Water Board

ALBANY WATER BOARD - Finance Committee MINUTES OF MEETING January 26, 2024 A Finance Committee meeting of the Albany Water Board was officially convened at 8:59am, in the Conference Room at the Albany Water Board, 10 North Enterprise Drive, Albany, NY on Friday, January 26, 2024 PRESENT: Anthony Owens, Finance Committee Chair; Rachel Johnson, Committee Member; Karen Strong, Committee Member; James R. Frezzell, Committee Member, Charles Houghton, Board Chairperson – ex-Officio. STAFF PRESENT: Joseph Coffey, P.E., Commissioner; William Simcoe, P.E., Deputy Commissioner; Christopher Powers, CFO; Mark Klender, Contract Accountant BOARD ADVISORS PRESENT: Bill Kahn, UHY Advisors; Laura Gulfo, Attorney at Law, MCL&C, PLLC. Approval of Meeting Minutes Committee Chairman Owens introduced the minutes of the Finance Committee meeting held on October 20, 2023. With no objection, the reading of the minutes was dispensed, and Mr. Frezzell made a motion to approve the minutes of said meeting, seconded by Ms. Johnson, and the minutes were approved unanimously. Financials – Christopher Powers, CFO Mr. Powers notified the Board Members of Accountant II vacancy being filled and the new staff member will begin February 12. Mr. Powers discussed and noted highlights of the 2023 draft year-end financial data that was shared with the Committee prior to the meeting. He reviewed year-end with comparison to 2022, noting positive variances. CFO Powers noted the tax rollover was ~$3.7 million. He discussed on--going conversations with Treasurer’s office on managing the due to/from balance. He outlined his plan to work on detailed cash forecasting using the transfer schedule, waterworth model and billing data. CFO Power and Commissioner Coffey both shared data to reflect pre/post Covid financial data and water consumption trends. They discussed new key performance indicators and critical numbers that will be on a monthly dashboard for the Board. Commissioner Coffey reported on injury data and a study of three-year workers compensation claims are intended to assist with a root cause analysis to focus and improve our safety training for better outcomes. CFO Powers and Commissioner Coffey noted the on-going plan to re-organize the Finance & Administration unit to focus on HR/Payroll, Billing in an effort to recognize the need to focus these tasks after the exits of Jess Carpenter and Katheirne Marino and the need to improve the Billing function within the Department. The next scheduled Finance Committee meeting is Friday April 26, 2024, 8:30am Being no further business, Chairman Owens called for a motion to adjourn the meeting. A motion was made by Ms. Strong, seconded by Ms. Johnson, and passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 9:31am.