Board of Finance - Regular Meeting

She said she's good. She's all set. You good? I'll call the meeting to order at 816. Everybody's here. Regular and alternate members. The first item is the establishment of the fiscal year 26-27 mill rate. Obviously, the town just approved the existing budget, which is funded precisely by the mill rate. I don't know that we're legally obligated to approve it, but I'll open the floor for motions and discussion.

Make a motion to accept the mill rate for next year at 16.86. Second.

Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. any extensions. Thank you. The next is the review and approval of the suspense list. Can we get that distributed please?

Michelle, did you have a copy? I guess you hand it around. I have another copy, too.

Is it just a single list, not one for each of us?

No, pass it around for you. We have two copies, so if you want to start down this side.

It's double-sided.

You just take one and pass it down.

So you only get one. You have to look at it and see if you see anybody on it that you know. We're legally obligated to throw it under the bus.

Okay, good. The copies are coming around. Oh, yay!

Good.

Let me explain this. Okay. However the suspense list was done in the past, here's how we're doing it now. Okay? I already did this last year. It's a similar time frame. The point of suspensing is if these are accounts that i do not believe we're going to be able to collect and uh that so that falls into the three categories generally of a deceased person no assets in the estate it goes through probate there's nothing to come if there's still taxes owed or if they have a motor vehicle they passed on we can't find where the motor motor vehicle didn't end up with somebody else in the town of old lime another family member then it's probably sold and it's out of the town So also then if you have somebody who has an LLC and it goes out of business, can't really collect on an LLC on personal property, very difficult to do that. They're limited liability. So it's a matter of businesses going out. You tend not to see real estate being dispensed because we can put liens for 15 years. The lien goes with the asset. And so the land's going to be sold to somebody else. You will see, though, that we have a handful of little lots that are in the Chapman family names. And those have been dispensed for years. Sussman Shapiro has opined for Judy before that there's really no way to collect on these. I mean, the taxes are at a mill rate of 16.23. It was like three bucks, you know, on a lot or something like that. We continue to lean these little pieces of property. They tend to be they were an open space concessions. next to at the end of the streets, and mostly in Rogers Lake. And I've already checked with affordable housing. None of these can be turned into a building lot. Some of that was done with some other town property, I think, a year ago. But we continue to lean those pieces. And if we can ever figure out a way of selling them to an abutter or something like that, it's going to take a little time, a little bit of work, and it's not a high priority for a lot of bang for the buck. We did try with one property, Schwichtenberg. She passed away. Hillcrest. We went through a judicial foreclosure on it. We now own that little piece of property. Nobody else bid on it. So we're going to figure out. I thought somebody should bid on this. That's cost you a little bit this year, but we'll get our money back. And the point is to get these pieces of property back in the tax base. But none of them are large things. So what you see in front of you is about the same number as last year, around 5,000. Last year, it was a little bit more. We have 42 units, do I say, 42 parcels. But we've gone through the process of identifying, yes, someone is deceased. No, we can't find where the asset is. The business has gone out. Just because we suspend something does not mean we stop collecting on it. And we have used tax serving municipal collections agency to collect back taxes on motor vehicles. And we've brought in a lot of suspense money because we're tracking down people. If they move to other states, they still owe the taxes. And we could be moving to this stage of wage garnishment or bank account garnishment on some of the larger accounts on Motor vehicle taxes, that's the next step on some. So I'm lagging a bit of actually suspensing things, which means I'm setting a higher bar for our department, my department on collections. I've noticed in the past in the teens that there were more suspense personal properties for businesses. I can pick that up and tell you that means less revenue is going to be coming in from a tax standpoint. But I want to make sure that we've exhausted all avenues before we say that. So it's $5,000 something this year. The top. $5,149.65. So you're welcome. You can see. I verified the information on everybody and listed the reasoning there as to why we would suspend those. And then last year we did collect about $30,000 a year ago on 60-some records this year. We've collected about 14,900 some in total. That's tax and interest of previously suspensed accounts. So.

But remind us of what's the question for the Board of Finance?

So the board is supposed to examine and approve. So I can then officially place these on the suspense list as we go into the next tax year. at least once a year, the tax collector has to go through this process with the town's board of finance, and you have to approve that things can be put into suspense. That reduces the available taxes to be collected.

I'll move to approve the process suspense report as presented. Second.

Any discussion?

I mean, just one thing that doesn't have really need an answer from Suzanne. I'm just looking at this list and I'm seeing that there are businesses that previously worked for the town that are on the list. And I wonder as we have our policy person, Martha, developing policies, that perhaps there should be some policy against hiring a business to work for the town if they're delinquent on their taxes.

These are all out of business.

I understand that, but one of them used to do work for the town while they were not paying their taxes.

So throw it on our plate.

Well, it's a little bit more than $100 to motor vehicle and whatever.

We can work on it. Since we have a policy in turn, it might be something to put in there. Tenure is coming short. Yes.

Okay. Suzanne, Harry Plowden, Harry Plowden Environmental. has a number of vehicles. And are these the same vehicles for different tax years?

Yes. Yes. You'll see them broken out by year. Yeah. Right. And we can track down where they are.

Right. You've got two. So. Well, I don't know that you have an ability to seize the vehicle, but you've got a good claim against the owner and the business. So it Harry died, I know, and his businesses may be out of business, but today...

Yes, and his estate was probated, and we filed, and there was no money.

Okay.

We exhausted that. We went through the legal process of trying to get funds, and there was nothing to be distributed.

So there was nothing in the businesses that would have gone to the estate, and then there's nothing.

I have the paperwork back in the office. Husband Shapiro did it for us.

I know. Any other questions? I'll call for a vote. Then all in favor of approving the suspense list, say aye. Aye. All opposed, say nay. Any abstentions? Okay.

I will say one other thing. I will be back before you in the fall with a proposed suspense list, probably like October, November. It's recommended that the tax collectors come in earlier in the year instead of late in the process. Because you need to know if we're not going to be able to collect things as you calculate the next year's taxes. I will say for you that we have a real problem with share and drive. Off of exit 70, I have $146,000 of taxes due to the town that are already leaned on those properties, 2020. Grantless year 2023, which was due over a year ago, and the current grantless year, which will close June 30th, which was due a year ago in July, and another $50,000 will be lien slapped on them because they weren't behind in 2023. That's real estate. We'll have a lien on the property. But that's going to impact my collection rate. No, that's real.

200,000. Those are real dollars. Who owns that property? What is it? Is it commercial, residential? What is it?

Sharon Drive is right there off of Exit 7. It's in development. Down that road. Yeah. There's 11 building lots, three houses. Partially. And the original house that was there. There are two or three LLCs all backed up. by the same person. They just keep swapping the properties between LLCs every year. Connecticut Riverview property. They're all in the same building in Westbrook, all in the same suite. We know who it is, you know, and we keep sending letters to him and his attorneys and I've turned them over to Sussman Shapiro. Okay. Yeah. But I don't expect to see that money. And that will be, that's different than 5,000 that I don't think we're going to be able to.

We can foreclose. We have a lien and we can exercise our rights if we want to.

Takes a year or two.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I'll be back. Well, there's always a complicated question whether litigation is worth the cost, but sometimes the threat of litigation stimulates agreement.

Yes. Right.

If you don't.

I need election process.

So let's turn to the minutes of April 7th.

I get the ball rolling by moving the acceptance of the minutes for April 7th, 2026. Second.

Any data at all? If folks, another minute, look up when you're ready. Any comments, discussion on the minutes of the 7th. Okay, I'll call for a vote. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say nay. Any abstentions? The minutes are approved. And the next minutes of the 14th, that was a pretty pro forma meeting, but take a look at the minutes. to approve the principal and interest on the clean water funds.

I'll move to approve the minutes of April 14th. Second.

You get that, Michelle? Okay, so the minutes of the 14th have been approved and moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. Any abstentions?

I'm abstaining.

I wasn't there. Ona refuses herself. Okay. So those minutes are approved. Are there any other business, Madam Svilek?

I just have one problem. I'll pass this out. Andy has a copy, so I'll send it both ways down this thing. There's a little problem with some fuel tanks over at the Public Works Garage. They had an inspection on May 1st and found that we have some issues with There's water in one of the tanks. The Board of Selectmen voted on this today to move it to you to have this taken care of. We have an estimate for scope of work for $11,307. Anita is here. We've sort of walked through. We could take it out of repairs and maintenance on the public works side. It will make Ed go over on that line. by about $4,000, and most likely his account is going to be over anyway due to the excessive snow plowing, the overtime, and the rodent salt fund. So there's that, or you can do whatever else you'd like. But Eric Olson has met with the company. He was there. And part of it, too, is the control system, the control panel that operates the pumps, and we have had trouble with those over this year. I know that Tom had to go down and do an override one weekend. I think it was actually during the snowstorm so that they could actually operate the pumps to fuel up.

So are you asking us to approve an appropriation of X dollars, 11,000, how much?

$11,307 for the necessary repairs and upgrades to the control station, for the control panel.

Or is this more of an FYI? Because if Ed is going to be over on his budget, it's on the end of the year.

It's up to you. We just wanted you to be aware.

If we approved $11,000 expenditure now, we can't approve for him for the public works.

There was some money in, what was it, Anita?

$118,000. $118,000 right now has $20,435 in it. And I know that Eric has used it for a couple thousand dollars a year. So there is money in that fund and you'd like to take the $11,000 back.

Which fund is that?

Fund 18. It's called Public Building Improvement. They're both called Public Building. The capital side and the state. And they're both testing.

If, you know, Martha, if you think we're going to be revisiting public works because of snow removal, overtime, etc. I would think it makes sense to just wait until the end of the year in June and do one approval or maybe obviously if it's over $20,000 we'll have to go town meeting.

That is my first consideration. We know that it's going to go over.

It particularly matters if a line item goes over.

So the proposal is We tell Ed to get the work done, but we'll take it out of his budget.

Eric, we'll get the work done.

But it'll be charged to Public Works. Yeah. We'll take it out of Ed's budget, and then we'll reveal the budget overage at year end.

Yeah.

Okay?

Okay. Just so you know.

Does everybody agree with that? Okay.

Do you want any updates?

Anything else?

I can just tell you that we're hopefully going out to bid for an RFP process for a solar project at the landfill. And that would probably go out on. And they think that we'll produce enough that perhaps we will be able to not only produce enough energy for the town buildings, and I believe there's 17 in total, but also We may want to include Board of Ed. This type of project is only for public schools and towns. So it cannot, otherwise it would be opened up, the overage would be opened up to another town or another. Many who'd like to buy energy, CSW and Lee Associates would strongly suggest we try to keep it in town and use it ourselves. So that's hopefully going out to bid on Friday. Haines Park Playgrounds in. And they also got a new dock, which thanks to Paul, who picked it up and brought it down. And Park and Rec paid for that. And the gazebo at White Sands is moving along. A slight delay with a bracket that was backordered should be in this week. And then they'll put the roof up. I believe the last pour was today for the cement. When is that expected to be finished? Before school gets out.

So what are the terms on the solar project? How does that work exactly?

Well, we are paying, we're not paying anything. So it's basically, it's 10 cents per kilowatt hour that we give up. 3% of that goes to ROP Clean Associates, but it's paid for by the developer. So the developer builds it into the project. So they own it and they're responsible for the upkeep. Say again?

They own it and they're responsible for the upkeep.

They're responsible for the upkeep. There's maintenance, everything. We do not own it. And in 20 years, they dismantle it or they can ask for a year extension at a time if they feel it's still maintainable. And this is to supply electricity for the town or for... If we generate electricity... enough to cover our kilowatt hours and more. And we will basically, Eversource will be sending us a check back for the energy that we generate.

In excess of what we use.

Well, we load it onto the grid and you keep an account. So the electricity doesn't really go from the panels to us. No, no. It goes out.

However, it works. Because of the phase three at the transfer station, they will work something out. So the phase three will be fed at the transfer station. That was one of the things they liked about the fact that it's so close by. It's also going to be wonderful if we go to electric school buses, too.

Well, if you go to electric school buses, you're going to need a much bigger array.

We understand that. But there are ways every day there's coming up with new ways to create it. And these two groups, Rob Cleese and Associates and CSW has worked out some pretty decent deals with New London and some of the other towns in the state of Connecticut. It came highly recommended from New London. And I appreciate the fact that Andy sort of raised it to my level again this year so that I could do some research on it.

Thank you. Yep. Anything else? Public comment? Elizabeth, you want to comment on anything? Motion to adjourn.

So moved. Second.

We're done. Thank you guys. Thank you.