MINUTES
BOARD OF FINANCE
APRIL 20, 2004
A REGULAR MEETING of the Board of Finance was held on Tuesday, April 20, 2004 in the Council Chambers.
In attendance were Mayor Owen J. Quinn, Jr., members of the Board of Finance Daniel Farley, James Zeller, James Nichol, Roger Dickinson, and Bruce Cornish, Corp. Counsel Albert Vasko, Comptroller Alice Proulx, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Gregory Riccio, Director of Business Services James Gaskins, Board of Education members Douglas O’Connell, Kenneth Edwards, and Hans Reichardt, and Officer Robert Shopey.
Mayor Quinn called the meeting to order at 4:17 p.m.
Mayor Quinn administered the oath of office to Daniel Farley and James Nichol, newly appointed Board of Finance members.
MINUTES #050
On a motion by Mr. Dickinson, seconded by Mr. Cornish, the board with the exception of Daniel Farley and James Nichol who abstained, voted to accept the minutes of the regular meeting held March 30, 2004.
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC #060
On a motion by Mr. Dickinson, seconded by Mr. Cornish, the board voted to open the meeting to the public. There was no public participation.
REVIEW: BOARD OF EDUCATION BUDGET #090
On a motion by Mr. Dickinson, seconded by Mr. Cornish, the board voted to review the Board of Education budget.
Mr. Dickinson stated that this budget was quite different from all the others that he’d experienced in that it was reasonable.
Dr. Riccio stated that the direction from the Board of Finance, the Board of Education, the Budget Committee and Mayor Quinn was very clear to come in with a budget under 4% and everyone worked collaboratively to accomplish that. Dr. Riccio and Doug O’Connell commended the time that Mr. Cornish spent with the Board of Education in giving them guidance. Mr. Cornish’s participation was extremely valuable and very helpful to the board and the budget committee.
The Board of Finance and the Board of Education scheduled a special joint meeting for Tuesday, April 27, 2004 in the Council Chambers for a total review of the Board of Education budget.
SCULLY & WOLF #270
Ms. Proulx explained to the new members of the board how Scully & Wolf had been hired by the city to help consolidate the financial systems of the city and the Board of Education. The general ledger and accounts payable went on line in July and payroll went on line in January. She is currently working with Scully & Wolf and Gina from the Board of Education to iron out any of the conversion issues that still exist. Scully & Wolf is also in the process of doing an analysis to see if it would be profitable and more efficient to combine the financial departments of the city and the Board of Education.
PURCHASE VEHICLE: TRAFFIC DEPT. #330
On a motion by Mr. Dickinson, seconded by Mr. Zeller, the board voted to accept the Council’s request to use $9,200.00 from the Vehicle Replacement Contingency Fund as the city’s 20% portion to purchase a vehicle for the Traffic Department.
Officer Shopey explained that this vehicle would be a new purchase and that his current vehicle would be rolled into the vehicle fleet since it only had 30,000 miles on it. His current vehicle still had three years before it was scheduled to be replaced, however, it had outlived its usefulness in the Traffic Division because of the equipment it carries.
Ms. Proulx stated that the Vehicle Replacement Contingency Fund had a balance of approximately $100,000.00.
GORDON, MUIR & FOLEY #450
On a motion by Mr. Dickinson, seconded by Mr. Cornish, the board voted to accept the Council’s request for the payment of $145.00 from Contingency to Gordon, Muir & Foley, LLC for professional services rendered in the Southwest School matter.
JORDAN SILVER CONTRACT #470
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Zeller, the board voted to accept the Council’s request to approve the contract for Economic Development Services with Jordan Silver; funds to be drawn from Line Item 0010-0011-5118-0000.
Mr. Silver is a college student filling in for Christina Emery, currently on maternity leave.
SECTION B #550
On a motion by Mr. Dickinson, seconded by Mr. Zeller, the board voted to consider items in section B, contingent upon the City Council’s approval.
LIGHT BARS #590
On a motion by Mr. Dickinson, seconded by Mr. Cornish, the board voted to accept the Council’s request to use $10,977.00 from the Vehicle Replacement Contingency Line Item 0309-5900-0120 to purchase light bars for police cars, contingent upon the Council’s approval. (Grant reimbursement will go right back into Vehicle Replacement Contingency.)
CT D.E.P. (643 RIVERSIDE AVENUE) #630
On a motion by Mr. Dickinson, seconded by Mr. Zeller, the board voted to accept the Council’s request for the payment of $61.59 from Contingency to the Ct. D.E.P. for the required payment to the Special Contaminated Property Remediation and Insurance Fund for the Torrington Metal Products, Inc. property located at 643 Riverside Avenue, contingent upon the Council’s approval.
Corp. Counsel Vasko explained that the Council had questioned whether the city could go after the property owner for reimbursement and whether or not the city would need to pay it at all if the assessment rose because of the clean-up, and the answer to both questions was that a law was passed and the city had to pay.
CT D.E.P. (3465 TORRINGFORD ST.) #680
On a motion by Mr. Dickinson, seconded by Mr. Cornish, the board voted to accept the Council’s request for the payment of $487.48 from Contingency, to the Ct. D.E.P. for the required payment to the Special Contaminated Property Remediation and Insurance Fund for the TBS Industries, Inc. property located at 3465 Torringford Street, contingent upon the Council’s approval.
GORDON, MUIR & FOLEY #700
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Dickinson, the board voted to accept the Council’s request for the payment of $174.00 from Contingency, to Gordon, Muir, & Foley, LLP for professional services rendered in the Southwest School matter, contingent upon the Council’s approval.
BUS: MAYOR & MEMBERS #710
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Dickinson, the board voted to consider business presented by Mayor Quinn and members of the Board of Finance.
Mr. Cornish said he noticed the revenue from the City Clerk’s Office was way ahead of last year’s, which was a record year.
City Clerk Joseph L. Quartiero explained that the conveyance tax went from .0011 to .025 last July, half of the state’s conveyance tax. That law, which was called the Sunset Law, is due to expire June 30th of this year, with the exception of 18 towns that the Governor had designated as needy. Mr. Quartiero has respectfully asked State Senator Roraback and the city’s Representatives, Anne Ruwet and Roberta Willis, to vote in favor of keeping the Sunset Law at .025 for the City of Torrington, since it generates that much more revenue for the city.
Mr. Cornish inquired about the city’s expenses versus its revenue.
Ms. Proulx indicated that we will collect in taxes what we have budgeted for taxes. The city’s revenues appeared high because $7.9 million of pre-paid taxes were showing up on the revenue side. She stated that the city was actually where it needed to be with its expenditures and revenues.
Mr. Cornish inquired as to whether the Board of Education’s calculations of expenses were based on real reporting.
Ms. Proulx indicated that the Board of Education line item in the general fund was solely for cash flow. The Board of Education requests funding for their expenditures as they come about. The city reconciles with the Board of Education on a monthly basis, however, the conversion of their figures from cash flow to actual expenditures are only done at year’s end.
Ms. Proulx indicated that she would forward the next reconciliation report to the board.
Mr. Dickinson assured the new members that serving on this board would be most interesting. He pointed out that they all did extracurricular work from time to time, i.e., Mr. Cornish sat in on Board of Education budget meetings, Mr. Zeller is a member of the Solid Waste Advisory Committee and Mr. Dickinson had introduced the Keysan approach of doing more with less to Chief Field in order to obtain more efficiency from his operation.
Mr. Dickinson pointed out that a new tax group headed by Skip Page had been formed by people who were worried about educational issues. Mr. Dickinson informed Mayor Quinn that he had phoned Mr. Page and would be meeting with him in the near future.
Mr. Dickinson asked Ms. Proulx if she had any preliminary information from the state on ECS or any other funding.
Ms. Proulx indicated that most state grants would remain about the same. She pointed out that the Appropriations Committee was looking to increase the ECS by about $187,000.00 in comparison to what the Governor had suggested. There are no major increases in state revenue. The only reductions she was aware of were on veteran’s exemptions. A reduction was also possible for the telephone access lines because they allowed the media corporations to use an accelerated depreciation on property values.
Mr. Cornish informed the board that the ECS pages were not included in the budget presented to them by the Board of Education and assumed they would be furnished during their upcoming joint meeting.
Mr. Gaskins assured the board that they would have the ECS figures for the joint meeting. He stated that there was a cap on ECS and that it was level funded. He expected very little change on the revenue side from the state. The ECS numbers presented in the current budget year seem to be very accurate.
Mr. Dickinson explained the ECS to the new members. He said “The issue here is that we get a substantial chunk of the Board of Education budget from the state and that’s the ECS Grant. If both numbers go up in the same percentage, then nothing much happens to the tax base other than it goes up in that percentage, but if costs go up and we’re not supported by the state, then we actually wind up with not a four something percent increase, but something a lot more than that in reality. So it’s an interesting process and we have to be sure that we’re cognizant of all of that when we get to setting the mill rates.”
Mr. Gaskins indicated that he used the cap level in the budget, which was very conservative, even though he thought the numbers would change.
Mr. Dickinson asked Ms. Proulx to furnish the board with any of the numbers that are vital in setting the budget as soon as they are available.
Mr. Dickinson inquired about the status of the Director of Finance.
Mayor Quinn indicated that Scully & Wolf had been asked to analyze the finance departments of both, the Board of Education as well as the City, and review all job descriptions including the Comptroller and the Fiscal Director for the Board of Education. Mayor Quinn thought it would be a perfect time to determine the qualifications of a Finance Director after the merge was complete.
The new members of the board were welcomed by all.
ADJOURNMENT #1650
On a motion by Mr. Dickinson, seconded by Mr. Zeller, the board voted to adjourn at 5:05 p.m.
ATTEST: JOSEPH L. QUARTIERO, CCTC, CMC
CITY CLERK
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