The Representative Town Committee’s Budget Overview Committee chair, James Waters, sent the following statement sent to RTM committee chairs after the BOC’s Oct 16 meeting in the Mazza room which also had a dial in number.
The emails went to the town clerk and are public record.
The First Selectman and BET chairman were invited to the meeting and there was a request for and update on Town Capital Plan.
RTM Committee Chairs,
BOC met last night to discuss the October Call.
Here are the votes that were taken:
Items 11 & 12 (Fire Dept Interims): 12-0-0 on combined basis
Item 13 (Dog Season extension): Discussed but decided not to vote
Item 14 (GEA labor contract): 1-11-0 to postpone indefinitely (D12 voted Yes), 0-12-0 as listed on the Call (i.e. “reject the rejection”)
In addition, BOC voted 12-0-0 on the following statement about the Town’s Capital plan after receiving the attached updates from the First Selectman and the BET Chair:
“The Budget Overview Committee is alarmed at the lack of action to get the Town capital plan back on track despite repeated efforts by the RTM and significant known and unknown capital projects in the queue. Despite commitments in June by the First Selectman that a more transparent plan would be mapped out, based on recent communications it appears nothing has been done to that effect. Please see attached correspondence.”
Please let me know if you have any questions and please feel free to share with your committees.
The Monday before the meeting, Oct 13, Mr. Waters invited BET chair Harry Fisher and First Selectman Fred Camillo to attend the Oct 16 BOC meeting.
Hi Fred & Harry,
Hope you’re both doing great. I wanted to write to invite you to attend BOC’s meeting on Thursday October 16 @ 7pm (Mazza). Our entire committee has asked for an update from you on the Town Capital Plan as per our working group as well as the SOMR passed in June.
More than happy to accommodate your schedules as we have a relatively light agenda (the GEA contract, the two interims for the Fire Department, and the proposed extension of dog season at Tod’s).
Any chance you might be able to join us? If scheduling is an issue, I’d be more than happy to pass along anything in writing you might provide instead.
Best,
James
First Selectman Fred Camillo responded 15 minutes later to say:
Hi James… Thanks for reaching out.
As you probably could imagine, every night is full until the election day and probably a few days after that! This Thursday I have four events and three at the same time.
I am still working on the capital plan and will continue the five-year revised CIP that we’ve been doing for the last five years as it’s worked much better. We have also asked all of the department heads to take a look at some projects that they have been hanging around for many years and still on the books to see if they’re even needed or need updating.
Also, as I’ve stated many times before, I have run three times, and now a fourth, for First Selectman on a vision and platform, and the voters have overwhelmingly approved that, but every time a school building fails, which, as you know, is not within my jurisdiction, the capital plans I put forth have to be scrambled around and thus many projects that people have supported, have been pushed to the side due to the re-prioritization.
We also have a process here where it is the responsibility of the Office of First Selectman to create a budget for the projects under his or her jurisdiction, and to create a capital spending plan, with the exception of the Board of Education , and working in tandem with the BET, it is worked out and then sent over to the RTM for approval. Having served in the legislature for 11 years and also on the RTM for 3 1/2 terms, I think SOMRs are OK once in a while, but we’ve seen a plethora of them lately in the RTM and many I’ve even been pulled back several times and I think people are getting a little tired of that.
I am open to, and encourage, suggestions, constructive criticism, and anything else to improve the system, but we will be done with this plan in due time, so that’s all I have for you now. The few meetings we had last spring I thought we were very good and helpful, but at the end of the day, there was nothing there so far that would fundamentally change the process. Again, I cannot help when there’s an emergency and money needs
to be spent to the tune of tens of millions of dollars and still keep on a schedule of projects that many support, and many, myself included, have run for office on. You always have to be ready to adjust and pivot and respond when there is an emergency.
It’s one of the reasons why I continue to say that building and maintenance should be taken away from the BOE and given to the Town of Greenwich because we are better equipped to handle that. Under this system, I am forced to react to something that I don’t even control and then people wonder why the plan ends up getting blurred.
As always, always around for a quick chat or meeting, but for now, those meetings will probably have to be during the daytime until after the election.
Thanks again, and hope to see you around soon.
Best,
Fred
Mr. Fisher, BET Chairman and BET Budget Committee member, shortly after to say:
I have a conflict Thursday.
But in regard to the SOMR itself, it does not pay heed to the budgetary process set forth in the Town Charter. The RTM has a role, but not prior to that budgetary process.
I note further that the BET will hold a public hearing on the 13th of November to solicit input from the public regarding capital.
Regards
Harry