BET begins final work on $450.6M budget

Partial approval for fire department plans, school funds on tap Tuesday

The fire department wants to add to its command structure — hiring an assistant fire chief to handle administrative matters while the existing assistant fire chief focuses on operations.

GREENWICH — In a fourand-a-half-hour meeting Thursday, the Board of Estimate and Taxation made some changes in the proposed $450.6 million municipal budget but did not finish its work finalizing the spending plan for the 2021-22 fiscal year.

One item that came up for debate was a request from the Greenwich Fire Department for funding for a new assistant chief. But decisions on other major items — including funds for renovation plans for Julian Curtiss School, intersection improvements for Greenwich Avenue and construction of a new Eastern Greenwich Civic Center — will have to wait until next week.

The fire department wants to add to its command structure — hiring an assistant fire chief to handle administrative matters while the existing assistant fire chief focuses on operations.

The BET supported the allocation after voting down a motion from Vice Chair Karen Fassuliotis to cut the funding. Fassuliotis said she did not oppose changing the administrative structure, but first she wanted the RTM to approve a new labor contract for firefighters and the department to finish its strategic planning process.

“It doesn’t mean that the (assistant fire chief) might not be

brought back in the future,” Fassuliotis said.

But that motion went down in a 5-7 vote as members said they wanted to support the new Fire Chief Joseph McHugh and the administrative structure he wanted.

“We know there are challenges in the fire department and they need the ability to focus on the policy level decisions while they’re still operating a department,” BET member Leslie Moriarty said. “I think at the end of the day, this position is more than justified.”

BET member Bill Drake added, “We have a brand new chief and a brand new assistant chief. The very first resource they ask for is to have a third person at the top of the organization. The most important part of any organization is the people, and I will not be voting to deprive the chief of the very first resource he asks for.”

But the fire department did not get all it wanted.

Initially, the GFD had proposed that the new assistant fire chief position replace an existing position of volunteer recruitment and retention officer. But after meeting with volunteer fire district chiefs who wanted to retain that position, McHugh called for both positions to be funded.

The BET did not support that, but it did approve including $20,000 to allow the volunteer coordinator position to continue for about six months in the new fiscal year to work with the new assistant fire chief.

BET member Jeff Ramer said he would have voted for both if he could have. Fassuliotis’ motion would have kept the coordinator instead of bringing in the assistant chief.

Road improvement

The BET also placed a condition on the $175,000 allocation for continued work on plans to improvement the intersection of Brookside Drive and Glenville Road. Several residents spoke out against the project at a public hearing Monday night, saying they had not received enough information about it.

Under the condition, $100,000 will be released only after the Department of Public Works meets with the Glenville community and shares feedback with the BET.

BET member Leslie Tarkington, chair of the Budget Committee, made a motion to eliminate the entire $175,000.

“This needs more community outreach before it gets to this level of coming to the BET,” Tarkington said.

But others on the BET said the funding would allow the DPW to work on the plans and get more resident input. The DPW made the same point, stressing that no construction plan has been finalized or approved.

“Without this money, you effectively kill this project,” BET member Laura Erickson said before Tarkington’s motion was voted down.

But Erickson agreed with Tarkington that “it’s clear the

neighbors have a lot of questions and concerns about this project.”

Ultimately, BET member David Weisbrod made the motion to put conditions on$100,000 while giving the DPW the $75,000 to do neighbor outreach and other work.

“It keeps the ball moving on this project,” BET member Miriam Kreuzer said, and it was approved unanimously.

BET Chair Michael Mason also called for better communication from the DPW.

“This is where (the BET liaisons to DPW) have to put their foot down and say, ‘Look, you keep coming to us and it’s not selling’,” Mason said. “Give us something that changes the dialogue.”

Bike path

A new initiative from Ramer failed that called for adding $100,000 to the budget to hire an outside consultant to look at creating an east-west bike path. The money for the study was not included in First Selectman Fred Camillo’s budget plan, but residents supported the idea and private donors committed at least $50,000 more for the study.

“I believe that focusing on the need for enhancing bicycle paths in this town speaks to the future of this town,” BET member Beth Krumeich said.

But it failed to proceed — the

BET vote was a 6-6 tie along party lines, with all the Republicans against it and all the Democrats in favor.

Additionally, the BET voted to remove a $75,000 allocation proposed by Ramer for consultant to advise the town on air rights as part of its negotiations with the Ashforth Company about developing Greenwich Plaza. The initial 2019 proposal, in which the town would have given up its air rights in exchange for improvements to the downtown train station and surrounding area by Ashforth, did not go forward because BET members felt the town had undervalued the air rights.

Discussions between the town and Ashforth haven’t yet begun, and Tarkington called the $75,000 “premature.”

“If the money was needed, I certainly would support it at that point in time,” she said.

The BET stopped deliberations at 4 p.m. Thursday. It will reconvene its budget work over Zoom at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

When the BET completes its work, the budget moves to the Representative Town Meeting, which can reduce any amount in the budget but not add to it. Ultimately, the RTM will have the final vote on the budget in June.