Budget Review Committee

BUDGET REVIEW COMMITTEE APRIL 27, 2010 A meeting of the Budget Review Committee was held Tuesday, April 27, 2010 at 9:00 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber. Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane, Chair presided. Members of Committee present: Alderman-at-Large Mark S. Cookson, Vice Chair Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire Alderman Richard P. Flynn Alderman Diane Sheehan (via telecommunication) Alderman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja Alderman Jeffrey T. Cox Members not in Attendance: Also in Attendance: Alderman-at-Large Barbara Pressly Alderman T. Craffey, Jr. Chairman Deane I believe Alderman Pressly is going to be joining us as well. GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT - None COMMUNICATIONS Chairman Deane The anticipated communication from the Board of Aldermen that was just received this evening is from David W. Deane, Chairman Budget Review Committee, Proposed Policy and Procedure for Request of Information on Departmental Budgets. Everybody get a copy of this in their packet that went out Friday? This is basically the same policy that I developed back in 2006, and it seemed to work fairly well. It kept just one contact point and this point will get the items and the request items to the Mayor. Instead of people making separate requests they will go through me and Sue and we’ll get them to the Mayor who will disseminate the request to the appropriate departments. The stuff will come back and then Sue Lovering’s going to keep a three-ring binder in the back for reference and for the Right-to-Know because they’re going to be e-mails so it will be all under the Right-to-Know-Law. That way we’re not going be making decisions, but there will be a quorum present on the e-mails, and the e-mails will all be photocopied and kept in that book for public viewing for whomever wants to see whatever we had requested. Any questions on this or any comments? Is everybody all set with that? I’ll move to accept the policy & procedures for requests for information on departmental budgets. From: David W. Deane, Chairman, Budget Review Committee Re: Proposed Policy and Procedure for Request of Information on Departmental Budgets MOTION BY ALDERMAN DEANE TO ACCEPT THE POLICY & PROCEDURES FOR REQUESTS FOR INFORMATION ON DEPARTMENTAL BUDGETS MOTION CARRIED Budget Review – 04/27/10 Page 2 MOTION BY ALDERMAN DEANE THAT THE RULES BE SO FAR SUSPENDED AS TO ALLOW FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF A COMMUNICATION RECEIVED AFTER THE AGENDA WAS PREPARED ON THE QUESTION Alderman Cox Is Alderman Sheehan still joining us and do we need to continue doing roll call? I think she’s on mute. Chairman Deane …you’re absolutely correct. We’ll have to do that by roll call on the motion to accept and place on file and approve the m – Alderman Sheehan do you have a copy of this with you by any chance? Alderman Sheehan No. Chairman Deane Okay. I can read it to you if you’d like. It says: In an effort to ensure that all members of the Board of Aldermen receive all of the information requested, and to eliminate the duplication of requests for information and duplication of efforts on the part of administration in compiling the material, I would like the committee to consider the following proposed policy and procedure: 1. Please address all your requests for information concerning the FY11 budget to my attention in either electronic or hard copy form. Please also copy Sue Lovering. Indicate the date by which you need the response. 2. Upon receipt, all requests will be forwarded to the administration. A copy will also be sent to the full Board of Aldermen. 3. The information requested will be supplied in a timely fashion to the Budget Chair and the Legislative Offices. 4. Upon receipt, all information supplied in response to each request will be dated and placed in each Alderman’s mailbox, and/or forwarded electronically to the full membership to the extent practical. Information that had previously been provided pursuant to a request may be referenced instead of duplicated. 5. A dated copy of the request along with the information provided will be filed in a 3-ring binder in the legislative offices for access and review by all members of the Board of Aldermen as well as the public if they choose to do so. That’s basically the policy. Do you have any … Budget Review – 04/27/10 Page 3 Alderman Sheehan Thank you. That’s fine. Thank you. Chairman Deane You’re all set? Alderman Sheehan Yes. MOTION BY ALDERMAN DEANE TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE, AND APPROVE THE POLICY & PROCEDURES FOR REQUESTS OF INFORMATION ON THE DEPARTMENTAL BUDGETS ON THE QUESTION Chairman Deane I’d ask that you please call the roll. A Viva Voce roll call vote was taken which resulted as follows: Yea: Alderman Deane, Alderman Cookson, Alderman Wilshire Alderman Sheehan, Alderman Flynn, Alderman Melizzi-Golja Alderman Cox 7 Nay: 0 MOTION CARRIED MOTION BY ALDERMAN DEANE THAT THE RULES BE SO FAR SUSPENDED AS TO ALLOW FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF A COMMUNICATION RECEIVED AFTER THE AGENDA WAS PREPARED A Viva Voce roll call vote was taken which resulted as follows: Yea: Alderman Deane, Alderman Cookson, Alderman Wilshire Alderman Sheehan, Alderman Flynn, Alderman Melizzi-Golja Alderman Cox 7 Nay: 0 MOTION CARRIED From: David W. Deane, Chairman, Budget Review Committee Re: Finalized Schedule of the Aldermanic Review of the Proposed FY11 Budget Budget Review – 04/27/10 Page 4 Chairman Deane What we have before us Alderman Sheehan is a schedule for departmental budget hearings or review sessions. They start well this evening we had the first reading on the 27th of April, and then we will start on May 3rd with general government, capital improvements, miscellaneous, which is water supply – public hydrants, streetlights, and miscellaneous revenues and surplus and public safety. On the 4th of May we’ll have financial services, public services, which is the cemeteries and the airport, I.T., which is computers, telecommunications… Alderman Sheehan Right. Chairman Deane I have a copy of this for you by the way as well. Also on the 4th we have the public health & community services, which is all the folks over across the way, community health, environmental health, community health, welfare, welfare costs and so on and so forth. On the 5th immediately following Finance, we’ll have public library as well as public safety, which is the police department and law enforcement training. On the 6th we’ll have public works & engineering, financial services, which will include building maintenance, hunt building, insurance – property & casualty, and employee benefits, capital reserve funds which are pensions and debt service, contingencies, which is capital equipment reserve fund, general contingency, contingency – retirement, contingency – negotiations. On the 10th of May, we will have the Board of Aldermen, the legal department as well as financial services and purchasing, community development, which includes that entire division of planning, zoning, building, code enforcement, urban programs, transportation, transit, as well as the fire rescue – public safety. On 17 May at 7 o’clock we will have the school district, department 581 as well as the special revenue funds, the 3,000 accounts. On 18 May we’ll have the public hearing. On the 19th we will start with our wrap-sessions, and there is another wrap-up session scheduled for the 24th. If need be, we can schedule additional wrap-up sessions after the 24th. I did have one in for the 20th, but the Mayor was had a previous commitment that she couldn’t get out of which is fine so that was the 20th so that opened up a date for I believe Alderman McCarthy wanted that date. These dates and this schedule was an absolute nightmare because there’s so much, so many m meetings crammed into such a – you know if you take four days a week when you look at 30 days it doesn’t add up to a lot of free time especially when there’s full board meetings and other committee meetings going on and other public hearings, and Han Affairs had a bunch of meetings, and everybody had a whole lot of things going on so. This is our schedule. If you can’t make it to a meeting m just drop Sue and e-mail and we’ll get it. People have other commitments. I know m that you stated that you had some sort of function in May. Alderman Melizzi-Golja May 6th yes. Budget Review – 04/27/10 Page 5 Chairman Deane It’s May 6th. So m I have, I have a feeling some of these nights are going to go a little longer than 9 o’clock, 10 o’clock. Years ago we used to go until you know 1:30 – 2:00 a.m. Kind of don’t want to do that anymore, but it has happened. This is the schedule. Is there, anybody have any questions or concerns about it? Alderman Wilshire I just have a request that the Clerk put his microphone so the cameraman can pick up your roll calls and such. Chairman Deane Well we have it on Alderman Sheehan … Alderman Flynn I’ll try to share. Alderman Wilshire Thank you. Chairman Deane Any other questions? Alderman Flynn? Alderman Flynn I just emphasis that what you handed out tonight is different than what we received… Chairman Deane Yes. Alderman Flynn …dated April 21st. So … Chairman Deane The … Alderman Flynn It might be, probably already doing this, but generally a lot of different Aldermen come to other than Budget Committee come to these individual work sessions, and they might be surprised that the departments on review are different than what we – what you had in your original note from the 21st. Budget Review – 04/27/10 Page 6 Chairman Deane What I have – barring that we move to change any of these selections, I had sent a communication out to all the division directors and department heads with their days and times, and if they had any conflicts, which some of them did, we would you know move them around and you know make room for whomever couldn’t make it, and what I have here is a finalized scheduled of for the Aldermanic review of the proposed FY11 budget, and this memo, if we approve this, will be going out to everyone tomorrow. Alderman Flynn Very good. Chairman Deane What we’ve adopted. Alderman Flynn I’ll destroy my old one. Chairman Deane There you go. So are we all set with this? So I would move to accept the finalized schedule of the Aldermanic review of the proposed FY11 budget as presented. MOTION BY ALDERMAN DEANE TO ACCEPT THE FINALIZED SCHEDULE OF THE ALDERMANIC REVIEW OF THE PROPOSED FY11 BUDGET AS PRESENTED ON THE QUESTION Alderman Flynn A roll call for that? Chairman Deane And I’d ask. - yeah absolutely. A Viva Voce roll call vote was taken which resulted as follows: Yea: Alderman Deane, Alderman Cookson, Alderman Wilshire Alderman Sheehan, Alderman Flynn, Alderman Melizzi-Golja Alderman Cox 7 Nay: 0 MOTION CARRIED Budget Review – 04/27/10 Page 7 Chairman Deane Beautiful. UNFINISHED BUSINESS Chairman Deane Okay unfinished business. There is none. NEW BUSINESS Chairman Deane New business – there is none. GENERAL DISCUSSION Alderman Flynn Mr. Chairman, even when I wasn’t on Budget Committee I attended most of the meetings. I think a lot of Aldermen do anyhow, but I attended most of the meetings, and what I’ve, I don’t know what was in the Budget Committee’s package over the last two years. I attended as a non-budget member, but I think it would be very helpful if you could perhaps in this memo or perhaps in a separate e-mail you could encourage the department directors if they have handouts if we could see those ahead of time, hopefully in the Friday package, I think that would be pretty helpful in having a more meaningful conversation than shuffling papers trying to keep up with what’s going on. I think last year or the year before the school department came in with two packages I think. One was the citizen Burgess package… Chairman Deane Yup. Alderman Flynn …and then their own package, and then trying to compare that to the account numbers that were in the Mayor’s budget – they were using different name descriptions, and I though it was kind of hard at the last minute to try to have any m I don’t know try to have any precision in using our time to discuss the packages. So if there are handouts, if that could be done in the Friday package or as much lead of time as possible so we don’t (inaudible) you know trying to understand what really is being given to us at the last minute. I would think that would be helpful to me, and I would imagine helpful to everybody. Chairman Deane I will have Sue add that to the memo. I couldn’t agree more. It was kind of funny because you’d sit here and you’d see them walk in there with a wad of paper and then I would ask the question do you have any handouts for us – oh yeah we do. It’s like they bring them then they don’t want to Budget Review – 04/27/10 Page 8 give them out, and then half the time you wondered whether they left with them or not. So we’ll request that that the handouts cease and desist and that they make it part of the packet on that Friday so it gives us ample opportunity to digest that. Are you alright with that Alderman Sheehan? Alderman Sheehan Yes. Chairman Deane Okay. Alderman Sheehan I think that’s a very good idea. Chairman Deane Okay. We’ll incorporate that into the memo. is there any other general discussion? Non-public session – I don’t believe that there’s a need for one. Any other business? I will move to adjourn, and I’ll as the Clerk to please call the roll. MOTION BY ALDERMAN DEANE TO ADJOURN BY ROLL CALL A Viva Voce roll call vote was taken which resulted as follows: Yea: Alderman Deane, Alderman Cookson, Alderman Wilshire Alderman Sheehan, Alderman Flynn, Alderman Melizzi-Golja Alderman Cox 7 Nay: 0 MOTION CARRIED Chairman Deane We are adjourned at 9:17 p.m. Thank you all very much. The meeting was declared closed at 9:17 p.m. Alderman Richard P. Flynn Committee Clerk