Sam Gurwitt Photo
Majority Leader Cory O’Brien: Not pleased.
The fire department could run out of money to pay firefighters within days. Electricity and water could be shut off at town buildings.
That could happen unless the Hamden Legislative Council passes a motion to siphon off money from its pension fund at a special council meeting called for Thursday.
The Leng administration is requesting that $292,531 be transferred from the pension to fund the following expense overages: $89,000 for the gas bill, $15,500 for the water bill, $80,031 for street lighting, and $108,000 for one of the fire department’s salary lines.
Tuesday Morning, Majority Leader Cory O’Brien got a call from Council President Mick McGarry, who told him that the Fire Department is running out of money and that if the council does not transfer funds into the salary line for substitutions, the fire chief will face a tough decision about how to keep his department running without the necessary funds. The sub/straight account pays for when firefighters fill in for their colleagues who are injured or off work for other reasons; $52,000 remain in the account. Hamden Fire Chief Gary Merwede estimated that his department will need almost $500,000 more to finish off the fiscal year.
District 9 Rep. Brad Macdowall: Caught by surprise.
At the same time, utility companies have notified the town that if they do not receive payment next week, they will shut off service. On April 10, the Hamden Finance Department received a notice from Southern Connecticut Gas notifying the town its account for a town building has a delinquent balance for more than 33 days, and that if it does not pay $1,300 by April 24, SCG will shut off gas to the building. On April 15, the town received a similar notice from the Regional Water Authority, which stated that the town owes $12,000, and that the company will shut off water to 240 Mill Rock Rd. if it does not receive payment by April 25. According to the notice, the town last paid the water bill for the property on Dec. 3, 2018.
According to Deputy Finance Director Rick Galarza, the gas account has $15,000 left of the $100,000 originally budgeted, and the water account has $5,000 left of the $65,000 budgeted. He said it’s highly unlikely that the companies would end up shutting off service to the town. If it comes to next week and the town still had not sent in the payments, he said he would call the companies and work out a payment plan with them.
In order to cover those expense overages, the town must come up with the money from somewhere. That somewhere, much to the chagrin of some council members like Cory O’Brien and Brad Macdowall, will be the pension fund.
In March, the administration notified the council that it wanted to transfer $2.1 million out of the pension to cover operating expenses.
O’Brien and Macdowall both said that this situation could have been predicted as soon as the 2018 – 2019 budget passed because it contained, in their view, revenue and expense projections that banked on the best-case scenario. Both O’Brien and Macdowall said that they and other council members were surprised when they found out how urgent the situation was on Tuesday.
O’Brien said he had hoped the administration and the council could have found a solution other than underfunding the pension before it got to the last minute.
Merwede told the Independent that he knew months ago that his department would run out of money in the sub/straight line in March or April, and that he had made both the administration and the council aware. When he submitted his budget for the 2018 – 2019 fiscal year, he asked for $1.9 million for sub/straight pay. The mayor proposed giving him $1.55 million and the council bumped the line item to $1.7 million. Merwede said that on top of the $200,000 he expects to end up over budget, a number of injuries have added to the expenses.
If the council does not pass the transfers, Merwede will face a tough decision. He can run his sub/straight account into the red, or he can violate the union contract and shut down a fire station, which he said he will not do.
“If the choice is between running an account in to the red or the health and safety of my team or of the public, the choice has to be to run the account into the red and then have those difficult conversations about why that happened,” he said.
The council is scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. on Thursday in the Legislative Council Chambers at the old town hall for the special meeting.
Well its nice to know New Haven isn't the only city that can't manage money. ;-]