North Adams Draft Budget Includes Full-Time Tourism Director
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Finance Committee endorsed a half-dozen smaller budget lines for fiscal 2027 on Tuesday morning with the understanding two of the larger departments may be seeing cuts.
The committee has not yet seen a total budget for FY27 but Mayor Jennifer Macksey said she anticipated bringing that figure to the committee next meeting.
"I've given you most of the budgets that I don't feel I'm going to be slashing," she said. "Now I'm focusing on other departments that I need to make some decisions on. So I think at this point our next meeting will have the full budget."
Macksey said she's still trying to close a gap and "I've only got so much to around."
Committee Chair Lisa Blackmer asked if they could save the date for June 1, a Monday, as next week has Memorial Day and City Council on Tuesday.
The committee unanimously voted to recommend the budgets for assessor, treasurer, city clerk, mayor's office, administrative officer, Office of Tourism and Events, Council on Aging and the library.
Most of the increases in these budgets is for 3 percent cost-of-living and step salary increases with the exception of the assessor and the city clerk. The Office of Tourism and Events is also increased for a full-time director again.
The assessor's budget is up almost $25,000, in part for an outside inspection services line that more than doubled.
"I know probably saying a 124.83 percent increase from last year is a jarring, but that is because for fiscal year '26 we had a really low number, because we have carried over from fiscal year '25," explained Assessor Ciera Dowling. "Last year it looks like we didn't really spend too much because we had a carryover, and now we're having to find the new vendors."
The city had adopted a line for outside inspection services — part of a regular assessment of properties — of $102,225 in fiscal 2025 but used only $36,537, with the balance rolled into fiscal 2026. This year the adopted budget was $10,875 and the ask for next year is $24,450.
Dowling said the carryover was for a contract with Patriot Properties, which runs the city's database, to inspect and update 1,400 property improvements. It is finishing up on 500 inspections this fiscal year.
"The $13,575 increase is just to keep things going as normal," Batory said.
The city clerk's budget is up $70,400, or 27 percent, and driven by archival equipment. The vault has run out of space and City Clerk Tina Leonesio, speaking last at the meeting, is researching sliding or accordian shelving and protective covers at a cost of $50,000 to manage the records.
"I may flip it over under capital item supplies, but I just wanted to kind of accompany it, so everyone was aware what we were thinking," said the mayor. "Most of her increases again are the cost of doing business with the census, elections, revising, keeping our records preserved, but the wild card is that shelving unit. ...
"We just have an old set up and we need to be modernized, and I think vital records is a place that you can't go cheap with."
Councilor Peter Breen, who attended the meeting in council chambers, asked about the condition of the records in the basement. Leonesio said they cannot be brought upstairs because of mold issues and have to be addressed differently.
"Within the budget for this year I do have money in book binding, where I can get a table which has the hood and everything for being able to clean," she said, adding she's looking for grants to get staff training for cleaning, repairing and preserving them. "We're looking at that to be able to preserve as much as possible while we're still looking for being able to get the digitization of the books through a grant, because that is an expensive project."
Breen asked why these needs weren't being addressed in the budget. Blackmer said it was a valid question but they were up against a hard deadline to end the meeting, there is no money and Leonesio will be looking for a grant to address that.
This budget also adjusts wages for the senior clerk, who had shifted between departments last year but was not put at the correct grade or step. Auditor Stacy Abuisi said this year's adjustment of about $6,000 has been partially taken care of already.
The Office of Tourism and Events is set to be regenerated with a full-time director and a budget of $103,657, up about 47 percent. Lindsay Randall, who has been splitting her time as mayor's assistant and community events director, will shift into the director's role with a salary of $59,057.
The Finance Committee was supportive of the move, seeing it as an investment that could generate revenue.
"I think this is great. I see tourism is one of these pillars of economy, of what we hope to be in the future," said committee Lillian Zavastky. "It allows someone to really focus on it, and I think that it could pay back so much more than what we're putting forward for this position."
Fitch, as a downtown business owners, said he's heard from his peers about the lack of coordination with them about works and what doesn't. He said his concern also was the office not just focus on community events.
"If we don't make the tourism portion of it a real focus of this office, that it would probably be money better spent in, like, scrapping this office and putting it purely toward consultants," he said.
The tourism director's post was first established by the Alcombright administration in 2011 despite calls from residents and some councilors that year to axe the idea during a tough budget season. It's had hours slashed and been combined with other posts over the years and has been put on the backburner somewhat since the pandemic and the departure several years ago of Suzy Helme.
"I think Lindsay is in a perfect position to do this job really well. I think she will be able to, assuming that she has the bandwidth to do it and is like encouraged to do it, really build good relationships with the people around downtown, the other people who are doing tourism kind of related roles," Fitch said. "I think she has an opportunity to pull them together, and I think we have an opportunity to really package up what is special about North Adams and share that with the external role through this office, so I just really hope that happens."
The library is asking a modest $12,949 increase, again largely salaries and expenses. Blackmer asked if the library had a liaison or marketing person.
"We do all our own marketing stuff. We do get funds from the Friends to pay for a lot of these presenters," said Library Director Veronica Clark, highlighting some of the popular programs the library has hosted and some new ones, such as a short film festival, being planned.
Blackmer said she wanted to make sure the library was being supported because this is "such a bright light for the community, and all segments for the community, too."
Fitch and Breen both queried Clark on funding for maintenance, noting areas in need of paint and repair in the historic Blackinton Mansion. Clark said the library trustees meet twice a year with the Building Department to go over maintenance issues but they are not in her budget.
The Council on Aging budget is up $10,940, or 7.3 percent, again largely for salaries. The mayor said she was reclassifying the director to an S-19A in reflection of her responsibilities and her 34 years of service. Van drivers will also see an increase from $17.51 to $19 to bring them in line with other area drivers. The vans themselves are provided through the Berkshire Regional Transit Authority.
The COA is partially funded by a $54,000 formula grant that pays half the clerk's salary, kitchen help and certain classes and health clinics.
Director Sally Lamb said the main thing needed at this point is the reconstruction of the parking lot, which will be the final phase in the Mary Spitzer Center's renovations. These have been funded through Community Development Block Grants.
"I think the Senior Center is in great shape," she responded to questions about future needs. "The other thing would be running out of space, and that's a good thing to happen. We strive to get more people in and enjoy everything."
The treasurer/tax collector's office is looking at a 13 percent increase of $50,964. Again, salaries are part of the hike along with $10,000 more toward foreclosure processings.
The mayor said the assistant treasurer's salary was hiked to S-22A "to be competitive" and to retain staff and also reflects and increase of hours from 30 to 37.5.
"Keep in mind Jessica [Lincourt] is going to be in her role a year July. We have a new assistant treasurer, we've had a retirement in that office, we're doing a computer conversion, and we're working for certification, so there's a lot going on behind the scenes," Macksey said.
Lincourt, however, has been "really, really aggressive with foreclosures," she said, "So we're starting to really clean up tax foreclosures."
Breen asked if the line of $60,000 for foreclosure expenses was enough, noting it was more than $70,000 in fiscal 2025. Blackmer and Macksey noted that Land Court had slowed down significantly during the pandemic and fiscal 2025 was something of a "catch up" year.
"We feel comfortable with the $60,000 for what we can manage with everything else that's going on," the mayor said.
Lincourt said the court isn't moving as fast as she'd like. The city has 42 properties in Land Court now and some have been there since 2022; 14 are expected to be concluded "soon."
"I'd like to catch up on some things before I put in more," she said. "We do try to work with people, because at the end of the day, we don't need a lot of the workload. We just want them to pay the back taxes and move on."
The mayor's office will see a decrease of nearly $69,000, or about 25 percent. That's because of the removal of a "special assistant to the mayor" of nearly $53,000. The grants and procurement officer, Thomas D. Peterson, and new executive assistant, Stephanie Bethoney, have lower salaries as they replaced more experienced people.
"Mayor Macksey, I applaud you with what you've done with this budget here. I suspect somebody somewhere every single time is going to say, 'why is the mayor getting a raise?' I respect the fact that you've kind of pegged it to the 3 percent that pretty much everyone is getting," Fitch said. "I think it's important to keep that in always, no matter what, because it's always — it's not always going to be the same mayor, it's not the mayor rewarding herself, it's protecting that role and the longevity of that role and attracting people to it."
There's still one post that the mayor has had difficulty filling: the administrative officer's job, despite being advertised three times.
It's been filled intermittently but Marya Kozik shifted over to community development a year ago, and Katherine Eade, who was part time, retired for good. Kozik and others department heads have been trying to cover some aspects of the position.
It's being reclassified at a higher salary — $84,460 — in hopes of attracting a qualified candidate.
"I haven't found the right person yet," said the mayor. "I put in this budget to reclassify it to an S-27 in hopes of attracting a more experienced or a more seasoned person. I'm not getting anybody for what I have posted."
The administrative officer has covered a wide range of functions, such as coordinating with departments, working on budgets and zoning, human resources, liaising with regulatory agencies, etc. The mayor said the name goes back to when the city received a state grant to help pay for the position in the 1980s.
Fitch suggested changing to it something like chief of staff, or tweaking the job description to highlight the similarities to that position to draw candidates who might not be familiar with the designation.
Tags: Finance Committee, fiscal 2027, north adams_budget,
