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.