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Date: 3/18/2021
HAMPDEN – State Sen. Eric Lesser updated the Hampden Select Board at its meeting on March 15 about the budget, the Hampden County Regional Retirement Board (HCRB) scandal and the move towards regionalization of services.
“We do expect this year’s budget to be on time,” Lesser said, referencing the COVID-19-releated delay of the FY21 state budget. He said tax revenue for the state has been “far beyond even the rosiest projections,” and provided that the pandemic continues to improve, the budget should be healthy. Lesser also said that $510,000 in federal coronavirus relief aid was slated for Hampden.
Select Board Member John Flynn thanked Lesser for his “commitment to, as I always say, ‘bring our money back from the state.’”
Select Board Chair Donald Davenport told Lesser that small towns need to regionalize more services, such as that of the health agent and public health nurse.
Lesser agreed, “We’ve got to have a conversation about regionalization. We should acknowledge that it’s a painful decision because we all have pride in our local services.” He admitted that many have a “trust gap” from the lack of support for regional education transportation that was promised.
Flynn asked Lesser about capital project funding and the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA). Lesser said that there is an “untenable” waitlist for MSBA funding. Although the dollar cap was raised as part of the 2019 Student Opportunity Act, he is pushing to raise it further, and said that the pandemic has shown that school buildings are not up to par. “We’ve got to do something to get these projects under control,” he said, adding that the MSBA, local communities and the state treasurer’s office must work together to lower the cost of school buildings.
Davenport asked Lesser about the process to reform the Hampden County Retirement Board (HCRB) after a recent audit for alleged mismanagement of funds.
“I’m grateful for how vocal you’ve been,” Lesser told Davenport and Interim Town Administrator Bob Markel. He said that the findings of the audit by the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission (PERAC) were “not something we should tolerate.” He said that he would be willing to work with the towns to reform the public retirement system, whether at the country of state level.
The select board later voted to draft a letter, based on a similar document from the Longmeadow Select Board, calling for the resignation of the five-member HCRB and for the county’s retirement system to be brought under the management of PERAC until a new board can be seated.