TOWN OF GRANBY
BOARD OF FINANCE
MINUTES OF PUBLIC HEARING
APRIL 13, 2009
PRESENT: Michael Guarco, Chairman; Gordon Bischoff, Francis Brady, B. Scott Kuhnly, Frederick Moffa, OD; and Al Wilke
Also present: John E. Adams, First Selectman; J. Cal Heminway, Board of Education Chairman; William F. Smith, Jr., Town Manager; and Alan Addley, Superintendent of Schools
Board of Finance Chairman Guarco confirmed a quorum and called the public hearing to order at 7:00 p.m. He opened the hearing by stating that the public hearing, according to Town Charter, is held on the second Monday in April to present the budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year and acknowledged members of his Board.
Chairman Guarco commented in reviewing the budget, the Board felt that operations for both boards could not be more than 2% and less than a 2% increase for the mill rate could position the town for sustaining services.
Chairman Guarco gave an overview of the anticipated revenues and expenditures for Municipal, Education, and Debt Service for fiscal year 2009-2010. The total for the town budget is $40,874,450. The revenues are made up of 7.2% local revenue and fund transfers, 17.9% intergovernmental revenues, 73.5% property tax levy, and 1.4% other property tax. The expenditures are made up of 65.9% education and 34.1% municipal services. He indicated the proposed town and school budgets are a 2% increase in the total budget, representing Special Education at .50%, Debt Services at .31%, and the operations budgets with small capital at 1.19%.
The FY10 property tax levy is $30,050,285, an increase of 1.2% over last year’s property tax levy. The grand list growth decreased by .37%. The proposed mill rate change increase is 1.57% for a proposed mill rate of 29.81.
Board of Education Chairman Cal Heminway presented their budget and highlighted FY 2010 objectives as follows:
Continue to improve the “Product”
Answer Taxpayer Demands for Efficiencies & Tax Savings
Protect Granby’s 60 Year Investment in Curriculum, Educational Programs, and Infrastructure.
Maximize Availability and Use of Any Extraordinary Federal and/or State Funding
Multi-year Context
Chairman Heminway spoke about state grants and federal stimulus dollars. He indicated the grants may provide some mandate relief and they are looking into the federal stimulus dollars to see if Granby would be eligible. He also indicated that the federal stimulus dollars are helping at the state level to offset some grants.
Chairman Heminway showed the proposed operating budget amount at $26,944,594, an increase of $694,590 from last year and making use of the Excess Cost Grant Credit for Special Education in the amount of $199,194, results in a net increase of 1.9% for the operating budget.
Chairman Heminway spoke on personnel changes. The school’s refocus, reorganization and redeployment of administrative and certified teaching positions result in a net 0.5 FTE reduction in administrative staff and a net 1.7 FTE reduction in teachers. The reorganization includes the creation of two administrative positions, Director of Secondary Education and the Director of Elementary Education. He also indicated the positions not being filled were:
Administrative: The Director of Curriculum, the Supervisor of Special Services, the half-time middle school assistant principal.
Teaching: A secondary level reading consultant, a second grade classroom teacher, a fifth grade teacher, and one section of kindergarten.
Non Certified: Two part-time secretarial and seven full-time teaching assistant positions have also been eliminated. Each of these cuts will negatively impact our educational program.
He then spoke about the small capital plan as being:
Transportation
Existing Equipment Leases $164,966
New Commitments $28,872
Building Maintenance $88,296
Furniture & Equipment $12,500
Technology
Existing Equipment Leases $207,023
New Commitments $28,343
Total $530,000
Chairman Heminway identified the Board of Education operating appropriation request at $26,944,594, Capital Equipment/Improvement Fund request at $530,000, and the Education Quality and Diversity Fund request at $376,240.
First Selectman Adams presented the Selectmen’s Budget. He thanked the Board of Selectmen, Town Manager Smith, Mrs. Scibelli, Administration Finance Officer, and Department Heads.
Some of Granby’s accomplishments for fiscal year 2009 were
- Several grants have been awarded for our senior center.
- Senior Van Replacement grant – the van was purchased from state funds and gifts from the Granby Community Fund and the Lions Club.
- CT DOT Transportation grant – supports the operation of two senior vans to transport seniors and disabled residents for medical and personal care appointments, grocery shopping, senior center programs, trips, and events. In FY 2007-08 the van service provided over 7,400 trips to 182 unduplicated riders.
- Tri-town Cable TV grant – East Granby, Granby and Hartland partnered and was awarded the Public, Education, and Governmental Programming and Education Technology Investment Account (PEGPETIA) grant.
- Emergency Management Performance grant – This funding will assist our community in maintaining a local emergency management program.
- Retro lighting for Town Hall and Public Works buildings and HVAC efficiency improvements for Town Hall. Significant improvements were made to both buildings.
- Go Green Community goal by 2010 will be met. Granby has signed onto a plan to improve energy conservation and diminish the towns Carbon Footprint, which will be met starting December 2009.
- Website redesigned to ensure more user friendly information. Feedback on the redesign, from the residents, is welcomed.
Selectman Adams spoke about matters that are in process for this year and next.
The implementation of a new residential curbside trash and recycling collection using “Single-stream recycling” is planned to begin July 1st. This new system will create an initial cost savings of over $50,000 and generate a greater awareness of what can and should be recycled. As the state’s landfills begin to close, it is important to be proactive in reducing the waste stream we generate.
Hartford Foundation for Public Giving grant for Cossitt Library improvements. The Fredrick H. Cossitt Library branch, located in North Granby, is a historic structure that requires modifications and repairs to make it more usable to residents and visitors alike. The town wishes to reinforce the building's first floor and reconstruct the ground floor entrance to allow easier access.
Silver Street Bridge replacement plans continue, estimating the construction season in 2010 or 2011.
First Selectman Adams touched on regional shared services as an opportunity for Granby to perform services better or at lower costs if we teamed with one or more of our neighboring towns. He indicated we have created more than 75 shared services opportunities with area towns which ranks Granby 15th of the 169 towns and cities in Connecticut in regional sharing opportunities. Some opportunities include: regional dispatch services with Hartland and East Granby; Building inspection services with Hartland, Suffield, Simsbury and East Granby; Youth counselor with East Granby; nine towns in the Farmington Valley Health District; Mutual Aid and non-emergency agreements with surrounding towns in Connecticut plus Southwick and Granville, MA; Waste Water Treatment arrangement with Simsbury; Purchasing through Capital Region
Counsel of Governments, etc.
First Selectman Adams also indicated Granby looks within its borders to determine what we can do better, faster and/or cheaper as a local shared service. The Department of Public Works (DPW) now plows the school driveways and parking lots. This summer, the DPW will be mowing the playing fields at the high school. The town and Board of Education have jointly purchased new financial software. This software limits data entry and provides for real time reconciliation and financial reporting.
He indicated the 2009-10 budget request is $40,874,450, of which $13,929,856 is the municipal service budget including new debt service increases amounting to $124,710. The municipal expenditures are General Government Departmental - $8,841,920, Capital Budget - $765,000, Economic Development Funds - $10,000, and Debt Service - $4,312,936. This proposed municipal budget increases by 0.8% from last year. There are no salary increases except for steps if appropriate. There has been a pick-up in grant fall off amounting to $7,200 in Senior Services. The General Fund contribution to the Capital Equipment/Improvement Allotment decreased by $179,000. The Economic Development Funds decreased from $12,500 to $10,000 which supports website activity and continued support to the Metro Hartford Growth Council. The Debt Service increase of $124,710 reflects our new obligations to pay school building construction and town project activity previously approved by the town. However, the
debt service will start to decrease next year by $276,724.
First Selectman Adams indicated the total operations increase is $163,084. He then mentioned that the town’s labor agreements end with our three major unions this year. Town Manager Smith has lead negotiating efforts for the town and tentative agreements with two of the unions, GMEA representing certain town hall and DPW management staff and the IPBO representing our police officers, to extend our current agreements for one year with no cost of living increase. These tentative agreements must be ratified by the unions and the Board of Selectmen prior to being finalized.
The total operations increase includes:
Salary Reserves of $45,000
Fringe Benefit increase of $106,567
The gross increase in the Health Plan amounted to $90,367. Employee contributions and plan design changes continue to reduce this amount.
The Insurance amount of $8,832 reflects workers compensation increases.
Energy Costs amount to $3,000 for a modest increase in electricity. Salt is increased by $15,000.
Solid Waste Collection cost savings of $53,238 by introducing a new residential curbside trash and recycling collection.
First Selectman Adams explained the slide “How To Fund the Budget Request”. The budget is funded from property taxes with about 75% of the total amount - $30,050,285 an increase of $357,252 over last year, intergovernmental revenues (state grants) from the State of Connecticut increased by $148,507 from last year $7,288,825 (2.1%), local revenues from fees for services, permits, rents, and interest from short term investments amount to approximately $789,340 (2.8%), and lastly fund transfers in the amount of $2,161,000 (16.3%) for use of General Fund Balance.
He stated that projects on hold are Salmon Brook Park pond house replacement, capital needs at Holcomb Farm, town and school storage and wash-bay facilities, municipal and high school track and fields, and the Granby Public Library expansion.
In summary, First Selectman Adams mentioned town employee concessions have provided meaningful budgetary controls, long-range planning equals stability as modeled by Granby’s financial modeling, municipal services increased by 1.88% from last year budget, debt service requirements is an increase of $124,710 to the budget, and the budget is responsive to the needs of the community in these difficult economic times.
PUBLIC INPUT 2009
There were several comments from residents, which were very sensitive to the economic climate. Comments from the public expressed that a zero percentage increase is what they wanted to see and they are not in support of the budget or, the budget is acceptable and they will support it. The public responded in a positive manner when it was mentioned that two unions from the town side are in the process of ratifying their agreements to extend the existing contract one year with no annual increase in salaries. Other positive and negative comments were:
Wanting to see concessions made on employee contracts from the school’s budget, in particular the teachers. The Board of Education budget should be reduced.
Some residents expressed dissatisfaction with reducing the barrel size of trash to 65-gallons for the implementation of a new single-stream recycling collection program.
Why was Conference and Travel account in the school budget not cut completely or reduced more.
A good education school helps keep property values up.
Time to look at making sidewalks for school kids to use instead of busses.
Does not want to see cuts made in teacher assistants or specialists because they are very helpful in the classroom. Supports the education budget.
Suggested the pay to play fees from the school budget be increased.
Several Board Chairmen responded to the above comments.
ADJOURNMENT
After all public input was heard, Chairman Guarco adjourned the public hearing at 10:05 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Patricia I. Chieski
Recording Secretary
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