Committee on Finance| Regular Meeting | March 24th, 2026 | 5:30pm

04/2026. It is 05:30PM. Madam clerk, could you kindly read the role?

Chairwoman Ryan.

Present.

Vice chairman Taylor.

Here.

Councilor Antibua is absent. Councilwoman Graves is absent. Councilor Sanchez is absent. We have two present and three absent. We do not have a forum.

Thank you very much. Okay. Seeing that we do not have a forum on, we are unable to take items one, two, three, and four, discuss them this evening because they require to vote. So we are going to move on I'm actually gonna ask the clerks to just post them at the next regularly scheduled meeting. Is that okay?

Next Mhmm. Tuesday. Yes. And right now, I would like to have a discussion on them. Would you read item five?

It's a discussion matter. There's no vote. Obviously, we have extended an invitation to a large number of people, and I thank you for joining us today. And if any one of you is here for the items one through four, you do not have to stay because we will not be hearing those. They will be heard next week.

So, madam clerk, please read item five,

into the record. A discussion relative to the 2026 through 2031 capital improvement plan. The following have been invited. Courtney Hawkins, chief operating officer, mayor's office Crystal Lindbergh, deputy director, finance department Stephanie Lemanche, associate budget analyst, capital projects, finance department John Arzumanian, director, department of public property Benjamin Leveau, capital improvement projects manager, department of public property Craig Hoffman, chief engineer, department of public works Brian Anderson, Deputy Chief Engineer, Department of Public Works Robert Azar, Deputy Director, Department of Planning and Development Chris Martin, Principal Planner, Department of Planning and Development Joe Wilson junior, director of art, culture, and tourism. Rebecca Noon, director of special projects, art, culture, and tourism.

Okay.

And let the record reflect that we had a missed posting on a title of mister Azar and Patricia. And Patricia is with us this evening, the director of department public works. So we'll get we'll get that changed. Anyway, can you all stand up, please? I'd like to straighten in.

Anyone who's gonna provide testimony today for our discussion? Please raise

your right hands. Do you spare on

the penalty of perjury that the testimony you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and

nothing but the truth?

I do

I do. State your names for

the record, and your staff will stop you.

Dan Loblaw, project manager, public property.

Joe Wilson junior, director of agriculture and tourism for the city of Providence.

Rebecca Noon, deputy director, agriculture tourism for the city of Providence.

Joe Mulligan, director, planning and development.

Chris Martin, acting director of special projects for planning and department. John Arzwini, director of public property. Patricia Coyne Fay, director of public works.

Craig Hoffman, chief engineer.

Brian Anderson, deputy chief engineer.

Nate Urso, an engineering and traffic engineering.

Stephanie Lumiantia, budget associate for capital projects. Crystal Lindbergh, deputy finance director and cost officer for the city

of Providence. Wonderful. On let the record reflect that we are also joined by councilman on this meeting. So noted. Madam Parks, just a a form of housekeeping.

Did notices for this meeting went out to, obviously, everyone here today. Did you also did the council members get noticed They did. On the meeting? They did. Okay.

So please make sure they get noticed and ask them if they are able to attend firm end. Okay? Yes. We will. Okay.

So we don't fall into a rolling forum on this topic. Obviously, we're not taking a a vote, so we're okay to discuss. And I'm you know, I just stated that we're gonna have this meeting because we invited so many people, and it's a critically important topic that council members asked me to bring in, to discuss prior to the budget. So that's why we're here. I envision we're gonna have a healthy discussion.

But if any anyone has any concerns, questions, thoughts about this matter to avoid a roaming this a roaming forum, I'm gonna ask that they ask me directly. Okay? Alright. So that's it. Okay.

Crystal, is that okay, solicitor? Did I articulate that properly? Okay. Crystal, do you wanna walk us through this? It's your show.

Yes. Know you have a bunch of people to answer any questions and emerge while you're presenting, so please take away. That's a I lot can't enter these into the record, but they are for our discussion. Okay. Okay.

Wonderful.

Thank you, madam chair. So included in your packet, have a report per department which is responsible for various capital improvement projects throughout the city. All of these reports are formatted consistently. So I'm gonna walk you through quickly what this looks like for ACT so that you understand the logic that's been applied in this report. Great.

Starting from left to right, you can see the activity code. This is the coding mechanism we are using in the finance department to track every single project that is live with the city of Providence right now. The final two digits in that activity code, as you can see here, end in 20 or 25, that is indicative of the funding source for that project. So for example, 39ODashO245Dash20 is representative of the Landmark Art allocation in the 2020 bonds. 39ODash240245Dash25 is indicative of the allocation for Landmark Art in the 2024 a bond that was closed on last year.

The next column indicates a description of the project. For the purposes of reporting and ease of reviewing, we have grouped projects with multiple funding sources together. So as we get into additional departments, you will see multiple lines which indicate one project, but are funded by various funding sources. The next set of boxes are the actual expenditures that have posted for these projects. So we have what had been posted in fiscal twenty twenty five just so we can see how projects are moving along.

We also have year to date for fiscal year twenty twenty six. These numbers were updated by the budgeting my budgeting analyst denied this week, so we are up to date through last week's AP runs. The third set of boxes represents what has been currently encumbered under that project. One thing to keep in mind is that encumbrances for capital projects may span multiple years because it doesn't just because we enter a PM on July 1 does not mean that work is gonna complete on June 30. Oftentimes, these projects cross many years.

So we will have an encumbrance open for a specific project for the length of the term of that project. We're not closing them out and reopening them for fiscal year. The second to last set of boxes represent what was approved by the council administration for fiscal year twenty twenty six to fiscal year twenty thirty spend. I have only included funded projects in this analysis since we're talking about progress reports and and unfunded projects are not necessarily in progress at this point in time. And then the last set of boxes is really informational to see where we're at in project completion.

So the project total is going to be referenced what the total that was approved in the five year period in the adopted currency IP we're operating under. And the remaining balance reflects what is left after we take into account current spend. It is not factoring in those encumbrances. So we do anticipate that when I present the proposed CIP for fiscal twenty seventeen thirty one that these remaining balances will be lowered and that there will be some changes based on actual experience versus what was originally planned and expected. So, madam chair, typically, what we do when we go through part when we do the operating budget is I have the departments come up for questions.

This is a bit of a different format, so I'm not sure if you want me to just kind of go through the departments and then allow you to ask questions as they arrive. These folks have

come and taken time out of their their their busy schedules. So I'd like you to present as you typically would present. Wonderful. The only thing different is we're not gonna have a vote. I let the record reflect that we are joined by council member Shelly Peterson, some noted, and she has a handheld package.

So it's been taken.

Wonderful. Thank you, madam chair. I think at this point that I'd like to invite up our director of arts, culture, and tourism, mister Joseph Williams Jr, so that he can provide any in-depth questions on what the status updates are. At this point in time, the city is aggressively trying to spend down the twenty twenty landmark art allocation. I've learned that as of actually just recently, we are looking to finalize some encumbrances for an art installation at the gateway center, which the director can elaborate on in more detail if you guys would like.

He is also working on finalizing and locking out the existing landmark art contract that's underway of what was originally approved in 2020. And then the 2025 funding has been earmarked for a Cathedral Square and a potential art installation in that new improved section of the city once planning and building is done with its improvements in that area. K. Is there anything you'd like to elaborate on?

Or Just a correction. The Oh. No. We do. And this poll Okay.

The public art project, the gateways project, is actually the title of it, not related to the Gateway At Roger Williams Park. The Gateways Project was an idea that we had to, both commemorate February but also recognize the uniqueness of Providence's spirit of welcoming, and putting two signature pieces of public art into gateway entry, points into the city. One at Unicompetent Park and the other at North Barrier Ground.