EAST LYME BOARD OF FINANCE
REGULAR MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, DECEMBER 12th, 2007
Members In Attendance: Steve Larcen, Chairman
Jeff Langan, Secretary
Isidore Schwartz
Bob Jones
Allan Taylor
Jill Carini
Also In Attendance: Paul Formica, Ex-Officio & First Selectman
Anna Johnson, Finance Director
Absent: No One
First Selectman Paul Formica called this Regular Meeting of the East Lyme Board of Finance to order at 7:00 PM.
The Pledge was observed.
C. Board of Finance Elections
¨ Chairman
He said that he would preside over the Election of a Chairman and then turn the meeting over to the elected Chairman.
Mr. Formica called for nominations for the position of Chairman of the Board of Finance for 2008.
**MOTION (1)
Mr. Schwartz moved to nominate Steve Larcen for the position of Chairman of the Board of Finance for 2008.
Mr. Langan seconded the motion.
Mr. Formica asked if there were any other nominations –
**MOTION (2)
Mr. Jones moved to nominate Allan Taylor for the position of Chairman of the Board of Finance for 2008.
Ms. Carini seconded the motion.
Mr. Formica asked if there were any other nominations –
Hearing none, he said that they would vote by paper ballot and passed out ballots to the Board members. He then collected them and asked Ms. Johnson, Finance Director to count them with him.
Mr. Formica announced that Steve Larcen had won in a 4 – 2 vote. He congratulated Mr. Larcen and turned over the Chairing of the meeting to him.
Mr. Larcen thanked them for the confidence that they have in him.
¨ Secretary (Corresponding)
Mr. Larcen called for nominations for the position of Secretary of the Board of Finance for 2008.
**MOTION (3)
Mr. Schwartz moved to nominate Jeff Langan for the position of Secretary of the Board of Finance for 2008.
Mr. Taylor seconded the motion.
Mr. Larcen asked if there were any other nominations –
Hearing none –
He called for a vote on the nomination for Jeff Langan as Secretary of the Board of Finance –
Vote: 6 – 0 – 0. Motion passed
Mr. Larcen congratulated Mr. Langan.
D. Delegations
Mr. Larcen called for delegations.
Mary Walsh, 10 Woodland Drive said that she had a simple request; of information. She said that she could not find the agenda for this evening on the website and that also the dates for the meeting are wrong on the website. Since they are talking about providing better information – this would be a good place to start.
E. Approval of Minutes
¨ November 14, 2007 Regular Meeting
Mr. Larcen called for a motion for approval or any changes to the Board of Finance November 14, 2007 Regular Meeting Minutes.
**MOTION (4)
Mr. Jones moved to approve the November 14, 2007 Regular Meeting Minutes of the Board of Finance as presented.
Mr. Schwartz seconded the motion.
Vote: 5 – 0 – 1. Motion passed.
Abstained: Mr. Taylor
¨ November 29, 2007 Special Meeting
Mr. Larcen called for a motion for approval or any changes to the Board of Finance November 29, 2007 Special Meeting Minutes.
Ms. Carini said that in those minutes that Mr. Jones had read from a letter from her and that the letter was not attached so she would like to submit that document for inclusion into the minutes. (Copy of letter submitted and attached)
**MOTION (5)
Mr. Jones moved to approve the November 29, 2007 Regular Meeting Minutes of the Board of Finance as amended.
Mr. Schwartz seconded the motion.
Vote: 6 – 0 – 0. Motion passed.
F. Reports
a. First Selectman’s Report
Mr. Formica apologized to Ms. Walsh regarding the agenda and the dates as it was due to not having a Chairman and getting a new Board together. He suggested to the new Board that they might want to make a motion to follow Robert’s Rules of Order at their meetings. He explained that they did this the recent Board of Selectman meeting.
He said that this has been a busy couple of weeks and that he has been working with Ms. Johnson on the budgets. They have put narratives with the line items of the budgets and will also look for any duplication of items. He noted that Mr. Smotas has been working with the Board of Ed budgets and doing presentations to the public on the various segments of it. These are being taped and will be televised many times.
He reported that he has been doing some reorganization around the Town Hall to provide for some storage area, meeting room area and a lunchroom area and looking for better efficiencies. He said that he has also been involved in some discussions on regionalization with other Town leaders and groups.
He said that he has found some funding and has opened the landfill/transfer station again every Saturday starting this Saturday with the caveat that they will be keeping records and measuring the usage so that they can determine the best hours of operation.
Mr. Jones asked what the Saturday hours of operation are.
Mr. Formica said that they are open from 8 AM until 12 Noon.
Ms. Carini said to Mr. Formica that he said that he has found some funding and asked where that funding came from to be able to open the landfill on Saturdays.
Mr. Formica said that the bulky waste savings are being used to open the two Saturdays that were closed.
He continued that he has also been involved in copier issues as all of the copiers are getting old and requiring more maintenance. There is also a union contract that will be coming up for negotiation for next year involving the Town employees.
Mr. Larcen asked about any committees for the contract negotiations.
Mr. Formica said that he has not begun working on that as of yet and that he has brought it up as it will affect the budget for next year.
Mr. Schwartz said that he did not think that they can sit in on any union negotiations as they had tried to do that with the school and they found that they can only watch from the sidelines.
Mr. Formica noted that he is there to help and that he hopes that they will all work together and that his door is open should they wish to speak with him.
b. Financial Report
Ms. Johnson said that she would update them in sections.
à Audit Update
Ms. Johnson reported that the auditors are here this week and that she has applied for a one month extension from December 31, 2007 to January 31, 2008.
Mr. Langan asked if the audit was completed on time last year.
Ms. Johnson said that she was not here last year but believed that it was.
Mr. Larcen asked why it was not being completed on time this year.
Ms. Johnson said that she believes that it was due to the time of the year that she was hired and that it was right at end of year and she had to learn the new system and put everything together for the auditors.
à Annual Report Update
Ms. Johnson said that the Statutes state that it is the responsibility of the Board of Finance to do this. She said that nothing was started before the election and that she stands ready to help them with this.
Mr. Larcen asked if she would send out an email to the departments requesting that they submit their annual department report for this annual report.
Ms. Johnson said that she would be happy to do that.
à Budget 101 Discussion
Ms. Johnson explained the account number components according to the information that she had included in their packets so that it would be easier to understand the budget process and reports.
Mr. Taylor asked Ms. Johnson to explain about transfers and encumbrances.
Ms. Johnson said that she would later during the process. She then explained the Finance Department budget – which is no 118 and the pages that go with it and the narratives. She also explained the transfers and where they would see them.
Mr. Larcen asked if the come before the Board of Finance for approval.
Ms. Johnson said that her understanding by Statute is that they do.
Mr. Taylor said that it might be a good idea to know here the transfers come from and go to and to keep track of them as once they start moving things, it becomes near impossible to track them. If they know – this might be very useful information with respect to the budget process.
Mr. Schwartz asked where the auditors’ fees were.
Ms. Johnson said that they are in budget 126 – the Board of Finance budget.
Mr. Larcen asked what the principal change in the budget process was.
Ms. Johnson said that it shows the figures comparatively and that with the narrative it is more user friendly and easier for tracking.
Mr. Larcen asked if the Board of Ed budget is, or can be done in the same format.
Mr. Jones said that typically the Board of Ed has their own method and that they do a presentation to the Board of Finance besides presenting them with a complete line item budget book.
Mr. Taylor explained that typically the problem with the Board of Ed budget is that their ‘reclassification’ of line items makes it so that you cannot find things. He suggested to Mr. Larcen that it might be prudent to meet with them and to explain what he is looking for.
Mr. Formica said that the Board of Ed challenge is to get their budget to the Town early and that one of the changes this year is the workshops that they are doing and calling Budget 101. He explained that typically the Board of Ed has submitted their budget to the Board of Selectmen at the end of January and he has been in discussion with them to allow them another two (2) weeks (into mid-February) so that they can really sharpen their pencils and present a tighter budget. He suggested that the Board of Finance could work on the General Government budget first and that would give the Board of Ed some extra time.
Mr. Larcen said that he thought that the Superintendent did offer to make the Budget 101 package available to the Board of Finance members to look over if they could not attend the presentations.
Mr. Formica said that the thought is that they would like to provide a Board of Ed budget to the Board of Finance with some thoughts and comments from the Board of Selectmen as he thinks that it is clear that the public wants them to do something different and to look outside of the box. He said that he looks forward to them all working together on this.
Mr. Jones noted that the Board of Ed gives them their budget books very early and that they have quite a few weeks to review them prior to any presentation from the Board of Ed.
Mr. Taylor asked if the Board of Finance had sent out RFP’s to auditors.
Mr. Jones said that they did not get them. He then asked about the $30,000 audit figure and if it included any extra tasks or if the Finance Department was taking care of that.
Mr. Formica said that a few years ago there were extra tasks and that they did not have any extra tasks this time. The audit price included everything.
Mr. Schwartz said that the $30,000 is the current audit price and asked Ms. Johnson if that was correct.
Ms. Johnson said that the contract was for $28,500.
Mr. Schwartz said that he recalled the auditor asking for more money many times and that they did not give it to them and that the cost went up this time because the auditor could no longer give them the breaks that they had in the past. He added that when they had gone looking for other auditors that the costs that they were quoted from them were double (and more) what we are paying now.
à Review of November 2007 Revenue and Expenditure Reports
Ms. Johnson went over the Month End Report for November 2007 with comparisons to the previous year. She noted that there was nothing extraordinary that had happened during the month of November.
Mr. Larcen noted that the revenues are a bit ahead of what they were at the same time last year. He asked what the uncollectible percentage was.
Ms. Johnson said that she thinks that they budgeted at a 98% rate on collectibles.
a. Meeting Schedule for 2008
Mr. Larcen said that this was in their packets and called for a motion.
**MOTION (6)
Mr. Jones moved to approve the Board of Finance Meeting Schedule for 2008 as presented. (Attached)
Mr. Langan seconded the motion.
Vote: 6 – 0 – 0. Motion passed.
Mr. Larcen noted that the Town Meeting on the budget would be on Monday, May 12, 2008 and that they would work up a budget review meeting schedule in the near future.
b. Board of Finance Proposed 2008/09 Budget
Ms. Johnson explained that she had given this out to them so that they could look it over and that she will work with the Chair on this so that they can prepare it for presentation at a future meeting.
c. Historic Preservation Grant
Mr. Larcen called for a motion for discussion.
**MOTION (7)
Mr. Langan moved to appropriate the State Library Grant in the amount of $7000 to Fund 17 Historic Preservation account 8-17-10-100-300-257 upon receipt.
Ms. Carini seconded the motion.
Ms. Johnson explained that this grant is given each year.
Mr. Taylor asked if there were other contingencies that went with it.
Ms. Johnson said no.
Vote: 6 – 0 – 0. Motion passed.
**MOTION (8)
Mr. Jones moved to add Item d. to the agenda under New Business – Adoption of Roberts Rules of Order for their meetings.
Mr. Taylor seconded the motion.
Mr. Larcen said that he thought that they had followed Roberts Rules in the past –
Mr. Jones said that they had but that they also strayed from them and that he would like it in the record that they will follow them.
Mr. Formica said that they were adopted at the recent Board of Selectman’s meeting along with some other rules of order that pertain specifically to the Selectmen.
Vote: 6 – 0 – 0. Motion passed.
d. Adoption of Roberts Rules of Order to be followed at Board of Finance meetings
**MOTION (9)
Mr. Jones moved that Roberts Rules of Order be adopted and followed at Board of Finance meetings.
Mr. Taylor seconded the motion.
Vote: 6 – 0 – 0. Motion passed.
**MOTION (10)
Mr. Langan moved to add Item e. to the agenda under New Business for discussion – Formation of Board of Finance subcommittee(s).
Mr. Schwartz seconded the motion.
Vote: 6 – 0 – 0. Motion passed.
e. Formation of Board of Finance subcommittee(s)
Mr. Langan explained that he would like to see a subcommittee(s) set up to find ways to better facilitate/ improve communications between the Board of Finance and the Board of Selectmen, the Board of Ed and the Town as a whole.
Mr. Larcen asked if others would be interested in working on this subcommittee with Mr. Langan.
Mr. Taylor said that he had been discussing this with Mr. Langan prior to the meeting and that he would be happy to work with him on this.
Ms. Carini also volunteered to work on this subcommittee.
Mr. Langan said that there might be policies that could be instituted that would facilitate improvements. He suggested that they work with Ms. Johnson to explore possibilities.
Mr. Formica said that he is working with the Board of Ed and that the Board of Ed has in the past made a budget presentation to the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Finance together. This year he is also suggesting that the Board of Selectmen reviews the Board of Ed budget and that any suggestions that they come up with be forwarded to the Board of Finance for consideration. He said that it might be a good idea for the Board of Selectmen and Board of Finance to work together to try to develop efficiencies.
H. Public Discussion
Mr. Larcen called for Public Discussion.
Len Goldberg, 61 Hillcrest Avenue, complimented them on their first meeting as he thought that it is an excellent beginning and hopes that cooperation is the way that they will work to get things done in Town. He said that he heard mention of tracking of items in the budget so that they know where they are and that he thinks that is very important. Also important is consistency among the budgets of the Town and the Board of Ed. He said that he knows that Mr. Formica has made an enormous effort to see that there is information about each line item within the Town budget and that he thinks that the same has to happen with the Board of Ed budget so the taxpayers understand it. He suggested that they utilize a table of organization so people can understand the line items better and how they inter-connect. The idea of subcommittees is also excellent however; they might also want to incorporate some members from the public on them. He said that he wishes them all the best and good luck with this process.
I. Board Comments
Mr. Jones thanked Ms. Johnson for her presentation and the draft with the explanations. He said that he likes the way that this Board is starting off and that he is looking forward to a good year.
J. Adjournment
**MOTION (11)
Mr. Jones moved to adjourn this December 12, 2007 Regular Meeting of the East Lyme Board of Finance at 8:35 PM.
Mr. Schwartz seconded the motion.
Vote: 6 – 0 – 0. Motion passed.
Respectfully submitted,
Karen Zmitruk,
Recording Secretary