HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-06-08-AC-min
June 8, 2005
Minutes
Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee
June 8, 2005
Place and time: Legion Room, second floor, Cary Hall, 7:30 p.m.
Members present: Al Levine (Chair), Deborah Brown (Vice Chair), Rick Eurich, Rod
Cole, David Kanter, Ron Pawliczek, Eric Michelson, John Bartenstein, Paul Hamburger
Others present: Michael Young (Town Budget Officer), Richard Pagett (Board of
Selectmen liaison), Tom Griffiths (School Committee Liaison)
Al Levine called the meeting to order at 7:40.
1. Minutes: Paul Hamburger agreed to take minutes of this meeting.
2. Audit Report: About two hours were consumed on this important topic. The
highlights were as follows:
a. Paul Hamburger reported, having read the detailed report in part, that the
auditors seemed to accept the operation of the town in general, saying that it
conformed to accepted practices.
b. David Kanter pointed out that in the Management Report the auditors
mentioned one area which had not been sufficiently addressed since the prior
audit, namely, the water and sewer accounting, and seven other areas which
were targets for improvement.
c. Water and Sewer: David opined that the town response on water and sewer
was inadequate. Lively discussion ensued in which the problems of getting
data out of MUNIS were cited as a holdup to getting the answers to the
questions that had been raised by the Appropriation Committee in a number of
previous sessions and indeed had been forwarded by our representatives. It
was suggested that we are in an enormously awkward position in that we will
be getting a new Town Manager on July 11. Richard Pagett said that we don’t
need to wait for a new Town Manager. It was mentioned that Loren Wood is
able to get some information out of MUNIS but perhaps not enough . It was
suggested that hiring would have to be done. Deborah Brown said proper
controls and procedures are needed. Tom Griffiths added that MUNIS was
introduced in large part for the schools and asked how is MUNIS
implemented for the Town. Al Levine commented that our situation was well
understood last fall, but we are still in more or less the same place. Michael
Young said that staff is fully organized on this issue and work is being done.
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June 8, 2005
ACTION ITEM: Al Levine agreed to invite Candy McLaughlin to the next
meeting to give us an update on the status, and to give members an opportunity to
ask questions and/or to express views. Michael Young expressed an opinion that
such a meeting would be helpful for Ms McLaughlin as well.
d. The seven remaining deficiencies reported (#2-8): David Kanter raised
questions on each of the town’s responses. In particular on item 3 (establish
procedures to monitor arbitrage requirements) he asked if the town did what
the auditors advised.
ACTION ITEM: Michael Young took an action item to find out and report back
to the committee what has been done. David’s questions on the remaining 6 items
were similar in nature. The town’s responses were, in general, promises to do
things, and the questions were whether the relevant town personnel had indeed
done what was promised.
ACTION ITEM: How do other towns deal with auditors’ reports? Deborah and
John took an action item to bring back some information to the committee on the
experience of other towns that have a separate, permanent Audit Committee.
3. FY 2005 Year End Status:
Michael Young supplied a handout on the expected requests for reserve funds.
The committee will review more specific requests at the meeting of 6/22. It is
expected that the entire $300,000 in the reserve fund will be requested to
compensate for overruns of the budgeted amounts in Legal ($190,000), Library
Utilities – Electric ($80,000), Fee Compensation ($30,000). A question was
raised on how much library utility funding was raised for 2006. The answer from
the budget book is $20,000. How this will work was not clarified. The
committee needs an answer to that as well as how we will address the ever-
burgeoning legal fees. We expect there will be explanations on these in the 6/22
meeting.
The handout also indicated how the $50,000 in the Municipal Salary adjustment
line item for FY 2005 will be distributed.
4. Closeout results for FY 05
In response to a question from Paul Hamburger, Michael Young stated that
information on the amounts remaining in accounts which would be forwarded to
free cash, and the amounts transferred from DPW accounts to reduce the large
FY05 snow deficit, would be available at the Selectmen’s goal setting in early
August, and the Appropriation Committee would get copies of this information
(electronically, please!)
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June 8, 2005
5. Selectmen’s Ad Hoc Financial Policy Committee Draft
This handout was discussed. It was suggested that a set of policies is needed by
December 2005 at the latest to inform the FY07 budget setting process and the
activity around the March 2006 CPA vote. Al Levine suggested that the charge
was not sufficiently general, and it is hard to come up with a set of policies that
will stand the test of time. Al suggested that if the Board of Selectmen were to
appoint a committee, the AC should not be part of it, but should review the results
independently. Paul Hamburger suggested that there ought to be one committee
or working group, perhaps containing members of all the stakeholder parties.
This would not preclude committee and Board reviews of the results.
ACTION ITEM: Al said he would send an email or other communication to
Jeanne Krieger on the organization of the committee. Paul Hamburger suggested
to Al that he had some ideas on this subject and would send him an email before
the end of the weekend which might inform his email to Jeanne Krieger (Board of
Selectmen, Chair)
6. Minutes:
A review of the minutes and status of minutes was undertaken. After the meeting
John Bartenstein distributed a spread sheet detailing the status of the various
minutes of Appropriation Committee meetings. Please see that document for
details.
7. Adjournment: Al Levine received a unanimous vote to adjourn at 10:35 PM
Respectfully submitted,
Paul Hamburger
Approved July 7, 2005
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