1. Call Meeting to Order
Mayor Havens called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
2. Roll Call
Members Present: Councillor Roseann Williams
Councillor Elizabeth Pendleton
Councillor Judith Paquin
Councillor Deborah Fine
Deputy Mayor John P. Pelkey
Mayor Edward Havens
Councillor Thomas Delnicki
Councillor Cary Prague
Councillor Matthew Streeter
Also Present: Town Manager Matthew B. Galligan
Town Attorney Barry D. Guliano
3. Public Participation - None
4. Communications - None
5. Town Manager's Report - Town Manager Matthew B. Galligan stated that he would save the Report for the Regular Meeting.
6. Items for Discussion
A. Possible Redistricting of Voting Districts in South Windsor - Registrars of Voters to Discuss
Ms. Jan Murtha explained that they will be discussing the possibility of redistricting districts in the Town, to look at voting machine equipment when it becomes available, as well as changing some of their voting locations. There was a committee formed the latter part of 2001 to address the redistricting, the committee at that point was recessed and they would like to see that committee reenacted. They would like to cut
6. A. (Continued)
down on the number of districts and polling places and rearrange some things. The last time this was done was 1997.
In addition to the current people that serve on the committee, the two Registrars of Voters or their designees; Town Clerk; two Town Chairman or their designees; and two members at large representing each political party. Ms. Murtha also thinks it is advisable to have serve on the committee or act as ex-officio, either somebody from the Board of Education and somebody from the Fire Department and maybe somebody from the Building Department or Assessors Office.
Ms. Fran Knipple would like the person at large to use her Deputy, because she thinks it is important for her to know where all of the boundaries are. Also, with Jim being the new Chair of the Democratic Party, he would be another change that she would have. She also thinks that there should be somebody from Council.
Deputy Mayor Pelkey asked if this was in anticipation of the new electronic style voting machines, this wouldn't take place until those came on board. Ms. Murtha stated that it would be next November, for the November Municipal Election.
Deputy Mayor Pelkey stated that regarding District 7, that State Representative seat is shared with East Hartford and therefore those folks have to be segregated from the rest of the Town population. He asked if it would still be possible to segregate that group within the same building. Ms. Murtha stated that it is possible, but that is one of the things they want this committee to discuss.
Ms. Knipple wants to leave District 7 in that school, because that is the one that belongs there, and take District 1 and put it in with either 6, 4, or 5 or whatever. If they are going to do this, they are going to divide the whole Town up.
Deputy Mayor Pelkey asked if the vision that they have is to not have an essential voting place in Town. Ms. Murtha said that they would love that but there is no place large enough to house the parking.
Deputy Mayor Pelkey confirmed that this November will be when the electronic voting machines will be in place. Ms. Murtha stated that the Secretary of the State at this point plans on having at least one
6. A. (Continued)
handicapped accessible machine in each polling place for this November's election.
Deputy Mayor Pelkey asked where the dollars for these machines are coming from. Ms. Murtha said that it will be from the Federal Government, and that there is no need to touch the money in the Capital Projects budget at the moment.
Ms. Murtha stated that Senate Bill 17 addresses a lot of other changes. She wanted to hold off on the new machines until they find out what is going to be necessary in 2009, but the Secretary of State has already put in the RFP that the voting machines that are going to be used in this election, any vendor has to make accessible for changes in the future. She stated that she and Ms. Knipple wanted to go with the LHS machine in all of the polling places, and cut down on the number of polling places and have just the one handicapped machine, which is not possible according to Ms. Kenny Gill, but if you listen to the Attorneys in the Secretary of State's Office, it is yes.
Deputy Mayor Pelkey asked for a time-line for when the Board gets together and looks at redistricting all of that. Ms. Murtha said that in order to have any changes done in the boundaries for the Municipal Elections, they will all be done by August 9, 2005. That would be the date if they want to have the redistricting in effect for this Municipal Election.
Ms. Knipple said that one of the biggest problems they have is like last election, they had to borrow 3 machines from East Hartford. What they are trying to do is eliminate borrowing machines, and trying to have just their own machines. If they buy the LHS before they tell them they can't, they have to let them keep them.
Deputy Mayor Pelkey asked if when they make that purchase, will it be something that their office will do independently or is it something that they will come to the Council for. Ms. Murtha said that as of today's meeting that she attended in the morning, any of the Federal money will only pay for machines that have been approved by the Secretary of State's Office for handicapped. If they decide to go with the LHS machine, even though it is a machine approved by the Secretary of State's Office and the General Assembly, the Town would have to pay for those.
6. A. (Continued)
The issue of having a paper trail is one of the issues that has to be addressed by the committee.
Ms. Knipple said that they have been keeping updated with what LHS was doing. Ms. Murtha said that some of the machines have the Secretary of State's association endorsement as going through certain proving grounds and others have not. At this point LHS for handicapped has not.
Councillor Cary Prague said that he thinks adding a person from the Board of Education is outstanding for a couple of reasons. He said that there was a lot of discussion during the Calendar Debate they had a few weeks ago about the fact that they have to close the schools on November 2nd. He feels that it is important for the schools to remain open so that the children understand what elections are about. He brought up, that the Federal Law states that elections don't have to be in Town owned buildings, that there is Maneeley's, the Fire Departments, and other buildings that could be used. He said that if the elections could be removed from the schools, the parents wouldn't be inconvenienced and the school year wouldn't be another day longer.
Ms. Murtha said that they would still like the schools shut because of traffic. In regard to using another building, the building owner has to be willing to give up business, which would be wonderful. She also said that the machines are heavy and hard to move.
Councillor Roseann Williams said that she feels that this is much needed. Money can be saved because of the consolidation, the handicapped and elderly will have an easier time voting, and the machines are very old. She then asked if the Federal Government decides all of the machines have to be handicapped, will that mean that they will pay for all of them. Ms. Murtha said that they would have to pay for all of them.
Councillor Deborah Fine said that she understands that people can't even get parts to fix the old machines. She wanted to confirm that they needed to have one handicapped machine in each polling place. She said that if they don't go with the new machines, does that mean that there will be four old machines with the one new handicapped machine in each polling place. Ms. Murtha said that as of today's meeting, towns can still use, as of November, the new handicapped machine and the lever machines.
6. A. (Continued)
Councillor Elizabeth Pendleton asked what LHS stands for. Ms. Murtha said that it is just the company that is doing the machines in the New England area representing the global industries. Councillor Pendleton wanted to confirm that the Secretary of State is saying that we need one handicapped per polling location. Ms. Murtha said yes, and it has to be handicapped for audio as well as visual.
Councillor Pendleton asked if the machines that were borrowed from East Hartford last year, could be reduced in the future by redistricting. Ms. Murtha said that it depends, that if they kept the lever machines, 1 machine is needed for every 900 or portion thereof of voters. If the LHS machines are used, all that is needed is 1 machine per polling district, but 12 booths have to be set up for every 250 voters in that district.
Councillor Pendleton asked that when doing their assessment, if the committee could look at the available buildings within the community. She wrote a list of available buildings that she just thought of, Ellsworth, the Library, the Fire Departments, Community Center, the High Schools, and not use the Elementary Schools. Ms. Knipple said that the problem with Ellsworth is that it is very cold in the gym and the bathrooms are not handicapped accessible.
Councillor Thomas Delnicki confirmed that the committee that existed back in 2001 consisted of 7 members. Ms. Murtha said that that was correct. Councillor Delnicki said that there has been talk about the recommended size of the new committee, and there should be two Council Members. Ms. Murtha said that some of the people could be ex-officio, but that is up to the Council. Mayor Havens asked if it has to be decided whether or not they are going to do it this year or wait, because of all of the work the Council has.
Councillor Delnicki confirmed that the Council has a choice of whether or not they want to go forward with the redistricting committee. Ms. Murtha said that it is their choice.
Councillor Delnicki confirmed that the Council does have to act on the concept of the handicapped machine and the proposal of going to the LHS. Ms. Murtha said that what is federally mandated is that they have in place and go to the handicapped machine by January 1, 2006. Our Secretary of State wants it in and working for the Municipal Election for the basic try out 2005.
6. A. (Continued)
Ms. Knipple said that she does not want to buy 7 LHS machines plus 3 spares if we are going to cut back on districts because they won't be needed. That is why they want to know if they are going to be redistricting. Councillor Delnicki said that if they went to 3 districts they wouldn't want just one machine in each district incase one brakes down, that they would still need spares. Ms. Knipple said that if they redistrict, it would save on 3 or 4 machines. Ms. Murtha said that the difference in the LHS machine is that it is the number of booths that are set up for the people to go to to fill in there little circle and that machine eats them up as quick as you can put them in. She also said that the results would be available in each polling place immediately within 10 minutes.
Councillor Delnicki asked what the cost is per machine. Ms. Murtha said that it depends on the number of spares; it is about $80,000 for all of them. She said that these machines would allow for a savings on staffing, storage, and moving. The cost is for each ballot and the programming.
Councillor Delnicki said that even with keeping the districts in place, just going to the machine and the amount of staff that would end up being cut would pay for the machines fairly quickly. Ms. Knipple said that 20 people can be voting at one time and the machine can handle that many people, so why would the Council still want to keep 7 districts.
Councillor Matthew Streeter asked if it would be possible to do regional spares since the surrounding towns will have to keep spares. Ms. Murtha said that is not possible because they are all programmed differently for different elections. Right now she thinks that in Town they need 2 spares for the total number of voters that the Town has.
Councillor Streeter also asked if there was any talk with the Secretary of State about possibly mailing all ballots or E-voting. Ms. Murtha said that there are 17 facets to Senate Bill 17 and one of them is taking into consideration early voting, applications being available on fax machines, and there are others.
Councillor Fine wanted to make sure that everyone knows that when redistricting is being considered, that it has nothing to do with school. Councillor Fine asked Ms. Knipple if the Council already passed a resolution to spend the money to buy these machines at such time as they are needed. Ms. Knipple said that that the money was put away, but little by little it was in the contingency plan. Town Manager Galligan said that
6. A. (Continued)
there is $35,000 sitting in the capital fund and has been for the past 4 or 5 years. Councillor Fine said that now it is just a matter of how many to buy and where to put them. Ms. Murtha said that some of the districts are coming out of sink with each other, in District 1 there is only about 2,100 voters, where in District 4 there is about 4,000. There should be an even amount of people going to each location.
Ms. Murtha said that the HAVA (Help America Vote Act) has now come into play. Handicapped accessible machines are part of HAVA, which has to be in place by January 1, 2006.
Deputy Mayor Pelkey said that there seems to be a little confusion on the exact dollar amount that has to be budgeted for. At the moment there is about $35,000 in the Capital Projects in the holding pattern. He said that the Council was anticipating putting another $30,000 in next year. What he is hearing now is that regardless of whether or not they redistrict, they are going to need the machines by this fall. He asked if that was correct. Ms. Knipple said that they can use the old machines, but one handicapped machine has to be in each polling place.
Deputy Mayor Pelkey then asked if they don't redistrict and they use the same polling places that they have, they will have to buy a minimum of 7 machines and maybe a couple of back-ups, this year. Ms. Murtha said that they have the option of whether or not they get the LHS machines for this election.
Ms. Murtha said that they bought an LHS machine last year for counting absentee ballots. The lever machines can still be used for this election.
Mayor Havens asked if Ms. Knipple thought that the public would be inconvenienced by changing their familiar voting places. Ms. Knipple said that everyone can't be satisfied. Ms. Murtha said that there is a lot of confusion with District 1 and District 7, both being at Pleasant Valley School. She said that that is one of the things that they hope to address with this committee; they want to get one of the Districts out of there.
B. Proposal for a Tax Agreement Between Generation 2 - Wentworth Park (Marjorie Anthony, Chairman, EDC to discuss)
Councillor Pelkey asked the Town Attorney if he lived too close to the property to be able to participate. Town Attorney Guliano said that as long
6. B. (Continued)
as his property did not abut, he was fine. Councillor Delnicki said that he lives about 250 to 300 feet away from the property. Town Attorney Guliano said if he doesn't abut but lives one property over, he may want to abstain. Councillor Delnicki said that for the record, it is more than one property over and does not abut the property.
7. Public Hearing
Mayor Havens informed the public that the originally scheduled Public Hearing has been cancelled.
6. B. (Continued)
Ms. Marjorie Anthony, Chairman of the Economic Commission, advised that the South Windsor Economic Development Commission approved the following recommendation and passed a resolution at a Special Meeting held on Tuesday, March 1, 2005. Be it resolved that the South Windsor Economic Development Commission approved a proposed tax partnership between Generation 2, Inc. dba Wentworth Park, of 27 Summer Sweet Drive, Glastonbury, as recommended by the Town Manager, Director of Finance, and the Tax Assessor for construction of a 36,000 sq. ft. commercial office condominium. The Developer is Mr. Jeffrey Sawyer, President of Generation 2 and it is a Connecticut based construction and development company. The site is located at 225 Oakland Road in South Windsor.
Ms. Anthony informed the Council that the items attached were: copies of Minutes of their meeting; the applicant's request; a memo from the Tax Assessor and the Town Manager to the Chairperson of the Economic Development. The incentive plan is to be made in accordance with the July 7, 2003 Economic Incentive Program. Also attached is a basic proposal, page 2; and attached to that is a more detailed outlined explanation of the costs for this partnership.
Ms. Anthony said that if the Councillors go down to the last paragraph, note on the 2nd page, that she neglected to put in Wentworth Park or it's successors. That has been changed on the 2nd page of the Development Proposal on the bottom. She said that it is a 50% benefit for the 1st three years and the benefit will be passed through to qualified businesses purchasing the condominium units. On that note, the last paragraph, it
6. B. (Continued)
means Generation/Wentworth Park and/or it's successors being the owners of the condominiums being purchased.
Ms. Anthony also gave the Council an attachment with information regarding Generation 2, which includes a breakdown of the costs.
Mayor Havens asked the Town Manager to give the net results. Town Manager Galligan said that this is only a 3 year, 50% Abatement, it is a 3.3 million dollar project. It is a condo type office complex, Mr. Sawyer will build the entire complex and sell it off the individual offices to individual businesses. He said that it is a very good design, very good project, and it fits well in the area. Town Manager Galligan explained that once Mr. Sawyer sells them, the abatements are then pushed down to the person that purchased it.
Mayor Havens asked the Town Manager who gets the benefit of the partnership, the owner or the condominium owner. Town Manager Galligan said that the owner will get it but when he sells it, it will go down to the purchaser.
Mayor Havens asked the Town Manager for the approximate dollars. Town Manager Galligan said that it is about $82,000 a year in taxes and with the 3 year abatement it will end up being $41,000 then back to $82,000.
Ms. Anthony introduced Mr. Sawyer.
Councillor Paquin asked if these were buildings that were already built. Mr. Sawyer said that their site is to the right of the Mobil and they just cleared it this weekend. He said that behind it is residential apartments.
Councillor Paquin asked regarding, the August letter that the Council saw tonight, how have things changed since that letter. She asked what has been done, if the soil has been changed. Mr. Sawyer said that they just received all of their approvals and they just started this weekend by clearing the land and other than that, they have not done anything with the site yet.
Councillor Paquin wanted to know what was considered unsuitable soil. Mr. Sawyer explained that the original creek in the 1970s went diagonally across the site and the owner at the time rerouted the creek and filled in the old creek bed. He said that they have to dig up all of that soil and
6. B. (Continued)
bring in new soil and get them retested so that the buildings and the parking lot will be suitable.
Ms. Anthony added that Generation 2 has gone through all of their approvals and have passed everything so they are about ready to begin their building. She then spoke about other condominiums in Town and how they are very successful. The condominiums are theirs, so that allows them to get a tax write-off.
Councillor Fine stated that she is delighted to see the fact that they are using local companies.
Councillor Pendleton asked if Mr. Sawyer foresees any water issues where the creek bed use to be. Mr. Sawyer said that their engineers have looked at that and that the rerouted creek has been like that for 25 years now and the water levels will never get up that high. She also stated that she liked the looks of the buildings.
Councillor Streeter said that sometimes when the Council gets these projects they get a project viability. Usually when they do an abatement it is based on a length of time for how many employees they are going to have. He is overwhelmed that there is a great project, but he said that they are going on basic speculation that this is going to be a successful project and that it will be around for a long time. The Council doesn't have any raw data that says that though. He said that it is open-ended. Town Manager Galligan says that it states at the bottom, that the business stay open for 10 years.
Councillor Streeter said that for 10 years they could be chasing down the successors to make sure they stay in business for the 10 years. Town Manager Galligan said that the people buying the condos will have condo docs that they will have to abide by the Town's rules and if they don't then the individual owner will lose the abatement. He said that it is the same thing that is being done with Carla's Pasta and Geissler's.
Councillor Streeter was concerned with having to keep up on who is changing ownership because it could be similar to the other projects like the low-income housing, where somebody later on buys it and says that they didn't know that it was a condition. Town Attorney Guliano said that the difference would be that the incentive is going to be very much for a new tenant to advise the Town because they are going to want the tax
6. B. (Continued)
abatement, so he doesn't think that the Town will have to chase anybody, that they will be chasing us. Also, the agreement is going to be specified so that whoever the last one in line is that doesn't comply with the agreement, has to refund all of the money. So, they will have to make their deal with the people who got the abatement before hand because the Town will just go after the last one in line that doesn't comply with the agreement. The new people that purchase the condo will be aware of the previous tax abatement because it will be on the land record.
Councillor Streeter asked if all of the units are pre-sold. Mr. Sawyer said that they are currently working with some people in South Windsor and out of South Windsor to purchase the units. They currently have not sold any yet, but they are close. Mr. Sawyer said that he has built a lot of these in Minnesota over the past 3 or 4 years. These are small businesses that want to buy these because it is an investment. So, he does not anticipate turnover.
Town Manager Galligan said that in the back they do have a present 1 year, 2 year, and 3 year that at the end of the 3 year, there should be 60 jobs that are created. He said he has the experience from North Branford, on Route 80. The same pediatrician has been there for the last 15 or 16 years and built the family deli, seafood place, nail place, and chiropractor. Because the people own the condos, their tendency to leave is not there.
Councillor Delnicki said that he lives within 3 or 4 hundred feet of that property, he has seen a lot of proposals come and go over the 40 plus years that he has lived in Town. This is the first one that he has seen that may actually come to construction. He asked if it was safe to say that because of the fill that was used, will they have a tremendous expenditure there in remediating that property just so that it can be turned into a piece that can be developed. Mr. Sawyer said that most of the cost is associated with the reconstruction of the soils. It is not just where the creek was.
Councillor Delnicki said that for the record, he has never seen the farm brook there over flow, and quit frankly, he is surprised to see it listed as in the 500 year flood plain, because if the flood waters ever get up that high, that will be the least of their worries. He said that he will support this.
Ms. Anthony said that it fits in with the residential area because it looks like residential building.
6. B. (Continued)
Councillor Fine asked if the office building on Ayers and Sullivan a condo office building. Councillor Fine said that this is not our first condo office situation. She has never seen them empty or changing hands.
8. Executive Session - None
9. Adjournment
Councillor Delnicki made a motion to adjourn the Work Session. Councillor Prague seconded that motion, and all were in favor. The meeting was adjourned at 8:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Vanessa Perry
Assistant to the Clerk of the Council
| 
