By Kim Siebert MacPhail
Town Manager Rick Reed presented the Selectmen’s departments’ FY14 budget proposal to the Finance Committee (FinCom) last Thursday night, saying that he would make a request for an increase of 2.68% over FY13. Overall, Reed and the Selectmen are recommending a total budget of $37,621,184 for the 19 Selectmen’s departments.
Reed also recommended a net staff increase of 1.76 full-time equivalents (FTEs), which would be achieved, in part, by eliminating one full-time, currently unfilled, position in his office, and adding, instead, a part-time economic development coordinator. He also recommended adding a 0.2 FTE in the Finance Department.
The DPW, another of the Selectmen’s departments, also requested two additional FTEs to address a backlog of work in field maintenance, tree trimming and removal, Garden Club traffic island planting and beautification support, roadside berm mowing, and cemetery work that includes mowing, leaf collection and interments.
Before the discussion turned almost exclusively to the two potential DPW grounds crew hires, Reed led FinCom through several cost-saving initiatives that have developed over the last few months, including a staff-sharing agreement with Lexington to provide veterans’ services and joining with the State’s Group Insurance Commission (GIC) program for government employee healthcare coverage.
Bedford’s municipal staffing levels have remained relatively constant during the last decade, Reed reported.
“Nobody likes to see staffing levels go up, but I think the Selectmen’s departments have been very cautious and modest in their requests over time,” Reed said. “As you can see [from the chart provided to FinCom], from FY02 to the proposed budget, staffing in the Selectmen’s departments and the other non-school departments has been relatively flat.”
Reed then spoke about why the DPW is requesting two new grounds department personnel:
“In the grounds division, basically, we maintain all the areas in town, and there’s been quite an amount of growth in that area. We take care of both municipal and school grounds all over town. There are roughly more than 20 sites: some are very small –like Depot Park— and some are very large like [the Town campus.] The last time we added staff in the grounds division was in 1998.”
Presently, Reed explained, there are 7 grounds division positions and a 1.1 FTE of seasonal summer labor.
DPW Director Rich Warrington then spoke about the different facilities that the grounds crew maintains, saying that since 1998 there has been a 45% increase in the number of athletic fields; a 29% increase in upgraded landscaped areas; 53% more irrigation of athletic fields, which now grow better grass and need additional mowing; six more tot lots and a skate park that require maintenance; seven new athletic programs; and a 41% increase in cemetery interments.
“Since 1998, we’ve had a lot of increases in service requests—not only in service requests, but [also in] the level of service that’s been requested,” Warrington said. “If you went back to 1998 and drove around the town of Bedford, you would see a very different town. If you’ve been here all that time, you might not see the progression that’s taken place but if you talk to someone that’s left Bedford and come back, it’s amazing what they bring up for comments.”
Warrington said that the grounds division also maintains all of Bedford’s roadway trees as well as those in athletic areas, in the cemeteries, along the bike paths, in parks, public land and conservation land. The utilities are supposed to prune trees around their wires, but Warrington reported that only NSTAR can be relied upon to do this; when Comcast and Verizon don’t maintain theirs, the DPW services the 1,500 utility poles and street lights. Clean-up following emergencies like the Halloween storm of 2011 and Hurricane Sandy can also be extensive.
Seasonal decorations such as tree lighting and hanging the Bedford Day and Pole Capping banners as well as raising and lowering the flags on six poles around town and emptying trash barrels at athletic fields and public lands are also responsibilities of that department.
Warrington said that the number of hours the grounds division tracked via work order—other than snow-plowing hours, which are not documented in the same way—tallied 12,927 in FY12.
Following the presentation, members of the Finance Committee questioned whether subcontracting some of the grounds crew work to outside companies had been considered. Selectman Cathy Cordes, also present at the meeting, responded that Reed and Warrington had been asked to look into the question and what they reported was that, for the same amount it would cost to add two full-time FTEs—$89,000—an outside crew could be hired to mow and pick up leaves at the cemeteries only.
FinCom member Tom Busa asked whether subcontracting athletic field grass cutting— which Watertown and Newton do— had been looked into.
“What [these towns] have done is scale back on their employees and have a company come in and do all the grass cutting, eliminating that one thing so the department can focus on everything else,” Busa said. “Not only has Watertown saved a fortune in cutting grass [in the 13 years since they started subcontracting the work], they’ve [also] eliminated the expense of having to buy the heavy mowers—you’re talking about machines worth $40,000-80,000. . . Have you talked to these towns? If it wasn’t cost effective, why would they continue to do it?”
Cordes responded that the Selectmen, presented with the trade-off between subcontracting and hiring, decided that the Town would gain greater flexibility, more “bang for buck and get the kind of town that people want” by adding 2 full-time, year-round employees for the same amount of money.
Reed added that he had spoken with his counterparts in Lexington, Concord, Weston, Acton, Burlington and Sudbury and that these communities don’t subcontract out their grass cutting. He also noted that Burlington has a larger grounds crew than Bedford—a total of 13 FTEs.
But FinCom Chair Mike Seibert said, “I think Tom’s question was, have you talked to any towns that are [subcontracting] to see how they like it?”
“I’ve talked to the Watertown Town Manager,” Reed replied. “They save money. I haven’t gotten into an extensive conversation about whether he likes [the service] or not, but saving money is not the only thing. You don’t know what condition or level of expectation any of those communities have that do contracting. Most of these communities, I don’t think, are providing the level of service we provide in this community. Expectations are higher here. It may work well in other places where the expectations are different.”
“A few weeks back, it was mentioned that [if we added two new fields], we wouldn’t need additional people,” said FinCom member Stephen Steele. “What’s changed? It doesn’t add up to me.”
“I think the case that was made tonight [of increases in overall workloads] shows the need that exists right now, [before adding the two new fields],” responded Cordes.
“I must admit,” said FinCom member Meredith McCulloch, “that I am stunned to see a 28% increase in the [grounds crew]. It’s a very big increase.
“And maybe it’s because this week our taxes were due. . . .I’m starting to feel that people like me are being priced out of the community,” McCulloch added. “Every time we come to a meeting, there’s another field cost—either it’s for land or maintenance or irrigation or something else. I think Bedford’s becoming a country club town and the middle class people won’t be able to live here, and that affects us all.”
“All I can say is that town staff and Selectmen have been hearing more and more in this particular area,” replied Reed. “Everyone says more or less the same thing in every community. [Fields are] one particular area where there seems to be an increasingly higher level of demand.
“To be honest with you,” Reed continued, “sometimes I question whether it’s healthy, but I can’t control the trends and what people think are priorities in their leisure life and what they want to do with their families. We have to figure out a way to respond to that. We’re under that pressure to do more and to deliver more.
“Also, I would say to look back at the history of growth in Selectmen’s budgets—they’ve had much more modest growth,” Reed added. “I don’t come forward lightly asking for personnel increases. The reasons for tax increases aren’t related to staffing increases in Selectmen’s departments.”
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