| Expense Trac= king | E-1 | E-2 | E-3 | E-4 | E-5 | E-6 | E-7a<= /a> | E-7b<= /a> | E-8 | E-9 | E-10a= | E-10b= | E-10c= | E-11<= /a> | E-12<= /a> | E-13<= /a> | E-14<= /a> |
| Sponsor of Recommendation | Expen= se Reduction Idea | Prima= ry "Owner" for process to examine recommendation | Target Deliverable | Target = Due Date | Most Recent Status Upd= ate | Status History | Estima= ted Annual Savings | Actual= Annual Savings, if completed | ||
| Budget Review Task Force | E-1 Consolidate Administration of L-S and SPS | Sudbury and Lincoln Bd of Selectmen | Warrant article for 2010 Annual Town Meeting | Fall 2009 | Meetings will be scheduled for the group to consider the next steps while taking i= nto consideration other expense reduction initiatives currently underway via = SPS, LSRHS and the Sudbury Town Manager. | View Status | BRTF estimated total savings of $1,048,000 of which Sudbury share is $980,000<= /td> | |||
| Budget Review Task Force | E-2 Regionalize L-S with Wayland Public Schools | Board of Selectmen | None | NA | The Wayland Board of S= electmen have indicated that they discussed this recommendation with the Wayland Public School Committee and there is no interest in pursuing this idea at this time | View Status | NA | |||
| Budget Review Task Force | E-3 Regionalize L-S with SPS and Lincoln Public Schools | Sudbury and Lincoln Bd of Selectmen | Warrant article for 2010 Annual Town Meeting | Fall 2009 | All f= urther reports on this item will be covered under E-1. | View Status | ||||
| Budget Review Task Force | E-4 Validate regionalization of Public Safety Administration | Board of Selectmen | Responded to recommend= ation - Regionalization makes sense if there is a "compelling reason" t= o do so. Do not regionalize for = the sole purpose of saving money - there must be a rational reason for doing = so, e.g. ability to provide a service together that two partners could not provide separately. | View Status | BRTF estimated $570,000 | |||||
| Budget Review Task Force | E-5 Validate regionalization of Road Maintenance | Board of Selectmen | Admin= istrators in surrounding towns do not see this recommendation as a high priority at this time. Sudbury is engag= ed in regionalization discussions on a number of other municipal services which= are of higher priority to our neighboring towns. | View Status | BRTF estimated $510,000 | |||||
| Budget Review Task Force | E-6 Develop Collective Bargaining Strategy between schools, town | Board of Selectmen, SPS School Committee, L-S School Committee | The Sudbury Public Schools and Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School have both completed collective bargaining with their groups. See the web sites of the schools= for information on the details of these settlements. Town is still in negotiations with its unions. | View Status | ||||||
| Board of Selectmen | E-7a. Change employee health insurance program beginning in FY10 as part of collective bargaining for new 3 year contracts | BOS, SPS School Committee, Town Manager, unions | Changes in plan design and contribution rate | 7/1/2009 | All SPS bargaining units agreed= to changes in both contribution level and plan design. Plan design changes, in which co= st sharing for medical services has been shifted significantly to the employ= ees through increased copays and deductibles featured in newly created, GIC comparable plans known as rate saver plans, became effective this date, October 1. All School and T= own non-union employees enrolled in these rate saver plans. Further, over the course of the = 3 year labor agreement, the Town contribution will decrease by a total of 10% and the employee contribution will increase by 10%. In addition, all new School empl= oyees and new non-union Town employees hired after July 1, 2009 will be offered health insurance coverage with a contribution split of 70% by the Town and 30% by the employee for the HMO-type plan and 55% by the Town and 35% by = the employee for the PPO-type plan. In a final program change, a very expensive Harvard Pilgrim Health Care HMO-type plan with low enrollment was eliminated. | View Status | Town staff estimated $1.5 million | Will be calculated at completion of all negotiations | ||
| Budget Review Task Force | E -7b Change to GIC for employee health Insurance beginning in FY11 | BOS, SPS AND L-S School Committe= es, Town Manager, unions | Town, unions vote to join GIC | 10/1/2009 | See E-7a above | View Status | BRTF estimated $2,500,000 | NA | ||
| Budget Review Task Force | E-8 Full Day Kindergarten | SPS School Committee, SPS Superintendent | Program begins Fall 2009 | SPS has implemented a fee based full-day kindergarten program | View Status | BRTF estimated $385,000 | SPS has adopted an optional fee-based, revenue neutral, full-day kindergarten program for FY2010, with a fee based on the cost of the program. | |||
| Budget Review Task Force | E -9 Town Services Comparability Analysis | Town Manager is working to develop list of peer communities based on criteria = for selecting peer communities that includes population, wealth, miles of roa= ds maintained, and other relevant criteria | View Status | |||||||
| Board of Selectmen | E - 10a Regionalize Services with Wayland # 1: Recreation Director Position with Wayland | BOS, Town Manager | Intermunicipal agreement signed, appointment made | 7/1/2009 | Shared recreation director started working for Sudbury on 7/1/09 | View Status | Town Manager estimated $40,000 | $40,000 | ||
| Board of Selectmen | E - 10b Regionalize Services with Wayland # 2: Examine opportunities for operating the two transfer stations cooperatively | BOS, Town Manager, DPW Director | Intermunicipal agreement signed, appointment made | 12/31/2009 | Preliminary ideas developed for allowing residents of each town to use the other's transfer station whenever theirs is closed. Data gathering and contract rese= arch to commence for key variables. Participants will meet again in 5 weeks. | View Status | Unclear at this stage, will depend on degree of cooperation between two towns | |||
| Board of Selectmen | E - 10c Regionalize Services with Wayland # 3: Continue to look at opportunities for regionalizing other town services, such as Library serv= ices | BOS, Town Manager, Library Trustees and Library Director | Unclear at this time | 10/1/2010 | Initial meeting held with Goodnow Library trustees to explore their interest in working with Selectmen and Town Manager to examine options for enhanced cooperation with other library systems.&= nbsp; Trustees express interest, and further meetings are scheduled. | View Status | Unclear at this stage, given how preliminary discussions are | |||
| C.O.= R.E. | E - 11. Streamline, consolida= te payroll functions between SPS and Town | Town Manager, SPS Superintendent | Payroll function consolidated | 5/1/2009 | Completed. SPS payroll function moved to Town accounting department July 1 2009 | View Status | Finance Director estimated $35,000 <= /td> | $ &nbs= p; 35,000 | ||
| C.= O.R.E. | E - 12. Streamline, consolida= te facilities management between Town and SPS | Town Manager, SPS Superintendent | Warrant article for 2010 Annual Town Meeting | Fall 2009 | Town Manager has gathe= red background materials on how such a consolidated facilities management pro= gram is working in other towns. Discussions on this concept are continuing between the Town Manager and the SPS Superintendent, but with current budget difficulties, funding= for the position of facilities director may not be submitted for the FY11 bud= get. | View Status | Unclear at this time | |||
| Board of Selectmen | E-13 Develop new Advanced Life S= upport service to replace Emerson service by October 2010, so that it does not introduce new net costs to the tax levy. | Town Manager, Fire Chief | New ALS service put in service to replace Emerson provided service | Fall 2010 | Fire departments and Advanced Life Support (paramedic level) ambulance/emergen= cy medical services: this serv= ice is already provided on a regional level by Emerson Hospital, which is lookin= g to end direct provision of this service by October 2010. Sudbury Fire Chief and Town Mana= ger are currently working with the towns of Wayland, Lincoln and 10 other tow= ns to develop a vendor based ALS service for the region. | View Status | Could require up to $100,000 annual subsidy from tax levy if regional effort unsuccessful | |||
| C.= A.R.E. | E-14 Switch over to alternative street lights. | Town Manager, Building Inspector, DPW Director | Development of financing plan to acquire alternative lights and pay costs of out savi= ngs from electricity budget | FY 2010 | The Town purchased 599 street light fixtures (not the poles) from NSTAR in 20= 03, and by doing so reduced electricity and maintenance costs from about $81,= 300 annually to $48,000, resulting in an estimated savings of nearly $200,000 over 6 years. Town staff are now working to see if the portion of the remaining annual cost due to electricity use can be further reduced by switching to alternative technology for illumination. Though there = is an upfront cost in making this switch, we are investigating if the annual energy savings can pay the annual investment cost. At a minimum, we hope the switch can be made in a cost neutral manner. | View Status | Not clear, but if they reduce the electricity budget for street lights by hal= f, that would result in $30,000 savings annually. |
| Return to Summary | ||||||
| Status= Report | ||||||
| E-1 Consolidate Administration of L-S and SPS | ||||||
| Date | Description | |||||
| 4/9/2009 | A Consolidation Workin= g Group (CWG) has been formed to consider the ideas raised in the preliminary recommendation. This effort= has been led by Sudbury Selectmen Chair Larry O'Brien and Lincoln Selectmen C= hair Gary Taylor. Members of the= CWG include representatives from the following school committees and school staff: SPS, L-S and LPS. | |||||
| NOTE from SPS: It appe= ars that the originally proposed governance structure is not legally available, so other alternatives are being considered by the group. | ||||||
| 4/12/2009 | 2nd meeting of CWG hel= d. Mark Collins and Susan Iuliano p= resent governance arrangements at A-B, C-C, D-S, and Algonquin. | |||||
| 5/7/2009 | 3rd meeting of group h= eld. John Brackett and Mary Will from SPS; John Ritchie and Judy Bellieveau from L-S discuss staffing and roles of different staff relative to the other district. Also discussed is= the vertical educational opportunities that could be derived from closer coordination between SPS and L-S. The last discussion was about sharing resources between Sudbury, S= PS, L-S and possibly Lincoln. Examples include IT, HR, Payroll, AP, AR and shared building maintenance staff | |||||
| 5/8/2009 | SPS has developed and = issued a report to the Selectmen, BRTF and Finance Committee to address various questions about assumptions in the BRTF report and efforts the SPS staff = and committee members have taken since the issuance of the BRTF report on Dec= ember 15th. | |||||
| 5/19/2009 | The CWG will host superintendents from C-C, A-B, and D-S to discuss their structure and experience with single superintendents | |||||
| 5/21/2009 | The CWG will host superintendents from C-C, A-B, and D-S to discuss their structure and experience with single superintendents | |||||
| Next Steps | Larry O'Brien and Gary= Taylor will be writing the mission statement for this group with defined deliverables to that Lincoln and Sudbury Board of Selectmen can formally establish a committee to continue working on this. | |||||
| 10/1/2009 | Meetings will be sched= uled for the group to consider the next steps while taking into consideration other expense reduction initiatives currently underway via SPS, LSRHS and the Sudbury Town Manager. | |||||
| Return to Summary | |
| Status= Report | |
| E-2 Regionalize L-S with Wayland Public Schools | |
| Date | Description |
| 4/9/2009 | This recommendation ha= s been passed by the Sudbury BOS to the Wayland BOS for consideration by the Way= land Public Schools |
| 5/6/2009 | The Wayland Board of S= electmen have indicated that they discussed this recommendation with the Wayland Public School Committee and there is no interest in pursuing this idea at this time |
| Return to Summary | |
| Status= Report | |
| E-3 Regionalize L-S with SPS and Lincoln Public Schools | |
| Date | Description |
| 4/9/2009 | This recommendation is= also being examined by the Consolidation Working Group at the same time as they examine the consolidation of the administration of SPS with L-S |
| 10/1/2009 | All further reports on= this item will be covered under E-1. |
| Return to Summary | |
| Status= Report | |
| E-4 Validate regionalization of Public Safety Administration= | |
| Date | Description |
| 6/9/2009 | Fire and Police Chief = have been asked to consider best approaches for conducting such a validation |
| Town Manager is discus= sing with her peers in other communities asking their interest in this proposal | |
| 9/25/2009 | Town Manager's Report:= It is important to note that the= Town already has regionalized certain aspects or is working on regionalizing o= ther aspects of public safety se= rvices. |
| (A) Fire departments and Advanced Li= fe Support (paramedic level) ambulance/emergency medical services: this service is already provided= on a regional level by Emerson Hospital, which is looking to end direct provis= ion of this service by October 2010. Sudbury Fire Chief and Town Manager are currently working with the towns of Wayland, Lincoln and 10 other towns to develop a vendor based ALS service for the region. | |
| (B) Police Department and lock up cells. State law currently requires each town over 5,000 to have its own cells for lock up, and those cells must meet Federal standards. Sudbury Police Chief and Town Manager are currently in discussions with their Wayland counterparts to evaluate the feasibility of using Wayl= and lock up when needed for Sudbury purposes. | |
| Information on these o= ther efforts below will be added= in future. | |
| C) Emergency Dispatch | |
| D) Mutual Aid, Fire Departments | |
| E) Special services and equipment, Fire department | |
| F) Special services and equipment, Police Department | |
| 10/1/2009 | Responded to recommend= ation - Regionalization makes sense if there is a "compelling reason" t= o do so. Do not regionalize for = the sole purpose of saving money - there must be a rational reason for doing = so, e.g. ability to provide a service together that two partners could not provide separately. |
| Return to Summary | |
| Status= Report | |
| E-5 Validate regionalization of Road Maintenance | |
| Date | Description |
| 6/9/2009 | Town Manager is discus= sing with her peers in other communities asking their interest in this proposal |
| 9/1/2009 | Administrators in surr= ounding towns do not see this recommendation as a high priority at this time. Sudbury is engaged in regionaliz= ation discussions on a number of other municipal services which are of higher p= riority to our neighboring towns. |
| Return to Summary | |
| Status= Report | |
| E-6 Develop Collective Bargaining Strategy between schools, = town | |
| Date | Description |
| 5/1/2009 | No steps have been tak= en to create a mechanism for developing an overall strategy at this time. The Sudbury Public School Commit= tee and the Board of Selectmen have met and worked to develop an overall strategy/proposal for changing the health insurance program offered to SPS and Town employees, but other parts of the collective bargaining are developed separately by each cost center. |
| NOTE: The Ed Reform law provides that = the Town Manager or her designee will serve as a voting member of the School Committee for the purpose of collective bargaining. The Town Manager has designated Selectman Larry O'Brien to serve on the SPS School Committee and Selectman Bill Keller to serve on the L-S School Committee for bargaining purposes.= | |
| NOTE: The three major cost centers were given budgetary guidelines to work within by the FinCom in the fall of 20= 08, and they include that health insurance should be managed to grow no more = than 7% annually and cost of living related compensation no more than 2% annually. Thus, each cost c= enter may be taking different approaches to acheiving these goals, but the FinC= om has been clear that for FY10, FY11 and FY12, any contracts negotiated by = the leadership of the cost center should not exceed these parameters. | |
| 9/25/2009 | The Sudbury Public Sch= ools and Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School have both completed collective bargaining with their groups. See the web sites of the schools for information on the details of these sett= lements. |
| 9/25/2009 | The Town Manager used = the SPS settlement as a template for making health insurance changes for Town employees who are not members of a bargaining group. These changes include enrolling = all non-unionized employees into rate saver versions of Blue Cross plans, and |
| 10/15/2009 | The Town is still in negotiations with the unions representing the firefighters, police office= rs, and supervisory personnel. = The Town is just beginning negotiations with the union representing the civil= ian police and fire dispatchers. |
| Return to Summary | |
| Status= Report | |
| E-7a. Change employee health insurance program beginning in FY10 as part of collective bargaining for new 3 year contracts | |
| Date | Description |
| The Board of Selectmen= voted to adopt a comprehensive health insurance program for Town and SPS employee,= to replace the current menu of offerings.&n= bsp; This new program was presented to the Employee Advisory Committee (IAC). The IAC represents a= ll unions, non-unionized employees and retirees. | |
| To effect these new he= alth insurance programs, the Selectmen and SPS must go through a collective bargaining process, as health insurance is a mandatory subject of bargaining. Discussions are= in progress with all collective bargaining groups regarding this proposed change. GIC cannot be joine= d in time for FY10, per state law. | |
| 5/8/2009 | The collective bargain= ing groups representing SPS teachers, = and Town firefighters and police officers have retained a consulting firm who= has requested information concerning the Town's current health insurance plan= s, utilization, and information used to calculate working rates. The Town has agreed to put the u= nions in touch with the Town's health insurance consultant, who can provide mos= t of the information being requested. It is likely the provision of such information and study of it by = the consulting firm retained by the unions will take up to two weeks. |
| 10/1/2009 | The Town's Human Resou= rces Department and our health care consultant provided the voluminous data and information as requested by the School and Town unions. In subsequent negotiations over = the course of several weeks all four School collective bargaining units agree= d to accept changes in the group health insurance program offered by the Town = to its employees. These changes involve changes in both contribution level and plan design. Plan design changes, in which co= st sharing for medical services has been shifted significantly to the employ= ees through increased copays and deductibles featured in newly created, GIC comparable plans known as rate saver plans, became effective this date, October 1, for all union School employees on the Town's group health insurance plans. All School= and Town non-union employees were also required to enroll in these rate saver plans. Further, over the co= urse of the three-year duration of the new labor agreements with each of the School collective bargaining units, the contribution paid for monthly premiums by the Town will decrease by a total of 10% and the contribution= for employees will increase by the same amount. At the expiration of these labor agreements in three years, the new contribution split will be 80% Town/20% employee for the HMO rate saver plan (from the original 90% Town/10% empl= oyee split) and 65% Town/35% employee for the PPO rate saver plan (from the original 75% Town/25% employee. In addition, all new School employees and new non-union Town emplo= yees hired after July 1, 2009 will be offered health insurance coverage with a contribution split of 75% by the Town and 25% by the employee for the HMO-type plan and 60% by the Town and 40% by the employee for the PPO-type plan. In a final program ch= ange, a very expensive Harvard Pilgrim Health Care HMO-type plan with low enrollment was eliminated. <= /td> |
| Return to Summary | |
| Status= Report | |
| E -7b Change to GIC for employee health Insurance beginning = in FY11 | |
| Date | Description |
| Any change to the GIC = would need to be bargained with employees per current state law, and both Town management and 70% of employee groups would need to ratify such a change. If this were accomplished, the Town could join the GIC beginning July 1, 2010, and any savings would result in the FY11 budget. | |
| NOTES: Residents should be clear that t= here are a variety of variables that could influence the potential savings from changing to the GIC for our employees, particularly if savings in FY10 are desired. This includes: (1)= the GIC could not be joined until FY11 under state rules and that decision mu= st be made by October 1, 2009 to be effective for July 1, 2010; (2) If emplo= yees select plans other than the one the analysis is based on (Fallon) the full amount of savings stated in the report cannot be achieved; (3) there are likely to be added compensation trade-offs awarded to employees as a resu= lt of making the change to GIC beyond that mentioned by the report, reducing oitential savings; (4) the employer contribution for retirees health care, currently at 50% for retirees, would be required to go to 75%, also reduc= ing any potential savings from making this change. | |
| 10/1/2009 | Following extensive de=
liberation
(and within the context of required collective bargaining negotiations) it
was concluded that the most cost effective course of action achievable for
the Town at this time was to have our current health insurance carrier, B=
lue
Cross/Blue Shield, develop new health insurance plans with GIC-type benef=
its,
and to require all eligible employees to enroll in these plans. This has been accomplished for a=
ll
union and non-union School employees and for Town non-union employees. |
| Return to Summary | |
| Status= Report | |
| E-8 Full Day Kindergarten | |
| Date | Description |
| 5/8/2009 | SPS has adopted an opt= ional fee-based full-day kindergarten program for FY2010, with a fee based on t= he actual costs of the program. |
| Per the SPS report on = this goal: | |
| The BRTF recommended t= hat SPS offer optional fee-based full-day kindergarten program at a tuition rate above the costs of the program; the excess revenue obtained from the kindergarten payment would then be shifted to cover other operational cos= ts. State law does not allow the Dis= trict to charge a fee in excess of costs of this educational program, as recommended by the BRTF. | |
| 9/1/2009 | SPS has implemented a = fee based full-day kindergarten program |
| Return to Summary | |
| Status= Report | |
| E -9 Town Services Comparability Analysis | |
| Date | Description |
| 5/9/2009 | Town Manager has asked= BRTF to validate the use of criteria for selecting peer communities for comparabi= lity analysis. No response has b= een received yet as to creditable criteria for establishing which communities= are peers. |
| 9/1/2009 | Town Manager is workin= g to develop list of peer communities based on criteria for selecting peer communities that includes population, wealth, miles of roads maintained, = and other relevant criteria |
| Return to Summary | |
| Status= Report | |
| E - 10a Regionalize Services with Wayland # 1: Recreation Director Position with Wayland | |
| Date | Description |
| 4/17/2009 | Completed, new shared = Director will start on 7/1/09, with limited hours assigned to Sudbury in April - June, 2009 |
| 9/1/2009 | Shared recreation dire= ctor started working for Sudbury on 7/1/09 |
| Return to Summary | |
| Status= Report | |
| E - 10b Regionalize Services with Wayland # 2: Examine opportunities for operating the two transfer stations cooperatively | |
| Date | Description |
| 4/17/2009 | Preliminary discussion= s identify this as area to explore after Wayland hires new DPW Director |
| 10/6/2009 | Preliminary ideas deve= loped for allowing residents of each town to use the other's transfer station whene= ver theirs is closed. Data gath= ering and contract research to commence for key variables. Participants will meet again in 5 weeks. |
| Return to Summary | |
| Status= Report | |
| E - 10c Regionalize Services with Wayland # 3: Continue to l= ook at opportunities for regionalizing other town services, such as Library services | |
| Date | Description |
| 4/17/2009 | Preliminary discussion= s identify this as area to explore these two areas |
| 9/1/2009 | Initial meeting held w= ith Goodnow Library trustees to explore their interest in working with Select= men and Town Manager to examine options for enhanced cooperation with other library systems. Trustees e= xpress interest, and further meetings are scheduled. |
| Return to Summary | |
| Status= Report | |
| E - 11. Stream= line, consolidate payroll functions between SPS and Town | |
| Date | Description |
| 4/17/2009 | Completed. SPS payroll= function will move to Town accounting department July 1 2009 |
| Return to Summary | |
| Status= Report | |
| E - 12. Stream= line, consolidate facilities management between Town and SPS | |
| Date | Description |
| 4/17/2009 | As part of the CORE pr= ocess currently being utilized by the Town and SPS working together, this would= be a cost effective and efficient means to dealing with a subject the Town is not fully addressing at this time. Town Manager is currently researching structure, budget from other towns. |
| 10/1/2009 | Town Manager has gathe= red background materials on how such a consolidated facilities management pro= gram is working in other towns. Discussions on this concept are continuing between the Town Manager and the SPS Superintendent, but with current budget difficulties, funding= for the position of facilities director may not be submitted for the FY11 bud= get. |
| Return to Summary | |
| Status= Report | |
| E-13 Develop n= ew Advanced Life Support service to replace Emerson service by October 2010,= so that it does not introduce new net costs to the tax levy. | |
| Date | Description |
| 10/1/2009 | Fire departments and A= dvanced Life Support (paramedic level) ambulance/emergency medical services: this service is already provided= on a regional level by Emerson Hospital, which is looking to end direct provis= ion of this service by October 2010. Sudbury Fire Chief and Town Manager are currently working with the towns of Wayland, Lincoln and 10 other towns to develop a vendor based ALS service for the region. |
| Return to Summary | |
| Status= Report | |
| E-14 Switch over to alternative street lights. | |
| Date | Description |
| 10/1/2009 | The Town purchased 599= street light fixtures (not the poles) from NSTAR in 2003, and by doing so reduced electricity and maintenance costs from about $81,300 annually to $48,000, resulting in an estimated savings of nearly $200,000 over 6 years. Town s= taff are now working to see if the portion of the remaining annual cost due to electricity use can be further reduced by switching to light emitting dio= des (LED) for illumination. Though there is an upfront cost in making t= his switch, we are investigating if the annual energy savings can pay the ann= ual investment cost. At a minimum, we hope the switch can be made in a = cost neutral manner. |
| Town staff believe the= LED lights might also last longer than the old style, as well as use less electricity. Town staff wil= l be investigating if there are any grants that might assist with this project= | |