The City Council Monday night unanimously approved a $250,000 budget transfer from the Police Department salary line, as a result of a delay in hiring new recruits, into Parks and Recreation account to establish a Summer Youth Initiative proposed by Mayor Joe Ganim. The council also approved a professional services agreement with LAZ Parking to modernize the city’s metered parking as well as okaying $15 million in tax anticipation notes to pay current operating expenses. The borrowing will be covered with new tax revenue for the budget year starting July 1.
CT Post reporter Brian Lockhart has more:
In a game of musical budget accounts, the city has come up with a quarter of a million dollars to help fund additional summer activities for teenagers and young adults.
But which programs–private organizations will bid on at least a portion of the cash–and whether the investment will cut down on youth violence and crime in the coming weeks, remain to be seen.
The City Council last week narrowly defeated Mayor Joe Ganim’s original plan to spend $250,000 of $2.1 million set aside during this spring’s budget season for the vague purpose of tax relief.
So the Ganim administration found another funding source–the police department’s salary account. Specifically, one of the new classes of police recruits is to be delayed for over a month, which conveniently saves exactly $250,000.
Full story here.
*** I know the city’s strapped for money but it’s not like they’re not going to end up spending some money on political B/S somewhere down the line, no? So might as well spent $ome on summer jobs for the Bpt. City Kids! And I mean Bpt. City kids, not Trumbull, Monroe or Newtown and Fairfield kids; BPT! *** WHOOP ***
So we do have money? Joe and the city council keeps saying we have no money. If we have the money why did the mil rate go up to 54? Give the people a tax break.
Joe is okay now with holding off on a new police class, but when the budget committee wanted to do that, he did not want to hear it.
The Police Department budget presented to the City Council in the spring was a fiction, in general, and therefore when it says there are over 450 positions with 17 vacancies, it is not a LIE, but a fiction about what we might look like. Get it?
And when there has been talk about three classes? Another fiction, likely because testimony at the budget hearings indicated necessary firing range times for regular and special training times for even two classes will be difficult to schedule in the next 12 months. And doesn’t it take SIX months of seasoning after SIX months of training to form a class and place it in service? Or have there been some changes for the public to hear about? OPEN? TRANSPARENT?
So of course there is money in the coming FY16-17 budget for Police that will not be spent there. Always was that way, but the comprehension level of City Council is too low to understand that before you agree to fund something new, or rather something we heard about last summer, but that dropped out of newsworthy for 12 months? YES, is now worth pushing through again.
So wait to fund until you hear the detail, know the service indicators, find out which age groups, get what services, at what sites? Basic ACCOUNTABILITY that the Mayor promised.
People ask me what I think about the new administration. Generally, I ask what questioners observe in terms of the campaign promises for OPEN, ACCOUNTABLE and TRANSPARENT. And HONEST, too. Time will tell.
Okay guys and gals, did I not predict they would play the youth card and make it difficult for the Council to reject it? I have a feeling this Council is not going to be as generous as they were with Finch. Remember most of the Council supported Finch, there’s no warm and fuzzy feeling toward G2, and no “ambassador” with the skills to warm them up. Maybe the members have realized they run in a little over a year, and there are no coattails this time.
Perhaps I’m not interpreting what I read properly but did this illustrious mayor actually take $250K from the police budget to fund a program that could have and for all I know is somewhat partially funded by grants? Is that permissible to reallocate those monies from one department to another? To rob Peter to pay Paul? And the city council approved it? Can someone please clarify for me?
Godiva,
There is very little recent Mayors have felt constrained by in terms of process about money. The City ‘rainy day fund’ which used to stand around $55 Million when the Review Board left, today will be lucky to have $10 Million at year end. Pension commitments are gobbling up the Operating Budget, and certainly parts of the Proposed Budget recently approved had no basis in practical fact. the Police Budget was fiction as they invented 100 personnel and funded them as if they were real, because if they are not real, trained and in place, we’ll have to use extra amounts of overtime, beyond budget to keep us policed well. Get it? If not, go back and read what I have been saying now for years. I do not believe you will hear my summary of these facts are false. They are not.
So why worry where the money is coming from? Why not look at the case they made for summer youth programs? The case was not made in spring, or from what OIB or paper has said, anywhere. Lighthouse had a chance to make the case for greater programming at budget time. Did they do so? But they and others unknown will be the judge and jury for this late attempt to help the kids? What about when those kids go back to school in September and the system is facing cutbacks and adjustments of $10 million or more to what would have been their normal FY2016-17 budget?? Where are the Ganim priorities? Where is his plan? For that matter, is there a youth council in the community where all the active parties can gather from time to time? Highlight what is working? What is not? Provide verifiable metrics showing how current needs are being met and how the expenses are handled? As for Police Department budgets of most recent years, Police Department personnel are short of 100 or more filled positions (that in most places would be termed VACANT, but not in the City) but budgets have been running at $92 Million or more and that does not include, necessarily, all of the MERS funding that was ignored by former OPM in the current budget. Where and in what line item should we look for it in the 2016-17 FY? Time will tell.
Thanks JML for different perspective, one I hadn’t considered.
Does this have anything to do with the fact the BOE is trying to charge the Lighthouse program for use of facilities to the tune of $500k and the Lighthouse threatened to cancel youth programs because it was too steep a charge? The City put a grant opportunity out for applicants and the closing date is Friday. Three days. The grant will be reviewed by Tammy Papa of Lighthouse. Is this how the Lighthouse receives funds to pay rent? Is it smoke and mirrors or am I totally off base and connecting two different scenarios?
Hopefully this summer employment initiative for Bridgeport youth extends beyond the Parks Dept. I’d love to see a mentorship/summer job program that places BPT youth in all city departments including the mayor’s office not just cleaning parks but contributing in a measurable way that gets rewarded. There are a lot of good people in BPT city gov. with great titles and master degrees that could help at least one young person see what’s possible for themselves and their city. Since almost everything in life is built off of relationships, that is a skill set that can be easily taught through example/experience. After youth complete the summer program they should then enter a new phase with their mentors. Maybe as references for local employment for the rest of the year, promoting/connecting higher education options for participants and maybe even have those youth receive extra points/preference on exams for police, fire and entry-level city positions. Seeing opportunities to utilize time and money to build young people’s confidence/experiences should be the foundation of creating BPT’s future from within.
The delay in hiring suburban youth to police a city where their families have no skin in the game is a good thing, just hope it’s used wisely.
Brian, that’s a brilliant suggestion! It won’t happen, but it’s thought-provoking and maybe someone in the Broad St. venue will read your post.
Contact the Lighthouse program and secure a copy of their Power Point report on their activities, locations and funding. They have had more than $4 Million from City of Bridgeport, family fees for service (not reported in budget proposals from OPM/Finance) as well as about $2 Million in State grants. And they have not had to pay BOE for use of facilities. With the BOE under stress, why shouldn’t basic expenses be paid for? Who supervises our youth programs? Where are the public board or commission meetings where all of this can be made known?
In my opinion the BOE intent to charge Lighthouse for usage is not related to the Mayor’s search for Summer 2016 Youth Programs but if it looks like smoke and mirrors, perhaps it bears closer inspection. Time will tell.