Staff Writer

Town officials were both applauded and criticized during the latest town council meeting.

Town Manager Thomas Hall said during the Feb. 18 council meeting town employees have been receptive to agreeing to a zero percent increase in salaries and benefits in the 2009/2010 town budget.

Hall said the employees include municipal office workers, firefighters, as well as police and public safety dispatch. He said the fire department has been in negotiations for a new contract with the town, while the police department is in the first year of a three-year contract.

“I think our folks have shown a lot of character,” said Police Chief Robert Moulton. “Our officers are cognizant of what’s going on, they’re taxpayers.”

“We’ve struggled for years to put together a comprehensive staffing plan, but we know we need to take a year off rather than lose positions,” Fire Chief Mike Thurlow said.

Councilor and Finance Committee Chairman Shawn Babine praised town employees and said he was “shocked and flabbergasted” the Scarborough School Department is asking for a 3 percent increase in salaries and benefits in its budget.

As of press time, the current proposed total budget for Scarborough schools shows a 3.45 percent increase from $35 million to $36.25 million. 

“We’re looking out for the family of employees,” Babine said. “We’ve never been in a position where municipalities asked employees to not increase (salaries and benefits).”

Babine, who served on the Scarborough School Board from 2000 to 2002, said there are ways to continue to cut money from salaries and benefits of school employees, including providing severance packages to “senior leaders,” which would enable the district to give the positions to younger, cheaper applicants.

Superintendent David Doyle said 77 percent of the school budget goes toward salaries and benefits. He said the department is currently in negotiations with teachers, administrators, custodians, bus drivers and cafeteria workers for new contracts.

Doyle said he knows Scarborough schools will receive funds from the federal economic stimulus package, but does not know yet how much money they will receive. He said in the meantime, the school revenue is only a projection.

School board member Brian Dell’Olio said the schools also do not know what the increase will be as far as teachers and administrators health insurance with Anthem, or the state’s general purpose aid for the school. He said the school budget is still in its early stages.

“It’s like putting together a puzzle without the pieces,” Dell’Olio said. “To haggle over 3.4 percent (total budget increase) is kind of meaningless.”

School board member Annalee Rosenblatt said the relationship between the town council, town finance committee and the school board during the budget process is “almost non-existent,” and she said she would like to see the council and school board host joint meetings to offer insight on the school budget.

Dell’Olio said communication between the three parties varies year to year. He said he meets monthly with Babine and Council Chairman Mike Wood to discuss views on the budget process.

Babine said “any amount” above flat funding would be personally hard for him to vote in favor of when the school budget is presented to the town council. He said he predicts Scarborough residents will “wait and see” how the school budget process will go, because he said they know the council will take care of any issues with it.

Rosenblatt said there are still possibilities for cuts to the proposed school budget, but any decisions on salaries and benefits for teachers and administrators will be made in an executive session, because of a collective bargaining agreement between the board and the schools.

Rosenblatt said she hopes the second reading of the proposed school budget, which was hosted at town hall Thursday, would be changed to a workshop instead, to look into further cuts.

“Anything is possible,” Rosenblatt said.