News

Manager submits incomplete budget
By Elizabeth Prata

Gray--Budget development is like a tag team relay race. The finish line is the date the town needs to commit to printing the warrant for the public to vote upon at Town meeting, a drop-dead deadline. That date occurs earlier this year because Town Meeting has been changed to May, not June. Left, Berkowitz

Everything backs up from there, to the 90 days prior to Town Meeting when the Town Charter mandates the Manager must produce a budget and transmit it the Council. That transmittal occurred on January 17 and between transmittal time and commitment to warrant time, the Council must review and finalize it, hold public hearings, and prepare for Town Meeting.

This year, the Council had requested that the Manager develop a zero-based budget. "That means you start from zero a build the budget from there," said Chair Gary Foster.

They requested that the Manager direct the Department Heads to develop business cases that justify their requests, and to include alternatives describing ways to be more efficient. The business cases are given to the Manager from his Department Heads, and, along with the actual budget, the Manager is compiles it and hands it to Council. However, what Gray Town Manager Mitchell A. Berkowitz produced was incomplete and according to Councilor Skip Crane, "not a real budget." Right, Crane.

The transmittal included a statement from the Manager that "the budget as proposed represents a decrease over the current year by $332,808," but it doesn't really, because later in the narrative Mr. Berkowitz states that "there are key elements that must still be considered," and those four missing elements come with a hefty price tag.

Not in the budget are the Manager's recommendations for Public Works vehicle and equipment reserves, Public Safety vehicle and equipment reserves, funding for bridge work, and employee compensation. Mr. Berkowitz's narrative says that the reserves and bridge work alone would be near to $300,000, thereby evening out the decrease he asserts exists a page earlier.

Additionally, employee compensation would comprise about a $70,000 increase, if Council accepts a cost of living increase of about 3.1%. It would be more if accepting the high end of the range at 4.1%.

The budget also did not include a capital expenditure for the Library. The plan is to renovate the downstairs space to usable condition, to the tune of about $200,000, thereby completing the Manager's budget with a sizeable overage from his original delivery.

The Manager did not include a bottom-line number for the budget.

Chair Gary Foster said that he discussed the product with Mr. Berkowitz, and the Manager stated that he wrote the business cases, and not the employees as was directed. Mr. Berkowitz said the Department heads were having difficulty in writing cases that may produce an alternative that resulted in cutting staff, so he wrote them himself.

Vice-Chair Andy Upham noted that the alternatives recommendations were all status quo. Mr. Upham told the Manager at the Super-Saturday session, "Mitch, your business cases are really weak."

Mr. Berkowitz replied, "Well, that's what we have."
Mr. Upham said, "OK. But the business cases are really weak."

At Monday night's budget workshop, the Council directed the Manager to complete the missing parts and get the information back to them so they can continue their budget deliberations.