Share This Article
The Sudbury Finance Committee met on Monday. Their summer meetings are generally housekeeping and onboarding meetings, but the committee had an appetite to plan a more ambitious fall schedule. Given a Fall Town Meeting is looking unlikely, the committee began discussing financial issues they might work on before they are consumed with annual budget work. The annual budget season heats up towards the end of each calendar year.
Co-chairs Mike Joachim and Mike Ferrari took the action item of developing a schedule for the fall that might allow the committee to drill into various topics. Committee members offered suggestions of issues they might take a look at.
Member Hank Sorett called for discussions about “pruning the bureaucracy,” or trimming Town staff positions. That led into commentary about unions and collective bargaining. He wanted to discuss eliminating the Supervisory Association, which is the union of Town staffers with supervisory roles. Finally, he reiterated his desire to discuss outsourcing the ambulance services offered by the Town, saying that he felt the in-house approach was a net-loss when capital costs (like replacing ambulances) are factored in. (1:02:05)
New member, Karl Fries, suggested taking a broader, comparative look at the budget, possibly conducting an evaluation of revenue areas in Sudbury with other similar towns.
Co-chair Joachim voiced a desire to take a closer look at the five-year and ten-year capital plan so the committee could get a complete view of where the Town is headed in future fiscal years.
Member Eric Poch mentioned taking a look at the capital ranking process, which is outlined in the Select Board’s Financial Policies. He indicated that he felt the Town had struggled to abide by the process last year, and he would like to see either better adherence or policy adjustments. “We either need to change the policy, or we need to conform to the policy.” (1:18:33)
Poch went on to express that a clause could be added to the financial policies that provides a standard means for dealing with exceptions, one-off capital needs, and emergent issues. He also suggested the Town should find a way to reduce dependence on free cash for capital needs as part of a long-term plan.
With an apparent unanimous consensus to get more proactive, the Finance Committee is likely to be very busy after the summer.