A Response Comes By Cell

Jorge Perez wanted to know why the fire department just filled a position that, according to the proposed budget he was looking at, would soon be eliminated.

The man making a presentation to his committee, New Haven government’s budget director, didn’t know the answer. Then Perez’s phone rang.

It was the fire department. Wanting to know what he wanted to know.

The phone call took place during a City Hall hearing Wednesday night of the Board of Aldermen’s Finance Committee. Budget Director Joe Clerkin ran the aldermen through an overview of the proposed $486.8 million blueprint for the fiscal year that starts July 1. (Click here to read about the budget’s highlights.)

The aldermen will hold weeks of hearings to pick through the details of the budget, revise it, then vote on it. Wednesday night’s session didn’t answer many questions. It did offer a preview of what kinds of questions the aldermen might ask, giving officials time to round up answers for future meetings.

In the case of the fire department question, Perez (pictured) got a quicker response. One he didn’t appreciate.

Perez, the Board of Aldermen’s president, noticed that the proposed budget is missing a fire investigator supervisor position; officials propose eliminating it the position in order to create an assistant drillmaster position.

Yet Perez knew that the department had just hired someone to fill the investigator supervisor position. How could that be? he asked Clerkin. Will you be coming back asking us to create that position too?

Clerkin said he wasn’t sure. Sitting in the audience was another top city official, Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts, who oversees the fire department. He shot a text message to an assistant fire chief, Pat Egan. Egan then called Perez’s cell.

Perez normally would have let the call roll over the voicemail. He was in the middle of a meeting, after all. But an after-hours call from the fire department worried him. Was there a fire in his neighborhood? Was someone he knows hurt?

So he stepped away from the table where he and others were conducting the meeting. He took the call. Egan asked him what he wanted to know about the budget.

“I’m in the middle of a meeting. Call me back tomorrow!” Perez responded (not quietly), and hung up. (Egan said Thursday that he wanted to let Perez know that the department wasn’t spending any extra money. It now plans to eliminate the assistant drillmaster position since it has filled the investigator position, he said.)

When it comes to answers to other questions Wednesday night, that will have to wait for upcoming meetings. Questions like one from Dixwell Alderwoman Janette Morrison.

The library’s proposed budget increases 3 percent, or about $111,000. Morrison asked whether the money will be used to expand the branch libraries’ limited hours. Most libraries are open past 8 p.m. only one night of the week.

“What impact on that as a service, I can’t speak to,” Clerkin said.

Perez asked why costs increased for an eviction warehouse. Michael Gormany, an assistant in the budget office, answered that the service is under a new contract that offers more services.

“I need to understand what it is we were paying and what we were getting,” said Perez about the cost’s $176,800 increase. ​“With the way that real estate is going and warehouse-type of space available, I am shocked unless we are gaining ten times the space or services we were not getting before.”

East Rock Alderman Justin Elicker was in the eviction warehouse the other day, he said. ​“It was almost empty. But things are always more complicated than I think they are, so it’ll be interesting to get some answer on that.”

The administration budget team wrote down the questions, and moved on.

Overtime for police increases 19 percent, to $3.4 million. That jump caused East Rock Alderwoman Jessica Holmes to ask why the police department was projecting a significant amount of overtime as it is also increasing staffing: with more cops it seems logical that there would be less of a need for overtime.

“It seems that overtime is a problem that could be solved,” said Holmes.

Wrapping up the meeting, the committee’s chair, Hill Alderwoman Andrea Jackson-Brooks, requested that the group further digest the numbers to send more questions to the individual departments. As the budget process continues, the Finance Committee’s questions will help departments prepare for the evening when they make their case.