Common Council

SPECIAL MEETING OF THE COMMON COUNCIL MIDDLETOWN CONNECTICUT APRIL 6, 2015 The Special meeting Questions to Directors of the Common Council of the City of Middletown was held in the Council Chamber of the Municipal Building on Monday, April 6, 2015 at 6 p.m. Present Deputy Mayor Robert P. Santangelo; Council Members Thomas J. Serra, Mary A. Bartolotta, Carl R. Chisem, James B. Streeto, Sebastian N. Giuliano, Sandra Russo Driska, Deborah Kleckowski and David Bauer; Sergeant-at-arms Police Chief William McKenna; and Common Council Clerk Marie O. Norwood. Absent Mayor Daniel T. Drew; Council Members Grady L. Faulkner, Jr., Gerald E. Daley, and Hope P. Kasper; Corporation Counsel Daniel B. Ryan. Also Present Public Works Director William Russo, Finance Director Carl Erlacher, General Counsel Brig Smith, Acting Director of IT Eldon Bailey, Water and Sewer Director Guy Russo, Parking Director Geen Thazhampallath, City Attorney Brig Smith, Chief of Police William McKenna, Acting Parks and Recreation Acting Director Deb Stanley, Tax Assessor Damon Braasch, Fire Chief Robert Kronenberger, Director of Communications Wayne Bartolotta, Planning, Conservation and Development Director Michiel Wackers, Director of Human Relations Faith Jackson Arts Coordinator Stephan Allison, City and Town Clerk Linda Bettencourt, Emergency Management Director George Dunn, Russell Library Director Arthur Meyers, Youth Services Coordinator Justin Carbonella, Joseph Samolis Administrative Aide to the Mayor and ten members of the public. 1. Mayor calls meeting to order. (Pledge of Allegiance) The Acting Chair calls the meeting to order at 6 p.m. and leads the public in the Pledge of Allegiance. (Council Clerk Reads the Call of the Meeting and Mayor declares call a legal call and meeting a legal meeting.) The Acting Chair declares the call a legal call and the meeting a legal meeting. 2. Questions to Directors Opens Councilman Bauer asks to address questions to the City Attorney and asks about activities impinging on the Council. We do have a budget address released by the Mayor and it is on the agenda tonight and in the revenue part of the Mayor's proposed budget is what he found is that there seemed some consolidations and they puzzled him. What he can remember from years past and we had two miscellaneous accounts and transfers. It is the purview of the Council to create account numbers but doesn't that imply a certain authority of what shows up in them when they are created. We have two agreements with NRG and Kleen Energy where we have a specific account number under miscellaneous; it is there and these are material amounts because the Kleen Energy plant is not quite $pass2 million and they are paying close to $2 million and NRG is 1-1/2 million but in the Mayor's proposed budget that detail is gone. The question is the Council created a perfectly good code and there is activity and it doesn't show any more. When they go missing, the budget is not easily discernably because of the lack of detail and what authority does the executive branch have to make the accounts roll up to other numbers. Finance works for the Mayor and if the Council wants in their budget increased clarity as in past budgets, those are missing in the current budget and if the Council wants them in what recourse does the Council have to get the activity back in the budget. Attorney Smith responds he will have to get back to you after looking at the budget. Councilman Giuliano asks Atty Smith on the agenda, 10D, approving acquiring 3 parcels of land from Talcott Ridge for Water and Sewer; we will receive a quit claim deed from a now defunct LLC from a partner and if the end of the day we bought a lawsuit, have you examined the title that we are assured this will give us good title to the land. Attorney Smith states he hasn't contacted a title company and if that is a concern he can alleviate it. This is the best we can do with a defunct company. We did look at other options like eminent domain and acquire a title from the court April 6, 2015 SPECIAL COMMON COUNCIL Page 2 and that would be ambitious steps at this time and we thought this was the easiest path. Councilman Giuliano asks the value of the land. Attorney Smith responds I don't know that. Councilman Giuliano wonders if that wouldn't be better to do. Attorney Smith states we can do that. Councilman Giuliano asks if this is time sensitive. Attorney Smith will defer to the department on that. 3. Questions to Directors Closes. The Acting Chair closes the questions to directors workshop at 6:11 p.m. 4. Meeting adjourned. Councilman Streeto moves to adjourn and Councilman Bauer seconds the motion. The Chair calls for the vote and it is unanimous with 9 affirmative votes to adjourn. The meeting is declared adjourned at 6:11 p.m. ATTEST: MARIE O. NORWOOD COMMON COUNCIL CLERK