Burgesses discuss the proposed budget in Naugatuck

We asked Naugatuck burgesses, the only elected officials besides Mayor Robert A.
Mezzo who vote on what budget numbers to implement, whether they support the budget
and if they would like to see more cuts. We asked them to give us specific cuts if they
suggested more cuts are necessary. hese are their full responses. An overview of their
responses appeared in the !unday Republican on "ct. #$. % &aul !ingley, senior reporter
Mike Bronko, Republican
' agree with the residents who voted the budget down. We are asking too much of them
and something has to be done to give ta(payers relief. ' suggested union concessions last
time the budget failed, and ' suggested it again hursday night. 't could be in the form of
decreasing personnel or giving furloughs.
Robert Burns, Democrat
)' think we need to do some more cutting. ' think probably a little bit more from
education,* he said. )' don+t want to say how much, but ' think you need go over that
budget again.
Catherine Ernsky, Republican
' believe the residents have spoken loud and clear twice and we have a responsibility not
only the elected officials, but members of the appointed finance board to listen and act on
what the residents have re,uested.
As far as cuts go on the town level ' would have preferred we went the route of asking for
a - percent decrease across the board with all of the departments and have the department
heads figure out where and how they can cut.
"ur contractual obligations do limit us. .owever, if we are not willing to revisit these
contracts then we are already giving up. We are living in a tough economy and one that
is unsustainable in Naugatuck. We need to invite the unions back to the table and not fear
that we will have to concede more than we get. We cannot get anything worse than we
currently have. ' do think that moving forward we need to be more aggressive in how we
handle our negotiations. We have three large contracts ne(t year that will set the tone for
the years to come and we cannot continue to be so generous in our negotiations.
hat being said, anything that is not contractual should be closely e(amined if not cut.
he other place ' see where we can cut would be the non/union employees. We will 0ust
have to do more with less people, 0ust like the public sector. We need to eliminate new
spending, we need to consolidate services amongst 1orough departments such as ',
service contracts, etc 2which amath Rossi spoke of at least in regards to '3 and we
need to begin bulk purchasing with all of our departments to ma(imize our savings
throughout the 1orough. As ' understand it we do some on the town side but the town and
1"4 do not. We need to also implement a hiring freeze.
"n the 1"4 side ' do happen to think there is more we can cut. !ame e(amples ' have
been giving all along. We have teachers who contractually are supposed to teach five
classes a day and are teaching only one, yet we allow that. We have a cost associated with
having other teachers taking on those classes. We are looking to once again add a
5irector of 6urriculum, ' see several 5eans looking to be added. As it stands now we are
too top heavy with Administrators we don+t need more, we need less. Again, ' do not
want class sizes to be larger and teachers to be laid off. ' want less of the top heavy
administrators as do the residents. &utting these folks in place under the guise of its
covered by grants 0ust creates more spending down the road. "nce those grants are up the
cost once again rests on the ta(payer. ' can go into more detail but the reality is we have
no control on how they spend their money one it is allocated to them. We are looking at
over 78 million &9:! the additional over ; million dollars they receive in grants that+s
not listed.
here are still many more ideas that have been presented on numerous occasions,
contrary to the individuals that continue to say that ideas or details have not been
proposed. 6ertainly, it is our responsibility to find these cuts and savings not the
residents. hey have spoken and we work for them.
Laurie Ta !ackson, Democrat
he people have spoken for a second time in the referendum. We as elected officials
should listen to our constituents. here is still room to cut on the town spending, such as /
the employees that took an early retirement and are still working / this should be
eliminated. 6ut a position in the mayor<s office and the customer service position in land
use.
.ave each department take at least => reduction in their budgets. 6urtail the use of town
vehicles, that go out of town, by employees which would be savings on gas and
maintenance. 6onsolidate the &urchasing 5ept. in the town and the &urchasing 5ept. at
the 1oard of 4d. Also cut legal fees by putting the attorneys on a cap basis. 9astly cut
?#=,888 from the N456 budget. 2his has been brought up before.3
@or the 1oard of 4d.A 6ut the ?==,888 for the pool cover that is not needed. 2here is one
there already.3 6lean that one up or the money should have been in the renovate to new
pro0ect.
6ut administrators due to less student enrollment in the schools. And not hire a director of
curriculum 2even if its with a grant this year, we can use that money to add more direct
contact staff 2teachersBparas3.
- Editors Note: Jackson is a paraprofessional in the Naugatuck public school system.
Bob Neth, Republican
"n hursday, we took the recommendations of the department heads on cuts they wanted
to make. Me being a former 1oard of @inance chair, ' have looked at last year<s history of
how much was spent in certain accounts. 'f they had a surplus, we ,uestioned why and
cut those areas.
he reality is / and most people will not agree with it / but you have a budget now that is
dictated by union contracts. &eople say get concessions, well that<s easier said than done.
he reality with the unions is they don<t have to reopen contracts. 'f they do, they are
going to want something in return. hat<s 0ust the way it is.
' think the ,uestion that should be asked of our state reps and all of the elected state
officials in our area is what they plan to do about binding arbitration and unfunded state
mandates that are killing every single municipality every year.
"le# $lbrys, Republican
he ta(payers of this community have spoken and they want to see more cuts to the
budget. At this point we are going to have to have serious discussions about what we are
funding. :nfortunately, there are union contracts that to my understanding cannot be
broke, state and federal mandates in education etc. ' think at this point the 1"4 has to
look into consolidating schools and positions. "n the town side we will have to look at
cutting all areas of the budget across the board.
' support certain areas of the budget and other areas ' do not. ' feel that leasing C new
police cars is not good to do at this time. .owever other areas of the budget ' did
support. here are a lot of different areas of this budget. 6uts are going to have to be
made whether ' support the budget or not. Areas that ' supported were ta( collector
office, town clerk. hese are areas that only went up because of increases due to contracts
and postage.
Also another area of the budget ' have been vocal about is we need to hire another fire
inspector. @rom my knowledge, the work load is too much for one person. his is a
public safety issue when buildings aren+t being inspected.
:nfortunately, the unions have a lot of control and we have to honor the union contracts.
here is no way around that. ' am sure we will find areas to cut though. And ' thank the
ta(payers for being involved in the voting process.
Tamath %& Rossi 'Deputy mayor(
5uring the initial setting of the budget ' was the only 1urgess to vote against the budget.
' was concerned with the cuts that were made to public safety and as a public official '
believe the town has very set, core responsibilities to provide the communityA &ublic
!afety and 4ducation. ' did not support the cuts to &ublic safety as ' felt they would
0eopardize the safety of our residents and because of that, ' voted against the budget in its
entirety % ' was the only 1urgess to do so. After the results of the first referendum,
despite the budget being lean and cuts to staff throughout the 1orough and to &ublic
!afety, ' scrutinized the budget line by line and presented two difficult cuts that were
voted upon and implemented 2?-D=,8883 % ' was the only 1urgess to do so. ' take the
budget process seriously, attend every meeting and am an active participant as that is
what the voters in this town e(pect of their 1urgesses.
he voters have again voiced their opinion and while ' do not agree with nor will support
cuts to public safety, ' support our budget. a(es are less than last year and we have
made severe cuts that ta(payers will not realize until it directly affects them % this
concerns me, but we made these cuts in order to get to lower ta(es. 'n addition to
increased operating costs for the 1orough, as every household has ieA electricity, oil, gas
etc., the 1orough had a ?;M increase in health insurance costs, despite negotiations, and
shopping this around, we have this increase that we have no control over. hat is the
biggest impact affecting this budget this year.
his budget is the result of $ months of countless rounds of review and debate. As a
1urgess ' have a responsibility to look out for the community as a whole and make tough
decisions. ' have contributed specific, viable and implemented cuts in the last
referendum, ' am back to reviewing the budget and am not certain where additional cuts
can be made that would impact the mill rate and not have devastating effects on the
community. ' am truly looking forward to my colleagues and those that believe our
current budget is too high, to presenting !&46'@'6, 54A'945, real and viable cuts that
will be approved in this round. here are no short cuts or easy answers with this budget
and there are comple(ities that cannot be e(plained in an easy sentence. hat being said, '
respect the results of the referendum and look forward to the specific cuts that will be
presented in this round of review.
)at *cully, Democrat
' would recommend to the public that we pass this budget. ' wish 5iane 2!cinto, board of
finance chair3 after we finished the budget hursday night would have looked at 2petition
organizer3 Matt Eatra and said, )Where do you want to cutF* .e doesn<t have an answer
for anything. !o ' wish, and maybe we should have mentioned this to her, that 5iane
would have let him speak. We were nickel and diming everything hursday. And when
you can<t give police ammunition to practice, '<m sorry, but there is something wrong
with that.
Rocky +itale, Democrat
his isn<t about what any one official wants to cut or add. 't needs to be a collaborative
effort of almost -8 1orough officials to come to reasonable cuts taking into consideration
contractual obligations and !tate law re,uirements. ' e(pect there will be many opinions,
but we need to listen to each other with no preconceived ideas, then come to a conclusion
of areas to cut. he only area that ' will oppose cutting is public safety. ' cannot support
taking any police officers off the street or any firefighters from the trucks. 1esides the
clear obligation to cut, we also have to be responsible and not do anything to endanger
lives or public property. ' would like the department heads to be part of this effort since
they will have to administrate whatever cuts are made.