What I have (and will be) up to this week

Hi All:

I just wanted to update you as to what I have been up to this week.

Monday – Legislation hearing on clarifying & strengthening our current anti blight laws.

Tonight – Finance hearing on the monthly budget report and some mid year transfers from the approved budget.

The other nights I am walking around the neighborhood and reaching out to the residents. I hope to see you on my walks and please contact me with any concerns or questions.

Don’t forget to vote on September 15th!

Yours truly,

From Jeff Kerekes - Chair of NHFRAC

Hello:


I am on the New Haven Financial Review & Audit Commission and we need 2-3 new members. I am hoping you can help recommend some people to serve. We will be working on an exciting project to look at the City's finances over the next 5 years. We need New Haven residents whom are financial professionals and they must be either Republican or Independent as we have the maximum number of Democrats. There are rather specific requirements in the charter so we need:


Must be:
-----------------------------------------------
1. Republican, Independent, Green
2. Financial Professional (i.e. CFO, investing etc...), CPA, MBA


In order to better represent the demographics of our city, it would be best if they were either or both:
-----------------------------------------------
Non-white
Woman


From the Charter:
-----------------------------------------------
not fewer than seven members shall have training and experience in financial matters as evidenced by being a certified public accountant, having earned a bachelor's degree in business or public administration, having not less than five years service as the financial officer of a business, having not less than five years service as a public administrator, or having a similar degree or experience.


Thanks,

Jeffrey Kerekes
jeffrey.kerekes@gmail.com
203-676-0880

Budget Vote Tonight

Hi All:

I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday weekend.

Tonight is the vote on the Mayor's budget as amended in the Finance Committee.

The fun starts at 6:30pm with public caucus and full meeting is at 7pm.

I will let you know how it goes...

Moti

Catch Basin for Beaver Pond Park

Hi All:

Some big news for Beaver Pond Park - we got funding for a catch basin with some creative maneuvering. A big thanks to fellow Aldermen Yusef Shah - Chair of the Committee, Carl Goldfield, Ward 29 & Roland Lemar Ward 9

New Haven Independent Story

New Haven Register Story

Thanks for your help with the AMR billing

Hi All:

I would like to take this opportunity to thank a number of people that help develop this idea of bundled billing. I could take full credit but it must be shared, as my colleague from the 5th ward – Jorge Perez – pointed out this was mentioned in finance committees a few years before I joined.
In addition I had conversations with Pat Eagan – the head of the Firefighters Local – about this issue as well and these conversations were one of the impetuses that made me move on this issue. Pat should be recognized for his help. CAO Smuts deserves a big thank you for moving so quickly and not waiting for the order to pass last night but started working on the AMR bundled billing and getting us ready to bring in a new revenue stream when it is so desperately needed.
Lastly, I must thank my colleagues – BOA President Carl Goldfield and Alderman Roland Lemar for all of their work and input on this project for this was a joint effort in every aspect.

Yours,

Moti Sandman

Budget 2008

Hi Folks:



We are going to be voting on the budget on June 2nd. Cuts are coming down the pike. Watch and read the stories below on the budget.



Yours,



Moti



News Channel 8 story on the budget (featuring me!)



New Haven Independent story on the budget

Budget Time

Hi All:

I just got an email from a neighbor asking about what the Aldermen are doing to aliviate the tax burden on the average taxpayer.

It is a great question and below please find my reply.

Also the budget season is coming up and truth be told it is not looking good, in my estimation there will probably be no mill rate drop and your revaluation will kick in the next 20%.

Thank you for writing to me with regard to the tax burden on the average tax payer. I understand the real pain of seeing your taxes jump substantially and not having a good reason why.
I dealt with this topic over the last year on my blog http://www.motisandman.blogspot.com/. I will give you an outline here of what is happening and for more details please check out the blog.

(You all reading this can type finance or taxes in the "search blog" box and read what I posted there, now back to the email.)

Back to your simple question of what – we the Board of Aldermen is doing about this – we are taking a multi pronged approach:

1) As you noted we are working with our state delegation up in Hartford to put in a “Property Tax Circuit Breaker” that would cap the amount a family paid in city property tax to 6% of their gross adjusted income. Please note that although the Mayor gets the press the Aldermen are working on this as well.

2) Looking at ways to reduce the city’s long term obligations i.e. Pension, Health Care. We the Aldermen have held a number of hearings on what city owned properties we can sell to raise additional funds and close the gap in what the state is giving us to what we need.

3) Working with our state delegation to find ways on raising revenue other then property taxes. As of now we can only generate funds by taxing folks on their houses and cars. We would like to be able to tax hotel beds and food & beverages as they do in other cities.

I hope that if you have any further questions or comments that you do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours truly,

Hearing Info about the Mayor's Requested Increase

Hi All:

I got a few requests for more information about the hearing on the Mayor's pay rate increase. Below please find the particulars:

Tuesday November 20th - 7pm
New Haven City Hall
165 Church Street
2nd Floor, Main Aldermainc Chamber
New Haven, CT 06510

There will be a sign up sheet for those that wish to speak on the issue. Please note there will be a time limit that the chair of the committee will set. I hope to see you there and please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Yours,

The Mayor's requested Pay Increase

Dear All:

I have been contacted by a number of folks commenting on the pay rate increase that the Mayor is looking for. You can read about it in the New Haven Independent, the New Haven Register, or the Yale Daily News.

As your elected official I would like to hear what you think about this. For or against or perhaps a partial raise

The Finance Committee of the BOA is having a hearing at 7pm November 20th. I understand that the WEB meets that night so I won’t be at the WEB, but if one can’t make a hearing you can always send a letter to be read into testimony.

You can post a signed comment here, call me at 772-1805 or email me at ward28@snet.net

The Vote on the Executive Pay Scale from last night...

Hi Everyone:

As you may have read in the NH Register and the NH Independent today I voted not to re-hear the Executive Pay Scale and vote that to pass it. For the reasons why I think it is a good idea please check out my earlier post here.

The issue at hand is that one member of the public felt that he did not have the opportunity to testify on the item. He wrote a letter to the President of the Board of Aldermen to stating that the original meeting in February 2007 was not properly noticed and therefore we should rehear the item.

I sit on the Finance Committee and I was in attendance at both meetings. I would like to point out the following

The staff of the BOA has noticed meetings in this format for over 7 years. The chair of the committee had staff pull the hearing notices for then and they were worded the same just the dates and topics changed. No one ever had a problem understanding that this was open for public testimony.

The Chair of the committee at the February meeting did call for public testimony and no one asked to speak. As is the rule he called out 3 times does anyone wish to testify on this item. No one responded.

The committee voted to move out of the public portion of the hearing and go to the closed portion (only members of the BOA can speak at this time). During the public portion and in the closed part of the hearing a number of colleagues had issues with the plan as presented. So during the closed part we said that we will table the item for now ask the city staff to get back to us with the answers we wanted (they did) and then we will reconsider the item.

After we got what we asked for, it was June. Then, because the item already was heard back in February we just had to un-table the item and vote on it. The chair of the committee decided that there was no reason to rehear the item, as a committee, had heard from the public and discussed the item already in the closed part of the hearing. There was relatively little discussion in the closed part because we got the answers and documentation we were looking for.

When the time came last night to vote on it I felt – and a majority of my colleagues as well – that the rules were followed and that we should enable the city staff to be able to have the opportunity to get raises after waiting 6 months.

This is a bit more detailed then usual but this is a complex issue and to be understood needs the details.

Yours truly,

Elm City ID Cards

Well Folks:

The City of New Haven has been in the national news recently with regard to our new Elm City ID Card (please note that the card is a multi purpose resident card for ALL of the city's residents).

I posted about this earlier in one of my posts. Since then I have been getting some correspondence looking for clarification of the program. In reading & listening to the general media coverage I see where these questions are coming from.

The short of it is that we are providing a service to the general population as well as a chance for undocumented people to live a safer life here in the city. All of this is at no direct cost to the city.

We are doing this because the Federal Government is not able to come up with an effective and solid immigration policy. We are just dealing with the reality of this inaction.

Following please find an outline of what some of the more common questions are.

Question #1
Why are we issuing "citizenship papers" to undocumented people?

Answer
We are not issuing any citizen papers to any one. Only the Federal Government can do that. The only thing that we are doing for undocumented people is to give them a recognized id that will help them get a bank account.

Question #2
Why are we wasting city money to help these people?

Answer
The funding from this project is coming 100% from a grant from the 1st Community Bank Foundation (this is the community bank created when New Haven Savings Bank went public).

As a city we feel that putting this program in to effect is important because we have a reality that needs to be dealt with. We have a population of approximately 125,000 people. Of that anywhere from 8,000 to 12,000 are undocumented. These people for the most part do not have bank accounts – they therefore carry large amounts of cash. This then makes them targets of criminals who know this and prey on them. In the past year we had 2 murders directly relegated to undocumented people being targeted for their cash. It is not good for any one documented or otherwise to have anyone targeted and attacked in the city.

In addition we hope to create a list of where these people are for in case of an epidemic or an emergency we will now have a way to reach out and control a large part of our population that we did not have in the past.

Our police back this because they never had a true idea of where a large part of the city really lived now we will have a firm idea where they live etc.

Question #3

What is the revenue to the City from:
New City debit card?
New immigrant ID card?

Answer
The cards are one in the same.

Everyone pays the $10 fee for adults and $5 for children.The $10 fee gets broken down as follows:$5 - to the city for the card (costs are staffing, equipment, etc.)$5 - on the card for the person to use as a debit card in New Haven and for the Parcsmart meters.

For the kids there is no debit component. In addition no money is given to the 1st Community Bank - the money they gave was 100% grant.
Question #4
I am not an undocumented person – what do I gain from the card?

Answer
Every Resident of New Haven will be able to use this card to:
Use our Public Libraries
Your child can have an ID that has emergency contact information along with the rest of the features.
Park for Free at the Public Beaches (now you need to show your car registration that shows you car is registered in New Haven and you will still be able to do it).
Not have to carry change when using a parking meter – you can use the debit feature.
Use your card at over 50 locations downtown. If you are a merchant and want to accept the card as well contact Kica Matos at 946-7909.

In addition to the above you can read the fact sheet from the city here.

Yours,

Moti

State of Community Policing in New Haven Today...

Dear All:

With everything going in Police District 10 – the WEB area, I have been giving some though about the current state of Community Policing we find ourselves in now.

Our fair city is covers a wide area and a diverse social & economic range. Our ward is a good representation of this. The reality is that the lower part of the ward has different policing needs the upper part. But both parts need to have more of a police presence.

One thing I like about our ward and the WEB Management Team is the fact that overall this is a pretty intelligent group. We understand the problems and limitations that we face and the Police Department faces. Some of them are:

The fact is that the city is in the midst of a budget crisis and that we have a very generous benefit package that makes it difficult to afford to hirer more officers.

The force is down over 100 officers from the height under Nick Pastore

I have been hearing that the partnerships with the various State agencies – such as DCF – are weak and the rapport that we once had is not there

Federal grant dollars are substantially less and harder to obtain

The above leads us to the current crisis that we are now in.

Officers are getting burnt out. When an officer would rather not work the earn overtime we have a problem. Also the good and deserving officers can’t move up in the ranks or we risk even further depleting the force on the street.

With a smaller force there is no way that we can have the coverage that we once did – no ifs ands or buts.

Our partner State agencies are not as focused on us and now a large part of the NHPD’s calls are for domestic abuse cases. What used to be dealt with by DCF or other agency is now falling on the shoulders of our cops.

When we used to get many millions of dollars in direct and indirect grants from the Federal Government under COPS and other such programs what few thousand dollars we do get we are happy for

The question now is what can we expect from our Police Department and Chief of Police. I want to know what you think. Please post a comment to www.motisandman.blogspot.com or email me at ward28@snet.net.

Yours in service,

Moti Sandman

Executive Pay Scale

Dear All:

There has been some publicity over the past few weeks about the Executive Pay Scale increase that the Finance Committee passed in its last meeting. I sit on that committee and will lay out why we increased the scale.

The short reason is that we (the City) are not paying market rate wages for a number of executive positions. It is understood that government is usually under what the privet sector pays but we are so low that some subordinates (in the 3144 municipal workers union) are higher paid then their supervisors. We will not attract the best and brightest that we need and want to work for the City. Or they will stay a short while work up the resume and take off to richer waters. Below are some facts and figures that really outline the above.

The range increases being reflected have nothing to do with pay increases. These increases total 16% and mirror the increases of the 3144 contract

The Administration is committed to limiting the total amount of all salary increases to no more than 3.15%, or the same increase as 3144 received last July 1st

The Administration has not asked for range increases in the past 6 years (2001)

At the time of the last request, November 2001, the Administration sought a range increase of 15% two years after the adoption of the new salary structure

The salary structure currently in place is not keeping up with salaries in Local 3144. In one case, the department head is making less than members of his/her department. The top ten Local 3144 wages (non-BOE) are higher than 10 of the 11 attorneys working in Corporation Counsel

There are six Local 3144 individuals in Range 10, Step 10 at $80,578. At this salary, no Assistant Corporation Counsel is making a comparable salary, nor any of the Department Heads in an Exempt Range 5 or below

Salaries for the least paid members of the Executive Management fall below comparable or subordinate positions salaries in 3144. For instance, the Chief Examiner of the City is paid $63,973 – well below the $80,578 paid to the Human Resource Manager of the Police Department, a subordinate 3144 position.

Salary increases for members of Local 3144 were implemented in July ’06. At that time, 3144 members received a 3.5% increase, in July ’07 another 3.5% increase, a 3.0% increase in July of ’08, ’09, ’10.

Thanks to Paul Nunez & Tina Burgett for the facts & figures.

Municipal IDs

Hi All:

I just got an email from a constituent about the municipal id program. I want to share my thought and ideas on the program. Please leave a comment or send me an email to ward28@snet.net with you questions and/or comments.

With regard to the ID cards I see two issues that you bring up, firstly is the cost of the program and the second is the why are we doing this. I hope that I can shed some light on the issue.
The entire Municipal ID Card program is being funded by a grant from the First Community Bank (this was spun off from New Haven Savings when it went public). The Finance Committee voted to approve the acceptance of the grant with the caveat to end the program if it was unable to be funded 100% from sources other then the general fund. I would like to point out that the BOA was not asked if we should implement the plan or not – only if we should accept the funds.


That being said the reality was that the Finance Committee deliberations became the public hearing for the card program. The committee met from 6pm until 10pm. While the overwhelming majority of those testifying were for the program we also had a few (4 or 5) against it out of 70 or 80 people testifying. Those against the ID program were against it mostly with regard to the financing of the program not about the program in itself.

We took testimony from Yale Law School Professor Michael Wishnie, who did much of the leg work on this project. I asked the question as to what would happen if the US Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez decided to make an example of us and under the Patriot Act to sweep in to New Haven take the list and arrest everyone on it. I was told that this was highly unlikely. The committee also asked and received prior to the full BOA vote for a letter that in the event that the City was sued due to the cards that the Yale Law Clinic under Bob Solomon & Michael Wishnie would represent the city Pro Bono.

Check out the New Haven Independent story about this http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2007/05/municipal_id_ga.php my quote is about half way down the page.

Also it is important to note that this program is NOT giving anyone citizenship. The program will make it easier for the City to function because undocumented people will be held more responsible for their actions and our police will have an idea of who some one is rather then just a shot in the dark if they don't have as is the case today. The City is not trying to change immigration laws or stick it to anyone we just are trying to enhance the quality of life for all in the City.

I remain yours in service,

What I have been up to recently

Hi All:

I got a few questions as to why I have not been updating the blog etc. for the past few weeks. It isn't that I forgot about you it is that my life has been taken over by the City Budget (I sit on the finance committee).

You should be seeing more posts on a variety of subjects soon.

Yours,

Some (more) thoughts on the budget

Over the past few months and really solidifying in the last few weeks there has been a grass roots effort on the part of a number of citizens to voice their opinions and concerns to the finance committee about the new budget and tax levy.

From what I can see that this intense feeling is coming from the reevaluation and the shift of the real estate tax from the commercial property owners to residential owners. In 2006-2007-tax year the burden was 34% on commercial and 37% on residential owners. With the new valuations the burden is now 25% on commercial and 47% on residential. What this simply means is that in 2006-2007 the you the homeowner paid $0.37 on each dollar collected now we are going to be paying $0.47 on each dollar raised. See my early post about reevaluation for more on this topic.

With such a radical shift in the tax burden the BOA decided to have a 5-year phase in of the new valuations. This is meant to protect the average homeowner from having the burden shifted immediately to them. Please note that there is a State law that requires the City to have a reevaluation every 5 years. We are obligated by law to do this.

Back to the budget. In this new budget we had a number of items that drove the increase from an average of 3.5% to 7.1%. There are a number of drivers. I will cover some of them:

No small part due to increased energy costs. The same big hit we are taking on our home heating oil or gas and electric bill the City has that many times over. The good news is that over the past 10+ years there has been an concerted effort to invest in energy saving technology and upgraded light fixtures, traffic lights and the heating systems throughout City owned properties.

We hired 40 new Police officers and 26 civilians to fill empty and needed slots in all areas of the department. 8% of the total general fund budget.

In the Fire Department we have budgeted for a new class to come in and join the force. 6% of the total general fund budget.

Board of Education increased their budget by $5million to meet Union contracts and general improvements to the schools (this doesn’t include school construction). 38% of the total general fund budget.

Employee benefits –
Medical – $46million
Pension – 28.7million
Works Comp – $7.7million
Self Insurance – $4.5million
Other (Longevity bonus, Sick Leave Reserve, Life Insurance) – $2.2million
20% of the total general fund budget.

It is getting late now and will pick up latter on why the above was asked for and what was done.

Yours,

Hi Folks:

We are in the swing of budget time and I just want to update you on where things are and would love to hear what you think.

Carl Goldfield (Ward 29) & I set up a Budget 101 workshop at Hillhouse for April 18th (you should have gotten an email and a notice was put in the New Haven Register and in New Haven Independent & thank you Peaches for the great idea). I figure that we had around 35 to 40 people that came out. Robert Smuts, the new CAO, gave the presentation. He went over the big line item increases as well as the reasons why the budget increase overall. (Thanks Rob!)

The people who came out were for the most part questioned how revaluation and the phase in would effect their taxes. There was a feeling that the city is not doing all it can to bring down costs, especially with regard to School Construction. Irv Stolberger said that it is very dangerous for a city or state government to have a debt service over 10% - ours is over 12.5%.

Thursday night there were some pretty heavy budget hearings you can read more about it at www.newhavenindependent.org. Please let me know what you think about the budget. Without input from you - the people who voted me in - I can't represent you! Post a comment here or email me at ward28 at snet.net (take out the spaces and the word "at" and replace it with a "@" symbol - have been getting SPAM in the past few day.

Yours truly

BOA Finance Meeting Tonight!

Hi Everyone:

Just a reminder that there is a Board of Aldermen Finance Committee tonight at 6pm in the Aldermanic Chamber in City Hall, 165 Church Street.

This will be your last chance to publicly comment for the record about the budget. If you have something to say about the budget etc COME TONIGHT!!

See you there!

Moti

New School Construction

We (the City) is also planning on spending $100 million for two new schools. We will be reimbursed for part of the funds but not at the levels in the past, in addition building materials are going up every month in cost, so it is not good to wait. I asked about this and was told that this is for a school in East Rock which has been waiting for their school very nicely and a science magnet high school. I am not totally convinced. What do you think?

The Budget Part II

The Budget Process Part II:

We had a couple of intense budget workshops (workshops are hearings open to the public but the BOA hears testimony from invited guests only) over the past few weeks. We now have heard from all of the departments in the City on each of their particular portion of the budget.

We also heard about the Elderly Tax Freeze which is going to be revisited this Monday April 9th at 5:30pm in the main chamber.

I have heard from many of you and for the most part I am being told to hold the taxes down however we can. I believe that I am asking the question’s that need asking (see quotes in the New Haven Register & the New Haven Independent, you can do a search for my last name in the past 30 days and read the articles there, and I will try to post a link here as well).

A few months ago I voted for and strongly supported a spending bill that would put additional cops on our streets as well as additional clerical staff at 1 Union Station. I questioned the Chief if we still needed the clerical staff or could we out source some of the work. He said that even with the new hires we are still down from our historical highs in the late 1990's. I do not accept an answer of “This is what we had and this is what we should have again” but here I feel that it is urgently needed.

I asked questions about our Fire Department’s budget – including if we expect to reduce overtime and if we can – in some way – reduce our staffing commitments to the Fire Union. I didn’t get the answers that I liked, but unfortunately there is not much we can do.

When we met with Public Works – I asked about capital improvements for Beaver Pond Park. I was told that with this new study we have “bite size pieces” that the City’s budget can handle in the next few years. I will keep on top of them to see that this happens.

This then leads me into our budget process and what - if anything we can do to reduce spending.

Most of our budget is personal and personal cost driven. 91% of the NHPD budget is personal and direct personal costs (health care, pension, etc.) Similar numbers are seen throughout the budget. In addition we serve as a pass through for millions of dollars of Federal & State funds. This doesn’t cost us but it is a line item in our budget and increases the bottom line.

We signed some very generous contracts with our unions’ in the past year and these will be in effect for the next few years so there is no real hope in reducing the expenses associated with them for this or next fiscal year.

Remember on the 18th is our budget 101 class and the 19th is time when you can be heard as taxpayers 6pm City Hall, see you there!