A screen shot from Tuesday's Derby BOAT meeting.
DERBY — The city’s budget process got off to a rocky start Tuesday as Mayor Rich Dziekan presented his proposed spending plan to the city’s tax board.
Dziekan said his budget does not raise taxes but continues to move Derby forward.
However, the documents presented to the tax board had several numerical errors.
For example, the budget document from the mayor’s office stated the tax board approved a revenue line totaling about $43.3 million last May, when the actual dollar amount voted on and placed into the public record was $4 million higher.
The video from Tuesday’s meeting is embedded below. The article continues after the document.
During the meeting City/Town Clerk Marc Garofalo pointed out there were several other mistakes in the data presented. Derby Registrar of Voters Louise Pitney also said dollar amounts involving her department were incorrect.
Immediately after the meeting, in response to an inquiry about a revenue line item, Walt Mayhew, Dziekan’s chief of staff, sent a new document to The Valley Indy. That document contains accurate info, Mayhew said, and is embedded at the bottom of this story.
In an email, Mayhew said the document presented to the tax board Tuesday was a spreadsheet created from the city’s financial software program, and that some column headings were misaligned in the process.
The new document shows Dziekan proposing a budget totaling $48,368,973. That is a budget-to-budget increase of $981,396 — or 2 percent.
Dziekan told the tax board the budget takes $1 million from the city’s fund balance (reserve accounts) to pay for a 20 percent increase in health insurance.
Bond rating agencies have criticized Derby in the past for not having enough money in its fund balance. However, Dziekan said the city will have a fund balance totalling 10.4 percent of the operating budget, which he said is within recommended guidelines.
Dziekan also said his budget fully staffs the Derby Police Department, which, like police departments all over, is seeing many veteran officers retire.
The mayor’s proposed budget includes $60,583 more in education money for Derby Public Schools. However, that 0.3 percent increase is less than the 4.8 percent ($913,805) the school board asked for. The Derby school board’s budget submission to the mayor’s office is also embedded at the bottom of this post.
“This year’s proposed Mayoral appropriation is in essence another year where the Board of Education is being flatlined,” school board chairman Jim Gildea told The Valley Indy.
“This would be the fourth year out of the last five where the Board of Education has received no increase. We had hoped that this year would be different and we remain hopeful that the Tax Board will provide a more reasonable appropriation to the Board of Education that better addresses the needs of our students.“
Choppy Waters
Six tax board members were present at Tuesday’s meeting. The board has many new members.
A charter change approved by voters compels the mayor to present a proposed budget to the tax board by March 1 — which was the purpose of Tuesday’s meeting.
However, the documents were presented to the tax board only a few hours before the meeting, a sore point for some members.
In addition, Roberto Santos repeatedly pointed out the Derby Charter states department heads are supposed to hand in department budgets to the tax board and the mayor in February.
Santos questioned why the department budgets only went to the mayor’s office.
In addition, Santos questioned why the mayor’s chief of staff was playing such a large role in the budget process when the city hired a new director of finance.
Agata Herasimowicz, hired as the finance director in May, did not speak during Tuesday’s meeting. Budget questions were instead directed to Mayhew, Dziekan’s chief of staff.
The mayor’s office Wednesday would not answer a question about the finance director’s employment status. The Valley Indy submitted a freedom of information request Wednesday evening seeking communication between the mayor’s office and Herasimowicz.
Tax board member Jennifer Desroches said the mayor’s office must provide more detailed financial data to the tax board, the group responsible for setting the tax rate in the city.
Dziekan repeatedly offered to appear at future tax board meetings to answer budget questions from the members of the tax board.
According to statements made at the meeting, the tax board will be meeting every Tuesday through April to go over the budget. Department heads will be invited to detail their funding requests.
A public hearing will also have to be scheduled.
A budget must be approved by the end of April.
Derby Mayor's Budget Proposal by The Valley Indy on Scribd
FY23 Derby Schools Budget Book to City by The Valley Indy on Scribd
