A still image from the hybrid meeting of the Derby Board of Aldermen and Alderwomen on June 20.
DERBY – The city’s Board of Aldermen and Alderwomen voted on June 20 to use $1.796 million in American Rescue Act Funds (ARPA) to cover shortfalls in the 2023 – 2024 budget.
The city’s legislative body had previously voted in March to use ARPA funds to bolster Derby’s budget. The June 20 vote specifically spelled out how just under $1.8 million would be used.
The board voted to use $1.4 million to cover a deficit in employee benefits. Derby Finance Director Brian Hall has repeatedly said the city’s 2023 – 2024 budget, approved under Mayor Rich Dziekan’s administration, underestimated those expenses by more than $1 million.
The board also voted to use $396,000 to close three holes in the school budget.
The school district money shortfall was the result of “miscommunication between BOE and city hall,” according to a meeting agenda.
The $396,000 was broken down as follows:
According to an explanation from Derby Public Schools Superintendent Matthew Conway, the city was supposed to be covering pension liability payments for the district’s paraeducators, but had not been making those payments. About $170,000 was owed.
The city also agreed to cover $153,000 in school district medical buyouts: that’s people who opt not to take benefits from the school district. The city pays the school district’s medical benefits.
The Alders also agreed to release $73,000 to the school district categorized on the agenda as ‘grant monies collected and budgeted for by the city that the BOE budgeted to receive.’
Conway explained the money is from the ‘E‑Rate program,’ which enables school districts to get reimbursed for tech data use. Conway had previously worked out a deal with the Derby tax board to use E‑Rate money to pay for school resource officers in the district.
Conway said an issue over the years in Derby is that agreements are hashed out during budget season with city government and the school district – but the agreements are never “codified.” Instead, the info is passed along through emails and exists in meeting minutes.
Hall touched upon the same problem when he noted past Derby tax boards tended to put money aside in the budget’s “special working balance,” with no penny-by-penny list explaining how the money was to be used.
He said that the school district and the city work on two different financial software systems, and that more communication is needed on a regular basis to prevent future budget “misses.”
