Finance Committee Hears from Department Heads

The Finance Committee has begun the process of interviewing department heads about their department’s needs and how they stack up against the mayor’s proposed budget.

On Thursday, the committee heard from the Information Technology Department and the Planning Department.

The IT Department, which is headed by Bill O’Neill, has requested $326,973. In the mayor’s proposed budget, the department would receive $306,756. The mayor’s budget would cut $20,000 from the department’s request for $40,000 for consulting services, and would cut $500 from the department’s $2,500 request for training and conferences.

Donna Geary, who volunteers on the web team, spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting, defending the department and its contribution to the town.

“The IT director helps employees work,” Geary said. “Bill always thinks of what can be done better and faster.”

O’Neill pointed out that all departments in the town use the services of the IT Department, and that the information that the department maintains is critical to the functioning and continued growth of the town.

In addition, he said, “My budget was not created out of thin air. My budget was created by taking money from different departments and putting it all in one place.”

O’Neill asked that consideration be given to adding a part-time staffer to the department, to handle some of the regular tasks, while O’Neill works on more complex projects, including the installation of computers in the new public safety building.

“It’s a high number to swallow,” said Town Councilor Billy Caron, who sits on the Finance Committee, “but everything is a number to swallow. These (departments) can not function property if their computers go down.”

After O’Neill, Marcia Vlaun spoke about the Planning Department’s budget request. Planning has requested $255,986. The mayor’s proposed budget sets the department at $214,463. The hours of an administrative assistant position and an assistant planner position would be cut, though the positions would not be eliminated. Office supplies would be cut from $2,000 to $1,500; training and conferences would be cut from $1,000 to $800. Miscellaneous supplies and reference materials would be cut from $500 each to $250 each.

“I’m not here to rant and rave about the budget,” Vlaun said. “I want to put my town planner hat on.”

She said she didn’t think there was “any remote possibility” that the town should be raising taxes. Furthermore, she suggested an entirely new way of approaching the concept of budgeting.

Vlaun gave the finance committee an overview of the demographics and economic situation of the town.

Montville’s 2010 per capita income is lower than any of the towns that border it, she said.  Unemployment is in the 9 percent range; it was 9.3 percent in January, 9.4 percent in February and 9.1 percent in March.

The median age of the Montville citizenry was 38 in 2010 and 39 in 2011.

“We’ve gained a year in a year,” she said.

Mohegan Sun Casino, the Montville Board of Education and the Department of Correction are the largest employers in town. According to the Department of Labor, wages from private industry are low in Montville compared to bordering towns, New London County and the state as a whole.

And, she said, “We have a very unusual stat. Three-quarters of the houses in Montville are owner-occupied.” And so, she said, raising property taxes in Montville really affects property owners.

“Montville is truly a blue-collar working town,” she said. “That’s why I am advocating for the people, (and saying) that a substantial increase could not be absorbed.”

Vlaun made a series of suggestions about ways the town might be able to save money.

One tactic would be to shift to a kind of budgeting that focuses on performance rather than history.

How much did we actually achieve? Vlaun asked.  What’s that measurement?

Until government begins to set measurable goals, she said, “what we have every year is a budget that shows historical spending (and) that’s not a meaningful measure.

“The budget should be fashioned around specific targets and our resources allocated to those areas ... that we have identified.”

Vlaun also suggested doing more bulk purchasing, and seeking buying cooperatives through groups like the Council of Governments.

“From road salt to police ammunition to paper…” she said, “Regional purchasing opportunities can be very large – I think there are substantial savings to be had along those lines.”

Vlaun said she believed that a purchasing agent working less than a full-time job could “do an immense amount of good for the town,” and she suggested perhaps splitting a full-time position between human resources and purchasing.

Cutting legal bills would be another way to save money. Cross training of personnel, moving routine permitting on line, cutting unnecessary meetings and seeking more regional opportunities were other ideas Vlaun mentioned.

Before cutting employees’ hours, she said, it would be worth seeing if employees would be willing to give up their holiday bonuses. After determining the financial value of furlough days for the town, that might be another option to consider.

“I don’t think that the chopping of the (zoning enforcement officer) position is the way to start restructuring,” she said.

“Give us a chance to reorganize, and in the future, we may be able to cut some of these positions.”

An earlier version of this story described Donna Geary's connection to the IT department incorrectly.