ANSONIA – The city’s charter revision commission could send their recommended changes for the city budget process to the Board of Aldermen Aug. 13.

At a meeting Aug. 6 at Ansonia City Hall, members of the commission went over budget referendum changes they’re considering sending to the Board of Aldermen. Members also said they’ve scrapped a proposal which would have allowed the Board of Aldermen to disregard a budget referendum’s results if not enough voters showed up.

The list of changes being considered by the commission can be viewed online here (scroll to page 2).

Here’s a brief breakdown of the current proposals, which concern the budget and the fire department.

Budget Referendum Changes

Officials could ask voters to change how budget referendums are triggered in Ansonia.

Currently, the Board of Aldermen votes to adopt a budget each year. If the approved budget contains an increase of 3 percent or more in ‘net taxes to be collected,’ then voters must approve the budget at a referendum before it can become law.

The proposed change would make it so that a referendum is instead triggered when an Aldermen-approved budget contains an increase of 4 percent or more in city expenditures. 

In other words – increases in city spending would trigger a referendum, as opposed to the number of tax dollars collected.

Ansonia CFO Michael Iodice said in a prior meeting that the new trigger would allow the city to draft budgets that account for inflation, while still giving voters a check if the budget grows beyond that number.

Voters rejected every budget presented to them in 2025 and 2026. In both years, the Aldermen ultimately adopted a budget which brought the increase low enough so that another referendum wasn’t required.

Alderman Daniel Stahl, speaking in public session at the Aug. 6 meeting, said that city departments are currently underfunded. He said changing the charter would allow the city to fund its departments at a higher level.

“Every department in the town is straining on resources. They’re underbudgeted this year and because of what we’re looking at for the 2027-28 fiscal year, that could be much worse,” Stahl said.

A budget proposal from Mayor Frank Tyszka earlier this year failed at referendum by a vote of about 499 to 483. If the charter change were in place, the Aldermen could have adopted that budget without going to referendum.

City resident Selina Rifkin, also speaking at the Aug. 6 meeting, suggested changing the charter so that referendums are required for every budget, instead of having a trigger.

Timeline Changes

Also included in the proposals are changes to budget deadlines in the city.

The changes would push all budget-related deadlines back by about a month. In practice, it would reflect how city budgets are actually drafted – the Board of Aldermen under both Tyszka and former David Cassetti have routinely disregarded the current budget deadlines going back to 2016.

The new proposed deadlines would require:

  • The mayor to propose a budget by the second Monday in March
  • The board of apportionment and taxation to submit a budget to the Board of Aldermen by the second Tuesday in April
  • The Board of Aldermen to hold a public hearing on the proposed budget by the second Tuesday in May
  • The Board of Aldermen to approve a budget by May 30.

The proposal would also increase the public notice period for a budget referendum. Currently, a budget requiring a referendum must go to voters within five calendar days of the Aldermen’s vote. The proposal would increase that to 14 calendar days.

Fire Department Changes

The proposals include changes which would lower the total number of fire chiefs in the city, from five to four, and which also update the charter’s language to be more in-line with what the fire department currently uses.

Ansonia Fire Department Chief Jay Fainer talked about proposed leadership changes in a recent interview, coming amid dwindling membership and the closure of two fire houses on the city’s west end.

One line in the charter is left mostly untouched in the proposal – “any vacancy in the office of an assistant fire chief shall be filled in the same manner as the original appointment,” it says.

That means that new assistant chiefs would still be elected, as they are currently. However, the department could impose additional requirements – such as achieving certain certifications – before an election is held.

The proposed charter changes would also change the chiefs’ titles. Currently, the chief of the department is “chief engineer” under the charter, while the assistant chiefs are “assistant engineers.”

The changes would make it so the department chief is “fire chief,” and below them are a “deputy chief,” “first assistant chief,” and “second assistant chief.”

The proposal would also remove a section relating to the superintendent of the fire alarm system, a position which no longer exists.

What’s Next?

The charter revision commission was originally scheduled to vote on a draft report to send to the Board of Aldermen Aug. 6. However, they voted to push that decision back by a week after a member of the city’s corporation counsel was unable to attend.

The commission is scheduled to meet 7 p.m. Aug. 13 at Ansonia City Hall to vote on their draft report.

After the Aldermen receive it, they will need to hold a new public hearing over the proposed changes. The Aldermen could then vote to make changes to the draft report’s recommendations, or they could make no changes, at which point the draft report would become final.

Any approved changes would require voter approval at a referendum before they could become law.

The deadline for questions to be sent to the ballot is Sept. 4.