HomeMy WebLinkAboutFCMeetingMinutes_01.26.16
TOWN OF NORTH ANDOVER
FINANCE COMMITTEE
Meeting Minutes
Meeting Date January 26, 2016
Meeting Location: Police Station Community Meeting Room, CTO 6:45
Bill Callahan, BC Chairman X Susan Almono, SA
Donald Elliot, DE Vice Chair X Timothy Tschirhart, TT X
Karin Blake, KB X Liz Gerron, LG X
Thomas Ringler, TR X Angela Ciofolo, AC X
Chris Nobile, CN X
Jennifer Goldman, JG X
Ray Santilli (Santilli). Assistant Town Manager
Lyne Savage (Savage), Town Accountant
Note: All FINCOM votes are subject to change upon receipt of new information.
Note: Documents used in this meeting are listed in Document Table, herein.
Agenda A Approval of minutes
January 5, 2016
th
TT: Made a motion to amend the following paragraph on page 3 of the January 5 Minutes that read;
Savage: stated that there are no debt issues on this recommendation, because we have retained
earnings that will offset this cost. We are following policy and we are not adding more projects. We
will be able to use the retained issues over the next 5 years. Also it helps that the rates have not
changed in 5 years and we have kept everything steady. There will be no borrowing; we are using
the retained earnings.
To amend to;
Savage: stated that there are no debt issues on this recommendation, because we have retained
earnings that will offset this cost. We are following policy and we are not adding more projects. We
will be able to use the retained earnings over the next 5 years. Also it helps that the rates have not
changed in 5 years and we have kept everything steady. There will be no borrowing; we are using
the retained earnings.
LG:Second
All in favor
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January 26, 2016
th
KB: Made a motion to amend the following paragraph on page 4 of the January 5 Minutes that read;
Maylor: stated that he is going to give a brief overview. Maylor stated his focus on the Capital Plan
is to make it consistent with the previous years. Sometimes changes happen but you would have to
come with the justification if a change is made. We try to honor and keep within the 5%. Our
target has been to continue to be at or below the 5% unless circumstances arise, such as increased
interest rates.
To amend to;
Maylor: stated that he is going to give a brief overview. Maylor stated his focus on the Capital Plan
is to make it consistent with the previous years. Sometimes changes happen but you would have to
come with the justification if a change is made. We try to keep within the 5% Net Debt Ratio. Our
target has been to continue to be at or below the 5% unless circumstances arise, such as increased
interest rates.
DE: Second
All in favor
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th
KB: Made a motion to amend the following paragraph on page 4 of the January 5 Minutes that read
Maylor: stated that we are seeing construction escalation
.
To amend to;
Maylor: stated that we are seeing construction cost escalations
.
JG: Second
All in favor
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th
KB: Made a motion to amend the following paragraph on page 5 of the January 5 Minutes that read;
TR: A question on the Capital Budget, what is next, can we afford what is next. Especially in
keeping within the 5% of the Facility Master Plan, will it limit us going forward?
Maylor: responded that in the plan it calls for bringing out a consultant to evaluate for a Facility
Master Plan II.
To amend to;
TR: A question on the Capital Budget, what is next, can we afford what is next. Especially in
keeping within the 5% Net Debt Ratio seen in the Facility Master Plan, will it limit us going
forward?
Maylor: responded that in the plan it calls for bringing out a consultant to evaluate for a Facility
Master Plan II.
JG: second
All in favor
TT: Made a motion to approve Minutes as amended
All in favor
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January 26, 2016
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January 12, 2016
th
JG: Made a motion to amend the following paragraph on page 2 of the January 12 Minutes that read;
KB and BC: Spoke at separate times of spreadsheets and having things listed on spreadsheets that
need to done in rank order.
To amend to;
KB and BC: Spoke at separate times of spreadsheets and requested a list of future facility projects
in rank order
.
KB: Second the motion
All in favor
th
DE: Made a motion to amend the following paragraph on page 3 of the January 12 Minutes that read;
Santilli: we will work on that list for the second and third year, but I want you all to know it will be
a very general list.
To amend to;
Santilli: we will work on the future facility rank order list for the second and third year, but I want
you all to know it will be a very general list.
KB: Second
All in favor
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th
TT: Made a motion to amend the following paragraph on page 3 of the January 12 Minutes that read;
McClure: the thing that he is most proud of is the strengthened system he has had with the school
and the increase of collaborative projects. The Focus on Networks will remain and as much as we
can put into the Cloud, will remain.
To amend to;
McClure: the thing that he is most proud of is the strengthened IT Network he has had with the
school and the increase of collaborative projects. The Focus on Networks will remain and as much
as we can put into the Cloud, will remain
.
JG: Second
All in favor
th
JG: Made a motion to amend the following paragraph on page 3 of the January 12 Minutes that read;
McClure: for the municipalities he has worked with accounts payable, general ledgers, budgeting
payments, to make it a success.
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January 26, 2016
To amend to;
McClure: for the MUNIS Accounting System worked with accounts payable, general ledgers,
budgeting payments, to make it a success.
KB: Second the motion
All in favor
TT: Made a motion to approve Minutes as amended
JG: second
All in favor
Agenda B Continue Discussion on CIP and vote
BC: Savage has the yearly CIP report that the committee requested (for FY15-FY16). She will pass them
out and explain it.
Savage: explained her handout/report stating that she printed from the old system to show what we ended
up with in FY 2015.Savage also pointed out that the Blue Bar shown at the top of each page is from the
new MUNIS System (FY 2016). Savage stated she wanted to show how the balance flows from 2015 into
2016.
Savage: stated that this handout is self explanatory and she spoke how she highlighted each department
and balances.
Savage: Later she spoke of available money and borrowing. Typically they just borrow once a year, they
usually have enough money on hand and that they borrow in the May-June time frame. She explained that
there is lot of cost and paper work associated with it as well, so borrowing once a year is better.
DE: complimented Savage, stating that this handout is very good, it has helped clarify a foggy area for
him, thank you Lyne.
BC: Lyne that was great I know it was a lot of work to pull together.
BC: The next part of the CIP is to vote
TT: I make a motion that we move to accept the FY17 Capital Improvement Plan, for the General Fund,
totaling $7,732,757 as detailed on page 1 of the Capital Improvement Plan General Fund Enterprise Fund
2017-2021 report.
LG: Second the motion
Any discussion
All in Favor to approve
TT: I motion that we accept the Recommended Sewer Capital Budget Projects for FY17, totaling
$150,000 as detailed on page 109 of the Capital Improvement Plan General Fund Enterprise Fund 2017-
2021 report.
LG: Second the motion
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January 26, 2016
Any discussion
All in favor
TT: I move that we accept the Recommended Water Capital Budget Projects for FY17 totaling $475,000
as detailed on page 127 of the Capital Improvement Plan General Fund Enterprise Fund 2017-2021
report.
KB: Second the motion
Any discussion
All in favor
TT: I move that we accept the Recommended Stevens Estate Capital Budget Projects for FY17, totaling
$125,000 as detailed on page 155 of the Capital Improvement Plan General Fund Enterprise Fund 2017-
2021 report.
DE: Second the motion
Any discussion
BC: We should note for a lot of these Capital Funds that they are being funded out of retained earnings.
All in Favor.
Agenda C Continue Discussion on Collective Bargaining Agreements
BC: Gave a brief history of what took place at the last meeting regarding the bargaining agreement.
BC: Also wanted to sum up what the Committee was thinking (going through each item from A-E)
A-Collective bargaining and contracts are very important.
B-The town does this fairly well
C-Visibility might be important
D-We (the committee) do not fully understand the idea behind what happened with this article in 2010 at
the Town Meeting, since none of us here were part of this Committee back then.
And
E-To try some other way to come up with transparency maybe by commenting a message in our
letter (regarding the bargaining agreement).
Santilli: Went through the process of how contracts get ratified. Once the contract gets ratified it is public
record. It is a confidential document until it gets ratified.
Santilli: stated that the only time that Town Meeting votes on a contract is when it is under arbitration.
Agenda D Discuss Finance Committee Web Site
BC: asked if anyone here has been on the Finance Committee website?
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January 26, 2016
and made suggestions and felt that the Finance
Committee website should be reformatted to look more like what the Public School Website looks like.
JG: pulled up the Public School website to show the committee an example of what she was proposing,
because it is just a 1 page format showing, meetings, agendas and minutes and more at a glance.
JG: Also suggested that e-mail addresses should be posted, because she felt it was important that the
Committee has transparency (since they have discussed this at past meetings).
BC: Commented that he has received only a few e-mail in the past 2 years and if anything were to come
into his e-mail box for all to view, he would forward it to the committee.
JG: Suggest that every time we have a meeting and the agenda gets posted that this information goes out
on social media with a link to the agenda.
KB: Made a motion to approve that the meeting dates, times, and locations are posted by the town office
onto the Social Medial and the town reformat the Fincom website pages to become only 1 page listing
that would include meeting dates ,agendas, minutes and handouts.
DE: Second
All in favor
Agenda E Questions for Town Manager
BC: Stated that since Andrew Maylor is not here tonight it was suggested that e-mail could be sent to
Maylor to be answered at a different time.
KB: Wanted to pass out various handouts that she received.
KB also
directions on how to use this website (http://www.mass.gov/dor/local-officials/) to compare town-by-
town revenue sources and also showed the usefulness to the committee.
BC: Wanted it to be noted that our 1 big unresolved schedule issue is when we will hear from the CPA
request.
JG: Request that all future agendas list the expected attendees.
WC: Provided meeting dates and list expected attendees to Angela
Agenda F Adjourn 8:45
KB: Made a motion to adjourn
JG: Second the motion
All in favor
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January 26, 2016
Document Table
SUBJECT FROM TO
1. Capital Improvement Plan General Fund (2017-2021) Town Manager Fincom
th
2 Finance Committee minutes January 5 and January 12 Angela Fincom
3. FY15-FY16 YTD Budgets Savage Fincom
4. Department of Revenue (official website) KB Fincom
5. An Obligation to Lead KB Fincom
(MA Municipal Association)
6. Section 3 Local Aid Distribution KB Fincom
7. New England Police Stresses Treatment Over War on Drugs KB Fincom
(the New York Times Monday, January 25, 2016)
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January 26, 2016