Chairman's View: 11 Resolutions for 2019 (Dec. 31, 2018)

Chairman’s View: 11 resolutions for 2019

DECEMBER 31, 2018 BY JOHN ENGEL. CHAIRMAN, TOWN COUNCIL

When Advertiser reporter Grace Duffield asked for a New Canaan resolution, I could hardly stop at one. Here’s 10 more. We have much to do in 2019.

1. Bike paths from New Canaan to the Darien beaches. Darien suggested this. Get state permission to paint the bike stripe down South Avenue. What are we waiting for? Also contract to add bike rental racks at Waveny, Irwin Park, Waveny Park, Kiwanis Park, the Glass House and Grace Farms. Stamford is offering bike rentals downtown.
2. Recycling: Let’s get serious. New Canaan now pays $197,000 to sort garbage, up 5 times, and this is just the beginning. We must separate glass from plastic from garbage. Ban supermarket plastic bags. Reuse and recycle paper bags.
3. Caffeine & Carburetors: Bring it downtown permanently. Ask all stores to open those mornings. Help wanted in stores? Tell us what you need. We all volunteer to help.
4. It’s time to paint the big Waveny water tower and take the unused tower down. It’s metal, so put a massive New Canaan Rams  car magnet on it. Change it periodically. Special messages for Darien games.
5. Resolve to post more positively, not negatively, on social media with constructive ideas and thanks. The rest of the world is watching.
6. No more stolen cars. Resolution for everybody to get in the habit of taking their keys with them. Strengthen neighborhood watch. Work together to watch out for each other.
7. We have new Board of Education leadership. With this change I hope to see the board present a budget within Board of Finance guidance instead of passing the Superintendent’s budget without challenge and then fighting with town government for status quo. Change the paradigm.
8. The end of political yard signs. We can’t ban them. We need a gentleman’s agreement. All it takes is the willingness of the two parties. If a candidate sees he is the only one littering the town with signs for a month he won’t do it.
9. The end of real estate signs in residential neighborhoods. P&Z promised they would address this. All other commercial signs are banned so why is real estate the lone exception? This one is obvious.
10. I want preservationists to objectively rate our buildings and work with the town on a long-term public private plan instead of criticizing each new proposal one at a time.  What restrictions should be put on the sale of Vine Cottage, the Playhouse, the Police Station? Is the Library really sacred? It’s time to make choices. How can we sustain rentable assets like Gores Pavilion, Vine and Waveny as long-term break-even propositions?
11. High speed electric car charging stations downtown? This initiative is aimed at tourists since residents charge at home. Encourage Merritt Parkway transients to shop or eat here while charging. Our Parking Commission should identify ideal locations, both public and private, and market their existence online.

Chairman's View: On Bags and Budgets (Feb. 4, 2019)

Chairman’s View: On bags and budgets

FEBRUARY 7, 2019 BY JOHN ENGEL, CHAIRMAN, TOWN COUNCIL

The Town Council is considering a proposed townwide ban of supermarket plastic bags. Letters are starting to pour in. Supporters of the ban cite the environmental impact. Opponents of a ban say we are chipping away at freedom and personal choice.

Greenwich, Stamford and Westport banned the bags; Darien will be next. Will New Canaan’s decision rest on the more successful write-in campaign? Fewer than 25 people have weighed in. We all want to get greener but do we need more laws? We want to hear your thoughts.

The Budget. The First Selectman declared victory this week, proposing the lowest budget increase in a decade, up 0.16%, with two highlights: One is the way we look at contingency, consolidating department contingencies into one account at the town level. The second is a hiring freeze. Both seem sensible. If passed the mill rate will increase from 16.96 to 18.32 this year. Unfortunately, next year our debt service is forecast to rise and I fear the mill rate may rise with it, making us less competitive with Darien and Westport.

Our Superintendent of Schools brought in a school budget, up 2.05%, and believes we are done because they met Board of Finance standards published in the fall. We are not. Board of Finance models were based on changing assumptions. The whisper number from the Board of Finance and Town Council is we need another $1.5 million (from a schools budget that only rose a modest $1.4 million). Sound impossible? It may be too hard to turn the ship in one year. We did not get to this point in one year and we may not solve it that quickly. 

Consider that over the past 13 years spending increased 42% while enrollment was flat. In the last seven years spending increased 24% while enrollment decreased 3%. 

Consider that Darien teaches 4,726 students with 767 teachers and administrators whereas New Canaan teaches 4,113 with 749. If we managed to Darien’s ratio of 6.16 we would have 81 fewer staff across our schools. 

This is not a criticism of our schools or a statement that their budget is “fat” It is not. It is simply recognition that to meet Board of Finance debt targets of debt service below 10% in a period of rising interest rates we will have to make long-term systemic changes. If zero growth is too much in one year then perhaps a 3-year plan growing 1% per year is something the Board of Education and Board of Finance can agree on together. Such a plan would bring the mill rate back to a level below 18, reassure a jittery housing market, provide less stress to our schools than year by year cuts, meet Board of Finance long-term debt guidance and would be consistent with “stable but slightly decreasing enrollment” projections from our demographer.

Chairman’s View represents the views of the Town Council chairman and not necessarily those of any other Town Council member.

Chairman's View: Council Faces Cost of Debt, Capital Projects and Lower Property Values (Oct 4, 2018)

Chairman’s View: Council faces cost of debt, capital projects and lower property values

OCTOBER 4, 2018 BY NEW CANAAN ADVERTISER

A guest column from New Canaan Town Council Chairman John Engel.

New Canaan has the highest per-capita debt in Connecticut at $5,800, double that of Darien because we are a larger town with many more miles of roads and dozens more buildings. Therefore the Board of Finance has presented to the Town Council their recommendation that we reduce our debt service as a percentage of expenses over the next five years from 12% to 10%.

Capital Plan

The Town Council, Board of Education and Board of Finance agreed last year to work on common budget guidance in the fall. Those meetings are still needed. There is a disconnect between current Board of Finance guidance to reduce Town debt service to 10% levels and the new public-private initiatives we read about each week. Your town government needs to have an honest conversation about priorities and scrub the five-year capital plan.

State and local

High net worth taxpayers are continuing to leave Connecticut. The election will have an impact on our budget thinking. We need to vote for a change in our taxes that will have an impact on our budget planning. The latest poll shows Lamont leads Stefanowski by 6 points with a margin of error of 4 points. 40% of Connecticut voters are independent. Stefanowski has gained 6% with unaffiliated this month, but he trails among women by 22%. This race is too close to call.

Congressional elections, transportation  

New Canaan tax base is largely dependent on Wall Street, and it benefited from recent deregulation of the financial sector, federal stimulation and the bull market. But, the latest polls predict a Republican Senate and a Democratic House in Washington. We should anticipate gridlock from a balanced Congress at a time when what New Canaan needs is federal attention on our infrastructure. New Canaan needs multiple good commuting options, particularly faster and more trains. Town leaders are working on the affordable expansion of Talmadge Hill to make more parking available for commuters. This should shorten the waiting lists. I am surprised at how few people are taking advantage of newly available “Boxcar” parking in the St. Aloysius lot. Parking habits are equally slow to change.

2019 Revaluation

The property tax change is a concern for budget planning. In January we will learn that many tax bills will rise between 10% and 20%. Why? The Grand List is predicted to shrink 8% reflecting a reset at the top end of our market and subsequent compression as top tier prices fell and put price pressure throughout the system on lower-priced homes. Those homes will make up the deficit. 

Therefore, the Board of Finance and Town Council must re-evaluate our Tax Relief for Seniors program and its means-testing in light of the coming property tax volatility. We want to retain our seniors as we explore new senior housing options. It’s a small line item but deserves a fresh look.

Chairman's View: Do The Projects that Do Not Increase Debt (Aug 23, 2018)

Chairman’s View: Do the projects that do not increase debt

AUGUST 23, 2018 BY NEW CANAAN TOWN COUNCIL CHAIRMAN JOHN ENGEL

Affordable housing, senior housing, workforce housing are all needed in New Canaan. Should housing be a concern of the Town Council? Yes, repurposing old buildings as housing begins an intricate calculus getting the Town out of the restoration business. Restore buildings to the tax rolls. Sell Vine Cottage.

To borrow from an old joke, “How fast do you need to run to survive a charging bear?” New Canaan Town Council Chairman John Engel

What can we afford? Our assessor will soon announce the Grand List based on this past year’s sales. Values decreased by at least 7% and will probably be offset by a 7% increase in the mill rate. Nobody wants to see the taxes increase from $17,000 to $18,000 on a million dollar assessment, but it is coming. Given that New Canaan’s per capita level of indebtedness is highest in the state and at a ten year high it seems odd that Town Hall is considering any new projects. Some make sense if they don’t increase debt.

Affordable housing. We have a proposal by our Housing Authority and New Canaan Neighborhoods to grow Canaan Parish by 40 units. The objections are aesthetic, not economic, and overblown. The proposal is self-funded from the housing fund and a mortgage in order to maximize efficient use of the property. We need 100 nicer, larger units. Expect this to pass after more public hearings on design details.

Unimin. On the table is a proposal to spend $10 to $12 million purchasing and repurposing the Unimin building as both police station and school administration offices. Consider savings of $3 million from the BOE lease and $7 million in police renovation costs — the math could work. If the economics are even close this is a very good idea. Sell the old police station to a developer for affordable, senior or workforce housing. It’s a natural extension of the Schoolhouse Apartments. It retains seniors. If a private developer cannot make his numbers work maybe our Housing Authority can. The town wins in two ways: we add a much-needed affordable or senior housing choice on walkable South Avenue and we get an efficient office building as offices. Give it a chance.

Parking. Deck the lumberyard? We wanted this when it was estimated at $8 million. Now, decking is estimated at $12 million. At $48,000 per spot it will take 40 years to pay for it. We can’t afford that. We can’t afford to do nothing. Our Grand List depends on reliable transportation and parking. Sell the development rights to the street front of the property to get estimates back under $8 million. Sell the frontage, hide the deck. Decking the Locust Lot at $4,125,000 for 89 spots ($46,348 each) is not viable. Acquire more spots at the Talmadge Hill and Locust lots for half the price of decking. Do this while working the Lumberyard plan.

Chairman’s View: Seeking More Transparency from School Leaders, column for June 6, 2018

Chairman’s View: Seeking more transparency from school leaders

JUNE 6, 2018 BY BY JOHN ENGEL, TOWN COUNCIL CHAIRMAN, AND CRISTINA A. ROSS, TOWN COUNCIL

When the Town Council met earlier this year to review the upcoming Board of Education budget for 2018-19, we paid great respect to the challenge they face in providing excellence within 2% guidance alongside rising health care and labor costs. We wanted to approve the administration’s bold experiment to propose an ‘Alternative High School’ within the former Outback building, but it felt premature and the budget did not contain the detailed financial information we needed about a proposed Alternative High School for it to gain approval.

School leaders urged parents to attend the Town Council meetings to support the budget as presented, threatening that extra-curricular activities such as Model UN and favorite classes would be affected if any cuts in the budget were implemented.

Given the reductions in the budget request, it came as a surprise to learn, through the Board of Education (BOE) meeting last week, that the administration was moving ahead with their original plans for an Alternative High School. 

Seeking transparency, finding surprise

I thought we agreed to reduce headcount through attrition. I thought we agreed to start the conversation together about how we could work together for long-term savings. We see job postings for Alternative High School openings are online. We thought we were shedding real estate, and then we read in the newspaper that BOE is discussing real estate for the Alternative High School program in private, because publicity of that could adversely affect the price. The price of what? Where is the transparency in this process? Where is the spirit of cooperation?

Connecticut statutes empower only the BOE to decide how their budget gets appropriated once approved by municipality funding bodies. The Board of Education members have delegated most of that responsibility, which is entrusted to them by their Bylaws, the New Canaan Charter and the state statutes, to the school administration, and those meetings are not open to parents, the press or Town government. 

New Canaan residents and at least a few members of the Town Council are left wondering where did the money for these programs come from.  

At a time of uncertainty with regards to property taxes and taxable deductions, we need to ensure that every dollar we collect is warranted. The approved education budget was not supposed to negatively impact the current special education program. We thought the budget would allow the school administration to continue current programing without any cuts.  

If you really need an Alternative High School please have these conversations in the open. Invite the public and the Town Council in. Provide us some of the supporting documentation of its mission, approach, financial sustainability and success measures. 

The BOE needs to follow its own bylaws with transparency, and when seeking financial support look to quantify the financial impacts. We need to implement prudent, fiscally conservative changes with success measures that are financially responsive to the needs of our community.

Chairman’s View: Urging School Board to Resolve Security Camera Issue, column for May 24, 2018

Chairman’s View: Urging school board to resolve security camera issue

MAY 24, 2018 BY NEW CANAAN TOWN COUNCIL CHAIRMAN JOHN ENGEL

I wrote this column in February and pulled it before publication, because I thought we were making progress. Instead I wrote to the superintendent of schools on Feb. 27. I received no reply. 

For the last several years the New Canaan Police had viewing access to the interior and exterior cameras of all New Canaan Public Schools from their dispatch center. They could select a specific camera if there was an incident. About a year ago police access to the interior cameras was cut off. The police chief was told that the superintendent / Board of Education was concerned about student privacy and cited FERPA laws.

Subsequently the superintendent sent the police a very restrictive memorandum of understanding (MOU), which the chief would not sign. When asked, the chief has said, “These restrictions were not workable especially in an emergency situation. Logging into the system during an emergency is not realistic.”

The police chief revised the MOU months ago to be workable from a student safety perspective. Police access to all school cameras is the next step (albeit small) to ensure student safety. The issue remains unresolved.

One Town Council member defended the right of the superintendent to make that decision saying, “The BOE has made a policy decision that’s entirely within their authority.” How do we know? The BOE does not discuss these important policy changes at their public meetings. 

The main argument is that courts have ruled that security video footage of a public school should remain classified as an educational record under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). It seems crazy to suggest that a live-feed to the police is the same as making security camera footage available to the public. We don’t need to know the details of your security plan, but we expect our police to be involved and consulted on all matters of security. After all, we do not have two police forces — a private one for schools and one for the rest of us. 

We expect police to be involved with drug-sniffing dogs and underage drinking, too — any suspected crime where the police think they have a problem. Chris Hussey raised this question of unannounced police access at a recent Board of Education meeting and learned “they [police] had to give the school notification.” 

The Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that police are permitted to use dogs to sniff out contraband during unannounced, random searches. While the Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable search and seizure the Court ruled that students do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in schools. These issues are related. Please do not keep the police at arms length.

As much as the schools prefer to handle things themselves within their walled garden, school security is not their decision alone. Work with the chief of police; solve this impasse.