Fire department to receive $105,000

A request to transfer roughly $105,000 to cover the cost of retirements is “housekeeping at this point.”

A request to transfer money from Kingston’s 2019 contingency fund to cover the cost of retirements from the Kingston Fire Department is “housekeeping at this point,” the city comptroller said.

During a meeting Wednesday, the Common Council’s Finance and Audit Committee moved forward a resolution to transfer $104,796.93 from the 2019 contingency fund to the fire department’s retirement accumulation account. The resolution must still be voted on by the full council, which meets again on Tuesday, Feb. 4.

“Those of you who have been with us for a few budget cycles are aware that we do account for retirements in our contingency account when developing that number,” Comptroller John Tuey told the committee. “So this is just really, this is housekeeping at this point. It’s something that was expected.”

Tuey said the funding would cover the retirements of four firefighters and the department’s secretary. He added that the fire department’s 2019 budget likely could have supported the cost without taking the money from the contingency account due to savings in regular pay. Either way, the unspent money would go into the city’s fund balance, Tuey said.

In the past, the city had asked the individual departments to include expected retirements in their budgets, Tuey said.

“Year over year, the departments would historically over project the people they thought would retire,” Tuey said.

He said that would leave excess money in the department’s retirement account, which the department head could then ask to transfer to other departmental expenses. Tuey said putting retirement costs in the contingency fund gives the Common Council more control over how the money ends up being spent.