June 25, 2026 – Finance Committee Appointing Board – Video & Transcript
June 25, 2026 - Finance Committee Appointing Board
All right. It is 10.02, and I am going to call this meeting of the Finance Committee appointing
board to order. We are all here, Carol Martin, Miranda Jones, and myself, Sherry Carlson.
This meeting is being held only via Zoom, so remote access. There is no in-person attendance.
The link for the meeting can be found on the town's new main page. You just click the
meetings and agendas, and you can see our meeting in the link listed there. We are being recorded
by WACAM, and following their process, the meeting will be posted at some point. We will have public
comment during this meeting, and again, that will only be via Zoom. I'm going to review the agenda for
the public, take any announcements from the board and public comment, and then the main purpose for
our meeting today is to interview four candidates for the Finance Committee, and we'll do that,
and then we will continue our meeting, at least on the screen, with just the three of us. They may
choose to watch, but we'll sort of thank and dismiss them and continue for our deliberation on whether
we appoint. Following the outcome of that, we'll have a discussion on any additional necessary
recruitment. We will look at our draft minutes from May. We'll talk about our next meeting date,
any reports and concerns from this board, and we'll adjourn. I anticipate, you know, some time in
the 11 to 11 30 range, depending on how long our interviews take. Any announcements or questions from
the board? No? Okay, seeing none. We will take public comment, and I would say if you have public comment,
if you could raise your hand. But it looks like we just have people at the meeting, so I'm going to say
there is no public comment, and we will move on to the portion of our meeting where we will interview
candidates. Abby, if you don't mind, you can go ahead and move them over. Oh, keep me hurry up for the
meeting minutes, okay? Oh, thank you. I've already teed it up on my...
In that new format that we're doing? Yeah, it's in the new format already. Thank you. Sure.
I do appreciate the town clerk's efforts to keep all of our committees in compliance,
both with how we put our agendas together and the minutes, so in some ways it's much easier than...
All right. It looks like we have our four candidates here in alphabetical order. We have
Carl Barnes, Saxa, hi Carl, Ryan Orherlihy, and Satish Raj. And Satish, I'm Cherry. It's so nice to put
name and face together, so thank you. Thank you. Carl, it's always nice to see you, but I have name
and face together with you already, so we're good. So what I thought we would do is, because we do have
four candidates, I wanted to give each of you a chance, and we'll go through just in the order
listed on the agenda, so alphabetical order, just to give a brief overview of your interest either in
continuing on FinCom or your interest in FinCom. And I know that there are certain ones of you who
have interest in particular positions, and if you would just include particular terms, if you would just
let the other members of the committee board know that. Because we are a board of three, while I've had
the opportunity to talk with each of you in setting up this meeting, I haven't been able to share any of
that information with either Carol or Miranda. So they are starting new today, in terms of what
they are learning. So sorry for a little bit of repetition, but it's important to the process.
And then when we've concluded our interviews, and we've asked our questions, and you've asked any of us, we will sort of dismiss you onto your days, your work days, the rest of your things, and we will deliberate amongst the three of us on appointments. You are certainly welcome to continue watching the meeting. We're just going to ask that you leave the screen so that we can just have the three of us here and have a little bit easier, as much face-to-face as we can do over Zoom discussion. So we can talk about them. Yeah, but it's public, so they can listen. It's fine. I was trying to be a little more discreet, Miranda, but you got it here. So with that, Carl, can I put you on the hot list? Can you start first with reason for seeking reappointment, and if there's a particular term you're interested in, sort of the whys? Sure. Thank you. So, Cherry, I've shared some of this with you, and a little bit with Carol at different times. And I don't want to scare off Satish or Brian, but I got to say last year was a difficult year for me and for the finance committee. We were, when the going got, you know, when the busy season started, we were down a person with, you know, Phil's ailment. And we had a tremendous amount to do in a very short time. And candidly, not with as much cooperation from the town as I would have liked. Consequently, I was pretty convinced in May that I was not going to seek reappointment. I had a random conversation with Carol one morning, where I learned that in order to have a quorum of a seven-person board, you had to have four members in a meeting, regardless of how many people are actually appointed at any given time. And I decided I couldn't leave the committee without a possibility of a quorum. So I've, I also want to give people a chance to, to create, to work on some of the things I'd like to see done differently in the town and on the committee. And so I've decided that I would stick around for a while. I would, if, if invited, um, I think a one-year term is all I would like. Um, quite honestly, I'm not committing to stay that long, but I would stay, um, as long as I feel like I'm being useful and we're going in the direction I'd like to go. I, I appreciate that, Carol, and it's very much in line with our, the discussion that you had with me. So, um, I think it's important that Miranda and Carol could hear that as well.
Okay. On that note, Iris, can I turn it over to you? Absolutely. Thank you.
How's everyone doing? Sorry. I'm, uh, at the beach this week with my family, so. Well, I appreciate it, but then I feel even more guilty about taking your time. No, it's quite all right. It's quite all right. It's quite all right. Um, yeah. So, um, just, I know no one's asking for a reaction, but, um, Carl, appreciate you sharing in this forum, appreciate you setting the landscape for the finance committee appointing board to understand some of the challenges that we faced in, especially last year. Back, I see the similar challenges that Carl alluded to. And I think I also recognize that, to me, much of that stems from processes and bylaw changes that happened in the last year that I think still need to be very well fleshed out. I think those of us who had the opportunity to see what the processes were like before those changes were implemented, um, I think we have the opportunity to help continue to push forward and refine those processes to get this committee that does such important work, um, the right level of involvement and the right level of support. And that's part of why I think probably similar to Carl, I also feel somewhat obligated if selected to continue to provide support, um, especially for newer members of the FinCom and understanding what the committee has traditionally done versus where the town is going, um, in regards to the financial picture and the financial future, but also the processes around the role of this committee, how to work, um, in concert with the town and how to work in concert, I think, with many of the other. Is it me that froze or her? Her. Okay. Oops. I think you'll come back. Because it happened just as I increased the volume. What did I do? Oh, let me see if I can moment. Yeah. Okay. So that we're not sitting here. I did just, um, send her a message to let her know that we lost her. Okay. Oh, it looks like she's trying to
get out and back in, come back in, um, or just reset on her end. Um, Brian, just so that we're not sitting, um, waiting. Can I ask that we move to you and then come back to Iris if that's okay? Thank you. Can you hear me okay? Yes. Yep. Uh, so for, for Satisha's benefit, um, I'm a 43 year town resident, a retired senior citizen. Uh, I spent three years on the FinCom, uh, went off one year ago. Uh, I'm interested in a one year term. My background is, uh, all financial and I've volunteered for the town for a bunch of years and have a pretty good understanding of how the plumbing works. And, uh, I appreciate, uh, the challenges that were faced last year and hope if I were appointed, uh, I could help, uh, help everybody move forward, particularly given, uh, an expected override in the upcoming year. Okay. Um, Iris is back. So if, um, Iris, we can go back to you if you really are back. She told me she was back. Maybe you had to bring her back in. Um, she should be able to, um, should be able to, well, she's muted. Maybe she's, oh, Iris, she knows that. Okay. Satish, again, we're just, um, um, okay. Satish, why don't we move to you? Usually we don't have technical difficulties, but we did allow Iris to go on vacation. So, you know, I just feel like we're, I'm surprised Satish is still here. We haven't scared him off yet. No, no, no. He's, I know, I, Satish is, he'll tell you what he's done for his homework. So it's, Iris, do you think you're, you're still muted if you're here? Well, same thing. Okay. Iris, I'm going to move to Satish. Satish, can you just, um, in a similar vein, cause no one else had had an opportunity to meet you. Just tell us about yourself, your interest, and then the homework that I know that you've done in terms of before you showed up here. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning. Uh, thank you for the opportunity. And, you know, despite cause best effort to scare me, um, you know, I'm still here and interested. Uh, so, you know, unlike Brian, you know, I, I have, uh, very little background in finance. You know, I have an MBA and, uh, I have worked in the technology industry, so I do understand finance, basic stuff and, uh, and so on. So I think I'm pretty confident that's not going to be an issue skills wise, but, uh, in terms of my interest, you know, I don't have a big, you know, speech here, why I'm here. It's basically, uh, several things coming together. So one is, you know, where, where I'm at in, in my life stage, my younger daughter is going to college. So, you know, I have more time at hand and the way I was in, in a way connected to the town was, you know, through the school system and, uh, through my daughters, you know, here and there we are, I'm involved in the community here, like the neighborhood. We had couple of town meetings with an agenda for, for, for our neighborhood. So those are the ones I have attended. Uh, and then I was looking for something to stay connected with the town. I'm a resident for 13 years and, um, you know, that's how, that's what prompted me to look for opportunities in the town. And then I saw a circular about, um, you know, several committees and volunteering opportunities are open. And so that's how I reached out and, uh, spoke to Shuri. So, um, so that's my interest, um, in, in some ways to contribute and, and help and, um, you know, stay connected with the happenings in the town. So that's, that's the general background. Right. Um, Satish, did you have an opportunity to speak with someone on the finance? Yeah. So I did connect with Rob, um, but unfortunately, you know, his schedules and all didn't permit for us to speak. Uh, we tried to schedule, um, but I do plan to, um, try to find a, uh, time on his calendar and, uh, speak more. But in the meantime, I did look through, uh, you know, of course, every year warrants and all I do flip through that. So I did look through some of that, some, some of the finance committee's goals and, um, um, uh, and, and directives and what's involved and some of the articles, uh, in the war. And so I have, I have looked through that. Um, so those are, all look interesting work to me. And, and I, the other thing was, uh, from all the opportunities there for, you know, um, being a volunteer for, for any of the town activities, this one seemed like a little bit more sustained work and involved work, um, which, which is what I'm seeking. Um, you know, once in a blue moon, if there is something that doesn't keep you engaged, at least that's, that's, that's me. Um, but something more sustained work. And also I'm sort of semi retired, uh, at this point. So I do have the time to, to contribute. Um, now I don't know about the challenges Carl was or others with, uh, eluding to, but, um, you know, challenges are also opportunities to do something different. Okay. Um, just Miranda and Carol, just because I haven't been able to share this with you previously, but we had, um, a couple of people expressed interest in FinCom, like Satish, who didn't have, um, prior volunteer experience. So they were very much like the Rob Quimby who we appointed last year. And so he agreed to be willing to speak with them just to give the perspective of what it was like to be a new volunteer and to step onto the finance committee. So that was why I asked, I knew that you had, there was a connection there and you were going back and forth, but then they very nicely took me off the email chain. So I didn't have to stay there. Um, but I really, I appreciated, um, that Rob was willing to give his perspective as a new volunteer. So, okay. Um, Iris, do we have you back? I'm back. Can you folks hear me? Okay. Yes, certainly can. Yes. So Iris, hi, Iris, Carol. The last thing I heard you say, which I put a big star around was that the finance committee does important work. So if you can, once you said after that, we didn't, but I put big stars because that is absolutely the truth of the matter. But anyway, yeah, yes. Thank you. Yeah. The finance committee does a really important work. I mean, that is the truth of it. And I think our processes are changing and really my impetus, I think for continuing, um, if selected to really work on behalf of the town and as residents is to help, um, refine the processes around how the FinCom is going to continue its important work and how we work in concert with other boards and also with the town. I think that's really my thoughts. And as we know, an override is most likely coming up. And so I think it makes working through our processes all the more important to give us the space and bandwidth to then actually be able to do the really important work of reviewing the budget, thinking about forecasts, thinking about the future, thinking about override decisions. So that's really all I have to add. Great. Thank you. I appreciate that, Iris. Um, I think what I will do first is open it up to this, um, board for questions, and then we'll go back to the candidates and see if you guys have any other questions for us. Um, Carol, do you want to start? And I would say, whether you have a general question for folks or anything in particular for one of the candidates, fair game. Good morning. Thank you, everybody. First of all, we totally appreciate, um, you're stepping forward, whether you're asking for reappointment, which of course is so crucial to building strength on the finance committee, or you're returning to the finance committee, or you're just starting your journey. We totally appreciate it. It is really, and truly, as Iris said, extremely important work. The finance committee, as you know, recommends budgets to the time meeting. So you, you, the finance committee are the eye, I always say the eyes and the ears of the residents. Lots of them are very uncomfortable and unfamiliar with, uh, reading financial statements, charts, just maybe numbers in general, and they'll look for that recommendation, both in writing in the warrant and at town meeting. So it's really, really important work. And it is the finance committee's recommended budget that goes into the warrant, no matter how many forecasts, projections, charts you see, it is what the finance committee votes. And often they are in agreement with what has come forth from the finance team, but sometimes there are some, um, uh, changes, usually not too significant, but often there are. So, uh, Carl, I really appreciate what you did this year. You stepped up in the middle of, uh, the height of the, the season, uh, when, uh, the chair took sick and filled in his interim is a very challenging thing. We had an extremely challenging year for a number of reasons, especially with the onset of the, the SIPSE committee, which, uh, was not established until the fall. So they were a little late getting out of the gate. That should be smoothed out much better this year. So I really appreciate it, Carl. You know, I've had a lot of conversations, so I don't really have a question for you, but I am very glad to see you are, you are there and I appreciate your commitment to the town. I'll take that. Thank you.
Okay. Um, I'm going to, I'm going to, the next on the screen is Brian. So Brian, you made me laugh this morning here when you said, yeah, I've done a little volunteering for the town. Um, we just honored Brian at town meeting for his 25 years of volunteer work, and he has served on a multitude of heavy duty committees, uh, select board finance committee. Uh, now he's been on the SIPSE, which is rolling out the, the capital improvement planning committee. And there's a rollout here. It's really very, very, a lot of work to get things rolled out. Um, he has been kind of on the wrong word is cleanup, but, uh, he comes along and helps us. It comes back a year here and a year there to help us and his institutional knowledge and tremendous understanding of municipal finance will be of great help to us this year. So Brian, I appreciate that. And I was, I appreciate you coming back as well, or hoping to come back. I hope you're coming in for three years. Um, it's, it takes a while as, uh, both Terry and I are former FinCom members. And, uh, I think Terry, we were there 10 years on finance committee. Nine. And I was there 11 and nine. And it really takes you, when you come in, you think, okay, I got this, but it really it's around about the third or fourth year or really, really able to provide some, what we call some strength and depth to the committee. So appreciate that. Um, and I, I couldn't agree more with all of you that we do need to go back and look at the processes and make sure the finance committee is utilizing the tools that they have available to them. And then, uh, making sure that the tools are, are implemented and, uh, that we, that we're all rolling in the same direction. And, um, Satish, I really appreciate you stepping forward. Uh, I was reading a resume and said, my goodness, this is very, very, very, um, impressive background. I didn't see a lot of financials, but then I saw your all, you got your MBA at Babson, which is my alma mater. So I said, well, seriously, but, um, I would recommend that you, uh, if you haven't already read some of the minutes, uh, a lot of the minutes will be very helpful. I would recommend that you reach out to Carl or Iris O'Brien, um, uh, once we finish this meeting, assuming folks get appointed, um, they will be able to help you, um, on your journey. It's a, it's a really exciting, uh, rewarding, like you asked someone, I think Iris, you mentioned adding value. Um, it does. It's a really rewarding when you get it all together and you stand up in town meeting and you say to everyone, we seven people on the behalf of the 13,000 residents of this town have gone through all this. We have done our due diligence and we feel this is the right budget for the town for the next year. It's really terrific. So I obviously don't have any questions. I just wanted to say thank you all. Appreciate it. Thank you, Carol. Me? Yeah. Miranda. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Um, so I'm Miranda Jones. For those of you who don't know me, I'm the town moderator. I've have had zero experience on the finance committee and never will have any experience on the finance committee because I went to law school because they said no math. So I, um, truly appreciate, um, all of you willing, your willingness to volunteer. Number one, number two, I didn't realize there were so many, um, the finance committee had so many difficulties this past year. And so I appreciate your bringing that forward, that information forward. Um, the only question I have really is for Iris in terms of Iris, your term expired in June. And I don't know if you're seeking reappointment for three years or seeking a one-year term the way, um, Carl has requested or the way Brian has requested. Just wanted to sort of get a sense of what you were hoping to get. Yeah. Um, so I think that a multi-year appointment is on the table for me. I do think maybe a two-year appointment would perhaps be more prudent. Um, I do have a very young family. And so while I think I've fully, um, made the commitment and executed on the commitment to be there and be at all the meetings, the reality is at times it is a challenge with family obligations as well. So I think it's just one of those things that perhaps better to start with a two-year appointment for me and then see where I stand in two years. Yep. Fair enough. Thank you. I appreciate that. I know it's hard to juggle, um, work, family, and volunteer work. So, um, I guess then my question really is to Satish about, uh, and this, I'm not the person to answer your questions, but what questions do you have about what, um, it would be like to serve on the finance committee in terms of number of hours committed? Um, what's the work truly like, what are the challenges the finance committee is facing besides the, what's been mentioned, the, um, the anticipated override, but do you have questions about what would timeframe, the timing, or how much time this would take out of your life? I think is a big one. Yeah. Uh, I did have the opportunity to speak about that, which I, so I have some idea. Um, but yeah, certainly if, if anyone wants to add more to that, so I do understand it several hours a month and, uh, there is a busy timeframe like January onwards, um, where it will be quite involved, uh, which is fine and it's not a constant thing. It's more like, you know, um, peaks and valleys of work here. Um, so, so I, at a very high level, I do, uh, understand that. Um, but yeah, if, uh, you can add more to that or, uh, if Carl or anyone, you know, can speak to a little bit of those other challenges or, um, you know, what I should be prepared for. And I, so that you guys can please speak honestly. Am I muted? No. Um, so Carl and Iris and Brian, I, I was, uh, I think very honest with Satish about the workload in that, you know, January through March, as you do, uh, budget and article review preparation and review. Um, and also talked about the peaks and valleys that, you know, summer can be quiet, picks up a little in the fall, and then it hits when you do finally get numbers that you can look at and the art and the warrant closes. Um, but you guys have, I, um, and I also spoke about the transition, um, Iris, as you mentioned, when you started to the new bylaw with the town manager act that we really have not, um, fully met that yet. So if there's anything there that you want to add more, you know, please feel free to embellish. Cause I'm, I'm, I'm speaking, um, as an observer and as someone who did this process under an old bylaw. Yeah. I think I I'll take a first pass and Carl and Brian, if you guys want to add anything, I think they correct that it ebbs and flows. I would say in my mind, once you get into January through March, I think you're probably looking somewhere in the neighborhood of like 10 to 20 hours a week. I think that's realistic. And Carl, if you weren't spending that, I would be surprised. Um, so no, that was fair. Yeah. Okay. Good. Okay. Sorry. Sorry. Maybe that was not, not wisely, but, um, but, uh, just to be realistic, right. It is a commitment. Um, it can be done of course, but it is, it is a commitment that requires work that requires real work. I think the processes that I mentioned and my hope as, as the output of that would be that we could actually take what today is very lumpy in terms of time forecasted and start to reduce that lumpiness, um, and actually make it so we can take that really, really heavy push in the spring and start to normalize it across the year. There are articles that we know are yearly articles. Generally, even though the budget isn't delivered until the end of the year, we have many numbers beforehand. And so that's where I think myself and probably some of the other members are aligned that in an ideal world, we would relook at our processes to say, you can't wait until the very end to give us this information. It doesn't work. Frankly, in terms of both time commitment in the spring, and then also, um, us doing our due diligence, right. That very important work is us signing off and presenting the budget. And so I think in my mind, that's part of the goal for this year is how do we normalize some of that effort throughout the year. So by the time we get to the spring, there's still going to be a push, but it's not as large of an increase in effort. And we still have had the opportunity to get all the information in advance. So I agree with you completely. And I think sometimes it's not, I think that the, um, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think some of the lumps wouldn't occur if the strategy, if, if the finance committee had, uh, discussions about the strategy that is being used to put the budget together so that when it does come to you, there's underlying may not be agreement, but understanding of what has gone into it, which then would allow a discussion about, do you agree with it? And how did the numbers flow from that? And, and I think those are the things that, um, in having spoken with each of you individually, um, the three with experience are fairly aligned in where, in wanting to be part of an effort to accomplish that. Agreed. And I'll use the capital budget as an example, just to showcase this for those who might not have been as close, you know, SIPC approved and suggested a eight and a half. Iris, for those who don't know, can you just, SIPC is an acronym that you know well, but can you just. Oh, uh, yes. It's the capital improvement plan committee. Is that right? And planning. Okay. Thank you. And, um, thank you, Carol. Carol knows it best. Um, so, you know, they suggested, and I think it was about eight and a half million dollars in capital planning for the year. And by the time it came to us, it was up to over 13. And so we had a 5 million delta that came from the town and 5 million first off represents an over 50% increase, um, in a, in a one year capital budget. And on top of that, it didn't represent all the projects. I think that had been as thoroughly vetted, um, as we knew that the SIPC was taking the time to do. And so that's where, um, we were really under the gun, so to speak, to try to understand the deltas between what the town was suggesting to us versus the SIPC committee and trying to understand whether we should approve it. Ultimately, we made our own recommendations that were then taken back by the town and implemented. But in an ideal world, a lot of those conversations I think would have happened sooner. So we didn't have such a large delta, which in my mind represents a surprise, probably an unwelcome surprise to all parties. And I don't think it's our goal as a committee to, we don't want to be always pushing back and telling the town that they can't have the things they're asking for, but we do need to follow the processes that we've set up. And if there are issues with those processes, I would like to see those issues be fleshed out. So I'm going to talk to you. I do. So Carol, I, I, um, I don't want, my thought is that our finance committee appointing board should just take this feedback. We're not the ones to deal with it at this board level. Um, I, we're just, we're just interviewing candidates. This is actually going off and talking about something else as it is. So I think that we've gone off the rails, but, um, I don't want to, my apologies. I just meant to give an example as like something that we're looking forward to enhancing. That's all. Right. And I, and I think Carol, I'll say for you, this was the first year that SIPC did this. And so I think hopefully there's improvement all around. Um, but I would just, I am going to, I am going to hop in here though, Terry and say it isn't just SIPC. There was a, this was absolutely without a doubt, a perfect storm year. And unfortunately there were a number of things that need to be resolved. We are, Carl and I have had a number of conversations as I have also with the town manager. So we are in the process of smooth, as to you say, I was smoothing this out for next year, but, um, exactly. It's not, it's not, I'm not testing blame. I'm just saying for those who are new to understand, these are the kinds of problems that we're all after, right. That I think we're all aligned are worthy of us having continued discussions and improvement. Absolutely. And that was, are going to occur. So I don't know that they're part of being interviewed. However, um, trust me, these are duly noted and being worked on. One, one question I'm based on what Iris was saying, which prompted me is, um, uh, yeah, to smoothen it out. It means you are in constant, this is, I'm assuming you're in, you know, in, um, continuous touch with all the other committees and entities, you know, because whatever needs that are coming from us, which are part of the budget are coming from these various places. Right. So how, how, how do you guys go about keeping that a continuous, um, you know, touch base with the various needs of the town? So Carol, I'm going to, Carol, I'm going to ask one of the members of the finance committee to, to answer that. So I would say, um, first of all, I just want to be clear to Satish, I am not negative about any of this. I'm just critical of it. And I think there really is an opportunity here to make some changes. And I've been very gratified that, you know, Carol Martin has, has heard me and we are talking, she's supportive. So I, I think we have an opportunity. Um, um, to Iris's point, we did a really good job. I think with the capital budget last year and had some meaningful input into that. I do not think that was true of the, of the operating budget. And, uh, I think collectively we spent more time working on articles than we did on a hundred plus million dollar operating budget. It's just the way it was. And that's not, that's not the right way to go about it. So I'm going to draw back to your question. Um, I'm looking for opportunities for the finance committee to be much more involved in early stage discussions with the town. That is to say with the town manager and the finance director, they will start meeting. I mean, I'm, I know they've already started this, but you know, in earnest, they'll be, they'll be talking in July with their own direct reports with other committees to look for, you know, to begin to put together a budget. And I want us to be involved on that. I don't think they I've had no reason to think that we won't be, but I think that's really important. Um, because what'll happen is other, what did happen is we got a budget with very little time to look at it. And, um, you know, it's important work, but it's a little bit hairy when you just, you don't have any chance to enough of a chance to really look at it. So that's the way we're, we're planning, or I'm hoping let's put it that way to, to be more involved in that process, smooth it out so that we're not surprised by what it looks like in, in late January or February. The other thing, and this is, this criticism has come internally through the committee and not from the outside, but you know, there are people who think we spent a lot of time last year talking to ourselves and not talking to other people enough. And, um, um, you know, I'm hoping that if hoping you will want somebody else to be chair, um, uh, now, but I hoping that, you know, the chair will, will fix that and start talking and inviting people from other committees to, to talk to us and to tell us what's on their minds and what they need. Um, and for that matter, not only committee members, you know, the volunteers, but the paid employees of the town. So I hope that's, you know, some help. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Um, any other questions from the floor? No, no, I want to do any other questions from the four candidates.
No. Okay. Um, and then Miranda and Carol, if you don't have other questions, I'm going to thank the candidates. I'd pass that on the questions. Do you have any more questions, Sherry? Um, not after this discussion, I, um, was interested in folks commitment to help move forward in a constructive way and to move towards our bylaw. And I think we've covered that through the discussion. Um, you know, Iris and Carl, I, um, appreciate your candor and I think that it is, um, um, important and constructive. I mean, Carl, even though you were saying that it was, you know, critical, I think it was constructively critical. You're thank you. So no, but I do, I think you're because you've, I, you're not just criticizing, you've identified areas that you think need to be done better. So, um, I think that's important. And Satish, I think I alluded to that, but you certainly got a lot more information here than I could have given you specifically. So before you dismiss everyone, I think Satish, I, I should have introduced myself at the beginning. I didn't, I'm Carol Martin and I'm on the select board and I'm appointed this, uh, committee as the chair. So every time we have a new chair, then we have a new member from the select board is on the finance committee appointing board. Um, this is going to be my second year as the chair. And Ms. Carlson's over there rolling her eyes because she called me and said, what are you crazy? I haven't done this job as well. But, um, but we get to keep our committee intact. So I'm also the finance committee and the SIPCES select board liaison because they sort of all fit together. And so this is why when Carl says he speaks to me a lot, he's not kidding. Well, especially when we're trying to get the articles, you know, through the process and stuff. So so anyway, but I apologize for not introducing myself sooner. Sorry. Okay. On that note, Brian, you have anything else you've been, um, I've been unusually quiet because I'm, I'm trying to be more on listen mode and, uh, give the other, if I'm appointed, give the other members a chance to do their thing, uh, and be available as a resource. I have lots of thoughts about what folks have been talking about and hopeful that perhaps that appears in one of the first agenda, uh, items for the FinCom, uh, because I think, uh, there, there are plenty of things we can do to, you know, accomplish what, what folks want to accomplish here. Um, but anyway, I'm, I'm trying not to say too much. I appreciate that. Um, I did have one, one question, uh, for you, um, uh, were, uh, were I to be appointed today? Do you have a sense on when that appointment letter might be available? So I was just going, Brian, you like teed it up perfectly. Cause that's what I was going to finish with is, um, I'm going to say that when we made the appointment, um, there is a select board meeting on Monday night and we are inviting the FinCom and I did have it as a joint meeting, but I wasn't sure whether it would be a full quorum. So I've changed the agenda to just say, invite the FinCom for this is for the, um, year end transfers, uh, discussion and so Abby is listening to hearing as soon as we make the appointment, she's going to make the letter available so that if you are new, you can sign up Monday. No, no, the, um, if we choose to reappoint. So right now, Carl and Iris are still members of the finance committee on Monday, June 29th, they will still be members of the finance committee regardless of what we do today. Um, if we appoint Brian and Satish, they will, um, be appointed effective July one for whatever they're on one. Okay. Then you won't be a question. In my case for a one year appointment, since those two positions have been vacated, uh, wouldn't it be true that that could be appointed right away? So we're probably sure they won't have a call. We will, we will need to talk about that Brian in, I think that it's your call. I think the logistics of that are that we would have to appoint you to finish a term. I have to look, I wasn't ready for that question. So I just need to look at the term end dates and figure that out whether we are appointing you for a few days plus a year. I just have to, I need to look at that. That's your call. That's what I assumed you could do. That might be helpful. Yeah. Thanks for pointing that out, Brian. Yeah. Well, we'll look at the term end dates that we have available and how they, how they work with whether or not there's someone in the spots. So, um, but what will happen is as we deliberate and make a decision, um, I then do the appointment letters and we'll send them the, uh, um, email to, um, so basically I will let every, I will let all four of you know what's happening. If you haven't been watching, um, if you're appointed, I will send you, um, an appointment letter that needs to be taken to the town clerk. Um, they're not open tomorrow. Um, because they have summer hours, they are open late tonight. I think I can get it out later. Um, um, uh, but she would be open on Monday, so we can. So the only, the only person that sounds like that would be relevant for if you decide that you're appointing me to fill out a term, then I, I could go in and meet it. The other three, it sounds like, uh, those become effective July one. Yeah. So they don't, we'll, we'll figure, we'll figure that out. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So we don't, we don't need to go into, to the town manager's office to actually pick up a letter. You, we could just take our electronic version. Yeah. No, I'll send you a PDF version that you can print and take in with an electronic signature. Okay. Something new every day. I thought Abby did all the appointment letters. No, this one. This is one where we do the appointments. And so the letter comes from us, not from her office, not from that office. Yeah. One, one remaining question. If I could take the advantage of Carl being on the screen in front of me, without me, do you have a quorum, uh, available for Monday night? Well, I was going to get to that. Thanks for teeing that up. There's no quorum Monday night. We're not so sure we have one yet. Even with me. With you. Yes. Without, you know, um, well, let me put her on the spot. Iris, are you available Monday night? She's on. Yes. Okay. Uh, April is, uh, you would be Brian. Yes. Um, I haven't heard back from. Rob. I don't think I've heard back from Rob, Rob Quimby. Bill Hus is available. I think with you, I'm pretty confident we'll have a quorum. Okay. We will take that into consideration. I need to look at these dates. We will deliberate to the four of you. Thank you for joining us. I appreciate you sharing your work day, your vacation time, your morning with us. And, um, I'll get back to you. I'll make a sandcastle. Yeah. All right. Um, I am going to ask that you just, uh, leave the screen so we can have the three of us to continue our meeting. You are always welcome. It's a public meeting, so you can always listen. Um, thank you. We'll go from there. Thank you. Thank you all very much. Thank you. How do we leave the screen without leaving the meeting? Um, I'll move. I'll change you back. Yeah. Abby's going to take you away. Thank you all. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Abby. Oops.
There we go. Okay. You should be all set now. Yeah, we are. Thank you, Abby. All right. All right. Um, before we start, I'm going to need some help looking at these term expiry dates in a second, but let me just go here. So Carl was looking at one year. Brian was looking at one year. Um, Iris thought two, but we only have a three year available. We, we're not going to, we don't appoint if, if two years becomes the limit of what she can, she can resign. Yeah. And I'll talk that through with her assuming we appoint her. Um, okay. So the opening here is the positions that are open right now are Phil's and Pam's not that they own those. Okay. But both of those terms expire in a year. So they've both chosen to leave. Right. I know. I remember Phil's. They both resigned. Right. So those positions are both open right now. They both resigned effective. The end of town meeting. Yep. Hang on a second. I think Mr. Giudici resigned effective before town meeting. I think that was his letter. He was at town meeting, Carol. He was at town meeting. Effective town meeting then. At the end of town meeting. Both of them. Oh, that one's open to fill the term. So Phil's and Pam's are both open. Yeah. And they are both the one year positions. Yep. So, and I'm thinking out loud here. So correct me. So if we appointed it, when, when we appoint into the one year positions. Yep. The immediate immediate. Yep. Right. Yep. That makes sense. Yep. It does. Okay. So whereas with Iris, we could appoint her back to, we could just reappoint her and she can at two years, she can decide, resign if she would like. She, she will decide. And then Satish could step into, um, so what's left there. So Carl's position, Carl's, Carl's position because he wants a one year. Right. Okay. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Before we do that, I'd like to say that, um, I'm so, as I said earlier, I'm very happy that we have, um, some candidates that want to be reappointed or return to the finance committee. Cause as we, we've said to ourselves, um, both here on the meeting and you and I, Terry, I've talked over the years and said, you know, you really, it's, you need some, some institutional knowledge on helps to have on that committee. So I think that's terrific. And I appreciate that we have, um, a new candidate that's come forward, who seems to have a lot of interest and, uh, certainly we'll be able to ramp up quickly. So I, and I do want to just share with you so that you're thinking as you do these, um, there have been, um, I think three other people who have expressed interest, um, one of whom could wants to interview and could not make today's meeting. And so I did tell, um, um, um, it's a man, I did tell him that we would look at that we would coordinate with his schedule to do an interview. One of them, um, has done his homework and I think is not going to pursue it right now, but wants to do something else in town and would look at this again later. So good stepping stone there. Um, and I have one that is sort of in the, in the ether right now. So, um, five slots total at the moment, right? Exactly. So I'm just, but I want to be able to, I can't share with you guys otherwise. So I just want to share that information now. No, no, no, no, no. I'm just saying, but in total, we have five slots at the moment. We have four, four slash five candidates, possibly six candidates. Who am I missing? What spot am I missing that? Oh, April. What's April? It expires on the 20th, at the end of the month. She's not continuing. She is not. No. So she, so that's the open three year spot. Right. So she is technically available to go to the meeting on Monday. Um, he says she would. So yep. Great. Okay. She said, so then we need to think about, um, her three year spot. So then if we're playing strategy here, then you appoint Brian into. Bill. Okay. And her, and, and then we, when we appoint into her spot, it's a three years. That's fine. It's effective July one. Okay. That's fine. Okay. Yeah. I got it. So if you, if you were to lay it out, someone could say, so moved.
Okay. You want me to, you want me to do it here? Can I do this? So I, I would say it. And then someone will say, I know you, do you want me to make a motion? Sure. Um, as okay, go ahead. Try it. Yeah. All right. Here we go. I moved to, um, uh, appoint Carl Barnes into the one year position left open by Phil Giudice effective immediately. I moved to, um, so let's not say whose position it is because those don't exist. So, so let me back up. So if you, take notes, Miranda, let me try this. So I, I would like a motion. Yeah. Okay. That appoints Carl Barnes to a term ending 6 30 27. And Brian O'Herlihy to a term ending June 30, 2027. I move that. No, no, I want to say, and I'm going to appoint Brian O'Herlihy effective immediately. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. So let me, so let me just, I got it. Do you want me to try it now? Okay. I move that. We appoint, we reappoint Carl Barnes to a term ending June 30, 2027. I need a second. Why don't we just do them all together, Carol? Okay. Uh, I move that. We appoint Brian O'Herlihy, um, to the finance committee effective June 25th, 2026. Immediately. Immediately. It's fine. With a term ending June 30, 2027. Correct. Yep. I move that. We appoint Iris Hoxha to, uh, reappoint Iris Hoxha to a term ending June 30, 2029. Mm-hmm. And I move that. We appoint Satish Raj to a term ending June 30, 2029. All of them on the finance committee. Second. And Carl Barnes was a reappointment, correct? Right. I said that. Yep. Yep. So Carol made that motion. Miranda, I heard you second. Yep. Yep. And just to recap, Carol, you said, uh, reappoint Carl Barnes to a term ending 6, 3027. Appoint Brian O'Herlihy to a term ending 6, 3027. That appointment is effective immediately. Reappoint Iris to a term ending 6, 3029. And appoint Satish to a term ending 6, 3029. Okay. Yep. Okay. Um, is there any other question? If I didn't, I'd take those friendly amendments and that's the most. Um, any discussion? Um, I will just from a comfort perspective, um, I appreciated Satish's, uh, questions today and his, um, consideration of the, um, I'm going to call them challenges, but I, I use that in a positive way of the finance committee members wanting to move forward to move us towards the bylaw. Um, and that does match with what I talked with him about. So I appreciate that he's heard it in multiple ways and is still willing to continue. Um, and I know that we appreciate the others for being willing to help us yet again on finance committee. So yeah, all that knowledge, you know, I mean, to have five open positions is brutal. Yeah, no. And I appreciate their willingness to come back for lengths of time to help out. So, okay, great. So we have that motion in a second. We need to do a roll call vote. Yeah. Miranda. Yep. Aye. I'm sorry. I heard Miranda say aye, Carol. No, she said aye. Aye. Aye. So we, two yes and I'll say yes. So that's three to zero. Three to zero. Good. Um, and I will get those letters out today. Um, I'll try to remember I can copy you guys when I send them the PDF just so you know, they're done. Okay. Can I ask one quick question? Says, we sort of knew we had the same question this question last year, but I don't know that we realized the significance of it until we got to this year and ended up with, you know, I think many positions. How many vacancies will there'll be, uh, on June? Two. 27. Thank you. So the two one. And they will be, and they will be Carl and Brian. Okay. So two spots would roll over. That's it. And then how many in 28? I just want to make sure we're getting ourselves cheated. Sorry. I mean, we too, we are. So, which is why it's really important not to change the expiry dates when we put people in them. I know, you know that, but just, yeah. So next year it's two, the year after it's two. Um, but you know, there is life. And as we know, there were extenuating circumstances, both for Phil and Pam staying on to help with a young FinCom. So, you know, knowingly got into this situation, but it made it tough. Yeah. Yeah. We did know that, but I just want to make sure going forward, we're teed up well. And then again, 2029 will be a three year. Okay. So we're back. All things being equal. We should be back on our regular. Yeah. We've done the job that we're, we need to get done. Okay. Thank you. Before we go off of that. So I'm going to finish that agenda item. Our next one is recruitment going forward. And, um,
I, so I feel like we should update the recruitment statement just on what we've done and get it back out there. I respect that we have this other, um, gentleman who wants to interview, but I also feel that it would be good for the public to know that we've made a lot of progress. And if there's anyone else who then is not overwhelmed by the need for five people and might consider one, you know, I think that might be good. Yep. Um, nice if you had two or three to do. Well, that's just, it's always, it's always nice. And then, you know, there's always somewhere that they can, they can be. So in the first paragraph, we want to change that what's available, right? Yes. So we're looking for one candidate. No. Yeah. One candidate for a three-year term. All right. Okay. That's good.
One candidate for a three-year term. So it'll, it'll be this year. The FICAB is working for one candidate for a three-year term for a three-year term. And I don't know, as long as you guys are happy with how our editing by committee went, I don't think we need to change anything else except the going down to the second to last paragraph. Um, I will just say that we'll schedule interviews in July. Sure. Good guess. Yep. Great. So do we, I know I mentioned this before only because of the way the select board does it, but you know, this, this is a moderator appointed board where it says resumes are sent to the chair. We, we just send them all just into Abby and then she disperses. So I don't know. They don't come to me. They don't come to me. They all go to Abby. Yeah. So maybe his resume suggests Abby Warren and executive and leave the FICAB chair out. I guess the only reason I keep it is because we are under the, the moderator. Um, it's not Abby's. I know. That's why I'm asking, but maybe to go to the moderator, maybe, maybe to the moderator. I don't know, but it's, we, we're just to be so inclusive. I think, I think, I will, I will say I haven't had, um, well, that's not true. Some people in prior years, Carol, I know that you've talked with people who've then reached out to me with interest before reaching out to Abby, but I think everybody this time copied Abby on everything. So, um, you know, it's not like I'm getting, uh, yeah, we just insider information or that I'm vetting anybody prior. The, the only vetting is that I put them in touch with someone on the finance committee. So if they self vet out of the process, that's theirs, not. Abby does that for us on all the committees. We, they don't come through to the select board chair or anything that we, uh, appoint when we first see them. It's just when they come in, you know, for the interview, just trying to be more. Yeah. So I, I don't have to bring that up, but that is just saying the FCAB chair and care of, uh, because somebody has to coordinate it for the FCAB for the appointing committee. Oh, just resumes to Abby. It might not always be Cherry. It's just whoever the chair happens to be at the time. Abby's going to know, but Cherry may actually want to give up this lucrative gig she's got going on. That's for a future agenda. I'm trying to get us through this stuff here. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's actually, I will, I will check with Abby, but I don't think that. Yeah. I am comfortable leaving it as is. Yeah. Me too. I don't think it's Abby's decision to make. I think it's up to the committee here, but, um, anyway, I just pointed out that's what we do for the time. If you want to be consistent with what we do, if not, you leave it and we move on to the next item, which is the minutes and the minutes. I have, I had one change on the minute. Okay. So I changed my motion. I moved the minutes of May 15, 2026 as amended. Well, we haven't got, we haven't even discussed the minutes yet, but then we have discussion once the motion. We're just going to discuss it right now before we have. Okay. It's okay. So let me just hear. So Carol has moved us down the agenda to the minutes. Um, she made a motion, uh, Miranda. Yeah. Thank you. And then we'll have discussion. Um, very simple under the minute section of here, we approved the minutes without an amendment. So what do you mean? Um, under the minutes. So look at the draft minutes of me. Oh, yeah. Oh, we didn't amend. We didn't amend them. Got it. All right. Come out of her motion and the vote. And now, and now we're going to approve the minutes. Now we're going to amend. How's that for irony? Is that it? That was it. Very simple. Excellent. Thank you. I will change that. All right. So that was an emotion. So we have a roll call on it as amended. Yep. Um, any other discussion? We'll do a roll call vote. Carol? Yes. Miranda? Yes. Cherry? Yes. Three to zero. Thank you very much. Um, in terms of the next meeting date, if you guys want to give me a sense, um, sorry, had to get my calendar. I do want to coordinate at least with this person who has reached out already. Um, and do you have a sense when that's looking to be interviewed with? Could you give us a sense of that? I don't have that right now. Um, um, I would be willing to try to rearrange my schedule so we could, you know, be accommodating and, um, I, I can certainly reach out to him right after this. I just think we're going to end up having to schedule via email unless are you guys around? I'm not, I don't have any much availability next week. I'm pretty good the week after and the one after that. Is that the week after? Is that the week? I can make it, I can make things work. The 8th, 9th, 10th, 13th, 14th, 15th. Got to write some things down. I forgot to write down. Yeah. Okay. Um, so the 9th works for me. The 8th, um, the 8th, unfortunately I need to be a friend of mine is, is going before the governor's council to be confirmed as a judge and is asking it to show off. Oh, cool. Yeah. That's great. What time would we be doing it? Oh, and we can't do the 10th because they're not open on Fridays. Right. So what, what time would we be thinking if we did the 9th? Um, I have a, I have a meeting at 830 to 930 on zoom. Other than that, I'm, my schedule's wide open. 830 and 930 you said? Yeah. She's busy then. So it'd be like the only time. Yeah. It's the only time. I kind of look because I have stuff in the afternoon. So now this, oh, okay. Unless we did like, well, we met at 10 this morning. 10 works for me. 10 would work because I would need to be done by 11. But if it's only one candidate, right? Yeah. We could get that. We can bang that up. What about is just 13, 14, 15, any availability? You know what? I think technically we have our condo in Martha's Vineyard. So I may, I mean, I can do it from there. Do I want to? Yep. That's okay. But the 14th, I'm wide open. And 15th the morning, I'm open. We're zoom, right? So yeah, we're zoom. Um, I really don't know on those days yet. So, um, what did, what did you like? Uh, the 14th, I'm wide open. Um, what if we just do this 10 a.m. again? And then I'll something, are you all right, all of a sudden you went black? Oh, no, I'm here. Okay. 10 a.m. You're set on the 14th? Um, I can do 10.30. Okay. Okay. That's Bastille Day. All right. Let me just write that down. So 7.14 is Bastille Day. 26 at 10.30, correct? Mm-hmm. Okay. Or Thursday the 9th, right? At 10? At 10. Okay. And then you'll let us know, Terry. Yeah. Let me, I will get in touch with him today and that will give us time to get this out in case there's anyone else who would like to interview. So we don't actually have a next meeting date. We're just sort of waiting. No, we'll just, I will date with the candidate. Confirm with the one that we know of. I will get our recruiting statement back out there. So if somebody else is available, we'll know. Yep. Interested and available. Um, excellent. Okay. And then we'll confirm that. Um, okay. Any reports and concerns? Never. Never. Never. Carol, anything on your part? Lack of time? Yeah. I can't fix that for you. Well, I can't. They're going to get out ahead of the agenda schedule. Okay. So put it on the agenda for the next time. No, I, I think it's great. I feel really, it's my report is, is I'm very happy that I think we have, uh, solved what seemed like a rather large challenge. It seemed, it seemed daunting and I appreciate, um, willingness to step up. Thanks for pulling all these people together one time during the summer. You know what? It was amazing, um, that people were able to make the time that we picked like a month ago. And right. Yeah. Now it really, we are lucky to make it work. So it was great. Um, I think I'm just trying to check last time. As soon as you did that, I had all these things I wanted to quickly do. I'll send the letters out. I'll get the recruitment statement posted. Miranda, you're doing minutes. Yep. Um, and the one, the ones from the 15th, um, do you want to make those changes and I'm going to, I'll make them when we get off and then I'll send them to, uh, I'll send the line to my Senate. Who am I sending to Abby? I was waiting for you to tell me. I think, I think, I think they go to Abby now. I'll ask her, uh, but I'll send, I'll send a revise. I always send a revise finals. Yeah. Perfect. Um, I don't know if it's good. And I write down that it's the final draw. It's the final audit. Yeah. I'm not certain if they, this is silly. We should know, but I don't know whether they, I think it's Abby. Please send final minutes to town clerk at wayland.ma.us. I'm on that email. I need it for their files, but I'm on there. I'm on that thread. So you don't also have to copy me, um, and I'll post it to the website for you. Okay. Awesome. Thank you, Abby. Thank you. There's something new every day. All right. Now it's 1108. And now that Abby has taken care of us yet again, I'll take a motion to adjourn. So moved. So one of you be the second, Miranda and Carol, um, discussion roll call, Carol. I Miranda. Yeah. I cherry. Yes. Three zero. Thank you. Great. Thank you.
And then when we've concluded our interviews, and we've asked our questions, and you've asked any of us, we will sort of dismiss you onto your days, your work days, the rest of your things, and we will deliberate amongst the three of us on appointments. You are certainly welcome to continue watching the meeting. We're just going to ask that you leave the screen so that we can just have the three of us here and have a little bit easier, as much face-to-face as we can do over Zoom discussion. So we can talk about them. Yeah, but it's public, so they can listen. It's fine. I was trying to be a little more discreet, Miranda, but you got it here. So with that, Carl, can I put you on the hot list? Can you start first with reason for seeking reappointment, and if there's a particular term you're interested in, sort of the whys? Sure. Thank you. So, Cherry, I've shared some of this with you, and a little bit with Carol at different times. And I don't want to scare off Satish or Brian, but I got to say last year was a difficult year for me and for the finance committee. We were, when the going got, you know, when the busy season started, we were down a person with, you know, Phil's ailment. And we had a tremendous amount to do in a very short time. And candidly, not with as much cooperation from the town as I would have liked. Consequently, I was pretty convinced in May that I was not going to seek reappointment. I had a random conversation with Carol one morning, where I learned that in order to have a quorum of a seven-person board, you had to have four members in a meeting, regardless of how many people are actually appointed at any given time. And I decided I couldn't leave the committee without a possibility of a quorum. So I've, I also want to give people a chance to, to create, to work on some of the things I'd like to see done differently in the town and on the committee. And so I've decided that I would stick around for a while. I would, if, if invited, um, I think a one-year term is all I would like. Um, quite honestly, I'm not committing to stay that long, but I would stay, um, as long as I feel like I'm being useful and we're going in the direction I'd like to go. I, I appreciate that, Carol, and it's very much in line with our, the discussion that you had with me. So, um, I think it's important that Miranda and Carol could hear that as well.
Okay. On that note, Iris, can I turn it over to you? Absolutely. Thank you.
How's everyone doing? Sorry. I'm, uh, at the beach this week with my family, so. Well, I appreciate it, but then I feel even more guilty about taking your time. No, it's quite all right. It's quite all right. It's quite all right. Um, yeah. So, um, just, I know no one's asking for a reaction, but, um, Carl, appreciate you sharing in this forum, appreciate you setting the landscape for the finance committee appointing board to understand some of the challenges that we faced in, especially last year. Back, I see the similar challenges that Carl alluded to. And I think I also recognize that, to me, much of that stems from processes and bylaw changes that happened in the last year that I think still need to be very well fleshed out. I think those of us who had the opportunity to see what the processes were like before those changes were implemented, um, I think we have the opportunity to help continue to push forward and refine those processes to get this committee that does such important work, um, the right level of involvement and the right level of support. And that's part of why I think probably similar to Carl, I also feel somewhat obligated if selected to continue to provide support, um, especially for newer members of the FinCom and understanding what the committee has traditionally done versus where the town is going, um, in regards to the financial picture and the financial future, but also the processes around the role of this committee, how to work, um, in concert with the town and how to work in concert, I think, with many of the other. Is it me that froze or her? Her. Okay. Oops. I think you'll come back. Because it happened just as I increased the volume. What did I do? Oh, let me see if I can moment. Yeah. Okay. So that we're not sitting here. I did just, um, send her a message to let her know that we lost her. Okay. Oh, it looks like she's trying to
get out and back in, come back in, um, or just reset on her end. Um, Brian, just so that we're not sitting, um, waiting. Can I ask that we move to you and then come back to Iris if that's okay? Thank you. Can you hear me okay? Yes. Yep. Uh, so for, for Satisha's benefit, um, I'm a 43 year town resident, a retired senior citizen. Uh, I spent three years on the FinCom, uh, went off one year ago. Uh, I'm interested in a one year term. My background is, uh, all financial and I've volunteered for the town for a bunch of years and have a pretty good understanding of how the plumbing works. And, uh, I appreciate, uh, the challenges that were faced last year and hope if I were appointed, uh, I could help, uh, help everybody move forward, particularly given, uh, an expected override in the upcoming year. Okay. Um, Iris is back. So if, um, Iris, we can go back to you if you really are back. She told me she was back. Maybe you had to bring her back in. Um, she should be able to, um, should be able to, well, she's muted. Maybe she's, oh, Iris, she knows that. Okay. Satish, again, we're just, um, um, okay. Satish, why don't we move to you? Usually we don't have technical difficulties, but we did allow Iris to go on vacation. So, you know, I just feel like we're, I'm surprised Satish is still here. We haven't scared him off yet. No, no, no. He's, I know, I, Satish is, he'll tell you what he's done for his homework. So it's, Iris, do you think you're, you're still muted if you're here? Well, same thing. Okay. Iris, I'm going to move to Satish. Satish, can you just, um, in a similar vein, cause no one else had had an opportunity to meet you. Just tell us about yourself, your interest, and then the homework that I know that you've done in terms of before you showed up here. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning. Uh, thank you for the opportunity. And, you know, despite cause best effort to scare me, um, you know, I'm still here and interested. Uh, so, you know, unlike Brian, you know, I, I have, uh, very little background in finance. You know, I have an MBA and, uh, I have worked in the technology industry, so I do understand finance, basic stuff and, uh, and so on. So I think I'm pretty confident that's not going to be an issue skills wise, but, uh, in terms of my interest, you know, I don't have a big, you know, speech here, why I'm here. It's basically, uh, several things coming together. So one is, you know, where, where I'm at in, in my life stage, my younger daughter is going to college. So, you know, I have more time at hand and the way I was in, in a way connected to the town was, you know, through the school system and, uh, through my daughters, you know, here and there we are, I'm involved in the community here, like the neighborhood. We had couple of town meetings with an agenda for, for, for our neighborhood. So those are the ones I have attended. Uh, and then I was looking for something to stay connected with the town. I'm a resident for 13 years and, um, you know, that's how, that's what prompted me to look for opportunities in the town. And then I saw a circular about, um, you know, several committees and volunteering opportunities are open. And so that's how I reached out and, uh, spoke to Shuri. So, um, so that's my interest, um, in, in some ways to contribute and, and help and, um, you know, stay connected with the happenings in the town. So that's, that's the general background. Right. Um, Satish, did you have an opportunity to speak with someone on the finance? Yeah. So I did connect with Rob, um, but unfortunately, you know, his schedules and all didn't permit for us to speak. Uh, we tried to schedule, um, but I do plan to, um, try to find a, uh, time on his calendar and, uh, speak more. But in the meantime, I did look through, uh, you know, of course, every year warrants and all I do flip through that. So I did look through some of that, some, some of the finance committee's goals and, um, um, uh, and, and directives and what's involved and some of the articles, uh, in the war. And so I have, I have looked through that. Um, so those are, all look interesting work to me. And, and I, the other thing was, uh, from all the opportunities there for, you know, um, being a volunteer for, for any of the town activities, this one seemed like a little bit more sustained work and involved work, um, which, which is what I'm seeking. Um, you know, once in a blue moon, if there is something that doesn't keep you engaged, at least that's, that's, that's me. Um, but something more sustained work. And also I'm sort of semi retired, uh, at this point. So I do have the time to, to contribute. Um, now I don't know about the challenges Carl was or others with, uh, eluding to, but, um, you know, challenges are also opportunities to do something different. Okay. Um, just Miranda and Carol, just because I haven't been able to share this with you previously, but we had, um, a couple of people expressed interest in FinCom, like Satish, who didn't have, um, prior volunteer experience. So they were very much like the Rob Quimby who we appointed last year. And so he agreed to be willing to speak with them just to give the perspective of what it was like to be a new volunteer and to step onto the finance committee. So that was why I asked, I knew that you had, there was a connection there and you were going back and forth, but then they very nicely took me off the email chain. So I didn't have to stay there. Um, but I really, I appreciated, um, that Rob was willing to give his perspective as a new volunteer. So, okay. Um, Iris, do we have you back? I'm back. Can you folks hear me? Okay. Yes, certainly can. Yes. So Iris, hi, Iris, Carol. The last thing I heard you say, which I put a big star around was that the finance committee does important work. So if you can, once you said after that, we didn't, but I put big stars because that is absolutely the truth of the matter. But anyway, yeah, yes. Thank you. Yeah. The finance committee does a really important work. I mean, that is the truth of it. And I think our processes are changing and really my impetus, I think for continuing, um, if selected to really work on behalf of the town and as residents is to help, um, refine the processes around how the FinCom is going to continue its important work and how we work in concert with other boards and also with the town. I think that's really my thoughts. And as we know, an override is most likely coming up. And so I think it makes working through our processes all the more important to give us the space and bandwidth to then actually be able to do the really important work of reviewing the budget, thinking about forecasts, thinking about the future, thinking about override decisions. So that's really all I have to add. Great. Thank you. I appreciate that, Iris. Um, I think what I will do first is open it up to this, um, board for questions, and then we'll go back to the candidates and see if you guys have any other questions for us. Um, Carol, do you want to start? And I would say, whether you have a general question for folks or anything in particular for one of the candidates, fair game. Good morning. Thank you, everybody. First of all, we totally appreciate, um, you're stepping forward, whether you're asking for reappointment, which of course is so crucial to building strength on the finance committee, or you're returning to the finance committee, or you're just starting your journey. We totally appreciate it. It is really, and truly, as Iris said, extremely important work. The finance committee, as you know, recommends budgets to the time meeting. So you, you, the finance committee are the eye, I always say the eyes and the ears of the residents. Lots of them are very uncomfortable and unfamiliar with, uh, reading financial statements, charts, just maybe numbers in general, and they'll look for that recommendation, both in writing in the warrant and at town meeting. So it's really, really important work. And it is the finance committee's recommended budget that goes into the warrant, no matter how many forecasts, projections, charts you see, it is what the finance committee votes. And often they are in agreement with what has come forth from the finance team, but sometimes there are some, um, uh, changes, usually not too significant, but often there are. So, uh, Carl, I really appreciate what you did this year. You stepped up in the middle of, uh, the height of the, the season, uh, when, uh, the chair took sick and filled in his interim is a very challenging thing. We had an extremely challenging year for a number of reasons, especially with the onset of the, the SIPSE committee, which, uh, was not established until the fall. So they were a little late getting out of the gate. That should be smoothed out much better this year. So I really appreciate it, Carl. You know, I've had a lot of conversations, so I don't really have a question for you, but I am very glad to see you are, you are there and I appreciate your commitment to the town. I'll take that. Thank you.
Okay. Um, I'm going to, I'm going to, the next on the screen is Brian. So Brian, you made me laugh this morning here when you said, yeah, I've done a little volunteering for the town. Um, we just honored Brian at town meeting for his 25 years of volunteer work, and he has served on a multitude of heavy duty committees, uh, select board finance committee. Uh, now he's been on the SIPSE, which is rolling out the, the capital improvement planning committee. And there's a rollout here. It's really very, very, a lot of work to get things rolled out. Um, he has been kind of on the wrong word is cleanup, but, uh, he comes along and helps us. It comes back a year here and a year there to help us and his institutional knowledge and tremendous understanding of municipal finance will be of great help to us this year. So Brian, I appreciate that. And I was, I appreciate you coming back as well, or hoping to come back. I hope you're coming in for three years. Um, it's, it takes a while as, uh, both Terry and I are former FinCom members. And, uh, I think Terry, we were there 10 years on finance committee. Nine. And I was there 11 and nine. And it really takes you, when you come in, you think, okay, I got this, but it really it's around about the third or fourth year or really, really able to provide some, what we call some strength and depth to the committee. So appreciate that. Um, and I, I couldn't agree more with all of you that we do need to go back and look at the processes and make sure the finance committee is utilizing the tools that they have available to them. And then, uh, making sure that the tools are, are implemented and, uh, that we, that we're all rolling in the same direction. And, um, Satish, I really appreciate you stepping forward. Uh, I was reading a resume and said, my goodness, this is very, very, very, um, impressive background. I didn't see a lot of financials, but then I saw your all, you got your MBA at Babson, which is my alma mater. So I said, well, seriously, but, um, I would recommend that you, uh, if you haven't already read some of the minutes, uh, a lot of the minutes will be very helpful. I would recommend that you reach out to Carl or Iris O'Brien, um, uh, once we finish this meeting, assuming folks get appointed, um, they will be able to help you, um, on your journey. It's a, it's a really exciting, uh, rewarding, like you asked someone, I think Iris, you mentioned adding value. Um, it does. It's a really rewarding when you get it all together and you stand up in town meeting and you say to everyone, we seven people on the behalf of the 13,000 residents of this town have gone through all this. We have done our due diligence and we feel this is the right budget for the town for the next year. It's really terrific. So I obviously don't have any questions. I just wanted to say thank you all. Appreciate it. Thank you, Carol. Me? Yeah. Miranda. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Um, so I'm Miranda Jones. For those of you who don't know me, I'm the town moderator. I've have had zero experience on the finance committee and never will have any experience on the finance committee because I went to law school because they said no math. So I, um, truly appreciate, um, all of you willing, your willingness to volunteer. Number one, number two, I didn't realize there were so many, um, the finance committee had so many difficulties this past year. And so I appreciate your bringing that forward, that information forward. Um, the only question I have really is for Iris in terms of Iris, your term expired in June. And I don't know if you're seeking reappointment for three years or seeking a one-year term the way, um, Carl has requested or the way Brian has requested. Just wanted to sort of get a sense of what you were hoping to get. Yeah. Um, so I think that a multi-year appointment is on the table for me. I do think maybe a two-year appointment would perhaps be more prudent. Um, I do have a very young family. And so while I think I've fully, um, made the commitment and executed on the commitment to be there and be at all the meetings, the reality is at times it is a challenge with family obligations as well. So I think it's just one of those things that perhaps better to start with a two-year appointment for me and then see where I stand in two years. Yep. Fair enough. Thank you. I appreciate that. I know it's hard to juggle, um, work, family, and volunteer work. So, um, I guess then my question really is to Satish about, uh, and this, I'm not the person to answer your questions, but what questions do you have about what, um, it would be like to serve on the finance committee in terms of number of hours committed? Um, what's the work truly like, what are the challenges the finance committee is facing besides the, what's been mentioned, the, um, the anticipated override, but do you have questions about what would timeframe, the timing, or how much time this would take out of your life? I think is a big one. Yeah. Uh, I did have the opportunity to speak about that, which I, so I have some idea. Um, but yeah, certainly if, if anyone wants to add more to that, so I do understand it several hours a month and, uh, there is a busy timeframe like January onwards, um, where it will be quite involved, uh, which is fine and it's not a constant thing. It's more like, you know, um, peaks and valleys of work here. Um, so, so I, at a very high level, I do, uh, understand that. Um, but yeah, if, uh, you can add more to that or, uh, if Carl or anyone, you know, can speak to a little bit of those other challenges or, um, you know, what I should be prepared for. And I, so that you guys can please speak honestly. Am I muted? No. Um, so Carl and Iris and Brian, I, I was, uh, I think very honest with Satish about the workload in that, you know, January through March, as you do, uh, budget and article review preparation and review. Um, and also talked about the peaks and valleys that, you know, summer can be quiet, picks up a little in the fall, and then it hits when you do finally get numbers that you can look at and the art and the warrant closes. Um, but you guys have, I, um, and I also spoke about the transition, um, Iris, as you mentioned, when you started to the new bylaw with the town manager act that we really have not, um, fully met that yet. So if there's anything there that you want to add more, you know, please feel free to embellish. Cause I'm, I'm, I'm speaking, um, as an observer and as someone who did this process under an old bylaw. Yeah. I think I I'll take a first pass and Carl and Brian, if you guys want to add anything, I think they correct that it ebbs and flows. I would say in my mind, once you get into January through March, I think you're probably looking somewhere in the neighborhood of like 10 to 20 hours a week. I think that's realistic. And Carl, if you weren't spending that, I would be surprised. Um, so no, that was fair. Yeah. Okay. Good. Okay. Sorry. Sorry. Maybe that was not, not wisely, but, um, but, uh, just to be realistic, right. It is a commitment. Um, it can be done of course, but it is, it is a commitment that requires work that requires real work. I think the processes that I mentioned and my hope as, as the output of that would be that we could actually take what today is very lumpy in terms of time forecasted and start to reduce that lumpiness, um, and actually make it so we can take that really, really heavy push in the spring and start to normalize it across the year. There are articles that we know are yearly articles. Generally, even though the budget isn't delivered until the end of the year, we have many numbers beforehand. And so that's where I think myself and probably some of the other members are aligned that in an ideal world, we would relook at our processes to say, you can't wait until the very end to give us this information. It doesn't work. Frankly, in terms of both time commitment in the spring, and then also, um, us doing our due diligence, right. That very important work is us signing off and presenting the budget. And so I think in my mind, that's part of the goal for this year is how do we normalize some of that effort throughout the year. So by the time we get to the spring, there's still going to be a push, but it's not as large of an increase in effort. And we still have had the opportunity to get all the information in advance. So I agree with you completely. And I think sometimes it's not, I think that the, um, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think some of the lumps wouldn't occur if the strategy, if, if the finance committee had, uh, discussions about the strategy that is being used to put the budget together so that when it does come to you, there's underlying may not be agreement, but understanding of what has gone into it, which then would allow a discussion about, do you agree with it? And how did the numbers flow from that? And, and I think those are the things that, um, in having spoken with each of you individually, um, the three with experience are fairly aligned in where, in wanting to be part of an effort to accomplish that. Agreed. And I'll use the capital budget as an example, just to showcase this for those who might not have been as close, you know, SIPC approved and suggested a eight and a half. Iris, for those who don't know, can you just, SIPC is an acronym that you know well, but can you just. Oh, uh, yes. It's the capital improvement plan committee. Is that right? And planning. Okay. Thank you. And, um, thank you, Carol. Carol knows it best. Um, so, you know, they suggested, and I think it was about eight and a half million dollars in capital planning for the year. And by the time it came to us, it was up to over 13. And so we had a 5 million delta that came from the town and 5 million first off represents an over 50% increase, um, in a, in a one year capital budget. And on top of that, it didn't represent all the projects. I think that had been as thoroughly vetted, um, as we knew that the SIPC was taking the time to do. And so that's where, um, we were really under the gun, so to speak, to try to understand the deltas between what the town was suggesting to us versus the SIPC committee and trying to understand whether we should approve it. Ultimately, we made our own recommendations that were then taken back by the town and implemented. But in an ideal world, a lot of those conversations I think would have happened sooner. So we didn't have such a large delta, which in my mind represents a surprise, probably an unwelcome surprise to all parties. And I don't think it's our goal as a committee to, we don't want to be always pushing back and telling the town that they can't have the things they're asking for, but we do need to follow the processes that we've set up. And if there are issues with those processes, I would like to see those issues be fleshed out. So I'm going to talk to you. I do. So Carol, I, I, um, I don't want, my thought is that our finance committee appointing board should just take this feedback. We're not the ones to deal with it at this board level. Um, I, we're just, we're just interviewing candidates. This is actually going off and talking about something else as it is. So I think that we've gone off the rails, but, um, I don't want to, my apologies. I just meant to give an example as like something that we're looking forward to enhancing. That's all. Right. And I, and I think Carol, I'll say for you, this was the first year that SIPC did this. And so I think hopefully there's improvement all around. Um, but I would just, I am going to, I am going to hop in here though, Terry and say it isn't just SIPC. There was a, this was absolutely without a doubt, a perfect storm year. And unfortunately there were a number of things that need to be resolved. We are, Carl and I have had a number of conversations as I have also with the town manager. So we are in the process of smooth, as to you say, I was smoothing this out for next year, but, um, exactly. It's not, it's not, I'm not testing blame. I'm just saying for those who are new to understand, these are the kinds of problems that we're all after, right. That I think we're all aligned are worthy of us having continued discussions and improvement. Absolutely. And that was, are going to occur. So I don't know that they're part of being interviewed. However, um, trust me, these are duly noted and being worked on. One, one question I'm based on what Iris was saying, which prompted me is, um, uh, yeah, to smoothen it out. It means you are in constant, this is, I'm assuming you're in, you know, in, um, continuous touch with all the other committees and entities, you know, because whatever needs that are coming from us, which are part of the budget are coming from these various places. Right. So how, how, how do you guys go about keeping that a continuous, um, you know, touch base with the various needs of the town? So Carol, I'm going to, Carol, I'm going to ask one of the members of the finance committee to, to answer that. So I would say, um, first of all, I just want to be clear to Satish, I am not negative about any of this. I'm just critical of it. And I think there really is an opportunity here to make some changes. And I've been very gratified that, you know, Carol Martin has, has heard me and we are talking, she's supportive. So I, I think we have an opportunity. Um, um, to Iris's point, we did a really good job. I think with the capital budget last year and had some meaningful input into that. I do not think that was true of the, of the operating budget. And, uh, I think collectively we spent more time working on articles than we did on a hundred plus million dollar operating budget. It's just the way it was. And that's not, that's not the right way to go about it. So I'm going to draw back to your question. Um, I'm looking for opportunities for the finance committee to be much more involved in early stage discussions with the town. That is to say with the town manager and the finance director, they will start meeting. I mean, I'm, I know they've already started this, but you know, in earnest, they'll be, they'll be talking in July with their own direct reports with other committees to look for, you know, to begin to put together a budget. And I want us to be involved on that. I don't think they I've had no reason to think that we won't be, but I think that's really important. Um, because what'll happen is other, what did happen is we got a budget with very little time to look at it. And, um, you know, it's important work, but it's a little bit hairy when you just, you don't have any chance to enough of a chance to really look at it. So that's the way we're, we're planning, or I'm hoping let's put it that way to, to be more involved in that process, smooth it out so that we're not surprised by what it looks like in, in late January or February. The other thing, and this is, this criticism has come internally through the committee and not from the outside, but you know, there are people who think we spent a lot of time last year talking to ourselves and not talking to other people enough. And, um, um, you know, I'm hoping that if hoping you will want somebody else to be chair, um, uh, now, but I hoping that, you know, the chair will, will fix that and start talking and inviting people from other committees to, to talk to us and to tell us what's on their minds and what they need. Um, and for that matter, not only committee members, you know, the volunteers, but the paid employees of the town. So I hope that's, you know, some help. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Um, any other questions from the floor? No, no, I want to do any other questions from the four candidates.
No. Okay. Um, and then Miranda and Carol, if you don't have other questions, I'm going to thank the candidates. I'd pass that on the questions. Do you have any more questions, Sherry? Um, not after this discussion, I, um, was interested in folks commitment to help move forward in a constructive way and to move towards our bylaw. And I think we've covered that through the discussion. Um, you know, Iris and Carl, I, um, appreciate your candor and I think that it is, um, um, important and constructive. I mean, Carl, even though you were saying that it was, you know, critical, I think it was constructively critical. You're thank you. So no, but I do, I think you're because you've, I, you're not just criticizing, you've identified areas that you think need to be done better. So, um, I think that's important. And Satish, I think I alluded to that, but you certainly got a lot more information here than I could have given you specifically. So before you dismiss everyone, I think Satish, I, I should have introduced myself at the beginning. I didn't, I'm Carol Martin and I'm on the select board and I'm appointed this, uh, committee as the chair. So every time we have a new chair, then we have a new member from the select board is on the finance committee appointing board. Um, this is going to be my second year as the chair. And Ms. Carlson's over there rolling her eyes because she called me and said, what are you crazy? I haven't done this job as well. But, um, but we get to keep our committee intact. So I'm also the finance committee and the SIPCES select board liaison because they sort of all fit together. And so this is why when Carl says he speaks to me a lot, he's not kidding. Well, especially when we're trying to get the articles, you know, through the process and stuff. So so anyway, but I apologize for not introducing myself sooner. Sorry. Okay. On that note, Brian, you have anything else you've been, um, I've been unusually quiet because I'm, I'm trying to be more on listen mode and, uh, give the other, if I'm appointed, give the other members a chance to do their thing, uh, and be available as a resource. I have lots of thoughts about what folks have been talking about and hopeful that perhaps that appears in one of the first agenda, uh, items for the FinCom, uh, because I think, uh, there, there are plenty of things we can do to, you know, accomplish what, what folks want to accomplish here. Um, but anyway, I'm, I'm trying not to say too much. I appreciate that. Um, I did have one, one question, uh, for you, um, uh, were, uh, were I to be appointed today? Do you have a sense on when that appointment letter might be available? So I was just going, Brian, you like teed it up perfectly. Cause that's what I was going to finish with is, um, I'm going to say that when we made the appointment, um, there is a select board meeting on Monday night and we are inviting the FinCom and I did have it as a joint meeting, but I wasn't sure whether it would be a full quorum. So I've changed the agenda to just say, invite the FinCom for this is for the, um, year end transfers, uh, discussion and so Abby is listening to hearing as soon as we make the appointment, she's going to make the letter available so that if you are new, you can sign up Monday. No, no, the, um, if we choose to reappoint. So right now, Carl and Iris are still members of the finance committee on Monday, June 29th, they will still be members of the finance committee regardless of what we do today. Um, if we appoint Brian and Satish, they will, um, be appointed effective July one for whatever they're on one. Okay. Then you won't be a question. In my case for a one year appointment, since those two positions have been vacated, uh, wouldn't it be true that that could be appointed right away? So we're probably sure they won't have a call. We will, we will need to talk about that Brian in, I think that it's your call. I think the logistics of that are that we would have to appoint you to finish a term. I have to look, I wasn't ready for that question. So I just need to look at the term end dates and figure that out whether we are appointing you for a few days plus a year. I just have to, I need to look at that. That's your call. That's what I assumed you could do. That might be helpful. Yeah. Thanks for pointing that out, Brian. Yeah. Well, we'll look at the term end dates that we have available and how they, how they work with whether or not there's someone in the spots. So, um, but what will happen is as we deliberate and make a decision, um, I then do the appointment letters and we'll send them the, uh, um, email to, um, so basically I will let every, I will let all four of you know what's happening. If you haven't been watching, um, if you're appointed, I will send you, um, an appointment letter that needs to be taken to the town clerk. Um, they're not open tomorrow. Um, because they have summer hours, they are open late tonight. I think I can get it out later. Um, um, uh, but she would be open on Monday, so we can. So the only, the only person that sounds like that would be relevant for if you decide that you're appointing me to fill out a term, then I, I could go in and meet it. The other three, it sounds like, uh, those become effective July one. Yeah. So they don't, we'll, we'll figure, we'll figure that out. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So we don't, we don't need to go into, to the town manager's office to actually pick up a letter. You, we could just take our electronic version. Yeah. No, I'll send you a PDF version that you can print and take in with an electronic signature. Okay. Something new every day. I thought Abby did all the appointment letters. No, this one. This is one where we do the appointments. And so the letter comes from us, not from her office, not from that office. Yeah. One, one remaining question. If I could take the advantage of Carl being on the screen in front of me, without me, do you have a quorum, uh, available for Monday night? Well, I was going to get to that. Thanks for teeing that up. There's no quorum Monday night. We're not so sure we have one yet. Even with me. With you. Yes. Without, you know, um, well, let me put her on the spot. Iris, are you available Monday night? She's on. Yes. Okay. Uh, April is, uh, you would be Brian. Yes. Um, I haven't heard back from. Rob. I don't think I've heard back from Rob, Rob Quimby. Bill Hus is available. I think with you, I'm pretty confident we'll have a quorum. Okay. We will take that into consideration. I need to look at these dates. We will deliberate to the four of you. Thank you for joining us. I appreciate you sharing your work day, your vacation time, your morning with us. And, um, I'll get back to you. I'll make a sandcastle. Yeah. All right. Um, I am going to ask that you just, uh, leave the screen so we can have the three of us to continue our meeting. You are always welcome. It's a public meeting, so you can always listen. Um, thank you. We'll go from there. Thank you. Thank you all very much. Thank you. How do we leave the screen without leaving the meeting? Um, I'll move. I'll change you back. Yeah. Abby's going to take you away. Thank you all. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Abby. Oops.
There we go. Okay. You should be all set now. Yeah, we are. Thank you, Abby. All right. All right. Um, before we start, I'm going to need some help looking at these term expiry dates in a second, but let me just go here. So Carl was looking at one year. Brian was looking at one year. Um, Iris thought two, but we only have a three year available. We, we're not going to, we don't appoint if, if two years becomes the limit of what she can, she can resign. Yeah. And I'll talk that through with her assuming we appoint her. Um, okay. So the opening here is the positions that are open right now are Phil's and Pam's not that they own those. Okay. But both of those terms expire in a year. So they've both chosen to leave. Right. I know. I remember Phil's. They both resigned. Right. So those positions are both open right now. They both resigned effective. The end of town meeting. Yep. Hang on a second. I think Mr. Giudici resigned effective before town meeting. I think that was his letter. He was at town meeting, Carol. He was at town meeting. Effective town meeting then. At the end of town meeting. Both of them. Oh, that one's open to fill the term. So Phil's and Pam's are both open. Yeah. And they are both the one year positions. Yep. So, and I'm thinking out loud here. So correct me. So if we appointed it, when, when we appoint into the one year positions. Yep. The immediate immediate. Yep. Right. Yep. That makes sense. Yep. It does. Okay. So whereas with Iris, we could appoint her back to, we could just reappoint her and she can at two years, she can decide, resign if she would like. She, she will decide. And then Satish could step into, um, so what's left there. So Carl's position, Carl's, Carl's position because he wants a one year. Right. Okay. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Before we do that, I'd like to say that, um, I'm so, as I said earlier, I'm very happy that we have, um, some candidates that want to be reappointed or return to the finance committee. Cause as we, we've said to ourselves, um, both here on the meeting and you and I, Terry, I've talked over the years and said, you know, you really, it's, you need some, some institutional knowledge on helps to have on that committee. So I think that's terrific. And I appreciate that we have, um, a new candidate that's come forward, who seems to have a lot of interest and, uh, certainly we'll be able to ramp up quickly. So I, and I do want to just share with you so that you're thinking as you do these, um, there have been, um, I think three other people who have expressed interest, um, one of whom could wants to interview and could not make today's meeting. And so I did tell, um, um, um, it's a man, I did tell him that we would look at that we would coordinate with his schedule to do an interview. One of them, um, has done his homework and I think is not going to pursue it right now, but wants to do something else in town and would look at this again later. So good stepping stone there. Um, and I have one that is sort of in the, in the ether right now. So, um, five slots total at the moment, right? Exactly. So I'm just, but I want to be able to, I can't share with you guys otherwise. So I just want to share that information now. No, no, no, no, no. I'm just saying, but in total, we have five slots at the moment. We have four, four slash five candidates, possibly six candidates. Who am I missing? What spot am I missing that? Oh, April. What's April? It expires on the 20th, at the end of the month. She's not continuing. She is not. No. So she, so that's the open three year spot. Right. So she is technically available to go to the meeting on Monday. Um, he says she would. So yep. Great. Okay. She said, so then we need to think about, um, her three year spot. So then if we're playing strategy here, then you appoint Brian into. Bill. Okay. And her, and, and then we, when we appoint into her spot, it's a three years. That's fine. It's effective July one. Okay. That's fine. Okay. Yeah. I got it. So if you, if you were to lay it out, someone could say, so moved.
Okay. You want me to, you want me to do it here? Can I do this? So I, I would say it. And then someone will say, I know you, do you want me to make a motion? Sure. Um, as okay, go ahead. Try it. Yeah. All right. Here we go. I moved to, um, uh, appoint Carl Barnes into the one year position left open by Phil Giudice effective immediately. I moved to, um, so let's not say whose position it is because those don't exist. So, so let me back up. So if you, take notes, Miranda, let me try this. So I, I would like a motion. Yeah. Okay. That appoints Carl Barnes to a term ending 6 30 27. And Brian O'Herlihy to a term ending June 30, 2027. I move that. No, no, I want to say, and I'm going to appoint Brian O'Herlihy effective immediately. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. So let me, so let me just, I got it. Do you want me to try it now? Okay. I move that. We appoint, we reappoint Carl Barnes to a term ending June 30, 2027. I need a second. Why don't we just do them all together, Carol? Okay. Uh, I move that. We appoint Brian O'Herlihy, um, to the finance committee effective June 25th, 2026. Immediately. Immediately. It's fine. With a term ending June 30, 2027. Correct. Yep. I move that. We appoint Iris Hoxha to, uh, reappoint Iris Hoxha to a term ending June 30, 2029. Mm-hmm. And I move that. We appoint Satish Raj to a term ending June 30, 2029. All of them on the finance committee. Second. And Carl Barnes was a reappointment, correct? Right. I said that. Yep. Yep. So Carol made that motion. Miranda, I heard you second. Yep. Yep. And just to recap, Carol, you said, uh, reappoint Carl Barnes to a term ending 6, 3027. Appoint Brian O'Herlihy to a term ending 6, 3027. That appointment is effective immediately. Reappoint Iris to a term ending 6, 3029. And appoint Satish to a term ending 6, 3029. Okay. Yep. Okay. Um, is there any other question? If I didn't, I'd take those friendly amendments and that's the most. Um, any discussion? Um, I will just from a comfort perspective, um, I appreciated Satish's, uh, questions today and his, um, consideration of the, um, I'm going to call them challenges, but I, I use that in a positive way of the finance committee members wanting to move forward to move us towards the bylaw. Um, and that does match with what I talked with him about. So I appreciate that he's heard it in multiple ways and is still willing to continue. Um, and I know that we appreciate the others for being willing to help us yet again on finance committee. So yeah, all that knowledge, you know, I mean, to have five open positions is brutal. Yeah, no. And I appreciate their willingness to come back for lengths of time to help out. So, okay, great. So we have that motion in a second. We need to do a roll call vote. Yeah. Miranda. Yep. Aye. I'm sorry. I heard Miranda say aye, Carol. No, she said aye. Aye. Aye. So we, two yes and I'll say yes. So that's three to zero. Three to zero. Good. Um, and I will get those letters out today. Um, I'll try to remember I can copy you guys when I send them the PDF just so you know, they're done. Okay. Can I ask one quick question? Says, we sort of knew we had the same question this question last year, but I don't know that we realized the significance of it until we got to this year and ended up with, you know, I think many positions. How many vacancies will there'll be, uh, on June? Two. 27. Thank you. So the two one. And they will be, and they will be Carl and Brian. Okay. So two spots would roll over. That's it. And then how many in 28? I just want to make sure we're getting ourselves cheated. Sorry. I mean, we too, we are. So, which is why it's really important not to change the expiry dates when we put people in them. I know, you know that, but just, yeah. So next year it's two, the year after it's two. Um, but you know, there is life. And as we know, there were extenuating circumstances, both for Phil and Pam staying on to help with a young FinCom. So, you know, knowingly got into this situation, but it made it tough. Yeah. Yeah. We did know that, but I just want to make sure going forward, we're teed up well. And then again, 2029 will be a three year. Okay. So we're back. All things being equal. We should be back on our regular. Yeah. We've done the job that we're, we need to get done. Okay. Thank you. Before we go off of that. So I'm going to finish that agenda item. Our next one is recruitment going forward. And, um,
I, so I feel like we should update the recruitment statement just on what we've done and get it back out there. I respect that we have this other, um, gentleman who wants to interview, but I also feel that it would be good for the public to know that we've made a lot of progress. And if there's anyone else who then is not overwhelmed by the need for five people and might consider one, you know, I think that might be good. Yep. Um, nice if you had two or three to do. Well, that's just, it's always, it's always nice. And then, you know, there's always somewhere that they can, they can be. So in the first paragraph, we want to change that what's available, right? Yes. So we're looking for one candidate. No. Yeah. One candidate for a three-year term. All right. Okay. That's good.
One candidate for a three-year term. So it'll, it'll be this year. The FICAB is working for one candidate for a three-year term for a three-year term. And I don't know, as long as you guys are happy with how our editing by committee went, I don't think we need to change anything else except the going down to the second to last paragraph. Um, I will just say that we'll schedule interviews in July. Sure. Good guess. Yep. Great. So do we, I know I mentioned this before only because of the way the select board does it, but you know, this, this is a moderator appointed board where it says resumes are sent to the chair. We, we just send them all just into Abby and then she disperses. So I don't know. They don't come to me. They don't come to me. They all go to Abby. Yeah. So maybe his resume suggests Abby Warren and executive and leave the FICAB chair out. I guess the only reason I keep it is because we are under the, the moderator. Um, it's not Abby's. I know. That's why I'm asking, but maybe to go to the moderator, maybe, maybe to the moderator. I don't know, but it's, we, we're just to be so inclusive. I think, I think, I will, I will say I haven't had, um, well, that's not true. Some people in prior years, Carol, I know that you've talked with people who've then reached out to me with interest before reaching out to Abby, but I think everybody this time copied Abby on everything. So, um, you know, it's not like I'm getting, uh, yeah, we just insider information or that I'm vetting anybody prior. The, the only vetting is that I put them in touch with someone on the finance committee. So if they self vet out of the process, that's theirs, not. Abby does that for us on all the committees. We, they don't come through to the select board chair or anything that we, uh, appoint when we first see them. It's just when they come in, you know, for the interview, just trying to be more. Yeah. So I, I don't have to bring that up, but that is just saying the FCAB chair and care of, uh, because somebody has to coordinate it for the FCAB for the appointing committee. Oh, just resumes to Abby. It might not always be Cherry. It's just whoever the chair happens to be at the time. Abby's going to know, but Cherry may actually want to give up this lucrative gig she's got going on. That's for a future agenda. I'm trying to get us through this stuff here. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's actually, I will, I will check with Abby, but I don't think that. Yeah. I am comfortable leaving it as is. Yeah. Me too. I don't think it's Abby's decision to make. I think it's up to the committee here, but, um, anyway, I just pointed out that's what we do for the time. If you want to be consistent with what we do, if not, you leave it and we move on to the next item, which is the minutes and the minutes. I have, I had one change on the minute. Okay. So I changed my motion. I moved the minutes of May 15, 2026 as amended. Well, we haven't got, we haven't even discussed the minutes yet, but then we have discussion once the motion. We're just going to discuss it right now before we have. Okay. It's okay. So let me just hear. So Carol has moved us down the agenda to the minutes. Um, she made a motion, uh, Miranda. Yeah. Thank you. And then we'll have discussion. Um, very simple under the minute section of here, we approved the minutes without an amendment. So what do you mean? Um, under the minutes. So look at the draft minutes of me. Oh, yeah. Oh, we didn't amend. We didn't amend them. Got it. All right. Come out of her motion and the vote. And now, and now we're going to approve the minutes. Now we're going to amend. How's that for irony? Is that it? That was it. Very simple. Excellent. Thank you. I will change that. All right. So that was an emotion. So we have a roll call on it as amended. Yep. Um, any other discussion? We'll do a roll call vote. Carol? Yes. Miranda? Yes. Cherry? Yes. Three to zero. Thank you very much. Um, in terms of the next meeting date, if you guys want to give me a sense, um, sorry, had to get my calendar. I do want to coordinate at least with this person who has reached out already. Um, and do you have a sense when that's looking to be interviewed with? Could you give us a sense of that? I don't have that right now. Um, um, I would be willing to try to rearrange my schedule so we could, you know, be accommodating and, um, I, I can certainly reach out to him right after this. I just think we're going to end up having to schedule via email unless are you guys around? I'm not, I don't have any much availability next week. I'm pretty good the week after and the one after that. Is that the week after? Is that the week? I can make it, I can make things work. The 8th, 9th, 10th, 13th, 14th, 15th. Got to write some things down. I forgot to write down. Yeah. Okay. Um, so the 9th works for me. The 8th, um, the 8th, unfortunately I need to be a friend of mine is, is going before the governor's council to be confirmed as a judge and is asking it to show off. Oh, cool. Yeah. That's great. What time would we be doing it? Oh, and we can't do the 10th because they're not open on Fridays. Right. So what, what time would we be thinking if we did the 9th? Um, I have a, I have a meeting at 830 to 930 on zoom. Other than that, I'm, my schedule's wide open. 830 and 930 you said? Yeah. She's busy then. So it'd be like the only time. Yeah. It's the only time. I kind of look because I have stuff in the afternoon. So now this, oh, okay. Unless we did like, well, we met at 10 this morning. 10 works for me. 10 would work because I would need to be done by 11. But if it's only one candidate, right? Yeah. We could get that. We can bang that up. What about is just 13, 14, 15, any availability? You know what? I think technically we have our condo in Martha's Vineyard. So I may, I mean, I can do it from there. Do I want to? Yep. That's okay. But the 14th, I'm wide open. And 15th the morning, I'm open. We're zoom, right? So yeah, we're zoom. Um, I really don't know on those days yet. So, um, what did, what did you like? Uh, the 14th, I'm wide open. Um, what if we just do this 10 a.m. again? And then I'll something, are you all right, all of a sudden you went black? Oh, no, I'm here. Okay. 10 a.m. You're set on the 14th? Um, I can do 10.30. Okay. Okay. That's Bastille Day. All right. Let me just write that down. So 7.14 is Bastille Day. 26 at 10.30, correct? Mm-hmm. Okay. Or Thursday the 9th, right? At 10? At 10. Okay. And then you'll let us know, Terry. Yeah. Let me, I will get in touch with him today and that will give us time to get this out in case there's anyone else who would like to interview. So we don't actually have a next meeting date. We're just sort of waiting. No, we'll just, I will date with the candidate. Confirm with the one that we know of. I will get our recruiting statement back out there. So if somebody else is available, we'll know. Yep. Interested and available. Um, excellent. Okay. And then we'll confirm that. Um, okay. Any reports and concerns? Never. Never. Never. Carol, anything on your part? Lack of time? Yeah. I can't fix that for you. Well, I can't. They're going to get out ahead of the agenda schedule. Okay. So put it on the agenda for the next time. No, I, I think it's great. I feel really, it's my report is, is I'm very happy that I think we have, uh, solved what seemed like a rather large challenge. It seemed, it seemed daunting and I appreciate, um, willingness to step up. Thanks for pulling all these people together one time during the summer. You know what? It was amazing, um, that people were able to make the time that we picked like a month ago. And right. Yeah. Now it really, we are lucky to make it work. So it was great. Um, I think I'm just trying to check last time. As soon as you did that, I had all these things I wanted to quickly do. I'll send the letters out. I'll get the recruitment statement posted. Miranda, you're doing minutes. Yep. Um, and the one, the ones from the 15th, um, do you want to make those changes and I'm going to, I'll make them when we get off and then I'll send them to, uh, I'll send the line to my Senate. Who am I sending to Abby? I was waiting for you to tell me. I think, I think, I think they go to Abby now. I'll ask her, uh, but I'll send, I'll send a revise. I always send a revise finals. Yeah. Perfect. Um, I don't know if it's good. And I write down that it's the final draw. It's the final audit. Yeah. I'm not certain if they, this is silly. We should know, but I don't know whether they, I think it's Abby. Please send final minutes to town clerk at wayland.ma.us. I'm on that email. I need it for their files, but I'm on there. I'm on that thread. So you don't also have to copy me, um, and I'll post it to the website for you. Okay. Awesome. Thank you, Abby. Thank you. There's something new every day. All right. Now it's 1108. And now that Abby has taken care of us yet again, I'll take a motion to adjourn. So moved. So one of you be the second, Miranda and Carol, um, discussion roll call, Carol. I Miranda. Yeah. I cherry. Yes. Three zero. Thank you. Great. Thank you.