March 8, 2016 Minutes

Westport Finance Committee (Fincom)

Meeting Minutes

Westport Town Hall

March 8, 2016

Present: Shana Shufelt (SS), Dick Brewer (DB), Gary Carreiro (GC), Charles “Buzzy” Baron (BB), Tracy Priestner (TP), Hugh Morton (HM), Bob McCarthy (BM)

Absent: Mark Carney (MC), Karen Powell (KP)

Attending: Tim King (TK), Town Administrator

BB opened the meeting at 7:00 p.m. with the traditional salute to the flag.

Minutes:

02/23 was presented for approval. GC motioned and TP seconded to approve as presented. The vote was unanimous in favor.

Reports:

Administrator: TK stated the BOS voted on a balanced budget last night which was distributed to the Fincom today. Total Revenue projected is $36,643,324 and the Total Budget is $36,639,113 which leaves $4,211 left for articles. The ATM Warrant has approximately $1,135,651 in money articles and TK recommended only $758,225 of which $426,195 is from free cash.

School Building: None

Accountant: All is well beside the Snow & Ice deficit spending.

Liaison: BB stated the BOS is on board with the BAG and appointed Mike Sullivan and Craig Dutra to the committee. GC motioned to make BB the chair of the BAG. TP seconded and the vote was unanimous in favor.

FY17 Budgets:

Building: Ralph Souza (RS), Building Commissioner, was in attendance to present the FY17 budget. RS mentioned that the only difference between what was requested is $5k for someone to cover for him in event of disability or vacation. TK asked if it could be taken out of the revolving account but the Assistant Accountant said he would have to change the wording at the Annual Town Meeting to include Building.

Fire: Brian Legendre (BL), Fire Chief, presented the FY17 budget. He detailed in handouts the increases or decreases to the FY17 budget versus the FY16 budget. He also had handouts pertaining to the two revolving accounts that have to be authorized at the Annual Town Meeting each year.

Weights & Measures: This is a level funded budget as our Sealer is shared between different towns and is pay is monthly.

Parking: This budget is for printing of tickets and for fees associated with an outside company that collects the parking fees and sends it to us.

Other:

A request was received from the Highway Department to allow deficit spending up to $150k. The BOS voted last night to allow only $100k. BB motioned and HM seconded to allow deficit spending up to $100k. The vote was unanimous in favor.

Adjournment and next meeting: There being no further business to come before this meeting, a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:30 p.m. was made by TP and seconded by BB and the vote in favor was unanimous. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be on March 15th at 7 p.m. at the Westport Town Hall.

Respectfully submitted,

Nicole Botelho, Recording Clerk