Budget Review Committee

BUDGET REVIEW COMMITTEE MAY 30, 2012 A meeting of the Budget Review Committee was held Wednesday, May 30, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber. Alderman-at-Large Brian S. McCarthy, Chair, presided. Members of Committee present: Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane, Vice Chair Alderman-at-Large Mark S. Cookson Alderman-at-Large Jim Donchess Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire Alderman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja Members not in Attendance: Alderman Richard A. Dowd Also in Attendance: Mayor Donnalee Lozeau Alderman-at-Large Barbara Pressly Alderman Diane Sheehan, Arrived at 7:10 p.m. John Griffin, CFO/Comptroller PUBLIC COMMENT Bob Burgess, 32 Bates Drive, Nashua One of the lines in these different department budgets I think we’ve got to take a strong look at is the longevity that we’re paying. I believe it was the school teachers’ union this year in January, we gave them $200,000 - $300,000 just in longevity pay. A good many of these departments they’ve got different step increases. I think we should really consider eliminating the longevity whatsoever in this city. I don’t know if the Mayor would like to speak on this later on but it’s my understanding you’ve got a home today, say you’ve got a $300,000 home today, you’re paying taxes on five percent over, 105 percent of the value of the property in the city. If this would take place say if you’ve got a $300,000 home it would probably be an increase before this new three percent that we keep talking about, people are probably paying $200 - $300 extra. Another thing, the police department cruises. I kind of wonder if we’ve got excessive cruises in the city when last year they came out and stated they used on different occasions over 200 times they used cruisers for outside details. Now were these all outside details? If we’ve got this many cruisers floating around that we can use them for outside details which I understand there’s no state statutes requires the police department has got to be hired for these outside details. It’s up to the individual concern. Another thing I brought up before is the use of cruisers on the highway for speed traps. Is this money coming out of the city budget or is this grant money? If we can tie up three cruisers on a highway or whatever we’re required to cover this highway is something really to look into. The school department, nobody talked about that last night. But I think if we really look at the history we say we’re going to bring in all kinds of people here because of our education system. When all 17 of our schools are flunking no child left behind. I think it’s time for everybody in the city to take a serious look and to see what the story behind is to straighten this problem out. It’s a severe problem. I understand we’ve got four different types of diplomas they give out at the end of the school year. I think it’s one for 27 credits, one for 22, another one for completing your school year and there’s another one. I think the school department; we’ve got to take a serious look at what the problem is in the school system. Are we underfunding or what the problem is. It was brought up to my attention we said with a parent in the Elm Street Junior High if you’ve got a parent-teacher conference there, we’ve only got one person in that Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 2 building that could speak Spanish to go between the children or the teachers and the problems facing with these parents. So this is a real problem here. Let’s look at a couple pieces of property that just sold in my neighborhood. Here’s a tri-level that sold for $195,000. It’s assessed at $214,000. Here’s a ranch that went for $165,000. It’s assessed at $184,000. I think it’s really a time to really look at the total re-evaluation in the city here. I know I was talking with the state the other day. We’re only required, I call it doctoring the books, where homes aren’t entered. It’s all done here in city hall. We’re only required every five years to do this. But the gentleman I talked up there he talked to a good many other states, and they recommended every nine years have total re-evaluation in the communities. Nashua’s gone 21 years. The old story was well, the head assessor was in here the other night and said well, they don’t have to let me in their house. Well, there’s one way to do that. If you’ve got a ranch, your cellar’s finished, put the same price on him. He’s going to have to appeal it, so he’s going to have to let you in that house eventually or he’s not going to win on this. But I think it’s really time for to have a total re-evaluation in the city. Another thing is the health insurance in the city. Let’s look at some of the dental plans. I believe it was over $2 million is spent for the teachers for their dental plan. It cost the city, let’s see where we are here, $156 a month for the teachers for a family plan. That’s for the dental plan. You go through some of these other ones there, there are high amounts. I think with these health insurance anybody that works on the outside there’s bigger deductibles coming in. Say if you go to the doctors or the hospital, it’s no ten percent or $50 if you went to the hospital. It’s much more. I think these are avenues we’ve got to look at. Like I say, if people are paying over five percent over their valuation in taxes now, I think the city should be dropping this down to 100 percent. I think it’s only fair to the taxpayers. In closing, I’d like to spend $20 for a coat rake for the nice new hats some of the aldermen are wearing in here. Maybe they could put their hats up when they enter the room. I think it would only be proper. I think throughout government how often do you see people wearing hats? Thank you. COMMUNICATIONS – None WRAP-UP SESSION MOTION BY ALDERMAN DEANE TO TAKE R-12-41 FROM THE TABLE MOTION CARRIED R-12-41 Endorser: Mayor Donnalee Lozeau RELATIVE TO THE ADOPTION OF FISCAL YEAR 2013 PROPOSED BUDGET FOR THE CITY OF NASHUA GENERAL, ENTERPRISE, AND SPECIAL REVENUE FUNDS • Public Hearing scheduled for 5/29/12 at 7:00 at NHS-North Auditorium • Tabled 5/14/12 ON THE QUESTION Alderman Deane On page 204 of 278, under Priority X/Other, it’s in capital improvements, where do I find that in this book? Is that in this book? Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 3 Mayor Lozeau No, it’s not in that book. It was in there last year and we added to it again this year. Alderman Deane So it’s not reviewed by the Capital Improvements Committee? Mayor Lozeau I’m trying to remember if that was one of the ones that we went to see them about. We went on a few of them, but it was reviewed by them for downtown improvements last year. Alderman Deane How come it’s not in the book? Mayor Lozeau I don’t know. Alderman Deane Can you explain exactly what it’s for? Mayor Lozeau It’s for the downtown improvements that we’ve talked about: street lights, benches, trash cans, newspaper condominiums, sidewalk work, tree work, planting beds. All the kind of work that we’ve been talking about doing downtown. Alderman Deane I thought the money for that project was coming out of increased revenue from the parking rates. Mayor Lozeau The increased revenue from the parking rates, you mean about the $728,000 the Advisory Committee has been set up to advise on any money above that. It’s not anticipated that there will be money at this level for this purpose this year. It doesn’t preclude us from being able to still do necessary downtown infrastructure improvements. Alderman Deane So out of this $250,000 how much is ear-marked for sidewalk replacement? Mayor Lozeau Alderman Deane, there’s a combination this year for sidewalk work. It’s coming from money that had been escrowed last year. It’s coming from some of the surplus this year, and it’s coming from that. I’ve Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 4 not done a calculation about how much exactly is coming out of the $250,000. We’ll go as far as we can. Some work may fall into the following spring this time next year. Alderman Deane The unfinished project status report, where is that? Mayor Lozeau Still working on it, Mr. Griffin says. Alderman Deane When is it going to be done. John Griffin Hopefully by the end of next week. Alderman Deane Next week. The end of next week? John Griffin Yes. Mayor Lozeau He did say “hopefully” Alderman Deane. John Griffin Well last week I said two weeks. So hopefully. We’re still trying to put all the numbers together. Alderman Deane Would it be possible to get a current burn rate of the operating budgets where we stand as of this week? End of this month? John Griffin That would be possible. Alderman Deane How long would it take to get that, do you think? John Griffin I could have that tomorrow. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 5 Alderman Deane Tomorrow? John Griffin Let me make sure I understand “burn rate.” Alderman Deane I’d like to see all of appropriations. Mayor Lozeau Expenditures to date. Alderman Deane All the departments. The transfer reports, the latest financials. Have those been done yet or can you do those yet? Mayor Lozeau The month of May has not been completed yet, right? John Griffin The month of April, as we mentioned a few months, the month of April was a transition month where we closed three quarters of the way through in ADMINS and those reports have been provided. Alderman Deane Those reports are back now? John Griffin The transfer reports are provided. Alderman Deane The transfer reports, but what about the rest of the financial reporting? John Griffin The finance reports we can provide. The May reports after tomorrow we’ll need a few weeks to put those together. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 6 Mayor Lozeau Typically as you know, I didn’t mean to misspeak and say May. I meant April. Typically, they are done the 15th of the month following. That just wasn’t possible this last time with April because of the transition. Alderman Deane Well I’ve been patiently - I’ve looked for it a few times. Is April all done? John Griffin April, we’ll run the report. It may not have all the final journal entries but we can certainly provide whatever’s available. May would be a clean up month. Alderman Pressly Could you speak up? John Griffin Certainly. April we’re in a transition so all of the typical journal entries that are done at the end of a given month, the accounting department is working on that. The objective is in May to true everything up so the May report will be available in the middle of June would have all the journal entries and get us ready for the final close. Alderman Deane Has the escrow request process started? Mayor Lozeau Some. Alderman Deane Some? Mayor Lozeau I don’t anticipate having escrows to you much before probably sometime in July, early August. Alderman Deane Do we have an idea of what’s being requested? Mayor Lozeau No, I really haven’t focused a lot on that right now. I’m up to my eyeballs in budget. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 7 Alderman Deane The three to three and a half million dollars of unexpended appropriations that we’re looking at using to… Mayor Lozeau Three and a half. Alderman Deane Three and a half million. Where is all that money coming from? Mayor Lozeau The intention is that it will come from surplus throughout the city. We had $5,000,000 in surplus last year, Alderman Deane. Alderman Deane Where do we think it’s coming from, the majority of it? That’s a lot of money. Is any of this money from Pennichuck? Mayor Lozeau No. Alderman Deane No. Well where would it Mayor Lozeau It will come from the different departments. When it’s ready, I’ll be happy to show it to you. September 1st is the deadline that I have to bring it in where I come in and show you the anticipated use of surplus. Alderman Deane I’m all done, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Chairman McCarthy On the uncompleted projects, are their specific projects you wanted to ask about that perhaps we can get an update on? Alderman Deane All of them. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 8 Chairman McCarthy Actually, I think Alderman Donchess had his hand up next. Alderman Donchess I just had a single follow up on one of the (inaudible) Alderman Deane which was on the $250,000. If this $250,000 is passed as proposed does that then go to the Board of Public Works and does the Board of Aldermen lose control over the expenditure of that money? Mayor Lozeau The majority of that money will come through the Board of Aldermen through the finance committee for different contracts and purchases. So I wouldn’t say that you would lose control of it. Depends on what it’s spent on. We’ve come in and we’ve shown the mast arms. We’ll be coming in with street lights, things like that. Alderman Donchess But all a contract review does is decide well we’re going to spend the money on “x” and we’ve decided that “x” should be done by this contractor. So a contract review doesn’t really give authority over the expenditure of the funds. Isn’t that according to the way things have been working in the hands of the Board of Public Works? Mayor Lozeau The way things have been working is the way the Charter has designed them for the sidewalks, but not for everything else. The Board of Public Works doesn’t have jurisdiction over all the parts of downtown. Alderman Donchess Well what doesn’t the Board of Public Works have jurisdiction over regarding downtown improvements? Mayor Lozeau I would say the Board of Public Works isn’t the only one that has jurisdiction over the traffic lights that we’re doing downtown and that project. It’s something that they are aware of and supportive of, but they are not the final decision maker. I don’t see them picking the trash cans or things like that. There’s also the advisory committee that the Board of Aldermen committee set up that’s suppose to advise me on priorities for downtown. I’ve been meeting with them also. Anybody that has thoughts or ideas that they would like to share for downtown, I’m certainly happy to hear it. Alderman Cookson Just a quick follow up on that last comment that you made with regard to the Downtown Improvement Committee, is not their function to report back to the Mayor and the Board of Aldermen with advise? Mayor Lozeau Actually I believe that the resolution says the Mayor. I don’t know that for certain. It could very well say that. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 9 Alderman Cookson I think many of the other committees that have been set up, and I’m thinking Mayor Lozeau Typically. I think that’s why it stands out. Alderman Cookson Specifically about the Services Advisory Committee. It was set up as an advisory committee to the Mayor and the Board of Aldermen, and I suspect that the Downtown Improvement Committee was set up very similarly but again, I’m not sure, and I’d have to look at the language. I was hoping you might know right off hand. Mayor Lozeau I’m happy to take advise from anybody, Alderman Cookson. Alderman Cookson I understand that, thank you. Chairman McCarthy I would comment that I’m getting a lot of questions from the board about sidewalks and it is probably time to set up another discussion perhaps in the Infrastructure Committee that the board members can attend and have some visibility into that and get their input. Mayor Lozeau Well we have talked about that; I’m just trying to get through the budget cycle, but I’m certainly willing to do that. I’ve presented that map to multiple groups. I’m happy to present it to the Board of Aldermen. Some of the ward aldermen have seen it. Alderman Craffey has seen it because it’s his ward. Chairman McCarthy I think there’s a feeling that before it’s too late to influence it, the board would like to see it. Mayor Lozeau There’s also some decisions, Alderman McCarthy, that the board has to make around the parking plan. The idea that some of the merchants have about the back-in parking on one stretch of downtown is going to have to come before this board. I would anticipate a healthy discussion on that. Alderman Cookson And that brings me to the next point. When you mention several items in that laundry list of street lights, sidewalks, planting beds, newspaper condominiums and so forth and so on, a lot of that sounds to me or would have been in the past something that would have been taken up by the Committee on Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 10 Infrastructure. Is your perspective this time that those ideas, those thoughts are Board of Public Works that’s going to be advising on that or making decisions on that or will that come before the Committee on Infrastructure as well? Mayor Lozeau To choose trash cans? Alderman Cookson Not necessarily to choose trash cans, but streetlights. Streetlights is certainly something that we’ve taken up within the Committee on Infrastructure in the past. Mayor Lozeau The choice of what they look like? I’m just asking you specifically. I’m not aware of that. We’re just kind of Alderman Cookson I think it’s Infrastructure. Mayor Lozeau We’re pretty far in with the mast arms and the streetlights really should match the mast arms. I was not aware that the board of aldermen took up things like that. But if I’m suppose to, I will. Alderman Cookson And again to Alderman McCarthy’s point, I think it would be good to come before the Committee on Infrastructure and bring some of those thoughts and plans that have been shared in other committees that haven’t been shared to this board at large. And then finally, well not finally, the question from Alderman Deane with regard to the $3.5 million in surplus, and your response to that was it’s coming from the different departments. Mayor Lozeau Operating budgets. Alderman Cookson Correct. My specific question would be how much is coming from public works with regard to the light snow that we had this past winter? Mayor Lozeau Alderman Cookson, I haven’t made a decision about that yet. Alderman Cookson How much surplus is the board of public works estimating coming back with? Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 11 Mayor Lozeau Well we really haven’t come back with an estimate because there are things that we want to purchase with some of those surplus before they will be available. That’s why there’s not a number. We’re probably in the $600,000 range of things. Alderman Cookson And that’s surplus before you make expenditures or is that after expenditures? Mayor Lozeau No, that’s before. Alderman Cookson Before expenditures. Mayor Lozeau We have some other choices. I’m pretty certain I’m going to escrow the ball field groomer that they wanted. Some things like that that’ll get the end of the year that we’re making decisions on. Alderman Cookson And we’ll see that at the next Board of Public Works meeting which is Mayor Lozeau No, I don’ think so. Alderman Cookson Are you going to make a request for any expenditures during the June meeting? Mayor Lozeau I don’t know. I haven’t seen the agenda yet. We made some during the last meeting. It doesn’t work the same way as it does here on how that happens. Alderman Cookson Well I guess what I’m trying to understand is there will be surplus in public works. I would assume that the Board of Public Works would have to make the decision on whether they’re going to expend some of that surplus on additional expenditures. Mayor Lozeau The Board of Public Works is supporting some of that money going towards sidewalks, towards the ball field groomer. Those are decisions we had during the budget period. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 12 Alderman Cookson Okay. And one final question. My final question is: I thought that citizen Sullivan made a good point last evening with regard to the decisions that we make this fiscal year how they may impact us next fiscal year. To that point, many times - we’ve been through this budget, line item by line item. We’ve looked at every department, we’ve looked at every single line. And again, I’m coming back to the issue that I raised last year, and I’m hoping you can help me with that this evening or in the very near future. And that is, as we look at it at the micro level, we often miss the macro level. So what I’d like to know is on a macro level, what’s happening with each one of the two-digit commodity codes? What’s happening with telecommunications? Are we seeing a savings over all of the departments over the year or are we seeing an increase in telecommunications? A decrease in telecommunications? City-wide computers. Utilities: gas, fuel, electric. Mayor Lozeau I’m sorry. I thought I answered all of those. I’ll be happy to answer them. In telecommunications, we’re seeing… Alderman Cookson I’m not looking specifically right now for telecommunications. I’m looking for all the two-digit commodity codes that are addressed within the budget book within the departments. Are we seeing trends within those that would raise concerns year over year? Mayor Lozeau No. Alderman Cookson What kind of trends are we seeing with regard to utilities and fuels and gases and electricity? What kind of trends are we seeing with telecommunications and payroll? Mayor Lozeau You can’t see any trends with the vehicle fuel because the market is too volatile. We are seeing a decrease in electricity costs. We’ve negotiated a reasonable price. The same with natural gas. Telecommunications have gone down significantly. When I came in it was about $200,000. We’re closer to $140,000 - $150,000. The cell phone usage has declined. The computers, we’re on the five- year schedule. That changes a little bit year-to-year depending on which ones are being replaced but we don’t see any real trends there. As far as payroll, it goes up every year. People get contracts and raises and benefits go up. We see an increase in health care. We’re able to stem what was anticipated to be an 11 percent increase in health care with the changes that we’ve made with the majority of city employees. Ended up looking at more of 6.5 last year. Other communities this year are still looking at another 11 percent. We’re looking at closer to 6. Now that we have deductibles and plan design changes, that’s having an impact, a positive one, on health care. Many of the presentations that I’ve done before the Board over the years have talked about some of these things. We re-organized in public works some time ago, saved about a quarter of a million dollars doing that. Then when we put in the fuel software, we saved another $50,000. So there are things that we have done over the years, we’ve actually cut costs within the budget. A lot of that comes from the Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 13 work that we’ve done with citi-stat over the years that I have been here where we could look at an analysis of staff and how service was being delivered and what we might be able to do differently, and we’ve made different choices. Last year’s budget when we had the three percent cut, a lot of the divisions changed numbers with some of their staff. But it wasn’t just because of the three percent cut. It was, again, an exercise which I think you heard many of the staff say when they came in before the board, whenever they have a vacancy the first thing I say to them is okay, if you could do anything you wanted, would you fill that position again or would it be a different position. Do you need seven mechanics or should you have five mechanics and something else. They are all accustomed to that process now, and they come back with some pretty interesting ideas about how they’d like to see things a little different. So we’re seeing some of that. I think for the big picture, every budget that I bring in, I try to demonstrate the priority that I have for that year, and I spend according to those priorities. Some of it comes from discussions with the senior staff. A lot of it comes from discussions with aldermen about things that you’ve talked about throughout the year. For the coming year, we talked a lot about it when we were looking at the bond discussion. We’re going to have a communications item that we’re going to have to pay some real attention to. We’re going to have to look at decisions surrounding that and the infrastructure and what that means and replacement radios and things like that. So when we look at things going out, we know there will be more school stuff. We need to be doing work on the city buildings and figuring out a depreciation schedule similar to what we did in wastewater as it relates to buildings. We’re actually working on a document now on what will that look like and who do we want to bring to the table to help us accomplish that. As you know when I started earlier, energy was a big thing for me. We’re looking at building that had original windows from 1938. We’ve changed that. Things like that are working in our favor. Same thing with vehicles. Changing vehicles, we dropped a significant amount of vehicles from the old CERF schedule when we did the ten–year assessment. We’re updating that now because we added an accelerated purchase to be able to use the differential funds from the feds. Those are kind of the things. We’re looking at facing a real problem with adequacy money next year. We’ve been stagnant in our education dollars for the past three, four years because they put a collar on it. Nashua really should be up closer to $42 million and we’re not. Next year there’s legislation pending that we could lose between four and five million dollars. We had to respond to the change in the state on pension contributions. Those are things that we saw coming. We prepared. We weren’t able to prepare for the suspension of revenue sharing. Things like that or the loss of the wastewater grant funds, but overall I think we have a pretty clear picture of what the next couple years are. Alderman Cookson So let me just finish by asking is there enough functionality in ERP at this point in time to be able to determine trends for each one of the commodity codes? John Griffin One of the critical decisions on the transfer or implementation on any financial system is how much historical data you put into the system. What we’ve decided on was the only data that we moved in was from this fiscal year. To put anymore in wouldn’t make sense. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 14 Chairman McCarthy If I could interrupt for a second. I guess what I would ask is can we go back to the ADMINS system, get a spreadsheet of fiscal year by two-digit commodity codes and just totals of those and then put in this year from the … John Griffin Any kind of spreadsheet functionality could work. Mayor Lozeau We’re not getting rid of that other information. Chairman McCarthy I don’t know if we have it for all the previous years, but total head count I think would be good to have there as well because when you look at salary trending you can’t tell much from the numbers if you don’t know how many people it was. But from average cost per head count, you can get an idea. People cost different amounts, but we have 2,000 people spread across a fair variety of salaries. It will give us a reasonable trend on what our average increases look like. Alderman Cookson Thank you, Alderman McCarthy. I’d appreciate that. Alderman Sheehan You might have covered this on the night that it came in, but I just had some questions on the parking lots and revenues. You have projected $728,420. I assume that’s flat lining because we wanted to see the difference coming in. However, we’re already overrunning on many of these except for lease garage space which seems to be way off and way behind. Is there a reason why that’s behind and I have more follow up after that. I guess that’s a good one. Mayor Lozeau We lost Indian Head Plaza had a $55,000/year lease on spaces in the High School garage. That’s why you see the difference in the lease spaces. Alderman Sheehan We are already trending ahead of where we should be with just a straight line run. We’re about $20,000 ahead of where we should be if it was a straight line. However, there’s an increase already in revenue. Do we have a separate account to put that in once it comes over the $728,000? Is it possible to set something like that up so it can offset the $250,000, if it’s coming in in that fiscal year? Mayor Lozeau I just leaned over to the CFO to ask him. I don’t think we created a separate account for dollars above and beyond the $728,000. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 15 Chairman McCarthy I believe the discussion was that we can’t do that because of the requirement that parking money go to pay for car related expenses. So what we were going to do by the resolution was to make an appropriation in the general budget that was equivalent to the amount that it ran over by into the downtown account. Alderman Sheehan So are we projecting $250,000, I guess is my question for the year, if we were running about $20,000 a month over? Mayor Lozeau I know that Mr. Sousa and Mr. Fredette were looking at that and was going to give us some numbers and that hasn’t happened yet. Alderman Donchess I’m still on this $250,000 because it’s not clear to me. If the Board passes this and appropriates this $250,000 for downtown improvements which are not designated as to the specifics, is there a board in the city who will need to oversee the overall project that this would pay for? The sidewalk design, the curb, the lights, whatever it is. Is there any board that would review these expenditures and approve them? And if so, which board is that? Mayor Lozeau I think for the majority it would be the Board of Public Works. Sidewalk, curbing, that sort of thing is in the their purview. Chairman McCarthy All set, Alderman Donchess? Alderman Donchess On that point, yes. Alderman Pressly I had two general area questions, but since this downtown sidewalks have come up and the parking, I’d like to speak specifically to those two. You know the old expression, “once it’s in cement you can’t do anything about it?” I think we may have an issue here. Mayor Lozeau, I’m sure you remember that since the very beginning, the first time you let us see the preliminary to the downtown sidewalk plan, I raised the issue of major concern about having any type of a fancy insert inside of a specific square of cement. And at one time, it was unclear if it was going to be up and down the whole street but it turns out it was going to be specifically now on the bridge. And I have, from the beginning you have sort of teased me a little bit that I’ve questioned that repeatedly. I’m very unhappy with what I have observed, and as best I can figure out, there’s a few big chunks of sidewalk over the bridge that they are working on now, and this large focal point is going to be in the inside of each hunk of sidewalk. Unfortunately the piece that’s in front of the plaque, which is basically the center of the bridge, is not centered. It’s way off to one side. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 16 When I first saw it, I thought: “Wow, what happened? There’s the center. Why isn’t that decoration lined up with the center of the bridge?” I believe having gone there and looked at it, I believe they’ve lined it up with an off centered crosswalk which means the crosswalk has one big chunk of sidewalk and the large diamond decoration is in the center. But when you get them to the center of the railing, it’s not centered. And having been involved with many projects that require laying tiles, I do know from experience, and I’ve talked with many others that agree with me, that the most important part is how you lay it out. And any good, respectable floor person would make sure that it’s lined up in every single angle. All the sides, all the ups, all the abutting sections. As far as I am concerned, I consider this a major flaw. It’s something I would certainly not permit in any of my own projects that I own. I don’t know how that happened. I don’t know who makes those decisions and this ties in with who is making all of these decisions? But the diamond design in the sidewalk in front of the plaque is not lined up with the plaque, the center of the plaque. I know some people might think that’s just a minor little something, but to me it’s a huge, huge flaw. And, any type of a construction project that you align it up with all sides before you do anything. So I would just like to express my great sadness. I know we have wonderful, wonderful public works employees. And in many ways, I feel it’s unfair to ask them to do a complicated project like this because I think it’s a major flaw not to have the whole design work aligned. As far as the parking goes, I was going to ask you and since in the public forum is a good time to do it, I have gotten some of the numbers comparing what the former revenue was with the current revenue on parking. Where I see a difference is that the current parking numbers are coming in with totally different meters. We have added meters. We’ve made a lot of changes. So I would like to get the numbers, and I assume they are available. They just have to be put together. What is the difference in the revenue based on the meters that were there when they started? Before they added all these changes. In other words, you added a price on some of them. You have the tiers now. But I would like to have the numbers of what is the revenue that’s come in with the change in the price with the same old meters. In other words, exclude you’ve added meters. I’d like to have the numbers compared with what we have now and what we had then. If you don’t mind doing that. Mayor Lozeau I don’t mind but I believe there’s going to be a specific meeting on parking that’s going to take care of all of that. I would appreciate being able to do that all at one time that evening. Alderman Pressly That’s fine. Mayor Lozeau And then if I could just comment on the sidewalk. I think the sidewalk looks great. I go down every day and take a look. And I can understand your point about you would have preferred to see the diamond shape lined up with the plaque, but it’s centered in the sidewalk. So if it wasn’t centered in the sidewalk it would be off kilter. In front of that plaque is the cover that gets you into the conduit that’s under there. There’s a couple of, the gas line is in there. That’s a very busy kind of part of the bridge where things were built when the bridge was built. So I understand that, but I think it’s a really nice job of centering it along the sidewalk. I think it’s just a matter of taste on whether it should have been lined up working from the plaque versus from the sidewalk. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 17 Alderman Pressly Further comment. It’s the need to have this decoration in the middle that’s causing the problem. It wouldn’t be a problem if you had the sidewalk, the lines a little bit different. So I just find it interesting that whoever designed this, the focal point was they lined it up so it would look good at the crosswalk and not look good at the center of the bridge. To me that’s a huge design decision. A lot of people would not allow that to happen. They probably would have eliminated the … I would like to know of all the people that worked on this, who introduced this desire to have a design in the middle of the sidewalk and how did that survive all the discussion. I’d like to know whose idea that was. Mayor Lozeau It was one of the engineers, presented a few different pictures of a sidewalk with different options. A group of us all agreed that for the bridge it would be nice to do something a little bit different. A little something that you would see as you came in. As we looked at the design for the mid block crossing, it just all came into place. So it was a group decision in the end. Alderman Pressly Will we have the names of these people that make these decision? Mayor Lozeau No. Alderman Pressly Oh, it’s a mystery group then. Mayor Lozeau No. It’s your staff. It’s the city staff. Alderman Pressly You don’t keep minutes. You have these meetings and you make these decisions, you don’t keep minutes? Mayor Lozeau No. Alderman Pressly You don’t know who’s there. Mayor Lozeau I know who’s there. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 18 Alderman Pressly I think as far as the sidewalk goes, it could have been accomplished in a way that you wouldn’t have it be, to me it’s an eyesore. It’s the first thing I noticed from the car is that it’s not lined up with the center of the bridge. I’d like to bring up two general, and along the lines, I also am very concerned who’s going to be spending these $250,000 for downtown. I think we, as the Board of Aldermen, have a far more interest in what our downtown looks like than what the Board of Public Works does. They have so many projects all over the city. But downtown is very important to a lot of us. So the two general items I would like to bring up, two things that I believe have generated new revenue this year. One has been interesting in that all the departments that had unions had a little bit of an extra revenue. And if I understood it correctly, every department that had that made some decision as to how they were going to spend that money. And you’re shaking your head no. Mayor Lozeau Right, that’s a no. Alderman Pressly Okay. Did I misunderstand you then? I thought that all of the union employees had agreed to have a change in the amount of money that they contributed and that you would then give an equal amount of money to that department to be used in that department. Mayor Lozeau Are you talking about the restoration funds? Chairman McCarthy Yes. Alderman Pressly Yes. I would like to know, and I don’t need to know it tonight, but I think I, just like you indicated you like to know what the employees think, I certainly would like to know what the employees how they chose to use that money. Mayor Lozeau It wasn’t for the employees to choose. It was for the directors, the different divisions, to make those decision. So for instance, the school got $850,000 or so and the School Board decided how those dollars would be spent. For the merit employees for the city, in the resolution itself it said that that money was going in for city buildings. That was $93,000. The library trustees determined how I think it was $26,000 was spent. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 19 Alderman Pressly That should be pretty easy just to give us a list of how much each department did receive and how they spent it. Mayor Lozeau How each division did, yes. Alderman Pressly Yes, how each division. And then related to that the other issue that really generated extra revenue was the mild winter. I remember Alderman Sheehan brought up, asked the question of the school and they benefited. They had a windfall revenue as did again different departments. So I would like to know how that windfall revenue was spent. And again, I don’t need it tonight but I think I would like to know how that revenue was distributed. Mayor Lozeau It hasn’t been distributed yet. As I’ve responded to this question multiple times, there is money left in the DPW budget that we anticipate having a surplus. Some of that has been transferred into sidewalk work and the rest of it we’ve not made decisions on. So the way the process works is sometime in the summer I’ll come in with an escrow report of things I’ve approved and things that need the approval of this board. And then after that, I have to come in by September 1st with the surplus in the operating budget and how I intend to recommend it to be spent and then this Board makes a decision on yes or no if that will happen. Alderman Pressly I have had the impression in the discussions that you have indicated that many of the benefit of that revenue has already been spent. The departments have over, no? Chairman McCarthy It’s not revenue. It’s decreased expenses. Alderman Pressly Okay, but as far as I’m concerned it’s a windfall revenue for the city. Chairman McCarthy It’s currently unexpended appropriations. Alderman Pressly But still it’s a transfer of money because of the mild winter. Chairman McCarthy There hasn’t been any transfer. It’s still in the account it would have been spent from. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 20 Alderman Pressly I thought the mayor had said they were transferring it. Did I misunderstand? Mayor Lozeau I’ve transferred some money into mast arms. I’ve transferred some money into sidewalks. That’s typical operating day-to-day management of budgets. Alderman Pressly Will we ever get a report of all of that? Mayor Lozeau Of course you will. Everything that we do is public, and you’ll see it in the monthly financials. You’ll see it in the transfer reports that Alderman Deane looks through closely. You’ll see them when I come in with escrow. You’ll see them when I come in with surplus. You’ll have lots of time to see what.. Alderman Pressly It’s really important that we take a look at that because the message to me is that if the money has been transferred into an area that needed the money, why didn’t we fund that to begin with? If we don’t need the salt and they are able to transfer it into another area, I think there’s always a message there as to what the different needs of the department is. If there’s no need for salt and you transfer it to something else, why didn’t that something else get the money they needed? Why did they need that transfer of money? Mayor Lozeau If you’re talking specifically about sidewalks, which seems to be our focus on a lot of this, we didn’t budget a lot of money for sidewalks last year. We were constrained last year in our budget and so we did not have a significant amount of money to put in the budget. I am trying, Alderman Pressly, very hard to do the downtown work without having to bond money and to try to accomplish that over the next three years. I mentioned it multiple times. If there are dollars available right now that we can have in the sidewalk work and have some of the sidewalk work being done right now in the season that that work should be done in, that’s how some of it is happening. Alderman Pressly So do you expect to have a general accounting for all of that? And I don’t mean only public works. I think every department has had a decrease in their … Mayor Lozeau There’s a general accounting for it. It’s required, and when our books are audited it’s public information. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 21 Alderman Pressly It doesn’t feel that way. Thank you. Mayor Lozeau Well, you know, Alderman Pressly, Alderman Pressly You don’t need to comment about it. Mayor Lozeau Well that’s okay, but I’d like to. I’d like to comment because I put all of our monthly financials on the website. That hadn’t been done before I got here. I’ve tried to make everything out there that anybody can have. I understand that we struggle over who makes decisions, and it’s unfortunate. I’d like to find a way to continue to work together. Sometimes it’s easier than other times. Alderman Wilshire I had a question about the ad hoc committee, the technology use committee and their recommendations to budget between $5,000 and $10,000 for a consulting fee. Had that been discussed at a meeting that I may have missed, and have we budgeted for that or not? Chairman McCarthy I’m not sure what… Alderman Wilshire The report we got from the Technology Use Ad Hoc Committee that you requested that they come back with a report by May 30th so that if there were anything they recommended that needed to be budgeted that we would maybe include that in the budget. So I didn’t know if I missed that conversation. Chairman McCarthy Nope. We haven’t had that conversation. Alderman Wilshire We haven’t had that conversation. Okay. Alderman Pressly I think it’s scheduled for another time, is it not, Mr. President? Chairman McCarthy I haven’t scheduled it yet. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 22 Alderman Pressly But whenever they schedule the details. I’ve been told that it will be on a specific agenda but if you want to talk about it tonight that’s fine. Alderman Wilshire I didn’t know if I missed a conversation, but I got this in my packet and I wondered if we were going to discuss it and when. Alderman Melizzi-Golja Just for clarification, we got that because what we received at our last Board of Aldermen meeting was missing some information. Alderman Wilshire I think this is the one that’s missing page two. Alderman Pressly Something happened in the printing. I guess it was a muggy day according to Sue, the pages Alderman Melizzi-Golja They stuck. Alderman Pressly So you missed out on two pages due to the printing situation. Alderman Wilshire Further, I had a requested some information about Review & Comment and if we’re not going to take final action on the budget this evening, I’ll wait for some of this information to come forward. Chairman McCarthy I think this is probably a good time to talk about what we’re going to do about the issue. Do we know if there are any minutes of the Review & Comment Commission at this point? Mayor Lozeau I have made a request of Review & Comment to provide to me any of their minutes, any of their actions or motions or whatever they have available. As soon as I get that information, I’ll be happy to provide it. Chairman McCarthy Alderman Cookson, can you shed anymore light on what’s gone on here? The situation we find is there are no recorded minutes for Review & Comment. There doesn’t seem to be the same level of detail that Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 23 was kept in the past in the applications, and I have to agree with Alderman Wilshire that while I don’t want to get into the issue of readjusting the appropriations, I’d like to understand how they got the way they are and we don’t seem to have any documentation. Alderman Cookson I’d be happy to share what I can. I’ll begin in 2006-2007, which was the first term that I served on Review & Comment. It’s very similar to, in fact I think it’s the same process that Alderman Wilshire shared in her communication to us where she provided some documentation. That was process that I was familiar with back in 2006-2007. Alderman Wilshire, I think you were an alternate on the Review & Comment at that time, that term. Possibly. Alderman Wilshire Possibly Alderman Cookson And then in 2008-2009, that process continued. And I want to say that’s why Ms. Byers, and I can’t remember Alderman Wilshire Julie (Inaudible) Alderman Cookson Thank you. I believe that was one of the last years that they served and that was process that they had used. In 2010, the process was changed and at that point in time my role on the Review & Comment Committee had ended, and Alderman Vitale and Alderman Wilshire were on the committee on 2010- 2011. And then in 2012, I returned to the committee. So all the process changes that took place happened in 2010-2011 and this term when I returned to Review & Comment, it was I implemented the process that had been changed while I was away. The process included a new Review & Comment submission form. Much of the information that was requested is still requested in this new form, it’s just in a different format. Chairman McCarthy Am I correct in my recollection that you were working on the form at the end of the Alderman Cookson End of the 2009, that’s correct. It was December of 2009, and that’s when Alderman Vitale and Alderman Wilshire came in and I exited. Chairman McCarthy So what form are we using now? Are we using Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 24 Alderman Cookson There’s an updated form, an updated submission form. Again it captures much of the same information. Who’s requesting the funds, are they are 501(c)3, how many Nashuans do they provide service for, how many total population and then some other demographic information. Chairman McCarthy Are we still requesting audited financial statements? Alderman Cookson I believe that they are, yes, because I’ve seen the audited forms as part of the submission. And, I’d be happy to share that new form if it would provide any additional information. Alderman Melizzi-Golja To Alderman Cookson, what drove the change in the format? Other than just reorganizing the information, was there anything that stands out as being omitted because it just wasn’t viewed as really necessary? Alderman Cookson I think that’s absolutely correct. I think there were some aspects of the original submission form that seemed it wasn’t pertinent to the decisions that we were going to be making. And therefore, some of the questions or some of the information that had originally been requested may have been omitted in this new form. But again, it was the commissioners, I’m assuming the commissioners’ decision that they received all the information that they needed to in order to make a decision. Alderman Sheehan Did I miss the part about the minutes because I know we all got reminded about making sure all our boards and committees that we’re on have minutes, and I’m not finding any minutes. I’d like to see like in Community Development Block Grant, which part of this funding is for, we have applications that we can all review, so I’d like to see those and I’d like to see minutes because there’s supposed to be both. Votes are supposed to be recorded, and I don’t want to see Community Development Block Grants be in jeopardy because a lot of this doesn’t sound like compliant to me. I think we still have time to get our ducks in a row, but I would like to see the minutes and I’d like to see the voting records, and I would like to see the applications because some of the things, audited financials are important, knowing what percentage of their clients are at lower poverty levels, all those things are very important to Community Development Block Grant money. So I don’t know how long that will take, but I would like to see that before this process moves forward unless we could parcel that out until that part is straightened out, I don’t know if that’s part of what we can do. I have some comments off this subject that if we could circle back to afterwards. Chairman McCarthy I’d like to figure out what we’re going to do about this first. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 25 Mayor Lozeau I have requested from the chairman of the Review & Comment Commission information on the process, the protocols, the minutes, the votes, a summary of the requests that came in. I would anticipate having that. It seems to me that it may be worthwhile to see if the commissioners would come in and meet with either the budget committee or the human affairs committee not to talk about specific why this one got funding or that one get funding but to just have a discussion about what the expectations are on how they do their work. I know that in the very beginning when I met with the group for the first time with the new commissioners, only a few, I think, were new at that time, but it was right after the two co-chairs had retired and the poor things had to bring in boxes into the city clerk’s office of all the grants for as many years as they had them because they had been storing them at home because they didn’t know what to do with them. So we brought all of that in and we had a long conversation. I met with the commissioners and said look, here are your responsibilities. You’re going to get a dollar amount, here’s how it’s been done in the past. As the commissioners of Review & Comment you have the ability to change the process, keep the process, whatever you want to do but copies of everything have to remain in this building and accessible to people. We’ll provide administrative support for copying because the other two co-chairmen they were using their personal funds to make copies, seven copies of every document for everybody. We’ll collect them here so we’ve done some of that. I’m not sure how it’s changed over the years, but I’m sure they would be wiling to come in and sit down and meet. Most of the members of the board have met them when they came through to be appointed. But I think that might be a worthwhile conversation so everybody is on the same page understanding how it should go. Alderman Wilshire I have to say that I’ve asked for this to happen in the past, and I was told by the Mayor and by you, Mr. President, that it was not within the purview of the Human Affairs Committee to oversee the activities of the Review & Comment Commission and that is not the case. It is the Human Affairs Committee. Yes. It says that, Mayor. It does. Mayor Lozeau No, it doesn’t. Alderman Wilshire It does. Mayor Lozeau Alderman Wilshire, I’ll be happy. I had asked legal because you and I were having this struggle to explain it to me. And I think the confusion is where it talks about what reports to committees. But the ordinances, neither one of us have oversight over Review & Comment. They are appointed as commissioners, and they are accountable as they get appointed and do their work. But legal opinion on that was that no, Human Affairs didn’t have oversight. In the suggestion that I’m making about the conversation, it’s not a conversation based on who has ultimate oversight. It’s a conversation based on what people’s expectations are. These are volunteer people that are thinking that they are doing something good and giving back to the community. If they could do things differently, I think they would be interested in hearing people’s opinions about it, but I would still say that there is no oversight by a committee of the board. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 26 Alderman Wilshire Okay then I would like legal to explain to me why under Standing Committees of the Board of Aldermen that it says that the Human Affairs Committee is responsible for the activities of the Review & Comment Commission. Under standing committees that’s what it says. I don’t know if it’s in there by mistake. Mayor Lozeau No, it’s referrals. Chairman McCarthy That’s probably actually the language that I wrote at the end of my first term when we reorganized the committees. The intent there was that things that have to do with grant activities when they come to the board get referred to the Human Affairs Committee, which I think is the issue that we talked about last year. When there are policy issues about how Review & Comment should work that this board has authority over it, yes, those should go to the Human Affairs Committee but not the daily operations of that committee. And I think that was the distinction of the discussion we had last year. Alderman Wilshire The discussion we had was about changing the process, and I questioned why the process was changing and why that didn’t come before this board. And I was told that it wasn’t within the purview of the Human Affairs Committee to get into that. You told me that, and the Mayor told me that. And now I’m being told well, why don’t we have them come talk to the Human Affairs Committee. Which way is it? You can’t have it both ways. Mayor Lozeau Well actually, Alderman Wilshire, I think that you could have a discussion with them without it having to be in the capacity of oversight. I think that a lot of people come in and meet with the committees of the Board of Aldermen because it’s a fruitful discussion. I think that could happen. Alderman Wilshire I’m not saying they shouldn’t come. I’m saying I asked them to come, and I was told by both of you that no. They are not coming because it’s not in your purview as the Human Affairs Committee. That’s what I was told, so I backed off. Then again this year I don’t think the ordinances are being followed. I don’t think things are being handled the way they should be. I don’t think the 20 to 30 members are voting on funding levels as it states here. I don’t think that’s happening. I think there’s $437,000 that we have no backup for. We ask questions, we don’t have the answers. There’s no other department in here that we would let $437,000 go without being able to ask questions, see the information. Not one department, not one other page in here could you say $437,000. Sorry, there’s no backup for it. There’s no applications. There are no recommendations. It says right in here that the commission should comment to the Mayor and the Board of Aldermen. I see no comments. All I see here is funding. There’s no comments. Nothing in front of me. Nothing I can see. I have an issue with that and I’m not going to vote on this budget until I get some of these answers. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 27 Chairman McCarthy With regard to the Review & Comment Commission, if what we’re talking about is their compliance with the ordinances or whether the ordinances need to get changed, yes that is an issue I think would be in front of the Human Affairs Committee. If that was the issue last year, and I was mistaken on that, I apologize. Alderman Wilshire That was the issue last year, and it is this year. Chairman McCarthy There are changes in the process that they are allowed to make without necessarily the involvement of this board. I think it’s clear that there may be more help required in understanding the requirements on the commission than I would have thought necessary and certainly we need to get them that help. I think the issue for tonight is what do we do to straighten it out so it doesn’t happen again, which I think the right thing to do there is for your committee and the commissioners to get together about how are we going to do this right next year. Alderman Wilshire I agree. Chairman McCarthy The second thing is what do we do this year to get to a point where the board is comfortable with the results that came back. For that, I guess what I would like to see is I am assuming that the requirements of the applications were fulfilled and that somewhere there are a set of sheets of paper that we can san into .pdf documents and put on the website so that we’ll understand that. I think the issue of minutes and the report back on the recommendations maybe a little harder, and we need to start working with the commission how we’re going to do that. Maybe they can come in and talk to this committee on how they’ve reached those conclusions. Maybe there are minutes that are just not posted and we’ll find those. Mayor Lozeau I made the inquiry. I was not in the office today to see if that was responded to. Alderman Wilshire Alderman McCarthy, my concern last year was that the 20 to 30 volunteers that are called for were not voting on the funding level as is required. They ranked and then it got sent back to the commissioners who made the decisions on the funding level. That’s not what this says, and that’s not what was being done. And that was my concern last year, and it’s even more of a concern this year. I hope we can clear this up. I’d be happy to have the commissioners come in and meet with the Human Affairs Committee, that we get the process working so that everybody understands it. I’d be happy to do that, but I’m not going to vote on any of this until I have some clarification. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 28 Chairman McCarthy I have asked corporation counsel as to whether we can split 505 out into a separate resolution. I believe that we have the authority to do that. I’m not positive yet. Alderman Wilshire Well, we could zero out the line items and put in the $437,000 as an aldermanic adjustment until we get this cleared up. Chairman McCarthy The problem with that is under the language of the Charter, that triggers the ten votes as an increased line item. If we simply split the resolution and vote on it on them at separate times, they’re both single appropriations. I don’t know which of those paths we’ll wind up taking, but we’ll figure out what we need to do if we need to do that. Alderman Wilshire Thank you. Alderman Deane I remember the city clerk sending out a memo to all the boards and commissions pleading with them to send the minutes to him. We had put an ordinance in. I had spoken to some folks, along with myself, and we became increasingly frustrated prior to a lot of the (inaudible) we couldn’t’ find minutes. People were going to community development. They were going to his office, and people going over to Court Street. It’s an arduous task to begin with, maintaining all of that information. When you look at the RSA 91-A and you look at the requirements, you might end up with just the basics: the date, the time, the people, and that’s it. That’s all that’s required. Whether there’ll be any detail with any of the minutes of the decisions that are being requested, who knows. Chairman McCarthy The votes have to be recorded. Alderman Deane I’m rather surprised that that wasn’t done but I know that, in fact, I think I got a copy of, and City Clerk Bergeron has done it a number of times. He’s sent memos out to these people because some of them were so far behind. The guy’s got enough stuff to do. He doesn’t need to be chasing people around. I understand the mayor’s point of view about the amount of work that people do on that commission. I don’t think anybody is questioning them or their integrity or anything like that. I look back in time when we, the times that I’ve chaired this committee, and those folks used to come in. They’d come and they would sit right here. Lauren and the other lady. I forget the other name’s name. Sorry. Alderman Wilshire Julie. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 29 Alderman Deane They would come and sit right here. One here, and one here. You remember that don’t you? After I asked them a lot of questions and understood what they did and understood what the process was, I kind of accepted the fact that the review and vetting and everything was done upstairs by a large group of people. I don’t know, it’s just one thing I just felt comfortable with leaving alone because of the amount of work that went into it. It is a large sum of money, but I just felt most of the folks that were involved understood everything, and it’s a part of the community that some of them are involved with that understand so I accepted that as a good deed done by a large group of people. And probably is still that way today. I don’t think anybody is questioning anybody’s integrity. It’s just the process. Mayor Lozeau Last year, the chairman did come in. This year we never got to the 505, the night that it was scheduled. Then I wasn’t sure which night we would get to it. So what I had told the chairman was that if there was a request made for her to come in, I would have her come in. The night that we were going to take it up, she wasn’t here and Alderman Wilshire wasn’t here, and I suggested that we wait. So I’m sure they would be happy to come in and talk about it. Alderman Deane That hasn’t been reviewed. Mayor Lozeau It was. Chairman McCarthy We did talk about it one evening. Alderman Deane Briefly. Chairman McCarthy Ya. Chairman McCarthy And then Alderman Wilshire brought the concerns up I believe that evening after the meeting. Alderman Deane So basically the bottom line is we’re looking for the applications are going to be scanned and posted and somebody’s going to try to spend some time recreating the minutes and the motions and the votes that were taken. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 30 Chairman McCarthy I think we don’t know whether there are minutes or not. They’re not recorded here but the commissioners may well have them. Alderman Deane I wouldn’t want to be that person if you had to recreate those things. Alderman Pressly I have an issue related to this and it has to do with legal opinions and typing. Chairman McCarthy Let’s hold off on it until we get to it. Alderman Wilshire I just want to say that having served on the Review & Comment Commission for a number of years, it’s a lot of work. It’s a short commitment, it only lasts two or three months. Certainly if somebody steps up to volunteer, it’s great. There’s a lot of good people out there wiling to do the work. But it is a good amount of work. It’s not just come in and interview agencies. You’ve got to vet out of the process what the needs are and it’s quite a bit of work. For people that volunteer, I appreciate the fact that they do it. I know I spent an inordinate amount of time putting together the worksheets that were sent back to the organizations that applied that gave them some pretty good feedback why they got funded or why they didn’t get funded and what they could do better next time to fare better. It is a good amount of work, and I do appreciate what people put in but the process has to work the way the ordinance is laid out. So that’s my concern. Thank you. Chairman McCarthy Are we finished with 505 for the moment? Okay. Alderman Pressly Thank you. As we all know there’s been a change in personnel with our staff. I was thinking that maybe that’s an opportunity to take a look at what our needs are. To me, it’s related to typing, getting the minutes done and the other one is to have an independent legal opinion. So I’m wondering if anyone has ever looked into the possibility of having what they used to call the steno pool, where there would be one central place that you would hand in what you needed to have typed. That might apply to what we were just talking about. A lot of these volunteer groups have to have someone to type up what they’ve done. I know I’ve attended some of the downtown groups and they have a city employee, Linda LaFleur has been typing. I think Tom Galligani now is going to be typing their minutes. So somebody has to type up all these minutes. In our situation it’s rather seasonal. Summertime it’s slow. Has there ever been any consideration given to having a central place in city hall that takes care of all the typing? Then that would leave us free to hire someone maybe part-time to be a paralegal or someone that can help draft legislation, can advise us in a different capacity. I’d like to toss it out. Another alderman had mentioned to me that that’s the sort of thing you can hire out too, that you don’t have to have it within the city. There are companies that actually provide that sort of service for a fee. I hope we have a chance to discuss things like this sometime. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 31 Alderman Sheehan My only experience with lawyers is that when you have more than one, they don’t agree. Otherwise, they’re out of business. So in the interest of self-preservation, it is always best to have a different point of view. That being said, we’re a legislative body and we have an executive branch, but we are a whole city. I think it is important that our legal opinion is cohesive, but if we don’t agree with it, we can always go a different way. I know there’s been legislation in the past that said this is a gray area, but the aldermen have gone ahead and tried to legislate it anyway with varying degrees of success. However, I think that if legal wanted more legal that would be the way to do that. I don’t think having a separate, we’re going to end up with just two different opinions on everything. I don’t think that’s a valid use of time or resource. If I could go back to one other thing, I did find the Downtown Improvements Committee verbiage if anybody wanted to know. It says “320-43.2, Downtown Improvements Committee. There shall be a downtown improvements committee consisting of nine members who shall advise the mayor as to how to appropriate the funding for downtown improvements. The final determination of what purpose or purposes the funding shall be used for shall be determined by the mayor and the board of aldermen through the regular budget process.” Secondly, I didn’t say the school had a windfall because of the weather. What I said is we’re getting out of school early because of the weather. Chairman McCarthy Actually we’re not. We’re getting out of school two days late because of the weather. Alderman Sheehan Well this is the earliest in my rather short life. Chairman McCarthy That’s because we started school in August last year. Alderman Sheehan I understand. I’ve just never had my kids home this early and I’m excited. Chairman McCarthy There were four snow days which is what’s anticipated based on the October snow, and two of those were made up during the year. Alderman Sheehan Correct. Chairman McCarthy And I don’t believe there are any line items in the school budget that would actually show savings due to the mild winter because the majority of the plowing is done by Parks and Rec. so we would see it in the city budget, not in the school budget. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 32 Alderman Sheehan Which would be why I never it. Alderman Deane I think you might find it in their fuel use, and their electric lines and natural gas. So I think you would find some savings. I’m of a different opinion with the paralegal. I think we need our own attorney. One city or not, the legal department works to the pleasure of the Mayor. Period. I have a question on 593, page 197 of 278. Line item 87025. Has an RFP already gone out for this? Alderman Donchess Excuse me, what’s the line item? Sorry. Alderman Deane 87025, transfer to building reserve. Have you put an RFP out? Mayor Lozeau On what? Alderman Deane For evaluation and depreciation of buildings for a schedule? Mayor Lozeau No. This money in this fund, Alderman Deane, I’m trying to build a fund up for us for our buildings. I’m not looking to put out an RFP to spend the money in this fund. It’s two separate things. Alderman Deane So none of this money will be used for a building evaluation or deprecation schedule of what we currently own. Mayor Lozeau It could potentially be used towards that. I guess what I’m saying to you is I don’t have any plans to spend what could be $300,000 in this budget to do anything to a building. But I do have a plan to look at doing some kind of deprecation and schedule for the city buildings that don’t have any of that kind of information available. Chairman McCarthy Alderman Deane, are you of the opinion that we should have that analysis done? Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 33 Alderman Deane It states that $150,000 has been expended to date. So there’s $150,000 sitting in there. Mayor Lozeau There’s $150,000 Alderman Deane And now you want to make it $300,000. Mayor Lozeau Right, and I want to put an amount in there every year to build a capital reserve for our buildings. Deferred maintenance, capital reserve, whatever we want to call it. We have city buildings that don’t have any money set aside for the buildings. Alderman Deane I had another question, but it’s not a budget related question so I’m not going to ask it. I wanted to go to the insurance that was on page 71. Do we have any actuals to date in this area? I know we talked about Alderman McCarthy’s favorite five-digit 830077 or 10 rather. Do we have actual to date? Mayor Lozeau As you know, Alderman Deane, the request for some of these policies aren’t paid at the same time every year. Alderman Deane Yup. I understand that. Do we have actuals to date though? I know that things are paid at certain times. Mayor Lozeau I would imagine we do. Alderman Deane Could I get a copy of that? Mayor Lozeau Yes. Alderman Deane Is that readily available or is that Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 34 Mayor Lozeau I don’t know the answer to how readily available it is. Alderman Deane Mr. Griffin? John Griffin Alderman Deane, let me make sure I understand the question. Alderman Deane I’d like to know how much money has been spent out of these line items to date. John Griffin Sure. Right here we have actuals through 3/31. You’d like the most recent date by line item. Alderman Deane Yup. John Griffin Okay. Alderman Deane Mr. Griffin, thank you for sending along that 44-page .pdf of the questions that have been asked and requested. Thank you. My other question is how are you doing on the review of the police department data? Mayor Lozeau I’ve reached out to a couple of different organizations. I’m trying to put together an independent review to look at the data. If you look at it closely some of the things that jump out at you are the timing and again the influence of the weather, and a concentration on drug arrests. I wouldn’t want to see us make any big changes over a three-month period but I am putting something together and hopefully can get a group together to do an independent review. I think that’s really important. If the numbers of January, February and March of this year hold true for the rest of the year, I’m concerned as we all should be. How we approach that and what we do about it, I think is a subject of discussion. Alderman Deane Mr. Chairman, could you contact the police chief and ask him if he can attend our next budget meeting? Chairman McCarthy Sure. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 35 Alderman Deane Thank you. I had another question, Mr. Chairman, and this is kind of ironic. This is a government document from you. I don’t see a “sl” on the bottom with two little dots, but it pertains to the Vision 20/20 that you had sent out to the division directors. It was consolidated input sessions that we had. You had asked for them to review it, and as you state in here: “I suspect there are many areas that you may already be handling.” Did you ever get a response? Chairman McCarthy We have not. I believe we will get one on at least the major issues. Alderman Deane On when? Chairman McCarthy We’ll get a response on the major issues. I’ve talked to the mayor about that a few times. Alderman Deane Well this is like, what? About a year ago? Chairman McCarthy Ya. Mayor Lozeau There’s been a lot going on this year, Alderman Deane. The cabinet has looked at it. We’ve had some … Alderman Deane It’s been a year. I’m just wondering when… Mayor Lozeau I understand that. Alderman Deane Are they going to look it? Are they going to respond? Mayor Lozeau They have looked at it, and they’ve responded. We’ve been talking about it. Other things seem to come up and get in the way from time-to-time including a couple of major illnesses but we’ll respond. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 36 Alderman Deane I don’t want to go down that road. Mayor Lozeau Well, I’m just Alderman Deane I don’t. Mayor Lozeau I’m not asking you to. I’m just saying that sometimes in life it’s about timing. Alderman Deane The other question I had was in the solid waste disposal system fund on page 215 of 278. That 801-1, A-2, that $150,000. There’s been $250,000 requested for that soil wall. Where is that project? Is that part of the expansion? What is that for? Mayor Lozeau My understanding is it’s the transition between Phase I and Phase II cells. Alderman Deane And when is it scheduled to be constructed? Mayor Lozeau I think they’ve done some work in preparation for it. I can’t give you a specific answer. I wouldn’t want to be mistaken. Alderman Deane Should I ask the division director of public works? Mayor Lozeau I’ll get you an answer, Alderman Deane. Alderman Deane Can I ask her? Or, you want to ask her? Mayor Lozeau Ask her if you want. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 37 Alderman Deane Oh, I can? Mayor Lozeau But I’m going to get you answer. Alderman Deane No, I just wanted to… Mayor Lozeau I think you all know that you can certainly ask all the directors lots of questions. Everybody does. You know that you can. Alderman Donchess Just going back, I just want to understand what’s going on with the sidewalks. In terms of the bridge project and the sidewalks there, did the Board of Public Works approve the design and the overall project details that we see being implemented now? Mayor Lozeau Yes. The Board of Public Works had the engineering drawings. It was presented to them. Alderman Donchess And do you recall when that was? Mayor Lozeau Not off the top of my head. Alderman Donchess I had a request as well, Mr. Chair. When the school department was in, we asked them to prioritize, especially one-time expenditures in the event that we could find savings in the budget and wished, as a committee, to consider funding a one-time expenditure. I believe they are meeting tonight to discuss their priorities and to finalize them as a board. Would you, along with the police chief, ask someone from the school department whether it be the head of the board or the superintendent or whomever is most appropriate to come before us and report to us what in the end they decided their priorities are? Chairman McCarthy Yup. Alderman Donchess Thank you. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 38 Chairman McCarthy Is our next meeting tomorrow night? Alderman Deane No, we have Joint Special. Chairman McCarthy Okay, that’s right. I’ll see if I can arrange that for next week. Alderman Donchess Alright. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Alderman Pressly If I understood you correct, Madam Mayor, and I really just need a yes or no answer, you and the design team and the board of public works fully understood that by having a large design in the middle of the sidewalks, the block of cement, that it was not going to line up with the center of the bridge. Just yes or no. Did you know that? Mayor Lozeau It’s not a yes or no question. Alderman Pressly Did you know, yes or no, that by placing Mayor Lozeau That it wouldn’t line up with the plaque on the bridge? Alderman Pressly Yes. Mayor Lozeau No, I don’t think anybody really had a specific conversation about the plaque on the bridge. Alderman Pressly Well that is the center of the bridge. And so this large focal point is way off to one side. Mayor Lozeau It’s in the center of the sidewalk. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 39 Alderman Pressly It’s in the center of the sidewalk, of course. But it’s not aligned with the center of the bridge. And so if didn’t know that, that’s all I want to know. You just didn’t know it. Thank you. Mayor Lozeau I looked at it. I have to tell you I’m not terribly concerned about it. Alderman Pressly Yes or no. No final comment needed. Thank you. Mayor Lozeau But I do get to speak. Chairman McCarthy Alderman Pressly, the mayor is allowed to answer at whatever length she likes. It’s not Perry Mason by the way. Alderman Pressly As far as legal opinions, it’s not so much on opinions but it’s on drafting legislation. If we as a body say, gee can we do this, can we not do that or how do we go about doing this or doing that. It’s awfully nice to have our own attorney to advise us. That’s the way it works at the state house. In fact the Senate has their own legal counsel. The House has their own legal counsel as does the Governor. So, it’s common when you have two different entities and one is to balance the other out. It’s very common that they have their separate legal staff to advise them. So, it’s not an unusual thing to be looking at or requesting. Alderman Cookson I certainly don’t want to belabor this conversation about sidewalks, but I’m just curious. I know as the liaison to the board of public works, I’ve attended all but one meeting this term. Was that decision made this year? Mayor Lozeau I believe so. Alderman Cookson, the engineer presented it. He hung it up on the white board behind us. We all turned around. We looked at it. We discussed it. I believe it was this year. Alderman Cookson Alright. Thank you. I was not in attendance, and I’ve only missed one meeting and I certainly don’t recall the engineer sharing the details. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 40 Mayor Lozeau I’d be happy to get you the date and the information. Alderman Cookson I would appreciate that. Thank you. Mayor Lozeau I’m just trying to fix our sidewalks. Alderman Cookson I understand. Mayor Lozeau Whatever I have to do, I do. Alderman Cookson Thank you. MOTION BY ALDERMAN DEANE TO TABLE R-12-41 MOTION CARRIED UNFINISHED BUSINESS – None NEW BUSINESS – RESOLUTIONS R-12-42 Endorsers: Mayor Donnalee Lozeau Alderman Michael J. Tabacsko Alderman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja RESETTING THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF THE TEN PERCENT INCREASE IN EMPLOYEE CONTRIBUTIONS TO HEALTH INSURANCE TO OCTOBER 1, 2011 BY AMENDING THE MERIT PLAN AND APPROVING THE COST ITEMS OF THE ATTACHED SIDEBAR AGREEMENTS MOTION BY ALDERMAN DEANE TO RECOMMEND FINAL PASSAGE OF R-12-42 ON THE QUESTION Alderman Deane Mayor, do you want to give us an overview of this piece of legislation? Mayor Lozeau Certainly. This legislation is brought in for consideration because of as I explained when updating on the status of some of the union contracts that we had a group of employees who have paid retroactively to Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 41 July. When I was faced with the fire contract and trying to make a decision on whether or not I should let it stand and support it or whether I should veto it because it didn’t meet the July 1st retroactivity, I tried to really compare everything associated with what we had asked the employees to do and what seemed like the most fair thing to do under the circumstances. That’s when we took a look at what would it mean if we reset the date. We didn’t penalize employees who came in early and agreed to the July 1st date and that’s what this legislation is from. It takes care of the library. It takes care of the custodians, food service, merit and teachers. Did I miss anybody? I think that’s probably all of them. Alderman Deane The custodians, the school secretaries, library employees, the merit employees, and I thought there was some police in there. Mayor Lozeau Teachers. Chairman McCarthy The teachers. Alderman Cookson Police non-affiliated. Mayor Lozeau So that’s what’s before the committee this evening. Alderman Deane And this is all coming out of? Mayor Lozeau Health care dollars. Alderman Deane Does this include language of the transfer? I don’t think it does, does it? Mayor Lozeau I believe so. I didn’t think it had to come in for a second visit. Alderman Deane Well if you get a transfer out of that account, you might have to. Right? I don’t know. All of the union contracts included the transfer was part of the resolution. The $1.6 million when we asked for the breakdown. Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 42 Mayor Lozeau That was for the restoration. Chairman McCarthy That was transfer into the department budget. In this case, I think all that happens is that we’re not collecting money into the account from payroll deductions. Alderman Deane But they’re reimbursing. Chairman McCarthy We’re not reimbursing them. We’re just not charging them for the money that would go into the account. Alderman Deane Okay. The health care holiday. So depending on when they settled their contract, the length of their not paying into their premium as reimbursement to get them at par with the other October 1. Mayor Lozeau Exactly. Alderman Deane What’s the motion on the floor? Chairman McCarthy The motion is your motion for final passage. MOTION CARRIED NEW BUSINESS – ORDINANCES – None TABLED IN COMMITTEE R-12-34 Endorsers: Mayor Donnalee Lozeau Alderman Michael J. Tabacsko Alderman-at-Large Brian S. McCarthy Alderman Richard A. Dowd Alderman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja RELATIVE TO TRANSFERS AND APPROPRIATIONS OF $740,000 INTO THE CAPITAL EQUIPMENT RESERVE FUND (CERF) • Tabled 5/9/12 Budget Review – 05/30/12 Page 43 GENERAL DISCUSSION PUBLIC COMMENT REMARKS BY THE ALDERMEN POSSIBLE NON-PUBLIC SESSION ADJOURNMENT MOTION BY ALDERMAN DONCHESS TO ADJOURN MOTION CARRIED The meeting was declared closed at 8:40 p.m. Alderman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja Committee Clerk