Bridgeport seeks nearly $ 2 million for COVID costs
BRIDGEPORT — The police department has spent $ 2.8 million more on overtime than anticipated, the fire department $ 2.3 million more, and City Hall’s tab for responding to the COVID- 19 pandemic so far stands at just under $ 2 million.
Despite those challenges, Bridgeport, according to finance officials, ended the 2019/ 20 fiscal year June 30 with what could wind up being a $ 3 million surplus.
Those were the key figures Mayor Joe Ganim’s administration shared this week with the City Council’s budget committee.
Finance Director Kenneth Flatto credited a high tax collection rate of 98.5 percent — “over $ 2.5 million than the budgeted amount” — for helping to keep finances stable during the health crisis and resulting economic chaos.
But the city is also counting on federal aid to cover the high costs of responding to the novel coronavirus.
Isolina DeJesus, the municipal staffer overseeing the process for seeking that reimbursement, told the council Bridgeport was preparing detailed applications seeking $ 1,974,000 worth of expenses accrued since the pandemic struck the state in mid- March.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency ( FEMA) is the largest source of money and will pay for 75 percent worth of eligible expenses, with
Connecticut also offering cities and towns federal dollars that were part of COVID relief legislation passed by Congress.
“We will be submitting our first application to FEMA, which will cover the beginning of the incident through June 30,” DeJesus said. “The state ( Office of Policy and Management) has also put out guidance for us to submit for the other 25 percent of funding they have available. So first we go through FEMA, then state OPM.”
Councilman Scott Burns, a budget committee cochairman, asked the finance staff to provide him and his colleagues a detailed report specifying the purchases and the vendors “to make sure everyone knows where we’ve been spending that money.”
Burns also wondered about the impact of that $ 1.974 million on the current, 2020/ 21 budget that went into effect July 1. Nestor Nkwo, Ganim’s budget director, said the pandemic expenses were set aside in a separate “revolving fund” so they should not have any bearing on the annual financial audit.
However, he warned, any items that are not reimbursed would have to eventually be covered by the budget.
“We’re going to go for reimbursement of every avenue,” Nkwo said. “If this agency doesn’t reimburse, we’ll go to the next one to try to make the city whole.”
Michael DeFilippo, the other budget co- chair, and
Councilwoman Maria Pereira questioned whether the city was seeking reimbursement for a television and social media advertisement aired in late April that thanked first responders, which heavily featured Ganim delivering a speech outside a hospital.
“How much was spent on the mayor’s commercial?” Pereira said. “It ran on CNN, on FOX News.”
DeJesus did not have that specific information available but said any dollars spent on communications would be eligible for federal reimbursement “as long as they were made to notify the public about the pandemic.” She speculated that the commercial in question would not qualify.
Nkwo said in that case it would be paid for out of Bridgeport’s marketing budget.
“I think it was a good thing,” Councilwoman Rev. Mary McBride- Lee said of the commercial. “While we’re in our house, safely, they’re out putting their life on the line. ... I don’t care where the money comes from.”
The fiscal year- end surplus also allowed Ganim and his non- union staff to receive their scheduled July 1 raises without any council push back.
During the spring, some on the budget committee recommended that should the pandemic put Bridgeport in the red, the mayor and his staff should volunteer to abandon what amounted to $ 200,000 in combined wage hikes.
Gov. Ned Lamont similarly — but unsuccessfully — urged state unions to cancel this month’s salary increases because of COVID’s impact on Connecticut’s budget.
The budget committee did take issue during this week’s meeting with the $ 2.8 million in additional police overtime above and beyond the $ 4.7 million set aside for 2019/ 20.
Nkwo has often been a critic of police overtime but suggested in this case the original $ 4.7 million figure was “unattainable” and “the city did not budget as much as police needed to begin with.”
But Pereira, referring to pandemic- related stay- athome orders that shuttered businesses and kept the public indoors, said, “There was barely any crime. ... This city was shut down for six whole weeks. Almost nothing happened. It’s inexcusable.”
Burns wondered if the Black Lives Matter and law enforcement accountability protests held in Bridgeport in recent months were a factor.
“There has been some impact for sure,” Flatto said. He also noted that Ganim delayed the hiring of a new class of police cadets because of the health crisis, resulting in the need to pay current officers extra.
Councilman Ernie Newton complained that new
Assistant Police Chief Rebeca Garcia was supposed to be reducing overtime: “Now I’m hearing you say they’re over budget.”
Nkwo said Garcia has been doing her job: “If the deputy chief did not contain the overtime, it would have been worse than the number we’re talking.”
Nkwo also attributed some of the increased police and fire department overtime to the need to cover for staff who had contracted the coronavirus or were suspected of having it to ensure the illness did not spread.
Flatto said salary savings from existing fire fighter vacancies helped to cover that department’s overruns.