Sunday, October 05, 2008

Altieri email requesting info on PC at pool - 4

Following up to the three previous email exchanges between Councilman Altieri and me, I asked for clarification on the status of performance contracting before I go reinventing the wheel (blue text are excerpts from his prior email to me):

Comments from Matt Altieri to me:


I think at this point you should approach the Chair of the Council about heading up a study group...

the details and examples have only been examined once (December 07 Budget Meeting)

My response to Matt Altieri:

Before doing anything, I'm wondering... will the Budget Committee be further considering performance contracting? If so, when? Or is it off the agenda? (I guess that question is really directed to Council Chairman Hall and/or Budget Chairman Ecke.)
So as you can see, I concluded this discussion is "above his paygrade" and redirected my questions to the Council Chair and Budget Chair.

Emails to be continued...

Tim White

P.S. I know this is out of chronological order, but since the Pool Bubble Study Recommendations Meeting is on Tuesday... I want you to know that I spoke with Jimmy Sima tonight (the other person who Councilman Altieri requested to provide information on PC). I asked Jimmy for a progress report on his efforts. He said that he had asked the town engineering / energy staff for information several times back in May / June. (I recall at least one meeting in which the whole Pool Bubble Study Committee heard the request.) And while he didn't feel as though he got much information back then, he expects to get some information at Tuesday's Pool Recommendations meeting. So hopefully Councilman Altieri will have some useful info for his recommendations.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

"So hopefully Councilman Altieri will have some useful info for his recommendations,

You must be dreaming...when was the last time he useful info on anything?

The Dems seem to have 5 bodies, but 1 mind. It's a real shame.

Anonymous said...

Hi Tim....trying to help you guys out so I had my 15 year old daughter search the net to get info on performance contracting... I told her to use Google...guess what? She came back in @ 10 minutes with a few interesting articles....

http://www.colorado.gov/energy/in/uploaded_pdf/EatonCaseStudy.pdf

This article includes this:
Swimming in Savings!
Eaton is the first school district in Colorado to
incorporate renewable energy into their performance
contract.
Prior to this project, Eaton's indoor swimming pool
was heated with an inefficient boiler. The boiler
ran year round in order to maintain a constant
temperature. In addition to replacing the boiler
with a new, more efficient system, Eaton installed
a small solar hot water system that uses energy
from the sun to heat the pool water. This system
greatly reduced the demand on the boiler; in fact, it
hardly runs in the summer time. Even on a sunny
yet cool February morning, the pool can maintain
a comfortable temperature of 85 degrees with no
assistance from the boiler.
GEO now offers a Renewables in Performance
Contracting Grant to help projects follow Eaton’s
lead and incorporate renewable technology into their
performance contracts.

or you can look here:

https://www.buildingtechnologies.siemens.com/NR/rdonlyres/73350211-696D-4939-8CCD-3C4DE267BCAE/0/Brigittenau_EN_final.pdf

I don't like to judge people I don't know so I will leave it up to your bloggers to make their own judgement on Councilman Altieri's inability to look into this.

PS...I think she googled something like- fixing a pool with performance contracting

you can deduct my bill from my share of the tax payers burden for the new turf:)

Anonymous said...

Info on PC is easy to find, as long as one chooses to look. The real reason the D's do not take this up is because the Town Manager does not want it. He does not understand it, he is afraid it will hurt his precious bond rating and the most important reason is he is not in control of it. His precious high bond rating along with a huge rainy day fund has just gotten us rewarded by giving the teachers a 4.4% pay raise per year every year for the next 3 years. So much for good fiscal management. Oh, one other reason we refuse to look at PC, it won't work here because this is Cheshire.

Anonymous said...

it won't work here because this is Cheshire.

I keep forgetting that... it works everywhere else... but not in Cheshire.

Anonymous said...

"giving the teachers a 4.4% pay raise per year every year for the next 3 years. So much for good fiscal management."

These people are totally out of touch with reality.

The economy is in the toilet

The Dow is under 10,000

Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs with little hope of getting a comparable job any time soon.

The State of Connecticut can't even sell $300 million in bonds to support already approved spending.

The state retirement funds have lost billions.

Retail sales have plunged.

Foreclosures are again at an all-time high and still on the rise.

Indivudals 401 and IRA accounts have fallen off the cliff.

Millions of people now owe more on their house than it is worth.

Exports are falling and our trade deficits continue unabated.

Yields on savings account pitiful.

Food prices have skyrocketted

The private sector is lucky to keep their jobs, and their health care, never mind get any raise.

Auto sales are dismal and without hope of recovering.

Ordinary people have to choose between gas, food, and health care.

This list can go on and on.

In spite of all the pain the private sector is experiencing, the teachers are handed an exhorbitant settlement. Connecticuts teachers are the highest paid in the nation and they along with the public work force are the elite riding on the back of the taxpayers. This is one group of people that works only 180partial days a year, and who don't really have to meet any standard because they are tenured. And, supposedly managing by a superintendent who is also highly over paid.

The people running this town, the 5 Dems, school board and Milone are totally out of touch with reality.

The 5 Dems don't even think, they just vote as they are told by the special interests and local developers. They and Milone have no concern for the taxpayers and they don't seem to understand that the free money from the state is coming from the same taxpayers. They don't care how much more they can tax us to support their friends and relatives.

It's time to get rid of tenure and it's time to outsource the education system. It's time to bring the salary, wages and benefits of public employees in line with the private sectors and it's time to replace the 5 Dems on the TC and get a new town manager.

I think a lot of people in Cheshire have the same opinion that the public sector, local, state and federal is crushing the private sector.

Anonymous said...

The notion that teachers, who are responsible for educating our children, parenting them in the case of parents who wont do it themselves, are overpaid is really a tired old line. is 4.4 percent in abad economy out of line? Yes it is......but the majority are not overpaid. What other professional can be required to eanr a graduate degree and still earns less than $50k a year?

Anonymous said...

With regard to the teachers' union... there are a few bad apples no doubt. But there's also a lot of good teachers who really do go the extra mile for their students.

I think we should change the pension plan so that (for example) teachers aren't encouraged to stay for thirty years, if they "burnout" at fifteen years.

But such a change may also require legislators who say "it doesn't need to be funded because they won't all retire at the same time" to actually deal with the underfunding and overpromising addiction they have.

Fundamentally the same as the federal debt monster... I can't wait for the house cleaning to continue in another month. I just hope it's not focused entirely on Republicans, and some others like Robert Byrd get tossed too... but I doubt that'll happen.

Post bailout polling suggests it's gonna be another referendum on Bush. Bye, bye GOP.

I just hope the principled ones, such as Sen. Jim Demint, Sen. Tom Coburn and Rep. Jeff Flake don't get tossed. (Demint and Coburn aren't up... but that's not my point.)

Anonymous said...

Breach, thanks. And thank your daughter too.