okay welcome everybody this is the town of Andover Board of Finance meeting for Wednesday September 25th 2024 we'll call the meeting to order and recite the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag United States America and to the Republic stand One Nation indivisible Liberty for all thank you I think everyone is aware probably on the meeing that our main task today is to fill the vacancy on the board of Finance we have several candidates which is great hopefully we have everybody if not they'll join but we will follow the agenda in order as Eric was explaining to me earlier he is going to be checking out of the meeting and once we get through the old business before we select the member because he's going on vacation so good for you are well deserved right all right so the next agenda item is public speak what we do is ask any members of the public or an attendance if they would care to add anything in advance and I see several members of the public I'm just going to go in the order of my screen I'm going to assume that the candidates who are also members of the public will speak once you get your turn so if you know raise your hand virtually
or otherwise if you need to speak somehow through the time Scott soyad I see you first you have anything to add during public speak you muted Scott yeah can you hear me now yeah we can now yeah okay my headphones aren't working oh well I just wanted to speak on behalf of Heather van Cara I have known her God over 30 years over 35 years in fact she is one of the most competent people I've ever met just in general she's got Finance background from being an underwriter she is but she is the person you go to if you want a quiet solution to a problem she will never raise a fuss she is competent is is the the best word she you know my wife describes it as she doesn't have a panic button something goes wrong she fixs it and she fixes it quietly she fixes it well she is as organized a person as I've ever met she to me my mind she is a great candidate
so that's it okay thank you Scott have Christina Fraser I have no comment thank you okay thank you next up Jerry CR no I'm just here to watch your proceedings okay thank you Jerry Julie gorde I have no comment thank you okay thank you Julie and then I've got a phone number 860 810 3313 I don't know if you have any public omment you're muted if you do I guess we'll we will have to skip over that then okay we'll move on to our agenda and just a couple of comments we are taking care of the old business first again can finish up and get through this it should not take a lot of time I don't anticipate it so appreciate everybody's patience the next agenda item is additions or changes to the agenda does anybody on the board want to move any additions or changes to the agenda okay hearing none we will move on to agenda item four which is the approval of the prior years or prior meeting minutes not prior years but we have two different sets of meeting minutes one we had to revise because there was an error but the meeting minutes for July 24th and the meeting minutes from August August 28th are on the table I think we could probably have one joint motion if anybody wants to make a joint motion to approve those meeting minutes Mark can I make a
comment real quick yep of course I know that I'm the one that requested that we got get them revised the July 24th I mean I'll take it up in a you know in a a meet an upcoming meeting and I won't take time with it tonight but I really would like to see the minutes just be a little bit more detailed I appreciate the person going back and adding some things and maybe I'll I'll put some feedback together I just think it's important to get a little bit more information out there for the town people and the taxpayers because we kind of gloss over a lot of things that I just I want to bring out you know that's why I'm on the board I just want more a little bit more detail but I mean I'm fine with moving these particular minutes forward but I definitely wanted to get that comment out there I think we just need a little bit more and they're and they just have yeah they need a little more substance too them so that people that haven't been at the meeting can pick them up you know and understand what we're talking about thank you okay other comments or motions anyone typically is chair I won't I
wasn't at the last meeting so I was going to abstain so I was at the last meeting so I was gain from at least the August we need somebody else you should abstained from the ones you weren't present at yeah Joanne I'll go ahead and make a motion to approve both the August 28 2024 regular meeting minutes and the July 24th 2024 regular meeting revised minutes as submitted in our packet today that thank you okay any further discussion all those in favor say I I okay so we have motion passing any opposed any extensions so Rob abstains thank you okay we'll move on to the next agenda item which is old Business review of budget to actual I
would say if there's any specific areas of concern of course Eric you can bring them up or if any of the board members have any specific questions or still pretty early in the budget year so it's not unusual to see any variances but I didn't see anything personally that I thought raised any concern points does anybody have any specific questions or Eric do you have anything specifically you wanted to point out not at this point we're still early enough in the budget that it's pretty hard to figure out nothing's really there aren't any real red flags at this point everything's pretty pretty normal okay any board members have questions about hat okay moving on to item 5B which is the check register again do anybody have any questions about the check register I do have a question about that is the register just the town of Andover or is it including the Board of Education I thought that supposed to be receiving board of education check yeah I don't have the board of EDS check register to share with you it is
possible to get some of their information from their meeting packet but I don't have their I don't know for some reason I thought that I can get some of the so so let me let me walk that statement back we don't I don't have everything that is like in in the town Side Of The Ledger we present more than just the just the actual checks written I could put in here the check register from the checkbook from one of the checkbooks that the school has their main account because I do counter sign so I do have physical copies of those so we certainly could put the physical copies they're not collated by any means but I could put the PDFs from those in the packet if you want to see those they the check register from the board Ed is in the financial reports that Theresa sent around on 95 so even though they're not in the packet we we should have them technically or theoretically they're in your email so right and understand she doesn't send me those she sends you those so I don't have that okay so if you want that in your packet you'll have to send it to me to put in the packet got it yeah okay other that's all I was gonna yeah I was just going to add Mark that they've done a good job about including more financial information since we had that meeting as far as the reporting and like Eric says it probably doesn't go to him but it goes to the town Treasurer so does it yeah yeah it's addressed to Cheryl with the CC to us right I'll send it to you fair enough yeah okay other other questions or
comments okay hearing none I guess we'll move on to our next our next item Eric so I think we're all set if you want to you want to head on out and enjoy your vacation all right folks care luck and thank you all for running for office here okay so again just want to re reiterate what I said in an email I think to each of the candidates we really appreciate you stepping up and and offering your services to the town it it is not a trivial activity and times of the year it's worse than others but but it's certainly a commitment and we appreciate your your willingness to put your name in and step up what we're going to do in the interests of and we're very fortunate to have several candidates and I clearly I think you many if not all of you would would do a good job because in the past sometimes there been one or two candidates then you know you kind of wonder whether we're really getting getting you know we still had good candidates we've been lucky but but it's nice to have a lot of interest and a lot of choice as I said I think what we're going to do just pop up open to my email there so basically what the process is going to be is we're going to take each candidate in turn as you show up in the agenda just because that's how it was put together we just want you to spend a few minutes to introduce yourselves you can tell us a little bit about your background why you're interested in the job you know what you think you're you you bring into the table any thoughts you have in the
board of Finance what the role responsibility or Direction maybe should be from your perspective if you if you have a a particular view you may not I mean most of us didn't when we joined this board it was new and and it would be new to I think all of you sometimes we have returning candidates or members so that's absolutely fine you know some of it's it's going to be a learning experience for almost anybody it's spent of time there so don't be afraid of that that's totally okay well then for you know again taking that first and then second then third candidate in turn after you've introduced yourself that will give the board of Finance members an opportunity to ask any specific questions they have we will try to keep that brief just in the interest of being efficient and you know not dragging this on really long and some of our meetings sometimes get long but that's normally during the budget season we do want to do the right thing but we'll try to keep it efficient and not waste anybody's time and then once we've heard from all of the candidates in turn we will adjourn to Executive session and as I explained in the email and I'll repeat for the purposes of the recording is that is not a public portion of the meeting so at that point I will move all the
participants in the zoom meeting to the waiting room and you'll get the hang out there have a cup of tea or coffee whatever you'd like to do and the board of finance will then have a private discussion on the candidates we'll come out of executive session hopefully it won't take a super long time but who knows we come out of executive session the nominations for the candidates and the voting will be public so we won't be deciding necessarily holding a vote in secret and then coming out and announcing a candidate will come out and actually have a public vote because there will it is part of the public record okay let's ee yeah and then that's that's basically it if the board of Finance is able to agree on a candidate and one of the candidates is nominated and then receives a majority of the of the vote then they will become the new Board of Finance member not immediately you need to be sworn in by I can't if it's the town clerk justice of peace something cler cler you do need to be sworn in by by a town official
before you can actually assume your duties okay once that happens if it happens tonight you never know we could be deadlocked we've seen interesting things in neighboring towns recently hopefully not this board tends to function pretty well but you know you never know you're all of course welcome to stay or or head out you know you don't need to stay by any means but again we just appreciate everyone's participation and then we just basically have some open discussion at Jour the meeting from there okay I guess that's it any for the comments from the questions from the board Mark I just want to add too that I think it's great that we have such qualified candidates that we have all this interest I mean the town is growing and doing a lot of things so it's it's
great to see all of you and I mean it's you know reading through everything I was so impressed and yeah to to get involved in the town is is such a good thing and and I'm thankful that we have a lot of qualified candidates and thank you for taking the time so looking forward to hearing from all of you like Mark said I know Mark is wanting to keep things brief and I get that but it's really an important meeting so we'll go with he's he's the chairperson so we go with his Direction but I also just I want to learn about you I mean I read paper but I want to hear what the people you know involved are I also yeah I'm GNA leave the rest of the comments because I do have a couple comments but I'm going to wait till we hear from you so that that's it but thank you all for joining us okay anything else from the board okay well hearing none I guess we will go in order so the first first candidate we have to hear from is jod gross so we do have Jody's resume and background or document in the agenda in the packet hopefully you've had a chance to review that so Jody wanted to go ahead and take a few minutes and tell us a little bit about who you are and you know what your background is and you know what you think about the position Etc as I outlined earlier sure thing thanks Mark hi everyone I'm jod gross I am a husband father of two lived in town for over 20 years now have a formal
education with a financial background actually formal Financial education at Bryant Business Degree there with of concentration and finance masters of business at at Yukon I have a 30-year career in Consulting in health plans in operational financial and executive level roles from from a financial perspective deep understanding of budget development processes actual versus budget reviews expense management Revenue optimization I think the real question is why does jod want this role why did I put my hat in into the into the candidacy for this and it's really two two reasons one truly love the town of vover I've been here over 20 years it has so much to offer and I really want to make sure that we have Financial stability for years to come because I don't plan on going anywhere the second reason really is more personal I'm at the point in my career where I'm giving back to things that matter to me right I've you wna reuse this plate I'm sorry go sorry second reason is I'm I'm I'm giving back a lot to the community that I that I've been part of part of the Andover greater together committee giving out grants based in the Hartford Foundation recently part of the charter revision and would like to come on to the board of Finance to share many different ideas I have for to help improve the finances of the of of of the Town I think you you asked about approach I'm a firm believer in that better decisions happen with many people rather than individual person I I really believe in listening to understand I think it's important that there's always a devil's advocate someone to sort of
push back on what everyone's thinking and I think you know there's content that happens and reviewed but it's usually the context around it those relationships those impacts that matters the most my My Philosophy financially my fiscal policy is I certainly want lower you know low tax in our town but really believe we need to make sure we continue to invest in the needed infrastructure you know I'm watching my roads get get resurfaced which I think is a great idea as opposed to completely repaved and lastly I think we need to make sure that we have sound smart fiscal expense management I view this board as an oversight but really also an action board in our town not just one to sit back passively but really to be pressuring and pushing on Eric in the town to be driving for you know rfps for services that we need optimizing Revenue building the budget so I know I only have five minutes so I guess I'll stop there and just say thank you for evaluated me for candidacy okay appreciate it thank you Jody did board have any specific
questions just raise your hand if you would let me know so I can keep it under under control I have a question yeah go ahead Kim do you have any thoughts or ideas on how to gradually decrease our budget instead of increasing it annually Cody absolutely so the first thing I I'd question now granted I've been in a corporate environment not in a municipal environment but some of those same practices I think bode well right RFP for services trash it you know salt mowing all the things that this town does are we are we RFP frequently enough and at the right dollar thresholds the second idea you know I think I would I would I would say on the on the revenue side I mean that that's actually expense management but on the revenue side grants are we optimizing all the grants
do we have enough grant writing capability in town are we leveraging Town residents to help prepare the grants and then maybe Eric and others in town can can Can can help get the actually review it and get it done on the expense side are we optimizing prepay discounts bulk discounts are we purchasing things we should with other towns as opposed to individually as Andover you know you know th those are just some of the ideas that I have you know in canid you know it's funny I was looking at your expense actual versus expenses and you know and I would dump that into Excel and divide it by however many months there are and really see it I'd also really see if our town could do that budget monthly and I know that's a guesstimate and timing is off but I'm not quite sure how we're really you know we're just relying on Eric to to say everything looks fine he's a wonderful person but I think there's some great ideas that I'd like to bring forward to the to the board if put on it other ideas I had energy audits I'm not sure if that's been done in town but our town buildings as we think about heating lighting those are all opportunities are we real do we have the right correct bulbs do we have the correct heating process evaluation of fees you know as I I look at up my my home value has increased do our permits and all the
fees in towns up are are we benchmarking those appropriately with other communities and other towns I don't have the right answers for all of these but these would be things I'd like to bring forward to this board okay thank youan that was a very detailed answer and you could tell you have a lot of ideas so I appreciate that I do I think it's a lot put on Eric I mean I'm saying this to all the candidates it's a lot put on Eric to expect him to be the manager of employees manager of the town and different things and and handle what you said so thank you for bringing that forth I think that's a good comment I mean I think that's why we have a treasur and financial people and and different things like that I couldn't agree more I just wanted to know because I'm gonna ask every candidate this so I'm sorry and you're well prepared with answers so I have you been I thought it was important and I think it is important as a board of Finance member that I kind of know what's going on in town and I make sure that I show up at other meetings and before I ran it doesn't mean everyone has to go this way I'm so happy that everyone's involved in wanting to throw their hat in the ring but it helped me a lot to just be present show up at Board of Finance meetings Board of Board of selectman meetings kind of to follow the pulse of the town have you been able to do that Jody yeah absolutely so been to
several Board of Selectmen meetings in part I was selected to be on the charter revision commission but been involved in advocating for issues and board of Select meetings I've seen you there I know you ask a lot of questions for understanding Joanne which is wonderful it's how we all learn and I think the great resource we have in town is the YouTube channel so I'll often I've watched you guys here on the board of Finance multiple times via YouTube that's great no I like I thank you for that that's my question mark okay anything else from the board of Finance members I raised my hand Mark yeah bill yeah just maybe you talked about a few things Jody and that you're happy to see the infrastructure of the Town being improved I just was wondering what your thoughts on RAM and AES were in general yeah on on schools and yeah you know I haven't developed my both my kids went through Andover Elementary School had a great education and in in in Ram right one's a contracted with the Navy off launch the others had colle with psychology you know what is it a $13 million budget 8.5 million is for the education you know I can see that right now we're we're kind of in this lower enrollment with Rams so our budget process was easier if I if you could say that in the sense that the enrollment was lower so we didn't our responsibility wasn't as great but that may come around and hurt us in the future so I think you know build it
answer your question I mean I think we just need to we need to continue to invest in our schools because it's the foundation of our community but it's smart investment is how I look at it we need to Benchmark our investment versus our peers thank board Louise are you oh yeah I wanted to ask what you know about and I'm G to want to know this from every one what you know about the town what do you think is the most important issue right now that is kind of hovering over our heads that you feel we should work on well I know quite a bit about the town I really enjoy what it has to offer whether it's the the the hiking trails Great Schools going to the library getting involved in you know Recreation events or or or things like that so certainly have read the charter which is an interesting document you know being on that Charter commission understanding how it's governed is is sort of another unique thing you know candidly I'd say the charter revision is right now a very is is an item that we should all really lean into and understand each of those 15 to 20 different items that were put forward really by the board of Selectmen you know the charter rision Commission we put ideas we put our thoughts our recommendations but the board of
Selectmen then sort of took it and put it into wording so I think we should all get involved in that not necessarily Board of Finance related but actually it is because there were some dollar thresholds that were updated so I'd love the board of Finance to evaluate are those correct you know weigh in okay thank you okay other questions from the board of Finance members once okay all right thank you very much Jody appreciate your time and contribution and again thank you for volunteering okay next up we have Liz Liz loic hope I'm pronouncing your name and I've known you so I think did you did good job okay can everybody hear me y okay wow Jody you're tough act
to follow nice to meet you first of all I would like to thank all the members of the board for all you do I know it's it's a commitment for sure and appreciate all of you and Joanne I I also want to say thank you for that question that you posed about the about the minutes because I've often had that question so I appreciate your thought about more detailed minutes so thank you about thank you for that and should I be selected maybe it's something I could help out with so wanted to introduce myself I grew up Mar in marbor myself graduated from Rim High School stayed fairly locally and brought up my own children in centry and then my husband anded and I moved here to Andover in 2015 I then had a long career career at siga and spent the majority of my time in the special investigations unit where I investigated healthc care fraud
spent a couple of years in the legal department where I helped with settling pre-litigation disputes my you know you can read all those details gory details in my resume so what else about me love this town kind of have made it my own have been very interested in the inner workings of the town the politics and whatnot I try to stay current on what's going on in in local politics the past year was a little rough for me taking care of my mom who was ailing and so the last year I was a little more off the off the grid but being part of keeping up with the various Town boards and whatnot is is something that I'm very interested in and like to be involved in the board of Finance in particular is important to me because I feel like the Financial Health of our town depends on the critical decisions and recommendations of this board we have you know as you know a small town it's rough times financially for the residents and having such a small tax base I think all our all our decisions are are so critical and if I'm chosen for this position I retired
two years ago so I have the time and the commitment to place into the office my my commitment is to be an active participant and to serve the town to the best of my ability and to commit to be an active listener to the taxpayers and what what they interested in and what they're concerned about what their pri priorities are and I also look at this board as as a team you know working together as a team and trying to help out and serve in the best of my ability to give whatever I can give where the needs where the needs lay so that is kind of a quick little down and dirty about me I'm happy to happy to answer questions okay thank you Liz right we give the board members an opportunity to ask their questions L are you raising your hand I can't tell it looks like a Thum you're trying to unmute bill I'll go with you you have your hand up I see yeah yeah so I just was wondering I don't want you to
think I'm only focused on education but I do see in 1981 that you worked for ramp High School I was wondering if you could tell us what you did there no no no I graduated you graduated 1981 oh I'm sorry I just yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah no I'm sorry about that graduate just just to kind of say I did not grow up in this town I grew up in marbor in maror went to Ram moved out to centry stayed fairly local but moved to centry and then mov moved to Andover in 2015 you know looking for my dream Lake home and here I am after dumping lots of money into it I'm I was looking on the right hand side under education rather than the left side under experience so it's my my mistake but thank you no problem y Louise yeah I want to ask L the same question what she feels is the most important issue right now that we should probably concentrate on in town most important issue my right now I just feel fiscal responsibility is just so key I just feel like there's just so much UN unsettledness in kind of like in the world and in the state and and financially I just feel feel like everyone is just so strapped and I would like to dig down and find areas maybe in our budget to kind of lift a little bit of the burden for the taxpayers I've listened to the budget meetings and the meetings at the the little budget workshops in the beginning of the year and stuff and sometimes as a participant in that or a
listener in that it doesn't always feel like a real workshop and I feel like maybe we could get we could drill down a little bit further and try to find ways to maybe cut a little bit of fat maybe find find areas that maybe aren't maybe we're spending money on that maybe to prioritize a little bit better and I don't know what that area is yet but I think drilling down and really analyzing the budget's better maybe we can find ways where we can save a little and just kind of prioritize okay thanks Liz Joanne yeah and I appreciate your honesty Liz I think it's important that everyone just says their reasons and what they want to do on the committee and you know as all of you are so far and I seeing you you're you're a face that I have seen a lot at meetings and things like that but I appreciate that jod also brought up that there is YouTube that like me sometimes I will catch up on meetings while I'm at somewhere you know or whatever and listen to a town meeting or
something that I want to catch up on so I have to be fair and I can understand that it's also on the QVC right is that it might not QV I don't that Network the TV you know when they TVC I think yeah yeah thank you so I understand that people aren't always going to be present back in the day everyone showed up and you got interested and you got to see the faces like some of these that I've seen so I want to be fair with that so the only reason I didn't you know I will pose that to you Liz and You' kind of brought it up yourself too that you have taken the time to go to meetings and be involved and I have seen you at many when I was going to them as well so thank you for that my pleasure okay other questions from the board I just have one question for Liz so Liz you mentioned that you've done a lot of work with investigating things and looking into things if you were elected as a board of Finance member would you be willing to do some research like off meetings and then bring it back to the board of finance and talk with everybody about it on your own time because sometimes absolutely it does take some time my my my commitment my reason for for doing this and is really it kind of gives me another purpose so post retirement I want to remain active in the community community I want to challenge my brain and research is I just I just love it I've always loved it and I want to be an active participant
I'm not going to be a sideline person I might not always have the best ideas but I feel like everyone getting their heads together everybody has something to offer like there's never one person that knows it all and this is what I always said in my job I may not know it all as a manager I might not know all the answers you might not know the all the answers but together we have so much experience that between the group we can find the answers for what we need and I'm happy to research on the side prepare documents on the side whatever and come prepared as an AC participant thank you yeah thanks other questions from the board okay very good thank you very much Liz we'll go on to our next candidate this is Marcy minor I just want to point out that the agenda is
incorrect the packet it's Marcy M rcie I assume it's just a typo there because it was in it was correct in the things that we received from the town clerk so we'll make sure that that that's just reflected and Marcy's with us so are you off mute yep so if you want to go ahead again and just kind of give us the same overview the you introduce yourself and tell us why you're interested in the board and and go there hi yes my name is Marcy Miner I've been in town since 88 so it's been quite a while 36 years and obviously I really like Andover enough that not only do I have a house in Andover I also have a vacation home in Andover so and I I'm really really excited to see the two candidates that were just on they're very qualified and I'm really excited about that because I think that it's important that we have a strong board and that we have people that you know that don't have Alterna motives you know that they you know really want to just give back to the town and that's why I chose to get involved because I
think it's important that we give back and I've you know throughout my adult life life that's you know what I've done a lot I've volunteered quite often almost you know throughout as much as I could you know I've been on the Library board I've been on aloa I've been on the beautification committee and in fact I was was on the beautification committee for quite a bit started my business here landscaping and so kind of went hand inand and we did really did a lot with you know getting the Gazebo we never had a gazebo before but then we had one Ed Ed turn was you know part of that getting that involved and we landscaped that and so you know it's it it kind of you know I have a lot of pride in the town and it feels really good to be you know part of that and to know that you know you've actually contributed to that and yeah I'm really excited about things that have been going on in the town lately we finally have the senior center or Community Center and that's you know been a long long road coming to get that so so anyway yeah I I would I'm interested in joining the board of Finance because I
have you know I have a lot of experience I've ran my business our business for since we started in in 1990 so we've had that for 34 years and I graduated from Eastern Connecticut State University with a business management marketing degree so so it's been it's it's been you know pretty much my almost my own whole entire entire adult life and Andover and we've really done a lot know a lot of people and and like I said I like just you know interested and wanted to make sure we have some good candidates and so I you know just decided I have a little bit of time more time than normal so I'm able to give back and I think it's an important board to have some good qualified candidates so anyway thank you okay thank you MRC questions from the board members Louise hey Marcy just wondering feel is the most pressing item in the town right now same question I'm asking everybody else one of the things that that I noticed whenever I go to board meetings it's never very clear as to the budgets don't seem to be transparent so I think
it's I think it that would be something that I think would be important to try to make sure that the that the budgets are transparent easy for everyone to understand I've tried to get a lot of people involved in going to town meetings and getting involved in the budget process but they don't seem to really understand where the money is going and they feel frustrated and so I kind of like to make it so it's it's it's more transparent basically okay thank other questions from the board members Marcy again I know that I've seen you at sorry Mark if I I've seen you at many meetings so I know that you you always do try to get involved just a little background with that we have tried to because you pointed that out we do get a lot of reporting and
everything there is a lot of stuff that does go on behind the scenes as far as maybe what you don't see I don't mean secret meetings I just mean information gathering sending things looking for information questions asked data asked for all that kind of thing we do have a lot of back and forth things but I I think you're right when you go to a budget meeting like in the town and people that haven't followed the process that's why I get at my question have you followed what's been going on you know and and usually something in the town strikes you for wanting to join a board and and I don't this isn't about me at all I'm just saying one when I saw the River East one year and we were
going to have a 10% tax increase or something huge you know before the pandemic or you know boom I was at the next meeting so I mean there is a lot of stuff where you we're you know we try to get things so that's that's a nice point that you're bringing out I don't want you to think it hasn't been asked for and I'm not saying we don't get it I mean there there is a give and take so it's good to have fresh ideas of what you think that looks like you know so there you go but I I can't ask you my question because I've seen you many many times so there you go yeah I try to stay involved I try to you know keep in touch with what's going on and and yeah so it's and obviously like you're right if you're not there through throughout the whole Pro process you're not going to know everything that's going on but there are some things that could be a littleit easier for people to grasp I think all right thank you other members or questions for the board of members of the board Kim Marcy you seem like you're very busy and you have a lot going on do you think you can make the time commitment for the monthly meetings yes I I've
actually taken steps to simplify our business so it's made it so that I've had a little bit more time to devote and I wouldn't put myself out there if I didn't think that I could you know spend the time because I think it's important not only that you just go to meetings but also that you have the time to do some you know some investigations I know a lot of times I've looked at meetings but I've also you know went beyond and looked at other towns budgets and other things that go on in other towns it takes time so it's definitely a Time commitment so and I I've Al always been interested in the board of Finance but I've always hesitated because I know that a lot of the meetings that happen happened to happen in the spring and that's when I'm busy a lot so so I've been able to reduce that workload a bit so it's made it so that I feel like I could donate the time thank you I appreciate you handed with us sure other questions from the board of Finance members okay thank you very much Marcy we will goad we move on to our next candidate we have Heather vanera hope I'm pronouncing that correctly Heather okay we can't hear you don't appear to be on mute but we're not hearing you technical difficulties sometimes people will call in on their phone too as well oh there you go yeah there you go yeah that's that's really the next option so yeah hopefully we don't get any feedback
right Heather do you have your volume up on your device that you're using sometimes that will prevent you from joining the meeting Mark May we can move to the next candidate while Heather tries to figure her volume yeah it's possibility I would prefer not to just because technically we're supposed to follow the agenda order I don't think it's has any substantive difference so okay and say of course it's the meeting Eric's not here they might have some little tricks behind the scene I don't I don't know that yeah I don't think I don't think there's anything different now she's not she's not muted by the host there's really nothing that we can control over there so yeah so Heather can log out log back in yeah you know maybe going on to the next candidate and having you rejoin to see if is that okay okay I feel badly that's terrible you wait all this time technical issues right so the worst Co didn't bring anything out it's certainly brought out the the risk of those type of things so okay so if everyone's in agreement is anybody on the everyone on the board in agreement that we can just move on to the next candidate and then we'll come back to Heather after yes yeah okay good I think we're okay then so sorry about that we'll we'll go ahead so our next candidate and then will be Bata and then we'll come back to Heather
and so Bata I'm pronouncing your name correctly right you are mark thank you okay good so again for the same as the other candidates if you want to go ahead and give us an overview of yourself your background your interest in the board and we'll go from there sure Scott just made a com okay that was you Heather I added you to the meeting but it's it's it's echoing so I I'll just muted your phone okay do you speak since you got her connected well I guess we can try that and see I'm fine with that to retain the meeting agend okay Heather I don't know if I can have you unmute oh can you guys hear me now I anybody remember the workaround to this because I think we've had this before speakers on your computer I'm so sorry about it I feel like she has to release her computer and just go on the phone for now okay I'm going to mute you right now Heather and we'll go ahead and go on to Bata but I think if you mute your speakers on your computer then you should be able to join without having the echo I think not an expert either so I mean
worst comes to worst you drop out of the meeting on the computer and just do the phone yeah yeah you could do that too that's fine that's I mean just in the if that's the at the Ed or if everything else doesn't work yeah okay okay so yeah we'll go back to you then sorry for the confusion everyone if you want to go ahead and give us your overview sure I don't know that I've had the pleasure of meeting most of you in person as I am somewhat newer to town but my name is Bata adamsky I have been a resident of Andover since August 2021 we moved to town from marbor where we lived for 10 years but I grew up in New York and a large part of my interest in the board of Finance is really to just become more involved with the town in general I have two children at Andover Elementary School who have quite some time left in our school system in general and growing up in New York it was a very large school system very large town where you know you never really felt like if you spoke up your voice would be heard just due to the large number of people and so now that I'm on another side of the river so to speak I would like to have my voice heard in town and contribute positively to our community I graduated from Eastern in 2007 with a Bachelor's in Business Administration and went on to work for Enterprise renar for almost 10 years I went through their Management training program which they say is the best similar to a business to a master's degree if you've seen all the the jokes that they
make about it but it did teach me a lot about customer service about community service about business of course I was responsible for at some point up to 50 employees I helped Pioneer a division within the company in New England that became one of the most successful divisions of that company here in the commercial truck field being up at 4 a. knocking on business's doors working with procurement officers and finance officers to generate business from the ground up and my take on Andover since coming into town is that it's an upand cominging community and I think we do have a lot to offer but I in fact would like to see us have more to offer I'm currently working as a real estate professional I'm in sales there it's not really a sales job but everyone calls it a sales job but I have a lot of sales background as retail as well and restaurants and and that kind of thing and like I said I would
just like to see our town continue to grow and improve and be an amazing place to live which I do feel it is but why stop where we're at you know I'm looking to the very long-term future as now that I'm here I don't see myself going anywhere like most of you for many many years and you know I am kind of looking big picture and long term at what we can do in town now to really continue to make this a place where families want to come and live and raise their kids and send them to school and where businesses want to establish roots and invest in the community and I think if we all as you know Town people join forces and work together to bring in not only our residents to help maybe offset some of the budget wo that we have felt that some of us have already addressed in town but how can we take the burden off the taxpayer and continue to keep and maintain and improve what we already have by bringing in more businesses so recently I have tried to dive into being involved in the community as on many levels as I can from joining the Veterans Field Improvement committee to recently putting my name in for economic development I really am looking to serve my community in as many ways as I can over the past few years I've become very involved in several different charity organizations through my professional work and through the boards that I serve through the greater Harford Association of Realtors pride myself in having a Connecticut business license and I know what it takes and the financial impact that you know our our state is facing our small business
owners and so yeah anything I can do to just improve where I live the community for my children my family I'm 110% invested in that plus in addition I think I provide a unique perspective to the town and to any board I might be so you know graciously able to serve on in that I live in a multigenerational home one of the big reasons for moving to Ando is that my parents during the pandemic my father's Health was not doing so great and unfortunately we did lose him this past spring but living with two seniors in town as well as two School AG children coming in kind of during a budget season and seeing some of unfortunately what I felt is divide in our community I'd really like to be someone who can help bring us all together for everybody's interests you know and needs to be met so I'm just here to serve and to meet as many people in town and hope like I said to make and over the best town to live in in Connecticut okay thank you very much B so we'll go back to the board members specific questions for the candidate Lise so sorry about your dad yeah you might probably have a good because you have multi-generational you probably see on both sides between the kids and the seniors which is a good type of view to have type of thing what do you feel that would be more important right now in town to really
prioritize well I do agree that the town Charter is something of high priority in my opinion at the moment the basic framework for how we operate you know is obviously the foundation that the house is built on so you know I'm very interested to see how that plays out and then like I said I think that there is a way and maybe I'm an eternal optimist but I think there's a way that everybody who lives here can have everything that they want and it's just a matter of Us coming together and not polarizing ourselves like we see unfortunately so much right now just out in the world and dare I say politically you know so I think looking to the long-term planning which I was so pleased and very excited by that meeting that presentation that was given by the planning and zoning committee last week you know how can we really sustain what Andover has been and also move forward with all the
changes that are happening with technology and with green energy and with what people who are coming into Connecticut leaving other states maybe States like California states like New York States like Massachusetts that I see clients moving here from every day and why they're coming here right and let's hone in on that and really be a place where people want to be okay thank you other questions from the board members Joanne well I just want to say I mean you gave an admirable speech for someone that just came to you know a talk and I appreciate it getting to know about you because I am a people person and I like to hear everyone's story and why they want to serve so you're and everyone has a different angle that you know we're gleaning on and all for the common good hopefully that's why we all do want to serve and you know all of that so that's really good to hear and you have a lot of perspectives as Louise pointed out the other thing that I really liked you saying because this was kind of near and dear to my heart was the economic development part of it we don't want to overwhelm obviously our little town of vover but it is important to bring a little bit of commercial tax base into the town so that we can you know share that kind of thing you will find and I'm not here to give the speech as I looked into it too that there are certain reasons such as sewers and power and all those good things that Adrien taught me well about when he was you know on a board too that I learned about even though I had all these great ideas so
there are some drawbacks that you hear about and that's why I love to you know increase my knowledge with that kind of thing but I would I feel like my question is kind of silly now that I was going to say have you followed the clearly you have you've all talked about it in your talks that you have made yourself familiar with what's going on in town so you've zoomed into a couple meetings or you know watched on YouTube to know what's going current the yes yes I attend Board of Education meetings yeah I guess one meeting that I've only really started to catch up on more would be Board of Selectmen just learning to understand how the small town levels work but as Liz knows coming from marbor you know I'm very familiar with why they didn't have commercial for a very long time and I was there and kind of becoming a new member of that Community while a lot of that commercial development was coming about and how they found the right investors and I think you know everybody that I've kind of heard opinions from in town has you know holds end over so near
and dear to their heart and that really was the initial Catalyst that made me want to get involved I'm like oh my God all these people love this town so much they're so outspoken I've got to learn more about what's going on and why people are in love with this town and and just I think finding the right fit for our town is so important and one thing that I pride myself on in my business that I would love to bring to this committee and to any way that I can serve in town is communication and I think a lot of other people talked about that tonight how we communicate with our Town's people is really important and just getting the right information out in the in the most understandable way that doesn't ruffle as many feathers as possible I'm an ultimate people pleaser I hate to alienate anyone so it was quite uncomfortable in fact for me to think about coming out for any positions because I wouldn't ever want to alienate someone but I I've gotten over that a little bit to try to get out here and just become more involved in what I can do for our town okay thank you other questions from the board members I have one Kim sure you mentioned some issues or questions or observations about our town Charter what are the things that you think that you would want to change or update or you know what what are your focus points on our Charter I I don't want to claim to be you know the ultimate resource or
knowledgeable person about the town Charter I don't even know that I have a massive opinion on what should or shouldn't be changed I do think that the board of Selectmen should remain able to vote on issues I do think the town's people should be able to remain to go to referendum meetings and to come in and speak up we are a small town and that's like the beauty of being a small town is that everyone's voice can be heard so I would like to see that that aspect remain in place aside from that like I said I don't want to claim to be a you know super knowledgeable on that topic not having seen exactly how the town operates for long enough to I think weigh in any much more at this time thank you okay any other questions from the
board members okay thank you very much B appreciate your input and volunteering okay so we'll try Heather again how are we doing can we hear you not hearing you on the phone I think the phone is muted she just put the message on the chat she at 3133 does that yeah can you hear me now yeah yes we can perfect okay y I'm so sorry about all that I don't know what's going on with my computer we've had that before sometimes just inexplicable we're back so yeah all right I don't know I mean I've been on many of Zoom calls so I don't know what was happening but I'm glad I got through finally no problem it the sound quality is good sounds fine okay so same
question as the other candidates don't you or give you an opportunity to kind of tell us about yourself your background your interest in the board of finance and you know kind of what your orientation towards it or or you might bring so my name is Heather vanara I'm so happy to meet all of you finally I've seen your names many places so it's nice to put faces to names for sure I've been in town since 2003 so about 20 21 years or so I did have a daughter that went through Andover Elementary School which we loved I work for Signa Healthcare so I'm might have to talk to liiz about that at some point I've been there over 20 years in the underwriting department so I'm very familiar with Financial profit and loss and we go through year end settlements for I'm an underwriter for Middle Market cases medical so we go through year-end settlements for those cases and we go through and I am familiar with the risk
financial analysis because we try to determine what rates these companies should pay B based on their claims experience and that kind of thing so I'm I'm very familiar with like Risk risk management and cash flow and and trying to reduce risk and improve outcomes I do that every day I think the board of Finance role is an important it's a very important for the town we have to be solvent I want the community to Be an Effective Community overall this is my first board Pro I did look at the charter committee but I didn't get on that one so I'm I'm trying to like put myself out there more and get more involved in the town now that my daughter in college I have much more time to be able to do this as far as the topic that is most important to the board now I think our budget is is quite lean and I have heard from different members that the portion that Andover is going to have to contribute to the ram budget will be increasing so I think that's probably one of the most important things coming up and also the infr infrastructure of the town is is important but like Jody said I like seeing all the roads done and everything so I think I think that's I don't know that's about it okay thank you we have questions from the board L go ahead Louise yeah Heather answered the question so okay yeah okay yeah
after a while you start to see the pattern right so yeah I figured I would just answer it right away yeah Heather and I was just gonna say too have you you know being in the town for 21 years have you been following things and obviously you know you said now that your daughter's away or in college I mean have you been able to attend different meetings see how things run kind of know the history of how the town was I mean there's been so much I've been here since I think Liz said 200 no forget it wrong wrong year I've been here since 2005 not 2015 wrong wrong decade but have you followed the pattern do you know you know what's been going on in the financial office like different things that have happened at all and it's so you know I I I would I I have followed honestly on and off Through The Years some some years I've been better at it than other years I think it definitely would be a learning experience to come on and and learn how everything is done but honestly on and off through the years I've been more involved and less involved depending on what's going on in my life well you have to start somewhere and it's great to just want to be involv so I just like to ask that question because it even though we are a small town like a lot of you have pointed out it's been a little bit of a complicated Town Through The Years
not that we need to get in the weeds with that but it's just kind of good to know a little bit of the history of the financial office too you know of that so thank you for that answer yep okay other questions from the board members no bill you're shaking your head I'm not sure it look like you're gonna no no I'm good okay good okay last going once going twice okay I guess then again Heather thank you for volunteering and thank you to all the candidates as I explained earlier we will now go into executive session we'll stop the rec ing we will move all but the board of Finance members into the waiting room you're welcome to wait of course you
don't have to and then depending on how long it takes you know we'll we'll eventually come out of executive session the recording will commence once again and we will entertain nominations for the replacement Board of Finance member once again thank you for all of your patience and your willingness to help so I'm going to go ahead and start that process now