City of Meriden, CT - September 2, 2003 City Council Minutes

Section 1. Section 1(a) of the resolution entitled “A Resolution Making Appropriations Aggregating $8,402,000 For Various Public Improvements And Equipment And Authorizing The Issuance of $8,402,000 Bonds Of The City To Meet Said Appropriations And Pending The Issuance Thereof The Making Of Temporary Borrowings For Such Purpose”, adopted by the Common Council on August 21, 2000, as amended, (the “GPIB #49 Resolution”) is hereby amended by reducing the appropriation for “Girls Softball Complex (0402-7349-599)” by $33,035, from $900,000 to $866,965 and by adding a new appropriation for “Little League Improvements/Equipment (0401-7349-888) - $33,035”.

SECOND PIECE: A certain piece or parcel of land shown on a map entitled, “Map showing Plot A Property of the City of Meriden and Plot B of George and Ann B. Hunter, Meriden, Conn. Scale 1”=30’ June, 1975 R.H. Johnson.” And further bounded and described as follows: NORTHERLY:by the approximate shoreline of Hanover Pond, being land now or formerly of the City of Meriden, 130 feet more or less; EASTERLY:by land now or formerly of the City of Meriden, being the approximate line of the Race, 10 feet; SOUTHERLY:125.0 feet by land in part now or formerly of the South Meriden Starlight Social Club

Stephen Zerio, made a motion, seconded by Patricia Lynes, to adopt. Zerio asked Corporation Counsel Kendzior how the property would be dispersed to the property owners. Zerio was asking this question for a citizen who questioned him during public comment period. Kendzior stated that this is a paper street. This portion of Fremont Street is shown on a subdivision map that is on file in the City Clerk’s office but was never actually constructed. In a situation like this, when the Council discontinues the street, the City and the public loses the right to pass over that property but the City has never actually owned this property. When the discontinuance is effective, the owners on either side of the paper street will own to the centerline of the paper street by operation of law. Feest stated a question was asked that night regarding dispersal of property. It was asked if the city could sell this piece as this piece of property doesn’t fit our zoning requirements as it is only 50 feet wide and 200 feet long and building lots have to be 75 feet wide. Motion carried unanimously.

Stephen Zerio, made a motion, seconded by Patricia Lynes, to adopt. Zerio stated these are the Legere properties that have been in the city’s ownership for a couple of years. Monies have been expended to do a study as to whether or not these were economically feasible to rehabilitate. We have come to this Council before and sent this back to determine whether or not we want to do anything with these properties and based upon the discussion in the committee it was determined that we did want to put two of the properties to bid and the other two will be coming before the Council in the form of a resolution asking for demolition. Before that happens Zerio wanted to read the actual recommendation from the Planning Commission. The report stated: “Honorable Members of the City Council - The Planning Commission at its regular meeting of June 11, 2003 voted to recommend that the City Council proceed with the RFP procedure regarding these buildings. Also, the Commission noted that this recommendation does not include the recommendation for the disposition of said property. Said recommendation will be forthcoming upon receipt of the RFP”. Zerio stated that when this RFP does go out and there has been

interested parties looking at these buildings, it would still have to go back to Planning for a final disposition. Benigni stated that he thought this was a great process that we will follow. We’ll see if anyone is interested in these buildings and feels it is important that we move forward with demolition of the other two and feels that taking down the other two will only gain interest in these two that are left and when we send out a request for proposal we’ll see what comes into the city and by all means we can either choose to accept those proposals or reject them. He feels it is great that the Council is focusing on downtown and making some changes and encourages the Council to support the committee report. Motion carried unanimously.

Brian Kogut, made a motion, seconded by Keith Gordon, to adopt. Kogut explained that this is a property that there is substantial tax liens against and there has been a lot of interest over the past couple of months by different parties to actually purchase the tax liens on this property. As many of you recall the number started off very low, around $10,000 and at the time the Council received the first offer, they took the position that we really wanted to get closer to the taxes. There have been several other offers and this is the highest one thus far, $45,000 which very closely approximates what is actually owed on the property. The Finance Committee thinks this is a pretty good offer and one that we should take at this point in time. Motion carried unanimously.

Brian Kogut, made a motion, seconded by Keith Gordon, to adopt the committee report which recommends denial. Kogut stated that this is the one item that the committee spent the most time on at their meeting. He stated there was a lot of discussion about this particular issue. There was an allocation of $7500 in this years budget for the Meriden Symphony Orchestra. He believes most of them intended that money to be spent on programming events, one of them being the annual Chicken and Tschikovsy 4th of July Celebration. That concert was cancelled this year. What the committee looked at was whether or not they wanted to release funds for a concert that didn’t happen. Kogut’s position was that he had no problem releasing $7,500 to the Meriden Symphony Orchestra but he doesn’t want to see that money spent on a cancelled concert. He feels if they want to release those funds they should actually be spent on programming. Some comments have been made that the Council is in fact being adversarial or treating people like the enemy. He doesn’t feel that is the case. Kogut certainly would allow the symphony to use the money but believes it should be used for programming events. He feels many will be speaking about the time line tonight but what it comes down to is that the concert was cancelled and the Council didn’t have an opportunity to step in before that cancellation took place. The symphony was supposed to come before the Finance Committee but they cancelled the concert before that took place. Kogut feels they could have cancelled the concert the day before. He feels that they jumped the gun a little bit. The committee vote was a close one. Even though the vote is recorded as 3:1, it was 2:2. One member, in the interest of getting the item before the Council changed their vote.

Councilor Lynes stated she has all intentions to vote for the $7,500 allocation. She feels the symphony was premature in canceling the event. She feels their major mistake in canceling was because they took their cue from articles that were in the Record Journal stating the Council wouldn’t be sympathetic to giving them the money. There are twelve people that sit on the Council and they sit here to help you, not just to think about ways to tax you and make lives miserable. Anyone of the Council, had they received a call would have been happy to intervene with the City Manager to find out what was going on and try to help them get the money. Arts and entertainment in the City of Meriden, in her opinion are a very fragile thing at this time. While we have a very strong, thriving sports community out there, arts and entertainment is still growing and evolving and she wants to see it grow and thrive and see it become as strong as the sports program are. Then and only then can we be a truly, well rounded community and she feels this is very important because it’s not just all about sports, it all goes together.

Councilor Zerio stated when he went to the committee meeting he was not in favor of releasing these funds for this purpose. He was disappointed as was everyone else in the ellipse that the concert was prematurely cancelled and understands some of the reasons that were brought up in public comment that night and also tonight. He doesn’t feel that the City was given a chance. He feels the city does a great job at pulling together and sometimes at the last minute to make things happen. He thinks if that power had reached out then we certainly would have had a great time at the July 4th event. He thinks what probably turned his mind was a couple of things. There were a lot of false assumptions made by the Meriden Symphony Orchestra. They assumed that the money was going to be the same at the start of the budget year. We know what kind of budget process we went through. He stated the committee did cut virtually all of the non-profits by 15% so that assumption should not have been made. He feels that there was ample time between the time that the symphony set their contract and the time that the final budget was decided. He feels that the symphony learned a valuable lesson but in budgets past we never tied any strings to the dollars allocated. In fact in budgets past we have actually increased the amount provided to the Meriden Symphony, specifically for the purpose of Chicken and Tschikovsky function. They used monies that they were given for other programming events. In this particular year we had to cut 15% so consequently there was sort of an “act of God” by the City Council in their budget. He feels the symphony could have done more in terms of fund raising to fill in the gaps and reach out to the mayor, City Council and state senator and feels they would have been willing to step up but at that point it was too late and the Council didn’t know about the cancellation until they read about it in the paper. With that being said, by committing that “act of God” of cutting the funding in half, which a good portion of that subsidizes the Chicken and Tschikovsky, the $7,500 would have still been given with no strings attached. He feels he would plan to give this money to them. If they chose to use it to pay what was represented to us the other night at $5,200 for the actual cost of the cancellation, he would hope that they would actually look for other ways to continue to raise funds against that amount. He thinks it still can be done. He feels they should contact the musicians who may have found other employment for that day, so perhaps they can reduce their date and they could use the balance of the $7,500 for other programs. He also recommends that next year the symphony looks hard at the assumptions and work closely with the council before making any rash decisions.

Gordon stated that he voted against this the night of the committee meeting. He doesn’t want to see the MSO go “belly-up” due to lack of funding. They do a good job in the City. He was disappointed to find out that the city appears to be the only source of funding to the MSO. The city gives money to different organizations as seed money, hoping that the organization will continue to raise funds themselves which will lessen the city giving them money over time. He also didn’t want to see it set a precedent, that the city was pay for an event that got cancelled. At the committee meeting it was stated that if it rained the night of the event the MSO would have still had to pay for the event. He stated he was torn in how to vote. If the Council decides to give

Benigni thanked Ann Gianetti for all her hard work. He stated that Mrs. Gianetti is doing all the work with the help of a couple of volunteers. Benigni stated that we could put another program on at the park but it won’t have the same class, the same prestige as the event that we lost. His concern is that we have a symphony board that is made up of one or two people and they are keeping this thing alive because they believe the arts are important to our city. The musicians we have are professional musicians that are paid to play. Forty five musicians get paid $150 to perform that night and the conductor gets $1200 to perform that night. These are professionals that are in demand that play around the state. The big concern is that there are no fund raising efforts and they need volunteers to do that. All the agencies that are in the city do some sort of fund raising but have dedicated boards to do it. The Mayor hopes that people will step up and understand that the fate of the symphony is not lying here tonight between those who spoke in favor of the money, it is up to our citizens to step forward and help raise the funds. Without that, it is only going to be a matter of time that the symphony doesn’t exist because of a lack of volunteers and a lack of interest. The Mayor and Senator Gaffey were hoping to get the symphony private funds from the city’s corporate citizens. The Mayor asked if the city was legally bound to pay the musicians. He felt if we were not legally bound to pay them, because they took on another job that night that we owe them anything. If we don’t need to pay them he wanted those dollars used to continue to put on good programs. In closing he urged the Council to vote for the $7500 dollars. Benigni stated he is a supporter of the arts because if one wants a quality community the arts need to play an important role.

Galotti stated that he wished this vote was about Ann Gianetti or Frank Ridley or Dr. Burch because then he could be on what appears to be the prevailing side. He states that is not how he looks at this issue. It is not about whom he likes personally. It is about the taxpayers whom the council has a fiduciary obligation to. There was a lot that was said tonight that he really disagreed with. During the public comment one of the speakers used the expression “canceling funding that is already pledged”. Galotti stated that this was just flat out wrong. $7500 was appropriated for the symphony for any purpose that they would like to use it for. The money was there. He stated that he respects Councilor Gordon greatly but he doesn’t believe he has ever disagreed with him more than when he used the expression that he doesn’t want to see the MSO

go “belly-up” because of the council not funding them. He stated what we do in terms of this vote tonight has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not the symphony would survive or not. We have funded the symphony and from what he is hearing, we are the only entity that is funding them, including the symphony itself. To say the council is anti-arts or adversarial or treating those that come before us as enemies is ill conceived and that looking at the process with a jaundiced view is not being fair. That is not what the council is all about. There is room for disagreement. He doesn’t feel he is any of those things because he disagreed with the symphony in regards to this issue. He feels he couldn’t be farther from those things. He stated the budget process started in February and as the veterans on the council stated “this is the hardest budget I’ve worked on”. Hartford still isn’t done with their budget. The ECS money was set last week. Everyone knew this would be a tight year. We talked about getting rid of bulky waste and then put in a bulky waste fee because money was so tight. We didn’t send enough money to the Board of Education because we didn’t have enough to send there. We cut everybody and the budget was set by May 1st as is the rule and anybody that was expecting money from the City of Meriden by May 1st which is two months before the July 4th symphony event, knew how much money was appropriated. Furthermore it sounds like that event could have been put on for $10000 and we appropriated ¾ of it. He can’t argue in good conscience to direct the Finance Director to release money for an event that did not occur. He stated if it was his own money he would be doing that because he is a supporter of the arts. He is not adversarial when it comes to the symphony and he doesn’t want to treat them like his own personal enemy but his job is as a fiduciary steward of the taxpayers money. If the symphony wants to hold an event the funding has not been cancelled. There is $7500 available for any symphony event which is conducted and incurs expenses. He cannot in good conscience vote for a give away of taxpayer money for an event that did not occur.

Benigni stated that no one on the Council or in the audience is happy with this situation but he stated if it rained the concert would have been cancelled and we would have paid. There is $7500 that has been set aside for the symphony. He stated no one ever spoke personally with him in regards to this issue. He feels we have a strong potential to have a strong symphony in the city. He feels if the symphony doesn’t legally have to pay a dime, they shouldn’t pay. If the musicians decide they never want to work in the city again that is their decision. He doesn’t feel that not funding the symphony at this time is not being fair to those who have given their heart and soul to it. If we don’t get new volunteers the symphony will go away on its own because it cannot run on its own. There are two people pushing to keep the symphony alive.

Kogut stated he thinks the symphony’s concern in respect to the musicians is that if they don’t pay as stated in the contract that they won’t be able to get the musicians to come to any events in Meriden. He feels that comes in to play a little bit and that has to be taken into account. He finds it ironic the actual outcome. In the city’s attempts to keep the symphony afloat we are actually taking money away from other events that they could have or should have had. The $7500 will be released to the symphony. We’re talking about whether or not they will be allowed to utilize that to pay for a canceled concert. By us allowing them to use that money we are actually taking money away from programming that actually should occur. It is ironic that we are allowing them to use the money for something other than what it was intended for.

Brian Kogut, made a motion, seconded by Keith Gordon, to adopt. Kogut stated this item was referred to the Council from the PUC concerning the extension of a sanitary sewer. No one came to speak either in favor or against this particular item at the Finance Committee. Kogut stated that there is one individual, the Four Corner’s Restaurant in South Meriden whose septic system is failing. The only way to rectify the situation would be to extend the sanitary sewer. When this happens all the property owners that the line goes in front of are required to tie into the line and they are also required to pay a pro-rated fee based on the number of linear feet in front of their property. Kogut was surprised that no one came out to speak in opposition of this because there are people who have functioning septic systems that are now going to be forced to tie into the city sanitary sewer at a cost to them. There were a couple of public hearings through the PUC but no one came to them. Kogut stated there had been a list attached to the original resolution that listed all the properties and how many feet and the actual assessments would be and they ranged from $8000 to $24,000. Joe Feest asked if these homes currently have city water or a well system. Gordon stated they have city water. Motion carried unanimously.

Keith Gordon, made a motion, seconded by Stephen Zerio, to adopt. Kogut stated he would be turning this item to the Vice-Chairman as he would be abstaining as he does business with Hunter’s. Gordon stated he would give a brief overview regarding this item. This is a 12 year contract. In the beginning he was not in favor of a 12 year contract. After negotiating with Hunter’s and working with staff we tried to do what was best for the City of Meriden. Gordon stated that the Council heard from Greg Polanski, President of the #1148, Fire Union who stated that the Fire Department would like to have the chance to do supplemental paramedic service. Gordon feels if funding is available through a grant or some other vehicle that the Council should be looking at that favorably. Some highlights of the contract are the city now has two exclusive dedicated paramedics in the City, 24-7, 365 days a year. There is a COLA in the new contract not to exceed 3% every other year. There is a commitment for an Ambulance Review Committee

that will review problems and needs of the city. There is additional training for city employees in CPR and first aid. There will be a credit issued for up to 10 city employees if they are hurt on the job and transported by Hunter’s. The response time will be going to a fractal measurement which is something that is being done nationally. The insurance has been increased from $1 million to $5 million. Gordon stated that Hunter’s has a total of 435 employees, 163 who live in Meriden. In 2003 Hunter’s responded to an average of 500 monthly calls. In 2003 they had an average of 380 a month transport calls. Average response time is 4.2 minutes minimum within the city. Hunter’s has a total of 29 ambulances at a rate of $54,000 a piece at $1.5 million taxable money. Hunter’s has 2 paramedic intercept vehicles at a cost of $70,000 non-equipped. They have a total of 16 Automated External Defibrillators at a cost of $64,000. Hunter’s also has 13 LifePack 12’s at a cost of $234,000. To help reduce workmen’s comp injuries, not just to their employees but first responders such as fire and police, Hunter’s has 31 brand new Proflex stretchers at a cost of $3000 a piece. Hunter’s now has a GPS at a cost of $450,000. They have positioned ambulances throughout the city. Hunter’s is paying approximately $135,000 in taxes to the city. Gordon also stated that Hunter's has been a good corporate citizen.

Councilor Lynes asked what fractal measurement is. Gordon asked if Dave Lowell from Hunter’s could come forward to explain this. Hearing no objection from the Council it was so ordered. Mr. Lowell explained that average response time is totaling the total number of calls that happened, the response time for each of those calls and then dividing by the total to get the average. The fractal measurement is on the number of calls at a certain performance level rather than averaging all the calls, so you would get a higher level of performance in a shorter amount of response time.

Zerio thanked Councilors Gordon and Dominello and Corporation Counsel Kendzior who were assigned the task of working on this contract. He feels they did a tremendous amount of work on the contract. Zerio stated that this contract expired at the end of June and the Council had extended it for an additional three months while this team worked on all the points here. Zerio stated there were some councilors including himself that were concerned about the length of the term of the contract. Zerio stated the contract has been crafted with a local business that has a 40 year history with the City of Meriden. They pay a lot of money in taxes and employ over 400 of which 163 are residents. They are an excellent corporate citizen and are at virtually all public functions that run in the city. Zerio feels that the contract should be passed because we have expectations for premier public safety services and in concert with our police and fire fighters, Hunter’s fills that triangle very well.

McGoldrick had a question in regard to why the numbers had doubled since the last contract. He wanted to know what kind of things were being responded to or was it due to an aging population. His question whether this new contract puts us in a position to continue to respond to a similar increase of calls over the period of the contract. Gordon states we have seen the same increase of calls in the fire department. That is because the Fire Department does more EMS now than they had. Aging population is one of the major reasons they are seeing an increase. Gordon feels we will be ready for the future when we get the two guaranteed paramedics which we haven’t

Gordon stated some people perceive that the Hunter organization makes money hand over fist. Hunter’s is governed by set regulations and rates set by the state which are based on their expenses, payroll, purchases of equipment and that is sent up to the state on a yearly basis and the state comes back with a rate for a regular ambulance, a paramedic ambulance, etc. Response times are governed by the state, patient care is governed by their sponsor hospital which is Midstate. If there are any problems Hunter’s will get called and will be expected to answer as to why something happened. Hunter’s doesn’t get reimbursed for approximately 30-35% of the calls that they respond to. They don’t get paid for anyone who is under the influence of alcohol.

Patricia Lynes, made a motion, seconded by Robert Clermont, to adopt for the purpose of discussion. Lynes stated that this resolution is for filling a position that has already been funded through the budget process. It is currently with the Finance Department in a tabled position and we need approval of this tonight so we can get it off their table. Kogut stated that once discussion is finished on this item he is going to ask for a motion to refer it to Finance. Benigni asked if this is referred to Finance would there be a discussion about the item. Kogut stated that if we adopt this tonight it would be just finished business. If it is referred to Finance then they can look at it and allocate it’s source of funding. Benigni encouraged the Council to refer the item to Finance.