With Newtown’s fund balance threatening to go over a policy-driven 12 percent cap, the Board of Finance, as part of its year-end transfers for the 2022-23 fiscal year budget, moved $272,000 into the Capital Non-Recurring Fund and $259,490 into the medical self insurance fund.

Finance Director Robert Tait gave the BOF his presentation at the September 11 meeting on year-end transfers as he closes out the accounts for the 2022-23 budget, noting that there were 25 accounts that were a grand total of $38,000 under-funded, which represents 8/100 of a percent of the total municipal budget.

The money was moved from accounts that still had balances left in them. Additionally, Tait recommended the transfers into capital non-recurring and medical self-insurance.

Tait said that if the money was not transferred and left in those line items, that money would roll over straight into the fund balance when the books are closed. Since the fund balance is already over the town set cap, that is undesirable.

“This is a perfect time to transfer to capital non-recurring and spend down the fund balance,” said Tait.

Tait noted that medical self insurance funds were also needed as the town has had a “large amount” of large medical claims among employees and it “needs a little help.” The town does have stop loss insurance of $250,000, meaning any amount of a claim over that amount is handled by an outside insurance agency, but with 65 large claims last year “it does add up.”

The transfers were approved unanimously.

In other finance board news, Chairman John Madzula reported that the Vice-Chairman, Chandravir Ahuja, has stepped down from the board, leaving a Republican vacancy. The board then acted to unanimously approve Steven Csordas to fill the vacancy.

This is the second vacancy the board has needed to fill during this term, as Sandy Roussas stepped in to fill a Republican vacancy in August 2022.

Csordas is currently self employed as a GRC (Governance Risk Compliance) consultant, helping small businesses “do due diligence around audits” and has previously worked as a management consultant, an internal auditor, and a financial systems analyst. He has lived in Newtown for 37 years.

Csordas said he has been interested in serving the community on a board for some time, but his previous jobs required a lot of travel, and he was “always on the road or in an airport.”

“This will be a great appointment and a good fit for the board considering his past experience,” said Madzula.

Several other board members thanked Csordas for being willing to step up, and several lauded his impressive resume.

Finally, the finance board approved the acceptance of a grant for $60,674 from the State Department of Aging and Disabilities. The grant will be used towards building an outdoor area for the senior center that will be “open and covered.” The community center has its own outdoor area, and this will provide the senior center with its own.

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Associate Editor Jim Taylor can be reached at jim@thebee.com.