Tax Payers Aren’t Aware!

Statement To The Board of Finance, April 2, 2009.

Other cities in Connecticut and other states in the area have successfully negotiated with their unions this year for 0% increases or even reductions in compensation. But this administration has no moral standing to ask unions to reduce the incomes of the workers of the “city that works”, while they receive salary increases.

There should be no increases in salary at top level, non union positions for both the City and the Board of Education. Then the City can reasonably negotiate no increases in salary at the rank and file level. Note that New Haven top officials took a salary cut before negotiating with their unions.

Note please the following salary increases in the operating budget:
1. Director of Administration is getting a 16.17% salary increase; her executive secretary 5.6% (p.37)
2. Director of Operations: a 9.3% increase(p. 176)
3. Office of Legal Affairs 25+% increases (p.267)
4. Police Chief 15.25% (p. 187); Two Assistant Police Chiefs 6.43%
5. Two Assistant Marshalls 35.45% (p.208)
6. Dir. Of Economic Development 12.05% (p.289)
7. Assistant Dir. Of Human Resources 18.72% (p. 272); executive secretary 5.33%
8. Director of Health 25.27% (p.238)
9. Dir. Pub. Safety, Health & Welfare 21.29% (p. 181)
10. Town Clerk 11.72% (p.299)
That’s just the beginning of the list.
11. The Deputy Chief Building official is getting a 7.44% salary increase. (p.109)
12. The Administration Officer (Engineering) is getting a 7.11% salary increase (p.115)
13. Three Construction Managers are getting 5.94% salary increase (p.115)
14. Two Associate Engineers are getting 4.37% salary increase (p.115)
15. Signal System Engineer 7.13% increase (p.119)
16. Two Operations Foreman 4.99% (p. 90)
17. Operations Foreman 9.78 (p.85)
18. Operations Supervisor 9.79 (p.85)
19. Fleet Manager 7.22% (p.80)
20. Executive Secretary 4.77% (p.77)
21. Revenue Services Manager 7.06% (p.57)
22. Assessment Inspector 5.91% (p.52)
23. Grants Coordinator 6.13% (p.40)
24. Grant Officer 7.23% (p.40)
25. 7+% increases for 3 employees in OPM (p.42)
26. WPCA Increases (p.381)
27. Marina Management-maintenance worker 8.88% (p.346)
28. Environmental Analysts 5.91% (p.135)
29. Planners 7+% (p.128)

In many cases a department as a whole stayed in what may have been a budget guideline for salary increases by adjusting “vacant” positions from a higher level to a lower level – keeping the position but reducing the compensation so that more dollars are available to the actual people in the department.

Note that the above salary increases also increase the City’s pension obligations, which have not been reflected in the budget, so the actual increase in the budget is higher than 6.8%.

We wonder why the mayor included increases for police, firemen and legal affairs when the contracts have not been approved, but we applaud your efforts and that of the Board of Representatives Personal Committee to remedy that.

Investments with a return for Stamford

Texas water utility establishes
‘first’ sewage methane sale
The board of trustees of the San Antonio, Texas Water
System has approved a contract that the water system
said would make it the first in the nation to capture and
sell methane generated while treating the city’s sewage.
The project includes a 20-year lease and operating
agreement between the municipally-owned water system
and Massachusetts-based company Ameresco, which will
construct the gas conditioning and distribution facility
and the pipelines needed to transfer the gas to
commercial gas pipelines. Ameresco will also be in
charge of selling the gas on the open market, utility
officials said September 9. In return, the water system
will receive a 12% royalty on the sale of the gas, which
helps reduce the cost of wastewater treatment
operations and, in turn, costs to ratepayers, the utility
said.
The gas is generated by biosolids during the sewage
treatment process. About 80% of biosolids – the solids
remaining after liquid waste is removed – are used to
generate compost. Under the new contract, sewage
treated at Dos Rios Water Recycling Center will now be
used to generate recycled water, used in place of
potable water by industry and manufacturers, and
compost, which is used to improve soil quality and now
energy.
San Antonio produces about 140,000 tons of
biosolids each year, said utility Chief Operating Officer
Steve Clouse. “Treating these biosolids generates an
average of 1.5 million cubic feet of gas a day – enough
gas to fill seven commercial blimps or 1,250 tanker
trucks each day,” he said. “Most of that gas is currently
burned off using flares. Now we can capture and sell it,
which is good for San Antonio’s air quality and puts this
renewable energy resource to work for San Antonio.”
Clouse, citing rising energy prices, called the project
“a very smart investment” and said early estimates put
project revenue at about $200,000-$250,000 a year.

Well I think it’s fine, building jumbo planes.
Or taking a ride on a cosmic train.
Switch on summer from a slot machine.
Get what you want to if you want, ’cause you can get anything.

I know we’ve come a long way,
We’re changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?

Well you roll on roads over fresh green grass.
For your lorry loads pumping petrol gas.
And you make them long, and you make them tough.
But they just go on and on, and it seems you can’t get off.

Oh, I know we’ve come a long way,
We’re changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?

When you crack the sky, scrapers fill the air.
Will you keep on building higher
’til there’s no more room up there?
Will you make us laugh, will you make us cry?
Will you tell us when to live, will you tell us when to die?

I know we’ve come a long way,
We’re changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?

ALERT! Come hear for Yourself. Get involved; educate yourself!

I am interested to find out how construction at West Beach for the synthetic astro turf fields could have begun without first having all of the required approvals? Please view the attached comment from Maureen.

THE ZONING BOARD WILL CONDUCT A REGULAR MEETING
ON MONDAY, JULY 28, 2008, AT 6:00 P.M., 7th FLOOR,
LAND USE CONFERENCE AREA, GOVERNMENT CENTER
BUILDING, 888 WASHINGTON BLVD., STAMFORD, CT

REGULAR MEETING AGENDA

1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Minutes Approval – July 14, 2008
July 21, 2008
2. PENDING APPLICATIONS:
B. CSPR-838 – CITY OF STAMFORD (West Beach Park), Shippan Avenue,
improvements to existing facilities at West Beach Park including installation of
two synthetic turf soccer fields, parking lot reconfiguration and resurfacing, site
drainage, landscaping and installation of pedestrian amenities.

Inflation Doesn’t Measure Property Taxes

As the dollar devalues the price of oil continues to rise. Next we have inflation which will surely make us all the more poorer when it takes more dollars to buy goods and services. I find it “not” funny that inflation is measured without taking food and energy into consideration. What else affects us the most but our energy bills and the food on our plates? Is the Government trying to make us feel good about the economy as we lose purchasing power?

Of course, the other unspoken and not readily measured “inflationary” cost to the taxpayer are property taxes. Apart from the adjustments made to tax bills this year due to the revaluation, the City of Stamford with all its “belt tightening” still had approximately a 9% increase in its budget this year compared to last year. Why with all the debt the City is taking on for “growth” do we the taxpayers believe taxes will ever be lower in the near future. I continue to fundamentally believe that a property tax cap of 3% is a must for the State of Connecticut and the City of Stamford in order to ensure that fiscal decisions are managed with the utmost discipline while protecting fundamentally an individual’s right to property. Without the CAP politicians and elected officials are too quick to spend our money on projects that aren’t needed ultimately costing us higher property taxes.

NEWS ALERT
from The Wall Street Journal

July 16, 2008

The U.S. consumer price index surged 1.1% in June, the largest monthly rise since June 1982. Excluding food and energy, the CPI advanced 0.3%. Both readings exceeded economists’ forecasts. On a year-over-year basis, consumer prices swelled 5%, the highest rate since May 1991. The core CPI grew a more modest 2.4% compared to June 2007, though that’s still well above the Fed’s long-term goal of 1.5% to 2%.

The data tighten the screws on Federal Reserve officials as they balance a stagflationary mix of rising unemployment, strained financial markets and rising inflation.

A Letter to the Stamford Advocate:

During the last two days I have been reading in the Stamford Advocate about the Police Department’s having surpassed their budget due to increasing fuel prices. It seems the proposed solutions don’t really work according to the Police Department because you just can’t ask our offices to sit in their cars in both the cold of winter and the heat of summer without running their cars. I can certainly agree with the need for heat in winter and air conditioning in the summer for the Police officers on duty. My question, however, is why does the police department drive around in two new black and unmarked Chevy Blazer SUV’s? I also noticed a third older marked Chevy Blazer SUV yesterday around McGee Ave.? Perhaps the Police Department should consider buying more fuel efficient vehicles? Or maybe using motorcycles in the summer for patrols with vehicles as back up when arrests are needed? Perhaps, instead of spending 5mm on synthetic turf fields, the City could “bond” to invest in a digester, a gas cleaning facility and storage for about the same price as the synthetic turf fields to produce a Compressed Bio-gas (“CBG”) station that could fuel the City’s vehicles. The City would have to manage a more sophisticated recycling program to collect organic, uncooked food waste which would increase the operational budget. Food scraps can be broken down into methane in a digester, the gas cleaned and used as fuel requiring minor alterations to existing gasoline cars using spark plug technologies. For the skeptics out there, simply refer to various Cities in Scandinavian countries. In the end the City would not only be “greener” but would also be self sufficient and less dependent on fuel costs. The City would spend more on the collection and management of the recycling program and there is an initial investment, but the City would reduce the tonnage of garbage that the City pays for disposal and be in a position to fuel its vehicle fleet at substantially lower prices. It’s worth researching the possibility.

Upsetting News

I cannot use my name because of my relationship with the City of Stamford.
If you need to disregard this message for that reason alone, so be it.

I see a problem here;

I stopped at the Shippan fire station after noticing that they were almost always out on calls during the day.
After speaking with a few of the firemen about how busy the station had become I learned that they are routinely (daily basis) re-assigned to work in other areas, leaving our closest fire truck to come from a different station.

This could result in serious delays when you desperately need help.

I also learned that the Shippan area is the largest neighborhood that is covered by a single fire truck.

My question is simply why take away our protection to send it elsewhere and leave us to wait?

Are we not paying enough in taxes to afford adequate service?

Thank you in advance for addressing this.

Stamford Is Not Alone

Hi Everyone,

Please watch the enclosed video on you tube and know that Stamford is not alone in this battle…

…then click on the video to the right that say’s Question of Ingestion and this will give you an idea of what these fields are truly made of…

West Beach Park – Important Meeting For Shippan Residents

A Little bit of the Bush Administration Strong Arm Tactics with local Politics in Stamford

I can tell you one thing, when you start clumping projects together and if you don’t track this stuff very carefully it is easy to over appropriate funds at the expense of other projects or just plain lose sight of sources and uses. This is a huge blow to a system designed for the purpose of keeping our City accounting transparent. This is a problem and I hope our elected officials stop it cold. The fact that it has been done before and was overlooked should not be the basis for Cassone’s legal opinion. Should the Democrats on either the BOR or the BOF, who are the majority, condone this behavior by the Mayor, the City will have taken a step back and once again side stepped its responsibility to up hold the law. The United States of America can only truly be strong when men and women in authority protect our democracy and stand for what is right.

Malloy defends budget moves

By Stephen P. Clark
Staff Writer
Stamford Advocate

Article Launched:04/07/2008 01:00:00 AM EDT

STAMFORD – In his proposed capital budget for next fiscal year, Mayor Dannel Malloy bundled smaller projects into larger ones, raising concerns that he violated the city Charter and undermined the authority of elected boards.

By combining certain capital projects, Malloy has, perhaps inadvertently, stripped the boards of their power to determine how much funding each one gets, some elected officials said.

“I think it’s disgraceful the powers of the citizens are being eroded by a mayor who doesn’t have respect for the Charter, nor do the people whom he appointed,” Republican finance board member Joseph Tarzia said.

Board of Representatives President David Martin, D-19, wrote in a memo to elected and administration officials that Malloy’s actions challenged the Charter but didn’t violate it.

“While this may provide administrative convenience, it is arguably counter to the Charter requirement that each project should be submitted separately, and infringes upon the powers of the Planning Board, the Board of Finance and Board of Representatives to act on specific capital projects,” the memo read.

Malloy said he made the change to complete projects faster and to make capital spending more flexible after getting caught between the Planning Board’s $50 million request and the Board of Finance’s $40 million spending limit.

“I had to accommodate all of the work that the Planning Board had done and the demands of the Board of Finance,” Malloy said last month at an editorial board meeting with The Advocate. “I think I found the right way to do it.”

The Board of Finance votes on Malloy’s $447.8 million city and school operating budget, and his $72.6 million capital budget, tomorrow. Malloy’s proposal would increase property taxes by at least 9.38 percent.

The $72.6 million that Malloy is requesting for projects would be funded by $40 million in tax-supported general obligation bonds; $19.4 million in state and federal grants; and $13.2 million in other funding resources and self-supporting debt.

Malloy’s capital budget now groups projects by category. For example, he requested $5.3 million for 19 projects renovating parks and fields, including synthetic turf fields that have drawn fierce opposition from Shippan residents.

He also requested $1.6 million for 12 renovation projects covering leased facilities and outside agencies, including the Bartlett Arboretum, Stamford Historical Society and Yerwood Center.

“These are the projects that I believe need to move along,” Malloy said last month. “That’s how they’re grouped. But in the engineering and execution side, certain projects can move forward more rapidly than others. I want to be in a position to have the money necessary to move those projects along.”

It also will reduce the need for departments to go back to the finance board with requests for supplemental appropriations as the construction market changes, Malloy said.

Tarzia said he doesn’t accept Malloy’s reasons.

“He must think we’re all stupid,” Tarzia said. “If we lived under his reasoning, I guess we wouldn’t have a Board of Finance and a Board of Representatives. I think he’s obviously talking about a one-man rule. If citizens think that is the way to go, fine.”

But if elected boards want to divvy up the capital projects, they can reduce or eliminate Malloy’s proposal, forcing him to request funding separately later.

“We still have the authority and ability not to appropriate anything we choose not in the best interests of the city,” Board of Finance Chairman Michael Pollard said. “So to that end, it really leaves the Board of Finance power intact.”

Even so, Pollard requested a legal opinion to make sure the change does not violate the Charter.

According to the Charter, the capital budget must include a detailed estimate of the cost of each proposed project, and a report summarizing the status of each previously approved project, noting those that have been completed.

In a legal opinion issued this week, city attorney Thomas Cassone said the city frequently has combined several parts of a project into one, including the upgrade of vehicles, major bridge repairs or street resurfacing. Elected boards approved them, Cassone said.

“I do not believe that there is any qualitative difference in the current submission, except that existing capital project accounts are listed for informational purposes in the new submission,” Cassone wrote.

Tarzia dismissed the opinion because Cassone works for Malloy.

“It’s an opinion of the guy whose job is at the discretion of the mayor. Now give me a break,” he said. “The guy who works for me is going to do what I tell him to do. He’s not interested in protecting the Charter or the rights of the board.”

Pollard said the legal opinion reassured him that Malloy did not violate the Charter.

“I personally think you do need to have some degree of flexibility as to managing the city’s budget,” Pollard said. “I understand why he’s doing it and how he’s doing it and it’s not against the Charter.”

City Rep. Randall Skigen, D-19, chairman of the Fiscal Committee, said he still is concerned because the only way the boards can stop a project is to vote against an entire group of them. For example, the boards would have to vote against all 19 park and field improvement projects if they wanted to stop the city from installing two synthetic turf soccer fields at West Beach.

He also is concerned that the 12 renovation projects for the leased facilities and outside agencies would create competition among them to be the first to start construction or risk not having the project completed, Skigen said.

“I think there has been an unanticipated consequence of trying to create more efficiencies in the capital budget and that consequence is reducing the powers that the elected boards have and their oversight and approval of capital projects,” he said.

Skigen asked Director of Administration Sandra Dennies for a list of all the projects in each category. The Fiscal Committee, which is reviewing the budget until the end of the month, may vote on each project separately, Skigen said.

Malloy said that if the boards reduce or eliminate his request for certain projects, he may seek other funding sources, which would stall the work.

The changes he made this year are not different from what he did in the past, Malloy said. He’s trying to give Stamford residents the services they want by using a system that has proven it moves projects forward, he said.

“I tried to give the people of Stamford the biggest bang for their dollar,” the mayor said.