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<br />Second Report <br />Of the <br />Ad Hoc Fiscal Task Force <br />Submitted to the Board of Selectmen Oct. 30, 2009 <br /> In response to the task force’s interim report issued in July, the Board of <br />Selectmen identified several topics that it asked the task force to investigate further. <br />Issues relating to the town’s long-term compensation policies were the top item on the <br />Selectmen’s list. As we understand it, the Selectmen’s request was that the task force <br />look beyond our recommendation in our interim report, calling for maximum restraint of <br />total employee compensation during the next few years, to offer advice concerning the <br />approach that the town ought to take to compensation of its employees over the longer <br />run. <br /> In response to that request, the task force has held several meetings over the last <br />couple of months, in which we have reviewed the current policies and approaches for <br />employee compensation on the part of both the school department and the municipal <br />departments and have sought to educate ourselves about the issues relating to <br />compensation. On the basis of these explorations, we have sought to identify conclusions <br />and recommendations on which the members of the task force, who represent a wide <br />range of perspectives and approaches, could reach consensus.Although these points of <br />consensus are probably inadequate to ground a full-blown compensation policy, we <br />believe that they may help to provide a foundation on which any such policy should rest. <br /> Our consensus conclusions and recommendations are: <br />1. The task force explicitly recognizes the essential role of municipal and school <br />employees in providing the skilled, high-quality services the community values so highly. <br />All members of the workforce, and their leaders, are, and must be, involved in <br />determining solutions to the common problems discussed here. <br />2. Health-benefits costs are escalating at a much faster rate than Lexington’s <br />revenues as a whole – problematically so. Slowing the growth in current costs of health- <br />benefit programs and controlling their future inflation are of the highest priority for <br />Lexington’s near-term and long-term financial position. We urge as the highest fiscal <br />priority that town management and bargaining-unit leadership promptly agree on ways to <br />effect substantial, lasting, and pervasive savings in employee healthcare benefit costs. We <br />can envision no likely financial scenario in the near-term future or beyond which enables <br />- 1 - <br /> <br />