Solid staffing levels mean less spending

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Naugatuck Fire Chief Ellen Murray, center, presents the department’s 2017-18 budget request to the Board of Finance Monday night at Town Hall. –LUKE MARSHALL

NAUGATUCK — Fire officials requested a budget that would decrease the department’s spending by more than 6 percent next fiscal year.

On Monday, the Board of Finance approved the fire department’s 2017-18 budget request of $4.33 million, which is a decrease of about $303,000, or 6.5 percent, from the current budget.

The majority of the decrease is due to the department being nearly fully staffed and expectations that is will remain so during the next fiscal year.

The fire department has experienced turnover over recent years due to contract changes that waived traditional pension plans and moved new hires to defined contribution retirement plans, similar to a 401(K) in the private sector. New hires also cannot pay into Social Security.

The changes are intended to save the borough money in the long run but led to some firefighters leaving for other departments that still offer traditional defined benefit pension plans.

The department has also recently seen a number of firefighters with more than 20 years of experience retire.

Fire Chief Ellen Murray said the department is not expecting many retirements this coming fiscal year and the new firefighters will likely not leave.

The department expects a reduction of $146,617 in regular payroll and $14,669 in overtime due the newer firefighters making lower salaries and the department being nearly fully staffed.

The department also anticipates a $76,759 reduction in the retirement fund due to the fewer upcoming retirements.

While the budget proposal was adopted by the finance board, it could change as officials continue budget deliberations. Monday night was the first in a series of budget hearings the finance board will hold to hear requests from borough departments. Adoption of a final overall budget won’t come until late April.

The fire department’s budget proposal could change if two vacant positions — the second assistant chief and a captain position — are filled.

Murray said there are only two people in the department that are qualified to be promoted to second assistant chief, but she is not sure whether either of them are interested in the job. There is no one qualified to be promoted to captain, she said.

Finance Board member Dan Sheridan asked whether the department could hire from outside its ranks to fill those positions.

Mayor N. Warren “Pete” Hess said the borough is currently in discussions with its attorney to see if that is possible. Under the department’s contract with the union, the positions need to be filled from within the department’s ranks, according to officials.

If both positions are filled, the budget proposal could decrease slightly due to being able to cut back the amount of overtime needed to backfill the empty positions, Murray said.