City Council - Finance Committee

CITY OF EASTHAMPTON OFFICE OF THE CITY COUNCIL Easthampton Municipal Building 50 Payson Ave., Ste. 100 Easthampton, Massachusetts 01027-2260 Telephone #: (413) 529-1460 MINUTES FINANCE Meeting 04/28/2021 Attendees: FINANCE Committee Members: Councilor Dan Rist, Chair Councilor Peg Conniff Councilor Homar Gomez Other Attendees: Nicole LaChapelle, Mayor Marin Goldstein, Finance Chair, School Committee Jennifer Gallant, City Treasurer Hetal Patel, City Auditor Meeting called to order at 5:00pm. The meeting was held remotely due to the COVID-19 pan- demic and was videotaped. Minutes from 04/14/2021 were approved 3-0 Mayor Communication: None Public Speak: None New Business 1. CARES/FEMA Reimbursement Discussion A. Marin Goldstein, Chair Finance Committee for School Committee was requested to attend this meeting to speak to the COVID-19 reimbursement received by the School District B. Marin reviewed the various impacts of reduced School Budgets over the past 4 years. C. Marin mentioned that the request by CC Finance to review line by line expendi- tures of the Schools has never been requested before. Council Rist clarified that  the scope of the request had nothing to do with regular school spending or budget information. The scope was only for CARES/FEMA dollars and how they were spent. D. CARES ACT and FEMA: $244K FY20, $77K FY21 were received via CARES: Food - $104,128 and School distance learning $30,650; E. COVID related grants received by School Department • CvRF - $400,987 • GEER - $16,250 • RLTE - $78,848 • ESSER 1 - $184,111 • TOTAL: $1,001,196 F. Money spent on Air Flow improvements, plexiglass; purchase of PPE and cleaning supplies, distant learning platforms, distant learning curriculum tools. Some mon- ey went to additional staff. G. ESSER II $702,000 ($140K for use on summer educational programming) H. ESSER III $1.5M - applications are not available yet. 2. Interdepartmental Transfer A. $1000 for City Council year end Budget Deficit - City Council must advertise certain pending items on the agenda publicly in the newspaper. Due to the high volume of activity during FY 21, this budget has gone into deficit. In addition, the City Clerk receives a stipend for each City Council meeting she provides clerical assistance. The City Council has scheduled 3 additional “special” meetings throughout FY21 which has also contributed to the deficit. This appropriation will cover that deficit. Motion to recommend to the full council an interdepartmental transfer of $1,000 for funding City Council legal advertising and clerical coverage for city council meetings for the remain- der of FY21 made by Councilor Gomez, second by Councilor Conniff. Approved 3-0 2. Review of city Revenue/Expense “actuals” to date for FY 21 A. City Auditor Hetal Patel reported that receipts are on track B. City Treasurer Jennifer Gallant reports that city spending has been on track and CARES and FEMA dollars took care of the COVID related expenses. C. Mayor reported that there were some items that were purchased via CARES and FEMA dollars that helped to bridge some technology gaps in the budget. 5:45 pm - Motion to adjourn by Councilor Gomez, Second Councilor Conniff 3-0 NEXT MEETING: May 12, 2021 @ 5:00pm