As Finance Board Reviews Budget, Council Readies Charter Charges

By John Voket

Last Tuesday’s 15-minute Board of Selectmen’s meeting was clear evidence that this body of governmental leaders is temporarily out of the spotlight. However, two other leading bodies, the Board of Finance and the Legislative Council, are beginning their own respective high profile activities.

On Thursday, February 23, the finance board was set to review the municipal budget proposal that, if left intact, would raise local taxes by up to two mills. A mill represents $1 of property tax on every $1,000 of assessed property.

And next Wednesday, the Legislative Council is scheduled to hear and possibly recommend a formal charge to the new Charter Revision panel. According to Legislative Council Chairman Will Rodgers, it is likely that the panel that will entertain that charge will be seated by month’s end.

While state law requires a charter revision panel to be provided its charge, and to meet to appoint its chair within 30 days, the Legislative Council apparently felt it would be more prudent to finalize its charge before formally announcing the names of individuals who volunteered for the revision group.

“Once the charge is endorsed, we will handle the appointments,” Mr Rodgers confirmed. “The committee must then provide the charge within a 30-day window, but I believe that will be done much more quickly because the charge will have already been endorsed.”

Councilman Joseph Borst, who has served on two panels himself, acted as chair for this year’s selection subcommittee. While the names of those chosen to serve on the latest panel were not scheduled to be revealed publicly until the March 15 or possibly the March 29 council meeting, Mr Borst told The Bee this week that his subcommittee finalized nine charter panel members, and also sanctioned three alternates.

“The selection committee interviewed 17 volunteers and selected nine, which was our original intent,” Mr Borst said.

Mr Rodgers, who is also chairing the charter charge subcommittee said that his group was “awfully close” to finalizing its work as well. After what Mr Rodgers described as the first “meat and potatoes meeting” of the charge committee, he was pleased to learn that of the nearly 30 items being considered in the charge, virtually every member agreed on almost every point of the charge.

“When the four subcommittee members sat down we determined that there were about 30 items we felt needed to be included in the charge. And all but eight of those concerns were on every committee member’s list,” he said.

While Mr Rodgers was fairly certain the discussion of the charge would occur during next Wednesday’s meeting, he reserved that right to hold the call for a vote on the charge until the March 15 meeting. He said the council may also act on the panel recommendations on March 15, and failing to do so, would certainly seat the charter panel by March 31.

The council chairman said that only about 25 percent of the charge would be addressing “housekeeping,” or points in the charter document that have some issue of technicality that hampers the most efficient machinations of local government processes. The balance of the charge, Mr Rodgers said, would involve “substantive issues.”

He said many of those issues were brought forth by other town government members including First Selectman Herb Rosenthal and members of the finance board. Mr Rodgers also noted that several of the items in the charge were first brought to his attention by letters he read from town residents in The Newtown Bee.

Mr Rodgers classified possible charges including those suggested by the town’s bond rating company on the capital nonrecurring fund were matters of housekeeping that he felt the charter committee might simply “rubber stamp.” He cited considerations of charges including whether to split the town budget vote between the municipal side and the education side was an example of the more substantive issues to be fully considered by the new revision panel.

Budget Process

While the finance board has already played a role in suggesting future charter revisions, the business at hand will revolve around possible revisions to the 2006-2007 municipal and education budgets. Board of Finance Chairman John Kortze said this week that the meeting on February 23 to hear about the municipal side, and next Tuesday’s meeting to consider the Board of Education’s budget, will precede a public hearing that is set for next Wednesday, March 1.

The municipal budget increase is currently proposed to be about 7.1 percent, while a revised education budget was submitted with an approximate 7.9 percent increase. That public budget hearing is scheduled for 7:30 pm in the Reed School, and will be broadcast on public access cable Channel 17.

Once the public hearing concludes, Mr Kortze said the finance board will have up to two meeting opportunities to finalize its part of the budget process before sending the final proposal to the council for its part of the budget refinement. The council must receive the budget for consideration by March 14, according to the charter.

The two final Board of Finance deliberation sessions are set for March 8 and, if needed, March 13 during the board’s regular meeting.

Mr Kortze said that the budget deliberations would provide an opportunity for certain town departments to support their requests for equipment and initiatives that may constitute minor or significant increases in their respective budget lines. The finance board chair said that he had only skimmed the budget requests earlier this week, but that he was particularly interested in a suggestion that the town add two full-time paid firefighters.

During the recent municipal budget hearings conducted by the Board of Selectmen, the chairman of the local Fire Commission pitched the proposal for two weekday paid personnel who would be responsible for getting first responding apparatus to call scenes.

During that hearing, Fire Commission Chairman Kevin Cragin explained the proposal with the backing of the chiefs of two Newtown fire companies that would house the paid firefighters.

“We handled 1,200 calls in 2005, and that number is going higher and higher,” Sandy Hook Chief William Halstead told the selectmen. “We’re seeing increasing delays getting the first engines out. Sometimes it takes us five to six minutes to get out of the firehouse, when the national [response] standard is getting an engine to the scene in five or six minutes.”

Chief Halstead also noted that besides the obvious safety factor, Newtown’s national ISO rating, a standard on which property insurance rates are assessed related to fire protection, would likely be lowered with paid first responders in station. That favorable ISO rating adjustment could spell millions of dollars saved by property owners across the community in the coming years.

“And when we’re talking about a fire, that five or six minutes more could mean the difference between property damage in one room, or a total structural loss,” Hook and Ladder Chief Ray Corbo said. He said those few minutes also represent precious life-saving time when responders are dispatched to a fire, vehicle accident, or other rescue call.

Mr Kotze acknowledged that the introduction of two paid firefighter positions could mean the beginning of a full-scale townwide paid department.

“It’s definitely a big issue,” Mr Kortze said. “I think if we head down this road, we definitely have to have a better understanding of the need.”