[Applause] [Music] [Music] good afternoon this is the March 15th 2024 meeting of the Commissioners and the trust fund can I have a motion to open please mov second all in favor hi hi first meeting on the first thing we want to deal with is approval of submitted invoices number a cemetery board request from a Perpetual Pi fund invoice for Hillside lawn Farm repair for the of a new M I have a motion to approve second I any discussion yes um I thought that would be uh this is something that we approved I believe it was at our very first meeting we had approved the estimate um and actually I'm just looking he gave me another estimated invoice um but we do need to sign off on the final approval this is the I didn't make copies for everyone just let's save a few trees so this right here is the mower that they purchased I did speak with Paul the existing mower it was you know what it's called the oh you the other I don't know the name of it so help me out here um the the thing that cut that holds the that protects protects the the blade how is it now there's another word for it protection okay all right so anyway um no no I thought you would set it at the first meeting so I know it's in there somewhere but anyway so this has been been approved um already it's just a matter of finalizing that the actual purchase is going to be made and this is just to reflect that this is actually what was purchased what we approved originally and that's all far as us yes so if we could all sign off on this but also I want to mention the starting balance in the cemetery on the unrestricted fund is 93,587 um this bill is $ 7,176 so we will have a remaining balance in there of $ 86,4 46 okay so this is the unrestricted fund okay okay so oh all in favor hi hi right oh it's unanimous and approved and if I could just have you both sign it yeah I don't think you want to do a pencil that no we might I might have to call you back in to resign because I'm looking at this and this does say invoice estimate um where I know the finance department's going to want to final Item B on agenda Police Department requests from law enforcement trust to approve invoice for $3,650 from flock safety for the purchase of a camera system motion to approve second um second discussion okay this is um $3,650 for the purchase of a camera system and based on what the police chief sent over to me this is used for um license plate um they're able to trace license plates with this type of camera system so this is coming from a law enforcement fund and my understanding of what the law enforcement trust fund is whenever the state has uh they do a drug raid um and the funds that are captured through that raid uh get divied up amongst communities and we did end up um receiving some I believe I believe it was about 10 years ago but don't quote me uh that account right now has 17,5 4309 in there um and this request is 3,650 so this based on my conversation with the prior Finance um Town accountant These funds were set up uh or given to the town for the benefit of law enforcement in trainings community outreach um and for purposes such as as the comp uh camera system so and that that money comes from um from the state yes yes according to what I've read and what I was told uh it's it's funds that were given to the Town based on drug rides and okay confiscating items okay okay that sounds good to me okay all in favor I I that's your okay so this one is a good one and I will actually take a copy of these invoices and um drop them with lean as soon as we finish the meeting so we can get those out for payment sorry so that fund there that law enforcement trust fund does that get replenished by the state from time to time from time to time but in speaking with the town accountant um these funds were from about 10 years ago okay so it's not something that it's replenished on a regular basis it it has been a long time since we've received anything okay which leads us to the next item Police Department requests from the law enforcement trust to approve invoice for $1,168 from the emblem Authority for the purchase of fundraising shoulder patches motion to approve second second discussion I do have discussion on this um my thoughts on this are these are patches um from what I understand that are sold as part of a fundraiser um I do know that based on the emails that I have here that it was questioned by the town accountant um that there may be other avenues for the patches um to to be paid from so is that still ambiguous in a sense yes as far as I'm concerned but that that's just my my opinion um my thoughts when I when I spoke with the town accountant was If These funds were being used and then the money once the money was raised whatever the patches cost it would go back into the fund um he said to me that that was not the intention um I don't know enough about the fund but based on what I'm looking at here um it is being questioned by the town accountant and he did quote uh from the Mass General law it says that these funds are to defray the cost of pro Pro I'm sorry protracted investigations to provide additional technical equipment or expertise to provide matching funds to obtain federal grants or for such other law enforcement purposes as the chief of police deems appropriate but such funds shall not be considered a source of Revenue to meet the meet the operating needs of such [Music] Department so I would suggest that we may want to table item C D and ask for clarification okay this I can read to you what the the chief um sent in he said the patches purchase were promotional patches military and breast cancer awareness I consider that to be a way of building Community engagement I believe that would fall under the other law enforcement purposes as the chief of police deems appropriate other PDS have used those funds in similar manner for patches challenge coins and other small items occasionally given away to the public to promote the department I don't have an issue at all with the funds being used for that purpose but I feel um that the money to purchase them should be put back into the fund so would we want to amend the motion for a group and can you put the money back in yes in speaking with the town accountant the money can be put back in because in a sense that $1,168 now becomes a donation correct and what is the donation what's the purpose of the donation of the fundraiser if the fundraiser is for breast cancer awareness and um military military and breast cancer awareness and I one of the things that I don't know is this going into the police associations um which I would assume it would be the Police Association um but I don't know that for sure I suspect there's a couple of unanswered questions that probably should be answered before approval is given I would feel I would feel more comfortable with that and I the last thing I want to do is slow down the process but I do want to make sure that we're expending the funds properly I'm just good I agree not that I'm questioning the chief um but I I'm I would feel more comfortable if I knew that those that portion of the funds went back into the law enforcement trust okay so there's a motion out there right now to approve this yes let's I'll resend that can we just vote it down can we vote to table it yeah I would like to table this okay um okay I would feel better tbling it um and then I mean if you two are if you would like to amend your motion to T table this yes I'll amend my motion from approving to tabling the motion okay second I all in favor I I tabled that would go for the next uh item is Police Department request for law enforcement trust to approve an invoice for $600 the emblem Authority for the purpose of fundraising shoulder patches which is similar to item C with that I will table that one until we have further information okay I would agree is that fine perfect okay so I will reach out to the police chief um for more information um and I feel badly because this one uh I just received the invoice a few weeks ago but um this apparently was from December 27th um right exactly okay so um once I have an opportunity to speak with him what would your availability be to schedule the next meeting just next week if you want yeah any day I can work around okay Tuesday is better for you yeah okay let me just double check if you can uh have a discussion with the chief to clarify some of the questions that you came up with yes uh I have no problem with having a uh a meeting as soon as possible okay so I don't want to hold anybody up that and I didn't realize that it was that far behind um I'm just looking for my calendar so next Tuesday um okay so could we plan for next Tuesday let's see what Tuesday is that will be the 26 and we'll do the same time 3:30 yes sir does that work for both of you yep that works [Music] okay all right I would try to get it in for Thursday but I won't even make the cut off for the for the agenda so we'll have to wait until at least Tuesday it's in the book with that it concludes the agenda for today add a motion to adour motion toour motion to all in favor thank [Music] you