Former First Selectman Robert Koskelowski said the town’s finance board erred by creating a budget that assumes the town’s public works director will lose his job.
Seymour residents are scheduled to vote Thursday (May 17) on whether to spend $52 million to run the town and school districts next year.
Voters rejected the original spending plan when it went out to referendum May 3.
The budget then went back to the town’s finance board, who reduced the spending request by about $530,000 in order to send it out Thursday for another try.
The finance board removed roughly $90,000 from the Department of Public Works.
On paper, $30,000 came out of the DPW’s overtime snow removal account and $60,000 came out of the department’s “snowplow material” line.
In reality though, the $90,000 may be coming out of Department of Public Works Director Dennis Rozum’s pocket.
How so?
In order to save money and promote efficiency, First Selectman Kurt Miller has an ambitious plan to reorganize and consolidate town jobs. Part of that reorganization plan calls for some of the public works director’s responsibilities to be absorbed by a director of operations.
However, eliminating Rozum’s position requires a recommendation from the town’s public works board and a Board of Selectmen vote. That has not happened yet.
But the budget going to voters has Rozum’s position in it, which is not accurate, Koskelowski told members of the Seymour Board of Selectmen during a meeting Tuesday.
“I have a great deal of concern about that,” Koskelowski said, “because when I vote for a budget I vote as it is presented to us.”
Koskelowski said he doesn’t support eliminating Rozum’s position.
Rozum’s not in a union, but he supervisors union members. It provides a system of checks and balances within the department, he said.
Furthermore, having a union foreman supervising other union members isn’t a good idea, Koskelowski said.
The ex-First Selectman also said the town won’t be saving huge sums of cash by laying off Rozum. They’ll have to pay part of his unemployment benefits, Koskelowski said.
He said the Board of Finance overstepped its boundaries by assuming Rozum will be laid off — and therefore put pressure on the Selectmen to eliminate Rozum’s position.
Koskelowski said the move violates the Seymour charter.
“The Board of Finance cannot dictate policy (on) who is hired and who is working for the Town of Seymour,” he told Selectmen. “That is what they’ve done to this board. They’ve put you on the spot.”
Koskelowski’s comments can be viewed during the first 10 minutes of this video.
First Selectman Kurt Miller said Wednesday the Board of Finance listened to the people — who had just rejected their budget — and made a tough decision concerning town finances.
Finance board meeting minutes show chairman Trish Danka said in order to get a budget approved by voters, the finance board had to show they were serious about saving money. Click here to download the meeting minutes.
Click here for a previous story.
In an e‑mail to the Valley Indy, Board of Finance chairman Trish Danka disagreed with Koskelowski’s opinion and said the process had been double-checked by the town attorney.
She said noted that while he was First Selectman, Koskelowski had also planned a re-organization within town government, but never got it off the ground.
The “cuts” the finance board made to the just-rejected budget made sense.
“I stand by the BOF’s decision to suggest exactly what it suggested as it was done recognizing exactly where boundaries lie. The BOF put forth what it felt was a responsible budget to the towns’ people, but
then cuts were made with justifications because of a failed referendum (that is our job), and then recommendations were made to the appropriate board,” she said in the e‑mail.
Two members of the town’s public works board have also said they supported the finance board’s move.
“The Board of Finance were very clear in their instructions. They entertained and passed a motion unanimously to underline what they were doing,” Miller said Wednesday. “I appreciate what Bob is saying, but there was no under-handed action.”
Miller said with a national economy still struggling and a local mill rate ever on the increase, the town is making difficult decisions. Those decisions include consolidating and eliminating positions within Seymour government.
“The Selectmen voted unanimously to put these management changes into place. We are trying to get better efficiencies and more accountability,” he said. “The unions have signed off. Everybody is on board with these changes. These changes are happening.”
The town is also relying on a firm’s report that detailed areas where Seymour government could be improved.
The process by which the director’s position may be eliminated is unusual. The traditional process in Seymour would have been for the public works board to make a recommendation to the Board of Selectmen.
Instead, the move is originating from the Board of Finance, citing a need to respond to the public’s desire to save money and changes recommended in a report.
“If you listen to what residents have said, they are looking for change. The status quo is not what they want to see,” Miller said. “We have a system in place that is not the most efficient. We’re making changes to the structure of town government and these changes lessen the need for certain town positions,” he said. “At the same time, we realize these changes are affecting some very good people. We’re all struggling with that, quite frankly.”
