001[Music] okay vidya min everybody today is Thursday to March 22nd when I called this special meeting of the before to finance to order prevalent please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all seen no members of the public here with us tonight we will move into new business the chair of the board of finance audit subcommittee will now walk us through a presentation the 2016-17 brookfield consolidated annual financial report thank you very much so earlier this week I emailed to the board draft copies of the the kafir' as Shaun described as well as some accompanying materials summarizing the results and I passed out a couple things to the
002table that we're going to be going through last Friday as I mentioned the other day the board of Finance the Audit Committee I'm sorry met with the auditor the audit partner of the allotted manager as well as other members of town management to review this and we ask questions and I'm going to summarize the discussion that we had so I'll begin with the agenda the first thing you have that talks about the summary of the work done and the summary the results so just to begin the audit any audit really is not a complete assurance of 100% accuracy of every statement what I thought it is is based upon professionally agreed upon procedures and statistical samples it's a reasonable assurance that the statements that are being presented a materially represent a fair representation of the
003financial position of the of the town and that's what that's what the audit represents so I just want to personally make that clear so what the owner is did that the work they conducted via the engagement letter was they did the financial statement audit they presented a federal and state single audit which what that is is some required audit procedures for municipalities that take federal and state grant money so they did that work they also provided some non-owners in terms of accounting work and things like that some of it was was predetermined but they had also based upon some of the audit work that was done I realized that they had to do some year-end adjustments to work then I was outside of the normal scope of what an auditor would generally do and we'll
004discuss that in a little bit couple of minutes so that was the scope of the work so the results first and foremost the most important result was that they they offered an unmodified clean opinion on the financial statements that's the most important thing what that means is that with reasonable assurance they are telling the board and therefore the town that the financial statements do in fact with no reservations reasonable reservations represent a fair statement of town finances so that that's the most important thing you want to get out of an audit is that clean opinion and we were able to get that so that that's very good the second piece however is regards the control procedures and the control policies and the control activities and shoe produced those results and they did find some issues
005in in that that we need to discuss so while the state wild while the end result of the statements were positive and clean the process to create those statements have issues that the town is going to need to chew so to reconcile and so we've talked about these in the past that so there's there's material weaknesses and material to fit in significant efficiencies material weaknesses is more severe than a significant deficiency it's important to note that none of the none of the things that were found were found two to two at the end of the day affect the financial statements but the process to create them so the first thing I want to if we go down to the second document that I did I talked about that I handed out will turn to page
0069 and we'll just briefly go through what the what was found as weaknesses and what is being done to address those weaknesses the first issue has to do with bank reconciliations we talked about this in the past well actually the first the first overriding overriding weakness is in the closing process and despite the efforts that have been made over the past year or the year prior to this audit where closings were not done really at all so there has been progress however despite those efforts in the year ending June 30 17 there was still material weakness in the closing of the books that need to be addressed the auditors presented a series of recommendations two or three of them in general it's a combination of implementing process following those processes and training personnel to to
007either understand what what the what the what the roles is or to perform them so those are activities that have been that have already started to be could be implemented and will continually implement it for this coming on it and going forward it's incumbent upon the Audit Committee and the Board of Finance to manage that we are we are ultimately responsible for the audit and to manage the proper financial status of the town so it's our job to make sure that the processes that are being put in place aren't even followed and that's something we'll be doing so as we talk to them specifically that the the the two issues that that caused that materially good weakness are in the significant efficiencies the bank reconciliation process which again something that's been talked about at this
008board and prior boards for a while I believe there's been improvement in that but there's still still weaknesses in improperly following policies and procedures to make sure bank reconciliations which is basically a monthly balancing of the town's checkbook to have that be done properly again a combination of implementing policies and training employees will be required to to alleviate that my hope is that the next daughter will see improvement on that and then the other deficiency that was discussed was the tracking of the capital projects we've talked about this at this board a lot current projects even dating back a year or so are being accounted for quite well the the deficiency comes in some of the past accounting which is still still being rectified so I don't think that's that I think that's being handled
009pretty well so so those are those are the details of the deficiencies but I want to I want to reiterate and state effects that's in all material specs the financial statements are accurate and they are clean so that's that's that's a good thing all right well going back to the agenda just some specifics on the financial statements that we need to point out most of which are very positive first one is the change in the general fund balance we talked about this on Tuesday night but in specifics for the year end of 630 2017 the general fund increased by a little bit over 1.1 million dollars that is a very good thing state the obvious that the cause of that was because revenues exceeded the budget and expenses we're less than budget for it for
010that that particular year the source of that fund increase comes from a number of different sources revenues were higher by about $64,000 that was that was from a combination of a number of different sources none truly significant and then it was offset by an inter government transfer so the revenues exceeded budget by $64,000 the expenditures on the town side expenditures were six hundred and five thousand six oh four eight ninety to be exact less than budget for the year the two major under budgeted are two major items that came in under budget was a two hundred thirty three thousand dollar in HR and I think that was from from a delay or lack of our not hiring if they were budgeted and then there was two hundred thirty five thousand dollars a debt service less
011than budget and that just is what it is right yeah there are some operational issues with a journal entry really cause that this was trued up by the auditors we realize where the GL need to be and the adjustment was made and thankfully it was in a direction that right okay on the board of ed side there was a $79,000 under spend to budget which went to that general fund but as we as we've discussed is going to be utilized as part of the process going forward on this around the school so that that's that it's good that that was there and then there is other financing sources that were they were under budget or that assisted there was some bod premium that were accounted for as well as some transfers so that that accounted
012for the 1.1 million dollar general holding increase general fund is very important it's the you know the equity balance and in undertown books just like your home equity or anything like that so it's it's excellent at five at five point five three million dollars at six thirty 2017 that represents eight point one percent of the expenditures for that year that's a healthy number it's not an ideal number but it's a healthy number the goal of I know Steve's and I share the goal is to grow that percentage to ten percent of expenditures so if you do the math the total budget is somewhere between 65 and 70 million dollars so you need to get that 5.5 up to 6.5 to 7 so that would be about a 1.5 million dollar additional increase to hit that
013goal obviously I don't think that'll be hit in a single year I hope that that's even with this lean budget we're gonna we're gonna see some some efficiencies and and be able to add to that balance during the course of this this fiscal year I purposely here but that remains to be seen there were that the auditors did discuss some of the fund balances three of them in particular that that are on their list the bonded projects fund has a deficit of eighteen point four million dollars but that's that's all properly funded with the short-term debt that we currently have so that's that's that made perfect sense it's not really deficit someone fill up see exactly thank you Shawn there was the issue with the police cars which we've discussed earlier this week one hundred
014twenty two thousand two hundred fifty dollars in that capital and non-recurring fund that needs to be filled and will likely be filled from the from the available balance that Kimberly identified as of words of three million dollars will be transferred in and then there is a thirty thousand dollar deficit in the educational programs fund which is a combination of several things over prior years and quite honestly still being researched by by the Board of Ed as to the causative effect of that not particularly material the auditor did go through the pension the town's pension liability as well because it's it's a very important thing I'll summarize everything by just saying that the pension pension plan for the town is in is in healthy shape it's in quite healthy shape I was pleased with that and
015it's well managed by the by the are back to make who meets regularly so with that that's the summary of the of the capper you all have a copy of the whole thing which as responsible with board members we should read but on the this summary I think highlights the key issues so if anybody has any questions for me or any of that other number of the audit committee please shoot that was part of the part of the discussion last Friday so where I would normally have questions or comments they were addressed in that meeting I don't have anything further we're comfortable with the results and I think you didn't look how other job of presenting it thank you thank it was very thorough very come here you know I I have to say having
016this this is the third budget and financials that we've had audited my honey save all did an incredible job much more in-depth much more careful they literally had three and four people at our offices for about fifteen days and I've incredibly impressed so I'm very comfortable with the work they did III group that the conversations the Audit Committee has had weekly conversations with the with the audit partner since the beginning of February he's kept us up to speed identified issues identified successes been very open it's been a good process yes I agree so if that I guess I'll make the motion that the Board of Finance approved the 2016-2017 counted Pro field capper as as presented today second any further discussion that's been presented if anyone had a chance to read through that lengthy document
017there's any questions on it whatsoever here no further discussion or is there anything that no I'm fine you know as Dan said we were immediately in this process will result some deficiencies we've already put policies and procedures in place to make sure that those are corrected including oversight controller actually going in looking at some of these doing the trial balances doing some of the recs themselves because I have to be honest I'm unhappy and not unhappy I'm very upset with some of these findings because we've been working really hard did make sure we don't have any findings and I commit to you that we will not have those [Music] commitments so the county is required to draft and file corrective action memos for each of the findings and those are those are supposed to their
018details not just you will handle it but how we will handle and who's responsible for handling and who's responsible for making sure it gets handled and so those will be violated in divorce and job within the next week or so we've already started working on it and to follow up we've talked with the auditors about maybe doing a midterm checked up and see where that was discussed in our audit committee between Shawn dan and myself - maybe draft a small scope of the auditors to come in in the next few months to make sure they were on track with the policies that are in place and they're being implemented so we don't find ourselves that the process just and it's not like we doubt it is just to help bridge it into the next so
019we had a conversation between the three of us that this is something we would discuss as a board after the budget process that we would want to do it would be an expensive high-dollar thing but a small dollar just to make sure we're on track right with me so we're looking to close up I know you work but we want to make sure it's closed up to the auditors expectations so we don't have a problem I agree with you 100 times we know any surprises if they can come in and look at what we're doing to say we've implemented a new policy some seizures are they working they can do that pretty quick pull some of our funds pull them up reconcile them say yep it's working and it won't be an incredible amount and
020then part of this scope was and I'm just as on it is we would have them look at some of the Board of Ed stuff and not as a check up but because they've new to munis they're new to entering some Dana so to make sure that the data that's going in is valid they're doing what they think is right I'm not saying they're maliciously but sometimes when you do what you think is right it's not right so we want to make sure that it all stacks and a nice this is sometimes the the intent is right but the journal entry is not quite correct that we want to prevent that from growing Micheal Mahoney's able the partner did say that that's while you didn't not minimizing the deficiencies here at all because they are
021they are important but but we're not unique and there have been towns that have had more material deficiencies that follow recommendations and over a period of not too long gets to completely clean following so so fun these processes so that's that's my personal goal I have four years here and you know I hope it doesn't take four years to get clean I agree I just want to elaborate on one of one of Dan's comments for the board if you're curious about the actual fund balance number that all the rating agencies are looking at so when Dan says general fund but he's really referring to the unassigned fund balance so if you look at page 19 which is the town's balance sheet that's the number that to three years from now if you ever want to
022pick up a Kaffir do you want to say what's our general fund owns what's our unassigned fund balance you're gonna be one of looking at the balance sheet so page 19 yes yeah in the bottom left you have your fund balances so they're different types of fund balances but the one that we're really concerned with is the unassigned fund balance so just to navigate around the financial statements [Music] they have the full big bumper yeah that's how you know that's it I didn't print it out well we've had 12 by the auditors the two main pages of the full big book is 19 to 23 page 19 at page 23 yep well when when this when this capper does get published in its final format there is a lot of material in here that if
023someone does take the time to read through they would learn they need not reading about our town the makeup and the demographics the goals statements before where we are now age 19 being the balance sheet in page 21 being the P&L statement income statement so it's a lot of good information here's a lot of statistical data that's required to be submitted to the state but overall it's a very interesting document reputed to that sort of it Kimberly is on the phone did you have anything that you wanted to add or are you generally good unmute please okay No thank you very much for for being available for this we appreciate it okay thank you okay so hearing is there any other round of discussion okay hearing no further discussion all those in favor of the
024motion on the table to approve the 2016-17 town of Brookfield Kaffir as presented this evening indicate by saying aye all right aye motion carries six own thank you thank you thanks trapped in Kimberly I'm going to hang up on you now [Music] all right let's get into the other fun stuff [Music] last night we took a quick opportunity to get together and go over some semi final budget deliberations before tonight make sure that anything that was on anybody's mind they had a chance to speak their part voiced their concerns have questions Aspen or ask questions and have them answered and then we took the night to stew and everything that we went over and so tonight we have a chance to take a final look Fraze any final questions comments or concerns and anything in
025the latest file that I sent around we didn't make any changes last night so the file I sent out Wednesday night would still be the latest and greatest here at leap a so Steve Rickey if you don't so may I open the floor for discussion on the 1819 budget flip to that first page [Music] last night but I'm just wondering for the benefit of the taxpayers can Steve can you do it just a brief outline of those grants that have been impacted because I know there is a lot of money that has been pulled from the states do an overview dude I'm sorry I'm a little just the the grants that have been impacted I think it's helpful for the taxpayers knowing that we've had these deficits and that's part of what's weighing in -
026how are ya we're still waiting for final word from the state as to what the grants are going to be yes um I talked to Collette's term and Ken post today they did get eight hundred and eighty thousand of their EGS grant so that's usually 75 percent so that's right on target what they want 680 but I think it was 680 but there's still 75% there are still 75 there's 75 percent I don't think is that high but I said there are on target yeah and I saw a new Millford got a whack on that yes so that's very good usually because they do their calculations in December January then issue the jack and so the calculations don't change that we should get that so we're on target for every grant right we're getting this
027year the problem we have is next year okay that this board has had as long discussions as to which numbers we should use and every way there's no wrong answer there's a little more conservative answer and use Malloy's number or you could use the current actual published legislature numbers and I think this board has made a determination to change the numbers we use the Board of Selectmen use the actual publish this is what you're getting from the legislature it's I don't disagree with taking a little more conservative number but people should realize that pushes up your budget for next year it does in the percentages so it can where that if we get that money then you will have more room in the budget to your question yeah absolutely so can we just list those
028that are somewhat nebulous because we don't know how it's going to land in Hartford so the ECS grant we don't know how they're going to calculate it going forward right that's no we know the EECS is a straight number it's a straight number then they it's the other grant the board of a a special ed Board of Ed grant is a calculated number oh okay so that's the one that we're not sure how it's going to fall out right even ECS is a calculated number yes but part can look into Milford it got hit so I've got a feeling that they have a formula that tends to be a little fluid well I guess is the best way to put it I'm absolutely comfortable with Malloy's numbers because those are on the low end of
029what the grants will be I think there will be higher you know when talking to Steve Harding I think a couple guys here you talk to Steve Hardy he doesn't believe Malloy's numbers are gonna fly the Legislature's not going to do that so it will be somewhere above Malloy's it might be below the legislators numbers okay and then on the town side the other area that we may lose money or going to be closed down as the Transportation Fund right the State Transportation Fund that had given us money for road development that's also dried up you mentioned no the 10 Road Aid I think we're still gonna get that okay right that comes from the legislature I think in talking to Jim Redick or I met with him a couple weeks ago the state's transportation
030fund has zero money in it yep and he has about four billion dollars worth of projects that he wants to do some one of them big one in Brookfield you know doing from kalilas all the way down to BJ's for the streetscape yes right that project the design is still going forward but the fundings not there so that's what the state legislature has to come up with how are they going to fund it now they're looking at tolls they're looking at gas tax they're looking at a number of different ways to raise money for the State Transportation Fund I don't think anyone would argue that the infrastructure we are like number 40 something equality of our infrastructure the state of Connecticut out of all the states so we can't ignore this the only thing that
031will affect us though would be I believe that if they really don't get the funding they want they're gonna they would push projects back right they still have those projects on the books but they have to determine how they're going to raise the revenue to cover them right okay here's the good part about this the lower federal road project is partially funded with federal funds that protects us believe it or not yes the state can't simply pull their funds they can delay delay implementation but they can't pull a project right now because they're getting federal money yet you have to push it through right okay so those two we have are there any others that are impacted that we are not sure how they're going to play out with a new governor or whatever it
032is decided in Hartford yes for the streetscape projects where we're going with phase 2 phase 3 and phase 4 we had planned to apply for lots of Llosa and cap grants because taps are still available but those could be effective you know they say okay lots of this year is down a hundred thousand right exactly so we'll know when we actually make the applications and they tell us what kind of funding we know what we get lots it blows it but the tap grants are still available that's what we use the phase in Phase two so that should be pretty good okay good there are any others that I just want them to be aware of it because when they look at our budget numbers they they must realize that we are factoring that in
033we are constantly on the lookout for Graham constantly one of the things we're going to be doing and we've already started it is that every single grant that we have in town is all of the documentation is being delivered for those grants to the finance department so we have central record-keeping we're gonna let people continue to administer the grants because Public Works knows your grants and Greg Dombrowski knows the grants or a streetscape we're gonna have a second oversight while that will be in finance because every grant has very specific requirements and if you do not meet those requirements to the letter they will not give you the money we have that problem with a high school remember we fought with them for ten years we never want to have that problem again so we've
034already started to do that I bought a new program to track capital projects the auditor had said for the last two years we're doing a great job of managing our capital projects we know what they are then we know its costs we're tracking them well it's prior to that where we didn't have quite the documentation that they would like to see then we don't we don't want that situation so we're even going back and looking at those because we don't want this finding in the future if we don't get that pretty clean we can have this finding even for something to happen 8 years ago right now all your projects have a unique code so you're mapping vaccinate codes we're tracking all we're using a capital projects model we're tracking all revenues and all expenses
035by project and revenues our town money grant money all of those things and they're attached to the projects and we're closing these projects out you know actually having a formal closed because then we go to the state fought it for some of these and the state by law and regulation only gives you one audit on the high school we were able to get four different audits that's unheard of usually to give you one on it that's it that's the number you screwed up you don't get the money so it's critical to have it exact I think that's very helpful for that for the people listening in and for the voters to understand that so thank you so I have another topic that when I bring up again and I know it's a small dollar amount
036related to the whole budget but I want to talk about the seller is oh my god and specifically the ones that are greater than the 2% and I thought about this last night and yes the number that we're talking about the dollar amount is not huge but it's it's a budget to me and that was more than immunity yes it's that it's the math world map of the pound it's all of that but it's also a statement of other values and priorities and at twenty thousand dollars there's projects that we cut in that same dollar range projects for the for the police projects for Parks and Rec projects for school that are a similar or less dollar house so basically what we're saying but is that the outsized raises in combination are more important than
037any of those individual projects I don't think that's a statement that we're saying or that we really believe and it's a it's a point of view that I think is important I think it's one that that that's you know anybody who's going to be looking this budget wants to poke holes that's an obvious Adrian football that's not the reason to change anything but I think it's important but to me those those outside raises still remain to five and it's because would we rather do the material within we'd rather do the playground repair or rather do the imaging cameras all of those are less than the and the dollar amount of the rage motel so I would like to revisit some way to reuse those I emailed a suggestion which again is not big dollar amounts
038but of removing the town clerk from the from the list because of time timing service only and taking a percentage of the rest and applying that to the mystify the village do those I'm gonna read the closer you know as we go through this process you guys have discussions back and forth and you know I was dead set against putting incident command vehicles in either in the fire departments one fire department has a seven-year-old vehicle it runs fine there's no problems with it and they want a new vehicle the average age of the town vehicles is something like 12 to 13 years so I think they could have lived with that for a few more years also we get our police cars they rolled off three to four every single year I think it needs
039a new command vehicle that's a beautiful second life they already alight they have the sirens you know very inexpensive to transfer them over but we made a decision to buy two new incident command vehicles that's one hundred and twenty thousand ten thousand dollars so in the big scheme of things when you look at this we have an obligation to do what we think is right by both our people and the town for our employees they have over the years our non-union employees have been behind the eight ball because we've often negotiated with our police dispatchers with our police and with well CSEA we're looking at them and probably the increases we're going to be going and settling and arbitrating four are going to be more than two percent the non-union employees in the town have
040been getting two percent every year for as far back as I can see even though the unions were getting more some they've been every year they walling behind I think it's time for those extraordinary employees and I can see your point on the town clerk and you know what I grant you your point right new employee I'm fine with that right but for the other ones I really would ask this board to let me do my job and let me manage it I'm not asking for an outrageous sum of money um we're gonna be hiring a new Parks and Rec director we're going to be saving I think a lot of money there I don't want to get into details because we're still in discussing it but my overall budget is gonna be very reasonable
041right about two percent across the board even with these raises and I think it's reasonable so I ask you to give me the money to rework to give to those employees who have done a really good job I think what's also significant is that the particular departments that are related to the request I think our men buy either one or two people so you have to remember that if it's a small department like that those folks are really carrying a heavy load because there's no enough they're sharing their duties with and it's quite different than other departments where we have a lot of manpower to use the wrong word manpower a lot of people power so I think given that consideration and that those particular jobs like Steve said may wind up getting overlooked because
042they're not represented by union and it's not that type of negotiation I think it is definitely worth considering considering who those people are the roles that they play in the depart it's that they're in and the the level of work and commitment and overtime that goes into it last year we granted about seven of these as well this year were nasty grant six how many we granting next year how many we granting every year going forward this is you know I'll like it into the NFL you only get to choose one player that you put into that contract called your franchise player and I know it's not the NFL I know it's not a game and I know it's real of people's lives don't get me wrong but and I asked you last year and
043I know it was busy time to rate your play rate your staff and you know you should have a tough 5% you should have a bottom 5% we should understand that in this pay raise process everybody can't get a 5 on a review I do that but I do not do it in writing it's fo hypo I am NOT going to put something on paper I'm just upset I don't want to do they purr but now I'm saying I don't want to see it I'm just saying but I think that again you lost me on the town clerk position this year totally because it's a new position and I see your point that totally like through wind at it I think anytime you get up over 10 percent out of pay raise to without it's
044just a number that is a hard number to swallow and and I get catch ups but usually catch ups are done in stages when you're trying to catch up on an employee and I think the other ones are around 5% right I mean that's right I think it's just too much that's my so I liked your calculation Dan that you made I liked it I saw what you did and that you that you've multiplied it by the two-thirds factor that we talked about yes so if we were to decide on that amount and rounded it to 13,000 does does that focus the the First Selectman does does he then have discretion as to how to allocate those funds and then we can track back on upon the budget next year to see how it was
045allocated is that how it works see that you can take a lump sum and allocate it according to your discretion yes and no technically no okay because I the Board of Selectmen is not allowed to move money outside of any department to another department if you put that money in contingency then we could make the motion to move money from contingency to line-x in this budget and mine X in that line okay right there are ways to do it but we have to go through the process departments Oh we'd have to go oh okay so that's apartments make essentially make their reductions I'm very uncomfortable with you guys deciding how much money that my deployments over like do it okay but if you know I don't think that is our job though we're not we're
046not the managers we don't we don't work with them we don't see the quality of the product that they produce Steve does so it's summer so you do have to trust the manager with those aspects of his job um yeah it's unsettling to see 13 percent raise for someone given the circumstances I understand it especially if it's someone that you definitely don't want to lose and new things that somebody who is critical to it I think what did lose us was the town clerk I seen that point all the other ones cool them again I mean and again here that's how you're the manager you it's it's up to you to kind of decide that and knowing that you were able to in a sense recoup that in other areas which we can within the
047same bucket oh yeah salary nicely a little bit more comfortable I think the point on the town clerk is is a good one it's a valid one right my goal there was we didn't raise the town clerk's salary at all last year right everybody else got we didn't move it because we didn't have a town clerk she had retired so we just left it where it was it didn't seem to make sense increase it two percent for right so if you looked at those both that's what's my thinking there I agree with you I see that's a very valid point on the downward then we leave that where it is we have to go through the expenditures and adjust that line you can't on this on the town side you can't just say some place
048because then it's certain because then his process of going through it will be camel things it would be a saloon of work you could do it but it'd be a lot of work right State Board of Selectmen coming to the point of Mancini this is if this is the way you want to go gonna have to code through the department's that were identified and go line by line that is that's how this side of the budget oh yeah good we can be my people it's five five lines is it crazy to make a motion like could we just go first it just fell on whether or not we even want to make a change on each of those people rather than they have to go through everything first or perhaps vote on the dollar amount
049of allowance that we I know Eileen you weighed in when you saw advance let's start with whether or not we even want to make a change because I think there's some yes some knows there it's all yes then we go through it because I get a number okay fair enough all right all those in favor looking at the salaries with the intent to make reductions indicate by saying hi so that's that's an animal go ahead do we want to simplify it I'm not suggesting I'm just saying do we want to simplify it the two majors for me and there's only really two majors so okay I mean the other ones I can see is if we drop the town clerk position down to the 2% and we took the town admin to a 10% promotional
050type of the raise senior type of thing it's just I know it's semantics I know it's a very few dollars but I can then deal with the rest of the pay raises this is we're gonna need for though I got a calculated number what I'm saying is we take those two line that's the 2% you take the town clerk the 2% on the line item right and exact we could change now and we can may probably agree on that and then I'll be honest with you I don't like big pay raises I'm not a big fan but I do it as your own I do know that it does a lot of work right and I do the 13 I think is beyond even promotional type of a pay raise you know 10% I'm willing
051to listen to suggestions and the other ones were in the ranges of almost get you down than at 2/3 when we get to that point I mean we're almost at the where you're around them if we do that so I think then the other ones without painstakingly changing out we allow Steve the manager so I don't I just my suggestions may keep it as easy so if we take the race for the town administrator to 8,000 we're going to clone clerk out sorry 10% would be six thousand two hundred seven so it'd be sixty eight to eighty one point five five is ten percent okay am I looking at there I had a salary of sixty 207 for that was that was budgeted I guess and that means I'm just having it in line with
052promotional okay senior admin so yeah so that represents a savings of three thousand seven ninety three from the attacker brings five and that brings us pretty near the number Danna you were looking at right that would be a lot easier I agree but I mean I'm open for other suggestions I was just doesn't seem equitable from Steve's perspective than well that's it I mean okay I think it was some also appears that though he's pitching a budget it's our decision yes right so let's correct feels is fair and equitable all due respect is irrelevant in this situation no no I mean in terms of how it's going to affect the other people that work that's my job to manage yeah okay Sean is right okay you can answer my input here but it is very
053difficult okay okay so we're saving the thirty seven ninety three and then how much is it for the time Oh clerk that's even more than dance did you calculate this thing without that fortunately some snow pointer scales was a reduction of 6s yeah so yes we're gonna be about the city that's about $5,000 can you plug that one in Turkey if you don't mind it's not gonna change maybe needles I know it's not it's there's some of its optics some of its you know like I said values and priorities of a budget which you took you took that 1718 budget number that was in there and that's your 10 percent that's a jerk-off yeah the 62 calm Jeff yep do you ever you ever change percentages proper cutlet that's a change from partselect I'm like
054so bring that again stuff [Music] sixty-two again an original I wanna drag that formula and back up again particular the the lines where there is some relation victims whatever since we've gone ahead and decided we were going to look at this we have now non-union wages and the selectmen office budget at a 10% increase for the reasons stated all those in favor of making that change indicate by saying hi I how all those opposed thank you motion carries or though is not emotional I just told you it's important to have it what's almost lotion next what we have for the note and then that you have MS eight you may want to note be not born felt that 10% was more reasonable oh yeah over what touch it yeah I think that was I think
055that was the general consensus right that those are the kinds of things I want to leave in here so with Oliver literally this is okay the next one resetting the the town clerk elected officials salary at a 2% increase okay which was a reduction from the Board of Selectmen proposed budget on 1120 all those in favor indicate by saying aye aye okay six help or reasonable so that does that satisfy them making them the changes on those two does that satisfy everyone oh okay I think that are asked are there any are there any additional changes anyone would like to discuss you can take a quick look to make sure but I don't think any of them where they were all around the gentleman basic merit increase right two percent a little bit high when
056I did Steve said he can justify them to the point of Merit races [Music] any further discussion you know there's none it's fine it falls sort of it's basically where you're at that's my little bit it's not yet that's fine that's fine all right then that concludes never discuss it again before we move finally tonight but that concludes that salaries over 2% discussion for now so let's go department by Department I think that could be very quick and if there are no changes that will be inherent or if there's no discussion we can assume that everyone's okay I don't think we need to necessarily move on that there's no one okay cuz we move on minds don't like any further discussion on the selected office budget any further discussion on the town clerk's but it
057any further discussion on the registrar's budget any further discussion on land-use planning budget which includes planning and zoning and for the discussion on land-use building the market budget a further discussion on land use the fire marshal budget any further discussion on land use health department budget [Music] any discussion on the community development budget any further discussion on the conservation community pleasure any further discussion on the historical district budgets any further discussion on the Gursky Commission budget any further discussion when the assessor's office budget chessmen is a lot quicker than two hours less and far more robust any currently discussion that's usually tax collectors budget any further discussion on the controller's office budget any further discussion on the finance budget on the assessor's office work leads to fantasies in flight which has freebie paragraphs you know
058we put in we took it out as overtime when Canada in and seasonal it's just a redirection alone to another way yeah yeah you had mentioned that it was better served in that account they don't question on the controllers office okay um with regards to the the kafir and those comments is is there any what will any of the changes necessary for RIA counting and that have an impact on personnel like need for personnel any attempts coming in or something that's not budgeted in here and the audit services the extra audit services that we that Glenn referenced we kind of built into the discussion from from the other night other the reallocation of the order for a lot of fee okay just like to make sure yeah to the question I think you're just reviewing
059the whole process anyway right Steve I mean you just put your new policies in place that your whole your reassessing every aspect of it I mean am i speaking about a school or another we're going back and we're redoing every single bank reconciliation starting in July we're not gonna have this again we're now and you look at a job where is everything really looking at the whole correct gambit of the whole office correct correct so then we just got to support you and what you do on that aspect of it thank you what has or finance any further discussion on the Board of Finance budget for the discussion on board of assessment Department pleasure sorry further discussion of the economic development budget any further discussion on the personnel or human resources attending I want to
060go back to the economic development now there's a different budget process can we get her to come in and talk to us for meeting one time - sure yeah we haven't had Betsy con any of our meetings really she was here when the position was her first though created yeah after that you're right we haven't had any updates and then II loved to do that and it's not the thing if she's doing something wrong it's just a lot of us don't know even what she's doing what accomplishments I know you speak lessons and things and I just say I'd be nice to have her come why don't ever come to your next meeting okay I just said I'd like to have you home to a meeting just a lot of people are this streetscapes and
061everything else and the new businesses are start to see the building what's coming I think it'd do us all good to have her I think you you'll be very impressed in what she's doing as I'm saying I mean I know you speak would it be nice to have her sure and speak to it for 20 minutes will do yeah sorry I just know while it's in your head rezoning for the discussion on personnel or HR budget workers comp that five and a half percent increase for workers comp is echoed absolutely yeah they came in and sat down with us and went over every single line item Muslim a flat the Corcoran's comp enough five percent any further discussion on the information technology department budget any further discussion on the legal budget you know Steve I
062did want to ask you a question be hopeful I have mentioned to me that their attorney there's no standing but you said there's no standing retainer but they do it hourly have we checked into that or when was the last time that we went out to to bid on town attorney services me because we say that for every single service that we can write when was the last time we just change order I think he's done a bad job that's a question my goal of spring is to go out to RFP for bond counsel financial adviser and legal counsel not say Tom Peters then done an excellent job for our town but every three or four years you need to just go out and level set the market make sure you're paying fair rates for
063the services you get is there a reason why we don't combine the school and the town is there like a legal reason or um well we the schools in the town both use the same layer labor lawyer Pat McHale and he's probably primarily he does all of their work his firm does almost all of their work we use Tom feature for the town it's two separate beasts and a lot of their issues are really labor related with 535 employees I believe so you know we've talked about that but I don't see a lot of crossover in the need you I don't and I would yeah and Tom it's not a labor lawyer and you really need a labor lawyer specific okay any further discussion on the legal counsel Department further discussion on social services any
064further discussion on the Senior Center budget any further discussion on community grants any further discussion on parks and recreation subject sorry I'm up on that grants the calculation wrote in column ours therefore the Newtown Parent Connection not getting up they're not oh it is oh there was no year for year from last year sorry I saw the air just time to make sure I think something we can definitely will definitely brush up the formulas okay and whatnot for that so it'll be a zero okay now with that fancy schmancy yes spreadsheets anything even the dev oh yes okay any further discussion on parks and recreation but it affair did we get the numbers can we add that to maybe another meeting yes it is I started to get the numbers with date use we used
065muna so we all say also use an accounting system yeah that's meant for Parks and Rec and getting the two to reconcile yeah no I don't think anything's going on but they'll give us a massive deposit which represents a certain amount of revenue on their side so we criminally gets back and we're gonna match them up for you we do that today bleating yeah [Music] today further especially on the town round budget any further discussion on the Arts Commission budget any further discussion on the public safety budget make sure we let you know from the traffic service grants [Music] that we did increase that number and it's offset [Music] yeah I have it any caption then the other banana tip yes just make sure you copy over the copy over the note in there concerning
066further discussion on public safety budget thank for the discussions on the center fire department budget any further discussion on the EMS budget further discussion on the Candlewood fire department budget and further discussion on the civil defense budget any further discussion on the public works budget so a straight character in front of actor [Music] any further discussion on the highway department was that sugar Jean can we just back up a second on the Homeland Security item Steve is that something that's reimbursed at all on a federal level or it isn't now no this is for Colin's barriers replacement gear that wears out over time we didn't put anything in last year and J Purcell asked me if we could this year so we do like the Memorial Day parade putting everything out that we do they
067just for public sleep any further discussion on town building less maintenance any further discussion on town utilities budget if it highlighted their vehicle fuel to me the question I think was about the electric were supposed to get an actual on the electric and see if that numbers in line that number is in line we did a review of it and it is absolutely in line remember one of the things we've got new cattigan lighting we've got the street lighting in the new downtown we are switching over like we switched over the town hall parking lots today and yesterday to LED so there's a few moving parts there and but I vetted that number and it's a good number plus rates are going up and we anticipate a five to eight percent increase we're trying to
068lock in their grants available to the town for the switching over to led yeah we got a ten thousand dollar grant it's paying for all of it great on the same subject if I could just think so I don't forget it we had a company come in called ECG and they did a full audit of all of our buildings and they presented a proposal to us yesterday where the overall savings to the town over 15 years will be 2.3 million dollars they do not charge the town anything to do this what we do is we hire an e cos an energy conservation and operating company and they come in and do all the changes and switches the lights that pumps whatever but eCos monitors looks over it and then the eCos pays that I might
069talk to Collette's term about it and what we're gonna do is wait till we're not gonna do anything until we know what we want to do the schools I don't want to go retrofit a school and in have to take it out in two years but it seems like it's a really good plan and and once we have that I'll get that to you guys because it's pretty interesting when we decide to move forward with that I think it's a win across the board what was that savings estimate against T about 2.3 million dollars total savings over over 15 years and the nice thing about it is that we would have an investment of about 1.2 million dollars I believe but the energy company guarantees savings to us and if we don't achieve those savings
070they write us a check and it paint the system pays for itself and you save money plus you do nicer things for the environment hug a tree we satisfied with the time utilities budget I can see it I mean reminder it are we gonna get out of it 5,000 if we chop the top now we just gotta monitor it and understand better I think is right there has changes we've added more stuff it's a big jump it's different than the part of that jump but if we can justify more usage that's going out the bill is going to go up now for the discussion on tap utilities a further discussion on the recycling budget any further discussion on the library budget any further discussion on the public debt budget maybe for the discussion and regional
071services budget any further discussion on insurance and benefits budget any further discussion on liability insurance budget any further discussion and other expenditures make sure have no further discussion on the contingency or capital equivalence paid for with cash [Music] did we get the 1312 dollars off of the 251 312 general contingency went from 400 to we we did a direct way cut in half now which guys like 201 and change okay we can clean it up but what's it looks like you actually had a reason for going there not a big round number I think actually Shawn wasn't one to put it round things up off number yeah I think it was okay so those are what the notes are if that no raids happen now we did okay to scroll up just a little it
072is so we did make six thousand two hundred twenty five dollar change so now we need to go ahead and go back to the that revenue tab remind me which column is a thank you we need to make sure that that revenue is properly that was balanced and the VLF review what was that when you to 2506 225 you see if you hit the right now it's like [Music] scroll down so again I think that's where we were 1.54 so it wasn't a matter of trying to move the needle as a matter getting it right off so here we are and we're ready to move do we want to take five and all it over I think I'll say it again I think it's beyond the six of us now to make the next decision
073levels the motors can come out make their decision if they voted in obviously they've accepted it and if they both though then the harder decisions have to be made mouth bite out here I mean I think we've squeezed out the small little cracks I don't think there was a whole lot of cracks this year to squeeze and that I think it's up to the voters now to decide whether they want to maintain their same level of services that we currently have and the same level of service in the education level it's beyond the six of us sadly well we have decimals happy to be a bunny where's the decimal you know what let's let's take five oh come on Joe we're gonna take a five-minute recess just to make sure their work they are up
074here decimals and go back representing for the mother first move the decimal box for a TV okay good [Music] but can we get marks on your first time yes I'm ready [Music] okay thank you we have our spreadsheet maintained here is there further discussion or commentary before we make a motion and have our discussion I had to make a motion and I will I make a motion to accept total expenditures in the amount of 67 million four hundred thirty six dollars four hundred thirty six three hundred twenty-five dollars to include the Board of Education budget in the amount of forty three million twenty three thousand one hundred fifty one dollars town operating budget in the amount of eighteen million nine hundred forty eight thousand seven hundred forty dollars capital projects financing of 1 million three
075hundred fifty one thousand eighty dollars debt service of four million one hundred thirteen $354 which represents an anticipated increase in the mill rate of one-point-five for from 27 point 29 to 28 point 83 as referenced in the attach to 2018 from 19 count of Brookfield budget summary I'll second I'll open the floor to further discussion commentary I'll call them at this point closing was in Vice excellent job proud of the work we did good stuff I just I think it was a it was a good process going through with this team and a lot of us being new there's a little intimidating at first but I think the process went well and we had good discussions and I feel comfortable with what we're presenting the town save him I'll say the same thing and I
076also sent it with the Board of Ed site but there's a lot of new board members and part of this put in the budget forwarded to the Board of Selectmen was to give them the opportunity to manage the process they're new to the job they want to do a good job and they gotta have the tools to do a good job so I think we all took that into account to make sure that they had the tools to get their initiatives into place without handcuffing them and putting them in a bad spot being new next year hopefully they'll be more experienced and you know to come to us and work together again I'm not saying it did anything wrong but they'll have a different take on how things go and I think we can work
077together going forward there's nothing that's okay I think that all three boards did an exceptional an exceptional job of working together in this year's budget there was a significant amount of collaboration especially between the board and finance leader Board of Education which is important yes there are some increases here but I believe and I think the way that our deliberations have been going that they are a value-added increases especially on the education side there's a heavy special education budget that we have to accommodate and this budget does that it's what the board of education asked for for special education and as Glen mentioned you know we did leave the Board of Selectmen x' cut in place however we did identify significant sources of funding to offset more than 50% of that cut and I truly
078believe that the process will work if and when it is needed and part of the collaboration between the Board of Finance and the Board of Education was intended to strengthen the trust and relationship between those two boards specifically and through my discussions with Colette I really believe that that trust is there it is building and it's getting stronger I think we will demonstrate that in future meetings almost immediately so I I think the five of you did an exceptional job these conversations that we had were excellent we handled disagreements I think very well it doesn't always happen and again we let the process work and that's extremely important we made notes we don't have to agree on anything but majority rules all right and again the process works and I know I will stand behind
079this budget nice and firm and I do look forward to presenting it if we should vote to move it forward I do look forward to presenting it on April 3rd is there anything else that I'm on my tab all right hearing no further discussion I called the motion on the floor and to a vote all those in favor approving the budget has been moved on indicate by saying aye all right motion carries six out thank you everyone thank you are there any members of the public here I hope that folks did tune in and any questions that they have please bring to the April 3rd meeting move to adjourn I make a motion to adjourn second follow the favor by saying aye aye aye motion carries six oh thank you all very much thank you
080[Music]