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APRIL 12, 2007

ATTENDANCE: Carvin Hilliard, Chairman; Matthew Miklave; Gwen Briggs; Doug Sutton; Doug Hempstead; Kelly Straniti.

STAFF: Tom Hamilton, Finance Director; Fred Gilden, Comptroller; Lisa Biagarelli, Tax Collector.

OTHERS: Dr. Sal Corda, Superintendent of Schools; Thomas Vetter & Rosa Murray, Board of Education; Hal Alvord, Director of Public Works; Stuart Wells, Board of Estimate & Taxation; Councilman William Krummel.

The meeting was called to order at 8 p.m. by the Chairman.

CLAIMS COMMITTEE: RECEIVE THE MONTHLY CLAIMS REPORT; REVIEW AND APPROVE CLAIMS AS REQUIRED FOR CLAIMS REPORT DATED APRIL 12, 2007

** MR. HEMPSTEAD MOVED TO APPROVE THE CLAIMS FROM THE CLAIMS REPORT OF APRIL 12, 2007.
** MOTION PASSED WITH ONE ABSTENTION (MIKLAVE).

NARRATIVE ON TAX COLLECTIONS DATED APRIL 12, 2007/MONTHLY TAX COLLECTOR’S REPORT DATED MARCH 31, 2007

Ms. Biagarelli said they are working on delinquent enforcement. They will file tax liens next week. They have collected just under $200,000 from businesses through working with the marshals. The vacancy in her office has been filled. The next billing will be in mid-June.

Mr. Miklave asked if there were any concerns. Ms. Biagarelli said there is concern because delinquent bills went out in April instead of in March.

Mr. Hamilton said tax bills are printed for July. Mr. Miklave asked if the same process is in place for Water Pollution Control, and Ms. Biagarelli responded affirmatively.

** MRS. BRIGGS MOVED TO ACCEPT.
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

RECEIVE BOARD OF ESTIMATE AND TAXATION SPECIAL APPROPRIATIONS FROM APRIL 9, 2007 MEETING

** MRS. STRANITI MOVED TO RECEIVE THE SPECIAL APPROPRIATIONS.

Mr. Hamilton reviewed the special appropriations.

** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

Mr. Hamilton said that the Board of Estimate also approved a transfer within Public Works from snow removal to an account related to drainage issues so that they can have a consultant build a layer in the GIS system for storm sewers. This project can start immediately.

Mr. Hamilton reviewed the resolution appropriating $18,875 for the Fort Point Interceptor Sewer emergency repair change orders from the WPCA fund balance.

** MR. HILLIARD MOVED TO APPROVE THE RESOLUTION.
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

APPROVE FY 2006-07 WPCA OPERATING BUDGET

** MR. HEMPSTEAD MOVED TO APPROVE THE FY2006-07 WPCA OPERATING BUDGET.

Mr. Hamilton said that the Common Council has approval over this budget, which has been approved by the WPCA Board and the Board of Estimate & Taxation. The areas of increase include additional money for the replacement reserve and contingency, the addition of a Junior Engineer position, modest increases for operations and maintenance fees, increases in electricity costs. There is an increase of approximately 5.5%.

The Chairman said that last year, this committee had approved the budget but had concerns that billing everyone the same was unfair to those with small homes, and he sees no change this year. Mr. Hamilton said the establishment of the sewer fees rests with the WPCA, not the Common Council. The residential fee of $205, increasing to $215, is set at a level that is a bargain. If the City goes to a consumption based fee, every residential homeowner will pay more. The Chairman said that Mr. Hamilton had not justified this statement with amounts. Mr. Hamilton said he could work those numbers up if necessary. The Chairman said that the Council does not necessarily have to approve the budget, and Mr. Hamilton agreed. The Chairman said he would like to see data.

Mr. Hempstead said he agreed with the Chairman. This fee should be based on consumption. This is a negative from an environmental standpoint. He asked about the rate to hook up someone with a lateral. Mr. Alvord said that the connection fee is $3,260.

Mr. Miklave said expenses went up 5.8% for the WPCA. The residential rate is going up approximately 4.87% and the commercial rate by 5.67%. In response to his questions, it was noted that Mayor Moccia, who is a member of the WPCA, had voted in favor of this budget. He asked if there had been discussion about eliminating the fee and rolling this back into the tax base; Mr. Alvord said there had been no such discussion.

Mrs. Straniti said she remembered discussing the consumption-based rate last year. She said she was comfortable with a flat rate because of what she has seen in other towns through her business. She would like to see consideration of putting this back into the tax base.

Mr. Hamilton said they would prepare a report. Mr. Alvord said approximately 80% of WPCA revenues come from commercial customers. They have data from both water companies, although the First District does not identify commercial customers from residential customers. If they go to a consumption-based rate, residential rates will increase significantly.

The Chairman said that commercial customers are only paying $290. Mr. Alvord said the flat rate only applies to commercial customers using less than 100,000 gallons per year. After that, the amount they pay adds up rapidly. The Chairman said he did not understand how charging for use would add to residential costs. Mr. Hamilton said the user fee would be set at a rate where it would cost them more than $200 per year. He noted that Stamford, where he had worked previously, did not anticipate the cost of tweaks.

Mr. Miklave said his gut reaction is that the larger the water user, the less expensive per gallons it would be in terms of environmental savings. Mr. Alvord said that made sense, but he was not aware of available studies. The residential usage in Norwalk is higher than the average. Mr. Miklave said it is much higher than the 3.8% rate of inflation that this Council deems they should stick to. However, he will vote in favor of this budget.

Mr. Hempstead said that the WPCA had exceeded their budget. Mr. Hamilton said that related to capital improvements. Mr. Alvord pointed to the Fort Point Interceptor sewer emergency. Mr. Hamilton said that the operating expenses had not increased.

Mr. Hempstead said he has been opposed for four years and will continue to oppose this. There will not be conservation without true user fees.

** MOTION PASSED WITH TWO VOTES OPPOSED (HEMPSTEAD, HILLIARD).

APPROVE 2006-07 PARKING AUTHORITY BUDGET

** MRS. BRIGGS MOVED APPROVAL.

Mr. Hamilton said this office is overseen and staffed by Public Works. The Authority has turned the corner. The projection is that they will break even this year, which is a first. They expect the Parking Authority would pay its debt service. There will be an $86,000 surplus to go into a capital reserve. Mr. Alvord said they have reached financial stability.

Mrs. Briggs asked about the commercial spaces in the Maritime Garage. Mr. Alvord said they don’t lease spaces. They simply enter into agreements for spaces. There is a condo association for the garage, of which he is president. It is a complex structure.

Mr. Hempstead spoke about the fee in lieu of parking program. Mr. Hamilton said that money goes into a segregated account and can only be used for certain activities. Mr. Hempstead said it was a mistake for that money not to be used for the parking garage.

The Chairman said parking is higher in SONO, and Mr. Alvord said that was absolutely true. The fee in lieu of parking is still a viable program. The agreements with companies such as Spinaker were not made to avoid the fee in lieu of parking. The spaces of the Authority on the first level, as criticized by Mr. Hempstead, were done for efficiency. Mr. Alvord said that the market rates could not be fairly charged in other areas of the city that are less economically advanced, such as Wall Street. The Chairman said that the smaller business people in SONO say that is hurting their businesses. Mr. Alvord said that the revenues from parking continue to grow significantly on a monthly basis because the parking demand is consistently growing.

Mr. Miklave asked the cost increase of running the parking operation between last year and this year. Mr. Alvord said he did not know. Mr. Hamilton said operating expenses are up by 11.9%, including restoration of some services eliminated last year, such as security, power washing. Mr. Miklave asked when the last rate increase took place, and Mr. Alvord said it was in February of 2006. There were selected rate increases. Mr. Miklave asked if the rates would remain flat in 2007 and Mr. Alvord responded affirmatively. Violation penalties increased this fiscal year. Mr. Miklave asked for the rate increase percentages from February 2006 and enforcement percentages. He said he was ticketed twice over the past six months in the East Norwalk train station lot when he had money in the meter. It took five month to clear up. Customer Service was excruciating. The process needs to be made more customer friendly.

Mr. Hempstead asked when Laz Parking’s contract is up – they are a mistake. Mr. Alvord said it is up in 2008.

** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

** MR. MIKLAVE MOVED TO SUSPEND THE RULES TO ADD AUTHORIZATION TO RAISE THE OPERATING BUDGET CAP OF THE 2007-08 FISCAL YEAR.

Mr. Hempstead said his understanding was that this was a discussion item. He will oppose it.

** MOTION FAILED WITH 3 VOTES IN FAVOR (MIKLAVE, BRIGGS, SUTTON) AND 3 VOTES OPPOSED (HEMPSTEAD, HILLIARD, STRANITI).

Mr. Hempstead said he would be in favor of discussing this item. The Chairman said that discussion was more prudent. He was not opposed to raising the cap for the Board of Education but he was not prepared to grant the budget requested by the Board of Education.

Mr. Miklave said that the conduct of the Council Tuesday night was abhorrent. Unless they move to suspend the rules to place an action item on the agenda, there is nothing that can be done before April 17th. This committee has to approve an action item, send it to the Council and call a Special Meeting of the Council. If they are not prepared to move, this is a farce. People will grandstand but will not vote to increase the education budget.

The Chairman said it is not helping the cause to take action. They have to discuss it before it goes to the Council.

Mr. Hempstead said there is a lot of hot air floating around and asked Mr. Miklave if he knew for sure that there were 10 affirmative votes for a cap increase on the Council. Mr. Miklave said he did not know that the votes were there but debate might change minds. He said they should not cut off debate.

** MR. HEMPSTEAD MOVED TO SUSPEND THE RULES TO ADD DISCUSSION OF THE 2007-08 OPERATING BUDGET CAP TO THE AGENDA.
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

Dr. Corda asked if the assumption that a 3.8% increase to the Board of Education was predicated on the belief that such an increase would be sufficient to continue their present level of programming. The Chairman said if that is not enough, they need a figure necessary to maintain programming. Dr. Corda said the increase would be a little over 6%, based on current information. The message he is getting is to cut programs or reduce costs. They would have to cut approximately $3,000,000. People are assuming half of administrative staff should be cut. Dr. Corda cited historical information, noting that they have modified their health insurance plan and gave $2,000,000 back to the city last year. There has been little dialogue about where savings can be realized from other than cutting administrative staff. 3.8% will result in programs being cut.

The Chairman said it is not the responsibility of the Council; it is on the Board of Education. He wants a budget that would maintain the programs they currently have. Dr. Corda said a status-quo budget would be an increase of 6.8%. They think they can get it down to 5.4%. They had a budget last year that was +3.99% that would have meant giving back $2,000,000 to the city. They used that surplus to make their increase only 2%, noting at the time that doing this would lead to an increase of approximately 7% this year. Everyone said to go ahead – cutting them to 3.8% is a breach of faith.

Mrs. Straniti said that Mr. Hamilton had identified $1,600,000 in potential savings. Dr. Corda said that information had not been given to him. Mr. Hamilton said he was happy to share that information with Dr. Corda. Dr. Corda asked if sharing this information now made sense. It would have been more productive to have suggestions made when they could have been given more consideration. Mr. Hamilton said this information on non-salary accounts was requested by a member of the Board of Estimate and it could have been done by the Board of Education as well. Dr. Corda said there was no dialogue or discussion. They are being driven by numbers rather than knowing the implications.

Mr. Miklave echoed the sentiment that the 3.8% was somewhat arbitrary and does not reflect good government. He noted the increases in the Parking Authority budget of 11.9% and the increase in the WPCA budget of 5.8%. This has nothing to do with the rate of inflation. Personnel contracts were approved with an average increase of 5%. It is particularly offensive to see that the efforts we have gone through to rebuild our schools after years of neglect somehow takes away from our ability to fund them. He said he believes the Board of Education when they say that $3,300,000 is the right number. The lack of trust from this Council to take numbers and the indifference to the affect of cuts makes him crazy. He said he would do whatever he can to increase that budget to make sure that children are not hurt.

Mr. Hempstead said he has been consistent over the past four budgets that we should not be higher in any of our budgets. The other side of our budgets should be growing because we have more people in the city, but the school enrollment is declining. 3.8% is what the average person can afford. The average income in Norwalk is half of people in the surrounding suburbs. The taxes of most people in town have doubled. It is the decision of the Board of Education on how to spend its money in terms of contracts, etc. He is not anti-education – this is all that the taxpayers can afford. He hated using kids as pawns and the Board of Education should be ashamed of themselves. They will get a $5,200,000 increase and if it is their decision to cut programs rather than administrators, it is their decision. He said that $333,000 was for new textbooks when they bought them four years ago as a capital expense. He said he has not seen anything that would change his mind. Until they have a finance director on the Board of Education, he has no confidence in their budget.

Mr. Miklave said he appreciated Mr. Hempstead’s passion but said they were not being consistent with a 3.8% increase. There was little discussion on whether there was a way to raise money without raising taxes. There will be more money from Hartford and from the conveyance tax. We should put that into the education budget. This is a bad decision that can be avoided. We should work together so that our kids will not be victims.

The Chairman said he was open to coming up with numbers that could be brought to the Council. No one on the Council wants to hurt kids.

Dr. Corda said that the textbooks did not add to the city’s debt service and were paid for out of the Board of Education’s operating budget. The addition of assistant principals came from expertise. At the beginning of the budget season he wrote to the Board of Estimate and the Council, asking them to attend their budget presentations. They met with the Board of Estimate. The night that they made a presentation before this committee, attendance was poor and the Chairman told them to give them the short version – this budget needed more than the short version. He agreed with the comment about taxes. He suggested asking the Board of Estimate for a contingency fund of $2,000,000. They may be able to give the city money back again. Last year, when their budget was 2%, no one said to raise it to the cost of living. They cut their own throats.

The Chairman said he has had three special meetings since the budget presentation. He further noted he could not see any savings in health because it was lumped together with life insurance. Dr. Corda said he would not do that again.

Mr. Vetter said the contracts that have been negotiated for all have been under the rate of inflation. The reason for the high increase this year was because it was so low last year. If you put the one-time funds in there and add the 3.8%, it comes to approximately 5.1%, or a 3.8% increase in the dollars spent by the Board.

Mr. Miklave said if the Chairman wants to announce a number he will bring to the Council, he will vote for it. The Chairman said it is up to the Board of Education, not him.

The Chairman called a recess at 10 p.m. and reconvened the meeting at 10:15 p.m.

Dr. Corda said 7.77% was approved by the Board of Education. He took out .85%, for an increase of 6.92%. Based on revisions they can make without impacting programs, they could reduce by 1.54%, bringing the increase to 5.38%. Last year’s increase of 2.2% averaged with this year, is 3.8%. Mr. Vetter said that the original budget was $136,373,394. Dr. Corda’s number was $144,388,245 and he suspected it could go down even more. Mr. Vetter said it is a 5.8% increase over the original budget, or an increase of $8,014,891.

Mr. Hempstead said next term, there should be a joint meeting of the Council and the Board of Education. There was discussion about creating a council committee on education but it did not happen. The next Council should have a standing committee on education in order to understand what is going on.

Mr. Vetter said that the increase to the cap would be $2,832,048 and the increase in the Board of Education would be $8,014,851.

** MR. MIKLAVE MOVED TO SUSPEND THE RULES TO RECOMMEND TO THE COMMON COUNCIL THAT THE CAP BE RAISED IN THE AMOUNT OF $2,832,048 TO INCREASE FUNDING FOR THE BOARD OF EDUCATION.
** MOTION PASSED WITH TWO VOTES OPPOSED (STRANITI, HEMPSTEAD).

AUTHORIZE THE MAYOR, RICHARD A. MOCCIA, TO SUBMIT AN APPLICATION TO THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT FOR GRANT FUNDS PROVIDED UNDER THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT’S LOCAL CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT FUND FOR 2007 ENTITLEMENT ($628,640)

** MRS. BRIGGS MOVED APPROVAL.

Mr. Hempstead said that the State is once again shortchanging the City on infrastructure projects when they are talking about raising the income tax.

** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

AUTHORIZE THE MAYOR, RICHARD A. MOCCIA, TO EXECUTE A CONTRACT WITH DB&R CONSULTING, LLC, TO PROVIDE RISK MANAGEMENT CONSULTING SERVICES FOR THE REMAINDER OF FY2006-07 AND FOR FY 2007-08, FOR AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $72,000 PER YEAR. ACCOUNT NO. 169010-5258

** MRS. STRANITI MOVED APPROVAL.

Mr. Hamilton reviewed his memo regarding this contract.

** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

FY 2006-07 OPERATING BUDGET PROJECTION

Committee members briefly reviewed this item.

DISCUSSION ITEM: GASB 43 OPEB TRUST DOCUMENT

Mr. Hamilton said that next month, he will bring a trust document and a draft ordinance that will need to be adopted to allow the document to be executed.

APPROVE MINUTES OF FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETINGS

** MR. HEMPSTEAD MOVED TO APPROVE THE MINUTES OF THE MEETINGS OF FEBRUARY 13, 2007, FEBRUARY 15, 2007, FEBRUARY 26, 2007 AND MARCH 8, 2007, AS DISTRIBUTED.
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

** MR. MIKLAVE MOVED TO ADJOURN.
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:45 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Cheryl Telesco
Telesco Secretarial Services