Session Laws

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1. The second paragraph of section 4 of chapter 569 of the acts of 1985, as amended by section 2 of chapter 231 of the acts of 1987, is hereby further amended by striking out the fourth and fifth sentences and inserting in place thereof the following two sentences:- At the close of each fiscal year any deficit in the Hale Hospital Fund Balance Account, to the extent such deficit is the result of operating revenues of the hospital being less than the sum of (i) operating expenses, excluding depreciation and amortization, (ii) expenditures for purchases of property, plant and equipment and (iii) net payments by the hospital of long-term debt of the city issued for hospital purposes, shall be reported by the auditor to the assessors, who shall include the amount so reported in the aggregate appropriations to be assessed in the next subsequent tax levy, unless the city has provided funds to eliminate such deficit. Any deficit so assessed shall be subject to all applicable provisions of chapter fifty-nine of the General Laws.

SECTION 1A. Said chapter 569 is hereby further amended by inserting after section 4A, inserted by section 3 of chapter 231 of the acts of 1987, the following section:-

Section 4B. Notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special law to the contrary, there shall be established in the city of Haverhill a Hale municipal hospital finance review board, hereinafter referred to as the board. The board shall consist of the mayor or his designee, who shall serve as the chairperson of the board; the city auditor; a representative of the city council who shall be a member thereof; a representative of the business community appointed by the mayor with the approval of the city council, who shall be a resident of the city and be especially suited by reason of his education, training or experience to serve on the board; and a representative of the board of trustees of Hale municipal hospital. The members of the board shall serve without compensation. Action by the board shall require a majority vote of the full membership of the board.

The board is constituted to promote the fiscal stability of the Hale municipal hospital and the city of Haverhill, and in furtherance thereof, no appropriation, transfer of funds or loan order relating to the Hale municipal hospital shall take effect until approved by the board. The board shall have full authority to adopt such rules and procedures as it deems necessary and appropriate to effectuate the purposes of this act.

Not later than one hundred and twenty days prior to the end of each fiscal year of the city, the board of trustees of Hale municipal hospital, or their duly designated agent, shall submit in writing to the mayor and the board a proposed annual budget, comprehensive in nature and including all operating and capital expenditure categories, for the ensuing fiscal year, together with a supporting revenue and expenditure statement. The foregoing financial documents shall be submitted in such detail and form as the board may prescribe. The board shall review such budgetary information and issue a report of its findings no later than twenty days after receipt of the budget and revenue and expenditure statement. The provisions of this paragraph shall be effective and fully applicable with respect to the annual budget for Hale municipal hospital for fiscal year nineteen hundred and ninety-two and all fiscal years thereafter.

On or before August first of each year, or within ten days after the approval by the city council and the mayor of the annual budget for such fiscal year, whichever shall occur later, the board of trustees of Hale municipal hospital, or their duly designated agent, shall submit to the board, the mayor, the city council, and the city auditor an expenditure plan for all categories of spending relating to the Hale municipal hospital, which plan shall specifically indicate the total expenditures for each quarterly period of the fiscal year. Such specification of total quarterly expenditures shall establish a binding allotment of funds with respect to each quarterly period, and no expenditures in excess of a quarterly allotment together with any surpluses remaining from prior quarters shall be made unless approved by the mayor and the board. Within thirty days of the close of each quarterly period, the trustees of Hale municipal hospital, or their duly designated agents, shall submit to the board, mayor, city council, and city auditor a written report of expenditures and receipts of such quarterly period.

The board shall have exclusive authority, subject only to the approval of the mayor, to engage and employ without specific appropriation such financial, accounting, legal or health care consultants as the board deems necessary and appropriate to assist the board in making determinations with respect to the finances of the Hale municipal hospital. In no event, however, shall the annual expenditure of monies during any fiscal year for consulting services as authorized herein exceed one quarter of one percent of the annual appropriation to the Hale municipal hospital in the preceding fiscal year. The expenditures authorized by the board pursuant to this paragraph shall be chargeable directly to the annual appropriation to the Hale municipal hospital for the fiscal year in which the consulting services are rendered.

In no event shall the certified public accountant selected to independently audit the activities of the Hale municipal hospital, as required by section four, be different for any fiscal year from the independent auditor performing the general city government audit for the same fiscal year unless the selection of the different independent auditor is approved by the board and a written statement of the reasons for selecting a different independent auditor is filed with the city clerk by the signatories to the hospital audit contract.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage.