Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

Where are the disclosure forms?

Friday, June 13th, 2008

Most of the BOA have yet to turn in there disclosure forms which are due back in March 2008. Here is the list of who did and didn’t turn them in yet 2 1/2 months later.

Here are the 2008 BOA Ethics/Disclosure Forms that have been turned in.

Turned them in. Thanks
Ward 3 - James
Ward 4 - Jackson Brooks
Ward 5 - Perez
Ward 6 - Colon
Ward 8 - Smart
Ward 9 - Lemar
Ward 14 - Sturgis-Pascale
Ward 15 - J. Rodriguez
Ward 16 - Castro
Ward 24 - McCormack
Ward 25 - Silverman
Ward 27 - Lehtonen
Ward 28 - Sandman
Ward 29 - Goldfield

Where’s your form????
Ward 1 - Plattus
Ward 2 - Calder
Ward 7 - Clark
Ward 10 - Brison
Ward 11 - Lee
Ward 12 - Antunes
Ward 13 - Rhodeen
Ward 17 - Paolillo
Ward 18 - DePino
Ward 19 - Edwards
Ward 20 - Blango
Ward 21 - Jones
Ward 22 - Morehead
Ward 23 - Shah

Best New Haven Watchdog Group - Staff Pick

Thursday, May 15th, 2008

Best Of New Haven Award

Thanks to Andy Bromage, Editor of the New Haven Advocate for selecting us for one of their “Best Of” Awards.

He writes:

Best New Haven Watchdog Group

Don’t you hate those people that complain about city government but offer nothing in terms of real solutions? New Haven Citizens’ Action Network (known by the uplifting acronym NHCAN) are not those people. The group’s a loose collection of self-appointed citizen watchdogs (including Jeffrey Kerekes and Mona Berman, pictured) that offers alternatives to the city’s budget, with line-item-specific recommendations for how New Haven can cut costs, while still keeping intact all the services we rely on city government for. See nhcan.org.

—Andy Bromage

Budget Deliberations Debacle

Thursday, May 8th, 2008

The aldermen said we needed to demonstrate to them that people care about the tax issue and we turned out 100 people. They promptly canceled the meeting after it started. Why couldn’t they deliberate about the cuts they want to make, the future cuts and savings?

Here is the press coverage:

New Haven Independent

New Haven Register

Thank you to all of you who came. Please come to the rescheduled meeting and bring some friends and neighbors.

Next BOF Meeting: Tuesday, April 8, 2008 6:00 PM Aldermanic Chambers

Sunday, April 6th, 2008

Finance Committee
City of New Haven
Meeting Agenda

165 Church Street
New Haven, CT 06510
(203) 946-6483 (phone)
(203) 946-7476 (fax)
cityofnewhaven.com

Tuesday, April 8, 2008 6:00 PM Aldermanic Chambers
Aldermanic Notice - New Haven
The Finance Committee will hold a workshop on Tuesday, April 8, 2008, at 6:00 P.M, in the
Aldermanic Chambers, 165 Church St., New Haven, to hear testimony from City Departments
concerning their budget requests for FY 2008-2009. These departments are;

Registrar of Voters
Board of Education
Chapel West Special Service District
Whalley Avenue Special Service District
Town Green Special Service District
Corporation Counsel
Fair Rent Commission
Community Services Administration
Department of Public Health
Department of Elderly Services
Department of Youth Services
Economic Development Administration
Subsidies (Shubert Theater, Tweed/New Haven Airport, Grove Street Garage, Pilot Pen)
City Plan Commission
Small Business Initiative
Department of Transportation, Traffic & Parking
Commission on Equal Opportunity
Livable City Initiative
Office of Building Inspection & Enforcement

These items are filed with the City Clerk and may be inspected at Room 202, 200 Orange St.,
New Haven. Per order: Yusuf I. Shah, Chair. Attest: Ron Smith, City Clerk.
If you need a disability-related accommodation, please call three business days in advance
946-8122 (voice) or 946-8582 (TTY).
City of New Haven Page 1 Printed on 3/31/2008

2008-9 Forms 106 — “Detailed” Line Item Explanations

Thursday, March 27th, 2008

The detailed line item forms are now available for download (6.1 MB). These detail what each department is spending money on.

Correction

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

Our latest doc on questions mentioned the Fire Department and it was regarding the Police department.

It should read:

2. Police Services. Contract reserve of $900,000 (p64). This is in addition to the existing contractual payments and signals to all that the City is prepared to increase wages by 5.3% in the next round of contract negotiations (Personnel costs in Police Services are $33.767 million so $900K over the new contract months in 2009 represents 5.3%. In the interest of transparency this item should be included in Dept 201 (Police Services)

Get the updated version here.

2008-9 Budget Questions & Concerns

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

Looking through the 2008-9 City of New Haven budget document, we found a number of questions and concerns as well as things that we didn’t understand. We forwarded this list to all 30 Alders today for their review. Please let us know if you find discrepancies, questions or concerns in the budget and we will forward them along with ours.

See our list of Questions & Concerns.

Update Recommendations

Tuesday, March 11th, 2008

We have updated the budget recommendations document we released previously. We tried to simplify the process by listing the changes on pages 23 & 24 of the new document. We hope to save you some time in finding the updates in this manner. We continue to welcome the outpouring of recommendations and comments from readers.

See the new version here.

2008-2009 Mayor’s Budget

Taxes & Migration: A concern for New Haven?

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

Read this article about the effects of taxes on migration inside the United States.

The Next Budget

Wednesday, November 14th, 2007

Unfortunately, its not too early to begin thinking about the next Budget Cycle (2008-2009). We are soliciting ideas for what you think represents Financial Responsibility in New Haven. Do you have spending cuts, new programs, or revenue generation ideas? Please send them to us at the email address at the bottom of the page. We will be submitting a formal recommendation from NHCAN to the BOA once our ideas are compiled into this year’s proposal.