Ogunquit News
Ogunquit department heads to present budget wish list Saturday
By C. Ayn Douglass
OGUNQUIT - Ogunquit voters will have the chance to hear department heads' preliminary figures for the 2007 budget this Saturday, Jan. 13, at Dunaway Center from at 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.The meeting was originally scheduled last Saturday, but was canceled due to illness or unavailability of several members of the Board of Selectmen.
Prior to the scheduled public meeting, department heads met individually with the Budget Review Committee to go over their proposed budgets - a first in Ogunquit as the committee takes a more active role in preparation for the April warrant. Over the last few weeks, the five members have met with each of the department heads, asking questions about individual line items and offering suggestions as to where cuts or increases might be made.
Figures presented by department heads are very preliminary.
"It's a wish list at this point in the process," said Budget Review Committee Chairman Frank Broomfield.
A total budget request for the general government portion of the budget includes an increase in the line item for legal services. Town Manager Phil Clark had originally earmarked $10,000 dollars for legal services, but the BRC recommended bumping that number up to $80,000 for lawsuits that may come forward as a result of a Maine Supreme Court ruling regarding traffic impact from future development. (See accompanying story.) The total budget request is $612,148.86 - approximately $56,000 over last year's selectmen's recommendation and largely due to built-in contractual commitments.
Overall, in all departments, Town Treasurer Judy Yates estimates 75 to 80 percent of big budgets that include town government, fire and police are contracted services consisting of payroll, benefits and insurance - all fixed items, many of which were the result of contract negotiations that occurred under the previous town manager.
Ogunquit Fire and Rescue's operating budget request is slightly under last year's, coming in at just over $1.117 million for fiscal 2008. Last year's budget was $1,117,662 - a difference of just under $570. Chief Ed Smith's salary has crept up through the past year as he is working six to seven hours a day.
"I'm busy all the time. I can't get by with less hours," he told the committee members.
He has estimated his work week in the year ahead will consist of 32 to 34 hours weekly and allocated $42,456 for his salary. Last year's budget allocated $38,679 for Smith's salary. The Budget Review Committee still considers Smith a bargain as the former full-time fire chief, Doug Patey, was budgeted at approximately $80,000 including a benefit package.
The harbormaster's proposed budget of just over $71,514 has increased by $8,000, partly due to a step increase in the harbormaster's salary from $34,419 to $36,753 and a proposed increase for part-time staff wages.
Harbormaster Harry Horning, Jr., said he believes he works full time 11 months of the year as in the slow winter months he is building docks and doing maintenance on harbor facilities.
"This is the first time we haven't had to break ice in December. Some years we've broken ice every day in January. I'm not that visible, but I'm at the cove every day at 5 a.m.," he told the committee.
An increase in petroleum-based products required to build the docks also played a part in his budget request, but Horning said cove docking fees realized $3,164 in income, which is turned back to the town coffers.
"If we could keep that money, our budget would look better," he said.
Ogunquit Police Chief Pat Arnaudin presented a budget request for almost $1.68 million, an increase over last year of about $210,666. Largely, the increase is contract controlled, but Budget Review Committee members questioned whether or not the department was becoming top-heavy with five administrators and four full-time officers.
Arnaudin defended the administrative structure saying, "If I take one out, somebody's got to pick up the slack."
Also under scrutiny was the line item budgeting nearly $100,000 in overtime expectations versus $72,000 budgeted last year with only $61,500 of it spent to date this year. Arnaudin said she was budgeting for the maximum amount in case all staff members take all their allotted vacation time.
The joint meeting between the selectmen and the Budget Review Committee will be televised on WOGT.
