Facilities Management, CIP Decisions Passed To Incoming Administration

By John Voket

The final meeting of the current Legislative Council showcased the outcome of one of the hardest working subcommittees in recent years as a set of recommendations inspired by veteran councilman Dan Amaral was endorsed.

And in their few final moments together, the officials also supported passing along to the newly elected council a set of Independent Party of Newtown proposals aimed at changing the council’s role and influence in the Capital Improvement Plan process.

Democrat Joseph Hemingway and council Chairman Will Rodgers were not present for the November 18 session. Vice Chairman Francis Pennarola said Mr Rodgers was called to Washington, D.C. to serve in his capacity as a military judge, and regretfully could not attend the final meeting.

In December Mr Rodgers will shift from his leadership role with the council to his newly elected position of selectman, and fellow Republican Pat Llodra will become first selectman.

Mr Hemingway was not successful in his bid for a selectman’s seat earlier this month, and his term with the council lapses. Fellow Democrats Jan Lee Brookes and Paul Lundquist, as well as IPN representative Po Murray, were not successful in their bids for reelection as well.

Mr Pennarola and Republican Joe DiCandido opted to not seek reelection, leaving only incumbent Democrat Mr Amaral, Republicans Jeff Capeci and John Aurelia, along with IPN representative Gary Davis to carry the two final measures forward with some background on the issues.

Most of the session focused on a 45-minute presentation of the ad-hoc facilities management committee, which was conducted by Mr Lundquist. He and Mrs Llodra co-chaired the committee, which also included Ms Brookes, Mr Amaral, Board of Finance liaison James Gaston, along with the two “citizen representatives,” LeReine Frampton and Robert Merola. 

The committee was originally seated on the suggestion of Mr Amaral, who maintained through this week’s meeting that he wants to see the town maximize use of municipal employees and equipment to maintain and improve town facilities.

“There are still bridges to cross,” Mr Amaral said. “Why contract out so much work if people are available in-house to do it.”

The so-called “Danny Amaral Committee” was one of the most intensively focused in recent history, and certainly met the most of any committee of the outgoing council. Mr Lundquist in his presentation confirmed the panel met 16 times and generated more than 60 pages of minutes while meeting with 15 town officials or department heads since early summer.

During those meetings, Mr Lundquist affirmed that members were struck by the “extensive culture of collaboration” among town departments and employees, but lamented the woeful “lack of data to back up” the oft-held assertion that the cooperative practices generate taxpayer savings.

The panel recognized that each town department has particular strong talents and specific pieces of equipment to get their work done, and that those human resources and equipment can be called upon in a moment’s notice if and when needed for emergencies.

Several actual cases where taxpayer savings became evident were reviewed.

The biggest verified savings came from a project connecting the Head of Meadow School to the public water supply. The project cost was estimated at $1,190,592, and was slated for bonding in the 2007-2008 CIP. 

But by raising the well heads, replacing some pump room components, lifting the grade around the well heads, and redirecting water from a parking lot with new curbing, the project’s final cost was only $25,540.  

(Link to a full text of the committee summary through the online report at newtownbee.com.)

In the end, the council fully supported and endorsed carrying on the recommendations of the committee, as well as the recommendation to implement suggested systems to track and compile data that could be used to eventually justify the need to establish centralized facilities maintenance and/or purchasing.

The final item of business involved a package of suggestions put forth by Ms Murray and Mr Davis that were discussed at length and unanimously recommended by the council’s finance subcommittee November 11.

The IPN proposal, in part would:

*Extend the town-side CIP to ten years to match a similar practice recently adopted for the school district;

*Break out individual bonding resolutions for referenda;

*Direct the first selectman to update the council on the progress of all capital projects every two months;

*Automatically reject any requests for funding that are introduced, unless those proposals have already existed on the CIP for at least two previous years;

*Seek to approve the first year’s CIP projects at the time of appropriations.