Marcia Chambers Photo
(News analysis) The six-member Board of Finance (BOF) (pictured), one of the town’s most prestigious and influential boards, has long been viewed as an apolitical board even though it is comprised of three appointed Democrats and three appointed Republicans.
Not anymore.
The main order of business at the BOF’s final hearing Monday night was the board’s adoption of a $96.6 million budget, down by $1.32 million from the estimated town and school budgets but still leaving taxpayers with a possible 3.18 percent hike. The BOF also reduced the Board of Education’s (BOE) proposed $50.8 million budget from a proposed 2.97 percent increase to a 2.5 percent increase.
The BOF has now sent the 2012 – 13 budget to the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) which may reduce it even more at its May meeting. Afterward, the BOF will set the mill rate for town residents.
Besides the budget, the most revealing part of the process was the public transformation of the Republican members of the BOF, a board that until Monday night had not voted along party lines. The Monday meeting was a culmination of a week of hearings where town and education officials aired their estimated budget before the BOF.
For the first time in recent memory, two old-line moderate Republicans, Charlie Shelton, Jr. and Kenneth Kaminsky, longtime members of the BOF, seemed to be moving toward a new Republican playbook as they joined Jennifer Aniskovich, a Republican appointee to the board last year, in deciding certain issues. Kaminsky seemed more uncomfortable in his new role than did Shelton. When a tie occurs,is up to the first selectman, an ex-officio member of the board, to cast the deciding vote.
At the end of the meeting BOF chair Joseph Mooney, a member since 1996, thanked everyone on his board “for working together as much as we can. We have some differences of opinion on the board,” he noted. But he said “deep down we want the best for Branford.”
Last year, Aniskovich, citing the economic climate, voted against each town department’s budget, including police and fire. She was more generous when it came to the school budget. In 2011 Shelton and Kaminisky did not join her when she rejected town items. They voted with the democrats. This year they voted with her on some issues, but not all.
Salary Raises for Department Heads and Others
The first disagreement occurred over the issue of raises for town department heads and others. In the last two years the town’s top employees received a 2 percent increase. This year the proposed town budget gave them 2.9 percent increase.
The increase did not sit well with Aniskovich. She told the hearing that given the state of the economy the raises should be 2 percent, a figure that was apparently put forth at a meeting she described as private. The meeting she referred to reportedly took place last Thursday night after a budget hearing and included the three Republican BOF members and top leaders in the Republican party. Arriving at a consensus was important because the next day was the regularly scheduled Friday Town Hall meeting when Shelton, who has the longest tenure on the board and Mooney, met with First Selectman Unk DaRos and James Finch, the finance director, at Town Hall. The Friday meeting is when the real crunching of numbers begins. It culminates with the final Monday budget announcement.
Aniskovich made a motion to amend the number to a 2 percent increase. Shelton now said that he understood that these town employees, many of whom are department heads, were not unionized. “But these are difficult, economic times,” he said, adding 2 percent would work better than 2.9 percent.
Victor Cassella, Jr., a member of the BOF and the chair of the Democratic Town Committee, said: “These are competitive jobs. We could lose them to other communities.” He proposed the compromise that DaRos sought at the Friday meeting — a 2.5 percent increase.
A vote was taken. The Republicans held out for 2.00 percent; the Democrats for 2.5 percent. Mooney turned to the first selectman who was seated on the side. “We are even,” he said. DaRos broke the tie, rejecting Aniskovich’s amendment.
DaRos then cited the number of town employees who fell into different salary categories ranging from $31,000 a year to $112,000 a year. “These are the people that are easiest to pick on,” he said because unlike other town employees they are not unionized. If they were, their raises would be automatic and binding by contract. “So I think 2.5 percent is a fair compromise on this,” DaRos said as he cast the deciding vote. Aniskovich’s amendment was defeated 4 – 3.
DaRos did not break the tie on his own salary raise. His $97,375 a year salary is expected to go up by 1.6 percent or $1,564. The RTM reviews and sets the salaries of the first selectmen, the two other selectmen and other elected officials,including town clerk and tax collector.
Town’s Legal Budget
The next topic of interest to Aniskovich was the legal budget, one of her pet peeves. She said the town pays an “exorbitant” amount of money for legal fees with “no checks and balances.” A lawyer herself, she alleged that the town’s law firm is used at the whim of the first selectman, even though the overwhelming majority of lawsuits are filed by others against the town.
Had she been able to muster her Republican colleagues, the vote might have been tied again because she wanted a majority of the legal budget moved to contingency, a move that would have required both BOF and RTM approval of legal expenses each time a bill was presented. But she garnered only one Republican colleague. The legal budget was approved 4 – 2. After she lost, she told those RTM members present in the room to make sure to look at the legal budget when it comes their way.
Nor did her Republican counterparts help her out when she asked that $17,500 be restored to Human Services for a full-time compliance officer. “It is a well run department. I think we should support it. I put that in the form of a motion,” she said.
Silence. No second for her motion came from anyone on the board. She seemed surprised.
When it came to the Blackstone Memorial Library, where she once served as a board member, Aniskovich noted that the library had not used any of its $2 million endowment. “I am a little concerned. I think the RTM should look at this.”
Cassella noted that the funds she was describing might well be used. “They haven’t used it yet but may toward the end of the year,” he said.
Soundproofing Walsh Intermediate School
By far the most convoluted development concerned sound proofing for Walsh, which Aniskovich announced at last week’s public hearing she wanted done by the start of the school year. The problem is that there is not yet a line item in the BOE’s capital budget for the Walsh soundproofing.
Members of the Board of Education, the superintendent of schools, his staff and many parents interested in the Walsh issue attended the BOF meeting early Monday night to learn how their proposed budgets fared before the BOF. Aniskovich did not raise the Walsh issue when the BOE’s capital budget, where it belongs, was discussed.
Instead she sought to save $200,000 for the project in the town’s contingency budget, despite the fact that there was no line item and that Mooney and Superintendent of Schools Hamlet Hernandez had agreed at a meeting last week that the school board would deliver the figures necessary for the Walsh sound proofing to the BOF at its April meeting. Click here to read an early story.
Ignoring these agreements, Aniskovich asked that the contingency include $200,000 for Walsh soundproofing in case the funds are needed. This time she won the backing of Kaminsky and Shelton. But the three democrats voted against it. Mooney reminded the group that he had asked the BOE to come back to the BOF in April with figures.
“What if they come back to us and there is no money,” Aniskovich asked.
It was up to DaRos to break the tie. He did, saying he was against using contingency funds for the Walsh project. “Why not issue this is as debt?” he asked.
Mooney said that was what “we asked them do,” a reference to his discussion with Hamlet Hernandez, the school superintendent. Ankisovich’s amendment was rejected. DaRos said to the board that contingency was part of the operating budget and this was not the way to fund it. It should be bonded, he said. By law, the town has no say at all in setting up BOE priorities and budgets.
So while the Aniskovich effort to use contingency funds for Walsh was defeated, the Walsh soundproofing project was not. It will be back next month before the BOF, presumably as part of the BOE capital budget, which is where it belongs.
Indeed Hernandez told parents last night that he looking into the possibility of having Walsh inspected by an acoustic engineering firm that solved a similar problem at a Massachusetts middle school. He said the firm would file a report after taking acoustic readings and looking at other conditions in the school. Hernandez said it would then be possible to put out requests for proposals to determine the costs involved in correcting the problems at Walsh. That information would be presented to the BOF.
Before the BOS ended, DaRos commended the work of his staff in putting together the budget, which started in November.
He praised the work of the BOF. “You have done a remarkable job considering the last four years and what you went through with the economy. We thank you.”
Kicking the Budget Can Down the Road
But he was not happy with some of the cuts the BOF made.
One item cut was a public works department request for $200,000 that the town needs to repave roads. DaRos told the Eagle this item had to be restored. The BOF also removed a police car needed by the cops and picked away at other items the town needs to be strong, DaRos said.
When all was said and done, DaRos described the winnowing process the BOF used as “kicking the can down the road,” meaning the BOF was delaying decisions it should make itself or expecting another board, say the RTM, to handle it later. DaRos told the Eagle afterward that he planned to ask the RTM to restore several important infrastructure items.
“Our product is the one that’s in demand,” he said of the town and its services. Putting off the paving of roads and other infrastructure needs won’t keep the town competitive he added.
Nor were education officials happy when they learned that 45 percent of their proposed technology budget had been cut. They too wanted to find a way to kick their technology can down the road.
Carrano and Hernandez discussed the budget cuts made by the BOF during a meeting of the Parent Advisory Committee last night.
Carrano said the most significant loss is the 45 percent cut in the capital budget for technology.
“That’s not a step forward,” Hernandez said. “That’s stopping us in our tracks.”
The BOF meeting ended after Finance Director Jim Finch produced a printed version of the latest budget. This is where matters stood: The mill rate, upon which local taxes are based, was reduced from a proposed 4.78 percent increase coming in the door to a new 2.93 percent figure . It could come in lower after the RTM acts in May.
Diana Stricker contributed reporting to this story.
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