PARIS — The town’s budget process could be improved with the creation of a standing Finance Committee, Board of Selectmen Chairman Bob Kirchherr suggested at the board’s meeting Monday. 

The board has yet to approve two appointments to the Budget Committee. Last month, selectmen said they wanted to evaluate the town’s budget process before making appointments.

At Monday’s meeting, Kirchherr said the Budget Committee has a limited role in the way the town’s budget is prepared and executed.

The committee usually convenes in February and makes its recommendations later in the spring. 

The problem with that arrangement, Kirchherr said, is committee members receive information about the budget without actively engaging with it during the rest of the year.

Kirchherr said he would like the board to adopt a policy to create a standing finance committee that would incorporate the role of the Budget Committee but also review, on a quarterly basis, the town’s financial health. That would ensure the people who make budget recommendations would have a more active role to play while the budget is implemented, Kirchherr said.

“I think it’s important that people who are not only committed to the budget process but are committed then to watching over the budget as an ongoing process throughout the year,” he told board members. 

He suggested that residents with finance and accounting experience would be preferred committee members and emphasized that his proposal was only an idea and hoped for input from other board members. 

Selectman Ryan Lorrain questioned if a new policy would be in conflict with the town’s budget committee ordinance. 

Kirchherr said the ordinance might have to be amended or a new policy implemented, admitting he was unsure what method would be used.

Board of Selectmen Vice Chairman Sam Elliot said it sounds like the finance committee would have a different role than the Budget Committee.

If the board creates the committee, it should require membership of one of Paris’ SAD 17 school board members, Elliot said, noting payments to the school district made up more than 40 percent of the town’s annual expenses. 

Janet Jamison, who has applied for Budget Committee reappointment, pleaded with selectmen to work closer with the committee instead of creating something entirely new. 

“Do we really have to reinvent the wheel here?” she asked. 

She suggested the board meet more frequently with the Budget Committee and improve the lines of communication between them so they are working together in the budget process.

Kirchherr said he would draft a policy he thought was appropriate and discuss the proposal at a future meeting.