Boxborough Finance Committee reelects chair, rewrites budget transfer approval policy

BOXBOROUGH — July 11, 2023 — Boxborough Finance Committee reorganizes for FY2024, formalizes budget transfer vote requirement. The committee re-elected its incumbent chair, Maria, for a second year and named Tony as vice chair in a succession arrangement at the July 11 hybrid meeting, with both votes unanimous or near-unanimous; two new members, John Connor and Bob Stemple, were also seated. The committee voted 7-0 to amend the budget transfer policy to require a recorded FinCom vote before the Select Board can approve any departmental transfer, formalizing the "consent" role the state statute references but that the prior written policy had not mandated. A separate 7-0 vote corrected the reserve fund policy to read "0.6 percent of the operating budget" rather than "total budget." Town Administrator Mike Johns and member Tony also previewed a prototype five-panel financial dashboard — covering spending, income, reserves, debt, and staffing — to be reviewed quarterly and posted publicly on the town website, with the first posting expected in fall 2023 after fiscal year 2023 Q4 data are finalized; the reserve fund closed FY2023 with $6,243.02 remaining, which returns to free cash.