Hamden Mayor Requests Furlough Days

With around $700,000 left to gain in concessions from town employees before the fiscal year closes out on June 30, Hamden Mayor Curt Leng is looking beyond the unions for savings.

In a memo issued this week, Leng asked his department heads and other non-union staff to take three furlough days in order to save the town $25,000 and help it close out the current budget without a deficit. In the memo, Leng asked his department heads to be considerate of the givebacks that their unionized staff have agreed to.

“While I cannot compel you to give back 3 furlough days,” Leng wrote, ​“my expectation would be that you give serious consideration to demonstrating your understanding of the financial challenges we face and your leadership toward addressing it in solidarity with union staff members being asked to give back.”

According to the memo, Leng will also take three unpaid days off himself before the closeout of the budget.

“It is not lost on me that many of you have not received a raise in one or more years,” the letter continued. ​“Nevertheless, I trust that you understand the importance of demonstrating all staff working together to help ensure that layoffs are not necessary.”

The bottom of the memo includes a line for the employee to sign, ​“as an act of solidarity with my staff and the Administration.”

Town Planner Dan Kops told the Independent that he believes the last time he and other department heads got a raise was two years ago. He said that he plans to comply with the mayor’s request for the furlough days.

His request follows a series of negotiations with unions to give back similar savings. The 2018 – 2019 budget included a line item for an anticipated $1.5 million in savings from union concessions. The fire union was the first to come to the table. In June 2018, the Legislative Council accepted a concessions package that saved the town around $600,000 in the current fiscal year through reductions in holiday pay, wage increase deferments, and other givebacks.

Next was the supervisor’s union, which negotiated a package in February that will save the town around $43,000 before June 30. Those savings came from furlough days, wage increase deferments, and the elimination of certain positions.

According to Leng, the total savings this year from those who packages plus other non-union savings have totaled around $800,000.

The police union is close to voting on a concessions package that Police Union President Kevin Samperi said could save the town between half a million and $1 million in the next two years, half of it in the current fiscal year. Leng said that he is also in negotiations with two other unions, but could not make public which ones.

Last year, he originally proposed $1.2 million in union concessions, though the council approved $1.5 million. He said that between the concessions already achieved and those that he anticipates, the town should be able to come close to the $1.2 million in savings that he originally asked for.