New Finance Director joins Town of Raymond

By Kendra Raymond

Brenda Fox-Howard has hit the ground running as the newly hired Finance Director for the Town of Raymond. On board since late August of this year, Howard is busy learning the ropes and getting up to speed on the town’s financial operations.

Brenda Fox-Howard is the new Finance Director
for the Town of Raymond. In her position she
will oversee the town's finances and help to
formulate the town's annual budget.
SUBMITTED PHOTO  

A seasoned veteran working in town government, Howard hopes to integrate her years of experience into her new role.

“I have over 15 years of government financial experience working with different municipalities in and outside of Maine,” she said. “I enjoy the small community feel – it’s just my preference.”

Raymond Town Manager Sue Look said that she is pleased with the addition of Fox-Howard.

“Brenda has jumped in with both feet. She’s doing a fantastic job,” Look said. “We are thrilled to have her.”

Fox-Howard says that she’s optimistic about her new role and is enjoying getting to know folks from all walks of life in Raymond.

“There is a lot of vibrance here. Certainly, a lot of moving parts going on, and that is great,” she said.

She said that she is quite familiar with the area, having served as the interim Town Manager of New Gloucester recently.

As the Town of Raymond’s Director of Finance, Fox-Howard also serves as the town’s Treasurer. She oversees a vast array of financial responsibilities associated with the town’s operations. Fox-Howard says that some of her responsibilities include managing accounts payable and receivable, overseeing payroll and taxes, bank reconciliation, and a lot of general ledger management.

According to the position advertisement, the job description states, “This is a full-time position reporting to the Town Manager and is responsible for all activities and operations of the Finance Department. The Finance Director will be responsible for the collection and disbursement of all municipal funds. Duties include budgeting, investment of funds, financial forecasting, and capital planning. Also invoice payment, payroll management, cash receipts, bank deposits, any other financial transactions. The Finance Director is responsible for the preparation of the town’s annual budget, while working closely with the Town Manager and all department heads. Will also work with financial advisor to prepare for bond financing. Must have the ability to prepare the required reports as mandated by Federal, State, and County agencies and serve as the chief liaison with the accounting firm. Will be responsible for seeking bids for all insurance and administer employee medical insurance enrollment.”

Fox-Howard says that the town is currently conducting an audit, and along with that she is presently working on formulating next year’s budget for review by the Raymond Budget-Finance Committee and the Raymond Board of Selectmen.

She’s happy to report that the current software system used by Raymond is “good to go for many years to come” and the town is working on a new purchase order system.

Originally from Connecticut, Fox-Howard has been a Maine resident for many years. She received her education at Colorado Technical University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Management. She has previously worked as the director of finance in several towns, including Peterborough, New Hampshire, Putnam, Connecticut, and Winchester, Connecticut. She’s also served as a materials analyst at several companies in Connecticut including General Dynamics Electric Boat Division in Groton, Millstone Nuclear Power Station in Waterford, and Dow Chemical in Gales Ferry, where she was also a rail fleet manager, and as a Financial Manager III for the State of Vermont from 2012 to 2014.

Fox-Howard says she has a positive outlook about her new position in Raymond.

“Everybody has been very nice to work with. It’s such a great group,” she said. “Even though I been very busy, I am enjoying the small-town feel here in Raymond.” <

Town of Raymond's budget process in full swing

Proposal aims to keep taxes low, essential services intact

Members of Raymond's Budget-Finance Committee will meet
with members of the Raymond Board of Selectmen and the
town manager during a meeting to review and examine the
town's preliminary budget proposal on April 6. Raymond Town 
Manager Don Willard has submitted an initial budget of 
$17,299,207 for 2021-2022. PHOTO BY ED PIERCE   

By Ed Pierce

As the Town of Raymond’s budgetary process for Fiscal Year 2021-2022 continues to unfold, the focus remains squarely on holding spending in check while maintaining essential services for town residents.

Starting in March, the Raymond Board of Selectmen began preliminary discussions regarding the budget and will meet again with the Town Manager, Town Finance Director and members of the Raymond Budget-Finance Committee on April 6 to continue to come up with a proposal to offer to voters during the annual town meeting in June. Because of the pandemic, it is uncertain if voters will gather for the town meeting, but if not, like in 2020, voters could be asked to approve the budget by referendum.          

According to Raymond Town Manager Don Willard, certain goals and priorities guided town staff in formulating a budget proposal for the coming year.

“We want to maintain or lower the tax rate and continue the commitment to improve and maintain town roads,” Willard said. “We are aware that the town’s undesignated fund balance can be used within existing policy to keep taxes low and that all budget areas are on the table for discussion and review. Lastly, we are aiming for a core-service driven budget.”

Willard said Raymond’s municipal budgets have remained flat for the past few years and he expects that to be the case once more when a final proposal is agreed upon by the Raymond Select Board.

In a letter in February to the Raymond Board of Selectmen and the Raymond Budget-Finance Committee, Willard said a working draft shows only a 2.46 budget increase for 2021-2022 and that figure did not include contributions from the undesignated surplus fund balance.

“New property valuation growth continues to be strong,” Willard wrote in the letter. “The budget does factor an estimated $7.5 million increase in new taxable property valuation that will reduce the impact of any increased spending.”

Willard said several other factors that are beyond the control of the town when formulating the new town budget are the Cumberland County’s budget and the school’s budget. RSU 14 is expected to submit its 2021-2022 budget proposal later this spring. 

In opening the 2021-2022 budget discussion, the Raymond Board of Selectmen and Town Budget-Finance Committee are reviewing Willard’s initial proposal of $17,299,207.  Last year’s budget for Raymond was $18,148,036.

No major equipment purchases such as fire trucks are planned by the town in the coming year, Willard said.

The initial budget proposal under study includes $76,393 for Tassel Top Park, up from $50,195 from last year. Revenues for Tassel Top Park actually rose by 26 percent in the past year and some of the requested increase in funding could be used to hire a split position with the town’s public works department for a parks maintenance foreman.

The new budget proposal also includes additional funding for town election workers as the minimum wage rises; $3,500 to repair broken and leaning old headstones in the Raymond Village Cemetery, and $3,000 requested by the town clerk’s office to conserve and de-acidify some of the oldest town records written on parchment paper more than 250 years ago.

Selectmen and Budget-Finance Committee members could approve a budget proposal to continue to invest in fiber networking infrastructure to eliminate monthly costs of ISP connections for the Town of Raymond’s network and $7,500 to manage town videography services.

The Raymond Public Works Department is requesting $2,000 for road striping service and $50,000 for road paving while Raymond Fire-Rescue is requesting funding for a staffing study to help resolve manpower issues and attract new qualified firefighters and EMTs to the town.

The proposed budget also includes a contribution for the Lakes Region Explorer public transportation system and funding for regional animal control services along with Casco and Naples.

Town debt service from existing municipal bonds under the initial proposed budget remains unchanged from the 2020-2021 budget at $317,800. <       

Windham to keep taxes flat for the next fiscal year

Windham’s municipal budget for the
 2020-2021 fiscal year will have a
 zero increase as a result of
the pandemic.
PHOTO BY ED PIERCE

By Lorraine Glowczak

The most recent word in today’s repertoire is ‘flatten’ – as in ‘flatten the curve’ relating to the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The Town of Windham is using the term as it relates to the town budget.

“The town’s municipal budget for the 2020-2021 fiscal year will have a zero increase as a result of the pandemic,” said Barry Tibbetts, Windham Town Manager. “Basically, the town’s fiscal budget will remain flat and the majority of planned building remodels and additions, paving and improvements to dirt roads along with other needed items have been placed on hold. There will be no tax increases from the town’s municipal budget.”

The town has postponed the hiring of additional needed staff as well as building renovations and expansions necessary at the Town Hall. A few much-needed items will be purchased and be obtained, and the public safety building located on Windham Center Road will undergo some expansion, but residents will not see an increase in taxes this year or the future for that project.

“We will be purchasing one pickup and a smaller dump truck, a new ambulance and must make necessary additions/remodeling to the public safety building in order to comply with the safety regulations as a result of COVID-19,” Tibbets said. “When the public safety building was built in 1989, there were only 22 employees. Now, we have more than doubled the number of staff with 48 employees and the officer and emergency medical providers are extremely cramped and unsafe. These modifications to the building with the new addition will be absorbed within the budget by using  a bond. There will not be an increase in the mill rate or the town’s taxes, as a result.”

Residents will still see an  increase in taxes, however, due to standard and projected RSU14 budgetary items and the slight rise of Cumberland County budget in the mil rate. The projected mil rate increase for the RSU budget, should it be approved, will be 47 cents while the County impact will be 4 cents. Another quick way to calculate that for individual impact would be a $51 increase per $100,000 in valuation.

Cumberland County was scheduled to convert from a calendar year to a fiscal year but has decided to hold that change so as not to adversely affect the towns financially. The shift from a calendar year to a fiscal year would equate to about 17 cents on our mil rate. This is a tremendous help for our Town.

As for the RSU14 budget, the increases taxpayers will see are the necessary union negotiation changes per the recently agreed contracts along with continued special education prerequisites.

“The school board is obligated to pay staff the required contractual employee pay increase in addition to adhering to State of Maine special education standards,” Tibbetts said. “The school board must adhere to these predetermined requirements.”

RSU14 School Superintendent Christopher Howell echoed Tibbetts statements.

“As for RSU14, taxpayers will see an increase due to negotiated contracts, special education programming and positions to support increased enrollments at the elementary level,” Howell said. “The board is committing $900,000 from carryover funds to help offset the impact to tax increases. The RSU is legally obligated to meet the special education needs of students.”

For more information regarding the fiscal year 2020-2021 budget, please contact the Town Manager’s office at 207-892-1907.

Be sure to keep informed by watching recorded Town Council meetings at www.windhammaine.us/228/WCCG-TV-7.