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Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 3/7/14
Meeting Opened at: 12noon
Select Board Members Present: Muriel Lazzarini, Chairperson and Scott Jenssen
Also in attendance for parts of the meeting: Susan Gallant for the Monterey News, Stanley Ross, Don Clawson, Barbara Gauthier, Brendan Fletcher and Dan Moriarity
- Barbara provided budget comparisons and levy limit calculations to date. There are still items that are unknown that have not been entered.
- Barbara instructed the Board that there will be 2 ballot questions for debt exclusions (one for the rescue vehicle and one for the grader), one that should have been done 2 years ago and one that wasn’t done properly last year.
- It was recommended that if the police cruiser is going to be replaced this year it should be a raise and appropriate item rather than taking the money from stabilization. Stabilization funds should only be used for large purchase items.
- The budget as presented right now and with the information that is available, everyone agrees that it is doable.
- The Finance Committee updated the Select Board that they have made all the transfers from the reserve fund on all of the accounts that have gone over which totaled around $27,000. Scott inquired how the Select Board and Finance Committee together can make sure that this number is even lower next year.
- In helping Brendan to close the FY13 books she noted that there were a lot of mistakes made, a lot of careless mistakes. One item that will need to be addressed at the special town meeting prior to the annual town meeting is getting approval to make the septic loan payment for $5,000 for FY14 that the Treasurer made without authorization. Brendan has copies of the closed FY13 books.
- Other items Barbara reviewed:
- Most of the receipts were not posted from February until June 30th so when they were posted there were several double postings made and nothing balanced.
- Accounts were set up from years previous for special circumstances (for example the account for the 2009 storm) that were later used again with the same name for Storm Irene when the name should’ve been changed. There were a few other instances when this happened making it confusing to ready the reports generated. A copy of all the items that had to be changed or corrected.
- Updates that were supposed to have been made to the accounting software have not been made.
- The Treasurer gave the Accountant and Barbara an end of year report as well as a report she would be submitting to the state and both had different numbers.
- Brendan noted that he has asked the Treasurer for items and explanations of how she got numbers that she’s using and he gets no response.
- A motion was made to allow Barbara to continue working with Brendan to begin working on this year’s books and to teach him items that he still doesn’t know how to do. The motion was seconded and passed.
- Barbara noted that Brendan has done a wonderful job over the last week.
- Barbara has several suggestions that would make things much easier and suggested that a meeting be scheduled for when she returns in 2 weeks with the Select Board, Finance Committee, Accountant, Treasurer and Barbara.
- Barbara stated that it appears that the Treasurer is paying more than she should in employee withholding taxes and it has been going on for some time as this was an item that the auditor’s noted in their report.
- Free cash certification: Barbara and M. Noe will begin filling out the forms necessary next week for Brendan to submit to the state.
- Barbara commented that Melissa Noe and Mari Enoch were a great help in getting the FY 13 books closed as well and noted that Melissa (with Barbara’s instructions) has started filling out the Schedule A which Brendan will continue to work on and then he and Barbara will try to complete the last week of March.
- Barbara also suggested that she should be paid from the temporary employee line item.
- Barbara’s time card for this week was signed off on and approved by the Board.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 12:50pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Executive Secretary
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
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