Be at Essex High School, 7:30 PM. Please read the Questions and Answers doc at http://www.essex.org/vertical/sites/%7B60B9D552-E088-4553-92E3-EA2E9791E5A5%7D/uploads/FYE20[...]pdf. Someone needs to make a motion to reduce budget by $4901 because the correct amount was "inadvertently omitted" in final budget doc.

Other issues to consider:
(1) Since minimum wage went up for lowest-paid town employees, ALL town employees are being given a pay raise too!!! (see question 5 of the Q&A) I don't get this. There is no connection, in my view. It's like trying to back-claim inflation from the first year you worked.
(2) As mentioned in the Essex Reporter, most of budget increase is for salaries and benefits $380,000 of the 526,000 increase). Salaries seem to go up every single year 3 to 5%. My salary did not do so; whose did?
(3) According to the town pension plan, some can retire at age 62 (early retirement at age 55 w. 5 yrs service), with up to 60% of the average salary earned... Salaries range from 80k to 200k (public works to town manager) so that's a lot we're paying into the future. See pg 32 of 2015-2016 Audit report, and let's ask about the fairness of these automatic salary and benefit increases.
(4) In answer 6 there were supposed to be explanations of 2 new jobs created, but there's only one there (Info Mgmt/ IT tech?). While answer 5 claims Essex has relatively few full-time employees, it's a little misleading because there are several towns with populations hovering right around the same as ours.
(5) Anyone with time to read all these documents, happy reading! But be there.

Jan 15, 2025, 7 to 8 PM

Jan 16, 2025, 5:30 to 7 PM

Jan 17, 2025, 6:15 to 8:30 PM