OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

North Kingstown Town Council FY2025/2026 Budget Work Session and Preliminary Budget Adoption – March 18, 2025

Town Council — Tuesday, March 18, 2025
BodyNorth Kingstown, Rhode Island
SessionTown Council
DateTuesday, March 18, 2025
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 6:59:11

Transcript — Verbatim
0:00

Understand how all our pretty interesting uh event your husband had to do uh the measles thing he had a post about some kind of war game which we can officials.

0:27

Oh he does a pandemic game.

0:29

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

0:30

You could do it the pandemic game.

0:31

He actually did it in uh January 2020 before at Dartman before the pandemic.

0:38

Oh and then he got started getting calls from all over the world and people who wanted to talk to him about gaming it.

0:45

Um that you can just take a whole venue.

0:56

Yeah, we all have sharing the when you said meetles, that's what you're doing.

1:06

I didn't remember what specific type of micro.

1:16

They can still hear you, just so you know.

1:21

Right, I know.

1:23

Okay.

1:23

That's fine.

1:24

I just if on my spreadsheet, it had something that's actually shine.

1:56

Oh no, no, no, no, no.

2:02

Let's get to the last checks here.

2:06

So thank you for that uh text on that uh wrestling.

2:20

That was impressive and the uh presses.

2:32

So remove this.

2:41

All right, T minus thirty, Madam Clark.

3:32

It's nine o'clock.

3:34

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

3:35

Just looking for one thing.

3:39

Uh late morning, everybody.

3:44

Welcome to North Kingstown town council meeting for March eighteenth, twenty twenty-five.

3:50

Uh today we'll have all day uh department by department hearings or presentations on the budgets.

3:58

We'll go through them in detail, have public comment, and maybe even adopt a preliminary budget for fiscal year twenty twenty-five slash twenty twenty-six.

4:08

With that, pursuant to random general laws forty-two-forty six steps.

4:12

Meeting of this uh notices meetings opposed at Secretary of State's website.

4:16

I ask everyone to join me with a salute to the flag.

4:28

To the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible liberty and justice for all.

4:36

Thank you.

4:38

So the public work session.

4:41

Uh sorry, it's a work session with a notice a public notice of each department.

4:46

And the first department to go over for is the town manager with his overview of the budget.

4:52

Thanks, Mr.

4:52

President.

4:53

So normally I um kick off the budget workshop with some just work just some notes to go over as so we can prepare ourselves for what is uh good day, but a long day.

5:02

Um just to let you know I do a PowerPoint for the budget message, and I do a PowerPoint for the public hearing.

5:08

But this is just very informal.

5:09

So I just want to go over some summaries before we jump right into the 930 budgets.

5:14

Um first I just want to take a moment to let you know that the schedule that you have in front of you is somewhat flexible.

5:21

What I mean by that is that again for those council members for this is their first budget.

5:25

A lot of times we're ahead of schedule or behind schedule, so we have department heads pop in around 15 minutes early.

5:32

That way, if we're ahead of schedule, we can jump right into the next department.

5:36

So um, if we're, you know, if if it's a some of these budgets are pretty small, so if we're flying through them, you know, don't feel obligated to for us that we have to delay time.

5:44

We'll have department heads right behind us, ready to jump in right for the next one.

5:48

I also want to just take a moment to thank Deb Bridgeham and Kate Glass for their work on the budget booklet.

5:53

Again, um this booklet is very unique.

5:56

It's it's informative, it's transparent, has a ton of details, with nothing against any other community.

6:02

But I've been doing this for a while, and I would say that if you ever have time to just jump on another community's website and take a look at their budget booklet.

6:08

While their budgets are great, these are just put together in a simple format for the public to review, easy to follow, broken down actually by personnel, which is very rare.

6:19

Normally it'll just say salaries.

6:20

This actually breaks down every single position, every single budget, a lot of information.

6:24

So it's a budget that we're very proud of, and um I hope it helps us during the budget process.

6:29

Um, as you meet with departments today, know that the budgets that you have in front of you may not be the budgets that they gave me.

6:36

So I made a lot of uh a lot of changes to the budget just to bring it down to as cost-efficient manner as possible.

6:43

A lot of things that they asked for may be funded elsewhere that still has needs council approval, maybe funded through our surplus, maybe kick down the road.

6:50

But uh, we try to keep the budget as low as possible.

6:54

They are on board so they can answer any question that you may have.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Budget Equity Analysis████████████████16%
Education Funding████████████████16%
Fiscal Sustainability████████████12%
Water And Wastewater Management███████7%
Procedural██████6%
Libraries And Community Services██████6%
Public Safety█████5%
Public Works█████5%
Public Engagement████4%
Summary of Proceedings

North Kingstown Town Council FY2025/2026 Budget Work Session and Preliminary Budget Adoption – March 18, 2025

The North Kingstown Town Council held an all-day budget work session on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, beginning at 9:00 a.m. at the Municipal Offices, 100 Fairway Drive. Council members reviewed the Town Manager's preliminary FY2025/2026 budget department by department, heard from department heads and the School Superintendent, and then adopted the preliminary budget. Voting members were President Gregory Mancini and Councilors Linnea Drew, Elizabeth Hill Ross, Kim Page, and Matthew McCoy. No residents spoke during the public comment portion; the public hearing is scheduled for April 21, 2025, at 6:30 p.m. for the municipal budget and 7:00 p.m. for the school budget, at Town Hall Council Chambers, 80 Boston Neck Road.

Town Manager's Budget Overview

  • Town Manager Mollis described a tight preliminary budget, with proposed tax rates of $1.105 residential and $1.479 commercial, subject to revision. He said the budget booklet is transparent and that surplus funds were used to keep some costs out of the operating budget.
  • He proposed a 3.4% increase in the town appropriation to schools, over $2 million, but $110,245 below the School Department's request. He said the school budget could cover the difference through revenue adjustments and selected cuts. He also expressed concern about continuing ESSER-funded positions and about a new equity/belonging coordinator position, saying it could jeopardize federal funding.
  • On revaluation, he said individual outcomes vary: in a random sample of 12 properties, three would rise significantly, three would fall significantly, and six would be roughly even.

Departmental Budget Discussions

  • Police: Chief John Urban said the department is at its 57-officer staffing capacity and its contract runs through June 30, 2027. Calls for service increased 14.98%, driven partly by mental-health calls and traffic stops. The health-insurance buyback line rose because more officers took the buyback, but finance staff said overall insurance costs declined.
  • Fire: Interim Chief John Linakree presented a 4.79% budget increase with a 0.06% operational decrease. He and the Town Manager described recruitment and retention challenges, with salaries in the bottom third of comparable communities and firefighters leaving for better pay. The overtime budget is $950,000; rescue-billing revenue funds capital equipment.
  • Planning: The Planning Director reported full staffing, increased accessory-dwelling-unit inquiries, and improvement in the Community Rating System from class 9 to class 7, increasing flood-insurance discounts for residents from 5% to 15%. The Post Road Façade program was reduced because about $120,000 remains available.
  • Libraries: Library Director Megan presented a small increase for the North Kingstown Free Library and a part-time outreach librarian. Council members expressed strong support for keeping the Davisville and Willett libraries open and discussed state library-hour standards, possible mergers, fundraising, and additional town funding. They asked for more information before the April 21 public hearing.
  • Senior Center: Attendance is up at least 4.5% year to date. Staff reported growing demand for public assistance and said the town-funded public assistance line fell from about $7,500 to $2,500 because a restricted fund was depleted. The facility is increasingly outgrown.
  • Public Works, Transfer Station, and Sewer: Public Works Director Adam covered road paving, the $400,000 capital reserve, and the transfer station and sewer enterprise funds. Both enterprise funds are projected to have operating deficits. The Town Manager and council agreed to keep the transfer station as a user-fee enterprise fund; sewer deficits are expected to be addressed through future sewer fee increases.
  • Information Technology: IT staff described cybersecurity upgrades, replacement of end-of-life servers and network equipment, and pending grants for cameras and systems. Council members requested a multi-year IT capital road map.
  • Water: Director Alan reported replacing 64 aging fire hydrants, prioritizing water-main replacement on Post Road and Poplar Point, and estimated PFAS/PFOS treatment could cost $12–15 million against an approximately $10 million reserve. The Town Manager expressed concern about regional treatment affecting local water quality.
  • Recreation, Golf, and Allen Harbor: Recreation Director Chelsea reported that the town will operate the beach after the YMCA contract ended, the golf course has hosted over 50,000 rounds for four consecutive years, and Allen Harbor is sold out. The golf course remains an enterprise fund and is paying down a $1.7 million paper deficit to the town. Council members discussed whether future enterprise-fund surpluses could benefit the general fund; the Town Manager said he would research the question.
  • Other budgets reviewed included the Town Manager's office, Town Council, legal, civic contributions, QDC MSA, Town Clerk, Board of Canvassers, Municipal Court, Assessor, Finance, and Utilities. Finance noted the OPEB contribution was reduced from $250,000 to $50,000, and debt service includes $750,000 of interest-only costs for planned borrowing. Utility budgets reflect savings from solar net-metering credits, locked-in electricity supply, and streetlight controls.

School Department Presentation

  • The Superintendent presented a total school operating budget of $83,201,140 and a requested town appropriation of $63,614,398, an increase of about 3.6%. Projected state aid was $13,462,455, a decrease of $32,337 from the current year. The budget uses $500,000 from fund balance and $400,000 in investment earnings.
  • The Superintendent said the budget continues positions initially funded by ESSER, including interventionists and social workers, because of special-education and mental-health needs. He noted two contract negotiations are ongoing.
  • On redistricting, the Superintendent said no final plan exists, the process is data-driven, and all options, including modulars, have been discussed, but modulars are not in the budget. Council members asked for a clear timeline and public information.
  • Councilor McCoy expressed concern about increasing school costs with declining enrollment and future debt. Councilors Drew and Page defended school funding, citing expanded student needs and state mandates.

Public Comments & Testimony

  • No members of the public spoke at the March 18 public comment period. The council noted that the April 21 hearing is the formal opportunity for public testimony.

Key Outcomes

  • The council adopted the preliminary FY2025/2026 budget through a series of motions:
    • Municipal general fund: $41,034,127
    • Debt service: $5,849,317
    • Allen Harbor: $450,273
    • Golf course: $1,691,932
    • Water fund: $5,524,994
    • Municipal court: $301,363
    • SUA fund: $2,280,198
    • Transfer station fund: $1,385,636
    • Library fund town appropriation: $1,463,235
    • Library fund state-aid pass-through: $297,906
    • School fund town appropriation: $63,504,153, 4-1, with Councilor Hill Ross opposed
    • School fund state aid: $13,434,235
    • Restricted multilingual-learner aid: $38,220
    • Total town budget: $137,245,589, 4-1, with Councilor Hill Ross opposed
  • The School Department had presented state aid of $13,462,455; the preliminary budget motion used $13,434,235 in state aid plus $38,220 restricted aid.
  • Councilor Hill Ross said she was not comfortable voting for the school appropriation and the total budget at that time; all other motions were approved by voice vote.
  • The preliminary budget remains subject to public comment and possible changes before final adoption, which the council expects on April 28, 2025.

Meeting Transcript

Understand how all our pretty interesting uh event your husband had to do uh the measles thing he had a post about some kind of war game which we can officials. Oh he does a pandemic game. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You could do it the pandemic game. He actually did it in uh January 2020 before at Dartman before the pandemic. Oh and then he got started getting calls from all over the world and people who wanted to talk to him about gaming it. Um that you can just take a whole venue. Yeah, we all have sharing the when you said meetles, that's what you're doing. I didn't remember what specific type of micro. They can still hear you, just so you know. Right, I know. Okay. That's fine. I just if on my spreadsheet, it had something that's actually shine. Oh no, no, no, no, no. Let's get to the last checks here. So thank you for that uh text on that uh wrestling. That was impressive and the uh presses. So remove this. All right, T minus thirty, Madam Clark. It's nine o'clock. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Just looking for one thing. Uh late morning, everybody. Welcome to North Kingstown town council meeting for March eighteenth, twenty twenty-five. Uh today we'll have all day uh department by department hearings or presentations on the budgets. We'll go through them in detail, have public comment, and maybe even adopt a preliminary budget for fiscal year twenty twenty-five slash twenty twenty-six. With that, pursuant to random general laws forty-two-forty six steps. Meeting of this uh notices meetings opposed at Secretary of State's website. I ask everyone to join me with a salute to the flag. To the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible liberty and justice for all. Thank you. So the public work session. Uh sorry, it's a work session with a notice a public notice of each department. And the first department to go over for is the town manager with his overview of the budget. Thanks, Mr. President. So normally I um kick off the budget workshop with some just work just some notes to go over as so we can prepare ourselves for what is uh good day, but a long day. Um just to let you know I do a PowerPoint for the budget message, and I do a PowerPoint for the public hearing. But this is just very informal. So I just want to go over some summaries before we jump right into the 930 budgets. Um first I just want to take a moment to let you know that the schedule that you have in front of you is somewhat flexible. What I mean by that is that again for those council members for this is their first budget. A lot of times we're ahead of schedule or behind schedule, so we have department heads pop in around 15 minutes early. That way, if we're ahead of schedule, we can jump right into the next department. So um, if we're, you know, if if it's a some of these budgets are pretty small, so if we're flying through them, you know, don't feel obligated to for us that we have to delay time. We'll have department heads right behind us, ready to jump in right for the next one. I also want to just take a moment to thank Deb Bridgeham and Kate Glass for their work on the budget booklet. Again, um this booklet is very unique. It's it's informative, it's transparent, has a ton of details, with nothing against any other community.

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