The fiscal year of the Town shall begin on the first day of
July and end on the 30th day of June.
A.
The budget shall contain:
(1)
An estimate of all revenue cash receipts anticipated from sources
other than the tax levy of the ensuing fiscal year;
(2)
An estimate of the general fund cash surplus at the end of the current
fiscal year or of the deficit to be made up by appropriation;
(3)
The estimated expenditures necessary for the operation of the several
departments, offices and agencies of the Town;
(4)
Debt service requirements for the ensuing fiscal year;
(5)
An estimate of the sum required to be raised by the tax levy for
the ensuing fiscal year, assuming a rate of collection not greater
than the average rate of collection in the year of levy for the last
three completed fiscal years; and
(6)
A balanced relation between the total estimated expenditures and
total anticipated revenue cash receipts, taking into account the estimated
general fund cash surplus or deficit at the end of the current fiscal
year.
B.
All estimates shall be in detail showing revenues by sources and
expenditures by program. The expenditure program shall be presented
in terms of organization units and activities. The budget shall be
so arranged as to show comparative figures for receipts and expenditures
for the prior year and for the current year, both adopted and revised,
and the Town Manager's recommendations for the ensuing year.
The Town Manager shall prepare and submit to the Council, as part
of the annual budget, a five-year capital improvement program, including
a clear general summary of its contents, a list of all capital improvements
which are proposed to be undertaken during the next five fiscal years
with supporting information, costs, estimates, method of financing
and recommend time schedule for each capital improvement.
The Town Manager shall compile preliminary estimates for the
annual budget. The head of each department, office, or agency of the
Town, including the Board of Education, shall, at least 105 days before
the end of the fiscal year, file with the Town Manager on forms prescribed
and provided by them a detailed estimate of the expenditures to be
made by this department, office or agency and the revenue other than
tax revenues to be collected thereby in the ensuing fiscal year and
such other information as may be required by the Council or the Town
Manager. Each commission, board, department and office shall be entitled
to an opportunity to be heard by the Town Manager in respect to its
estimates.
Not later than 90 days before the end of the fiscal year, the
Town Manager shall present to the Council the proposed budget for
the ensuing fiscal year for all commissions, boards, departments and
offices, such budget hereinafter referred to as the Town Manager's
budget. The proposed Town Manager's budget shall be in a form
prescribed by the Council. At the time of its submission to the Council,
the Town Manager shall file a copy in the office of the Town Clerk
as a public record, and within 10 days thereafter shall cause sufficient
copies of the proposed budget to be prepared in order that they may
be available to interested persons.
The Council shall hold one or more public hearings not later than 60 days before the end of the fiscal year, at which time any elector or taxpayer may have the opportunity to be heard regarding appropriations for the ensuing fiscal year. Following receipt of the estimates from the Town Manager, the Council shall cause sufficient copies of said estimates to be made available for general distribution in the office of the Town Clerk and, at least five days prior to the aforementioned public hearing, the Council shall cause to be published in a newspaper having circulation in the Town a notice of such public hearing and a summary of said proposed budget estimates showing anticipated revenues by major sources and proposed expenditures by functions or departments in the same form as prescribed for the budget estimates in § C8-4, and shall also show the amount to be raised by taxation.
After the conclusion of such public hearing, the Council may
insert new items of expenditure or may increase, decrease or strike
out items of expenditures, except that no item of appropriation for
existing debt service shall be reduced. The Council shall not alter
the Town Manager's estimates of receipts. It may, however, decrease
the amount of the tax levy for the ensuing fiscal year as proposed
by the Town Manager in proportion to such decrease in the total of
expenditures proposed by the Town Manager as it may have determined.
If it shall increase the total proposed expenditures, such increase
shall be reflected in full in the tax rate. Upon completion of the
public hearing, but not later than the third Monday in May, the Council
shall adopt the budget and set the tax levy. If it fails to adopt
the budget by that date, the budget as submitted by the Town Manager
shall be deemed to be the budget for the Town for the fiscal year,
and expenditures shall be made in accordance therewith. The Council
shall thereupon adopt the budget and the tax levy as recommended by
the Town Manager.
The adoption of the Town budget shall constitute the appropriation
to each commission, board, office and department or major subdivision
thereof when so indicated in the budget, of the sum estimated in the
budget to be expended by each unit respectively in accordance with
the Connecticut General Statutes.
The Council, on the recommendation of the Town Manager or the
Board of Education, may appropriate, subject to the limitations imposed
in § C4-8 of this Charter, any unappropriated and unencumbered
balance in the General Fund or any other budgetary funds, provided
there shall be attached to the resolution making such appropriation
the certificate of the Director of Finance that such balance actually
exists free from encumbrances.
The Town Manager may at any time transfer any unencumbered appropriation
balance or portion thereof from one classification of expenditure
to another within the same department, office or agency, except the
Board of Education. At the request of the Town Manager, but only within
the last seven months of the fiscal year, the Council may by resolution
transfer any unencumbered appropriation balance or portion thereof
from one department, office or agency, except the Board of Education,
to another, and provided that there shall be attached to the resolution
making the transfer a certificate of the Director of Finance that
such transfer is necessary, with the reasons noted.
No money shall be expended or obligated for any expenditure
incurred by any commission, board, department or office of the Town
except in accordance with an appropriation by the Council. No contract,
work order, purchase order or other authorization to spend money by
any commission, board, department or office, except the Board of Education,
shall be valid until the Director of Finance certifies, in writing,
that there is an unexpended and unencumbered balance for an appropriation
and applicable thereto sufficient to meet the estimated cost thereof.
The Director of Finance, after such certification, shall immediately
encumber the appropriation in question with the estimated cost. The
Board of Education shall set up its own system of budgetary control
and certification of the sufficiency of unexpected and unencumbered
balance of an appropriation. The Board of Education shall provide
the Council on a monthly basis with a summary of all expenditures
and unencumbered funds.
The unencumbered balance of all general fund appropriations
shall lapse at the end of the fiscal year for which they were made,
unless otherwise provided for by Council resolution, and any such
balance shall be credited to the general fund except capital appropriations
which will not lapse until completion of the project or termination
by resolution of the Council.
In the absence of unappropriated funds to meet emergency appropriations under the provisions of Article IV, § C4-7, of this Charter, the Council may by resolution authorize the issuance of notes, each of which shall be designated "Emergency Note" and may be renewed from time to time, but all such notes of any fiscal year and any renewals thereof shall be paid not later than the last day of the fiscal year next succeeding the fiscal year in which the emergency appropriation was made.
The Council may by resolution authorize the borrowing of money
in anticipation of the collection of taxes for any fiscal year by
the issuance of negotiable notes of the Town.
No notes shall be made payable upon demand. Any note may be
made subject to redemption prior to maturity on such notice and at
such time as may be stated in the note.
All supplies, materials and equipment required by all departments, offices, boards, commissions and agencies of the Town, hereinafter referred to in this chapter as buying units, shall be purchased by the purchasing agent, who, until the Council shall otherwise determine by ordinance, shall be the Town Manager. The Board of Education may purchase any necessary educational supplies, materials and equipment not common to other departments on its own. All purchases shall be made on requisition describing the kind and quantity of goods or services required, provided that it shall be the duty of the purchasing agent at the beginning of each fiscal year to request requisitions and of all buying units to prepare and deliver to the purchasing agent such requisitions covering their normal requirements for the year so that wholesale purchases may be made on behalf of the Town. No requisition shall be honored unless it bears the certificate provided for in § C8-10.
Purchases shall be made under such rules and regulations as
may be established by ordinance, provided if any purchase or contract
for purchasing, including a continuing order or contract for the purchase
of the same commodity over a period of time, involves the expenditure
of $25,000 or more, the Council shall invite sealed bids or proposals,
given 10 days' public notice thereof by at least one publication
in a newspaper having a circulation in the Town, and shall let the
purchase or contract to the best qualified bidder thereon in the opinion
of the awarding body and which is in the best interest of the Town
of Rocky Hill, or shall reject all such bids and proposals. All such
sealed bids or proposals shall be opened publicly. No transaction
essentially a unit shall be divided for the purpose of evading the
provisions of this section. Records of all bids, formal and informal,
and of the successful bidder shall be kept in the office of the purchasing
agent where they shall be open to public inspection for a period of
one year.
Contracts for the construction of streets, sewers, Town and
school buildings and all other public works, including garbage, rubbish
collection and disposal, with any private contractor shall be made
in accordance with relevant provisions of the Connecticut General
Statutes and under such rules and regulations as may be established
by the Council or the Board of Education, whichever has jurisdiction.
However, on any such contract involving the expenditure of $75,000
or more, sealed bids or proposals shall be invited and 10 days'
public notice given thereof by publication in a newspaper having a
circulation in the Town, and by posting on the Town bulletin board,
unless the Council or the Board of Education, whichever has jurisdiction,
shall determine for reasons which it shall expressly state, that sealed
bids are against the best interest of the Town. The purchase or contract
shall be let to the best qualified bidder thereon in the opinion of
the awarding body and which is in the best interest of the Town of
Rocky Hill, and all bids and proposals shall be opened publicly and
shall be kept for a period of one year thereafter in the office of
the Purchasing Agent or the Board of Education, where they shall be
available for public inspection.
No payroll, bill or other claim against the Town, except those of the Board of Education, shall be paid until the same has been audited for correctness and legality by the Director of Finance, and all payments shall be made by check drawn on the Town of Rocky Hill bank account signed by the Director of Finance and countersigned by the Town Treasurer, as provided in Article VII, § C7-2, of this Charter. All payrolls, bills or other claims against the Board of Education shall be audited as such Board may provide, and payments shall be made by check, signed by an agent designated by the Board of Education and countersigned by the Town Treasurer, as provided in Article VII, § C7-2. The Director of Finance and the Treasurer, on approval of the Council and the Board of Education, shall each designate a deputy, or deputy agent covered by the bond of the principal, who may sign or countersign certificates, payrolls, bills, claims and checks.
All fees and monies collected by officers and employees of the
Town in their official capacity, except those collected on behalf
of the state, witness fees payable to police officers and fees payable
to Justices of Peace, shall be paid to the Town treasury.
The Town Manager, Town Clerk, Director of Finance, Treasurer,
Tax Collector, Building Inspector and persons authorized to sign and
countersign Town checks and such other officers and employees as may
be determined by the Council shall, before entering on their respective
duties, execute to the Town, in a form prescribed by the Council and
approved by the Town Attorney and file with the Town Clerk, a surety
bond in a penal sum to be fixed by the Council, conditioned upon the
honest and faithful performance of such official duties. The Council,
if it deems to be in the best interest of the Town, may prescribe
a name schedule bond, schedule position bond or blanket bond, or may
designate which commissions, boards, departments, offices and agencies
shall be covered by a specific type of the aforementioned bonds. Premiums
for such bonds shall be paid by the Town.
Any person or persons who make or cause to be made any payment
from Town monies in violation of the provisions of this Charter, or
who receive such payment, shall be jointly and severally liable to
the Town for the full amount of such payment. Any contract, verbal
or written, made in violation of this Charter shall be null and void.
Any person or employee of the Town who knowingly and intentionally
violates any of the provisions of this Charter may be subject to removal.
The Council shall cause an audit of the Town accounts, including those of the Board of Education, to be made once a year, or more often if deemed necessary by the Town Auditor, as provided for in Article VI, § C6-10. The report of such audit shall be a public record and available for public inspection.
