BOARD OF SELECTMEN
Special Meeting Minutes
Town Office Building October 25, 2010
Selectmen’s Conference Room 6:00 P.M.
First Selectman Mailhos called the meeting to order at 6:00 P.M. with the following in attendance: Selectman Millix & Blessington with Donna Hardie, Town Clerk; Superintendent Harding, BOE Chairman Makuch and residents.
Selectman Millix read the call of the meeting:
The electors of the Town of Willington and all persons who are entitled to vote in Town Meeting on the matters mentioned in the following warning are hereby warned and notified to meet in Town Meeting at the TOWN HALL at 11 COMMON ROAD in Willington on Wednesday, November 3rd, at 7:00 P.M. for the following purposes:
ITEM I
To hold a presentation of the Professional Agreement between Willington Board of Education and Willington Education Association; July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2014
ITEM II
Should the legislative body of the Town of Willington reject the Professional Agreement between Willington Board of Education and Willington Education Association July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2014.
Dated at Willington
this 25th day of October, 2010
Selectman Blessington seconded the motion
Item I was discussed: To hold a presentation of the Professional Agreement between Willington Board of Education and Willington Education Association; July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2014
Selectman Blessington said he is not pleased with adding Item I on the call. He would expect that a presentation would automatically happen without having to mention it. He would expect that both sides will be there and will clarify their sides. Selectman Millix said it is not holding sides; it is a good idea to have a formal review of the agreement. First Selectman Mailhos said that second item is clear, but the first item will define what the people are being asked to reject. She said she went to both the Board of Education and Board of Finance meetings and only a few of the people who signed the petition attended those meetings and have not had an opportunity to hear the nuances of the negotiation. Selectman Blessington thinks it is not appropriate to have it as an item on the agenda. Selectman
Millix said it is important that everyone be on the same page and doesn’t see any harm in it. Donna Hardie stated that the Town Attorney said the Board of Selectmen could put any other item on the call of the meeting. First Selectman Mailhos said it is important to have the presentation as there is no other public forum scheduled to present the current contract especially if we go directly to referendum. There is a lot more to the agreement than just the percentage increase. Selectman Blessington stated that he has strong reservations about Item I but will not vote against it.
Item II was then discussed: Should the legislative body of the Town of Willington reject the Professional Agreement between Willington Board of Education and Willington Education Association July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2014. This Item was brought to the Board of Selectmen via a 28 signature petition on Friday. Unless the Board of Selectmen finds the petition improper, unlawful or frivolous, it has to be honored. First Selectman Mailhos said she has reservations on the topic, first is the overall cost. If the agreement is rejected, it will go to binding arbitration five days later, and we could expect to pay up to $50,000 or more. She feels it is not a gamble not worth taking with taxpayer dollars. Selectman Blessington said we could spend more on top of the arbitration. First Selectman
Mailhos said the only indicator is what binding arbitration has delivered in the past. Superintendent Harding said there only has been one so far this year in Glastonbury.
Chairman Makuch said he feels it is not an appropriate time to lobby right now, however he gave a brief background on the process. There were originally three negotiators. One of the members (Laurie Semprebon) had a conflict with family obligations and could not make it to all of the meetings, however was involved and would review documents and forward comments to himself and Leo Mercado. Selectman Millix asked who was involved and their roles. Chairman Makuch explained that it was himself, Mr. Mercado, Superintendent Harding, who served as a consultant, the Board of Education Attorney and the Union Representatives for the teachers; Deb Ostien, Peg Curtis, Diane Walter and Sean Conlin. There was also a CDA Representative, Lauren Hebert who was also involved.
Chairman Makuch said he runs a financial business and Leo Mercado is a Finance Officer. They were conservative in the negotiations and felt they took the cheapest way out. It was their feeling that going through arbitration would have cost more. That is why they decided to go the route they did. Superintendent Harding added that in the middle of the negotiations, the Federal Government passed the Education Jobs Fund, which distributed money to Towns specifically to pay for teacher’s salary increases and job retention. The grant started off at $214,000 and after Region 19 was allocated their share, we were left with $144,000. An arbitrator would look at the ability of the Town to pay, and would be looking at this money.
Selectman Millix said we have a case of people exercising their right to petition a meeting. We will call a town meeting, and have both sides present their issues. He is positive it will be done in a respectful manner. In his experience with arbitration, there will be risks involved and he hopes that everyone understands the positives and negatives. It will be an interesting process.
Chairman Makuch said he does not feel comfortable being portrayed as sides. He settled the agreement because he thought it was the right thing to do. He doesn’t consider himself an adversary. Selectman Millix suggested that he would be defending his position. Chairman Makuch stated that his job was to negotiate it, and his job is done. If it ends up going to this point and then to arbitration, it will get more expensive, which is what will happen. He handed it over to the Town, and did a good job. If a bunch of people who weren’t involved in the process at all [who don’t know anything about it] want to go and botch it up – that is a totally separate issue and it’s not his problem.
First Selectman Mailhos clarified the petition process. To hold the Town Meeting we need to hold it no less than 7 days of tonight’s meeting, which would fall on Election Day. She feels it important to have the Registrars of Voters to attend the Town Meeting, as they would be greatly impacted if there is a referendum, so we are moving the date to next Wednesday, November 3. We are looking at spending at least $315.00 to advertise the Town Meeting. If we go to Referendum, it will cost an additional $800.00 to pay election workers. In the event the contract is rejected at Town Meeting or Referendum, the Town Attorney has suggested the cost of Arbitration could cost $50,000; none of which was budgeted for. Discussion was held on where the money would come from.
Jim Poole said it would most likely come from next year’s budget. First Selectman Mailhos said it needs to happen within 30 days; therefore it would come from this year’s budget.
Selectman Blessington said for the record, what would be the process to make it go to Referendum.
The Town Clerk has created a petition. The petition will need 200 signatures to go directly to referendum. The petition will need to be submitted to the Town Clerk 24 hours prior to the Town Meeting. If this happens, the question will not be voted on at Town Meeting but a time, date and place of referendum will be decided. This all needs to happen within 30 days of the submission of the contract. The Referendum would have to occur on or before the 16th of November. The earliest could be November 12th.
George Debski said the contract was voted on by the Board of Education on Tuesday but was not filed with the Town Clerk until Friday at 4PM. The Town offices close at 2pm, so he couldn’t get to the contract until Monday afternoon. He said he is a cynical guy and he lost 2 ½ days, but he got the petition going and turned it around as quickly as he could. He said that is how the game gets played, so he will play it.
Chairman Makuch said the contract had an incomplete portion, and did not want to submit an agreement that was not complete. He is not cynical and was not playing games. He said the effort to oppose the contract had already been started before there was a contract Chairman Makuch and Superintendent Harding made arrangements with the Town Clerk to file it as quickly as possible being complete. Selectman Millix agreed that you should never file an unfinished contract.
Mr. Debski said he had come to the Town Offices on Wednesday, looking for the contract to find it was not filed. He then called on Thursday and again on Friday and it still was not filed. When he called on Monday, he found it had been filed on Friday at 4:00 P.M. He started working on the petition on Monday. Superintendent Harding said the intention was to have it filed by Monday, and they thought they were doing a good thing by having it filed by Friday. Mr. Debski clarified that he had inquired about the contract the day after it was voted on.
Jim Poole said it seems to be a little funny that the contract was not available to the public to view for 2 ½ days, but yet the internal people had access to folks to submit after hours. If George had called to view the contract, he would not be able to see it. The Town Clerk said that she dated the legal notice as Monday to be fair.
Mr. Poole asked clarification for timing as to when a petition to move the question to referendum needs to be received. Donna said that she will accept it no later than 7PM, and then would need an hour or so to verify the signatures.
First Selectman Mailhos stated that she does not want to see any mailings be sent without any identification of who has approved the endorsements. Mr. Poole said that is her wishes but she cannot enforce that. Donna Hardie said if it is a political mailing and it does not have identification, it could be brought to the Election Enforcement Division. First Selectman Mailhos just wants this to be done fairly. She would like to have each side present their argument and give more information and answer questions to those who do not understand the situation.
Vote: 3 Yes (Mailhos, Millix & Blessington) 0 No.
First Selectman Mailhos moved to appoint Richard Littell as a regular member (from the Board of Finance) on the Truck Advisory Committee, effective immediately.
Selectman Millix seconded the motion.
Vote: 3 Yes (Mailhos, Millix & Blessington) 0 No.
Selectman Millix moved to adjourn the meeting at 6:40 P.M.
Selectman Millix seconded the motion.
Vote: 3 Yes (Mailhos, Millix & Blessington) 0 No.
Respectfully submitted,
Robin Campbell
Robin Campbell
Administrative Assistant
| 
