Council’s Subcommittees Dig Into A Range Of Issues

By John Voket

The Legislative Council has an active schedule of committee work. Even long-tenured council representatives cannot recall when these subgroups have been so immediately engaged and active following an election.

As of Wednesday night, the last of those committees had met at least once to begin getting acquainted both practically and politically. February 3 also saw the first Public Works Subcommittee recommendation adopted by the full council, cleaning up one agenda item left to them by their predecessors who left office last December. 

That matter involved the last council’s ad hoc facilities subcommittee, nicknamed the “Amaral Committee” after veteran council member Daniel Amaral whose dogged persistence of greater efficiencies in town and school facilities management inspired its creation.

That ad hoc group spent an intensive period meeting, interviewing, and facilitating information exchanges among more than a dozen town officials, department heads, agency directors, and others. The culmination of their work was an interim report that also made several discoveries and suggestions beyond the panel’s original scope.

Those ideas, along with recommendations consistent with the subcommittee’s charge, were presented at the former council’s final gathering last November. Its members primarily advised the new council to carry on with discovery and exploration to determine how centralizing facilities management might yield the greatest benefits to Newtown and its taxpayers.

That work will now be handed off as a result of a unanimous vote following the recommendation of the public works subcommittee. Subcommittee Chair Richard Woycik, in making his motion to the full council Wednesday, pointed out specifically that four major recommendations of the ad hoc group should be carried on by the bodies that have the “management prerogative” to do so.

“It’s no mandate,” Mr Woycik said during deliberation on the motion. “It’s something that falls under the management of the town and schools.”

No one was happier to see the ad hoc committee’s research and efforts continue than First Selectman Pat Llodra, who served on the facilities panel as its co-chair up until her election to the town’s top post last November. And she supported the current council’s delegation of duties via the motion, saying it carried significant weight to motivate all parties involved to carry on without delay.

“We’re all in this together, and we owe it to the community to work smarter in choosing our resources,” Mrs Llodra said ahead of the vote Wednesday, adding that the full council moving responsibility to the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Education would give the initiative “muscle.”

Mrs Llodra said it may be uncharacteristic for the council to forward such a directive to the other two policymaking boards, but acknowledged that “these are tough times,” leaving town government to work harder than ever to find efficiencies, even if it means disruption or dismissal of the status quo.

“We did not feel any [further] actions were the responsibility of the council,” Mr Woycik said, “they are management prerogatives. Responsibility to take action resides in bodies outside the Legislative Council.”

The motion, which came with an amendment requesting the selectmen keep in touch with the council as possible consolidation of facilities management moves forward, supported four recommendations of the ad hoc group.

Those ideas approved as part of the motion were:

*To monitor computer software integration and implement those electronic tools to track townwide facilities work and related purchasing;

*To implement a work-tracking software pilot program in the Public Works Department this year;

*To implement a similar program with Parks and Recreation, as well as the school district’s facilities maintenance department by 2011;

*And to support the completion of a comprehensive study using data from these software reports to determine if consolidation of some or all town-owned facilities management should occur.

Other Committee Reports

In other subcommittee business, Public Safety Chairman John Aurelia reported that his group had a very informative two-hour meeting with police officials recently, and were planning to meet with fire company officials and representatives of the town ambulance and emergency medical services in the near future.

The Education Committee met previously and delegated which members would attend and represent the council at school board meetings. Committee member Kevin Fitzgerald delivered a package of notes to the Education Committee Wednesday reflecting on his attendance at a marathon board of education meeting the previous night.

The administration subcommittee, which took on added duties of the previous council’s Ad Hoc Communications Committee, reported that a training session for volunteers who will be operating audio/video equipment, along with producing broadcasts of budget hearings and meetings in the new Municipal Center, would commence February 4.

Members of the administration subcommittee were also asked by Chairman Gary Davis to consider other issues in its purview that might be slated for future work, with a plan to discuss any and all ideas in early March.

Ordinance Committee Chair George Ferguson and his panel have been busy looking into issues related to consistency between printed and online municipal codes, along with their consistency with companion elements in the Town Charter. That committee already passed a recommendation that was adopted recently by the council, closing a loophole in language related to the town’s ability to dismiss bids on public projects without prejudice.

The Finance Committee was scheduled to meet for the third time after The Bee went to press February 4. It previously met and saw several recommendations approved by the council, including the acceptance of the most recent municipal audit, and recommending the retention of the town’s current auditing firm.