Special Board of Aldermen 07-01-2021 Page 6
And then the third motion was to add to the bottom line Fire Department — Department 152 Fire, Account
90120 the amount of $418,771.00. That would allow the Fire Department to retain the Fire Company that
they predicted they would have to lose with the Mayor’s cut and would add 6 months to a new employee in
the Fire Marshall's Office. That person is our inspector that needs to be doing, by State statute, two
inspections of each school in the City twice a year and that has not been being done and with the safety of
children | think that is a critical item. Also this is the same person that checks the occupancy requirements
in restaurants and meetings and other things and that’s only been done on a spotty basis based on the
staffing. So it adds $660,109.00 to the budget and changes the Mayor’s Budget from $290,366,852.00 to
$291,028,961.00. | have another motion to make.
MOTION BY ALDERMAN DOWD TO CHANGE THE AMOUNT (ON PAGE 34) ACCOUNT #48320 TO
$77,411,477.00 AND (ON PAGE 271) ACCOUNT #70160 CONTINTENCY GRANTS TO THE AMOUNT
OF $77,411,477.00. IN ADDITION R-21-042 CHANGE THE NUMBERS OF LINE 7 FROM
$291 026,961.00 TO $368,438,438.00 AND ON LINE 8 CHANGE THE $64,979,022.00 TO
$142,390,499.00.
ON THE QUESTION
Chairman Dowd
| would like those to be taken together. |. will also try to explain what those changes are. Those changes
are if we don’t take this action on the budget and those numbers — and by the way those numbers do not
impact the tax rate. It’s for grants that we would accept during the year. Under the new Legislation
coming out of Concord, we would not be able to accept any grants. And we get grants for the Public Health
Department, the Fire Department, the Police Department, School Department; several of our Departments
rely on grants. Like | say, it doesn’t impact the tax rate because money comes in by grant and it gets
spent. So there’s no additional monies collected from the individual taxpayers. And we’ve been getting
those types of grants for years. But if we don’t do this tonight, if we get a grant to put these grants in we
won't be able to accept it. And if we need further explanation on it, | think Mr. Griffin is here. But that’s the
motion and I'd like us to act on the motion.
Alderman Klee
Thank you Madam President. | want to add, | know that my little grant that is coming in for Ward 3 out of
the million dollars is nothing compared to this. But the truth of the matter is, with the spending cap put in
place, etc., we would not even be able to accept that grant if we don’t budget for it, if we don’t put this
money in. And the monies that Alderman Dowd has spoken about literally are monies into one account as
possible spending and monies in as a revenue account. So it is a zero balance at the very end and it does
not affect the tax dollars. It is extremely important that we do this. Ward 3 has been waiting a long time to
get that grant money and it is coming in this fall. So thank you so much.
President Wilshire
Thank you. Mr. Griffin, would you mind giving us an overview of this motion.
John Griffin, CFO
Certainly. John Griffin, Chief Financial Officer. Subsequent to the passing of the Senate Bill it reinstates
the spending cap. We touched on it a little bit the other night. A lot of the interpretations of the former
spending cap which allowed us to not include appropriations for grants is eliminated. So essentially what
we are left with is a spending cap that looks at any and all appropriations as a base and the only two
exclusions that you may consider during any particular year is the debt service associated with bonded
capital and capital projects in that given year. And | do have an exhibit that | can distribute but those
particular items would not be able to be accepted and appropriated even with exclusion. Because the
exclusion, if you think about, it is about $17 million dollars of debt service and about $1 million dollars’
