Facilities Management Panel Names Llodra, Lundquist As Co-Chairs

By John Voket

The Legislative Council’s ad hoc committee exploring the feasibility of creating a central agency to manage town and school facilities took a step forward Tuesday by agreeing to name Patricia Llodra and Paul Lundquist as co-chairs. No one seemed more surprised at the suggestion than Mr Lundquist, who recently assumed an appointed post on the council replacing John Torok, who resigned after moving to Southbury.

“This is just my second meeting,” Mr Lundquist said of his attendance at the subcommittee gathering — the second of two held this week. The newest council member had only attended two previous full council meetings before stepping into the subcommittee role Mr Torok held prior to his resignation.

A series of one-on-one interviews with town employees, who might eventually be supporting a central facilities department if the proposal put forth by councilman Daniel Amaral comes to fruition, concluded Monday after the panel met with representatives of the Edmond Town Hall Board of Managers.

Upon completion of their work, the volunteer group, which is supplemented by residents Robert Merola, LeReine Frampton, and James Gaston, the finance board vice chair and borough warden, will make a recommendation to the full council on their findings. Ultimately, by statute, the school district cannot be forced into such a merger locally unless the Board of Education agrees to participate.

The ad hoc committee includes members Mr Amaral, Mr Lundquist, Jan Lee Brookes, and Ms Llodra, who is the Republican candidate for first selectman in this year’s local elections.

Mr Amaral had been calling for a committee to be formed to explore the possible taxpayer savings and operational advantages of such a merger since late last year. He told The 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 where subcontractors were hired for jobs that might instead be completed by town workers at a savings.

Mr Amaral also questioned publicly why winter plowing, grounds and facility maintenance, and heavy construction work at Fairfield Hills were being performed by a combination of school, highway department, and Parks and Recreation workers using various departmental vehicles and equipment.

To date, the committee has met with Public Works Director Fred Hurley, Schools Facilities Manager Gino Faiella, Parks and Recreation staff and commissioners, town hall trustees, the Fairfield Hills Authority, Finance Director Bob Tait, and Scott Sharlow, Newtown’s information technology and geographic information systems manager.

During the Monday meeting with James Juliano and Sandra Motyka of the Edmond Town Hall Board of Managers, the committee learned that once town offices relocate to a new government center at Fairfield Hills, the building will be about two-thirds vacant. The council members appeared disturbed when they learned that the Parks and Recreation offices and the town’s Social Service Agency and food pantry were probably not going to occupy space at the Edmond Town Hall.

Subsequent information from Parks and Rec Director Amy Mangold revealed that the historic Main Street facility lacks the electrical and IT infrastructure required by her department, and would hamper the department’s ability to expand online and interactive computer registrations and reservation systems further. Social Services Director Ann Piccini was on vacation, but the department’s administrative assistant said social services was facing the same issues with inferior power and information handling capacity.

Ms Motyka explained that the managers would have to do whatever they could to handle both deferred maintenance and a possible IT and utility upgrade, because the issue would also affect the marketability of space in the building for other possible tenants.

Ms Motyka also explained to the ad hoc panel that a modest trust that was established by Mary Hawley, a benefactress who also created funds to sustain the Hawley School and Booth Library, had been performing so poorly under a long-term trustee that the income was negligible in comparison to the facility’s operating costs.

On Tuesday, the panel reconvened in Town Hall South to review its agenda going forward, during which time it was decided that a chairman should be named from among the council members. At first, each member stated why he or she could not handle the responsibility alone, when Mr Gaston suggested co-chairs. After considering that idea, it was determined that Ms Llodra would co-chair with principal responsibility for gathering all the information together so the entire committee could deliberate on a recommendation.

And it was determined that Mr Lundquist would have the primary responsibility of presenting the committee’s findings, which the panel decided should be completed before municipal elections occur in early November. Going forward, the panel determined it still had specific questions for Mr Faiella, Mr Hurley, Mr Sharlow, Ms Mangold, and Assistant Director of Parks Carl Samuelson.

In addition, they are still planning to interview the Ridgefield town purchasing manager, who will be accompanied by Mr Tait, who suggested the consideration of such a post during his interview with the committee, and a representative from a similar agency overseeing school and town facilities from somewhere in Connecticut. Ms Llodra said she recently requested a referral to such an individual from the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM), but that referral had not been made.

Mr Merola suggested that the group should also meet with the school district’s IT director Carmella Amodeo.

Because of the shortage of time and opportunities to meet, Mr Lundquist thought instead of trying to do separate interviews again with each person, all of them should be brought in for a single meeting.

“Bring them all in together so we can really get an idea of where there is overlap,” Mr Lundquist said.

Ms Llodra agreed. “It will be good for them to hear what the others are saying,” she said.

The panel then identified several dates that might be possible to schedule the group meeting before adjourning, and Ms Llodra said she would inform the committee about the dates when all or most of the town workers could attend together.