001This [music] is NHTV2 North Haven Government Television, a service of North Haven Community Television. The following program is brought to you through the support of the town of North Haven. >> All right. Good evening everyone. Uh welcome to a special meeting of the board of finance for this Wednesday, June 10th, uh 2026. Um this is a special meeting uh with a limited agenda which is primarily to uh set the mill rate for the uh the newly uh approved budget. So couple things. First of all u I think most of you can probably see if you're here obviously you can at home you might notice we're in the uh renovated second floor of the uh the town hall came out beautiful. I want to personally thank Mr. Monaco especially for changing the configuration of the table
002which has been a source of discontent amongst all the boards and commission for some years and we can actually finally see each other without looking at other everyone's back. So thank you to Mr. Monaco for that. Um and the residents of course who funded the uh the renovations. Um we had our second referendum yesterday. There was 3,451 votes cast. There was 1892 in favor of the uh budget. There's 1559 opposed to the budget. Uh about 20% of the voters passed and that's a margin of um victory if you will for the budget of 55% to 45%. Um I will just ask the members if they did want to say anything about the uh the budget the vote yesterday if they'd like. [clears throat] I I'd like to say some things, but if somebody else would
003like to go first, I'm always happy to go after. >> No. Okay. Uh so first of all I just like to really thank all of the people who not only voted in the first referendum and in the second referendum but to the many people who came out [clears throat] uh informed themselves, watched meetings, attended meetings, uh spoke up during public [clears throat] commentary as well as submitted I think a record number of emails to this board. Um, I think that uh it was it was really an impressive showing even though it was only a a turnout of of 20% of the the total number of registered voters. >> Um, I'm I'm happy to report that my uh crystal ball, which had been in the shop for a little while, uh actually was 100% accurate this
004time and I opposed the budget that failed and I supported the budget that passed. Um but while I absolutely believe that we all need to move forward, uh I think it would be irresponsible to just focus exclusively on the outcome of the second referendum um which passed. Um I think the the messages from the 2,95 no votes at the sec at the first referendum and the over 1500 no votes at the second referendum were very loud and clear. They were varied, but they were loud and clear. Um, I think there were a lot of North Haveners who were very upset during this budget development process, dissatisfied with the budget process and the results. Um, I think there are a lot of taxpayers that are really feeling that they're at their limit with the growing expenditures
005and the the wedge of the pie, if you will, for the residential taxpayers. Um, one point that I would like to make that that uh I didn't make at the the town meeting was um those who to who tried to focus on the incremental tax increase obligations like year-over-year I I think they missed the whole point. I think a lot of people were not objecting to an extra $300 or $400. Um, I think it's really about the total tax bill, which as we all know skyrocketed last year over 28%. So now we're asking for that same amount plus more. Um, and given Mr. Freda's numbers that he quoted, the average homeowners tax bill for this next year will be about $9,600. And I believe that the flawed assumption is that it's just as easy to
006scrape together $10,000 this year as it was a year ago. And I think we can all agree that that's just not true. It's much much harder in this economy. Um I believe that the the inflation rate just jumped up again. So, so in order to avoid another exhausting and contentious budget cycle next year, I believe that we have to do things differently and hopefully better. And I encourage my fellow elected officials, town employees, and residents to make creative suggestions. And as a start, I'd like to make two. one that the board of finance members tour in person departmental facilities as well as our schools during the months of August to October. And uh I would also like to respectfully request updated reports on the board of education employment table and student enrollment on three different
007dates. The first date is today. The second date is that date in October that the superintendent submits the data to the state department of education. And the third date can be let's say the end of January as we begin the new budget cycle. So that's those are my comments. >> Could you could you just put that last request and email to uh be more than happy myself and Rich and Ingred and um I think it's probably best if they just present that in their normal budget uh presentation come come February. Sure. Jay actually go ahead Mike. >> Yes. I'd like to comment on [clears throat] the fact that we still only had about 20% of the people come despite the fact it was larger than the previous year. So uh we sent out two ROOC
008calls. So what I'd like to say to the residents here is that uh if you did not get a ROOC call that means you haven't signed up for the system. So you can call our office. Tammy and Valerie handle this. Tammy is here tonight. So, if you want to get signed up, you have to give either your cell phone or if you have a landline. And that's very important because even though I sent out two rooc calls, it still only hit about 13,000 people because a lot of the people didn't have not signed up. And these are the same this the same system that in order to do this ROOC call I had to get a dispensation because we're using a public safety uh software system that I had to get permission to get to
009do this to do the rooc calls. So the point of this story is this. Despite all the meetings, despite the rooc calls, despite thousands and thousands of impressions on social media, only 20% came out to vote. That means 80% of the registered voters did not vote. So I'd like to say that part of that is what I just mentioned, and that is the fact that there's a lot of people not signed up for the ROOC calls. We're going to continue to do the robo calls and so we need to have people signing up in order to receive the call. Thank you. >> Uh any other members care to comment? >> Uh Nancy, we have an open invitation from the police chief. He gave it to us months ago. M um at the time when he
010extended the invitation uh I told him I would bring it to the membership but I told him that uh it would be best if we didn't do that until after the budget passed which certainly that happened yesterday. >> So it was my intention to contact him and try and find some date that's convenient for the members. >> Sounds great. >> All right. [clears throat] Uh the current mill rate for the budget year which ends on June 30th of 2026 is 29.46 mills. Uh based on the um uh expenses and revenues which have been discussed many times and which were in the numerous packets at the various town meetings uh the current mill rate sorry the projected mill rate would be 30 uh 56 mills for the fiscal year ending June 30th of 2027. So, I'd
011like to make a motion that the mill rate for fiscal year 2027 be set at 30.56 mills. And that's at a collection rate, by the way, of 98.75%. Rich, correct? >> Yes. 98.75%. >> If I could have a second, please second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Anyone opposed? Okay. Thank you to the members. Thank you for all your hard work these last 6 months, but obviously the whole year, but we all know that this is the the toughest stretch force, the the budget season. Um, [clears throat] we do have time for public comment. There are some people here. Anyone like to come up and speak? Sally. Good evening, [clears throat] Mr. Chairman. Sally Way, five Lawson Drive. Um, I uh am glad that the budget passed uh yesterday. I supported uh the second
012budget. Uh I did not support the first one. So along the lines [clears throat] of what Mrs. Barrett said to use a sports analogy, I'm batting a thousand. You guys are batting 500. [laughter] Um >> you don't know how we voted. >> I know that this board recommended the first budget that was defeated. Um, so, uh, I just wanted to give you some statistics about the first referendum. Obviously, the statistics are not out on the second one because it was yesterday. Um but of the uh I think it was 3452 voted on May 19th. Um anyone want to guess what percentage of 18 to 35 year olds voted of 10%. >> 10% of the 18 to 35 year old registered voters voted in the first referendum meaning 90% were over 35. Um it was interesting.
013Um we have 4600 registered Republicans and 24% of them voted and we have 4,400 registered Democrats and 22% voted. Pretty similar. 24% 22%. Our largest chunk of voters of course is the unaffiliated. We have 7,500. And I thought it was interesting that only uh 15 or 16 maybe it was 16% of un unaffiliated voted. So it was you know the the um those registered Republicans and Democrats were close in in turnout but the unaffiliated were were significantly lower. So I found that interesting. I urge all of you to study the data on um both referendums. I think you'll learn a lot about your constituents that way. So, where'd you find the data, Sally? >> Uh, you can contact the registar and get that. >> Did you happen to ask him what percentage in terms of
014the demographic you gave was the largest voting block? >> Uh, I haven't gotten that yet. They just had the um 18 to 35 and 35 to 100. >> That's a big gap. >> But I'm anxious to get [laughter] I'm I fall in that second 30. I'm I'm between 35 and 100. I admit it. >> Lower [clears throat] lower quartile. I'm sure. >> There it is. There it is. I am very anxious to get the 60 and over though. >> Okay. >> Um I think it will be quite high. >> Um and and that is significant. Um I stood outside yesterday. Mr. Chairman, you saw me out there. I was out there for a few hours, mostly very early in the morning. Um and the theme that I heard was was pretty um constant um especially
015from elderly citizens in town, which we have a high percentage of. Uh the average age of North Haven is five years older than the state average and that's significant as well. We have a lot of elderly citizens and many small towns do. Um but I kept hearing the same thing. They're just paying too much of their yearly income in property taxes. Many people are paying 20% of their income on property taxes. It is really at a breaking point. Not just here in North Haven. We've we've all been following Guilford and many other towns. Um it is very very tough. And those who said that oh you know four $500 a year is not much. It's only 50 or 60 a month or one Big Mac a week. Those folks just aren't understanding the problem that
016senior citizens and a lot of working families are facing, which is paying a tremendous portion of their income [clears throat] toward property taxes. Another thing that I want to talk about because u I can't really leave this podium without talking about the board of ed. It was of course the central um issue I think you might all agree in the budget formulation process. I have this reputation of being anti-education, which is untrue. I had a political opponent who said I fought tooth and nail against education. That's not true. But I do fight against the board of ed, which is not education. The board of ed and the administration runs the education system. And I have a lot of problems with how they run the education system. For years, 12 years, I attended almost every one
017of these board of finance meetings. I think I missed two or three. And I constantly heard all of you guys, some of you weren't here, but whoever was on this board complaining about a lack of financial data from the board of ed. We heard last August of 2025 the independent auditor sit here and say that board required board of ed reports, financial reports were either missing or if they were filed, they were inaccurate and they were classified, you all heard it, as material deficiencies. That is unacceptable for a department that receives half of our money. And so, yes, I have a problem with the board of ed and the administration. But I am very supportive of education. It is our single most important function. That's why it takes up half our budget. I was educated
018in this town from kindergarten to graduation. I was a substitute teacher. I was a history tutor. I was a volunteer future problem solvers instructor. But I am not happy with um a lack of transparency. Mr. Chairman, earlier this budget season, you told us that in the last two fiscal years, the board of ed created created not hired, created 30 new positions in the in the previous two fiscal years when they were budgeted in each fiscal year for just two. I don't understand how that happens. We can't do that on the town side. We have an employment table attached to the end of our budget that can't change. The board of education changes like crazy. It's hard to follow. Um and I find that it's very difficult to follow the board of ed budget for exactly
019uh these for that reason the statistic that you gave, Mr. Chairman. And finally, I want to talk about how the budget process progressed. >> Do you mind if we just hold for one second? Yes, sir. >> I agree with you for a starter. Um, and you know, I I don't know how they get 30 people when we when we only budgeted for four or they only budgeted for four. I I never got an answer to that. Um, I you're right. I mean, numerous members of this board, including Mike, who's not here, have questioned the reporting uh over the years. Uh, I think most of us in the room know that in in the last 20 years, they I can't I can't tell many different finance people that, but it had to be at least 10.
020Um, uh, we do know that Howard's back on board and has been for, I think, over a year now. And I think we've got high confidence in him, but I also think it takes time to get things back into the into the shape and order that they that they want them to be. Um, and I would also go and say that I think you're also right about the budget. It's always been sort of difficult to follow their budget for different reasons. Um, case in point, special ed's always mentioned and it should be. It's it's a huge and highly volatile number that that affects their budget. Yet, there's nowhere in their budget where you can see what the special education costs are because they don't show you them. They're all mixed in with salaries and buses
021and this and that. You So, you can't tell what they're spending on special education. Um um you know when they've when they move people around and they retitle them then what they should be doing is saying we had this position last year >> and it was funded at X. If they're going to move that person they should have a zero this year and show a new line zero last year so we can track it. So, I mean, Mike Mike Callahan's tried to reconcile the the medical reserve reports with with the reports we get, the statements we get, and and we can't do it. Um, I sent an email to uh to Christian on the workman's comp this year and said to him, "I thought he was way under budgeting his workman's comp." Uh, he responded
022back and uh politely said, "No, he thinks he was fine." They later switched um um I think consultants uh during this process and they they boosted the workman's comp by $300,000 I think Rich 300 plus thousands. Um >> that could be just a a difference in opinion but um I I'm saying I agree with you. Uh it's very difficult for this board to track the numbers for the board of ed. We all talked about the incumbrances which essentially make the reports useless when everything's incumbent. can't tell whether ahead of budget or buying budget. Um we've asked questions about how they acrew and and budget their salaries there in the air. We can't seem to get a a real answer for that. So um it's opaque to be sure. I'll say that. >> Well, thank you
023for your meritorious supplemental comments to my concerns. I appreciate that. >> Um it reminds me of another thing. Um last uh the charter which applies to the board of ed. They are one of the departments in this town. The [clears throat] charter says that in each budget you have to show the closeout of the last completed fiscal year. Last year during that budget season, we did not get the closeout figures from the previous fiscal year, which would have been the um 2324 until after the referendum. That was also very unacceptable that um I don't know if they comment on that, but I I believe that what happened was that they were having trouble closing out their fiscal year. In fact, I believe they got assistance from the town to finally close out the year. >>
024Yeah. But it's very the reason why the charter requires that in there because it's incredibly helpful for tracking and and predicting the future, right? And if you don't have that for a department that is half of the budget, it makes I mean budgeting is a lot of predicting, right? >> And it's difficult to predict when you don't have the data that the charter requires. Um, but I just wanted to say a couple of quick comments about the process itself. And this was I want to go back to March, the mid-Marchch regular board of finance meeting. Um, yes, there was a declination from the board of ed's original proposal. Um, and then some mistakes happened in my opinion. First, that meeting was postponed for a couple of weeks. I thought that was a mistake. And then
025um uh the board of finance and I think through Mr. Freda's initiation and in response to a lot of concerns added I believe 680,000 to the board of eds budget. Let's just call it 700 for mathematical purposes. >> No 700 was >> that 500 was the second one. No, no, that was after the I'm talking about March 30th cafeteria. there was 680 added and then after the April 13th public hearing the 500 was added to another 500 was added to the board of ed and then and the 500 to the town but um Mr. Chairman, am I accurate that at the um April the the March uh um meeting that was in that cafeteria, there was a Republican quorum. You guys went in the next room and you added 680 to the budget. >> I
026think correct. >> So close to 1.2 million was was added. >> Yes. >> And I think that's what doomed the budget in May. That plus people realizing how much t how much their taxes went up last year. I think both of those were critically important to why that budget failed. But if you look at what this board was willing to give them in mid-March before they added 1.2 million, they were giving the board of ed 4.6 million more. Okay? Then they added 1.2 two about 700,000 and then 500,000 and then it went through referendum. It was defeated and you guys took 2.7 away from them. So they went a million and a half. Now they're getting just 3.1 million. That is what their increase is now. The board of education is getting a increase over
027the current year of 3.1 million. In mid-March after your first declination you were willing to give them 4.6 6 million. So all of that happened. All of all that happened and they are 1.5 million worse than they were in the beginning. My father used to say, "Leave well enough alone, Sally. >> Leave well enough alone." But what really I think bothered a lot of people is even after the public hearing, there were education advocates who were still demanding that the 9.95% increase still go before the people at the referendum. Even those the increases that they were getting still wasn't enough. That's really what did them in. Our third selectment, Mr. Cohen wrote a very eloquent letter or column talking about compromise. It was a very good letter and I think that board of education advocates
028have to think very clearly next season or next year thinking baseball next year about compromise because they were doing okay with that $4.6 6 million increase and I think that that budget would have passed. So I uh think that it's time to really think about real compromise. We cannot have a oneisssue budgetary process. There are many issues facing this town and that one issue dominated the budget process and it defeated the first budget the budget on May 19th. So hopefully we could all work together. Um I appreciate that the board of selectmen issued a resolution for civility in public meetings. I'll remind everyone that the board of selectmen did exactly that in 2023 at my motion when I was on the board of selectmen. CCM, Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, had recommended a pledge of civility
029for all public meetings and uh we passed it three three years ago. So, I'm glad you passed another one because that's what we really need is civility. And personally, it is my only personal opinion. I believe that the way I was treated at the June 5th, 2025 board of selectman meeting really opened the floodgates to a lack of civility. So hopefully this second this second motion that the board of selectman passed just last week will result in civil discourse and fair and equitable compromise so we could all move forward for the best interests of our town. Thank you, [clears throat] Mr. Chairman, for your time and attention and your support. I just want to say one or two things side before we go to the next uh speaker if there is one. Um two things
030really. I I think and this goes for all the boards and commissions in town um whomever they may be when they're looking at budgets, right? I think their job is the same as ours. You know, and I've said it many times here, people people will say, "Do you do you support education?" Well, sure I do. And I'll say, "I support the fire department. I support public works." Our role is to in an individual year try and balance the competing wants and needs of the departments, right? So that's true with everyone on this board. No one's going to say they don't support education or or sports, right? But we have to do that, right? So the role of the the commissioners on our boards and commissions is the same. They're there to support the department, but
031they're also here to represent the town, right? And I feel that that's what they should be doing. And when it comes to bringing a budget, they need to keep in mind the town, not just the department that they perhaps represent closest. And I'll give you a number which actually Dave and I talked about this two weeks ago and I just said it to some of the members sitting to my left and my right. The numbers are interesting right now. They align sort of neatly in town. Our budget's roughly 140 million. If you have a 3% increase, that's $4.2 2 million, which happens to equal 1 mil right now. So, it's a good stat to keep in mind if you're a resident or if you're an employee or if you're um on one of the boards
032and commissions in town because that's sort of the baseline for a budget in my opinion. I mean, 3% may not seem like a big number, but that number alone is going to cost the taxpayers of town 1 mil, assuming no grandless gross, by the way. And that's before we have things like uh debt payments which might spike, workman's comp, which might spike, medical we all know, goes up way more than 3% every year. That's always the biggest wild card in any one of our budgets, right? So I think um the the various town departments and the boards and commissions need to keep that in mind as a baseline, right? I mean, you submit a budget for 3%. I would probably applaud you, but I also know that's going to cost at least 1% likely to
033the taxpayers of this town. And and if we're sitting here next year, that's what I would say to them. We need to think about that's a starting point. The starting point isn't what everybody wants. The starting point should be is okay, what do they want and what can the town afford? And as sort of a baseline, I think that's really what it should be. >> I agree. And I'd like to close by quoting first selectman Mike Freda, our first selectman for 17 years. I heard him say this many times. The challenge of the board of finance is to decide not what the town needs, but what the town can afford. >> Right. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> [cough] [clears throat] >> Jenny Cwell, um 69 Kimberly Circle. Um,
034one of the things that I think Sally brought up and Mr. Freda brought up was around the turnout and I do know that during a lot of the meetings or I guess some of it on social media. I'm not on social media, but people send me little tidbits here and there that a lot of people were complaining that they didn't know necessarily about the meetings and about the referendum. And I know the ROOC call was an effort to try to get more people out. Um but um just another idea, I know that when I've been in um Guilford, I know we have to sign that's out in front of town hall, but when you get um go into Guilford and you get off the highway, there are some some signs there um for each uh
035budget referendum so people know and can see in a very highly traveled place. So that just might be something um to consider cuz many people if you're not on social media, you're not going to see a lot of the debates going on and and know about the meetings if you're not someone who's keyed into them. So that would be um one thing that I would suggest. Um the other thing is um I as the budget passed yesterday but again there was a large number of 45% of people who came out who were not happy with the budget and I'm just coming before the board to ask next year when we when this process as this process starts again to really think about those 45% of the people because clearly they're not happy with the the
036budget that was presented And most of what I heard, um, there were complaints about the board of ed budget, um, and a lot of the salary increases that survived between version one and version two of the budget increases. And we're we're not talking small increases. And it wasn't just the board of ed side. There were some larger increases also on the town side. And when you have salaries that are between a h 100,000 and over $200,000 a year and those increases keep going up every year, it is difficult to say to someone who makes $60,000 a year, pull the extra money out of your pocket so you can give someone a huge increase. And for this year's budget increase, there were several on the board of ed that went from increased anywhere from 5,000 to
037$15,000 in one year. And that increase not only increased the salary line item, but it also impacts the retirement line items. It impacts the social security in um line items. So, I just think it's really important that um that when these budgets are going together and we're looking at these high salary increases that are yearover-year that for the for someone who's struggling to pay their taxes, that's it's [clears throat] sort of insult to injury. Um, so that's um I think that is part of what happened. I also heard a lot of people talk about and I know I've talked quite a frequently about services and how um we've been told that you know all your services are included once you pay your taxes. It's not actually totally true because it all depends on what services
038are important to you. So there are plenty of services that are really important to me that are not necessarily included in my taxes because we don't have it. somewhere um in the budget. So, you know, maybe and I I had mentioned this last year, maybe doing a survey of residents to find out what is important to them. Do they really want their leaves to be picked up curbside, which when you rake your leaves to the street, they blow all over the place until they're actually picked up? There are plenty of people who say, "I that service is not important. I'll bag my leaves and put them out in the street if my taxes go down or if I get other services in in place. So, uh, you know, bulk pickup is another one. You know,
039possibly charging based on weight of the pickup. Um, the the convenience center, I brought this up a lot. We have unlimited dumping there. We used to when it was on Universal Drive, you had to bring a ticket and you only got five a year and that was a way to control the dumping that happened. Now that it's in the convenience center, that doesn't necessarily happen. And there are people who come from other towns um and dump in our in our dump and we're paying for it. So those are just some things to consider um looking at uh prior to the budget season. Um, and then the last thing in terms of civility, um, it I think it's, you know, we talk a lot about civility, but you, it's really important that when people get up
040and make public comments that um, that they don't necessarily put other people down for their votes. And I heard a lot of that at the high school in which people were angry because people voted no. And I'm sure there are people on the opposite side that are angry for the people who voted yes. And I think if if we truly are going to have civility and bring a community back together, it's important for for people to uh consider what they're saying and uh what the impact that has on the people they're referring to and to possibly [clears throat] have the moderators or the the people who are running the meeting intervene at times. and um indicate when someone is not being civil because I listen to a lot of interruptions and yelling that happened um
041at that budget meeting that was not necessarily stopped and it bothers me no matter whether it's someone I agree with or disagree with. I think the only way we're going to have better and more ideas is if people feel comfortable speaking up and that you're not going to feel comfortable speaking up if you think when you get up to the mic people are going to be attacking you. If I could, Jenny, I will say I got a >> I got a very nice email from a prominent citizen in town um who um expressed his appall. That might not be the right word, by the way, [laughter] at at the way some of the meetings were going and I got some suggestions from this individual as to what we might be able to do to to
042change that. Um the other thing I'll say, and everyone in this room already knows it, right? But there isn't a board in Commission Town that isn't composed of volunteers, right? And I think what people forget sometimes is that members of this board, board of ed, police and fire commission, you name it, park and wreck, these are just ordinary citizens that are volunteering their time and are trying to do the best they can for the town. And I think sometimes people forget that because I don't know, maybe it's the maybe it's the divide here. They they see it as sort of an us versus them. I'm not really sure, but but you're absolutely right. And I think if people try and remember that the people on these boards and commissions are here volunteering their time to
043do to do this for their town, they're they're and and that's really the spirit they should be viewed in. It might help. Um I think like you the the meetings of the spring room way more contentious than they should have been. >> Okay. Uh one last quick thing that I just came back to my head um was the board of ed budgets. So, um I served on the board for six years and I do think that the the way the budgets um in the last couple of years have been, it's been much harder to see um you know what some of the the changes are. I know that when we were bringing programs back to the district, Dr. Cronin would bring to the board the numbers that would show, okay, this is the number of
044students that we were able to bring back. This is the cost of the teachers that relate to that program. Th that information should should be there and should be available. And I had asked the superintendent, where are your formulas? because we're we're being told that um that if we bring students back to to district, it's a better for them, it's better education, and b it's less costly. So, there should be some place where a cost reduces because you've brought in teachers who are now seeing kids in the district versus sending them out. And I have not been able to get an answer to that e either. So, um I do think it would be helpful and it would actually [clears throat] help the board have more credibility, the board of ed have more credibility if
045they're able to produce those numbers when people are asking for it because if they if they're unable to kind of show you where the savings is, it's a little bit harder to trust the numbers that you're being given. I will say this and I'll be the f and I will also say I did not say this in any of the meetings nor did I say it to anyone in the board of ed that portion of the presentation isn't presented correctly meaning if I accept that if we out if we sorry if we in place students by creating a program the board of ed says it say it saves money I take their word for it okay but from a budget perspective it presented as we need to hire four special ed teachers and that's going
046to cost X. From a budget perspective, it's not a plus, it's a minus. >> Right. Exactly. >> And so there may be costs elsewhere, which there has to be, which is driving up that budget, but it's not that item of hiring for special ed teachers. That's a minus. So I decide not to get into that during the budget meetings, but that's another I'm not sure. It's it's not inaccurate. It's just it's just tough to to to understand the budget when that's not a driver of cost. That's a savings, right? >> So, let's see what the real drivers are. They're somewhere else in that budget, but that's not hiring for special ed teachers. I know that. >> Yeah. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Please come up. Subud Basset Road. First of all,
047I really liked Nancy Barrett's suggestions. I hope you go with them. They were followed by Sally reiterating them. And even Tim, you were just going right on like this has already been addressed at some point. Minimal, but the board of ed seems to still be getting away with not doing what you're saying should be done. What you're saying should be is in the charter that they should do. What's going on here? How do we are we really held captive? >> That's what I want to know. I mean, I >> sat at one meeting that was the first workshop I've ever been in >> and member of the board of ed said >> they can tell us how much money we're getting, but they cannot tell us where to make the cuts. >> Well, that that's
048accurate. And that's that's fine except when you [clears throat] you present on the town side we're going to lose safety and on the uh education side um you're going to lose uh the the classrooms are going to be overcrowded. Well, 24 kids is not overcrowded, but that's beside the point. Only only came up there because somebody finally asked them what the class sizes would be. Okay. And they only rep they only repeated what two of the classrooms that they were talking about removing a teacher from from that from that grade. And one of them was 72 was coming down to three three teachers instead and there would be 24 children in those classrooms. The other one was 45 and there were only going to be two teachers so it' be 22. I don't know who
049the other two are. That wasn't explained. But there's no real explanation. There's no list of who's doing what your your positions and everything else. Where I say transparency, that's what people want to know. where where is >> starting from you're talking about their meeting which I was at actually where they presented their cuts just before >> all all the way along reading the budget the way I could read the budget but even when they would talk about whatever was going being talked about as far as the budget went okay the four special eds like you had said about the four special ed okay oh well we're going to lose them now but because we're losing the money well that's was your choice yours meaning the board of ed's decision that that's what they chose to
050take away. So where 500 people switched from no votes to yes votes on the budget, I felt it was more what was going to be taken away from the town. I thought it was more of what the town was going to lose if the referendum was failed again. It was safety. It was services, but it wasn't really decided what they were. They were [sighs] generalized um education, overcrowded classrooms, losing more teachers. What was it? You know, I I to me those are all and I'm going to tell you, I think those are all threats. Those are all fair tactics. And some people caved with them. Other people that have some more knowledge on this stuff may have saw differently. But when you ask for an explanation, you get zero. I asked for transparency. asked for
051a list of who's getting paid, who's doing this and that. >> I don't know. You know, I mean, >> I I can say this, too. It it may not seem like it at this exact moment, but actually, and Mike has said this numerous times, the town and the board of ed actually have a good relationship. Um, Mike has an especially good relationship with with Patrick and the administration. Um, Rich has a good and so does Ingred u relationship with the finance staff over there. As much as we've all said we'd like to have different and better reporting, uh, and that's been brought to their attention and they're aware of it, it's something that they're working on and have been working on, um, it's also a question of personnel and priorities. So, I don't think it's
052a desire, an unwillingness to cooperate with this board and and provide us with the information we want. It's a question, I think, more of getting it done. Um, so I maybe Mike would like to >> Well, Tim started to say about the limited authority. Why don't you finish your thought on that? Yeah, I mean look, lots of the board members here have questions about the board of ed package every month. All we can do is go to the board of ed and ask them what's the qu answer for this question or that question. Um sometimes you get answers. We mostly get answers. That's not fair. We mostly get answers. Okay. But we have a limited ability to they could tell us we're not even going to answer you. Uh wouldn't be very cooperative, but they
053could do that. >> That happens in cities and towns. That happens. So I mean >> we heard that here before, >> right? Um sometimes what happens is that we get answers back like a lot of times when you ask a question. You don't really understand the answer. It's a partial answer or it's not the question you asked. Um but you know, we do have a rapport with them. We do get information from them. Um we asked a ton of questions during the budget session for which we got answers. There were some follow-up questions I didn't get answers to, but you know, for the most part, they're they're very cooperative and um you know, I've talked with Ron. Uh I've talked with Randy. Um uh so, you know, I don't want to present the picture that
054where the town and the and and the border better at loggerheads, which which they're not. Um so, let me go right ahead. So, let me also say, Sue, that um having the uh [clears throat] statewide expertise here, uh I have talked to many mayors and first selectment across the state. They don't even speak with the superintendents. There's no communication at all. So, we've got a good situation here. We're getting information, [clears throat] but we have to continue to repeat the fact that this board has limited authority over boards of ed. That's by state law unless that changes down the road where the the mayors or the first selection or the boards of finance directly oversee boards of ed and directly are able to make cuts directly able to establish salaries. That's never going to happen
055unless that changes. So the good news here is like Tim said we have the relationship. We have an open dialogue. We go back and forth with the board of vet. We meet with them regularly. Rich and I, but this board of ed and the mayors and first selectmen have no direct control over over boards of education. That's the way it is >> because of the state >> because that's state that's that's the state law. It's a state statute, >> right? >> Okay. >> So So I got to keep repeating this because you know I uh I was at a concert last night, right? So I I talked to hundreds and hundreds of people. I'm out there everywhere, right? I hear this all the time and that's why I was a little bit quiet tonight because
056I've been talking to people all week, phone calls, people in the public and yet there's still like you just said or the questions that they think that that Mike Freda board of finance can dictate to the board of education. It doesn't work that way. We get a we get more information here on the board of finance from the board of ed than 60% of the cities and towns in Connecticut get from their boards of ed. And when there's a question, Rich talks to Christian. We meet with Patrick and Christian on a regular basis and they'll do their best to answer it. We work we've we communicate uh with the board of ed chairman Ron Bathick. Uh we're always talking to Ron, but the reality is we don't oversee the administration. If the school administration, we
057don't. >> Okay. >> So, that's kind of where it's at. I >> I think it was two years ago, Sue, the board of ed had two positions that had been funded by CO area grants. They want to convert them to full-time positions. Might have been three, but the story will be the same. [clears throat] I asked them to not do that because I think at that the rest of the town wasn't hiring. And they came back and said, "Well, the uh the total cost that even with benefits was something around $240,000." And they said, "We'd like to keep the positions. We found savings elsewhere. I can't do anything about that." This board, I should say, can't do anything about that. If they want to hire two people and stay within the number that we give
058them, that's their prerogative. And that's what they did, by the way. So, you know, that's just an example of, you know, the kinds of um quandry we're in, but basically we can give them a number. We can ask them a lot of questions, hopefully get answers. By the end of the day, our job is to give them a number and then their board takes it from there. >> And and one last point on this, Sue, and tying in what Tim said is that this board can't establish salaries for the board of education. So, if let's say let's say a new principal is going to [clears throat] be hired, okay, we don't get involved with that. We can't. That decision is made by the board of education >> or the superintendent and the administration with but
059with it being sanctioned by the board of education. And within the board of education, those elected officials, there's also a finance portion of that board of education. There's a finance committee within that board that they make a lot of decisions also. And that's kind of the way it works in government, not just North Haven, everywhere, >> which generally meets before the regular board meetings. Yes. >> Okay. And then question I was asked again today. Why can we not separate board of education budget from the [clears throat] why can't we vote on the school budget separate from the town budget? >> Well, from what I understand, there's a petition out there that someone's trying to change that apparently. Um and um you know, in the past, the town has never done that. Some cities and towns
060do it. Um the town has never done it even be long before I got here because it was felt to be an incendiary spark to create divisiveness in the town by having two separate budgets and this is the past now. Right? So it never materialized here in town. And it was always a feeling by the town attorneys that you [clears throat] you still wouldn't be able to pass a budget if let's say the town passed and the board didn't or the board passed and the town didn't. We'd still be in the same position. >> Okay. >> And that was the rationale in all those years. >> My question was that requires a charter change. >> It might. >> That was I didn't know that was charter also. And I on the rooc call things when
061you're sending out our lovely tax bills this year. There could be a call note in there if you didn't happen to receive the rooc call for referendum or like snow things you know I mean you've done that for I mean we've gotten a call for other things >> for the safety things if you want to be on this safety alert >> because you know that no that I mean there can be a letter getting your tax bill you can have that letter inserted into that one. I'm just suggesting >> that, you know, to to get to people who >> they didn't see it, they didn't know it, whatever was going on. I'm sorry. I did also say something about putting the signs at the intersection at 20 each four corners. I went through all the
062corners of North Haven when I suggested that there be signs at those intersections because >> people just drive and they they going where they're going. So that's all >> on the first point. I think it's a valid point. Maybe there's some way we can notify. We are we recognize even though it's on the website, it's not people don't probably don't see it. >> But but people also have to understand that we we put signs on town property. We can't just put a sign on Route 22. We we can't put signs on private properties. We we put signs on public property, I should say. Okay. So, we're limited as to where we can put signs. Now, I I guess we you know, if we went to a private business and asked them that if they would
063do it, I'm not sure if they would. I I really don't know. Okay. But it's all it's all public property. So, >> yeah, that's I I have very little sympathy for who didn't know that there was a budget. Like, you don't know the taxes going up every year. I'm sorry. >> But, you know, that's I just, you know, but thank you and thank you for all your service that you did do. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, dude. >> Thank you, [clears throat] >> Dave. There's no one else here but you. >> Mhm. >> All right. Um I guess since there's no more public comment, I uh would accept a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion. >> Second, please. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> The proceeding program is brought to
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