Council Discusses $833k Shortfall Concern, Elects Board of Finance Replacement
- Avery Martin
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
Southington’s town council began its meeting Monday night by voting unanimously to elect Robert Britton to fill the Board of Finance position left empty by the death of Edward Pocock Jr.
Britton, a Republican, gave his letter of resignation from the Planning and Zoning Committee to the council upon his appointment to the board.
“[Britton] is highly qualified for this position. Something I personally feel is extremely important for every candidate serving on our Board of Finance,” said Vice Chairwoman Jennifer Clock.
Britton is currently employed as Senior Vice President of M & T Bank. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in General Studies from UConn and his MBA in Finance and International Business from the University of Hartford.
Britton will serve on the Board of Finance until November 2027.
“I'm excited to be part of it. I think it aligns with my current job and employment. I think I can add some value to the board of finance for the town of Southington,” said Britton.
He said filling Pocock’s position will be a challenge, but a welcome one. Pocock, a longtime member of the Board of Finance, died on July 1 at the age of 87.
“Big shoes to fill. I met Ed; he was like a grandfather to a lot of people, so hopefully I can do half the job he did,” said Britton.
Before returning to public business, the council held an 87-minute-long executive session to discuss pending litigation. Also present in the closed-door meeting were several Board of Finance members and lawyers for the town.
Questions over Possible $833k Budget Shortfall Aired
During its regular session, a $833,000 payment the state gave the town at the end of its last budget session, one intended for Board of Education use, became a point of contention among council members.
The state waived a requirement that the extra funds should directly increase spending in the school budget. So, in order to convert it into relief for taxpayers, the council previously cut the Board of Education budget by that sum.
The problem seems to be that the Board of Finance calculated the mill rate by treating the state payment as revenue that did not need to be transferred to the Board of Education budget - thus, in effect, double-counting it.
“The $833,000 that was added back in, related to educational funding, I'm concerned about," said council member Christopher Palmieri, the leader of the Democrats on the council. "I know the Board of Finance is talking about this, that it's not accounted for in the mill rate. So I'm trying to understand how that happened, and how we are going to make up that $833,000 if it was not factored in when we calculated the mill rate for our residents.”
Town manager Alex Ricciardone listed several options for dealing with the potential $833,000 budget hole. The Board of Finance, he said, had decided against increasing the mill rate, or pulling from the rainy day fund. Ricciardone recommended dipping into the town’s budget surplus to cover costs.
“[We have] a $2.455 million budget surplus from the budget that ended July 1 of 2025. So my suggestion would be, if the Board of Finance and Town Council want to give the $833,000 to the Board of Ed, to harvest that money through a one-time appropriation. That's my recommendation,” said Ricciardone.
Chairman Paul Chaplinsky, head of the council Republicans, said the council did not make a mistake with its budget votes. “There’s no error on our side, and there’s no shortfall really. The vote that we made is the vote that we made... The way that it was discussed and structured here is the way it was passed at the Board of Finance."
Chaplinsky emphasized that the budget issue was now Finance's responsibility.
“That’s not a town council job,” said Chaplinsky. “That’s a Board of Finance job. When the budget leaves here, the Board of Finance decides, based on our actions, how do they want to set the mill rate. They can set the mill rate as they wish. They can set the mill rate equal to, lower or higher.”
Council Addresses Library Plaque Payments
Later in the session, Council members from both parties united to express disapproval of Councilor Jim Morelli’s handling of payments for a $3,063 plaque at the library that he purchased without prior authorization. Council members alleged that Morelli asked that the payments be split into separate amounts so that they would fall below the town’s $1,000 limit for no-bid purchases.
On Wednesday, the Southington Republican Town Committee condemned the actions of their fellow Republican in a Facebook post that also urged Morelli to resign from the Committee as he had said he would do this past March.
The council meets again on Tuesday, August 10.