Taxpayers' Group to Meet with Title Next Week

David G. Title will have a lot on his plate when he takes over as superintendent of schools on Thursday.

There's the ongoing Stratfield School expansion and renovation, the upcoming Fairfield Woods Middle School expansion and renovation, the state Board of Education's order for an amended plan to reduce McKinley School's racial imbalance, the $73 million wish list of school improvement projects compiled by the school district's Central Office, determining a new feeder pattern for elementary school students to go to middle school, a possible townwide redistricting, the upcoming audit of the Board of Education's budget and the controversy over whether students should be given mandatory breathalyzer tests before they attend school dances and other school-sponsored events.

There's also the underlying and continual belief among many town residents that the Board of Education's budget, set at $141.6 million in 2010-11, is too high. That's where Bob Forcellina and Kate Daniello, co-founders of We the People, a taxpayers' group, come in.

Daniello and Forcellina are scheduled to meet with Title July 8 to talk about the upcoming audit of the Board of Education's budget and introduce him to We the People, which Forcellina said today has about 1,500 residents on an e-mail list.

The town and Board of Education are conducting separate efficiency audits of their budgets, though the school board recently agreed to let a member from the town's Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance and Representative Town Meeting sit on the committee that oversees the audit of the school board's budget.

Bids for an audit of the townside operating budget are due July 7; bids for an audit of the Board of Education's budget are due July 16, and town boards and the school board each approved $50,000 for the audits. Daniello said last week that We the People had reviewed the bid solicitation for the townside audit and that it required bidding firms to have extensive background and success in operational audits and opened the way for review of all town departments.

But Daniello and Forcellina have questioned whether $50,000 is enough to do an audit of the operating budgets. Flatto said several weeks ago that more money may be available if bids come in high, while Pam Iacono, vice chairman of the Board of Education, said today that the school board would evaluate what to do if bids for its audit exceed $50,000. "We left it open-ended, and we'll assess the situation when we start to get the bids back," she said.

Iacono said she thinks the meeting between We the People and Title, which she also plans to attend, will be productive. "I think any type of communication is always productive. It helps to talk, flesh things out and hear from other people," she said.

Forcellina said the town has to stop spending as much money as it's spending and that was true of governments at the state and federal level as well. He said he was disappointed that the town budget for the 2010-11 fiscal year, which starts Thursday, carries a tax increase even after the town's teachers agreed to a 0 percent salary increase in that fiscal year.

"We're pleased that something is happening," Forcellina said of the upcoming audits, "and we're only hoping that the town does tighten up and be more fiscally responsible than they have been in the past."

"Our main goal is to save the taxpayers money...That's our main goal - to make our representatives wake up and not spend money like crazy," Forcellina added.

Forcellina said the town has no control over how money is spent by the Board of Education once the school board's budget is approved, and he also was critical of First Selectman Ken Flatto for spending too much. Flatto, as first selectman, prepares the proposed town budget every year that is reviewed and voted on by town boards and he also initiates funding requests outside of the town budget by placing them on the Board of Selectmen's agenda.

"Ken Flatto is a nice guy, but he wants to give everything to everyone, and he's very popular. But you can't do it anymore. There are more people out of work than ever before...There are a lot of people on our side, where we had nobody a year ago," Forcellina said.

Forcellina said We the People would have to organize a referendum on the 2011-12 budget if spending wasn't restrained.