NAUGATUCK — The borough ended the fiscal year with a small surplus, according to figures Controller Wayne McAllister presented Tuesday to the Joint Boards of Finance and Mayor and Burgesses.

Municipal departments and the Board of Education combined had $780,000 left over, or about 1 percent of the budget, after the fiscal year ended, primarily thanks to tax revenues that came in higher than expected.

The borough collected about $879,000 more in property taxes than officials had budgeted.

“We’re fortunate that it was higher,” Mayor Robert A. Mezzo said. “We budget on multi-year averages and have always budgeted conservatively on tax collection rates, even more so in this economy.”

The borough also won about $300,000 from a settlement with Middlebury to share costs for the water treatment plant, which is located in the borough and serves both towns.

The police department came in $322,000 under budget, largely due to overtime management, Mezzo said. The school system came in with a $31,000 surplus.

Certain accounts did run over budget, but the joint boards Tuesday approved McAllister’s plans to balance them using the borough’s $350,000 contingency fund and surplus money from other accounts. The $780,000 left over after the accounts were reconciled will be placed in the reserve account, Mezzo said.

Snow removal costs from last winter’s storms caused the biggest overrun. The street department spent about $740,000 more than expected on contractors and overtime, including about $35,000 to bring in Connecticut National Guard personnel to shovel snow off school roofs, McAllister said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has said it will reimburse storm-related costs incurred in a three-day window during the biggest storm in February, but the borough has not received any money, Mezzo said. The borough incurred most of its snow removal costs, including the National Guard, outside of that window.

“We are hoping to get a fraction of the costs reimbursed, if anything,” Mezzo said.

The joint boards also approved a $4,650 transfer from this fiscal year’s contingency fund to buy unlimited emergency minutes from the Code Red notification system, after the borough ran out of minutes during Hurricane Irene.

Fire Chief Ken Hanks and W. Francis Dambowsky, the borough’s head of emergency management, said the borough could incur high overage charges if the contract was not upgraded.

“If we have another winter like we had last year, we’re going to be in trouble,” Hanks said.

Poll workers look through their paperwork while waiting for voters to turn up Tuesday at the Naugatuck Historical Society, where the budget referendum was held.

NAUGATUCK — The consensus of those who came out to vote in Naugatuck’s budget referendum Tuesday was overwhelmingly against the budget. However, not enough voters cast a ballot to make it official.

After the votes were tallied Tuesday night, 1,202 total people voted, only 6.9 percent of registered voters, well under the 15 percent turnout needed to make the referendum count.
Due to the low turnout, the $105.5 million budget will be the borough’s spending plan for this fiscal year.

The budget is a $1.78 million or 1.71 percent increase over last fiscal year. The municipal budget is $45.5 million, a $1.2 million or 2.61 percent increase over the 2010-11 budget. This school budget is $57 million, an increase of $545,000 or 0.97 percent.

The budget increases property taxes by 2.5 percent, or $158 for a home assessed at $200,000.

Borough Controller Wayne McAllister said the second half of this year’s taxes will be sent out as soon as possible. The borough originally sent out bills for taxes equaling half of last year’s mill rate pending the results of the referendum.

Although the budget passed by default, the majority of the 1,202 people who voted did so against it.

“I’m on a very tight budget, so this is very close to my heart,” said Susan Gura, a single mother and small business owner.

She said there wasn’t anything specific she would like to see cut from the budget, but she simply couldn’t afford more taxes. Gura said she was disappointed by the low voter turnout.

“People complain, but they don’t want to be involved,” she said.

A total of 1,200 votes were cast on the municipal budget, 997 people voted no because it was too high, 14 people voted no because it was too low and 189 voted in favor of the budget.

A total of 1,189 total votes were cast on the school budget, 995 people voted no because it was too high, 31 people voted no because it was too low and 163 approved of the school budget.

The Naugatuck Taxpayers in Revolt gathered about 1,400 signatures last month to force the referendum. Those who signed the petition said the budget was too high, but many of them didn’t come out to vote Tuesday.

Alec Wargo, chair of Taxpayers in Revolt, called the turnout was “disheartening.”

“I’m kind of disappointed, not in the results, but the fact that nobody showed up,” he said.

Wargo said he didn’t know why people didn’t come out to vote, but speculated that part of the problem was that it is vacation season. He said the budget is usually adopted in the beginning of May, but this year it wasn’t adopted until May 26. He also said that having the referendum at only one location made it harder for some, especially the elderly, to vote.

Wargo said it is not his group’s responsibility to make people turn out.

“They’ve got to take interest in their own finances,” he said. “We did what we thought was correct and that was we got enough signatures to allow people to vote.”

At least one person was happy with the low turnout. Board of Education Chair David Heller previously said he would not vote and encouraged others not to vote to defeat the referendum through insufficient turnout.

“I think people actually decided not to vote to show support for the budget,” Heller said.

Although no one wants to pay higher taxes, Heller said people want to have the services and educational opportunities to improve the community.

“I’m thrilled with the outcome and very happy that we have an education budget for the 2011-12 fiscal year,” Heller said.

He said the board is excited to move forward and start planning for the new school year without any further cuts.

“We’re going to work very hard to provide all the educational services within our budgetary limit,” Heller said.

He said the budget was well thought out and well prepared.

“I think the finance board worked very hard on putting together a reasonable and very appropriate budget,” Heller said.

Mayor Robert Mezzo said he was surprised by the lower turnout, but wouldn’t speculate as to the cause.

“Each election has its own dynamics and different sets of circumstances, so I try not to read too much into any particular vote,” Mezzo said.

Many town officials expected the budget to be rejected and were already preparing alternative plans. At a recent meeting of the Board of Mayor and Burgesses, board members discussed delaying the purchase of new equipment for the fire department, reasoning they could add it into the budget once it was defeated.

“I think this is the first time under the current system that the referendum failed to garner 15 percent of the vote,” Mezzo said.

Officials said a budget referendum failed in the 1990s when the requirement was 25 percent.

Mezzo said members of the Boards of Burgesses and Finance worked together across party lines to do the right thing for the future of the community.

“If I’m being optimistic, I would like to believe that the majority of residents understand that there are some really good people from both parties that work very hard to craft an honest budget during very difficult times,” Mezzo said.

Mezzo said that this year’s budget didn’t occur in a vacuum. Past budgets affected it and it will affect future budgets.

“Our goal is to put this community in a position so in the coming years we operate more efficiently as a government and generate more revenue locally. Unfortunately, that kind of change takes time,” Mezzo said.

NAUGATUCK — Borough voters will head to the polls today to decide whether to approve a $48.5 million municipal budget and a $57 million school budget.

The referendum will be held at Naugatuck Train Station/Historical Society on Water Street from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The total $105.5 million budget is a $1.78 million or 1.71 percent increase over last fiscal year. The municipal budget represents a $1.2 million or 2.61 percent increase over the 2010-11 budget. This school budget increased $545,000 or 0.97 percent.

“The joint boards passed a budget that the majority believed was an honest budget free from gimmicks that not only addressed the existing fiscal year but did not attempt to create a worse financial situation in future budgets,” Mayor Robert Mezzo said.

Over the last three years, the town’s budget has pretty much been held in check.

The general government budget went down in the 2009-10 budget year before going back up last year, for a net gain of less than $31,000 or 0.07 percent over the past three years. The education budget followed the same trend, dipping down then increasing for a gain of 300,000 or 0.53 percent over the last three years.

The school and town budgets for this fiscal year were forced to referendum through a petition distributed by the Naugatuck Taxpayers in Revolt. However, the voters must turn out in order for the referendum to count.

According to Borough Clerk Nancy DiMeo, 15 percent of registered voters, or 2,897 people, have to vote in order for the result to be valid.

“If they don’t get 15 percent, we’re all done. We can start paying bills and buying things and going forward with the budget that was already adopted,” DiMeo said.

That’s the strategy Board of Education Chair David Heller is taking.

“I will not be voting in the referendum,” he said. “It’s my position that people should not vote and hopefully there will be insufficient numbers.”

Heller said he hopes the education side of the budget passes.

“I think that funding is both appropriate and proper and we’re working hard to stay within the appropriation level that was provided to us by the finance board,” Heller said.

Heller declined to comment on what the board would do if the budget is defeated.

If the budget fails, the Joint Boards of Mayor and Burgesses and Board of Finance will hold another public hearing before adopting a revised budget. The joint boards have tentatively set a budget review for July 20, with a public hearing tentatively scheduled for July 21.

If voters are still not satisfied with the proposed budget, they can petition for up to two more referendums.

Mezzo said the joint boards have already begun to plan for adjustments if the budget is rejected, since there has never been a referendum where the budgets were not rejected.

“We’re looking at different scenarios, which may result in reductions in force and or reductions in services,” Mezzo said.

Mezzo said there are not a lot of easy cuts left to make. Some of the budgets’ biggest increases, in pension funds, health care and debt service requirements, simply can’t be touched, Mezzo said.

“Doing that would have disastrous consequences for the borough financially,” he said.

Pensions increased $427,000, debt service increased $65,000, and employees medical and hospital insurance increased $236,000 in the municipal budget since last year.

Mezzo said the borough is paying for poor decisions made many years ago. For example, the borough is paying on a bond that went to fully fund a pension system that was habitually underfunded for many years, he said.

Employee benefits negotiated by past administrations are unsustainable, and the town has lost a lot tax revenue over the course of 20 years since the bulk of Naugatuck’s major industry has left, Mezzo said.

Mezzo said the changes the boards are working on now, like changes to the pension system and health care, will help the borough budget long after he’s gone.

“I understand the frustration from residents,” Mezzo said.

He said he might have signed a petition if he hadn’t reviewed every budget item line by line to find out why each dollar is allocated.

“When you’re immersed in the detail and frustrations of having to change things slowly, you start to get a perspective on why the budget is what it is,” Mezzo said. “Unfortunately, making change in municipal government is often very slow and painstaking.”

Mezzo asked residents to take a close look at the budget and contact his office or any of the department heads for information about the budget in order to make an informed decision. He said there is also a lot of information on the town’s website at www.naugatuck-ct.gov and on his blog at www.bobmezzo.com.

Anyone who can’t make it to the polls can obtain an absentee ballot by calling Borough Clerk Nancy DiMeo at (203) 720-7009 or stopping by the Mayor’s Office to pick up an application and ballot. Ballots will be available until July 18.

The Board of Mayor and Burgesses met Wednesday night and approved July 19 as the date to hold a referendum on the borough budget. LARAINE WESCHLER

The Board of Mayor and Burgesses set July 19 as the day the borough budget will head to referendum during a special meeting June 22. The referendum will be held at Naugatuck Train Station/Historical Society on Water Street from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

By Town Charter, the referendum had to be held 22 to 28 days after the board met, an inconvenience that left some burgesses grumbling.

Burgess Pat Scully asked the board to tentatively schedule a meeting for the Thursday following the Tuesday referendum so it could settle the budget as soon as possible.

“The quicker, the better,” said Burgess Ron San Angelo, who hoped the budget wouldn’t be drawn out all summer.

The school and town budgets were forced to referendum through a petition distributed by the Naugatuck Taxpayers in Revolt. Eight percent of registered voters, or 1,395 people, had to sign the petition to force a referendum. At least 1,405 signed the petition for the school board budget, and 1,403 signed the town budget petition, Borough Clerk Nancy DiMeo said.

Borough voters will have the option of voting for the $48.5 million municipal budget and a $57 million school budget separately. If they vote against either budget, they can indicate whether they think it was too high or too low.

If the budget fails, the Joint Boards of Mayor and Burgesses and Board of Finance will have to hold another public hearing before adopting a revised budget. If voters are still not satisfied, they can petition for up to two more referendums.

Even though the referendum is pending, taxes are still due July 1 for the first half of real estate taxes, based on last year’s mill rate.

The board briefly discussed adding more than one location for the referendum in response to complaints following the last referendum in 2008, but decided to keep it to one location to save on costs.

Less locations means less money for machines, staffing, overtime, and other costs associated with multiple locations. A full referendum with all polling places open costs the town about $15,000, but having only one location open saves about half of that, officials said.

Anyone who can’t make it to the polls can obtain an absentee ballot by calling Borough Clerk Nancy DiMeo at (203) 720-7009 or stopping by the Mayor’s Office to pick up an application and ballot. Ballots will be available July 1 to July 18.

In light of the upcoming referendum, Mayor Robert Mezzo has instructed department heads to hold off on hiring anyone until the budget is resolved.

About five positions are currently open and several others are likely to open in the next few months, Mezzo said.

The borough will make an exception for four part-time animal control employees on the verge of being hired to replace vacancies left by recent upheaval at the animal control facility. The police department is currently dealing with the day-to-day operations of the facility, and the new hires are badly needed, Mezzo said.

The borough will also move forward with hiring part-time summer help for the Park and Recreation Department’s summer programs, Mezzo said.

If the budget fails and the joint boards decide to eliminate positions, they will not necessarily be the positions held open now, Mezzo added.

A group of Naugatuck taxpayers committed to keeping the budget low submitted a petition to the borough clerk to force a vote on the budget late last week.

Chair of Naugatuck Taxpayers in Revolt Alec Wargo submitted two petitions of signatures. The group began collecting signatures a few weeks ago when the Joint Boards of Finance and Mayor and Burgesses approved a $105.5 million budget.

The separate petitions call for votes on the Board of Education and municipal budgets because the group feels the budgets are too high.

As of Tuesday afternoon, enough signatures had been verified to force a vote on the municipal budget Tax Collector Jim Goggin said.

As of press time, the petition to force a vote on the school budget had not been verified. But, officials expected there would be enough valid signatures to force a referendum on the school budget as well.

The Board of Mayor and Burgesses will have to meet within five days of certification of the petition to set a referendum date. The referendum will take place 22 to 28 days from the meeting date, DiMeo said.

The joint boards approved the $105.5 million budget May 26. The school budget was approved at $57 million, about a $500,000 or 0.97 percent increase over the current fiscal year. General government appropriations increased about $1.2 million to about $48.5 million, a 2.61 percent increase over the current fiscal year.

The budget increases the mill rate by 0.79 mills to 32.81. A mill is worth $1 for every $1,000 of assessed property value. A property owner whose home is assessed at $200,000 would pay $158 more in taxes.

Goggin said that since there will be a referendum his office will be sending out half-year tax bills for real estate only, in order to gather some revenue for the borough.

The half-year bills will be issued using a mill rate of 16.405, half of the mill rate set by the joint boards, Goggin explained.

Once the referendum process plays out and the final budget is approved, the remaining tax bills will be sent out.

Goggin added that anyone in the borough on an elderly tax freeze will not receive any bills until the final budget is set.

Burgess Pat Scully speaks during a public hearing on the budget in May. Chair of Naugatuck Taxpayers in Revolt Alec Wargo submitted petitions to the borough clerk Thursday in an attempt to force a referendum on the $105.5 million budget. FILE PHOTO

A group of Naugatuck taxpayers committed to keeping the budget low has submitted a petition to the borough clerk to force a vote on the budget.

Chair of Naugatuck Taxpayers in Revolt Alec Wargo submitted two petitions of signatures Thursday. The group began collecting signatures a few weeks ago when the Joint Boards of Finance and Mayor and Burgesses approved a $105.5 million budget.

“We’d like to thank all the citizens of Naugatuck for participating so they can have a right to vote,” Wargo said.

The separate petitions call for votes on the Board of Education and municipal budgets because the group feels the budgets are too high.

Borough Clerk Nancy DiMeo said she must verify each signature to make sure they come from registered Naugatuck voters and none are duplicated.

“Each one has to be checked off,” she said.

It’s expected to take about a week or so for the borough to review the signatures. To force a referendum, 8 percent of the electorate, or 1,395 people, need to sign the petition.

If enough of the signatures check out, the Board of Mayor and Burgesses will have to meet within five days of certification of the petition to set a referendum date. The referendum will take place 22 to 28 days from the meeting date, DiMeo said.

The joint boards approved the $105.5 million budget May 26. The school budget was approved at $57 million, about a $500,000 or 0.97 percent increase over the current fiscal year. General government appropriations increased about $1.2 million to roughly $48.5 million, a 2.61 percent increase over the current fiscal year.

The budget increases the mill rate by 0.79 mills to 32.81. A mill is worth $1 for every $1,000 of assessed property value. A property owner whose home is assessed at $200,000 would pay $158 more in taxes.

Wargo said he would like to see reductions in union wages and benefits to town employees.

In a previous interview, Mayor Robert Mezzo said reducing the budget is not as simple as it seems. He said quick fixes to lower the budget in the short term could result in long-term problems for the town.

“If there’s a referendum and the budget’s voted down, we’ll have to consider all options at that point,” Mezzo said previously.

The vote totals were 305-299 in favor the plan.

First Selectman Susan Ann Cable said officials had reviewed state laws on recounts and determined that a recount would not be necessary since the votes did not fall within three.

“The way the town clerk has interpreted the law and verified the law, we don’t feel it’s necessary, but we’re awaiting confirmation from the Secretary of the State’s office,” Cable said.

The budget package includes an increase of $165,070, or 2.9 percent, over the current plan. The joint boards of Finance and Selectmen calculated the second budget proposal by crafting a total adjustment of $78,635, including $19,256 in expense reductions and $59,379 in anticipated revenue.

The increase for wages in part-time police patrol was reduced by $8,256, bulky waste was reduced by $9,000, and refuse collection was reduced by $2,000.

Co-chairs of the Blight Committee Linda Ramos and Elizabeth Forlenzo have raised concerns over how Naugatuck is fighting blight like this dilapidated property on School Street. Funds for a part-time blight officer position were cut from the borough budget.

NAUGATUCK — The new blight bylaw that went into effect in November hasn’t been enforced, according to Linda Ramos and Elizabeth Forlenzo, co-chairs of the Blight Committee that wrote the ordinance.

Ramos said nothing has changed since the ordinance went into effect without a blight officer to handle blight cases and issue fines.

Ramos and Forlenzo, recently took photos of the same blighted areas they photographed when they were putting the ordinance together a year ago.

Of all the areas they looked at, only one building, at 1198 New Haven Road, was taken down because the roof collapsed from the snow, Ramos said.

The two presented those photos to the Joint Boards of Mayor and Burgess and Finance May 23 during a public hearing on the borough budget.

A part-time, $20,000 blight officer position was originally part of the proposed spending plan, but the joint boards took it out in an effort to reduce costs.

The blight ordinance prohibits unseemly properties such as overgrown grass, junk in yards and dilapidated structures. The blight officer would have authority to issue fines of $100 a day for properties not in compliance with the law.

Ramos said the problem isn’t just with residential properties, but with businesses and some town-owned land as well.

Ramos said she would not want to live next to a property where several unregistered vehicles were rotting away.

Other examples of blight in town include buildings with boarded up windows, soda machines rusting in a residential driveway, and property with wood piled haphazardly everywhere, Ramos said.

Board members who opposed adding the new blight officer position felt the job could be done by the zoning enforcement officer (ZEO).

During a recent budget meeting, Burgess Ron San Angelo said the ZEO was trained to take people to court over these issues.

“I don’t know why it’s failed,” he said.

Burgess Mike Ciaciarella said the ordinance needed time for bugs to be worked out before the board discusses funding the position next year.

Ramos said the ZEO handles zoning issues, not blight, which might not come under the ZEO’s jurisdiction.

“Yes, he handles probably some of the calls for trash or furniture. That’s insignificant to true blight that’s going on,” Ramos said.

During a recent budget meeting, Burgess Tamath Rossi agreed. She said the ZEO handles a narrow set of regulations

“The blight ordinance is much more encompassing,” she said.

With the town anticipating more foreclosures, Rossi said the situation is likely to get worse.

“The current process we have in place doesn’t work. Period,” Rossi said. “It’s really very short-sighted not to pursue this.”

Some board members raised concerns that even at $20,000 the pay wouldn’t be enough to attract competent talent.

Rossi said she’s already heard from several retired police officers interested in the position.

Ramos said it may not be necessary to fund a new position if another person already working for the town could take on the new duties.

“When you have a person doing a specific job, you get the job done,” Ramos said.

Board members opposed to funding the position said they support the ordinance.

Board of Finance member Don Carton said the town should try to enforce the ordinance without the position for a year to see if it could work.

“I don’t think, at this point, we need to spend anything,” Burgess Catherine Earnsky said.

Diane Scinto said she was on the fence with the issue. A few years ago, Scinto said she had trouble selling her house because of a blighted property nearby. After seeing the pictures Ramos took, Scinto said it was obvious that blight was a real problem in Naugatuck. If the position was funded, Scinto said she wanted proof that it was effective.

“I want to see proof in the pudding. Otherwise, it’s not being funded right now,” Scinto said.

Mayor Robert Mezzo has been a strong supporter of the blight ordinance, including the need for a blight officer. He said the ordinance gives the town a legal recourse to force institutions that own foreclosed properties to clean them up.

Ramos said that blight deters new businesses from coming to town and adding to the tax base.

“Without business, we’re just going to be paying high taxes forever,” Ramos said.

She said the Naugatuck Valley has a bad reputation.

“We really need to move forward,” Ramos said.

Moderator Mildred Kent, left, and Assistant Registrar Marion Lennon print out the referendum results Tuesday night. The budget passed 305 to 299.

Voters approved a $5.85 million municipal budget, 305 to 299, for 2011-12 fiscal year. Since the budget passed by only six votes, there may be an automatic recount. As of press time, the recount had not been scheduled.

“Internally, I’m doing cartwheels,” said Board of Finance Chair Chris Bielik in relief after the votes had been tallied at Laurel Ledge Elementary School. “I really believe that this budget represents a basic minimum budget to the town.”

The budget increases town spending by $165,070. Coupled with the Region 16 school budget, which has already passed, the mill rate will increase 0.5 mills, from 25.6 to 26.1.

A mill is worth $1 for every $1,000 of assessed property value, so a homeowner with property worth $200,000 would pay $100 more in taxes.

The mill increase is down a 0.1 mills from the last budget proposal, which failed at a referendum in early May.

Members of the Boards of Finance and Selectmen, present at the poll as ballots were counted, said they were worried about what would happen if the budget failed.

Any changes they could make to reduce the budget for those who thought it was too high would be offset by previous “yes” votes turning to “no” if the town had to turn to lay-offs and cut essential services, Bielik speculated.

Selectman Dominick Sorrentino said he was glad the vote was history so the board could move on to the next challenge. And there are plenty to occupy his time.

With the budget passed the Board of Selectman has a full plate, from negotiating with unions and insurance companies to figuring out how to come up with the extra money needed for the whole streetscape project, to looking at the long-term feasibility of a new community center on the Wolfe Avenue property, and how to care for neglected parks.

“We’ve got a lot of work still to do,” First Selectman Susan Cable said.

She said she was pleased with the budget results, but wished more people had come out to vote.

Cable also said she hoped to start “Bagels with Cable” again to answer questions from townspeople, take ideas, and work together to better Beacon Falls. Cable said she hoped to clear the air on topics such as the role of the town nurse, which she said is more like a health and human services position, and comparisons between Beacon Fall’s police force to Bethany’s. Cable said the comparison is not fair because Bethany houses State Troop I.

The biggest increases in the budget come from contractual benefits to town employees, including pensions, medial insurance and worker’s compensation.

Board of Finance Chair Chris Bielik, left, and Board of Finance member Wendy Hopkinson, right, await referendum results on the budget they put together.

They reduced line items for trash collection by $2,000, part-time police raises by $8,256, to a $20,000 increase. Part-time police will receive a $2 raise, but will still make significantly less than police in nearby towns.

The boards also reduced a bulky waste transfer increase by $9,000 putting the increase to $5,500 in order to open the transfer station a few times per year. It was closed for most of the past year because there were no funds for it in the budget.

On the revenue side, the town expects to receive a new $59,379 grant from the state.

From left, Burgess Ron San Angelo, Board of Finance member Ron Gallant, and Burgess Tamath Rossi debate the municipal budget Thursday night.

Joint boards OK $105.5 million budget

NAUGATUCK — After hours of debate, the Joint Boards of Mayor and Burgesses approved a $105.5 million budget May 26.

The budget increases spending by $1.78 million or 1.71 percent over the current budget. The mill rate will increase 0.79 mills to 32.81.

Board of Finance Chair Robert Butler said pensions make up most of the increase in the budget.

“We’ve made cut after cut after cut. … I don’t see a lot of waste in here,” Butler said.

The increase is $538,000 less than the budget originally presented at a public hearing early last week. The change stems from a series of appropriations cuts and revenue increases.

An increase for employee pensions was balanced out by a decrease in firemen’s pensions, netting a cut of $152,000. The boards also approved lowering the worker’s compensation insurance account by $135,000.

In addition to cuts, a state enterprise zone grant added $225,790 to the town’s revenues and the reserve fund went up by $142,000.

The boards also reversed an earlier decision to add $200,000 back to the Board of Education budget increase. The boards approved a $57 million school budget, an increase of $545,311 or 0.97 percent over the current fiscal year.

Burgess Pat Scully said the school budget should be a wake-up call for the Board of Education that they can’t afford to pay teachers and administrators the going rate.

Board of Finance member Diane Scinto argued the borough gets what it pays for in the quality of its school staff.

The last major change to the budget came from the contingency fund. The boards voted to decrease it from $400,000 to $375,000, which is still an increase of $25,000 over the current year. Some board members said it was an easy item to decrease, but could come back to haunt them if there is an unforeseen emergency.

“I don’t like rolling the dice,” Scinto said.

Deputy Mayor Tamath Rossi agreed, citing times the town had to dip into the contingency fund when a pipe collapsed and a turf war broke out between motorcycle gangs.

“Things happen that we could never even dream or imagine,” Rossi said.

On the other side, Burgess Ron San Angelo said the cut would take some burden off taxpayers without unreasonably impacting the town.

The boards also cut $25,000 from the dog fund following recent upheaval at the animal control center.

The board debated other changes to the budget, but ultimately passed most departments’ budgets as presented, some by a narrow margin.

Considerable time was devoted to debating wage increases, with San Angelo leading the crusade to demand immediate wage freezes from unions while Mayor Robert Mezzo advocated concentrating on long-term savings from health care and pensions. During the budget meeting, Mezzo repeatedly stated that he would not support quick fixes at the expense of future sustainability.

“Towns that do well focus like a laser on health care,” Mezzo said.

San Angelo said the town should demand both wage freezes and benefit reductions.

“It’s a real hard battle and it’s not easy, but now is the time to do it,” San Angelo said.

Rossi supported a one percent increase in wages instead of 1.5 percent as a bargaining chip.

“We cannot send the Mayor out on a playing field without a glove and bat. We need to be able to arm our CEO with something that will help us at the table,” Rossi said.

Scinto agreed with Mezzo that health care is the town’s biggest problem.

“This wage stuff is nothing,” she said.

San Angelo said not to discount the value of a wage freeze, which will save money over time, but Mezzo disagreed.

“The unions salivate when you tell them you want a zero (increase). … It’s not how bold you are in these negotiations. It’s how intelligent you are,” Mezzo said.

The boards debated eliminating several positions, including part-time help for the Tax Department during its busiest season, a file clerk in the Land Use Office and a position in the Town Clerk’s Office. The positions were kept in the budget for now, with the understanding that Mezzo would look into the collective bargaining consequences of eliminating them. Any time an employee is assigned more duties because another position is eliminated, the unions will usually demand increased compensation for the remaining employees, Mezzo said.

Mezzo passed around a sheet outlining what the town would save with lay-offs, not including sick time and vacation. The sheet shows the town would save about $32,000 by eliminating a clerical position and $38,000 by eliminating a position in the Department of Public Works in the first year, with savings increasing over the next three years.

The boards also debated the Town Clerk’s benefits. Town Clerk Sophie Morton, who is retiring, has accumulated 90 days of sick time, which some board members felt she shouldn’t receive as an elected, salaried employee. The sick time equates to a pay out of $25,000. San Angelo presented three years of payroll records showing Morton had used 1,723 hours of comp time. He argued that if she could take nine weeks off in the past 46 weeks, the boards should be able to eliminate another position in that office.

Rossi took exception to San Angelo’s accusations, saying it wasn’t fair to single out someone who has served 40 years in the borough. She said, as a frequent customer of the office, the level of service there is exemplary. With many borough properties in pre-foreclosure, the office can expect a lot of work in the next year, Rossi said.

Mezzo shared a legal opinion from the borough attorney saying the town was legally obligated to pay the accumulated sick time.

Although most board members agreed that they need to look into the town’s policies regarding sick time for salaried employees, they voted to pass the Town Clerk’s budget as presented.

Mezzo said he wasn’t happy with the tax increases in the budget, but that it was fair.

“It is an honest budget that has received much thought, and debate, and analysis over many months. The fact is we have made choices over many years to provide certain services and compensation, which we can’t sustain in the long term and it’s going to take time to change our course, and be more fiscally responsible over time,” Mezzo said.

The adopted budget is subject to a referendum through a petition process. Alec Wargo, chair of Naugatuck Taxpayers in Revolt, said his group was circulating a petition to do just that. They need to collect about 1,400 signatures by June 10 to force a referendum.

Wargo said the budget is simply too high.

“The political leaders of the town seem to have lost track with reality,” he said.

Wargo felt the main focus of borough leaders is ensuring public employees can continue to improve their standard of living through benefits and wage increases.

“At this point in time, the borough of Naugatuck has little to nothing to offer to voters except higher taxes and little to no benefits,” Wargo said.

With high unemployment and foreclosures, Wargo said taxpayers cannot afford an increase.

“The general citizenry of Naugatuck has big problems and the town really doesn’t care,” Wargo said.

He argued unions should renegotiate contracts or suffer substantial layoffs.

With most departments even with or below their funding for the current year’s budget, Burgess Bob Neth said the next step would be to start lay-offs and cutting services if the budget failed at a referendum.