Meeting transcript
Board of Finance Special Meeting
December 14, 2022 · Watch on YouTube · All meetings
Eric, you want to? You got it. Very good. Thank you. Okay. I'm going to go ahead and call this meeting to order. This is the special meeting for the Board of Finance for the town of Andover, Connecticut, and that differs from the regular meetings in a couple of respects. Primarily, the main thing is that we do not have the opportunity to modify or change the budget in any way, which means that we can only discuss and act upon items that are on. I'm sorry, not on the budget, but on the agenda. We have to stick with the agenda. We can't make any changes to items that are on the agenda, so we do have to stay basically with agenda items, there is an opportunity for board open discussion at the end, but we
obviously can't take action on anything that's not specifically listed in the agenda or cover the agenda so that being said, I'll go ahead and call this meeting to order. Will recite the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag. United States, America. The Republic. The Republic. Nation. One nation God. Indivisible. Clergy and justice. Liberty. Thank
you. Okay. We'll go ahead and move on to our agenda item number two, which is public speak. Eric?
Eric Okay, the only people I see on this meeting that are potentially here for public speak would be, Ashley or Bill Derozier. Do either of you wanna say anything in public speak not related to elections? No. Who's the who's the 860 Yep. Okay. And who is number 8984 phone number?
That's me Linda. For some reason I couldn't get into the zoom. Okay. Okay. And I also don't know how to mute or unmute being on the phone.
Okay. Well, I can mute you if you so choose. But I'd rather not because then I won't know to unmute you because I can't see you. Okay. So you're gonna have to stay on mute. Okay. And the last person is Kimberly Persaud. Yes. Can you hear me? We got a background noise, though. Yeah. I'll mute myself. There we go.
Okay, did you have anything you wanted to add in public speak though, Kimberly? Nothing at this time. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Okay. That would be it for public speak.
Thank you. Agenda item number three is the Todd Administrator's report. Eric, it's yours.
Okay. I didn't submit a formal written report this time. I'm running a little slow because I'm working from home because I'm still healing from leg surgery. So, two things. One, Jay Tuttle will be on later, but he's not going to be able to be on until around 07:30 because he has, he's picking up his father at the airport. And he just texted me that he should be able to be on by 07:30. So, that's that. The second thing is we are sending out to all the boards and commissions and departments their budget sheets for next year. As you all may remember, usually the first step in the budget process is I process the numbers I can and each department head and each board and commission head has to give us their own numbers back for the budget.
One of the things I've asked them to do this time is we've given them an Excel spreadsheet so they can just put the numbers directly in the Excel spreadsheet. And then that spreadsheet then gets plugged directly back in by the treasurer into the overall budget. So, that will hopefully make life a little easier. And other than that, obviously it's early enough. We don't have a lot of budget data. I did present to the Board of Selectmen what I thought was kind of a big picture look at the major things that were going to affect next year's budget. I don't want to really go over that with you, but I will be happy to forward that to all the Board of Finance members so you can review it. It's really just a one over the world look at kind of what are the big things that affect our budget right now and how do I see them playing out. The kind of last thing I wanted to do is I put a budget to actual in the packet, but I want to share a budget to actual as of today that I got from the treasurer. And just more so that you all understand what format you can expect to see it in in the future. And if there are things you want to change about the format and how it's presented, let us know and we can do that. So I'm just going to share my screen here real quick. Hopefully I can get the right thing because I got way too many things up at the moment.
Let's see if that's it. All right. No, that's an agenda. That's the agenda. There we go. You should be looking hopefully at something that says profit and loss versus actual. Yep. Okay. So, this is a basic form you're going to get every month, presuming that this is okay. The first part is income. There's not going to be anything on there for income yet, but we will have that within the next two weeks or so, the income fully transferred over, you know, to the profit and loss. And then the second part is the expense side, which is everything we have for expenses. And so, the other thing to keep in mind is I did reorder the way it appears. I haven't changed any of the line items at this point in the budget to actual for this year. Because basically what you passed for a budget is what you have to be looking at in terms of a budget. So, while they're reordered, everything that was in last year's budget is located here. It just reorganized. So it's to me, it makes more sense. Some of the categories and I tried to group like with like so that you could see it easily.
The good news is we're doing reasonably well financially at this point. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to have this sent to you, you know, just so that you have it. And you can look through it. And if you have any questions about it, send them back to me. And if there's anything in here that you all really don't like, let me know and, you know, we can talk about how to change it and make it reflect what you want. So I'm just kind of giving you a heads up that you will get this in the next couple of days. I didn't want to send it to you right before the meeting because I didn't kind of want to distract you about that. So I'm going to stop share. And then the question I have for you is, do you all have any questions for me?
You're muted, Mark.
Thank you. The dog was barking earlier. So, I would like to kind of this is the next this is from QuickBooks? This is from QuickBooks. Yes. Okay.
And it's not a big deal to resort and reorder as needed as you were able to do to make it more logical in your your view?
Yeah. It's just a question of how you present, you know, the data's all organized. It's just a question of how you present it. Yeah. And
where are we in the process, I guess, with the finalization of this with Cheryl?
We're pretty far along. So the first really good news is we were able to resolve the outstanding issues in the twenty twenty -twenty one budget. You know, if you remember the auditor threw up his hands and there was about an $80,000 difference between you know, what we had reconciled and what we had for a bank balance. Cheryl's been able to track down almost all of that. We're down to a difference of around $300 And we're not going to do anything heroic to find the last $300 of discrepancy between those two. So that's been done. She's gotten most of the information, all the information she needs for the reconciliation. She's starting to go through the reconciliation month by month now. And we've reconciled most of the smaller funds like Norton Fund and the Sprague Fund and all the little stuff. So she is thinking that basically by January, sometime in middle of January, she'll be able to turn it over completely to the auditor, you know, most of the work done. So it should be a fairly quick audit once we turn it over. So even though we are going to be still quite late in turning it over, it should go fairly smoothly. And so far there doesn't seem to be anything that's
really crazy or out of line or we can't understand at this point. That's kind of where we're at.
That's a good update on my audits here. Other questions for Eric, Joy?
Has she come forth Eric? I mean clearly we're having her work on these things because there was an issue with who was in those positions before and you know got us kind of again in a bad spot so without saying too much about personnel or things like that but has she come up with how this could have happened yet again without you know because she's really she's doing everything she promised us you know with with getting her on board and coming in and coming in clearly and working on it and I feel like each month we get a great update she came on with us last month explaining things So does she is she even digging deep to see how we could have gotten how with two finance personnel working in the board of in the board know, not in the board, sorry, in your town offices. I'm sorry. He's just sitting board in your town offices that we that it got to this level. Is she seeing maybe there wasn't enough training, there wasn't enough really knowledge in how to do this kind of work?
I can't tell you what the exact, I mean, collectively between the two of them, they just made a lot of mistakes and a lot of things didn't get transferred over or really checked. That's really kind of the bottom line. There was a bunch of duplication and there were a bunch of things that never made it to the reconciliation. So, you know, and to be perfectly honest, that's, it's really the job of the finance director to sort that out. So if there's blame to be had, I'm not saying that both,
you know I never wanna be you were perfect. Yeah. I totally never wanna be a person to blame, but I would feel remiss as an elected official, you know, or on this board not asking a question. Because we had such high hopes. I listened to two years of combining what we were going to do. And then, yeah, so I just I feel like we owe it in this forum you know now that we're getting it straightened out in such a short amount of time and working in the field myself in my job you know you do things like that and there are checks and balances you put yourself on a schedule you get yourself going it's hard for so that's yeah it's not I'm glad we're moving forward I'm glad we brought in a person that seems very capable and is doing a great job of straightening it out and then I hope moving forward we'll provide all of the training to the new staff and personnel that are you know, brought on board. That's all. But it needs to be said, we can't just throw it under the rug again without bringing it up. So thank you.
Understood. And then the last thing, just so that you are all aware, most of you probably know by now, but Sherry Holmes has resigned her position at the elementary school as the finance director for the the elementary school. My understanding is that Laura Edwards, who was the previous finance director for the elementary school, or actually technically the business manager has stepped in in an interim until they can hire a person to replace her. So that is ongoing.
I had not heard that. Is that immediate effect of Not, no. Yeah.
Not at all. Until today, I actually heard it today. And I was like in high shock about it because we had not heard word one.
Yeah. She actually informed me four or five days before she left. I had heard through the grapevine that the school had posted an advertisement for their replacement, but I hadn't I hadn't heard anything official until she told me just before I, you know, went out on medical. So
Thank you Eric. No I did hear that and you know just in an email that I got today so I was surprised so I actually asked it because it was a secondary question to me and then I did ask a question to care and reside you know I'm pretty directed forward I'm like oh this is happening because so and I understand I'm sorry I didn't even know you were out on medical I get that I literally and I don't mind saying it I you know I've worked I've ducked COVID for two and a half years, wore a mask everywhere very you know and I had my first thought with a few weeks ago. But, I mean, luckily, mild. So there's a lot of things going around, and people are in and out of offices. But, yeah, I was shocked to hear about Sherry.
Yep. So I should be back in the office full time starting Monday. I've just you know, I had foot surgery, so I'm kind of on the tail end of that. Yeah. Good. Other
questions for Eric? Okay, hearing none, guess we'll move into draft budget. Eric, mean, you already addressed this partially, but
Yeah, I mean, the only thing I wanted to say is I had sent, believe both the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Finance just the preliminary schedule, you know, of dates which mirrored last year as to when things needed to happen. What were the hard dates we had to meet? We're early enough in the process. Neither board has to approve it or really even think about it. I just spent that, you know, don't I know, about three weeks ago as an FYI. So you had that information. Know, What did you obviously send that, Eric?
I think I sent it somewhere maybe third week in November, something like that.
I don't remember seeing that. No? You had sent a draft budget report.
The draft budget report should have had two items in it. One was what I was forwarding to all the boards and commissions as far as what information I wanted them to provide. Because one of the things I'm doing this year is I'm asking them all to formally, know, not just give us a budget, but give us a budget explanation of why so we can compile all that. So, by the time you get it, you at least have their thoughts on why they need what they need, you know, on a department by department level. And the second thing on there should have been a proposed schedule.
Did you send it to the entire board? May have missed it, but I don't see it. Anybody else see it? I thought I did. But I mean,
you know, it's possible I screwed the pooch on that. Okay. I just quickly went through my emails. I'm not seeing it either. I haven't seen it either. Okay. Okay.
I still think we have plenty of time, though. I think we started early last year, so it's not a big deal. I just we're just letting you know we didn't see it. Yeah. Got Okay.
A really quick start last year, and then yeah. I don't think it's a problem, even if we get it sometime in the next few weeks.
Okay. So if you don't have it, I'll go over it with you super quick. Yeah, let's take a look at it. That's good. So first things first, I missed the first deadline of December 3 to send it out. I just frankly, we weren't far enough along in coming up with the budget to actual appearance that we wanted. So those did go out today. So that went out a little late in terms of the very first step, which was give out the budget worksheets. But I think getting them back in early January, January 9 ish is still workable. My first budget book for the Board of Selectmen somewhere around January 23 and giving the Board of Selectmen basically a month to do whatever, make whatever decisions they want to make. And then, you know, and then hold hearings if they so choose. You know, every year they seem to want to do something slightly different. And then that gives you the budget worksheet around March 1 once the Board of Selectmen is okay releasing it to you. So that meets our charter requirement because you have to have it at least one hundred and twenty days before the end of the fiscal year. And that gives you till April 29, you know, somewhere in that timeframe to hold your public budget hearing. And the charter requires that not less than sixty days before the end of the fiscal year. You could do it as late as May 1, but that then would delay the townwide budget meeting. And that gives a townwide budget meeting number one around May second or third. And I prefer to do it as early as we can in May. We could do it the week after,
but by doing it on the second or the third, that gives us the most chance if we have a failure or even a couple failures of still having a budget in place early enough to send out the tax bills on July 1 with the correct mill rate. So that's kind of what I'm proposing. And I will send that to you in hard copy. All right. Anybody have questions about that schedule wise?
Okay. Okay. Anything else from Eric or two questions for Eric on the budget? Joanne?
I was only going to make a comment that it would be I know that we have more finance people coming on board at the town so it'll be I think it'll kind of go hand in hand because I think they talked about not advertising until soon after the holiday. So it makes sense to know the schedule because we really want to have the people involved this time and you know the right people hired. Not that's not my job. I'm just hopeful for that to happen. That's all. Thank you.
Anything else? All right, we'll move on to agenda item five then, which is old business. 5A is the audit status. Eric?
I don't really have anything more other than what I've told you already. We did have Cheryl, myself, and the auditor Mike had about an hour long conversation about a week ago and sat down and just kind of figured out what scheduling was going to work. And Cheryl's pretty confident he can give him a completed audit packet, you know, right around the middle of January. And Mike seemed, you know, pretty happy with that. That timing worked well for him. In fact, a lot of years, they don't start it before then anyway. So if we've caught up enough to be there. And because Cheryl has done, you know, the vast majority of work, which our previous, finance staff hadn't really been able to do, we should have a fully audit ready package. That's certainly the goal. And so that's kind of where we're at.
Okay. Any questions for Eric on that? Okay, hearing none, we'll go ahead and move on to item 5B. That's discuss and vote on the talent purchasing policy. I think you all have a copy of that. I don't know that it's in the packet, but I think we had distributed it. Basically, we had we had gone through almost line by line on the questionable items of the last time and and we sent it back around. Does anybody have any questions about that or comments?
I didn't have any issues with it, and I'm happy to share that on my screen if you have specific things you want to talk about and review.
Feel like the one good thing that giving us the extra time, just the eyes to look it over for proofing. Think Robert and whoever I think maybe led that to, they already brought up some good comments. The good part is that we can revise it at any time. Right? So Right. I feel comfortable after taking the extra month and taking a look at it that nothing stood out to me. But I am happy that we can revise it at any time if it doesn't work for the purposes that we would like it to. I'm good with it. Other comments,
questions? Anybody like to make a motion to adopt the town of Andover purchasing policy as identified in the draft adopted at the last with the modifications to that the last meeting of November 16. Anyone?
I would like to make a motion to adopt the purchasing policy as presented to us and gone over at the last meeting of November 16. I think you said presented as a draft policy. I hope that's everything. Yep, I it's I would like to make a motion to adopt it as presented and all that. Then I'll second it.
Thank you, Rob. Seconds, any further discussion? Okay, all those in favor say aye. Aye.
Any opposed? Any abstentions? Okay, the motion passes. The policy is adopted. Eric, I'll I have the file, so what I'll do is I just had at the top the date needed to be updated. I'll do that. I'll send that to you and Kate and the rest of the board and we'll have it. Perfect. All
right. We'll put it on our policies and procedures and thank you all for tackling that as a task. That's needed
to be done. Yeah, and special thanks to Diane who's not here, obviously. Does a lot of the groundwork on that. Very well. We'll move on to the next item, is the current status of staff searches for the finance department. Eric, any update?
No, the Board of Selectmen had asked me to hold off and advertise basically January 1, so we do it right after the holidays. So I've agreed to do that. I don't see anything. The the boards have seen the job description. You know? So I I don't see that as being an issue. The only thing I think we may end up having to negotiate a little bit with the union at some point, which hopefully will be sometime in February, is over the exact compensation for that position. But, you know, my theory is since we've changed the job description, we know it has to be a union position, but we're basically just going to tell them, you know, what we're going to be paying for the position and figuring out how to make them deal with it.
Okay. Questions for Eric on that? Okay, hearing none, we'll go ahead and move into new business. So obviously the first order of new business is to discuss our interested candidates for the open Board of Finance position and to select the new board member if we can. So we have two interested candidates, Ashley Hilton and build rosiers hope I'm pronouncing your names correctly, please correct me if I'm wrong. But I want to, I guess, on behalf of the board just thank you both very much for your interest and willingness to serve, regardless of where we end up on this, I mean I personally think you're both would be great candidates. This is it's very hard to get people to serve and these things there's a big commitment and it's an important position in the town and
so, as we all on the board now and Eric knows very well it's it's. It can be a tough job and there's obviously time involved, and so we appreciate your willingness to serve. The way we're going to go ahead and go about this is you've already both submitted a brief personal statement a little bit of background information so I just kind of like to take you each in turn and. Have an opportunity for you to kind of tell us a little bit about yourself and your interest just you know doesn't have to be detailed just just fairly brief but just you you can kind of talk about yourselves and what your level of interest is and kind of your background. Then, as in as each of you do this does that we'll just give the board members opportunity to ask any questions they may have and and we'll just we'll kind of go proceed that way, and you can ask questions is also if you like. We'll do at that point, I think, is move into executive session, so what that means is that's a private session kind of discuss certain matters, we have the opportunity to do that as a board, it will not be recorded and members of the public won't participate or view that. And we'll just have some frank discussion about where we want to go with this or if people have questions or comments, but the the actual vote nomination will take place in public session after we leave executive session so that will be a matter of public record. And
then we'll move on with the rest of our meeting so assuming that a candidate is chosen. Essentially you're effectively a member of the Board of Finance at that point, so you become a voting Member and are able to vote if you so choose on the remaining agenda items and going forward.
Mark. Yeah. One thing. Yep. Technically, they're not a board member until they're sworn in. Whoever gets chosen has to go to the town clerk's office
and get sworn in officially before they can participate with the board. You are correct. Thanks, Eric. I had forgotten that because I don't think that was a procedure that was followed when I joined the board. They voted me in and made me chairman within a space of about ten minutes and I learned a lot over that period of time. You're right. I'm sorry. Thank you, Eric. That's correct. You're certainly more than welcome to participate, but you wouldn't actually be a voting member, I think, at that point.
And just for the record, what we'll do is we'll put everybody that is not invited into the executive session, and that will be the chairman's decision who is and is not invited. Everybody else will go back into the waiting room. And then as soon as the executive session is over, you'll be readmitted from the waiting room. And then the meeting officially will resume.
Thanks, Eric. Yeah. And hopefully it won't be too long. We'll try not keep anybody waiting and I see jay's joined us now and he's gonna have to wait for all this to end so we'll try to use your your time wisely. So that being said, actually I see you're first on the list. If you want to take a moment, kind of tell us about yourself and you're interested in the Board of Finance position.
Sure, absolutely. So thanks for having me here. I really appreciate it and I appreciate the time that you all obviously put into the town and into the board. So let's see, I moved to Connecticut in 2013. Lots of folks up here catch my accent pretty quickly. I grew up in the South. I grew up in Kentucky, lived in Georgia, North Carolina. So my running joke when I introduced myself to people is that I bought my first snow shovel in 2013. We moved here in 2013. We rented for a couple of years in Coventry as we were deciding which town to move to and moved here to Andover in 2015.
Andover was kind of just the kind of town we were looking for kind of very small town feel like like where we grew up in Kentucky. My husband and I grew up in the same hometown, our parents live five miles from each other. But also close to the university close, you know, easy to drive to places. So we really liked Andover for that reason. And we really liked the school. So moved here very quickly had our two kids who are now six and three. So I have young kids and a bit of a bananas household. But I having my kids, took some time off from kind of giving back to the community, I guess you would say. So I have not served in an elected capacity for any of the towns that I've lived in, but volunteer work has always been a part of what I do,
part of what I do in my personal life and my professional life as a university professor, I do a lot of outreach engagement that way. And so I'll talk about my professional work in just a second. But that's kind of the impetus for me applying to this kind of thinking very carefully about ways that I want to give back to the community and seeing this opening and thinking that it's kind of something different than normal service than my previous service, but something that I think is kind of very complimentary to my professional experience. Professionally, I'm a trained scientist, have a PhD in ecology and my specialty is in biogeochemistry, which I always joke just means that I didn't know what kind of scientist I wanted to be. Squished all the words together and it was a little bit of everything. But really what I do is mostly study kind of water quality management, streams and rivers, water flow in streams and rivers, I study coastal wetlands, that kind of thing. So I started as an assistant professor at UConn, I was tenured in 2019.
And then this past year, I became the director of our Institute of the Environment at UConn. So I'm in a 50% administrative position. So I administer, I teach and I and I do research, I run a fairly large research program that employs graduate students, postdoctoral associates, undergraduates, and research technicians. And so as part of building that research lab, that was really my first deep dive into what it meant to think very strategically when it comes to finances, how you juggle a lot of accounts, you juggle a lot of employees and moving parts. I'm sorry, have a visitor. This is Dottie. And so I've really kind of enjoyed that about my experience as an assistant professor kind of being thrown into the world of really having to think about a lot of complicated budgets and how they fit together. And so now I've moved into an administrative position. And so as a I co administrate the Institute of the Environment with the executive director. And so we administer four academic units that each have separate budgets. And then we have our own budget, we supervise a business office of two full time staff, two part time staff. And so we deal with kind of many different types of budgets and finances and a couple of different unions and, you know, full time permanent staff down to kind of part time undergraduate technicians. I've just kind of really enjoyed learning how to administer kind of what for me is a fairly kind of complex system, complex unit. And so when I saw this opening, I thought that I would be really interested in learning how the town finances work and in potentially volunteering my time and hopefully transferring some of my knowledge and skills into this board and this position. Position.
Okay, thank you very much. Should say Doctor.
Shelton, I guess. No, no, I'm Ashley. My father-in-law was Doctor. Shelton. Got
Okay, thanks very much. Thanks for the presentation. It's good to meet you virtually. Normally, would probably do this type of thing in person, obviously, but so many of the DOWNS meetings have gravitated towards towards the virtual meetings, which probably works well for everybody given busy schedules, So does anybody have any questions or anything for Ashley things they want to ask about or comment on?
I actually have a couple of questions to ask each of them when they're done.
Well, go ahead, Louise. What was that? We'll just do each in turn, I think.
Okay. Ashley, I was just wondering what you expect from the board. You know, what expectations, what do you think that we do on a meeting during our meetings?
That's a great question, right? So I've had a chance to kind of read some of the meeting notes. I didn't have a chance to watch any of the recordings, but I've tried to go back and read a little bit. So, you'll test my knowledge and you'll see how conceptually right or wrong I kind of got it. So I think kind of, you know, into this, my only experience with the Board of Finance was during Board of Education meetings. I think those were my first kind of in person town meetings. And so I think I was a little intimidated when I saw the opening because I thought, oh my goodness, right? Is this kind of a contentious board to serve on? And then as I read the meeting notes, I realized that, you know, maybe it was a little bit a little bit broader and steadier than that, outside of the budget of the budget season. And so I assume that, that you all you know, you spend obviously all year talking about the budgets, the budgets from the different units in the town units is probably the wrong word. I'm so used to university speak different boards, the different units in the town. So I'm going through those budgets individually, asking those different boards, those different units questions about their budgets, trying to understand the budgets. I obviously
just heard you vote on policy. I'm assuming have that the authority to revise particular policies for the town that have to do with fiscal issues. Yeah, I see from kind of the meeting schedules that they're less dense outside of budget season and perhaps a little bit more intense and a little bit more often during budget seasons. I think that's about all I have. You know, I also don't want to come in and presume like I kind of know what you do. I'm fully expecting this to be a bit of a learning opportunity for me. Want to learn. Obviously have not served on a board of finance or town, so it would be new for me. But I enjoy thinking about budgets and systems and parts and how people and things work together. So I would hope that you know, that kind of that
skill set and that interest would would transfer over. Okay. Thank you. Okay.
Okay, I have another one. Sure. I actually want to ask both of them. How much time do you think you'll be able to contribute to the board? Do you feel there'll be an issue or will you be able to? Yeah, so I mean, those meetings.
Yeah, I think that's a really great question. And that's something that that was that was probably my biggest hesitation and applying I mean, you know, just to be honest, I took, you know, I took after I found it was open, think I applied on like the last day. And that's because I was kind of thinking through like, this a time commitment that I think I can make? I obviously have a full blown career right now and a couple of kids, young kids too, right? Their time sucks. So I think the monthly meetings are definitely doable. I assume that there's some preparation for the monthly meetings depending on the month, likely several hours to a little bit more,
maybe even more the first year while person coming into this position is trying to learn and understand how the budgets work. So I assume that there's a few hours of prep before each meeting. That's kind of a once a month thing or so outside of budget season, and then likely quite a bit more during budget season. I don't think I I don't know if I fully understand how much that is because I haven't done it, but that's that's I think that's the best I can answer that question. Okay. Go in.
Yeah, I was just gonna make a comment too. I like that Louise touched on that, but you have a really broad overview and really an open mind and you can tell just from your being all the roles you've had being an administrator and knowing so I mean it already like talking it through. I don't you're right to think about the time and worry about it just having been in those positions when you do have a career and all that and and this isn't to dissuade you or not. I'm very impressed that we have like Mark said candidates that are willing. Same thing, like I had a busy career and raised my family and everything, always kept an eye on having
been in town for a while, but then jumping in when I had time. But it's people like you and Bill too, mean, so we're going to hear from both that are used to busy careers and getting things done. We just all somehow manage. That's just a broad overview. I love that Louise brought it up, but you do. I mean, it's just the type of person you are and just hearing and having read about both of you. You know, I don't want to say anything here. It's just funny. You just kind of manage what you have to do, but but it does take a lot of time like you said, and I feel like reading the written word of the minutes I was going say our minutes really are very vague to me so it doesn't give the full picture but I think our board really gets along well. You know I did a lot of to say to both of you I felt like I've been involved, I've listened from afar and then I made sure that I was at meetings and learned all about the town which both of you are very involved. Yeah because I felt like if I was going to put myself out there and learn about it and talk about it I did exactly what you said. I'm going to sit back and learn the first year on the board and then now I feel like even though I knew I feel like I can speak up more because I've watched the process. I've listened to what was supposed to happen.
So I may come, I'm just very direct, yeah I'm impressed with the things that you have said both of you, both candidates and wanting to get involved is really the number one thing that that is helpful to the town.
Thanks. Quick question for me, Ashley. You you help administer the expenses against this budget where they was this budget you helped developers is part of the grant process or the next to that?
So I've been involved from a few different perspectives. So in running my own research lab, those grants are grants that I wrote and developed the budget kind of purely on my own or sometimes with collaborators. So I've led a little over $2,000,000 that I've developed purely on my own, about $8,000,000 that I've co led with collaborators, so co developed with other, you know, scientists like myself. And so then, you know, administered or co administered about $10,000,000 in research funding, mostly from the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency or the Long Island Sound Study, which is a regional arm of the Environmental Protection Agency. So those grants funded both students and staff, so funded personnel, but then also funded lab work, field work, stuff that kind of we do in my field. I didn't mention this, but as part of my research program, I manage an analytical lab, which kind of has its own set of budgets. So then I set a few perspectives. So then the second perspective
is I manage about a million dollars worth of instrumentation in my lab. And so there are budgets associated with those instruments to help maintain and repair them. And students and faculty from our campus or other campuses use those instruments. And there's, you know, billing those folks and kind of managing that internal lab budget. And then from the third perspective is the Institute of the Environment budget. So the Institute of the Environment budget is not a budget that I write, but that's a budget that we go to budget hearings and argue for and then is handed down from the provost at the university to the Institute of the Environment. So our institute reports to the provost who's kind of the head of the academic side of campus. The provost reports to the president. And so those are budget hearings, and we argue for our budget, and then we're granted a budget, and then we spend the year trying to manage that budget and not go into the red.
Got it. Okay, thank you. Any other questions for Ashley? Okay, thank you very much. I guess, Bill, do you want to tell us a little bit about yourself and your interest in the Board of Finance position and your background?
Sure. Well, thank you again for having me tonight. So I have lived in town for thirty five years. I built the house that I live in here back in 1985. I grew up in Coventry, the apple didn't fall far from the tree, I guess. I raised my family here. My kids are much older than Ashley's. My son is 34, expecting our first grandchild with him. My daughter is 29. She lives in Boston. So they through, they grew up in Andover. They went through the school system here. I think Andover, as I said in my letter, was just a great place to grow up for a lot of reasons. I mean, our kids grew up outside. They grew up running and playing in the Nathan Hale State Forest and riding their bikes and went to a great school system. I think that's one of the strongest points that we have in this town is an excellent school system. One of the areas of interest that I have is to continue to support that school system. I know there's been a lot of controversy, you know, the Board of Education over the last couple of years. I think my key focus there is having a good budget that supports good education for our children, but doesn't necessarily give the Board of Education, you know, the free bank account that they were looking for not too long ago. It seemed like they just thought they could have anything carte blanche. So reasonable budgets, reasonable spending, but still providing the best education as possible.
My career, I've worked for the same company for thirty five years now. It's called LeGrand, we're electrical manufacturer in West Hartford, Connecticut. I've held many, many jobs over that time from sales management, moved into a production role as part of my training to move on to other roles, product management, account management for large national accounts. And for the last fifteen years, I've been the director of training for the company. In all of those roles, I've had to create budgets, push them past the executive staff, get approval for those budgets, Not nearly the size of the budgets that Ashley has worked with. My budgets have usually been in the $203,100,000 dollars range, not the millions. But I do have to create those budgets, and I do have to live within those budgets, obviously push for their adoption as well. My
main interest really is that now that my children are grown up and moved on, I have only a year or two left in my career, I'll be retiring soon. I want to give back. I've been serving as the chairman of the ZBA for the last three and a half years. I've been a volunteer for the beautification committee with my wife and museum committee as well. I've been on that board as well. So many other things within town too. So I am a volunteer. I do give my time back. I think it's important. And I just think this is a much bigger role than I've taken before as far as giving back to the community. But I think it's one that my career and now the time that I have lends itself well to. So I like to see the town continue to slowly grow. I like to see the Route 6 Corridor become a little more commercialized to add to our commercial base. It help our tax base out, help us to grow a little bit. But I do like the rural nature of our town. I like its proximity to not only the outdoors, but, you know, again, being able to quickly be in Manchester or Hartford or Willamette, wherever, you know, we need to go to shop or out for entertainment. So I just think it's a great location. It's a great town. And I think I'm ready to give the talents that I picked up over the years, thirty five years in the industry
that I've worked in to the town. So that's about it. Okay. Appreciate it. Okay.
Questions for Bill? Louise, do you wanna pose your your two questions? Yeah. Same question. What what are your expectations from the board?
Yes. So I do have some understanding of the board, not much more than Ashley has. But my wife served on the board of finance, Kathy DeRosiers, for many years. She was a board select person. So I kind of heard this stuff in the background. A lot of conversations in this household from her many years of serving in this town. So, you know, my understanding is you gather all of the different boards and commissions, budgets, you review them, you put together a budget that we bring to the town to vote on. And again, we probably have some authority to approve
things like you talked about earlier, far as the purchasing rules or procedures, that sort of thing. So I have a lot to learn as well about the board and everything that you do. But again, there have been a couple of times that I've been asked to either run for the board or to fill in this position. And I thought, yeah, that's something I'd be interested in doing. Obviously, I would have a lot to learn coming into this role, too.
Okay. And do you feel you have the time to contribute to it?
I do. I will say that, again, I've been the chairman of the ZBA almost immediately. Just like you, Mark, I was elected for the ZBA and almost immediately half the board left, and I was immediately elected chairman. I've never missed a meeting in those three and a half years. I'm not saying I would never miss a meeting. I do have vacations planned for this spring, but I take it seriously when I put every effort into making it to every meeting. And I do realize that at budget time, it gets a little busier than the once a month. Like right now, you probably have a once a month meeting, but I'm sure when it gets to budget time, that cadence picks up a bit. So
I'm obviously prepared to do that as well. Okay. Thanks, Bill. And Mark takes it way over the limit. He does Zoom meetings from Europe in the middle of the night. Hopefully not anymore.
That's dedication. That was way too late for me. So. Alright. Thank you both.
Any other questions? I know you you had a couple questions before. Wasn't sure if there's any more questions or? Joanne, did you have a question?
I was just going to say I think she asked the two. The time element was one and then contributing. Yeah, I think it's fair to bring up. Are we allowed to make comments just out there like not sure? Yeah. Yeah. Nothing. I mean, just it's just to put it out there in in our meeting for the minutes that Bill did take an interest and did run. Right, Bill? And the last election. And you beat me, you beat I know, I know, I have to say just for my family like because people told me I was the unknown name so I really take pride I do kind of preach I walk the walk and talk, you know, from the talk to talk, I walk the walk. I really do believe in being present in the meetings, getting your face out there and really, you know, coming to the meeting.
Sorry, Bill. I mean Spike that football. Spike that football.
I do think a lot of that, I've gotta say. But we had fun. We had fun with handing out our pamphlets and talking. We did. So I just think it's fair to say that he did run, you know, so he's got a little bit of a history running. Of Friends, we're still neighbors.
Look at that. I know you still talk to me. We leave, but but it that wasn't the point. I just think it's important to know that this isn't your first interest. I mean, I think it's important to just say that out loud, give you a little bit of credit that you've been interested in this. You did put in the time before. Not that Ashley Ashley sounds like she came to study. I'm just publicly saying that that's all and and you were you were it was very not that but no it was very close but anyways
that's it alright thanks I just have a just the only comment I would make before I think we might want to go to his active session and sort this out is that we are in a what seems like unusual situation for us in that we seem to have an embarrassment of riches here. We have two very good candidates, and I I don't quite know what to do with that. In the past, you know, it's been Difficult. It hasn't been like this when we've had to fill vacancies. So this is pretty great. And, yeah, let's let's get to it.
K. Other questions for the go ahead, Ashley. Do you have something you wanna add? Sorry. Was trying to wait until the end. I yeah.
So I I guess I had a question and a comment, if that's Yeah. Go ahead.
I mean, I'm a professor, so of course I have a comment. Right? So, Joanne or or Joanne, I heard you say that the committee gets along or you said something that made me internalize that this committee got along. And I guess I would be curious and in asking the committee about how you all think the internal function of the committee is, because I'm really interested in serving on a committee that wants to kind of get stuff done and isn't worried about kind of infighting or political divisions and like just wants to do the best for the town. And so I would be really, mean, and maybe you all can't talk about this in front of each other. Maybe it's not a fair question. You're not going to tell me there's infighting, but I do want to ask that.
Yeah, I'll I guess I'll start now to say that you know my perception is that this is a pretty functional group. You know we don't always agree on policy, but generally in terms of procedurally and the way we proceed and the way we work together. I think that it works pretty well there I don't you know I don't personally feel a lot of their infighting or you know. Or politicking or grudges or things like that, so we work pretty effectively and. There's respect, and so I think that you know our meetings tend to run pretty smoothly. For that purpose and generally we work pretty well what you won't find in this group, at least generally least it's not really you won't find a lot of. Negotiating behind the scenes. Michael obvious discussions happen, not with the whole board, because then that becomes a freedom of information issue and we we don't mean discussing the whole board, but you know we might you know there might be casual conversations and things that happen. Michael And I know that in other situations with other boards and other personalities sometimes that happens there's a lot of politicking that goes on around behind the scenes.
I'm not in favor of that personally because I don't think that's what the purpose of the public elected official list and I don't and I think that this group doesn't really operate that way so that's that would be my I think it's it's actually a fairly well functioning. Group of folks so. Rob Sorry.
Let Joanne go. She was she was waiting. She was waiting for. Only because my comment brought her question which I so thank you. I kind of wanted to counterpoint. The the good part is I think we're the word is respect. And I I'm not saying it's not in other places, but I'm very direct. So I don't mind it. It sounds like like we like to get things done too. And I think that's why when Eric brought up the schedule, I felt like a lot of it. I'm ready to get it done too because your time is precious. We're there for a mission. I'm preparing just like in my job ahead of time. I come with a million things. And then, you know, sometimes it's get it all ready and we can't move it along too so even though I say we get along
we all have our own viewpoints. Probably we know where some of us stand on certain things but yeah, I'm definitely someone that works on budgets in my job too, and I'm definitely someone that believes in saving money and doing the best for the town too because, you know, taxes go up and up and up that affects your property, whole life and everything, but you have to find the balance. So we're all very direct, we're not afraid to say things I think you know we just try to say it respectfully or whatever but I just meant getting along whatever your perception was of yeah the pretentious I just meant I think there's a lot of respect here. And so our person that you would be filling the role full you know one of you will fill was a high level person too that did a lot of work contributed a lot to the board, you know, and didn't pull any punches. You know, I learned a lot from her, you know, and I love it. I love to, like, I love academia where you are, like, you know, I work in a school system so I love to expand the knowledge at all. All do so. Learning is good. So that's it with that. Thank you. Thanks Mark and Rob.
Rob? Yeah, no problem. I don't want make this meeting three hours so I should be really brief. I'm just going to echo the comments. We have a very kind of collegial working relationship. Think part of it is that the the town budget, because we're such a small town, there isn't a lot of super contentious stuff in our budget. You know, the last few budget cycles, there's been some fighting at the town level over the the Ed budget. But for the most part, there's not a heck of a lot going on beyond, you know, should we buy this truck or not? Should we buy you know, put it off two years? We gotta repair this. That kind of nuts and bolts stuff is, you know, the vast majority of what we do. And, you know, when I joined this board a while back now, god, I don't I don't even wanna think about what year it was now. When I got brought in, one of the things existing board at the time, many of whom actually went on to be on the board of selectmen
said was, look. We we all kind of have a standing agreement. We all check our national politics at the door. We come in. We do the business of the town. Because if we don't, then this could devolve into nonsense. And I'm like, what is that what is the use of that? And the answer is really there is no use in doing that. It's just a waste of everybody's time and and it doesn't help the town. So I think we've all done a real good job over the years of staying on that mission.
Awesome. Just wanted to add that we're very coherent and we're very professional. And I think, Ashley, I think you probably see that at your level as well in the college. My point. Anything else? Questions, comments? Eric?
So I just wanted to say two things. Both of you probably figured out by now I am the town administrator. Number one, I appreciate you both serving. I served on boards and commissions for quite a while before I became the administrator. So I recognize the time commitments that it takes to be an effective board member. So I appreciate anybody willing to serve. The second thing is my door is always open. I think at this point there's nobody on the board of finance who hasn't called me at a random time and had a long conversation about some issue. So I'm happy to talk to you to whomever is selected and I don't have a vote as a professional staff. I'm not on the Board of Finance. But I'm happy to talk to you about you know, where the authority of the board stems from in terms of the charter, what your authority is and your responsibilities are as a board, and answer any questions either of you would have about the budget or budget process. So that's all I wanted to say, and thank you both for being willing to serve.
Thanks so much, Eric. And then a comment was just to say hi to Bill. It's good to see you. I I didn't know you were also interested until I saw your name on the agenda. I'm also a Bear Swamp person. So, yeah. I didn't know that, actually. Where did where are Bear Swamp? We're right on the corner of Bear And Wheeling in the Little Blue Ranch House. Oh, okay. Beautiful.
Yeah. Really? We're right by there every day. So Bill, I don't know if you remember, but relatively soon after we moved in here, you and Kathy had dinner with me and my husband at Jonah
and Jim's house. At Jonah, yes, that's right too. That's very cool. I didn't recognize you, but now I remember that. Yeah. It was a few years ago. It is a small town. You know, we're actually to meet you again. Pop Road and
I should have I should have bought that one so. Alright.
I had seen that you were both. I know Bill of course from years back. But I had seen on your resume actually I'm like another neighbor you know So thank you for I didn't want I thought that would be kind of awkward and not appropriate for me to ask where. No. But that's I do know where you live now, so I'm down farther. So Okay. It's a small town thing. Right? You're you're
straight have to start recruiting on Gilead. Like, what is going on over here? Right.
Anyways, I don't wanna make the meeting longer. Because it's not a fan of the name of the roundabout, whatever. It is what it is. Okay. Alright.
Other questions or comments for the for the our guests? And actually, if you wanna know just how small a town it is, I was born in the house that you live in now.
And that house was built by my grandfather many years Please tell me you know what used to be painted in the basement. At one point, there was a giant, like
there was an enormous map that's that spread throughout one hole back in that, like, like lounge area in the back of the basement. Was that a map? It's just painted white and my husband and I have all these theories about like what's under the white. And is there some way we could, like, wipe the white paint off to figure out what it was? So it's a map? Yeah. That was a map of the world, but that yeah. Yep. That's really funny. That's astounding. It is. Yeah.
Archaeology. Yeah. You're gonna go in there with the the brush and, like, wipe the paint off to see the So, Eric, are are those your handprints on the seat? Little kid handprints?
No. Those I actually, believe it or not, I'm pretty sure those were Bob Burbank's kids. Bob Burbank was the longtime first selectman of the town who bought that from my father.
But Bob lived in the house on the corner too when we first moved up here, the ranch.
Yep. So we're the ranch on the corner of Wheeling And Bear Swamp. Yep.
Yeah. Sorry. I'm making the meeting longer, I realized, but I had to ask about that mural. This is this is kinda crazy. Go ahead. Yeah it is yeah it's amusing.
Okay, I will, I will try to bring it back to the agenda of the meeting, though. Other questions for the candidates or relevant comments. Those are word relevant. Would somebody like move that we move, we to re.
We have a motion to move into executive session. I will make that motion. Let's move into executive session and discuss our candidates. Okay, Rob.
Thank you. Anybody want to second the motion? I'll second it. Thank you, Louise. Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Okay. Once again, thank you to candidates. The board will now move into executive session. Eric, let us know when you're ready and we'll go from there. Okay. So the first thing you have to do as the chairman now is say who you want in executive session. So we would want the board of finance members and Eric, I think, if you would participate also so we can manage the meeting.
Okay. If you would like that, I will do that. Let me throw everybody in the waiting room. Hopefully, I can figure out how to do that. Looking good.
Okay. Do I have everybody there? Okay. And let me just wait. I'm gonna stop the recording. Actually, I'm gonna pause. So the recording has started. You are out of executive session.
Okay, thank you, Eric. Again, thank you to Ashley and Bill. It's certainly a tough decision, I think, the Board of Finance, but we're going to go ahead and take a vote right now. What we'll do is we'll just we'll just call out the name. So all those in favor of appointing Ashley to the Board of Finance position say aye. Aye.
Okay. All those in favor of appointing Bill to the Board of Finance position say aye. Aye.
Okay, so it looks like Bill, you're our candidate. I appreciate it. Ashley, this is really, really a tough decision. I mean, we love I your
am an academic so rejection is the name of my game. You always really want something and then you're happy when you get it and then sometimes when you don't get it, you're like, okay, that also feels okay.
Bill may be calling you during budget season going, this should have gone the other way.
I, I feel a wonderful person and I'm, you know, I'm glad that you guys had a choice. Run a lot of searches and I know how awesome it is when you get to the last two candidates and you're like, yes, we have two people we can choose from. So, I very much appreciate being part of it. Like I said, I'll keep my eye out.
Absolutely. Go for it in the town. We were already discussing some other options for your future.
I mean, I would also say, you know, I am newish to the town and don't know the history. So you all have my email now. If there are openings or positions you think would it would benefit me to take a look at feel free to reach out.
Absolutely. You get some emails. You did a great job, Ashley. It was really impressive.
Thank you. It was very nice to meet you all. Yeah, thank you very much again. Yeah. Actually, gotta get together again, neighbor. Yeah, know. And like I said, was surprised to see Bill here. I mean, obviously, Bill's a great candidate, has run for the position before. I remember seeing his name when I voted. So it's
all great. Okay all right thank you very much again both of you so yeah Bill will will work with you to get you sworn in and then I'll separately send you a list of the meeting dates etc just so you have that and try to catch you up to date on everything we've had. Yeah, my it's all public record, but just to think it's quick.
You have my contact information mark Jay you're going on in about two minutes.
You do okay. Yeah, I do. I'll also send you up with the town email address so Eric will handle that separately.
And should I just go in any day this week to see the town clerk Eric or? Yeah, because Sworn in.
Right. Because Carol is out right now, her assistant doesn't run full hours. So just give a quick call first and then just go in and get sworn in and then you will be official.
Okay, sounds good. Okay, good. Thank you, sir. Thanks again to you both. We'll go ahead and move on to the next item on the agenda, which is the purchase of the Public Works plow truck. So thank you everybody for your participation. Thank you, Jay, for being patient. We'll go ahead and Eric, you want to cover the overview here or you want to hand it over to Jay? I think I'm going to basically,
all right, I will do a quick overview. As most of you know, we talked extensively last year about the purchase of a plow truck because at the time it was looking like we had to plan a couple of years out. Things have gotten a little better now As many of you might remember, we surprisingly enough got a build lot last summer, which we were not anticipating, nor did we really want to buy the truck last year. So, because we always intended for our capital plan for public works to be on a five year purchase schedule for trucks for public works, because that gives us one that's basically zero, five, and 10 years old. And then by the time we purchased the next one, we would have had one that's
five, ten, and 15 years old. 15 being a reasonable life expectancy for plow truck that's well maintained. So, in the next winter was the time we anticipated having the plow truck. That gets us on the five year rolling schedule, you know. So, it's taken us a long time to get to the point where we're in that range where we have three vehicles that are the right age and then the fourth being the emergency spare. So the long and the short of it is we need to make a decision fairly quickly because, you know, the last time we bought one, we took about it took about nine months to get it. And we had to go to public meeting to allot the money to do it. Now it's probably that same length of time or a little longer. So, we're about ten months out from when we would want to have that thing in the door and in the shop. Because even after we get it, it usually takes a month to fully commission Cause we put our own radios in it and do a lot of the stuff ourselves to save money. So, if we're going to do it, we need to pull the trigger and get a build slot fairly quickly. Last year, we presented three options to CIP and then Board of Selectmen and Board of Finance. And then Jay had indicated their preference would be to go to Freightliner.
The last couple we bought were Peterbilts. The Peterbilt has gotten considerably more expensive. And because of that, you know, even though Peterbilt makes a really good vehicle, Freightliner makes a pretty damn good vehicle also. It didn't seem worthwhile to spend the extra money. Our intention is still to buy one with a stainless steelhardox body, which those are a little bit more expensive. But the cost of re bodying a truck is somewhere around $40,000 just for the body. And then there's a bunch of labor to install it. So, if we can get to the point where we get bodies that last the whole life of the truck as instead of having to replace it, overall, it's much cheaper, you know, to buy it, you know, to spend the money upfront than it is to buy the mild steel bodied unit and then get stuck with replacing it because they are expensive. Up to the current two generations of trucks, we have pretty much always ended up re bodying our trucks. You know, so we're trying to get away from that. So, the question becomes,
does this purchase confirm to our purchase policy? And then, is the Board of Selectmen on board with leasing that? It's still going to go to CAP and it's still going to go back to Board of Selectmen before the trigger is pulled. But it's just basically to keep you in the loop and get a decision from the Board of Selectmen whether you'd consider financing. One of the things that I didn't even realize till earlier today, which Jay had brought up, is that if we're going to finance this thing, we basically have to escrow the first, you know, finance payment when we sign the contract because that's what they're doing with build slots right now because there's so much pressure on the builders and there's so much competition for actually getting vehicles. I we've heard a lot of horror stories lately about people who thought they had build slots and then the build slot got canceled and they ended up with nothing. Which is exactly what happened with us with our senior transportation. We were supposed to have the thing last May, and we're hoping we're going to get it this May. And the state's already basically paid the money for it. We just don't physically have it. They haven't been able to deliver it. So, that's all I wanted to say. Now I'm turning it over to Jay.
Thank you for that. It makes my job a lot easier. So, yeah, just to elaborate on that, I again reached out back to Freightliner for an updated quotation. And the purchase price, body, plow, all outfitted with the exception of the minor things that we put in, 258,608.86. And I was asked to, and I apologize that I wasn't able to get it to you in time, but I was asked to ask them about the lease purchase program for a four year and a five year payment. The four year payments are $71,772.46 and the five year is $58,888.95 And this specific quote is locked in or it's good till January 5. After January 5, they would, you know, look at the. You know, look at it again and if there's any changes with the financing rates, it would have to be updated. And as Eric said, if approved or when approved, and we go with the lease option, the first payment would be due at the signing of the contract and held in escrow until delivery. Currently, the salesman that we're dealing with, he has 12 build slots available between now and whenever they get filled up. So the sooner we get in, we're looking, you know, receiving the truck the beginning of winter, late fall, early winter, depending on when we sign the contract and you know they put Andover in the mix. Questions for Eric or Jay on this?
I just wanted to understand. I know you quoted so you gave us the total J of the lease payments what they would be so clearly I know how to do math so the total is $2.58 so what would what exact amount would be due
well the 2 the $2.58 $6.00 8 would be if you purchase it outright
Right, right, right. So I think you said the five year lease payment is $58,888.95. Correct. That's for one of the five year obviously, right? I'm just like what would they do at the signing what percentage of a lease payment? The first payment the $58,888.95
I'm used to regular leases where you pay monthly you know so this is a yearly chunk. Yeah that's it's a month you know see I'm a novice I like that there I go I'm learning more okay so that's why it was such a huge amount so we just pay one payment per month that's what the lease is? Per year for five year. Again. Tire long day. I was looking for like a smaller thing like a car to lease or Okay, so we would have to. That's an additional big chunk of change that would have to happen this year that wasn't budgeted for. I mean, I get the whole benefit. I understand the process, but. Say you sign and I I listened to the Board of Selectmen the other night, so it sounds like it's pushed off to January.
So maybe if you sign it in January or whatever you said it's good till, you've got to come up with that kind of money. Yeah. So Right.
Did you say the fifth? January 5 that it was good till the quote? It's good till January 5. Yeah so it's early January. I just want to make that point. Right
yeah so they they would have to you know, revisit the quote and requote us if there's any changes with financing, you know, from what the salesman told me, typically, if it's within the first couple of months, there's not much of a change. It's if you go five, six months out, then usually there's a significant change in whatever the lease payments are. I mean, it's not horrendous, but there'll be a change.
We have an effective interest rate of what those that lease costs represents.
It's I don't, I don't, I can get that it's not on. It's not on what you probably calculate it. So yeah, right it.
Just to take a few minutes for me to figure out the reverse Excel function.
So Eric, yeah, I said Eric and I were discussing this as far as where the, you know, money may come from. And part of it, I don't know if we could do all of it, but our existing capital equipment budget, we just took, we just got the skid steer in. So, you know, that was approved a year ago. So we've got that. We've got all the attachments with the exception of the auger. So I'm waiting on a final invoice. I got the bulk of it, which is right around $50,000 So it's we got to figure out what exactly how much is going to be left from that capital equipment budget and see if there's, you know, some at least partial funds for that 58,000 and change. Right. Joanne right?
Thank you and just to follow-up because Bill's listening to remind me and I not a big long thing because I do remember parts of it. So we have how many trucks that you I and Eric just kind of gave the little history lesson. How many plow trucks do we need full great shape operational and I'll remember. We have we have three. Plow roots, three frontline units. Currently
the 1995, I mean not '95, 2005 International, the 2014 Peterbilt, and the 2020 Peterbilt. Those are our current three frontline units. And then our backup truck is the 1998 Ford Louisville. So, both the Ford Louisville and the International, we've had to put some money into this year to make some repairs to keep them going. And that leads into a whole other discussion, but one of those trucks will have to will remain the backup truck to the new, you know, to the new truck. So basically, know, you're putting one out to pasture and only have to use it hopefully once in a while and it'll stay in pretty good shape until such time that you bring on a new truck and the truck you're replacing becomes the backup truck. So we have basically we have four trucks, size plow trucks And the five fifty and my pickup. And
if we purchase this one, obviously this will when it comes on, it'll be one of the new good ones and then like you said putting then we're we'll still have a backup and then put one out to pass through and you talked about it before where we selling that or we sell it for parts or I mean is there things like that? No, we would we would sell it. We did put it to auction
which we've done with other surplus equipment. If you I don't know if you recall a year, two years ago now, right? You know we got rid of the several pieces of equipment, the old sweeper and other such things and. The old $5.50 that we had to replace the one that. The motor went on it.
Thank you. I just figured, yeah, just so I mean I I know we're not making a decision or anything tonight, but I will remember this. I made notes and I just couldn't remember if we had three operational or four. Thank you, Jay. Yep, yeah, definitely the vehicle that goes to surplus, you know, we try to recoup as much of the funds and, you know, get some of that back. Yeah,
it'll be something. Right, right. Are there questions for Jay or Eric on that?
Yeah, and the only thing I wanted to say is that, you know, when we decided in around 2018, Actually, when I was on CIP, one of the tasks I took on was kind of public works and understanding, you know, the life cycle of all the equipment. And one of the things we quickly realized is that we were spending more by holding the vehicles longer than we would have by replacing them regularly. If you look at the 2004 International, if you looked at what we put into that thing, you know, we're well over a $100,000 in repairs in that vehicle so far. And now we're into the range where we're likely to have really big ticket items go, like engines, transmissions, things of that nature. So, the reality is when you first buy a truck, you have very little in maintenance expenses. You have just ongoing routine maintenance. And then the older the thing gets, the more likely you are to have to deal with major repairs.
So, you know, we're not choosing this arbitrarily. We're choosing these time increments for reliability of our primary vehicle and the lowest overall cost. In the past, as a town, we've tended to buy the cheapest plow trucks that were available. We did that frankly with the international that we bought and we've spent an enormous amount of money on the back end because it has not proven to be reliable. So after that in both 2014 and 2019, we selected Peterbilt's as the most because they were the, they had a reputation for having the least repair cycle costs, you know, now the Freightliner's appear to be, you know, in that same range and not significantly different in life cycle costs than the Peterbilts. They're a little less expensive to begin with, but they don't seem to be more expensive to maintain. So that's what shooting for. I mean, our goal really is the lowest overall life cycle cost with the highest fraction of time, you know, operating and running. And that's it.
I totally get it, I guess, and I understand what you're trying to do. I'm not trying to take over the questions, but I guess it just depends where we are in the town with the rest of the things and right. I I get it Erica. In a perfect world we want to do this and I I support like having the proactive type things and I hope it all works out. I just don't know what else is going to happen in the town. Know, like some of the grants that we just got approved are going to now, like you mentioned the other night, it's great that we got the grant, but now we've got to come up with 70,000 as a town and I don't want to make this meeting longer, but that's all. That's where my mind comes. It's just all the extras, so I hope at the time that this happens, I understand the forward thinking and I get it. Thank you. Yep.
I have a C brake by Jacobs on there. Probably helped write the manual for that twenty years ago. It was a common plan helping them install the first ones, so long in a previous life just one thing it's let I'll jump in there, but just one thing we're talking about this this quotation at the end of the quotation it says it's valid until January 2.
Yeah that's that's that was on the truck the municipal lease. Okay, is the '5 to January 5. Okay. I
was just wondering, you said we had a choice between a four year lease and a five year lease. Well, how many years between when we want to turn trucks over for the for the the public works department because I wouldn't want to be on a five year lease and we're trying to turn them over every four years because then we're really going to be hurting for money. So I was just wondering what the plans were. How many years
between No, the goal is to buy one plow truck every fifth year. Yep.
And is this a buyout option at the end of the lease? You own it, you own it at the end of the lease. Basically, the lease you pay them a dollar you own the thing it's a buyout option then yeah yeah I mean yeah at least typically it's not always constructed that way. Yes, it's a lease purchase.
Okay, got it just wanted to make sure. So Linda did that answer your question. Other questions or comments? Okay. So I guess, Eric, at this point, what are you looking for us to do?
So what I wanted to do, so the first thing is I didn't realize we had to escrow the money that kind of threw a wrench in my plan. My thought was that as long as we had the money, we know we're going to end up with a, you know, a building or correction, a public works equipment fund. We've been funding it at somewhere around the 100,000 to $115,000 range a year. So, we can't buy the thing outright unless we didn't buy anything of capital this year and waited until next year and upped the budget. Then it would be possible. So, we will have some money left over in the account. If you remember last year, we agreed in this year's budget to purchase the skid steer. The total bill for that should have been about $75,000
but it looks like the invoice they gave us on the vehicle itself was about 10,000 less than they quoted originally. But remember, steel and fuel have come down a lot. So, some things are decreasing in price. So, we've got to absolutely definitively find out what we're paying for it because it looks like they're billing us quite a bit less than the PO we signed for the vehicle six months ago. So, that's one thing. We need to figure out exactly what we have in the account. If we had $58,000 in that account, then with no other oversight, the Board of Selectmen could agree to the purchase of that, I think. I don't think there's anything statutorily that would prevent you from doing it, You know, because it's basically, although it's next year's budgeted purchase, if you wanted to buy it outright,
the only way you could do that would be to recommend to the Board of Selectmen to schedule a public meeting and then the public would have to vote to approve that purchase and we'd have to do it out of unexpended fund balance. And that would be doable. I mean, you could do that, But you'd have to that would be the process. So, what I'm trying to do is figure out, do we have the money in that account right now? Because if we do, it's literally a decision of you and the Board of Selectmen to say yes, and then we can purchase it. If we don't, then we got to figure out how to do it or accept the fact that we're not going to have it for next year. I mean, I think the unfortunate reality is if we don't pull the trigger in the next couple of months, certainly we're not going to have it for plow season.
And the sooner we pull the trigger, the more likely we are to have it available next year.
Okay, yeah, I think, well there's there's a couple of things going on just we just adopted a purchasing policy which technically would require this to go out to bid. So I think I think what we would do is this would probably fall under clause 1.4, which is that exceptions to the policy can be made by a majority vote of the Board of Selectmen and Board of Finance. As long as it provides a bona fide benefit and be in the best interest of the town that would not otherwise be available under this policy, given the fact that you can't get a build slot I think that that kind of applies here in a reasonable manner that would be my take on the procedural aspect of it. So it is all it is also the.
State bid freightliner is the state. Awarded contractor. Yeah. Right. So, it does fall under that.
Right. So, that actually falls under the standard, one of the standard exemptions that you have, Okay. Which is, that is a, you know, it's already a publicly bid, even though we didn't put it out to bid. The state has already pitted out to bid. So, do technically, with this purchasing
policy, we do technically satisfy this purchasing policy. Through the state purchasing agency. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. Correct. Okay. Yeah. So I guess from that standpoint, you would be looking for us for approval to move forward either on the lease or direct purchase of the vehicle, given that you would feel that you have the available capital funds in the account.
Right. I mean, my suspicion is it would come back to the Board of Selectmen or Board of Finance anyway. And what I need to do is I need to figure out, can we actually do this legally with the funds that we have since we're required to escrow the money without going to public meeting because the threshold for a purchase without going to public meeting is about $35,000. However, since this is in a permanent fund for the purchase of capital equipment, right? We're not obligated to that if we have the money in that account. But unfortunately, I at this point, I don't know whether we do or not. I think we're going to be close, but I don't know whether we're close above or close below.
Okay. So if this is is this gonna have to come back to the board of finance after you figure that out?
I I think it's going to have to. What I wanted to know from the board is that whether you agree that you're not going to require us to send it out to bid if we're piggybacking off a state bid, which your purchasing policy allows you to do. But, you know, you also have to agree to that. So, I don't think it needs an exemption. You just have to be aware that that's what we're doing and that you're okay with that. And what we didn't do this time, because we're just we're going with the same vehicle that we had decided last year when we went through the process, we would consider purchasing. So, do you want, you know, we know what we want. Do you then want us to go back and do what we did last year, which is present multiple options that are all, you know, essentially prebid somehow or other? Or is this sufficient? It meets the purchasing policy, but the question is, does it meet what you actually want to do?
So, I think that's really the question in my mind for the Board of Finance right now. Okay. Can you allow me to share my screen and I'll just pop up the purchasing policy so the board can see it and we can refer to it? Sure. Joanne?
You're on mute. The only thing I want to make clear wasn't there some kind of hold from the Board of Selectmen the other night, Eric? I felt like you're going back to them first. I didn't know it was coming to us. Maybe I misunderstood. So I just want to make sure we're being consistent with what the decision was the other night I thought you were going back to the January meeting of the board of selected
yeah but ultimately it's got to go through all three boards
Okay, I just want to make sure we're not jumping a step. I'm happy to listen to this. I read it. I'm you know, like I said, so but you're asking us for a decision tonight. When I left the Board of Selectmen the other night, I'm not. Good. I don't even have to think about my decision till after January because that's what the Board of Selectman said so I personally feel like we're jumping it but if I'm really wrong then tell me that
I feel like I thought but and Mark of course you I defer to your knowledge well I don't think I think it's you know it's it's like Eric said I don't think we need to wait for the board of selectmen to to give their approval to the process Before we do, you know, we can certainly give our approval to the process as we see fit or lack or not, and then it it then it would devolve to the Board of Selectmen. They could still basically veto it if you would.
Gotcha and I knew this was special meeting and then we added things to the agenda and this and that so I okay thank you for clarification.
And Joanne I'm not even asking the Board of Finance to make a formal motion to approve this. I just don't want to be surprised later and bring it back to you next month and then have you say, oh no, we want three competitive bids or we want the town to put So this to
we're just we're deciding the process of what we're doing. I thought we're sorry. I apologize. I thought I was gonna have to because I know there's a lot of. It's a confusing. Funding coming up, you know, with So what Eric
is asking, and Eric, you can chime in if I'm misunderstanding this, I don't think I am, but what Eric is asking is, we comfortable with accepting you? Would we feel comfortable acting on this bid or not acting on it? Not voting on it now, but he just wants to know if we would feel comfortable that this bid would fall under this section 3.2 of the purchasing policy. I highlighted the relevant statement here that, you know, exceptions or that you don't have to go out to bid in these cases if for if it's made through it administered by state, regional, other municipal purchasing agency, which I think this clearly falls under here.
Correct, in my view. Is this particular bid for the straight liner truck acceptable to us as is with that? Okay, thank you. I'm not the ultimate decision,
right? Yeah, we're not going make a decision on whether to make the purchase or not. Don't even know if we can because if it's good. That's all I understood, but good. Good notes. It's an important point of clarification. Thank you.
Yeah. So ultimately, what I want to know from the board is if we brought this back to you next month and CIP had agreed to the purchase and the board of selectmen was in favor, whether this, you know, it technically satisfies the policy, but it doesn't say you have to accept this in every case. So, if you'll accept what we've already provided when we bring it back, that's question number one. And then question number two, are you okay with us leasing this if we can afford it? You know, because it will require us to escrow almost $60,000 now. And over the five year lease, that will increase the cost of that almost $35,000 in interest payments? So, those are really the two questions I'm kind of asking the Board of Finance. Are you okay conceptually with leasing? Because the cost of borrowing money has increased, know, number one. And are you okay with us using piggybacking on the state bid in this case?
No, I'll shut up. So I'll provide my view to both of those. One is that I'm comfortable with accepting the bid processes as, you know, gone through the state approved agency here. I'm comfortable I would be willing to accept the lease also as long as I think it's within reason. The problem is nobody's really calculated what the effective interest rate is. If it's 15 or 18%, I have a problem with it. You know, it's 5%, then absolutely boom, go, you know. So that would be my personal input. So other members of the board, anybody have any comments or? Disagreements
I I tend to agree exactly with what you said Mark. I'm I'm confident with the work they've done, the background they gave us tonight with accepting this bid and with the exception written into the policy, I'm fine with that. I'm still a little on the fence with you know the money overall but and I mean I know it has to be spent I just having listened to the other me it's one of those things like in your own home what do you need more you know what are you going to spend the money on Just want to be cognizant that there were other things, you know, with the community center going in the staffing for the community center. All at the same time with going ahead with getting this whole trucking situation and schedule into play. So say we take on, you know, a 58,000 here and then staffing for there, know, just other unexpected things. Yeah so I I don't know if anyone else has come to I don't think we're making the final decision but I feel like we're sort of going in that route like once we you know that's it's hard when it's in a non budget time to make these decisions when you're still in a budget year in an inflation year and you know costs are going up a year that kind of thing we've had to expend extra money in the finance department. Again, I don't want to be a Debbie Downer.
Appreciate all the time and effort and I understand this kind of thing, but that's my 2¢.
Is there any member of the board that is not comfortable with potentially proceeding using this bed alone and would not want to recognize this as an exception to the policy as granted under this section? You guys are all comfortable with that.
I'm okay. Since I haven't spoken up, I'll just say that. Anybody have a problem
with the lease, you know, other than the fact that we don't know what the effective interest rate is?
Do we need to? I mean, do we need to express preference at this point to between four or five years or you know, we don't have here yet? Think so. I think it's just in principle, Eric, correct me if I'm wrong, in principle, I just want to help us understand whether we have concerns about leasing versus outright purchase.
I guess, ideally I'd like to know what we're what we would save. By purchase by outright purchase versus lease. And then and then maybe think about that a little bit. You know? What's the time value of that? You know? What's our likely is it worth it? But generally speaking, mean, by no town's lease like this all the time. So, I mean, conceptually, I'm fine with it. It's whether or not it makes sense. I I have this personal preference to just buy stuff, but that's me. I don't know if it makes sense for the lower cost overall to do so. Right. Yes. So but again Well, we don't have the money put aside. So Right.
Correct. I get it. You know, and interest rates have been at historic lows. It made a lot of sense. And you you know, I financed my last card just because it didn't make sense not to with interest rates the way it was, but right. The yeah, with this, so we need to really, I mean, again, we're not voting on whether proceed or not. It's just in theory with this. Does anybody have any concerns about the
about About the the? I don't think we have any option but to go with a lease. I don't think the town could afford to buy it outright. So yeah, I I don't. I can't even see a world in which we could just have that money. There's just no way. So I Without doing some serious rejiggering. Other yeah. Other Right. We'd have to be we'd have to be moving money around big time in our funds. Well, what I can do. Right. Yeah. And it's hard enough to just do little things that we do, so I can't really see that ever happening. But it is going to cost more. I'm shutting up.
So it sounds to me, Eric, like the board is generally agreeable that this would be acceptable under the exception policy and the purchasing or the exception clause in the purchasing policy, and that we don't have major objections to leases as long as it's in the best interest of the town. Right. Okay. Cost basis can't be excessive, right? It has to be. Right. Reasonable.
Yeah, so I did it. So two things. The total additional cost to lease it is about $35,000 over outright purchase. Okay. So, that's the first number. Okay. And if you think about it, if you're talking about a $258,000 purchase price, your first year interest at 5% is going to be almost $13,000 which is saying the interest rate. And if you think about that over a five year lease, you can kind of divide that by two and then multiply that by five. And so that says you're somewhere in the 5% interest rate that you're getting charged for that. I mean
it's probably effective for factor seven. Okay. Right. It's in the ballpark. Not chump change, but it's not excessive.
Right. Okay. As far as numbers go, at the end of last year, going into this budget season, we should have had $29,205 in the Public Works Capital Equipment Fund at the end of last year. So, since then we have purchased the Bobcat, which if we went off the PO that we signed would have been $75,000 So, the net result of that leaves us short of the $58,000 but it looks like we're actually getting charged less for the bobcat, which means we just about have enough in that fund to do it to purchase it. I can't guarantee that though. We've got to crunch actual numbers as they are today, but we'll get back to you with that as soon as we know. That's basically all I know at this point.
Okay.
Alright, so yeah and I'm comfortable with the lease under those terms, you know, given if we decided to move forward that you know that they don't seem out of. All rationality so. If any of the other board members think differently, then certainly speak up. And again, we're not giving any approval at this point. Eric just wants to understand the board's position on these two topics in terms of our strategy and purchasing approach.
I do have a quick question. Yep. I've never leased before and I was kind of curious if you're in a lease are the maintenance repairs responsibility of the person who has it, the lease, or the company? Absolutely.
Yeah. No, it's ours. It is your I mean, this is basically the same, we call it a lease, but essentially you're taking out a loan on this thing and agreeing to pay them back. The only difference is you pay them back once a year instead of every month, like most retail consumers do. Okay, thanks. Yep.
Okay, Eric, guessing you have your answer there that the board seems amenable to the lease and giving reasonable terms and is in agreement that this would fit under the exceptions to the purchasing policy that we've adopted.
Okay. Think I think, all we can ask. I would hope that you're going to see this again in January as a fully fleshed proposal for you to agree to with appropriate interest rates, presuming we have the funding to do it.
Thank you. Okay, if there's no further discussion on this topic, I'm going to go ahead and move on to the next agenda item, which is item number seven, approval of the meeting minutes for 11/16/2022. Does anybody want to make a motion to approve those meeting minutes? I'll make a motion to approve minutes.
Okay, Louise, any of the second? Second. I saw Linda's hand first. Linda, thank you. A second. Any discussion? Okay. All those in favor of approving the meeting minutes say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Okay. The motion passes. Thank you. All right. We'll go on to the next agenda item, which is liaison reports. Does anybody have anything to report? Hearing none Yeah, he's next tomorrow, so sorry. Item
nine, which is board open discussion. Does anybody have anything they want to bring before the board?
I do have one thing to say. I mean, the meeting schedules had worked out correctly, we would have brought this to CIP first and then the Board of Selectmen and then you. We're just but it's the Christmas month. Everybody's doing their meetings out of order. So that just didn't happen. Yeah. So for that, I apologize.
So I get to talk about this again tomorrow. Right? You do.
Hey, I'll just mention this as part of the board open discussion that I think we talked about this before, but I do plan on canceling the meeting on the twenty eighth. We've effectively held our monthly meeting tonight. We'll notify, you know, formally, I guess Eric and Kate and just have their post that that change. I think that's all I really wanted to mention in front of the board here. Anything else? Going once Okay, we'll go on to public speak on agenda item 10. I don't know that we have any members that are public any longer. Technically, Bill, I suppose, but I think we've already heard from him. Bill, do have anything to add? No. Okay. You're muted. Okay. Looks like no. So. Okay. Sorry, no. Thank you. Agenda item 11 is adjournment. Does anybody care to make a motion to adjourn? Linda, you're muted. It looks like you wanted to make a motion. I'll second it.
Linda makes a motion to adjourn and Louise seconds. Any discussion? Hearing none will vote. All those in favor say aye. All
those opposed. Hearing none, no extensions. Good. Thank you everybody. If I don't speak to you all before the end of the year, have a wonderful new year, great holiday season, and thank you for your help and participation. Bill, welcome once again. You for your time. Everybody. Thank you, and congratulations.