Middlefield Board of Finance cuts constable and assessor hours, youth and family services, lifeguard hours, public works overtime
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Wednesday, June 17, 2009 - 12:21pm
Because the town budget referendum failed on June 9 by a vote of 128-237 (12 percent of registered voters actually voted, at a cost of $8.22 per vote based on the $3,000 cost of a referendum, according to finance director Joe Geruch), the Board of Finance held a special meeting on Thursday, June 11, to make a number of significant cuts to the budget.
All told, they eliminated over $150,000 by the time the night was through. These cuts came off a budget that called for the same mill support (6.35 mills) in the upcoming year as in the current year.
However, the Board of Finance took themselves into uncharted territory and ended up with an approximate mill rate of 25.66 mills – a drop of .22 mills from the 2008-09 budget. This number will receive further adjustment by Finance Director Joe Geruch to factor in the benefits also lost by the reduction of hours for various town employees.
Just where did these cuts come from? One of the most significant came from the Town Assessor, whose full-time position was cut down to a 20-hour work week. This will result in over $15,000 in cuts before counting in benefits. One of the police constables will also have his hours cut down to a part-time position.
In both cases, this was partly justified by a comparison to Durham, with Board of Selectman member Mary Johnson pointing out that Durham only has a part-time assessor, while the fact that Durham only has one constable was also noted. (Editor’s note: Durham plans to spend $86,075 plus benefits and office expenses on a part-time assessor, one full-time and one part-time assessor’s office assistant. Middlefield’s full-time assessor and office expenses were slated to cost the town $63,415 plus benefits in the budget submitted by First Selectman Jon Brayshaw in March.)
Public Works also received a number of cuts, with the $36,000 devoted to overtime completely removed from their budget. Another $10,000 was removed from seasonal labor. Finance board member Paul Pizzo explained that while the money is coming out of those line-items, the amount removed is meant to match up to cutting a position's salary by half. Fellow member Alice Malcolm also felt that the department should schedule its work hours during the winter differently to avoid paying overtime for snow removal. Protest was offered by BOF member Rebecca Adams, who felt that the board shouldn't cut work funds down in a department that has as much work to do as Public Works. Well before the budget was put to a vote, Adams stated that she would vote against the budget based on the changes in the Public Works department.
Also, $14,000 was saved by reducing the hours of the Land Use Department's office assistant down to 20 hours a week. This tied into an earlier discussion during the meeting in which Mary Johnson suggested only opening the building department for four hours a day. As Kathy Kokoszka is working on starting up a town website in the next two weeks, Johnson hopes more people will go online for what they might require from the department.
One small cut was made to Park and Recreation, with $2,300 in incentive pay for the director removed. This didn't affect the budget, though, as another $2,300 in matching revenue was removed, as the incentive pay was supposed to come from additional profits generated by the department.
The town will also no longer fund Youth and Family Services as part of the newly proposed budget. Although the finance board received a mandate regarding the town's need for a municipal agent, members noted that it doesn't say the town “shall” have a municipal agent, but instead says “may.” Based on the wording, the board felt Youth and Family Services is optional for the town and went on to zero out the line-item. Though the board approved this change, Adams stated that she was uncomfortable with it.
A number of other items also received adjustment during the board's budget review. Pumper replacement for the Fire Department went from $50,000 to $25,000, while the funds set aside for a new police cruiser were also halved to $5,000. Pick-up replacement for Public Works will have to wait at least another year past what was initially scheduled as the $8,500 set aside for it was completely removed. Based on new information, the board reduced the amount required for property and auto insurance down by $1,500. However, revenues went down by $1,000 for the cell tower lease.
There was also one significant increase during the board's discussion. Acknowledging that certain items may now be under-funded, they also added $20,000 to the contingency fund to cover any additional expenditures that may come up during the 2009-10 fiscal year.
With all of these changes in place, the board put the matter up to a vote. Using the latest gross budget number of $10,657,705 from the school and $3,885,819 on the town side of the budget, the board approved a 25.66 mill tax rate. Only Adams voted against the proposal, based on the reductions in Public Works and Youth and Family Services. They recommended the budget go to a town meeting for Thursday, June 18. While there was some concern about when the tax bills go out, tax collector Anne Olszewski felt that setting the mill rate on the 18th should give her enough time to send them out.
(Late breaking: The BOF discovered after calling the meetings mentioned above that only the Board of Selectmen can call a town meeting. Therefore, they rescinded the call for a town meeting on June 18 and cancelled the public hearing as well. Both have been rescheduled for Monday, June 22. Then, they realized that the Middletown Press had not published the legal warning of the town meeting on Wednesday, June 17, which would have been the last date to publish with the required five days notice. June 22 would also be the last day to hold a public hearing and town meeting and still conform to the town charter requirement to do this within 14 days of the last budget defeat — in this case, June 8. According to BOF chair Ellen Waff, town attorney Ken Antin explained that the noticing requirements are state law and more compelling than the charter requirement for getting this accomplished within 14 days. Since the BOF could not comply with both requirements, he recommended going with a public hearing and town meeting date of Thursday, June 25. Residents who have concerns about the budget can express them at the public hearing slated to begin at 7 p.m. at the Community Center, and the BOF can respond to those concerns by changing the budget at a special meeting before the town meeting begins.Additionally, Waff is holding a caucus of Democratic members of the BOF on Thursday, June 18, to see if they would agree to hold a public hearing on June 22, followed by a special BOF meeting to deal with whatever the public brings forward. She is not sure how that will go, however. Meanwhile, copies of the latest, June 11 BOF budget plan are available at the town administration building on Jackson Hill Road, and Middlefield residents should keep checking the Town Times website at www.towntimes.com for the latest news about when meetings will be held on the Middlefield town budget.)
Beyond just the changes that the board made, though, were also a couple of items that came up during the meeting's public comment. Although the board has no ability to address the unions, they have mentioned a number of times in the past that they would like them to take a pay freeze. This inspired Jason Wickham to stand before them and question why they asked for this. Wickham informed that there are a number of other places the town could save money without asking for concessions from the unions.
As far as he saw it, the reason why the board wants the concessions is “To make everyone feel the pain that everyone else is feeling.” He pointed out that the Public Works department doesn't make a lot of money and added that the budget proposed at the last referendum included a zero increase on the town side of the budget. Regardless, though, the finance board has no say over union pay.
The other item brought before the board came from Marianne Corona, who felt that the amount of money set aside for Powder Ridge won't be enough to take it through the review process. Pizzo replied that while the town needs to set a certain amount of money aside for it, the town believes a vendor should cover the costs of improving or otherwise going forward with work on Powder Ridge.
Corona also suggested that the town may be able to save money on garbage removal by using the town crew to remove it once a week.
