Board of Finance Regular Meeting Minutes-7/21/15
---------- SUBJECT TO APPROVAL ----------
CALL TO ORDER
Simsbury Board of Finance Chairman Peter Askham called the regular meeting of the Simsbury Board of Finance to order at 5:45 p.m. on Tuesday, July 21, 2015. The meeting was held in the main meeting room of the Simsbury Town Offices located at 933 Hopmeadow Street, Simsbury, CT. Also in attendance were the following board members: Linda Schofield, Nick Mason, Jeff Blumenthal and Moira Wertheimer. Board member Barbara Petitjean arrived about 35 minutes into the meeting. Others in attendance included: First Selectman Lisa Heavner, Director of Finance Joe Mancini and Simsbury Public Schools Business Manager Burke LaClair.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
All stood for the Pledge of Allegiance.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Mr. Mason moved to approve the regular meeting minutes of June 16, 2015 as amended. Mr. Blumenthal seconded the motion, which passed. Ms. Wertheimer abstained as she was not at the June 16 meeting.
Amended changes to the minutes for June 16, 2015 included: Under the “Finance Director Report,” tax collection rate 98.3, last year 99.4, the rate is “99.38.”
Mr. Blumenthal added: “The tax collection rate is around 99.3 percent year to date, such that it is likely the collection rate will come in consistent with prior years.”
It was also requested to go back to the tape of the meeting to see who moved to approve the March 17 and March 31 meeting minutes.
Under “Discussion on Availability of Capital,” add the finance director would have the discretion “for payment methods for projects” at the end.
Under “Comparative Analysis of Competing Municipalities on Mill Rate/Budget Changes” Ms. Heavner stated that Main Street is working on advertising the town’s competitive mill rate to local real estate agents for September. Mr. Blumenthal amended to Main Street is working on advertising that the Simsbury mill rate has not increased in two years and in fact saw a slight decline each year, and also the overall competitive real estate values, noting NerdWallet.com rated Simsbury No. 1 in the state for young families. The town’s value for your money should be stressed.
Under “Other Business” Ms. Schofield said to strike from Mr. Askham in the third line all the way to the end, and replace that with a follow up to the previous discussion that state law assigns some responsibility to the board of finance to make suggestions to the board of education on its budget, and the board of education is to provide a written response.
FINANCE DIRECTOR REPORT
Pre-Audit Meeting with Blum Shapiro
Mr. Mancini said Blum has started its review and will most likely come in the end of October for final reviews, with the audit coming out in November. But he said he expects it to be closer to December.
Update on year end
Mr. Mancini said the year-end books are still open, and there is some expenditure pressure: snow fall removal, and the heart and hypertension settlement of $210,000 ($70,000 this year and $70,000 next year and $70,000 the year after). Mr. Mason asked if any other major issues have popped up and Mr. Mancini said no. Mr. Mancini said overall he is still seeing a lot of favorability on the revenue side expenses are relatively flat. He said the tax collection rate is 99.38, and if you round up to 99.4 it’s essentially the same as last year, another very good year. The assumed rate was 98.5 so the town is almost a full point ahead.
Fraud Tip-Line
Mr. Mancini said the auditors have been encouraging the creation of a tip line and the town has created one, modeled on East Hartford’s. It is completely anonymous. The calls are not recorded. The annual cost is $250 to a firm in Santa Barbara. If something is reported it will go to Mr. Mancini, Deputy Director of Administrative Services Sean Kimball and Director of Administrative Services Tom Cooke.
Notifications will go out to employees about the tip line and it will be on the town website. Mr. Askham said a tip is one of the better ways to uncover fraud. Ms. Schofield cautioned about people using the tip line to accuse someone falsely. She hoped there was a screening process. Mr. Mancini agreed. The company contracted offers policies and procedures, as well as other support. The town attorney is aware and involved.
APPROVAL OF BOARD OF EDUCATION FUNDING AND USING THE NON-LAPSING ACCOUNT
Mr. Blumenthal moved to fund the board of education non-lapsing account for fiscal year 2014-2015 in the amount of at least 390,000 but not to exceed 656,028. Ms. Wertheimer seconded for discussion. After some discussion about a change due to the availability of better energy efficiency and cost saving measures for the schools, all voted in favor and the motion passed 5-0-0.
Ms. Schofield moved for authorization to use the non-lapsing account. Ms. Petitjean seconded to use $390,000 for energy efficiency improvements for the fiscal year 2015-2016 budget. All voted in favor and the motion passed, 6-0-0.
DISCUSSION ON COST SAVINGS FOR THE VARIOUS BUDGETS
Board members discussed ideas for cost savings within:
Simsbury Farms complex
Wastewater treatment plant
Town budget/services
Board of Education budget
Ideas ranged from solar panels and increasing fees for certain services, to using volunteers for certain projects to selling some of the town’s large sand deposits. Technology issues were also discussed in terms of the expense to replace servers every few years and if there is a way to avoid that, as well as looking into consolidating vendor purchases, for example. The next steps are to consolidate and prioritize the ideas and then meet with the board of selectmen and the board of education for discussion in September. The overriding goal is to deliver a good budget with no tax increase.
OTHER ITEMS
Ms. Schofield expressed frustration at the time it is taking to arrange a long-term planning meeting.
ADJOURN
Mr. Askham made a motion to adjourn at 7:20 p.m. and Ms. Pettijean seconded, all voted in favor and the meeting was adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Stephanie Riefe