===PAGE 1=== Lunenburg Finance Committee Meeting Minutes Bilotta Meeting Room Lunenburg Town Hall June 13, 2024 Present Members: Chair Evan Watters, Vice Chair Chris Menard, Clerk Tiffaney Tavares, Board Member Tom Gray, Board Member Dave Passios, Board Member Jean Russell, Board Member Jay Simeone 1. Call to Order The meeting opened at 7:00PM. 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements Evan Watters states that the Town Manager s last day will be A ugust 4 th . A search committee will be put together to find a new Town Man a ger. 4. Public Comment There were no comments from the public. 5. Town Manager Report The Owner ’s Project Manager Services contract for Marshall Park was awarded through a park grant . The Town received notification from FEMA for denial of public assistance from the severe weather and flooding that occurred in September of 2023. The State issued that a million dollars be set aside from the fall supplemental budget to be distributed to affected cities and towns. Lunenburg received $ 30,000 . This number was reached based on storm related expenses, municipality size, and the amount of infrastructure related costs. The Fiscal 25 tax bills will include the override amount and are only an estimate until the tax rate is set in the fall. Rep resentative Scarsdale received the earmark for the MILO training simulation systems for the police dept project . This training simulation p reviously didn ’t make the cut in the capital plan . The repairs to the public safety building were completed. Ch ris M enard questioned when the grant writing services will be available. Heather Lemieux states a process needs to be put in place and established to ensure the resources aren ’t put into one department or committee. Tiffaney ===PAGE 2=== Tavares agrees to work together with Heather Lemieux. Heather Lemieux will reach out to her association for additional input. 6. Finance Director Report Eze quiel Ayala has no new information or reports. The quarter finances for Q3 were s ubmitted and should be available within the next couple of weeks. 7. New Business a. Town Manager Search Committee Representative (Possible Vote ) T he T own M oderator is responsible for chairing a committee to replace the T own M anager and has already reached out to Evan Watters. This Committee will include a representative from the Finance Committee. Chris Menard questions if the Committee must come up with a group of candidates. Evan Watters states the group is to consist of 5 members : the T own M oderator, Finance Committee representative, Tom Alon z o, P eter Beardmore , and a P lanning B oard R epresentative. Evan Watters nominated Chris Menard to be on the Committee for the permanent T own M anager , seconded by Dave Passios . All in favor. Th e Committee for the interim Town Manager will be handled exclusively by the S elect B oard, A ssistant T own M anager , and HR director. b. Budget Task Force Discussion (Possible Vote) There has been no official vote to start a budget task force from the S elect B oard. There is discussion about whether this group will include only appointed or elected members of the town or if it should include members of the public. The budge t task force is anticipated to include a F inance R ep resentative , School C ommittee R ep resentative , S uperintendent of S chools, B usiness D irector for S chools, S elect B oard M ember, and a Planning Board Member. Ch ri s Menard nominated Evan W atters to be the F inance C ommittee R epresentative , seconded by Tiffaney Tavares . All in favor. c. Meeting with Rep Scarsdale, 1st Middlesex District , and DESE to Discuss School Budget Issues Representative Margaret Scarsdale sent out an email to members of her district including T own M anager s , M oderators, S elect B oard C hairs, S chool C ommittee C hair s , and Finance C ommittee C hair s. ===PAGE 3=== The topics to be discussed include the school budgets, regional school transportation, minimum required contributions, Chapter 70, effectiveness of the foundation formula and the 4 1/2% cap on the student opportunity act. The proposed dates for the 2-hour long meeting include July 12 & July 19. Chris Menard suggests creating a prepared statement across the 3 B oards. Evan Watters suggests the statement be drafted by the S chool C ommittee . Tiffaney Tavares suggests a col laboration between the F inance C ommittee and S chool C ommittee. d. Missing FinCom Minutes Evan Watters spoke to PAC and was told to search specifically for “FIN ” and that should generate everything available. Chris Menard questions if there is a time limit for when minutes need to be submitted. Chris Menard asks if it ’s been determined that if no meeting was held thus there are no minutes, then what needs to be provided for compliance. Chris Menard also s uggests append ing the material to the minutes. 8. Old Business There was no old business to discuss. 9. Minutes There was a motion to approve the minutes from the May 23, 2024, meeting by Chris Menard, seconded by Tiffaney Tavares. All in favor. 10. Committee Reports Chris Menard states the Parks Committee met and Ana Lockwood resigned from the Committee. Chris Menard shares that the C apital P lanning Committee met and is f ocusing on the 5-year plan. T here is an at large seat available on the C ommittee. The busiest time of the year for the Committee is during the fall and winter months. Dave Passios states that G reen C ommunities Committee met. Recently, the Committee backed out of the spring grant round at the last min ute for the sewer project. It t urned out to be more b eneficial to wait until the fall grant round to obtain a larger sum. Meetings are scheduled monthly throughout the summer . Dave Passios shares that i nformation is being provided on Facebook about th e accomplishments of the committee related to finances. Currently there are 2 associate member seats available. ===PAGE 4=== Evan Watters shares that the M aster P lan St eering C ommittee met but Evan Watters was unable to attend. All 5 of the members on the Personnel Committee have resigned . Currently this is a completely empty Committee. 11. Topics for Future Meetings A list of future topics was created throughout the meeting. 12. Upcoming Meetings: a. 6/27/2024 b. 7/11/24 13. Public Comment There were no public comments. 14. Adjourn There was a motion to adjourn by Chris Menard , seconded by Dave Passios . The meeting closed at 8:01 PM.