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Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Finance Committee Tackles Budget Development Early




Tomorrow's Finance Committee meeting will include item #190075 that states, "That the Director of Finance provide this Board with information regarding monthly and quarterly variance reports by department heads and if variance reports are not used, describe the method by which actual departmental expenses are reconciled to the budget on a regular basis." This item is another attempt by the Board of Alderman to be included more intimately in the development of the city's budget earlier than the June approval time.

Other items from Alderman Jack Connolly and Alderman Sean O'Donovan focused on starting budget talks early and often were not included in tomorrow's agenda, but have been submitted through the Board of Alderman at various meetings.

Other agenda items include:
· 190348: Recommend Requesting approval to establish a Private-Purpose Trust Fund for the activities of the SomerPromise Program.

· 190547: Recommend Requesting the acceptance of a grant of $18,850 from the Dept. of Environmental Protection for the city’s recycling program.

· 190709: Recommend Requesting acceptance of a grant of $8,400 from the State Office of Public Safety to the Police Dept. for traffic enforcement.

· 190710: Recommend Requesting the expenditure of a grant of $7,815 from the State Office of Public Safety and Security for the Fire Dept.’s SAFE Program.

· 190782: Recommend Requesting acceptance of a Sustainable Community Challenge Grant of $1.8 million from the Dept. of Housing & Urban Development for several SPCD initiatives, including the Comprehensive Plan, Green Line planning, a rewrite of the zoning ordinance, streamlining the permitting process, and a land bank for affordable housing.

· 190744: Discuss in Committee That the Director of Finance appear before the Committee on Finance with the meals tax receipts (adjusted for the increase in the rate) over the past five years and discuss their impact, especially on the state of the restaurant business in Somerville.

· 190800: Recommend Requesting acceptance of a donation of $10,000 from Spectra Energy Transmission to support community-based projects involving the Dept. of Public Works.

· 190801: Recommend Requesting acceptance of a donation of $5,000 from Powderhouse Productions to support community events, programs and other municipal initiatives.

Meeting Details:
Finance Committee Meeting
Wednesday - February 9, 2011, 6:00 PM
Committee Room – 2nd Floor – City Hall

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

One thing is a guarantee in Somerville: Curtatone will blame this years snow for the next budget deficit. This falls in line with his blaming last summers rain storm, retiree pensions, lack of state funding and everything else for Somerville's budget problems. The voters need to wake up and not re-elect him. All he has done is spend like a drunken sailor and blame everything but himself for the budget mess.