Comments made to the members of the common council by Mr. Bill Ostapchuk on May 14th.

Honorable Mayor and Honorable Members of the Common Council

I wish to thank you for the long hours of hard work that you have put in addressing
the very serious economic issues facing our community. My expression of gratitude
goes to the members of the Board of Finance and Taxation who labored long and
conscientiously in reviewing information before submitting their recommended budget
proposal to the mayor.

Their labors were acknowledged by the mayor for it appears that in preparing her
proposed budget for 2015 she accepted many of the recommendations of the Board of Finance and Taxation without change.

I am surprised that with the severity of this economic crisis that there was not a more
equitable distribution of its costs to all departments for the coming year. I do understand that the Board. of Finance and Taxation reviewed all requests submitted and made reductions.
However, preliminary review ofthe mayor's proposed budget suggests that the school
department, the fire department and the Office of Human Rights and Opportunities and the Bureau of Youth and Family Services bear a greater share of that cost.

The Board of Education request was $133,758,000 was as we all know reduced by the Board of Taxation and Financed and further reduced by the mayor. I am glad to see that the mayor, the Common Council and the Board of Education have formed a Blue Ribbon Committee to
work together to address the differences that exist. With 624 properties for sale in our
community there is the opportunity to attract young families which is important to our well- being.

The fire department's budget request for 15 .09 million was reduced by the Board of Finance and Taxation to $13.3 million and the mayor further reduced this request by 1.2 million in her proposed budget. What is surprising to me is that the mayor accepted the budget recommendations of the Board of Finance and Taxation as submitted with little or no change for many departments including Town Clerk, Treasurer's Office, Finance Department, public library, youth museum and the senior center. The proposed reduction in the fire department budget will have serious repercussions.

Please do not misrepresent what I have said. I am surprised that there was not a more equitable distribution of cuts in the budget.

I was very surprised in the mayor's proposal that she eliminates all line items in her budget for the city's Office of Human Rights and Opportunities.

It also eliminates all line items for the Bureau of Youth and Family Services
except salaries which have been reduced in the mayor's budget proposal from $234, 528 to $80,321. Cutting back the budget virtually eliminates this Bureau and its ability to leverage money. At present 48 percent of its budget is funded through local tax dollars while 52 percent comes from grant sources. I would suggest that in times of financial crisis, the Bureau of
Youth and Family Services provides an example for others and that you would want bureau's and departments to leverage tax dollars to obtain other funding and to work collaboratively with other departments and agencies within the city.