North Stonington Board of Finance
Regular Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, March 19, 2008, 8:00 PM
New Town Hall
40 Main Street, North Stonington, CT
1. Call to Order: Meeting called to order at 8:03 PM. In attendance
were Chair M. Donahue, Secretary T. Oswald, members L. Southwick, N.
Gumprecht, and G. Herbert. E. Pavlovics not present.
2. Public Comments and Questions None
3. Previous Minutes Tabled until next meeting.
4. Budget Website G. Herbert reported on the process of designing and
presenting the website with Marc Tate. Hopefully we will go live with
website prior to budget meeting 21 April, prior to setting of the mil rate.
G. Herbert will present a draft of some of the features of the website in a
week.
5. Alternate Meetings/Saturday Hours: M. Donahue will make himself
available for a public informational appearance on a Saturdays. T. Oswald
and G. Herbert volunteered to appear with M. Donahue. Discussion revealed
several possible channels available to help bring such a public
informational event to the attention of the public. Possibly starting the
Saturday of 3-29 to begin with.
6. BOE: Review of Financial Statements: Actual vs. Budget
The BOF reviewed the BOE Financial Statement (FS) and discussion followed.
The budget transfers in the 'Notes' section of the FS were discussed at
length.
6-A At this point, N. Gumprecht drew the Board's discussion to the
possibility of Town financial liability due to questions of plagiarism
concerning a document written by the School Superintendent, Dr. Natalie
Pukas.
7. BOE: Presentation of Annual Budget The Board had previously agreed
with the BOE to reschedule the presentation of their Annual Budget to 4/2 @
6 PM at the Elementary School Multi-purpose room. As further agreed, the
BOE has provided us with a copy of their proposed budget by today for the
Board's review. The BOE budget was reviewed and discussed, page by page.
Some of the points of interest and questions that arose follow below.
1. Page 3, Impact Aid, why we are no longer seeing any revenue from
this item?
2. Page 4, Code 110: Why is the Special Services Director getting a
raise of 4%?
3. Page 4, Code 213: Why are teacher salaries up by 5.1%, not 4.35% as
expected?
4. Page 4, Code 213: Why are Extra Duty Stipends up by 5.8%?
5. G. Herbert asks what contracted workers is the Town obligated by
prior commitments to for fixed hours and which are we not?
6. Page 5, Code 830: Why is medical insurance increasing?
7. Page 5, Code 130: Audit: why the 51% increase?
8. Page 5, Code 690: Audit: why the 12.6% increase? There have been
transfers this year as well. Why is that?
9. Page 6, Code 130: Audit: why the 51% increase?
10. Page 6, Codes 630 and 640: Heating Oil and Utilities: What is the
BOE doing to conserve these resources?
11. Page 7, Code 730/1230: Purchased Equipment:
12. What are the long term equipment needs?
13. Why do the budget AND the transfers increase?
14. What is being replaced, what is being purchased new?
15. Page 8, Staff: Do we understand there are no apparent changes in
teaching staff?
16. Page 10, Code 216: the numbers do not seem to work correctly/agree
on this line item with the budget. Specifically page 5 VS page 10
17. Page 13, Code 130: Audit: Special Ed, is the total cost 2,219, 482?
18. Page 17, graphic, M. Donahue explained how cumulative BOE multiplier
from 1985 is about 4%, while the CPI has only averaged a 2% multiplier. The
BOE has been increasing faster than the cost of living.
19. Page 18, Net Current Expenditures per Pupil: we wish there were a
more closer "apples to apples" comparison against more closely comparable
school and town such as N Stonington.
20. Page 18: G. Herbert asks what have we done in the past to address
the effectiveness of the school system?
1. What is the standard metric of comparison to be applied here?
21. Equipment Purchase Plan, page 1:
1. What is the total of the BOE Plant and equipment?
2. What percent of the Plant and Equipment are the equipment purchases
each year?
8. Management Reports/Board of Finance as Audit Committee/GASB 45 OPEB.
G. Herbert reports that the process of tying the Town cash register into the
"Quickbooks" financial software is not moving ahead just now and that his
Audit Committee work is temporarily being held up.
1. The question of how to deal with the possible liability of approx
$136K was again discussed. We briefly discussed how other towns have been
dealing with their BOE budgets?
9. Appointment of Auditor for 6/30/08 Audit: L. Southwick motioned to
approve M. Marien and Company as the Town auditor for the audit. G. Herbert
seconded, and the motion carried 5-0-0.
10. Management Letter Jan 28th: Brent Woodward is preparing a draft
of the report for the BOF to look at based upon the input from the Town's
boards and commissions.
11. Correspondence: None
12. Town Report Status 6-30-07: Discussion - no action.
13. Future Agenda Items Identification
1. MD promises a BOF town budget based on input from BOS and BOE.
14. Adjournment: Next meeting will be at the New Town Hall meeting room
at 8 PM. T. Oswald motioned to adjourn. N. Gumprecht seconded and the
motion passed 5-0-0. Meeting adjourned at 10:30 PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
Tom Oswald
Secretary, Board of Finance
North Stonington, CT
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