Council’s Ad-Hoc Facilities Committee May Pitch Permanent Status Under Selectmen

By John Voket

To date, the ad-hoc committee exploring the possibility of merging town and school district facilities management has been an instrument of the Legislative Council. But members of the panel, including Newtown’s incoming first selectman, appear poised to recommend the initiative continue under the supervision of the Board of Selectmen.

The council’s committee may soon be forced to disband or reconfigure as two of its four council appointees revert back to citizen status after failing to retain elected office in the recent election, or in the case of its co-chair Pat Llodra, moves into her new elected position.

Currently, the committee is co-chaired by council members Paul Lundquist and Mrs Llodra, and includes Jan Lee Brookes, Daniel Amaral, Board of Finance Liaison James Gaston, along with the two “citizen representatives,” LeReine Frampton and Robert Merola. But Ms Brookes and Mr Lundquist were not reelected, and Mrs Llodra won the first selectman’s seat, leaving Mr Amaral as the sole remaining council member who has the background to perpetuate the committee’s work under a new administration.

Presumably, Mr Gaston, who was reelected to the finance board, Ms Frampton, a Democratic Registrar of Voters, and Mr Merola would continue in their capacities if invited to do so no matter where the committee finds itself in the coming weeks.

Coincidentally, the committee was initially inspired by a request from Mr Amaral and has been informally dubbed the “Danny Amaral Committee.” Mr Amaral had been calling for an appointed panel to explore the possible taxpayer savings and operational advantages of merging town and school facilities management since late last year.

He told The Newtown Bee on several occasions that he and his constituents observed town and school workers in situations where they appeared to either be idling on work sites, or situations where subcontractors were hired to perform work that might instead be completed by town workers at a savings.

Mr Amaral also questioned publicly why certain practices, especially concerning winter chores like plowing, and warm weather grounds and facility maintenance, were being performed by a combination of school, town Highway Department, and Parks and Recreation workers using various departmental vehicles and equipment.

The current committee hoped to wrap up its fact-finding in time to make a final recommendation to the council prior to newly elected officials, including several new council members, take their seats in December. But in discussion during a November 9 meeting, it seemed clear that the depth and scope of that fact-finding, and several new avenues that have branched from the panel’s work, will require it to continue in some capacity at least into the new year.

Those collateral developments include the possible suggestion of centralizing town and school purchasing, while leaving core facilities management as is. The panel recently took up discussions on whether to merge the town and school under a single suite of operations and management software.

As the most recent meeting convened, the committee members considered the format of a interim status report that will presumably be presented to the full current council during its last regular meeting November 18.

The group determined that besides a summary section, the final report should include all minutes and supplemental materials it has gathered since being seated during the summer.

“The minutes themselves have an extraordinary level of detail,” Mrs Llodra said during this week’s meeting.

The idea about shifting the group from being under the council purview to the Board of Selectmen came from Mr Lundquist, and Ms Brookes added that the level of ongoing research might justify the group having a secretary or support person who would be compensated.

She referenced the council recently approving funding to support an ad-hoc committee exploring the connection between deer overpopulation and Newtown’s rapidly escalating diagnoses of Lyme disease. “We can’t expect someone to do all the research and not get paid,” she said.

The subject of recommending integrated software that would be universal between the school district and town first came up in October during an interview with interim school business manager Diane Raymo. During this week’s meeting, the ad-hoc committee agreed that while the Phoenix system appears to be more suited to school district needs, some town in Connecticut are using a package called MUNIS to support both school and municipal functions.

“If we are going to push for one or another, we need to look at the costs and benefits,” Mr Lundquist said, adding that recommending a new system might still cost more in the long run because of a need to “undo the systems already in place.”

After further discussion, it was affirmed that the committee should remain committed to finding ways to evidence cooperative projects between town departments.

“We need to be able to document shared work,” Mrs Llodra said.

Before adjourning, the committee also reviewed ideas about better documenting grant writing initiatives in town, if for nothing more than to isolate which, if any, grants might still be available for the town to pursue.

The ad-hoc facilities committee decided to have each member take on one aspect of what will become the interim council report and reconvene Monday, November 16, to complete the assembly process ahead of Wednesday’s council meeting, where a presentation on the interim findings will be conducted by Mr Lundquist.