NOTTINGHAM BUDGET COMMITTEE MINUTES
SEPTEMBER 11, 2008
PUBLIC SESSION
APPROVED BY THE COMMITTEE OCTOBER 9, 2008
PRESENT: ABSENT:
Mr. John Decker, Chair Mr. Kyle Barry
Mr. Peter Bock, BOS Representative
Ms. Amy Plante, School Board Representative
Mr. Chet Batchelder
Ms. Charlene Andersen
Ms. Gail Powell
Mr. Archie Fernald
Mr. Scott Curry
Mr. Michael Koester
OTHERS PRESENT:
Ms. Kelly Tivnan, Budget Committee Secretary
Ms. Donna Danis
The Chair called the meeting to order at 7:00pm.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Mr. Decker said that he had gotten some feedback from the Town Administrator regarding the minutes from February 2, 2008. He read that feedback out loud. The Budget Committee Secretary said that she would incorporate the new information into the February 2, 2008 minutes.
Mr. Curry made a motion to accept the Budget Committee minutes from the meeting on February 2, 2008 with the feedback incorporated. Mr. Fernald seconded the motion. Mr. Batchelder, Mr. Fernald, Ms. Powell, Ms. Andersen, and Mr. Curry voted in favor of the motion. Mr. Decker, Mr. Koester, Ms. Plante and Mr. Bock abstained from the motion. The motion passed 5-0 with four abstentions.
Ms. Andersen made a motion to accept the Budget Committee minutes from the meeting on July 24, 2008 with a few minor modifications that the Committee had discussed. Mr. Batchelder seconded the motion. Mr. Decker, Ms. Plante, Mr. Batchelder, Ms. Andersen, Ms. Powell, Mr. Fernald, Mr. Curry and Mr. Koester voted in favor of the motion. Mr. Bock abstained from the motion. The motion passed 8-0 with one abstention.
OPEN POSITION AND RESIGNATION:
Mr. Decker asked whether anyone had expressed interest in filling the Budget Committee seat vacated by the resignation of Gail Mills.
Ms. Donna Danis introduced herself. She said that she was interested in the position. She said that she had moved to Nottingham in 1990 and she had a daughter who was in the 5th grade at Nottingham School. She said that she felt people who lived in the town had a responsibility to give back to the town. She said that she had her own consulting business and she had experience building and maintaining budgets. She said that she worked with tech software for a living and she had learned how to maximize the return on budgets of the clients who hired her. She also said that she had lots of communications experience. She said that she felt she had something to offer to the committee.
Mr. Curry said that he knew of one other interested person who had been unable to attend the meeting that night.
Mr. Decker noted that there would be another vacancy on the Budget Committee. He read out loud a letter of resignation from Mr. Philip Fernald.
Mr. Curry made a motion to appoint Ms. Donna Danis to the Budget Committee for the remainder of the year. Mr. Bock seconded the motion. The present members of the Budget Committee voted unanimously in favor of the motion. The motion passed 9-0.
Mr. Koester made a motion to accept the resignation of Mr. Philip Fernald effective at the conclusion of the September 11, 2008 Budget Committee meeting with regret. Mr. Batchelder seconded that motion with regret.
Mr. Decker said that he would like to thank Mr. Fernald for his many, many years of service to the town and the Budget Committee. Mr. Fernald said that he had served the town for more than 50 years. He said that he had done the Budget Committee long enough and he had enjoyed it very much. He said that he felt the current Budget Committee was a great group of people.
The present members of the Budget Committee voted unanimously in favor of the motion to accept the resignation of Mr. Fernald with regret. The motion passed 9-0.
Mr. Curry said that Mr. Gene Reed had expressed an interest in being a part of the Budget Committee. He said that Mr. Reed had led an effort in town to change the property tax system. He said that Mr. Reed had received some write in votes for the Budget Committee during the election. He said that Mr. Reed had been unable to attend the meeting that night but he would let him know the situation and who to get in touch with if he were still interested in a position on the Budget Committee.
HCPP GRANT ADVISORY COMMITTEE:
Mr. Decker said that the Budget Committee had received a letter from the Town Administrator regarding the formation of an HCPP (Housing and Conservation Planning Program) Grant Advisory Committee. He read the letter out loud. It stated that Nottingham had been awarded a grant. It said that 10% of the towns in the state of New Hampshire had applied for the grant and it had been awarded to only six applicants. It said that because Nottingham had been chosen as a recipient, a committee needed to be formed. The letter listed the duties of the committee and said that they had 18 months to complete these duties. The letter stated that the Board of Selectmen would appoint members to the HCPP Grant Advisory Committee on September 15, 2008 and it stated that anyone interested in being considered should notify the
town office. Mr. Bock said that there were expected to be approximately nine meetings of the committee. He said that Phase 1 of the grant was to basically flesh out what the community needed. He said that much of the responsibility would be left to the consultant. He read the list of tasks out loud and he said that the community would need to move it along in order for them to be completed in 18 months. He said that most of the people doing the work for the grant would be volunteers and he said that the HCPP Grant Advisory Committee would be lead by the Board of Selectmen. Mr. Decker asked how many people would be appointed to this committee. Mr. Bock said that the Board of Selectmen had not wanted to set a hard number. He said that they had wanted to see how much interest there was throughout the citizens and town government about this committee. Ms. Powell noted that it would be hard for anyone to know what the long term
commitment of this committee would be because each phase of this grant process was separate and each phase would be awarded separately. Mr. Decker asked whether the Budget Committee members felt that there should be someone from the Budget Committee on this HCPP Grant Advisory Committee. Mr. Batchelder noted that seemed reasonable. Mr. Decker asked if anyone from the Budget Committee was interested in serving on this HCPP Grant Advisory Committee. Mr. Batchelder said that he would not mind trying this position but he said that he would ask to be replaced if the committee were not accomplishing anything. Mr. Koester said that he would volunteer to be an alternate representative to the HCPP Grant Advisory Committee. Mr. Batchelder thought it would be a good thing for there to be an alternate if he were unable to attend a meeting.
Mr. Curry made a motion to nominate Mr. Chet Batchelder as the Budget Committee Representative to the HCPP Grant Advisory Committee and to nominate Mr. Michael Koester as the alternate Budget Committee Representative to the HCPP Grant Advisory Committee. Ms. Andersen seconded that motion. The present members of the Budget Committee voted unanimously in favor of the motion. The motion passed 9-0.
WORKSHOP REMINDER:
Mr. Decker said that he wanted to remind Budget Committee members about the Local Government Center workshop. He said that four members of the Budget Committee had signed up to attend. Ms. Powell said that something had come up and it would be difficult for her to attend. She asked if Ms. Danis would like to take her spot. Ms. Danis agreed.
SCHOOL BOARD SCHEDULE:
Ms. Plante said that the SAU did not have a Business Administrator or a Superintendent. She said that she was not sure whether they could meet the budget schedule which had been previously considered. She said that the Joint School Board was interviewing candidates for an interim Superintendent. She said that the Nottingham School Board would be meeting on September 17, 2008. Mr. Decker asked that the Nottingham School Board try to come up with at least a tentative budget schedule.
Ms. Plante said that at 7pm on September 17, 2008 the Nottingham School Board would hear a presentation from Mr. Dan Bisson. She also said that she would speak with Dr. Joyce regarding questions that the Budget Committee had about the facility study. She said that the 2008/2009 Nottingham Kindergarten class was 59 children and 4 sessions (2 morning and 2 afternoon). She said that number was 15 more Kindergarten students than were in the 2007/2008 class. She said that based on the birth rate they were expecting even more Kindergarten students for the 2009/2010 class.
Mr. Curry asked if there would be a budgetary impact from the hiring of a new Business Administrator and Superintendent for the SAU. Ms. Plante said that the Joint School Board was looking for an interim Superintendent and she noted that interim employees are usually paid a per diem rate. She also noted that hiring a new Business Administrator and Superintendent would affect the SAU budget but it would only affect Nottingham to the extent that they have to pay for 1/3 of the SAU budget.
Mr. Koester asked why the default budget numbers could not be provided to the Budget Committee within weeks after the close of the school year. Ms. Plante said that the School Board needed to know the number of Special Education students and she said that they did not find out that information until the beginning of the school year. Ms. Powell asked whether the audit was completed. Ms. Plante said that people were currently working on it. Mr. Batchelder noted that it had been some time since the SAU had a Business Administrator so he said that it could take some time for anyone new coming in to the position to catch up.
GOOGLE DOCS:
Mr. Curry said that so far he had not worked on writing a policy for the use of Google Docs by the Budget Committee. He said that he had some concerns about the ease of use of the program for Budget Committee members, he had some concerns about access to the program by the Budget Committee members and he said that there were still unanswered questions about it. The Budget Committee Secretary stated that she had a very difficult time with the program and had been unable to access it correctly. Mr. Koester said that he had found it difficult to merge calendars. Mr. Batchelder said that he liked the concept of the Budget Committee using Google Docs. He said that he felt it had a lot of potential though he said that on his own computer he had some difficulty concerning the speed. Mr. Curry asked whether the
Budget Committee members felt they wanted to invest their time in this program. Ms. Andersen said that it was not something they could enforce since their secretary had technical difficulties accessing it but she suggested that maybe the Budget Committee could at least get some training on it. She said she felt that eventually this would be a useful tool. Mr. Bock said that they had to make it clear that no deliberative issues would be discussed and no votes would be taken over the internet. Mr. Curry said that the Budget Committee would have to publicize their policy on this matter when he wrote it and they would have to have an official vote to approve it. He also said that the Budget Committee would have the Local Government Center and the Town Attorney review the policy before it was implemented. Mr. Decker said that he thought it would take time for the Budget Committee to feel comfortable and start using this Google Docs program regularly. He said that he thought they
should keep trying because over time he thought that using programs like this would be the right thing to do. Mr. Koester said that he would like to see how the Google Docs program worked with spreadsheets. He said that he would like to be able to make comments and suggestions on spreadsheets through this technology. Mr. Curry said that he would keep working on a Google Docs policy for the Budget Committee and he wanted the Budget Committee members to keep looking at the program and seeing whether it was worth the ease of use questions and the other questions which had been brought up about it.
FURTHER MEETINGS:
Mr. Decker said that the Budget Committee had meetings scheduled for October 9, 2008 and October 23, 2008 both at 7:00pm.
Mr. Curry suggested the possibility that the Budget Committee could have a workshop on October 16, 2008 where they could discuss the default budget. Mr. Batchelder said that decisions on the default budget were up to the School Board and he was not sure that having a workshop on the topic would be helpful to the Budget Committee. Mr. Decker said that the Budget Committee members would make the final decision on a workshop meeting at their scheduled meeting on October 9, 2008. Ms. Plante said that she might not be able to attend the meeting on October 9, 2008 because of the Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur but she said that she would try to send another representative from the School Board.
OTHER:
Mr. Koester said that he would like to thank Ms. Danis for showing interest in a position on the Budget Committee. He said that it would be a good thing to have a member of the Budget Committee who had a child in the Nottingham School.
Ms. Danis said that she was looking forward to working with the Budget Committee.
Mr. Decker said that he wanted to congratulate Mr. Fernald on his retirement from the Budget Committee.
Ms. Powell made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:20pm. Mr. Curry seconded the motion. The present members of the Budget Committee voted unanimously in favor of the motion. The motion passed 9-0.
Respectfully submitted,
Kelly Tivnan
Budget Committee Secretary
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