2008-09 Audit Now Available

The just completed audit for the 2008-09 fiscal year is now available online at the Town website. I have not had a chance to read through either document yet but will be doing so prior to the taping of the show I do with Marilyn Vitale. There are 2 documents. One is the Financial Audit and the other is a single format audit for the Federal and State governments which accounts for the money received from the Feds and the State of Connecticut.

Here are the links from the Town site.

Fiscal Year 2008-09 Audit

State and Federal Single Audit

Brush Fire Off Hemingway Avenue

A brush fire started in the swampy area behind Calabro Cheese on Hemingway late this afternoon. According to Fire Marshall Tony Moscato the fire was called in around 5:30PM. By the time I arrived at the scene around 6:25PM the fire was mostly out. A large contingent of East Haven firemen responded plus 2 trucks from Branford. No cause of the fire was known. Besides myself there were press crews from Channels 3 and 8. Take a look at the end of the raw video I have uploaded and you will see the reporter from Channel interviewing Tony Moscato.

PZC - 2/3/2010

Here are the videos from last nights PZC meeting and public hearing...

Public Hearing - 495 South Beach Road

Regular Meeting:

Town Council - 2/2/2010

The Town Council met at 7 last night for a Public Hearing followed at 7:30 by the Regular Meeting for February. Overall it was a pretty boring evening. The Public Hearing concerned the moving of some money from an interest account to a principal account. It was so boring I believe I heard snoring during the presentation by the Finance Director.

The Regular Meeting was similarly boring for most of the items on the agenda. The one extended discussion took place on the issue of collecting a fee when a burglar alarm goes off and the police department has to respond. The ordinance on the books requires a $25 fee after the alarm goes off 5 times. Apparently, Chief Gallo decided that this ordinance did not need to be enforced sometime in the Maturo administration. The sense of the Council is that Paul Hongo should tell the Chief to start enforcing the ordinance again.

Public Hearing:

Regular Meeting:

BOE Finance Subcommittee - 2/1/2010

Here is the video from last night's BOE Finance Subcommittee meeting. For now I will leave the commentary off since I have some things to do. Enjoy the budget and school reorganization discussion:

Part 1:

Part 2:

BOE Wants 6.75% Increase

If the Board of Education gets its way the taxpayers of East Haven will be looking forward to a significant tax increase in the 2010-2011 fiscal year. The Board approved a budget calling for a 6.75% increase over this year's budget. That would amount to a total increase of over $2.9M. Such an increase equals about 1.5 mills extra in spending by the BOE alone. That 1.5 mills does not take into account any increase the town may have to make in their budget. Even with the huge tax increase the BOE is asking for, the size of classes is set to rise to levels unseen in many years. Some classes are set to rise to 24-25 students under this budget. One has to ask what they are planning on doing with this extra $2.9M? The entire Special Meeting called to pass the operating budget for next year took only 10 minutes. It is amazing that the BOE could take so little time when asking the taxpayers of East Haven to hand over such a huge pile of money in the worst recession in decades. Watch for yourself ...

Funniest Political Ad In A Long Time

This has nothing to do with East Haven or even Connecticut but this political ad from a coroner's race in New Orleans is creative, twisted, sick, warped and funny. Hat tip to the Talking Points Memo blog.