Board of Aldermen — 6/13/17 Page 12
contract negotiation that closes and then they need to pay salaries retroactively. We transfer from contingency
to salaries to cover it. So that is $2.2 million for salary increases that have not yet occurred.
There’s $1.3 million in CERF to fill that back up which needs to happen but doesn’t necessarily need to happen
this year. Then in our favor we have $1 million that have gone down in debt payments. So you add that all up,
it’s like $8 million right there. There’s your $8 million. There’s no need to lay off hundreds of people. Also
what | remember from last fall, we kept hearing about how there’s going to be full day kindergarten and how
many times were we told that that full day kindergarten was not going to cost anything. We were told that by
the Superintendent of Schools that the full day kindergarten was not going to cost anything. Yet when we read
the justification in the newspaper about why all the spending has to go up the first thing mentioned is full day
kindergarten. Is it free or is it not?
Then of course we all know about the opioid crisis which is all over the news. | read a lot about how Granite
Hammer is extremely successful and that’s a good thing. You know how pays for Granite Hammer? The State
and federal funding. We're attacking a crisis and we’re saying we’re spending money on it. We're saying
we’re spending on money for things that we need and | just itemized 3 or 4 things that simple don’t have to be
included this year. Again another sort of just an instinct gut feeling big picture sort of comment back when that
wastewater ordinance passed or when we were discussing it, the idea that it was going to free up $9 million
was an enormous amount of money. The question came before us sort of in our minds was $9 million wow are
we going to spend all $9 million? Alderman Dowd himself — I’m paraphrasing — | didn’t’ get the exact record
but | remember him saying well even though we’re going to free up $9 million doesn’t necessarily mean we’re
going to spend all of it. Low and behold we did — all $9 million.
I’m voting no. Absolutely.
Alderman Clemons
| have a sheet in front of me that says the amount below the spending cap from general fund changes is
$1,726,144 which means that we didn’t spend the full $9 million.
Alderman Moriarty
Budget page 11 of 339. Adopted budget FY17 proposed budget FY18. General fund budget - $247 million
FY17. 258 FY18 the budget increased $11 million. That’s fact.
A viva voce roll call was taken which resulted as follows:
Yea: Alderman Wilshire, Alderman Clemons, Alderman Deane,
Alderman Dowd, Alderman Caron, Alderman Siegel,
Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja, Alderman O’Brien,
Alderman Lopez, Alderman McCarthy 10
Nay: Alderman Cookson, Alderman Schoneman,
Alderman McGuinness, Alderman LeBrun,
Alderman Moriarty 5
MOTION CARRIED
Resolution R-17-098 declared duly adopted as amended.
