NOTTINGHAM BUDGET COMMITTEE MINUTES
MAY 17, 2007
PUBLIC SESSION
APPROVED BY THE COMMITTEE AUGUST 16, 2007
PRESENT: ABSENT:
Mr. John Decker, Chair Mr. Philip Fernald (Excused)
Ms. Amy Plante, School Board Representative Ms. Denise Blaha (Excused)
Mr. Kurt Duprey Ms. Mary Bonser (Excused)
Mr. Michael Koester Ms. Gail Powell (Excused)
Ms. Charlene Andersen
Mr. Chet Batchelder
Mr. Scott Curry
The Chair called the meeting to order at 7:00pm.
MAIL:
Mr. Decker read the mail. The Committee received an invitation to participate in Nottingham Day on September 15, 2007. The rain date is scheduled for September 16, 2007. The hours will be from 10:00am-4:00pm with a chicken barbecue following. The event will be held at the Nottingham Community Center.
MINUTES:
Mr. Koester made a motion to defer approval of the minutes of April 19, 2007. Mr. Curry seconded the motion.
Mr. Decker asked why Mr. Koester was proposing to defer the approval of the April 19, 2007 minutes. Mr. Koester noted that there were only four Budget Committee members present who had been at that meeting. Mr. Decker noted that he did not have serious problems with the minutes. Mr. Koester said that he did not either. Mr. Curry and Ms. Andersen said that they would like a few more minutes to look over the minutes but they said that they would be prepared to approve them by the completion of the meeting.
Mr. Koester withdrew his motion.
SCHOOL DISTRICT FINANCIAL REPORT:
Ms. Plante said that all the Budget Committee members had received a copy of the 3rd quarter school district financial statement. She noted that the date on the copy was April 23, 2007 but the numbers only reflected to the end of quarter 3 (March 31, 2007). She noted that there was still some revenue to be received. She said that the amount of revenue they were expecting was about $3 million. She noted that money given to the school district for Coe-Brown tuition was considered reimbursement, not revenue. Mr. Decker said that he previously asked some questions about the Coe-Brown tuition reimbursement figures and how they were reported in the financial statements. Ms. Plante noted that the bookkeeper was in charge of making sure the tuition reimbursements were reflected in the financial statements. She
said that there was a learning curve and the bookkeeper was still getting used to the accounting system. She also noted that the financial statement might not reflect the current amounts because it would only reflect money that had been received through the end of March. She said that all the revenues were estimated. As an example she stated that they were not sure how much money they would get from Medicaid. She also explained that there was a page in the financial report which included a summary of functions. She said that those were explained further in later pages. She said that at the end of quarter three there was a $341,000 surplus. She said that the bulk of the surplus came from changes in staff and changes in health insurance. She said that when they made up the budget they used the guaranteed maximum rate for health insurance and often the increase was not that high and she said that they used the current staff when they
estimated the budget. She said that any remaining surplus came from changes in the tuition contract. She said that on July 1, 2007 everything would be put under the correct line item but she said that they could not change the format during the fiscal year.
TOWN FINANCIAL REPORT:
Mr. Decker noted that the Selectmen's representative was absent from the meeting. He said that Budget Committee members should take some time to look at the town financial report and they could bring any questions to the next Budget Committee meeting. Mr. Batchelder asked if there was any feedback about the flood damage and the money that would need to be spent to make repairs. Mr. Decker said that the Budget Committee did not know anything beyond what had been discussed at the previous Budget Committee meeting which was almost immediately after the flooding. Mr. Batchelder said that he was concerned the repairs to the Mill Pond Road bridge would be expensive.
BUDGET LAW REVIEW:
Mr. Batchelder said that RSA 32:5 was about budget preparation. He said that RSA described the roll and function of the Budget Committee and he said that the role of the Budget Committee was limited by statute. Mr. Decker noted that RSA 32:5 applied to the town budget and RSA 40:13 applied to the school budget because the Nottingham School District was governed by SB2. Mr. Batchelder said that RSA 32:15 included a membership overview for the Budget Committee. He said that was the RSA which said the Budget Committee could have representatives from the School Board and the Board of Selectmen. He said that RSA 32:16 talked about the authority of the Budget Committee. He said that as a committee they could review and advise and they could ask any question pertaining to the budget. He said that there was
a bill going through the New Hampshire legislature which would affect both the town and the school district. He said that the bill was about the municipal retirement system. He said that the structure of that system could change by July of 2008 and the municipal retirement system bill would have the biggest impact on Nottingham of all the bills currently going through the New Hampshire House and Senate.
Mr. Koester asked whether there was anything in the membership statute which prohibited having married members of the Budget Committee or prohibited the Town Moderator from serving on the Budget Committee. He said that he was concerned that married people might vote as a block. Mr. Duprey said that if the Department of Revenue Administration did not have a problem with married people on the Committee than they shouldn't. Mr. Decker said that he could not find anything in the statute prohibiting married people from serving on the committee together. Ms. Andersen said that she had asked about the moderator issue in the past. She said that the Moderator for the Town of Hollis had resigned from the Budget Committee so that there did not appear to be a conflict of interest but she said that it had been her impression
that it was up to the individual town moderator to decide whether it was a problem or not. She said that she did not hear of any law saying it couldn't be done.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Mr. Koester made a motion that the Budget Committee approve the minutes from the meeting of April 19, 2007 as amended. Mr. Curry seconded the motion. Mr. Koester, Mr. Curry, Ms. Andersen and Mr. Decker voted in favor of the motion. Mr. Duprey, Mr. Batchelder and Ms. Plante abstained from the motion. The motion passed 4-0 with 3 abstentions.
DRAFT MINUTES:
Mr. Koester said that at the previous meeting there had been discussion of publishing draft minutes. He said that he was in favor of that suggestion. He said that the Budget Committee did not normally make major changes to the draft minutes.
Mr. Koester made a motion that the Budget Committee allow the publication of their draft minutes. Mr. Curry seconded the motion.
Mr. Curry asked if that would be more work for the Budget Committee Secretary. Ms. Tivnan said that she did not have anything to do with putting the minutes on the website. The Budget Committee had a short discussion about whether the draft minutes should be put in other places besides the website. They concluded that if people wanted to put the minutes elsewhere than they could pick them up from the town office. Mr. Duprey said that he was in favor of allowing the draft minutes to be published on the website.
The present members of the Budget Committee voted unanimously in favor of the motion. The motion passed 7-0.
WARRANT QUESTION:
Mr. Koester noted that during the previous budget season there had been a warrant article on the ballot and the ballot had stated that the Budget Committee recommended the article. He said that the amount of the article was $0. He asked if the Budget Committee changed their mind about their recommendation after amendments were made to an article at the Deliberative Session whether they were able to reconsider. Mr. Batchelder said that the Budget Committee could speak at the Deliberative Session and state their opinion. Mr. Koester noted that not very many people usually attended the Deliberative Session but the Budget Committee recommendation appeared on the ballot. Mr. Batchelder noted that this would be a good question to ask during a training workshop for Budget Committee members.
PROPAGANDA QUESTION:
Mr. Batchelder asked whether it was prohibited for the School Department to distribute propaganda. He said that he was concerned there was something stating that municipal funds could not be used for that purpose. Ms. Plante said that there had been discussion in the legislature about that but she said that she did not think it had come to any resolution. She noted that there needed to be a way for the School Board to distribute information supporting their budget requests. Ms. Andersen asked what the difference would be between the School Board creating their own literature and putting their information in the town newsletter. Mr. Batchelder said that the School Board putting their information in the town newsletter would be ok but he said that the newsletter created by the School Board could be considered
biased.
DISCUSSION OF SAU:
Mr. Koester said that he felt the SAU had let down the Budget Committee. He said he was upset by the timing of the teacher contract resolution. He said that the Budget Committee did not have enough time to understand it. He said that if the Budget Committee was going to recommend something they needed more than a couple of days to look at it. Mr. Decker said that he was also disappointed with the SAU. Ms. Plante said that that the Business Administrator, Ms. Kathleen Sargent had resigned. Mr. Koester said that the documents issued by the SAU at the Deliberative Session were not in the format that the Budget Committee was accustomed to. He said that the documents were missing a column and he said that he found that distracting. Mr. Batchelder said that the documents at the Deliberative Session
should be in the format of the MS27. Ms. Plante said that the Budget Committee needed to make clear before the Deliberative Session what they wanted and expected.
Mr. Decker said that all the salaries for the school department should be in the annual school district report.
Ms. Plante said that there had been a search committee formed to look for a new Business Administrator. She said that as far as she knew they had narrowed the field down to 2 candidates.
OTHER:
Mr. Batchelder said that he wanted to congratulate Mr. Decker on being elected Chair of the Budget Committee.
Mr. Curry said that he was interested in taking advantage of any available training for new Budget Committee members. He also asked some questions about the Budget Committee process. Mr. Batchelder answered the questions.
Mr. Koester said that he wanted to emphasize that representatives from other boards serving on the Budget Committee were obligated to bring questions from the Budget Committee back to their respective boards.
Ms. Andersen said that she had studied something called "Connecting." She said that it would involve asking each member of the Committee the same non budget related question at the beginning of each meeting. As an example she suggested, "What did you have for breakfast this morning?" She said that talking personally like that would allow committee members to connect with each other and it would help them to work cohesively. Mr. Batchelder said that he thought connecting was a good idea but he noted that the meetings were televised and he didn't think that everyone watching on television would be interested in what he had for breakfast.
Mr. Decker reminded the Budget Committee that there would be a Joint Meeting between the School Board/Board of Selectmen and Budget Committee on July 9, 2007 at 6:30pm.
Mr. Koester made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:35pm. Mr. Duprey seconded the motion. The present members of the Budget Committee voted unanimously in favor of the motion. The motion passed 7-0.
Respectfully submitted,
Kelly Tivnan
Budget Committee Secretary
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