Westport News

Present:    Lisa Arnold (LA), Bob McCarthy (BM), Warren Messier (WM), Tony Vieira (TV), Hugh Morton (HM), Tracy Priestner (TP), Jack Baughan (JB), Chuck Goldberg (CG), John Miller (JM)

1.    LA, Chair, opened the meeting at 7:00 pm with the traditional salute to the flag.

2.    Report on BOS meeting:    LA started by saying that she attended last night’s BOS meeting.  Tony Roselli, the auditor, was in attendance with a review of the FY08 audit.  He presented the management letter.  He was highly complimentary of the town.  He mentioned that the average spent per person is $2,800 on the state level and only $1,900 for Westport.  He strongly recommended a grant manager and more automation of some offices in the town.  He also said there had been no changes at the Landfill since the audit.
    JM presented the idea of the audit committee to the BOS, which had been recommended by TR at some point.  (See attached.)
    JB stated that the BOH was supposed to come back to the Fincom with a more credible report to counter the TR report.  BM thinks that the BOH, TR, Fincom and the BOS all need to sit down and discuss the audit and what can be done.

3.    FY 10 Update:        Michael Coughlin was in attendance to give the Fincom the update on the cuts from the State.  (See attached.)  He came with good news regarding some of the State cuts the House made was restored.  The departments also came through with additional cuts to balance the budget.  He did explain to the Fincom that the school’s 0% increase in salaries and .5% increase for step 10 does not mention the fact that teachers will still receive the step increase which average around 5% between steps.

4.    Annual Town Meeting:    Steve Fors was in attendance to answer some questions regarding the procedures of town meeting.  He also commended the Fincom, Town Accountant, and MC on their hard work in presenting a balanced budget to the town.  

5.    Other:        LA would like to invite Elaine Ostroff to the next meeting to discuss the two articles on town meeting regarding disabilities planning.
        
Adjournment and next meeting: There being no further business to come before this meeting, JB moved and CG seconded a motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:05pm.  The vote in favor was unanimous.   The next meeting will be May 5th at 7:00 pm.
                            
Respectfully submitted,
Nicole Botelho, Recording Secretary