Okay, thank you everybody. This is the town of Andover Board of Finance regular meeting for Wednesday, July 23rd, 2025. we'll go ahead and call the meeting to order at 7:01 and recite the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag United States United States of America
nd to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible indivisibley and justice for all for all.
Okay, thank you. we have an opportunity for public speak. Looks like I see Linda Fish is the only member of the public.
Linda, anything to add?
Nope. Just like to show up. You like it when you do
ameritus board member that you are.
Yeah.
Okay. We'll go ahead on to agenda item three which is changes and additions to the agenda. So many if not all of you may have seen the last late email I sent out. and this is kind of on me that the treasurer had sent me that email just prior to when I was headed to Europe for, you know, two and a half weeks. And I I guess I just got busy and I forgot to send it on to Kate, remind her to put it on the agenda. so this is a request from the I'm going to go ahead and open that up. A request from the Norton Commission to set up a new internal fund. they said they received a donation and we'll be receiving funds on a yearly basis which will provide scholarships. and the I said I need I need and this is Cheryl Cheryl's note says I need board permission to set up the new permanent fund account and a new fund that will be reported in the non- major permanent funds. could you please set up the agenda item? So with that being said I would like to add that to our
agenda. Anybody would like to make a motion to add the Norton scholarship fund to the agenda?
I'll make a motion to join
to do that. And that's basically for Diane Grineier. It's
Yeah. Well, let's do I have a second.
Okay. So, any discussion? Looks like this I mean about adding We're just changing the agenda now. We're not voting on this. Okay. This would be item five which would be Norton commission permanent fund.
All those in favor say I.
No opposed and no abstensions. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So, we'll move on to it agenda item four. This is the levy schedule for AES payments. This is a fairly routine matter, but it does have to be decided and voted on by the board of finance. Eric has attached a proposed levy schedule that matches what the AES district has requested. Basically the amount of money that were allocated to them in the budget they prefer to have with over 10 equal payments on the schedule on page two of the packet basically starting in July and going on through April of next year. so we can have discussion about it. Somebody can make a motion to accept that schedule.
is that any different than what it's always been? Has it always been 10?
I think it's always been like that, Eric. Do you know?
So we've This is only the third year we did this because before that we just paid their expenses directly. We had a combined checking account.
Right. Right. so from RAM we get a broken out levy schedule for both operating and capital expenses and there they base so every month has a different amount based on you know the last x number of years of data they know when their the majority of their expenses are and they asked for their allocation based on that. the school has never really been willing to provide anything like that to the town. So given that, the only thing we can really do is divvy it up into payments and pay them equal amounts the first 10 months of the year. I personally feel it should be the board of ed's responsibility to make this request to you, but since
they haven't and we need to actually pay them for the month of July, I the with the treasur's concurrence put it on the agenda.
So they don't have any like and I'm just asking the question, Eric, like some months are sometimes like you say more weighted, you know, certain things come due, other months are thin. So they don't have any preference like that. They just want 10 equal payments. They don't care about some months being, you know,
the treasures repeatedly asked them to provide a levy schedule in the past
hat matched their actual proposed expenditures, but they have never done that or
okay,
you know, provided that.
Okay.
And equal payments it is, I guess.
Right. What if we what if we entertain the thought of giving them an initial payment to pay what they have expenses for now and then talk to them about like expecting expecting a levy statement.
I know that feel
sorry to interrupt Liz. I thought you were done. I was just going to mention that working in a school and working right with the bookkeeper that July is a big month where we do a lot of because I talked about it today. We have a person who's out and to get the back to school teacher supplies and everything that they kind of divvy up to each classroom at the beginning of the year. There's a lot of purchase orders and ordering done right now because our our person was out. So, we're trying to hurry up and get the things ordered because then they, you know, the purchase orders have to be created. the orders have to go out and then they have to come in. So, I would just I have nothing against what Liz just say before Mark had called on me. I was just going to say I know this is a big month of ordering for the beginning of school, July and August, because even myself, I was thinking, why do we start in July? And then I went, I know this because this is what we were doing today. you can go back to Liz's thought. I just wanted to say that it's probably starting in July fiscal year. A lot of the back to school or what they'll need at the beginning is ordered July and August.
Yeah, that makes sense if we do it. Yeah. Go ahead, Liz. Yeah, I was going to say I think it makes sense and and I wouldn't be opposed to even say putting up for July and August even to give us maybe a couple of months to give them the opportunity to give us a type of levy schedule that Eric was talking about. you know, my my my own personal feeling is I'm not sure it buys as much to to to do that for this year. wouldn't be a bad idea necessarily to kind of make the point. I I would would not be surprised if we pushed in that direction that we ended up with a front-loaded schedule, though, which isn't necessarily in the town's best interest. and maybe that would match their needs. I don't know, but it seems like if if the equal payments matches their needs, then you know, their number one expenditure really is payroll. So, they've got to do that and that's pretty level loaded.
they may have other expenditures that if we don't have major capital expenditures associated with the schools that we don't deal with kind of separately.
so
I guess they're fine.
I'm a little surprised because I think Joanne makes a good point that you know a lot of their expenditures probably do start they got to start payroll in August. I've got to have that funded early. So, yeah.
Yeah.
I saw somebody's hands up, Rob.
Yeah. I was just going to say, I mean, I'm fine.
I'm not hearing you, Rob. I'm not hearing you anyway.
It doesn't look like you're on mute.
You can't You can't hear me?
I hear you.
No, I hear I don't know what's going on.
I'm gonna pass you over for Kim. I think she had her hand raised, too. Did you have her your hand up, Kim?
I did. I just Aren't they like
I'm not hearing you either. Is it me?
It's you. Mark,
you
I thought during the summer months they didn't have payroll.
Mark, you brought up that you know they payroll.
Can you hear now?
Yep.
Okay. So, so just really quick, my my thought is that we we roll with this as requested and but we continue to talk to them about what Liz is talking about, you know, and what Eric mentioned, which is, you know, going forward, it would be best practice maybe to to have it to have a more of a sense for and track it, you know, some sort of threeyear rolling average kind of thing where we can adjust this as needed. But for now, I don't see any basis for not doing it out as they've requested. but I think we should continue to talk to them about, you know, that and other things that that the capital plan, you know, various things that we'd like to see them tighten up and bring to us. So, that's my take.
I guess I agree with Rob if that's what they want. I I was thinking in terms of their needs if they had heavier months that they would want. I if they just want 10 equal payments that's we'll give them 10 equal payments, but I was trying to be, you know, like is there months that they need more money than months that they don't? I was just trying to think of their their needs. But if they just want 10 equal payments, then that's what they requested. I do go along with the thought of, you know, it would be nice to have them, you know, give us some kind of like look back three years like Rob said, right? like like what were the months that were the heaviest bills for them or whatever trying to accommodate them but
not having another schedule or another request from them I guess we just give them the 10 equal payments
yeah that would be my thought
is there a way to maybe give them nine and then look to see what they have in their account in March to see if maybe 10th one I mean do have to give them the entire amount.
Yeah, do
a budgeted figure. We pass
voted. That's
we have to thought.
I was going to say I feel like we get it and I think we're all going to see that they end up having a lot more.
I understand what Liz is getting at, but remember all the reports we get, they seem to have a lot of money left and then they spend it towards the end of the year. So luckily we get one expenditure report and then we we see the big totals and whatever they use. So I don't know the month-to-month.
I mean I'm on board to getting more reporting that we've always talked about in the past. It seems like right when we we have that big figure that was voted in at the budget at the beginning and then we get that monthtomonth and we see maybe there's still a lot left maybe in January and we've asked about it in our meetings. We've all had those questions. So, yeah, I'm not opposed to splitting it up the 10 ways. I'm not opposed to anyone asking for more reporting, too, more detail. But I think that we're going to find that what we get is what we've seen on the expenditure reports. But that's all that's my point because year after year that I've served on this board, it seems like we look at that every year and then we'll go to January and be like, "Oh, there's still a big chunk." I'm on the expense the expense side. Obviously, we've been funding them.
yeah.
Kim, did you have something? Kim Kim had
wanted to make a comment.
Kim,
actually, no. I I I did respond earlier. I I do think that we need to get much better reporting from Andover Elementary School.
So, I mean, at this time,
much better. My thought would be I' I'd move to just go ahead and accept this payment schedule a as they've requested and then yeah, as we've all discussed we continue to talk to the board of ed and seek, you know, more granular information. But for now, I think we just go with this. So that's my motion.
I'll second that motion.
Okay. Bill seconds. okay, further discussion? Yeah, I just want to I'm not opposed to it either. I just wanted to point out that Eric said that they didn't actually request this. This is actually just kind of going and doing what what has been done in the past couple of years.
So, I just wanted to call that out.
Fair fair point of order there. Port of information. Sorry. Well, the superintendent has certainly been unhappy with me that we haven't paid them their July August or their July payment already.
Oh,
well, she could have sent us an email, right?
That's okay, Eric.
Okay. Okay. Well,
we'll we'll get it we'll get it done and it'll be fine.
We'll get it done. I think part of it is to make it clear that look you know we're looking for some guidance from them on where and when and I think that'll that'll be our message going forward and you know I can even send them a letter to that to that u
right it may very well end up that they come back to us if they have their experience and say actually you know we need we want $600,000 in in month one because of all the supplies and everything like that. Yeah, we'll have to, you know, we'll have to
ne way or the other, we're spending the money. But
yeah, exactly. There isn't going to be any change. It's just it's just understanding kind of what the needs are.
What is actually the best day history shows that they're fairly level loaded and there isn't any real variation. So, this is just simpler for everybody. If that's the case, let's find that out. So,
yeah.
Yeah. So, for reference, if you look at the regional school district levy schedule, the lightest month is $237,000 and the heaviest month they ask for is $624,000.
And what are those months, Eric? Sorry, I don't have it in front of me.
July and August are both light months. The heaviest month is November
and January.
So July and August are the lightest months. Okay.
Fascinating.
That makes sense. Point earlier about payroll. I don't think they're paying payroll at the beginning of
there shouldn't be payroll during the
in August. They get their
I mean they probably have 52 they do have workers like I'm a 52 week worker. There's there's probably several people in the building that do get paid.
And I think the last week of July, they're probably having teachers come in and start things up, right?
No, it's usually August. It's usually week before.
Their first pay will be in August at some point, right?
Oh, okay.
I mean, they may come in during the summer on their own. We have people in all the time, but
Right. That's right. Last week. Sorry, I got my months confused. I mean,
the week before school starts is what I was thinking. Yeah. Anyway, yeah, the motion u I just say if you send any correspondence out to the school with your questions, could you make sure that we're all included on it, please?
Yep. Absolutely. Y
and I I'll go along with it, but I with the whole, you know, dispersements for the year, but I would like to make it clear that I want to see a lot more detail.
I would like to see a plan, you know, I would like to see a plan and you know, Yeah, I would I would put it as a plan. The the detail would be coming. Yeah, the reporting and stuff. Yeah. But yeah,
this is the taxpayers's money.
Yeah. So, okay. Any more discussion? Okay. All those in favor of the motion to just accept the levy as a technical payment, say I. I. I.
Any opposed?
Any abstensions? Okay, hearing none. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. All right, we will go to the next item, which is the proposed fund for the Norton Commission. And Luis, you had something to add about this. I didn't get a lot of detail.
Yeah. Diane Granier actually started wants to start a legacy type of scholarship fund
and the bulk of the money is in the Harford Foundation, but just starting off at $1,000 to start open up the fund after that is going to work like the same as Norton where the interest of that money will be deposited into that account every year. So, we need to start we need to kind of deposit that thousand check into an account to get that ball rolling.
And they want to keep this separate account for just internal or two different things, right? Two different sources. Okay.
Thank you, Louise. That's nice. It's really nice.
It was awfully nice of her. Yes.
It's really nice.
Just to clarify, so the the donation we got so far is $1,000. That's what we've received,
right? So, we just take that, we create the fund, we we stick it in there. Okay.
Right.
What are we calling the fund? Are we calling it
I mean, the email reference the Norton right commission, but I don't think this is the same thing. Correct.
Well, it's it's by the Norton Commission.
Scholarship.
So, something about scholarship.
Did you have a preference for what she wanted to call it? I don't I would assume it would be the legacy fund on
I'm not% sure.
Okay.
Well, and I don't know that what we counted it what we call it at least immediately is that critical.
Yeah.
Not as much as the fund itself. I did get an email from
Charlotte Nelson who's the chair of the Norton Commission earlier today and what she how the way she characterized and actually labeled it was an approving an account set up for the Norton Commission in the name of the Diane Grineier Legacy Scholarship.
Oh, okay.
Nice.
Let's just mimic that then.
Yeah.
Eric, you got a hand up? Yeah, I just so right now I think we have eight different Norton funds in one form or another or eight funds that are under the opaces of the Norton commission. remember those are all funds that have to be reconciled and go into our ledger every year separately. So, understand that there's an opportunity cost and we're paying a treasurer a fairly good amount of money to deal with these, but they're good things for the town to have. I'm not opposed to them. What the treasurer has asked is that currently all the Norton funds are in separate bank accounts.
That is really clooji.
And right now we're getting 0.1% interest on those. Mnt will give us 2% or 2.5% I don't remember which if we consolidate those into a single B bank account with pulled cash and just separate on our end what gets assigned to what which is perfectly it's as easy to do as it is to maintain seven or eight different bank accounts. So my suggestion to the was to the Norton fund is to agree to add the fund but only if the Norton fund will authorize the treasurer to go to pulled cash and go down to a single account which is is in their best interest because the amount of interest they get goes up by a factor of 20. Eric, I knew we discussed this earlier that when I saw this, I I knew the treasurer was trying to break down all those separate accounts, you know, for the ease of work. So, I was surprised to to see Mark's email asking to open another separate account for a fund. So, hopefully I know that you're they're trying to, you know, you're trying to minimize the amount of accounts. So maybe in the are you thinking I mean it obviously has to be their decision if they take this money in and then just kind of the way they account for it keep it separate like in spreadsheets or whatever we all do
the way we do it with our other
final in one is this one a or two or whatever.
Yeah there is a person on the board Heidi who does all those all those calculations. I can go back to them and ask them. I mean, are you saying that in order to open the fund, we would have to have everything consolidated now or can you open the fund now and then we can consolidate them?
I think we can open the fund and approve the fund and the reporting separately. And this was something that I think that the treasurer had within the last week or two and I can't remember how I was I was copying on something had requested that the the Norton Commission consider a consolidated fund under a different you know under a better interestbearing account. I don't know if the if the commission has met since then to to discuss it. but I think that Charlotte had had responded and said thanks for the info. They would definitely consider it. so that was kind of the last that I had seen from that.
I can go back to them and ask that. but I I hate to see it kind of delayed because of that.
You know, to me that's kind of a treasury question whether it's one account or or multiple. I don't know if we as a board of finance need to get in those level of weeds.
but approving the fund I think we need to agree to. So
my question was simply I know this has come before the board before multiple times that Cheryl I'd have to you know within the last year or Eric brought it to our attention they were trying to downsize the amount of funds but
yeah and I I'm assuming by the way because this is charital or something not appropriate to stick it in the stiff account with the rest of our money.
That's what I was thinking.
That would be nice.
Well that's so that's the question. I mean, you know, Mnt
not in town account, so it's probably not.
It's probably not going to work. Okay. All right.
Well, then the best if the best you can do is two two and a half% is better than effectively zero. So, right.
Oh, I know that. Yeah. Okay. I knew I'd
But I'm fine with setting up the the fund. I mean, the fund fund and account aren't the same thing, right? Was we just discussed, but yeah, I mean, whatever we need to do mechanically to do that while they then hopefully come back and agree to the consolidation. I mean, I don't see why they wouldn't, but
Sure.
I'll go ahead and make the motion. I mean, are we at the motion?
You like Go ahead.
I don't want, like Louise said, I would hate for the town to to lose the money if they were willing to set up that. So, I I don't have the language in front of me, but I'll make the motion to
Are we accepting the Norton Commission? I I think we would be authorizing the treasurer to create another fund for the legacy scholarship fund you know in
legacy scholarship fund
or or whatever name would is is logical to name it. Yeah.
Whatever that said in that email you read it
regarding account setup that's required to do that. Yeah.
And I'll second that.
Go with the name. Yeah. Yeah, I think it was the Joy Grer legacy scholarship.
Yeah.
Yeah, that sounds right.
Yeah, that that sounds good.
Authorizing the treasurer to set up that. Yeah.
Okay. Like I said, I second.
So, Joanne made the motion and and Rob second. Second.
Yes. Yep.
Further discussion?
Okay. All those in favor say I.
I.
Any opposed? Any abstensions?
Okay. Hearing none, the motion passes. Very good. Thank you.
All right. And we will move on.
Thank you, Louise.
Yeah.
No problem.
move on to our next agenda item, which is now be number six, which is the board open discussion. Does anybody have anything else to bring before the board? CIP was canceled. I got nothing there.
Okay.
Hearing none. I guess we'll move on to item seven, which is public speak. Linda.
All set. Nice seeing you all though.
You Well, we didn't see.
Thank you, Linda. Thanks for joining.
Hearing from you
or hearing seeing your name there.
There she is.
That's better. That's better. put her into it.
Okay. So, we'll go ahead on to item eight now, which is adjournment. Anybody like to make a motion to adjurnn?
I'll make the motion.
Make a motion to adjourn.
Okay. I heard
Liz, Liz.
Okay, Kimberly. Second. I heard it. All Any discussion?
Has to be the shortest meeting I've ever attended.
Is that
Thank you everybody. Motion pass.
Have a good night. That was a good night.