June 6 Irregularly Scheduled Selectmen Meeting

June 6 Irregularly Scheduled Selectmen Meeting

 Selectmen Morrison began this meeting with a statement on the process of calling for an unscheduled selectmen meeting according to the board's policies and procedures. Mr. Morrison stated that in his opinion, this meeting was not warranted. The regularly scheduled Selectmen meeting is June 13th one week away.

The chairman felt the topic for the proposed special town meeting - public safety warranted the meeting. The public safety issues are the air packs ( question on cost - not expired yet)for the fire department and the safety vests ( Vests are expired according to Federal regulations - cost $7,000)  for the police officers. Both items - the air packs and the safety vests are needed for the firefighters and the police officers to perform their jobs. The expense for these items were not part of the budget adopted at the Annual Town Meeting. Strange thing is the budget adopted at the annual town meeting was the selectmen budget!

So anyway, after much discussion, some facts emerged. There is about $142,000 in stabilization to back a $13 million dollar town budget. No additional money was placed into the stabilization account at the annual town meeting. 

There is $56,000 that is "unallocated" in the FY 17 budget. There has been "extra money" placed in the Selectmen expense account. The vote taken last night, was to have the police chief order the vests from the police budget and at a future special town meeting transfer that money back into the police budget.

The cost of the replacement program of the air packs was not known at this time. More discussion on this topic will occur at the regularly scheduled selectmen meeting on Monday June 13th.

Selectmen Morrison also stated that before any special town meeting is scheduled, the selectmen should review the budget adopted at the annual town meeting, because there are differences between the budget adopted by the selectmen and the the budget presented at the annual town meeting.

So this debate will continue at a future date.

The abridged version of the town administrator's report mentioned that Schedule A has been accepted by the DOR. 

The groundwork for the audits should begin this week. Actuarial reports for the OPEB accounts will need to be performed for FY 13 and FY 14. There are still major problems with the audit for FY 13. Prior audit work in past fiscal years is not reliable. Obtaining an accurate trial balance for FY 13 which began July 1, 2012 is proving elusive.

In other news the selectmen will need to sign a letter for the emergency legislation regarding the improper posting of the March special town meeting.

In a later post...Donald Trump is not the only person who has problems building a wall!