Board of Finance: Auditor Finds Town "Really Well Run", Valentine Questions STEAP Grant Process
All board members attended the October 25th meeting except Pat Reilly, Sr who was excused.
Chairman Alan Walker Sr. and board member Bob Valentine attended the meeting via Zoom. First Selectman Todd Carusillo, Sharon Turnpike resident Toby Geiger, and accounting firm Sinnamon & Associates auditor George Sinnamon also attended the meeting. Minutes from previous meeting were unanimously approved.
Sinnamon presented a 53-page audit report draft for the fiscal year ending in June this past summer. Sinnamon stated. “You’re in excellent financial shape and we have no findings in the audit… We did have a couple of things we had to correct…regional school district six distribution that was coming out. You guys were well aware that this money was coming as of last November. They sent you $247,000 in two installments…the first one, end of July of 2023. The next one is supposed to be here in the end of July 2024… It was not recorded in your books as receivable. We made an audit adjustment to record it as receivable on June 30, 2023 as revenue for the 22-23 year.” The town’s ending General Fund Balance was $2,674,987, creating a $1,031,590 surplus compared to the Expected Balance Ending of $1,643,397. Goshen’s current net worth is $5,455,000. Valentine motioned to receive Sinnamon’s audit report. This was unanimously approved.
Carusillo’s gave the First Selectman’s Report. Valentine asked him if the Board of Finance was included in a discussion to match the STEAP grant for $500,000 to be used for the new Public Works Storage Facility. “I get concerned… if you’re pre-supposing that the Board of Finance will appropriate $500,000 when we haven’t been asked about that proposition.”
“It’s a matter of process”, Valentine continued. “The Board of Finance is the Budgeting Authority. If the Board of Selectmen is going to commit the town to $500,000 one would think that you would have that discussion with the Board of Finance before you told the State of Connecticut, you were gonna commit a half million dollars.” Valentine also commented that in looking at grants awarded to other towns, not every one had a “1 for 1” matching requirement. “There are some municipalities that have a very small match”. He asked Carusillo if he had missed something.
“No, you didn't miss that Bob,” responded Carusillo. “Going into this, I thought that everybody knew that it’s probably going to cost close to a million dollars to build this building.”
“How would we know that?” Valentine responded. “I haven’t heard that number.”
Carusillo replied confirming that it is a matching grant. “My point is you told us there was going to be an application for $500,000”, Valentine stated. “You never mentioned to the Board of Finance that we would need to appropriate $500,000 as well and it puts the Board of Finance in a position whereby they’ve not had an opportunity to know that, or discuss that, or to talk about it before you committed us. That’s my concern.”
After stating he would try to include them in the future, Carusillo then divulged specific details on the site plan for the storage facility in addition to receiving a building design from the Branford-based Pat Munger Commercial Construction Company. This is despite designers and contractors for the building not going out for bid yet. According to Carusillo, Public Works Supervisor Garret Harlow took some design recommendations from Public Works and the Goshen Fire Company and contacted a few designers to draft a design to use in the grant process for the state. Munger was the only company to respond with a design. The Building Committee that was appointed by the Selectmen to develop a plan for the construction of the storage facility has not yet determined a budget for the building yet, but once one is drawn up, Carusillo will bring it to the Board of Finance. Valentine stated, “It seems to be not very much out there other than a few people who know what this building is, what it's gonna house, how large it is, and all that stuff. This evening is the first I heard of any of this. I hope that you have more detailed information before you come back to the Board of Finance. You’ll need to come back to the Board of Finance before you can go to the townspeople.” He urged Carusillo to follow purchase policy in the process of constructing the facility. Carusillo will send the board a copy of the facility’s site plans.
Carusillo’s continued in his written report that he has locked in a deal with the Waterbury-based fuel business Dime Oil Company for next year’s town fuel cost. Goshen will reportedly save 18% from the current year’s fuel cost with Heating Oil costing $3.05, Diesel Fuel Costing $3.08, and Gasoline costing $2.66.
A Public Works Department truck was sold on the online auction site GovDeals.com for $10,700. The check for the payment is expected to arrive in 3-4 weeks.
