Board of Aldermen — 6/13/17 Page 10
Nay: Alderman Clemons, Alderman Cookson 2
MOTION CARRIED
MOTION BY ALDERMAN SIEGEL FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF R-17-098 AS AMENDED BY ROLL CALL
ON THE QUESTION
Alderman Siegel
So right now what we’re left with is a budget that did one thing. We had the budget that came in, we took the
$200,000 citizen’s initiative chunk, and we reallocated in a way that | think it was unanimous in the Budget
Committee that this was more useful for the police overtime trust fund. We already know that the police are
using a lot of money for overtime because we’re short on staff and we are not short on crime. The idea that
well we’re just going to hire more officers actually doesn’t work out economically not to mention the fact that it
isn’t something that we can do immediately.
My experience with looking at the expendable trust fund — one of the things | proposed this by the way under
the same assumption | believe Alderman Wilshire came up with the phrase “crime is like snow, it’s not
predictable”. One of the things when | did propose this, | spoke to Chief Lavoie and | said this is not just a fund
that you just get to dip into. I’m going to trust that if this fund exists, this is a fund of last resort where all other
means are exhausted and typically there’s been funding through attrition, funding through other means to
make up for the overtime issues. It isn’t enough. That’s the bottom line. We just don’t have enough. This
really is something that is necessary. Last year it got pretty much exhausted but | will tell you the year before it
was not touched. Chief Lavoie met his commitment to us when we voted for this. We should meet our
commitment to them and make sure that the tool is available because they’ve already demonstrated that they
use it as a very, very last resort.
| would urge that at the current state of the budget right now is unchanged except for this movement. It’s ironic
because this budget is going to take 10 votes. This is one of, frankly, the stupidest things about the charter is
that raising a line item even by a penny requires 10 votes even if you have the same budget now. So you can
make wiser decisions but be penalized for those wiser decisions. That does not serve the taxpayer. Let’s not
kid ourselves. Taking that $200,000 and moving it away from a discretionary fund allocated by a bunch of
people potentially on Facebook and putting it in where it belongs in police overtime funding which protects all
of us is in that benefit. Why would we penalize the taxpayers by not voting on it? Again that’s the only change
that’s left in this budget right now and it’s a change that was supported unanimously at the Budget Committee.
Alderman Clemons
I’ve weighed this budget out a lot and it’s been a tough decision for me to come to on how I’m going to vote.
The reason for that is because | was extremely disappointed in the school department for basically ignoring the
requests of some aldermen, the community, as well as the Mayor and going forward with the layoffs of several
custodians and a curriculum coordinator. | think that this is going to be to the detriment of our schools. | think
that every one of those positions are necessary and it’s unfortunate that they are being cut.
Just so that the public knows when | first heard about the budget cuts, | went to the Mayor’s office and | told
him that | thought that it was a shame that in an economy like we’re in that we would be laying people off. He
agreed. Went to the School Board and actually gave the School Board an extra percentage over what they
had proposed to basically not have any layoffs. The School Board ignored the Mayor. They ignored me. They
ignored the community and went ahead and spent the money somewhere else. That to me doesn’t sit right.
Nevertheless, | went on and went to the Budget Committee last week and fought the good fight to try to see if
the Budget Committee would entertain a motion to increase the budget to try to save those jobs but
unfortunately the reality is is that even if we were to put that money back into the school department, the
school department can turn around and spend it any way they want just as we saw the Mayor gave them a little
bit extra to help not lay people off.
