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Minutes of 4/15/2015
April 20th, 2015
BUDGET COMMITTEE MEETING
April 15, 2015
Member present: Mike Hogan, Rena Vechhio, Judy Scalley, Joan Karpf, and Bonnie Moroney
Member excused: Chris Pappas and Rob Gauthier
Meeting opened by Chairman Hogan at 7pm.
Pledge of allegiance
There were no minutes to approve, as this is our first meeting for 2015 after election.
Election of Officers:
Rena motioned Mike Hogan for chair and Bonnie second, and it passed.
Mike motioned for Rob Gauthier for Vice Chair, Joan second and it passed.
Secretary, silence, Bonnie said she would do it, Mike motioned and Joan second, and it passed.
Bylaws:
Went over the By-Laws and if we need to change, fix or address anything. We discussed that there was an existing rule � �All members shall make every effort to attend each scheduled meeting: RSA 32:15 VI provides that a �member-at-large shall cease to hold office immediately upon missing 4 consecutive schedules or announced meetings of which that member received reasonable notice, without being excused by the chair.�
It was discussed that we had not followed through with this rule and that moving forward we need to keep track. It was discussed that if a person has contacted the chair, than they would be listed in the minutes as excused, but if not they would be listed as �absent�.
Bonnie motioned to accept the Bylaws as written, Rena second and it passed, Chairman Mike Hogan signed and dated for the 2015-2016 budget year members.
Budget schedule and meetings:
Mike said that he felt that we didn�t need to keep meeting every month until it was time to start working on the budgets for 2016, and opened the floor to the members for discussion.
Bonnie said that at the later part of last year the Select Board had said that it was a waste of people�s time to have them come before the Select Board starting in Aug. in order for the Select Board to present their budget in Oct. and then have the same people come again to be in front of the Budget Committee. She said that she would discuss this some more at the next selectman�s meeting to see if they still feel the same way.
It was discussed that it would be good to have the Select Board and the Budget meet at the same time, maybe swapping meeting nights in order that both groups would work in the budget at the same time. Maybe that way all the questions would be asked at the same time and give a clearer picture of what is needed.
Mike said he was thinking that maybe there could be a member of the committee that could go to each of the bigger budget department heads, to get to understand their budget and ask questions.
There were discussion about the street lighting and changing it to other bulbs to save money, and Rena said that she thought Bill had turned over all the information that they had gotten to Greg. Rena said that a lot of areas are working on Solar panels, as they have some down in price a lot, and help the towns to supply power and save tax dollars. Mike said that he is looking into putting 24 solar panels at his house as that would be enough to power his house. Rena said they have been pushing this idea a lot, and there are already some you can see from the highway down by Meredith area. It was suggest to maybe check with those towns and see how they are doing with that.
Mike wanted to talk about the schedule and to set up our next meeting about Sept. 16th and one Oct. 21. It was thought that maybe on the Sept. 16th meeting it could be a joint meeting with the Select Board. Mike said he would go over last year�s schedule, and try to spread out the larger departments so that we don�t have all the large ones all at once.
Joan feels that we need to check on capital reserve for the Water Department to use in emergency. Bonnie said that the Select Board works with them when something like that arrives, and makes sure it gets fixed.
More talk was done and checking the calendar for how many meetings we need to hear from all the departments and committees. It was decided to have the next meeting on Sept. 16th, and then Oct. 14th would be the start of each of the budget presentations. Mike again said he would go over the list, and send out the schedule to the members, and they could see if they are good with it or have some changes. Then he will send to Bonnie and she will get the letters out to each of when we are looking to hear from them with their budgets. Joan motioned to accept the Sept 16, as the next meeting and Judy second, it was passed.
Other:
Joan asked about the warrant that didn�t pass for the use of the Building/Land Capital Improvement fund. Bonnie said that there was never a guideline set up for this funding and that is why it was tried. Joan, said that she felt it should be tried again, as it is needed.
Joan, said that maybe the town should look into changing the Transfer Station money into a revolving account instead of a Capital Reserve Fund. Bonnie said she would like into that and see if it is possible.
Judy asked about the spread sheets and all the information that Lori had used to do a power point at the deliberative session. Bonnie said that she has most all of them and that there were new forms from last year for the MS7 that were quite different.
There was discussion about the health insurance and the Small Business Healthcare and Health Savings account. Joan said she will look into what is out there, as well. Bonnie said that the employees right now did not care for the other option that we offered them and we have since found out that we could not pay the deductible that we had hoped to but only a percentage of it.
Judy said that there is a lot, and Mike assure her that she would be to understand it after we got going on the budgets. She asked to have a budget sent to her so she could look at is a little more, and Mike said he would take care of that.
Rena, said that she would like to see us call any departments back if we are going to change their budgets. She said that last year we had discussion about changing budgets after the department head had been there, and then came up with lots of questions. It was suggested that maybe we could ask them to send a copy of their budgets two weeks ahead of time, so that we could go over them and have our questions ready.
Bonnie said that part of the problem that she saw last year was that if somebody missed that week that department gave its budget they would question things, after the fact. We also discussed that it would be better to vote on that budget that evening rather than waiting until the end and trying to answer all the questions then. We could always some back later and ask that person to return and go over any changes we wish to make.
Bonnie said that the will discuss the plans with the Select Board and also that we would like to have the budgets two weeks before presentation.
Joan motioned to adjourn at 8:15PM and Rena second, it was passed.