Board of Aldermen 07-13-2021 Page 18
contracts went easily. The Fire Department ones went back to the bargaining table and | thought they came
back with a good faith attempt to try to lower their healthcare costs. But this is the situation that the Mayor had
said we would get into where we start to have unsustainable budgets. But! would point out that, again, while it
is a situation we are feeling right now because of looking at the taxpayer’s bottom line, we are also feeling it
because there is an additional expense that was imposed on us by the State which if nothing else, accelerated
the situation.
President Wilshire
Anyone else? Alderman Klee?
Alderman Klee
Thank you Madam President. | have got to be honest with you, | truly struggled with this. At one point | was
going to sustain the Mayor's veto, then it was agree to override it and so on. | received a number of calls from
constituents who told me very specifically to sustain the Mayor’s override. And | looked at it and said, well it’s
a compromise, he went halfway. | have listened to what everybody here has to say and especially with what
Alderman Dowd had to say about the safety first. I’ve always supported the Fire, I’ve always supported the
Police. And | know it’s only $12.00 a year or $10.00 and some odd cents for a $300,000.00 home. | don’t live in
a very high cost area but it is getting harder and harder to find $300,000.00 homes in my area. They are going
up because of the price of homes going up which means that $12.00 is going up. | know it’s less than the cost
of a coffee, but | guess | also have to look at it as we have got to make some cuts somewhere. And this is truly
one of the hardest ones that | have had to do. I'll know my answer when my name is called. So thank you.
President Wilshire
Anyone else? | just want to make a comment that’s something that came up tonight about the Police having a
$35 million dollar budget; Fire having a $28 million dollar budget and Schools having $166 million dollar
budget. That’s because that’s what it cost to run those departments. That’s what it costs, | mean it sounds like
a high number and it is but that’s what it costs to run them. So the fact that they have $35 million and $28
million and we are only cutting a small portion, we ask year after year to cut small portions and we ask them to
cut back on line items that they don’t need. So | don’t think there’s any fat in any of these budgets. So | just
want to comment that yeah $35 million / $28 million is a lot of money but that’s what it costs to protect our City.
The motion before us by Alderman Dowd was to override the Mayor’s veto of Resolution 21-142 as amended
by roll call. Is there further discussion on that motion? Seeing none, would the Clerk please call the roll?
A viva voce roll call was taken which resulted as follows:
Yea: Alderman O’Brien, Alderwoman Kelly, Alderman Dowd,
Alderman Caron, Alderman Clemons, Alderman Lopez, Alderman Tencza,
Alderwoman Lu, Alderman Schmidt, Alderman Laws,
Alderman Cleaver, Alderwoman Harriott-Gathright, Alderman Wilshire 13
Nay: Alderman Klee, Alderman Jette 2
MOTION CARRIED
Mayor’s Veto of R-21-142 as amended declared overridden.
