Mayor warns department heads on budget

Mayor Art Ward delivered this address to the city's department heads this morning:

Good Morning,

I want to begin by thanking you, your staff and your employees for all of the help and sacrifices that you have endured over this past year and a half, especially the last year, with regard to wage concessions, manpower reductions, capital equipment, program sacrifices and service cuts.

I know that it hasn’t been easy and we have all had to make adjustments; for that I thank you.

I was hopeful that I would be addressing you today with a brighter forecast then what we have been experiencing , but it is no secret that times are no better than last year and are in fact, predictably worse.

While it is obvious that we are not in the best of times, I don’t believe that it is the worst of times either; I do believe that it remains as the most challenging of times.

As reported on a daily basis, the national economy is a mess and the indecisiveness of our Legislature and the State budget casts nothing but dark clouds over the horizon, leaving the cities to pretty much fend for themselves compared to previous years.

Bristol is fortunate in that we are somewhat more financially secure than most other communities in our State, but that proves to be a false sense of security where the reality of budgeting is concerned. Revenues such as interest monies, tax collections, motor vehicle growth, service fees and the like are down; conveyance tax revenues are down and are dependent on legislative action for reenactment this year.

Expenses and needs for the City are constantly rising and the responsibility of balancing these elements with the necessary finances to provide adequate services to the community hasn’t lessened, as a matter of fact, it has sharply increased. State aid to municipalities hangs in the balance awaiting legislative action, and our health insurance costs are estimated to escalate over to $2,000,000 dollars.

As previously reported, the City is facing a huge imbalance of close to $8,000,000 dollars for fiscal year 2010-2011 and a general fund deficit for 2008-2009 of $1.46 million dollars.

On the bright side, our grand list is expected to rise about $20 million dollars generating $520,000 of new tax dollars, our economic development efforts are continuing with new businesses opting to make Bristol their home. Existing businesses are expanding their facilities and operations, creating new jobs and contributing to new dollars to our tax base. Route 72 is scheduled for completion in 2010. The Depot Square effort is moving forward, many of the State road projects are nearing completion, our regionalization efforts are now being realized through the mutual cooperation of adjacent communities, ( such as single stream recycling programs in conjunction with the Town of Plainville) In conjunction with the Board of Education, we will continue to lobby our State legislature and our Congressional delegation for any and all financial and/or project assistance, including intensifying our lobbying efforts for temporary relief from State unfunded mandates. I have been in constant contact with our legislative delegation regarding our needs and have met with them as recently as two weeks ago.

We are actively pursuing new methods of ensuring the collection of any/all back taxes, including the recently advertised “boot” program which targets primarily those with long standing overdue tax obligations and the new credit card tax payment ability which has just become available this week.  We are also evaluating the proposal for instituting fee-based service schedules for certain programs and departments and revisiting all of our present program fees.

Our grant writing department is doggedly pursuing any and all grant opportunities both public and private, and will continue to do so in order to secure monies in support of City initiatives.

We are actively involved with supportive organizations such as the CT Conference of Municipalities, The Bristol Resource Recovery Operating Facility, the Central CT Regional Planning Agency and other like-minded associations for collaboration on addressing the community’s needs through cooperative efforts.

This administration will continue to focus on consolidation efforts with regard to departmental and service-oriented areas requiring all of us to incorporate flexibility and meeting the need to do more with less in everything that we do.

We will also continue our present appending practices such as review of requests for conferences, seminars, travel expenses, evaluation of the need to fill positions as they become available though attrition, energy conservation and maintain a vigilant pursuit of any new ideas or suggestions which can assist us in obtaining savings.

I would, at this time, like to commend your departments, your staff and employees for your conservation efforts with regard to travel and fuel conservation – the past year has realized a significant decrease in the amount of fuel used on a daily basis – please pass our appreciation on to everyone.

You have been asked by the Finance Board to submit proposed budget cuts of 5% and 10% for next year’s budget.

While we are aware of the difficulties these cuts would have on your departments and the delivery of services, the thought process requires the need for new, creative, innovative methods of approach.

Departments should review and prioritize services which are essential to the taxpayers and those services which are in fact, more desirous than necessary and can therefore be given consideration for decreases or elimination.

No department or individual has escaped the impact of these difficult times and we all need to work together to survive this recession. These are not options, these are necessities.

Again, as in the past, public and employee safety cannot and will not be sacrificed, but all departments will be scrutinized and evaluated for utmost efficiency and maximum savings.

The Personnel Department will be evaluating all potential areas which might provide economic relief throughout our departments, and the entire City, in general, to include furloughs,                consolidation efforts, service restrictions or cut backs and any other areas for potential savings, review of the GASB-45 idea and any and all possibilities for economic relief. Simple ideas such as control of thermostats, as recently proposed by the City Council, can provide economic relief.

Capital needs will be appropriated where necessary and all capital projects will be evaluated for the vision of the immediate needs within our community.

As stated previously, all of our present policies and procedures are being constantly reviewed for performance assessment and the scrutiny of all expenditures will remain a highest priority.

I am relying on you to implement new strategies, with a new vision, a new means of performing daily functions with a focus on the realization of incurring less encumbering expenses.

As I stated at last year’s budget address, our ancestors experienced the great depression and they sacrificed and survived allowing us very comfortable lifestyle, until the most recent recession. We have that same responsibility to our children, our grand children and our future generations.

I know that this budget process is going to be very difficult and performing our duties will not be as easy as in the past, but with each one of us working together as a team, we will continue to ensure that Bristol is a great place to live. We will continue to demonstrate our strengths as a community, of resilience, of perseverance - A City that we, our families and our future generations can be proud to call “home”.

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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com