FILE PHOTO
Members of the Derby Board of Apportionment and Taxation at a previous budget discussion a few years back.
DERBY — A public discussion of Derby’s budget mess scheduled for Wednesday has been pushed to next week.
“I cancelled the meeting because I don’t have the information I need yet in order to adopt a budget,” tax board chairwoman Judy Szewczyk said in an email.
A new date for the meeting has not been set, but Szewczyk said she expects it to happen next week.
Also, Mayor Rich Dziekan is expected to issue a detailed statement regarding the city budget woes Thursday or Friday, according to Andrew Baklik, the mayor’s chief of staff.
The annual budget process in Derby went off the rails during two tax board meetings earlier this month, when city officials revealed the city budget mistakenly “double booked” a $1.2 million state education grant in the current budget.
That mistake left a hole in the city budget for this fiscal year, which ends on June 30, and has left the city short as it tries to put together a one-year spending plan for the upcoming 2019 – 2020 fiscal year.
City taxpayers could be hit by shrapnel from the mistake in the form of a 3.8 mill tax hike — and that’s just to correct the mistake.
On May 24, officials said that Derby City Treasurer Keith McLiverty, Derby Finance Director Sal Coppola, Derby Public Schools Superintendent Matthew Conway and school district business manager Mark Izzo would be meeting to figure out options.
Those options were supposed to be aired Wednesday, along with information about whether any other issues were discovered in past Derby budgets, something that has been mentioned several times at public meetings.
The information isn’t ready yet, Szewczyk said.
“They are working on that information and looking into some possible solutions so that the taxpayer is not presented with such a sudden, steep increase in their mill rate,” she said in an email.
The agenda for Wednesday’s meeting noted the tax board would have considered adopting a preliminary budget, at which point a public hearing is usually scheduled. But everything is different this year.
“A complete deep dive is being performed to verify budget accuracy, review of assumptions for the 19 – 20 fiscal year, and (to develop) solutions to the current situation that will benefit taxpayers and restore fiscal stability,” the mayor’s office said in a statement.
Meanwhile, The Connecticut Post reported that the state education department is “reviewing” alliance district education grants given to the city in the 2017 – 2018 and 2018 – 2019 fiscal years.
Traditionally, Derby officials have said the city charter sets an end of May deadline to create a budget — or the current budget stays in place. Members of the tax board (elected volunteers) said they would be missing this year’s deadline, given the problems.
The situation is Derby also has political ramifications, with a municipal election slated for November. Mayor Dziekan, a Republican, has already said he’s running for a second term.
Last week, Aniello Malerba, chairman of the Derby Town Democratic Committee, wrote a letter to the editor questioning the mayor’s stewardship of the city.
“Again, the Mayor will be issuing a more detailed statement before the weekend,” Baklik said.
