Police sacrifice raise
The board’s cuts spared the nine-employee Dispatch Department, largely as a result of a compelling quid pro quo offer by the Police Department: If the council agreed to keep the local dispatch unit, which is on duty around the clock, the police would voluntarily forgo a 2 percent salary increase that they were scheduled to receive under their union contract. McKenna and other Town Board members praised the unselfishness of the Police Department, many of whose members were in attendance. The Dispatch Department accounts for about $250,000 annually in the town’s total budget.
Police chief Keefe (the sole nonunion employee in his department) said in an interview that his fellow officers unanimously supported the retention of their Dispatch Department colleagues. “They do so much more than just serve the police and fire departments. They are the information hub for the entire town,” said Keefe, citing the dispatchers’ role in keeping residents informed about events such as power outages and unfolding emergencies.
The survival of the Dispatch Department in its current form might only be temporary. According to Moran and McKenna, county officials including the executive, Michael Hein, the director of emergency communications and emergency management, Art Snyder, and the sheriff, Paul Van Blarcum, have acknowledged the feasibility of eventually turning over some or all of the local department’s functions to the county unit. Such a conversion, however, would take time and planning and could not be accomplished immediately.
Budget highlights
Major features of the current preliminary budget include the following. (Note: In many cases the total estimated savings in a specific area, e.g., employee salaries, has yet to be calculated by the bookkeeper and was therefore unavailable at press time.)
No pay raises. The current plan eliminates all salary increases for town employees, including a proposed 2 percent cost-of-living adjustment. The anticipated savings are significant.
Benefit reductions. Part-time elected officials — specifically, two town justices and four Town Board members (excluding the full-time supervisor) — are no longer eligible for health coverage under the town plan.
Attrition and reductions. The Building Department, which in recent years comprised five employees, including two full-time building inspectors, has been whittled to fewer than three workers, including one full-time inspector and a part-time inspector whose hours were cut in half. Elsewhere, the vacant positions of planning specialist and youth program director will remain unfilled. In the Maintenance Department, the elimination of a part-time seasonal position will save an estimated $10,000.
Employee reassignment. The duties and hours of selected employees are revised. Deputy town clerk Michele Sehwerert, for example, who works 35 hours per week, will spend 25 hours in the clerk’s office and five hours each in the offices of the Planning Department and the Zoning Board of Appeals. Similarly, a part-time employee in the Assessor’s office will devote a portion of her weekly hours to clerical work in the Building Department.
Miscellaneous cuts. Following the board’s review of actual spending in recent years, the preliminary budget would routinely cut line items such as educational and travel allowances across a range of departments. Other assorted cuts include $3,000 in police sick leave, $700 in propane gas for the Historical Society of Woodstock building (which the organization leases from the town), and $1,500, from $3,000 in 2011, for the maintenance of guard rails. The budget for the maintenance of public bathrooms was reduced from $1,000 to $600. In addition, the spending plan reduces the town historian’s stipend to $500, from a previous $1,500; entirely eliminates an appropriation of $2,500 for the annual fireworks display; and shrinks the $5,500 equipment budget for the public access television studio by $500. Meanwhile the board will explore possible cuts in items such as stipends for the teachers of Senior Recreation Commission instructional classes and a Maintenance Department spending line of $750 for telephones.
Before the meeting adjourned the board scheduled a public hearing for 7:15 p.m. on Tuesday, November 1 (preceding the aforementioned budget hearing) on a local law relating to a mandatory “chargeback” contribution by municipalities toward “safety net” social services administered by the county. Such services include drug rehabilitation programs and temporary housing for people in need. The local law would authorize the town to defer 2011 chargeback expenses until 2012, when the expenses would appear on the town and county tax bill, to be paid directly by the taxpayer. The chargeback expenses are not included in the town budget.++
