The Board of Selectmen and town administration brought some of their recent financial frustrations and operational confusion to the Board of Finance on Wednesday night, Mar. 5, while presenting the town’s proposed operating budget of $37,402,033.
The budget represents a 4.41% increase over the current year.
In a two-and-a-half hour public session, First Selectman Toni Boucher and her team sought to explain and justify their proposal, arguing that they began their budget planning already in the hole due to insurance increases and the loss of reserve funds.
“We’re in a period of tremendous growth,” Boucher said several times, arguing for including two new full-time firefighters positions in the budget.
“It was fairly impossible to get to the 3% guidance,” she told the BOF members, who had asked her to come in at or below that increase.
BOF Chair Matt Raimondi asked directly where cuts would come if his board sent the budget back to the BOS asking for a reduction per its 3% guidance.
“That was the guidance,” he said. “If the Board of Finance were to decide to back that number, what change would need to be made to this budget? How would you get there?”
Boucher cited the two firefighters, which the BOS had discussed previously as the item that would go first. While this would reduce the budget proposal by $216,000, it would still leave it at an increase above 3.75%.
Selectman Bas Nabulsi said he did not know how the BOS could reduce the budget further.
“I can only speak for myself,” he said. “I don’t know if I could envision a plan to get all the way to 3%. I don’t know how that would be accomplished.”
Selectman Ross Tartell defended the work of the BOS, disputing an article in GOOD Morning Wilton that described the board’s choice to pass the decision on to the financiers about further reductions, as untrue.
“We talked at the last meeting and outlined a range of alternatives because — I’ll just speak frankly — in GOOD Morning Wilton it said the Board of Selectmen is throwing the ball into the Board of Finance, and nothing could be further from the truth,” he said. “So we outlined a number of things and I don’t know if we came to a conclusion of where we would go.
“That would be a discussion that the Board of Selectmen would have to make,” Tartell said, “but we discussed what some of that feasible set of alternatives might be.”
Asked what they were, Tartell said, “Go to the videotape.”
At its Feb. 27 meeting, during which the BOS arrived at a 4.45% increase that would include the two firefighters, Boucher said the BOF never asked their opinion about its guidance suggestion before arriving at 3%, though earlier in the year she and Town Administrator Matt Knickerbocker did present a preliminary budget to the financiers.
“I would suggest that we keep the firemen in and bring the Board of Finance the 4.45 [percent increase] and then they can make a decision,” she said on Feb. 27.
Selectman Josh Cole noted that while there was discussion of reducing pension funding for the fire and police departments, concerns were expressed about how that move might impact the town’s bond rating.
He also cited a 3% increase to the library as another item that might be considered for reduction.
Selectwoman Kim Healy was the sole dissenting vote against the BOS budget proposal on Monday, Mar. 3, in part because she did not want to see the two new firefighter positions included in this year’s budget, arguing that more data was needed to support the expense.
At Wednesday’s joint BOF/BOS meeting, Fire Chief Jim Blanchfield presented his argument for why he felt his department needed additional personnel, citing in part the size of new, large houses and upcoming multi-family developments.
“We just thought it was an appropriate time to bring this forward to the town,” he said, indicating that these first two new hires were the first step in a wider expansion.
Asked if his department was ever consulted on the new projects brought before the Planning and Zoning Commission, Blanchfield said they were called in to review plans all the time, giving praise to his working relationship with P&Z.
While Blanchfield argued that call volume has increased over 80% since 1999, the last time the department made substantial increases to personnel, BOF members still questioned exactly what composed that list of calls, half of which Blanchfield said are medical.
That prompted a question of whether more Emergency Medical Service personnel could satisfy the call response need for less money.
BOF Vice Chair Stewart Koenigsberg also raised the question of whether Wilton should follow Ridgefield’s model and likewise collect service fees for its EMS calls.
Editor’s note: According to Wilton Volunteer Ambulance Corps President John Miscioscia, the state determines what emergency medical services patients can be billed for and how much, and only the entity that holds a license can bill for services. Generally, the only service for which a patient can be billed is transportation to the hospital. The town holds the advanced life support (ALS) license for the Norwalk Hospital paramedics, and when paramedics handle the transport, the town already receives whatever insurance reimburses. WVAC holds the basic life support (BLS) license, and receives whatever insurance reimburses when WVAC EMS handles transport. Miscioscia said WVAC covers the administrative fees on behalf of the town for ALS transport billing, for which it does not get reimbursed. For calls where transport is not involved, insurance companies don’t cover costs. The town cannot bill for medical calls/services provided by firefighters because 1) the town does not hold the license and 2) the Fire Department doesn’t transport patients. In Ridgefield, the Ridgefield Fire Department holds the town’s EMS license with the state and EMS service is part of the RFD. If Wilton wanted to take over that service and get the license, Miscioscia said revenues would be less than the cost of the total program to purchase ambulances (and replace them every four years) and fully staff it. By law towns have to provide EMS service to the community, either through their fire departments, volunteer services like WVAC, or a contracted private service.
BOF members also discussed the arrangement with the Georgetown Volunteer Fire Company (GVFC), which services residents in the north end of Wilton for an annual fee that the town covers.
Members raised the question of exactly what was determining the amount of the fee asked for by the independent GVFC, and whether it might be more practical for the town to have its own department cover that area instead.
Wednesday night’s joint meeting saw some of the confusion that has earmarked several BOS budget discussions during the past month.
After presenting financiers with a spreadsheet with which he hoped to show the rationale behind some of the budget increases, it was pointed out to Knickerbocker that one of the numbers he was showcasing — a $90,000 increase in the Georgetown Fire Tax — was mostly already accounted for elsewhere.
“I forgot that the 88 [thousand dollars] was already in there,” Knickerbocker said. “Here, I can just take that out.”
Shortly after, another mistake was spotted.
“I think this spreadsheet might be off,” BOF member Prasad Iyer said.
Boucher herself also strayed from protocol, forgetting to officially start the meeting as a BOS meeting until 10 minutes into it, then later stating she didn’t remember if she had opened it or not, querying others present.
While meeting attendees were not given complete budget documents, Boucher said that materials would be provided to BOF members on Thursday.
“The key question for me is, so the wages are up four-and-a-half percent,” Raimondi said. “I guess we’ll dig into more of that when we have the reserve discussion,” which was held in Executive Session after the public portion of the meeting was closed Wednesday night.
Once again, Boucher opined that the town was not in a position to reduce its headcount.
“Just so you know, we’re in a period of growth in the town,” she said.
Boucher said, however, that the Grand List was up $75 million and that that would allow the BOF more flexibility in setting the tax rate.
“You are being given an opportunity to be able to sustain some growth because you’re going to be able to cut that budget number substantially by the Grand List,” Boucher said, “and also, don’t forget, we’re also going to pay less in debt service, in some borrowing on the police station. That will accrue later on when we don’t have to borrow the entire amount.”
Raimondi challenged her statement for clarification.
“I want to be clear on this,” he said. “Debt service is [still] increasing. Debt service is going up by about half a million dollars, so it is [still] a headwind for the mill rate calculations.