Proposals to decrease the number of wards and aldermen in Ansonia, as well as changes to the city’s budget process, could be on the ballot for voters this November.
Those are the most significant changes suggested by a Charter Revision Commission appointed in January to review the city’s governing document.
A public hearing on the proposals is scheduled for Wednesday (Aug. 20) at 7 p.m. in Aldermanic Chambers at City Hall, 253 Main St.
A special meeting of the Charter Revision Commission is scheduled for immediately after the public hearing.
At that meeting, the commission may send the proposals to the Board of Aldermen to be considered for the November ballot.
The Aldermen have a special meeting scheduled for Aug. 26 at 7 p.m. at which they may vote to put the suggested changes on the November election ballot or send the proposals back to the Charter Revision Commission.
Fewer Wards, AldermenAmong the changes proposed by the commission is a proposal to reduce the number of wards in the city from seven to three.
Under the proposal, the Board of Aldermen would be reduced from 14 to nine members, with three Aldermen elected from each ward, instead of two.
In formulating the changes, the commission had a general discussion what the new wards would be.
One idea was to divide the city into a “West side” ward, a “Valley,” or central, ward, and a “Hilltop” ward.
But the actual boundaries would be drawn by a to-be-appointed Ward Boundary Commission, balancing the population of each new ward.
According to the minutes of a July 9 Charter Revision Commission meeting, Registrars of Voters Thomas Maffeo and Nancy Valentine told commission members that reducing the number of wards could cut election costs by about a third, from $15,000 per election to $10,000 per election.
Christopher Lisi, the chairman of the Charter Revision Commission, said the projected savings convinced him reducing the number of wards in the city was a good idea.
“The money that it will save, while some might look at it as inconsequential, in one election, if you add that up over a number of years, I think there will be a real cost savings,” he said.
Though he and other members of the commission were concerned fewer wards would mean lower voter turnout, Lisi said the registrars told the commission they don’t think turnout will be affected adversely.
Budget ChangesAnother proposal follows up on a promise made by Mayor David Cassetti when he was campaigning last year.
Cassetti said at the time that the mayor should be more involved in the budget process, and that final authority on the city’s spending plan shouldn’t rest with the unelected Board of Apportionment and Taxation.
Cassetti, at the time, proposed abolishing BOAT altogether.
Under the proposed changes to be considered Wednesday, BOAT will still exist, though it would be reduced from 12 to seven members, equally split between political parties, with at least one politically unaffiliated member.
The changes would also give Aldermen, not BOAT, final say on the city’s annual budget.
The process would begin with the mayor presenting a budget proposal to BOAT by the second Monday of February.
BOAT would review the spending plan, make changes, and send it to the Aldermen by the second Tuesday in March.
The Aldermen would have to finalize a budget by April 30, a few weeks earlier than the current deadline.
If a budget calls for a net increase of more than 3 percent in the city’s property tax rate, it would be put to voters at a referendum under a charter change approved by voters last year.
Click here for more background on the budget referendum.
The Charter Revision Commission also suggested limiting BOAT’s power to reviewing spending only if it increases a city department’s budget. Currently, BOAT reviews all transfers of city funds, even between line items in the same department’s budget.
Under the proposed changes, the city’s comptroller and mayor would approve transfers of money being moved around within a department. Aldermen would review those transactions monthly and could veto them by a two-thirds vote.
Lisi said that the commission’s members suggested the budget changes with an August 2013 public hearing on last year’s changes to the charter in mind.
At that hearing, residents overwhelmingly endorsed the referendum concept and, in general, the concept of more oversight over city spending.
But the commission didn’t have enough time to devote to overhauling the process, Lisi, who also served on the commission last year, said.
“We heard from the public and they wanted basically what we’ve put in place, that the people that they elect are held accountable for the budgets that are put in place,” Lisi said. “Really we just didn’t have enough time in the last charter revision to implement what we’re trying to implement now.”
Other Changes
The Charter Revision Commission also suggested abolishing several defunct departments and boards.
Among them is the “Department of Welfare,” created in 1905 and charged with “the general superintendence, management, and control of the affairs of said city relative to poor persons, insane persons, and imbeciles.”
The other entities to be abolished are
- the Board of Health, the functions of which are now performed by the Naugatuck Valley Health District.
- the Sinking Fund Commission
The proposed changes also call for renaming the Board of Tax Review the Board of Assessment Appeals, as well as consolidates and clarifies the language in the charter concerning the powers of the mayor.
For instance, a section of the charter gives the mayor the power, “whenever he shall have reason to believe that great opposition will be made to the execution of his authority, (to) exert all the force necessary to enable him to execute the laws within said city.”
The charter, as it currently exists, also gives the mayor the power to take command of the city’s police department any time he wants, says the mayor can preside at Board of Education meetings, and prohibits police officers from campaigning for political candidates.
Charter Revision Commission members suggested deleting those passages.
During his campaign for mayor last year, Cassetti proposed more sweeping changes to city government and the budget process, including the elimination of BOAT altogether and the creation of a “city manager” form of government.
John Marini, the architect of Cassetti’s campaign and currently the city’s corporation counsel, said Cassetti’s administration decided such “drastic” action wasn’t yet needed.
“The thought was to right now start the process of making things more efficient and maybe see how that works before making what would be the most drastic change, which would be changing the actual form of city government,” Marini said. “These changes are pretty progressive, but they’re more conservative than some of the ideas that had been thrown around before.
“The big driver behind the abolition of BOAT was putting the decision for finances into the hands of elected officials, and these proposals do just that,” Marini went on.
A copy of the agenda for Wednesday’s hearing, as well as the current charter, with proposed changes marked in red text, is posted below. Below that is a summary of the charter changes posted on the city’s website.
