Last Thursday the City Council spent more than three hours making amendments to Mayor Scott Avedisian’s proposed $298,728,119 city budget for fiscal year 2017, cutting the budget by $2,253,298 and adding that savings back into the asphalt line item for road repaving, but when it came time to approve the amended budget, the vote was 6-3 against, meaning Avedisian’s proposed $298.7 million budget will be the budget going forward.

The budget sets a residential tax rate of $20.24 per $1,000 of assessed value, and commercial/industrial and tangible personal property rates of $30.36 and $40.48, respectively. Although the $161.1 million school budget represents a $1.6 million increase (1.01 percent), property tax support will remain level funded at $119 million. The $137.5 million municipal budget represents a $3 million increase (2.29 percent), resulting in an overall $4.6 million increase, or 1.59 percent more than the current year adopted budget.

Coming into Thursday night’s budget session, four amendments had already been made, totaling cuts of $236,698. Those amendments included cutting $50,000 in Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB) Trust funding; $11,698 in the Library budget; $125,000 in the Legal Department ($100,000 in professional services and $25,000 in court judgments); and $50,000 in professional services under the City Collector’s budget.

The majority of amendments put forward Thursday resulted in cuts, but there were also a few to re-appropriate funds to other areas of the budget, such as $1,400 for the Warwick Pond Association for water quality testing, $100,000 to purchase GPS sensor units for city vehicles in order to keep track of where they are and help cut down on fuel usage, and $50,000 for tree planting to be divided up equally throughout the city’s nine wards.

Ward 9 Councilman Steve Merolla led off Thursday’s session with an amendment to cut six different healthcare line items in the budget, totaling $1.5 million.

He explained the city expects to recoup that $1.5 million when it switches from a fully insured health care plan to a self-insured plan next spring.

“We approved a one-year contract with the Trust, which will be up in April or May of next year. Our health care consultant advisor recommends we go out to bid for a self-insured plan,” he said. “The Trust has credited the city $3 million, which sits in an account. If we were self-insured, that money would have gone to us, not the Trust.”

Merolla said although the city would incur a 50 percent penalty fee when it switches from the Trust to a self-insured plan, it would get back the remaining $1.5 million of the $3 million.

“We’ll be going out to bid with the School Department at that time,” he said.

The line items Merolla proposed to cut included: $409,776 in Healthcare-Municipal; $203,739 in Healthcare-Municipal Retirees; $223,811 in Healthcare Police; $193,458 in Healthcare-Police Retirees; $273,025 in Healthcare-Fire; and $196,191 in Healthcare-Fire Retirees.

Ward 4 Councilman Joseph Solomon asked what happens if the council votes to remain with the Trust next year, thereby not receiving the $1.5 million.

Merolla said he hoped the council would follow the recommendation of the health care consultant to switch to a self-insured plan and suggested using the $1.5 million from his proposed cuts to “beef up” road repaving.

“Most of the road repaving work is done in the spring, so we can leave that spending up to the discretion of the administration as to whether to repave the roads,” he said, suggesting that the city should know by then whether or not it was going to a self-insured plan and if it would be getting the $1.5 million back. “The administration can move the money back to healthcare if we don’t get it.”

Merolla’s amendment passed by a 6-3 vote.

Ward 5 Councilman Edgar Ladouceur proposed a number of amendments, starting with cutting $75,000 from the Police Department’s fuel line item, which he said was “a fair and reasonable number” based on purchasing newer vehicles that should be more fuel efficient, cuts not made last year to that line item, and transfers between $60,000 to $80,000 from that line item since the last budget was approved. The amendment passed by an 8-1 vote.

Ladouceur also proposed to cut $20,000 from salaries in Animal Control, which passed by a 6-3 vote; $75,000 from overtime in Police II, arguing that line item jumped up significantly in the current budget due to the rare macro burst storm last August, resulting in $34,000 to $36,000 in police overtime that day alone, which passed by a 6-3 vote; $20,000 from Rescue Service, which passed unanimously; and $20,000 in Auto & Vehicle Maintenance, arguing it should cost less to maintain new vehicles that have replaced older vehicles, which passed by an 8-1 vote.

Ward 1 Councilman Steven Colantuono proposed an $8,000 cut after identifying a redundant purchase in the human services budget. He said there was an $8,000 allocation for a copy machine that had also been allocated in the Management Information Systems (MIS) budget, so he proposed eliminating the $8,000 allocation in human services.

Cutting out a copier

Instead of eliminating the redundancy in human services, Solomon suggested keeping it and instead eliminating one of the four copiers in the MIS budget, which were $10,000 each, thereby saving an additional $2,000. Using Solomon’s suggestion, Colantuono’s amendment passed unanimously.

Colantuono then made a motion to reallocate that $10,000 to tree planting, as he said many of his constituents were concerned about tree loss in the ward, which also passed unanimously.

Solomon then proposed adding $40,000 to tree planting, bringing the total to $50,000, which received unanimous approval. The $40,000 came from a $140,000 cut in the MIS budget. The $140,000 was to purchase an inventory system, which Solomon said is a bar code system that the Fire Department already has. He suggested reallocating the remaining $100,000 toward the purchase of the GPS sensors for city vehicles, which also passed unanimously.

Council President Donna Travis (Ward 6) proposed cutting $5,000 from the diesel fuel line item for senior transportation, as she said the budget was projected for $20,000 but they only use $15,000. Her motion was approved by an 8-1 vote.

Ward 7 Councilwoman Kathleen Usler proposed cutting $200,000 from overtime in Fire II, which passed unanimously.

Ladouceur looked to cut even more, proposing a $100,000 cut in overtime for Fire I, bringing the total fire department overtime cuts to $300,000, which passed by an 8-1 vote.

Ladouceur said he recalled conversations about Fire Department overtime back in 2010 and 2011, before he was on the council.

“I remember a conversation that if the city hired more firefighters, they could reduce overtime,” he said. “Since that time, overtime has come in over $1.3 million, $1.4 million, $1.6 million, and we have staffed the department.”

Ladouceur said the city has also supported the fire department through purchases of new equipment and trucks as well as building a new fire station.

“I think it’s the taxpayers’ turn to realize savings going forward,” he said.

Support for public safety officer

Continuing with the Fire Department, Ladouceur said he could not support adding a third chief to the department at a salary of $113,605 and proposed eliminating that position and reducing the fire budget by the corresponding amount.

“If we reduce the line item for salaries by $100,000, it doesn’t mean they won’t have a third chief,” Merolla said, inferring that administration could just move money from another line item, such as road repaving, back to the fire budget and appoint a third chief. David Picozzi, interim chief of staff, confirmed the position is a management position, not a union position, and is appointed by the mayor.

Ward 3 Councilwoman Camille Vella-Wilkinson suggested changing the third fire chief position into a reinstatement of a public safety commissioner position, which Ladouceur agreed with, saying his intent was to re-appropriate the money for a third fire chief to a public safety commissioner position.

“You can’t create positions, that’s an executive function,” said John Harrington, the council’s legal counsel.

Colantuono said the council’s wishes could better be expressed through a future resolution requesting a public safety commissioner position.

Ladouceur agreed, amending his motion to cut $110,000 from fire salaries, move it into road repaving, and docket a resolution requesting the executive branch to consider appointing a public safety commissioner instead of a third fire chief. The motion to reduce fire salaries by $110,000 passed by an 8-1 vote, and the motion to re-appropriate that money to road repaving passed unanimously.

Ward 8 Councilman Joseph Gallucci said he would not support adding any additional funding to road repaving unless ward 8 received 40 percent of the first $1 million, as he said 35 percent of the city (representing ward 8) did not receive any money for road repaving last year. He said ward 7 may not have received any either.

Ladouceur said Department of Public Works has a priority list of which roads to address, “but I have no problem amending the asphalt budget to be equally dispersed among the wards.”

Merolla, who said it’s imperative that all the city’s roads get paved, said there is currently $300,000 in the asphalt line item that has not been spent this year “and is probably going some place else in the budget.”

Before voting on what to do with the $2.2 million in cuts, Ladouceur proposed to cut $63,654 from salaries in the City Clerk’s budget, which was for the creation of a deputy clerk position, saying it’s a position the city can do without this year, but the motion failed.

Ladouceur said the council would need to decide whether to put the $2.2 million into asphalt for road repaving, or cut the tax base by 22.5 cents.

“I disagree with putting the full amount into asphalt,” Vella-Wilkinson said. “With the recent revaluation, constituents had an increase on their property tax.”

Vella-Wilkinson suggested putting $1 million into asphalt and giving the rest back to the taxpayers in the form of a tax break, however when it came time to vote on Ladouceur’s motion to put all the savings into asphalt, that motion passed by a 7-2 vote.

Prior to voting on the amended budget, Merolla talked about the city’s most recent financial report, which he said shows the city’s liabilities exceed its assets by $298,263,772.

“This is the first time we’re in the red that I know of. We’re a candidate for bankruptcy because our debts exceed our assets,” he said.

Merolla said according to the city’s previous financial report, it was $34 million in the black when comparing assets to debt.

“The city’s total net position decreased by $333.2 million,” he said. “How do we propose to pay this off? We are in serious financial trouble and we need serious financial resolutions to get out, otherwise we’re doomed to repeat history.”

Merolla said all one has to do is look at places like Central Falls, Detroit, or even Greece.

“This is one of the saddest days I’ve seen as a councilman and I will be voting ‘no’ on the budget,” he said.

Vella-Wilkinson said she would also be voting no on the budget.

“We spent countless hours on the budget and I’m happy to see we carved out $2 million, but I would have liked to have seen a tax cut,” she said. “I understand putting money into the asphalt line and for various other projects and ideas, but we still had the ability to put some in asphalt and give some to the taxpayers.”