Providence City Council Meeting | April 16th, 2025 | Mayor Budget Address
Call to Order and Roll Call
Council President Miller called the special city council meeting to order on April 16. The city clerk conducted the roll call, determining that thirteen members were present and establishing a quorum.
Motion to Waive Invocation
The majority leader made a motion to waive the invocation for the meeting. The motion was seconded and approved unanimously by the council.
Pledge of Allegiance
Council members and guests rose for the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. The pledge was led by Council President Pro Tempore Pichardo.
Items 1 and 2: Waive Reading and Receive
The majority leader moved to waive the reading of items one and two on the docket. The motion was seconded, approved by voice vote, and recorded as received by the clerk.
Mayor's Fiscal Year Budget Address
A delegation of council members escorted Mayor Brett Smiley to the council chamber to deliver his proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The mayor outlined city investments in public education, infrastructure, public safety, housing, and property tax adjustments.
Motion to Suspend Rule 16b
The majority leader moved to suspend Rule 16b of the city council rules to introduce business not on the printed docket. The motion passed, and the clerk noted the arrival of Councilman Reyes.
Items 4 through 8: Waive Reading and Referral
The council voted to waive the reading of agenda items four through eight. These items were subsequently referred to the Committee on Finance for further consideration.
Motion to Adjourn
A motion was made and seconded to adjourn the special council meeting. The council voted in favor, and the meeting was formally concluded.
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Good evening, everyone, and welcome to this special city council meeting on Wednesday, April 16. Madam clerk, will you please call the
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roll? Council president Miller, present. Deputy majority Whip Anderbois?
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Present.
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Councilwoman Anthony? Present. Majority leader Espinal?
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Present.
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Senior deputy majority leader Gonsalves?
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Present.
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Councilwoman Graves? Present. Deputy majority leader Harris? Present. Councilwoman Peterson?
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Present. Council president Pro Tempur Pichardo? Present. Councilor Royas is absent. Councilwoman Ryan?
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Present. Majority Whip Sanchez? Present. Councilman Taylor?
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Present.
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Councilwoman Anna Vargas is absent. Councilman Oscar Vargas?
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Present.
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You have 13 present and two absent. You have
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a quorum. Thank you, madam clerk. Madam president? Majority leader.
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Motion to waive the invocation.
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Second, madam president.
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We have a motion and
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a second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?
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Any abstentions? The motion passes. I now would like to ask all of our guests to rise as well as our counselors for the pledge of allegiance led by president Pro Tem Pichardo.
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I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
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Thank you.
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Madam president.
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Majority leader.
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Motion to weigh the reading of item one and two.
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Second, madam president. President. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion on that motion? All in favor?
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Any opposed? Any abstentions? Hearing none, the motion passes. At this point I'm sorry? And and please note as received, madam clerk.
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Thank you. At this point, I would like to send several counselors to the 2nd Floor, and I would ask that the council stand at ease. Majority leader Espinal, councilwoman Peterson, councilwoman Ryan, and councilwoman Andrew Wall, will you please accompany mayor Smiley to our chambers?
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Well, good evening, everybody. Madam council president, honorable members of the city council, congressman Magaziner, state representatives and senators, department directors, community partners, and fellow neighbors of our great city of Providence. I'm so pleased to be with you here this evening to present my proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year. When I took office two years ago, I made a promise to our neighbors that we would get back to the basics. By providing excellent city services, supporting our small business community, building new homes, making our neighborhoods safer, and investing in our schools, we quickly laid the foundation for the world class city we all knew Providence could be.
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But tonight, I know that many of us in this room and our neighbors watching from home are feeling an increased sense of anxiety at the actions that we're seeing at the national level. From political uncertainty in Washington to the ever rising costs of rent, utilities, and groceries here at home, our community has been forced to navigate new obstacles that make affording the everyday essentials of life We're gonna talk about the rent tonight. And I know, like all of you, I am proud to still be in a city where we can welcome diverse and sometimes objection voices in our community. I welcome this debate, and we will always allow multiple voices in this house and in this chamber. And so, like many household budgets, this year's city budget was exceptionally difficult to manage.
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As many of you know, last year's settlement with the Rhode Island Department of Education, the city needed to solve a generation of underfunding to the Providence Public School District in just one budget year. We knew that this substantial financial challenge could not be resolved without increased revenue. We worked hard to make sure that this burden will not fall solely on the backs of our taxpayers and would not require us drastically cutting city services that our neighbors rely on. Here in city hall, we implemented a hiring freeze. We made essential spending cuts in nearly every department, all the while still ensuring that we were still able to provide high quality city service.
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Because we know that in this moment, the work of local government is more important than ever. Today, I stand with a renewed sense of commitment and hope for Providence's future. With input from our neighbors, we developed a solution that is not solely reliant on raising taxes, but instead focuses on raising new revenues and responsible cuts to the city's budget. We are building a providence that is safer, stronger, and more responsive to the evolving needs of our community. We continue to prioritize the day to day city services that our neighbors rely on, and we're making thoughtful investments to elevate and modernize how we deliver city services here at City Hall and throughout the city.
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We remain committed to meaningfully improving the quality of life for our entire community. And so in addition to saving taxpayers money by reducing our workforce, we have a lot to be proud of this year. From paving roads in every neighborhood to repairing over 10 miles of sidewalks, we are delivering on our promise to focus on simple quality of life issues. Last year, we filled over 4,000 potholes. And earlier this month, we proposed a new initiative to replace trash and recycling carts across the city to further support our ongoing recycling and waste reduction efforts.
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In surveys, community meetings, and visits to schools, we listened to the voice of our neighbors. We used your feedback to guide our investments and to shape how we move forward. We are making it we are making it faster and easier than ever to access city services. By collaborating across city departments, city hall has become a center for reliable, high quality services. From digitizing licenses and systems across departments to launching a completely new PVD three one one to making the fire department completely paper free, accessing city services has never been easier.
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And last year, we responsibly invested in long overdue infrastructure repairs and upgrades in every neighborhood. We completed 25 park revitalization projects and have an astonishing 170 currently underway. From Jacqueline Clements to new new to Connecott to Brazel all the way up to Lipit, we are revitalizing parks across the city. Today, I am proud because of our investments that South Providence is home to what is without a doubt the best playground in all of Rhode Island, Harriet and Sales. Isn't that right, councilwoman Harris?
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That's right. Using input that we got directly from our community, we've made critical upgrades to our recreation centers to better support our rec centers and better provide services and programs for our young people. In the past year, we've built new bleachers, renovated and redesigned gymnasiums, and we will finally be providing air conditioning to these facilities. Also, for the first time last year, we launched a soccer league. The Providence Rec Department soccer league finally provides free weekly soccer experience to our youth.
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This past week, we kicked off the newest season. The second season is now underway, and I wanna thank the dedicated community partners who are here with us tonight. Joining along with the the directors of the Igliozi and Zukolo Recreation Centers, Yeleni and Jackie, are Mary Bell and Francisco from the Guatemalan Soccer League, and Luis Castanos from Pumas FC. If we could, give them all a round of applause, ask them to stand for a minute. Come on.
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There you go. These folks are dedicated to our youth, and we're grateful for it. While the federal government is rolling back environmental protections and making drastic cuts to critical programs aimed to address the impacts of climate change, here in Providence, we are making proactive investments that make our cities safer, more sustainable, and less vulnerable to the impacts of extreme weather. As a coastal city, we've seen the deep impacts of climate change. And in response, my administration is making strategic investments in our storm water management infrastructure, dredging canals, rebuilding the hurricane barrier to prevent flooding.
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Climate resiliency has become a core comp component of what the city does to manage its infrastructure. And as a result, we are managing ourselves to be a leader in the green and blue economies. In the years ahead, we will finally be cutting the ribbon on a new Department of Public Works complex that'll make it easier for us to make timely infrastructure investments. Here in Providence, we are taking bold actions to address the housing crisis. Like cities across the country, our neighbors are struggling to pay the rent or find an affordable home to buy.
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Our team has taken a multifaceted approach to support both the immediate and long term needs of our neighbors. In less than a year, we've adopted new zoning changes to allow for greater density. We've streamlined the review process to dramatically expedite housing development. We've made unprecedented investments in affordable housing initiatives, and we've developed a more accessible online permitting process. Further underscoring the priority that housing holds for my team, we established the Housing and Human Services Office to more effectively meet the interconnected needs of our community.
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And in the comprehensive plan that you all passed last year, we outlined our strategy to tackle Providence's short housing shortage head on to provoke promote diverse housing options across the city over the next decade. Indeed, it has never been easier or faster to build housing in the city of Providence, and our expanded efforts are making a difference. We've expanded shelter beds for our unhoused neighbors. We've created or preserved over 1,600 affordable housing units throughout the city. Now tackling this crisis requires innovative solutions and getting creative with spaces that already exist.
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So we are transforming historic buildings into housing. We're supporting the conversion of vacant commercial spaces into affordable housing units, and we know that this strategy is working. We see it in examples like the Flynn School. For a decade, this parcel sat blighted and vacant. Today, because of the changes in our comprehensive plan, because of the improvements to our review and approval process, and because of our landmark investments in affordable housing, construction on this site is finally underway.
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Within a year from today, nearly 200 families in South Providence will be calling the Flynn home. This is an incredible accomplishment and deserves recognition. Let's give a round of applause to the team here that's building the latest, affordable housing project in the city. Now as we work to build new homes across the city, it is critical that our neighborhoods feel safe. Each year, our community satisfaction survey has told us that safety is a top priority for residents and businesses.
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I'm proud to share that our investments in public safety are working. I made a promise two years ago to enact strategies to reduce violent crime and return a sense of safety to our neighborhoods. Last year, the Providence police removed over 300 illegal guns from our streets. We saw a 10% reduction in violent crime, the lowest reported level since the nineteen nineties. This is a testament to our investments to modernize our police force and ensure that there there are officers on patrol, on foot, or on bike in every neighborhood.
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And I wanna thank our partners in the Providence City Council for funding the last three police academies, enabling us to ensure that our neighborhoods have the staffing that they need to keep our residents safe. These efforts are supported by our investments in proactive initiatives like our community response team. Since their creation during my first year in office, they have largely eliminated the ATV problem. They have seized hundreds of illegal firearms, and they proactively address quality of life crimes in our neighborhoods. With us here tonight are a few members of that team who are working to keep our communities safe every day.
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Can they please stand and be recognized? Now here in Providence, we recognize that every response does not require a respond every call does not require a response from an armed officer. That's why we support programs like the Family Service Go Team, our EMS paired response unit, and more recently, our EMS bicycle team. Under the leadership of chief Silva and chief Kenyon, this program focuses on places where the city is experiencing the highest number of overdoses and behavioral health calls. Staff are on-site to provide basic care, overdose prevention supplies, other medical responses without needing an ambulance.
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This reduces the burden on our rescues and decreases response teams for these critical services. I'm proud to have expanded the hours of the EMS bike program this last year. And with grant funding that we earned, we are working to make this a national model that can be implemented in other cities across the country. Congratulations to the Providence Fire Department. Now while we know that our families want safe streets and safe neighborhoods, they also want a public education system that works for them and their children.
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Our classrooms and the buildings that they're in have failed our students and teachers for too long. And while we may not have oversight of the day to day operations of the schools just yet, we know that we can continue to make historic investments in their school spaces so that their students can live can study in a world class environment. Last year, we broke ground on three new state of the art buildings. The Mary Fogarty, Frank Spaziano, and Harry Kaczarian schools will give these students the ability to to learn in safe, modern facilities. All three of these new schools support our strategy to improve student outcomes by better supporting middle school students, in particular, through the pre k through eight model.
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For two years, we have been listening to the feedback of our teachers, students, family, and community members, and their message has been clear. It is time for the Providence Public School District to return to local management. That is why this budget includes the largest investment in our schools since 2006, making up for a generation of underfunding in just one fiscal year. In the past year, we've talked to the community, parents, teachers, partners, and most importantly, our youth. We've heard from them.
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They are frustrated with the status quo. They are frustrated that still too many kids are slipping through the cracks. And this is unacceptable. We compiled what we heard. We conducted a thorough internal review to take stock of what we can do to improve conditions for our kids as the states still run our schools.