Providence Committee on Finance-Thursday, June 13, 2024-5:30 PM

Good Madam Chair, do you wanna take this presentation first? Yes. Thank you for You're so welcome.

Not a problem. It's very exciting that we have substitution to make. So first of all, just wanna thank everyone on this committee and the counselors who joined, who aren't on this committee, but joined pretty faithfully throughout the budget process for a really thorough review of the budget. You spent many hours and had really good conversations, month... Many of which were, like, yep, policy implementation conversations about how various city departments are doing work on behalf of our residents, and it was well well done.

I I really appreciate all of the counselors' advocacy for our students in the province of public schools, and, of course, we heard the same at the hearing. And there's there's really... There's a few things I just wanna share about how... About the increased allocation. So the increased $2,500,000 to Providence Public Schools on top of what mayor Smiley had already proposed to increase.

So as a total, it's an increase of $5,500,000 to Providence Public Schools in the budget before you. That is the largest increase to our public schools in more than fifteen years, which is as far back as we could easily do the research. And I think there's there's a few things. So one, the budget as proposed back in April from mayor Smiley was a strong budget without a lot of flexibility. Right?

There wasn't a lot of, like, fat to cut from the budget. So I really appreciate the mayor and the finance team here with us tonight, Sarah and Crystal and Larry for working with us to find that money. Right? Because it was... We were able to do it without making cuts to kind of vital city services, especially the stormwater allocations that, you know, we know every time it rains.

It's it's a new level of crisis in our city. So we were able to find this money without making any big cuts to community facing services, but it

was still, like, you know, a

painful conversation. And we got there because this council was united in it. There's other pieces to the puzzle, though, and I think we're all aware of them. I just wanna keep them, like, top of mind. Right?

So there's a ongoing conversation, and I worry that that conversation that's not happening... You know, that's happening outside of this building is not centered on our students, but it's more centered on, like, a... Something political that's happening on on a state level. And so I I want us to just be clear. You know, this allocation is going towards student facing, student supportive services, and I think we're united with that.

I appreciate the commitment from Providence Public School Department to do that. That's important to all of us. That's important to everyone who came to testify and and and in support of themselves. Right? Because we heard from a lot of great students and also families and and others.

And and I think, you know, as we kind of work together with DPSD and with the school board and just been some ideas floated about doing a joint meeting this fall, which I think is a truly wonderful idea. Looking forward to working together with that. Like, we need to just make... To, like, operate in a a place that is... And I know we will.

This is how we've been for the last year and a half. Is outside... Is, like, truly student first facing. You know what I mean? So we're thinking about we're gonna have to make hard decisions continuously.

We're gonna need to do it in a way that supports the best possible outcomes for students and their families and the the teachers who teach in the schools. So I'm really proud that we were able to work together with the administration with mayor Smiley that we were able to do it because counselors were united for this effort. And like I said, it's a historic PPS bill allocation. And I'm gonna turn it over to... And thank June Rose for their effort in negotiating on our behalf and, know, our internal auditors, as well as Erin.

Thank you very much. I'm gonna turn it over to June to just go... Do a little bit of a rundown on what... How we got to the 2,500,000, and I'm sure the finance team would also weigh in if needed.

Yes. Thank you, council president. Thank you, madam chair. Excited to to run through these for all of you. I also, have the auditor with me, to definitely provide some backup, and we'll, at the end, turn to the finance team to ask what I missed.

They'll chime in as well,

but I'm gonna give it

my best shot. So the things that we negotiated into the budget from the mayor's proposed budget were the 2,500,000 we have discussed to PBSD. Mhmm. And that is by far the biggest ticket item. Everything else is considerably smaller.

We have added two positions in municipal court, which will allow them to do their job in the most fair and inclusive way possible and also fulfill DOJ requirements, and that is a court interpreter and a public defender. We have, given a grant of a $125,000 to the Wenoskwatucket Riverside Greenway. We have increased the grant to City Year, and they have $50,000 in the mayor's proposed budget. We've increased that by $50,000 for a total of a $100,000 grant. We have added a, new position in the clerk...

City clerk's office, a special projects manager who is going to, help with a lot of the incoming, and I think will be a great addition to that office. And then we have two small raises in the auditor's office, auditor's office, as well as a salary correction as... Corrected error in the city council office for our project management associate, who is being promoted to project manager. So those are all the additions. And then in terms of changes to help fund those, the the largest one was increasing our tax collection rate from a projected 94% to 94.25%, which will free up about almost a million dollars.

And then we are moving the start... Or or going to have the police department move the start date of their academy. So right now, in the proposed budget, it's funded at thirteen weeks. It's a sixteen week academy. We're gonna ask them to start the academy on May 5.

That way, we'll fund eight weeks of the academy in this coming fiscal year and then the second to eight weeks in the following fiscal year '26. We... There was an increase in public property repair to buildings of a $100,000. We are not... We do not have that in the current version of the budget.

The HR administration had a new line item this year for $60,000 for advertising. That line item is now just 30,000 as opposed to 60. In treasury, there is a banking fees line item of $450,000 that is reduced by a $100,000 to 350,000, which is a a comfortable amount

to pay for what we need to for banking fees.

There were a whole bunch of salary adjustments Mhmm. And positions eliminated that were funded but vacant that we made a lot of hard decisions, but just wanna be clear. No one... No field position was eliminated. There were vacant positions that we've eliminated and some salary adjustments, some raises that we're in that we're not going to be able to do in order to make all this possible.

And, the finance department was able to find $270,000 in debt service reduction on, projects that I believe have not started yet. So

Do have a second?

We had some funds on deposit on our master leases closing out this year, which is reducing the payment we owe the fiscal year 2025 by swearing about the balance. K.

And without getting into the details of all the salary adjustment, which I can if folks want, I believe that is everything.

That's it. I... How detailed is it? I'm just I can do it. I'm more interested, not salary.

Yeah. I can I can speak to all the vacant positions that have been eliminated and then for remaining salary adjustments, I might turn to my left? So vacant positions that are being eliminated, one is a new position, director of talent and development, I believe is the full name. That's in HR. It's part of the HR reorg.

Manager of fiscal operations and commissioner's office. There are four vacant senior city solicitors, so we are eliminating one of those four. There will still be three vacant. In public property, there's a clerk four That is eliminated. Public works administration, there's a new position.

Community liaison, that is eliminated. Quality control specialist in communications department. I believe that is all of them.

I do. Please state your

names and titles for the record. Crystal Lindbergh, deputy finance director and budget officer. Finance director.

Well, it's good to see you chief financial loss.

K. Perfect. And you did

the manager of fiscal operations. Right? Just... Okay. Perfect.

So the last remaining position that is vacant and defunded is an intake coordinator in the in the PERA department, which was a recommendation of the executive director of PERA. The remaining salary adjustments were primarily for changes in staff between when the proposed budget was submitted and now. For example, we had a handful of police officers retire since the proposed budget was submitted. We went through and reduced the salaries for those officers in fiscal year twenty twenty five. I also went through every single funded position and updated salaries for known turnover.

So if there was a person in the position that they were at step five and I know they departed the city, I reduced their their salary back down to step one to try to button that salary line up as much as I can. But that was the the primary driver for the remaining changes that the chief did not elaborate on.

Okay. Yeah. Thank you very much. Of course.

First question is in regards to... I know there is a question regarding the police officer's account, and there is a concern that there was some new in there for a possible lateral transfers, something that probably sounds like the top numbers are are pretty opposed to the stat numbers, but those numbers are still in there. Are those numbers been adjusted at all?

So the proposed budget did not have funding specifically for lateral transfers. What we do with the police and fire budget are we assume that everybody who is on the current payroll plus any academy enrollees will be on the payroll in all of fiscal year twenty twenty five. We do know that there are some officers that are going to be retired. However, because we haven't budgeted any of their severance, which can be very significant dollars, we provide a conservative approach of of budgeting 100% of those officers' salary all year long. So there is no additional funding in this budget for lateral transfers or lateral academies.

We have budgeted the salaries for our officers the same way we have budgeted them every year I propose this budget.

So just to confirm, Chris, thank you. So there's no... There will be no police laterals or something going this year?

I can't provide clarification on how the chief of police runs and operates his department. What I can tell you is that in the budget, there is no additional salaries to fund lateral employees. We have budgeted 100% of the salaries for the officers that are on our payroll as of today.

So, I mean, kind of the level I'm sharing is just to be clear is that there is a possibility that it will be cannabis.

Is what I was saying about. Just wanna make sure. That would be correct. It's gonna be less than what I was gonna say.

Yes. I can make a recommendation, and you can put an addendum in one of the ordinances and say that you don't want lateral transfers in the sworn positions.

Oh, thank you, Robert. I mean, I I I don't know if it's necessary. I think it's clear that health or whatever is that that opinion. So, I mean, I don't know if that's a conversation you have with administration or regulation directly, but I just wanna make sure that that's on record and.