Special Board of Aldermen 6-13-2022 Page 19
look brand new and they are functioning perfectly well but they’re 20 years old. The high school before that didn’t
even last 15. So you have to spend your money wisely and having that constraint on it that was opposed didn’t do the
City any favors and it didn’t do any taxpayers any favors either.
Alderman Cathey
Thank you Madam Chairwoman. | just noticed that there was no public comment tonight. Can | motion for public
comment before we adjourn?
President Wilshire
You can.
Alderman Cathey
I'd like to make a Motion to add Public Comment.
MOTION BY ALDERMAN CATHEY TO ADD PUBLIC COMMENT
MOTION CARRIED
Alderman Cathey
Thank you.
President Wilshire
You're welcome. Any further discussion, any further questions, clarifications, anything? Okay. | will open the floor for
public comment. 3 minutes, name and address for the record. Anyone that wishes to give public comment regarding
the spending cap.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Mike Ortolano
Mike Ortolano, 41 Berkeley Street. This whole issue has been really interesting and kind of enlightening to listen to
what’s going on with this spending cap versus tax cap. You know sometimes it’s best to simplify as much as possible
up front. | mean it was kind of hard to determine that, in fact, we’re not really - this is an issue that doesn’t appear to
be affecting the budget this year, right? The spending cap as | understand it there’s such a large gap between what
would be possible and where you hit a limitation. If | understand it right, the interpretation of the Board or at least
Attorney Bolton and the CFO is that we have no problems. If that’s the case, that’s kind of nice because it doesn’t
make a lot of sense to me that grant money which if you get $50,000 and then you're supposed to spend $50,000 but
you're allowed to go like 3% above the $50,000, you know, are you permitted to? It’s just kind of the math of it. It
doesn’t make a ton of sense to me.
The other thing that | see is sometimes there are alternative interpretations. One of the nice things about public
comment and being able to bring other people in is that you can get these alternative interpretations put on the table
so that everybody can see where the differences are. A lot of times it ends up the same place, but it makes you feel
like the process is a lot more transparent, you know, it’s other than it’s my way or the highway sort of dialogue. My
understanding would be and I'd like confirmation...
Alderman O’Brien
One minute.
Mike Ortolano
...I'd like confirmation that | have it right is that this is kind of an irrelevant issue to this specific budget cycle and if it
isn’t, then it would be nice to see the alternative interpretation so at least the Board is acting with full knowledge of
there are different ways to look at this thing and maybe the Board would consider alternatives. I'll go 30 second short.
Laurie Ortolano
