Common Council

SPECIAL MEETING OF THE COMMON COUNCIL MIDDLETOWN CONNECTICUT SEPTEMBER 2, 2014 Special Meeting The Special Meeting of the Common Council was held in the Council Chamber of the Municipal Building on Monday, June 2, 2014 at 6 p.m. Present Deputy Mayor Robert P. Santangelo, Councilman Thomas J. Serra, Councilwoman Mary A. Bartolotta, Councilwoman Hope P. Kasper, Councilman Grady L. Faulkner, Jr., Councilman Carl R. Chisem, Councilman Gerald E. Daley, Councilman James B. Streeto, Councilman Sebastian N. Giuliano, Councilwoman Sandra Russo Driska, Councilwoman Deborah Kleckowski, Councilman David Bauer, Absent Mayor Daniel T. Drew and Corporation Counsel Daniel Ryan. Also Present Directors: William Russo, Michiel Wackers, Wayne Bartolotta, Robert Kronenberger, Linda Bettencourt, Damon Braasch, William McKenna, Guy Russo, Carl Erlacher, Justin Carbonella, Kathy Morey, Faith Jackson, Brig Smith, Arthur Meyers, Dr. Joseph HavlicekActing Directors Deb Stanley and Eldon Bailey. 1. Mayor calls meeting to order. (Pledge of Allegiance) The Acting Chair leads the public in the Pledge of Allegiance and calls the meeting to order at 6:04 p.m. (Council Clerk Reads the Call of the Meeting and Mayor declares call a legal call and meeting legal meeting.) The Chair declares the call a legal call and the meeting a legal meeting. 2. Questions to Directors Opens The Acting Chair opens the workshop at 6:06 p.m. Councilman Bauer is recognized and he asks if we have someone from Blum Shapiro. There is not. He asks for Director of Planning, Michiel Wackers. He asks about the Greenskies resolution; i understand there already is a solar array on Remington Rand and is that part of this agreement or a previous one. Mr. Wackers responds it is a previous agreement; this is a new one tonight. Councilman Serra is recognized and he asks to direct questions to the Public Works Director, William Russo. Noted for the Record Councilwoman Bartolotta takes her seat in the chamber at 6:07 p.m. Councilman Serra asks for an update of the streetlight purchase. Mr. Russo states on Friday, we purchased the streetlights; we had some back and forth and CL & P sold them for the original asking price. Talking to Finance, when we went to referendum we went for $1.5 million and they are below by $21,000. He compliments Finance and the City Attorney's office. We used advise from Peter Staye and they got good advice from CL & P. They were great for us to work with during storms. In the end, the Council knows it was a business decision and the savings is $340,000 in savings and the contract is in place. We got to the original asking price. Councilman Serra gives them kudos for the savings to the City. Mr. Russo also mentions Tina Gomes and the Purchasing Department were instrumental as well. Councilman Serra thanks Mr. Russo for being steadfast on this. Councilwoman Kasper asks for General Counsel. She asks Attorney SMith about the appropriation of $355,000 for the updating software for the City and Board of Education and part of that is a $75,000 consultant services for a shared services agreement for Blum Shapiro and they are our auditors and she asks if they set up the accounts and then come back and audit it, is there a conflict of interests. He introduces Assistant Attorney Chris Smedick and he was instrumental in getting the CL & P done and thanks him for his tenacity and talent. As to the question, the reason it is no is that the consulting function is different than the auditing matter. The second, since we talked and September 2, 2014 Special Common Council Meeting Page 2 even apart from that consideration, they have separate personnel who consult and who audit. Councilwoman Kasper states she had a concern that they were setting up an accounts. Councilman Bauer asks General Counsel about the DOT agreement and was told you reviewed that. He states not being a lawyer, he did his best to get through it and there were one or two things that raised concerns and some of the attachments were letters that seemed over 20 years old with figures. Attorney Smith states he doesn't have the document in front of him. Councilman Bauer asks what is the amount; he stated it referenced CEO's and charging $35 an hour. The general question is what he understands is as far as he knows it is state DOT and the City of Middletown is called the utility and there are a heck of a lot that come into town and do work and he has never seen where we as the owner that we are requiring an agreement with utilities. Is this the state being weird. Attorney Smith replies it is the State being the State. His impression is Hobson's choice so long as it is the first on the left; it is a boiler plate agreement and there is little negotiation. If there are specific concerns like the indemnity, he will try, but thinks it is one size fits all. Councilman Bauer states is there virtue in this agreement and might we be in better shape when we let utilities in our public roads. There are remedies in the contract and he has heard of things going wrong. Attorney Smith replies it is a good question; they set up a uniform contract for use. We will tell vendors there is a uniform contract which we can tweek. We don't do one like that for utilities and it is a good idea and if we can get boiler plate language he will be happy to look into it. Councilman Serra asks relative to the MOU with the Board of Education; he would like to amend it and if more monies are disbursed it has to come for review. No. 10, the City's payment shall be contingent on the Board's being compliant to the agreement. Attorney Smith doesn't have a problem with the appropriation language, adding no monies to be disbursed until both bodies approve the agreement. Councilman Serra states the second question is Greenskies. Some concern is as we shop for electricity, whether it goes up, can the phrase not more than market value be put into the resolution. Attorney Smith states it can be inserted in, but it might be a deal killer. Councilman Serra states if it goes down, we pay a higher price and we are held at that cost. Attorney Smith replies you could amend the resolution and the message is Council will consider it only if there is a cap. Councilman Serra states we are not charging for the land as well. He asks Mr. Wackers about the language. Mr. Wackers states they did have an exchange of emails of the rate paid; they don't want to take on the risk of assuring us that we are given price stability for 20 years. Greenskies would probably not want to do the deal if there is a cap. There is uncertainty with the savings and it is a savings for the first two years. There are two benefits one is stability and green source and the tax revenue from the solar array; Greenskies is trying to get these done in a competitive market and right now they were not successful with the latest Z-rec with the State. Adding on the caps and issues of leased rate makes the deal less competitive and it is a value judgment. Councilwoman Bartolotta asks Mr. Wackers the savings will occur in the first two years and after that there is no guarantee of savings. Mr. Wackers states there are three charges. We made the adjusted contract language about the escalator. Greenskies had an optimistic increase of 4% and he put together increases of 2.8% and it would be $1 million over 20 years; if it is 1% over 20 years, the total would only be $250,000 over the life of the contract. Councilwoman Bartolotta states there is no guarantee for the City. Mr. Wackers states that is what I just said and part of the benefit is price stability. Councilwoman Bartolotta states we are not leasing the land but letting them use the property. She asks if this went through the Standardization Committee and Mr. Wackers states he has not heard when they would meet. Councilwoman Bartolotta states assuming no because of the waiver. Mr. Wackers states correct. Councilwoman Bartolotta asks why this isn't going out to bid. Mr. Wackers states it is an Economic Development Committee proposal and they moved it to the Council. Councilwoman Kleckowski asks for Mr. Wackers. She asks they discussed this in Economic Development as we do contracts that we protect the city and if certain benchmarks aren't reached then payment is not made and it is an important caveat to this contract. I reiterate that and the City should be more protected. It is nice to be green, but the City should be protected. Noted for the Record Councilman Faulkner takes his seat at 6:27 p.m. Councilwoman Kleckowski asks what he meant by the tax potential. Mr. Wackers states it will be taxed and the solar array on the roof brings in $18,000. Councilwoman Kleckowski asks on I, the lower CT Hazard Mitigation, I understand it was tabled at Planning and Zoning; Mr. Wackers states it was recommended to come to Council through Economic Development. Councilwoman Kleckowski asks does it have to go through Planning and Zoning. Mr. Wackers responds the report is a document for this body and not for Planning and Zoning; he wanted them to be aware of it. Councilwoman Kleckowski asks if he knows why they didn't pass it. Mr. Wackers states he was at Finance and Government and not Planning and Zoning and they wanted to ask him questions. Councilwoman Kleckowski asks if there is ramifications if Planning and Zoning doesn't pass it. Mr. Wackers states there is no requirement that they have to pass it. She reads from the report and does it mean the commission or your department. Mr. Wackers responds it is his department. Councilman Bauer asks about the process; Greenskies came to the city and made an offer and you did say it is very competitive. You didn't go to solicit competing offers. Mr. Wackers states no; Greenskies is in a competitive market and trying to make it work. Councilman Bauer states the lease of 20 years, is there a threshold for the length of lease and tying up city resources for so long, should there be some type of notice. He has concerns about obviating the bid process. His question is the transmission cost; the trend is the transmission costs are more than the cost of electricity itself; in this agreement do we have the chance to bypass transmission costs. I guess we September 2, 2014 Special Common Council Meeting Page 3 don't have that option with this agreement. Mr. Wackers states it is a factor and one of the reasons Remington Rand roof is working because they are using all the electricity and there are no transmission costs. The Landfill project we can't get around transmission costs. Noted for the Record Councilman Giuliano takes his seat at 6:32 p.m. Councilman Bauer states the pool of people who can share the fixed costs of the utility starts to shrink; is there anything in the contract if the utility gets to the point where costs are so onerous, can we opt out. Mr. Wackers states he leaves it to general counsel; it is a 20 year agreement for that service. Attorney Smith doesn't recall that provision; he will look at it and let him know. Councilwoman Bartolotta states she read through it and doesn't think there is a way out; Councilman Bauer through the chair, thanks the Councilwoman. Councilman Giuliano asks Greenskies can assign the rights, what happens. If someone came along and wanted to pay them for the right to use the sites, do we have a say over that. Mr. Wackers responds he will have to refer to legal counsel. Attorney Smith responds he doesn't recall the provision in there. Councilman Giuliano states we should have a no assignment provision. He doesn't recall it in the agreement. Councilman Serra states should we amend it. Attorney Smith responds it is the kind of thing we can put in and if it kills the deal he doesn't know. Councilman Chisem states if we put it in there and they don't accept it can we go out and get someone else. Mr. Wackers states if you are willing to pursue this with solar arrays on city land we can pursue it. Councilman Chisem states the language you are proposing will it be a deal breaker. Mr. Wackers responds we can put something out and he can't predict their response. Greenskies is a local company and there are options and there is a concrete proposal to sink your teeth in. Councilman Chisem states everyone is trying to protect the City. Councilman Serra is recognized and requests to direct questions to IT and Finance. Eldon Bailey and Carl Erlacher come forward. Councilman Serra states on the Shared Services agreement. He asked the Council relative to both bodies voting on this and he reads #3. No. 7 the city board shall have unrestricted access on the system. The reason he believes the Council will accept this is because of the transparency, but does this mean all grants, federal state private on the system so everyone can see them. Question 2, firewalls will not be put up. Mr. Erlacher responds all city grants are on the system so he would assume all the Board's grants would be on the system. Councilman Serra asks if it is defined what all financial systems are. Mr. Erlacher replies he doesn't know how they would account for it if it isn't in the system. Noted for the Record Councilman Streeto takes his seat in the chamber at 6:41 p.m. Mr. Bailey states any information entered in the system can be given access to either side through permissions and since members on each side will have user accounts, we can control which user can access what buttons and access what information. Councilman Serra states that is once the data is in, can we tell them to put what grants they get into the system. If they don't input it we can't see it so do we have to say every grant and should it be in the agreement. Mr. Erlacher replies if the MOU needs to be more specific, legal needs to draft it. They need a new system to account for the grants. Councilman Serra states we need to do that from the get go. Mr. Erlacher comments if you are saying they could get a new software system and leave the grants off, yes they could. Councilman Serra states one reason to do this is that. Do we need to say that so it happens. Mr. Erlacher states it is implied and legal can draft the language. Councilman Serra asks do we need to say all federal state and private grants have to be on this system. Councilwoman Bartolotta states there was a meeting that any decision being made on the computer software would be available to us would be decided by the Board of Education as a whole. We can say that, but her understanding is that the Board of Ed committee would make the decision. We can ask for it, but the Board of Education would have to agree to it. Councilman Serra states states $355,000 is coming from the general fund and shouldn't we protect that and put it in. Councilwoman Driska asks how we went from MUNIS to AUC; the last time we discussed this it was going to be MUNIS and it was discussed at a workshop and now we are spending $355,000 for AUC and I have had the unfortunate experience for using it; why are we back to AUC. Mr. Erlacher replies AUC works fine for the City and would not recommend for the City unless there was a transplarency need for the Board of Education. We rolled over on the first and were up and running on the first. People are looking at both and West Hartford just dropped MUNIS and is going to Microsoft. There are more systems out there and the Board needs it now and they have to be up and running by this fiscal year and AUC can accomplish that. They will be ready to roll and if later we need to move to a new platform we can do it then. Councilwoman Driska asks if we approve this and the Board of Ed needs to be in sync with us, we need assurances on the transparency because of the money. Mr. Erlacher responds they are ready to go and AUC will meet their needs. Councilman Faulkner asks about the breakdown of the costs given to us. Services is a big one and is it all onetime costs in terms of implementation. Mr. Bailey states some of the costs are transition for the Board and the City. There are some ongoing costs since we currently subscribe to AUC. Our ongoing costs will only go up a little bit once it is implemented. Councilman Faulkner asks about $35,000, and looking at the Board of Education is that an increase going forward in their budget. Mr. Bailey responds yes. Councilman Faulkner asks about the $122,000 what type of services are you talking about. Mr. Bailey responds that is probably mostly conversion from their existing chart of accounts to the new one. Councilman Faulkner asks if that goes to Blum Shapiro. Mr. Bailey responds it goes to Admins. Councilman Faulkner asks about the city side. Mr. Erlacher responds this project for the city will be about $32,000 we are updating HR and payroll. We will have to do a uniform chart of accounts. All account numbers and descriptions will be the same state wide. September 2, 2014 Special Common Council Meeting Page 4 Noted for the Record Councilman Daley takes his seat in the chamber at 6:51 p.m. As far as the Board is concerned, they have not started and they need to act and there has been preliminary discussions on both sides. Councilman Faulkner asks if there are wage or employee changes if this comes about. Mr. Erlacher states he doesn't know what the Board's plans are. The $75,000 is for Blum Shapiro that is the max amount and as far as who will monitor it, you will have to ask the Board. For the City, we are only updating two modules. Other than that we shouldn't skip a beat. Point of Information General Counsel Smith states he pulled the agreement up and 14.3 has a non assignment agreement and it is the standard language in contracts. Councilman Giuliano states would prefer stronger than that. We are making a deal with Greenskies and if we want to make a deal with someone else, we should deal with it. Councilman Bauer states he sees Board of Education members and asks Mr. Loffredo to stand up and he is curious to know where the Board is on their part on this MOU. Mr. Loffredo states he is not ready to speak for the Board of Education. Councilman Giuliano states Councilwoman Driska went down a line of questioning he asked the question why we couldn't use ADMINS and everyone was talking about MUNIS. He was told it could not be done and now he doesn't know what to believe. Mr. Erlacher responds he did speak with their business manager and they could use AUC. Mr. Bailey states we have an old admins system and it is likely the old one cannot be upgraded and we have to migrate to the newer system. Councilman Giuliano states he happened to receive a request to commit to a workshop on the 18th on shared servicers. Why do the workshop. Why can't we do this after the workshop and make a better determination after Blum Shapiro. Mr. Erlacher states it will put the funding in place and it will take a lot of work. Councilman Giuliano states we are not under the gun. Mr. Erlacherl states they need 8 months to complete this. Councilman Giuliano states their failure to plan doesn't constitute my emergency. He is not prepared to jump when he is hearing something different. Can we put this off for a couple of months until we know more about where it is going. Mr. Erlacher states his knowledge is that it needs to be acted on ASAP. The Acting Chair asks Councilwoman Kasper if her questions are for this director; she states no. The Acting Chair states we are close to the time to start the regular meeting and asks for a motion to recess. Motion to Recess Councilman Serra moves to recess and start the next meeting; his motion is seconded by Councilwoman Bartolotta. The vote is unanimous. The Acting Chair declares the meeting recessed at 6:59 p.m. Meeting Reconvenes The Chair calls the meeting back to order at 7:03 p.m. Meeting Adjourns He asks if there are questions for directors; hearing none he calls for a motion to adjourn. Councilman Serra so moves and is seconded by Councilman Santangelo. The vote is unanimous. The Chair adjourns the meeting at 7:03 p.m. ATTEST: MARIE O. NORWOOD COMMON COUNCIL CLERK