El Proyecto Educativo Nacional como Ins- Ins-trumento de la Política de Gobierno

The Finance Committee voted to recommend a FY15 budget for the municipal government that increases by 2.30% ($461,427, net after offsets) over the FY14 budget but is approximately $39,000 less than the 2.50% budget request that was developed according to the Finance Committee guidelines. Overall, the budget provides essentially the same level of services as is provided in FY14, but it is important to point out it still does not restore services to levels which were available in past years, before the reductions that were made in

FY09 and FY10. The $39,000 difference between the actual budget and the submitted requests is a result of a lower than expected increase in health insurance premiums for FY15. The long-standing understanding of the Town and SPS from the Finance Committee was that if health insurance premiums were lower than expected the difference could be used to fund areas where reductions were previously made, such as in the Finance Department, the Goodnow Library, the Recreation Department, the Senior Center, the Police Department and the DPW. While the Town reduced staffing by over 10 positions during those years, we were able to prevent further reductions and keep the dedicated staff that we have due to the positive, cooperative work between the Board of Selectmen and the Town employees, which allowed the Town to make changes in how health insurance was provided to employees in exchange for keeping any savings from making these changes dedicated to the Town budget. In addition, the number of Sudbury residents using Town Services has increased but the service capacity has not kept pace, particularly in areas such as the Senior Center, Recreational Services, and Cultural Services.

The need to make investments in the Town’s capital assets is one of the goals of the Board of Selectmen for FY14. Under the leadership of the Board of Selectmen, the Finance Committee, the Capital Improvement Advisory Committee, the Sudbury Public School Committee and the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional School Committee joined in a commitment to develop policies so the Town and schools could address the backlog of capital and equipment projects that were documented through the Strategic Financial Planning Report, dated April 2013. Members of the Strategic Financial Planning Committee for Capital Funding developed and unanimously approved recommendations to use one-time Free Cash to fund replacing a number of old and failing DPW vehicles and heavy equipment items, repairing the Nixon school parking lot and sidewalks, replacing an antiquated phone system at one elementary school, acquiring laptops for Curtis students, and replacing the outdated technology infrastructure at L-S. The Board of Selectmen also unanimously approved these recommendations. All of these projects are included as capital articles for the 2014 Annual Town Meeting – see articles 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20. Additional information and detailed reports can be found on the town web site at www.sudbury.ma.us.

The FY15 municipal budget was developed partially based on the premise that Free Cash generated in FY13 (at least half came from savings generated from health insurance changes and by Town departments), would be used to make significant investments in capital projects that were delayed as part of coping with the challenges of the recession. The Free Cash is available for appropriation at the 2014 Annual Town Meeting. The Finance Committee did not vote to follow the recommendations for the projects related to the DPW vehicles or the Nixon School Parking lot, but did vote to support the SPS and L-S technology related projects for funding from Free Cash.

I will be discussing the issue of the Article 16 - DPW vehicles further with the Board of Selectmen and the Capital Improvement Advisory Committee as we move closer to Town Meeting. There are five immediate consequences of delaying replacement of the eight DPW vehicles and two pieces of related equipment requested under article 16.

 First, although the DPW mechanics will try to prolong the life of the vehicles with additional spending for parts and use of mechanics’ time for repairs, this will require additional resources for the DPW operating budget to purchase parts and contract out repairs, which were not counted on when that budget was prepared. To pay for new transmissions for heavily used 10 year old one-ton trucks with significant frame damage and rust along with other mechanical issues is not a good use of limited budget dollars. And even as money and time are put into repairing these older vehicles, they will sit in the shop for longer periods of time, out of service.

 Second, it is questionable if several of these vehicles can be kept in running condition even with new parts. Projects that rely on DPW vehicles, such as drainage projects, repairs and maintenance in cemeteries and more, will be delayed.

 Third, snow plowing routes will be impacted and it will take longer to get the roads cleared, sanded and safe for residents, police and fire vehicles and school buses to travel. This affects the potential number of accidents that police, fire and emergency medical services must respond to as well as how long it takes to arrive at the scene once called. And it affects the ability of the schools to open on snow days.

 Fourth, by not replacing these vehicles when there are funds to do so, DPW employees will continue driving vehicles that, due to their age and condition, will inevitably stop functioning properly, perhaps at a critical time. Effective and productive use of our employees requires they have the tools to do their work when needed.

 Finally, Free Cash is one-time money that occurred due to savings made by Town departments, reductions in the cost of health insurance for Town and SPS employees, and revenues that came in higher than projected. If the Free Cash is used up in other ways in FY15, it may not reoccur at the same levels next year. In fact, the history of Free Cash is that levels were only $15,235 as recently as FY08. The Town will then face a challenge of how to fund the purchase of the DPW vehicles postponed if this article is not funded, as well as the 6 additional DPW vehicles scheduled for replacement in FY16.

The problem of the backlog of DPW vehicles needing replacement can be kicked down the road to next year, but it won’t go away. In FY13, 8 vehicles/equipment items were requested but only 3 were funded. In FY14, 13 items were requested and only 3 were funded. Further delay will only make a bad situation worse. All of Sudbury’s residents depend on and benefit from the broad array of Town services that a community requires and their government delivers for their safety, health and quality of life needs. Our ability to deliver these services both in the short and the long term will depend on having excellent Town employees provided with the proper equipment to perform their jobs. Our focus will be on fiscally sustainable strategies that protect the capacity of Sudbury’s government to consistently meet these service responsibilities.

Respectfully yours, Maureen G. Valente