educational debt, the cost of living in southern New Hampshire and the failure to at least meet the expectations and
the pay scale which other communities are willing to fulfil but not Nashua? | am concerned about that only $800,000
being put in to be used for salary increases. Thank you.
Mr. Teeboom
| didn’t know Manchester had a higher average than Nashua. Last | checked it was lower. For a form of reference,
the loaded cost of an average teacher for the City of Nashua is $89,111/year. The average pay, not counting
overhead, is $59,671/year. The overhead is 49 percent. Every dollar you pay in direct salary is another 49 cents in
overhead. Overhead is too high. | would say $89,111 is a lot to pay for a teacher. Thank you.
198, Interfund Transfers
Mr. Teeboom
Under Interfund Transfers, Page 190, you will find the capital reserve fund funding. That reserve fund funding is at
$1.836 million. Last year it was $1.315 million. | believe that’s 39.7 percent increase. People in the newspaper
complain about it. An increase is not a cut. A cut to what a department asks for is not a cut in the budget. This is
funded by 42 percent more. To Say it’s a cut is just not true.
Supplemental Information — Solid Waste
Mr. Teeboom
| may be out of sequence because | forgot, but there’s a retirement fund called the 51750 account. In the 51750
account is $800,000 in the school department. There’s no funding in any other department. Someone needs to
explain why in 51750 is there $800,000 in the school department but none of account is funded in any other
department.
Mr. John L. Griffin, Chief Financial Officer
The $800,000 is the final pay for employees that work for the school department. That has been the strategy for
several years. The $800,000 is in that department. It’s gone up and down on a few occasions but that account for
this year, Fiscal 16, has been completed spent. Several years ago you might recall there was a contingency for
final pay, separation pay, housed in the contingency on the city side. Simply transferred, it over to the school side.
About six years ago, before | arrived, they changed that strategy and they have been funding their final pays in the
school department, 51750. As | indicated before we have a retirement account, 70250, on the city side where if we
study the transfers into that account, there’s a half a million that’s going to be transferred in there, that’s for the final
pays for individuals that retire from the city. Not leave from the city; retire from the city. On a monthly basis, we
account for those final pays and transfer money under the oversight that you mentioned back into those accounts
into 51750. It’s an expense that’s recognized in those departments throughout the year.
Mr. Teeboom
| understand accounting. I’ve got a problem with that. You’re going so far, | couldn’t keep up with the pages. The
first problem is you’re putting an $800,000 account in the school department that will raise the budget in the school
department. The more important point is you put $800,000 in the school department, to which the school
department has exclusionary discretion. They can spend it on whatever they want to spend it on. The school has
authority over its own line items. If you kept it in the city and handled it the same way you are handling the transfers
to the FTE account or what you probably should do with the 51750 account is sprinkle between these two
departments. Maybe that’s too difficult to manage. To put $800,000 in the school department for items that really
should be in the city control, | don’t think is a smart thing to go. Twenty years ago the board of aldermen had to
approve every retirement benefit, severance package. It could be as large as $80,000 - $90,000. | suggest that the
city take a look at that and transfer the money back into the city budget and out of the school budget.
There being no further testimony, the public hearing was declared closed at 8:14 p.m.
