Town Office Building December 10, 2012
Lower Level Conference Room 5:30 P.M.
First Selectman Mailhos called the meeting to order at 5:35 P.M. with Selectmen Littell & Blessington, Business Manager, Donna Latincsics and Public Works Director, Lynn Nicholls.
Donna presented draft #2 of the budget with the following additions:
Union salaries have been added at a 2% increase
Health insurance has been added at 12% (based on BOE assumption; also an addition of change in status)
Dental added at 10% increase
Oil is locked in at $3.08 per gallon
Diesel is locked in at $3.16 per gallon
Electricity price based on 8.5 cents per KwH
Public Works and Transfer Station have also been submitted.
First Selectman Mailhos stated that Donna had sent her an email with an analysis of the past five years. The analisys shows the current budget is almost $200,000 less than 2008; and there was not a year that they did not return a substantial amount of money. She noted that most of the returns were from cutting out CIP requests. She added that she does not know where else to cut.
Lynn added that her budget was impacted from many storms throughout the past few years, and the FEMA reimbursements are not reflected in that money either.
Donna stated that we will see a few changes in salaries, such as the change in the driver position (which clarifies the difference between Transfer Station positions and Laborer position, resulting in a pay grade change); that result looks as if there is a 10% increase; however it is separated out between two positions. The change was needed to clearly define the roles of the positions, and avoid grievances. First Selectman Mailhos added that next year will be the first year that employees will begin to pay for their deductibles and premium shares; however we will not know the exact savings until the costs have been incurred.
First Selectman Mailhos stated that she has sent a letter to both Fire Departments, requesting to see their budgets prior to submittal to BOF. The meeting will be held on January 14th and she stated that the BOS will be looking to see how both departments can work together to find savings and deficiencies.
Selectman Blessington asked Donna for a report of how much we have paid the Town Engineer in the past five years.
First Selectman Mailhos presented the 5 year analysis which Donna created. She stated that she would like to incorporate the analysis into this year’s budget requests. She gave an example that the Fire Departments are spending more than back in 2008; while the Public Works and Selectmen’s budgets have been cut with the Selectmen returning between $20,000 and $50,000 each of those years, with lower budgets each year. The BOE has a similar story. We have all been consistently cutting.
Lynn stated that she feels that none of the departments have gone overboard with spending. Selectman Littell asked where else do you cut when it is already cut to the bare bone. It is hard to find savings.
First Selectman Mailhos stated that she heard it might be a favorable year for us with Region 19. Selectman Littell reminded her that the BOF discussed to not taking the favorable cut at one of the last BOF budget meetings, but to rather keep the spending at a level for three years. He then stated that he likes the idea behind it, but not sure how they are going to handle it.
First Selectman Mailhos also added that the rumor is that Governor Malloy will propose to cut to all Town funded programs (except for Education) by 5% in the next budget.
Discussion was held on the Land Use Department’s request to fill the assistant Zoning Agent position. First Selectman Mailhos would like to see the job description changed to focus more on helping new business and new construction applicants as well as performing enforcement. Selectman Blessington added that we see the need for a new person down there, but we want someone who will be helpful in that position, rather than saying no to everything.
Discussion was held on reviewing other budgets that are rolled into the Selectmen’s budget. First Selectman Mailhos stated that she will contact the Department Heads of Land Use, Animal Control, Parks and Recreation as well as WYFSS to request a review of their budgets prior to submittal to BOF.
First Selectman Mailhos asked Donna to add a 2% increase for non-union employees to the budget. Selectman Blessington suggested including an increase to the Board of Selectmen. He added that at some point we will need to raise the First Selectman’s salary to what it should be paid; especially since this is now a full time job. Selectman Littell added that Superintendent Harding has gone to the BOF on this topic twice, and they have not done anything about it.
Next meeting will be Monday, December 17, 2012 at 5:30 P.M.
Meeting was adjourned at 6:34 P.M.
Respectfully submitted,
Robin Campbell
Robin Campbell
Administrative Assistant
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