Marlborough BOF Meeting: 30K$ to 50K$ for Union Contract Negotiation Legal Fees

The Board of Finance met on 3/16 in the school media room (library), to review the budget as presented by the Board of Selectmen. you can review the same package by downloading the budget off the town website, front page in the upper center.

Most of the night was spent in line by line review, questioning how certain items were estimated, whether or not the estimate is based on historical fact or other means.

Much discussion on gas and diesel consumption. Computer upgrades to the town software package and the move to SQL Server. The mundane glue of town government.

However a few items stuck out and deserve mention.

Union Contract Negotiation: 2 of the 3 union contracts that represent town employees will be up for negotiation this year. 9 town employees are covered by the 3 unions. Bill Black estimated legal costs for each contract negotiation to be in the 15K$ to 25K$ range each. That would mean between 30K$ and 50K$ in legal costs for both contract negotiations.

There is a line item in the budget for Contracted Absences for 20K$. Town employees can cash in their unused (typo fixed) sick days for cash at the end of the year.

We are paying for two Probate offices, the one in Marlborough (empty) and sharing the cost of the official one in East Hampton. Under a new state program Probate offices have been regionalized. We share the cost of the East Hampton office.

The next BOF meeting is in the Town Library, upper meeting room and it’s on the Library budget, which is reduced 15K$ this year is this Thursday 3/18/10. A topic on the agenda is the $250,000 grant the library received from the state.