Video index

1. Call Meeting to Order

704

2. Roll Call

Roll call (10 Present, 0 Absent, 0 Excused)

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.]

Don Gonsalves, 40 Bayberry Trail, I hope tonight that you listen to Cary Prague. For six years I have asked you to use a calendarized budget. You can not run a town without a calendarized budget. The Town Manager is the only one who understands the budget and that should not be.

4. Communications

Anwar - reminder that the Food Bank needs some donations. 1 out of every 7 homes are in need of food.

Delnicki - recognized two Eagle Scouts - Christopher Guay and ___ South Windsor Person of the Year - Hal Cummings Post Road Stages - 100th Anniversary. There is a ribbon cutting ceremony for the opening of bridge and the Marathon will be good to go. Pete's Carstar grand opening.

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.]

Kelly Road - Mike - at this point we have alittle more work with Yankee Gas. Contractor is on schedule to finish first phase, Avery Street to Oak Street. Next phase will be worked on in the next few weeks. Next year spring summer will finish. Tom - that was the plan to do in three phases. Mike - utilities have given a little hand up which has been a concern - we are on schedule. Prague - received letter from Jeff Doolittle - asked Jeff for schedule. They won't do the lower part in the first two phases - clean up of peoples driveways and sidewalks. Mike - probably will not do til the spring Prague - if stays warm will they do the sidewalks? Mike - they will do as much as they can but want to make sure they do not do something half way. prague - the telephone poles, they are putting new ones in and they are next to the old posts? Mike - it is up to the utility companies. they keep a straight line. They have to move poles straight. Pragu e- the road has been widened and some of the poles are right on the road. Mike - we suggest where they should go but it is their decision. Anwar - concerned about the Clark STreet in the report. Fiber optics? thought there was comunications Mike - this work was done 15-20 years ago. we are not out there every time they are doing work. some times the utiltiies may not follow best practice. fiber optics was put right over pipe. Anwar - do you think we need some type of legal contracts. the town needed to use more time and money for this mistake. do you think we need to identify ways to protect ourselves?

715 recessd

reconvened at 7:24 p.m. Anwar - how can we get around this if there are other challenges in the future - is there a way around this - contract with the utility company. Mike - some times theses things happen. our avenue is to make listing of the mistakes - send to CCM - we have adjusted our designs and mitigate impacts. Some times people cut corners that they should not. most of the time utility companies work with us. Anwar - we do have contracts? Mike - no they are independent. They are regulated by _______________. we have issues we bring them to ____________ attention. usually they are very cooperative and issues do not happen that often Anwar - Ray, looking for data about 3 weeks ago. information about community center use, how long should Ray - you have asked history that is not easily to get to. Anwar - town resources are being used on projects not approved by the TC Ray - any project being worked on is directive of the Town Manager Anwar - sometimes feel that if Town Council member is trying to get data and Town staff is working on another project - it takes 3 weeks to get any information, where is our communication gap. Ray - I am working thorugh the Town Manager's office on projects but not thorugh a private entity. Town Manager told me to get you the iformation and will hand out to all nine Town Council members. Anwar - next time any Town Council member asks for information all nine members should get information. Tom - that has been the protocol. Send to Town Manager and he will send to his staff. Bazzano - in the spring, Ellington Road was going to be repaved from Sullivan to Ellington? Mike - I have not heard anything official. Bazzano - asked Mike to double check on that. all purpose ____________ was vandalized. Want ot make sure that the Police are involved with this and I know they have cameras. John Caldwell - Superintendent of Parks - was emailed the same pictures - will be meeting with teh police in the morning. we can't see that wall in the camera but if they walked around will be seeing that. Bazzano - please keep TC updated.

6. Items for Discussion

A. Opportunity for New Budget Procedure for 2013/2014 (requested by Councillor Prague)

Prague - presentation as shown in attached Exhibit A. Delnicki - last year prior to the budget, I asked what the Council wanted to see. This is exactly the kind of input I was looking for. Looking at what we had presented I am impressed and think it is a good step in the right direction. This would be the condensed version of all the information that is given to the Counicl. Yagaloff - Tolland is an interesting comparison. Last year their budget went to referendum 3 times before it was approved. Resident vote on the referendum. These towns where residents vote they have to be much more careful. South Windsor is different - I read the budget book every year. I have never had a problem going through the budget but it is different. The Town Council in South Windsor votes on their priorities. This year the budget went up quite a bit so we had an argument there. Priorities were set by Majority. - should have referendum on the budget. Every year someone comes up with doing things different to budget process. Nothing has ever made a difference - majority ruels. would rather have council vote on resolution - based on policy do we do across the board budget cuts. Do not have problem to have TM to do more work to get a better budget book. The public may want to see graphics. need to reflect on priorities - Is the goal through all of this to identify areas to cut spending to bring taxes down as low as possible, or is the goal is to justify why there will be a tax increase? Prague - Goal is to produce budget book that everyone can understand. McCann - the presentation tonight put things into perspective and provides a tremendous tool for the Town Council to understand where funds are going. I would be in support of this budget process. The report with respect to capital facilitiies goes back 4 years. past 10 years went up 12 fields. overall think presentaion is one that is a tremendous tool for TC as well as the public. Anwar - I think this could be automated. I think presentation of data to make is simple for everyone it would make sense. asked for surplus for the past 10 years and how it was used, have not received that information. Would be move into the right direction. Do not think we should copy one Town and may want to look at others and discuss further. prague - I have those numbers because I spent hours researching that information. We need to do some of the work, can't ask the TM to do everything. in the future we get information if we ask for it.

7. Executive Session

8. Adjournment

Bazzano, McCann, unanimous 8:00 p.m

Oct 01, 2012 Town Council Work Session

Full agenda
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1. Call Meeting to Order

704

2. Roll Call

Roll call (10 Present, 0 Absent, 0 Excused)

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.]

Don Gonsalves, 40 Bayberry Trail, I hope tonight that you listen to Cary Prague. For six years I have asked you to use a calendarized budget. You can not run a town without a calendarized budget. The Town Manager is the only one who understands the budget and that should not be.

4. Communications

Anwar - reminder that the Food Bank needs some donations. 1 out of every 7 homes are in need of food.

Delnicki - recognized two Eagle Scouts - Christopher Guay and ___ South Windsor Person of the Year - Hal Cummings Post Road Stages - 100th Anniversary. There is a ribbon cutting ceremony for the opening of bridge and the Marathon will be good to go. Pete's Carstar grand opening.

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.]

Kelly Road - Mike - at this point we have alittle more work with Yankee Gas. Contractor is on schedule to finish first phase, Avery Street to Oak Street. Next phase will be worked on in the next few weeks. Next year spring summer will finish. Tom - that was the plan to do in three phases. Mike - utilities have given a little hand up which has been a concern - we are on schedule. Prague - received letter from Jeff Doolittle - asked Jeff for schedule. They won't do the lower part in the first two phases - clean up of peoples driveways and sidewalks. Mike - probably will not do til the spring Prague - if stays warm will they do the sidewalks? Mike - they will do as much as they can but want to make sure they do not do something half way. prague - the telephone poles, they are putting new ones in and they are next to the old posts? Mike - it is up to the utility companies. they keep a straight line. They have to move poles straight. Pragu e- the road has been widened and some of the poles are right on the road. Mike - we suggest where they should go but it is their decision. Anwar - concerned about the Clark STreet in the report. Fiber optics? thought there was comunications Mike - this work was done 15-20 years ago. we are not out there every time they are doing work. some times the utiltiies may not follow best practice. fiber optics was put right over pipe. Anwar - do you think we need some type of legal contracts. the town needed to use more time and money for this mistake. do you think we need to identify ways to protect ourselves?

715 recessd

reconvened at 7:24 p.m. Anwar - how can we get around this if there are other challenges in the future - is there a way around this - contract with the utility company. Mike - some times theses things happen. our avenue is to make listing of the mistakes - send to CCM - we have adjusted our designs and mitigate impacts. Some times people cut corners that they should not. most of the time utility companies work with us. Anwar - we do have contracts? Mike - no they are independent. They are regulated by _______________. we have issues we bring them to ____________ attention. usually they are very cooperative and issues do not happen that often Anwar - Ray, looking for data about 3 weeks ago. information about community center use, how long should Ray - you have asked history that is not easily to get to. Anwar - town resources are being used on projects not approved by the TC Ray - any project being worked on is directive of the Town Manager Anwar - sometimes feel that if Town Council member is trying to get data and Town staff is working on another project - it takes 3 weeks to get any information, where is our communication gap. Ray - I am working thorugh the Town Manager's office on projects but not thorugh a private entity. Town Manager told me to get you the iformation and will hand out to all nine Town Council members. Anwar - next time any Town Council member asks for information all nine members should get information. Tom - that has been the protocol. Send to Town Manager and he will send to his staff. Bazzano - in the spring, Ellington Road was going to be repaved from Sullivan to Ellington? Mike - I have not heard anything official. Bazzano - asked Mike to double check on that. all purpose ____________ was vandalized. Want ot make sure that the Police are involved with this and I know they have cameras. John Caldwell - Superintendent of Parks - was emailed the same pictures - will be meeting with teh police in the morning. we can't see that wall in the camera but if they walked around will be seeing that. Bazzano - please keep TC updated.

6. Items for Discussion

A. Opportunity for New Budget Procedure for 2013/2014 (requested by Councillor Prague)

Prague - presentation as shown in attached Exhibit A. Delnicki - last year prior to the budget, I asked what the Council wanted to see. This is exactly the kind of input I was looking for. Looking at what we had presented I am impressed and think it is a good step in the right direction. This would be the condensed version of all the information that is given to the Counicl. Yagaloff - Tolland is an interesting comparison. Last year their budget went to referendum 3 times before it was approved. Resident vote on the referendum. These towns where residents vote they have to be much more careful. South Windsor is different - I read the budget book every year. I have never had a problem going through the budget but it is different. The Town Council in South Windsor votes on their priorities. This year the budget went up quite a bit so we had an argument there. Priorities were set by Majority. - should have referendum on the budget. Every year someone comes up with doing things different to budget process. Nothing has ever made a difference - majority ruels. would rather have council vote on resolution - based on policy do we do across the board budget cuts. Do not have problem to have TM to do more work to get a better budget book. The public may want to see graphics. need to reflect on priorities - Is the goal through all of this to identify areas to cut spending to bring taxes down as low as possible, or is the goal is to justify why there will be a tax increase? Prague - Goal is to produce budget book that everyone can understand. McCann - the presentation tonight put things into perspective and provides a tremendous tool for the Town Council to understand where funds are going. I would be in support of this budget process. The report with respect to capital facilitiies goes back 4 years. past 10 years went up 12 fields. overall think presentaion is one that is a tremendous tool for TC as well as the public. Anwar - I think this could be automated. I think presentation of data to make is simple for everyone it would make sense. asked for surplus for the past 10 years and how it was used, have not received that information. Would be move into the right direction. Do not think we should copy one Town and may want to look at others and discuss further. prague - I have those numbers because I spent hours researching that information. We need to do some of the work, can't ask the TM to do everything. in the future we get information if we ask for it.

7. Executive Session

8. Adjournment

Bazzano, McCann, unanimous 8:00 p.m

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