Commentary by Frank Schroth

The Warrant Committee did again this year what they had done last year and the year before that and the year before that . . . they requested a level dollar budget from town departments. A level dollar budget paves a one-way street for a department head and that one way is backwards.

To be fair, the Warrant Committee also requested a level service budget, but no department will get that as the committee made clear in their sessions with departments. The message was succinctly summarized by the Warrant Committee Chair Ted Hays last night when at the conclusion of the Police Chief’s presentation he said, “We will disappoint you. But you won’t be the only one.” Mr. Hays and the Warrant Committee have no choice. Hays, to his credit, is simply setting expectations.

Chief Richard Wells gave a data-driven presentation of the current state of policing challenges in Milton and resources to address it. In short, Milton is a community facing urban pressures due to proximity to Boston (5 bridges out of Boston pass through Milton), a significant increase in gun ownership, the scourge of heroin and the consequences (B&E’s, domestic disputes), and a rise in population (e.g. growth of Curry College, new housing developments such as Milton Hill, Milton Mews, etc). To address this, the Chief has an undermanned force with a “dysfunctional” staff structure and aging equipment. The Chief estimates he will need a force of ~60 officers by 2017 to properly protect the town. He currently has 55. An additional officer is not a trivial expense, but in his view it is necessary one. Budget pressures have required changes in the organizational structure. Ideally, the Chief said, there should be a head of operations and a head of administration. There is no head of administration. A priority is receiving and responding to 911 calls, and so there are holes in the organization. The Milton Police Department is not going to get any new officers this year though it may receive funding for overtime which will allow Chief Wells to spackle in coverage.

The Chief’s issue is not unique. The library may need to close on Sundays, its second busiest day of the week, and take a hit to its book collection budget that could put the library’s state aid at risk. The schools have requested a $2.1 million budget increase, but the Warrant Committee asked them to trim that back to $1.3 million. Consequently, a significant number of electives will be cancelled and the remaining will see a concomitant rise in class size. That is just one of several cuts that will need to be made to our schools. As for town hall, it is highly unlikely that it will be able to bring on a sorely needed assistant town planner to help the Planning Director Bill Clark who is drowning in a sea of paperwork associated with 40B developments, planning documents, and who knows how many law suits all of which could be handled by a subordinate enabling Mr. Clark to put more time and energy into planning issues that matter.

Those are just three examples. In listening to their respective presentations, several issues float to the surface:

• No one in this town has a comprehensive, clear understanding of the town’s overall finances with the exception of the Warrant Committee – not the town accountant, not the town administrator, and not the Board of Selectmen. The budget is directed by a request from an appointed board that collects the individual department requests, and it is only after they are collected that a picture of what the consequences will be becomes clear. There is no process currently in place whereby departments would pool their budgets, discuss among themselves the impacts and, together, determine if an override was worth pursuing. Rather it falls to the Warrant Committee to make King Solomon-like decisions (Do we close the library on Sundays or deny the Chief a police car?)
• The Warrant Committee seems very frustrated. Darnell Turner expressed exasperation with the department heads and chastised them for not bringing their budget concerns to the Board of Selectmen and raising the issue of whether an override is needed. Mr. Turner, while perhaps the most vocal, was not alone in expressing this opinion.
• The budget is insanely complex. This is a function of:
  • idiosyncratic department issues (e.g. The Materials Appropriation Requirement that the library needs to meet for state aid),
  • mandated costs that cannot be known (e.g. Schools special ed expenses),
  • a budget calendar out of synch with the Commonwealth (State aid, an important dimension to our budget will not be know until early spring),  
  • fractured line items (e.g. insurance which is a significant expense is not tied to departments but a stand alone line item), and
  • general goofiness – take free cash for example. There is likely to be over $2 million in free cash this year. This is the second year in a row the town has had an extraordinary amount of free cash. Last year it was assumed that we would never see that amount of free cash again. Until we did. Free cash comes from a variety of sources such as unspent department budgets and unanticipated revenue (e.g. excise taxes). It is not necessarily a bad thing as it reflects a conservative fiscal approach. However, it is also cited as a reason for not pursuing an override. Who would want to vote for an override when we have $2 million floating around? But the thinking is that  money cannot be applied to operating expenses. It is one-time money. So no can do in terms of keeping library open, hiring an assistant town planner, or adding a cadet to the force. Simply trying to determine what the town’s revenue is can be a challenge and what it can be applied to is another challenge. 

The Warrant Committee is given an extremely difficult job. It will be meeting all day at a date to be determined (it was originally scheduled for this Saturday but has been cancelled) and likely take votes at that time on funding for various departments. It is our guess that there may be enough bandaids to go around; but that is just a guess. What is clear is that this is no way to run a rail road. The Chief was clear in his message last night. Going forward “Neither level dollar nor level service will provide an appropriate level of protection.” We expect he will reiterate that message on Saturday.

It is an important message and one that all departments can understand. The FY 2015 budget is basically done; it’s too late to consider an override as an option. But how do we move forward? How do we get better? We have to look at the future now and change the way we work.There must be a change if only in how town departments communicate and collaborate. These department budgets that are constructed independently of other departments and budgetary concerns are budgetary silos that independently funnel into the warrant committee past the point when anything constructive can be known and anything productive can be done. We need to plan for the future now.