On Monday, the Council considered the budgets of the Mayor’s office, the Arts and Culture Department, the Treasurer’s office, the Finance Department, the offices of the Tax Collector, the Tax Assessor and the Board of Tax Review, the Department of Emergency Management, Central Communications, the Fire Department, and the Common Council office.
Mayor Sebastian Giuliano was questioned first, and there was some expectation that the year-long battle between the Democratically-controlled Council and the mayor for control over certain financial issues would surface. Though the questions were pointed, there were no fireworks.
The mayor was quizzed about two new part-time positions for the city, a grants writer and deputy city attorney. Giuliano was unwilling to project revenues for the grants writer.
“I have no idea what kind of money is out there,” the mayor admitted. “Because we haven’t focused on it, but the Board of Education has a grants writer and it more than pays for itself.”
The deputy attorney would help ease the load for city attorney Tim Lynch in performing the day-to-day legal duties, and routine caseload.
Council member James Streeto asked the mayor if the city had ever considered a wholesale restructing of “the way we do business,” to realize savings.
The mayor said that such a restructuring has been considered in the past, and if such a restructuring should take place, the city itself was in a good position to conduct such a study, though it was unlikely one would occur.
They mayor was also questioned about his plan to reclaim control of city-side employees who work for the Board of Education. These employees, until this point, have been “employed” by the Board of Education. The employees will still be supervised by principals and BOE administration, but will be paid directly by the city. The city will also be in charge of filling open positions.
Giuliano anticipates a savings of 2%, or around $86,000 because the city would recoup dollars that would formerly be kept by the Board of Education from the salary reserve fund.
Under questioning by Council member Ron Klattenburg, Giuliano also revealed that a recent study which would have pooled City-side and Board of Education in the same health insurance pool proved unable to save any money. Current insurer for the city, Aetna, said that there would be no savings if employees were pooled. A bid from BOE insurer Cigna would have saved the city $150,000 in premiums, but that would be offset by the cost of transfer.
In response to Council member Thomas Serra, Giuliano said that no city unions had offered concessions for the budget term, and that, in fact, the city was about to open negotiations with the largest union in town. Serra requested that Giuliano raise the possibility of concessions with the unions.
“We’re one of the few communities that haven’t done this in dire times,” Serra said
Council members quizzed the Finance Director and tax departments about projected revenue sources, tax delinquency and collections as they attempted to get a handle on revenue projections from the upcoming years.
The remainder of the meeting was given over to specific question on line-item issues from the department directors summoned for the meeting.
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