RUTLAND — The Board of Aldermen cut just over $1 million from the mayor’s budget, which is up 10 percent from last year.
Members said they faced hard decisions and struggled with proposals to cut funding for homeless veterans, the public library, and a downtown revitalization project.
The board rejected the mayor’s proposed fire department budget for FY 2018 after an 11th hour appeal from board president William Notte to broker a compromise with the administration.
In a letter sent to Mayor Chris Louras Tuesday morning, Notte suggested transferring funds allocated for overtime pay to the salaries line in the fire department budget in order to maintain current staffing levels. The mayor said while he understood the board’s rationale he was not “currently in a position to be able to provide support for the proposal.”
The mayor’s budget proposes a $36,414 cut to fire department salaries. The reductions are the result of a controversial restructuring proposal that would reduce one active firefighter per shift in order to fund a full-time administrative position.
It is widely speculated that the staffing changes may be part of contract negotiations slated to begin next year. The mayor and fire chief have disclosed few details about the restructuring plan aside from an executive session meeting with the public safety committee earlier this month.
In front of a large audience of fire fighters and their family members Tuesday evening, the board voted unanimously to reject the mayor’s fire department budget leaving a number of unanswered questions about how the stalemate will be resolved.
Deputy fire chief Jim Miles and Seth Bride, president of the local firefighters union, made impassioned pleas not to support any proposed restructuring that would reduce the number of active duty firefighters. Addressing the mayor directly, Miles asked Louras to give the people the services they have come to expect and deserve, echoing language the mayor himself used in a letter to the board when he presented them with the budget on Nov. 1. “If you feel the administrative position is so important,” Miles said, “fund it. But leave us alone.”
The board is obligated to finalize the budget before the end of the year. While they can cut funds from the mayor’s proposed budget, they cannot add to it.
During a break in the meeting, which dragged on for more than five hours, board president William Notte said, “We’re waiting to see who blinks first.”
It is not clear whether the board will convene before Jan. 1. According to the city charter, only the mayor can call a special meeting of the board of aldermen. Alternatively, a majority of board members can petition the mayor to call a meeting. Louras says he has in the past called meetings after being informally asked by the board president. The board has no additional scheduled meetings before the end of the year.
“It is certainly in the mayor’s purview to call a meeting before the month is over,” Notte said. “But if the mayor is stating he’s not going to budge, I think we violate charter, get to January and take it from there.”
The mayor, who left after the fire and police department budgets were finalized said he didn’t “have the capacity to revise a budget.”
“I do not believe that the firefighters understand the gravity of what has transpired,” Louras said, referring to some comments after the vote that the fire budget was now back in his hands.
In a post on their Facebook page late Tuesday night, the fire department thanked the board for rejecting the budget and sending it “back to the Mayor to submit one that includes restoration of funding for the manpower we need.”
However Louras said that was a false narrative and that the board had effectively zeroed out the fire department budget. “It’s up to the board to pass a budget by December 31,” Louras said.
In response to the board’s decision to cut the number of funded positions in the police department from 41 to 39, the mayor accused the aldermen of being irresponsible and sending the wrong message to voters and the public, especially given the success of Project Vision. The board voted 6 to 4 to reduce the salary line in the police department budget with a follow up motion ensuring that if Chief Kilcullen is able to fill those positions, funds would be made available to close the gap. That money would come from the unassigned fund balance, which Louras described as the city’s bank account. The mayor said relying on the unassigned fund and a potentially new composition of board members next year to approve such a transfer was irresponsible budgeting.
“Revenues and revenue expectations may tank,” he said. “That’s precisely why it’s smoke and mirrors.”
Alderman David Allaire who chairs the public safety committee said the department has historically been unable to fill all of its openings and that for the last five years they have routinely fallen short. “It’s not a blip on the radar screen,” Allaire said. “It’s a pattern.”
Alderwoman Davis disputed the mayor’s claim that the board was cutting staff positions at the police department because those positions are still vacant and the board had pledged to fund them if Kilcullen is able to fill all of the current openings.
The mayor also accused the board of violating the state’s open meeting law for failing to allow members of the public, the chief of police, and the chairman of the police commission to speak before the vote on the department budget was called.
Sean Sargeant chairman of the police commission said, “To do that without hearing from the chief or the commission is a little disrespectful.”
The department currently has 34 full-time employees. Four more officers will join the force in January, bringing the total number up to 38. In addition they are currently processing the other three openings and expect to be fully staffed at the start of the fiscal year. The board’s motion resulted in a $181,370 reduction in the police department budget.
The board also voted to cut $175,000 in funding for the Center Street Alley redevelopment project, $50,000 in miscellaneous funds earmarked for homeless veterans, $35,853 from the public library, and two new positions including a public safety officer and a second city attorney. A request by the board to increase the city’s contribution to the pension fund by more than $650,000 was approved. A motion by alderman Chris Ettori to cut that figure in half received no support and did not go to a vote.
At Monday night’s regularly scheduled meeting the board approved a measure to reduce the cost of living increase for non-union employees from 5 percent to 3 percent.
Library Director Abby Noland said the library would have to reduce its operating hours, lower temperatures in the building, and perhaps even cancel some magazine subscriptions. “We know that we have to certainly tighten our belts,” Noland said.
On average, 400 people use the library each day. In addition to Rutland City it serves residents in Rutland Town, Ira, Mendon and Tinmouth.
A motion by alderman Tom DePoy to cut $16,000 in bias training for city officials, including board members, was narrowly defeated with board president Notte casting the tie-breaking vote.
DePoy who described bias training as a form of “thought control” said he did not believe members of the board or anyone in city hall needed to undergo such training.
The city’s water and sewer rates remain virtually unchanged with fees for water going down slightly and sewer increasing by about the same amount. The city budget with or without funding for the fire department will be voted on by residents on town meeting day in March.
