Budget Battles Begin

The annual budget is currently going through its paces before members of the City Council. The meetings are being chaired by Alderman Jason Marcus. The first session seemed fairly cut and dry. There were a few moments of concern, particularly relating to the revolving fund used by E911, the Fire Dept. and Police Department. The contract was awarded to Cataldo Ambulance a few years ago, and creates a revolving fund with $1 per run, amounting to about $4,000 a year. The fund has been used to upgrade telecommunications systems in the past, but Mrs. Schurko's limited responses to the questions raised even more questions. Perhaps another department head in public safety can answer those questions?

The new interim Personnel Director also appeared at the hearing. His office is expected to return 15-20 thousand dollars back to the city, and his budget showed a slight decrease, as did the City Auditor's. The mayor spoke on behalf of Veteran's Services, as the Veteran's Services Director, Bill Henry, has been in the hospital. The budget shows an increase, which is expected with the return of service people from Iraq & Afghanistan. The mayor's office showed a decrease as well, as did the office of the Budget Director and the City Clerk.

The school department was reviewed on Wednesday night, with the Superintendent and his three assistant superintendents in attendance, along with the School Committee. Also in attendance were some custodians, and school administrators...but long time watchers of the school department believe that Fred is definitely losing his touch when so few school employees obey the command to appear.

There was some bantering back and forth between the Council and the school department. When questioned about the appropriateness of giving raises to the Superintendent and the three assistants, in light of that very damaging State Audit, Mr. Alconada suggest that their real job is to educate children and that educationally, they were putting out an "A+ product." Councilor Steve Smith begged to differ, as did Councilor Gover. In the end, it doesn't really matter, because while the Council can object to those raises, as well as the raise for the maintenance director, who admitted in the State Audit to violating procurement law, Lester McLaughlin essentially told the City Council that it was the job of the school committee to set raises and not anyone else. While he's right, even long time admirer of the school department Alderman Jason Marcus told him that the Council still has the right to ask questions and make recommendations. Ironic that he would make that statement just a week after the entire Board of Aldermen took a pass on the question of recommending the suspension of the Superintendent and the Maintenance Director.

The Council did get to meet Mrs. Kelley, the new special education director. Let's hope she doesn't get caught up in the controversy over at Shore Collaborative.

The hearing went on for better than two hours, and while numerous questions were asked, most were cursory in nature and not very in depth. It was a valiant effort, but Ed Reform really does give all the power to the school committee, who have essentially ceded their control over to the superintendent. The last twenty minutes of the meeting was spent with various members "thanking" the superintendent for the school department's hard work, etc. The superintendent spent the last five minutes of the meeting congratulating himself, and then scolding the Council for "bickering" with him.

Nothing ever changes.