On the February 1, 2016 Board of Selectmen's Meeting Agenda, Town Treasurer Jeanette Lemay was listed as "Discussion".
During this discussion, the Board questioned Ms. Lemay regarding an e mail sent to all town department heads during the day on Monday, outlining some changes in purchasing.
The e mail ,which LMTS has not seen, apparently was in direct relation to recent Budget Committee conversations and Facebook posts regarding "late fees" as charged to different department budgets.
The late fees, have sometimes been charged back to separate department budgets due to the use of a quicker method of payment, the town's credit card, which is for use for department heads when the need of a speedy or last minute payment is needed.
The town currently does Accounts Payables every 2 weeks, and depending on when the Treasurer receives the invoice in direct relation to the scheduled AP date, sometimes the payment is late getting to the credit card company. In this case, a late payment is generated.
According to Treasurer Lemay, the Department heads have all been made fully aware that if they utilize the town's credit cards, and the payment is late and generates a late fee, that fee would be split between the department budgets that utilized the card during that month.
Lemay contends that she remains the fiduciary of the Town of Lebanon accounts and that she has not been comfortable with the questions of "fault" or "blame" for several rounds of budget discussions where Committee members have questioned the late payment charges, and therefore, as the holder of Lebanon credit card accounts, Lemay has suspended these accounts until things can be worked out with the Board of Selectmen.
Until further notice, all town departments may only make purchases through normal AP procedure of submitting a purchase order, having the purchase order approved by Selectmen, and waiting until the next scheduled AP date to receive a check for their purchases, or they may order supplies through several pre-approved companies that the Town of Lebanon holds billing accounts with.
Furthermore, Lemay went over with the Board the Purchase Order requirements as well. All Purchase Orders must contain the account number, the vendor name and address, the budget item that the purchase will be applied to, and the signature of the department head placing the order.
After this discussion, the Selectmen stated that they would enter into Executive Session, to speak to Lemay about her choices and at 5:15 pm all observing residents were asked to leave the office so the Board could speak privately with the Treasurer.
The Board reconvened public session after several moments and Selectman Thompson asked Ms. Lemay if the late fees only encompassed one month, she answered that they had occurred over several different months and several different departments. Thompson continued, asking the Treasurer if she thought it would help to process Accounts Payable weekly, to which Lemay stated that she thought the extra workload of processing a full AP warrant weekly would be overwhelming, however, she agreed that if the Board presented her with a proposal for a weekly AP schedule, she would review it and have a further discussion. "I'm not agreeing to anything at this time," said Lemay, "but I will review any proposals and give them thought."
The procedure change regarding credit card use will stay in place until further notice.
