Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Capital Budget topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Supervisor orders hands-on review after errors found in capital budget classifications
Summary
Town board members flagged inconsistent headings and misclassified A/B capital items — including sidewalks, solar panels and the Odell House — and agreed to meet with new staffer Kimberly to reconcile the budget and clean up the packet before final adoption.
Supervisor opened the work session and said the board’s first item was the capital budget public hearing and a follow-up review of the draft capital schedule. The supervisor identified two sidewalk projects (Dopfosbury Road and Knollwood Road) that had been listed in the A budget but, he said, should be moved to the B budget. He also read a recent email noting that crisis-negotiation vehicle upgrades, animal-control vans and equipment, Motorola APX 4000 radios, an ambulance and the Odell House historic restoration were included as A items in the packet.
Committee member A and others said the packet’s headings were misleading — for example, a label that reads “town and tire” — making it hard to tell which column denotes A vs. B. Committee member A highlighted the solar panels for the town building as an example: because the panels relate to a building, they argued, the panels should be categorized as an A budget item, but the spreadsheet placement and headings made that unclear.
Committee member A also noted Kimberly is "brand new" and recommended a face-to-face review with an experienced official so she clearly understands A/B distinctions. Supervisor agreed to meet with Kimberly the next day to "clean up" the document and reconcile the placement of at least eight capital items that were listed in multiple sections of the packet, including the presentation narrative, the capital schedule and the itemized A/B budget pages.
The supervisor said the controller’s memo to Nancy Cabullian is "very, very clear" and that apart from the noted items, most capital expenditures should be in the B budget. Board members asked staff to provide a single, clarified set of pages and to relabel headings so the public and staff can follow which projects are in the A budget and which are in B. The meeting concluded this item with an agreement to meet and reconcile the packet prior to final action.
The board then moved into an executive session to discuss legal and personnel matters.
