The Fairfield Hills Authority held a Regular Meeting on Wednesday, December 16, 2009 in the meeting room of the Town Hall South, Main Street, Newtown, CT. Andy Willie called the meeting to order at 7:32 p.m.
Present: Andy Willie, Kathy Furey, Walt Motyka, John Madzula, John Reed, Don Studley and Mike Holmes.
Absent: Bob Geckle, Chairman.
Also Present: Maria DeMarco (DeMarco Management Corp) and Elizabeth Stocker (Director, Economic & Community Dev., Town of Newtown)
Public Participation: None
Acceptance of Minutes: John Madzula made a motion to accept the minutes from the November 18, 2009 meeting. Walt Motyka seconded the motion.
All in attendance voted unanimously. Motion passed.
At this time Andy Willie requested that a motion be made to submit the proposed 2010/2011 budget to the Board of Selectmen. Mr. Willie stated that $65,225.00 for other expenses including legal fees, consulting fees and the clerk/admin fees.
Motion: John Madzula made a motion to submit the proposed 2010/2011 budget to the Board of Selectmen. Walt Motyka seconded the motion.
All in attendance at this time voted unanimously. (Don Studley was not yet in attendance.) Motion passed.
Operations: At this time Maria DeMarco, DeMarco Management, gave an overview of her monthly report. (See Attached)
Ms. DeMarco stated that there have been minor nuisances with youths trying to break-in to any of the buildings.
Ms. DeMarco stated that there is a minor problem with the drainage around the bottom steps of the Municipal Center and she is going to discuss it with the snow removal person to see if something can be done to avoid the water from freezing on the steps.
John Reed asked if the snow removal person was using salt to melt the ice on the steps and if so, he thought too much salt was being used and that can cause problems with the cement.
Ms. DeMarco informed Mr. Reed that calcium chloride was being used and that has no effect on the cement or the black-top.
Ms. DeMarco also stated that the school buses that were using the parking spots around the Municipal Center were now going to be parked at the Reed Intermediate School.
Finance: At this time Don Studley gave an overview of his monthly financial report (See Attached).
Mr. Studley informed the Authority that it had been a “light” month with regards to operation costs and that there have been no expenses to the Municipal Center account.
Mr. Studley gave an overview of the proposed budget that was going to be submitted to the Board of Selectmen. Mr. Studley was informed that a discussion had already been held and that a motion was passed that the budget should be submitted to the Board of Selectmen. Mr. Studley stated that he was also in favor of submitting the budget to the Board of Selectmen.
Planning Committee: At this time, John Reed started a discussion about the proposal Exclusive Right to Lease Agreement with one specific Commercial Real Estate Broker for the Fairfield Hills Campus.
Elizabeth Stocker joined the discussion and stated that in the past the Authority did not want to give exclusivity to one particular broker and decided to go with the open-ended Non-exclusive Right to Lease Agreement. Everyone was in agreement that this approach was not working and thought an Exclusive Right to Lease Agreement was a good thing to try.
John Reed stated that Elizabeth Stocker and Kathy Furey will work on the Request for Proposal.
Kathy Furey stated that she took two things away from the discussion the Planning Committee had with Bob Barclay:
- It would be better to recruit local Commercial Real Estate Brokers because they would be able to create interest in the Fairfield Hills Campus with local businesses and developers.
- The website links needed work to make the links more use friendly because the Developer’s Package was a great tool once the perspective developer was interested.
John Reed asked if the agreement could exclude people that the Authority had talked to in the past. Elizabeth Stocker stated that would not be a problem.
Walt Motyka requested that any advertisement done by the exclusive broker be reviewed by the Authority and subjected to their approval.
Andy Willie asked if a bidding process needed to be met because this agreement was for public property.
Kathy Furey stated that this does not have to be bid on because it is a Professional Service that is being pursued and you would want to weigh the experience of the individual to make sure you are getting the person with the best qualifications, not the lowest bidder.
Motion: John Reed made a motion to authorize the development and advertisement for a Request for Proposal for an Exclusive Right to Lease Agreement that the Planning Committee will review and interview selected applicants. Andy Willie seconded the motion.
The following discussion was held.
Mike Holmes asked if the Agreement needed to be reviewed by the town attorney or the Legislative Council? Elizabeth Stocker stated that it will have to go through the First Selectman and the Finance Office before any advertisement was done for this request.
Walt Motyka requested that the applicants be pre-qualified before the interview process was started.
All in attendance voted unanimously in favor of the motion.
Real Estate: At this time Andy Willie stated that he had no real estate updates and asked if anyone else had anything to discuss.
Motion: John Madzula made a motion to adjourn. Kathy Furey seconded the motion. All in attendance voted unanimously.
Meeting was adjourned at 8:40 p.m.
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