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Meeting of the Lincoln Finance Committee
September 3, 2008
Present: P. Braun, S. Haber, M. Hartman, J. Koenig, E. Shorb, L. Sander, R. Steinbrook (chair)
Absent:
Minutes submitted by: R. Steinbrook
The meeting was called to order at 7:30 pm in Lincoln Town Hall.
The committee met with Julie Dobrow, chair of the Lincoln School Committee, Mickey Brandmeyer, superintendent of the Lincoln Public Schools, and Jennifer Glass, a member of the Lincoln School Committee, for a briefing on the restoration of $51,400 for instructional assistants to the FY '09 budget. The School Committee took this action on August 21, 2008 in response to objections from some parents to the FY '09 budget, as proposed by the School Committee and approved by Town Meeting. The restoration is to be paid for by $21,443 made available for FY '09 by the prepayment of special education tuitions out of year-end FY '08 funds, a $1,700 reimbursement from the Case Collaborative for facilities improvements, and a reimbursement of $8,245 from the federal E-rate program. In
addition, parents have raised about $20,000 that they are prepared to donate toward the cost of hiring instructional assistants. This money, however, will be held in an escrow account, in the expectation that the superintendent will be able to make additional money available during FY '09. If the money from fund-raising is not needed, it will be returned to the parents.
There was a full discussion of the School Committee's actions. Some members of the Finance Committee stated their displeasure with the decision to change the budget after its approval by Town Meeting. They raised questions about the implications of the committee's actions for the integrity and credibility of the Town's budgeting process. They also raised concerns about the use of donations to pay for core services. Other members of the committee, however, felt that the School Committee had provided an adequate explanation for its actions. The committee advised the schools to develop a comprehensive policy on the acceptance of donations
The committee met with Gary Taylor, of the Lincoln Board of Selectman and Anita Scheipers, Assistant Town Administrator to discuss the Capital Planning process. The Finance Committee will provide the budget for capital and maintenance warrant articles. It was agreed that the Capital Planning Committee shall vet capital requests as well as the proposed maintenance warrant articles of the budgeting agencies. The Finance Committee and the Capital Planning Committee will have a joint meeting in December 2008 to review the capital budget and maintenance warrant articles and proposed expenditures. The Finance Committee also encouraged the Town to review the status of planning for potential renovations to the Lincoln Town Hall with a view toward establishing a time schedule for
their consideration by the Town. It is desirable for the debt exclusion portion of the tax levy to be managed in order to minimize wide swings in excluded debt from year to year.
The minutes of the meeting of June 19, 2008 were approved.
The committee discussed its fall schedule. The committee will next meet on Thursday October 2, 2008.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:20 pm.
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