From the BCCT.
Best wishes to you and thank you for your service.
Borough manager stepping down
By: DANNY ADLER
Bucks County Courier Times
Morrisville's top administrator for the borough and the Morrisville Municipal Authority is retiring later this spring.
But borough council voted unanimously Monday night to pay George Mount III, the 12-year part-time borough manager and 17-year executive director of the municipal authority, $75 an hour if the borough needs to consult him after his retirement, effective June 1.
Both the borough and the authority will look to fill Mount's posts - but it's unclear if it will be the same person doing both jobs, such as it is with Mount.
Councilwoman Jane Burger asked Mount to consider staying on as borough manager until someone is hired to fill his spot, worrying that there are certain documents and contracts that need to be signed by him.
Mount didn't say yes or no. Council President Nancy Sherlock said such a question at the meeting was "putting him on the spot."
Borough solicitor James Downey noted that assistant borough secretary Dorothy Gaydula has the authority to sign a "fair percentage" of borough documents.
"My offer was just to help in the event that you don't get anyone, to help with the transition," Mount told the council during Monday's meeting. He added, "I want to see a very smooth transition."
Earlier in the day, Mount's colleagues had nothing but good things to say.
"He really has been very efficient," municipal authority Chairman John Warenda said Monday afternoon. "He's been an excellent director and manager for a long time."
"We will miss him," said Sherlock before the meeting. "He's done a very good job for us."
Mount was a 3rd Ward borough councilman from 1981 to 1992, when he resigned to take the executive director gig with the municipal authority. He was hired as borough manager in 1997. Mount also has served on the Bucks County Enterprise Zone committee and the Landmark Towns of Bucks County board of directors.
According to a press release by the municipal authority, Mount is hoping to use his new-found time to travel more.
Mount, who graduated from Morrisville High School in 1962, lives in the borough with his wife, Margaret.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
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3 comments:
Does this position need to be filled? Can't a current boro employee just add it to their duties? Can't we just get a volunteer to do it? We could save a FORTUNE. EVERY YEAR. At the very least, we should get someone with much less experience for much less money, right?
Sorry, the above was me channeling the School Board Majority.
George did an admirable job in the face of all the personalities, politics, etc. Oh, the stories he could tell, I'm sure! Good luck, best wishes, and happy travels, George.
Wonder who's just itchin' to get their hands on that job?
This belongs further down, but below are some Budget Thoughts & Questions, based on looking at the 4/8/09 Powerpoint presentation.
Revenues
1. Overall, budgeted revenues are up $124k over last year ($18,895k vs. $18,771k).
2. Where’s the extra revenue coming from? The Federal government.
3. Local revenues are down $211k ($11,962k vs. $12,173k).
4. State revenues are essentially flat (+2k, $5,553k vs. $5,551k).
5. Federal revenues are up $332k ($1,231k vs. $899k).
6. Why are Local revenues down $211k?
Even thought the millage rate stays the same as last year (187.3 mils), this budget assumes a $102k reduction in Real Estate Tax revenues ($10,617k vs. $10,719k). That and a $147.5k (50%) drop in Investment Earnings ($147.5k vs. $295k) overwhelm a $67k increase ($102k vs. 35k) in “Rentals”.
Question: How is this near-tripling of Rental revenue going to be achieved?
7. Why are State revenues flat (+2k)?
A $338k increase in basic education funding ($3,265k vs. $2,926k) is virtually wiped out by the loss of a $102k EAP Grant for Tutoring, and a $201k drop in Extra Grant funding ($530k vs. $329k).
Question: Why did we lose this $303k in grant funding? Hopefully it wasn’t from prior cuts in grant writing resources.
8. Why are Federal revenues up (+$331k)?
Mostly from a $297k increase in 21st Century Grant funding ($919k vs. $622k).
Question: Isn’t this grant funding targeted to certain programs, and not for basic education, so it doesn't necessarily replace lost Local & State revenue?
9. Conclusions: Overall revenues are up, but mostly from higher Federal 21st Century Grant funding. But this grant funding is likely "earmarked" for certain programs, so it doesn't necessarily replace lost Local & State revenue. That means overall basic education revenues look down.
Expenses
1. Overall, expenses are down $988k ($18,895k vs. 19,883k).
2. Where are the expenses dropping?
The 6 areas with changes > $50k are:
a. 1200 (Special Programs) is down $429k ($3,454k vs. $3,883k). Salaries are up $223k ($1,211k vs. $988k), but “Purchased Professional & Technical Services” dropped a whopping $694k ($1,205k vs. $1,899k).
Questions: What makes up these Purchased Professional & Technical Services? Why such a drastic drop?Is something being deferred until next year? Why? Was something pricey bought last year that isn't being bought this year?
b. 1300 (Vocational Education) is down $81k ($758k vs. $839k), mostly from an $89k drop in “Other Purchased Services ($537k vs. $626k).
Question: Is this from Morrisville’s reduced Tech School share under the funding formula this year?
c. 2100 (Support Services) is down $119k. Salaries are up $56k ($419k vs. $363k), but “Purchased Professional & Technical Services” dropped $176.5k (from $182k to $5.5k, a 97% drop).
Questions: Again, what makes up these Purchased Professional & Technical Services? Why such a drastic drop? Is something being deferred until next year? Why? Was something pricey bought last year that isn't being bought this year?
d. 2300 (Administration) is down $208k, mostly from a $164k drop in Salaries ($495k vs. $659k), and a $21k drop in Benefits ($148k vs. $169k).
Question: Is this from the loss of Kate Taylor and Karen Huggins, and not replacing Asst. Principals? If so, I just hope this 3.5 mil savings is worth it in the long run.
e. 2600 (Maintenance) is down $112k ($1,622k vs. $1,734k, mostly from reduced Purchased Property Services (-$53k) and reduced Supplies (-$59k).
Question: Is this from not having to maintain MR Reiter as much? If so, it isn’t that big of a drop in overall maintenance spending (< 1.9 mils, < 6.5% drop in Maint. budget, but 1 out of 3 buildings is 33.3%, and MR Reiter’s 47,397 ft2 is 20% of the combined 237,689 ft2 of all 3 buildings). At < 1.9 mils, it’s certainly not the FORTUNE Bill Hellmann said we’d save.
f. 5100 (Debt Service) is up $67k ($997k vs. $930k).
Questions: Does this year's installment on paying off the $2.5 million in Bond Defeasement Expenses Hellmann didn't tell anybody about factor into this? Otherwise, why is Debt Sevice up when most of the bond money was defeased – didn’t that drastically reduce the debt?
3. Conclusions: reduced Administration and Maintenance cut expenses by $320k, about 1/3rd of the total $988k drop in expenses. Special Programs, Vocational Education, and Support Services dropped a combined $629k. Salaries are generally still rising, so a concern is that the cuts are coming from items that effect educational delivery.
Other Misc. Comments
1. p.6 --> some of the bar graph heights look wrong, based on other data in the presentation. For example, the 2008-09 Local Revenue is $12.17 million, but the bar height is over $14 million. State Revenues for 2008-09 ($5.551 million) and 2009-10 ($5.553 million) are virtually the same, but the bar is significantly higher for 2009-10.
2. p. 14 - Note that starting in 2005-06, everybody's property tax assessment was increased by a factor of 4, and the corresponding tax millage rate was reduced by a factor of 4. So if you really want to compare apples-to-apples on millage rates, you need to divide the years prior to 2005-06 by 4 - or multiply 2005-06 on by 4. Otherwise, some might be tempted to think that Sandy Gibson is really a hero because she presided over an astonishingly drastic cut in school taxes.
3. p. 38 - Looks like last year’s budget was helped by depleting the Fund Balance by $1.112 million (from $2.793 million to $1.681 million). Assuming 1 tax mil is about $60k, without this depletion of the Fund Balance, it looks like there would have been a 19 mil (~10%) tax increase last year.
So last year, the 2 main things the board did to balance the budget/hold the line on taxes were:
a. Get a ~$1+ million one-shot-deal from defeasing most of the bond money (at a long-term cost of $2.5 million);
b. Dip into the piggy bank to the tune of $1.112 million - money that was left to them by those evil "prior boards".
The budget projections from 2010-13 show the Fund Balance being further depleted by $1.456 million by 2013, all the way down to a mere $225k.
4. p. 38 - these budget figures show a Real Estate Tax collection rate of 93.5% throughout, but the earlier slides all seem based on a 94% collection rate (see p. 5). Why the difference? Which figure is right/more accurate?
Heard from a reliable source about George Mount giving someone the run-around yesterday on using a pavillion in Williamson Park. There was stonewalling and not-very-helpfulness, followed by eventual relenting after citing a change in the ordinance from 40 yrs. ago. To me, it seems realistic to expect he should have known about this ordinance change all along, having been involved in Morrisville gov't for at least 28 yrs. and Boro Mgr. for the last 12. Smelled like playing politics with a public park. That's not a good smell.
Gotta take down 1 Gold Star and put up 1 Demerit for George.
Problem is, I'm not confident the next Bus. Mgr. will be more accommodating. Are you?
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