MINUTES

WATERTOWN TOWN COUNCIL

PUBLIC HEARING #2

WATERTOWN HIGH SCHOOL

TECHNOLOGY ROOM

MONDAY, MAY 15, 2006, 7:00 P.M.

PRESENT: &= nbsp; &nbs= p; Elaine Adams

&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; Antonio Guerrera

&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; Carl Mancini

&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; Joseph Pawlak, Chairman

&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; Suzan Plowman

&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; Raymond Primini

&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; Paul Rinaldi, Vice Chairman

&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; Jack Walton

ABSENT: &= nbsp; &nbs= p; Robert Kane

OTHERS PRESENT: = ; Frank Nardelli, = Acting Town Manager/Finance Director

= ; &n= bsp; = ; &n= bsp; Franklin Pilicy, Town Attorney

1.&nb= sp; Convene Public Hearing - 7:00 P.M.

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Mr. Pawlak, Chair= man, called the Public Hearing to order at 7:01 p.m.

Mr. Pawlak, Chair= man, read aloud the following Notice of the Public Hearing for the record:

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

Watertown, Connecticut

May 15, 2006

The Watertown Town Council will hold a Public Hearing on Monday, May 15, 2006 a= t 7:00 p.m. in the Watertown High School Technology Room, 324 French Street, Watertow= n, CT, to hear public commen= t on a proposed ordinance establishing a Town Hall Preservation Committee.

Dated at Watertown, Connecticut this 5th day of May, 2006.=

____________________________

Frank J. Nardelli, Jr. Acting Town Manager

= Watertown Town Council

Public Hearing #2

May 15, 2006

Page 2

RETURN OF NOTICE

TOWN OF WATERTOWN

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

I = hereby certify that on May 5, 2006 I left a duplicate copy of the attached Notice = of Public Hearing, Town of Watertown, Connecticut with Virginia R= usso, its Assistant Town Clerk, to be held on May 15, 2006.

I = further certify that I caused a copy of said Notice of Public Hearing to be publish= ed in REPUBLICAN AMERICAN on May 5, 2006, which newspaper has a substantial circulation in said Town.

I = further certify that on May 5, 2006, I caused to be set upon the signpost or other exterior places nearest the Office of the Town Clerk and all other place and signposts designated by the Town, a written copy of said Notice of Public Hearing signed by the Acting Town Manager of the Town of Watertown.

I = further certify that all of the above acts were done at least five (5) days before = the holding of the Public Hearing on May 15, 2006.

Da= ted at Watertown, Connecticut, this 5th day of May, 2006.

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&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; = Frank J. Nardelli, Jr.

&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; = Acting Town Manager

TOWN CLERK’S CERTIFICATION AS TO

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING AND RETURN OF NOTICE<= /p>

I HEREBY CERTIFY that the attached Notice of Public Hearing of the foregoing Return = of Notice of Public Hearing are duly recorded in the records of the Town of Watertown, Connecticut, and that Frank J. Nardelli, Jr. was Acting Town Man= ager on the date the Notice and Return of Notice were signed.

Dated at Watertown, Connecticut, this 5th day of May, 2006= .

&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p;

&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; Virginia Russo

&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; Assistant Town Clerk, Town of Watertown<= /st1:place>

Watertown Town Council

Public Hearing #2

May 15, 2006

Page 3

Mr. Pawlak: The meeting is now open for public participation.

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Franklin Pilicy, Town Attorney

<= /p>

Atty. Pilicy: This ordinance has its origins in relatively recent proceedings in that a group of individuals in Watertown have co= me forward and indicated the willingness to establish and become organized for purposes of preserving the existing Town Hall. It was my opinion that the best wa= y for that to happen would be to establish a commission or a committee by ordinan= ce, which has some of the same types of benefits that we talked about a little = bit earlier, such as there's no up front and on-going costs of organizing a sep= arate entity, it brings the group within the Town oversight for financial purpose= s, it brings the group within the Town insurance coverage issues and so forth. With assistance and input from this group, we created an ordinance that is basically an attempt to give this Pr= eservation Committee the tools that it needs to conduct its business. The ordinance that we have tonight= , at least the second draft of it that we're proposing for consideration, provid= es for 9 members, with staggered terms; there's specific individuals proposed = to be appointed for 4 year terms and specific individuals proposed for 2 year terms. Having said that I note there are a number of individuals present tonight that are involved in this= Committee and I would just state that any additional input into the final content of = this ordinance would be welcome, if in fact it's deemed that anything that they really want isn't in here. Th= e intention was to try and give this Committee all of the tools that it might need to b= est accomplish their goals. Thank= you.

<= /p>

= ; Joe Masi, 33 Pleasantview Stre= et, Oakville, CT 06779=

= ; Mr. Masi: I rise to speak in = favor of the ordinance for the Watertown Town Hall Preservation Committee. There is one item, however, that I= think the Council ought to be aware of, and that is Section VIII checks, the last section says that no administrative costs of any nature shall be paid out of the fund balance, which means we would start off with zero funds at our disposal and because of the kind of organization that we will have, which m= eans we are going to actively solicit contributions, there will be mailers, supp= lies that have to be purchased, and so forth, we need to be assured obviously th= at there will be some funds available to us, either through an appropriation of which we haven't determined the amount at this point in time, but there has= to be a vehicle for monies that we need to spend in order to make this happen. It can't happen using= air.

<= /p>

Mr. Pawlak: You're also talking about identifi= cation badges of some sort also.

<= /p>

Mr. Masi: Yes, anything and everything that's= necessary to make this thing go. I just= wanted to make everybody aware of the fact that at some point in time that has to = be covered, so we can make this a success and get the contributions coming in.=

<= /p>

Mr. Pawlak: Do you have any idea, Joe, what ty= pe of costs you're looking at, $100 or $1,000?

Watertown Town Council

Public Hearing #2

May 15, 2006

Page 4

<= /p>

= ; Mr. Masi: We haven't really g= otten into that. We're going to hav= e a final meeting on the 17th and I don't know how much we're going to discuss = at that point in time cause it's a close up type meeting from the old organization, but rest assured as soon as we get going, we're going to have= to discuss the finances and come up with a budget, that will be presented to y= ou for monies, but I just rise to let you know that that is coming, that has to come if this is going to work. Thanks.

<= /p>

Atty. Pilicy: I'd just like to, if that's deemed = by the Council something to address, there's a couple of suggestions I could make.= One is that sentence could be left = in place and add at the end of that sentence, unless approved by the Town Coun= cil, but again that may be burdensome that every time there is an administrative cost, it has to wait for Council approval.= Another suggestion might be that no administrative cost of any nature shall be paid out of the fund balance except in accordance with a Town Coun= cil Resolution, and that way from time to time, maybe even annually, the Town Council could approve a Resolution that would authorize expenditures for certain types of expenses within certain timeframes, so I guess the Council would have 3 choices, either leave it the way it is, or provide except in accordance with Town Council approval, or except in accordance with a Town Council Resolution, and a Resolution could be a from time to time type of resolution that would give some leeway and flexibility, but yet have some controls over the spending, so just some ideas, cause I think it probably, = if it's an active committee, it will be a significant issue.

<= /p>

Mr. Pawlak: Sounds reasonable. Any comments? Any preference with respect to the options that Frank presented?

<= /p>

= ; Ms. Adams: Probably a Resolut= ion. Say they need $1,300 for a mailer = to the households asking for pledges or donations, and we can say okay we authoriz= e up to $1,300 to be spent for a mailer.

<= /p>

Mr. Pawlak: Reimbursement to be coming from the= funds raised by the activities. Fra= nk?

<= /p>

Mr. Nardelli: Strictly for administrative costs, = right?

<= /p>

Mr. Pawlak: Yes.

<= /p>

Mr. Nardelli: I know this administrative cost was= put in there because they don't want like the General Fund charging an administrative cost to this separate fund to administer the funds, I know t= hat was the original reason, but yes, strictly for administrative funds you can= put that language in.

<= /p>

Mr. Primini: Are we providing any seed money ini= tially because I'd like to get something going before the postage goes up again. <= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> I know when we did fundraisers like= this in the Fire Department, just to get started with the mailers and postage, i= t's about $7,000 or $8,000 to send something to each household, so I was wonder= ing about seed money. That was ju= st to get the mailers going, and the postage adds up pretty quick.

Watertown Town Council

Public Hearing #2

May 15, 2006

Page 5

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Atty. Pilicy: If we add an except in accordance w= ith a Resolution of the Town Council, then the initial resolution could provide s= ome initial seed money and that doesn't even have to be tonight, it could be af= ter the Committee is organized and makes a request to you for a specific resolution= . In other words, they can propose a resolution, and say we'd like an initial resolution that would provide authorization and seed money for the following items and the following amou= nts and this will cover us for 6 months or a year, and they can come back and t= ell you what they think they need, and then you could act on that part of it at that time, but except in accordance with a Resolution of the Town Council, = that would give both parties the ability to work together on that part of it.

= ; Mr. Pawlak: All right, that m= akes sense to me. Any other commen= ts from the Council? Any other p= ublic participation?

3.&nb= sp; Adjournment=

Mr. Pawlak, Chairman, Closed the Public Hearing at 7:11 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted,

Joseph Pawlak, Chairman

&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; = Town Council

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A= pproved: _______________________________

Lynn M. LaF= orme, Clerk