this government meeting is brought to you by eastworks and our local cable subscribers all right I'm going to call to order the meeting of the Southampton select board for June 17th at about 6:32 pm. and if we could please stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge alance toag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you good so first up do we have anybody here for s and speak not noticing anybody off hand so I'm going to assume that uh we don't have anybody here to talk about anything that's not on the agenda so I think we'll just jump right into our program this is a special meeting tonight we wanted to um focus on our audit report so we have um three members of our uh select board uh Cindy's out of town and Dan is at a Conservation Commission meeting and may join us or may not depending on how long that runs so we at least have a quorum for select board and then we have Reggie green and Doug Hamill from our finance committee and there might be two other members coming at some point for there and if so we'll call that meeting to order when you have a quorum okay all right so with it I think we are going to just get started and introduce our guest from Markham which is our audit firm and this is Tanya Campell if I did that correctly all right and uh so yeah we'll uh let you start wherever you'd like to I don't know if you want to start just an overview this is for everybody's listening this is the fy22 audit um and um wher we've got it online here so if you wanted to deal with management letter first or whatever is appropriate you you lead us okay sound great um I'm just going to start by a brief overview of the audit process as well as um kind of the roles and responsibilities of the various parties involved in the audit including us as your independent Auditors management of the town and your role as committee Andel um and then we'll take a look at the the three reports that I have been issued in for now in terms of our responsibilities as your independent Auditors we are ultimately responsible for issuing an opinion on the town's financial statements we're also responsible for planning and Performing our audit to provide reasonable Assurance not absolute assurance that the financial statements are free of material misstatements we don't look at every single transaction we don't examine every invoice we don't verifi every receipt that comes in the door we don't look at every single balance um that's provided to us by the town accountant that's not what an audit is designed to do our audits are conducted in accordance with government auditing standards and those standards um require us to use a concept known as materiality to actually the uh the microphone is off I just got a call oops here we go I wasn't yelling loud know okay that's better um so the concept known as materiality which drives um the transactions we look at the balances of test things like that now in terms of just do you want to wait or you want to see if D is coming or call to order yeah go for it okay yeah so pop into your mic there that yeah sorry that's fine it's on already it's on on okay I'm going to make a motion to call The Joint finance committee meeting for order at 636 that all in favor good thank you all right perfect now in terms of Management's responsibilities they are ultimately responsible for the financial statements we assist in the preparation of those statements but management is responsible for accepting them and taking ownership of them management is also responsible for establishing and maintaining effective internal controls um and ensuring that the town complies with the various laws and regulations that are applicable to its day-to-day activities as part of the audit process Management's responsible for making all information and schedules and supporting documentation available to us in a timely fashion and at the end of the audit management is responsible for providing us with a letter that confirms the various representations that were made to us as part of the audit process so you know we do rely on information provided by the town and we asked that the management of the town you know provide um assurances that what was provided to us is correct and accurate to the best of their knowledge um now in terms of your responsibilities as a select board and fundance committee you're responsible for overseeing the entire process um you know at the beginning of the audit we send Communications to the select board letting them know that the audit is beginning we make rep we make um inquiries during the audit itself to make sure that there's nothing we should be made aware of any issues or concerns um and then at the end of the audit we have a meeting to discuss the results of what occurred and you can ask questions and follow up on um the reports that are issued does anyone have any questions before I continue yes what was your personal role on the team sure I'm the partner in charge of the audit so I oversee the audit process you know the team here that um works with me comes on site to do the actual testing and I review workpapers and reports and and stuff like that you did not personally interact with Town staff I do as needed mostly through email um I have been on site in the past um but I was not this past ining fiscal year 22 yeah thanks hey Becky all right good we have our finance committee we've already they've already called themselves to order so we're we're legal all right so Tanya go ahead yeah all right so we're going to start by taking a look at the financial statements which is the kind of the bigger of the three documents s um your financial statements are presented under rules established by the governmental Accounting Standards Board also known as gasby if you flip through the financial statements you will see a multitude of references to gasby throughout the statements as they are the agency that um dictates how information is reported how you know numbers are reported what we need to disclose things like that there are essentially five components of your financial statements the first is the auditor's report and that is the only part of the financial statements that belongs to us as I mentioned previously management is responsible for the financial statements and we are responsible for issuing an opinion on those statements so that is our audit opinion or includes our audit opinion in fiscal year 22 we issued the town an unqualified opinion on the financial statements which means that based on the results of our testing that we found that the town was in compliance with generally accepted accounting principles after that comes management discussion and Analysis which is a brief overview of the financial statements that includes um some of the key numbers and results of operations from the past fiscal year and a brief discussion about what's included in the financial statements themselves then you have your government wide statements and your fund basis statements which we'll talk about and kind of take a look at in just a minute um and lastly you have your footnotes and your required supplementary information which um go into more detail and kind of provide more explanation about the town as well as some of the numbers that are reported in the financial statements themselves so for instance you have your your pension liability that is one number in your financial statements but there is probably seven pages to talk about what that liability is um some of the Actuarial assumptions used to calculate the liability things like that does anyone have any questions at this point I was told to make it quick because the Celtics are on at 8:30 so I'll do my best resp it was just a general consensus I believe I think it might have been yeah before you all came but and just to say so I hope people we didn't bother to print out copies of the audit report but I'm I'm you know follow as best you can Al you have some if you need if anybody needs one but um try to follow along and if you want to orient us toward a particular page number that would be great sure we're going to um take a look at page 15 page 15 15 which if you're in the PDF I think it's going to be 18 of the PDF itself it's called the balance sheet yep did I get the numbers right there no it's 15 in mine okay perfect okay so this is the balance sheet it is one of your fund basis statements now your fund basis statements are the set of statements that more closely resemble the town's internal records so if you're looking at this page you'll see that there are col or um column headings across the top the first one is says general fund did you were able to find it yes I was looking at the dump okay sorry all right so that column is actually the town's general fund as well as your stabilization funds um probably back in 2011 there was a a gby statement that required the town to consolidate the general fund and your stabilization funds for financial statement presentation um so that you more closely align with how the states report there um rainy day funds which are also considered a stabilization fund so if you're looking at that column that is your general fund and your stabilization funds to the right of that you have um three major funds so your community preservation fund your town Grant fund and your Capital project funds those required to be reported separately in this fiscal year because of the either the balances in that fund are um large enough that it requires to be reported or there's U material activity um during the fiscal year and the last column is your non- major governmental fund which are the rest of your um special revenue or your Grant funds um as well as the trust funds for the town with the exception of your opep trust that's reported separately now if you look towards the bottom left of the page you'll see a heading in bold called uh fund balances and the very last line there the unassigned fund balance we're going to take a look at that number um in the general fund which at the end of fiscal year 22 was just over a million dollars that number is made up of two components the first is the town's General stabilization fund which at the end of fiscal year 22 had a balance of just over 400 $122,000 that represents about 2.2% of the town's annual operating budget which is a little bit on the Lower Side um in terms of what we've seen I know the town has had you know Financial issues um over the years so um the other portion of that is the general fund your undesignated fund balance which is essentially the start of the Town's free cash calculation if you're going to think of it that way um that balance was about $590,000 at the end of fiscal year 22 now keep in mind these are 2 years old you guys are always looking forward we're always looking back unfortunately we're looking back a little bit farther than we like to be at this point in time but um that balance represents just over 3% of the town's annual operating budget also a little bit on the Lower Side um you know do recommends somewhere between 3 and 5% um balance in the in the certified free cash number at least that amount um and your free cash was just about 2 and a half% um for fiscal year 22 so um little bit lower again I don't have numbers updated for 23 or 24 at this time because we haven't looked at those yet but um that's that is that so on on the first number the said it was 2.2 that's our stab that's our cumulative stabilization minus OPB that's your general stabilization fund um that doesn't include your special purpose stabilization funds so your Capital project and your ambulance so those are reported um in the committed line of the 165,000 that is that is represents those balances communities relative to our size located in Western Massachusetts what's the target range probably over 5% okay at least you know given economic uncertainty over the past couple years and you said we were about 2% 2 a little over 2% yep okay yeah any questions just kind of catch my eye here go ahead Donna whatever go ahead okay do anyone have any other questions on that page that's all I was really going to touch on it you know these statements are a couple years old at this point but I did want to just kind of focus on some of the key numbers Okay no Okay I'm going to flip back two pages to page 13 and it's um titled the statement of net position continued CU there's it splits over two pages there now the statement of n position is one of the town's government wide statements which essentially take the columns that we just looked at in the previous page consolidate them all together and report them um as governmental activities the other column on this page which is business type activities represents the um Town's Enterprise funds so the water and the transfer station so your government wide statements only distinguish between those types of activities um when creating these statements we take the you know the the fund basis statements and add numbers such as um your long-term capital assets your long-term liabilities like um your bonds payable your net pension liability your net opep liability so it takes your financial statements that are kind of on a cash basis because that's how you guys operate on a day-to-day basis and converts them to an acral basis um so it's meant to show your governmental operations like a business which is great but you guys don't really operate day-to-day like a business so these the government wide statements are great at showing you know all the assets all the liabilities of the town but they're really not used when you're making day-to-day decisions so um just want to focus I guess on a couple numbers on this page um kind of the two of your bigger liabilities um about halfway down the page on the under the non-current liabilities you'll see your net pension liability and your net opep liability now your net pension liability represents your share of the Retirement System's unfunded liability you are required to fund that you do have a funding schedule set to be funded you know by 2030 I think is the official end date um that has to be funded by um that balance and that liability was just over $4.4 million at the end of fiscal year 22 that decreased about $1.6 million from the prior year um and the main reason for the decrease was the retirement system itself had um good market value results in their calendar year so as a result you know their assets went up and the whole liability went down so your piece of that liability also went down unfortunately the liability kind of does a little bit of this over the years given the it's so it hinges so much on the market and how well um they do um in their results of operations what you're going to see next year I'm guessing just given that we've done a bunch of fiscal 23 audits is that liability is going to spike back up because the market unfortunately went down and therefore their liability that or the overall liability went up not that I can predict predict the future or anything but I'm guessing that's what I'll tell you next time I do this presentation Chris yeah y so I had seen a schedule that uh don shared with me that kind of said the same thing that by a year 2030 y this is this will kind of slowly get right that's the goal y right I me the whole system is do it's for the whole system everybody's paying in a little extra B right so you're paying your your normal contribution and then you're also paying on top of that to get rid of the unfunded liabilities out there obviously that's that funding schedule is calculated with actual assumptions what the market value is going to do what health what rates are going to do like all the things all you know there's a lot of things that go into calculating that liability and that funding schedule um it's probably been pushed out a couple years you know from when the time you were a Treasurer so um um but that is the ultimate goal it should be at close to 100% funded and then you'll only be paying in your current piece of it um there is a schedule um at the back of the financial statements that shows what that liability was over the past it will ultimately be shown over 10 years but it's probably at like seven or eight right now because we haven't had that many years of it um and kind of what the system how well the system is funded it hasn't really changed year to year basically the same number was I mean it goes up and down right so um at the end of fiscal year 22 the system was uh 78 over 78% funded and the year report was 69 6458 so it is slowly going up but it kind of does a little bit of this over time yeah yep um so that is consistent with other systems you know everyone kind of saw a decrease in their net pension liability in fiscal year 22 and it'll go up next year um unfortunately now right below that is your net opab liability which had a balance of about $7.8 million at the end of fiscal year 22 and that represents the town share of retiree health insurance costs you are not required to fund that liability at this time unlike the pension liability um you know you pay as you go so you're paying for um the town has established an OPB trust fund and put money into that trust and it's contributing a little bit each year which is good um but there's no requirement to fund it at this time um that liability also decreased about $4.4 million in fiscal year 22 um the main reason for that decrease was um because your opep trust fund is is um not very well funded it's like 4% or something like that I believe um it's the discount rate is tied to the municipal bond rate and because the bond market went up in fiscal year 22 the discount rate went up and your liability went down so they're inversely related there um there was also uh similar to the net pension liability it's you know calculated based on actal assumptions so there's certain assumptions that they think are going to happen and if they don't happen there are adjustments that that happen every every year so there was a big adjustment for um what they thought was going to happen to health insurance cost it didn't quite go up as much as they thought so there was a big um decrease as a result of that as well so again this liability can kind of go up and down pretty substantial amounts every year because there's so many assumptions that are that go into calculating this liability as well um so not that you got to take it with a grain of salt but you got to take it with a little bit of grain of salt um and you know continue to put money into it you know even if it's a small amount it's a good idea to continue to do that because most towns are doing that now so if you're not that's just it doesn't look good from a you know financial advisor standpoint or um people outside looking in and I think you said we were about 4% is that correct yeah um yeah I have that somewhere 4.2% funded and is there sort of a a goal of where we might be aiming for or should everyone is yeah I mean everyone's all over the road to be honest there are um towns that are 100% funded they you know made a concerted effort to do that most are 15 maybe it's 20% funded at this point in time it's really all over the road it depends on what the town's preferences are you know a lot of towns are under the um or have the idea that once the pension liability once that contribution goes away they're going to take that and use that to fund OPB you know once you put it in the OPB trust fund it's has to be used for restricted a lot of towns aren't putting a ton of money in there if they don't have a ton money to put I mean you'd be better off putting it stabilization because it's much less restrictive it is a reserve you know it it can be used for a lot of different things um but but the open's really a trust fund not a stabilization fund it is it is and it's and like I said it can only be used for those purposes those expenses so so some towns I think that do use it for their budget for retire health insurance are putting money more money in and taking some out and using it as a right checking yeah and I haven't seen a lot that are actually doing the in andout they're just continuing right but you could but that's the only thing you can use it for so it's really considered more a trust fund it is a trust fund yep I think that I think the issue there is we we need to think of it like winter roads yeah I mean once you put the money in you lower that number right but that's why we made the policy for the free cash to put 10% in at least it's it's not a lot and since our free cash keeps going down but at least it's it went up it went up this year at least it's something yeah yeah right and that that is what matters I think at this point so okay good go ahead those are the only numbers I was going to talk about on those statements unless anyone had any other questions there and that's all I had for the financials again unless and it might be covered somewhere else but Bas and I know the numbers are 2 years old but based on this where would I look to see um how the uh transfer station did what would what were their excess funds if any or deficit um I would talked to Bradley to no to be honest the your Enterprise funds are presented on a full acrel basis here so they're not as meaningful in the financial statements as they are looking at what is actually in the town's general ledger um but there are they are presented on pages 19 and 20 and you know there aren't a ton of adjustments probably for the transfer station but we still book things like your the it share of um the net pension liability you have a a landfill liability which is out there you pay a little bit each here but we acrew that whole liability back so if you're looking at the bottom line like what's my fund balance what do I have it's not super meaningful I mean you can look at the cash balance you have 44,000 at the end of fiscal 22 um that's probably the most meaningful number on that those statements just because of the adjustments we make and how we need to present the Enterprise funds in your financials okay so yeah I think we had talked about during budget season somewhere in here I think I saw a figure of 10,000 or something for the landfill um monitoring maintenance or something think that that varies from year to year am I not right on that but every couple years it changes in terms of the the amount years that's what I was thinking yeah yeah bigger amount so we we tried to absorb that right out of the transfer station Enterprise fund this year into our town budget this year we thought that was maybe a little bit more realistic right one of the issues that we're being well you'll get to this with timely Financial numbers here but we're operating under a hypoth hypothesis that the transfer station's in trouble it's negative and upside down and has been for multiple years and and now we have to deal with it so yeah I mean I feel like it's you know we've AED the town for a few years so it's kind of gone up and down like it had of a good year and then you know all of a sudden it's just people aren't using it or people are you know well our dividends from recycling are gone yeah and that the main one of the main issues right yep question so Scott mentioned that we don't have to response to some of the issues of man management letter but what what what is the what what is a response to some of the things they suggested to be correct well I'm sure there's going to be more in the in the management letter I'm not sure which yeah we'll talk no that's fine yeah we can talk about that in a few minutes yeah I don't think I don't know if there's been any resp no so we I think until this then we can figure out how question and I'm new but you know we're way behind and it sounds like we were dependent upon the school school district to give us for Norris so so the elementary school is a department Incorporated within here to some degree and then Hampshire Hampshire Regional is separate and they have their own books but we were Mickey and Bradley worked pretty much to the 12th hour to figure out the transfers in between between those accounts to be able to close it out y it does meanc the town seems to be dependent on the people of Norris getting the work done well but they're here in town hall oh the at the regional what what the what delay the production statements was high school or the the close out for 23 was the high school well okay and yes they had a proportionate responsibility but the town was behind on things too I mean it wasn't the only at the end of the day the business administrator leaving who' only been there for 7 months and um and then the person before him was only there for 3 months so a lot of turnover and switch and then um I I think one of the solutions when we get to the management letter is we get there is that once we can clean up the backlog internally here which will take time but we'll get done it's then putting in whatever processes through the TA to make sure that we're balancing on a monthly or quarterly basis with the school site to get that information so are we going to be on check I mean where are we for 23 so now we're from the school side I I can say for Norris's side at the end of 23 at our at no at the end of 24 um we voted we voted on all those transfer line down transfers for 23 and 24 last week but where are we for as far as closing stuff so that the audit can be performed 23 is closed am I not right yeah the books for 23 are closed close so it's a matter of we already signed the the audit engagement many many months ago so now it's a time to to get started on 23 and we're definitely behind the eight ball but we're going to be catching up I mean as soon as you guys have that stuff we can get started on it and get it wrapped up so um yeah I mean definitely we started the 22 audit in May of 2023 so you know that was a little bit delayed from what it normally is although the town is usually a spring client usually um April time frame um try to get it done by June just for you know financial advisor purposes end of June um but that you know so much turnover yeah everywhere really is you know definitely part of it m um the town we'll talk about in a minute but was required to have um Federal grant audits in fiscal 22 as well that's not typical um because you had so much Federal money so that was additional testing and we needed information from the school and the town for those so you know that was a little bit more work and different things we requested um for that audit so was a little bit of a perfect storm of everything unfortunately in 22 some of that was for the school aid money that came in and then some of it was the cares money not not the current arpa money although I guess it may be folded in it was under the car's act there was car's act money there was arpa money um there was additional federal school lunch money in 2022 because they you know it was all free lunch but it came through the what's the dollar amount that triggers that right it's it's once you get to a certain level yeah $750,000 in federal expenditures so we had not ever been at that level until just this past yeah we've done it maybe once before with like either CBG Grant or um but looking at the loan well I mean when we get there but looking at the cuz school lunch is here to stay no that um that won't be as much Federal money in future yes it comes from the state um yes going forward but that year it was exceptionally High because of the um free lunch Universal free lunch and it all came from federal essentially that year so that kicked a lot of people up over that with arpa and cares FEMA all the all those fun things y um it is 750 it's anticipated to go up to a million in fiscal year 25 I believe so that'll ease ease the burden a little bit on some of the towns that you know maybe get a little bit extra but not not quite that much so that will be good but um because our statements are late does it affect our do we have a rating from S&P still is it active I think it's a double a negative is it we only have rating on our current um bonds that are already issued we don't have a rating that's active for future we don't have a rating okay I guess my question is if we wanted to borrow a ton of money for Public Safety bu would anybody lend it to us because of the the I think we need to work to get our read back to go through that um it was lost when I was here because the audits weren't we didn't have the audits done one year the left board at that time didn't think we needed to have an audit done every year it was before we had the bylaw that said we need to do an audit every year yeah and so then we lost our rating we didn't have the audit and we got it back like we have to go through a an interview process and everything to get dep depending on the value of the size that you want to issue this town has a through inob can borrow through the state one notch below the state's rating through the treasurer's office if we're doing $4 or $60 million that may be a different story but um the financial advis right not recommend probably something that going through State House agreed but it's also those are unique circumstances when we build these things normally it's a million doll for a bridge or something like that and so there depending on the dollar amount money is easily accessible without going through the Hoops of the rating but if we're going to go for the big projects do we have to do it and then do we commit to continuing that rating as we go on cuz there's a cost y right y right I mean at this point in time most towns that have the same fiscal year end as you are done have an audit done through 63023 which if we can get though you know those numbers soon like i' I'd like to get this finalized first before we move on to 23 but um now is the time to do it like before we jump into the fiscal 24 audits that we're going to be starting in a couple months so so one question on that if you're sitting on this side of the table mhm all right and then you received notice that field work has started whatever the initiation has started what is a realistic expectation for us to Mark in our calendar to keep checking in with everybody to make sure it's going cu the select board is not going to be dayto day there we're not going to see all the emails you know is 60-day window fair is it 90 I mean at this point in time if we have opab do we have opab and we have pension because that's obviously been done at this point in time and those are kind of the things that usually hold up numbers um but if we have all that information it can get done very quickly it's just usually we're waiting on the retirement system numbers or an OPB update because everyone sends their information to the actuary at the same time and then you get put on a waiting list so um you know we can do a lot without those but like obviously we can't do fin financial statements but if the town's ready and proactive and responsive you know we can we have weeks available now and staff available that we could get it through it very quickly so depending on what's ready I mean I think we should get okay because I think you know 24 is right around the corner here I know and we don't know if 23 that we may be triggered again with the 750 I'm not sure I I haven't looked at any numbers yet for Grants are this time around um we might be approaching it when you add the school in there I wouldn't doubt it but right right because yeah actually no it should be because we've got American Rescue plan money yeah again I mean it was that you whole package we had four different Tres of it but we got 1.8 million over 2 years right but when did you spend it I guess that's the bigger question started obligating it in 22 which is part of what you just audited and then we've started obligating and continued obligating it in 23 fiscal 23 into the beginning of 24 this was 24 so yeah you might need probably so yeah answer bound question and we'll look at that we can figure that out pretty easily once we get the numbers from the town cuz there's only so many um pots of money that Federal so and with that like on this time you you just you weren't auditing a specific award that we did there you were looking at our I gather it was reporting that we fell short on in terms of reporting back to the feds in terms of how we had allocated some of the money or um a couple things there so we jumping ahead sorry that's fine we can we can skip to that it doesn't really matter what order we do this so we can look at your um your single audit report so it's a separate statement it's um titled independent Auditors report on government auditing standards and uniform guidance so this um this report on page seven I'm not sure what page of the PDF it is but it's um titled the schedule of expenditures of federal Awards so you know we review the town's general ledger um and we also get information from the school department on you know the elementary school's Federal expenditures so we're not auditing the District we're just auditing the town's Elementary School that the District staff is responsible for keeping the general ledger for but um that also flows through the town's general ledger as well so um so that's your your listing of what your federal funds expended in fiscal year 22 were um like we were talking about the um school lunch program uh the cash assistance number was 198,000 that's much higher than it's been in the past and that's kind of an anomaly because of the universal free um lunch program and the fact it was all funded through the federal government as opposed to uh comination of federal state um and then in the US Department of Treasury you'll have your coronavirus Relief Fund which is your car's money of just over 100,000 and the coronavirus state and local fiscal Recovery Fund um arpa money um and then you your other um other grants there for the school department um which for the most part are consistent from year to year there is you'll see the covid-19 elementary and secondary school emergency relief which is your Sesser money um there'll probably be a little bit of that in fiscal year 23 as well depending on when and how they spent that um so it's likely you're going to be over 750 again in in fiscal 23 if there um is another couple hundred thousand of arpa at least you know combined with the other components here yeah so this car's money was really a challenge for we we' internally we put more processes in place for the American Rescue plan money going forward compared to the car's money that right kind of dropped out of the sky and we didn't really know what we were how to spend it on was it was tough it was a lot of equipment a lot of stuff during Co that you know a lot of decisions were made that were kind of you know challenging having to double check and some of it was supposed to be reimbursed by FEMA and then that percentage changed oh they over complicated that like it was crazy so way more than they needed to it yeah you weren't the only people that struggled with that trust me um right so you know based on this schedule you know we have to analyze it and take a look at you know what we're required to audit because um arpa was such a big number and it's um a higher risk program because it's new it's related to the pandemic you know we had to audit arpa um and we also had to audit the school lunch program as well so those are the two um federal grants that we audited in fiscal year 22 so some of the work we had to do was with the school the school department the school lunch Department we have to obtain records from them and then the arpa funds you know was was more the towns side um obtaining documents and reports and and things like that from the town um so just you know generally in terms of your Federal grant audits um the federal government you know dictates us what we need to audit what we need to look at for these types of Grants um whether it's reporting um we're always looking at what the expenditures are so what is spent out of the school lunch fund um making sure it's an allowable cost for that um Grant same with arpa looking at what's spent um there um so that kind of drives what we test and how we how we test things so if you look at the findings because there was a couple um those are based on you know federal government says we need to test this this is what we looked at and we either didn't find it or there was an issue with what we what we looked at um we did not end up having any issues with the school lunch um Grant it was kind of painful to get the information but when we did get it it it was fine um we did have issues uh with the arpa Grant and if you're looking at if you're scrolling through the report there's a schedule findings and question costs um we did we do have to report the material weakness that we'll talk about in a minute related to cash and receivable reconciliations that has to go in this report um so you'll see that first the financial statement finding there but there's also the federal award finding for um for the arpa fund in terms of we could not be provided the um report that was required to be filed for April 30th of the year we were auditing so page nine for anybody filing so so has that report been filed since I don't know we haven't gotten the town's response yeah no idea it would have been done by the former Town Administrator side right so that's required to be filed April 30th my guess is we can probably go online do a public search and see whether it's there or not cuz this is just going to repeat itself when you get into 23 right yeah right because we do we are required to follow up on the findings and the issues that were noted um and we will likely have to audit arpa again in fiscal year 23 if it was um kind of as much as you said there is so this was report due April 30th 22 the one of 22 is the one we inquired about it would had to get filed for 23 and at this point April 2024 as well y we can certainly figure that out continue to have a qualified opinion the prior reports so if we tested even yeah if we tested ARP again in 23 and the report still not filed we would continue to have a qualified opinion if it was filed filed late there's a little bit of you know leeway there probably but I mean technically it's supposed to be filed by April 30th so you know we'll work with the town on what happened there um and there was also a finding you know unfortunately because the town doesn't usually need to have a Federal grant audit we don't usually inquire whether there's formal policies and procedures over Federal grant processes and procedures um so there was a finding related to that as well there are examples out there that we can provide if the town wants to um kind of use it as a starting point to adopt those it's basically you know what's the process for making sure that only allowable cost gets charged to a Federal Grant and other things of that nature um that relate to the different components the federal government thinks are important for federal grants there are policies that already written that we could adopt there yeah we could we could send a few examples that the town could cuz I mean it's it's not you're not you don't need to reinvent the wheel like there's you right we can share that um yes yeah so who's actually charged with producing these reports that we didn't F something Scott it would yeah it would have been at the Town administrative level so prior to Scott y far as right every town is a little bit different but yes count but yeah I mean he's got to get the figures from from Bradley depending on what the report requires I don't even know but so seen it this is one of the other areas where we we've talked about print like one example is we should have a shared written calendar 8 and 12 by 11 these are the special due dates you know the DLS puts them all out for us anyways and if we have it then it's on our radar say oh we're supposed to have this you know example if we end up getting July 1st if we get the federal tanker yeah right I imagine that's 650 contribution that Al take us right over the 750 for the for fiscal 24 right so not having these reports on file I don't want them to be a Dinger sure sure you know yeah no that's something we definitely need to check through I'm sure it must be unfiled someplace whether it right we can find out whether it's been filed and I don't know if you have you logged on to the okay you were because it's a pain too if you're not the original you have to like email yeah okay yeah that was that's always fun um it's a process there so that's good at least you can log in and see what should be there yeah well I think too we had um just for your information we we' had a bunch of old select board policies on on a variety of things that had not been updated since about 2017 18 and we we took a whack at those a couple years ago and updated everything we had but didn't know that we had to work on writing new policies or adopting new policies so we've got a another four or five I'm sure that we have to do based the findings here right I mean the town does have Federal money every year it's just you know sometimes it doesn't raise to the point where we need to to look at it from that perspective um obviously the it's included in the town audit overall um and we do look at things but not as much in detail as if we did a Federal grant audit um specifically so one of those reports you only have to do yeah yep yep no one wants to do them if they don't have to do them um okay so does anyone have any other questions on that report I think on page 10 you you put out some some basic things in terms of our reconciliation problems so I think that's something we need to pay attention too as yes yes and that it that issue is also reported in the management letter um we did put it in both places you know we don't really have to but um you know for fiscal year 22 reconciliations we're fairly on track but once you know getting into fiscal 23 when we come out to do our audit testing and inquired like what you know it's it's May 2023 what month have you reconciled cash through and you know the response was October so that's concerning I know this isn't really a fiscal 22 issue but from our perspective it should be reconciled on a monthly basis and I couldn't just ignore the fact that at that point in time when we're asking about it it's you know that far behind and I understand the reasons for it it's just it's still a concern from our perspective you know if you're not reconciling your largest assets um on a monthly basis that's you know something could well I think at one point we were hoping too to have maybe quarterly meetings for the court and and finance to go through over just in general the status of the financial reports expenditure and and revenue reports which we haven't really put in place but that was going to be kind of a another check that we had talked about looking at it quarterly together and to say okay are there some some things here that we're questioning just in terms of expenses or Revenue that we might know that you know maybe isn't being captured or something like that so it's something we all try maybe formalize a little bit for the coming fiscal year if we can yeah going forward that's good where we were we didn't have anything to evaluate and we've got to get a process in place right same same difficulty of visibility on the finance committee side you we had request coming through about expenditures and we could report to the balances of the accounts mhm yeah right and I know you know Jen reconciled her records internally you know her bank statements to her cashbook and things like that but it also needs to get reconciled to the general ledger as well so that's really where the the missing piece was and again it was because everything was just over bar behind you can't do it right and and the town spent a lot of money to bring in outside resources right right wrong or indifferent on their effectiveness to get up to speed and we just need to figure out a way to continually fall behind but it goes across all departments I mean right it's not they're sitting here because they're in part of the finance team but it's not solely on their shoulders you know the school the lunch program everybody needs to you know accountability and and I I go back to you know if it's written down and we have a schedule then then we have the ability to force it remember oh you know September 30th how you know where's that report is that and by the time we're asking the question it's probably too late but yeah right I mean part of it is too you know we started the audit in May of last year and then we get to a certain point where we're busy with the audits that we have currently scheduled that are on time so we may follow up with departments here or there but we're not like we we can't prioritize you know the audit that didn't give us what we needed when we asked for it unfortunately so that doesn't help either but if we call for the audit we should have everything ready right yeah and then it's just a matter of follow-up questions or can you can you show me the backup for this you know whatever your random sampling yeah yeah so okay um okay so yeah the last report is the management letter again we you know we've talked about the cash reconciliation receivable reconciliation issues and the kind of the reasons for that um you know we have a couple sentences in in there highlighted I was hoping to just get an update on where things stand I guess to make it more like we're issuing the report in um June of 20124 and we have field work as of May so if you guys can provide us with that just so we have more more updated information um you know we found a couple issues when we we take a look at the budget itself you know we take a look at the town meeting votes and Trace things out to the recap and then Trace them also to the town's General letter to see what was recorded for budgeted items and there was a couple issues noted there none of them are very big issues but just because there was a a handful of them um we just noted noted them in um the second comment there um and then the last was you know formally adopt the opep Declaration of trust which I don't know if the town has done that at this point in time um we have to on the next special to meeting to um we adopt 32 right okay so again not a huge issue but it just you know was recommended by the state a few years ago now and it um the town should really reopt that with the new verbiage so could you just explain a little bit on on that page about the the amounts in the general editor not agreeing to the tax recap on on the uh water the water Fund in particular what what what impact does that have I what what's seriousness of that um so I don't know exactly which direction this um issue went but for instance when you vote at T meeting you vote this is how much we're going to expend um related to water expenses that number goes on the recap you voted it you're going to fund it from user charges and then that expense budget needs to go in general ledger to make sure you don't overexp what was voted by town meeting um so there was a difference in in those amounts um so all three of them should should tie out all right any other comments questions over there just yeah question so how are we doing today as far as monthly reconciliation I believe better than we were better than when you were doing your examination but not not up to date no we're still the record verbally what it is saw I believe it's the end of February we have our Revenue unless it's changed since then so expenses I think are pretty up to date but revenues are still probably 3 months behind in terms of recording the receipts in the general ledger so right now and I are reconciled through February I'm currently entering March Revenue okay um so it's better than it yeah that's better I me I think internally our goal has been probably a 6 week lag time that's what we've been wanting to aim for we've been saying it want to aim for it so whatever we can do to make that but we but we do think expenses are current as of the last warrant run it's hard not to be yeah yeah I mean expenses aren't usually the issue it's usually getting the receipts and that posted in there and then reconciling overall expenses adjust every time right you're going to be taking up an awful lot of transfers here yeah no any time ack is cut you it should go into the okay unless it's a manual check which hopefully there aren't a lot of those so yeah yeah exactly um yeah no none of those yeah so our our next step is to do responses to this audit and get them to you so we need to commit ourselves on terms of what time frame we're going to get these done what's realistic end of the month before the before the new fiscal year can we try that I don't know I'm just putting out something yeah um so that we can at least close this off so that then Markham and crew can can take a look at at 23 and then whatever we've got to get ready to give to them for 23 that you know to the extent to the extent it's ready or if there's something more that has to get ready uh that we make that a a priority as well I believe the only responses that that we're that we have to answer are the federal audit single audit right the other ones would be nice to have but I would say we focus on the federal audit so everything get closed and it's one from tomorrow night mhm you know I mean we don't you don't need volumes of information no it's it's pretty um generic I think we sent you guys the format it needs to go in you have to list the finding number and then um you know how you're going to resolve it and who they you have to specifically State who is going to be responsible for basic overseeing that it gets done um and the estimated date but again it it doesn't have to be a novel short and sweet um yeah the thing on the reconciliations it's a known issue we're addressing it we know it's going to come up again into on the next audit so make sure the wording is worded that you know yeah we'll be resolved at the you know early fiscal year 25 or whatever that kind of thing yeah checking on the federal audit um time frames in terms of the report the report that was is and is that only an annual report April that's that's it's not a quarterly report that's no it's just one one report okay so we ought to be able to check on that and figure out where that is last time as well as going forward right so I'm thinking we ought to be able to so process-wise cuz I would think that the team prepares the responses the responses then are well we have full committees now I know we vote to approve the responses before they get sent in so I mean I'm just right you know if we're going to want Finance the way you know so that we're all on the same page and it's possibly a zoom meeting yeah right we can figure out something yeah no I think it would be good everybody had a chance to take a look at the responses for sure before they go in yeah so let's let's make the end of the month is our goal at the latest CU I also heard H say she only has three open weeks right now so if you know there there Cycle's going to start all over say that but yes we will we we get busy towards the end of the summer so the sooner we can get this done and get on with 23 the faster we able to wrap that up so okay we'll certainly do our our best to do that we have a special Town election coming up next week so that's been taking up a lot of time yeah but hopefully we're past that hurdle for a minute anyway so we can pick this up good any other questions guys from from you all on this um just thoughts recommendations I know Doug you've done lots of audits in your own personal job life uh any other thoughts that might be recommendations for us too that I think it would be good to see kind of some of the others have examples and some of the internal control y mhm I can send those sure be good yep yeah I mean I think you're right we don't need to reinvent anything we ought to be able to adapt right other policies from other towns and make it you know fit Southampton I think exactly yep okay good well if there's no other comments questions thank you very much coming in and taking the time much appreciate it I don't know what time it is but it's got to be before 830 7:30 on the do somebody took all the clocks 7:30 on the dot you are good have a great night thanks so much thank you appreciate it very good okay uh next we have only one or two small items here or maybe maybe not too small but we'll see um we have some end ofe transfers this is kind of the uh the time of the year where we're allowed to do transfers in between departments here and um so everybody you've got some of these in front of you um trying to think I think I would like to have um we can kind of go through they're sort of in a in a well they aren't really in a category I thought they were they aren't really a little bit they are um I guess kind of go through each one see if there's any question discussion from anybody any explanation that we might have um to answer any questions and then what we'll end up doing probably as I would think have Finance do a vote first and then um select board take a vote based on that afterwards how's that work I think it's the first time we've been together to do a a transfer uh vote if I'm not mistaken I don't think we did this last year that we were together to do the vote for transfers I assume we're gonna have to meet again before the I assume yeah I'm assuming these are not the only transfers date tonight yeah we've got a few from like the town clerk for the special some other some other transfers okay so uh let's pick up the first one so um overdrawn accounts so ambulance maintenance $99,500 uh the request is to take it from EMT wages any comment thought question on that and this is because I'm sure we haven't at the time anyway had not been um we're definitely don't have those two positions that we had approved in the last budget year filled yet and we were waiting to hear from the chief where we are status wise in terms of recruiting the paramedic um param the two paramedics that we had approved so I'm sure that's why we have excess money there is that correct yeah and it looks like it was spent because one of the ambulence Lost AC and the other one um exhaust system issue yeah but it's not quite getting up to the AC was only like $3,000 yeah I didn't catch the where the total of the 9500 came from I Wasing 4,500 is to fix the ambulance AC and exhaust system I'm sorry 45 4500 and then it looks like another $846 on Tires Tires Tire tires maybe yeah that's all the backup that's in there okay okay it's a request for $99,500 so the math guy in me tells me $9,500 is a fake number right I mean cuz look at the next line $2,315 63 um yeah it seems like it was rounded yeah but if there's unknown receipts coming in or whatever over the next two weeks maybe another maybe he just wants extra money in there in case another receipt comes in or another bill something else he has to pay CU seeing definitely the one bill in terms of the backup we have anyway for about $3,829 and then um yeah I think the third page summarizes that one right there 4514 so those are two separate bills right so yeah it's not exactly 9500 I'm not sure where we're coming up with that but any further idea there may be more ambulance repairs that haven't hit the uh I mean my take is it's ambulance receipts to to ambulance expenses yeah okay all right do we want to do we want to discuss them and then kind of vot maybe on the ho I think that's probably that's probably most efficient so why don't we do that so if nobody has any questions any further thoughts let's pass on and we'll see if Scott can help us with some of these others here so photocopy or lease and supplies um need $2,315 63 to come from the group health insurance mhm so other expenses any explanations on some of those or uh we actually had two photo copiers on lease we were paying about a little over $200 a month for one that we weren't using um we were able to finally contact the the company after a couple months um and this is just a settle the bill so they've actually taken back The copier that was under lease so this is to clear that out okay yeah I think we had ordered a new copier I didn't realize we hadn't gotten rid of the old one yet okay good okay so that's the explanation there 2300 so this ends up that that bill for the old copier that is now no longer with us is that was that an early termination of the lease did the length of lease go beyond you so no we were just paying it but it was UN budgeted mhm which department had leas um ta General Town Hall yeah yeah yeah would have been the one in the break room Go a different company or something is that why normally don't they take the one get one they one was it a different it was a different brand was it a different company right it was a different it was a different company that we used yeah yeah so yeah okay so the the um we're not going to have an issue I don't know again without seeing the backup I we're not going to have an issue here with paying prior your bill where were those those $2,300 in charges all actually occurred in the fiscal year 24 yes okay I think this was discovered when Scott came on right but is $200 a month $2,300 um and a little bit change you know there was some fees associated with it so this would be able to get us off of that old lease MH but basically nothing you're asking is is there any any charges back to ffy 23 is that your question right because that requires separate vote no okay okay okay we will move forward Library utilities $2,557 again taking that proposed to take it from the group health insurance and this is basically electricity costs or do we know anything more than that go ahead they're mostly from the electrical credit transfers that we have to do for the cpow and nmc credits things that we pay a bill for the whole town and then we distribute it between the Departments and libraries really been hit a lot with these charges MH so I've calculated and said that's what we at the very least we need right now to cover the three invoices okay and will there be other departments I checked the other departments and everyone else seems pretty fine pretty decent shape for the rest of the year interesting wonder why I mean we're we're going to be swapping out hopefully some of those lights through the green uh Green community grant that might be part of it but um it's interesting Library during that year though the library might have used some of the utility money when they had the the furnace issues septic you know perhaps I don't know no clue okay anyway that's the request for Library utilities um Council on Aging expenses $1,300 to come from Council on Aging wages um the note here is to come from wages to expenses uh due to the position not being filled for the entirety of the year so I think this was where even when we had the budget presentation the directors told us that there was like a couple hundred left or something in expenses so we've incurred more expenses than they had planned on when they had put the budget together a few many months ago so this is taking it from within their own accounts for $1,300 to get through the fiscal year from what I understand anything I will say the explanation seems to be in Reverse is not explaining the addition expenses just saying hey by the way we have this access funds because um it seems yeah yeah it's a justification for why they're taking it from where yeah yeah yeah I'm not sure what they what people were asked to to present it's more like you know what the way it's listed here anyway it's overdrawn and then where's the source of funds so exactly it's not saying why why things are expense we don't have a whole lot of backup on all these requests I didn't go into great detail but I mean Bradley sent out the communication that normally goes out here's the form here's the memo here's what you need to provide MH um so if they didn't WR isn't that on your list yes but Council and aging was one of the only ones that did give an explanation that was their explanation so I used it for the other ones I did very generic explanations which I should have thought for more but the way the file is set up it's confusing people that each line has a letter assigned to it and then below the letter has the explanation often people will just give the number and the source and account they want to increase and they don't put an explanation MH gotcha okay so are these actual overd Dr accounts accounts that we assume will be overdrawn by the end of the year or accounts that we want to over no these are are they currently or they're projected to be the only account that's currently over drawn is the town hall utilities well no no longer is overdrawn it used to be overdrawn the utilities account for the town hall because I have to do transfers to move the credits around to all the Departments but now I put through those transfer so right now the only account here is the library utilities account is overex exended because of my journal entries okay but every other account has enough like at least a few hundred available but everyone's expecting to over draw it so before that happens we need these transfers to go through so these are projected expenses still between well whenever this was put together in before the end of the uh the end of the fiscal year so just so we jump based on that right if we jump back up to the fire department the the receipts they're not receipts I guess the invoices in here from Ford for the 4,514 are you holding payment on that one I believe I don't believe I pulled any invoices but if there is an account that I know is going to be in deficit I let the department head know that I'm not going to be paying this and to request the transfer to cover this before I pay it and then we or we have a deficit issue so I guess it goes back to Becky's question do we really I'm trying to find the date this was January 17th when they had to get no I'm sorry it was it was May 16th 2024 yeah right now ambulance M cash ambulance maintenance right now has $147 available and I stopped them from using it and has this yeah is that balance before or after this invoice from we haven't paid that invoice yeah there wasn't enough money to pay that invoice so now with the transfer that invoice can be paid right okay all right next up library wages $500 to come from library expenses um and again to ensure there's enough for Library wages so I don't know what other commentary there is there it's is there anything more was there any um additional Staffing or I don't know that hourly wage changed or was just saying she wanted to be safe right now wages have $67 available so there's a payroll this week a payroll and then final one at the end of the month so just to be safe for three payrolls it would cut close and she wants to just put a little extra money in there to be safe so don't overex expend okay and again coming from their own accounts but so maybe if we have to meet again cuz we have up until July 15th to do these transfers I mean if the library utilities one is legitimate and then um I would assume the other one that's legitimate is winter roads right that's just balancing out those two accounts you know so I'm good with that I'm good with the library and and the ambulance I'd be good with what these invoices support M and then let's see how it falls out and we can come back again I mean it's not necessarily I don't see the the logic behind within the department taking the money out of here and putting it up there because we're going to see that as a single line it when we come to the budget session again next cycle around it's not going to be like well how come we put extra money in there if it's in deficit it's in deficit and and we need to clean those up but um and then I sorry and then I would say is what documentation can be provided to support whatever the request is so the 45 in 4500 in here and plus whatever the tires are you know I I would adjust that $9,500 number because we have supporting documents to justify that transfer and then the library based on um journal entries that Bradley did related to the cow plops so we know that that's an issue and he has his journal entries that back up that number and then the Winter Road transfer to get to get th those two accounts um balance and there's still extra money in there within winter roads at DPW MH yeah yeah I mean normally we do if I recall last year we did at least at least four different transfers four different sets of of transfers at the end of the year so this is probably taking a whole bunch of them all at once whereas we might have broken these down into smaller bunches last time around I don't know yeah I'm just saying but we will have another time or two before we do this and and I think it's appropriate to to get the detail that backs it up so we can spot check the things and do our fiduciary part mhm the other I could make the argument the other way that department heads are just trying to make sure the money's there so till July 1st they're out the door for the holiday week yeah and they're trying not to overspend yeah exactly well and if we had a purchase order system wouldn't allow deficit spending to start with well and that's on the list going to be on the list for for July I don't know that it's active my question is on payroll accounts say we have to pay these employees at the end of the month and they don't have enough money to pay out of that account right I would assume we would let them deficits spend to pay the employees we're not going to hold off on paying people do you do a year into gruel because I don't know I mean Jen's payroll but do did the last paycheck for this fiscal year is that cut on June 30th or doesn't some of it roll into July it's well July 3rd should be the payLo date yeah it's a couple of days 30 right so there's an ACR there so there's a final payroll for a couple of days or something isn't there for uh July there's a final payroll warrant right for a couple of days in July is there not no no no wow I don't know is it the fre or 24 pay in yes yeah but if if I'm assuming that the library is concerned about uh substitute right cuz that's an unknown but almost every of everybody else has you get with 261 days a pay or whatever the case is the calculator down and then to your question about that we would pay them or not I think in the library hey you're short 400 bucks you've got it over here on this line item you need to do this transfer in order to get the payroll done right and then based on you having the paperwork we probably go through and just put it through without the vote in order to meet the payroll yeah but yeah I mean I think you know there's a policy on this yeah well and you know in reality I mean we're not we hadn't planned on meeting again we were to take advantage of having Finance with us tonight because we wouldn't be meeting again before our July 9th meeting normally unless we'd have to for something um so that was why we were trying to push these through tonight hey I don't really care go for the work of moving the 500 you don't need it then it's going to end up it just seems like you might be doing work that doesn't need to be done but yeah yeah my the other line item that I I am not having memory Recall why why we over $7,500 in legal expenses is that is that the enforcement a large part has been enforcement for some of the uh properties that we haven't usually had to deal with so some of the um uh yeah and I would say that's got to and the land transfers as well some of the land transfer on the special election but but I think part of it is is been a lot of the Board of Health uh enforcement issues that we've dealt with three or four different properties around town so that hadn't been that's been not been a normal expense that we've incurred well and the same issue is driving the Board of Health agent um expense and yet I'm very confused by the email presentation um which is already several weeks old so I'd like that rationale made PL mhm I understand that they're going they're expecting a Big Bill but they represent that they know 6300 will cover it but they don't address whether they're going to apply the existing balance I I can't follow the requ what what is the existing well we we've skipped around 7109 there may be a warrant that's in process maybe I don't know that hasn't hit there yet for $2,710 194 is available in BO Contracting expenses so they would expend out that and they want an additional 6500 so they're anticipating $9,000 yes yeah 6,300 yeah right exactly talking about unusual expense in May and June invoice on May 30th it's unclear what invoice is in hand and what's just congest is there a is there a 60-day delay and would we receive invoices from that contracted person I bet you there's a 30 month 30 day 30 30day delay we may have the May invoice right now but we haven't paid it right and we're waiting for transfer to have enough money to pay that that's where I think some of these are where stuff has been kind of hanging out there and we haven't I mean this is the first time we've sat down to look at transfers so yeah so there's so that's the the legal legal one there's just going back up I don't if you want to just continue going down these I the winter roads expense so the 43 $371 and $32 coming from Winter Road rages I think that's the one we've not been surprised at that's kind of an every year scenario and they're they're really the expense account was expended by that amount it's already exped by that contractors replacing our lack right yeah well in overtime but the um part of the positive there is those two line items are supporting themselves right Randall isn't having to strip down any other section of his budget to make that balance mhm which is important yeah yeah so a large part of that is all of our salt and all the other sand and everything else we Ed for the winter um Road treatments yeah uh Library maintenance 1,448 coming from group health insurance um I just going to read these legal expense 7500 from Group Health um group health insurance technology Services $1,000 from group health insurance and Board of Health contracted services 6,300 from group health insurance so a lot of money coming out of group health insurance which I know that varies from year to year but we seem to be D dipping into that piggy bank quite a bit this year I didn't love to see if there was enough I'm not sure so well I'm sure somebody must have or we wouldn't have put it forward so go ahead know what percentage of you know budget that Mi up yeah tell you how much percent I mean that's out of this out of this list we've got six things taken out of group health insurance the original budget for group health insurance well after adjustment was 9865 98631 15.35 right now we have 80% of that spent so 20% remains for the rest of the year and when I forecasted last month I expected at least 100,000 to be available at the end of the year there 192,000 right now mhm okay so you're comfortable that there's money available to be taken from that account the way I forcasted was I looked at every month up until May and I saw which month had the most expended and then I projected that that expense was every month of the remainder of Year be safe mhm okay so unless June is 200,000 or something ridiculous yeah which I don't expect it to be okay see all right so then legal expenses as we were talking about I think part of that um is not only some of our our land transfer issues with uh the landscape partnership Grant as well as the special election land as well as the um um property issues that we've had with various properties that the Board of Health has been looking at and a couple of cases have had to I believe issue um condemn notices for so there's been a lot of extra work there that had not ever been dealt with LTC license to carry cases that are pending use Council for freeing right the um the ones associated with the land Acquisitions and the U everything to do with that the I see paint it out of this but I mean if it's only $7,500 and that's fine but I mean shouldn't we be tracking these funds separately so that we can have a decision whether we want to use it out of operation cash or do we want to lump it all into to a bond issue when the time comes at some point someone's going to ask the question from this side of the table what was our total cost to do this project and it's not just going to be the bond issue right because you're going to have this piece that and maybe internally can get coded that way so yeah we used operating cash but this really is an expense that belongs over here could be yeah I mean one of the things we had talked about this past year U at least when Ed and I had talked way back when was building the budget especially for legal we've kept it pretty flat at 25,000 I think for a number of years now and we knew that you know Board of Health was going to be using it more uh open space was going to be using it more bylaws was using it z um planning was using it you know we were talking about not not having it divvied out amongst each of those dep departments but having everybody in their budget presentation say hey I think we're going to need a couple thousand for legal for planning board for example so that we could actually make the argument to to change that that amount for um no and I like I like we started that but we I have it like I like have it I don't know if it's Central under the TA or under the select board's preview under one of those lines right to have it all there but I'm just saying within the details of what's there yeah um because if we fast forward a year we're got an increase here wouldn't it be prudent for us to say okay give me a print out of what all those chares were and what they were for hey that's a one time this is it seems like we have a pattern you know to allow us to go deeper into these things without have necessarily pull out invoices from KP that's all okay valid right technology Services Scott anything on that's actually for um two Adobe licenses um unfortunately we deal mostly with PDFs um so it allows us to get some lifetime licenses instead of doing the $ 20 to $30 every month that adobe charges we would actually own licenses forever um but you know we we pretty much dealing PDFs all the time so editing them making forms combining files um it actually saves a significant amount of time M that's a onetime cost it is now they're so expert fleecing the consumer what did you see yeah did you see the news today about it by mobe yep going all the way to Supreme Court okay let's keep on drying anyway Board of Health contracted Services um so the 6300 you know we know that maybe there's a couple thousand left to be spent but you know is there a $9,000 Bill awaiting us before the end of the fiscal year we don't it's not clear at all have a clue exactly on that um election registration expenses $680 to come from the assistant accountant wages um and this is because of additional cost for the postage on mailin ballots probably for part of the special election I would think maybe um so we mail out I think they told us they were going to mail it about a th000 ballots which you know the return on the mailing is pretty pretty minimal quite honestly if we get a third of those back we're we're doing well but we have to anybody that's checked the box that says that they want a mail in ballot we have to mail them out so that's where that postage is coming from that's where the postage is coming from I'm sure there um Health director salary $342 60 coming from the Board of Health expenses um unanticipated housing issues is what it says here and I'm not sure what that means but I assume meetings and other dealing with the condemnation Charlie and stuff on that's her speak for the condemnation issues mhm I believe it's not her personal house no no no no no no TR no I wasn't I wasn't saying that but I mean I don't know if that equals about 11 hours work okay 11 hours thereabouts okay yeah okay so that's what that's about veterans agent expenses from the veteran benefits line $120 that's to buy a cabinet a storage cabinet M okay tax title $700 to come from um I'm sorry postage uh $11,000 to come from uh treasure collector wages tax title 700 also from Treasure collector wages and treasure collector expenses at $600 from Treasure collector wages so since you're here you want to talk about just the deficits briefly um why you so we can all hear you sorry thanks we'll take advantage of you being here Jennifer day treasur collector um so postage we're I'm asking for I put $1,000 um so after looking at the balance and we still have to mail out the real estate bills we have an invoice due to Art Jones um for postage in the amount of $622 it's going to bring us to a $68 Cent deficit so I wanted to put another a th000 in there just to be safe for the last two weeks of the year for other departments to use it um and for whatever else may come up why the postage was underestimated I I mean I can't really fully explain but you know they were um a couple of postage increases in fiscal year 24 and I'm not sure if there you know it is a townwide expense all of the departments use the postage machines so you know some of them do more mailing than usual I I don't know but it did fall short this year um and even going forward into the future we will definitely have to put more money into fisar 25 postage because it looks like it was budgeted the same as 24 so if this th000 goes through you pay the art Jones Bill and then the balance of it you'll just preload the machine um so I don't I can preload the machine so I can do that so it's there for next year like you know give it a little buffer I guess or I can not spend it and it will just go into free cash I mean I guess preing the machine sounds like the better idea right now I don't know what normal practice I mean and if I'm going to do that I wonder if I should even do another transfer to just you know for out of later on does that that uh cuz that's a newer machine that's in there now right does it track it by do people have codes like we can see over a period of time there are codes [Music] yes ma for Real Estate personal property that you have to do before the end of the month is that be yeah so the cost of that is um where is it like I can't even see in here $1,884 1,900 $1,984 yeah think at my rating are right I'm blind well I mean it sounds like you're you're running close there but I mean whether it's whether it's possible to to preload the machine if you if you happen a little bit of extra than that it is possible so I can do that plus you know I think even the cost of ink went up and I think even just with all these like now mailing mail out ballots you know the cost of Inc is almost $300 for the you know cartridge to fill the machine so we definitely go through more ink and it's more expensive so there's that too okay how about a little bit on the tax title and the expenses that you're asking for um so tax title I just received an invoice for May um for $897 I only have $728 left in the account I'm estimating you know there will also be a June invoice I'm not sure how much as of when I talked to the tax title attorney last cost he had only Built Us for $50 I added another 500 like for June instead of 50 just because I know there will be like Services he does due to the tax title auction and just other properties that are currently in Leon Court so unfortunately we only have 3,000 I did budget for 5,000 for this coming fiscal year um so and that's no so this is also depleting the revolving fund mhm okay and then just summon expenses $600 just just general um so my balance right now is 17259 I have a couple of invoices due for art Jones and for Amazon so this is the Amazon is for Bill paper for Vadar cuz we you know that wasn't budgeted for um so we have to buy perforated legal size paper now to print the preliminary bills for Vadar so I had to purchase that and then I think a lot of the reason behind the deficit though not you know just this bill paper it's not because of the art Jones bill because that was like you know known that we would pay art Jones but we did have to spend 500 around $500 to file ACA this year because they changed the filing requirements where if you had over 10 employees you had to file electronically so we were using we use like comply rate software to file that because our software um soft right didn't have an ACA module so we had to buy a software program to put in every year to produce those forms um and unfortunately comply right doesn't allow you to do an electronic file like right to the IRS they charge you so we had to pay like four something per form for them to file to the IRS electronically they won't let you just like pull it out yourself so that was $500 extra that I had to spend thankfully how we'll do that I know thankfully mhm okay so um what's what's our thoughts here um how we want to tackle this um pulled up Bradley's last expense report so if anybody's got questions about balances and Bradley's here too uh we can take a look at some of these if you want to check on anything um I'd rather take advantage of people being here tonight I realize we have all the greatest backup but otherwise that would mean you guys would have to have another meeting to vote yourselves and then we'd have to have another meeting too so what's anybody thinking about anything of them for looking okay second any discussion all in faor okay all right I'm just going to take a look um I was just trying to take a look at um what the legal balance was um can you just tell me what that is I'm just trying to find it clearly here H I just see it sorry we're about 80% spent around 5,000 left as of mid mid June is that right and we definitely have got more stuff to be done so that's where that one's coming from how far behind is the firm billing uh two months yeah about two months they're probably a 60-day biller yeah and do we have to then pay 24 bills and 25 under a similar process yeah I for we would encumber a certain amount of money for after July 1st for whatever bills are out so this transfer would take care of we hope so yeah there shouldn't be probably another legal one I mean we may have more transfers but not another legal expense one for this the month the June Ando will show up in July yeah right but I'm hoping that the plan of the 7,000 or whatever you've got here oh yeah that that should cover it that should cover it 7500 should cover what we've got in the works um certain not not our last shot to right yeah and I think on uh just briefly I'm just trying to find it Library maintenance uh where'd it go just had it maybe you can pull it up quicker Bradley let's see which one is it under Library maintenance what's left in there uh uh $211 so they're they're about done with what they have there um Council on Aging expenses has a192 left so they're kind of at the precipice and I think that was one of the issues that they brought up during their budget presentation too what they were definitely under budgeted um and then uh Scott you already talked about technology so any any others okay if not so I'm not comfortable with the first one ambulance maintenance without additional information I'm not comfortable with the Board of Health contracted services without additional information or somebody showing me the math I I think it's there it's just not in that explanation and as a general rule I'm not comfortable with with the health director's salary of 11 extra hours I mean they have a set amount to work in and that's what they do of all of them $342 I guess I could let that one go but the 6,300 and 9500 I think are large enough numbers that um the work the work needs to be shown you know I suspect the 6300 you're going to you know if we go through someone goes through the analysis of saying you know here's the first 10 months that they've built and this is what they're on track and this kind in it's going to come somewhere near there but that's the department that we get the most push back from the residents on so bulletproof our case here's the documents they pray yep it passes the mustard test and then do the transfer and we still have time yeah we do so you're what I'm hearing you say is to pull off maybe the ambulance maintenance and the Board of Health contracted Services the second round transfers I'm fine approving all of this with the exception of letter a and letter j p and and I'll support those if I can get backup documents that get closer to those numbers or justification and that's you maybe consider the ambulance a lesser amount because there is and I'm I'm I'm fine with adjusting that9 $99,500 down to the cumulative of those two invoices that you provide that somebody provided us tonight right the Ford and then the tires whatever those are whatever that number needs to be to make sure that I'm good with that too yeah cuz that's around maybe seven or eight it maybe it maybe they just rounded it up to the 95 but I think it was closer to maybe 8,000 or something if I don't know if you can figure that out but we could we can put that we don't to have the exact amount make the motion that that's less it's based on the two invoices that we were presented yeah so I'll I'll approve this I'm making a motion to approve this as presented with with the following exceptions letter a and letter J can only be paid up to those $2 amounts pending um backup documentation to justify that number they can't go above those numbers so whatever that Ford dealership one is and the tires combined so I see $846 58 for the barn invoice and then for the marot Ford for5 $451 14481 so a total of $ 5,361 39 you 5500 there was something more though that had the uh h u the air conditioning on there yeah isn't that the Ford one it was like a three-page invoice yeah there's a longer invoice there so we got to be careful on that [Music] um is sub toled 45 141 okay so that so yeah so the the letter A adjusted down to $5,400 5,400 okay and and J I'm sorry and and J just someone somebody needs to do the and I'm not suggesting It's Bradley but somebody needs to do the work here are my outstanding invoices that haven't been submitted yet here's what the contractor believes they're going to be okay put the do numbers together so you want to hold that one off subract available balance hold that one together hold that one for the second round or y y you have you have money to pay an invoice that's you said you've got about 2,800 left in that line COA um the um Heth service yeah I believe we have partially we can partially take maybe we could take a portion of it without well yeah I think they can bring us a May invoice time 2 plus the available balance and I'd be good with that but I really don't know where we're headed mhm and if it's that that one single line item I mean we do I mean when are we here again we're here tomorrow night we are here tomorrow right so if if if somebody if somebody could do that proved everything for us yeah you guys can limit it yeah the uh not we approved you know if we can just get that answer tomorrow right under other business we could do a separate vote for that one line item totally possible now is this this is not the um I just want to be clear this is not the health agent wages right it's the Board of Health money is coming from group health insurance yeah $2,700 left so let's see if we can get the answer on that one tomorrow night and we can take this one up again tomorrow night you guys have already approved it so I think if we just you know so you want to kill the motion and just hold this for tomorrow oh no I think let's go with what we've got so we can get make a motion to approve this with the following AC uh amendments letter A be adjusted to 5400 mhm letter J be held pending um justification documents okay and the rest as is stated okay sorry all right and shall we say that if if we have the justification documents tomorrow would we pick it up tomorrow yeah I'm happy to pick it up under other bu we have justification enough on those have we can reconsider them tomorrow night because we'll be meeting tomorrow night so we can take it up under any other business okay so with that I think we had a second Stephen yeah okay all those in favor I I I all right good I think that takes care of that so that gets a few of these done and we know that we'll be probably having more transfers coming at us before the end of the fiscal year okay good I think that's it for finance committee we have one issue I think uh just on our side we have a vacation carryover request for Randall you want to explain that a little bit thank you Jad have a good night yeah PC signed at the last meeting yeah Robin gave them to you um the new positions been in the Box the highway department season of Labor oh yeah and the 20 hours to 19 hours was that the one the's office cop or can down I don't think the minutes I can I mean if you want to meet I can run home okay so let let us take while you're doing whatever you want to stay in session or you want to adjourn or what are you doing can we stay in session stay in session the yeah or just in the break room or wherever you want to sit yeah and we'll just take up one more issue and then we'll be done so thank you all for coming and appreciate it and then I think Scott you guys had work together right in terms of um rather than having another meeting but at least watching the video on the presentation Scott did about the classification plan if if you haven't done that I guess you guys have worked out something on that so we can move forward with this colins report yes okay you still waiting for volunteers yeah uh well I'm I I'm going to talk to like about um some Services of someone locally that has done just provide some assistance as well okay but people have you're not going to have a meeting on it with the finance okay volunteers excellent okay good well thank you all for coming much much appreciated okay Scot you want to run us through this last question on the transfer y um so Randall is looking to carry over uh 10 hours pent into next year uh to be used by June 30th 2025 um obviously with the understaffing of the of the highway department randle's had to put in a lot of extra time so um he's generally available 247 and uh this will just allow him to move over those 10 hours if he doesn't use them up if he doesn't use them all so he's using some now though right so yeah so how unusual is such a request I other municipalities Not Unusual in I'm not sure about South anth history though yeah reference iny it's common it's common between his position the fire chief and the police Chiefs they usually come before PPP this one didn't come in with the with the other group MH uh wa can't you my my question is now that we're on the new payroll system and I don't know the answer to this but are we are we tracking through the pay stubs how much time they have is it being coded because if it is I think this whole process could be streamlined it's where's your pay Stu what is it and then the TA because these three positions that I'm talking about all have to get approval from the TA in order to go on vacation so there should be an easy check and balance there that we can just automate this the town says you can carry over one week 5 days yeah you know upon submitting it comes in boom yep it's true your time's right the record's right certify it go I don't even think we have to get involved with it yeah yeah going forward if if it's automated if it's the old days where someone's keeping on a sheet of paper and exact forgetting when someone's out that's a different story trapped in the system yeah so it should be yeah okay so at this point in time he he may or may not need all of it but he he wants to be sure that he doesn't lose it basically so I'll make a motion to approve up to 10 hours carry over second all right to be used in 2025 yeah yeah y as needed yeah by the end of June 25 y okay all those in favor I I I all right motion carries thank you okay and with that uh we have a meeting tomorrow night at 6 o'clock our usual time 6 o' sure tomorrow night it's our regular select board meeting uh and we'll be here at 6 o00 tomorrow night so with that I'll take a motion to AJ Motion to ajour Second all right all those in favor I I I all right we are adjourned at 8:18 Thank you very much all right and we'll e