TOWN OF AVON ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES STUDY COMMITTEE
AVON TOWN HALL SELECTMEN’S CHAMBER BUILDING 1
MINUTES
OCTOBER 17, 2011
I. CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM by Acting Chairman Douglas Evans in the Selectmen’s Chamber, Town Hall Building 1. Members present: Town Manager Brandon Robertson, Superintendent of Schools Gary S. Mala, Acting Chairman and Town Council member Douglas Evans and Board of Finance member Thomas Gugliotti. Members absent: Chairman Mark Zacchio and Board of Education member William Stokesbury.
II. COMMUNICATION FROM AUDIENCE
None.
III. COMMUNICATION FROM COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Mr. Gugliotti questioned the need for the committee to keep meeting. He said that he feels he is unnecessarily looking over the shoulder of the Town Manager in whom he has confidence to follow the report and do what can be done working with the budget we have. He continued that the residents voted to spend the $50,000 for the study and did not want to see it ending up on a shelf.
Mr. Evans said he didn’t have enough experience to answer. Mr. Gugliotti continued that he’d been on the committee from day one through the RFP process, the interviewing, and the meetings to formulate the final report and the committee would be there to keep an eye on things to make sure the suggestions were followed. He questioned how long the committee would need to look over the shoulders of the Town Manager and Superintendent of Schools.
Mr. Mala said in his short time with the town that he and Mr. Robertson speak frequently to look at ways to achieve efficiencies. He added that both he and Mr. Robertson are committed to doing their parts. Mr. Robertson suggested having the sub committee meet on an ad hoc basis where knotty issues could be discussed. Mr. Gugliotti agreed and this venue was a good way to show the people that the money was well spent on the report. Mr. Evans liked the idea of adding the decision to how many and how often the committee would meet as an agenda item for the next meeting as he was not sure that the people were ready to give up the meeting altogether. He predicted too that the Town Council would like to see the committee kept intact.
IV. MINUTES OF PRECEDING MEETING: JULY 20, 2011
VOTE: Mr. Gugliotti motioned, Mr. Evans seconded and all agreed to accept the July 20, 2011 minutes as presented. None opposed.
V. REVIEW STATUS OF RECOMMENDATIONS
Mr. Robertson discussed the updated consultant’s recommendation spreadsheet and October 14th memo that were included with the agenda packet. The first two areas relate to improvements in software on the town side. The Admins program is being funded over two cycles. The first phase was to update the finance and accounting software which was funded in the FY 2011 CIP operating budget. He continued that we are currently in the implementation of phase I and running parallel with our old software Legacy. He noted too that the Admins transition is going rather smoothly. Phase II is a human resource and payroll module that will be funded in the FY 2012 CIP operating budget. The accounting division of Finance is doing the bulk of the journal entries with heavy involvement from the Finance Director.
Mr. Robertson continued with part two which involves the Novatime time and attendance software. He noted that the software is now installed town wide. There are two pieces to the software: one is the time punching aspect and the second is the attendance part that keeps track of the compensated absences. It’s completely implemented and fully operational for the Public Works Dept. and is integrated with the Admins software so that the information is reported “live.” It has also been implemented in the Police Dept. and Library but not yet fully operational as it uses the time piece but not the attendance portion. He expects to have that done by the end of November at which time everyone else will be on board. Mr. Robertson added that interesting queries could be made and patterns seen in employee
attendance.
Mr. Evans questioned when the town would be fully off of Legacy and fully on the new programs. Mr. Robertson expected phase I of the Admins, finance and budget, to be operational by the end of the calendar year. The second phase after implementation should be operational by the end of the year. Mr. Robertson clarified that phase II was funded in this 2011-2012 FY.
Mr. Robertson continued by referring to page 2 of his memo regarding the TOA/BOE Joint Field Preparation part of the Matrix recommendations. Personnel have changed in both the Town and BOE so the pursuit of the creation of a baseline for each side has been delayed. Public Works was chosen to track all of the field maintenance activities. They developed an Access database that tracks all of the time the staff touches the athletic fields: what and how much time they’re doing it and who’s there. The Public Works Director is to meet with BOE Peter Gaski to give him all of the information that they’ve accumulated to date and the templates to track their activity. A baseline can then be established after the BOE caches their information.
Mr. Robertson reiterated that there really was good cooperation between the entities. One side will call the other when needed to complete a field line for example. Mr. Gugliotti asked for clarification in having all these fields, whether town or BOE, and who’s budget gets hit when private organizations use them. Mr. Robertson said that it depended on whose field the function took place, whether it is on the town or BOE. Mr. Gugliotti questioned if we collected a fee for that. Mr. Evans and Mr. Mala said no, not on the outside of the building but yes fees are charged for inside use. Mr. Gugliotti referred to St. Ann’s religious education’s use of the Middle School on Sundays as an example of whether a fee was paid. Mr. Evans said yes a charge was made for use of the inside of the building. Mr. Gugliotti
questioned whether a fee would be appropriate when using the outside of the building as costs were certainly incurred for preparation and maintenance of the fields. Mr. Mala countered that these areas were being taken care of anyway and that different places would certainly look for revenue to offset operating costs.
Mr. Evans noted that the BOE used different rates depending on the organization with the highest being charged to those outside the town using the inside spaces. He added that Avon soccer teams pay no fees to use the fields. Mr. Mala said that certainly we could look to charge fees to organizations outside our borders using our fields, adding that just showing up to use them couldn’t be stopped. Mr. Robertson added that it’s sort of “open season” on the fields and right after Hurricane Irene people were seen playing a type of mud soccer on the delicate fields. He mentioned this to Mr. Marston of Recreation who said that it is a public park.
Mr. Evans questioned if the town and BOE each employed separate people to maintain the grounds. Mr. Robertson said yes. Mr. Evans summed that we were just one town and it really is just a budget allocation to which person works where. It all goes back to one till and if there was any cost savings in trying to consolidate operations. Mr. Robertson said there are instances where for example you wouldn’t purchase two of the same pieces of equipment when you could share one to achieve some savings. Mr. Gugliotti added that people don’t see the effort that goes into the maintenance of Fisher Meadows and that it just happens, not the hours and materials that go into it. He referred to the Matrix report and the snow removal discussion. The BOE needs a certain amount of equipment to keep the pathways open in snowy
conditions. He asked if the equipment was shared or overlapping. Mr. Evans asked if it is shared then whose budget does it go under. Mr. Robertson referred to an agreement the five towns made a few years ago to share equipment for use to maintain the rails to trails. Mr. Gugliotti complimented that the trails were beautifully kept. Mr. Mala questioned where the equipment was stored. Mr. Robertson said it was kept in Avon and the sign outs for the equipment were controlled here as well.
Mr. Gugliotti noted then that there really wasn’t any low hanging fruit left from the Matrix report. Mr. Robertson said there were items dependent upon the Admins phase II software implementation. Mr. Gugliotti continued that we have tackled a good number of them but there were still some big ticket items left and that there really weren’t a lot of inexpensive ones in there to begin with.
Mr. Mala continued that he’s looking for areas such as IT support, what and how we purchase, and to share with Mr. Robertson where we could piggyback the purchasing such as through reverse auctions. He said too that he could possibly join purchasing power with other towns as well. He offered that the BOE employs an electrician and could be something the town could use.
Mr. Evans questioned if the recent BOE’s request for financial software fit in with the town’s upgrade to the Admins and Novatime. Mr. Robertson reminded that one of the recommendations of the Matrix report was to look at the town and BOE sharing this software. It was found not to be a good fit for the BOE. Mr. Mala did say that the two systems will communicate better now. He continued that they are currently waiting for the new servers to install and have two meetings scheduled for next week to discuss the chart of accounts. They’ve met with Blum Shapiro to provide the necessary support to run the tape forward. The purchasing module should be operational by May, 2012 along with the financial. He’d prefer to verify the accuracy of all the demographic, certification and licensure information once
the conversion is done and do all the manual adjustments to it. He anticipates having the bridge in place for the start of FY 2012/2013 and appreciates the support. Mr. Evans questioned if the State Dept. of Education dictated which chart of accounts to use. Mr. Mala said no and that it was pretty standard but there were a few lines that could be put together and some added. He added too that Blum Shapiro had just been involved in three conversions across the State with the same product. His big concern is to make sure that the information provided to the town financial office is prepared appropriately in order to eliminate any unnecessary manual type of work. Mr. Evans wished him good luck with the new system.
VI. DISCUSS AND SET NEXT MEETING DATE
Mr. Robertson suggested broaching the Town Council at their next meeting with the subject to continue having the committee meet and how often. Mr. Gugliotti said each group would have a chance to vet this item before the committee meets in December. After some discussion, the committee decided to set the next meeting for Tuesday, December 13th, at 7:00 PM in the Selectmen’s Chamber Building 1. Mr. Gugliotti suggested emailing Mr. Stokesbury and Mr. Zacchio with the meeting date to make sure the date would be good for them as well.
VII. ADJOURNMENT
VOTE: Mr. Evans motioned, Mr. Gugliotti seconded and all agreed to adjourn the meeting at 7:45 PM. None opposed.
Respectfully submitted:
Acting Chairman Douglas Evans
Attest: Susan Gatcomb, Clerk
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