LC Ad Hoc Facilities Committee
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 8:15 AM, Lower Meeting Room of Town Hall South
Present: LC Members - Dan Amaral, Jan Brookes, Pat Llodra, Paul Lundquist
Invited Guest – LeReine Frampton
BoE Intermim Finance Director – Diane Raymoe
One Member of the Public
One Member of the Press
Absent: BoF Member – Jim Gaston
Invited Guest – Bob Merola
Pat Llodra stated that during the August 11th, 2009, Facilities Committee meeting, the committee had discussed better collaboration between the town and the BoE. At the committee’s September 30th meeting with the Town Finance Director, Bob Tait, he had talked about using the tools of technology to track the cost of work. Mrs. Llodra explained that Diane Raymoe, the interim BoE Finance Director, has had a lot of experience with different software programs, and favors collaboration between the town and BoE.
Paul Lundquist said that the town is using MUNIS software, and the BoE is using Phoenix. He asked Mrs. Raymoe to describe the strengths and drawbacks of each system.
Diane Raymoe explained that Phoenix is a software system specifically designed for use by school systems. It allows districts to report to the state and federal government.
Mrs. Raymoe gave examples of reports on the Phoenix system that state and federal government require.
· ED001 is the end of the fiscal year report that must be filed with the state by September 1st.
· ED141 is the form on which all state and federal grants must be reported.
· Grants such as ARRA must have their own separate reporting accounts.
She stated that it’s difficult for schools to use MUNIS because the BoE has to encumber its payroll, and MUNIS doesn’t allow this. To encumber means to hold money aside so that it can no longer be spent.
Because of personnel contracts, school systems are obligated to encumber funds for payroll. Unlike the town side of government, the BoE is one department. For various reasons (illness, pregnancy, etc), the BoE may be paying two salaries for one position. In addition, the state gives local districts education money through the Excess Cost Grant (ECG) to help fund special education. Since the start of this fiscal year, the BoE has a deficit because the state didn’t pass its budget until September; the state has a large deficit of its own to deal with. The BoE has to encumber money and plan its spending without knowing how much of special education expenses the state will reimburse. That economic reality makes it difficult to know how to finish the year; it also makes encumbering
funds essential.
Mrs. Raymoe stated that both the town and BoE in Bristol, CT, use MUNIS. She’ll look into how that operates there, and try to evaluate if it would work in Newtown.
LeReine Frampton asked if Phoenix is expensive to upgrade.
Mrs. Raymoe replied that the annual maintenance fee for Phoenix is assessed according to the number specific users. She anticipates that it will be between $15,000 and $20,000. Phoenix was the lowest cost to buy; MUNIS was the most expensive.
Pat Llodra asked why more towns are using a unified system.
Mrs. Raymoe replied that she isn’t sure. She would have to look at those systems, a chart of the accounts, and the costs. “If the city drives the data, the BoE doesn’t get what it needs.” Mrs. Raymoe added that there are ways of using a unified system with additional technology support.
Paul Lundquist asked Mrs. Raymoe what she thought about a single platform for purchasing.
Mrs. Raymoe explained that 78 towns are collaborating in a purchasing consortium. The consortium has created a disk of items that towns and BoE can purchase, and a list of vendors that is given to each town’s Finance Director. “This invisible cooperation is a good way to do business,” she commented.
Mrs. Raymoe said that the reason purchasing through the state of Connecticut is sometimes more costly is that the state has to pay its bills quickly to get the best price. Because the state usually isn’t able to do this, purchasing through the state bidding system is often more expensive.
Pat Llodra commented that in Newtown there hasn’t been cooperation in purchasing between the town and school.
Mrs. Raymoe suggested that the town create a town and gown pamphlet that lists what both sides of the budget share and do together, and that this be sent to the public. She offered to help create such a brochure.
LeReine Frampton suggested that this information could be posted in a Savings of the Week column in the Bee
Mrs. Raymoe added, “You have to show that you’re one town.”
Mrs. Raymoe added that as BoE Finance Director in other towns she was able to buy
computers for town offices at educational rates. Companies are able to give price breaks
to schools because they get tax breaks on sales to schools from the federal government
Mrs. Raymoe stated that she and Bob Tait have had several conversations about collaboration between the town and BoE centered on the following topics:
· Purchasing
· The process of creating the Capital Improvement Plan
· State funding for the new municipal office building
· Staged bidding on larger CIP projects
· Uniform bid for telephones to create one communication system
Pat Llodra commented that when both the BoE and most town offices move into the new municipal office building, there will be better communication just because people are in closer proximity.
Mrs. Raymoe observed that people have to value building relationships. Communication and collaboration are only as good as people make it. She said that the town of Farmington at one point had its lowest per pupil expenditure. The town and BoE had to work together to figure out a solution. They began with zero based budgeting. That means that every department started with zero in its account and the budget was built from there. The budget books were so lengthy that they arrived in trucks, and it took a huge number of people to create the budget. The town found that zero based budgeting didn’t work because some things such as electricity and heat are always needed. Although zero based budgeting didn’t work, the Farmington BoE and town did study the use of copiers
and printers together. “That study forced us to think about collaboration, and to problem solve together.”
LeReine Frampton said, “We have printers attached to computers. That’s a very expensive system.”
Mrs. Raymoe said, “If you put one printer in a centralized space and network computers to it, you’ll save a lot of money.”
Mrs. Llodra observed that at the state Department of Education when computers were networked to a central printer, there was a big behavioral change. However, if the change is made over time, people can adapt. The town and BoE can find economies in big and small ways. These will create a change in the culture, and over time, these changes will save tax payers money.
Diane Raymoe explained that the towns of Fairfield and Farmington found that the cost of health insurance was “pushing them right over the edge.” Both towns went to a system of self-insurance and saved money. For this system to work, she commented, towns have to set up a reserve and not touch it.
Paul Lundquist asked how the town and BoE could begin a centralized purchasing system.
Diane Raymoe stated that having different accounting systems wouldn’t prevent centralized purchasing. The town and BoE could move on that one area without
changing their software data bases.
Pat Llodra commented that a common purchasing platform would establish prices, practices, and contain costs.
Mrs. Raymoe stated that because legal notices are expensive, the town and BoE could run them together. She suggested that this was the time to establish procedures like this because this is “when the BoE is rewriting its procedures.”
Mrs. Raymoe announced that she will be on leave from January 1 through the beginning of May. Ed Arum will be her replacement. She said that Mr. Arum started a buying consortium, and values centralized, cooperative purchasing.
Mrs. Raymoe stated that she is a systems person. “Do the job once; it takes too much time to go back and do it twice.” The old Access database required that three people, the originator, principal, and finance director, look at the same information. “That wasn’t sustainable.” She likes utilizing Phoenix for writing and approving requisitions on-line. In addition, Phoenix has a budget module that will provide a history of the budget. Phoenix has modules that make Special Ed and maintenance reporting faster and more accessible. She said that Phoenix has moved into Sequel which is a bigger and more powerful system.
Pat Llodra asked if the BoE’s Director of Maintenance, Gino Faiella is using Phoenix for work orders.
Mrs. Raymoe said that she’d check.
Paul Lundquist asked if Phoenix has any other modules.
Mrs. Raymoe replied that “We’re working with data to help forecast the budget. We’re looking at previous budgets and determining where we’ve been over and under.” She added that data on Phoenix is being used to do trend analysis, and help change assumptions in the future. For example, the data in Phoenix can be used to answer what if assumptions that will help the BoE forecast future expenses such as health insurance, population growth, market forces, mil rate, etc.
Dan Amaral commented that one of the what if questions should be what will our income be. That information would tell elected officials what we can spend.
Mrs. Raymoe stated that the system tells you the variables after salaries and benefits. It allows us to look at the past, predict costs, and overlay that with revenue.
Pat Llodra stated that this is a diagnostic tool. The town sets the end goal, and then plans how to get there.
Dan Amaral said that having a common purchasing agent to buy items such as electricity and fuel for the entire town might help ease the distrust between the town and BoE.
Pat Llodra listed some recent examples of why some in the community have lost trust in the BoE.
· There is a constant theme that if the BoE is cut further, significant staff layoffs are likely. Parents become alarmed and anxious. “We can’t get there (cooperation and collaboration) if we don’t have a trusting relationship.”
· After the Board of Finance cut $1,00,000 from the budget, the BoE found significant savings in transportation, insurance, and electricity. Only ½ a teacher, beyond staff reductions already planned, was lost.
Pat will send Diane a copy of the list of BoE savings and cuts to its budget.
Mrs. Llodra stated, “It’s important at the outset of the budget to say that there will be reductions to what was requested. If this isn’t done, the BoE handicaps the process by sending a message that ‘your children will be hurt.’”
Mrs. Raymoe said that because of the new state law requiring insurance companies to cover autism, she expects a 2 1/2 percent increase in insurance premiums.
Mrs. Raymoe stated that she had already told the principals, “I want a ten percent cut. We’ll have to operate with what we have.” She expects increases in the teacher contract, transportation, and insurance. She anticipates that those increases will be off-set by shifts in resources.
Pat Llodra noted that the federal government assured the town that it could use $250,000 of the ARRA grant for existing personnel. The town will have to make this up in two years. She would like ARRA funds used to supplement rather than supplant the BoE budget, but isn’t sure how to do this. Mrs. Llodra also said that the state will be cutting the Educational Cost Sharing grant (ECG), and the town will lose the ARRA money in two years. “How will that impact Newtown?” she asked.
LeReine Frampton said that another source of distrust between the town and BoE is that the school administration stated that its personnel wouldn’t take a pay increase. However, because they received small increases, there was an appearance of not caring about the economic concerns of taxpayers.
Mr. Lundquist added that the BoE top administrators received small but odd luxuries that many people couldn’t relate to.
Pat Llodra said that we need to be open and transparent in the budget to create trust. The level of competition between the town school sides of the budget will increase unless we work to stop it. We can’t be protective of information.
Mrs. Raymoe suggested that the town also has to look at revenue generating ideas such as setting up a 7 AM to 6PM before and after school program of day care. She noted that if children have to be transported, and if a certain number of families aren’t involved, the town won’t make money. Such a program needs a careful needs analysis before it’s started.
Mrs. Frampton quoted a statement Bob Merola has made at several Facilities Committee meetings. “Less Bricks, more clicks.” In other words, create more on-line classes.
The committee decided that its next meeting will be on Monday, November 9th at 8:15 AM.
Jan Brookes for the Committee
NOTE: Because one of the co-chairs didn’t realize that Monday, October12th, was a holiday and town offices would be closed, the notice of this meeting wasn’t posted on the town website until five minutes after the meeting had begun.
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