##VIDEO ID:6b-DdU_9SFA## [Music] uh okay we can bring the order it's a special meeting of the board of elction uh 6:00 the only thing on our agenda is the interview of a potential Town accountant this is being recorded by Hara 58 um so um Mike Ellis is here and I get I'll start so you want to just tell us a little bit about yourself and why you think You' like to work for us yeah absolutely and thank you for having me um so I started out my career as a as an auditor with a firm that specialized in Municipal audits um we did city of New Bedford City of arbar city of tunon all the way down to very small municipalities we did Municipal uh solid w Municipal um Harbors we even did vocational schools and school districts um the problem with auditing is it's like your car is kind of your office you're all over the place and I wanted to find some stability so in 2012 I applied with Bourne assistant Town accountant position I was hired a month later and I've been there for 12 plus years um I went from the assistant Town accountant after 6 years I was promoted to the town accountant where I've been the last 6 years and I was ready for a change ready for change of scenery another municipality um I interviewed with Cody and his staff back in May and um the interview went great it was very conversational um I thought I'd be a good fit here kind of got cold feet about leaving in May um in born I wanted to see the fiscal year through and when I decided to resign last month um I tried to open up the line of communication with Cody and um here I am so okay um so you're going from a bigger town to a smaller town that's correct and uh why Why Us good question um well I have three small children proximity to home I live in Lakeville just a few minutes from the mbar rotary um I think as everyone knows the cape has a lot of traffic um there's going to be construction on the bridges soon and I'm trying to find a little bit more of a work life balance I also think some of the smaller towns um versus the bigger towns there's more more layers in the bigger towns and um I think I can get my my hands in different projects a little more in a smaller town um I think I can assist Cody on some things I understand there going to be a software conversion targeted for the first of the year um that's very interesting to me to be part of that get in now on the ground floor um and I just I like the idea of a smaller town I live in a small town I like the rural feel and I think this would be a good fit for me have you done anything to research halex so you know what they did I have I I have looked at all their free cash certifications over the last few years I took a look at what was posted online for the budget um I you know read some of the audit reports I think posted on the website now is through fiscal 22 um I know you're using powers and powers and Sullivan I think you're using for the audit um and I spoke to Cody about a few things clean up a few things some free cash um uh dings deductions of uh outstanding receivables and a cash variance and stuff like that and I think I could be be of assistance there too so right um and so my last question is this um to me it's very important that we have uh a good solid representation at U Town Meeting special town meeting whatever in our annual obviously uh and sometimes uh in the past anyway the accountant has acted as an advisor really to the finance committee and those are all off the off hour times um are you able to manage that you think absolutely yeah um during my 12 plush years in Bourn I went to fall Town meetings um annual Town meetings attended finance committee meetings Board of Selectmen meetings PR regularly um there were times I had to speak at town meeting at the podium um there are other times I sat right beside the Town Administrator just in case it was a finance question and I needed to step up so um I'm very used to that setting absolutely they strong Town accountants as long as I can remember and they uh are frequently asked to speak in town meeting just and not not in generally detail but like what's this budget what's this being explain free cash that kind of stuff absolutely no I'm I'm big into preparation um I never want to be the guy that's at the microphone that's still prepared so um yeah Town town meeting is not a problem speaking is not a problem so thank you pass the ball um just uh a kind of a general question um could you give us an example of something that maybe didn't go as planned and how you kind of reacted to something that you had thought was going to go one way and and went the other and how you you kind of pivoted yeah so uh we recently completed a Wastewater Treatment Facility in in Bourne the municipality where I was working previous and uh we had five funding sources for this particular project we had state grants federal grants we had an srf loan and then we had General borrowing and part of um the srf and the state and federal grants is they're very strict about what's allowable and what's not allowable um so as we were wrapping up and doing the punch list items on the project we realized that we were going to come up short about $154,000 fortunately uh it's a sewer fund it's a it's an Enterprise fund so we had been building up that retained earnings for years it had a very low retained earnings it was kind of on life support for a while but in my time as Town accountant we kept increasing that retained earnings and we were able to to cover it it's not ideal to use retained earnings for something like that but it was um a nice catchall to uh make sure that we weren't kind of left out in the dark when we closed the the srf loan and you know you just don't know those things ahead of time because they they do a final audit before they release the money and they determined 154,000 to be um non non- coverable and uh we kind of had to scramble at the last minute for town meeting to get those covered under retainers earnings so um obviously not ideal but we dealt with it and it it worked out well we made it work we made it work yeah yeah yeah um we we have a great team here at Town Hall we have an open door policy and essentially every Department uh what is kind of your leadership style you you would have an assistant working with you um are you okay with folks coming in and asking questions and uh you know kind of getting pulled from work to to help the the common folk Comm in yeah very much so um I always took pride in being internal support I think there's certain that are the face of the Town a fire chief a Town Administrator things like that um I don't really associate a face of a town with a town accountant so I always took the approach if I can be a strong internal support for my fire chief for my police chief for my Town Administrator um that's you know that's what motivates me um come at any time ask me a question I'd rather you call me if I'm in the middle of something than having a fire chief spinning his wheels trying to figure something out or a police chief you know let me help and they can get back to policing and fighting fire and and what they're here to do so very much Open Door um as far as training and having an assistant go I had an assistant in Bourne and uh I she came in with no governmental experience and now she's the town accountant in Sandwich she had grew into a position and was ready to take that leap and she did and that was kind of a proud moment for me because she came in with no experience at all um in Municipal so it's good feeling y great thank you that's all I had I'm the new guy so I go last most of my questions have been SA ified just one question I guess you were the accountant born for 12 years right yes so uh is this the next 12 years next 20 years this isn't a short-term thing for you this is a short this is the goal to be here for a long time yep I uh I have three small children um as I said the proximity to home is great and um I I I want this to be home for for a long time to come absolutely yeah I'm not someone who job hops obviously I was in born for for 12 plus years so well 12 plus is good for me I've been here for 12 years these guys have been here for longer than that yeah I just think we're looking for somebody who's going to you know make a commitment a long-term commitment not a a quick fix kind of thing I think we're looking for a steady growth we just lost you know not lost but you know moved on from a ton accountant who had been here for a long time and we're looking to you know not replicate her but move on from her in a similar fashion for someone who wants to grow with a position over time so that's that's you no there was a reason I mean I I first spoke with Cody back in May and uh there was a reason why I called him uh last week you know there's a ton of vacancies in finance positions in municipalities right now it's actually quite scary when you look um but there was a reason I reached out to Halifax um I really thought the interview went well back in May and um I wanted to open that line of communication again so yeah good a pretty small staff uh basically system and is that something you're used to or you used to bigger office or what uh no so when I first became Town accountant I had a there was three of us total there was myself an assistant and an admin and I I very quickly realized that the amount of work I was doing and trying to keep my admin busy and trying to keep my assistant busy um I didn't need to be a three-person department um we had an $80 million budget in Bourne and I when my assistant went to sandwich to be the town accountant I said why don't we just unfund the position and save the money in the budget I was very transparent about it because I really didn't need the help I'm not going to spend my day uh trying to find work for someone um it just doesn't make sense it's not worth it to the taxpayers so um so we down size actually I had a three person and went to a two so I don't see it being a problem so that's just what we have here yeah yeah um Lille lille's Regional School District yeah yeah with Freetown yeah so so this we're part of Silver Lake so you have familiarity with a Regional School District for that process y all right any other questions no anything else you want to tell us uh we give you the last word no I just I'm grateful for the opportunity and as I said I'd like to you know join the team here in Halifax and uh for years to come as we discussed so um availability when would you be able to start um I I spoke with Cody earlier I mean I could start the ninth or Beyond whenever tonight so no they are open late tonight true possible no I was kind of doing the stay-at-home dad thing and the kids are back in school so um uh yeah my availability is wide open so okay yeah very good mhm all right uh um so I guess um I guess that's what we uh uh conclude the interview have any questions and um I'm going to uh make a motion that we go into executive session to uh discuss uh negotiating with the town accountant uh potential under chapter 38 section 41 A2 um and we will not be you may want to leave that we may come back at Open Session to for for item well yeah but because I thought maybe we'd take up Item B first but if you want to go into executive session first we can go into executive session so B is possible appointment right do we want to do that first oh well all right it would be subject to contract negotiations background check and uh reference checks well um want to discuss whether or not to uh offer the position to Mr r i I think again uh you know notwithstanding contract negoti I think M would be a great fit okay agreed all right so somebody want to make a motion sure I'll make a motion uh to appoint Michael Ellis uh as the next town accountant for Halifax pending uh contract negotiations background check and refence check reference check Cory check yeah and mustache check negotiation satisf second all the above anybody any discussion all those in favor say I welcome congratulations so much con all right so now we'll go to Executive session and um I'll give you a call tomorrow Mike sounds good very good congratulations thank you so muchik than A3 to to conduct strategy negoti uh strategy session negotiations with the accountant second uh Tom yes yes yes we will not be coming into public session uh see we [Music]