so hopefully she'll join welcome everybody we'll call the meeting to order this is the Wednesday October 23rd regular meeting of the town of vover board of Finance we'll first recite the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republication God and justice for all okay thank thank you and we will move on to agenda item two which is public speak Eric you mind going around the room and see if we have any opport anybody waiting to speak okay first up Shannon Lowden thank you good evening Board of Finance even though it's not on your agenda tonight I want to give you an update on the tribe board policy and to make a suggestion attorney O'Brien at your
request reviewed the tri board policy as passed by the Board of Ed but instead of providing a legal opinion about it he largely rewrote it and the board of Selectmen decided not to take any action on it or either on either of the two versions so here's my suggestion there now is a capital fund that's been created for Andover elementary school so let's treat that as we used to treat the two 2% non-linguistic fund used to be permission to put in permission to take out and then we can forego all of this about a new policy that hasn't taken effect no matter or been Pro you know passed by all three boards no matter how much work we put in so that's my update as well as my suggestion thanks for listening and I look forward to hearing what you decide thanks thank you Sharon okay Jerry CR no I'm just here to listen and take
notes thank you okay Melissa latesa no comment thank you okay I'm assuming Community voice channel is not going to want to so Jen I'm all set thank you okay Mark that's everybody that I have unless I miss somebody no that looks like everybody thank you okay we will move on to agenda item three which as changes and additions to the agenda the any of the board members like to propose any changes or additions to the agenda as posted okay hearing none we'll go ahead and move on to Old business first item is 5A which is I'm sorry a little unusual sort order here but we have the approval of the meeting minutes from September 25th 2024 you had a chance to look over those anybody have any comments or would like to make a motion I would make the motion to accept the minutes as presented okay thank you Bill we have a second I'll second it okay Kimberly thank you any more discussion all those in favor say I I I any opposed any extensions okay hearing none the motion passes thank you we'll move on to item oops sorry I got to get back out to the top
here item 5B which is the check register for the town do we have any questions on the check register none here all set I'm all set okay we also had the next item which is 5b2 which you can see the question written on the agenda which is including the Board of Ed check register in the future so there was some discussion about including this it kind of came up between the administrators and Joan and Eric and I she had it listed on the on the agenda I mean my personal view is that there's no really reason for the Board of Ed check register to be included in the board of Finance meeting minutes we don't have any kind of controlling authority over the board of Ed's spending it's the check register was primarily requested from the Board of Ed for the purposes of closing the books on a monthly basis and having that done timely so she's Terry has been spending sending the Town's reports over to the treasurer to Cheryl she's been copying at least me and Joanne I don't know that she's been copying rest of the board and I know Eric hasn't always been copied so what I would propose is that if the board would like to review it it might make sense to include all of the board members we could forward that on but I don't know that we want to take it up as a matter of standing activity in our board meetings to review that's my personal view so that's my take does anybody have any other comment Joan yep yeah I I agree that it probably
shouldn't be in the packet because the packets are posted and they're for the whole town but I have no problem I knew we went back and forth a little bit I have no problem with the board I think they would want to see it because if they're looking you know like you said I know a couple members have expressed wanting to see it month-to month so it makes sense and I meant to forward the latest ones to the board members but I've just had a a crazy busy day today so I'm happy to do that later and attach it you know in an email monthly so that they can review it and I think we can be more prepared and have questions if we want to but not to put it in the packet for the whole town to see it before we even have a chance to look it over yeah I mean in theory it could be you know considered a matter of public record if anybody really did want to see it I just don't know that it adds any value because if we looked at it just like a member of the town the public looked at they're if they had something that seemed unusual they wanted to ask questions about we don't even have anybody at this meeting who can answer them so right it's kind of you know it's kind of a moot point I mean if somebody had a question on the board of ed spending then the appropriate form for that would be the
Board of Ed meeting right and then ask or or ask directly to the to the administration so so I yeah I think that that would be the appropriate action any of the members disagree or have an Al Viewpoint no I agree I agree I think it's a great idea thank you makes sense Joan do you want to take the action to forward that then yeah I mean do I have to publicly say it or I will definitely do it I will no no no I just want to make sure that it gets I will make sure to take care of it yeah disappointed I didn't have time today I wanted to get that over there but I will meeting yeah it's a good point you know we talked about it but yeah okay yeah yeah I didn't really think about it either mainly because I I looked at is as I said it's kind of a treasury you
know procedural function more than an oversight and it's really not an oversight function from our standpoint and I think the check register too just to to add to that I mean we'll watch their month to month but I mean having the reports and seeing you know it's we're not it's not going to tell us much month to month knowing that spending could come in cycles and there's different times so sure it's it's just another data point for us to look yeah but I don't think it's going to going to say anything as far as you know okay yeah month to month like I said L your hand up yeah is it included in the Board of Ed agenda not the agenda the packet I don't think so I mean I I could be wrong I don't think it's a Oh Shannon or Jerry do you have any do you have any input I can't remember I mean they do review the financials but I don't know to what level and I don't know if it's full part of the packet or not the check register is not part of the packet okay yeah you know and I think you know as Joan made the point you know it's often one of those things even for the town that you know we just look for something that looks a little OD odd because we happen
to understand the town spending so it might flag a question for us but doesn't in and of itself as Joan said you know doesn't really necessarily give you much information so so it sounds like we're agreed that we probably don't need this as part of our packet going forward but that you know as as just a courtesy will forward it to the to the other board members so that they have access to it should something come up okay and did they give you the check register for all of their checking accounts or just their main one I I forwarded it to you Eric I mean I don't look at it to be honest I just assume Cheryl Cheryl has what she needs and that was my [Music] interest okay so if nobody has any else on that we'll move on to item six which is new business first item thank you for including this Eric is either you or Kate because I had a letter from the town clerk reminding me that we have to
set our meeting dates for 2025 they need to be posted I think it's within 30 days of the first meeting as opposed to the fiscal year but regardless it's appropriate for us to do this early and get this over with so [Music] Eric had included a set of proposed dates in here so this follows the if you go to it's actually page 20 in the packet in terms of the number of PDF on the number of page on the PDF file this follows the algorithm we be following which is the fourth Wednesday of the month at 7M there's one exception noted and that is for December are you sharing it Eric okay thank you so the one exception that Eric had noted or one concern that he had noted is the fourth Wednesday of December is Christmas Eve so we have a choice if we're going to stick with our Wednesdays of either the 10th or the 17th but both of those conflict with possible other committee meetings I would also like to point out though that the November 26 is the day before Thanksgiving I don't know about you but I would prefer not to have a meeting that day so what I would is that we follow this schedule but instead we alter the November date to November 19th and we change the December date to December 17th yeah sounds good to me that work for everybody yes you rob yeah agree what I'm sorry what did you say for the December date the 17 17th
17th okay and this is for next year anyway for 2025 25 yeah this year is the 18th you know for instance this year we have it on the 18 yeah but we obviously do the same thing you know yeah every every November December you got to look at it and see how it bumps up against the holiday I just want to plug this into my phone that's why I'm sitting here like this because somebody want to make a motion to accept the calendar as indicated with those changes with those two changes I'll make that motion okay okay Rob is motioning that we just to be clear for the record Rob is motioning that we set the board of Finance meeting schedule to include for 2025 to have the first meeting on January 22nd then in February 26 March 26 April 23rd May 28th June 25th July 23rd August 27 September 24 October 29 November 19th and December 17th okay and Louise was that you that had second it I'll second that this is going to be posted anyway on the hand oversite yeah post Okay calendar yeah so just for clarification what are the dates for this November December just so I don't have that messed up 2024 are they the normal dates or are they've been Al well there November
20th and December 18th yeah November 18th yeah thank you rob no worries December 20th okay any further discussion either all right hearing n we'll call for a vote all those in favor say I I hi any opposed any extensions all right hearing none we'll move on thank you and just for the record I will send a letter to the town clerk or a note to the town clerk advising her of those dates as is required by the board chairs okay thank you all right and then the next item is budget impact 6B so you have two things in here Eric hiring a new zoning enforcement officer and hiring an assistant for the community center sure I'm just giving the board a heads up now that we did hire a new zoning enforcement officer for the town the problem is is that there's an awful lot of towns looking for one we've been on the search now for oh close to five months we finally found somebody that would take the job but they have zero experience as a Zeo so
we are planning for a considerable overlap between our current CEO and the one that we have now in training so for a period of time which is probably going to be three to four months we are going to have both of them on salary so I would expect that is going to to be somewhere around a $7,000 bump in the total budget for that line item however once Jim our current Zeo steps down the initial Zeo is at a much lower hourly rate until he gets his queso certification so he should claw back a significant portion of that by the end of the budget year but I can't tell you how that's going to work out totally other than we will be over budget on that account so I'm just giving you a heads up now the second thing is we did hire an assistant for the community center and I apologize I'm I'm sick so I'm losing my voice so hopefully it lasts the meeting we did that for a couple of reasons one we had a considerable Savings in benefits because the director that we hired does not require medical insurance so it's taking the fee in lie of so that's a significant savings to the town and we hired her for just because we hired her as a part-time person we hired her at under the salary cap so that be can I can I interrupt just for because so that I don't Circle back to that just at that point because I don't think we ever got
the full story and I don't want you to lose your voice so it can be really brief because I've heard you at other meetings so we did not hire as we expected to a full-time position person in a certain amount of hours so this person that you hired and found qualified is is indeed a part-time person is that what you're saying yep correct but would have and I'll talk for it because I remember the rules so you know if they work I believe it's 20 and above then they are offered the benefit so she was in that
range so still could have gotten benefits am I right or is it 25 hours it is 25 hours for health insurance it is 20 20 hours for the Municipal Retirement so she is eligible for Municipal Retirement and the town doesn't have a choice regardless of whether she wants it or not she's enrolled in that however she waved health insurance because she's covered under her husband's plan right I knew that was your why you guys have such a high in lie of you know compared to other towns I know that you were you're hoping that pays out in the long run and and this is one that like you said it did but how many hours is that person
working then I apologize 26 okay thank you sorry to interrupt thank you nope that's it for those two items well sorry I interrupted when you were so because we couldn't hire what we budgeted for and talked about in a full-time person we now need to bring another part-time person on will this part assistant person be less than the 20 hours can I make a suggestion if we're going to discuss this we go into executive section because there's some things I really don't want to say about Personnel right now I don't ever want to this I was just doing the outside because it's on our agenda whatever we I would be happy to discuss that in
executive session that's up to the other board members you know how deep I get into the HR stuff and and all of that so we don't have to it can be it just was on our agenda so I had those questions because in the past it was going to be one person covering all those hours and but no that's that's fine so I'll I'll I'll make a suggestion board can and can entertain it and Eric you can weigh in too please but what I would say is that maybe Joan you could take your your question to Eric offline and you guys can talk about it and if you so determine that it probably is something that the rest of the board should be aware of that we could either have an we we can't you can communicate to the board we cannot make any substantive decisions outside of a public meeting but we could of course schedule an exec session and our next meeting and and
discuss it then but that way we're not taking up too much time now for something you know especially with Eric's voice sounding like it's about to go out the window so does that make sense is that okay Eric you have anything you nothing yeah when he's up to it when his voice gets better okay yeah and you know I think we can trust the Jan to advise us if she thinks there's something we should be aware of and so okay thank you y so we have item 6C then if there's nothing else on that for the additional budget line items so Eric do you have anything to add on that this is about the addal line item for the Permanent Fund for the community and Senior Center yeah so this is very simple because we're taking in revenue for community and Senior Center programs we need need a place to put that money right now our only real option is putting it in the general fund because it can't go directly into the line items associated with the
community center so the goal would be to authorize the finance director Treasurer to just add a line to the budget you know as a Permanent Fund for the community and Senior Center so that the money can be deposited into that seems to make total sense would anybody have any questions or would anybody like a motion so I just want to make sure that so that money will not go into the general fund it will go into a separate fund just for the community center programming correct correct presumably you know that money would be spent on Community Center programming thank you Joan I'm sorry that was just a followup to bill so clearly when we see the budget it would eventually be under that well it's a fund so it's on the revenue side correct yeah never mind but I I'm in favor of it too anybody like to make a motion to authorize the fund I'll make a motion to authorize that new fund so Louise makes a motion to authorize a Permanent Fund for the community and Senior Center and have that line item added to the bud budget anybody want to second the motion I'll second I'll second Kimberly saw your hand up thank you any further
discussion all right all those in favor say I I any opposed any extensions okay motion passes unanimously thank you okay we will go on to item 6D which is the sale of equipment for the public works and Senior transportation there is a letter in there explaining the intent and the the basically the recommendation from Jay Tuttle we had a he put some stuff out for bid a 2001 GI Deer tractor and the Alm rear 3 point hitch mower head he they asked for 30,600 total received an opening bid of $26,000 for both items from the town of Fairfield so his note here is that based on his research he believes this to be a good and fair market offer and he recommended approval to the board of Selectmen that the sale of our Surplus equipment proceed so Eric I don't know what we need to do as the board of Finance for that is this just advisory so that part is just advisory fairly recently we've auctioned off a number of things the most valuable thing was the the older mower and we also mow auctioned off the old the old senior Transportation 20 passenger bus so all total between
both sets of auctions the town garnered about $30,000 I had recommended to the board of Selectmen that that money get put in either the senior trans transportation for the money from the bus or the Public Works equipment fund the board of Selectmen felt it was more appropriate to return money for both items return everything to the general fund and they recommended to you as a board of Finance because ultimately that's your decision that it be returned to the general fund interesting well I guess I mean we can we can remember that and decide you when we make our decisions about when we work up the next budget you know if we want to put more money in the public works fund we can do that are we are we looking at a shortfall there or anything or is it just you thought it'd be a good place to put well yeah I think there will be we were assuming we were going to
have the money in the public works equipment fund when we budgeted for the purchases that we've made so we will adapt it's not that we can't deal without it but it is what it is Jo yeah wasn't the whole point that I I feel like they probably wanted to put it back in the general fund because we went ahead when it wasn't budgeted last year when the equipment was purchased if I cor if I you know and took out the lease and I know we talked about this at the board of Selectmen meeting that recently took place so is I would think that's their thought of why they want to put it back into the general fund because we've already gone ahead and replaced the equipment that was sold with new equipment and so they're just feeding it back into the general fund and then moving on from there year to year in the budget process am I wrong with that Eric I think that's that's probably the
thought I look that was a political by the board I'm not I have my own opinions on it and why but that's not something I want to share with you guys I am passing along verbatim What the board of Select and since I go to all the meetings I'm thinking that's probably the reason we have the new equipment we're not short changing anything but and that's why it's going there and then they can present their budget again and all the pieces of equipment they might want to replace that's the way I take it if any other members of the board that's listened to some of the stuff thinks differently I mean it's just we got new equipment we're auctioning off the old so that's all put it in the general fund and and take it from there I don't Maybe I'm Wrong maybe I'm being practical I don't know so I don't mind varying I'm just putting my thoughts out there yeah I not like we're short changing them at all they're getting they got new pieces of equipment bill you had your hand up did you have something no I'm I'm good at this point anyone else I i' just like to point out that just because we put it into one fund doesn't mean it can't be transferred at a later time right or used for any purpose you know that we would deem appropriate so you know it part part unless I'm misunderstanding and I don't think I am I mean the it's it's more of a convenience thing and identifies the intent but I don't have strong feelings about it either way so it sounds like Eric we need to make a motion to move that money into any a
particular fund if anybody would like to make a particular motion I'll make the motion to put the money into the general fund as the BOS directed sidebar knowing that we're going to move things or or approve things down the line if as needed I don't know if someone's going to Second it but I'll I'll second yeah I saw Kim's hand up first so we'll call her thank you further discussion I'll just say I'm personally not super opposed I think that the if the budget was developed for public works with the intention that there would be we' be reclaiming that that sale as an offset to other expenses it probably you know we probably need to make sure that that was explicit if it was that would be the main reason to put it in the public works fund again you know I think we can be flexible so I don't have strong feelings about it one way or the other never stated that never came up I just don't remember that being discussed I it could have forgotten something but yeah no I never heard it discussed that way it was more going for the newer equipment further discussion comments questions okay we'll take a vote all those in favor say I I I any opposed any extensions okay sounds like it's unanimous thank you all right we will move on to agenda
item 6E so this is the addition of the quote destratification fans never heard that term before although it makes logical sense I I learned it at the CIP meeting last month yeah I know Des gratification look like this came in lower than we had anticipated this is like half what I thought it was going to cost maybe I mean so so this is the they had requested that we consider this so we've got a quote from the electrical contractors of 9,829 21 it's broken down with material equipment and labor and then we have another quote associated with it for 6,400 oh that just lists the fans themselves and so I'm confused are both of these this project Eric or so let me clarify I initially got a quote from the town's kind of standard electrician Lenco yeah I but the total between purchasing and that was assuming that the town bought the fans themselves so we didn't pay any mark up on the FI okay Leno was was okay with there's but that assumes that Lenco buys we're just buying the fans and but I I I
couldn't figure out which sets of controllers because they got all kinds of different options okay to combine six fans run them off two sensors with one controller so this incl includes Rick or Leno paying for that so the total is just over $15,000 which ordinarily requires us to go to an RFP I did get another estimate from Seward electric who's the electrician that the school generally uses that was a couple thousand lower however it left out a couple big things that they were that Rick was supplying so I've gone back to them and say well you know they just said there's a note in there saying the town's on the hook to buy and get all the controllers there so I don't know what the cost of all of the additional and it also doesn't cover the cost of protecting the gym floor so but any way you cut it it's either slight lower than Lenco or the same as Lenco so you're not you know it's going to be in that ballpark so my question for the board is
do you want this to go to RFP per the town's policy or for your policy or are you willing to say it's close enough to the threshold that you allow it to go with a quote from the school's electrician and the town's electrician and go with the lowest bidder which presumably will be seaward I I'll you see you answered my first question which is I I have you know kind of unwillingly become pretty familiar with this type of work just because of I ended up with I have responsibilties for our facilities in our business as the corollary thing so the electrical work looked re very reasonable to me based on you know what I know of what electricians even favorably priced electricians will will do the work for and I'm sure Leno is like the electrician we often use in my business which is you know we give him a lot of work so he's not going to overcharge us he treats us fairly well and I think
we've got the same situation here the one concern I had was the amount for material because I didn't get that based on the fact that we were supplying the fans so now that you explain that they're supplying the controllers and the mechanism that makes a lot more sense to me so that being the case unless we were to specify different fans you know I think if we were specifying these fans you know you're not going to get them less right you're paying what you're paying so it's really the $10,000 roughly of Contracting work and including materials that that we're bidding here so you know to me I'm comfortable with the quote and I'll just leave it at that in terms of my my comments other comments or questions from the board I'm good with it I know CIP when we had our meeting we approved up to either 18 or 20 I think for this project approved a recommendation for that much so I'm pleased to see it come in more like 15 and you know I I'm comfortable with with the two bids I would Echo both your comments and say the same I agree as well yeah go ahead Ken no I'm fine with it too yeah okay I agree too makes sense anybody want to make a motion to wave the requirement to go to RFP for this project sure I'll make the motion okay Rob so no so moved anybody a second I'll say it okay Bill further discussion okay for all we'll go ahead and take a vote all those in favor say I I I any opposed any extensions okay hearing none the motion passes thank you I think that's very
reasonable it's going to get this done you know we've been looking at this for a while right okay so we'll move on to item 6f so these are the charter revision questions so I'll I'll make a couple of preliminary comments if I could so obviously the first thing is that the these questions are before the voters of the town of Andover and not before the board of Finance so there this is just merely kind of informational or advisory I suppose if we wanted to we can make recommendations as a board of whether we felt comfortable with them or not I would suggest that we only do that unless we if we feel very strongly about something in particular so that's my first comment my second comment is I would request that we not waste anybody's times talking about any of these proposed revisions that are not directly related to the board of Finance thank you yeah my third comment would be that the information that is in the packet and that is in the sample ballot that was mailed to your house is not very detailed and what I mean by that is if you really want to understand the charter revision questions you should look at the actual language of the revisions I believe this is all posted in the rivere bulletin and it is also on the town's website they're not substantively different but there are some procedural things that that I think the board would be well to do well to be aware of the first thing is that it requires by Charter that we meet with the board of Selectmen by October 15 and Set objectives and goals for example for the budget if I remember that's
that's how it's stated obviously that's not in effect this year because it's not part of the charter and there's some other things there but you know I think that these these explanations in general do a fair job of representing what the changes mean and what their goals are but the devil is sometimes in the details I don't think that there is anything that I'm super concerned about just from a board of Finance procedural U matter but it does have some impacts on us number one is the timing right so we have this October 15th meeting that was stipulated by the charter change we should be aware of that I don't think that's a bad thing I think that's fine the other thing is that it moves up the timing and as you if you read through this and through the explanation on the sample ballot it will tell you that the primary I guess benefit of some of these changes is to align the vote so that it can be aligned with the RAM budget referendum so obviously that has a
savings to the town and that we do not need to hold two votes over very what's essentially very similar questions there was another so that's kind of the one thing the other thing that I think you should be aware is that and this isn't you again it's not it's not spelled out in these explanations but the charter then talks about the it it it talks about the process of developing the budget and makes it more aligned with what we're actually doing by saying that the Departments need to go to the administrator with their proposed budget and not to the board of Finance but then it also talks about budget review meetings which shall be I'll open this
up there shall be budget review meetings in March which shall be joint meetings of the board of selectman and the board of finance a quorum of at least one of the two boards is required to conduct business so basically this is saying is that there must be some budget review meetings which shall be joint meetings of the board of selectman and the board of Finance now as I read it it doesn't prohibit us from having our own budget review meetings there's nothing in there it says we can't do that of course that's within our purview but I
think that the intent here is to avoid duplicate budget review meetings which is kind of what happens in the current process you know the board of Selectmen holds review meetings we hold review meetings we ask questions about what was the intent of the board of Selectmen here and then you know if you're un unless you're Joanne you probably haven't gone to all of them so I think that there is some efficiencies to be there but it it it you know again this is something that's in the details that isn't necessarily spelled out there that does affect the the process that we as the board would follow so just want everybody to kind of be aware of that I'm not sure there anything other that's really that that significant other than the timing and then it talks about how how we handle the board of meetings the public hearings moved up you know the budget hearings moved up what happens if there's not a quum at the budget you know it goes directly to referendum so they're they're trying to streamline this process a lot of which I personally don't have a problem with but I just think everyone should be aware that there's a lot of changes here it's not just a you know a few date changes so I just wanted to mention Mark that a lot of us were present the other night which I thought was great they had a explanation you know meeting of the Town Charter because I hadn't read all of that defined details which I want to read tighter but I thought it was important that they did I I just
happened to be looking at the meetings that week and saw it so we went and you know a lot of us were present there and we did you know some of us did speak up I know you just said that maybe we should you know not but I felt compelled to talk about it a little bit nothing the nothing the small things we're all going to take the questions one by one I know Bill wants to speak too but I do have some big concerns with the timeline process sure we'd all like life to be streamlined and quicker and if that can happen and I didn't read the details that there was going to be joint meetings so I really do want to read them but I worry and it's not the town's fault but we know just for a month-to-month meeting we don't always get everything right on you know early to have to be able to review it I just felt there was a lot of pressure you know and I spoke publicly for all the town departments everybody to speed up everything up and then you know what's going to happen there might be decisions early and there's going to be a bunch more stuff that comes late even when we had the regular meetings there's always some things that you know are brought to us late so it's my concern is the pressure put on Eric who puts that document together I mean there was a mistake in last year's document we know and we we caught it I mean I get worried
about rushing you know and and all for the thought of personally I get I don't I'd love to know how much you know the referendum's cost and I'd love that by having the RAM and the budget you know everything together that it was going to make a difference I really don't I mean they brought out a lot of percentages and you know how many people vote how many people go to the meetings but I still think that every person that does take the time to go to meetings and yes I did take it seriously and that's why I was able you know has that chance I should finish my thought I'm rushing ahead like if the Don denley's of the world and the different people that come every year and the people that I've gotten to meet through the years of being here want to have that space in that Forum I'd like for them to have it and I know we're not taking it away but I do worry about the rush it's hard enough for them to do their regular jobs it's a four- day week there you know a lot of part-time people every Department getting things in and trying to do the town's business Plus getting this together and that's that's my two cents that was my negative about
it is is rushing it other comments or questions just I was at the meeting too and one of the reasons that they wanted to do things is to try and get more people out to vote so where you have you know the AES vote and a ram vote they're separate or combining them into one they were saying we get more voters to turn out in one boat than in two but I was just wondering what that does to our timeline as far as preparing everything would we have to move things up a lot to be ready in time to vote for
the ram budget which is usually a week before ours isn't that correct well yeah we would have to move it up by by Charter and you know what I would I mean I I wasn't at the meeting of the other business meeting but the you know what I think some of the intent here is is that if we combine activity with the board of Selectmen if you remember a lot of the delays that we've had have not been necessarily be generated by the Departments or by Eric it's been generated because the port of selectman took a pretty long time to review it so I'm thinking that perhaps and it needs to work this way but perhaps that if you have joint meetings starting early on everybody's got a pretty solid understanding of what the what the issues are and what the concerns are early on so if that's the case it really truly could be a more efficient process I'm also someone who knows that in some cases I mean we've all been in the real world right that the work expands to fit the time allowed so if we you know if we if we crunch it up a little bit and we need to be reasonable I think that we can probably probably get it done you know I didn't have major concerns about the timing but it does it does mean that people are going
to have to act in the Departments and then of course Eric and the and the and the treasurer are going to have to act you know so would we schedule time Mark for our own independent reviews or all review would be with the board of Selectmen I mean it it doesn't stay there's nothing that would prohibit us from holding our independent reviews and I'm just thinking too the amount of time that we take to go through this it's a pretty lengthy period of time that we do this and you know with the five people on the board and then you take in I don't know if are the board and Selectmen always totally in agreement on what the items are or are we to be kind of like a much larger board all trying to work at the same time I can picture the meeting is getting longer and more complex I guess but I'm not sure if
that's a proper analysis or not I'm just thinking 10 people working in a room trying to get their points across trying to get their views and I just think it's nice when we get a you know the board of Select come together they put together their plan their views hey we could talk to them and have a meeting up front when they deliver the package to us maybe they meet with us tell us what their views are what the thoughts are what the plans are kind of give us an oversight and then we go through and do what we normally do you know each week that we get together I think that makes a little more sense or maybe there's a date the beginning of a Daye at the end that we meet with the board of Selectmen but I do like that kind of independent Board
of Finance review that we've done as much time as it does take I think it's worthwhile so yeah and I I think that that if you know there's some language omitted in these you know in the charter change document that indicates the changes but I I I think that ultimately it still is the board of finance's responsibility to recommend a budget to hold a budget hearing and then to basically pass the budget on to budget and I just wouldn't want to feel pressure by being in the same meeting of the board of Selectmen with them pushing their agenda or for each item I think that's a separate meeting when we approve that I don't think that's a joint meeting all all this all the language it it in terms of what I see the only you know this just requires that we have the joint meeting or you know in in March it could be one it doesn't say you have to have two or three or five or whatever you know so from my standpoint it still gives us the opportunity to have individual meetings I would foresee us having that for the final budget we are the financial Authority for the town from that from that standpoint that would be my question I didn't know who's the final say I I have to read the I have to read between the weeds as people have said or
you know because this these are some important changes you know that are going to affect everything and I I wasn't sure and a lot of people were pointing out at that meeting that what's what you're looking at Mark is a lot more complex than what we were reading in the one one little line and then a little explanation obviously even if I was presenting something I would slant it my way I would want to bring out the positives that they're seeing but thank you for bringing up some of the other things I was just being true to myself and just know how long it took us every year so was concerned for the timeline mistakes making sure we covered everything just the process you know having been so many years on the board now that was my concern with everybody just kind of sitting in a room and
saying well let's do this so we can get some more votes I understand the need I would love to see more people vote but is that I I don't know what that's ultimately going to do either you know with our with our population because I'm always surprised with the whole Ram thing too that I've tried to get involved and like throw information out there and say how maybe a few things could be changed and it really hasn't affected anything so even if we get more voters out that's a good thing but it seemed to be that was their their Theory let's get more voters out when I yeah on that one day I I ask a question [Music] do we know how the other towns do it
like Hein and Marboro do they hold their their budget vote the same time as the ram budget Hein does Hein holds one vote for both budgets so it can be done it's a matter of yeah Malboro has been talking about it but I don't think they're aligned with that schedule yet yeah I like the idea of doing it together for sure but I can definitely see your point Joanne I mean it's just so time consuming to to just say let's do it three weeks earlier and and make sure that everything that they need has been thought that's so scary listen I'd love it if it freed up our time and all those meetings and those late nights and lack of sleep and what whatever but we gain two weeks of the board of Select
when we get their stuff done on time that's easy we're the ones that have the statutory requirement as part of the charter as to when we have to have our meetings but yeah although their meetings are good too when they discuss different things you know yeah so I'm going to shush and let everybody else Give opinions everybody's I've been full out on I'm just I'm worried about mistakes I'm worried about just everything that's going to come with it so we want to do a good job as a board I I just to get a few hundred extra votes you know I want that but let's just promote more and get everybody to vote you know so so I'd love more votes all the time so other questions or comments from the board I'm over a similar mind in that I completely understand the idea of trying to put the votes together I have no problem with that as a concept but I have my concerns about compressing our schedule I think I expressed that when this first came up I I'm a little dubious that it would go as smoothly I mean it's not that we if it happened we' do it but would we miss more stuff you know even even now you know we're capable overlooking a small thing like you know there were a couple little earier secrecies this year that we that we missed so I I'd rather not do it but
if the voters approve it then you know we'll roll with it we'll have to we'll make it happen we'll make it work somehow Eric I just have a couple quick points I mean looking back on it the last four years generally I've got my first you know serious completed draft of the budget sometime between January 15 and January 20th and put it in the hands of the board of Selectmen now the reason I put it in their hands is because they've been insisting on it they have no real statutory authority to review it but they're my boss so if they tell me they want six weeks to review the budget then you know I'm kind of bound to that so what the board has kind of talked about is and and what I think is totally appropriate is there're in charge of kind of big picture questions for the town where do we go what are the major priorities you know so by having an early goal setting meeting with both boards I have the direction of where the boards want to go instead of us now what's happening is I'm producing my budget giving them to the budget and then we're having the big picture questions yeah you know which take like you know six weeks to propagate through before the board of Finance so I think the board of Finance should end up with the same amount of time that they have now just shifted earlier the one caveat there's two caveats to that in my mind the first is the reality is on January 22nd I don't
have all the numbers because we rely on a lot of shared services so while I'm going out and getting estimates and there's a lot of things that are out of my control and I am not going to know until later in the budget process so no matter what we do throughout the budget process we will be adjusting things but remember we're relying on state funding for a significant fraction of our total budget and they often don't pass their budget to June or later so we we've long since adopted a budget before we have final numbers over you know what is you know 20% of our budget so there's always going to be some imperfections in there whether you we where you start the process the later you start the process the more accurate information you're
going to have and that's a good thing but generally speaking the corrections aren't big Corrections you know because most times you can get a reasonable estimate from ahm and from nikog over animal control services and all these things ahead of time but you don't have actual final numbers until they pass their portions of the budget so that's all I had to say other than that I'll do whatever you guys you know want as far as the budget I mean that's my job the only thing is I want to go on vacation the beginning of March to mayorca for a while so I'm gonna skip a little time in March I've gone back and forth about when I can afford to take time in the town but the problem is there's no season when it's not problematic for me to be gone so you know we can discuss it but but I would like to take some time in March and you defied for a while at least go for like six weeks right so no at least a week certainly not more than two somewhere between those two numbers all right so yeah I'll you know just to so thank thanks for that that helps Eric you know I'll you know I'll just say a couple things one is you know I've been doing this for several years now probably not as long as as Rob he's probably the the longest serving member of this board but I think those of you have been on Louise
and I probably been on some some maybe Louise have been on longer than I have I can't remember but things generally don't change that much in any on line item between December and March they really te typically don't we don't see any things that comes in and we're like oh my God we didn't expect that I mean it happens some things change I mean the we never know how much the state trooper is going to cost us and if one person moves into a different job and we get a you know somebody who's at a higher salary you know we can be a $20,000 swing you know so we've had some stuff like that but nothing I think that we can't absorb and as Eric makes clear we and we all know from doing this previously and if you watched it you know we don't know what the state's going to going to give us for you know some of the reimbursements ETC the other thing I'll say is that and any of you who've worked in business who've had responsible for budgeting have probably run into the same thing but you know we
develop our budget starting in September you know and we know they're wrong we know they're not going to be perfect it's just an estimate but we have to start with a plan and we can adjust things as they go along so I'm concerned about compressing the schedule too much also so the key is not to compress the schedule the key is to start the process earlier I think so that would be you know that would be my my kind of two I have just one further Thing Mark it's just are we going to I get that and I get that things can be tweaked and do little things but are we gonna have and this is a town thing and the town's voting but we are discussing it but by putting this earlier and Eric so involved is this gonna have to just take so much of his time you know constantly getting estimates and doing this I'd rather see him be able to and again this is not not my decision he has bosses but is he going to have to then just be so much more into it from earlier through June whereas maybe if we just kept it
you know you know constantly and maybe he constantly is already and he can answer to that versus devoting his time to all the other projects we're going to talk about later or things that he has to do I hate to have him as our Town Administrator manager so wrapped up into this changing all the time that that's that's my thought with it just getting long earlier so now we're starting it earlier is he going to have to be constantly tweaking it because you know that's comments okay I'm gonna suggest then that probably we just need to move on and read read the tax vote you know vote your you know whatever you think is most appropriate for the town and advise others to do so you know obviously we all all have a stake in this so okay all right well we'll go ahead and move on in the agenda then the next item is the administrator report we have 7A active Grant List and 7B project summary Eric you want to give us the overview as long as your voice holds out sure so I just wanted to give you guys the list I gave this to the board selectman a while back but I never gave it to the board of Finance just so you have kind of an understanding of what we have going in terms of actual projects that are underway and what the grant funding level is we've been relatively successful grant funding I think we're actually at the saturation point where honestly I have as much or more grant money in than I can handle in terms of of projects o yeah that's kind of the the first thing was kind of like what what we had
available for Grants the two things that I'm kind of working on very actively right now is the arpa grant for the senior center because we have to have that money encumbered by the middle of December and I'm also working on figure figing out how to deal with the Acoustics in the community room in the new building as well as the community center because I think there is you know there's certainly a lot of movement you know I I think the board wants the ability to be able to do better hybrid meetings that that's something the town struggles with we we're fine with regular Zoom meetings you know we're fine with in-person meetings but the hybrid setup has some problems so but part of those problems can't be resolved without better Acoustics and both of the two major meeting rooms so I am assuming that I'm going to take the last of the arpa money and we have about $5,000 left plus or minus out of the arpa funds the original just under $1 million allotment and spend that on dealing with the Acoustics for the building I'm sure we'll also take some money from the building maintenance fund to do it so and the other the
arpit grant for the senior center that is to purchase equipment for the kitchen we had a good productive meeting on Thursday of last week with the town sanitarian from Eastern Highlands Health you know because we're trying to get eventually have that set up as a true commercial kitchen so that we could do events there without temporary permits but it does require some investment and while we have the grant funding we might as well spend the state's money or the federal government's money as opposed to our own the other thing that is a delay unfortunately is the federal government has not passed a budget for the year for like the 11th year in a row they failed to meet their Federal responsibility so until that happens there are no Congressional Appropriations and as most of you know we have a congressional appropriation in to finish off some of the the basement in the senior center the rest of the stuff of the kitchen and a generator that will handle the the the whole Municipal campus so Town Hall Community Center and fire department so that's it on the grant side we did get reimbursed for the majority of the HVAC work for the town hall so we still have some money available in lowp funds that can be spent for projects you know and but that's going to have to go we're going to have
to go back to CIP and talk about you know what we want to spend it on and where and then go through the process for that I also put in there a project summary the two things that the thing that's probably gonna need the most attention by the board of Finance is the Bunker Hill Bridge while that is construction of that is 100% funded between the state and federal government the town is on the hook to pay the contractors and then get reimbursed we currently have a pool of about a half million dollars in a fund specifically for that but there's going to be several months like the month that the bridge the pre-cast Bridge structure gets there where we're going to have bills that exceed that so we are probably going to need to have some sort of Swing loan from a bank to cover that because although we have enough total in our unencumbered fund balance that we could self fund that that's very risky because we would be drawing that way down to do that and
it's probably much safer in my mind to you know just have a you know for lack a essentially a HELOC for the town you know for short-term expenditures until we get reimbursed so that would need approval by the board of finance that may take a public meeting at this point I've asked the town's attorney what what actually has to happen to do that so I don't know what your thoughts are on that but that's probably the biggest pressing thing that the board of Finance really is going to need to be involved in question oh yeah I don't know how much experience we've we've had with this kind of reimbursement situation but is do we have a guest for what is typical in terms of how long will be out the money that's the question I had so the state says they can guarantee it within six weeks I'm not sure I really buy that you know at any one time I think our our worst month so that's one of the questions I had for all the contractors involved is what is our worst case scenario our one month expenses and from their perspective the month the bridge the pre-cast Bridge sections get there the pre-cast Bridge portions are going to be somewhere around 600 grand total something like that so that month they're estimating a million maybe a little bit north of a million most months will be under what we already
have in our fund set aside other questions I just not we don't have to take action on this now but need to be prepared or if anybody has any strong directional opinions we can certainly Express them but it's h good to be forearmed with this knowledge so it's a rolling reimbursement as we get bills in we submit them they pay us back and okay right so that that's hence the month yeah so you have that one month we we lay out a million two and then we're waiting for six eight weeks or whatever it is for reimbursement and that's the issue okay got it right and it gets a
little weird because some of the reimbursement comes from the state and some comes from the federal government and I don't think they've totally worked out whether the feds pass it through to the state they both give us one check they both give us checks at different times can't get an answer on that so far Eric is it when you what I think you call it a swing loan are like what are the interest rates that we would pay like I gotta imagine they're going to be in the six seven per range you know not to mention any fees to close so yeah so I'm just wondering do would take more sense just to take out a certain loan right from the beginning of the project to know that we always have
enough money to pay I don't know I don't I'm just floating things around my mind here like would you be would you be constantly taking out separate swing loans would be one loan that you qualify for that you can draw off of as needed until reimbursed yeah it's basically like an open line of credit almost right that's exactly what it is it's a line of credit you know you have up to x amount of dollars that you can tap but you only tap it when you pay bills and then you immediately reimburse so that that amount that you o can be going from zero to you know a million say and back down in a pretty short period so even though the interest rate's pretty considerable and that the town would be eating that as an expense the the duration of that should be pretty short gotcha thank you questions okay well thank you Eric that's a good overview and we will have to keep that in mind we will go ahead and move on to agenda item 8 which is the board open discussion does anybody have anything they'd like to bring before the board all right I have one thing then we have been remissed yeah what's that when you're done Mark I have just a quick item too okay so I I thought about I know that we have November we have elections coming up soon and I started thinking about our internal procedure we had agreed a while back to hold elections for chair or make a decision on on nominations and election for chair and vice chair of the board and I was thinking we had decided to do that following the typical election cycle but I went back back to verify and we
had not we had actually voted as a board to do that in July so we must have done it like after the budget cycle or something decided that was the thing to do and this was back in July of 2022 so we're we're remiss in doing that we had some changes because Diane left the board and so whatever but what I would suggest is that we put this on the agenda for next for the next meeting my personal thought is that we probably ought to elect the chair and vice chair in the November meeting or the first one to follow the election
that makes sense because although no none of our seats are up this year they will be next year so we run on an every two-year cycle and I think it's reasonable for the board to elect its chair and vice chair after the new members have been elected so that you know if something changes is you know somebody runs doesn't get reelected doesn't run again we don't end up with a hole we got a fail anyway so to me it just makes more sense to do it on the election cycle but it's not on our agenda tonight we didn't change I didn't throw it into add the item but I do think we should discuss this at our next meeting and if if come up with a either we should either follow that and just you know do the process of of of voting on a chair and a vice chair and possibly amend our internal guideline or policy of of when we vote if it's to be after the
election or after the budget the fiscal year you know like I said my personal view would be it makes more sense to do it after the election because then you'll have a fresh board on that cycle and they should be the ones to nominate and vote on their chair and vice chair so anyway that's all I got I think we can talk about it next week I don't think it's a critical thing but we should revisit that and make sure we follow the process Joanne yeah mine very very quick just because I was included on an email that discussed something someone copied me on it so which I appreciated they were asking Cheryl our Treasurer if the AES Capital Improvement or Capital fund whatever we titled it the one we had voted on creating at one of our meetings last year they just were following through and making sure that that had been created and is in use and all of the
funds that we had voted on in meetings and things had been put in that fund so Eric do you have knowledge of that like any of the checks that have been returned or things of that nature has everything gone into that account or fund I guess we're calling it a fund yeah as far as I know it has okay so there was go ahead there was the initial roughly $88,000 that got rolled over from another fund there was approximately 120 that was transferred in by consent of the board of Finance from the board of EDS overages and then there was the $100,000 that was in the last year's budget so I'm thinking there's around 228,000 in that fun something in that range and did you mention sorry Eric one part I know you know obviously the budgeted amount what we voted on to to put in
there and then wasn't there when the driveway thing didn't happen so that check would be returned to that did that go in there as well yes that was the 120,000 I just sorry I wasn't clear that's all I just wanted since they copied me on it I figured I could bring it up we were having a meeting and it was timely so thank you so I will get you the exact balance of the AES Capital fund for the next meeting thank you Eric anything else for the board okay just noting that Shannon asked about a policy change I think that should be added to the next meeting agenda and we can discuss there okay so moving on then if nobody has anything else we move on to the next agenda item that is public speak I'm sorry correspondence I didn't receive any correspondence related to the board's activities anybody else okay hearing none we'll move on to item 10 which is agenda item 10 public speak Eric want to go around sure so let's see first up Shannon Lowden nothing thank you next up Melissa latesa well set thank you okay and the last one is Jen all said thank you okay was there anybody I missed no I think that's everybody okay very good thank you Eric thank you for the public for your attendance we will move on to adjournment anybody like to make a motion to adjourn I think we should let Liz make the motion since it's her first meeting and she needs to practice I'll make a motion I don't want to push you Liz you may you know that
would be inappropriate okay so Liz Liz make the motion to adjourn anybody like to second that I will Kimberly saw your hand up first thank you very much any discussion all those in favor say I any opposed any abstentions can't imagine why you abstain on a vote to aurn but I gotta ask