welcome everyone this is the finance committee meeting today is Tuesday July 9th 2024 it is 6:32 pm and I'd like to call the meeting to order with the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge of allegiance The United and to the rep Liberty Mass General Law chapter 30A section 20f this meeting is being recorded this meeting is being held remotely in accordance with the governor Massachusetts March 12 2020 order suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law GLC 30A section 20 and on March 29th 2023 Governor haly signed the supplemental 2023 budget Bill allowing remote and hybrid meeting options for public parties through March 31st 2025 well welcome everyone um let's see I'm just going to do a list of who we have with us we have finance committee members Ali Zack Leu Duncan law Cindy Brown Christopher Thrasher Karen Rouse me we are missing Gary Michelle and Hugh but we do have six of us so we have a quorum so uh welcome everyone um hopefully this will not be too long of a meeting so our first action item that we do the first first meeting of the new fiscal year is we do the annual reorganization so our terms um start in July and so we had three members that just renewed so thank you to uh Al Cindy Brown and Zach lru for re renewing your your term for another three years so thank you did everybody get SW did everyone get sworn in yes terrific all right good so we can be all voters here tonight okay so thank you for renewing the finance committee appreciates you being here um okay so the first item that we do is the annual reorganization where each year we um nominate a chair and a vice chair so I have served as chair for the last couple of years I would be so inclined to do again if if uh if someone felt that or if somebody else wants to be here I I will make a motion to have Karen Russ um continue another term as chair of the Westport finance committee second yep thank you any uh discussions or nope okay so I will do a roll call uh thank you everyone Al I I Zach he's on mute you on mute Zach sorry ter you do a great job Zach La Brew I thank you Duncan Duncan lot I Cindy we would be lost without your Caren without your your leadership uh Cindy Brown I thank you Christopher Christopher Thrasher enthusiastically I thank you so much uh can I vote on myself or sure course hi even Donald even Donald Trump gets to votee for himself so why not great thank you all right so now we need a vice chair and so Cindy uh has has done a terrific job at my side and um I would be inclined to um ask her to do it again if she's willing to uh I am willing but certainly uh if there are other members that would like to uh be joined with you at the hip come April and May and have texts with you at Saturday night at 11 o'clock that's that's true [Laughter] to make sure that we've get all the bases uh covered but I'm I'm more than happy to um relieve those um those fun evenings uh to uh to someone else I I I would make a motion to have Cindy as as the vice chair and I would just remind the rest of the board or the finance committee that if you would like Cindy's uh job or or Karen's which is obviously off the table you've got to sit in front of the town meeting for God think twice before you right before you put your hand up very true all right so we have a motion for Cindy is there a second thank you any any other discussion on that all right we'll do a roll call Al is enthusiastic for both of you yes great thank you Zack thank you Cindy Zack Leu hi Duncan Duncan law I Cindy you can vote for yourself hi all right thank you Christoper great Christopher Christopher Thrasher I thank you again Cindy and Karen for continuing on great thank you and Karen Rouse I so thank you very much okay so um great so I think our agenda tonight is should be more administrative so what we try to do in this meeting if we can we certainly want to send to the select board committee appointments um we also try to uh do leason assignments but that's less critical because that really kicks more in at budget time but uh we do want to go over the appointments um I sent everyone should have a copy of the list of of what's on here and maybe we can just talk through um I just want to go through the list in the order that I have the names in so Zach you're first on the list not by see the Z sometimes needs to come first [Laughter] right did um did I hear that the open space preservation committee is that defunct to that end yeah that's being dissolved correct okay that's being dissolved okay all right so that's going to come off your list and so you have as far as what my list shows and what I and what was confirmed with the select board was you're on the energy commission and the tax incentive program committee correct and are are either of those active committees or meet regularly or no no okay okay okay I just want to keep going down the list okay so Cindy you're on the Ada transition plan committee I don't which I think which I think is um dick Brewer mentioned that committee uh in a select board meeting a couple meetings ago and he wants to see you know how that can be dissolved because been I've been on that committee for since I've been on the finance committee and we've never had a meeting ever so um this was an old committee that was formed years ago and now it's it it's kind of lost its purpose okay transitioning to you know Ada um functionality um and how it works in buildings which yeah we we as the town try to do but not so great but try to do the best we can but the committee never meets okay so they're G to try to dissolve that okay then I know you're active on the Personnel Board the audit committee the capital Improvement planning committee and there's a tax incentive program committee is that that's the same one that Zach is on I'm happy to I think that that was a just kind of a a layover from before okay I've never I've never had a meeting of that I don't know Zach is that committee ever met no no yes since I've been on it I mean there was some talk about merging that into the economic development committee okay goes hand in hand so what we can do so we don't need two fincom WS correct so we'll we'll we can take off Cindy so we won't renew your right we won't renew your your thing okay so we'll knock that one off you and okay and then and then you are on the long-term building committee but not as a fincom rep right or I'm at large I think so interestingly enough Jim has one that says you are the fincom rep and that I'm that large uh town clerk has something completely different and haven't really been able to figure out which one's which so so I don't know if the town town clerk record is the one that kind of we should go by uh as I indicated to Karen you know I what I received a u a renewal letter or an appointment letter I was rather disappointed because the letter that was sent to me just said you have been appointed to a committee slash board go see the Town Clerk and get sworn in so when I went to the town clerk I was like okay which one which which one was due this year and they're the ones that told me which which board I had to uh reup for so I don't even get a letter anymore that says what committee it is and for what function it is when I when I uh renewed the fincom one the letter that I got back from them saying that I was sworn in does not say um I'm sorry when I um it does not say on on my other board one the cipc um does not say that I fill the finance committee role it just says I'm a member of the um the capital Improvement planning committee so it doesn't even say that so Cindy so on your on your long-term building committee which we're not certain if you're at large or fincom do you do you know what your term expiration would have been no I talked with Paula about that and she's she's trying to work on getting a better handle on all the expiration dates because she said that when she took it over many of them didn't have correct dates and she's had to go back and do research when people were first appointed Etc so so she's trying to straighten it out but um I don't I don't have the answer to that okay we'll put you for a question mark for the moment okay um so those are not annual those are not annual appointments they're not annual appointments no not the not the long-term building committee it was a three-year appointment so I I just yeah so mine is as again Jim says mine's at large for through for through 2026 right same thing with Personnel Board and audit committee those are not annual appointment K remember when you were on the audit committee it was all set up with the staggered dates yeah so that people so it's it's a threeyear um threee rolling um thing some committees are annual and some are not cipc is an annual appointment but Personnel Board audit committee and long-term building committee are not annual appointments okay so that might in part lead to the confusion because when the fincom sends the letter sends the appointments to the to the select board secretary we don't put the term date end so so they would need to determine what the term is and then