Finance Committee Meeting

Minutes – July 15, 2013

Town Hall, Lower Level Hearing Room, 7:30 P.M.

Members Present:  Patricia-Lee Achorn, William Brack, Arnold Cohen (late), Gordon Gladstone,

                              Alexander Korin, Ira Miller, Laura Nelson, Edward Philips (Hamilton)

               Absent:   Aaron Agulnek, Michael Fish, Charles Goodman

1. The first item on the agenda was the concept of a by-law to have a deadline for zoning and non-zoning articles for the Town Meeting Warrant.

2. Mark Porter, Chair, Canton Finance Committee, and Jim Murgia, Canton Finance Director, came to the meeting to explain the mechanics of the process of their by-law.

3. Jim Murgia explained that they have a cut-off of 120 days before their Annual Town Meeting in May for zoning articles.  They recently changed that to all articles would have a 120 day cut-off.  They only have one Town Meeting a year.

4. There was considerable discussion regarding the procedure for their motions and what leads up to Town Meeting.  The Finance Committee has more time to review articles, but some issues still come in at the last minute.  The Planning Board does zoning motions for Town Meeting.  The Warrant is signed 60 days before posting and is never re-opened.

5. The Canton Finance Director coordinates the budget issued to all departments and the school budget worksheet.  Budgets due back to Finance Director on January 21, then made available to the Finance Committee.

6. There was much discussion on the Canton budget process.

7. There was some discussion on benchmarking with the Canton Finance Director and Finance Committee Chair.  They try to stay in tune with neighboring towns.  They haven’t done a lot with comparisons for a while.

8. The next item on the agenda was the schedule for Fall Town Meeting.

9. Ben Puritz stated that the draft schedule was preliminary to answer a request by the Finance Committee, but the Town Clerk hadn’t seen it yet.  If there is a Fall Town Meeting it will be November 4.  The upcoming Selectmen’s meeting on July 23 will be the opening of the Warrant.  The closing was intended to be as close as practical after Labor Day.  Then to Finance Committee on September 9.  Due to be signed on September 17.  That’s about 45 days to November 4.

10. There was much discussion on what articles might be on the Warrant and the time frame for getting recommendations to the Selectmen.

11. According to the schedule, the Selectmen are meeting every two weeks.  There was a request if it were possible for the Selectmen to insert one or two intervening meetings.

12. The next item on the agenda was to go over the criteria for benchmarking.

13. There was some discussion regarding the results of the criteria survey.  It was then refined to determine what towns would fit the criteria for the committee review.  A draft of the criteria would be sent to the Selectmen, Finance Director, School Committee and Personnel Board to be discussed at the Finance Committee’s August 12th meeting.

14. The next meeting will be August 12, 2013.

15. It was MOVED and SECONDED to adjourn.

16. VOTED:  8-0-0.

17. The meeting was adjourned at 9:45 p.m.