MINUTES
SPECIAL TOWN MEETING
THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 2007, 7:00 P.M.=
PRESENT: &=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; Elaine
Adams
&=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; Antonio
Guerrera
&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; Robert Kane (arrived at 7:10 p.m.)
&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; Carl Mancini
&= 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: &nb= sp; = Joseph Pawlak, Chairman
&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; Suzan Plowman
OTHERS PRESENT: Joseph Erardi, Superintendent of Schools
&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; Chuck Frigon, Town Manager
&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; Todd LoFrese, Director of Operations, Board of Education
&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; Frank Nardelli, Assistant Town Manager/Finance Director
1.&nb=
sp; Convene
Mr.
Rinaldi, Vice Chairman, Called the
MOTION: &nbs= p; (Mr. Mancini, sec. Mr. Walton) to nominate Paul Rinaldi for Moderator of the Spe= cial Town Meeting.
Discussion: =
Mr. Rinaldi: Are there any other nominations?
MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
MOTION: &nbs= p; (Mr. Mancini, sec. Mr. Walton) to nominate Lynn LaForme for Secretary of the Spe= cial Town Meeting.
Discussion: =
Mr. Rinaldi: Are there any other nominations?
MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
Spec=
ial Town
Meeting
June=
28, 2007
Page=
2
Mr. Rinaldi, Moderator, read aloud the Call of the Meeting as follows:
WARNING AND NOTICE
SPECIAL TOWN MEETING
June 28, 2007
The legal voters = of the Town of Watertown and those entitled to vote in Town Meetings are hereby WA= RNED AND NOTIFIED of a Special Town Meeting to be held on Thursday, June 28, 200= 7 at 7:00 p.m. at the Watertown High School Technology Room, 324 French Street, = Watertown, CT to consider an appropriation in the amount of $79,000 from the General F= und to the Board of Education Fund for the repair of Judson Elementary School Boilers.
Dated in
&=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp;
&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; Charles A. Frigon
&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; Town Manager
RETURN OF
WARNING AND NOTICE
SPECIAL TOWN MEETING
June 28, 2007
I hereby certify that on June 22, 2007, I left a duplicate copy of the attach= ed WARNING AND NOTICE of a Special Town Meeting of the Town of Watertown, Connecticut, to be held on June 28, 2007 with Virginia Russo, Assistant Town Clerk.
I further certify that I caused a copy of said Warning and Notice to be publi= shed in the REPUBLICAN AMERICAN Newspaper on June 22, 2007, which has a substant= ial circulation in said Town.
I further certify that on June 22, 2007, I caused to be set upon the signpost nearest the office of the Town Clerk and all other places with signposts designated by the Town, a written copy of said Warning and Notice signed by= me as Town Manager.
I further certify that all the above acts were done at least five (5) days be= fore the holding of the Special Town Meeting on June 4, 2007.
&=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp;
&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; Charles A. Frigon, Town Manager
Spec=
ial Town
Meeting
June=
28,
2007
Page=
3
TOWN CLERK’S CERTIFICATION
AS TO WARNING AND RETURN OF WARNING
I hereby certify that the attached WARNING AND NOTICE of the foregoing RETURN= OF WARNING are duly recorded in the records of the Town of Watertown, Connecti= cut and that Charles A. Frigon was the Town Manager of the Town of Watertown on= the date the WARNING and RETURN OF WARNING were signed.
Dated at
&=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; =
&=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp;
&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; = Virginia Russo, Assistant Town Clerk
Mr. Rinaldi: The meeting is now open for pu= blic comment.
MOTION: &nbs= p; (Mr. Mancini, sec. Mr. Walton) to appropriate $79,000 from the General Fund to t= he Board of Education Fund for the Repair of Judson Elementary School Boilers.=
Discussion: =
David Minnich,
= ; &n= bsp; Mr. Minnich: I want to make some comments, but = before I do, I would appreciate a presentation by whomever from the Board of Educa= tion as to why this matter is before us.
=
; &n=
bsp; Joseph Erardi, Superintendent of S=
chools
= ; &n= bsp; Dr. Erardi: The matter is before Town Meeting = this evening after bringing this to the attention of the Town Council and the appointed officials on June 19th. The issue of discussion for tonight, the Judson Boilers, and Todd LoFrese is here this evening and can speak in an executive summary but with some detail on that.
= ; &n= bsp; The Board of Education worked diligently this year to balance a very difficult budget. D= oing so we had brought our budget to freeze, with the exception of anything that wa= s a significant and of substance that we had to purchase since November of 2006= . The Judson Boiler issue was an exp= ense of approximately $80,000 that we did not anticipate. The present operational plan withi= n the Board of Education does not include, nor does on the Town's side include, a capital plan that offers a fund balance to roll over, meaning that any capi= tal expense is one that we have to somehow try to absorb in our budget.
Spec=
ial Town
Meeting
June=
28,
2007
Page=
4
= ; &n= bsp; Further exacerbating the Judson boiler expense were a number of line items that wer= e over expended that we felt we could not and did not plan for appropriately, one being be federal law at the close of a parent pupil teacher conference, we = have approximately 400 students in our district, there were 13 instances that because of the binding agreement that comes out of that type of meeting, we were in need to hire 13 additional paraprofessionals. We did not expect that. We have no choice when that happens. In addition to that = we have our line set, as does the Town in our Workers' Comp area, set professi= onally through a consultant. We had = under funded that line item by nearly $135,000.&= nbsp; That takes place due to a number of things. The Board is working hard to bring= to close long standing Workers' Comp issues and we could not predict or project the injuries that would happen this year in 3 or 4 very freaky, strange accidents with broken wrists, broken arms, and a fractured elbow.
= ; &n= bsp; With all of that said, the first information that came from the Central Office, = or my office, was forwarded to at the time the Acting Town Manager, Frank Nardelli, and that notification took place in August, 2006. It was the information that the Ju= dson boilers needed repair. The bo= ilers had cracked, we knew that we had a heating season coming forward on or befo= re November 1st and they had to be repaired.&= nbsp; Todd LoFrese, our Director of Operations, coordinated the repair process. It was hoped at the = time that we would be able to recapture the expense of the repair through litiga= tion; that did not take place. Ther= e was further notification from the Board of Education to Town Hall with the conc= ern of the Judson repair, the $80,000, and again the hope in January of litigat= ion that would offer us the recapture of that money. We were advised through legal coun= sel that that would not take place. On June 18th, brought to my attention was an unexpected $47,000 bill from Work= ers' Compensation, unexpected meaning that the way the State of Connecticut Work= ers' Compensation works with local Boards of Education is that their bills are f= axed, they are not sent via post, they're faxed, with an expectation that within = 48 hours that bills be paid. The $47,000 clearly then indicated to our Director of Business and Finance that= we had to come back to the Town and ask for the $79,000 I stand here before you explaining to you. The inform= ation that you're hearing this evening was shared in great detail on Thursday eve= ning with the Town Council as they moved the question to the Town Meeting. The executive summary on the reque= st is that the $79,000 is needed to close out the 06/07 school year (inaudible).<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> We illustrate the Judson boiler as= the greatest expense that we did not anticipate, however, because of the lockdo= wn that we had and the freeze that we had on this year's budget, we were able = to cover the overage in Workers' Comp, we were able to cover the overage in our personnel line item with the additional paraprofessionals that I spoke about. Todd LoFrese is here t= his evening and will offer a similar executive summary on the exact question of Judson boilers.
Spec=
ial Town
Meeting
June=
28,
2007
Page=
5
=
; &n=
bsp; Todd LoFrese, Director of Operatio=
ns,
Board of Education
= ; &n= bsp; Mr. LoFrese: I think probably the simplest way = to go through the executive summary regarding the Judson boilers is to follow the timeline from December 2005 through November 2006 when the boilers were repaired. In December 2005 ou= r head custodian, doing his routine work, noticed that there was water on the boil= er room floor. I had our heating= and ventilating contractor, TriStar Service, come out to investigate and it turned out we h= ad a cracked section in one of the boilers.&nbs= p; About a week or so later during another routine service, due to clea= ning of the boiler, a different boiler actually, we have 3 boilers in the boiler= room, we discovered another leak in a different boiler= in one of the sections. We then contacted Burnham Manufacturing, the boiler manufacturer company, had them = come down to investigate because obviously we were concerned that we had leaks i= n 2 different boilers in the same exact sections and we were wondering how this came to be, or what could have potentially caused this. Burnham Boiler gave us some recommendations about some piping changes and the need for injector pumps to heat the water returning to the boilers to prevent thermal shock. That was also confirmed by our hea= ting and ventilating contractor, TriStar. To cross the t's and dot the i's, if you will, I recommended hiring = an independent electrical/mechanical engineer to come out and evaluate the sys= tem to make a recommendation for correcting the problem so we didn't experience this in the future. That firm= , C.E.S. out of Middlebury, CT came out, evaluated the system, made recommendations = for repairs, developed specifications for doing those repairs, and ultimately t= he Board of Education went out to bid some time late August of 2006 for doing repairs on the boiler room. T= he boiler room repairs were completed in late October of 2006 and I think that captured the summary of the damage to the boilers as well as what we did to repair them and prevent this from occurring in the future.
=
; &n=
bsp; David Minnich,
= ; &n= bsp; Mr. Minnich: I intend to vote in favor of the Mo= tion, however I think I express my own view in those that I have talked to that t= his issue with the boilers which we're here to address, and I understand the comments of the Superintendent of Schools regarding not having adequate fun= ding available in other parts of the budget is in part the reason for our meetin= g in that they could not find money in the budget line (inaudible) for that, but that isn't the reason we're here. We're here for the boilers as is the notice of the Town Meeting.
Spec=
ial Town
Meeting
June=
28,
2007
Page=
6
= ; &n= bsp; I continue to express some concern and recommendation to the Board of Educati= on and to the Superintendent of Schools regarding how to address this problem.= It's a systemic problem that resul= ts in this community having to pay monies to re-fix or repair what has already be= en repaired or fixed, and I suggest to the Board of Education and the Superintendent of Schools that they establish a policy as a Board as to a dollar amount to which it is required that the administration engage an independent consultant from that which is advising them on the plans for wh= ich they're putting together for the bid documents. That independent consultant, that is a qualified independent consultant= , in writing if they have disagreement with those bid specifications and plans a= re (inaudible) to be resolved by policy, be resolved by the Board of Education. The intensiveness and policy reason= for this is that there is not adequate review from my viewpoint on this and some other issues at the Board of Education for these problems and they need to = be looked at, they need to be addressed prior to the bid specifications going = out.
= ; &n= bsp; The Board of Education cannot walk away from this issue nor can the office of t= he Superintendent and other matters relating to this, on other capital project= s in that they certainly are not at fault as individuals or as a Board for the specific problem that occurs, but there is not a systemic, a systematic pol= icy and process in place to review what independent consultants have given them= for the price for their particular capital improvements. I am convinced that an independent= , qualified independent review which doesn't cost a lot of money, we all know there was= far less time and expense in reviewing a particular, with somebody that's qualified, in reviewing particular expenses and particular documents than t= here is the creation of them and that very issue of having that independent revi= ew, I am convinced will go a long way to this community's continued (inaudible)= not just on this issue, but on others, repaying for things to which we already = have thought was done, so that is my suggestion to the Board of Education and th= e Superintendent of Schools that in the very near future, they develop a policy if they prom= ise (inaudible).
&= nbsp; &nbs= p; Mr. Mancini: In response to M= r. Minnich, Dave a better line of communication should have been met with the Board of Education and the Town Council and when we discussed this about a = week and a half ago, they also agreed that in the future this will happen, a bet= ter line of communication to the Town Council further in advance than it was th= is time, it will be done, that's what we were told.
&= nbsp; &nbs= p; Mr. Rinaldi: Anyone else? If there's no further discussion, = we're going to vote on the motion. = I ask you to vote in the affirmative, say Aye and raise your hand please, so I can get a visual of this thing. If you're going to vote against it, say Nay and rai= se your hand. I'm not going to c= ount votes if it's obvious, but we're going to do it that way anyway; I apprecia= te it.
MOTION CARRIED BY MAJORITY SHOW OF HANDS (2 OPPOSED)
Spec=
ial Town
Meeting
June=
28,
2007
Page=
7
MOTION: (Mr. Mancini, sec. Mr. Guerr=
era)
to Adjourn the
Discussion: None
MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
Respectfully submitted,
Paul Rinaldi, Moderator
Approve= d: ______________________________
&= nbsp; Lynn M. LaForme, Clerk