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Oak Hills Park Authority seeks health-plan tie to Norwalk as budget season begins
Summary
Authority leaders said they were negotiating with the City of Norwalk about employee health coverage after the Connecticut Partnership Fund declined enrollment; controllers warned rising utility and capital needs will shape the coming budget.
Alan Dutton, chair of the Oak Hills Park Authority, told members at the March 20 meeting that the authority did not qualify to join the Connecticut Partnership Fund and is negotiating with the City of Norwalk about employee health coverage.
"Basically, they did not believe that we were part of, the city of Norwalk, and ... they did not allow us to do that," Dutton said. He added the authority "are optimistic" the city may allow them to join and that he would report back as talks proceed.
The issue matters to employees and to the authority's finances because the board will budget for a new insurer if city coverage is not approved. General Manager James Holiday said the authority must sign with a new carrier because the current plan will end March 31. "We will be signing on with a new company," Holiday said, until any agreement with Norwalk is finalized.
Controller Mark said the authority is entering budget season with mixed recent results. He noted February closures left the course with no green-fee revenue that month, though reduced expenses kept the authority close to budget on net income. Mark said he moved $20,000 from an investment account to cover near-term cash needs.
Mark also flagged a recent jump in electricity costs tied to federally mandated congestion charges (FMCC), which he said would run through April and then ease. "When these FMCC charges drop, we will see a noticeable drop in overall utilities," he said.
The board and staff also discussed capital priorities. Dutton and other members said initial CapEx estimates — including further bunker work and extensive cart-path repairs — have pushed projected needs sharply higher. "Numbers started climbing really fast," Dutton said, noting the draft budget could exceed several hundred thousand dollars if all items proceed.
The meeting moved into executive session to discuss long-range planning; when the authority returned it said no votes were required from that session.
What’s next: staff will proceed with the insurer transition if Norwalk membership does not become available, and the authority will finalize first drafts of the 2025 operating and capital budgets for board review.
