Have we learned a lesson?
The recent decision by the Municipal Accountability Review Board (MARB) has been hailed by city officials as a banner day for West Haven, and a milestone from there is no turning back. We hope so!
The 36-years-long saga of West Haven’s meandering through a financial desert might be ending, but the lessons of the last three-plus decades must not be lost – especially those learned in the last seven years under the watch of the MARB. While the city’s troubles began with circumstances beyond control, the decisions made after those circumstances stand as a diagram of bad decisions, sketchy maneuvers, and sleights of hand that only made things worse.
Starting in the aftermath of the housing collapse of 1988, budget decisions made by the administration of Mayor Azelio Guerra in 1989 when the city saw housing values plummet, set the stage for what was to follow. His attempt to maintain the status quo with a Grand List that tens of millions of dollars less than the year before began the steady decline.
Under the Clemente Evangeliste administration, the city saw its finances fall off a cliff with the budget of 1991 when double counting of funds created a $17 million hole that could only be filled by the state and forced the first takeover.
The stage was set for administrations to worry more about keeping the line on the mill rate, while maintaining the status quo. Concurrently, the way the city did business, and budgets were seen as part of the problem.
In the years that followed under H. Richard Borer, Jr., some dodgy decisions were made, particularly with bonding that created further difficulties. While it is too complex a matter to go into detail here, this decision, along with attempts to again maintain the status quo while keeping the mill rate steady, put the city back on a road to financial difficulty.
Once again, a $10.5 million deficit was found when Mayor John Picard took office. Instead of going to the state for aid, he attempted to pay down the deficit through budgetary cuts and paying down of debt service. Once again, the vagaries of the outside world hampered his attempts. The bubble of 2008 saw the city’s gap-closing efforts take a big hit, and during the rest of Picard’s three terms, the paying down of the deficit yo-yoed.
With the accession of Mayor Edward O’Brien, the deficit became a major issue and was finally paid off with a bond issued in the final months of his tenure. That decision led to the second takeover by the state in December 2017 with the beginning of Mayor Nancy Rossi.
When she came into the office two things remained steady, the city’s business practices needed desperate reform, and the decades-long attempt to keep the mill rate stable had only made things worse. This prompted the MARB, which was empaneled that year, to force tax increases. Those decisions were necessary, but they were also brutal, lacking in some cases humanity.
As far as the way the city does business, it took a major embezzling operation to finally see reform had to put into place.
With the announcement in May the MARB is leaving, the city gets to chart its own future solo.
We hope the lessons of the last 36 years, especially the last 7-plus, were learned.