Finance Committee hears departmental budget workshops: communications upgrade, $8.45M for engineering, hiring and fleet updates

The New Haven Finance Committee on April 9 held budget workshops with multiple city departments to review proposed FY2026 operating and capital requests and preview planned projects.

Public safety communications City staff outlined a proposed $3 million capital allocation for upgrades to public-safety communications equipment, including replacement of aging fixed radio infrastructure, updated consoles and encryption capability. Presenters said the current system is near end-of-life and requires replacement of fixed equipment, furniture in the dispatch center and redundant radio routing to improve resilience. The department reported it is actively recruiting dispatcher/operators; staffing shortfalls have contributed to higher overtime in recent months, and officials said filling vacancies will reduce overtime pressure over time.

Engineering capital and staffing requests City Engineer Jovan Zinn presented an $8.45 million city capital package for engineering projects and recommended two new general-fund positions: a resource analyst/scheduler and a civil work specialist. Zinn said the resource analyst will help track and coordinate project schedules across the department’s large pipeline and the civil work specialist will perform field inspections and oversight of contractors to ensure work meets city specifications. Key capital priorities cited included sidewalk reconstruction, bridge maintenance and targeted stormwater and flood-control investments; Zinn said the Ferry Street bridge approach work and Army Corps flood projects remain major multi-year priorities.

Chief administrative office and human resources CAO staff discussed citywide priorities including IT and software upgrades, fleet modernization, and changes to testing and recruitment. Human Resources staff said digitized, remote entry-level testing has reduced the overtime burden that once arose from proctored in-person exams. The CAO’s office also reported on electric-vehicle deployments for municipal fleets, noting 37 EVs had been deployed with chargers assigned and that the city is piloting additional EVs for maintenance and board of education use while evaluating suitability for heavy-duty and plow vehicles.

Enterprise funds: golf course, rink, tower, carousel Staff reviewed four enterprise funds that are intended to be budget-neutral: East Rock communications tower (now in spend-down mode for infrastructure), the Rauschwager skating rink (ongoing maintenance and operating contracts), the municipal golf course (operator transition, clubhouse and cart-replacement planning) and the Lighthouse Carousel (facility maintenance and planning for window upgrades). Presenters said most enterprise funds are solvent; the communications-tower fund will no longer fully self-support required system-wide capital work.

Ending: Committee members asked for additional detail and follow-up on schedule management, contractor oversight, recruitment timelines and the dispatch capital plan. Departments will provide supplemental materials and the committee will continue review as the budget process proceeds.