By Adam Swift
The city council approved holding a public hearing on its ordinance related to financial impact studies at its meeting last week.
Ward 3 Councillor Anthony Cogliandro requested the ordinance change that would increase the amount of money that triggers a financial impact statement on a finance request from the city from $5,000 to $10,000.
“Councillor (Anthony) Zambuto put this ordinance in over 20 years ago, and if it was $5,000 back then, I think we should bump it up to $10,000,” said Cogliandro. “Things are more expensive, and frankly, I’m sick of having to come up and say, did we do a financial impact study on this?”
Zambuto said he agreed with Cogliandro about revising the ordinance.
“I might even want to go to $15,000, because it was 20 years ago,” said Zambuto.
In other council business, Ward 5 Councillor Angela Guarino-Sawaya introduced a motion requesting the fire department explore the feasibility of equipping all department vehicles with EpiPens. In addition, he asked that the city administration explore the availability of state or federal funding to offset the cost of purchasing and maintaining an EpiPen supply.
Guarino-Sawaya noted that the request for the motion came from a Revere resident.
“Given that firefighters are often the first on the scene for emergency calls, and considering the documented delays in ambulance response times that we have actually seen in the city of Revere, having EpiPens readily available could become the difference between life and death for residents,” said Guarino-Sawaya. “We’ve seen that happen recently that … the firefighters came first and they had to wait for the ambulance, which took a lot of time and they could have died.”
Councillor-at-Large Juan Pablo Jaramillo said he supported and wanted to be included on the motion, noting that his wife has a peanut allergy and often goes out without an EpiPen.
“It is a matter of public safety, and I really appreciate the thoughtfulness (in the motion),” said Jaramillo.
