Meeting transcript
Board of Finance Meeting
November 29, 2023 · Watch on YouTube · All meetings
Okay.
Thank you, everybody. We're gonna go ahead and call the meeting to order. This is the Board of Finance meeting for the town of Andover, Wednesday, 11/29/2027. We will go ahead and start by reciting the pledge of allegiance. The pledge of allegiance is the flag of The United States Of America, Republic,
the which is and which is the nation, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
You. Okay. Our first item in the agenda is public speak. Anybody members of the public want to speak?
Just have our guess. So, we'll move on to item three which is changes or additions to the agenda. Anybody have any additions or changes to propose to the agenda?
I do. Okay. Yeah, go ahead. Take a look. I'd like to, you know, revisit the idea of going back to the Zoom meetings possibly for the winter season and, you know, for things like this that are, yeah, I'll make that whole discussion about. Well, yeah. Oh,
I'd like to make a motion to We would add it probably in our new business six B. Oh.
Oh, okay. Okay. Can we put I'd like to add item six B to revisit discussion on going back to Zoom meetings.
Okay. Anybody want to second? Second. Okay. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Was that a yes Bill? That was a yes. Okay. Thank you. Okay, any opposed? Any abstentions? No, motion passes. We'll add on item 6B. Discussion of returning to virtual meetings. Okay, any other pages or additions to the agenda? Okay. Hearing none, we will move on to our next agenda item. This is the review with the auditor of the 2022 financial statements. So
Alright. So for those of you who don't know, this is Mike. He's our auditor from Moe and Zabel. Hey, Hey, Mike. Welcome. Thanks for calling us.
Alright. And I I hope everyone has gotten copies of the the '22 And so thank you very much again. My name is Mike Van Nivenner. I'm a partner in Employment Disabled, ultimately responsible for overseeing the audit board's been issuing reports on behalf of the firm. Again, I am going to run through our presentation that really, know, provides a high level overview of the results of the audit, and then also items that would be of importance to you as Board of Planning members. So if we could turn to slide two of the presentation. In terms of the scope of work, we did report in light of the town's financial statements. We performed that audit in accordance with both the auditing standards issued by the management's through certified public accounts, as well as the government auditing standards issued by the government accountability office. In addition, based on the level of state funding that was received and expanded by the town, we did also confirm the state single audit in accordance with the Connecticut State Single Audit Act. The town did not meet the threshold for a federal single audit, and I do not anticipate you meeting that threshold in 2023 either. So in addition, we do also perform an agreed upon procedures on the end of the school year reports that are filed by the school district to the Connecticut Department of Education. In addition to those that we call our product services, we do also perform some non audit services for the town. So we do assist in the preparation of the financial statements as well as the schedule of expenditures or state financial assistance and related notes.
And then we also assist in converting your governmental fund financial statements to your government water financial statements. So again, it's important to note that in order for us to be independent, management is required to ultimately accept responsibility for these services. And again, Cheryl, the treasurer, ultimately accepted responsibility for the service. In connection with our audit, we do issue a number of reports. The the primary report is the report on the financial statements. We did issue unmodified opinion on your financial statements. Again, our opinion does provide reasonable assurance that the financial statements are free from a material statement and that they have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in The United States. Our opinion does cover multiple statements within your financial statements. It covers your governmental activities, each of your major funds, which for the town was your general fund and your capital reserve fund. And then we provide an opinion on the overall aggregate remaining fund information, and that includes all of your special revenue, capital projects, and permanent funds. The one thing I'd to point out here is, again, we do only provide reasonable assurance, if not absolute assurance. We do not test every transaction with the patent. We do utilize sampling in our audit methodology, and, therefore, we do not provide that. In connection with the state single audit, we issued a report on compliance, in an internal control of the state financial assistance level. For fiscal year 2022, the total state financial assistance recognized by the town was about 2,800,000. The majority of that is considered exempt from our testing. The portion that was not was about 774,000. The town's major programs were the Town Aid Road, the Let's Go with benefit ramp up transportation program,
and the small town economic assistance program. We did issue unmodified opinions on your compliance over those programs and we did not report any compliance. Again,
the primary compliance requirements with these programs is about the cost and performance testing to make sure that you're charging what you should be charging against those grants.
In connection with our audit, we do also issue a report on compliance and on internal control financial reporting. I do think it's important to note that in this report, we do not actually express an opinion on your compliance with laws and regulations or on the effectiveness of your internal controls over financial reporting. Essentially, during the course of performing our audit, we become aware of or identify a material noncompliance with a law regulation or a material weakness in your internal controls, we're required to include it in this report. So if you do remember in in 2021, we did have a number of findings, material weaknesses and significant deficiencies that were reported. Again, we did have some repeat findings for fiscal year twenty twenty two. I will say, however, that from an audit perspective, the audit was much smoother and the issues that we have were substantially less. And as a result, again, we we did, remove some of those deficiencies that we reported in 2020. The deficiencies that remained was a material weakness in internal control over financial reporting with respect to the bank reconciliations. Again, from a context perspective, the bank recs were in much better shape than they were in the prior year, but there were still some issues that were identified as as part of the overall job. I can recommendation, you know, the accurate bank reconciliations are really essential to ensuring the integrity of your overall general ledger. Those reconciliations should be fully reconciled in a timely manner, and, there should be a documented supervisor review, of those bank reconciliations. The second finding that was repeated was a significant difficulty seen in internal control over the year end closing procedures.
Again, there's still a number of adjustments that were proposed as a result of the audit process. Those adjustments related to proper reporting certain year end accruals and deferrals, also associated with property tax receivables and deferrals. And then also to properly reconcile activity to support conversion entries that are required to prepare your government wide financial statements, including your capital assets, compensated assets, and and total OPEB liability. So, again, historically, from an audit perspective, oftentimes, as long as we're that it sits with a lot of this work as part of the audit process, our standards have become a little bit more stricter over the years. Really, that responsibility does fall on town personnel and management to perform those, those reconciliations. And then the third deficiency that was a repeat,
was the deficiency over the reconciliation between the towns and school district general ledgers. This obviously also has an impact on the bank reconciliations as well. So again, the fact that the the ledgers are not integrated, creates, some difficulties in terms of a lot of manual entries having to be recorded on both sides and making sure that those entries mirror each other and ultimately are reconciled on a monthly basis. And so again, there were some issues with that reconciliation in connection with the fiscal year 2022. So in regards to these findings, again, management was responsible for preparing submitting that corrective action plans for the Office of Policy and Management. Again, from a board perspective, we would like to oversee that corrective action plan and make sure that the corrective actions that have been outlined are being taken by the government. Before I move on to financial highlights, any questions regarding either the scope of work or the audit findings that were reported? All right, just to provide a really, again, high level overview of the financial highlights. Again, the financial statements do include a number of statements. I know the primary statement that the board is most familiar with is the general fund on a budgetary basis. Your original budget provide for the utilization utilization of fund balance amount of 285,000 balance of revenues and expenditures. Your final use did include additional appropriations of 4,000 and that resulted in an overall fee and use of fund balance amount of 325,000. Your actual change in fund balance was a decrease of 155,000.
And so that resulted in an overall favorable budgetary variance of about 169,000. And revenues were approximately 116,000 more than budgeted. That was really driven by favorable collections on your property taxes, building permits, and town clerk fees, and then your overall actual expenditures were approximately 53,000 less than your local budget. The next slide goes over your governmental fund financial statements. So this includes your general fund on a GAAP basis as well as all of your special revenue and capital project funds. Overall, the town reported a combined ending fund balance of about 3,800,000. There was a nominal increase of about 5,000 from the from the prior year. Of the 3,800,000, the general fund was reporting an ending fund balance of about 1,400,000, a decrease of about 155,000 from the prior year.
You did assign 100,000 for use in your fiscal year twenty twenty three budget that left an unassigned fund balance of about 1,300,000 and that represented approximately 10.2% of your fiscal year twenty twenty three budgetary expenditure appropriations. That's sufficient to cover about one point two months of your overall budgetary expenditures. The GFOA does recommend that all governments regardless of size maintain about two months. That's probably around 17% of for for a fund balance. Again, we generally see it anywhere between 1020%. Fund balance reserves are really based on, you know, the overall risk of the of the town, the environment. Again, if you live by the shore, maybe you need a higher fund balance reserve because we deal with, you know, hurricanes, storms and unplanned emergency fall.
But remember, we also have a considerable amount of money
in capital funds that could be tapped if we needed to. And so that brings up the next point is capital reserve funds you have about 1,300,000, which was an increase of about 37,000 from the prior year. Again, those amounts are committed for specific capital purposes. You are reporting a deficit in the transfer station shed repair fund of about 7,000. Again, that deficit has been carried forward from from prior years. Recommendations just to fund that deficit through review the budget process or through that transfer during the year. All of your other funds had an ending fund balance of about a million dollars, which is an increase of about 123,000. Those are either restricted or committed for various purposes. Again, there are detailed binding schedules of each of those funds in the financial statements. This next section is our required communications. Again, our auditing standards does do require certain communications as a result of the audit. The first item here talks about our responsibility under the auditing standards. Again, although we do assist in the preparation of the financial statements, they are the responsibility of town management. It's our responsibility to perform our procedures and express our opinion on those financial statements. The overall plan scope and timing of the audit, again, no changes in the overall scope of the audit work that was performed.
There were multiple extensions from OPM that were required. Those delays, result to, some scheduling constraints on our side. So based on our scheduling issues, we typically don't start the audit until after year end. However, then there were also some issues, you know, regarding some of the deficiencies that were reported in the report on internal control financial reporting that led to some additional delays. With respect to significant audit findings, again, we do review the town's accounting policies and procedures. We do compare those to what other towns or municipalities utilize in terms of they're reasonable. One of the items that we usually point out here is the implementation of any new accounting standards. The big one for fiscal 2022 was on leases. The impact of that statement was determined to be interior of your account's financial statements. However, again, future leases should be analyzed and accounted for the life importance rates with the statement. In terms of difficulties, no difficulties, again, outside of some of the additional work and delays that were associated with some of those deficiencies. Ultimately, all of the information that we requested was provided by town personnel. We had no uncorrected statements, so any adjustments that we identified as a result of our procedures, have been proposed and are reflected in their financial statements. The town did record a prior period restatement to restate its beginning cash balance in the amount of about 163,000. Again, remember there were significant bank reconciliation issues in prior years. There was variances that had been identified being carried forward from prior years. We got to the point where, in connection with this audit, we were comfortable that those variants should be adjusted, and ultimately that was adjusted through a restatement of your beginning cash balance.
We had no disagreements with management. We did obtain a representation letter. There were no unusual representations that were requested of management. I just give the example. If we were unable to substantiate a transaction and we selected for testing and we were relying on the representation from management, And we're not aware of any complications by management with any other independent candidates. So, again, with that, it concludes my communication with respect to the fiscal year twenty twenty two audits. Again, happy to answer any questions for you. Anyone? Questions? Thanks for putting up with us.
And I do apologize for the delays in the in the presentation. No. Sorry.
No. Thank you, Stephanie. I know I had a full packet too. Like, we had some of the things in there, but I mean, just so that I had something to reference, but thank you for this. This is great overview and hopefully moving forward. So I know we had a couple, you know, at the beginning, you talked about the things that have been, you know, findings that have been, you know, found again or, you know, are we allowed to ask you at this point? Do you feel like changes have been made so that I know we're talking about this, but moving forward is always on focus so that we don't see
them again or? Right. So I think from my perspective, I mean, certainly, in context, again, you have significant findings, but they were less severe in my eyes, reconnection with the '22 audit. So I would think that as you continue to address those things and involve those things, those findings should get remediated. We have not performed any procedures at this point in connection with the fiscal year twenty three audit, so I can't really speak to those changes at this time.
Hey, Eric. Yes. Yeah, I'm just wondering, can you give me a copy of that presentation? Absolutely. I appreciate it. Thank you.
Alright, I guess we're all set then Mike. Appreciate the time.
Eric, maybe you're say something. Yeah, I was just gonna say while Mike, we have Mike here, I think now might not be a bad time to talk a little bit about the capital funds. And just make sure we're all on the same page regarding the capital funds between us and AES. So it's ultimately, Mike as the auditor is the person that has to bless the whatever policy we put in place or not plus the policy, but at least, you know, bless the overall procedure. Okay. So, I mean, I think you're aware, basically what we were looking to do is establish a capital fund to fund expenditures, you know, longer term expenditures with AES Mhmm. And use money if they under spend their budget for the year and request it from the board of finance, have a mechanism established that we can we can fund a capital fund from that at the end of the year with surplus funds. Okay. And
so I guess my my question is is that are you utilizing the 2% statute in terms of the non lapsing to to establish the fund? Well,
we already have a 2% non lapsing fund established. In my mind, there's two issues with that. One, in some cases, there's more than 2%. So there's a limitation on how much you can put it in each year. And the second real limitation from my perspective is that I think given the level of capital expenditures that might be required by a school system, You know, we may need to be budgeting additional monies through our normal appropriation. So my in my head, I just we were looking at a separate capital fund that we could fund through the ordinary budget process, but also put additional revenues in from the school if they had, you know, a, you know, fairly large unexpended funds at the end of the fiscal year. Yeah. Okay.
So there are I mean there are several statutes that ultimately can be utilized to establish funds and then you know the procedure itself would depend on which statute you're ultimately following. So typically under the 2%, if you were going to establish it in accordance with the kind of the 2%, sure, it would give the Board of Finance the authority to transfer monies from the end of the year surplus for the Board of Education into that fund, right. And then under the statute, it also gives the Board of Education the authority to spend as well. So Board of Finance authority to move the money, Board of Education the authority to spend it. CNR, you know, typically under the statutes,
again is typically a Board of Finance authority to move unspent funds at the end of the year into a CNR. So you can do that in terms of your, you know, normal general fund budget for town ones. You could also do that for the Board of Education as well. So I think the approval would also be at the Board of Finance level. But then the actual spending that would
change, it would no longer be under the 2% rule. It would be under your normal appropriation process for capital funds. That's kind of how we interpret it or formulated, I think in our thinking so more or less. And
in keeping with the fact that most of the capital things that are going to be done, even though they'll be done essentially for educational purposes, they're still technically town buildings. And the town still does retain the authority to issue permits and actually do the work. So that's how we were envisioning it. And we just wanna make sure from an audit perspective, that there's no significant issues with that, that as long as we follow, we treat that essentially like every other capital fund that we have, even though it's specifically for the school system, not the school system, but for capital expenses related to the school system and proper.
Right. I think what changes in terms of the statute is the authority to spend. So under the 2%, it should be the Board of Education
under the capital that would be the Board of Finance. Yeah, and the way that we have drafted it and we'll get to this later in the meeting is basically Board of Ed and more clients have to have a meeting of minds. Board of Ed comes to us and says we'd like to put in X, we agree it goes in, they want to spend it, we agree they spend it. It's their money, right? And they have their carved out of some of the procedures based on charter. So, but the idea is that it's between the board of Ed and more clients to sort this out. We drafted a policy that we'll be discussing later tonight, but I don't think anything that you've said conflicts with it.
Is can I just ask? Yeah. Is there a benefit to because one of my questions was going to be, do we really need the 2% non lapsing any longer or is that a protection so that okay. Right. I I isn't that statutory?
I don't think so. Mean, the 2% typically the non lapsing. I mean, I think the idea really behind that was related to special education. It's the ability to provide the school district because if you have somebody move in, you could see. Yeah.
Because I think when we first started talking about this, the only thing was to benefit the Board of Ed at the end of the year. We always knew there was a surplus and I'd gone to plenty of meetings. I work in a school system where there's a big spend and a push to spend at the end of the year to kind of, you know, stockpile things, which is a good thing, but why not put it in a capital fund to start saving for some of these big projects and the capital policy procedure?
Yeah. We know our funds and our accounts. Right now, we don't have a capital fund school. Right. So this is the attempt to create one. The 2% on left hand, like you said, is more of a contingency fund. Got it. Like, especially if you know this, you get one kid and it can be a $100,000 hit like that. So that's what that's for. This is more like, we know we have some issue coming up five years down the road that we're gonna have to spend a quarter of million dollars on. Right. Right. We wanna be able to load money into that. You have a procedure that everybody agrees on for the use of that model. And instead of having anything run through the office budget of the school, we just thought that wasn't great. Yeah,
do. I have a best practice perspective just from a budgeting perspective. Obviously incorporating the school district's capital needs into the overall capital needs of the town. You know, for a lot of municipalities, it's part of the capital process. So you know, it's not as if they have a separate capital upon for the Board of education and then one through the town. Although this provides you kind of an additional way to fund those those investments.
It's like we said at meetings too, if that happens special education expense comes up, the town is always going to take care of it because it's the town, I think Eric or someone has mentioned that we're going to have to find a way to fund it from a contingency in a town side or.
Right. We statutory have requirement. Right. Right. To pay that money if it occurs for I understand this helps
you not go to a supplemental appropriation until that happens. Yeah. Right.
But the other thing is that and correct me if I'm wrong, but as long as it's an education related capital expense, you can spend out the 2% non lapsing education fund for that. So we certainly could have done the parking lot and paid for it out of that account with their blessing. Now they don't want to do that because they want to keep that as their reserve. But there is that option. So in my mind, the advantage from their perspective is the 2% is that they maintain control over it. And also, there's a wider range of things they can expend that money for. Whereas the capital fund, you know, that you all maintain control of as a board of finance. And that's your mark specifically for capital.
The downside with the schools, they don't have as much authority over that. But in truth, technically, for most capital building projects, since they're town structures, they need cooperation from the town to do it anyway. So, it's a narrower focus. Correct. Is that a fair summation?
Yeah, and then the surplus wouldn't be the only mechanism for funding that capital.
We could go through our budget process and say, you know, what tells you what that could be done. And there's nothing in the policy that says it's okay to do that. Although it's true that the policy that we drafted is silent on that. There's no need to start quicker. Yeah. Part of the process. Right, exactly. I
have a general question. I brought this up. I was kind of curious why these funds don't have any vehicle to gain any interest or. Well, they do in a way because we put, yeah, we put them in the study. We changed it. Fine. Have. Fine. Because the the policy doesn't
relate to that. There's nothing in there stating it. That's true and that's a good point. Maybe we could throw something in there about that. But we've changed up our account. For some reason we decided not to do it. Right. I mean, there's a state account that we're using, right? Or 5% interest where we used to get point zero one or something ridiculous that I think we're using that across the board right? So
we have 3,200,000 something like that of pound funds in the stiff account currently earning interest And that brings up the other point and that is what the board what when you originally adopted or motion to set up this fund, we kinda made it clear that while we were adopting, we're setting up a fund, we were not setting up a standalone bank account for that fund. And the reason is we want to put that money in the stiff account, not keep it in the separate. And again, correct me if I'm wrong, but we should be able to transfer the bank account that has the 2% non lapsing account, still the school's money, but nothing says that has to be a standalone bank account that's earning point 1% interest.
You know, when we can basically just account for it as a fund,
you put that money in account. There's no restrictions on the establishment of a separate bank account. So you can pool those funds. You just need to have an accounting system in place to track that.
So just just as a heads up, you guys I apologize. You guys aren't seeing this. I realize I know looking at it. But Cheryl sent at the beginning of the month, she's been sending updates to Eric and I, and I guess Jeff McGuire, so the three of us are copied on there. And she's an interest earned in the stiff and compact co for 2023 was $12,892 So there's a significant amount of interest that's really ended in some months have been the bottom higher.
When we get to agenda item six and we discuss the policy tomorrow, I want to come back to the bank account issue because you just recently, I'm not sure I'm quite clear on and could cause a drafting issue with this, which I didn't I don't think I fully understood when we drafted this. The more that I really wanted and we knew what the outcome set up. And then I'm gonna get like, Yeah. Then I knew that. Well, okay. I want to talk that through, sort it out, make sure I completely understand it. And then I can go back to them and talk them about it or we can, it's me or anybody else. But that strikes me as a material issue then if that prevents us from using STIP in some way, that's a problem because why would we waste throw away the interest, right? So that I want to come back to, but that's six and we're not five.
So just follow-up question on that. So who would have check rating ability out of that account?
The town would per per once the board of Ed made the request and the board of finance signed off. Okay.
But if it's, I mean, if it is money that is in the statutory 2% non lapsing Ed fund, even though it's in the stiff account, if the school requested, we had no choice, we'd have to fork it over. It's not like they just have to ask us for it and we provide that.
This will be just they'd have to come to us and ask for, okay, we wanna do this project, we consider and if the two boards agreed, it gets funded. But then once we agree I believe it's the town that would write the checks. Is that wouldn't you say so Eric? Yeah it happens in the capital. Coming
out of it would come out of the town of the capital council. We'll see. Yeah just a way to explain it from that perspective is it's not really the bank account that is establishing the you know, the purpose, it's the fund. So the extent you have a fund in the accounting system where the cash is, doesn't really matter.
As long as you're accounting for all the activity within that fund. Okay and this is this is the sort of thing that I think we may have to talk to.
When you get into bank accounts it's more of who has the authority to if there's a change in terms of who who has the authority to sign on the account to put all money on the account that's when a bank account becomes over the North Port. Okay, alright got it.
Correct. But currently all 28 the bank accounts on the town side have the same signers, same authority across the board. So there's no difference in that. As drafted right now, the policy says that, you know,
on the BOEs request, BIF should act on it and improve the town finance department will make the requested expenditures. So this is set up to be the town's authority to make the check, write the check.
So yeah, we'll talk about it tomorrow. That's particular issue that might cause a problem with this particular document. Because if I don't want to do something where we're just throwing away interest that's done. But I know the Board of Ed was for reasons I'm not sure I can particularly articulate really wanted a new bank account set up. So I'll, I may have to back them on that. Push and fall.
We'll get there. I wanna get to yes. Sure. But I also don't wanna do something dumb. Yeah. That could have stuff. So that we have hundreds of thousands of dollars in some account. Right. And we're earning a point 01% interest instead of 5%. That's just stupid. Right. So, we'll we'll work on that.
I just have a timeline question just while you're here. Just, is there a reason I feel like this is going to push our financial and and I I don't have the knowledge to know but by making the decisions on moving a surplus into said account or starting the process of asking us, it seems like is August 31 reasonable for that? I mean, we can't make a decision why I'm going to ask this later too but sometimes July 31, I mean, working in school thing, I know that, and Cheryl too, I know bills have to go through and get processed and everything, but really all the money has to be included and everything in June, I would think, you know, so you know what's going to be spent. The only difference is going to be if maybe the invoice came a little higher or you know, a couple unaccounted for things. So, we're going to have a good idea in July, I would think. So, I'm just thinking why is the time, it would just help the town to know how much they want to put in the accounts, kind of move our financial process a little quicker. So I don't know if August,
you know, the study for assistance. It's irrelevant to the to the agreement about the school capital fund. So what it says in there is that the Board of Ed would notify us by August 31 of the amount that they have extra that they wanted to move into the capital fund account. And what think what Joanne is getting at is that too late in the
I just remember the time I had read that we had to drop everything in and so I understand it's during. I just want to ask the question. I think my first draft is July 31, Joanne, it was useful to kick it back to August to give time to write it And
yeah. You've gotta be careful. And I, what's the, what's the deadline on the 2% on the last ticket count? That's, yeah. Is it? No deadline. There's no, there's no deadline on either of them really.
And the, the problem, there's several problems. One is that, you know, tried to establish a procedure for closing out both the town side and the school side. And the school basically said flat out, your policy doesn't apply to us on the sand. So we haven't adopted a policy for either side. However, you know, we've made a hard deadline of what August 15. You know, on the town side, you know, all bills are in and paid for the previous fiscal year by August 15. So we can start closing the books. The school is not doing that. I mean, there's, you know, I was countersigning checks for them, you know, throughout the month of October, maybe even into November on last fiscal year. So the question and it's a valid one is how do you, if they're going to come to us and say, or come to you as a board and say, we have x number of dollars left. You know, when they provided you zero financial
information in an entire year, how do you agree to that? I mean, that's the real that's part of the reason why we've been pushing to get financial information is that how do we know what's there? I mean, they can ask you to put $200,000 into an account. But do they have $200,000 to put in the account? And how do you even know it when?
Deadlines that had to. Okay, thank you. I'm learning. Yeah, there should be deadlines. I
didn't know. We may be moving towards June 30. Sorry, he was here. I
mean, '30, the end of August is reporting deadline for the Board of Education.
Thank you. I mean, I know about arrival. There was like, we had to do whatever
school lobby, you're gonna have to get it as soon as they close out the books, and then they'll give the number to us. Guess. Yeah. Okay. Right.
So yeah, my average week data is still impressive because I had it in July.
Then typically authorizations will be made subject to audits. So, you know, again, the school district, you should be able to rely on the information that they're providing you in saying that this is our surplus for the year. Obviously during the course of the audit process, we may identify adjustments. And so at that point in time, we would retroactively correct any authorizations related to any of those approvals.
Other questions? Mike, thank you very much for your time. Yeah, we appreciate it. Again, talk about the rest of it.
I will always say, you know, consult with your attorney.
Absolutely. Actually, you you really think this? Maybe I'm wrong. Yeah. Yeah. We'll get to it. You need to go on.
So, moving on, we will go on to another item five which is small business. Yeah. Five A is if you budget an actual. We do have our report in front of us. Does anybody have any specific questions for Eric or Carol and Sharon?
Just a general question because if I I go through this and my instructor play is over, are are we, are there any areas that you can see that we've got issues popping up?
Nothing significant. Are there some areas where we know we're going to be over? Yeah. Like for instance, I know we're going to be over in our animal control line item because after we passed our budget, they determine what their final you know, final rate was. So, there's a bunch of little things but nothing material that's really going to affect us. I mean, the the big material things are still unknowns and that's how bad a snow year it is because that's you know, we've already basically shot the the building maintenance budget for public works. You're over on diesel already too. We are in Reno. So, I'll explain that. So, and this is something we've struggled to come up with a better system to do. What happens is we fill our diesel tanks up. We put four or 5,000 gallons in it. They charge us a lot of that. Right? So by the time we've done that twice, we've exceeded our budget. But remember, we are turning around and we are billing ABS and we're billing RAM and we're billing senior transportation and we're billing the fire department. So that'll get reversed out specifically against that account. Right. Okay. So we're not but it always looks bad. That's that. Okay.
Be determined if we. Right. And because I like to see all this. This issue is the more granular. Yeah, I like to see it.
They're not the stages. It's the, you know, the fog is like, you know,
Right. Yep. There any upside? If the trade's going up, I can say so. Right. It's the town cleans up.
Yeah. The other thing that I wanted to say and it's it's not a huge effect but we are going to be a little over a bunch of line items because we have a bunch of people that currently their salary is at minimum wage. And the state has indexed that. So the $15 an hour goes up to like $15.41 on January 1. So, and we did not account for that. One of the things that's gonna be a little bit of a difficulty is that how do we account for that? Because they don't decide that number till September, which is long after. So we're gonna have to bake in some sort of flex
into those Based on our cost of living? Yeah. It's based on I assume it's You built in It's like CPI or your, like, social
Better to over budget by $200 and under. Right. Right. And not have to worry about doing trades. We'll have to make him some sort of guesstimate as to the inflation adjustment. Yeah.
We can do that. And. Right. Yeah. It's just something to keep in mind. And then when we go through in January, we start working this. Yeah.
Yep. And we also did not anticipate having to use pest control. So for the year, that's gonna be about $1,500 timber. I think there's enough flex in the existing budget for the transfer station to accommodate that. So it does not look like it's gonna bust the overall budget, but there will be some increase for that. The other thing we are going to go over in is we did change porta potty services for our ball field and transfer station in the museum, because the one we were using was just horrendous. So that's about 40% more expensive than what we were paying. But in the grand, in the overall scheme of the budget, we're talking about like, in the neighborhood of $1,200 a year total. So nothing, there are gonna be some individual things that have gone over quite a bit, but they're not material within the overall budget.
Are there questions for Eric and Cheryl on this? There's none of the ones that.
Yep. Yep. Next item is check register on the agenda. I mean, related on if somebody has been able to I just have one question on that. The per month check on here for 23,000.
What amount of time does that represent? Like, is that one of the that's because I I think I saw it a few times. I did September 25. Yeah. For about 23,000.
Right. Remember, we see a separate bill for lap, which is liability, auto, and property and for workers' comp. Mhmm. So I don't remember whether they're quarterly or every six months. But all total, I think off the top of my head, you know, our karma bill is about $60,000
a year. So. Yeah, I don't think I had that figure on my head. 60,000 a year? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, that stood out. That was the other ones I think I understood. That was it. I just wondered if I wanted to sign that representative.
Have anything else? Okay. Hearing none, we'll go on to new business. Six a is review the proposed policy for AEF capital expenditures that we distributed earlier. I think it's on the back. Need a copy today. Yeah. I love that too.
Yeah. So I have copies of Yes. No. That's the one. No. It's not in here. Does anybody need copies? This is the one. Yeah. That one. That's And then I also sent to the the board my concerns with that. I sent that to you in an email afterward. And I also asked the town's attorney to weigh in. And so the town, I sent that out. He only gave it to me late last night. So I sent out a copy of that to for consideration. So, now, we got lots of policies to review and consider.
Yep. Alright. So I guess let's go ahead and one thing we can do right off the bat is I'm here. Okay.
And I have both copies of those. Oh, is your screen? Because why don't we see you? You don't see me? No. We don't see you.
I wonder if my video's off. Hold on a minute. There are several things that How's that? There he is. There he goes. Hello.
Hello. You have copies of the policies I had sent them. I have both.
Yes. So some of the concerns that Eric brought up in section one, you know, this states that it created a new bank account and we've already talked about that. That's problematic because it creates additional work, it eliminates the ability really for us to use the SIP account and make a return on that investment. Yes,
that's what I want to get at is I want to make sure I fully understand that so I can talk to the board of men about that because I completely agree that there would be a bad result if we put a bunch of money in an account and we are no interest on that stuff. So when we have, are we limited to a single STIP account? That the issue? As far as I know, yes. Okay, so we set up a new bank account by its very nature, it's not a STIP account because it can't be because we already have a STIP account, Right? Right. So we create a new account it carves it out of stiff ergo we don't have interest or that level of interest. That's
one issue. The other issue is that it makes it harder to actually account for. I mean the simplest way to do it is you have a fund established on the books and regardless of whether that fund like we have we have areas right now where we have a standalone bank account and we have a fund and they're both the same thing they're just we're accounting for them twice and there's no reason to do that right I mean it's much simpler to just use pooled cash have a single bank account and just keep it straight you know, on the ledger as opposed to having an individual bank account. You know, back in the day, the town created a bank account every time it wanted to fund something.
And so we have this enormous legacy of bank accounts that we pay for every month. And there's no reason to get nothing out of them other than more aggravation and more time trying to reconcile.
And we asked the other side, do you, Raj, do you know why this because this stuck out with me. Like, I understand that this is usually how they like to do it. I understand. And I'm wondering if it's still coming from the just wanting to make sure they control it. And and that's what I'm what I'm hearing and seeing. Most likely that they were I'm trying to remember the exact explanation but. So. Yeah. Especially with that being the first thing, you know, so I want to hear their, you know, their perspective. Understand all the reasons there's much better They need to come
up with a very, very strong reason. It's a separate bank account, you know, given what I've heard of here. Think question
for Rob would be, are they also looking to have the ability to, like right now, Eric, you write all checks that pay the bills in the town, right? Correct. And so by establishing a separate account, are they asking for that ability to write their own checks for their things? Is that what No, they're asking because the policy later stipulates that the town finance department will write the checks. That's what I was thinking. When I read that, I was thinking, so why do they want a separate account? They're not gaining anything by having a separate account.
I'll go back to them on that. That's a valid point. And I didn't realize, personally didn't fully understand or think about the the way the stiff account was gonna limit us in that way. If if we could have multiple stiff accounts, this wouldn't be an issue. It would be annoying, but it wouldn't be as Right. Big an Right. It would be that it would still be would a problem with objections to make, but it wouldn't be that big a deal if we had to get to yes. Here, if we're literally in a situation where, by the way, this is drafted, we're losing out on that kind of interest.
That's that's I mean, that's worth that's worth saying, look, we have to revise. So I'm right there and I'll go back to the moment. So even if there was an ability to have separate stiff accounts they still wouldn't have the authorization to write checks out of it. That's right. I mean according to this policy the way it's supposed to work is that the both boards agree. And once both boards agree, the town is authorized to write checks.
Right. So there's just there's just absolutely no reason to have a separate account.
Right. And and we are collapsing the rest of, you know, we are not going to have we will probably end up with one separate bank account, possibly, that all the northern funds under their control flow through. But if we can get them to agree with that, we will use pooled cash for them too. For the same reason, you know, why should they be sitting there making 0.1% interest if we can use pooled cash, put the money in the stiff account, allocate it and make them 5% interest. It just it makes bad economic sense. Right. I completely agree with that.
I, you know, I'll go back to mom that point. That's that's solely fair. You know apologies for the oversight I probably should have picked up on that. Yeah I
think it's part of the process. Good progress. Yeah. Okay. So, Eric, you also raised an issue that says this eliminates requirement that capital expenses comply with the Board of Finance Purchasing Policy. I'm not sure how that's addressed in section one, But I don't know that it is. This was alongside of it potentially. They would they need to they need to agree. I do I do agree to be there.
So there's there's kind of two conflicting things. One, in general, the board of ed is exempted from the purchasing policy by charter. However, what we're talking about are capital expenses that would be spent primarily maintaining buildings and assets that are technically town assets. So from my perspective, and I believe the auditor's perspective, that should fall under our capital policies, which include the purchase purchasing policy. I don't think exempting them from that
makes sense. What is this exactly? Where where am I there is something there?
So it took out the language that was in the original one requiring them to you know so they removed the language that was in the original the first draft stating that they had to comply with that policy.
I think the concern was you know in general, the concern was that section eight zero seven of the town charter carves them out of a lot of stuff. Certainly carves them out of like the normal CIP review process. It specifically states that you know all town departments with the exception of the board of ed shall do the following. So we were trying to remain compliant with that. Think they will still, we'll get to this but I think they'll still submit to CIVA. It's just non binding the way that it wouldn't necessarily be know, for another department. Similarly with the purchase policy, I mean, think they should have their own that mimics ours, but they wanted to, I think retain control of that. So that's why it came up.
I feel like we've already had discussions to Rob, which you alluded to that they are willing if there are big capital things that are gonna happen, go through a
You know? Mean, I thought that was the, you know, the Yeah. You guys really need to have a capital point. The the
the the the the what they have their own may start to interrupt the the fire department. Yes,
so the fire department separately sets, gives us a ten year plan that is reviewed by CIP annually. Most of the remaining capital plans get generated by the town. Yeah. Like there's one for public works equipment. There's one for building. There's one for all the major capital funds that are established.
Right, mean the school should definitely do that. The issue is how much gets baked into this particular policy. I'm trying to get to yes, I'm trying to get to a work policy and they wanted to retain some more control. So that won't go. I do think, again, I think best practice could absolutely be that they sit down and hammer out a ten year capital plan. And whether they want to have it blessed by CIP or not, because they're quite, again, carved out of the normal CIP process by time charter. But they, in my perfect world, they would create it and then stick it in front of us. Yeah,
it will be good.
Then I don't even think that my mind is going there, but thank you for saying that part. I just meant the process later, like hopefully they'll do that. I think that would benefit them to have a plan and then prioritize where they want to put them. Absolutely. So if they want you fine, if not, you know, they can plan or, you know, come up with an idea as they come with, but I meant even the process is afterwards you know like so would that eliminate them from having to go to CIP?
So the way this is the way this is structured is that they they basically it says that they may go through CIP and the way it works is this since the title charter specifically carves them out of the normal CIP process then the idea was honestly you should still go through CIP but the difference is that CIP whether it recommends it or not the Board of Finance would still consider it. In other words they don't get stopped at CIP if CIP raises its issue. It's a non binding Whereas I think for a town department, if CIP is like this is a terrible idea, it stops there and they go back and they revise. But because they do send the town charter assessment says that would probably be an overreach. So we came up with this sort of compromisey thing where they may submit to CIP and CIP will review it and regardless of that or finance will consider it. And we can still, when we consider it, take into consideration CIP's review. I mean, it's not like we have to pretend that that didn't happen, but it just means that if they want something badly enough, it is ultimately their money. So they still have the right to come to us and make their case. It's not hold on. Stop.
It is not their money. It is the town's money. It is a capital fund like every other capital fund that the town has. Just like the fire department has a capital fund, but they don't control that fund. The town through the budget process controls that fund. So but let's be clear it's just a capital fund that happens to say AES on it. And the other thing we're missing with this is that the Board of Selectmen is not giving up its authority to manage how its buildings are, you know, capital improvements to its buildings. So keep in mind that, you know, they still don't own the buildings and they still can't willy nilly decide to do something to the buildings without the board of select. They may disagree with that, but, you know, but if they want to pull permits, you know, the property owner has to agree to pulling the permits. I
see this as the because of the industry just trying to protect. I don't think what he says, oh, it's their money. I think they do realize that having sat at the table. I think they're just afraid that it they're just trying to be protective, and they're trying to put some trust out there. Mhmm. I think that they realize and I hope I mean, I hope I'm not I'm just giving my opinion. I I understand that this is a lot for them, and they're just trying to protect the money. And, like, the town it is the town's money, and if some big disaster happened, you know, something would have to happen. But, Yeah. They can always have a representative go to the CIP. They have a representative.
Oh, Shannon? Yeah. Alright. Or because it doesn't have to be. Is she there to be school age based? Yeah, the the board that has it. Just like I'm there for Port Beth. Alright. So they have to have a number. So can you, any scenario, when you say the buildings aren't theirs, they're the towns. So the board is like reserves its rights to get involved. Sure. This policy obviously doesn't mention the board's side. So what's the scenario you're envisioning here where we can run foul? I don't, on the one hand, I want to get to a policy that is workable and we actually put into place and get used to using. On the other hand, I don't want to step up in. So can you walk me through what you're thinking about here? Sure.
So let's say, for instance, you know, we knew based on the school's capital plan that they were anticipating spending a buffalo money on a boiler replacement, you know, in two years. You know? And then the board of Ed decided in the meantime, they wanted to spend what was in the capital for something that was of lesser importance potentially. And I would think as the building owner, the Board of Selectmen would probably say, hey, you know, we really need to pack away every dime we can because this is the bigger issue that we have. And if we spend this money that's in the capital fund now, we are going to have to go back to the taxpayers to do the boilers in two years for the roof. Well, that I could see that scenario coming up, you know, very easily. You know, you put a $150,000 in the account, and then you spend it, for instance, on a parking lot when you know you have a major structural issue or you know you have a major issue with the system or something like that. That is a scenario I could totally see the board of selectmen, you know, stepping in,
and they would step in by refusing a permit. How would they do that specifically? Yes.
I mean, I I I don't think they'd want to be in the position of going after board of ed legally. I mean, that would be ugly. But unless the board gives the authority to them to do that, that part of the reason why this whole thing came up is that the Board of Ed does not really have the right to do their own capital projects. You know, part of the way I tried to draft the first policy of that was to say, you know, and and I am not trying to put more work on myself. I am perfectly fine with school managing their own capital projects, as long as they announce ahead of time what they're doing, and they follow a purchasing policy. So they've gone through a formal process if it's an expensive item, and they go through the steps and we know they're going to get a good product.
Does that answer your question? I know I was kind of
wondering. Did we say that any capital expenditures, it is worked out between both entities, it's not just for the board of ed because we own that property. It's supposed to be cooperative between both boards. That's what we've always said, right? Now I'm talking about third.
So this is board of finance, board of ed. The policy that we've drafted is board of finance and board of that. So those are the two pillars that are referenced here. Board of selected is what Eric's rolling up. So you get the third and there has been right now as everybody knows. Yep. Significant friction there. So I'm trying to get at what the pinballs are. If board like, if we put this into place as draft, just as an just as insane. And board of selectmen, for whatever reason, doesn't like a proposal. What is what's the failure point? What are they you know, are they gonna step in? Are they gonna step in and they're gonna do what specifically and this is where I'm getting at the permitting issue because the permitting for the parking lot is a problem.
You know I'm trying to get at what the deficiencies are because I know that if we're trying to come to an agreement between the boards on how we can operate better, how we can collaborate better. And the idea behind this policy was frankly that if it was between the Board of End and the Board of Finance there was a certain amount of trust and that we could get this done. If we put in here that Board of Selectmen has the final say on something, I don't know that we're going get to guess. And that was,
you know, the reason why some of the language was deleted. So now I want to figure out, okay, if we put this into place, is it all an exercise of futility if and when the Board of Selectmen has an issue? Because this can say whatever it wants to say. And if that happens, I you think the gist of it is,
as the auditor confirmed, right? This fund is under the bill of tax. Yeah. The expenditure is under the management of the talents, know, so Eric's gonna be the one signing the checks. Yep. Eric works most directly to the board of select. The board of selectmen don't want the project. They don't want Eric to sign the check. He's not gonna sign the check. I think that's how it stops. Right. And I'm not gonna sign a contract if they tell me not to sign a contract because I'm not crazy.
But I think we all sat at that table together. I know you weren't there and we all, and I hope that they were there too. The board of ed, all of our boards spoke to that we want this for the benefit of the board of education. You know, that everyone wants the best. I understand the history. I think this whole thought, Rob, this could help by even introducing this account and having this account, you know, was a was a good idea. Yeah. Think it's too. I think I think legally, though. Right. Right. If something comes up and they can't, like, say say it is an idea that maybe there's gonna be way more pressing, you know, things that are gonna happen as Eric represented, And then they wanted to get something else. I would hope everyone would come together and have a meeting about it, and it wouldn't I don't mind this being said, like, you would not want it to be like permit just gets stopped. You would hope there'd be some discussions, some meetings,
not a refusal of a permit. I don't even know that the permit really is so much the issue. No, I just.
As the man has mentioned. No, but I get it because.
But, okay. So, the way this policy is draft, okay, it says, of Ed and Board of Finance agree, the challenge is the check. If so, I mean, it's in one of the final sections here. Yeah, C. It's in four C. Following CF is reviewed. If any, it was requested, BLS shall, BLS shall act upon, the OEs oppressor may authorize the child class department and make a request expenditure. So, if we authorize.
But that doesn't necessarily mean that it will get done. So we're just a gatekeeper. We are not the manager of the town. Right? Am I Right. So I guess that's kind of the the Well, that's another. Is you control the finances,
right? There's no question about that. You can set up the funds. You can authorize an expenditure from the fund. But at the end of the day, the Board of Selectmen has to agree to a project. If it's a capital project, if it's a maintenance project, no. You know, and the other thing I have to be a little careful of is there's a series of statutes that say that say who can pull permits. And the fact of the matter is a contractor can only pull a permit, you know, with the express permission of the building owner. And the building owner really is the town of Andover. And so, I mean, that is why I went to the board of selectmen with that in the first place,
you know, regarding the parking lots.
Just from a management perspective, I mean, if if Jay wants a new front end load, you know, or the fire department wants to default, fire department's not an example. Jay wants a new front end load, Eric agrees and they come through CFP and they agree and CFP comes to us and everything kind of goes to us and we all agree. It doesn't mean that for selectments can sign that check. Right. And so this is no different. This is just another project is you say it doesn't necessarily mean that that's going to go you still need for an expenditure like that you would still need to go through the board of select. Correct. I don't make any decisions
on capital projects without their blessing. So this just kind of just like it's just part of that process. Right. So I understand what you're saying, Bob, that that's going to be a point of contention. But I think realistically, given the legal structure of the town and the authorities with various boards, don't see any way around the board of selectman potentially having the possibility. But I agree with Joanne. You think the whole point of this fund is to have this for a reasonable capital improvements to the AES District, and everybody would act in that best we have there. So to me, it makes I don't know how much of an issue it's going to be for the Board of Ed, but I don't think we can get around it. I'm just like, you know. Have they seen this yet? They've seen this. They signed it. They signed it. No, no.
Oh. The other one. We're talking about the. No, they said. The one, the one that they're probably going to go back and draft that because account bank accounts. They actually approved and signed the draft that Chan and I went I didn't know they were going to sign it in advance. I I would have gone to that meeting. Need to make a action. I don't think the language in this actually says that,
you know, boom, done deal. When you get to section four c, I don't think just because we we
authorized the account finance department to make that expenditure. Right. It doesn't mean it's automatically gonna happen. From my discussions, I think that's what they think it means. I I think which is important. Think last thing I want is we all say yeah you can buy out, sign this thing and it seems like it's been underhanded. I don't want them to be No. Agreed. Yeah. Think we can bring it up. You know that would be actually the worst possible result is that we sign this and everybody's happy and then it comes out that well no it doesn't do what we think it is. Yeah. So yeah to be continued.
So I don't think there's anything wrong with four c I just don't think that it's the whole story. Well and that's just just it. Know, what is he saying? All capital expenditures may be under the review of the Board of Selectmen as well. And it makes it clear. Yeah, I mean, I know. And Eric's original draft had language about the and
it came out. Right. Which is why it was like the first change that Shannon was. So this is the this is the issue. Right. The the issue is they wanted this to be between hours. And what we're explaining is that's not actually We're not the executive. We're not the executive. Which in turn means that this may not apply at all but I will have to have further discussion. This is why we have these discussions. Right. Why we have to learn about it and see. Yeah. I love the sign of agreement for a policy together that is meaningless.
Right. And and then. We appreciate you representing. Yeah. No problem. Yeah. But we have to get it right and we have to. We have to. I'm told that you can at least say that the whole point, like I said, you know, just repeating, was to establish something for them. So we don't wanna I hope that they don't wanna just keep you know, I hope that they can take a little bit of trust on their end. It's gonna take a lot. And just let's see how some things go, you know, and hope that so what we said that that meeting will come to fruition. You know, that's the hope. And there are some classes of things that don't fall in that category.
And if you read what the attorney wrote in that second one I put, because I I gave him the original policy and then the policy you drafted, and then he redrafted this one. Because there's a difference between, like, for instance, the school could purchase vehicles. They could decide they needed a new bobcat. They could decide they needed a new mower. That would not be the board of selectmen would not have any stay in that because that's not real property. That's not building land, road, parking areas, so you do that. Where the board statutory authority comes in is as the property owner which is why that sentence was added you know to basically say you know if they bring you a request for a new $30,000 mower, that's on you. The the board's really the board of selectmen really doesn't have any say in that. If it involves the building, they do. And if it involves a parking area, they do. We don't have. If that makes sense. It's
possible to So then I'm trying to think of a way, potential compromise solutions to this issue. And so the policy that Shannon and I drafted, we could break out building and related and non building related just like you just said. Because to me a $30,000 lower is a capital expenditure. It's just not affecting the building that the town owns and therefore what you're saying is. Right. Okay. Right. And okay.
You understand what? I mean, I want to make it clear that the Board of Selectmen's authority is only on real property, which technically they control. They don't have control over whether you buy, you know, I mean, they could decide to go out and buy a Ford F550 quad cab dually for the superintendent And if they if you guys agree, they probably could build by that, and that would have nothing to do with the board of selectmen. But if they wanna do something to the building, then that is ultimately where their authority overlaps. Most most businesses and organizations consider that a capital for also. No. It is absolutely a capital purchase. Yeah.
Would it would a lot of this not be alleviated by just putting in a full capital monitoring tractor. We're banking money for. We're banking money and mentioned pests. We're we're we're getting money ready for these items, and we're spreading out the pain to the citizen Can we take the money from the tractor?
And I can easily set up another CIDP saying the money's transferred from the tractor to the truck. It's all open. It's all there. But, sir, I don't I I understand what you're saying. It's basically we need a plan and communicate that plan and you and you found that plan. That's correct. Right. So, the problem we have right now is this conversation of control. Yeah. As you know. Board of Education is not comfortable with the fact that board of selectmen and or the board of finance might have might have some But if it goes to the budgetary
points then. It's just like It automatically goes to them. Think about it. Yeah. They do That's just that. Covers. If I accord that in those specific That's
said. The citizens preached that. That's what ran yeah. I think you're talking about randoms, and we don't we haven't gotten that way in the past. And I think we're inching towards something like that maybe if we can make this work. This is not a trend. This is kind of a Can we make this work? And so it is I I understand your your points. A 100%. But this is an attempt to move us in a better direction from where we are now, which is none of that has happened, right? So it is by its nature kind of fraud and compromising.
So no, I understand what you're saying. There is in a perfect world there a lot of these of the stuff that you just talked about would be in place already or be on a normal operating procedure. That's not where we are and we're trying to get closer to that.
That's the best way I can explain in the future. Yeah. Have a chance to pay on the rate. Yeah.
Would I like to see that ten years from now the way, you know, yeah. But Yeah. We have to meet us. And I I don't wanna kick off on and around that. So I mean, I've taken a bunch of notes on the discussion we just had so that I think I can articulate them back to Shannon and the rest of the board. Know Shannon and the rest of them and Jerry and so forth. And certainly on the bank account issue I think that's pretty straightforward. I don't think anybody would say oh well too bad it would be 5% interest on the table. We'll talk about that The issue the other issue that strikes me as much more material and much more of a problem potentially maybe I'm wrong but you know we have to watch our meeting so they can see for themselves. But my encapsulation of it is basically this, the Board of Selectmen being the executive body of the town, the town being the owner of the building, the structure itself, means that there's no way around you cannot actually carve port of selectmen out of a project on that building. Therefore, regardless of what our lovely little policy graph says, they're going to be involved. Whereas on the other hand, a capital expense
that is not related to the building, not a part of the building, something like a mower, just as an example, that the town does not own as a structure, then that is something they really can just kind of do on their own with our approval. So it strikes me as if we're going to get to yes, then we're gonna have to break those out into separate categories and make that clear. So that nobody is blindsided when we they go to do something and Boris Leppman steps in and says but wait you know we don't think you've counted for this properly or whatever and the drainage under the parking lot or what have you and then the process goes to Halligan and everybody's upset and you told us this was the way it's going to be. The last thing I want to do is sell this somebody and then have them come back and say, you misrepresented what we're doing. Much better having a completely So I think I've got that.
Is is there anything else in that policy? Yeah. Section four d, I think is a non starter. It's just as Eric pointed out, it's not legal. I think it doesn't fit a legal definition to look aboard. The money is the money is the accounts. It's in the account accounts. I don't think that the I think that the Board of Finance can decide to transfer those funds without the Board of Education's approval. Would we do that? No. We wouldn't. You know, maybe you make it advisory, but legal probably wouldn't stand. Think the 2% they they have to.
2% is totally different. That's different. Right. We could not tap the 2%. Yeah. Legally. Right.
The problem the issue, I mean, if we say, hey. We're not gonna do that. Right? But we're honest but we're gonna stipulate that you can't put the policy. We're not gonna do that. So the issue with freeway is that because our our you know, the way our role is defined is that we have power with that even though we'll say, well, we won't without you say so. Mhmm.
I mean, is there a way we can What what you can say is the board of finance will only transfer funds or authorize expenditure of the funds up with consultation of the Board of Education. By consultation, but I don't know what's the Board of Ed? We're talking about funding for D because you're saying you can't move without our approval. Well, reality is you know
I think we talked about the history of the transfers too, right? There hasn't been a lot of those. No, but I think it's just this trust. Right. Can
point it out. Need. You know? Yeah. We do have expansive power and no money. Right. When we discovered the problem with town of Brook, for not town, but the town of Roanville. Mhmm. You know, we plugged over a $100,000 hole. Made the decision. We moved the money. Right. You've also given the history that that course. I would say we did something Right. Willy nilly or dumb. Right. But what I'm saying is we without any commitment not to do that, technically Yeah. We could in fact dip into this fund and plumb a hole and they didn't want it. So you agree to that. So if we put in this document, if we remove four d, so now you're saying we could redraft four d to say something about consultation and that here's my problem with that is I'd like I'd like to reduce the ambiguity in this you know in this document as much as possible. Well
well the charter basically gives the board of finance the power of transferring the funds. Right? Right. So charter is gonna supersede this. Do we voluntarily
choose I guess this this gets to a question that Shannon and I went back and forth with respect to the charters eight zero seven, where they get farmed out of the CIP process. Mike kept saying, sure. But couldn't we voluntarily agree to enter into the CIP process even though you technically don't have to? Right. Well, that's what I was saying. Well, now on the other foot. We're talking about our showers. And could we voluntarily say, but we won't use it here?
Yeah. We could we could say that, but I don't think we can commit to not ever doing it unless they approve. That's because I think that's superseded by the charter.
Right. So so okay. That's a blue sky event, but let me give you a scenario. Mhmm. Chaplin went through some incredible floods less than three months ago. I think they dumped a lot of money from every pool they had into reopening roads because they were washed out. I mean, they bought a bunch of temporary bridges. They did a whole bunch of stuff. And, you know, in that scenario, would I raid this fund with your knowledge? Yep. You bet I would. Because I would have no choice.
Disaster scenario. Just to pick it up on you. Just any fund. The disaster scenario. Like, oh my god.
I'm so. No. I'm afraid every fund that the town has. Thank you. Right. Thank you.
The emergency all hands on. I know. It's not a fool. But this is that help you. Gets to the none of it, though. This is exactly the issue. Exactly.
Happening at the need to get going. Yeah. But we could have we could have smoothed it over, but we got different things like this. No. No. Just But I'm getting looking at this thing and be clear. And I'm a town person and sitting from the side. Right. And you know, we didn't call. Yeah. I didn't call. This is exactly the sort of scenario that anyone envisions. It's not hard to envision an emergency scenario.
Okay. You know, and here's the thing. In my perfect world, in a scenario like that, if we were to enact the policy as drafted, let's put aside the charters are saying. And that happens. You know, could we go to the board of that and say, guys, pick a whole barrel here. Can we use some of your money? And they would say, yes. Okay. Because it was that much of a disaster. Okay. But this gets back to on all sides, the trust issue. Exactly. Right. We have to trust that in that scenario, they would say yes, or they have to trust that absent a scenario that dire, we're not gonna yank their tongue up. Absolutely. So that four d is, that's absolutely, that's gonna be another big, this is a major issue. And I see your point Mark about the charter lease out our board responsibilities and powers. The question becomes similar to them agreeing to go, at least agreeing to put things under CIP. They're specifically carved out of CIP. They felt, well my original draft said that they shall submit their projects to CI. This draft says, man. The reason they changed the word is they believed that that conflicted directly with Charter section eight zero seven, and they could not agree to shackle. Right? So they changed it to men, introduced them to you and you said they didn't like. But now we have the exact same issue with four d and it's just flipped around. So
we're gonna have to try to find a way to make this workable in the real world in given the atmosphere that we have. I will certainly take this back but I foresee major resistance to giving up or substantially changing four d because again, the fear is that if they hand over money into this fund that they could otherwise have expended, that was the whole idea, right? Then they lose control of it and in the worst case scenario, we or the board selectman do things with that money that they could have kept it under their purview. And like, I'm not saying that all these concerns are a 100% reasonable. I'm saying that that's what they are. So, yeah.
So, so, I I I would do want to say one thing. We've created this account. We can fund this account. This is just an agreement as to how we'll use it. Correct. The only the only thing that this agreement really does is it generates some agreement between the two boards about how things are going to be done. Right. It gives them a level of comfort that would lead them to say okay hey yeah we got 20,000 with those so they're comfortable putting that into the account so that they're not going to lose you know we're not going to do something you know right hand. They're
never going to get 100% confidence they're never going to have until hopefully it's
going to be a trusting and in the same way that you know we as the town trust them to spend the lion's share of the money that goes from taxation properly for our children's education you know they're going to have to come to a level of trust you know I think that the town is not going to do anything and if we were to go read that money because you know Jay needed a new front end loader then we should all be voted on. Right yes you know we should
but for a front end loader yeah. Bridges if we're reading it right yeah yeah
understood that's a difference I mean that is my nightmare scenario just to be perfectly clear with you and having spent Yeah. Certainly, certainly, that's that's the that's the thing. But I but I do think that there, you know, there with this account, they're never gonna have complete control, but the agreement will help hopefully generate some understanding that, yeah, we're gonna do the right thing. And it's also a signal to and I mean that literally to the voters that, we've agreed to this. And if we were to renege on it for some reason, then, we should be voting.
Yeah so Or take it to pass. Yeah. Just to sum it up. But I mean again I'm striving for a certain amount of clarity and I want to make this workable and clear to everybody involved so everybody's on the same page and then we don't you know have a small breakfast. So here's the thing, we've got three issues right are there any more before I stop taking notes? I have a question. Uh-huh. Does the charter help? Does the charter override
these policies? Well, that's what we're just talking about. Yes. We've now had people from both boards Say, we think the charter supersedes whatever you've drafted. Like, in in the board of ed context, it was the issue of going for CIP. In the board of finance context, it's four d as drafted says that they we can't transfer funds without BOE approval. Mark's take on that is that inputs the charter. That's not how our rules and responsibilities are defined, so we can't give that up. What I'm saying is, and I've said this on the board of me, issue two is couldn't be voluntarily for the purposes of this account get that up. I see there are,
you know I agree with, you know, they want to be part of this this fund. They have to Okay. Comply with, like, everyone the other day. Alright. Well, let me send you. Everyone's
opinion that. Right? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Again, you know, I'm trying to be. Yeah. Can. I'm trying to moderate this and try to get to to something that everybody can live. Sure. I feel like I'm in mediation except the other side of the other room. But what about other community? I'm undersizing But what We don't continue. I will bring it up. I I this is the reason I typed this all up. I have the consultation in quotes. I mean, think we're there. I mean, we're we're, you know, I'm working with your lawyer here, remind, remember, and I and I deal with insurance guy, right? I deal with contracts all the time. The language matters and the intent has to be clear. Yeah. And if you get two different parties signing the agreement and different intents in mind, you've got a recipe for this. I have to say three issues the stiff account issue with the bank account idea the first slide of this. Two you know the board of select wins purview and and involvement with respect to any capital improvement that touches on essentially the building. What about grounds there? Well, when you say they own the property.
So, grounds fall into that same building in grounds. Okay. Right. Okay. So, that's what I want to clarify. So, if if it's a piece of equipment, it's over here. If it's building in grounds. Yeah. Then, then there's it's it's difficult if not impossible limit, you know, the board of settlements say so on that. And this policy doesn't make that clear, so we have to talk about that some more. And then finally, four d is this chartered compliant. Can we actually do this? More at least multiple members of the board of finance don't think we can and don't wanna do that. So those are our three issues. I think I've summarized that recently while I can go back and discuss this further with liaising with the board of Ed and see if we can. What do you got Bill?
So I'm not sure if it's maybe both a question and a comment. On the $8,700 in the non lapsing account, it says at the top has to be transferred into the capital fund. Is that correct?
No, it's not an enveloping account. It's in the expansion account. It's the old school account. Yeah. So, we already knew that. Agreed to. We already agreed
See, that's why I think that should be out of the agreement.
Decide it. They wanna go on their basis. Yeah. Well, this this all boils down all this boils down to Eric is the the whole this this ties back into the creation of the new account thing. If if that's not happening, then there's no need for that line either because then we've already frankly earmarked we already moved that money in a sense right. The difference between bank account and fund is the issue that I have to talk to them about because I think it may be Emily it's like my hope is that there's a mindset there because of the way the town used to do things whenever we did something new it was a new bank, separate bank account is what I was talking about before we're now reversing all of that collapsing our accounts and maybe it's you know get with the times and understand that and I'll try to explain that but yes that's a good point that language really only makes sense in the scenario of creating a new bank account and we already kind of said we already I think two weeks ago we agreed to move that money. Yeah two three weeks ago yeah correct so this is all about the again the whole idea of having a separate account right as opposed to having a separate fund yeah okay if I don't understand the distinction.
Distinction. Fund. Couple other they may be minor and they may be major. It's all your decision. But right now, the way the fund the language that you guys agreed to says an expense in excess of $25,000 that conflicts with your existing policy. So you should make that as a board consistent. And if you decide $25,000 as an appropriate level, and I have no problem with you deciding that. Okay. Then put it in place and the only thing I would ask is that as we do it, when we define these things, make it make them universal definitions
and carry them throughout all your policies so that you're consistent. And what I said when I was working Shannon is what I said to her is you know we have at least a draft policy we have a policy where we set a threshold you guys should have a policy in my perfect world that mirrors ours. This was what they came up with it's a little bit different I agree But the idea was, know, they wanted to have their policy. Fine, but define your terms, lay it out. And this is the threshold they've had. If we think it's a real problem to have a different threshold, you know, we're 15. So we're 15, they're 25. Okay. Maybe we could talk about meeting at twenty.
Yeah. I I mean, from my perspective, making it twenty five would not break my heart. No. Know? But what I'm saying is just make it consistent. Yeah. Whatever you choose, choose it for the same thing.
I think it's probably a capital account definition to get a copy of that or some tax form or something. We're at page somewhere. And and you're that's a good catch because I was Yeah. We were trying I was trying to get it to define, like Financial statements over multiple years that really doesn't Yeah. It it just needs to come out of there. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. They there's they don't need to. Yeah. It's it's doesn't it's not gonna happen. They want to very
On the on the balance sheet, it's the investment. That's a corporate thing. That's just easy. Yeah. Don't settle statements related to Right. Yes. Capitalizing an asset proposal to spread the cost over useful life. No. That's not what this Yeah. That's not what happens here. Yeah. That's just that I don't think that changes any of this No. What we're talking about. It is important to have that. Yes. Yeah. Bill, do you have anything else? Or did we cover what you were asking about? Was there anything else?
I'm not sure if I understood the $8,700 maybe I'm just thick here, but I thought it said that $8,700 was going be transferred into the capital fund.
And that's what my question was, is that going to happen? We already did. We authorized that when we created the capital fund. We authorized the transfer of the Going remaining
forward, that 2%, isn't it supposed to be like we just discussed when the account was there, that's kind of like a contingency fund. It shouldn't be always transferred into that capital fund, right?
Right. Well, the way the 2% transfer goes is at the end of the year, if the school has unexpended funds, they can come to the normally those unexpended funds are returned to the town. Right. By definition. So what they can do is they can come to the town and say hey Board of Finance we have unexpended funds of $50,000 we want to put those into a 2% account and then we can approve that or not but that stays under their control so that's completely separate from this. That's a different fund yeah. That's under the that's under the board of finance for board of education support. I've
been looking at it a lot. So the $8,700
bill was this money that was left over from eons ago. Yeah. Long done And they asked when we this first decided we wanted to set up this capital fund. Right. The thought well we have this $8,700 lying around. Let's put let's put that would be the first dollars in And we agreed to that and the only reason that still exists in this policy document is that the Board of Eds still had it in their head that we need a new and separate bank account which would require a transfer because it's not there right now. If I'm able to convince them that that's a bad idea and that we should roll with the way things are so that we can use stiff properly,
then that language could just go away. There's no reason. I
got it. I thought it was an every year, the way I thought I heard it was that yearly there was that 2%. Yeah, there it is. Yeah, because related to this, yeah.
That's a, a, that like, so that we have two different things going on here with unexpended school funds at the end of the year. The 2% fund is, you know, it's a cap, right? So if they've got a $4,000,000 budget, right, they can put up to $200,000 into this one, it's kind of their contingency fund. Then we're setting up a yet another Your math is a little off there. Oh, yeah. That's terrible. That was bad. Matt, maybe duck. Yeah, right. Sorry. It's getting late and I need to go. But yeah, that was that was atrocious, Matt. They'll come to a history major for numbers. Anyway,
but long story short, this would be separate from that. That's a different thing. And Bill, now we'll have two options
maybe they'll maybe they won't be want to use the 2% anymore if we ever get the capital fund, you know, capital account. Put a little bit of nature. Okay, I mean, you never know. So, two options.
So this document here, you know, is another thing they should look at. Obviously, you know, but, yeah, I I think I've got my takeaway is to see
what I like that. Yeah. I I think I'm guessing that you can take the documents, input, the discussions we've had today. You know, let's go back Yep. Work with Shannon or whoever put the board of that and see if we can revise to that and find out if if it's really, you know, they have some real points of concern. Maybe can come up with some creative ways to work on. Yeah. And it may be that, you know, the next meeting, you know, we we have a record from board that come and maybe we want to let some tenants there, something like that. I almost went to their last meeting. I probably should have now.
Because then maybe somebody's going call. But I but again not everything not all of this is stuff I thought. It's good. It's good to have it. Yeah. You guys did some good work. Keep working on it. And I I understand a bit about there is some boilerplate in here that you know, should should probably go back. It it was pulled from you know, something else that isn't quite on. So, anyway, I, that's, are we good on that? I think we're good. I really apologize for that. I left my kids at home to come here. No. It's been two hours. I I got a lot. I gotta go. Yeah. So. Alright. Thanks. The
next thing? Is he gonna put it Well, we're gonna go. Yeah. Yeah. We have a way to talk about If if we have if we have if it's gonna be five minutes fine, otherwise, I can try. Six six p is the discussion to return to virtual meetings. Oh, right. I just figured it would be a vote. Yeah. Yeah. In my opinion for,
you know, having us all either all virtual or in one place, although Bill did, I was able to hear him tonight. I'm just in favor of the virtual. I feel like we're gonna get into some long meetings like this. Mhmm. So having the ability to work a long day, but then be there and do what we need to do and have the materials. I would hope we could go back to virtual. I think all the other town departments are still holding their meetings virtual. I'm sure, yeah. You gotta meet in person. I was hoping to meet and and I didn't hear Kelly tonight. You know, I know we had it in person but that's my take on it. Bill travels a lot. I know you travel. I know you have no I'm not. I
said that in the news. It's it's just happened. It's certainly one week I needed to take that. It's
certainly marked with me now. I will say this. I'm in favor and I voted to go to in person meetings I'm last okay going back to virtual meetings if we develop a process for stopping the meeting and restarting if we have a right. Just everything. Terminating the meeting. You've got to conduct the town's business. You've got to conduct the town's business. So I'm okay with going back to doing virtual meetings as long as we have a process and procedure for returning to the meeting. Yeah and that procedure may be that you know we all you know we get we try twice we get hacked twice we all come to the counter. I don't know what it is. But if we have something you know we can meet my mother. We probably can't actually do that because that would have to be on the agenda. Yeah, mean, last time I did. I seem to have some process and we got caught off guard last time. Yeah. No process. Right. And that caused the problem. Yeah. So I'm I'm I'm I'm in favor of it all supported as long as we have some kind of process which we don't do not need to decide tonight. Right. We need to come up. Okay. Well, on the other end, mister, I kinda like the in person meetings. I think productivity is better. Like, there's less distractions at my house. There's, you know, dogs barking. There's a lot of stuff going on there. Yeah. Yeah. And by the way, we just want kids to put one of their TikToks on that they don't know about or something, you know, exactly.
And then the issue that happened before, like, we're gonna be able to prevent that. And then, like you said, we'll have a thing, but what if it keeps happening over and over? Right. Yeah. We need to have logging out. It could be that was a one time thing, but we must Yeah. It's it's very I think you build strong relationships and. Person. I don't know. And then, you know, all our users are saying, yeah, it's not like but it's a vulnerability to be sure. The other thing we could do is we could do hybrid meetings. Right. Which would Yeah. Takes away some of the advantages of doing it in person meeting and for whoever's here some of the advantages of doing virtual meetings. Bill, what are your thoughts? Do you have an opinion on?
Yeah, I kind of like the idea of going back to in person as well. Not gonna be traveling anymore at the beginning of the year, but I do understand that there are times especially coming up during the next three months of, you know, during the budget season that obviously we're going to have weekly meetings again and there may be times where people just can't, every single week, get out of the house. And so, I guess it would be nice to have an option to do a virtual, although I see the benefit of doing all one or all the other. I really do see the virtue of having it one or the other. So I'm kind of wishy washy, but I do understand, especially when we start doing it every single week during budget season, where it can be a lot to ask people to go out every single week at night. But this
works better than I thought. Yeah. You know, honestly, Bill, we can hear you very clearly. You seem to be able to hear us well. That's really good. I It gives me a little tougher with the hybrid idea. Yeah. Normally on a Wednesday night, the whole reason I've been Wednesday night guy Right. Is that typically I do not have my kids. And I just so happened I slept on a business trip this week and I had to have normally I wouldn't be complaining, you know, it wouldn't be trying to run out of here. So and then I'd be fine. I'm fine coming out of town all the way. That's fine. So but the flexibility issue is good. I think Mark's right, then we just we just all kind of agree. Like, if it happens again, this is what we do. You know, last time we had a hockey p, we all just kind of x out and went back in and we got a winner. Yeah. Well, Well, made it work. Unfortunately. Yes. No question. That was a pretty
yeah. Well, can I make some motion to every see? And I I think you know I'm passionate. Go ahead. So if people are one way I'm going to feel bad but I'm just I'm going make the motion to have our meetings go back to virtual. Is that to be clear, it's fully virtual?
It's too much for me. Okay. Like, and I really value either
all of are screened together or no offense, though, this is freedom when it worked or we're all together. You know, unless we try for protection. Can make an agreement to try one virtual if we wanna revisit. How about how about if we do this? Let me I'm gonna make a suggestion, and you can decide whether you want this to be your vote. Mhmm. You make the motion to go to back to virtual meetings with the Board of Finance with the understanding that at our discretion we may have to make a meeting in person. I like that. I like that. You may want to do that in a monthly meeting if we decide, you know, that it just makes sense and supports everybody, but then we'll default to virtual meetings.
We have a meeting with somebody coming in to present something. Like, say, there's a budget workshop meeting and we want Jay to come and explain the public works issue. Yeah. It it it can be better to be in person. Yep. Okay. So, I'll second that. Yeah, we're going to virtual with the option of having. Well, we we can always decide to be in person. Yeah. Which I think is. Thank you. Already already fade but it's nice to have it this. Is there a time frame for that?
And we start the next week. You know. No I mean it's far as. In theory in theory I think this is actually the kind of thing that's normally under the discretion of the chairman. Probably. You could probably I'm not sure if that would helpful. But I wanted to I it's more
I mean, we didn't assume we would we would still
so we can decide via email whether any given thing you know hey I can't make it in person in time for this agenda but remember if
you do it virtually you have a forty eight hour window. Two days. Okay. To notify the public. So you would have to make that, like, can call a special meeting on twenty four hours notice. But it's harder to do that, you know, if it's a Zoom meeting, then you need forty eight hours. So you would have to make that decision. If you're already Zoom and you wanna go to in person, you could probably do that twenty four hours before you. But you can't do the reverse. Okay.
Makes sense. That's my understanding anyway. Yeah. So think we're really constrained. It's not like we're making this substantial business decision. So if we all get together on Monday and or Wednesday and say, hey. Next week's meeting, we wanna do in person. We can easily do that. No, there's no reason for I think that's always been. Okay. Any more discussion on that motion? Yeah, call for vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any abstentions? Okay, hearing none. The motion passes. We'll look at virtual meetings for the future and accept under decision of the Board of Chair. Tune in person. Rob, thanks. Okay. So moving on. Approval of meeting minutes for 10/25/2023. Any minutes that are in your pocket? Anybody wanna make a motion? The October Finance Anybody meeting minutes as presented. Okay, we have a second. Second.
Any all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Administrative report. I kinda ought to order anything. Do you have any to administer
us? I don't have anything major. We did. Thank you, sir. Encounter a brief leak at the fire department on investigation. We realized the flat roof on the fire department which unfortunately is only like nine years old. Has been quite incorrectly. That whole building was reroofed nine years ago. We have had numerous problems with it. Original contractors out of business because they suck. So we did just repair the flat roof or replace the flat roof yesterday. But that's that's under the threshold at which I needed to go to our. So I just kinda did it. We did get multiple bids. We took the low bidder. It was under $7,500 anyway. So there shouldn't be any issue with that. There haven't hasn't been anything else major. You are aware as a board that we did get a steep grant for $500.00 for improvements at the ball field. Yeah. That is winding its way through
the planning and zoning commission at the moment because there needs to be a regulation change in the lighting regulations to allow what was in the steep grant application, which is lighting the soccer field, lighting the pickleball courts. So they are weighing in on that. I don't know how they're going to, you know, decide that. Basically, it's a trade off between aesthetics and functionality, whether they want to allow taller lights or not without allowing a taller light for the soccer field. It's frankly just not gonna happen. So so but, you know, there's no question that that would change the character of that spot to do it. So, so that's why I referred to them before we got any further in the process. So that grant is out, we did authorize the grant, the study grant for the Route 316 connectivity, we picked a company called Barton and Lejudas, they're out of Glastonbury to do that. That is under a really serious time constraint right now. So but the problem is because it involves state funding, we need approval before we can sign a contract with the CHRO, the Commission on Human Rights, which is a giant. Is a it is a time consuming thing. So and that flies in the face of the fact that we needed to do it quickly. So what I did with the town's attorney is I actually drafted two contracts. One quick and dirty temporary contract, which we signed
that we would pay only out of town funds. So I authorized paying them $500 So we have an official contract in place for liability purposes. And we've submitted the full contract to them. They've approved it. And then we've sent it off to the state CHRO. So presuming they've approved that at some point, we'll sign the actual contract. But we do have a contract in place and they are working on the project. So those are the two big things going on with that. Obviously the community center is going, you know, moderately well, few hiccups, but nothing, you know, really catastrophic. And we're on budget for that to stay under a million dollars. The other thing that is an issue, which I'm not sure how to address at this point, is I did ask for a Department of Labor ruling on the construction of the parking garage for the senior transportation. My attitude, my position all along has been since we're tearing down a building completely and we are tearing, you know, we're not reusing the foundation, we're not reusing the parking lot, we're not reusing utilities, we're reusing nothing that that the majority of that is considered new construction. And therefore, we have the Department of Labor threshold of a million dollars before we have to pay prevailing wage. They've given me an official determination that, nope, that's a renovation project as far as they're concerned. So I'm working with the town's attorney to see whether we can fight that because that is gonna cause a significant cost
to us. Because as soon as you make it a prevailing wage project, your total project costs go up, you know, 20 to 30%. So that's probably a $75,000 hit to the town if that is taking place. I am kind of working with our legislators also to see whether the state can finally do something about the current prevailing wage laws. The threshold for renovation was established in 1991 and hasn't changed. Obviously, it's a lot more expensive to build things today than it was in 1991. So if they change the thresholds, we're in good shape. You know, if not, we're gonna have to figure out how to deal with that.
I didn't know. I didn't. And that's all I got. Unless you have questions for me. Yeah, I'm needed somewhere. So I must have been around it.
Probably. Do we have the liaison reports? Thank you. Board open discussion. I do have one item and we were all copied on this, think, but the we got it from Carol Lee, the Bleacher Yep. And I didn't think about that. I should have, we should have probably had that added to the agenda, but we have enough to talk about this. They're asking for approval to move forward with that purchase, even though they could only get one firm quote, I think. So we could vote on that. Are you comfortable with the due diligence? Are you
involved in that or not? I was only corporately involved. Frankly, I've got enough other Yeah. You know, irons in the fire that I have not been. I know they went after a couple of companies, but basically what they're doing is they're not completely replacing the bleachers. They're just replacing parts of the bleachers. And by doing that, there's really only one vendor, which is the vendor that produces the producers. Is that correct? Yes. I think, you know, Brian can probably speak to that better because he's on the rec commission. Yeah. So it's $12,800 she listed several.
Paid I mean you know
I can't even move this our new place right here it's a replacement plastic seeds of wood all plastic right yeah but not that's a distortion so I'm going to make a motion to approve the expenditure even though we couldn't get the additional quotes they should move forward we'd already approved right exactly to do it but we normally this is kind of approving them to move forward with an exception to the person who calls you. Okay. Any discussion? All
those in favor say aye. Any opposed? No abstentions? Okay. Thank you. We'll call that one done. Thank you. Thank
No problem. Any other board open discussion? Any correspondence? Going correspondence. I I said, quote, public speak. Want a cookie? Okay. We have a motion to adjourn. I make the motion to adjourn.
I think Brian got you first. Second. Second. I think we got a laugh today. All right. All
in favor, say aye. Any opposed? Thank you very much everybody. Good meeting. Good to everybody's time. Good bye.