Committee on Administration of Finance recommends FY2027 operating budgets and approves department line items

The Salem City Committee on Administration of Finance met June 9, 2026 in the council chamber and recommended approval of multiple FY2027 department budgets after presentations from department heads and brief council discussion.

Bonnie Sy of the collector’s office explained that the office handles real estate and excise taxes, water and trash bills, parking citations and passport-agent services at City Hall. "We just don't have very much," she said of the collector's budget and noted passport processing has declined from an average near 300 per year to an expected roughly 200 this fiscal year; she suggested adding an insert to tax bills or newsletters to advertise the passport service. The committee approved the collector personnel budget ($36,882) and collector expenditures ($8,300) on voice/hand votes (committee recorded five hands in favor).

Treasurer Kristen Lindberg and the collector described stronger tax‑title collections after the city engaged a new outside firm. Lindberg said the firm has been returning properties to active tax rolls and improving recoveries; staff reported that as of May 8 the firm had recovered $135,550 in owed taxes and returned 32 properties to active tax status. Councilors praised the office’s outreach and collection-focused approach.

Steven Cortez presented the assessing department’s FY27 request and said FY27 is an interim valuation year following the FY26 certification revaluation. Cortez said contract services for the assessing software vendor decreased substantially after the revaluation year, and he announced a personal-exemption information session on Sept. 10 at the Gene Levest Community Life Center. Council members asked clarifying questions about an apparent numeric typo in auto-excise lines (an official acknowledged a missing zero in the printed budget tables); the committee approved the assessor personnel ($420,737) and assessor expenditures ($76,368) budgets.

Anthony Delaney, chief procurement officer, summarized purchasing work across all departments, describing efforts to pursue cooperative contracts, group larger procurements and streamline vendor pools. Councilors raised questions about regional cooperative purchasing and copier/printing allocations; the committee approved purchasing personnel and expenditures line items and a fixed-cost personnel allocation.

Treasurer Lindberg also reviewed debt-service and statutory assessments, including long-term debt, short-term debt, the Essex Tech vocational assessment and state ("cherry sheet") assessments. Councilors approved the stated assessment amounts and related personnel/expenditure lines where presented.

Finance director James (introduced earlier in the meeting) gave an overview of the finance department’s responsibilities, said finance is pursuing a "position control" project to move personnel budgeting from Excel into the city’s Munis system to reduce errors, and noted the closeout of most ARPA funds with just over $1 million left to spend down by the federal deadline. He said FY27 changes to the finance operating budget are minimal.

Votes at a glance (motions recommended by the committee; committee recorded five hands in favor unless otherwise noted):
• Collector personnel budget — $36,882 — recommended approval.
• Collector expenditures budget — $8,300 — recommended approval.
• Assessor personnel budget — $420,737 — recommended approval.
• Assessor expenditures budget — $76,368 — recommended approval.
• Purchasing general administration personnel — $211,516 — recommended approval.
• Purchasing general administration expenditures — $23,725 — recommended approval.
• Purchasing fixed-cost personnel — $44,181 — recommended approval.
• Treasurer general administration personnel — $316,758 — recommended approval.
• Treasurer general administration expenditures — $132,125 — recommended approval.
• Treasurer long-term debt service personnel — $8,720,776 — recommended approval.
• Contributory retirement assessment — $17,525,147 — recommended approval.
• Municipal insurance (city portion) — $676,690 — recommended approval.
• Sewer enterprise assessment — $5,130,328 — recommended approval.
• Water enterprise long-term debt service — $1,644,087 — recommended approval.
• Salem‑Beverly Water Supply Board assessment — $3,252,325 — recommended approval.

The committee concluded with brief departmental follow-ups and moved to adjourn. Several councilors asked departments to provide follow-up details (for example, the treasurer will report back on insurance premium drivers and potential marketplace options).