$38.3 Million Proposal Sent To Finance—

Selectmen Wrap Up Budget Deliberations

By John Voket

In less than eight hours of deliberation, the Board of Selectmen approved a 2012-13 municipal budget request of $38,278,353 just before midnight on January 23. Finance Director Robert Tait and First Selectman Pat Llodra teamed up to coordinate the fast-paced review of the 300-plus-page spending plan, which began January 19.

At the same time, Selectmen Will Rodgers and James Gaston offered questions and observations throughout both the overview and as several department heads or other town officials sat to discuss some of the larger areas of spending.

The budget proposal, which now moves to the Board of Finance for action, represents a 0.95 percent increase over the current year, not including debt service. The overall requested increase of 1.85 percent includes all anticipated borrowing costs — primarily covering school district capital projects.

In the end, the spending plan was adjusted slightly from the numbers reported in The Bee prior to the selectmen’s deliberations because selectmen decided to add $25,000 to the capital nonrecurring fund to establish a municipal vehicle replacement program for the town motor pool.

Countering that investment, Mr Tait said the anticipated cost for an upcoming February bond initiative is $71,650 less than reported just a week ago. The finance director based the change on fluctuating interest rates that declined from 3.5 to 3.25 percent.

This reduces the amount for debt service from 5.16 to 4.42 percent of the overall request, Mr Tait said.

Mr Rodgers said the expedited budget deliberations this year should be credited to Mrs Llodra and Mr Tait, who spent many hours working along with department heads to bring taxpayers a same-services budget request, while keeping the bottom line in check despite the contractual obligations of union-negotiated wage increases.

Mrs Llodra also pointed out the few areas where she believes the taxpayer side of public-private investments will pay dividends over time, citing the soon-to-open municipal animal shelter and a planned dog park among these community improvements.

During the Parks and Recreation presentation January 23, the first selectman also noted how well the department’s investment in a small used bulldozer has already gone far toward paying for itself versus the cost of renting one for appropriate jobs that can otherwise be done by town workers.

That presentation also focused on the need and utility the department expects to get by replacing a 2001 pick-up truck with a $72,000 light dump truck that will be equipped to plow and haul a utility trailer.

Parks Commission Chairman Ed marks noted that the commission felt good about recommending the purchase, even though it depleted the department’s capital budget by nearly 50 percent.

Police & Fire Services

Mrs Llodra also noted during a presentation by the Police Department that she was committed to the town’s recently initiated plan to fund the replacement of three police vehicles each year. She noted the request for a fourth vehicle at $33,000 was removed, restoring the police vehicle request to $90,000 — the level of funding that was established in 2011.

While no positions were on the chopping block during this part of the budget process, Chief Michael Kehoe, Captain Joe Rios, and Police Commissioner Brian Budd shared some information to justify both the town’s commitment of a full-time officer to the Statewide Narcotics Task Force, as well as those who serve as school resource officers or SROs.

Chief Kehoe said the local officer pledged to the narcotics task force was instrumental in closing out a case against what he described as a significant OxyContin dealer who resided and was allegedly plying his trade in town. The police officials explained that while the town only devotes one officer to the task force, when required or requested, the town is the beneficiary of all the personnel and investigative resources of the statewide agency.

Captain Rios said those resources would be impossible to match at the local level. Commissioner Budd also noted that intelligence that is gathered by the SROs can sometimes be related to the task force to affect investigations or arrests in other communities from which drug traffic flows into Newtown.

Much of the discussion with the fire services centered on an unanticipated vehicle request being made by the Board of Fire Commissioners on behalf of the Hawleyville and Dodgingtown fire companies. Those companies were hoping the town could afford to underwrite the purchase of first-response vehicles — specially outfitted pickup trucks or SUVs that could respond in medical emergencies and as strategic response vehicles on calls where rolling out a pumper or other apparatus might not be necessary.

Justifying New Vehicles

Dodgingtown Fire Chief Mark White and Hawleyville Chief Joe Farrel both appeared along with Fire Commissioners Kevin Cragin and Michael Burton, pointing to either increasing medical aid calls, responding to wires and trees down, and situations that might be unsafe for larger apparatus as justification for requesting the vehicles.

It was noted that Newtown Hook & Ladder and Sandy Hook Fire & Rescue both have such vehicles that are town-owned, while Botsford’s volunteer company purchased their own. Chief White also told selectmen that his department purchased a Chevrolet Suburban that had been functioning as a first-response unit, but estimated repairs required on the truck to keep it safe were more than what the truck was worth.

Mrs Llodra said she was unhappy to hear about the request at such a late point in the budget proceedings, and noted that a town vehicle replacement program and funds from the 2012-13 proposal are being earmarked to purchase a replacement vehicle for the town fire marshal.

The first selectman said she wanted to see data to back up the request before she could support the expenditures, while acknowledging that the fire commissioners have been extremely frugal in her experience and typically do not make capital requests unless they are deemed necessary.

That prompted discussion among the selectmen who wanted to determine if there were any areas where some additional funding could come for the requested vehicles. Selectman Gaston then suggested turning over the former marshal’s Ford Expedition to one of the companies instead of trading it in.

This suggestion was met with some enthusiasm by the board, although the final fire budget motion was carried without committing funding. Instead, the selectmen sent the fire account forward with the directive to consider adding at least one vehicle if surplus funding develops over the balance of the budget process.

Finance board Chairman John Kortze said on Wednesday that his board would be ready to dig into the proposal, although he had not seen details of the selectmen’s request yet. But he said the bottom line was reasonable, and he understood that “the selectmen were doing the best they could with what they had, taking the taxpayer into consideration” at every step of the process.