Since the mayor has given the order to stop providing the Town Council and other meetings online, I have decided that in light of fact that there are other towns coming online to do this that I will provide the meetings as I am able to.
It’s your town – get informed and get involved.
Wallingford Town Council Meeting - March 9, 2010
Since the mayor has given the order to stop providing the Town Council and other meetings online, I have decided that in light of fact that there are other towns coming online to do this that I will provide the meetings as I am able to.
It’s your town – get informed and get involved.
Wallingford Planning and Zoning - March 8, 2010 PART 1
Wallingford Planning and Zoning - March 8, 2010 PART 2
Since the mayor has given the order to stop providing the Town Council and other meetings online, I have decided that in light of fact that there are other towns coming online to do this that I will provide the meetings as I am able to.
It’s your town – get informed and get involved.
Wallingford Inland Wetlands March 3, 2010 - PART 1
Wallingford Inland Wetlands March 3, 2010 - PART 2
Since the mayor has given the order to stop providing the Town Council and other meetings online, I have decided that in light of fact that there are other towns coming online to do this that I will provide the meetings as I am able to.
It’s your town – get informed and get involved.
Wallingford Town Council Meeting - February 23, 2010 - PART 1
Wallingford Town Council Meeting - February 23, 2010 - PART 2
Wallingford Town Council Meeting - February 23, 2010 - PART 3
Wallingford Town Council Meeting - February 23, 2010 - PART 4
Since the mayor has given the order to stop providing the Town Council and other meetings online, I have decided that in light of fact that there are other towns coming online to do this that I will provide the meetings as I am able to.
It’s your town – get informed and get involved.
Wallingford Planning and Zoning - February 8, 2010 PART 1
Wallingford Planning and Zoning - February 8, 2010 PART 2
Since the mayor has given the order to stop providing the Town Council and other meetings online, I have decided that in light of fact that there are other towns coming online to do this that I will provide the meetings as I am able to.
It’s your town – get informed and get involved.
Wallingford Inland Wetlands February 3, 2010 - PART 1
Wallingford Inland Wetlands February 3, 2010 - PART 2
Since the mayor has given the order to stop providing the Town Council and other meetings online, I have decided that in light of fact that there are other towns coming online to do this that I will provide the meetings as I am able to.
It’s your town – get informed and get involved.
Wallingford Town Council Meeting - February 9, 2010
By Dave Moran
Record-Journal staff
dmoran@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2224
As published in the Record Journal Wednesday March 24, 2010
Follow all the news directly on the Record Journal Website for the most up to date information. www.myrecordjournal.com
Write a letter to the editor letters@record-journal.com
WALLINGFORD— After a lengthy, at times spirited debate, the Town Council voted 5-4 Tuesday to accept an amendment to the educational administrators’ union contract that delays a pay increase in exchange for furlough days. The amendment is projected to save the school system almost $100,000 in 2010-11.
The council’s intense scrutiny of the issue, and the opposing ideologies it revealed among councilors, could foreshadow an even more intense debate in mid-April, when the council will review and vote on the school system’s budget request for the coming fiscal year. School Superintendent Salvatore Menzo and members of the Board of Education came to the council Tuesday seeking approval of an amendment and extension of the administrators’ contract. Menzo said the union, which represents 21 administrators in the school system, had a contract through the 2010-11 fiscal year. Earlier this year, the union offered to forgo a 3.75 percent pay increase in exchange for nine furlough days, a one-year extension of the contract and the guarantee of no layoffs.
Under the revised contract, the administrators would get the 3.75 percent increase in 2011-12, Menzo said, but the savings in 2010-11 would amount to about $100,000.
Members of the Board of Education praised the administrators union for voluntarily approaching the school system with the giveback and urged the council to accept the offer.
“This is a true, sincere effort to help our school community. We’re talking about $100,000 in givebacks,” said Roxane Mc Kay, a Republican who is vice chairwoman of the school board. “To not approve this is setting a precedent for other unions to not consider any concessions.” Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr., a Republican, urged the council not to approve the agreement because it still contained a wage increase. The increase would only be delayed a year, Dickinson said, and the budget is projected to be even worse then.
“It does set a bar, and it certainly is a high bar,” Dickinson said. “If you look beyond the one budget year, it creates a real problem for us in trying to control the cost of government and the cost of delivering services.”
After debating the issue for more than an hour, in closed executive session and in public, the council voted to approve the request. All three Democrats and Republicans Vincent Cervoni and John Le Tourneau voted to approve the agreement, while Republicans Jerry Farrell Jr., Craig Fishbein, Robert Parisi and Rosemary Rascati opposed it.
Those favoring the agreement said they voted for it because the administrators would get a pay increase anyway, and the concessions offered immediate savings.
After Dickinson unveils his budget on April 1, the council will hold workshops to review the plan department by department. Budget adoption is due by the second week of May.
The school system takes up about 60 percent of the town’s overall budget, and the school board has asked for a 4.56 percent increase over 2009-10 spending. Dickinson is expected to cut the request.
Menzo said the savings realized by the administrators’ concessions have already been factored into the budget proposal. “It’s already taken out,” Menzo said. “We would have had to put it back in” if the council didn’t approve it.
“We must hang together, gentlemen … else, we shall most assuredly hang separately.” — Benjamin FranklinMarch 23, 2010 6:30 P.M
Opening Prayer – Reverend Dean Warburton, First Congregational Church
1. Pledge of Allegiance
2. Roll Call
3. Consent Agenda
3a. Consider and Approve Tax Refunds (#624 - #669) totaling $23,785.74 Acct. # 001-1000-010-1170 - Tax Collector
3b. Reappointment of Robert Beaumont to the Public Utilities Commission for a three-year term effective immediately and expiring March 1, 2013 - Mayor
3c. Appointment of Dennis Murphy as an Alternate to the Zoning Board of Appeals for a three-year term effective immediately and expiring January 8, 2013 – Robert F. Parisi, Chairman
3d. Accept a Donation from the Napier Foundation and Approve an Appropriation in the Amount of $1,000 Youth and Social Services Special Fund to Donations Acct # 213-1042-070-7010 and to Expenditures Acct # 213-3070-600-6000 – Youth and Social Services
3e. Accept a Donation and Approve an Appropriation in the Amount of $50 Youth and Social Services Special Fund to Donations Acct # 213-1042-070-7010 and to Expenditures Acct # 213-3070-600-6000– Youth and Social Services
3f. Consider and Approve a Transfer of Funds in the Amount of $6,000 to Distribution Plant-Street lights/Signals Acct # 373 from Distribution Plant-Transformers Acct # 368 – Electric Division
3g. Consider and Approve a Transfer of Funds in the Amount of $30,000 to Injuries & Damages Acct # 431-8920-925 from Power Purchased for Pumping Acct # 431-8620-623 – Water Division
3h. Consider and Approve a Budget Amendment in the Amount of $9,000 to Use of Funds from Interest on Long Term Debt Acct # 431-8970-427 – Water Division
3i. Approve Minutes of Regular Town Council Meeting of February 23, 2010
3j. Approve Minutes of Regular Town Council Meeting of March 9, 2010
4. Items Removed from the Consent Agenda
5. PUBLIC QUESTION & ANSWER
6. Executive Session pursuant to §1-200 (6)(E) of the Connecticut General Statutes with regard to strategy and negotiation with respect to Collective Bargaining – Board of Education
7. Discussion and Possible Action with regard to a Memorandum of Agreement with the Educational Administrator’s Association of Wallingford (E.A.A.W.) on March 8, 2010 effective July 2, 2010 through June 30, 2012 as discussed in Executive Session – Board of Education
8. Acceptance of Land from State of Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection to the Town of Wallingford, a fifteen (15) foot-wide Right-of-Way between Town land on the south and Warehouse Point Road on the north – Engineering
9. Consider and Approve Farm Land Lease Program as presented – Environmental Planner
10. Consider and Approve a Transfer in the Amount of $3,300 to Tools, Shop and Garage Equipment to Acct # 394 from Structures and Improvements Acct #390 – Electric Division
11. Request to use Request for Proposal (RFP) process to select Electrical Rate Consultant at an anticipated cost of $45,000 – Director, Public Utilities
12. Executive Session pursuant to §1-200 (6)(D) of the Connecticut General Statutes with respect to the purchase, sale and/or leasing of property – Mayor
13. Executive Session pursuant to §1-200 (6)(B) of the Connecticut General Statutes regarding strategy and negotiations with respect to pending litigation in the matter of Town of Wallingford v. Maria DiBartolomeo – Law Department
14. Motion to consider and approve the settlement of the Town of Wallingford v. Maria DiBartolomeo as discussed in Executive Session – Law Department
According to a story printed in the Record Journal on Thursday the 11th Wallingford is set to go to trial on March 24 at 10AM with respect to the town’s right to demolish the American Legion building since it decided against selling it.
It will be interesting to see the final ruling on this.
Certainly there would be a minor cost to demolish the building since it’s will probably collapse on its own in a short period of time since no funds at all have been committed to maintaining the building.
There would be the cost of removing the materials and any time and fees spent in court.
I’d love to get the final cost of the bills on this once all is said and done.
This week’s edition of FROM WALLINGFORD was written by my counterpart Stephen Knight“If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.”
This quote, attributed to President Harry S Truman, could also serve as good advice to those who serve on some of the boards, committees and commissions of local Wallingford government.
An interesting February 26th Record-Journal article on these local bodies begs for elaboration. The article focused on the few whose members receive some financial compensation, and referred to membership in others as patronage positions. I suppose that’s fine as far as it goes, but those are isolated aspects of a much larger subject. I want to expand on why these people serve and how they are chosen, and then include a discussion of other committees serving the town government.
1) Why do they serve? Well, it ain’t the money. If the people serving on these town boards were paid by the hour, the town would have to request exemption from state minimum wage laws. That includes Town Councilors, who receive $6,000 in annual compensation. The Board of Education works gratis, a strange anachronism of state law, by the way. Of the twenty-five boards, committees and commissions, only eight have compensation of any kind, and much of that is for reimbursement of expenses.
Patronage? Webster’s defines that as “the power to make appointments to government jobs especially for political advantage.” Consider the contentious mosque-on-Leigus-Road issue at Planning & Zoning, the potentially hundreds of tax appeals coming up in this revaluation year, or the recent fun of being a political football as a member of the Board of Ethics. I’m not sure what you would call it, but it isn’t political patronage. And even though the Town Council and Board of Education are elected positions that officeholders actually ask the voters for, you have to say that the hours spent at the fun filled Wooding-Caplan Town Council meetings or the recent Board of Education elementary school reconfiguration deliberations are not exactly rewards for doing anyone’s political bidding.
2) How are these folks chosen to serve on all these boards? Obviously, the Town Council and Board of Ed members are elected. Of the other twenty-three, twelve are Mayoral appointments and eleven are Council appointments. And even within those, only a handful of people are actually chosen with input from the political parties. Many are chosen because they have become well known as community volunteers; others because of their interest in the subject of concern to that board. Yes, you certainly have a leg up if you participate in local politics, but that is hardly the only avenue. But the old adage “If you want something done, ask a busy person” fits. Many get asked to serve for that reason alone.
3) Lastly, the discussion of those serving on Town of Wallingford boards and committees would be incomplete without mention of the ad hoc committees, especially building committees, formed to oversee a specific project or study a particular issue. Space does not allow for listing them all, but the three School Building Committees of the past fifteen years and the Library Expansion Building Committee will serve as the best examples. In each case, a relative handful of individuals provided the town with expertise which would have otherwise cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars to procure, and spent thousands of man hours overseeing huge and complex construction projects to a resoundingly successful conclusion. And, at the same time, answering to public officials, some of whom had lost sight of the fact that they were dealing, not with contracted vendors, but unpaid volunteers — if you get my drift.
So of the 150 or so individuals serving on twenty five boards, committees and commissions, 39 are compensated. And that compensation has no relationship to the responsibilities borne, the hours spent, or the javelin catching, chainsaw juggling work that these public-spirited people are often called on to perform. Kudos to them all.
This story ran in the Middletown Press titled Durham selectman exploring run for state rep
John is a Republican Selectman in Durham and is exploring a run for state representative for the 100th District, which covers all of Durham and Middlefield and part of Middletown.
Democrat Matt Lesser currently holds the seat for the 100th District and was elected to a two-year term in 2008. Lesser said that he is currently exploring a run for re-election according to the story.
The full story on this can be found online at MyRecordJournal.com in a story titled Wlfd. Democratic Town Committee endorses Malloy
Vincent Avallone, the newly reappointed chairman of the Democratic town committee, offered his own individual endorsement for Malloy as did State Representatives Mary Fritz and Mary Mushinsky according to the story by Dave Moran.
In addition to these personal endorsements, the committee in attendance voted to endorse Malloy for governor.
The Wallingford Democratic Town Committee unanimously re-elected all officers back for another two-year term at a special meeting.
Vincent Avallone was once again elected as Chairman, Peter Gouveia and Robin Hettrick were elected as vice chairmen, Samuel Carmody was elected as secretary and Mario Di Natale was elected as treasurer.
Read the full story in the Record Journal written by Dave Moran - Wallingford Democrats re-elect leaders
