LEBANON BUDGET COMMITTEE MEETING 9/10/15
The Lebanon Budget Committee met on Thursday evening 9/10/15 beginning at 7 pm.
The Committee voted in Chip Harlow as their Committee Chair for the 2015-16 season.
Present at the meeting were Chip Harlow, Bette Harris-Howard, Laura Bragg, Chris Gilpatrick, Nancy Neubert, and Skip Wood.
At first the Committee meeting is difficult to hear due to Selectmen Thompson and Heath having a conversation with Selectmen's Assistant Sue Collins at the counter, But I promise, it gets better when Thompson and Heath join the Committee Meeting.
The main item on the agenda is whether the Budget Committee will vote to approve to voters the expenditure of $8,000 for the removal of the wall between the current Selectmen's Office and the current Code Enforcement Office, thus creating a larger meeting room. The current Selectmen's Office can legally hold a maximum of 9.43 people, while opening the wall would allow about 18 people to be present during a meeting.
There is much discussion regarding this change including questions on security, ventilation, whether the job would go out to bid, and questions on whether this is a smart move, or would it be smarter to spend more money and create an addition, including conference rooms, off the back of the current building.
There are questions regarding the tax commitment (due Monday 9/14/15 according to Select Board Chairman Thompson), and the possibility of increasing the "base lot" assessment from $32,000 to $35,000.
The Committee turns back to the removal of the wall and more questions surface with Bragg and Harris-Howard wanting to approve the project at $5,000 while others are saying they're willing to go $6,000.
The Committee finally votes to approve a question on the town's November 3 ballot to spend $6,000 out of the contingency fund to pay for the project.
The Committee votes with 4 approving (Harlow, Wood, Neubert and Harris-Howard) with Laura Bragg and Chris Gilpatrick opposing.
The discussion then turns to budget procedure for the upcoming year, complaints about the town's Purchase Order system and how confusing it is, procurement cards that act like a petty cash account, and the Trio computer software system.
In the discussion regarding the spending by individual department heads, Chris Gilpatrick makes mention of Road Commissioner Tom Torno and his absence from Selectmen's Meetings. He asks how the Board knows what he is spending Road Department budget on and Selectman Thompson admits that he has no idea, however, Thompson can not act on his own to demand MIA Torno into the Board. This leads to a heated exchange between Gilpatrick and Selectman Royce Heath.
While Heath pulls up short of his famous "No Comment", he isn't far off, but Gilpatrick tells it as he sees it, telling Heath exactly what he thinks of him as a Selectman.
The final matter of discussion is with regard to the fact that there are 3 Budget Committee members who never show up for meetings and the need to ask them to resign so that alternates, or newly elected people can fill their positions.
TO SEE THE VIDEO of the LEBANON MAINE BUDGET COMMITTEE MEETING OF 9/10/15, Click HERE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLRiUoXG8jA
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