MINUTES
SPECIAL MEETING
CITY COUNCIL & WPC AUTHORITY
JUNE 1, 2004
A SPECIAL MEETING of the City Council & WPC Authority was held on Tuesday, June 1, 2004, in the Council Chambers.
Those in attendance included Mayor Owen J. Quinn, Jr., City Councilors Thomas C. Jerram, Paul F. Samele, Jr., Marie P. Soliani, James F. McKenna, Paul W. Summers, and Drake L. Waldron, Corp. Counsel Albert Vasko, and Comptroller Alice Proulx.
Mayor Quinn called the meeting to order at 7:37 p.m.
A discussion took place on the final approval of the city budgets.
Ms. Proulx stated that the projected revenue in terms of estimated income is $33,678,745.00, including $400,000.00 for Blue Cross and Blue Shield, a net increase of $396,784.00 over last year’s revenue. The $500,000.00 received from the state was included in the estimated income stated above.
It was mentioned that Mr. Rollett had asked for an additional full time employee in Public Works, of which half of the salary would be paid through Park & Rec. and the other half with Coe Park funds. City employees do ground work at Coe Park but don’t do any custodial work inside the Coe Park Building. The new employee will spend half his time maintaining Coe Park and the other half somewhere other than Coe Park, perhaps at the schools.
Councilor Jerram inquired about the vehicle requested by Public Works.
Mayor Quinn said he eliminated the cost of the truck from the city budget and used town aid repair money received from the State of Connecticut that could have gone to other projects to pay for the vehicle.
Corp. Counsel Vasko stated that funds from town aid could be used to purchase equipment used to maintain and repair roads.
Councilor Jerram inquired whether the Building Dept. was adding a vehicle to the fleet.
Mayor Quinn reported that they were.
Councilor Jerram suggested suspending the funding from the vehicle replacement account for a year on all categories.
Mayor Quinn said Mike Michaud had recently reported that the city was fully funded for vehicle replacement to the year 2013. Ms. Proulx said that meant the city would be fully funded to the year 2013 “if” the city remained at the current level of funding. The program needs to be constantly reviewed. Funding it evenly from one year to the next eliminates spikes in the budget and provides for a more equalized mill rate. Vehicles are moved around when it’s possible. Typically, cars come off the fleet and get sold at auctions only when they become cost prohibitive to continue to repair.
Councilor Jerram didn’t think the city would be heavily impacted if they suspended funding on vehicles for a year and picked up the slack in following years. Personally, he thought vehicles should be grouped into one line item instead of each department itemizing a line item. Departments could submit proposals and justify their need to replace certain ones.
Councilor Summers inquired as to how each department determined what they should pay each year on vehicle replacement and whether the funds were on target.
Ms. Proulx said Mike Michaud had prepared a spreadsheet that was scheduled out and calculated by the number of years of service, inflation rates, etc., and vehicles were only replaced according to that schedule. If a vehicle doesn’t need to be replaced at the time it’s scheduled to be replaced, it will be kept that much longer. She said we were on target with our funding level as long as we remained at the same level through the year 2013. It was reduced by 22% two years ago and it hasn’t been changed or increased since.
Councilor Jerram pointed out that outside custodial services were being used for the Civic Center and the Armory. He inquired what would prohibit the city from obtaining outside contracted employees to maintain the landscaping of the Civic Center.
Ms. Proulx said it would be subcontracting union work.
Councilor Jerram then pointed out a contradiction since custodial work in City Hall was being done by city employees.
Ms. Proulx stated that they were from a different union.
Corp. Counsel Vasko indicated that the maintenance work at the Civic Center and the Armory was never city union work.
Councilor Jerram thought it might be a good idea to keep the Coe Fund and the Coe property isolated, including the hiring of a part time person to maintain the grounds. Additionally, since the study of the Board of Education properties hadn’t been finalized and it was uncertain whether their custodial union would agree to having a Public Works employee do some of their work, what would we do with a half time employee in Public Works if they disagreed with our proposition? Councilor Jerram wasn’t certain the position would be fully justified.
Ms. Proulx said the work they were looking at doing for the Board of Education was work that their union wasn’t currently doing, (aeration, fertilizing, etc.) so she didn’t think there should be any objections.
It was pointed out that that work wasn’t being done at all.
Mayor Quinn asked Ms. Proulx exactly how many new employees were included in his proposed budget.
Ms. Proulx said there was an increased part time position in the Building Department, a new employee in the Street Department and half an employee in the Parks Department, (the other half of the Park’s position would be paid by Coe Park.).
Mayor Quinn said the issue was whether the board wanted to add personnel in the current environment.
Councilor Soliani pointed out that several positions weren’t being replaced, and impressed upon her peers that departments had requested these positions for three years in a row, and that she would vote against eliminating them from the budget.
The position eliminated in Engineering would create a reduction of $42,846.00 in wages and an increase of $22,522.30 in pension, resulting in an approximate $20,000.00 net reduction that is not reflected in this proposed budget.
Also not reflected in this budget is half a position in the Treasurer’s Office totaling $18,816.00. The position is in a testing environment to see if the Comptroller’s Office can absorb the work. If everything works out well this year, it may be eliminated totally next year.
Councilor Jerram stated that not hiring any new employees would be an option to reduce the budget. He inquired whether the $60,000.00 allocated last year for a half year’s salary for a Finance Director was still included in the proposed budget.
Ms. Proulx indicated that it was.
A savings of $109,396.00 would result in removing the new employees. The impact to the total budget would be minimal.
MOTION: ELIMINATE POSITIONS #1840
Councilor Jerram made a motion to eliminate any new hiring in the upcoming fiscal year. Councilor Waldron seconded the motion. Councilors Jerram and Waldron voted in favor of the motion. Councilors Samele, Soliani, McKenna and Summers voted in opposition. On a 2-4 vote, the motion failed.
Councilor Jerram said it was his opinion that they should budget only the city’s needs on an annual basis for vehicle replacement rather than taking money out of circulation and funding x amount of dollars as a capital outlay.
Councilor McKenna said “As a taxpayer, I don’t want to know in one particular year that you’re going to increase the budget by $4 million because you need to replace a ladder truck”.
Mayor Quinn said prior to the vehicle replacement account, vehicles were not replaced and/or repaired. He had inherited a plan that he thought was working fairly well. Funding the account each year eliminates spikes and valleys.
Councilor Jerram inquired about the city’s insurance.
Mayor Quinn indicated that a $25,000.00 savings was realized in Worker’s Comp. from further negotiations. The health insurance increased by 10.1%. Those numbers were basically beyond the city’s control based on experience and amount of incidents.
Councilor Jerram inquired about the city’s waste removal.
Mayor Quinn explained that funds had to be spent initially on receptacles in order to obtain a savings. Bulky waste is currently being looked at to obtain savings in the future.
Lastly, Mayor Quinn said the city will continue to look at salaries, benefits and pensions.
Reductions included the position in the Engineering Department, less pension costs, and half a position in the Treasurer’s Office, totaling $39,141.00.
APPROVE BUDGET #2480
Councilor McKenna made a motion to approve the Mayor’s Recommended budget as presented on 5/27/2004 (see below) including the changes made during this meeting to the Finance and Engineering Department as a Final budget. Councilor Summers seconded the motion. Unanimous.
(Excerpt from 5/27/2004 minutes) The proposed changes Mayor Quinn recommended after being given Tentative Approval were as follows:
Reduction of $13,900.00 in Assessor’s software
Reduction of $18,600.00 in Boards and Agencies (Funding for Susan B. Anthony and the Library were brought back to last year’s levels. Request for $5,000.00 from the Veteran’s Office, new to this year’s budget, remained intact.)
Increase of $15,000.00 for Southeast School maintenance
Reduction of $87,500.00 in Street Equipment (Plow Truck and Milling Equipment will be paid from Town Aid)
Increase $70,000.00 Health-Refuse to purchase receptacles
Reduction of $25,000.00 in Workers’ Compensation Insurance through further negotiations
Reduction of $611,728.00 in Pension and Benefits - settlement of the Fire Dept. contract
Increase of $25,000.00 Cost Share Insurance Revenue
Purchase of the Machuga property - Net effect is zero.
ADJOURNMENT #2500
On a motion by Councilor Soliani, seconded by Councilor McKenna, the board voted unanimously to adjourn at 8:45 p.m.
ATTEST: JOLINE LeBLANC
ASST. CITY CLERK
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