Ansonia Aldermen began closing a $4 million shortfall in the city’s pension fund for school secretaries and custodians Monday (Nov. 10) to the tune of $550,000.
But how and when the city will close the rest of the gap remains to be seen.
Background
City officials revealed the pension shortfall over the summer, and suggested a portion of the proceeds from the city leasing a cell tower on city-owned land near Nolan Field on Wakelee Avenue could be put toward closing the pension gap.
In June Aldermen voted to go forward with the lease — to Unison, a company specializing in leasing cell sites from municipalities — for a 40-year term in exchange for a $1.45 million lump sum.
Before the deal, the city had been getting about $9,000 in monthly income from the cell tower.
Click here for more information from a previous story.
The issue didn’t come up again until the Aldermen’s October meeting, at which Charles Stowe and Edward Adamowski, who represent the city’s First Ward, asked what was going on with the money from the lease, which had been sitting in the city’s general fund.
What’s Going On With That $1.45 Million?
Last month Stowe said he was told during a previous executive session that “all the money was going to be spent for the pension fund.”
But there’s no record of what was actually said because the portion of the meeting where the cell tower lease was discussed took place in executive session.
The closed-door executive session discussion was legal under the Freedom of Information Act, which allows public agencies to discuss real estate deals out of public view.
John Marini, the city’s corporation counsel, told Stowe last month that the city is committed to funding the pensions, but that there was “never, never, never, a commitment, an earmark, for any money, any specific money, to go to any specific purpose.”
Stowe said he was bothered.
“I sat in here and it swayed my vote to sell that tower for the unfunded pensions,” he said.
Last month, Adamowski, who voted against the cell tower lease, said he was glad he did so.
“Every time this comes up I’m more and more glad I voted no,” he said. “This has really turned into a show.”
“I’d be impressed to see if you’d see a penny of that money go (toward the pension fund),” he said.
Article continues after video from the October meeting.
$550,000 Transfer
But, on Monday (Nov. 10) Aldermen voted unanimously to put 55 million pennies into the fund.
Mayor David Cassetti said during the meeting the $550,000 transfer — from the city’s general fund to the pension fund — represented a “solid down payment” toward closing the $4 million gap.
Lida Princevalli, a secretary at the high school who is president of Ansonia Federation of Education Personnel Local 3543, the union to which school secretaries and media professionals belong, spoke during the meeting’s public session and asked the Aldermen to keep working on closing the gap.
“Continue to fix this and (do) not continue to push the problem to the back burner any longer,” she said.
After the vote, Princevalli said the $550,000 was a step in the right direction.
“It’s a start,” she said, thanking Aldermen and the city’s comptroller, William Nimons, who is also the president of the Board of Education. “I have confidence this administration’s moving the right way with it.”
Adamowski said the $550,000 transfer was a good first step, and said he was glad the administration was so responsive to the concerns he and Stowe raised last month, but wondered when the rest of the gap will be closed.
“I don’t know if you’ll see much more go into it this year,” he said. “They’ve got to hold money for other things, obviously, like putting money on the revenue side of the budget to lower taxes again. I think it’s a start. I’m glad to see that something went in there.”
Cassetti said he’s committed to funding the pension plan fully but won’t be able to reveal how he’ll propose to do so until next year.
“We have a plan that we’ll present probably in March to add some more money to it,” he said, adding that he is waiting for the results of an actuarial study on recommended contributions for the city to make.
