On March 12, 2026, the Stamford Board of Finance Fiscal Committee (Co-Chairs Morrison and Zachary) held a meeting to hear budget overviews from several city departments for the proposed Fiscal Year 2026-27 budget. Presentations covered the Office of Policy and Management (OPM), Grants Office, Early Childhood, Purchasing, Controller’s Office, Assessments, Revenue Services, and Tax Collection. Committee members asked questions about revenue assumptions, grant sourcing, collection rates, technology modernization, and online payment fees.
Office of Policy and Management (OPM) – Elda Sinani
Grants Office – Anita Carpenter
Early Childhood – Danesha Brown
Purchasing – Eric Larson
Controller’s Office – Teresa Viscarillo
Assessments – Greg Stackpole
Revenue Services – Meg Benjamin (new director)
Tax Collection – Bill Napolitano
In that case, please go ahead and start, Elda. Thank you. Um, good evening, um, co-chairmen of fiscal committee, members of the board. If anyone is present, and uh the administration team there. My name is Elda Sinani. Um, I'm the director of Office of Policy and Management. This evening I'll present the 2627 budget overview for office of policy and management, including um some uh departments responsibilities. Uh, I'll talk just a high level, some accomplishment. And uh also I'll discuss the revenue projection and assumption um that are included in our proposed in mayor's proposed budget for 2627. So go ahead. Um so the role of Office of Policy and Management is to develop operating and capital budget, financial forecasting analysis, revenue and expenditure monitoring, and policy and fiscal guidance for city employees and elected officials. Our goal is to ensure that um the city's budget is fiscally responsible, transparent and aligned with priorities of mayor, administration, and the community. Go slide. Um this is a department overview, which is our org chart. Um, we have a total staff of um 10 people, seven are full-time position, one part-time, and one permanent part-time. Now, under OPM, it's also the mail and duplicating center, which is um with two staff members, it uh are in the mail and duplicating center. So um I will uh go ahead in the next slide. So OPM operating budget uh for it's only an increase of 2.7 percent or 38,170. Uh the drivers are salary adjustment and contractual obligation for our employees. And um the next slide. Uh okay. This is what OPM's budget is. Um, I will talk about uh just a couple accomplishments uh and probably just a quick overview of the department. So may I I could you point to which page in the budget so we can follow along with your analysis? The uh org chart, it's uh in page I believe 38 of the book, a budget book, proposed budget book. Great, thank you. And page 39. Thank you. Sorry. Welcome, no, no problem. So as you see, it's 2.7 percent uh compared to the current fiscal year. And um our focus is uh to remain on operating efficiently while supporting the city board, uh cities board of finance and uh financial and fiscal management responsibilities. Even though, as um, we are a small team. We are um our responsibilities are to prepare uh capital budget and uh operating budget. Uh, we help also with WPCA budget as well. So um, in addition to preparing just the budget, uh OPM plays a central uh role in fiscal management throughout the year the year. This includes such as managing requests for additional appropriation, monitoring the city's contingency funds, coordinating the with the controller's office, grants office and auditors on year-end requirements and compliance with the city PCART policy. We manage employee salaries uh and benefit allocations, working closely with uh HR department. Um all these responsibilities help to ensure that the city maintains accurate financial um reporting. Um looking ahead for fiscal 2627, I just want to uh mention uh a couple uh strategic initiatives that we have. One of the most significant initiatives is the implementation of a new budget software um database, and we are in the process, which will modernize our budget development and reporting system by incorporating uh key performance indicators, which never done before for the city of Stanford, and strategic initiatives for each department. We'll update as well the fiscal policies. We are in the process of that, which would be included in the budget book. So you'll see not only this budget book the next year, but you'll see a comprehensive budget book when they include you know, charts and uh analysis, fiscal policies, and uh key performance and indicators. And uh, we have our goal is for the next um probably spring. We have will be certified by GFOA or uh government financial officers. So that is about uh OPM. Um the next slide. I'm just going to provide you an overview of revenues, uh total proposed revenue with 74.74 million, like number increase from prior year is 1.69 million or 200 uh or 2.32 percent. Um this represent a moderate growth of approximately 2.3 percent, reflecting a conservative revenue assumptions and responsible fiscal planning uh by uh administration and our office.