Finance, Budget, Audit & Bonding Subcommittee - Regular Meeting

Um, we have a quorum. Um, it looks like we have the deputy mayor, council mayor, and myself. Uh, councelor Lloyd, I think, is in travel. Yes. Or away. And then same for councilwoman Waterhouse. So, uh, we do have a quorum. Um, roll call is happening and we're going to go to old business. Um, and we're going to get an update and discussion and status update regarding our 2024 audit and the 2025 planning in that order. Director Hill. Thank you, Councelor McCclary. Um, good evening, Bloomfield. Um, we also have uh Vanessa Rosto from our auditing firm uh Clifton Larson Allen, also known as CLA uh on the line as well. Um, as you uh heard have heard me report in prior months uh meetings um as the current staff uh came into the finance department, we inherited a significant amount of work that was not done in fiscal 2024. Where we stand today is that uh we've completed all almost all I'll say we've completed the work that should have been done in fiscal 24 and have now moved on to preparing to be audited. Um th those choice of words are intentional. Um we're not ready for our auditors but we're preparing trial balance looking across all funds. Um and in the coming weeks we'll have that information ready for the auditors. Um that is a little bit different than I understand in years past where information was submitted but wasn't complete. Um we are working to provide the auditors with a complete

trial balance that we believe to be complete and accurate uh for them to begin their audit work. Um my current projection is that we'll be done with the 24 audit uh in the next 45 to 60 days and that puts the next 30 days on us and provides our auditors with roughly 30 days to get through their work. So, we're going to be in worse shape than we were last year with the submission of the audit. And we've been tracking every month to try to get this on track. Um, in December, well, in November, it was we're going to try to get it done at the end of uh December. A lot of work is done, but the buck stops here with us. Um, we this committee constantly asks for and about bringing in the consultants to happen. Nope. We have it under control. January came up. We're looking at February. February came up. We're looking at March. March came. We're looking at the end of May, the beginning of June. Those dates came up. We're looking at the beginning of the end of June, beginning of July. And I'm hearing now next 30 well 30 to 60 days. I am very very frustrated as it relates to this audit because we talk about transparency and folks this is their way of understanding where we stand from a a fiscal perspective our fund balance etc. I know we're not going out to bonding but we have to get back on track and I don't know the best way to do that. We just committed to try to give resources. I I get it that in 2024 fiscal year a lot of work wasn't done but we cannot continue to use that line because we own it now. And so we have to be better than

previous. And I'm not being critical of staff but we have to come up with the mechanism to make sure that we get back on track really really quickly because it's just going to be a revolving cycle over and over and over and over again. And so again, is there any support that we can do particularly when I see some of the accounts for finance and everything um in the I wouldn't say deficit, but not needing extra funds to be transferred to cover uh the negative balance. How do we get this back on track? If I can just interject before you you give uh your answer, uh Mr. Mr. Hill, I'd appreciate it and and and I do understand the the frustration of um of Councelor McClary and the frustration of the committee and in trying to understand um why Bloomfield is in the shape that we are in now. Um, but uh I want to caution everyone if if you believe that Bloomfield is in the shape that we are now because of the actions of the last 12 months, um, then we're looking at this thing with blinders on and we're looking at this thing as if we're reading a fairy tale. This thing became problematic well before Mr. Hill and Miss Stewart uh took the helms of this and the problems that they uncovered and continued to uncover throughout the year were something that perhaps in the past were not dealt with appropriately. So I can only say it like this. Garbage in garbage out. If your intent is just to get to the end to end the line, then we can probably just get to the end of the line, be done with it. But what does that really tell you about the true health of the town's finances when you're not taking the time to really

under unturn every stone and understand why it's that way? These folks took over this finance department without any legacy of how things were done in the past. So they took over from day one with years of of mis mishandling or properly um following uh the best practices in in terms of finances of this town. And what they were committed to was learning what was wrong, correcting them, and then moving forward with best practices installed so that those issues would not present themselves again. That takes time. That takes effort. And I can tell you, I've been here on some evenings when Mr. Hill is here 12 midnight. 12 midnight doing his craft, getting this thing together. Miss Stewart is communicating with him from her home in the wee hours of the morning. I've been here. I can tell you when I was here before at the onset of of my tenure, I've never saw any finance professional here to those hours of night. So I think when we look at this, we just have to have an understanding and appreciation and some patience to understanding that we are not the Bloomfield that we were last year. We are exponentially better, more sound in every aspect. And to not acknowledge that is an insult to the efforts of these professionals who stand here with one objective in mind, to get it right. They're not here to just check a box to have there be some sort of false comfort as to where we stand. They're here to get it right. And each and every effort they make towards that is to accomplish that objective. So yes, sometimes you just don't know what you don't know. You don't know what you don't know. When you go and you and you turn over that stone

and you realize now you got a plethora of problems that you didn't anticipate, now you have to do the research that can go into a day's research, a hours research, a day's research, a week's research to understand that that cord that you're pulling at, what's what's coming with it. It takes time. So when we talk about the resources that were graciously afforded us, we said we need to understand the problem. We need to become the subject matter experts of all things finance in Bloomfield. So we didn't want to just throw money at the problem and then not have the understanding of how not to be in this situation again. So all I ask is just please some understanding and respect for the process that we're following because trust me, no one gets any pleasure out of coming here and telling you that we're not there yet. We're not there yet. But we're not there yet for a reason because things were broke for so long it now needs to take the time and effort to make it right. I yield to you, Mr. Hill. Thank you, town manager. um appreciate the words of support and uh uh the town manager is correct. Um what he didn't add uh I was getting ready to add which is while uh in response to your question about the status of the 2024 audit. The next agenda item is the audit planning for 2025. Um in addition to expecting when we came on board in August September of last year that the work of fiscal 24 was done that is the most significant impediment to uh being in a better position with the audit of 24. Um, at the same time, as you've

heard me say in prior committee meetings, uh, over the past nine, 10 months, 8, nine months, um, we've also been working to have 25 be more current than the 24 than we inherited. And I think we've accomplished that, right? We're not current in 25. No one mistake my remarks for suggesting that we have gotten current this fiscal year. Um but we are in a better place one because we've learned a lot through uh completing the work from fiscal 24 in preparing for the audit of 24 um and have adjusted a variety of things in the financial operations of the town and uh including actually doing some reconciliations for this fiscal year. Uh one of the bright line things that wasn't done in 2024. Um, I say that because as far as fiscal 25 audit planning, um, you know, while I may be overly optimistic, uh, to think that we would meet the state's filing deadline of December 31st for fiscal 25's audit. Um, that that is the goal and that's what we're working towards. the the most significant challenge to meeting the December 31st deadline for this year's audit is that we're still in 24, right? We're we're working in three fiscal years, 24, 25, and 26, right? Budget development has happened over the past five months, right? And as I've said in prior committee meetings, when I'm working on the budget, I'm not working on the audit. And the audit has suffered, right? We don't have the staff to do it, right? The staff is in this room.

Yes, just I mean, we've known this by long and we got so tight with our budget that we didn't hire another person to help out. I mean, yes, what you're saying is all true, but you still I mean, you need more staff and I what whatever it takes, we need to get that staff for you. And I I know our fiscal condition and election coming up is a problem, but it's very obvious. I know we had no nobody who was a really a qualified accountant on board for years and it's it's shown up and and I know you're overcoming it. I don't see how you can possibly overcome everything without more help. And I I think you think we need to do that and whatever it takes. I mean, we're worried about hiring other people that we haven't hired that we probably should hire, but I think the most important is your staff. So, I hear that, right? But we had consultants and we decided to move away from those consultants to provide provide support because we wanted to do it in-house and we had the expertise in house and so I hear that there's like no staff and maybe the consultants they're there we don't have the staff but maybe the consultants uh as hired previously wasn't in the right areas to like help support but we should have had the funding in there. I know funding was put in the the budget for the consultants and we decided to move away from the consultants and I thought at that time it was a bad idea but I wanted to listen and support the staff and their recommendation and to see yes we've had budget development yes we've had you know unprecedented referendums on the budget and other things but I feel like tracking this we are going to end in

through all of the the the the reconciliations not being done and just checking the box and garbage in and garbage out. Yet last year we had maybe one finding in our audit, right? And so yes, the process was chaotic, but we finished we're going to be finished in a better position from last year's audit than this year's audit. And for me, I think that is a problem when I've been tracking this since last fiscal year, trying to make sure that we get back on track and improve. And I don't think that we're improving. I think we are, and I could be wrong. I think we're going to be worse off this year than last year. And I get that 24 reconciliation wasn't done and it was millions of dollars of reconciliation, bank reconciliations, but that's why I felt like we should have had the consultants in and maybe we should have reworked their contracts to help or support where it would have made the two folks in the department's job a little bit more easier given that they had competing priorities. we would at least had two people whether it's five hours a week, six hours a week, 10 hours a week, at least working and chipping away at it to kind of supplement what you all were doing. The problem Yeah. But the problem with consultants is they they're expensive. Yeah. Very expensive. And then they're gone. I mean, wouldn't it be better to have more staff? I think we just need people in the house to know what they're doing. But we can't afford that when we have people saying that the three 3.98% tax increase this year is a lot because of revile and we have to be sensitive and good stewards right and so we were trying to find I understand that and I think the consultants was whether they were here for three months four months I think they were something that we needed to to to help us continue to improve and chip away next year maybe they wouldn't be here but in this year we should have just in my opinion I

thought we should have kept um um so that we can finish better off. But I do appreciate all of the work that our staff is putting in now. We own it. We can't keep Yeah, there's nothing against them, but we own it now and we can't continue to come every finance meeting and say that we had a whole year of reconciliation to get done because then the public is going to ask us, well then what did you do about it? We own it. We own it. So that's just my two cents. Thank you, counselors. Um so uh wasn't a year was 15 months of unreconciled right? So you know just like your own personal bank account where you know you write a check and you put it in over a fiscal year with no reconciliation. I've said that I believe at just about every finance committee meeting I've been at and no response as though that's normal. That that is a fundamental flaw to know how our system of record munice relates to what we have in the bank and to go a month without a reconciliation is meaningful. Right? We circle the wagons and get caught up and that built to 15 months. And while I agree with the vast majority of all the comments that counselors made, let's not forget that we're not only talking about the 23 audit being filed late. I believe it's four years in a row. Yes. Right. So, it's not just last year filing the 23 audit 6 months late. The 22 audit was 6 months late. The 21 audit was 6 months late. And I believe the 20 audit was 6 months late. So we look at 25 and the audit of fiscal 24 where the core staff and the finance department after the separation of the

purchasing manager, the director, the deputy director and the payroll manager left, right? So you look at four years of being 6 months late and where we are now with all new staff who don't know the history of the town and all the workarounds that are embedded in our financial system. Aside from as I've reported at previous meetings the delays in information getting into Munis. We look at Munis as our system of truth. It tells us where we stand within a few days of transactions, not months of transactions, not the full fiscal year of transactions, right? We look at fiscal 24 and there are pension payments that weren't transferred, right? And I could go down a long, long list of things, but nobody wants to hear that. We want to know when it's going to be done. It'll be done when it's done. When we're done with the work from 24, we're now preparing our working papers for the auditors. Once they we provide them, answer any questions that they have. They go through their work, right? And then we're reviewing the final draft. It'll be done and we'll have audited financials. Well, and then we will move right into the audit of fiscal 25 and work to try and get that done before we spin up budget development for 27. I hear that. I appreciate that. But the attitude of it gets done when it gets done. The public doesn't want to hear that. Again, every month we were told this committee and we said, "What support do you need? It's not about the the quality of work you're doing. It's about the story change. We heard from this month that this is going to be done to get done. This is not going to get done. That's not going to get done. I appreciate all of the work that the people who are working on it has done. I'm not critic Well, I'm just frustrated that we're not in a better off spot. You're not alone. That's it. I'm just I

mean, this this is my responsibility as director of finance. I'm the most frustrated, but all I can do is get the work done, right? And getting the work done is not just a process of checking a box and looking at this. It's a hund00 million organization and half the transactions aren't in the system and all the people that were here are gone. So I I hear you. Nobody wants to hear the story. But the people that are gone, Director Kio, we had consultants who were working and we could have gotten historical information from those people whether right, wrong or indifferent. We're not going to belabor the point, but we could have kept those consultants for 5 months, 6 months, seven months till we to bring people in to help support the work that you're doing. That's all I'm saying. We have money in the budget for these consultants to come in and it was our job. If we're saying that it's a staffing issue and we don't have the staff to help do this or to support Donna and her work, those are two people who could have been here to help her support her and the work. That's all I'm saying. And we decided to go away from that. I don't know why we decided to go away from it and we should have kept those people here to help supplement whether she had them doing bank reconciliation and overseeing whatever it was. They could have been here to support to make her workload a little bit more easier so that we are in a better spot to be prepared to submit the audit to the auditors. Yes, council merit ongoing discussion today isn't doing I get it. Let's ask congratulating you guys have given us some numbers. we have some faith in for doing the budget which is very important maybe the most important and turn your mic on I I think you've done a good job in getting us accurate numbers you may be behind but I I really have faith in your numbers and that's very important when doing the budget because we made some big mistakes in the past because we didn't have faith so I I think I think

we need to continue this discussion but not here and talk to town manager about Councelor uh mccclary, if I could say two things. I've heard it repeated several times. Um we we don't just need staff. We don't just need a body. We need certain staff with particular skill sets. Yes. Right. We're not just looking for staff. Right. The request in the 26 budget was for a senior accountant. Yeah. Right. That's what we need. I don't need another body. I need somebody at a high level. Amen. Right. who can get these things done, who can really add to the team, right? Not suggesting that every member of the team is valuable, right? But I've heard two counselors say, "You need more staff. It's not just staff, right? We need certain staff and certain skill sets. We know that." Yeah, we do. And it was very fighting for the senior accountant, right? And it's about give and take, right? And I said, "I understand counselor accountant. Can I get right to give you the the the budget management software? There was no consensus amongst the body to give you the I'm I'm not trying to reconsider council's actions. I support that." Right. I think the the my understanding of the consultants and I'm going to continue to stick to those consultants was that they were and not going to say, but they were finance professionals. Yes. experienced Connecticut finance professionals that assisted us in filing our audits six months late, four years in a row. Yes, that's one way to do it. And as I've said at previous council meeting, committee meetings, right? It's more valuable for us to have that knowledge so that we can bring consultants in, they can help and they can figure out things and then when we run into it and have a question, we got to call consultants. That's one of the things that I've seen in Bloomfield

where we don't have staff, we have consultants doing things, answering very simple questions that we should know, but we don't because we have a consultant doing it for us and we've got to call them and ask them the question. That that's not the way to Okay, great. Thank you. Ongoing discussion. Um, we have our auditor with her hand raised, Vanessa. I did want to give her the opportunity the opportunity to speak. Yes. Thank you. Um I just I just feel I have to talk about the timing of the audit from our perspective. Um you know, we've been talking to Daryl and Donna over the past couple months and I affirm that there is a lot of work yet to do. Um Donna needs to do the work, but Daryl needs time to review what Donna has been doing. Um, I understand that he's been very busy of late with the budget process, but he really needs time in the next month to review all of the reconciliations and all of the accounts to ensure that the trial balance given to CLA is audit ready. Um, and to his point, you know, he needs to to know what's in those accounts and develop that institutional knowledge. So, going forward, this will not be an issue. Um, he is the eternal optimist. Um, by nature, I'm skeptical because I'm an auditor. Um, I I I do not agree with his timeline. I think it's going to take longer. I appreciate his

positivity. Um, but I have seen this before and you know I if if they're ready in a month um you know it's going to take us a couple weeks, three weeks or more to audit those numbers and we can't just turn it around in a day. Well, I'm not suggesting that. I appreciate your comments and director here. I appreciate you and Donna's work. not being critical of the work that you're doing. I'm just being critical that we should have give you the support. Accept the support to have the consultants in so that I get there was 24 months of non-reconciliation. That was terrible. 15 months of not reconciling. That was terrible. Right. We wasn't briefed on that. Right. Um, and I think that's why this council board and this manager and this manager brought in competent staff. I just felt like we should have had the consultants in to support you. And so it seemed like I'm fighting to provide you support so that we can I know so that we can produce and make sure that we're not eight months, nine months and that Vanessa and her team are able to get to work. But um, seem like she has confidence in you. Uh, you have confidence in the process. Um, I still have confidence in the finance uh staff to do the work. Um, and I hope the public will have confidence in not listening to the ton of misinformation that's going to be placed out there related to this. And I think this is the perfect venue for us to have this back and forth and exchange of of of ideas and pushing you all to get the work done in a in a good way because you know our job is oversight and I think we've been doing that and we wanted to support you with all of the things that wasn't done in the past. So look forward to seeing um what comes next and again the offer

is there for support. Next item. Do you want to go to 25 or I think you covered 25. I think I covered it. Uh, Vanessa, do you have any I'm sorry, Miss Miss Ros, you're fine. Comments about the 25, you know. Um, again, it's I don't know. I don't know until we finish 24. Um, it's it's going to be hard to finish 20. It's going to be extremely hard to fi finish 25 by the statutory deadline because we're already late. We probably should have already done our preliminary fieldwork for June 30th, 25. Um, so to fit this in, it's it would be extremely compressed. Quick question. If I could, but before Councelor McClary jumps in, um, you know, what Vanessa said is important, right? There's a a natural timeline to local government auditing. Right before the fiscal year ends, there's pre-work and then there are things that start right after the fiscal year ends. there's a gap of time where we're getting our work papers ready and then in, you know, August, maybe September, the auditors come in and start, you know, methodically going through things and in October, you know, we're reviewing. November, we're, you know, word smithing and putting the document together to meet that December deadline. So, as Vanessa said and I said earlier, right, the biggest challenge for the 25 audit is that we're still auditing 24, right? And when we're going to be done, whether it's 45 or 60 or more days uh away, that puts us solidly in August right now. Again, we are working through the 24 audit, but also with the 25 audit in mind, right? And

there are some things as as we go through them in 24. Uh I'm, as Vanessa said, the eternal optimist. Um we're we're going to be setting up 25 for the audit, right? because because we're here now and we see it and we see what we're going through in 24 and we've seen what we've seen in 25. So while again I may be overly optimistic um right is right and the deadline's the deadline and we're working towards that and if we miss it you know we'll miss it but whether it's by weeks or months um it's hard to say now because as Vanessa said well it's hard to talk about the 25 audit until the 24 gets done. Well, quick question. We're not 14 months back on the 25 reconciliation, right? No, we've already done several months of reconciliation. That should help ease the process. That's what I'm talking about. Right. And we've done that without consultants. We have the knowledge, right? We did it, not somebody telling us how they viewed things. So, when we get presented with it again, we know what we did last time. we just do it again or adjust and respond to whatever the new reality is. I get it. I just don't want it to be said that this body didn't do the oversight to know that the the the it's no way for us unless we're in the day-to-day and that's not our job to get in the day-to-day. You know, we only know what is presented at that mic to us at this finance committee. Sure. I just want to be very clear that, you know, it wasn't due to lack of oversight or not providing resources or making staff do things that they wasn't supposed to do and taking their focus off. I just want to be very clear because people like to put things out there that are not true. You know, I remember receiving um in the interest of transparency a call from Vanessa about some misrepresentations at a previous council meeting with previous staff and if it wasn't for her reaching out about

the misrepresentation, we would have thought that it was CLA who was dropping the ball as it was presented to us. And so I say all that to say not to throw anybody up under the bus, but we are only as good as providing overset as the information that's presented to us up at the the podium. And so I just want to thank you for being transparent and being open and sharing the information, even though it's uncomfortable and we had that back and forth exchange about me really wanting the consultants to come in because I want to, you know, show the public and be good stewards that our audit is being done on time and we're improving year after year. It's been my goal not to have six months after six months after six months after six months being late. It's just to make sure that they are able to get their comprehensive financial um report so that we are able to set policy. Yeah. One of the hardest things to do is try and respond to I'll say anyone who has a hypothetical in their head that's not rooted in facts. Right? Um, these days I like to refer to it as somebody with a keyboard can type whatever they want and make it seem like it's true. Uh, we don't have that luxury, right? We are the seat of government in Bloomfield, Connecticut, and we're an open book. Um, any questions get answered. We're not going to disclose confidential information or personal information unless we're absolutely required to. But with regard to the finances of the town and how we operate, every question gets answered and that's my approach to the work. Thank you so much. Any other questions, comments? All right, let's move on to new business discussion and possible action regarding fourth quarter transfers. I know we um discussed this at the last finance committee meeting. I was not uh here. Um I was away. Um and I want to thank council Ly for uh stepping

in. Um but there were some um updates yes updates that needed to be made um and uh let you present those updates. Thank you. Uh the um so as I did a couple weeks ago, I started with the May financial report uh which is what you have in front of you with uh updates. Um you will notice that in the cover memo a couple of the numbers changed which might seem odd u given that it's as of May 31st. Uh that is the way accounting works right the costs go in the period that they're incurred. Um so as we find out things in the days following the end of the month we put them back in the period for which they occurred. Hence the differences between uh the report two weeks ago and today. Um it's in the fourth quarter transfers report where I had uh at least two double countings. One the police department was counted twice and I believe fixed charges is the other one that was counted twice. So uh I'll start and quickly go through the May financial report uh entertained any questions and then go on to the fourth quarter transfers. Um and again this is as of period 11 May 31st 25. Uh total revenues were at 103% uh down slightly from the prior period. Uh tax collection is up a decimal one at 101.5%. Interest income uh significantly over exceeded budget. We're sitting at 2.23 23 million of interest income uh or 223% of budget with building demolition permits uh down about 600,000 $500,000 from the prior year at 1.278 million. The real estate conveyance tax is at

634,000 or 105.7% of budget uh through the 11th period with total expenditures at 79% through the 11th month. Uh as is customary, the next page shows the revenues and expenditures summary. Um and I believe everybody has a color copy. Uh the far right, black numbers are good, red numbers are bad. Uh I'm sorry, I have that backwards. Black numbers are bad. Red numbers are good. Red numbers are below budget, particularly looking at the expenditure side. So in the revenue and expense summary, you'll see two 47 lines with uh red numbers. um uh those are below budget and the other three town administration boards and agencies and fixed charges are over budget. uh the boards and agencies related to uh the registar of voters. um and specifically the early voting uh the unfunded mandate from the state and the additional expense for the budget referendum a couple few weeks ago in the expenditure detail that was under town administration that's under boards and agencies and a we're going to switch to the the expenditure detail uh and it'll be uh a little bit clearer um the next page shows the expenditure uh detail with that town administration line at the very top. But right below that, that next section shows the breakout of the town administration. Um, and as you can see, finance, information technology, and human resources uh are over budget in that town administration group. Um I'll speak to uh the reason or

rationale behind those overages when I get to the fourth quarter transfers. But the next section boards and agencies is where the register of voters appears. Um so I'm at the bottom towards the bottom of the page three and four lines up from the bottom under register voters. Um that's that 136,000 above budget is where the early voting expense and the referendum expense are uh embedded. Flipping to the next page, it continues through the boards and agencies uh and then gets into departments. And as you look through planning and development or building and land, public safety, public works, leisure services, uh public library, human services, uh including social services and senior services are all under budget with fixed charges being overbudget. Um fixed charges being over budgets related to ins medical insurance. um a portion of it is uh underbudgeting right the I don't have the exact number in my head but the what was budgeted for fiscal 25 is less than the invoices for those insurance premiums um and from what I can see uh it is just underbudgeted right because the premiums came in or the invoices came in uh on a monthly basis uh higher than what was budgeted for fiscal 25 question related to that. I know last year um during budget um I know the manager I think you were here too during this time we did a we were told by the then purchasing manager that we were going to receive purchasing director not manager not Sharon Jun Harris but I think the uh person who's no longer with the organization uh said that we were going to have like

find some savings in healthcare um and then remember there was this discrepancy of um what the fourth quarter transfers and what we were supposed to have. And then uh we moved some resources because we were supposed to do early pay of somewhere near $700,000. And so we upped the budget for this year for a fund balance appropriations to cover a portion of those prepayments that doesn't ring a bell to you. Is that why you're seeing could could be um and uh I don't know got a running list of research projects council uh clerk I don't know if you have I remember it was around this time last year do you think we can pull up those when Nancy gave us the scenario of yeah remember we did that and we had to do that special countdown council meeting to do redo the fourth quarter transfers to do redo the fourth quarter transfers and then a part of that there was discussion about healthc care claims. I remember the discussion and we added more money to up the fund balance this year to cover 700 about $700,000 if my recollection is doesn't added more money to up the fund balance. So we put fund balance I think it was 2.75 million or something we're going to use like 1.75 and then I think we added like 700,000. Do this recall to anybody? I I do. 2.75 million and we added like 700,000 or something like that to support fund balance use in this year's budget. Yeah, the fund balance use we put 700 or something. I forget my number may be off but I think we put extra money in the undersign 2.75 originally and then you made it 2.75. Yeah. And that rest of that money was supposed to go used to pay prepayment. I think we made a prepayment

early payment last fiscal year hedging this year almost like futures paying for pay ahead. Yeah. Paying ahead uh the contract for insurance. I remember I remember the discussion and I was like so I'm sorry. So and we were supposed to save a great amount because of that. Remember the deputy mayor recalls that. I know I'm not tripping. Oh my god. Well, I'll say this. Um, so as you look at the revenues and expenditures for fiscal uh 25 the 2.75 million, right? Um is not used. We are sitting at 3.5 million as of the end of May, right? for revenue. And that would say that we don't need to use the 2.75. And we'll do the research and go back and look at what was done in the fourth quarter transfers last year. Was a special council meeting because of a meeting, councelor. So I'm I'm just confused because you're talking about fourth quarter transfers last year and then you're talking about the 2.75 million in this year's budget. So the fourth quarter this was all a part of the fourth quarter transfers and that's why we had to have that special town council meeting. Sure. So, we'll we'll we'll do that research and if part of the 2.75 million budgeted for this year was intended to be used for insurance, we've got 14 days to make that happen. Can can I ask a question on the use of assets for that one one and three4 million dollars variance um over a good thing? That's a great

thing. It's a great thing. Why status in interest returns on the the suite of investments that the town has that's stiff other CDs and investments that are staggered over a 5year period. All of that interest income interest is gone. All of that interest income uh and also embedded in the use of assets line is some smaller amounts uh for rent payments. Is it Lisa Lane and uh there's one other line? Yeah, power rents. Yes. So, this remember council may merit this was deputy mayor, former deputy mayor Greg Davis and I um I originally brought it up when the balance well this sheet that we received monthly statements receiving said that we wasn't receiving $200,000 on the use of assets and I we didn't have that finance committee meeting and we had Liberty no shade to any of the local banks but the local banks had very low yields of return and we looked at other options and shearing gentle Harris was also certainly That was that was a good thing. And we move that money and I've for the life of me don't understand why we increase what we thought we were going to get. I wanted to the purpose of us moving the use of assets was using that as like one-time revenues like underestimating what we were going to get and then if it overperforms that was extra money that we can potentially put in like capital improvement sense over the last couple of years. We haven't really funded from the town side capital improvement projects to use that as a supplement to those one projects like the trails and roads and other things that flooding mitigations, but finance staff previously thought it was good use to put that number up and it was like we don't have a crystal ball and when you're relying on the market as we as we saw over the last couple of months es and flows and so hopefully the practice of this finance staff in the future would to lower that number and then this

will be a good thing at the end of the year to kind of you don't rely on it but if you get it you get it if you don't you don't. Yes, it's well said counselor we um it's bad practice to count every penny in investment income because no one has a crystal ball and knows what interest rates are going to do going forward. You know, best practice would suggest that, you know, we take in all the information available, come up with what we believe our estimate to be for what interest income will be in the coming year and then we back off of it to make it conservative so that we get greater comfort that we can actually hit that number regardless of what the market does. If the market enters into a recessionary environment or something anticipated, well, nobody we've always been conservative and that's a very smart way to be. Um, could I ask about this? It's our yeartoate income for T from taxes and assessments is 96 927 plus 963. But we have a projected for 630 that's actually lower than that. So, uh, it's 96905. Um, and I would question that. Don't you think we'll probably get more, uh, in the next month than we had the end of this month? So, um, you think for the current levy? No. We may have some prepayments, but they wouldn't be credited in this fiscal year. They'd be pushed to next year. And the reason that it's lower is council knows uh on a monthly basis the tax collector submits refunds council's approval. Okay. Typically with motor vehicles. So you think it'll actually go down? Um I think that's embedded in monies received uh that haven't gone back out yet. Okay. So I would uh anyway I guess we shouldn't be too upset when we have a three and a

half million extra here. No. Now, I will add right with the month of June, I do believe that as we get to June 30th and the end of the fiscal year that our taxes and assessments will exceed that year to date as of the end of May. Okay. Again, I'm a fiscal conservative and wouldn't want to suggest that we're going to have significant revenues coming in at the very end of the fiscal year uh until they're actually received. That's a again a conservative way to have our financial performance actually end in a better place. And I have another question. In my befuddle brain, I always think of red as being bad and black as being good. So a little confused by your expenditures this way. Am I am I wrong? No. It's a finance budget issue, right? Finance looks at the numbers. Uh red is going out, black is coming in, but budget flips it. So, I'm a finance professional presenting to the finance committee. I like it to be consistent. So, I don't switch them back and forth and have to explain why this report numbers in red mean the opposite of what this num report. Well, that's why I'm here seeing it means the opposite here. So, right. Red is red is under red is under, black is over. Never mind. Quick quick question. So I see that uh administration is like 846. What is entitled what's in there? Because I think that's maybe one of the largest. So if you look at the section right below it in the middle of the page with the heading town administration, those next 12 13 lines are the offices and departments that are included in town administration. Wait, what page are you talking? Um it's the first page of the expenditure detail.

status of expenditures at the top. Yep. Unodited. And then you have the very first line is town administration 846 626. Yep. What's that? Go to the section below that. Oh, that is the town administration section. See the total at the bottom right? 868976. So, as you add all those up, you get to that $800 plus thousand number with, as I previously reported, the main drivers are IT, finance, and HR related to the turnover in finance. The finance department bore the expense of paying compensation to the consultants and temporary employees. And then where we were fortunate enough to hire away from a temporary agency, the buyout of those temporary employees is in human resources. And then the IT is related to some critical infrastructure that was necessary to maintain our connectivity. So we paid so so I'm so I'm clear. So the public is not me. So we we had temp staff that we paid for to cons and consultants and consultants to come in for what areas if you don't mind me asking just for so that people know that this is not just for the areas that departed the director of finance the deputy director of finance the payroll manager and the purchasing managers. So we had all consultants be to come in and support that. We had a mix of consultants and temporary employees. Good. Okay. And then if we hire those people, we had to pay the firm a premium. We had to buy them out from the temporary services. The temporary services. And that's what this is related to. Not all of the staff, but certain of the staff. Yes. And I believe in HR um there may I'm not 100% so I probably shouldn't say it, but I've started. So,

uh I'm not sure if all of the buyouts of temporary staff was in finance. There may have been others. I'm just not aware. And then and then just okay so that strategic communications is good just make sure finance administration finance and accounting same thing finance and accounting. So finance is an interesting animal. As you look one, two, three, four, five lines are finance administration, assessor, collector, central office, and accounting. Um, so going line by line, accounting is under budget. The central office is over. Postage is significantly up this year for some reason. Um, tax collectors a few thousand over. assessor 16,000 under administration is 200,000 over right so all of the expense the salary the compar compensation expense for uh consultants and temporary staff hit the town admin the sorry the finance administration line item so as you all are aware the fourth quarter transfers are to move money amongst departments so those five lines make up the department of finance so when the fourth quarter transfer sheet there's a net number for the department of finance instead of showing five different lines. Okay. The town treasurer we budgeted zero and then we see is that related to the that that that's is that related to the it's hitting the wrong line that uh that 20,000 town treasure that should be zero. I believe that's one low. It should be in the line above for town treasur. I'm sorry town attorney. So wait, so we're adding the 22 plus the 316 to the town attorney.

Adding the 22 to the town attorney line. So the 51 becomes 73 and that's related to higher than anticipated legal services including uh labor. So not only the town attorney but also the labor lawyer. Perfect. So, this is labor attorney preparing for getting probably getting ready for contracts that we're going out to negotiate this July. Yes. All contracts expire the end of this month. Yep. End of this month. Just want to I'm not being a stickler. Just in the environment that we are in right now, but I think it's important. It is important and trust me, you know, I value the transparency that you're trying to provide to the public and and that that is what we're here for. Uh but it but it is more than that. Um we had the um at my direction we engaged in in some settlement uh actions as well uh in an effort to uh lessen the exposure to the town. So um so well let's just talk about that in executive session. Well, but I understand that but um but I I just want you to know that um that those were some of the efforts that um the town attorney as well as labor took on as well. And um when we talk about um you know the expense of of keeping the the lights on and and running and and making sure that we didn't skip a beat when we were faced with a mass exodus of the um of the finance staff from last year. Uh I wanted you to know that um there just were some things that were out of our control. uh to the extent that I had to pay someone uh several months salary that actually was um making more than what the town pays me. All right. So these these things are uh it was expensive but um at the same time we we needed to ensure that uh the end result was not compromised. We didn't

miss one payroll. We didn't skip a beat throughout all of this. We we paid competent professionals to come in here. And uh once we were positioned to um to ensure that we could um look at these positions that needed to be filled and and make some uh changes in in the in the criteria for the position so that we will be better served for the long run. Uh we we as quickly as possible were able to um fill those and uh and get people on board as permanent employees. But um this was a very challenging time. You know, make no bones about it. When when you have uh this amount of people going out the door at one time, um most organizations would would have folded, right? We didn't fold. We met the challenge and we overcame and and as a result, we're we're even stronger now, which you know is is a credit to the leadership of um Mr. Hill and and Miss Stewart and and the professionals that they sought to make a part of their team. So, um I I I'm sounding like a cheerleader right now because I am because I I people don't know what they don't know. And I need people to understand and appreciate um the the hole that we were in. Uh when I got that that news when I was on I on active duty at the time, I heard that u that the majority of the department were walking out the door. I didn't blink. All I did was start making some calls through contacts established over over decades and we got the right people to get us through this. and now we have the right people at the helm uh making sure that we we grow stronger each day. So, um we're we're fortunate to have the people that we do have on our team right now. Thank you. I hear that. I appreciate the explanation because I think the public should know because again, it's not that we were being bad stewards of their resources given these financial times that we were in. I think the town was in a crisis at the time. You know, I think you're the longest serving town manager we've had in the last seven years. I've been here for 3

weeks outside of outside of No, seriously, outside of after Phil made his original announcement that he was leaving. I think you are the No, no. 18 months. Okay. Well, he will soon be the longest cuz what is 13 months? So, yep. Thank you. Any other questions related to this? Nope. Um, oh the IT information technology. Can you elaborate a little bit more? You said critical service like critical infrastructure. Um, can you elaborate? Is it are we safe? Is it because of um I hope it doesn't have anything to do with like cyber security or anything. Um, no. Um I believe uh director plumber is in earshot and uh does not want me to attempt to speak to those technical components that were um as I put at risk if you talk about it publicly. Is it something they would need to If I say it wrong, it might um should it be an executive session to the No, I don't I don't think it needs to be an executive session, but um you know going unsupported and expiring uh and to maintain our connectivity and I believe in in part as you spoke earlier about um how the town uh budgets for and funds capital projects. Um, I believe this was a a capital project that had been previously requested that uh was not uh favorably voted out. Um, so if it wasn't favorably voted out, why are we paying for it now and fall quarter transfer? Is that circumventing the process of why or did something happen for that critical resource to be needed? Did some operational

infrastructure? This is our IT director, Warren Plameumber. Hi. Um, the infrastructure update that I well that we're going through now, it was originally a capital improvement project. Um, I think it started back in 2019 2018 and in for fiscal year 2023 when we decided to give funds to the board, extra funds to the board and the capital improvement projects were set aside. It's projects never came back forward. So now we're at the end of life for our VMware infrastructure. What is it called? the V VM VMware. What does that mean? It's our virtual environment, what runs our servers, the hardware. So, in essence, I can't go forward with the current infrastructure pricing is outrageous since they were bought out by Broadcom. So, we're going to a new platform which is much cheaper, cost-saving, very efficient, but I have to use current funds. Now, we're at an say like an emergency state because I can't get our current platform supported behind this year. So, the current platform is out of end of life. Yes. And you try to put it in capital I'm just trying to understand so people can understand. You try to put it in capital improvement. It wasn't it was the council didn't fund it. You had two or three years cuz you said 22 23 to keep it going and now it's at the end of life and you have no choice but to move forward or it will shut the operations down from the service perspective. So you have to make this critical infrastructure need. It's not circumventing. You just have to do it because the other one is at the end of

life. Correct. And there's no maintenance on that or no patching, no internal support for the current one. for the current one that you're moving away from. Correct. Correct. This part of the new fourth quarter transfers and this is a part of the fourth quarter transfers that you're asking for. It's the the reason that it is over. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks. Right. Any questions? I I have an update. Is this are we on the fourth quarter transfer items or it's getting ready to move to it. You can move to it. You can move to it. So with the presentation of the May financial report uh dovetales well into the fourth quarter transfers which is uh essentially a summary um the the memo continues as you flip through your packet. Uh the first table will look familiar. It is the departments that were significantly under budget, right? But though you'll notice that those numbers won't tick and tie to the dollar, right? The concept is if a department is over $143,000, we don't want to take $143,000 from them. We're leaving some monies behind particularly uh in public works uh and leisure services as they ramp up uh for summer activities but also in social services and planning and development uh albeit smaller numbers than than public works. So that first table at the bottom of the first page of the fourth quarter transfers memo are the departments that are the amounts that are free from incumbrance that are being transferred or requested to be transferred to the table at the top of the very next page which are those departments that are over budget departments and offices. You'll notice that those are to the dollar. Right? So, uh, the numbers shown there are the

amounts that each of those departments and offices are over budget. So, we're looking to transfer monies in, uh, to cover those overages as well as utilization of some of the excess revenues collected to date. Uh, which again, uh, we are 1.4 million higher than anticipated. um 3.5 million overall higher. And this $759,000 and some dollars uh coupled with the 385,000 from the departments that are under budget uh will cover the 1.144 million uh in the department shown. The balance of the memo um speaks to other transfers. The first section is with regard to council's contingency uh going to the four areas shown including the operational standardization and policies, the local small business program, the summer bridge program and partial funding uh to restore weekend celebrations next fiscal year. Um the next section is for the um an operating transfer in to fund 41 for the trades program. uh that council funded in this year's budget. That 182,000 is less 18,000 that is being transferred on the next page uh to weekend celebrations to bring the weekend celebrations total to $35,000. That's 17,000 from council contingency and $18,000 from the trades program. I can I ask you a question? Yes, sir. Um, so this this uh revolving fund, which for some reason is a term I wasn't familiar with, um, is money that we're

putting out of this year's fourth quarter towards next year's uh, needs. Yes. Okay. Similar to uh, what was done with last year's fourth quarter transfers question. Right. And the revolving fund is uh I think the simplest way to think about it is a a dod from monies go to it money's come back to the general fund. So it's revolving around the general fund right it's not the traditional sense of a revolving fund where uh in the the brightest example loans are made and the repayments come back in and revolve back out to make new loans. Professional revenues is the term right? No problem. Special revenue are funds. Special revenue funds are funds that have an earmarked revenue source for a specific purpose. Example is if the council wanted to take um one mill off of the mill rate and dedicate it towards the an anti-litter campaign similar to the NIPS fund. um that one mill in each year's fiscal bud budget would go into a special revenue fund because the revenue source is what makes it special, right? So I appreciate that unders that that explanation because I think in the past we were using like revolving funds and special revenues interchangeable here in a way which wasn't correct and so I appreciate you um level setting with the body and like making sure we are following gap and accounting rules to make sure that we don't get thing and on the audit. So I appreciate that because we've been using it interchangeably wrong about saying, "Oh, we're going to do a special revenue fund when we should have been doing the revolving fund around the general fund revolving in and out like you are depicting on the the screen." a question related to so I

wanted to make an update to um and I know I think I saw Ashley on the line and um I wanted to make an update instead of the 23 fund 23 local small business um I was talking to Ashley um and this goes around remember your uh we had the debate with and the meeting with Liberty and some of the banks about the senior tax program and it was brought up in that meeting that we already have one on the books in the ordinance established and because we have the reval this year I was talking to and we didn't know um what fund balance and where we're going to end the year we could have used more money to support the balance of the budget if we knew where we were going to end this year um and so was speaking with Ashley about seeing if we can fund the what's already on the books is this bloomfield I think it's section hold let me pull it up it's in the miniss prunipal code section 8-7 the senior citizens property tax relief and it explains the the criterias for that and that is almost like the senior citizens meal rate stabilization fund and so I wanted to know if we can update this to include that or is it wrong because we don't have it currently budgeted in this year's budget am I able to say you know what I want to put transfer monies from the fourth quarter order transfers into the senior citizens property tax relief program that we have section yeah I I counselor in response to your question I well one I would say it's a legal question um but I I do believe that the council right the council's contingency is at the council's discretion so your question on whether or not It's

an issue because it's not budgeted in this year's in the 25 budget. I don't believe that to be relevant because these monies are for council's contingency and what council chooses to to use them for. So, if council wanted to use a portion of its contingency for the senior citizen property tax relief fund um that that's at the council's discretion with its contingency. I would like I don't know if the committee would be a uh would be uh amendable to this but I would like for us to put I think that sounds like a good idea put funds towards the senior citizen property tax relief and then there are some criteria you have people applying for that I don't know but there's some criterias in here that I want to work um through governance before the new budget year um to update go through public hearings for particularly the folks who um the senior citizens who are facing you know our Alice population whose property values went above the 40% um blended rate of for residential um to support those people and helping with the subsidization since we were not able to lower well we did lower it but because we didn't know what the future was going to hold with fund balance at the end of the year I think now is the opportunity for us to like use the things that's already on the books to support I know I was pushing heavily on the um monthly uh tax payments to kind of help them split it up, but there was some issues. I think this is the compromise in between to help people during this reval year and I would hope this committee will support. I Yes, but I think we ought to find out how this whole thing works and whether people are applying for it. I don't think anybody I think they apply for the state one, but they didn't apply for the local one because we didn't have any money in there. Ashley, am I correct? I see you online. I don't mean to put you on the spot. No, no, that's fine. Yeah. So, I think one thing that we have to keep in

mind is when we're talking about eligibility, there's already an eligibility section in the code of ordinances. So, I think that one thing we need to do is take a close look at that ordinance and see if it even is. I mean, there there is a form of tax relief already built into the ordinances, but we need to really see if that meets the current needs. and if not, whether or not we can maybe update that. So, I think this is my only opportunity right now to fund, right, to put this fourth because we're in the fourth quarter and use council contingency. So, I don't I want it to seem like I'm putting the cart before the horse or the horse before the cart, but I just I want to put something there and then we down the line could support and then whatever process the town manager and his staff comes up with to support seniors who in addition to what OPM is doing, in addition to the housing trust fund, we're giving them just another giving town staff another tool in the toolbox box to support our residents who are really in need of support giving in the market of their homes significantly increasing. And so I would like to make an amendment instead of the local small business program to put it in the according to the uh our code of ordinance put it in section 8-17 the senior citizens property tax relief and also move perfect. We do need to do some research. Yep. So we'll that's the full amount. Yeah, we're going to put the Yeah, we're going to put the hundred there. really appreciate that support. That's all folks may need. Any discussion? No, I I think it's a good idea. Perfect. All those in favors to this amendment, not to the fourth quarter. Okay. I support it. So, uh, councelor Merritt supported it. Deputy mayor supported it. I did. So, we're going to update the local small businesses to section just

for your note um municipal code of ordinance section 18-7 senior citizens property tax relief program. Okay. That uh update will be reflected in the information prepared for uh the council meeting the council consideration. Perfect. Any other questions related to off quarters? India, I hate to give you that in your office, but where do you think that should sit? That senior citizens tax senior services or social services. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Perfect. All right. What did you say? The assessor, the tax assessor's office. Great. Thank you. Assessor's process is all exemptions. Perfect. Thank you. Um any any a motion to approve to push this up to the town council? So move. Moved by council mayor, second by the deputy mayor. Any discussion? One second. We have money funded for that, right? For the small business. The manager's question was how do we the RFP was already issued and interviews to my understanding is this was I believe this 100,000 was to add to the existing funding already. Adding because I know there was some discussions about needing more to support the business owners. I rather I feel like the more pressing need in our community is to support our senior citizens and their ability to make sure that no one is pushed out of their homes because that is the narrative out there that people are going to not be able to afford their homes and this body that's not going to happen with this body. We want to do everything that we can do to support people staying in their homes and not being gentified or pushed out because of the market. Right? We shouldn't look at the growth in our homes as a negative thing because you worked all of your life to get that asset and we want that asset to grow, but we want to make sure that you are

able to pay uh your taxes and have support when things are falling short. So, if I may. Yes, Mr. Manager. Mr. chair. Uh I know you said that there's a narrative out there and and I just want to um just speak to uh the narratives that are out there because um the narratives that are out there, we we've come to understand how inaccurate uh and reckless they were in terms of the calculations that were done and they were not in line with the with the practices that uh we um put in place to understand and calculate tax rates. In some ways, uh, some of these, um, taxes were off by extraordinary numbers, right? In some cases, an example, um, there was a home that the taxes were off by $1,400 relying by relying upon that information that's out there. So, um, so I I just want to make sure that, um, with all good intent, uh, we're not feeding in to that false narrative of information that was rely that was provided to our public and that our public relies upon the information we give them to um provide uh, the calculation of their taxes as opposed to um, sites that are are not sanctioned and approved by the town. So, I just want to say that just as a way of of um uh taking care of any fears that may be out there. I I think what this uh body has decided to do is is a good uh mechanism to to take. But, um but at the same time, I want to make sure we're not feeding into any fears that came about by the miscalculations that exists out there as well. Thank you. Can I comment? Wait one second, Deputy Mayor, then you council Meritt. Uh Mr. Mr. Town Manager,

I I just want to confirm that we do have um something online now that is being very helpful to residents in terms of identifying I don't know if it's what those costs would be. I know it's in development. Um I know there were some information um that's on her website. So there were some information updates that the tax collector tax assessor made some like legal like not legal documents. She sent out a mailing which is very good. Yeah, it was good that I received it in mail today. It was really good but I think the calculator uh they just wanted to make sure that people know that their fire tax is not included in it. The other calculator out there um included the fire tax which we have no control over the fire district. And then it doesn't include the motor vehicle um number um in that is just on the residential um and I think one of the things was that the calculator that was out there uh you know the residents can put out what they want to their best of their knowledge but they should qualify it and put like you know this information may be wrong um because it was significantly wrong and I can see why people um fear and outrage um and when it was sent to me and I put my calcula my calculation in what I've noticed was that each year the meal rate wasn't equalized and so when I put it when I did the calculator I used the equalization calculation and I still put a 3% forecast of budget growth each year and the calculator that people were using it had me paying like 24 to $3,700 more than the true number and I can see when people were panicking because these are tight times And so I do hope that the manager and the staff will finalize that and now that people received the letter from the tax assessor's office today, they can go in and put their information in and see the true numbers.

And I think, you know, it's it's still tough and it's still going to be tough, like a tough time, but it's not going to be what it had people thinking that their taxes was going to be. And I also think that the letter that these uh assessor sent out which was excellent it just didn't go all the way. It did not address the whole issue of phasing and show how to calculate that it subtracted 75% for the first year but I think they did it for them and they the new tell you about the next year said be 50% and the third year to be 25 because they don't know what the mill rate is going to they know what the mill rate the equalized meal rate is going to be based on the adding of the 25% to this mill rate right director he they could still they could still still make some helping so people don't make mistakes. So it's they don't have a tax warrant is my understanding. So they can't say what next year is going to be. Right. If I'm mistake if I'm not mistaken. And then 20 fiscal 26 we do know. Yes. It's the following years two, three, and four. The remaining three years of the four-year phase in uh that council authorized. Um and you're correct. I I believe it's uh assumed straight line. It's not adjusting for each year's bringing on of additional 25%. As we learned through the fiscal 26 budget development process when reval reval happens and because it's being phased in over four years, we need to equalize the mill rate each year. That equalization of the mill rate is to tell the council and the public what mill rate generates the exact same revenue as the current year. And then we develop next year's budget. So without that factor, uh taxes are overstated each year after next year. Yeah. And so that previous calculator had that overstatement

because they wasn't accounting for that. And you know, it's hard to understand, you know. Yeah. I'm I'm not going to speak to Yeah, I know. I don't speak to it anymore either, but it's very hard to understand. And so, um, yeah, I think when the count, you know, it's I wish we would have been ahead of it. Kudos to the person who tried to attempt to do it. Um, but now we will have something there and hopefully moving forward that would be there. And then if you um based on the the temporary uh site that I saw when you drop down, you can see the equalization of each of those years once you put your your value in. The calculator is very sophisticated. And I want to thank the town staff and uh community members who assisted uh the town with helping to write the code and you know community members who really wanted to get the truth out stood up um and supported and told the town we have this expertise let's get this up and I really really really appreciate them stepping up to help the town um get this calculator done. So um with that any more the motion was on the floor to move this to council. Uh any more discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. The motion pass unanimously. Uh the next item on the agenda is public comment. India, do we have any public comment? Any public comment? Ask you can just signify by raising your virtual hand and be acknowledged. Any public comment? Seeing none, is there a motion to approve the minutes from April 21st, 2025? Moved by deputy mayor, second by council merit. All those any edits, updates, seeing none. All those in favor signify saying I. I. Those opposed have the same right. Motion passes unanimously. Uh

motion to approve the June 4th, 2025 minutes. So moved by Council Merritt, seconded by the deputy mayor. Any corrections, updates? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. I I. I want to before we adjourn, thank the town staff for all of your diligence and your work. I know it was probably a rough one from because I really am passionate about this art getting on time getting done, but it's done with all love and support and making sure that the residents of Bloomfield know that we have the top staff doing the work on their behalf. And with that, I move. So move.