The Board of Finance held a Regular Meeting on Thursday, July 25, 2007 in the meeting room at Town Hall South, Main Street, Newtown, CT. Chairman John Kortze called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.
PRESENT: John Kortze, James Gaston, Michael Portnoy, Harrison Waterbury
ABSENT: John Torok, James Kearney
ALSO PRESENT: Finance Director Ben Spragg, one member of public (Kathy Fetchik, Board of Education candidate), one member of public
VOTER PARTICIPATION: None noted
COMMUNICATIONS: None
ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES: Upon motion by Mr. Gaston, the minutes of the 4/26/07 meeting were unanimously accepted as presented.
Mr. Gaston moved to accept the minutes of the 5/24/07 meeting with the following addition under “Communications” – that WeCan member Gary Davis had sent a response that WeCan is “not advocating removing money from the budget so we can default on bond obligations”. Minutes were unanimously accepted as amended.
FIRST SELECTMAN REPORT: Not present
FINANCE DIRECTOR REPORT: No report
NEW BUSINESS
Board of Education Request for Special Appropriation Concerning Health Insurance Savings
A letter was received from former Schools Superintendent Dr. Evan Pitkoff (copy attached to original minutes) requesting a special appropriation of $113,436 because the Board of Education feels that the $363,000 “savings” discussed at the meeting prior to the fourth referendum was overstated. The letter was sent to the Legislative Council who has passed it to the Board of Finance for a recommendation. No members of the Board of Education were present to respond to this request.
Mr. Kortze read figures prepared by First Selectman Rosenthal showing that the net to be budgeted was $8,215,012. The reduction by the Board of Finance on 3/1/07 was $174,000; and the reduction by the Council on 5/23/07 was $363,000 for a total reduction of $537,000. Mr. Bienkowski then reported a savings of $302,000 from the April rate revision and Dr. Pitkoff’s letter of 6/14/07 indicates a savings of $249,564 from the May revision for a total savings of $551,564. This amounts to more than the reductions made by the Board of Finance and Legislative Council.
Chairman Kortze feels that we just began a new budget year and we won’t know how things look for at least a few more months. He feels that it is premature to be thinking about this now. The budget was reduced substantially by the voters and it is understandable that they are looking for money but it is too early to understand the impact of this. After this difficult budget year, it would be very hard to explain to those who voted no to more spending why we went back and added money. He does not understand how we can increase a budget beyond what taxpayers voted for, which would be setting a bad precedent. He also does not know where the money would come from. It would have to be moved from the town side of the budget. He is
disappointed that no one from the Board of Education is present because he was told there would be more information which has not been received.
Mr. Gaston stated that if we are going to do a special appropriation, we need a threshold of when it is appropriate to make special appropriations. He does not believe that the Board of Education has demonstrated that this is an exigent circumstance requiring a special appropriation and is not certain that the amount meets the threshold to ask for a special appropriation. Everyone knew that this was a possibility.
Mr. Waterbury feels this would really be setting a precedent that he is not willing to set. When have we moved money from the town side to the school side of the budget?
Mr. Portnoy had hoped that the Board of Education members would be here tonight. The last financials he saw for the past year showed a $2.5 million balance at the end of the year. In the past, they have used balances to pay for things that were in the next year’s budget and feels they will probably do the same next year. He does not know that is the case this year so they should be here to explain.
Mr. Gaston moved to deny the request by the Board of Education for $113,426 to cover health insurance costs. Motion seconded and unanimously carried.
Mr. Kortze will forward this to the Legislative Council with highlights of tonight’s discussion.
Board of Education Capital Improvement Plan
Members were in receipt of the Board of Education Capital Improvement Plan for 2008/09 – 2012/13. Mr. Kortze advised that normally we would receive a presentation on this from the Board of Education but no one is present this evening. This will be put on the next agenda.
Having no further business the meeting was adjourned at 7:55 p.m.
Jan Andras, Clerk
Attachment: Letter from Dr. Pitkoff
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