Lunenburg Finance Committee Meeting Minutes December 7, 2023 Members Present: Vice Chair Chris Menard, Board Member Dave Passios, Board Member Jean Russell, Board Member Jay Simeone, Chair Evan Watters. 1. Call to Order The meeting opened at 7:10 PM. 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements a. Plan Lunenburg Survey: PlanLunenburg.org Evan Watters encourages residents to take the survey to provide their input. 4. Public Comment Anna Lockwood - 91 Main Street- watched prior meetings and feels there are some disadvantages now that recreation and facilities fall under the same group. Facilities requests tend to become a higher priority. Anna Lockwood hopes the committee will see that the parks is different from facilities and there are different needs. The board agrees it may be difficult to ask for funding when looped under facilities. Heather Lemieux confirms that parks is in the division under facilities. Dave Passios thinks it may be worth separating when the departments submit their capital plan. Evan Watters suggests having 2 separate capital planning requests. A list for 20k to 500k projects and a list for over 500k projects. 5. Town Manager Report Heather Lemieux has nothing new to report. 6. Old Business a. Treasurer Year End Cash Report for DOR The treasurer, Myleen Mallari, provided 2 documents to the committee to review. This includes a report of all accounts that the town has and what was provided to the DOR. Dave Passios questions how often the accounts are reviewed and if money could be moved from one type of investment to another to get a better interest rate. Myleen Mallari confirms they review cash books every month. Myleen Mallari has spoken to a vice president representative of each institution if there are change in interest rates. Most accounts are fixed investments. Dave Passios asked a question regarding liquid bearing accounts. Some accounts have less than half percent interest and there is the question of whether this has to do with the accounts being fluid. Evan Watters asks why the maximum percentage rate doesn’t increases. Myleen Mallari states a new account was created because there was no interest rate to open a new account. Evan Watters sums up by saying this rate will increase and it’s just because it’s a new account. b. Municipal Investing Evan Watters questions if the banks on the documents just banks for general accounts or is there anything specific for municipalities within the banks themselves. Myleen Mallari states they all fall under the master law and under chapter 44 section 55 operating funds. Chris Menard questions if there is any ability to invest like we would our own retirements funds where they are doing better than the rate of inflation. The rates seem to be mediocre around the board. Myleen Mallari states the stabilization funds fall under chapter 44 section 54. They are in a safety type of investment. The institution Bartholomew specializes in and has an expertise on investments and how to invest those funds without losing anything. Evan Watters asked if they could go into a money market account. Myleen Mallari confirms they can, but they must be secured for insurance. They must fall under certain guidelines and the legal list of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts General Laws. Some of the banks have lower interest but they don’t charge fees to make this available to the taxpayers. Dave Passios questions if there are a lot of fees on these accounts. Myleen Mallari states they do charge fees for wire. They offer free service to have investments there with a good interest rate. Chris Menard questions if there is a policy related to how to invest money. Heather Lemieux confirms there is, and it can be found on the select board policy and procedure page 47. c. Capital Plan Committee Input Dave Passios is putting together a list of future projects that may qualify for Green Communities. Dave Passios Will provide spreadsheet to chair of green communities and contact those departments to get into the look early. Below are 2 changes to Capital Plan request: The study and schematic design for windows at Turkey Hill Elementary School was pushed back another year so it will now fall under FY 26. The Marshall Pond request decreased to $50,000. Instead of treating the entire pond they will only start with a small portion. Evan Watters shares that at the School Committee meeting they shared frustration that the MSBA was not getting their recommendations out and what projects to go forward with and fund. The school department will be writing a letter to send to the commissioner of MSBA to advocate for smaller communities that work on a smaller budget and don’t have reactionary funds available. Heather Lemieux states that back in 2021 Attorney Costa researched the MSBA funding laws and the MSBA rule is that they can recover any payments made to the town and stop any future payments to the town if it was outside of that period of time. 7. New Business a. Budget Season Calendar Members can find a copy of the budget season calendar in the Finance Committee folder. The budget season kicks off January 18th when the town manger presents the Capital Plan recommendations. 8. Minutes a. 11/13/23 The approval of the minutes will be discussed at a further date as some members weren’t able to find them under the committee group drive. 9. Committee Reports Dave Passios states that the Green Communities Committee has a meeting scheduled for the week of the 18th. Evan Watters discusses the Plan Lunenburg survey. 10. Topics for Future Meetings An additional member will be added to the committee and appointed on December 13th. The committee will now consist of a full board. At an upcoming meeting there will be a full committee reorganization and committee liaison assignments. 11. Upcoming Meetings a. Jan 11th – Reorganization/Committee Liaisons b. Jan 18th – 5 yr Financial Forecast & Capital Plan Recommendations c. Jan 25th – Regular meeting 12. Important Dates a. Jan 19th-20th (MMA Annual Meeting) Current there is funding for 3 people to attend. b. Jan 9th-Mar 18th – Town Meeting Warrant c. Feb 15th – TM Preliminary Budget Presentation d. Apr 2nd – FinCom Report for Warrant e. May 4th – Annual Town Meeting f. May 18th – Annual Town Election 13. Public Comment No public or committee comment. 14. Adjourn Motion to adjourn the meeting by Chris Menard, seconded by Dave Passios. All in favor The meeting ended at 8:58PM.