Councilors, mayor spar over online technology

As published in the Record Journal, Wednesday March 14, 2012

By Dan Ivers
Record-Journal staff
divers@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2275

WALLINGFORD — Town councilors sparred with Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr. Tuesday night over whether to post information about the town budget and local properties on the town’s website.

Councilors Craig Fishbein, Jason Zandri, John LeTourneau and John Sullivan criticized Dickinson’s resistance to posting his budget proposal, which is due April 1. Dickinson argued that the document would be available on paper, and a lack of demand for it over the years proves there is no justification for the time that employees would need to post an electronic copy on the website.

“I don’t understand where the need is. Who is calling for this?” Dickinson said. “The information is available to people if they want it. Every duty, everything that each department is involved with, takes time. We have less staff — any addition of duties comes with the burden of justification.”

Technology Director Donald Rowe was summoned by the council to explain what posting the budget might require, and he estimated his office would spend about 10 minutes uploading an existing electronic copy.

Last week, Dickinson agreed to post an electronic copy of the current operating budget online, but he repeated his opposition to the posting of his proposal for 2012-13. He said that compiling the documents places additional responsibilities on the town’s finance department and he is concerned about setting a precedent.

The bipartisan group of councilors, however, pushed back, saying the move would show taxpayers that the town is committed to transparency.

“This is an opportunity for people who care about their town, and pay their taxes on time, to get an idea of where their money is going,” said Sullivan, a Democrat.

Dickinson is the town’s executive officer and is not obligated to follow recommendations of the Town Council. He said he intends to weigh the benefits of posting the document against the burdens on town employees, but he reiterated his opposition to furthering technology simply to “keep up with the Joneses.”

“It’s got to meet a useful process. It’s got to meet a useful endeavor for the people,” he said. “I obviously do not march to the step of perhaps the rest of the world on this issue ... We don’t jump just because someone else does it. We take our time and think it through.”

Earlier in the meeting, councilors sparred with Dickinson over his recommendation to endorse an application by the South Central Council of Governments for a grant to help establish a regional property database among its 15 member towns. The database would include information on individual properties in each town, as well as general information on local highways, zoning, demographics and economic development.

Dickinson said the town would not release information on individual properties, mostly out of concern for citizens whose addresses are protected, such as police officers, judges and Department of Correction employees.

Some councilors objected to the limited participation, saying much of the same information is already available through non-government websites, and that spending money to publicize such a limited amount of data is not worthwhile.

“Either the Internet is evil or it is not,” said Fishbein, a Republican. “This seems like something that, at least in its limited form, is of no benefit.” Zandri, a Democrat, criticized Dickinson’s position as a stand against technology, and said the town would be missing out on a rare opportunity.

“I presume that you are probably as resistant to a keyboard as somebody with a bag of peanuts that has a peanut allergy,” he said. “I think to not take the opportunity to expand on and add to a service when it costs us nothing is a shame.”

The council ultimately voted 5-4 not to endorse the grant application, with Nicholas Economopoulos, Robert Parisi, Rosemary Rascati and Vincent Cervoni casting votes in favor.

Councilors, mayor spar over online technology

As published in the Record Journal, Wednesday March 14, 2012

By Dan Ivers
Record-Journalstaff
divers@record-journal.com 
(203) 317-2275
WALLINGFORD — Town councilors sparred with Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr. Tuesday night over whether to post information about the town budget and local properties on the town’s website.

Councilors Craig Fishbein, Jason Zandri, John LeTourneau and John Sullivan criticized Dickinson’s resistance to posting his budget proposal, which is due April 1. Dickinson argued that the document would be available on paper, and a lack of demand for it over the years proves there is no justification for the time that employees would need to post an electronic copy on the website.

“I don’t understand where the need is. Who is calling for this?” Dickinson said. “The information is available to people if they want it. Every duty, everything that each department is involved with, takes time. We have less staff — any addition of duties comes with the burden of justification.”

Technology Director Donald Rowe was summoned by the council to explain what posting the budget might require, and he estimated his office would spend about 10 minutes uploading an existing electronic copy.

Last week, Dickinson agreed to post an electronic copy of the current operating budget online, but he repeated his opposition to the posting of his proposal for 2012-13. He said that compiling the documents places additional responsibilities on the town’s finance department and he is concerned about setting a precedent.

The bipartisan group of councilors, however, pushed back, saying the move would show taxpayers that the town is committed to transparency.

“This is an opportunity for people who care about their town, and pay their taxes on time, to get an idea of where their money is going,” said Sullivan, a Democrat.

Dickinson is the town’s executive officer and is not obligated to follow recommendations of the Town Council. He said he intends to weigh the benefits of posting the document against the burdens on town employees, but he reiterated his opposition to furthering technology simply to “keep up with the Joneses.”

“It’s got to meet a useful process. It’s got to meet a useful endeavor for the people,” he said. “I obviously do not march to the step of perhaps the rest of the world on this issue ... We don’t jump just because someone else does it. We take our time and think it through.”

Earlier in the meeting, councilors sparred with Dickinson over his recommendation to endorse an application by the South Central Council of Governments for a grant to help establish a regional property database among its 15 member towns. The database would include information on individual properties in each town, as well as general information on local highways, zoning, demographics and economic development.

Dickinson said the town would not release information on individual properties, mostly out of concern for citizens whose addresses are protected, such as police officers, judges and Department of Correction employees.

Some councilors objected to the limited participation, saying much of the same information is already available through non-government websites, and that spending money to publicize such a limited amount of data is not worthwhile.

“Either the Internet is evil or it is not,” said Fishbein, a Republican. “This seems like something that, at least in its limited form, is of no benefit.” Zandri, a Democrat, criticized Dickinson’s position as a stand against technology, and said the town would be missing out on a rare opportunity.

“I presume that you are probably as resistant to a keyboard as somebody with a bag of peanuts that has a peanut allergy,” he said. “I think to not take the opportunity to expand on and add to a service when it costs us nothing is a shame.”

The council ultimately voted 5-4 not to endorse the grant application, with Nicholas Economopoulos, Robert Parisi, Rosemary Rascati and Vincent Cervoni casting votes in favor.

District to study use of student-owned technology

A reminder of what is missing from Wallingford. I am not suggesting, necessarily, that we have to keep up with the Smiths and the Joneses but we should be doing what we can to keep ahead of the Flintstones

As published in the Record Journal, Tuesday March 13, 2012

By Kimberly Primicerio
Record-Journal staff
kprimicerio@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2279

SOUTHINGTON — Over the next six weeks, parents, students and educators serving on the school district’s technology advisory committee will research the use of student- owned technology in classrooms.

The committee found out on Monday the work it faces. The group will look into the district’s current technology policy and will decide if anything needs to be changed regarding student use of cellphones, e-readers and computer tablets in the classroom.

The school system is trying to determine if any of this increasingly popular technology should be embraced in the classroom as an aid to the education process. By April 20, School Superintendent Joseph V. Erardi Jr. hopes to have the group present its findings and recommendations.

“We’ll have some deep conversations,” Erardi said at the committee’s first meeting, at Plantsville School. “It’s a simple task, but it’s complicated.”

He said it’s possible the committee could establish no new practices, but he doesn’t think that would be a good outcome. Taking controversial positions on technology is OK, Erardi said.

Before research tasks were divided among committee members, the group looked at school technology protocol and shared opinions.

Suzanne Hodges, a science teacher at the high school, said student-owned electronics are stored in lockers and are not to be used during the school day. Exceptions are made in some classes for tablets and e-readers.

Debbie Miller, a technology analyst at the elementary schools, called the existing policies antiquated.

“The cellphone policy is unrealistic,” said Cheryl Hilton-Campbell, a committee member who is PTO president at Kelley School.

Hilton-Campbell said that while the cellphones shouldn’t be on and should be stored in lockers, that’s not what’s really going on in the schools.

“I think we need to establish ethics on how to use the technology responsibly,” she said. “The technology needs to be used, but it’s vital to use it the right way.”

Spencer Richards, PTO co-president at Kennedy Middle School, agreed and said children need to be learning and using the technology.

As the conversation continued, it came out that schools prohibit the use of cellphones but many allow e-readers. Teachers are finding out that many students, even children in elementary school, have their own e-readers.

Pam Aldi, assistant principal at Kennedy Middle School, said that as long as teachers are monitoring students, the e-readers help students with reading. It makes them feel comfortable at their reading level since other students can’t see what they’re reading. Text can also be enlarged and sentences can be highlighted, she said.

Abigail Harris, a sophomore at Southington High School, said technology use is inevitable, and students, faculty and administrators need to move on together.

After the exchange of opinions, committee members were assigned jobs. One group will talk with personnel in other school districts to find out how they embrace technology and what works for them.

Another group, including students from the high school, was tasked with coming up with survey questions. Such questions will ask teachers and students if they have certain devices and what they use them for. The surveys will give the committee numbers to work with and a good idea of how ubiquitous technology has become.

Erardi said the group’s mission is not to create a new policy through its findings and suggestions, but to come up with practices. The practices will be presented to the Board of Education and, if the board finds them appropriate, a new policy on technology will be crafted.

The committee will meet again on April 2.

Wallingford Fireworks 2012 campaign: Week three collections net another $1,194.68; the 2012 campaign total stands at $4,567.07

Good morning everyone.

This week is going to be an exciting week for the Wallingford Fireworks Fund and all her supporters. Please keep an eye out on the blog this week for additional announcements.

Until then, totals are in from our week three collections are in and we collected an additional $1,194.68.

Our full 2012 campaign is to collect $30,000.00 before the Mayor’s deadline of 5PM on Friday May 25th 2012.

Our current totals for the event stand at $4,567.07 (oh for the want of an additional eighty two cents to make that a sequential total; had I known that was going to be the remaining balance ahead of time I would have thrown it in).

I am still waiting on Mr. Bowes, Wallingford’s Comptroller, to let me know what the costs to the town services are as that is the first of the totals we need to take care of before we can even consider paying for the fireworks themselves.
In 2011 those costs were:

Police Dept. Overtime $7,750.00
Fire Dept. Overtime $1,900.00
Port-o-lets $990.00
Fire Marshall $850.00
Public Works $330.00
Board of Ed $330.00

Town Services 2011 total $12,150.00

I am sure that amount is probably 2 to 5 percent higher this year so I am planning for about $13,000.00

So that is where we are right now.

Today is Tuesday the 20th and my father is supposed to be out at the Yalesville Dunkin Donuts on Main Street (Route 150) to collect for us. Stop by and see him.

I am working all this week in New York City (I am on the train as I write this) so I am unavailable to help until the weekend. Over the weekend we are again planning to be at the Wallingford Landfill and the Wallingford Recycling Center.

We are always looking for additional volunteers to stand out and collect donations.

We have slots available at the Dunkin Donuts here in town on most mornings. While we like to cover a full morning rush hour shift from 6:30AM to 9:30AM if all you have is an hour to spare and want to help we’ll take it.

We’ve also sent out the letters to all the donors from the past two years and we have gotten a few checks to date (they are already deposited and in our running total).

If you’re a newcomer and want to donate you can by sending your tax deductible donation to:

Wallingford Fireworks Fund
c/o Jason Zandri
35 Lincoln Drive EXT
Wallingford, CT 06492

As always, if anyone has any questions of me please feel free to reach out by calling 860 614 6069 or via email at Jason@Zandri.net. (Generally speaking, I can answer email faster than a phone call because of my work schedule).

 

PLEASE – stay tuned this week for a major announcement here on the blog and I would expect in the Record Journal as well.

More thoughts on the regional property database and State Supreme Court case, Commissioner of Public Safety v. Freedom of Information Commission.

As a follow up to the Record Journal story Mayor backs regional database, but without property data (cross posted to my blog) and my response follow up on my Town Council page where I offered my own take on the subject and just how much information is already out there, I have been discussing this with a number of people to get their thoughts, feedback and input.

On person I had an email exchange with offered to me a link to the SUMMARY OF COMMISSIONER OF PUBLIC SAFETY VS. FOIC which I am going to review. (A quick “thank you” to them for their thoughts and these points of reference; we have different mindsets here but I need that to remain as objective as possible).

The full majority opinion is available at the following link: http://www.jud.ct.gov/external/supapp/Cases/AROcr/CR301/301CR37.pdf. The concurrence is available here: http://www.jud.ct.gov/external/supapp/Cases/AROcr/CR301/301CR37A.pdf

One point that was made to me was “suppose you're a member of a protected class under the statute (also referenced in the Supreme Court decision I sent you). If I, as a private citizen or corporation, make your home address public, nobody can do anything to me as far as I know. If, however, I am the town assessor and make your address public, I'm violating state law.”

So I am going to see where my thoughts are to issues like that after I read the ruling. The bottom line here – I believe that currently I could walk into the town assessor's office right now and get data relative to those individuals that are part protected class under the statute (I might be mistaken – I am going to review and I will let you know). The town assessor is already making that information public if I walk in – if my thought process is correct, how is he or she suddenly in violation if that information is available online?

I suppose this is one of those situation where “the devil is in the details.”

I’ll have to look at it and follow up.

Mayor backs regional database, but without property data

As published in the Record Journal Saturday March 10, 2012

By Dan Ivers
Record-Journal staff
divers@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2275

WALLINGFORD — Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr. is recommending that the town endorse a grant application that would help create a regional property database, but he will not allow the release of the town’s records.

The South Central Regional Council of Governments is applying for the $591,028 grant from the state’s Office of Policy and Management, with the intention of creating a central database for property information in its 15 member towns.

Dickinson has recommended that the Town Council endorse the agency’s proposal, but said Friday he objects to the posting of information on individual properties in town.

“I’m not sure why people in Russia or China should be able to look up what your property looks like. I just don’t see the benefit,” he said.

Town Councilor John Le-Tourneau, who co-chaired the council’s Information Technology Committee, said he wanted to hear more about Dickinson’s reasoning, but doesn’t understand his reluctance to take full advantage of the grant.

“We’re not plowing new ground. Other towns do it and they’ve done it successfully for a number of years,” he said. “On the surface, I don’t see the problem.”

Eight of the regional council’s 15 member towns, including Meriden, already provide online access to property records through technology called Geographic Information Systems. The systems have details on each property, including photos, assessed value, owner information and year of construction. In Wallingford, however, people have to go to the tax assessor’s office to get the same information.

If the grant is awarded, the regional council would create a database for Wallingford, North Haven, New Haven, Madison, Orange, East Haven and Woodbridge, and expand existing programs in the other eight towns to include information on demographics, economic development, environmental features and transportation. All the improvements would come at no cost to the towns.

“Those municipalities without a web-based GIS program will have access to a dynamic regional system, while municipalities with a web-based GIS program will gain access to new data layers,” the grant application reads.

Dickinson said he recommended that the council endorse the grant so the additional information on demographics, transportation and economic development could be included, but he said he will not release any data on individual properties for inclusion.

He cited concern over a recent Supreme Court decision that barred towns from posting information that includes the addresses of public safety officials, such as police officers, judges and correction officers.

“If someone can tell me how we can guarantee there won’t be privacy issues, that’s fine. But no one’s been able to tell me that,” he said.

Last year, Dickinson rejected a recommendation from the Information Technology Committee to make property records available online for an estimated cost of $6,000. He cited many of the same concerns, including the Supreme Court decision, as his reasoning.

Should the grant be approved, it would take about two years for the database to be launched.

Saturday March 10, 2012: Join Susan Bysiewicz in Wallingford

Please Join

Event Chair
Samuel Carmody

And Host Committee

Robert & Kathy Avery  ·  Ernest Childers  ·  Patricia DeRenzo  ·  Amie Dighello   Vincenzo DiNatale  ·  Hon. Nicholas Economopoulos  ·  Valerie Ford  ·  William Fritz   Kevin Goodrich  ·  Karen Grava  ·  Robin Hettrick  ·  Barbara Kapi  ·  Nick Kern       Jeffrey Kohan  ·  William Lanzoni  ·  Edward Loughlin  ·  Howard Marshall 
Carolyn Massoni  ·  Hon. Mary Mushinsky  ·  Ronald Piazza  ·  Joyce Quigley           Bryan Rivard  ·  Richard Rizzo  ·  Kaitlyn Romania  ·  Larry Russo  ·  Joseph Severino · Carmen Spiteri  ·  Vincent Testa  ·  James & Betty Torre  ·  Hon. Jason Zandri 

For an evening with
Susan Bysiewicz
Former Secretary of the State and Candidate for U.S. Senate

At the home of
The Carmody Family
210 High Street, Wallingford, CT
Saturday, March 10, 2012
4:30 pm - 6:00 pm

Donations are welcomed but not required

Please RSVP to Alex Florek at AFlorek@susanforct.com or 860-343-1585

Susan Bysiewicz for Connecticut Can Accept Up To $7500 Per Individual.

Contributions or gifts to Susan Bysiewicz for Connecticut are not tax deductible.

If you require accommodations to attend this event, please contact the campaign.

Plan to put mayor’s budget online renews Wallingford tech debate

As published in the Record Journal Tuesday March 6, 2012

By Dan Ivers
Record-Journal staff
divers@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2275

WALLINGFORD — The Town Council has engaged in a brief debate over whether to post Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr.’s budget proposal on the town’s website after it is unveiled next month.

In the context of a discussion about Councilor Craig Fishbein’s plan to include details on changes in spending for each town department on annual tax bills, fellow Republican John LeTourneau proposed posting the budget online. Dickinson, at the council meeting last week, voiced his opposition to the idea, saying he doubted many residents would view the document and questioned whether it might occupy technical staff’s time.

While placing documents related to the budget process is commonplace in most towns, Wallingford is far from typical when it comes to technology. Internet access is available in a handful of Town Hall offices, but only where state or federal law requires it.

Similar debates are nothing new in Wallingford, where councilors and employees are split on Dickinson’s stringent attitude toward technical advancements.

“I agree that not every employee in Town Hall needs a terminal on their desk,” Le-Tourneau said. “But when we have the town clerk’s office having to go up to the third floor to check an e-mail account, it’s absolutely ludicrous.”

Former Town Planner Linda Bush, who retired last week, called the policy “very frustrating” during a recent appearance on local public access television, saying employees at Town Hall wasted a significant amount of time waiting to use two Internet-enabled computers. On Monday, Dickinson said he believed the town would be able to accommodate Le-Tourneau’s request, but defended his approach toward adding any additional duties for employees.

“The question is time constraints. It’s a question of what has to be accomplished,” he said. “If we had a lot of people asking for the budget and we were spending a lot of money mailing it out to them, you’d look for ways to avoid that cost. We don’t have that. We’re responding to something that probably isn’t a problem.”

Dickinson’s approach to technology is nearly the opposite of that of another local chief town executive, Southington Town Manager Garry Brumback. In his first two budgets, Brumback has set aside $1.15 million for systems upgrades and to transfer work formerly done on paper to computer. He said he plans to expand the number of online and computerized services in Town Hall over the next few years to mirror the online services already prevalent in the private sector, envisioning a virtual Town Hall “My hope is that in three years, people will forget they only had access to Town Hall through brick and mortar,” Brumback said last week.

His end goal is for most Town Hall business to be completed online — eliminating the need for most people to visit Town Hall unless they choose to do so.

In 2010, the Wallingford Town Council formed an Information Technology Committee, which met several times to discuss potential improvements.

The group eventually passed on a report to Dickinson that recommended an audit and cost-benefit analysis of the town’s telephone systems, as well as an effort to post property records available in the assessor’s office on the town website.

Both suggestions failed to move beyond the discussion phase, however, and the Informational Technology Committee appears to have been disbanded. It has not met in nearly a year, and co-chairs Fishbein and LeTourneau said it is unlikely to be reformed.

Instead, the council will likely deal with technology-related issues, such as that regarding posting the budget proposal online, on an individual basis. The issue was tabled and will be revisited at its meeting next week, and Le-Tourneau said he was confident he would have enough support to pass the measure.

Jason Zandri, a newly elected Democrat, said he believed the resistance to a move as simple as uploading an already completed PDF document was evidence of a larger aversion to technology, rather than a decision about money or employee efficiency.

“For him, it’s a principle thing,” he said. “It’s shortsighted. We can sit there and argue all day how many people are going to access this online, but if we don’t put it up there, it won’t be any more than zero.”

For some councilors, however, a desire to have the budget online does not equate to total disagreement with Dickinson’s wider approach. Fishbein said that he supports the posting for the sake of public transparency, but values close inspection of any move that might require some investment of taxpayer funds.

Dickinson “is very frugal and I think he is the best protector of our taxpayer dollars,” he said. “He is certainly willing to have a conversation. His question always comes around to ‘Show me the benefit or the cost savings to the town.’ ”

Attack on McCully provokes surprise and anger

As published in the Record Journal Thursday March 1, 2012

By Russell Blair
Record-Journal staff

rblair@record-journal.com 

(203) 317-2225 

WALLINGFORD — Several town councilors and the mayor said Wednesday they were surprised by a councilor’s decision to publicly level accusations of misconduct by the director of the Department of Public Works during Tuesday’s council meeting.

Nicholas Economopoulos, a Democrat who is planning to run for mayor this year, accused Henry McCully’s staff of cutting down healthy trees and selling the wood and of removing a tree from a town worker’s private property as a favor. McCully denies the accusations.

“I don’t cut people favors,” he said Wednesday.

Economopoulos’ accusations came when McCully appeared before the council Tuesday night to request a budget transfer for tree removal. Council Chairman Robert Parisi, a Republican, said it wasn’t the proper time to make such allegations.

McCully called Economopoulos’ comments “inappropriate and baseless.”

“I don’t want to get involved in politics. ... I want to put my energy into running my department,” he said.

McCully said that while he doesn’t run a perfect operation, he doesn’t deserve to be called out for misconduct.

“I don’t think it’s a deserved character assassination,” he said. “I’ve been here 29 years, I’m not hiding anything.”

“It was very inappropriate,” said Republican Councilor John LeTourneau. “Henry came for the transfer. That was the topic, not calling him out on alleged wrongdoings. It’s not the venue to do that. Those questions could have been asked by a phone call, he didn’t need to bring it out.”

Economopoulos said Wednesday that he was giving McCully an opportunity to answer the questions in public, and accuses McCully of lying about the two incidents. He said he plans to present evidence at a future meeting.

“I already know for a fact that wood was taken out of our town parks, and he’s denying that,” Economopoulos said. “I’m getting all my ducks in a row, and I’m going to get it on the agenda and prove that.”

Democratic Councilor John Sullivan said he had no comment on Economopoulos’ actions during the meeting.

Economopoulos has spent several months requesting documents and gathering information about the activity of the Public Works Department. He said it’s part of his mission to make town government more efficient and accountable.
Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr., a Republican, said that he’s willing to listen to Economopoulos, but that the meeting wasn’t the proper channel to make the accusations.

“If he feels that he has information of wrongdoing, we want to know about it,” Dickinson said.

But he admitted that it’s “difficult to respond at a public meeting when you don’t know the issue until it’s voiced.”

“At a meeting like that, there’s no way to be prepared,” Dickinson said.

Dickinson said that the two instances had already been investigated by the town and he didn’t think there had been sufficient information to justify accusing McCully or his staff of any wrongdoing. The tree removal occurred three years ago, McCully said.

Councilor Jason Zandri, a Democrat, said that he thought Economopoulos would be best advised to raise the questions at a future council meeting, after an item has been placed on the agenda.

“This is an ongoing thing he’s investigating, and I think he should bring it up at a future point,” he said.

Zandri said that McCully was prepared to discuss the budget transfer but may have not had explanations available.

Parisi said he tries to keep council meetings civil, and in his years on the panel, he hasn’t seen a situation that played out quite the same way.

“We have rules that cover being nice, we may have to review that,” he said.

Parisi said that he was caught off guard by the accusations, and that they were made with no backup.

“Most of the items on the agenda have some backup information,” he said. “To say someone is acting irresponsible should be backed up.”

LeTourneau said the council has the right to ask questions of department heads but it isn’t there to micromanage.

“We’re not their boss,” he said. “The mayor is their boss. A lot is up to the mayor or the Personnel Department.”

Money transferred again for tree removal

As published in the Record Journal Wednesday February 29, 2012

By Russell Blair
Record-Journal staff

rblair@record-journal.com 

(203) 317-2225

WALLINGFORD — A budget transfer of $35,000 for tree removal led to more than a half hour of debate during Tuesday night’s Town Council meeting about the activities of the Public Works Department.

Public Works Director Henry McCully appeared before the Town Council for the third time this fiscal year asking for a transfer of money to pay for contracted tree services. McCully said Tropical Storm Irene and the late October snowstorm contributed to the increased need for money.

“These storms have led to increased activity removing trees,” he said. “We have trees that are damaged, or with hanging limbs. We have to go until July 1 of this year, and there’s no money left in the budget.”

McCully had transferred $25,000 to the account twice. McCully said the money was for the whole removal of dead and diseased trees that are considered hazardous. Public works employees use bucket trucks to trim trees and will remove smaller ones, but typically don’t remove larger ones.

“As practice we don’t take down large trees,” he said.

But Town Councilor Nicholas Economopoulos, a Democrat, questioned whether the money was needed, and asked McCully to produce a list of the trees that he wanted to remove.

“I think there could be a different solution than having $35,000 come out of the account for materials and supplies,” he said. “To be responsible councilors, we should have a list of the trees.”

Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr. said it isn’t practical to require McCully to produce a list to the council.

“I’m not sure that’s providing the service we want to provide to the public,” Dickinson said.

Economopoulos, who has been recently requesting documents about the activity of the Public Works Department, asked McCully about a tree that was removed from Marcus Cooke Memorial Park. Economopoulos said that the tree was healthy. He went on to accuse McCully’s staff of cutting healthy trees and selling the wood.

“You know what I’m implying, that they’re cutting good trees and using them for firewood,” Economopoulos said.

Economopoulos also accused Mc-Cully of removing a tree from a town employee’s private property.

“I’m implying that he’s a town worker, and you cut him a favor,” he said.

McCully denied the charges, and Town Council Chairman Robert Parisi said that council meeting aren’t the right venue to raise such accusations.

The $35,000 was taken from money originally budgeted for salt.

“We haven’t had to purchase a lot of salt,” McCully said. “I think we can get through March safely.”

The transfer was approved by a 8-1 vote with Economopoulos casting the lone dissenting vote.

McCully said that the tree-removal budget has ballooned in the last two fiscal years due to the large amount of snow in early 2011 and the two storms at the year’s end. He expected to ask for only $70,000 for the account going forward.