Emergency Account Dwindling As Fiscal Year End Nears

With two months left in the fiscal year, there's only a bit more than $300,000 left in the Legislative Council's Emergency and Contingency account after several transfers committees approved Monday.

The largest of those transfers was $200,000 for Fire Department overtime costs which had been anticipated so weren't a surprise to the council members.

At this point last year, there was $250,000 in the account, and that money went on to be deposited into the town's equally anemic fund balance, council member Harry Gagliardi said.

"Is there been any recommendation to the administration to curtail spending at this point?" he asked. "I have a serious concern that the fund balance is non-existant and want to know if the mayor has put out that directive."

There's been the equivilant of a spending freeze in place since last December, Chief Administrative Officer Curt Balzano Leng said.

"Department heads were told to approve only items that are absolutely necessary," Leng said, "so there's been close to a spending freeze for the last four to five months."

When Councilman Scott Harris asked for examples of spending that had been rejected under the freeze, Leng said he would provide the council with the list of what was rejectes and what programs hadn't been done under the freeze.

But council president Judi Kozak said that wasn't necessary.

"I don't want to see what was kicked back," she said. "I have faith in how the system works."