Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 9/27/17
Meeting Opened at: 4pm
Select Board Members Present: Steve Weisz, Chairperson and Kenneth Basler
Also in attendance: Justin Cole, BJ Johnson, Jon Sylbert
Miscellaneous Items Reviewed:
- The Board met with Justin Cole of Baystate Municipal Account to review the following accounting and treasurer items:
a. F inancial update: lingering problems with payroll have been cleared up, retirement and tax withholding issues have all been resolved.
b. Banking relationships have been consolidated to eliminate unnecessary fees and capitalize on higher interest rates. Last year we paid over $2,000 in fees barely collecting that much in interest in addition to paying for checks which are free with the change made. Justin believes he can drop the bank fees to around $420.
c. They are still working on researching the missing treasurer receipts from Feb – April; M.
d. Justin is working with Don Clawson on setting the tax rate and getting the necessary numbers to create a revenue budget. Baystate is delaying getting free cash submitted to be certified until some unknowns can be researched.
e. The last Sept warrant will be this Friday, if everyone signs in a timely manner monthly reports should go out by the following Friday.
f. Community Compact proposal – Baystate has reached out to a small number of communities that meet a certain structure. They have proposed to bring on shared financial management services at no cost to the towns that agree to participate (paid through a grant) to review and update procedures and processes and get us in the realm of best practices as set forth by the Department of Revenue with regards to things like budgeting, capital planning, short and medium range revenue and expenditure forecasting, etc.
g. Debit card program (electronic petty cash) will be instituted and the three department heads will be granted access for small purchases that otherwise would’ve gone on an employee’s personal credit card.
- The Board met with the Finance Committee to review the following:
a. Documents from bond counsel on their role with the library bond.
b. Community Compact proposal – The Finance Committee reviewed the proposal and was on board with being a part of this shared with 8 other towns.
c. Budgeting process: The Fin Comm plans to do in depth reviews of the 4 largest budgets as a whole – police, highway, fire and assessors and then independently with the smaller departments. They plan to start next month and suggested using a similar schedule as last year. Both Boards will work together with our Accountant to find the best forms to use going forward.
d. Curtis Rd Bridge update.
- Warrants were signed.
- The Board approved the 1.57% increase for 2018 Medex rates for our retirees.
- Mail was reviewed which included:
a. Dominic Stucker’s resignation from the Conservation Commission.
b. Insurance proposal from Cabot Risk Strategies for the vacant Monterey School building. The Board agreed to purchase the policy proposed as it will no longer be covered under our MIIA property policy due to its vacant status.
- Minutes from 9/20/17 were approved.
- Police Chief’s weekly report was reviewed.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 6:25pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Administrative Assistant
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
Town Clerk
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