001[Music] Good evening everyone. I'm going to go ahead and call our work session of Tuesday, March 11th to order. Um, before we get into the actual agenda, is there anything that needs to be shared from the council or staff that we need to know before moving forward tonight? No, I think we can jump right in. All right. So, uh, tonight we're going to start with our public works and our water pollution control plant. Um, we're going to be starting on section 7, page five. with our roadways department. I don't know which one you want. Good evening. Thank you for being here. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you. So, uh, roadways is 305 as as the chairman said on 7-5. Um, the overall increase is 42,368 represents a 4.1% increase uh over last year. Um
002if you look most of it um in fact uh almost everything in the uh topline personnel uh cost uh which is the um 3% but it's also includes the across the board but the um full-time uh driver was a as a halftime that we started this year and now we're picking up uh the rest of that. So that's what um doing what's driving that. Plus they're they are and I love saying this fully staffed Unlike some other departments, we have some issues. Um, but they are now fully staffed, which is which is great uh for the department. Um, congratulations. Feel good. Been a long time coming. Thank you. Is that including the laborer position that's under the commentary? Yes. Okay. Yep. So, that's not a new position. That's just actually filled now. That's correct. Gotcha.
003Yes. Yeah. So, everything else is flat outside of uh personnel. All right. Any comments, questions, anything else anyone needs? No, this one's boring. Sorry. Try to make it easy. Just one comment. Great job with the leaves of snow this year. Yeah. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Are you going to be fixing lawns that got dug up? They started today. Okay. Thank you. So, I'll be out at least the rest of this week cleaning up and then I won't top soil now until the weather warms up a little bit though. Okay. Once we do, I will. Okay. Thank you. Yep. All right. Any other comments or questions? Anyone want to make a motion? Mr. Chair, yes. Motion to approve department 305 in the amount of $1,75,820. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those
004in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Um, let's see. We're up. If you flip the page, we're at buildings and grounds. Mr. Chairman, if you if you wouldn't mind if we could flip uh capital 320 uh the motor vehicle in pool. That's Did I skip it? 715. It just f it's further out of order. It's just further. No problem. 715. Say that again. What section? Yeah. Uh 320 motor vehicle and equipment pool. It's on page 715. All right. And that is black zero. Oh, seven seven. Yes. I'm get I'll get there. Don't worry. One more. It's early in the night. Okay. No increase. No increase. That's easy. No personal. Another boring one. Sorry. Yeah. No, Mr. Chair. Yes. I'd like to make a motion to fund department 320 in the amount of 159,450. Second. All
005right. A motion, a second. Any comments or questions? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? All right, that motion carries as well. Any before we go to buildings and grounds, anything else? Just to jump to transfer station 323 U 718. Just turn the page. Yeah. Yeah. Transfer station. a slight increase of $2,716 representing a 2.44% increase. [Applause] It's just the um really the only thing I think it's just the um landfill uh closure um the testing. Well, it it it means that we we're going to disposal in terms of outsourcing and disposal fees. Okay. Um but we are wrapping that up. We're still going through the state to get the final Yeah. and permits to to actually close out. Correct. It shifts the process and moves that for Mike's cost is now to um take
006care of those card disposal costs. All right. Any comments or questions? No. All right, Mr. Oh, go ahead, Tub. Go ahead, Mr. Chairman. Yes. Go ahead. to um fund department 323 in the amount of $114,145. Second. All right. Motion and a second. All those in favor? I I Any opposed? Motion carries. You want to look take a look at capital on that's section what? 12 page one. 12-1. Mhm. So basically it's just the other half of the truck from last year. Yes, correct. Yeah. Okay. Any uh any comments, questions? I mean it's it's pretty, you know, we funded half of it this year. We're funding the other half right next year. I don't have a question. No. Okay. All right. Cool. I guess that's it. I have it. Sorry. Thank you. You have a question?
007The only question I have is you don't get it till you pay the other half, I'm assuming. Right. I'll be getting it before that, unfortunately. But yeah, it'll be here. It's uh it's being built now. So, is it? Yeah. So, I hope to see it soon. Yeah. Thank you. Yep. All right. Anyone else? Anything? N. Well, thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you, Mike. Thank you. Have a good night. Have a good night, Mike. And we'll now we can move to uh buildings and grounds. We're back uh section seven, page nine. And yep, that is uh 310 building and grounds on page 7-9. The increases uh 58,853, a 4.7% increase u with uh salaries the top line uh driving most of that um which is the um uh salaries and and
008uh fully staffed uh as well and looking to move um the uh part-time person who CA takes care of uh the parks and litter, as as you may have heard, has done a great job in and uh going through making that uh full-time and but using uh the funds uh from the um both the landfill closure funds and uh NI what we call NIPS, the the uh funds that come in through through there to fund that position to make it a make it a full-time position. And um that would create obviously one you see the decrease in the in the part-time. So obviously they come out of the part-time and move up to a full-time position and partially funded with the proceeds from the NIP. So there's an offset with some of the revenue we're
009going to take in for that position. Yeah. And I I just in terms of your awareness as well in addition to the um funds we get for for that legislation for the NIP. So we have um also getting revenue that's coming in on the um sales and on and marijuana. Okay. Uh so we are it relatively new so we are uh tracking uh those numbers as well and obviously in for future reference that those funds likely be recommended and used for other other purposes. um you know what subject to the uh definitions and parameters by which we can use those. So obviously in the case of uh the legislation around nippers which is about you know cleaning up. So this is a great way to and opioid I believe right as well Rob. We're getting
010funding for opioid nips and uh cannabis. So revenue streams anyway. Um maintenance uh item at uh 450. We're looking at uh that $8,000 uh increase uh subject to the elevators. uh boilers, um fire extinguishers, all of the inspec annual inspection fees that have have uh have increased and uh a slight uh increase in the equipment repair maintenance line in uh 52480 as well. And that pretty much rounds out the significant u cost increase. A lot of both of those line items are the um elevators and all the buildings which are pretty old. Mhm. So parts and and um maintenance contracts are a lot higher. All right. The uh under budget commentary under commentary it says open maintenance one carpenter. So there's an open position or is that a new position? says funding for an open
011maintenance one carpenter position was included for the fiscal year field carpenter I believe that probably should be removed from the budget narrative that may have been like a carryover from a previous year but at this point um our we have one carpenter position that's uh filled so um it's my understanding there isn't any open no the carpenter position was filled uh this uh at the end of 24, right? Okay. Mhm. Okay. It was probably a carryover. Okay. Gotcha. All right. Any other comments or questions? No. All right. What's uh what would we like to do? Uh Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion. Yes. Go ahead. to fund department 310 in the amount of $1,310,492. Second. All right. Motion and a second. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Do we get to
012go to 315 next? Yeah. So, if you just turn the page to municipal building maintenance. Yeah, that's uh 315 and um increase of 46,200, a 2.98% increase. Um that covers a lot. Uh but uh drivers obviously utility costs uh are are climbing in terms of electrical increases. There was some saving on diesel and hydrants, but um the cleaning contract also increased, but it's essentially our utilities that that have driven this this up. All right. Any comments or questions? All right. Anyone care to make a motion? Mr. Chair. Yes. Go ahead. Motion to fund department 315 in the amount of $1,596,500. Second. Motion and a second. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Um, is there anything under the capital for quite a bit buildings and grounds? Okay. So, we do have a few
013things. Y I don't know if you just town manager if you want to just go through each one. I I don't think there's Yeah. too much explanation that needs to happen, but Right. Um, so they've got the Ferrris uh blower, uh the 72 inch U mower, the zeroturn mower with the mulch kit, and the uh Ford um uh Ford F F250 utility with Plow, the most expensive item at 67,900. And then the uh backflow replacements um at 8,500. Um so those are the uh five items requested under capital for building and grounds. All right. Is there any questions? Any of those five items? No. Is well is the the Ford is that a replacement? What or is that a new um is it an an addition? Let's put it that way. You know, I don't
014know. I don't have the notes on if that's a new or or replacement. I thought it was thought it was new. It it's it's a I think it's a new vehicle in replacement of a vehicle they have. All right. Any other questions or comments? No. All right. Pardon me. Nope. That's fine. You're all set. All right. Um, does that take care of buildings and grounds at this point? Yes. All right. And I guess we are up to the water pollution control plant. Good evening, Joe. How are you? Hi, Mo. How are you today? Good. We'll be uh staying in section 12, moving to page 18. Yeah. item uh 340, water pollution control. I think it the the page is a rather long page there. If you want to kind of focus to um maybe 3/4
015of the way down uh is where you'll see the uh operational um where operational cost ends. So, it's kind of broken up into two sections. The operational and then the nonoperational cost. So the first top portion of the uh budget is relatively uh flat. Uh overall increase on a on a 2.1 million budget is 22,541 representing a 1.06 uh% increase uh for the for the department. It's relatively flat outside of um you know the increases across the board. 3% for the uh personnel salaries uh line item and uh full-time and part-time. Um but obviously there's a s just uh smaller savings uh throughout there that knocks it down to about 22,541. Okay. Any any questions on the operational side? Anything Joe you want to share? I don't you don't have to say anything, but No,
016I just I I thank you all for having me back this year, and you know, I'm looking forward to another year. I always love our little meeting. Um, and regarding the nonoperational costs, anything you want to highlight there at all? Uh, no. I I well, I'll turn that over to to Joe and and um you know what, it's obviously it's improvements, debt service, and and transfers out. there's just debt services basically uh you know driving driving that. So um I'm not sure there's much we can say about that which unless you want to no various I would refer to Rob for debt service. Yeah the only the only the only new thing within the debt service this year is we're estimating a clean water fund payment for late in the fiscal year of 26. Um
017more than likely the shuttle meadow pump station project. Um the hopes is that it will be wrapped up construction wise uh late late fall early spring of 26 which means we may close the loan which means we'd owe 120th roughly um in PNI. Uh so uh you know if this money is used we we have it budgeted here. If it's not then it just falls back to fund balance and it'll be used when we do close the loan and probably the subsequent year. Okay. All right. Any uh questions? Any comments from the council? All right. As far as making a motion, we're we're doing the bottom line number. We don't have to do like an operational and nonoperational. The bottom line, Mr. Chairman. Yes. Motion to approve department 340 for 5,127,636. Second. Motion and a
018second. All those in favor? I I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Does that mean you're done? Do you want to go over capital? I'd be glad. Do we have answer any questions on capital? Let's see. You don't have anything. What? Um, how about do we have to prove the revenue side? Yeah, we probably have Do we do go through the revenue side while we're here? We Does that make sense? We could it's you know the very basic again we what page uh 17 go back one page no I believe we've thank you Ros estimated 3% increase in in revenue um or 3% increase in the sewer rates rather um and again that's keeping up with you know the study we had done years ago and anticipation of the potential you know this the the uh repayments
019for the shuttle metal pump station, the uh facility study and or anything else that may come out come around after that. Um obviously if something big goes in this facility, we need the fund balance sitting there to take care of it. Um because it'll be of of an immediate need versus let's go out and bond when we can. This will be an immediate dollar item we need to pay for. So we we estimated 3% the rest of the line items are are relatively flat. Um investment income I bumped up a little bit just because the market although this past week uh I may revise that going forward. Um yeah uh but uh you know I think it's uh the fund balance is is uh in a good place right now. So we're you know we're
020okay. All right. And just on the capital side what do you have going on capitalwise? Uh so for capital I know that there's two vehicles on there. Um one's a replacement for the van which used to be the camera truck. Um and with the council's approval that my old van would go to the school department. They've expressed an interest in it. If I can interrupt just for a moment, Joe, for those who are trying to follow along, uh capital for water pollution control is on page 14-6. Was it the look of confusion that gave it away? It was the look of shuffling through the just because it's a different a different fund. So it's um it's just at the bottom there. What page? All right. Uh 14-6. All right. Sorry to interrupt. Just there there
021is a typo line there. The bottom line should be 555,000 not 455. Okay. Rob, what was that again? 555. 555. Yes. Oh, the reason for that change is because the uh line 155, the 50,000 for a four-wheel drive truck with plow is actually a request for two trucks. So, each valued at 50,000 each. So, that's a an increase of 50,000 for that item. Y bringing the amount up an additional uh the the cell was just didn't calculate to 50. Then you add the other 50, just add the cell of 100 to get 555. Yeah. Okay, that was my bad. I got you. Probably 555. 555. Yep. And that number is on the budget we just approved under improvements. So So looking further, we have a u a boiler replacement we'd like to get done at
022the treatment plant. Um it is in need of being replaced. Sort of been on its last leg the last four years. I'm getting nervous, but we made it through this one. So, I I think it's time that we should probably get that done. We have manhole cover replacements. This is an annual appropriation for us to raise manholes and and fix any that have manhole covers with holes in them. Uh when when manhole covers are are paved on the state highways, route 10, 372, 177, the state will reimburse us for the for the outlay. So the times during the year you'll see this this line item will be overdrawn but it's really not. We pay for it and then the state reimbures us so it all comes back. And how many how many manholes would this
023allow you to manholes are manholes are about 14 $1,500 a piece. Okay. Um well I think we have I think last time it was like 2500 manholes. So really we're getting there but we're nowhere close. And then the last one is the plant and collection system improvement. Um, which is just an account that we funded each year for that unknown motor pump. Something that I can't budget for. Okay. All right. Any questions? Any comments? All right. And this we we don't need to take any action as a council on this other than it was part of the other budget. Correct. Or the 340. Okay. Any other questions or comments? I think that's it. I'll see you next year. I'll be It's all good. You're not getting time in a half, are you? Me? Never. Have
024a good evening though. You too. Thank you, Joe. Thank you, Joe. Have a good night. And we are on schedule. Just like to note for those keeping track at home. Um, next on our agenda, we get to uh discuss the senior center. Um, Sean is here and Victoria. And Victoria, thank you for being here tonight. And Sean, congratulations on your years of service. Um so we'll be going um senior citizen services which is section 8 page 15. Yeah. Account 420 uh has a $20,962 increase representing 5.36%. Um you've got um the top line 3% uh there and a little bit more uh for the social worker uh salary uh 50% of it moved into uh based on the fact that the uh north central area aging agency on aging NCAA uh has reduced uh funding.
025So, that position originally funded there, uh, we're moving 50% in to cover that cost to continue to have that social worker, which is really invaluable to the, uh, to the center and to the community. Um, so that's why you don't see a straight 3% on the top line there. Um, and then, uh, part-time salaries um, as well. Um, so there is a, um, some supplies uh, really and and that's about it. Uh so it's really again much like the same same message top line is is driving the this increase. There are there were some supply operating supplies at nearly 2,00 1,999. Um and really it hasn't been any increase in in years um thanks to the organiz you know the department's uh um efforts at uh fundraising. you know travel being one of them and
026Sean had indicated you know that kind of you know explained that postcoid uh travel has really dropped off so they don't get that uh revenue coming like they used to with those type of trips that would be you know intermediate long and and and and uh profitable I guess uh in some senses with respect to fundraising. So that has uh tailed off postcoid. So um there you know a need to increase that a bit to to you know meet the cost for supplies. So those are pretty much the uh okay increases uh for that and I'm sure Sean can fill in the any comments any questions any you need to I just found that it's very difficult for people even with donations. We've always been very people people have always been extremely generous with donations.
027Sorry. Do you mind pressing the mic? Oh, sure. Thank you. This Yeah. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Sorry. Um we've always had extremely um generous individuals in our senior center as well as in the community making donations to dialeride and memorial donations and different kinds of ways that we've been able to bring in money. And it's just, you know, it's people are hurting more than than they ever have been. And um I think and a lot of folks just aren't able to do that anymore. Um so we're finding that a lot of our different revenue is is not as strong as it was in the past. And we always brought in tons and tons of money as you well know because you've seen our sheet every year of of the kinds of monies we bring in,
028but it's just not keeping up to what we were able to do in the past. So, um, thank you for helping us along, especially with that particular grant because that grant through North Central Air Agency on Aging and the social worker part of it, um, always covers the most needy, isolated, fragile, um, lowincome individuals. So, it really helps our community in many ways. So, thank you very much. All right. Thank you. Um, any comments, any questions from anyone? Mr. Okay. Oh, I yeah, I was just going to add um in add, you know, to run revenue on the fundraising, there's a great narrative uh on page 14, just as a reminder, how um very um extensive or how prolific they are in terms of volunteer hours and and and uh fundraising efforts that they've been
029doing over the years to really sustain the operational costs um or defay the operational costs uh for the senior center and and I think it it uh it's a great testament to the uh the organization and department. Yes, I agree. Did you have a comment? No, I was just I had to make a motion. Go ahead. We were ready. Okay, Mr. Chairman. Oh, I think I I would like to express my personal opinion in uh congratulating um Sure. Sean. Sean, I forgot your name. But Sean, you thank you. Um, for her 50 years with being with us, I really want to point that out. It's very important that uh we have someone in our old age home, whatever you want to call it, senior senior qualities that that ages with us and and knows what's
030going on. And I I just wanted to compliment you on and I I can't imagine someone working extra time like you have. And that's really great. Thank you. Thanks. It's been a pleasure. Thank you. It's been a pleasure. I think we all agree with you, Dan, on that one. Sean, you did a great job over the many, many years that you've been there. Thank you. Lots of support from a lot of people. I, you know, I can't take the credit because it's, if we didn't have volunteers. We started out, even before we opened the doors, having volunteers coming in to help us clean the building to get ready for the dedication. It's always been about this community becoming a part of making it possible for us to be here. We would never have we'd never
031be where we are without volunteers and then phenomenal staff that we've had and dedicated staff. Um it's it's just it's been a wonderful wonderful experience. I'm thrilled to have been a part of it. Well, thank you. We certainly appreciate it. Um anyone else with any comments? Any questions? Do you want to make a a motion to fund department 420 the senior center for amount of uh $412,26? Second. All right. Motion and a second. All those in favor? Any opposed? All right. Motion carries. Um if we go to section 12, page 27 for transportation fund. Right. Yeah. There's uh Yep. for uh 425 senior uh transportation. Uh slight increase 3% there uh for the uh part-time salary line item and uh some miscellaneous contractual um and auto repair maintenance items for a total of $3,181 or
0323.64% increase. Mr. Chairman, yes. Motion to approve department 425 for $90,612. Second. Second. Motion and a couple seconds. All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Um and I think if we want to go back to page one of section 12, there are couple items. [Music] Yes. Yeah. two for the uh match for the dialeride vehicle and the carpet replacement. The dialeride vehicle uh replacement 30,000 and carpet replacement 19,47. Um there are other funds that will be matching with for the dialeride uh vehicle, but that's what we what we need and request uh in this capital. All right. Any comments? Any questions up here down there? No. No. Nope. Mr. Sure. Yes. Just to say that that the dialeride is just another service that's so critical. You know, I really amazed at the number of
033people who use it. I don't know what they would do without it. So, a critical service it is and it has become more and more important because Plainville doesn't have a hospital and so all of the and everybody's a specialist now. There are very few PCPs and and there are very few doctors left in Planeville. Yeah. So no matter where we have to we have to take people to many many places. Um they go to Southernington, New Britain, Bristol, Arington, the Yukon area. And especially important for Yukon because they're able to do so many things and help people who um don't always have the funds to do things. Um and then the VA. So we're we're going to all these different places to get people to their doctors. And um you're absolutely right. There are
034so many people who would be in very deep trouble without dialeride. And we're finally we finally have enough drivers to be able to start hauling everybody every place they want to go. And it's just wonderful. Just absolutely wonderful. We've um had a drivers are at such a premium because there's so many delivery places that are taking drivers away and they can pay so much more money. But um we have a really good crew and we brought dispatching into back into the senior center and that's just been a godsend for everybody and uh yeah so good. All right. So thank you very much for making that happen as well last year. All right. Any other comments? Any other questions? All right. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you Sean. Thank you. Thank you for
035you too. Thank you both. All right. Um, next on the agenda, we will be talking about the fire department. And I see we have our representatives. Good evening. Good evening. And we're in section six, page 15. Yep. This is count 210 for the fire department. Um the overall increase is uh $281. Uh 006% increase. Wow. Um you know the pretty good. I don't know. What do you want to say? Not much. We're trying. Couldn't cut any more out of that, Tommy. Yeah. Couldn't cut any more out of that. We tried. Yeah. I don't know if there's much to say if unless there's something specific you guys want to share. Any questions or comments. Oh, we're uh we're doing well with what we got. Um learn how to work the system. Um you know, had quite
036a few fires last year, like you know, 8 801 calls last year. It was a lot. including no EMS, just strictly helping the town. So, we we fair to get by with that. Okay. All right. Anyone uh question or comment from anyone care to make a motion, Mr. Chairman? Yes. Motion to fund department 210 in the amount of $498,256. Second. All right. Motion and a second. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. And I believe we'll turn to uh the capital requests. Section 12, page one. Looks like there's a few there. Yep. Um anything. I mean, I know we've seen some. Yeah. Some of it are typical replacement. Yeah. Replacement of the um I don't know. We didn't put the truck in there, did we? The engine. The refurbishment. Yeah. It's not Yeah.
037Replacement gear. Yeah. Everything is everything's in order. The replacement of the engine, it's got to move along. We're uh we're working on a truck that's uh $2,99. So, uh starting to cost a few bucks to keep it going. Yep. But I think we can get probably a few bucks if we, you know, sell it, get something back on it. Um we are looking at uh to uh refurb that possibly refurb as new. We're trying to figure out is it worth it? Is it because it's really only good for another 10 years insurance wise. Okay. So, is it worth doing that? Uh, brand new truck is running a million dollar for a pumper. Two two and a4 million for a ladder. So, we just bought our Yeah. In time. No, with a four year timing was
038Yeah. Four year delivery date. Four years. Brand new truck. Wow. And it doesn't matter who you go to, they're all the same. Wow. So, we did look at a couple of um demos um but they're hard to find. If you if you find them, you better have the money to buy it right then and there. Yeah. Cuz everybody's trying to do that and take out take it as soon as it shows up. So, it's like buying a house. Yeah. Nowadays, all right. Um any anybody have any comments or questions on any of the capital items listed here? My only question is the portable radios for the apparatus. That's something we we can push off another year. Not really. Tommy, how old are those radios? Yeah, you would know better than me. The uh portables you're
039looking at at least some of them are over 20. Yes. And there's a lifetime on those. I'm pretty sure. Yeah. Motorola only supports them for 20 years. We've been slowly buying some couple a year, but we got we got the grant, right? We're looking into getting the grant or did that get Yeah, we haven't heard anything back. Yeah, hopefully we'll hear by April a grant and it's all you can buy with it. $75,000. Okay. To buy portable radios only. Oh, okay. Put in for that back in December. Yeah, we submitted a grant for portable radios. Um and we we're haven't heard back yet. We're hoping April here federal uh I think it's federal. Yeah, it's a federal grant. So, we keep your fingers crossed and we keep trying. It would be a big help. Okay.
040All right. So, that's something to keep an eye on as we go through the year. All right. All right. Any other comments? Any other questions? No. All right. I think you're free to go. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your uh time and your service. Yep. Have a good night, guys. Good night. Thank you. So, we're ahead of schedule. That's not something I say often. Um we have the uh police department next. I don't know if there's some Do we want to start discussions? I'm sure the chief will be here any minute. Do we want to wait for the chief to get here? Um, what's everyone's preference? We could take care of emergency medical services. We can do that. So, section six, page 12. That's a zero, right? Yes. Emergency medical services.
041There's a lot of red on this page. Yeah. This was a service that both uh the police chief and the fire marshall indicated we no longer need. It's an antiquated system that I guess we don't really use. We don't use. Yeah. So, uh they both looked into it and they both agreed we don't need it. So, um this was through the CMED program and and apparently other districts or towns and and cities are are dropping out of it, too. It's just kind of obsolete. So, it won't even be here next year. Right. Right. I won't be here. All right. All right. Mr. Chair, go ahead. Like to make a motion to fund department 206 for $0. Second. All those in favor? Ben, you're our hero. Yeah. Um, what's the Can we talk about animal control?
042Maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Unless there's something that, you know, we could always ask when the chief gets here. If there's something he wanted to share, we can ask him. Yeah. There there's nothing here other than the uh the 3% salary increases. Really? Uh everything else is flat. Did they add somebody? Because that it says 5.04% increase and the contract, right? So, because it's a one person department, she doesn't take a lot of vacation time. So I we usually pay her out one week at the end of the year per contract. So I added in one extra week of sal or one extra pay period of salary actually. So it looks a little obsced. It was not budgeted for this year. So as you can see I'm estimating to go over $3,000. We'll cover it some other
043way or transfer it the fourth quarter, but figured we may as well budget for it because it happens every year. Okay. All right. Any uh comments, any questions, Mr. Chairman? Yes. Go ahead. Motion to fund department 205 in the amount of $15,000. Second. Uh motion in a second. Any other comments or questions? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? All right, that motion carries. Um, what we could do is talk a little bit about revenues if we want to get a, you know, when the chief gets here, we can jump out of that and jump back in when we're done with the police. 35 sounds good to me. Yes. So, this is back uh section three, page five, right? So, the revenue, excuse me, revenues right now are still evolving. And the biggest thing you
044can see on the screen right there is we reduced the motor vehicle supplement based on the original uh depreciation schedule that the state of Connecticut changed and subsequent to that subsequent to us uh submitting our grand list by the due date of January 31st the state has now changed it. So but they put it on you as a town council to make that change not the state. So within the next meeting or two, we will come to you with information to um change the depreciation schedule on motor vehicles which will increase our grand list to the tune of about well tax dollars $682,000. So when we look at revenues um when we finalize the budget hopefully we have another dollar amount here that I can versus a reduction probably keep it back at the level
045line at 625 but it'll also change our grand list value. it'll change our mill value that we discussed earlier. Um, and you know, some of the numbers will change with regards to taxes. Anyway, the other numbers on our revenues are, you know, our license permits, fees are all based on what we're bringing in this year and anticipation next year as well. You know, our big uh positive is building permits. You know, we got a lot of activity going on. We have some projects going on that we anticipate getting, you know, additional or or starting building permits. for example, next door, U White Oak, you know, maybe we'll get something there. So, uh, I think it's it's worthy to bump that up a little bit as we have the last few years. So, it's a good
046good line item. Um, our fees are, you know, again, based on what we we currently bring in. Uh, again, interest income I bumped up a little bit, but we may look at that again after this week. Uh, the intergovernmental revenue, this is always our, you know, a big one. Uh the numbers you see there are based on the governor's budget that came out uh what early February I believe ECS is up uh I believe 26 is the last year for the uh catchup or whatever they called it. So I imagine 27 will be a little less of an increase if you will. But the one item that we wanted to point out within the intergovernmental revenue categories, the last line, the MRSA, sales tax sharing, this is an amount that's not budgeted. It's it's usually
047given to us very late in the fiscal year, early June, mid June. And this is the sharing of the uh increase in the sales tax percentage that 0.1, it was like 6 and a quarter, it went to 6.35. and they've combined a couple different grants in there and it's a sharing thing. They don't budget for us cuz you don't really know and there are times if the state needs money, they don't share it. They keep it. So, we don't usually budget for it. However, with the economy having been, you know, a little better since CO tailed off. Um, we're, you know, we anticipate to get some money this year. I'm not budgeting everything I expect to get just in case to be conservative as we usually are, but we feel prudent that we can budget
048400,000 which is essentially a little less than a quarter of a mill. So, excuse me to uh add to this line item, you know, and we'll know by the end of this fiscal year what we're going to get in for this year and if our estimate of 400,000 is really accurate. I don't think we're going to be far off regardless one way or the other. We may get a little more, we may get a little less, but I think 400 is a prudent number to the budget at this point in time. Anyway, and again, we still have until the end of your budget deliberations to change any of these revenue numbers before we set the mill rate. Right. Um conveyance tax, we're leaving the same just to be conservative. I mean, sales are happening. You
049can ask Cindy, but um you know, with mortgage rates not really going anywhere. I don't know if it's prudent to change that dollar amount at this point in time. We only brought in only we only brought in 290,000 last year versus a $275,000 budget. So, um I don't really want to change that too too much to hurt us. Um and then the final number on here really is the use of fund balance, which right now we've estimated to keep the same as it is this year, 1.4 million. But again, that's kind of your call at the end of this uh this budget process. But again, these these numbers are are estimates at this point in time. Uh we can change these up to the very last minute before you set a mill rate um if
050we have any newer information that comes comes about. But the big one right now, I think, will be the motor vehicle uh grant list that you as the council have approve if you so desire to approve. But it'll generate about $682,000 additional in tax dollars for us. Rob, we used to get a list of the big uh corporations that paid taxes in top 10 taxpayers. Yeah. Yes, I have that. Y Okay. Yeah, I'd like to see that. Uh I had a question about element 119. Are they all moved in and are they paying taxes and what's going on with them? Um, well, I have that list right here. I can actually show you if you bear with me one second. I don't think they're actually on the list yet. I got it here. No, because
051I think we phased phased them in and they don't hit yet. But, uh, we did set some parameters as you recall. So I will get some update numbers on the one of the aspects we we required was about the um employment and employing a certain percentage there. So I I'll get those numbers to you. Um but I know they've been working on it and I think they've met those threshold. I just have to double check uh those numbers but I'll get that out to Yeah, there was a percentage of local that they were supposed to hire. Right. Right. Okay. The list is on the screen there. I know it's a little small. I can can't really get it too much bigger without cutting it off. But is that the same as what Dave just gave
052me, Rob? It may vary. Oh, yes. There you go. It's It's on one of those pages. That's the total Dave gets all the magic pages. It It's the same 10. It's the same. It's the same top 10 that we've always had. We don't have too many variations. Um last variation that really came in here was a miracle. And um you know, they're still within the tax abatement period. So once that payment period is over, they may jump up a a notch or two and be number one. Oh, I would hope so. Yeah. Yeah, Mr. Chair. Yes. Go ahead. Um, are we still doing uh the audits of the personal properties for like a random number of uh randomly selected, I should say, uh number of businesses each year? Yes, we are. Yeah, we spend approximately
05310,000, but we generate substantially more revenue than that. Mhm. Um if you recall, boy, probably when we started that, we used to break out the line items specifically, but it become hard with appeals to track that number specifically, but we do generate more than 10,000 in revenue for from it. Good. Yeah. All right. Any other comments or questions? All right, we're good. What we'll do, the chief is here. Welcome. Um, if you want to come forward, you know, to the hot seat, we'll uh um we did actually we were running a little ahead of schedule, so we we talked about uh animal control and emergency medical services. So, if there's anything you wanted to share, please feel free. Um we can always go back to that if we need to. Uh but the med emergency
054medical services, obviously, we're discontinuing that service. So, that was pretty self-explanatory. Um, and animal control seemed to have other than the salary increase, there wasn't much other discussion, but uh obviously the police department. We'll sit down tonight, you know, and talk a little bit more detail about your, uh, department. I don't know, town manager, is there anything you want to say to start? Um, sure. uh for and we're on section six, page six for this for those of us with the budget book. Budget uh 2011, police department uh of 5 million uh 5.6 million budget. Uh the request uh year-over-year is a 92,700 uh representing a 1.6% increase. So very lean uh budget for the uh department. Um, I'm sure the chief can go into um where I'm sure you're all curious to know where
055we are on manpower. It's been a it's been a theme for tonight, Chief. Uh, so just so you know, um, and I'm sure they'd like to know, uh, where we are in terms of where the officers at U coming through the academy and obviously one more coming your way on the 17th. So, um, I'll turn it over to the chief and he can take you through the line items. Sure. One more time. Chief is actually on our Okay. My apologies. No, I think it's uh irrespective of uh my request to add manpower, I think the budget is uh uh is right on point. Uh when it comes to the operational side, I always try to to balance it out to as close to zero as possible. Um even given the 3% raises that the officers
056get. Um I'm happy with the CIP items um as they've been presented. Um, I believe the two cars were kept on the CIP as well as a change over to the new uh firearms. Uh, and then there was an added addition of access control um, which I believe was added as a as a last firearm was scratched. Scratched. Firearms. Yeah. Firearms was scratched and Okay. And so we're having but the access control was switched out for it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's the All right. firearms is u pushed into next fiscal year. Okay. Is it on now? Okay. When you turn has mics on. So when I press mine Yeah. I think once we This can only Can we have like we can only have we can only have eight or nine of these on and
057if someone jumps on somebody else gets long as my chair doesn't swivel when I hit the button. That's all we keep putting in capital. It keeps getting scratched or the floor opens up. That's all. Right. Yeah. All right. Yeah. So, I mean, I I do have a prepared letter that that I would like to read. Yeah. If that is okay with you guys. Yeah. Um, one, I want to thank you guys for allowing me to speak here um, regarding the budget. January 31st of this year marked the completion of my first three years as Planeville's police chief, uh, which went by very fast. Uh, I wanted to start by thanking the town council and the town managers for their continued support. I consider myself truly blessed and happy to work in a town that sees
058the value in keeping the community safe, to work in a community whose citizens respect and support the police, and to work side by side with the most dedicated and professional group of officers the chief could hope for. As you may know, one of the mandates upon which I was hired was to find a way to reduce the amount of overtime that the town was paying for patri police patrol coverage. A simple look back historically indicated that the town of Planeville was arguably paying more in overtime per capita than any police department in the state of Connecticut. To have an almost $600,000 overtime budget in a 40man department is certainly not normal, nor is it healthy. It was and is obvious to me that Planeville needs more officers. In my estimation, the police department has been
059short staffed for decades. And my immediate goals when I was hired was not necessarily to try to be ahead of the curve, but to simply catch up to where we need to be. Each year as a chief, I've requested more officers and each year have been told no. This denial was never justified sufficiently to me, nor did I ever have the chance to justify my requests. Like any good manager, however, at least one that's been a police officer for 32 years, has been a supervisor for 26 years, and holds a master's degree in public administration, I'm very good at figuring out how to do more with less. I have made numerous strategic changes within the police department and engaged in constant value engineering in order to run the department efficiently while at the same time
060providing the requisite amount of law enforcement and public safety mission required by the public. All the while, the field of law enforcement is adding responsibilities upon responsibilities and legislation upon legislation. The job of a law enforcement officer is by no means getting easier. I'm very proud of how my department's managers, supervisors, officers, dispatchers, and civilian staff have dealt with the numerous mandated hours of overtime due to staffing shortages, including the memories they have missed out with their families and the safety concerns they have to deal with given the lack of backup when it's needed. It is not my intention to prove to you tonight that the Planeville Police Department needs more personnel, simply to ask for the opportunity to justify my repeated requests. I'm sure that the town agencies and board of education that are
061having personnel added to their teams this budget cycle have given very compelling presentations to prove the critical needs of having more employees added to their ranks. I would just like the same opportunity prior to the final budget vote. That being said, I have no doubt that the citizens of Planeville that are so supportive of their police department would vote resoundingly for their hiring of additional officers. Thank you. All right. So, you beat me to it. I I figured we'd be talking about staffing tonight. Um, you know, I'd like to just start. So, where are we currently? You know, as far as, you know, who's out on whether it's workman's comp? I know we're about to fill a vacancy next week. Um, what else is there? Currently there there's 40 man is the uh official strength
062of the police department with uh approximately 40% in the administrative field meaning their detectives or administrators like myself. Um the rest is patrol sergeants and then the patrol officers themselves which I have 21 positions for and right now I have uh approximately 16 uh that are actually working. Okay. um pro maybe 15. The rest are either in the academy on field training y about to be hired or on workers compensation. Okay. And so uh that's the you know that's the critical issue is there's always going to be people retiring. There's always going to be people on workers comp. Um and that's just the reality of of hiring. Um so getting ahead of ourselves even hiring ahead is a strategy that I've that I've wanted to employ. Uh but even given the if everybody was healthy
063and and working uh there would still only be a threeman minimum and the overtime budget would still be extremely high, way higher than it needs to be. Okay? Cuz I you know one of the things have you know we we've never been able to get you we may hire and we may send people to the academy but we don't ever seem to be fully staffed. I mean, I don't know if that makes sense to everyone, but for as long as I've been here, it's you, we've just never gotten to that point where there's always a vacancy or someone's on workman's comp or short-term disability. There's always something that keeps us. So, I, you know, I'm interested in I understand what you're saying. So, I'm interested in trying to, you know, is it the right time
064now to come up with a plan that addresses some of this? And I, you know, the town manager and I have talked about it. We've had some conversations, but I don't know what it, you know, it certainly seems like we're starting to make a little progression with the overtime. And I don't think it's it's just a coincidence that we are at a staffing level that we probably haven't been at in a while cuz I I I feel like we have, you know, between workman's comp that we've had more workman's comp in the past than we do right now. I believe there's only one out now. And I know what do we have? two officers that are in the field training. Uh, two, one about to be, two in the academy, and one we just hired.
065Okay. So, you know, it's it's still going to be a number of months before, you know, a couple of them at least are, you know, I I want to say productive, that's not the right word, but on their own, I guess, is the right way. So, you know, opening it up, I think, you know, looking to the council. I know Ben, you probably have something to say. I no I I have I have a few questions and the first one is is actually on on the full-time salary line the department request was 4.3 million manager request was 4.22 million is that 80,000 in was your 4.3 including the two officers that you you requested? No, that was never added. I I believe the salary is something that that uh Mr. Butin you know handles. So
066I don't know why that particular line item was less. It could be because the officers that we have now replacing. You have to understand those comingings and goings of people saying, "Hey, I don't like law enforcement. I want to quit or I'm injured or two people retire per year." Those are the normal course of business. Yes, it's a little unusual in three years for me to hire 11 people. Um but that's just what happened. So even if like I said, full strength is not the issue. You have to go beyond it to get where we need to be in terms of manpower. However, um that being said, because we replaced so many people that were at the top end of their salary range, I'm assuming that's where the savings would probably come from. Does that
067make sense? That Okay. Yeah. Simply the timing of the when the budget preparation and the various steps of where we are in this process and and the salaries of the individuals sitting in those positions at that time. I I have a question, Mr. Chairman. Yes. Go ahead, Chief. Um over the three years that you've been in charge of the police department, uh every year you've had either um vacancies due to injuries or somebody quit. I I remember there was one female I think that left the department. Um, over the three years, if you could take it from year one to year three, am I right in assuming that every single year you've had voids that would cause the uh um overtime budget to go up? Yes, mostly. And and would you say that you had
068as many as two voids every year? At least two voids between injuries or between um someone saying they don't want to be a policeman anymore. more than that because as you know to hire somebody uh that is not currently a police officer it takes a year. So there are people like right now we have five openings. There's five people that aren't working. So take for instance midnight shift. Midnight shift is an 8 hour shift and there's five total people that are assigned to that shift and these are people that have have to have days off and so right now you're working with only five people. So, if they get the time off that they they get per contract, whether it's vacation time or holidays or sick time or just even taking any time off at
069all, we're automatically paying overtime to have people forced in to to work on that. So, now now right out of the academy once they get their training, they're still not let out on their own. Am I correct? They drive with a uh they have field training 400 hours 400 more hours on top of it. approximately 3 months they have to be with another officer uh to go through a field training program. So if you were to hire two police officers in addition to what you have now with the voice that you have every single year um what would you project the overtime budget would um be at that point? Would I mean you're going to save some money but would it be substantial with two additional officers? Um it it's never going to be a
070one for one. you're never going to have, you know, hiring a person because when you hire somebody, they also get to have at least 25 to 30% of their time they can take off. So when you're hiring a body, you're not hiring an entire body. You're hiring a partial body. And so yes, if I hire two, by the time they get out, yes, the people that are on field training now would be in the field and working. Um, and that would reduce it. Like I said, if everybody is healthy, um I'm not saying I wouldn't be I wouldn't be sitting here, but uh it still wouldn't be enough, you know, because we have a threeman minimum. You have contractually obligated time off that they have to spend. There's so much training that goes on with
071law enforcement, thousands of hours per year that officers have to be in training. And so, you know, you have to find that balance. And really, the the the crudest measure is the overtime. uh a department of of our size shouldn't have any more than $250,000 of overtime of it. Most of which is patrol overtime. So would you say two new officers, chief, if we were to hire them, the savings in the overtime would probably wash out their salaries or come No, no, no. I I would I can't even hazard a guess as to what hiring two more would do. I would definitely put them on patrol. Um because as you know I mean I've I've engineered it so I've taken positions away from the second floor. We used to have a traffic officer. I took
072that position away and I put it down to patrol because I knew that's where we needed people. And so now of course that has a negative impact because now we have nobody to do traffic. I find myself taking traffic complaints and going out in the field and taking care of parking issues and things like that because we just don't have anybody dedicated. I took away a support services sergeant and I put that person back on patrol to be a patrol sergeant. So we went from five to six if you remember and that reduced the sergeants overtime by probably $50,000. Uh introduce comp time. There's a number of things I did to reduce the overtime itself uh by probably 150 at most uh if not a little bit more uh last year uh to try to
073help that. But there's only there's only so much you can do. Um, and it's always going to come back. So, two officers obviously would help. Um, I mean, I know what I would have if I had my plan, I'd have a 45 officer department. Uh, that could be a five-year plan. That could be a 10-year plan. And what's the increase in officers for that? That would be five. Five. Yeah. Now, year one or year two, you came before this council and you gave us a breakdown of how many hours are involved in uh personal time, vacation time. Um and and it was quite large and I think you said at the time you'll never see that going down especially with this force and the manpower and the amount of years they have in. Um, at
074some point if you could bring that back and just let us know what the breakdown is between vacation time, sick time, holiday, the whole thing. Right. Right now, obviously with with a patrol force, half of which I've hired since I've been here, and their their experience is about three and a half years on average, which is extremely low. That's just another issue that that we we deal with as managers. Um, that is going to be reduced, right? So that's also going to help us on the bottom line because people with less years on have less time to take. They haven't built up their sick time. They haven't built up their personal time. They haven't gotten a lot of vacation time because they're brand new. So that's going to pay dividends, if you will, on that
075regard because they're brand new. They don't have as much time off. So I look at that as well. I have one more question. I don't see in this budget at all um officers assigned to schools. I believe we have two. I think one is the middle school and the other one is the high school. Yes, there are two school resource officers. And those resource officers, are they coming out of your budget or are they coming out of the board of edge but they're they're my personnel? Yes. Because I I don't see them separated on this budget. I don't know why that is unless they're part of the full the full-time salary line item. They're in the full-time salary, but it doesn't break them down as as uh resource officers. No. Um those resource officers receive
076as much salary as a regular paid policeman. Yes, they're just uh they're a regular patrolman. They're just assigned to the schools for the school year. Uh come graduation in June, they are assigned to dayshift patrol and they work uh alongside regular patrolman. They have dayshift. I'm just curious, um is there a reason why they're assigned to the police department and not the school? Is it because they're armed or No, it's because they're SRO's. So, that position is school resource officer and they are always uh from the police departments. I mean, I know it's they're full-time uh sworn certified police officers. I know it's just a matter of shifting the accounts around, but would that be a help to you if they were assigned to the board of ed? I mean, that was a creative way
077of of trying to reduce at least the my line item budget. Of course, it just robs Peter to pay Paul in one sense. So, um you know, you'd have to get the you know, the buyin from the board of ed uh on their budget side to see if they would be willing to do that. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman. Yeah, go ahead. Piggybacking on the on the SRO's and this is before my time. When when Plain decided to put an SRO at the high school, was there an officer hired to replace that? Did did the numbers go up at the police department? The the the knowledge that I have, which I only have because it was told to me, was that yes, officers were added. So at some point we were a 12man
078department and then we went to a 20man department and then in a 30man and then a 35. I don't have all the historical data on that. I get that by looking back at the budget books to look at how the police department was structured. Uh which usually will tell me, oh the police department has 35 active officers. So I know back in time how many officers there were. I do know that officers were hired but they were hired specifically to go into the schools. And at the beginning of it, in its initial stages, the school was supposed to pay for it. They sort of backed out and from what I heard, Chief Katania just said, "Well, then take it out of my budget." And so, they were hired specifically to active patrol, but they went
079right into the the school system. Mr. Chairman, I have another question. Yes. Um, Chief, do you believe all resource officers should be armed and that we should have an armed personnel in each school? Yes. And um well, school resource officers have to be armed because they're police officers. The Association of Police Chiefs, have they been fighting for for army resource officers in all schools or just wonder if that's a something you feel strong? Historically, u the armed school security officer, ASSO, um really started after Sandy Hook and that was in two departments. It was Oxford, I believe, and then in New Town. Uh the state of Connecticut passed legislation to allow uh the towns to hire armed uh school security officers and they gave definitions and qualifications. An armed school security officer has to be
080somebody that is retired in good standing from law enforcement. Once they are hired, they have to go through a specific training program through the state of Connecticut and then they have to go through certain types of training, background investigation through the local police department. They have to keep up their pistol qualifications and but they are hired by the schools for the schools but they are armed. That is different than a school resource officer which is a basically a police officer of the town that is assigned to be at the schools to not just offer security but to offer guidance as a resource officer to create that you know involvement engagement with the children uh and be a resource for the teachers and and kids. Thank you. All right. Hey, Mr. Chair. Yes. Go ahead. Um,
081for budgeting purposes, what figure do we use for an additional police officer? You know, combined salary and benefits for budgeting purposes. Obviously, you know, it'll depend. It would depend on the real person who takes the position, but do we have a a figure on that? Well, the contract breaks out. It dep if if we hire, for example, the two that are in the academy had no experience. So there's a a pay grade for that. If we hire somebody who is already certified, we start them off at a higher salary. And you know, um from you know, so and I believe there's a pretty dramatic difference in the two pay rates to start. Um secondly, benefits are based on the individual person, you know, but typically um at a single rate, we're looking at, you know,
082about 14 to 15 grand a year minus employee contribution percentage. Um and and family is twice that or two person couple family. It's substantial. So you're probably talking in a neighborhood of you know could be close to uh between 95 and $125,000 for budgeting purposes when you don't don't yet know uh you know the specific person that you'll be hiring whether they're new or they're experienced. Yeah. Right. Okay. And so that's why I'm giving a range. It's I mean it's you know close to that. Again, the benefits are the unknown depending on the individuals actually hired and you know if we can get a already certified versus a new non-certified individual. What's the what's the cost difference on certified and non-certified? How much does the academy cost? The the academy would be the starting rate
083pay which is uh 70 I want to say 75. Yeah. No, what does it cost to send them? Uh I think the academy now charges $ 3500 as a flat fee. But then of course to equip them you're talking5 to $10,000 easily. Okay. In uniform uniforms and all the which you would have anyway certified or not you would have to pay that anyway. Correct. Yeah. Correct. And but I don't know is there a per fringe benefit rate that you multiply it by? We typically use 41% which includes you know the social security, FICA, Medicare, unemployment, pensions, insurance, everything. It's sort of a catch-all number. So 40%. So again, that's where I'm saying if the salary is 75, 40%'s about, you know, 30 25 to 30. So you're at 95 plus or minus on the low
084on the very low end. Okay. Um yes, you good. And I'm good. Good. Um the revenue you bring in on the road work duty that was started by you three years ago. Uh that program that that the No, that's been going on forever. Okay. And what's the average that's brought in every year on that? That's one of the line items in the revenue budget that we keep bumping up because we've had a lot of bigger road projects over the last couple years. So I think our budgeting uh I'm estimating next year for 220,000. And that's been pretty average for the last Yeah, it's been right around two. For how long? A while. Uh well, we've had a lot of again road projects, you know, going back to Cook Street, Northwest Drive, Townline Road, Whiting Street,
085Broad Street. um all of those over the last what five years. So um it's been right around 175 to 200 for the last five years at least. That includes everything the car the the admin fee that's everything that Yeah. Yeah. It also could increase because I I signed with Southernington Police Department as well. So when our officers go to work in other towns whether it be Plymouth or uh New Britain or Southernington, we can also charge for that as well. And so we we get the car rate, the charges for that as well. Okay. All right. Any other another question? No, I I'm I'm good. So, and just, you know, looking at overtime, we're looking to reduce the overtime line item from this year to next year. Is that because of the anticipation of, you
086know, a couple coming out of the field training? Um, and I don't know if the timing would be right. How many months are they into the academy that the the we have two in the academy right now. We have two we have two officers right now in field training that are probably about a month away from being on their own. We have two in the academy that we have one in the academy that's graduating in three weeks. So, he's got another three months after that. And then we have another probably six months before the other uh the other two academy are on board. Okay. All right. But was that the was that connected was the fact that we're getting potentially by the next fiscal year three officers who were out of field training. Was that
087a conscious decision to lower the overtime because of that or was it just in general the overall feeling with the overtime budget was going to be lower? Um separate from the fact that we're getting I don't remember how much it was lowered. Yeah. To be honest. No, that's all right. 50,000. Yeah. 50,000. Yeah. It it it depends on what trends we're on right now. And and yeah, I I did take into consideration when I put my numbers in. Okay. Um that we would probably go down because of the extra people that are actually certified and on their own. Okay. Um but cuz it's you know it's one of the things that challenges with this like you you hire someone you know we're appoint someone Monday night and it's literally 15 months to 18 months probably
088before you feel the benefit of having a full-time person there. So, it's, you know, and and I'm not sure actually, you know, I don't know what everyone's thoughts are about taking action on this particular budget because it sounds like we have some a couple questions. I don't know if um but it sounds like there's like a bigger discussion needs to happen as far as like moving forward and and you know, do we need to put together a five-year plan? Yeah. you know, and and does that five-year plan include, you know, trying to fit in one officer next year or does it do we wait or do I I don't know. I you know, I and I don't want to step on the town manager's toes with this with, you know, as far as the administration
089of the budget. Um, Mr. Chairman, I might suggest we hold off on approving this budget uh and go later on, see how we roll out with other departments. Yeah. what are what we're looking at for a mill rate before we make a decision on anything here for the police department. But chief, I would come back next year with the five-year plan that you wanted to implement. And and how many people I'm curious, how many people have you hired from other departments where we didn't have to send them to training? I know you hired Waterberry police officers. I think you had about three or four of them since since I've been I hired somebody from Waterberry. He's still he's still with us. I hired somebody from West Haven who uh left for the private sector. um
090hired somebody who was a a um in the Marine Corps as a uh as an officer. So he didn't have to really go through the academy. He was a kind of a a hybrid. Uh so he was on the road a little bit quicker. I think two two or three four. So you saved a lot of money. Okay. Anthony Horton as well. He came from Winchester. Oh yeah. What would you say the same as was per person, not going through the academy, starting them out on the roadway, not looking for overtime from somebody that's Well, I mean, because you're getting the the work well, you're getting the work from them faster, but you're also starting them at a higher rate and so it may may be negligible. I'm sure there is a savings of course
091for time, uh, uniforms, things like that. Um, I just I just would have to sit down and kind of try to determine what a roundabout figure would be. And like I said, I I would like the the ability to justify my response this particular budget because if if it's a no and it's next year, that's two and a half years from now before that person is on the road. I do not want to wait two and a half years. U it's my impatience. And it's not just the budget. It's not just the overtime. The overtime is is an indicator overall. Um but it's it's the amount of crime that we have. It's the amount of officers being forced on overtime and it's the fact that we're always running with a three-man minimum. What I'd love
092to see this department go to a fourperson minimum on days and evenings. Yes. Um that is a a long range plan. I I understand that. Um that's probably hiring, you know, five to eight more people. Um but there's different ways to attack it. I can value engineer it a lot. But at some point, you know, you you sharpen the knife too much and it it's going to cut and it's going to have an impact in the product that we provide for the citizens. And that's what I I don't want to do. Chief, how's your part-time program going? You were utilizing retired police officers or we're trying to utilize parttime. I mean, some some some can work more than others. Um, but they're not we're not bringing them in on to cover shifts or anything like
093that. Thank you. Mr. Chair, I would also agree that I uh I think there's uh we want some time to think about this and discuss it further before we actually take a vote tonight. Okay, Mr. Chair, are there any question? Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, I I I'm not I I can't I can't vote on this tonight. Um last night we sat here and it was an addition to almost every department. Um, we've entrusted Chief Fangelli with the safety of this town and he's saying he needs more and we're not listening and until we listen, I don't think I can vote on this. All right. Any other comments or questions, Mr. Chair? Yes. Um, I agree with uh Councilman Underwood and everyone else. Let's wait. Let's get through the rest of the budget, see where we're
094at, and hopefully we can look at maybe doing maybe not two, maybe one, and come up with a solid five-year plan of how we can bring the police department up to what, you know, you feel the standard should be. So, I say let's wait to vote on this. All right. Any other comments or questions? Um, anything else you want to share? Any questions? Thank you for your time and and I look forward to any opportunity, any questions. Um if you'd like to set aside a time u where I can bring a lot more uh data, I'd be more than happy to do that. Um because I would like a chance to justify it so that it's not just me asking um but you know trying to make you understand you know the you know without
095you having to do 30 years yourself. Um trying to make you understand why I think I need more officers. Well, and I and I, you know, in the conversations I've had with town manager and some of you up here, you know, I having done this for a while, it I agree with the statement that you almost have to overhire because you're never fully staffed. So, you can So, in that sense, I I I agree. You know, how we make that happen, you know, adding an officer for next year or two officers, you know, that to me may be a right step, but I I I need more. you know, I want to feel there's a path and I know every two years the council changes and different councils can decide to do go different directions,
096but you know, until I commit to add, you know, to to adding something to the budget, I think we just have to have a little bit more discussion. And I don't know if this that necessarily means next week, I you know, certainly I would like to take care of this sooner than later. I I don't you know I'm I'm okay if we you know before the end of um this current calendar year trying to come up with a plan that makes sense and um everybody can get behind. So you know as far as next steps I'm you know I we really next week is our you know we we need to be making budget decisions by the end of next week. So can he come in on Tuesday? Yeah. What? We have what? Tuesday and
097Wednesday of next week schedule. Tuesday would probably be a good day to come in. Okay. And I I just want to and I know Deb, you're miss you're going to be out of town. I'll be here Tuesday. Tuesday you will be here. Okay. Yep. But something, you know, as far as not letting this go too long. I I do think, you know, Chief, if your schedule allows, you know, maybe have you come back Tuesday. Um the question is what do we want the chief to talk about? Um making sure he has some direction and not just I think what he's looking for right now is two additional officers. Um that's something to think about. There's no way we're going to increase this by five. Um looking at the budget for this year, it's going to
098be an increase to the taxpayers. I think we all agree we'd like to give them the best um tax rate as possible. Chief, I have one one more thing. Uh, Mr. Chairman, can I address the chief? Yeah, go ahead. Uh, chief, about 3 weeks ago or two and a half weeks ago, we had that serious snowstorm. Everything was slippery. Uh, one of my neighbors had fallen and one neighbor called the police and the your officers. I just want to tell everybody the compassion they showed this woman. She had a big cut on her head, laying on the uh on the driveway in the snow, little water, ice. Uh, they were phenomenal. I mean, she was bleeding. unbelievable head cut, head a head injury, usually bleeds pretty bad. And they really made her feel comfortable and
099she was scared. I mean, who wouldn't be scared? But, um, really, your officers are phenomenal. Thanks. Thank you. Uh, yes, Mr. Chairman, you want to say something? Yeah, I just want to add uh the chief and I had a good conversation uh yesterday morning uh talking um in in preparation of the the budget and uh talking about officers uh we covered the conversation around the um members that are out um you know uh with you know workers comp and and getting that resolved um could could obviously be a short-term win potentially one way or the other how that gets resolved because that that you know that's a that's a vacancy if you will. Uh and so we then uh talked about the SRO's and and those two officers in the school while yes, they they're
100in his budget, their their function is in the schools and or at least 10 out of 12 more than that. It's really I think when you boil it down after vacations and so forth, you're probably he's probably getting six weeks in in the summer if if that. Um and so I I think that's an area to look at. And I think we we also it was raised here in terms of certified officers coming from other departments. I think you know going forward uh maybe a little uh creative thinking around um more you know marketing andor maybe a incentive uh for those because in my mind a certified officer on the street in the matter of uh you know whatever the training is local training beats getting through the academy hands down and that's what what
101I think gives you know you know a benefit to the department having that officer come in right away already certified to you know it's sort of immediate versus the academy. So I think you know uh those don't always he's he's been successful but you can't guarantee it doesn't always happen right so I think in in terms of looking at it that way um and again conscious of the budget and what we can afford um putting a plan together um putting you know a strategy together and I think we could we could do that and I think it includes talking long-term with the board of education about SRO and where we're going with that whole process u because two is not insignificant that's too, you know, dedicated and that that's fine, but I think we ought
102to have a a long-term strategy about what we do in the school systems as well. No, I agree. Yeah. I I feel like there's, you know, there's some short-term opportunities here, you know, and we don't have a lot of days to kind of try and figure it out, but it doesn't mean we don't talk about it. So I, you know, I I would say when you come back next Tuesday or we all come back next Tuesday is to talk about do we think there's something short-term that would allow us if we if the council just wants to to add a position and then you know clearly the longer term how do we get you know how do we get to the longer term goals um once those are determined. So, you know, I would say
103for now if you know s certainly if you have any questions regarding the police department whether it's you know go through I guess I don't know if we ask the town manager and you can disseminate that question to the chief if you need to if it's you know something directly related that only he can answer. Um, I would like to know, you know, if you could just, uh, Rob, get numbers, you know, um, brand new officer with no experience, what about the cost would be and um, if we brought someone in who has the experience and is certified, what that cost would be again, unless you think you can give it to me now, but you know, for Tuesday, if you want a little time just to No, I mean, it's all on the it's
104all by union contract. Okay. So I mean the only unknown would be on the actual individual hired based on benefits but again if we use the blanket 40 or you know or 41 whatever it is you know we we certainly that n Yeah. Yeah. I'll have I'll have some information for you. All right. Okay. All right. Any other comments? Any other questions? Mr. Chairman. Yes. My curiosity is is a new a new hire would be somebody that just walks in and says I want to be a policeman. We we know that there are when we advertise there there are policemen looking for work. Do we not get these people? Do we not get those kind of people applying for our positions? I think it's how you advertise, isn't it? You can advertise for a certified
105or a new hire. That that's correct. Uh when we advertise for officers, we advertise for either a certified or entry level. So those leaving police departments or have already left and are still certified in the state of Connecticut, there's only one place to go, which is policeapp.com. They will go there and they will look to see um which town is hiring. Uh but I can tell you the amount of interest is is really nil. There's really not a lot of people coming through the door. Um now, can we certainly take a little bit more of an approach? Yes. You know, once we did some incentive work, and I want to thank the town for for doing that. We made some strides towards incentives. Uh we did put out a uh a hiring certified hiring uh
106worksheet, a PDF, an advertisement, and we actually put it out and blasted all the other police departments uh in the area, right? And we bring have officers bring it to trainings with them. And so you're basically, you know, recruiting inside of other police departments and they of course are doing the same thing to us. Uh, so it's a uh it's it's us taking from each other and trying to offer, you know, the best incentives. Uh, the grass isn't always greener. Um, I've been able to sell, you know, when officers come here to meet with me and they want to work here. Um, I sell them on the town. I sell them on the agency, the town of Planeville itself. Um, and you know, that's what gets people to stay to stay here. And that's my
107goal. I don't want to hire somebody that's going to leave in 3 years. um I meet with them and and they're happy to work here and so I've been very lucky and not come with so far. Um but yes, can we certainly make a little bit more effort and strides in trying to get certified officers? Yeah, there are certain things we can do. Um and that would be, you know, more talking with Rob and and HR about maybe trying to increase that. And what this type of officer would not, you know, he's already gone through school and all and everything. He's now working at a job somewhere and he decides he wants to change and come here. Mhm. Does he he doesn't have to go to school? No. If if he's still certified in the
108state of Connecticut, which is a three-year certification, um they can apply. So, I've I've had officers apply that are 32-year veterans. They they had more time than me. They were in their late 50s and they wanted to look for a second career and so they applied to us. They had since taken their application out, but they can apply to us and we go through a very simple process through the state of Connecticut. They get their department switched to us. We we do a very uh shortened version of a field training so that they can learn our policies, our procedures, the way we do things, our computer systems, our town. Uh and then they're out in the field. And depending on how much experience they have is where they start on the on the pay scheme.
109So if they have three years or if they have under three years, they'll start at maybe a second step. If they have five years and more, they'll start at the second to last step. That way they only have to be here a year before they're at top patrol step. That's how we uh organize that. And I'm assuming they come in, they they start at the bottom of the seniority list. Yes. So they're probably on midnight, correct? Yeah. Okay. So it probably makes it tougher to get a certified to go to midnight, right? I would I would really not be in favor of of having somebody come in from an outside department and having seniority over my own officers. No, no, I get that. They wouldn't have many friends at that point. Yeah. Mr. Chairman. Yes.
110Uh while the chief's here, do you want to go over to Capital Reserve? Yeah, that was going to be my question. I know we're we're past 8:00. you know, if it looks like we're coming back Tuesday night at least, um we could talk about capital then or if you guys want to plow through capital tonight and and we're not making any decisions on capital, but we certainly can discuss it. Um it looks like the police they do have a few items under capital. Quite a few. Um I don't know if do you have the I don't know if the chief has the list in front of them, but um the town manager go through them real quick. I have them in my head. Not real quick. We don't go quick, but let's see how good
111you are. Yeah, they're all they're all recurring except for uh one. All right. Does anyone have any questions or I mean to me they're pretty self-explanatory reading them, but does anyone need any uh anything explained or have a comment? Vehicle replacements. You said you were going with a pickup truck. Yeah, I'm going to try to I'm going to try to work those numbers into getting uh replacing the supervisor's vehicle with a pickup truck. Okay. So that it could have certain equipment that can't go in every single car that only a supervisor has. Um that would of course reduce the the amount I have to spend on the second vehicle. That second vehicle will probably be a lower-end administrative vehicle to replace one of the detective division cars, which all have well over 100,000 miles. Okay.
112and chief body armor. Uh, how many years do you get out of one? Five. Five years. Five years. And I believe we utilize a grant if I'm not mistaken on either all that or part of that. Yeah, it's partial reimbursement depending. It's the bulletproof uh one of the bulletproof vest grants. Um, both come direct from the federal government. It varies on months. The second question, um, body cameras, um, 23,000 is it 28 28 28,000. How many does that purchase? Well, the the majority of of that cost is for the cloud storage, which is right around, I think, the 25 mark, if not a little bit less. U, the rest is to either add cameras, depending on if we need them, or to replace cameras. Um, so that's that's the amount everybody everybody has to have
113a body camera. All 40 all 40 officers. And how's that working out for the department? Have you you used them? Have you referred back to them? Big big big fan of cameras. Thank you. All right. Any other questions or comments? No. All right. Then I and unless anyone else has anything to add, I think we're all set for tonight with the police. Thank you for your time, Chief. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Thanks, Chief. And we'll see you next week. Um, is there anything else? Anything else anyone wants to try and talk about tonight or do we want to adjourn? I'm good. Well, a motion is in order. Motion to adjurnn. Second. Motion and a second. All those in favor? I any opposed? We're adjourned for this evening. You'll see some
114of us here again tomorrow night. Um you'll see some of us Thursday night and then obviously next Tuesday. [Music]