TOWN OF SOUTH WINDSOR
WORK SESSION MINUTES
TOWN COUNCIL MONDAY, December 21, 2009
COUNCIL CHAMBERS TIME: 7:00 P.M.
1. Call Meeting to Order
Mayor Pelkey called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m.
2. Roll Call
Members Present: Mayor John Pelkey
Deputy Mayor Edward Havens
Councillor Gary Bazzano
Councillor Tom Delnicki
Councillor Janice Favreau
Councillor Kathryn Hale
Councillor Kevin McCann
Councillor Cary Prague
Councillor Keith Yagaloff
Also Present: Matthew Galligan, Town Manager
3. Public Participation
Mr. Don Gonsalves, 40 Bayberry Trail came forward to request to be allowed to speak on Item 6. B.
4. Communications
None
5. Town Manager’s Report
None
6. Items for Discussion
A) Everbridge Demonstration (Everbridge Committee and Frances Willett, East Coast Representative for Everbridge to be present)
Commander Matthew Reed came forward to begin the presentation. He stated that the Everbridge Implementation Team consists of Town Manager Matthew Galligan, Scott Roberts, Walt Summers, Judy Hall, Mike Gantick, Dennis Sheridan, John Marchesseault, and himself. The Everbridge system has been selected for the entire State of Connecticut to be used for emergency notifications. South Windsor has purchased an additional module for the Everbridge System which allows the Town to make non-emergency community notifications that can be sent to residents who sign up for this service. All residents will receive emergency notifications to their phones. Residents can select other ways to be notified by accessing the system through the website at www.southwindsor.org. Residents may enter up to eight different ways
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December 21, 2009
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ITEM
6. A. (Continued)
to be contacted and can also enter four different addresses that they are concerned about and would like to get emergency notifications about. The Everbridge Implementation Team has drafted a Mass Notification Policy, (Attachment A). Commander Reed reviewed how residents would sign up for the Everbridge Community Notifications, noting that residents can not opt out of the emergency notifications alerts. If residents have any questions while filling out the forms, they can go to everbridgehelp@southwindsor.org to get help. Commander Reed
then reviewed and demonstrated various functions of the system.
Answering questions from the Council, Commander Reed explained that the message for an emergency will be worded differently in order to alert the residents that the message is for emergency notification purposes. There are different community categories that residents can made decision on whether they want to receive messages regarding. These categories have been broken down into areas, but if a department would like to separate groups such as under Recreation, a separate group called “Youth Boys Basketball”, that could be done within that department and would be labor intensive on staff. It should also be noted that the Town’s pricing is based on the size of our community and if the Town suddenly adds another 20,000 people to the community list, the price will escalate. Commander
Reed then informed the Council that Everbridge secures the data and it is not made available for a third party to view. Any information received from the State of Connecticut is controlled by statute. Town staff does not have the ability to change any information that may not be correct, that information would have to be changed by Everbridge. The Town of South Windsor does not pay for the State portion of this system, but will need to pay approximately $7,300.00 per year to use the community notification system. The Town Manager will have to decide how that portion of the system will be paid for through the budget. The Town has had discussions and will have to make a decision on how calls will be identified on a residents caller i.d.’s. It has also been discussed after a resident signs up to received community notifications, how they will receive confirmation that their information has been received by the Town. There are a couple of
options, either by doing a quarterly test message that goes out to people, or every few weeks or so sending a test message out to the newly signed up members.
B) Impact to South Windsor on State Shortfall/Status of Revenues for Tax Collection Fees and Permit Fees
Mr. Galligan began discussions by stating that the Town has collected 55.4% of taxes to date. Last year at this time the collection rate was 51.4%. Taxes collected for year end totaled 98.98% and usually the town collects 98.5%. Mr. Galligan stated that the years he is worried about 2012, 2013, and 2014, and feels the Town should start reducing on the revenue side.
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December 21, 2009
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ITEM
6. B. (Continued)
At 8:00 p.m., Mayor Pelkey recessed the Work Session in order to call the Regular Meeting to order. The Regular Meeting reconvened at 8:04 p.m.
Mr. Galligan resumed discussions regarding the impact to South Windsor on State shortfalls and the status of revenues for Tax Collection fees and permit fees. He explained that all revenues are in the negative area and expenses are in the positive. When they are merged, munis will show the overages and underages between your revenues and expenses. Under the prior year, tax revenue became a positive because there were three companies, (Target, Bench Mark GPT Windsor LLC, and DST Output) that had already paid their taxes when a court stipulation by a Judge came about. Any future taxes that they have to pay will be credited to their back taxes. Mr. Galligan reviewed the report with the Council and explained the report in detail.
Councillor Prague suggested that in the future on the reports from the Finance Department there be footnotes to explain information that is in the reports. Councillor Prague also suggested that the line be split into real prior year taxes and if there are events such as Target, DST and Bench Mark.
Councillor Hale stated that she would like to see a historical to date column and would also like to see within the current tax information that broken up into real estate and motor vehicles.
Councillor Yagaloff stated that the two areas that are of great concern to him are the overall number of $800,000 shortfall and the $800,000 spent out of the fund balance. This essentially means that the Town will lose $1.6 million from the fund balance. This is going to create a large problem and Councillor Yagaloff feels the Town Council should start looking at cutting expenses rather than invading the fund balance. The other concern that Councillor Yagaloff voiced is the Town budgeting using interest from bond money. The Town Council should establish a policy that states interest from bonded money that has not been spent on the bonded project, will go back to fund other bonded projects to reduce the costs to the taxpayers. Also, the Town Council should be informed of any court stipulations
that are placed on the Town if the future.
Councillor McCann stated that about one year ago he had brought forward a resolution to institute some austerity measures which was rejected by the Town Council. The Town Manager had instituted some of the measures voluntarily to try to manage the budget through the end of the last year. The Town Council may need to revisit the idea of adopting some measures to reduce spending.
Work Session – Town Council
December 21, 2009
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ITEM
6. B. (Continued)
Answering questions from the Council, Mr. Galligan explained that the he would get the calculation of where the Town was last year in regards to building permits and where the Town was last year percentage wise. On last year’s budget, the Town cut back on the revenue side of the budget by over one million dollars. This year, the Town is down by 500 cars versus last year. The Town Assessor is in the process of quantifying what 500 cars are worth and that number will be given to the Town Council as soon as it becomes available. Mr. Galligan then stated that when the economy is good, the Town Council should consider increases taxes slightly. This would help in times when the economy is bad. The Town Council needs to meet to discuss the level of services that the Town Councillors want
to see done. It should also be known that after a budget is set, other projects should not be considered to be done until the following budget, should follow a plan that has been established by the Town Council.
Mr. Don Gonsalves, 40 Bayberry Trail came forward and stated that the school budget should be discussed. It is the responsibility of the Town Council to have control over the school budget.
Councillor Yagaloff explained that the Town Council does not have any right to tell the Board of Education how to spend their money, but the Town Council should be aware if there is a surplus or if the Board is under run.
Mr. Galligan said that accounts for pension and health should be one account, which should be taken up with the Board of Education. This would allow the Town Council to see what is really left.
7. Executive Session
None
8. Adjournment
At 8:50 p.m. Councillor Hale made a motion to adjourn the Work Session. Councillor Delnicki seconded the motion; and it was approved, unanimously.
Respectfully submitted,
Deborah W. Reid
Clerk of the Council
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