My name is Frank Salvatore.

I am the chair of this ad hoc budget committee meeting.

It is uh 1801, and I'm now a minute late, and I want to call this meeting to order so we can move through this swiftly.

This is the budget ad hoc meeting for the health human services and public safety budget, which totals 58,507,263.

With me up here at the dais is Councilman Lugi Ardano, Councilwoman Claire Jabor, Councilman Paul Rotello, and Councilman Mike Henry.

In the front of us, we have the mayor, Roberto Alves, his chief of staff, Taylor O'Brien, Dan Garrick, and Dan Garrick's uh number right hand and left hand people, Kara Pronty and Joanna Stirk, not to be confused with Stark.

And all of you in the audience, I thank you for coming in uh tonight.

Uh here's the goal.

The goal is to get through 16 departments in an expedient manner.

I'm going to ask for the um ad hoc committee's indulgence to allow me to get um people out of here a little earlier who may need to get out of here earlier um and also kind of flip it so we do the smaller departments first.

And yes, unfortunately, Chiefs.

I'm gonna have you guys the fire department, police department are gonna go last.

And I know Chief Rittenhauer just was that the high side?

No.

Um more than likely.

So at least not until after we approve the budget, right?

They pass the budget.

So what I'd like something about being there prior to been there done that.

Um what I'd like to do is I would like to go first with health and human services.

So, Fernanda, I'm gonna have you come to one of the podiums.

The health and human services budget is found on budget book page 188.

And basically, I will open it up to the members of the committee to ask their questions.

Once their questions have been exhausted, I will open it up to ex officio.

Um, please remember uh put your remarks through the chair to the person, and if there's somebody else that you need to ask a question to make sure you call them up to one of the podiums if it's not just the department head.

Okay.

All right.

Fernando, welcome.

Thank you.

So uh I see you're asking for about a 2.79% increase over the last year's adopted budget.

And I don't find anything that I am really concerned about.

So I just want to ask the question is there anything that is not in this budget that's going to prevent you from doing anything, or does your budget also take into account grant revenue?

It does not take into account the grants that we are awarded.

Um but yes, we with this budget, we can um run the department effectively in the next fiscal year.

And my last question is about I because I didn't figure grants were in here, but knowing the climate and the volatility with the grants that are out there.

Um do you have any contingency plans being put together in the background just in case somebody from DC or God forbid even Harford because they'll have money pulled uh pulls any funding on you?

We do.

Um we usually keep our per capita funding.

Um we use that last, so that's a state um uh allocation for Danbury.

We usually leave that as our last resort so that if we need to shift um employees from one grant source to per capita, we have that ability to do that at the last minute.

Um so it's sort of our rainy day fund.

Cool.

I think I kind of went out of order because aren't I supposed to say to Dan?

Dan and your team, do you have anything you want to bring up about the budget?

I have nothing to add.

Oh, perfect.

I didn't go out of order.

Uh sure.

Council.

Uh up front.

I have a question about the uh homeless shelters.

Um how are we doing with the funding on that?

We currently have exhausted the small cities uh funding, which was uh 300,000 um until the end of December and then 124,000 until the end of April.

So that has been exhausted.

Now we have the Department of Housing funding that is 230,000 annually.

Um which which line item uh would uh that will most likely not be on here, I believe.

Uh councilman I can help.

Yeah, that's uh from the state grant for funding.

No, that's not uh that's from the state grant, so you're not gonna find that in here.

I would also share that.

We do have a uh organization that runs our shelters for us that can go out and apply for separate grants, which they do often, so that would not be in the book.

Um we have if we need to grab that from them, we do that separately, like for an audit situation, but for the actual state funding.

Okay, so it doesn't come out of the state.

It wouldn't be on the line items here, yeah.

Not in not in under held in humanity.

Thank you, uh Mr.

Chairman.

Just to piggyback on your comments and queries.

Um the federal grants are passed through from the state to us.

And and we know that they're being slashed.

Are we the recipient of any direct?

I mean, I know that we are, but are there federal grants that are directly sent to us without passing through the state?

Yes, no, no.

No, okay.

So we don't have to worry about that.

Um I had another question.

I may save it for a little.

Oh, I know what it was.

Many, many years ago, we used to do the um charity donations through the council.

We move that to the United Way.

Uh we ask every year for a list of the um they I don't think they've done it yet because it depends on on what we give them over the next month.

So when they do give them to, could you ask uh Miss Almir if she could just get us a list of uh of those donations so that we're up to speed on that?

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman, through you.

Ms.

Carvalho, uh, I see that there's a section that's listed as evictions.

I'm assuming that's eviction assistance to prevent evictions.

No, this is for the storage of uh personal belongings for those who have been evicted.

Is it not being used as much as it could be used?

It is.

So it's charges are incurred based on how many uh pellets they have, how many vaults they have um in terms of how much personal belongings they have the person has.

Um and we they also go um if they don't pick it up after a certain amount of time period passes, it is auctioned off.

Any proceeds that are any money made through that auction is sent to us.

Um so it sort of helps offset some of that cost.

And what's the time period of items being held?

Um it could be, I mean, we've had at most 90 days, but it it varies.

It could be 30 days, 60 days, 90 days.

And is there a line item that's for eviction assistance?

I didn't we see one that jumped out at me.

That was obvious.

In terms of can you elaborate?

And stop that process.

So we do that work ourselves with our own staff and try to um intervene before it actually they are evicted to prevent that from happening in the first place.

Obviously, we we can't always beat the clock.

Um, but that's the most amount of uh work that we do when it comes to preventing evictions.

And those evictions that are are those individuals that are then evicted are then cycled into one of your shelters?

Well, not necessarily.

Um we obviously provide assistance in terms of resources that are available in the community.

Uh oftentimes they identify alternative housing through some other you know avenue before they are evicted.

Um folks do utilize the storage ability um to keep their items in storage until they do find um an alternative place to go.

Some go to a family member.

Um so there's different scenarios that that we encounter.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

All the grants that you have listed, are they all received or the uh looking for the 27-year fiscal two?

Are they all received?

Yes, everything is okay.

Thank you.

Any other questions for the uh committee?

Gonna open it up to ex officio members, and I think we don't have enough questions tonight.

So as I call on you, that'll be the recognition you're in the uh audience.

Any questions?

Oh, sure.

Now you're gonna make me do them all.

Councilman Perkins.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

I uh do have a couple of questions I like uh at least clarified a bit um through you to I believe the finance directors may best answer this.

And and we were just talking about grants uh a second ago.

I I didn't either hear it or get proper clarification.

Page 191, uh item number 582503, four, and five are grants that total about two hundred and twenty-seven thousand dollars or so what what's that for?

I mean it says specific youth services, empowerment.

What exactly are those monies uh spent for?

Um I guess I'm not sure we would answer that better.

Either finance or the director herself, chief of staff, even yeah, yeah, no, that's more sorry.

So um, yeah, so these are grants that we give out, and um are for specific programs, so CIFIC, we help fund their head star.

Damber Use Services has a summer um workers program that we do with them, and then the center.

I'm not sure if that's 50, it's been in a obviously a continuous.

Is there any specific programs?

Not for a specific program, just to help offset them.

And they are a good partner with us.

They have an office at the police station, so we help fund them.

Yeah, that's been not to be centered for the sorry, yeah, to clarify the name change of the women's centers now, the center for empowerment and education.

I should put it back.

Um go ahead.

On page one nine one.

I'm sorry.

One nine two.

It looks like we're down to employees, environmental health specialists, community relations clerk.

Is that really um uh a loss of a two positions, or have they been accounted for internally through some type of uh adjustment?

Um we it was the um community health program coordinator that the funds were for to support that position um was used to reclassify two employees within the department um to better um to be more effective and efficient.

It would be for the social services specialist and where's the other one?

Health assistant, yes, the right right above it, health program assistant.

Okay, thank you.

Any other ex-officio members?

Any other ex officio members?

Final call, Nanda.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I am looking to move to elderly transportation on page 200.

Is oh, I hope I don't butcher your name, Saida.

I think Susan's gonna do this for them.

You're gonna do Susan here?

I'm here.

So what I'll do, Susan, uh your elderly services and elderly transportation.

Why don't we take elderly transportation to then do elderly services, right?

I am not elderly.

I'm sorry.

I'm not elderly transportation, I'm only elderly services.

Okay.

I'm sorry, I thought they just said you were doing that.

Does anybody have any questions on the ad hoc committee about transportation that the finance people will field?

It's just an allocation to the housing authority.

Okay.

And all right.

Just for the record, that wasn't on the mic, it's an allocation to the housing authority for the minutes.

Thanks.

Thank you.

There's no questions.

Why don't we move forward?

Um since we made you get up.

Come on up and let's talk about elderly services.

This is page 196 in the budget book.

You're the next contestant on the budget is right.

Ah, there you are.

Okay.

I think is this the services that we're adding?

Uh the meals on wheels.

Is that through this one?

Not meals on wheels.

Um, the senior center has a breakfast program.

So we are adding a program assistant.

We did mention that it would help um cover that meal program.

So that's the one FTE change?

Yes.

Okay.

Um it looks like we're looking for 1.61% increase over the adopted budget.

I really don't have any questions or concerns, so I'm gonna open it up to the committee.

None for you?

None?

Councilman Ritello.

I'm good, thank you.

Councilman Henry.

Any ex-officio members?

Councilman Perkins?

Thank you, Mr.

Seam.

Um, through you to Susan.

Susan, you and I had talked um last year about some increased recreational opportunities that you have for some of the seniors.

Um are there funds in this budget enough for you to offer additional services as far as activities like that if you wanted to or not?

Um there are adequate funds in this budget to support all of our programs.

Current and future.

Current and future.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Any other ex officio members?

Any other ex officio members?

Any other ex officio members?

You're good.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It's a pleasure.

Heading on down the road, why don't we do some consumer protection and weights and measures?

I believe that's what's over here.

So this is on page 147.

Consumer protection.

Hello, I will be reporting for consumer protection.

Look at that.

We get T dot O B.

One new job for me.

Marco Rubio, please explain.

Um, so if I could just share our uh weights and measures, um, Tom Nickel just retired after 10 years.

He wanted to go out quietly, so he may not be happy that I just put this on record, but we're very grateful for him.

Okay.

Are we rehiring for him?

Yes.

Uh we we are.

We've discussed with a couple interested candidates, and we have one that we um hope will get through, but we will let you know when we hire.

Okay.

I have no other questions, committee.

Down the line.

Councilman Rotello.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

The tailor.

Um when we do get the uh new uh employee for weights and measures.

Um, you know, obviously they're gonna do gas pumps and laundromats and all that stuff, which was the long don't get me started on laundromats.

That was like the biggest crisis in Danbury in 50 frigging years.

It was amazing.

This place was packed when we did laundromats.

But I don't think we're doing um electric car uh uh charging ports now.

Are we gonna do that and how are we gonna do that to make sure that Dan Barians get every last electron that they pay for?

Is that is that gonna be part of the process?

I'm just curious.

Yeah, that's a good question.

Um I met with Tom before he left and he walked me through really what he what he does, and that wasn't something we have on our list.

I could definitely check with the uh state department of consumer protection.

Uh so for my understanding, while the Danbury is um mandated to have uh our own sealer, there are things in Danbury we cannot do, and we don't have the infrastructure for it that the state does do.

So that may be one of them.

I would have to concern uh sorry, get that answer from uh DCP.

Yeah, come more prevalent, absolutely.

Well in the future become more and more relevant.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Councilman Henry.

Nothing?

Okay.

Any ex officio members?

Any ex officio members?

Any ex officio members?

Consumer protection and wait, some measures are done.

Watch the look on his face when I call him.

Veterans, Danny.

Mike Safranic thought I was calling him.

193.

Ladies and gentlemen.

Yeah.

So uh director Hayes, you are looking for a modest one point six one percent increase.

It looks like FTE wise.

God, I hope you don't have to talk to yourself and discipline yourself.

Um I have no questions with your budget.

It looks to be about the same every year.

Um, you know, uh with the modest changes.

So um, are you able to do everything that you need to do with this budget?

Absolutely.

Uh if it was less, I would still do it, doesn't matter.

I love it, so whatever.

Okay.

I'd ask you what the plan is for flags, but I think that would cost too much money.

Uh so another topic.

I'm gonna go down the line.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Oh, you're letting them off easy.

Nothing.

Mike?

Councilman?

Yes, through the chair.

Is the hometown heroes banner included in your budget here, or is that just funded by itself?

That's funded by itself.

Thank you, Dan.

Okay.

Nothing else from the ad hoc committee.

Ex officio.

Ex officio, ex officio.

Thank you very much.

Director Hayes.

Well, thank you very much.

Thanks for all your support.

You're welcome.

Let's go to the unit, page 14.

Coordinator Stillman, welcome.

Good evening.

See, you are looking for God.

I feel like one of my docs, I can't read my own writing.

It looks like 2.17% increase.

Um I didn't see anything that jumped out of me on the appropriations.

Are you uh able?

You have three FTs.

This budget and next budget, are you able to do everything you need to do with the funding that's proposed?

Yes, we are.

Uh last year, you with your support and the mayor's support, we're able to hire a part-time uh individual who's been very effective for our department.

So going forward with what we have, we certainly have enough to continue.

And you know, next year maybe I'll be back here looking for for another body as well.

Cool.

That's all I have.

Any ad hoc uh up here?

Councilman Giordano.

There we are.

Um I I seem to remember in the past that you had five people on the staff.

Was that right?

Because I only see three now.

Uh yes, so there was a position called City Center attendant that was under our budget, and it was uh the city subsidized a portion of that uh position, but that position has um essentially it's it's not been it's the individual is no longer there, works for the parks department, and with that, I think that was part of the reason we were able to get the financial support for that part-timer for this current budget year.

Okay.

That individual councilman wasn't necessarily working for my department going out and doing inspections and admin and all that kind of stuff.

So it was like a a ghost position.

Uh you guys are the har one of the hardest working departments in there.

With I mean, there must be like uh a ton of three one one calls coming in every day.

And uh, and yet you turn them all around in about you know two days maximum.

Thank you so much for that.

Last year we entertained 1500 service requests from the residents.

Uh almost half of them were actually proactive on our part, not relying on a call or a complaint, but just uh seeing something and doing something about it.

And we're already trending to exceed that number for 2026.

Well, thank you for your efforts.

Nothing.

Councilman Henry?

The chair has the new ordinances helped you with enforcement.

So I'm sorry.

My hearing aid battery just died, so I don't hear anything you're saying.

So give me one second, please.

That's never happened.

He said did the new ordinance.

They last every five days, so it picked a good moment to die.

Go ahead, please.

Didn't ordinances you said?

Yes.

Yeah, so right now we're currently working with the health and zoning department to help um get that off the ground.

So that's predominantly a health department driven ordinance, which is fed by us by you know, um, exposing certain violations around the city, and with that, that will uh grease the wheels, if you will, councilman, to initiate higher penalties and fines.

Thank you, Sean.

I hope it helps.

Thank you.

Any other from the ad hoc committee?

Going to ex officios.

Ex officios councilman or President Bazaid.

Mr.

Stillman, uh, thank you for the work.

I I noticed in your list of accomplishments on 149 of the budget.

Um, you list it, uh you've issued $32,000 in parking violations, right?

There were there are other fines you issue as well.

Are there not?

There are, yes, there are.

When fines are or parking violations are paid, um, do you know where that revenue goes?

Does it go through your department?

It does not go through my department, it goes through our um city city accounts.

So I'm gonna direct my next question to I guess uh Miss O'Brien, if she's aware.

When a fine when when fines are issued by the by the unit and they're actually paid uh or collected, um, where do those funds where are they accounted for if we we looked at the budget book?

Yeah, they would go into the general fund, so you're gonna see revenues separately for a reason.

That's why we don't put them um with the departments because they're not the departments don't operate as funds.

So if I wanted to know um as the result of the work of of Mr.

Stillman's department, how much actually the city of Danbury collected, where would I find that number?

Sure.

So um the page.

So fines and penalties is our fines and penalties are on page 48.

Thank you.

Do we have what's yeah?

Mr.

Mayor.

So what you would look for is um actuals.

Let me just get to that page so I could just double check.

No, I mean most of those.

Yeah, right.

Because we may put them together, right?

Is that true?

Okay.

Everything they call it is okay.

Yeah.

Well, no, if it's under the state code.

So, Ms.

O'Brien, I I don't mean to interrupt, but when I look at fines and penalties and I look at all those lines there on page 48 of the book, um, lines 4135 through 4211.

Um they're sort of broken down, but but they're really I don't think they accurately depict uh as a result of which department's efforts those funds are correct uh are collected.

Is that fair for me to say that or that's a fair point?

Um yeah, parking violations can can come from a few different uh avenues.

So that is correct.

So can I ask under the revenue detail um 4211 unified neighborhood in inspection?

There's two there's a blight fees and an abandoned carts, and the blight fees are 20,350.

So does the department only show specific and parking go somewhere else?

What was that number that was in the book, President Bazate?

Through the chair through myself for blight fees?

Here it's 20,000, but what was the number he quoted?

I missed it before.

That's what they find.

He um Councilman Buzane mentioned he referred to 3200.

Yes.

So if I may I follow up uh Mr.

Chairman with Mr.

Stillman?

Yes, absolutely Mr.

Stillman, when you issue parking violation fines those fines you issue under the auspices of the police department is that fair to say yes we partner together correct.

Okay with the police the police regulation the police give it when you issue those titles that's correct thank you I think I've answered my own question so we're sure yeah that would probably be under the parking violations at the of the police department collects right all right thank you I apologize uh Mr Chairman that's fine any other ex officios any other ex officios any other exoficios thank you again for your service and uh everything that you do thank you for your continued support thank you Sean okay next up on page two oh two is community services do I have uh grant writer Melissa Stern here or we can or is that going to be T dot O'Brien a lot of a lot of uh volunteer jobs hold on so thank you all right so I'm ready so this uh this is a three hundred and thirty thousand dollar uh budget it looks like it's been pretty much the same um every year uh this is pass through grants to the downtown council united way and Danbury PAL yes so yeah so these are um grants that we give out the 240 for united way is the social services grant process so they get 4000 um or thirty I'm sorry 352400 I don't have the exact number that that united way takes for administration cost and then the remainder go to um go to different organizations that apply each year it's a competitive grant that they manage and it it is 30,000 okay okay right yeah and do these organizations have to report each year um like uh any of the other nonprofits based on that April memo yes based on that memo um now all of our grantees have that same process so we need to ensure that they're using the funding for operations um as directed does that happen once a year or quarterly quarterly we yeah because we do payments quarterly I think for all of them at this point yeah okay cool that's my questions committee ready nothing uh uh ex officios councilman flannigan please come up to the mic sorry thank you forgive my ignorance this is my first budget go around what is the moment to settle downtown council please uh city center this is our uh payment in low of taxes oh city center thank you councilman hawley you had your hand up no it's a question oh I like that anybody else from ex officio moving right along uh page two hundred and forty five is animal control right wait someone listening is anybody here for animal control okay lieutenant thank you this is a uh budget of about three hundred and seventy one thousand dollars about a 1.56 percent increase looks like I've FTEs are stable at three and uh not a big difference uh between what was proposed by the department and what the uh mayor put in the book um do you feel that the animal control fund uh that's proposed here will uh help you do the services that you need to do throughout the next fiscal year uh and speaking with the two animal control officers yes they they are able to adequately do what they are assigned to do okay good that was my question anybody else on the committee councilman through the chair uh lieutenant how many employees are there I'm sorry how many employees are with animal control there's three total there's two animal control officers and a uh secretary no part-time staff no sir thank you anybody else on the dais here ex officio ex officio ex officio okay we're done thank you very much for the animal control update first all right I can't put them off any longer we're going

There's three total.

There's two animal control officers and a uh secretary.

No part-time staff.

No, sir.

Thank you.

Anyone else on the dais here?

Ex officio.

Ex officio?

Ex officio.

Okay, we're done.

Thank you very much for the animal control update.

All right, I can't put them off any longer.

We're going to page 153.

And from what I hear the last time uh Mr.

Sefranik is going to speak before us because I think they're moving him to some other departments.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you.

I hope they treat you as nicely as I do.

Uh again, I'm sorry, uh page 158 for everybody following along.

And no, it's not.

That's the airport.

Wait, that's not 158.

156, Chair.

153.

I'm sorry, I was one one down.

Airports on 153.

Um FTEs appear to be stable at three.

Uh, and your uh request is pretty stable with what you've gotten year to year.

I'm sure that there's been uh increases in fees and stuff like that.

So that's what you've had to add.

Uh do you feel that the money proposed here in the budget will allow you to do what you need to do in the coming fiscal year at the airport?

Absolutely for the committee, councilman Giordano.

Um I'm not sure who I would ask this to.

It's about the line item uh 516101 on page 155.

It would be the it would be the administrator.

Right.

Uh I see the mayor has uh proposed uh approximately uh 9,000 more.

And salary uh speak to the microphone.

Thank you.

Okay.

Contractual obligations with the new union budget.

Oh that would be the Teamsters.

All right, thank you.

Okay, any other questions from the uh front here?

Councilman Ritello.

Director Sofranik.

Yes, sir.

Who, by the way, never fails to answer this call when a cranky councilman, I'm not gonna mention any names, calls him up because the Robinson helicopters been buzzing his house for the last seven hours on a Sunday.

And I appreciate that.

Thank you, sir.

That council person, whoever that happens to be, appreciates that.

Next time I see them, I'll make sure I say hi.

And I understand that you got it.

It's the other guy in the sixth ward, right?

Yeah, you've got a little something done with uh with an errand helicopter last year, and and and uh good on you for that.

Okay, we have always had sort of a ambiguous relationship with the FAA.

How's that working out?

We have a fantastic relationship.

Over the last five years, I've gotten about nine million dollars in federal funding.

We are getting four million dollars for a new runway, where they told us six years ago we would never get it.

So I mean I just did three hundred thousand in a lighting upgrade, I got two hundred thousand for vehicles, I got two point five million for a new taxiway.

Um we have a phenomenal relationship.

We've met all of our obligations with the airspace.

As you know, you've been around for a long time, um, and we're moving very well forward.

The biggest thing is the new runway.

It's almost four million dollars where they told us we they weren't gonna fund it, and now they are.

Um the one thing I do want to say is ten years ago, my the airport's overall budget was actually about 17,000 more in actual dollars.

So we were actually below where we are funding-wise.

We're doing more with less.

And I just want to point that out.

I appreciate that, and I appreciate the work that you're doing in the sense that um you're sort of corraling.

I don't want to get too deep into this, but wrangling a recalcitrant Boston office to just kind of see it more our way than their way, which I really do appreciate that.

A lot of it was cooperation and just adhering to FAA policy over the years.

Yeah, and and we've also made some compromises.

So they've gotten a little and and we've gotten, I think we've gotten a lot.

Um, I just forgot what I was gonna ask you.

So let me just circle back to this other thing that I'm always interested in, a snow plow.

How's that snow plow doing?

I'm sorry?

How is our snow plow doing so low?

Well, considering we had almost 30 inches of snow, it did a heck of a job, and we were very grateful for having it.

And we were very grateful for having it.

And I'm very grateful for my two plow guys who you know worked nonstop tirelessly through those storms, and without them we wouldn't have been able to clear the runways and taxiways as fast as we did.

And it's a credit to them.

Thank you.

And what I remember that other question I'll either ask you on the on the dais at the actual meeting or offline sometimes.

Okay, up.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Okay, Councilwoman Jabor.

Mr.

Sefranek, I do see a line item.

It's numbered 58106 subscription memberships.

Can you talk a little bit about that?

Sure.

It's a little convoluted, but here's what it is.

About three years ago, uh Reliant Aircraft uh contract with Hughes Aerospace to create what's called an LPV.

It's a guidance approach to the airport that gets us below our current uh electronic minimums.

They paid for it out of their own pocket at a price of almost 220,000 because it allows the aircraft to come in at a lower altitude, far superior to what the FAA technology is on the field.

In order to calibrate that every single year, there's a fee for it.

You gotta have a lot of smart people, much smarter than I am, check the airspace, check to make sure there's no penetrations, actually fly the approach to make sure it's actually in service.

We that is we agreed since they were paying for it out of their pocket, and it benefits the entire flying community, that we would co-pay for that uh um uh accreditation or certification from Hughes Aerospace.

And that's what that subscription is for that service.

You said that was approximately three years ago?

Three years ago was when they they created the LPV, um, which has significantly increased the ability for aircraft to come and go in inclement weather.

So how long have we been co-paying for it?

We haven't actually co-paid it yet.

Okay.

Um it's it's the money that because when it comes due, it it's due.

It was like a four-year agreement that Rely and paid for in advance, and we're just waiting for them to send us the bill.

Okay, so the amount that you're requesting is hedging your bets for how much it's going to be.

And last year with that subscription was used.

Um our access control system membership subscription actually crashed.

And we used that last year to update our access control system for the entire airport.

And that's what the $45 is?

Uh the what?

It says 45 under 2024 to 2025.

Uh is that a typo?

I don't know.

I'm sorry.

Your actuals.

Um, the actual?

Yeah.

I we didn't use it that year.

I think we okay.

Okay.

I I remembered.

Thank you.

Through the chair to uh Director Sopranic.

I am all set, thank you.

Councilmember Tello?

Are you done?

I am okay.

I thought you were, yeah.

Um usage statistics.

Um I'm seeing uh 246 in and 246 out.

Exactly the same.

So we didn't lose it.

I I apologize.

I'm sorry.

Usage statistics flights.

Yes, take off sequel landings.

That's usually a good thing.

Right.

Exactly.

Yeah, but sometimes they you know they they hang out for a couple of months someplace else and the correct Montana, come back a year later.

But that's an interesting number, but that's not what I'm and we have the same thing for the the goal is is 315 uh this year is 30,000.

So it looks like we're trending up a little bit.

Very much so.

As a matter of fact, even though we had tremendously inclement weather, we're up 20 percent in the last three months from where we were last year.

Given all the snow and all the inclement weather, we're still trending a lot higher.

We're a busy airport, we're top five in New England.

Because we have great management.

All right, we'll talk it up to manage later.

All right, thank you.

I don't think that was a play for a raise, I hope.

Ex officio members I see excuse me.

Yes, chair.

Uh question Airport administrator.

Go ahead, councilman.

Hi, Mike.

Yes, sir.

You've had a recent uh retirement from Special Police Officer Esteban.

Yes, we did.

And I believe he served 46 years with the city.

Yes.

Uh highly qualified to work at the airport.

Yes.

Are you able to backfill that position with somebody who's qualified as him?

We're trying.

Uh, right now I have a phenomenal officer by the name of Brian Gannert.

He's stepped up beyond belief.

Um I'm hoping that uh more specials retire in the next year or so so they can replace um uh uh John.

Uh specials are an integral part of what we do at the airport for security and night patrol and also night inspections.

That's how we know what lights are on, what lights are not on, things like that.

Um I'm hoping that as the contracts evolve in the police department and specials, you know, uh become more advantageous that they'll stay and we can hire one or two more for the airport.

Thank you for that question.

Mike, I know you're gonna miss them.

I'm sorry.

I said I know you're gonna miss them.

Ex officio, Councilwoman LePine.

The green lights on.

Huh.

I guess we're not playing with this one.

So my question is about the electric service, the heat, the motor fuel.

Um for the electric service, you asked for Mr.

Safranic.

I'm sorry, through the chair.

Mr.

Safranic, you asked for 44.

Or no, you asked for 43, and the mayor proposes 49.

Why is that?

Um the chair if I can answer.

I'm gonna take that as a yes.

Um we did add some funding.

So we actually had to go through afterwards with everybody's electric service and heating fuel and motor oil.

So you'll see some uh differences here to ensure that it matched um what our current rates are.

So there will be some um some differences here.

So that's gonna be the same throughout.

Yeah, electricity is a 10% increase.

Um I think we did pretty well on heating fuel.

They could think Chick Valby when you see him.

But yeah, you'll see a difference in electricity throughout.

Okay, thank you.

Any other ex officios?

President Bazaid?

Thank you.

Uh Mr.

Sopranic, the airport, in addition to spending money actually makes a little bit of money, right?

Yes.

Okay.

And if we wanted to see where the revenues come in from the airport, you might not be the person to answer that question.

I I believe we'd look at um page page 51 for I guess leases or tie-down fees.

We have several streams of income.

Um, first and foremost, we have uh registration, which is about 50,000 a year.

Then we have uh internal leases, external leases.

External leases is Red Lobster Olive Garden, which account for about uh 300,000 a year, thanks to uh Farley Santos, who worked very hard securing leases with Red Lobster and Olive Garden.

Then we have the on airport leases, which uh we just revamped every single lease, and we are looking now to the future where they would be a significant revenue stream coming to the airport.

The other large uh increase, we just had a hangar project of nine hangars.

Each hangar is approximately eighteen thousand dollars uh in real estate tax.

It was about a six about a five million dollar project, and that translates to an increase in the grand list.

So you can't just take one look at airport revenue.

There are multiple on the airport and such that stream in that go into the general fund because we are a department.

So so uh Mr.

Sopranik, the on airport leases are for things related to aircraft, is that fair to say those were the FBOs, which are called fixed-based operators.

Um those fixed-based operator leases were hate to say they were a joke.

Uh I'll take one example.

One lease we actually owed.

I I don't need to know about the specifics of leases.

Okay.

We've increased them tremendously.

We've increased them tremendously.

Now they're categorized.

Okay.

Thank you.

And and and to date, those revenues exceed what the expenditure is.

Is that fair to say?

Very much so.

Thank you.

Okay.

Yes.

Councilman Giordano.

Uh yes.

Mr.

Soprano.

Um, the uh have you uh taken delivery of the electric vehicles as part of the major objective?

Yes, we have all three.

As a matter of fact, one is sitting outside.

Okay, what are they?

Um they're uh I d Volkswagen ID fours.

Okay.

And how are they working out for phenomenal?

Um considering that with the grants that we received, they were basically free.

So because they're free, they're even better.

Right.

Great.

And what do you use those for that they do better than a gas car?

Um, the it gives us more versatility on the airport by having an extra vehicle.

So one of my uh one of my um inspectors in the morning, he can do the he can do all the vehicle gates while the other inspectors using the pickup truck to do uh repairs of lights and signs and so forth.

So it gives us more variety.

The other vehicles design, which we're getting wrapped very soon to be our new uh airport security police car.

So we're not reliant on the uh the gracious PD who's allowed us to use one of their cars over the years, we'll have our own vehicle.

We'll have our own vehicle, and then the third vehicle is one I use on the airport, so I'm not using my vehicle that was that I have that's got like a hundred and twenty thousand on it, it's getting old.

Did I mention they were free?

Yes, thank you.

Any other at the dais, any other ex officio?

Any other I take it.

Councilman Lappinghouse.

Uh just real quick, less of a question put through the chair to uh Mr.

Sverenick.

He actually helps out as well.

I know he works on Canada Lake Authority, but he saved um that group a little bit of money of allowing us to use his hangar this year, uh, which you know maintenance costs things like that, that we can actually use that hangar dry space for us so we don't have to winterize a boat.

So I appreciate you liaison also helping out other departments.

So thank you.

Any other ex officio?

You are relieved, sir.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you all.

Let's move on to Hart, which really is on 158.

That is a almost 800,000 budget.

It looks like a five percent increase from the adopted budget last year.

Taylor, are you trying to do that?

You got it.

Another one for me.

Um, yeah, so that is just primarily uh operational.

Um they also have to show operations to the city.

So uh Danbury's not the only uh city that funds heart, but uh we are one of them, and we do have uh a large ridership from our community, so that is how those are uh calculated based on the community.

Okay.

Any X offici I don't have any questions.

Any expeditio?

Uh one question uh um councilman.

Okay, go ahead.

Um is there uh significant amount that comes in from the advertising on the uh buses?

Or does that go directly to heart?

Yeah, none of that comes to the city of Danbury, not at all.

Yeah, parts of them are most of them.

Any other at the dias here?

Any other at the dias here?

Ex officio councilman Perkins.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Um through you, I'm not sure.

Maybe Taylor the Mayor's mayor's chief of staff candlists.

I'm looking at the excuse me, the fiscal year accomplishments for 2526, and I see that uh apparently some some bus shelters were replaced and accepted by heart.

Federal Road and Mill Plain Road.

I'm sh most of some of the some parts of those roads are state, some parts may not be.

Are there are there any plans to receive more bus shelters not on parts of federal or state roads, mainly on city roads in Danbury?

Yes, Councilman Perkin.

So um we have been in touch with uh DOT through Hart for a pilot program that would um help us install some new new uh transportation hubs, but um there has been a stall in that program, but we do have communication with them.

Uh our traffic engineer is also involved, so we have a good relationship with Hart to try to advocate for for such.

And uh I can also share that they are looking to help upgrade the one at Kennedy as well.

Okay.

Thanks.

We can we can follow up a little bit offline, but thank you for that information.

Any other ex officio?

Any other ex officio?

Thank you.

We are good with heart.

We are now going to move on to the building inspector.

This is on page 141.

Evening, how are you doing?

Good, how we doing?

So uh your budget is uh proposed at around a little less than eight hundred and twenty thousand dollars.

Looks like a modest point seven eight percent increase.

Uh I see that your FTEs uh remain stable at eight.

And I don't have a lot of questions for the appropriations.

So my question to you is do you feel that your department has what it needs to efficiently get through any uh construction and stuff that's gonna go on in our city in the next fiscal year?

Yes, I do.

Yes, I did Council uh Council Medi Ordano, thank you.

Through the chair.

Um on your appropriations, um maybe this is better for you guys over here.

Um 5431.

Um we have proposed by department uh eighteen hundred and uh proposed by mayor uh eighty eight hundred.

So um yeah, I can help answer that question.

Okay, go ahead, tell me.

Sorry, it's office equipment.

Um so we consider office equipment to be programs and softwares.

So um you're going to see a request uh where our building official put it in the line under I want to say subscriptions and memberships.

So we moved that funding.

You're gonna see a drop in one of these department lines.

We moved it into office equipment because it is for uh his staff to have um accounts, user accounts on the new software that uh Jim proposed to us, which is a fantastic thing, we hope that will help our building department uh run much more efficiently.

Uh, but we just coded it where we we normally would.

Okay, I see from uh subscriptions membership.

Yes.

Uh from subscriptions membership.

Yes, which I know makes sense.

It is a subscription.

We're trying to find a better name for that line item.

Some things make a little more sense here.

Okay, thank you.

Councilwoman Jabor.

Thank you.

Through you, Mr.

Chairperson.

Um I I'm assuming you're meaning the new software is the AI assistive code software, or is it something else?

Yes.

So each uh user will need an account, so user accounts do cost an extra fee annually.

Uh the bulk of it, I believe is an IT budget, though.

So the actual program.

Is the code review software going to be double checked?

Obviously, we know AI is infallible.

It's absolutely the the whole premise of the code review software is to, in a sense, get rid of the redundancies, a lot of the minor administrative type of applications where, in a sense, you feed it into the software and it gives you uh the simple information or simple answers back.

Then the technical aspects of the overall review as far as the building project itself goes through the reviewer at hand.

If I could also add, we are uh putting in an AI policy in place for the whole city.

Uh because all of many of our new programs do include AI.

Uh we've shut some of the more open source ones, um, but we do have a new policy.

It's just in a final legal review before it goes to every employee.

Is the goal for that just to get rid of redundancies or is it eventually to replace some jobs?

It's not to replace jobs because ultimately you're not gonna be able to just based on the technical aspects, especially of the building code.

And ultimately, what we're looking to have done is get this software implemented um permitting wide so that it includes fire marshal's office reviews, land use reviews, uh anything as far as health and environmental reviews, because all of the uh information can get uploaded into uh the software itself and then in a sense ease the task of all the departments.

Thank you.

Sure.

Council to build inspector.

Hey, Jim.

Do we still aid other towns with our building inspectors when needed?

We haven't uh in recent years.

And do we get reimbursed when we do?

Yes, we do, yep.

Thank you.

Yeah, the last time it actually happened, I was actually uh filling in in New Fairfield when he was on vacation, and that was I was in a sense hired directly by the uh town of New Fairfield.

Thank you.

Councilmember Tello.

Thanks.

Uh through the chair to the inspector.

Since I've been involved with the city, we've been building and building and building the sixth award.

I mean, you know, it'll be 25 years ago next November that we approved the reserve, for instance, the mall in the 80s.

I mean it's going on forever.

Uh we saw a post-COVID bump with um a lot of shelter in place, deck building and things like that.

And if you pay attention to the ZBA, there's always somebody needing uh variance to you know get closer to the property line.

A couple of things were out there like uh Elmwood Park, uh Maloney's civic thing.

Um lots of things like that, the new houses on top of the hill at uh Toll Brothers and the big one, the elephant in the room, I guess is Lord and Taylor, uh, if that ever comes online and that could convert it to apartments, but we just saw a conversion with a hotel um on the west side.

It just seems like Danbury is building a lot.

Are you are you predicting a typical Danbury building a lot year going forward the next one, two, three years?

Are you anticipating a slowdown, a bump up?

How are we doing on that?

And I'm not gonna hold you to this, but where do you think, judging from our past history?

We're we're one of the I think in the late 90s or early O's or maybe the mid-teens or something, we pulled more permits than any other city in Connecticut.

I mean, this city builds, builds, builds.

Are you foreseeing a continuation of that?

I would say probably pretty much a status quo as far as that goes.

When you look at uh the city of Danbury, obviously, relative to the New York state line, a lot of tax jumpers, in a sense, because they retire, they come to the city, um, end up at the reserve.

Uh there's over 55 uh community that's up there right now.

So you see a lot of that going on, which does help to in a sense feed our construction economy.

Uh again, it's an ebb and flow with construction, though.

I mean, you're gonna have real good years and you're gonna have thinner years.

Uh fortunately, Danbury has survived uh even the thin years uh with good numbers.

I mean, for an example, this year alone, uh I believe we are at 7500 plus inspections on record to date, and last year, last fiscal year, we did just over 7900.

So we're we've got a couple of months less left.

We've got you know, probably on track to eclipse 9,000 inspections this year.

So that would be a pretty substantial increase from the previous year.

Correct.

Right?

Yes, 10, 20 percent, something like that.

I like that tax jumper line.

I'm gonna I'm gonna steal that.

Well, I'll use it anyway.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Sure.

Welcome.

Anyone else up here going to ex officios?

Ex-officios?

Ex officios, President Bazade.

Thank you, Mr.

Showri.

I have a few questions, Trump.

Um, I see, you know, I looked at your department employees, you have one secretary, and and this year I'm kind of riveted to the uh idea of us as a city keeping track of our records, particularly the building department records, uh, given given some recent events in courts.

So um my question is you as the building inspector, are you responsible um to maintain the records of the building department?

Is that that's statutorily?

That's statutorily driven, correct.

Yes.

Okay.

Uh and and our records are now currently, are they mostly electronic at this particular state?

From October of 2019 forward, yes.

And and going back prior to that date, um, they're in mixed form.

Would that be fair for me to say?

Some are electronic and some are paper?

I would say that's a fair assessment, yes.

Okay.

And and at some point in the past, they turn into all paper.

Is that also correct?

Correct, yes.

Okay.

And and I'm and this is unfair, maybe it's a little unfair at this point uh to ask you, but but those records are maintained in various locations in this building.

Is that more or less accurate?

I would say primarily two locations within the uh building department itself, and in what we call our archive room in the basement.

Okay.

And and may I ask this?

When somebody makes a request, like an FOI request, uh, in and they're for building uh department records, is that a burden on your secretary?

I would say that's primarily uh I'm going to say about 60 to 70 percent of her day is fulfilling FOIs.

And and the software you mentioned deals with current or ongoing applications for building permits.

That's correct, yes.

Okay.

Is there has there been any discussion of any software or scanning of past records of that the building department now holds?

There's been talks.

Uh the biggest thing is uh the funding as far as grants.

Uh that would be the the biggest item.

And then the I would say the overall organizational structure of uh past permits uh would have to get a good going through in a sense prior to that scanning.

Okay.

Um and and I'm gonna just switch a little bit.

Um there wasn't we we changed some ordinances regarding the building department fees.

Correct, yes, yeah.

Um have you seen any changes in the revenue uh that the building departments brought in since that ordinance has been changed?

I would say that there's probably a definite increase.

However, again, based on the ebb and flow of uh permitting in general, you can't really pinpoint it.

Okay.

Uh one definitive thing that we did get through uh ad hoc and the public hearing was with the fees as far as the initial application fee.

So at least we're in taking a hundred dollar fee right up front for any application that is made to the building uh department.

Thank you, Mr.

Shore.

Sure, you're welcome.

Any other ex officios?

Any other ex-officios?

Thank you, Mr.

Shirley, for your work.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Uh councilwoman the pine.

Go ahead.

Is there any way to speed up that process?

A lot of people are asking.

Hopefully the mic pinked you up.

That is a question that should have been on mic, but I'm gonna let uh Taylor take this.

Yeah, to repeat the question, um, councilwoman LePine asked if you're point of order.

Yes.

Could you repeat the question?

Because I think she's I was just going to, yeah, doing that.

Well, I'll try it from memory here.

Well, to repeat the question, uh that it was do we need an extra person to help with FOI requests?

Um Councilwoman LePine said sometimes it could take two to three weeks, and uh it is used heavily by realtors, and that is true.

So there's a few things we've done.

Um, first on scanning, uh, as our building official mentioned, we've used grant funds to sort of pilot what this is going to look like.

Um, not for planning and zoning, I'm sorry, though I believe that was capital, and then uh we have a grant for health because it fits the health department and it was something we could use for them.

So they are scanning.

We have a vendor uh that has been gone through our board of awards and is on our team now to scan, so we're seeing how uh one sort of file system can look for for older documents.

Um I will say uh Mr.

Shuler's secretary works is fantastic at it.

Um another thing we've done though for all of those uh departments inspection on the first floor is start uh making our FOIs more coordinated online on OpenGov, like a file to fill out on um what they're looking for, so it goes into our digital system to make it more simple on planning permits, um fire marshal health.

This is this is a challenge to have the building.

Um we've talked it about in the past the idea of just an FOI coordinator.

Um at this point, I fear that person would live in the archives as we call it in the basement.

Um so the scanning project has taken some priority.

Uh, the more money we can find, especially grant funding to try to help um, especially preserve some of these older documents, because these are documents that do need careful control when we're scanning them, um, so that it's it's easier to eventually pull up on one giant system.

This is my dream of the first floor, to have just one system where you can search very easily in any document from any department that has to do with that property will be available.

Uh so it's a slow process, it hadn't been done.

Obviously, we're coming into you know loads of of records downstairs that were never touched or scanned.

So we're working uh very hard to try to get there, but it's very, very uh expensive, I would say, for just to scan this this amount of documents, which sounds silly, but it truly is.

Councilwoman, did that answer your question?

Yes.

Okay.

And I'll thank you because I uh although I did not insert myself in any of it, but um, you know, it it's tough to get into the process, but I will say that your department, the fire marshal's department, when it was came time for a building to be completed and approved, all those groups, including yours are very professional and very collegial.

And I want to thank you for the service that you get to hear.

Thank you.

So all right.

Yes, sir.

Follow up a clarification on this uh through the chair to maybe Taylor or perhaps even um President Bazaid, is there a limit of statute of limitations on how far back an FOI request can go?

Because obviously we've got records that go back to the burning of Danbury.

I mean, uh you know, at what point do we have to say no?

It's all dusty and crumbly, we don't have them anymore.

I think there's a from what I know there's not.

There is some uh laws about when we can destroy records, but there are some that cannot be destroyed either.

Yeah, good question.

Yep, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Okay.

All right.

We're gonna bring up EMD Casavecia.

You have both the um emergency management and I believe you also have the ambulance.

So we'll start off with emergency management, which appears on page 145.

That is a almost 300,000 budget.

Looks like a 4.14% increase.

So I'm assuming you're still the only one in the department.

And like Danny, you have to discipline yourself.

I hate to be there.

But I guess my question to you is contractual services have gone up from the projected expenditure, 36.4%.

Is that contractual services what the city pays to Northwell soon-to-be nuance?

Or what is those contractual services?

It's a actually a variety of different services, including the actual contract.

You may know that there's also a grant that uh the EMPG, emergency management performance grant that is accounted into the the funding of emergency management.

At this point, that the status of that particular grant is unknown.

So we did make sure that the city was covered uh to increase the contractual funding to make sure that uh the emergency management program as it stands now is fully funded.

So this is one of those situations where we're hedging a bet if the government pulls funding or grants get moved away.

So that's what you just uh mentioned.

It's in the that's an accurate statement.

We we made sure that the matching funds were in there, and we're watching the situation very carefully.

Well, obviously, emergency management is very important for the city, so I'm I'm glad to hear that you've done something like that.

That is my question.

I'm gonna toss it to the committee.

Anyone from the committee?

Okay, anybody else up here?

Councilwoman?

Thank you.

Through you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh Mr.

Kasavacchia, what is the rental real estate line item?

It's 5440.

That uh is the war memorial, is that right or I'm sorry?

The rental real estate.

That's right.

So there thank you for the um um reminder, Mayor.

So that um uh particular uh initiative was directly related to back to our um deliverables and objectives in establishing a debris management program, which is a requirement in the event of a significant um uh event that required the removal of debris.

We uh worked with um an entity here locally uh to secure land and um be at the ready should we have to actually um use that space.

Thank you.

Anybody else at the day is here, Councilman Rotello.

Matt, that entity has gigantic piles all over the place.

Is that I mean, where are we going with that?

So uh thank you for the question.

We're actually uh scheduled to do a site visit in the next couple of weeks to ask a number of questions.

Uh that will be one of the questions as far as um the readiness model to accept debris and understand uh what is actually happening on the property.

Yeah, it sure doesn't look too ready at the moment.

All right, thank you.

Appreciate it.

We will be working up to that, and yes.

Yes, the uh the other aspect of it is is the uh thank you for the reminder on that is that there is um an additional uh lease space for a tower that uh police and fire communications assets have been attached to, and that's a a monthly fee uh through ATT that uh we've executed.

That does come through the emergency management program.

Anybody else in Dadais here?

Ex officios, ex officios, ex officios.

Councilman Laughinghouse.

I'm gonna apologize just because this is more for my general knowledge.

Um line item from 590208 on page 146.

Could you just let me know what that is?

It's 57,744.

That was the grant that um That was the grant that Matt had spoken about.

Yeah, the E MPG um special revenue transfer in.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Any other ex officio?

Any other ex officio?

Thank you.

Don't go anywhere, Matt.

We're going to page 235, and we're gonna talk about the ambulance fund.

Ambulance fund request proposal for this year is 5.34 million dollars.

That was the grant that um That was the grant that Matt had spoken about yeah the E MPG um special revenue transfer in awesome thank you yeah any other ex officio any other ex officio thank you don't go anywhere Matt we're going to page 235 and we're gonna talk about the ambulance fundulence fund request proposal for this year is five point three four million dollars it is a one point seven nine percent increase that we um looking at your revenue and expenses it's uh obviously zero based uh it's not profitable not non profitable but I have a question for you right off the bat I see you put charges for services in here but I'm curious being in health care what's your actual revenue rate is when it comes to payment for ambulance services specific what's the specific question Frank the specific question is you are proposing a four point five million dollars in charges revenue not charges revenue well I'm sorry it says charges for services um you know and for me in in hospital charges doesn't always turn into net revenue that's what goes out the door in the bill yes that's net that's net revenue yeah 4.7 is is the estimated net revenue for the ambulance program okay so what is the gross charges what is the percentage that you're capturing for net revenue so we took based on the uh financial analysis from previous years and the trending forward um we looked at the actual net revenue I do not look at gross charges for the reasons you described we actually have always been focused on the net revenue yield uh not the gross charges which would be in my view uh irresponsible I agree with that but again when I see charges I'm thinking that's what's going out the door so all right thank you for that so this is net revenue um any changes uh FTE wise in the upcoming year and um you know with the the Northwell um takeover of Nouvance anything that we should expect in this budget that is there there were there have been no proposed changes in FTEs uh for the past several years and this budget is fully loaded to anticipate the anticipated volume for the ambulance program to meet the the needs of the city perfect thank you very much I have no other questions councilman giardano there we go uh through the chair um uh the line number four nine oh one hundred other financing sources um looks like you asked for nine uh nine oh five uh thousand and city offered eight twenty four six um is there uh an any uh problem with the shortage I could jump in um okay the ambulance fund is would fund itself so on the next page you're going to see the appropriations so um given the state of the fund we did go through line by line to see where some um reductions could be made and that was what we landed at for what we needed to finish in the fund from our fund reserves so for it to balance so um the difference you'll find like I said let's see professional services is one of the lines um materials and supplies just some sort of things that tweaks we were able to make uh with of course matt's uh in the room with his um his opinion on this but that's where we landed yeah and I'll just uh clarify there there was some and I do appreciate the line by line assessment that is done by city leaders because we took the opportunity to maybe combine some of those different line items and better um uh package the the line items to the actual expense okay thank you any other members up here councilman ex officios ex officios you're good thank you Matt thank you chief loudsbury why don't we have you do let's get emergency services dispatch out of the way first since that's a smaller of your two budgets uh that's page 138 that's a 3.24 million dollar uh proposal that's about 2.58 percent increase let me just turn to that page 138 good evening everyone thank you for having me here tonight glad you came to the party for me i uh just two questions um the four new officers i'm sorry

That's about 2.58% increase.

Let me just turn to that page 138.

Good evening, everyone.

Thank you for having me here tonight.

Glad you came to the party.

For me, I just two questions.

Um the four new officers.

I'm sorry, wrong one.

That's the next question.

138.

That's the bottom of the page.

This is to fund the dispatch center, correct?

The second one, yes.

Yep, I'm sorry.

And I went up.

I should have stayed down on the bottom of 138.

Everybody's at the bottom 138.

Um any changes uh forthcoming with the dispatch center.

It looks like the projected expenditures and the proposed uh and the mayor's budget seem to be the same.

So we're looking at same staffing, no uh need changes for the dispatch center.

No, we have no plan changes.

Okay.

That's all I have on the emergency services dispatch.

Anybody else up here?

Emergency services dispatch.

Any ex officio members?

Okay, we done with that.

Fire department.

This is page 135.

And so now I'll ask my question.

The fire department, it's a 23.88 million dollar proposal, approximately 5.86.

I'm glad that the last two that we're dealing with are increases and it's personnel increases.

Correct.

Um, so I'm very happy to see that the mayor once again is advancing his agenda uh for the public safety.

And I'm happy to see that.

Now, my question to you is, and I kind of alluded to it before.

The four officers, is that related in any way to the preparations for station 27, or is this because the merry go round in the fire department is gonna happen and people are gonna be moving around and you just know that you're gonna need extras?

So you have two questions there.

You're there is I figured I'd get them both out there.

Your first question is we've added three lieutenants and a captain for the preparation of station 27.

Okay.

And if I remember according to your predecessor, the reason there's no firefighters in here is because the firefighters for station 27 are already on the line.

Correct.

Okay.

Yes, we've been slowly building up over the last few years to make sure we didn't take a major hit when we went into service with engine 27.

Okay.

Forget the other part of the question.

Okay.

Uh and then the only other thing that I noticed, and I'm assuming that the contractual obligations are just a continuation of the new contract with the union.

So there's uh increases across the board.

So I'm assuming that that's the increase in contractual services.

Salaries.

Salaries, yeah.

Yep.

Yes.

So all right, down the line.

Councilman Rotello.

Yeah, just a follow-up.

Does that mean that all staff has been hired for 27, or will they be future staffing when it's finally built?

So we still have to hire since this uh these three lieutenants and the captain were just at it, they will still have to be hired.

But we have enough firefighters working right now.

Now attrition obviously is going to bring those numbers down so we build those back up so that we can be at the right level.

Ah, okay.

Important point.

So we've penciled in the positions, but we haven't actually hired it.

For the officers.

Correct.

Gotcha.

Thank you.

Anyone else up here?

Councilman Giordano?

There we are.

Okay.

Uh okay, this is for the chief or for Taylor.

Um item five for three zero zero two.

Um got a uh proposed by department 180,000 and uh proposed by mayor about 50,000 less.

Uh um what uh yeah, no, I see it.

Um yes, so we do have to make some adjustments as we're going through this budget just on what line items are are increasing or not.

Um we did opt uh instead to put in some capital funding towards this for automotive for new vehicles.

I do know they're they are needed, and we are working with Chief Lownsbury to see like what needs to come on the line next.

Obviously, in a capital line, um, it's gonna be kind of a first com, but if we find other funding and we do have some other capital lines that we could do to replace rather than try to keep the life of a 20 plus something year vehicle that won't live much longer.

Okay, so it it came from somewhere else.

Uh I'm not saying that.

So that money is just for maintenance, like when it when something breaks, they need to fix it.

So that's not a bill that needs to be paid July 1.

It's just that's the amount of money we're putting towards it.

Then if something does happen and changes need to be made throughout the year, of course that could happen as well.

But if there's capital funding in to actually replace a vehicle, we could hopefully move a little quicker.

Okay, thank you.

Councilwoman Jabor.

Thank you, Mr.

Terra.

Through you in the line item directly above it, 54301.

Why was there a $4,000 increase proposed by the mayor?

As opposed to the $10,000 that was requested for the fire department.

Yeah.

I wish I could remember the exact item that was asked about.

But maintenance and repair of office equipment.

Yeah, so we put software in there, like I mentioned earlier, office equipment.

Um, when we went through this, basically what happens is uh the department heads proposed their numbers, those don't change in the book, but then we sit down with them and come up with uh what may change and things do change often.

So sometimes software is uh increase their prices over the over the time we actually meet a few months.

Yeah, so like they build their budget in January, and we actually sit down with them in March, so things do shift.

And then my second question is for the one directly above it for cleaning services.

It appears that there was a giant jump in the request by the fire department.

You know, I had hoped it was a typo.

Oh, I could answer it.

I could even typographical error.

Go ahead.

No, um, they did request a deep cleaning um that uh we took out of there.

Um, but we will find a way.

So the council.

Yes, the council, we were going to ask you guys if you could come and scrub a little bit.

Um I just I just have a lot of faith that Chief Lounds very will find a really good deal on a on a cleanup that he's looking for because he's very good with vendors.

It's a good reason why this budget is so well done.

He does it every year, so that's all I'll say.

Perhaps volunteer hours.

Yeah.

Lane City Damver Day, uh, April 25th.

Councilman Henry.

Thank you.

Through the chair to the chief.

Do you have in this budget enough uh allocation resources to combat the EV potential for fire and specifically into parking garages?

Actually, we do.

We're we're very well fortified with EV.

We've had the uh generosity of some local businesses that have helped us out uh with the donation.

We just recently took delivery of two EV blankets.

They actually got held up in customs, I'm told, but we finally got them.

Um and we have a robust plan in place.

We've trained actually FDNY came up to observe our training, which is kind of unusual.

Usually it's the other way around.

So they were very impressed with uh how forward leaning we are with this uh largely to the uh credit of Captain Uh Corbett.

He's our hazmat captain.

He's uh put a lot of work into this as long as as long as newly promoted uh deputy chief morges has put a tremendous amount of work into this to have us well prepared for the EV issues that are uh uh facing the entire the entire world, really.

Chief, and a follow-up to the chair?

Go ahead.

Would you consider or would the uh if you make a recommendation that we would have to ban EV vehicles from parking garages to potentially make it easier or structural issues could occur from the heat?

Uh so that's that's kind of a sticky slope there.

Uh yes, a fire, any kind of fire in a parking garage is gonna cause tremendous amount, potentially tremendous amount of damage to the garage.

Uh, usually when you have cars parked closely together in a garage, they'll tend to get each other going because there's nothing, you know, the amount of roof above them keeps the fire low, which makes them spread horizontally instead of letting it letting the heat go up.

So uh what I recommend banning EVs from parking garages.

I don't I think that's an extreme step at this time.

Uh until we start having a prevalent problem with it, I would say then we can start looking at it, but we have not had a problem with it to date.

Thank you, Chief.

Anybody else at the table here?

Ex officio ex officio.

Ex officio.

Chief, thank you for all that you've done.

Thank you, everyone.

Chief Rittenhauer, you're up.

Maybe last but not least.

Your budget is proposed at 23.88, right?

Yes, sir.

That's a 5.86% increase.

You are on page 129 for those following along in the book.

And for you obviously, same comment when you open up the FTE page, it sticks right out to you that there's five new police officers consistent with what this mayor has done in the past few budgets.

Can you explain what an intelligence analyst is, or is that classified?

No, it's um someone who takes all of our data, um, who basically analyzes our our data, works directly with our investigative services bureau, uh, also visits the uh real-time crime center uh around the uh region um and really just helps wherever uh wherever necessary.

We have a currently we have a position, it's a clerk typist position who has really gotten the extra training and everything to do this.

So as you see that there's a reduction in the clerk typist position by one because we are creating this uh uh intelligence analyst, which I believe HR is uh re renamed it just a little bit to intelligence coordinator.

Okay.

Um, I didn't nothing jumped out at me.

I'm I'm assuming that the increase um in the line for salaries and and all that is probably for shadowing possible changes with the contract in the year ahead.

Um so I guess that would be a question to the uh front table.

I don't see increase so I was just asking, uh it looks like the salaries increased.

Is that uh is that also hedging any possible um completion of negotiations, or is that just due this year coming up?

Yeah, no, it's what's coming up with the new positions as well.

So we budgeted in for the full uh the full 180 this year.

So that's what you're seeing.

Last year, we budgeted, I want to say half the year for some other new ones as we were hiring.

Um so it's that, and then it's also the steps that um each officer would be at.

So to fund that.

Okay.

That's my question's front table.

Councilman Giordano, where where did you see the uh salary increase?

What line?

Salary increase uh 516101.

It looks like it went up.

Oh, oh, okay.

I got it.

Yeah.

I want to also say we we budgeted different positions um too this time.

So you're seeing some other like increased salaries.

Yeah.

I didn't figure it'd be exactly you know lowest salary times five.

So we just wanted uh it's different rings because it's certified to like however we hire an entry level versus the high two.

Anybody else at the front table here?

Councilman Rotello.

Overtime, the perennial overtime.

Um, you know, we're hiring a lot, obviously.

And when we're seeing overtime trending go down, I guess maybe.

I mean, I'm looking at a overtime from the previous fiscal uh uh period of 2.7, and now you're projecting well, you're projecting three, but the proposed the department proposals 2.5.

There's a bit of a delta there between your projection and your ask.

Can you walk me through that?

Okay.

Well, right now, obviously, there's a lot of you know contractual obligations, as you know that the collective marketing agreement has uh minimum staffing requirements that we have to meet even if we have to hire on overtime.

There's absolutely no discretion regardless of the weather conditions.

If it says we have to have 11 cars on the afternoon shift, then we gotta have 11 cars on the afternoon shift, you know.

Um no discretion by the shift commanders or even by the chief.

So we have to fill uh those sometimes on an overtime basis.

What we're looking at right now is um, you know, we'll see increases now.

We might see some increases next year, but as uh our staffing gets to where it needs to be, we we actually have a uh entry-level hiring list that's going to be certified this week, so we will start on that.

We have some academy seats already for both August and October.

Um, and we have a certified list.

We have some certified applicants as well that will be certified this week.

So as we continue to meet our staffing levels, and if we get to that uh 175 or 180, uh you'll start to see overtime trend down.

But just remember it takes about a year uh to uh to for a uh new hire to really have an impact on our uh effective strength be through the training and then the field training.

Uh it's a little bit less when we when we hire a certified officer.

And I'm just uh Taylor has a comment.

Yeah, just on the overtime, I just want to calculate how we look at that too.

Uh we we take trends from the last average of three years and five years, and the three-year average on overtime was two point six, and then the four uh five year average is two point four million.

So as we're hiring more, uh we took that into account when we sat down with the chief to come up with that number of two point five.

Okay.

Councilwoman Jabore, I saw your hand.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I have three specific line items I want to ask questions about through you.

Uh to Chief Ridenauer or to Taylor, whoever is more appropriate.

Um line number one that I'm going to start with is 530101.

It's professional services.

I see it's almost doubled since the projected expenditure.

What is this accounting for?

530101, you said yes, professional service.

Yeah, professional services.

So those are our purchase services.

Um for anyone that we would pay that's uh like a contract contract like uh f you know, for example, right now we have um the police accountability bill uh requires us to do 20 percent of our department for uh what for drug screening.

Uh every three years we have to uh do a drug screen in order to get our recertification uh because our certifications by the state of Connecticut has to be police officers expires after a three year cycle.

So that's part of it.

Um we also uh have professional counseling services.

We are the only department that has a uh part-time psychologist embedded within our department uh who provides us some a variety of services.

Uh we have psychological evaluations that are required by the police accountability bill, about 20 percent of our department has to be done every year.

So those are the major drivers of that of that account.

So this year is the three-year mark that they need recertification for the drug screenings?

Right.

Uh and that's that's gonna be ongoing because there's a certain amount of officers, myself included, uh, that expire on June 30th.

Uh so we had to not only take our training classes, but also do our drug screen in order to get our recertification.

And then line item number two.

I have questions about, I'm assuming is going to be towards Taylor.

It's the maintenance and repair of office equipment.

Is this again because we're getting new software for the police department?

Yeah, all of their softwares are in there, and there are quite a bit.

So when we sit down with them, there's a breakout of what's being spent, and that is most of the time a pretty good either guess or for sure number based on what a new charge may be in the next year.

And then lastly, the training courses.

I see we have almost three times the expense increase.

What line item is that?

Sorry, uh 559904.

I mean that's it counting.

55904.

Bottom of page 132.

It's the second from the bottom.

Okay.

The major driver of that is that we are working very hard.

We're probably on the for the football analyst uh up the five-yard line of getting uh our own academy here so that there's gonna be some uh costs associated with that.

Thank you, Chief Ridenauer and Taylor.

Councilman Henry.

Thank you.

Through the chairman to Chief Rittenhauer.

In your proposed budget for 2627, do you have an inclusive number for the mayor's police detail?

I'm sorry.

We have an inclusive number for the mayor's police detail.

What do you um I'm not sure what you mean by it's a it's a good specific line item for that?

Or included, do you know the amount that's being spent or what was spent in the past fiscal year?

Uh no, I don't know the specific amount uh at this particular time.

We do obviously we do have an officer primary officer assigned to the detail and then some alternates.

How many total in that detail?

I'm sorry, how many there is a primary and then there are uh secondary officers when the primary is not available.

Does that detail have a new title now?

Is it is it a dignitary title or is it something different?

It's part of our dignitary protection unit, correct?

Okay.

Is that is that gonna be allocated in these next two budgets?

Is there a funding source specifically for that?

It's just out of our general fund our general okay.

Do you think you could get us a total dollar amount that was allocated for those term?

I'm sure we can pull those numbers.

Thank you, Chief.

Anyone else up here?

Councilwoman.

Sorry, if I may follow up on the software.

I'm not sure if it's classified, but can I ask what software we're seeking to purchase?

Which line item are you talking?

Uh sorry, I'm going back to the maintenance repair office equipment, 54301.

54301?

Yes.

It's about a 25,000 dollar increase.

Okay, 54301.

Okay.

The same answer.

Yes.

Okay.

And your specific question was which software?

Yes.

What is the software we're seeking to purchase or upgrade?

Well, we already have uh a lot of uh software that's already uh that we're using um for our uh uh video licenses, our cell cellular phone extractions, um a uh database that we use uh for I you know identification purposes, um a licensing for our um internal system where we uh uh track uh our personnel.

Um there's uh for the fingerprint machine.

Um keep going.

No, I can go back a little bit.

So for phone extractions, you celebrate or gray, what is it, great key?

Uh so celebrate.

Celebrate.

Yes.

And does that require any upgrades or any training specific to it that is going into this funding?

Um well, we're we're using it now, so there was initial training, correct?

Okay, and then the databases for ID purposes, is this sort of like uh a Google photo search but elevated?

No, it's uh it's called clear.

Okay.

And is it one of the programs that's currently going through litigation?

I know there's one ID program that is being heavily sued.

No.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh okay, ex officio.

Ex officio.

Councilwoman Gardner.

Uh thank you through the chair.

Um, this is just a clarification point on page 131.

Um, you outlined the performance measurements and you know, thank you for a mission statement that keeps us as a city free of uh from fear of crime, and we we can enjoy a high quality of life.

Um it's remarkable how safe the city of Danbury is, I think, given the size of its community.

So all those performance measurements, um just some background information.

For example, I know these are goals, but we might not have a goal of a thousand crimes, right?

So I know things get kind of weighted.

Right.

Um so I know that there's uh figured out a ten and a half percent increase in the calls for service, but I just want to know how how these how these figures, how you because you're measuring performance against them, how you get to them given um like what's been impacted by the increased force, you know, of officers, uh what's been decreased as a result, and just how you get to that numbers.

That's just my question.

Well, a lot of it is because uh when you look at the numbers for our traffic enforcement, every every traffic stop requires a uh call for service number.

So uh that's a big driver of it right there.

So when you see our traffic enforcement doubling and tripling, uh so would the uh CFS numbers.

Uh so that's part of it.

Uh and then you know, then there's just the other uh things such as you know, incidents at the mall could be shoplifting complaints.

Sometimes the uh the retailers do want some follow-up action on that.

So uh and then you know, unfortunately, things like domestic disturbances and and stuff like that.

So uh as our city population grows, uh so we do we expect our uh calls for service to grow, uh which is why we're so appreciative of the work of the mayor and the city council and um increasing our staffing to get ahead of it rather than trying to play catch-up.

All right, any other questions, Councilwoman Jibore?

Just one more.

Uh what is classified as a part one crime?

Part one crimes are um see, um they're actually in your um in your uh regular reports, uh homicide, uh forcible rape.

Um I maybe clearly motor vehicle theft.

Uh is it all felonies and misdemeanors excluding uh infractions and violations or is it?

Yeah, it's it's all felonies.

Yeah, arson, sexual assault, uh, but it has to be forcible uh sexual assault, uh not your statutory.

Um homicide, robbery, burglary.

I think I covered them all now.

Thank you.

Okay.

Councilman.

Uh laughing house.

Through the chair.

I just have a couple of questions about the forthcoming police academy.

Um I know one of the benefits is I know you uh councilman Rotel asked about overtime.

Um I imagine us having our own uh police academy here will kind of get officers to the front of the line a little bit faster so we don't have to wait a s wait for a spot.

Right.

That is correct.

Uh right now we're at the mercy of I mean there are several satellite academies throughout the state, uh and there's also the state academy in Meriden, but we're at the mercy of their timetables.

So um, you know, sometimes backgrounds go well and we're able to meet those deadlines, but uh there's several examples over the last uh few years that um they would give us seven or eight seats, but unfortunately uh we couldn't get enough qualified applicants and we had to give a couple of seats back.

Whereas if we're running our own academy, if we we're planning to start on say September 1st and we don't have enough applicants and we're just about finished with a few more, then we can push out our start date to September 30th.

Yeah.

So uh and then the benefit of training them here in Danbury, running the streets of Danbury, getting to know uh the community and for the community to get to know them, I think is a is a huge benefit.

No, absolutely.

Uh just two quick follow-up questions, if I may, through the chair.

Um do we potentially see a cost savings as a result of training them in-house or I don't know if initially there will be a cost savings, but I think the overall benefit is going to be going to be a cost savings and not only that right now we're only able to get a certain number of seats in each academy where now if we need 20 officers, we can train 20 at we'd be able to train 20 at one time, get them out on the street quicker, and that would also help with our our budget as well.

Awesome.

Then just my last question is would we have the opportunity for uh a rev not revenue stream but just surrounding towns coming to us to train?

Yes.

Um there we can charge a tuition.

Okay.

Uh a lot of that would be based on what other services that we may require from those from those departments.

So uh, you know, sometimes we get a break when we send them to other satellite academies because they need some of our personnel for firearm and uh training, uh things of that nature.

So it would be a case-by-case basis, but um yes, there's definitely an opportunity for uh some some revenue uh from the academy.

Awesome.

I love it.

So thank you.

Okay.

Any others?

Councilman.

Oh will this require a new building or is there space in in the city now that you could we are um we can't reveal it yet, but we we do have uh some space uh uh offerings and uh we're actually waiting uh to hear any day from the uh police officer standards and training council on whether or not that space will be approved.

And uh when that happens, uh uh you'll see some smiling faces in front of the microphone to make the announcement.

Thank you.

But uh uh councilwoman uh through the chair, if I may.

Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you.

Uh I think it is fair to say that uh we are looking uh in the future, we would like to have a permanent space.

Um and we are interested in making that capital expenditure for the city.

Uh right now we're working out space that works very well for us now for the near term, but in the long term, we'd like to have its own dedicated space for our police recruits.

I'm sorry, not good.

That's police recruits academy.

Okay.

With that.

Councilman Perkins.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Uh through you to uh Chief Ret Nauer.

Chief, um I I I've always been uh a little uh forward facing with uh topics that folks have a little bit of difficult talking about.

One would be uh mental health.

Um within your department, are there um particular group of individuals who receive special kind of training to address those types of situations when they be when they are on call?

Okay.

Okay, uh in the community, yes, we have uh several uh crisis intervention trained officers and they go through a particular level of training, a certain number of hours and recertification.

Would that be correct?

That is correct.

Okay, and where can I find that within this uh with within these line items?

I thought it would have been where I where I heard mentioned, but they're no that's that would just be part of our regular training budget.

Okay, so nothing outside and beyond regular training.

Well, no, they get their regular training, but that would still that their um any advanced training, but that would still go through our regular training budget.

Okay, okay.

Thanks, Chief.

Okay.

Any others?

Any others?

Okay.

At this point in time, I'm gonna just open it to the finance department.

Was there anything that we may have missed that you want to point out before we move with our vote?

I think you did a thorough job on all the departments.

I don't have anything to add.

Thank you.

And just for the record, because not everybody spoke, I want to read into the record that the following ex officio members were present during this ad hoc.

President Bazaid, majority uh legislative leader Gartner, Councilman McAllister, Councilman Dwayne Perkins, Councilwoman Diane Lepine, Councilman Mike Fannigan, uh, Councilman Ryan Hawley, Councilman Joe Britton, and Councilman John Laughinghouse for the record.

And with that, I will entertain a motion.

I move to recommend to the full council that they approve the health and human services public safety budget of 58,507,263 as presented in the mayor's budget.

Motion made and seconded what Lou said.

I am just gonna confirm with finance director that I had the number correct in the motion.

That is the correct amount.

Okay, good, because we don't want to get to the next meeting and find out it was wrong.

So all in favor say aye.

Opposed it is so ordered.

We'll recommend it to the council.

I need a motion to adjourn this motion made and second.

All in favor to adjourn, say aye.

Opposed.

I thank everybody for your service.

I know this was uh almost two hours, but it's a big part of the budget, and I thank you.