East Providence Budget Hearing 9/29/26

um coming to conclusions totally with just the first meeting. We'll we'll have uh two or three or whatever we need to get this work done. So the first order of business will be the uh mayor and his administration will present their budget. Then uh upon completion of that I'll open it up to a public hearing and folks can make uh comments or ask questions and then there will be comments and questions from council

members. So at this time I would invite uh Mayor Dilva to please present your budget.

No testing. Testing. Oh, there we go. Fet.

Thank you, Council President, um, Rodri's, Vice President Rego, Councilman Fogerty, Councilwoman Soua, and, uh, all of the department heads that are here today. Uh the budget is a document that dictates or outlines the city's priorities. And this budget was put together uh very carefully with numerous uh meetings with uh various departments to see if we can craft a budget that was going to still

be able to provide the level of services that our residents have come to be accustomed to and deserve while also keeping cost factors in check and keeping our taxpayers in mind. When we looked at the budget, we found that there were several items that are key budget drivers that drive the increases. And uh the first one of course is debt service. We see a 1.7% increase in this year's budget over last

year. Healthcare costs have increased a staggering 16%.

Part of that uh is multiffactored.

The rates from our healthcare provider has gone up 8%.

And there are multiple employees who have come on board who are taking family plans. So that increases the cost as opposed to some employees who were on their spouses plans and were not taking healthcare.

Pension fund contributions to the police and fire have gone up 1.4%.

School support funding has gone up 4%.

And labor costs have gone up 4.8%.

It's important to note that our unions have taken 0% increases in prior fiscal years to help us put together a balanced budget. And we thank uh the members of those unions who have taken 0%. Uh however, with that being said, uh now we're coming into the years of the contract where they're getting their increases. So that affects the uh overall.

If you look at debt service, uh we hear a lot of conversation about debt service and the community on two occasions voted to borrow uh significant funds to build a beautiful East Province High School, uh an incredible Martin Middle School, and is still in construction preK program that will be the envy of the entire state.

Uh but that comes at a cost. Uh when people vote for a bond, you're authorizing the city to borrow. similar to how when you are building a home and you take out a mortgage, when you take out that mortgage, you then have to make your mortgage payments. And so the debt service right now is $18.1 million total in the budget.

Uh key takeaways from that is that 86% of that is school related debt service and we see a $36,000 increase in this year's budget.

Under health care costs, a total health care cost of $6.96 million and we see a an increase of $966,000.

Want to hit on some of the issues?

Uh yeah. So this kind of highlights uh health insurance net of the employees co-share life and one second just for the record identify yourself in title for those that don't don't that's okay for people who don't know director of finance thank you um of the increase that the mayor just spoke about the 966,000 uh about 919,000 pertains to general health insurance and minor increases in both life and dental

there is a cost sharing offset. Of course, um our employees do have a co-share and so that amounts to $746,000 of co-share. That adjusts that a number on uh pension contributions annually. Uh we're up to $13.8 million in police and fire pension contributions. Uh we broke it out uh by the amount even though it's one unified pension system. uh we do break out the amounts that pertain to the

different departments, fire and police.

And part of that is because a lot of the police funding that that's in place that lowers their contribution is due to uh Google funds that went into the police portion of the pension program. But regardless, uh you are seeing a $196,588 increase this fiscal year.

And just a quick note, um, when you're looking at the last four years of history, uh, this increase is the smallest in the last couple years, which is great for the the pension, but when you're looking at it over 2024 through today, there's been a 20% increase overall.

The goal of course is to get the pension uh fully funded uh at some point where we don't have to make these large contributions but that comes with time with we're making the annual required contribution uh that is set by our uh pension actuaries.

Okay. on school support. This has been a topic of discussion out in the community and it's important to understand uh what this means out of the uh

I think he's got to be working with the school committee now he's shutting me down. But no, in reality, the the city of East Providence uh takes great pride in our East Province School Department.

Um I've said it before and I'll say it again that uh the school department really is the source of creating that sense of pride in our community. I see it from people who visit our school uh department, whether it's for sports, athletics events, or other academic events. People gush over what we have going on here.

uh we're seeing more people choosing to come to East Providence schools as opposed to going to private schools, which is wonderful when it comes to the higher grade levels. Um so that's good news. Uh and we have consistently provided the maximum amount of support um required under law. Uh but just to make information clear here, 61.9 million in the budget goes towards the school. That's the city allocation. The

total school budget as presented to us is 106.9 million. Uh and that comes from other sources of revenue. But I'll turn it over to Glenda just to hit some of takeaways.

Sure. Um just a couple of them. 6.9 million increase in the city support since fiscal year 2024 or 12.5%.

Um the city funding as it stands right now covers about 57.9% of the proposed fiscal year 2027 school budget. And this year, between this year and last year, there will be an increase of $2.38 million.

That's a significant increase. 2.38 million.

Go over to the labor side. Um, labor cost total for city. So, think about this for a minute. out of this budget when you're talking about police, fire, DPW, libraries, all of the support services across city government, uh we're at $35.4 million. Um that's a a $1.63 million increase from 2026.

Uh Glenda increase. Can you guys hear me? Yeah.

Okay. The increase is pertains primarily 92% to regular salaries with an increase in other items like holiday pay, stipens, and parttime part-time salaries. Uh, city labor costs total about 35.4 million or 70% of the total budget like the mayor just and you will see some increases on part-time pay um because minimum wage is going up. So, we had to adjust uh their their pay for part-time pay had to go

up. So you'll see in different budgets that there's an increase in the part-time pay.

On the good news side, you know, running a city is really effectively running a business and you're providing services as opposed to uh selling widgets.

And the only way we can generate revenue to pay for these services is by having a healthy tax base.

And what I strive to do as the mayor of the city and our administration uh working collectively is we try to expand the tax base. What that means is get pieces of property that are generating no revenue, have somebody invest millions of their own dollars to make that piece of property worth more so that the tax base expands and then we are generating more tax revenue off of that and we don't have to put all of

that growth or or or the budget growth doesn't have to fall on all of the existing taxpayers. So, the good news is if you look at this chart, we see that there's an estimated $45 million in assessed value increase, which translates to $854,000 in tax revenue. Last year, we saw about $49 million in taxbased increase, which generated $950,000 in additional revenue. So, when you are putting together a budget, uh you you

operate the city like a like a business and trying to offset some of the increases so it doesn't go to the same taxpayers year over year. So, we do have some good news on the tax growth. Uh, and you'll see that over the years in 2022, we were at 13 million uh in new tax growth. Doesn't mean that that was actual taxes, but that meant $322,000 in taxes.

And every year after that, you saw steady growth. Except for 2024, there was a only $9 million in growth. But you see growth o year-over-year, which means people are taking properties like uh the Ocean State Steel uh factory on Roger Williams Avenue that was um a former brownfield and developing that into housing where people are now living and it's generating a greater tax base which

helps all the taxpayers. Just to point a couple things out for those that don't understand. Um the tax rate is applied to every thousand dollars of additional assessed value. So it's not a dollar dollar uh value. And also at this time this these amounts are estimated as um assessments are valued as of December 31st 2026. So this is um being provided with the data as we have it today.

Thank you.

Next page is the key drivers of the budget increase. Once again, just to reiterate, debt service 306,000 uh 364 $36,446.

Healthcare costs have gone up by 966,000.

Uh pension contributions have gone up by 196,000.

School support has gone up by two 2,379,000 and labor costs have gone up by 1,633,000.

This is the part that always gets a little confusing because we don't set the tax the mill rate today or we won't set it at the end of this budget because we are an off year. We have to wait till the end of the year to see what our actual tax base is and then we also need to see what happens in the next up until April. We have some uh factors more interesting.

Yeah, you can you can explain that.

Yeah. So, like I just said, the assessed values are as of December 31st, 2026, but local businesses also do some self-reporting through March 15 of 2027, which could also affect the rates as we know it. So, again, this is the best estimate that we have with the data that we have as of today. So, it's important to take a look at this because I know this argument is being made out in the

public and it's it's look, East Province has always supported our school department and giving them the maximum amount of money for them to manage. Um, it's the responsibility of the school committee and the school department administration to manage and live within their budget. And the problem, and I'm sure you're going to hear from uh Superintendent uh Perry, the problem is there are so

many unknowns in a school department budget. And that's why we're advocating strongly, and that's a discussion for another time, but we're advocating strongly that the general assembly look at adopt a new funding formula. uh one that has been vetted by Rhode Island Foundation. Uh that would be huge savings to every local to most local municipalities, but East Province would see a $21 million savings. But that

being said, it's important for the community to know that we are proposing a 3.5% increase on the levy, which equals 127.21 21 million in revenue generated from the taxpayers to support the school and cityside budget. That's the that's the part that comes from the taxpayers.

Of that money, 60.9% goes to the schools when you include the debt service for the school buildings that we built for them. Okay? So it's important to understand that 39.1% stays to operate the rest of city government police fire libraries all the services, DPW. So it's it's important for us to have a clear understanding of where the money goes.

Uh and then I'm going to turn it over to Glendum.

Uh yeah. So just wanted to point out without the with the school debt or debt service, it's a 60.9. Without it, it would be 48.6%. 6%. Um, so pretty close to 50/50. Um, with the with the estimated data as we have it right now and the 3.5% levy that we're proposing, um, we are hoping with the growth and all the other factors that we have to take into account, the residents bills will will uh increase by

only 2.5%.

Um, so not the full 3.5.

uh that would bring their tax rate up from 1335 as it is today up to 13.68 68 assuming no changes in these estimates.

And um just so you know, the inflation figures up there um are 12 month August 25th to August 26th for one year and then August 26 at for fiscal year 27, I'm sorry. Um and in comparison to the US and New England uh inflation rates, the tax increase in resident bills um is less than both.

Yeah, I think that's an important key factor to uh understand. In last year's budget, we had a 4% levy, but the actual tax rate increase turned out to be 2.1% to the taxpayer, and that is still below the US inflation rate and the New England inflation rate, which is 3.7%.

Uh, in this year's budget, these are projections. We project once again 3.5% on the city levy growth and the tax rate would probably be around 2.5% uh which is once again uh significantly below the US inflation and New England inflation.

I'm going turn this over to Glend and let her explain this. So, this was a general big picture that we just wanted to touch on. Um, national and and local inflation. Um, again, this doesn't touch on everything that affects the city. Um, everyone kind of feels the increase in cost at the gas pump, at the grocery stores, on our bills, but um, we just wanted to kind of compare where the city

stands uh, as far as inflation rates with national um, public buildings, especially utilities, electricity and gas. We're actually higher than the national rate as of right now with our electricity budget increasing by 8.7% and our heating budget uh, increasing by 11.9%.

Um, fuel tends to be a little bit more volatile and harder to compare on a national average. Uh, waste collection on a national level is increasing by 4.4%. Rhode Island is feeling it more around five and city of East Providence specifically at 5.3%.

Um, and just across the board, building maintenance, paving mixtures, and concrete, all the prices have gone up by at least five, seven or 4.2%.

um some of these line items when you guys get to line by department, you won't necessarily see an increase, for example, in fuel and um paving. However, it is costing the city more money. So, we're just having to manage the inflation rates with a flat um budget for those two specific line items when we get to them. It's also important to uh recognize that u part of the increase here on the building

repairs is that in speaking with our uh building superintendent, they wanted to make sure we put adequate funding in uh maintenance and upkeep of our buildings.

Uh so that that may be part of that increase that you'll see here, but we'll uh analyze that as we go through each budget. I think that concludes uh our presentation. Uh I just would like the council and the community to know that uh these budgets are something that we take very serious. There's a lot of negotiation within our department heads to try to find uh where the savings where we can put together a balanced

budget. Uh this is a balanced budget. uh next year's budget, we're hoping uh we'll see some relief in the fact that we'll start getting uh some of the debt service payment that should be coming from the state for the schools will be coming our way. Right now, we're footing the whole bill because the prek building, we went we went out to bond to borrow to build to build the Martin

Middle School, the prek building and the Wington improvements, but we're footing that entire bill right now. We're not getting any state aid just yet because we're not substantially complete. I believe in April we will be. So, we'll start seeing some funding coming in uh from the state that will help us hopefully put us in a good way and a better way for next year's budget when

we're putting together the budget. U any questions?

Thank you. I think we will shortly. Uh Director Delgado, you're also listed here as one of the department. Did you have something to add later or you substantially uh done now and you'll just react to questions after?

Yeah, I'm okay.

Every budget. So, I'll just react to questions as needed.

Okay. So, the next part of the presentation, I'm just going to uh change up a little out of a courtesy. I know the school department has also been meeting tonight and uh trying to um get some things in order in in their house.

So, without objection, I'm going to ask that uh Superintendent of Schools, Dr.

uh Robert Perry, and his uh staff, if you have anyone accompanying you, that you come forward at this time.

Dr. Perry, uh, welcome. Nothing like, uh, jumping right into the fire as a new superintendent of schools. Uh, if you want to identify your staff that you may have with you tonight.

Thank you to the members of the council for inviting us this evening. It was not long ago that I was the director of human resources. I believe I might have spent more time working on the city budget in terms of number of months than this budget that we will be presenting.

I'm happy to have with me this evening Mark Pitelli who is our acting director of finance. Jessica Aruda is our acting controller and Mr. Joseph Crowley who is a consultant for us. Joe has uh over several decades has not only been a business manager and educator uh he has been the instrumental in coming into over a dozen school districts to try to to write the ship. Joe was the chairman

of the budget commission in West Warick and we are happy to uh have Joe here uh support as well.

So this budget that we are presenting to you this evening um it's it's stark. That's an adjective that that we use at one point because there it's going to be presented in a way um that has not been done so before.

by to my knowledge by the school committee.

We went through a process of four separate budget meetings. Uh Mr. Ferrer is here with us this evening. Mr.

Desimus is here. I believe Mr. Lewis, Miss Boschain will be coming and Mr.

Queenan is also Yes, I believe they vented.

First side slide, please.

So the key indicators that we are showing on this first slide are very very straightforward. Full-time staff is 740 approximately 745 full-time employees. Our October enrollment a few days we're projecting 5,8 and the per pupil expenditure uh which actually came from a 2025 figure which was the most recent that we had was 21,999.

The reason I state this in a very uh quick general way is because these numbers have not really changed substantially from last year to this year.

As Mayor Dilva pointed out, our proposed fiscal year budget for 2027, which was approved by the school committee, is $16,866,000.

That is the figure on the right. To the left is the fiscal year 2026 budget that you approved 103,000 I'm sorry 103,354,000.

This was uh this request this year is 4% above which is the maximum that we could request for a total of 2,379,000.

This accounts for 39 uh I'm sorry, state education aid that we receive uh 42 million uh accounts for 39.6% of our budget and the local education aid which is provided by the taxpayers of East Providence accounts for 57.9% of our budget for a total of 61,871,000.

We have other revenue in the form of Medicaid, uh, various rental incomes and and miscellaneous lo local educational receipts that account for $2.6 million.

This is where it gets a little tricky.

The figure in the middle is the 106,866,000 that we are requesting as our budget that will be to be approved this year.

However, we are projecting based upon our current spending, we're projecting that at the end of fiscal year 2027 that we may have spending upwards of 110 million.

That's why the final uh column is in parenthesis $3.8 million.

Now there are a few reasons that that um this is presented this way in the budget document that we provided to you the large document with the columns numbers.

It does show this number at the end and uh this parenthesis is $3.8 million and to my knowledge a budget has not been presented to you in a manner such as this. Now, we do recognize that we can only request up to a maximum of 4%. However, based on our current spending, based on knowing where we are today, where we were last year at this time, we're anticipating that at the end of fiscal year 2027,

our expenditures may be 110 million.

If that does happen, we will be meeting with the auditor general as we have uh since as we continue to do along with Miss Delgado and we will be explaining to the auditor general that we have a deficit of potentially $3.8 million. At that time, the auditor general will ask us to create a plan. you will ask us to create a plan that will uh be over five years

up to five years that we will have to pay down our debt.

Currently, we are looking at a deficit at the end of 2026 of $1.3 million. We have already alerted the auditor general of this and because of the fund balance that we currently the positive fund balance that we currently do have we are still not going to um be in trouble with the auditor general. However, if the projections happen to theund to the tune of 110 million we will have to have a plan with the

auditor general.

So I do want to provide to you uh some of the so that you understand where these um costs are coming from. In the first column salary and benefits now you'll notice that we did budget in 20 this year this fiscal year 83 uh.6 million. However we are projecting at the end of this fiscal year we will be at 83.8 8. That's roughly 200,000 $200,000 this coming uh in this budget that we

are requesting. Now, we're looking at approximately 86 million um which is 3 million more and that is based on again projections for salaries and benefits. I do want to point out to you that the school department has 82% of its budget in salaries and benefits.

The schools are people is a we are a people business and therefore 82% of our budget comes from salaries and benefits.

In the next column, you'll see that this is where we're starting to see some of the stress. Out of district placements, those would be private school tuitions, special education placements, charter schools. We budgeted in 2026.

However, we're projected at the end of this year to spend 7.8 million.

Therefore, for next year, we want to make sure that we are on track and actually projecting and budgeting for a proper amount. We are again requesting 7.8 million and that is part of that total number that we are showing you the 110 million projection.

Additionally, student transportation, we budgeted this year 7.4.

We're projected to spend 8.5.

Next year, we believe with some aid from the state, we will need $8.1 million.

I don't want to leave you with these stark numbers without talking about some of the things that we might potentially do to try to make some savings.

One of the things that is a challenge to us in making any cuts for this year is the fact that there is a law in title 16 that states that any cuts to teachers have to happen before June 1st.

Therefore, we are not able to get any savings up until June of 2027.

It's quite possible that in the second column, you can see that if we do cut certified staff, we could save up to $3 million.

If we're looking at approximately $150,000 on average for a teacher all-in salary and benefits, we could save up to $3 million if we cut 20 positions.

That is certainly not something that we want to do. We're not quite quite sure if we can do that based on requirements.

Operational and non-personnel cuts. We have looked into saving on energy. We could look to change the distances that students have to walk to take buses.

We looked into different ways that we could make cuts to athletic programs.

There's potential there.

We could potentially close and redistrict schools. Not anything we want to do. We have a we have a feasibility study currently that will be returned uh just in a few days. And it's looking like we don't have the capacity to to close any schools because we need all the classrooms that we have.

Another option is a 0% firstear wage increase. We are currently in negotiations with two unions. We know that the city did negotiate contracts in which three of the unions took 0% increases.

We could create an early retirement incentive.

We would lose some of our most veteran, experienced uh amazing educators.

That is a possibility. And again, back to the expanded walk distance.

So that is all I have to present to you this evening. Um as you all know this process uh we went through four budget processes with the school committee and uh we've worked uh out individual line items. I know that the school committee had vigorous conversations about what this means and they have uh their different opinions about how we got here, where we're going to go. We are

committed to writing our fiscal ship. We recognize that the city council has been generous in past years. We recognize that we have a 4% cap. We recognize that the mayor has done uh really laudable work in trying to increase the tax base to provide services. However, we know that our children are our greatest asset. We want to continue to be able to provide to the children of East Province, to the

families of East Providence, the excellent education that they have always known. We want to make sure that we are um providing opportunities for kids to learn, to develop their character, to work within a community that supports them. Having said that, I am happy to answer any individual questions that you may have.

Thank you, Dr. Perry. So staying with our format and we'll we'll do this department at a time. So we'll have questions for this department and then when they pretty much cease we'll move on to the next department. U a reminder no council votes are taken tonight. No decisions are made tonight. This is a workshop one of several that we have scheduled. So this time I would invite members from the public based on what

you've you've heard and you seen here this presentation and some of you I know have probably done some research on the school budget. So at this time we are um just asking questions or making comments about the school presentation. So, if you want to come up to the podium, name and address for the record, and you know, there's no strict time limit.

We're going to with discretion give you a few minutes to say what you'd like to say. We realize there'll be other opportunities to speak, there'll be other workshops, but for now, um, anyone want to come forward and and discuss the school budget presentation as just as you've just heard?

Dr. Perry, this does not mean you're getting everything here because no one jumped to up right now. Um, what is Well, people may have signed, but anyone here who wants to speak about the school presentation, now is the time. This sign up is not it's overall budget, but right now we're on the school presentation. This is not like a regular council meeting with the signup sheet uh rules. Um for instance,

there's a name here, Nancy Hail, did you have a question about the school presentation that's just heard? No.

Okay. And Hillary, what is that?

Hi, Hillary. Did you want to address the school presentation for now? Okay, we'll keep this though for you. Thank you, Councilwoman.

Okay, hearing and seeing none, I would now ask the colleagues on the council for uh questions and comments to Dr.

Perry or his staff that are here.

U council vice president Rigo, you have the floor.

Mr. President, um maybe Mr. Crowley can answer this because he came in as the consultant.

When did you start recognizing that there was a deficit going on? I know with your work in the past, you can peg these situations.

taking a look at the uh what has gone on in the past, taking a look at what's happening now in terms of of course the uh I was just running some quick numbers. Four items. The uh salaries and benefits transportation utilities and out of district tuitions account for something like $15 million out of the $110 $110 million budget that we're looking at. So that leaves $5 million to take care of everything else that goes

on in the school department. The uh the costs and I've been involved in a number of districts as as was mentioned earlier by the superintendent. The uh this is this goes on around the state. The uh the the increases in revenues uh not keeping up with the increase in expenses. I mean we we had you know the the mayor mentioned the costs and health benefits ours went up by like 11.2%. 2%.

Well, you know, when those types of things are happening and with the restrictions, you know, we're limited to the 4% that the uh the city can provide, the state gives some money. As as the mayor mentioned, he had gone to the state in terms of the uh requesting some, you know, more monies in terms of the allocations there. Just today, I sent a an email to our congressional delegation

because the IDA law, which was the law that provided for special needs students, it's 50 years ago. 50 years ago, the federal government said that they would pay 10% of that and raise that up to 40% over the course of time.

Over that 50 years, they have never gone above 18% and right now it's 13%. So the special needs course and our tuitions go up because obviously all of the programs that we send kids to their costs go up.

So the uh if the federal government would do its share then we would not be in the position that we're in. But the you know it's just a case of the the expenses are growing much more rapidly than the capacity to generate revenue.

And that's why we find ourselves in the position that we're in. And having done this for any number of years and in any number of districts, I don't see that getting any better going out in years to come. There has to be some kind of a solution for all of the communities within the state and obviously Paris Providence.

Thank you. Other other comments or questions? Um I don't have a question per se um a comment. I I just want to echo and and make it clear what uh Dr. Perry said, what May the Silver said. Uh this city council has given and and this is meant in a positive vein has has appropriated every penny that our school department has requested. In fact, last budget year, we even went beyond that when a council member said,

"I think we need to give a little more money because we want to do some things for the schools." We also um crafted the plan where there was close to $3 million left on the high school bond due to the great work of everybody involved with that process. and to have that money left over. By law, that could have just gone into a general fund somewhere. But we unanimously as a council said and

with the mayor, we all said, "Let's put that in a separate school account just for building maintenance issues that may arise. School needs a boiler. They need something else." So, we've really tried to doing it our part and I I know we'll continue to do that. This is one city, one team. We're going to work together on all this. Um, again, for those here in the public, there'll be other

hearings, other opportunities. Uh, Dr.

Perry, thank you and your staff. Oh, I'm sorry. You do have a question. Okay.

I just have a quick question. Um, and and it might not be able to be answered tonight, so a follow-up is fine uh via email. Do we know? So in your presentation it said that estimated by end of our fiscal year 26 that our transportation budget or the school's transportation budget would be close to 8.5 million. Is that correct?

Yes, that's what we have projected.

And is that that is the current contract that we have with the transportation company?

It is and it's next year it's going up 9%. And does that include busing students to outside districts or is that just within our city district?

It's with it is it's within uh it's all dis all transportation outside as well.

Now I'd be interested if available what the difference is between the two. How much are we paying for our inner city school bus school transportation within the city and how much is it costing the school department to bus children outside of the city to other public schools or private schools or charter schools. So that just one question there unless you know the answer.

If I may, there's a ride um did they they bill us for outside district uh transportation and last year 2026 they allotted $10,000 of reimbursement of lowering the bills. In this current year, it's reflected in our budget. It's $348,000 that they've increased uh our cost to out of district students.

So, is an increase of 300,000 to last year's budget for this year for outside students.

Well, we're decreasing the budget based on them decreasing the cost to East Providence.

And then the other question um regarding transportation is have we looked at what our schedule is for transportation um in terms of busing students because I know within the center of the city that there are buses that are half full multiple buses on the same route that have a third of the students that are capacity.

So that just looks like misuse of the transportation system and at a high cost to the to the school department.

Yeah. You know, learning about the how transportation and our operations department works. Um it's it's very eye opening to me. I I know that we depend very much upon Ocean State. They provide models um for doing so. One of the things that the district has done in recent years is we have um we have placed specific special education programs in specific schools. The reason for this is we have you know uh we're

able to provide by having students uh with certain types of special needs um being in one location we're able to best provide for all of the professionals to be there. we can make sure that we're we can do a better job providing adequate class sizes.

The rub is that now we have to transport many of those kids. So there might be a student who goes to Ken Heights uh in the Ken Heights neighborhood who now goes to Myron J. Francis. So it's a cost. I think that's one of the consequences of providing for the savings in the ways that I just stated we now might be paying for in transportation. So there are examples

like that and we do have to look at that and we do have to figure out what the the best way to provide all these services. So yet without question I I question that myself when I look and see that sometimes we do have buses that are not at capacity. However um again this is something we're going to have to depend upon our partners in Ocean State and also our operations department to

come up with the best solution.

Okay. Yeah. I I I don't know what each bus costs obviously because that's not within the role of of this council to manage that. That's obviously on the school and school committee's end. Um but I do know that you know there are multiple buses going to not special needs buses because those I think are a separate entity right because you have special equipment or need additional um support on those buses to help uh

properly and safely transport those students. Um, these are just regular school students going to maybe the middle school in Riverside and there's multiple buses on the same route that have five kids in them.

One of the things uh a lot of parents nowadays drive their children regardless if they have transportation available or not or not and we still have to provide buses for those kids. I don't know that that is the reason um to your to your point, but without question transportation as obviously being one of the the three big buckets that we put up here, it's something that's driving our

costs and this is a statewide concern to the point that you know the Rhode Island Department of Education, the state the governor has even pointed out that transportation is something that probably does need to be addressed at the legislative um by the general assembly um without question. And in addition, um, not to go off further, but you know, looking at the funding formula, all of those things with the

help of our of our legislators would certainly lend to improving our position.

Thank you.

The the bus systems are predicated on the number of kids in in elementary schools. That the buses, it's a three- tier system. the elementary buses, the middle school buses, and the high school buses is predicated on how many buses we need for the elementary schools. So the elementary school buses tend to be much fuller because first off, the number of students at that level. Then as those

buses then go around the city and pick up middle school kids, they're going to have fewer kids because there are fewer middle school kids, which pretty much the same for the high school. So you will see fewer kids as you go up from from elementary on up. So we expect you will see a lot of empty seats and as Dr.

Perry mentioned you know at certain level a lot of parents are deciding you know I'll take my kids or we even have high school kids that drive back and forth to school. So you know the buses are there and people may may not be needing them but we need to have x number of buses for elementary schools and that's what drives the number of buses that are out there. So just to be

clear, so you're saying that if our elementary schools need say 50 buses in a daily basis, whether we need 50 buses for high school or middle school, we're paying for 50 buses for the entire day.

Is that what you're saying? At one fixed price, that's what happens. That's no way to negotiate. We only need just it's just a question because obviously we're not in charge or to see those contracts. So, I don't know how that works, but I'm thinking these are ways that could the the other factor in there, too, is timing. You have only so much time to get everybody into the uh into the high

school and then get all of the buses back out and get them kids to the middle school, then get the buses back out to get the kids to elementary school. So, that too is a factor in terms of, you know, how many buses you need to get the all of the kids that need to get to school to school.

Okay. Thank you. My other question that I had, but I think I was going to reserve it for um the city side. Uh when it comes to the energy costs, um is it still correct that the school is part of the three-part energy saving that the city went into negotiation with for um electric for um energy, the renewable energy green electric I believe it was it was to for that

contract to to go through it was city, school, and um public housing.

We have a meeting tomorrow with an outside energy company for the school department. As far as the three tiered program, I'm not entirely sure. Glenda might be able to speak better to that than I.

I believe yes, the contract was with the three pieces altogether and still is as of today.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman. Uh just briefly to add to the conversation about busing uh a little uh a little different from the main issue but uh an observation that I've had through the years and I think people have and I'm not sure everyone understands it. The mornings will be more crowded, especially high school, middle school. And then I've heard people say, gee, in afternoon I'm watching these buses come out of the

high school and there's eight kids, 10 kids. Have to realize that we have hundreds of kids after school in activities, clubs, sports, a lot of different things.

They're they're practicing. They're they don't take the bus at 2:00, you know, they're there till 5:00 practicing with the team or in a in a club activity.

Might seem like a small point, but it's uh it's a salient fact that that does happen, one I've seen through the years.

But anyway, uh the council questions. Uh just as a final courtesy, the members of the school committee are here. any of you wanted to add any comments or questions while we're on the school budget um come forward at this time

just identify yourself not necessarily no school committee member okay it's public.

I could really emphasize a joke right here, but I'm not going to. Um, I just want to say good evening. This is my 12th time that I have sat up here uh during budget season and my last time. So, I just want to thank you for the past of what you have contributed to our school department, especially last year with the little extra that was thrown in. Um, as you can see, most of

these faces are very unfamiliar to you because this is all new. This is a different group of people who have done a phenomenal phenomenal job getting us to where we are. Um, again, in the last 12 years, the word deficit had never came up. So, this was a really worrisome for all of us. But I think my team has said a lot of this is unfunded mandates that we cannot we have to deal

with them and support them. So I again asked the bus questions as well. Um we have in the past when the budget commission was here they extended it. We were a mile then we went to a mile and a half. Elementary was uh half a mile. Now we're at a mile and same go forth with middle school and high school. So we've already extended that spot and have not seen a huge savings when it comes to

buses.

We had two contracts to look at.

Um and then I believe one left before we even got to look at it. So um those prices they've got us. I don't really know else how else to say that. Um I just really have a lot of faith in all of you to continue to support us at the 4% uh that we are needed to educate our students because in my opinion students are never a line item.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you Dr. Perry and staff. Um we will switch now to the DPW.

I want to thank the new administration here from the school department.

Echoing the words of school committee woman, I want to thank you for your service, but also we will continue with our 4%. And I also want to thank Mr.

Crowley for giving us that roadmap as to how unfortunately your department got there.

and he's worth every I've I've heard people say why why are we paying this man? Well, this man is going to get this department in the right on the right road and I you have my full support and I thank you again the way you explained how that happened.

Thank you ladies and gentlemen. We'll switch now to the public works, highway, and parks for the city.

While there's a break in the action here, please do not send in the score of the Red Sox Yankees game. I'm taping it.

I will watch it late tonight at home and I don't want to know the score until I get home. So, no hints, please.

Yes. Well, we have time to maybe catch the second inning or so. Yankees are going to lose anyway.

Okay. I guess when you folks uh settle down, you can I for the public purpose identify yourselves and titles and we'll proceed. Director, if you want to start.

Good evening, council. Dan Borgess, public works director.

Um so before you is the uh highway and parks budget.

Um you know, as the mayor mentioned, many of the many of the increases are are really just as needed. Um there's not there aren't many requests here um for increases, but I'd be happy to um answer any questions you might have.

Thank you. I I think this has always been the uh meat and potatoes of the city budget. Um I mean, they're all equally important, especially schools, but uh public works. Uh you're involved in so many things. Uh, do you have anyone else who wants to add anything to highway? Glenda, do you want to add to this or No, a lot of this is contract related like like both Dan.

Right. So, we'll without objection, I'll switch a little bit here and go to council questions and comments first because public isn't hearing too much right now until maybe we make some comments. So, uh, we'll go to the council first for comments or questions on highways, parks, public works in general.

I'll I'll start I'll ask um I I know that uh when we ask you about staffing, you could always use half a dozen more people. Uh, I'm sure probably more. So, in in theory, uh you don't have to talk about numbers. Um how are we doing with staffing?

Yeah. So, thankfully um within the last few months, we've been able to hire and fill um some vacancies within um the parks department. So, we are um I believe fully staffed at this point um and and have been able to uh to catch up on and I know this this past couple of years uh we've seen uh a lot of work done to uh public areas, green spaces, parks, other places with with grant

funding. And we know that's all going to dry up that th those COVID funds and other funds that were coming down are just not going to be there. So, how are we situated going forward to maintain what we've what we've done? We've we've got I I think and I am um unapologetically will say I don't know of another city that has better parks and playgrounds than we do. I have friends and relatives who come in and

visit um from Riverside to Rumford. some of our parks, especially the new Kent Field park, and they are they are amazed at how how nice it is. Are we situated well enough to maintain them now that we we we've got them mostly done? I know there's some more work to be done, of course, but how how are we for maintenance?

Yeah, we're in good shape. I mean you from from some of the increases you will see um in this budget um you know we are carrying some additional cost in um purchase professional services along with um with the water line item um so obviously with the increase of splash pads there is some increased cost with um you know water purchasing water uh for those so between um you know with

the increases that we're requesting we feel comfortable continuing to maintain um and you know remaining in line with what we've historically spent to continue.

Sure. And don't get me wrong, I'm not looking for Disney like parks here. I understand uh drought weather, other kinds of weather. We're going to see weeds and things and fields and parks.

It happens happens all our yards. It happens in streets and you know, you guys get to it at some point. Arguably, Council President, I think our grass and turf has not looked uh better than it has in the last few years. Um you know, with with the council's um you know, approval over the last few years, we've made significant increases to um some of our budget line items that have allowed

us to put money back into these athletic fields. So, that's certainly helped.

Could you um just briefly talk about uh the whole Pierce Stadium complex? Uh we know now that our high school plays football, baseball, softball, soccer at the high school complex for the most part and yet Pierce Field still seems to be used a lot and is getting improved.

And can you just update us quickly on on the updates there? It is Pierce Pierce uh Stadium. Not only the stadium, but all of the uh ball fields are used regularly throughout um the season. Um as everyone's likely aware, we we do have a a major improvement project at the stadium um that has started construction as of a few weeks ago. Um the the stadium will receive a brand new

track uh jump pit to um supplement some needs from the school department um along with a bit more of uh multi-purpose areas in in the um end zones to allow for you know different events um and and other things like that. Additionally um as you as you're likely all aware because you've approved it um the softball field will be receiving uh field lights. Those lights are on order um and expected to be

delivered to the uh electrical contractor within the next month or so.

Um so if people have probably noticed there has been some movement around the uh softball field. They ideally will begin uh work on that project and hopefully have it complete uh before we receive any snow. That that that was my my next question cuz about once a week some of the girls teams will will call me call all of us and say you you did promise us lights right? I said they're

coming they're coming. Uh my final comment would be uh a commenation for what highway and parks and anyone else who worked with you did through this uh recent snowstorm. Um people claim it was the biggest snowstorm that anybody can remember. I still think 78 is up there, but um yeah, not anymore, I guess. But to make a quick comparison, in 78, which had less snow in my house, in front of my house

anyway, it was 3 weeks before I saw a plow. We we I couldn't move. I I had to walk miles to work. I was managing a a store then, a market, and I had to walk miles, hours. this storm with two days I saw plows and you know things are never perfect. It was a big storm but you did a great job and so did the women and men in the department.

Thank you. I mean you said it perfectly.

The men and women of EPW were there for hours on end um working through that storm and I I give them a lot of credit and and I'm not here just to throw you roses. I mean, if I saw a problem, I' i'd say it. But in this world we live in today, I I didn't see a major problem with with what we've just went through.

Any other No, I agree. the uh in the last three years the improvements that we were able to do at Kimblean Rock on Park Glenn line you have helped the community of ward one as well as you know's park the improvements of the fields in ward one have not been this way in 35 years they hadn't been touched and they're touched now all three all four complexes uh state-of-the-art and more to come.

How's the equipment?

Good. We've been we've been fortunate enough within the last few years to um you know to purchase some equipment stockpile goods, salt good.

Yeah, we're in good shape. Yep. Yep.

Great job on the streets. Everything's coming together. Takes time, patience, but good job. Thank you. for the chair.

Yes, councilwoman, please.

Just to clarify um on some of the line items um under supplies and property.

So, the repair um that talks to roads um and storm drainage, is is that just regular repairs like the 150 just sporadic potholes that we're filling and patching? Not anything to do with our paving program that's in a separate um area in the Yeah. Um typically the repairs to roads line item is used for um anything from pothole repairs to uh sidewalk repairs uh yeah anything anything related to ro curbing uh resetting.

Okay. And then the similarly for storm drains drains right. And then secondly, um the line item that speaks to nursery supplies. Um there was a conversation with the uh tree commission in wanting um some information about if we were allocating this year additional funds for tree planting. I know there was significant funding through a grant for various areas throughout the city that

were in need, not in need of trees, but that fell under that national urban. Um, but this one, just so I'm correct, this just falls the nursery line item just falls for like regular plants that we see in the pots around the city and at the city playgrounds or the carousel, city hall, things like that.

Yeah. So, this nursery uh line item is where we purchase plants as you mentioned. Um, we also purchase uh mulch for playgrounds, so on and so forth.

This is kind of a a catchall for general expenses throughout throughout the uh parks. We did um in this year's budget um under purchase professional services there is a line item there um and an allocation for um tree services and tree uh planting. So you will see that broken out separately and that is uh 75,000 of the of the of the 120 was the 175 of the 175 75 is for tree planting outside of that general

correct?

Yeah, it's it's um removal, pruning, tree m general tree maintenance um as well as planting.

So the seven the 175 is for all of that, the maintenance, the planting, the trimming.

No, the one the 175 includes um if you look at the itemized section there um so there there's costs associated with um compost processing at the land at the uh Forb Street compost facility. So all the yard waste we receive um we have to routinely uh pulverize that and turn it into compost. Um, so there's costs associated with that. Um we have a $18,000 line item there for um painting supplies and

and machine subscription uh tree planting at the 75,000 and then additional 52,000 for um you know everything from general pond treatments at Willlet Pond um kettle point to irrigation repairs you know general subcontractor um requirements throughout the year that we can't necessarily do in house.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. I do have I got one issue.

We about a year ago we talked about this uh the compost, you know, extending the compost what Brian Queen did at Myron Francis and I think that we when we were talking you mentioned a company called Black uh I forget the name Black, you know, black somebody that also is doing Bington. Where are we with that with Yeah, so we're working with that company. Um, so in order to in order to

create a city-wide composting program, we need to have enough buyin throughout the community um and interest for them to be willing to bring uh barrels to residential homes. Um, so we're working with them to create essentially a platform or survey that we will be able to send out to the residents um to show interest. if they're interested and they have enough people interested in doing it, then we

can ultimately sign on with this company to collect compost throughout the city.

Yes. I mean, that that's been going on for about a year now, right? Six months to a year that you've been talking with them about give or I'm not sure if it's been a year, but it has been a little bit of time. Yeah.

Yep. So, we can certainly get you an update.

Do you think by June or July of next year that maybe this system goes live?

Um I'd have to reach out to the company to find out if we can do that but can certainly let you know.

Thank you.

do have two last um questions, comment and a question uh along the lines of compost but in a different realm. There there has been a a little community discussion very little about the cost of a few compost bathrooms that we've installed and I was involved in a lot of that in the beginning when looking for ways one of the to provide bathroom facility at our parks and playgrounds and our schools.

Uh, one of the biggest complaints that I've received is it's it's a different world today um than than sports were years ago when we had no bathroom facilities, nothing at all. And I I won't even joke about what the the kids at Ken Heights Field did when they they had to run in the bathroom between innings and there were woods nearby. Um, ideally we we would like to see I mean Kim Rock feel has a

nice complex. I think the little league was was uh responsible for building a lot of that but it was a solid cinder block building running water plumbing connected to a sewer but we can't do that in a lot of places. Some of the little leak fields at Pierce were not near sewer lines water lines. So there were these developed compost units. They are not portagons. They are permanent.

They are bathrooms. They are permanent structure. They they have a um disposal system. Has to be cleaned out just a couple or three times a a year. Uh they're spacious. They're handicapped accessible. Uh they're they're clean.

Um, it's not like going into a full bathroom with running water, but it it works. So, they're not portagons.

They're they're permanent uh facilities, and it it helps um in areas where there's no other access. And I think most importantly, council president, to to note on those facilities are approved by DEM. They're the only actual structure that is approved and permitted by DEM.

So yes, someone could build a 8 by8 shed and for much cheaper than what it was purchased for, there are running components within these structures that are permitted and approved for waste. Mhm. Isn't there a solar panel that helps do something with the Yeah, there's a panel that powers um essentially a vent fan to make them odorless. Um you know, and in some cases we've had some issues with um odor at

some of these and reached out to the company and they've come in to assist the city in ensuring um you know, the microbial process within these tanks is you know breaking down the right way. So there there are and you make a good point, they are in a lot of state parks throughout the state.

It's it's one of the things that that is being done. Uh finally, um for the folks that have reached out to me and I've gone there often and I think several of us have, can you give us an update on Dewey Avenue, the dealing with that flooding situation? I know and the mayor was telling me the other day there's possible plan um to that sounded like it had some potential.

Yes. So the city council approved a few months back um an amendment to Fussen O'Neal's contract for uh citywide flooding assessment. So they they've we've worked on we've essentially modeled all of the areas um in question you know specifically do we have is one of those. Um now what we've done with that amendment is they're working towards actually developing um palatable plans that the city can ultimately go

out to bid or potentially do some improvements within uh the right of way internally you know whether it's highway or a subcontractor um to make improvements to some of those areas. So we are still working with that consultant to come up with a roadmap but we will be before the city council to provide update uh hopefully soon.

Okay. Thank you. Other questions from the council? Is there anyone from the public like to um make a comment or ask a question of presentation we've just heard or something to do with highways and parks?

Come forward and name and address, but I know it anyways. Nancy Hail, Riverside.

Thank you.

Hello.

Yes, you're on.

Um, I'm not really a numbers person, but I do have some questions for um, Dan, mostly about arborist and tree trimming.

But before that, um, I just want to say overall we must realize that developing a large, vibrant, growing, diverse city with great schools, libraries, lovely parks, and free concerts cannot be done by operating on a shoestring budget like a startup nonprofit. Mayor Dilva is understanding the big business aspect of city operations revenue and creating budget for budgets for so much that can be unpredictable.

The city of East Providence needs adequate police and fire departments without relying too much on services from neighboring communities.

Mayor Dilva has um and this administration, this council has experienced managing incredible unprecedented circumstances, including the pandemic, the Washington Bridge closure, all while becoming the first mayor of a city, rewriting its city charter, as well as the comprehensive plan.

I think we re need to recognize that East Providence didn't just get through all that. Under current leadership, East Providence, although the process was not always pretty, East Providence is looking good and feeling safer thanks to our awesome Department of Public Works and Police Force. That being said, I see one of our most unpredictable issues is related to severe weather events which fall to the

Department of Public Works and the police department. In July of 2025, there was whatever weird wind event which seemed to be a tornado around my house.

Whatever it was, it wasn't so good and there were a lot of trees down. And then within eight months, that's only eight months, we had the severe, record-breaking blizzard of 26.

That's two environmental unpredictable mother nature events in only eight months.

So um I'm out of notes. Um, I agree with the empty school bus issue. I see a lot of them and I've been thinking about that for years. So I there must be a solution.

Um as far that's the you know I don't know what it is.

Uh and for the arborist situation I'm just wondering because there's a lot of tree issues that I've noticed um gigantic branches about ready to collapse on wires. Uh tree growing through the pavement about onethird of the tree roots which make it difficult to um for snow plowing. So, um, do we really have enough tree trimming, arborist, whatever, you know, whatever you want to say. I would like

to see the budgets for Department of Public Works and Police Force. If anything, make the mistake of being overbudgeted.

Then, if you have leftover when when the year's over, you can give it to this, you know, somewhere else.

I would like to know that our Department of Public Works is not operating through major weather events on taking naps, you know, and eating snacks and sleeping wherever, you know, before, you know, and working for days and days and days on that, but it's unpredictable. That's the whole the whole that's the whole issue.

Director, if you can find a question in there you It's about the arborist. The question is the arborist and tree trimming.

Do we have adequate staff to address the trees? Is that the question?

Well, I know that I have a neighbor who's called and called and called about a tree kind of hanging over a storm drain.

I know of some other tree problems. I haven't called yet, but yeah, we certainly deal with tree issues as they they come. We have we do have a long list of maintenance needs on trees.

Um take care of trees and high priority issues or hazardous issues are obviously always first. Um we we do have a backlog of of tree maintenance needs. Um but as part of this budget, we are allocating funds to hopefully assist in eliminating that list. Okay. So, is there this I I didn't look at the numbers. Excuse me. But does this year have a little bit more for tree trimming and arborists and tree Yes.

Okay. Great.

Nothing but compliments.

Thank you. Thank you, Nancy.

By the way, I was remissed in not introducing the solicitor tonight, uh, solicitor Vodilado, who is here. Um, our our regular solicitor is also under the weather.

So, thank you for being here.

Other questions from those here on Highway Parks Public Works hearing? None. Thank you, director, and staff for your time tonight. We'll we'll have a few more of these sessions, I'm sure. Thank you. Next, we will move on to the public safety portion of the workshop. The police department and fire department. Uh, according to the docket, police department, you're up first.

Thank you, Chief and Deputy Chief. So whenever you're settled, you can proceed.

Thank you. Thank you, councel. Uh appreciate uh you having us up here tonight so we can explain some of these changes to our budget and uh looking forward to it's wrapped up.

You have a general summary or I sure do.

Sure. Go ahead, please.

So overall, uh the largest uh increase in our budget is going to be on the salary line item. uh this year will be the first year of the contract where our uh IBPO officers will be receiving an increase in their salary. Uh there are some uh some other increases in the detail pay line item uh that's just going up because of the revenue that we're receiving. Um also there is a a larger increase on the um

the excuse me the professional services uh that that was increased by $25,000.

That was for a lot of uh services that we're that we're involved in for um different things within the station. Um different contracts with pest control, uh trauma 24, which cleans up biohazard waste. Um there's also some other uh increases in there for a wellness program that that's been implemented into the into the department.

We have uh a larger increase in our telecommunications uh because of an increase in phones that have been placed in our cruisers. All of the officers have access to cellular phones that are used with all of our evidence documentation and um it's all cloud-based on that end.

Uh there's a local uh pension increases.

Also, uh technology software is was increased by $100,000. We are going to be uh looking for a new computerated dispatch uh program along with our records management records management system. Those are going to be a a relatively large increase. Hopefully this year we can uh join all the other cities and towns in Rhode Island and uh you know get on board with in updating our our well

overdue or well uh highly needed um technology uh items.

Um and um that's that's pretty much it. There's only just there's a couple other small adjustments that um that are increased just with you know increase in in in materials and things of that sort.

I know through the the year um past couple of years you've received um some good uh vehicles mostly either asset forfeite or or or grants. Are we in good shape with our uh vehicle fleet?

Yes. Yes, we are. We we received nine vehicles uh later. Uh it's actually ear earlier this year. Um we put those on the road. Those are being those are replacing the older um kind of tired vehicles that we had. Those are all purchased through asset forfeite. Not a not a uh a scent was charged to the the tax creators of East Providence. um that's been kind of going on for many

many years. Uh we do have to be careful with uh supplanting our budget um and always purchasing vehicles with asset forfeite money. And that's why over the last several years we've been able to purchase uh I think uh three vehicles through our capital uh with office.

That's uh something that we we must do.

we must maintain um so we don't get into any trouble with the federal government and um have our our assets uh freezed uh frozen or taken away.

Are we nearly fully staffed?

Uh you know we keep we keep trying. Uh we we just uh lost a seasoned officer last last uh week. Uh we lost another female detective um to both two retirements and we have four in the academy and hopefully get a nice group in the January academy. Uh we are 84 right now. We should be around 95. Uh we're going to hopefully get to that number with uh hopefully a couple

lateral transfers mixed in the in there as well.

Has there been an impact on overtime in the budget because of the being less than full staffed? uh the the overtime um holes are being plugged with uh some of our newer officers. Um so it it is decreasing slightly but obviously with the increases in salaries that's going to go up a little bit this year.

Sure.

My aliola question is is there or has there been something taken out of the budget that that you feel is is a problem for public safety? Is there some glaring uh deficit in the budget? I don't mean a money deficit. I mean a an item or major staff position or public safety is in good hands.

city. Well, I I certainly appreciate I I think we all do. Uh yourself, the deputy, you're seen all over the city, uh popping into public events, uh social events, uh just being a presence. The other day I was at an event with a police officer patrolman on duty. Just pulled in and I said, "Hi, is there a problem?" So, no, no, I just wanted to say hello to the folks and walk around

and be seen. And um then he went on his way. it was patrol and it's kind of force that this community um appreciates.

Yeah, our officers do a great job uh every single day and we're uh we're really getting out there. We got a lot of initiatives coming up with the schools and uh you know different programs, nonprofits that uh really try to get us out there into the public and kind Well, that and that I meant to ask are we fully staffed with school resource officers in the secondary schools anyway? So we are uh contractually

required to have three school resource officers and we have four right now um to to kind of address the uh the need.

We we have uh we we have a really good relationship with the all the all the schools and all the principles. Each school has a school ambassador officer outside of the SRO's, excuse me. And uh there were there is we saw that there was a need to continue moving on with that fourth officer uh in the schools and and again they those uh those officers do a great job especially at

the high school with such a big building.

Are we able to do any reach out to the elementary schools at times?

Absolutely. Yes. So uh outside of the SRO's uh we do have school ambassadors.

So the school ambassadors are those officers that are okay to those uh those areas or those those posts. Uh so each school uh does have a school ambassador that that also applies to uh our private institutions as well.

Thank you. Uh any other questions from the council? Councilwoman, just a quick question. The SRO officers, where are they in the whose budget are they in? Because I don't see them in the FTS in your budget.

They're they're part of our budget. All four. Who what title? What position name? Because they're not listed as SRO.

patrol officers.

They're under patroller.

Yes. I'm sorry. They operate just regular patrol officers that are that are given that title.

Um that's another question. Okay. Um do we have it? So we're anticipating potential laterals coming over hopefully within the next fiscal year. Um and I know uh historically the police department has had signon bonuses. Um, do what is the amount that you have in your budget allocated for sign on bonuses?

Right now, uh, we have under our stipens. Um, it's normally where it was coming out of. We have $38,000. It's a $7,500 sign on bonus or a lateral transfer. Um, and that's spread out over several years. It's not it's not a one-time, you know, once they get here.

It's it's uh over a three-year period.

So, what would the rest of the stipens be for? Uh there's different stipens that we get for um uh we have a language stipen for officers that speak multiple languages.

Um there are um clo clothing clothing uh clothing stipens.

Um off the top of my head I I can't think.

So that would be well that would be apart from the uniform and apparel.

Correct.

So yeah the uniform and apparel that's that's more for our onboarding our officers. those uh those uniforms are extremely expensive uh each contractually we have that correct that's correct yes and they and they and just the academy uniforms just to get them through the academy it's quite a bit and then I noticed that the projected um camera uh for the next budget is a million less than what we had budgeted

for last year. Is that correct?

Yes, that's correct. Uh obviously that's one of the larger uh changes as well.

So, uh, the cameras are working. Um, that's the desired outcome, I guess you could say. And, you know, from that three and a half down to two and a half.

Um, that's that's what that changes for.

Okay. And last, and I hope that that we we do get a larger academy next year um when you go out for it, but we're currently at 84 and that includes the two retirees not in the picture or are they included in that 84? That's we're at 84 with with technically one one person is uh just kind of using some of her time right now. Um so we're right with that with uh Captain Catar we're at

84. We do have four in the academy right now that'll be wrapping up uh just before Christmas time.

Okay.

So and then you're uh budgeted for 98 FTEES.

So is that we're anticipating having either a larger group or more laterals.

That'll be 10 extra positions.

That's admin as well, right? The whole Yes.

Okay. So the admin is not included in the 84.

No. No, it's not.

No, I'm sorry.

All right. Perfect. Thank you.

84 84 sworn officers.

Okay. We are a sworn officer, are you not Chief?

You should count yourself. All right.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman. uh council vice president.

So the cameras are working as far as it's slowing down. There's less people getting tickets.

So that's that's how it's tracking.

And I know one thing that the mayor was not happy with me about a year and a half ago when we passed the when we passed the ordinance resolution putting up the Lincoln lights and the signs that if you're getting a ticket, you're you're not really paying attention. Correct. I mean, would you call these speed cameras speed traps now with all the advanced notice?

Personally, no. No, the speed limits are posted. Um, lights are blinking.

Correct. That's just an extra an added warning for those that may not be paying attention to the posted speed limits.

Yep. A speed trap to me would be going down a hill, the speed limit says it's 35 and at the end it drops to 30 and that police officer is sitting there getting a ticket like you see in the you see in TV or that's a speed trap.

That's that's typically what I would consider a speed trap. Correct. Not what we have in the city of East Province.

Thank you. Any other comments from the council? Uh comments or questions from anyone here regarding uh police public safety?

Once again, any other comments, questions from anyone here? We'll close this section. Uh Chief, Deputy Chief, thank you your presentation. We'll do our best.

I appreciate it and and I do appreciate the council. This past year has been kind of a a whirlwind and uh you guys have made it a lot easier to you know bring what we need to the city u and the service the best and and just anecdotally you know the bridge we all inherited that issue and I was there the day the bridge closed the mayor called me and said we have a problem.

I went over to the command center. The police were there and fire and state police. Chief Carrie was there and I just stood in the background. You know, it was my role to just um be available and and and observe and helpful if the council could and you really managed it well. Now, I know all the complaints and I know the problems it led to and I know what happened the governor's race and all of

that, but we didn't cause any of these problems. We inherited this bridge problem and your your staff, fire department trying to move people in and out, getting to hospitals. Uh, it's it's been a nightmare. It's starting to get a little better, but um, thank you for your your patience. I know the motorists are not patient. They're they're mad at us. They're mad at you.

They're mad at everybody about it. Um, but you you and the women and men of the police department and the fire service also have really um responded well. Just like DPW did to the snowstorm, you guys did to the bridge. And this is one big snowstorm.

Yes. Never ending.

I appreciate the com I appreciate the comments.

Yes. Thank you. We'll move on now to the uh fire department.

Chief, thank you for coming. When you get settled, you can uh pres make your presentation.

Um good evening, council members. If you look at my budget from last year to this year, it increased 44,000.

Uh basically that is the 3.5% raise.

That affects salaries, p um salaries, holiday pay, longevity.

Um you saw the increase for the city for medical. That's part of the bump. We really didn't add anything this year. Um we will be running an academy again but they will not come on within this fiscal year. They will come in to the uh the next beginning of the next fiscal year.

We still have we'll come into our third year and final year of the safer grant for the 12. Um but even with them the last nine that we just brought on the last academy we're still down uh four positions.

So the budget does reflect that.

if you have any questions. U could you elaborate on the safer grant and so this didn't cost us any any money put on these people but now we have to absorb positions or through attrition how will this uh bottom out?

So through attrition is usually how it is done um depending on where we're at when we get to that point in time. Um, I know we have projected retirements u probably coming next spring. So, it might be close to being a wash with the next academy. If you notice that it takes us a year to 18 month 18 months to get the academy and get new hires on and start their probationary year.

We literally have to hold seats for the next year in the Rhode Island Fire Academy just to get those spots and then it takes uh 13 weeks at the state, 10 weeks with us before they even come on.

So that that grant definitely benefited the city. It absolutely did. Um, it gave us a higher level of manpower. Uh, reduced the impact on people when it came to filling positions when we're when we don't have anybody out. Uh, we had the extra people on the trucks on occasion as part of the grant was was safety. Just having the personnel to draw from on for overtime shifts. You've seen in the past when

we've been down a number of people and the impact it has on our personnel. By having this, it's it's buffered that.

Great.

Chief, can you just clarify how many was it? Nine or 12 that were in that?

It was nine. 11 actually went to the academy. We tried to get 12. Um, and two had to be let go during the trainings.

So, we have nine currently.

Nine probationary firefighters. Yes. And do we know roughly what the estimated cost for those nine are probationary?

Just so we have a rough idea of what we're looking at once that grant ends in the next fiscal year.

So, this budget doesn't have any allocation for um the academy for the 2028 budget. Correct. It's we're going to be putting that in for next budget.

The money is already in this this year's budget for the academy for the same as the previous year's.

Okay. So, we are allocating for that academy.

Okay.

And while while you're looking up that uh data, um I would would say that if if anyone hasn't visited thesemies when they go on and they they're pretty lengthy. Um I I did have the uh occasion to to visit and it's uh quite an ordeal.

they they can't all make it and it's it's military like it's very tough and boy did we get some great uh women and men that work here. They they have to be um medical as well as climbing a ladder for a for a fire and uh it's not your grandfather's fire department anymore.

No, it absolutely is not. We we do fire, EMS, uh technical rescue, hazardous materials response, maritime response.

We we do all four state um regional teams with our personnel. I I can't say enough about the men and women of our department, but they always step up, always looking for extra training and and give that extra 100%. Now, you mentioned the maritime uh with our increase in our waterfront, which for so many years, you know, had kind of been on the way side, but you know, we're doing some great things with the

waterfront. Uh hoping to see more boating activity socially. Uh what do we have for um water emergencies? Do we have a fireboat still or So, we still have our fire boat. It's 34 foot uh twin inboard jet diesels.

And where do we keep that docked?

It's down at the East Province Yach Yacht Club, right? Okay.

That's part of the concert series. We were looking at a dock being built because there is no actually no municipal dock in the province river. If you look um we tried years ago um did have grant money but that was uh the years that the sitting council we got taken over by the commission and we lost the funding because we weren't allowed to act which I appreciate this council because anything we bring before y

tends to be acted upon and can't say enough about the mayor always backing.

Do you have that figure for the council woman? It's 96,000 for the the probationary officers that are coming out of the academy.

Sorry, not the current that are under the SA grant.

All right.

So, the SAFE grant, they're they're in their second year and they've already seen two payraises. Uh they're going we're coming into the third year for them. But any new hires that we bring on like in the next academy that goes off based CB on the CBA and entry level.

Okay.

All right. And how many do we have currently on the force overall?

Right. Including um civilian personnel, it's 127.

So, this next class that's coming in, I'm sorry.

That's okay. I just wanted to make sure.

No, I'm good.

Council, you all set? Okay. Council vice president.

So, the next class that's coming in, the class of 20 28.

Correct.

Correct. So, we're going to start u the process of recruitment in October 1st, I believe, of this year. of this year by time we get through the academy.

By the time we get through everything, I believe the academy seats that we have are are next January or February and then after the 23 weeks, we'll we'll be past October of next year.

So with them coming on board, the class that just came on board.

Yep.

And obviously I uh safer grant group will still be where we need to be manpower-wise. Correct.

Correct.

So that safer grant group is just through attrition will be absorbed into the normal workforce of this fire department and keeping you at the staffing level that you need to do with the CBA dependent on uh where we're at when it comes time for the safer grant to end and that's up to the mayor. Um, I believe through attrition we should be facing a few retirements that we've looked at next year. Um, if they come

into fruition, then it'll probably be a moot point by the time that next class comes on, but again, I don't have a crystal ball.

I wish I did.

No. And and unfortunately in your department too, I hate to say it, but there's chance of injuries of any department in the city. Your department has the risk of having more injuries because of the nature of what you're dealing what your men and women are dealing with in a day in day out process.

Agreed. But we do take every safety step.

Well, yeah. I'm not saying you don't, but unfortunately, it's an inherently dangerous job. Yes.

And so you got to factor that into a situation too.

Agreed.

And one other thing to uh that you didn't mention, but I think that your men and women are trained as well as the fire I mean the police department is the mental health aspect of your dealing with the with the public. Now you're the first people there is your your department does a great job dealing with mental health issues.

Yes.

And with the introduction of the situation table which I chair um between the police department, fire department, city workers, we have been you know getting services to people that need them and which has not happened. find the ones that are trailing off and it's a great and our our department is 100% on board with it.

I'm talking about even what you do with the public.

I mean your the response the response that your department does when they go into a situation. I've seen it firsthand where you know I was driving by uh I was down Taton Avenue and what you and the police department were doing. You were acting the role of social workers and talking to that person who you unfortunately was having a bad day for whatever reason. I don't know. But I commend your department as well as the

uh police department. I've seen it firsthand a couple of times.

I appreciate that. We train our personnel to treat everybody as if they were a member of a family and do the best that we can for who we encounter.

Thank you. Councilman Fogy, you want to add anything substance? Thank you, sir.

Um yes.

So, just a couple more um clarifying questions for the per uh professional services. Um, the 380,000 similar to last year's allocation, what are we using that for? or professional services.

So that pays for rescue billing. We pay the company that we do our third party billing through which is the larger portion of the revenue for the department. Uh ladder testing, pump testing, outside evaluations, uh the rest is all CBA requirements.

But the outside testing, the NFPA testing for specified apparatus in order to meet standards, that's that's key for us when it comes to safety. And should anything happen in the future, it also backs us up and sports that yes, we follow the standards we're required to do.

Makes sense. Thank you. And then under personal uh purchase property services, um you had a drop in your line item for training and conferences. Um, that's not training for the academy.

No, that is not part of the academy. No, that's just it's outside training.

Okay. So, you're you're seeing that you don't have a foresee a need for any of your men or women to need additional based on what we saw or what we've expended over the last two years, we were able to cut that a little bit.

Okay. And then subsequently the unreimbured medical um we saw a significant jump in that line item.

Yeah. That falls under the FTE. That's okay.

That's it. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone here in the audience would like to ask question or comment about fire services in the budget.

One more time. Anyone here?

No. Hearing hearing none. Okay. Thank you, chief, and your staff. Um we will have other department heads and other departments at subsequent um work workshops. Um before we close out, um I would give u Mayor Dilva if you can be brief if you have a closing comment on your budget. It's not ours yet. It's your budget.

This is always one of the most important things that we come together uh to craft as a budget. I said it earlier in the presentation that this really cautifies what we see as important for our community. Uh I do want to thank you all for taking the due diligence to have uh these budget hearings. I also want to thank all of the people behind me. uh these department heads were all here

today. Even some of the ones who uh knew that they weren't going to be coming uh before you today, uh they're all here.

and the incredible work that our city does. And I hear all the time and I heard it today from a lot of you recognizing the above and beyond service that they do, the community outreach that they do from the police department, from the fire department, um from DPW, all of these people behind me, their number one priority is to get quality services to our residents. And they can only do that if they have the resources

available to them. resources. The number one resource that they have under their control are people, personal costs, the people that work day in and day out to support our city. So, I want to thank all of them for being here today. And I want to thank you and I look forward to the future uh hearings. Thank you.

Thank you. And also thank you department heads. Um you you'll get grilled at later. Not that there was any grilling tonight. Is there a motion to adjurnn?

Motion to adjurnn.

Council Regal. Second by Councilwoman Souza. All in favor? I I any opposed workshop is adjourned.

Thank you.