0016:01 p.m. I have a motion to do so. Do we need a motion to call this meeting's order or just call this meeting order 601? >> You can just call this order, Mr. >> Call it to order, Mr. >> All right, that's good. That being said, we have an agenda. You all have it in front of you. Uh Mike, I'm going to let you take the lead uh and talk about the first agenda item. >> Great. Thanks, Rich. Uh Ken, um if you're on, can you just pull it up uh and share it so that everyone can see? Um I just wanted to take a moment um to thank Angela Walsh, who's on with us right now. Um she has been doing a great job putting these financial packages together. and uh in um in
002my absence today as I'm out of the office, she's going to be walking us through the uh financials, but I will um be here for uh for support. That's the first page of the financials. Do we have the agenda by any chance? >> Yeah, the first on the agenda is just read the 625 statement is the first item. >> Yep. >> Okay. Angela, you want to? >> Yep. Yep. Okay. So, um for as of June 30th, uh we are at 2.6 million favorable amount and these are unudedited uh records. Right now, we are still recording deposits that we're receiving. Uh we're going to be reviewing um the open POS to see if there's still ones that need to be remained open or uh we're going to reach out to the person who put it in
003to find out if they still need it. Um so for June June uh includes our balloon payments that we make at the end of the year to the staff members who are not 26 weeks. Um on the summary sheet I did put uh footnotes for for you Mr. uh Janelli. I hope uh you were able to look at them and you know give us some feedback on it. But uh under salaries we made um three different reclasses uh throughout the whole year. The first one we did was the um >> Andrew, excuse me. Is there a way that you can enlarge that? I usually have a print out and I didn't get a chance to get to the book to get the print out. Is that better? >> No, I mean on the summary sheet.
004Yeah, that's fine. Thank you. >> Okay, you're welcome. Um, so um we reclassed the first uh set of reclasses we did in the end of we started the end of December into January. They were people that were in the ESRE grant and then the ESRE grant closed and they were put into the general fund under printing part-time. So when we started we had a unfavorable amount. I think it was $4 million on that line item. So we had to reclass them out and put them in the correct accounts. Then we started moving paras and tutors that were requested um that were actually coded to professional services but needed to go to the proper uh parah and tutor account and those were about 3.8 million that were reclassed from professional services into paratutors. We also moved
005um some people that were still in the alliance grant the year before were moved back to um the general fund and new people were put into uh the alliance grant and that was every um the names were all uploaded to um EGMS and that was I think Mike the difference was like 500,000 between that movement 500,000 do you think? >> Yes, it was it was about 500,000. That's correct. >> Okay. Okay. >> Um >> Angela and Mike, can I interrupt a minute? the adjustments you've made in in year end for this I suspect covered the the lack of of timeliness and coding during the course of of this fiscal year. >> Are we pretty much up to date in the current fiscal year 25 26? I mean, I'm hoping that this is not going to
006happen and the report generated will reflect the people to the best of your knowledge as to where they should be charged. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. Rich. So, so for the most part, yes, you're you're 100% correct. Um, I just do want to caveat there. There are some grants um that we get well you know when we do doing the budget that we get after the fact that uh after we create the budget for the general fund. So there are always going to be uh movements of people in and out of of grants and even interchool as uh employees move from location to location or take a different assignment. So there will always be some movement but yes you're correct in the the large majority of these uh miscodings particularly the professional service tutors that
007were charged to the uh professional services line and not into salaries which was one of the biggest mistakes I saw. Um that that is that is correct. >> Okay that's good. So at least in a current fiscal year we could start relying on you know better reporting and and now we can have explanation of variances based on good data going in and not an excuse that we don't know where the coding is and we have to adjust it at some later date. >> Yes. And and and to to follow that up, uh something that I I've done in previous uh lives that I found very helpful, uh we've since implemented here, and that's every payroll um in Tyler, I run a report called a position report. And that position report runs the gross salaries for
008every single person. It gives their name, it gives their title, and it gives the location, the general uh ledger location that they're that they're tied to. So I can then in turn uh share that with the cabinet and say, "Hey, listen. This is where everyone's being coded to. Please let me know that this is correct." And whether they look through every single name every single time or whether they spot check it, we'll have a greater level of assurance that that is correct. And then when we start doing the budgeting, we have a a list of every single employee that's now correct, whether they're are grants, general fund, ed services, um, and what their total amount is, what their budget amount is, what they're projected to be. Uh, so it'll be a much cleaner and smoother
009process um, when Angela and I go to begin that here shortly. >> Yeah. you know and and both to you and Angela and Cara the group in total I understand and I certainly appreciate the the mechanics and the detail that goes involved the these allocations you know considering the amount of grants you get where we have salaries who we have and then charging off parts of people to different places it it's a monumental job to and straightened out is great. Uh but then to keep it up to date is also terrific. So I certainly appreciate everything you've done in order to get us to this particular point because I really think that in the past had been a lot of the problems created, you know, to the to the point that we couldn't rely on
010these people. So I thank you I thank you for your efforts and your hard work. Mr. Jay, can I ask a follow-up question, please? >> Sure. >> Um, Mike, quick question for you. This report that you're talking about, I don't know if that could be used to create um the payroll report that I was looking for, which is not specific to individuals, but rather just like an overall screenshot of what our expenses are for salaries, uh, for benefits, and then the number of employees that we actually have. you know, I can share it with you um uh perhaps and you can tell me if that would suffice and I I can um deduct the the name retract the names out sorry, redact the names out if if you'd rather. Um but I I think that
011may work. >> Okay, great. Thank you. And yes, I' I'd rather not see the names attached to it. I think that's that's to be private. Thank you. >> Certainly. and Mike and Andrew are moving down to the benefit line. Why is that such a favorable vote? >> Um we are booking um going in we just finished booking the May and June um actuals. So the original budget was overstated. >> Um >> a couple of things >> million too. >> Yeah. I a couple of things I think weren't um when the budget for um benefits was done. There were a couple of things I think that were estimated that the estimates might have been uh a little bit off. One, I don't believe that the estimates for the um the pharmaceutical rebates uh were accurate. I
012think that the that those numbers were a little bit off and the amount that we got was a little bit higher than um than was estimated. Um and the other item that had to be estimated that uh I'm not sure was estimated um as best as it could be was the amount that we withhold from the employees. Um that amount I I think was uh was understated. So that would lead to a slightly favorable variance. Um I just did want to point out as we talk about this that number you'll see it if you go back and look monthtomonth that number jumps and just an explanation as to why that number jumps so much. We have to set a number in our Tyler system of what we think benefits are or what the benefits are
013per employee um per pay period. And when our payroll folks go ahead and run payroll, it takes that estimate and books it. >> What I then have to do is I have to go in and reverse that and then I have to go into the um Sigma uh Sigma for employees and find out what Sigma actually charged us and book that. So I have to take out the placeholder and put the actual amount in. I think historically it was done at the end of the year. um we do it on a monthly basis going forward uh so that there's much more uh line of sight into it. But what I think what happened was that amount that that we see here the 5.6 I think that um really came to a head at the end
014when we started booking it um booking it monthly. >> Yeah. Okay. you know there's over the course of time there's been so much conversation relative to the issue of employee benefits uh you know conversation was skewed in terms of the the increase that we would have stuff like that so >> I also want to point out and and I I hate to sound like a broken record this is employee employee benefits social security but it's actually more than social security. It's it is social security is booked there, but um there's also health insurance. The dental and vision is booked there. >> Workers workers compensation and unemployment. >> And when we were doing um in 24 when John was still here, >> we were under the impression that we were going to be very underfunded. This
015is before we knew that we had such large surpluses. And the only way that I I think that he foresaw that working out was that we were going to have massive cuts. And what actually wound up happening is we were closing positions that were not filled. I I don't think we actually had to let go many people. But I think that the thought was there that oh, we may have to let people go and they would be entitled to unemployment benefits. So let me let me budget for unemployment much higher than it is now in case we do need to lay people off which wound up not being the case. >> Mhm. >> So it's just noteworthy. >> Yeah, it is. And in estimating and the complexity of the budget, I could understand not, you
016know, everything being being perfect, but it's good. I'm happy to to say that in my agenda, this is the first time I've seen a year-end report. Uh I I think it's it's nice to have um again appreciate your work with everything you've done at the audits and and catching up and going back and you know at least keeping the continuity of a year complete so that when people look back at our financials they they have a you know complete history of 12 months and 10 or 11 months of the information. the >> you know I don't want to spend too much more time on this it's more history at this point here unless you want to talk about it my concern is that I'm happy of the the positives and from my recollection this positive
017number you know once you get it blessing of the audit then comes back to us in terms of that 2% uh rule that that we have am I correct on that >> you are rich and I do have um uh two things to point out there. Uh one um as Angela pointed out to me the other day um and again on this meeting, there are still deposits that we've made that we're journalizing. So that um 2.66 favorable variance um will go up to the extent that we have some deposits. I don't think anything significant. >> Um and then as we close the year, you'll see there's still $3 million encumbered. So, as we go through those and they're getting paid, um if they are a true expense and they belong here, they'll come out of
018the incumbrance and they'll go into the actuals. But to the extent that any um purchase orders are out there that are not needed, um and I I know this is was one of Teresa's points last year. um if we close a PO that the expense didn't come to fruition that will also increase that um B balance uh balance column. So these are unudedited but 2.66 is if you look at it at a percentagewise is 1.66% of the $160 million budget. So I think I think that's phenomenal. And yes, Rich, we get to roll um the surplus um into a 2% account. The 2% account is open. Um it is unfunded, but it is open at Union Savings Bank. And I did ask about um if we would be allowed to put it into an interestbearing
019money market account. And I was told um by Dan Garri at the city um and um was confirmed the other night that yes, we can indeed put it into a money market account so it would sit there and bear interest as well. So I I did want to follow up with you on that. >> Yes, I appreciate that. you know, every little bit helps and you know, it it just makes us prudent um in terms of you know, utilizing the the money. See, not getting too far in the weeds. I I don't know, you know, when the the the money's taken or, you know, when it's available to you. I would suspect it would have to be at a point when the audit is complete, but but I I don't know. And later on, you
020know, we can determine, you know, when this when this issue, when this transaction comes to uh, you know, comes to fruition and when we can actually, you know, get our hands on the money. So, >> Mr. J, Teresa has a question. >> Yeah, Teresa, go ahead. >> U, when do we expect to close out the year? >> Yes. So, we actually uh had an audit meeting um for 2024 uh the other day. Uh Kate was uh present there and we have a few items left on our plate. Uh and those uh items we expect to have uh within about 7 days. Um then internally that report has to go through the RSM internal review process which takes two to three weeks. So, we expect the 2024 audit to be done um in about a month
021and then we could begin the 25 audit. As far as our internal numbers stop moving, um we'll be we'll be done with that probably in a month or so um as um AP continues to come in. Um it's not uncommon for us to get invoices a year later because a vendor just forgot. Um but but for the most part our numbers will be locked down in uh in a month or so and then we're looking to have those numbers fully audited uh about six probably about six or seven months later. So probably eight months from now. So Mike is is is a good guy once you pretty much get a handle that you know the entries are done and stragglers were all book that said if you would just publish a you know under audited
022statement for this particular period to be appreciated. >> Yes. >> Well I understand that but I'm just a little disappointed that it's still taking so long to close out these books. >> It takes a while though. I mean, even my life when I was a CFO, you know, to to Mike's point, you do have people that that forget to send bills sometimes who are on top of it. You should acrew the monies. Um, but it's it's, you know, >> Yeah. >> Well, I mean I mean, we were criticizing John for being so late, you know, into November. I'm just saying this is September and another month we're almost into November. >> Yeah. But >> I'm just saying I'm just saying >> totally sometimes just a fact of of you know it's a fact of the
023system. You can have firm cut off but then you just you know put yourself in there to say what you're what you don't have you're going to approve for and then later on when the actual comes in the honest will make the adjustments and you'll pick it up at that point correctly. I I think Teresa, we're getting closer to getting things cleaned up and more timely in terms of looking at statements. Uh my concern is is the quality of of the statements. You know, there's no sense in having statements public if it's a bunch of junk because then it's a waste of our time and you can't make any decisions for what's happening. Does anybody have any other questions on this particular subject? Mike and had had talked about the next item agenda which would
024be the status of the 24 audit. Is there anything more that you want to talk about that Mike >> Mr. J I'm sorry to interrupt. I I just do have a quick question about the June um statement if I could. >> Sure. >> Um I just want to have I have a question about the grants specifically. Um I noticed at the bottom um that the Esser city grants there um for the seven and a half and then the additional monies that were awarded if I remember correctly and and maybe I don't so I apologize if I'm if I'm getting this wrong but I thought we were holding some of that money over to 2020 the 2526 school year for salaries. >> Yes. >> Um but the length of the grant that's listed on here is
025for one year. >> Yes. I think Oh, sorry. Go ahead, Angela. >> It's supposed to be two years. It has to be corrected. >> Okay. Thank you. I just want to make sure. >> And Mr. J, uh, >> sorry, Mike. >> I just wanted to add in just as a point of interest. It's, uh, the 7.7, I think, in the grants report says ESSER, but it's actually ARPA. That's just >> Okay. >> What's What is it? >> Uh, ARPA, American Rescue Plan Act. It's listed as city esser money right now. Mr. Jay Wanita has her hand up. >> Hi, go ahead. >> Hi, thank you um for the chair and for uh Teresa. I am just looking for clarification. Um Teresa, were you asking for um a final report, close the books with footnotes indicating
026that there um may be some corrections due to outstanding uh bills or unpaid or unpresented. >> Well, no. I was just looking for the end of year close the books and um it just seems to drag on um this and in other words this date it's not done. It's not done >> and so that's what I'm asking. >> Are you requesting um that the books be closed regardless of outstanding um invoices that have to come in, bills that have to come in. And I know they're late. I mean, that's not our fault. Um, with a note attached saying adjustments may be made to this due to late invoices um that still need to come in. Um, no. I I was just pointing out that I was expecting it to be done a lot sooner than
027it has been in the last year or two. And that is all. That is all. How how do we propose to do that if we still have outstanding um you know bills or invoices or we still >> I'm just surprised that they haven't called the vendors with these POSs that are outstanding. They haven't done that yet. >> For example, >> you know, following up and tidying up this stuff. This is September. >> This is September what? 17. >> Okay. So I I hear I just want to let you know that I hear you. Um and I hear that that that step of contacting vendors. We still have not heard from you know is there a definite cut off >> to close the books. We're closing our books as of blah blah blah. Okay. You know,
028I I think to that point, we're moving closer to getting things cleaned up because my feeling is, you know, this whole purchase order issue is is to having it open in a review and stuff like that. Um, we're getting closer to cleaning up some of the issues that we understood problems in in the past. I I think in another meeting we could have Mike sit down and and say that, you know, within a certain amount of days after a year end or a a year a year end, the fiscal year end that they they they could close the books. When I was working, I had commitments that within 120 days of my year end, I had to produce a financial statement, an audited financial statement. So that gave me a period of a couple of
029a couple of free months to gather all my information with information I didn't have. I would estimate and then the accountant would come in in the last month and and go through it. So if you know this is more of a procedural thing within the administration and I think we can talk about you know that kind of a concept uh it sort of falls in line with what we're looking to put together on this closing schedule as well. So your point's well taken you know Teresa and to your point Wanita the if information is not there to the best of your ability you know you can approve it or estimate for it and then you know later on during the audit it gets adjusted to the actual when it comes in. Okay. And if I
030can just comment, Rich, we do have on the agenda uh the finance committee goals and perhaps that's where >> Exactly. >> Yep. Exactly. You know, that's one of the things that I think we should strive for regardless of who's on the board and who's on the committee is that there be some some guiding points to what we're looking you know looking to to accomplish if so again on the first item on the agenda is this. Are there any other questions on the 625 subject? If not, Mike had talked a little about the audit update and there was an audit meeting, I think last night or the night before where Mike expressed their items outstanding. my understanding the city has some items outstanding, but it's also my understanding that any of these items are not going
031to be have any kind of a material effect on on the final numbers. Am I correct, Mike? >> That's correct. And uh Kate was there uh as well. I don't know, Kate, if you absorbed anything other than that, but it looks like we're um on on schedule for about four weeks from now. Yeah, they they the city had estimated I think it was at the end of September, if I'm not mistaken, they were looking to have a final order statement. So, as far as I know, whether you'll publish an order statement or just come out with an order for it, you know, in terms of verbally and then publish it later, I don't know, but they seem to be on target. Mike, at this point, what is the the positive variance that we're, you know,
032we're looking at for the 24? >> Uh, I haven't I haven't ran it um recently, so I I couldn't I couldn't put it off the top of my head, >> but as I recall, it was somewhere about eight or n million dollars, but >> yeah, >> was that high? Okay. And and there the reason I wanted to ask that has to do with the next item agenda that that we have. So I just wanted to to clarify that the positive variance was >> How much is it? >> I'm sorry. How much is it? If I had to pick a number, you know, as I recall, I think we're looking at about $8.9 million, but could be off getting you confused with the the prior year, which was of a large sum as well. >> That's
033for 2024. >> That's correct. >> Thank you. >> I I'm not sure of that final number, though. Yeah, there was just something off the top of my head that I don't think >> it's close. It's close, Rich. I know that the city was talking about one uh one other journal entry that they were they were talking about. So, I don't have an exact number. Um but it will be um it will be shortly. I mean, they're going to have draft financials shortly, too. So, >> and and the audit, as Mike explained in, you know, couple of times, it's taking a little bit longer. they're going through and nitpicking, you know, relative to items because there's a peer review, which means that the current accounting firm gets reviewed by another accounting firm as to the quality
034of the audit that they perform. So, of course, they want to come out, make sure they, you know, do the eyes and cross the tees and don't have anything that negative to say about them. What I'd be looking for, and I'm sorry I missed the meeting, was that there should be a management letter that accompanies the audit. And that management letter, I think, should be specific to the board of education in which the accountant identifies different deficiencies that they feel that we should look into or should be corrected. Um, I I would hope that that there's a letter of some sort that helps us again improve our systems that they've detected that uh, you know, that that we we can we can certainly improve. I mean just from a general conversation if I were an
035accountant or auditor you know with the and I don't want to beat this to death with the issue of the purchase orders you know and I I think that is something that Mike brought up in the past and was a problem even when this fell Ed was here uh where he told us that there was this purchase order that was issued for some expense in the current year that would take place two years two Um there there has to be a a more rigorous review of of uh of these purchase orders and hopefully Kate and the policies that we we do this year. we could review the financial policies, you know, as quickly as possible. So, it all coincides, you know, with having better financial statements and basically taking advantage of everything we've learned, putting
036it together and coming, you know, coming to a point where, you know, corrupt is not on things. We can go on to the next agenda item um on here which is a comparison of the the budgets as I call the superintendent or the quarter edge budget um versus the city allocation uh for the 25 26 current year. Uh, I just wanted that summary to think >> which I don't I don't think they were I don't think that um document that I um was looking at when we spoke is uh in these uh in these slides but I can rearch I've sent it out before but I can recirculate it. Uh it was essentially a document showing the difference between um by line items, salaries, benefits, purchase services, other purchase services, so on and so forth.
037The difference between CARA's uh proposed superintendent budget of 194 million versus what our actual allocation of the 172 was. Um and then just took a variance between the two. And I think where you were going with it was, you know, how do we get from that 194 to the 172? >> Yeah. I, you know, I I think once you get it, it it's I said earlier that I would get talk to that point that that difference is somewhere about $22 million. And what I want to try to understand to to defend is is the following. And over the number of uh you know in all the times that I've been on the board, we've always been asking and stressed that we need more money and we've tried to get the public to support additional funding.
038Uh in in the years that these products weren't done and are currently revealed. 23 and 24 where the board was led that you know there there may be a negative situation at the end of the year or that close to a break even. you know, we're showing, you know, somewhere in the range of cumulatively $15 million of extra money that that we didn't spend. In the current year of 25, we're showing close to, you know, two and a half to three million dollars of favorable variance. Not that I'm complaining about favorable variances, but my point is when we look at the comparison, this is what we should have a conversation on is how do we defend asking for the superintendent budget or the board budget uh of and And how do we operate with that
039much less when somebody can go back and point and say over the last three years you haven't spent everything we've given you so therefore why are you asking for this much money u and and so that's a conversation that I think is going to take a little bit of time. I'd like Dr. Kazmir when we do have this conversation to be able to explain the impact how she operates uh with this variance that that that we have. So, we do have an understanding that, you know, we're not creating fictitious budgets or or inflated budgets, but there's a rationale to it. I I just like it it to be put in in layman's terms so that we can justify the the experience we've had in the past not spending all of that money as opposed to
040you know the reduction we had this year and in a couple of months we're going to be faced with the same issue in going through and doing the same dog and pony show and advocating that we have more money. So, I I think we need a better clarity as to what's happening, where these funds are used, what we're not getting. And I think that's a conversation for another day. But I did want to go to to that point to say that, you know, perhaps it our next finance meeting we devoted if we have the time discuss that on the agenda to that particular subject because I I tend to think it's going to come back and bite us as soon as this, you know, period of time relative to budget is up again. Uh so
041it's something that we as board members should be aware of as as well as to be all on the same page that we know what's going on and have the right answers for it. >> Rich, I see that um Dr. Casemro and Teresa both have their hands up. >> Sure. Go ahead. >> Yeah. Hi Richard. Um, so I just for whatever reason I've never had the little hand raising um icon in my Zoom. So I'm always has to raise my hand. So I apologize for that. Um, can I share with you very quickly um I did share out with the board through an update the the difference between the original proposed budget and then where we landed with the actual. And I'll just show it to you very quickly because it gets to your point,
042Richard, of um I got to replace the current share here. It gets to your point about what what is it that is is missing. So if you recall the original superintendent's budget, if you were was the 1944 464 110,000 I'm sorry, 110 million of that in the general fund was was in salaries. We landed with about 102 million. So, we've got we're about $8 million less in salaries that than what has been originally proposed and a lot of that comes in the form of student supports. And so, um you know, we know where to leverage instructional improvement in the classroom. We know where to um where the support needs to be. We know where the student supports are best served. If you remember me talking about the crazy but not crazy number of 45 additional
043pair of professionals in our K in our kindergarten classrooms. So that's that's what happens. We're unable to implement um real improvement. Now will we be able to do some of that? Yes. Um do I still feel very good about the work that we're doing? Yes, I do. Um can we are we able to get class sizes down further from where they are? No. not not with the you know because the proposal that we did make um did did support um the that level of of staffing. That said, um I think you know between some of the um the ways that we've cobbled um some of the the budget pieces together between the previous um the surpluses that we had um so while unfortunate there still was an opportunity there um there still is um you
044know ARPA money that we have fortunately heading into this year that we didn't use last year because of those surpluses. Um, so we were able to um to get some real uh work done. We were able to open up the academy, which we're very thankful for. Um, and we had some reduced transportation. So, we were able to to get it to to to come together in a in a pretty decent way, but it it's not all that we can be. We're not everything that we want to do is not realized yet. And as some of this one-time funding um tapers off, we're really going to feel the implications of kind of not keeping up. But we're on a much better track than we have been in the past. >> Yeah, Cara, the the and thank
045you for that explanation. My my point in doing this is I want the public to understand what you're up against and I want the board to understand. I want to what you're up against that that yes, the the point you made is are we going to have class size smaller? No. Would this money have helped? Possibly yes. Okay. But people have to understand what they're going to get and what they're not going to get. And I I think this is more of a robust conversation where I would like the full board to be part of it, not just us, okay, >> five members because I think it's beneficial to them to understand where you're going, what you're up against. because you know I like myself I I tend to think there's some confusion on on
046their part in terms of how to answer these questions and and how you resolve operating the current year with this particular deficit. Again you in the past we've always made things work with what we've got. So you know it's good that it happens but on the other hand it comes back to bite us. people sort of say, "Well, you're doing it so well. You got all these awards, you know, why do you need more money?" And that's not that that's not the issue. So, I I I I think a a good conversation with the full board would be beneficial and the information would get out there. I I appreciate you, you know, starting on it, but I don't want you to, you know, repeat yourself twice. >> Okay. I just didn't want you to because
047the document wasn't in >> No, no, that's okay. >> The packet. I didn't want you to think we didn't have Mike and I looked at the document and I had numbers. It basically just Okay. So, that was okay. It was just a point that I think this explanation and it it's on, you know, it's a logical question. anybody and I can just imagine Warren Levy and and Elmo Palmer, you know, coming up again, you know, reiterating the same stuff. Who else is going to chime in? Questions like that. Moving on to and and we can determine, you know, when is a good time to to have this discussion if we do a finance meeting and invite the school board to it might be an idea or however to do that. >> Rich, I just want
048to remind you Teresa had her hand up. >> Yep. I'm sorry, Terry. Go ahead. >> Well, what you brought up is a very good point and thank you, Cara, for sharing that chart. um the people the the taxes went up so much that um that's a concern and and going through the explanation is very helpful and the points you mentioned Rich are on point >> you know Teresa being the mayor of a city is complicated you know you've got to balance two parts you've got to balance two parts of the city I have the luxury of advocating for only one part of the city, you know, but being realistic knowing that if I'm advocating for this, I live in a city, it's coming out of my pocket and how much can I afford come out
049of my pocket. So, I understand that, but the mayor has to then juggle both the the the equations for both these hats and come up with a a particular number. the best that we can do is to educate people as to where we're going, what we can give you, you know, now or what we can give you later. Uh, and and just so that there it's like when you purchase a car, you want to know what you're getting for this particular vehicle. you could, you know, if you buy the low-end model without the bells and whistles, when you get in the car, you know, the sunroof doesn't go back and seats don't go up and down, sideways, etc. So it at least you understand where you know you know what you're getting for your money
050and also to to dispel the the trying to think of the word dispel the negative comments and criticism that we incurred over the last oh 23 and 24. you know, by having this this high number that nobody was aware of. So that's, you know, we want to restore our credibility, I guess, is what I was looking to say. And to me, that's very important, particularly when you're close to $250 million, including grants and everything else. When you have a budget of of that much money, you want to make sure that you have credibility and the taxpayers understand that that you do the best you can and you know what you're doing. >> Thank you. >> The next item on the agenda, Mike, is just to give us an update on basically the financial staff. Um,
051are you pretty much staffed up? you know, what are you looking for? >> Yep. Certainly. So, as of the last we met, we ha haven't added anyone new. Um, the points of uh a noteworthy update on uh Monday, uh this coming Monday, the 22nd, I am very excited to announce we'll be adding um a staff member of the physician that we've lost previously. It's going to be the the secretary in uh in my office. Um, so they're going to be helping myself as well as uh accounts payable to um to make some of those phone calls to the vendors to close out those POS because right now there's only one person doing it. Um, and then additionally, we had in the budget um a senior accounting position um that Cara and I had been working
052on closely back and forth with kind of the details as to exactly what that role looks like in our in our team. And I think Cara and I came to uh I think we're at a point we're in agreement and uh are ready to post if if not have already posted that position. Um but other than that the staff members that uh we had when we closed out the year are still the same. >> Great. I think it's at least it's my opinion that somebody in your position should not be doing a tremendous amount of grunt work. you know, that's not, you know, what we've hired you for. That's not what you're you're trained to do, and that's not the leadership that we expected from you. You know, there has to be other people that
053work for you that can get the grunt work done so that Cara can be in a position, not to be a pseudo accountant and have to take crash courses in accounting because you can't rely on a finance director. Um it evolution where [Music] you know we can't be pennywise and dollar foolish and with the amount of people that you know we we employ and that's responsible for the amount of dollars that continues to grow each year. I I think the the fact that you're beefing up that apartment department is excellent. It's taken a while to get there, but I could certainly think it's money, you know, well spent. I also understand carers up hired transportation person as well. So that was a big, you know, a big void that we had. I I do want
054to just regroup and go back in terms of uh we had talked about it before we met decide the agenda item is hopefully at our next meeting you can put together the calendar a tentative calendar of what your thoughts are on the closing I think that's you know very important you to have we've been talking about it for a number of months u so I think board members should be knowledgeable as to what your responsibilities are, your permissions to to close the books at the end of every month, what you have to do each quarter annually, etc., etc. So, if we could at least at the next finance meeting have some sort of preliminary schedule so at least we know what the items are on tentative dates that that's a good starting point. again, you
055know, up in the election year, you're going to have new members coming in and I think this is, you know, very important information that that they they should have. So, we could put that on the agenda for the next time we meet. I appreciate it. >> Absolutely. And the very last item is is I said I think that we as a a committee should have some sort of goals and agenda that we want to to meet uh and and obtain next year. Again, I do this only because of the particular change that may or may not, you know, occur with with new members on the board and on finance committee. But I I I think there should be a basic guide as to what we feel we should be should be doing. So, what I'm
056going to do is to ask the committee members if they would give me a list of three to five items they feel they'd like to see as goals or objectives to put this together uh run it by, you know, Mike and Cara and we can have a conversation collectively then to decide on this what, you know, what our goals and uh and objectives are. Uh I I I think you know to me that's that's important. You know you want to have a body that has a purpose in its meeting and you know I think if we define some of these things it I I think it's good. I think it shows some professionalism, shows that we, you know, we're on target looking out for the interest of So, if that's okay, if you would send
057me that information, I certainly appreciate it. >> Wonderful. >> Um, that being said, that pretty much concludes the items on the agenda. I don't know if anybody else has any other questions. >> Uh, m Mr. Juanita has her hand up. Oneita, I'm sorry. I just can't see whose hand. So, I appreciate you letting me know. Kate, go ahead. >> I I understand. Um I I believe at our last in our last minutes, we had talked about Rich making arrangements for a um finance 101 training. Yeah, that is going to be Yeah, I think her had in her recent update indicated and I agree with her and the decision of Mrs. Cooper that it be done in January when new board members come in. I I think it's important that that meeting be held for new
058people. I mean the the the existing board members, you know, have been through some of this in terms of board responsibilities, etc. conversations we had in finance. But I I think it would be more meaningful to have the new group be exposed to this that they're going to be the one challenged with picking up the the helm in a couple of months. So, so I I if I'm not mistaken, I think somewhere in January, Cara, I was the anticipated date. Correct. >> We did. We did. And we have a meeting I think I believe it's next week. I was just trying to go into my calendar to see when it it had gotten rescheduled, but it's a meeting with uh Rich Carmichael from Advance uh to talk through the um the different the different ways
059that we can approach the training and then what we want to see happen so that you know to to to get a sense of the of the types of training. So, we'll bring that back to the finance committee for discussion once we have that meeting and find out what's possible and and what that training series would look like for us. >> Okay, great. Yeah, it's like you don't want you don't want to have old dogs know learn new tricks. >> I think it's it's the kind of stuff that's good for everybody. Even if it's a refresher, >> it is. And I think, you know, for those people that have taken over the helm and have to run with it for the next two, four years, it it's a good basis to start fresh with them.
060Um, if there were no other questions on >> Mr. J. >> Yeah, >> sorry to interrupt. I just wanted to um make a motion to recommend approval of the acceptance of the June 2025 finance committee uh sorry, finance report to the full board. >> Um, do we want to take that or do we want to wait until Mike gets closer to finishing up with all of his entries? This is more of a preliminary type of thing. Do >> you wanna >> This is just a monthly report. I thought this is not the final report. >> This is the draft. Correct. >> Yeah. >> Right. >> Do we, you know, I don't want it to be construed as the final report and then have another report with nominal adjustments on it. So, >> can you retitle
061it preliminary report? >> You can say, you know, do it that way. >> Yeah. you know preliminary unauded report then we can you know make note that it's subject to final adjustment short period of time so that that's okay in that case there I I think the motion is well taken >> I second and all in favor I I >> okay if you put that I appreciate okay thanks for bringing it Okay, with that being said, I want to thank everybody for your attendance tonight. I certainly appreciate the input and make a motion to adjourn. >> So moved. >> Thank you. >> You can take that one. >> Okay. Thanks >> everybody. Have a good night and thank you