Windsor Town Council Budget Session on Development Services, Administrative Services, and More - April 23, 2025
Windsor Town Council Budget Session on Development Services, Administrative Services, and More - April 23, 2025
The Windsor Town Council held a budget session on April 23, 2025, covering development services, administrative services, general government, community development, general services and capital spending, insurance internal service funds, and town support for education. The meeting was called to order with a quorum present. Presentations and discussions focused on proposed FY26 budgets, performance highlights, and future initiatives.
Discussion Items
- Development Services (Todd Seeley, Town Planner, and team): The FY26 general fund proposed budget reflects an increase of $141,000 compared to FY25, mostly due to personnel costs. Overall expenditures are expected to come in over budget by $526,000 primarily due to special revenue funds for the municipal brownfield grant for Stanodyne and the Plan of Conservation and Development. Highlights included completion of a full fiscal year of an online permitting system, large projects completed (mechanical upgrades, dormitory, warehouse, convenience store), ongoing projects (two apartments in town center and Wilson Park), fire marshal transition (Lori Volker became state fire marshal, Dan Velaski hired), engineering coordination of roadway rehabilitation (approximately 6 miles), and planning work on the POCD with public engagement strategies. Q&A topics: ombudsman role in economic development, GIS costs ($10,500 software, $125,000 staff time), transit-oriented development (TOD) plan—town manager stated opposition to state legislation that would remove local zoning control, business recruitment through Advanced CT and Metro Hartford Alliance, performance measures (percentage of residential permits without final inspection estimated at 55% due to contractors not calling for final inspections), vacant building fire safety (security and code provisions), school-to-business career connection (new initiative with Chamber of Commerce), pricing guide fees (some 40 years old, proposed new fees for building reinspections), development team meetings (weekly meetings for applicants), open space preservation (15 acres target, no specific parcel), and incubator programs (Windsor Works and The Collective—no funding in current budget).
- Administrative Services (Jim Bork, Finance Director, and team): FY25 general fund expenditures expected under budget by $46,000. FY26 budget increase of $132,000 mostly due to personnel costs including wage adjustment reserve from compensation study. Highlights: cooperative fuel purchasing, employee engagement events, cybersecurity training, tax collection statistics (over 45,000 bills mailed, over 50% collected by mail/drop box, remainder via bank/mortgage and online—13,500 transactions totaling over $17 million collected online this fiscal year), assessor's office issued 1,365 certificates of change for motor vehicle grand list. Q&A: IT consolidation with Board of Education explored but no cost savings; multi-factor authentication fully implemented for remote and privileged access; website transformation with Civic Plus (go-live expected October/November); insurance premiums expected to increase 3-10% depending on line; online tax payments increasing but convenience fee remains a barrier; payroll frequency change studied (would free up about 0.25 FTE but no dollar savings); cloud migration limited to backups, not full application off-premise.
- General Government (Linda Collins, Assistant Finance Director): FY25 expenditures expected over budget by $63,000 due to worker's compensation litigation and early voting costs. FY26 budget increase of $39,000 mainly due to community services, offset by reduced election costs (two elections in FY26 vs. three in FY25). Q&A: Voting machine maintenance fees increase of $12,000 due to new state-provided machines; boards and commissions funding ($20,000 for materials, training, transcription); Caribbean Culture Heritage funding ($14,000) explained as preserving Caribbean culture and history; grant request process—not an open call, past recipients notified; councilors discussed need for more open access to funding opportunities.
- Community Development (Flavia Rey de Castro, Patrick McMahon): FY25 expenditures over budget by $1.12 million due to CDBG for housing authority modernization and ARF programs. FY26 overall increase of $1.5 million; general fund increase $11,000 due to reallocation. Highlights: 15 housing rehab projects completed in FY25 (average loan $26,000), 13 multifamily projects affecting 32 rental units, 27 community and neighborhood enhancement grants awarded ($106,000). Q&A: Housing rehab program funded by program income and a new $400,000 CDBG grant (only $69,000 expendable in FY26); Shad Run modernization project ($2 million CDBG grant); quality of life initiatives including Wilson/Deerfield cleanups and beautification.
- General Services and Capital Spending (Jim Bork): FY25 expenditures over budget by $118,000 due to Great Pond Improvement District assessment and MDC sewer adjustment. FY26 budget increase of $1.6 million driven by Great Pond transfer (up $1 million to $2.062 million, reflecting 50% of taxes from parcels, based on increased assessed value from Target warehouse and revaluation), Windsor Center TIF district increase ($226,540), pension contribution increase ($218,000), retiree health insurance increase ($148,190), general fund capital spending increase ($61,000), MDC sewer increase ($30,000), and worker's comp/liability insurance increase ($30,000). Q&A: Great Pond TIF district explained—over $200 million private investment, town receives net $2.1 million in taxes; First Town Downtown funding ($26,000) supports community events that would otherwise require town staff; curbside recycling contract ($514,860) with Windsor Sanitation, only a few bidders.
- Insurance Internal Service Fund (Jim Bork, Jack Goldberg): Premiums expected to increase 3-8% due to national trends in property, auto, and liability. Town self-insures worker's compensation up to $600,000 ($750,000 for public safety). Good claims experience helps negotiate. Q&A: Windsor considered a top-tier municipality by insurance agent; options limited to 3-4 carriers; possible self-insuring or raising deductibles; costs split 50-50 with Board of Education (BOE has more employees but lower claim values, and their share comes from town support for education).
- Employee and Retiree Benefits (Amelia Bliss, HR Director, online): FY25 over budget by $584,000 due to higher claims and Medicare supplement increases from the Inflation Reduction Act. FY26 total benefits increase $718,000 (12.4%) due to medical, prescription, and disability trends. Town partnered with a pharmacy benefits advisor to negotiate better pricing. Q&A: Life insurance coverage is $55,000 term life paid by town.
- Town Support for Education (Linda Collins): FY25 over budget by $10,000 due to aid to private education and police support services. FY26 increase primarily due to debt service for school projects (e.g., O'Brien Field second phase).
Key Outcomes
- No votes were taken on the budget items; the session was for discussion and Q&A only.
- The meeting was adjourned by motion (9-0 vote).
- Next steps include continued budget deliberations at future council meetings.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening. We're gonna hand it over to the mayor. Good evening. I was like, can you guys hear me? But that's all right. Excellent. Good evening. We are going to call this evening's budget session to order. This evening, we will, and I can't see if we have a quorum or not, Deputy Mayor, because I keep a quorum. The room? Yeah. We do have a quorum. Excellent. Thank you. Awesome. So this evening we're going to be covering development services, administrative services, general government, community development, general services and capital spending, insurance internal service funds, and town support for education. Hopefully you all can still hear me. But with that being said, we'll kick off with development services, and I'll turn it over to you, Mr. Susa. And then from there, Deputy Mayor, you can see the hands, so go ahead and call for the hands. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'm going to invite up our development services group and our development as they come up. Our development services group is comprised of several different departments. And they will each introduce themselves and present an overview of the service unit's budget. We have another chairs. Yes, we do. Well, good evening, Your Honor, and members of the council. For the record, I am Todd Seeley, town planner, representing development services. And with me tonight, I'll have to go down the line. We have uh our environmental planner, Chloe Thompson, Fire Marshal Dan Velaski, building official David Langworthy, Economic Development Director Patrick McMahon, and Suzanne Chowd, our town engineer. We are here to answer any questions that you might have at the end of our presentation. As I alluded to in our introduction, development services consist of the building department, economic development, engineering, fire marshal's office, and planning. The mission of development services is to serve the public interest by safeguarding public health, safety, and welfare while promoting best development practices and fostering economic vitality. Overall expenditures are expected to come in over budget by 526,000. This is primarily due to the use of special revenue funds. This is mostly due to the special use of revenue funds for the municipal brownfield grant for Stanodyne and the plan of conservation and development. The FY26 general fund proposed budget reflects an increase of 141,000 as compared to the FY25 budget, mostly due to personnel cost. Building safety has successfully completed one full fiscal year of an online permitting system and inspection portal. Building off that system, they have enhanced their capabilities to allow inspectors access to records in the field while conducting inspections. This enhances their capabilities during inspection and allows them to be more efficient with a permit review. There were a significant amount of large projects completed over the current fiscal year, including mechanical upgrades at several existing facilities, a dormitory, warehouse, and a convenience store. There are several projects still ongoing, which include the two apartments in town center and Wilson Park. The fire marshal's office said farewell to Lori Volker. Laurie served as an inspector and then fire marshal in the town for 15 years. Lori has moved on to become the state fire marshal and is the first woman to do so in the state of Connecticut. The Town of Windsor welcomes Dan Velaski as our new fire marshal. He has been the deputy fire marshal at UConn for the past nine years, and we are thankful to have him as part of our team.
openpublica.com