Clarksburg Reviews Financial Procedures, Bridge Projects
 The Finance Committee and Selectmen met on Monday to review several items. |
CLARKSBURG, Mass. — Officials are stressing that financial procedures be followed to prevent issues from slipping through the cracks or being blamed on the town's financial team.
"This is important that we're on all the same page," Finance Committee Chairman Mark Denault said on Monday. "I'm looking for the future, anybody should be able to step into this role and know there are procedures to protect us."
The joint meeting with the Select Board was held to review potential financial stumbles and several issues that had arisen. Officials have been trying in recent years to keep the town's spending and monetary processes in check after running into a series of fiscal woes.
Meeting with the town's financial team, the Finance Committee had initially been concerned that an invoice procedure set up a couple years ago was not being followed after a dispute arose over where the funding for a new computer was coming from.
Town Treasurer Melissa McGovern-Wandrei, however, assured the board that the paperwork was being used, including pulling some samples for them to review. The problem was that in the case of the computer, that had not been done.
Officials agreed that the forms had to be signed off by a department head and checked by McGovern-Wandrei, who paid the bills, and Town Accountant David Fierro, who made sure the money was in the account.
"If it was a form that has to be turned into you, and if you don't sign off on it, it doesn't get ordered," Denault said. "The department heads need to be watching their budget and they're expecting Melissa and Dave do it for them."
McGovern-Wandrei also told the board that there was sometimes a significant delay in billing being forwarded to her for payment. A liability insurance bill that should have been paid more than a month ago was now late, costing the town some $2,300 in discounts that had been factored into the budget. Invoices were also frequently coming in without the vendor account numbers on them, forcing her or Fierro to spend time looking them up.
"If you see people not paying their bills you have to let us know that," Select Board member William Schrade said.
Denault said he didn't want to push more responsibility on Town Administrator Carl McKinney but that it may be necessary to reconsider who was in charge of which bills. Fierro asked if a memo could be sent out alerting employees and department heads to submit their bills properly and in a timely manner.
McKinney said he would prepare a memo for distribution.
"You have to hold people accountable," Denault said, assuring the treasurer and accountant he would support them. "It's hard, it's uncomfortable but you have to do it."
In other business, McKinney said he had spoken with the state Departments of Transportation and Revenue about a proposal to do the Gates Avenue bridge replacement over a single weekend. Doing that could save the town significant money on the project but would require putting the six families on Gates Avenue in a hotel for the weekend.
The state had told him that it was "a local decision on whether it is part of the road repairs," which would allow the funds to be taken from the Department of Public Works. He estimated the cost at roughly $6,000 for three nights.
Lori-Anne Aubin, who had agreed to return to the Finance Committee so it could function, reminded her colleagues that taking the money away would affect repairs and replacement projects for the DPW this year.
"We gave him a significant increase in his budget to get these things done," she said.
McKinney said he was still working on the proposal, and suggested a special town meeting could take the funds from the stabilization account if needed. A meeting would have to take place soon to decide a feasibility study for Clarksburg School, he pointed out.
He also informed the Finance Committee that the town would have to close part of the culvert crossing on Cross Road at Stoney Brook.
State bridge inspectors had dropped the bridge's rating from a 5 to near failure.
"We will need to have a partial closure," he said. "If we did a full-lane closure, we could double the weight [going over it]."
That would allow fire trucks and DPW vehicles to continue to use it for now.
Tags: bridge work, Finance Committee, municipal finances,
