EAST PROVIDENCE — Simmering hostilities between at least one member of the City Council and school administrators were laid bare Tuesday evening, Sept. 29, during the first in what is expected to be a series of hearings on the proposed Fiscal Year 2015-16 budget.
Council President and Mayor Tommy Rose, who recently ripped the district’s plan to deconsolidate the Human Resources Department, engaged in an often terse exchange with Deputy City Finance Director Linda Dykeman and to a lesser extent Schools Superintendent Kim Mercer about the budget the admins presented to the Council.
Mr. Rose noted the document was just four pages, a far cry in his estimation from the 57-page plan constructed by the school side when the Budget Commission was in control of the city’s coffers from late 2011 to the fall of 2013.
“There are none of the details I continue to request,” Mr. Rose said, adding he has repeatedly asked for much more succinct information from the schools over the last year.
He continued, the current school budget seemed to be “deviating” from the guidelines set up by the Commission.
Mr. Rose ended his initial remarks by saying the document “was not acceptable” to him nor should it be to state-appointed Municipal Finance Advisor Paul Luba. And if was to Mr. Luba, then his performance in his role may need to be “reevaluated.”
Ms. Dykeman was quick with a retort, answering Mr. Rose’s concerns by noting the school appropriation ($43,197,809) in the proposed FY15-16 city budget was some $440,000 less than the what the Budget Commission had set aside ($43,637,810) in the five-year outline it left behind for district for 15-16 when it departed in September of 2013.
Mrs. Mercer, reminding the Council it was the Commission that hired her for the job back in the spring of 2013, said she has produced the same budget format since becoming superintendent and was willing to provide any additional information upon request.
This did little to placate Mr. Rose, who also chided the administrators about the lack of detail in a proposed $1.7 million addendum being sought by the School Committee from the city.to the department’s initial FY15-16 budgeted total of $44,197,809. Ms. Dykeman agreed to send the Council an itemized list detailing how the money would be allocated.
While not directly responding to Mr. Rose, Mr. Luba said there was a “big divide” in what the city and schools had budgeted for the upcoming year and that meaningful discussions needed to take place. Because if the Council approved the additional money for the schools, he added, then it would have to raise taxes 2.7 percent. Currently, no tax increases are included in the proposed FY15-16 budget.
The hearing concluded without any resolutions to the differences or votes taken. A second budget hearing is planned for 5:45 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 6, prior to the regularly scheduled Council meeting that same evening.
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