Finance Committee Meeting Minutes 11/29/23

Finance Committee Meeting – Final MINUTES

Meeting Date:  Wednesday, November 29, 2023

Finance Committee Members Present:   Ilene Marcus, Roger McDonald, Jeff Zimmerman.

Other Individuals Present:  None

Call to Order at 5:35 pm

Ilene made opening remarks.  Read the agenda listed for the meeting.

1. Budget Meetings and Schedule

All got the memo sent to all department heads and the projected schedule.

1. Roger working on the Capital questionnaire sheet and will provide it at our next meeting as an internal document for FC questions and gathering consistent info
2. Ilene shared the handouts from last year’s Budget briefing and suggested we keep this info consistent, adding in what is missing.  All agreed (ilene will send these public documents to FC members)
3. Reviewed the slide on budgeted labor costs and compared to meeting list and agreed all should have a budget meeting – ilene will reach out to Melissa about additional meetings such as one on town hall
4. Agreed 1 member per meeting- divided up meetings (ilene to send to Melissa)
5. In case of an emergency and change to attending a meeting, we agreed to contact each other by text – not to discuss any issue, just to make sure that an FC member makes the budget meeting not discussing any issues of said meeting
6. Revenue estimates, ilene to write to account through Melissa to get projections for committee review
7. Use of the Budget Spreadsheet – last year we got a new version of the spreadsheet for each budget iteration and lost any analysis or notes on the sheet.  Discussed and agreed to ask Melissa to keep a running note in each department on each history, changes, Why, TA follow-up, and SB and FC  follow-up/decisions
8. All FC members at departmental mtgs will query appropriate  journal entries including transfer of appropriations and reserve fund requests to understand how to better budget and project for unanticipated issues. 
9. Ilene raised the issue that last year, almost a full third of reserve fund transfers were due to insurance overruns, explained the Insurance inventory.  Ilene will circulate the inventory and we will review it at our next meeting and then ask TA to complete
10. SBA letter was raised and the request went from circa $50,000 to over $70,000.  All agreed this is a worthwhile service, however, a 30% year-over-year increase is not sustainable.  We discussed it and our plan is that  Ilene will draft a letter that we hope the select board will sign along with the finance committee to SBA including that we are pleased to support them. We see the value in their service and will continue to support but we cannot sustain another 30% increase next year, given the demands on our budget and limited revenue increases.
11. At our next meeting on 12/13/23, we will review our capital questions, practice with role play, share info on each department, and generate a running list of budget questions to use throughout the meeting and process.

1.  Reports – Roger reported:
   • General stabilization in August $49854 transfer – what was it for?
   • Pilot payment of $10,000 where does it come from  (raised issue about our non-profit land and PILOTS)
   • Ilene to update the revenue analysis and share at the next meeting

      Agenda:12/13/21

• Budget Meetings Prep
• Reports
• Minutes
• New Business and Public Comment

Adjourned. 6:41 pm