TOWN OF EAST WINDSOR
BOARD OF FINANCE
SPECIAL MEETING
April 24, 2007
The Board of Finance Special meeting was called to order at 7:35 p.m. at the East Windsor High School.
Members Present: Others Present:
Paul Catino, Chairman Mary Szabo, Town Treasurer
Noreen Farmers, Secretary Ed Fillipone
Marie DeSousa
William Dove
Dale Nelson
Jack Manette, Alternate
Members Absent:
Tammy Sorensen-Duray
Leo Szymanski, alternate
APPOINTMENT OF ALTERNATES
Motion: To recognize Jack Manette as a full voting member for this meeting filling in for Tammy Sorensen-Duray.
Ms. DeSousa / Ms. Farmer
Vote: Unanimous
PREVIOUS MINUTES
Regular Meeting – March 21, 2007
Motion: To accept the Regular Meeting minutes from the March 21, 2007 meeting.
Ms. DeSousa / Ms. Farmer
Vote: Unanimous
Discussion: None.
Joint Meeting with the Board of Selectman – April 3, 2007
Motion: To accept the minutes of the April 3, 2007 Joint Meeting, as amended.
Ms. DeSousa / Ms. Farmer
Vote: Unanimous
Discussion: Change the final sentence of the first paragraph – strike it. Chairman doesn’t believe it was posted in the appropriate timeframe. On page 2, under Recommendations for the 2007-2008 Budget – second to the last sentence in the last paragraph – take out the word cut and the sentence should read: Mr. Catino was looking for a rationale as to what was recommended and why.
Special Meeting – March 29, 2007
Motion: To accept the Special Meeting minutes from the March 29, 2007 meeting.
Ms. DeSousa / Ms. Farmer
Vote: Unanimous
Discussion: the last motion regarding the transfer of funds from the contingency 2 account should have been to Recommend To Town Meeting the transfer.
The Town Meeting is schedule for May 3rd.
COMMUNICATIONS
Will leave the communications to the members to review on their own.
TREASURER’S REPORT
Monthly Report – Was read by Mary. A copy of the Treasurers report dated April 24, 2007 may be obtained from the Treasurer’s Office.
Mary also included some literature on an ADP HR add on piece. This item will be discussed later in the meeting when we get to the budget discussions.
The police department contingency was transferred after the Board of Finance meeting, it needs to be reversed out until the Town meeting.
Some discussed came up on the 2145 Police Budget regarding revenues. Mr. Manette mentioned that last July legislature passed a bill for the town to get $10 fee back on certain motor vehicle violations and he is not certain if the town has begun to receive them yet. It was indicated that it would go into pro-rata share of fines from the State of Connecticut.
Motion: To accept the Treasurer’s Report.
Ms. DeSousa / Mr. Dove
Vote: Unanimous
Discussion: None
OLD BUSINESS – None
NEW BUSINESS
Request from Police Commission – Added Appropriation and Line Item Transfers.
The Chairman pointed out that the correct procedure is for the Police Commission to request that the Board of Selectman recommend to the Board of Finance to recommend to Town Meeting. He doesn’t feel that the correct procedures were followed. Mr. Fillipone commented that Mr. Catino was aware of it and as a courtesy should have mentioned the procedure issue so it could have been taken care of.
No Action this evening – Table It.
REQUESTS/RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE BOARD OF SELECTMAN
Recommendations for Added Appropriations
Treasurer’s office - $575.48 – the added money is for putting the budget books together.
Motion: To transfer $571.26 from the Contingency account 1-01-50-8410-8-890-0000-0 to the Treasurer’s Salary Line account number 1-01-10-1025-1-102-0000-0 and 4.22 to account number 1-01-10-1025-3-106-0000-0.
Ms. Nelson / Ms. DeSousa
VOTE: Unanimous
Discussion: None.
Registrar of Voters - $6,927.02 – This is for Primaries held back in August of 2006.
Motion: To transfer $6,927.02 from the Contingency account 1-01-50-8410-8-890-0000-0 to the Registrars Local Primary account number 1-01-10-1050-8-811-0000-0.
Ms. Nelson / Ms. DeSousa
VOTE: Unanimous
Discussion: $6,927.02 went to the workers and they have been paid. Mary indicated that we are in the negative position at this time.
Town Property - $28,217.61 – this is for electricity and part of it for sewer fees.
Motion: To recommend to Town Meeting the transfer of $28,217.61 from the Contingency account 1-01-50-8410-8-890-0000-0 to the Town Property lines in the amount of $24,521.61 to the electric account number 1-01-10-1085-5-543-0000-0 and $3,696.00 to the sewer user account number 1-01-10-1085-9-960-0000-0.
Ms. Farmer / Mr. Manette
VOTE: Unanimous
Discussion: None
Legal - $69,979.37 – This dollar amount was not the amount that the Board of Finance recalls being discussed previously. It was discussed that there are 2 legal issues with Pullman and Conley and they are not paying for 50% of the litigation. The Town Attorney is going to go back to have Cirma pick up 50% of the litigation piece because the litigation is a direct result of the first claim. After discussions back and forth, it was the consensus of the Board that they recall another $25,000 - $30,000 coming in bills, not $69,000. $43,000 is the incurred bills and on one recalls this dollar amount from the last meeting. Some of the expenses are from December and the meeting was after December. It was suggested that an Executive Session be scheduled since these
issues cannot be discussed in open forum, to allow the Board to go over the bills. The Chairman indicated that he is not comfortable putting in money for estimated bills.
Motion: To recommend to Town Meeting the transfer of $43,979.37 from the Contingency account 1-01-50-8410-8-890-0000-0 to the Legal account number 1-01-10-1015-3-350-0000-0.
Ms. Farmer / Ms. Nelson
VOTE: 4-2
Discussion: The Board wants to look at the bills. Some members feel we shouldn’t pay for something when we don’t understand what we’re being billed for. It was suggested that a process be put in place to understand the legal bills and review them on a quarterly basis. Note to schedule an Executive Session for the purpose of reviewing the legal bills. Want a status in writing from the Attorney’s for what the bills are for.
Senior Van - $11,500.00 – The Board of Finance asked Mary to identify where we can get the money from. Mary indicated that the money can come from the C&R fund, there is $145,781 unassigned and we have a Senior Van line in the C&R fund. There is $40,000 in CIP for the van already.
Motion: To transfer $11,500.00 from the C&R unassigned account 1-08-55-1025-7-799-0658-0 to the Senior Van line account number 1-08-55-1025-7-799-0501-0.
Mr. Manette / Ms. Nelson
VOTE: 4-1-1
Discussion: None.
FY-08 BUDGET
The discussions were left off with the Police Department. The Chairman made it a point to point out that no decisions were made on the Police Department at the last meeting and that it was reported as if decisions were made and he wanted to clarify that there were none made at all.
Mary presented her information on the ADP HR add on. Since the Town currently uses ADP for their payroll, there is a module to add on to help with COBRA Benefits and other items so that there are no deadlines that get missed. This add-on will track the information and will meet compliance issues. It can track personnel information and salaries. She will be able to get reports, which are part of the package add-on. Even with shared services still, they are still far from having any HR person and the laws are always changing. This is software that is added to the desktop because they currently have ADP now for payroll. It is a much better way to be in compliance.
The Town went with ADP because of the changes in the tax laws and ADP takes care of all tax payments and they don’t have to worry about any of it.
$1,800 for a full year is the maximum they would incur. The Chairman indicated that he would want Mary to evaluate it on a regular basis to make sure its what she wants and that it meets her needs.
The consensus of the board is to put in the money for the add-on. The Professional Services line will increase by $1,800.00.
The Board will resume with the Police Department budget discussions. Again the Chairman pointed out to the newspaper that nothing was decided and nothing was established. The board is looking at the number of Sergeants and Detectives, etc. It was mentioned that the Police Commission met and has filled a Sergeant position when current position retires. The count is:
6 Sergeants
2 Detectives
16 positions – Patrol 2 vacant and 14 filled.
There is an individual taken out, should we keep the position and not fill it in case we need it, is the question raised. The salaries calculated by Ms. Farmer based on contract came to $1,410,000; this is a reduction of 1 officer. The patrol division goes down by 1 from the request. (From 15 to 14).
One board member wants to be sure that we have all officers accounted for. What was requested was:
5 Sergeants (actual people)
2 Detectives
16 Patrolman
For a total of 23 plus the Chief and Captain make 25.
Ms. Farmer replaced a Sergeant from patrol, which made patrol down to 15, then moved promoted officer from patrol to Sergeant, which made 6 Sergeants and 14 patrolman. Reduction of 1 patrolman. Ms. Farmer’s total came to 22 plus the Chief and Captain makes 24.
This calculation didn’t include the cops in school. Will need to take $20,000 out of the expense side based on auditor’s request. The board indicated that the Mill Pond officer is included in the numbers as well as the school resource officer.
Line 125 will be $1,390,701.
The Board of Finance would like a communication sent to the Board of Selectman indicating that prior to the Police Commission signing off on any labor contracts involving money for an extended period of time, those issues should come before the Board of Finance for discussion before signing.
There was discussion on the Chief’s increase in the budget for 4%. Two Board members would like to reduce it to 2%. It was pointed out that the Board of Finance must authorize increases to salaries as stated in the contracts, but generally the Board of Finance does not set the increases. However, a debate can occur as to who gets how much of an increase. There were discussions on the Chief’s current salary rate and his increase is split in two 2% increases and it was calculated that way as requested in the budget.
The part-time salaries had no changes.
All overtime numbers – they took the officers salaries and applied a 15% for overtime and split between fixed and variable. The dispatchers also need to be included in the overtime. Also, it was overlooked to reduce the fixed overtime with the dog funding expense.
Conference and Training Salary 325 account was broken out and split with Conference and Training. It was reduced by $16,000 which is what the Police Department is moving to cover in other areas. All the other lines have increased in them for the budget to cover this for next year.
Other reflects the dog expense being removed.
Took the Private Duty money and put $50,000 back in for expenses we have paid – basically given it back to the Town to reduce the mill rate. Added in $150,000 to the general fund appropriation.
The mill rate seems extremely low. The Board of Finance has made many attempts to fix areas that need improvement. The only concern is if its not accepted – what do we do? The message that the Chairman has given is that YES votes need to prevail.
Motion: To propose to Public Hearing a Fiscal Year 2007-2008 proposed budget of $30,720,361.00 which represents a 28.1076 mill rate, an increase of .2953 and a 1.06% tax increase.
Mr. Dove / Mr. Manette
VOTE: Unanimous
Discussion: None.
Motion: To adjourn meeting at 11:06.
Ms. Nelson / Ms. DeSousa
Vote: Unanimous
Respectfully submitted,
Lori P. Holden
Recording Secretary
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