7:00. Do we have a motion to open our meeting? Second. All in favor? Okay. Good evening everyone. This is a meeting of the finance committee. It's Wednesday, July 9th, 2025. Uh this meeting is being audio and video recorded for future reference. Um what
we're going to cover tonight is uh some reserve fund transfers and interdep departmental transfers to just um you know wrap up the year, take care of any unfinished business. Um so I sent these out to everybody today.
Don't know if everybody had a chance to look at them with the email. Yes, Sydney had sent them to me. So then I forward them to everybody. So the first one we'll um take up is the the reserve fund transfer. That's going to cover the fire salaries overtime uh in
the amount of $7,300 and the police salaries overtime in the amount of $16,000. Um I think it's on yours on the second. It's not on my first. Okay. And then the liability
insurance for $19,900 for a total of $43,200. So that's coming out of our reserve fund. So Jamie, what does that wipe out our reserve fund? Uh not quite, but pretty close. Pretty close. Yeah. Now uh fire
uh department over time we've uh worked within the budget and to bring it down from original estimate was uh double digits. The police department we did the same thing to the liability insurance
is uh an IOD issue that uh we have to make up some we've got someone on IODD that's uh been on it for a while. We are
waiting to try to do a disability retirement, but the doctors are uh the medical board hasn't ruled yet going that way. And so it was unexpected to be
this long. I can't give you the details because I hit as far as who the accident injury but but when it comes to just from experience when it comes to work comp injuries um and the department of
industrial accidents gets involved. Well, this is uh uh IOB. So, we we're responsible for the full map. The point we're making is it's very time. It takes a while for this. This
has got to go and everything else. There's a lot of it's hoops that have to be jumped around. Uh and the medical panels are haven't rolled yet. And you know,
uh, we've been pushing forward on it for now almost 9 months. Well, understanding that we've got enough money in the reserve fund covered. I'll make a motion to approve the reserve fund transfers as requested.
How about the fires? They're all on the same. Yeah. Yeah, I mentioned those. They're all included in this one. We got a motion in a second. Any further discussion? Sorry, just one question. This covers us through June 30th. This is through June
30th. Yep. Just cuz it says July transfers. Well, says we're we're able to do these transfers up till July 15 uh next Tuesday. We can make the transfers and cover as
us through the June 30th expenses. Yes. Okay. So, we have a motion, a second. All in favor? I oppose. So, motion passes. The uh next group are departmental transfer is under chapter
44 section 33b where uh we have funding sources in other departments that can take care of some of the deficits in the various departments. Uh
we are uh uh legal services as you know uh is something that we have no control over and uh do we have something unexpected cuz I thought we were pretty much level with legal services
uh the last half a year plus we were but it's just the bills coming And we had a lot of uh negotiations with the contracts and uh Okay. So contract negotiation
and we had uh some with uh one or two committees had some issues that they had to resolve in the real estate area. The other question I had was snow removal. I'm actually surprised to see
an overage considering we had such a a weak season first. Uh that includes uh at the end of the year a large purchase of salt. Okay, that makes good sense. Yep. Happy with that.
And uh but we normally fund snow removal with 150 125 125 125 or 150 but we used it all up is what we're saying here. I think it's 110 but I'll have to it's over 100.
Yes. Yeah. in that. So even though it was a low year, we we and uh we also had even though it was a low year, we still had the bonus for the private drivers
for perfect attendance. And that keeps us every year we do that. If we have a bad year, Yeah. It's It's good for us and bad for the drivers.
Small snow year. It's good for the drivers. How about the health insurance? Uh Jamie the 147. Uh that was to make sure that we have everything covered. Okay. Uh with the
uh we had a catastrophic the last 6 months. the individual is uh leaving the our employee in August and going on
Medicaid. Kind of makes me feel sorry we didn't put more of a stabilization fund into our health insurance fund. Well, this is separate, but the stabilization is to build up the reserve, right? But I'm sorry we didn't put more
knowing we were going to take 150 out right now for a need because well it's also because for the stabilization we were lucky this year we were 9.9 increase I mean the average statewide
was 13 to 15 and I just talked to someone today that the retiree increase was 19%. reserve and uh Maya has gone through half their
reserve and that's the biggest dog in town as far as health insurance. So if they go through the next half next year we're in tr they're in trouble. We're not on the uh the funding sources. I'm
surprised to see 11 coming back from Old Colony, but especially surprised to see 12530 from Camass. I thought I thought that bill would have would have uh caught us. That's two different C mass. I know, but still surprised to see any
overage with CMS. We're expecting the problem is it isn't this year, it's next year. We're expecting the substantial because that's when the contract Yep. Starts again. Yeah.
Okay. On the um Tom Clark, we have a $12,000 shortfall as I recall. Do we know where that came from? Uh because of all the elections
and we didn't know about this last year. Uh well, part of it also is in years past. Uh let me rephrase that. We have a different
individual in the finance department now. And in years past uh some department heads uh
selfhelped because in between if it was town clerk and it was in between let's say or let's say it was my account and it was in be between uh salaries and expenses
they would transfer. We have someone now who insists on votes and you'll see on this one we had to go to the selectman where a lot of departments never did for
uh transfers among inside the department. Uh we have someone who insist on line item by line item. But this was inter departmental
and register of voters is different than uh town clerk even though it's under the same person. You might think what we're saying is if we're talking about salaries that should
have been a known amount. What brought it brought us over 12,000. Are they the new person? Is that in a different pay grade? So their salary was higher than we were planning. Is it? No, it's a uh uh
from what I understand it's some of the temporary help that was in there during the election. So it's a more it's more than one individual. Yeah. Doesn't that make sense? If we're talking about bringing in, but it's not from line.
That's Yeah, I mean, we know how many elections we are going to have, right? So, I guess I'm surprised $12,000 seems like a significant shortfall for an election. When you look at it, $8,000 are coming from the registars. So, that's going up
to pay for it. Yeah, I know the funding source is fine. It's just that I'm shocked that we have I'm surprised we have that much deficit. We're uh we're probably going to uh
with the new uh finance department. I think the departments will be uh less likely to hit this issue in the future. Okay. makes it easier for us.
Not for the I don't have any problems with the uh departmental transfer part. Any questions got answered? By the way, congrats on being here another six months. Four. Only four.
Yeah, that was uh my agreement with she must be okay. You get us through another town meeting though, right? Well, that's what I want to talk to you after we do this. Anybody have any questions? I'm good.
Make a motion to approve. I'll make a motion to I'll second the motion to approve the departmental transfers as presented. All right, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All right, see no further discussion.
Everyone in favor. Anyone opposed? Okay, so motion passes unanimously. Uh in the past the uh intra departmental transfers a
lot of them were done just by the department. Uh the new uh personnel and finance have insisted that it go by a vote of the board of selection. So you'll see the third page
of the memo doesn't need a vote from you folks, but I thought you should see it. Just so you guys know how uh the finance department in the future will be running different.
So is there a threshold on what the department heads can transfer a dollar threshold or anything to her? No, it has to be by this whole surprises.
I feel like we've done this in the past. We we've done this in the past. It's just um but I don't think it's gone before the board of selectment in the past. I think that's the only difference. I think as a finance committee we've done this. Well, you've done the interior department,
but the inside the department. Yeah. All right. Intra. Yes. We've we've seen it like they they've moved this and shoveled it, but as long as it was in their own department, we didn't have to to vote on it. Okay. I don't know why I'm recalling something
where you go from expens before uh May. Okay. But under now, we wouldn't have to at the end of the year. At the end of the year, there's flexibility. I'm surprised to see $4,500 in the fire
department for their due subscriptions because we approved based on what was needed for the year. So, I don't know how almost 5 grand came out of that. And 13,000 overage on energy surprises me as well. No. Uh
some of the energy uh cost we lucky with just surprised to see it. We've been the benefits already. Now, uh, thank you for the vote and
this is what I delivered to the uh, select last night and it's uh, Can I please?
Oh, sorry. As far as the uh final payroll, uh we had to adjust uh some salary rates for the steel workers and the
uh non-contractual personnel. It was off by short money. it would be like $200 uh for the on the annual costs
uh just because of the way one of the uh uh temporary accountants in the past figured it out. But it was off by a couple cents. And we have someone with uh uh
that bothered her, so she dug into it. Uh it was all funding within the budgets. Treasur Collector Finance worked with Harpers to correct chart of accounts. I've talked to Todd
Hasset. He's coming in. Uh we're getting the his day start date for the charter account be August 1. We're trying to get the commencement meeting with Munice. It's a $28,000
access fee to Munis, but Todd says he'll be able to fix the townside chart of accounts to be uh compatible with compat with the mandate the school sites was
done over the last year, year and a half. Uh we are uh closing all the accounts now for FY25. Uh
we're hoping schedule A recap free cash certification can be done by the end of September. uh 26 accounts. I said the time frame would be August for loading. They're already loaded. Yes.
And uh the target date is probably October for a town meeting once we get uh free cash certified. We have one past year bill that came in
from or wasn't uh actually no one know it was there from KP law uh that we have to deal with. Uh there's uh
we're meeting uh with the fire chief about the three vehicles and how we fund those. Uh ban versus uh reserve versus free cash.
uh and what will arrive when and uh then as far as some other free cash u issues uh the board would have to decide whether it's going to deal with catching
up on uh some of the uh the cruiser issues in the fall and uh then replenishing some of the stabilization. Uh
then hopefully town meeting will be done. we can get the tax rate in October and people can know what's going on before the vote
for the debt exclusion. Which debt exclusion is this one? Oh, see, we want I' I'd like to have all this financial stuff done and ready so that
everybody who's going to vote actually knows what the tax rate is, what the average house is, and what the cost per average house
is. So that's uh finance department's targets. I'm happy we have a uh good team there now
and they are actual employees not. So, prior to prior to us taking up that debt exclusion, are they going to have some public hearings? Um, I don't know. It's not run by us, right? But I imagine that I think
that's why I want all this information out there and ready for the voting public, right? Cuz that's going to be a big deal, you know, for our residents. All right.
Do we know what the latest thinking is with regards to OC as far as I don't I haven't been involved. I have I have not received anything from Aaron. Yeah. I was just wondering if there was
any indication as to what the the talk was would be the talk was just that the election would be in November but there definitely definitely needs to be a lot more discussion and I think even amongst towns um you
know five towns that are going to be impacted by this um I think the finance committees should probably perhaps get together um and have their own discussion um with regards to this. I think that would be
prudent to do that um to just see where get a t get kind of try and get a feel for what the other communities are are thinking. Well, we have a place that is uh irrelevant. it when I talked to the TA there, his
concern is more the regional his regional school district because they have very few people going to see I think and their total
student population in the town is seriously declining. I think so. So to that point, for communities that, you know, feel that way because they're not worried about the financial impact, they need to know that we're really concerned about that and how it's going to affect our
residents. Um because how they vote on this is going to matter potentially to us. Well, it's turnout as far as the vote goes. But is it still three out of the five towns approve it then? No, it's it needs to be unanimous.
No. Okay. It's not an individual town by town vote. So it's a vote. Okay. So if there's 5,000 total people between all the towns 2500, right? Majority only a simple majority.
Yeah. And uh the question would be from a place is will they even show up? Yeah. Well, I think, you know, just, you know, starting to educate people on this prior to this, I think is going to be
important. Whether it's through social media, um, if that can be discussed, uh, through social media, we got to find all that out. I think I just worry about social media. I know. No, I know that. Um, well, so many people rely on that. I
know as that source of like you know to find out about meetings people aren't going on to the our website our town website to look specifically look for meetings they're having to be scrolling on their Facebook page or whatever and they see something pop up
and it's here's the meeting you know and oh yeah I'm going to show up. So I just think we need to I think we need to think of all these things uh going into this cuz this is going to be a big deal. Yeah. So how do you facilitate a vote like that Jamie? Do we Is it just one
day all the town? Okay. All the members any any resident from the town can show up? Okay. I'm sure we'll see some heartstring posts like we did last meeting
perhaps. Okay. So we got all that. Um we have uh some minutes to take up. Kathy, thank forget thank you for getting us these minutes. Um so the first set of minutes is from March 26
225 in attendance was myself, Sue Delgado, Eric Chu, Eric McGlenn, and Lisa Tomlinson. I'll make a motion. Make a second. I'll say that. Okay, I'm
in favor. All right. All right. So, these minutes are good. Next set of minutes is from Excuse me. I uh acid reflex is acting up again. I can't get off of the members all I guess.
All right. So, the next set of set of meeting minutes is from April 2nd, 2025. In attendance was myself, Eric Chu, uh Kristen, Eric McGlenn, and Lisa Tomlinson. by motion. Motion second.
All right. All in favor? I Okay. Last seven minutes. April 9th, 2025. In attendance was myself, Phil Adams, Pete Fenoy, Eric Chu, Kristen Flynn, Eric McGlin, and Lisa Tomlinson. I'll make a motion. Second.
All in favor? That one. So, I'll make Yes. All right. So, we covered all the minutes. Um, you know, before we cover anything else, I just want to uh, you know, thank everyone that's here tonight and even for our members who couldn't make it
tonight for, uh, you know, participating in a long module's uh, budget season. This was definitely probably the most challenging that I've been proud of. I think Sue would probably attest to that. Um, you know, that's for a lot of different reasons. Um, but, you know,
thanks for, you know, Jaime's guidance. uh you know steering the ship uh helping us uh navigate through this uh challenging year and um preparing us you know for next year too because we know it's not going to it's not going to be
any any easier next year. Um, the other thing I wanted to address, you know, from from town meeting, you know, when Sue and I are up on there on that stage, it's sometimes we're thinking of things that we're going to say and, you know, sometimes a resident
may take take the podium and say something and we kind of, you know, forget, didn't like really pick up on it. Well, there was one thing that was pointed out to me that um I don't know who the president was, but when she took the podium, she mentioned something about about the finance committee just
voting unanimously on everything. And um I didn't pick up on that and I should have cuz I would have commented on that for sure. But what I'll say to that for anybody out there listening is, you know, if we voted unanimously on something, it's because we vetted it.
We've we did our due diligence and we thought it was right for the town. And luckily we have a committee here. Not that we all exactly think alike, but we're all aligned as far as what's right for the town. Um so that's part of the reason why you might see a lot of that
when when we vote and we also understand the position or modifications have already been made because of our comments. Yes. So by the time we get there Mhm. Yep. And you know many times the board of selectment have already gone through these things before we have. Um and you
know fortunately we have a board that you know not again not that we all have to think alike but we understand the the constraints that our town is under as far as we have to be fiscally conservative and we have to stay that way. Um,
and I think that's a good thing cuz if we weren't that way, we'd be in a lot worse shape. I was thinking about that on the drive up here today and like, you know, if we if we weren't the way we are, just think of just think of the things we'd be dealing with right now,
right? If we if we weren't as tight with our budgets and holding people to the fire like we do, um, it would be a lot worse. So, I think, you know, going forward, we have to continue on this path. And it's just it's it's the way we have to do business in the town of
Kushner. You know, we're not the town of Spain. We're not the town of Dartmouth. We're not other towns. Um we we have our own set of issues here. So how we how we operate may not be similar to other towns and they don't
see what happens like you said here in these meetings. Most of them aren't watched. But at town meeting, you don't see the things that have come across that we have not agreed with and sent back for more information or passed on that non-recommendation to the the
selectmen that never make it to town meeting because they agree, right? I mean, we I I remember us this this past year, the discussion we had about the, you know, the planning board, the secretary, right? The the hours um we wanted to see things one way and it it it it didn't happen. But I think all
that's going to work itself out, but that's just an example of us, you know, not necessarily agreeing with the board of elements direction on that on that issue. Um, you know, there's a lot of discussion about the street sweeper. We spent, I think, a good amount of time on
that uh during one of our fin meetings. I wanted everybody's input because I had a feeling that this was going to be an issue at uh on the town floor. Sure enough, it was. Um, but I'm glad, you know, we got creative. um or you know,
Kevin was creative as far as being able to uh get us to funding, you know, find a way to to fund it uh without losing the streets. Um so it's just it's it's stuff like that. But yeah, just driving around after last
week, you can see how how so I think it's glad I think it's good that we have the street sweeper now. You know, we got a couple more storms like that. I mean, we had another one last night that wasn't as bad as the the previous one, but um right when we used to see it every winter at the end of the winter come
through the school lots and sweeping up the salt and the sand and and it was we were grateful for the DVW to do that. Well, it's important especially in the parking lot and they're they're riding around. You don't want kids wiping out and hitting their head or whatever. Um you don't want to see anybody getting hurt. You know, like we mentioned the
town meeting, the liability issue, you know, it's a safety and liability. So, I think all that, you know, comes into play. Um, I got a kick out of the comments that, "Well, we haven't seen the street sweeper in because it's not working." Because it's been broken. I It's funny because now it's not funny,
but that weekend just before the town meeting, I had to go down to the recycling center and I'm I'm looking at that thing and I I forgot what was working down there. I forgot his name. I said, "Hey." I said, "That's our street sweep over there?" He's like, "Yeah." I'm like, "Man, that thing looks rough." He's like, "Yeah." He's like, "That
thing has definitely seen better days. They can't even get parts for it. It's so old. It's It's over 20 years old. So, they can't get parts to fix it." So, I mean, we had to we had to do something. It's definitely a public safety issue. Yeah. Streets, especially now with the
increase of these electric bikes, things of that nature. Mhm. See the kids flying through 30 mph and the focus we have on bike and bike safety and more accessibility on the streets and everything else and bike
lanes being we don't want to see what happened that happened a couple years ago right in front of the council on aging. Oh my gosh. Yes. The guy on the bike got injured. Well, he died. Okay. Killed. Yeah.
you know, and it's I thank God they they finished the Hamlin Street project. You know, I've gone up and down a few times just to test it out and man, I think they did a great job on that. Um, so I came up here wider. Every time I used to take my pickup truck down there, I used to be like, I hope somebody's not coming
the other way. I hope somebody But now you don't have to do that as much, you know, that you're just meant to keep on weights now again. Yeah. Just very depressing at how overgrown that's gotten the last two years. Mhm. That was a photo op. Everybody came down to it. It was a nice piece of history.
Now it's just looks like an overgrown, rundown shack. Hate it. Boys factory. Yep. I think that uh I think that covers everything. Um anybody have any old business?
New business. Good. So, next meeting date will be to be determined. Um, we'll probably meet, you know, once or twice, I would imagine, before fall town meeting. I I'm not expecting a huge uh warrant,
right? So, I don't think we'll have to have probably more than two meetings over, but I definitely want to have uh something so uh we can set the tax rate. Yeah,
different way. Well, when you get information, you let us know. We have flexibility. And I think what will be helpful too is when I know you're going through closing FY25 and I know that that takes time, but once all is said and done, if we
could get a report of the turnbacks, you know, a detailed report of of what was turned back from the budgets, I think that would be that would be helpful to us because I know that we wanted to reference that in our budget discussions from the various departments. I mean, not that just because someone doesn't
use their funds in their budget doesn't mean that they don't meet it, but maybe there's, you know, a reason for it or maybe there is an opportunity for an adjustment to be made. So, I think that would be very guideline, right? Just just to see just to have that to be able to reference.
And just to follow that up, I think in the past we've also asked uh from the school department to see their I think it was their last quarter of spending, right? I think we've asked for that. So, I mean, if we could get the last quarter uh of spending so we can see, you know,
how they're handling the the end of year business, so to speak, um that'd be helpful. You're agreed. Okay, there's nothing else. I'll make a motion to adjourn. Yes. Is there a second? Second. All right. All in favor?
And we are done.