MINUTES
BOARD OF FINANCE
JULY 18, 2006
A REGULAR MEETING of the Board of Finance was held on Tuesday, July 18, 2006, in the Council Chambers.
Those in attendance included Mayor Ryan J. Bingham, members of the Board of Finance Daniel Farley, Bruce Cornish, Mark Bushka, and James Zeller, Corp. Counsel Ernestine Yuille Weaver, Comptroller Alice Proulx, and Emergency Management Coordinator Thomas Vannini. Board of Finance member James Nichol, and Joseph Nader were absent.
Mayor Bingham called the meeting to order at 4:10 p.m.
MINUTES #020
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Farley, the Board voted unanimously to approve the following:
A. Minutes of the special joint meeting with the Bd of Ed held 5/9/06.
B. Minutes of the public hearing on the school budget held 5/9/06.
C. Minutes of the public hearing on the city budget held 5/11/06.
D. Minutes of the special meeting held 5/17/06.
E. Minutes of the special joint meeting with the City Council held 5/22/06.
F. Minutes of the special meeting held 5/23/06.
G. Minutes of the regular meeting held 5/23/06.
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC #050
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Bushka, the Board voted unanimously to open the meeting to the public. There was no public participation.
WRIGHT-PIERCE #060
On a motion by Mr. Farley, seconded by Mr. Cornish, the Board voted unanimously to authorize the payment of $8,250.00 from Sanitary Sewer Capital Improvement Fund #490 to Wright-Pierce for preliminary engineering design work on the South Main Street Pump Station and Sewer Design.
WRIGHT-PIERCE #075
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Farley, the Board voted unanimously to authorize the payments of $1,680.00, $9,520.00, $14,850.00 from Sanitary Sewer Capital Improvement Fund #490 to Wright-Pierce for work on the South Main Street Pump Station and Sewer Design.
The following items were contingent upon Council’s approval on July 17.
CIRMA #090
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Bushka, the Board voted unanimously to authorize the payments from Contingency to CIRMA in the amount of $5,647.50 for a reimbursable deductible in the Becker case and $25,000.00 for a reimbursable deductible in the Schapp case.
LADDER TRUCK #120
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Farley, the Board voted unanimously to accept the final figures of the repair costs to the ladder truck in the amount of $22,425.00 from the Vehicle Replacement Contingency Account.
HOOKER & HOLCOMB #135
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Farley, the Board voted unanimously, after a brief discussion, to waive the bid process and award a contract to Hooker & Holcomb, Inc. to provide actuarial services for the City’s Pension Plans and for actuarial services related to the Post Employment Benefits Plan.
P & G PEPPER #230
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Farley, a discussion took place in regard to the request to authorize the payments of $2,092.00, $3,416.76, $2,963.61, $4,860.04, and $3,182.54 from Sanitary Sewer Capital Improvement Fund #490 to P & G Pepper Construction Services for various sewer line point repairs.
Mr. Cornish asked if the invoices were based on a unit contract that P & G Pepper had with the city. He wanted the ability to validate the unit pricing provided in the invoices. Mr. Cornish said he was comfortable in authorizing the payments but would like to follow up on how we contract for this type of service and what the basis is for their rates.
Ms. Proulx indicated that she checked with the WPC Administrator, Raymond Drew, as to whether the invoices were accurate because they had a date of 2004 on them, and he assured her that they were accurate, however, she could check with him on how they came up with the pricing.
Mr. Farley expressed a concern over why these invoices went back to 2004.
Ms. Proulx said her office staff called the vendor several times to see if they had any outstanding invoices and they said “No.” The invoices surfaced only after Ms. Proulx’s office staff called them back to say they had a purchase order for this year that she had a receipt on, but no invoice. Mr. Drew said the invoices were valid. The Comptroller’s Office now has a plan that will flag any outstanding invoices to alleviate this kind of problem in the future.
Mr. Farley inquired whether the invoices dated in 2004 were based on rates from 2004 or 2006.
MOTION TO TABLE #360
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Farley, the Board voted unanimously to table the invoices from P & G Pepper until the questions mentioned above could be answered.
BUS. IN SECTION B #370
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Farley, the Board voted unanimously to consider business in Section B.
LITCHFIELD FORD #375
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Farley, the Board voted unanimously to accept the recommendations of the Fleet Manager and the Purchasing Agent, contingent upon Council’s approval at their August 7 meeting, to purchase a 2004 Ford Explorer from Litchfield Ford for $15,224.00, from which $2,000.00 will come from the vehicle replacement account in the Emergency Operations Department’s Budget and the remainder will come from the Vehicle Replacement Contingency Account.
Emergency Management Coordinator Thomas Vannini explained his uses for the vehicle. He indicated that he was appointed to a regional task force for Homeland Security charged with pulling the region together in order to be ready in case of an emergency, and was thereby required to attend meetings in Hartford. According to his contract with the city, he is on 24 hour call.
Mr. Vannini noted that the vehicle he was previously using was donated by Yankee Gas and had 162,000 miles on it. Recently, it blew a head bolt and was determined to be too costly to repair. He also noted that his personal vehicle gets nine miles to a gallon and is not cost effective.
Mayor Bingham indicated they inquired whether or not funds from Homeland Security could be used, but were denied because they will fund emergency vehicles that only go out on emergency calls and not assigned to one individual.
Mr. Cornish asked if there was any review to see if a vehicle might be available from our existing fleet.
Mayor Bingham was sure that Mike Michaud had checked the fleet and determined that a new vehicle was necessary.
BUS: MAYOR & MEMBERS #490
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Farley, the Board voted
unanimously to consider business presented by Mayor Bingham and members of the Board of Finance
Mr. Zeller inquired whether this Board would be getting more information on the renovations of City Hall.
Mayor Bingham indicated that the City Council heard a presentation on the renovations last night and the Board of Finance would have the same presentation during their next meeting.
Mr. Farley inquired whether City Hall was on the Historical Register.
Mayor Bingham stated that City Hall was contributing to the historic downtown Torrington but doesn’t have a plaque that says it’s an Historic Building.
Mr. Cornish said he was invited to a meeting with the Comptroller, the Business Manager from the Board of Education and the City Auditors to kick off their audit engagement for the fiscal year 2006, and reported that nothing came up during the meeting that would lead the Board of Finance to any concerns.
Mr. Cornish stated that perhaps City and Board of Education representatives could hold a city summit to flush out some cost savings from possible shared services. Some of those ideas might include or may have an impact on renovation plans and/or consolidation units into City Hall, like using city garage facilities in lieu of building new garages on school property. He suggested setting up some perimeters for the next budgeting process.
Mr. Cornish also stated that he was invited to attend a meeting on Vehicle Replacement and asked if any of his colleagues on the board would be interested in taking his place.
Mr. Bushka offered to sit in on that committee.
Mr. Bushka asked Ms. Proulx how the year-end numbers looked compared to the projected surplus.
Ms. Proulx indicated that not all of the information was available, but she was closely monitoring it and she thought they were pretty much in the ball park of what they had estimated for.
Mayor Bingham agreed with Mr. Cornish that shared services was an important part of the budget process. He will be meeting with Dr. O’Brien and Paul Cavegnero to start talks on shared services. The problem that the Municipal Buildings Committee had within the first couple of meetings with shared services within the renovation of City Hall was that there were too many services being cramped together. In initial talks with the Board of Ed, they strongly opposed a move from Migeon Avenue to City Hall. More talks are scheduled for the future. He thought a city summit was a fine idea.
ADJOURNMENT #900
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Farley, the Board voted unanimously to adjourn at 4:36 p.m.
ATTEST: JOSEPH L. QUARTIERO, CMC
CITY CLERK
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