MINUTES
BOARD OF FINANCE
APRIL 18, 2006
A REGULAR MEETING of the Board of Finance was held on Tuesday, April 18, 2006 in the Council Chambers.
Those in attendance included Mayor Ryan J. Bingham, members of the Board of Finance Daniel Farley, Bruce Cornish, Joseph Nader, and James Zeller, Comptroller Alice Proulx, and Treasurer Richard J. Friday. Board of Finance members Mark Bushka and James Nichol were absent.
Mayor Bingham called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m.
MINUTES #010
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Zeller, the Board voted unanimously to accept the minutes of the regular meeting held March 21, 2006.
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC #020
On a motion by Mr. Nader, seconded by Mr. Farley, the Board voted unanimously to open the meeting to the public. There was no public participation.
BYRNE & BYRNE #040
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Zeller, the Board voted unanimously to approve the payment of $2,925.00 from Contingency to Byrne & Byrne for professionals services rendered in the Dziedzic Properties vs the Zoning Board of Appeals matter.
Mayor Bingham informed the board that the city won the case, but he was uncertain as to whether more invoices would be forthcoming.
SAWICKI & LOMBARDOZZI #080
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Farley, the Board voted unanimously to recommend to the City Council that they waive the bid process and renew the city’s auditing contract with Sawicki & Lombardozzi for the years ending June 30, 2007, 2008 and 2009 for a fee of $64,000.00 each year.
Mr. Zeller said it was his belief that a new auditing firm coming in would require a fair amount of time to get up to speed in terms of how the city functions, even though they would probably have experience dealing with municipalities similar to Torrington. He asked whether the city had ever waived the bid process and renewed with current auditors in the past.
Mr. Friday indicated that the Council waived the bid process with the previous auditors.
Mr. Zeller inquired whether the request came from Sawicki & Lombardozzi or if it came about from our request for them to submit a bid.
Ms. Proulx said they questioned whether or not the board would be interested in renewing our contract with them. She made them aware that she would submit any request from them to this board, and if the city chose to renew their contract, the Purchasing Agent would take over from there to proceed to the Council to waive the bid process.
Mr. Zeller asked how taxing it would be for different departments involved and how expensive it would be to go out to bid, versus any benefits the city would get from competitive bidding.
Ms. Proulx said she didn’t know exactly what the cost would be to go out to bid, but she didn’t think the process in purchasing was all that difficult because the Purchasing Agent would probably use the same template she used the last time. There haven’t been any changes lately in terms of rules and regulations that would affect the audit . The only thing that we may be coming into in the future is other post employment benefits which might add a bit to the process. She stated that it was time consuming to acclimate a new firm to the auditing process.
Mr. Zeller asked whether we had any idea on how competitive Sawicki & Lombardozzi’s cost is at this time.
Ms. Proulx stated that Sawicki & Lombardozzi were the low bidders when we went out to bid the last time, and what they are offering now is less than this year’s cost with them.
Mr. Friday added that, approximately 8 years, Peat Marwick was up to $100,000.00 when we dropped them and went to Kostin & Ruffkess.
Mr. Cornish asked if the current contract was a result of a competitive bid and if this would be the first extension?
Ms. Proulx said there was a transition when Sawicki & Lombardozzi spun off from Scillia, Dowling and Natarelli, LLC.
Mr. Farley said he supported the request because he was comfortable with the fact that they went through the bid process and had the lowest bid, they work well with the city, and in fact, they are lowering their price.
Mr. Nader said there’s a great value in having an auditor who knows your process and procedures. Among other things, it allows the Comptroller and her staff to have a smooth process at fiscal year end. It appears as though Sawicki & Lombardozzi’s cost for the next three years is competitive, with no inflationary ratio added. From a working standpoint, it seems like a win-win situation.
BUS: MAYOR & MEMBERS #285
On a motion by Mr. Nader, seconded by Mr. Cornish, the board voted unanimously to consider business presented by Mayor Bingham and members of the Board of Finance.
Mr. Nader said it was good to see the Board of Education make budget amendments to the prior year’s budget in terms of reinstating some of the sports into the Middle School Program.
Mr. Cornish offered to share any questions the board might have with the Superintendent and the Chairman of the Board of Education prior to their joint meeting with the Board of Education and public hearing scheduled on May 9th in an effort to prepare them for a pointed discussion on the budget. It was his belief that the Board of Education did a credible job from their perspective of putting together an education budget to meet the needs of the kids. He thought it will be a challenge to get it through the process. He said “I would point out, if you saw the article late last week or early this week in the paper that had some commentary that I shared at one of the Board of Ed meetings and it was really a sort of embellishment of my colleagues’ comment at our last meeting about a 4 or 5%
increase in budget. The context of that, I think was a little bit misleading in that 5% of the current mill rate, I think, is what we’re talking about, a 1½ to 2 mill increase is pretty much, at least my comfort level in moving forward. I’m anxious to see the bottom line, get through this process, see what the budget looks like, see what the revenues look like, and see if we can pay for this budget.”
Mr. Farley inquired about the revaluation.
Mayor Bingham said they were legally comfortable to extend the revaluation to 2009, which will let the reduction of $125,000.00 in the budget stand as is.
Mayor Bingham stated that the city side of the budget was starting to come together quite well. He will be confident presenting it to this board and the public.
Mayor Bingham informed the board that Corporation Counsel Al Vasko was no longer with the city. He hoped the new Corporation Counsel, Ernestine Weaver, will be well received at the next Board of Finance meeting.
During the March 21st meeting, the board inquired whether the city was getting the best possible rate for the city’s funds. Treasurer Dick Friday brought the board up-to-date on how the funds were being invested. He stated that in the year 2000, this board hired Scully & Wolf to implement a new accounting system for the city. They suggested that we close all existing check books and put all funds into one account. The city then opened a revenue, an investment, and a money market account. The money market at Bank of America was recently changed to a sweep account. He furnished the board with written information for their perusal.
The board reviewed the schedule for the upcoming meetings and public hearings. The regular meeting of the Board of Finance will be adjourned from May 16th to May 23rd at 4:00 p.m. The adjournment will preclude the May 23rd meeting from being a special meeting.
ADJOURNMENT #730
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Nader, the board voted unanimously to adjourn at 4:25 p.m.
ATTEST: JOLINE LeBLANC
ASST. CITY CLERK
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