January is always a particularly interesting month for the Board of Selectmen. Like the Romans, who named the month after the god Janus, capable of looking both forward and back simultaneously, we use this month to look both to the future and to the past. We look forward by beginning to concentrate on the Town’s budget for the next fiscal year, a process that will absorb growing amounts of our time until April’s town meeting. And we look backward producing a review of the BoS work over the past calendar year that will appear in the Town’s year book.
I’ll save a discussion of the budget process for next month’s issue, when I hope to interview Town Accountant Trudi Brazil, who is Truro’s budget guru. This month, instead, I want to share with you the highlights from the Selectmen’s annual review.
2011 brought significant change to Town leadership: Rex Peterson replaced Pam Nolan as Town Administrator; Kyle Takakjian replaced John Lundborn as Chief of Police, and Breon Dunigan replaced Chris Lucy on the Board of Selectmen. New faces brought new energy and new perspective, along with significant progress on multiple fronts, as the Board worked to balance our many routine responsibilities with attention to the critical issues we face as a town.
Lets be honest here. While the Board of Selectmen has its primary responsibility to establish Town policies, we work in partnership with an exceptionally talented group of Town employees and dedicated multi-member volunteer boards and commissions to see those policies implemented. We could not do our work, and the town could not function, without them. We thank them for their hard work, honor them for their commitment, and applaud them for their many successes.
Most of all, we invite you to join them in helping to shape Truro’s future. For a full list of committee openings, CLICK HERE.
The search for a new TA began in March with the appointment of a distinguished citizen panel that reviewed all 45 initial applications before making their recommendations in August to the BoS for a final choice. The Board judged Peterson, Wellfleet’s assistant Town Administrator, to be the ideal candidate, thoughtful, knowledgeable, and genial, with the skills and temperament the BoS felt the Truro TA’s job demands. Furthermore, he was well known to most of the Board, who had worked with him on assorted projects for more than a decade.
Starting on the job in October, Peterson moved quickly to cement partnerships with both the Board and with town staff. Particularly noteworthy is his focus on the BoS goals and objectives, with groups of town employees charged with looking for ways to move each of them forward to implementation.
Most of the issues that absorbed BoS attention during 2011 represent long term concerns. How do we keep Truro fiscally healthy? How can we cut our energy costs? What are the opportunities for regional cooperation? How can we improve communication with our constituents? There is no final answer to any of these questions; they are likely to absorb BoS energy for many years go come.
Truro’s Annual Town meeting last April passed the Selectman’s proposed $15.5 million operating budget -- and marked the third year in a row that the town has been able to avoid an override without cuts in personnel or services. Our fiscal health did not come by accident; it represents a commitment by everyone throughout town government to focus on getting the greatest value for the fewest dollars. The external pressures are severe: the town’s health insurance costs went up another 10% for the year, for example, while retirement benefits went up 7%. Nevertheless Truro’s budget increase was a modest $30,000 over FY11 spending.
The Board’s primary tool for financial oversight is the Budget Task Force, a multimember group including both Selectmen and members of the town’s Finance Committee that reviews the annual budget in detail. In 2011 the Task Force added a functional evaluation to their review, beginning an ongoing analysis of the budget by salaries, benefits, energy costs, purchase of services and other functional categories, along with the traditional department review. That review, combined with the exceptional work of Town Accountant Trudi Brazil and the wage and benefit restraint of both union and nonunion employees, allowed Truro to remain financially strong even during a time of state spending cuts and a national economic downturn.
Equally worthy of celebration was the July announcement that Truro had been awarded a $141,200 grant as the initial acknowledgement of our designation as a “Green Community.”
The Board has focused on questions of energy, energy costs, and conservation since 2009, when Truro signed the Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement. That initial agreement has expanded year after year since then, thanks largely to the extraordinary efforts of the town’s energy committee. A 2010 commitment to a 10% reduction in energy use, currently the town’s third largest expense, grew to a 20% target, and a successful campaign to convince the town to accept the many standards and goals required to become “a green community,” including the adoption of a “stretch” building code and the implementation of a comprehensive Energy Reduction Plan with that 20% reduction by the end of FY 2015.
Another way the Town is looking to address changing circumstance is through regionalization, finding ways to improve performance or cut costs by collaborating on issues of common interest with neighboring towns and entities, including the Cape Cod National Seashore. The focus of these discussions changed in 2011, moving away from impractical and unpalatable large scale initiatives towards more modest and easily attained projects, including joint purchasing, shared IT analysis, and shared administrative services in policing. Particularly noteworthy is the expanded collaboration with Provincetown on developing a bike link between the two towns.
Cooperation with our Provincetown neighbors may well become part of the solution as the Board wrestles with the needs and concerns of the Truro Fire Department, too. Chief Brian Davis and the Board of Fire Engineers have devoted considerable time and energy working over the past two years to develop a comprehensive long range plan, yet they remain divided about how best to move forward. This past summer, at the request of the Chief and the Engineers, the BoS hired Brewster’s retired chief, Roy Jones, as a consultant. Progress has been slow, however; it may be necessary for the BoS to broaden the team. Discussions began late in December to explore the possibility of expanded dialog with our Provincetown counterparts as they face many of the same challenges as Truro in maintaining a highly professional Volunteer Fire Department. Given the complexity of the concerns involved, it is uncertain that sufficient progress will be made for the BoS to have any proposal to present to this spring’s Annual Town Meeting, where any final decision would need to be made.
Improved communication is another issue of concern to the Board. How can we make sure that the larger community, including non-residents, has a way to stay in touch with what is happening in town? This eNewsletter continued to grow through the year, thanks to the hard work and vision of editor Brian Boyle, with expanded town coverage and an expanded subscriber base, while IT director Harry Terkanian worked to improve the town website (www.truro-ma.gov) by including a more comprehensive town-wide calendar and increasing video coverage of boards and committees. Thanks to the effort and dedication of the Cable Advisory Committee Truro TV is now up and broadcasting on Comcast Channel 18 as well.
While much has been done to address the town’s critical needs, much remains to be done. Financial pressures continue to grow, with new issues likely to come to the fore in the months ahead. Nevertheless, all of us on the Board look forward to another year of activity and challenge, and feel honored to serve.
We are particularly grateful to our fellow citizens for your support -- and for your criticisms and suggestions too. We encourage you to come to our meetings or monitor them on TV or online. See for yourself what is going on, and speak out on the issues that concerns you. Indeed, we encourage you to offer your experience and expertise to all of the Town’s boards, and to volunteer to serve if you can. The future of Truro belongs to all of us, a shared responsibility to the community we all cherish.
Sincerely,
Curtis Hartman
Chair, Board of Selectmen
eNewsletter@truro-ma.gov
(508) 349-7004