UPDATE: After reading this..click over to Left in Lowell and read Jack Mitchell’s take.

Tonight’s 2nd Council Budget meeting saw the City council vote to cut $79,500 to go along with the $2,010 they cut from the Mayor’s Aide Tuesday totaling $81,510 of a $300 Million Dollar Budget.

Councilor’s Elliot, Mercier, Kennedy and Mendonca were mostly the proponents of cutting but couldn’t find a 5th when one was needed for a major cut that would have helped the homeowners.

However the Council lead by Councilors Broderick, Martin, Murphy with usually strong support from Nuon and Lorrey held fast to the City Manager’s proposal and rejected cutting the budget by a proposed $985,000 depriving homeowners of having a 0% property tax increase.

None of the suggested cuts affected personal and most had a strong argument to support it and assist homeowners but Martin, Broderick, Murphy and Nuon were NO votes on major cuts that would have helped the average homeowner and family.

I salute Councilor Rodney Elliot who proposed $875,000 in cuts including:

$200,000 from the Manager’s “contingency” fund which was approved at $300,000

$500,000 of 1 Million set aside for employee raises (Council left the million)

$100,000 from $1.2 Million of the snow and Ice Account

$40,000 from the Fire Dept. Overtime Account

$25,000 from the Law Dept. Professional Service Acct.

$10,00 from City Manager Professional Service Acct.

Councilor Ed Kennedy asked for $100,000 from the $900,000 Police Overtime Acct.

Councilor Mercier asked for $10,000 from the Planning and Development

The City is going to get a potential $300,000 in reimbursement from the State for the Snow /Ice storm in October and the city always has funds left over funds at the end of the fiscal year that goes to “Free Cash” and this year NO snow and ice deficit.

The City could have used those funds and transferred the $200,00 into the Manager’s contingency fund so approving at least those $300,000 in cuts should have been a no brainer.

I can see not cutting the Million Dollars for contracts but the council could have easily made over $400,000 in cuts and assured the taxpayers of NO property tax increase.

The cuts that were made:

Mercier – $4,500 from Fire Dept. Misc.
Mendonca – $30,000 from Manager’s contingency
Elliot – $20,000 from Gas & Oil from Lowell Police & $25,000 from DPW Misc.

The meeting had some interesting moments especially when it appeared Councilor Elliot was doing the Sun’s bidding and trying to get the Solicitor to reveal what the city spent on private investigators in the 2008 A.K. /Sandy Ames probe.

The City Clerk was having a hard time with the Yays and Nays and had to be corrected 3-4 times.

Mayor Murphy looked upset at several points and had a back and forth with Councilor Elliot on at least 2 occasions and looked like he was upset at Councilor Lorrey when he requested a break.

Councilor Bill Martin was upset that while he voted to move the start of tonight’s meeting to accommodate Councilor Mendonca, when the Mayor proposed staying after 10 PM Councilor Mendonca voted NO and now the Council has to meet Saturday morning at 9:00 am to finish the budget.

An astute reader of this Blog (someone who has an interest in a Tech seat) suggested to me that perhaps it isn’t the Asst. principal position Mr. G is looking at….Their guess was that Erik seemed upset about the layoff of two positions and perhaps that money was the total of the eliminated positions.

This person pointed out (asking me to not use their name) that in the Tech School Budget the Asst. Principal is listed under new positions at $96,237 and while they have no way of knowing what the laid off teachers were exactly making since it was such a specific amount perhaps it was the combined salary for those 2 positions.

In a 23 million dollar budget, $108,000 isn’t a whole lot but when you consider the Lowell City Council cut someone’s salary by $2,000 maybe Erick just wants to be able to say in his next campaign that he saved Lowell $50,000 on their 6 million assessment by getting that money decreased from the budget.

A wiser move would be to transfer it to the permanent building / Capital Improvement fund and use it at the school on equipment for students or place it in an escrow for technology improvements for the students..isn’t it supposed to be about the kids and NOT Political Points?

On City Life this morning, my friend Mr. McDonough mentioned that someone told him the police were called to a substation to let someone in to water the flowers and he was wondering if the Lowell Police were spending money to have someone take care of their plants.

I know the police rent these substations so I contacted the LPD with the question and Capt. William Taylor was kind enough to explain it to me.

Mr. Nutter,

The Police Department leases the Highlands Precinct from the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Lowell.
Included in the building we lease is a small greenhouse, you can see it from Middlesex Street. The Police Department does not utilize the greenhouse, and never has. Many years ago, at least 10 years, we allowed a group titled Community Gardens (believe it is a non profit group) to use the greenhouse, at no charge. My understanding is they take the plants from the greenhouse and plant them on public lands. To gain access to the greenhouse and water their plants, they have to use our security door.

Last week they asked our Communications Room to have the door opened so they could water their plants in the greenhouse. The Police Department and/or City have nothing to do with the greenhouse or plants. The Director of the Boys Club inquired about children from the club using the greenhouse in the future.

Hope that answers you inquiry, if you have any other questions let me know.

Thank you
Capt. Bill Taylor
——————————————–
Good Luck to incoming Dracut School Supt. Steve Stone. Being a new Supt. is never easy, being one in a cash strapped town is tough, being one in a political town like Dracut is tougher and going into the position with a vocal group of parents opposed to you including a former school committee member has to be extremely tough. Dracut needs to work together on the fiscal issue concerning education and it will not be productive if a former school committee person leads a constant battle against the new Supt.

———————————————-
Tonight I’ll have on the Lowell City council budget hearings on the TV while I have the Greater Lowell Tech School Committee meeting streaming on line with 1 headphone plugged in to listen to why the committee should eliminate the new Asst. principal position/title as proposed by Mr. Gitschiers motion.