Great Barrington — Members of the Selectboard and the town’s Finance Committee held their third meeting to review the proposed Fiscal 2023-24 budget on Tuesday, March 7. As of March 7, Town Manager Mark Pruhenski is proposing a town operating budget of $14,738,633, an increase of $844,596, or 6.08 percent, from this fiscal year.
Leaders of several departments presented their proposed department budgets during the March 7 meeting, including Police Chief Paul Storti.
At the annual town meeting last year, residents approved the Great Barrington Police Department’s Fiscal 2022-2023 budget for $1,866,875. Chief Storti is requesting a Fiscal 2023-2024 budget of $2,036,657, while Town Manager Pruhenski is recommending a budget of $1,979,174.
“For our proposed budget, we tried to focus on looking at the future of the department, what we’re seeing as trends, and some of the ways that we can move the department for it to be prepared for the future,” Chief Storti told members of both boards. “With the police reforms that went into effect in 2020, some of the things that we learned from it is that the idea behind police reforms was really good. But unfortunately, it wasn’t well thought out on the application of it. It has created a few hiccups for smaller communities such as ourselves. The primary one that we’re seeing is based on staffing. Not just for us, but police departments all across the commonwealth and especially in Berkshire County where we relied on the use of part-time police officers. We had heavy use for them to offset our staffing needs to help keep our budget manageable.”
Chief Storti said that the department has had problems finding and keeping part-time police officers. “Because of the requirements to get certified as a part-time officer, there’s just not a lot of candidates out there,” he said. “There’s not a lot of people that can meet the requirements. We’ve not had any luck and we’ve lost every single part-time [officer] that we’ve had because of police reforms because they are not able to maintain or obtain their certifications from the police commission to become an officer in Massachusetts.”
Chief Storti said that his proposed budget focuses on staffing for both the present and future needs of the town. “The biggest changes that I have in my budget is based on the types of calls and the complexities of the calls,” he said. “We just don’t have enough officers to handle the types of [complexities of the] calls. I’m also looking at proactive call programs that I want to keep in place that I’ve worked hard for in the last couple of years, just to start and try to grow them.”
Chief Storti said this is why he is asking for an additional police patrol officer for the department, who would start on November 1. “It’s not a huge financial impact,” he said. “The four percent [increase] of my budget is based on collective bargaining, and two percent is for operational [expenses], including that additional officer.”
Chief Storti said that he managed the proposed six percent increase in expenses in several different ways. “One way was by the anticipated loss of some senior officers over the last few months,” he said. “Some full-time officers either went to the State Police, and another one left for another police agency out of state. That gave me a little bridge in my salary [line item] for a new hire instead of a senior or tenured officer.” Chief Storti said that he does not plan on hiring any part-time police officers in the future.
He added that he is requesting an increase in the department’s parking control line item, from the town meeting approved budget of $16,800 for Fiscal 2022-2023, to $20,000 for Fiscal 2023-2024. “That’s just to get more of a presence in the town for parking enforcement, especially during the summer and holiday weekends,” he said. “I currently have two part-time employees that are filling that role, but one is out on medical leave. I just hired an intern that has done a great job. My goal is to have both of them working side by side.”
Southern Berkshire Ambulance requests funding
As part of the special articles portion of the proposed Fiscal 2023-2024 budget, Southern Berkshire Ambulance is requesting a subsidy of $151,294 from the town. (The Great Barrington-based organization is requesting an annual subsidy from the six towns that it serves.)
At the March 7 meeting, organization President James Santos and Treasurer Joseph Krejci spoke to members of both boards about the request. “For years, we have provided towns ambulance service for free,” Santos said. “We can no longer operate that way. We need financial support from these towns to continue.”
Santos said that the organization started in 1968 as a volunteer organization, and eventually transitioned in 2014 to a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. He said that, in recent years, the organization has faced several financial challenges. “We have gone from a full volunteer service to a paid [workforce] service,” Santos said. “We are facing EMS (Emergency Medical Services) financing, and payments do not adequately cover our standby costs and our fixed costs. Consequently, this is part of the financial risk. The age of the folks that we serve has changed, with more of an elderly population. Many calls that we answer bill Medicare and Medicaid, where we lose money.”
Santos said that the organization, just like other ambulance service groups across America, has had problems hiring and retaining Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and paramedics. “Since this pandemic has started, there has been a loss of over one-third of all EMS workforce all over America,” he said. “It’s not just here. It’s all across the board. Retention and recruitment have gotten more difficult because there is a severe shortage of EMTs and paramedics out there to hire. We are frequently understaffed, and we have to compete with other services for staff. To do that, we need to raise salaries and benefits.”
Santos continued to emphasize to members of both town boards that other organizations throughout America are facing similar problems. “Some [organizations] are even closing because they cannot continue to serve their communities,” he said. “We feel that we provide a good service to the town and we would like to continue to do that.”
“This will be an annual fee we will be assessing on towns,” Krejci said. “It’s just not sustainable to continue running on the reimbursements from the patients that we transport.”
The organization’s expected costs for 2023 are $2.1 million. For this fiscal year, along with a funding request from Great Barrington, it is asking $27,275 from the town of Alford, $45,144 from Egremont, $51,669 from Monterey, $65,825 from Sheffield, and $8,792 from Washington. Krejci said that the organization is currently operating with a $350,000 deficit.
The website ProPublica, which is a database of tax filings for nonprofit organizations, has a list of 990 tax filings submitted by the organization. The most current filing on the website is for 2019, when the organization operated at a $44,200 deficit.
The Selectboard and the Finance Committee are scheduled to hold a fourth meeting to discuss the budget on Wednesday, March 8. Residents will have a chance to give their input on the proposed budget at a public hearing on Wednesday, March 22, at 6 p.m. at Town Hall and via Zoom.
Click here to view the Fiscal 2024 Municipal Budget.
