MINUTES
BOARD OF FINANCE
MAY 20, 2003
A REGULAR MEETING of the Board of Finance was held on Tuesday, May 20, 2003 in the Council Chambers.
Attending was Mayor Owen J. Quinn, Jr., members of the Board of Finance Theodore Miasek, Michael Nejaime, Diane Libby, Roger Dickinson, and Bruce Cornish. Also, present were Comptroller Alice Proulx, Public Works Director Gerald Rollett, and Business Services Administrator Hugh Murphy.
Mayor Quinn called the meeting to order at 4:15 p.m.
MINUTES #020
On a motion by Mr. Nejaime, seconded by Mrs. Libby, the board voted unanimously to accept the minutes of the regular meeting held April 15, 2003.
On a motion by Mr. Miasek, seconded by Mrs. Libby, the board voted unanimously to accept the minutes of the special joint meeting with the Board of Education held April 24, 2003.
On a motion by Mr. Miasek, seconded by Mr. Dickinson, the board voted unanimously to accept the minutes of the special meeting held April 24, 2003.
On a motion by Mr. Miasek, seconded by Mr. Nejaime, the board voted to accept the minutes of the special joint meeting with the City Council held May 8, 2003 concerning the Tax Collector. Mr. Dickinson abstained.
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC #060
On a motion by Mrs. Libby, seconded by Mr. Miasek, the board voted unanimously to open the meeting to the public.
CARDINAL ENGINEERING, INC. #070
On a motion by Mrs. Libby, seconded by Mr. Dickinson, the board voted unanimously to accept the Council’s request for the payments of $1,400.00, $1,400.00, $700.00, & $3,289.38 from Sanitary Sewer Capital Improvement Fund #490 to Cardinal Engineering, Inc. for preliminary study work on the East Main Street / New Harwinton Road Sanitary Sewer Improvements.
CARDINAL ENGINEERING, INC. #090
On a motion by Mr. Nejaime, seconded by Mr. Dickinson, the board voted unanimously to accept the Council’s request for the payment of $8,651.87 from Sanitary Sewer Capital Improvement Fund #490 to Cardinal Engineering, Inc. for East Main Street / New Harwinton Road Sanitary Sewer Improvements, and Phase 1 Design Work from Columbus Road to New Harwinton Road.
CHIPPING CREW & BACKHOE #100
On a motion by Mrs. Libby, seconded by Mr. Cornish, the board voted unanimously to accept the Council’s request for payment up to $20,000.00 from Contingency to hire another chipping crew and backhoe for the storm-related cleanup.
NEW WORLD SYSTEMS #140
On a motion by Mrs. Libby, seconded by Mr. Dickinson, the board voted unanimously to accept the Council’s request for the payment of $10,240.00 from Line Item 0010-0047-5652-0000 - Management Operations to New World Systems for a Position Control Module to implement shared services with the Board of Education.
Ms. Proulx stated that the module will assist in budgeting and allow recording that would monitor the number of employees and their functions.
VALMARK ELECTRIC #210
On a motion by Mrs. Libby, seconded by Mr. Dickinson, the board voted unanimously to accept the Council’s request for the payment of $964.56 from Contingency to Valmark Electric for work performed during the November ice storm.
SRSNE SITE PRP GROUP #240
On a motion by Mrs. Libby, seconded by Mr. Dickinson, the board voted unanimously to accept the Council’s request for the payment of $700.00 from contingency to SRSNE Site PRP Group for assessment #16.
TRANSFER OF FUNDS #270
On a motion by Mr. Miasek, seconded by Mrs. Libby, the board voted unanimously to accept the Council’s request to transfer up to $1,000.00 from contingency to the election’s budget to cover outstanding miscellaneous invoices.
SCILLIA, DOWLING & NATARELLI, LLC #280
On a motion by Mrs. Libby, seconded by Mr. Dickinson, the board voted unanimously to accept the audit recommendations from Scillia, Dowling & Natarelli, LLC, dated May 12, 2003.
SCULLY & WOLF #300
On a motion by Mr. Nejaime, seconded by Mr. Miasek, the board voted unanimously to discuss the update in regard to Scully & Wolf.
Ms. Proulx stated that they were in the process of reestablishing the format for the Chart of Accounts. Bill Hoffman had been working with Domenic from Scully & Wolf on the connectivity between the city and the Board of Education. The Board of Education had two days of training with New World to familiarize them with the management system. July 1 remained the target date for the Chart of Accounts and the utilization of Accounts Payable. All issues that had arisen had been dealt with so far. Ms. Proulx noted that they will be using a test environment to consolidate the systems.
Mr. Murphy indicated that things were progressing. They had encountered minor issues which will be worked around by using other modules.
BUDGET PROCESS #370
On a motion by Mr. Dickinson, seconded by Mrs. Libby, the board voted unanimously to discuss the update on the budget process.
Mayor Quinn noted that the city budgets were complete. He hoped the joint meeting with the City Council would be informative, thought provoking, and would have implications on budgets as they stand today and budgets as they move forward. Long range plans were needed as well as frank discussions on where the City of Torrington was going in the future. The mill rate was scheduled to be set on Tuesday, May 27, 2003.
BUS: MAYOR & MEMBERS #510
On a motion by Mrs. Libby, seconded by Mr. Dickinson, the board voted unanimously to consider business presented by Mayor Quinn and members of the Board of Finance.
Mr. Miasek’s recollection was that they agreed on a vehicle rotation program three years ago for fire trucks to the volunteers and how they were going to fund it. He couldn’t recall, however, whether any trucks had been rotated to date.
Mr. Nejaime inquired whether the city just hadn’t gotten that far into the program to have any trucks rotated to date.
Mayor Quinn indicated that the program was never fully funded. It was discussed, apparatus meetings were held, but there had not been a plan that had been financially endorsed by the appropriate boards and agencies. There was discussion, people talked about it, but there was not a financial plan to do it.
Both, Mr. Nejaime and Mrs. Libby indicated that was not their recollection.
Mr. Miasek stated that when he saw the article in the newspaper, he thought things were off course of what they had planned and agreed to do, that they were going to fund this to the amount required. All of a sudden they want to expend another $200,000.00 a year to fund replacement vehicles for the volunteers.
Mayor Quinn said “I don’t think it ever got fully endorsed, from what I understand, from vehicle maintenance and putting it actually into the vehicle replacement account.”
Mr. Miasek said, “What I get out of the minutes is what they are attempting to do, to me, in my view, is that they are trying to fund the environmental hazardous vehicle, which they’ve always wanted and which we didn’t, at one point, agree to. Because, if the money has been appropriated for that program to replace and rotate, then why isn’t it there?”
Mayor Quinn referred the matter to Ms. Proulx, because he didn’t think that it had been fully funded.
Ms. Proulx said she knew that there was supposed to have been a rotation schedule but she wasn’t quite certain what it was. She knew that one year they purchased two fire trucks which were all supposed to be part of the rotation plan.
Mrs. Libby said “Correct, we gave them extra funding, I think we had some surplus funds that we allocated them, extra money and that was going to be used . . . (unfinished thought) I thought there was a whole schedule when things were going to go and I remember seeing the schedule.”
Mr. Nejaime said Mrs. Libby was 100% right. They funded it beyond what they were supposed to so they could speed up the process.
Mr. Miasek indicated that two trucks were bought at once when the city received additional funds. One truck was purchased from the current year’s budget and the other from windfall funds. He said “And then, on a going forward basis, then, using the vehicle replacement accounts, in which is $185,000.00 a year, all of a sudden it’s gone, or it’s not there or it’s not available to purchase any additional trucks so we can rotate, and what I get out of the minutes is that they’re trying to then finance this thing with an additional amount through a budget process and then use the accumulated funds excluding those budgetary funds to purchase their own vehicles and not have them for rotation, and I don’t understand that.”
Mayor Quinn said “We’re going to have to get back to you on that because there’s, I don’t think that everything, minutes that you reflect on is actually true, but I think that some of it is right with the rescue vehicle, but we’ll get back to you on the rotation out, but I don’t think that it was totally done, but I’ll get Mike Michaud to give the report to you as well.”
Mr. Nejaime inquired about the status of Highland Avenue.
Mr. Rollett noted that the city was trying to get the gas company to get some trenching work done on Highland Avenue. Additionally, there was a DEP study going on which may include digging up and replacing all the sewers on Highland Avenue. The road will be leveled and overlaid again this summer as another band aid approach to get a few more years. The DEP was also studying the possible connection of Woodridge Lake to the City of Torrington and Highland Avenue was one route they were considering.
ADJOURNMENT #720
On a motion by Mr. Miasek, seconded by Mr. Dickinson, the board voted unanimously to adjourn at 4:37 p.m.
ATTEST: JOSEPH L. QUARTIERO, CCTC, CMC
CITY CLERK
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