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.