Eastbayri.com

WESTPORT — With a town-wide preliminary budgetary increase of more than $1 million over last year, the Board of Selectmen asked some town departments last week to look again at their budgets to achieve level funding.

Much of the increase was from the school department’s third budget draft. At $16,241,834 it was more than $1.1 million (7.2 percent) more than last year’s $15,110,000 budget.

But the school budget is still in the works with a fourth draft $110,000 less than the third due to savings from this fiscal year that will roll over to next, said Superintendent Carlos Colley.

More drafts are yet to come and may be very different, he said.

“It is our job to do what is right for the schools,” School Committee chair Michelle Duarte told the selectmen on Feb. 6.

Even the third draft had no “nice to haves” in it, she said.

Already students incur fees for bus transport, sports, and clubs, costing some families with several children in multiple extra-curricular activities “some pretty big dollars,” she said.

Cutting the budget would first mean cuts to needed purchases, which she said would then have to wait until the end of the year, if excess funds are available.

They do not want to cut people, she said, who are needed to maintain class sizes and services at current levels.

A public hearing will be held Wednesday, Feb. 29, at 5 p.m. in the high school on the school budget. Meeting packets, including an updated budget, will be available on the district website if it is ready ahead of time, Dr. Colley said.

Fire department increases

The fire department requested a budget increase of $29,200, which accounts for negotiated raises for the first time in several years.

Selectman Antone Vieira told Fire Chief Brian Legendre on Jan. 31 that a good manager would be able to make reductions in other areas to compensate for the salary increases.

When asked if he could live with a level funded budget, Chief Legendre said that “If I have to do that, then I have to do that.”

The only area to cut, though, he said, is the overtime budget because that is an unknown factor. All other line items are exact year to year and cannot be cut further.

Mr. Vieira was further unhappy that on the town meeting warrant the chief also asks for voters to approve the hiring of another firefighter at an expense of $45,819. The hiring should come out of the department’s operational budget, as well, he said.

Other budgets

While some departments submitted level funded budgets as requested by the selectmen at the beginning of the budget season, many did not.

Some departments, like planning, requested more to compensate for the increase in cost for mileage reimbursement.

The elections department requested another $1,600 because of the year’s federal election.

Requested increases varied from $601 to $112,000 (not including the school department), but the board has again asked for all increases to be found within the existing budget.

One budget that was submitted truly level funded was that of the police department.

Chief Keith Pelletier told the selectmen on Feb. 6 that he found areas to cut by looking at actual expenditures from this fiscal year.

Even with these cuts, he found enough funds to begin the process of getting the department accredited.

The years-long process includes joining the accreditation association, attending conferences, looking at the department’s policies and procedures and re-writing them and training officers in the new policies, he said.

At the end of the process, the department will be a “more professional organization” and its liability costs will go down, he said.

Very few budgets decreased from last year, but the Council on Aging and wharfinger departments both shaved off costs.

A decrease of $41,000 in long-term interest was offset by an increase of $40,000 in short-term interest.

Changes to the budgets are still to come — in addition to the requested cuts, the governor’s budget is still a big unknown.

The final budget will be voted on at the May 1 annual town meeting, but will not include any requests approved that evening in warrant articles.