NOTTINGHAM BUDGET COMMITTEE MINUTES
MARCH 5, 2009
PUBLIC SESSION
APPROVED BY THE COMMITTEE APRIL 30, 2009
PRESENT: ABSENT:
Mr. John Decker, Chair
Mr. Peter Bock, BOS Representative
Ms. Amy Plante, School Board Representative
Mr. Gene Reed
Ms. Donna Danis
Ms. Charlene Andersen
Mr. Kyle Barry
Mr. Chet Batchelder
Mr. Scott Curry
Ms. Gail Powell
Mr. Michael Koester
The Chair called the meeting to order at 7:00pm.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Ms. Andersen made a motion that the Budget Committee approve the minutes from their meeting of January 15, 2009. Ms. Danis seconded the motion.
The Budget Committee had discussion about the minutes and made some changes.
Ms. Andersen made a motion that the Budget Committee approve the minutes from their meeting of January 15, 2009 as amended. Ms. Danis seconded the motion. Mr. Decker, Mr. Bock, Ms. Plante, Mr. Reed, Ms. Danis, Ms. Andersen, Ms. Powell and Mr. Koester voted in favor of the motion. Mr. Batchelder, Mr. Curry and Mr. Barry abstained from the motion. The motion passed 8-0 with 3 abstentions.
Ms. Andersen made a motion that the Budget Committee approve the minutes from their meeting of January 22, 2009. Mr. Barry seconded the motion.
The Budget Committee had discussion about the minutes and made some changes.
Ms. Andersen made a motion that the Budget Committee approve the minutes from their meeting of January 22, 2009 as amended. Ms. Danis seconded the motion. Mr. Decker, Mr. Bock, Ms. Plante, Mr. Reed, Ms. Danis, Ms. Andersen, Ms. Powell, Mr. Koester and Mr. Barry voted in favor of the motion. Mr. Batchelder and Mr. Curry abstained from the motion. The motion passed 9-0 with 2 abstentions.
Mr. Koester made a motion that the Budget Committee approve the minutes from their meeting of February 5, 2009. Ms. Andersen seconded the motion.
The Budget Committee had discussion about the minutes and made some changes.
Mr. Koester made a motion that the Budget Committee approve the minutes from their meeting of February 5, 2009 as amended. Ms. Andersen seconded the motion. Mr. Decker, Mr. Bock, Ms. Plante, Ms. Danis, Ms. Andersen, Ms. Powell, Mr. Koester, Mr. Barry and Mr. Curry voted in favor of the motion. Mr. Batchelder and Mr. Reed abstained from the motion. The motion passed 9-0 with 2 abstentions.
TOWN MEETING PLAN:
Mr. Decker said that the Budget Committee should talk about their plan for the town meeting. Mr. Bock asked whether Mr. Decker would be presenting the budget. Mr. Decker said yes.
Mr. Bock said that the Board of Selectmen had done a hand out regarding the town budget which would appear in the Forum. He said that the Board of Selectmen did not know what the state would be doing as far as distributing revenue. Ms. Andersen asked whether this document had been prepared by Mr. Bock and Ms. Bonser. Mr. Bock said yes but he said that Mr. Netishen had been kept informed throughout the process. He said that Mr. Netishen would be back and would be present for the next Board of Selectmen's meeting. Ms. Powell asked when this document would be going to the Forum. Mr. Bock said that he did not know the answer to that question. Ms. Powell said that because the Budget Committee was just seeing this, they did not have any input on the document. She said that it was wonderful that the
Board of Selectmen had created this document and she said that she thought it would be helpful to people. She said that she would love for there to be a more cooperative process between the Board of Selectmen and the Budget Committee. Mr. Bock said that he thought there should be discussions between the Board of Selectmen and the Budget Committee in the spring so that they could put parameters in place. Mr. Curry said that he would like to have the Budget Committee have similar discussions with the School Board as well. Ms. Powell agreed. She said that she did not want there to be an adversarial relationship between the School Board, Board of Selectmen and Budget Committee.
Mr. Curry said that he was concerned about state budget cuts but it was too late for the town to do anything formally. He asked whether they could put forth something like a warrant about this issue as "Other Business" at town meeting. Ms. Andersen said that anything brought up on the town meeting agenda as "Other Business" had to be non binding. Mr. Batchelder said that the statute allowed for responding to budget cuts. He also said that there was flexibility in the system and there was no immediate emergency in this situation. Mr. Bock said that the Board of Selectmen had planned to attend a meeting on the state funding issue but there had been a snow storm which had cancelled it. He said that they would be attending the rescheduled meeting on March 11, 2009 and they would talk to the
Local Government Center about this.
BUDGET PROCESS:
Mr. Decker said that he would like for the committee to further discuss the ups and downs of the overall process from the past budget season. Mr. Koester said that he felt the Budget Committee had missed the opportunity to get before the School Board to discuss key issues. He said that one of those issues had been the Budget Committee vote tally on the warrant article. He said that he thought this was something that the Budget Committee needed to work out with the School Board before they made a decision on it at one of their meetings.
Ms. Powell made a motion that two workshop meetings be set up during the summer between the Budget Committee and the School Board and the Budget Committee and the Board of Selectmen where they could discuss improving the budget and communication process.
Ms. Plante said that the School Board had talked about this. She said that they had talked about getting together with the Budget Committee during the summer to discuss how to make things go more smoothly. Mr. Decker said that he would put this down as an action item for the new Budget Committee to discuss. Ms. Powell said that she would like the directive to be given by the current Budget Committee because they were the ones who had been through the process and who had the experience.
Mr. Curry seconded Ms. Powell's motion.
Mr. Curry said that he supported the idea but he did not think that this Budget Committee should impose their will on the incoming Budget Committee. Mr. Batchelder said that he thought it seemed like the Budget Committee was directing their will on other Boards, such as the Board of Selectmen and the School Board.
Mr. Koester amended the motion to state the following:
That the Budget Committee recommend that two workshop meetings be set up during the summer where they would invite the School Board and the Board of Selectmen to discuss improving the budget and communication process.
Ms. Andersen seconded the amended motion.
Mr. Reed said that he did not see any harm in approving this motion. He said that the Budget Committee committed themselves to initiating the meetings in this motion but they did not commit the Board of Selectmen or the School Board to accepting their invitations.
Mr. Decker, Mr. Reed, Ms. Danis, Ms. Andersen, Mr. Barry, Ms. Plante, Mr. Batchelder, Mr. Curry and Mr. Koester voted in favor of the amendment. Mr. Bock voted against the amendment. Ms. Powell abstained from the motion. The amendment passed 9-1 with 1 abstention.
Mr. Decker, Mr. Reed, Ms. Danis, Ms. Andersen, Mr. Barry, Ms. Plante, Mr. Batchelder, Mr. Curry and Mr. Koester voted in favor of the amended motion. Mr. Bock voted against the motion. Ms. Powell abstained from the motion. The amended motion passed 9-1 with 1 abstention.
Mr. Curry said that it was confusing to voters and hard to explain to them how the default budget could be higher than the proposed budget. He said that he would like to work to change the system so that did not happen in the future. Mr. Koester said that reminded him of another missed window of opportunity. He said that he thought the default budget should be put into the purview of the Budget Committee. He said that he thought the Budget Committee really needed to meet with the School Board about this.
Mr. Koester also noted that the formula for tuition had been traditionally flawed. He said that it might be better this year because things were a little different but he noted that it was something to keep in mind.
Mr. Curry said that he had been impressed that both the School Board and the town had attempted to provide the Budget Committee with fewer revisions over the past budget season.
Mr. Bock said that the upcoming year was expected to be difficult for everyone. He said that a silver lining to that was that it might encourage more people to get involved in municipal government. Ms. Danis said that as a new member of the Budget Committee she had been impressed with the process. She said that she had also been impressed by the quality of the people on the Budget Committee, the variety of opinions and the thoughtful discussions. She said that she wished more people could be exposed to the quality of the discussions of the Budget Committee. Mr. Decker noted that the Budget Committee minutes were online so anyone who was interested could read them.
Mr. Curry said that he was bothered that as a citizen he could email out whatever he wanted but as a Budget Committee member he could not respond to anything without a public forum. He said that he felt sometimes things were emailed around town which did not accurately represent what was happening in the government. Mr. Reed said that he disagreed with Mr. Curry's interpretation of the law. Ms. Powell repeated that she felt communication between the people and the government was very important.
Ms. Powell said that she had additional concerns about revenue and about the default budget but she said that she liked that the School Board gave the Budget Committee good hard numbers.
HCPP (HOUSING AND CONSERVATION PLANNING PROGRAM) GRANT ADVISORY COMMITTEE REPORT:
Mr. Batchelder said that the HCPP Grant Advisory Committee had met on February 9, 2009. He said that they had a forum scheduled for March 9, 2009 at 7:00pm. He said that the forum would be for the public and it would be televised. He said that they would be using a small group setting and would be asking for public input. He said that the committee also had a meeting scheduled for May 18, 2009 and he said that their final public session was scheduled for October 19, 2009. Ms. Plante noted that this committee was developing goals and priorities for the future so they really wanted public input.
CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN COMMITTEE REPORT:
Ms. Andersen said that the Capital Improvement Plan Committee report was in the town report. She said that she had discussed this at candidates night but she thought there were areas where the communications and process of the Capital Improvement Plan Committee could be improved. Mr. Koester said that his only comment was that he thought it was misleading when the report showed projects which would be bonded over several years in one year.
OTHER:
Mr. Curry said that it had been a pleasure working with the Budget Committee over the past season and he was looking forward to the next season.
Mr. Koester asked about a date for their next meeting. After some discussion the Budget Committee decided on a date of April 30, 2009.
Ms. Powell said that she felt the members of the Budget Committee were an interesting reflection of the town.
Mr. Batchelder said that he had rearranged his schedule so that he would able to attend more meetings during the next year.
Ms. Plante said that there would be a meeting of the School District Building Committee on March 30, 2009 at 7:00pm in the School Library. She asked if the Budget Committee wanted to send representation to that meeting. Mr. Decker said that he would attend this first meeting in lieu of a volunteer. Mr. Barry said that he might be able to attend. He said he would check with his work schedule. Mr. Decker assured Ms. Plante that someone from the Budget Committee would attend the meeting.
Ms. Andersen said that she would like thank Mr. Decker for doing a good job as the Committee Chairman.
Mr. Bock said that he had learned a lot in the process of being the Selectmen's Representative to the Budget Committee.
Ms. Danis thanked the Budget Committee for giving her the opportunity to serve.
Mr. Reed said that being on the Budget Committee had been an interesting experience and he had enjoyed it.
Mr. Decker said that he wanted to thank everyone for a good budget season. He also said that he did not want to be Committee Chairman again next year.
Mr. Koester made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:45pm. Mr. Reed seconded the motion. The Budget Committee voted unanimously in favor of the motion. The motion passed 11-0.
Respectfully submitted,
Kelly Tivnan
Budget Committee Secretary
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