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ENFIELD TOWN COUNCIL
MINUTES OF A SPECIAL MEETING
MARCH 20, 2006
A Special Meeting of the Enfield Town Council was called to order by Chairman Tallarita in the Enfield Room of the Enfield Town Hall, 820 Enfield Street, Enfield, Connecticut on Monday, March 20, 2006. The meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m.
ROLL-CALL – Present were Councilmen Edgar, Hilinski, Kaupin, Lee, Mangini, Maxellon, Nelson, Ragno, and Tallarita. Councilman Crowley entered the meeting at 6:30 p.m. Councilman Peruta was absent. Also present were Assistant Town Manager, Daniel Vindigni; Town Clerk, Suzanne Olechnicki; Director of Finance, Gregory Simmons; Director of Human Resources, William Mahoney.
BUDGET PROCESS OVERVIEW
Director of Finance, Gregory Simmons provided an overview of the budget process as follows:
· Each department head submits a budget request to the Town Manager and the Director of Finance
· The Director of Finance formats all the information
· The Director of Finance and Town Manager meet with each department head to review the request (this year the Director of Finance and Assistant Town Manager met with each department head)
· The Town Manager then proposes a budget to the Town Council
· The Town Council reviews the budget with department heads
· The Town Council makes any amendments they deem appropriate
Chairman Tallarita suggested detail-oriented questions be e-mailed to the Town Manager’s office and answers can be provided for the entire Town Council.
Mr. Simmons showed a breakdown of the categories of expenditures on the current budget. He noted once all the expenditure estimates are in, they have to build a revenue budget. He pointed out a good portion of the Town’s revenue budget comes from state and federal grants (about 30%), and every year the Town gets a booklet which lists the estimate of state grants. He noted when the Legislature meets, they can make adjustments to the budget, therefore, there could be changes.
He stated another category of revenue for the Town is charges for services and fees, and these can range from conveyance tax to permit fees, building department fees, dump fees, etc. He went on to note that there’s typically some reliance on fund balance built into the budget process. He stated Enfield is currently at 10% on undesignated fund balance. He noted between 5% and 15% is recommended. He stated he does anticipate using some of that fund balance come June 30th because of things such as Heart & Hypertension, police retro payments and other big expense items.
Mr. Simmons stated he then figures out what the mil rate increase would need to be in order to fund expenditures. He displayed a revenue distribution chart which shows the reliance on property taxes.
Mr. Simmons stated the state doesn’t fund mandated programs at 100%.
Councilman Hilinski questioned how good are the estimates. Mr. Simmons stated the estimates are better when they are in the end of a multi-year budget.
Mr. Vindigni stated the department heads did a very good job in making their proposals conservative.
Councilman Hilinski questioned the average increase, and Mr. Vindigni responded about 3%, a lot of which involves fixed costs.
Councilman Maxellon questioned if the CIP is a separate thing. Mr. Vindigni stated CIP is presented by Public Works, and the School Facilities Director will be present at that presentation.
Chairman Tallarita cautioned about being dependent on grants that could gradually decrease resulting in the Town having to pay because they became dependent on having a certain service.
Chairman Tallarita requested Mr. Simmons explain net budgeting.
Mr. Simmons stated net budgeting is a way to really get more spending dollars in a line item.
Mr. Simmons stated one mil is equal to $2,047,000.
Chairman Tallarita pointed out the budget session dates in the Town Council’s packet are preliminary dates.
There was no Executive Session this evening.
ADJOURNMENT
MOTION #8705 by Councilman Kaupin, seconded by Councilman Mangini to adjourn.
Upon a SHOW-OF-HANDS vote being taken, the Chair declared MOTION #8705 adopted 10-0-0, and the meeting stood adjourned at 6:35 p.m. |