BOF Weighs In On Town-School Budget

The Board of Finance (BOF) budget hearings, three in all last week, take the pulse of the town each year. This year was no different. One overall theme, repeated by school officials, town department heads and others was that in this revaluation year, with a $23 million decrease in the town’s grand list, they were heeding the words of the first selectman to try to come in ​“flat” for the 2015 – 16 budget.

Michael Krause, president of the Board of Education (BOE), said, for example, that he had asked Hamlet M. Hernandez, superintendent of schools, to get the budget as close to a 2 percent rise as possible, which for the BOE is considered flat. ​“We came in at 2.02 percent, ​“which is the lowest the Board of Education has ever approved,” he told the BOF last week.

Innovations? Not this year, both Krause and Hernandez said. They are pictured here (L‑R with First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove). Given this year’s revaluation school officials were asked to keep their budgets tight. ​“We are maintaining this year in the hope of presenting innovative ideas next year,” Krause said. Hernandez echoed this thought in many ways at various meetings. Hernandez’s theme for this year’s school budget was one lonely word: ​“Coherence.” 

BOF chair Joseph Mooney opened each of the three public hearings by telling the public that this year’s combined town-school budgets totaled $105,378,274, an increase of $2.7 million over last year’s budget. This reflects, he said, a 2.7 percent increase across the board, a figure that may well go down after the BOF weighs potential cuts. 

After the BOF determines the budget, including a town request to authorize the sale of not more than $19.6 million in in general obligation refunding bonds, which will also include new authorizations for upcoming projects, it will send the budget to the Representative Town Meeting. (RTM). Click here to read about Branford Hills School’s proposed demolition. .

The BOF meeting that will decide the budget takes place tonight at Fire Headquarters at 7:00 p.m. We will update this story after the meeting. The RTM will hold its annual budget meeting in May, and while it cannot increase the budget, it can reduce it. In June the BOF will formally set the mill rate for the 2015 – 16 fiscal year. Once that is set the property tax is established.

Graduation Rates, Shifting School Populations & More

Mooney asked Hernandez about the school district’s graduation rates. ​“It ticked up a bit this year,” Hernandez said, adding the graduation rate is in the mid-90s. Hernandez said that the trend educators are seeing is that graduates are making college decision based on economics. Not only are many attending state community and state colleges, but ​“we also see a fascinating thing – students are going to schools pretty far away.” Attracting students from the East, he said, enhances their ability to get a financial package.

The superintendent also discussed the school system’s shifting population, one that any one time has up to 500 students ​“moving in or moving out. “ He said that ​“the level of student mobility” has a significant impact on the school district because it affects ​“transience in your workforce, among teachers and others.”

Besides education, which makes up the largest part of the town budget, the BOF hearings provided insight into the needs, wants and realities of town life. As a board, the BOF must weigh realities and decide what needs come first. The BOF heard about town roads in need of paving and a Stony Creek ferry dock in desperate shape after a difficult winter

Roads and Docks

BOF member Kurt Schwanfelder asked Public Works Director Tom Brennan (pictured), how required paving of the town’s roads was going.

Brennan said, ​“We are spending more and paving less.”

Given costs he said, ​“We used to do five miles a year. We did 1.7 to 1.8 miles this year.”

He also said the department had identified all the sidewalks in town that pose liability issues. ​“Some are in the center of town,” he said and ​“we have to do them.” Curbing replacement, he said, is also a big item after this winter.

The brutally cold and icy winter of 2015 took its toll on docks and sea walls as well as roads, Brennan told the BOF.

Docks in Need

“Our docks are in desperate need of repair,” Brennan continued. ​“We lost a lot of pilings with the ice.” Some docks have not been repaired, and they were heavily damaged, during (Superstorm) Sandy in 2012. Some funds are earmarked for the Stony Creek dock that is used for water taxis (to the Thimble Islands), he said. ​“That dock took a big hit this year.”

Chairman Mooney asked: ​“Do we have a price?” Brennan said he did not have a final one.

Charles Shelton, BOF member, asked Brennan if the dock was a hazard now. Brennan replied, ​“Yes. I would say so.”

This year Brennan made no mention of the perils of working in a rental building, but he did mention the continuing issue of flooding in the rental facility. The public works department’s search for a new home over the past four years has been a major issue for the town, one that is still unresolved.

Efforts by the previous Unk DaRos administration to put the public works building on the town-owned Tabor site failed. DaRos’s effort to move public works to the center of the town on Ivy Street did not materialize before he left office.

Cosgrove says he wants public works to have a new building and says there are at least five possible sites. So far he has not selected one.

Probate Court Crisis Statewide

Probate Judge Frank Forgione (pictured) came before the board to present a request for his $12,200 budget, one that covers insurance, printing, office supplies, etc.

Mooney asked the judge about the larger, more pressing issue, one that came to light without warning last month when the Governor’s budget virtually eliminated the entire $32 million line from the state’s general fund to probate courts across the state.

The state’s probate courts settle the estates of the dead, administer trusts, oversee adoptions and appoint guardians for children. To remain open these courts would have to dramatically raise the fees of those whose cases are heard. Judge Forgione, who oversees the Branford and North Branford probate courts, did not provide details but said he was hopeful that the elimination of the probate court budget would not come to pass.

New Projects

On the capital budget side, Acting Fire Chief Shaun Heffernan showed proposed plans for a new Indian Neck Fire station on Linden Avenue that requires raising the existing building to put in a new two-bay, two-story structure. Heffernan said a state DEEP grant of $500,000 was probable because this small fire station, long in need of renovation, lies in a flood zone.

Town Engineer Janice Plaziak described a 2008 Main Street Scenic Gateway Study project that would make improvements to Main Street from about Kirkham Street to the Town Green, including roads adjacent to the Blackstone Memorial Library. The town has previously secured $3 million in state funding, to be administered by SCRCOG as long as the town provides $300,000 for the design costs for the project. Plaziak urged the BOF to grant the design funds.

Speaking of the Blackstone Memorial Library, Karen Jensen, library director, began discussion with the BOF about a major capital improvement plan to improve the library’s building, grounds and parking areas. Before that discussion began, however, Mooney said additional information was needed and suggested a separate meeting be held.

Where’s Bill?

Virtually every department and board and commission head attended the budget hearings, a yearly ritual that allows the BOF and the public to ask questions and discuss requests regarding town business. 

For the second year in a row Town Counsel Bill Aniskovich was a no show. Neither he nor any member of his New Haven law firm, Brenner, Saltzman & Wallman, showed up to discuss the reasoning behind their proposed legal budget, which requested only $299,250 for the 2015 – 16 budget year. Finance Director Jim Finch presented the budget on Aniskovich’s behalf. No questions were asked.

Finally, there came an unexpected and surprising request from Police Chief Kevin Halloran. The chief delivered the sad news that the department’s anticipated new K‑9, a German Shepherd named Thor had failed to pass the testing rigors at the K‑9 police academy where he was attending school.

As a result, the chief explained by way of a budgetary change, $7,500 would be used from the police department’s asset forfeiture fund to purchase a new dog.
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