FARMINGTON – The selectmen serving on the Franklin County Budget Advisory Committee set a 2015-16 budget that increased their preliminary vote total but was less than commissioners have recommended.
The committee’s initial total budget draft after a non-binding vote held earlier this month was $5,781,243 or $136,782 less than the county commissioners’ recommendation of $5,918,025. The current fiscal year budget total is $5,651,249.
When all was said and done, the committee set a budget of $5,795,292, which was $7,952 below the LD1 tax limit cap, according to County Clerk Julie Magoon.
On Wednesday evening, the committee’s nine selectmen from across the county restored the funding request of the District Attorney’s Office to pay for the county’s share of restitution specialist for $14,618 and another $1,500 for office furniture after a grant fell through.
Also restored was $13,000 of a $33,000 request for the sheriff’s office public safety account, along with the county commissioners’ raise in keeping with the county’s employee cost of living increase to $8,887 for each position.
Funding not restored, however, was $39,750 of a total $256,637 requested by a dozen agencies seeking county funding.
The restitution specialist currently working in a three-county area for the District Attorney’s Office was formerly paid through a grant a few years ago but is now a shared cost between the counties served.
In their initial non-binding vote, the committee voted that no funding amount be given of the requested $14,618 for the position. Members said they wanted to see if local personnel could cover the work at the Farmington office.
At the public hearing held last week, District Attorney Andrew Robinson said the costs of hiring a part-time restitution specialist, that included a $14 per hour wage, a computer and rental space, would almost be the same funding amount as was requested. He noted, however, the specialist currently employed is doing a very good job and that perhaps funding should stay at the current level until a better alternative can be studied and discussed further.
Committee member Mike Pond of Strong voted to restore the funding for the shared restitution specialist but wanted to see if in the future the position could be filled locally.
“Money spent in this county should stay in this county,” Pond said. The majority agreed by a vote of 6-1 with Selectman Joshua Bell of Farmington voting against it. The committee also added back in $1,500 for office furniture for the DA’s office after a state grant fell through. The DA’s total budget approved by the committee was $268,256.
The commissioners’ salary was restored to their recommendation of $8,887 each after the committee had initially voted to bring it down to last year’s amount equally divided across the three-position board. The commissioners setting their own budget to increase with the other county employees has been a bone of contention with some committee members for a few years.
While Bell disagreed with the 3.5 percent cost of living raise for the county’s employees as reason for his voting down most of the budget requests, other committee members took issue with the commissioners, as elected officials, giving themselves a raise.
“We said we don’t want commissioners setting their own pay and that it needs to stay where it is,” noted Selectman Timothy DeMillo of Jay. Others compared the role of a selectman and commissioner as similarly elected and that pay should be accepted as is, while others said the positions are too different for comparison. In the end, the committee voted 6-2 with Bell and DeMillo opposed, to fund the original request.
Sheriff Scott Nichols was able to convince the majority of the committee members to restore $13,000 they had initially wanted to cut of a $33,000 public safety budget. The committee had also proposed and did cut $30,000 for one of three cruiser requests and $5,000 for the part-time deputy account.
Nichols initially asked to restore $5,000 back into the public safety account for the sudden costs that might arise like a domestic violence victim’s instant alert system device. On Wednesday he asked that the $13,000 be put back into the account because of the unexpected new cost of $137,000 to meet the technological demands of Franklin County.
Last month, commissioners approved the use of a combination of tax increment financing and criminal forfeiture funding after receiving a report from IT system administrator Jim Desjardins.
Desjardins reported that the server the county was using would not be sufficient to bring Somerset County-hosted computer programs to Franklin County. Additionally, he said earlier, he had been unable to locate licenses for some programs used within the county. If the county needed to acquire those licenses and purchase an in-house server, it was thought it would cost about $29,000. Since that report the cost of upgrading the system totals $137,000.
Nichols was counting on a portion of the $90,000 in forfeiture money from a criminal drug case in Avon to fund his emergency contingencies. More than $25,000 of that money went to fund reopening the jail.
Pond asked if the county has a contingency account for emergencies and then noted, “your public safety account is really a contingency account.” The committee voted to restore the full public safety request of $33,000.
The committee voted 6-3 to fund $33,000 of Western Maine Community Action’s request of $40,000; for $42,000 of Greater Franklin Development Corporation’s $60,000 request, for $30,000 of SeniorsPlus’ $34,000 request and $10,000 of Tri County Mental Health’s request of $20,000.
At the public hearing held earlier, agency spokespersons noted the county funding was important to showing local match funding for federal funding. Greater Franklin Development Corporation’s funding by the county is evenly matched by the Kibby windmill project TIF funding for the county’s economic development projects.
The budget set by the committee now goes back to the commissioners for their consideration at their June 30 meeting. Two commissioners are expected to attend that meeting and they can either unanimously pass the budget or not act on it until all three board members can be present. Although the new fiscal year begins on July 1, Magoon said the county can operate on the last budget’s amount until the next budget can be passed.
