The Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) will be meeting Wednesday afternoon to vote on whether to revive a plan to fund half of the sewer system expansion connected with the Brookfield High School (BHS) renovation project, in the amount of $485,000. The move would fundamentally increase the high school project’s funding by that amount, allowing the administration to reach an agreement to pay the project contractors, Morganti Construction, and two subcontractors without first bringing the additional expenditure to a town vote.

The Board of Selectmen (BOS) will be meeting later that evening to vote on the terms of that settlement, just in time to avoid a pending lawsuit expected to be filed Thursday if an agreement is not reached.

Voters approved the $31 million renovation project at referendum in 2003 and an additional $750,000 at a town meeting in 2008, however the WPCA also approved contributing $600,000 to the project in 2004, money that was never used, according to First Selectman Bill Davidson and Town Controller Jay Wahlberg.

According to Davidson, the original plan for the renovation project called for a septic system, initially estimated at $600,000. All of the bids that came in, however, projected the cost at $1.8 million. In consultation with the WPCA, engineers decided to extend the sewer system from Center Elementary School (CES) instead at a cost of $1.2 million.

In order to avoid another referendum, the WPCA voted on May 26, 2004 to cover the cost of half of the sewer, with the other $600,000 covered the approved funding for the high school project.

That money was never used and was later returned to the WPCA, according to Wahlberg. The construction costs to build the sewer were paid out of the project’s capital fund, which is now short $485,000.

In order to meet the terms of the proposed settlement before the pending lawsuit is filed, Davidson requested that the WPCA “reassume” the $485,000 obligation agreed upon in 2004. That funding would then be recovered from the town as a benefit assessment, including 4.25 percent annual interest.

As a condition of the WPCA reassuming the obligation, they requested approval from the current town attorney, the auditors and the town treasurer, David Scribner, and that the town pay back the assessment in full by July 26, 2012.

Old Questions Resurface

As a single-year expenditure, the benefit assessment charged against the town will ultimately require voter approval, either at a town meeting or, if forced by petition, at a referendum. Were the expense to fail either vote, Davidson said the funding would be included as a line item in the First Selectman’s 2011-12 budget.

The Board of Finance (BOF) voted 3-2 at a special meeting Monday, December 12, in support of the proposal, however dissenting members Phil Kurtz and Robin Appleby, both newly elected to the board, questioned why the town chose to use this mechanism rather than going back to the voters for more funding.

“The WPCA has the legal authority to build sewers without asking the town for approval and issuing benefit assessments, which the town is liable to pay,” BOF member Ron Jaffe said at the meeting, explaining that the WPCA does not need voter approval to build a sewer line and assess the user.

Davidson cited a concurring opinion from former town attorney Fran Collins sent to First Selectman Robert Silvaggi in 2009, when similar questions were raised.

“The WPCA is the statutorily authorized authority to construct and operate a sewage system and is independent of the town’s authority,” Collins wrote. “The construction of a sewer system does not require the prior approval of the property owners who will be benefited thereby,” in this case the town.

The method of how the appropriation is covered in the budget, however, Collins pointed out, does need to be approved by both the BOF and the voters.

Vice Chairman Irv Agard, who ran the special meeting, said he had a “problem with the mechanism” when asked by Appleby, but added, “If Thursday is truly a drop-dead date, then what we, despite discomfort that many of us feel about how this whole process has gone, we have to do something to remedy the issue. This appears to me to be the only game in town.”

Jaffe and BOF member Jerry Friedrich agreed, voting in favor of a resolution authorizing the BOS to request the funding from the WPCA. (Board member Jen Tomaino was absent.)

Davidson said Tuesday that a town meeting will be held in the near future to approve a one-time expenditure for the assessment, and while “I have a suspicion that it will be petitioned to a referendum,” he said, whatever will be done, “It will be cold when we have it,” he added, suggesting that a vote will take place before the spring.

“If they vote no, we’re still legally bound and it would be included in the annual budget,” Jaffe said.

Davidson also promised to do a “postmortem” on the renovation project once it is closed out to fully review what went wrong throughout the process and what lessons can be gleaned.