By Adam Swift
The City Council approved a $262,136,012 Fiscal Year 2024 operating budget on Monday night.
The vote comes after two weeks of council ways and means subcommittee meetings with city department heads.
The final figure is $10,000 less than the proposed FY24 budget presented to the council by Acting Mayor Patrick Keefe.
There were several motions to cut or reduce budget line items at Monday night’s full council meeting, but the only one that passed muster was a $10,000 reduction in the Recreation Department’s salary line item. That cut reduced the salary of a new assistant director position for the department which has yet to be filled.
“The budget we’ve proposed to the City Council is responsible, balanced, and continues initiatives that benefit all Revere residents, employees, and business owners,†stated Keefe when he presented the budget. “Most important, the budget reflects our goals to invest in public safety, public works, health and human services, and culture and recreation.â€
Keefe noted that the budget includes key investments in public safety, including increasing staffing for the police and fire departments.
In the Health and Human Services Department, Keefe said the budget absorbs the Community Engagement and SUDHI Departments into the Public Health’s budget to create a streamlined organizational structure with program managers and staff reporting directly to the Chief of Health and Human Services.
The budget also included increased funding for the public library and an aquatics program for the recreation department.
The Revere Public School’s portion of the budget came in at $121,711,646, with Revere’s share of the Northeast Regional Vocational district budget coming in at an additional $2,293,918.
While the $10,000 cut to the Recreation Department payroll was the only proposed cut to win full council approval, there were several proposed cuts that stirred debate among councillors on Monday night.
The largest of those proposals was put forth by Ward 2 Councillor Ira Novoselsky, who introduced a motion to cut the school department budget by $1,775,575, a motion which he said would create a level-funded services budget for the department.
While the City Council does not have the authority to cut specific line items from the school budget, Novoselsky said his intent with the cut was not to impact student education, but to have the $1.7 million cut from the school department’s transportation budget.
“You are able to make the cut if you like, but the calculation that is before you is what we believe to be the number to make us meet the net school spending minimum requirement,†said Richard Viscay, the city’s chief financial officer. “If you do happen to cut this budget, we run the risk of not meeting our net school spending minimum requirement.â€
Novoselsky was the only councillor to vote to cut the school budget.
Ward 6 Councillor Richard Serino presented several proposed budget cuts that also failed to garner the necessary majorities.
He sought to cut the $100,000 communications line item in the budget for the mayor’s department. The majority of that amount is earmarked for a communications consultant for the office, Viscay said.
While the council has the authority to not appropriate money for contracted services, Viscay noted that the city was in the third year of a three-year contract with the communications consultant, and that it was not best practice for the city to defund a previously signed contract.
Serino also sought to cut $25,000 from an employee recognition and incentive program in the Human Resources budget. City officials noted that some of that money was being set aside to help cover the costs of public works and water department laborers to earn their CDL licenses.
Councillor-at-Large Anthony Zambuto stated that he was frustrated that the CDL license fees were not listed in the budget description for the line item. He said he appreciated the opportunity for DPW employees to be reimbursed for program costs, but would have liked the line item to be less ambiguous about the proposed uses.
Serino said he was also a little taken aback by the reimbursement being included in an employee recognition and teambuilding line item.
“I think you need to have an account number specifically for professional development or reimbursements of licenses or training,†said Serino.
Serino’s proposed cut to the HR budget failed by a 5-4 vote, with Councillors Gerry Visconti and Dan Rizzo joining Serino and Zambuto in supporting the cut.
Zambuto also praised Visconti for his role in chairing the ways and means subcommittee, which held five hearings on the budget over the past two weeks.
The council voted 9-0 to approve the budget. Ward 5 Councillor John Powers was absent Monday night, and Keefe’s Ward 4 seat has been vacant since he took over as the city’s acting mayor.
