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Old Town council adopts credit-card policy, authorizes bank line, approves purchases, renews animal-control contract and moves to executive session
Summary
At its Nov. 18 meeting Old Town City Council adopted a new credit-card policy, authorized a bank line of credit of up to $50,000 and delegated signature authority to Finance Director Edmund Minen; it also approved a small bookkeeping transfer, library computer replacements, tax write-offs for listed mobile-home properties and renewed the county animal-control contract before entering executive session on a personnel matter.
The Old Town City Council on Nov. 18, 2024, approved a package of routine but consequential measures: adoption of a revised credit-card policy, authorization for a bank line of credit to support city-issued cards, several small appropriations and account corrections, renewal of the county animal-control contract, and a vote to enter executive session on a personnel matter.
On the credit-card policy, the council adopted the proposed policy as presented and authorized the finance director to enter into an agreement with Bangor Savings Bank for a line of credit up to $50,000 to support the issuance of city-owned credit cards. The council further authorized Finance Director Edmund Minen to sign any associated contracts. Staff said the move followed the transfer of investments from a trust account and that the bank's card product offers features such as a mobile app for uploading receipts.
The council approved a $355 transfer from airport hangar revenue to the airport hangar reserve to correct prior bookkeeping, a motion described by staff as "putting it back in" to properly account for earlier receipts. It also approved $3,486 from the IT replacement reserve for the purchase of four public laptops and five staff desktops for the library; staff said the work will be performed by preferred vendor SJ Rollins under the city's IT services agreement.
Councilors authorized writing off certain uncollectible real-estate taxes, interest and lien costs associated with listed mobile-home properties; staff cautioned that if the city takes ownership of abandoned units it would also inherit responsibility for monthly park-lot payments, which the city prefers to avoid.
The council renewed its annual animal-control agreement with Penobscot County at the rate specified in the contract, which the packet shows increased from $17 to $17.75 per hour. A councilor asked whether the police department is involved in responding to animal-control complaints or whether those calls go directly to the county contractor; staff said the city had reminded the contractor to route calls through city dispatch first and noted the contractor is shared with neighboring communities.
Finally, the council voted to go into executive session to discuss a personnel matter under the statutory citation listed in the packet ("MRSA Title 405 Section 6"). The public portion of the meeting then concluded.
