ADMINSTRATION COMMITTEE
OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
March 3, 2010 Meeting
The Administration Committee of the Legislative Council held a meeting on Wednesday, March 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
The meeting was called to order at 6:30 p.m.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
No one spoke during public participation.
COMMITTEE MINUTES
The Committee minutes from the meeting on February 3, 2010, were unanimously accepted.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Committee Objectives: Chair Davis presented the Committee with a document summarizing the objectives discussed at the meeting on February 3, and presented the Committee with his recommendations for the five objectives he suggested the Committee pursue. The recommendations addressed the issues of budget review, long-range planning, communications, review of Legislative Council regulations, and enhanced grant writing. He stated that he had discussed the objectives with First Selectman Llodra and LC Chair Capeci, and both were in agreement with his recommendations.
After discussion, Mr. Spragg put forth a motion to submit the five recommendations to the full Legislative Council for review and approval. Mrs. Andras seconded the motion. The motion was approved unanimously. Chair Davis said he would forward the suggested committee objectives to LC Chair Capeci so they could be distributed to the Council with the next meeting agenda.
NEW BUSINESS
Budget Review: The Committee then moved to discuss the assignments from LC Chair Capeci for review of the currently proposed town budget. The Committee decided to assign specific budgets to individual committee members for review. These committee members would then each report their recommendations to the full Committee at the next meeting on March 17, 2010. Chair Davis would prepare a Committee recommendation to the Finance Committee. The assignments were as follows: Mrs. Andras was assigned town department budgets; Mr. Spragg was assigned budgets for donations to non-profit organizations, including the C.H. Booth Library; Mr. Ferguson was assigned the budget for the Fairfield Hills Authority; Mr. Davis was assigned the budgets for the Legislative Council and the
Edmond Town Hall Board of Managers.
Mr. Spragg said he would be suggesting a process to evaluate the amount of funding that should be provided to non-profit agencies, and certain conditions that should go along with those funding allocations. Chair Davis asked Mr. Spragg to circulate his ideas to the committee members prior to the meeting so all would be prepared to discuss his proposal.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Communications Update: Chair Davis said the Board of Finance public hearing and budget session on February 25 was successfully videotaped by the high school Tech Team, and would be posted on Channel 17. He said that the second budget meeting was not videotaped, and that he was addressing issues with the process of obtaining volunteer assistance from the high school Tech Team and formalizing instructions for use of the A/V equipment in the Municipal Board Room. Chair Davis said he believe these issues would be successfully addressed for videotaping of the other budget sessions in the Municipal Board Room. He noted that the Newtown Bee was recording audio of the budget meetings, and that these audio clips were available at the Bee’s website as part of the newspaper’s coverage of
the budget review.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
John Aurelia, Castle Hill Road, said he would like to see a schedule provided on Channel 17 at the same time each day so town residents could learn when the videotaped budget meetings could be viewed. Mr. Davis said the intent was to list the times when the meeting videos were played on the channel, and that he would pass on Mr. Aurelia’s comments to the high school staff overseeing programming on Channel 17.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Chair Davis said the next meeting of the Committee would be on Wednesday, March 17, at 6:30 p.m. Chair Davis said the meeting would focus on budget review to ensure the Committee could 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
ATTACHMENT:
Summary of Proposed Administration Committee Objectives
At our meeting on Feb. 3, 2010, we identified as a Committee the following possible objectives that might be undertaken, most of which would involve fact-finding:
1. budget review
2. developing a process to ensure that the printed and online versions of the town code book were updated in a more timely fashion
3. 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
4. reviewing what the long-range planning process for the town might be;
5. looking into how the town might become more aggressive in seeking grants;
6. investigating how we might use digital media tools to keep citizens informed about town government beyond the budget process
7. 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
8. identifying items that might need to be addressed in a Charter Revision
As suggested at our last meeting, I met with First Selectman Llodra to get her input into how our Committee could be of service. She supported the majority of these initiatives. Based on our last meeting and the input of our First Selectman and LC Chair, I submit the following suggestions for objectives for the Committee’s consideration:
• Budget Review: We have received our charge from the Council, and will identify a budget recommendation from our Committee at our meeting on March 17, 2010.
• Communications: We have received our charge from the Council to undertake videotaping of budget sessions. This is currently being organized and implemented. I recommend we expand our role in this area to also look at the use of digital media tools to better communicate town government activities, in close coordination with the First Selectman and the Ad Hoc Communications Committee that she plans to establish.
• Long-Range Planning: In keeping with the Council’s long-range planning objective, our Committee would work with other town entities to assist in mapping a long-range planning process. The findings of the Committee would be submitted to the appropriate town entities to aid them in developing a comprehensive long-range planning process. As discussed, our Committee would not try to implement creation of a long-range plan.
• Review Council Regulations: Review 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.
• Enhanced Grant Writing: In coordination with the First Selectman’s office, work with appropriate town agencies to review what additional resources and processes may be necessary to assist the town in obtaining additional funding from grants sources.
Once our Committee has decided on our suggested objectives, we will present them to the Legislative Council to receive the Council’s input and direction.
| 
