Board of Finance approves town auditor and accepts $171,843.63 in capital requests; larger capital-top-up deferred

The Town of Brooklyn Board of Finance voted April 15 to hire King, King & Associates, P.C. as the town's auditor and to accept the Capital Expenditure Requests presented by the Capital Committee totaling $171,843.63. The vote on the auditor followed a review of the single RFP response; Bob Smanik moved to approve the contract and Dave Lee seconded. The motion passed.

The board heard a presentation of the capital requests from Lou Brodeur and held a question-and-answer session before approving the $171,843.63 package. Dave Lee moved to accept the capital requests and Heather Allen seconded; the motion passed. Board members discussed whether to instead budget the full $310,000 to rebuild the capital balance, but Heather Allen said she did not think doing so this year was appropriate. The board deferred any final decision on allocating the full $310,000 to a future meeting.

Members also conducted a preliminary review of salaries and wages, covering union and non-union employees, step increases, cost-of-living raises, pensions, stipends and the Town Administrator's salary. Questions about the town financial reports were answered by Shelley Cates, who noted items including the nip fund, the MS4 permit and the Revenue Collector's collection rate of 98.5 percent.

The board recorded that the town audit is still in progress and that staff expect to receive it the following week; the auditors will present their findings to the Board of Finance when the audit is complete. The meeting adjourned at 9:02 p.m.; the board scheduled follow-up budget meetings for April 21 and April 22.