ADMINSTRATION COMMITTEE
OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
February 3, 2010 Meeting
The Administration Committee of the Legislative Council held a meeting on Wednesday, February 3, 2010, in the Municipal Board Room in the Newtown Municipal Center, 3 Primrose Street, Newtown, CT
Present: Chair Gary Davis, Jan Andras, George Ferguson, Ben Spragg
Guests: LC Chair Jeff Capeci
The meeting was called to order at 6:30 p.m.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
Ruby Johnson, 16 Chestnut Hill Road, gave the Committee a hand-out providing information on the parking lot constructed at Fairfield Hills, as well as other documents concerning the Fairfield Hills Master Plan and Ordinance. Chair Davis accepted the document and said he would refer it to the Finance Committee as that Committee would be reviewing the facts about the construction of the parking lot at Fairfield Hills.
Bruce Walczak, 12 Glover Avenue, said he was there to wish the Committee well as it determines what its focus will be over the next two years. He said there has been some posturing among different branches of town government as to what each branch’s role should be. He said every organization in town government has a role. The Legislative Council should not be afraid to push the envelope in regards to the role it plays to provide necessary checks and balances within town government.
NEW BUSINESS
Communications Update: Chair Davis told the Committee that a training session would be held on Thursday, Feb. 4, for the high school tech team members who would be volunteering to videotape budget meetings for this year’s budget review. Scott Sharlow of the town’s IT Department would be providing the training. Chair Davis and Mr. Sharlow were working with the equipment vendor to schedule more formalized training as soon as possible. However, First Selectman Llodra had requested that the Board of Finance meeting on Monday, Feb. 8, be videotaped. In order to meet this deadline, the training session with Mr. Sharlow was scheduled so the high school tech team members would become familiar with the video and audio equipment installed in the Municipal Board Room prior to the
Board of Finance meeting. Chair Davis said there remained some equipment issues involving the computer and broadcast pix. Mr. Sharlow was trying to resolve those issues while balancing other needs of town departments who were having pressing IT issues. Chair Davis commended the First Selectman’s office for publishing a schedule of this year’s budget deliberations on the town’s website (link at http://www.newtown-ct.gov/Public_Documents/NewtownCT_BBoard/0288A3BA-000F8513).
Committee Objectives: Chair Davis opened the discussion stating that the past role of the Administration Committee had been focused solely on reviewing certain parts of the First Selectman’s budget. LC Chair Capeci confirmed that had been the role of the Committee when he had chaired it in the last Council. Chair Davis thought the role of the Committee might be expanded as the Legislative Council, for the first time, had established objectives, and the Committee had already been charged with taking on the responsibilities of the Ad Hoc Communications Subcommittee that had been created by the last Council.
Mr. Ferguson and Mrs. Andras expressed concerns about the email sent to the Committee by Chair Davis prior to the meeting outlining his thoughts on what the Committee might address as objectives over the next two years. They said it sounded like the Chair was telling the Committee what its objectives would be. Mrs. Andras was critical of the letter the Chair sent to the Newtown Bee inviting the public to attend the meeting and providing its thoughts on what the Committee might address because she felt it sounded as if the Committee had endorsed the personal perspectives expressed by the Chair in that letter. Chair Davis urged the Committee to read his emails again. He said he was clear in those emails that the content contained in them were his personal thoughts provided to Committee members so that they
would be prepared to come to the meeting with their own ideas as to what the Committee’s objectives should be. The Committee would discuss all ideas and then move forward. He said he based some of his suggestions on the objectives established by the Legislative Council. He said the letter to the Bee was also clear that these were his personal thoughts. He also said the email was clear that the Committee would not be trying to render a decision on its objectives at tonight’s meeting. It was his hope that the Committee would discuss its ideas tonight, and then reflect on the discussion. Chair Davis said he hoped to start identifying objectives at the Committee meeting in March. The goal would be to have objectives submitted to the Legislative Council in March or April for Council review. The Council would then determine if it was in agreement with what the Committee would like to accomplish, or would charge the Committee with other
tasks.
Mr. Ferguson said he wanted to be sure the objectives identified by the Committee were consistent with the role of the Council versus the role of the town administration. He said the Committee had limited resources. He suggested that the Committee’s role should be focused more on fact-finding, which would be an important role to play. Chair Davis agreed. He said he had reached out to the First Selectman to speak with her about the Committee’s objectives, but a discussion could not be arranged prior to tonight’s meeting. He hoped to have a discussion with the First Selectman before the March meeting of the Committee.
Chair Davis asked the Committee members what ideas they had for Committee objectives. Mrs. Andras said the Committee should only focus on reviewing the budget. Mr. Spragg said he thought the budget review role of the Committee was important. He had no issues with the suggestions proposed by the Chair, but felt the Committee’s role on those issues should be more focused on fact-finding. He said that the current administration might have issue with some of the ideas proposed by the Chair and the Committee should keep that in mind. Mr. Ferguson suggested two objectives the Committee might consider: (1) developing a process to ensure that the printed and online versions of the town code book were updated in a more timely fashion; and (2) reviewing the current regulations
governing the Legislative Council to see how they might be modified or expanded to more specifically define Council roles, processes and activities.
Chair Davis outlined his thoughts on what objectives the Committee might set for fact-finding: (1) reviewing what the long-range planning process for the town might be; (2) looking into how the town might become more aggressive in seeking grants; (3) investigating how we might use digital media tools to keep citizens informed about town government beyond the budget process; (4) looking at the process by which appointments are made to boards and other town bodies with the idea of encouraging a uniform process across town government and ways to better communicate openings; and (5) identifying items that might need to be addressed in a Charter Revision.
Mr. Ferguson said the town needs to define what a long-range planning process is and determine what town organizations are involved. The Committee then might play a constructive fact-finding role in identifying what pieces of the process might be missing. He said such a role might have merit if it helped engage the public in a collaborative fashion. He noted that the Board of Selectmen was already in discussion on the process for making appointments.
Chair Davis asked the Committee members if there was anything that had been mentioned that they wanted to disqualify tonight. Hearing no objections, he said he would pull together a list of the objectives based on tonight’s discussion that he would have ready for the Committee’s review in March. At that time, the Committee could decide which proposed objectives it would want to endorse and which it would want to discard. The target would be to get a recommended set of Committee objectives to the full Legislative Council in April.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
Bruce Walczak, 12 Glover Avenue, said he found the Committee’s discussion fascinating. He said it is hard to figure out where the overlaps are in town government with regard to certain processes. He said creating a road map for how processes work would be a benefit.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Chair Davis said the next meeting of the Committee would be on Wednesday, March 3. Chair Davis also set March 17 as a Committee meeting at which the Committee would review its assigned portions of the town budget to provide its recommendations to the Legislative Council’s Finance Committee by the deadline of March 30.
Having no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 7:30 p.m.
Gary Davis
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