001Yeah. Before we go live, There's something nice in the morning. off. I just said take it. Sorry. Take it off. Miss Hower, you're good. Okay. Okay. Good evening everyone. Let's call this meeting to order and we will start with the pledge of alleg allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Thank you all for joining this evening's finance committee meeting. We will start off with the approval of the minutes from our May 6th and May 21st meeting. Do I have a motion and a second? Second. Motion by Mrs. Mc Merry, seconded by Mr. Casa. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Moving on to items recommended for
002work work session or action. Budget transfers. Yeah. Um these are just our standard May budget transfers to move things around. Those are already appropriated. We're just moving between accounts. Do we want to do we'll do approval of these item by item? Yeah. Okay. So, do I have um we'll start with a motion and a second and then any questions? Um motion and a second on the budget transfers. Second motion by Mr. Rash, second by Mr. Fusco. Any comments or questions? Okay. Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 2025 2026 homestead and farmstead exclusion. Um so this is the amount that we get as gaming revenue from the state that offsets our tax rates. And this is just the resolution that says how much each of those homesteads will homesteads
003that qualify will get per with the um 8.4 million that we're getting from the state. So it's not really a reduction in taxes. It's a credit against their taxes courtesy of the state. So their taxes aren't changing. They're just getting a coupon, so to speak. Thank you for that. Yeah. Do I have a motion and a second for this item? So moved. Second. Motion by Mrs. Stole, seconded by Mr. Fusco. Any comments or questions? I would just say it's a $343 per household or tax bill credit. So, it's a nice size credit. Yeah, it's a it is a decent credit. Yeah, I shouldn't minimize that. Okay. Any other comments or questions? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 2025 real estate tax assessment appeals. So, the district has a policy that if
004the um we believe that a value of a property is undervalued by 600,000 or more um that we will look into a district initiated appeal of their assessed value. These are the properties that we're looking at for next year. Thank you for that. Do I have a motion and a second for this item? Second. Motion by Mr. Casa, seconded by Mrs. Stole. And any comments or questions? Do you want next I think um do we just want to remind people the reason that we do this? Please do because um if if those buildings are under assessed and the other taxpayers have to pick up the difference, you know, pick up the slack. So that's why we try to make sure that we're having everything assessed properly. Correct. Correct. Yep. Thank you for that. Can I
005ask a question? Sure, please. When I first looked at that, I I thought we these people would come back to us and ask for reassessment of their property. I guess they had done that in the past and what we're doing is going back and reassessing these properties because the amount of the uh assessment that was redone is a large amount and we think that the property values have been have improved since that. There may be some I I don't know each individual case. There may be some where people have requested a reduction and were granted that. Now we're we're going back and appealing that. There may also be some that it's changed hands and so now it's um and the with the and it's come to our attention that the assessed value is lower. So
006we get a a listing of all of the properties and we do the math against the common level ratio to make sure that their market value and their assessed value are within within where we want them to be. Wonderful. Thank you very much. And and just to clarify, u want to make sure my understanding is still the same that we also use a an independent objective law firm that helps us with this process. Correct. So we we get the we get the information from the county, we go through it, we do the math, and then we do have our law firm review it before we put it on the agenda on which ones we're going to go through and actually address. Thanks. I appreciate that. And for the public um this is um the context
007is also um I don't know if it's necessarily due process but we want to make sure that it's an equitable approach right between the commercial residential properties and that no one is being targeted and that's why we're talking about these type of redundancies and methodology to make sure that it's a fair process. That's correct. Misser, can I ask one question regarding the time frame? You said that these uh these uh u properties are for next year. Do we look at them a year ahead or or when we receive them? Well, when we receive the the the assessed values, we go through them around this time of year and I believe we have a deadline and I'd have to double check what the Montgomery County deadline is. So, we have to we have to file appeals
008by a certain date and I it's the 15th of the month and for believe me I can't remember which month so I can find out. It was the first time I heard oh for next year and I was like oh what does that mean? I thought so it wouldn't affect their July 1st tax bill. It would affect their July 1st of 26 tax bill. Yeah. And I can I'll double check and confirm that, but I'm pretty sure that's because we do them for the following tax year. We we wouldn't have enough time to change their tax bill at this point. Okay. And we have a motion and a second on the floor for the And just as a reminder, we are recommending approval for placement on the June 18th action meeting agenda. All those in
009favor say I. I. Any opposed. Motion carries. Assessment, appeal, appraisals. Um, so this is specific for 506 Stump Road. Um, our attorney uses this um assessment of I'm sorry. Yeah, an assessment. So they they do the valuation of the property. Um, and they the attorney doesn't determine the value of the property, but they have somebody else come and review the value of the property and they value the property. I keep wanting to say assessor and assessment. It's appraiser. It's the appraiser. So, we want to get a property appraisal. And this is the company that does the property appraisal that our attorney uses. Um, the value the assessed value on this property, just to put the the rates in perspective, is $1.8 $8 million and its sales price in 23 was $8 million. Um, so yeah,
010so we want to have the we want to get the property assessed or appraised so we can look at the assessment. Okay. And this is the company that would do that for us. Thank you. Questions? Do I have a motion and a second to put this item um on the agenda? Our June 18th action and meeting action meeting agenda. So moved. Second. Uh mo a motion by Mrs. Mc Merry, seconded by Mr. Casa. Any comments or questions? Okay. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Um the next one is just an annual um resolution that we put on. So I can I as treasurer and CFO can go through and do um things that are within the scope of policy and just keep moving for the year um and to postbudget
011transfers during the course of audit without having to bring them. We can just get them transferred so we can do go through the course of the audit. Okay. Do I have a motion and a second to place this item on the June 18th action meeting agenda? So moved. Second. Motion by Mrs. Stole, second by Mr. McBain. Any comments or questions? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Um the next item for elementary library digital research. I keep wanting to put the literacy before the library. Um RFP, the resource tool for the RFP. Um we went out for RFP. We had four respondents. Um three of which were not they didn't meet the certifications and the qualifications that we wanted them to have. So we are um in conversations with uh Dawn
012about procurement. We're going to stick with Capstone and Pebble Go. So that will be the Pebble Go information will be on the the next agenda on the 18th. Okay. And this is a recommendation to approve to move this item to the board action meeting a awarding the elementary library digital research and literacy resource tool RFP to the vendor selected as the result of the request for proposals. Do I have a motion and a second? So second motion motion by Mr. Fusco, seconded by Mr. Casa. Any comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Montgomery County Tax Collection Committee. Um, every county in Pennsylvania has a tax collection committee that's made up of municipalities and school districts. This is just naming our new um assistant business manager as our
013representative as our primary representative with myself and our um accounting supervisor as second and third um to represent us at that tax commission. Okay. And this is um we recommend approval for placement on the June 18th action committee meeting. Do I have a motion and a second? Second. Motion by Mr. Fusco, seconded by Mrs. Stole. Any comments or questions? Okay. Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Okay. Final general budget. So this is general fund budget. Sorry. Yes, this is the general fund budget. So there have been no meaningful changes to the budget since the last time we proposed it. Um, at this time we are um the resolution that's attached reflects a 4% uh millage increase um with a and I put my readers on uh with a total
014appropriation of 348,735 um which uh is not a change from the last time that you guys were introduced budget. Okay. And we recommend approval for placement on the June 18th action committee meeting agenda. We'll start with a motion and a second and then open it up for questions. So moved. Second. Motion by Mrs. Stole, seconded by Mr. Casa. Any comments or questions? Thank you for all of the work. I know that you just arrived. Yeah. I want to thank Kristen and the team. Yes. Yes. And to Joan. I mean, there's a there's a host of folks uh particularly with such a significant change in our organization. So, we appreciate the thorough detail that you've um continued with. So thanks. Absolutely. Thanks. Please extend our gratitude. Thank you. I will. Absolutely. Thank you. Okay. Seeing no
015other comments or questions, all those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Moving on toformational items. Um, student representative. Uh, I don't have anything about finance, but there most elections at the school are done. Um, now just kind of like clubs introducing themselves tomorrow for SGA. I have the interviews for cabinet and then also finals are coming up. That's really it. Great. A question. Yes. Can I ask a question? So, yeah. Are you aware of any new clubs that are being proposed um in the high school? Yeah, we have to approve a couple. I don't really know if I'm allowed to talk about it, but yet. Maybe maybe once they're approved. Maybe that's too premature. But I was just interested to hear. Yeah, we have like a a so it's like kind of
016every other. It's not exactly every other, but we have people come and propose a club that they would like to do and there's like certain requirements that you have to have in your presentation. If they're not there, then people would most likely ask, but it's most of time it's there. But there's been a a lot lately. But um yeah, that's really it. Yeah. So to Shayla's point, there's an inner club council that um when students write a proposal, they have to have bylaws. Uh they have to have an advisor and then there's a probationary period. Um because when you have students there for three years, there's turnover obviously in the student body and a turnover in interest at times. So we're not going to create a position and pay an adviser if there's not sustained
017interest in that club. Uh so once the students pass you know they validate the club if the club exists and has membership for beyond three years that's when we start to have an adviser. So and this is common practice. I have a club that I've started at the high school at spring for ASL and I got to go another two years before I can actually get paid to do it. So yeah I was just curious about what are are there any new topics activities interests that don't already exist? But thanks for the detail. Do you want to follow up on that? Lately there has been a lot of like um like what's it called? Coding and like internet stuff. Like we had it's fine. It we had one it was actually I don't remember what
018it's called but it was for they would connect with a bunch of companies and they would try to help promote them on social media. So it was like a social media marketing club. Okay. And there's been a bunch of ones like that lately. Interesting. Thank you for that. Okay, I'll pass it back to you for our financed reports. Um, so the finance reports are all attached. If you have any questions or concerns, you can just follow up with me after the fact. Okay, any questions or comments right now or? Okay. Okay, we'll move on to public comment and I'll read the statement. Individuals attending this meeting and intending to speak to the committee should be aware that they are being recorded. In order to meet the requirements of Pennsylvania sunshine law, it is necessary to
019record the names of all citizens who speak to the committee during the meeting. To asssure compliance with this requirement, it is essential that those planning to address the committee state their name and municipality. As a reminder, the public comment portion of the meeting is designed for residents and taxpayers of the district to provide comment and feedback on matters being discussed at tonight's meeting or matters that may come before the finance committee. It is not designated for debate or discussion with members of the committee. When appropriate, committee members may choose to respond to public comments that have been made or request that a member of the administration follow up with the speaker after the meeting. Members of the audience are asked to limit their questions and comments to three minutes and this is in reference to
020board policy 903. Good evening, Mr. Laneir. Good evening. Uh Jason Ler Lansdale. Um got here just in time to ask a couple ask a couple questions and this is regarding finance specifically and the term that's used often is investment and uh there's a couple of times that investment's been used which I'm not sure qualifies as investment under the school code. uh specifically the healthcare center and um the adoption of uh PV cells for the high school project that are insignificant to the uh energy budget. So in clarifying it, there are requirements that need to be met to be called an investment. And often the investments have to be treasury bills um short-term obligations uh using uh US government agencies or instrumentals. They can't just be anything. You can't go and buy Bitcoin with uh school
021funds. And I would like some justification then why we are talking about the health care center being an investment as it has not been able to achieve any payback to its uh its stated purpose. The stated purpose again was to reduce health care premiums and healthc care premiums have gone up every year since it was constructed and opened. I know there's a thought that it's going to be at some point uh reducing those premiums, but it has not yet so far. And the specific numbers are I mean last year uh or this year 2023 24 we paid 700 uh $32 million in in yearly premiums for healthcare. The year prior uh season prior was 30 million. So it went up by almost $3 million. It it did not reduce our healthcare premium. So why are
022we continuing to do this? And it does not meet the investment go guidelines of paying um having economy of a a 4.8 to 5% annualized uh profit over 25 years. H how do you come up with the idea that it's profitable or an investment? It doesn't meet the criteria as an investment. Same can be said for the PV cells on the high school. They're not large enough. There's not a big enough array to offset your electrical cost in any meaningful way and you can't make it big enough to do so because then you would be in violation of some energy production code which says it can only uh be roughly 20% of the overall utility uh usage in the area. So I want to know how that is an investment and not just I said
023as I said before a vanity project. You want to do this because it seems like a good idea. It's sustainable, but it doesn't actually pay off anything. It doesn't reduce our our electrical requirement. And we're going to have to pay more for the cells and more to uh maintain them if we have battery systems and or inverter grids, whichever it's going to be or both. So, if somebody could actually explain why these are investments, I would appreciate it. Thank you. Okay. So in summary, um the committee is recommending the following items that will be moved towards um our agenda for our next work session and action meeting that is the budget transfer, the homestead farmstead exclusion, real estate tax assessments, assessment appeals, business office operational items, elementary library digital research and literacy um res uh
024resource RFP, Montgomery County Tax Collection Committee, and the 2025 2026 general fund budget. it. Okay. Um, our next finance committee meeting is set for Tuesday, July 8th at 6 PM and then the meeting following is on August 5th. Um, do I have a motion and a second to adjurnn? Second. Thank you. And we will take a brief recess and then reconvene for our next meeting.