Finance Committee Meeting Minutes 5/13/2020

FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING

MAY 13, 2020

MINUTES

ATTENDING MEMBERS:                      ALSO ATTENDING:                                                                  GEORGE CAIN, CHAIR                       KENN BASLER, CHAIR           MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC 

JON SYLBERT                                  DON COBURN                      & MICHELE MILLER

            REBECCA WOLIN                           STEVE WEISZ                       

                                                                   MELISSA NOE                     

MEETING CALLED TO ORDER AT 9:40 AM VIA A REMOTE/VIDEO SYSTEM

The issue of Select Board (SB) and Finance Committee (FC) disagreements over the preparation and presentation of the Warrant was discussed.  It was agreed that Town Counsel would be asked to provide further clarification of his opinion.

Since we are headed into very uncharted waters due to the pandemic, it was agreed that both the SB and the FC would re-examine the current budgets and meet on May 20^th at 10 AM to discuss ideas associated with a “crisis budget” in recognition of quite possible cuts in State aid to the town.

The Finance Committee will meet on May 19^th at 4:00 PM to make its initial effort to address the “crisis budget” situation.  It was also agreed that the FC would make its initial thoughts available to the SB prior to the joint meeting on 5/20/20 at 10 AM.

Since the decision has been made to push the Town Meeting back to June 27^th, it was noted that 11 months Actual Spending will be known by the beginning of June.  Consideration will be given to include the 11 months Actual Spending as an added column of the Warrant so as to provide taxpayers the benefit of this additional information in assessing the new budget recommendation.

Minutes from the Finance Committee Meeting from May 12^th were reviewed and approved.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:31 AM.

Respectfully submitted,

George Cain, Chair.