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Health & Fitness

Republican Led Board of Finance Has Changed the Culture of Positive Progress with Collaboration

John J. Leary provides an interesting background of overcoming converging fiscal challenges during the past four years of a Republican majority led Board of Finance. 

As Chairman of the Board he points out that immediately upon the current Republican administration takinjg office four years ago, Southington, like all of America. had to contend with nation's fiscal crisis, rampant unemployment and a very slow recovery still underway with the latest unemployment reports of the U.S. Labor Department showing 7.2 % unemployed.  

At the same time, locally in 2009, the town had to begin to face its aging infrastructure:  schools and board of education buildings, crowded town hall, the failing and crowded Gura Building. sewer system, park needs and detiorating condition of roads. Togther, these pressing needs represented huge reconstruction costs, in the millions. 

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"The Board of Finance's job became to collaborate with other town entities to identify and prioritize needs while causing the least possible hardship on taxpayers, many facing the threat of mortgage default and/or unemployment.”, Leary said. 

Vice Chair Joseph Labieniec said: “The situation was worse with a culture of deeply in debt invidual lifestyles hanging on the thread of wrong assumptions that the economy would always be strong. With a weak economic climate, the financial culture had to change. Taxes are normally accepted as a way but with the deepeding financial distress, concerns about wasteful spending and lazy budgeting heightened.”

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Leary pointed out that now retiring Republican Board Member, "Wayne Stanford, had long held that what was need was a comprehensive long range capital plan for the Schools and town government capital items, And needs had to be prioritized by departments and leaders with estimates of costs presented along with projected efficiency and savings.” 

Labieniec noted: "The Capital Improvement Plan, (CIP), became and is now our critical, living and working document. Wihtout it, it's virtually impossible to properly budget for a municipality the size of Southington.”

“Town Manager Garry Brumback greatly improved our Information Technology. That paved the way through many of Southington's obstacles, opening the door to the 21st century with a basis for effective forging progress in the rapidly changing world of Internet Technology.", Labieniec said. 

“With limited capital dollars in a gloomy economic environment, priorities and collaborative review became the key.” Leary said. “By rapidly expressing the intention to re-build two aging middle schools, at a cost of close to $90 million, Southington locked in a huge savings before we even started, avoiding the possibility that the State of CT might be pressed to reduce or end its near 50% school renovation reimbursement program.”

“Meanwhile, with Health Care costs rapidly rising, our Self Insurance Committee implemented a subtantial cost-reducing Wellness Strategy to minimize the risk of increased costs running which run in the range of 10% and higher.”, Labieniec said.

 “This Board is proud, proud because we have changed the previous culture of financial management”, Leary said. “We became partners, not opponents, in shaping town policy, providing financial skills and advice to the Town Council.  Past boards had frankly been adversarial, using intimidating  approaches with department heads who dreaded going to board meetings. Notwithstanding, though the Town Manager and finance board listen respectfully to all who, with prudent minds and sound judgment, we still do not have the resources to address all infrastructure issues at once." 

"We must continue the work of assessing the level of service residents and taxpayers want in road maintenance, town landscaping, response time in snow removal, etc.” 

Lebieniec added: “Desired levels of service can be vague with citizens found on opposite ends of every issue and everywhere in between. 

The Town has been successful over the past 4 years, not because every citizen has agreed with every decision but because the administration is transparent in why and how each decision is made. The extent to which we can control success largely depends on the decision making process. The infrastructure and capital needs we financed successfully were the result of the process of identifying issues, review and collaboration with the people involved in a process that was highly functional, information-driven and results oriented.”  

“Communication and collaboration are absolutely vital in the professional world", Leary said. “I do as much of that part of my job as I do working on financial systems and technical accounting and I use the same approach in in town financial governance. Theres's really nothing more important than developing a high performance organization with trust and respect at its foundation.”

“I can say without a moment's hesitation that the Town clearly deserves a well-deseerved mark of ‘Significantly Improved’ but this is not a time for laurels but to continue our work, advancing on all levels.”, Labieniec said.

Considering the huge demands on our town’s financial resources these past few years, Leary and Labieniec concurred in one highly significant achievement: 

“We compared combined town and education expenses of the past 4 budget years and the prior 4 years. 

The revelation was striking: 

In the last 4 fiscal years encompassing 2010-2014, spending increased by $10 million, or 8.82%. In the prior 4-year period of 2005-2010, spending increased $16 million, or 16%.  

We managed a huge financial agenda with an 8.82% increase over the last four years compared to the previous four year administration’s 16% increase in expenses. 

Moreover, taxes for the median homeowner increased only 2.2%, not each year, but overall, for the median homeowner while the four years prior had tax increases nearly double ours.

Re-elect a Republican majority administration to continue using the special skills of Ed Pocock, Jr and our candidate, Jim Coleman, to join John Leary and Joe Labieniec in moving Southington through the still major challenges of the years ahead. 

Look over our candidates and Vote Republican on Tuesday, November 5, 2013.   

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