Council Questions Costs, Transparency, and Long-Delayed Progress

Hamden Legislative Council Recap (May 5–7): Budget Gaps, Rising Costs, and Calls for Reform

May 12, 2025

May 5, 2025 – Special Meeting – Budget Deliberations: Police Department & Animal Control

The Legislative Council held a special budget session to review the proposed FY25 budgets for the Police Department and Animal Control. The police department’s request focused on maintaining operations, covering contractual raises, overtime, and staffing needs. Council members raised concerns about transparency, racial equity, and public trust, but received vague, procedural responses. No clear commitments were made to improve complaint access, modernize systems, or rebuild confidence, leaving a gap between public expectations and the department’s direction.

Police Spend $1.8M in Overtime, Offer Few Answers on Reform

Chief Reynolds opened with an overview of staffing, noting 105 filled positions out of 122 authorized, attributing overtime spikes to vacancies, minimum staffing needs, and events coverage.
The department is not requesting new personnel, but rather seeking to stabilize funding for current staffing and contract obligations.
Overtime in FY24 exceeded $1.8 million, which Reynolds said was largely driven by unanticipated needs and shortfalls in full-time staffing.

“We're doing the best we can with the personnel that we have,” Reynolds said, citing court appearances, patrol coverage, and special events as core overtime drivers.

Rhonda Caldwell asked several pointed questions about racial disparities, community trust, and recruitment. She expressed concern about the department’s diversity record and asked for written policies on civilian complaint procedures.
Sean Cardwell inquired about the implementation of the Matrix study, a prior assessment of HPD operations. Reynolds confirmed some recommendations were followed, but not systemically implemented.
Adrian Weber pushed for more transparency, asking why civilian complaint information isn’t publicly posted. The Chief responded that data is collected, but not currently available online.
Dominique Baez asked whether civilian complaints and internal affairs data could be proactively shared with the public, and emphasized a need for standardized protocols that residents could easily access.
Ted Stevens asked for clarification on how holiday staffing is handled, specifically whether officers have the option to voluntarily work holidays to earn overtime, which could potentially inflate costs. Deputy Chief Onofrio explained that only a limited number of officers are permitted to work on a given holiday shift based on minimum staffing needs. The issue was not pushed further.

“Just wanted to make sure there wasn’t an option like, ‘Hey, 30 officers show up because they want the overtime pay,’” – Ted Stevens

Animal Control Runs On A Bare-Bones Budget

Briefly discussed toward the end of the meeting.
Chief Reynolds noted the team is effectively a two-person operation, which presents logistical challenges for 24/7 coverage.
Ted Stevens proposed exploring regionalization of animal control with neighboring towns as a long-term cost-saving and service-enhancing measure. He acknowledged it wouldn’t affect this year’s budget but encouraged stakeholders to begin considering the idea.

“I could see us getting both cost savings and better service... even five years down the road.” – Ted Stevens

Understaffed Assessors, Underreported Revenues

May 6, 2025 – Special Meeting – Budget Deliberations: Revenue Offices & Tax Policy

In this special budget session, the Hamden Legislative Council focused on departments responsible for property tax billing and collection, including the Assessor’s Office, Board of Assessment Appeals, and the Tax Collector. The meeting touched on property revaluation, appeals volume, tax lien sales, and structural issues with how revenue is tracked and reported. The tone was at times urgent and skeptical, as several council members raised concerns about missing revenue, budget transparency, and incomplete integration of grant and ARPA-funded salaries into the town’s accounting system.

Assessor’s Office Stretched by Revaluation Backlash

The Council focused significant attention on the Assessor’s Office, raising concerns about its ability to manage the post-revaluation appeals process. With a record number of property owners challenging their new assessments, Sarah Gallagher and Rhonda Caldwell questioned whether the office has sufficient staffing or automation in place to handle the workload fairly and efficiently. They warned that delays or inconsistencies could erode public trust and disrupt tax billing.

Assessor Sajida Farooqui responded with a detailed breakdown of current staffing and responsibilities. She acknowledged that while the team is doing its best, the office remains understaffed, with several key positions, such as a commercial appraiser, either vacant or filled by temporary workers. Farooqui noted that:

The department is still handling a high volume of appeals and court cases from the revaluation.
Gaps in staffing have led to high turnover, inconsistent assessments, and risks of missed deadlines.
Staff are actively assisting residents with documentation for appeals.
She requested the budget remain flat to preserve current capacity and avoid further disruptions during this critical period.

“Off the Books” and Out of Sight

Multiple council members pressed the administration on why known revenue sources, such as tax lien sales, grants, ARPA-funded stipends, and reimbursements, were not transparently included in the FY25 budget. There was clear frustration that certain revenues were either “off the books” or presented in ways that made oversight difficult.

Councilwoman Caldwell asked pointedly:

“If we’re funding positions through ARPA or grants, why are we also budgeting for them out of the general fund?”

Councilwoman Gallagher added:

“It feels like the right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing.”

Galarza’s Response:
Deputy Finance Director Rick Galarza acknowledged these concerns but offered limited specifics. On the tax lien sale, he confirmed it had occurred in FY24 and that an internal analysis was underway, but no detailed revenue impact or updated forecast was shared publicly during the session:

“We're putting that analysis together... we were going to meet with Mike Malone. He's asked the same information. So we weren't really sure whether to funnel it through him or to give it straight to Council...”

He described the tax lien revenue as “a small number” and deferred more precise figures.

On the lack of consolidated revenue reporting, Galarza admitted that grants and special revenue streams are not currently integrated into a single, council-accessible format. He said the administration is “working on improvements,” but offered no timeline, no deliverables, and no explanation for why this has persisted across multiple budget cycles.

Plans Without Progress, Services Without Strategy

May 7, 2025 – Special Meeting – Budget Deliberations: Infrastructure, Public Health, Personnel, and Legal Oversight

The Council reviewed funding requests from Engineering, Public Health (QVHD), Personnel, Legal, and Purchasing. Discussions focused on delayed infrastructure projects, service gaps in public health outreach, rising personnel costs, and the lack of performance metrics tied to legal spending. Council members questioned the pace of capital improvements, equity in health service delivery, and how outside legal costs are tracked and evaluated. Across departments, they called for clearer deliverables and better alignment between spending and results.

“We can’t keep approving the same numbers without getting better results.”
– Councilman Cardwell

Hamden’s Capital Bottleneck

Town Engineer Steven White presented an overview of Hamden’s infrastructure portfolio, including major capital projects like bridge replacements. Several of these, most notably the Willow Street Bridge, have been in discussion for over a decade but are only now nearing the design or bidding phase.

“We’re pushing for 2027 construction. That’s almost 20 years since we started planning.” – Steven White

White cited state-level coordination, slow design phases, and inflation-related cost increases as reasons for the delays. He noted that more capital project details would be addressed in next week’s session.

Councilman Sean Cardwell pushed for a formal bridge maintenance program and long-term capital plan, expressing concern over the slow pace of progress and the absence of clear benchmarks or timelines.

“Throwing those numbers out the way you did and waiting to do the projects… we know how that goes.” – Councilman Cardwell

The projects being discussed are part of the town’s capital budget framework, but what remains unclear is how much funding has already been appropriated in past years, how much has actually been spent, and how closely the town tracks those financial flows over multi-year delays. Council members did not receive a full breakdown during this session.

Residents and councilors alike are left with key questions: If a project has been on the books for years, how much has already been bonded or budgeted? What happens to funds if the project stalls? And how can the public track that information?

Public Health Services: Fair Share or Fixed Structure?

The Quinnipiac Valley Health District (QVHD) is the regional public health agency serving Hamden, North Haven, Bethany, and Woodbridge. It provides essential services like disease prevention, immunizations, inspections, and emergency preparedness, funded by town contributions, state/federal grants, and service fees.

Luis Pantoja, representing QVHD, presented the agency’s FY25 budget and responded to Council concerns about equity and service access. Several members questioned whether Hamden residents are getting proportional services for their financial contribution and pressed for more outreach to underserved, non-English-speaking communities.

“How do we know Hamden residents are getting their fair share?” – Councilwoman Rhonda Caldwell

Pantoja confirmed that QVHD tracks service logs and posts annual reports but acknowledged ongoing gaps in visibility and communication, especially for vulnerable populations. He also noted that Hamden’s membership in the district is governed by a 1978 agreement, not a renewable MOU, limiting the town’s leverage in shaping terms year to year.

Importantly, Pantoja revealed that the district is bracing for major funding cuts:

The State of Connecticut is proposing a 10% cut to per capita health funding.
The federal government is projecting a 26.5% cut to public health allocations.
These reductions could shrink QVHD’s budget significantly in future years, even as demand for equitable and responsive services grows.

Despite the concerns raised, no new commitments were made during the meeting to improve outreach or adjust funding formulas.

Contracted Salaries: Hidden Costs and Confusion Over Approval

Councilwoman Rhonda Caldwell raised sharp questions about newly funded positions tied to previously approved union contracts. Specifically, she cited $160,000 in new salaries for a traffic field engineer and transportation safety specialist, noting that this amount does not include pension or fringe benefits, and that those added costs are not presented clearly in the budget.

“We never really see that... the regular salaries are here, but not the health insurance and everything else that goes with it.” – Councilwoman Caldwell

Another council member clarified that the transportation safety specialist role was assigned a $58,000 base salary as part of the FY24–25 amendment, but again, full compensation costs were not shown.

Councilwoman Rhonda Caldwell raised a procedural red flag, questioning whether the Council had unintentionally authorized new hires simply by approving a union contract as part of a consent calendar earlier in the year. While the contract outlined terms for bargaining unit positions, Caldwell noted that there was no separate vote or detailed discussion about actually funding the positions, one of which is now listed in the FY26 budget. This, she argued, created a misleading impression that contract approval equated to a formal hiring decision. She emphasized that the Council never received a full cost breakdown, including benefits and pension obligations, and expressed concern that the administration may be retroactively interpreting a routine contract vote as blanket approval for expanded staffing.

“We approved the contracts. But the positions are being funded now with the fiscal 26 budget.” – Councilwoman Caldwell

Sean Cardwell echoed concern over the town’s financial exposure, asking whether these contracts lock the town into unsustainable obligations that may outpace inflation or available revenue in the coming years.

Legal Spending: High Costs, Low Visibility

Town Attorney Susan Gruen presented the legal department’s budget, which includes internal work and outsourced legal services. But when pressed by Councilwoman Sarah Gallagher, Gruen was unable to provide any kind of performance tracking, billable hour data, or win-loss record.

“We’re allocating a lot here, but there’s no framework for evaluating success.” – Sarah Gallagher

Other councilors expressed concern that the legal department functions without standard cost metrics or policy evaluations that could help the Council determine the efficiency or value of external legal spending. Gruen mentioned complexities related to grievance and contract enforcement, but did not indicate formal oversight systems.

Disclaimer: I pulled the full transcripts from the official recordings on the Town of Hamden’s Public Meeting Center and used AI tools to organize the content by topic. I then carefully reviewed and edited each section to ensure clarity and accuracy. I hope to make these meetings more accessible, especially for those who don’t have time to sit through hours of video. I hope these recaps help you stay informed and engaged.