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1988/01/19 MINUTES Board of Finance Meeting of January 19, 1988 Regular Meeting MEMBERS PRESENT: Dr. John P. McIntosh, Chairman Mr. Angelo J. Tiezzi Mr. John N. Dennehy Mr. Rodney L. Lenfest Mr. Raymond A. Ruta Mrs. Ida M. Ragazzi OTHERS PRESENT: Mr. Gary S. Clinton, Finance Director Mrs. Betty Tedeski, Registar of Voters Mrs. Joanne G. Ward, Town Clerk of Berlin The meeting was called to order by Dr. John P. McIntosh, Chairman, at 7:00 P.M. MINUTES Motion was made by Mr. Angelo J. Tiezzi, seconded by Mr. Raymond A. Ruta and VOTED to approve the Minutes of the meeting of the Board of Finance on January ]2, 1988, with the following changes: 1. Pg. #3, Under #2543, Dr. McIntosh's first comment, after, dept., remove "and delete a position" from his comment. 2. Pg. ~3, Under #2545, 3rd sentance, the spelling of loom should be correctly spelled loam. 3. Pg. #3, Under #2545, 6th sentance, after the word be, add ~'done and the pool be opened by the 15th of June. 4. Pg. #5, Under discussion, Dr. McIntosh's comment, change the word "girl" to "person". 5. Pg. #1, Under #2542, Second Paragraph, 3rd sentance that now reads, We ha~ been trying to compete with other employees, change to read, We have been trying to compete with other employers. ALL IN FAV©R. DISCUSSION The soard of Finance again showed their disapproval regarding the subject of the raising of the hourly rates for secretaries to Boards and Commissions and their disapproval with the way it was administered. Mr. Clinton requested that this situation be clarified. He is in a quandary riqht now. How am I going to administer something that is not clarified. The Board of Finance was presented with the salaries, as presented by the Executive Board. I believe that you had to approve them that day, although you did not. I don't believe that the Board of Finance had any choice on it. It was determined, with Dr. McIntosh's attendance at the meeting, that these the salaries could be paid aL the prevailing rate, set by the Executive Board, but Dr. McIntosh reserved the right to have them come back to the Finance Board to stay within the appropriations. I think that this should be clarified. Mrs. Ragazzi agreed that she would like to see this situation r'esolw~d. Boa!3d of ~'inance Meeting of January 19, 1988 -2- Mr. Dennehy said that it is in the ordinance that the Executive Board Pla]] for the pay raises, which they do when they present the Budget or are in negotiations. After that point, when you start taking money out of other accounts, then it becomes the business of the Board of Finance. Mrs. Ragazzi said that they, (the Executive Board, Personnel Officer and Finance Officer), all sat here when the:Board of Finance said that we would go up half the rate and for so many meetings and we went to Town Meeting on this. Mr. Clinton said that he understands the Board's frustration on this subject as well as their position.but I believe that when the Executive Board sets the rates, and they s~t them in August, the rates are set. I do not believe that the Board of Finance believes that, but I think that it should be clarified once and for all. Mr. Tiezzi asked that the Chairman take a poll to determine whether or not we should write to Corporation Council on this matter. Dr. McIntosh said that while we are on this subject, he would like clarification on what constitutes a Salary, whether it is a cost of living increase or if it is one classification to another, do we have to automatically approve it, and if they say, "We are going to give you a merit raise", is that automatically salary and we can't do anything about it? If this is the case, then I do not feel that there is much sense in having a Board of Finance. Mr. Tiezzi and Mrs. Ragazzi concurred with Dr. McIntosh's statement. Mr. Tiezzi said that another question would be, how this situation for the secretaries was resolved. As I understand it right now, tha same amount of money is in the budget so when they ~xaust the line item budget and come in for more money, we as a Board have ever right to refuse it. Dr. McIntosh concurred with this comment. Mr. Tiezzi told Mr. Clinton that when he sets up the new budget, he could request, for this item, the dates of the meetings held within the year. Mr. Clinton said that he already had a rough draft of those figures, as requested by Mrs. Ragazzi, but would like to be able to recheck his figures before presenting the results to the Board. Mr. Lenfest said that he agreed with Dr. McIntosh's comment, that maybe we need to revisit the issue of whether or not that constitutes a salary. I don't think it does. That is a pool of money specifically for the provisions of services ~to the.Board for secretarial purposes. I don't think that's Salary. A letter will be drafted for the meeting of January 21, 1988, to Corporation Counsel regarding the many questions brought up at the meeting regarding salaries and procedure~, to be sent C/O Mayor Robert J. Peters. Board of Finance Meeting of January 19, 1988 -3- MINUTES Motion was made by Mr. Rodney L. Lenfest, seconded by Dr. gohn P. McIntosh and VOTED to approve the Minutes of the meeting of the Board of Finance on January 14, 1988. ALL IN FAVOR. BUDGET DELIBERATIONS #2102- Finance Dept. Mr. Clinton presented his budget to the Board of Finance. Mr. Lenfest asked Mr. Clinton what happened to the original and revised 1987/88 figures under 101/0100, Dept. Head. Mr. Clinton explained that last year,per Dr. McIntosh's request and the members of the Board of Finance, it was requested that the Dept. Heads be seperate from the other professionals. The management/ professionals.~ used to take in all people under that category, which was Mr. Clinton and his accountant. This year I am segregated out. Dr. McIntosh asked whether or not the bookeepers had been settled yet. Mr. Clinton said that they will start negotiations in a few weeks. Mr. Clinton will be changing 101/0108, Summer Help, to read Summer/ Part time help. I am asking for a large increase in here, and the reason for this is I presently have funds to hire a person over the summer to do inventory, filing~ some typing. What I would like to do is to hire a high school ~l~urlng the course of the year, 2 hours each day after school, to do some of the lower level clerical work and take some of the workload off of the bookeepers. I want her to do filing,additions on bank reconsiliations, open the mail and time stamp things in. I do not want the girls who are making 10 or 12 dollars an hour to be doing this. They are starting to get loaded up again. We will be having a $28,000,000.00 budget coming up and every time we add a dept. or add an employee or buy more things, it taxes my dept. This summer help will give me an extra 10 hours a week. Mr. Clinton said that he has budgeted 100 hours for the overtime 101/0121. Mr. Tiezzi made a suggestion at this time that at the Budget Hearing, and the Annual Town Meeting, that we take a head count. I would like to see it put into the budget. One of the things that I have complained about over the years as Chairman to the Board of Finance was that ther.e is never any attendance at either of the hearings. Mr. Clinton asked the Board of Finance for suggestions on dedication [his year on the report. Mr. Clinton said that included in his Dues and Conferences is a National Conference for himself and a Regional Conference for the Accountant, and various in state meetings. Board of Finance Meeting of January 19, 1988 #2110- Registrar of Voters Mrs. Betty Tedeschi addressed the Board of Finance on a request that she had already presented to Mayor Peters regarding Town benefits. Bo~h she and Mr. John Miller, who was unable to attend, feel that they are justified in asking for these benefits. Mr. Tedeschi pointed out that an election does not just happen and that is not the only thing that we have to do. We have to keep all the records up. We have to canvas the town every year. The Mayor and the Personnel Director have come up w~th some kind of arrangement where in we would get $2200.00 increased in our salary in order to compensate for the benefits. By the time you pay taxes and social security it doesn't leave you with much. This is basically why I am here. The Mayor is in agreement with me and said that he would speak for us if asked. Mrs. Tedeschi said that her job does not pay very much and it also doesn't allow me to work anywhere else. Mr. Tiezzi asked whether or not the Mayor had approved this on a condition that you puhch in on. a time clock. Mrs. Tedeschi said they can't because they do a lot of their work at home. Mr. Tiezzi said that the Board had went round and round w~th your predecessors and we gave them a .~z~n and they documented thlngs~ Mrs. Tedeschi said she feels she is really getting the shaft. Dr. McIntosh said that before we get too involved in this, the charter states that the Mayor and the Executive Board sets thc salaries. Mrs. Ragazzi said that she wonders whether or not the people who come in once a week to take minutes will be in asking for benefits now. Mrs. Tedeschi said that taking Minutes at a meeting is not the same job that we have. Mrs. Ragazzi said she was not comparing the job, but what might snowball from this. Mrs. Tedeschi said that if you have a secretary that puts in 20 hours to do a set of Minutes, then you'd better get yourself a new secretary. Dr. McIntosh asked Mrs. Tedeschi that in lieu of the raise, you would rather have the benefits. Mrs. Tedeschi replyed yes. She said that the Board would be hard pressed to find people to do the job that is being done now in the Registar's office. Mr. Tiezzi said that we can not get into a personality thing here. What we ame talking about is a position. I think that by giving these things, it defeats the entire purpose of the position. You are given a job discription and you must go by that. Mr. Lenfest said that people should be kept at 19½ hours. The 20 hours is the cutoff to differentiate between a full time and a part time employee. It's crazy, from a financial aspect, to put a full benefit package on a part time employee. If you need it, put on a full time person. Board of Finance Meeting of January 19, 1988 -5- The Board of Finance was understanding of Mrs. Tedeschi's situation but could only see the situation leading to many more like it, if one person is given benefits under these conditions. Once you start you can't stop. Mr. Lenfest said that he feels that we should try to make it clear to people why the 20 hour limit exsists. The idea is not to get people above 20 hours, but to keep them below. ~103-Data Processing Mr. Clinton said 101/0121, Overtime was at 100 hours. Mr. Lenfest asked Mr. Clinton whether or not there was any personnel in this budget. Mr. Clinton replyed no. Mr. Lenfest said that he would be hard pressed to put any overtime into a budget with no personnel in it. Mr. Clinton said that he wants to segregate any hours on behalf of the computer, into this budget. Mr. Lenfest encouraged Mr. Clinton to keep notes. Mr. Clinton said that he would primarily use his people here, but that did not mean that he could not use someone else. Mr. Lenfest was not in agreement with the budgeting of the overtime in the Data Processing budget.. Mr. Tiezzi said that he can see the need for a programer of our own in the very near future. Dr. McIntosh concurred wih~ Mr. Tiezzi. Mr. Clinton did not agree with this and went on to say why and to give examples of situations in other towns. Mr. Clinton introduced the 121/0254, Programming/Computer account, I have funds in here for modifications to the exsisting program. One of the reasons that we went the way that we did, with an IBM system, Reugen and Johnson, IBM licensee's, and we take maintenance with IBM, so if we have a problem with our IBM computer, I can go back to IBM and tell them to fix it and they are not going to tell me that the programmer, that is ours or someone that they are not'associated with, or a licensing operation that is not theirs. Many ~entiltie% get in this type of situation. Reugen and JohnsoD h~s done all our progranur~ing and they stand behind it, however if we go ~here and take ~ course start messing around with a program, or someone else for that matter, it's not their program any more and they no longer have to stand behind it. This situation h~ppened down in the city of Meriden.Meriden has it's own programmers, Reuben and Johnson put it all up ~a~ ~ ~ ~. ~. couple of years ago, the~hired 2 programmers. These 2 programmers went~ on to better ~obs and Re~en and Johnson will not stand behind the program. Meriden doesn't even know-what they have over there. They are in a big mess. A programmer does not come cheap, he's going to cost you $30- 3~,000.00. Included in the program budget I do have some software packages There are some individual packages for the planning and Engineer-- ing Dept's. Board of Finance Meeting of January 19, 1988 -6- There are some modifications to the Finance Dept, Police Dept., Personnel dept, and any system upgrades to which their are two types, those which come automatically and those you pay for. There are undetermined things. I'm not sure where they will go yet. Some potential costs for modification to the library might be needed. The system that we have is not a main stream computer, it is a mini computer. It does a lot of the things that a main stream computer will do, but one of t~e things that the computer study committee recommended was that we get this type of thing. I know that the Board is not too happy with the way the costs have risen over the past few years butone of the good things is that you would not need any additional personnel and I don't see any reason to back off. West Haven just paid $35,000.00 for a programmer. Mr. Lenfest asked Mr. Clinton if he was putting different packages on this Mr. Clinton said that what we do is try to come up with a major system every 3-6 months or so major systems aren't competing with eachother again for time.Thus far we have put up Finance, the payroll, fixed assets, Last year we put up the Assessors program, Tax program, the library's~ coming on and Nurses is coming in on a medium size package. The Registar is going slower than I thought it might but I'm ~ot particqlarly surprised Mr. Lenfest questioned why the information was being put onto disc. Mr. Lenfest said that we are treating our mini computer like a main computer by using the discs, which is fine, but is also a very expensive way fo do things. Un,ess you change the program that you now have, adding to the memory is not going to do you any good on the programs that you have because they will be set up to use 2 meg systems. Mr. Tiezzi made the suggestion that we invite the representitive of %he system out and quiz him on some of the questions that Mr. Lenfest ~rought to light. I would like to see Mr. Lenfest become more familiar with the system that we have in the town hall, being that he seems to be very knowledgable in the field. ~r. Lenfest was more than,haDDv to ~c~l~his time to do so and said he would talk to Reudgen and Jg~so~ . Mr. Lenfest asked Mr. Clinton where he gets most of his questions and information from regarding the expansion process with the computer. Mr. Clinton said that he is dealing with Reu~gen and Johnson and I mainly deal with an individual named Jeff Johnson and from there I speak with Susan Sterling who is the systems engineer at the IBM center. I rely on Johnson first. He gets no fees or commissions and does a lot of our programming for us. Mr. Lenfest asked Mr. Clinton how many Personnel Computers the town owned. Mr. Clinton said 20 next year. #2111- Town Clerk Mrs. Joanne G. Ward presented her budget to the Board of Finance. Board of Finance Meeting of January 19, 1988 -7- Mrs. Ward pointed out that she had not received a raise since January 1986. Dr. McIntosh did not see the need to belabor the salary situation being that it is to be set by the Executive Board. Mr. Tiezzi questioned why all of the other salaries were being held at the same amount, regarding elected officials, and the Town Clerk was the only one being increased. Mrs. Ward said this was because she put in for a raise and the others did not. Mr. Clinton has always told the elected officials not to put anything into the budget and consequently, I am always on the bottom of the pole. Mrs. Ragazzi said that'-she could understand th6 p~ior decision of the elected officials not to take raises with the large increase in the budget, but I can not see, in an election year this going on. If you (the town clerk) get a raise, you will be making the same amount as the Mayor. I think that because it was not an election year, that was the reason for not taking the raises. That's the reason that they did'nt do it last year. M~s. Ward said that as long as her office is running smoothly, she will sLill be paid her salary whether she is in her office 1 homr or 35 hours. I am a working Town ~lerk and put in in excess of 35 hours a week. I don't feel that we should talk about the person, but the position. Mr. Clinton presented the Board with the proposed i~reased salary adjustments, still tolbe approved for 1988/89. These figures are all tentative. I thought this would be germain to the discussion at hand. Mr. Clinton agreed with Mrs. Ragazzi, that the Mayor should be the highest paid elected official, but since the mayor has opted not to take a raise, he did not see that the other administrators should be penalized because of that. Dr. McIntosh would like to see a lot of good explanations for these large increases in salaries. I don't see one additional responsibility. #2104-Tax Collector Mr. Clinton presented this budget to the Board of Finance. He said that 101/0104, Clerical was under negotiations, at the present time. He said that there were 30 hours budgeted in the overtime account. The meeting was adjourned at ~ P~.M. by Chairman McIntosh Respectfully Submitted, Mary-Ellen Johnson, Secretary