The Board of Finance held a regular meeting on Thursday, December 27, 2007 in the Meeting Room of Town Hall South, 3 Main Street, Newtown, CT.
PRESENT: John Kortze, James Gaston, Harrison Waterbury, Michael Portnoy, Joseph Kearney.
ALSO PRESENT: Financial Director Ben Spragg, Parks and Recreation Commission Chairman Ed Marks and member Pat Barczyk, Board of Education members Anna Wiedemann and Kathy Fetchick, one member of public, one member of press.
VOTER COMMENTS. None noted.
ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES. Upon motion of Mr. Waterbury, the minutes of the regular meeting of November 13, 2007 were unanimously accepted as presented. The minutes of the regular meeting of December 10, 2007 will be amended to change under MBIA “$300,000” to “$30,000.” Also editorial changes submitted by Mr. Gersten. Upon motion of Mr. Waterbury, the minutes of December 10, 2007 were unanimously accepted as amended.
COMMUNICATIONS. Mr. Kortze questioned items in the Board of Education’s financial reports dated December 19, 2007. He questioned a transfer of almost $42,000 from Insurance to Technology Salaries. Mrs. Fetchick said that the Board of Ed would now be paying the salary of its technology personnel and the Town would pay for its personnel. Mr. Kortze asked if the Board of Ed questioned why this money came from this account because we did not want it to go any lower. Mr. Kortze also questioned why $18,500 was transferred from Insurance to Contingency for additional funds for the superintendent search and he would like to know much was spent initially for the search.
Mr. Kortze reported that First Selectman Borst had emailed four changes to the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP).
Mr. Kortze noted that the contract for Planimetrics had been signed to complete the report of the Build-out Committee, comprised of Mr. Kortze, Mr. Waterbury and Mrs. Llodra and Mrs. Doyle from the Legislative Council.
Mr. Kortze read a letter from Ruby Johnson (Attachment A to original minutes) stating her concerns that there is a probably violation of Federal law in the proposed CIP and Parks and Recreation plans because requirements of Title IX of the Civil Rights Restoration Act are not being met. She states that Title IX requires “equal opportunity and equal access for women and girls to town operated and school activities and facilities.” She also states that “I note the request for lights for soccer and baseball fields, but no request for lights for a softball diamond. Thus, the town is denying women and girls the opportunity to play under the lights at night.” Mr. Kortze does not feel that this matter is under the purview of the Board of Finance and should be referred to the Boards of Selectmen and
Education. Mr. Gaston does not feel that there is any violation of Federal law. Mr. Barczyk said that the softball teams use the Treadwell field which has lights. He also said that all soccer and lacrosse teams use Treadwell and Tilson Woods. Mr. Marks noted that the only recreational sport that is not open to both sexes is girl’s softball.
NEW BUSINESS
Presentation by Parks & Recreation concerning their Capital Improvement Plan requests. Mr. Marks said that there is $600,000 in the current debt service for design work for the combined Community/Recreation Center and that this needs to go to a Town meeting.
He said that Parks and Recreation has three priorities for the CIP:
1) A Community/Recreation Center.
2) Artificial turf on the Tilson field. The field now has parking and lights and is in a good state. Mr. Marks said that there are concerns that if the rubber granules used in the turf get heated to over 100 degrees, they release harmful substances. He noted that the State Department of Health feels that a public health risk is unlikely and does not find reason to stop installation of these fields. Attorney General Blumenthal also stated that he does not feel that there are health risks with these fields. Mr. Marks said that all groups who would be using the field are in favor of moving forward with this plan.
3) Lighting at the Fairfield Hills baseball diamond. Mr. Marks said that infrastructure around the field would be included to prevent tearing up the field in the future. Mr. Barczyk noted that this is the only lighting project that Parks and Recreation is requesting.
Mr. Marks noted that also in the CIP for next year is a roof for the maintenance building across from the Reed School which is shared by Parks and Rec and the Board of Education maintenance. Mr. Marks said that Mr. Borst recommended first doing the roof in the first year of the CIP and then renovations to the building which are now in the second.
Mr. Portnoy asked if there is any funding from the $300,000 bond issue for the lights at Fairfield Hills. Mr. Marks said that $125,000 was allocated to each of the seven fields but that Parks and Rec was not consulted and this is insufficient. He said that it was recommended that bricks from the buildings at Fairfield Hills be ground for the baseball field but that Vollmer Associates did not think that this would be a good base for the field. Mr. Gaston believes that a legal opinion was received indicating that lights were not included in the bond issue.
Mr. Spragg asked if the expenditure of $600,000 for design work for the Community/Recreation Center would be a Parks and Rec project or a joint project. Mr. Marks said that it is not certain but he believes that it will be a joint project including the Commission on Aging representing the Senior Center.
Mr. Kortze asked if prioritizing the three items had been discussed with the First Selectman because two of the three were #8 and #9 in the CIP for next year; Mr. Marks said this had not been discussed with Mr. Borst. Mr. Spragg said that Mr. Borst had not prioritized the items and that the Board of Finance would get to prioritize them.
FIRST SELECTMAN REPORT. Mr. Borst was not present.
OLD BUSINESS
Board of Selectmen and Board of Education Capital Improvement Plan. Mr. Kortze noted that the Board of Education has not responded to the Board of Finance’s request for a joint meeting to discuss the CIP. He said that the Board of Finance has requested a joint meeting for over a year to discuss the High School project. He said we now seem to be at the point where we are against it and he feels this was a missed opportunity for the town to discuss the project. Mr. Gaston presented “Newtown Public Schools Impact Estimate in 2006-07 dollars.” (Attachment B to original minutes). Mr. Gaston suggested inviting the Board of Education to the next meeting of the Board of Finance. He would like the Board of Ed to make a case for the High School as the project stands now and the Board of Finance should act
if the Board of Ed does not attend the meeting. Mr. Gersten agrees. Mr. Kearney noted that he asked to have a plan for design of the building to 60,000 square feet rather than the present 90,000 and what would the cost be to reduce the size. It is not known if this plan was prepared by the Board of Ed. Mr. Gersten asked if the problem could be solved with temporary classrooms. Mr. Portnoy noted that after the Board of Finance had passed a resolution about the project, we had said that we wanted to review the project again based on enrollment figures received after that time. Mr. Gaston noted that the projection figures for the last 7-8 years were not accurate. Mrs. Fetchick noted that Mr. Prowda stands by his figures and said they were conservative. Mr. Gaston noted that over the years Mr. Bothwell’s figures were off by percentages of 11, 12, 7.8, 15, 12, 16, and 18.5. He feels that it would be worse to build a school to minimum standards and that there should be a cushion
provided. Mr. Kearney feels we should design to the highest that we think we need and build to what we really need. Mr. Gersten said we should build to the minimum and expand.
Mr. Kortze noted that the Board of Finance has asked for a scalability option for a long time. Mr. Waterbury said that the Board of Education needs to making an argument for the school or the voters may not want to spend $41 million on the project. Mr. Kortze said that the town needs to be convinced to support this. He has always been about capacity of the system which has not been talked about. He feels that this is about capacity, scalability and making an argument and that we do not get much public disclosure concerning the Board of Education.
Mr. Kortze asked Mrs. Wiedemann and Mrs. Fetchick if the Board of Education discussed among its membership: the CIP, potential savings of balancing the project, and an enrollment report that we could have fewer than 500 additional elementary students, to which they replied “no.” Mr. Kortze said that Interim Superintendent Jokubaitis indicated to him that he thought Mr. Prowda’s enrollment figures were accurate and reliable.
Mr. Kortze said that the Board of Education had said it was irresponsible for the Board of Finance to discuss projects out five or six years, such as the Middle School. He feels it is irresponsible to build to the highest level when data does not support this. He feels it is also irresponsible that we are up against this and did not have a discussion with the Board of Education. The Board of Ed needs to make a case so that this will pass. Mr. Kortze said that the Board of Finance never had the opinion that the High School is not a project that should be undertaken as soon as possible. He asked for a show of hands of any members who disagreed with this to which no one responded in the affirmative. He said it is irresponsible to the voters that we did not have a dialog about this. We have been asking for this dialog for an
entire year.
Mr. Portnoy said that if Mr. Prowda is accurate that there will be fewer students in ten years, don’t we have adequate facilities to house fewer students? He feels that the Board of Education should answer this. He noted that the High School is over capacity but that the Reed School and Middle School are under capacity. He also noted that statistics say that enrollment at the elementary level is going down and at the high school level is going up. Mr. Gaston said that we must use facts not speculation. Mr. Kearney said there should be a Plan A and a Plan B.
Resident Joan Piscitelli noted that we are still on warning from NEASC and that part of that is because we don’t have room for the children. Mr. Kortze noted that the Board of Education and Superintendent Pitkoff said that everything that NEASC cited besides the school had been addressed.
FINANCE DIRECTOR REPORT. Mr. Spragg distributed “CIP 2008-09to2012-13 (Attachment C to original minutes) and Town of Newtown, Connecticut CIP Borrowing of $107,293,000 (Attachment D to original minutes) and “Newtown Public Schools Five Year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP)” (Attachment E to original minutes). He noted that changes made by the First Selectman overall did not impact the chart (Attachment D). He discussed changes the Board of Ed had made that are now reflected in Attachment E. Proposed costs for Sandy Hook School went down and Middle School costs went up. Engineering fees for Sandy Hook of $628,000 are now split into $313,760 for each of two years. Middle School roof went from $795,000 to $920,000 in the third year. In the fourth year, Sandy Hook heating and ventilation went from
$3.4 million to $3.7 million; also in the fourth year, Middle School roof rose from $1.463 million to $3.561 million. Also in the fourth year Middle School renovation would be $6 million and in the fifth year $16 million. Fourth year borrowing remains about the same. Some Middle School costs would be in year six which is not part of this report.
Mr. Kortze asked members of the Board of Finance to email to him their recommendations to be passed on to Mr. Spragg. Mr. Kortze noted that the Legislative Council granted an extension for the CIP to be forwarded to the Council. He will ask the Legislative Council for an extension to the January 24 meeting of the Board of Finance.
ANNOUNCEMENTS. None noted.
ADJOURNMENT. Having no further business, the meeting adjourned at 9:25 p.m.
Ann M. Mazur, Clerk
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