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Town of Willington
Board of Selectmen
40 Old Farms Road
Willington, CT 06279
(860) 487-3100
(860) 487-3103 Fax
CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM COMMITTEE
Meeting Minutes
Special Meeting December 12, 2011
Common Conference room 6:30 P.M.
Members Present:
Christina Mailhos, First Selectman
Ken Schoppmann, Chairman; Board of Finance
Alan Furphy
Jim Bulick
Tyler Millix
Donna Latincsics, Business Manager
Peter Latincsics
Melissa Welsh
Jim Poole
John Patton arrived at 6:41 P.M.
First Selectman Mailhos called the meeting to order at 6:30 P.M. and led with introductions of Committee members. Because John Patton was not in attendance yet, First Selectman Mailhos moved to item B. on the agenda.
First Selectman Mailhos reviewed the current CIP plan for those who are new to the process. The actual CIP plan is in an excel chart that lists projects that have a funding source. If something is not funded, or cannot be paid for in 5 years, it does not make list. The fiscal years are slated to pay for multiple years with coded funding (called a fund source). Sources of payment can come from the General Fund or LOCIP funds. Jim Poole asked Donna Latincsics to create a description code source for the new members of the Committee for reference. The current plan shows what was incorporated in the 2011-2012 budget and what was passed at the last referendum. We have made progress on most items on the list with the goal of completing them by the end of the fiscal year.
Peter Latincsics suggested ranking the new projects that come in to help define them as they did in years past. The ranking process would be from evaluating projects and deciding when to put on the schedule. This will give critera for making the list. The board will have an evaluation sheet and can jot down their thoughts during the presentations. John Patton said since this committee has new members it is probably a good idea to incorporate the evaluations. John Patton reviewed the process of the rankings: 1= debt (must be paid off); 5= wishlist; 4= push out a few years and 2 or 3 are more serious. 2 “needs to be done”. The current CIP Plan shows methodology and summary project requests that will help the board come up with evaluation criteria. Donna said she has the checklist and
will send it to the Committee via email.
Chairman Schoppmann suggested using the ranks as the requesters ask as a starting point and then have the committee adjust after the presentation to better a classification to what we feel. John Patton said the committee members look at each project anyways and tabulate outside of the meeting. Jim Poole added that they will need to go through each project and understand the need for it based off of the written work document; walking through the presentation will help solidify the justification as to why they ranked their project. Chairman Schoppmann asked if the requestors make presentations as part of the process before? John Patton said not everyone presents, however the Board of Education, Public Works, Board of Selectmen, Conservation Commission usually present to the CIP Committee on a regular basis. Jim Poole confirmed with Donna that the requests that she has handed out to the Committee is all she has received for this year. He also confirmed that the request period
is closed for this year. Donna has sent out letters to notify everyone. No more requests will be accepted. For example, Willington Hill Fire Department has not submitted any requests and none will be accepted.
John Patton said it is important to understand that the CIP program is just a plan. They try to make it realistic, especially for the upcoming year. There have been times at town meetings where referendum approved the CIP plan in the budget, but there was nothing in the CIP corresponded to the fiscal year projects, therefore they could not be implemented. The committee makes sure the budget corresponds with the fiscal year and make realistic so people can have some assurance that their project will be funded and not kept getting pushed out. The way we do this is try to come up with funding mechanisms: local taxes, LOCIP (Local Capitol Improvement), money from the general reserve fund and the emergency equipment reserve, which the ambulance puts money into; (helps pay for emergency service apparatus etc.) We try to move the things around so it works. Local funds create debt payments, and we need to figure out how to pay it off in the following years. The local fund is the
number that gets approved in the annual budget; affecting the mil rate for the year. The idea is to keep the numbers steady or grow it at a manageable level. It would be key to grow it with the grand list each year; there is some correspondence to the growth of the town as to the needs of the capitol. We try to use LOCIP funds first;the State bonds it and there is no interest accrued. If we don’t spend it, there is also the threat of it getting taken away if they [the State] sees that we aren’t using the funds. There are criteria for using LOCIP funds; the items cannot have wheels and nothing for schools. Road projects drainage, roof for TOB are acceptable. Another part of what CIP tries to do is balance the spending with local funds, leasing and bonds. We are in good shape with bonding and leasing; our debt ratio is very low. We have been leasing a lot of equipment, however much of that is being paid for out of the Emergency Services
Fund. The other biggest bond we have is for the Library. An important question to ask is the impact of operating budget, because sometimes it is difficult to quantify.
First Selectman Mailhos asked if it is true that for years the standard amount to put into the General Reserve Fund was $200,000? John Patton said they usually put in $30,000: $10,000 went into three different reserve funds. It did not result to too much, but keeping the funds consistent, will not affect the mil rate. So if there was a larger project it would be used to fund it. At one point they did put a larger amount in one of the reserves, but the reason why they did that was because one of the bonds fell off and the library bond was coming on; dropping the mil rate one year, and bringing it up the next. First Selectman Mailhos asked what the funding has been like in the past five years? It seems to be miniscule. John Patton said it was $11,000. Chairman Schoppmann said it $75,000 the year before that,
0 the year before that, $140,000 the year before that. The real problem he sees is it is used to get to the mil rate at the expense of anything that needs to be done in Town. There truly is not enough adequate money in CIP to fund what is needed in Town and he feels someday it might come to bite us. We use STEAP grants to pay for projects, and if they are available for what we need. John Patton said he is a believer that if a project is worth doing, you should be willing to pay for it. If a grant comes along when planning a project you are lucky. If I am not willing to do a project, I am not going to ask someone else to pay for it. He added not that long ago, the CIP 5 year plan was in the negative (as opposed to reserve funds). It troubled him; if you can’t afford to do it, don’t put it in the plan.
Peter Latincsics said in past years the contribution to fund is parallel to the growth and the grand list and community; that is one of the challenges that face us. Our grand list is flat; making this plan subject to budgetary pressures that the general budget faces. John Patton agreed and the recommendation was for it to grow with the grand list; however it did not; it was cut by one third (from $600,000 to less than $400.000 minus a 2% inflation) from 1995 until now, the number is $150,000 less of what we spend on capitol projects. We are cutting ourselves short. We have also cut our operating budget to save costs, however if you cut out maintenance, that means the buildings are going to fall apart faster. When you cut out road maintenance, it won’t matter for a few years, nobody will
miss it, but when you see it, it will be too late, thus spending more to fix it. Tyelr Millix said the utilization of the Emergency Fund revenue source has proven to be a large advantage. A lot of other Towns use taxpayer money to fund fire trucks and ambulances. Our Town, because of this fund, has not had to fund purchases of apparatus in the past 10 – 15 years with tax dollars. Chairman Shoppmann mentioned he would like to review the funding with Tyler as it hasn’t been looked at in a while. Tyler Millix said the hardest part of the review process is weeding them out. There is a big difference in needing something and wanting it. First Selectman Mailhos added that an influence on her thinking is the Region 19 bubble, it is an extra expense. Chairman Schoppmann said it fluctuates; it trends up one year, higher the next, and might go down a bit the next; this is all based on their projections and if the projections are correct. If our goal is to come through with a zero
percent tax increase, but then EO Smith throws us their projections, everything else suffers. Jim Poole said it would be no different than if we had our own High School facility here in Town. Chairman Schoppmann said at least if we had our own, we could take from it once and a while to balance things out.
Donna will submit a ranking list to the Committee members. The group will rank the presenters individually, then discuss to come up with a final rank. Jim Poole suggested making sure enough time is allotted for each presentation to make sure that the process is not rushed as in years past. Tyler Millix asked what other Towns are doing, and what their methodology is? Chairman Schoppmann said this process is pretty detailed. John Patton said we have one of the better ones. Other Towns have projects without a plan for payment.
Chairman Schoppmann said this board has to understand what it is going to mean to our budget and approve only if you are willing to go down that path instead of presenting to Board of Finance, knowing it is just going to get denied. If the things this group commits to do is right, we will support it (meaning a large transfer from the General Fund) or there is no sense in having this plan. Jim Poole reiterated that this board is an advisory committee who makes recommendations to the Board of Selectmen; unfortunately the Boards of Selectmen might not agree, or they cannot sell it to the Board of Finance (or ultimately, the taxpayers). Peter Latincsics said the advantage of ranking the projects as a group, is if it comes to pass our request is reduced, there is somewhere to go as opposed to everyone is in the plan;
fighting it out to see who survives. Last year only a few items were funded by the Board of Finance and the plan was reduced by $20,000 this will now affect next years plan, as that money will need to be put back in from last year. First Selectman Mailhos said $40,000 is a lot of money in the operating budget. For example, it is salary increases for the Town employees.
We will call everyone in to present. We should schedule three meetings to accommodate all of the presenters.
Meetings will be held as follows at the Town Office Building at 6:30 P.M.: (Mondays and Wednesdays, with the exception of next Thursday); Meetings will be held in the Common Room (upper level) or the lower level conference room (please remit to agenda per the dates).
Thursday, December 22; Wednesday, December 28; Monday, January 2; Monday, January 9, Wednesday, January 18th; Monday, January 23 and Monday, January 30, if needed.
The following is on this current CIP Plan, and the status of each project:
- $71,245 - 2002 Fire Apparatus Lease - being paid for;
- $10,144 - 1980 Station 13 Mortagage
- 2006 bond for Library
- $72,536 - WHFD ET249 :the apparatus has been purchased and the Department is in possession, but not in operation yet.
- $120,895 - 2011 Public Works pick up truck: paid for and in service.
- $143,500 - Transfer ambulance grant from general reserve fund – project complete.
- $40,000 - TOB roof replacement; the Town Engineer is working on the RFP hopefully happen in the spring.
- $10,000 - to replace 1992 Chevy 4x4 - purchased and in operation.
- $10,000 - replacing radio equipment; purchased and in operation.
- $6,669 - brusher mower: Lynn ordered it in July and is still waiting for it.
- $12,000 - Waste oil tank; The tank has been ordered; the application has been submitted to Planning and Zoning.
- $5,880 +$7,800– replacement of the fuel island (removal of diesel and gas): project has been completed; budgeted $15,000. We are now using gas cards with restrictions.
- $40,000 Potter School Road; the liner is in, but water table is too high to complete the final steps. We may have to wait until spring.
Discussion was held on Turnpike Road. First Selectman Mailhos stated that we have applied for a STEAP grant to add to the repairs on Turnpike Road. $30,000 has also been approved from BOF of LOCIP funding (total of $140,000). If we are awarded the STEAP grant, we will try to extend the project to go to Fermier Road; but we haven’t heard back yet.
Tyler Millix moved to nominate John Patton as Chairman.
First Selectman Mailhos seconded the motion.
All in favor; motion carries.
John Patton nominated Jim Poole as Vice-Chairman.
Melissa Welsh seconded the motion.
All in favor; motion carries.
First Selectman Mailhos added that she has request that she thought of after the requests were submitted. If something comes in that is an emergent need, how would the committee handle it? The project she is looking at does not have to be added this year, but would like to have it on the radar for perhaps next year. (changes to TOB). Jim Poole suggested having a study done on the buildings, perhaps adding to the ongoing facilities study. He added that if we accept the submission, it is opening a can of worms and now the Selectmen are going to try to break the rule that does not fit well.
John Patton suggested submitting it as an informal request.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:18 PM, by a motion made by First Selectman Mailhos.
Melissa Welsh seconded the motion.
All in favor.
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