By Michael P. Walsh
Special to the Voice
After nearly eight long years, the state Municipal Accountability Review Board on May 15 voted to end its financial oversight of the city.
Mayor Dorinda Borer, who joined the Hartford MARB meeting remotely from her City Hall office, sat glued to her desktop computer as members of the bipartisan board commended her for “changing the culture” and “restoring long-term fiscal survival” in West Haven.
A floor down from the mayor’s office, more than 100 city employees, including City Council members, Board of Education leaders, and police and fire officials, gathered and watched the momentous meeting unfold on two large monitors in the Harriet C. North Community Room. Residents also witnessed the meeting via a livestream on Facebook.
Before motioning for the final vote, MARB Chairman Jeffrey R. Beckham, the secretary of the state Office of Policy and Management, complimented Borer and declared, “The city has met the criteria to be released.”
The mayor then spoke and thanked the MARB members for their guidance and support. She concluded her remarks by saying, “I am respectfully asking you to vote us out.”
And the members did just that, voting unanimously to release the city from state oversight and setting off rousing applause at City Hall.
Many employees reacted to the historic decision by exclaiming words of joy, including “Finally!” and “It’s about time!”
Once the meeting ended, Borer scampered down to the second floor and hosted a news conference to share the “exciting” news with the rest of the city and state. As she walked into the room to thunderous applause and cheers, the visibly emotional mayor was met with hugs from co-workers amid bursts of confetti.
Taking the stage for the press conference, Borer, who was a West Haven state representative when MARB oversight began in late 2017, proclaimed: “West Haven, we did it! The future of West Haven is bright!”
The mayor then thanked West Haven’s “incredibly talented” employees and the city’s “resilient” residents for staying the course during the oversight process.
Borer also thanked Gov. Ned Lamont for “being there every step of the way.”
Although the city’s $18 million bond deficit triggered MARB oversight under the former administration, Borer touted the city’s posting of three straight credit rating upgrades and balanced budgets since taking office in December 2023.
The board applauded Borer and her crack finance team for turning the city around faster than expected.
Borer then lauded and introduced Finance Director Michael Gormany, who thanked the mayor, her team and his staff, saying, “This has been a long journey, and this is a great day!”
During the half-hour MARB meeting, members also praised Borer’s corporation counsel, Paul J. Dorsi, and her chief of staff, Rick Spreyer, for helping to right the ship.
The board determined that the city was eligible for oversight release based on satisfying its audit results, bond ratings, and financial plan and practices.
In 2022, the MARB escalated its oversight to Tier IV, the board’s highest level of oversight, requiring the financially distressed city to present all budgets to the MARB and its West Haven subcommittee for approval.
Since taking office 17 months ago, Borer has fostered a more collaborative relationship with the board, making it a top priority of her administration.
She said that one of her main goals for running for mayor was to “lift the city out of a negative cloud that had hung for too long.”
Under Borer’s leadership, the city has taken extraordinary steps to tackle the many issues that led to an increase in MARB oversight, including internal control issues, staffing shortages in the Finance Department and audit delays.
The Borer administration has worked closely with the board and a third-party consultant to improve its financial management practices and internal control functions, such as the hiring of several key financial management positions that had been vacant, including a finance director, internal auditor, payroll manager, risk manager, and senior and junior accountants.
West Haven has also hired two third-party consulting firms to help identify and address its internal control issues, leading the city to make changes in its procedures and to institute new policies, including bank reconciliation, audit trail reporting and payroll segregation of duties.
According to the MARB, the city has satisfied the completion of no audited operating deficits in the general fund for the two most current consecutive fiscal year audits and has satisfied the completion of a general fund balance of at least 5% in the two most current consecutive fiscal audits.
In fiscal 2024, the city posted a general fund surplus of $6.44 million, increasing its fund balance to 11.02%, and a general fund surplus of $6.77 million in fiscal 2023, increasing its fund balance to 7.93%.
The city has also satisfied that it has received an investment-grade or higher long-term bond rating from at least one rating agency and that the rating has improved or remained unchanged since its most current designation.
In its MARB-approved financial plan, the city has projected a fund balance in each of the plan’s three consecutive fiscal years by meeting operating result criteria and fund balance criteria in its fiscal 2024 audit.
In each of the plan’s three fiscal years, the city has met its projections based on recurring revenues and expenditures with no one-time revenue found in its approved five-year plan. In the plan’s third year, the city has also met a positive fund balance projection of at least 5%, projecting an 11.29% fund balance.
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