Budget Committee Meeting
August 30,
2003
Diane Rader's Home
Attendees: Ed Hockett, Monica Leche, Diane Rader, Bob Santoro, Mike Shelton and Jerry Withington.
Diane Rader, POA Treasurer and Committee Chair called this special meeting to order at 2:10 p.m. The purpose of the meeting was start preparations for the 2004 budget, including a review of current administrative and professional services provided to the Board, as well as update the group on an open issue regarding our annual CPA review.
- Diane first advised the group of an issue she discovered while reviewing the draft of the 2002 annual CPA review report conducted by Dixon & Waller (D&W). She noted that the cash balance D&W disclosed as ‘future improvements’ (activity associated with power, telephone & water) and related revenue/expense activity for the year 2002 did not tie out to information in Century records. Diane met with Mike Dixon and they discovered that the cash balance in the D&W reports have not balanced to records maintained by Century since 12/31/1998. At that time the ‘savings account’ balance was exactly equal to the balance reported by D&W for ‘future improvements.’ Because a separate bank account was not established by the POA for the utility activity, they suspect that a commingling of savings funds occurred sometime after that date, which resulting in a misallocation of cash between the general and future improvement accounts. Diane is in the process of obtaining additional documentation from Century to determine the correct allocation of cash between the general and improvement accounts. D&W agreed not to issue their report until after a final determination has been made. Diane will make official recommendations on preventing future problems of this type after the current issue is investigated and resolved.
- At this time the group reviewed a list of administrative and professional services currently used by the Board in an effort to reevaluate responsibilities, pricing and service providers. Based on the reallocation of services desired by the Board, the group decided to solicit new bids for certain administrative and financial responsibilities. Results and recommendations will be made at a future Board meeting.
- Diane distributed current financial reports and a worksheet to assist in 2004 budget preparation. For 2003, Diane noted that we are doing better than last year in terms of collections of dues and lien balances. Through July we have received 96% of our dues, compared to 93% at this time last year, and we have only 5 lien accounts totaling $3,001, versus 14 accounts last year with balances of $6,368. Mike Shelton noted that road work is scheduled to start next week and he expects to use up all remaining funds in his budget, less a placeholder for snow removal. For next year, he would like to have the same budget amount available for road work. Mike said we need to budget more for trash because he has called in extra pickups this year. Our trash contract is up for renewal next year so we will obtain new bids. Based on additional weeds found this year, we will need to triple that expense to $4,000 in 2004. The group will continue to work on the 2004 budget as more recommendations are received from committee leaders.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:00 p.m. Minutes submitted by Diane Rader, Treasurer.