It is now three fifty eight PM and the war Finance Committee is called to order.

I need a motion on PCR fifty five dash twenty six and fifty six twenty six to move both of these items to the floor for a public hearing.

Do we need to do a in each one priority?

So I make a motion to move to public hearing.

We have two seconds.

It's already seven minutes in, so we'll get going on 4.07 p.m.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Mr.

Sinaby.

Here.

Mr.

DeLuise.

Here.

Mr.

Boley.

Mr.

Gebhott.

Mr.

Kirby.

Yeah.

Mr.

Ladissa.

Here.

Mr.

Muito.

Here.

Mr.

Napa.

Here.

Mr.

Riggs.

Right on time.

Councilman Lattiser, if you'll please lead us in this to the flag.

I pledge allegiance to the flag.

Individual with the justice crawl.

Oh shape.

At the time.

We're still gathered streaming.

And the wrong game from number singing.

Oh, it's bad.

And again, all right, first things first.

Uh I'd like to request, unless there's an objection from members of the council, that we move discussion of the school department budget to tomorrow starting at 4 p.m., followed by any departments which we do not have time to discuss today.

Is there any objection to that?

All right.

And then my next suggestion is that we tonight cease our deliberations at a roughly 10 30 p.m.

Given that we're gonna have tomorrow anyway, and given that there's a lot of unique things going on this year in particular.

Normally we'd get it done in a night, but it there's a lot of circumstances that haven't been seen here in a long time, if ever.

So I figure it would be best if we do that.

But does anyone have any objection to that?

Uh councilman loves.

No, I have no objection, Mr.

President, but I just want to confirm that um it will be uh unequivocally stopped at 10.30, and no new item will be moved forward.

I don't see why not.

That's why I said like approximately just because that's like we're at the finishing something.

All right, and uh council McGebhart can't be here tonight because there was a uh a death of a close friend of both their families.

Uh it was unexpected, so he will not be available tonight, but it is not with bad reasons, so give your thoughts to him and his family and the family of the one who passed.

All right, that being said, purpose of the meeting is our public hearing on PCR 55-25 resolution relative to transfers, supplemental appropriate appropriations and emergency appropriations, as well as PCR 56-25 resolution adopting the budget and estimating the tax rates of the city of Warwick for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2026 and ending June 30th, 2027, inclusive conclusive of FY27 general funds, FY27 personnel funds, and FY27 Special and Capital Funds budget.

Good afternoon.

And it's been a real challenge to create it.

The reason for both is the 15.8 million dollar debt service that we have to pay as a result of voter approved bonds for school refurbishments and the building of two new high schools, totaling 444 million dollars.

Contrary to what some have implied, this administration has anticipated and plan for this period of time between issuing the bonds and uh reimburs state reimbursement by building our fund balance to over 30 million dollars to have substantial reserves to get us to the finish line.

But now for some good news.

For the past couple of years, I've been working to get reimbursement from the state earlier.

Working together with Randy Rossi, who is the director of the League of Cities and Towns, and Mario Carino, the chief operations officer of Ride, we've agreed to begin full reimbursement on the issuance of a certificate of occupancy of the two high schools.

That means we don't have to wait for the demolition of the existing buildings, the building of the new sports fields, or even the students to move into the new schools.

This is a game changer.

It means that we'll get balloon payment the balloon payment and we begin receiving the reimbursement on debt service two years earlier than expected.

Regarding school funding, the Warwick budget commission had formulated a deficit reduction plan that called for an increase in school funding of 2.18% this budget.

The school department has demonstrated to me that because of the expenses like mandates and transportation, they could just not function with that amount and asked that I increase it to 2.68%.

I agreed to propose that in my budget.

And I should reveal that part of this year's increase was to be used to pay down their deficit by 1.1 million dollars.

This won't be possible for them to do so.

The city will be picking that up.

I keep hearing complaints that the schools have been underfunded, but since I've been mayor, I've increased school funding 17,582,280.

And with state aid, the school department has received 32 million three hundred and thirty-five thousand eight hundred and forty-nine dollars in increased funding.

And bear in mind they also have a deficit totaling in the millions.

But there's now a new administration in place, and they've worked very hard to find savings and rectify the situation.

This problem didn't appear overnight, and will take time to fix things.

That's why I proposed the requested amount.

As for the city side of the budget, this really is a bare bones budget.

We look for ways to cut expenses and explore all avenues and made whatever cuts that we could.

To cut this budget any further would be to reduce services or the quality of those service services to the residents.

I hear the catchphrases like work doesn't have a revenue problem and has a spending problem.

The spending is all related to its services provided to our residents.

Do more with less.

That doesn't work.

That's impossible.

We're doing all we can with what we have.

My brother was a DPW director when he retired in 2017, and he had 21 more workers in the DPW than I have now.

The city hasn't gotten any smaller.

There's a lot of work to do, and we only have so much manpower and equipment to get it done.

In this budget, we continue to fund our capital budget with an emphasis on infrastructure.

When I got here five and a half years ago, this city couldn't reliably pick up trash or yard waste, cut grass.

We were borrowing fire trucks and rescues from other towns and didn't have enough police cruises.

Our water infrastructure were in crisis.

This was all because of actions that were taken in the 20 teens in this very council chamber.

Because of the 39 million dollars we received from the American Rescue Plan Act, we were able to fix a lot of this, but we still have a ways to go.

Thank you.

All right, we'll get started with first up isecutive.

Uh first things first, we have a motion to open the public hearing on PCR 55-26 and PCR 56-26.

Motion made by Councilman Lattice or second abide, Councilman Muto.

All in favor?

All opposed.

Any abstentions?

All right.

So we're open.

And for those wondering, this item is on page.

Really?

Page nine of the proposed general fund packet.

Oh, and page.

Page one for folks looking at the agenda.

The the GF and the number represents the general fund booklet and the page number and that and the PF stands for the personnel funds and the page number on there, as well as uh when you get later in the evening, we will have the ECF is the enterprise and capital funds booklets.

So if you don't hear me say the number, just refer to your agenda.

If for some reason you don't have it, feel free to ask.

Go ahead, Chief.

Sorry.

Bill Fosende, Chief of Staff to Mayor Picosy.

Um the executive budget is uh slight increase.

I believe it's one percent, one point nine four percent over last year.

Um the increases are salaries, which are part of the contractual raises, um, step increases and longevity increases for the staff.

There were a couple of small uh decreases in the line items.

We decreased the um office supplies and equipment as well as uh service contracts, chief.

Is it fair to say the longevity increases are required contractually?

Yes, all right.

Uh we might want to start off each department by stating whether or not any of the increases to basically what you did just you can put a roll it all up into one if there are any increases in there that are not required, and then we can proceed from there.

Correct.

Okay.

All right, does anyone have any questions regarding councilman Lattice?

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um, I was going to uh speak to the same thing.

Um and when we're talking about contractual raises, uh that will also include any step increases slash longevity or you know, however, this is determined.

Um so I'm gonna just go right to yours, Chief, because it's the highest one uh in that department.

It's a 4.

Uh 18% increase is how how you are you coming up with the 4.18 so it's a 3.25%, the contractual, then there's a mid-year point nine percent raise, and I'm the only one in the office that does receive longevity.

So you're the only one that does what, please receives longevity.

Okay.

That's also factored into that.

And and keep in mind I am uh doing both the chief staff position as well as the community development director position.

Um that's why it's 50 percent right in both positions for a total compensation of 1826, correct?

Uh that that adds up, yes.

Yeah, and so the the um the step increase and the um longevity that goes along with the step increase salary too, right?

So there's no step increase for myself.

So it's it's just a good one.

Whatever those increases the contractual increase, and then you said the longevity longevity, correct?

Okay, and that is also in the other hat you wear, right?

Okay, and yeah, and just so you know, I um two percent of the salary is coming out for the OPEP contribution as well.

Okay, um so the service contracts.

You hadn't spent anything, or at least the projection was no spend in this year and no spend in 2025.

Um what is what is the service contract used for that thousand dollars?

What would that be used for?

Could be anything that we need to hire um hire someone or enter into a contract for, whether it's off the top of my head, I can't think of something that wouldn't uh I mean the water cooler could be um or could be anything, it could be part of a machine, could be a printer, could be anything uh uh subscription, could be anything.

Okay, um that's that's all I have for now.

Thank you.

Does anyone else have anything for this department?

Councilman Muto.

Hi, Chief.

Uh this is more of a clarification, just to say it one more time.

Uh the increase on your salary is contractual in longevity.

There's no implied or stated raises built into that besides those two items.

Correct.

All right, thank you.

That's I just wanted that clarification.

Thank you.

Anyone else from the council on this?

All right.

Anyone from the public wish to speak on the in the executive department.

Speak on the executive department.

All right.

Seeing none.

Next up, we have the legal department.

This is um for the solicitor, everyone except for I believe the council solicitor here that represents the city legally.

Um there's no increase over the previous year.

Just asking for the that we use this year and predict year.

Councilman Maddison.

Uh thank you.

So on the legal services, uh, the approved budget for 2026 was 475,500.

As of today, it looks as though there's still an available budget of about 102, 125.

Where do you project spending that 102 between now and the end of June?

I'm not sure where you're getting your number from.

We just signed some vouchers to pay, we pay it monthly.

So the um they're on retainer, it's a set amount every month.

So I'm not sure where you're getting your 102,000 dollars remaining.

From the Munis report as of today at 246.

Okay.

I haven't reviewed that, but we're anticipating spending the 475,500, or at least what their monthly retainage is.

That's what we're we're required to spend, because they're under retainer.

But you don't have to your knowledge, you don't have invoice because there's nothing encumbered in this report as of today, assuming this report is accurate.

There's nothing encumbered.

Right.

Um, and your spend year to date is 378-374.

So you're anticipating getting invoices in the next six weeks of 102,000.

I don't know what the invoices totaling will be in the next six weeks, but we do get them monthly.

We have uh I think three or four law firms that send us billing, some are behind in the billing.

They send us a monthly bill.

They don't charge us hourly, they charge us a retained no matter how long they work on a case or how long they answer a call, much to their chagrin, they get the same amount every month.

So what's the retainer per month?

It's all different from for the solicitor um for a sillo is different than it is for Wyatt Bruce, and it's different than for David Petraca.

They're different amounts as well as for Kerry Raffinelli.

Off the top of my head, I can't tell you those numbers.

So when I'm looking at year to date expenditive of 378, let's round it up to 400,000 for um just about 10 months.

It's safe to say an average of 40,000 a month.

So we have another month and a half, so 60,000, I think would be a reasonable add.

Okay.

That's four 38.

Okay.

Plus that includes if they have to bring in outside legal counsel as well.

It includes what, please.

If they have to bring in outside legal counsel as well, specialized legal counsel.

The 475 500.

So it's it's not just the solicitors, it's for all legal services other than the city council solicitor.

Okay.

Okay.

I got the number I need.

Thank you.

Councilman Ricks.

Thank you.

Line item 12-361 public defender.

I see that that is uh funded similarly to last year.

Just to make certain.

Uh has any public defender been hired yet.

Not to my knowledge, and there's no uh amount year to date, so it would be zero.

So it is required that we have a public defender for certain trials and for missile court, yes.

Makes sense, and I understand the need for it.

Uh so there is the intent to fill that position this upcoming fiscal year.

As needed, yes.

Thank you.

Councilman Napa.

Thank you.

Chief, the um for the prosecutor prosecutorial solicitors, Wyatt and Kerry.

Does their monthly retainer cover if they have to bring in expert witnesses for trial?

No, not that I'm aware of.

So the buffer here would probably cover that.

Yes.

Okay.

Thanks.

Yep.

Any other members of the council have anything for legal?

Do any members of the public have anything?

Any questions for legal?

All right.

Seeing none, we move on to the city clerk.

I currently have uh two vacancies and three employees that are receiving uh step increases.

The only increase is a contractual, nothing else.

Can you state your name for those listening at home, please?

Excuse me.

Can you state your name for people?

Oh, I'm sorry, Linda Braska, City Clerk.

Does anyone have any questions for city clerk?

Councilman Lattice.

So to confirm on the court technician, uh there is a an eleven point nine nine percent increase in salary.

So could do you have the the percentage for the add up to that eleven point nine nine.

It's contractual.

So she has been here four and a half years.

She's at top step, and she will receive her step increase.

I don't have the union book on me, so I can't tell you the exact numbers.

If you want that, I'd have to the contractual raise plus step plus longevity.

Yep, so it's contractual on the quartet.

It's contractual on everybody for the the two reasons.

The 3.25 and the point zero nine.

Okay, and then the the step increase is on three positions.

Okay.

So the the answer is no one in this department has received a raise outside of contractual step or longevity.

Unfortunately, no, we did not.

Okay.

Thank you.

Oh, I do have a couple other questions.

So you have a records control clerk.

Two of them actually, and there's actually a reduction of 2.66%, and then a record specialist with a reduction of 10%.

What is the reason behind that?

On the records control clerk.

I can't hear you.

I can't hear you.

Records control clerk left the office, and somebody from the outside was hired, so she's hired in at step one.

So there's a decrease.

And the same thing with the right record specialist.

She has taken a different position, and someone was hired from the outside and starts at step one.

Got it.

Okay.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Does anyone else have anything for the clerk's office?

Do any of the members of the public have any questions regarding the clerks?

City clerk.

All right, seeing none, we move on to probate court.

Linda Brasca, City Clerk.

Uh there are no increases in this as well.

It is strict strictly contractual.

Councilman Lattice.

I do not have a reduction.

Where do you see a reduction?

Oh, wait a minute.

No, she's not going anywhere.

She's not going.

Do you have any other questions, Councilman Laddister?

Um, just bear with me one minute.

I'll use the law that uh um okay.

Never mind.

No, actually, I'm all set with that.

Yeah, thank you.

Okay.

Yeah, for those who don't know who are watching or listening, uh, we many of the council members submit their questions offline.

So that's why you'll see some of them who might ask very little, if anything, tonight.

Some who will ask questions that they feel that they need to hear tonight because they have follow-ups, etc.

All right.

Next up is oh, thank you.

Any questions from members of the public on probate court?

Just go ahead and hit up another mic, make sure you state your name and then have at it.

My name is Richard Langseth, Budlong Farm.

And you just said that council people are submitting questions by email or something, and um how are the answers?

What happens?

So that's a standard practice for how we can all individual council members submit questions to the administration on one matter or another regarding things that are going to be before us or elsewhere, and then they get whatever response.

I can't attend.

Oh, that's fine.

I just wonder, do we have access to these responses?

I defer to the solicitor.

My understanding is no.

I'm I'm not aware of what may or may not have been asked, so it's hard for me to opine.

That's a question for you to you to ask.

I I have no idea what you just said.

I'm not aware what may or may not have been asked by anyone, so it's hard for me to identify an answer to your question.

Okay, so so I'm at a hearing here, and city council people are asking questions, and they're being answered by the administration online, and we don't have uh as far as I can tell, we don't have access to any of that.

I I can't read it any other way.

So that's been the modus apparent eye for well over a decade, if not decades.

So I'm not questioning how long it's been.

I'm just questioning whether the public is being fully informed as to what's going on.

We've publicly that that's how we conduct our making sure they're efficient.

Did I get your mic this time?

Is it going in and out?

Yeah.

All right.

So I can I can foyer or I can do an appropriate quest.

How do I get these answers to the questions?

Again, I defer to the solicitor, but my understanding is that's that's not possible.

Well, that's not fair.

I I don't think that's a good answer.

I'll I'll I'll write up a complaint.

I mean, I don't want to drag this out.

Thank you.

Already.

So does anyone any other members of the public have anything for probate?

Do you have something for probate court, Councilman?

Actually, it's a follow-up question um regarding questions submitted.

So the questions that you just alluded to, are those questions that have been submitted to the administration prior to the commencement of this budget hearing?

Or are these questions that are being submitted as this budget hearing is taking place?

Yeah, so just to be clear, I was referring to that.

And Phil, by the way, if there's another mic, I'm gonna need it because I can even hear it going in and out.

Um what I was referring to is the questions all of us we we all submit questions individually to the administration regarding one topic or another, we get whatever responses we get.

I can't attest to the contents of them because they're submitted individually.

We go to our council liaison accordingly.

It's the process we've had and we'll continue to have.

This isn't about conducting business in the dark or anything like that, far from it.

It's making sure the council members are informed on topics before they come here so we can actually ask pertinent questions rather than just flail in the dark.

So I understand about the questions that we may submit from time to time prior to a council meeting or prior to this budget hearing.

My question is if a question is submitted other than by members of this council that are present or even present, will those questions be disseminated on the record?

But we'll conduct ourselves the way we've conducted for years.

I'm not I'm not sure the I understand your meaning.

I in the years that I've been here, I don't ever remember hearing that questions um are being submitted or uh may be submitted regarding this budget hearing other than the questions that we ask right here.

Yeah.

Okay.

Oh so that's what we're talking about.

Yeah, the only reason I stated what I stated was so that those who are watching or listening and those who might be here aren't concerned while some council people aren't asking anything as if they don't have anything to say or questions.

Many, if not all of them have asked prior.

That's all.

Okay.

All right, I just I wasn't clear on it, so if I wasn't clear, I'm assuming other folks weren't either.

No, that makes sense.

Thank you for that.

Understood.

Is anything else for probate court?

All right, seeing none, we move on to municipal court.

Linda Brasca, city clerk, and the only is the judge in this budget code.

Does anyone have any questions on this?

Do any of the members of the public have any questions regarding municipal court?

Councilman Napa.

Just one quick question.

Uh service contracts increase ten thousand.

Are we anticipating higher service contract need for service contracts increase ten thousand when we haven't hit that benchmark yet?

Service contracts in municipal court.

Are we anticipating higher needs?

Uh the service contracts are going up in municipal court due to the amount of violations that are being issued.

Because we pay per violation.

Understood.

Okay.

Thank you.

Does anyone else have anything for municipal court?

By the way, thank you, Phil, for the mic.

All right.

We already asked there are any members of the public, so now we move on to personnel department.

Stephen Retondo, personnel director.

Uh there are no changes in the personnel uh departments budget outside of the across the board increases in contractual.

Um there's uh it's actually the the uh personnel costs are a little bit less than they would have been uh given the ta the across the board increases because we did have two departures and so new people were hired at a lower rate.

Does anyone have any questions for the personnel department?

Councilman Lattice.

Um 15101, which increases to four hundred and twenty-five thousand three sixty-five.

Can you explain those increases?

I don't see that.

Or I misheard.

And if you could speak clearly into the mic, because I'm having a hard time understanding what you're saying.

So are you are you are you speaking to the difference between the personnel supplement and the and the and the budget?

Am I speaking to what?

I'm speaking to in the personnel department budget line item 15101 salaries municipal.

Your 2026 budget was four hundred and four thousand three hundred and forty six.

You have a projected budget for 2026 of three forty-eight two sixty-seven and a request for four twenty-five three sixty-five.

A total I believe that there may be a discrepancy in your departmental total because you're showing four thirty-eight three sixty-five.

And just you have to bear with me for a minute till I get to that page.

So I have your numbers.

Okay.

All right, that explains it.

Thank you.

Anyone else have anything for personnel?

Any members of the public have anything for personnel?

All right, seeing none, we can move on to legislative department.

Oh, look, that's us.

Councilman Mudo.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh when I look at our budget, we look at a overall decrease of 23% year over year.

And that has to do with the reduction in professional services.

Um would you mind sharing what the reasoning was to remove the professional services from our budget?

I didn't reduce it, so I can't share that reasoning.

So I'd have to defer to the administration.

All right.

As you'll hear from me on Thursday, I I oppose reducing it.

So I also Lynn Proger, Finance Director.

I actually cut your budget because I did it to everybody, and I tried to pull a history of where you were using what you were using in that line.

And um, so I reduced it.

That simple.

So what you're saying, you just admitted that you did that across the board.

I spared no department.

Uh Mr.

President, I would um recommend that we have a discussion of these professional services considering the additional workload and additional um information that we uh that we have been requesting and needing to legislate.

Um so I would like to open a discussion for uh bringing that back and putting a financial analyst on our payroll.

Yep, that's one of the many reasons why I oppose it and why on Thursday.

I plan on proposing an amendment to accordance with that, if it's not proposed elsewhere.

So I think we're on the same page.

I mean, I just I in we're gonna talk about finance in a minute, but I do have a contingency line in there for any emergencies.

So my assumption was if you needed to hire somebody because you had a process you needed.

I could possibly find something in there.

It's usually used for you know, like a like a weather emergency or something like that.

So yeah, I'm purposely confining my comments to Thursday because it's gonna be a proposed amendment rather than what we see before us because we we've heard why it was cut.

It the rationale at least.

So okay.

Thank you.

I just wanted to get that out there, Mr.

President.

Here's somebody, just you.

Uh Chief Staff Sunny.

Um, so the mayor's point when he did his opening remarks.

Um, this is this is a bare bones budget, and we looked at every department, every line and cut wherever we could cut.

And historically, the council hadn't expended that money, so there was you know that was taken as sharing the pain of the rest of the departments as well.

So understood.

Like I said, I'm confining my comments to Thursday because that's when they'll be pertinent.

Does anyone else have anything for the legislative department?

Does any members of the public have anything for the legislative department?

All right, seeing none we'll move on to the board of canvassers.

Good evening, uh, Krista Tracy, Director of Elections.

I apologize for my voice.

I think I'm losing my voice.

Are there any non-contractual slash non-required raises in your budget?

No, um, all contractual, no vacancies and no new hires.

Councilman Wattis.

Uh thank you.

Director, um, on the job code zero two zero.

It's a 23 point seven four percent increase.

Can you give me the contractual raises that add up to that?

Uh Chairman uh Lanasol Bill Facente.

So inadvertently in the budget, the personnel supplement, those two salary line items 020 and 720 were flipped.

The dollar amounts are correct for 2027, respectively.

You just have to put them in, you have to move the budget line item 020 to the voter registration technician.

Okay, so let me just make sure I'm clear, Chief.

So the voter registration technician should be zero to zero.

No, no, the salary for the voter registration technician job code 720 should be the 76,367.

Okay.

And the board of campuses clerk should be the 64 290.

The only increases were contractual and longevity if eligible.

So when was this discovered?

After the budget document was printed.

After the budget document was printed and prior to tonight.

Yes, prior to tonight.

But we we weren't notified about that.

Correct.

We would notify you now.

Oh wonderful.

Okay.

So there are no the in the budget itself on page 11.

The numbers to um the salary line item is correct, as well as in the personal supplement, the total.

It's just those two salary amounts were flipped.

A lot of versions that went back and forth, and it was just missed.

Sure.

But Chief, you know what?

It would have been nice to know about these things ahead of time because we do spend um a lot of time looking at these numbers and try to figure out how in the heck did you get to 23.74% increase, which just raises questions that perhaps didn't need to be raised.

So it'd be nice if we knew about these things ahead of time.

Okay.

Thank you.

That's that's the only questions.

Um I have.

I'm assuming that voter registration um, I'm sorry, the overtime.

Um that's a that's it is a question.

So on the overtime, director, why is the overtime?

And I'm not complaining, I just want to know what your reasoning is, uh, particularly in an election year, that the overtime uh has been reduced by three thousand dollars.

Um as Lynn had stated, we're down to bare bones, so we're cutting back as much as we can where we can.

I'm sorry, I couldn't hear.

I'm sorry.

Um we're down two bare bones.

Um, as Lynn had said, so we're cutting back as as much as we can where we can.

Okay, and you're comfortable with um with this budget that you have.

I am of um a total budget of three forty-three three forty-seven, but in the salary line item of two twenty-seven two forty-seven.

I'm comfortable, yes.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Right, yeah.

And when we do get to a particular department, if there are updates that we need to know about, please let us know.

Okay.

That way, it's not a surprise to anybody.

Councilman Napo.

Thank you.

Just one point of clarification.

Um Chairman, that the 20 some odd percent increase that you had referenced.

I redid the math on the corrected salaries, and it's only going to come out to about four percent.

I I redid the math on those salary increases, it comes out to about four percent, not the twenty sum odd because of the misprint.

So just just as a point of information for everyone.

Um, and just one question for the director.

The primary election expense that you incurred in 2025 was about 72, well, north of 72,000.

We're budgeting for 50,000.

Do you think that will that's a 22,000 dollars is a fairly I I think it's fair, it's not a presidential year.

Um, I've made purchases as far as Ben's signage um through 24 and through this past fiscal year.

I I'm comfortable with it.

I am council.

Thank you, Director.

Welcome.

Anything else from members of the council for board of canvassers?

All right.

Anything from members of the public for board of canvassers, all right.

Seeing none.

Move on to the finance department.

Lynn Proger, finance director.

I do have an unusual personnel change.

It looks like I have a new employee, the system project analyst.

This is not new, it's actually a transfer from the MIS department.

The intent is to reflect the work that he's been doing, kind of improving some of our accounting systems and things.

Otherwise, the raises in here are purely contractual.

Are there any questions from members of the council?

I have um two other increases in my budget.

One, that employee attends a conference every year about our Munis software.

So I moved the uh travel from MIS over to finance.

Um I've also increased professional services, um, because that's where we pay for our audit.

And I know that they're I'm currently out to bid for that.

Um with the chronic delays of our audit.

Um, I'm assuming they're gonna ask for more money because we're we're making them do more work.

I know that my understanding is that there's frequently delays due to one particular department.

Is it more than normal?

Is that why you're expecting such a large increase for that line item?

Honestly, it's just kind of a guess.

Um I'm waiting for the the bids to come in next week.

And yeah, I mean, it is our audits not done yet.

That puts a lot more work on our firm.

Councilman Lattice.

Um thank you, Mr.

President.

Um, I apologize, director.

There was a couple things that you may have already said, and I didn't hear hear that clearly.

Um, so on the system project analyst.

That's a new position.

It's a transfer from the MIS department.

Transfer from the MIS department?

Correct.

And what was the reason for that transfer?

It's a reflects the work that he does clearer.

He looks to move his career further into working with our enterprise software.

And it was an employee request that I agreed with.

There's no raise, just a transfer.

And what was the salary of the position prior to this transfer?

It it exactly the same.

Exactly the same?

Yep.

And the um school budget commission, secretary of the school budget commission, that's eliminated.

And these other positions are all within contractual requirements.

Yes.

And where does Mr.

Schaefer fall in in this finance document?

Mr.

Schaefer is under temporary services.

He's under what?

Temporary services.

Temporary services?

Correct.

And that is a 30% change in that.

So that's increased from 30,000 to 39,000.

So last year, um we put in the budget the net amount.

Um, and I wanted to um show that clearer here that Peter Schaefer is paid through temporary services at 39,000 next year, and that the bond will reimburse about 25,000 of that expense.

Last year we netted them together.

So last year, Sally, what I see is 30,000 in your personnel supplement.

Last year he he himself would have taken home more money than that, but there was a bond reimbursement, so the cost of the city was lesser.

Was the 30?

So you said he's he's in temporary services.

So is he working as Peter Schaefer invoicing the city of Warwick?

Or does he work for another entity that invoices the city of Warwick?

He's a part-time employee.

He's a part-time employee.

Correct.

Of the city.

Correct.

So does that mean um we are paying benefits on him as well?

He is a part-time employee, he does not qualify for benefits.

He does not qualify for benefits.

So he does not get any benefits.

If you mean health care, no.

It's what, please?

If you mean health care, he is not eligible to have our health care.

He's not eligible for health care.

Correct.

Does he?

I mean, we pay FICA and Medicare.

Yeah, of course.

That's you know the benefit.

Temporary services.

Why isn't that a salary line item then?

If he is an employee and he's on salary, why isn't he in a salary line item?

Some of our temp employees are we have a number of temp employees in the city.

Sometimes we use a temp agency.

Sometimes they're paid as an employee.

Much more commonly if you want to talk about the 75-day rule, but he I mean he's not paid through a temp agency.

He's he's a temporary part-time employee.

Yeah, I just don't I don't understand why it's not clearer with you know a job code.

There is no job code to this thing.

He's an employee, we're paying FICA, we're playing FUDER, we're paying TDI and whatever else we're paying.

So he is uh by all definitions an employee, but yet there's no job code here, and he's just limps listed as temporary services.

So it's kind of like uh let everybody guess, you know, what he does and um who he does it for.

Uh so how is this $39,000 salary determined?

Is this um just a flat fee?

Um, how many hours does he put in a week?

Does he show up at the office when um on a regular schedule or when he's on call?

How how does how does all this work?

How do you get to the 39,000?

He he works at it on an hourly rate.

Which is 75 an hour.

Okay.

And he he works when we need help with work.

He was here this morning.

Um he'll probably be here tomorrow morning.

But it depends on what we're talking about, what we're working on right now.

He's working on um the school bond.

Okay, so he's getting paid $75 an hour.

So does he submit to the department uh uh a time card for his hours?

How do you know what his hours are?

He tells us.

He tells you, yep.

So there's no accounting um for you know when he's in work or when he's not in work.

He just tells you what the hours are.

I he meets with me most mornings and the mayor's office.

It's what, please?

He meets with me and then he comes over to the mayor's office.

Any of these other items here, um, because it just it strikes me as interesting about this temporary service thing for an employee.

Um salary.

To me, a salary is a salary, you get paid you know whatever the number is, $500 a week, it's a salary, um, not an hourly rate.

Is anyone else any other individual or budget code in here that is by the hour?

In finance, only Peter.

I'm sorry?

In finance, only Peter's an hourly employee.

Only Peter hourly.

Okay.

So he's the only city employee that is listed in temporary services, getting $75 an hour whenever he tells you he needs to get paid.

He he's doing work.

And why is that a 30% increase again?

Tell me why that went from 30,000 last year to 39,000 this year.

Nope, no more hours.

Last year he was um budgeted net, and I'm trying to be transparent about what he makes and how he's reimbursed through the bond.

Last year we netted those together.

So his salary was 30,000 net?

Is that what you're saying?

Last year was 30,000 net net.

Approximately, yeah.

Net of FICA and FUDER and TDI bond reimbursement.

I'm sorry, he's part of the closing costs on the school bond.

So did we have to come up with the money for the FICA and the feuder and the TDI on that third on top of that 30,000?

You said it was net 30,000 net.

Net means um, you know, what's remaining from a gross after deductions, right?

Chairman, as a point of order, I think what the director is saying is that that was a net expense to the city, not a net salary, right?

Is that what you're doing?

Yeah.

So if you if you pull Peter's wages, they will be different than what was expense to the general fund.

So last year Peter was a subcontractor, not an employee?

He was an employee.

So how do you have an employee?

And you're only showing net wages.

If you have an employee, wages are gross.

Well, that's why I'm changing it this year.

It's what please?

I I agree.

That's why I've changed the way that we budget it this year.

I understand, but that's the fact still remains that that isn't what was done last year.

So last year we were presented with a salary for Mr.

Schaefer of $30,000, and now we're finding out that's net of $30,000.

It's not that's not how you run a budget.

Net you run a budget on here's the salary.

This is gross.

Out of that comes all the other stuff.

Uh kudos to you for straightening out now.

But um, these are things that just like a few minutes ago.

We you know, we just find out that there was a change.

These are things that this city council should be made aware of early on, as opposed to uh one of us, some of us or all of us having to waste all this time digging into these things to find to find that out.

That's just particularly concerning.

Um so all right, I know what I gotta do with that.

Okay, thank you.

Councilman Napa.

Thank you, Director.

Can you just explain for clarity for us and people watching and listening at home?

Administrative assistant for finance and a half and FTE.

Is that employee serving sort of like the chief of staff, two different hats in two different departments, or is that a part-time position?

Uh it's a full-time employee.

She works for community development and the finance office.

Thank you.

And then just one question on something that you had said that our budget's behind our we, I mean, I sorry, our audit is behind schedule.

Is that because the city was waiting for information from to receive information from other departments, or is that just because we're it's a cumbersome budget and we haven't gotten to the audit?

Yes.

It's solely the school department.

Okay.

And because they haven't presented their audit to you?

They haven't presented the information to our auditors, not completely.

Right now they're held up on their UCOA audit.

Okay.

And without the school department finishing their audit, the city then can't do its complete audit.

No.

Thank you.

Councilman Mudo.

Okay.

So can we just go over one more time?

Your your net numbers and your gross numbers.

So just to make sure on the same page, I'm looking at temporary services.

And in 2526, we had $30,000.

And you're saying that was the net number?

Yes.

Okay.

So that net, it was $25,000 above that.

We we actually it ended up a little less than that.

Um but we budgeted the net.

Okay.

But the gross, if you were doing it this year, what would that number be?

39.

39.

Okay.

And then on the proposed budget, and this is where I lost you, or what the council person.

So we have the request is 14,000 in temporary services.

Yeah, because when we get the the reimbursement from the bond, ultimately the expense will be net.

So you need to combine those two items together.

So it's net, not gross.

Well, the the expense is net.

The supporting document should show the detail that gets to that amount.

All right.

Because I I mean the 18101 is also all the salaries with the uh enterprise fund back charges net to it.

All right.

I'm um I'm just challenging consistency here.

If if we're gonna go gross, let's go gross all in and the offsets because I'm I'm replaying uh an example of the um the dollars for health care several meetings ago where we up where we upcharged or up budgeted X amount of millions of dollars, but in the uh reasoning was that oh, we can't pull out the net from the contributions from the employees, so we need it to up to up uh to up that line item.

This feels like it's the same thing.

Is I I actually see where you're going.

Thank you.

I haven't looked at it from that perspective before.

With you know, it is funny because when you do the journal entry for these, you offset the expense, which is reflected in the budget here, and then the money that we're getting in from the enterprise funds is actually a revenue.

So there's a two-sided entry that comes in on the other side too.

So would that be an adjustment that we possibly would make just for consistency?

No, because there's a two-sided entry that comes over of revenue, which you'll see on the revenue side probably late tomorrow night.

Um that offsets these expenses.

So when you budget for it on this expense side, you actually do have to do that.

The health care is a completely different animal because we pay those invoices to the trust.

And I wanted to make it clear at the time that this is actually what we are paying to the trust, which is the same logic here.

I wanted to be clear about what we are paying Peter Schaefer here, and then we will get reimbursement from the bond for some of those expenses.

We get reimbursement for health care from co-shares from employees.

So that that's where I'm I'm losing you're losing me here.

Is that you want to show what we're paying him or paying him 39,000?

Right.

So we should have 39,000 in that line item.

No, because accounting standards say you don't do it that way.

All right.

Are we going to apply accounting standards all the way through?

Because I want to make sure because I have some accounting standard questions.

Well, no, because then I will fail our audit.

All right.

I um I I'm just challenging the picking and choosing of accounting methods.

So I'm it would I actually do see where you're seeing that.

But they're they're similar but different.

Okay.

Uh I will uh I will yield, but I don't agree.

Councilman Lattice.

So I'm confused because in the personnel supplement, you have temporary services, which year you're budgeting for $39,000 in the personnel supplement.

But yet in your general fund, you have 18440 temporary services approved in 2026 for 30,000.

And as we already discussed, that doesn't say whether it's net or gross, but then you only are requesting 14,000 this year in your general fund budget.

So where are you going to get the other 25,000 from in the closing costs of the school bond?

In the closing costs of the school bonds.

Correct.

And when do you get that?

And in this case, next year, we won't actually be um seeking the final tranch for the high school projects.

So we'll actually have to do an accrual entry to move that and get reimbursed in 28.

So once again, we're borrowing some money from what we're anticipating on getting from school reimbursement.

No, from the final tranche of the high school bond.

Nothing to do with the reimbursement.

It's part of the closing cost.

But it's it's reimbursement for the school from the school bonds, right?

You're you're talking about reimbursement from the state.

This is I'm talking about whatever you said.

I asked what is where are you getting the extra 25,000 in the middle of the state?

When we when we do the final tranch of the high school bond, yes, the first expenses that come off of that are all called closing costs.

So that includes bond council, um, bank of America fees, all of that.

In there, there will be an invoice for Peter Schaefer's time.

So the only time that Mr.

Schaefer is putting in with the city is strictly on the school bond stuff.

No.

No, what else?

He had a lot of opinions about this budget.

A lot of what?

He had opinions about this budget.

So he he consulted with this budget as well, among other things.

So he he does a lot of other things other than just the school bond stuff.

But yet 25,000 of his 39,000 is coming from school bond stuff.

The majority of his time is related to school bond.

Councilman, you have about a minute left.

Um professional services.

Because I'm out to bid at the moment for an audit firm, and I've been told it will increase significantly for an audit firm.

Yes.

Sorry.

I'm getting my years mixed up because we're so far behind.

So that professional services line item is strictly for an audit firm?

Yeah, there's some um small fees for arbitrage on bonds and things too.

So kind of like um like a city council auditor type of thing, right?

Yeah.

Got it.

Okay.

And you're also increasing your contingency by 25,000 to 200,000.

No, it's always been 200.

Sorry, let me let me reclarify.

Your projection for this year is 175.

Yes.

You're looking to carry forward 200,000 again.

Yeah, some years we've needed to use that 200,000.

Even though in at least the two or three years that I have, you have not used any ways near 200,000.

So in 2025, you used 114,000 in 2024.

You use 74,000, right?

So why haven't you reduced that line item by 23%?

Because you haven't been using it, it's been sitting there, but you haven't been using it.

I see where you're going.

Um it's there for only emergencies.

So the year that we used it the most was quite a few years ago when we had a macro burst.

Um we had a lot of trees down.

We needed that money, and there was no reimbursement.

This year we had a lot of snow.

Ultimately, I didn't need to use this because there was an emergency declared, so we reserved that money in a fund for FEMA.

Sure.

But if the council decided they needed to um hire a consultant to do some work, contingency could be a place where that would happen.

But the intent of that fund is for emergencies.

Councilman, you're out of time.

Um, budget analyst.

Councilman, you're out of time.

So unless someone motions to give you more time.

Okay.

Councilman Rix, sorry.

Move to give councilman Latticer an additional three minutes.

Second by Councilman Nappa.

Any objection?

All right, have that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um, budget analyst.

Um, is that a new position?

Nope.

And the individual that's in that position in budget code 481.

I don't know if it's a he or a she.

Do they qualify for um contractual increases?

Correct.

They do.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

That's all I need.

Councilman Nappa.

Director, can you just explain the rationale as to why we would finance 25,000 of a salary of a part-time employee over 30 years at a premium rather than just pay that out of the budget and allocate that money elsewhere?

It's because most of the work he is doing is consulting for our bond.

That that's the rational rationalization.

Does just seem illogical to finance $25,000 when we're talking about a $382 million budget?

Relatively small number to incur seven percent interest on over 30 years.

It it's a tiny amount of money on the bond.

It is.

I mean, it seems illogical to incur interest on something that we could absorb into the budget.

I mean, easily.

If you would prefer to do that, we could we could do that.

I have gone through this budget to try and find every amount that I could.

Okay, thank you.

Oh no, I'm sorry.

Any other members of the council for finance department?

Any members of the public have any questions for finance department?

All right, seeing none, we can move on to Treasury.

Good evening.

Kyla Jones tax collector and interim treasurer.

This budget has no increases for salary items other than contractual.

There is one longevity increase in there.

Um there's no vacant positions.

And the change for personnel uh amounts would be the position of treasurer, which is split with the collector.

Any questions from members of the council?

Councilman Lapson Director, on the accounts payable specialist, you're showing a 21 point two percent increase.

Can you give me the breakdown on how you arrived at a 21 point two percent increase?

Okay.

Um that was a step increase.

I'm sorry.

It was a step increase for that employee.

Okay, so that's what I want to know.

What's the contract increase?

What's the step increase?

What's the longevity increase to total breakdown of the 21.2%?

It's all contractual.

But what is the contractual?

That's what I'm asking.

Is the contract for the uh base salary?

I think it's three point something percent, and then you have a step increase and you have longevity.

That's what I'm looking for.

I'm looking for the the items that equal 21 point two percent increase.

Is that the union?

I believe I'd have to look in her the union book to see what that increase is, but um for the contractual it's the 3.25%.

I'm sorry, the annual contractual is the 3.25%.

I think mid-year it's like a 0.9%.

Uh, but she hit her top step, so I would have to go to the union contract to see what that top step amount is.

And you're you're positive that this individual gets step increases and all longevity.

Yes.

You're sure on that?

Yes.

Yeah, she's part of the bargaining unit.

Okay.

I'm gonna have to just ask you to just send me those percentages because I just can't understand.

I'm sorry, I can't understand the numbers that you're saying.

I believe there's three different numbers, right?

There's there's the contractuals, there's the step, and there's a longevity, those three items, right?

That's what I if you could just send me that what how that comes up to 21.2 percent.

Okay.

Okay.

Do you have anything else, Councilman Mattison?

No.

I I just don't I can't understand the numbers that she's saying.

Councilman Ricks.

Thank you.

So question I'm asking about is gonna be on line item 19-106 over time.

Granted, these are not numbers that are breaking the budget, but it all does add up.

So I see that the request for that line item is $1,500.

In recent years, it seems that that number has always been greater than $1,500 from what I'm seeing in the budget packet.

Fisk fiscal year 24, it was 4600 in change.

Fiscal year 25, it was a little over a hair over $3,000.

Uh this fiscal year year to date as of March 31st was a bit over 4200, and it budget packet has a projected added a little over $6,700.

So I suppose the question is, is the $1,500 realistic?

And what can be done to make sure that overtime budget is brought so that uh it is uh sufficient and uh uh any additional efforts to try to keep within that $1,500 uh request for fiscal uh the upcoming fiscal year.

I believe the $1,500 is reasonable for this year.

Um last year we went over budget, our payroll specialist retired and left that spot vacant for a period of time in which we had to have their backup cover not just their own job, but cover the payroll job, and it is a full-time job, so that person did have more overtime than usual.

Um the person in that position now doesn't have um the time to use and take off as she's a new employee, and I think we'll be just fine uh going forward this year with the 1500.

That's good to hear.

Thank you.

I have a question.

I think I'm we'll see if I'm confusing myself.

Comparing last year's supplement to this year's supplement, the treasury and treasurer slash tax.

Ah, all right, it changed.

I've answered my own question.

Councilman Mudo.

Thank you, Ms.

President.

Um just to some clarification on the personnel supplement.

I'm on page nine of the personnel supplement.

Just let me know when you got there.

Okay.

Uh along the bottom we have the the uh chargebacks, the CDBG plot block grant credit, the water enterprise fund credit, and the sewer enterprise fund credit.

Would you explain those and how they uh impact your budget?

So the those funds are help to help cover some of the salary items for the employees that are doing um the work.

So we have an accountant that does the accounting portion for like the water and sewer authority, so they charge back some of our time.

And um, this C D BG block grant.

We have an employee in our office that takes care of all the financing for that.

So it comes out of those enterprise funds back to the city side.

Follow up question.

How has this changed from a year ago?

Hi.

So all of the enterprise back charges you're going to see changed.

All of them were running higher this year than we had budgeted.

So this year I went through and did a complete reconciliation to um set them to a more realistic goal or realistic budget.

So you'll see that all of them changed.

Community development has always had a back charge.

It used to be to finance.

Um, it has recently changed to treasury because that's where the work has gone.

But the the all the enterprise fund back charges you'll see went up for all the administrative departments.

So what what you're saying is that we've we've increased the dollars with shifting from the enterprise to operating.

Yes.

Okay.

Well, budgetarily.

Budget, yes.

Yes.

And your approach on how you did that.

Would you mind explaining how you how you went through?

Did you do a time study?

Did you do how did you track this increase?

In the case of Treasury, we actually use how many bills we're processing for them and kind of the size of their financial statements because um they do all the work to get them through the audit as well.

Um we're not on collections yet, but um in collections, we reset it all based on bills.

So how many bills are we setting out for property tax versus water and sewer, and we adjusted that way.

And you and you based it on what you've done in the past, number of bills, dollars that were allocated and projected.

So the number of bills have increased that we sent out significantly.

I I don't remember what it was last year to this year.

I do know the supporting schedule for all the enterprise fund back charges hadn't been touched in a couple years.

So we went and cleaned it all up.

Okay.

I guess I'm questioning what cleanup meant.

So I need to we'll we'll follow up on that with further down the road.

There's there's a lot of questions moving money and shifting money from the enterprise to uh operating.

But we'll follow up on that.

Thank you.

Have anything for treasury?

All right, seeing none, we now move on to debt principleslash interest.

Good evening.

Um you'll see the budget in front of you is presenting our debt payments that are required next year.

Councilman Laddis.

There's a significant increase with school debt.

So on the the school bonds, let's start out with that 2501 school bonds, uh request for 4 million five hundred and seventy-seven thousand five hundred.

Can you explain to us how that payment is going to be made and when we get reimbursed?

The payments are made every six months, I believe.

May and October for those in particular.

These are just the debt payments, just paying them to RIBEC.

The reimbursements that come in aren't going to come in for two years until the high when the high schools are complete, as the mayor mentioned.

Two years from what, please?

Two years from now.

From now, assuming the schools are finished two years from now, right?

Correct.

Correct.

Because that we don't get that reimbursement until the schools are finished.

Correct.

The buildings themselves have to be complete.

And I think it was spoken to earlier in another meeting.

That the language about the fields being part of this, they're not part of this.

It's only the buildings.

Yes.

Um, during my opening statement, uh, I explained that we've worked with Ride and they've agreed to begin reimbursement when we issue a CO on the buildings.

We don't have to wait for the demolition or the um the construction of the fields.

The kids don't even have to be in it.

It's when a CO is issued.

And I've just talked to Mr.

DeCort and told him to try to do what issue a CO tomorrow, but he said no.

Okay.

Come on, that was funny, Councilman.

And the municipal road and bridge fund loan.

What what is that?

We we have an a bond that um Mayor Solomon had to repair roads.

That was part of the 10 million dollar bond, right?

Correct.

So there's still a million four hundred and nineteen thousand remaining out of that bond.

I don't think there's anything remaining in that bond.

Or is that a payment we have to make?

It's a payment we have to make.

Is that the remainder?

No, these are the these are the payments we make.

There, that's not the remainder, there's nothing left.

Okay.

Is that is that the final payment on that 10 million?

No.

Okay.

So there's still more to go.

Correct.

Okay.

Okay, that's uh that's all I have on that.

Thank you.

Does anyone else have anything for debt principal debt interest?

Do any members of the public have any questions on this?

Good evening.

Uh Ian Sheridan wouldn't I.

Uh, the question I have is the increase in what from last year to this year.

Is that the money that was discussed transferring from OPEC, the four to five million dollars that's needed?

Is that where that money's coming from?

I'm sorry, can you repeat the question?

So the lot excuse me, the last two meetings, there was a lot of discussion about transferring funds from the OPEC account to this year's budget for OPEP.

Um that has nothing to do with debt.

The interest.

So you've got two categories there debt service and interest.

Yes.

Right.

So the interest?

Yes.

Like almost five, four and a half million dollars.

The interest payments due this year.

These are just our we've released debt to buy to improving roads for improving the schools, and these are the payments that we have to pay back for it.

OPEB is funded through our um pension fund our pension budget.

I get that.

But I thought we had a lot of discussion over the last month that we needed to move some money out of the OPEB fund to support the debt.

We're not moving any money from the OPEP trust.

None.

We are continuing to do that.

Something the last two two last month.

Yes.

I'm sorry.

Ms.

Sharon, um, we're not transferring money from OPEP because it was never in there.

You're talking about the five million dollars, correct?

Right.

Um, that was already in the operating budget that went to the admissable pension.

We don't have to fund it at that level anymore.

So the five million was slated to go into the OPEB fund.

We simply aren't putting it in there.

We're deferring it until after we receive um uh reimbursed full reimbursement mistake.

It was never in the fund.

We're not taking anything out of the OPEP fund.

Okay, I understand now.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other members of the public have any questions regarding debt principal debt interest?

All right, seeing none, we can move on to city collector.

Kyla Jones, uh tax collector and interim treasurer in the collector's office.

We have one vacant position, only contractual increases, two of which are longevity increases.

Um the collector treasurer salary is split, and there's been the increase in funding um from the enterprise funds.

Do any members of the council have any questions regarding city collector?

Councilman Latticer.

On the senior appraiser, there's two positions, and that has increased 18.6 percent.

What is the breakdown?

Totaling the 18.6 percent.

So that's the wrong that's a different department.

I'm sorry, that's for city assessor.

You're asking about we're in city collector.

Sorry.

Okay.

Um to the city collection, you have a reduction in the tax in the treasurer tax collector 50 percent a portion of salary is paid out of treasury.

So that's where um I believe you get half your salary, and then the other half comes from elsewhere.

That's why that's the reduction.

That's correct.

Okay, and that's all I have on that one.

All right, anyone else have anything for city collector?

Any members of the public have anything for city collector?

See none.

We can move on to city assessor.

Good evening.

Uh Neil Dupuy, director of assessing.

We did have one step increase, which is that senior appraiser that you were just speaking about.

Uh so you had both a longevity increase and a uh step increase.

Um, otherwise, it was the contractual percentage raises that everybody else um was eligible for.

In addition to that, we do have three open positions that we will be filling this year.

We had kept them open, trying to work out some modifications over the last year.

Um both to save money during rebail into uh keep the budget down as much as we can.

Interestingly, when I came here about eight years ago, we're about the same amount of budget then as we are now.

Um part of what we did last year with the full reval, saving over a million dollars.

We're gonna do a similar change for the statisticals.

So over a 10-year period, we're gonna save about two million dollars or roughly 200,000 per year, and that's by doing a little bit of the reval every year instead of doing it once every three years.

Councilman Lattizer.

Uh yes, thank you.

Uh director, um, you have a new position here.

Uh it's assessment records specialist.

And um, what's the reason for the creating that position?

So it was actually an error in last year's personnel supplement.

Uh, we didn't have two assessment clerks last year.

We had one assessment record specialist and one clerk, but it went to last year's budget wrong.

There is no new position this year.

It's the same net number of employees.

If you look, it was 10 last year, 10 this year.

It was just put in the budget wrong last year as two assessment clerks.

I see.

So it was entered wrong in the budget last year.

That's correct.

On the um senior appraiser, I know you said that it was contractual step, etc.

What is the and by the way?

I'll be asking the same question to all department heads.

I would have thought that that would be provided to us initially.

What is the percentage that totals 18.6%?

Well, it's not necessarily a percentage.

Her longevity went from uh in my eyes are tough, but looks like about 8141 to 9950 for just the longevity.

So that's more of a flat amount.

Then she had a uh 1.0325% annual increase, and then the January increase of the 9% by 0.09%.

Um the difference was the step increase.

But there is this the the contract, the contract is X percentage.

Then there is a step increase.

That's whatever are the percentages.

Then there's a longevity, and that's whatever the percentage is.

Those are the three numbers that I'm looking for that are gonna total whatever this percentage is that we're talking about.

Well, but the math doesn't work that way.

So there those overall percentages, but uh for instance, so her base salary went from 72,000 one sixty-seven to ninety thousand, and again, my eyes are tough.

I think it's two fifty-eight.

Then we have the one point oh three two five, then we have the one point zero zero nine.

So they're not all percentages and and math being the way it is, you can't just do the math out of order.

So um, I can look that up and get you the actual contractual amount.

But I went through this, the personnel department went through this, and I actually had each employee test it to make sure that my numbers were correct and everything reconciled.

So we we agree that there is a formula correct to get to that.

Okay, whatever that formula is, that's what I'm asking for.

So we agree there's a formula.

So the formula, my point is the formula uh should be uh explained or provided to us.

So we don't sit here, at least I don't sit here and say, okay, how did you get an 18.6 percent?

I mean, we can pull it out and give it to you, but everything is online for the public to see.

The contracts are out there, every piece of it is available.

So we'll we'll get that for you, but it is out there for the public for the people listening.

And director, with all due respect, just for the people listening on on YouTube.

I I understand it's online, um, but I also understand I am not Mr.

Technology.

Um, I've made that very clear, and I spent countless hours on all of these things, and I per uh quite honestly, I'm not having the time to start chasing stuff down on the city website when it can be very easily provided to me.

Fair enough.

I said it more for the public.

True.

Um that's that's all I have on this item.

Thank you.

Oh no, I know temporary services.

So this has been a vacant position for some time, and now you have plugged in for 10,000 for temporary services.

What is the need for the temporary services?

So it's not actually new positions.

Sandra Gemma, who worked in my office for over 40 years, retired.

Uh, we had her back last year working uh to train some of the employees so that they would understand mapping changes, GIS changes, things that uh the new employees, the new senior appraiser and our other senior appraiser had to learn.

And she's always also working on some things that will help us reduce the reevaluation costs.

Last year, her budgeted amount, I believe was about 20,000, but it was booked separately in the budget uh under an actual employee.

This year it was cut to ten thousand dollars, but it was put on uh as temporary services and a temporary service, meaning that this individual is a subcontractor and not an employee, or are we back on um no?

This is really an employee and no different from Peter Schaefer, and we'll get into it with some other departments as well, with some of the retirees that are uh hired under the 75 days under the 75 day rule?

Correct.

So they they are brought back as employees without benefits.

Is that what it is?

Other than like Lynn explained with the finance department, they still have to pay FICER and all the other payroll deductions, but they don't get any benefits from healthcare or anything like that.

And what is the hourly rate for that individual?

I'd have to look at that.

She went from the top step being the 40-year employee to the low step in that position.

Um, but it's as far as the hourly rate, I'd have to look that up.

But that person would be getting paid on an hourly rate.

That's correct.

And you're not sure what that hourly rate is.

I'm gonna say it's around $30, but I'd have to look that up to confirm.

Okay, if you could check that out and get back to us on that.

We'll do thank you.

Okay, uh finance director just clarified it's 3315.

3315.

Okay, thank you.

And that serves 3315.

That service is um at the call of someone from your department.

Yeah, she she basically um has been working hand in hand with the other senior appraiser that now took on the duties for GIS and for the mapping changes that happened.

Uh, that was an area that she hadn't worked with before.

Now she's kind of stepped back from that and we'll do more oversight, which is why her hourly or her total salary will drop down, but she's also helping to reduce our cost for the department overall as we try to reduce reval costs.

And who keeps track of her hours?

She actually submits them through the employee self-service.

I approve them every week uh on a weekly basis.

I keep it on the calendar as she's there each day.

So in your department and under your supervision, this individual who is on an hourly rate has to submit like a time card, so to speak, to you.

That's for approval.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

That's all I have.

Councilman Murdo.

Thank you, miss.

Thank you, Ms.

President.

Hi, Director.

Up a couple of clarifying questions.

Um, you know, looking at overall increases, we're looking at ballpark 220,000 increase.

From what I heard, it's filling three open positions, which is which is new to that line item.

Is that correct?

Well, when you say overall increases, it's actually not, but when we had those positions open, there was savings for the city that took place when you're looking at what we're projecting we're gonna expend this fiscal year.

I see where you're getting that, but it's just that those positions were not filled uh because we weren't in the cycle that would benefit by them.

As we go forward, uh, we worked with the administration to come up with a plan that would reduce our reval cost overall.

We're gonna be able to fund it consistently around $40,000 per year.

So we won't have spikes one year and drops the next.

Look, if you look back over the last couple of rebounds, my department looks like it, you know, spent an extra $500,000 one year and then we did a great job and lowered it down where it's really just a funding mechanism to how it's been budgeted.

No, I I got that.

Don't be defensive.

I was just trying to explain.

This will be correcting that going on.

Yeah, the uh yeah, so it's to I can get to the I'm trying to justify the 220, which is three positions that are going on, which are equated to how much of that 220 ballpark.

Well, we had the deputy assessor.

Uh that position's been open since I got here.

Um basically because I'm I'm doing both jobs, uh, and not that I want to.

And you're doing a great job, by the way.

Thank you.

Um, but we want to try to have one an orderly transition.

Uh, not that I'm planning to go anywhere, but we do have to plan for that eventuality.

Um get that actual number.

Thanks.

I think it's in the budget book itself.

This is a this is a great example of it's there where you gotta you gotta hunt and find it'd be really nice if you know there's a nice little database that we could just spit out the details, but I didn't hear it.

I'm sorry because of the noise.

The acoustics in here are awful.

They are awful, aren't they?

No, my question was you know the data is there, whether it's online or here.

I'm just responding to previous requests and also a comment by councilman Latticer, which was you know, get having that access and seeing the detail and being able to do that analysis.

Well, no, but this is all in the current year's budget as well under the personnel supplement.

Um so the deputy salary uh was budgeted last year at 84,001, basically.

It's now 86,842.

And again, I my eyes are tough, so it might be off pennies.

Yep.

Um then we had an appraiser position that was open.

That was um budgeted last year at 57512.

Yep.

No, that that number last year was wrong.

Um because that's below the the lowest step.

Um yeah, it would have been roughly um for somebody new that's not eligible for longevity, and and that's the part as we budget.

We don't know who's gonna get that position if they're coming from another office or even from within the department.

Um, so that this year is um proposed at 59,648.

Um, but I believe that's below what the actual number will be.

And then the um the position was the assessment record specialist, which was in at 62,508 last year, and is in at 60,592 this year.

So a little bit of a drop, but I think that's because of the um longevity for the person that was holding that position.

Okay.

Um you're explaining a position, which I just want to make sure I hear this correctly.

It was you were breaking up the the salary plus the uh the percent increase plus you know the uh longevity and all that good stuff.

Did I hear you correctly that this individual went from for a base salary of 70,000 to 92,000 for the base salary plus the others?

No, so the the salary itself um was 72,167.

Okay, that was at the steps she was eligible for before.

She's also been here.

Um I don't have her exact years in front of me, but uh she had longevity of 8141 for a total of 80,308.

Her longevity is now going up to 99.50.

And her total salary before the percentage increases for this year is 90,259.80.

Uh excuse me.

Yeah, 90,259.

So it's really going from 80,308 to 90,259, and then the 1.0325 and the 1.009 for January.

So I guess my question is she was at 72.

What is what is she at?

She would have been at 80, including her longevity.

Forget the longevity.

You gave me the longevity, which is 8141, and then 99.50 for a total of 80,308 to 90,259.

So the salary increase is from 72,000 to what?

Well, again, we don't we don't do the math that way.

Um, so I'd have to get back to you on that.

But the longevity in the salary itself were at 80,000, and the equivalent of that is now 90,259 before we apply the percentages that are contractual for this year.

Okay.

But do you yeah, but do you see what I'm saying?

Like the longevity is about one percent, you know, or one thousand almost two thousand.

Yeah, about eighteen hundred.

So an eight thousand dollar raise on eighty thousand, that's a ten percent increase.

So what what you what I'm trying to hear and understand is how do we get there?

Because of the top step.

So her top step actually kicked in in this fiscal year.

Yep.

In April, she got moved up.

We got notified uh by the personnel department that she now reached that step, and and so we modified her pay back in this current fiscal year.

Uh but this is the number necessary to fund that position next year.

Okay.

And that increase is strictly contractual.

No ring, no raise whatsoever.

No rate, but the contract.

Contractual only.

Okay.

That's correct.

And my last question, Floyd is really more of a comment, which uh idea to applaud you on this, which is looking at doing the assessments rolling every year.

I I applaud you on that, and I do look forward to see how it's implemented, not just how it's being done, what resources you do, but also the appeals process.

So uh definitely applaud you for that effort, and uh I would love to hear more about it.

You're welcome.

We're actually doing more with less, and we're gonna get a better project as a as a result.

Thank you.

Councilman Ricks.

Thank you.

When you'd mentioned about the budget over the last eight years, I took a look back through the budget documents and saw that yes, uh the numbers are all basically in the same same vicinity as eight years ago, which is uh really striking for the consistency and ability to keep those costs in check over the years.

I know that a lot of that goes to as well the ability to uh take some of those uh services that previously had to were going to uh outside vendors, bringing those in-house, so makes it all the more remarkable and striking that uh your department and yourself as director really have been able to do more with less.

So just wanted to take a moment to recognize that and thank you for your service.

Absolutely, that's what I'm here for.

And that's with four less employees than we had when I got here.

So councilman Napa.

Director, you had mentioned that the appraiser line item.

You think that that 59,648 is lower than what the actual cost is gonna be?

Slightly uh for for step one.

Um is that because they're gonna be higher later in the year or what part of um the field work and part of the reevaluation goal is to uh gear up and start doing some of that work this year.

Um so yeah, it will probably be um three months into it by the time we um have that position fully filled.

Okay, so what you're alluding to is that their annual salary is going to be higher than this number, but this would be the budget impact for fiscal 27.

Yeah, budget being a projection, we don't know who's gonna qualify and get that position if they're eligible for longevity or a higher step, then that will be uh something we'll have to address within the budget.

All right, thank you, Director.

You're welcome.

Councilman Ladison Director, I'm looking at your um your year to date numbers, year to date expended of 494,074, and your projection for the end of the fiscal year of six hundred and twenty thousand, and then you ask for this year eight forty-one two eighty-three.

The reason I'm questioning this is when I calculate the monthly expenditure, and this is as of today, by the way, of the 494,007 four that's um expended, and there are no encumbrances.

When I do the math on that, that averages out to approximately 49,407 a month.

We have about a month and a half left to go, uh, which is about 74,000, which brings me up to 568.

So the question is, how did you make a projection of 620, 556?

And then in addition to that, um request 841 this year.

Well, a couple of things.

Uh we have a payment due on the revail, which is 10% of the project costs, which is about 500,000.

So there's roughly 50,000 that will be added on in this fiscal year for the last reval that was conducted.

Um we have the three open positions, which are really gonna affect the 841 for the request.

Um, in addition to that, the temp services of of that employee that we talked about, um Sandra Gemma, is gonna be um something that fluctuates with time, so it's more heavily weighted as we get closer to certifying the tax roll and doing the items that are necessary to close things out for the year.

Okay, that's that's all I have.

Thank you.

Any members of the public have anything for the city assessor?

Good evening, counsel award one.

Good evening, director.

Good evening.

Um, just focusing on two line items.

Um, the tax sale, which is line three, two, three, and the property reevaluation line three, two, four.

Kind of following up with what councilman Lattisser said, just looking at and maybe you have more up-to-date numbers of what we've already expended.

Um, but the tax sale, for instance.

So I gotta clarify before we get to that.

The tax collector handles that part of the um budget.

I can only address the property revaluation.

That's right.

Oh, yours is the property reevaluation then.

Um, so to date is 1,17.

And your projection is 40,000.

Is this for property reevaluation that we see every few years, or is this a yearly assessment?

Two different reevaluation projects.

There's a statistical, um, which happens every three years, and a full reevaluation, which happens every nine.

We just completed the nine-year reevaluation.

Part of that project includes them holding off on getting paid for the last retainage amount until the completion of all the hearings from the tax appeals, which just concluded at the end of April.

So there's going to be a budgetary uh increase there in that line item.

Uh not an increase, but they'll be paid in this fiscal year for that component.

Okay, so you think that projected 40,000, you're gonna use that in the next year?

Yes.

Okay.

But the 40,000 you see in the budget for next year is a whole different thing.

Um, that is the start of the next three-year revaluation cycle, which, as they explain, we're breaking that up, and instead of doing it in a third year, we're doing a third every year so that we can control our costs a little better, budget a streamlined uh amount, and uh we'll see less fluctuation within the department budget by doing it that way.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

Does anyone else have anything for the city assessor?

All right, seeing none.

We move on to MGT information systems, aka MIS.

Good evening, Phil Carlucci, IT director.

Um just a brief summary of the overall budget presented.

It's a very aggressive budget for us.

Um, as you know, contractually, we have software vendors that have the right contractually to raise their prices um significantly, I think up to 10% in most of the contracts.

We took a different approach this year and simply held the line on it uh on that and a number of uh other categories.

Uh it's an optimistic budget, but our intention is to simply go ahead and negotiate as hard as we can when those uh invoices come due.

We're also gonna be leveraging continued uh grant money for cybersecurity to keep our cybersecurity position uh as strong as possible.

We held the line on hardware expenditures uh and new projects.

We did that for a couple reasons.

Number one, we have a number of projects we're working on now, migrations to the cloud and things along those lines that can use some attention.

Uh, we're gonna focus on those.

Also, as you may be aware, with the advent of AI, pricing in the technology field has gone through the roof.

Uh, and while we're going to try to maintain our replacement policy so we don't fall fall too far behind, um, we're taking a much more judicious approach because pricing has gone up 2x, 3x.

Um, just sitting here, I got a quote we had asked for two years ago.

Precisely the same equipment, the same memory and hard drives was quoted at 20,000.

I just got the quote from the vendor for today, it's 89,000.

And before you grab your hearts, we will not be going forward with that.

But um, it just shows you how much pricing has increased uh over the period that period of time.

We have one other semi-significant increase, and that was in telecommunications.

It went up $26,000, but of that $26,000, $16,000 of it is attributable to a three-year maintenance contract on our firewalls.

So three years ago we purchased the firewalls, they do three-year support contracts with them.

Unfortunately, this year is the first year that we're going to have to renew it.

So that's that's the majority of that increase.

And of the increases, 13,400 of them are attributable to longevity.

One half ish of that longevity increase is attributable to someone just becoming eligible for longevity this year.

Um at 4200.

So we've had the 9200 going on, the 4200 is new this year.

Other than that, it's contractual.

Except for my position.

Uh had a significant increase in budgeted uh salary this year.

Um I know I look 40, but I'm actually a little bit older than that, and there's a good chance that there will be a change in the position in the future.

Uh, with that, the market demands, it's just like buying a car.

You buy a car, you pay X amount of dollars for it.

Uh five, six years later, you go to replace that car.

Pricing isn't the same.

Um, it's gone up significantly, the same with the market for IT positions.

So we just thought it was probably very prudent to budget for what could very well be an anticipated need uh in the coming coming year.

Other than that, I'd be happy to answer any of your questions.

Can we condition your budget on you not being allowed to leave?

Yeah, and your position 11 is arguably low for a finance uh IT director as well.

But councilman Latticer.

Thank you.

Um Director, I just heard you say that and also um Director Dupuis stated the same thing that you each have an employee who at some point in this upcoming fiscal year is going to qualify for a longevity increase.

And as a result, and responsibly so, you have calculated that into the 2027 fiscal year budget, correct?

Correct.

Okay.

Um that's for a point of clarification.

Thank you.

I I only have two employees that are eligible.

Um I only have two employees that are in eligible for longevity.

One had been collecting uh longevity, and then the second employee becomes eligible this year, and it's calculated.

Rightfully so.

I mean, obviously, if there is uh an anticipated or known increase in someone's um salary, such as longevity in a particular fiscal year, it should be calculated in that fiscal year and added into the budget.

It is, otherwise, it's a non-budgeted item.

Correct.

Thank you.

Council Mutter.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I will need to concur with the president that everything could consented as long as you're here.

Uh just a couple of observations.

Uh you had you had a system project analyst which moved to MIS to finance.

And obviously, it's you know, department transfer for the need, but there was a gap of an increase in that salary of four thousand two hundred and ninety-four dollars.

Uh is do you know what what that increase was due due to?

There was an increase in that position when it moved to the finance budget.

Yep, of four thousand two hundred and ninety-four dollars to answer your question.

No, I'm not sure of that.

Okay.

Any increase for that uh position is just the three and a quarter.

He qualifies for the um.9 on January as well.

Okay.

Um if I may, I didn't address it because um director pro Director Project had already addressed it, but um just to back up what you said.

Uh that person, uh Chris, uh we had the conversation.

The majority of his time is spelled spent in our ERP system.

Right now, his project's focus there.

He sees his career path for project management being in the business end of it, more so than the technology end of it.

We're just accommodating him.

That was the rationale for moving.

And it's still doing the same job.

Yep.

Um I'm not questioning the transfer.

That's uh you have two desktop support analysts, their increase was combined about $9,000.

You know, I see the work that they do, so it seemed very reasonable, even though the absolute percent was slightly higher uh than the average.

Um but their salary was more consistent with desktop analyst.

The item that um triggered for me was that the credits we talk about the credits from the enterprise fund.

And in the past, your sewer and water credits for MIS uh was about sixteen thousand dollars each.

Um, but it's shifted from you know $32,000 approximately uh back to the general fund.

So uh so I know what was said earlier, which was the increase in uh in the transfers from the enterprise fund was due to um you know number of statements and things of that nature.

Has your workload significantly decreased that much for the type of credit?

I would say that we give a lot of uh credit deservedly so to the project uh manager.

That workload um he provides the counseling to them.

That's really what the enterprise funds are paying us for um along with the desktop support analysts and you know my consultations and all the stuff that goes along with it.

So with moving that position out of my department, that reduced it.

Logical answer.

Thank you.

That's all the questions I have thank you.

Gonna try to word this in a way that doesn't get me in trouble.

So uh if I'm not wording it quite correctly, feel free to not respond.

Uh and with the preface that uh we want you to be here forever as our MIS director, I think you've done an excellent job.

So being careful how to phrase this.

Uh from what you said earlier, I take it that you don't plan to continue as MIS director as of uh sometime within the end of fiscal year 27?

I would think that's a good likelihood, yes.

Okay.

And uh wish it were otherwise, but thank you.

Just wanted to make uh certain that I was clear on that.

Thank you.

Sorry.

Just to follow up on uh Councilman Mudo's questioning with the um enterprise fund credits and temporary services.

How are those credits determined or calculated?

Is there a formula that is indicative of your budget?

Or is this just a number that you receive from the sewer department or the water department, and they say, okay, here's your credit.

Is there an actual formula that you're aware of that determines how they arrived at that credit, or is this just an arbitrary number that is provided to you and that's what it is?

It has always been explained to me that it is not arbitrary, it is a formula, but I would have to defer to the finance department to articulate what that formula is if you were interested in that.

Sure.

Um council president, could we have the finance director speak to how those credits are determined?

Uh we have a huge we have a spreadsheet that's a schedule of how everyone is calculated, and our auditors do review it and approve it.

Um in the case of the IT department, it's about time that they're really spending, and it's kind of an estimate of that really, and how many users employees they have.

We we try to have it um rational.

The decrease in this department is really because um one employee is moving over to the finance department, and so the amount that we can back charge would change overall.

So I'm assuming by what you said that if I were to ask for the um calculations that determined what these credits were or are, you'd be able to provide that.

Yeah, I mean, there is method to the madness, and the water and sewer department are perfectly aware and approve of them.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

I'll send off an email um asking for that.

Well, just at least for one of these departments, anyways.

Hi, Lynn.

Uh, just a quick quick follow-up.

So these credits from the war water department and sewer department, because they are coming from you know, the the ratepayers and so forth.

Do we is it required that the work done that's being credited for water and sewer related?

Yeah, of course.

Yeah.

I mean, it's it's more efficient for our desktop um triage support, that was the word.

Uh folks are helping the water and sewer department, not just city hall.

And that's that's how we have gone about it for years.

Okay, and that's true for every department.

Correct.

Okay, awesome.

It it saves you know the the enterprise funds from having their own collecting department, that kind of thing.

No, that makes sense.

Thank you.

Any members of the public have anything for MISER Michelle Kumar award one.

Good evening, Director.

I had questions on three line items, and there's gonna be a trend.

I'll probably look at the budget the same way.

Um, probably from a simply very simple logical approach.

And what concerns me is um line line um number 140, temporary services.

So far, as of um the end of March, none of that 25,000, uh, which was approved, was expended, but yet there's a request of 20,000 in this budget.

I'm not quite following the the historic trend here.

Do you really, or can you cut that 20,000?

I don't see the need in just looking at the line items.

Um I can explain the situation.

I have to, I'm looking at my budget.

Hang on, one say if I could please uh I can speak to this year.

Actually, that 25,000 was expended this year, however, it was expended out of a different budget category, expended out of the salary.

We have a unique situation where we have um a justifiable need for another technician position.

We happen to engage a an intern, um who I cannot speak highly enough of.

Uh could just to give you a quick idea of it.

This gentleman uh placed third in the nation, six excuse me, sixth in the nation uh in a cybersecurity competition.

So he he is rather remarkable.

I don't want to swell his head.

His college schedule, he's going to college now at um England Tech.

His schedule allows him to actually work for us part-time during the day.

The work he does for us is what is referenced there, and it's allowed us to not have to go out and hire that new position.

I don't anticipate that continuing forever, but we are going to take advantage of it while we can.

So I heard some of the discussion earlier uh with personnel and um Peter Schaeffer in being a temporary or a consultant or a full-time employee.

So you're saying that the $20,000 is a salary.

It is not.

It is a temporary hourly rate.

I believe the hourly rate is about $21 an hour, I believe.

Um it's in that vicinity, 2021 and a half dollars an hour.

Um, it is only for the hours he works, it carries with it no vacation benefit, it carries with it no health care benefit, it carries with it no um holiday benefit, simply hours spent.

It varies.

Um he was over the summer able to put a few more hours in.

That's been cut back.

He also has another position with a local company that he works at.

So it's it's just a hired gun.

It has no uh salary benefits associated with it.

The account number it's being charged out to was simply to avoid having to do a dollar transfer or uh uh journal entry.

Okay, that's that's good enough for me.

Thank you.

And I have two more items.

Um 303 telephone.

Um to date at the end of March, 73,296 was expended.

And the projection between then and the end of the year, you plan to use almost another hundred thousand.

That seems a little the logic there, and then the request is for 179, which the previous year um well, in 2025, it was 68,000, and in 2024, 71,000 expended.

Um do you think that number is high and can be reduced for telephone?

We've actually done uh a lot of work trying to reduce it, but in all honesty, no, the keeps on going up.

Um, that's one of those services that carries with it both in the cellular area and the desktop area.

Uh we've done several concerted sweeps where we've taken um desk phones that weren't utilized 100% uh and reduce those down, but the ongoing costs it carries with it all the data communications we do um for cellular service.

So any of the hot spots that we use to um liven up an area uh and communicate in comes out of that area, and I think that's it's going to be accurate.

Yeah, historically that looks like a big jump compared to what you've used in past years.

So I kind of hope that that can be looked at closer with a reduction uh for telephone usage.

Then the last item is miscellaneous capital expenditure.

So last year, $90,000 was approved, and none so far has been expended as the end of March.

Uh why is that?

We did not engage in the project that that was earmarked for.

We have engaged in a project that will utilize some of that funding, and that's why we did not put that funding in for next year.

That's what I was addressing earlier uh when I explained that we're not taking on those capital projects uh for the next year's budget just to keep those costs down.

All right, so that was included in last year's budget.

Taxpayers that the tax rate was set based on this number too.

So, where did the $90,000 not used?

Where did it get transferred to in the budget?

I believe it just goes to the general fund as all other non-expenditures go to.

Okay, and again, why wasn't that used so far this year?

The $90,000?

It's true for any budget.

I'm sure you've been involved in them.

You said the beginning of the year, and you make it an intentional guess uh at what projects you're going to be able to engage in, what makes sense at the time.

As you get into the year, you do more evaluations, and you try to evaluate whether or not it still contains value, or whether the amount budgeted is going to be sufficient.

We made a judgment call that that budgeted dollar amount was not going to be sufficient, and it was not a justifiable uh project for this year.

Um, was that in your capital improvements budget as well?

That is I'm I'm sorry, I mean I don't understand the question.

Um, your capital expenditures was that in in the capital improvements budget as well.

Like is that noted somewhere else in the budget?

No, it's just listed in it.

It's only one spot.

It only shows up in the budget once.

You talk about the 90,000 yes, yes, just once.

Okay, thank you.

Councilman Latison.

Yes, thank you.

Um Director, I to follow up on Ms.

Comar's question on the um the phone, the telecommunications.

So far this year, including encumbrances, and this is again effective as of today, including encumbrances.

You have spent 69,403.

Your available budget is 101,596.

So it seems to me that there is some room there for adjustments.

There's no way you're gonna spend um you know 100,000 between now and the end of June.

I would agree.

I would have to look into that and I'll get you an answer to it.

That'll be a Thursday conversation.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

That's all I have, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

That was 25303, right?

Yes, sir.

25.

No, 2530.

2503.

No, I stand corrected.

25303.

Okay.

Any other questions for MIS?

Anyone from the public.

All right.

We're moving on to purchasing.

Thank you.

Hello, Francis Gomez, purchasing director.

Um, this year there are no raises, only contractual.

Um we have one open position still, purchasing clerk since I started here in October of 2022, I want to say.

Um that's been vacant, but that's also a union position.

Um the clerk tech bid specialist position has been vacant due to the fact that the person that holds that position is on medical leave, no pay.

Um, besides that, the office apply budget, although requested as usual for 2000, it was cut to 1,000, which I'm in agreement with because as of March 30, March 31st, 2026, um, we had only spent $618, but as of today um we have spent $693.07 with an encumbered amount of 4019, $401.97 with an available balance of $904.

Purchasing also has service contracts that the year prior um was guided by MIS only for the copier to budget for $1,600.

But according to MIS, the service contracts budgets uh payments are end of year, and I'm open for any questions you may have hi director.

Hi would you have um the formular as to how your department received the um credits from the uh sewer enterprise and water enterprise?

Uh I wouldn't have it personally, that would be finance.

That would become from finance as well.

Yes.

Okay.

Um that is that's all that I have for your department.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Hi, Director.

Hi.

Uh I may have missed this in your introduction.

Uh, but I'm looking at the total line request for the salaries for municipality.

You're you know, going back to 2024, you're at 187.

25 is 199 projection for this year 157, and then it jumps up to 275.

Would you mind explaining the gap for me?

Um, so from the 157 to the 275, is that what you're asking?

Okay.

So the request for the 275 is closer to the approved for the 26.

We weren't expecting um the bid specialist, which is um besides me, is the highest paying um job in my office union-wise.

Um, because of their leave of absence, that the no pay started around, I would say um maybe after right after Thanksgiving.

That's the difference there.

So if somebody does you know whether that person comes back or not, it'll still be that same salary that they're getting.

Um, and if they do not come back for whatever reason, um that will go back to the starting pay as well.

But that um it's usually just a projection to just to keep us safe there, from my understanding at least.

So it it's it's a held salary for someone that's currently on medical leave, which is quite by lot.

Yes, okay.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Any members of the public have anything for purchasing?

All right.

Seeing none, we'll move on to boards and commissions.

Uh William Facente, Chief Staff.

Uh there's a decrease in the boards and commissions total amount that is represented by three changes to the um two changes to the ordinance that covers boards and some of the boards and commissions, as well as the school budget commission is no longer uh receiving a stipend, which is fifteen thousand.

The sewer uh review board, sewer board of review.

Um that is only when they meet.

Um they don't we're not planning on having them meet anytime soon.

And also the minimum housing border review was merged with the building board.

Um so there's a savings of those.

There is one more change that will be made depending on the outcome of the ordinance, second passes the ordinance, the personal hearing board.

Um that six hundred dollars will also um not be provided to pro uh personal hearing board members as there won't be a personal hearing board any longer.

When's the last time the sewer review board met prior to 2020?

Do we know how much?

So because it's each six.

It was six hundred dollars.

What is it?

I'm sorry.

It was six hundred dollars.

So the minimum housing border review was a six hundred dollar.

If you look at twenty twenty um six budget, it was six hundred dollars for the minimum housing border review.

The sewer review board was six hundred dollars, and the school budget commission was fifteen thousand.

All right, so if the sewer review board would meet tomorrow, would be the cost of six hundred dollars.

I mean, technically, but it's all I believe they changed the ordinance to only when they meet, right?

So it wouldn't be six hundred dollars per per meeting, it's a a portion, I think it's like twenty-four fifty or thirty-seven fifty.

It's in the ordinance.

All right, that's that's the annual amount for all members of the sewer border review.

All right, it's just but it's it's safe to say it's not 21,000 and change for one meeting.

Correct.

All right, six hundred dollars a year for all members.

Any members have any questions for boards and commissions?

Any members of the public have any questions for boards and commissions?

Michelle Kalmar award one.

Good evening, Chief.

The sewer review board.

Uh are they in effect or did they get dismantled because of state legislation?

Do they still review or make determinations and what on what place?

So there still exists.

Um we're required by state statute to have the sewer board of appeals.

Um it's just that the city council changed it to be they only get paid once they meet, and they don't meet any longer because of the way the calculation for assessments is done.

It's it's consistent throughout the entire city going forward.

Right.

So this uh sewer review board, another name for it is the sewer board of appeals.

Sewer, I believe that was the sewer review board of appeals.

That's where you would go to appeal your assessment.

Right.

I I thought that need was eliminated because of the assessment method was it is but easy to count.

State law requires we still have that board by statute.

We can't just eliminate it.

So the council changed the ordinance to change it so they will only get paid when they meet.

Okay, so if it's eliminating the state enabling act for the WSA.

Um it is not.

It it is not, it's still there.

It's in the enabling act legislation.

It would take an act of the General Assembly to remove it.

Okay, and it was just quicker and easier just not to have them getting a stipend when they don't meet.

That's what the city council did in the change to the ordinance.

Right, but they're still budgeted 21,000.

That's the sewer authority board.

It's a completely different board.

That's the governing body of the sewer authority.

Sewer authority board is different than the sewer board of appeals.

Well, what is the sewer review board?

Which board is that that you're making distinction?

That's the one that he has the appeals of the sewer assessments.

That's the one that's been the salary has been eliminated and it's no longer in this budget, the 27 budget.

Right, it's in the 26 budget.

Am I on the right line that budgeted is 21,000?

The sewer review board or the sewer board of appeals is not in this 27 budget.

There's no money budgeted for it.

So you're on the wrong, there is no line for you to be on the right line of the sewer authority board, is the governing board of the sewer authority.

That's the 21,150.

The sewer review board or the sewer board of review or the sewer board of appeals was a six hundred dollar line item that has not been included in this budget.

You will not find it in the 2027 budget.

That is one of the reasons why the budget has gone down.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Just point of clarification, Chief.

Uh, at least in the book, I think it's a wording issue.

It does say sewer review board in the budget.

But that's right.

So the there's that is probably just a spelling in the general in the personnel supplement, it's the sewer board sewer authority board.

We may have made a spelling or a grammatical issue error with the sewer review board.

Yeah, but it doesn't match up with the ordinance either.

That's why I I was confused as well, because the ordinance the sewer authority and the sewer board of review and the budget.

We'll make that change going forward.

Sewer review board.

We'll make that change going forward.

Does anyone else have any questions for boards and commissions?

All right.

So we can move on to animal shelter.

Ann Corvin for the animal shelter.

Uh any increases in salaries that you see uh strictly contractual.

There is no increase in any longevity.

Any questions from members of the council?

Any questions from members of the public?

Right.

Seeing none, we can move on to police.

Of that nine hundred and thirty-seven thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight are salaries overtimes and other fixed contractual uh increases to further water that down.

thousand three hundred and forty eight dollar budget that is a um overall increase of one million three hundred and sixty nine thousand eight hundred and sixty eight of that nine hundred and thirty seven thousand eight hundred and twenty eight our salaries overtimes and other fixed contractual uh increases to further water that down um another hundred and seventy six thousand and eight hundred represents increases in line items such as gasoline natural gas and electricity items that are for the most part beyond our control so that waters it down to our discretionary increases which are basically all other categories uh amounts to about ninety eight thousand nine hundred and thirteen dollars and we have no raises that are other than contractual so one question I had is the where'd it go 3109 the year to date was a million but you're projected to spend another six hundred thousand in a month I just wanted to know if that was accurate the projections I don't want to speak for they those are set by uh those aren't set by me fair enough we're well under I believe last time I checked I can uh actually tell you I think we're about 500,000 shy of the budgeted 1.7 and you still think you'll need the full 1.7 for next year though yes this yeah we uh this year we got close to full staffing which is uh dramatically helps that figure um however we're it's one step forward two steps backwards unfortunately with uh manpower and then for electricity so 324 yeah that that one's similarly the year to date's much lower than the projected and then I assume in the same situation where she didn't set the projection so I guess the question is do you expect to actually spend 141k for next year when as of now you're not even slated to hit the 124 for this year.

I would hope not um again I set figures and treasury uh personnel who a lot smarter than us they uh have uh methods of trying to forecast and try to get a handle on projected uh costs for the next fiscal year and those are the figures that they were able to come up with with any luck they're all um overfunded hopefully and we're but it's it's tough to tell with the global markets then same question for 32 the 231 supplies computer where the year to date is 36 projected it's 110 and the request is 119 36231 and if the answer is the same as the last one you can just say ditto for 231 I have uh I have I'm showing that as of Friday 88 percent used and 1500 remains you say 80 percent use I'm sorry 88 percent use yeah that was as as recent as uh I checked Friday 30 231 computers all right so it just sounds like the the year to date it's gone up significantly since March 31st yeah they make major purchases that are uh you know they're not making purchases of a couple of thousand at a time to put it in order for uh tablets or what have you that are big ticket so sometimes they uh preoccupied with other things and we have to remind them to make the fiscal year purchases that are required or a due and that's probably what that was for gotcha same question for 3260 miscellaneous police gear and uniforms that um yeah we're showing uh that is as of again as of Friday that's 61% used uh that is uh kind of a moving target it's kind of tough one to predict between uh yeah new candidates for the police academy it also includes uh uh our portion of the share of the body armor uh purchases and how many people are up for that and I see what you mean about moving target because 2024 2025 yeah it's that makes sense yeah it's not it's not an item we'd be inclined to reduce because again it might have a it might be maxed out two years a little bit lower the third year and then back to max on the the fourth year so then same question for 3271 communications slash radios yeah that one another late order um I'm showing sixty one hundred thirty six dollars remains so that represents ninety ninety seven percent uh used out of the uh budget what was the percent use I'm sorry ninety seven percent used that was as right so yeah that went up significantly yes that's another bulk order purchase that we put in for uh radius

Yeah, that one another late order.

Um I'm showing 6136 dollars remains, so that represents 90 97 uh used out of the uh budget.

What was the percent use?

I'm sorry.

97% used that was as all right.

So yeah, that went up significantly.

Yes.

That's another bulk order purchase that we put in for uh radios.

It's likely that this will be similar than the 3340 service contracts.

Yes, that's um that holds a lot of our big ticket uh contracts for uh computers and all the service contracts of what the subscriptions for IT stuff within the department.

That is uh you'll see an increase this year.

That's for uh the renewal of our taser contract, which is due in September.

Um that's accounts for the pretty much all the increase in the uh that line item this year.

And is that is the usage for the for this year that it already spiked since the the year to date on here?

So 3340.

I'm showing um 10,000 and 95 dollars remains representing definitely.

Yeah, 97% use.

All right, councilman Lattice.

Oh, yes, thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh actually you touched on a few already.

Um, but I do want to circle back on the 3340 commander, because I didn't understand what your explanation was for going from 350 to 440 this year.

Thousand, that is so our teasers uh currently we have tiers of seven, that's the model.

Uh those are the less lethal option that Austin's use, or one of them.

So that contract is a five-year uh set annual cost for the kind for each year for the contract as a set cost that renews the five-year expiring in September, renews in September for the next five years.

So this accounts for that um increase.

During that time, we're gonna uh upgrade to the taser 10, which is a much more it's basically their current model.

They will the sevens are basically antiquating, they're phasing out, and the 10 are uh far superior uh device than the sevens were, which are again five five years old uh to us, and the increase the renewal for the sevens would have been very very slightly less than what the increase uh well for the cost of the tens.

And on auto and vehicle maintenance, you've increased that by 20,000.

Um if if I remember correctly, over the past two to three years, your fleet of vehicles are relatively new.

So what is the reason for increasing that again is to uh keep or try to keep lockstep with um the uh bid pricing, the wholesale pricing that these contracts are new, these parts continue to go up.

We have an extensive fleet with uh all the reserve vehicles, which require a constant maintenance part replacements, so on and so forth.

Tire the whole though it's the fleet our size requires extensive despite purchasing cars every year, which we've always done, we're in a better place now, but it still requires extensive uh maintenance and upkeep.

And your increase on electricity and particularly um electricity, natural gas, the reason for those increases.

And this this natural gas and the electricity thing, that was something that uh I kind of raised the ruckus on um at the last budget too, because these numbers seem to be pretty exorbitant.

Um, but this year you're taking it on the electricity from 84,000 to 141,000.

I guess the big question is how did this electricity go from an approved budget of 84,000 to a projected budget of 124,000?

Hi, Councilman Latticer.

Um the electric lines are going to be a theme across a number of departments.

If you remember years ago, um we had a number of net metering credits where we were buying electricity from different um spaces in Rhode Island.

As of today, we have used up all of those net metering credits.

So next year, instead of only paying the net metering company, we need to start paying Rhode Island Energy too.

So all of the departments that have electric in their budget will have a spike, a significant one at that.

Okay.

Um as of today in the electricity line item, which was approved at 84,000.

You still have 37,000 left of the 84.

Yeah, as of lit very much as of today, a number of the bills are coming in, and we're now having to pay Rhode Island Energy as well.

The credit, the credits have just been used up.

The delivery charges are through the roof.

At one point when we converted to LEDs, our we ended up with a million dollar credit on our bills.

So I absolutely refused to pay Rhode Island Energy.

I made them transfer the credits back and forth um up until now, where I'm still having them do that, but we have a balance due.

So electric will be more money.

Okay, bear with me one minute.

Okay, um, commander, in your um personnel budget.

Do you have anything in there that is beyond contractual for salary increase?

No, in fact, we uh saved a few bucks.

We had two positions that somewhat close to each other became unfilled uh through attrition.

And we did a work uh workload assessment on those two positions and merged them into one.

It's roughly a $50,000 overall savings.

Okay, and um what is this um new position?

Executive assistant chief of police for $81,000, $59.

That's a new position.

That's not new, it's just a title change.

Oh, just uh Colonels just advised me.

It's just a title change, but the position's not new.

It's just a title change.

What was what was the previous title and what was the previous salary?

Mr.

President, I actually have that information.

So the uh Mr.

President through the president, the previous position was secretary police chief at 78,512, got shifted to a new position, executive assistant chief of police at 81,059.

That would yeah, okay.

All right, so it's just the title change.

So just title change and can uh normal contractual stuff.

So this new title change um of 81,059, that is not in addition to the other.

No, that's okay.

So it's just a replacement.

And you have a data entry transcriptionist also a new position.

Can you tell us about that?

That's uh well, it wasn't in the budget last year, but it uh it fell off the budget last year uh due to our attempt to try to use computer software to do that position.

So uh it's always been it was previously a position for many many years that uh data entry transcriptionist.

And it's uh we have a budget again because we uh we may look to fill it and go back to the having one.

We used to have two full time and one part-time, and now we have none at all.

So uh we may go back to just one full time.

So what's the net of eliminated versus new eliminated positions versus new positions is it just the wash or is there more or less?

Well, again, that other consolidating those two other positions was a uh savings of 50,000.

The data entry uh transcriptionist you call it new, I call it old.

It's it's just that it wasn't in uh last year's budget because we attempted to uh use a software program.

That software program basically offsets the salary of uh if we do hire data entry transcriptions.

That was the uh the idea behind going with the software, and it didn't quite take off the way we thought okay.

I think that's that's all I have for now.

Thank you.

So I missed one before that I meant to ask on that uh where'd it go?

It was gasoline.

Let me skip the item 322.

So that's uh that's on track to pay out what was budgeted, but my question is why did it jump 100,000 for next year?

Um again, uh I increased it myself initially, and then Treasury uh again looking at market trends and future predictions, they uh decide to increase it.

We're we're set to like barely finish this year due to the whole Iranian conflict, what's going on?

Obviously, that blows our budget out of the water.

Our gas usage hasn't changed.

We uh pretty much uh in the 115, 117, 120, uh hundreds of thousands of gallons per year.

That's pretty within a couple thousand gallons every year is this it's pretty predictable.

It's just a price we can't control, obviously.

All right, so the the projected jump is based on the current market being somewhat of a yes, it almost goes under the assumption that it doesn't change throughout the fiscal year from where we are right now.

Councilman Mito.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh just more of a clarification.

Um, just so I can reconcile here.

We have uh the two positions eliminated were the you know eliminated were the uh secretary police chief and the secretary for the board of public safety, which uh accounted for 78,000 or 55,000 respectively.

No, I'm sorry, the the secretary police chief that was just a title change, or wasn't uh a position eliminated.

Oh yeah, I was getting to that.

The next part is quote, uh new positions to create.

I'm just going by line item was the executive assistant police chief, the data entry and the NCIC audit quality control specialist.

So net new.

That is not new, no.

No, net new budget would be 61,000.

It's not a new position.

That's not not a new position, no.

So okay.

Must have missed that in the budget.

Okay.

Um that's that was there.

Okay.

So with that, yeah, you're right.

So that switch without that one would be a savings of about $10,000.

Okay.

The two positions uh went unfilled or became unfilled, uh, the accounting technician, basically the president does our internal payroll.

Yeah.

Uh, and then the secretary of the board of public safety.

Those positions we did work uh workload assessments and merged them into one position, which will be the public safety administrative clerk, and we're in the process of onboarding that person.

Okay, and that two positions into one is roughly a $50,000 savings.

Yeah.

And then just a clarification or at least uh confirmation is that again, just all increases are contractual step class changes, all that good stuff.

Uh yes, also some people becoming eligible for longevity, that too.

So yeah, so all contractual.

Yeah.

So it looks like according to your shift, uh, grade shifts, you actually have a lot of a lot of change, which is good because they're they're getting more experience.

So uh and your probationary uh group drop from 17 to 7.

So that will also have an impact.

Yeah, that represents a big class we did internally, the World Police Academy uh last year.

Those are that uh a large quantity of that number that you see.

Okay.

And the record specialist uh prosecution clerks, there's two of them.

Um just I'm assuming that's also contractual.

That was sort of above above uh percents on average of other similar positions.

So I just wanted to make sure that yes, that was contractual.

Okay.

And then I believe we talked about the budget over uh for police overtime, which was uh talked about earlier.

Nope, that's all my questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh question that might actually be better suited for the chief of staff or someone in the finance department relating to energy contracts.

Yes.

Thank you.

I'd uh emailed him a question.

Uh let's see.

Actually, initially tried to set it in on a Friday to the chief.

Uh email wasn't working quite right, so sent it over the weekend.

But uh yeah, when it comes to uh potential prices of energy going forward, whether gasoline, natural gas, electric.

Uh and the reason I'm asking now is because this is the first department where these significant energy prices have been brought up, but obviously could be asked during any of those different departments uh presentations.

So I recall that I think it was two or three years ago.

We as a city council had an item before us involving locking in, I think it was natural gas prices at the time.

Electric.

Well, we electric.

So natural gas is actually about to expire.

Um we did lock in for um electric supplier.

I'm currently working on um going out to bid to set a rate for natural gas.

Um it's taking a little longer than I hoped because I'm actually gonna do it in conjunction with the school department.

Uh, because we can use the collective with both sides to try and get an even better rate.

Oh, that's excellent.

Yeah, that's uh that's major concern here in the budget for uh so many of these different departments.

Sure seems like it's more likely for the prices to go up than down.

So if it's possible for us to lock in and to have a little bit more certainty.

Uh, you know, of course, I leave that all to the judgment of the administration, but definitely something to uh to explore and very glad to hear that the administration is exploring that.

Thank you.

Yeah, yeah, we're I I have had multiple vendors reach out.

Um we use power option with power options last time who works with the League of Cities and Towns.

So they're that's who I've actually been talking to the most.

Uh they're a nonprofit, so a little biased towards trusting them a bit more.

But thank you.

Always good to hear uh, you know, city is shopping around looking for the best deal from the uh best vendors.

Thank you.

Any members of the public have anything for police?

Good evening again, Michelle Comar Award one.

Good evening, Commander.

Good evening.

Um, just a comment of appreciation.

And the appreciation besides keeping the city and its residents safe.

Taxpayer standpoint, we really appreciate the steady eddy on your overtime.

There are no great spikes, they're predictable.

I don't think you heard any questions from the council about it.

We really appreciate it.

Thank you.

And I had um two questions about some new technology.

And if they're reflected anywhere in the budget for salaries or equipment or anything, um was the school speed cameras, the school zones.

residents safe taxpayer standpoint we really appreciate the steady eddy on your overtime there are no great spikes they're predictable I don't think you heard any questions from the council about it we really appreciate it thank you and I had um two questions about some new technology and if they're reflected anywhere in the budget for salaries or equipment or anything um one was the school speed cameras the school zones does that take any personnel um time on the police department yes so we have two uh two personnel that are assigned full time to uh process those and also the other one this the other contract with a separate vendor which is the uh right administered through the school department which is a bus patrol for the uh the bus cameras for the violations for uh passing the school bus can you give me an estimate of um what you're expending from your department regarding the speed cameras for a personnel yes time personnel anything yeah it's out of the ordinary or does it get absorbed in the work day uh two full-time employees who also you know if they don't have anything uh with that work the the back filling into other duties that we might have available for them to do so it's two full-time first class offices so roughly total in the area of 200 000 uh what was the total I'm sorry roughly 2000 2000 roughly these new cameras okay that's uh and I don't know if the drones are up and running yet um are they what I'm sorry what is the drones uh the one that came before the council a month or two right that that is not up and running yet no that that has been purchased yet but it's not up and running it's it's in progress okay is that reflected for manpower in this budget that's not a full-time uh manpower thing that would be multiple people would be trained on it and uh would be able to operate it so there's no payroll incurrence extra payroll or anything coming out of that are these existing officers or you would hire no it'd be existing offices that are uh either currently drone trained or will be drone but we're gonna expand our drone um training for personnel okay so there's no additional expense in manpower for the drone program no okay thank you you're welcome anyone have anything else for police all right that brings us to organized crime slash drug enforcement anyone have any questions on this one any members of the public have any questions regarding organized crime and drug enforcement all right seeing none we move on to alcohol and highway safety enforcement any members of the council have any questions on this any members of the public have any questions on this seeing none we move on to the police grant any members of the council have any questions on this any members of the public have any questions on this seeing none that brings us to the fire department this would be a perfect time to take a break but I think it's not I I think we're still waiting on something right yeah so we might as well start that way we're not just idling good evening Peter McMichael Fire Chief the Warwick Fire Department proposed budget for fiscal year 27 is 30 million dollars nine hundred twenty two thousand six hundred and eighty two um that contains contractual raises only and step increases we have 44 uniform members who have a uh a new step increase in this budget and three municipal employees uh the personnel personnel services budget overall is 28 million four hundred thirty two and nine hundred and eighty seven thousand uh million dollars rather be happy to answer any questions you may have so similar what you likely heard me ask for police I'm gonna ask the same thing on a few line items uh first 3521 diesel fuel so if you happen to have what it was actually what's been expended so far this year because if it already vastly exceeded the year to date for 331 that'll that'll address the question so currently we're at uh 218

I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

So similar to what you likely heard me ask for police.

I'm gonna ask the same thing on a few line items.

Uh first 35221 diesel fuel.

So if you happen to have what it was actually what's been expended so far this year, because if it already vastly exceeded the year to date for 331, that'll that'll address the question.

So currently we're at uh 218,000, 218, 915.

Uh projection for this year would be 225,000.

Right now we're at 473 per gallon.

All right, yep.

I did in fact address it.

So then 35, 222 for natural gas.

Currently, we're at 89,101.

We project that to be 120,497 for this year.

So you think you're gonna have a little over 20,000 between now and next month yes.

The we're at 123, we're projecting for the fiscal year 27, 123, 537,000.

All right, and then for 35, 224 electricity.

Currently, we're at 66,000, 775, projected 188, 500,000.

108,500.

And then for the new fiscal year, 18953, which is a $57,000 increase.

And then for marine rescue operations, oh do you know why it keeps kind of roller coastering like $45,000 2024?

It drops to $15, and then looks like it's gonna potentially finish at $15 or 40 again, and then it's projected for next year.

The request is at $52.

So that fluctuates uh based on the repairs needed for the marine units.

Um three of our marine assets that are in the water, um, except for Marine 4, which is our largest vessel that's in year-round, are all um they're getting older, and their maintenance costs are increasing on those boats.

Uh Marine 4 is that's offset somewhat by uh state grants that we get through REMA as for being part of the marine uh the part of province marine task force.

Some of that money does get reimbursed through grants, but of course we have two other boats that are in the water as well, and they're all 20 plus years old now.

And then for 35, 20, uh sorry, 35270 communications.

All right, you're requesting uh 13,000 increase on what's projected for this year.

Why is that that's due to a uh reimburly island EMA is phasing out uh one of the Motorola's brands of uh uh one of them rollers radios, which is the XLT radio, they're phasing that out, so they'll no longer be compatible with uh the RISCO network, which is a network that we operate on, um, which is gonna cause us to have to replace a certain number of radios.

Got it.

And then similar question for 35282 turnout gear.

There's a like a six, not quite six, about fifty-seven or fifty-six thousand dollar increase in the request.

So I'm gonna let She Fob and Hauer speak to that.

He's done a lot of work on this project.

Assistant chief of the hell from the fire department.

Uh, these are the bids that were before you at the end of April.

Uh we held off.

This is the whole PFAS discussion we had uh two meetings ago.

So we held off on the purchase of this gear, uh, awaiting that legislation.

Uh so we just got those bids awarded, and all the firefighters that require gear this year have been sized up.

Uh, we just have not actually issued the purchase order for them yet.

So we we anticipate using all that money.

The delay was because of the the bid opening, the new warden of the bid.

Got it.

And then for 35367 EMS supplies and equipment.

What's the current spend on that?

Because I'm guessing it's larger than what it was at on March 31st.

So currently we're at 103,000 dollars.

Uh projected to be at 144,000 for the end of the uh fiscal year.

What are you expecting it to spend 44k on in a month?

We've seen significant increases across the board and all EMS supplies.

Um that's going to allow us to equip and stock and support the EMS operations for both the five rescue units and the fire apparatus that has to be equipped as well.

So the nine engines and three ladder trucks and our special hazards truck.

Got it.

Yeah, and that lines up with prior spends too, so that makes sense.

All right.

Councilman Nappa.

Thank you, Council President.

Um Chief.

I'm gonna steal Councilman Lannister's thunder here.

I'm gonna question you on some overtime.

Uh so it looks like we're running under budget on overtime for the first time in history of the fire department.

We are well done.

Uh is that because we're have better staffing numbers, or what do you think that is related to?

So it's gonna be a combination of things.

Uh staffing numbers, we have been bringing people in and having uh trying to bring the the sick usage down.

Um it's gonna be related somewhat to um maintaining our staffing and keeping it up, which we have been doing.

Um right now we're at um we're down to one floater left, and as you know, we have that safer grant that is coming to an end uh soon, and we've tried to forecast that so that when that safer grant ends and the funding for those additional firefighters that we hired goes away, we won't have to do any light layoffs.

We want to take those firefighters that were affected by the loss of that safer grant and fill into those floater positions that we typically staff.

We staff two floater positions on each shift.

Um, and that is going to allow us to avoid having to lay anybody off and maintain our staff of floaters.

So we've identified two as being that sweet spot for us where we like to have two floaters on per shift to help reduce people being forced into overtime, reduced overtime.

Um at one time there were more floaters than that, but at the same time when you have additional floaters, you're paying other costs as well.

Pension related costs, OPEB related costs, things of that nature that really make that cost makes it ineffective to do so.

So if I remember correctly from last year's discussion on safer grant issues, the pension costs and all those things were reimbursed through the safer grant, were they not?

That's right.

So when safer grant goes away, you're keeping those folks on the payroll, which would then increase costs for pay for well.

We've allowed the the uh the staffing, we have had retirements in the past three years.

So because of those retirements, uh taking those retirements into account, uh, we've taken people out of the floater position and put them into other positions on the line where they were needed.

So we were able to keep a position staffed by taking it out of the floater position.

The regular line position was staffed.

Um by doing so.

We avoided having to lay anybody off and to fill in for those floater positions.

We do have 12 positions for recruits in this year's budget that we've proposed, where we'll be bringing on 12 more people, probably not till February.

So if I'm hearing you correctly, you are taking safer positions and by natural attrition.

There are vacancies, and you're taking those safer personnel, putting them putting them into the positions that are created by retirements and national, just natural retrition.

Okay.

And what is your current staffing level that you consider full staff?

So our full staff um it's 48 per shift.

Uh right now we're at 204.

Uh the 48 is going to be the safer grant brought us up to um two or four for three years.

So it's 51 people sh uh per shift.

Um, once the safer goes away, that grant money goes away, uh we maintain the fifth rescue.

So we had to increase up to uh 48 per shift for the f for each of those platoons.

Um that'll bring us to four fully staffed without floaters.

Okay.

And twelve uh uniform personnel in the administration.

Got it.

Uh just moving down the line here to unused sick time.

So approved budget last year is two hundred and seventy-five thousand blew that out of the water.

Uh doubled that and a half.

So we're at projected usage of that is about seven hundred and fifty thousand.

Next year you're only requesting again two hundred and eighty.

Can you just explain how that functions as far as the line item?

Yes, so on your sick time.

Uh we only budget for the annual payout for anybody who goes up above and beyond the maximum of their sick bank.

Also from that thing that we're unable to budget is retirements.

So when people retire contractually, they get paid for their entire bank of sick time on retirement.

That we don't budget for, and that's where this actually comes out of.

In reality, in the in the personnel lines, this really is just offset by the little reduction of their salary.

So we lose their salary because they retired, but they're basically called severance of their payout for their sick time is paid out.

So in this year, we only spent 281,000 to actually pay out over anybody who was over their sick bank maximum.

The uh 417,4082 of that is severance payments to retirees.

So we only budget for the actual sick time.

The rest of it's kind of budgeted in the salary line, and that's just use uh, you know, supply.

Understood.

That's all I have, Council President.

All right, if it's everyone now would be a good time to take that break, mainly because uh what we are waiting on has arrived.

I apologize, Councilman Lattis, I know you were waiting, but once we get back, we can get right into it.

I'm patient.

Oh yes, um thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Um Chief, I don't um at least based upon what I'm seeing in numbers that um you're going to be able to uh come in under budget or even on budget with your overtime, but um you know, should that be the case?

Um the fact of the matter is the new norm in overtime, even with a full complement that you've had for um quite some time is still in that four point four point five million.

And I remember when I first get on the council, um we were talking a million one, a million two.

Um what is the driving force behind this uh dramatic increase in overtime over the last seven or eight years?

So the driving force behind the overtime is the minimum manning clauses in the CBA that were required by contract to maintain minimum staffing levels, and we cannot drop below a certain number.

The largest category, if you will, in overtime is filling in for vacation time.

Is what please?

Vacation time.

Okay.

That's the the largest number, if you will, that we have um out of the different categories that comprise our overtime.

And that largest number right now, year to date is one approximately one point three million of that four.

Actually, right now we're at three point nine.

And then it it I can go through all the numbers if you'd like, but there's a there's various numbers um in ranging from vacation time, training, light duty, which is not paying the person on late duty, it's covering them when they're on late duty, covering their shift.

Uh military, military is also um actually uh let me back step there for a second.

I gave you some wrong information.

Military is the largest uh cost for us.

Then vacation second.

Military so far to date, we're at uh two hundred and seven.

Um no, I'm sorry.

Um one point three scraps, it was right, two oh seven.

Um right now we're at two hundred and seven thousand dollars for backfilling for people that are on military leave.

Next year we're anticipating that number to be at 265.

How much has the um Boston schedule increased the costs of the fire department?

It has that had an effect on it one way or another.

It has not I would say overall it's been pretty much similar to what it was before the Warsaw schedule.

Interesting.

Um Chief, I had asked the deputy chief a while back when you came before us to increase your fuel budget.

And part of the reason was because the cost of the fuel was going up.

And I had asked at that time that the leadership be the deputy chief or yourself.

Put in protocols as far as non-emergency use of those vehicles.

All the vehicles.

So we have reduced the use of vehicles somewhat.

We have not reduced the use of them for official matters such as training, building familiarization, company drills, things of that nature.

And when we are out on the road performing those tasks, that is when we allow our people to um tend to other things that they need to do, uh acquiring the you know, their lunch and things of that nature, uh patronizing a local coffee shop, things of that nature.

Um while they're up and you you're under the belief that that only takes place upon returning from a run, which is what I think was originally ruled with the Board of Public Safety years ago.

So no, if a station's having a quiet day and they haven't had any runs and they need to get their lunch, then we allow them to go out and get their lunch.

Okay.

Are there um let me rephrase this?

Is there anyone in the department that is receiving a stipend of any type in their salary or included in their salary?

Nothing that wouldn't be contractual.

Oh, corrected.

Myself and Chief Omenhauer receive a stipend for EMA that comes out of the EMA budget.

You each get a stipend.

We do.

Um there's uh um, and what is what is what is that statement per year?

And where does where does that show?

If it's in the EMA budget, we would we would be waiting until we get to that part before we can discuss it.

Sorry, if I'm if I'm if I'm am I understanding correctly that it's in the warwork or emergency management budget?

That's correct, that's in the EMA section.

So we have to wait till we get to that portion to discuss that.

All right, sorry.

Fair enough.

That's fine.

Um so on the electricity, excuse me.

As of today, you've only used, I'm gonna round up um sixty-seven thousand dollars in electricity.

I know this was spoken about a little earlier.

Currently, which is about half of your budget in 10 months, 10 and a half months, and you still have available 65 rounded up to 66,000 in that electricity line item.

But yet you are looking to increase it, you're projecting out 188,500, which I have no idea how you're going to receive 120,000 dollars worth of electric bills in six weeks, and then you're looking to increase your budget from 132 to 189.

Why is that and how is that based?

Councilman, this is uh director Proger talked about this earlier.

This in this year's budget, uh, we still had those energy credits left.

Uh so we were projecting, we were unsure as to when all those credits would be used up in the fiscal year.

So we projected the budget to you know be a little of a moving target uh as to when those energy credits expired and we were having to pay the full amount to run on energy.

Uh next year, we're almost well, we're positive because we're out of energy credits, we would be moving from a reduced bill where we're only we're not paying on energy, we're only paying for the from the credits.

Uh we're moving to a full payment of the electricity bill, which is projected to be about 189,000.

So the number that you're seeing there, the payments that we've made so far this year are just due to the energy credits.

We haven't actually paid around energy yet this year, and these utility bills are usually backed up a couple months.

So if you're seeing March 31st, it's probably we probably haven't even been billed for March yet.

So no, actually, uh the municipal I have is as of today.

Yeah, but the bills themselves don't come out until after the month is over.

Like you're just like your house, you don't you don't get billed until you the end to the end of the month when they read your meter and then the bill comes out to you.

So it wouldn't be the through March's utilities, it would be through February's utilities that that would be paid.

So when are you gonna get the March bill?

We typically get it in April.

In April, right?

And this is as of 331.

So but you have there's no encumbrances in your um electric line item as of today, which is May 18th.

So it's far beyond April, and there's still no encumbrances.

Correct, but these aren't Rhode Island Energy's bills, these are the energy credits that we're paying.

Okay.

So these aren't the petites, we haven't got the bills from the energy yet once the credits ran out.

So these are just the payments we're making to those the other company.

So whatever is left out of that 132,000 for this year's budget just goes back into the general fund, right?

Correct, yeah.

Okay, which is pretty much what my position was last year, not just on your electric and natural gas, so it was on all departments.

We're just they're just trying to be conservative because we're not absolutely sure what that number is going to be once those credits expire until we get a better feel for what that's gonna be going forward.

That's we're easier to project in the coming year.

And can you tell us what the reason is for the increase?

Um almost double.

Well, not quite um of sixty thousand dollars in turnout gear.

That's solely for the recruit class.

So this year we did not have.

I spoke on this when we did the turnout gear bid.

Uh, this year we did not put a class of recruits on.

So the five thousand dollars, about a little over five thousand dollars it costs to equip a recruit with with turnout gear.

Uh those were not in this year's budget because we didn't do a recruit class this year.

Next year we're gonna do a recruit class of twelve.

So you multiply the twelve by the so in 2027, 2027, you're saying you're gonna have another recruit recruit recruit class.

Correct.

The plan is to start them in February, they'll finish at the end of the fiscal year, probably July, first week of July of 2027.

2027.

So what are you anticipating for um attrition?

So right now we are we have no floaters.

We have one floater, but we have five vacancies.

So if you really think about it, we are at our minimum man-in of 212.

So we don't have we're basically right now, we're just about 12 people short in the department.

No floaters and four vacancies, right?

But you're budgeting for 226.

That's a snapshot in time.

So that again, uh, our numbers are moving targets.

So that when I put the bid in, we had 226 employees, but two have retired in the month of April.

So we're at 224 now.

You had 224 now.

Correct.

Okay.

And you're budgeting for 224.

I'm sorry.

We're budgeting for 224.

That's 200 212 plus the 24 recruits.

Or sorry, 212 plus the 12 recruits, but those are only going to be on from February.

If you look at the personnel supplement, yeah, I was looking at I'm looking at the personnel supplement.

You'll see the bottom line 12 recruits, and that's only at 20 an hour for the uh amount of weeks that they're in the academy.

Although they're listed as employees, they what they won't be actually on the payroll until February.

So those 12 recruits, they're still still budgeted at 172,800.

Yeah, that's 12 recruits at 20 an hour for February through the end of June.

And that 172,800, um, that doesn't include um any benefits or any of that.

No, the benefits aren't reflected in our budget.

It's obvious, it's what benefits aren't reflected in our budget.

Okay.

And you also have an additional um person on the fire civilians.

Um talk to us about that.

Uh no, we have three administrative, we have three municipal employees in headquarters, and we have we've always run, we have always had budgeted for nine dispatchers.

We've only ever carried eight.

We just couldn't fill the extra position.

Every time we'd fill that, we'd lose one.

So we always kind of were eight.

We're actually fully staffed at our nine dispatchers right now.

Well, what I'm the first time in years.

I'm looking at 12 for this year.

Correct.

Nine nine dispatches.

It was 11.

Right.

So we've we that one floater position we haven't been able to fill appropriately over the last couple of years.

And we this year we actually have it filled.

We have full nine dispatchers and three civilian.

But whether it's filled or not, it's budgeted, right?

Correct.

Okay.

But uh kind of getting back what we were saying before, those 12 where so we're short 12 right now.

When the safer grant runs out, we're gonna have 12 employees that will be released from the safer grant, and that will fill those positions and bring us back up to our staffing levels.

So we didn't run a recruit class this year because we know those 12 employees from the safer grant would become available in August.

Where normally we would have a class of 12 coming in in July.

Next year, we're gonna plan on losing up to 12 employees.

So we plan on putting a recruit class on, and this is kind of the consistency that we've been going through the years.

We lose 12, we put 12 on.

But this year was different because we knew that we were gonna lose those 12 safer employees and that we can move them from the safer grant into the ranks of the rank and file the fire department without having to put a class on or help fire anybody, and that's where the numbers come from.

That safer grant, do you get that reimbursed or awarded all at once in one lump sum?

Nope, that's uh it's 6.2 million over three years, and we're in that last bit of it.

Actually, we extended that safer grant to August because we had an extra money left in the grant.

I uh applied for an extension to be able to use the rest of the money.

It would have normally come up in March.

We got it extended another six months into August, so we can use all every dime of the 6.2 million dollars.

And that's uh that's reimbursed quarterly.

I put I I request reimbursement quarterly on that.

And uh what happens at the end of those three years when that safer grant is expired?

Because the safer grant that only pays for the salary, right?

Nope, salary benefit, anything contractually obligated, salary benefits, FICA, payroll taxes, clothing allowance, anything that's either contractually obligated or payroll obligated, they they cover, including turnout gear and helmets and uniforms and badge, et cetera.

So part of that.

So that yeah, no, we don't have to part with it.

We just we just we just we don't have an obligation after the safer grant expires to maintain those minimum staffing levels.

So our that's why the as the chief was alluding to earlier, our staffing's gonna go from 51 down to 48 once the safer grant expires okay.

I think that's that's all I have for right now.

Thank you.

Councilman DeLuis.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I just have one question.

Um on training and education.

The projected amount was 25,000.

Are you requesting 80,000 to for training and education for the the 12 new recruits?

That's right.

It's $55,000 is quite a bit.

It's it's uh accounting for those 12 new recruits, there'll be payment to the state academy.

Um the other portion of that is for the education reimbursement that we're contractually obligated to through the uh contract.

Okay, thank you.

And the mic into the mic, please.

Oh, sorry.

Thank you, Ms.

President.

Chief, just a couple of clarifying questions uh from the budget.

Um there's a rent line of 40 approximately 42,000.

Just to confirm, is that the new rent for the fire station over near the old Annon Hope?

That's correct.

Yes.

Okay.

And when it comes to the positions, very similar to what we saw in the police department.

There's been a lot of grade realignment, which also goes to uh the increases in salary.

Is that correct?

There's been a lot of grade, you know, fire grades, the different grades of the uh the that's right.

There's some uh some members are receiving uh step increases that uh either increase or did not receive them before.

Yep.

All right, and uh as far as the command staff, you and the rest, are you part of a uh the raises?

Are they part of your contract with the city, or is that outside contracts?

We have no contract.

We uh it's been the past brackets that we receive whatever the rank and file receive.

Okay, all right.

And we have one moment.

Oh, what one other one other item?

And this may be somewhere else in the budget, Mr.

President.

Just let me know.

Uh we have maintenance in here and capital maintenance.

As far as the fire stations themselves, and I know Councilman Laddis have brought this up and uh and he's he's he's right on just not just the fire station, but a lot of our properties.

Uh when you're the maintenance and upkeep of these buildings, obviously it's cheaper to maintain.

Is there a schedule?

Is there a process?

What do you do as one of the leaders of the fire uh departments?

How do you make sure that not just your equipment is good but your stations are also up to up to speed?

So we do not budget for building improvements or capital projects that involve our stations.

We don't budget for that.

Um excuse me.

However, um in fact I believe it's in the budget now where there is a uh aligned item under building for the uh fire station roof.

And I know that um right now DPW is working on going out to bid for that project and preparing that bid.

So we work with the uh the building department under DPW with any issues that um that come up that we identify that need to be done.

We have had some issues in the past, uh, electrical issues, things of that nature that again DPW went out to bid for.

Um replacement of the generator at station four is one of them.

Um a lot of electrical work was done at station two.

One thing that we have done is a uh a grant became available to us that we've applied for.

We don't know if we're going to receive it or not, but we did um submit a uh a grant proposal through a uh one of the congressionally direct spending grants uh for fire station improvements in maintenance.

Um I don't know what the timeline is on that to when we'll find out if we're successful or not, but we're uh hoping to get award of the grant or at least a portion of what we put in for.

Just one follow-up.

Obviously, we're we're reactive and last but last meeting.

We were talking with uh DPW about being proactive with the roads.

Uh as far as the fire stations and fire equipment, I know there's a capital budget out there somewhere.

What type of plans do you have place to keep our equipment and you know identify future issues with with the stations uh so we don't get always caught behind the eight ball so are you are you asking about the uh the facilities mainly the fire stations themselves or both?

So as far as the facilities go, uh we have weekly meetings with the uh captains.

So e each station, each company has a a captain assigned to it.

Um that is the place where they they bring uh bring issues to us.

Um and certainly you can as you can imagine, like anything else, they uh run a vast you know spectrum.

Sometimes that might just be simply uh getting paint or something to you know beautify the station, clean it up, make it look nice, and for that we have we have accounts with lows and um that that we can okay them to get anything more serious, uh like a leaky roof, would obviously encounter uh would I obviously we would have to uh work with DPW and bring that to the attention of the administration to uh to satisfy that.

As far as our uh apparatus go, so DPW handles all of our maintenance and repairs that they're they're able to handle.

And what I mean by that is there are certain repairs that they may not be certified to handle.

Uh hydraulics on a ladder truck, for instance, they would send that out.

Um, and whether or not they send a vehicle out to a private vendor or not is is up to them.

It depends on what their workload is and whether or not the nature of the repair is and what the status of our fleet was.

At one time we didn't have any reserve apparatus.

So if we had a frontline truck down, and you know, at one time there was a lot of our frontline trucks down and a lot of the DPW trucks down, there was only so much room to fix these trucks, so they may have needed to send those out more often.

Um, because of the apparatus replacements that we've done, that's really not the case anymore.

They're able to handle it in-house.

We also have contracts with uh vendors that we bring in to perform pump maintenance.

So the pumps, of course, have to be inspected annually.

Before we do that, we bring in a maintenance company to go through it.

Before we do that, we bring in a maintenance company to go through it and replace bushings, things of that nature, identify other any major issues to us that could cause the pump to fail uh when it is tested to try to uh alleviate that from happening.

And the same thing with our ladder trucks.

We'll do the same thing.

We have to have those uh tested annually as well.

So we'll have a company come in and perform maintenance on those trucks as well uh to get them ready for their inspection, if you will.

So we have less problems, and of course they need to be maintained anyway.

Uh preventive maintenance on these trucks goes a long way and really will prove uh prolong the life of them.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Chief, just a quick question about the new recruit class.

So they graduate, all 12 of them go through.

If there's no position on the Warwick Fire Department at that time for them, do we still own them or do we just use that as a list for hiring?

So we would have the ability to use them as a list if we wanted to.

Uh, what we try to do is calculate that number of what we're going to bring in and what we're going to train to be as accurate as possible so that we don't have we don't go over those uh um floater positions so that we have eight Florida positions all together.

We we calculated the best we can so we don't go over that so that we won't have um an extra person and we don't have to lay that person off because the danger of that is if we do if we do so, we'd be concerned about somebody else grabbing them, as we see happening throughout the state, and especially with the police departments.

I know that that's a big problem for them right now, where they get picked before they even graduate their academy by another municipality.

Um Chief, that's a good segue into the questions I had for you.

Um relative to attrition, you said you plan a plan for losing 12 guys a year.

Is that for I mean it can't be just for retirements?

I'm assuming that's transfers out of the department, retirees, injuries.

What is that 12 kind of 12 a year turnover or 12 every six-month turnover look like?

So we won't always get 12 a year.

Uh we may only get six or eight.

It's it really fluctuates, and as Chief Omanhauer was saying, it's it's impossible for us to predict.

It's really uh an estimation.

Um we see people leave, it's typically through retirement.

Um an injury causes them to retire early.

Um we had I'm trying to think when we had the last person leave to go to another department.

I we had a a spat there when Providence was doing lateral transfers, they really haven't done that in a while, and I don't really see that affecting us in the near future, at least not in this fiscal year.

If you were in an internal academy, would that cut down on department to department transfers or be able to cherry pick out of the academy to other cities and towns?

So there's a lot of misconceptions out there about training and in this topic, and running your own training without involving the state is impossible in today's day and age because the state training academy is the only authorized agency in the state to certify firefighters to the training levels that we certify them to, the basic certifications uh that that we they get.

Um we cannot run our own in-house training program and certify them to the NFPA, the National Fire Protection Agency standard on our own.

We're not authorized to the Rhode Island Fire Academy is the only academy that does.

Even um City of Providence, which has for years run their own academy, is now they still run it somewhat on their own, but the train the testing all takes place at the Rhode Island Mississible Fire Academy.

So they've started to gravitate towards it more so than they used to.

We're required to train our firefighters to a specific standard.

That standard is the same throughout the state.

Once they achieve that certification, they could really work anywhere in the state.

Um, whether it be Providence, Grants, and Walworth that's trained to the same certification.

The only place to get their certification is through the state fire academy.

We have we send them to the state academy, and right now we get them back after that, they come back for about five weeks with us.

And we've also increased that on some occasions to six and seven weeks.

It's really depends on what our training division identifies as needs that they want to accomplish.

And we have had them come to us and say, you know, I need this class for one more week, and we authorize that.

Um we do so with the union as well.

Keep them in the loop what's going on.

Um, you know, I'm a big believer in open communication with them so no one gets blindsided.

I know that there's been some members that have expressed an interest in doing our own training in house again.

It's not as easy as they make it sound to be because of that certification process that we need.

And the state fire academy has really come so far, and there's a massive construction project going on down there right now, and it's so close to us, we can't provide the training that they can provide at that one site, and they come out of there with uh five certifications.

Um we wouldn't be able to do that in house in that in the time frame that we and that that they do it in.

So the 80,000 that you have budgeted here, that would account for sending 12 recruits through state and whatever costs you would incur at the local level to complete their training and put them through the local your local training department here in the city.

That's right.

Okay.

And then next year, you would mention you might run two classes, so this would only account for one class.

So that cost would this accounts for one class, yes.

All right, thanks, Chief.

Thank you.

Any members of the public have anything for fire?

Seeing none, we move on to thank you, council president.

Um, Michelle Comar award one.

Uh good evening.

Hello, um, hi.

Looking at the salaries line, and I'll just say 21 million for a rough number.

It doesn't seem to equate with the personnel fund, which is 25 million.

Did am I missing some line items to get to 25?

What's the line item you're looking at?

Which line item number?

Okay.

I'm looking at I don't know how you well.

If you go to the personnel fund, it's um on page 23.

The total in salaries is 25,790 289.

I just can't get the number out of the budget.

So to answer your question, the the number that you're seeing with the 21 million is just salaries.

The personnel supplement, the bottom line, 25 million you're seeing, includes the overtime and the temporary services.

So you have 4.7 million in overtime that's also included.

Okay.

So it's not just the salary line, it's salaries altogether.

So the way you figure out the 25 million seven hundred and ninety, which is in the personal supplement, is including overtime plus salaries.

Correct.

The second to last line in the personnel supplement is the overtime line.

It's at 4.7 million.

That's the difference you're seeing.

I'm sorry, I can't hear you.

The second to last line on the personnel supplement is the overtime at 4.7.

That's the difference that you're seeing between the 21 and the 25.

Okay, I can see that now.

All right.

So your department, I may be wrong, but it looks like your department has the most salary increases.

Is that by union contract or approved city contract?

Yes, any any increases are contractual.

Okay, and when was that contract approved?

Approved.

Uh this contract was approved in July of 204.

25.

The current contract we have is approved in the in the fall of 2025.

So it it exceeded the expiration of the previous contract.

So the raises the salary raises that you're seeing in this contract are actually two-year fiscal years worth of raises.

Because we budgeted no raises for fiscal year, the current fiscal year we're in, 2026.

Because there was no contract in place.

And so this year we're reflecting this current fiscal year's raises and then 2027 on top of it.

So you're talking about nine percent increase in raising salaries.

Thank you.

And um see my last question.

Oh so as far as um pension contributions, which I don't know if it's in this line item or another budget.

Um is there a freeze?

There was a freeze at one time for fire contributions.

I don't know if fire one or two.

And I may be going back a few years.

Is there a freeze now of employee contributions?

I've been here 27 and a half years.

I've never seen a freeze in our pension contributions.

Okay.

Unless I'm mistaken, I think that's a different part of the budget as well.

Correct.

Yeah.

Okay, thank you.

Does anyone else have any questions for fire?

All right, seeing none, we move on to emergency management.

Is that on here too?

It's just we reduce that.

Council and Latis and reduce that.

You said emergency management management, right?

Yep.

Okay, so Chief, um, I'll go back to that question.

Um you had indicated that the stipend for yourself and the deputy chief were in emergency management.

Where would we find that?

Councilman, that's uh 34140 temporary services.

The uh the figure is 10,400.

So uh the fire chief also fulfills the role of emergency management director.

Um that role has mostly been with the fire department.

There was a period of time it was with the uh police department where the police chief served as the EMA director and received that stipend.

Uh what I have done is um taken that stipend and I split it between myself and Chief Obenhauer because Chief Obenhauer does a tremendous amount of work, EMA work as well.

Um, and a lot of that work uh involves um in-house it involves what we've done with our uh emergency operations center as well as our fire alarm dispatching area.

Um replacing all of the technology and actually moving the fire alarm uh site from Sandy Lane to Station Tenant Pottawamit.

Um and then the the purpose behind the stipend is for the uh there is no full-time EM, there's no full-time EMA director or part-time EMA director or anything of that nature here in Warwick.

It's a it's a dual role that we assume, and so uh coming in for storms and planning for the big the big blizzard we had this past year and managing that from our emergency operations center.

Uh Chief Oppenhauer spent uh overnight spent the night in the emergency operations center keeping that up and running.

Um when we have a storm like that, working with our state partners through REMA.

There's a lot of software involved that we utilize, and that's how we notify REMA of what the needs are at the local level and what's happening at the local level.

Um that's uh predetermined through this uh through the state.

It's sort of an unfunded mandate, if you will, that we have to follow.

Um and so that's that's what's behind that 10,400 line item.

So it's 5200 each, yes.

Okay.

And that goes through the payroll system.

Yes.

So FICAR feud or all that stuff is all deducted out of that.

So instead, why is this listing it as temporary services, which is not even close to descriptive of what it is?

This is actually a salary for two city employees.

So why is it listed under temporary services?

To be honest with you, it it's always been listed as such.

Um, and that could go from like I said earlier, it could be transferred back to the police department or things of that nature.

Um assuming that's where the word temporary came from.

Whoever's wearing the EMA hat, if you will, whoever's assuming the that role and fulfilling those duties.

I I just think that it should have a uh more um accurate definition of where ten thousand four hundred dollars is is going for temporary services.

We've heard a lot of testimony this evening about temporary services, and um it's not just here, it was in other departments where this is now all of a sudden it's um become uh aware to me that this isn't temporary services, this is salaries.

So I just think that not again, not just you guys, but in other departments, something like that, it needs to be more transparent and it needs to be um listed for what it is.

So I would um certainly suggest that going forward, those type of things are changed, so that it is transparent, and we know what the stipend is, and the explanation is there whether people want to accept it or not, that's something else, but at least it's there.

For me, what's frustrating is having to you know deal with with all the shell games and you know where is this and what is that and where does this belong?

Um so that's it.

That's all I gotta say on on that, Chief.

Thank you for um putting that on the record.

Anyone else have anything for emergency management?

Any members of the public wish to speak on emergency management?

All right, seeing none, we next move on to fire grants.

Does anyone have anything for fire grants?

Councilman Lattice.

Uh yes, thank you, Mr.

President.

Um so chief, uh, this is coming from a different direction.

Um I I have to give give you guys kudos on um the grants that the fire department pulls in for this city.

I know that over the years um we're talking some serious amounts of money, and um I just want to let you know that it is appreciated.

Thank you very much.

Any members of the public have anything for fire grants?

All right, seeing none, we move on to building inspection.

Good evening, Al D.

Cord, director of code enforcement.

Uh let's see.

So as you can see, the increases uh with contract.

We have um 10 10 employees with longevity increases, one with a step two increase.

Sorry, I was trying to talk out of the side of my mouth.

I lost my trade of thought.

Um so what so we have the 10 employees with with uh longevity increases, one with a step increase, and no longevity, and some minor increases with gasoline and maintenance on for the vehicles.

Does anyone have any questions for building inspection?

Councilman Latticer.

Thank you.

Um Director, I have uh question on plumbing mechanical construction inspector.

Um that item that's um code number zero eighty three.

That is showing a significant increase this year from what was approved last year of sixty-four thousand four hundred and eighty-one dollars to this year of seventy-eight thousand nine ninety-six.

Can you speak to that?

Sure.

So that's the uh uh mechanical inspector that had the step uh went from step two to step three in January.

It had it went a step of two to step three, yes, mid-year.

Sorry, mid year?

Yes, that was that's under the contract.

So the budget was approved for 64,481 dollars, and then a step increase kicked in at some point during fiscal year 2026, which brought it up to um I have that number, but um, I'm just gonna take it from memory, something like um 76,000, I think it was.

I think it was I yeah, I know the step increase was about 35 change per hour, uh bumped up to around 42.

Yeah, I think it came up to about 12,000.

So I think this question is gonna be more for personnel than you.

Um I'm sorry, finance and maybe it is personnel.

The question is why was a budget approved for 64,000 change and did not include the step increase which occurred during this fiscal year.

And keep in mind, we just heard from two other departments who said that the reason their increase was more was because it included step increases for this upcoming fiscal year.

So why wasn't that budgeted in 2026 fiscal year?

Uh I'm I'm not sure why it wouldn't have been budgeted in 26.

I do know that this employee is part of the bargaining unit and any in he or she goes through the step process.

I don't know the history of this position exactly, but it's also possible that they've reached a longevity marker.

I'd have to do more research to actually find that out.

Well, I think that there should be a way to find it out because two other departments just spoke about it earlier that they were increasing their um line item because of a step increase that was contractual and included this year.

So I would expect personnel would be aware of this.

Somebody should be aware of it because what's occurred is we passed the budget that was twelve thousand dollars short because we had no idea about it.

I you know, the building inspection department, you know, suffers from a lot of vacancies, so I think that this position may have been vacant last year, which might have been part of the problem as well, and maybe an internal person usually would have it gets confusing when an internal person comes in because they come in with longevity and different steps, but in the bargaining unit, it's all set by contract.

There's a schedule in the whole back of it that would tie out to this.

Well, either way, um I'm not gonna waste everybody's time to try and find it in all of this stuff.

Um there needs to be a process that when we pass the budget, we are comfortable with the numbers that are provided to us, and when there's a step increase, that that just happens to be one that um what would happen to be picked up on, and I don't know if there's others, so it seems to me that there needs to be uh some sort of check and balances on these things to be sure that we're passing a budget that is accurate.

So this increase is not um the significant increase that it appears, because it's actually going from 76,000 last year to 78,996 this year.

Is that correct, Director?

Yeah, okay, and um the other question I have is building coordinator specialist.

It's um a new code, it's 429A, and that appears to have uh four fourteen percent increase.

So two-fold question.

What's the reason for the A?

And is the 14% increase something above contractual?

So as you are aware, there are a number of employees who have to contribute to our OPEB trust as a deduction off their check.

If you are a member of the bargaining unit, you must contribute full stop.

If you are not, if you qualify for a post-employment benefit, you must contribute, but if you do not, you do not contribute.

Part of this is some get a nine percent raise, some get the 2.4 in January.

Now to differentiate that as we move along, when people move departments, we actually have to make an A so we can keep those straight so that we don't give somebody the 0.9% raise who does not qualify for it because they're not contributing to the OPEP trust.

So you'll sometimes see an A pop up on the in our system, it's actually an O, but okay.

But the A designation isn't um it's not providing a increase in salary because of the A designation.

The 14% increase over the previous year is because of contractual.

It's my understanding that that employee was actually an internal transfer.

So they may have brought over longevity or they're a long-time employee.

So they probably brought longevity to a position that was vacant.

Okay, this is the billing coordinator specialist.

Um it went from 65,696 in 2026 to 75,194 this year, and that's a 14.45%.

And is that because of contractual step increases longevity?

The finance director is correct in in her analogy.

There was an internal move, two internal moves.

Uh moved up to um construction inspector.

The person who took the uh the non-union job was a union employee for over 10 years, so he brought all his longevity with him.

That's why the salary's high.

Okay.

And I assume um well, I think you've pretty much addressed it.

You you've already stated that none of the increases in salaries are beyond contractual.

You're that's correct.

Okay, that's um that's the issue I had where uh there was um that 12,000 dollar difference from what we approved and what actually took place because somewhere along the line that longevity thing just didn't get in the budget.

Um thank you, Director.

That's that's all I have.

Thank you.

Just questions on two different line items.

36140 temporary services.

That line item sort of seems all over the map historically over the last few years, and we're way over that budget this year for whatever reason, and you're doubling your request from last year to next, well, from this current fiscal year to that.

Can you just run me through that line item to make it make sense?

Sure.

Um we've had a lot of movement in our department uh through retirements and people just up and leaving and finding new jobs.

So we've had to use temporary services a lot this year or and over the past years.

What do it are you feeling needs of the department through like supplemental personnel temporary services?

Is that yes?

Okay.

So we had a primitive tech left.

We had to we had to bring in temporary service to to help out.

Uh that's one of the most important jobs because they answered the phone, they they uh schedule inspections and such.

Okay.

Um and then just one other one that's sort of just raised an eyebrow for me.

36337, your steno and court reporter services.

Uh you're increasing about 30 percent on that.

Are we anticipating extra litigation this year?

Well, the contract runs out in June, so we don't know if she's going to increase her fees for the stenographer for the zoning board.

Got it.

That's all I have.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Director, just uh more of a uh operational type questions for you.

One, your department is funded by fees and not taxpayer dollars.

Am I correct?

That's correct.

And the the current collection of fees, are they are they covering your budget?

Yes.

Are there any excess in fees?

Are there any excess excess in fees?

Yes.

Uh this past year, yes.

Okay.

What is there an op opportunity for you?

One for the demand, but two to prevent or to hedge against some of your retirements in your potential departments.

Go ahead.

Okay.

So we look up here.

So we look at the fuel.

We we hear you.

This it's tough.