BOARD OF FINANCE
DECEMBER 13, 2016
Page 1 of
2
DRAFT
Attendance: Chairman
John Grabowski, Robert Brinton Jr., John Ford IV, Sharon Huxley, Melissa Spear,
Sally Huyser joined the meeting at 8:45 P.M.
Visitors: Sandra
Welwood, Selectman Clark Hurlburt, First Selectwoman Derrylyn Gorski, Michael Battista,
Thomas Broesler
Chairman Grabowski called the meeting to order at 7:09
P.M. The meeting was held in the
Conference Room of the Bethany Town Hall.
APPROVAL OF
MINUTES
Chairman Grabowski called for approval of the minutes of the
meeting of November 15, 2016. The motion
was moved by Sharon Huxley and seconded by John Ford IV. Robert Brinton moved to amend the minutes as
follows:
Temporary Chairman Ford called for a motion to approve the
minutes of January 12, 2016. The motion
was moved by Sally Huyser and seconded by Sharon Huxley to approve the minutes
of the January 12, 2016 meeting. Sally
Huyser then moved to amend the minutes
regarding the resolution passed at that meeting as follows:
The draft minutes of
the January 12, 2016 meeting were amended by replacing the second paragraph
under “Approval of Minutes” with the following:
The draft of May 5, 2015 minutes were amended to indicate that Robert
Brinton Jr. voted no on the Elementary School and total Town budgets. The Board voted unanimously to approve the
minutes as amended.
The minutes of the November 15, 2016 meeting were approved
as amended on a unanimous vote.
CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
Chairman Grabowski gave a report to the Board of Finance on
the recent Amity Finance Committee meeting.
The first draft of the Amity budget for
2017-18 was presented to the Finance Committee.
There was an overall increase of 2.86% in this budget. The increases are due to less revenue from
the State of Connecticut, addition of one teacher for $56,000, contractual
increases of $500,000. The state will
not cover internet as they have in the past.
This will add another $68,000 to the budget. There are some site repairs and site
improvements also planned for next fiscal year which are in addition to the
repairs being done with the bonding money.
The Bethany enrollment is down nineteen students. Our portion of the budget will decrease
$14,900 over last year if this is the budget that is approved.. Orange has the highest enrollment followed by
Woodbridge.
MOVE AUDITORS
REPORT UP ON THE AGENDA
Sharon Huxley made a motion to move Auditors Report up on
the agenda. Robert Brinton Jr. seconded
the motion. The vote taken was
unanimous.
AUDITORS REPORT
Sandra Welwood presented the draft of the Audit for 2016 and
draft of the Communication of Internal Control to the Board of Finance. She commented that for a town the size of
Bethany that the debt levels are good.
The unassigned Fund Balance is 13.5% of expenditures at the
end of the 2015-16 fiscal year. There were three reasons for the increase in
the General Fund balance. The Town
received a surplus check from Amity, a good tax collection rate and an
under-expenditure for Health Insurance. Robert Brinton questioned the way the audit
was presented showing the General Fund Balance vs. the Capital Reserve Fund
balance on page 68 of the draft. Robert
also questioned the overage in the Board of Finance budget of $50,000 for the
salary of the Finance Director. He
wanted it moved to the Selectmen’s account.
When this position was created it was determined that it would be a
Selectmen’s budget item. Discussion
followed regarding the two issues raised by Robert. An
extension was not filed for submission of the audit to the State of
Connecticut. The deadline is December
31, 2016 for filing, therefore it is important to approve the audit at this
meeting. A draft of the audit had been
sent to the Board members last week for their review. After further discussion Sharon Huxley moved
a motion to approve the draft of the audit with the corrections made regarding
the salary transfer of the Finance Director, and modifications to further
explain the changes in reporting of the Fund Balance vs. Capital Expenditure as
had been done in previous audits. Sally
Huyser seconded the motion. The vote
taken was five yes votes and one no vote that of Robert Brinton Jr.
CENTER STATION
GARAGE DOORS
The north side door on the front of Center Station is
broken. The cost of repair is about
$1,800. Since this is an old door, repair
was not recommended by Rod White. The
two front doors match and were put in about the same time. Rod is recommending that both doors be
replaced at a total cost of $6,000. A
Capital Expenditure was approved at the Annual Town Meeting of $10,000 to repair
the septic system. The final cost of
repair was $4,700. This left $5,300 in
the Capital account. Since Capital
Expenditures have to be used for only what they are appropriated for, it was
suggested that the balance be returned to the Capital Expenditure account and
$6,000 be approved out of the Contingency Fund for this repair. The motion was moved by Sharon Huxley and
seconded by Sally Huyser. The vote taken
was unanimous.
ADJOURNMENT
Adjournment was called at 9:45 P.M. after a motion was moved
by Melissa Spear and seconded by Robert Brinton Jr. The vote taken was unanimous.
Respectfully
submitted,
June
G. Riley
Clerk,
Board of Finance
