Council Backs Merging Town/School Finance

By Eliza Hallabeck

The Legislative Council this week added its support to efforts to integrate town and education finance and accounting systems, and then appointed two committees to find candidates and establish direction for a future Charter Revision Commission.

Before the council decided in a 9-2 vote to integrate the town and school district finance software and computer systems, Scott Sharlow, technical and GIS director for Newtown, presented information he has been collecting for years on the topic.

“None of this is new,” said First Selectman Pat Llodra. “In fact Scott was already thinking about making those kinds of changes in our digital capacity even before the ad hoc committee made the recommendations.”

An initiative to collect data on all municipal facilities has also been underway, according to Mrs Llodra, through the informal efforts of resident Robert Merola, Director of Public Works Fred Hurley, and Director of School Maintenance Gino Faiella.

“We just don’t have that information in any document anywhere,” she said, adding the information on all facilities in Newtown could help understand what projects are coming up in the future.

Mr Sharlow said he set out, years ago, to include the Board of Education in the process of combining systems with the town, and had mixed results over that time.

“If we are really going to do this, there are certain things that really need to be shared,” he said.

In fairness, he added later, the effort was not backed by the Legislative Council’s Ad Hoc Facilities Committee report at the time.

Not having a central system, Mr Sharlow said, makes the system more cumbersome. He explained information can be gathered together to refine procedures, create more efficient actions, and save time and money through a central system.

The Legislative Council’s resolution to support the consolidation of town and education functions came roughly two weeks after the Board of Finance unanimously recommended the same thing at its meeting on June 24. At the time, Board of Finance Chair John Kortze also said consolidating town and education department accounting functions could save time and money.

Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson was scheduled to present the possibility of combining functions with the town with Mrs Llodra, but was not present at the council’s meeting. Member Gary Davis urged waiting to vote on the issue until Dr Robinson could speak before the council, but the motion to integrate the systems was voted and passed 9-2.

Both the town and education departments would have to make changes if the consolidation takes place, according to Mr Sharlow. The initiative to find the right program for the town to use is still underway, he said, and the most recent look into a product ended in May.

“Combining the computer systems is certainly going to have a wealth of benefits,” said member Benjamin Spragg, but he said participation efforts need to be worked through by the town and education departments.

Member Mary Ann Jacob said making sure all of the options are fully vetted to find savings is something the council is compelled to do.

“We have all spoken to the fact that the issues we had in this budget year are going to continue to grow,” she said.

Charter Revision Anticipated

The Legislative Council also voted unanimously during its meeting to appoint two committees to work toward forming a Charter Revision Commission.

“I don’t plan on acting on this, because once you pass a resolution to amend the charter, the commission has to be seated within 30 days,” said Legislative Council Chair Jeffrey Capeci. “And I don’t think we are close to that time yet, so we will just bring this up for discussion purposes only.”

He said he did want to appoint two committees, one to look into candidates for Charter Revision Commission members, and another determine which items to charge the commission to examine.

Things to look at could include bifurcating the budget into separate school and town budgets and adding advisory questions on referendums. Depending on the charges, the revisions may not be ready for the next referendum, he said.

In other news, Mrs Llodra told the council a committee is looking into updating the town’s website, which she said was one of the first “virtual town halls.”