Town Council Meeting

12/27/07

 

MEMBERS PRESENT: Audrey Wilcox, Fred Gifford, Lilian Coulter, and Oscar Emerson, acting a Chairperson. Sally Strout absent

 

STAFF PRESENT: Manager Melissa Doane, Virginia Oakes as note taker, and Eric Gifford

 

OPEN MEETING: Council Emerson opened the Town Council meeting at 6:30 p.m.

 

CITIZENS PRESENT: None

 

REVIEW OF MINUTES: Table review of 11/28/07 and 12/12/07 until 1/08/08 meeting, as appropriate Council not available.

 

CITIZENS REQUEST: NONE

 

MANAGERS REPORT:

  1. On December 18th Manager Doane met with Town Attorney Ed Bearer to discuss the item regarding Department of Conservation. After finding discrepancies in taxes on a substantial amount of land they own in Bradley, Manager Doane sent them a letter in July stating that they owed the town in lieu of taxes $36,184.75. The State had an evaluation of the land done and those numbers were not released to Manager Doane. The Department of Conservation has agreed to pay the town $11,572.71 and that is based on the land being in tree growth status. Manager Doane relayed that Mr. Bearer believes it is prudent to proceed in collecting the remaining $24,000. If this is taken before a judge, the cost would be approximately $5000 to $7000. He believes that the Town would win but the Department of Conservation could appeal and also he cautions that we are dealing with the State of Maine and they have the ability to change the law easier than what the Town can. Manager Doane asked Council how they would like to proceed. Councilor Wilcox asked if they have submitted a tree growth management plan and can they be forced to submit one? Manager Doane reported that they had outlined the land value as if in tree growth, however no formal plan has been submitted.  Manager Doane also stated that they could be forced to submit a formal plan.  It was decided that the Town would require a tree growth management plan. Councilor Wilcox acknowledged and praised Manager Doane for finding this discrepancy. Councilor Emerson motioned not to pursue with legal action against the Department of Conservation but to insist upon a tree growth plan. Councilor Coulter seconded the motion. Vote 4-0, motion carried.
  2. Manager Doane also spoke to Ed Bearer in regards to the School Consolidation Committee asking her to review the ownership of the Viola Rand School. They wanted to find out if the Town of Bradley or Union 90 owns the property. In the tax records here at the office, it is listed as Union 90 owning it. A title search is being done as they are confident that it is owned by the Town of Bradley. Manager Doane would like to have the Town gain ownership of the parcel of land behind the school. The deeds are being interpreted to find any deed restrictions.
  3. Manager Doane reviewed the management letter received from Roy & Associates. She explained what the letter refers to as deficiencies because of changes in auditing standards for local government. The undesignated surplus as of June 30, 2007 was $1,107,786. The reason for this is $253,785 was taken out for the Carter Woods project from last year’s undesignated fund balance of $1,194,436. There was actually $86,650 added to the account last year. The letter explained that generally accepted accounting principles now require that the Town capitalize and depreciate assets, in accordance with the Town’s capitalization policy. The Town still reports purchases of fixed assets as expenditures and charges those expenditures to the related department or account to which they were budgeted. This process makes it extremely time consuming to search all of the expenditure accounts for capital assets and increases the likelihood that expenditure will not be capitalized and potentially causes the financial statements to be misstated. Roy & Associates recommends establishing fixed asset accounts in the Town’s general ledger to which all assets meeting the capitalization criteria will be posted upon purchase. The next deficiency addresses long tem debt. Long term debt is now required to be reported as a liability in the Town’s statement of net assets. Currently, payment of debt is reported in the department or accounts to which they apply. The recommendation is that liability accounts be established in the Town’s general ledger where the balance of each note, bond or capital lease obligation will be recorded. As payments are made on the debt, they will be charged to the related debt account, thereby reducing the outstanding debt balances. The third deficiency addresses the current separate fund, Parade/Community Fun Day. This account has such small activity that Roy & Associates recommends it become part of the general fund. They would also like to see balances carried forward as of July 1st. Instead of waiting until the audit is complete. The final deficiency addressed was that the Town lacked sufficient personnel with an appropriate level of accounting knowledge, experience and training in the application of generally accepted accounting principles to enable them to prepare financial statements with related disclosures necessary to satisfy the Town’s financial reporting requirements. Manager Doane explained that Mr. Roy said that most likely, this would be in all management letters in the smaller towns that do not have a staff accountant. Manager Doane’s concern is that when the Town tries to get a bond and that same item is there each year that this could affect the Town’s rating. Manager Doane quotes Mr. Roy as stating “Municipalities not doing their own financials may become an expected paragraph as the cost to hire their own accountant is not practical. Bond banks may be the only concern if the cost to borrow is 2 to 3% hirer than you may need an accountant.” Manager Doane asked for Councils’ thoughts on the management letter. It was decided that the Town would comply with Roy & Associate requests to the best of its ability and see how things look next year.  
  4. The fire station is in need of a new hot water heater and a motion light on the back door. Manager Doane and Chief Gifford will research some prices and bring them back to Council.
  5. The Subdivision Ordinance is complete. January 3rd Charles and Dean will meet and review it.
  6. The Cemetery Committee is having a meeting on January 7th. Manager Doane has put together a draft of by-laws that the Committee will examine.
  7. On December 18th there was a school consolidation meeting in Milford. School choice was discussed and it was said that if your school currently has school choice it will remain, however, if they do not go to one of the schools that are in our RSU, the Town has to pick up any additional cost there may be.
  8. On December 13th Manager Doane’s computer crashed. This computer acted as the serve and all the municipal software was on that computer. Manager Doane needed to purchase a new computer immediately so Town business could continue to flow smoothly. Councilor Wilcox motioned to take $1227.00 out of the Town Council Unappropriated Surplus to pay for the new computer to replace the one that crashed. Councilor Coulter seconded the motion. Vote 4-0, motion carried.
  9. The annual PVCOG meeting is going to be held on January 23rd at 5:00 at Spectacular Events.

 

NEW BUSINESS:

Council authorized Manager Doane to submit letters to Frank Blake and Matt Michaud with a deadline of December 21st for personal property taxes which she did. This deadline has not been met. Councilor Wilcox motioned to proceed with 2006 personal property tax claim thru small claims court. Councilor Gifford seconded the motion. Vote 4-0, motion carried.

 

UNFINISHED BUSINESS:

Pine street light consideration is tabled until full Council is present. Manager Doane asked Council if they wanted her to proceed with the grant for the firehouse and it was agreed that it wasn’t worth pursuing since the grant doesn’t meet the needs of the Town.

 

MUNICIPAL WARRANTS:

Councilor Coulter made a motion to accept municipal warrant #52 in the amount of $15,168.11. Chairperson Gifford seconded the motion. Vote 4-0, motion carried.

 

NEXT MEETING: January 8th at 6:30

 

ADJOURN: Councilor Wilcox motioned to adjourn. Councilor Coulter seconded the motion. Vote 3-1, motion carried. Gifford was nay.