[Amended 6-15-1965, effective 7-1-1965]
(a)
There shall be a Board of Finance consisting of six members appointed as provided in Article VII.
(b)
Except to the extent otherwise provided by this Charter,
the Board of Finance shall, in all respects, be governed by and shall
have all the duties, responsibilities and powers provided for in general
law.
(c)
The Board of Finance shall have an organizational
meeting during the month of July each year, at which meeting it shall
adopt a schedule of not less than 10 regular meetings to be held during
such fiscal year and shall elect one of its appointed members to be
Chairperson and one of its appointed members to be Vice Chairperson,
each to serve for such fiscal year and until his/her successor shall
have been elected. Special meetings of the Board of Finance shall
be called upon the request of the Chairperson, or upon the written
request of any two members.
[Amended 5-2-1983, effective 6-1-1983]
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At all meetings of the Board of Finance four
appointed members shall constitute a quorum; provided, however, that
no action may be taken without the concurrence of at least three members,
one of whom may be the First Selectman, of the Board of Finance.
[Amended 11-7-1972, effective 1-1-1973] |
(d)
All records and books of accounts of the Town, except
those of the Board of Education, shall be in the custody of the Board
of Selectmen, or such other place as the Board of Selectmen shall
designate, and the Board of Finance may have access thereto at all
reasonable times.
(e)
The Board of Finance shall conduct a continuous review
of the current and projected financial needs of the Town, including
the utilization of current appropriations by each spending agency.
Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, the Board of Finance
may:
(1)
Request and receive from any spending agency statements
of its current and projected financial position and needs at any time
or times; and
(2)
Establish rules of procedure pertaining to reporting
by and budget preparation of all spending agencies, including the
determination of the form and content of requests for appropriations,
the preliminary budget and the recommended budget, and thereby determine
what constitutes a budget item and an appropriation, provided that
no such general rule shall be effective until after the text thereof
shall have been transmitted to all spending agencies and until after
a public hearing, duly warned, shall have been held thereon.
[Added 11-7-1972, effective 1-1-1973; amended 5-7-1979, effective
7-1-1979]
(f)
The Board of Finance shall be responsible for the preparation of any annual capital expenditure projection setting forth the amount, purpose and proposed method of financing of capital expenditures for the following five fiscal years, which projection shall be distributed or published with the financial statement as provided in § 6-2(e).
[Added 11-7-1972, effective 1-1-1973; amended 5-7-1979, effective
7-1-1979]
(g)
No member of the Board of Finance shall receive compensation
for his/her services as such nor hold any office or membership on
any board of which compensation from the Town treasury is received,
but the necessary expenses of the Board shall be paid by the Town
upon prior approval of the Board of Selectmen.
[Added 11-7-1972, effective 1-1-1973]
(a)
On or before February 1 in each year:
(1)
Each office, board, commission or agency of the Town
(hereinafter called "spending agency"), except the Board of Selectmen,
shall file with the Board of Finance, with a copy to the Board of
Selectmen:
(2)
Any group of 10 or more members of the Town Meeting
may file with the Board of Finance, with a copy to the Board of Selectmen,
a request for an appropriation for any lawful purpose for the following
fiscal year.
[Amended 5-7-1979, effective 7-1-1979]
(b)
On or before March 1 in each year, the Board of Selectmen
shall file with the Board of Finance:
(1)
A statement setting forth its views with respect to each request it has received pursuant to § 6-2(a);
(2)
A request for appropriation for the following fiscal
year for the Board of Selectmen;
(3)
A statement of proposed or planned capital expenditures
of the Board of Selectmen for each of the next five fiscal years;
(4)
Its request for such additional appropriations as
it may deem advisable.
[Amended 5-2-1983, effective 6-1-1983]
(c)
The Board of Finance may require a spending agency
or group of members filing a request for an appropriation to amend
such request in order to comply with such requirements of form and
detail as the Board of Finance may from time to time establish, and
may require a spending agency to meet with the Board of Finance for
the purpose of discussing the requested budget.
(d)
April 1 shall be considered to be the budget submission
date. On or before April 1 in each year, the Board of Finance shall
prepare a financial statement which shall include:
[Amended 4-27-1987, effective 5-4-1987]
(1)
An itemized statement of all expenditures for the
preceding fiscal year;
(2)
An itemized estimate of the projected expenditures
for the current fiscal year;
(4)
The recommendation of the Board of Selectmen with respect to each request received pursuant to § 6-2(b);
(5)
A budget for the following fiscal year (hereinafter
called the "preliminary budget"), itemizing the preliminary recommendation
of the Board of Finance for each appropriation request;
(6)
A preliminary statement of any request which the Board
of Finance intends to make for a contingency fund appropriation, which
request shall not exceed 5% of all other requests for appropriations;
(7)
A preliminary statement of all other requests for
appropriations which the Board of Finance intends to make;
(8)
An estimate of the income of the Town for the following
fiscal year;
(9)
An estimate of the tax rate which would apply if the
preliminary budget were adopted without change, and of the number
of dollars represented by one mill of taxes.
[Added 11-7-1972, effective 1-1-1973; amended 5-7-1979, effective
7-1-1979]
(e)
On or before April 30 in each year, the Board of Finance shall conduct a public hearing on the preliminary budget. At least five days in advance of such public hearing the Board of Finance shall cause notice of the place, day and hour of such hearing to be published one or more times in a newspaper having general circulation in the Town and shall cause a copy of the financial statement described in § 6-2(d) to be mailed to each household occupied by a member of the Town Meeting or published one or more times in a newspaper having general circulation in the Town.
[Amended 5-2-1983, effective 6-1-1983; amended 8-21-2000, effective
11-7-2000]
(f)
Subsequent to such public hearing, the Board of Finance
shall prepare:
(1)
A budget (hereinafter called the "recommended budget"),
which shall consist of:
(i)
The amount which the Board of Finance recommends
be appropriated with respect to each request for appropriation listed
in the preliminary budget, provided that the aggregate of the requests
for appropriation by the Board of Education shall constitute a single
recommended budget item;
(ii)
The request, if any, for a contingency fund
appropriation, which request: (a) shall not exceed 5% of all other
recommended budget items; and (b) may be made whether or not a preliminary
statement of such a request was made in preliminary budget;
(iii)
All other requests for appropriations by the
Board of Finance, which requests may be made whether or not a preliminary
statement of any such request was included in the preliminary budget.
(g)
Not less than 10 days prior to the annual meeting
of the Town Meeting, the Board of Finance shall mail to each household
occupied by a member of the Town Meeting:
(1)
The recommended budget in its entirety; or
(h)
The annual meeting of the Town Meeting shall be held as provided in § 3-2(a) and (e). The warning which gives notice of the meeting shall specify that the Town Meeting shall consider each and every recommended budget item. Final adjournment of the annual meeting of the Town Meeting shall not take place until an opportunity shall have been given to present motions, if any, addressed to each recommended budget item. As of the time of final adjournment of the annual meeting of the Town Meeting, there shall be deemed to have been appropriated a sum of money for each recommended budget item identical to the sum recommended therefor unless that sum is increased, decreased or eliminated by a vote of the Town Meeting which meets all of the following conditions:
(1)
No recommended budget item may be increased to an amount which is greater than the original request for appropriation filed pursuant to § 6-2;
(2)
The total number of eligible voters present and voting
when each question is put to a vote equals not less than 250; and
[Amended 4-27-1987, effective 5-4-1987]
(3)
The votes in favor of the motion to increase, decrease
or eliminate constitute not less than 60% of the total number of votes
cast.
[Amended 5-7-1979, effective 7-1-1979]
(i)
In the event that the aggregate of all appropriations made at the annual meeting of the Town Meeting differs by more than 10% from the aggregate of all recommended budget items, or if the appropriation for the Woodbridge Board of Education differs by more than 10% from the recommended budget item pertaining thereto, a meeting of the Town Meeting (hereinafter called the "reconvened annual meeting") shall be held at a place, day and hour to be determined by the Town Meeting Moderator, which shall not be less than seven nor more than 21 days subsequent to the date of adjournment of the annual meeting of the Town Meeting. Notice of such place, day and hour shall be given not less than five days in advance of said meeting by publication one time in a newspaper having a general circulation in the Town. At such meeting the recommended budget shall be reconsidered and action taken thereon in the manner provided in § 6-2(h). The appropriations made at such meeting shall constitute the appropriations of the Town, except as hereinafter provided:
(1)
If the aggregate of all appropriations made at the
reconvened annual meeting is lower than the aggregate of all recommended
budget items by an amount exceeding 30% of such recommended budget
items, the appropriations for the current fiscal year shall constitute
the appropriations for the following fiscal year;
(2)
If the appropriation made at the reconvened annual
meeting for the Board of Education is lower than the recommended budget
item pertaining thereto by an amount exceeding 30% of such recommended
budget item, the appropriation for the Board of Education for the
current fiscal year shall constitute its appropriation for the following
fiscal year.
(j)
In the event that there is any noncompliance with the provisions of § 6-2(a) through (g), the annual meeting of the Town Meeting shall nevertheless be held as provided in § 3-2(a) and, to the extent possible, appropriations shall be made in accordance with § 6-2(h) and (i), and the appropriations made at such meeting shall constitute the appropriations of the Town. The Board of Selectmen may consider any such noncompliance as "extraordinary circumstances" within the meaning of § 3-2(a) and may take such measures as it deems advisable in order to provide the Town Meeting with any information it may have been prevented from receiving due to noncompliance.
(k)
Not more than three days subsequent to the final adjournment
of the annual meeting or reconvened annual meeting of the Town Meeting,
as the case may be, the Board of Finance shall meet and lay a tax
sufficient to pay the expenses of the Town for the following fiscal
year. The Board of Finance shall also fix the date or dates when such
tax shall be due and payable.
[Amended 5-2-2005, effective 6-2-2005]
(a)
(1)
"Allot or Allotment" shall refer to a sum of money
allocated from the current fiscal year contingency fund;
(2)
"Request" shall mean the written communication from
a requesting agency to the Board of Selectmen indicating the sum it
needs;
(3)
"Requesting Agency" shall mean a Spending Agency that
determines it requires a sum of money greater than its current appropriation;
(4)
"Spending Agency" shall be as defined in § 6-2(a)(1);
(5)
"Supplementary Appropriation" shall refer to a sum
of money allocated from the undesignated and unreserved general fund
balance or if no undesignated and unreserved general fund balance
shall be then available, to be financed by borrowing, which borrowing
shall be included in and made part of the tax levied in the following
fiscal year;
(7)
"Transfer" shall refer to a sum of money allocated
from all or part of the Unexpended Balance of any appropriation previously
approved for the current fiscal year;
(8)
"Unexpended Balance" is that part of any appropriation
previously approved for the current fiscal year which any Spending
Agency has determined it will not expend during the current fiscal
year.
(b)
A Requesting Agency shall file its Request with the
Board of Selectmen. No more than 15 days thereafter, the Board of
Selectmen shall forward the Request to the Board of Finance together
with a statement setting forth the recommendation of the Board of
Selectmen as to the Request.
[Amended 5-2-2005, effective 6-1-2005]
(c)
No more than 15 days after receipt of the Request from the Board of Selectmen, the Board of Finance shall take one or more of the actions listed in Subsections (c)(1) through (3) below, and shall inform the Requesting Agency and the Board of Selectmen in writing of its action, the reasons therefor and, if an Allotment or Supplementary Appropriation is recommended pursuant to Subsections (c)(1) or (3) below, whether it requests the Board of Selectmen to call a special meeting of the Town Meeting pursuant to Subsection (d) below:
(1)
The Board of Finance may Allot to the requesting agency
a sum of money up to the amount of the request, provided that the
aggregate amount Allotted to any one requesting agency in each fiscal
year shall not exceed the greater of 0.3% of the total Town Budget
for that fiscal year or $100,000.
[Amended 4-27-1987, effective 5-4-1987; amended 7-23-1998, effective
11-4-1998; amended 5-2-2005, effective 6-1-2005]
(2)
The Board of Finance may Transfer to the Requesting
Agency a sum of money up to the amount of the Request.
(3)
Subject to the second and third sentence of this Subsection
(c)(3), the Board of Finance may make a Supplementary Appropriation
to the Requesting Agency up to the amount of the Request, in an amount
not exceeding the greater of 0.15% of the total Town Budget for that
fiscal year or $50,000. A Supplementary Appropriation to any one Requesting
Agency in an amount which exceeds the greater of 0.15% of the total
Town Budget for that fiscal year or $50,000 can be made only upon
the vote of a meeting of the Town Meeting. The Board of Finance shall
not, in any fiscal year, authorize Supplementary Appropriations which
exceed the greater of 0.2% of the total Town Budget for that fiscal
year or $75,000 to all Requesting Agencies without the vote of a meeting
of the Town Meeting.
[Amended 4-27-1987, effective 5-4-1987; amended 7-23-1998, effective
11-4-1998; amended 5-2-2005, effective 6-1-2005]
(4)
The Board of Finance may recommend that no Transfer,
Allotment, or Supplemental Appropriation be made.
(d)
In accordance with the terms of Subsection (c) above,
(1)
The Board of Finance may pursuant to Subsection (c)(1),
request the Board of Selectmen to call a special meeting of the Town
Meeting for the purpose of Allotting to the Requesting Agency a sum
of money in an amount recommended by the Board of Finance.
(2)
The Board of Finance shall with respect to Supplementary
Appropriations described in the second and third sentences of Subsection
(c)(3) request the Board of Selectmen to call a special meeting of
the Town Meeting for the purpose of making a Supplementary Appropriation
to any Requesting Agency, in an amount recommended by the Board of
Finance
[Amended 5-2-2005, effective 6-1-2005]
(3)
The Board of Selectmen thereupon shall call such a
special meeting of the Town Meeting.
(4)
At such a special
meeting of the Town Meeting the recommended Allotment or Supplementary
Appropriation shall be deemed to have been made unless it is increased,
decreased or eliminated by a vote of the Town Meeting which meets
all of the following conditions:
(a)
The total number of eligible voters present
when the question is put to a vote equals not less than 250; and
(b)
The votes in favor of the motion to increase,
decrease or eliminate the amount recommended by the Board of Finance
constitute not less than 60% of the total number of votes cast.
[Amended 11-7-1972, effective 1-1-1973; amended 5-7-1979, effective
7-1-1979]
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Provided, notwithstanding the foregoing, no
such recommended Allotment or Supplementary Appropriation may be increased
to an amount which is greater than the Request by the Requesting Agency.
[Amended 4-28-1992, effective 11-3-1992] |
(e)
If the Board of Finance, pursuant to Subsection (c) above, Allots, Transfers or makes a Supplementary Appropriation less than the full amount or none of the Request, then a special meeting of the Town Meeting can be called as provided in Article III above, in which case, subject to the provisions of Subsection (d)(4) above, such special meeting of the Town Meeting may take one or more of the following actions:
(f)
No individual or Spending Agency shall make any expenditure on behalf of the Town, or enter into any contract by which the Town shall become liable for any sum, which exceeds the appropriation for such Spending Agency, except for expenditures authorized pursuant to this Article VI, and expenditures made for the purpose of paying judgments or settling claims against the Town under provisions of law. Any individual responsible for a violation of this § 6-3 shall be liable in a civil action in the name of the Town, and the amount unlawfully expended hereunder shall be liquidated damages in such civil action. The provisions of this § 6-3 shall not be a limitation on the Town in issuing bonds under the provisions of law or expending the proceeds thereof in accordance with the vote of the Town Meeting.
(a)
Any capital and nonrecurring expenditure project shall first be presented in writing by the Spending Agency to the Board of Finance. The Board of Finance shall, subject to Subsection (b) below, present such project to the meeting of the Town Meeting called to consider the same, together with the recommendation of the Board of Finance as to the acceptance, rejection or modification thereof.
[Added 11-7-1972, effective 1-1-1973]
(b)
No Spending Agency of the Town shall undertake any
project which requires capital and nonrecurring expenditures, including
those requiring withdrawals from the Reserve Fund, unless the Board
of Finance has acted on such project as follows:
(1)
If such amount is less than or equal to the greater
of 0.15% of the total Town Budget for that fiscal year or $50,000,
the Board of Finance may approve the expenditure without presenting
the project to a special or annual meeting of the Town Meeting; and
(2)
If such amount is greater than the greater of 0.15% of the total Town Budget for that fiscal year or $50,000, the Board of Finance shall proceed, as set forth in § 6-3(d) above, to have the project authorized at the annual meeting of the Town Meeting or at a special meeting of the Town Meeting in the following manner:
[Amended 5-2-1983, effective 6-1-1983; amended 5-2-2005, effective
6-1-2005]
(i)
By the affirmative vote of 2/3 of the votes
cast thereon at a meeting of the Town Meeting, or
(ii)
By the affirmative vote of a majority of the
votes cast thereon at each of two meetings of the Town Meeting, the
second such meeting to be held:
(A)
Not less than seven nor more than 14 days after
the first such meeting;
(B)
At a place, day and hour determined at the first
such meeting;
(C)
Not less than five days after notice of such
place, day and hour shall have been given by publication one time
in a newspaper having general circulation in the Town; and
(c)
The issuance, the amendment of the terms in any material
respect, or the redemption or refunding of any bond or note of the
Town shall be authorized by a meeting of the Town Meeting.
[Added 5-2-1983, effective 6-1-1983; amended 4-28-1992, effective
11-3-1992]
In the event that a special meeting of the Town
Meeting, called to deal with financial matters, is unable to act because
of lack of a quorum, then the matters scheduled on the agenda for
such meeting may be acted upon by the Board of Selectmen and Board
of Finance, provided that a two-thirds vote of each of such Boards
shall be required to approve any expenditure on the agenda.
