Good evening.

I'll call the public workshop for the East Providence budget to order September thirtieth.

Madam Clerk, please call a role of the council.

Councilman Councilman Fogerty.

Councilman Lawson.

Council Vice President Regal.

Councilwoman Souza.

Council President Rodericks.

Tonight we're just um having the workshop for a couple of areas.

Um I'm going to just change the agenda while we're waiting for a little uh technical assistance for one of the items.

So at this time without objection, we would go to number three on the agenda, the East Providence School Department, and they're represented tonight.

The superintendent of schools is here, Dr.

Faran.

Also uh looks like um most of the school committee, Chairman Lewis, vice chairman uh the Mel is here, and also uh member Ferrara.

I'm sorry, it's Vice Chair DeSimus.

I think I mispronounced your your name totally.

Um so with that, uh we'll withhold uh council comments at this time and invite superintendent uh foran if you'd like to go to the podium to my right or sit at the table.

We have a microphone here.

That way you can put out your documents if you'd prefer.

And anyone else that's joining you with the school department is welcome to come forward.

So welcome.

And if you want to make an opening statement.

Good evening.

Thank you very much for having us.

I also have my finance director, um, Alex Gonzalez here.

Welcome.

So we have a short presentation for you.

Um this is the budget, the 25-26 district budget that the school committee passed um in uh September, early September.

Next slide, please.

So the district has um used the same well strategic plan as a three-year strategic plan.

Um our goals, academic excellence for all students, social emotional learning to support academic learning, educator's focus on continuous learning, and family and community engagement.

No, this is um small print, but as you can see, so this is our current enrollment.

Uh this was as of probably a month ago.

Um, you can see the classrooms that are highlighted in red are classrooms that are full.

Since then, we have maximized just about every um kindergarten seat.

We have um only a couple of kindergarten seats left um in the district, and you can see that we have some other grade levels in the elementary schools that are closed out.

Just for people maybe viewing and maybe can't see that screen.

I don't want you to read all those totals.

Could you just give so people are aware the elementary totals and the secondary and then the system total?

Sure.

Give me one second.

Or I have it here if you'd like to I don't think I can see I can I can see that, sorry.

I have the print you provide.

I do, I have it that's small too in front of me, but um elementary 2123, middle school is one thousand seventy three, high school with 1710.

Then we have out of district students um and GED students that we are responsible for a total of 52 5257, and those numbers fluctuate the whole month of August, September, even now they are still fluctuating, but um, that was a snapshot on that day.

Sure, thank you.

Okay, can I what the GED?

Is that uh during the school day?

Um, those are students that yes, have left school, so they could be 16 and above, and they're on an alternate learning plan.

Adults too.

No.

Not adult.

There are right, they're our students that we're still responsible for providing an education.

What percentage of this school enrollment is compared compared to last year?

How many were you uh children you're providing an education for last year?

How many last year?

Yeah.

Um, I can if we go to the next slide, I can show you our enrollment over the last 50.

Um I jumped ahead.

Yeah, we were at 5231 at the same time of year last year in 2024.

Um, and you can see we were at 5257 now, and then 2324, we had 5342.

We saw a big jump um right after we opened the high school and enrollment kind of um dipped during COVID, and then we've started to um pick back up too.

So what I'd also like to point out is you can see our special education enrollment.

We were at 1123 a couple weeks ago, which is 21.3% of our population.

I will say that we had 45 kindergarten students that came in in self-contained classrooms, which is a huge number.

We opened an additional class this year, an additional special education self-contained room at Orlow, and we believe we're on the verge of having to open another class possibly this year in order to accommodate the numbers that we have.

Next slide.

So we're very proud of that.

Next slide, please.

So these are our out-of-district placements.

We have 56 students that have been placed out of district based on needs from our team.

We have six that are out of district that are in foster care.

The DCYF residential, and I've spoken about this on multiple occasions.

We have 10 out of district right now.

Each one of those 10 placements cost us about $9,000 a month.

So right.

So DCYF places a student outside of our district.

Most of those, they are all residential placements.

That number has gone down a little because it's based on your special education per pupil rate, and we've worked really hard at making sure things were classified correctly, and that you know, we're trying to maximize that rate.

So we've gone down to 16,000, which put us the rate somewhere in the middle of the rest of the state, which is progress for us.

And then I did leave craft up there, but we have no placements out of district in craft right now because of the legislation that passed last year.

So that is a cost savings to the district, and we are grateful for all the hard work that everyone did to get that legislation through.

Next slide, please.

So just some of the personnel changes that I wanted to highlight for 25-26.

Um we we reduced by one grade one at Silver Spring and one at Hennessy, a grade two at Waddington and a grade two at White Neck, a grade five at Kent Heights.

We um had lost a recess assistant and seven paraprofessional positions.

The year before we cut 15 positions in the district.

Next slide, please.

Um, a grade four at Kent Heights because it was a bubble class.

We had to add a grade one at Waddington back in.

We've added a speech pathologist, which we were contracting for a lot of speech services, and we found it to be more economical to hire our own.

We had to hire a reading teacher at the high school because of the right to read legislation, and we were not servicing our students appropriately.

Um, and we um had an instructional coach that was no longer grant-funded.

So I just want to highlight some of our major cost increases.

Um our health care increase this year was 878,000.

Um, some of that is because some of the personnel that was contracted were moved into the budget, um, but the majority of that is just increase in overall cost to the district.

We have approximately 3.1 million in salary increases, um, and those are contractually required.

Um, and then we lost 350,000 in federal funding.

Next slide.

And then our biggest budget impacts are um the $6 million for auto district placements, uh, $7.52 million in transportation costs, and $83.3 million in salaries and benefits overall, which really brings us to 96.82 million, which is pretty much um pretty much our entire budget.

So I did want to mention because we um you know the council has assisted us with facilities updates.

I wanted to mention some of the things that have been done in the last year, and some of these were things that we came in front of the council last year and had presented that we would be working towards.

So we have the Martin Middle School construction going on.

Students will move in on December 1st, right when we get back from Thanksgiving, which is great.

And we will have be having a ribbon cut in the week before, so I'll be sending something out on that.

Um our Waddington renovations are just about complete.

We are doing the site drainage work right now and some punch list items inside.

We have the building management system last year, which we spoke about, which it controls the HVAC in throughout the district.

Um we have started installation of that uh this week.

Um so that's just over a million dollars, but there were a lot of incentives, um, and we have a five-year finance plan for that.

Um we did a grant funded outdoor classroom at Silver Spring, we did an outdoor freezer at Riverside, um, we did the composting bathrooms at the high school, we installed the stadium seating at the high school, um, we repaired um the lights at Riverside Middle School parking lot, and we've done the univent replacement at White Neck.

So some of these were straight off last year's project list.

Next slide, please.

And then paving of Hennessy Olo, RMS Teachers Parking Lot and Francis Sidewalks, those are all funded through safety initiatives and the capital um the capital fund that you've set aside.

We've finished Orlow and we're working on Hennessy right now.

The rest will be done by June 30th.

Um we replaced, and this was another item that we came in front of the council.

The PA systems at Olo, Francis, White Neck, Silver Spring have all been replaced.

We did um a storage building at the high school, replacement of district door locks and keys for new and police uh knock boxes that was grant funded.

We replaced all of our dishwashes at Whitenack, Orlow, and Hennessy, upgrades to painting in the main office at Riverside, um, teachers lounge up teacher lounge upgrades at Silver Spring and mulching of all of our playgrounds.

So our 25-26 priorities will be the oldham roof repairs at approximately 1.6 million, uh security vestibule at Oldham, PA systems at Hennessy, RMS, Kent Heights, and Oldham, uh Paving Francis parking lots, Waddington parking lot, Hennessey handicap ramps, white neck fence, site wall replacement at RMS, Silver Spring Roof, Hennessy boiler replacement, tree removal at Waddington, and Silver Spring Fence Replacement.

So those are our priorities for the 25-26 school year, and we'll complete as many of those as we can.

I came to last council meeting for stage two um submittal to ride, which will help give us the um reimbursement for those some of those projects.

Next slide, please.

So local increase to the budget.

So what we're asking for this year is the city appropriation of 59,491,765, which is an additional 2,288,145, which is a 4% ask.

Um, as you can see, our salary increase alone was $3.1 million.

Um so between that and um our state aid pretty much goes to just our transportation increase and our salary and benefits.

Um, so we we do have to we we continue to make cuts in as many areas as we can um to make the budget work.

And this this was a difficult budget um to make sure that we um we balance this one.

So if that's the last slide.

So if anyone has any questions about our budget.

Thank you, uh Dr.

Fran.

So before we go to questions from the council, I mean from myself, I would say there's nothing in this school budget that I have a problem with.

Uh I know other members as well as myself.

We've met regularly with superintendent and others through the year looking at the budget.

Um bricks and mortar are important, and we're doing so much in East Providence to see that they're in good shape.

But let's not forget that teachers and staff teach, and they require our support, and we need um to keep funding.

I I know you've you've cut some people uh as you've tried to keep this budget uh as lean as possible, but um we need our teachers, our support personnel.

I've visited schools recently, the support staff is so important to have.

It's a different world.

We need personnel and we need teachers and no teacher or administrator or principal or is getting paid exorbitant salaries.

Could all make more money out in the private sector.

So going through this budget, um somebody out there might want to nickel and dime something.

I I don't see it.

So uh it it has my support as we've done pretty much every year.

I don't think we've cut any school budgets to speak of.

Uh so with that, uh, it would open it up to council questions.

Councilman Lawson, you had your hand up.

Council Vice President, you want to thanks.

I sh I share your sentiment, but Council President Rodericks.

We can build beautiful buildings.

It's like having a car, it's like having a nice car, but you don't have an engine, the engine out of teachers, and you need that, and we gotta continue to do that.

Uh as three years on this council, what attracts people to the city?

One of the things is education.

And obviously, new buildings, you know, help, but again, you don't have the quality inside.

Why send your why send your child to this system?

We gotta maintain that.

We gotta understand that.

My only question I have for you, and it's a concern.

We keep on hearing about all these federal cutbacks that occur.

Any what would happen if we if we don't get the additional money for some of these positions from the federal government?

What percentage do we need, obviously, to finish this school year?

Yeah, so the the school the federal budget goes July 1 to June 30th, so we'll be okay until June 30th.

Um but like I said, we've lost 350,000 in this we in this um fiscal year.

And then we also were waiting to hear about another grant that we have, um Project Aware that supports a lot of our wraparound services for families.

And luckily that just came in this week.

Um so it's just it's we're we face a lot of uncertainty right now with and and because our fiscal year doesn't line up on the right, it can be really complicated um when we're trying to do basically two different budgets.

No, I thank you.

And again you as the superintendent schools, you you are one of the four important if you look at it as far as you know playing baseball four bases.

It's you and the two gentlemen in the back, as well as the DPW director.

People those are the four things people look at.

How good school is, how good's my fire department, how good's my poll is the police department, and what sort of services do I have that come out here?

And we and I want to attract, keep on attracting younger families to the school, you know, to the city because that increases the tax base, helps businesses, and as long as I'm here for another year or so and I know you're not uh a spend uh just spend wild.

I uh commend you and your staff for your uh efforts.

As long as you realize there are three bases and one home plate.

Not four bases.

You are a baseball guy, right?

Okay.

On the same night that the Red Sox are playing.

Councilman Lawson, you have the floor.

3.29 or 2.8.

Did we figure that out?

What was left over from the high school bond?

Because half a million is a big number.

Is there a countability for every dime?

So we're gonna be meeting um next week to go over all of that figures.

Okay.

Because uh there's no money in this budget that's going into that fund.

So we if there's none, we gotta start putting money into that fund because you you gave us a presentation last meeting or the one before, uh, for at least 4.5 million.

So we need to get an answer where that money is, and we gotta keep feeding that fund.

We've just talked about maintaining these beautiful buildings.

You know, we borrowed 300 million.

We can't just say, okay, that's fine, we're not gonna take care of them.

So we appreciate you guys coming together and getting the answer.

Um, because half a million, that's a big big thing.

So uh council president, if I may, to respond to Councilman Lossett in regards to the okay.

I don't want to get into that too deeply because there is a meeting set up to go over that, and I don't want the public to be misled.

There, there is money in the account.

Right.

There's two point eight that we definitely know about.

We're just looking at what we thought was going to be there.

Right.

I just want to clarify because then there was another number thrown out on the record as 3.9.

So now that just added another five no just now.

No, no, right.

So I just want to clarify.

But um, Glenda did have any answer and she'll keep a brief concept if we may.

Sure.

Yeah.

So I reached out to Ryan back.

Um to reconcile all requisitions that were submitted.

Um, sorry, that were uh submitted to them, and my numbers agree with Ryback's records, and as well as Bank New York's uh statements.

Um all three of us are in line, and we all show the 2.8 being the ending balance and the bond.

But we are still waiting.

We might have more meetings, and I know Alex was um doing her own recommendation.

I don't want to speak for her.

Um my number to agree with Ryback and Bank New York.

And okay.

Another number was 400,000 in fees.

Do you know how much we had to pay?

Because you got to pay when you borrow money.

There are fees associated.

Yeah, there were um issuance costs when the bond initially closed, and I was able to get Bank New York to confirm that at the end of the bond, there were no additional fees that were charged to the bond.

The 2.8 is what was left in the account.

Um, and they didn't actually so the fees would have been before the bond was closed out already paid.

Yes, correct.

Okay.

I um just let us know.

And I think that's we have people coming to us saying, you know, that's a big discrepancy.

So thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Councilman Fogarty.

Thank you, Councilman Lawson.

Councilman Fogerty.

Do you want to add anything?

I just want to say thank you for your time and the budget and all the work you did.

Those self-contained rooms, they're hard to equip to keep the staff.

That's expensive.

Adding the cost to salary and benefits.

You don't have any wiggle room at all.

You have no money.

The maintenance, I mean, it's almost like you need fundraiser to take care of it, but your buildings are surviving, they're looking great.

The teachers, the number you have is 36 early release, early people that left to leave the school.

30 something kids to save you money.

ML ML program.

Yes, they're out of the program, but they're still in the uh our classrooms.

Oh we exited the um MLL status.

The only thing on the maintenance part of it, when you do the parking lots, are they gonna do the Waddington um where you're doing the drainage in the back with this where the entrances right now going in?

That's part of the um property.

Even coming all the way up to your uh playground area.

Believe all of that is part of the work that Shawmip's doing now.

Okay.

Um, other than that, I mean, I support it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um I would ask if there's just invite if there's anyone here that had any comments, questions about the school department budget is as presented tonight.

It's technically not a public hearing, but we will invite anyone to make any comment if you'd like.

Any other school staff other than that?

Thank you, Dr.

Faran, for all your work and for your staff uh being here.

Thank you to school committee members uh who were here.

And I I think you get the vibration tonight that this council does not have a problem with with your budget.

Um what is the open the opening date again for the new Martin?

December one.

December one, right after Thanksgiving.

Okay, and there'll be a public uh ribbon cutting um around that time or right before Thanksgiving right before Thanksgiving for for those.

And can we again say Waddington is crowded, but when the Martin project's done and the preschool leaves Oldham, it will alleviate the crowding at Wardington.

Yes.

We just need to be a little patient.

I know people bang uh, but it's gonna happen.

So thank you very much.

Thank you very much for all the support we do.

You're welcome.

This point, um, we'll go back to the beginning of the agenda.

I I didn't neglect and to say I did neglect to say at the beginning.

Obviously, uh Mayor DeSilver is here tonight, members of his staff.

So it at some point if you have questions of of him, but for now we're going to uh look at department directors.

So we'll go back to the beginning of the agenda, room and numeral three.

Uh Madam Clerk, I'm doing all your work tonight.

You don't have to read anything.

If you want to go grab a coffee or something, uh we'll give you a yeah.

So you can why don't you read uh number one under room and normal Roman numeral three?

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Community development planning and economic development, Keith Burns.

So at this point, uh ask uh director Burns to come to the table here.

If you might be better if you want to spread out and you'll have benefit of other staff that are there.

And thank you, uh Chief of Staff Zendi for setting up technology tonight, along with uh the director Zambrano.

Director Burns, you have any uh opening comments or you want to just begin.

No, thank you, and uh good evening to the council.

Um, as far as our department budget, um, you know, I believe it's one of the probably one of the few that shows uh decrease from the last fiscal year, uh decrease of over 89,000 or 9% of the budget from the previous year.

Um in the main part of that is um a vacant position, which is slated to not be filled, which is our planner one position.

Um previous planner one, Tristan Jimerson has uh taken the position of the community development coordinator and has been doing a uh a great job at that.

Thank you.

Uh do you have any specifics or do you want us to go into questions?

Um, if you have any questions at this point.

Sure, just to move this along.

I don't know.

I know we've all read this.

Any comments or questions in this area?

Yes, I did.

I just had the department, certain departments that come.

Uh you might be off the hot seat, Director Burns, so maybe better to not say any more.

Um I'm sorry, Council Vice President.

Yeah, I have one question to the uh director.

Um what do you foresee in in regards to government grants?

I know in the you know past three years, your department has done an outstanding job securing grants and with the economic climate in the state as well as the environment in this country.

What do you anticipate?

The prospect of gaining new grants as well as are you concerned that any grants that we might be anticipating might not be coming.

Um so far we've been very fortunate in that we haven't lost anything.

You know, all the existing federal and state grants that we have have not been canceled, called back or anything like that.

Uh we do have grant uh signed grant agreements for what it's worth for you know, I think all of the ones that we uh that we were awarded.

Um going forward, it's very uncertain.

I mean it's very likely that um you know there wouldn't be as much in the future coming from the federal government regards to grants, especially with certain topics such as you know, environmental concerns, resiliency, and things like that.

Um other ones were more hopeful, you know, economic development type of type of grants, we're more hopeful that uh the funding will still be there.

Which is why I think we are fortunate that we have all administration as well as uh the council who supported as much as we did this past year or two years with a number I keep throwing around is roughly 30 million dollars in grants and uh uh outright of monies given from various agencies for a lot of the projects that people see did not come out of direct budget dollars.

Someone will say taxes are taxes.

I get that, you know, that it's all one part, but we're not gonna see this going forward for quite a while.

So we we've made some nice progress.

Uh other questions of planning this point.

Are there any other uh comments from people that may be here that have a question or comment about the planning department and community development, economic development?

Certainly something we've talked about quite a while.

Um hearing none, thank you, Director.

Appreciate your time.

Thank you very much.

Thanks, Keith.

Any of those scoop department members are still here, we won't take it as rudeness if you want to get home in an early hour.

So thank you for coming.

You certainly are welcome to stay till midnight with the rest of us, but you you don't have to be here.

Except for you, Tony Ferrera, you're gonna stay.

You're not leaving.

Uh Madam Clerk, could you continue?

Number two, public safety police department, Michael Rupoza.

Thank you.

So if uh acting chief uh proposer and deputy chief would come forward at this time, and I I do want to echo before you start, gentlemen, that the same thing goes for our police law enforcement that I mentioned for the school department.

We can have the best equipment, which I think we do.

We we've done a lot with uh vehicles and rehabbing the police station, but what counts most, I think with all of us, and I know it does with me, uh the personnel.

And we have you know great police officers that uh from the top to the bottom of the line ladder, patrolmen just starting.

Uh you respond to every need we have, you you go beyond the workday and uh scene at community events during the the year.

So just like teachers are important in schools, this community respects its law enforcement uh people, as well as the bricks and mortar.

Um with that, uh Chief, if you'd like to start or make any comments or or begin your presentation.

Thank you, uh Council President, and uh thank the rest of the council for uh having me here tonight.

Uh I just want to go uh on record saying how uh the 82 men and women of the East Province Police Department, you know, they make they make do with a lot less nowadays, um, and they're doing a phenomenal job.

Um we've we've faced a lot with uh recruitment and retention issues, and we're trying to take some some initiative now to try to increase uh both recruitment and retention.

So uh we're presenting a budget that's fiscally responsible.

We spent many, many hours.

Uh uh Major Benoit uh started it during my absence, so that's why he's up here today uh as well.

But there's many, many hours in in the room going back and forth with uh with this budget, and I think it's uh fiscally responsible budget.

Thank you.

I I wanted to ask Major Benoit with all of your success that you've done.

Do you attribute any of that when I coached you in Little League years ago?

No, thank you.

I just wanted that on the record.

Your budget just got cut.

I'm sorry.

Go ahead, Major.

Yankees are up one nothing.

Or Chief, whoever wants to proceed.

Um do you uh any questions first?

Want to start with council members, uh council.

So yes, please.

All right.

Um, first of all, we still have to purchase vehicles on the city side.

We can't keep saying Google money, asset forfeiture.

It's I think it's even law.

I know there's restrictions with the Google fund.

So that I know we're so fortunate that the asset forfeiture they bring in is amazing, but we can't count on that.

We still gotta do budgets that make sure that we're making sure the vehicles are updated, the equipment, the radios and stuff, and we've been doing it, but not all of it can be relied on asset forfeiture.

So something we got to keep in mind as we go for it and stuff.

Um the other thing is I'm a big proponent of mental health.

Um, making sure you guys have the support.

Um, you guys comfortable, you have enough resources.

You guys see the worst of the worst.

You walk into situations that most human beings would crumble.

Uh, we're providing you enough resources for the women and men if they need it to go get some help.

Yeah, absolutely.

Uh councilman, we we have a a pretty robust uh peer support team.

Um we are now actually exploring options for uh another provider, just because we're at the end of our contract, but uh we we regularly meet.

Uh our officers are uh constantly monitored during stressful events, obviously, uh critical strength, critical uh incidents do occur.

Um, and we make sure that we we focus on those officers, um, not just you know, short term but long term, make sure that they're uh receiving any any type of treatment or any um any type of support that they need.

And leadership, you have some training to you know, if you see some signs, maybe somewhere's withdrawing somebody's absolutely okay.

Okay, good.

My last thing is probably for finance.

We know the contracts coming up.

If I know they're pushing for zero percent in year one, I am against that.

If we go to arbitration, what is the budget impact of an increase?

And this is more for the finance.

Do we have those numbers?

Say two and a half to three percent in year one.

Say it again.

What's the question?

If we if you guys don't get your way with the zero percent in year one, uh we prepared for the financial impact.

Do we know what that number would be?

Say if it's two and a half, three percent.

No, what the what the issue would be we would we would strongly go to arbitration if we had to.

One of the factors that an arbitrator must consider an arbitration is the ability of the city or town to pay salaries.

And we believe we would have a strong case based upon the budget that's presented here today that we're already above the 3.5% cap.

We're at the state cap of 4% with all the things that we've heard, and that there would we would strongly push for that we have met our burden to show that we did not have the ability to pay to budget for a raise this year.

Now, if an arbitrator buys that, we're okay.

An arbitrator has a right to impose a um a salary increase or a wage increase.

We wouldn't know what that would be, but it would absolutely have to be factored by that, and it would only be for one year.

So we don't it might not and it might not even be re retroactive.

We just don't know what they have wide discretion.

Yes.

So if we're not spreading it out across, we're just kicking the can down the road.

Because if you say we're gonna give you three percent over the course, but zero in year one, that's just means it's higher.

So and the adverse effect, uh, we anticipate and losing people if we go ahead with zero percent.

Well, I mean, that's it.

That's a that's an administration issue, but I will say that as part of the negotiations, and I don't want to get too into the weeds with this negotiation, but with uh the other uh public safety that we did have settled with, and we you'll be seeing that contract hopefully in the next couple weeks.

Th yes, if obviously if obviously if you give zero in the first year, there's expectation that there will it'll be not made up, but they will be compensated for in the years out.

So that's but that but that's something that we know and can anticipate in budget four.

So given the pressures that the administration faced with this budget, we had no room because of all the the bond costs.

Everything you're hearing here today from all the I I understand it, but when you're elected, you gotta have the courage to make these decisions and uh they deserve a fair contract and asking them to take no money for a whole year.

So let's let's see how it goes.

We are in the middle of negotiations.

We November comes.

And if the arbitrator says nope you gotta do it.

No, I just said that they to comment when there's a negotiation ongoing.

Oh, we are in the middle of a negotiation.

You you have good questions.

Let's wait and see.

And okay.

Yep.

No, good questions.

That's all I got.

Okay.

Council VP.

Yeah, uh if I can adjust.

I'm sorry, yes.

Uh we did uh uh propose through the capital uh request a couple cruises for uh this upcoming year, uh along with some other things.

But that they we I want to make sure that we start to do that, and the mayor has been on board with trying to uh you know put that put that in the budget moving forward.

So we don't have to depend on the DOJ funds.

My question is in regards to staffing.

You mentioned 82 or 84 that you're at right now, department wise.

With myself and major, yes.

82, right?

Yes, sir.

Okay.

Um and if things go have a little knowledge about this that uh the academies start in January, February.

I mean, usually they run the state and municipal at the same time, with obviously the state takes a little longer, but so January is not too far away from here.

Do we have any candidates yet set up to go to the academy to help get us to uh a bigger number than 82?

Because, you know, obviously the more offices we have, it cuts down on overtime and it cuts down on that mental fatigue working 12, 16 hour shifts.

Yeah, absolutely.

Uh uh I we have currently we have two recruits in the academy.

They graduate just before Christmas time, uh shortly after that academy ends on June, excuse me, January 5th or 6th.

That's when the next academy starts.

We proposed 11 applicants to our detective division.

They're in the background process now.

Once that background process uh is complete, uh we'll move forward with the psychological evaluation, physical exam, uh a couple other things before they're given a conditional offer.

So we hope uh to I mean, I wish we could put all 11 in, but um I we'll hope hope to put as many as we can in the beginning of January, the next academy class.

And you said there's 11 right now, and uh I guess to be a devil's advocate.

You're not the only department in the state.

Probably those 11 probably have their names in to four or five other departments, and uh obviously today is the last day that the state police are taking applicants for their 2026.

I mean, for their 2026 class.

So uh again, you don't have a crystal ball.

How many realistically do you think you'll end up with those of those 11?

How many do you think you'll end up with?

And again, it's probably a loaded, I probably put you know, a loaded question for you.

Uh we we do have an idea.

We're we're we're less than half of that right now potential.

Okay, and one last question.

What do you see any retirements?

What I mean, every year it seems like three or four or five people retire.

Where are you as w where are we at that point as far as retirements?

I mean, again, you can't project, but how many officers today would be eligible for retirement?

I believe it was nine.

I think it's I think it's nine officers that would be eligible.

Okay.

So obviously that would detract this now.

That would take the 82 in theory if all nine went today or tomorrow put their papers in today or tomorrow.

Now we're down to 73.

Correct.

And what does that what does that do for you as far as uh what sort of strain is that do on the department?

Obviously, that would be uh uh catastrophic to the department.

Um, but we would we would uh definitely, you know, we would have to adapt and overcome.

We have uh highly qualified people uh below the ranks of eligible for retirement, and we would have to, you know, quickly train those folks up and make sure that they can take over those spots if that happened.

So it puts more pressure on you two fine gentlemen sitting there to give them more of the institutional knowledge that you were able to receive from years being on the job.

Yeah, so we we I mean, I think uh both uh Deputy Chief Benoit and I are both extremely lucky for the experiences and the the knowledge that we've gained over uh you know 45 plus years uh combined.

Uh yeah, the in institutional knowledge is extremely important.

I I thank you.

I uh in your role as acting police off as acting chief and deputy chief.

Uh you you're doing a as I you know said at another meeting, you got you're doing a great job and in this environment and basically some uh semi-young, you know, you you probably got the you've probably inherited the youngest amount of years as any chief since you know I've been around here a long time.

And uh in their response, and you can see there's an you know, up in my ward, you can see it as an extra, I don't know, extra jump in their step.

They seem to be more responsive.

They're more I I mean I commend you too.

They're they're more visible and they're in different places, like they're not in a particular place that everybody in Rumfit knew where they were gonna be before, and they're not there anymore.

And I commend you, but you know, and I I put I put that at your feet, you too, you two gentlemen's feet that you've you've you've got this department rolling in the right direction.

And the more that they're not just in the same spot in their round, it keeps it keeps the bad guys on there, you know, on their feet that we know where they are.

So I commend the job that you two are doing in uh five, six months that you've been in your acting roles.

So thank you.

Thank you.

And I I do, you know, thanks for the compliment.

And uh I I commend those officers, you know, the the supervisors, the field training officers that really had to uh train these folks in a quick manner, and you know, they've got a lot thrown at them in the last couple years that um you know to to be able to do the job that they do, and they all do a great job.

Thank you.

Councilman Fogy, did you want to add anything?

Yeah, I mean, that's what negotiations are for.

Uh how's the morale of the department?

It's it's good.

Um, I mean, negotiations aside, you know, obviously we uh we love to give everybody 10% raises.

Um, but you know, we we have a brand new station, uh, well, a remodeled station.

We uh we have a uh new fitness area, which uh pretty much most of our patrol division has been using um new uniforms, we're getting uh new weapons, pistols, uh shortly.

So um, you know the the it's it's positive a lot of positive stuff, yep.

Yes, I've seen a lot of them in action, and I'm I'm thankful for all of his and we could all use more, but the constraints are real, or just restraints are everywhere in the state of Rhode Island and beyond.

So that's real stuff, and good luck in the negotiations.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Is there anyone here that would like to uh make comment or ask questions of the police part of this budget?

Hearing none.

Uh thank you, um deputy and acting chief very much and uh appreciate your time and everything else that you do for this community.

Thank you very much.

Thanks for your time.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, the next uh director.

Public safety fire department, Michael Carey.

Chief Carrie, uh would like to echo the the same comment while I while I think that the city has been pretty proactive with uh providing equipment, the new communication center, all of those physical assets that we need.

Uh our strength continues to be uh the staff coming from leadership at the top.

Um we we know that most um fire departments nowadays are very heavy on the rescue end, as well as of course, you know, when you're dealing with um fires and other emergencies, and I think everyone here at this day has been touched by that.

I know that in my own family within the past two years, probably had rescue service to my home uh four or five times, and not flippantly.

The it was serious stuff that was needed, and the rescue personnel, women and men who who came were uh the the best you you could ask for.

There was one time when rescue was leaving and taking my wife to the hospital, but they stopped and one of the personnel ran back to the house and came in and got me and wanted to let me know of a change that was being made in the um location, which hospital, because of the the need.

So that's something I hear from everybody every week at some point.

I've had people that want me um in my other life where I do some writing, they want me to write about their experiences.

So uh I'm a little lengthy with that, but that's been important to this community, and we we thank you for that.

And any opening comments you'd like to make.

Um sure, why don't you add to that?

Let me add to that because uh they saved my life several seven, eight years ago.

Um Dr.

Roach just said go in that room over there, and then the finest East Providence showed up over there, and they say get in that ambulance and they save me from a heart attack.

Thank you very much.

That's all I want.

Yeah, that's and here you are.

Have the finest.

So, Chief, with that, um you can just leave now and getting everything it appears, but uh I thought the police got off easy.

But anything you'd like to say to begin.

Yes, so I thank you for all that, Congressman.

Consumman Chair.

Um I'm very proud of all of our members.

Uh we are a young department, um, but the professional him professionalism has not changed.

Um we train hard, we try to instill confidence, and we make sure that the end goal or the customer gets the services and are treated fairly the way they need to be.

Thank you.

Any outstanding issues to bring to our attention or no, I just some of the great stuff that's happened in this past year.

Um you remember the safer grant that we got.

Uh those 12 new employees came on board in January.

Uh timed it correctly within the 180-day period to get them trained and on the job so that we could get full pay and benefits as part of the grant.

Uh, we've already received our first uh reimbursement.

There's a little hiatus there under the current administration where FEMA was kind of shut down.

Um we did have to wait a little while till that opened back up again.

But seems like that's all back in order again.

Wait till tonight.

Um holding my breath.

Uh the apparatus that we ordered, uh rescue three, engine four, engine five.

Um rescue three was purchased with 24 capital, engine four and five with 23 capital.

Uh they're all in, they're all in service currently.

Um the new fire gear that we were able to purchase using upper funds.

Uh by the way, engine four and engine five was uh our funds, I'm sorry.

Right?

Yes.

Um getting the non-PFAS gear.

Uh there was a hiccup with some of the first non-PFAS gear that came on the market that also contained another chemical that was hazardous.

We kind of dodged that bullet um for lack of a better term, but we were better off for it.

So we are the first ones in the country to get that gear off our personnel and protect them just the way that they protect all the citizens of the city.

Uh that's all I have.

And first in the country, that's that's nothing to sneeze at.

That's uh a great great advantage for our city.

Um Vice President Rigo, do you want to start questions?

Uh I got but you're the Vice President.

You go first.

Oh, uh similar to Chief, um, you and I've had this conversation.

Um, do you have the resources to make sure anybody that needs some help?

Again, you guys see the most horrendous things.

You walk into family homes where loved ones are in distress.

Um do you have leadership trained to look for signs?

Um and do you feel we're providing you enough resources to ensure that if somebody needs something, they're gonna get it.

Yes, all personnel are vigilant.

We do have a uh very robust peer support program, same as the police department.

Um that peer support program operates uh anonymously, even I don't get specifics for who's in play or what the problem is.

And it's not just the instance that we go to and that we see.

Um it's family stuff.

It's it could be anything.

And when you add uh more bricks to the pile, shall we say, sooner or later the needs buckle.

So our people take care of each other.

Uh anytime a member of the peer support team needs time to go deal with a innocent, uh, we make sure that that happens.

Good.

Thank you.

Uh good evening.

Good evening.

Chief.

What is the rate that is billed per rescue run?

I don't currently have that with me.

Okay.

If you're looking at the numbers of the uh like the revenue that comes in from is it 300 per rescue run?

Is it 280, 500?

What you do you know that number?

Off the top of my head, no, I do not, not tonight.

Okay.

But I can't say that we we don't recover anywhere near what we bill.

And if you look at the past with the state legislature, the uh Medicare payments that is trying to be passed with bills to increase what we get back, always dies.

And how many rescue runs so far this year?

Uh we're still on pace with last year.

I I don't have I didn't have stats for number of runs tonight.

I focused on budget.

Okay, well, no, because it leads into the Yeah, we are we are just as busy as they were last year.

It's building up to uh but so obviously my next question is uh you don't have the mutual aid number, how many mutual aid.

No, I don't know.

I did not.

Because I'm trying to figure out how much, you know, how much money we're not regrouping by you know, having I obviously we can't have every rescue run and no city and town is unless they're really small, can handle that.

I'm just trying to figure out how much, you know, we could, you know, gain revenue-wise if we added you know some more hours to the rescues.

So I'm just in my head, I'm trying to come up with a logical as a teacher as a taught us in logic class, you know, you know, where do we you know we're starting here and where do we finish?

So I'm trying to come up with how many rescue runs we have, how many where obviously when mutual aid is called, we don't we don't do not get those uh that revenue.

So if we were if we're uh you know drone out of the number, if it's 500 mutual aid rescue runs a year, and if we're able to gain half of them, then obviously we would increase our revenues because the city or town that's coming into East Providence is the city or town that's gonna receive that mutual, I mean gonna receive that rescue money.

Uh agreed, councilman.

With the exception of uh if uh we get a mutual aid company that comes in and takes one of our residents to the hospital, and that resident winds up getting a bill, we have reciprocity.

And it's the same when we go to their communities.

If they get a bill from us, then yes, we forgive it.

So it's it's kind of a wash both ways.

As far as mutual aid in general, and I know I've made the statement before, and I'll probably say it again.

Uh every community is in the same ballpark when it comes to EMS.

We could have six full-time rescues, and we're still gonna have mutual aid to some degree.

So their turnaround time is substantially less than yours, or South Kingston, it has, you know, South County Hospital right there.

So you're you're at a disadvantage, and we're even more at a disadvantage now because of the bridge.

So I I understand that, or Warwick that had, you know.

So your your mutual aid is you know, incre you know, it is larger, and then we have a growing population and we have an elderly population.

So we were the second highest elderly population in the state.

So I'm just trying to help you.

I'm I'm I'm not trying to be uh it's this isn't an adverse situation.

I'm trying to help you gain some additional uh what I can't say is uh as the solicitor uh led into earlier, we are in negotiations.

And that's um I believe we're under temporary agreements that'll be still being reviewed, probably a couple weeks before it's done.

Um we were looking for getting some additional rescue coverage, uh, but I can't really go into specifics.

And that's why you notice I was kinda I was a kind of chancel person when it came to the position this time around.

I did I did notice that a half second of uh probably compensatory pause, which will be you probably you you're probably wondering, you know, what was going on.

But anyways, I thank you.

Uh you know, I I thank the service that your uh your men and women do, and I think the in your leadership, I think the 14, how many you know were at that that last class.

I think they've been really I've seen them out and about in the community, and they've really embraced the city of East Providence, and a lot of that I think has to do with the leadership from the top.

Thank you.

Thank you, Consul Vice President.

Any other comments?

Uh my comments, but thank you very much.

Thank you, sir.

All right.

Anyone here that would like to uh comment on the fire department presentation, either either way, comments or questions.

Hearing none.

Uh thank you, Chief.

Appreciate it.

Continued uh good luck.

Thank you, Council.

And you know, I think somebody mentioned the bridge.

It goes without saying to congratulate both police and fire, what you've had to endure since this the bridge went went down.

I mean, the planning was phenomenal.

I remember the the exact moment the bridge was shut down.

Mayor called me.

We had the then police chief, fire chief, and dozen or so members from each department met at the communication center, and they immediately mapped out whatever you could come up with on that that day specifically.

And it's uh been a problem ever since.

That every m who who's in charge of dispatch?

We short staffed.

Uh we we budgeted for 11.

How many do we have?

I believe we're down three, or we're going to be down three.

And we had uh one retire.

We have uh one that might be projected as going away, she's gonna be doing another venue.

Um we have one that just left the service and is gonna be picked up by Tibetan Fire.

Uh it seems like the last couple of years, some people stay, some people don't.

We kind of lost the core group.

Uh when we were when Rick retired, that was uh a big hit.

He's been in for a we budget at what 11 full-time.

Yes.

And do we have do we have like part timers that kind of help keep people from being over?

So right now um there's an application period that just closed.

Uh the test will be on October 6th, I believe.

Okay.

Uh, we're gonna get into interviews real quick after that, and then we're going to start training or onboarding as quickly as we can.

Are we concerned that low staff numbers and people being held over?

There are some backup people uh that come out of the police department, uh staff uh that can fill in and have been filling in right along off and on when we get shortages.

Okay.

Uh we do have uh one who had left that was asked to come back if if she would for a period of time just to help out, and I believe she's willing to do so.

So we're not just sitting not preparing for this, we're doing everything we can to make sure we have the coverage.

You're down three.

Are we looking to hire three to get it back up to eleven?

We will be going back up to eleven because the budget is for eleven.

Okay, perfect.

And we still there is still money in the budget for the part-timers.

Okay, good.

But the believe the last application period we hired uh one full timer that uh didn't work out.

And then happens.

We were working on part-timers, but again, when you get down to the wire after you get through the whole process and you know the lengthy process, um, and the number of people you lose with background checks and this and that and the other.

Sometimes people go, uh you know, I took a job somewhere else.

And with the communication emergency communications, it's tough all over.

It's no different than the police survey experience.

I mean, even us, we didn't get anywhere near the the applications that we normally would see in past years.

Seems like it's all changing, and uh we haven't identified why, but I would imagine a little bit of you got the public conversation, people saying defund this and talking down.

That's why we try hard to really thousand percent say we're in full support.

We want people to look at these problems and say the elected officials support their cops.

So that's the place I'd like to go work.

So thank you.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thanks.

Thanks, Chief.

So I don't think um all the directors here, uh Mr.

Solicitor.

So the next process.

Next process is uh you have a we tentatively scheduled another budget workshop uh for your regular meeting on Tuesday, October 7th.

On that date, if you intend to have people in, we should let them know or let the clerk know, and clerk will notify the administration, I guess, of those people that you might want at that time.

We're scheduled to pass the first round of uh the tax anticipation note ordinance that requires two passages.

Uh and the assessment and collection ordinance, which sets the collection and the interest rates and the payments.

So that's that'll be on for uh 10 seven for first passage to allow us to make our deadline for the second passage by the end of October.

And I believe just correct me if long, madam uh finance director, that we will not need to pass a um bond anticipation note this year, correct?

No, okay.

So we so just those two ordinances.

So I I guess the short answer is you we have scheduled another workshop on 107, 2025, to the extent you want certain departments to come in.

So I know that you said you want to keep that agenda, which is a regular meeting agenda, kind of light so you can get right other stuff.

So October 7th, our regular scheduled meeting will finish or continue budget.

If you have other departments, you need to let either myself know or directly let the city clerk know because they will have to be notified to be here, and we'll keep the budget.

I mean the regular agenda light.

There might be some other business that we'll we'll do, but yes.

I'm I I'm fine between last week and this week.

We've covered all the major departments that we've talked about.

I mean I don't see a reason why we have to bring anybody else in or bring anybody back.

We've we've covered them, you know, the big ones.

But there might be a member who wants to bring I I'm just director of a library or something.

I don't feel myself and talking about the library is I went in there last night for the first time.

Hang on, one one at a time.

So go ahead.

The library looks terrific when talking about it.

Just you know, and you brought up I went in there last night.

I had I had some time to kill, and I ran into the finance director, too.

She was working long and hard late here.

But I I don't I don't have an issue uh bringing anybody back or you know, we can move forward, but obviously it is three you know, three plus yourself, but uh I'm good.

We've covered the bill.

Yeah, I'm I'm good with the budget as is presented.

So we'll we'll do that.

When is your deadline to advertise, madam clerk?

This this Friday.

So this Friday is the deadline for advertising.

So if you need anything specific.

Yeah.

For posting, not advertising, but posting for posting, right?

And a regular meeting.

Right.

That's that's what I'm saying.

Yeah.

And if we have time, we will hang on, let's listen.

Yeah, and if we have time, uh, I think we could get we can actually get the budget ordinance uh done.

The actual there's a separate ordinance that needs to be, but that's only one passage.

So if if you want to pass, you know, we can hopefully get that done to you by the next week.

Oh, we will have time to be re correct.

No, uh yes, if you add, yes.

So if I heard you write the next week, the finance director will have the tans and put you know the amount that we need for the uh the assessment collection.

That's just a standard ordinance that needs two passages under the charter, the budget ordinance, which is a physical ordinance that's sets sets out the expenditures of revenues.

That's only one passage.

So the technical last date that you can pass that ordinance is um 1025.

So if you do it sooner, you can if you do it.

And then all the the bonds that we have to we talked about the bonds last week.

Is that separate or is that all part again?

The tan no, the tan.

Tans will be.

I'm sorry, the TANS will be a first passage on on next week, and then the following council regular council meeting of um the second council meeting in October.

Those need two passages, and those have to be advertised as well.

So yeah.

Yes, um hang on one second go ahead.

I just wanted to clarify if the TANS ordinance isn't gonna give you an exact dollar amount.

Um usually do that based on cash flow in the future.

So it never does, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, I understand that.

Okay, thank you.

As long as you get the bet you were supposed to you got us the grid rate yet.

It's well, we'll know when we go out to market.

I know.

It's just gonna be a hard time.

So that's so that's the general schedule.

So if the only the most important thing from us is we need to post the agenda on Friday.

Um and if you intend to have particular departments on there, we have to post that by Friday.

That's all.

Or we could just post the remaining, whatever you want to do.

Everyone go with the process.

I think is there a motion to adjourn?

Motion by Councilman Lawson to adjourn, seconded by council vice president Rego.

All in favor?

Aye, any opposed?

The ayes have it.

Thank you, everyone.