Planning Board - Regular Meeting

Yeah, because I signed in and I'm into the... We're going to do the pledge, and then we'll go from... I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, liberty, and justice for all. Amen. Before we get going, I'm going to make a motion that we allow Jim to reach out to you remotely.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Ready?

Yes.

Hey, Jim.

How's Martha's been?

Can you hear me?

I can hear you. Can you hear us?

Yep.

Perfect. All right. No checks? Ready? Okay. Benedicts, 1,034.78. Brian, 337. Cassell, 457.67. Collins, 1,014.68. McConnell is 1,214.47. Whoops, sorry. All right. Could be under Cooper.

1, 2, 14, 47. Sanouski is 1,018.22.

Doniswall is 1,154.62. Fitzgerald is 8,8181. Gagnon is 8,7487. Gerken is 169.64. Giroux is 987.27. Haggett is 717.89. Healy is 342.24. Heffernan is 356.52. Ingalls is 1,674. Heagle is 538.80. Callaway is 598.22. Kennedy 753.71. Lambro is 314.51. Levine is $361.05. Leo is $87.27. Lord is $351.25. McCauley is $51.27. McDonald is $324.95. Manzi is $935.03. Markey is $1,155.61. Marsden is $1,133.80. E Merrill is 491.88. O Merrill is 524.02. Myers is 245.65. Mitchell is 276.29. Murch is 1745.33. Newman is 1384.70. Nicolet is 491.88. O'Brien is 125.60. Olsen is 1,498.52. O'Neill is 1,094.56. Ranouska is 913.10. Richard 375.84. Robinson is 1,394.27. Spital area, 1,155.04. Stephens, 360.05. Tennant is 977. Tillby, 1,201.94, or 91, I'm sorry. Oh, and J. Tillby is 135.76. Second J. Tilby is 656.66. Tuttle is 657.66. Tuttle is 817.23. Whitby is 1,089.92. Weir's is 1,172.34. Wood is 1,358.69. H. Wood is 1,182.92. WOS is $1,174.17. Yerkes is $1,292.90. Then I have Chex. I have a field at $369.40. And then I have Martinese is $1,680. Seekins is $480.59. All right. So for a total of $54,967.72, direct deposit is $41,311.12. What is this? The $41,311. Okay. All right. That's good.

Pass that around to sign that.

We have the top sheet.

Is this the part that goes on for the clipping? Take the big one. This is a matter of reconciling the invoices, right? The cheques are going to get printed, is that what we're All right. I'm saving you guys. Just handed them over to her since the checks aren't here. Air gas is $200.79. Amazon Capital is 165.32. Boudreaux is 723.70. All right, so we still have to find that one. All right, so I'm just gonna put a star next to it so that way we know. AT&T Mobility. It's 81457. Ben's Uniform is 123323. Casella Waste Systems. Oh, you did? All right, so that should be, it was $723.70. And then Casella Waste Systems is $52,104.77. E&J Auto Parts, Inc. is $689.55. And enamel pins is $975. It says for challenge coins. Haggett, $275.25. Industrial Protection Services, $287.50. Ingalls, $38.88. The library, $9,655. Who's this for? NHDES Waste Management Division. Looks like it's an educational course for $75. Pentagon Federal Credit is $6,767. Pete's Toilet Rentals, $100 even. Promptu 10-Minute Oil Change, $248.35. Seacoast Mills Building is $5,267. Universe Corporation, $168.37. Valick, $110. WB Mason is the last one for $124.87. Perfect. The last page. Total of that for the amounts for the manifest was $74,809.82. This one, there's only one check, which I'll look, which is the recreation department for $60. 30 of it was Pelletier. And the other 30 was O'Connor. Of course, there's no checks yet.

This is riveting TV.

It's keeping you intrigued. All right, so this one we have... Check for air gas for 128. Bound tree medicals, 355.22. For a total of 483.22. Checks have not been printed yet, but I'll do a roll call vote on that. What are these?

All right, we'll get into those. Yeah, so motion. Vote on the registry. Yeah, motion to accept the payroll accounts payable registry along with.

And the accounts payable.

Yeah, and the accounts payable.

Do we have a second? Second. Roll call vote. Aye. Aye. Letty?

Yep.

Jim?

Aye.

All right, all aye. All right, and then we have timber tax. We have one assessed value of timber. What's this one for? It's like block drive. $9,031.42 was the total assessed value for a tax of 903.15. And then the other one, we'll just do them together. The other one is for... Map 218001.000, otherwise it's a PO box. And this one was assessed value of $11,538.51 for a total timber tax of $1,153.85. Do I have a motion to accept these two?

Can I ask a question? Sure. Are those tied to intents to cut?

Intent filing for the tax year April 1st. first 2025 to March 31st and 26. So they have to do it within that timeframe.

So are these supposed to line up with intense to cut that we signed over that time period? Or is this a different? I feel like we signed more than two.

Yeah, these are two that they're total due. So tells me that they probably have already harvested the lumber and now we're charging them the tax because they had to put in what type of trees they took down, oaks, beach. Yeah, so these ones are, like this one they took 69.450 board feet. This is money we receive. So we're assessing them on tax.

So. From a prior cut that was prior.

Yeah, 26. That's not from us. That's what I'm trying to understand.

This is the certification of yield taxes assessed from Brentwood, town of Brentwood. Send a signed copy to New Hampshire Department of Revenue.

Is that a new form maybe? Is that what's thrown in there? It looks new.

It looks new to me.

I feel like the other timber tax forms we've gotten do not.

Yeah, this is kind of weird.

Yeah, that's why maybe I'm thrown off.

But it looks like now they're saying, now they have all the lumber amounts.

Okay.

And it's weird because they're doing per board foot, like 69.450.95.

I've just never seen that form before.

Yeah, I have never either. Hardwoods and aspens, pines, even biomass chips.

So motion to approve the assessment for the two lots that were referenced. Do we have a second?

Second.

All in favor, roll call. Aye.

Aye. Lady? Aye.

Jim?

Aye.

And I'm an aye. Today is? 18. 18, thank you. 8, 18, 26. 20. Linda, you're next.

Remember the button this time. OK. This week's figures. So for the general fund, current cash balance of $1,517,468.31 with current accounts payable to be paid of $74,809.82. Current payroll to be paid of $43,167.91. and taxes on the payroll to be paid of $9,713.89. We do still have current outstanding accounts payable of $46,971.79, leaving us with an ending cash balance of $1,342,804.90. We currently have $6 million invested in CDs, one of which is $1.5 million to mature at the end of this month. The Recreation Department has cash on hand of $74,647.10, current outstanding accounts payable of $60, leaving you with an ending balance of $74,587.10. The ambulance fee account has a cash balance of $363,822.42. Current outstanding accounts payable of $483.22, leaving you with an ending balance of $363,339, excuse me, say that again, $363,339.20. They do have $300,000 invested in ACD. And I wanted to follow up to let you know that I did just give Katie today, Katie Ingalls, with the police department two checks of which were to cash out the body cams and the National Night Out project. So she received a check for $3,368.35 for the body cams. That's with residual interest for the month of August. And then she received a check for $5,313.24. And that was the National Night Out Fund, again, with residual interest for a few days in August. Also, just wanted to make you aware that there is $1,111,168.22 in the credit card account that has not been moved over to the general fund to date. There's still interest being earned on that, so don't be concerned because it's not sitting in the general fund, it's not earning anything, but just to be aware that in addition to the $1.3 million in cash, the $6 million in CDs. There is also another $1.1 million in the credit card account. That is work that I'll take care of getting moved over this week. And then...

I'm sorry, can you... The credit card account, is that what you said?

So when our tax bills are paid or there are any registrations paid or Recreation Department... Buy a credit card. all by credit card, it goes into what we have as a credit card account, and then I sweep money from that credit card account into the general fund, but I'm not comfortable doing that until I'm been able to review all of the numbers that took place in 2025 to date, because the procedure, there was a lack of a procedure, and it wasn't being, it was not something being followed. Thank you.

Okay.

There were two large flat lump sum payments moved in January that have not been reconciled. a project on the very long to-do list. Okay.

Okay.

All right. And then last thing to note is that I did review the last eight years of warrant articles to find out that we never established a solar revolving fund that was voted on in 2024, requested that the bank open that. When it is open, I will move the money over that should be in that fund. The fire inspection revolving fund is finally open, and the money will properly be moved to that fund.

Chief would be happy. He brought that up earlier tonight, so that's good.

And then the emergency management fund has been opened, but I did go back to date of when it was voted, and all funds have not been moved from the general fund into that account, so that will be taken care of as well.

Good deal. What are the amounts for those?

I don't have final figures for you on that movement, but I can give that to you next week.

Thank you. Awesome. I appreciate it.

Anything else?

Yeah, I have a question about that. So for the solar fund, you said that was what year? 2024. Since we just closed out 2024, what happened to the money that was supposed to go in there? Like, is it just floating or where is it?

That's what I'm finishing up this week. And I will confirm I may need to wait until Jillian is back from vacation to have her help me with some of the backup documents.

I feel like I'm asking the wrong question. Like, is it in just the regular bank account?

It would, if any money was deposited, it would be sitting in the general fund currently, yes. Okay.

Even from 24?

Not being here in 2024, not being part of the 2024 audit, I can't speak to that. That's why I need to be able to talk with Jillian and with Sue.

I guess maybe my question would be better asked, would that money have been captured in what we thought was the unreserved fund balance? when we calculated that to set the tax rate and stuff last year.

And again, I think we're both just beating the same, because I wasn't here in 24.

It's not about what you, I'm asking I think procedurally, like is that, is that where that money would have been captured? I,

And I would hope that that's where it would go, but with different things that I've been working through since I got here, I can't speak confidently as to what someone else may have done in 2024. Okay. But I will figure out what should have gone, where it did go, and making sure that we do get it properly into the right place.

I guess, can we reopen 25 to fix that if we need to? Or is it too late? 20, 25 is not closed, though. Oh, OK. When I asked something about 25 last time. But we can make broader corrections as needed, OK. How long can we?

Your mic's not on.

How long can we correct the reconciliation entries?

Until the audit's done.

Once the audit's done, it's done.

They close it out, yeah.

So 24 is, since the audit's. Is done.

It's not, it's a draft.

Yeah, we've got a draft. We don't have a finalized audit from them yet.

Because we still have to send it to legal and stuff like that.

It's been sent to legal. The letter's been sent to legal.

Okay, for them to review. Okay. So hopefully that's closed out soon. Then we can move forward. Any other questions? Linda, thank you, as always. I appreciate you digging into this and trying to sort out the chaos that we have.

And I'll give you some updates at the next meeting.

I appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you, Linda.

Welcome. And she walked into an overwhelming amount of work, and she's done an amazing job catching up.

Yep.

We had the meeting minutes that got circulated.

Yeah, I just wanted to make two edits. Okay. Just on the first where it says all voted in favor except Bedard. I don't remember if I abstained or voted no, but it was because I hadn't looked at their register yet and I didn't want to hold up.

Okay.

And then the second to last part where it says discuss the employment agreement with the town of Brentwood, just adding that that's the police department employment agreement.

Oh, okay.

Just because I had a moment of like, wait, when did we talk about that? It was about the police department and recouping our costs if they leave before they're done with their contract, right? Is that what that? Yeah. Yeah.

Just adding.

And everyone okay with those changes? Jim, I know you're abstaining on this because you can't read it.

He wasn't here last week anyways. Oh, okay. Oh, I am.

All right, so we didn't have a meeting last week, did we? No, two weeks ago. Two weeks ago, yeah. Okay, so I'm going to make a motion with Luddy's Edits.

Second. We approve that.

All in favor, roll call.

Aye. Aye. Aye.

I'm an aye. Jim, you're going to abstain? Abstain. Thank you. Okay. Town Clerk's Office.

Oh, she must be helping. Sorry.

Okay, come back. Morton Salt contract.

Arrange a pause.

Yeah. All right, Morton Salt. We have the contract for 3,000 tons. It's $75.42 a ton.

$226,260.

Pretty damn close. I give you credit for that. I'm a numbers guy. Thank you. I'm glad you are. I like numbers. Go ahead, Wayne. What's last year's budget? Do we know? Not to throw this.

It's the microphone, Wayne.

How many tons is the better question?

There you are. You're on.

OK.

So last year we did 19.

But do we budget for 3,000 last year?

Yes, we did. We used 2,023 tons last year. And that's mixing it.

Pull your mic up.

And that's mixing it with the sand. We put two sand, one salt when we load the trucks. And we have 70 miles of road now, just so you know. We've got 70 miles of road plus all the town buildings. And this year, I didn't add any on. We don't have any other roads coming this year. So I'm just playing this by ear that hopefully we don't get any more storms than what what we had last year and the storms ain't as very long, you know what I mean? If these storms get long and we start getting snow and what they're saying for this year is a lot of ice, we may be in trouble. I don't know.

Well, and last year you ordered 1931, but you actually ended up getting 2023, so you went over by 100 almost.

But we got that at the end of the storm because my salt shed ran out, and when I called them, they brought that up. But we had that. That was included in the 3,000 ton that we had. We didn't use, but that's what they brought. Okay.

I'll make a motion for the 3,000.

Just just so you know I did call I did call Granite State I called Granite States salt and I called I Called Easton minerals I They stood for a quote. I was putting a quote against what we had for a quote this year, and they don't even have a quote yet. They're not going to have that quote until the end of September. So I'm going to say I want to stay with Morton Salt because I know back on when I was road agent, when I first got road agent, there was a lot of towns was getting their salt from Morton Salt and they turned around and they changed. That's concluding the state. The state changed and went to, I think they went to Granite State. We come to a shortage. We came into a shortage and those guys didn't get the salt, we did. Morton Salt went all the way to Pennsylvania and picked our salt up. We ordered the salt, I ordered the salt because we were out And they sent three trucks to Pennsylvania to get us salt, and we've always gotten salt. Once we called them, we've always gotten salt.

When was that?

What's that? When was that, Wayne?

When did that happen?

Last year.

When they went to Pennsylvania.

When they went to Pennsylvania? That was a few years ago. Yeah, okay.

So can you just- But they also came through for us last year too, Wayne, right? Yes.

This is not a budget discussion. This is just assigning the contract that we're gonna get salt from them.

Right, it's approving that we're gonna buy up to 3,000 tons at the $75.42.

Does that mean that we have to buy all 3,000? No.

No, no, because we only bought 2,023.

We only pay for what we actually use. Oh, okay.

So it's up to 3,000?

Yes. Up to 3,000. So last year, this is where?

30 loads.

Yeah, I think the load is 60.

No.

No, Jim? You guys? All right.

I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. I just want to make sure that we're not mixing up tons and loads like this. This is what happened last year.

We have the tonnage list right in front of us.

OK.

The total tons.

Because last year, I believe we budgeted for 30 loads of salt.

Nope. Nope. Nope. 3,000.

Well, you got a lot. I mean, I know when I did this, when I did this, I put in for 3,000 ton of salt.

Yep.

When I did my budget, that's what I put in for.

Yep.

When you guys did my budget, you guys changed my budget. And... That 3,000 tons, some of that money was paid out of... 25, or 24, right? 25, but after January, After January, you guys were doing your budget. You turned around, and I know what I got. I got $45,000 to go from whatever time you guys did that for January. And right now, I have $15,000 left in that. That money right there, that is not enough right now to fill my salt shed or bring my sand in like I usually do. I haven't got a price yet for the sand. Chris Beebe came down the other day, and he's looking into what it's going to cost me to bring the sand in. But right now, all I have, like I said, I'm working on that $15,000. If you look on my budget thing right now, you can see it should say $15,000. $15,000. So that's what I have left out of that.

Is it accurate that right now we're deciding whether or not we want to have a contract with Morton Salt and the budget question? Up to 3,000 tons. And the budget question of how we want to budget for that versus encumbering budgeting for the whole amount is later?

Yeah, it's a separate discussion. So this is just whether we want to agree to 7542. What did they charge last year? 71 42.

Last year, so they're up $4 last year wait Yeah, last year's last year's was 71 42 I believe and now it's 75 hour 75 went up for 42 per ton But right now we should 15,000 in here, but that's a separate.

That's a separate. Yeah, it's budgeting This is whether or not we want to agree to the 75 42 for up to 3,000 ton last year according to the records from the order slips, we went through 2,023 tons.

Is there an exclusivity clause in there saying that we can only get salt from them?

No, I'm not seeing anything exclusive. Terms under contingent credit approval. Seller agrees to supply up to 100% of the quoted tonnage and customer guarantees the purchase of a minimum of 40% of the total quoted tonnage by December 31st of 2026.

27 is my guess? Well, it keeps going. Oh, okay.

In a minimum of 0% of the total quoted tonnage by March 31st, 2027. So you're gonna have to order 40%. So that would be 1200, right?

That's not typically how it has gone. Wait, what was the first date? December 31st.

December 31st, the end of this year. You have to order 40% of it.

So that's 1200.

Do you usually order 1,200? Do you usually order 1,200 tons before December 31st? Yeah, because I have to fill the shed up.

How much ton does the shed take? I want to say it's like 12 or 13 truckloads. And how many?

I'm not sure. So a load is 60 tons? Well, yeah.

Yeah, I know.

66 tons.

56 tons?

Is that what the contract always says?

I think there's a minimum, yeah.

But has it always said that?

I think so, yes.

So it looks like we do not do that usually, and it's fine.

What do you mean?

We don't usually hit the 40% by the end of the calendar year. And they've never said anything.

Yeah, because I'm looking at what you ordered.

I think as long as you ultimately hit the 40%.

You're committed to buying that much from them. Right. Yeah, this is the one we have.

I still think we should sign this contract, and then we can discuss how we want to budget for it.

Yeah, because it looks like sometimes they're doing 64 tons is about the average truckload that I'm seeing on this list is 64 tons, 64 tons. Sometimes they did 128, sometimes they did 96, which would be a truck and a half. But on average, and then I'm looking at the amounts that you got delivered. One, two, three. Yeah, so last year, 25, you had.

How many truckloads were delivered last year?

You had 15 truckloads.

But that was split between two different contracts, so you've got to be kind of careful.

So since, if I look at the ones that were after August of last year, you had one, two, three, four, five. Five in 25. That is... Eight of them at... There was only 512 ton that were delivered. So if we had to do 1,200 ton.

It sounds like they're not enforcing that as long as we ultimately hit the 1,200.

I don't think they, if I call them now for salt, they won't bring it. They won't bring it. They wait toward somewhere near the November or something. Yeah. That's when they start bringing it.

Yeah, October is when I started seeing the loads started coming in in October. Okay, October? Yeah, October is when they started coming in.

Yeah, I know if you call them ahead of time, they won't bring it because their pricing is out.

If you're concerned about hitting the 40%, we could lower the total to make the 40% more in line with our actual, but I don't know that that's necessary given how this is typically played out.

And I think we need to be careful because if we get hit with some pretty good storms, it could eat into that really quickly. And it would be good. I'd rather have a little bit more than be searching and having, you know, accidents because we're not salting the roads properly because we don't have any salt.

All right. So do I have a motion to sign this?

I think there was one. He already made a motion.

Oh, a second.

Yeah, second. I will.

All in favor, roll call.

It's fine.

Jim, you're yes?

Yep.

Paul?

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye. All right, so I'll sign this.

Thank you, Wayne.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anything else, or are you? No, that's it. Thank you. Yes.

All right.

I was wondering down the highway shed if if we could put in for a couple of More guys to plow if anybody's willing to come in to plow we we may we may have to use We got a couple more trucks down there and and we definitely got to put another big one out on some of these big storms because Jeff's route, Jeff's route, it's really taking a toll on him going out there. He has to, I should have another, at least another truck out there on that roll, on that there. But if we just can get somebody that we can, I already got some, another guy working for us in gym working for us, but sometimes they can't do it. So when they don't do it, then we only have three trucks When them guys ain't available, we only have us three, and that takes a pretty good toll. So if we could get a couple more guys.

How many people do you typically try to have on the roster, those part-timers that you can call in when there's a storm?

For storms?

Yeah.

But at least five of us.

So you want to vote?

Two extra guys, Leti, to answer your question.

Yeah, but you're not asking to have more people that are there all the time. No, no.

No, it's just in case somebody can't make it. You have somebody to call. Yeah.

So do you just have to put out a... Advertise for that?

Advertise. I mean, I think it's going to be very hard for you to get that because there's a lot of guys who lost a lot of help all around us. Right now, there's a lot of these sheds here really short of help. And hopefully we can get somebody to. But if we can't, we go where we got it.

So would you want to have like two more spots for two more people?

If you had, yeah, if you just advertise for two more, we can set them up and if we can use them, then we'll do it.

Motion.

Second. Roll call. Jim?

Aye.

Paul?

Yeah, aye.

Dave?

Aye.

Aye.

All right. Okay. We'll get that posted. Thank you. Sue or Julie will work on that.

Come on down.

Just a short statement Daphne asked me to read on her behalf. So a heartfelt thank you to our local fire department, especially Lieutenant Trevor Whitby, for providing such valuable AED CPR training. We truly appreciate your time, expertise, and dedication to helping our town office stay prepared. Your training gave us greater confidence to respond in an emergency. We are grateful for all that you do. Sincerely, Daphne Walsh.

Awesome. Thank you.

Thank you. Before I step away, anything on the Inspector of Elections sign slips? Are you guys all set, or do you wanna?

Yeah, we can do that right now.

Okay.

Inspector of Elections slips.

Can I motion for all of them at once?

Sure, how many do we have? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, Eight. Nine. Does that sound right? It sounds right.

Motion.

Second. Roll call. All in favor? Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Jim? He said aye.

I could read it, but I didn't hear it.

So that's five. So I'm just going to go ahead and sign. We have to sign each one of these, right? And then we just give it to you?

You can't hear me?

We can now. You were quiet for a second.

No, I said aye.

Okay. It looked like an aye.

You weren't listening, Bob.

All right. Nine signatures. Yeah, while we're waiting for that, or that signature is going to go on, and we'll give it to you, and you can then swear at people or whatever. You have to swear them in whenever they get sworn at. We're going to. quickly just talk about the Fremont EMS contract. The committee has met, they're making a recommendation somewhere for 150,000, somewhere 250, we still have to figure that out. I need to know, there's a bunch of questions that I would like to get the board's approval to submit to our legal counsel to find out what we have to do as far as putting it on. For a warrant article, I know there was a discussion about a 538 contract that we can enter into. I need to know how that works because I think there was a warrant article in Fremont last year for it. So I'm assuming they have to put in a warrant. We have to put it on a warrant. But I'd like to get the questions over to our legal counsel so they can have that discussion on that.

I don't think it has to go on our ballot because RSA 53A says we have the right as a board to submit a contract to these other towns.

Yeah, the only thing is because there is going to be a financial impact, so I just want to There's questions, requests for town council's opinion. And so there's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Well, we would have to, if it's, it looks like it's gonna be $150,000 would be, if we went with the 150, it would be 150 contribution from them and potential of 190,000 for billing, so it would be $340,000 impact, so we'd have to appropriate that at some point.

No, but no.

My understanding is we would have to appropriate the money, because you still have to pay for the staffing.

We don't appropriate.

We do appropriate the fire. Please let me finish. No, I'm not done yet. We do appropriate the money for the ambulance, and then we have to pay it back through the revolving.

We don't.

We pay the payroll out of the revolving.

Out of the revolving, it does not hit the operating budget.

It has to hit it at some point. We have to account for it somehow.

It does not.

How do you pay for staffing and everything else?

What I'm saying is it...

It's a revenue.

It's not accounted for in the operating budget. Therefore, we do not have to raise and appropriate it.

If we're going to be taking $150,000 minimally... then we have to come up with that. So we have to know how we're going to do that.

No, the entire thing that the chief presented to us over and over and over again is that there would be no cost to the taxpayer, that there's no risk to the taxpayer because it would be paid for by Fremont, and whatever Fremont doesn't cover would be covered out of the revolving fund.

Right, and then we'd have to have some type of a contract, because what if you don't receive the $190,000, but the total cost is 340?

Absolutely, we can write that into the contract.

Which then I'd have to have legal review anyway to find out what do we have to do for contractual agreements.

That's absolutely fine, but that does not stop us from putting forth a contract for legal to review.

Well, I want to see what legal has to say about these questions because I'm not familiar with the SB2, and we do have SB2, and knowing that Fremont also just had a contract that went to SB2 and it failed. And the school too, right?

Bob, can you just list one of the specific questions?

Authority to enter into an agreement. Does the select board have the authority to enter into the agreement with RSA chapter 2? so they want that answered. Appropriation, this came from the committee from today.

Okay, I haven't seen these, so I don't know.

They just gave it to me. Can we just hear the questions? Appropriation and staffing, assuming current fire, it goes into a whole question about that. Multi-year commitments, how's that work with SB2? Because my understanding is if it is multi-year, you have to have some type of agreement. RSA 53A says state approval. So do we have to get the state's approval on an agreement? I don't know that. So I'm not familiar with that. EMS licensing and authority. Do we have to get different licensing to operate? I don't know. I don't know how that works. Mutual aid versus contracted EMS service. How's that work? Frontwoods obligation to respond. How's that work? Mutual aid implications, if they don't have EMS service, how does that work? RSA 53A procedural requirements, are we required to do anything different if we do the 53A? And what's the recommended structure based on all that information? So how does that work? So I think it's worthwhile to get legal's opinion on how we're doing. So I wanted to bring it forth tonight to make a recommendation or make a motion that we go ahead and submit this to legal counsel, but I need to get approval for that. So I'm making a motion that we do that. Do I have a second?

Second.

All in favor, roll call. Jim?

Aye.

Paul?

What did he say?

He said aye.

Aye.

Aye. Letty?

Aye.

And I'm an aye, so that's five. I'm gonna give this to Julie to get that over to legal. There was something else we had about legal.

How quickly can we get, do you think we can get an answer about that by the time we have our next meeting?

Well, we have another, we just, and I guess that's gonna get us into the second discussion of the MRI contract and... We just received our, the draft audit, which we have to, it's pretty thick, so everyone can see.

It's really thick.

24. For 24, for ending December 31st, 24.

And there's, we had to get that over to legal for them to review and

It's a thick packet that they're going to have to review. But there are some recommendations in here that we're going to have to go through and have some discussions on.

Is there a possibility that Plotzik can present to us so we can get an oral presentation? Report? Yeah. I think that would be helpful because it's a pretty dense read.

Why did it have to go to legal?

They have to review because we're supposed to sign off as a select board and before we sign anything that has to do with an auditing I think it's prudent to have them review it and make sure that it's And they actually, Plozic, is that how I say it, Plozic? They were recommending that we have legal review that.

Have we ever had to do that before? I sent them a letter.

Yeah.

I sent them the letter that Plozic has me send them, which I sent out by email today and will go by snail mail tomorrow.

And what was the gist of that, Julie? I'm sorry.

Um... Just basically asking if there were any, during the time of the 2024 year, if there were any legal, yes.

Do we typically have to sign that for an audit or is this the first time we've had to do that? Send them an audit? No, send this document. Oh, I think it's routine. OK. Do you know? So the thing that's weird about this is that there were pending legal matters. If there were pending legal matters through the end of 24 that have now resolved, do we still need to disclose those for 24? Or because we know that they ended up not?

Well, that's up to legal if they disclose them, I guess. Is that what you mean? Kind of, I guess. I mean, Plodzik is well aware of what was going on. They had, I gave them.

It's a standard letter.

I gave them some.

I've had to reply to that kind of letter for clients.

No, it's just interesting because we.

Historically?

No, like typically we would be doing the audit closer to when the, oh, right. When we finish it, yeah. So like it would be more speculative, whereas now it's a year and a half out and we know what has happened or not.

Okay.

Yeah, and there's some, I mean, if there was some sort of matter, they could just say it was resolved.

Is that this? Is that what he's looking at or is he looking at something different?

Yeah, they go over, in the report, it goes over material weaknesses and stuff like that.

Is that the one that has significant difficulties too?

I just want to make sure I'm looking at the same. He's looking at page 47 to the end.

Oh, this document that I'm looking at only has. Oh, he's looking at the actual. The longer one?

Yeah, this whole thing is 51 pages long.

I might have gotten both. I thought I sent the whole thing. I might have gotten both.

Oh yeah, I sent everything.

I just printed the shorter one probably because it's only eight pages and not 50 some odd. It's a long read.

It is a very long read. There's a lot of stuff in here. I'm wondering if they do like a present.

Wasn't that what the shorter one is? I guess I took the shorter one to be a summary. of the highlights.

You're looking at the independent auditor report?

No, it was a separate, it was a separate thing that was like a shorter, I didn't even read the shorter one. Here's what we did.

I started reading the meat and potatoes, I guess, is what I started looking at, and I was just like, and then I look at what their, the material weaknesses is, we need to focus on the timely preparation preparation and review of monthly bank reconciliations is a material weakness.

Should we be getting into all that until this is like a finalized report? Right now it's just stamped as a draft.

Yeah, we have to kind of go over that. There's some recommendations and stuff that they have in here. There's a lot of recommendations and stuff that are gonna change.

Weren't we just discussing whether to send this to legal?

Sending it to legal or not doesn't absolve us of having to figure out how we're going to move forward though, right? Right.

We're still going to have to go over and figure out how we address.

Implement.

Yeah. We got to address the material weaknesses that, you know, because one of the things that I think was kind of.

Different discussion though, isn't it?

Yeah, it's a discussion. One of the things that I think was a recurring theme that I saw that was in here was that Essentially, it's going to be, you know, a potential effect is going to happen again and again until we fix it. So we have to do some fixes. So I think it would be helpful to have someone. Yeah, I guess if they can come here and they can summarize it for us.

I don't know if they're going to give us advice, though. There was something I read about how they won't tell us.

No, I mean, there's recommendations in here, yeah. They can kind of parse out the recommendations.

Is it going to cost us money for them to do that?

I can ask him all of those questions.

Thank you. Yeah.

Because we might have access to other resources that could parse this that wouldn't cost us money if that's the case.

Yeah. And I'm hoping that now we're starting to get, as things start getting, like Linda mentioned earlier, that she's moving things here and there and trying to return some of the money to the police department where it was supposed to be going, but it was just sitting there. definitely going in the right direction so if we can kind of sort all that out but some of the conditions are there it needs to be addressed and so when I look at the weaknesses it's stuff that we have to address so I definitely I agree with Paul that we should have have them come in and I would recommend that what's the rest of the board think

I want to know if it's going to cost us more money, because one of the things they mentioned in this other one. You OK, bud? OK? Yeah? Great. Time and cost of the audit was compounded by some of the things that you're mentioning. So I don't know if we're going to overspend our line already. I don't want to add more.

But I also don't think it's prudent to have someone else come in and talk about this audit that they themselves did. I think it would be, you know, it would be to our advantage to have the people that did the audit tell us about it, not someone else.

Agreed. And then I think maybe having Linda here, too, when they're telling us about it.

Yeah. All right. So I'll make the motion.

I'll second it. Paul? Just to get them to come in and find out. Find out if it's going to cost us anything too. We can have that discussion. And then if we agree to it, then how quick can we get them to come in here? And I think it probably should be a discussion in public anyway.

The only reason why I mention it is because I was on a board of a nonprofit, and I believe it was with Plotzik, where they would actually come in and present the, you know, audit orally. And I just found that to be extremely helpful because it's a difficult, you know, read.

Yeah, and I would definitely even encourage, like, you know, Budcom to attend, too, so we can have kind of a... Could we maybe have it as, like, a special... Yeah, a special meeting where they can kind of review it. Again, they're... It goes from 47, page 47 to 51 is the material weaknesses, and I really want them to get.

How does that compare to last year, or to the previous year, do we know?

Oh, I don't.

It's possible that that's not atypical.

I'm assuming it's taken this long to do the report. The audit is for 24, for December 31st of 24, and the draft is 8-13-2026. We were told we were going to have it in May and here we are in August and we're getting this report and we need to close this out before we can even do any more bonds and we still have to close out 25. So we had a motion and a second. I'm all for reaching out to them and Seeing if they can come in, I think it would be beneficial for everybody to get an understanding of where we're going and how we're gonna address this situation.

If we do it in a public forum, I don't think they'd be too keen on answering SPENDING A LOT OF TIME ANSWERING PUBLIC QUESTIONS. FROM THE BOARD IS FINE.

I THINK IT WOULD BE A SPECIAL MEETING THAT WE WOULD BASICALLY AN INFORMATIONAL SESSION.

WE'RE NOT REQUIRED TO HAVE PUBLIC COMMENT.

YEAH, YEAH, YEAH. WE DON'T HAVE TO HAVE PUBLIC COMMENT. I THINK IT WOULD BE A SPECIAL MEETING AND I WOULD ENCOURAGE THAT. I'M ALL FOR IT. Dave, Letty.

Aye.

And I'm an aye. If we could get that done, that'd be great. I have 51 pages, so it's a thick document.

If I could just make a real quick comment, at least my initial read, and I agree with you, Bob, about the concern with regard to the material weaknesses, but the one thing, and we've heard this, you know, for a long time that, you know, where's the money? Where's the money? There's no indication of that whatsoever, at least in my read of this report, that there's money.

No implication of what, Paul?

Of money not being. Ernie malfeasance.

Yeah, money not being. Missing. Yeah, exactly.

Right, right. I think it's just a matter of accounting practices.

People wanting to know where the money is. There was a pretty, there was a substantial amount total number of journal entry adjustments. Oh, no doubt. It's not missing, but it was maybe not where it belonged.

Well, I think the journal entries are just because there was nothing done from September to the end of the year. Sure, but I think it's okay to acknowledge that.

That's why I started out by saying I agree that there were material weaknesses that need to be addressed.

Just because there are journal entries doesn't mean that there were misappropriation of funds. All of these documents will eventually be public. And I don't want people to see that number and be like, oh my gosh, they're saying that there was no problem. But journal entries aren't an indication. I know that. I know that. And some people in the public might know that. But the average person might see that number and panic, thinking, oh my gosh, they said it was fine. It's like, that... That number doesn't mean that there's a problem. That means we know where the money is. We might have had to move it from here to there or make a correction, but there's none missing, I think is what you're saying. I just wanted to verify. And we do journal entries.

That's what I said when I was chair. Yeah. And then the other thing, too, is really how do we prevent from having delays like this going forward and putting the proper procedures in and making sure we're staffing the way the recommendations are and how we move forward as far as capturing the data and making sure the entries are done so we're not sitting in 26 correcting entries from 24 and trying to backtrack. Because right now we're just redoing a lot of work that was maybe not put in the right place at the right time, and now it has to be correct.

It needs to be captured. And part of that is having the proper people in the proper places, right? So the staff, which we've been working on, and we have very good, capable people in positions now that will prevent this from happening in the future.

And there are some, you know, we have to look at the staffing recommendations and what they're recommending too. I know there's gonna be some more financial aspects.

People change, but there need to be policies in place that address some of the issues.

And then we were gonna talk about the MRI contract. Sure, go ahead.

While he's getting up, just for reference, the 2023 audit was 59 pages. OK. We're doing OK. It's typically a really long document. Oh, yeah.

Chad Miller, Deadly Road. Based on my past experience with audits, usually audit contracts provide for a report out to management. It's often called a management meeting. So I mean, I think that should be included in the cost. And I'd be surprised if it wasn't. So you might want to ask that question. So a lot of us have been wondering when the audit would finally come out. Audits usually have one line or somewhere that says it was a qualified audit, or it was non-qualified, or it was. Is there a conclusion reached like that? Usually it's in the first couple sentences. This would be like a cover letter that says.

Adverse and there wasn't really a conclusion like that. It's a little more dense.

Yeah It's a draft This is like I thought this was a summary of that, but it sounds like it might be something different All right a summary of opinions.

It just basically says adverse type of opinion adverse general fund unmodified aggregate remaining fund information unmodified

I'd say that's a very unqualified audit.

Right?

Yeah, if it's completely adverse. I've never had the opportunity to see one of those, so I'm not quite sure how it works. All right, thank you.

They do have a supplementary, so it's not even a summary. They're going to have to explain it to us. I mean, it goes into employment and stuff like that. There's a whole discussion thing in here. in analysis. I mean, there's a lot in here. There's a lot to this report. All right, and then we had MRI contract.

Yeah, that's it. This is to finish the, we had asked them to do a reconciliation of the general fund, which they maxed out the amount of time we gave them. So if we want them to finish doing that, this would continue that. I had asked Sue to ask them if we could push out some of the payment of it till 2027 to put in the 27, try and budget for it in 2027, but there's nothing in there about that. So I don't know if the question got asked or not. And asked for a will not exceed number, and there's nothing in that either.

Yeah, and I mean, the prices, financial support consultant, $70 an hour, Senior finance consultant is $110 an hour.

Is this the same thing that they were doing before or is this something different? This is a continuation of that.

Continuation of the general ledger reconciliations.

They used to do that for us up until January of 2024. And so I was wondering if this is a similar service or if this is something different. And how does this cost compare to what?

It used to cost us. Oh, I don't know. I mean, they were probably doing it on an ongoing basis. This is going back in six months.

This is only reconciliation to 12-31-25.

I mean, I would imagine it would be a different price to just doing it on an ongoing basis. I don't know. I would have to go back.

So we need an estimate, right? I need a budget.

Of where they're at. So maybe we can, how much more are they going to charge us? And they didn't. put that in here. It's just a matter of us accepting the agreed price. And I don't think we're in a position to accept it at this point.

What's the alternative, though? Because we have to reconcile 25.

Either we're paying for someone to do it or we're paying for someone to do it. It's just a matter of how much we're paying to do it.

I mean, it still behooves us to find out from them so we know what we're dealing with.

Like how many hours are they looking at? Because this is just an hourly thing. It's open-ended. Yeah, I don't... I'd like to know, like... If they want to start $3,000 or do they want $30,000? I need to know that.

I mean, I would think that they would, they've done this enough times in other towns that they would have a sense of how long it should take. Well, how much have they gotten done so far with what we, because how much should we, is it a dollar amount that we picked or an hour?

We did 30, 50 hours. Okay. Do you know what date they got up to?

Well, I think they've gotten through most of the years and the months of the year and they, compiled a number of questions, which then need journal entries made for. And I think they would do all that investigative work and make the entries for it.

So can we just table it and then find out that information? I mean, is there a problem? No. OK.

I'm fine with tabling it.

Who's doing this now? Jillian's been gathering some of the information. No, I'm answering their question. I mean like who's doing this for us in 2026 Well Processes have been changed a lot, but we can't we need 25 the answer is no one right because we don't have a beginning number to start with we have been Reconciling Not to the exact number because we don't have the ending number. But there's at least record keeping for each month so that when that number becomes available. Yes. And with the systems put in place, there's not all of the journal entries that we used to have for hosting revenues and expenses. Now that they're going automatically into the ambulance and rec.

Instead of having to move them over and over. Yes.

or them not getting moved, which was the case for a long time.

And that, again, there's a lot of rework, right? If it's not getting moved or not put in the right location, then it just becomes an accounting nightmare. And I think we're just trying to sort that all out. All right. 20, so we're going to table that so you can get some more information on that. 2027 budget process. I know right now Sue has started having those discussions, reaching out, but we haven't done, we don't know what the Social Security factorization is. When do we find that out?

October usually is when that comes in.

So October, so at least people can start putting together what their budgets are, like salt and sand, stuff like that, like what's your meat and potatoes that you're going to need. And then we can figure out what the impact is, what our rate structure is going to be. But at least we want to start making sure that those discussions are starting to be had. And I know Sue has already started reaching out to the department heads, trying to get them to start preparing their budgets so we're not chasing the ball, so to speak, and we have everything kind of lined up. So then when we do figure out what the merit raises or increases are gonna be, that we can actually probably just enter something in and come up with a quick budget. So it helps the budget process, and we're all on the same page. So that's working through. Before we get to the IRS fees. Oh, can I just? Go ahead. Yeah, I had a question.

On the budget process, we do now have the um from mri we have the budgeting software and i know the department heads i believe are all getting trained on how to enter their budgets into that next week so the plan is to have them enter their budgets into the budgeting software and it's great, it gives them area to put in notes or they can upload documents into that portal to go right along with their budgets. So they will get trained on that next month and that does download to a Excel spreadsheet, Jim, if the budget committee prefers to have it in Excel. I don't know if you want to start talking about when she should start the budget presentations and get a calendar out for that?

Typically, we'd start in September.

September 14th, I think, is the first meeting for BudCom.

So she probably should start having those conversations. Actually, yes, September 14th.

September 14th is the first BudCom meeting. So she probably should have those at least probably starting September 1st or the 14th discussions with department heads. What they're looking for anticipation like if I have to buy two more cruisers and stuff I want to see what they're planning.

So we. I think maybe some of the easier questions.

She might be able to. So, yeah, but we can't make decisions on anything until we know what the.

We're not making decisions, but you want to start having.

No, but you are, so.

I want to start having discussions so people are aware of what we're looking for.

Okay. My understanding, and I will defer to the Budget Committee Chair, but my understanding is that they start looking at their budgets that we look at, and then they approve them right after we approve them, and that happens in September, unless there's going to be a different timeline this year.

I don't think they started looking into this stuff until they started their meetings and then starting to get their appetite and seeing what's going on. and what people are looking for, and then I know they started really moving things forward in October and November, once they started getting, this is what I'm looking for, stuff like that, last year. I think September is just the discussion process.

No, we got all of the budgets at the beginning, so that as we were going through them, we knew kind of what the bottom line number was, so we knew where we wanted to make cuts. It sounds like you're suggesting a different process this time?

I wanna start having those, She's already started asking them to start preparing their budgets. Don't put an increase in the salaries or anything, because we haven't finalized that yet. But give me an idea of where your budget's gonna come in. So those discussions Sue started having last week, sending out emails and asking people to start sending that over to her. I guess I'll let you.

Go ahead. Jim Hazard, Budget Committee Chair. I know last year, Because it was our first year with a tax cap we all had agreed like we want to get an early start because you know It's our first time And I believe the date was the original that when you and let he sent it out last year because we didn't have a TA Was it was they would do on September 25th? I think it is it was the due date I don't think you need to look at that September 14th date as a date when you need to do anything That's just, look, the budget committee's been off. It's just us getting together for the first time. We just had our first site walk. I do feel, I mean, I think we together, budget committee and select board know how to do the tax cap. I don't think that's gonna be any problem this year. We'll be able to calculate that number a lot easier because we know how to do it. Obviously there's the default budget, but I'm willing to give, again, we'll have a session on default budget. We've already reviewed it at budget committee, but I'll do it here as well. My thing is I just don't feel rushed by that September 14th date. I don't. I need to back up. I haven't gotten the date yet. Because we're an SB2 town now, you know, January to December's SB2 town. I'm pretty sure they probably have the calendar out now, DRA. But usually I could, if I had it. It hasn't been there. yeah I I looked last week I didn't find it but I I there's going to be the date when we have the final day when we would have the public hearing right and the you know we'd sign off on it because we could and we could back up you know back off of that but that's not going to be until February or something you know like so I don't think you need to rush this. I think it's good that you give all of us, and I'm a department head as well, you give us time to think about it and get you our first draft. The one thing I would ask as a department head and as on the budget committee is that the department heads are gonna be involved. Once you come up with a number for a raise, it isn't something, at least I don't know how at a budget level, just to magically make it appear because depending on how many employees they have, I mean, the department heads are allowed to, with merit and thing, right, move it around. And so it's going to be, my fear is that we have them come in and they give us this whole overview, but then you guys vote and then you come back and tell me like three weeks later or something like, oh, here's the raise.

Kind of like what happened last year with the placeholder. Right.

And I just think that, you know, I have no problem with you asking me as the department to give you my initial whatever, but I think before we get hot and heavy into this, I would like to see you come up with what the raises would be because then I think each department head, we can give you a budget with a number that's pretty close to what it needs to be and not get into having to do it twice. That's what I would say. Okay.

Well, I'm looking at it because this is earlier than I expected it to be. Last day to hold public hearing on annual budget is January 19th.

Okay, so does that... I'd have to look.

So does that include the Warren articles and stuff? I thought we had until February 1st for Warren articles.

That's when we were town meeting. We are now SB2.

So when would the Warren articles have to be discussed, does it say?

Probably. Probably like the week or two before that. Sorry, I was looking specifically for when the public hearing on the annual budget was. It would have to be before that because everything. Yeah, because the deliberative that you need. Last day for voters to petition select were to include an article. January 8th, maybe?

So 11 days before?

Like I said, I'm reading very, very quickly.

We could get that.

It looks like the entire, oh no, January 12th, last day for voters to petition select board to include an article on the town meeting warrant. The other one was for if it's a bond, there's an earlier deadline.

What's the bond? I'm just thinking if we did like a police officer sign.

This is just, sorry. January 12th is last day for voters to petition select board to include an article in the town meeting warrant. That's just a regular warrant article. If it's a bond issue petitioned by, hold on. January 8th last day for voters to petition select board to include an article on the warrant proposing a bond But that's separate from us proposing.

Okay, that's but that's all like a month earlier then Yeah, because we're I always thought they had until February 1st or something, but you're right. We're now I speak to so we have to learn that process and

But again, even with those dates, you're talking December, November, October, September. These are all full months, right? So I just would ask, I have no problem with the process going. I just wanted you to know that that September 14th meeting is just our first let's get started meeting and what do we think we're going to need, et cetera. But as you know... And I think Lenny said this, the department heads, we submit to you our request. You guys discuss it with each department head and you come up with your recommended. And then once you have the recommended, then that's when the budget committee, we take it quickly after that to try to get them in and try to do the magic and get the actual approved budget done. And again, I just urge you to, I think we should try to lock down on the, salary and merit thing before us department heads, each of us get too involved with trying to do our budgets because.

Historically, the last couple, like last year is not a good example, but historically I think three bearings would provide a suggested.

Okay.

I think I'm looking at you because you were on the board when that would have happened. Okay. And then that number would then be split into like the COLA, which is, the Social Security office, and then merit, which is optional based on employee reviews or whatever. I don't know if that's what we want to do this year. Inflation is crazy, so I don't know how we're going to handle that.

Discussions. At least Sue has already started having those discussions, kind of putting it on people's radar, because I know this stuff, if you don't talk about it, it's just, has a habit of snowballing and the next thing everyone's chasing the fuzzy ball.

Well, the other thing that you have to remember is Sue is new to this and she's getting a feel for each department and she wants to get a head start on things. So I think it's prudent on her part and kudos to her.

I know this came up, you had mentioned, sorry, the... not MRI, but MTS, how department heads are gonna be able to run their own reports. Can I have access to run reports too? For what department? The entire budget.

That's not up to me. How historically have we done that? I print them out monthly, at the end of the month.

Yeah, and you get us a report, so.

Is there any reason that I couldn't run my own report? It's not, it doesn't cost anyone anything, I can't make any changes.

Who typically accesses that?

The department heads and whoever we decide.

What's the board's thoughts on giving individual select board members access to run reports?

All of us.

I mean, if one's doing it, they're all doing it.

It doesn't mean that you will, but I think the whole board should have access to the...

And to what end?

So I can run reports to find out information. If I have questions, I can answer them myself, as opposed to having to email someone to find out.

I was just going to say that I have requested this to the chair, to the TA, three times. As the Budget Committee Chair, I think I should have the ability to run read-only reports on all the accounts. These are read-only. I have no access to change anything. Per RSA, I am allowed to evaluate revenue and expenditures for the town. And i've already talked to Sue about this so and she's you know we're working together to come up with a Q3 kind of summary for budget and select board that kind of state of the Union type thing for Q3. But again, I i've asked so if if. You have a member here asking for that. I just think that as the chair of the budget committee, I should also have that. Again, it's read only and I should be able to run an expenditure report or I should be able to run a revenue report with either summary or detail. And the town gave me training on how to do it. It was really good. and i am i currently do it for cemetery myself i do it for the budget committee uh account i do it for wayne for the highway i run his reports and i email it to him and laura also got training and run she runs it for her welfare department but i'm just saying as a budget committee chair i should be able to run it for any any and all of it and be able to look at those revenues and look at accounts and as well as the expenditures in the general fund and all of the other accounts, whether it be police revolving, whether it be fire revolving, wreck or impact fee.

What's there right now?

Just department heads, department heads and department heads can look at only their own their own budgets.

Who can run them off?

Just a TA, TA or journey.

And you would get some monthly reports.

and then we get the monthly reports, which we review, and I know we're oversight, so I don't wanna.

I'm okay with leaving it the way that it is and giving Jim access like he asked as budget committee chair.

Explain, can someone explain to me why you would not want me to be able to see these reports?

I can.

Okay.

Having sat in that office, we would be micromanaged to no end, and we would be questioned nonstop about everything without giving the opportunity to make sure everything is the way we want it before you, the way it should be before it's presented.

Presented where, though?

On your monthly report. But I feel like you... I just wouldn't want to open the door to someone constantly saying... I looked and you posted this one thing to the wrong account. Okay, well, we'll catch it and we'll fix it. Just...

So once a month is...

Right. I know when it's...

Oversight, yeah. Okay.

It's, yeah.

I'm all for just having oversight. I like, and when I got back on the board, that was one of the things that I said is, just give me a printout. Once a month, and I'm happy.

I think we should keep it the way it is now.

Okay.

But I think the thing that I'm struggling with is that's not something that I've ever done. I've never questioned what you're doing. If I see something that looks incorrect, it sounds like, based on the audit report that Bob's talking about, that's a problem we've had for a long time now.

Things not being correct part of the audit report wasn't anyone doing that work one of the things about a yearly one of the things from the audit report that I've seen is some of their recommendations is really with the treasurer and the entries as far as the TA and the assistant of how they're entering them in there are some recommendations also in position requirements and that I think they're making recommendations for that as a board, we're going to have to look at and make sure that we have the proper positions in place and the proper people in place in order to implement what their assessment and addressing some of the deficiencies that they're seeing and what the recommendations are on how we move forward to make sure that we aren't in a position where we're two years behind the eight ball. And I think I don't want to create a, a position where it's almost like an uncomfortable environment for staff because based on what I'm seeing preliminary from looking through this audit is there's going to have to be some changes in workarounds that we're going to have to create on that end, which is going to create enough tension, I think, already in workload for and relearning and reeducation processes for some of the employees we have, or getting people the skill set in order to do what they're asking us for. And I think I don't want to create an environment where it's an uncomfortable environment or a micromanaged environment. So I'm okay with having us get in a monthly report. We review it. If we have questions, we can come up with those questions.

It sounds like Julie would prefer I not ask those questions. I think this is the part that we used to buy.

Well, I think we can ask the questions here, and then they go back and get us the answer and come back to us. Right. We're going to be meeting weekly.

But historically, that has not been the case. I wouldn't want department heads now, you know, you're looking through it, and you have a question about rec, and then you're asking rec questions.

But I've not done that.

but you haven't also had access to the budget. I have before. Yeah, before, but not since the beginning of the year.

Right, but I didn't operate that way when I did, so why would I begin to operate that way now?

Let's just leave it the way it is.

What's everyone else's thoughts? Paul, you okay with leaving it the way it is?

If you want to wait and discuss it with someone.

I am.

I mean, you know, I have thoughts that go either way, to be honest with you. I mean, I understand the idea for having access to information and I think Jim expressed that. Any one of us as select board members ought to have that. On the other hand, that's why I asked the question, to what end? Is it really necessary?

I'll make a motion.

It may not be necessary for me. It may be necessary for someone else. Who am I to judge?

I think you're being asked to judge by deciding if you're going to vote.

All right, so Jim just made a motion that we leave it the way it is. I'm okay with giving Budcom. Okay, go ahead, Linda.

Just as the treasurer, if I can add my two cents, just I'd ask you to revisit giving more access to reporting to people in another six months from now because you have me who's new, you have Sue who's new, you have a really strong team in place who cares about what's being done and having it done accurately. even with very little interference, some of the things that I've done have been significantly time consuming. And if we start having all these other questions prompted with good cause, I'm not saying that there's something bad coming from it.