CITY OF EAST PROVIDENCE

RHODE ISLAND

JOURNAL OF SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING

October 20, 2017

6:00 P.M.

Council Chambers, City Hall, 145 Taunton Avenue, East Providence, RI 02914

6:00 P.M. Open Session

 

***CONTINUED FROM REGULAR MEETING OF OCTOBER 17, 2017

 

*Note Assistant Mayor Britto is absent.

 

I.                   OPEN SESSION

 

II.                CALL TO ORDER

 

Mayor Briden calls the meeting to order at 6:14PM.

 

III.             SALUTE TO THE FLAG

 

IV.             PUBLIC COMMENT

 

A.    Jason Desrosiers, 80 Village Green North (02915) – IT Deconsolidation

 

Unanimous Consent is granted to move the IT Consolidation item to this location on the docket. 

 

V.                NEW BUSINESS

 

A.    IT Deconsolidation by School Committee

 

The Superintendent hands out packets to the council and she notes that Ms. Maddox the School Finance Director is also present.  She understands the Council’s concerns regarding the timeline and the notification but this was drawn out by the school committee and herself and they have been involved in discussions which actually began to occur last spring.  They had previously decided they would try to continue with some adjustments made.  Ms. Maddox and she spoke with Mr. Luba and were going to recommend to the School Committee that they hire their own Director of Technology.  Mr. Luba stated the City did not have anything in the budget at that time to take on the cost and she thought since it was not yet finalized and the School Committee had sent their budget in earlier, on October 3rd of this month, she would speak with Mr. Chapman.  She notes she spoke to Mr. Chapman and told him what they were proposing and that they recommended hiring their own Director of Technology.  They have been very open about the discussions and he asked her to put this decision in writing.   She notes she could only do so after the School Committee made their decision.  The agenda of their October 10th meeting is in the packet which she provided to the Council.  The School Committee approved this change and the next day she sent an email to Mr. Chapman informing him. They hired the two technicians which previously worked for the City the Friday of that week. A formal letter had been sent to Mr. Chapman which indicated as much on October 13th and stating the deconsolidation.  She adds that deconsolidation of Human Resources and Facilities were also previously done.  The process was open and transparent. The school department has increased technology to the degree that they need their own director. She adds that she likes to have everyone responsible to her. As the director of schools she is in constant communication with the school committee on this situation.  She discusses a statement which had been made at the previous council meeting that a computer is a computer and this is not accurate.  In this day and age it is not the case.  Computers are configured differently.  This is where the 21st century is moving and they have networks and systems and data centered computers in the school department it is not like it was before.   The governor is also requiring all school departments in RI to have computer science departments and there are electronic microscopes in the schools.  These were all considerations which they took in as part of the discussion as it is far more extensive than what Director Ahrens can take care of.  In viewing the job description the Council will note it is extensive.  They have 5000 new chrome books and every teacher has an iPad and every classroom has a smart board.  Districts are looking at a virtual cloud and they are replacing their servers every 3 years.  Many are moving towards the cloud.  They store their information at an outside source and looking at that they are looking at developing a technology facility in their 5 year plan.  They are looking at the wireless infrastructure in the elementary schools and it is not 21st century infrastructure.  This person will also help them develop a plan for the future.  It's impossible to accomplish this as one person and they thank Director Ahrens but they are moving in a different direction.  They want to make the East Providence School Department the best it can be.  If they are lucky enough to be able to build a new high school they will need full time people to support it as even HVAC’s are all computerized. 

 

Councilman Botelho states that during the first budget presentation they provided the Council this never came up at all. 

Superintendent Crowley states they simply presented a financial budget line by line of where they were going as the school committee had not had this presented to them at the time. 

Councilman Botelho states he understands but to say there was transparency is simple not true.

 

Councilman Faria states they were just notified Tuesday, October 17^th.  

Superintendent Crowley states their budget was transparent at that time and they were not yet at that point but they had some issues.  They ordered chrome books in June so they would be implemented in September and they were not available to them.   Things like that leads them to believe they need to have their own director of technology.   Also, there was a position given by the school committee in the spring for a junior accountant and they do have the monies to support that.

 

Mayor Briden states the question he has is why two departments, why not make changes to the existing department so as to address the specific concerns.  Overtime, as he mentioned at the last meeting, there are economies of scale and efficiencies that result from one department specifically if there can be a certain amount of cross training.  They may handle completely different areas and there is a limited extent of abilities to cover but over time they would not have to hire as many employees.  This way the city is losing out on these economies of scale and over time both departments will be more expensive with more employees.  If necessary make improvements to address the important concerns which have been raised.

Superintendent Crowley states they tried to address these last spring and in trying to take care of some of those issues however they still see that the school department, in the order of priorities are behind.  Police and fire need to be number one and the schools are not what they would consider an emergency situation they don't feel like they can properly take care of it without a department head responsible to the superintendent.

 

Councilman Botelho states his wife works for a big company for 35 years in IT.  Everything is routed through their central computer department.  It sounds more like you need a project manager.

 

Director Kelly Ahrens is called to the podium.  She notes their data is mostly cloud based, email is gmail, financial is Tyler, at schools there are 2-3 servers with one point of sale for cafeterias and one that runs the HVAC and one utility for antivirus and updates and one that does testing, special needs is a smaller server.  Most data for files are stored here on a server and backed up at police and fire station 3 and one server is still in use running their payroll called admins.  She hopes Tyler will run payroll as Tyler is cloud based.

 

Councilman Botelho asks how can a big company have one unit and the city can't.  

 

Councilman Faria asks how long Ms. Ahrens has been with the city and she states she started in 2009 with the school department as their director when the city consolidated she took over the city in 2011.  She wants to pay respect to what the Superintendent states which is that she wants someone reporting directly to her as she serves as a dotted line to her with her obligations to police and fire.  

Councilman Faria states the question is does she feel she can handle it as she has for 6 years.  Director Ahrens states she would say she could handle it.  She has a City Manager and a Superintendent and their goals are number one for them and sometimes she has to make a choice and when it is not their choice it can be a difficult position to be in.

Councilman Faria asks how many employees IT has on the city side.  Director Ahrens states 4 in IT and a social media assistant.   There were originally 6, 2 were always assigned to school and 4 assigned to the city that was prior to the deconsolidation.

 

Councilman Botelho states that it sounds like she is qualified to do the job. 

Superintendent Crowley states she already asked her. 

 

Mayor Briden asks why they couldn't add an employ to report directly to the superintendent he doesn't see this as a finance issue but an economic issue.  It’s an efficiency issue.  They can add an employee who reports directly to the Superintendent.

 

Councilman Botelho states deconsolidation isn't an IT trend.  Work is allocated by percentages to individuals and project managers to oversee.   This is the way it is going and they are taking a step backwards.

Director Ahrens states she worked very hard cross training a pool of people.  It was brutal but she thinks they could do it better.  The way they have done it is to have 2 people assigned and if they were to go in the other direction they would have to estimate the amount in the budget because they wouldn't know how much they would need if they had a proper shared agreement.

 

Councilman Botelho asks about the job description noting that it doesn’t contain a degree in computer science.  

Superintendent Crowley states there was a committee formed and they came up with the overall job qualifications.

 

Mayor Briden asks if there were meetings held with the city to try to make changes to the existing IT department to add employees and make structural changes to specifically address the valid needs.  He really sees that the plan needs to be worked on and if that doesn't work then split up.  If all employees were put in one office suite even if the school was on one side and city on the other they could still see efficiencies and that really needs to be the focus.  It’s easy to split and restore the status quo. 

 

Superintendent Crowley states they had conversations with the director in the spring and the school committee in the spring and at this time they feel they need their own director and two technicians to be able to sustain their vision.

 

Councilwoman Sousa states this is an ongoing issue every council meeting that they have the school committee has an opportunity to come before the council and discuss it to keep the council informed and that is where she finds a disconnect.  Why are they not getting that information and finding out at the end in the late hours it is troublesome.  She did see the emails from Superintendent Crowley to the City Manager one week before the budget was to be approved.

 

School Committee member Joel Monteiro states they had plenty of conversations with the Superintendent and the City Manager that never come to council and the school committee regarding deconsolidation and efficiencies.  They are going from 2 to 3 dedicated bodies.

 

City Manager Chapman states he made a review of the memorandum of agreement and let the council know the next day regarding the discussion with the Superintendent regarding a raise to a particular employee which he would not discuss as they were in negotiations.  Adding if there was a former disgruntled employee who wasn't getting a raise he has to negotiate in good faith.  

 

Mayor Briden states he would like to address that he thinks the students benefit if the department is run more efficiently.  Having a school director and a city director would not over time introduce cross training and the efficiencies they can achieve which could be used for other purposes and that benefits students. 

School Committee Member Monteiro states it is an important to note that they respond directly to the superintendent.   

Mayor Briden states a deputy director who reports to the director who reports to the superintendent.  

 

Superintendent Crowley states even though there are separate departments in finance and facilities they still help each other out.   

 

Mayor Briden states the problem is that people in the city are not being trained for the school and vise versa and over time they will have more employees vs over time they will have cross training and have less employees.

 

Councilman Faria states this council has been very supportive of the school department and they have had joint meetings and the council passed the teacher’s contract.  They are responsible for all their constituencies and have to answer to the tax payers and they just learned about this October 17^th.

 

Councilman Botelho states there was a budget commission but let's look at the last 5 years they consolidated many activities and moved the school department upstairs and since the budget commission left everything has been deconsolidated.  It has taken place and it is moving away from what the budget commission had set the city on a path to 5 years ago.  They have a financial trend moving in the wrong direction.  

School Committee Member Monteiro states that the efficiency has increased by multiples.

Councilman Botelho states they just received $2.5 million from the state and are still asking for more money from the city.

School Committee Member Monteiro asks if they have been through the schools when they bring up how much money is being asked for or received.  

 

School Committee Member Cahoon states he is happy to come to any meeting and speak to any agenda item and they are generally represented at council meetings.  

School Committee Member Ferreira states that for the record he has been attending council meeting for years. 

 

Mayor Briden states his question for the chair is they would like for the school committee to reconsider this decision and consider the option of working on the existing department maybe creating 2 divisions, maybe it's an operations management consultant to improve the existing department.  He doesn't feel there has been enough due diligence to achieve that objective.  He is not so much concerned about this budget but how it will be effected over the next 10 years.

 

Council members are in agreement.

 

Chairman Tsonos states he feels they have had a good relationship with the City Manager and the Council and have an excellent administration in the school department and he wants to maintain that relationship going forward.  He adds that he has lived through the budget commission and he knows what it took to consolidate and the pressure they were all under to consolidate and the perception may seem like this decision was made at the 11th hour but they have always had a time management issue.  The police and fire have emergency issues but they have a lot of issues and that is only going to get bigger.   A lot of it is time management and accomplishing their mission for the students and he agrees their money has been spent frugally and Lucy Maddox personifies this.  He wants to maintain an excellent relationship and it is not a hill he wants to die on if they need to take more time to study it then they will.   There was no nefarious issue.  They have experienced time issues for a while.  East Providence is a large community and they have a lot of needs on both sides.

 

Mayor Briden states he think the fact that they are discussing issues is reflective of their relationship.  Adding, if they could put this back on their docket and look to study it as one department with two divisions with consideration of the concerns raised by the school department because these are valid.

 

Chairman Tsonos states they will certainly consider this.  Adding there is a time they rely on their professionals and he can't speak for the whole school committee but has great faith and trust and will take the Council’s words under advisement and move forward however the need for assistance is not going to go away in fact the needs will only get larger.

 

Councilman Faria states they seem closed minded to even bringing in a consultant.

 

Chairman Tsonos states this is not so he wants to leave that to the superintendent and with her advice and that of the school committee.  He wants to hear what the professionals have to say.  

 

Councilman Botelho states he thinks they have already made the decision.

 

A motion that the City Council request that the School Committee put the topic on the docket of the next available meeting to undo deconsolidation is made by Councilman Faria, seconded by Councilwoman Sousa and on a roll call vote it is unanimous 4-0 with Assistant Mayor Britto absent. 

 

VI.             PUBLIC HEARING

 

1. ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EAST PROVIDENCE APPROPRIATING $180,556,184 FOR THE SUPPORT OF THE CITY GOVERNMENT FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING OCTOBER 31, 2018

 

A motion to dispense with the reading of the ordinance is made by Councilman Faria, seconded by Councilwoman Sousa and on a roll call vote it is unanimous 4-0 with Assistant Mayor Britto absent.

 

SECTION I. The general fund receipts for the fiscal year ending October 31, 2018 have been established to amount to $180,556,184 made up as follows:

 

 

SECTION II.  To defray the expenses of the City of East Providence for the fiscal year commencing November 1, 2017 and ending October 31, 2018, the sum of  money, or so much thereof as are authorized by law indicated in the accompanying  schedule, are hereby appropriated for the objects and purposes, and in the amounts  expressed therein, provided that payments thereunder shall be subject to the provisions of the City Charter of the City of East Providence and also subject to the provisions of said City Charter relative to the manner and form of expenditures of money set forth in said Charter from the City Treasury.

 

SECTION III.  All monies appropriated are to be expended by the various departments in the manner and form approved by the Director of Finance.

 

SECTION IV.  The payment to the School Fund of the following estimated receipts, included in the appropriation of $82,572,529 for the support of the public schools for the City of East Providence fiscal year 2017-2018, shall be increased or decreased to conform to the actual amounts received from such sources during the fiscal year 2017-2018 except the appropriation of property tax.

 

 

SECTION V.  The purpose of this ordinance is to adopt the Budget for the fiscal year 2017-2018 which begins November 1, 2017 and ends October 31, 2018 as prepared and submitted by the City Manager, and to implement the recommendations as set forth in the City Manager's Budget Message by the approval of said recommendations as contained herein, or by other ordinances or resolutions of the Council of the City of East Providence; all in accordance with the provisions of said Article.

 

SECTION VI.  This ordinance shall take effect upon its passage and all ordinances and parts of ordinances inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed.

 

Mayor Briden states the good news is that they are having a bit more revenue come in as the result of a settlement which will bring in additional tax revenue, which will bring the tax increase down from 1.83% to a little below 1.5%.  The dollar amount would be approximately $362,000 and so that will be included in the budget.

 

Councilman Botelho asks how much additionally would be needed to cut to place the tax rate under 1%. Director Moore states about $400,000.

Mr. Luba adds he has been talking about a 5 year forecast and Director Moore and Director Maddox have given theirs based on expected expenditures and if the school will not receive any addition funds from the state.  The city will be looking at a 3% tax increase for each of the next 4 years.

He adds the good news is they can fit it under the tax cap and work on it with the future needs of the schools and base it on if the city receives no state funding vs if they do.  Mr. Luba explains that he assumed some new growth in his calculations.  The current revenues are a little ahead.

 

Councilman Botelho asks why the pension funds are locally administered.

Mr. Luba states because they want to be to be part of MERS.  This has advantages as even if MERS didn’t cover the state would manage it.  With a new bill that is out there the state could manage it more efficiently than the city does now.  With the actuarial adjustments they are now in critical status and notices will go out to all participants about this.   The difference in assumption is what the old actuarial used for longevity was an outdated life expectancy table.  They adjusted that and it will cost the city more.  

 

Councilman Botelho states he believes they have beat this budget to death and have looked at it in a very diligent fashion. He thanks the balance of the council for voting for money from the SYNC funds for roads for the tax payers.  In the past he always took note of how many people would come up to speak on matters during the budget and only 2 were present on 2 different nights and one said it was good job and another said it should increase and that tells him that by and large people are satisfied with the services being provided based on what they pay for taxes.  More people want to buy here than they have properties to sell.  If he had 10 more listings he could sell them.  He expressed some points regarding the school department earlier but moving forward his concern is that cuts will need to be made next year and he is going to look at the numbers going forward.  They need to start talking about this in May.  He is satisfied and will be voting to approve the budget. 

 

Councilwoman Sousa mentions she agrees with what was said and she does feel there is more that could be addressed.  She feels they have not done 100% diligence but she is satisfied with the time they had.   She just feels like they need to do this sooner in the process so they can really vet the budget.  There is always room for improvements.  She thanked Paul Luba and Malcolm Moore for the endless questioning.

 

Councilman Faria states there has been substance behind all their votes.   While they all represent their constituencies and they don’t always seen eye to eye but no one is answering to anyone else.  The City Manager did a good job.  It was a challenging year.  His only concern is the consolidation issue it is the only reservation he has.  He thanks all his colleagues and notes it’s been a pleasure working with them.  

 

Mayor Briden states he sees this as wrapping up a 5 year plan adopted by the budget commission.  In 2013, they had set to raise taxes 1.6% annually and now they are down to 1.48%.  They are now at half of that annually which is on average over the last 5 years.  Over a period of 5 years having tax increases of 50% of that which was recommended is good for East Providence especially given that there has been investment in infrastructure, $6 million in a water utility system and $2.95 million on roads.  The Facebook page for the city is one that focuses on infrastructure.  Congratulations to the council who did a good job when faced with expecting a budget with a much higher tax increase and this is substantially attributable to Tim Chapman who made cuts preemptively.  He thanked the City Manager, Malcolm Moore and Paul Luba who worked with them to achieve a very good result with this year’s budget.

 

Councilman Faria states faced originally with taxes going over the cap he thanks Mr. Luba, Mr. Moore and City Manager Chapman for being accessible and he thanks the council for being diligent and he thanks the department heads as they do the best performance for the city and there is a lot to be said for the excellent department heads and employees.

 

Under Public Hearing:

 

1.      Jason Desrosiers, 80 Village Green North (02915) in favor of the budget based on the city’s financials which are strong the council has made it stronger but that going forward they should start next year’s budget now looking at efficiencies and he would like to see it in a format which is more accessible.

 

A motion to approve is made by Councilman Faria, seconded by Councilman Botelho and on a roll call vote it is unanimous 4-0 with Assistant Mayor Britto absent.

 

VII.          ORDINANCES FINAL PASSAGE - PUBLIC HEARING

 

1.  ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EAST PROVIDENCE ORDERING THE ASSESSMENT AND COLLECTION OF PROPERTY TAX ON THE RATABLE REAL ESTATE, TANGIBLE PERSONAL PROPERTY AND AN EXCISE TAX ON REGISTERED MOTER VEHICLES AND TRAILERS

 

A motion to dispense with the reading of the ordinance is made by Councilman Faria, seconded by Councilwoman Sousa and on a roll call vote it is unanimous 4-0 with Assistant Mayor Britto absent.

 

SECTION I.  That the Council of the City of the City of East Providence hereby orders the assessment and collection of a tax on ratable real estate, tangible personal property and an excise tax on registered motor vehicles and trailers in a sum not more than One Hundred Nine Million One Hundred Sixty Four Thousand Five Hundred and Twenty One($109,164,521) dollars.  Said tax is for ordinary expenses, for the payment of interest and indebtedness, in whole or in part, of said city, and for other purposes authorized by law.

 

The Tax Assessor shall assess and apportion said tax on the inhabitants and ratable property of said city as of the 31st day of December, 2017 at twelve o'clock Eastern Standard Time, according to law, and shall on completion of said assessment, date and sign same and shall make out and certify to the Tax Collector of the City of East Providence, who is charged with the duties for the collection of taxes, on or before the 15th day of June, 2018 a complete list of the names of the persons taxed and of the total value of all the real estate and personal property assessed against each person, and also the amount of registered motor vehicles and trailers assessed against each person, and also the total amount assessed against each person on said real estate, personal estate and registered motor vehicles and trailers, opposite the name of the person or persons assessed. Upon receipt of the certified tax list by the Tax Collector, she shall proceed and collect said tax on the persons and estates liable thereof; said tax shall be due and payable on and between the 1st day of June 2018 and the 1st day of July, 2018 and provided further that if said tangible personal property, motor vehicle, and real estate taxes are paid in full on or before the 1st day of July, 2018, a discount of one and one half per centum (1.5%) of the total taxes on said tangible personal property, motor vehicles, and real estate shall be granted, and all taxes remaining unpaid on the 1st day of July, 2018 shall carry until collected a penalty at the rate of twelve per centum (12%) per annum from the 1st day of June, 2018 upon said unpaid tax, however, said taxes may be paid in four installments; the first installment of twenty-five per centum (25%) on or before the 1^st day of July, 2018, the second installment of twenty-five per centum (25%) on or before the 1st day of September, 2018, the third installment of twenty-five per centum (25%) on or before the 1st day of December, 2018 and the fourth installment of twenty-five per centum (25%) on or before the 1st day of March, 2019.

 

Each installment of taxes if paid on or before the last day of each installment period successively in order shall be free from any charge of interest.

 

If any succeeding installment of taxes is not paid by the last date of the respective unpaid balance period or periods as they occur, then the whole tax or remaining unpaid balance of the taxes as the case may be shall immediately become due and payable and carry until collected a penalty at the rate of twelve per centum, (12%) per annum.

 

SECTION ll.  That any of said taxes not paid on or before the 1st day of March, 2019 shall forthwith be collected by levy upon the sale of real estate upon which it is assessed and by that or other due process of law in case of assessment upon personal property.

 

SECTION III.  This ordinance shall take effect upon its second passage and all ordinances and parts of ordinances inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed.

 

Requested by:  Director of Finance

 

A motion to approve is made by Councilman Faria, seconded by Councilman Botelho and on a roll call vote it is unanimous 4-0 with Assistant Mayor Britto absent.

 

 

2. AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE DIRECTOR OF FINANCE TO BORROW FUNDS IN ANTICIPATION OF TAXES

 

A motion to dispense with the reading of the ordinance is made by Councilman Faria, seconded by Councilwoman Sousa and on a roll call vote it is unanimous 4-0 with Assistant Mayor Britto absent.

 

SECTION I.  The Director of Finance is authorized to borrow during the fiscal year ending October 31, 2018 such sums of money in anticipation of the property taxes of the year as may be permitted by law for the purpose of meeting the current liabilities and expenses of the City and that the Director of Finance is authorized to issue the note or notes of the City therefore and to refund such note or notes and any tax anticipation notes of a prior year to the extent permitted by law.

 

SECTION II.  This ordinance shall take effect upon its second passage and all ordinances and parts of ordinances inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed.

 

Requested by:  Director of Finance

 

A motion to approve is made by Councilman Faria, seconded by Councilwoman Sousa and on a roll call vote it is unanimous 4-0 with Assistant Mayor Britto absent.

 

 

3. AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE DIRECTOR OF FINANCE TO BORROW FUNDS IN ANTICIPATION OF REVENUE

 

A motion to dispense with the reading of the ordinance is made by Councilman Faria, seconded by Councilwoman Sousa and on a roll call vote it is unanimous 4-0 with Assistant Mayor Britto absent.

 

SECTION I.  The Director of Finance is authorized to borrow during the fiscal year ending October 31, 2018 such sums of money in anticipation of the sewer use fee revenue of the year as may be permitted by law for the purpose of meeting the current liabilities and expenses of the City and that the Director of Finance is authorized to issue the note or notes of the City therefore and to refund such note or notes and any revenue anticipation notes of a prior year to the extent permitted by law.

 

SECTION II.  This ordinance shall take effect upon its second passage and all ordinances and parts of ordinances inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed.

 

Requested by:  Director of Finance

 

A motion to approve is made by Councilman Faria, seconded by Councilwoman Sousa and on a roll call vote it is unanimous 4-0 with Assistant Mayor Britto absent.

 

VIII.       ADJOURNMENT

 

A motion to Adjourn at 8:32PM is made by Councilman Faria, seconded by Councilwoman Sousa and on a roll call vote it is unanimous 4-0 with Assistant Mayor Britto Absent. 

 

Approved By Council:  November 7, 2017

 

Attest:  _______________

                City Clerk