After several meetings and much debate, the Legislative Council at its December 7 meeting voted unanimously to restore $11,157 cut from two lake authorities in the 2022-23 budget.

Back in April, the council voted to make the cut, paring the budgets of the Lake Zoar Authority and the Lake Lillinonah Authority to the levels they were in the 2021-22 budget.

First Selectman Dan Rosenthal, at the November 7 Board of Selectmen meeting, had previously reported that an amendment to the line item for the lake authorities was not permissible by state statute. According to statute, the payment to the lake authorities is an assessment, not a request, and the lake authorities are “creatures of the state.”

Rosenthal further noted at a November 16 council meeting that the only way to not pay the full amount assessed would be to withdraw from affiliating with both authorities, a move that would open “another can of worms” and require the town to patrol its frontage on both lakes.

“The lake authorities were formed for economy of scale,” said Rosenthal, noting that the lake authorities share costs for patrolling the lakes between member towns, six towns for Lillinonah (Newtown, Bridgewater, Brookfield, New Milford, Southbury, and Roxbury) and four towns for Zoar (Newtown, Monroe, Oxford, and Southbury).

Rosenthal said that withdrawing from one or both lake authorities would cost the town more in the long run.

At the December 7 meeting, members of the two lake authorities came before the council to ask questions. Councilman Ryan Knapp, who made the motion proposing the cut in April, stated that after a review of the authorities’ budgets, which he requested on November 16, he was “surprised at how different Lake Zoar was from Lake Lillinonah.”

He noted that the LLA budget was $100,000 or roughly 60 percent larger than the LZA budget.

“I would like to understand some of the differences,” said Knapp. “For Lillinonah to be $100,000 higher seems surprising to me, I thought Zoar would be higher.”

How Authorities Work

LLA First Vice-Chairman Scott Schifilliti said it was best to “back up a bit” and explain how his authority works.

LLA Chairman Shannon Young said the LLA has three boats to maintain, as well as its own private dock, and its own off-grid refueling center, as well as all the costs associated with that. It has 11 patrol staff and nine assistants. Additionally, Lake Lillinonah is a much larger lake and requires more patrol hours.

“The scale of it is so much more,” said Schifilliti.

LZA Chairman Bill May said he does all the LZA’s bookkeeping and accounting. It also is able to utilize an established marina, and utilizes police staff from its member towns and only has a small handful of its own staff.

“I don’t understand the value in comparing the two,” said Young. “They’re completely different agencies, run completely differently, a different amount of towns, and different in the way other towns participate in the authorities.”

Knapp countered that the charge from the state between the two agencies is “almost verbatim the same” so he wanted to know the reason the methods for meeting the charge between the two agencies were so different. Knapp questioned usage of the lakes, but was told that the lake authorities don’t take hard counts of the amount of boats on the lakes.

Knapp suggested that the LZA and LLA collaborate to find ways to streamline, much like Newtown’s fire companies look to each other for efficiencies and new ways of doing things. He asked that before the next budget season for 2023-24, the lake authorities compare the budgets to see if “someone is doing something it does not need to, or paying for something it does not need, or find better ways to look at insurance.”

“We should not be too proud to learn from our neighbors,” said Knapp.

Schifilliti asked if Knapp was “suggesting Newtown tell us how to run our authority.”

“Help me out with that,” said Schifilliti. “We have six towns in the authority.”

Knapp said he was “asking that the authority do the best it can.”

“We as a town can’t be too proud to look at what Monroe is doing if there is a way to do something better or find savings,” said Knapp.

“We do that,” said Schifilliti.

Council Chairman Jeff Capeci suggested that continuing conversation along those lines was “maybe better for the upcoming budget discussions.”

Back Story

According to the April 6 meeting minutes, Knapp moved to amend the line item Lake Authorities to $53,735 — seconded by Mihalcik. Following a failed attempted amendment by Mihalcik, the requested reduction passed 7-5 with Mihalcik and council members Chris Gardner, Tom Long, Michelle Embree Ku, and Dan Honan voting against the motion.

The prior reduction of $11,157, which the BOS voted to restore to the Lake Authorities line item at its November 7 meeting, took into account approximately $3,000 of the request for the Lake Zoar Authority, with the balance for the Lake Lillinonah Authority.

The lake authorities came to the town in early July during the new budget year to question the cut. Rosenthal began to look into the relevant state statutes and found that the cut could not be made and the only way for the town to opt from the full assessment would be to withdraw from the lake authorities.

“Quasi-town agencies like Edmond Town Hall and the library make requests that none of the town bodies are under any obligation to fund in the amount asked,” said Rosenthal. “In this case, the authority is a creature of the state. It’s not a luxury we have [to reduce its request].”

By State Statute Section 7-151b, “Each town shall pay to the authority its respective share of the expenses of the commission prorated on the basis of linear footage of shore line or any other formula agreed on and adopted by a majority of the legislative bodies of all member towns.”

Bill May, treasurer of the Lake Zoar Authority and the Newtown representative on that body, told the council that the authority’s budget is not based on fixed costs, but patrolling the lake, fuel costs, and is weather dependent. That said, he does not anticipate much of an increase going into next year.

Schifilliti said the 2022-23 budget increase came from things like equipment being in dire need of replacement or repairs, boat costs, staffing wage increases, and a police shed that requires a generator and alarm system. They have been spending from their reserves.

Schifilliti also warned he expected another large increase next year so that the authority does not spend out its reserves.

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