Finance Board

Seeks Cuts

By John Voket

The proposed Newtown municipal budget for 2005-2006 fills a binder roughly the size of a large municipal phone book, but Board of Finance members targeted only about a half-dozen concerns related to that budget proposal during a special meeting Tuesday. Among those areas of concern were police overtime, emergency dispatcher overtime, library funding, and the cost of municipal computer systems.

As that three-hour session drew to a close, the Board of Finance voted to formally accept the selectmen’s portion of the town budget. This session, the first of at least three meetings the finance board is conducting in its effort to finalize the 2005-2006 town budget, was followed by a public hearing Wednesday (see related story) and will culminate in a special Board of Finance meeting scheduled for Monday, March 7.

Nearly an hour of Tuesday’s meeting was spent detailing information and clarifying concerns related to the C.H. Booth Library’s budget proposal. Judge William Lavery, president of the library board, and Kelly Urso, the library board treasurer, circulated numerous budget forms and charts to finance board members in the hope that finance officials would endorse the library budget as presented, or minimize further cuts.

Judge Lavery made an impassioned plea to the board to maintain or increase funding to help bring the local library’s collections in line with libraries in similarly sized communities.

“Last year we had to cut into our budget for book purchases because of increased expenses for operating costs, utilities, and such,” he said.

He also pointed out that existing capital reserves would likely be exhausted paying to repair a leak between the original building and the recent addition to the facility. Judge Lavery then took time to clarify how town funds are used versus certain revenues the library receives from donors, benefactors, and the annual Friends of the Library Book Sale.

“The Friends of the Library donation is the only other source of revenues to build our collection,” he said. This windfall, along with other donations, are specifically designated however, and cannot be used to supplement personnel or operating costs, he said.

Judge Lavery noted that the library could face losing between $100,000 and $150,000 in potential revenues if the annual Friends book sale is postponed because its venue, the Bridgeport Hall auditorium at Fairfield Hills, may not be accessible this year due to demolition and remediation activities on the campus.

Finance board co-chairman James Gaston then questioned another line item proposal to add a reference librarian.

In a subsequent interview with Library Director Janet Woycik, she clarified that the reference clerk would transition from an existing position once reference certification was obtained. The process only involved a modest increase in compensation, not adding a new full-time staff member.

Following the library budget discussion, the finance board turned their sights toward concerns in the local police budget. There was discussion on the department’s need to replace existing service sidearms. Finance board member Michael Portnoy also questioned the need for a new patrol officer in relation to an increased overtime expense proposal.

“If we’re adding new officers, why is the overtime still going up?” he asked.

First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal attempted to answer the question, stating that the process for hiring and training a new officer took significant time, and that in the interim, overtime for existing officers would likely be tapped.

Police Chief Michael Kehoe told The Bee in a follow-up interview that overtime expense would be required to not only cover for staffing shortages, but because of the anticipated need for additional coverage for town tercentennial activities scheduled through the end of the year.

The chief pointed out numerous unfunded mandates for ongoing specialized training and recertification that took officers off the street for sometimes weeks at a time.

“Those shifts need to be staffed when officers are out at training, and then they sometimes get compensatory time for that training which needs to be covered,” Chief Kehoe said. “All these mandates need to be met, from homeland security training to 60 hours of ongoing recertification every three years for each officer including myself.”

Chief Kehoe said the new officer position was already cut in the 2003-2004 budget, and that his department’s five-year plan stipulates staffing levels at 45 officers by 2006.

“We haven’t added staff since 2001,” he said. “We’re not in last place, but we are below numerous municipal guidelines for patrol staffing.”

The chief said that the officer who is hired in January 2006 would undergo 20 weeks of academy training, provided an academy seat was immediately available, and another 16 weeks of training in the field before he or she would be qualified for duty on their own.

“The impact on overtime for that officer for this coming fiscal year is zero,” he said.

The chief also justified the replacement of weapons, stating that the existing Smith and Wesson semiautomatic pistols had reached the end of their useful life.

“I would rather not be in a crisis situation, and be forced to replace these things,” he said. “Our move to replace the sidearms is a fiscally and organizationally sound decision.”

Mr Rosenthal told the finance panel that the police department already planned to spread the purchase of new Glock sidearms over two fiscal periods, acquiring about half of the weapons at the end of the current fiscal year, and the other half at the beginning of the next fiscal cycle.

Moving on, the finance board then commented on the overtime line for the town’s emergency dispatch office. Emergency Dispatch Center Director Joseph DelBuono previously explained to selectmen that he was in a similar situation as the police department, and that it could take months to recruit, hire, train, and orient a new dispatcher.

In a follow-up call, Mr DelBuono said that his department had already used more than $18,000 in overtime since a full-time dispatcher left in January to pursue another job. “I expect we’ll continue to use more than $1,000 a week in overtime until that position is filled,” he said. Adding to the burden, Mr DelBuono said another part-time dispatcher sustained a non work-related injury recently, putting his existing staff under even greater pressure to fill all shifts.

Before adjourning, the board questioned the cost of computers that were budgeted for municipal use. Mr Portnoy pointed out that costs for computers and software was dropping, and he felt the $1,500 per station budgeted for seven municipal systems was too high.

In a subsequent call to town Finance Director Ben Spragg, he confirmed that because of increased computing power demand to run special software at town hall, the town’s IT consultant justified the cost once hardware, software licensing, deliveries, and extended warrantees were factored in.

“As a matter of fact, some of these units came out closer to $1,800, but our IT consultant said she would negotiate with the vendor considering we were buying seven units,” Mr Spragg said. “Either she would get discounts on each unit, or negotiate free delivery, or something else to bring the costs in at or under budget.”