MINUTES
WATERTOWN TOWN COUNCIL
BUDGET PUBLIC HEARING
WAERTOWN HIGH SCHOOL AUDITORIUM
TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2002, 7:00 P.M.
PRESENT: Elaine Adams (arrived at 7:22 p.m.)
Lee Archer
Raymond Hebert
Robert Kane
Jean King
Raymond Primini
Paul Rinaldi
Paul Valenti
Richard Wick
ABSENT: None
OTHERS PRESENT: Charles Frigon, Interim Town Manager
Frank Nardelli, Assistant Town Manager/Finance Director
1. Call Meeting to Order
Mr. Archer, Chairman, called the meeting to order at 7:15 p.m.
Mr. Archer, Chairman, read aloud the Notice of Budget Public Hearing as follows:
"NOTICE OF BUDGET PUBLIC HEARING
FISCAL YEAR 2002-2003 BUDGETS
TOWN OF WATERTOWN
CONNECTICUT
The Legal Voters of the Town of Watertown and those eligible to vote in Town Meetings are hereby WARNED AND NOTIFIED of a Budget Public Hearing to be held on Tuesday, April, 16, 2001 at 7:00 p.m. at the Watertown High School Auditorium, 324 French Street, Watertown, Connecticut to hear comments on the following Fiscal Year 2002-2003 budgets.
Watertown Town Council
Budget Public Hearing
April 16, 2002
Page 2
Town General Fund $18,792,216
School General Fund $28,002,037
General Fund Total $46,794,253
Town Road Aid $ 215,756
Water Operations $ 1,259,651
Water Capital 48,500
Water Extension $ 70,000
Sewer Operations $ 2,128,875
Sewer Capital $ 36,500
Sewer Extension $ 182,300
Water and Sewer Debt $ 172,034
Crestbrook Golf Operations $ 893,156
Crestbrook Improvement Trust $ 64,000
Local Capital Improvement $ 161,415
Copies of the proposed budgets will be available at the Budget Public Hearing and also may be picked up during business hours at the Town Hall Annex, 424 Main Street, Town Hall, 37 DeForest Street; Watertown, Library, 470 Main Street; and the Board of Education, 10 DeForest Street. Copies are also available at the Police Department, 195 French Street at any time.
Dated at Watertown, Connecticut this 4th day of April, 2002.
_____________________________
Lee Archer, Chairman
Watertown Town Council
RETURN OF WARNING
TOWN OF WATERTOWN
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
I hereby certify that on April 4, 2002 I left a duplicate copy of the attached Notice of Public Hearing, Town of Watertown, Connecticut, with Virginia Stewart, its Town Clerk.
I further certify that on April 4, 2002 I caused a copy of said Notice of Public Hearing to be published in the Town Times, which newspaper has a substantial circulation in said Town.
I further certify that on April 4, 2002 I caused to be set upon the signpost or other exterior places nearest the office of the Town Clerk and all other places and signposts designated by the Town, a written copy of said Notice of Public Hearing signed by the Town Manager of the Town of Watertown.
Watertown Town Council
Budget Public Hearing
April 16, 2002
Page 3
I further certify, that all the above acts were done at least five (5) days before the holding of the Public Hearing on April 16, 2002.
_____________________________
Charles A. Frigon
Acting Town Manager
TOWN CLERKS CERTIFICATON AS TO
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING AND RETURN OF NOTICE
I hereby certify that the attached Notice of Public Hearing and the foregoing Return of Notice of Public Hearing are duly recorded in the records of the Town of Watertown, CT and that Lee Archer was Chairman of the Watertown Town Council on the date the Notice was signed and that Charles A. Frigon was Acting Town Manager on the date the Return of Notice was signed.
_____________________________
Virginia Stewart, Town Clerk"
Mr. Archer: At this time wed like to present the Town portion of the budget. Rob Kane, who is our Finance Subcommittee Chairman, will take you through that.
Mr. Kane: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Id like to thank everyone whos come out tonight. I feel like maybe Im preaching to the choir because we have a lot of people who have a vested interest and are so involved, and we do see some participants here from the Town. Thank you very much for coming, I appreciate it. Id like to first thank everyone on the Finance Committee. I think we worked very hard, diligently and came up with a very good budget (inaudible).
The Town Budget, 2001/2002 was $18,275,320. This year 2002/2003 is $18,792,216. Thats a 2.83% increase. Thats all it is really in overall terms, the difference being $560,000.
The School Budget, which Scott Baclawski will go through shortly, has a difference of $1,077.001 a 4% increase overall. Combined, last year $45,200,356, now $46,794,253. Overall just 3.53% increase which will occur in a mill rate increase of 1.25. Total mill rate would be 25.81. If you look through public records, through the Waterbury Republican Newspaper, and probably The Town Times, sometimes they list different mill rates for surrounding towns, and we are still well within reason, and mostly lower than most towns in our area, so this is still a very fair mill rate.
Watertown Town Council
Budget Public Hearing
April 16, 2002
Page 4
What does a mill rate mean, though? What does it mean to our taxpayers? What does it mean to us? Basically property taxes are calculated by a mill rate; 1 mill equals $1.00 for each $1,000 of assessed value. A 25.81 mill rate equals $25.81 for each $1,000 of assessed value. A home, for example, assessed at $100,000 last year, 2001/2002, at a 24.56 mill rate would be taxed $2,456. This year 2002/2003 with a mill rate of 25.81 would mean $2,581 a different of $125.00, not a great deal of money to the average taxpayer. Its not going to mean a great deal to the average taxpayer. Its only an increase of $125.00. Again, I want to reiterate the fact that we have been very fair in trying to do the right thing in this budget process.
Lets look at increases in surrounding towns. We all know Waterburys situation:
Waterbury 31.0%
Seymour 12.0%
Thomaston 5.2%
New Milford 4.8%
Bethlehem 4.2%
Middlebury 3.6%.
Now Middlebury is within ours of 3.5 or so, but Middleburys mill rate is 32.05; ours is still much lower at 25.81.
What for? Why did we do this? What is the budget increase? What are the reasons? Well, inflation. Everyone knows about inflation; the cost of doing business, the cost of living our lives, the cost of maintaining what we have. Well inflation always occurs on Fixed Costs. We need some necessary Capital Expenditures, and Im going to go through those, and then of course there are some costs that have increased beyond our control, and those have taken place and Im going to talk about that in a minute.
Fixed Costs includes:
§ Salaries thats an obvious one
§ Utilities
§ Insurance
§ Maintenance of Buildings
§ Roads
§ Projects that are being done through Town
These have increased due to inflation.
Watertown Town Council
Budget Public Hearing
April 16, 2002
Page 5
What are the necessary Capital Expenditures? We have put into this budget:
§ Vehicles Ill talk more specifically about the vehicles in a couple of minutes.
§ Roads Maintaining our roads in town.
§ Machinery As possibly needed for different departments.
§ Computers We all know how rapidly these things change with technology.
What costs have come up beyond our control?
§ Rising Municipal Insurance Costs - H.D. Segur, one of the leaders in insurance for municipalities, has said this all along, insurance costs are rising for everyone, not just Watertown, everyone. Insurance costs are skyrocketing, and Ill give more specifics in a couple of minutes, but it truly is amazing.
§ Waste Collection Fees We all know that those fees are increasing, and those have been put upon us and we have to pay them.
§ State Mandated Plan of Development Every so often they mandate that we come up with a Plan of Development for the Town, where we want to be, how to set long term goals, our long range planning, and this is part of it. Its mandated by the State and we have no choice.
Lets look at these 3 items again and go through them a little more specifically.
§ Municipal Insurance Costs have increased $102,795 or 20% of the increase in this years budget is from insurance.
§ Rising Waste Collection Fees - $124,754 or 24% of the increase.
§ Plan of Development, State Mandated, $50,000 or 10% of the increase to this budget.
So weve got $272,549 in new expenses just dropped in our lap. Theres no way around this, theres just no way around this. Thats 54% of the total budget increase for this year, 2002/2003. It sounds pretty amazing, really, when you think about it, 54% of the budget is due to these 3 incremental costs that we have no control over.
Lets talk about the Town Budget minus these 3 things, and it would be just a mere 1.31% increase, so again weve been very responsible, weve taken the proper steps to make this a correct budget, and weve been very conservative, I would say.
Watertown Town Council
Budget Public Hearing
April 16, 2002
Page 6
Capital Expenditures:
§ Backhoe This is a big item, a necessary item. The backhoe that we currently have is 27 years old. Tiger Woods wasnt even born yet; hes 26. It sounds silly, I just wanted to throw a little levity in there, but really 27 years old, the backhoe. It has been rebuilt twice. It is no longer worth fixing. There comes a point of marginal returns that you have to make a decision, and you have to say well, do we keep putting good money into bad, or do we move forward and we take new steps, new technology, new equipment, more efficient, more productive, and this is the time to do it. Why do we need a backhoe? Well we have to take care of the roads, sidewalks, sewers, water, and maintenance projects. I mean its just a necessary thing to run a Town.
§ Vehicles Fire Department The pickup that they have, one of the vehicles that they have is a 1997 pickup. It is just unsuitable for what the Fire Department needs to do. We all saw in the paper today about the fire that occurred on Davis Street and how our great Fire Department responded quickly and everyone got out safely. Well this vehicle, and Ill go back to Chuck for a second, one Saturday morning he took me around and we went to visit all the departments. We went to the Fire Department and we took a look at this truck, and I notice some Volunteer Fireman in the room, you know that you have to respond quickly. This is an emergency situation. You need your equipment, you need to react, you need to get the tools for the trade, you need to get the equipment right away, you need to be able to respond, and this is just not suitable. If you saw thispickup truck, things are just deep into the back or rear of the truck, and you just cant get to it, and they need a new vehicle in order to respond to the needs of this Town.
More importantly, were not just going to throw the pickup away, were going to use it in the Park and Recreation Department, who is in need of a vehicle. It is staying within the Town, it is still going to be used. Again we need a new vehicle for the Fire Department, we need to respond quickly. We need to give them the proper tools to respond to our needs, especially weve seen after September 11th, we want to be prepared and this is part of the reason. We are still using the vehicle, were not getting rid of it, its going to stay within the Park and Rec Department.
§ The Dump Truck 17 years old. Theres probably students in this High School, obviously, that are 17 years old. Theyve been around since the dump truck. The engine is barely hanging on, and thats no exaggeration, really its not. Again, we need new equipment, we need to take on these projects, we need to be more efficient, we need to be more productive, well this is part of the reasoning. The same kind of situation as the backhoe, its important for projects that we need to carry the Town.
Watertown Town Council
Budget Public Hearing
April 16, 2002
Page 7
§ Police Vehicles We need to replace 3 Patrol Cars and 1 SUV. Now youd never know it by this Winter, because obviously we had a very mild one, but we all live in New England and we know, wait a minute, the weather will change and were going to be in store for some worse Winters, we know that. Weve had worst Winters in the past, were going to have them again. We need this SUV, the Police need to respond to an emergency situation right away. Sometimes theres not enough time to get the vehicles in the garage, get chains on them, get them back out there. We need that SUV in order to take care of these instances that come up.
The patrol cars that are out there have 80,000 miles on them. Were not talking about highway miles, were not talking about driving to Hartford and back, were talking about stop and go, were talking about quick response, fast action, fast stopping, fast taking off, we know these cars get beat on. I mean its obvious, theyre Police Cars. 80,000 miles on them plus, not to mention the time that is on the engines. Its really quite incredible. If you talk to a mechanic theyll say not only mileage, but just being on, being running, just being used, theyre just used constantly and its time to replace them.
§ Computers Did you know that the Town Clerk has no computer at all? The Town Assessors, the Clerks Office; these people need computers. We are in 2002. There are people in homes that have computers, 8 year olds using computers, surfing the Internet, getting information, and we cant do that in our own Town Clerks Office. These people do amazing work by hand; imagine how much more efficient they could be with the proper technology to lead them, all their needs. I mean we need to call on these people; well computers obviously will make them more efficient. Where would be today without computers? Its just amazing. We wouldnt have this presentation that Im showing you today.
Why do we need all this stuff? Obviously road, drainage construction, maintenance these are things that come up every year. We are constantly in need of maintaining the proper roads, the projects of the Town. Is it a responsible budget? Yes. Do we have excessive pay increases? No. Do we have unnecessary capital expenditures? No. Are the increases here equal or below the increases of surrounding communities? Definitely. Were well within our surrounding communities, we have compared to surrounding communities, we are well within reason.
Now, we have also taken into account the current economic conditions. The indicators are good. Everybody is talking positive. The dollar is over 10,000 today, but we still know its slow, we still know theres work to be done, so we have taken that into consideration and weve made this budget responsible. We have not gone overboard by any stretch of the imagination. We are taking into consideration the economic times were in right now, and thats why this is responsible.
Watertown Town Council
Budget Public Hearing
April 16, 2002
Page 8
Honestly, if I went too quick I apologize. Its really, again, I cant reiterate enough, I think a fair budget, the increases are necessary, some of them just fell in our lap and we need to take care of them, but its a fair budget and I think all of you should be in favor of it. This is what we need to do to keep the Town going forward. Any questions? Seeing none, thank you.
Thats my part of the presentation. The Board of Ed has their presentation, and Scott Baclawski, the Chairman of their Finance Committee for the Board of Education, will come up now and give the presentation on the schools side.
Mr. Baclawski: Good evening, everyone. My name is Scott Baclawski and Im the Chairman of the Budget Committee for the Board of Education. Im here tonight just to briefly explain to you what the Board of Education is looking for in this current budget for the year coming before us. Its difficult for me to really sit here and explain to you everything about the budget in detail, but I will throw out some quick numbers to you just to give you a better understanding of what were looking at.
Same as on the Towns side, the Board of Educations side has 96.3% of its overall budget which goes to whats called Fixed and Mandated Costs. That comes to a total cost of $26,967,136. So thats a vast majority of our budget, what is called Fixed and Mandated Costs. Some of those costs are basically:
§ Certified Salaries Teachers
§ None-Certified Salaries Maintenance Staff, Non-Certified Teachers, Paraprofes-sionals, etc.
§ Tutoring Salaries
§ Substitute Salaries
§ Coaches Salaries
§ Employee Benefits
§ Professional and Technical Services
§ Legal Counsel
§ In-Service Training
§ Professional Service
§ Utilities
§ Leases and Rentals
§ Pupil Transportation
§ Property Insurance
§ Liability Insurance
§ Telephones
§ Tuition
§ Supplies
§ Heat
§ Bonding
§ Vehicles leases
Watertown Town Council
Budget Public Hearing
April 16, 2002
Page 9
That comes to 96.3% and those are costs that we really dont have control over. Those are costs that we have on a year to year basis.
The things were asking for which are outside of those costs, what wed consider Other Than Fixed and Mandated Costs, and that comes to a total this year of 3.7% of our request, or $1,034,901. Of those costs, we have in the budget proposal for:
§ New staffing at the High School, which is 4 different teachers, which Ill get to
§ Construction and Maintenance increases for different projects were looking to do
§ Field and Athletic Trips
§ Travel and Conferences
§ New Textbooks and Workbooks
§ Libraries and Periodicals
§ New Equipment
§ Vehicle
§ Athletic Equipment
Just so I can give you a quick rundown here of what were going to be paying out is a sum total:
Certified Salaries $14,990,318 (fixed costs that doesnt change year to year except for negotiated salaries, and the negotiated increases in those salaries through contracts)
Non-Certified Salaries $ 3,961,584
Tutoring Salaries $ 17,000
Substitute Salaries $ 158,600
Employee Benefits $ 3,654,109 (costs that we dont have control over; thats whats given to us by our insurance carrier and typically thats a cost that goes up year to year on an annual basis)
Utilities $ 338,716
Liability Insurance $ 178,400 (is going up this year)
Property Insurance $ 94,000 (is going up this year)
Of these costs, those are the Fixed and Mandated Costs that were looking at.
The New Costs that were looking at, give you a quick rundown:
§ 4 New Teachers at Watertown High School. The reason for this is were going to be seeing an increases in our student population size there, along with the implementation of some new curriculum at the High School. The 4 new teaching positions that we are requesting:
Watertown Town Council
Budget Public Hearing
April 16, 2002
Page 10
· 1 Social Studies Teacher
· 1 Math Teacher
· 1 World Language Teacher
· 1 English Teacher
Now although that seems like a lot for one year, we are anticipating an increase in student population size at the High School and well be implementing some new curriculum up there, so we want to make sure that we have enough staff at the High School to give every student there their proper due and their proper request for different curriculums that they would like to undertake. Those 4 new positions alone are a requested increase of $138,380.
§ Non-Certified The Board of Education is requesting the implementation or the addition of 2 new Custodians.
· 1 Floater Custodian so that we have somebody available to help out when a custodian is out sick, or for or any other reason, we can use this custodian to plug into that position and that way there we can eliminate the majority of our overtime costs in that area.
· 1 General Maintenance and Boiler Custodian We have several schools which are aging and our boiler maintenance program has sort of fallen behind, so wed like to get somebody here to get us back up to date with our boiler maintenance and keep these systems up and running properly so we dont have problems down the road.
§ Construction Projects - Probably the largest portion of our request for this current budget year, the Board of Education is requesting several different things to help us with the upkeep of our schools and improvements in several of the school areas:
· $28,500 Paving Project at Heminway Park School. The lower lot is utilized by the busses and the students go there to get the busses. That lot has become aged and a lot of the pavement has gotten ripped up over the years so wed like to pave it and make it a safer pupil transportation area.
§ $15,000 Paving Project at Watertown High School. In front of the building where the concrete sidewalk meets the concrete curbing, theres been some settlement in there in that area and wed like to fix that to make it a better and safer area for students who utilize that area to catch busses as well.
Watertown Town Council
Budget Public Hearing
April 16, 2002
Page 11
· $ 4,500 Stage Lighting Controls at Watertown High School. They are very old and antiquated and the Board of Education feels it is a safety issue. Wed like get those replaced and get a circuit board in there which is safer for the students who utilize the stage for different events.
· $65,000 New Intercom System at Watertown High School. The current intercom system has been working on an intermittent basis in some areas, and we feel its a safety issue and its important to get the intercom up to date as we have with the other schools.
Thats basically what were looking for in this current budget. We are not looking for anything extraordinary. Were just looking to update a lot of the different things that we use on a day in and day out basis. We really feel that, the same as the Towns side, that our request is feasible and its definitely fair. We didnt go overboard by any means. We only put in the things we really felt were needed in a way that we can continue to progress with the schools and the buildings, and make sure that everything is done in an orderly fashion and were able to get things done annually. Id be happy to answer any questions, if anyone has any. Thank you very much.
Mr. Archer: Are there any questions?
3. Adjournment
Mr. Archer Closed the Public Hearing at 7:45 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Lee Archer, Chairman
Watertown Town Council
Approved: _______________________________
Lynn M. LaForme, Clerk |