By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD — The town’s budgeting process for Fiscal Year 2024 got underway in earnest last night as the Town Council approved the first set of departmental budgets.
Nearly all departmental budgets are voted by the Town Council and are also scrutinized by the Finance Committee before going before the voters at Annual Town Meeting in the spring. FY 2024 begins on July 1, 2023.
Last night’s Town Council agenda featured the FY 2024 budget requests for 12 town departments, most of which are based in Town Hall. Dozens more budgets will come before the board in the next few months.
Town Administrator Stephen P. Maio noted that the budgets considered last night represented a combined 1.9 percent increase over the current fiscal year.
As has been the practice for many years, Town Accountant Kevin Gill presented the highlights of each proposed budget. The first budget reviewed last night was Gill’s own Accounting Department budget.
Gill said that the total request for the Accounting Department was $475,984, including an increase of $12,885, which mainly represented negotiated, contractual salary increases. The Town Council voted unanimously to approve the request.
The Legal Department (Town Counsel) budget total of $198,519 included an increase of $3,722, Gill said. The increase consisted entirely of negotiated, contractual salary increases.
Town Councilor Edward Dombroski asked about a $60,000 line item in the Legal Department budget for contractual services, which is used for specialized legal counsel, mainly in the area of labor and employment. Since only a fraction of that line item in the current year’s budget has been spent to date, Dombroski asked about the same amount in next year’s budget.
Both Gill and Town Counsel Thomas Mullen explained that the need for such specialized legal services can arise unexpectedly at any time. It was noted that any amount not used by the end of the fiscal year goes back into the Free Cash account.
The Town Council voted unanimously to approve the Legal Department budget.
The $304,473 Tax Collector’s budget included an increase of $6,998, Gill said. The increase included $2,488 for negotiated contractual salary increases. Postage was also increased by $2,000, Gill said.
Dombroski said that he understood the rationale for continuing to mail out paper tax bills, but suggested that spending $34,500 on postage in 2023 was a little anachronous.
The Town Council approved the Tax Collector’s budget by a 7-0 vote.
Gill said that the Assessors’ Department budget request for next year decreased by $5,972. He said that the decrease reflects the impact of the intermunicipal agreement whereby the services of Director of Assessments Victor Santaniello are now shared by Lynnfield as well as Reading, lowering Wakefield’s share of the costs.
The town Council unanimously approved the total Assessors’ Department budget of $247,476.
The board approved the Town Clerk’s $252,093 budget, which included an increase of $4,147, Gill said, of which $2,787 was in personal services for contractual salary increases.
The Election Registration budget was unanimously approved at $40,700. That amount included a $2,000 increase in the personal services line item. Also included was a $1,000 increase for postage.
The Town Council approved the Election Expense budget at $27,350, which reflected a decrease of $11,425. Gill said that the lower amount was due to the fact that there is one less election scheduled for FY 2024.
The Finance Committee budget was approved at a level-funded $7,060.
The $59,531 Conservation Commission budget was approved with an increase of $10,146. Gill explained that the increase was all in personal services for contractual increases as well as small increase in staff hours.
The Town Council approved the Planning Board budget at a level-funded $12,975.
The $30,000 Board of Appeals budget included a $2,500 increase for the board’s clerk due the increased volume of work. It was noted that revenue collected by the board generally covers their budget. The Town Council approved the budget unanimously.
