Simsbury, CT - Finance Minutes

The Regular Meeting of the Board of Finance was called to order at 6:00 p.m. in the Main Meeting Room of the Simsbury Town Offices. The following members were present: Peter Askham, Michael Wade, Nicholas Mason and Kevin North. Also present were Finance Director/Treasurer Kevin Kane and other interested parties.

Mr. North made motion to approve the Regular Meeting minutes of May 18, 2004. Mr. Mason said there were some typos that he would submit. Mr. Askham said there was a correction on page 5 under Capital Projects “It is focusing primarily on overruling the negative referral from Planning.” Mr. Wade seconded the motion to approve the minutes with corrections. The motion carried unanimously.

Mr. Askham referred to the list of tax items to be transferred to suspense. Mr. Askham said action is required to place these items on the inactive list, even though the tax collector will still try to collect on them. Mr. North made motion to approve the suspense list as submitted by the tax collector. Mr. Wade seconded the motion and the motion carried unanimously.

Mr. Askham said there was a memo from the Finance Director Kevin Kane. The Board of Selectmen are requesting authorization to spend principal and interest received by the Eno Memorial Hall Special Revenue Fund from the settlement payments from the Wadsworth Athenaeum for the Kenesset painting. A committee should be set up to discuss this.

Mr. North said some of the funds already exist. He felt the funds should be used for capital purposes but not for expenditures. Mr. Kane said the balance on hand is approximately $215,000 plus interest to be spent on the air conditioning project.

After further discussion, Mr. North made motion to endorse the resolution passed by the Board of Selectmen to spend the principal and interest received to date on the Eno Memorial Special Revenue Fund to offset the cost of air conditioning in the first phase of the project. Mr. Askham seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously.

Mr. Askham said that bricks are going up. Mr. North commented that the claim by the mechanical contractor is not going to be resolved easily. There was a problem with the two-pipe disposal system being segregated to a single pipe disposal system. The consultant that did the evaluation should have earned the Town a credit. The contract doesn’t protect the Town’s interest.

After further discussion, the Board discussed Mr. Holden’s progress report on the Simsbury High School Project. Mr. Mason said most of the completion dates are on target.

Mr. North said he encourages the Board of Finance to move forward with Phase II of the project now if it is to be done at all. It will be impractical to go back in and reopen the building at some later date. Mr. Kane said there is no consensus with the Board of Selectmen on this project.

Mr. Kane said the Police Station project has been started and is within budget. Mr. Kane said phase 1 should be completed by next Spring.

Mr. Askham asked about the sewer plant. Mr. Kane said the Attorney General is adding language at this time. Mr. Sawitzke will be asked to attend the next meeting to provide an update.

Mr. North said there is a new major investment at Simsbury Farms: the tent that the Town now owns. Mr. North requested a full accounting of this acquisition. It is his opinion that the Board of Finance should have reviewed this purchase decision specifically during the budget process since operation of the Farms has been such a fiscal challenge. He felt that the lack of disclosure

was not in the spirit of cooperation sought by the Board of Finance during this difficult budget time. Mr. Askham would like more information to be brought to the Board on the project.

Mr. North said he was liaison to the Board of Education Teacher Contract negotiation sub-committee. The rules of participation were interesting. The sub-committee interviewed three attorney candidates to aid the Board of Education sub-committee in negotiations. Mr. Askham said once negotiations start there is a “lid” on all information.

Information on Compensation History for both the BOS and BOE budgets was distributed. Mr. North felt that the information was incomplete and asked for revisions as well as additional information for the more recent years. He expressed concerns that the average rate of increase, particularly in recent years, cannot be sustained without requiring continued high tax increases.

Mr. Askham asked what percentage of the Board of Education budget is covered by the contract negotiations. He would like to do some financial modeling and have some discussion on this subject prior to the next budget cycle. He asked Mr. Holden to provide the wage settlement increases for the last three teacher contracts to the Board of finance for modeling purposes.

Mr. North stated that he remains concerned that the assumed future investment returns for the pension plans are unrealistically high. Since the liability for any shortfalls rests exclusively on the Town, aggressive assumptions don’t seem appropriate. Mr. Askham suggested a consultant might be able to take a look at this and he would also like a report on historic investment returns from Mr. Kane.