​PITTSFIELD BOARD OF AUDITORS MEETING MINUTES
DRAFT
 
DATE:  March 16, 2021
 
PRESENT: Rebecca Steward, Beth Stanton, Martha Beyersdorf
 
PUBLIC PRESENT: Tricia Fryer
 
AGENDA
 
AGENDA MODIFICATIONS
 
CALL TO ORDER
 
RE-ORGANIZATION
1.       Elect Chairperson
 
MONTHLY AUDIT
1.       February Town financials
 
TOWN REPORT
1.       Discuss 2020 report
2.       Ideas for 2021 report
 
NEXT MEETING DATE
 
OTHER BUSINESS
 
ADJOURN
 
Rebecca called the meeting to order at 4:07pm.  Second by Beth.  All in favor. 
 
Re-Organization:
1.       Elect Chairperson.  Martha nominated Rebecca for the position.  Seconded by Beth.  Motion passed.
 
Monthly Audit:
1.    February Town financials.  These will be done after this meeting adjourns.
 
Town Report:
1.    Discuss 2020 report.  No one had heard any comments.  The Select Board had previously
       commented to Martha that they liked how it turned out.
2.       Ideas for 2021 report. 
a.  Martha suggested including job descriptions of various town positions (ex. Appointed   positions).  Beth thought perhaps a page following the appointments rather than scatter the job descriptions throughout the report.  Martha was asked to work on this.
 
PITTSFIELD BOARD OF AUDITORS MEETING MINUTES                                                       page 2
March 16, 2021
 
b.    Martha also suggested a town-wide competition to design a flag or banner for the Town.  Discussion.  It was decided to possibly do this for the cover.  Discussion regarding advertising and deadlines.  Will talk more later.
c.      More photos.
 
Next Meeting Date:  The next meeting will be Tuesday, April 27, 2021 at 4pm in the Town Office.  Beth said that she was planning to be away but thought she would be back.  She said she would advise if there were a change.
 
Other Business & Adjournment:  As there was no other business to report, Rebecca motioned to adjourn the meeting at 4:26pm.  Martha seconded.  All in favor.
 
                                                                                                                Respectfully submitted,
                                                                               
                                                                                                                Martha L. Beyersdorf
Approved:  April 13, 2021
(s)Rebecca Steward                             
(s)Beth Stanton                                  
(s) Martha Beyersdorf
 
 
 

Minutes of the Board of Auditor’s Meeting, March 18, 2020
Board of Auditors
Zoom Meeting
March 18, 2020
Minutes
Present: Sue Wuerthele, Rebecca Steward, Charles Piso, Martha Beyersdorf, Tricia Fryer
Call to Order: 6:03PM
 
Election of Chairperson
Sue nominated Rebecca Steward for Chair, Charles seconded, voice vote, Rebecca elected Chair of the Board of Auditors.
Agenda Modifications
The meeting is being conducted through Zoom and not in the Town office due to COVID-19 precautions
Audit February Financial
A motion was made by Charles to table as we are not in the office for this meeting but conducting a Zoom meeting due to COVID19, Sue seconded. February financials tabled until April 15, 2020 meeting.
Discussion 2019 Town Report

• Everyone agreed the report came out very well.
• A point was made how the School financial report was missed, we all (Sue, Rebecca, and Trish) took responsibility for missing.
• Trish to check invoice amount for the printing costs against quote for comparison and email a copy to auditors email for reference next year.
• It was discussed that pictures throughout the year from any events may be a nice addition to the Report.  Rebecca to make a folder for the Auditors to upload them to and also a Google doc for Town Report ideas.  Trish suggested starting with this past Town Meeting, Charles to contact Zoe from the Herald of Randolph to obtain her photos if possible. 
• Sue asked if Trish had sent a report to Mr. David Easum, his father’s flag is on the front page of the report.  Trish sent but had not heard back, she will do a follow up email.
• A suggestion for next report was made by Martha to incorporate a page with “Job” descriptions so people would know what all the positions are about, everyone liked the idea.

Confirm next meeting
April 15, 2020 6:00PM
Other Business
The group then reviewed all attachments that Sue had included for the meeting:

• Time Sheet
• Auditor’s General Information
• Job Description-Town Auditor
• Duties of Pittsfield Town Auditor
• Audit Process

It was agreed that the Auditors will incorporate this meeting time on their April time card submission.
Adjourn: Motion made by Sue, seconded by Charles, meeting adjourn at 6:28PM
 
Recorded by: Tricia L Fryer                            
Approved by: s/Rebecca Steward                                                       Charles Piso
                         s/Martha L. Beyersdorf

Board of Auditors
Pittsfield Town Office
March 20, 2019

MINUTES

Present: Amanda Barrett, Rebecca Steward, Sue Wuerthele
Call to Order: 5:15PM

Amanda Barrett was elected as the Chairperson after being nominated by Rebecca Steward and seconded by Sue Wuerthele.

Town Report discussion:
Discussion on alternative ways to generate layout of town report.  Future discussion regarding software possibilities and the need for either a dedicated Auditor computer or file sharing software that can be utilized properly.

Audit Monthly Municipal Accounts:
February 2019-We detailed the month of February for the General account, Highway, Cemetery, Miscellaneous accounts, and Petty Cash. Delinquent Tax accounts have not been reconciled as they are pending completion by Delinquent Tax Collector.  No discrepancies were noted.

Next Meeting:
Wednesday April 17, 2019 at 5PM.   Audit Town Financial (March 2019)

Audit of Town Financials will occur the 3rd Wednesday of the month unless otherwise specified.
May 2019 meeting will occur on May 29th.

Adjourn: 7:00PM
Recorded by S/Amanda Barrett 
Approved by 
S/Sue Wuerthele
S/Rebecca Steward

​Town of Pittsfield
Board of Auditors
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Pittsfield Town Office
6:00 PM
   

AGENDA
 
 
Call to Order
 
Elect Chairperson
 
Agenda Modifications
 
Audit February Town Financials
 
Discuss 2018 Town Report
 
Confirm Next Meetings
 
Other Business
 
Adjourn

​Board of Auditors
Pittsfield Town Office
April 5, 2018  1:00 PM

MINUTES

Present: Martha Beyersdorf, Sue Wuerthele

Call to Order: 1:00 PM

Sue Wuerthele was elected as the Chairperson after being nominated by Martha Beyersdorf.

Approve Minutes from April 17, 2017 Meeting:
A proposal to approve the minutes from this meeting was made by Martha and seconded by Sue.  The minutes were approved.

Agenda Modifications:  None

Audit January and February Town Financials:
Martha and Sue completed the audit of the January and February town financials.  This included review of the Cemetery Fund, Highway Fund, General Fund, and the Miscellaneous Funds (A – G, H – P, Q – Z).  A review of the Delinquent Tax Reconciliation was also done.  No discrepancies were noted.

Discuss 2017 Town Report:
This discussion was tabled until the next meeting.

Next Meeting:
Wednesday, May 30 at 7:00 PM Audit of Town Financials (March and April)

Adjourn: 1:40 PM


Recorded by:  s/Sue Wuerthele
Approved by:
s/Amanda Barrett           Date: May 30, 2018
s/Martha L. Beyersdorf  Date: May 30, 2018

​Town of Pittsfield
Board of Auditors
Thursday, March 29, 2018
Pittsfield Town Office
3:30 PM
 
AGENDA
 
Call to Order – Meeting not called to order because only one auditor was in attendance

Approve Minutes from April 17, 2017 Meeting

Agenda Modifications

Audit January and February Town Financials

Discuss 2017 Town Report

Next Meeting/s

Other Business

Adjourn

Board of Auditors
Pittsfield Town Office
April 17, 2017 10:00 AM

MINUTES

Present: Martha Beyersdorf, Erica Hurd, Sue Wuerthele
​​Call to Order: 10:00 AM

Sue Wuerthele was elected as the Chairperson after being nominated by Erica Hurd and seconded by Martha Beyersdorf.

Town Report Discussion:
We agreed to come up with a list of email addresses for those organizations who provide information for the Town Report.  In October or November, we will email all these organizations and notify them that we will only accept Word or Excel documents.

The deadline for information for the 2017 Town Report will be January 15, 2018 at the latest.

A suggested theme for the 2017 Town Report is to continue the “Community” concept.  At this year’s picnic, we will have a box for people to submit answers to the question “What brought you to PIttsfield/why do you live in Pittsfield?”  These will be incorporated into the Town Report.  In an effort to encourage participation by children, we will have a place to color pictures, which will be added to the Town Report.  Lastly, we discussed the possibility of having a drone take aerial pictures of Pittsfield to include in the Town Report.

Budget:
We have already used approximately half of our 2017 budgeted amount for salaries.  We anticipate that the time necessary for the Town Report at the end of this year will be reduced because of changes made for the 2016 Town Report but will monitor the time closely.

Audit Quarterly Municipal Accounts:
January, February and March - We detailed the month of February for the General account and all three months for the School, Highway, Cemetery, and Miscellaneous accounts.  No discrepancies were noted.

Next Meeting:
Monday, July 17 at 10:00 AM Audit of Town Financials (April, May and June)

Adjourn: 11:50 AM
Recorded by Sue Wuerthele 
Approved April 5, 2018 by: Sue Wuerthele, Martha Beyersdorf

​Board of Auditors
Pittsfield Town Office
December 6, 2016  10:00 AM

MINUTES

Present: Martha Beyersdorf, Erica Hurd, Sue Wuerthele

Call to Order: 10:00 AM

Approved Minutes from 11/22/16 Meeting

Agenda Modifications:
Budget: We reviewed the write up that Sue had done to justify the proposed Auditors’ salary increase and the number of booklets printed last year.  After discussion, we decided to modify the budget Martha had developed for the salaries to reflect the $2500.00 as discussed at our last meeting.  For the Town Report Printing budget line, we will add $250.00 for postage and retain the $1700.00 for the actual printing.  We also agreed that Sue will contact Spaulding Press to initiate a contract for the same printing cost for two years with a guarantee of no more than a 5% increase the third year.

Town Report Work Session:
Photos: Martha will contact Pat Fuster to invite her to the next meeting to assist us in looking for old pictures in the Town Hall.  Erica will contact Deb Picarello to see what old pictures she may have.

Reports: We discussed and finalized the process of copying, renaming and editing reports we receive that will be incorporated into the Town Report.  A step-by-step process document will be created.

Questions: Martha will contact Park House and the VT Association of Conservation Districts - Rural Fire Protection Program to ask for Word documents rather than the pdfs that have been sent.  She will also contact Capstone regarding the timing of their report.  If pdfs come in the future, Martha will contact the organization to request a Word doc.

Next Meetings:
Monday, December 12 at 10:00 am Town Report work session
Monday, December 19 at 7:00 pm Audit of Town Financials
Wednesday, December 21 at 7:00 pm Town Report work session
Monday, January 9 at 7:00 pm Town Report work session
Tuesday, January 17 at 7:00 Audit of Town Financials
Monday, January 23 at 7:00 pm Town Report work session
Monday, January 30 at 7:00 Town Report work session
Adjourn: 12:20 AM

Recorded by Sue Wuerthele
Approved by:
E. J. Hurd, Martha L. Beyersdorf Date: December 19, 2016

​Board of Auditors
Pittsfield Town Office
November 22, 2016  10:00 AM

MINUTES

Present: Martha Beyersdorf, Sue Wuerthele

Call to Order: 10:00 AM

Approved Minutes from 11/14/16 Meeting

Agenda Modifications:
How to set up reports (fonts, justifying, etc.): We tentatively set standards for the report to use Arial 12 point justified for the text and use Arial 14 point bold for headings. The headings will be centered unless a logo is included, in which case they will be left justified.
  
TOC: Sue will start to work on revising the Table of Contents once Martha sends her an electronic copy of last year’s report.

Proposals from Spaulding: Patty has received emails from Dave Smedy at Spaulding Press and Sue called him to understand the pricing quotes.  If we just use a colored cover and all black and white content in the report, it will cost $1209.52 (same as last year’s price).  If we use colored pictures in the content, the price will be $1399.00 for the estimated 28 pages that we told him.  Note that this is not based on the number of colored pictures.  If there is any color on a page, even one line, it is considered colored.  If we have more than 28 colored pages, the cost will increase and it will decrease if we have less than 28 colored pages.  Spaulding has also offered to do a two year contract for the same price and will generate a more formal document if we decide to do that.  This topic will be discussed at a future meeting.

Letters requesting reports: Martha reported that letters have gone to town organizations requesting their annual, financial and property reports.  The due dates are 12/15 for annual and property reports and 1/12/17 for financial reports.

Organizing documents: Martha created two new folders in the Auditors’ Google drive for Minutes and Agendas from the Auditors’ Meetings.  She will work on transferring these documents from her drive to these folders.

Checklist for Town Report Documents: We reviewed the checklist that Sue had created to keep track of entries for the town report and whether they have been received.  Several changes were noted and Sue will make these for the next meeting.
Town Report/Town Meeting Timeline: We reviewed the 2016 Town Report/Town Meeting timeline with Patty and made changes for this year’s Report and Meeting.  Patty will update the document.

School Board Reports: Martha will contact Kris Sperber regarding the reports needed for the School Board entries in the Town Report.

Town Report Working Sessions: We agreed that we will produce a list of the sessions we are holding to work on the Town Report but will not do agendas or minutes for these sessions.

Town Report 2016:
Google issues: We are still working on the best way to move documents from one folder to another and will continue to discuss this at the next meeting.  We did decide to leave the extensions on documents when we move them (.doc, .docx, etc.)

What works/what doesn’t: We are still working on this (see above).

Email issues: None at this time.

Add new material: The VT Department of Health report was added to the drafts folder.

Historical Society photos: Tabled for the next meeting.

Budget 2017: We discussed the budget and looked at the hours reported by Martha and Erica for last year’s Town Report generation.  Based on the fact that there are three auditors working on the Report this year and the increase in wages, we will submit a budget of $2500.00 for wages in 2017.  The figure for printing the Town Report will be discussed at the next meeting.  Sue will write up notes for justification of the salary increase.

Annual Statement (of the Auditors): Sue will revise the Statement of the Auditors to change the font, justify the text and remove the parentheses from around the years after each of our names.

Next Meetings: 
December 6 at 10:00 am
December 12 at 10:00 am (if needed)
December 19 at 7:00 pm
January 16 or 17 (TBD)

Adjourn: 11:40 AM

Recorded by Sue Wuerthele
Approved by Martha L. Beyersdorf, Erica J. Hurd   Date:  December 6, 2016

​Board of Auditors
Pittsfield Town Office
November 14, 2016, 1:00 PM

MINUTES

Present: Martha Beyersdorf, Erica Hurd, Sue Wuerthele

Call to Order - 1:15 PM

Approved Minutes from 10/18/2016 and 10/25/2016 Meetings

Agenda Modifications:The procedures for the quarterly audits of the municipal accounts were reviewed and accepted.  Erica will remove the word “Draft” from the title and add the text for approvals at the end of the document.

Town Report 2016:
Photos: Erica made a list of photos to be taken from the ones we had indicated in the Town’s copy of A Glimpse of the Past  Pittsfield, Vermont at the last meeting.  She will shoot the “now” pictures of these photos by January 15, 2017.  At our next meeting, we will search the Town Hall to see if any of the “before” pictures are available.  Once the photos are done, Erica will move them into the Pictures folder in Google Docs.

Reports received to date: The Town Clerk forwards any reports she receives via email to the Auditors’ email address (pittsfieldauditors@gmail.com).  Once in this mailbox, Erica will copy the documents and put them into the Drafts-1 folder in Google Docs.  We will each move a copy of the document into the Edited-2 folder in Google Docs and change the name to add our first initial to the end of the document name (i.e. M, E, S) so we know who is reviewing and editing the document.  Once a document is ready for review, the auditor who has worked on it will share it (through Google Docs) with the other auditors.  Once it has been approved, the auditor who did the initial editing will copy the final version into the Final-3 folder.  This is where the Town Report document will be assembled.  Note that when editing a document, “Suggesting” should be turned on each time so that the changes are tracked/shown.

Best way to do Emails > Google Docs > Access: We are still determining how to best copy/move documents in Google Docs because of naming issues.  This will be discussed at the next meeting.

Send out requests to organizations: Martha will send out notices to request financial and annual reports.

Schedule Next Meetings:
November 22 at 10:00 am
December 6 at 10:00 am
December 12 at 10:00 am (if needed)
December 19 at 7:00 pm (previously scheduled)

Adjourn - 3:30 PM

Recorded by Sue Wuerthele ___________________________
Approved by:
___________________________ Date __________________

___________________________ Date __________________