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Board of Finance Minutes Public Hearing 5/27/2008
Board of Finance Public Hearing
May 27, 2008

1.      CHAIR BOARD OF FINANCE:  Thomas Harrison
Chairman Harrison:  Good evening.  Welcome to the public hearing.  Thank you all for coming.  I am going to give a little bit of background so that everybody understands why we are here tonight, what we are doing tonight, what we are not doing tonight and how we got here and so forth.  The Charter spells all of this out.  When a budget is defeated, the Charter says following that defeat, the Board of Finance confers with Town Counsel and the Board of Education.  That conferring took place a week ago Monday.  Following the conferring, the Board of Finance then votes to establish a proposed modified budget.  And that is what is before you tonight.  The reason we have to do that is obviously, there has to be some subject on which to hold a public hearing.  So we have to adopt a proposed budget that will be heard tonight.  After the hearing, we will certainly listen to the comments.  We have received some e-mails.  I have to confess, it is not anywhere near as many as we got before the first referendum in that process and leading up to it.  I have received probably five e-mails maybe six.  So there seems to have been less communication, whether that means less interest, I hope not.  But, we have not had as many communications as we had leading up to the first hearing.  The first, so that’s why we are here, to hold this hearing on a proposed budget.  After this meeting, the Board of Finance will set, whether it’s the same one that’s on the table for tonight or if we make any modifications, that budget, then, is what will be on the ballet next Wednesday, June 4th for the second referendum.  To flush out these remarks, I am going to ask our Town Attorney, Dwight Johnson to come up and just spell out, I may have left something out or not correctly stated it.  So, Dwight, would you tell us what we need to know.  

Calls on Town Attorney, Dwight Johnson, to outline procedures of meeting and comments on budget process

Dwight Johnson:  Thank you Tom.  Good evening ladies and gentlemen.  Tom has highlighted the principle steps that have preceded this meeting.  I will just reiterate a couple of them and comment on what will happen in the future.  The Charter provides that within 20 days of the rejection of the recused budget, the Board of Finance, after such consultation with the Council and the Board of Ed as it deems appropriate, can submit, will submit a proposed new budget.  That budget can’t be the budget that was initially rejected but can be a modified budget, in this case, the Board of Finance is recommending for your consideration this evening, a modified budget.  Following the hearing this evening, the Board of Finance, again, as Tom has said, will consider comments that are heard this evening and any other comments that they may have heard in the interim and will finalize the proposed recommended new budget.  That new budget will then be put on the next scheduled referendum.  If the budget were to be rejected at this next referendum, the Charter provides that the process that we are going through this evening will be repeated one more time and the third referendum can be held. The Charter provides that no more than three referendums may be held and in the event that a third referendum be held and the budget was rejected, there are other administrative processes provided for in the Charter.  That concludes my comments.  Thank you.

Thomas Harrison, Chairman, Board of Finance to present Board of Finance overview and revised FY 08/09 Recommended Budget

Chairman Harrison:  Thank you, Dwight.  And I would like, the Board of Finance customarily begins its meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance, so I ask you all to rise.  (The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.)  Next, I would like to introduce the members of the Board of Finance.  I meant to do that at our last meeting.  To my immediate right Brett Eisenlohr, Bill Hooper, Tom Gugliotti, Jim Speich, Cathy Durdan and Margaret Bratton.  And of course you all know our Town Manager, Phil Schenck, and our very hard working clerk, Alison Sturgeon.  All right, the order tonight, I will give a very brief presentation with slides on what the proposed budget is, what we have done since the previous budget.  Following that presentation, the Board of Education and the Town Council will give brief presentations explaining how they will be dealing with the budget situation.  And then we will have open comment on anything or everything that has been said tonight.  Our usual practice remains the same.  Everybody will have the opportunity to speak.  We have one podium here, although I don’t see a microphone there.  Oh, it’s over on the other side.  We will move that over.  And there is also a microphone in the back behind Peg Colligan who is sitting there at the slide projector.  We ask that if you do speak, to give your name and address and in the interest of giving everybody a chance to say something should they choose to, if you could confine your remarks to about three minutes for the first go around.  So, we will open now with the revised budget.  Do we need to put these lights down?  By way of introduction, you will recall that in December, our Board adopted a non-binding guideline, in which we expressed that the sense of the Board of Finance that the economic situation being what it is, we were prepared to feel that the voters would be nonlikely to support any budget increases that required a tax increase in excess of 5%.  That was obviously non-binding.  And we said to the other two Boards that if a case were made for spending that would require a higher amount.  As it happened during the budget development process in the Spring, we were persuaded that the tax increase should be a little bit above 5%, and as you all know, we recommended a budget at the first referendum that called for a tax increase of 5 ¾%.  Obviously, the voters were not particularly impressed with that and it was defeated by a significant margin.  So we have gone back to the drawing boards and have adopted further reductions.  I will give you those details in a moment in the slides, but the reductions are a point and a quarter percent.  So, this now, the budget that we have on the table tonight, if it were to be adopted in this form, would be below that guideline we said, and it would be a 4 ½% increase and we will just have to see what it is.  So, I will give you some of the summaries with the changes we have made.  Peggy, if you could go to the first one.  Okay.  These are the reductions we made from the budget that was defeated a couple of weeks ago.  We reduced, by $180,000, that portion of the budget that supports different kinds of spending.  The Town Council’s operating budget, as well as the Capital Improvement Program.  And John Carlson will explain where they made the adjustments.  So, we have taken $180,000 from the budget that you defeated and we have taken $541,000 from the Board of Education’s budget that was defeated a couple weeks ago.  So, we reduced the budget from two weeks ago by $722,000.  To give you a little bit of a trace of how we got from where we were to where we are.  The initial budgets that we all talked about in the first public hearing in April, we reduced those, on the Town side, by $372,000 and on the school side, 692,000.  So, it’s about a million dollar reduction.  That was not sufficient, it did not pass.  So, we made these additional reductions that I just mentioned.  So, the total reduction from what the Council and the Board of Education came in with in their formal budget requests, is fairly significant, $553,000 from the Town portion, and $1.2 million from the school portion, or almost $1.8 million from the requests that were submitted just 2  ½ months ago.  This, I’m not going to go through every item, but the bottom lines here, the spending now of all of the accounts, debt service, capital, sewers, everything, is $70.7 million.  That’s down about $1.8 million from where it was in April.  That’s a $4.2 million spending increase over the current year’s budget and in percentage terms, it’s a 6.36% spending increase for all the Town.  The sewer portion of this has a significant increase of 54%, but it is funded by a separate source of revenue, it does not come out of the property tax.  It is paid only by those residents that are connected with the sewers, but it is included in here in this total, but it is not funded by the property tax.  This is the medium assessed valuation that the Town used this for all of the various projections that were put together.  The medium market value, believe it or not, is $289,000, which means, the assessed value, the medium is $202,000.  That house, right in the middle, if this budget passes before you tonight would be approved, it is a 4 ½% tax mill rate increase and the property tax increase over what that house is paying this year, is $258.  And that includes the house, the land and the average two cars per house in Town.  So, that’s how much more you would be paying if you’re in that mystical magical middle.  So, where we are, then, the spending increase in the budget that we are going to be talking about tonight is 6.36% or $4.2 million.  As you know, our grand list didn’t go up by very much, it only went up by about 1 ½%, which is the lowest we have had in many years and it is continuing a downward trend in the growth.  This budget, if adopted, would require a mill rate of 26.70 or 1.15 mills over the current budget and that would be an increase of 4 ½% in the mill rate.  And even with that, we would still be among the very lowest of the Towns in our tax rate here in the Farmington Valley.  So, that’s the budget that’s on the table and I am going to ask Peggy Roell, the Chair of the Board of Education to come up and discuss how the Board of Education is going through all this.  Peggy.

Calls upon Peggy Roell, Chair, Board of Education to present the revised Board of Education Budget for the Fiscal Year 2008/2009

Peggy Roell:  Thank you Tom.  I would like to begin by introducing the Board of Ed members that are here:  Bill Stokesbury, Barbara Zuras, Ken Notestine, Mike Eagan.  I think that’s everybody.  Dr. Kisiel, our Superintendent and Jody Goeler, our Assistant Superintendent.   The first couple slides are similar to the ones we saw at the last couple presentations.  We will just go through them very quickly.  Just a reminder of what the Board of Ed’s statutory responsibilities are based on State law.  Our missions and goals, which we tried to think about and remember when we make our decisions on a monthly basis.  Then our original pledge of goals, whether the budget process started with, actually, the Administrators back in December and January, and then with the Board of Ed with Budget Committee at the end of January and the full Board in February.  As you know, the enrollment continues to increase.  Our projected increase for next year is another 88 students, of which about 30 of those students are already here.  Consistent with prior years, we won’t know how many students will actually be here until sometime during the summer or really at the end of the summer.  The Administration continuously monitoring enrollment, actual enrollment, that all of the schools, and you will see in a minute, that the, we will talk about it in a few minutes, the Pine Grove kindergarten projected enrollments is about 30 students less than what’s been projected.  The actual enrollment right now is about 30 students less than the projected.  There is an opportunity to redistrict some kindergarten students from Roaring Brook over to Pine Grove, which will relieve the need for our part-time teacher at Roaring Brook and also start the process of, hopefully, moving some of the students out of Roaring Brook and over to Pine Grove.  This is a chart that shows the increase in enrollment and per student spending on a five year basis in Avon versus other Towns.  This information is all off of the State Department of Education website.  As you can see, our enrollment has increased significantly more than most of the other Towns, while per student spending has not gone up anywhere near as much.  And then the same information in charts for people that are more visual.  The next slide has some of the same information, the top just shows what the Board of Ed’s initial budget proposal was, the adjustment before we got to the first referendum and now the adjustments to get to the second referendum, for a total of $1.2 million, which is also in one of the top slides.  Back when we first started the budget, this is a list of all of the major cost drivers from the original budget.  As you can see, salaries are a lot of it, utilities, and the other costs of running the schools.  These costs haven’t changed, we are just going to have to modify, I know many of them we can actually incur over ones that are optional or not mandated.  As you can see, it’s $4 million, the $4 million increase is broken out, was broken out between continuing obligations, what it would take to open our schools doing the same things we have this year and then what are the new costs.  As you can see, our proposed budget right now is less than what we were estimating what it would take to open our schools doing the same things we are doing now.  So, obviously, there is going to have to be big adjustments made.  There are continuing obligations broken out, again, we have talked about these in great detail the last couple of meetings, so I am not going to go through them tonight.  But, if people have specific questions or would like to have copies of the prior presentations, I would be happy to answer their questions or give you copies of the presentations.  Then, there are the new costs.  Again, we use the term “new” loosely, because some of it is covering the costs of the additional students and covering the costs of opening up the high school addition.  This is a list of the budget adjustments that are under consideration.  The Board is working with the Administration, Dr. Kisiel and all of the Principals, to get the best information possible for making these decisions.  They are obviously going to be very very hard decisions.  We are looking for input from parents, from the community, suggestions for other reductions.  At this point, it says, um, two or three teachers.  We are not sure.  One teacher is trying to sell her house.  If she sells her house, she is retiring, if she doesn’t, she is not retiring.  A lot of numbers are still fluid.  The Administration is working with the different Unions to see if we can reduce our health care costs.  The Town and the Board of Ed went out for a bid on their health care and there are some pretty significant, in excess of $100,000 in savings that could be potentially saved from the new health care plan.  We are also looking into leasing some of the technology, which would defer some of the costs for an additional two years.  This $1.2 million in reductions that we are going to have to make, in addition to $1 million of reductions that were already made by Dr. Kisiel prior to the time the budget came to the Board of Ed, this $1 million represents full justified costs that the Principals felt were necessary to adequately run their schools.  Dr. Kisiel made a decision that, to try to get a reasonable budget to the Board, some of these costs would have to be deferred for another year or more.  Again, the reductions that were made, they, in addition to the $1.2 that we are going to be making right now.  And, as a result of the budget, the 3% budget increase over the last few years, there have been other reductions and programs over the prior years.  This is just a listing of some of them, programs and personnel.  And throughout all of this, over the last 10-12 years, the district has been involved in many cost saving initiatives and programs, both with the Town and with other school districts.  Mr. Franzi, our Business Manager, had meetings together with the other Business Managers from 10 surrounding school districts on a monthly basis to look more and share ideas on how to save money and implement, when one district finds something, then hopefully, other districts can benefit from it too.  This has resulted in copying costs that are slightly over a penny a copy, much better than Staples at 8 cents a copy.  And shared utility purchasing and other cost saving measures that are reflected in the original budget.  There are some more of the cost saving measures that have been in place for over the last 10 years.  Hopefully, between this presentation and the presentations from the last, the last two of them, you get a better understanding of how the Board of Ed is proposing to spend the money and the quarterly newsletters, also, hopefully have good information.  There is also a lot of information on the website where you can actually format and go onto the financial statements and see all 930 account item, line items, with the original budget amounts.  Because the individual line items, the individual reductions had not been made yet, what is on the website is the original budget, but at least it gives you an idea of how the monies are proposed to be spent.  If you have any questions after tonight, please free to give myself, any Board of Ed member or Dr. Kisiel a call or if you hear that people have questions or are saying things that you think are crazy, have them call us so we can get the correct facts out.  That is really important.  What is most important to us is that people have the correct information and then make a decision how they want that is based on correct information.  Thank you.

Chairman Harrison:  Thank you, Peggy.  As always, an excellent presentation.  Next, I am going to ask John Carlson, the Chair of the Town Council, to discuss how the Council has reacted to the budget.  So, John.  

Calls on Chairman Town Council to present the revised Town Council, Sewer, Debt Service and Capital Improvement Budget for FY 2008/2009

John Carlson:  Thank you Tom.  As Peggy did, let me first start off by asking the members of the Town Council here this evening to stand as I announce them.  I believe that they are all here.  Bill Shea, Mark Zacchio, Pam Samul and David Pena.  Thank you very much.  We met last Wednesday evening and went through the budget to adjust it to meet the requirements of the Board of Finance.  As Tom mentioned, we needed to cut $180,591 from our budget, and we had the leeway to cut it from the Operating Budget and/or the Capital Improvement Budget.  The Operating Budget is the first line shown there under the Town, and the Capital Improvements, CIP Budget, is the last line before the total.  You divide it up into $65,000 worth of cuts from the Operating Budget and $115,000 worth of cuts from the Capital Improvement Budget.  I should note that we are in unanimous agreement that there were certain things that should be left intact, as going through this budget changing may be: one; anything that might jeopardize the Public Safety should not be touched; and two; in the time of dire economic straits, tough economic times, Social Services, were we could, should be left intact, because it is a time when they are called upon much more so than at other times; and three, our infrastructure, roads, buildings and that type of thing should not be touched, in fact, we should continue to invest in them because we have already made a sizeable investment; and finally, although not our decision solely, our recommendation to the Board of Finance would be that we do not touch surplus, at a time that we are about to enter revaluation and, frankly, when we get into a situation with both our budget and the Board of Education’s budget, where it’s down to nickels and dimes in some cases and tough scrutiny, we need to be in a situation that if we got into an emergency situation, where a roof needed emergency repair, that’s when you would go to surplus.  Not to fund our operating budget.  So, with those four, not touching Public Safety, not touching Social Services, leaving infrastructure alone and continuing to support it, in fact, and then not touching surplus, we have moved forward to make the adjustments here.  These are not easy adjustments for any of us, um, and we did need to make some cuts at the Library.  This will result in us cutting back on 11 Sundays.  We were open on 32 Sundays currently.  That will go to 21 Sundays.  We looked at the, we worked with the Library staff.  The 11 Sundays, which got the least usage, and those have been removed.  There are some other implications as well, for a total cut of $8,700 there.  Supplies and services for $54,000; the biggest item there is the brush collection.  That’s not the ’08 brush collection.  That is the next year’s brush collection.  So, if it hasn’t been picked up, it should have been at this point.  It will be this year, but we recommended that we do take that out for next year.  And that’s $47,000 of the $54,000 there.  And then some smaller items in the Capital Outlay Budget was $2,200 for a total of $65,000 from Operating.  On the Capital Improvement Program, we were able to really leave the program intact, which was one of our basic intents not to harm our infrastructure.  What we did give back, some good news, on the Verville Road improvement, we did test borings us there to see what the composition of the subsurface is.  We had built in there that, for the worst case scenario, that it would be largely rock and ledge and, therefore, the cost of the project would be significantly higher.  We did the borings, and it is largely sand, so that gives us the ability to take some money out of that item.  Back to my earlier comment on the surplus, if we get into a situation where we are redoing the road and all of a sudden we do run into ledge because borings are just that, they are sample borings and are not conclusive.  We might have to come back to the Board of Finance to ask to tap in to surplus in that emergency situation.  We can’t just leave the road half done.  Likewise, on this building, we have gone out to bid on anticipation of the budget passing, and in anticipation of us being able to do the roof over, and the bids have come in $20,000 less than we originally projected.  You need to remember, that as we prepare our budget on the capital side, we are actually preparing it back in November of last year, and it goes through…so that the figures that we present to you, even in April are preliminary.  We haven’t gotten bids back, and bids are only good for so long anyway.  You can’t bid a project in January and say that you had better hold your prices for six months or a year.  You can, but you know what you are going to get for a result.  So, the good news is that as the bid came in, it’s $20,000 than we originally anticipated.  So, that allowed us to cut $115,000 from that line item, bringing our total obligation of $180,591 worth of cuts.  So, to summarize, our Operating Budget, we are asking for a 4.28%, that’s in the top right hand corner here, 4.28% increase over last year in Operating Budget, sewers, as Tom Harrison stated earlier is a 54% increase there, that is funded by sewer fees, not part of the property taxes.  The Debt Services really is an obligation that we previously contracted for, so we do not have the ability to go in and change that line item.  So, therefore, we have the 4.3 or 4.29% increase in that.  Finally, in the Capital Improvement Program, we are actually going down over the last year, and negative 6.7% change there.  So the total budget item here, including the Sewers, is a 5.61% increase.  I stand ready to answer your questions later on, as do any members of the Town Council or Mr. Schenck.  Thank you very much.

Chairman Harrison:  Thank you, John.  Well, as the members of the Board of Finance trickle back up here to the podium, John mentioned earlier about the revaluation coming up.  I want to mention and put in a little plug, tomorrow evening at 7 o’clock at the Library, Harry DerAsadourian, the Town Assessor, as well as the company that the Town has contracted to do the revaluation.  They are putting on a presentation, explaining the process, explaining what they look for and how they look at it and how they evaluate.  This always causes worry about revaluation because everybody says, how come that house across the street got a smaller increase than mine did.  So, Harry will be putting on what I believe will be a very good presentation so that everybody will have a chance to know, before it starts, later this year, what to expect, what you need to hide if you don’t want to assessors to see it, or whatever.  That will be tomorrow evening at 7 o’clock in the Library.  All right, now we get to the question stage.  Would you mind moving that microphone over to the center?  Thank you.  The ground rules, you know, name and address, roughly three minutes or so, and we will go from there.  So, who would like to be the first?  Right over here, David.

David Goldsholl, 57 Old Kings Road:  When I attended the, I believe it was a Town Council meeting.

Chairman Harrison:  Please raise the microphone up.

David Goldsholl:  How about now?  Okay.  Recently, at the last Town Council meeting, one or the other tenants, I think that John Carlson mentioned, was that most of them are trying not to raise fees on things.  If I said that correctly.  That the idea of saving the budget by raising fees is kind of counterproductive to cut expense.  So, I was wondering, is that something that the Town Council kind of puts out there as a guideline and who doesn’t have to adhere to that.  How does that work exactly, because, if you do pay for play, for instance, that would be raising fees.  Or where parents pay for graduation, that would be raising fees in a way.  But if we don’t raise fees at the transfer station, or we don’t raise parking fees at the Senior Center or other venues don’t raise parking fees, like the high school, there seems to be some inconsistencies in philosophy and operating technique.  And I was just wondering if someone or anyone could comment on that.

Chairman Harrison:  Sure.  I will be happy to give this one over to John.  Do you want to take the first shot at it?  We will give you equal time, Peggy.

John Carlson:  During this budget iteration, we did not raise any fees.  It should be noted, for Peggy’s earlier comment regarding correct information.  We actually did raise fees, I think it was our April meeting, correct me if I’m wrong, on the transfer station, that is one we did raise fees and I think we may have raised some others as well back then.  That is prior to my presenting to you, in April.  We did not do that between this budget and the iteration.  We did not want to raise any fees but it was our decision that with the portion of the budget that we control, the Board of Education does what they need to do in order to manage their programs.  
Chairman Harrison:  Thank you, John.  Peggy, did you want to add anything to that?  All right, next question, Flo.

Florence Stahl:  Thank you Tom.  I hope you don’t mind, I am going to turn this around so that my back is nearer to you and I am looking at all of you.

Chairman Harrison:  Just move the microphone, Flo.  We have your back up here.

Florence Stahl, 2 Sunset Trail:  Okay.  Can you hear me?  Tom, I want to thank you very much about talking about the Assessor’s program tomorrow night.  I just want to get a plug in for the Avon taxpayer that that was our initiative.  And we are very happy to have Harry DerAsadourian be there, and we hope you will also be there.  It is the first time he has made himself so publically available and we are very proud of that go around.  Well, good evening, I am Florence Stahl, 2 Sunset Trail, President of the Avon Taxpayer’s Association.  You know, a member of the Board of Finance likes to tell a story about a tree.  The tree being a metaphor for our Town budget.  His point is that you may be able to trim the tree here and there, but you have to be careful because too much trimming will eventually kill it.  However, in the opinion of many residents, this very tree, lived without property pruning for decades.  It grew large and top heavy will lopsided branches.  You get the picture.  But, whichever tree metaphor you prefer, let’s not have the taxpayer be the sap.  Seriously, though folks, there is no mystique about why voters voted no in record numbers on the first budget referendum.  I heard these voters rationalize trivialize and psychoanalyze.  Those of us who voted no are apparently shallow thinkers.  We can’t understand high finance.  We are slackers or in denial about infrastructure.  We are dummies that just don’t get it.  And the latest one, where people with displaced gas pump rage, I’m not sure I understand all of this talk about e-mail, what I do know, it was the largest no vote in Avon’s history.  It was five times more than the average predictable no vote.  What are they saying?  You are spending too much.  The result in taxes because of their spending are taking too big a bite from our available income and are unsustainable.  That is why we voted no.  Revaluation will add substantially to our property tax bottom line.  That is why we voted no.  Avon’s spending increases are still one of the highest, if not the highest, in the region.  That’s why we will vote no again.  We may have one of the lowest mill rates in the region, and we brag about that, but that won’t be true for long if we keep spending at this rate.  The truth is, now that our grand list growth has slowed and interest rates are negligible and State money has dried up, the consequences of spending excess are as never before.  Operational decisions and recourse allocation, even allotting for mandates are as follows as never before.  The voters are saying that you are spending too much and perhaps spending our money not so wisely.  Building are either hyper-fancy or in great need of repair, compensation and benefits are overly generous while school supplies run out, and programs get eliminated, and entitled bureaucracy remains strangely insulated from economic reality and inexplicably some elected officials seem strangely insulated from political reality.  We helped plant and nourish that tree.  Of course we want it to live.  We want it there for our long time residents and succeeding generations.  It has to be trimmed.  It will collapse of its own weight.  Please vote no.  Thank you and thank you for all of your hard work and you don’t do this for money and neither do I.  Thank you very much.

Chairman Harrison:  Thank you, Flo.  Who would like to be next?  Yes, Claire.  You can come up here or use the one back there.

Claire Henderson, One Keystone Circle:  The first budget referendum requesting a 5.75% tax increase was defeated by the largest number of no votes in Avon’s history.  Voters sent the Board of Finance a mandate to cut spending by a significant amount.  Is a 1% spending cap resulting in a tax increase of 4 ½% an appropriate response?  I don’t think so.  In a proposed budget of close to $71 million, there is still room to cut spending to bring the tax increase to a number that the voters will approve.  For those who think more cuts are punitive, let me remind everyone, that both the Town and especially the Board of Education will still have generous spending increases over the last year if another cut is made resulting in a tax increase of only 3 ½%.  This is far greater in the increase than in recent years.  This tax increase, although difficult for many people to handle in a year receiving the revaluation, does reflect current economic reality and does provide adequate funding for all essential Town programs.  I want to applaud Margaret Bratton and Catherine Durdan on the Board of Finance for articulating the mood of the Town in opposing the proposed 4 1/2 % tax increase.  Now it is time for the rest of the Board to listen to the voters.  Thank you.

Chairman Harrison:  Thank you, Claire.  The gentleman on the aisle there.  

Martin Kaplan, 22 Cottonwood Drive, Avon, Connecticut:  Can you all hear me.  Okay, good.  Number one, I want to congratulate the Boards for beginning.  And I have to emphasize the word beginning to reduce the increase in our taxes due to the increase in budget.  Let me speak.  I don’t have prepared notes.  To the educational side of the budget, which is by far the largest increase and the largest percentage of the budget as I understand it.  I know the educational functions try to indicate some of the steps that they are going to take in reducing the budget.  I think that they ought to work a little harder.  Primarily because I do not believe that the student increase of about 50 to 60 students, I don’t know the exact number, is going to be there for a Town like Avon, that does not have the demographics of a population coming in that is younger and tends to want to buy less expensive houses.  I have lived in Connecticut for 42 years and I know the demographics in Connecticut in general.  So, from that perspective, I don’t believe there is going to be an increase, primarily, because there was an increase last year.  The study that I looked at was done in 2002. As I remember, and somebody can correct me if I’m wrong, and the economic situation, the demographics of this Town has changed significantly since 2002.  They are showing a decrease last year and I don’t see how the budget lacks an increase in student population or education increase.  Finally, and I would like to say, and I go back a long way as you can see from my gray hair, I have followed the educational system for a long time.  I am not an educator, I am an engineer, but I have followed the educational system and I have taught in high schools, public schools, colleges and advance courses, graduate courses in college and from an educational perspective I go back to someone who said, dollars does not necessarily make for a good education; dollars where needed makes for a good education.  And I have looked at the budget over and over and the education budget and I don’t think, I think you can take a dramatic amount of dollars out of the educational budget.  I think the problem associated with the educational budget is the bureaucratic build up through the educational system.  I don’t mean the Avon schools, but in many schools.  I think that the parents should take some initiatives upon themselves to provide education for the students instead of saying that the schools should get more money.  There is a lot, so that they can educate our students.  I think education starts at home and I think that education, for dollars that you would get a bureaucracy costs us more than in this State and in this Country than we should have.  So I think that the educational budget should be reduced significantly.

Chairman Harrison:  Thank you, sir.  Peggy, would you like to respond to that?

Peggy Roell:  I just want to make a couple of comments to what Mr. Kaplan’s comments were.  The first thing is that we have had increased enrollment every year since the early 90’s.  The numbers I have are that in 1997, we had 2,200 students, and now we have about 3,600 students, so about a 1,400 student increase in eleven years.  During that time, we had 16 administrators back in 1997; we still have 16 administrators today, even though our population has increased.  It hasn’t doubled, but it has gone up pretty significantly.  I was in a meeting this morning with Mr. Franzi, our Assistant Manager said that our administrator costs are less than 2% of our total budget, which is a pretty small number, pretty comparable to industry.  So, while there is a perception of a lot of people, we have 16 supervisors for 400-and some employees.  So it is pretty flat.  As far as parents, the PTOs and booster club, between the high school, raised in excess of $200,000 a year that go back to the schools.  That is in addition to after school programs that they pay for their kids, all with the schools and not by the schools.  So, there are not many extra programs, I am not sure that there are any extra programs that the schools are providing as compared to the perception that there are all kinds of things that the schools are providing.  And I would also invite Mr. Kaplan and anyone to come into our schools, now we are counting down the days, so maybe it would be better in the fall, but I would love for you guys to come in and see any of the schools, see what is going on.  Schools are different than they were when I graduated high school in 1977.  Schools have changed a lot since 1977.  When I bring my mom in, she tells me that they have changed a lot since 1956.  But, come on in and see what is going on.  It is different, it is great.  And I would love for you guys all to come in to see what is happening, because I think you would be please at how your tax dollars are being spent.

Mr. Kaplan:  If I could just make one comment.  What I referred to was 2007 compared to this year.  It was a reduction from 2007 to 2008, compared to the numbers.

Peggy Roell:  No.  It has gone up every year.  

Mr. Kaplan:  I see the total enrollment, the projections here in 2007 was 3613 and 3606 in 2008.

Peggy Roell:  Okay.  During the course of the school year, it went down 7 kids, I guess.  I stand corrected.  We did go down 7 kids.  There haven’t been very many house sales during…

Mr. Kaplan:  That’s right.  And there is going to be less house sales with the demographics (inaudible)
Peggy Roell:  Well, that’s what I said.  They are not going to finalize the number of teachers we need until during the summer sometime when we know the actual numbers.

Mr. Kaplan:  (inaudible)

Peggy Roell:  Okay.  

Chairman Harrison:  Well, maybe you could take Peggy’s invitation and arrange to have a talk with them.  I don’t want to have a dialogue going back and forth here, although I think I would encourage you to refine the numbers or talk with Dr. Kisiel or Peggy.  Thank you.  Who else?  Yes, you.

Valerie Ferro:  I really can’t tell you how disturbed, and I am just going to keep myself in check right now.  Some of the comments I am hearing, um, I pay money.  I pay my taxes and I pay hundreds of dollars out of pocket, as a parent, with children in the school system.  I am paying for equipment that ten years ago the school paid for.  I am paying for Spanish notebooks.  I am paying $75 a pop for bus trips and I am paying and I am paying and I am paying.  And then someone is actually bold enough to tell me that I should be paying more.  So, we are paying out of pocket, and I think all of us with children in the school system, believe in public education and we bring children into this world and they belong in your community, then you educate them.  I think it’s that simple.  I am so disturbed at our inability to clearly articulate the impact of growth on resident services.  I am equally disturbed at the inability for us to understand or recognize cumulative impacts.  We have hacked away at the school budget for years.  We have cut away when our economy was very robust and now we have cut more.  I was brought up under the philosophy that you saved for a rainy day, so when things got bad, you went in your rainy day fund and you maintain what you were living on.  And, I think that is, realistically what we are facing here.  So, you continue to cut and the accumulative impact has hit us at a very bad time.  You can argue whether it was fiscally responsible or not, but I am not going to play politics here.  You know.  That’s reality.  We cut, we cut, we cut.  This annual referendum has become spectacles.  I am wondering if we shouldn’t just apply for a gaming license and sell tickets because it is just, it is out of hand.  And, you know, some people enjoy it and some people don’t.  There are many parents that don’t even want to hear it anymore.  And, unfortunately, we are turning those people off and looking to the demographics, they are not showing up to vote.  I walked out of the April public hearing because I could not watch our Town struggle with a question, a gentleman came up and asked about growth.  And, I didn’t hear an answer.  I didn’t even hear anything.  No one is willing to put this out on the table.  In the early 1990’s, I appeared in front of the Planning and Zoning Commission and I had done an analysis of vacant land and I had recommended limited development on steep slopes and I also recommended shortening cul-de-sac lengths.  My analysis lead to the prediction that we would be opening the gates of development and if we didn’t manage it, that we would be, at the very least, adding another school and expanding to the existing schools.  Saying I told you so has never hurt more.  That’s where we are right now.  It’s called growth.  We opened the flood gates and now we have to deal with it.  According to UCONNs land use education and research (CLEAR) 25.7% of the Town has become developed from 1995 to 2002.  According to our recently approved Plan of Conservation and Development, the Town apparently thinks that our growth rate is manageable because if you look at our availability and the future land use plan, there remains large expanses to be developed, with absolutely no controls.  We have opened the flood gates for decades, and this has been going on since 1950-1960 with consistent large double digit growth.  And don’t let anyone tell you that Avon was once a poor farm community, because if you look at the demographics, this Town was ranked in wealth in the top three since the 1950’s, so that has remained consistent.  So, we don’t have newfound wealth.  It has been with us for at least four decades.  Let me throw out some statistics.  From 1950 to 1960, we grew 71%.  From 1970 to 1980, we grew 20%.  From 1990 to 2000, we grew 13.6%.  And there is still land to grow.  Building permits.  In 1991, there were 36 and it went up from every subsequent year:  35, 49, 58, 50, 61, 65, 118, 103, 72, 82, 90, 128 in 2003, 84, 110, and last year 88.  It is simple math.  If just one child for each of those homes comes into this Town, we are paying.  So let’s stop this nonsense.  This argument is not going to work.  No matter if you put your head in the sand or if you try to defer it or whatever you try to do, it is not going to work.  We have grown, we have allowed growth.  We didn’t, we have had no interest in growth management techniques.  I know people drop the eminent domain clause, okay, but I can point to dozens and dozens of Towns that have managed their growth.  But, this is not the time to discuss it because it is really too late.  Ten years ago, I thought we had a chance, but we have allowed it to happen.  So, don’t think for a moment that you are going to whine about a percentage or half a percent, however you want to cut it, because when you look at the math, the difference between high and low is not that much.  But we have to get over the fact that it is the school’s fault.  This is our Town and we stick together and we raise our children together and we look out for our elderly and everything else that, I hope everyone in this room, has been brought up to believe.    But, I think the acrimony and the yes and no and positioning and the public relations campaigns and misinformation about people coming over the mountain and magnet schools and all of these other threats.  I support this budget.  I supported the last budget.  I think you folks should too.  And instead of positioning yourselves, whatever your motivators are, get the information and decide for yourself.  But understand, there might have been a large number of people who said no this time, but if you look at the number of people that have turned out to vote, it is not commensurate with the growth of this Town.  People are still not voting.  Okay.  So part of the blame is there.  Thanks.

Chairman Harrison:  I haven’t seen you in a few years.  Nice to have you back.  Who else now would like to add something else to this?  Yes.

Sonja Larkin-Thorne, 5 Avondale Drive:  In response to the woman who just spoke.  We are a democracy and in a democracy, people are entitled to stand up and express themselves.  And that is what these Town meetings are all about.  Everyone does not have to agree, but we have a right to say exactly how we feel.  People have the right to question the impact on them as individuals.  As you talk about the additional dollars for paying for your children, there are many of us in this room that have never used the school districts, the school system here in Town not because we don’t think it’s a good system, but we never used it.  We chose alternative methods of education for our children.  But we have not complained about the fact that people who do use the schools choose to pay for the extracurricular activities.  That’s part of what it takes sometimes in a democracy and a Town, for everyone to exist.  But I have to tell you, I am offended by the put down that because people choose to stand up and express their opinion and their thought about what goes on in their Town, where they are all paying property taxes, that there is a reason to put them down.  You shouldn’t.  In a democracy, free speech is an entitlement and everyone is entitled to stand up.

Val Ferro:  (inaudible)

Chairman Harrison:  Val, please.  Nobody interrupt.  Val, please.

Sonja Larkin-Thorne:  And I think you made some valid comments, but some of the comments were also insulting to me and the people in this room who choose to express their opinions in a democracy in a State and a Country where we are all entitled to free speech.  Thank you.

Chairman Harrison:  Linda?

Linda Merlin, 48 High Gate Drive:  I don’t have a prepared speech like I sometimes do when I come to these meetings, but I think there are a few things that I want to address.  I, like Val, are really saddened by some of the attacks on education and just for a moment, I don’t think Val is saying that no one has a right to say what they felt, but in our hearts, the way we believe, the community should support the education of its children in the community.  It is just something that makes us sad and I don’t think it was an attack on what anybody else feels in this room.  I just think that was misinterpreted.  Um, all right.  I guess I have a few comments.  I suppose this fellow didn’t like the tree analogy, but I think it is an excellent analogy.  And I think that what the majority of the Board of Finance did this year is go out on that limb rather than cut it off the second time around.  They know that this was a resounding no, but they also know that 80% of the Town didn’t vote no, 70% of the Town didn’t vote at all.  They spent hours and hours in meetings and meetings, bimonthly, tri-monthly.  I can’t even begin to tell you looking at these numbers and some of us have attended most of other meetings and they believe that a dramatic cut at this point would be very difficult for the Town and they want to give us a chance to have community support, to support this budget and to maintain our Town the best we can.  I know, I have noticed what this budget, and I hope the rest of you will, going from this 4.5% down to a 3.5% is not going to put a lot of money back into our pockets, but it would mean so much in programs and roads and maintenance and it will be well worth it.  Um, you know, I think I will just leave it at that.  I hope there is support.  I hope that the people recognize that, you know, I guess everyone talks about what makes a country strong, and they are looking at the big picture.  Education makes a country strong.  I don’t think tax on the Avon education system or saying that we are always spending, but there have been so many reductions and programs and increase in class size enrollment.  I just hope you all support this budget.  I think that we need to stand together.  Thank you.

Chairman Harrison:  All the way in the back.

Rick Rendeiro, 10 Hillsboro Lane:  I would also like to thank the Boards for the work they did.  I think a message was sent in the last referendum.  It was not a message I wanted to hear, but I think everybody understood a message was sent.  However, I agree with some of the previous speakers that our Town has certain fundamental qualities and we don’t want to lose them.  I am a relatively recent resident.  I moved here five years ago.  I came over the mountain after for living in Hartford for 14 years and I know what it is like to live in a Town that doesn’t have a good educational system, that doesn’t have good services.  We came here because we wanted to find that kind of quality of life.  We found it here and my family has gotten very involved in the community organizations, community activities, school activities.  Our three children attend the public schools and I find them to be excellent.  There are areas were we think there can be improvement.  We certainly have seen the effects of some of the cuts that have been made in the past.  And we feel that we are part of the community now and certainly share the appreciation that I think that most of the people that live in Avon have.  And certainly that one of the things that are very important throughout the years is the quality of the education here.  And I hate to see us turn away from that.  This Town has historically been a very cohesive Town and everybody has taken great pride in the quality of our schools, the rankings that they have Statewide, the rankings that our students achieve on a statewide basis.  And while I agree that the tree needs to be pruned, seeing that my background is in horticulture, um, I want our tree to be managed and fed and bear fruit.  I don’t want a bonsai tree.  And if you keep on cutting and cutting and cutting, we will end up getting something that is very manageable and very small, but very narrow that doesn’t provide our students with the opportunities that they currently have and that they should have.  A lot of the growth in this Town has come because people want to move here to have the quality of life.  If you look around us, at other Towns, not necessarily our Simsbury and Farmington neighbors, but other Towns that are not too far away, that don’t properly take care of their educational systems and as a result, people don’t want to live there the way they want to live here.  I want my kids to be proud of their education.  I want to stay here and have their kids take advantage of it as well.  I agree, that, unfortunately, we didn’t have the turnout for the last referendum, but I would encourage you to support the budget and get your friends to come out and show that this is something that the Town can live with.  Thank you.

Chairman Harrison:  is there anyone else who hasn’t spoken yet that would like to?  The gentlemen, yes, you sir.  No, behind you about five or six rows, you, yes, you just put your hand up.  

Bill Neff, 454 Country Club Road:  I have lived in Avon for 39 years and I had some prepared statements, but there is … going on with some of the facts, so I will try to feed that in.  At the last public hearing, a gentleman stood up and he said that he was, indeed, going to vote yes.  There were a lot of voters who were prepared to vote no and did offer viable alternatives.  And in my business and my career, I have learned that it’s one thing just to say I don’t like this, but you really should say I don’t like this and offer some kind of alternative if it is going to be constructive.  As a no voter, I should offer some kind of an alternative.  In fact, the Town budget is mostly those voters, about 80% of them, 70% I should say.  And of that huge percentage of our budget, the vast majority of it goes for salaries and benefits for the teachers.  The public records reveal that the school employees are generally paid pretty well.  It is interesting to note that our Superintendent of the school makes even more than the Governor of the State of Connecticut.  So, it is a desirable position.  Shouldn’t the various happenings and programs at school be given closer scrutiny at this point?  I was an underwriter as well as an aircraft maintenance officer, and I admit that I never created a school budget, so if I am going to make a viable alternative, and I have to look at what the school is all about, I thought, well, look at the programs.  For instance, you mentioned the strings program.  Yes, I know that there is a connection between string programs and math skills, but don’t mommies and daddies send their kids for private lessons or maybe they are not going to get into college if they don’t have a string program.  But I realize, that if I were to say, about a program like this and say, you know, you ought to cut the string program, I am sure that there would be young parents throughout the Town who would ask for my head on a platter.  So, then perhaps we move from there to team sports or perhaps some of the more esoteric special advancement courses.  Are they fully attended?  Are they really getting the maximum bang for their buck.  And there again, I felt that any one suggestion that I would make, if I went down through the budget, I am sure that there would be special interest in any number of anything I said.  And so, doing this, that there is really no program within the schools that can be cut back or eliminated.  It is going to hurt everybody.  Getting back to the original statements, the vast majority of the budget goes to the salary and benefits.  And that is where the economy comes in because I hear people saying, gee, I have to pay all of this and it used to be the PTO.  My wife and I were Presidents of the PTO years ago at Roaring Brook.  But, they have to raise all kinds of money because the school can’t do it.  Then I see both, the money that is going to the school is largely for salary and benefits and that brings me back to the fact that, and the school suggested that we eliminate it in the past, is maybe it’s time for the Town to bite the bullet and bring in some consultants to take a independent thought of what goes in to programs and the staffing and where the nice to haves and the need to haves are, because I don’t think that the school Board or the staff or the Town Manager can really look at this whole budget and come up with a truly objective budget that’s not going to hurt somebody.  An independent party coming in, making a business analysis of what goes on in our Town because the vast amount of money goes to the schools.  Maybe this is what this Town needs.  It’s not going to happen this year.  It’s not going to happen during this particular budget, but we are going forward.  I really think that this has to be done to make a truly, unemotional but intelligent analysis of where our bucks are going and how they are being used.  And I think that putting a budget together too, you have to keep a couple of things in mind.  Um, there is the revaluation this year, and it doesn’t plan to be pretty because we already know that people who own their homes are probably going to get nailed.  And those of us who are on fixed income are probably going to hurt.  We are griping about the gas prices and transportation.  Let’s not forget home heating oil, because I think there are going to be people in this Town who have increased taxes and then when home heating oil hits, there are going to be choices made between food and heat and medicine and that’s not going to be fun.  That’s going to be a problem for a lot of people.  So, I guess that I will have to vote no.  I have to say no now to prevent saying no in the future of keeping my house or heating it.  But, I also feel that, and I hope that the Town is going to take an independent view of where we spend our bucks and how much bang we are getting for those bucks and try to keep it away from the emotional issues that involve specific programs.  Thank you.

Chairman Harrison:  Thank you, sir, for your information, after talking about that very suggestion, you’re right, it won’t make any difference in the current year budget that’s up now, but we are looking in to bringing in some outside independent folks who can take a look at some of the ways we do things.  So, thank you for raising that and it is something that we are seriously considering.  Is there anybody else that wants to speak?  Let’s get one on this side and you can be next.  Yes, you, sir, on the right side. You, yes.

Earl Cree, 48 Brookridge:  I have been retired for six years and I am on Medicare and I have a girl in high school.  So I have a little bit of, a little bit of both.  But, as memory serves me correctly, people with a lot of expenses, somehow, the middle school will not be the best middle school in Connecticut.  I’m glad we had money that year.  I think that, um, I went down to the Town Hall today to see if I could lower my taxes by declaring I was a veteran, and I also asked …(inaudible)…because I’m 65 now.  Well, I got a shock there too.  I didn’t qualify for that either.  So, I think that I am in favor of voting yes on this.  I see the benefits of my daughter, all the years she has been in the school systems and today, I went to the gas station and I paid $4.35 for a gallon of gas.  We are in very rough times here and for those that are retired and live in homes that they may leave some day, this is a two edged sword because when you leave, someone is going to move into that house and more often than not, it is going to be a family that has two or three kids.  So, long term, this is not going to go away.  So, I would hope that this budget passes.

Robert Paine, 68 Tamara Circle:  I have been here for several years.  The reason that I wanted to speak is because of a very personal affront was blasted at me, secretly, behind my back, by two members of the Board of Education, two members of the Town Council and members of the Finance Committee and some of the employed officials of the Town.  It seems that someone decided, that a letter to the editor that I wrote, wherein I stated my case regarding the budget, which basically revolves around the fact that as a BS degree in education and an MBA in marketing and finance, I would view bureaucracies as a threat.  I always have for all of my life because I have seen what things happen when bureaucracies take control and have no checks and balances and are self sustaining.  And I restated in this letter to the editor that I wrote, that the unusual events of schools of education, graduated teachers and graduated administrative personnel who believe in what they are doing and they are doing a great job because this is a necessity.  But we also have a situation we are in, elected officials candor for a vote.  This is supported by teachers unions, and they are supported by employee unions, ASCME is one of them, and that is how they get re-elected every two years and periodically in the Senate a little bit longer than in the State.  To make a long story short, someone had the audacity to write in response to this, secretively, not to me, not to my face, that I was a racist because I pointed out that if we were to get students transferred to another school district and we were given by the State or some other agency $2,000 or so per pupil, we would be losing $10,000 per pupil per year for these transfers because our costs run, somewhere in the neighborhood, if you count the State, the Town budget and the debt services on the schools, it is $12,000 per pupil per year.  This person had the audacity to turn that into a racist comment, but what they don’t know if that I have two boys who have gone to segregated schools and one is still attending there.  And the ratio of African Americans and Hispanics at this school exceed the demographic averages for the State of Connecticut.  So, if I am a racist, I am kind of a peculiar racist.  But this person is on the Board of Education.  Would you believe that?  Apparently, this individual is some kind of a clairvoyant.  Unfortunately, there is a flaw in the clairvoyance.  She seems to have a racial bias.  

Chairman Harrison:  Try not to have any kind of personal…

Robert Paine:  I am not attacking the person, I am attacking the principle.  

Chairman Harrison:  Well, if you could just stick to the facts, please.

Robert Paine:  Well, the facts of the matter are that I believe that bureaucracy, particularly the one that we have that is controlled by our heart, because they are our children, and that are candor to by elected officials who want to be re-elected.  They have distorted the value of the education system and this is a problem.  I ask simply that people check and see what they are getting for their money.  If you don’t understand the system and you don’t understand and you don’t have any expectation of what you are getting for your money, that is very difficult to determine whether or not you are spending your money wisely.  That’s all I asked for in this letter and that is all I am interested in having done.  And I don’t care which way the vote goes.

Chairman Harrison:  Thank you, Bob.  You.  You are sitting about five rows back from where Bob is.  You just turned your head and now you are sort of looking around.  Yes.  From where I sit, it is very hard to see.  I know you Diane, and I apologize.  That is why you looked puzzled.

Diane Carney, 36 Rosewood Road:  I have some prepared things, but, first, I think I would like to just address what several people have said tonight about the cohesiveness of our Town.  That it is a great Town to live in, and that we all should be supportive of our Town, and I totally agree.  We have seen the same people at these meetings every year.  Someone mentioned that 70% of the registered voters did not vote.  That doesn’t say that this is a very cohesive Town.  I mean we have one group of people that fight for the Town.  Um, I have heard people speak about the education system, about seniors, about not being able to afford things.  It is regrettable that different sections of people that live in Avon are against each other, pitting people against each other, you know, parents against teachers, parents against people who don’t have children in the school system, which is so wrong.  I mean, I happen to have children that are grown and out of the house.  I voted no.  I volunteer at Thompson Brook School once a week.  I think that if more people invested themselves in volunteering, in backing up when they say instead of coming out for these meetings once a year, may be so nasty to other people and instead ask for your time and energy to be put into the Town, we all would be much better off.  I am all for education, obviously, or I wouldn’t be volunteering my time, but I think that the education, as far as the budget, is too high.  Anyway, that is all I have to say on that.

Chairman Harrison:  Thank you, Diane.

Diane Carney:  But, I was very disappointed that only two members of the Board of Finance listened to the wishes of the Avon taxpayers who voted against raising our taxes by 5.75%.  In my experience, when the majority votes no on an issue, that means that they do not approve of what is being proposed.  Recent history has shown that Avon voters will not support a tax hike greater than 3%.  This reduction will not pass and we will be forced to pay for another referendum.  I am just wondering why you might, are you trying to wear us down?  To only reduce the tax by 1% is unfair to all of the residents who vote against the previous proposal and it is just a further waste of money to have to have another referendum, in my opinion.  So, as is obvious, I am going to vote no again.

Chairman Harrison:  You.  Carol, right?  

Carol Shubinski, 34 Oakengates:  I am a yes voter.  I voted yes before and I will vote yes again.  And I was actually really disappointed in the voter turnout.  I felt like we had a good e-mail effort going and making phone calls.  I just don’t get why people don’t turn out.  Um, but I want to thank the Board of Finance and the Board of Education and Town Council for putting so much effort into creating the budget and doing all of the meetings and things and figuring out what the Town needs.  I think that it’s time to just kind of ignore the vote a little bit and do what’s right for this Town.  Um, clearly, there are a lot of people out there that aren’t voting now.  They are just not voting.  Um, and I don’t think we should penalize the Town and the children and the education system and even the Town services.  I am kind of bummed that the Library is closing on Sundays because we like to go on Sundays.  Um, and just because of the low voter turnout.  So, I…

Chairman Harrison:  Could you please keep the side conservations down.  There seems to be something going on in the back.  Please keep it down.  There are folks back there attending to it.  Please give Carol a chance to be heard.

Carol Shubinski:  Our taxes are still going to be lower than the neighboring Towns, even if the 4.5% has passed and one of the statistics up there was that the math difference for the average, or whatever, that was $258.  That is less than one dollar a day.  It just doesn’t seem like a lot of money in the grand scheme of things when that’s what the Town needs.  When I look at the other school systems around, that we could move to and have our kids go to, they do offer more things.  You know, they just listed their top high schools and Avon was on the list, Farmington was, West Hartford schools were.  I think it was either Farmington or Simsbury that just got their second grade strings program written up as being really fabulous and such a great program, and we are thinking about getting rid of our fourth grade one.  West Hartford starts Spanish in kindergarten and we are thinking about not even starting it until seventh grade and getting rid of the sixth grade program.  You know, there are a lot of things going on that, you know, we are not giving the Board of Ed the money that they want to open the doors as is, and not add anything new.  Um, I think that would really really hurt the Town.  So, I think that it’s time for some tough love and I would even ask you to increase it to the 5% that you said that you were targeting to begin with and just keep it up there.  You guys are the experts, you do all of the studying and the analysis.  You know what the Town needs, so, um, be strong and act as the Board of Finance and the Boards, that’s what we elect you for.  There is greater turnouts for the elections for the, the, um, the different Boards, than there are for the referendums.  So, don’t worry about the voter turnout.  Thanks.

Chairman Harrison:  Well, we may have some ability in analyzing numbers, but we don’t seem to quite have the hang of analyzing the willingness of the voters to support those numbers.

Bill Shea:  Tom, I would move, I would suggest that we adjourn quietly and um, everyone has had a chance to speak and we have heard both sides.  There is something that is going on in the back that it going to require a lot of attention and I think that the meeting, at this point, is not as important as what is going on in the back.  So, I think that it would be wise, in my opinion, to go quietly adjourn and move to referendum.

Chairman Harrison:  Well, were there anymore people who wanted to speak?

Bill Shea:  Well, they have called 911.

Chairman Harrison:  Okay.  I appreciate that, I am trying to be fair to all sides here.  We have heard his Bill’s suggestion.

Bill Shea:  Then why don’t we take a recess?  Why don’t we recess until such time?

Mr. Gugliotti:  Let’s just finish.  If anyone has anything to say that is something new, please speak your peace.  But other than that, if you don’t have anything new to contribute, I would say that perhaps Bill is right and we could call it finished.  But, Tom is right.  Everybody should have their chance to speak, but before you raise your hand, could you honestly say that you have something new to add.  

Chairman Harrison:  Okay.  You spoke, I think before.  Okay, if it is something new.  I agree with Tom’s suggestion on that.  We will try to move this along quickly.

Bob Creer, 518 Country Club Road:  I feel the need to speak.  I would like to thank all of the Boards for the work that they have done.  I know that it has been an awful lot of work.  I would also like to thank everybody who spoke tonight.  None of the people who are speaking are public speakers and it takes a lot of courage to do that.  I wish more people would do it.  I have been in this Town for over 20 years and have seen it change quite a bit.  Um, when I decided to move here, I didn’t move here for the education system.  I think there is more to the Town of Avon than just the education system.  I moved here because of the community.  I moved here because the access to facilities.  I moved here because of the area and I liked the people.  And we did a great deal of research before we moved here.  Um, however, um, since I have been here, and I have grown older in this Town, um, I have been treated really bad, very badly, because I happen to be on a different side of voting than the people who have people in the school system.  I have had money thrown at me.  I have had people tell me to get out of Town and move to Florida.  And now the most recent, at the referendum, somebody said, um, well, you know, it’s not a bad thing to drive the seniors out of Town.  And, um, that’s not why I moved to Avon.  And, I would like to see more community involvement where we can discuss these issues and come up with alternatives because I am all for education.  I went back to school at age 40 and got a Master’s degree in psychology so that I would help people.  My wife is an EMT and she is working a twelve hour shift today and she has already made a call to Avon and, she is not here on this call, but I know that she would like to be.  We like Avon.  We want to stay here in Avon.  My house is paid for.  I have worked since I was twelve years old, but there is a real difference in the way people are treating each other, and I don’t care for it.  And, I would encourage people, as others have said, to be involved, to respect one another, to give them the right to speak, and be heard.  And, um, on final comment, is my daughter came over from Rhode Island with my two granddaughters.  She is age 40.  I drove her around the Town and she wanted to see the high school, so I drove her by there.  She was, I won’t say exactly what she said, but she said, my goodness, this is three times the size of my high school.  And she said, by the way, where is the flag?  It’s Memorial Day, isn’t it?  And I said, yes it is.  But there was no flag.  Just an observation.  That’s all.

Chairman Harrison:  Thank you, sir.  Thank you.  And I don’t think that the comments you may have experienced are necessarily typical of everybody in Town.  I appreciate you raising it.

Bob Creer:  I am just glad to express my point of view.

Chairman Harrison:  Anyone else.  I think I am going to make this the last one because there is a situation there in the back.

Lorraine Ratkiewich, 109 Rosewood Road:  I am a 50 year resident and I have raised five children in this Town and I need to say that I agree with the gentlemen before.  I have never felt so unwelcome in this Town in 50 years.  There is a great disparity between the outlook of a person who is raising children with six figure incomes, probably two people working, in the now generation who says we want it and we want it now.  All my children got into fine colleges, two have Masters and one is going for her doctorate.  They had no trouble, whatsoever, with the humble education that our administration in Town.  We couldn’t have everything all the time, but we got enough and the parents all had the right attitude and all of our children excelled.  I think there is some advice that has to be given to all of these young mothers.  I sympathize.  I love children.  We wanted a lot when our children were growing up, but we couldn’t have it.  We had to be realistic.  Be careful what you wish for.  If you live in this Town for 50 years and you finally retire and all these costs have gone up well beyond your income, and you say to yourself, what am I going to do?  I am suggestions from people in this community who are younger.  One of them said, I will sell you a reverse mortgage.  I said no thank you.  I am not stupid.  I am not senile.  Someone else said, why don’t you leave?  Why don’t you go somewhere else?  And I said, where in the Haiti would I go?  All of my friends and all of my family is around here.  Another suggestion was, why don’t you get a job?  I’m 79 years old.  Who would hire me?  So, I wanted you all to think about it.  It’s nice.  It’s wonderful.  Someone else said, there is a price to be paid for living in this Town and having all of these things.  We didn’t have nothing.  We had educated people.  We had good administrators, but they were prudent.  We didn’t get everything we wanted and our education system did not surpass the help for the rest of the community.  As far as I’m concerned, there is nothing being done, aside from picking up trash and picking up the sticks, which we are not going to have next year, and even taking my branches to the Landfill by myself, I have to pay $15 for it.  So, be careful.  You are going to be old sooner than you think.  Much sooner than you think and if anybody in your family looses a job, somebody is going to say, why don’t you leave?  And you are going to say, where am I going to go?  So, let’s keep Avon compatible for all ages and it appears to me that you are all very fine people.  You love your children just as we did.  And a lot of this was the encouragement we gave that helped them through their years.  And they are your age now, so please, be careful what you wish for.  Thank you.

Chairman Harrison:  Okay.  I think now, due to the fact that we have emergency personnel here, it would probably be an appropriate time to conclude the hearing.  We appreciate the comments and remarks.  They were all heartfelt.  We will certainly give them consideration as we move forward.  Remember Harry DerAsadourian’s program tomorrow night.  And remember, June 4th is the referendum.  And, if we could exit quietly so as to not to disturb the folks in the back.  Thank you all very much for your interest and your participation.

The meeting adjourned at 9:12 p.m.