All right, I have 5:31. So, we'll go ahead and get started. We do have quorum. Um, so we'll call the meeting to order. This is a meeting of the Halifax Finance Committee. It is being recorded and will be posted to the Area 58 Community Access Channel. Any agenda
item may be taken out of order for time management considerations. Committee members in attendance are Cheryl Burke, Frank Johnston, Mike Reignetta, and myself. Uh, absent at this point are EJ Brian, Rod Hemingway, and Mike Bennett.
So, we do have quorum with four out of the seven present. So, we will go ahead and get started. Um, first order of business, we have minutes that needed that went out yesterday. I don't Is everybody had an opportunity to look at those?
>> So, we'll do them one at a time. So, the minutes for October 6th of 2025. Does anybody have any ads, changes, or deletions? >> No. >> There. May I get a motion to approve those minutes? >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> All in favor?
>> I. Any opposed? Hearing? None. Minutes are approved. 4 Z. Next set of minutes is uh October 20th of 2025. Uh has are there any adds, changes or deletions from those minutes as written? >> No.
>> None for me. >> Very good. May I get a motion to approve? >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Being none. Minutes are approved. So that will close out that agenda item for this meeting. Um the
next item we have is uh Halifax Halifax fiscal policies. Um, I asked uh Robert to to come to the meeting tonight to kind of chat about that and discuss either a what we have or b what we need to put in place uh to kind of manage our
budgets and our our departments financially for the foreseeable fiscal year and moving into probably next year. Now, Robert, I also know that you're not um on the call anymore. >> We lost.
>> He's back. He's coming. There he is. Um, so Robert, I I appreciate I mean you you've you've done this role before. Um, you have experience setting these policies up and reviewing ones that are currently in place, making improvements or changes if they need to be done. Um,
and you know, I I'm from my perspective, I'm kind of looking at you or leaning on you for your experience here as to what we need to do or what we haven't done and and what can be done to improve our current situation. Okay.
>> So, I I got bumped off. Um, so I missed the beginning of that. So, you're talking about your financial policies. >> Yes. >> From 2017 >> for Well, no, for for the town just in general. What do we have? >> What don't we have? And what do we need
to do about what we don't have? >> Okay. So, do you know what we have? >> Well, that's No, that's what I'm asking you for. >> Okay. I'll have to look for that. >> Certainly. Nobody guided me on that at all. So, we'll see. I'll do a little research.
>> Okay. >> And then and then look at the policies and see where I think they need to be. You know, we'll fix them a little bit after school. >> Okay. So, I mean, so I guess any any kind of
feedback or thoughts on what you've seen so far? in the policies. >> Yeah. >> Um, no, I really didn't have time to look at those today. Um, I didn't even know, you know, we had them to be honest.
>> Uh, it's again, you know, not having a predecessor at your disposal when you're when you're starting out. >> Uh, that's wrong. You know, I didn't I didn't really um think we'd be getting into this part. Uh, initially it was
only be a two months or so a 3 month, >> right? >> But I'll look into that and see where we are for the next meeting. >> Okay. So what? So okay. So then we can we can push this specific subject line to the 18th which would be the next
meeting that we have. If that's if that's what you'd like to do, I'm certainly fine with that. >> Yeah. Um and and the reason again the reason I'm asking for that because and and I would hope you would agree that you know it's important for us to have something
to look at and for our departments to to use you know going into especially toward the end of the year. >> Yeah. >> Right. So, I'll mark that down for the 18th and we'll have you back on that point in time. So, I certainly do appreciate uh
you any input and feedback that you have or what you find out uh regarding that. >> Okay, sounds good. >> Okay, thank you, sir. Um also, and Lindsay, you know, we don't really I don't really personally have any real questions on the budget or the status report at this point. I haven't really
had a chance to kind of grind through it. So, you know, we'll save that for also for the next meeting. Uh, if there's any any questions about that. So, just as an aside, anything stand out to you? Any kind of any any outliers on the report itself?
>> Um, no, not really. It's just the same as what we previously discussed really just like the budgetary beginning balances and um the allocations and stuff like that. Okay. >> Um, and then that was really it. Everything's looking
pretty decent, like where it should be. >> Okay. >> Um, so yeah. >> All right. Well, thank you very much for that. >> I don't think I don't have any carryover questions from our last call, so we
should be okay there. Um, all right. Well, with that said, so Roberts, you're going to come back on the 18th and Lindsay will chat more about the status report on that date. Also, uh we'll close out the fiscal policies uh agenda item and move on to budget and liaison
updates. Um so, Mike, I know that you're working with you've already talked to the uh the library. >> I did. Yes. >> Right. >> Yep. So, you're all set. >> Yeah, met last Monday. Uh last Friday had a good meeting. He's, you know, getting himself acclimated into the role. Mhm. Uh working hard on the financials. He's excited about his
budget. He's, you know, obviously worried about uh keeping his accreditation up um and getting the budget >> to balance and still keep his accreditation. So, I think he'll uh he feels pretty good about where he's at. >> So, we'll keep working with him. >> Very good.
>> Hi, Rod. >> Rodney has joined us for those who uh his train is I guess they fixed his train. Well done. train came in. Transit station. >> Transit station. >> That's excellent. Um, so Robert, any
budgets come in to your office from any of the departments or nothing? Nothing early right? >> You have the one from the recycling center. Yeah. >> Okay. Now, everybody's working on them from what I understand.
>> I have a question. >> Yeah. >> Um, evening, Robert. Thanks for making a meeting with us. Um, Robert, um, when we work on these budgets where the department heads are, you're planning on being in the meetings as well. Is that
correct? >> That's correct. >> You and Lindsay. Yeah. Kind of like we did last year. >> Um, Lindsay, you sat in on some of the especially the bigger ones. >> I Yeah, I did all of them. >> Yeah. Okay. Um, so we're going to kind
of still follow that same format. Correct. Okay, perfect. Perfect. >> So, Robert, for your edification, Cody, last year, Cody set up the meetings and invited the um appropriate finance committee member to come to the meeting
um and sit with him, the department head, and Lindsay uh to review the budget that was being proposed. >> Okay. Y Okay, perfect. Great. All right. Okay. Um, so I think that's all we have
for the budget and liaison updates at this point. Uh, so we'll close out that agenda item and move on to correspondence and as may arise. So I'm going to kind of flip that a little bit. We'll do as may arise. So I think everybody on the committee got the email from John Celig regarding the override
study committee. So, I'm opening that up to the committee itself who would like to kind of jump on that and get their feet wet in talking to the other departments and and the one at least the one at large
um member >> Rod. I think that is a no. Um, >> is that a train whistle? >> Train's leaving the station. >> I would have to take that into
consideration. I can't at this time. >> All right. >> Okay. >> I I wouldn't >> probably easier to just appoint somebody who's not there. >> That's been known to happen before. >> That's happened before. So, Mike,
>> I mean, I would be interested. I just need to make sure my schedule permits it. >> It's going to be I'm I'm going to say >> I would believe it's going to be a fairly rigorous meeting. >> Yeah. >> Because not only do you have to meet as a committee, you'll probably be talk having like public sessions, talking to
other departments, other towns. I'm sure it's going to be quite the process to kind of dig through that. >> Don't jump, Cheryl. >> Yeah. No, it sounds it sounds interesting. Yeah. I just >> Good job. >> Yeah. It's got to be a good project. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah. >> It's an important project. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. And I think it's it's a really that's why I didn't just jump on the opportunity if I thought it was going to be not a big deal. I would say yes, I'll do it in a second, but I don't want >> Yeah. I don't want to do it if I can't commit to do it and do it right. I'm excited. The project itself is really
good. >> Um, when does Jonathan need to have the information back by? Um, >> I don't I didn't see I don't know. I didn't see a date on either the email itself or the or the um charge. >> Robert, do you know when Selectman Cage
wants to have the committee put together by on the two and a half override subcommittee? Oh, Jonathan's dialing in right now. >> Perfect. I'm good. >> Mr. Sely, >> is he ears must have been ringing? >> Were we talking about the most handsome
guys in Halifax? Is that the deal? Well, your name was mentioned when we were talking about that, but um >> Oh, great. >> I literally just logged on. What's going on? >> Well, we were just actually we were discussing your email to the finance committee about the override study
committee. >> Excellent. Perfect timing. Yeah, we love to have uh a member on the committee if uh if you guys are ready to to choose a member for the committee. When do you need to know about it?
>> Um, I would like to get things rolling as soon as possible, right? Um, I don't know if you guys want to chew the chew on it. Do you guys meet next week or are you still every other week? >> Right now, we're every other week. So, the 18th would be our next meeting, Jonathan.
>> Okay. Uh, we have our meeting tomorrow. So, if you did vote it tonight, we could um Well, I guess it's not on our agenda, Bob. So, I guess we couldn't do it tomorrow night. So, yeah, if you guys want to circle back until the 18th. >> Okay. >> And then maybe we can look to add it to
our meeting on the 19th. >> Jonathan, do you have time maybe tomorrow to chat briefly about what it might entail? >> Absolutely. >> Can you chat now? >> Yeah, sure. >> Let's just go ahead and walk us walk us through it, M. chairman. So,
>> I um I did email you guys the uh the charge, right? I don't have it here in front of me. I'm in the truck. >> Yep. No, we got >> the charge the actually I sent you folks kind of outlines the the duties and responsibilities of of what it is. Uh
essentially, we know I mean you guys know better than anybody where the finances are a little tough right now in communities throughout the Commonwealth. So this this override study committee would essentially be to try to gather
information to overturn rocks to um see what other communities are doing as far as revenue generation uh everything we can try to come up with so that if and when the time ever came that we are looking at an override we would have some information for folks
ready to go. So essentially not starting um later in the game, you know, that we've already kind of kicked the tires on some ideas, on some brainstorming um so that if and when we do get to that point, we're kind of ready to roll.
>> Okay. >> Uh Jonathan Frank Johnston here. >> Frank, >> hi Jonathan. Um, I was just looking at your your selection here. You only have one member at large.
Is there a reason for only one or >> No, I mean, we um, you know, as well as I, Frank, you like to try to have odd number committees. >> Yes. >> So, if there's ever any sort of voting going on, you don't want to end in a stalemate. Um, so that was essentially
why we were going with five members, one from selectmen, one from each of the school committees, uh, one from fin, and then a member at large to kind of round it out at five. Sophie. >> Yeah, I was thinking that >> member at large. It would be nice to
have a couple more, Jonathan, because the community would have a >> bigger say, >> a better better say in it, you know, feel more wrapped into what's going on out there. >> Sure. Sure. No, I'm not um it is part of
the charge. I mean, I could look to bring that to our our committee, I'm sorry, our board of selectmen to expand it to include, I don't know, say three members at large. >> Yeah. >> To round it out to seven. We could probably do something like that.
>> Yeah. And I think that the that would be good for the community to be drawn into more of the community. U maybe a little more diversified of part of the community as well, you know. >> Yeah. No, I'm not I I'm not tied to
five, you know, if if you guys think that seven would be a better number. Uh we could we could look at expanding it up to seven. >> Yeah, that's just my opinion. I'm not speaking for the finance committee. >> Chairman say this is
>> Sorry, Jonathan. This is Rod Hemingway. I as I think that's a worthwhile thing to consider. I think we also need to consider that the members of the the charge are already members of the community even though we are in in a position uh on various committees. So I think that should be taken into account
and whether or not we can fill three positions as well. I think that's something we should consider. >> I don't know if you guys think that would be an issue filling those three at large positions or not. So just something to contemplate. >> I will say I will say Rod, we did have a group of folks come to our was that our last selecting meeting?
>> Yeah. uh with were they were anxious to get answers about a possible override. So >> there were about probably maybe close to a dozen people there >> that were very very interested in knowing you know what the status was, what's going on with it. So I do think
we could probably find three uh citizens at large. But then again too, I don't want to hold it up too too much because I do want to kind of get the ball rolling. >> Right. Right. But we could we could I know it's on our agenda for the board of selectment for tomorrow night to accept
talent bank forms. Um maybe we could do it like this. Maybe maybe we we offer it out and Bob correct me. This is not a good way to do it. We offer out uh that we're accepting talent bank forms. If we get a great number of of applicants,
then maybe we can circle back to to adding to to three instead of one. But if we're grasping at straws and folks I don't see it happening, but if folks are uh not putting their their talent bank forms in, then maybe we keep it at the one so we have a little bit of flexibility.
>> Yeah, I think I think that's a good process to use. Uh it's and that way we could talk about it tomorrow at the meeting. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Why don't we roll with that? >> That sounds good. That sounds good to me. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Thanks. >> I think that's a smart play.
>> Yeah. No problem, guys. How's everything else? Everybody else recovered from Halloween and all very good. It's a lovely nice bright sunny day here at 5:30 in the afternoon. >> It is kind of Yeah. No, I um I just wanted to hop on and I'm going to do
some heavy listening now for to to see how we're doing here and if you guys have any questions for me, I'll I'll be around. >> I appreciate it. >> Thanks, Joe. open >> doors. >> Excuse me. Okay. Um All right. So, um
Rod and Mike, uh let us know you know what you guys want to do. >> I need to I need to think. I'm just afraid. I'm not as knowledgeable as you gentlemen all are. >> It's certainly open to you, Cheryl. So, yeah, think about it. >> Yeah, definitely
>> if that's something you want to do. Again, I'm sure it's going to be a time commitment at some level, at least at the start and probably more likely toward the end. >> Um, whatever that is. Uh, you know, that's got to be something you have to kind of keep in mind when
you when you do that. The when we were at I think when we were all at the um the ATFC meeting, you know, Northeastern had 19 people on their >> override committee. That was a lot. >> That's a lot of people. But but they also said they didn't have a single
attendance problem, >> right? >> Yeah. >> Oh, that's good. >> Right. So, you know, obviously the citizens were, you know, deeply committed to figuring out >> and I I think that that won't be a problem here getting large. >> I I would agree that I don't think it
would be a problem here either. >> Okay. Um so, uh as so we'll just so that's the part for the override study committee. Um the other piece on as may arise that I would like to mention to everybody is I sent out we got two resumes in for the secretary role. Uh
we're um uh if we can arrange for them to come to our next meeting on the 18th and talk to the committee themselves uh and then we can vote on who would uh who's going to take Katie's place um at that point in time. >> Um are we done solicitating for that
decision? >> I think that's closed. I believe it's closed. >> Okay. So, we got two out. I guess that's good. >> Yeah. >> So, that was good. >> Good. >> All right. Um, so correspondence. I haven't gotten
any emails from the from the public uh to my Halifax email. >> Anybody else? >> I haven't had anything. >> I even I did check. >> I did check my junk folder, too. Um, okay. So, that closes out correspondence or as may arise. That takes us down to
public participation. Um, there is unfortunately nobody here in the room. Uh, I don't see Mr. Celely. Do you have any you would you like to comment as a member of the public? >> Think you're all doing a mag.
>> Okay. >> All right. Well, thank you, sir. I appreciate that. Um, so there being no public here at the meeting, uh, we'll close the public participation piece. Um, that takes us to our last agenda item, which is our next meeting
planning. So, next meeting is the 18th. Uh, that will be on Zoom. That will also be at 5:30. So, we will talk to uh, Robert again. We'll have him back on to discuss the financial policies uh, for the town. Um, any questions for Lindsay
on the budget status report will happen at that point in time. also. Uh and then we'll do the two interviews. We'll probably do the two interviews first before we get into the meat of the agenda. >> Um that way we can I want to at least value the time of the applicants and not have them hang on until like the very
end. >> Agreed. >> Yeah. And just make sure we include the um override study committee as well. >> Right. Very good. Good deal. >> All right. Anybody have any questions, comments, or
discussion items they want to chat with the group about while we're all here? >> No. Nice to see you all in person. That's for sure. As >> brief as it is. >> The 18th. >> 18th is a Monday, right? >> It's a Tuesday. >> Tuesday. >> Is it?
>> Yeah. Cuz I'm looking at the >> It would be a Tuesday. So, it's the 17th. 17th 17th. 17. I've got the agenda here. >> You know what? It's the Google calendar that's throwing me off cuz it has Sunday on this end and Monday is the first day of the >> Yeah. So, it's the 17th meeting next
meeting 17th >> with all the same agenda items we just anything we talked about for the 18th means the 17th. >> That's right. That's code. Yeah. I know comes to our meeting like
>> maybe that's what >> when we were at the um selectman's last meeting with all those people in there we kind of you know threw it out there that we're open for business. >> Absolutely. I'd love to have more participation. I wish
>> absolutely especially now ask us questions >> something inut. >> All right. So that is the agenda for this evening. Is if there being no other business in front of the committee, is there a motion to adjurnn?
>> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Being none, this meeting is now adjourned. >> Thank you all for attending. >> Thank you. >> Thanks everyone.