001council meeting to order um to continue our budget discussions. This is the last night where we're going to be reviewing the budget. Uh so I'll turn it over to town manager for the first item which is troopers and law enforcement. Great. Uh thank you chair. So I'm going to tonight we're going to run through as as you said troopers state police are our resident state trooper budget. Uh followed by our human services budget. Um, sorry. For the resident state troopers, we have Lorie Sherwood, who is the admin for CSP and trooper Shepard. Uh, our our trooper is on way of leave. So, trooper Shepard is filling in as the temporary admin. Next will be human services with Melanie and Teresa Kristoff here to cover the the human services that followed by the senior center with
002Kyle Sandness here to cover that. And then our recreation department, Bruce Watt is here to talk about that. And then the board of board of education, Dr. Willlet, uh, is here as well. So, let's start out with, as you said, the Connecticut State Police resident trooper program here in town. As you know, the town uh town of Talon does not have its own police department. Uh so, we we use the Connecticut State Police resident state trooper program. We have four resident troopers. Uh and an admin, uh the total budget I'm proposing is $625,92. Uh that overall budget reflects a decrease of 23,000 compared to fiscal year 2025 adopted budget. Uh it's primarily due to replacing higher step troopers with lower step troopers uh and a fringe rate decrease. Uh we we removed uh at at
003I believe Lisa's or I'm sorry Lor's recommendation $100 for other equipment and 550 for training uh and development as they handle their own training and development. So I'd like to thank uh Lori Sherwood for her efforts in doing this. Um and of course uh if you have any questions, they're here. All right, I'll open it up to questions for counselors. We have any questions either in person or online? I'll ask a question. All right. Go take a moment. Um, in the bar chart up on page three, the actuals is really low compared to the adoption budget. Assume get now. Yeah. So there's a contract that usually comes around in May. Okay. So that's why you don't see that high. Yes. It's about 580 I think or something. Yeah. Sorry that the budget is announced it's
004563,000 for this year. Yeah, and that should hit in May. So that's why you see only right now $55,17 as of March 18. Okay, that Thank you. You're welcome. You have any other questions for counselors? Council man, uh I think Brian mentioned it, but I forgot what you said. I know it's a small amount, but why why is there no more funding for training and development? The state place for the troopers training development. If Lori needed some training though, we'd find it and get it gets anybody's hands are raised. Is there anybody on on Zoom? No, they pop up raised. All right. Um, last call on questions. All right, let's move on. Thank you. All right, moving on to human services again our directors here and assistant director Teresa Kristoff should you have any questions.
005I'm proposing a total budget of $390,224 an overall net increase of 30,966 or 8.62% compared to fiscal year 2025. The sole reason majority I'm sorry the reason of that 27,000 uh is that we had a retirement we delayed almost 6 months I want to say before we hired someone back a um known attrition savings that we could do in order to get the budget number that we wanted last year at budget time if you remember so last year we right at budget time we had a vacancy we did not fill it intentionally for six months uh and it's and it's filled now so that's where That's where the $27,000 increase of $160 due to the cost of uh a Zoom account. Uh as you know, they do the our um human services does so much
006the community outreach uh for so many of our town residents, case management of those crisis intervention, our food and economic development uh I'm sorry, food and economic assistance, emergency aid, educational resources, uh and referral to state and federal programs if needed. our youth services bureau. We were we're required to have as long as long as well as a municipal agent on the elderly and a fair housing officer. Uh we get a lot of grant support uh in in human services budget is supported by grant funding pro compromising about 15.68% of the total budget 61,000 in uh grant support and that's a team effort. Our youth services grant about $4,000 and our HBCC grant which is basically our dialeride uh is $57,000 uh 30,000 of which is paid for by grant funding. Our uh our the
007use of the our human services has gone up. If you look you turn to page 12 you can see uh the numbers keep increasing. You'll see that with our senior center really uh a lot as well. So, uh, again, I have Beth Belly here and Teresa Kristoff, should you have any questions? That's council for questions. Okay. This is just human services, right? Not seniors at work. No. Okay. I'm just last week um on page 157 resources highlighted notes but what's the increase or say where um page 157 says like a 30,966. What column are you in? Um two, what was that? 37966. Yeah, that's what I set up. That was the attrition. That was nutrition. Okay. And then I know we mentioned it on um Thursday that that you guys might be seeing more people
008apply for um more needs for because other assessments have gone up. Jason anticipates a higher enrollment in that for which program? Sorry. For um the order 60 and because the assessments went up, I believe Jason said on Thursday that they think they're going to see more people enroll that program. Yeah. And more people are coming to our office in general, I'd say. Um especially people who didn't necessarily even want food assistance in the past, they're finding that can offset their other financial costs. So we're seeing more people through our doors for sure. Thank you. Just one followup question. So, is that something that you've been seeing um sort of like ongoing? it's building up more people coming in or is that since the rebal since the budget's come out like are you see do you
009know like is it because of that or is it just you in general seen an increase in I think is in general too but I have to say that my staff has done an excellent job of social media advertising the programs um doing really cross screening when they come in um you know so when somebody comes in for maybe renters's rebate we're we're finding out they're eligible for fuel assistance and other programs so I think it's a a collaborative effort and even at the seniors that are referring um even the people that um volunteered to do taxes the ARP they actually were referring back to us too. So it's kind of you know I think it's kind of that general and Teresa was excellent in doing social media post as well as Kyle. So I
010think that's part of it they found us. If you look on the screen, you can see by year by year everything uh basically going up and you'll if you can go to the next page um there too just a steady increase um from previous years and you know again we're coming out of CO in 21 but uh thank you for everything you guys do to get the word out there. I mean you know you do a lot and you help a lot of people and it's um you know you're always trying to find ways to get more people to be aware of what they're available for. So all the people that you refer cross programs and all that I do it's really important work. So, thank you so much for that. Yeah, of course. Any
011other questions from counselors? Thank you, Bill, for coming and answering your questions tonight. Thank you. We'll move on to the senior center, Brian, when you're ready. Sure. All right. Again, our senior center director, Kyle Samness, is here should you have any questions. I'm proposing a total budget for the senior center of $105,21. Uh it's an overall increase of $498. Uh there was a significant reduction in communication $690 a part of when Yolita got here. Uh we started to go through all our Zoom accounts, all our cell phones, iPads accounts, anything that we could fleece um that that was not needed. And this was one of the places we found in the senior center where we're able to get rid of a cell phone uh and a Zoom account. uh a decrease in $30 in dues
012and memberships. I think we got heard the Costco uh increase and $167 in other services, but I also allocated $500 to the senior center programs as a part of our uh cannabis fund for events. Again, community events specifically named in our um cannabis fund policy. Uh so really the the increase of 498 is covered by the um cannabis fund. So, it's basically a flat budget coming out of uh the senior center. Thank you. Any questions up on the senior center? Council, but just one uh are you still seeing an increase in the amount of uh people you have coming into the senior center? Definitely are, especially at this point in the year, we're definitely getting the snowbirds are coming back. Sure. And it's getting lighter out at night. So, we've definitely seen an increase of
013participants walking through the work. That's great. initial performance data. Again, that's great, especially having a more or less um consistent budget as as last year serving even, you know, a larger population. So, thank you. I think that's very questions for senior center people. I guess I have a general question. So, we're taking some money from a cannabis fund. Not a lot, but um Ela or Brian, do you know off hand we're going to be withdrawing from cannabis fund this year to fund? Not nearly half of it. I don't even think we're at, you know, you saw it's like 3,000 to the PCC, 500 here, you know, somewhere there. And we're expecting to get 40,000 or so. I'm being very conservative and I'm not confident in that, but we'll see. Okay. Yeah, it didn't seem like
014it was a huge amount, but and you know, you've seen these places go out of business, too. Yeah. I just don't want to rely too heavily uh on this. So, I'm being concerned. Yeah. Yeah. That was kind of more my concern is actually using too much, not too little, especially since it's I don't know. Maybe the concern too little is probably more accurate, but I'll we'll find a way. Yeah. questions from those online. Class call questions for the senior center. All right. Thank you, Bill. All right, we're moving on to our wonderful uh library and I have our library director, Maryanne Pellet, here. Uh I'm proposing this year $463,487, up a modest $1,200 as compared to last year. uh that the the increase is due to a cost of biblio biblioonation uh and other services
015and fees and an increase of 110 in training and development uh which is an increase in cost by the Connecticut Libraries Association. Uh moving through you see obviously the services our library provides. There's so many so many programs uh like the other places our attendance is up nearly 6,000 uh reference questions were answered last year. Uh 109,000 books went out of in circulation and 65,000 people visited the fisc the library in fiscal year 2024 including 6,712 to people went to our our wonderful programs that we have uh in our in our program room there. So again, director Pelleter is here should you have any questions. Thank you. Any questions for counselors on the library budget is essentially. Y one more. Thank you. All right, moving on. Recreation department. Again, Director Bruce Watt is here should
016you have any questions when I'm uh done. I'm proposing $188,946 uh for the the recreation budget. That's an increase of $18,56. Uh the the beef of that increase is moving a part-time employee, 24-hour employee up to 35 hours. uh our recck coordinator that is the increase as the numbers of our uh wreck programs have increased the responsibilities increased. Uh Bruce is running around like crazy and really could use the assistance. I recommend paying that out of the uh out of our budget. Uh others have recommended paying it out of the recreation fund. Our recreation fund currently has about $300,000 in it. The rec board um agrees that they would prefer it to be paid out of the um general fund budget. I don't like the precedent of dipping into the recck fund for um salary,
017but I understand if that's the direction uh we want to go in. So, uh director Watt is here should you have any questions about that increase. We all know the good the good things that our rec center does. Uh their numbers are up and doing well. The success of our ARPA money to fund our to help fund our camps and get kids back into our camps has been resoundingly successful. Thank you. Any questions on the rec department? Yeah. Yeah. Um two questions. Uh what um what does the recreation fund get used for? Uh pays for everything except basically uh the the salaries um like my salary, but it pays for our administrative assistant salary. Um any program material that is needed comes out of there. um any kind of um all our part-time staff salaries
018is all paid through um the recreation fund. It's also funded some capital improvement projects um pay for the new uh playground at the the rec center. 40,000 once was used uh to upgrade the heating system at the rec center. Um upgraded the lighting system at Crannle uh with the the musco control that allows us to control it from our computers. Um, so there's a vast majority of of things that the RE fund is covering. And is that funded with like the revenue that you bring in through summer camp? Yeah. Everything we generate is um how bad it's funded. And do you know how much we typically you typically generate in a given year? Um, obviously it ranges depends on uh our registration, how many people participate, but I would say on average anywhere from 300
01950. You have some big projects. Um the building at Crannles, the one that was built in the 50s or 60s, I believe. And then um the lighting changing to LED lighting at Crandles uh down the road. Have no intent in using fund for them, but as you know, things happen when you build and do things over. So I'm just options there. Both those are are funded in the capital plan. Uh not to be misleading. involved in the capital plan. I intend on going after bond money for the building or go working with our state reps to do that. But again, that's where that's as he stated the intent of that fund in the I'm not holding the specific number, but the you know, 300, 350, whatever, it's pretty consistent that we're bringing in because are
020you are you seeing a steady uh increase or interest in all the programs that we have? It seems like we've had pretty successful um almost. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think we've if you exclude CO we've always been positive every year. Okay. And steadily increasing since we haven't really seen a fit except for co coming out but it seems like we're full. Thank you. Thank you for all the great work you guys do. Thank you. Uh any other questions for counselors? I guess I'll ask a question. So the major driver here is bringing the part-time person full-time and um I get a high level reasoning for that, but can you just provide a little bit more color as to what the benefits of of bringing that person on full-time? Like what services are we not meeting
021today or gaps that need to be closed that would be solved by bringing this person on? It definitely allows us to um bring in more new programs. There's just so many new programs that I can personally oversee on my on my own. Um, but it's also going to allow us to expand for say uh for camp summer camp programming, which our weight list right now is tremendous. Um, our after school program, it would allow us to expand that if we need to. Um it also given me time to concentrate more on administrative uh work where um this position can strictly focus on um providing the the needs for these programs that they need to get out the advertisement. So um since Leo's been here uh in this parttime position as well, we've been able to
022um add programs like mom um child and parent classes um at the rec center which we didn't have before. So, it's also throwing that gap before kind of that age of um say like four or three or four with our our preschool program, but not really just kind of program to come in, um be active and socialize. So, um we're bridging that lower gap, but also being able to expand on the successful programs that we already have um to allow more residents into our program. Okay. There's a chance that this might be have a position that could potentially kind of pay for itself if we're adding, you know, we're able to expand the amount of people we enroll or offer new programs. I mean, it's always going to bring in more revenue. Yeah. Um, so
023I assume it should be able to eventually pay for itself. Uh-huh. I just think looking forward, if we're looking to stay successful and and uh make sure that we're going to have the funding for programming and and growth in the department, it really needs to be focused to say like we are going to keep this as a full-time in the general fund. um instead of saying the ref fund is responsible for paying for two full-time staff members at this point in time because the administrative assistant uh position is already coming out and now status quo um another full-time employee. We're we're asking a lot out of the rep fund to pay for just full-time staff to keep us operating out of that operating but also to pay for all our part- timerrs that are needed,
024materials that are needed. um contracted services that are needed. Um eventually I think there's going to need be needed some give but we're going to want to keep uh allowing some flexibility and capital improvements and other improvements that could be funded not in the general fund. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate you adding a little bit more detail to that. Any other questions from counselors? Okay, good. I just want to follow up on Jacob and some what I was asking. Um, do you I don't know if this is a a Bruce question or a Yolita question. Do you know how much money is left over in the wreck fund each year after we pay what we typically pay out of it? So I can just say as of June 30th, 2024 for uh past fiscal year
025closed, the unassigned fund balance was $263,000 for the rec center, the recreation fund. Sorry. Yeah, for the recreation fund. Sorry, can you say that number again? 263,000 unassigned fund balance. And do you know how much we had the rec center brought in that fiscal year revenue like um you mean for recreation fund? Yeah, like that money that went in. I'm just looking like how much goes in versus how much is going out. Uh I think I can pull that information more detail. I think so. Yeah. No, that's fine. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Our last item board of education So in 2024 uh a year characterized as multiple uh failed referendums. My proposed budget included the complete ask of the board of education budget. Uh the proposed budget for 2025 uh unfortunately I must take
026into consideration the historical conducts context of the referendums in our town. of the board of ed budget. I'm recommending an increase of 2.99% or 1,300,000 311493,000 increase for fiscal year uh 2025 2026 for a total budget recommendation of 45,174141 I'm sorry 45,1741 $141. Uh Dr. Willlet is here should you have any questions. Thank you. Open it up to counselors for questions. Uh councelor Nun raised his hand. Councilman, you're welcome to speak. Click go to his his mute button. Left up. Up. Right there. Down. It has to be perfect. Hit it. Okay. Can you guys hear me? Yes. So, I apologize um not being able to be there this evening. Um just a quick question for um Dr. Wlette uh before I ask kind of where Brian's head was at with this. Um or Dr. Wlette,
027you could give your your ideal answer. Um could you explain what your ideal situation for um protection at the schools would be uh for our four schools here in Taland, whether that be a postcertified officer or private security. So, um, so for the budget coming up, um, we we give what it seems like would be a reasonable ask for the town that the town could support. And so the board of ed budget that was adopted has two postcertified uh SRO's and a security officer. Um that also you know the budget also includes a lot of other staff that are meant to mitigate and handle behavior situations or any risk that may arise. There's response teams, there's behavior interventionists, there's beh um board certified behavior analysts um you know a bunch of infrastructure. But as far
028as budgeted positions are concerned, the board of adopted budget supported two post-trained SRO officers that would report to the resident troop commander and one security officer. I don't know if we had anything to say, but you are muted. Does that answer your question? Can you guys hear me? Yeah, it just it keeps saying that you have to allow me to unmute. Yep. Um to make you a co-host. So, okay. Uh Dr. Will, I appreciate you uh answering that question. Do you feel so this is these are two postcertified officers that will rem uh they will um come into command at troop C and follow orders from troop C and and uh do you have a preference to uh the schools that these two troopers are going to be dispersed to? Um and had you previously
029um through the asks of the residents of town, myself and others uh considered having one trooper per school? Well, so the process that u we go through for the budget involves what the board of education ultimately has determined as you know what it feels necessary for the school system. Uh people can ask me for you know my thoughts on things. I'd be happy to answer it. But as far as the budget is concerned, um that's that's what was in the budget. Um this the way it works for our school system is we've had a great uh relationship with the Connecticut State Troopers and the residents trooper office. Um in the beginning of this when we started it uh way back um you know Steve Warner was the u was the town manager and all the
030way through the years uh we we've had a u an arrangement where the the SRO's meet with me on a weekly basis we go over all of the needs of the school system including any scheduled events or things that might be coming up that would need additional attention and we set the schedule week to week. So, um, with our two 24-hour SRO's, uh, I would toggle them throughout all of the schools based on, uh, both their opinion of where they felt like they were needed and certain things that were coming up in the school district where we might, you know, use can may be able to use their help the most. For instance, if we were going to do a district uh, lockdown drill or a certain day, we might have them positioned in certain
031places. If there's other events going on where a lot of public would be coming in on different days, we might move them to different schools for that. So, we basically designed it around what the needs for security were of the schools on a daytoday and week-toeek basis rather than having them, you know, assigned in one place for a long, you know, for the whole time. Having said that, the high school had the most space. So, we did have the SRO office. There was an official office for the SRO at the high school, but they moved around the district as needed based on our week to week a daytoday and week to week needs. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. Um, are you reconsidering having a satellite office, if you will, back at the high school
032um if if said off um officer would would be more present in that in that school. Alex, if I can jump in for a second and and what what Dr. Willlet just said. uh under the constabularary uh protocols of the state with the state police. Technically, the constabularary falls under the state police. However, I I completely agree with Dr. Willlet that they they would get their direction entirely from Dr. Willlet uh in regards to to day-to-day staffing and not the state police in regards to these guys are in our schools. Dr. Willlet's in the best position uh to make those types of calls. And keep in mind that we do still have the state police here should um we need them at any point within the schools or to be at the schools at some
033point. Uh so I I just wanted to uh support what the doc just said and then I'll go back to him now for the office question you just had. So if I understand your uh your question Mr. I think what you're saying is could a soundlight office of the state troop exist within the high school kind of thing. Correct. And I believe, you know, when we looked at that, um there were there were some feelings that that would not be an optimal arrangement because uh people need to come in and see the state police for a variety of things and that might actually draw people into the school building that would uh be uh involved in, you know, other activities or uh complaining about something uh that is illegal or, you know, so this would
034actually potentially bring issues into the school versus having a resource you know for the school. So they you know they kind of decided that having it at the resident troop office would keep that dynamic from occurring and to focus more on the SRO post train officers you know being in the community zone. So from my understanding when we did have an active trooper um within the confines of the talent high school um you know I'm sure that uh report writing and you know having the ability to be able to do things clerically you know at their own leisure and at their own pace um on their mobile computer or what have you could certainly uh happen. I I wasn't under the impression that um other people of the p, you know, folks of the public
035were coming in and asking questions to that trooper. I I just was under the um impression that that trooper was solely there to improve community policing within uh that school and that millu um to be closer to the students if needed. Um and then after administration, you know, um you know, after school hours kind of uh fall back into a regular trooper role. Um that that is how we had it, but they they're not trooper. They're you don't really The SRO's we've had are 24-hour SRO's, two 24-hour SRO. So, they're they're basically there during the typical school day and then uh as I said, you know, we meet with them weekly. So they I might ask if they can go to a music event at night or uh to a sports event, that type of
036thing. But essentially they did have an office, you know, space in the school and they could do a lot of their administia in the school paperwork in the school, that type of thing in the school. They were furnished with laptops, all of that. Uh I might have misunderstood your question. I thought you were asking about having a separate kind of satellite trooper office in the school. Oh, no, no, no. That's what I was referring to there. But with the SRO's in the school, yes, we have had them in, you know, they they at a desk, they are able to do some of their paperwork there or electronic work there, etc. Fantastic. So, Brian, in in your uh perview here and in in what you've supplemented us, do you think that having um obviously two is
037better than none, uh but do you think having two troopers uh dispersed at Dr. Well, it's discretion and and based on given needs uh is sufficient and included in your budget. Two constables, you mean? Uh well, I would love to have constable services here, but no, two troopers from troop C at our schools. Anything's better than nothing. one uh two I'd rather you know fisk looking at the fiscal realities of our town I'd rather pay two constables uh than than the cost of a trooper uh but two troopers uh could statically do the same job as the two constables is that currently what you have uh outlined in your budget what Dr. Will it just mentioned two two uh con constables? Yes. SRO. When I say constable, I mean SRO, I'm sorry. And those are
038those are two SRO's that report to master command of state police uh troop C. Technically, as far as post police officer standards training council is concerned, they they fall under the state police's um guidance. Okay. for uh in regards to where they're going to be in the schools and what hours they're going to do is entirely on the shoulders of uh Dr. which I should be embraced. And really quickly, just just to not to monopolize the board of education um you know conversation in it in its entirety, could you explain why um for the town of Talon having a constipal service might be an advantage or a disadvantage? Uh financially hard stop financially. uh it's you know they we can do them at 24 hours each uh as far instead of paying a full-time um
039trooper uh to to do the same job. Uh so uh moreover in order to hire a SRO or constable here we have the town has to become certified as its own police department per se in that in regards to accreditation. So we have to get accreditation in order to hire uh a constable. We can do that as we can work on getting um the certification with the state and still hire uh like we don't have to be completely certified prior to we can get through those steps. If we were to get certification, we could look down the road at um cutting back on the number of resident troopers that we have and hiring constables again 20 at 24 hours a piece and being able to scatter them uh at much different hours and days and
040such at at our um control based on statistics. And that is how the vast majority of resident state trooper towns uh work is that that that they have a much like Ellington, Summers, Stafford, um they all have a resident trooper that oversees multiple uh constables. Yeah, I think that'd be definitely something to to use to our advantage if we if we could move toward that in the future. Um, I'm not sure if we could uh as a council this year with with our time um to serve left that we have could could spark that, but uh I think that would definitely be beneficial to our town. Um I just wanted to thank um Dr. Wlette, Tony Hull, Tony, I I really don't agree with with everything um that you have for the board of education
041budget. Um this is definitely one of them, though. Obviously, you know that I've been very passionate about having our schools secure, um having the right personnel there, and um all the work behind the scenes that you and Dr. Brillette and everyone else on the board have have implemented, I um thank you for and hopefully we can um have this be part of the budget. So, thank you. And I want to clear up one thing too, uh Jacob, I don't know if I said it before. I offered to out of this the town fund to pay for the accreditation process. Not a big chunk, but the town has to be accredited and the town has to hire uh the police officer. But again, I'm once that happens, it's all all his, but that we will see
042some benefit out of the accreditation. So, no sense in making the board of ed pay for the accreditation that we're going to see likely see the long-term benefits of. That's good. Is that that's in this year's budget? It's like $2,000. Yeah. We have did we move it yet? Uh from the How are we going to pay for the accreditation? I know I I I told you I would pay for it. Yeah. When when the time comes when that build is set. Yeah. It's hourly at 50, we'll be able to find that. Okay. So, Brian, our accreditation toward moving uh to obtain uh constables or being able to house constipals in town would that's $2,000. The accreditation is a three- tier process. It appears as though maybe it's for each tier, it will cost us about
043to hire a consultant at about $50 an hour. Um, again, that the constables on the town side, not not not the SRO, the conible on the town side at this point is just hypothetical and something to think about down the road, not anything that's that we're doing into this budget is we don't know we're going to be accredited. It's going to take a little while. Okay. All right. I'm sure we can cross that bridge when we get there, but I I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Any other counselors with questions on the board of education budget? Council Mar, uh, one question or one comment. Where, uh, are we at as far as with the board of ed in anou with either the state police or I know we have to get this accreditation pro
044process going, but uh, uh, is that does that happen before we do this? Done. Oh, the MOU is done. Yeah. Okay. So, thanks to Walt. Yep. Okay, great. We wanted we couldn't move some discrepancy. We couldn't move forward without saidou. Yeah, I still have some heavy issues uh with the department desk, but I'll work through those. Yeah, I didn't want it to get in the way of Yeah, we did for one year. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um and then the other com, this is just more of a comment. Um so, and I don't want to get too deep into like broader budget discussions. Um, obviously this year's uh going to be a difficult year and a sort of a unique year given the u the revals and the disproportionate impact that's having on residential property taxes
045versus commercial. Um, but I do think in the long term the council and the board of ed has to find a way to work better throughout the the the um budget process. um because uh you know we we have a number now in front of us but uh it's not obviously what the board passed and I'm not saying that that's what you know should have or should have not been presented to us but um you know the board of ed spends time developing their budget um and then we you know face financial realities for the town um but it just seems like it it's time that's not well spent on both sides and so there's something that I I just think that overall um the process needs to work a little differently because it, you
046know, we should be able to just look to the board of ed budget and be able to rely on it. And that obviously that hasn't happened. I'm not saying that the board of ed budget is not reliable, but for years, you know, that that's that's changed. And I don't know that that's how other towns do it. Um, so I just it's just a broader thing that I want to point out that it's makes for a difficult process for us, I think, and probably for the board as as well. um versus like when we go through our town departments, we have sort of what the current post budget is. So, thanks. Thank you. Any other counselor's questions on the board of education budget? Yes. Um follow up to Chris's question about the does that have an
047expiration? Yep. I'm sorry. Yes, ma'am. You have to add the name. Um, is it how long is it for? Like when does it expire? Every two years. We can define that. Right now it's defined as every two years, but I think there was a good chunk of it missing, so it might have to come up again. Uh, do you remember, doc? Well, it was like in August or September. Uh, but it won't, you know, we'll see. We'll get through it. I'm sorry. Is it expiring in the near future? I can check and get back to you. I think it's August, but I'm not positive because if we What I'm trying to figure out is I is that going to put a damper on hiring an SRO? It's not going to If it were, I'll sign
048it. Okay. Um, as far as the budget process goes, so we got I think it says in here there's two adopted budgets from the board event, but I think it the original was one, the 11% one is like the superintendent's proposed budget. Second one is the actual adopted budget. Correct. I'm only looking at 255. So it says the board adopted two separate budgets. The first budget was for 11.1% increase and then the second budget was for 7.34 but I think that's might be a tight sounds I don't know see a nod from Dr. War. Yeah that is correct. the first budget, the 11% was my budget to the board and the 7.34% was the board's adopted budget request to to be prov that that is accurate. Okay. So 7.34 is actually what was adopted by
049the board of ed. So how do we get from 7.34 adopted budget from the board of ed to a 2.99% proposed budget from the town manager? So, can you walk me through the process of going from what they and maybe you don't even take that into consideration, but from that number down to the 2.9? Yeah. Last year, I was directed to put the entire board of ed request forward. I don't want to relive that this year. I cannot turn a blind eye to the history of our referendum. And what we went through last year, no one wants to go through again. So with that, I worked with Yolita to find something that I believe would get the the board of ed the most money we could and still pass a referendum. And I hope fingers
050crossed I hope this is enough. That sounds fantastic. But how do you come up with that number? Like where does that number come from? I work with Yolita to try to get down what can we get down to to get our overall increase down to I wanted to be below 3% but it's at 3.03 3 combined with the town budget. Yeah. A 2.8 increase, 2.9 for the board of ed, and then all the other factors uh involved brought us to a 3.03. We could have kept working to get it below down to below a 3.03. Uh but I was I'm hoping that the 299 uh passes and I do too. I what I'm trying to find out is are you are you looking at are you looking at numbers from last year and saying okay
051with a you know put inflation into the mix here we're we're going up to two and what I'm trying to figure out is how do you know that's the amount of money that can keep the schools afloat you know without directly consulting with the board about what do you mean by a float so 2.99% % right. So we know we our budgets kind of stick around 3% can pass, right? Yep. How do you how do we know that that's enough money to keep the schools going even if just like you know as is take last year copy paste next year? Yep. Right. How do we know that? uh in watching the board of ed meetings, in watching the last 20 years, being told our house values are going to drop if we don't fund our
052schools and getting slapped in the face the reality of none of our house values dropping. In fact, increasing 50%. And then looking at the again the history of the referendum, how bad last year was. I put forth the full recommended board of ed budget. We put forth a very high board of ed budget out to referendum. It failed. The next one failed. The next one failed. And then the fourth one passed at much lower and than I thought. This is an effort to circumvent the budget getting chopped and chopped and chopped like it did last year to well below this increase or 3%. Uh this is an effort to thwart that and hopefully keep it at a 2.99 increase is the best way that I understand your question. Again, you're trying to bypass dealing with
053that whole thing and just kind of getting a number where you know we reach a happy medium so you have a dollar amount that's sufficient to keep our school afloat to your best your ability. That's that's your opinion. I'm trying to bypass and bypass the what will happen with the board of ed losing even more money through multiple referendums. That's what I'm trying to bypass, right? I can start higher again or I could have started higher again. I started high last year and we got pounded trying to thwart that. That's what this was. Okay. With that being said, if from you're kind of trying to put together a number that is kind of a happy medium, right? Your words. Of course they are. They're coming down right now. So you're at you end up at
054a 2.98 and you think that's fair. You think that can pass, right? If we get below that number though for board of ed and do we know what impact that has? Have you had discussions with the superintendent as far as going below that number goes? I'm trying to figure out. I mean, it it sounds I have had discussions with the superintendent about that. I've had discussions with our chair about that opinions very greatly. Very greatly. And again, I would love to have our schools fully funded and have Dr. Witz 11.1% if we could afford. We can't. We can't. and and we got it shoved down our throats last year for trying to put forward a budget that the town thought was too high. And had we I believe had we have gone with my plan
055last year and taken an approach that we have this year, I believe we would have gotten more money to the board of ed last year. That did not happen. I can't prove that. That is just my personal opinion. Again, this is my best-hearted effort to try to get this budget passed. I'm skeptical about that. I'm sure we all are, unfortunately. I would love for this to go through. I would love I have a daughter in the school who I tell Dr. Will that I couldn't be any happier with her education. I really couldn't be any happier. Uh and and the services provided all throughout. Uh that being said, I'm the town manager. I'm not the board of education. I'm not an expert on education. I have an expert on finances who assists me. I have
056a boatload of referendum history, which I forgot to send out. I've had it done. You saw it on my desk. I did uh that I'd like to get to you, but you know, it's unfortunate. I know you would have liked me to recommend more. Uh I get it. I had to make the best decision I could make. So I guess my so coming from other towns and seeing how other towns do their budget process. It feels like in a lot of towns the board of ed goes through their process and they they kind of discuss the bud. I mean like we we can't go through and find with a fine tooth comb go through the board of ed budget and that's why we have them that's why they're they're elected officials and they go through
057it and a lot of towns you go through the budget and that kind of you know that kind of goes forward to the town council and the town council makes minor adjustments and that's it. I feel like we're kind of losing that process here in Talin. you know, it it almost to be honest, and I'm not saying this isn't your fault, um, Brian, but um, it feels like they go through this process and it's kind of like irrelevant. Yeah, a little bit. I don't know if there's anything that could be suggested to make open the charter, change the referendum process somehow better to to fit the needs you're describing would be my my best suggestion. Look at it that way. the way it's built. Now, I got to make my recommendation. Again, not a board
058of ed expert. I have a finance financial expert that has me. I have two polar opinions here in town. Um, I can go back 20 years and show you the exact same emails that we get sent during budget process. They say the exact same things on both sides. Uh, I have to take the weight of everything with me. I understand you don't like the process. I assure you I don't like it either and would would be open to exploring uh other options. So 100% agree with you and you you look at other towns, I'm sure you do, and be like, "Hey, that's a pretty good way of doing." Uh I'm with you on that. Yeah. I just I I wouldn't want them to have to waste their time doing this year after year. I get
059it. And there's got to be something to to fix this. So, it's just it's a better process just in general so that we're all kind of coming together and not saying, you know, here's what we got to do to pass this referendum, but it doesn't take anything that you you guys have done for the past couple years into consideration. And again, I'm not saying anything. I I understand the position you're in. I get it. Yes. Don't worry. Don't worry about me. So, um I think with that being said, I don't think I have any other questions. Council, any other questions for the board of education budget from town counselors? You're good. Um I just want to follow up uh to what I mentioned earlier and a little bit of what councelor Buckler mentioned. Um That
060sort of was my point as far as the board of ed spending a lot of time on a budget that ultimately doesn't see the light of day on council. And I don't think that that's um solely the council or the town manager's fault. And it's it's not the board of ed's fault either. But um whether it's opening the charter or whether it's having these conversations um it would be nice in an ideal world to be to a place where um the council received a budget from board of ed that was largely relied on and adopted. Um and you know it's not it's not the fault of either council or board of ed or the superintendent or the town manager. It's just the process we have which is is not working I don't think. Um, and
061then the only other thing I'll just say is that, um, I think Brian, you mentioned that, you know, you and the the chair had a conversation and so I just would have liked obviously to have been No, it wasn't like that kind of informal. Yeah. It wasn't like a No, no, I'm not saying we didn't discuss like the budget. I'm not saying that I'm not I'm not a but no, I'm just saying that um I'm not I'm not saying that you guys had an improper conversation at all, but the more we can that we can work together, I think, the better. Um, but you know, I I think I understand why you before what you did. We've had casual conversations. Yep. We have, we've had casual conversations, you know, so I mean just casual wasn't
062anything. Yep. Just like that. But I thank you. Agree. Yeah, I'll just maybe say that. I mean, I agree with both of you that I don't think the process right now is very good. Um, I don't know that's problem we can solve. Let me be more clear. It's not a problem we're going to solve in this budget cycle, but I agree. I don't think it's a very good process. I don't think the incentives that each board has um is aligning with what's best for the town, but something we should let's look into. Yep. Yeah. Um all right. I see I think counselor raised. Well, actually I'll go to councelor sh first. He hasn't spoken yet. Go to council muted. I'm gonna try to am I unmuted? You're we can hear you Joe. Okay. Um, so
063I I know we talked about trying to get a mill rate based on the prior year's budget to understand based on the new valuations on the prior year's budget, what would our mill rate be? Has that calculation been completed yet? Council Shay, I think in um the assessor's presentation we did have that number. The very last slide. I thought I did too. Oh, was it? Okay. I sorry guys. I can get that to you Joe if you want. Yeah, if you don't mind. All right. Yeah, some reason I don't I don't recall seeing what that number was but uh Okay. Yeah. Revised number. So, um, the comment about too about the system that the town uses, it's I mean it's always it's a it's a painful system and there are some towns that basically say
064that the council decides what the budget will be and what the mill rate will be and the voters don't. uh we've had a history uh where the voters get to decide how much the town can spend and um that would be a very difficult system I think in this town particularly to overcome so that you know the board of ed basically presents its budget to town council town council barely touches it and then town council decides votes by itself without any assistance from the residents what the budget should be. I think there's a challenge there. Some towns, a lot of towns do do that. Um, I just don't think Well, that's not what I was suggesting. I I wasn't suggesting getting rid of the referendum at all. I was just talking about a greater a
065smoother process between Warhammer and council. I agree with you that, you know, the referendum sort of is what it is. Okay. Yeah. I guess I guess we have to talk about what a smoother process would be. Um, you know, is it I I don't know what it is to be honest with you. So maybe that's something we talk about after this budget cycle cuz like like Jacob said, we're not going to solve that um tonight. Um but uh yeah, I certainly would appreciate any input on that one because it has every year it is a painful and it it seems to be getting more painful every year as time goes on. Um and then the other the other question I had um on the on the um the SRO's. So would it make any sense
066to have the state trooper since we haven't had when's the last time we had an SRO in our town? How many years ago was that? 23. Right when I got here 23 who did out of Duda. Okay. Oh that's right. Duda. We had Duda for a little while. It's been a I want to say a year and a half or so. About a year and a half. Okay. Two. Yep. Okay. And did we get any And did we just cut that person out of the budget or did they quit and we never was able to rehire? Like what was the reason why we stopped having an SRO in our school? And it was only one, right? We didn't have two. We did. I believe that we that Dr. W could probably answer, but the way
067it was framed, it was impossible to hire. It was very rare that somebody wanted to come and be an SRO under the way the pay and benefits uh were set up and m having to maintain the certifications everything. Is that accurate, doc? Yeah, well stated. I think to add to it, you know, the structure was two 24-hour SRO. So what would happen is we got great people like every SRO we've ever had has been great but uh when they see the surrounding towns have 40hour options they'll hang out with us for a while but then they go for the 40hour jobs. Okay. So the exit interviews just said it's not the job it's the money. They just they want more hours. Okay. Okay. That's all I had. Thanks guys. Thank you. Councelor Shay, we'll go
068to councelor Nun. Okay, can you guys hear me? Yes. So, okay, this is a question for Dr. Willlet. Um, money aside, I know that's a big topic of contention here, but um, you've been doing this for a while. Um, I've always appreciated what you've done for our schools. Um, you know, when I was a kid, you were my principal at one point. So, um you've definitely been helping Talin for for a while here and um like like I said, money aside, do you think this year um there's anything that specifically stood out to you that uh would be a need? I know that insurance was seemingly skyrocketed and and perhaps um cost of fuel depending on um you know the the prices a few months ago and even the past couple years, but are there
069any outliers in your mind or things that you haven't seen in past years that are kind of coming to the surface now um that that might be an issue? Well, first let me compliment Mr. Nunan as being a wonderful student. He was great to have him, you know, in very well behaved and and a super academic genius. So, but uh you know, as far as the schools are concerned, you know, and the budgets um you know, it's just a challenging time in Connecticut, you know, and I think every school district is feeling that. I would have a hard time kind of narrowing it to to to one thing but I think what I can say is that um you know that 80% generally of the budget here is is contractual obligations things like that and
070it's not that they were badly negotiated contracts either because negotiated contracts were at or below the average settlement for you know just about everything. So it's it's just a tough time. You know Thomas per pupil expenditure is about 132 out of 166. It's in the lowest cortile. The five a you know fiveyear average budget has been 1.88% 12 years about 1.73 roughly fiscal year 06 to 25 47 teaching positions were reduced to adjust for enrollment over that span of time. So I think made these adjustments and tried to get into the right you know to the best space it can possibly be in. I would say if there's one thing on my mind is that um you know enrollment levels out at in year 27 28 and then it starts to climb by about 8.2%
071through 20 uh 35. So we're going to gain about 8.2% more kids from that point forward. And I'd say that's the thing that's on my mind now is trying to figure out how to adjust to that and the adjustments that you know the state is making and the federal government are making and all of that. appreciate that. Um, and just a just another quick question. I I've certainly um gotten the sentiments of, you know, my constituents on council, others um on council, as many as I can um and their in their opinion on this matter. But um your opinion in in this specific question is um something I'm certainly interested in and seeing if we could accomplish or ask for help with. But when it comes to student expenditure in our town, in our county
072in specific, do you think that's something that realistically could be pushed to a Tim Aert or um you know Tammy or or someone that could help um as to why our students in our county may not be receiving the same um funding or the same attention from the state that that others may be? No, I would compliment our three state representatives. You know, I think that they have worked very hard in the uh legislature. I think it's a very tough mechanism, you know, right now because um you know, the way people view ECS, they kind of view as, you know, being able to take, you know, take it. Um you know I think the problem with the um you know we have a lot of mandates a lot of uh funding mandates and you know
073the the challenge there is that we can be asked like what are the top three mandates we would like addressed but it's kind of like the minute we answer that question they're adding 15 more mandates the second you tell them the three that are affecting you right so it's the problem is the mechanism itself the problem is the implement bills where there's no public participation and they pass a bunch of stuff that the you know two parties agreed to that you know that make it harder for school systems and more expensive the mechanism itself is the problem and so that's a hard thing for any state representatives to address in such a you know such a complex system so I I give them credit for doing what they're doing okay okay thank you thank you
074councelor Nan I see councelor BB raised her hand thank Excuse me. Thank you. And I'm going to try not to cough on you. Um, so just going back to the previous discussion, I want to echo the other counselors um on the need to investigate a way to improve our system. Um, I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to outage Brian by a bit when I say going back 40 years, um, a lot of the conversations were the same um, as they are now. However, um, and a lot of you may not know this, we had a town meeting process before we had a referendum. So, we used to all get together in the auditorium and it was just like meeting day in Vermont and we had a town meeting on the budget and um
075at the end of the at the end of the uh meeting people would raise their hands one way or the other and that's how the budget got passed. Um it the the benefit to that was that it created some robust conversation. um people were not always happy, but there was some real robust conversation and there were some um compromises made and I think if we could find a way to analyze what other towns are doing and maybe um get some input on that, we could create a better system than we've got now because I agree with the other counselors that this is um hasn't been especially beneficial and productive in the last couple decades. Um, and then the other thing that I wanted to um was illuminating for me as I was doing research on
076the on the um cost per pupil uh is that the the the lower the number of students in in every town, the higher the cost per pupil is. So like Ashford and Willington spend about $5,000 more per pupil than we do according to 2023 data. And please Dr. Willlet, correct me if I'm wrong. Um and that really kind of was illuminating for me. So, um, when when we look at our cost per pupil, I think we need to keep in mind also that some of our sister towns um with lower student populations actually spend a lot more per pupil than we do. Um, which probably has to do with the core infrastructure that they have to maintain even though they may not have high schools, right? So, Ashford and Willington don't have high schools. Um,
077and uh I agree uh with the the with Dr. on the on the um on the need to find funding for some of the mandates that are coming down because I agree with a lot of the intent, but I think that we as a community, as a as a state, as a population need to be able to find ways to pay for the things that we want. Um, and that's it for right now. Thank you, Council D. one more time for questions if anybody has any. Great. That look like that concludes our section for board of education discussion. That concludes our conversation for tonight. So, is there any objection for adjournment at 8:09 p.m. objection? were journed.