City Council

MINUTES Vol 7, Page 477 BOARD OF FINANCE and CITY COUNCIL & WPCA SPECIAL JOINT MEETING City Hall Auditorium / Zoom January 20, 2026 A SPECIAL JOINT MEETING of the Board of Finance and City Council and Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) was held at the City Hall Auditorium on Tuesday, January 20, 2026. Present at the City Hall auditorium were Mayor Molly Spino, Corporation Counsel Tomasz Kalinowski, City Councilors Paul Cavagnero, Armand Maniccia, Rachel Hannon-Harrel, and Chris Beyus. Anne Ruwet joined by Zoom. David Oliver was absent. Board of Finance Members Donna Iannacito, Laurene Pesce, Wendy Traub, Christopher Anderson and Dan Thibault. Caitlin Hall was absent. Also present at City Hall were Comptroller Olivia DeRosa, Deputy Comptroller & Manager of Budgets Erika Crowley, BOE Finance Director Donna Labbe and Dean Pergola. Marc Loranger from Gale Associates and Attorney Sandra Dawson of Pullman & Comley joined by Zoom. Mayor Spino opened the meeting at 6:00 p.m., beginning with the Pledge of Allegiance. TABLED - Torrington Middle School Roof Replacement On a motion by Mr. Thibault, seconded by Councilor Cavagnero, the Boards voted unanimously to Table the approval of an appropriation of $6,612,375 and a bond authorization of $5,912,375 for the former Torrington Middle School (Torrington Intermediate School) Roof Replacement Project. Mr. Thibault discussed the rebidding process and stated that he had many questions. Marc Loranger spoke about the median and average costs of the roof replacement. Mrs. Labbe advised that the BOE followed their legal counsel’s guidance on how to handle the rejection of bids formally in writing and this has been completed. She said all five vendors have received their letters and the BOE can proceed with getting the Roof Replacement out to bid again without having any litigation to the BOE. Mrs. Traub stated that she had many concerns. From a financial standpoint she wants to be assured that if they approve an appropriation that the appropriation will be enough. She asked if there is a sunset on the bonding. She wants to make sure that if they approve this, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are going to borrow $7MM. She asked how can we go about funding this without actually borrowing close to $5MM, Attorney Dawson discussed the legal issues concerning bonding saying there is no sunset on the Resolution. She said however, if you complete the project you need to bond for it within 18 months of completion. If you never start the project, the appropriation and bond resolution will just sit there forever. The City could repeal it or just not act on it. Mayor Spino referred to a proposed financing structure she put together after speaking with the Finance Department and Attorney Dawson. The proposed full amount is $6,612.375. The City would be authorized to issue up to $5,912,375 in Bonds or Notes. There is $700,000 that has already been approved to be bonded for the roof. There is also an additional $286,359.98 that was left over from the first round of Bonding for the $700,000 that was originally approved for windows and reallocated to the roof. Mayor Spino suggested that in order for this to be no cost to the tax payers, the Board of Education could allocate $888,220 from their Capital Funds or their Non-lapsing Fund to cover that. It is a concern that going out to Referendum again, the taxpayers may not approve this. She said we know the financial position that everyone is in. The taxpayers are hurting and she has been hearing this for the past eight months. Mayor Spino stated that this is the best thing she could come up with. Councilor Beyus stated that he does agree with Mrs. Traub that Bonding this money will be a tall task. He thinks that the Fund Balance is healthy enough at this point to complete that. Mrs. Labbe stated that this is a huge ask of the taxpayers. The Board of Ed has sharpened their pencils and dug deep and they looked into the Non-Lapsing Reserve. Mrs. Labbe contacted their attorney and was told that the Non-Lapsing Reserve was for operational educational expenses and it is a different bucket of money. If they are thinking of that 2% Non-Lapsing Reserve they are going to have to Table that. As far as the 313 Capital Reserve, this might be a place to look. The Board of Ed would want to link arms and try to figure out what would be the most economical way to get this over the finish line. Mayor Spino stated that they understand that the roof needs to get replaced. She reached out to the State regarding the Non-Lapsing Reserve Fund and she received different information-that those funds can be used for Capital Expense and it might be worth the Board of Ed to look into this again. Mrs. Labbe stated that she would look into that to see if the verbiage could allow for the appropriation to go towards the roof. Mrs. Pesce spoke about her concerns. She stated that it should not have gone this long to get fixed. She is not in any position to vote on this tonight. Councilman Cavagnero stated that he was Chairman of the Board when many of the lawsuits occurred based on faulty construction of the roof. He said he is very aware of the necessity to get this done and get this done right and he wants to know if the Board of Ed can say that this is a fair and accurate estimate of what the project is going to cost. Councilman Cavagnero said he wants to know how we as City Council going to approve this now and not know that you could come back to us in six months and say there is another contingency that we didn’t MINUTES Vol 7, Page 478 BOARD OF FINANCE and CITY COUNCIL & WPCA SPECIAL JOINT MEETING City Hall Auditorium / Zoom January 20, 2026 account for. He asked if the Board of Ed can give us the confidence that the number that is being asked for approval tonight actually represents a real construction number that is accurate and fair. Mr. Pergola stated that they hired Gale Associates to design this. They have done many roofs before. They looked at this together after the bids came in and through their professionalism and experience, we came up with these numbers. He said there is a lot that goes into it, and the more time we let pass the higher prices go. It was a calculated number per square footage. Mr. Loranger stated that they developed that based on their historic information and the market at the time. Mr. Loranger also noted that there is a contingency of $314,875 which is about 5%. Mr. Anderson stated that he needs to have some kind of affirmative confirmation of where that money is coming from. He is not ready to vote tonight. Mr. Anderson made a motion to Table this until or unless we have the Board of Ed as part of this conversation for their portion. Mr. Beyus stated that a week’s time has to be the maximum. This project has gone on since 2018 and it has cost the taxpayers millions of dollars in that timeline. Mayor Spino stated that she will have the City Clerk send out an email and see when we can get the most people together with a joint meeting with the Board of Ed, Board of Finance and City Council for next week. Coucilman Maniccia stated that the Board of Ed needs to have clarity on exactly what they need from all of us. Adjournment On a motion by Councilor Ruwet, seconded by Mr. Anderson, the Boards voted unanimously to adjourn the meeting at 6:39 p.m. Respectfully submitted by ATTEST: Diane V. Woodruff/Deputy City Clerk CAROL L. ANDERSON, CITY CLERK CAROL L. ANDERSON, CITY CLERK