Rash of Winsted resignations mostly due to pay, town manager says

Winsted — The driver behind a recent spate of employee resignations in Winsted is money, according to Town Manager Josh Kelly.

He discussed the departures of a number of public works, water department and Town Hall staff with the Board of Selectmen, and said the most recent resignations included a police officer, another public works member, water department supervisor Mary Cormier and Zoning Enforcement Officer Michael Stankov, who has been with the town less than two years.

What began as a discussion about employee turnover, however, also became a forum about the town’s tax rate and the upcoming budget season. They anticipate tax increases, based on project bonding and increased water and sewer use fees that will affect property taxes in the coming year.

The board was visibly concerned about the resignations.

“This is a problem, this turnover,” said Selectman Steve Sedlak. “I know police is a concern for Josh; the schools are facing (turnover), too. Our salaries are low. Maybe we can discuss this with you.”

Selectwoman Candace Bouchard wondered whether police officers were leaving because of the recent retirement of Chief William Fitzgerald Jr., who left in February. Kelly is interviewing candidates for the position now.

“In the exit interviews I’ve done, everything I’ve heard indicates pay as the driving factor,” Kelly said.

Selectwoman Candy Perez said she understood the need for competitive salaries, but Winsted is facing higher spending because it has borrowed millions to improve roads and other infrastructure. Those costs, coupled with increased spending from the Gilbert and Winsted public schools budgets, will raise taxes, she said.

From Winsted Superintendent of Schools Melony Brady-Shanley’s perspective, the school district, which serves grades K-8, is facing severe financial losses this year, and will have to make up the difference with “asks” for more money from the town. The Gilbert School also has said it expects to ask for more funding this year. Both school entities are working on their budgets for 2023-24.

“We’re facing inflationary costs, at the same time that, between the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Education have tried to be cognizant of the impact our budgets have on the taxpayers and the mill rate,” Brady-Shanley said recently. “When you see increases ... it’s because we are trying to meet contractual obligations.”

The growing costs of education, town salaries and infrastructure make increases inevitable, Perez said.

“When we talk about pay (and) as we go down this budget road (we) have to find out what the public wants,” she said. “The mill rate will go up with a large increase; pay is a budgetary item, and it has to be looked at with a multi-year process. How does pay go up, when people who are paying are struggling? It’s difficult.”

“We have to think about what we want to pay, or how little, and what we get for that,” Kelly responded. “For example, our assistant building official (William Pietreface) is being trained, and he’s out two days a week. People are waiting for him to come in, but he has to be trained.

“The ambulance service has doubled their budget ask, because they need to raise their rates,” he said. “They don’t have enough people to fill their time slots.”

Selectman Jack Bourque encouraged the board to look ahead and consider the efforts of the Economic Development Department and Director Ted Shafer, who are working to bring more businesses into town to help alleviate the burden on residential taxpayers.

“The way to develop income for this town is to continue to work with new businesses,” he said. “Until we find a method to vastly improve the grand list with new businesses of high-quality industrial or some kind of commercial business, we’re going to face this every year.