Common Council

SPECIAL MEETING OF THE COMMON COUNCIL MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT September 7, 2010 Special Meeting A workshop for questions to directors of the Common Council of the City of Middletown was held in the Council Chamber of the Municipal Building, on Tuesday, September 7, 2010 at 6 p.m. Present Deputy Mayor Joseph E. Bibisi, Council Members Vincent J. Loffredo, Ronald P. Klattenberg, Robert P. Santangelo, Hope P. Kasper, James B. Streeto, Deborah A. Kleckowski, and David Bauer, Sergeant-at-Arms Acting Chief of Police Patrick McMahon, and Council Clerk Marie O. Norwood. Absent Mayor Sebastian N. Giuliano, Council Members Thomas J. Serra, Philip J.. Pessina, Gerald E. Daley, Grady L. Faulkner, Jr., and Corporation Counsel William Howard Also Present Finance Director Carl Erlacher, Personnel Director Debra Milardo, Public Works Director William Russo, Wayne Bartolotta, Central Communications Officer; Salvatore Nesci, Health Department; William Warner, Planning, Conservation, and Development Director; Thomas Hartley, Parking Department Director; Acting Police Chief Patrick McMahon; Acting City Attorney Timothy Lynch; Fire Chief Gary Ouellette, Guy Russo, Water and Sewer Director; and three members of the public. Meeting Called to Order Deputy Mayor Bibisi called the meeting to order at 6:04 p.m. and leads the Council in the Pledge of Allegiance. Call of Meeting Read The Call of Meeting was read and accepted. Deputy Mayor Bibisi declares the Call a Legal Call and the Meeting a Legal Meeting. Workshop Opens The Chair opens the workshop questions to directors on agenda items at 6:05 p.m. Acting Chair Bibisi asks if there are any questions for Directors. He recognizes Councilman Bauer who has questions for the Public Works Director regarding the showmobile. William Russo, Director of Public Works, comes forward to respond. Councilman Bauer asks about the new rate schedule does the new schedule cover the cost of personnel costs. The average overtime costs for the two employees is between $45 and $50 an hour. Mr. Russo responds yes; the rate is correct. Councilman Klattenberg asks for Bill Warner, Director of Planning Conservation, and Development. He states he knows he should be aware of the canoe launch; the land being conveyed by Paul Szewczyk. What commissions looked at it. Mr. Warner states e-mailed Marie and it will be pulled. The property owner is not interested any more. He got uncomfortable with insurance concerns because of easement and general public walking over his land. Councilman Bauer asks to address questions to Carl Erlacher, Director of Finance. Councilman Bauer asks do you anticipate the appropriation $40,000 is that the last financial piece of business for the previous fiscal year. Mr. Erlacher responds yes. Councilman Bauer asks could you walk through the numbers on this appropriation because I know when it comes to this line item we generally expect a wash. Mr. Erlacher responds yes and no. We booked about $800,000 and this last year it was $950,000 projected and $800,000 expenditures. The actual was $870,000 and they transferred every line item in the Police Budget and they still need more and the revenue brought in is $1.3 million. There are fixed costs as well but we canìt just net the revenue with expenditure because the excess is in fund balance and we have to appropriate it out. Councilman Bauer states the fixed costs, can you say were about $100,000. Mr. Erlacher states it had to do with construction work. Councilman Bauer states he would feel more comfortable that they netted it out. Councilman Loffredo asks about the revenue and the grants for approval for the Board of Education and following up and is there closure on the focus; does the Board of Education have a fund balance to transfer. Mr. Erlacher states the numbers have not been finalized; the business office is still working on it. Councilman Loffredo asks if he is involved with the audit. Mr. Erlacher states no; they are working on it and the full audit will be done. Councilman Bibisi asks when it will be done. Mr. Erlacher states it has to be filed by the first of the year. Councilman Loffredo asks to address questions to the Fire Department Chief. Acting Chair Bibisi calls Chief Ouellette. Councilman Loffredo states on the September 7, 2010 Common Council Meeting Page 2 resolutions about the CNR accounts. With the expenditures of these amounts, what will be left. Chief Ouellette states this years is under $172,000. Councilman Loffredo asks if anything is left from any other year. Chief Ouellette replies about $9,000 from previous years. Councilman Loffredo states it is not on the agenda, but asks about the purchase of a new ladder truck. Chief Ouellette responds they are looking at that; they are looking at different apparatus. Councilman Loffredo asks if this will be on the November ballot. He asks Mr. Erlacher to come back. Mr. Erlacher responds If it is more than $750,000, it has to go out to referendum but you need a 60-day window. I donìt think it will be on the November ballot. Councilman Loffredo states they talked about it and keeping it operational; he is looking at the time line. It is something for the City Fire District. Chief Ouellette states they are not planning to go to referendum. Councilman Loffredo asks the reason for that. Chief Ouellette responds they wonìt need more than $750,000. Councilman Loffredo states the City Fire District would carry that. Chief Ouellette responds yes. Councilman Klattenberg asks for Tom Hartley, Director of Parking. He asks on Agenda item 11-8 and it deals with LoCIP for the design of the new parking garage; we talked about it before. When reading the resolution, why are they authorized to do the work and in August, 2008, they did the parking and traffic study and they did not do engineering work. Why isnìt it being competitively bid. Mr. Hartley states he didnìt know that they were doing the work. We just wanted to make the change. The vendor was picked before he came to the City. He wanted to continue with the same folks that were awarded the design and not who did the parking study. Mr. Erlacher states the State wanted a new resolution passed. Councilman Klattenberg states VHB was to do an engineering design. Mr. Erlacher states they were to do a design. He assumes so because it was LoCIP. Mr. Hartley states no. Councilman Klattenberg states they did not have a contract for the preliminary work and asks if there is a name associated with the engineering design. Mr. Hartley states they did the parking study before he came. The study and design are different things. Councilman Klattenberg states because they did the management side means they are not necessarily the best for the design work. Mr. Hartley states the Arcade facility stated the site and the resolution before you only changes the site and does not change the selection for the design work. Councilman Klattenberg states it is up to the Council to ask for a competitive bid. He states this is for the engineering design for the parking garage. Mr. Hartley states that is the funding for the design; it stipulated the Arcade be the site and the request before you is changing the Arcade to Melilli. Councilman Klattenberg asks if it is reasonable to ask for a competitive bid. Mr. Hartley responds yes. Councilman Loffredo asks to address questions to Bill Russo, Director of Public Works and states on the matters before the Council dealing with bid waiver for Public Works and why they are being waived. Mr. Russo states the two bids; one is a lightning loader and the other, a traxcavator. It is used in the land fill and it is on the GSA website and we can buy it from that. Councilman Loffredo asks what GSA stands for. Mr. Russo responds it is a federal page, General Services Administration. Councilman Loffredo asks if they did the bidding. Mr. Russo responds yes. What is in front of you is an addition to the machine for the recycling center. The machine has rubber tires instead of tracks. It is to make it road worthy; it is for $65,000 for the attachments to the machine. The machine is $165,000 and that was on the bid. It is only the changes to the machine that we are waiving the bid. The second bid waiver for the lightning loader; we use it to pick up brush at the recycling center. They are coming out of the Bulky Waste CNR. It separates it and puts it into the grinder. We are asking for the bid waiver because the only vendor is Peterson located in Florida; there is a vendor in CT, but they are the middleman. We are saving money by dealing with the factory in Florida. If we get a hurricane or major storm in the winter, we use it on the road as well. Councilman Bibisi asks on the John Deere, we will go to a local vendor to purchase it. Mr. Russo states it is a CT vendor and they are out of Waterbury and it is on the GSA page, the vendor is listed. One of the other reasons is that they will not take the machine and send it to a vendor that they donìt deal with. They have to use the vendors they use or we will lose the warranty. Councilman Loffredo asks to address questions to Chief of Police McMahon. He asks on the resolution dealing with the printer that is not going out to bid. He doesnìt recall a discussion at Public Safety; why we wouldnìt go out to bid. Chief McMahon states the main reason is networking. We purchased a new copier last year for records and they networked it to various work stations and this copier has to be the same make and model to network into that department and we are putting all requests through IT so we can network. He states we already own a Toshiba. Councilman Loffredo asks other vendors in terms of networking can do that. Chief McMahon states they rely on IT and to network all of them so we can network through everything they have to be the same. Councilman Loffredo asks if this is budgeted for. Chief McMahon replies yes. Councilman Klattenberg states this was brought up at Finance and Government and Purchasing looked at it and to go for competitive bids for one machine is difficult to do and the Council may want to look at a large scale competitive September 7, 2010 Common Council Meeting Page 3 bidding for copiers and not one copier. Councilman Bauer states he doesnìt buy the thing you need the same brand to network and the money probably is pretty much the same, but any new copiers coming in does it have the capability to make PDF files when you scan documents through. Chief McMahon states he doesnìt know. Councilman Bauer states he would advocate for that. Councilman Streeto asks if Finance and Government Operations can answer that; it is a good idea to move documents through the City and court system. Chief McMahon states he doesnìt know. Workshop Closes Chair Bibisi closes questions to directors at 6:31 p.m. and asks for a motion to adjourn. Motion to Adjourn Councilman Klattenberg moves to adjourn the meeting and is seconded by Councilman Streeto. The vote is called and it is unanimous to adjourn with twelve aye votes. The Chair declares the meeting adjourned at 6:31 p.m. ATTEST: MARIE O. NORWOOD Common Council Clerk