The Portsmouth Town Council this evening formally approved the budget for 2007-2008 in the amount of $38,442,817, a number which came within the Paiva-Weed tax cap, and yet managed to address the major concerns of the Prudence Island (PI) school (closing has been delayed), school warrants (approved for this year), civic support (most organizations got some additional funding), and even Hog Island solid waste (level funded, rather than cut.) How did they do all that?

There is this famous Sidney Harris cartoon, with two professors at a chalkboard full of equations, where one step is "Then a miracle occurs." The caption is one professor speaking, "I think you need to be more explicit here in step two." I got to the budget discussion fifteen minutes late, at 5:45, and I feel like that second professor. According to multiple sources, there was a lot of negotiating prior to the meeting, but the end result was a way to fund PI and support the warrants. (Although, according to several people who were there, Karen Gleason indicated that she didn't want to vote for the school warrant items, preferring the money to go to the Senior Center.)

Deputy Town Clerk Joanne Mower officially reads the Budget Ordinance.

But I'm just giddy that we actually have a budget in place, and sitting there, listening to the traditional reading of the ordinance, I felt myself physically relaxing. Yes, there was some quibbling tonight, but the description that Council President Dennis Canario offered of the process seemed spot on.

"We had our public meeting on June 20th," said Canario, "And we heard your concerns. What you saw here tonight was the Town Council addressing your concerns. We did what was in the best interests of the town as a whole, not any one agenda." I have to agree, and congratulate everyone involved.

Were there some fireworks tonight? Yeah, some, but nothing like what I was expecting. In discussing whether it would be possible to buy the three Police cars that the department needs, Tailgunner Gleason managed to blurt the following sentence: "We can't keep jeopardizing safety in this community over academics."

"Nobody's talking about safety here," retorted Jim Seveney. "We're trading off a new vehicle for higher maintenance." Indeed, as Chief Hebert pointed out, even with 3-year warranties, Police cars reach the end of their useful front-line life pretty quickly, and a three-year-old car with 90K miles is equivalent to a personal vehicle with 180K. Although the Council voted to only fund one new vehicle, Hebert was stoic about the result. "We knew we would have to change the way we do business," he said. "We're the Police; we take our marching orders and we do our job."

The council voted unanimously to fund a performance audit for the schools, and to level-fund Hog Island waste. Then, Jim Seveney proposed a scheme for allocating a $30K chunk across the civic support groups which had received only token funding in the first round. He proposed adding $1,000 to the Substance Abuse Task Force, and $500 to many of the "B" and "C" groups, with a few larger appropriations for East Bay Community Action Program ($8K), Newport County Community Mental Health($8K), and the Newport County Women's Resource center($3K). Oh, and an additional $1K for the Anthony House.

Gleason was fine with the money for Anthony House, but she tore into the big ticket items. "I know a lot about these agencies," she said. "They get an awful lot of funding. We're over the top here. Put it into the Senior Center and the Library."

Canario calmly asked, "You're recommending we do not fund mental health?"

Pete McIntyre jumped in. "East Bay Community Action — aren't they getting block grants? A lot of these organizations are double dipping." (To Mr. McIntyre's credit, when I asked him after the meeting if the Anthony House, owned and run by Church Community Housing which receives Federal housing money was also "double dipping," he said yes. I did not, however, hear him raise an objection to increasing their funding during the meeting. He may be commended for being intellectually consistent, but that was not reflected in his public comments this evening.)

After much discussion, the motion was made to take the $19K from the three organizations, give $10K to the Senior Center, and split the rest with the organizations three ways. Gleason was still opposed, "These agencies get millions and millions of dollars," she screeched, but her motion to only fund the Women's Resource Center was defeated, and the planned division of a third each passed.

There were a few miscellaneous items: new Jaws of Life, service on communications equipment, and an inflatable boat for the Fire Department. I'm glad to know they funded those things. Listening to Chief Lynch describe the two sets of Jaws the FD has now (the best of which, at 20-years-old is marginal but repairable, the other, 30-year-old unit isn't working properly) I really didn't care WHERE they found the money.

There were still about 25 citizens present when the budget discussion ended and the Council meeting itself began at 7pm. After the usual administrivia and reports (the most significant item was that there will be a special 1-hour focus on wastewater at the next Council meeting) they took up and passed the budget. PCC, Inc. President Larry Fitzmorris took the podium to complain that they did not include a full description of all the financial items being voted in the budget, as per Town Charter, but it was a seemingly minor quibble (Although, I'm sure that there was some rationale behind it. If only I were a member of the PCC, then I'd understand this stuff too...)

In the only other item of substance, the Council voted to have Town Solcitor Gavin work up language to support a new dock on the South-West side of Hog Island, where a resident requested our help in obtaining a Coastal Resources Management variance in exchange for allowing the Town to use the dock for access to the fire truck garaged on the West side of the island.

Future meetings: the August 1st public hearing on the development moratorium will be held at the Middle School (Preserve Portsmouth folks, mark your calendars!) and there was no word yet on whether the Target submission was substantially complete. Meeting adjourned when it was still light outside, which was very disorienting. I'm used to stumbling out into the parking lot, exhausted, in the middle of the night.

But sometimes, in Step 2, a miracle occurs.