02/24/2007
EWindsor Finance Board won't release money yet for police OT
By: Kory Loucks , Journal Inquirer
EAST WINDSOR - Board of Finance Chairman Paul E. Catino this week tabled transferring $38,470 to pay for Police Department variable overtime.
Catino said the board is waiting for documents it requested from the Police Department, and wants to meet with the Police Commission before recommending transferring the money.
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AOT 2007
The Finance Board withheld three-quarters of the amount it had approved for Police Department fixed and variable overtime - $122,470 - and moved it to a contingency fund to be released as necessary.
In December residents voted to transfer $85,000 to pay for police fixed and variable overtime. The department can predict fixed overtime; variable overtime is unplanned costs.
"As painful as it might be, I truly believe it is best for both of us," Catino said.
Board member Noreen Farmer said, "There are 37 sheets missing. Once I get them it should take another 10 days," to analyze the information the board received from police on the variable overtime.
Catino also said that he had some questions about how the police contracts are being managed.
Finance Board alternate Jack Mannette reported that he had been working with Town Treasurer Mary Szabo and Police Chief Edward J. DeMarco Jr.'s administrative assistant, Maria Diana Root, to learn how Police Department grant funding is handled. Mannette said he had discovered there are communication problems regarding grants.
After the meeting, Mannette said, "What I found was there were no clear-cut defined responsibilities.
Mannette questioned if withholding the approval to transfer the funds was a good idea, saying, "I think we are now complicit in making them go over budget."
Catino disagreed, saying, "This is good castor oil."
After the meeting, Catino said, "The whole idea is, if the documentation shows what the Police Commission says, it will only help their case."
Catino said that he hopes to have the Finance Board meet with the Police Commission within the next month.
Once the Finance Board approves transferring funds, the request would have to go before the Board of Selectmen and then to a town meeting. All funding requests over $20,000, including funds transfers, must go before voters for approval.
In other news, the Finance Board voted unanimously to send to town meeting the Board of Selectmen's recommendation to bond $1.32 million for capital purchases.
These include $560,000 for a rescue pumper vehicle for the Fire Department, $435,000 to replace the high school's heating system, $300,000 for a jetvac truck for the Public Works and Water Pollution Control Authority, and $25,000 for issuance costs for the administration of the bond.
"This has been a package that has gotten a lot of discussion at a handful of meetings," Catino said at the meeting.
"When all is said and done ... this is basically a wash," Catino said, because the recommended capital purchases would replace the other bonding issues being retired.
Mannette said after the meeting that this would not increase the tax rate, because the items would be replacing the retired debt. He added that interest rates on bonds currently are favorable.
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