The new Infrastructure Fund Committee began its maiden meeting Monday night, May 19, grappling with opposing views on exactly what the money will be used for, but after some discussion, the members settled smoothly into a unified vision of hopeful purpose.
The new short-term committee, sanctioned by the Board of Selectmen, is working to create a permanent fund targeting nonrecurring building and facility needs. Exactly how it will be funded, as well as issues relating to disbursement, remain to be determined, but there appears to be general consensus that its focus is on facility-related needs that might otherwise not be targeted by either capital funding or operating budgets.
The six-person committee is being chaired by Board of Finance Chair Matt Raimondi and includes First Selectman Toni Boucher, Selectman Ross Tartell, Board of Education Chair Ruth DeLuca, BOE member Lori Bufano and BOF member Tim Birch.
The idea for the fund originated with the last administration, after a pair of studies revealed that the town faced potentially up to $200 million in the repair and renovation of current town-owned buildings, including the schools.
Both Boucher and Tartell initially stated that they saw the purpose of the fund in a broader way, with a wider definition of infrastructure as well as a strict focus on items that were below the $250,000 threshold and would not qualify for bonding.
“I thought we were looking at more of capital requirements that show up, that are un-budgeted, that are smaller, so that this relates less to the $200 million than it does to the $50,000 that shows up, because we didn’t think it was going to happen,” Tartell said.
At the Annual Town Meeting on May 6, Boucher declared that the new fund would be available for items such as the new Department of Public Works dump truck and plow, which this year was approved by the voters through capital funding.
“In the future, we will have this fund that we can actually pay outright for an item like that, rather than bonding it,” Boucher told the Town Meeting.
On Monday, DeLuca said she didn’t agree with that assessment.
“I think it is about infrastructure at facilities,” DeLuca said, “and we can have debates about whether a snowplow or a truck [qualifies as] infrastructure, but I think in my mind — I’ll put it on the table — it doesn’t.”
“But,” she added, “I think that’s something that can lend itself to how the fund operates later on.”
Birch suggested the committee not delve too deeply into specifics of what should or shouldn’t be paid for through this fund, but instead agree on the broad guidelines for how the fund will operate.
“I don’t think we want to narrow the mission of the fund at this juncture,” he said. “I think over time, it will develop its cadence.”
“The greater flexibility built into the mission statement today, will allow those people 10 years from now, five years from now, greater scope,” Birch said.
Members gave verbal agreement to a Mission Statement document that Raimondi prepared for the meeting, with the only content change being removal of the phrase “long-term” in a sentence describing the town’s investment in “infrastructure and facility priorities.”
While members will continue contemplating the document ahead of their next IFC meeting on Tuesday, May 27, it currently lists five goals for the committee:
- Establish the Legal Framework
- Determine Funding Mechanics
- Define Fund Governance
- Clarify Budget Formation & Oversight Responsibilities
- Ensure Transparency and Community Confidence
“We have $200 million or so of work that we need to deal with in this town,” Raimondi said. “The idea here is that we’re going to set up a fund that is going to help tackle that work.”
The two selectmen on the committee were sensitive about the new fund not bringing additional work burdens to employees at the DPW, in particular Director Frank Smeriglio.
“It shouldn’t also veer into creating language that prevents the Department of Public Works from getting the work done,” Boucher said.
Tartell, likewise, expressed concern.
“I’m sitting here thinking of Frank Smeriglio saying, ‘I have this project. What hoops do I have to go through?’ … How do we make it easy for him to get the $50,000 that he needs,” Tartell said.
Raimondi pointed out that in each case, where his department was concerned, specified funds above a certain level needed to be brought before the BOS anyway.
Likewise, DeLuca said it didn’t seem particularly onerous that he would have to make similar requests via this fund.
Noting that the BOF had already allocated $375,000 to help start the fund, Raimondi suggested that among the possible ways of paying into the fund, the town could allocate money through the budget, move in unused money from the Charter Reserve each year, add money from other available funds, or possibly use a set percentage each year of any growth in the town’s Grand List.
Wilton’s CFO Dawn Norton emphasized to the committee that, legally, the items paid for through this fund had to meet the definition of “nonrecurring.”
“The word ‘nonrecurring’ in a fund like this means that the expense is a nonrecurring expense,” she said. “It’s a one-time capital need or a one-time project that is needed.”
The IFC scheduled meetings on May 27, June 12, June 26 and July 10.
Raimondi said he hoped that by that time they will have codified all the elements for the new fund with the approval of legal counsel, and would then be able to disband.