An effort to divert all future revenue generated from fining offenders who disregard the flashing stop signs on school buses into a fund dedicated for maintaining school buildings fell unsuccessfully to a 3-2 vote of the East Providence City Council during their meeting on Sept. 2.

The ordinance, proposed by Ward 4 Councilman Rick Lawson (who also serves as the liaison between the school committee and the city council), followed a previous attempt from Lawson to divert the revenue generated from existing speed limit and red light traffic cameras posted throughout the city.

That initiative was withdrawn by Lawson when it became apparent that doing so would create a $1.75 million structural deficit in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year that will begin on Nov. 1, 2025.

Lawson stated he felt it was important to put the money aside to enable the school department to finance construction projects from their own fund; and done in this way, it could be achieved via a new revenue source that hasn’t yet been tied into the city’s general fund.

Stop arm cameras on school buses, unlike speed limit and red light cameras, have just been installed on all city school buses at the beginning of this school year.

“We just discussed in executive session how much money we spent on these schools,” Lawson said to his fellow council members. “We have to make sure we have money to maintain them.”

And although Lawson found an ally in Ward 2 Councilwoman Anna Sousa, the three other members of the council had concerns about dedicating the entirety of the revenue generated from the new fines to the schools.

“We need to do more research,” said Council Vice President Frank Rego. “Our police department, an officer, has to sit there and look at it and issue a ticket. This is going to cost us more money than before. It’s going to cost us more time for police officers. This is more than just hitting a button…We don’t know what the number [revenue] is going to be.”

Council President Bob Rodericks — who led a successful effort to set up an interest-earning school maintenance fund last fall for the school department, which was seeded with $2.8 million in money leftover from the bond used to build the new East Providence High School — agreed that the ordinance seemed premature.

“I think what he’s [Rego] getting at overall is we don’t know anything yet,” Rodericks said. “I don’t think there’s been one violation yet. I think we should wait and see what kind of money comes in and do we want all of it to go into.”

Ward 3 Councilman Frank Fogarty agreed with the ordinance at its core, but not to the full extent Lawson proposed.

“I agree with Mr. Lawson’s theory on giving the money to the schools,” he said. “I agree that should happen, but not all of it.”

Rodericks said that, in addition to the fund set up with the bond money, which has only been used sparingly thus far, the city has backed the budgetary requests from the school department without notable squabbling in recent years. He said the council’s support of the schools has been clear.

“We’ve supported every budget since I’ve been elected…we have supported every budget,” he said. “I just think, right now, it’s premature to say, ‘Let’s take all this money and throw it in that fund.’”