Video index
1. Call Meeting to Order
2. Roll Call
Roll call (9 Present, 0 Absent, 0 Excused)
4. Communications
3. Public Participation [Per Town Council Rules, this segment of the meeting shall not exceed thirty (30) minutes unless extended by the Mayor, with the consent of the majority of the Town Council.]
702
Don Gonsalves, 40 Bayberry Trail, sent a letter to a couple of the councillors after the approval of the school budget. I believe amendment should have been approved that if the state were to take funding away the school budget would be lowered. I would have passed the amendment, why should they be exempt if the State takes funding. problem is as it stands now if the town gets less funding, the taxpayers are going to get hit, or the town is going to get hit, not the Board of Educastion. Tonight's budget should be subject to what happens with the State funding. Mayor was correct proposing that. The school board was let off the hook.
5. Town Manager’s Report [Per Town Council Rules, this segment of the meeting shall not exceed ten (10) minutes unless extended by the Mayor, with the consent of the majority of the Council.]
none
6. Items for Discussion
A. General Government Budget
None
7. Executive Session
None do think there should be some discussion on the budget.
A. General Government Budget
Mayor Pelkey - Councillor Yagaloff had sent cuts that he wanted to see in this budget. Matt - did recommend 4635,000 from capital. There are items coming in that could help with the capital budget after they come in. There was an issue 1.4 million cut in the budget. some of the things could go along with - we have tower VMP - has deadspot. that tower has nto been put up yet - may be an area where we can wait. 22,000. There is another item wash station, we could try to maintain current one - I don't want to see the revenues go up but if we drawn some projects coming next year and there are revenues Town Council can open budget and equal out the budget. Hate to devastate the entire budget if something happens with the state. There are little items that we could go through and cut about 175,000 to 200,000. Some things that concern me is the snow removal. Last year 285,900 for snow removal. this proposed 306,090. this year adjusted because there was not enough. Storm removal concerned. Rental and Leases is also concerned. Over time in Parks Dept for leaf department. we could not do over time or weekends. that would extend the leaf pickup and could only be done if the snow does not come. Concerned with snow removal - regardless of what it is cut down to there is an obligation to get the snow picked up. take 635,000 and take uts in other areas. 2.1 to 2.2% tax increase. to go any further with that would be difficult on the town. We have to as Council look at everything on here. The Mayor gave some suggestions. We really need to have this discussion. Need to know Town council priorities. Right now I am looking at 2.1 or 2.2 increase. Some of the cuts can work with staff without hurting the program.
Work Sessin reconvened at 7:20 p.m.
Yagaloff - M
Matt - cut 175,000 to 200,000
Yagaloff - this was done to get dialogue going between the Council. The other things trying to accomplish is no layoffs. trying not to impact salaries or increases to staff. Did not want loss in services to the residents. Want to comment on snow removal - just took away the increase. restore back to last eyar budget.
Matt - taking 60,000 out
Yagaloff - want to go back to last year for snow removal. Leaf removal would just coordinate the staff. Snow removal can not do that. Leaf pickup if the snow comes then people would have to be responsible for their own leaves. IT had small deductions. PD has increase in overtime. Rental for space. Mostly Police had to do with fitness center. VMP shed, tower. Fire Marshal - small - engineering - small - public works had to cut some rentals, wash station - those are not necessary only nice to have. Parks overtime, repair facilities. very little on Library. Contingency take 65,000. Had some issues with WPCA. think need to do something about WPCA. Recreation - Day Camp credit card fees, the town is paying for the fee. credit care processing, additional advertising, wireless cards, credit car processing fee, advertising, faciliites advertising. think we have to lighten up the spending in Recreation. My propopal 1.4 and change. 750,000 from capital - sale lien taking some, negative spending increase.
Mayor - appreciate some of the list. Think it is easy to take items out of a book and say lets cut these items. Employees get paid to do their job. Car wash was to get parts to put a washer together. should not stiffle creativity. this is to have teh vehicles last longer. just listing items does a disservice to the budget. do not disagree to cut something out of the budget. the number the Town Manager has discussed is the number I have been looking at. 2.1% increase which was an average from 6 years. 175,000 out of budget for the Town Manager to decide where to cut. by doing that we can get to number that we can all agree on. Leaf collection - like the snow leaves are not predictable either. the implication of leaving the leaves o the road creates slippery, get into storm drainage system, makes teh road look worse. better to clean them up rather than make a mess. Credit Cards?
Matt - Credit Card fees are built into the fee's 67% people who register for Recreation programs use the credit cards. 26% check and 7% cash. To eliminate that people would have to pay with cash or check. we have had a lot of pressure from residents. Paying by credit card the taxes would impact the general fund because those fee's would be included in the taxes. Credit Card is a convenience to people registering for program. 67% of the people like it but it is up to the Council.
Prague - Very interesting idea from Councillor Yagaloff. There has to be something for everyone. We have the same amount of employees we had 30 years ago. Some things you can not get more efficient. we need to pay attention to contracts and get the best possible price we can. it is important to be careful to keep services to a point. Uniforms and clothing, Temp wages?
Ray - two weeks of public swimming - staff gets paid. we would ave to reduce season
Prague - talk to me about the daycare - preschool, camps is way to give kids enrichment while parents work. Credit card processing fee. you don't pay for it but you have to pay for processing fee?
Ray - correct - the provider is through
Prague - no licensing fee. this is all part of the special revenue services. advertising you would not have individuals to use programs.Verizon wireless program
Ray - we have wireless on the computers.
Prague - some are off site? Yes Pragu e- can anything be removed without impacting Recreation? Ray - we need uniforms even for campers. if go to Lake Compoujnce need way to identify the campers.
Prague - these items are all in your fee? Ray - yes Prague - I a m not fan of big increases. everything is going up in price. Would like budget reduced but want to keep services, and roads to stay the same. need to look at things we can get rid of and make things more efficient. need to explore ways to do things cheaper in areas that it would be okay to do that.
Favreau - totally agree with Councillor prague - South Windsor highly educated group of residents. If we go back to survey 2006 - rated life in South windsor very high. 84% rated overall services good or very good. 87% overall PD services good. 67% thought town run well. Items do increase. have to be careful - important to keep budget low but need to set standareds. not to micromanage. decide rate and have TM and staff decide where to cut out. Do not want to lose the quality of life.
Delnicki - what we do tonight has to be based on wants and needs. Councillor yagaloff has showed us what happens if the State takes funding out. Tools to save lives is not items that should be considered. would like to know the value of the ZEO.
Matt - did not have ZEO for approixmately 2 months.
Delnicki - think we can do without the ZEO. Never been a fan of that position. Talked about the capital project budget, what are you proposing to fund with 650,000
Matt - 635,000 Council should put on hold. Would porbably
Pelkey - when council approves capital project funds woudl have to be approved by Council.
Matt - have asked the Superintendent regarding computer process. have asked them to get additional information on that. there is the extra 50,000 for conservatin plan. there are othe rpojects that the Council would have to look at. need to get committee of the Council to decide on projects. I could give recommendations. They are all good projects but decisions will have to set a priority.
Delnicki - safe to say you do not want to point anything out.
Matt - Council should go through process of putting Capital Projects through public heairngs.
Delnicki - many members have said where they woudld like to cut. there are contracts and leases. the other concern if we sell items we should meet to discuss those items.
Matt - have to cut the projects. the only reason using that money is the bond - sale of firehouse would go into capital non-recurring.
Delnicki - then that is the way you hav eto do.
Matt - bond resolution clearn Delnicki - might want to consider if taxes were
8. Adjournment
Motion to Approve 8. Adjournment at 8:02 p.m. Moved by John Pelkey, no second required.
May 16, 2011 Town Council Work Session
Full agenda
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Video Index
Full agenda
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1. Call Meeting to Order
2. Roll Call
Roll call (9 Present, 0 Absent, 0 Excused)
4. Communications
3. Public Participation [Per Town Council Rules, this segment of the meeting shall not exceed thirty (30) minutes unless extended by the Mayor, with the consent of the majority of the Town Council.]
702
Don Gonsalves, 40 Bayberry Trail, sent a letter to a couple of the councillors after the approval of the school budget. I believe amendment should have been approved that if the state were to take funding away the school budget would be lowered. I would have passed the amendment, why should they be exempt if the State takes funding. problem is as it stands now if the town gets less funding, the taxpayers are going to get hit, or the town is going to get hit, not the Board of Educastion. Tonight's budget should be subject to what happens with the State funding. Mayor was correct proposing that. The school board was let off the hook.
5. Town Manager’s Report [Per Town Council Rules, this segment of the meeting shall not exceed ten (10) minutes unless extended by the Mayor, with the consent of the majority of the Council.]
none
6. Items for Discussion
A. General Government Budget
None
7. Executive Session
None do think there should be some discussion on the budget.
A. General Government Budget
Mayor Pelkey - Councillor Yagaloff had sent cuts that he wanted to see in this budget. Matt - did recommend 4635,000 from capital. There are items coming in that could help with the capital budget after they come in. There was an issue 1.4 million cut in the budget. some of the things could go along with - we have tower VMP - has deadspot. that tower has nto been put up yet - may be an area where we can wait. 22,000. There is another item wash station, we could try to maintain current one - I don't want to see the revenues go up but if we drawn some projects coming next year and there are revenues Town Council can open budget and equal out the budget. Hate to devastate the entire budget if something happens with the state. There are little items that we could go through and cut about 175,000 to 200,000. Some things that concern me is the snow removal. Last year 285,900 for snow removal. this proposed 306,090. this year adjusted because there was not enough. Storm removal concerned. Rental and Leases is also concerned. Over time in Parks Dept for leaf department. we could not do over time or weekends. that would extend the leaf pickup and could only be done if the snow does not come. Concerned with snow removal - regardless of what it is cut down to there is an obligation to get the snow picked up. take 635,000 and take uts in other areas. 2.1 to 2.2% tax increase. to go any further with that would be difficult on the town. We have to as Council look at everything on here. The Mayor gave some suggestions. We really need to have this discussion. Need to know Town council priorities. Right now I am looking at 2.1 or 2.2 increase. Some of the cuts can work with staff without hurting the program.
Work Sessin reconvened at 7:20 p.m.
Yagaloff - M
Matt - cut 175,000 to 200,000
Yagaloff - this was done to get dialogue going between the Council. The other things trying to accomplish is no layoffs. trying not to impact salaries or increases to staff. Did not want loss in services to the residents. Want to comment on snow removal - just took away the increase. restore back to last eyar budget.
Matt - taking 60,000 out
Yagaloff - want to go back to last year for snow removal. Leaf removal would just coordinate the staff. Snow removal can not do that. Leaf pickup if the snow comes then people would have to be responsible for their own leaves. IT had small deductions. PD has increase in overtime. Rental for space. Mostly Police had to do with fitness center. VMP shed, tower. Fire Marshal - small - engineering - small - public works had to cut some rentals, wash station - those are not necessary only nice to have. Parks overtime, repair facilities. very little on Library. Contingency take 65,000. Had some issues with WPCA. think need to do something about WPCA. Recreation - Day Camp credit card fees, the town is paying for the fee. credit care processing, additional advertising, wireless cards, credit car processing fee, advertising, faciliites advertising. think we have to lighten up the spending in Recreation. My propopal 1.4 and change. 750,000 from capital - sale lien taking some, negative spending increase.
Mayor - appreciate some of the list. Think it is easy to take items out of a book and say lets cut these items. Employees get paid to do their job. Car wash was to get parts to put a washer together. should not stiffle creativity. this is to have teh vehicles last longer. just listing items does a disservice to the budget. do not disagree to cut something out of the budget. the number the Town Manager has discussed is the number I have been looking at. 2.1% increase which was an average from 6 years. 175,000 out of budget for the Town Manager to decide where to cut. by doing that we can get to number that we can all agree on. Leaf collection - like the snow leaves are not predictable either. the implication of leaving the leaves o the road creates slippery, get into storm drainage system, makes teh road look worse. better to clean them up rather than make a mess. Credit Cards?
Matt - Credit Card fees are built into the fee's 67% people who register for Recreation programs use the credit cards. 26% check and 7% cash. To eliminate that people would have to pay with cash or check. we have had a lot of pressure from residents. Paying by credit card the taxes would impact the general fund because those fee's would be included in the taxes. Credit Card is a convenience to people registering for program. 67% of the people like it but it is up to the Council.
Prague - Very interesting idea from Councillor Yagaloff. There has to be something for everyone. We have the same amount of employees we had 30 years ago. Some things you can not get more efficient. we need to pay attention to contracts and get the best possible price we can. it is important to be careful to keep services to a point. Uniforms and clothing, Temp wages?
Ray - two weeks of public swimming - staff gets paid. we would ave to reduce season
Prague - talk to me about the daycare - preschool, camps is way to give kids enrichment while parents work. Credit card processing fee. you don't pay for it but you have to pay for processing fee?
Ray - correct - the provider is through
Prague - no licensing fee. this is all part of the special revenue services. advertising you would not have individuals to use programs.Verizon wireless program
Ray - we have wireless on the computers.
Prague - some are off site? Yes Pragu e- can anything be removed without impacting Recreation? Ray - we need uniforms even for campers. if go to Lake Compoujnce need way to identify the campers.
Prague - these items are all in your fee? Ray - yes Prague - I a m not fan of big increases. everything is going up in price. Would like budget reduced but want to keep services, and roads to stay the same. need to look at things we can get rid of and make things more efficient. need to explore ways to do things cheaper in areas that it would be okay to do that.
Favreau - totally agree with Councillor prague - South Windsor highly educated group of residents. If we go back to survey 2006 - rated life in South windsor very high. 84% rated overall services good or very good. 87% overall PD services good. 67% thought town run well. Items do increase. have to be careful - important to keep budget low but need to set standareds. not to micromanage. decide rate and have TM and staff decide where to cut out. Do not want to lose the quality of life.
Delnicki - what we do tonight has to be based on wants and needs. Councillor yagaloff has showed us what happens if the State takes funding out. Tools to save lives is not items that should be considered. would like to know the value of the ZEO.
Matt - did not have ZEO for approixmately 2 months.
Delnicki - think we can do without the ZEO. Never been a fan of that position. Talked about the capital project budget, what are you proposing to fund with 650,000
Matt - 635,000 Council should put on hold. Would porbably
Pelkey - when council approves capital project funds woudl have to be approved by Council.
Matt - have asked the Superintendent regarding computer process. have asked them to get additional information on that. there is the extra 50,000 for conservatin plan. there are othe rpojects that the Council would have to look at. need to get committee of the Council to decide on projects. I could give recommendations. They are all good projects but decisions will have to set a priority.
Delnicki - safe to say you do not want to point anything out.
Matt - Council should go through process of putting Capital Projects through public heairngs.
Delnicki - many members have said where they woudld like to cut. there are contracts and leases. the other concern if we sell items we should meet to discuss those items.
Matt - have to cut the projects. the only reason using that money is the bond - sale of firehouse would go into capital non-recurring.
Delnicki - then that is the way you hav eto do.
Matt - bond resolution clearn Delnicki - might want to consider if taxes were
8. Adjournment
Motion to Approve 8. Adjournment at 8:02 p.m. Moved by John Pelkey, no second required.
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