recording. There we go. All right, folks. Let's get this show on the road. January 28th, regular board of finance meeting. Call to order. We'll start with the pledge of allegian 7 o'clock. Sorry. We'll start the pledge of allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
nd to the republic for which it stands. One nation,
indivisible, indivisible,
liberty and justice for all. Let me just roll.
Okay. So, our agenda, first we'll do public speak. We'll go around. and again, Jim, are you going to drop off? What's What's your plan here before I start the the rest of this?
So, I can Jeff is actually hosting also, so he can stop the recording and end the meeting. Okay. That's okay. Or I can switch and make you a host. That's okay. I mean, that's fine by me either way. Whatever works best for you. and again, like I got your email if you need to drop out. Okay, understood.
I may just hang and just you I'll just come back when you're done.
Fair enough. Okay. okay. So, I'll go around for public speak. Marcy,
hi. No, no, thank you.
Okay. Melissa,
I'm good, thank you.
Okay, great. and I mean, Lisa, I guess I don't know if you qualify. you're here as our new, treasurer, I take it.
Yes, I am. thank you for having me. Jeff, is this when I'm supposed to like just
Okay.
Am I supposed to say I have never done one of your meetings, so I wasn't sure if this is public comment or or do I introduce myself or
It's public comment. Really?
Listen, I'll I'll do public comment. I'm doing public comment. Everybody, this is Lisa Jablonsky. She is the new treasurer of the town of Andover. She started last week. she's trying to get situated in her surroundings. We've been trying to work on getting her email set up and getting her a computer. she has a computer in the office. you know, I I can't tell you how happy I am to have Lisa in as the treasurer's in the treasur's office. I think it's going to be very positive for us. we need to start getting consistent information for both boards. and I think Lisa is a great hire. Welcome aboard, Lisa.
Thank you. Thank you all.
Yeah, welcome, Lisa.
Yeah, I'll second that. I I actually got to meet her and chat with her twice very briefly, and it's all looking good so far.
Yeah, once I get like Jeff said, once I get acclimated, it Yeah, I have the email now. I have the desktop, I have Quickbooks now. So,
yay.
Trying to get in there and get something done. Yeah.
Lisa, can you share a little information about yourself?
About myself? Yeah.
I was with the town of Salem as their finance and HR director for 10 years. Before that I was with the town of Preston with their school, the Preston public school, but it was the K through K through five, the Veterans Memorial. I've worked on a couple CPA firms. I've worked for a domestic violence nonprofit. so I've just got this wide variety of I did a lot of insurance in Massachusetts commercial insurance t municipality insurance. so I'm aware of the risks. trying to think I come from Western Mass in in the hills of the blueberries. so you won't see me for two weeks in in July and August, but I'm in Coventry and I have six grandkids and and an elderly mom that keep me busy when I'm not working for you. So
Okay. Well, welcome.
Thank you.
All right. Jeff, do you have anything further before I move along?
Oh, no. I'm sorry. Yep, you're all good. I just wanted to introduce Lisa. Oh, no. Fair enough. And you know, I'm glad some of you have met her. We were going to try to put something together. It was just the scheduling this week got, I think, got crazy and with the snowstorm and everything like that and my availability. So, but pleased to meet you, Lisa.
Thank you.
can I one quick one? I got a message from Joanne Heert. She can't get in. Can somebody let her in? Whoever's driving.
Yeah, I just did it. I I a I apologize to Heather and to Joanne and to the community voice channel and probably Jody.
They're all in it.
I have to pay attention. I'm not I'm not used to driving. Robert, so you're going to have to sit there and cut me some slack.
Never done it. Understood. I I hear you. okay. So we were wrapping up public speak. Joanne, did you have anything you wanted to say at the outset here?
No, thank you. sorry to have missed what everybody else said, but that's the way it goes. But no, I'll just listen.
We're mostly just welcoming our new treasurer.
That's fine. I was just early tonight. No problem. Thanks.
Okay. and Jody, did you have something you wanted to mention at public speak?
No, I'm just here to listen and if you have questions, I'm here.
Okay. Thanks.
All right. changes in addition to the agenda. I actually do have one myself. I got an email regarding setting up the RAM budget presentation from Jim had emailed me about this. Apparently the suggested dates and and actually I wanted to run this past Jeff were we have meetings scheduled on the 11th and 18th of February. I think that are joint sessions with the board of selectmen. And the inquiry was, would either of those be a good date? I have no particular objection to that. but since we have a our first selectment here, I I just wanted to bounce it off you as well, Jeff, if you had thoughts.
No objection to that. I think it'd be great. Do it on the 11th or the 18th. Wouldever make sense for the rest of the board.
Okay. my inclination would just go for the 11th, then we'll just get it done.
and what what was that again? the RAM.
the RAM superintendent will be presenting their budget to us.
Okay. Thank you.
Yeah, that's a yearly thing. it's nice to get it out of the way, hear what they're looking for, what our levy is going to look like, maybe if it passes, obviously referendum, cost drivers, etc. That sort of thing. To
let you guys know, the board of ed has a meeting on the 11th.
The board of ed does.
Yes.
Okay. okay.
11th another scheduled meeting. So, no, it's not. It's a special meeting, right? It's a special
Do it do it on the 18th.
I won't be here, but that that's okay. It's
that's our first budget meeting. That's one of our our budget meetings.
I know.
I'm not saying it's a problem. I'm just pointing out
it's a problem. I It's a long story, but I'm gonna I'm gonna miss the 18th, so I'm sorry. Understood. Things happen. all right. We can go we can look at the 18th then. That's fine by me. I don't have a rejection to that. okay. So, I thought I saw Nick raised his hand. Do we Are you all right there, Nick? Is it was
I was just curious. Is this similar to the meeting we had Monday with the budget that was on the board of education presented the budget? Fine.
That was the board of education. It's the RAM board, the regional the for the middle high. Okay. Them explaining to us what you know their budget's looking like. Now that's a separate process from the way AES works, right? So we have because we're a regional in the middle high. What happens is they present their they work with their budget. There's a RAM board of ed. Each town has certain number of representatives. Unfortunately, we're the smallest town so we have the fewest on that board. But they put together their budget and that gets voted on separately. it's a separate referendum that occurs for the RAM operation budget and simultaneously you vote on the RAM capital budget. If those pass then it's locked in like we
can't do anything about that. So that's one of the things what makes a RAM kind of really important to us and knowing what's coming down the pike is important to us because once it's done it's done it's you know usually something like a third of our budget so pretty big deal. so anyway, that's they typically each year the superintendent comes to the board of finance presumably in the past. I don't know if they've done it separately with the board of selectment and I think this year they're thinking well you have joint meetings so why don't we present to you both at the same time. So that's the plan. so I'm I'm good with the 18th. if anybody has any further comments let me know.
Otherwise we can just plan on that. Okay. anybody else have any other changes or additions to the agenda tonight that they want to propose?
I I'd like to add an issue
if you don't mind.
I'd like to address I had made a request last month about information specific to the transfers, the HBAC transfers on the board of ed budget, and I haven't received that. So, I'd like to just talk about that. So, I don't know if that would be old business, new business from last month.
yeah, we we can add that in as new business 6A, I guess.
Okay.
anybody? So, what do we make a motion to that effect and vote on it?
I'd like to make a motion.
You want me to make the motion or do
Go ahead. Go ahead. It's your motion. Make a mo make a motion to add item 6A to the agenda to revisit my request for documentation to support the board of ed transfer of $127,468 to the R&M HVAC line item in the 2024 2025 budget. I'll second that.
Okay. Is that specific enough?
Very good. That's very That's very specific. All right. all in favor of that motion?
I
Okay, anybody opposed? Any abstensions? Okay, motion passes. 6A will be on there. All right.
make sure I don't forget it, Liz. Okay, so we have a town administrator's report here. Oh, sorry. We're Are we done with new additions, deletions? Anybody? Anybody got anything? No. Okay. Going once, going twice. All right. We have a town administrator's report in our packet. I don't know if Jim is up to running us through it verbally, but I hope people have had a chance to at least scan through it. I I went through it very quickly.
Seems like we're we're addressing our staffing issues, which is good.
Fantastic. moving forward with some projects like the generator for the senior center, community center, well the prepping for it in any event and the long hill bridge and etc. So budget budget stuff starting to come in hopefully I I sincerely hope that we'll get more on that for our next few meetings. so we get those we have a look at those preliminary budgets and see what the various folks are asking for. okay. So, I I don't know, Jim, if you're up for talking, you know, if there's anything that I'm not hitting here that you think is important to highlight, let me know.
Otherwise, I guess
ince Jim is out of Rob, out of commission because of his dental work. if you guys have any questions, I I'll be happy to fill in for Jim and do what I can to answer anything if you guys have anything on his report. Okay. I mean, basically, I I would tell you from from my one thing from my end is the plow, we're going to have a little bit of an issue with plowing overtime. Obviously, the storms in the beginning of the year for ice and this last storm happening on a weekend have not really helped our cause. So, we're hopeful that this nor easter does not come up the coast and hit us again on another weekend because it is really
going to cause us a little bit of a problems with our overtime line. So, I'm just letting everybody aware of that. So,
thank you.
You know, worst comes to worse, we'll have to address it either finding some line item that's underexpended or or dipping into contingency. Hopefully not. But and I see there that we're I don't know about running low, but we're chewing through our sand salt sand mix pretty good as well. to be halfway through the end of January.
Hopefully we get lucky from here on out. We'll see.
Nothing you can do about it.
I I can give you an actual real time update on that.
we What was the problem was right before the storm, everybody was having issues. So, what Eric, our new public works director, who by the way, I I'll give him a shout out, too. He's he's doing a very good job. very happy with having him in place right now. so, he had an order in for salt. He wasn't getting anywhere. And with this storm, there's been a significant usage and uptick on the salt. So what he did and you will notice it around our streets is he mixed the sand and salt together. So our roads have been sanded for the first time in years. and that was simply to stretch our salt out in case the delivery that we had on order didn't arrive. But as of today, we're supposed to get that delivery. it's supposed to be delivered tomorrow. And Eric's response was to me, I'm hopeful that we'll get it all, but with what has been going on lately, I believe it will be I believe it when it's all stacked in our shed. So, we should be okay with that. But there there was a little delay. There was some information that there was a a problem with the port and getting some barges into the port on salt. but for whatever reason, we're supposed to be on the delivery
schedule for tomorrow.
Okay. And on the salt, is there budgetary potential budgetary impact there or are we okay on the
we're budgeted amount?
Yep, we should be good on that one.
Okay. Well, I mean, the weather is what it is, right? We deal with it. all right. and then, you know, my my only question here is just as a refresher on this senior community center. Well, not just this. It's the fire, the town hall, and the community center. The installation of this switch in anticipation of the generator system, the generator itself. Can you remind me? Have we already set all aside everything we need to do for that generator?
that is not a set aside. We didn't tax the residents for this. This is coming from one of two sources. It's either coming from the federal set aside grant that we had pushed through Senator Murphy and Senator Blumenthal's office or it's going to come out of a steep grant a state grant that we already have.
So we have we have let's go this way.
We have two sources coming up that total a little bit over $500,000. One is a a state it's not a state grant. It's a state grant that Senator Ramen assisted us with in obtaining and there is a 200 and a little bit over 250,000 grant that was from the federal senatorial set aides and the plan is to use those two dollars to those two amounts to connect the generator to the community building. So the fire department, the town hall and the community center and the remaining money is to be used to in make finishing touches to the community center such as the kitchen and such as the downstairs room to sit there and improve both facilities. So those have been done with grant funding or federal funding, however you want to look at it.
Thanks for the refresher. I I had just forgotten that's all. All right. Thank you. does anyone else have any questions looking through this administrator report? anything else they want to bring up and discuss?
I'm good.
Okay.
Just I'm just quickly going through the rest of it. Just
Okay, I'm good.
Just to let you know on that budget to actual They did it. Who printed it? Didn't know. I can compact that onto one page. You've got two sections of that budget to actual there. It's like page to page. Page to page.
Yeah,
we can compare that. Yeah.
I I made a note. I made a note and I was going to say, is there any way we can get this on landscape?
Oh, definitely. Yeah. Yeah.
Thank you.
Yeah. And Jeff said something too about budget trying to do a format on that too and give you some more information on a different format for the budget too.
Thank you. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you.
Right. Yeah, that makes sense.
Yeah.
Well, that brings up that is our next agenda item budget to actual. did anybody have anything further on that at this time that they wanted to ask about? and so forth. Can you read it is the question because that is I mean I actually res resorted the pages so that I
did too
so I could look at it. So, well, I mean, I I would sit there and I would I would go through, you know, your revenue is seeming appropriate. And when you go through your expenses,
you know, there's not anything that's crazy out of line, but you need a different level of information. and and what I've spoken to Lisa about so everybody's aware and and I spoke briefly to Rob about it, but there has to be a consistency of information that's shared between all the boards in town. So what has to happen is the board of finance gets the information first at its meeting because it's so late in the month and then that same information goes to the board of selectmen so that they can review it. It just has to be consistent. And what I would tell you all to do is if you don't like something, you got to come to us and we've got to sit there and identify that it works or it doesn't work. So this information to me, if I was on your board and I'm on my board, it doesn't work for me. So I'm just telling you it's not I know the information. I see where it's going. I understand what's happening, but it's very difficult to read and it doesn't give you enough of what you guys need to make decisions moving forward. And you need to evaluate the information every month so that you can see what we're doing. And if we're running into trouble, you guys are aware of it and
you make your decisions as to what
we have to do cuz that's we manage. You guys identify the expenses and sit there and say you're overexpended or you're underexpended. And that's that's how it's got to work. You guys got to get the information first and then we get to see it second. So
yeah, I mean personally what's in the past been useful is you know we've when we've done these meetings you know we've generally asked someone often it was Eric you know is there anything in here that you want to highlight for us that's getting off track because you don't always know as board of finance member how cyclical things are the timings of things. So, you might look at a line item and say, "Oh gosh, you know, we're halfway through the year, but we've spent 60% of it. You know, are we on track here or are we over or are we looking at like we're going over?" And that's what that's the sort of information I think we need to know so that there aren't some giant surprises at the end of the year.
Yeah. I
have a for example, the library stuff, library payroll and the library operations that's 45501. It's like it's almost like double. Did they have an increase in staff?
or both of those is like double.
Well, the first line, you have to remember the first line is what they've spent to date.
To date. Okay.
And the second line is what is budgeted on the first page.
Yeah. So, they're 52% spent. So, if it's halfway through the year,
yeah, that second page where I said would all be on one page, it does say, you know,
Okay. So,
and and Louise, so the first the first column is not the budget. The first column is what's spent. And
yeah,
right.
This is this is something that I I spoke to Lisa about is just improving the flow of information so it's easier to read and easier to digest so that we can all sit there and understand where we at, where we're at, and what we need to do. So, we're we're we're going to work on that. And as a group, as a board of finance and the board of selectman, we need to sit there and say, "Listen, we've done a what I would call in the process a poor job identifying what information is appropriate, not appropriate, and what we want and what we don't want." We have to do that across everything to sit there and say, "This is the information. This is how we want it." And then you as a board have to get it in that manner. And I'm going to sit there and tell Lisa what I think is important for our board. And then hopefully it dubtales into what you guys want and we get one package. I don't want two packages. I don't want different information. It's one package.
So that that actually the fact that you brought up the library, Louise, that actually brings me to a a question that I had had when I look at when I look at the library budget, I see two line items. I see payroll and I know when we get our big budget the big budget ex excel book we can see all the salaries and all that all that stuff for all the employees but the other line item is library operations can we get more detailed you know probably so like if you look at the building department there's more line items in there you know more specific line items versus library oper operations just seems like a an overall number. Should there should there be more? I I don't know how a library operates. So, I'm just
Jeeoff is that due to them being like selfoperative that they don't have as many lines or the other thing is in that new format that we're going to try, we can put what's in those operations. Even if it's just briefly, we can do a memo to the side to say what those operations are. it is because the library, you have to remember, we have certain organizations within town that do their own internal books. The library and the fire department are the two entities. So, yes, we can sit there and break that out. To be really honest, Liz, $14,000, you know, is probably not the one light on we should focus on, is it?
But we'll get it. We'll we'll do it because you're asking for it and that's the way
it was an example. Yeah, it was an example as I was looking through it earlier and I went, you know, I want to make sure that we evenly look at each department and don't, you know, pick on one area more than the other. And and I just realized that, okay, there's there's two line items. I know I realize it's only $14,000. but it was just kind of an example of kind of the limited look, that's all.
No, we we can obviously work with the the library you more information.
Just happens that Kathleen was walking by here and she's the chairman
library. She's like,
"Yeah, so her ears perked up and she did provide me with a spreadsheet that does have that breakdown, Liz." So
it was presented. So I'm sure we can get that to Lisa and make sure that's
that'd be great.
in the report so she has that information. I can see the breakdown there. okay. So, we'll get
Okay. Thank you.
That was quick. Thank you.
Yeah. Ask and you shall receive.
From you.
Okay.
All right.
so where does that leave us? Anything further on the budget versus actual you know, I personally agree with everything that's been said so far? I would say, you know, some kind of comment or, you know, memo line would be good on these reports to alert us to things or to explain, you know, preemptively explain things if something seems out of whack. That would be, you know, always appreciated. Any any, you know, anything like that can usually help us hone in. so if anybody had anything, you know, any other thoughts on that, I'll we can entertain them. Otherwise, we can
move over to the next piece of the agenda. Okay. Hearing none. So, that's that brings us next check register. I had kind of I've had a kind of a crazy week. I haven't really had a chance to look at this. So, does anyone have, you know, who has been through this have questions, comments, etc. on the check register? nothing really. Maybe I'm getting used to what, you know, what we're looking at each month, so things don't look so curious, but I can certainly understand why other people might have questions, especially
there was a
newer people.
There was a couple of things that we didn't understand last time around, and I know Jim said he was going to try and get the definitions of some of those, and they now escaped me. I had one. I think Liz, you might have had one too,
I think.
But they were just like weird things that you're like, what does that mean? You know, and they weren't necessarily a lot of money, but there was just kind of a weird name for whatever it was. And I I can't remember what they were right now. I'm not sure if Jim
I think I remembered someone us having a discussion too to see if there was like a description or a notes field to include in this
on the far right. That is definitely something that we talked about that we would like to have
so that people can understand, you know, when you see a check says the Peterbuilt store. Okay.
Well, Peterbuilt, you know, that's equipment. you know but just a little little memo line to say okay well that that was spent on this or what have you would I think a preempt some questions and b you know prompt others that would be useful to us because a lot of these you know you you can look at them and kind of guesstimate what they are or you recognize them from past reports but you know it would be nice to have just a descriptor in there for these things you know especially when it's you know just somebody's name.
Yeah, this one was just there was a couple things that just sounded really strange and they were just like really
be nice if they had a better name for some of these things or a descriptor, but
Right. I mean, exactly. So, you know, think there's a couple of people there's a couple things in here that are just names, you know. Okay. not sure what that was exactly. So, let's you know, so yes, I would I'll give like to see another one.
Spring.
Spring was one of them. Okay. What is spring for $9,
$875? You know, spring, guess the whole thing,
right?
I actually questioned that myself when I saw it. I didn't have a chance to look at it today.
That was definitely one we talked about last time.
See, I think it was something that we need to do. We need to get Lisa remote access so that she could be in QuickBooks looking at
right now. I could look it up for you and tell you what it is. So she could almost give you the information as quickly as as Bill got us the information on the library.
Come on, Lisa. No pressure.
That is the goal.
I need that. I need that remote access though.
No, spring. Spring. I know. I asked that question to Eric when Eric was here and he gave me an answer and I it's for I for
Is it trees? It's not trees like spring and twig or
It's not It's not trees. It's
okay. I thought maybe they took down some trees.
Is it ice spring every month?
that's a big bill for every month.
No, it's not.
So, it's not your insurance. Okay. I just want to make sure it's not your health insurance.
It's let us let us sit there and and get you that one. So, spring and and and listen, if you guys look at this in advance, I mean, like I can tell you some of them like
Yeah. Email. There's some referees that are on here that are just individuals and they get paid through the wreck department budget. And
I had I had a question on one of them.
Sure.
It was C I R M A
Perma Insurance. Yeah, that's your insurance.
Okay, that's what I thought. Insurance, property insurance, workers comp insurance.
Okay, that's that's our consortium. I forget what the acronym exactly stands for, but it's our insurance. Yeah,
that's that is not the that is not the health insurance consortium. That's
right. That's that's a Kerma is a you know kind of a non
Connecticut interlocal
yeah owned by the towns
multiple almost every town you I say can't say every town but
property casualty work comp that kind of stuff
yes yeah bond tank yeah yeah
you know so now you sit there and you say I'm looking for the health insurance payment and that is like brown but I got to look for that one
anyway so there. Listen, what's your
another column, another column with just categorization of these things would be very helpful to us.
And again, you know, not every single some things are very self-explanatory. It's just the ones that are a little more, you know.
Yeah.
I mean, and it can it can be done easily. And the issue is it will tell you which account it went to. It will not tell you unless Lisa can figure out a way to create a memo that will flow through to a report.
yeah, that's just right with the with QuickBooks, it kind of limits us to what we can put out here in these other columns. I mean, I can try, but
Well, well, no, it'll be really easy unless something is split. So, like if something is split between two accounts, it becomes It just tells you split.
Yeah. that doesn't give you the individual account. So, we'll work on it. It's something that can get done. And listen,
there's not that many transactions. I'm sorry. There's, you know, you take each page and you go each page is is let's say 30. You know, how many pages of this do you have? Five. So, six 180 transactions is the is the month.
Yeah,
we can we can give it to you. So
yeah, one thing let's let's do the ones that are the the low hanging fruit, the the ones that aren't complicated, and then when we get to those ones that are a little more complicated, split or what have you, that's where inerson explanation can fill in the gaps, unless and until we can get to a point where you can wrangle QuickBooks into providing better information. Until that time, we just ask you at our meetings. But yeah, the number one thing for us I think on the check register is definitely for those that are straightforward to do so a memo or you know explainer line just to categorize these things. that's a referee up that's grounds, you know, that's that's the fields, you know, that's this that the other just so that we can hone in on the things that are still question marks and then we will then we'll be through this faster and you know we'll get used to it and it'll help educate some of our newer members who aren't accustomed to looking at this stuff too. That's another good reason to do it. So, I'm you know I'm good on that. If if Liz, did you have further? Yeah. And I'm sure that Jeff probably can answer this. the NJR construction for 153,000. That's what is that?
That that's related to the bridge project. So
Oh, bridge. Okay. I figured it would be an easy one.
So they are running the we're still getting some u residual transactions related to the Bunker Hill Bridge and
Okay. Those are grantf funded.
Right. Right.
But we have situations where we lay out money and get it back. Right.
That's that's one of them. So we pay that 156 and then we submit to the state and the state reimbures us to 156.
Okay. And the other one that I had a question was the SLR International 27,500.
Just below that. Yeah, that is one that that Lisa and I I'll have to get back to you on because I don't even know that one.
Okay,
it's not in the front of my brain. So, I'm sorry, Liz.
Okay, that's all right.
All right, let's come back to that next time.
Okay,
one of the things I noticed particularly about the spring one, it looks like that's an AC transaction. If my memory serves me correctly, that means they're directly pulling and they have our bank info, too. Yeah, AC is automatic clearing house. That's what AC stands for.
But yeah, I'd have to look into it.
And it doesn't it doesn't mean it doesn't mean that they're pulling it from us. we actually the finance department sits there and originates AC's on our end through our bank and then pays the vendor that way. So, I would there are, I'm sure, some of these that are set up as repetitive polls, but not very many of them if you really look at it. So, I would tell you that that's something that, we we initiate and then submit to them.
Yeah. Because if you look right above, it is the RAM and the AES payables.
Yeah.
So, that's thing we would initiate.
Yeah. page is that is that on finding it.
AC is automated clearing house. It's just a bank term for taking that out.
Spring is spring is at the top. Right.
I'm just Which which page is it is what I'm trying to
page one on the bottom.
Oh, page one at the bottom. Oh, there it is. Okay. I was trying to catch up and
Yeah. So it says it says check because of the transaction but RAM AES and Spring and WEX Bank is the gas card for the the senior vans all get paid by initiating the transaction just like you know WEX is really a credit card company. I mean it's like you paying your credit card online. It would be considered that type of transaction.
I quickly Googled SLR. there's some sort of consultant group that does quote unquote sustainability sustainability and also apparently athletics fields and stuff like that. I'm not sure what if that jogs anybody's memory, but that's what came up via the great Google. but we'll we next time.
Yeah, I was going to say maybe it has to do with the the pickle ball field. Maybe
that's a possibility. Sure. They're not the ones They're not the ones looking at the trail connection, right? That's a different
That That's it. It's It's money It's money related to the engineering services on the the Percy Cook Trail.
Okay. So, it is
I I don't I will sit there and I'll tell you yes, I believe that's what it is. And you're probably you're probably right, but I have to verify that. it's the engineering service. We had to we had to commit the money for the engineering services on that trail and then there is a grant that will pay for the construction of that trail. So that's the trail that we've been discussing to link the rail trail and the
complex at the town hall community center.
Right.
Okay. That makes which to be really honest, if that ever gets built, you know, not think not, you know, thinking of it in such a way, it'd be a great way to get seniors and people to walk from the community center down to the trail without hitting a road, without doing anything just for exercise purposes. I I you know, the more I thought about that project, the more I sat there and said, "That's a really interesting project that might benefit some people so they don't have to walk on the road." So, but yes, that's engineering. I'm 95% with
you, Rob.
That makes sense.
Yeah.
Did I hear a Okay. does anybody have any further questions on the check register at this time? Melissa is raising her hand.
that was accidental. I'm sorry.
Okay, no problem. I kept hearing this little pop and wasn't sure what was going on. All right. Very good. All right. Next, let me scroll back up to the agenda here.
Donations.
Donation. Donation requests. Oh, I don't think we've made any progress here. this was the
Go ahead.
Sorry. Go ahead, Bill.
No, I was just say it's probably something that could be removed, but then I thought maybe with Lisa she could we could fill her in on what it is and see if she had any further thoughts about it than Christine had, but I don't know if you want to go ahead and
Yeah. So, I mean, we had a request to for could the town take in donations? I forget the specifics of the donation. It wasn't a ton of money.
It was It was Diane Grineier, I think, was trying to donate some money.
Help me out. Was it something to do with the library or something else in town?
Norton fund. It was the Norton fund.
The Norton fund.
And there were some questions at the time, I think our past treasur about whether, you know, what mechanism we would use to do that. Could we do it? Do we already have too many bank accounts? That kind of thing. And it it never actually got resolved. so I guess the question is, yeah, is that something for the So we have a Norton fund, you know, charitable fund here in town. I don't recall off the top of my head how their funding is normally stored and distributed.
And that's another access I don't have yet because there's two QuickBooks. and one is for all the smaller accounts, one is for the major account and smaller ones. So, I still need to get access to that. So, we don't know if there's already a fund. If there is, it could be in that other QuickBooks.
so a new fund, Lisa.
Yeah.
Someone who likes to donate money
to different things. Well, something that I've done before in QuickBooks is you can do I know auditors don't like miscellaneous, but you can do miscellaneous. You don't have to to open a new bank account, per se, but you have to list it in the balance sheet. So, I would work around that. I You're right. You don't want a zillion bank accounts. It every little fund shouldn't, I don't believe, have its own bank account, but it can be listed separately for certain. Jeff, is that what you're thinking?
this is just something that I think that we have to figure out a process. It's it's not something that we're
I know the previous treasur was dead set against it because there was going to be an amount of effort to either create the fund or administer the fund.
Yes. And we just have to find a a workaround that makes sense.
So I don't necessarily know it's something that we need to waste a lot of time on, but we do need to try to help that because why why as a community would we turn away money
trying to donate to us.
Right. Right. It's just a question of how to make it work without it being a a ton of too much effort, I guess, for the for the
to correctly record it. Why don't why don't you think about that a bit and we'll come back to it at you know future meeting and just kind of touch base on it but we don't yeah we don't have to spend a lot of time on this
I have a quick question on that Lisa.
Okay.
Yes.
Have you ever done like sub funds?
Well that's what I'm talking about in QuickBooks is like you know on your balance sheet you have cash and then you have savings and then you have a miscellaneous and you put your your separate funds in there. But like Jeff said I would have I want to make sure that it's done properly. So, I would just want to check into that. But you're right. And then what you do, you know, if you wanted a separate list, but it wouldn't it wouldn't print in your QuickBooks balance sheet all the funds printed, but you would know what's in there and you could keep those line items separate. But like Jeff said, we've got to look into it. So, I guess we'll move on to 5D, status of school bathroom renovation project. I do have some updates on that that I've gotten the last day or two.
nothing is, you know, definitive, but my understanding is that they're bringing in two additional contractors for walkthroughs. That planning is underway. by the way, Bill, I normally would ask before I gave out a cell phone number, but Caitlyn had asked for yours. I I thought you'd be okay with it.
Yeah, she she gave me a date of next week. They're going to have one of the contractors are coming in for a walk through.
Yeah, I'm still trying to coordinate with her though because Jeff Murray can't do it on on a Tuesday and
Tuesday,
they were having some real miscommunication issues today. So, I'm trying to mediate that. So, whether it happens Tuesday or not, that's in progress. my understanding is that's the right now that's the low bid, but of course until you do a walkthrough, I don't know how much you could really put stock in a bid.
my also my in the course of discussing that with Caitlyn today, she mentioned that she had a conversation with Eric Sanderson and he had wrestled up two more contractors that he wanted to have do, you know, join the process, which would get us up to five. exactly how that's all going to shake out I don't know but that's sort of the latest that I have on it. hopefully the subcommittee members can make these walkthroughs and you know have some peace of mind that the right questions are being asked and so forth. but anyway that's that is what I have at this time. in terms of that the the other issue I mean Jeff Murray and I had a long conversation a week and change ago right before he went on vacation about the process and about what we might be able to do to kind of come together and find a way forward and that's all still in progress. I'm trying to work with him. I'm trying to work with Valerie. trying to work with Caitlyn to try and make all this
happen and happen in a way that gives people more comfort and peace of mind. But right now it's it's still in flux. That's that's my report. I don't know if anybody else has anything further. Bill being on the subcommittee obviously, you know, sorry kind of chimed in that
's exactly what I would say right there and I know as much as you just said just now. So I'm looking forward to that. Hopefully next week before I go on vacation we can get some of those walkthroughs done.
Yeah. Yeah. Kim,
I just wanted to say thank you for the update, Rob. I appreciate that. That's important and thanks for all that. That's a lot to
try and keep up with it. You know, I I wasn't able to make the last
board of ed meeting. Monday nights are terrible for me, but
understandable.
I'm generally trying to keep my ear to the ground on this and try and do a little mediating if I can. and we'll see. But yeah, right now that's the situation and nothing is changed particularly until we unless and until we have more bids. There's there's not a lot to say cuz it was agreed that we'd get at least two more. So, that's where we're at.
anybody has
I was just going to say I I mean I think we do need the different contractors and stuff, but Nick and I went down last weekend for she gave us a tour of the school.
Bathrooms are they need to be fixed. They're
Oh, yeah. Pretty bad.
I don't think there's any real questions about that. they're out of commission and and there's some really old piping and whatnot in there.
So, but it's a question of the process and how it's done and making sure people feel it's being done properly is
absolutely.
So,
is there also a drainage I also heard there's some a drainage problem or something?
I think that's how it started. I think that's how they found the problem, wasn't it? Originally was leakage and and drainage problems. really old cast iron piping associated with those bathrooms.
She said one of the boys bathrooms was like leaking all through the pipes down into a room like Yeah.
Right. And at one time it was a mold issue which was also brought to attention too. So
right.
Yeah. It was this goes this goes into having an appropriate capital.
Oh dear. He froze there for a second.
Okay. Am I back?
Yes.
Okay. this goes into us having a a truly verified and fledged out capital plan that's documented and there for everyone to understand. a 10-year capital plan to say these are projects that are coming down the road so that the board of finance and the board of selectmen can sit there and get together and say this is how we're going to fund these things because u not only does this project needs to get done this project needed to be funded in an appropriate way. So we have issues related to a lot of things related to this project but a capital plan will surely help us all together
plan for what has to happen.
Agreed.
I I've long wanted you know a capital plan and who knows someday we'll we'll take the step of actually having a separate capital budget. Well that's a whole another story and a whole another discussion. so that's that's where we're at on that. If anybody has a further fine, we can talk about it. Otherwise, we can move on.
I I go back to that if I can. Rob, what do you mean? We we have capital budgets on on the projects. We have funds.
No, I I mean for specifically for as opposed to
as
Yeah, like RAM does.
Okay.
They have a separate capital budget.
I don't know if that's the right answer for something I've been noodling around about.
Separate entity. It's a different world.
I understand that.
Yeah. So,
I understand that. But I also think and look I'm getting off topic so I don't want to belabor this but just thinking back to you know how long I've been involved in town and how many projects in the past that were really pretty pretty much capital projects got done out of the school ops budget or some other mechanism that just doesn't to me seem like the right way of of doing things. So I think it's it's something going forward especially the next time we look at the charter that we we should be thinking about. I'm not saying I have all the answers to it. Yeah. And I I kind of have some procedural things about that. I've started dissecting the charter and looking at some of the information myself and and maybe this is a conversation I could get take offline with someone, but I I was kind of curious what the proper procedure for something like that is
because we we had this I could under we we went to the school and we physically saw it. there was a leak and it turned into something that progressed more and it put the school in a bad position. But I I just was curious like in these situations, what's our order of operations? And if this isn't the right venue, I'd be happy to take it offline with someone.
Yeah, I mean that's that's been evolving and being discussed and there's disagreement about it how it ought to be run. you know we only just recently this past budget year put together a capital fund you know that for the for for AES that hadn't existed before how to handle that appropriately is something where not everybody sees eye to eye and you and I could I could absolutely chat with you about it you can we we can to kind of give you the backstory but we are in a place right now where we have this capital fund and there's money in it and there's disagreement about exactly how the process should work to release funds from that fund. you know, that's the short.
Should I share with them how I've done it in the past or No, it's now not the time.
I'll take I'll take any, you know, if you want to add information from what you've done in the past, go buy. had a 10-year capital plan and if you have a firetruck that's $800,000 and you're going to finance it over four different years, you slice 200 200 200 and you put that in the first four years. So your first column is the only thing you're voting on because that's the current year, but you have a 10-year plan. So if you know you're not going to need another plow for three more years, you scoot that over three, you know, and every year is a certain percentage of your full budget that you don't want to spend over on your capital if you can help it. But that plans, you know, you put in 350 350,000 a year for for your roads, for your public works. You put that in all 10 years and then and then you take a, you know, your gear. Well, that's different for fire because fire takes care of themselves. We used to put 10,000 aside for each firehouse for gear and hoses, you know. So, you put it in all 10 years of the plan. So, you're looking and as you come down, you can see, oh my gosh, this is third year. We're going to need a plow. And it's like, well, we also need, you know, a fire truck. So, what do we It just gives you long range planning.
That's how many vote for that. Yeah. You only vote for that first year. And I used to take out like a two-year note in the first year if something was 100,000 would put 50,000 in the budget and then 50,000 in the note and pay it the next budget.
Yeah. We just the issue has been in the past in the past and up till this date, you know, there's no formal capital plan for the school. It's something that we've talked to the superintendent about. So we've talked to the board of ed about they really need to produce one.
the school was included in our 10-year plan. That was they were like the first
ideally we would integrate it. Yeah. But the point is they have to the board of ed and the superintendent have to to put together that plan and bring it to us. Bring it probably through CIP. We we have a capital improvement commission u a committee rather. and then we can then have a
document that includes not just the town stuff, but the school stuff
and we can talk about, you know, you know, what needs to go into that fund. So, we're not, it's not ad hoc like we know we had the bathroom project, so we put money in for the bathroom project, but what's the next thing and what's the next thing and what's the next thing and what's the time frame? So, no, that's absolutely something we want to do. It's something we've talked about before. It's something that we have asked for and we will continue to ask for for sure. the the issue is also just the pro procedure for releasing funds.
See we didn't have a fund per se. It was its own budget. So we had the school budget, we had the town budget and we had the capital budget and it's all one budget. That's how you know we did it. So that capital budget was part of that total budget piece.
So in that first column of those 10 years, that's what goes in your budget. And as that project is done, the town pays for it, but it comes out of your capital budget, but it comes out of your general fund,
right?
So, so there's no like fund set aside ex unless that project is already in that that year,
right?
Well,
and if it's a two-year or threeyear project, you have to put it in your budget. If you guys all understand what is going on with this is what is being asked and what you're even saying Rob is that the school needs its own capital funds so they can manage their own projects. That's what you're basically trying to say and that is what you're trying to say and there's definitely going to be a lot of disagreement about that because again it's a town building. It's the biggest town building. It needs to be maintained. We just all have to work together. And to be really honest, as a volunteer, as a volunteer, because I'm a volunteer, I am so disgusted that we can't just work together as simply as possible. So, and if you look at your budget from last year, it's on the last page. This board made $967,000 capital related or $980,750 capital related appropriations last year and they all went into different funds that we keep to sit there and
manage. The biggest one being road improvement which we try to do every year and then then the ones that we've been trying to save for are the bridge and culvert fund because that's going to be a problem. We have a culvert going on Lake Road over Bazula that's going to cost us a lot more money than we originally planned for
and that's a 50-50 grant situation, right?
5050. It's potentially going to cost us upwards of $900,000. So, we've been we've been we've been but we got to try to find other alternative sourcing mechanisms for it. But again, I'm going back to a really simple concept. This is either it's easy. It should be easy for all of us to work together and get things done. should not be difficult.
No,
there should be a plan. There should be a plan of what needs to happen. And
that correct reminds me of something that was mentioned the other night at the board of ed meeting. Valerie mentioned that, oh, next year is going to be, you know, a more difficult year because there may be a bigger project and alluding to something about the air conditioning. I don't quote me on it, but I'm thinking this sounds like a capital thing that should be in the works, in the plan, CIP,
right?
So,
and you know, and I I will follow up on that because I've had this conversation with Val before.
please. Thank you.
She told me that she was working on a capital plan. So,
okay, let's get it done. Even if it's even if it's a little rough, let's let's get it done. Let's talk about it
because we need to prioritize and have a general ballpark target for okay,
we can limp along for two more years before we need to do X. X is going to cost this order of magnitude. Even if it's a fuzzy number, we can at least start to plan. So,
do we have fiveyear plan that we asked for, Jeff? I remember we had our tri board meeting
a year or so ago. We asked them to give us a five-year capital plan with, you know, their projects prioritized with budget amounts. Did we receive that? Do we have that five-year plan?
They started, we Eric presented before he left a 10-year plan as to what he thought was was coming down the road that had been put out to the public. we presented it to the board of education. and Valerie started had started one and we haven't gotten that completed yet. And again, I'm just going to sit there and say you are the board that controls all of this money. You control all of the money and how it's set up. So, you guys have to be the ones that demand the information and demand the capital plan and demand everything else because you guys are the ones that are setting how much money we're taxing the residents.
Yeah.
So, well, as I said,
work in progress. We're going to get it, but we're going to we're going to keep pushing on that. We're going to keep looking for that. that doesn't relate directly to this project. I mean, this project's already in the works, but we absolutely need to make progress on it for whatever is coming down the pike, whether it's something, you know, whether it's their boiler room, whether it's their HVAC system, whatever it is. absolutely, we need to we need to tighten that up. We need to have a plan. We can look at it the same way that we look at our fire equipment or our
bridges and coververts and so forth, our other big ticket. So, are you not saying that their cap that the board of ed capital is just in their board of ed funds, their budget?
No.
Right. The town.
No. No.
Okay.
There's some backstory to this, but
hey didn't have a capital They've never had a capital budget, as far as I'm aware. I don't think AS has ever had a capital budget the entire time it's been in operation. So,
why why would they? I mean, it's a town building, but why would Anyway, anyway,
because the charter clearly says that the board of ed is responsible for the operation and maintenance of 35 school roads
operation and maintenance maintenance. Maintenance
maintenance is not a capital expenditure.
It's not maintenance.
I mean, I think as you know what is capital and what is not you you get into some fuzzy areas of what's maintenance and what's a rebuild and you know and like that. So, we need to figure that out and all work. I agree with you. I agree with you on that. And just so this board understands the problem with this that every everyone on that board of of selectmen realizes that that project needs to get done, right? It does really need to get done. It's the process of how the project is being handled. If there is no bid on this, you will have a backlash from the board of selectmen and from the town. I'm just telling you and you guys are responsible for and to be really honest you guys are responsible for this entire thing to be really honest because the board of education was under budget by 400 and some odd thousand and this board voted to put 400 and something thousand in a fund
idn't go to town meeting nothing so we got a lot of problems but I am understanding that it needs to get done
I I disagree with you on it didn't go to the the public because the presentation
that was presented on the next year's budget.
Okay, I'm not going to semantics, but it was passed at the referendum. We showed it on the slide.
Never money was to be moved. Anybody else on the board remember this?
Never.
You know what, guys? Come on.
You know what?
It was on that presentation that we made when everybody voted to put it to to referendum.
Okay,
look.
I'll find the slide. Jeff,
slide doesn't matter. really I really do not want to have this argument right now about whether you know you think that we made the wrong call been putting that money in. We've already voiced this before prior meeting. I heard you then you know you know I have a different take. Let's let this go for now and move on with our agenda because the money's in there. The question now is how to do the project right and all that. Louise, what do you have to say?
I just have a question. being on the board of finance, do we have an obligation to if we don't receive the necessary required information to make a decision on a budget, can we actually withhold that until we get the information like we request certain things let's say from the AES? If we don't receive that information, can we withhold approving that budget? Do we have that capacity?
I'm going to have to go back and and review the charter again, but I'm not sure we could actually do that, but I I will continue to ask for more information on the capital plan. I mean, that's something it's a running conversation I've been having with Valerie for some time. I will raise it again.
Can you check the charter as well though?
Yeah, I know. I need to check the charter and look and look at the state statutes again as well because you get into this issue of board of ed per purview versus board of finance perview and I'd like to be careful.
and you know, this is another place where in the past we've had differing interpretations which is not great. sometimes the charter isn't crystal clear. Sometimes its interaction with state statutes isn't perfectly clear to to a lay person anyway. And then you get into legal opinions and everything like that. And quite frankly, I I'd like it to be clear. So, we're not into dueling opinions. But
yes,
you know, I have to review it. The last time I looked at the charter for these reasons and the state statutes and everything was when, you know, I was working with Shannon on an attempt to create a process for the use of the capital fund. And you know, I can I can just tell you my vague recollection of all of that was that it's not always crystal clear. So, I have to I do need to go back and re-review that. So, we'll we'll we'll come back to that issue.
if we can move on because, you know, this we're 8:00 here, so I'd like to keep us moving. If we can go on to the corrective action plan status, I I think there was progress made here, was there not, Jeff? the the audit corrective action plan for the two budgets ago.
It's been filed. it was filed I don't know if it was two weeks ago, but it's been filed. So the there was one well you read the you read the corrective action plan. Everybody should read the corrective action plan and the issues that are raised in the corrective action plan. And you as the board of finance have, you know, through the treasur have the responsibility to make sure all those corrective, all those items are taken care of for the next audit so that we end up getting down to no corrective actions required. So, but it's been filed.
Will we get a copy of that?
sure. I can make we can Lisa can make sure that you guys all get that.
That'd be great.
Yeah.
Thank you. All right, brings us to 5F as monthly financial reporting. Any expectations?
I did notice we have the their budget down there attached to this packet too, right? We have the custom expenditure report which gives the adopted budget expended year-to- date percentage used and whatnot.
And then the detailed custom expenditure report which breaks those c
ategories down a little more. I I I was looking at this and if you guys if we could look at like page 32, it's the first page.
What is it? Because I have a print out
32 the slide. It's the monthly summary.
Okay. So, the first page of theirs, but 32 into our packet.
32 into the package.
Okay.
Monthly summary. I I just thought there was some good information over on the right side related to grant funding received.
Yeah. Yes.
And what what I would ask the board of of this this goes into what information do we get each month so we understand what's going on. I would love to see the expected dollars to be received on those grants over the course of the year and all grant funding because that's a separate item, you know. So if if we provide this year we're providing $4,565,000 if that's the annual appropriation and I'm not saying I'm looking at the number here. I'm not sure if that what's got approved or didn't but it's 4 million 565. Then you take all the grant funding and you put that on top and that's the total amount of money that that I think is there. I mean there's other items that we need to address too. I would think that you would want you know you would want the grant funding, tuition payments. and then you have other miscellaneous items like lunch money that's collected and student activity funds that are collected in total. You know so that you can sit there and understand how this all fits together. But I liked that that was at least there because I don't think I've ever seen that.
Right. It is good to know what the grants are for. U so you can kind of put that mentally in the right place.
I I agree with you that you know a lot of these grants to the extent that they're coming in in in
either you know monthly quarterly you know that would also be useful information like this is the first installment but we're expecting three what? Well, like if if you look at those school mental health and and the school mental health supports, those are if I and and I will let Jodianne correct me. I did some research and those were ARPA related programs. And if those are ARPA related programs, they're going to end.
Yep. And if you have expenses built up against those grants, then you you now have and this is why I think we need the grant money for the prior years because we've got to understand what grant grants have ceased to exist and what you know maybe we picked up extra employees to deal with those grant fundings when they were available. And it's really good information that we need to get. I mean, it says right here, mental health grants expiring 63026, supplemental only.
Yeah.
So, yeah, to to your ARPA point.
Yeah. To, you know, and I I just thought it was great. I mean, to be really honest, that that's that's what this board really needs to make decisions is what is the total grant dollars? How much is expected? Did we collect it all? It's kind of like when you look at the town numbers for taxes. If we're collecting the right amount of taxes and we budgeted the right amount of taxes, we've done a good job collecting. If we haven't done a good job collecting, we're going to be short and it's going to cause financial hardship for the
community. So, yeah, that was interesting.
So, I I would like to see like with the budget that we get from them, the their their their budget, whatever. I'd like to see it in a format that includes the income at the top like we like we see our town budget with all the all the incomes all sources of income. I would love to see these sources of income as well.
right. I the other the only the only question mark I have on that is to the extent that grants come in or are approved or whatever midyear how we handle that information. But I agree. No, I generally agree with you. We want a revenue section,
right?
And you can look at that as against your expenses and you know the way we do it on on our spreadsheet. I I don't disagree with that. That would be that would be helpful. But yeah, I I really don't have a sense for how much grant funding is decided upon and therefore comes in after a budget is passed you and you're into the year.
That's something that, you know, we also should talk about. And to be really honest, all the grant funding is all the grant funding you're identifying comes out of some other line item that you've already budgeted for. Unless I'm incorrect and I need to be corrected on that and Jodianne is here, please let her communicate to it. But all that grant funding is going to go and and reduce a line item accordingly. I don't think that's necessarily true, Jeff, because sometimes these grants, I believe, and just just in talking about this stuff with with Valerie in the past, some of these grants come with strings attached like you have to use it for a specific thing. You have to stand up something that may not be true that you're reducing dollar for dollar something we budgeted. That's something that is something we, you know, in a comment line or what have you, that would be very useful information.
Yes.
For us to understand.
there are there were some of those grants that were identified as you had to use it for additional services
placed out there and and like the ECS fund funding is an offset to to expenses but these grants and that's what I was really saying they may be targeted you might have to pick up something extra right okay it was very good information and I would tell you I went through their information that they provided and just So everybody's aware like 64% of the total expenditures are related to employee costs. So it really would be believehoo you guys to get a handle on understanding how much of the wages and where they're at are. So 64% of that the what you budgeted for last year is related to employee benefits wages and taxes. And then 16 and a half percent is being budgeted for medical insurance. So I thought that was really interesting.
You froze again, Jeff.
What?
He's not freezing for me, Rob.
He froze for me. I lost him for about 10 seconds there.
Well, now I'm being told my internet connection's unstable. So maybe it's my fault.
Maybe unstable.
Yeah, he seems to be fine.
Basically, basically the huge huge pieces are related to that. wages and to the medical insurance. So, I would tell you that that's,
you know,
where you end up
Jod is here and I I I think it's a great time to go to her. Jody,
yeah, I'll just say so if we know we have a grant for example, like the title one grant, the amounts we don't necessarily know, but we'll know we're we'll get some title one money every year. So just so you know in the new budget that is already taken out you know so for example if if we know that you know $14,000 can cover part of a teacher's salary then that has already been taken out of the operating. So in those cases when we know we're getting a grant that that is used to offset and the operating budget is reduced in cases like you said we may have if we don't know we're getting a grant and that does happen Robert as you said we'll get grants in the in the middle of the year and then you know that salary might have we it might have already been in the budget and then we can offset it and that's actually how AES did has wound up with a little bit of a surplus because they got grants after the school year started that then they were able to use. So that's probably where they that's why they had any you know surplus that they were able to put into the 2% non-lapsing. Just thinking out loud here as I'm as I'm thinking about this, maybe it would be useful if on some of this documentation that we get for the purposes of kind of educating us and so we understand it if we could have some maybe a separate section for you know mid-year grants or whatever something that wasn't sure going into the budget. and that's sort of like the date that that grant went live. So, we can understand that, okay, that came in mid
year. That's something that we basically couldn't have planned for necessarily. We weren't sure about. and it's sort of its own little category maybe just off the top of my head. so what you're saying, if I'm understanding you correctly, is if going into this the budget season we're we're sure of a grant or as is sure of a grant and it's going to offset some costs, you already are pulling that out of your expenditures.
Yes, we are. So there are several teachers that yeah, their their salaries are not even in the operating budget because we know they're covered by a grant. So, for example, when we look at the the early start prek grant, okay, so that one is 66,000 we've received, it's 33,04 installments. So, so yes, those then those salaries are not in the in the operating budget at all. and you see that that's the largest grant. so yes,
how many preschool teachers are in the operating budget?
Zero.
How many salary how many
how much of the benefits and insurance are covered under the general fund?
those are you know all the salaries are covered in the in the general fund. benefits are they are by the
sorry what did I say salaries are all covered I'm sorry not by the our salaries are not in the operating budget benefits they they are and I I need to be very clear here and this is where we have to be very careful not to go tit fortat and
we have an obligation
we I just want to make this clear
health insurance health insurance and what else what are what benefits insure insurance taxes whatever.
Yeah. Are those covered under the preschool income or the general fund?
Those are primarily covered by the general fund but not the salaries. But I want to make this very clear because I think it is really important. What people don't understand is that we have an obligation by law to provide prek services to special needs students. So to have a prek that is we I think Val's done an excellent job of trying to of using the prek tuition and grants to cover the salaries. that's pretty much unheard. Like she's done an amazing job doing that. the benefits I think you have to just be really careful because you if you get stuck on that you're not you're not understanding that prek we have an obligation by law and prek for services for special ed students are not will never be free for a district. Does that make sense? I just think you have to be really really careful here because people don't understand that the obligations that come with with students especially in prek.
So
no I do I do understand but we
but some people might not not all people might understand it. So, we've been we've been told through the years that the school that preschool is self- sustaining and we've never been allowed to see a preschool budget with revenues and expenses. And I think as part of the overall our overall responsibility that we should be allowed to see that because there because we know that we have a legal obligation to cover certain you know certain teachers even the whole teacher salary like if there's a special ed student in a in a preschool class I think by law we're required to cover that teacher's salary and we have no insight sight whatsoever into any of this.
So yeah, I agree and I think you know again I think you all have to talk you know you've talked about procedures and process right and that is something that you as boards and people all have to work out like I do know what's been voiced is that the salaries for prek are have are not in the operating budget. So I think that's been very clear that the salaries of prek are not in the are not in tuition.
So I guess we haven't seen any financials to support it. That's all we we just don't get to see the financials to support it.
If we could get maybe some basic aggregate data. I understand there's concern. We have to be privacy concerns and things like that. so and I want to be careful there. But maybe what we could do to satisfy this kind of request is to say, can we just get kind of the aggregates of income versus expenditure on it and then maybe we can put this to bed and it won't be an ongoing issue because we keep coming back to it.
Well, I think sorry I don't want to belabor but I think what you can look at is like look I can tell you all salaries are covered by tuition and grants. Okay. So, all salaries. so when you look at
what's not included in that, right? Okay. Or benefits that is presented to you in the benefits line, right? And that's the that's the best way we that's the way when you look at our new our budget and the one we put together. When you look at benefits, okay, that is the benefits are including all staff that has taken health insurance with us, right? And we don't disclose who that is, you know, what their issues are. But but what I can tell you is when you look at that benefits line, that is everybody at AES who is taking insurance. So
what I guess I was getting what I guess what I'm getting at is, you know, obviously it's not disagregated between K through six versus preK, right? It's it's all together
ight now. That's the way it's shown.
Yes. Wouldn't it wouldn't it and and this is just my I'm assuming Jodianne that you have some detailed information that you use to put together the budget. Why can't you sit there and take any identifying features off of the spreadsheet such as teachers names? Now, we would need to know there's a special teacher or what step they're in and provide the board with the details to support the payroll numbers that you're talking about. And then that way this is all done. I'm just telling you, you you're bo you're you have the details. This board should see the details.
Yeah, but I can't disclose to you who's taking insurance. That's that's
Listen Listen, I don't need you to disclose one thing. show them the bill.
I guess I guess the question is could we do it at an aggregate form, Jody? That's what I'm trying to get at is I don't want to run a file of any privacy issues. I don't want to get information that we're not supposed to have. That's fine. What I'm saying is to in order to try to address this concern that you know keeps coming up on this board. Is it possible we could get without any identifying features aggregate numbers not not necessarily line by line but this is this is the benefits associated with you know this bit of operations that's that's just my thought
okay I kind of I kind of have a little issue with that I've been through doing a little bit of research in other towns and I found a budget for the town of Franklin which which really surprised urprised me. Their their budget, their their board of education budget was detailed by they broke down the salaries. Teacher one, x amount of dollars. Teacher two, x amount of dollars. Teacher three. You didn't I don't even know what their names are. I don't know what grade they teach. I I really, you know, I don't know any of that. But they detailed it so you could really see. Okay, this is just like we on the town side get to see this huge spreadsheet or workbook with various tabs and we get to see every employees name, how much they make, how much it's affecting all the other benefits and all that stuff. And I'm not saying
we need to see names like we you know you could redact everything. We are a taxpayers and b we're board of finance members. Th this should not be kept from us. So I mean what's the reluctance? We're not we're not asking for personal you know personally identifying information but we really even the board of ed doesn't look into that detail of the budget that Valerie creates. So I just want to say again my my issue is I I'm not sharing information about health insurance and and and like for well and we're not asking you to we're not asking you
but I do think and this is where I will say like I do think this is this predates me right so I I think in Andover I'm learning all the dynamics of Andover and I think what really needs to happen is you as boards need to continue to work together to to determine you know how how you're exchanging information and and what you want, right? So, I'm I'm kind of you know, I report to the superintendent and to the board of education and they, you know, so I think you right, you guys all have to kind of figure that out.
Agree.
We should agree what we want to see and and send the request,
right? And I think we're just having a discussion here. I don't you know, this isn't a formal motion or anything like that, right? And I just keep coming back to the idea of if if if privacy is the concern, you know, aggregate data can is maybe a way around that instead of looking at individual teachers that you might be able to identify if that's the concern. We don't even have right now we don't have a great sense for that. So that's all I'm just trying to find a way to Yes. here. so that we could get, you know, enough information that people here have more comfort with what we're looking at, what's being asked of us going forward, etc. the grant money, I mean, I would just echo what Jeff said earlier. The the information here vis the grants is very good. pleased to see it. you know, I think as we mentioned, it would be helpful to know if some, you know, some or all of these grants come in in, you know, several trenches. I what the right word is for
with several installments. Sorry, that's the word I wanted. just going forward so we know, okay, look, this is a $66,000 grant. It comes in in three installments of 22 grand, whatever. so that we have an idea for that. And again, I I'll go back to the issue of the midyear grants. it would be good to identify those somehow just I don't know color coded or something along those lines so that we know hey this is this is something that wasn't necessarily budgeted for and then in the comments of those if we could understand if that grant creates a obligation as well as giving you funding but one of those grants that says hey you have to use this to build out a new thing right because I know some of the grants work
like that so we But you know that would be helpful I think so that you know we have that information and we don't have to always go go through this with you every time we can you know kind of build that knowledge. so that's my thought excuse me on that little tickle in my throat there. but yeah, I you know, we we can keep talking to the board of ed about what it what detail the level of detail we get, but I do think it's not unreasonable to say at the very least could we get kind of an aggregate picture of what's outgoing for benefits, what's you know, and go from there. but you know, again, t we can we can come back to that issue and keep talking about it. That's fine. But, you know, the the more obviously the more we can get, the more comfortable people will be when we're reviewing a budget request for another a new budget season. yeah, that's all. And and you know, part of this does come from what the members of this board are accustomed to looking at when we look at the town spreadsheet budget town budget spreadsheet, which Jody, you know, you
haven't been here all that long yet. You may not be I don't know how familiar you are with the way our spreadsheet looks when we start building it. but it's that's part of I think where where you're getting these questions from is that people are thinking about well this is what I see on the town side that might be helpful for you and and you know members of the board and Val to think about is that's where a lot of these questions are coming from because we're accustomed to going line by line through that spreadsheet you know so and I and look I I will voice I will voice one thing I mean technically you know the the board of ed is the first sort of you know review board for this stuff. We we also should have information but they also you know they are tasked with working up their budget and keeping on top of this kind of stuff too. So, some of this may be you know, stuff we have to work out with Caitlyn and her board. you know, and not necessarily just put it on Jod, you know, at our meetings. you know, we we may have discussion there.
Of of course, I would not expect that sort of level of detail from Jod in our meeting. Of course not.
Okay.
Yeah. Didn't didn't mean for it to sound that way either.
No, no. I I appreciate I just again I just want to streamline like you said like have the right process and making sure information is going through the right channels and the right order you know. so
the only other thought I have Jody and again this this is something that maybe our treasurer can opine on maybe you can opine on from your past experience. Do you find it typical that the way you you guys are handling that grant money where you're pulling expenditures out of your budget because it's offset? Do other towns do it that way? Because I'm thinking actually what would be better would be to show the grant money coming in as income and show the expenditure in full and explain the offset rather than yanking it out of the budget entirely. I I I think that I don't know that that's best practice and that's I just want to raise that as a potential concern because it seems to me that in that way it's a little bit more opaque in terms of what you're really spending your school.
You want to show your true expenditure and if you're taking it out before you do your operating. We're not it's not that we're not seeing it. I go back to the auditors. They're not seeing your true expenditure. And right now in the situation that we're in right now with the corrective action and everything else,
I would list it as an expenditure. I wouldn't withhold that.
I was gonna say I think we've been audited and that has never been a corrective action item. I can tell you actually, Robert, where I live, they were doing the opposite and then their books became a mess and then they wound up doing it how we're doing it, keeping
I did I did 60 I did 60 grants and contracts for a nonprofit organization in New London. 60 a year. I did 60 reports. I would never ever do it that way because then you don't your expenditures.
Clearly a difference of opinion a year, but it's another thing I think we should all
think about and talk about. because they're the ones that decide whether
I am not an accountant. I'm not actually, you know, a finance professional. But I would say that just my gut reaction to that, Jody, when you explained it that way, oh gosh, I have a kid at the front door. I'll be right back. Is that it just sounded a little off to me, that's all.
Well, I'll double check with our auditor to see if
Yeah, I'm going to be speaking Yeah, I'll be speaking to the auditor, too, because I I want I have several questions. not in particularly about board of ed but just everything that's going on. So
yeah,
I want I want to understand more clearly
and it could just be I'm not explaining it well because in my head it makes a lot of sense and it works.
No, look, a lot of times when you when you encounter something like this in either municipal or school budgeting and it doesn't automatically make sense to you, a lot of times it's gotten that way for reasons. All right, but I I would I I kind of want to dig into those reasons a little bit. I mean what you're explaining now where okay in another town they did it the way that I'm suggesting it should be done and then it became a problem. Okay, that would be good information to understand because on its face I think to myself all revenue, all expenditure all there. that's just my gut,
right? School budgets don't typically it's different from a town budget where you have your guarant. It's Yeah, it's not
it's focused on expected expenditures like when even Val gave her presentation, right? It's it's not really a budget. it, you know, caves has presented as anticipated expenditures. So, it's a bit it's a little bit different, but I will double check with our auditors and again, I will I can talk to some other schools and and see how they're doing it and always willing to look at the way we're doing things and see if there's a different or better way we should be doing.
Yeah. And and again, I'm I'm willing to receive more information and more explanation as to why this is in fact the right way to do it. I I'm willing to be educated on this. It's just I'm raising it because it just struck me as, you know, it's not the way I think we would want to do on the town side and I get that the town and the school are not the same thing. but just that was my gut reaction. So, I'm not going to belabor the point. I think we think about it, come back to it.
Yep.
But one thing you said, Rob, was really important to me is more information is always better.
Yeah. I mean to to the extent that that information is you know appropriate you know and that's the one caveat I always throw in right you know if there's privacy concerns or anything like that I'd like to steer clear of them but yes in general information
we're talk we're talking numbers we're not talking student names or teachers names
we have to be just have to be careful to the extent that we are asking for something where there need to be redactions to make sure they're done right you know
I'm all for redacting what we don't need to see
agree I think through on this. I just, you know, I'm just probably reiterating too many times.
Okay. because the last thing I want to do is mess that up. All right. So,
where are we here? Let's see. That's We are
getting tired, Bill.
I'm tired of the same subject going around and around and saying the same thing over and over and over and over again. Let's We said it. Let's move on.
Yeah, I agree with you. so I'm going to move on to 5G faucet O'Neal billing. This is left on our agenda because there were still some questions about bills getting paid. where are we at? What is left that has not been paid to fuss O'Neal? Where what are we down to in terms of outstanding invoices there?
$8,000.
8,000 bucks. Is that the hazmat review bill or is that a different bill? The hazmat review bill is being paid out of the 2% non-lapsing.
That's right. They voted at the board of ed to do that. Okay. So, the 8,000 remains is the bit that you objected to visav construction design. Is that the
I have a problem with it because they're changing the plan and the amount of money on that bill is related to construction administration services. We've already gone through their bidding services and paid for that even though we haven't done any bids. So, yes, I have a problem with it.
Okay. What do you if I may ask, what is the what is your thought on the resolution of this and how long you know at some point I expect the push will come to shove on that. I mean, how that invoice has been in for a while now, right?
it's been in for about a month. A little over a month. Was supposed to be paid in December.
It's not Okay.
Yeah.
It's It's not like it's been in since August or something. Okay. But All right. So,
so their entire contract, Rob, was $58,000. They've been paid $52,000.
I thought it was 48.
$48,000.
You said 48, right?
it was 48,000
48600 or something like that. He approved like for you know 49 or something like that to get one
and they got paid 42.
Yes.
Okay. So it's it's listen it is it is simply that if you're going to pivot and change the type of contract you're going to have with Fussen O'Neal then change and get a new contract and pay them accordingly. That's my point. So you have to realize that a lot of the problems related to this are it was supposed to go out with design a design contract bid bid then build someone else. Now it's design and build all in one place. So you're
the contract that is between the board of ed and fuss O'Neal
are you saying does not in fact provide for the services on this bill that we haven't paid?
That's correct. They're already on to construction administration. It has four phases. It has it has anformational collection phase
design development. Go ahead, Bill. Bid.
You're just saying there's four phases. So, the final phase is is contract management or construction.
Construction administration, which we're nowhere near, right?
No.
Okay.
I I want to say to or Jeff, can you tell me there there's still they have not build for the full 48,000, right? So, the last I knew aside from that $8,100 for the hazmat that's separate. I thought I thought there was like a $2,400 check that was hanging out on Christmas.
There is. Okay, there is.
And then they have not yet build us for the remainder. So, they have stopped billing us
because they didn't get paid.
Well, because a lot of sense.
Well, because the plan changed, right? So, when the plan changed that that's when they said, "Okay, we're halting
billing because now that you're right, the construction part hasn't happened but it's my understanding they've done the work it has shifted I agree with you that in an ideal world should that contract once once it changed should it should that language should they have gone back to and changed it yes I I do right so high
so you're telling me you're telling me in the board that they they have done work build us under one contract and done work on a a side contract that we're not aware of and we're supposed to pay them on this
no no what I'm saying is that phase three the services slightly altered and the work that they were doing. So, you know, for example, they were fielding a lot of phone calls from what I've heard from from town people. That was not part of the contract, right? So, so the the committee pivoted a little bit, but I think your board of education
Bill, did you vote on that as a committee member to pivot?
No.
Okay. So, so I'm sorry like we don't have to waste a lot of time on this. Fussen O'Neal has an outstanding balance. If you as a board all want to commit to to having the town sign that check, you can do it. But it is not the right thing to do. So as the chief elected official in this town and one of the signers on the account, I am not signing that check
ever.
No, I'll sign it. I'll sign it once the committee and once the board of finance and once the board of selectmen and once the board of education get together and decide exactly how we're going to attack this project so it's effectively done for the benefit of the community and has a bidding process. It will all get paid. They will have to get paid, Robert. I'm telling you. I know that. I'm just not paying them now until we get an answer. Because listen, the person that signed off on those bills signed off on those bills, pushed them to the town to get paid knowing that that contract had changed and that they didn't do the services that they were billing us for.
I just want to doing different services. They may have been doing different services, but not the services that are on their invoice and the contract
and not what we approved when we approved this as a board of finance for the $48,600.
And and listen, this would have gotten through if I wasn't the one signing the checks. So, yes, I apologize for all this, but I am not signing something. When I go in there and I sign checks, I look at the stuff and I sit there and looked at the bill and go, "That bill doesn't make any sense to me."
Well, Jeff, part of the issue, and I'm going to I'm sorry. I'm I'm trying to be very nice and polite, but don't nobody told us that check was not being signed. It sat on a desk and then nobody said anything. So, I you know,
you talk about communication, but it's a two-way street. If that bill came by and you didn't think that that bill should be paid, then you should have come over with the check in hand and asked the question instead of just keeping it. And we had to call for weeks and weeks and say, "What's going on with this check?"
Okay, I'll apologize with that, but it's been in public and it has been it has been discussed at multiple meetings like Bill said. Tired of talking about it
at this point. that's where we're at. Yes. I the only reason I raised it and kept it on the agenda was to keep track of it. I don't want to have the exact same arguments over and over again. So, I wanted to be aware that the check is still out there. The the payments are still being held. They are.
I understand your reasoning, Jeff. I've heard you. and I'm going to leave it there for now. And you know,
and and listen, I've said this in public before. I said at a board of education meeting. If this board, the board of finance, which I am not a voting member of, wants to vote to have that check released, it'll get released. It's not just Jeff Magcguire sitting there doing it. I've already stated it's your responsibility. If you sit there and say, "Release that check. I don't care." Go ahead, release the check.
I personally don't feel like it should be released because I don't feel like we're getting enough information. We've been wanting a presentation to all the boards. We haven't gotten it. And so I'm with you. A
presentation of
you asked for a tri board meeting, Jeff. Yes, I know that.
Put it there.
Yes.
All right.
So, so I want to see this is what I'm trying to get at and this is why I keep, you know, coming back to this issue is what gets us to the point
where we move forward. If that is that is the ask
the tribe board meeting shouldn't it be that we all hold to our policies and actually do an appropriate bid?
Yeah.
Right. again. Yes, that
another issue though, Jeff.
Purchasing policy.
Here's one thing. This earlier contract, there's two separate issues though. You're right.
Correct, Bill. And I'm with you. But if we pivot, if we go back to the original the original program that the board and that the committee was doing, it was a designed bill, $48,000. You designed the bathroom and the renovations that need to occur in that bathroom. Then you send it out to bid. You get three, four, five bids. You take the low bidder and then you go forward with the project.
Well, maybe the low bidder, but yes,
maybe low bidder.
Maybe not. Depends on select.
It's not always it's not always the lowest bidder that's the most appropriate. But that said,
you know, I understand this is the nut of the dispute.
I am trying both in these meetings and also offline to get us through this. So I want that's why I raise it that's why I ask essentially what will satisfy because again up until this this happened you know the checks were being issued.
So I understand you're saying okay well we could we could vote to to make you do it.
I would prefer not to take that step. All right.
I'm trying to find a way that we could all agree to pay the bill. Oh, and you you realized you realized though that that Eric Eric processed all of those bills after Valerie had signed and approved them all.
Yeah.
The only reason that this stopped is because I had to sign checks one day.
I know. I know you didn't sign.
Just telling you. So, it would have continued to get paid would have continued to have been paid until it was completely done.
Okay.
And then we're going to pivot. Then we're going to pivot. Yes.
I just want to say, look, my father was in construction for years, right? So, you start a job and yes, there's a contract, but then
something comes up and the parties discuss and they they they they decide what's going on. So I there I just want to say that that I think you do a lot of construction projects, Jeff, and I'm sure you've had contracts that have been signed and you do them and then the contractor says, "Oh, well, we thought we were going to use, you know, this this material, but it turns out this material is better, so do you want us to move ahead and use this material and this is we'll do it for the same price?" I'm sure that happens at a town level on projects.
That's not that's not this what this is about. That is exactly what this is. She talked about contract process issues. Listen, she talked about contracts. Rob. Rob. Did you get the signed contract?
My understanding is the one.
Did you get the signed contract?
Yes.
I have to go back and look at my emails. Hang on. I got a lot of emails. I've had a crazy week. I did
because I
haven't gotten a sign.
Hang on. Hang on. I have an email from Caitlyn again. I've been This is on the 15th.
Authorization to proceed signed 12 2025.
Yeah.
I'd love Can you share that with the rest of the board?
Sure.
Perfect.
I just I I wasn't involved in the beginning of this, but I just have a question. If we're not paying Fuss and O'Neal because they've changed they're doing something different. Has anyone talked to Fuss and O'Neal about this that things have changed and that's why we're not paying them or anything?
Right. like what have we explained to them? Yeah,
we we've asked for Heather, we've asked for a tri board meeting so we all can have a discussion related to all of these issues.
No, I'm wondering if anyone talked to Fuss and O'Neal that they not doing what they said they would do or they're building for stuff that hasn't been done. Have we talked to them?
Caval's in constant communication, Heather, with Fuss and O'Neal and throughout this process and again it precedes me as well. I just started in November. but but they have you know been
communicating about all the work that Fussen O'Neal is is doing. So and Val as superintendent is confident that they have done the comparable work to what they are billing for. She is not asking for the board of finance to sign anything that she believes that the work has not been done for that.
I have just forwarded what I got from Caitlyn to you, Jeff, and the other board of finance members.
Perfect. Thank you.
So, you can share that with your board if if you'd like. And you know, that's the signed authorization to proceed,
which is what I got when I requested, you know, a copy of the signed contract. I thought Jeff was saying the $8,000 is part of the actual construction that hasn't been done yet.
So that's the the issue that he's raising is this phase because of there was a bit of a shift they all right. So the original conception a lot that you know the understanding was that you know fuss and O'Neal would shepherd the board of end through the process but bid out for subcontractor work right the plumber the electrician etc. and I think Jeff's issue is since that didn't happen and then we got build for work that kind of comes at the end that hasn't we're not really in that phase. it doesn't match up and therefore he didn't feel appropriate. You know, he was comfortable signing the check,
right?
Is that a fair encapsulation briefly? Definitely
they and and and Robert what I'd ask this is the last page that is just a you know they should have included the entire document so that the entire board could sit there and see the entire document that was moved forward with
but Heather the issue is there were four phases to the the the the document the invoice that they sent us. The third phase was bidding services which have never happened. And the fourth phase is construction administration which is supposed to be after the project starts and they're into work. Fussen O'Neal was supposed to advise us on what the contractor was doing or not doing. We haven't even gotten to that point. So my my issue was why are we as a community paying for those services?
So is Fuss and O'Neal expecting that check or are they
No. plus and O'Neal. There's there's so many problems with this this right now as it stands that yes, they're expecting it, Heather, but are they they've gotten paid for what is it? 90% of the whole pro the whole proposed proposal they've provided the community and the town. So
I think they got paid 42,850. So there's 3,7750 remaining.
Yeah. 5. I mean, and and and listen,
the town also, just so everybody understands, doesn't wait 30 days to pay stuff. Normally, we pay stuff within the first 10 days. You know, you receive the the bill and that the check check runs are every Friday. Every other Friday. Every Friday. It might be every other Friday. But they get paid. And so, I don't feel bad holding this money. Honestly, as a business owner, I I want an answer to be really honest. That's all I want, just an answer. Where are we? What is the expectation moving forward? And I think Jodianne even said that if this project moves in a different direction, they're going to reimburse us for the $12,000 at the end of this contract. That doesn't work for me. you know she said this at a board of education meeting that or board of finance but one of the meetings we were
at and you know that Fussen O'Neal was gonna reimburse us the $12,000 for the payment on this after we pivot to the the you know the build part of this project and if that's the point if that was the answer that I got I'm like I'll hold the money until we figure out which way we're pivoting right we don't have to waste a lot more time on this one you either sit there as a board and vote to accept the check or not.
I say move on.
All right, we'll move on for now. I wanted to bring it up. All right, we've we've we've I think had what we can say at this point and as I said before, I personally do not want to take that sort of nuclear option step of, you know, saying no, cut the check over your objections. I'd like to try to get to yes without doing that. new business 6A added to the agenda by Liz. request for information.
Yeah. So, last month we talked about concerns I had about the over expenditure the transfers from the
thing.
Yeah. from from salaries and benefits to HBAC and we talked about it. Jodianne said she would get information about it. So an initial email went out and it was kind of mixed with a lot of other stuff. So I said this is going to get lost in the shuffle. I know it is. So, I sent a a new request a follow-up I think on the 16th saying, you know, just kind of regrouping specifying exactly what it was I would like to see because I'm curious about exactly everything that was paid for under the HBAC line. that was on January 16th. On the 19th, I got a response from Valerie asking for clarification. I responded back with specifics that I'd like copies. I'd like to see the invoices and receipts for the expenditures totaling 127,468 under the 430 2610 2621 account ID. and I asked I wanted to get it by Friday, last Friday, so I'd have a chance to look at it before our meeting. didn't get it. and I emailed her again on Monday just for like a status and nothing. I I haven't received anything yet. So
I mean
my only my only question here is you know all the invoices and checks and stuff. Can we start with the explanation of what occurred and then move before we go into roing you know every every check here? What what happened is my first
question. So, I I was just so I was reviewing the the school's transfers,
right,
from like last year's budget,
right?
And there was 200 $259,000 of transfers. And I noticed that there was over $12,000ish of transfers to the HVAC account. No, not 12,000. I
was going to say a lot more than
Yeah, 120. And I'm like, that's odd. The first thing that I would say is, you know, can we get a just at least a verbal rundown and an explanation from as from Jod from whoever for what that was for? You know, the second piece that you asked for was really kind of intensive, all the checks, all the all the invoices and everything like that. But can we at least start with the what happened part?
I mean,
and I I have that information for you. So, just I just want to intervene too. And I wanted to say I did look into it. So I did say at the last meeting I'd look into it. I wasn't here last year. Didn't know what you know. So I did look into it. I also want to say too we're also in the middle of budget season, right? So a request for every single invoice would be very very labor intensive. So I agree with Robert of like let's start. So, I did bring and they also also Liz I I just want to also throw out too that lately we've been getting as employees we've been getting a lot of different requests from different members. So, and my bad. I I I want to be helpful. So, I said email me. But we realized that requests were not being streamlined and somebody was asking me for something. Somebody was asking the secretary for something. So, we did decide to streamline requests through the superintendent. So, it's it's done.
Yeah. No, I'm just saying that. I'm just letting you know. And then with that, when I met with her and pulled the invoices, we we said that again, we'd really not again, but we'd like the board of ed to go through it first. And again, we're talking about proper processes and procedures. So, when I talked about that, so I did I'm I'm I brought up the concern or the questions and then you know, Val said, "Yeah, go ahead. pull the stuff, but let's bring it to our DOE and present that. because she just as she thinks it's better practice to share things first with the board of education and then the board of finance so that the board of education members don't feel like they don't have the information on the budget that they're overseeing and we have two new members. So, I can give you the rundown. So,
can I ask one question before you get in there? Cuz you said the
Did the board of education not vote on this transfer?
No, they did. They followed proper procedure. It was shared, but it was last year. And we also have two new board of ed members. So, they don't necessarily know about this. So, I we wanted to bring it if it's a concern if there are particular concerns that I thought and I wanted to ask at today's meeting. So what I have prep prepared for you guys tonight is just a general overview and also I wanted to ask were there was there anything in particular you wanted to know about those as we go through them and then I can relay that to the board of education and val if there are particular concerns. So do you want me to run details? Yeah, let's let's go through and talk about what happened.
You got
Yeah. So, your adopted their their adopted budget for that line was 15,000 at the end of the year. I don't I I don't have the date, but it was May. It wasn't the very very end of the year. the transferred 112,46803 was transferred into that account. the total expenditures then sorry so then that account that line item with that transfer had 127,468 and then the expenditures for that account were 84 I'll just give you rough numbers 84,000 and then 43 roughly 43,000 was not expended so what I learned concerned was that you know looking at you know in the end of the year transfers are common. I know you know that I know at this town level that happens as well. so when they were looking at where they had money and they were looking at their needs the board decided they needed they wanted to be prepared for any more HVAC repairs. there also was the state law has new air quality regulations and you have to do you have a certain amount of time to do a big HVAC or air quality evaluation. bigger districts that you could do like one school a year, you have a certain amount of time, but the board decided to because they were in good shape budgetarily to do that
that last year. It was something it would have had it has to be it has to be done. So they decided to do it. That was a big bulk that was looks like 22,000 and then another 2500. So, a big chunk of that transfer in was used for that. and then looking at the other expenses, and again, I'd be very happy to share them. I just wanted to bring them to the board of ed first so PE they're not getting questions from people before they've been presented the information. but you know, it's various. So, some air conditioning repair. our service agreement, and that's the the normal budget. So, it's a service agreement of, $8,000 for regular maintenance.
this I'm finding
How much was the AC repair?
It's hard to follow.
Well, I will I I'm very happy to share it. Again, I'm I'm trying to again follow the proper protocols and make so once we we're going to share this with the board of ed at the next meeting and discuss it and then I could share with you, you know, the the location of the video where it's discussed as well as the list after that. Jody, I know a timing issue.
What I've got so far is a is a is an air quality evaluation for 24,500 AC repair of question mark. What was what was that?
Well, they're all different ones. So, we have here's a,300. actually new I think new AC room. one room got new AC. I believe the other air conditionings were covered by a grant several years ago and there was like one class one or two classrooms left. So, another classroom got AC. we got a pump replacement.
So, the rest are all really little, honestly. There's an expansion tank replacement that was 4700.
how many expenditures are you talking about? the list there's probably about 20
and I and and I could I even get like a detailed like a spreadsheet of all those expenses,
you know, and the names of the company that I mean
once you had a chance to go through it with your board, could you give us a spreadsheet on that?
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Yeah. I mean along the lines of what we've been talking about with our other stuff. All right. 24,500. Okay. That was the eval for air quality, you know, duh, just so we can see it. And then it'll tally up. I think you said 84,000 was actually expended out of the account.
Yes. Yes. And were there Liz, were there specific
look at it and say, "Okay, that tallies to 84 me."
Yeah. Were there specific questions that you had though or No,
I wanted to know exactly how much was spent
specifically line by line
for that total dollar amount.
Okay.
And I mean I bring it up again because you're already over budget in your in that same line
this year.
Well, you're not over budget.
The HVAC seems to be ongoing. Can I
So 17,000 you've adopted is the adopted budget. you've already expended 15,000 and you have 18 or 8,000 encumbered. So, this line is a concern for me and yes, I would like to to see a line by line reporting of all those expenses.
and
is that is that unreasonable for a board of finance to ask for?
No, I just want to I just want to make sure the board of ed sees it first. That's it.
Okay. So, I mean that that fine, but yeah, I think we do want
o see I mean Liz has a point here that if you're consistently overexpending something, you know, something's off in in the, you know, something you need to look at and of course it's the board of eds, the first cut at that is the board of eds that they need to look at their budget and say, gosh, we're we're we keep underfunding this line and then dig into why. You know, what's going on with the HVAC system? Is it really just a question of, you know, in this one year, obviously the eval if that costs almost $25,000, it's going to blow your budget up. I I get that if that's a once off, but how often does that need to happen? That kind of thing. But, you know, I I think what we'd like to see is a chart that, you know, can so we can look at it ourselves and just say, "Okay, that tallies to 84K and here's what it was spent on." I mean, I think that's
reason 127,000. Well, the transfer I thought and if maybe Jody correct me if I misunderstood what you said. They transferred 120 some odd thousand
112
but may didn't maybe didn't spend it all.
Correct. Okay. And that's and that's fine. Two two things for me. And so you can
What was the offset to the HVAC account? What did you transfer the money from? Which budget line item?
I believe Liz said I I don't have the sheet with me. I think it was salaries or something to that effect. So salary dollars to a repair and maintenance fund.
I believe that's okay. That's fine. I got it. No problem. Can you do me and this board a favor? Do you have the 2025 detailed custom expenditure report that has gone through the most recent process that would show us the $136,000 underspend because that would be really helpful for me to sit there and compare it to what you you going to give us moving forward and I I would love to see that report. So it's the report that you you provided for this this meeting just from last year. Is that possible to get it to all
the final budget? I can provide you. I mean do you want to see the final budget? You'll see where every
No, no, no. I want to see the report out of your system out of Edmmonds that you provided us here like these reports these pages. So you gave us a 2026 custom expenditure report summary and then you gave us the detailed report. Could you do that for last year? Yeah, the like the June 30th, you're asking for the end of their June 30th expenditure report.
Perfect. That would be very helpful.
Sure.
Thanks.
And email it to the whole board as soon as you can do that.
Yeah.
All right.
Next week I can do it.
All right. No problem. Thank you.
Okay. personally, I think that's progress. I think let's see what we get and we can talk about it further if if needed. but you know, I think going forward this is the sort of stuff we need to hopefully get accustomed to each other back and forth. that's not terribly articulate, but it's 9:00. Okay, so if we can move on. liaison reports. I don't have anything from CIP, although I think we're have an upcoming meeting because we do finally have a request for something we have to look at, but I don't have anything from this past month. does anyone else have any liazing they can bring up? I mean, I already talked about the the school project. I don't know if really a formal liaison there, but and Bill, that's kind of your role, but we already talked about it.
We already talked about it. Yep.
Okay.
Very good. meeting minutes. I I make the motion that we approve the minutes from 111925 regular scheduled meeting.
which one?
111925. Yes. Okay. I mean, sorry, I didn't hear any further discussion. Sorry. okay. Motion passes. 70, I believe, if there's unless there's any nos or abstensions. Okay. that was just the one, right? So, we have the other December 17th.
Yeah.
Yep.
so the December one, I noticed a couple things. well, one, a little misspelling in new business number six. the second line says back reconciliations should be bank reconciliations.
I'm sorry. What page are you on, Liz?
I'm sorry. it's item six, which would be page two of three.
It's the second page of the December meeting.
It's I'm sorry, 6B.
The second line says BOE in monthly packet back reconciliations. It should be bank.
Gotcha. and so how was this how was this prepared? Was this prepared by that AI thing or was this prepared? Do you know Jeff? Was this prepared by the the note our note person?
that is a good question. It's something that has to really be researched as to how we do this. Right now, I believe it's done through Marina Marina who is the u the clerk and she takes the transcription that's made from this meeting and prepares notes prepares minutes. That's what I believe is happening.
Okay. I I kind I the whole discussion about what we just talked about the whole discussion that we discussed requesting this HBAC information doesn't really seem to be I don't I don't think it's documented very well. I wanted to add something to it.
Okay. So like where it says where it says would like to see what was purchased for HC repair after 112,000 was
transferred not completed
should say transferred was transferred and something like discussion ensued Liz asked for rece purchase orders for the 15,000 that was budgeted plus the 112,000 that was transferred. Jody Jodianne agreed to look into it and get the information on that transfer to us.
Yeah, that that does need to get well at the very least that the the completed thing has to be fixed.
so yes.
Do you want me to type Do you want me to type that? Like who would fix this? I could
if you want if there's an email you could send to the appropriate person to say, you know, here are my thoughts on on that. That might be the way to go.
okay. Do we want to make a motion a motion to add
that? and I will take it upon myself to figure out how to do that if everybody agrees with it.
Sure.
Why don't you make the corrections and bring it back next month and have
Yeah, we'll just vote on We'll just push this off till next month rather than
Yeah, we'll table it for now.
And we can talk about that. But yeah, fair enough. it does need a little clean up. by the way, I just happened to notice in looking at at this the the the things that we were curious about at the check register are listed here.
Spring Aby's Contracting and Barton and Lugus.
where is that? Where is that?
5B.
Oh, no way. Oh, yes.
Oh, questions regarding spring.
Spring Aby's contract.
We were right about spring. I'm just pointing out have memo column in report. That's true.
So it's
ay ditto.
Yeah. But anyway, we will we will go ahead and come back to that issue and come back to those minutes in our next meeting. That's
So the action is Liz, you're going to forward that to Marina in the office or
No, I think I'm going to I think I'm going to type up the note, send it to the board, and then we'll vote it in next month.
Gotcha. Okay. That seems reasonable to me.
Yeah. In the meantime, I'll I'll also try to find how to get in touch with Mariana.
Marina. Yeah.
Marina.
and I do I do hope it's a person and not just a hi.
I think it is.
anyway, okay. So, if there's something further on that, we're at board open discussion. If there's anything further, I mean, I'm kind of talked out. Anybody else got anything else they wanted to bring up? Okay. very good. Correspondence. Does any have anything on that? And public speak. All right. Let's go. I think we have a couple. We had some people join and whatnot. So, all right. well, I'll I guess I'll start with Jeff. Technically, he's a sort of an expert member, but whatever. Jeff, do you have anything further to add? You're muted.
I'm a I'm a non voting
member, so you don't count.
There you go. Don't count.
Bye-bye.
Okay. No, no need for you. We're done with you. Kidding. All right. Marcy,
no thanks. I'm good. Thank you.
Okay, Melissa.
All set. Thank you. Joanne,
I promise super quick because it's just important. I promise. only because you have so many new people on there and I think the history of what we've tried to do in the past is important for them to know. So, just that little talk that you guys all talked about with the way the budgets presented with revenue, you know, you know, showing it as all the money that comes in from the grants. If you all look back in your emails, you'll see many from me with little drafts of what we did send to the board of ed and requested. So, there were meetings that were had for two years. So, just keep that in mind. We have been trying this and we think it's important. Liz is showing, you know, agreeing with me. We did get those reports from the board of ed in the past with the grant little info on the side and then boom,
done with that. Just want the new members to know that it has been attempted so that they're up to speed on that. so hopefully everybody can push forward. The other thing that I just really feel, you know, I do agree with Mr. Maguire on this one thing with the contract that was signed with Fuss and O'Neal just pinpointing exact steps for 48,600. And it just seems silly to me that if we paid for that expense as a town, we wanted that expense. Let's just do it. They can pivot in the construction. I don't care. You know, do all the change orders. It's just it was like design
plans. Fuss and O'Neal who know their stuff are going to oversee the RFP process. Boom. We don't need people to come in. And I love everybody, you know, people. This is not personal because I've had good conversations with Caitlyn. But if we're paying Fuss and O'Neal, we don't need Caitlyn to run around trying to get contractors to bid on a town project. Just follow the letter of the law. There was like Jeff said, three or four steps. Let's just do it. I mean, if the project pivots to design build, that's fine for all of you that understand that and I'm getting to learn it. That's all. Thank you. Just two cents for a history lesson.
Thank you, Joanne.
All right. don't think I'm missing anybody. Lisa, it was good to meet you.
Thank you for being here. Look forward to
working with you in the future.
Thanks.
All right. in that. Anybody want to move to adjourn?
I'll move to hang out.
Let's hang out and chat.
Yeah. All right. Louis's motion to adjourn. Anybody second that?
I'll second it.
All right. Thank you, Kim.
You're welcome.
All in favor?
I.
All right. So, we adjourn at 9:16 p.m.