Greenfield Community Television has posted the video of this past Tuesday’s meeting of the Ways & Means Committee:
Ways & Means is one of several committees of the Town Council and is tasked with dealing with town spending and budget issues. This week’s meeting featured a presentation of the proposed FY2019 budget by Mayor Martin and Greenfield Finance Director Elizabeth Braccia, followed by an extended Q&A session. There were no motions or votes at this meeting.
Here are the highlights:
- 5:00 - Braccia begins her budget overview presentation
- 17:00 - Mayor Martin begins his summary remarks
- 24:00 - Mayor Martin's response to a question from Councilor Sund about the School Resource Office program
- 31:00 - Question from Councilor Allis about the cost of the SRO expansion and ensuing discussion
- 39:30 - Question from Chair Stempel about the potential loss of town employees to other opportunities/towns due to reduced hours, followed by Mayor Martin's response
- 45:00 - Discussion of various attempts at shared services between town departments
I get that in-depth discussions of municipal finances and budgeting may not sound like the most scintillating topic, but these sorts of meetings really are worth paying attention to.
In broad terms, the next steps here are for the Ways & Means Committee to review the Mayor’s proposed budget and to bring its recommendations to the the full Council for a vote. My understanding is that we can expect the final vote on the FY2019 budget to happen at the Council’s May meeting.
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