25% of Budget, 5 Minutes of Questions: What are the Council Republicans up to?

 

Enfield Town Council budget workshop


The Town Council is currently preparing the 2026 budget. Department heads present their proposals at public workshops where council members usually ask detailed questions. However, something notable occurred during this week's Department of Public Works (DPW) budget presentation.

Despite DPW accounting for nearly 25% of the town's non-education spending, the questioning lasted less than five minutes, with only a few basic inquiries from Republican council members. The Democrats, as the minority party with limited influence on the budget, remained silent. [YouTube video: Q&A starts at about 1:31. The DPW presentation begins at about 1:16)

There were no substantial questions or debate during the presentation itself, and nothing raised about the pending outsourcing study—despite its direct relevance to the DPW budget.

This limited discussion raises legitimate questions, particularly as the Council is actively exploring outsourcing trash collection—a significant operational change that would affect this department.

Consultants were hired in November 2024 to study the outsourcing option. Their report was discussed in an executive session on April 7, 2025, but has not yet been released to the public, even as budget decisions are being made.

This timing is concerning. Connecticut FOIA law states that a document's "draft" status (the current explanation for withholding the report) does not automatically exempt it from disclosure. The town must demonstrate that withholding the report serves a greater public interest than releasing it. It hasn't done that. 

Benefits and risks of outsourcing? 

Outsourcing services is a major decision. The public deserves an open process of examining and discussing benefits and risks.

What is most worrisome is a resolution to seek outsourcing bids, which could appear with minimal notice before a council vote—after decisions are made in private discussions.

The politics around outsourcing is thick.

Back in December, the Republican Town Committee outlined key points about outsourcing in a Facebook post. While they're explicitly denying plans to privatize trash collection, it sees outsourcing as a potential option and setting conditions for how that might work, namely no job losses but possible reassignments or position eliminations through attrition. Clearly, what this post tells us is that this move was thought out months ago.

What did the report say? 

We can only speculate, but it's possible that the consultant's report isn't being released because it puts some cold water on outsourcing. The Republican leadership may not agree with the report, hence the decision to call it a "draft." That may be why the Republicans didn't grill DPW at the budget workshop. They don't want to accidentally raise the issue of outsourcing and undermine their claim that they can withhold the consultant's report under FOIA law. That strategy may not work and we have to consider that the executive session is violating FOIA laws. Perhaps the Democrats can demand a third-party, independent assessment of the executive session privilege claim, similar to a federal IG report.

The Republican leadership should release the taxpayer-funded report and go public with their reasoning. The Democrats, the minority party, can do more to force this issue and demand release of the consultant's report. Sometimes you need to go on the offense.

Transparency matters. It was a good idea for the town to start broadcasting the budget deliberation. That's a real win for our community. But that doesn't do any good if the Town Council saves the difficult questions for closed doors and spends all of five minutes asking questions about 25% of the budget. 

Non-disclosure of the report is a means for the Republican majority to control the discussion.
Location: Enfield, CT 06082, USA

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