The East Providence City Council voted 3-1 to approve the first passage of a new ordinance that would restrict revenue generated from the city’s speed limit cameras to only be used for school maintenance projects, rather than go into the city’s general fund.

The ordinance was introduced by Ward 4 Councilman Rick Lawson, who argued that the city should place maintaining its school buildings as a top priority.

“Our school budget is something to be concerned about. We invested a lot into our school buildings,” Lawson said at the meeting. “This is a way to feed the school building fund to ensure we’re not deferring maintenance on these buildings. Which, as we know, when a school does a budget and there’s a choice between a teacher and fixing the building, the maintenance gets deferred and that leads to deterioration of the buildings.”

Lawson said that the ordinance could be reversed once the school maintenance fund — which was set up last year and seeded with $2.8 million in remaining funds from the bond money used to build the new East Providence High School — was adequately funded.

“When the fund has enough money in it, bearing interest, we can just vote to undo it,” Lawson said. “But we have to be very cognizant of the school budget this year. There is so much uncertainty on the federal level. As you know, we’re becoming a more affluent community…That means our average median income is rising, which means our state aid is going to go down. That doesn’t mean the schools’ costs are going to go down as well.”

Council Vice President Frank Rego asked Lawson if he would want to table the measure until Council President Bob Rodericks returned to the board for next month’s meeting but ultimately, the ordinance received its first passage.

Lawson, Rego, and Councilwoman Anna Sousa voting in favor, and Ward 3 Councilman Frank Fogarty voted in opposition. It will be eligible for a second passage during the council’s August meeting.

A structural deficit in the making?
The city’s 10 speed cameras — one posted in each direction of travel at the perimeter of school zones near St. Mary’s Academy, Kent Heights School, Riverside Middle School, St. Margaret School, and East Providence High School — went fully online in January of 2022.

The revenue from the camera fees currently goes into the city’s general fund. Some of the money is reportedly used to pay for police officers — who work overtime to review, prepare, and send out violation notices to offenders who trigger the speed cameras — but it is otherwise a significant revenue generator to fund the city’s operation in general.

According to Mayor Bob DaSilva, the city anticipated collecting $1.75 million from speed camera fees in the fiscal year ahead.

Following the vote, DaSilva provided a statement outlining his opposition to the initiative, arguing that it would create a structural deficit for the city, which is already facing a difficult budget cycle.

“Councilman Lawson’s introduction of an ordinance shifting the public safety camera revenue from the General Fund into a School Maintenance Fund is not only irresponsible, but also financially devastating and would create a $1.75 million shortfall in the city’s budget,” DaSilva said. “What the Councilman needs to understand, is shifting these funds would have a detrimental impact on the taxpayers and to make up that difference, the City of East Providence would either need to cut city services or make up the difference off the backs of the property taxpayers. Neither of those options are in the best interest of the people of East Providence and I truly hope that the City Council takes a long, hard look at the implications this ordinance would have on the constituents.”

DaSilva additionally said that the schools were already the beneficiaries of the aforementioned $2.8 million from the leftover bond funding, which is specifically restricted to being used for school maintenance projects.