Town Office Building February 6, 2012
Selectmen’s Conference Room 5:00 P.M.
First Selectman Mailhos called the meeting to order at 5:00 P.M. with the following in attendance: Selectman Littell & Blessington, Public Works Director, Lynn Nicholls and Business Manager Donna Latincsics.
Donna presented draft #7 of the budget. Donna called attention to page 10. The Board of Selectmen’s budget is at $2.7 million; reflecting an increase of $125,000. The two pieces driving the increase are:
Public Works:
$50,000 for the outsourcing of sweeping;
$13,300 adding a third contractor for snow plowing;
$4,000 increase for the Public Works Secretary hour and salary increase
$4,000 for catch basin cleaning
$5,000 tree maintenance
$5,000 oil and chipper
Board of Selectmen:
$28,000 –insurance increase (adding one place holder and WYFSS insurance line item). This will now show a decrease in the WYFSS line item. Donna added that the WYFSS budget has not been submitted yet.
Donna stated the only other factor that is unknown is the Land Use Attorney and Consulting Engineer, as the request has not been submitted as of yet from the Land Use Department.
First Selectman Mailhos stated that the increase reflects 4.71%. General Government is currently at a 5.64% increase. Donna added public safety and Emergency Services has been added, which is also affecting the budget. It is an $80,000 increase between the Fire Departments and Ambulance requests. First Selectman Mailhos added that Region 19 and K-8 BOE budgets have also been factored in at $392,000. This equals a 1 mil increase, and she doesn’t like that.
The CIP has also been added to this budget, although the final plan has not been approved. First Selectman Mailhos recapped the CIP plans. We have a Capital Reserve fund, which has been used in years past to fund projects. In better times, money was transferred to this fund to keep it going with funding projects. We stopped putting larger amounts of money into the funds years ago. For example, last year, only $11,000 was put into this fund, and that money is already allocated for a project, thus expecting to deplete the fund. The CIP Committee would like to start funding this account again. This year, they are looking at putting $96,000 in there. Mostly because there are so many projects that need to be done and we simply do not have the funding. Some projects will also be funded from other
sources. The list of projects include Turnpike Road Phase I, (being paid for by LoCIP funds) another project will be the Center School Parking lot for $70,000. The Committee is looking at a 2% increase every year for five years. Donna added that we will keep the General Fund spending level to avoid spikes in the mil rate. This will also build up the Reserve Account. First Selectman Mailhos added that we should have some sort of savings account and stated that we are not seeing any major growth from the Grand List.
Selectman Blessington went back to the $50,000 for sweeping outsourcing. He said it is a large chunk of money, but might make sense in the long run. What he is not happy about is adding the contractor back in for plowing. Last year we cut back on the contractor with the expectation that it would take us longer to clean the roads. On January 16th we ended up hiring another contractor. Lynn clarified that we did not hire a contractor. One of the trucks went down and she had called in the additional truck to finish with the clean up because there was no room to overlap the drivers. We do not have that luxury, nor do we have back up trucks for the Town drivers. Selectman Blessington added that we can’t get through a small storm without a contractor and said he disagrees. Lynn
stated that we should not play games with safety. She added that she is the first in and last out during a snow storm and it ends up to be a long day – especially when it ends up being a 24 hour storm.
Selectman Blessington added that he is not sure what happened, but there is a $936.00 increase to the Public Works Secretary line item. The first request was for an increase in hours from 12 to 18, but was not approved. The last meeting there was also a request to raise to her salary as well. He then added that he sees another increase for $3,875 – does that include a raise? Donna clarified that it shows an increase only in hours. Selectman Blessington said we are a small Town and believes Lynn should be handling that work. Lynn defended her position and stated that she has the second largest department in Town and she puts in over 50 hours on a normal week. Now more work is being pushed on her due to State and Government regulations. Tolland and Coventry both have hired full time secretaries. First Selectman Mailhos added that those Towns also have larger crews. For example, Coventry has 17 crew members, and do not have that many more roads than we do. Selectman Blessington
added that being a small Town, perhaps we need a Road Foreman instead of a Director of Public Works. If we are going to have a DPW, she should be doing DPW work and not road work; then we would not need a secretary to do her job. Lynn said she can’t do everything – she is out with the crews, working with the Town Engineer, checking on job sites; she cannot do the secretarial work also. Selectman Blessington said he would be more comfortable with hiring another laborer or pushing the work off to one of the secretaries here at the Town Office Building. Lynn added we are talking about one secretary, who does not get benefits. There is too much work and it needs to be done at Public Works. She added when she started, there were no files or documentation done on anything. Selectman Blessington said every year we ask people to do more with less, but in this case we are always told we need more. He added this has been the lightest year
and we could have done without the extra contractor, but we ended up calling him in.
First Selectman Mailhos clarified the emergency contractor was only there for four hours – he was called in at the end of the shift. She then presented a worksheet that with cost projections of adding on a second contractor. A typical 10 hour storm would approximately cost us $3,200 (assuming time and a half for Town employees and $95.00 an hour for contractors). Adding one contractor it goes up to $4,142 – taking an hour less to clean up. Lynn added it would most likely cost less because the contractors are sent home first – depending on the storm; also it would be less wear and tear on our vehicles. First Selectman Mailhos stated the point she was trying to get across by preparing this spreadsheet is the total impact of adding the additional contractor. Lynn added that it depends on the
storm; as to when she would call in an extra contractor and it would be at her discretion. So far, with the storms we have had, she wouldn’t have called any contractors in if we didn’t have a truck break down. First Selectman Mailhos added that $13,000 might be budgeting a bit much; $10,000 would be better. She asked Selectman Blessington if he was comfortable with that. Selectman Blessington said he is uncomfortable, because there is no place we can save money and now this has become a matter of safety. It sounds like an argument that people will die if we don’t hire the extra contractor. He then added if the sweeper is outsourced, he would like to see cuts elsewhere. Last year we cut as far as we could; cutting one of the contractors as well as not increasing the PW Secretaries hours, and that did not cause any disasters. Lynn stated that her secretary has collected enough insurance money (from damages) to cover her salary.
The money is then put back into the General Fund. Selectman Blessington stated that we cannot count on that money. First Selectman Mailhos stated that there are a lot of tasks that the PW secretary is responsible for. Selectman Blessington stated that we should not increase her hours and we should not increase the contractors. First Selectman Mailhos then asked if we could come up with a compromise perhaps increasing the hours to 15 rather than 18 hours?
Donna suggested making a formula for the extra contractor based on a 10 hour storm which would be a $942.00 difference. We can then base it on a ten storm season, being a total of $9,420 giving a cushion of 10 storms with an extra contractor. First Selectman Mailhos stated we are making an educated guess, because you never know how winter is going to be, but at least we are covered in case of an emergency and will give the drivers some relief. If the money is not used, it will be returned.
Selectman Blessington moved we would add $50,000 to the budget for the sweeping outsourcing and that we would not increase the hours of the public works secretary. First Selectman Mailhos asked Selectman Blessington if it would be better to make separate motions for each line item.
Motion withdrawn.
Selectman Blessington moved to leave the hours of the PW Secretary as they are at 12 hours per week.
Selectman Littell seconded the motion.
Open for discussion.
Lynn began the discussion and stated that every Public Works director that she knows receives an extra pay when they plow on top of their salary. They also get bonuses at the end of the year. First Selectman Mailhos said she agrees that Lynn needs the extra administrative help. Whether or not the money is there is another question. She also does not agree that Lynn should be absorbing the extra work. There have been so many changes made with required reporting (from the State and our Zoning Boards and FEMA) that she just cannot keep up with it. She also agreed that it is a big jump to go from 12 to 18 hours.
Vote: 1 Yes (Blessington) 2 No (Mailhos & Littell)
Motion fails
Selectman Littell moved to increase the Public Works Secretary position from 12 hours to 15 hours per week.
Selectman Blessington seconded the motion.
Open for discussion.
Selectman Blessington said while he liked his motion better, this is better than nothing, he will vote in favor of this motion.
Vote: 3 Yes (Mailhos, Littell & Blessington) 0 No.
Selectman Blessington moved to maintain last years policy of having two contractors in the budget.
First Selectman Mailhos seconded the motion.
Open for discussion.
First Selectman Mailhos clarified that Selectman Blessington did not add an additional contractor to his motion. Selectman Littell stated that last year, being on the Board of Finance they were looking hard at every request that came in and it was a difficult budget year, because there were so many unknowns (with the Governor’s budget) on top of the recession. With that being said, he added that the BOF also would not want to cut Public Safety. He added that he has been in a position where he has plowed for 76 hours straight, and it is very difficult. Cutting two contractors is a big jump. Increasing the budget by $9,000 to have a safety net in the grand scheme of things is huge. He added this year, the request from BOF is different, as they asked to come in with numbers of what we need to run the Town
(departments). First Selectman Mailhos added that the drivers came in to talk to us a few weeks ago, and she thought that they would like the original plan, because they would get more overtime, but that is not the case; they are more concerned with safety. If they are telling us that they are uncomfortable with that, we need to give them a plan for relief.
Vote: 1 Yes (Blessington) 2 No (Mailhos & Littell)
Motion fails
First Selectman Mailhos moved to decrease the contractor line item by $4,378.00 representing a $9,420 increase from last year which is an estimation of what it would cost to add a third emergency contractor.
Selectman Littell seconded the motion.
Open for discussion.
Selectman Littell asked to document Donnas’ calculations for this motion.
Vote: 2 Yes (Mailhos & Littell) 0 No. 1 Abstain (Blessington).
Selectman Blessington added that he has faith in our road crews and there is no need to vote on the sweeping; as it is already in the budget.
Selectman Littell asked if the Fire Department’s budget has been added. First Selectman Mailhos clarified that is has been added and it is in the General Government budget. He then asked why the ambulance grant has been increased by $70,000. She thinks that perhaps part of the increase is the new union contract. She added that the $70,000 might include the refurbishment of WHFD’s truck as well as lease payments for a new fire truck, requested by WFD#1 to be factored in for next year. The CIP Committee will be meeting tonight to approve that plan.
Meeting was adjourned at 6:25 P.M.
Respectfully submitted,
Robin Campbell
Robin Campbell
Administrative Assistant
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