Finance_Committee_Minutes_June_17_2026_2

Town of Presque Isle Finance Committee Meeting – Minutes Date: June 17, 2026 Time: 10:14 AM – adjourned 11:58 AM Format: Hybrid (in-person and Zoom) Presiding: Michele Hinnendael, Finance Committee Chair (via Zoom) Minutes: Dave Bogan Present: Michele Hinnendael (Chair), Dave Bogan, Gary Owens, Cathy Weber Absent: Al Eschenbauch (medical), Rich Schmalzer (out of town) 1. Call to Order Michele Hinnendael called the meeting to order at 10:14 AM via Zoom; in-room participants viewed the call on a shared monitor in the meeting room. 2. Approval of Previous Meeting Minutes Dave Bogan distributed the March minutes prior to the meeting. Motion: Gary Owens moved to approve the March minutes. Second: Dave Bogan Vote: All in favor. Motion carried. Dave Bogan had not yet sent the May minutes to the full committee due to a distribution error; the committee deferred approval of the May minutes to the July meeting. The committee confirmed it had already approved the April minutes. 3. Town Administrator Position – Planning Discussion The committee discussed how to evaluate whether the town should create an administrator position. Rather than starting from broad disagreement about the role, the committee agreed to use a structured process: first capture all current responsibilities, gaps, and overlaps across the clerk, treasurer, town board, and town crew, then build outward to a job description if the town pursues an administrator role. Approach Discussed • Bring together key stakeholders (town crew, clerk, fire department, garage/highway staff) to brainstorm current and needed responsibilities. • Group similar items together to narrow the list to a manageable set of core responsibility areas. • Apply a RACI framework (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) to each area to clarify who currently does what and where gaps or overlaps exist. • The resulting documentation will both inform the administrator decision and serve as a foundation for written procedures regardless of that decision. • The exercise will also help the committee formalize the division of labor between the clerk and treasurer roles, which currently overlap informally (work one starts often requires the other to react). • Gary Owens and Dave Bogan will facilitate the exercise. Decision: Proceed with a structured stakeholder process to document town responsibilities. Gary Owens and Dave Bogan will facilitate; the finance committee will participate as stakeholders. 4. 2027 Budget Calendar The committee discussed planning for the 2027 budget cycle. The committee wants to complete department head budget meetings earlier in the year than in prior cycles, giving the finance committee and town board more time to review before the year-end statutory deadlines. Key Points • Target for department head budget meetings: week of August 17th (moved up from prior years’ mid-September timing). • The committee will give department heads year-to-date actuals through July and ask them to forecast August through December, plus the full following year — the most critical and difficult step in the process. • In the prior budget cycle, the finance committee did approximately 75% of department budget work directly, while department heads (library, highway, fire, PITLC) supplied varying levels of detail. Library and DPW (Al) provided strong first drafts; the committee expects this to improve further as departments gain experience with the process. • Scheduling complexity: the chair has potential jury duty obligations the week of August 17–18 and will travel to Milwaukee periodically; committee members will cover individual department meetings as needed that week. • Target timeline: the finance committee will complete its review by the second or third week of September, giving the town board time to review before the statutory October/November deadlines and avoiding the time pressure the committee experienced in the prior cycle. Decision: Department head budget meetings targeted for the week of August 17th. Committee members to cover individual department meetings if the chair is unavailable. 5. Loan Strategy and Tax Levy Worksheet The committee discussed how town borrowing affects the property tax levy, prompted by planning for several large, anticipated projects (road construction, Pipke Park, a highway patrol truck). Key Points Established • Wisconsin’s levy limit rules treat debt service (loan principal and interest) as a fixed cost and automatically increase the allowable tax levy by the required payment amount — this does not require elector approval, unlike discretionary spending increases. • In the prior budget cycle, the town’s tax levy worksheet understated debt service because it reflected a budgeted payment amount rather than the actual required loan payment, forcing an unplanned levy correction. The committee agreed this year’s budget process must tie directly to the tax levy worksheet calculation from the outset to avoid a repeat. • BCPL (Board of Commissioners of Public Lands) loan mechanics: the town owes annual payments each March 15th, and the state exempts these from the municipal levy limit calculation. Loans funded between September 1 and March 14 carry no payment due the following March 15 — they roll to the following year. • Practical implication: the town must finalize and submit any borrowing intended to affect the 2027 tax levy worksheet (i.e., carrying a payment due March 2027 that counts toward the higher allowable levy) before September 1, 2026, given BCPL's required 30– 45-day lead time. • BCPL allows the town to prepay existing loans (principal only) without penalty between January 1 and August 31 each year, with 30 days’ prior written notice. The committee will determine by the July meeting whether cash flow supports an additional principal prepayment on the broadband loan this year. • The town has kept total annual debt service within approximately $328,000 by structuring borrowing so that new loan payments replace retiring ones; the committee expects this approach to continue even as the town adds new loans (road projects, Pipke Park, patrol truck), keeping the levy increase attributable to debt service at zero net change. • The committee expects to finance individual projects via separate loans (rather than one combined loan) since they carry different terms, draw timelines, and repayment schedules (e.g., a vehicle loan would not carry a 10-year term). Decision: Any borrowing intended to affect the 2027 levy worksheet must have terms finalized by early-to-mid July to meet the BCPL submission deadline. This will require firm cost estimates for the road program, Pipke Park, and the patrol truck well before the normal budget cycle. Action: Determine firm or best-estimate costs for major capital projects (roads, Pipke Park, patrol truck) in time for a July borrowing decision. 6. Major Capital Projects – Status Update Pipke Park Restoration • The town has spent approximately $150,000 on engineering to date; the project will receive reimbursement once the DNR formally approves the grant and the town executes a contract. • As of this meeting, the project lacks DNR plan approval and a signed contractor agreement. Given typical lead times for contractor scheduling, the committee assessed it as unlikely that construction will finish within the current calendar year, though planning continues. • The committee will confirm the duration of the DNR grant award (commonly understood as good through a multi-year window, e.g. into 2030) so it can tell the public that delay does not jeopardize grant funding, pending confirmation from the project engineer. • The estimated total project cost (used for borrowing/budget purposes) remains approximately $1,000,000, refined upward from an original estimate of roughly $700,000. The committee expects a firmer number once bids and DNR approval progress further. Action: Confirm DNR grant award duration and reimbursement mechanics with the project engineer. Continue moving the project toward DNR approval and bid award. Highway Patrol Truck • As of this meeting, the committee does not have a status update; the vehicle is reportedly at a body shop having equipment installed. The town clerk will follow up with the highway department for a status and cost update. Action: Obtain status and confirmed cost for the patrol truck from the highway department. Road Program / Crab Lake Road • The contractor completed initial crack-sealing work on Crab Lake Road, but inspection found it unsatisfactory; the contractor agreed certain cracks require flex/fog sealing rather than crack sealing, adding an estimated $14,000 not currently in the budget. The committee expects to absorb this additional cost into the broader highway construction borrowing rather than the original $14,000 designated-funds allocation. • The committee did not yet know the status of road bids as of this meeting; Cathy Weber placed a follow-up call to the highway department during the meeting. Action: Follow up on road bid status and finalize cost estimates for the highway construction borrowing. Fire Department Roof • Cathy Weber raised this as a longstanding deferred maintenance item that may be approaching a point requiring action, potentially with its own borrowing. The budget does not currently include this item. The committee made no decision and flagged it for consideration alongside other capital needs once Gary Owens completes the cash forecast. 7. Cash Flow Forecast Gary Owens had not yet completed the cash flow forecast due to the volume of moving pieces (pending loan amounts, project costs, and timing). He raised a preliminary high-level concern: based on year-to-date actuals and the full-year budgeted net spending figure, he projects the town’s cash position to decline significantly over the remainder of the year, even before factoring in new project borrowing, consistent with the pattern the town saw in the prior year. The committee agreed it must finalize the forecast before making any borrowing decisions, and that it cannot wait for the normal budget cycle to decide on the timing of project borrowing (see Item 5). Status: Deferred to July meeting. Cash flow forecast to be completed and circulated under separate cover before then. 8. QuickBooks Online Migration and Payroll Outsourcing – Status Update Dave Bogan completed a test migration of the town’s financial data from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online; he ran a parallel profit & loss statement and balance sheet on both systems and confirmed they matched, validating the data conversion approach. The town continues operating on QuickBooks Desktop for now; the final cutover will involve a fresh re-import of data once the committee is ready to proceed. Key Points • Target cutover timeframe: by the end of the third quarter, possibly sooner, though not by the end of the current quarter as the clerk had originally hoped. • Kerber Rose informally told Lori that OnPay (the third-party payroll service under consideration) has a reputation of being less well-suited to municipalities; the committee has not independently verified this and will weigh it against other options. • The migration project also gives the committee an opportunity to formalize the bills-then- checks workflow (entering bills upon invoice receipt, generating checks only after board approval), which Dave Bogan expects will reduce same-day errors and voided checks during board meetings. • A contact with recent personal experience migrating to QuickBooks Online has agreed to serve as an informal resource if questions arise. • The committee discussed surveying other local towns about which payroll services they use; Kerber Rose provides tax-related compliance reporting (CT report) for at least one neighboring town for a flat annual fee, though this may not directly compare to the town's payroll needs. Status: In progress. Target cutover by end of Q3 2026. 9. Review of May Actuals The committee reviewed the May budget-vs-actual report, continuing its practice of annotating the shared file with explanatory notes for future reference. Items Reviewed • Room Tax Reporting: The town currently reports room tax revenue net of the corresponding payment to the chamber of commerce, following past practice. The committee wants to show the two amounts separately for transparency, consistent with how a neighboring town (Boulder Junction) reports it. Michele Hinnendael will review the CT (room tax) schedule definitions when she returns to town. • General Buildings Maintenance Coding: The town coded an annual fire protection service fee and an elevator inspection fee as one-time costs rather than ongoing maintenance contracts; the committee may need to correct this account classification, though it is largely a matter of consistent definitions going forward. • Highway Insurance / Payroll Liabilities: Michele Hinnendael continues to have difficulty isolating health insurance and related payroll liability transactions, which flow through a payroll liability account with multiple transaction lines per paycheck. Resolving this fully requires a detailed manual account reconciliation; she will continue this ongoing effort. • Payroll Withholding Anomaly: A small, unexpected Wisconsin withholding amount appeared on an employee’s paycheck. Dave Bogan traced this to a mid-cycle tax table update the payroll software provider pushed automatically in late May, affecting multiple users nationally, not a town-specific error. Lori is following up with Kerber Rose to confirm. • Kerber Rose Engagement Scope: The committee confirmed two separate engagements — (1) a ~$500 initial payment plus time-and-materials work to assist with QuickBooks/payroll cleanup, and (2) the formal financial audit, budgeted at $50,000, which has not started because the town has not yet turned over materials/documentation to the audit firm. The committee does not expect cleanup work spending to exceed the audit budget line and will confirm status with the clerk. • Assistant Clerk Coding: The committee confirmed the town codes the elections assistant’s pay under Town Clerk Salary, which it budgeted as a combined line covering both the clerk and a deputy/assistant clerk position; this is functioning as intended. • Other General Government Journal Entries: Other General Government expense includes a Kerber Rose payment; the committee identified a need to give Gary Owens visibility into journal entry detail (which doesn't currently flow through to his report) so that reclassification entries show up correctly. • DNR Grant / Fire Department: The committee confirmed a matching deposit of the same amount offsets a DNR grant-related expense for the fire department, netting to zero — no budget concern. • Prior-Month Reclassification: The committee reviewed the underlying invoice for a Monroe (vehicle) truck part previously coded to highway equipment capital outlay and confirmed it is a repair item (a spinner assembly); Michele Hinnendael will reclassify it to equipment repair rather than capital outlay. • Unexplained WRS Account Entry: A small ($936.24) entry in a Wisconsin Retirement System clearing account does not appear on the standard report and required separate explanation; this ties into Michele Hinnendael's ongoing effort to fully understand how payroll liability postings flow through the system. • Clerk Support Resource: Cathy Weber mentioned a statewide municipal clerk association/mentorship program as a possible resource for clerk-specific questions and will investigate further. Status: Reviewed with no material budget concerns identified. Several reconciliation and account-coding items remain in progress as part of the broader QuickBooks cleanup effort. 10. Committee Membership The committee discussed an inactive member who has not attended meetings; a prior removal attempt was unsuccessful. The chair will send a formal communication regarding their status. The committee discussed a previously identified candidate with relevant experience (background in volunteer board work, budgeting for non-stock organizations, and public-entity experience through road committee work) as a possible replacement or addition. The committee agreed the town board will conduct any formal interview, and that this committee's role is limited to facilitating initial contact. The committee also discussed re-advertising for committee membership generally, noting that a prior advertisement originally generated the existing pool of interested candidates. Action: Send a status letter/email to the inactive committee member. Reach out to the previously identified candidate to confirm continued interest and direct them to contact the town clerk to arrange a town board interview. 11. Scheduling – August Meeting The committee will move the August 13th meeting to noon to accommodate the chair's schedule. Cathy Weber will ask the clerk to confirm room availability for the new time. Action: Confirm room booking for the August 13th meeting at the revised noon start time. 12. Next Meeting Next Finance Committee meeting: July 9, 2026. The committee noted that if urgent items arise before then (loan timing decisions, project cost confirmations), an additional meeting may be called rather than waiting until July. 13. Adjournment Motion: Michele Hinnendael moved to adjourn. Second: Dave Bogan Vote: All in favor. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 11:58 AM. Action Items Action Item Owner Due Resend May minutes to full committee for approval Dave Bogan Before July meeting Coordinate facilitator and stakeholder list for administrator/process documentation exercise Cathy Weber Summer 2026 Confirm department head budget meeting schedule and committee coverage for week of August 17–24 Michele Hinnendael / Committee By early August Determine firm/best-estimate costs for road program, Pipke Park, and patrol truck for July borrowing decision Committee Before July meeting Confirm DNR grant award duration and reimbursement mechanics for Pipke Park with project engineer Cathy Weber July meeting Obtain status and confirmed cost for highway patrol truck Town Clerk / Highway Dept. July meeting Follow up on road bid status; finalize highway construction cost estimate Town Clerk / Highway Dept. July meeting Determine whether cash flow supports additional broadband loan prepayment; notify BCPL by Aug 1 if so Michele Hinnendael By Aug 1 Complete cash flow forecast and circulate to committee Gary Owens Before July meeting Review CT (room tax) schedule definitions; consider separating room tax revenue from chamber expense Michele Hinnendael When back in town Confirm Kerber Rose cleanup engagement spending is tracking within budget Dave Bogan / Town Clerk July meeting Set up journal entry visibility for Gary Owens' reporting Michele Hinnendael / Dave July meeting Reclassify Monroe truck part from capital outlay to equipment repair Michele Hinnendael Next reclass entry Investigate statewide municipal clerk mentorship program Cathy Weber Ongoing Send status letter to inactive committee member Michele Hinnendael ASAP Contact prospective committee candidate (Bruce Boren) to confirm interest; direct to town clerk for board interview Dave Bogan ASAP Confirm room booking for August 13th meeting at revised noon start time Cathy Weber Before Aug 13 Draft minutes prepared by Dave Bogan — Town of Presque Isle Finance Committee | Chair: Michele Hinnendael