Saugus FinCom to develop report noting savings from GIC

SAUGUS-The debate that took the longest during Monday’s Town Meeting was one that wasn’t even on the warrant but will affect every financial article.Meeting members voted unanimously to have the Finance Committee develop a Fiscal Capacity Report (FCR) for 2008 that will first and foremost identify any net savings to be realized from the Group Insurance Commission. It was also recommended that meeting members not vote on the financial articles until they have the FCR in its possession for no less than three days.Town Meeting members typically do not take up any financial articles until the Finance Committee issues its recommendation.The GIC is the state health plan that employees voted to join earlier this year. The impetus to enroll employees in the state plan was to save the town money, how much money, however, is the question.Article three on the warrant asks meeting members to transfer $330,000 from the Group Health Insurance appropriation to fund the teacher’s contracts, which were settled in October.According to Town Manager Andrew Bisignani there will be enough of a savings realized to fund the teachers’ contracts but other issues will have to wait.Town Meeting member Peter Manoogian, who made the motion asking for the FCR, said essentially that covering the contract is not enough. In his motion Manoogian also asked for the Finance Committee to determine if the savings would be sufficient to maintain public safety staffing, allow the library to remain open and allow other departments to remain at current levels of operation.”The idea is give us a fiscal snapshot,” Manoogian said.Bisignani said the snapshot Manoogian was looking for wouldn’t be available until the latter part of December and final numbers from the GIC wouldn’t be ready until February at the earliest.Finance Committee Chairman Robert Palleschi said Bisignani shouldn’t need a crystal ball to give a ballpark estimate of where the town will stand financially in relation to savings from the GIC.Bisginani argued that any estimate would be “pure speculation.” He also argued that if the Finance Committee declined to support the $330,000 transfer it would have to identify exactly where it did plan to find the money to fund the teachers’ contracts because the Department of Revenue would be asking.Finance Committee Vice-Chairman Ken DePatto pointed out that the School Department wasn’t the only department looking for help.”I don’t know if anyone would want to fund a commitment for raises at the expense of closing the Essex Street Fire Station or cuts in Public Safety,” he said.DePatto said he felt that knowing if the $330,000 was all or simply part of the savings the town would realize from joining the GIC was critical for committee to make any recommendations.Only Town Meeting member Stephen Sweezey argued that meeting members were wise enough to decide what the town could afford based on the projected savings.”We’re all adults here,” he said.However, the motion to have the Finance Committee produce the report before a vote can be taken on articles 3, 4 and 5 passed 28-17.