Council appears ready to approve amended East Providence FY2018-19 operating budget

Parella questions tax rate reduction, monies moved within capital expenditures

By Mike Rego
Posted 10/20/18

EAST PROVIDENCE — Barring any more last-minute changes, the City Council seemed poised to give final approval to the Fiscal Year 2018-19 operating budget for East Providence during a special …

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Council appears ready to approve amended East Providence FY2018-19 operating budget

Parella questions tax rate reduction, monies moved within capital expenditures

Posted

EAST PROVIDENCE — Barring any more last-minute changes, the City Council seemed poised to give final approval to the Fiscal Year 2018-19 operating budget for East Providence during a special session of the body scheduled for Thursday night, Oct. 25.

The council, at a public hearing on the budget during its regularly scheduled October 16 forum, made some minor alterations to the proposal of Acting City Manager/East Providence Police Chief Chris Parella and the administration on both the municipal and school sides necessitating the special gathering this week.

The body, at the suggestion of Ward 2’s Anna Sousa, supported shifting money in capital expenditures out a public safety line item for city hall to one for improvements at Pierce Field. Of the $110,000 to be moved, $10,000 was earmarked for erecting a partial fence around the parking lot at the central administrative building and the remainder was set aside to upgrade its main meeting chamber. The money would now be used at Pierce Field to conduct a study on and make the necessary improvements recommended related to handicap access to the facility, in general, and to its restrooms, specifically.

“I think it’s a catastrophic mistake to take the first-ever line item for public safety in capital improvements and move it out somewhere else,” Chief Parella said. “Use it for more surveillance cameras, which all of the departments in the city need, or something else for security purposes. When all of society is spending record numbers to sure up their ‘soft’ and government targets, and we decide not to, I think that’s a big, big mistake. But I respect the council’s right to do it.”

As well, at the behest of Ward 4’s Brian Faria, the council agreed to cancel a $21,000 set-aside to provide two-percent raises on the salaries of non-union department directors and instead use it towards an approximately $45,000 project to extend sidewalks at Waddington Elementary School in Riverside.

“I’m also not happy with taking away the $21,000 from the raises for department heads. They weren’t asking for them, but I thought it would have been the right thing to do,” Chief Parella continued. “The council can do as it sees fit, but I don’t think the fiscal impact is worth the hit to morale.”

The council previously voted to back several others cuts from Chief Parella’s initial draft, allowing for the tax rate to be trimmed from the proposed 2.9 percent to 1.59 percent, the largest reduction coming from a cut of .8 percent or roughly $800,000 earmarked as debt payment towards the future construction of a new East Providence High School. Doing only so would have brought the proposed tax increase to 2.1 percent. The chief found support of the budget with solely the debt payment being removed from just Ward 3’s Joe Botelho.

“I still stand by my original budget with the 2.9 percent increase. This 1.59 number is as low as we possibly could go. I do not think it will adversely affect the basic services the city provides on a daily basis, but I would have been much more comfortable with the compromise number of 2.1,” Chief Parella said.

The projected FY18-19 budget was reduced from $185.8 million to $185.3 million with the decreases. To reach 1.59 tax figure, cuts totaling $493,523 included: mayor’s office $78,220; Information Technology $52,989; city clerk’s office $71,698; tax assessor $25,000; highway department $10,000; streetlight purchase $50,000; buildings $55,616; and school department $150,000. Chief Parella said easing the blow a bit to the schools, he would be able to pay for a School Resource Police Officer position with $50,000 from his department’s budget.

“I’m happy with the budget at 1.59 percent, but I would have been happier with what I thought was a perfect compromise at 2.1. But that was the will of the council and I did what they requested,” Chief Parella added. “To be honest, a 1.59 percent increase probably isn’t sufficient. There are a lot of things I would have liked to have seen in there, like the position in the clerk’s office, but that was not my decision to make.”

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