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Land Taken
for Turbine

By Scott MacKeen
Staff Writer
5/6/10
A landtaking related to a proposed wind turbine and pay raises for non-union employees were among the items approved by Annual Town Meeting this week.

Town Meeting approved most of the spending articles in a proposed $88.39 million town budget for fiscal year 2011, which begins July 1. The Warrant Committee says the budget, which calls for $600,000 in new spending over FY 10, is short of providing level services for the town but is “sufficient” to maintain adequate education and public safety for another year. The School Department plans to eliminate 17 positions but no teachers.

“The budgets we’re recommending tonight are not level-service budgets,” said Warrant Committee Chair Tom Hurley, addressing Town Meeting on the first night May 3.

Turbine Landtaking
Town Meeting was nearly unanimous May 4 in approving an article to reacquire rights to land currently under lease for the operation of the Granite Links Golf Club.

By taking back access rights to a portion of the leased land, town officials hope they can steer clear of a lengthy legal battle that could delay plans to construct a wind turbine on town-owned land.

Although the turbine site is outside the lease line, the road that accesses the site is on the leased property. The golf club owners, who oppose the turbine, have challenged the town’s right to use the road to transport large equipment for the construction.

During a presentation to Town Meeting, Wind Energy Committee Chair Rich Kleiman projected pictures showing that the Granite Links officials have put up a fence and a “No Trespassing” sign to keep the town out. “They put up a chain and lock to deny us the rights to our own land,” Kleiman said. “Tonight, we’re going to take back that land.”

Kleiman’s statement received loud applause from Town Meeting. However, there were questions as to what the taking of part of leased land could cost the town in damages paid back to the golf club.

“Normally, when you take things by eminent domain, you have to pay for it,” said Peter Mullin, a Precinct 3 Town Meeting member.

Selectmen Chair Marion McEttrick stressed that the town would allow the club the same access it now enjoys under the lease, although she added, “At this time, we don’t have any calculations of damages.”

Precinct 3 Town Meeting member Ned Corcoran, an attorney who said he has experience with similar landtakings, said there are “procedural requirements” that involve an appraisal of the land being sought.

He said there will likely be legal costs regardless of the path the town chooses to take, although he predicted they would be marginal. But with the town taking back rights to the land, golf club officials would have to prove damages, he said.

“I think we can be comfortable in voting ‘yes’ for this article,” Corcoran said.

McEttrick said town officials will “proceed cautiously” with the turbine project.

Town Meeting in February approved a 20-year borrowing plan to fund the turbine, which according to estimates will cost up to $6.2 million to build and could save the town up the $7 million over its lifespan.

Pay Raises
At the May 4 session, Town Meeting approved pay raises for employees covered under the Chapter 13 town personnel administration bylaw.

Those employees include the town planner, accountant, building commissioner, Department of Public Works and Council on Aging directors, and the cemetery superintendent, among others.

The appropriation of $77,089 will fund 2.5 percent raises for those employees for the next fiscal year.

Former Town Administrator John Cronin stood in support of the raises. He said Chapter 13 employees, who are not unionized, have historically received smaller pay increases compared to union employees.

Although some Chapter 13 employees are seeking to gain union status, Cronin said it will be awhile before that can happen.

During the May 3 meeting, the article proposing the pay raises veered off into a larger discussion about the town’s health care costs. Rick Ward, a Precinct 9 Town Meeting member, said a switch to the state-run health plan would save the town $560,000 per year and asked about the status of negotiations.

Ward said Town Meeting should hold off on authorizing the raises until health-care negotiations can gain traction.

Selectmen have long expressed a desire to adopt the state-run health plan, called the Group Insurance Commission. In order to do so, 70 percent of the town unions would have to agree.

Thus far, the unions have been hesitant, wanting the town to pick up an extra 5 percent of the cost as a condition to join, according to officials. The town currently covers 85 percent of employees’ health-care costs.
“If you’re working in the private sector, you’re not getting 85 percent [coverage]. You’d be lucky to get two-thirds,” said Ward.

McEttrick said moving the town employees to the GIC plan would be a “benefit,” but added that the issue of the shared-percentage split is “an obstacle at this point.”

In addition, the deadline for entering into the GIC for fiscal year 2011 has already passed, according to Town Administrator Kevin Mearn.

Cronin said it would be unfair to deny nonunion workers raises because of a collective bargaining dispute over health care they have no part of. “Nonunion [employees] are the victims of this. But they don’t have a seat at the [bargaining table],” he said.

According to state Rep. Walter Timilty, a bill currently in the Legislature that would require only 50 percent of unions to sign off on the state plan has about a “50/50” percent chance of passing.

Ann White, chair of the Personnel Board, urged Town Meeting to approve the raises.
“Some of these people work 40, 50 or 60 hours a week. If you vote ‘no’ on this, it means the people who fall out of this union will get nothing,” she said.

Ward said salaries for a new union, if one were formed, should be considered and voted under a separate article once the union’s conditions are known.

Budget Debate
Meanwhile, new Precinct 9 Town Meeting member John Hajjar stood to oppose several of the proposed Fiscal Year 2011 budgets. He said some of the departments’ spending plans are “getting off track.” For example, he noted that the general government budget is slated to grow by 5.6 percent next year.

“Inflation is only 2 percent. There has to be fiscal responsibility,” Hajjar said. “Everyone else in the private sector is sucking it up.”

Selectman John Shields defended the budget. He said it includes the salaries of two new full-time information-technology positions, which he said are needed because of increased reliance on technology. There are also more elections scheduled next year, adding more to that budget, Shields said.

“This particular budget is going up. Others are going down,” he said.

The FY 11 budget includes about $1 million more in state aid than FY 10, based on the budget passed by state lawmakers, according to Hurley. He said the Warrant Committee crafted the town spending around a two-year plan to soften the blow as much as possible for FY 12, including the addition of $828,000 to the town’s stabilization fund, also known as the “rainy day” fund, currently holding $1.2 million.

“We took a two-year approach to the budget this year. If we need the [stabilization money] next year, it’s there,” he said.

Town Meeting has yet to consider the stabilization-funding article.

Also during the May 3 session, Precinct 8 Town Meeting member Diane DiTullio Agostino rose to speak on the proposed Police Department budget for FY 11. Agostino was concerned that the department continues to eliminate positions and questioned whether it is impacting public safety.

Hurley said the budget allows the department to “maintain an appropriate level of services.” Police Chief Richard Wells Jr. said the department will remain a 51-officer force, the same as in FY 10. He said the department had a force of 55 until FY 09, when it was cut to 53. Agostino wanted the next police budget to restore the 55-officer department.

Other Articles
Annual Town Meeting also voted the following articles May 3:

• An appropriation of $16,000 from the tax levy for a third-year lease payment on four new vehicles that service the Health Department, Inspectional Services and the Department of Public Works.

• An appropriation of $13,544,487 from the tax levy to fund retirement benefits and group insurance – an increase of $12,831,944 from the current fiscal year.

• An appropriation of $100,000 to fund unemployment costs during the fiscal year.

• A public safety budget of $10,739,309, enough to keep current staffing within the Police and Fire departments.

• Borrowing of up to $850,000 to pay legally obligated medical expenses for injured firefighter Tony Pickens. Special legislation enacted in October 2008 allows the town to issues annual bonds to pay the medical bills for five years.

• A DPW budget that includes an additional $20,000 for vehicle maintenance and $67,700 for lease purchase of two new vehicles.

• Borrowing of up to $471,000 for ongoing maintenance, repairing, improving and construction of roadways. The town has received grants for ongoing paving and reconstruction on Reedsdale Road, Pleasant Street and Horton Place, and additional improvements on Eliot Street.

Town Meeting also voted the following on May 4:

• A library budget of $1,020,927, which allows limited Sunday hours at the Milton Public Library to continue in FY 11.

• A motion by Town Meeting member Earl Fay to allocate $500 from the stabilization fund for the Parks Department special-needs program, which would otherwise have received a zero-dollar line item for FY 11. Park Commissioner John Davis said the Parks and Recreation Department has received a sizable donation from the Milton Town Club so the special-needs program can operate next year. However, Fay said it was important that the town allocate some funding to the program as a gesture of support.

• A Blue Hills Regional Technical School budget of $634,905, an increase of 5 percent over FY 10.

• Cemetery and Board of Health budgets that allow those departments to maintain similar services next year. A reduction in the health general expenses will result in the elimination of the animal inspector position, which is a $2,000 stipend position. Those duties will be shared by other members of the health staff.

In addition, Town Clerk James Mullen Jr. asked School Superintendent Mary Gormley about the issue of nonresidents attending the public schools, which was a primary concern of his when he served as a selectman prior to 2007. During the Proposition 2 1/2 override campaign in 2006, Mullen said he had been told that 100 nonresidents were in the school system.

Gormley said during the 2008-09 school year, 100 cases of residency were investigated and 47 students were removed. During the current school year, she said, 88 cases were investigated and 41 students removed.

Mullen thanked Gormley for taking action on the matter.