ANSONIA – A financial consultant hired by Mayor Frank Tyszka’s administration to review past city budgets is scheduled to give an update to the Board of Aldermen Tuesday (Feb. 17).

Thomas Hamilton, of Hamilton Consulting, LLC, is scheduled to deliver the presentation at 7 p.m. during a meeting at the Ansonia Senior Center (65 Main St).

The meeting is open to the public. Click here for an agenda. The meeting will be in person.

Mayor Frank Tyszka, a Democrat, hired Hamilton in January to assess budgets created under his Republican predecessor, Mayor David Cassetti. 

Tyszka has accused Cassetti’s administration of inserting “lies” into its budgets, citing revenue projections from economic development projects that have yet to materialize.

Hamilton’s appointment was announced in a press release Jan. 21. He is being paid $36,500.

Hamilton’s overview is happening in advance of Tyszka presenting a proposed budget for next year to the Board of Aldermen. The budget unveiling is scheduled for March 10.

Tyszka has said the city finances are such that a mill rate increase is possible. Click here for a previous Valley Indy story.

Hamilton “will provide an overview of the city’s current fiscal condition and outlook and offer residents clear, factual information on the city’s fiscal position,” according to a press release from the mayor’s office sent Feb. 15.

Tony Mammone, the chairman of the Ansonia Town Republican Committee and a former Alderman, said he doesn’t know how useful the meeting will be, since Hamilton was just hired.

“How has he been able to do an effective review in such a short amount of time where he’s going to be able to give any sort of factual information?” Mammone said.

Ansonia Aldermen Overrule Charter Budget Timeline

Separately, the all-Democratic Board of Aldermen will not stick to the budget process deadlines outlined in the Ansonia City Charter. 

Tyszka said he needs the extra time to deliver a budget so that he can review the financial status of the city. Hamilton’s hiring is part of that process, he said.

This is the same set of deadlines the Aldermen did not adhere to when the mayor and all the Aldermen were all Republicans (save for one member who was unaffiliated but elected on the Republican ticket).

According to the Ansonia City Charter, the mayor was supposed to present a budget by Monday (Feb. 8).

The Aldermen recently voted to override that deadline. 

Before taking office, city Democrats criticized the Republicans for not following the rules in the charter. The Republicans at the time said the budget relied heavily on state aid, the amount of which isn’t known until later.

Caroline Baird, a partner at the city’s corporation counsel firm Androski Law, recently advised the Board of Aldermen that they were within their rights to set new deadlines which contradict the charter.

Background

The deadlines in the charter were written into law and approved by voters at a referendum in 2014. 

They were part of a wider set of charter changes championed by Cassetti’s administration, including taking budget approval power away from the Board of Apportionment and Taxation and giving it to the Board of Aldermen.

The Aldermen, during Cassetti’s administration, followed the new charter deadlines in 2015 and then violated them for nine years in a row.

Charter Change?

Elected officials from the previous administration and the current administration both said the charter changes created a budget process that can’t be followed.

Tyszka said Feb. 10 he wants to see the Cassetti-era charter revisions reversed. He said the city’s budget process should go back to the way it was before Cassetti – with the tax board getting the final say over the budget.

“That’s what I’m going to ask the charter revision people to do. Go back to the old way, because the way they did it doesn’t work. It’s a free-for-all,” Tyszka said during the Feb. 10 Board of Aldermen meeting.