Editor’s note: Edward Adamowski, chairman of the Ansonia Board of Aldermen’s Finance Committee, read this statement into the record at a public meeting May 20 and asked that it be reprinted here.
Each member of the Finance Committee of the Board of Aldermen worked long and hard to come up with a budget that is responsible for the city and all the residents.
This statement contains facts related to that work and the process it followed.
The Finance Committee of the Board of Alderman started its portion of the budget process in early January 2013.
The committee meetings were held in City Hall two-to-three times a week for two-to-three hours per night.
We met nine times in full session, hearing from 17 different municipal departments in more than 30 hours of formal meetings. It must be remembered that each member is a volunteer with full-time jobs and family responsibilities which must be sacrificed for these efforts.
We spent countless hours doing what we can to make the City of Ansonia a better place for all. As chair of the Finance Committee, I have attended approximately 35 to 40 meetings in the past several months, ranging from Fire Department meetings, school security, Board of Aldermen meetings, upcoming bonding issue meetings, to the demolition of the Olson Drive complex and many, many more.
As far as the Board of Education (BOE) budget is concerned, I personally have three children in the school system. Alderman Marcinko has children in the school system, and others on the Board have family members that work in the school system and have gone through the Ansonia school system themselves.
With that said, the elected officials of the Board of Aldermen have a job to do.
That job is to make decisions on a daily basis sometimes which directly affect the City of Ansonia. We are put here by the people, by the residents of our Wards and we must represent them and their beliefs.
The biggest problem we currently face is that the State of Connecticut keeps cutting and cutting their funding to town and cities, which leaves us with two options: We either make cuts ourselves and try to fund it the best we can or we fully fund all the money the state cuts from us.
We made our recommendations and we respect the decision by the Board of Apportionment and Taxation (BOAT) to make their decision. BOAT has the final responsibility according to our City Charter and has exercised that responsibility for generations.
I do believe we need to come up with a solution because the City of Ansonia’s residents simply cannot afford increases in taxes such as this. The BOE has made it very clear to the Finance Committee that they will be coming in with a multi-million increase in their budget every year.
The city just keeps getting buried with salary increases, rising health care costs and many other mandated items which we are required to fund. Many departments this took cuts. Some increased, but most of the increases were contractual or mandatory budget items.
In closing, we the Finance Committee of the Board of Aldermen will continue to serve the city and we will also stand by our decision on the budget requests. It represented a good faith attempt to balance department priorities, including education, with the concerns of hard-pressed taxpayers.
Board of Aldermen Finance Committee Meetings and Attendance:
Jan. 9, 2013
Adamowski, Marcinko, Tripp, Sharkey, Fainer — present
Knapp, Marini — absent
Jan. 10, 2013
Adamowski, Tripp, Sharkey, Fainer — present
Marcinko, Knapp, Marini — absent
Jan. 14, 2013
Adamowski, Marcinko, Tripp, Sharkey, Fainer, Knapp, Marini — present
Jan. 15, 2013
Adamowski, Marcinko, Tripp, Sharkey, Fainer, Knapp, Marini — present
Jan. 17, 2013
Adamowski, Tripp, Sharkey, Fainer, Knapp, Marini — present
Marcinko — absent
Jan. 22, 2013
Adamowski, Marcinko, Tripp, Sharkey — present
Fainer, Knapp — absent
Jan. 24, 2013
Adamowski, Marcinko, Tripp, Sharkey, Fainer, Knapp, Marini — present
Jan. 29, 2013
Adamowski, Knapp, Marcinko, Tripp, Sharkey, Marini — present
Fainer — absent
Jan. 31, 2013
Adamowski, Marcinko, Tripp, Sharkey, Fainer, Knapp, Marini — present
All meetings started as 6 p.m. and lasted anywhere from one hour to three hours.
