Finance Minutes november 2003
WVRHEP Finance Committee Minutes
Rooms 114-120
Days Inn,
Attendees:
Voting Members: David
Hughes, Gaye Mitchell, Steve Smith, Parr Thacker, Malinda Turner. Absent:
Bobby Brown, Chair; Jim Welshonce
Other Interested Parties: Margaret Novacich, Chuck Conner, Debra Riggs, Anna Reno.
The meeting was called to order at
Margaret was initially unable to get a vote from Ralph Utzman and Dave Hughes. David was on vacation and Margaret was unable to reach Ralph by phone or e-mail. Hilda questioned Ralph and/or David wanted to vote as their votes could change the outcome. David had arrived at the Days Inn facility early and submitted his vote to Margaret before the committee meeting began. Plan #1 was approved by the majority of voting members and has been accepted. Voting sheets are on file at the administrative offices and can be viewed at any time.
The committee next addressed WVRHEP Policy 2003-05 "Purchase of Capital Assets" This policy curtails the purchase of certain capital assets until such time as the committee has a clear understanding of the state's policies regarding acquisition of assets. . It was noted if a site has allocated funds to a capital assets purchase allowed by the policy, that allocation has been moved to an appropriate line item still in use by the partnership. As previously permitted, if a consortium determines the need for LRC or office equipment mid year and has funds remaining in another line item, those funds may be transferred to complete the purchase of necessary equipment. Any purchase of technology equipment must be approved by either Derrick Day or Michael McCarthy before such purchase can be instituted.
Motion to accept policy was made by David Hughes and 2nd by Parr Thacker. All were in favor, none opposed The policy will be presented to the advisory board later today for their approval.
A question about moving money from one line item to another came up. Margaret clarified that consortia are permitted to move funds between line items. The consortium should use the "Changes to Budget" column on the quarterly report to request such changes. These changes will be approved by the Finance Committee at the meeting following the request. However, if you are wanting to move money from one category to another category a new affiliation agreement will have to be signed with the budget corrected.
Next to be addressed was a resolution requesting that the partnership as a whole seek greater economies of scale, explore consolidation where feasible, and that such explorations have the joint purposes of improving the quality of educational and community services through new and innovative approaches AND the savings of operational funds. This resolution will be brought before the WVRHEP Advisory Panel this afternoon. There is no action needed by the Finance Committee on this resolution. It was given to the committee for review prior to the Advisory Panel's vote. The committee questioned what their future role, if any would be under this resolution. Hilda stated there is currently no role for the finance committee, but could be at a later date. Elizabeth and Judy will report on the progress of the merger between Country Roads and Rural Mountain Consortia at the Advisory Panel meeting. Steve Smith, finance committee member and community board member of the newly merged Southeastern Education Consortium, was present and stated that their merger came about to address the confusion since both consortia shared Greenbrier county. Steve questioned who would decide if other sites would be required to consolidate. Hilda stated that decisions were usually made at local board level and then brought before the Advisory Panel for approval. Only the Advisory Panel has the authority to create or dissolve consortia.
At this time Chuck talked about discussions between Little Kanawha Area and Winding Roads. They are presently looking at ways to save costs and serve all areas in the best way they can. Anna Reno, Site Coordinator for Little Kanawha Area has discussed this with her board and they have a written list of suggestions. Anna and members of her board will be attending Chuck's board meeting on December 2nd to continue discussion. Steve Smith said that one issue voiced by a board member was the increased distance for local consortium board meetings. The member is still serving on the local consortium board since the consolidation.
Hilda then informed the committee that PERD has contacted all site coordinators and ask for their input on RHEP via a survey instrument.
The committee then began a review of fund balances as of
September 30, 2003.
Hilda questioned why Southeastern's fund balance was so large. Margaret stated that the consortium had not completed the merger. Margaret will ask the Site Coordinators to try to finalize all merger related purchases before the 2nd Quarter report is due. Anna Reno shared with the committee that Little Kanawha needs to keep a reserve of at least $20,000. Sometimes the allocation payments are a bit late and as they have no Lead Agency, there is no back up until that allocation comes. In the previous two quarters they had only had $300.00 in the checking account when the allocation arrived. It was possible that payroll would be delayed until the payment arrived. Hilda addressed the Proven Reserve funds and said three (3) months of reserve should be allowed. The committee should continue its discussion of Fund Balances and how they are to be addressed. A plan should be in place by March of 2004.
The reauthorization was discussed and Hilda requested that we encourage our legislators to reauthorize for up to 5 years, but no fewer than 3 years. We will ask for no language changes, but others may. We should know about language changes by March 10th or 11th and about reauthorization funding no later than mid March.
Question arose about the 9.6% cut. If they used fund balances for this then the
balance would disappear. Margaret stated
that the total fund balance as of
Committee reviewed quarterly reports and decided to vote on all at once. A question was asked about Mountain Health Consortium's fund balance. Margaret stated that they had $75,000 set aside for AHEC Development and as soon as that was drawn down their balance would shrink. Malinda had a question about Kanawha Valley's budget and why they had a negative for community Development of $4,633. David stated that he didn't have the answer since he is no longer directly involved in financial part, but would check with his finance person and let the committee know. (ADDENDUM-Kanawha Valley CFO responded on Tuesday that there was a typo in that line item. Only $910 was spent.)
Malinda made a motion to approve all reports, David seconded motion. All voted in favor, none opposed.
Margaret brought up a question from the past when Ron Carlson was here. He wanted a line for checking statement on the quarterly reports. Does the committee want her to add this? It was pointed out that several Lead Agencies had only one checking account so could not do this. The committee reviewed the sites and discovered that three (3) were set up like this. A way of checking to see if totals match is checking the independent audits done for RHEP, but it was stated that not all sites were doing independent audits. Margaret will check and let the committee know who is behind on their audits.
There was discussion of whether a consortium should have a separate checking account and if there was a policy stating this. If you check against the audit then it will only be done once a year. Ron brought the policy before this committee, but it was not accepted. Information in legislation states a separate accounting system should be present and Doak, Cuppet and Poling said separate accounts were preferred, but not necessary.
The committee decided they would need to look at the policy regarding that and reword it to make a system of checks and balances so there was more reporting to the finance committee.
The next meeting will be Monday, March 15, 2004.
Motion made to adjourn by David, with Parr voicing the second. Motion passed by voice vote.