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HomeMy Public PortalAbout07.14.21 FinCom PacketTown of Brewster Finance Committee 2198 Main St., Brewster, MA 02631 fincommeeting@brewster-ma.gov (508) 896-3701 MEETING AGENDA Remote Participation Only July 14, 2021 at 6:00 PM This meeting will be conducted by remote participation pursuant to Gov. Baker’s March 2020 orders suspending certain Open Meeting Law provisions and imposing limits on public gatherings. No in-person meeting attendance will be permitted. If the Town is unable to live broadcast this meeting, a record of the proceedings will be provided on the Town website as soon as possible. The meeting may be viewed by: Live broadcast (Brewster Government TV Channel 18), Livestream (livestream.brewster- ma.gov), or Video recording (tv.brewster-ma.gov). Meetings may be joined by: 1. Phone: Call (929) 436-2866 or (301) 715-8592. Webinar ID: 862 2956 9696 Passcode: 565167 To request to speak: Press *9 and wait to be recognized. 2. Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86229569696?pwd=MUhJNGpoU3VocTZ0cTU0VGpYcWdVQT09 Passcode: 565167 To request to speak: Tap Zoom “Raise Hand” button or type “Chat” comment with your name and address, then wait to be recognized. Finance Committee Harvey (Pete) Dahl Chair Frank Bridges Vice Chair William Meehan Clerk Andrew Evans Alex Hopper Honey Pivirotto Robert Tobias Robert Young Town Administrator Peter Lombardi Finance Director Mimi Bernardo 1.Call to Order 2.Declaration of a Quorum 3.Meeting Participation Statement 4.Recording Statement 5.Public Announcements and Comment: Members of the public may address the Finance Committee on matters not on the meeting’s agenda for a maximum 3-5 minutes at the Chair’s discretion. Under the Open Meeting Law, the Finance Committee is unable to reply but may add items presented to a future agenda. 6.Finance Committee Reorganization – Nominations and Votes for Chair, Vice Chair and Secretary 7.Town Administrator/Finance Director Report 8.Policies and Procedures Update (Standing Item) 9.End of Year Budget Transfers – Discussion and Vote 10.Discuss and Determine Feedback to Select Board on Priority Goals for Upcoming Annual Retreat and Updated Strategic Plan 11. Discussion – Nauset Regional Public Schools, Budget and Finance issues. 12. Liaison Reports 13. Review and Approval of Minutes 14. Request for agenda items for future meetings. 15. Matters Not Reasonably Anticipated by the Chair 16. Next Finance Committee Meeting – 8/11/21 17. Adjournment Date Posted:Date Revised:Received by Town Clerk: July 12, 2021 TOWN OF BREWSTER 2198 MAIN STREET BREWSTER,MA 02631 PHONE:(508)896-3701 EXT 1147 FAX:(508)896-8089 ACCOUNTANT@BREWSTER-MA.GOV WWW.BREWSTER-MA.GOV OFFICE OF TOWN ACCOUNTANT July 8, 2021 To: The Brewster Selectboard & The Brewster Finance Committee From: Mimi Bernardo, Finance Director RE: FY21 Year End Transfers per M.G.L. Chapter 44, Section 33B (b) Dear Brewster Selectboard & Brewster Finance Committee, I am writing to request authorization for transferring the following funds per MGL Ch44 s33B (b): 1.TRANSFER TO: Sealer of Weights & Measures the amount of $225.00; current deficit is $225.00 2.TRANSFER FROM: General Fund Health Insurance the amount of $225.00; current balance is $245,661.28 Note: amount transferred will be the actual deficit when all FY21 expenses have been posted to the ledger; the amount transferred will not exceed amount requested. Final amounts will not be known until 7/15/21. Thank you for your consideration. Regards, Mimi Bernardo Town of Brewster July 12, 2021 Finance Committee Prepared by: Harvey Dahl, Chair Re: NRSC A Way Forward Purpose: To define the Brewster Finance Committee’s role in FY 2022 with respect to Nauset Regional School Committee and define action items that will improve relations with NRSC while ensuring that Brewster’s Finance Committee performs its primary function to review financial information relevant to Brewster taxpayers and make recommendations to Brewster Town Meeting Scope: NRSC budget for FY2023. The Finance Committee’s role is limited to the review of the budget as presented by NRSC and to make recommendations to Town meeting. Recognizing that 40% of Town Meeting voted against the NRSC budget and 48% of the Nauset Public Schools Assessment is paid by the taxpayers of Brewster, we express the following concerns and will move forward with the action items outlined below. Concerns: 1.We do not get a full look at budget until… 2.We have recently received pdf’s of poorly copied budget material. 3.Many revenue and expense items are unbudgeted. 4.Difficulty reconciling Budget to Year-End Report to the Annual Audit 5.Budget is compared to previous budgets as opposed to recent actuals 6.Large reserves items (Reserve for Negotiations) need to be reconciled to the actual contracts/expenses 7.Lengthy delay in releasing audited financials (2 years) and concerns over material weakness and significant deficiencies. 8.NRSC and Superintendent not accepting requests to attend additional meetings of the Brewster Finance Committee during budget deliberations. Action Items 1.Work with Select Board to include improving relationships with NRSC as an integral part of their Strategic Plan. 2.Work with Select Board to help them understand the Finance Committee’s desire to prepare and present analysis to Select Board on NRSC budget. 3.Invite Interim Superintendent to a Finance Committee meeting to welcome anr and discuss 4.Work with NRSC to fully understand budget calendar and make certain that all budget materials disseminated to School Committee officials are provided to Brewster Fincom as required of public documents. 5.Present requests for information early in the budget process. 6.Request budget materials in original form (i.e. spreadsheets) that will allow better analysis. 7.Request detail on Revenue and Expenses for unbudgeted Revolving Funds and grants with historic information. 8.Assign multiple liaisons to NRSC with the intent of keeping current on the budget process and following the process of hiring a new Superintendent. Finance Committee Minutes June 23, 2021 Page 1 of 5 TOWN OF BREWSTER FINANCE COMMITTEE Date: June 23, 2021 Time: 6:00 PM VIRTUAL MEETING MINUTES Present: Chair Pete Dahl, Vice Chair Frank Bridges, Clerk Bill Meehan, Honey Pivirotto, Bob Young, Andy Evans, Robert Tobias, Alex Hopper Also present: Mimi Bernardo, Finance Director; Peter Lombardi, Town Administrator; Lisa Vitale, Treasurer/Collector; Donna Kalinick, Assistant Town Administrator; James Galagher, Assessor Absent: The Chair called the meeting to order at 6:00 pm. This meeting will be conducted by remote participation pursuant to Chapter 20 of the Acts of 2021. No in-person meeting attendance will be permitted. If the Town is unable to live broadcast this meeting, a record of the proceedings will be provided on the Town website as soon as possible. The meeting may be viewed by: Live broadcast (Brewster Government TV Channel 18), Livestream (livestream.brerwster-ma.gov), or Video recording (tv.brewster-ma.gov). A quorum was declared for the Finance Committee. 1.Public Announcements and Comment- none 2.Town Administrator/Finance Director Report – including ARPA funds Peter Lombardi said he would be brief as there are many other items on the agenda to which he will be speaking. We have received a number from the Fed for the amount received from the ARPA funds, just over $1M. We have until FY24 to spend down those funds. We have specific guidelines on how to calculate where that money can be spent. We plan on putting together a recommended plan in the next few months and will bring to the Select Board and Finance Committee once that has been completed. Frank asked about the CARES spending totals. Mimi Bernardo said she could not give a firm number at this point. The first Coronavirus relief program was through FEMA, then after that we found out about CARES. She has been going through each invoice to see which would be eligible for either program. When the Biden Administration came in, the coverage percentages changed. No firm answer yet, but she will be going back and starting from scratch with all the invoices to reconcile with new percentage splits and new eligibility requirements. Frank said it sounds like there will be more money, than we thought previously, disbursed. Mimi Bernardo said that was correct. 3. Policies & Procedures Update - none 4.Status Update on Finance Team’s Progress Implementing Recommendations from MA Department of Revenue’s 2019 Report Approved: VOTE: Finance Committee Minutes June 23, 2021 Page 2 of 5 Peter Lombardi said back in late 2018/early 2019, the Town invited the Department of Revenue to come in and do a comprehensive analysis of the Town’s finances. That analysis was delivered to the Town in June of 2019. In August of 2019, the finance team put together a high-level plan from that report from their recommendations. It has been two years since that report, and we have made a lot of progress throughout. This is an update relative to those recommendations. There are 17 recommendations in the plan. Peter Lombardi went through each of those recommendations and where we are at at this point. Establishing a Town Charter and reviewing Bylaws. There has been significant work and at Town Meeting, the Charter was overwhelmingly adopted. The Charter governs over the existing Bylaws. Establishing an HR Department. This was originally planned in the FY21 budget, but with the pandemic, it was moved to include it in the FY22 budget. Susan Broderick will shift over as the full- time HR Director. We will hire a part-time HR Generalist to help establish this office. We will also be adding a new Project Manager in the Town Administrator’s Office. We also hired a consultant to conduct an audit on our personnel policies and procedures to use as a roadmap to establish this office. Sustaining the Personnel Board. The Charter Committee engaged the Select Board in drafting the Charter around this issue and ultimately shifted primary responsibility for personnel to the Town Manager who will be working with the HR Department. The Select Board still does retain authority to approve all personnel policies and collective bargaining agreements. Procuring Audit Services. Our long-time auditor’s contract expires after he completes this last audit. The Town will issue a formal solicitation this winter, the Audit Committee will make recommendations, and ultimately as the Chief Procurement Officer, Peter Lombardi will award the 3-year contract. Adopting Enterprise Fund accounting for Water and Golf. We felt confident in the Water Departments’ ability to be transitioned to an Enterprise Fund Account, which was approved at Town Meeting. At the same time, we secured funding to engage a consultant to do a similar analysis with Golf. They are soon to complete their work. The earliest we would transition that would be next July 1st, requiring a Town vote as well. They have already been acting as if they are an Enterprise Fund. Codifying the Budget Process in Bylaw. Once the Charter is adopted, we will have to go back and revise the Bylaw. Revise the Capital Planning Bylaw. We have reconstituted the Capital Planning Committee, developed a 5-year Capital Improvement Plan, put a good program in place we feel confident in. The Capital Planning Process is outlined in Chapter 6 of the Charter. The one change is that the Capital Planning Committee is appointed by the Town Manager not the Select Board under the Charter. Determining if a special purpose Capital Stabilization Fund was necessary. We had one for many years, but more recently, in the financial reserves policy, the town committed to investing a combo of free cash and short-term rental revenues to grow to approx. $4.5M. we have appropriated, so far, about $750,000 from various sources which will help reduce cos-impacts of major capital projects by reducing the amount of debt issued. Seeking professional development and training for staff and committees. Professional development for staff has been difficult during this pandemic, but we have done the best we can. We try to send as much as we can your way from DOR, MA Municipal Association to have all resources on our radar. Clarify reporting structure of Consolidated Department of Municipal Finance. Some confusion and contradiction that needed sorting. Working through the Charter Process, we included that the department heads report directly to Peter Lombardi. Conducting Workflow analysis and creating a procedures manual. The Treasurer/Collector’s office have been working on this already. The Assessor’s Office same and the Finance Department to create within the next year. Finance Committee Minutes June 23, 2021 Page 3 of 5 Expand remote entry – we have made a ton of progress on this front. Moved to a cloud-based version of our accounting software. Transitioned to a new payroll platform. Accounts receivable and payroll have been decentralized with remote entry capability. Shifting Water Dept. collection to the Collector’s Office. Best route to take was to shift over to Town’s software. We will be live with Water in the next couple of days. It is a work in process. Reposition the IT Department. This department will report to the Town Administrator. Explore Software Upgrades. Done a lot on this front. We invested in Zoom. We transitioned to paperless daily beach stickers for non-residents and plan on license plate reader technology this year as well. E-permitting platform for Building Department and Health Department, implementing soon. Refocused our efforts in making our existing accounting software work. We are looking to invest in a new platform integrated with current VADAR and stand alone which will help us develop our operating budget and our capital budget with a tremendous amount of transparency. Implement a Human Resource Information System. Our payroll was transitioned to Harper this winter. Once HR department established, we will look to see where we stand. Maintain vigilant cyber security awareness. The State has really focused on this in the last few years. We realized we were ahead of what the State was looking for us to do. The IT upgrades we implemented enhanced our Cybersecurity on all fronts. Bill said he was very impressed by the amount of progress that has been made during these very difficult times. He wondered if Town Counsel had been consulted regarding HR which assumes a large burden of law and thought it might be wise to get their input. Peter Lombardi said the Town has a special labor counsel that handles all our HR issues. Depending on the nature of the personnel issue, we regularly bring counsel in as we see fit, but err on the side of caution in all personnel issues. The audit that was completed is very thorough and one of the key things will be putting together an employee handbook. Having that in place will be a big first step. We do talk to counsel on a regular basis. Bill also questioned Cyber Security – he wondered if Kathy Lambert could use some expert help in this area as it deserves very close attention and fare investment. Peter Lombardi said the State has a best practices program which is great for the really small towns that do not have an IT Director with any expertise. Kathy Lambert, our IT Director, does have funds in her operating budget which she uses for a variety of things included Cyber Security. Frank was wondering about the State approval of the Charter - if they approve it, can they approve it with changes? Will we have to revisit this? Peter Lombardi said there was language in the Warrant giving the Select Board some leeway in dealing with the back and forth if the legislative counsel is looking for minor changes, which likely will happen. Invariably, the State will find something to change. Town Counsel has been involved all along the process in developing the Charter. The Legislature, if supported by Town Meeting, are not in the business of making any significant changes in the Charter. There might be some minor amendments. Frank then asked about the Audit Committee – there are still open positions and wondered where we are in getting that Committee filled. Peter Lombardi said there are still two vacancies. The Select Board completed its Annual reappointing process for all our boards and committees, and we will be posting an announcement with all committee openings shortly. Pete said he has one more question regarding the lock box and if there is any consideration moving to direct ACH payments. Lisa Vitale said people can pay online which is a direct ACH payment or credit card payment. Honey asked about the Audit Committee and the issuance of the RFP and timing. Are there thoughts about issuing the RFP in January or March? Peter Lombardi said this has been discussed. There is a whole host of other responsibilities in the various offices in the next 6 months, and we are looking to issue the RFP in January. We are hoping to meet with the Audit Committee sometime in November to go over. Finance Committee Minutes June 23, 2021 Page 4 of 5 5.Discussion – Nauset Regional Public Schools, Budget and Finance issues Pete said he has numerous concerns on budgeting and lack of transparency on this and wants to make sure we investigate suggestions on this issue. He thinks it enormously important to get this information out to the community and other member towns of the Nauset communities to highlight some of the policies and practices that should be improved in the budgeting process. Andy asked if, like the DOR report and the audit we had done, can we request such an audit from a similar organization? Pete said the School Committee could request it – which is what happened in Brewster. The DOR came in, did an analysis, indicated their recommendations - it was a two-year process. We do not have the authority to ask them to do that. We can request the School Committee take up that issue. They are under no requirement to do anything more than to listen to the recommendation. Pete felt that would be reasonable and a call to action. He said we could put the Regional Agreement on a future agenda item to discuss further. Bill said that Town Law is clear that the Finance Committee has the right to require any town department to open their books to us and perhaps the School Committee is not aware of that. Peter Lombardi said the schools are a regional entity, independent from the Town, and he does not know if the Finance Committee has the same authority over the regional school district as it does in other town departments. Frank said it was an objective of the Select Board to improve its relationship with the School Committee. He would be interested to hear from the Select Board as to how their relationship is with the School Committee. Last year, our colleagues had several conversations with the finance team and the school administration and went back to DESE and got contradictory information. He thinks it is in the best interest of the Select Board, Finance Committee, and town citizens to make that process more transparent and smoother than it was last year. He would like to work with the Select Board on somehow making this possible. Peter Lombardi said that was one of the goals for the Select Board, who will be holding their Annual Retreat in August. They will be soliciting from the committees what are important discussion points for them. He thinks this is the right place to start – have the Finance Committee to weigh in and pass that along to the Select Board and then we can go from there. He feels there is an opportunity with a new Superintendent to begin this process. Peter Lombardi said the working group on this would need to be a sub-committee. In response to Bob, the teachers’ contracts have all been approved. They ended up doing a one-year agreement that addressed the COLA for FY21, then a 3-year agreement for from FY22-24 that included COLA and other elements that were bargained. All the contracts for the region and elementaries have been voted on by the School Committee at this point. Tony Ortiz – resident of Brewster, with 40 years of finance experience addressed the Committee. He has looked at many documents for the Nauset Regional School Committee. There is a definite lack of transparency. We need to put our hands around the fiscal entity of the Nauset Regional School System. Being an Accountant by trade, the only document which could be useful for transparency would be to have a full trial balance sheet with all the accounts that exist. We need to start somewhere. We cannot be completely in the dark. Because the fact of the actual numbers for the last 3 years are not available, what are the actuals? There is a significant difference between the budgeted and actual amounts, several million dollars. Pete thanked him for his comments and said he understands his frustration. 6.Brewster Visioning Committee – Update and Discussion Honey said there was a wonderful working informative recapture of the work effort that has gone into the Vision Plan and now going into the Local Comprehensive Plan in the packet. They are putting a summary Finance Committee Minutes June 23, 2021 Page 5 of 5 together of what people are thinking in terms of the original plan, where things are completed, what needs to be completed, and what is missing and needs to be added. This will hopefully be included in the Local Comprehensive Plan going through for approval. How does the work of the Vision Committee fit with all of the work that has gone on in the budget process? The work that the committee is doing is to identify every accomplishment that has been made, but it seems to her that putting dollars to that would have merit. Peter Lombardi agreed and talked with Ryan Bennet just today about this point. The Vision Committee is tracking the Vision Plan from a couple of years ago and making sure we are making progress. The second part is developing the local comprehensive master plan primarily focused on land use. It would make sense to say, we have done this, and we have invested x dollars to that end, and he thinks the first report will be reviewed next month. It is a learning process for all of us. When he sees this, we will better understand the need to insert more financial numbers to what they are getting done. Honey thinks it is amazing what they have already accomplished reaching out to so many in the community. 7. Liaison Reports - none 8. Review and Approval of Minutes- 5/5/21 Frank Bridges MOVED to approve Minutes from 5/5/21 as presented. Bill Meehan second. Roll Call Vote: Frank Bridges – yes, Bill Meehan – yes, Bob Young – yes, Honey Pivirotto – yes, Andrew Evans – yes, Robert Tobias – yes, Alex Hopper – yes, Chair Pete Dahl– yes. The Committee voted: 8-yes 0-no 9. Request for agenda items for future meetings – please email Pete 10. Matters Not Reasonably Anticipated by the Chair- none 11. Next Finance Committee Meetings – 7/14/21 12. Adjournment Bill Meehan MOVED to adjourn the meeting at 8:17 PM. Frank Bridges second. Roll Call Vote: Frank Bridges – yes, Bill Meehan – yes, Bob Young – yes, Honey Pivirotto – yes, Andrew Evans – yes, Robert Tobias – yes, Alex Hopper – yes, Chair Pete Dahl– yes. The Committee voted: 8-yes 0-no Respectfully submitted, Beth Devine Packet of additional materials for public review posted on the website.