Hamden Pulls From Healthcare Account To Fund Public Safety

In a series of votes that showcased the tough decisions towns and cities will face as they enter a pandemic with limited resources, Hamden’s Legislative Council passed a budget transfer on Saturday to pay the firefighters who respond to health emergencies using funds that were budgeted to pay for health insurance.

The vote came a few days after Mayor Curt Leng suspended all public gatherings at town buildings and closed town departments and schools.

The meeting was originally scheduled for the following Monday evening, but was moved up to Saturday morning so that essential budget transfers could take place before the COVID-19 virus begins to spread in Hamden and public meetings become too risky.

Eight council members showed up in person. Four called in over Zoom. Chairs in the audience had been set about four feet apart from each other. Tables had been added on either side of the council’s semi-circle to allow members to sit apart from each other.

The council made three large financial transfers.

The least controversial took $225,000 from the salaries line of the Police Department and moved it into the overtime account.

Two others proved tougher. One appropriated $350,000 for Fire Department overtime; $230,000 of it came from the town’s medical insurance line, while the other $120,000 came from the regular salaries line. The other allocated $819,882 for waste removal in the Public Works Department. Of that, $334,000 came from the medical insurance line.

Budget transfers take place when a budget line item comes in over budget, and funds are transferred from another account that presumably has extra money. The police and fire transfers both could have been predicted before the fiscal year began, said both chiefs. Fire Chief Gary Merwede and Police Chief John Cappiello both asked for more money in their overtime accounts than they ended up receiving. Both said Saturday’s transfers brought the accounts in line with what they had predicted their overtime costs would be.

Public works has struggled in recent years with the rising costs of waste removal. A similar transfer took place last year.

The transfers presented council members with a tricky choice as the town battens down its hatches in anticipation of an impending outbreak of the novel coronavirus. (Later on Saturday, New Haven announced its first confirmed case.) A majority of the Fire Department’s calls are for medical emergencies, not for fires. The department is legally obligated to meet a minimum manning requirement at all times to ensure the safety of its employees, and current staffing levels just barely allow the department to meet that requirement, if no employees are sick. In a normal year, the department would need the extra $350,000. And as the virus enters Hamden, Merwede said he anticipates that his some of his firefighters will fall ill, forcing him to use even more overtime to keep his department running safely.

But in order to do that, the council had to take money from another account that is likely to be hit hard by the virus: health insurance. Finance Director Curtis Eatman told the council that the medical insurance line was the only place the administration could find to take the funds from. He said that in a recent meeting with Brown & Brown Insurance, the company had produced a projection that the medical insurance line would end the fiscal year with a $1 million in savings. That projection, however, was prepared using data up to the end of February, and did not take the threat of coronavirus into account.

As council members weighed how they would vote, they asked whether there was any other place to pull funds from.

“It’s still the recommendation of the administration that we utilize this,” Eatman replied when asked whether the administration stood by using the medical line in light of the approaching virus. He told the council that there is nowhere else to pull money from at the moment.

Council President Mick McGarry said he does not know when or how the council will meet next. Though the body has more essential business to attend to in the next few weeks and months, it is uncertain how meetings will take place in a time when local governments are doing everything they can to prevent public gatherings.

Merwede said he had submitted the transfer to the council at the end of January or beginning of February. With the clock ticking and funds in the department’s overtime accounts dwindling, council members said the transfer needed to happen, especially with the uncertainty about when the council would be able to conduct business next.

“We can’t let a procedural thing stand in the way of what we have to do,” Merwede told the council.

The council passed the transfer 10 – 2.

When it was time for Public Works Director Craig Cesare to explain his waste disposal transfer to the council, he echoed the chiefs who had preceded him, saying the transfer had been a long time coming. $400,000 of the transfer came from an emergency and contingency account set up for expense overages. $50,000 came from a snow removal account that has remained largely untouched due to this year’s mild winter. The rest came from the health insurance line.

Again, council members asked whether there was anywhere else to draw from. Again, they were told no.

“Council, we presented to you the best course of action we believe the council can take,” said Eatman.

Councilwoman Dominique Baez asked what would happen if the waste removal lines went into the red.

“We have to pay for it,” replied Eatman.

“Or else they’ll stop picking up our trash?” Baez continued.

“Yes,” Eatman replied.

Eatman said that if the medical insurance line ends up running over budget, the town will find other places to draw funds from, if the state and federal governments do not help municipalities meet high medical insurance costs incurred by the virus. Medical insurance, he said, is another line that cannot go unfunded.

The transfer passed, 10 – 2.

Financial Plans?

As the council discussed how to fund its fire and public works departments, Councilwoman Kristin Dolan made a familiar request. She asked for a financial plan that would show exactly where the town’s finances stand going into the last quarter of the fiscal year. She said the council needed to see a holistic view of all of its finances in order to make an informed decision about where to pull money from.

She urged her fellow council members to vote against the transfers until the administration could come up with a full plan that it would present to the council. She clarified that she would vote no not to hold up the vote, but to protect the town’s limited resources so it could fund essential services.

Having more information would allow the council to ​“make sure we have funds available today and in the future,” she said.

Council members have asked the administration for financial plans in the past, not just for the rest of a given fiscal year, but also for the future more broadly. Some council members have called for greater financial transparency from the administration over the past few years. Former Councilman Cory O’Brien used to submit frequent freedom of information act requests because he said he had trouble getting complete information without them.

Eatman said that the council would get a clearer picture of the town’s overall financial position after the mayor presents his proposed 2020 – 2021 fiscal year budget. The town charter requires that the mayor present his budget by March 18.

When he explained the administration’s transfers to the council, Eatman had officially been Hamden’s permanent finance director for only a few minutes. The agenda item just before the first of the transfers was the approval of his appointment, which passed unanimously. Leng appointed him in February.

Eatman told the council that he is looking to put Hamden back on the path to financial stability. One of his first tasks, he said, will be crafting a budget that is realistic and honest. Transparency will be one of his chief priorities, he said.

Meetings In The Time Of Coronavirus

Council President Mick McGarry said he had called the meeting Saturday morning because waiting until Monday might not be safe. When the town announced on Thursday that it was shutting down town buildings and schools, he said he opted to hold it as soon as possible. A posting must go out 24 hours in advance, so Saturday morning was the soonest the meeting could happen.

While eight members were present, another four had called in over the Zoom app. As the meeting progressed, council members began to work out the difficulties of a half-in-person, half-virtual meeting.

At the beginning of the meeting, Councilwoman Marjorie Bonadies, who had called in from home, asked to pull an item from the agenda.

“It’s not the immediate business of the town, town, town, town, town, town, town,” her voice echoed throughout her colleagues’ computers. McGarry asked that everyone mute their computers to eliminate the echo.

Whenever someone came to the podium to speak to the council, those at home could not hear. One of the council members would have to repeat it. When someone at home wanted to speak, Councilman Austin Cesare had to bend his microphone down to his computer’s speaker so everyone in the room could hear.

McGarry said he does not know how the next meetings will take place. Though meeting in person will likely not be possible, figuring out how to meet virtually while complying with the open meeting laws might be tough. He said he is talking to attorneys and other officials about how to proceed with council business in the weeks and months to come.