FINANCE COMMITTEE – PUBLIC SESSION
Mashpee Town Hall – Selectmen’s Conference Room
Minutes of the Meeting of Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012
Committee Members Present: Member Absent: Also Present:
George Schmidt, Chairman Oskar Klenert Joyce Mason, Town Manager
Charles Gasior, Vice Chairman Tom Mayo, Asst. Town Manager
Mark Davini, Clerk
Christopher Avis
Theresa M. Cook
CALL TO ORDER
Chairman George Schmidt called the meeting to order at 6:30 PM.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE - Pass, no flag available
PUBLIC COMMENT - None
REVIEW OF MINUTES
Theresa Cook made a motion that the minutes from the 9/04/12 Finance Committee joint session with the Board of Selectmen be approved as presented. Christopher Avis seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously approved (5-0).
Christopher Avis made a motion that the minutes from the 9/10/12 Finance Committee Public Session be approved as presented. Theresa Cook seconded the motion. The motion was approved (4-0; Mark Davini abstained; absent from the meeting).
NEW BUSINESS
- BOS Liaison Comments – None
- Transfer Requests
(1) Joyce Mason requested a transfer of up to $6000 from the reserve account to cover the cost of a Sullivan & Rogers audit prior to the appointment of a new Town Treasurer.
Mark Davini made a motion that the Finance Committee approve the transfer of up to $6000 from the reserve account to cover the cost of a Sullivan & Rogers audit, prior to the
appointment of a new Town Treasurer. Charles Gasior seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously approved (5-0).
Joyce Mason stated that the audit will take place in January 2013. Craig Mayen, a Mashpee resident, is to be the new treasurer who will be certified at the BOS meeting on Monday, October 1st.
(2) Joyce Mason requested a transfer from the reserve account of $10,336 to continue a contract to fund a part time library circulation employee salary that currently is being funded by donations from the Friends of the Library. The donations have been expended, and the Library Trustees are reluctant to go back to the Friends to request a continuation of the donations. In order for the library to maintain its current hours of operation, the part time circulation assistant is a necessity.
Ms. Mason stated that given the fact that the library has proven the need, and they are willing to work with the Town to wait until the May 2013 Town Meeting to request that the circulation assistant position be made permanent, she agreed to bring the request to the Finance Committee for approval of the transfer request.
Discussion followed. Charles Gasior stated that the new Mashpee library has been a huge success, and the town has an obligation to staff the building to meet the needs. Mark Davini asked whether the library tracked the flow of the busiest days during the week. Ms. Mason stated that Monday and Wednesday were the two lightest days of the week.
Christopher Avis stated his feeling that the reserve fund is to be used for extraordinary and unforeseen emergency situations only, and that this particular library staff situation does not meet those requirements. Mr. Avis suggested that the library remain open part time on Monday and/or Wednesday, to eliminate total closing of the library on those days.
Charles Gasior made a motion that the Finance Committee authorize and approve the appropriation and expenditure of $10,336 for the purpose of hiring a contract 19-hour circulation assistant through June 30, 2013, for the following reasons:
a) this is a one time appropriation and should not be considered precedent-setting on the library or any other department of the municipality
b) in recognition of the excellent response to the use of the library, and the Library Board of Trustees withdrawal of their article from the October town Meeting
Theresa Cook seconded the motion. The motion was denied by a vote of 3-2 (Theresa Cook, yes; Charles Gasior, yes; Mark Davini, no; Christopher Avis, no; George Schmidt, no).
Christopher Avis reiterated the fact that the primary reason for denial of the library request was because the request did not meet the requirement of an unforeseen emergency situation.
Joyce Mason stated that the library has MA Education Grant money of $10,000 available as well as a donation line from the Trustees of $31,000, which could be used toward coverage of the part-time circulation assistant.
Liaison Reports
School Committee: George Schmidt
- George Schmidt reported that the Association of Town Finance Committees will have an educational session on October 20th at the Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School, Franklin, MA. Registration fee is $45.00.
- George Schmidt reported on an announcement from the School Department regarding the Mashpee High School Senior Project exhibition October 17th, 2012, in the high school cafeteria, for the purpose of presenting project ideas for seniors.
- Theresa Cook was assigned as the Finance Committee liaison to General Expenses, replacing Chris Avis from that assignment.
(New Business, cont’d)
- School Committee Search for New School Superintendent.
Charles Gasior strongly recommended that a representative from the Town Manager’s office, the BOS and/or the Finance Committee be represented on the search committee for a new School Superintendent, in order to ensure that the new appointee is apprised of the agreed-upon use of the Munis budget reporting system, with no prepayment assignments to the next school year’s budget. Discussion followed.
Theresa Cook made a motion to add to the meeting agenda further discussion of the Search committee for a new School Superintendent. Mark Davini seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously approved a vote of 5-0.
Charles Gasior made a motion that the Board of Selectmen draft a letter to the Mashpee School Committee strongly recommending that the Town Manager or her designee, and a Finance Committee representative, be included as a part of the Search Committee for the new Superintendent of Schools. Theresa Cook seconded the motion.
Discussion followed. It was decided that two separate letters should be prepared: one from the Finance Committee to the School Committee formally requesting that a member of the Finance Committee or a designee be part of the search committee for a new Superintendent of Schools. A second letter should be sent from the Finance Committee to the Board of Selectmen, recommending that the BOS officially and publicly state in a letter to the School Committee their formal request that a selectman and/or someone from the Town Manager’s office, or their designee be part of the search committee for the new Superintendent of Schools.
An amendment to the motion was made as follows: that the Finance Committee write a letter to the School Committee requesting representation on the Superintendent search.
The motion was unanimously approved by a vote of 5-0.
A vote was taken on the earlier motion made by Charles Gasior that two separate letters should be prepared: one from the Finance Committee to the School Committee requesting their representation on the School Superintendent search committee, and a second letter from the Finance Committee to the Board of Selectmen, recommending that the BOS officially and publicly state in a letter to the School Committee their formal request that a Selectman and/or someone from the Town Manager’s office, or their designee, be part of the search committee for the new Superintendent of Schools. The motion was unanimously approved by a vote of 5-0.
Mark Davini will prepare the two letters asap, as time is of the essence.
- Review of Town Meeting Articles
Theresa Cook requested that explanations be given to “no” votes, or “abstained” votes by the Finance Committee on Town Meeting articles. Notation should be made of one vacancy on the Committee of 7 members.
Article 13: Christopher Avis abstained on Article 13 because it did not follow the normal resident procedure.
Article 14: George Schmidt abstained because the improvement of those roads could improve the quality of Santuit Pond, and he lives adjacent to the Pond.
(ticle 6. Clarification was made that the School Committee returned $336,000 to the Town. Theresa Cook questioned whether the purchase of school supplies, text books, technology supplies, etc., for use in 2013 should be construed as a “pre-pay”. The Committee agreed to add a sentence to the pre-pay agreement that it is to continue in perpetuity.
The Finance Committee agreed that appreciation to Charles Gasior should be expressed at the Town Meeting for his very professional and all-encompassing delivery coverage of the warrant articles.
- Interview Process for Finance Committee Board Members
George Schmidt stated that there was a need to establish a proper procedure by which potential members to the Finance Committee are appointed. Mr. Schmidt suggested that when the Town Clerk gets a letter of interest from a potential candidate, the letter should be forwarded to the Finance Committee chairman who would then invite the candidate to the next Finance Committee meeting to be interviewed by the committee members. The Finance Committee chairman would then forward to the Town Moderator the committee’s recommendation on the candidate.
Joyce Mason stated that the BOS policy is similar: any letter of interest received is forwarded to the appropriate committee. The committee meets and invites the candidate to the next meeting for an interview. The committee chairman then forwards the committee’s recommendation to the Town Moderator. The Town Clerk advertises the open positions for two weeks only.
After discussion, the committee members agreed to follow the BOS policy as outlined by Ms. Mason.
NEXT FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING SCHEDULE
The next two meetings of the Finance Committee are as follows:
Monday, October 15, 2012
6:00 PM – Joint Meeting with the BOS
Mashpee High School Principal’s Conference Room
Thursday, November 8, 2012
6:30 PM – Mashpee Town Hall
George Schmidt stated that the current potential candidate will be invited to both meetings, with the interview to be conducted at the November 8, 2012 meeting.
As there was no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:10 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
a G. Schlobohm
Recording Secretary
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