Meeting Minutes

Title: Budget Committee Meeting

Date: Tuesday, August 5th, 2008

Location: Westport Island Town Office Conference Room

Subject: Budget Committee Officer Election and Task Round Table

Pre-Work: Think of tasks to be completed that will improve our community from a budget perspective

Objective: Elect new officers for 2008-09 and develop a task list to be accomplished by the Budget Committee for 2008-09 fiscal year.

Topic	Type	Responsibility	Time
Review agenda and time durations and approve any changes.	Discussion Consensus	All	7:00 5 Min.
Action Item Review	Information Discussion Consensus	All	7 :05 10 min
Nominate and elect officers	Information Discussion Consensus	All	7 :15 15 min
Develop a list of tasks for the Budget Committee	Information Discussion Consensus	All	7 :30 45 min
Other Items	Discussion	All	8 :15 10 min
Public Comment	Discussion	Public	8 :25 10 min
Wrap up	Information Discussion Consensus	Secretary	8 :35 5 min

Attendees: Sandra Besecker, Dennis Dunbar, David Blake, Ruth Nelson, Rhonda Cromwell, Richard DeVries

Facilitator: David Blake

Secretary: Rhonda Cromwell

Open Action items:

1. Obtain updated copy of note for the Wright property from Geo. Richardson. Action: Kim Greenleaf 05/06/08

2. Provide any sub-committee schedules to George. Action: All as it occurs

3. Send list of benchmarking questions to David B. Action: All 101508

4. Obtain electronic financial data from the treasurer of at least the last two years. Action Richard DeVries 083008

080508 Open Action items:

1. Update mission and deliverables. Action Richard DeVries 090208

2. Identify additional tasks that the committee should be considering. Action All 090208

Mintues:

The meeting opened at 7:05 p.m.

Richard DeVries was nominated and seconded as chairperson and the vote was unanimous.

Kim Greenleaf was nominated and second for co-chairperson and the vote was unanimous.

The mission and deliverables was reviewed, and it was agreed that the committee should continue to review the salary of coastal town data, complete the analysis of manager type functions, and review potential labor saving devices.

The amount of funds raised and cash flow was discussed. The committee agreed that the citizens should have a clear understanding of the various costs such as road improvements, the maintenance plan, etc. The LD-1 was discussed and it was agreed that the budget committee should be in control of its analysis. There was some discussion that the analysis as presently performed does not take into account the total picture of town finances as it is only a backward looking review instead of a forward-looking needs analysis.

The development of a template/schedule for upcoming years of the budget committee's activities that would discuss the various warrant articles that are repeated each year was discussed.

There were no public attendees and the meeting adjourned at 8:00 p.m.