MINUTES
BOARD OF FINANCE
(ADJOURNED FROM FEBRUARY 19, 2008)
FEBRUARY 26, 2008
A REGULAR MEETING of the Board of Finance, adjourned from February 19, 2008 was held on Tuesday, February 26, 2008 in the Council Chambers.
Those in attendance included Mayor Ryan J. Bingham, members of the Board of Finance Laurene Pesce, Thomas Scoville, Wendy Traub, and James Zeller, Corp. Counsel Ernestine Yuille Weaver, Comptroller Alice Proulx, Purchasing Agent Pennie Zucco, and Deputy Fire Chief Giampaolo. Board of Finance members Daniel Farley and Mark Bushka were absent.
Mayor Bingham called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m.
MINUTES #010
On a motion by Mr. Scoville, seconded by Mr. Zeller, the board, with the exception of Mrs. Pesce who abstained, voted to accept the minutes of the regular meeting held January 15, 2008.
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC #030
On a motion by Mr. Zeller, seconded by Mrs. Traub, the board voted unanimously to open the meeting to the public.
Deputy Fire Chief Jaye Giampaolo stated that he was present for another matter, but took the opportunity to tell the Board of Finance that he was horrified at the Board of Education budget. He pointed out that employees on the city side work very hard to keep the budget down and wondered how the city could continue to absorb the Board of Education budget. It was his opinion that there was a disconnection between the affordability and the needs of the education system. He asked the Board of Finance to bring the Board of Education back to a reasonable amount before it runs old timers out of the city. He said he was proud of the way the city budget is run, but he doesn’t see that effort on the education side.
CONTINGENCY: KOREAN WAR BOARD #100
On a motion by Mrs. Pesce, seconded by Mrs. Traub, the board voted unanimously to authorize the use of $500.00 from Contingency to restore the Korean War Board.
CONTINGENCY: ELECTION PAYROLL #110
On a motion by Mr. Scoville, seconded by Mr. Zeller, the board voted unanimously to authorize $25,000.00 from Contingency to pay the election workers for the February Democratic and Republican Primaries.
Mrs. Traub inquired why this expense hadn’t been budgeted.
City Clerk Joseph L. Quartiero said he manages the Election Budget and the thought that we might have a double primary inadvertently slipped his mind last year when he prepared the budget.
Mrs. Traub appreciated Mr. Quartiero’s candor and honesty.
WAGE BUDGET TRANSFERS #175
On a motion by Mrs. Traub, seconded by Mr. Scoville, the board voted unanimously to authorize the wage budget transfers for contracts settled in fiscal year 2007/2008.
BUDGET TRANSFERS #200
On a motion by Mrs. Traub, seconded by Mr. Zeller, the board voted unanimously to authorize the budget transfers for 7-1-07 to 12-31-07.
BUSINESS BY MAYOR & MEMBERS #215
On a motion by Mr. Zeller, seconded by Mr. Scoville, the board voted unanimously to consider business by Mayor Bingham and members of the Board of Finance.
Mrs. Pesce inquired about the transfers in regard to the copiers and if the city has a contract for copiers.
Purchasing Agent Pennie Zucco indicated that the city does have a contract for copiers. She explained that several departments updated either their leases or purchased new copiers during the budget the year and inadvertently didn’t budget for increase in costs. She is attempting to get all copiers on the same schedule so they can all be renewed at the same time.
Mr. Scoville inquired about the grand list and whether the Tax Assessor will be present during the next meeting.
Because the tax Assessor, Donna Patchen, will be on vacation during the Board of Finance’s next meeting, the Board of Finance was furnished with minutes from the last City Council meeting, whereby Mrs. Patchen gave a brief report on the revaluation process.
Mayor Bingham said the grand list should be available by the end of this week or next week. If the Board has any questions regarding the grand list or the revaluation, they could ask him or contact Mrs. Patchen directly.
Mr. Scoville inquired where they were with the auditor for the Tax Collector.
Mayor Bingham said three RFP’s were received, two were disqualified, and one is questionable.
Mrs. Zucco said she did receive the proper paperwork for the questionable one, and that firm will be interviewed. Because there was only one qualified candidate, there’s a possibility it might go back out to RFP.
Mrs. Traub noted that Mr. Farley had expressed his concern during the last meeting over the spike in the Board of Education’s Capital Budget from $800,000.00 to $2 million in the next year. She added that the Board of Education now wants to cut another $300,000.00 from the $800,000.00 for unknown reasons, and she’s not certain the board has considered what this will do to the out years. She was also expressing her concern over cutting the capital budget in order to fulfill the operating budget.
Mrs. Traub reported that she, as the Board of Finance’s liaison to the Board of Education, is meeting some resistance as far as administration goes in trying to stay informed. She said she sent them an e-mail requesting information regarding some numbers in the current budget year as opposed to what’s being budgeted for next year in regard to staff that was being transferred from building to building. She noted that the numbers weren’t changed to reflect the changes in staffing, so the budget shows a 35% increase in salaries for staff at Torringford School. The Board of Education does have staffing reports for each building but there’s no way to tie that staffing report from last year because all the staff isn’t even in the buildings. The response she received from her
e-mail was that they were only offering information being requested by the budget chair. She felt it was important to know that information because the Board of Finance isn’t into staffing, that’s not their job. However, there was a big change in staffing last year and she wants the Board of Finance to be able to compare apples to apples as far as the budget is concerned. Staffing at the Board of Education is approximately 75% of their entire budget, so it’s an important area that they need to look at. There’s a $1.4 million increase in just staffing alone. She said “Yes, it’s contractual, given the staff that’s there. So the question is ‘When the staff all got moved, let’s start from that point.’ So, for me, from a budget standpoint, when we’re reviewing the Board of Ed budget, that is going to become a large issue, staffing, overtime, substitutes, things like
that. So, that was my reason for asking for that clarification, and also asking for some type of a variance report, which they used to give us every year, which showed the changes from staff from one building to another, and their response was ‘That’s basically not something I need to know’.”
Having two years’ experience on the Board of Education’s budget committee, Mrs. Traub noted that they respected Bruce Cornish, the former Board of Finance’s liaison to the Board of Education, and they respected his opinion highly. She asked if the Board of Finance has the right to request information. As part of the City Charter, is this something they can request as a Board of Finance or should she just go along and see how it plays out from here on?
Mayor Bingham asked Mrs. Traub if she went through the budget chair, Frank Rubino.
Mrs. Traub pointed out that this is a whole new budget committee. The only one with experience is Bates Lyons. She did e-mail the chair at the beginning of the year to introduce herself as the board’s liaison and offered her help with anything she could do. Mr. Cornish was always sent a carbon copy of any communication within the budget committee, and to date, she has not received any communication. She is not certain what the reason is and whether there’s any tie to her being on the Board of Education prior to becoming a member of the Board of Finance. She is perfectly comfortable dealing with the situation as they go along. She just doesn’t know if this is something the Board of Finance feels is important as a group or if she should just maintain her
position for now as they continue with the workshops. She didn’t want to jeopardize the great relationship the liaison had in the past with the Board of Education.
Mr. Scoville asked how often the budget committee meets.
Mrs. Traub indicated that the workshops are scheduled almost every two days, with five or six in all, then they go into deliberations for a few meetings.
Mayor Bingham said he could speak with the superintendent.
Mrs. Traub asked Mayor Bingham and the board if they would prefer that her requests come from the Board of Finance as a whole, or from the Mayor himself. She would respect whatever they preferred.
Mayor Bingham said he personally thought she should be afforded any information that she needs.
Mr. Scoville said he hopes Mrs. Traub can report at next month’s meeting that she has been afforded all the information she asked for, and, if not, that the board is informed prior to the next meeting because the lapsing of a whole month is not good for the process.
Mrs. Traub said as long as the board was comfortable, she will speak with Mr. Rubino and explain her quest once more and perhaps talk to the chairman of the board as well. She could e-mail the board to let them know what occurred. She warned the board that next year will be a tough one for the Board of Education because everything is going up in cost and the special education issues continue to grow. She expects the Board of Education to come forward to request the Contingency for $250,000.00 because they are almost $1 million over budget and they have additional out-placements at various amounts.
This is the first year the contingency is available to the Board of Education. The budget committee discussed whether they thought the Board of Finance would feel comfortable doing it again next year. Then the question becomes “Is it better to have them try to raise their numbers in-house to project, which they really normally don’t, but they base their out-of-district budget based on the number of out-placements as of now. For them to have to try to come up with numbers for the future that are over, that’s why they did a contingency instead, and then they have to come to the town to request additional money. It’s there for them but then the Board of Finance has the control.”
Unfortunately, a number of out-of-district students could come into the district in any one year and there’s no way to know that until it happens. Every town, every Board of Education is faced with unforseen out-placements. The state is trying to regionalize them so students won’t have to be transferred so far away, but that won’t take place until years from now.
Mr. Zeller said he always relied on Mr. Cornish as liaison for information on the Board of Education budget. He said the Board of Finance needs that information, and it’s very helpful to get it ahead of time. Not having it will hurt the process of hashing through everything ahead of time. He would be in favor of a making a motion in the future that would empower the Board of Finance to get that information.
Mr. Zeller, member of the Solid Waste Advisory Committee, said changes will be forthcoming in regard to reimbursements from CRRA and there will also be an upcoming closing of the landfill. If anyone has any questions in regard to these matters, he or she could talk to either him or Jerry Rollett.
ADJOURNMENT #815
On a motion by Mrs. Traub, seconded by Mr. Zeller, the board voted unanimously to adjourn at 5:28 p.m.
ATTEST: JOSEPH L. QUARTIERO
CITY CLERK
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