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North Stonington Board of Finance
Draft Meeting Minutes
of
Wednesday August 1, 2012
New Town Hall
North Stonington, CT
- Call to Order: Chairman Dan Spring called the meeting to order at 7:34 P.M.~
Brent Woodward, Emile Pavolvics, Mustapha Ratib and Peter Nimirowski were absent.
- Public Comments and Questions: In response to failure of the third budget referendum on July 30, 2012, with results as follows,
|
Yes |
No |
General Government |
325 |
438 |
Education |
344 |
419 |
the following comments were made.
- Mike Urgo, a resident for three years, submitted a letter to the Board recommending that a surveymonkey (SurveyMonkey) survey be e-mailed to residents in an attempt at getting feedback as to why they disapproved or approved the budget. Subsequent to the survey, a budget hearing would be conducted prior to developing the fourth budget and lastly a Town meeting would be held. The Selectmen will discuss these recommendations at their next meeting.
- Peter Nero, the Town’s new school superintendent, gave a brief introduction including a loud and clear statement that there would be no $60,000,000 school expansion project unless the student population were to increase by thousands. He was of the opinion that “small but completed projects” were more beneficial.
- Joe Gross stated that he had voted no against both budgets due to his lack of confidence in the BOE and that the BOE budget presentation should be made consistent with general government.
- Donna Feldman, when asked by the Dan Spring why she had voted against the budget, replied that the hereto forth cuts had been “chump change.”
- Bob Miner thought an explanation of state and federal mandates would be helpful, as would be the publishing of the discovery audit of the out going school superintendent. He also said that the BOE always finds money to restore funding for sports that have been deleted.
3. Budget 2012-2013 Referendum #3; Review: First Selectmen Nick Mullane agreed to present the idea of conducting a SurveyMonkey to the selectmen at the next scheduled meeting with a follow on recommendation to the Board. He noted that the polling machines would be frozen 14 days after the August 14, 2012 state primaries and will create a schedule of events leading up to the fourth budget referendum
4. BOS: Budget Input: Nick Mullane advised the Board that his best estimate of the FY2011-2012 budget giveback, at this time, was $94,840. Regarding project updates, the latest schedule shows traffic over the Main Street bridge by September 30, 2012.
- BOE: Budget Input; Discovery Audit: Negotiations are ongoing.
- Strategies: Under advisement by the BOS is conducting a SurveyMonkey, budget hearing and Town meeting before the fourth budget referendum.
7. Correspondence: The Board was in receipt of a letter from O’Connor Davies, the most recent auditing company, requesting approval to supply the newly contracted auditing company, Meyers and Company, with as needed historical audit data. The letter is being reviewed.
8. Previous Minutes:
Dan Spring moved to approve the minutes of July 25, 2012 as amended. The motion was seconded by Peter Nimirowski and passed 4-0-1. Peter Nimirowski abstained.
9. Adjournment:
A motion was made by Dan Spring to adjourn. The motion was seconded by Peter Nimirowski and passed 5-0-0. The meeting was adjourned at 10:42 PM.
Respectfully Submitted
Brent Woodward
Secretary, Board of Finance
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