SAUGUS — The Finance Committee met Wednesday to discuss the fiscal year 2023 budget proposals from the town’s police and fire departments.
The Police Department is seeking a $9 million budget, and the Fire Department is asking for $6 million in funding for FY23.
“These are very important budgets, because they concern public safety,” said Finance Committee Chairman Kenneth DePatto. “They stay within the confines of what the manager recommends for their budgets. They are not asking for excessive capital outlay or additional employees.”
Police Chief Michael Ricciardelli said most of the funding requests made by his department are for salaries. This figure is expected to increase by $283,235 in FY23, which would bring the salary budget line to $5.83 million.
As part of these salaries, career and education incentive wages saw a bump of $16,526 and $11,175, respectively. The department also anticipates an increase of $26,424 for dispatcher salaries, which would bring that budget line to $775,247, he said.
“These are the contractual wage increases,” said Ricciardelli, explaining that the budget-line increase for salaries is due to a previous collective-bargaining agreement between the town and its labor unions.
Ricciardelli said the Police Department responded to 19,092 calls for service and made 193 arrests in 2021. Police responded to 512 motor vehicle crashes and conducted 1,466 motor vehicle stops in that year, he said.
Due to a state police-reform bill that became law in 2021, the Police Department’s training budget will see an increase of $60,614 — from $255,903 in FY22 to $316,517 in FY23. Ricciardelli said this increase is due to a requirement in the new law that increases the amount of police training per year.
“If we don’t keep up with that, we would lose accreditation,” said Ricciardelli. “It’s not a bad thing; more training is always good.”
The main concern of the Saugus Fire Department in the next fiscal year is the replacement of an aging ladder truck, which has already been repaired several times.
The Fire Department is asking for an increase in salaries, which would bring its total budget line to $5.74 million. This represents a $227,736 increase over FY22.
“(This is) a slight increase that is not significant,” said Fire Chief Michael Newbury.
The Fire Department said the increase was largely due to community-support program obligations.
In addition, the salary for the town’s animal control officer (ACO) increased to $64,720, which is a $1,077 increase over the salary budgeted for the position last year. Overtime allowances for the ACO will increase by $2,000 in FY23, to bring the amount of allowed overtime to $6,000.
“Staffing levels are OK in both of those departments,” said DePatto. “Right now, they are adequate to provide public safety.”
DePatto said at Wednesday’s meeting that it was important for residents to understand that the town’s budget has a structural deficit of more than $1 million. He said he was hopeful that this scenario would change before it is voted on at Town Meeting.
The total FY23 town budget has been presented at $120 million.
