STAMFORD, CT – Near the close of a fiscal year in which more than $82,000 budgeted for snow removal overtime was already spent last summer, the city’s Public Services Bureau now faces another tight budget, according to the Stamford Advocate. Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy has made several drastic cuts in overtime requests from the bureau, which includes the highway division, fleet management, and the solid waste division.

The highway division in particular was hit hard. It had asked for $86,520 in overtime funding for road maintenance, but the mayor chopped this to $15,000. It also wanted $185,400 in overtime for leaf collection, but that was cut to $130,000. The division’s request of $546,524 for snow removal overtime was set at $400,000.

The bulk of the city’s $25.4 million spending increase proposed for 2007-08 is largely tied to contractual wage hikes and rising medical costs.

The highway division, which employs 45 people with a salary budget of nearly $2 million, requested 11.3 percent for wage increases. Tergis attributed the increase to shifts in positions, including supervisors who were awarded raises for expanded responsibilities.

Fleet management, which employs 16 people with a salary budget of nearly $850,000, requested just an 0.18 percent increase, lifting the salary budget to about $851,000. The solid waste division, which employs 18 people, asked for a wage decrease. Its requested 2.7 percent reduction would cut the department’s salary budget to about $986,000, according to the Stamford Advocate.