The Halifax Finance Committee met on Monday, Feb. 13. Chair Todd Dargie said that at a previous meeting, they had conducted three interviews for the open position of Finance Committee secretary. The three candidates were Gina DiMuzio, Katelyn Esposito, and Holly Merry. Dargie said that Merry had since expressed concerns that she would not have the availability and capacity to serve in the position. “All three candidates I thought were fantastic… were all qualified to do the position,” Dargie said. He went on to say that his primary concern was that the candidate had municipal experience.
Committee member Frank Johnston said that he liked that Esposito had experience as the office administrator at the Abington Housing Authority. “That brings some value to municipal government that we are looking for… she also had good availability… I think both candidates were well-suited,” he explained. Committee member Michael Bennett said he agreed with Johnston. Committee member Jim Walters said that he also echoed the same sentiments. The Committee voted unanimously to offer the open position to Esposito. Town Accountant Sandra Nolan said that she would forward an offer letter to Dargie.
Building Inspector Jim Perry attended the meeting to provide the Committee with a budget update for his department. He explained, “Pretty much everything is level- funded with respect to the total budget with built in pay raises and so forth; the only additional funds that we are looking for were… $1,800 for training of new secretaries in the Zoning, Conservation, and Planning Departments under the Regulatory Board.” He also noted that currently those positions are vacant and that they are in the process of conducting interviews. “We have found that there is a need to get a lot of training done within those departments,” he said.
Perry said there was some discussion with Nolan about putting that $1,800 under training in the Selectmen’s budget for municipal trainings. New Town Administrator Cody Haddad said, “That should go into that account for training; one of my requests this year will be to increase that… there’s a lot of trainings out there; I’m a very big proponent of professional development so I would like to see that increased.” He continued, “Jim’s request would certainly be approved – it’s warranted; it makes sense to kind of keep it centralized under training.” Dargie asked Haddad if they had started to assess where additional trainings are necessary. Haddad responded, “We’re assessing that; I would like to bring in management training for our department heads and then there are specialized trainings for individual departments… but it’s really a dialogue I’ve begun having with department heads –they know best, they know what they need best so we’re going to take their feedback and bring in the appropriate training as needed.”
Johnston asked Perry to also address the budget line for Interim Inspector. Perry told the Committee, “that is a cost that we incur because I am just a local inspector at this point – an interim local inspector. I have just recently passed my final test to be certified as a local inspector which would then bump me up to interim building inspector/inspector of buildings… so because I did not have that certification we need to hire, beside an inspector of buildings which the previous Select Board appointed, an individual to assist me with certification of occupancies and yearly inspections that are required so that $2,250 goes to pay his time to do those additional inspections with me; we paid him basically a per diem or per inspection fee of $50.” Perry said that the fee should stay in there until the hearing with the Board of Building Commissioners to accept his examinations and appoint him as a conditional inspector of buildings.
Library Director Jean Gallant also provided a budget update for her department. “My budget is really kind of mandated by the State,” she explained to the Committee. “I figure out my wages, I figure out my salary, and then I figure out my expenses and then I put that into a formula, and it comes out with what the town has to appropriate for me in order to get my State aid,” she continued. Gallant said that her State aid has been going up each year, noting that she got $16,000 last year as an incentive grant. She said that she uses that grant to pay for several different expenses including small things like a broken printer or blinds. The library budget for this year stands at $344,790. “Jean’s very good with if there is a wage increase, we refigure her wages and when possible, we then lower her expenses by the same amount that her wages have increased,” Nolan told the Committee. Gallant said that she was requesting $244 to be added into this year’s budget. It was decided to put that expense onto the agenda for their next meeting. They did say that the easiest method would likely be a reserve fund transfer.
Dargie said that an email had been sent out to department heads with a link to an online form to share revenue suggestions. Haddad said he believed that the form was to include existing fee structures and proposed changes. Dargie said that it was found last year that some fees were below neighboring towns and could potentially be raised to increase revenue. Haddad said it should become policy to review fees annually even if changes were not made each year.
The Police and Fire Departments’ budgets will be reviewed during their next Finance meeting.