September 18, 2025 – Finance Committee Appointing Board – Video & Transcript
September 18, 2025 - Finance Committee Appointing Board
Cherry Karlson: Jailyn making is
functional. I'm going to call us
to order Thursday, September 18
of 2025, at 330 in the
afternoon, via zoom. This is a
meeting of the Finance Committee
appointing board. This meeting
will be only remote. You can
join on the town website. We
will also take public comment
that way. There is no in person
attendance. We will have public
comment, as I mentioned, and you
can access that through the town
link. Let's see the meeting is
being recorded and will be
available on WayCAM, according
to their policies. So I'm going
to quickly. Oh, and today, we
have Carol Martin, Miranda Jones
and myself. Cherry Karlson,
okay, check all those boxes. I'm
going to review the agenda for
the public. Then we will have
announcements from the board and
any public comment. We'll look
at our minutes from the last
meeting in June. We'll look at
the annual reports that we can
submit it on time by the end of
the month. We'll talk about
recruitment efforts. We'll talk
about the leadership of this
committee and vote of chair for
the remainder of this year. We
can talk about next meeting
dates and reports and concerns.
I don't have any topics not
reasonably anticipated, and then
we'll adjourn close to four
o'clock today. So are there any
announcements from the board?
Okay, seeing none. We'll move to
public comment. Is there any
public comment?
Jailyn Bratica: I see no one.
Cherry Karlson: Okay, thank you,
Jailyn. So we will move on from
public comment. Let's take a
look at the minutes from June 3.
Carol. Thank you for putting
those together.
Carol Martin: I I forgot to put
draft minutes on the top. Sorry.
Cherry Karlson: It's okay. We
the the agenda calls them as
draft, so we're good. I There's
one. I'm not seeing it now. I
thought there was one typo. Oh,
bottom of the first page only
because my computer is picking
this up. Publicizing is missing
a C under Finance Committee
recruitment.
Carol Martin: Oh, that's the next second. That's the second second page. Oh, yeah, on my just put it in. Cherry. Can I ask you to do that? Miranda Jones: No, I just fixed that. Well, it should be, it should be a CI, not a CI, right? Not a Z. Carol Martin: Oh, yeah, there's not enough letters there. Miranda Jones: Yeah, you're missing two
Cherry Karlson: funny my autocorrect wants to make it publishing, but I will work on that. So, yes, Carol Martin: I think that's fair. I suppose. What was happening with me, and I kept trying to put it back and then eventually auto correct won. Because why don't we just take Cherry Karlson: it? I'm just going to go with auto correct and make it publishing it accomplishes the same thing candidates, including publishing the recruitment statement. Yeah, okay, I didn't have anything else, Miranda, did? Miranda Jones: You know? Nope, not at all. I can make a motion to adopt as amended or approved a motion to approve as amended. Excuse me, Carol Martin: Second. Thank you, Carol,
Cherry Karlson: as amended. Any other comments? Okay, so we have a motion to approve as amended. We'll do a roll call vote. Carol, yes. Miranda, yep. Carry, yes, it's three to zero on the minutes. Do I have someone who would take minutes Miranda Jones: I am doing it right now? Sorry, I should have told you that. Cherry Karlson: No, that's okay. Thanks. Miranda, Miranda Jones: yeah, of course.
Cherry Karlson: Okay, and I'll send those in, since I just made the change to the copy that I have, so I'll send them in so that we're online. Miranda Jones: Thank you. T The Okay, great, Cherry Karlson: but yeah, so I'll take care of that. Okay, the annual report. So due by the end of the month, I drafted this sort of based on what we did last year. Did it a little bit chronologically. I can easily get it to one page if we take out the vice chair and the second secretary line, seeing as we don't have anybody, Miranda Jones: yeah, I wouldn't, yeah. So yeah, you need, okay, yeah, I would get rid of those. There's no need Cherry Karlson: with the ex officio. I'll get rid of that. Miranda Jones: Yep, great. Okay, Carol Martin: we need a capital C and chair on Select Board, seeing how we have initial caps on the Miranda Jones: Yeah, it's a title that's fine. Give it a capital C, yeah. It would, okay, yeah, I would, yeah. Cherry Karlson: That's good, no, especially because it says member capitalized, chair should be capitalized, yes, so, and that's our role on this board. So, yes, right, Carol Martin: okay, I will say there's I make a motion to approve, but I, one thought, with what I did with the Select Board, um, annual submission. It's from the chair, but you know, really, the committee does the whole work, so I've submitted it, Respectfully submitted on behalf of the board. And I don't know if you'd like if there. This is a small committee. It doesn't matter. But I just thought, this one respect this on behalf of the committee, right? That sounds Yep. And then Cherry Karlson: I was just, it just comes that as you know, it just comes that way in the template. So I have no issue with that, so I'll make that change, Carol Martin: right? That was the same with we said, but I thought, I mean, I've got five members more, all doing the work. So, all right, so I'm going to move that we approve the 2025, annual report submission as amended.
Miranda Jones: I will second discussion. Yep,
Cherry Karlson: any thing else I chose in the draft. I did not put in the names of the candidates that we interviewed. I just went with what the process was, okay. I just wanted to make certain that I called that out there Miranda Jones: in our meeting minutes with these people, exactly. Cherry Karlson: It's very easy to this is, yeah, just a report, simple report, agreed of her important work. Carol Martin: Jailyn will have her happy face on with us now. I know I got a big list yesterday who wasn't in. Cherry Karlson: Oh, I Jailyn knew that this is when we were meeting, so I know. Okay, so we have a motion and a second to amended any other discussion. No hearing, none. We'll take a vote, a roll call vote. Miranda, Miranda Jones: yes. Carol Yes. Cherry Karlson: Cherry, yes. Three to zero. Thank you guys, sure. Recruitment. Jailyn, you know, has done a couple of things for us. She got a blurb in the town newsletter that then linked through to the more complete statement, and she right after labor day of school was really getting going, she reposted the recruitment statement, and I just updated the dates at the bottom because it was a little stale after our January meeting, but I didn't make any changes To the body of it. And we do have one gentleman who is doing research with the chair and the former vice chair, and that was active last week, so I'll reach out to him following this meeting and see if he has done enough homework that if he's interested in continuing. But we do have two open seats right now. There is a piece in the packet, but it just shows that, you know, with the resignation, we now have one seat expiring in 27 and one in 28. Pam Roman has been, you know, very helpful, and is still there. But, you know, pending any other information, we do still have one seat. We have two seats to fill right now, and one active candidate. And so I would just say, if you've got other ideas, Carol, I know we had talked before about whether or not we wanted to put anything in the in the town newspaper that gets mailed to everybody, you know, I have Carol knows, I've touched base, you know, individually with other people on the Select Board, just to say that we're looking. I know the Chair of the Finance Committee is, you know, actively looking, Miranda Jones: I'm sorry. Besides, Pam, who else do Unknown: we have the we had the resignation from Michael Hoyle. Michael Hoyle, thank you. I was going to say the gentleman that that was chair, right? So, and he started a new job and needed to resign immediately. Miranda Jones: So that was, yeah, but, but he's not even listed on here. Unknown: No, once they once they resign. the way the software works, Miranda, it comes off, which, okay, fortunately, it doesn't list the open seat. But you can tell by the expiry dates that it would have been 2027, yeah, okay, a two year position and a three year position.
Carol Martin: And we are grateful Tom, I'm sorry, Miranda Jones: sorry we have, currently have two seats we need to fill. Yes, and Pam is just hanging on, hanging on until we find her replacement. Okay, we Carol Martin: are most grateful to her for that, because being an invaluable resource for the new chair who is only in a second year of the finance committee, so the institutional knowledge is just invaluable. Cherry Karlson: And when I do have candidates, I do and I handle it all in one email so they all know. But I do have them reach out to the Chair of the Finance Committee, but I also suggest they reach out to Pam, just because of the depth of her knowledge. And I figure that gives anyone a good balance, okay? And then I also share, you know, where they can find information about the Finance Committee, just in terms of, you know, the report and the warrant and the website, that type of thing,
Miranda Jones: okay? Cherry Karlson: So that's where we are. I think a. As I said, I will reach out to this gentleman and see if he wants to move forward. I think we asked Jailyn to push the statement again, yeah, like the first of October, and just see. And you know, as you speak with people mention it. Yeah. Miranda Jones: Yeah. Question for you these meetings, are they typically in person or hybrid or a combination, or does it vary from meeting meeting to meeting Carol Martin: hybrid? Miranda Jones: Okay, great, because I just there is somebody, I think she's in Europe right now, based on her Instagram post, there is somebody that I might try and recruit, see if she can do it. Carol Martin: Yeah, so I do want to add that with the since the days that Cherry and I were there, right, I believe that the workload has reduced for a number of reasons. One is with the adoption of the Town manager act. You know, the development and the responsibility for developing the budget comes through to them versus they were more involved with the second. The second thing is that and the Tom manager is also responsible for the developing the capital plan, but with the addition of the capital and planning and improvement committee, yes, I had thought I had it backwards. You know, they're going to focus, hopefully around on capital, but they are also going to now write the blurbs that go with the annual capital
Cherry Karlson: to shared responsibility, Carol Martin: yeah, well, there's, there's some more work that we're taking, you know, I'm sure they're going to be very sad to not have to do. And finally, we're having a conversation at the Select Board level, and I'm saying, Oh, this, okay, someone's watching this. You know, for recruitment, we are looking at find ways to not reduce the quality, but to streamline the annual or the warrant, we think that's gotten a little might be a little more, bigger is better. We're hoping that we can because I think when you hand someone, as I've said, 130 page nonfiction book and they got to read in two weeks, I'm not sure that we're accomplishing our goal. So one of the things is, we've had conversation with the finance committee chairs, both the former and the current, about really streamlining, for example, the report, which is another big project that they take on. And so these are things that I think should add to make being on a finance committee more Miranda Jones: palatable, Carol Martin: palatable. Iir'm just gonna say the same thing, and that's part of the reason why I think it's important that our interested candidates talk with the current chair and the former chair, because it has changed so much since we right. And I mean, they haven't quite finalized that they're going to make no but they're working. We're working in that direction. So, you know, instead of doing a 20 page report, you guys are doing like an eight, I'm making it up. Yeah, that's half the work, isn't it? Miranda Jones: So the more we reduce the volume of of stuff at town meeting, the better whatever way it takes, right? Carol Martin: Yeah, Miranda is my partner in crime. Miranda Jones: We must maintain transparency. So now I am, I'm working on it might logistically on my end about how can I cut back on my end time? Carol Martin: So, like, what has established is to try to do some streamlining on that. Miranda Jones: So, yeah, no, I think we will. We will bring more people to it. Yes, with one one night. Other towns can get done even more warrant articles than we have and get it done in one night. Town of North Andover, they often have 3000 people show up, and they still get it done in one night. So, yeah, yeah, yeah, alright. Unknown: Well, that's that's where that stands, as we have in the past, as I get candidates, I'll just let you know that we have someone you know in the pipeline, and if this gentleman is interested in going forward, I'll get dates out so that we can find a time to interview Miranda Jones: right? Super, okay, do that Cherry Karlson: sixth on the agenda is leadership. I forgot to put this on our agenda in June, but I do want to make certain that we formally elect a chair to serve for the remainder of this fiscal year. So are you running? Carol Martin: I have zero interest in this chair. Totally. Why? Since I talked to you the other day, I picked up another committee or two. I'm going to move. I move. Miranda Jones: I think. Can I tell you I'm becoming a grandmother. Okay? I think abilities coming my way. Unknown: I think we actually have a very nice balance of workload. So I Yes, I would be willing to do it. Miranda Jones: That is wonderful. Carol Martin: I move when we I move that we nominate, I guess, oh, I nominate, that's the right phrase. I nominate Cerry Karlson as the chair for FY 26 of the Finance. Committee appointing board. Miranda Jones: I second that nomination. Unknown: Thank you guys are funny. Is there any other discussion on the topic? Hearing none. Carol Martin: None. Not a word. Cherry Karlson: We'll do a roll call vote. Carol, Carol Martin: yes. Miranda, yes, yes. Unknown: Cherry, yes. Thank you guys. I appreciate Miranda Jones: a major campaign. Cherry ran. It was, you know, this is the kind, this is a good that's the right way to do it. Next on here we have determine the next meeting date. I just think that's, it's premature right now, so I will reach out to you in one of those administrative emails when we have someone to interview, yep, Carol Martin: okay, I probably will be the challenge round on that. So can you give us three or four dates? Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah. Thank you. Cherry Karlson: Any reports and concerns from you? Nothing going on? Okay, no, look at that. We did. It's at 346
Carol Martin: I move we adjourn at 346 Miranda Jones: motion to adjourn. Cherry Karlson: Okay, we there any other discussion? I hearing? None. We'll do a roll call. Vote. Miranda, yes. Carol Martin: Carol, oh yes, yes, Cherry Karlson: three zero to adjourn at 346 thanks for getting through this agenda, and I'll keep you posted on our candidate. All right, it's great to see you both. Thanks for.
Carol Martin: Oh, that's the next second. That's the second second page. Oh, yeah, on my just put it in. Cherry. Can I ask you to do that? Miranda Jones: No, I just fixed that. Well, it should be, it should be a CI, not a CI, right? Not a Z. Carol Martin: Oh, yeah, there's not enough letters there. Miranda Jones: Yeah, you're missing two
Cherry Karlson: funny my autocorrect wants to make it publishing, but I will work on that. So, yes, Carol Martin: I think that's fair. I suppose. What was happening with me, and I kept trying to put it back and then eventually auto correct won. Because why don't we just take Cherry Karlson: it? I'm just going to go with auto correct and make it publishing it accomplishes the same thing candidates, including publishing the recruitment statement. Yeah, okay, I didn't have anything else, Miranda, did? Miranda Jones: You know? Nope, not at all. I can make a motion to adopt as amended or approved a motion to approve as amended. Excuse me, Carol Martin: Second. Thank you, Carol,
Cherry Karlson: as amended. Any other comments? Okay, so we have a motion to approve as amended. We'll do a roll call vote. Carol, yes. Miranda, yep. Carry, yes, it's three to zero on the minutes. Do I have someone who would take minutes Miranda Jones: I am doing it right now? Sorry, I should have told you that. Cherry Karlson: No, that's okay. Thanks. Miranda, Miranda Jones: yeah, of course.
Cherry Karlson: Okay, and I'll send those in, since I just made the change to the copy that I have, so I'll send them in so that we're online. Miranda Jones: Thank you. T The Okay, great, Cherry Karlson: but yeah, so I'll take care of that. Okay, the annual report. So due by the end of the month, I drafted this sort of based on what we did last year. Did it a little bit chronologically. I can easily get it to one page if we take out the vice chair and the second secretary line, seeing as we don't have anybody, Miranda Jones: yeah, I wouldn't, yeah. So yeah, you need, okay, yeah, I would get rid of those. There's no need Cherry Karlson: with the ex officio. I'll get rid of that. Miranda Jones: Yep, great. Okay, Carol Martin: we need a capital C and chair on Select Board, seeing how we have initial caps on the Miranda Jones: Yeah, it's a title that's fine. Give it a capital C, yeah. It would, okay, yeah, I would, yeah. Cherry Karlson: That's good, no, especially because it says member capitalized, chair should be capitalized, yes, so, and that's our role on this board. So, yes, right, Carol Martin: okay, I will say there's I make a motion to approve, but I, one thought, with what I did with the Select Board, um, annual submission. It's from the chair, but you know, really, the committee does the whole work, so I've submitted it, Respectfully submitted on behalf of the board. And I don't know if you'd like if there. This is a small committee. It doesn't matter. But I just thought, this one respect this on behalf of the committee, right? That sounds Yep. And then Cherry Karlson: I was just, it just comes that as you know, it just comes that way in the template. So I have no issue with that, so I'll make that change, Carol Martin: right? That was the same with we said, but I thought, I mean, I've got five members more, all doing the work. So, all right, so I'm going to move that we approve the 2025, annual report submission as amended.
Miranda Jones: I will second discussion. Yep,
Cherry Karlson: any thing else I chose in the draft. I did not put in the names of the candidates that we interviewed. I just went with what the process was, okay. I just wanted to make certain that I called that out there Miranda Jones: in our meeting minutes with these people, exactly. Cherry Karlson: It's very easy to this is, yeah, just a report, simple report, agreed of her important work. Carol Martin: Jailyn will have her happy face on with us now. I know I got a big list yesterday who wasn't in. Cherry Karlson: Oh, I Jailyn knew that this is when we were meeting, so I know. Okay, so we have a motion and a second to amended any other discussion. No hearing, none. We'll take a vote, a roll call vote. Miranda, Miranda Jones: yes. Carol Yes. Cherry Karlson: Cherry, yes. Three to zero. Thank you guys, sure. Recruitment. Jailyn, you know, has done a couple of things for us. She got a blurb in the town newsletter that then linked through to the more complete statement, and she right after labor day of school was really getting going, she reposted the recruitment statement, and I just updated the dates at the bottom because it was a little stale after our January meeting, but I didn't make any changes To the body of it. And we do have one gentleman who is doing research with the chair and the former vice chair, and that was active last week, so I'll reach out to him following this meeting and see if he has done enough homework that if he's interested in continuing. But we do have two open seats right now. There is a piece in the packet, but it just shows that, you know, with the resignation, we now have one seat expiring in 27 and one in 28. Pam Roman has been, you know, very helpful, and is still there. But, you know, pending any other information, we do still have one seat. We have two seats to fill right now, and one active candidate. And so I would just say, if you've got other ideas, Carol, I know we had talked before about whether or not we wanted to put anything in the in the town newspaper that gets mailed to everybody, you know, I have Carol knows, I've touched base, you know, individually with other people on the Select Board, just to say that we're looking. I know the Chair of the Finance Committee is, you know, actively looking, Miranda Jones: I'm sorry. Besides, Pam, who else do Unknown: we have the we had the resignation from Michael Hoyle. Michael Hoyle, thank you. I was going to say the gentleman that that was chair, right? So, and he started a new job and needed to resign immediately. Miranda Jones: So that was, yeah, but, but he's not even listed on here. Unknown: No, once they once they resign. the way the software works, Miranda, it comes off, which, okay, fortunately, it doesn't list the open seat. But you can tell by the expiry dates that it would have been 2027, yeah, okay, a two year position and a three year position.
Carol Martin: And we are grateful Tom, I'm sorry, Miranda Jones: sorry we have, currently have two seats we need to fill. Yes, and Pam is just hanging on, hanging on until we find her replacement. Okay, we Carol Martin: are most grateful to her for that, because being an invaluable resource for the new chair who is only in a second year of the finance committee, so the institutional knowledge is just invaluable. Cherry Karlson: And when I do have candidates, I do and I handle it all in one email so they all know. But I do have them reach out to the Chair of the Finance Committee, but I also suggest they reach out to Pam, just because of the depth of her knowledge. And I figure that gives anyone a good balance, okay? And then I also share, you know, where they can find information about the Finance Committee, just in terms of, you know, the report and the warrant and the website, that type of thing,
Miranda Jones: okay? Cherry Karlson: So that's where we are. I think a. As I said, I will reach out to this gentleman and see if he wants to move forward. I think we asked Jailyn to push the statement again, yeah, like the first of October, and just see. And you know, as you speak with people mention it. Yeah. Miranda Jones: Yeah. Question for you these meetings, are they typically in person or hybrid or a combination, or does it vary from meeting meeting to meeting Carol Martin: hybrid? Miranda Jones: Okay, great, because I just there is somebody, I think she's in Europe right now, based on her Instagram post, there is somebody that I might try and recruit, see if she can do it. Carol Martin: Yeah, so I do want to add that with the since the days that Cherry and I were there, right, I believe that the workload has reduced for a number of reasons. One is with the adoption of the Town manager act. You know, the development and the responsibility for developing the budget comes through to them versus they were more involved with the second. The second thing is that and the Tom manager is also responsible for the developing the capital plan, but with the addition of the capital and planning and improvement committee, yes, I had thought I had it backwards. You know, they're going to focus, hopefully around on capital, but they are also going to now write the blurbs that go with the annual capital
Cherry Karlson: to shared responsibility, Carol Martin: yeah, well, there's, there's some more work that we're taking, you know, I'm sure they're going to be very sad to not have to do. And finally, we're having a conversation at the Select Board level, and I'm saying, Oh, this, okay, someone's watching this. You know, for recruitment, we are looking at find ways to not reduce the quality, but to streamline the annual or the warrant, we think that's gotten a little might be a little more, bigger is better. We're hoping that we can because I think when you hand someone, as I've said, 130 page nonfiction book and they got to read in two weeks, I'm not sure that we're accomplishing our goal. So one of the things is, we've had conversation with the finance committee chairs, both the former and the current, about really streamlining, for example, the report, which is another big project that they take on. And so these are things that I think should add to make being on a finance committee more Miranda Jones: palatable, Carol Martin: palatable. Iir'm just gonna say the same thing, and that's part of the reason why I think it's important that our interested candidates talk with the current chair and the former chair, because it has changed so much since we right. And I mean, they haven't quite finalized that they're going to make no but they're working. We're working in that direction. So, you know, instead of doing a 20 page report, you guys are doing like an eight, I'm making it up. Yeah, that's half the work, isn't it? Miranda Jones: So the more we reduce the volume of of stuff at town meeting, the better whatever way it takes, right? Carol Martin: Yeah, Miranda is my partner in crime. Miranda Jones: We must maintain transparency. So now I am, I'm working on it might logistically on my end about how can I cut back on my end time? Carol Martin: So, like, what has established is to try to do some streamlining on that. Miranda Jones: So, yeah, no, I think we will. We will bring more people to it. Yes, with one one night. Other towns can get done even more warrant articles than we have and get it done in one night. Town of North Andover, they often have 3000 people show up, and they still get it done in one night. So, yeah, yeah, yeah, alright. Unknown: Well, that's that's where that stands, as we have in the past, as I get candidates, I'll just let you know that we have someone you know in the pipeline, and if this gentleman is interested in going forward, I'll get dates out so that we can find a time to interview Miranda Jones: right? Super, okay, do that Cherry Karlson: sixth on the agenda is leadership. I forgot to put this on our agenda in June, but I do want to make certain that we formally elect a chair to serve for the remainder of this fiscal year. So are you running? Carol Martin: I have zero interest in this chair. Totally. Why? Since I talked to you the other day, I picked up another committee or two. I'm going to move. I move. Miranda Jones: I think. Can I tell you I'm becoming a grandmother. Okay? I think abilities coming my way. Unknown: I think we actually have a very nice balance of workload. So I Yes, I would be willing to do it. Miranda Jones: That is wonderful. Carol Martin: I move when we I move that we nominate, I guess, oh, I nominate, that's the right phrase. I nominate Cerry Karlson as the chair for FY 26 of the Finance. Committee appointing board. Miranda Jones: I second that nomination. Unknown: Thank you guys are funny. Is there any other discussion on the topic? Hearing none. Carol Martin: None. Not a word. Cherry Karlson: We'll do a roll call vote. Carol, Carol Martin: yes. Miranda, yes, yes. Unknown: Cherry, yes. Thank you guys. I appreciate Miranda Jones: a major campaign. Cherry ran. It was, you know, this is the kind, this is a good that's the right way to do it. Next on here we have determine the next meeting date. I just think that's, it's premature right now, so I will reach out to you in one of those administrative emails when we have someone to interview, yep, Carol Martin: okay, I probably will be the challenge round on that. So can you give us three or four dates? Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah. Thank you. Cherry Karlson: Any reports and concerns from you? Nothing going on? Okay, no, look at that. We did. It's at 346
Carol Martin: I move we adjourn at 346 Miranda Jones: motion to adjourn. Cherry Karlson: Okay, we there any other discussion? I hearing? None. We'll do a roll call. Vote. Miranda, yes. Carol Martin: Carol, oh yes, yes, Cherry Karlson: three zero to adjourn at 346 thanks for getting through this agenda, and I'll keep you posted on our candidate. All right, it's great to see you both. Thanks for.