to get our meeting started. Why don't we just do roll call? Start at the end of the table. Say your name. Richard Keys, Frank Piscanti, Erica Jacobson, Vanessa Rossy, Steve Kenny, Amy Crutch, Tracy Blaze.
Excellent. So we have six voting members in attendance. Since Joe Ellie is unable to attend tonight, so I will um we have established quorum. So it is 7:03 and we'll call the meeting to order.
The first order of business is to review and approve the meeting minutes from our July 2nd meeting. It says July 1st on here, but it is July 2nd and that is right on the draft. So let me know if you have any um edits
or comments to it. to accept second. Any other edits? I see a couple misspellings that I'll create. Uh Steve's last name, Bill De Mayo's last name. I'll correct those before I post it.
Okay. All those in favor? I I terrific. Um, public comment to receive oral communications from members of the public. Members of the public may address the finance committee
for up to three minutes. The finance committee will not engage in discussions on topics raised during public comment, but may choose to add the topic to a future agenda. This agenda segment will be limited to 15 minutes. Seeing no members of the public here, there will
be no public comment. Um because why? Um we also have not received any written or email communications since our last meeting of July 2nd, 2025. So there is nothing to share there. If I receive any, I respond, try to answer their
question. I BCC the committee and we um read them here. for the record if there is or summarize them if there's a lot. So, but we haven't had any this period. Um, what I'd love to do tonight is start
with um have Amy introduce herself as our newest member. Tell us a little bit about yourself, how what you do, how long you've been in Newberry, and um just has to be short, just super short. Absolutely. Um hello, my name is Amy Crouch. Uh I've lived in Newberry for 9
years. Uh I have two children in Newber Elementary, two boys in Newber Elementary. Um and my career has taken me by way of digital marketing and most recently into some retail analytics.
That's about it for me. I'm very happy to be here. Great to meet you. Thank you. Thank you for Thank you for volunteering and we're thankful to the board of selectmen for or excuse me the select board for um appointing you and welcome aboard. Uh we are a very I'd like to say
we're an informal board in terms of you don't need to wait to be recognized. Just feel free if you have questions if Tracy's talking and you've got questions just ask. And if you got questions for any of us just ask. It's we're all going to kind of be, you know, we learn as we go. Each part of this budget year is a
little bit different. We talk about different things, but it's we're here to be citizens and be the eyes and ears for the citizens of the town throughout the year. So, thank you. We're all nuanced. Exactly. Yeah, we're all figuring it out.
Um, thank you. Um, Tracy, administrative report. What do we What's going on? What do we need to know about? So most of the summer is spent as you know closing out the fiscal year. So fiscal year 2025 ended June 30th.
Um from that point forward we start um all the reconciliations, the receivables, cash, um making sure all the expenditures throughout the year have been spent in accordance with um
the general laws. making sure that um all of the grants are, you know, nothing's overexpended, everything is spent within the the legal requirements of the grant funds. Um so just a lot of reconciliation through
July, August. Um September, we generally have our final closing. That reporting has to go into the Department of Revenue. They're they're our oversight authority. They look at everything that we do. Um they they sign off eventually
on all of our reports and then that information becomes um the data that they use for calculating our free cash. Once our free cash is calculated, then that's available for expenditure in the future. Um,
our 2026 work is all posted. Everything that occurred at the annual town meeting is posted. It's on the books. The books are open. We've been running them since July 1. Um, we'll work early November on setting a tax rate. We'll do a tax
classification hearing with the assessors, the board of assessors, get the tax rate set, and then stop pushing out bills. real estate tax bills. So, our budget cycle generally starts November 1st with
I sorry you have capital um planning appointments tonight. We start with that cycle November 1st and then um probably by early December I'll ask for everyone to submit their budgets, turn
them in, try to get a little bit earlier this year. It's it's really hard though because of the way the um regional school districts work and the fact that they're about 50% of our operating budget until we have those numbers.
We're kind of in a holding pattern. Um and we don't generally get those until March. So, we do the best we can with, you know, getting information to you guys so you can evaluate it. But we it everything comes down to those last
three weeks really before town meeting. Um but we are pushing our town meeting off a little later this year. Um by I think a week they're going to play it on the first Tuesday in May because um the schools Triton notified us that they're
just going to keep having conflicts with their um drama program for the weeks that we usually held it. So if we want it to be in the auditorium at the high school, we're going to have to move it okay a week later. So it would be town
meeting immediately followed by elections. Okay. One week in between no cap. Are we just not using any for capacity or um it seemed the the comments that we received everyone preferred the high
school over Newbury Elementary School. And the cost of the gym is when we had it we had it this time. Yeah. It was a lot more expensive expensive for us. Um and people we got some negative
feedback that it was hard to hear and um parking at the high school. Yeah, that's I was going to say the parking was easier and yes the parking was always a challenge especially if it was a uh inclement weather. I know we definitely had times where there were
lines for parking as well as lines for getting in. Right. So that was a problem that that was a big Yeah, that that might So the select board is in charge of setting that calendar, but that's good to know
kind of what that looks like. And we typically get the numbers from the state usually like the third week in January for the enrollment and minimum local contribution. So we have those estimates. We have estimates and
then um this year I know Triton has a number of um contract negotiations I believe this year is that's going to be that's going to be big on both of those Whittier and Drake
and Whittier generally comes their final numbers come after our meeting. So it's not unusual for me to be back before you guys to say okay we need to reserve fund transfer we need more or in some years it's been less but timing
Tracy one other thing so didn't didn't Newbury get an award you evaluated right we did a national award congratulations offices association is it is it a leg lamp you get a leg lamp we didn't get a leg lamp we got a plaque
you know And you get little medallions each year that you the they the program expects that once you get it you continue every year. So, so I have to say the bar has been raised
the financial rigor within the town has changed so much in the last 15 years is I mean we used to have to go through your the this and be like why is that overspent and people be like I don't know we haven't paid you know like and now it's like oh yeah things are running they
check it out we the you know very very confident glad to have that our state reporting requirements have you No, exponentially increased over the years and it's good. I mean, it just like you said, it's a higher bar. We make sure we pay close attention. We're
having our audits done annually. Um, you know, so we've got their eyes on it as well. You've got independent auditors. You've got the state oversight. You've got the inspector general's office. There's a lot of um there's a lot of layers of reporting that we're
responsible now. And I'm sure the town clerk would echo that in her department as well. And she will. Um, is there any chance it's of a fall special town meeting? There's always a chance of a subsequent
town meeting, whether it's fall or any time during the year. Um, the selectment only need two weeks to call a town meeting. So, if you know something came up like um I don't know a great parcel of land that just is the perfect place
to put a fire station, a town hall or something if it becomes available. They can always call a town meeting if um you know things like that. So, I I will say the department managers have really tightened up their budgeting skills as
well. We have workshops starting in September now. Um, so they've really honed in on their numbers. So we used to have the fall town meeting because the the numbers that in April were preliminary and then they'd have to add
to their budgets, but not anymore. We've really um tightened the whole process up. Anything we should have our eyes on or be aware of that's in front of us? Uh the only thing that I expect that may be a little unusual this year is probably a
larger pre-cash than we're used to seeing and I never predict it so don't ask but but if as you recall at the annual town meeting we closed out the the PEG account is a million dollars a year almost and um so that will impact
um okay your precash this year. Um, all righty. Uh, I think Richard is up for the next two. Thanks for being our both our DCC and capital planning. Yes.
So, you want to give us the reports from those? I'll give you a report. So, yeah, I'm not even sure capital planning met. No, we we haven't met. And, uh, Marshall said we might meet in August or September, but I'll let you know. So, we didn't meet in August. Nope.
So, but let me start with the DCC. So, we we haven't met since our last meeting, but uh they sent out the proposed schedule. So, the first meeting is uh is next week at Triton. I think I forwarded you the the schedule just to check. We'll get them on the calendar.
Yep. Right. So, we'll meet next week. So, um, and I think the thing on the, uh, on the schedule is Salsbury scheduled a, uh, a school committee, uh, briefing for their November 6th meeting because, you know,
they didn't have the, the override last year. So, so they're they're prepping, I guess, but good to know. So, so, yes. So, that that's good. So, the other thing, uh, DCC, you know, we always talk about the MSBA. So Brian
sent out the email that and I I went to the MSBA site today and I printed it off and Erica's kind of there announcing that they their plan when they started was to get it in early and get accepted in August and it worked. So they're four months ahead.
Yes. Excellent. Scheduled to move to the next module. So which is great. Great. Yes. That was a lot of work to get to there and a lot of work to keep going, but it's every time it's nice to see the
moving forward of the bill here. Right. Right. And the coordination they got with the people that are on the on the committee. So that which is great. So So now both Whittier and Trenton have been Yes. moved forward accepted into the Yes.
Yes. So that's what we have to monitor. Great. And so the DCC is made up, the district communications committee is made up of incom and select board members from the three towns um as well as school committee members and then Brian his usually finance director and
admin are usually there. And again that's a very very informal setting. Sometimes they're they're recorded if they're in the right locations. Um but it's an opportunity just to kind of talk about what's happening in the schools, what's going forward, especially around the
budgeting. Um because every year all the select boards want to know early how's the budget going to be. They have no numbers. We have no numbers from the state. We can all estimate if we all are playing along here, we should all estimate that the school budget's
going to go up 5 to 10%. And expecting it to do anything else based on anything is not rooted in reality. It just is. So, it's a lot of making sure that everybody understands what's going on, talking about the
budget, talking about the process. Um, and if anyone can attend on the 11th, um, it's a it's a good meeting. It's a good group to kind of get a sense of who's there and what's going on. Um, and tend to hear a little bit of the um,
like just kind of like what's planning and like how the contract negotiations. Obviously, they won't tell you anything confidential, but you'll get a sense of like what they're expecting things to look like throughout the year. When they meet at Trit, they meet in the library.
So, we get all the audio visual equipment there. We typically don't get members of the public coming to those. Everyone there's a couple of guys from rally that show up, right, and ask questions. I thought they were like members of
committees, you know, they're just the rally people that want to come and be involved. So, it's great. Um, and then capital planning. No, that is basically November 1 is when the next round of submissions come in,
right? So, I think I think the only thing is the the forms that Marshall has us fill out. So, right. What I noticed was uh each group was I'm going to say your department heads were filling them out differently. So maybe in the train
new forms. So as part of the um I don't remember I think it was someone on the fin asked about the last capital plan and it it was you it is up on the website. Um but
we have new forms so they're all people some people some managers were using the old forms so it it should be cleaner this year. Okay. Yeah. Excellent. Um, anything else under old business? I
don't think we have any open issues based on my back through of all of these. Um, so the next is kind of a discussion of roles this year. So um we're looking
for we typically we are asked by the select board and actually now we are required to send uh two representatives from FINCOM to the capital planning committee. DCC is typically one to two representatives. Um I'm of the more the
marrier. the more people who know what's going on there, the easier it is to disseminate the information to our group here and also just to share it with other citizens as you go about life. Um, we have a notetaker role, but I don't even know if we need that anymore
because what I've found is really helpful is I download the transcript from YouTube once the recording is up. I put it through AI and then I kind of just rewatch it and make sure it's right and then that makes our minutes. Unless
there's a technical difficulty. Unless there's a technical difficulty, in which case we do need uh people taking notes, which was a great great point because yeah, we've definitely had that where things have happened and the recordings aren't there. So
I agree. It's a tremendous conspiracy. It does. It does. Yeah, our notetaker ran for select board and get I know that's what happened. Yeah, Patrick was our noteaker. He was a GCC rep and a noteaker and he ran for select
board. So those roles are open as is um chair and vice chair. Um Joe has not expressed I checked with him today um because he could not be here and he did not reply to my inquiry if he wanted to
remain on any of the committees he's on. So I don't think he's interested cuz he would have mentioned it. So that's that's kind of where I think we are. So but he is absent. He is absent. Always right for [Music]
you never know what's going to happen with that. Um and the way we've run chair and vice chair over the last few years is that the chair pretty much is in charge of making sure the meetings are posted, the website's updated. Um the vice chair runs meetings when the chair isn't
around, I think, is what we've kind of ended up at. Um, are you trying not to be chair anymore? Um, my current term is up at the end of this year and I am probably going to be
stepping down at the end of this term. That's what you would like to That's what I would like to do is step down from FinCom after I think 15 plus years. So I would be happy to serve as vice chair if anyone wants to serve as chair and be kind of mentor like I think
that's um kind of like what happens at what time of year um happy to take that role so open for discussion here and also we don't have to do this in any order but if there's roles people are interested in um love to hear it like
kind of very democra very kind of open here. So, would you I'll stay on the DC. You want to stay on DCC? I was going to say I'd be interested in cap planning. Okay. Excellent. Yeah. Yeah. I was interested in cap planning
over DCC just that don't have a school. Yeah. No, that experience at this point if that's available. Exactly. um because we do need two there and Richard definitely wants to stay on dcc and you've developed good relationships on that board which is
nice. Um Vanessa, anything you specifically would like know on anything? I would I would take I would prefer DCC over Yeah. Oh, good. Okay. Yeah, that would be Are you feeling
strongly about anything? No, I didn't have a conflict with PCC because of my Yes. my wife's Yes, exactly. Um, so and I've done cat planning. If we need another person for cat planning, I'm fine or a fill in for cat planning or
whatever. It's Yeah. So, I'm happy to be notetaker because I will always take notes because I will always have these random squirrels on pieces of paper and I will know what they mean and I will look through these scrolls of
paper every year as they grow in my house and I get rid of really the old ones. Is it bad that that's my like I call through my files and I'm like, do I really need the budget from 2019? Like I think I can toss that now. Oh, that can go to the shredder.
Um, so all right. So I've got Amy and Steve on CPC. Yes. Uh, Richard and Vanessa on DCC, Erica for Notetaker,
and leaving us with a chair and vice. I would I I would step up to vice. I really don't want to be chair. I am happy to stay chair just with me knowing that I am probably going to be moving on at the end of the year and I will
you don't have to step into it. Everybody can decide. Okay, sounds good. Okay. If someone's absent for that meeting there, but you beware. Y'all better show up.
And I'm happy to speak at town meeting. I'm always like, that's I I don't mind. I'd be happy to do that. I just think that my my family and my life and the citizens deserve fresh faces and hopefully their families. And yeah, I
feel like it was a really really this has been a amazingly rewarding volunteer thing to be involved in, especially while my children were in the schools. Now that we're on the outside of that, I kind of feel like I'd love to hear from parents that have a stake in that way
because it's so easy um it's so easy to say you'll give back or you'll volunteer after you retire and when there's so many things that are going on that this would be really a great time for people who are raising families here to have a
voice and to hear. So, I've I've really treasured the time doing it and I'm happy to continue through the end of this term, but I think it's time to kind of think of a little uh time to fresh blood, little succession. So, well, 15 years is quite a commitment
to all of us. I've learned a lot. What is the process for um appointing someone new to like to FinCom? Yeah. If if so is someone who hasn't served on any committee. Someone who hasn't served on any committee. Um the select board is the um
appointing, right? Uh I think I'm the only one up in I was looking at the because we we turn over in three-year terms and I believe I'm the only one that's up this time. So there'll be at least one spot open. And then the select board kind of I mean
talk to Amy and Steve. They talked to a few candidates this year and they then make the appointments and it's typically just bring you can bring a recommendation. It's typically we ask that if you like if someone's interested that they put a letter and just a resume even like their most LinkedIn most
common LinkedIn you don't have to like again we're citizens sitting on a volunteer board and so they want people who are have a commitment and some uh everybody here is well well uh versed in being able to speak up at
meetings and present different opinions. So I appreciate that. So yeah, I think that's a great question, but as people are interested be really good. So I will maintain chair
Frank Vice. I'll do note takingaking. Uh I've got Richard and Vanessa for DCC and Steve and Amy for CPC and we will let everybody know. And I think that's the way we all agree with that. Is that Yes. I I
I excellent. Um so that's all we have for tonight. So tonight was relatively short, but I think that was an important part of it. Um right now our schedule of upcoming meetings are October 7th, Tuesday the 4th, but
Tuesday the 4th might be Is there a statewide election on the 4th this year? I don't know. No, the governor's Yeah. So yeah, if that's the only thing is that if it's on an election day, we won't meet just because they don't want to have that
local board has the mayor's. Yeah. But we don't have any we don't have anything. We shouldn't have anything. So um yeah, so right now it's the first Tuesday of each month at 7:00 p.m. Um if there's months where Tracy and I talk or there's no
business, we will um post that just that it's canceled. All righty. Yeah, just point. So I I talked to Gretchen earlier. So there's the next election is in the town May. May May
Excellent. All righty. I'd entertain a motion to adjurnn. So moved. All those in favor? I. Excellent. Journed at 7:29.