REPORT OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE
MARCH 15, 2017
A meeting of the Finance Committee was held on Wednesday, March 15, 2017, at 7:00 p.m. in the
Aldermanic Chamber.
Mayor Jim Donchess, Chairman, presided.
Members of the Committee present: Alderman-at-Large Mark S. Cookson, Vice Chair
Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien
Alderman Benjamin M. Clemons
Alderman June M. Caron
Members not in Attendance: Alderman Ken Siegel
PUBLIC COMMENT — None
COMMUNICATIONS
From: John L. Griffin, CFO/Comptroller
Re: Melanson Heath Presentation — March 15, 2017
MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO ACCEPT AND PLACE ON FILE
ON THE QUESTION
Mayor Donchess
We have Mr. Griffin and Mr. McIntire are here to report on the audit.
Mr. Griffin
Scott McIntire is the principal at Melanson Heath. He is responsible for the audit that was recently conducted
for year ended June 30, 2016.
Mr. McIntire
There’s a wealth of information in here, nearly 200 pages long. Our objective tonight is to hit some high points.
We think the most important communication an audit firm to make to a committee like this of elected officials is
to talk about how our audit went. Our audit field work here in Nashua, I’m very pleased to tell you that it went
very well. When we came in here to audit your books and records, we found them to be in good working order.
All the key accounts: cash, receivables, long term debt, various accrued liabilities that exist on your balance
sheet, we found the books and records to be reconciled on a regular and timely basis. That is really probably
the most important thing that | can communicate with you tonight. That’s one of the three things we are
required to communicate. A couple of the others were if there were any disagreement between the city finance
department and our firm as to how to apply generally accepted accounting principle. Those are the rules in
which you prepare your general ledger and prepare your financial statements. Again, | am pleased to report
that there were no disagreements with the city as to how to apply generally accepted accounting principles.
The third of the three mandatory pieces of communication to deliver tonight deals with accounting estimates.
There’s only a couple of estimates in your financial statements. They are some of the largest numbers in the
financial statements. They are what we refer to as the NPL, or the net pension liability and also the net OPEB
