SPECIAL MEETING OF THE COMMON COUNCIL
MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT
OCTOBER 23, 2012
Special Meeting A
special meeting of the Common Council of the City of Middletown was held in the
Council Chamber on Tuesday October 23, 2012 immediately following the 7 p.m.
Community Meeting
Present Mayor
Daniel T. Drew, Council Members Thomas J. Serra, Ronald P. Klattenberg, Mary A.
Bartolotta, Gerald E. Daley, Robert Santangelo, Hope P. Kasper, Grady L. Faulkner, Jr., Philip J. Pessina, Joseph E. Bibisi, Linda
Salafia, and Deborah Kleckowski; Corporation Counsel Daniel B. Ryan and Common
Council Clerk Marie O. Norwood.
Absent Council
Members Todd G. Berch.
Also Present Superintendent
of Schools Patricia Charles and Deputy City Attorney Timothy Lynch.
Meeting Called to Order The
Mayor calls the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m. and asks the Superintendent of
Schools to lead the public in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Call of Meeting Read The
Call of Meeting was read and accepted. Mayor
Drew declares the Call a Legal Call and the Meeting a Legal meeting.
The Chair welcomes Councilman Bibisi; he states we are glad to have you
back,
Public Comment Opens The Chair opens the public hearing on agenda items at 7:05 p.m. He recognizes
Councilwoman Salafia who would like to make a statement. The Cahir asks what kind of statement. Councilwoman Salafia responds she would like
to recuse herself. The Chair states the
time to do that is when it is time to vote.
Superintendent of Schools Patricia
Charles comes forward to thank the Mayor
for the opportunity to work so closely with the City to resolve Local
466 issues and the myriad of grievances and litigation that is outstanding and
to move the Board of Education forward with a clean slate and we can focus on
the business of educating our children.
She knows it was in the works and it has been three years of problems;
she finds it amazing it could be done.
To have the opportunity for a clean state, she can’t tell you how much
she appreciates it.
Deputy City Attorney Tim Lynch
echoes these comments and commends the Mayor for working it out and the Mayor’s
quick understanding of the issues and it is a good deal for the City. He states he will respond to questions if the
Council has any.
Councilman Serra is recognized and
states on the Settlement Agreement. The Chair states before questions, he would like to close the public
hearing.
Public Comment Closes The Chair, seeing no further comments, closes public comment
at 7:07 p.m.
Councilman Serra states it will be
down to $100,000, but for next year’s budget, will you have to budget for the
$259,000. Dr. Charles states they will
have to budget for the increases, yes.
Councilman Serra states the City found the money for this. Dr. Charles responds it is less than what
they thought it would be. Councilman Serra
states next year you will have to budget more.
Dr. Charles states yes they will have to budget it next year.
Councilwoman Kleckowski states her
questions are for Attorney Lynch. She has two questions and asks if he has the
contract in front of him. She states on
item 10, there is no cost in reference to cafeteria rates where it says 182 hours at a cost of and there is no specific
cost. Attorney Lynch responds that may
be a prior draft and that cost may have been put in. There were some employees that only wanted
time restored and costs were removed.
Councilwoman Kleckowski asks if nurses were paid by the Board of
Education or the City. Attorney Lynch
responds it depends on the line item; if they are Local 466. The Chair states they are Board of Education
employees; they fall under their auspices and are paid by the Board
of Education. Councilwoman Kleckowski
thanks the Chair.
Councilwoman Kasper asks Dr.
Charles, the original calculation, I think part of the employee benefit package
includes the pension and because the pension has done so well, there won’t be a
cost associated with the Board of Education for retirement. Dr. Charles states that is why the cost was
reduced from what we originally thought it was going to be.
Point of Information Councilwoman
Salafia states in regards to the nurses, they were paid through the Board of
Education through the expenditure item and now they will be paid through
payroll.
Councilman Faulkner states his
question on the number that we spent $800,000 in attorney fees. The Chair states that is in my letter to you;
that is what we spent on the City side only and that is all the cases and the
dollars spent in three years. A good
portion is from this. Councilman
Faulkner states how do we get authorized to spend that kind of money when it
doesn’t come through the Council. The
Chair responds the money was budgeted for outside counsel and the money came
from the Insurance Fund for defensible claims and did not fall under that and
there were no monetary damages but redress, who had the power to do what under
Charter and Statute and because it wasn’t monetary, the Insurance Company
refused to pay for it. Councilman
Faulkner states we have to review procedures and he doesn’t know who authorized
these payments and we need to look at that process. There should always be a case number
assigned, if we are making payments.
That was the biggest issue he had and he had some questions on nurses,
but will leave it. He asks about the
floaters for the cafeteria workers. The
Chair responds there were a number of floaters and Councilwoman Salafia can add her comments; what had happened is,
the previously cafeteria floaters were used to augment the need to hire full
time cafeteria workers as in the Union.
The Superintendent, myself, and Board Chair and Vice Chair agreed it
wasn’t a proper practice. The Chair
continues there were a number of people coming in, in lieu of hiring a full
time person. Councilwoman Salafia states
the Board of Education, in several cases would hire, but not through the normal
process, and they would do Union duties,
outside the Union contract and that is most of the complaints. It was supplementing Union duties with
non-Union workers. It is how they
arrived on the job. Councilman Faulkner asks
how do we stay out of these situations in the future; what has to be done. The Chair replies in this agreement, we have
done it. I would say in the Prior City
and Board of Education administration, there is plenty of blame and now we are
fixing it and agreed to cooperate on these issues. We are committed to working together and as
we do that, as problems come up, we will deal with them. We have worked on other issues and can work
on these as well.
The Chair asks if there are further questions. Seeing none he closes the Questions to
Directors.
The Chair asks the Clerk to read the
Appropriation Request and Certificate of the Director of Finance:
CONTINUED: