EASTHAMPTON — Facing a $1 million spike in health insurance premiums, Mayor Salem Derby is entering his first full year leading Easthampton and is calling for a level-service approach to city spending while looking toward a new digital app and envisioning new projects to put the city “on the map.”
Derby sat down with the Gazette in his newly decorated office on Wednesday, Jan. 14, discussing the future of what many residents call “the little city with a big heart.” With all recently elected city officials in their new seats and having hired a new assistant, Derby said things are moving forward.
Derby said several office decorations reflect his background, as a member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Aquinnah through his great-grandmother and his roots in Concord, where his great-grandfather served as a postmaster general. Derby noted that his family history in the region reaches back to the late 1500s, when ancestors settled in Salem.
“I really haven’t had to play catch up,” Derby said, discussing his interim role as mayor which started in July. “I’ve been able to just kind of keep moving forward and keep going in the directions that we’re going.”
Derby said a day in his life includes a lot of scheduling and correspondence, emailing constituents, meeting with department heads and “putting out fires.” During meetings with department heads, Derby said they have been discussing priorities, focus areas and ways to increase communication lines.
“Not having to have that learning curve, for me, has been really great because I can focus on getting the work done and digging down into the important stuff,” Derby said.
Derby hired Evan LeBeau as the new assistant to the mayor, with a formal title of “Office Manager,” starting the new role on Jan. 12. LeBeau, an Easthampton native, previously served as Derby’s mayoral campaign manager and was previously employed by the state Auditor’s Office as a field auditor.
Derby said that after “doing this solo for many months now” having LeBeau has been a game-changer, helping him set his schedule. Having LeBeau, Derby said, allows his schedule to be updated and communicative.
Having earned an associate degree from Greenfield Community College, a bachelor’s from Prescott College and a master’s from Springfield College, Derby feels his life has been the perfect journey to get him to where he is today.
“I said this during the campaign, but my whole life has been this amazing adventure that has perfectly prepared me for where I am right now,” Derby said.
Budget belt-tightening
Derby said at the City Council’s Dec. 16 meeting that the city is going to have to tighten the belt this upcoming season. He said while it is not drastic, there are factors that are out of the city’s control.
Derby said he has been holding preliminary budget meetings with departments heads, but he has started telling them to aim for a level-service budget. The current budget amount is approximately $62 million.
Although, he said fortunately based on what he has seen so far, Easthampton is going to be able to avoid some of the drastic financial impacts that other communities are seeing.
“Some departments are going to have significant increases in staffing expenses, which means we’re going to have to look at decreasing some of their operation expenditures,” Derby said.
Those salary increases are largely in part due to cost of living and health insurance. Derby said it is important to assess all “known” costs, like employee salaries, before estimating unknown future costs such as increasing costs of health insurance that are predicted.
“If you have ‘known’ expenses, I feel like it’s important to make sure we build those into the budget so we don’t rely on one-time funds, so we can really kind of have a more accurate projection,” Derby said.
Derby said in the last budget cycle, former Mayor Nichole LaChapelle spent $4 million in reserve funds to balance the budget. “Right now we are looking at ways to forge a path so we don’t have that again,” he said.
Easthampton, one of 73 members of the Hampshire County Group Insurance Trust, was hit with two, 20% increase in premiums, one in July and October. Another increase took effect on Jan. 1 for Medicare patients.
Derby said the city has not incurred all the expenses from the first two increases but the total amounts to a little more than $1 million, though the trust has announced there will be future double-digit percentage increases. Derby said this is a systematic issue that is hitting the entire country.
Besides health insurance, Derby said the schools, being a major part of the city’s overall budget, is also going to be a focus area.
With many different unknown and unexpected costs impacting that process, such as repairs the Public Safety Building’s generator earlier this year, Derby said budgeting is a tough process. This coming year, he said the city is really going to have to be responsible and cut any unnecessary costs.
“We’re going to do our best to make it so it’s not forward facing services to the public,” Derby said about making reductions. “To preserve those as best we can, make sure we don’t have cuts and that we can still do the things that we need to do to provide the best possible service to the citizens.”
Derby said having been on the City Council for 22 years, he has seen the budget increase every year, and once you make an increase it is difficult to take it back. Throughout his tenure, he has been involved in difficult budget seasons such as 2008, when city hall closed from being open five to four days a week, he said.
“Our finance team here is just top notch,” Derby said. “And the ability to be able to catch up in such a short period of time to where we are now, you can see with what happens in other communities when you don’t have that.”
Solutions and projects
Derby said he is looking for ways to balance the city’s future and the costs to residents. Local cannabis, meals and short-term rental tax options are tools that could be used to help the city generate revenue in the future.
He said one option which he knows would “not the most popular” would be the potential for the city to develop an alcohol local tax option. “If we’re taxing cannabis with a local option tax, an excise tax, I still am really confused why we don’t do the same thing with alcohol.”
He said just a nickel or dime from every pint of beer served— even if it went back to the business —could have a significant impact on the city budget.
“I’m looking for equity, and I’m looking for a way to find creative ways for the city to raise revenue where we’re not going to significantly hurt the consumer. We’re not going to significantly hurt business,” Derby said.
Derby said he and the IT Department have been working on the creation of a city of Easthampton app that can be downloaded on mobile phones, to pay bills, get notifications and other actions. Since taking office, he said he has been trying to increase information output to residents, whether that is through a more accessible website or a stronger social media presence.
As for ongoing projects, Derby said he hopes to help steward the projects like the One Ferry Street redevelopment forward. With other ongoing projects like the elementary school reuse, Old Lodging House and Senior Center Building, he hopes to support the teams working through these while bringing new ideas to the table.
He said the former mayoral administration set a five-year capital plan from 2023 to 2028, and that has acted as a roadmap for many projects.
He is having all department heads look at their capital plan and ask, “What’s been accomplished? Do we still think that this capital project is needed, are there new ones that would take precedent over that?”
Additionally, Derby said that with social cannabis consumption locations on the horizon, that could be another project to help bring income to the city. He said many people smoke cannabis in public which is a public safety concern. These establishments could reduce the amount of people that are smoking cannabis in public and with Easthampton’s walkability it could cater toward social consumption locations.
During his campaign, Derby talked about the potential for rebuilding the bridge over Lower Mill Pond and even expanding the Promenade Park, known as the Boardwalk, further down the pond to increase restaurant and business availability on Cottage Street.
In a previous interview with the Gazette, Derby said he has many ideas for larger scale projects that would “put Easthampton on the map,” but emphasized these are just ideas, many of which are dependent on the public’s desire to see them happen.