Hamden will get a head start on bolstering summer programming this year with the help of a two-part job reorganization, according to the town administration.
On Monday night the Legislative Council approved a proposal put forth by Mayor Lauren Garrett to fund two arts-related government jobs despite controversy over budgetary procedure.
Both jobs are spins on pre-existing positions. The new titles include an arts, culture, recreation and wellness director, with an annual salary of $100,000, and a digital media marketing coordinator, $65,000. Monday night’s vote was separate from deliberations on the proposed budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1.
Garrett pitched the plan to transfer money between departments before the end of the fiscal year to fund the positions as a cost cutting measure — that was also necessary in expanding public programming.
That’s because when Garrett first came into office last November, she fired the town’s community development manager, who was paid $110,000, and reworked the job description to include fewer projects and more supervisory capabilities. She also chose to lower pay for a current job position — the arts and marketing manager — by $15,000, and move the job from the arts into the economic development department. By offloading several responsibilities from the digital media marketing coordinator onto the arts, culture, recreation and wellness director, Garrett was able to justify salary decreases for both jobs.
Read more about the positions, and their purposes as described by Garrett, here.
“These positions are crucial to having a successful summer season,” Chief of Staff Sean Grace told the council on Monday. “Actual programming starts in earnest in a couple of weeks.”
The decision to move ahead with the establishment of additional government jobs was a controversial one within the council.
Multiple council members voted against transferring the funds, asserting that doing so before the town’s budget deliberations for the coming year were finalized posed a procedural disruption.
“I’m frustrated with the process,” Councilman Justin Farmer said. “We did not follow a process.”
“I was on the committee that voted in favor of moving this forward because I thought it was important for it to go to the council as a whole,” Councilwoman Kristin Zaehringer said. “But I do think it’s premature,” she said, to approve the positions before the council had come to a final decision on government restructurings and hirings for fiscal year ‘23.
Others saw the new titles as another financial liability.
“We’ll save money, but it’s only this year. What about future years?” asked Councilwoman Betty Wetmore, who advocated for keeping with Garrett’s original cuts.
“We’re not in the position to consider any positions at this point,” representative Lesely DeNardis said. “I’m not convinced this organizational structure would serve us any better than the previous one,” she added. The new arts director’s job description, she said, sounded like added and unnecessary bureaucracy.
Plus, she argued, “there’s no specific programming, outcomes or deliverables” that have yet to be attached to either title.
But others supported Garrett’s plan.
“This weekend I was at ‘Amplify the Arts,’” Council President Dominique Baez shared, complimenting the work of the arts and marketing manager who had helped organize and publicize the all-weekend event. She said she believed the positions would help “continue the very important mission to better advertise and brand our town.”
“I’m looking forward to a summer of going out, buying earrings, and letting my daughter and niece go out and see fashion shows,” Baez asserted with a smile.