Minutes from the regular meeting of the Legislative Council held on Wednesday, May 6, 2009, in the meeting room of the C.H. Booth Library, 25 Main Street, Newtown. The meeting was called to order at 7:30pm.
PRESENT: Joseph DiCandido, Francis Pennarola, Gary Davis, Patricia Llodra, Po Murray, Daniel Amaral, Jan Brookes, Jeffery Capeci and William Rodgers.
ABSENT: John Aurelia, Sr., John Torok and Joseph Hemingway
ALSO PRESENT: First Selectman Joseph Borst, Finance Director Robert Tait, 1 member of the press and three members of the public.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION: none
APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES: March 3, 2009, March 25, 2009, March 26, 2009 and April 1, 2009
Mr. Capeci made the motion to accept the minutes of the meeting March 4, 2009 as distributed. Mrs. Brookes seconded and the motion was unanimously carried.
Mr. Capeci moved to accept the minutes of the March 25, 2009 public hearing as distributed. Mrs. Llodra seconded and the motion was unanimously approved.
Mr. Capeci made the motion to accept the minutes from the Special Meeting March 26, 2009. Mrs. Llodra seconded and the motion was unanimously carried.
Mr. DiCandido stated that there were many grammatical errors with the minutes of March 26, 2009. Specifically he noted a change in under the Finance Sub-Committee Report. According to Mr. DiCandido, the sentence should read “Mr. DiCandido noted the amount of time and effort the Board of Finance put into the Budget was enormous.”
Ms. Murray request that the letter from Attorney David Grogins of Cohen and Wolf, dated March 26, 2009, regarding the advisory questions; and the letter from Attorney Glenn A. Santoro of Robinson & Cole, dated March 25, 2009, regarding the refunding statute, be attached to the minutes of March 26, 2009.
Mr. Capeci moved to accept the minutes from the Special Meeting April 1, 2009. Mr. Amaral seconded and the motion was unanimously approved.
COMMUNICATIONS:
Traffic Calming Guidelines - Mr. Rodgers informed council members that he had a letter from Police Chief Michael Kehoe regarding the Traffic Calming Guidelines for the Town’s Traffic Calming Ordinance.
He asked that a hard copy of the information be put on the Council’s next agenda.
Property by Hawley School - Mr. Rodgers read a letter from Dr. Janet Robinson, Superintendent of Schools. According to Dr. Robinson, the Board of Education directed her to write a letter to the town “indicating their support of the town investigating the feasibility of acquiring property at 27 Church Hill Road, next to the Hawley Elementary School. The Board is interested in additional space at the Hawley School for safety and practical reasons such as a driveway and parking lot. Park and Recreation may also have an interest in acquiring the land to better serve the fields behind the school. Although it is not our CIP it is an opportunity that could not be predicted.”
Dr. Robinson went on to note that the Board of Education wants a conversation to take place between their board and the Board of Selectman regarding the appropriateness of the purchase.
According to Mr. Borst, the board of selectman is having an appraisal done of the property as well as an environmental study.
Proposed Ordinance - Mr. Rodgers also shared a letter from Mr. Benson who proposed an ordinance to allow land use agency officers to use statutory powers for citations. Mr. Rodgers the matter to the ordinance committee.
Waiver – Mr. Rodgers read a letter from the Board of Selectman asking him to waive some purchasing requirements that exist by regulation for with regard to the Town Hall Board of Managers HVAC project. Reportedly, one of the managers mistook the approval for the transfer as final action and they awarded the contract to one contractor.
Regulation provides for waiver in an emergency situation resulting from some cause other than over site or neglect of the purchasing authority and provides for a waiver in the event the emergency has arisen because of the neglect or over site of a purchasing authority.
In such case the waiver can only be approved by the chairman of the Legislative Council or the Chairman of the Board of Education depending on what side of the budget it is on.
Mr. Rodgers said he waived it, and wrote a letter to Mr. Borst waiving it, basically relying on the representation of the First Selectman’s office: Bid requirements couldn’t have otherwise been avoided; the price of contract was represented to be competitive and the price was minor $27,000; and the work needed to be done.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Consolidating Maintenance Expenses of Municipal and School Facilities - Mr. Amaral gave his report regarding the committees meeting with the Board of Education. They discussed numerous things. More or less what was said is that one organization helps the other, but there is no paper trail as to how many hours were worked where. The system seems to be working.
Mr. Amaral indicated that they met with Parks and Recreation who were also associated with other organizations – sharing work forces, equipment and supplies. One example, he noted was that Park and Recreation gets their paper goods from the schools.
Mrs. Llodra reported that there is a very “cooperative relationship” between the Board of Education, Park & Recreation, and the Highway Department, sharing the cost of work.
Additionally, Mrs. Llodra told the council that in each of the meetings to date they have discussed purchasing details and that there was no reluctance to share that information.
Mr. Rodgers agrees there is a lot of interdepartmental cooperation that would dry up if formalized.
Ordinance Committee – Mr. Pennarola discussed the Park and Recreation ordinance and the amendment regarding the information compliance with the charter. Additionally, he also told council members that the GIS information was submitted regarding the road ordinance.
Communications Committee - Mrs. Llodra indicated that the main footprint of the control room was now complete and told the council that the process for the construction paperwork for ED402 has been started.
They will get back the money for the cost of the plan and then all will go out to bid.
Board of Education Committee – According to Mrs. Llodra, they met with the Board of Education and primarily discussed how adjustments could be made for items cut from the budget. She handed out a draft document to the council of where the Board of Education says the adjustments could be made to meet the reduction.
In regards to some incoming money, Mrs. Llodra asked that council members look at numbers on the draft reflecting the ARRA Stimulus Money. She noted that the school side is going to be receiving $1,059,000 over the next two years – roughly $500,000 a year.
According to Mrs. Llodra, half the money can be used for maintenance of effort – supporting existing programs such as special education, and the other $250,000 can be used for new programming.
In the draft, Mrs. Llodra pointed out that the Board of Education calculated out more reductions than they needed to.
In regards to the busing, Mr. Amaral said there are two companies that are currently in the bidding process for a 5-year contract are the current company, MTM, and All Star Transportation.
FIRST SELECTMAN’S REPORT
Budget Passed - Mr. Borst indicated how pleased he was that the Town passed the budget for the second time the first time around; and he thanked the efforts of the Board of Education, the Board of Selectman, the Board of Finance and the Legislative Council.
Refunded Bonds - The Town refunded $10 million in bonds and will be saving $710,000 in interest spread out over this year and the next two years.
According to Mr. Tait, the Town will save over 105k next year, almost 288k the year after and 283,00 the year after which will help in the debt service bump with the schooling.
High School Funding – Monday night the Board of selectman approved the high school bonding issue at $38,826,000, Mr. Borst stated. The bid came in at 37,709,401 million 1,116,599 that money will be placed by the Finance Director in an undesignated account and will not be useable on the school unless they have a real emergency and use up the existing “in-contract” contingencies.
The Town will hold Morganti to their guaranteed budget of $33,729,052, he concluded.
Police Contracts –According to Mr. Borst, the Board of Selectman approved the Police Contracts which ended in July of 2008 they will receive 1 yr retroactive at 3% and this coming year 2009/2010 will be zero percent increase and 2010/2011 will be a “two-two split” – July 1 they will get 2% increase and then in January the following year they will get 2% increase.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS:
Fiscal Impact Statements - Mr. Rodgers called Council members attention to the Town Charter regarding the requirement for fiscal impact statements 6-100.
According to Mr. Rodgers, he hasn’t seen a fiscal impact statement in quite a while and recommended that Mr. Tait put out a memo to department heads in regards to 6-100.
As an example, Mr. Rodgers asked what the impact would be if the Town acquired the property next to the Hawley School and what the loss would be on the tax rolls.
Discussion and possible action: letter to the State regarding Unfunded Mandates - According to Mr. Davis, he looked at what mandates are having the most impacts to our budget and reached out to the State Representative pointing out certain issues at the state level that are of concern to him.
Mr . Davis stated that he doesn’t agree with everything he has seen in the CCM, and thinks they should look at things in a very general way. In addition, he added that now is not the time to be providing new unfunded mandates unless they are affecting the safety and health of our residents.
After a lengthily discussion, Mr. Davis said he work on tightening up the letter per the suggestions he was given by fellow council members.
NEW BUSINESS:
Discussion and Possible Action: Transfer from Account # 01570-2000 $27,000 to Account # 01890-0000 $27,000 -
Mr. Pennarola made the motion to transfer from Account Number 01570-2000 Contingency, the amount of $27,000 to account number 01890-0000 to the Town Hall Board of Managers Fund the amount of $27,000. Mr. Capeci seconded and the motion was unanimously carried.
According to Mr. Pennarola the purpose of the transfer was to replace the HVAC system in the movie theater which needs replacing.
Discussion and possible action: Transfer of accounts to the annual tax suspense list –
Mr. Pennarola moved to authorize the tax collector to move to the Suspense Tax Book a total 228 Personal Property Accounts totaling $55,835.16, 3 Real Estate Accounts totaling $89,907.66, and 418 Motor Vehicle Accounts totaling $66,385.62, for a total of 649 accounts and a total of $212,128.44. Mrs. Llodra seconded and the motion was unanimously approved.
Mr. Pennarola stated that the statutes require the tax collector to determine annually what accounts are uncollectable, and then those accounts are transferred from the regular accounts receivable to the tax suspense list. According to Mr. Pennarola, this frees the tax collector of the obligation of expending time and effort sending out repeated bills that don’t get paid. It does not free up the obligation for the accounts to be paid.
Discussion and Possible Action: Acceptance of the 2007-2008 Audit -
Mr. DiCandido made the motion to accept the 2007-2008 Audit as corrected. Mr. Pennarola seconded and the motion was unanimously carried.
Discussion and Possible Action: The appointment of Kostin, Ruffkess & Co. to perform the audit for 2008-2009 -
Mr. DiCandido made the motion to appoint Kostin, Ruffkess & Co. to perform the audit for the next year 2008-2009 period. Mr. Capeci seconded and the motion was unanimously approved.
Having no further PUBLIC PARTICIPATION, ANNOUNCEMENTS, or need to go into EXECUTIVE SESSION Mr. Rodgers asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting.
Mrs. Llodra made the motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:20pm. Mr Pennarola seconded and the motion was unanimously carried.
Ted Swigart, Clerk
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