Minutes of the regular meeting of the Legislative Council held on Wednesday, December 3, 2008 in the Meeting Room of the C. H. Booth Library, 25 Main Street, Newtown, CT. Chairman Rodgers called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.
PRESENT: William Rodgers, Francis Pennarola, Daniel Amaral, Jan Brookes, Jeffrey Capeci, Gary Davis, Joseph DiCandido, Joseph Hemingway, Patricia Llodra, Christopher Lyddy, Po Murray. ABSENT: John Aurelia.
ALSO PRESENT: First Selectman Joseph Borst, Financial Director Robert Tait, Selectman Paul Mangiafico, Schools Superintendent Dr. Janet Robinson, four members of public, one member of press.
VOTER PARTICIPATION. None noted.
MINUTES. Upon motion of Mr. Capeci, the minutes of the regular meeting of November 5, 2008 were unanimously accepted as presented.
COMMUNICATIONS. The Board of Finance requested an extension to December 8 report to the Legislative Council on the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), which Mr. Rodgers advised Board of Finance Chairman John Kortze was granted.
Tax Collector Carol Mahoney requested that the elderly tax relief ordinance be modified to include wholly disabled people. Mr. Rodgers referred this to the Ordinance Committee and Mr. Pennarola will research the legality of this.
Mr. Rodgers also referred to the Ordinance Committee a request from Parks and Recreation that their ordinance be modified.
Attorney Bob Hall wrote regarding the process for the delivery and recording of open space deeds to which Mr. Borst responded and thanked Mr. Hall for his flow chart.
Schools Director of Business Ron Bienkowski wrote Mr. Rodgers and Board of Finance Chairman John Kortze advising that the Middle School steam pipe replacement project was completed before the heating season began and cost $300,000 less than the budget allocation.
COMMITTEE REPORTS.
Ordinance met concerning revision to the fire lane ordinance and a noise ordinance. A noise ordinance must be approved by the DEP but Mr. Pennarola said that a public hearing will be held prior to submission of the proposed ordinance to the DEP. If the DEP approves the ordinance, another public hearing will be held by the Legislative Council. The Ordinance Committee will take a broader look at what might be available to expand the Elderly Tax Relief Ordinance. Amendment of the Parks and Recreation Ordinance will be considered. The GIS Department requested that the Road Ordinance be amended to require the same GIS submissions as the subdivision regulations require. A public hearing for all of the above will be considered in January.
Communications continues to work to enable two sites to transmit municipal and educational events; one site will be the Conference Room in the new Town Hall. Mrs. Llodra noted that the Committee has received much cooperation from GIS Coordinator Scott Sharlow, Mr. Borst, H. B. Communications and John Cross from O&G. A meeting of the Committee is scheduled for next Tuesday at 7:00 a.m. at Edmond Town Hall. One item for consideration is to look at policy language to define appropriate usage of Channel 17 as a venue for municipal and school based programs.
FIRST SELECTMAN’S REPORT. Mr. Borst requested that his office be kept advised of whether wholly disabled will be included in the Elderly Tax Relief program. Mr. Borst said that the State DECD has recommended that the remaining $200,000 from the $500,000 STEAP Grant for the Tech Park be moved to Fairfield Hills. Nunnawauk Meadows received a STEAP grant for an alarm system. Fairfield Hills Parking and Streetscape received a $300,000 STEAP grant. We are working to obtain a $200,000 EPA Asbestos Removal Grant. Tunnel removal is progressing at Fairfield Hills. STEAP funds of $125,000 were diverted from the Tech Park to Fairfield Hills for utilities costs. We are waiting for Kevins Community Center to make a decision about moving to Fairfield Hills. The animal control facility was not approved for a STEAP
grant this year but may be considered in 2008-09. We are working on a HUD grant for Batchelders. Newtown submitted 54 projects totaling $91,155,000 for Economic Stimulus Projects. Mr. Borst is requesting that the $2 million per year for open space acquisition for 2010-2014 be combined at $8 million.
Mr. Rodgers noted that the Legislative Council authorized the conceptual ability to have an economic plan that would grant the maximum tax abatement permitted by State Statutes for a business considering relocating to Newtown. He said that the identity of this company was revealed because a document was inadvertently made public.
Mr. Borst said that the Board of Selectmen approved a $250,000 mortgage for the Newtown Youth Academy. He said that the DEP requested that construction at the Town Hall at Fairfield Hills not continue until DEP approval is obtained; exterior work is being done.
Ms. Murray asked if the Board of Selectmen will address a Strategic Long Term Planning group. Mr. Davis feels that the Board of Selectmen should take the lead and asked what role the Legislative Council could play if the Board of Selectmen decided not to move forward. Mr. Rodgers will research this. Mr. DiCandido asked if consideration has been given to any impact to the schedule at Fairfield Hills with the environmental issues including the costs of meeting the standards.
NEW BUSINESS.
Presentation by Superintendent of Schools Dr. Janet Robinson: “State of the Schools in Newtown.” Dr. Robinson noted that a team of thirty people met for three days and will meet again in May to prepare an action plan to present to the community. She distributed information including the Mission Statement, Objectives and Strategies, Assessment Evaluation, immigrant information and a profile of the High School (Attachment A to original minutes).
Possible Discussion and Action on the Army presence in Newtown. Mr. Borst noted that the Economic Development and Conservation Commissions are anxious to move forward with the Tech Park. EDC suggests meeting further with BRAC but Conservation did not want to go further. The other two Selectmen would consider only non site specific discussions with BRAC. Mr. Borst said that BRAC looked at Nunnawauk Road and Wasserman Way between the prison but said the site was contaminated; he said that the Town has information that the State cleaned up the site. Mr. Borst advised BRAC that further discussions would be non site specific and that the Land Use Commissions would attend any meetings. Mr. Rodgers asked if the Fairfield Hills Authority had weight in on the subject; Mr. Borst said no and Mr. Rodgers
said that the Authority felt negative but does not know if they formally voted. Discussion followed that the Board of Selectmen either: carefully consider whether to suggest any sites in Newtown, meet with BRAC to obtain more information or advise BRAC that Newtown should not be considered. Also that other Commissions/personnel in addition to the Land Use Commissions attend any meetings.
Discussion concerning expenses for maintenance of municipal and school facilities. Mr. Amaral will plan to meet with Board of Education personnel to discuss further.
NEW BUSINESS
Presentation by Financial Director Robert Tait: Information on the internal CIP process and state of the Town economy. Mr. Tait first discussed the CIP. He said that more detail will be requested from the Departments beginning next year and the process will begin sooner than it did this year. He noted that this year the High School expansion project took a lot of time. Discussion followed about the fact that the CIP and strategic long range planning are two different matters though related to each other.
Concerning the state of the Town economy, Mr. Tait said that he can better advise if there will be a shortfall in the revenues collected after the January and February tax collections. He said that historically tax liens have been sold each year with revenue of $300,000 to $500,000 this year. He said that interest rate in STIF, the State agency in which we invest, is down by 1.5%. He noted that the Town Clerk conveyance fees collected decreased and he estimates that the shortfall will be $225,000. He said that the debt service is positive by $1.6 million because we did not bond the High School. He noted that $5.4 million will be bonded which will affect the 2009-10 budget. He noted that the $5 million that we received in state aid may be cut by 10% next year. Also that the $3 million in State aid that
the Board of Education received may be cut next year. He noted that the Town departments returned $1.2 million to the general fund in the prior fiscal year. He said that the use of the fund balance to balance the budget is going down and needs to go down further. He said that $5.385 million in capital projects will be bonded over a ten year period with a principal payment of $2 million in the first year.
Discussion followed about the role of the Legislative Council’s subcommittees in the budget process including whether they can be involved earlier in the process and be more proactive. Mr. Rodgers will consult with Town Attorney David Grogins. The role of the subcommittees will be discussed further after the CIP process is completed.
Discussion and Possible Action: Schedule of 2009 meeting dates. The schedule will be amended for the April 2009 meeting dates which will be April 8 and April 22. The schedule of meeting dates was unanimously accepted as amended.
Discussion and Possible Action: Capital Improvement Plan will be tabled until the Board of Finance reports to the Legislative Council.
Discussion and Possible Action: General Fund, Unreserved Fund Balance Policy and Debt Management Policy will be tabled until action is taken by the Board of Finance.
VOTER PARTICIPATION.
Paul Mangiafico, 15 Kent Road, said that there has been a failure to communicate concerning the Army presence in Newtown. He said that this has been going on since January but that the Board of Selectmen was not involved until two weeks ago. He feels that the Tech Park was offered to them. He said that there is talk of a proposal. He does not know where the $7 million figure came from and it never came from the Government. He said that the Board of Selectmen agreed to listen to the Army’s proposal and to decide if there is any value to the town, if so how much, and if there are any long term implications.
ANNOUNCEMENTS. Mr. Borst had additions to his report. He noted that Bill Knight has been hired as the Town Project Representative. He stated that the Highway Department contract has been extended for another year until June 2010.
EXECUTIVE SESSION. Upon motion of Mr. DiCandido, executive session was entered at 10:15 p.m. to discuss a legal matter. Executive session was exited at 10:19 p.m. with no subsequent action taken.
ADJOURNMENT. Having no further business, the meeting adjourned at 10:20 p.m.
Ann M. Mazur, Clerk
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