Derby Tax Board Has Started To Review Budget Requests

In a screen shot from a Derby government meeting, Derby Police Chief Gerald Narowski reviews costs connected to new mandates from the state.

DERBY — The elected board that sets the mill rate in the city has begun to hear budget proposals from city department heads.

The Derby Board of Apportionment and Taxation met Tuesday to review funding requests from the Derby Police Department, the Derby Fire Department, Derby Storms Ambulance and Rescue, Derby Library, and the Derby Senior Center.

Derby Police Chief Gerald Narowski is asking for a 2.78 funding increase from the tax board. The increase would bring his department’s budget to $4,067,942.

Right now the Derby Police Department’s budget is $3,954,931, according to information shared at Tuesday’s meeting, so the chief is asking for an additional $113,011 to run the department in the fiscal year starting July 1, 2021.

The chief said he’s not asking for additional police officers or civilian staff. There’s no new programs in the budget either, the chief said.

The department needs money to cover the roughly 2 percent raises due to officers as agreed upon in the police labor contract, and to cover the contractual increases that happen every year (items such as heat and electricity, for example). New money that is also needed to cover new requirements from the state’s police accountability act” adopted by the state legislature last year.

It’s pretty simple: general wage increases, contracts, and the new law,” Narowski said.

The new law requires additional drug testing for police (including steroid screening, which is expensive), new training for police officers, new mental health screenings, and the purchase of body and dashboard cameras.

The fire department isn’t seeking additional funding to the $325,000 the city provided in the current budget.

However, the fire department and Derby Storms (a nonprofit agency) are requesting new apparatus to replace aging fire trucks and ambulances. Those are big-ticket items, but Derby Fire Commissioner Gary Parker said the department is looking to retire three fire trucks (layman’s term) and replace with two trucks. 

Usually the Storms and the FD replace equipment separately — and it’s usually a one-for-one replacement — but this year the two agencies conducted a review of the fleet with an eye toward efficiency. Parker said the move will likely save Derby $1.4 million in the long run.

That money to make the new purchases would be covered through bonding, which falls outside Derby’s operating budget and is included in the city’s capital plan.

I was tasked by the Mayor (Rich Dziekan) to see what we could streamline where we could, so I reached out to the ambulance corps and (Storms Chief) Brian (Mezzapelle). His officers and his members were more than willing (to help),” Parker told tax board members.

Speaking of Mayor Dziekan, this is the first budget to be created after voters approved a bunch of changes to the Derby Charter in November. One such change was giving the mayor a more formal role in the budget preparation process by having him present a budget to the tax board.

The mayor’s version of the budget is due March 1, according to a timeline under review by the tax board.

Derby Public Schools are scheduled to present a budget to the tax board 7 p.m. March 9.

A public hearing on the budget is tentatively scheduled for April 6. 

The meetings are scheduled to be held on Zoom. Meeting info, including how to join the meetings, is posted on the city website.

This could be another tough budget year in Derby. While the mayor is expected to present a budget that holds the line on taxes, it is a revaluation year. Some properties in the Academy Hill Road/Sentinel Hill Road area received new assessments showing big increases, which could or could not translate into a tax increase, depending on what spending and revenue plan the tax board approves.

Brian Coppolo, a member of the tax board, asked for more detailed information regarding the impact of revaluation on properties in the city. He indicated he wanted to see what the trends are in the city, so the board can be better informed while putting the budget together.

A draft copy of the budget is embedded below. Keep in mind it is a working document, and reflects the initial requests from each department. It does not necessarily reflect the final product, which is supposed to be decided upon in mid-April. 

The document below was posted on the city’s website in advance of the Feb. 23 meeting.

Draft Derby Budget by The Valley Indy

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