===PAGE 1=== Lunenburg Finance Committee Meeting Minutes January 11, 2024 Bilotta Meeting Room Lunenburg Town Hall Members Present: Chair Evan Watters, Tom Gray, Dave Passios, Jean Russell, Jay Simeone, Tiffaney Tavares. Absent: Vice-Chair Chris Menard 1. Call to Order The meeting opened at 7:01 PM. 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements Tiffaney Tavares has joined the Board as the 7th member. a. Plan Lunenburg Survey: i. PlanLunenburg,org- Survey is live until January 21st. ii. Public Meeting 2/1/24 @ Adult Activity Center -Informational Session 1. Session 1: 4 PM- 6 PM 2. Session 2: 6:30 PM-8:30 PM 4. Public Comment Dave Passios states that he witnessed inaccurate information at a recent meeting from a person of influence during a committee deliberation. Dave Passios stresses the importance of fact checking. Dave Passios shares a semi-prepared statement about the upcoming budget season. “This will be a challenge again this year with the knowns and unknowns in loss of grant funding and possibly state aid. Budget planning is a constant fluid process.” Dave Passios assures us that at the end of process the best possible budget will be brought forward for spring Town Meeting. 5. Town Manager Report Evan Watters spoke to Heather Lemieux and was informed that at the next Select Board meeting the Board will be interviewing a potential candidate for the Finance Director position. 6. Old Business a. CPC Final Recommendations ===PAGE 2=== Evan Watters provided a document with the Capital Planning Committee ranking priority for the Committee to review. Evan Watters asks if anyone has any comments or questions regarding the ranking. Tiffaney Tavares questions if additional information has been provided. Specifically, regarding a further breakdown of costs and how the costs were created. Dave Passios shares that the estimates for many items were collected during the cost escalations during the pandemic. Dave Passios believes these numbers need to be requested again because the costs are most likely lower. Evan Watters provides that the presentations and the Capital Planning meetings are available on Youtube. Dave Passios states that he has some concerns with several projects. Evan Watters questions about whether or not all of the top 13 projects will be able to get completed based on the current free cash situation. Evan Watters will ask the Town Manger if the departments heads can attend the next meeting to answer questions from the committee. 7. New Business a. Committee Reorganization & Committee Liaisons The committee reorganization and committee liaisons were tabled to the next meeting in order to have the full 7-member committee present. b. FinCom Budget Review Discussion During budget season (scheduled to start on February 15) the department heads will present their year-over-year changes, what they anticipated to accomplish, and their budget. This will follow with committee questions. The departments heads need to provide their presentations, spreadsheets, or supplemental information/documents 48 hours prior to their scheduled presentation. Evan Watters discusses the option of requesting the documents 72 hours prior to the presentation. Tiffaney Tavares suggests documents be provided a week prior to presentation. After discussion, the committee agrees to request budgetary lists a week prior to the meeting and presentations be provided 72 hours prior to the scheduled presentation. Additionally, Tom Gray requests the department heads provide historical data for the prior year and estimated year end budget. ===PAGE 3=== Evan Watters read an Email that was sent from Governor Healey to the town manager regarding budget cuts. “It appears that there will be no impact to Lunenburg at this time. We did not receive any ear marks through the state this fiscal year.” 8. Minutes a. 11/30/2023 & 12/7/2023 There was a motion to approve minutes from November 30, 2023, and December 7, 2023 by Tiffaney Tavares, seconded by Jay Simeone. Roll call vote. Unanimous. 9. Committee Reports Evan Watters states there is an issue with the scheduling of the School Committee presentation. The school committee vote regarding the budget is scheduled for March 20th. Their presentation with the Finance Committee is March 21st. This date may need to be switched. Evan Watters will reach out to the school department and the Town Manager to ask what the current healthcare costs are due to the suggestions that there will be inflation in healthcare costs. There was a Green Communities meeting that’s scheduled for the end of January. Dave Passios shares that there is a Facebook page for Green Communities that includes informational and historical data. Several department heads have reached out regarding upcoming projects and the potential for Green Community funding. 10. Topics for Future Meetings There are 2 more regular meetings before budget season starts and some topics are as follows: - Reorganization of board and liaisons. - List of Boards for liaisons. 11. Upcoming Meetings a. January 18th – 5 Year Financial Forecast & Capital Plan Recommendations b. January 25th c. February 8th d. February 15th – TM’s Preliminary Budget Presentation e. February 22nd Land Use, Council on Aging & Library f. February 29th – Information Technology & Police ===PAGE 4=== 12. Important Dates a. January 19th– 20th (MMA Annual Meeting) i. Evan Watters and Dave Passios are registered to attend. b. January 9th– March 18th – Town Meeting Warrant c. February 1st – Public meeting for the Master Steering Plan Committee d. March 28th – FinCom Public Hearing e. April 2nd – FinCom Report for Warrant f. May 4th – Annual Town meeting g. May 18th – Annual Town Election 13. Comments Public Comment Dave Passios shares that historical documents and materials were found in the vault in TC Passios. The documents have been released by the school committee and will be transferred to the historical society. These documents will be made available to the public in the near future. Committee Comment There are no comments from the committee. 14. Adjourn Motion to adjourn by Dave Passios, seconded by Jay Simeone. Roll call vote. Unanimous. The meeting closed at 8:14 PM.