Finance Committee - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Slightly on comments. We will see that. Welcome to the finance committee meeting of Monday, 05/04/2026. We are in the small conference room. It is approximately 06:48. And if we could all oh, and we're at Kent Nickerson Ave, the town hall. And this meeting will be they're being taped by MCAT and be be shown later in one of their areas of when they do it. I don't know when they do it. Let's all rise for the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, one God, indivisible, in liberty and justice for all. Just a We'll get the minutes in the in the next meeting. Yeah. Right. Okay. The next meeting. I do have Bobby's just if you take a look at it. Chair. This is the financial committee financial committee finance committee reporting secretary invoice, and you can see it. It's below the threshold.

Closed invoice for the hours from 04:22 to five one, and it's 2,200 sorry, $230. And that's been submitted. If you have any questions, just resubmit it this morning. I could always pursue both if need be. Second, I'm hoping that you receive a copy of the email that was received from the office of the attorney general regarding there were two questions. One was minutes and one was executive session. That did go out, Jessica. Right? We sent that out there, but it did not. I don't know if I forwarded that.

Alright. I may have intended to, but we can do it by Thursday if you need, for sure. Let me just check. Yeah. I'm on the receipt. I Okay. I can see what I I asked you to forward if that's okay. I can read that if you'd like. It is not it's is not that long, and it's relevant to the budget in roundabout way. So it came in.

Yeah. Came in on May 1 in the morning. I read to you what I was asking at the last meeting. Correct? Yes. Yes. Okay. So request for guidance on the open meeting law of minutes and executive session. Dear Robert Sullivan, thank you for con contacting the division of open government. Please note that we can provide general information about the requirements of the open meeting law but cannot provide advisory opinions or legal advice.

Minute meetings. Meeting minutes. The open meeting law requires that a public body create and maintain accurate minutes of all meetings, including executive sessions, setting forth the date, time, and place the members present or absent, a summary of the discussions on each subject, and a list of documents and other exhibits used at the meeting, the decisions made, and the action taken at each meeting, including the record of all votes. And then a quote general law, chapter 30 a, subsection 22 a. When reviewing the minutes for compliance with the open meeting law, we look for substantial compliance with the accuracy requirement.

By substantial compliance, we mean that the minutes should contain enough detail and accuracy so that a member of the public who did not attend the meeting could read the minutes and have a clear understanding of what occurred. While minutes must include a summary of the discussion on each topic, a transcript is not required, and the minutes do not need to include every remark or opinion presented. A public body is not required to capture every comment made during a meeting in order to substantially comply with the accuracy requirement of the open meeting law. However, where a particular individual speaks at some length or is the only one to offer an argument for or against the proposal, that person in their comment should be identified in the minutes. Please see the attached and they I I did not see an attached.

They say, please see the attached determination, o m l 2024Dash50 for additional guidance. If you go online, you can find a lot of those OMLs. So it wasn't attached, you could find them. Was the end of the question regarding meeting minutes. Executive session purpose three.

Whether a particular discussion is appropriate for executive session can be a fact intensive inquiry. For guidance as to whether a particular discussion the committee hopes to have would be appropriate for executive session, we recommend that you contact legal counsel. Executive session purpose three allows a public body, quote, to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares. General law of chapter 30 a, subsection 21 a, section three, emphasis added. Discussions with respect to collective bargaining strategy in executive session under purpose three include discussion of proposal for wages, wage and benefit packages, or working conditions for union employees.

The public body, if challenged, has the burden of showing that an open meeting might have detrimental effect on its bargaining position. We have previously found that under some circumstances, the finance committee has a negotiating position even though the committee is not itself directly involved in the bargaining such that discussions in executive session under purpose three are appropriate. See OML 2,014 dash one forty one attached. However, we also have previously said that while it is reasonable to anticipate that some discussion on budget would be part of the collective bargaining discussion, discussion of a more wide ranging strategy that would reach beyond the notice bargaining units is not appropriate for executive sessions as such deliberations are more akin to budget discussion. COML two twenty five dash one forty six attached.

See also OML two fifteen dash 63 and OML two fourteen dash 30. All of our past determinations may be found in the GAVE link to the website, which you'll find when we send this out to you, to look at more OMLs. Please note that the executive session purposes are narrowly construed. If the discussion does not fall under any of the enumerated purposes, then it would be not proper to meet an executive session. I hope you found this helpful. I'm With such a seat council seat local council and council. So that leads to and that that will be sent out. I just forwarded it to everyone when you're reading. So So that's on file too, and then I'll put it with the minutes just to Okay. Be official.

So we took that. Reporting secretary, invoice, minutes we'll get at the next meeting. And I'll jump off of this one. Who? It's a finance group. Oh, oh, it's a gas. So after the board select board's meeting, it looks like the budget presentation you got the number of items to select board's meeting. It's asked. But, guys, we were scheduled we are then scheduled to return here this week in regards to our continued discussion if necessary. And we have booked the room for May 7.

So I think it'll booked for the next two to three weeks in here. Believe Mondays and Wednesdays. Wednesdays. No. I mean, sorry. Thursdays. I see that every time. Thursday. I believe so. Okay. Yep. I have a note to double check back tonight, though, to make sure I'm with it. Any question on housekeeping items before we a a recess to see the board of select the budget presentation? Alright. Then with the move oh, I think the motion is recess to the Board of Selections meeting to get the budget presentation.

Who seconds? Second. To return to the finance committee's meeting room for continued discussion on the FY twenty seven budget. Second. So moved. Aye. Sounds good to me. Yeah. I think I'm I think we're all pretty tied. So I'll suggest that somebody I'm gonna make a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. See you Thursday. Yep. No. No.