Minutes from the Regular Meeting of the Legislative Council held in the Municipal Board Room in the Newtown Municipal Center, 3 Primrose Street, Newtown, Connecticut, on Wednesday, March 3, 2010. Chairman Jeffrey Capeci called the meeting to order at 7:32 pm.
PRESENT: Jan Andras, George Ferguson III, John Aurelia Sr., Kevin Fitzgerald, Chris LaRocque, Richard Woycik, Mary Ann Jacob, Benjamin Spragg, James Belden, Gary Davis, Daniel Amaral and Jeffrey Capeci.
ABSENT: none
ALSO PRESENT: First Selectman Patricia Llodra, Finance Director Bob Tait, Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson, Chairman of the Board of Education Lillian Bittman, Chairman of the Board of Finance John Kortze, 1 member of the press and 15 members of the public
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION: Joanne Marcinek, 22 Honey Lane, asked the council to put the improvements to Honey Lane and Nutmeg Lane on a fast track for renovation. She submitted a petition with 52-signatures and photos to be attached to the minutes per Chairman Capeci.
Michael Burton, 107 Glen Road, member of the Board of Fire Commissioners, spoke in favor of the Sandy Hook Streetscape. He urged the council to move the plan forward to year one rather than plan for it in year four of the five-year CIP. Mr. Burton stressed that the streetscape has been pushed back every year over the last several years. He told commissioners that inaction has cost the town money.
Ray Rusek, 17 Maltbie Road, told commissioners that he has been involved in trying to get the Streetscape done since the 1990’s. He told commissioners that the streetscape is important for the character of the town and he added that the center of Sandy Hook is a major intersection and key area. The streetscape would help generate revenue by attracting businesses into the area. He concluded by stating that the entire project could be completed in 2-years.
APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of February 17, 2010: Ms. Andras moved to accept the minutes of February 17, 2010 as corrected. Mr. LaRocque seconded and the motion was unanimously carried.
Corrections: Mr. Spragg offered the following correction page 2, first sentence replace “board’s” with “bond” and on page 3, under Transfer request, he asked that it be reflected in the minutes that he asked Mrs. Llodra what the method they used to select agencies for funding from the town and how they decide the funding levels and Mrs. Llodra replied that the selectman don’t have any applications.
Chairman Capeci suggested the following under Approval of minutes, corrections, 6th line, “Mr. Ferguson made the motion to table,” not Mr. Woycik; and page 3, under Transfer request, the spelling of Nickie Singer is with “ie” not “y”.
Mr. Ferguson noted the following page 1, under Approval of minutes, corrections, 9th line, change “failing vote” to “failed vote”; page 2, under First Selectman’s Report, 2nd sentence, remove the word “to” and the period after $102,000; page 3, under Announcements, 2nd paragraph, add the word “said” after Mr. Capeci; and page 2, under the Committee Reports, Education, add the month to the meeting dates “March” 25 and “March” 30.
COMMUNICATIONS: none
COMMITTEE REPORTS: Education Sub-Committee – Mrs. Jacob, Education Sub-Committee chairman, reported that at a recent Board of Finance meeting the Board of Finance presented a resolution asking the Board of Education to refund to the general fund $480,000 that they expected might be surplus because the excess cost grant was going to come in higher than had been anticipated. She noted that the motion was tabled in order for the Board of Education to assess that and added that the deficit will be somewhere around $69,000 to $150,000 instead.
Mrs. Jacob updated council members on the greenhouse issue at the school and the appropriateness of using bonding money it. She indicated that the Building and Grounds Committee had taken responsibility for the action and reported that in the original bonding they appropriated $30,000 to $50,000 to mover the green house. She stated that the committee is currently in discussions with the contractor whether he bears any responsibility for the green house falling apart when it was moved. Mrs. Jacob noted that Building and Grounds did authorize Fletcher Thomson to design a new greenhouse that is going to cost an additional $150,000 and said it was given to the board of education to approve and go out to bid.
In regards to the CIP, Mrs. Jacob indicated that the Board of Education is targeting all the new programs to meet strategic plan goals.
Finally, she reported that the RMPs came back from respondents who designed middle school roof, but they’re currently being reviewed.
Finance Committee - Mr. Spragg, Chairman of the Finance Committee, reported that the Finance Committee met February 18, 2010 and took up the issue of Fairfield Hills’ negative lease. He reported that the committee is still gathering information.
According to Mr. Spragg, the committee also finalized preliminary recommendations on the Capital Improvement Plan, and said those recommendations are out to the Board of Education, the Board of Selectman and the Board of Finance for comment. Once the Finance Committee gets those comments back, Mr. Spragg said they will meet and get out a final recommendation to the council.
In conclusion, Mr. Spragg reported that the committee is still having discussions on conveyance tax and other ways to lessen impact to the tax payers.
Administration Committee – Mr. Davis, Administration Committee chairman, reported that the committee met that evening and came to conclusion on objectives they would like to pursue as a committee and will submit them to the council next week. He told council members that the committee is doing budget review at their next meeting March 17, and added that Mr. Spragg is putting forth ideas to better process how we fund not-for-profit organizations.
Mrs. Jacobs asked if they would be looking into away of linking email communications so members of the various boards and committees could receive all notices of meetings automatically. Mr. Davis said the town clerk has set up a similar system on the town website. Mrs. Jacobs wanted the record to show she had several constituents ask her about that.
Public Safety Sub-Committee – Mr. Aurelia, chairman of the Public Safety Subcommittee, said they are currently trying to arrange a CIP meeting with Hook and Ladder.
FIRST SELECTMAN’S REPORT:
Mrs. Llodra informed council members that she only had two items for them. First, she reported that she had a legislative update from CCM noting that she received some interesting information regarding new proposals. According to the first selectman, the governor identified $45 million in unspecified cuts in municipal aide for next year. Second, Mrs. Llodra discussed communications. She indicated that the town needed to improve its website and noted that the current template was outdated. To resolve the situation, Mrs. Llodra said they need to get a group together to look at new templates and added that she has identified three people for that group already.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS:
Discussion and Possible action on date for Budget Special Meeting scheduled for April 14, 2010 – Chairman Capeci told council members that he hopes to have the Lecture Hall at the High School for the meeting on April 2010.
NEW BUSINESS:
Discussion and possible action on 2010-2014 Capital Improvement Plan – Mrs. Llodra announced that Mr. Tait would be distributing town budget books and said she would like a couple of minutes after the meeting to go over how to locate information in that book.
Mr. Kortze explained the CIP process to the new members and stressed that the next year was going to be the most critical. He noted that the Board of Education has one major issue each and every year. He explained that the totals for year two of the five year plan were low because that is when the High School indebtedness comes up.
Mr. Spragg noted that this 5-year plan may take 13-months to approve and he suggested that the Board of Finance consider a two-year plan instead.
Over the course of the next two hours, council members had the chance to hear presentations by Mr. Kortze and Ms. Bittman regarding the CIP and provide spirited feedback.
The main focus of the session regarded the proposed 5-year CIP and what year some of the projects would fall under. Key discussions focused on the Middle School Roof (year 1), Sandy Hook Streetscape (year 4), Hook & Ladder Fire House (years 1 & 2), Hawley School HVAC (years 2, 3 & 4) and the demolition of the vacant buildings (years 2 & 4) and the burial of the power lines at Fairfield Hills (year 1 & 3).
Although estimated costs were listed on the CIP, council members questioned what the exact costs would be and why some of the costs were so high such as the replacement of the Middle School roof.
Ms. Andras moved to refer the entire Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) to the Finance Committee with the pieces to the sub-committees. Mr. Belden seconded and the motion was unanimously approved.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Chairman Capeci welcomed Mr. Amaral back after his surgery.
Mr. Fitzgerald announced that Inlands Wetlands denied the application by Newtown Transload last week.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION: none
POSSIBLE EXECUTIVE SESSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION ON LEGAL MATTERS, LAND,
PURCHASES, EMPLOYEE MATTERS: Mr. Aurelia moved to go into executive session to discuss legal matters at 10:58 pm and invited Mrs. Llodra and Mr. Tait to attend. Mr. Amaral seconded and the motion was unanimously carried.
At this time the clerk left the meeting.
After a lengthily discussion, executive session closed and the regular meeting was reopened.
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Mrs. Jacob moved to authorize the Town of Newtown to commence legal action against Donald Bryant of 34 Brushy Hill Road for enforcement of zoning violations.~ The motion was seconded by Ms. Andras and passed unanimously.
Mrs. Jacob moved to authorize the Town of Newtown to commence legal action against~Daniel Holmes of 6 Farmery Lane for enforcement of zoning violations.~ The motion was seconded by Mr. Fitzgerald and passed.~ Ayes:~Chairman Capeci, Mr. Amaral, Mr. LaRocque, Mr. Fitzgerald, Ms. Andras, Mrs. Jacob, Mr. Davis, Mr. Spragg. Nay: Mr. Aurelia. Abstentions: Mr. Belden, Mr. Ferguson and~Mr. Woycik.
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A motion to adjourn was made by Mr. Ferguson. Mr. Belden seconded and the motion passed unanimously at around 11:50PM.
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Ted Swigart, Clerk
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