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SEPTEMBER 8, 2005

ATTENDANCE: Carvin Hilliard, Chair; Matthew Miklave; Douglas Sutton; Kenneth Baker (8:07).

STAFF: Lisa Biagiarelli, Tax Collector; Karen DelVecchio, Director, IT; Frederic Gilden, Comptroller.

OTHERS: Thomas Hamilton, Director of Finance

Mr. Hilliard called the meeting to order at 8:05 p.m.

CLAIMS COMMITTEE: RECEIVE THE MONTHLY CLAIMS REPORT; REVIEW AND APPROVE CLAIMS AS REQUIRED FOR CLAIMS REPORT DATED: SEPTEMBER 8, 2005

Ms. Biagiarelli reviewed the monthly Claims Report.

Mr. Miklave requested the record to reflect that this item was not an action item but if it was he would have to recuse himself.

Mr. Baker arrived at 8:07 p.m.

NARRATIVE ON TAX COLLECTIONS DATED SEPTEMBER 8, 2005 – RECEIVE REPORT AND DISCUSS

Ms. Biagiarelli stated that she had the numbers for the month of August but as she had just received them, she had not had the time to prepare a narrative at this time. She stated they were ahead of where they hoped to be at the end of August and everything was going very well with the current collections.

Mr. Hamilton concurred with Ms. Biagiarelli and stated that the end of August was an important milestone as it reflects all the activity for the first half of the billing cycle. He said everything was all posted and booked and could be compared. He stated that last year was the best year for collections ever in the City’s history, and so far this year for the end of August the City was running ahead of where they were at this time last year across the board. Mr. Hamilton congratulated Ms. Biagiarelli for her work.

NARRATIVE ON TAX COLLECTOR’S REPORT – RECEIVE REPORT AND DISCUSS

Ms. Biagiarelli stated there was no narrative at this time.

No action was taken on this item.

AUTHORIZE THE PURCHASING AGENT TO ISSUE PURCHASE ORDERS TO HP FOR A SERVER PER MUNIS CONSISTENT WITH CITY IT TECHNICAL STANDARDS, FINAL CONFIGURATION AND HP QUOTATION STILL UNDER REFINEMENT, FOR AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $20,000.00, ACCOUNT 09050600-5777-C0286 (IT CAPITAL) AND FORWARD AUTHORIZATION TO THE COMMON COUNCIL FOR FURTHER ACTION. (MUNIS SOFTWARE UPGRADE SERVER)

AUTHORIZE THE PURCHASING AGENT TO ISSUE PURCHASE ORDERS TO TYLER TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE PURCHASE OF INFORMIX LICENSES AND FOR PROFESSIONAL UPGRADE FROM VERSION 2003 TO VERSION 2004 PER TYLER TECHNOLOGIES QUOTATION DATED 9/2/2005 FOR AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $23,998.00 ACCOUNT 09050600-5777-C0286 (IT CAPITAL) AND FORWARD AUTHORIZATION TO THE COMMON COUNCIL FOR FURTHER ACTION. (MUNIS SOFTWARE UPGRADE)

Ms. DelVecchio said that these items were two components of a single project. She stated that MUNIS is the financial system that the City uses to process assessments, tax collection, treasury, financials, accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll and fixed assets and penetrates all the financial areas of the City. There is a new version of this software that is available from the manufacturer and this features changes that the City has requested, for new features and “bug” fixes to certain functions that are not working properly or won’t work until this upgrade is completed. She stated that in the conversations she has had with Tyler Technologies on the technical side, it has come to their attention and has been made clear to them that the current server that the MUNIS software operates on today is underpowered for the new version of the software, so that will necessitate the purchase of a new server in order to install the new version of the software.

Ms. DelVecchio said that the first item speaks to an amount not to exceed $20,000.00 for the server and she apologized for not having a quote the Committee could look at, but the IT Dept. is still in the process of refining what this gives the new MUNIS in terms of how much disk space does it need, how much memory does it need. She said they were close but don’t have enough information at this point to actually have a quote in-hand, so she was asking for a cap at $20,000.00 which they will not exceed. She said the intent was to bring it in under that amount, but that was the cap at this point. She pointed out that the department does have this money available in the IT capital budget to fund the purchase.

The second item is essentially to purchase an upgrade to the license for MUNIS, as well as for their professional services to install, test and configure and work with the IT Dept. to install the new version. There are also funds in the IT capital budget for this.

Mr. Miklave asked if the MUNIS software upgrade come up before this committee before and asked if this was a project that has already been started. Mr. Hamilton said it was a part of the budget when the Capital Budget was before the Council. Mr. Miklave said the Council approved Capital Budget money for this upgrade, and is this part of the Capital Budget upgrade, or is it different? Mr. Hamilton said this was not an appropriation but was implementing the plan that was developed as part of the appropriation. Mr. Miklave said they set aside some money but did not remember what amount, for the MUNIS upgrade and asked if the upgrade was coming out of that money. Ms. DelVecchio and Mr. Hamilton said it was. Mr. Hamilton said that the software was actually a 2004 release and that the practice was not to jump on the newest version of software immediately because of anticipated problems with the newest versions, but it was important for the system to stay current, particularly since there are new features and fixes that they have been requesting. Mr. Miklave said he just wanted to be sure that this wasn’t new money funding the purchase.

** MR. SUTTON MOVED THE ITEMS.
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

AUTHORIZE THE MAYOR, ALEX KNOPP, TO EXECUTE A CONTRACT WITH AIG TO UNDERWRITE THE CITY’S LIFE INSURANCE PROGRAM FOR THE CITY AND BOARD OF EDUCATION EMPLOYEES AT RATES DETERMINED THROUGH A COMPETITIVE BIDDING PROCESS WITH THE CONNECTICUT PUBLIC SECTOR PURCHASING COALITION.

** MR. BAKER MOVED THE ITEM.

Mr. Hamilton reported that in 2004 the City participated in bidding with fourteen other municipalities its prescription drug benefits for City employees and that effort was successful. The City implemented last January with the new vendor and the savings the City has enjoyed as a result are about $240,000.00 per year for prescription drugs. This group of municipalities decided, based on the success of that effort, to look for other areas where they could do similar things and hit upon the area of life insurance. Ten communities came together and have jointly bid their life insurance program. Bids went out in the late spring/early summer; came back in June; and were reviewed over the course of the summer. The results were even more favorable than expected, although there were some unexpected wrinkles.

Norwalk is currently paying nineteen or twenty cents per thousand for basic insurance, another four cents per thousand for accidental death and dismemberment, and it spends approximately $450,000.00 per year currently on life insurance. It was expected that by joining with the other communities there would be a larger pool of covered lives and a rate was expected that would apply across the board to all. Although the various insurance companies were allowed to bid in several different ways, it turned out that that scenario did not save the most amount of money; in fact, it would have cost Norwalk more than it was currently paying. AIG has proposed a rate of 6.9 cents per thousand active employees for basic life, four cents per thousand for AD&D, and a higher rate for retirees. As a result of this bidding exercise, Norwalk’s premiums go from $457,000.00 per year down to $199,000.00 per year; a savings of $250,000.00 per year. He stated the coverage is exactly the same. The prices are good through December 2008 and then Norwalk will go out to bid again at that time. They indicate an October 1 implementation.

Mr. Miklave asked the record to reflect that his firm is an approved panel counsel to an AIG insurance product and he is not personally approved as panel counsel for an AIG program so he didn’t think there was a conflict of interest with his participation.

Mr. Miklave also wanted to note on the record whether Mr. Hilliard felt there was a conflict of interest in his business relationship with AIG. Mr. Hilliard replied that he was an independent contractor and not an employee of the company.

Mr. Miklave asked if the life insurance would apply to both bargaining and non-bargaining units. Mr. Hamilton said that was correct. Mr. Miklave asked if any of the union employees’ contracts specified the carrier that has to be providing the life insurance. Mr. Hamilton said he didn’t believe so. Mr. Miklave asked if they had made any efforts to find out whether there are any bargaining obligations on the part of the City to notify the unions that their life insurance carriers will be switched. Mr. Hamilton said he had spoken with Sara Letourneau and she had not indicated that there were any requirements to bargain over. Mr. Miklave asked if it was fair to say that it was the administration’s position that there is no bargaining obligation that accounts them to this change in insurance carrier. Mr. Hamilton said yes. Mr. Miklave said that, in light of that representation, that there is no bargaining obligation, he would support the motion. Mr. Miklave would note, however, that if this were a matter of collective bargaining then he would oppose it in the absence of a contract negotiation.

** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

APPROVE THE MINUTES OF THE FOLLOWING FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING:

JULY 14, 2005

** MR. SUTTON MOVED TO ACCEPT THE MINUTES OF THE JULY 14, 2005 MEETING AS SUBMITTED.
** MOTION PASSED WITH ONE ABSTENTION (MR. BAKER).

There was no further business and the meeting was unanimously adjourned at 8:29 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Linda J. Hayes
Telesco Secretarial Services