March 6, 2021 by Carol Britton Meyer
A mental health clinician for the police department, an assistant town administrator for finance, a field maintenance program, and a communications consultant are among the $834,334-worth of Fiscal 2022 non-school budget recommendations presented to the Selectmen recently by Town Administrator Tom Mayo and Assistant Town Administrator Michelle Monsegur. Town Meeting has the final say following Selectmen and Advisory Committee input.
Other recommendations included in that figure are a full-time senior planner and transfer station heavy equipment operator, and funds to address legal services and snow and ice budget deficits. An additional $500,000 is recommended for capital outlay to support the municipal and school departments.
The full-time mental health clinician, at a salary of $54,096, would work with police officers to help address the needs of the Hingham community at a time when mental health issues are a big concern, according to Monsegur.
"The clinician would work with the current part-time clinician who is shared with the Town of Weymouth through a grant, courthouse advocates, [and other support personnel] and would act as a go-between for the officer on the street and the individual who is in crisis," Police Chief David Jones said.
The recommended field maintenance program, which would be centralized under the Recreation Department, is based on recommendations from the 2020 Hingham Athletic Fields and Outdoor Courts Study by Weston & Sampson and supports school, Hingham Rec, and Board of Selectmen-owned fields. Included in that recommended budget item are:
* $70,400 for four Recreation Department seasonal employees to perform infield grooming;
* $128,000 for field expenses (utilities, infield openings, irrigation, and materials);
* $182,780 for field applications (fertilizing, liming, aerating, over-seeding and top dressing).
This represents a total Fiscal 2022 request of $241,180 -- the net amount after revenue offsets.
A full-time assistant town administrator for finance at a cost of $137,000 would reorganize the municipal leadership structure to improve efficiency, capacity, oversight, communication, and responsiveness at Town Hall through the Selectmen's office. Monsegur would become the assistant town administrator for operations.
A full-time senior planner for the Department of Community Planning would help manage various initiatives, including the comprehensive Master Plan update, South Hingham development, the downtown/harbor visioning effort, climate action planning and resilience efforts, a tree preservation study, and major developments and projects that come before the planning board. The $63,403 salary represents a savings from the re-graded Community Planning Director position.
A communications consultant under the Selectmen would be hired on a contractual basis for $35,000. Such an individual/company would act as public information officer to get the word out about major initiatives and core services, engage in social media, handle communications related to crisis management and emergency response, act as press liaison, and "promote positive communication between local government and citizens to give them a sense of what's happening [within town government]," Monsegur said.
The heavy equipment operator, at a salary of $51,980, would assist in the face of significant growth in scale and trucking operations at the landfill.
The recommendations shared by Mayo and Monsegur also include $188,503 to address the legal services deficit and $63,173 to address the snow and ice budget shortfall.
Over the past 10 years, the annual snow and ice budget has exceeded the allocated amount of roughly $500,000 every year except 2012 and 2020. In 2011, the actual cost was almost $1 million, and in 2015 nearly $2 million.
Town meeting has the final say on all warrant articles, including the one pertaining to the town and school budgets.