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Hooksett Budget Committee approves most warrants

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:48:00 GMT

BY LAUREN SAUSSER

The Hookett Budget Committee finalized its municipal budget proposal, officially recommending more than $200,000 be cut from the proposed Police Department budget.

The final budget figure, which includes revenues and expenditures of the Sewer Department, is $15.8 million – also the dollar figure townspeople will mull over at the deliberative session of Town Meeting on April 4. It brings the total recommended operating budget under the default budget by almost $60,000.

In separate action, committee members voted on recommendations for over a dozen proposed warrant articles. Most of the votes were unanimously in favor of recommendation.

Only two articles were not recommended by the committee, including an article that would have raised $10,000 toward the Police Department’s existing emergency radio capital reserve fund. Financial records indicate the current balance of that account is at approximately $165,000.

The only other warrant article that was not recommended by the committee was one that would have raised $10,000 towards the Parks and Recreation Department’s reserve facility fund.

The balance of this existing account is in excess of $80,000.

Budget Committee member Marc Miville, who participated in the discussion via intercom telephone from Oklahoma, said economic times dictate the committee must draw a hard line on some of these “wish-list” items.

“Not this year,” Miville said after casting his vote against the proposed Parks and Recreation warrant article.

The committee voted in favor of recommending the majority of the proposed warrant articles including one that will hire a children’s librarian in December for about $32,000. The salary and benefits of the full-time employee would be absorbed in the following year’s operating budget should this article pass during Town Meeting voting.

The committee also voted to endorse raises for town firefighters as well as an article that will create a $75,000 merit wage pool for raises for nonunion town employees.

The deliberative session of Town meeting for the Hooksett is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 4, at Cawley Middle School, on Whitehall Road.

Hooksett Budget Committee criticized for police cuts

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:32:00 GMT

BY LAUREN SAUSSER

Despite hopes that many residents would turn out from the municipal Budget Committee hearing on March 5, only two residents spoke out at the public hearing and the majority of the input criticized the committee for slashing the proposed Police Department budget by more than $200,000.

Hooksett resident Vincent Lembo, a former Budget Committee member, blasted the committee for cutting proposed police positions and unnecessarily reducing other areas of safety spending.

“Because (the police chief) can’t fill those positions, you, as a Budget Committee, are eliminating those positions. How can you do that?” Lembo asked. “I would request that you have a reconsideration vote. Crime rate’s going up. Everybody is out of work and the crime rates are going up.”

Currently, the Police Department employs 26 sworn officers, although its operating budget is large enough to fund 28. In the department’s proposed budget, funding for a 29th officer was added, but was subsequently cut by the Budget Committee. An unfilled dispatcher position was also cut from the police budget.

Budget Committee Chairman John Pieroni said the Police Department likely will not suffer from the proposed cuts because the revised budget still accommodates two unfilled positions.

Furthermore, the reductions to the Police Department budget – totaling about $206,000 – brought the entire proposed municipal budget under the default level, he said.

The Budget Committee’s proposed operating budget is $15.8 million. If this budget is defeated by voters, the town would default to a $15.9 million bottom line.

“The Police Commission had left over $300,000 in their budget last year, even after spending money on the sign, the training range and other police equipment,” Pieroni said. “To say it’s a punishment – no. It’s a reality.”

Budget Committee member Marc Miville said he expected more input from the residents who turned out for the hearing last night.

“I was expecting more, but I’m new to this,” Miville said. Based on the small number of residents that turned out for the school deliberative session last month, Chairman Pieroni said he expects the municipal deliberative session to be relatively quiet, too.

“I would like to see a lot of people there, but I’ve been disappointed in the past,” he said.

The deliberative session of Town Meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 4, at Cawley Middle School.

Budget Committee cuts police spending

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:57:00 GMT

BY LAUREN SAUSSER

The Hooksett Budget Committee made deep cuts in the proposed Police Department budget, including significant erasures in the wages and benefits lines.

The committee cut more than $200,000 from the $4.1 million budget that was recommended by the Town Council. Roughly $168,000 – enough money to hire a lieutenant detective and a dispatcher for the police department – came from the wages and benefit lines alone.

Budget Committee member J.R. Ouellette said the budget surpluses that the Police Department routinely accrues speak to the fact that their overall bottom line is too big.

“Over the past five years, (Police Chief Steve Agrafiotis) has had over $300,000 at the end of the year to play around with it and do with what he wants,” Ouellette said.

David Pearl, also a member of the committee, said the fact that the Police Department spent $33,000 on a new sign for the Safety Center speaks to the reality it is overfunded.

“We need to trim (the budget) down because the sign issue was on obvious misuse of those intended funds,” Pearl said.

The Budget Committee cut the bottom line based on salaries and benefits for positions that are not currently filled.

Over $73,000 was cut during one motion – enough money to fill the currently empty dispatch position. Another $95,000, which would have funded the salary and benefits of an administrative lieutenant detective position, was cut separately.

Additionally, the Budget Committee voted to zero-out the $13,000 miscellaneous line as they cut the proposed $75,000 legal line to $50,000.

Budget Committee member Mark Miville said he thought $75,000 for legal services spoke poorly of the department’s management practices.

“The turnover is very high in this department,” Miville said. “They need to get their act together. It’s a reflection of management and not just employee issues.”

But Police Commission Chairman David Gagnon said cutting funding for wages, benefits, legal fees and other miscellaneous items does not make the need for those items go away.

“Let’s take the miscellaneous line. It still has to be funded because it pays for blood tests, it pays for prisoner meals, it pays for blankets. So even though they zeroed-out the line, it doesn’t zero-out the need for it,” Gagnon said. “Yes, we all know it’s a bottom line budget. What they used for their lines to cut made no sense at all. More than likely, it’s patrol that’s going to suffer.”

In other business, the Budget Committee increased the library’s budget by $17,475 so that employee salaries would be more equitable with those in comparable towns.

The Budget Committee will vote on its final budget recommendations at a public hearing Thursday, March 5.

Hooksett District Court on, then off, closure list

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:31:00 GMT

BY GINGER KOZLOWSKI

Hooksett District Court was on the list of the governor’s budget cuts, but was removed from that list shortly after it was announced.

To cut costs, Gov. John Lynch proposed consolidating eight district courts and save nearly $2 million a year. Critics said the plan would drive up salary and fuel costs for police forced to travel farther to court. Allenstown Police Chief Shaun Mullholland was notified on Friday, Feb. 13, that the Hooksett District Court was an error.

“Hooksett District Court was taken off of the list because Concord District Court is too small and would not be able to handle merging with Hooksett District Court,” he said. “Hooksett District Court is one of the larger district courts in the state.”

Mulholland’s reaction to the news Hooksett District Court could be closed was swift. He wrote to Sen. Jack Barnes with the following words:

“The proposal to close the Hooksett District Court would place a hardship on the people of Hooksett, Allenstown and Pembroke. Our citizens would have to travel to Concord to receive court services.

“This also places additional cost burdens on the police departments of the three communities. This would increase our fuel costs as we would need to travel to Concord instead of Hooksett.

“This would also add to overtime costs. We would have to transport prisoners a greater distance as well.

“As you are all well aware all three communities are facing budget crises also. Adding additional costs to the towns and cities by the state only further aggravates the property tax issue.

“I hope you will consider the impact of closing the Hooksett District Court. If this is approved it will occur in July of 2009. Our budgets have already been submitted and cannot be changed at this time for the 2009 year. This would require additional cuts in already lean municipal budgets.”

Allenstown Selectman Tom Gilligan said Mulholland put it best, and all on the Allenstown Board of Selectmen felt the same way.

Hooksett Town Councilor David Ross was also dismayed at the possibility of losing the courthouse.

“Closing couthouses and jails when crime is statistically expected to increase is more foolishness on their part,” said Ross.

PCs are cheaper but schools buy Apples

Hooksett Editor — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:02:00 GMT

BY LAUREN SAUSSER

Popular ad campaigns aside, if 13-year-old Aidan White had his pick, he said he would choose a Mac.

“I think it’s a little bit easier and quicker,” Aidan said, discussing the pros and cons of PCs and Macintosh computers as his seventh-grade French class at Cawley Middle School worked on multimedia presentations. “I actually like Macs because there are more programs on them. There are some pretty cool things.”

But for David Pearl, a member of the Hooksett Budget Committee and a technology volunteer at Underhill Elementary School, it comes down to dollars and cents.

That’s why Pearl has a hard time justifying a $10,000 price tag for 10 new MacBook laptops when PC laptops are currently on the market for about $400 each.

The school district purchase is particularly concerning, he said as he recently addressed the Hooksett School Board, considering the new MacBooks are being used solely by 6- and 7-year-olds at Underhill Elementary School.

“The issue that I have right now is they purchased 10 MacBooks to be used by first- and second-graders,” Pearl said. “I feel like (the computers) are being bought without any plan. I would feel more comfortable spending the money if there was some sort of plan.”

But Bailey Rigg, the technology director for the school district, insists there is a plan in place and the purchase of the 10 laptops in August for Underhill Elementary School is just a small part of the grand scheme.

The 10 MacBooks for Underhill were included in a $60,000- dollar Macintosh order that included 40 iMacs, the desktop equivalent of the MacBook, and 20 additional laptops spread throughout Hooksett’s two other schools. The recent purchase brings the district’s computer count up to about 500 computers or one computer for every five students. Rigg said 95 percent of those computers run on the Macintosh platform.

“Those 10 MacBooks that we put in Underhill this year are the best machines they have in that school,” Rigg said. “The kids are getting a wonderful amount of technology.”

The brand new computers were paid for using money from a leftover fund balance at the end of the 2007-08 school year. Hooksett voters approved the purchase through a warrant article last spring.

Pearl said he has no qualm with administrators integrating technology into the elementary school curriculum or spending money on new computers. In fact, he was part of a team that spearheaded a fundraising campaign to donate 30 PCs with new flat screen monitors to the school free of charge. Every Friday, he teaches students a keyboarding class at Underhill using the donated computers.

“There were some kids who were very computer literate and we realized there were some kids were getting absolutely nothing as far as instruction,” Pearl said. “We wanted to level the playing field.”

But, he said, there is no good reason the district needs to purchase such sophisticated Macintosh hardware when students at these very young ages are only just being exposed to computers and a PC laptop equivalent is available for less than half the amount spent on MacBooks.

Hooksett Superintendent Charles “Phil” Littlefield said there’s no argument PCs are less expensive that Macintosh computers.

But, he said, the School Board made a decision in 2001 that the district would adopt a predominantly Macintosh platform and, to that end, the administrators are sticking to the decision with the recent computer purchases.

“It’s not about the piece of hardware, it is about the extent we can enhance teaching and learning in the classroom with the technology,” Littlefield said. “My position on this is that it was a decision that was made long before I came on board. We’re going to make purchases that are consistent with that decision. We’re done fairly well striking deals with Apple to get favorable prices on hardware that supports and runs the software that our kids are using. That, to me, is cut and dry.”

Along with the Hooksett School District, Littlefield also oversees the Candia and Auburn school districts, both of which use Microsoft operating systems. He said it is useless to debate the pros and cons of Macintosh versus Microsoft but added that although the Apple platform is more expensive, it is generally considered more user-friendly.

“I’m not going to get into the debate over which is better,” he said. “Myself, I’m a PC person. When I came here, I didn’t really know the state of New Hampshire was so Apple-oriented. I grabbed an Apple, put it here in my office and tried to see what people were so impressed with. The next morning, I went to the store and bought one for myself.”

The software that comes pre-installed on the computers is another reason Amy Gillam, the integration technology specialist at Cawley Middle School, says the Macintosh platform is preferred in an educational environment, even for students in the first and second grades.

“When the students are doing a multimedia piece, all the applications on the Macs really speak to each other,” Gillam said. “We’re not teaching operating systems, we’re teaching the software applications.”

Danette Noboa, a second-grade teacher at Underhill Elementary, used the 10 new Mac- Books computers to help her students research information about children’s book author Tomie DePaola.

“They love using these computers,” Noboa said. “Technology is their life. For them to succeed, they have to learn how to use this technology and how to gather the information.”

$33,000 sign sparks debate

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 19:31:00 GMT

BY LAUREN SAUSSER

The Hooksett Budget Committee chairman said the Hooksett Police Department is spending money on items that were not approved by voters, and that they should be acting more transparently when it comes to big-ticket purchases.

Specifically, Chairman John Pieroni told the Hooksett Town Council on Wednesday, Dec. 3, that the Police Department is spending taxpayer dollars from its $3.2 million annual budget on projects that were not discussed during the previous year’s budget cycle.

“I think it is particularly disturbing when you have money being spent on items that never came before the Budget Committee,” Pieroni said.

A new sign for the town’s safety center, which cost $33,000, and an outdoor, fenced-in firing range for police officers, which cost more than $16,000, caused Pieroni acute concern. Furthermore, the Police Commission’s refusal to submit a financial summary of large expenditures to the town’s finance director is a sign of non-compliance, he said.

“We need to know how (the money) was spent in the past to see what needs to be spent in the future,” Pieroni said. “I think it was a reasonable request. (The Police Department is) part of the town budget ... so I would expect them to provide all the information that the finance director might need.”

Mark Meville, a member of the Budget Committee, also told the council he thought expenditures were shrouded in mystery and should, in turn, raise some eyebrows.

“That’s what we’re talking about: transparency and accountability,” Meville said. “The voters should have known about (these purchases). There was no transparency here.”

The comments were made during a portion of a regular Town Council meeting during which Pieroni was scheduled to deliver a brief overview on the workings of the Budget Committee.

Hooksett Police Chief Steve Agrafiotis was also present at the meeting and took an opportunity to counter the Budget Committee’s concerns.

Agrafiotis insisted purchases made by the Police Department were necessary and that the Town Council particularly directed the Police Department to move forward with buying the new sign.

“I see his point of it not being discussed earlier in the year,” he said. “But we wouldn’t have done the project if the council hadn’t approved it.”

Agrafiotis also said the Police Commission, which oversees the Police Department’s budget, is often required to spend money on items during the fiscal year that were not foreseen during the budget process.

Additionally, he said, the Police Department returned money to the town that was not spent during the previous fiscal year and that several town-wide purchases, including a new air conditioner for the renovated town offices, were purchased without discussing the expenses with the Budget Committee.

Town Councilor Pat Rueppel said she was puzzled why the Police Department was raked across the coals at the meeting.

“What happened was unfair,” said Rueppel, who made the motion last May to allow the Police Department to purchase the new safety center sign. “The Police Department turns any excess money back to us every year. It was unfair what happened to Steve (Agrafiotis) last night. One of the reasons the council moved on this sign in the first place was because nothing was getting done about it.”

Town Councilor David Ross responded to the Budget Committee’s comments by insisting the sign purchase was made above board.

“There were meetings and discussions about this,” Ross said. “It was not done in secret or darkness.”

Money added at Town Meeting

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 22:58:00 GMT

BY STEVEN ANDREWS

The operating budget facing voters will be $100,000 higher than the one initially proposed, thanks to an amendment which received overwhelming support by town employees and most of the crowd at the deliberative session of Town Meeting on Saturday, April 7.

Budget committee member Vincent Lembo proposed the amendment, which would make the proposed operating budget $15,101,889, with the extra money earmarked to reduce employees’ health insurance costs.

However, merely adding the money to the budget in Article 4 does not guarantee it will be used for that specific purpose. Since four new council members will be elected in May, the money could end up going to other needs.

Town Councilor Jason Hyde acknowledged that Hooksett is “locked into a bad contract” for health insurance, but is hopeful a new one can be negotiated that would lower costs in the future.

Of the roughly 50 attendants at Town Meeting, more than 60 percent supported the amendment to add $100,000 to the operating budget. If Article 4 fails, the default budget will be $14,820,388.

A proposal to add another $30,000 to the budget for legal fees by resident Mary Farwell failed. She was hoping to add the money so that the town’s boards could have more resources at their disposal when facing outside lawyers.

Hyde became concerned if the second amendment passed that the operating budget would become too high for voters to approve, since the council had tried specifically for a “zero increase” budget with just a few necessary increases.

“We’re making this a lot harder than it has to be,” he said. “We could be shooting ourselves in the foot.”

Article 14, which is to set aside money for non-union town employees, was the only other article which was amended. Originally, $45,000 in salaries and $15,000 in taxes and retirement was to be raised, but the new amounts will be $69,800 and $14,000, respectively.

The fund will allow department heads to distribute raises as they see fit, not with a standardized percent for all employees.

Hyde again disagreed with the amendment.

“The more you increase the numbers, the harder it will be to pass,” he said.

The only other article that caused any debate was Article 3, which would raise $1.5 million to upgrade the town’s wastewater treatment facility.

Resident Tom Young argued the entire town should not have to pay for the facility if only certain residents would receive benefits from it.

Several council members disagreed with that assessment, saying that doubling capacity at the facility will allow more businesses to be built.

“We will run into a situation where construction will have to stop, our septic system is at its limit,” said Councilor Dave Ross.

Even if Article 3 is approved by 60 percent of the voters, it will not go into effect if the $18 million Cabela’s bond is issued.

Voting takes place Tuesday, May 8, from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., at Cawley Middle School.

Teachers get raises for budget cuts

Hooksett Editor — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 18:21:00 GMT

BY NICHOLAS BROWN

Hooksett Budget Committee members are willing to support a new contract for teachers if the school board members agree to support a $459,000 cut in their proposed operating budget.

The committee recommended the proposals – which will appear as warrant articles at the upcoming annual School District Meeting – during a meeting on Monday, Jan. 15, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, in the hallway of the upper level of the town hall.

The budget committee was preparing its recommendations for a continuation of a recent public hearing in which scores of teachers turned out to lobby for the committee’s support of a new contract.

Voters soundly rejected a contract for teachers last year, and several people said another year with stagnant pay would drive more good teachers out of the district, and make recruiting good new teachers nearly impossible.

Several people took offense to a budget committee letter, which opposed last year’s proposed contract, mailed to residents and printed in The Hooksett Banner just before the 2006 vote.

Committee members were given hard data showing that Hooksett teacher salaries – most often for younger teachers – are significantly lower than salaries in similar districts statewide. School board member Ron Dion said many younger Hooksett teachers can go to a nearby district and immediately get an $8,000 to $10,000 pay raise.

“They’d almost be crazy not to,” said Dion.

University of New Hampshire, Manchester, employee Cara Procek said she works with aspiring teachers at the university, and said many of those students have great experiences through training programs at Hooksett’s schools.

But after they graduate, said Procek, “None of them want to work here.”

“Hooksett is not competitive with surrounding towns,” she said. “That’s always been a problem.”

The current contract proposal would cost the district about $400,000 in each of the next three years. The contract would also mean teachers pick up a higher percentage of insurance premiums. That would save the district a minimum of about $130,000 in the 2007-08 budget year, said SAU 15 Business Administrator Karen Lessard.

At the public hearing, which packed the media room of Hooksett Memorial School on Thursday, Jan. 11, budget committee Chairman Gerald Kearney suggested the combined cost increases proposed in the operating budget and the teachers’ contract combined were excessive.

“To me the people who negotiated for the teachers and the school board are putting the teachers at high risk,” said Kearney. “If I were a classroom teacher, I would be annoyed.”

At the Jan. 15 meeting, a majority of the budget committee voted to support the contract, but also support an operating budget of $23,189,176, which is nearly $460,000 less than the budget put forward by the school board.

The budget committee’s proposed budget is now some $300,000 less than the school district’s proposed default budget, and marks a 2 percent increase over the district’s current budget.

“We want to make the teachers the priority, and we’re saying ‘Everybody else, tighten your belts,’” Kearney said. Kearney said its recommendations would require some “good faith” between the committee and the school board, which had four members at the meeting.

“If we do this, we really need the concurrence of the school district and the school board,” Kearney said.

School Board Chairman Joanne McHugh said she couldn’t okay the apparent deal unless the board were officially to meet first. A continuation of the public hearing for the school district budget and warrant articles is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 18.