City of Torrington MEETING MINUTES
2011 Charter Revision Commission December 5, 2011
Present were Chairwoman Elinor Carbone, Vice-Chairman Vic Muschell, Secretary James Steck, and Commissioners Bill Battle, Marie Soliani, Jim Thibault and Debra Brown. Corporation Counsel Ernestine Weaver was also present at the meeting. Commissioners Gerry Zordan and James McKenna, were absent.
The City of Torrington 2011 Charter Revision Commission (the “Commission”) opened its meeting at approximately 5:00 p.m. in the Room 215 at City Hall, Torrington.
The Agenda for this meeting read as follows:
- Approve minutes of the November 21, 2011 meeting;
- Public Comment and Participation – (3 minutes per speaker);
- Discussion / Review list of proposed recommendations;
- Selection of priority recommendations;
- Old business;
- New business;
- Adjournment.
(Agenda Item #1) Approve minutes
The Commission reviewed the minutes. The Minutes were amended to correct the spelling of “Mike Banzer” to “Mike Banzurik” and, with that change, approved unanimously.
(Agenda Item #2) Public Comment and Participation
There were no members of the public present to comment.
(Agenda Item #3) Discussion / Review list of proposed recommendations
Elinore Carbone passed out the results of the vote of the previous meeting. The Commission reviewed the list of priorities. The Commission discussed generally how to approach obtaining information and what information we would need to review the items.
Item #1 dealt with whether to change the terms of various electoral positions to reduce the number of elections. Vic Muschell noted and the Commission generally agreed that the question was not “whether to do it” but “how to do it”. Commission members noted that there was a lack of interest when there weren’t any mayoral or presidential candidates on the ballot. Commission members discussed the possibility of complete turnovers on various City Boards and the City Council, and noted that the Board of Education had a steep learning curve. Elinore Carbone noted that the issues we would be looking at for this item included the cost to run 2 year elections, baseline voter data on an election with a mayoral candidate versus an election without a mayoral candidate, and
charting how terms would overlap. Marie Soliani noted that a related question could be whether to impose term limits if terms become extended. Jim Thibault
questioned whether asking candidates to commit to a four year term would discourage some potential candidates to get involved due to the large time commitment.
Item #2 was whether to raise the limit on extraordinary expenditures. The Commission decided that it had sufficient information to make a recommendation to the City Council on this matter.
Item #3 dealt with the question of whether the tax collector’s office should remain private. Debra Brown spoke with the Bristol tax collector and presented the information that she received to the Commission. She learned that it costs approximately $392,000.00 to run the tax collector’s office in Bristol, Bristol received 98.61% of its taxes last year and that the city budgets on expected tax receipts of 98.02%. Bristol received $921,000.00 in interest and back taxes. Elinore Carbone questioned whether this amount was included in the 98.61% figure. Elinore Carbone noted that Naugatuck had a separate line item on its report which dealt with that question. Debra Brown agreed to follow up with Bristol, and Elinore Carbone stated that she would contact Stratford.
Item #4 dealt with whether to change the Board of Safety’s role in disciplinary proceedings. Vic Muschell noted that this matter might be a technical change. Debra Brown thought that we should get the union’s opinion of the proposed change. Vic Muschell also noted that General Order 26-1 of the Police Code of Conduct actually conflicts with the Charter. The Commission decided that information that would be useful in deciding this matter would be the opinion of the Chief of Police, the Chief of the Fire Department, members of the Board of Safety and the unions.
Item #5 dealt with whether to revise the Charter with regard to employees of the State serving on the City Council. Vic Muschell noted that there was a history behind this issue, and that it had come up in the past. The Commission decided that more information on the reasons that the original provision was put in place would be necessary to decide whether to recommend revision.
Item #6 dealt with the question of whether to eliminate the position of Selectman. This was not indicated as being a high priority.
(Agenda Item #4) Selection of priority recommendations
This was completed as a part of Agenda Item #3.
(Agenda Item #5) Old business.
None.
(Agenda Item #6) New business
Non.
(Agenda Item #7) Adjournment
Debra Brown motioned to adjourn, James Steck seconded. All were in favor.
The meeting adjourned at 6:00 P.M.
Respectfully submitted,
James P. Steck
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