Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Proposal & Smith Gift
Video Recording: Northampton Open Media – City Council 5/16/24
Video Time Stamp: 2:06:48
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra read a 16 page statement direct from the proposed budget book linked below:
City of Northampton Proposed 2025 Budget Book
Video Time Stamp: 2:52:55
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: I have one more thing that came in after the budget was set that I would like to announce. I am very happy to announce that I have additional information that I hope will be accepted as an addendum later. In early April, my team and I had a long-planned meeting with leaders from Smith College to discuss the possibility of establishing a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) agreement with the City of Northampton. During our conversation, my team and I presented some detailed background information about previous discussions and how other cities have successfully brokered PILOT agreements with educational institutions.
I made clear that while we value Smith’s contributions, we see the precedent and potential for a deeper partnership that could substantially benefit our public schools. Smith’s President, Sarah Willie-LeBreton, who took office just last July, emphasized her need to evaluate how the college can increase its contributions to our community in accordance with its mission and values and in a deliberate manner that accomplishes the most good for the community. They cited several current challenges which have imposed uncertainty and strains on their resources. Again, I made clear that I continue to push for a sustainable model that moves beyond one-time financial contributions.
At that meeting, President Willie-LeBreton committed to discussing what Smith could do this year and into the future. In the weeks since, our offices have continued to be in contact. As promised, just this week, President Willie-LeBreton let me know that Smith will be making a significant contribution over the next two years. In her email, she wrote, “After careful consideration of resources and because we are invested in the health of the city, I’m pleased to share that Smith College will donate $500,000 to the City of Northampton over two years—$250,000 in each of the next two fiscal years. Our decision to offer support at this time is rooted in our commitment to being good neighbors and responsible community members. Understanding the specific financial challenges faced by the City of Northampton, this contribution represents an annual increase from previous gifts, underscoring our commitment to partnering with the community. Having spent my first year becoming familiar with Smith’s fiscal needs and priorities, please understand that this is the highest amount to which I can responsibly commit at this time.”
President Willie-LeBreton went on to affirm that Smith is very serious about exploring opportunities for collaboration. I want to publicly thank her and the college for this generous gift and for the spirit of collaboration and recognition that Smith is very much a part of our community. Unrestricted gifts over the years from Smith College have been very beneficial for projects and expenses, as they are one-time, non-recurring funds that have been for different amounts and are not guaranteed. They have generally been directed towards Northampton Public Schools for capital needs. Most recently, the last gift of $500,000 over three fiscal years (FY 23 to 25) has been used for modernizing classroom equipment used by teachers and students, replacing classroom PCs that are over their expected life, and redesigning the NPS website. Recognizing that operating costs are the focus of NPS because of the deficit was the reason I initiated the conversations with Smith.
This year, it’s my intention to ask the City Council to accept this gift and earmark its use as planned additional operating funding for NPS at $166,666 for three years. Splitting this $500,000 donation over three years, as these are non-recurring funds, will allow for additional funding for NPS during this period, during which we hope Smith will renew and ideally increase this gift. It is also expected that the Strategic Planning Committee will recommend and the School Committee will implement identified strategies to increase efficiencies during this time period. Again, although these are not recurring funds, this planned use will limit the risk of creating a deficit.
I do want to note that our current discussions around a PILOT agreement, similar to previous hopes with legislative initiatives like the Student Opportunity Act or the Fair Share Amendment, represent our aspiration to find external solutions to our budgetary challenges. While we need to continue to fight for more equitable funding from the state and community partners, pinning hope on an imminent windfall will not resolve our current fiscal challenges. I again want to thank Smith College and President Willie-LeBreton for being willing to engage in this conversation with me, for committing to further discussions around collaboration and support for the city, specifically for our school districts, and for this generous gift to the City of Northampton that I’m asking the City Council to accept with the plan of using it to help supplement the NPS budget for three years. So now I am done. Thank you.
Marissa Elkins: I just wanted to say there are a few things in here I’m very pleased to see, [like] the special education stabilization fund and the plan to seed that and keep it funded on a recurring basis. I want to give a shout-out to former Councilor Foster, now Member Foster-Cannon, who hates being called Member Foster-Cannon. I recall her speaking about this idea very specifically, and I had to educate myself on what it was she was talking about. So, I was very glad to see that.
I also want to say I’m incredibly glad to hear Smith stepping up. What tremendously good news. Then, it seems like the council has a choice here in terms of the override and what that means. Could you talk a little more about what happens, just sort of the difference between what this looks like if we do put the override on the ballot and if we don’t, and then what happens if an override, if we were to put an override on, what would happen if it failed? That’s a lot, sorry.
Video Time Stamp: 3:09:07
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: First, I jumped up before because I would also like to thank Member Foster-Canon. I also want to recognize Meg Robbins, who had brought up this point as well in the last term. So, the council always… You know the council needs to vote on whether an override goes on the ballot. The council always has that choice. As I said, if you chose not to, and then reduced the school budget from what I presented to 4%, then we would not need an override until the following year, and it could be a $2.5 million override. If the budget was not reduced, then obviously there would have to be cuts.
Stanley Moulton: Yes, thank you, Mayor, for that very detailed presentation. The question I have is about the $1.24 million use, again, from the fiscal stability stabilization fund for the school budget. So, this is now a second-time use of that amount- fiscal stability. The difference this year is that you’re proposing that it become a part of the base budget, correct?
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: Correct.
Stanley Moulton: That was not the intent last year.
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: Last year, it was a one-time use. This year, [we] would be rolling those additional funds into the base, therefore increasing the base, which means we have to find those… [interrupted]
Stanley Moulton: So, the expectation is that in future years, that money come from a recurring source?
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: Yes, the override.
Stanley Moulton: Hence, the override
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: In November
Stanley Moulton: So it’s not an expectation on your part that we will keep sort of backfilling with $1.2 million or whatever number million dollars it is from fiscal stability?
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: No, we can’t. Again, this will continue to compound the problem, so every year that deficit will just grow larger if we did that. So this would be rolling it into the base, but then we would be generating Recurring revenue to support that additional $1.24 million.
Video Time Stamp: 3:11:18
Stanley Moulton: Okay, thank you.
Alex Jarrett: I’ll go. I very much appreciate how much you worked to find more money for the schools. It’s such a challenging situation, and we’re still facing that significant gap. I do have a couple of questions related to that. We heard a lot about the impact of COVID throughout the school committee’s discussions, tonight as well. Is there a place for still understanding, as we’re coming out of the pandemic, to add additional one-time funds with the understanding that they will need to be reduced, temporary positions, simply to address the ongoing effects of the pandemic? The first question, would be that.
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: I think you are identifying the issue, which is that if we did that, then the next year there would be a larger deficit, so you would have to figure out how to address that. Either you would have to say, okay for this year, but then absolutely next year there will have to be those reductions, or you’d need to come up with an additional plan to fill that revenue.
Alex Jarrett: Which then brings to the… you know, I share many constituents’ concerns about students leaving the district potentially, due to cuts, or staff cuts, we should say. The amounts are actually increasing, and you mentioned there’s an upcoming strategic plan that’s considering long-term cost-saving measures. Do you anticipate those long-term cost-saving measures to essentially help us have a 4% increase in the future? You wouldn’t see that there’s any place for temporary funding expecting cost-saving measures
Video Time Stamp: 3:13:40
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: So I think if I understand your question, I think that, whatever comes out of the strategic planning process, and we don’t, it’s not known at this point. So it could come up with a, you know, they’re looking at all sorts of different things, whether it’s reducing the number of buildings or changing the buildings we have or whatever comes out of that. It could result in some sort of savings down the line, but I would anticipate that this will be something that will take at least a few years, right.
This is not, there won’t be, I don’t believe, well, I don’t know. I can’t say, but I’m not sure that there will be sort of immediate solutions that come out of this process. It’s more of a, planning, you know, medium to long-term planning process, I would think. But again, it could be determined that something needs, you know, that something needs to happen more quickly and that the school committee agrees with that, but I don’t know.
Alex Jarrett: Thank you. and then if you could explain, I feel like you explained it in here, but the, you know, kind of the need for budgeting the way that we do. The need for, on average, having that 3 to 5% extra at the end, and how much of that extra funds our capital needs. I mean, some of it, you know, you explained funds are, stabilization funds and make sure that those balances are sufficient. But that paying for our infrastructure, if we did not have that, on average, that surplus, we would not have the money for one-time capital needs. Is that accurate?
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: Right, so our undesignated funds balance gets divided, right? So a third of it then gets divided. You take a third, and that third gets divided into the stabilization funds. Then, another third of it goes to, like pay-as-you-go kind of more immediate capital needs. So in terms of capital, that’s the way that those funds help, you know, fund capital projects both during the year and then in the capital plan and in the capital planning process. Do you have, and your, so your question was..
Alex Jarrett: .. if we didn’t generate that, we would have a hard time funding our capital needs.
Video Time Stamp: 3:16:19
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: Yeah, deferring maintenance even further. I mean, so we wouldn’t be able to add to our Capital Stabilization. We wouldn’t be able to do sort of the during-the-year capital projects that we fund with designated funds, and we would just push maintenance farther down the road to more deferred maintenance, which, as we always know, ends up costing more in the end.
Alex Jarrett Thank you. Did you wantIs there anyone who would like to follow up on that?
Rachel Maiore: Yes, I was just going to talk about how much we used before. A follow-up to that is, don’t we also, like, when we get matching grants, don’t we kind of need, don’t they look at our… Well, I know they look at our bond rating, right? And maybe our reserves or our funds. In other words, to secure grants and get matching grants, we need to be able to match them. Isn’t that another use of them…
Finance Director Charlene Nardi: It’s less about matching grants and more about we need the funds on hand to match or we need to be able to put enough money into the project or have the project already started. So they talk about a shovel-ready project. We need to fund design and have a project ready so that when those grants come out for those specific things, we can go after that funding and start right away. That’s usually what the state looks for, a shovel-ready project, and that takes funding and investment from the community.
Alex Jarrett: Okay, thanks. Is there anyone who hasn’t spoken yet?
Marianne LaBarge: I haven’t.
Alex Jarrett: I think you asked the one question, but if no one else wishes to speak, go ahead.
Marianne LaBarge: I want to thank our finance director, Charlene. I’ve called her after we had our meeting on that Monday with great concerns with what I had heard from our assessor, Tom. Yes, we could use the sustainable financial funds that we wanted to as a one-shot deal. Charlene, you spent a lot of time with me on the phone going over all this, and a lot of people didn’t realize what was going on. I either. When you emailed me and shot it over, it really opened my eyes to the deficit we’re in with the public schools.
When I asked about the use of our sustainability funds and hearing what I heard from Mr. Scanlon, you explained it very thoroughly—what happened here and why it happened. We never heard, or probably a lot of people never heard, what you had stated. You had stated to me, which was very very important, that we know the mayor used $1.2 million of reserves with the agreement, and that’s the biggie right there, the agreement of a two-year plan with the school committee that they would make adjustments to bring the budget in line with the 4% of the fiscal stability plan.
Some people I talked to, and I told them, they didn’t know that there was an agreement to work with the mayor and the school committee on that plan being in place. So, my question is: Hearing this, and knowing that plan was supposed to be put in place because of the $1.2 million we had given to help them, why wasn’t that plan out in place . . . especially if there was an agreement?
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: So, tonight I quoted from . . . I talked about this pretty extensively in the budget message last year and quoted from it this year. One of the things that I asked, when we—because the City Council also voted to use that $1.2 million —when we did that, I asked that the budget process on the school side start earlier. Even knowing that there was a new superintendent and that was a pretty big ask of someone just coming into the district, I asked that we start this process in December, which she did. Dr. Bonner produced a first few budget in December, which . . . did have some cuts in it—not enough to close the deficit, but it had some cuts in it. From that point, there wasn’t a lot more strategizing or discussion.
Marianne LaBarge: Okay, thank you.
Quaverly Rothenberg: Could I ask a question of you?
Alex Jarrett: Sure.
Quaverly Rothenberg: There are lots of people who could answer the question, but I just wanted to ask it of you. When we talk about a school deficit, is that coming from—do we have a policy in place that the budget kind of stays in its current form and every year the template kind of rolls over, and so we consider that a school deficit?
I guess to frame my question a little better so that you can help me understand: when we are talking about the beginning-of-the-year budget process and we’re looking at a mayor coming in with her budget, and the school committee also makes their budget. In our process right now, it all flows in under the mayor, that she sort of puts forward a budget, the school committee makes their recommendation, but the way our government is set up, the school committee manages this almost like half of our government. In the sense that the mayor’s managing all these city services and the school committee is managing the schools, and they both take almost an equal amount of our resources.
So I’m wondering how we got to the place where the schools ended up with a smaller piece of the pie than they said they needed, and now we always call that a school deficit. But that seems like an artificial construct to me because it just seems like you could divvy up those two pies differently. So, I’m wondering if you can help me understand maybe something about our financial policy that makes that sort of a default position, since I’m new here.
Video Time Stamp: 3:23:49
Alex Jarrett: Sure, I mean I think that . . . looking at all of the needs of all of the city departments . . . the needs of the schools, in this case, have risen quite a bit to maintain level services, and the other departments are increasing by a smaller amount. So, that’s one . . .
Councilor Rothenberg: But, wasn’t there… weren’t there… I mean, do we actually have that data to show that we didn’t just shortchange how much we gave the schools continually and that has contributed to what we consider a school deficit? That we’ve just just not adequately leveled out that pie for what that they need?
I feel like, what I’m understanding, trying to follow all of the complexity of what I’m learning, is that part of the reason the this number for the school seems so big… is because we have funded it with a lot of soft monies or not always given it the funding it’s needed and we’ve sustained this underfunding of it and we call that a school deficit. Now of course, there are rising needs as well, and that’s also true for any department in the city. And, I think you’re also probably right that sometimes there’s been disproportionate rises to the needs and there’s been changes of laws and changes in the ways we educate, but I really struggle to understand what is tying our hands to call this a school deficit rather than . . . an inadequate division of the resources to manage these two branches of our government and a sustained underfunding of one of them., Is there a policy that requires that? Are we following some policy?
Alex Jarrett: Well, I would turn that to Finance Director Nardi, who is very familiar with our fiscal policies.
Finance Director Charlene Nardi: Say that again, I’m sorry.
Alex Jarrett: Council Rothenberg is asking is there is a particular fiscal policy that . . .
Quaverly Rothenberg: Is there a particular fiscal policy that requires us to carry over an underfunding of the schools rather than resetting it and just putting an end to this deficit? I mean, why do we carry forward this assumption that every year . . . the pie of city resources will be divvied up the same way and that the schools will always carry forward this deficit?
Finance Director Charlene Nardi: So, the structure of the government is that the city… is that the schools are a department of the city, just like all the other departments, and they are treated the same as the other departments in the sense that they have to fit within the fiscal constraints that the city operates under. Therefore, similarly, if another department suddenly had expenses that were too high, the mayor would sit down and say, “We need to stay within this budget range in order to fit within the fiscal constraints that we have.”
Quaverly Rothenberg: Where does that range come from? Why is it not set anew every year? It seems like it’s carried over from year to year.
Finance Director Charlene Nardi: It is set. It’s based on the tax revenue that we are allowed to get every year. I mean, how much more taxes… I apologize, I’m having trouble seeing everything.
Quaverly Rothenberg: I feel like . . .
Finance Director Charlene Nardi: It’s not your fault. So, our revenue and expenses: the first thing you do is look at how much revenue you have, and that’s what we do every year. Then the first thing the mayor does is give the percentages to the schools so that they can figure out their budget.
Quaverly Rothenberg: I guess that’s my question. Where does that percentage, that assumption of what the schools are going to get, come from? I understand there’s a cap on the overall pot for the city, but I don’t understand why there’s an assumption about how it’s divvied up between the school committee and the mayor’s running of our city services. Where does that presumption come from?
Finance Director Charlene Nardi: Well, I think it’s the fact that we have a limited fund, so she gives them a higher percentage and then keeps everybody else lower.
Quaverly Rothenberg: Okay, so there’s no policy, I guess, is the answer.
Finance Director Charlene Nardi: There’s no policy that says you’ll use 4%, 3%, 2%, but we are capped at 2.5% for Proposition 2½. So we know what our increases are for revenue, and therefore we give the largest pie to our schools and then use the rest of that for the city departments.
Quaverly Rothenberg: Okay, and so it’s just at the discretion of the mayor every year.
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: So, prior to the fiscal stability plan, I wasn’t—this is, you know, over 10 years ago—but I believe that sort of every department, including the schools, would be given sort of a percent. Now, since the fiscal stability plan, the schools are guaranteed a higher percent, and then the rest of the departments are kept to a lower percent.
Quaverly Rothenberg: I’m just asking, when you say fiscal stability plan, is that the name of our policy? Is that financial policy?
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: There is a financial policy that goes with it.
Quaverly Rothenberg: So, what you’re—I’m just asking just before you continue explaining because I’m interested in this explanation—is what you’re about to explain to me a policy that we are following?
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: It is a policy of the fiscal stability plan that, since it has been enacted and as long as we have overrides that fund it, it guarantees a certain percent increase for schools. So, I have personally guaranteed a 4% increase. For the previous 10 years, it was often—it was not less—well, one year was 2.98%, but it was generally around 3 to 4%. But I have guaranteed a 4%
Quaverly Rothenberg: As a minimum. Is that what you mean by guarantee?
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: Yes, that’s correct. Start with 4%, even though, as Dr. Nardi said, we can only increase the levy by 2.5%.
Quaverly Rothenberg: Okay, thank you.
Marissa Elkins: Council Jarrett, I assume we’re not taking questions from the audience or further public comment, are we?
Alex Jarrett: That’s correct.
Marissa Elkins: Thank you.
Video Time Stamp: 3:30:08
Alex Jarrett: Other questions? Does anyone who hasn’t spoken from the council wish to speak?
Quaverly Rothenberg: I’d like to make a motion to recognize member Stein. I see his hand is raised.
Alex Jarrett: A motion has been made. Is there a second?
Marianne LaBarge: I’ll second that.
Alex Jarrett: The motion was made by Councilor Rothenberg and seconded by Councilor Maiore. Let’s do a roll call vote on recognizing Member Stein.
Councilor Elkins: No
Councilor Jarrett: No
Councilor Klemer: No
Councilor LaBarge: Yes
Councilor Maiore: Yes
Councilor Moulton: No
Councilor Perry: No
Councilor Rothenberg: Of course
Councilor Dubs: Absolutely
Alex Jarrett: Motion fails. Other questions?
Deborah Klemer: Yes, a question and a comment.
Alex Jarrett: Could you turn your mic on? Thank you.
Deborah Klemer: My video too is not on because I got booted again. Yeah, I just—looking over all this, I see that the number of students in the school has gone down. I think 9% over 10 years. I don’t know if that’s the right number, but I’m just curious why, with less students and more money, there’s still a huge deficit with the schools.
You would think, you know, you’re supplying a service to less people, and they still say they need more help and more funds but there are many less students. So, could somebody just clarify what the issue is?
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: I apologize that I did not hear all of what you were saying because I was moving the podium.
Video TIme Stamp: 3:32:29
Deborah Klemer: In a nutshell, I could—just that, you know, the number of students in the school over the last 10 years has decreased by, I don’t know, 7% or 9%, and, but they’re getting much more money now. I know there are more issues because of COVID and all that, but you’d think at some point it would level out since there are many less students now.
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: So, I mean, I can’t answer that. I do . . . needs are absolutely higher in education across the board. That might be a question for Dr. Bonner when she’s here for her budget hearing, since I’m not in the schools myself working daily. She may be better able to answer that.
Deborah Klemer: Okay, thank you.
Alex Jarrett: I just wanted to comment on my vote on not recognizing Member Stein. I feel this is our time to talk with the mayor and among ourselves. There will be public hearings coming up, and of course, at any time, people can send in information to the council as well to answer questions. We have quite a bit of time before we make our final decisions.
Marianne LaBarge: Thank you. This is for the mayor, please. A lot of my residents and people I know in the city, and I am asking you also, why has 250 of our students left our schools and going into charter schools or whatever? What’s the problem here? Can you help me with that? Because everybody’s asking me why, They’re not hearing it. They’re not hearing it from the school committee or us, and I’d like to know what the problem is.
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: I can’t answer that question really for you. I’m actually not sure that there are more students in charter schools now than there previously had been. There’s a chart somewhere that I will find and try to send to you.
Marianne LaBarge: I appreciate that.
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: We . . . as you well know, the charter sending tuition and the impact on the general fund has been a massive issue for Northampton for many, many, many years. We are . . . although we don’t have a charter school in Northampton, we are surrounded by them. We are a community that is highly educated and is able to access and navigate those sorts of choices. Some families choose to send their kids to charter schools, and we also have a lot of private schools in this area. So this is something that I often talk to our state legislators about. It is a huge issue for Northampton.
One of the struggles on getting this formula changed or getting some work on this at the state level is that not every community is impacted in the way that Northampton is. There are many communities that have zero impact from charter school sending tuition. We are just very much impacted. It’’s almost $3 million this year One year, Mayor Narkewicz, as he talked about in his budget message, put it in a way that was so striking to me, which was that year he said that the amount of money going out in charter sending was equal, I think, to the entire budget for Bridge Street School. So it was the equivalent of one of our elementary schools. It is a huge amount of funding that leaves the district.
Marianne LaBarge: Because Again, today, I heard the same thing again: why are they leaving? That’s a big question.
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: They have the choices to do so. I don’t think we’re at, like, an all-time high for charter, for kids going to charter, but I’ll double-check. I think there have been times when we had more students.
Marianne LaBarge: What about school choice?
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: People choosing in or choosing out? Students choosing out of Northampton you mean? These are good questions for Dr. Bonner . . . I think . . . we do have decreasing school choice coming in . . . meaning less students are choosing in . . . I’m not sure that we have more choicing out. There are . . . One of the things that I think is interesting for the strategic planning committee to look at is the impact of other districts making bold choices around their schools and what they want them to look like. For example, Easthampton has a new school . . .
Marianne LaBarge: I saw.
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: We used to have more East Hampton students who choiced into Northampton, but now they have a very modern building and different choices. So, I think it’s one of the things to look at in terms of strategic planning—how we stay competitive and, most importantly, how we best serve our students here.
Video Time Stamp: 3:37:58
Marianne LaBarge: Also another question is about giving the pink slips. Is it 40 positions or 20?
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: It’s 20
Marianne LaBarge: It’s 20
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: Right.
Marianne LaBarge: How many part-time staff, mayor, are actually going?
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: Again, this is a question for Dr. Bonner. Those are not things I’m involved with.
Marianne LaBarge: The office gave me a list, when I’m hearing 40, but I’m not being told that by the business office.
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: These are also . . . they legally or contractually have to submit those by a certain time. So, that’s why they went out even before the budget had been set. They had to do it by that time. But I believe it’s 20 positions being reduced, but the other 20, as you heard tonight, are having involuntary reassignment within the district.
Marianne LaBarge: I just thought it was very heartful to see that girl crying like that. It was right in her heart how much she loved her job.
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: Absolutely,
Marianne LaBarge: It was really sad.
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: Dr. Bonner could answer more specific questions about that.
Marianne LaBarge:They did well when I talked with them in the business department. Yeah, but I’m hearing 40 positions. I heard that again tonight, and I’ve been told 20.
Alex Jarrett: And if I could ask a follow-up on that, with this proposed budget, are we—do we—will we perhaps see changes to that, or is that something that
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: I would imagine you would see changes to? Yes, yes.
Alex Jarrett: It would be the superintendent and the school committee who will make those choices?
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: Yes and I don’t know if Dr. Bonner will be able to come prepared for the budget hearing with some updated information based on the budget presented tonight.
Marianne LaBarge: Thank you very much.
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: Sure.
Video Time Stamp: 3:40:08
Quaverly Rothenberg: I just wanted to make a comment on that topic for the mayor. We did hear from the public tonight. Someone pointed out that . . . the fact that the pink slips go out so early, before you’ve released your budget, is really hard on the community when you end up coming to a higher number than you were forecasting at your first look.
I wonder if there’s a way for that number you give us at the first look to really be your best offer, not just your first offer. These shouldn’t be seen as settlement discussions between lawyers; these are people with jobs. I think we should have an honest number about where you’re going to land as early as possible so that we’re not sending out pink slips to people who we might lose because they can’t keep going through the stress of being laid off and then rehired. We really need to minimize the number of pink slips that go out every year as much as we can.
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: I agree, we should. That’s exactly why, two years ago, I said this . . . the path we’re going down is a very dangerous and devastating one, and not one that I can support. Because I value people’s jobs and their sense of continuity and stability. I don’t control the pink slip situation for the schools or when they go out. I also couldn’t control . . . I had no concept of what the school committee was going to do with their budget.
Video Time Stamp: 3:43:31
Alex Jarrett: Any other questions or comments?
Quaverly Rothenberg: Are you planning any operational audits or anything on the City side, that would be similar to sort of the strategic planning you’re asking the schools to do? Are you entering into any kind of strategic planning to see how you can run a leaner city services side of the Government?
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: I never asked the schools to do a strategic planning process; Dr. Bonner initiated that process and wanted to do it.
Quaverly Rothenberg: I guess what I’m referring to is your request that they stay within their fiscal boundaries. Are you doing anything on your end to see if you can reduce costs and if you’re running as efficiently as you can be?
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: As I stated in my budget message, Director Nardi and I went through the budgets multiple times and then made the departments do further reductions to their budgets and scaled them back, particularly in OM many times.
Quaverly Rothenberg: So no, there’s no long-term sort of auditing…or long-term strategic planning on your end, just a year-by-year asking for reductions? Multi-year budgetary planning…
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: So, Council hires an outside auditor. We also have, as you know, the auditing office in the city, and the rest of the departments haven’t created deficits; they have stayed within their budgets.
Quaverly Rothenberg: OK well my question wasn’t…on the premise of there having to be a created deficit. I was just asking if you’re looking at running leaner. We all know that Proposition 2½ really ties us in, and we have to run a leaner and leaner government all the time.
Finance Director Charlene Nardi: Just to be clear, we do operate leaner every year. The OM budgets are not increasing. If you look at them this year, they are operating leaner, and we’re asking more of them each and every year with less money for those OM budgets. So, every year, we push our departments to run leaner – give us more for less, the same as we ask of every city department.
Quaverly Rothenberg: I just want to make a comment to the council. I have been checking to see if our auditor has been certified yet by MMAAA. To date, I have not received any certification. Also, that our independent—
Alex Jarrett: I don’t think this is relevant.
Quaverly Rothenberg: It is relevant because an auditor would be doing this kind of work, and she—the mayor—just pointed out.
Marissa Elkins: Point of Order
Alex Jarrett: We have a point of order raised.
Quaverly Rothenberg: I’m switching topics to our independent auditor. Would that be acceptable,
Marissa Elkins: Point of Order
Alex Jarrett: Counselor Elkins. When you raise a point of order, the counselor gets to speak immediately. Go ahead.
Marissa Elkins: I believe that the discussion that’s on the floor is the budget. Any questions about the auditor is simply not relevant to this discussion.
Alex Jarrett: I agree
Quaverly Rothenberg: Can I finish the response about the independent auditor, since that was part of the answer?
Alex Jarrett: Sure.
Quaverly Rothenberg: I just want to note that our independent auditor, unless specifically contracted to do an operational audit, doesn’t do that type of work. He just does sort of a…you guys all saw what he does when he came in at your meeting. He just sort of, sees if you can stay running for another 12 months, sees if the assets we’ve reported are really there. It’s sort of a certification of what’s going on, but it’s not actually an analysis of whether you’re running efficiently. So I just wanted to make that distinction. It could, though. I would be very interested in hiring Scanlon to do that kind of work for us. He has done it from time to time on a contract basis. I think we should explore it.
Alex Jarrett: Thank you. Councilor Elkins, did you have your hand up?
Marissa Elkins: No.
Alex Jarrett: Okay, any other questions or comments?
Video Time Stamp 3:47:02
Rachel Maoire: Yes, I just wanted to kind of—and when we get into the public hearings, I’m probably going to talk a little bit more about this—but it’s been a really rough few months. I appreciate you responding as you have so far. Mayor, you know it’s a lot to digest so I’m glad we have more to our process, you know there’s a lot of topics have come up in the community, and in op-eds. Some of them are probably important to review—how we got here . . . but I’m really hoping as a community we can hit the reset button. One thing all those conversations were doing was changing the subject. The subject should be, if we’re talking about the schools, should be the schools and what’s the impact on the ground. What will our schools look like with different budget scenarios?
So, I’m hoping we can use this time to really get back to compassion, collaboration. I’ll be looking . . . as I say . . . I haven’t really gone over it, I’ll be looking particularly with the school budget, to see how it impacts the students. Because I think….we do not want to add insult to the injury of the pandemic. And every year, we cannot endanger a year in the life of our school children for anything. That’s just not tenable. What that means? We need to talk to the superintendent and have our budget hearings. So that will be what I’m looking for. But kind of compromising a year of our education in any significant way is just not the answer. I’m hoping we can find the answer together moving forward.
Video Time Stamp: 3:49:06
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: Thank you, Councilor Maiore, because you brought up something that I’ve mentioned to the Council President. I don’t know when you’ve looked through the budget in the past, the actual information that you have about the schools, from, you know, that the schools give to me to provide…is pretty scant. It’s not a lot of information; it’s much less than the School Committee gets. We get a budget book . . . and we can scan that budget book and give it to you.
Now, I have to caution that it was created by Dr. Bonner and the business manager based on her first view budget, so it’s not going to match,, but it will show you the cost centers, the schools give you a lot more background information. Since you are delving into this in a way that you don’t normally do, I’d be happy to scan and provide you my budget book… because this . . . there’s very little information in here, so If the Council would like that, I’m happy to do that.
Rachel Maoire: Thank you.
Alex Jarrett: Are we feeling ready to bring this discussion of this divided motion to a close? Would anyone else like to speak?
Quaverly Rothenberg: About the pilot announcement that you made, I think pilot programming, if it were in place, would be closer to $6 million, right? And we’re talking about $250,000 a year. Can you fill us in on any discussions around that larger goal in terms of piloting and how that went?
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: Right so, let me be clear: this is not a pilot. I had asked for a pilot, but it was not a pilot. This is another one-time gift over two years, which is why I said that while I .. while grateful for it, I have asked President Willie-LeBreton to continue this conversation and see if we can come to a place where there is a recurring amount that would be more like a pilot.
Quaverly Rothenberg: She was receptive to that?
Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra: She is a wonderfully receptive person in general. I think she’s expressed a lot of interest and warmth towards Northampton and the community, and wanting to be a good partner and neighbor in the community, in a way that has felt new to me. She has really wanted to talk about – she reached out early, and we have had many more conversations than I’d ever previously had, and wanted to talk about issues that were happening in Northampton, important in Northampton, wanted to talk a lot about housing. Wanted to see where our interests and concerns sort of dovetailed, and how we could partner on things like that. So I think she is interested, I don’t know if we will come to a place where they would do a pilot, but I’ve made very clear that some sort of recurring annual amount is what really is needed.
Alex Jarrett: Thank you. OK. Seeing that, we will bring the divided motion to a close. Councilor Maiore will take over. Thank you.
Next discussion: Opt-In