Tisbury building commissioner Greg Monka said this week that he is looking for a 24 per cent increase in his department’s budget for the coming fiscal year, with much of the proposed hike going to payroll including a new position for short-term rental inspections.
The separate budget for professional utility inspections is also projected to rise, Mr. Monka told the select board at an online meeting Monday afternoon.
“Inspectors are going to be doing a lot more inspections this year with the increased use of solar panels, heat pumps, things like that,” he said.
Wiring inspections, budgeted at less than $60,000 in the current fiscal year, are projected at $66,545 — an 11 per cent increase — and plumbing inspections are going up 9 percent, from $20,520 to $22,367 in Mr. Monka’s new budget.
Gas inspections, which reached their peak at more than $17,000 in fiscal year 2023, are expected to stay flat at $15,000 for the second year in a row, for a total inspection budget of $103,910 across all three utilities.
Mr. Monka’s departmental budget includes both contracted increases for current staff members and a new, three-quarter-time inspector for short-term rental properties.
“Short-term rentals bring a fair amount of income into the town, so it’s a worthwhile money-making effort,” Mr. Monka said.
Under the recently-issued 10th edition of the state building code, the building department is now responsible for all short-term rental inspections, he told the board.
“We’re not going to share it with the fire department or board of health,” Mr. Monka said, adding that the town had conducted more than 300 short-term rental inspections last year.
“This year, I anticipate us doing more,” he said, noting that Tisbury is partnering with Oak Bluffs for the services of a consultancy that ferrets out unlisted short-term rentals so the towns can bring them into compliance.
Building department salaries, including Mr. Monka’s and that of the proposed short-term rental inspector, add up to more than $361,000 of the total $384,179 budget request.
The Tisbury fire, police and harbormaster departments also presented double-digit budget hikes Monday.
The fire depart is looking for 22 per cent more, for a total of nearly $856,000, acting chief Patrick Rolston told the select board.
Along with contracted payroll costs and other departmental expenses, the increase includes $90,000 in stipends for weekend and holiday shifts that formerly were covered by the fire chief and deputy chief.
“The chiefs never got paid for that,” Mr. Rolston said.
Other down-Island towns are already spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on the firefighter stipends, making the Tisbury hike a modest one, he added.
Payroll expenses also are driving most of the 14 per cent budget increase for the police department, which negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement with employees last year, Lieut. Bill Brigham told the board.
The roughly $388,000 budget includes $270,000 for salaries and overtime, Mr. Brigham told the select board.
“I crunched the numbers, and 89.2 per cent of our budget is payroll-related,” he said.
Electricity costs and software licenses also are costing the police department more, he said, noting that licenses can no longer be shared by multiple computers.
Harbor master Gary Kovack is seeking an 11.2 per cent increase in his budget, with payroll again playing a major role in the $375,676 spending plan.
“We’re looking to add a part-time assistant harbormaster,” Mr. Kovack said, likening the position to that of Nelson Sigelman, who patrols Lake Tashmoo for the town.
“We want to see if we can get … that responsible, mature person to run boats, manage docks, and be able to be more of a presence out in the Lagoon area, Inner Harbor and more, on the patrol side of things,” Mr. Kovack said.
“We get a little young when it comes to our dock hands, so we want to keep that with somebody who we can trust and we can rely on,” he said.
Maintenance, repair and equipment costs are also higher, Mr. Kovack said, citing the poor condition of the department’s storage tent on High Point Road and the need for radios to communicate with local first reponders and Island-wide dispatchers.
Tisbury treasurer and tax collector Jonathan Snyder, who oversees several budgets, said one payroll request directly reflects his intention to retire early in 2026.
“I would hope that the select board [this] fall will appoint a successor, so that we could have some overlap,” said Mr. Snyder, who has budgeted a 19 per cent increase for the treasurer’s salary to cover the transition period.
The treasurer’s budget also shows an 11 per cent increase in bank and credit card fees, while a striking rise in office supplies was due to his own miscalculation in last year’s budget, Mr. Snyder said.
Overall, the proposed budget for the treasurer’s and tax collector’s office is up by 9.4 per cent, to $439,7901.
Mr. Snyder’s second budget, for town town employees’ payroll taxes and health, life, disability and Medicare insurance, is up 7.6 per cent for a total of $3,768,108.
“We had word very recently that the premiums for health insurance are going up 8 per cent this year, and that’s a lot,” Mr. Snyder said.
On a brighter note, he said, Tisbury’s debt budget continues to decline from year to year as the town continues to pay off its long-term obligations.
The town finance and advisory committee has yet to review the proposed departmental budgets, finance committee chair Nancy Gilfoy said.
Town budgets will need to be finalized in February, ahead of the annual town meeting this spring.
Also on Monday, the select board appointed Meredith Danberg-Ficarelli to the town’s solid waste committee and held an executive session on contract negotiations with the prospective new town administrator replacing John (Jay) Grande, who has changed jobs.
Last month, the board voted unanimously to offer the position to Joseph LaCivita of New York state, a longtime summer visitor to Vineyard Haven.
