Saturday, December 19, 2020

FM #416 Finance Committee Meeting - 12/15/20 (audio)

FM #416 = This is the Franklin Matters radio show, number 416 in the series. 

This session of the radio show shares the Finance Committee meeting held Tuesday, Dec 15, 2020. 

The meeting was conducted in a hybrid mode; some of the key participants were in the Council Chambers, the remainder participated virtually via Zoom conference bridge to adhere to the ‘social distancing’ requirements of this pandemic period.

Quick Recap:

  • The promised 'deep dive' into the school budget almost happened. "almost" in that if one viewing the meeting had fully read all the pre-released documents, they could sorta follow the questions and answers. Unfortunately, a key question answer was interrupted. I think (yes, my observation) the Central Office (Sara and Miriam) missed a couple of opportunities to make a better case for the budget details and what the district has done.
  • That said - the new monthly format for the FinCom meetings is a work in process and holds great promise. As an adjunct for the Town Council, the opportunity for detailed discussions on particular departments has only really occurred in these meetings. The Council used to get full presentations from each department as part of the budget hearings before more recently switching to their shorted 'hold' and question process.
  • The transfer from the water enterprise 'emergency fund' to make the payment for the water treatment plant was authorized. This was the payment that ended up mis-directed as part of the spear phishing incident.
  • Preliminary discussion on topics for the next few meetings and a review of the current stabilization fund balances was covered before the meeting closed.

The recording runs two hours and seven minutes, so let’s listen to the Finance Committee meeting of Dec 15, 2020.  Audio file =   https://www.hipcast.com/podcast/HycL9GLS


--------------

Meeting agenda and related files  https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif591/f/agendas/12-15-20_fincom_agenda_2.pdf

My notes:  https://www.franklinmatters.org/2020/12/finance-committee-recap-of-dec-15-2020.html

-------------


We are now producing this in collaboration with Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm). 

This podcast is my public service effort for Franklin but we can't do it alone. We can always use your help.

How can you help?

  • If you can use the information that you find here, please tell your friends and neighbors
  • If you don't like something here, please let me know

Through this feedback loop we can continue to make improvements. I thank you for listening.

For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.org/

If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com

The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana"  c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission.

I hope you enjoy!

------------------

You can also subscribe and listen to Franklin Matters audio on iTunes or your favorite podcast app; search in "podcasts" for "Franklin Matters"

Finance Committee member Susan Dewsnap
Finance Committee member Susan Dewsnap




No comments:

Post a Comment