Terry opened the meeting at 5:00 pm.

Fr. Chris began the meeting with a prayer.

Present: Terry Brennan, Eileen Grant, Bob Dressler, Anne Welborn, Bill Jacobs

Absent:  Brad DeSaye, Keoni Murphy

Staff:  Fr. Chris, Fr. Biju, Jim Wren, Donna Maneely, Shelly Cooper

  Minutes Approval:

  • Anne motioned to approve the February meeting minutes; Eileen seconded it; approved.

  Financial Statements:

  • There was a discussion about restricting donations, so we do not get assessed as much from the diocese. Anne suggested a ‘Giving Tree’ with different projects to choose from.
  • Bob motioned to approve the February Financials; Terry seconded the motion; motion approved.

  Bank Statement Approval:

  • Terry reviewed the February bank reconciliation; no discrepancies noted

Pastor’s Report:

  • Fr. Chris expressed concerns about the readiness of the children in both our school and catechism classes to receive the Sacraments. He will meet with the leaders of the various catechetical ministries to address.

Parish Manager Report:

  • February Collection plate: $83k and online giving: $42k
  • CDA-$80k
  • Karlo Broussard from Catholic Answers led our Lenten Mission this past week. We paid Catholic Answers $3,500 and took up a free will collection, which raised $2,275. The mission was universally commended. Karlo Broussard did a great job.
  • Spring Clean Up Day is on Saturday, March 29th. 50 parishioners have signed up to help clean up the exterior of our parish.
  • The Holy Week schedule has been published. A change for this year is there will only be Stations of the Cross on Good Friday at noon on the Square. The Celebration of the Passion of our Lord will replace the 3pm Stations of the Cross in the church. The Spanish Good Friday services will be at 6:30pm.
  • Lent confessions will be on April 11th starting at 6pm. Multiple priests will be present.
  • The confessionals renovation is complete; it was paid for with restricted donations.
  • A new portrait of the Sacred Heart of Jesus has replaced the St. Anthony Claret painting. The image, selected by Fr. Chris, was purchased on Etsy (they gave us the digital image). We had a professional printer enlarge it and print it on canvas and then the Frame and I framed it. Michaels quoted $4k to frame it and the Frame and I only charged $900. This was paid from donated funds. The Frame and I also gave us a beautifully framed painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The previous owner had asked that the new owners give it to Sacred Heart. Fr. Chris is deciding where to place it.
  • The Rectory courtyard is to be redone by Vicente Landscaping. It will be paid for with part of the $25k restricted donation. The rectory kitchen, and Fr. Jerry’s old room are the next projects to be done. We have received some donations for the kitchen renovation.

  Old Business: 

  • 25/26 Budget:
    • Major changes to this draft include increasing priest salary, priest benefits, priest auto allowance (Fr. Chris has asked for an additional priest, but nothing has been confirmed) and decreasing rental income as Sr. Terri is going to remain in the house for three months so it can be cleaned out. The house will then be renovated and ready to rent a few months later.
  • Bill asked if a reserve study would be part of the 25/26 budget. It will be included in the following year’s budget.
  • Bill wanted to know if there were any comments about the council’s meeting with Mary Brunson from IFA. He was disappointed about the rate of return. The investment is within our 60/40 allocation.

    New Business:

  • Anne asked about the solar panels. Jim explained that the panels have not been working for the past few months. Once we realized this he contacted Scout Solar. They said they did not have the time to come up to inspect them right away. According to our contract, Scout should have been monitoring the panels, but they did not let us know that the panels were not working. Once Jim let them know that he was contacting the diocesan lawyer, they told him that we had not paid our annual contract fee, which we never received. Scout finally came and they were able to fix the problem, after which the invoice was paid. Jim continues to work with the diocese on this.

 

Fr. Biju led the closing prayer.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:43pm.

Respectfully submitted by Donna Maneely