001This is [music] NHTV 2, 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. >> Good evening, everyone. Welcome to a special meeting of the Board of Finance for this Wednesday, June 10th, 2026. This is a special meeting with a limited agenda, which is primarily to set the mill rate for the the newly approved budget. So, a couple things. First of all, I think most of you can probably see if you're here. Obviously, you can. At home, you might notice we're in the renovated second floor of the the town hall. Came out beautiful. I want to personally thank Mr. Monaco especially for changing the configuration of the table, which has been a a source of discontent amongst all
002the boards and commissions for some years, and we can actually finally see each other without looking at everyone's back. So, thank you to Mr. Monaco for that. And the residents, of course, who funded the renovations. We had our second referendum yesterday. There was 3,451 votes cast. There was 1,892 in favor of the budget. There was 1,559 opposed to the budget. About 20% of the voters passed, and that's a margin of um victory, if you will, for the budget of 55% to 45%. I will just ask the members if they did want to say anything about the the budget and the vote yesterday, if they like. >> I'd like to say some things, but if somebody else would like to go first, I'm always happy to go after. No? Okay. So, first of all, I just
003like 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] >> informed themselves, watched meetings, attended meetings, spoke up during public commentary as well as submitted, I think a record number of emails to this board. Um, I think that 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 crystal ball, which had been in the shop for a little while, actually was 100% accurate this time 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
004move forward, I think it would be irresponsible to just focus exclusively on the outcome of the second referendum, which passed. Um, I think the the messages from the 2095 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 and the the wedge of the pie, if you will, for the residential taxpayers. Um, one point that I would like to make that that I didn't make
005at the the town meeting was, those who who tried to focus on the incremental tax increase obligations, like year over year, I think they missed the whole point. I think a lot of people were not objecting to an extra 300 or 400 dollars. 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. Frieda's numbers that he quoted, the average homeowner's tax bill for this next year will be about 9,600 dollars. And I believe that the flawed assumption is that it's just as easy to scrape together 10,000 dollars 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
006in this economy. Um, and 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 dates. 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.
007And 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 in email to uh >> Be more than happy to. >> myself and Rich and Ingrid and um I think it's probably best if they just present that in their normal budget uh presentation come come February. >> Sure. >> January actually. Uh I had Mike >> Yeah, so I'd like to comment on >> [clears throat] >> the fact that we still only had about 20% of the people come uh despite the fact it was larger than the previous year. So, uh we sent out two robo calls. So, what I'd like to say to the residents here is that uh if you
008did not get a robo call, that means you haven't signed up for the system. So, you can call our office. Tammy and Valerie handle this. Tammy uh 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 robo 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 is the same system that in order to do this robo 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 do this to do the robo calls. So, the point of this story is
009this. Despite all the meetings, despite the robo 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 robo calls. We're going to continue to do the robo [clears throat] 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. Um at the time when he extended the invitation, uh I told him I would bring it to the membership, but
010I 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 like to make a motion that the mill rate for fiscal year 2027 be
011set at 30.56 mills and that's at a collection rate, by the way, of 98.75% which >> 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 for us, the the budget season. Um we do have time for public comment. There are some people here. Anyone like to come up and speak? Sally? >> Good evening, Mr. Chairman. Sally Buemi, 5 Blossom Drive. Um I uh I'm glad that it the budget passed uh yesterday. I supported uh the second budget. Uh I did not support the first one. So, along the lines of what
012Mrs. Barrett said, to use a sports analogy, I'm batting a thousand. You guys are batting 500. Um >> You don't know how we voted. >> [laughter] >> 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 these uh I think it was 3452 voted on May 19th. Um Anyone want to guess what percentage of 18-35 year olds voted? Of >> [laughter] >> 10%. 10% of the 18-35 year old registered voters voted in the first referendum. Meaning 90% were over 35. Um It was interesting. Um we have 4600 registered Republicans and 24% of them voted. And we have 4400 registered Democrats and
01322% voted. Pretty similar. 24%, 22%. Our largest chunk of voters, of course, is the unaffiliated. We have 7500. And I thought it was interesting that only uh 15 or 60 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 do I find the data, Sally? >> Uh you can contact the registrar and get that. >> Did you happen to ask them what percentage in terms of the demographic you gave was the largest voting block? >> Uh I haven't gotten that yet.
014They just had the um 18-35 and 35-100. >> That's a big gap. >> But I'm anxious to get >> [laughter] >> I I fall in that second three. I'm I'm between 35 and 100. I admit it. [laughter] >> Lower 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. >> Right. >> Um and it and that is a 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 from elderly citizens in town which we have a high percentage of. Uh the average
015age of North Haven is 5 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 senior citizens and a lot of working families are facing which is paying a tremendous
016portion of their income toward property taxes. Another thing that I want to talk about because um 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 of these Board of Finance meetings. I think I missed two or three, and I constantly heard
017all 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, and that's why it takes up half our budget. I was educated in this town from kindergarten to graduation. I was a substitute teacher. I was a history
018tutor. 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 a 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 uh this for that reason, the statistic that you gave, Mr. Chairman. And finally, I
019want to talk about how the budget process progressed. >> Do you mind if we just hold for 1 second? >> Yes, sir. >> I I agree with you for a starter. Um and you know, I don't know how they get 30 people when we when we only budgeted for four or they only budgeted for. 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 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 how many different finance people they have. It had to be at least 10. Um Uh we do know that Howard's back on board and has been for I
020think 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, a 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 and this and that. You So, you can't tell what they're spending on special
021education. 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 with 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 back and uh politely said no, he thinks he was fine. They later switched
022um um I think consultants uh during this process and they they boosted the workman's comp by $300,000 I think, Rich. $300,000. 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. You all talked about the encumbrances, which essentially make the reports useless when everything's encumbered. You can't tell whether they're ahead of budget or behind budget. Um we've asked questions about how they accrue and and budget their salaries. They're 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 for your meritorious supplemental comments to my concerns. I appreciate that. Um it reminds me
023of another thing. Um last uh the the charter which applies to the Board of Ed. They are one of the departments in this town. The 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 23 24, until after the referendum. That was also very unacceptable that >> Um >> I don't know if they think there was an existing problem >> 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. >> Yeah, but it's very The reason why the
024charter requires that in there because it's incredibly helpful for tracking and and predicting the future. 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-March 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 um the the Board of Finance and I think through
025Mr. Friedus' initiation and in response to a lot of concerns, added, I believe, 680,000 to the Board of Ed's budget. Let's just call it 700 for mathematical purposes. >> No, 700. >> That 500 was the second one. No, no, that was after the >> March 3rd. That was after the March 3rd. >> 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, the there was a Republican quorum, you guys went in the next room, and you added 680 to the budget. >> I hear something direct. >> So, close
026to 1.2 million was was added. >> Yes. >> And I think that's what doomed the budget in May. That plus people realizing how much tax 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, about 700,000 and then 500,000, and then it went to 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 the current year of 3.1 million.
027In mid-March, after your first declination, you were willing to give them 4.6 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 Our third selectman, 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 have to think very clearly next season or next
028year. Thinking baseball. Next year about compromise because they were doing okay, but that $4.6 million increase, and I think that that budget would have passed. So, I think that it's time to really think about real compromise. We cannot have a one-issue 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 for all public meetings, and uh we passed it three three
029years 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 Selectmen meeting really opened the floodgates to a lack of civility. So, hopefully this second the second motion that the Board of Selectmen passed just last week will result in civil discourse and fair and equitable compromise so we could all move forward for the best interest of our town. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your time and attention and your support. >> I just want to say one or two things before we go to the next speaker if there is one. Um two things really. I think, and this goes for all the boards and commissions in town,
030um whomever they may be and 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 They're there to support the department, but they're also here to represent the town, right? And I feel that that's
031what they should be doing. And when it comes to bringing in a budget, they're 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 2 weeks ago and I just said it to some of the members sitting to my left and and my right. The numbers are interesting right now that they align sort of neatly in town. Our budget's roughly 140 million. If you have a 3% increase, that's $4.2 million, which happens to equal one 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 and commissions in town, because that's sort of the baseline for
032a 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 grand list grows, by the way. And that's before we have things like a 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 the taxpayers of this town. And And if we're sitting
033here 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 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. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Anyone else? >> [clears throat] >> Jenny Caldwell, I'm 69 Kimberly Circle. Um one of the things that I think Sally brought up and um Mr. Freda brought up
034was around the turnout, and I do know that during a lot of the meetings, or I guess some of it was 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. I know the robo 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 the sign that's out in front of town hall, but when you get um, going to Guilford and you get off the highway, there are some some signs there um, for each the budget referendum so people know and can see in a very highly traveled place. So
035that 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 keep 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 is this process starts again to really think about those 45% of the people because clearly they're not happy with the the budget that was presented. And most of what I heard, um, there were complaints
036about 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 100,000 and over 200,000 dollars 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 15,000 dollars in one year. And that increase not only increased the salary line item,
037but it also impacts the retirement line items. It impacts the social security income 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 year-over-year, that for the for someone who's struggling to pay their taxes, that's it's 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 are important to you. So there are plenty of services that are really important to me that
038are not necessarily included in my taxes cuz 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 pick up is another one. You know, possibly charging based on weight of the pick up. Um the the convenience center, I brought
039this 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 and make public comments, that um that they don't necessarily put other people down for
040their 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's the impact that has on the people they're referring to. And to possibly 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 listened to a lot of interruptions and yelling that happened um at that budget meeting that was not necessarily stopped. And it bothers me no matter whether it's
041someone 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 expresses appalled. That might not be the right word by the way Uh >> [laughter] >> at the way some of the meetings were going and I got some suggestions from this individuals to what we might be able to do to to change that. Um The other thing I'll say and and everyone in this room already knows it,
042right? But there isn't a board and 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 Rec, 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 the to do this for the town. They're they're and and that's really the spirit they
043should be viewed in. It might help. Um I I think like you the the meetings this spring were way more contentious than they should have been. >> Okay. Uh one last quick thing that I just came back to my head [clears throat] um was the Board of Ed budgets. So um I served on the board for 6 years and I do think that that 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 students that we were able to bring back. This is the cost of the
044teachers that relate to that program." Tho- 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 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 is either. So, um I do think it would be helpful and actually help the board have more credibility, the Board of Ed have more credibility, if they're able to produce those numbers when people are asking for it. Because if they if they're unable
045to 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 I will also say I did not say this to any of the meetings, nor did I say it to anyone 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 save it save money. I take their word for it. Okay? But from a budget perspective, it's presented as we need to hire four special ed teachers and that's going to cost X. From budget perspective, it's not a plus, it's a minus. >> Right. Exactly. >> And so, there
046may be costs elsewhere, which there has to be, which is driving up that budget, but it's not that item of hiring [snorts] four special ed teachers. That's a minus. So, I decided 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. So, let's see what the real drivers are. They're somewhere else in that budget, but that's It's hiring [clears throat] four special ed teachers. I know that. >> Yep. >> All right, thank you. >> Thank you. Please come up. >> Susan Benevento D Bassett Road. First of all, I really liked Nancy Barrett's suggestions. I hope you go with them. They were followed by Sally reiterating
047them 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 in 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 accurate. >> And that's that's fine. Except when you >> [clears throat] >> you present on the town side, we're going
048to 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 grade 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'd be 22. I don't know who the other two are. That wasn't explained. But, there's no real explanation. There's no list of who's
049doing what. Your your positions and everything else. Where I say transparency, that's what people want to know. Where Where is it going? >> talking about their meeting, which I was at actually, where they presented their cuts just before >> All the way all the way along reading the budget the way I could read the budget, but even when they would talk about whatever was going to be 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 take away. So, where 500 people switched from no votes to yes votes on
050the 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 generalized. Um education, overcrowded classrooms, losing more teachers. What What was it? You know, I I to me, those are all And I'm going to tell you, I think those were all threats. Those were all fear tactics. And some people caved with them. Other people that have some more knowledge on this stuff may have saw it differently. But, when you ask for an explanation, you get zero. I asked for transparency. I asked for a list of who's getting paid, who's doing this and that. I
051don't know. You know, I mean >> I I I say this, too. It It may not seem like it, but 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 a especially good relationship with with Patrick and the administration. Um Rich has a good and so does Ingrid um 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 a desire or an unwillingness to cooperate with this board and and
052provide us with the information we want. It's a question I think more of getting it done. Um So, I don't maybe Mike would like to >> Well, Jim 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 answer for this question or that question? Um sometimes [clears throat] 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 could do that. >> That happens in cities
053and towns. That happens. >> Right. 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 them a question, you don't really understand the answer or 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 have talked with Ron. Uh I've talked with Randy. Um uh so, you know, I I don't I to present the picture that we're we're
054the town and the and and the Board of Ed are at loggerheads, which which they're not. >> So, let me check that. >> Go right ahead. >> So, let me also say Sue that um having the statewide [clears throat] expertise here, uh I have talked to many mayors and first selectmen 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 >> [clears throat] >> information, 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 selectmen or the Boards of Finance directly oversee Boards of Ed and directly are able to make cuts, directly able to disestablish
055salaries. That's never going to happen unless 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 Ed. We meet with them regularly, Richard 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 >> That's state statute. >> 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 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
056I I was a little bit quiet tonight because I've been talking to people all week. Phone calls, people in the public. And yet, they're still, like you just said, or the questions that they think that that Mike Frieda, Board of Finance, can dictate to the Board of Education. It doesn't work that way. We get 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 with the Board of Ed chairman, Ron Bathrick. Uh we're always talking to Ron. But the reality is we don't oversee
057the administration of the school administration. We don't. So, that's kind of where it's at. >> I I think it was 2 years ago, Sue, the Board of Ed had two positions that had been funded by COVID area grants. They wanted to convert them to full-time positions. Might have been three, but the story would be the same. >> [clears throat and cough] >> I asked that they not do that cuz I think that the rest of the town wasn't hiring. And they came back and said, "Well, the the total cost of that even with the 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
058and stay within the number that we give them, 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 quandary we're in. Well, basically, we can give them a number. We can ask them a lot of questions, hopefully get some answers, but at 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 to tie in with 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 be hired, [clears throat] okay? We don't get involved with that. We can't. That decision is made by the Board
059of Education or the superintendent and the administration, with but with it being sanctioned by the Board of Education. And within the Board of Education, those uh elected officials, there's also a finance portion of that Board of Education. There's a finance committee within that board, but 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 meets, by the way. >> Okay. And then, question I was asked again today, why can we not separate Board of Education budget from the Why can't we vote one 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
060the past, the town has never done that. Some cities and towns do it. Um the town has never done it, even before 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 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. >> what I was told. >> And that was the rationale in all those years. >> I question whether that requires a charter change. >> It might. Yes. >> I didn't know
061if that was a charter also. And I I know robo call things, when you'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 robo call for referendum. Or like snow things, what you know, I mean, you've done that for it I mean, we've gotten a call for other things. >> Right. >> safety things. If you want to be on the safety alert here, and >> Because I know >> that No, that that's 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
062something about putting the signs at the intersection of 20 each four corners. I went through all the corners of North Haven when I suggested that there be signs at those intersections because people just drive and they they go 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 [clears throat] 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 guess
063we you know if we went to a private business and ask them that if they would do it, I'm not sure if they would. I really don't know. But it's all it's all public property, so. >> That's fair. I have very little sympathy for who didn't know that there was a budget. Like you don't know there's taxes going up every year. I'm sorry. But you know, so that's I just you know. Well, thank you and thank you for all your service that you did do. Thank you. >> Thanks. Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Dave. There's no one else here but you. >> [laughter] >> All right. Um I guess since there's no more public comment, I would accept a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second, please. >> Second. >> All in favor. >> I.
064>> Thank you. >> The preceding program is brought to you in part through a grant from the town of North Haven. Watch town meetings or other videos on demand at nhtv.com.