BOARD OF SELECTMEN

APRIL 8, 2019

Page 1 of 2

 

DRAFT

Attendance:  First Selectwoman Derrylyn Gorski, Selectman Donald Shea, Selectman Clark Hurlburt

Visitors: Jennifer Gaylick, Fran Doba

The meeting was called to order at 7:32 p.m.  The meeting was held in the Selectmen’s Conference Room of the Bethany Town Hall.  The meeting opened with the Pledge of Allegiance. 

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

First Selectwoman Gorski called for a motion of approval for the minutes of the meeting of March 25, 2019.  The motion was moved by Selectman Hurlburt and seconded by Selectman Shea.  The minutes were then approved on a unanimous vote as written.

BUDGET 2019-20

First Selectwoman Gorski shared with the Selectmen information that had been finalized for the Budget Hearing by the Board of Finance.

LETTER TO THE BOARD FROM FIRST SELECTWOMAN GORSKI

The following letter was discussed by the Board members:

.36.9- Current mill rate

36.4- Use fund balance to reduce mill rate by .5, balance the budget and pave parking lots out of Capital Fund- fund balance reduced to 15.34%

35.9- Use fund balance to reduce mill rate and balance the budget, but put paving of parking lots in the road bond.

Current(36.9)____36.4_______  35.9___

1. Ranch,   1680 sq. ft.-   3 Bedrooms, 2½ Baths on 1.5 acres. Appraised value: $299,309/Assessed value: $209,520           $ 7,731               $ 7,627               $  7,522

2. Colonial, 3164 sq. ft.- 4 Bedrooms, 3  Baths on 2.5 acres. Appraised value: $441,597/Assessed value: $309,120             $11,407              $11,255              $11,097

3. Colonial, 4176 sq. ft.- 4 Bedrooms, 3½ Baths on 2.2 acres. Appraised value: $554,414/Assessed value: $388,090           $14,321              $14,126              $13,932

4.  Cape,     4460 sq. ft.-  4 Bedrooms, 4 Baths on 2.85 acres. Appraised value: $620,339/Assessed value: $434,240            $16,023             $15,806             $15,589

  MEMO

April 2, 2019

To:          Chairman John Grabowski and members of the Board of Finance

From:    Derrylyn Gorski, First Selectman

 

Re:         FY 2019-2020 Budget

Finance Manager Sheila Lane has provided the BOF with the budget scenarios as requested- using the fund balance to balance the FY 19-20 Budget and using the fund balance to balance the FY 19-20 Budget AND to pave the BCS and Town Hall parking lots, bringing the fund balance to 18.66% and 16.49% respectively.

As I said at your meeting last week, I believe we should use the fund balance to reduce the mill rate.  When we decided to keep the fund balance higher than our Financial Policy of 10%-14% the Boards of Selectmen and Finance did that jointly because of the uncertainty of then Gov. Malloy’s proposal to pass Teachers Retirement System (TRS) liabilities as well as normal costs to the municipalities.  His proposal would have billed Bethany $774,000 to fund TRS.  That threat no longer exists.

Gov. Lamont’s original proposal was for municipalities to pay 25% of the pension costs for current teachers earning the state median teacher salary of approximately $77,000.  Bethany’s teachers earn approximately $75,000. That impact to Bethany would have been $42,000 in FY20 and $87,000 in FY21- a far cry from Gov. Malloy’s $774,000.

That proposal was amended in Committee and there is no longer a proposal to pass on the TRS to the municipalities.

With the parking lots’ paving costs in the road bond, reducing the mill rate by 1 mill- from 36.9 mills to 35.9 mills would leave the fund balance at 16.3%, still higher than our policy.

Adding the parking lots paving costs as a capital item paid out of the fund balance, you could still reduce the mill rate by .5mill- from 36.9 to 36.4 leaving a fund balance of 15.34%.

 SCHOOL AND TOWN HALL PAVING

The Board discussed paving of the School and Town Hall parking lots in this fiscal year, by taking the funding from the General Fund rather than including it in the Road Bond project, since the balance in the General Fund is 20.4% of budget.  It is estimated that the total cost for the project would be $446,540,000.

APPROVAL OF FUNDING FOR TOWN HALL AND SCHOOL PARKING LOTS

The Selectmen agreed it would be a good idea to re-pave the School Parking Area and the Town Hall Parking Area by reducing the large General Fund to do it.  Following discussion Selectman Shea moved to recommend to the Board of Finance that they take $450,000 from the General Fund Balance to repave the Town Hall and School Parking Areas.  Selectman Hurlburt seconded the motion.  The vote taken was unanimous.

ADJOURNMENT

Adjournment was called at 7:55 p.m. by Selectman Hurlburt and seconded by Selectman Shea.  The vote taken was unanimous.

                                                                                                Respectfully submitted,

 

                                                                                                June G. Riley 

                                                                                                Secretary, Board of Selectmen