FINANCE COMMITTEE
October 5, 2010
Meeting Room #1, Municipal Center
Newtown, CT
PRESENT: Chairman Ben Spragg, Dan Amaral, Gary Davis, Kathy Fetchick, Jan Andras, Jeff Capeci (Council Chairman), John Kortze (BOF)
ABSENT: Kevin Fitzgerald
Chairman Ben Spragg called the meeting to order at 7:05 pm.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Upon motion by Ms. Fetchick, the minutes of the 9/23/10 meeting were unanimously approved as presented.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION: None present
CIP RECOMMENDATIONS:
Ms. Andras moved to reconsider action taken at the meeting of 9/23/10. Motion seconded and unanimously carried.
Ms. Andras stated that since the last meeting, she re-read the CIP Regulations and feels that the section about Council receiving copies of information submitted to the BOF at the start of the CIP process is contrary to the Regulations. Mr. Capeci agreed that the document is trying to put the Council in front of the process before the BOF looks at it.
Ms. Fetchick stated that she still does not agree with any of the four points. What problem are we trying to solve with this document? The CIP Regulations already spell out the process.
Mr. Davis asked if the rest of the committee is trying to “scuttle” this entire document after eight months of review. Ms. Andras answered that she was in favor of “scuttling” it at the very beginning because she did not feel there was a need for it. Mr. Davis does not understand why we would not want to put down procedures regarding the CIP.
Regarding separate bonding resolutions, Mr. Capeci stated that without this, the Council still has the option to separate projects for vote. Mr. Spragg explained that in the past, the CIP contained a page listing the projects by each bond issue proposed by the five-year plan. He will follow-up with Mr. Tait to go over this section for inclusion in the future.
Mr. Davis re-stated that he does not know why there is a problem in having these guidelines. Ms. Fetchick replied that the BOE has “guidelines” regarding class size but they are referred back to as more of a written policy or regulation. If these guidelines are written and approved by the full Council, they would take on more of a policy status.
After a lengthy discussion, Mr. Kortze agreed that there would be more communication between the BOF and the Council in the CIP process to address the issues that were being brought forward by the proposed “guidelines”.
Ms. Andras moved that no recommendation be made regarding the CIP suggestions that were referred to this committee since most of the original suggestions have been accomplished during the Finance Committee’s review and there is no further need for guidelines as the remaining three suggestions have been resolved at this meeting. Motion seconded and unanimously carried.
Having no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 7:45 p.m.
Jan Andras
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