administr administrator. uh Brighton Connard had been handling
quite a few of those duties and he actually retired in January. So since that time we've been trying to cover it with Kim Hendy and myself and we're just thinking from an internal control standpoint it would be better if we had a third party. So I did include some funds for that. Office supplies and mach stayed about the same year to year. Actually, it's down year to year. Uh based on history, I was able to bring that down a bit. Machine lease, that includes uh a Toshiba machine that we lease. Uh it's about $250 a month plus um if you go over a certain number of copies, you have to pay some extra for that. Our software license fees, that's the one of the biggest numbers in the budget. uh that actually includes our MUNS software system. MUNUS is used for all of the accounting functions that the town does. That includes accounts payables, purchase orders, all the general ledger functions, budgeting, receivables, human resources, and payroll. [clears throat] So, we've really been trying to fully utilize this this uh software system. And I think uh
when Braden arrived about five years ago, they really took it to another level between Braden and Kelsey. Uh they really utilize software to to its fullest uh capacity. So in this line this year, I've included an additional mount for a new module which is called the Munis automation module. It would basically enable the town to use AI to input information off of invoices. Uh we're thinking that it would speed up uh the invoice entry process tremendously. We did see a demo on it just yesterday. Um so it's still still in the in the development stages. Uh but it's in the budget and um I think it can be useful tool. So we'll see where we go with it. Uh the next two lines are relatively the minor bank [clears throat] administration cost uh bank fees uh director's expenses which are various various mileage fees, mileage reimbursements to business meetings around the town. Uh then we have our software consultant costs. This includes about $4,500 to implement the automation
module and another 1,500 or so for training. So that's the finance piece. Then in addition to that, we have our annual internal annual audit. Uh we hire a CPA firm to do an annual audit of the town. Um, it's actually not required, but I think it's a good idea for a town of our size. It's definitely a best practice item. So, this line item actually includes four separate engagements. Uh, the audit of the basic financial statements, agreed upon procedures for the town clerk, and agreed upon procedures for the town court. And if we need it, uh, it also includes a single audit, uh, which is required if you spend federal monies over $750,000 in a year. So, so that's in there at 47,000. So, the total appropriations are about $570,000 up about [clears throat] 29,000 year to year. So, all in all, I don't think it's too bad considering um there are a couple additional items in there which we didn't have prior.
All right. Thank you.
Any questions or comments?
So, the the Munis system is used by most of the departments, correct?
Munis.
Munis. Yes. used for use for what
do other departments use?
Oh yeah, that's um it's used across all of um well the bulk of the departments because they they do the initial purchase orders and um do some of the invoice entry
comes out. also includes ESS which is employee self-service which uh brings data in from the employees uh into our payroll system for time entry purposes. It also tracks uh acrruels such as vacation time, sick time and the employees are able to request uh when they're going to be out. I see you had a reduction in your part-time employees. Is is part of that reduction due to the automation or is it just based on average hours?
Is part of the automation cost?
Are are you reducing the part-time employee cost because you have the investment in automation? No, I've actually have not reduced any of the employee costs due to the automation at this point. We're not even sure how it's going to work, if it's going to work. It's actually being currently being developed. It's in it's being uh I guess beta tested at a couple sites at a couple MUS customers to see how it goes. They don't expect the software to be fully available until the end of the year. Um, I put it in the budget, but it's it's kind of an unknown whether we're actually going to go with it or not at this point.
Okay.
It could potentially reduce employee costs down the road.
Paul, for the financial consultants, did you have have a number in there for the I'm going to get it a little wrong. We talked about the other day there's a possible tax return we have to do for the interest arbitrage.
Uh, I did not include uh consultant for arbitrage. Um, that's something I've been thinking about uh lately, we we probably should have the calculation done sooner than later. Okay, [clears throat]
for those of you that don't, well, probably very few people understand what it is, but [laughter] uh you're not allowed to earn well, you're restricted as how much money you can earn in interest like in CDs or investment accounts on money that you borrowed for capital projects. So, you have to track those earnings because obviously we've done huge projects over the last few years. I had substantial money at the beginning of the year, so I invested it. So, [clears throat] I've been tracking it. It's called an arbitrage calculation. Um, if you go over the limit, that's that's considered arbitrage, and you actually have to pay those funds back to the Internal Revenue Service. So, at some point, we should have a a consultant do a uh check my calculation uh to make sure we're okay or if we're over uh make the arrangements to pay the money back. But either way, uh we'll be ahead of the game. She won't have to pay all the money back. So,
and I think important thing to remember with that the good thing overall if we have to pay a little bit of tax on that that means Paul made so much money and interest in the money we had that we cross the limit. I'd rather cross the limit than like we lose money.
Well, the flip side of that is we shouldn't have to pay any money back based upon his
investing taxpayer money responsibly.
In a perfect world, yes.
Another kick to the IRS.
Correct. But in a perfect world, but at least we it's good. I
at least the positive the positive is Paul does an amazing job.
He certainly does
with the finances.
Yes. So,
thanks Paul.
Oh, you're welcome.
All right. If there's anything else, um we'll move on to the next one that will be got the entire HR department
which is Kelsey Feny. All right, we ready?
We're ready.
All right.
No,
excuse me. Um, so as you can see, from 2026 to 2027, um, the total budget is going down about $17,000. Um, I'd say 95% of that is due to the first line right there, the director of personnel salary. Um, Brighton Connard retired in 2026. Um, he was at the top step. Um, obviously I am not at the top step. So that's, you know, the biggest different difference right there. Uh, there are no changes to the capital purchases line for the computer equipment and licensing. Uh, it's down a little bit. Um really the only licensing equipment that I need um is just the Microsoft Microsoft license and then the Adobe license. Um the next line is for training. So that's still the same at 4,000. Uh same with the office supplies line as well as the legal expenses line. Uh the software license fees is down a little bit. Um, so in the 2026 budget, uh, there was also room for additional MUNS training with our HR payroll software. Um, I don't think that'll be necessary in 2027, so I dropped it down a few thousand. Uh, the 8,000 covers the HR
department share for the Nuna software as well as the TCM software, which is the uh, total content manager for all the scanning documentation that we do. Now, [cough] um the next line is the employee recognition line. Um so, as you can see, in 2026, it's set at set at a thousand. Uh for 2027, I'm proposing to make it zero. Um this is not to say that we don't recognize our employees, but over the past four years, this budget line has never been touched. It's just kind of been in there set. Um, so what I'm proposing to do is to move that 1,000 that's been in the budget for the past few years and actually move it into the employee wellness budget line. Uh, so right now our employee wellness committee, um, the town budgets 1,500 for the committee. So I'm proposing for 2027 to make this 2500. Basically just moving that 1,000 from the employee recognition to the employee wellness. Um, also included in that employee wellness line, [clears throat] uh, is our EAP, um, provider to all of our employees. And for 2027, I'm thinking that'll be about $2,800. So
2,800 plus the 2500 is how I come up with the 5,300. Um, and really the other lines are pretty stable. Um, nothing uh, too out of the ordinary. And that's all I got. All right. Port have any questions for HR?
No, I just want to say one thing that I appreciate the fact that you addressed the lines looking at history to make decisions going forward.
I I really appreciate that.
Thank you.
Is the legal expense Bisano Law?
Is it what law firm
is the for the legal expense? Is that what we pay to the third party law firm?
Uh that's mostly for Bologano's excuse me. Yeah. Banio's law. Yep.
Okay. Thank you. That's what I thought.
What did she say? I didn't I didn't hear Carly Balanos, our labor attorney.
Okay. Thanks.
All right. Thank you, Kelsey.
Yep. Thank you,
Kelsey.
Moving right along ahead of schedule here, which is great. Up next is uh it so we will have up Steve Peace. Uh just a quick for those of you who are not aware, um it is interesting going into next year. If you've been paying attention to current events in pricing, storage and RAM is skyrocketing globally. Um, so that has ramifications to his department, but I think he's got it under control. All right. Um, let's see. What do we got here? Um, first lines are payroll. I thought Paul normally handle a lot of good stuff. So that's myself, um, John Camille, and, uh, our help desk tech, Anthony Sone. Um, we'll jump right into capital purchases. That's the big one. Uh, as you can see, it's a quite a substantial jump from this year. Uh, this year's capital purchase line was actually a reduction over last year's budget. Uh, we did not plan on anything new for this year because we were still in the middle of our network infrastructure upgrade. So, we did not do anything new except for
still continue to work on deploying that equipment. Um, for this year, uh, we still have our standard stuff that we have to pay for like, uh, office licensing, our remote desktop solution, our backend software, our our, uh, help desk system. Uh, the things that are driving up the cost is since we we were supposed to put in new servers this year, but we did not because we were too busy with the network upgrade. So we we do have that in this year's budget. Of course, um price of, as you mentioned, price of memory, storage, things like that has gone up. So, um we're roughly looking at three new servers. We're hoping to get them for about 15,000 a piece for hopefully, which is still very low. But, uh the other thing, which I'm sure Chris Bo will love to hear, um since we put in all new Wi-Fi, uh the Wi-Fi, we did not get enough Wi-Fi for the recreation department. So, we're looking to put in three more access points in the in the recreation department and also the highway department since their garage is much bigger than it used to be, they need more access points in there, too, so that their laptops that they use to talk to trucks and everything like that can actually move around the shop. And then the other big thing that we really really want to try to get accomplished is uh since our network upgrade is
pretty much complete now. Uh the manufacturer of that product has a software package that ties in nicely with the security solution that we've now partnered [clears throat] with the state for. Um that is a one-time purchase for 44 months. They kind of tied the licensing because it's an annual thing, but they gave us a quote to get us licensing that would also be at the same time frame as when our support for all that equipment we just put in expires. So, that'd be a onetime purchase. So, that that's like a $30,000 purchase for that software. But then, uh it gives us uh posture analysis and access control. And like I said, it'll it'll integrate nicely with our uh partnership with the state. Well, you do lots of cool things like somebody rings in a device, they plug it in, they try to log in. No, we can't. It just turns the ports off, things like that. And it does all automatically. We can provision the equipment automatically as soon as you plug it in, turn on, but the it basically takes your network infrastructure and ties it more tightly in with our security stuff. That's the the big purchase. Um, so but that's that's the capital purchases. Um, like I said, the other stuff is 4,000, 250, 350. Uh, server licensing 6,000 and health desk is 3500.
Um, so then as you go down, the director to try to offset those costs. I always try to do my best to try to keep the budget as flat as possible. Um, this year was tough. Uh, we did cut back on our training and seminars. Uh, office supplies went up, but that's cuz the price of toner went up. We got a new printer. So, uh, smartphones, we kept the same technical support. Uh, we're dropping some monitoring contracts that we have. We're going to start doing that in-house, especially since our new, uh, security suite that we partnered with the state will do a lot of that for us now as well. So, we tried to reduce that line. Um, then director's expenses, website design, maintenance, and cell tower rent for our multi-point connectivity stays flat. Uh, but that's pretty much it budget. Um, [snorts] like I said, normally our capital purchase line is right around I don't know, historically $70,000 normally. This year it's 20,000. So I believe this year, but it was actually a reduction over years past. Was that?
Yeah.
Yeah. So
we should probably point out also that [clears throat] you actually leased some equipment.
Yes. We we say our storage,
it's actually on another line.
Yeah. [clears throat] Storage solution. We do lease that. Um that's a fivey year term lease to try to make it more affordable.
Um cuz the end of life to that equipment
after every 5 years. So if you lease it out for 5 years so that
that way when it reach end of life, it's time for a new one to make it a more affordable.
Sure.
All right. Any questions from the board on it budget? No, he answered a question I had written down. Thank you very much, Steve.
Yeah, thanks, Steve, for doing your best to stay on top of it all.
Yeah. So, the the hard part was with not doing anything this year to try to finish up the the large project we had going on for the last 18 months. Correct.
They kind of put us behind that ball for next year. So,
but I think some of that IT infrastructure and IT security will pay off.
Oh, yeah.
More secure.
Yeah. Nice thing is now we have more eyeballs on it and things are being much more tightly integrated so that we can actually see and make decisions much faster, get things onboard a lot faster. So
perfect. Thank you.
Yep.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
All right. Up next, parks and recreation. We have Chris Bo presenting on this one and along with him is Mike Herpst, our director of parks. more extra points. I brought a sidekick with
All right. Okay. So, yes, as supervisor shared, uh I have Mike with me who is our parks director. So, if there's any questions when we get into the park section that uh that I can't answer for some reason, that's why he's here. Um just few just overall budget highlights just so everybody has that before we get into the numbers. Um as everybody has shared so far obviously we try to keep our our revenue um as uh as uh increase our revenue as much as we possibly can foreseeing that future while keeping our expense in line. Um so for revenue for all three departments which uh our department has between our seniors uh senior line our recck line and our parks line all three departments our revenue is uh 1,419,600 which is an increase of about 6% from 2026. And our expense for all three of those departments for 2027 is 3,77273 which is an increase of about 5%. So we're able to keep our revenue above our expense uh which is obviously always our um sort of our goal for the year. Uh the
2027 budget does not include any new full-time or change of of positions within the department. So there's no uh major personnel changes within the department for 27 from a request standpoint. Okay. So we'll get right into 6772 which is our senior account line. um that consists of one full-time and then one 20-hour a week person. So, as we go through here, um you'll see some of the uh the salary lines that relate to either our full-time person or part-time person, which is the nutrition personnel. Uh that's the person that actually helps with preparing our senior lunches every day, Monday through Friday, uh for our senior lunch program. So that has been adjusted uh with her current pay rate and with her hours which is between 20 to 25 hours just depending on the season. Uh capital purchases in 26 we had zero. We did increase that to a,000. If you recall for the last two years we've been fortunate to be able to use ARP funds to be able to offset a lot of our expenses uh both in our senior as well as our youth um program area. So, we've been fortunate for that. Seven uh remaining funds are gone actually as of November this year. Uh we will have depleted those. So, we did put some money back
into that account just for um just for items that may come up for the senior department that we need to get. Computer equipment and licensing. Um again as some have already shared we have updated all of our computers in 26 with all of the computers that needed to be updated because they had to go to Windows 11 but as we go into 27 we have number of computers in the department that are five six seven years old. So we are um at the request of it changing computer as well of these lines um do go up because we do need to u purchase new u computers for the uh for the staff. Mileage stays pretty flat. Um food slight reduction. Uh that's again that's four items for um for senior programming or non senior lunch type of activities. The provision is actually that senior lunch uh where we actually purchase the meals through Monroe County. Supplies and miscellaneous slight increase um and then the rest are relatively flat. We did increase um Webster Senior Transportation um by $500 this year. It's been a few years since we've increased our uh support of that organization. So we did increase that to $8,500. Obviously their service is very vital to the community and to the
seniors uh that take advantage of that. So overall um pretty pretty standard in regards from year to year. No major changes on this on the revenue side. From a senior standpoint um we did increase all three lines. We are seeing more activity in our senior program. Uh the senior recreation are for programs that are not senior lunchreated. So you know parties, special events, um special activities that are scheduled. uh we're seeing more activity as as those are continue to or continue to increase. We're seeing a uh a nice increase in in participation. So, we reflected that through the revenue. Uh the nutrition revenue is again that offset from our senior lunch. Um you know, that is not a required pay for seniors to purchase lunch. It is a suggested donation that the county has for their uh for their program. So, um, we are fortunate that a lot of our seniors do, but we do have some seniors that even that, uh, even that daily lunch fee is a struggle. So, um, we're a little conservative on our nutrition revenue. And then that's our reimbursement from the county. So, that's actually what we receive back from the county for the number of meals that we actually supply to our seniors through senior lunch. I can keep going right through and I can take any questions at the end if that's
easiest.
Okay.
Yeah, hang on.
Mike, you're up. I'm just kidding. [laughter] Um, so this is the recreation line. Um, again, consists of a we have a recreation director, Katie, one office manager, Shannon, a finance clerk, Jenny, and then four and a half program staff. They're actually the ones uh that put together the programs, the activities, the events that take place within the department. So, the first uh several lines are just in regards to salary lines. Our overtime for full-time staff, we have not really adjusted that several years. Um we work with our staff to be able to flex their schedule so when we have events etc we don't have to tap into that overtime line. Um administrative support uh which is 1087 that is for our front office staff. Uh that number is significant because the building is open 115 hours on average per week. Um especially now that the building is open until 10 p.m. um 5 days a week. We do have a lot of uh activities that are in the program or just usage of the building until late at night. So, we do have to have staff in there. So, that is a part-time uh driven line um strictly for our front office staff. Um it's it also covers our weekends. Uh and as well as as well recreation
coordinators, that's some of our full-time staff that's within that. Same as our rec supervisor, part-time uh personnel fitness. uh that is for any of our on staff uh fitness instructors that we have uh that may teach a class. Those classes obviously are offset by the revenue that's generated that we'll get to in a minute. Um same thing with the next strength staff, premier fitness. Um that is for anything that we have that we have uh fitness related that fall within our premier membership um and our expense to be able to put those programs on. But again, we'll explain the revenue side of that in a second. um recreation personnel 100094. Um losing track of where we're going. Same thing. That again is more staff within the building and we've increased this over the last several years. Um it's probably still a little conservative in regards to how much is in there because it's a difficult number to peg every year just based on the number of programs. Some years um some of the programs are larger so we have more instructors that are going. Some years it's not quite. So we've increased it to try to try to be on track where we are in 26. Um 26 numbers are a little little too conservative as um as we are finding our expenses increase. But again when I
get to the revenue I can share how that's um that gets offset by the revenue side. Seasonal playground 100097 is our seasonal. This we broke out a few years ago and actually I can go back to 96 as well. So, uh, two years ago, this used to all be one line, um, between our seasonal and our part-time. So, this is anybody who teaches a class part-time, uh, might be an art class or it might be a preschool class. Um, was everybody was lumped into one line. Last year, we broke this out so it was easier for us to track this. Um, we actually should have had uh about $26,000 in 26 for the one96 because that's about what we figure for our part-time non-ampreated expense. Um, so that's why we adjusted that for 27 to have that 275. And then the 182 is strictly for our summer camp program as well as uh any of the break week camps that we do during the school year. So those are all tracked within their individual lines. So instead of it being lumped together, it's a better picture for us to be able to see our expense directly related to those what I'll say larger programs. Same with uh the next one which is sport league personnel. Very specific to you know umpires and those kind of things for our sport programs.
U recreation finance and office staff. This is our full-time staff that's within our front office as well as again the u uh the finance clerk. fitness specialist is Jay who is our fitness specialist within the department. Now we get into some of the other expenses. Computer equipment and licensing. This like I said for 6772 this shows the uh um the extra cost for u for computers that we need to upgrade that are again five plus years old. I believe there's five computers that need to be updated uh within the department. So u we have we have budgeted for that. some of these other items. Operational equipment, uh, interpreter expense, operational equipment. I'll go back to that. That's for just again, u for general, uh, equipment purchases. Um, we've been fortunate that, like I said with the ARPA funds that we were really able to capitalize on a lot of that in 26. So therefore, we don't think we're going to need as much of it in 27. So we've kept some in just so as a backup, but we don't need as much as we anticipated in in prior years. Interpreter expense is a new cost. This is actually something that we are starting to see more of as we are being uh required to be able to provide an interpreter for certain programs. Um
that cost is now being built uh into its own line so we can track that rather than go specific to the program. We're at least able to uh track that. We have a number of individuals that participate in programs uh that we have to use interpreter um for. So we have a way to be able to track that. Rest of these lines are pretty straightforward in regards to just what I'll say typical increases. Um, you know, our fitness equipment, copy leases, these are all, um, estimated cost. Satellite TV, that's a hard big cost. Cell phones, we try to keep as flat as we can. Uh, general repairs and maintenance. Um, this is for what we call general u building issues that come up. Whether we need to change a lock or we need to change a light fixture, we need to change partitions in a men's bathroom. Uh this is general repairs that may uh may come up throughout the year. Um go down to the building maintenance contract 75,000. This is for our nighttime cleaner. Um so where the building is cleaned um 7 days a week by a nighttime contracted uh cleaner. That contract is up this year. So the 75 is actually just a best case estimate. Not really sure um how that number is going to play out. We've I think it's been four years that we've had them under contract,
I think. So,
um so it'll be interesting [clears throat] to see how the numbers look as we go into 27.
Um some of these other numbers, again, pretty standard. Uh we just show, you know, some some increase generally as as a inflation cost goes. Um we do have a couple sport league subcontractors. We've reduced slightly again as we start to see some of our numbers in some of the program areas start to [snorts] drop a little bit and we're [clears throat] a little bit overly uh in the past we've been a little bit aggressive with some of our numbers so we've tried to be more realistic in some of those um summer camp uh 40227 that is a number again that we started to break out two years ago when we started to track um program lines specifically that's strictly specific to our camp line um or a camp program. So again, we've been been able to get by in the this past these past two summers with using some of that county funds uh that we don't anticipate having we we know we won't have available in 27 um programs and independent contractors jump about 20,000 but again you'll see on the revenue side how we we balance that. uh sport leagues equipment. Again, just typical what we see for things like nets and and equipment that that are specific
to sport leagues, background checks, concession stand purchases. Um all these are pretty standard. And then when we get into utilities, it's um it's a it's a best case based on year-to-year average. As we scroll down now, we get into the revenue side of 7020. um actually for the department. Um obviously you can see our camp program at the beginning at the first line. Um we've increased that uh by about 20,000. Uh the good news is we anticipate that that number will probably be uh very achievable as we have already for 26 uh achieved our camp program line by about $92,000 uh over budget. So we're in good shape. So we know that that number is also um we don't try to be too aggressive with that because obviously yeartoyear uh with our business is a little difficult to be able to uh predict but our hope is that people continue to find our services worthwhile which they have. That's why our revenue continues to show that increase uh increase in WPRD program. So those are those programs that are offered by uh our own staff program of independent contractors. Again, those are for what we hire out for a subcontractor. Um, we continue to see that growth. Uh, transportation
fees, uh, that is our senior transportation. So, we do require or do we do ask that people pay a dollar for a ride. Uh, so we are seeing that become more heavily used. So, we've increased that. Sport leagues, we continue to see silver fees, which is actually um from MVP and Excelis is actually an insurance-based line. We continue to see this line um do very well as our membership continues to grow, especially with our um our members that have insurance based programs. Um we're sort of at the mercy [laughter] of insurance based um or insuranceances in regards to, you know, if they change their program or if they change their fee structure, but uh we continue to see a very strong showing from our members. So that's why we've increased that from uh 80 to 85. user fee. That's a pretty standard fee or a charge in regards to the number of rooms that we can rent and when we can rent them. That's sort of static from year to year. So that's why there's not as much of a jump there. Special events. So that's the support we get for special events uh to be able to put some of those special events on that we have throughout the year. Um we continue to see local businesses uh willing to contribute to help support those. So we've reflected that facility. Ronald, same thing. That's sort of a static number. We only have so many fields. There are only so many days that
we can rent. So that sort of stays pretty consistent. Fitness fitness classes has been an interesting uh number for us to track. So for the board's clarification, few years ago, all of our memberships u were not in one line. It actually we had it broken up. We had premers broken up into this line. So a few years ago we changed the budgeting u the way we report our budgeting. So now all of our memberships, premier, seniors, individuals, family, whatever it is, is on one line. This line that we're looking at, 2035, is actually specific to fitness classes. So that would be somebody who is not a member that wants to come in, take a class, they pay their drop in fee or they might pay a drop in fee to do pickle ball. It was a tough number to really kind of nail down because we didn't know based on how many people were premier members. So it's taken us a little while to adjust that number. So that's why you see that drop from 20 to 7500. That's a more realistic number, but we [snorts] make it up for in the fitness memberships. So we're finding that not as many people are actually coming in doing the, you know, onetime drop in. They'll come in and they'll try a class out, which is what we encourage. U but generally what we find then is they become members. So we're actually having them be um regular members. So that's why our number for
2045 went from 210 to 260. We continue to see our fitness membership do exceptionally well. Um Jay does a fantastic job with his staff from a program standpoint. And for those of you that know when I started here in Webster, um you know, we uh well, I started the day CO started March 16th. Um we saw a major drop off of our fitness memberships. Um that was realistic or realistically we never knew where we were going to come back from. Um, and just I like to point out this uh this this sort of significance that at at the highest precoid there was around 500 memberships on a monthly installment bill. It was like 560 was a was how many memberships were built on a monthly um [clears throat] on a monthly installment. When COVID hit that number dropped to around 200 um once we started charging back. So that's how many people canceled their memberships. And you know the number the the question was are we ever going to get back? This past month, we were at 760. So, it's it's impressive. It's uh what they do, what the fitness center does on a monthly basis and and their interactions is is to be commended. So, that number has really changed since I got here and um very very strong work by
our fitness staff. Uh the next two numbers are what we applied for through the county. Uh we get a reimbursement. Uh basically this would offset some of our expenses that we have for um we put it towards our summer camp program. Um you know it's not a lot of money but it does you know provide some some revenue from the county to it. Sale of equipment we've estimated 7500 uh that's for a sale of a K Cabota piece of equipment that I'll get to here in a second or actually maybe I'll have Mike explain if need be me. Um so we expect that we'll get some revenue uh as we send some equipment to auction. Then that last item is a concession stand. We do operate the concession stand over here at Miracle Field. So, we do bring in some revenue. 26 was um what we will call anomaly. The 6,500 is more realistic of what we uh what we anticipate to see from revenue from that standpoint. [snorts] Um so, our total revenue um in 27 uh we expect to be about 1,178 just up from uh 26 we were just over 1,100. Uh and again as I expect that number in 26 um we'll achieve that number because we're already at 1 million of revenue for the year. So I anticipate that we'll be we'll be way beyond that. So feel very strong that our numbers for 27 are achievable
and then we'll go to parks. These again pretty st standard at the beginning. Uh we have a arboritum labor which is a part-time position. our highway labor, which is what we charge back to our highway department for anytime we get their assistance. Overtime pay, uh Mike's done a great job as he came in this year and Glenn previously with keeping our overtime pay in check. Um and then our full-time staff are those next several lines. Um computer equipment and licensing, same thing. They have a couple computers in the parks barn that need to be upgraded. Uh so we're going to go ahead and do that. Capital improvements 200059. Let me make sure I get everything correctly or Michael hit me while I'm sitting here. Um, so 2059 is our capital improvement line. Um, this is where we typically have done major improvements or improvements uh to our various parks. So if you recall the last few years, we've made some improvements to parking lots, to entrances, to parks, etc. Um in 27 our plan is to use that 80,000 to one finish our parks barn which we had planned to do in 26 and we're doing. Um it's just price of materials this year is going to probably not allow us to be able to finish that project in 26. So we've put some money into 27 to finish it and then the remaining funds we'll
use to uh complete a part a paving project at Kemp Park in front of the uh in front of the playground area which is sorely needed. Um so 200063 which is our capital purchase of equipment. So this is uh [laughter] up a little bit and there's two reasons why. One is we're going to be looking to replace our K Cabota tractor. Um that K Cabota tractor is a heavily used piece of equipment for the parks department. It's currently just about just over 7 years old. It's showing its age. Uh a lot of rust on it. Um heating unit doesn't work anymore and we use that piece of equipment in the winter. plows our sidewalks. Um, plows a lot of the entrances to buildings. Um, but just a general overall useful piece of equipment. This is the piece that I did reference earlier in revenue that we'll be sending off to auction is the old one. So, we're looking to replace that. Plus, we're also looking to purchase um a couple pieces of equipment that would be utilized by the Ventrak piece of equipment that we purchased in 26. Um, that Ventrak uh equipment has been very useful by the park staff in maintaining our ball fields. So, there's a couple pieces of equipment that we loaned out and tried out this year. We were fortunate to be able to do that at no cost. Uh, and found that that
equipment is going to be would be very useful for us to actually own. So, we're going to move forward with purchasing that equipment, which obviously helps and speeds up the process plus makes it much more efficient. And then the other piece in this line that uh resulted in the increase is we're looking to replace. So, as you know, we try to replace our fleet vehicles every year. We're going to try to go back to purchasing a vehicle. Um we've had some issues with our fleet system with Enterprise um both getting equipment or getting trucks and getting vehicles and getting them outfitted that um Mike and I made the decision that u we would work off state contract um get purchase outright a vehicle or truck that would be used uh by the parks department which was the plan all along. So rather than build it into our operating lease expense line, uh we just purchase it outright. So uh Mike did go through the process of state contract, got a quote what a purchase of the vehicle or truck would be for. So that's built into this line as well. I just want to have one thing comment on that with respect to the leasing. the sewer department is doing exactly what you're doing and they broke the numbers down and it's much more cost effective just to go out purchase the vehicles. That's so I just wanted to throw that in there for you.
Good. Thanks, John.
Um the park improvement fund that is our $20,000 that basically what we use as items come up within parks, whether we have to replace, you know, a sign or we need to replace um you know, a partition in a restroom in one of the bathrooms or a fountain. Um that's the that's the fund that is used for that. Uh capital purchase of parks that's generally for things like string string trimmers or those type of equipment that may come up chainsaws. Uh we kept our cell phone lines uh flat vehicle operating expense. That's that lease line. So that stayed very much the same. Fuel line. This may be a number that may change over the course of time. We'll see. Um we've seen this number go down and then go back up. So, we were trying to be as conservative as we could based on what we look like we're going to be for 26, but seeing the way fuel rates are going, this number uh may be a little low. Um, the rest of the numbers through here are pretty straightforward. Um, probably the only one that um we ever really run into towards the end of the year that we look at maybe having to adjust is our maintenance supply line. We did up it up up it a little bit but again as costs go up for things like garbage bag or even dog poop bags um you know that's that shows a significant uh or this is where uh we you know we we charge those items
back. So lawn service um I will highlight that that is a estimate as well. Our contract is up with Rochester Lawn Care. So we'll be going through that process here probably in the next month and a half to two months uh going out to bid for that service. So, uh, we're just sort of using industry standards, uh, of what we're currently paying and, uh, it seems to be appropriate and based on, you know, some of the other municipalities around us that offer or do the same service. Um, rest of those numbers actually from a ttal parks appropriation slightly down. Um, we do have some revenue line in here. Uh, this is $130,000. This is for revenue of, uh, rental of our lodges. So, we have the two lodges. We have the Arboritum Lodge which is Curry building and then the uh the lodge at Finn which is Liberty. Kind of what I said earlier about rooms only so many weekends only so many days. Uh so this is a pretty static number. We did not change the number uh for for rates for this. We did actually just in the last two weeks do a benchmark of all of the local parks and that surround us of similar size. We did do a benchmark just to ensure that we're not um either at the high end or at the low end. We're, you know, we're cost effective for our residents to be able to rent our
two lodges.
And Mike, do you want to speak because I'm tired of talking?
You did a great job. You [laughter] did a great job.
Any questions? I mean, overall when you add up the revenues, you're only up 82,000, which is, of course, we don't have the cola in there, but right, still it's uh it's pretty solid.
Yeah. Thank you, Chris. It is a actual testament to your entire staff that the numbers keep going up despite the fact we keep thinking we hitting the ceiling. So, everybody over there does an amazing job. So, thank you. To that to that end, I just want to quick question for you because
I know that since you've come to Webster, you have significantly grown
the parks and rec do you know just off the top of your head when you first got here what the revenue was versus what it is now? I can't give you a number. I can tell you that our current revenue projection for 26 is more than it's been. Yeah, we we do track that every year. Um obvious well actually we track it every month when we do month end and our projections for 26 are going to put us in a position where every year since I've been here we've been able to up it
significantly.
Yeah we we've been able to do that without really raising costs. You know we've been able to keep our camp fees at a relatively uh flat fee. uh we really do make an effort and the staff really do a great job of ensuring that the programs and the services that we do even on the park side while there's not revenue um is that things stay in line with you know a service to the community because we understand you know this is a benefit that people get from you know from us uh being in the town that maybe that sometimes people don't always consider. So we try to do that as best we can. Obviously there's cost to it. So that's why we try to ensure you know get as much activity and much usage out of those programs and events we can so that it drives our revenue well.
No you and your staff have done a phenomenally you do a great job testify that is I've had at least one kid in a summer program every summer every week this uh
this summer. So I really appreciate it and uh for young parents out there who are also taking advantage of the program. It's hugely beneficial. So thank you for what you do.
Thanks. Yeah, I think Chris, you know, in line with that, just the amazing work you've done of like increasing the membership without increasing the rate is a testament of like that takes a lot of work to drive more people there because it's not like you have some big facility. You don't have a pool.
Like you have what you have. No,
that's a great point, Garrett, actually. And I'll I'll say that Jay is probably one of the best fitness people I've ever worked with. I mean, I worked with Jay when he was at X-OX, and for him to be in the town is a significant resource. both his knowledge and his just ability to be able to grow that program. And to your point, our fitness facility is not the largest. We don't have a pool to tie on to. Uh but people really find value in it. Um plus just the other features that they have available, whether it's classes or open pickle ball or pickleball times and just those kind of features is really it's a benefit and it's a testament to the staff and what they do.
Great. Thank you.
Any other questions? No,
sir. I have nothing else to add. [laughter] you the the the parks and recck department does a great job. Um revenue typically comes in higher than the expenses. So it's a wash. So right now it looks like an increase of 5%ish year-over-year, not including the cola, which is going to bump it up a little more. So it's it it appears like an increase, but typically with this budget, you end up having revenues higher and expenses lower with a portion going to the general fund every year.
Yeah, that's the goal.
Thank you, gentlemen, very much.
Thank you for
All right, moving right along. Up next, uh is the justice court. Uh so with the honorable judges Christine Sepler and Tom Delvo to present [clears throat] appreciate that
I think it's just you for now you're looking around. Yeah.
Well there he is.
Thanks Tom. share.
Thank you.
That's it. [laughter]
And I didn't want to.
How you doing, Tom?
All righty. So, where you want to start?
At the beginning.
Not a big budget, but No, we I want to thank Paul. Paul works with us to to put this together. Our budget is not very extensive and it it's it's relatively stable from from year to year. Um but it shows the justice's uh salaries. There's no projected increase. Uh clerical assistance right now. We're down to uh three full-time and one part-time uh clerk, one of our part-time uh clerks just recently retired in the last month or so. and one of our other part-time clerks is out on medical leave. So, we're a little bit little bit short-handed, but we're we're coping. Um, what else? Overtime pay. They generally don't take much in in overtime. They tend to take comp time. Uh, and that usually works out because they're working all day and uh a lot of times they stay past uh 4:30 because my court's still in session and um Jud
Suffer's case, the court's at night. So a lot of times the courts stay over and work at your court at night. So they generally take common time for uh for that. Uh capital purchases um really we don't have any really capital purchases. We're looking to um buy right at this point in time. We put that in there just in case there is the the idea. We're trying to put a add a room onto our court for purposes of conference. I know Judge Septler has been working on that. if you want to comment on that. Judge,
we are still in the planning phases and we've been collaborating with the the town officials here and in collaboration with Monroe County as well and uh supervisor Sheldon, if you have any uh additional comments you'd like to make. I know you've spearheaded this project along with councilman council leazison to the courts and [laughter]
we're still working out all of the details. I actually got a call from the county while we were up here. So, I assume that I will have more information on funding and stuff like that tomorrow. So,
that room would would be in the the open area now that's used for voting because there there's an area over there that's really not in use that we're we're trying to use as a conference room.
No. And you guys do need a jury deliberation space.
So, it would it would serve dual purposes. Uh attorney client meeting rooms during during court dockets and when we have jury trials, it would serve as a jury room. So, that's kind of our a long-term project, but having some wiggle room with the uh capital purchases may allow us to provide equipment as needed when uh we're hoping that room is is open. And I should also add that we did a security audit through New York State this year and they have been uh assisting us as well in helping plan future court projects and also with the idea that we are eligible for state funding to sponsor some of these projects as well. And that has been uh something we've been working in conjunction with administration here with the town as well.
Are they going to publish that audit? Do you know? It actually was released, I believe, today.
I haven't seen it yet.
So, I do have a copy. I think it's in my email right now, and I asked the uh clerks to print off a copy for me. I haven't taken a peek at it yet, but that is available for the board.
If you could send it to everybody, that'd be great.
We'll get that right over to you from the office of court administration out of Syracuse. Thank you.
Spent the morning going through everything. So,
well, the trip to China was a real eye opener. That's for sure.
Yeah. And I should
they did it right in Chilai.
Thank you to uh Councilman Cahill for joining uh the courtg guided tour of Chilai Town Court because they've been very helpful and
you know we've learned a lot from what other courts have done and Chilai was very helpful in terms of providing us information to help guide us through this process as well. So
for sure
assisting us
the uh computer equipment we just got all our computers from the state of New York. So, uh, that that's why I was 36 3600 U in the past, but this coming year at zero because they're all New York State computers. So, um, conference expense, it's to uh send uh Christine and myself to the New York State Magistrates Association convention for training and the clerks too. of uh the clerks want to go to the clerk's state clerk's convention this year. The conference is in Albany and so both of us will be attending. Matter of fact, Christine is on the is one of the directors of the state magistrates association. So she has to be there
presenting too. So that's exciting. um court court security court security is a is a big expense and um uh you know I've done this job for 25 years and there was probably the first four or five years I was a judge we had no security at all none zip nada that was it um and eventually we um talked the um special police into providing security and that went on for many years they usually had two or three officers uh here and um that worked out Well, but when that uh when that was over, we had to hire private security and uh it's very expensive. They're armed security and very expensive. But um unfortunately in this day and age, can't be too careful. So,
over the years, we've been very lucky. We really not haven't had any incidents. We've been really lucky. Uh but, uh they they do a good job. uh office supplies, paper, pens, envelopes, all that stuff, you know, that pretty much stays uh uh the same. uh the the fines and the revenues. The reason I passed out when I passed out that's off the um New York State Controllers's Office because although it shows us of having uh uh uh about $82,000 in expenses, you can see from the uh controllers report during um our actual uh revenues for the town of Webster was $180,862. And as you there's a very complicated formula and over the course of the last 25 years I don't have a clue how they figure it out. I've never been able to figure out [snorts]
uh how these fines are distributed but they are. And as you can see 79,000 and change was um sent to kept by New York State uh 18,000 by the county and there's the 83,000 figure that went to uh uh the town of Webster. And and of course, as I always say, we're not in the business of collecting fines. We try to set the fine based on what the you know, what the offense was and frankly their ability to pay. And um certainly the se the $93 search charge regardless the fine is an important factor in making that that determination. And you may or may not know, I believe it was a June of 2023, uh, state legislature took away our ability to, uh, scoff anybody didn't pay their fines. Uh, so that certainly has had a chilling effect on collecting fines. So we generally we in those instances, we take civil judgment. We judge Steph and I sign the judgments. It's sent down to the district attorney's office and they filed them with the county clerk's office. And every once in a while, somebody shows up to uh pay off their judgment because they applied for a car loan or a m or a credit card or buying a house and that's when they come in to pay their uh their fine. But I I gave
that out to you just so you have an idea of the actual volume that goes on. And keep in mind of the traffic, traffic is about 25% of our case load. The other 75% uh would would be um code violations, landlord, tenant, small claims, dangerous dog cases, and and of that 65% left over is uh criminal cases. And the criminal cases certainly take up the vast majority of our time, but the the the average person knows justice court from their traffic ticket. That's basically what they have that the average person has their contact with the court. So, so that's it. Anybody have any questions of myself or Judge Steppler?
I have no questions. I was just astounded by the volume in traffic court. I couldn't believe it.
The room was packed.
We are amazing court. and and and to your statement with respect to fines, you do work with the people that are there and it I appreciate that very much. So,
try to find out if they're working, if they're going to school, if they're employed.
Yeah.
It's it doesn't do you any bit of good to set a fine that the person can't pay.
You're right. You know,
and and you and I have had that conversation in the past and and uh you're very thorough about that and very fair.
Well, thank you. We try.
And then just to expand on the the computer equipment and licensing line, you know, the benefit of going to conferences for our staff is Steve went to a conference and learned that the state pays for those computers. So before we were paying for them, he went and learned it and now the state pays for them, which they would have done anyways for years. So
sometimes those those conferences don't pay off.
Well, they do, you know.
Absolutely. 100%.
You always learn something.
Always something. So
in this case it was a very simple easy thing to learn of like it was like he told me like I'm going to definitely like go stop paying for those things
and a tremendous benefit to not only the court but the entire town of Webster was
great information to learn.
Thank you.
I did have one other point that I wanted to uh just to follow up with one of Judge Dalvo's remarks regarding our clerical staff. He had mentioned that we currently have three full-time employees and one part-time employee. We are in the early phases of uh searching for a new part-time employee to fill the open position that we have now and within the next well I would say we are planning for the future. We do have another part-time clerk and she has no plans of leaving us anytime soon. That is
but she's been with us 35 years. So,
so we do have to be realistic about our future planning and I'm hopeful to have uh meaningful conversations in the future about considering merging the two part-time positions into one full-time position based on the uh case load that we have now and court management. Having four full-time clerks may be more uh efficient for court operations and it may be beneficial to the how uh cases are handled and managed by the clerks. And as you all know, they are the backbone to the court system. We are so fortunate to have an excellent staff of clerks and their job ranges from interfacing with the public on a daily basis to managing confidential court records and ensuring efficient courtroom proceedings. So bringing in uh good people that is that is a critical part of continuing the uh tradition of excellence that our courts have uh upheld. So it may be something we're always talking about it. We're always planning for the future and in contingency planning. It has no impact on our budget this year whatsoever, but it is something I wanted to mention as it may be something uh that we are bringing to you later on down the road. So that that's it. We appreciate your time. It's great to see all of you.
Thank you for that forward thinking.
Mhm.
Great. Thanks, folks. Christine, thank you.
Thank you so much. Have a wonderful rest of the night.
You, too. All right. That's Oh, wait. Sorry. I forgot about Bridget.
Really? [laughter] How can you forget about
the last one? We're doing good.
Up for the final option, final option. Final department up for tonight. Uh we're doing well ahead of schedule is Bridget Harvey, director of communications for the town.
Thank you. I'm bringing up the rear tonight. Um our first three lines are um compensation, but I did want to talk about the um part-time personnel line. Um this is something we've been in deep in discussions with recently. Um I have talked to Paul Adams in finance and based on um the past two years in actuals of what um our staff who record meetings are doing. Um even with talks of adding additional meetings to that, we'll still see about um a 50% decrease in that line. Um and that's based on the fact that most people opt to take comp time rather than pay um furniture and equipment. Um that's just being rightsized to um what actuals have been over the past couple years. So that's mostly just our um technology equipment that we use for um recording videos or um going out into the field and capturing digital assets um for different departments. Um computer equipment and licensing um that accounts for two things that change and a change you'll see further down. um we are
accounting for a new computer in the department um but we're and that also accounts for our licensing for um like Microsoft Office and Adobe um but um our subscriptions line has um we've added a subscriptions line um and that's just based on recommendation of the finance department. So what that supports is our um our design software um subscription, our um our recording software subscription um and our email subscription which also has supported um our survey effort that we did earlier this year. Um so that's what you'll see under that line. um for seminars and conferences. Um that just reflects um uh actuals from the past two years. Um office supplies is staying um flat from year to year. Um as well as cellular telephone. Um, we've added a mileage line just to account for communications assistant who um frequently is traveling between town locations um both during hours and after hours to um capture video footage or support
other town events um or other um departments um in their community outreach efforts. Um website design and maintenance. um just a slight increase to account for actuals from um this past year. And then you'll see a citizens outreach line has been added. Um what that accounts for is um the communications department's support of um other departments projects. So our production of materials for the reevaluation or the comprehensive plan um or mailings um going out to folks in park districts. Um so the production of those mailings as well as the um postage associated with it. Um so it's something that we've seen the last couple years of um materials for that um coming up and and just wanting to provide a proper place for it within our budget. Are there any questions I can answer?
Mia, could you expand on this mileage charge because I'm not seeing anything in 2026. Correct.
So if you drive from that building to the sewage treatment plant, the taxpayers pay for that mileage. Is that what you're saying?
During hours. So as part of Luke's job requirement, he interfaces with all of our different departments to um provide support to events, to capture video, to capture photos, to um to do community outreach opportunities. So, he is putting wear and tear on his vehicle and using quite a bit of gas mileage. It's it's not John like me going to one meeting a week at the sewer department. It's it's almost a daily thing that he's traveling off site for.
So, he he tracks that on.
He tracks that and works with the finance department to use the the given mileage rate.
I think that's pretty standard with other departments. Yeah. The other other departments have vehicles though you guys don't.
That's correct. And I I don't know that that would be appropriate. You know, he is traveling quite a bit but not to the extent like code enforcement or something like that is.
Yeah. Then Bridget for the website design and maintenance the 20,000 like what does that encompass?
So that um and and Paul maybe you could speak more on that. That's our contract with Civic Plus that's broken down um over a five-year redesign period. Yeah, we're locked into that on a contractual basis.
So over and above then it's actually
I'm sorry. I thought he was done.
Yes. So currently as it stands and John I know we have uh more discussions to come soon about this. Um we are in our fourth out of five years on the current re redesign plan.
I can't wait. I know. I can't wait to work with you on that.
Yeah, [laughter] it's just it's very difficult.
It is. It really is. It's not very user friendly and and it's too bad we couldn't get out of it.
We got to bring it into the current day and age. I would agree with that.
So, John, based on that, we're locked in no matter what at this point as we
correct. That's my understanding. I haven't seen the contract and if somebody either you or Paul could send me
Yes, I will send that to you. I believe there is some flexibility in that. So, we'll start having those conversations soon if if that's good.
That's great. Thank you.
Yeah, absolutely.
If there's flexibility in that contract, I'll find it.
Yeah. I know if anyone will, it's you, John. [laughter]
There we go.
That's all I had, but thank you so much.
Thank you.
All right. Thank you all. Um, I would just like to say with the communications department being a relatively new department, I appreciate the board's support as we start to grow, um, and just continue this effort for transparency and reaching our our citizens. Um, it's so important and I appreciate you.
Thank you. Thanks for
and we appreciate you and all the work you're doing.
All right. Uh, that does it for the July 30th budget workshop. I will see you all next week for
all of the big ones.
Hey, I'm giving you your pen bag as a witness to this.