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Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 4/24/14
Meeting Opened at: 4:30pm
Select Board Members Present: Muriel Lazzarini, Chairperson, Wayne Burkhart and Scott Jenssen
Also in attendance for parts of the meeting: Susan Gallant for the Monterey News, Brendan Fletcher, Bethany Mielke, Barbara Gauthier, Gareth Backhaus, Maynard Forbes, Mike Mielke, Pat Mielke, Donald Clawson and Dan Moriarty
The purpose of this meeting was to meet with the Treasurer, Accountant and Barbara Gauthier for review of the following:
- Update from Accountant, Treasurer and Barbara Gauthier on financials, correcting/updating reports and status of bank reconciliations: Brendan reported that all payrolls have been posted and all corrections that needed to be made with regards to payroll charged to incorrect accounts have been made. Brendan is working on getting the Treasurer receipts up to date. Bethany reported that all bank accounts have been reconciled and receipts are all in up to date. Barbara reported that this week was not a very productive week due to Brendan’s unavailability. Muriel expressed concern about the absenteeism of the Accountant and pointed out that unless one was contagious adults come and work through their difficulties. Barbara stated that there is still so much that she needs to teach Brendan and that the
upcoming year needs to be a better year in the Treasurer and Accountant’s office as there were just too many mistakes this year.
- Barbara stressed again that Bethany should switch the format of the payroll warrants to the old style that lists it by department instead of by employee. Changing it back to the old format would prevent mistakes and would make it easier to reconcile.
- Correcting the health insurance deductions for the 4 families undercharged: Muriel noted that a problem of that magnitude that affects employees should’ve been brought to the Select Board’s attention before any decisions were made on how to rectify the issue. Bethany apologized for the way the situation was handled and for the problem happening in the first place. She suggested to correct the problem and collect the funds owed by the employees that it be spread out over the next year to be paid in full by June 30th of 2015. Everyone felt this was a reasonable solution. Pat noted that the employees that this affected should’ve noticed that they weren’t being charged the new rate in July and the problem could’ve been resolved sooner.
- Update on withholdings issue: There has been a very slow rising deficit with regards to the withholdings taken from employee’s checks. Pat noted that this account is a balance sheet account and isn’t one the Treasurer would analyze unless the Accountant said there was an overage or underage that needs to be looked at. This issue was brought to the Board’s attention during the recent audit. Pat stated that what’s going in as receipts match the monthly reports, however what’s going out doesn’t match. Pat offered 2 choices: the $7,200 can be written off or she can go back 3 years and see if there is a receipt missing or a double posting that is causing this. The Board agreed that they would like Pat to investigate the matter further.
- Update on IRS audit status: Bethany provided documentation from the IRS that the collection case has been closed and there are no taxes or tax returns currently due on this case.
- Update on retiree health contributions: Currently the retiree’s portion of the health insurance that is collected by Berkshire County Retirement and paid to the town isn’t being turned over to M .Noe to apply to the MIIA insurance bill. Pat is going to show Bethany how to do this and a check will be issued for the funds due since July.
- Concern about Aflac payments: Muriel felt that what was needed was a more rigid payment schedule so that employees aren’t called and told that there policies are going to be cancelled for non-payment. Bethany stated that she has spoken with representatives from Aflac and this issue is being worked on. It is believed that the issue was on Aflac’s side.
- Payroll schedule for employees paid monthly: One employee has complained that his monthly paycheck no longer comes on a regular schedule. Pat explained that currently the monthly payrolls are done every once a month but when there is a month that has 5 weeks it in it pushes out the “normal” pay date. It was agreed that going forward employees that are paid monthly will be paid the 3rd Thursday of every month. Barbara noted that all checks (vendor too) need to be done on the same day and if they aren’t going to be for some reason (holidays) then memos should be sent to all departments letting them know.
- Status on time off tracking on payroll checks: We have been paying for this new feature since January but it hasn’t been implemented yet. Bethany stated she is working with the software company but hasn’t had the 4 hour block of time necessary to make the computer available to the software company to implement the change. Bethany is also waiting on an updated tally from all the full time employees with their current balance of sick/personal and vacation time.
- Other options for deferred compensation plan for part timers: Several of the part time employees have complained that the current plan they are required by law to enroll in charges too many fees. Berkshire County Retirement informed the Board that there are other plans available and the Board would like to review them all. Pat explained that OBRA is mandatory and takes the place of social security for municipal part time employees (full time employees can also participate in the program voluntarily if they’d like). The Smart Plan which we currently participate in is the plan approved and backed by the State. There are other options available but they all charge fees. The Board requested to have the Treasurer provide all the options to the Board to review.
- Barbara commented that she was really surprised that Bethany had felt like she was being picked on and that several calls and visits were made to various employees and Select Board members by Pat and Mike Mielke. Barbara reiterated that over the last few months things have not been good and everyone was trying to help her but became frustrated at her non-responsiveness. Bethany stated that she felt as though she was being picked on because the last few meetings didn’t have an organized agenda like tonight’s meeting did allowing her to prepare for it. Wayne felt we needed to be careful to not be too over-exacting, work with one another and be more patient.
- Regarding comments that have been made about Bethany’s time spent in the office; Pat commented that the Treasurer’s budget for help is minimal ($3,000 for the year) where 2 other departments have had more help available to them (the Town Clerk and Accountant). Discussion ensued about whether or not there should be continued help provided to the Treasurer next year. It was agreed that this will be discussed further at the Monday Select Board meeting. It was noted that if continued assistance is provided for Bethany that Pat may not be the proper choice due to the fact that she is gone 4 month of the year. Bethany also addressed that even though she may have limited posted in office hours she is still putting in a great deal of time working from home (remotely dialing in) as well as coming in on
the weekends. Scott feels that all of the help needed should be provided to the Treasurer’s Office as has been done for the Town Clerk and Accountant.
- Scott also feels that all of the other departments need to have a little more respect for the this office and rather than jumping the gun and having someone terminated or asking them to leave as was done here, people should’ve had a little more patience and provided a little more hand-holding. He didn’t appreciate the way this situation was handled while he was away and felt it was a bit under-handed and that the last 2 meetings were more of a witch hunt. Barbara commented that both of the previous meetings held with these 2 offices were to address the many issues occurring in these offices and was not anyone trying to be critical. Muriel explained that the reason the situation came to where it is today is that 7 or 8 departments complained to the Select Board last week stating they have had it up to here
and cannot deal with what is going on anymore and the Board (Wayne and Muriel) felt that their first responsibility was to the town not to a specific individual and this was why they reacted the way they did. Muriel commented that the Board expected potholes this year having 2 new people in the Treasurer and Accountant positions but what we ended up with was a sinkhole. This will be discussed further at Monday’s meeting.
- Overlay Surplus/Town Meeting: Barbara informed that Board that they will need to amend article 10 of the annual town meeting warrant from $15,000 to $8,000 and that line 132 of the budget will need to be raised by $7,000 for a total of $30,000 in the Town Reserve Fund.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 5:40pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Executive Secretary
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
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