GilfordGrok

Well, the newest season of the Bud Comm has now kicked off.  We heard from both Debbie Shackett and Evans Juris as to the existing state of the budget approved by the voters - other than it looks like the legal fees account may be stretched due to a couple of assessment cases (with union negotiations coming up) and that the flood damage to the roads has not yet hit the books (with $100,000 in requested aid already sent in to FEMA), it looked decent for this time  of the year.

The other topic under discussion was subcommittee assignments.  To review both the Town and the School budgets,  the BudComm splits into different subcommittees, usually consisting of three members, to meet with the Dept heads to review their numbers and then make recommendations to the board as a whole.  Thus, the cycle for the Bud Comm is usually

• Meet with the Dept head and review their budget
• A followup meeting between the members to discuss findings and to make recommendations.  They also fill out a work sheet outlining those findings and recommendations
• Present their work to the BudComm as a whole, with the Dept heads present to answer questions
• The next week, the BudComm votes on the recommendations

This year, as Evans pointed out, the subcommittee meetings must be posted (as Doug had pointed out last year) and that the Dept head meeting must be public (not a big deal, as they always have been), all materials used / created by the subcommittee must be made public (hopefully posted on the Town website, and that the subcommittee meeting to discuss the findings must be public (new item!).

Assignments included:

• Tax Collector (TCTx) - Bill, Terry, and Bob
• Police - Dale, Phyllis, and Gus
• Fire - Gus, Dale, and John
• Planning - Doug, Bill, and Phyllis
• Parks and Rec - Sue, Bill, and Phyllis
• Outside Agencies - Skip, Dale, and John
• DPW - Doug, Sue, and Terry
• Library - Skip, Bob, and Sue 
• Administration - Terry, Skip, and I missed the third!!!!  Yikes!!!

I guess I will have to listen to the tape for the last one.  Actually, you can too!  I was able to plug into the tape recording / speaker system and take a real time digital recording of the entire meeting - click here to listen.

Please note:  I'm storing the audio over at GraniteGrok for now, so there may be a small lag in response.  Be patient, it will show up!  

Oh, almost forgot...near the end was our follow up discussion on Dale recusing himself from voting at times when either the Library budget comes up or if his wife's salary was an issue (Katherine is the Library Director).