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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-10-18 Finance Committee Minutes TOWN OF NORTH ANDOVER FINANCE COMMITTEE Meeting Minutes Meeting Date October 18, 2016 Meeting Location: Senior Center 120R Main Street Bill Callahan, BC, Chairman X Sasha Weinreich, SW X *(rp) Jennifer Goldman, JG, Vice Chair X Divya Bhatnagar, DB X Karin Blake, KB X Angela Ciofolo, AC X Thomas Ringler, TR Chris Nobile, CN X Timothy Tschirhart, Liz Gerron, LG X 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. *(rp) Remote participation of a committee member Andrew Maylor(Maylor), Town Manager Discussion starts on or about 6:46pm/001:20 on video time LG: Made a motion to approve the September 27th minutes as written KB: Second the motion All in favor to approve the minutes Discussion starts on or about 6:48pm/003:33 on video time Maylor: Thanks for the invitation; we are about to start yet another fiscal year. Maylor: I Plan on talking about Master Plan and the Master Plan processing. The Town is funded by the operating budget. This is a Planning Board function, that falls under and identified in the Massachusetts State Statute Chapter 41, Section 81D 1 October 18,2016 Maylor: the Master Plan is starting to be referred as the Comprehensive Plan. The Comprehensive/Master Plan is identified by 9 categories (1) Goals and policies statement which identifies the goals and policies of the municipality for its future growth and development. (2) Land use plan element which identifies present land use and designates the proposed distribution, location and inter-relationship of public and private land uses. (3) Housing element (4) Economic development element (5) Natural and cultural resources element which provides an inventory of the significant natural, cultural and historic resource areas of the municipality. (6) Open space and recreation element (7) Services and facilities element (8) Circulation element which provides an inventory of existing and proposed circulation and transportation systems. (9) Implementation program element which defines and schedules the specific municipal actions necessary to achieve the objectives of each element of the master or study plan. Maylor: Master Plans are documents of the future and may be added to or changed from time to time. Maylor went on to say the plans shall be a statement, through text, maps, illustrations or other forms of communication. Maylor: In the end when we have an agreed upon Master Plan, we look at the Zoning by laws, since most are about development. Questions and comments from the Committee begin on or about 7:04pm/018:50, on video time. The Committee commented as well as asked various questions to Maylor relating to the Master Plan. Maylor stated that we all have a vision of what community should look like but it is a hope that we can make as many positive changes as possible. Maylor: stated that we should do everything we can to make underutilized commercial developments more useful and this process will help, especially comments such as these made at meetings. CN: Commented that it is not about implementation, but opportunity. LG: Commented the Master Plan implies that you are a slave to it,but calling it the Comprehensive Plan implies understanding and comprehension. Maylor: that is a wonderful way to put it. BC: Noticed that Stan Limpert has a question. 2 October 18,2016 Stan Limpert (Limpert) of 43 Stonecleave Road and also a member of the School Committee stated that this is not a question, but just a comment that he can envision a series of large maps each representing the 9 areas. Maylor: I hope this helped Committee members thanked Maylor i Discussion starts on or about 7:42pm/056:20 on video time BC: Moved to question 2 and referenced the e-mail from Jim Mealey regarding the amount paid to Charter schools from FY08-FY16. This would lift the cap on the number of Charter Schools. BC: Stated that it looks like the average spent is between $90,000 to $100,000 per year JG: Commented that she did not want an opinion on this, but wanted to understand what the impact would be, if it was voted yes or no on the overall budget. Limpert: if question 2 comes in that would mean less money going to public schools. DB: Can other students from other Towns or cities go to a Charter School? Limpert: responded, correct. BC: Private schools are a savings grace to public schools. Limpert: most public schools (example such as Lawrence, Lowell and Boston) are funded by the state and the cities or towns make up the difference. / ON, MEMO, i, Discussion starts on or about 7:55pm/01:10 on video time BC: Stated that they will move to the next item. BC: Referring the committee to the spreadsheet that was submitted, BC directed them to look at the different categories stating that you can see all the changes that took place over the years. Discussion starts on or about 8:07pm/01:21 on video time BC: The Finance Committee Meeting for Tuesday, October 25th will be cancelled due to the move of Town Hall and early elections. BC: Discussed the next roposed 3 meetings to schedule out for; Tuesday, November 1st, 2016, Tuesday,November 15t , and Tuesday, December 6rn The Committee discussed various topics and guest for future meetings. 3 October 18,2016 JG: Asked of the Public Record Law Training session that is scheduled on November 17th BC: Responded that it is optional,but it may be worthwhile to attend stating that it is located at the Middle School. 6111 1ai�'�'�,6� Discussion starts on or about 8:29pm/001:43 on video time Limpert: Just comments on future topics, turnover in personnel, the contrast between the school side and municipality side, and that 80% of the budget is labor and the turnover in personnel at the library, most of them are part-timers, and also another thing is debt service. i!� l ;i CN: Made a motion to adjourn JG: Second the motion All in Favor *1. Minutes from Finance Committee Meeting September 27th 2016 *2. Expenditure Review *3. Information from School Department * Hard copy/also on Google drive 4 October 18,2016