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B Y S TEVE B IGHAM

What does the town of Newtown need from its elected officials - micro- or

macro-management?

It's an age-old argument between a community's executive board and finance

board, First Selectman Bob Cascella points out,.

Wednesday night, Mr Cascella proposed a "house-cleaning" of the annual budget

process to an ad hoc committee of the Legislative Council. He's looking to

consolidate the annual budget by creating less spending categories.

For example, the first selectman wants to lump all of the town's gas and oil

accounts into one centralized account in the Public Works Department, instead

of having them spread out over police, fire, etc.

He also pointed out that Human Services oversees Social Services, but each has

its own category in the budget.

Concerned that the council could lose some of its authority in the annual

budget procedure, members of the ad hoc committee did not seem keen on the

idea, although most agreed that some house cleaning does need to be done.

Committee member Joe Mahoney said he fears that if the Legislative Council

only has a say over the bottom-line figure, it would give too much authority

to the Board of Selectmen.

"Are we going to micro-manage or go in the opposite direction and not manage

at all?" asked Melissa Pilchard, another committee member.

She remembers years when the town had no money.

"Back then, we had to look at every single number," she said. "Bob hasn't

experienced that."

Mrs Pilchard also believes a day will soon come when there will not be a Board

of Selectmen, just one person.

Committee member Pierre Rochman sees it differently. He said the council

should be able to make changes in individual costs.

"Let the manager manage that department. That's my idea of micro-management,"

he said.

In the end, the consensus of the ad hoc committee was that the budget process

needs to fall somewhere in between micro- and macro-management.

The issue must go before the entire Legislative Council before any decision

can be made, according to Mr Cascella.