New Haven Independent

At a special meeting Tuesday evening in City Hall, aldermen approved a $464 million budget for FY09-10, including $173 million for the schools. The budget keeps the tax rate even at 42.21 mills, giving everyone an identical tax bill to the current year’s.

Mayor John DeStefano’s proposal, which represents a 1.8 percent increase in spending over the fiscal year that ends June 30, met unanimous approval by the aldermanic Finance Committee on May 7. It was an unusual year of harmony for a budget process that in the past has spelled hours of aldermanic wrangling and citizen protests.

This year, fireworks came at the end, to the surprise of many, including the alderwoman of the affected neighborhood.

The fireworks erupted around the sole amendment made to the mayor’s budget — a proposal to take $115,000 from a Tweed-New Haven Airport capital improvement budget and use it to clean up Beaver Pond Park and fix city tennis courts. Aldermen Moti Sandman and Roland Lemar pitched the idea the Finance Committee on May 7 and gained approval: Click here to read about it.

Tuesday night, the aldermen proposed to add more money for tennis-court improvements through two new funding sources: a pot of $150,000 intended for facility upgrades in the engineering department — and $1 million that was slated for redeveloping the West Rock neighborhood. They proposed taking $50,000 from each pot.

Surprise!

West Rock Alderwoman Michelle Edmonds-Sepulveda learned the news on the morning of the vote.

The last-minute maneuver sent ripples of dissent across the board.

Dwight Alderwoman Gina Calder stood up on the floor of the Aldermanic Chambers to ask whether her colleague Edmonds-Sepulveda was consulted on a plan affecting her own neighborhood.

Hill Alderwoman Jackie James-Evans seconded that concern. She asked how any alderman could propose taking money out of another alderman’s ward without paying the courtesy of consultation.

“It’s rudeness,” she said.

She later elaborated that it was “disrespectful” and presumptuous to go through with a proposal without giving an alderwoman the chance to make sure her constituents were OK with it.

“They have this idea like they can do what they want to do and everyone else is supposed to do what they want,” she said, adding that the two aldermen had themselves spoken against last-minute proposals.

Sandman said the proposal would have “no negative impact” on West Rock.

He said the redevelopment project is only in Phase 1 of many phases, and that the $50,000 would not be needed in FY09-10. He said when FY10-11 rolls around, money can be added as needed.

Lemar said by spending a total $155,000 on improving tennis courts, the city could make a longer-lasting and wider impact. His initial proposal called for $55,000 to resurface tennis courts in Edgewood and East Shore parks. By adding $100,000, he said, the parks department can make more long-term repairs and may use the money to fix up courts in East Rock and the Hill’s McClain Park as well.

A majority of the board agreed with the tennis plans.

But when the amendment came up for a vote, a diverse group of aldermen voted “no” to object to the way the alderwoman was left out of the loop. The proposal passed by a 20-7 vote.

Voting Yes: Plattus, Jackson-Brooks, Perez, Colon, Clark, Smart, Lemar, Brison, Antunes, Rhodeen, Sturgis-Pascale, J. Rodriguez, Castro, Paolillo, Edwards, Blango, Jones, Shah, McCormack, Lehtonen, Sandman, Goldfield. Voting No: Calder, James, DePino, Morehead, Silverman, S. Rodriguez, Edmonds-Sepulveda. Abstaining: Lee.

The tennis amendment was tacked on to an ordinance that calls for issuing $18.5 million in city bonds to finance capital improvement projects (not including schools). The amended ordinance passed unanimously, with Edmonds-Sepulveda abstaining.

The West Rock alderwoman said she “understands the numbers,” but she said she hoped her colleagues learned a lesson in communication.

“Hopefully, going forward, we will appreciate and respect any alderman whose ward will be affected by a vote,” Edmonds-Sepulveda said on the floor.

Lemar later defended his and Sandman’s proposal.

“It clearly isn’t rudeness,” he said. “There isn’t money taken away from anyone.”

Lemar said he was assured by housing authority staff that “the money wasn’t going to be spent on that project” in West Rock in the coming fiscal year. He said the recommendations came from the city administration. After the last Finance Committee meeting, he and Sandman were told they’d make more of an impact on the tennis courts if they could devote more money to repairs, he said. They asked city budget director Larry Rusconi where to find the money. Rusconi came back with the two recommendations, and they incorporated them in their amendment, Lemar said.

Balanced, For Now

The dispute was the only disagreement in an unusually short, otherwise peaceful final night of budgeting.

Aldermen passed the budget unanimously, except for the bonding component referred to above. Aldermen Katrina Jones, Charles Blango, Yusuf Shah (pictured) and Edmonds-Sepulveda, employees of the Board of Education, abstained from voting on the education portion of the budget.

The chorus of “yes”ses included East Shore Alderwoman Arlene DePino, the board’s only Republican, who has in the past voted against the final spending plan.

“What I’ve heard most from my constituents is that they’re happy taxes aren’t going to go up,” she said, and that the elderly tax freeze program would continue.

“I’m pleased with the Board of Aldermen’s decision to approve this budget which is based on difficult decisions in a very challenging economic climate,” said the mayor in a press statement distributed after the vote.

He noted that the new budget includes funding for a new class of 45 in the police academy, and continues successful youth programs like the Street Outreach Workers Program, Youth @ Work, and Open Schools.

To balance the budget in a recession, the mayor made some deep cuts. He closed three senior centers and laid off 27 city workers in February. The mayor announced plans to eliminate another 127 filled, full-time jobs from the Board of Education at the end of the school year; the fate of those workers remains up in the air due to union negotiations and stimulus money.

More layoffs and cuts may be on the way, depending on how the state legislature acts. The city’s budget rests heavily, 46 percent, on state funding; the state has yet to pass a budget.

The state budget will likely reveal a hole, as big as $6 million, into the city’s newly approved budget. That’s because of assumptions in the budget on how much state aid the city will get.

The $6 million hole is made up of: $3 million from PILOT funds DeStefano budgeted for in excess of the governor’s budget, that also didn’t appear in the Democratic legislature’s budget proposal; and $3 million due to cuts to a statewide pool of Pequot casino funds.

Depending on when the legislature ends up voting, DeStefano said, he’ll submit a budget amendment around September. At that point, he said he may propose further job cuts.

The $178 million budget the school board approved will also have to be revised: It assumes a $5 million increase over what the mayor proposed; aldermen did not allow for any such increase.