FinCom details end-of-year transfers

The Norwood Finance Commission recently met with Finance Director Jeffrey O’Neill and discussed the Town’s financial situation at the end of the fiscal year.

The outlook is a mixed bag. O’Neill said there were several end-of-year transfers they had to put through – which were later approved by the Board of Selectmen – as unanticipated expenses. These generally happen, especially when snow accumulation fluctuates like it has the past few years (less snow most years, less money set aside, until we get storms like this year). So basically this is a list of expenses that exceeded their budgets.

O’Neill said they are not looking to pay for these out of an additional free cash or FinCom transfer.

“These are moved within our existing expenditures,” he said. “Right now I’d say we’re in that 2-percent-to-3-percent range of excess operating expenses. We still have a couple more warrants and processing to do, so I would say we’re at 98 percent of our expenditures.”

The transfers, in order of amount, were $325,000 for workers compensation, $85,600 for the collection agent, $77,000 for Traffic Control/Fire Alarms Salaries, $67,000 for public works (DPW) overtime salaries, $37,855 in Medicare expenses, $31,570 for salaries in the snow and ice budget, and $6,713 for Norfolk Agricultural School.

The transfers also included a $2,150 overage for the Fincom’s audit of the Town. That’s a total of $612,887 more funds needed than expected, or, as O’Neill put it, about .6 percent of the total budget. O’Neill said they were able to balance that mostly with budgeted salary funds that were not used and were in excess.

The big ticket expense item was waste removal at $305,000, and O’Neill said that’s related to dumpster capacity around mattress removal and disposal. Town Manager Tony Mazzucco said the Town is getting way more mattresses than it can handle, and that each mattress is an expense. He said they are looking into a fee structure that would likely kick in after the third or fourth mattress, as he said they want to help families where they can, but not be too generous.

O’Neill said it’s especially concerning because the current waste removal contract the Town has is over next year.

“And who knows what’s going to happen in Fiscal Year ’28?” he asked.

As far as the collection agent’s $85,600, O’Neill said that’s a good thing because it means that agent is spending more time collecting more funds for the Town, and means the Town is ahead of the game there.

The $77,000 in Traffic Control was related to maintenance on alarm systems in Town Buildings and the new signals being installed. O’Neill said the Light Department is putting them in, but they still need to bill the Town.

Advertisement

The $67,000 in DPW was related to regular overtime for highway and garage work. O’Neill said the $31,570 for snow and ice was his miscalculation because the last appropriation did not include the end of April due to an error with the payment schedule.

“Just an oversight on our part,” he said.

Also in financial news, O’Neill said motor vehicle excise, investment revenue, and building permits are expected to be above previous estimates, which means the budgeted $7.4 million in free cash set aside to balance the budget will have some left over.

“That’s a typical accounting goal when we do the budget, we budget our revenues conservatively and hopefully we have less expenditures and increases in revenue,” he said. “We will have that. I’m not sure exactly how much, we still have a few days on some receipts and time to process all of that. By the end of August we’ll have a much better understanding of that.”

O’Neill said the department still expects to only have enough free cash to cover the budget up to Fiscal Year 2028, and an operational override is still expected for Fiscal Year 2029.