Change to the Windsor Locks Town Charter

Dear Chairman O’Leary:

 Received the email from Kevin Brace of the Police Commission. Brace’s email raises several issues.

 The Police Department over spent its 2012-2013 budget by $49,362.16. Those excess expenditures at the time they were done were illegal as the expenditures were not authorized by the Police Commission and the Board of Finance.

 The concern is how this happened and why no information about the illegal expenditures was provided to the Board of Finance until late August of 2013.

 At the August 27, 2013 meeting of the Board of Finance the Board voted to send the matter of the illegal Police Department expenditure to the Board of Selectmen and to a Town Meeting.

 It was also agreed that the Chief of Police and an authorized member of the Police Commission would attend a future meeting to fully explain these illegal expenditures

 At the September 24, 2013 meeting of the BoF Selectman Wawruck explained that the $49,362.16 expenditure was for police overtime and that a Town Meeting was not required to retroactively approve the expenditure.

 Subsequently at a Board of Selectmen’s meeting I requested that the Charter be change to require these types of expenditures be approved by a Town Meeting as they had been in the past and indicated that there were questions about how excess overtime payments occurred.

 The expenditure for Police overtime appears to be questionable if it involved payments to retiring officers in excess of the Town's contractual obligations.

 The charter in Section 808 states as follows:
 SECTION 808 - UNAUTHORIZED EXPENDITURES. No expenditure and no commitment to make an expenditure shall be made, caused to be made, or authorized by any officer, agent, or agency of the Town, or by any board or commission of the Town unless an appropriation shall have been made covering such expenditure or commitment in accordance with the provisions of this Charter. Any person willfully violating this provision shall be prosecuted by the Town.

 Illegal expenditures of the kind done by the Police Department are an indication that our budget safeguards and the budgeting process are out of control.

 At the next Board of Finance meeting the following will be proposed:

 1. That the Director of Finance conduct an investigation as to exactly when, to who each excess expenditure was made line item by line item in the police budget.
 2. After the investigation, a determination be made whether the excess expenditures, based on the Finance Directors findings, were willful?
 3. A report and all appropriate records substantiating when the Police Commission learned of the excess budget expenditures and when the Commission authorized the excess expenditure.
 4. A determination whether a special audit of the Police Budget is required.
 5. Determine whether a charter change is required so that these types of illegal expenditures be ratified by a town meeting.

 The type of malfeasance with the Police Department budget indicates that spending in the police department is not being properly monitored.

 Although the First Selectman receives weekly updates on the budget expenditures this was never brought to the attention of the Board of Finance or the Board of Selectmen,s until September long after the close of the budget year.

 To avoid allegations of secrecy this email and the email correspondence with Board members and other town officials is being made available to the press.

 Norman Boucher