MINUTES
BOARD OF FINANCE
MAY 15, 2007
A REGULAR MEETING of the Board of Finance was held on Tuesday, May 15, 2007 in the Council Chambers.
Those in attendance included Mayor Ryan J. Bingham, members of the Board of Finance Daniel Farley, Bruce Cornish, Mark Bushka (arrived at 5:05 p.m.), Thomas Scoville, and James Zeller, Corp. Counsel Ernestine Yuille Weaver, Comptroller Alice Proulx, Data Processing Manager William Hoffman, and Police Chief Robert Milano. Board of Finance member James Nichol was absent.
Mayor Bingham called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m.
MINUTES #040
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Farley, the board voted unanimously to accept the minutes of the regular meeting held April 17, 2007.
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC #050
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Zeller, the board voted unanimously to open the meeting to the public. There was no public participation.
GENERAL CODE #060
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Farley, the board voted unanimously to use UP TO $4,000.00 from Contingency to purchase the next Supplement to the City Charter from General Code which entails the last seven ordinances already passed and three ordinances being proposed, and to purchase the E-Code and its first year’s maintenance fee to put the City Charter on the Web Site.
(It was noted that the original request was for $6,000.00.)
HOLLFELDER COMPANY #090
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Zeller, a discussion took place on the Council’s request to award the bid entitled “Torrington Police Facility Exterior Masonry Restoration” to the low bidder Hollfelder Company, LLC for $212,100.00.
Mr. Cornish said he felt the financing of this project should be voted on prior to awarding the bid. The board temporarily tabled this item.
TABLE HOLLFELDER CO. #110
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Scoville, the board voted unanimously to temporarily table the Council’s request to award the bid entitled “Torrington Police Facility Exterior Masonry Restoration” to the low bidder Hollfelder Company, LLC for $212,100.00. (See #430)
USE ANTHEM STOCK: POLICE DEPT. MASONRY WORK #120
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Farley, a discussion took place in regard to using UP TO $250,000.00 from the Anthem Stock Distribution Fund for the completion of the masonry work to the exterior of the Torrington Police Department.
Mr. Cornish pointed out that the Charter requires the city to go to referendum for budget increases in excess of $100,000.00 and was concerned about setting a precedence for reaching into a fund balance for a project that’s not related to the fund that’s been set up. He asked if there might be a better way to proceed without going through a budget process or a referendum.
Comptroller Alice Proulx indicated that the purchase of the Machuga property was incorporated into the budget process and the money was transferred out of the Anthem Fund. It was her understanding that the $100,000.00
threshold in the Charter was the general fund budget where we expended taxpayer dollars. If it’s not, then we would have to incorporate this into the budget process.
Mr. Cornish said the board had on several occasions dealt with additions to the budget where there was a direct offset from a revenue that was applied for that particular expense, much like the City Clerk fee when the state imposed the new requirement, we brought in more money, we incurred more expense, and we made a budget adjustment. Similarly, with the Board of Education in this year’s process, we are making a budget adjustment to allow them to use the incremental additional revenue from out-of-district placement to allow them to pay down some of the deficit created by the out-of district activity.
Mr. Cornish felt that the request placed before them was a dangerous precedent to allow them to pick from a fund balance to do a unrelated project.
Mr. Scoville asked Ms. Proulx if she was suggesting that the Machuga purchase was a budgeted item.
Ms. Proulx indicated that the Machuga purchase was incorporated into the budget process. The cost of the property was added as an expenditure and then the transfer in from the Anthem Fund into the budget as well. She said the board could follow the same procedure with this request if they wanted to modify the budget. They would merely increase the revenue by whatever transfer they wanted to make from the Anthem Fund and add the expenditure.
Mr. Cornish felt Ms. Proulx’s suggestion was more appropriate. That left the question of when the bid had to be awarded.
Mayor Bingham believed the bid specified that the timing of the bid was when funds became available.
Ms. Proulx indicated that they could modify this year’s budget, if they chose to do so.
Mr. Bushka arrived at 5:05 p.m.
Mr. Cornish said there was no question that the structural repair of the police facility was an important issue. He asked Ms. Proulx if there was flexibility in the existing budget to pay for it and if there were expenditure line item adjustments that could be available to fund this $212,000.00?
Ms. Proulx said “As long as nothing comes up that can’t be anticipated for our line items within the budget that have balances left in them, then I could do a transfer in order to cover costs for the project in the current year.”
Mr. Cornish noted that, should they move forward with what is proposed, the balance in the fund will be $110,000.00, which, essentially, for the purpose of any settlement from the Anthem case, is not going to be affected. He asked if the Anthem suit was now a non-issue? If not, then he suggested that we make moves either this year, if they have room in the current budget on the expenditure side, to simply make the right transfers to free up this $250,000.00, and then later this afternoon discontinue the Anthem money account and roll it into our undesignated fund balance and use it as it was planned.
Mr. Cornish said it was just a question of timing, in regard to awarding the bid. If we can move it forward before July 1, than he would strongly recommend that they make the budget line item transfers necessary to fund this budget this year. If it can wait til July, we should just make that adjustment in the budget by adding the expenditure and adding the additional revenue from what will be the undesignated fund balance and move on.
Ms. Proulx said she can do the reallocation. It’s not necessary to have the details today. She could bring the transfer to them later on.
Mr. Cornish said he knew they were counting on surpluses, but didn’t know if those were additional revenues or lower expenses. Lower expenses would give them room to move things around to fund this project now and get it off the table and do something appropriate during our next meeting.
Ms. Proulx said she found additional surplus in the expenditures after reviewing the expenses again today.
Timing was a factor.
Chief Milano said they were taking precautions at this time to safeguard the entrances. He thought they could do the preliminary work during the month of June, and the actual work could start July 1.
Mr. Cornish believed the process could start immediately if they authorized the awarding of the contract, and that the actual construction could start after July 1. He thought it would be better to start as quickly as possible to eliminate the risk of having the price go up.
MOTION: USE ANTHEM STOCK FOR POLICE BLDG. MASONRY WORK #410
The board voted unanimously to oppose the request to use UP TO $250,000.00 from the Anthem Stock Distribution Fund for the completion of the masonry work to the exterior of the Torrington Police Department.
MOTION: AWARD BID FOR POLICE BLDG. MASONRY WORK #430
Mr. Cornish made a motion to award the bid entitled “Torrington Police Facility Exterior Masonry Restoration” to the low bidder Hollfelder Company, LLC for $212,100.00. Mr. Scoville seconded the motion.
Under a discussion, Mayor Bingham said Mr. Cornish could modify his motion
to include budget transfers in fiscal year 06-07 and to include up to $250,000.00, contingent upon being able to find the surplus.
Mr. Cornish modified his aforementioned motion to include financing up to $250,000.00 through the reallocation of existing line items in the existing ‘07 budget to make that move prior to June 30th. Mr. Scoville amended his second.
Ms. Proulx indicated that $360,000.00 would remain in the Anthem Account, if these funds were not used for the police department masonry work.
VOTE: AWARD BID FOR POLICE DEPT. MASONRY WORK #505
The board voted unanimously to award the bid entitled “Torrington Police Facility Exterior Masonry Restoration” to the low bidder Hollfelder Company, LLC for $212,100.00, and to include the financing up to $250,000.00 through the reallocation of existing line items in the existing 06/07 budget to make that move prior to June 30th.
USE OF CONTINGENCY: PARKS & RECREATION #510
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Farley, the board voted unanimously to use $21,274.00 from Vehicle Replacement Contingency to purchase six pieces of equipment for the Parks & Recreation Department.
PRIOR YEAR ENCUMBRANCES: TELEPHONE AND AS400 #520
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Farley, the board voted unanimously to authorize the expenditure of $108,400.00 from prior year encumbrances for the purchase of a telephone system and a new AS400, contingent upon the City Council’s approval.
CONTINGENCY: CONTRACT SERVICES - ASSESSOR #560
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Bushka, the board voted unanimously to authorize the budget transfer of $8,800.00 from Contingency to Contract Services in the Assessor’s Budget to cover the cost of permit work for May and June and the cost of the 2005 Personal Property audits, contingent upon the City Council’s approval.
Mr. Farley inquired whether the law suits were complete in these cases.
Corp. Counsel Weaver felt the cases would be completed by the 1st of July.
BUS: MAYOR & MEMBERS #595
On a motion by Mr. Farley, seconded by Mr. Cornish, the board voted unanimously to consider business presented by Mayor Bingham and members of the Board of Finance. There was none.
ADJOURNMENT #615
On a motion by Mr. Cornish, seconded by Mr. Scoville, the board voted unanimously to adjourn at 5:15 p.m.
ATTEST: JOLINE LeBLANC
ASST. CITY CLERK
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