By MARJORIE NEEDHAM
When Middlebury Chief Financial Officer Larry Hutvagner posted slides showing town budget totals at the April 6 public hearing on the proposed 2015-2016 town budget, Board of Finance (BoF) Chairman Mike McCormack said the totals were wrong, and the correct totals were lower. Later, McCormack and officers and members of the Middlebury Volunteer Fire Department (MVFD) got into a heated discussion about revenues for the budget including $25,000 the MVFD will be expected to pay for its share of dispatching costs associated with ambulance calls.
The total proposed budget presented April 6 is $25,650 lower than the one in the legal notice, and the corresponding mil rate is 30.12 compared to the posted rate of 30.17. McCormack said you can lower the budget amount after the legal notice has been posted; you just can’t raise it. Hutvagner said McCormack made the change at 5 p.m. April 6, so he hadn’t had time to update the slide.
No questions were asked about the expenses side of the budget, but the $25,000 on the revenues side raised strong objections from MVFD officers and members, who said they had not agreed to pay it. MVFD Chief Tony Bruno asked where the $25,000 came from.
McCormack said Bruno had agreed to pay part of the dispatch cost. He said the $25,000 was based on 800 ambulance callsa calendar year, but rather than the department having to pay $25,000 outright, the agreement was the department would pay something like $30 a call.
Bruno asked who decided the MVFD should pay $25,000. McCormack said he, BoF member Steve Ruccio and the Board of Finance agreed on that amount.
Bruno said he showed records to Ruccio and explained everything to him. “We didn’t sign anything,” Bruno said. “We’re not making that money.”
McCormack said they had an agreement. Bruno said they did not.
McCormack said, “We are going to work with this number and will work with you every month to facilitate meeting the goal that the Board of Finance has set for you.”
MVFD Treasurer Brendan Browne said, “You seem to think we are making a lot of money. The money left over at the end of the year goes to pay for the next ambulance so the town doesn’t have to buy an ambulance.”
McCormack said ambulances are a moneymaking operation. Browne said they are not. McCormack said, “If they are or are not, there is a cost to them. The town is bearing the cost. You’re getting all the revenue.”
Browne said, “That is not accurate at all. That is not an accurate interpretation of how this operation works.”
Ruccio said fire departments in other towns operate differently than Middlebury with the departments paying many costs the town of Middlebury pays for the MVFD. He said all the BoF is asking is for some of the cost of running that operation to be paid for by the ambulance.
McCormack repeated, “We’re going to go with the $25,000.”
First Selectman Ed St. John, a former MVFD fire chief, said he had issues with the charge to the MVFD. He said the Board of Selectmen is the only group that has the authority to develop and enter into contracts for the town. “We didn’t even get to the table yet, so there is no agreement,” he said.
Bruno said he didn’t know anything about a per-call charge. McCormack said it was discussed at the last meeting. Bruno said, “So the Board of Finance will send me a bill?”
McCormack said starting July 1 the town will charge the MVFD Inc. $25,000 a year, or $35 a call. “We’re not discussing the charge. We’re discussing what is the easiest way for you guys to deal with it. … That’s the end of this discussion,” he said.
MVFD member Dave Lenkowski said he was a little bewildered. “Do you run the town,” he asked McCormack, “or does the Board of Selectmen run the town? ”
McCormack said he ran the Board of Finance.
Lenkowski said, “So you don’t think all these changes need to go before the Board of Selectmen? They don’t have anything to say about this budget? Whatever you say goes?”
Lenkowski went on to say, “So you don’t have to answer to anybody. You get to make up your own decisions. You don’t have to answer to the rest of the town.”
McCormack said if the voters don’t like this budget, they will decide at the polls. He then asked if there were any other questions. There were none, and the public hearing ended.
