Santa and his helper distribute candy canes to members of the Town Council (Peter McIntyre, Jeff Plumb).

Santa was a little late arriving as the newly elected Portsmouth Town Council held their first official meeting tonight. The 60 people in attendance had already applauded the swearing in of probationary firefighters (William DePiero, Ryan Gill, Timothy Gumkowski, and Andrew Jones), Captain Michael O'Brien, and Lieutenant Kevin Jenks, all of whom were greeted with standing ovations.

Family and friends left after the ceremony, but about 35 people stuck around for this first official meeting of the new council, led by President Peter McIntyre and VP Huck Little. There was the familiar sound of sleigh bells and music — you've been hearing it all over town this week — and then Santa and his helper entered with a "Ho Ho Ho" and dispensed candy canes to the Council and audience.

There was a full agenda, and McIntyre seems to be the kind of president who will keep things moving along. He didn't cut off debate, but there was one point, in the discussion of the Portsmouth Redevelopment Authority, where PCC, Inc. President Larry Fitzmorris had his hand raised and McIntyre didn't call on him. In the last session, with a Democratic majority, Fitzmorris would typically wait at the podium to be recognized; last night, he lowered his hand and went back to his seat. It was one of those odd, only-Nixon-can-go-to-China moments.

The Council heard a status update on the Wind Turbine Generator from Gary Gump of the Sustainable Energy subcommittee, who noted that while all the site work has gone well, an issue with fabricating the frame of the nacelle has pushed the launch date out a month to February 11. Gump reassured the Council that there was no cost overrun, and the turbine would still make money for the town this year. "Income will not be negative," said Gump, explaining that recent Net Metering legislation would offset some of the revenue lost from the deferred launch. "Instead of projected $65K, we expect it will be between $25-35K," and he added that the manufacturer, AAER, was offering to put the cost impact of the delay "on the table" during contract closeout. Progress updates, as always, are available on the PEDC energy site.

The Council discussed and approved a proposal by VP Huck Little to explore an Island-wide council-of-councils, to explore opportunities for efficiencies. "This has nothing to do with regionalization," said Little, who proposed that two members from each of the Island's councils meet regularly. Tina Dolen of the Aquidneck Island Planning Commission rose to support the notion and also suggest participation in an February workshop at the RI League of Cities and Towns aimed at developing collaborative cost-saving ideas.

Rich Talipsky, chair of the Portsmouth Economic Development Committee (EDC), walked the Council through their annual presentation, and although the details haven't changed that much — commercial properties still account for only about 10% of the tax base, residential properties absorb $1.16 in services for every dollar they contribute in taxes — the big picture, given and the economic woes at the state and national level, was alarming, Talipsky said. He projected a widening revenue gap through 2020 unless action is taken.

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"This is clearly an economic crisis waiting to happen," said Talipsky. "In the short term, the town budget has very little discretionary spending." Recognizing this, Talipsky urged the Council to consider an town economic workshop "We have to do a zero-based budget review, find the things absolutely required to keep the town running properly." The EDC recommended, and the Council approved, a full-day budget workshop. The plan is to solicit private funds to bring in an outside facilitator to run the session in March as part of developing a long-range economic strategy. The full PEDC presentation is well worth reading. You can download it from the Town web site, or if you share my horror of frames and Java, you can just grab it here (621K PDF, right-click to save).

In other economically relevant news, the Council heard from Fred Faerber, the chair of the Portsmouth Redevelopment Authority (PRA), and voted to approve the formation of the new Island-wide group to deal with excessed Navy land on the west side. Similar measures are pending before the councils in Middletown and Newport, said Faerber. The new Aquidneck Island Re-Use Planning Authority will have representation from all Island communities, with Portsmouth's being the chair and vice-chair of the PRA. McIntyre complimented the work the PRA had been doing and supported the effort, noting that it meant "the three local communities are the ones that determine the fate of their cities and towns."

As promised in his first newspaper interview as Council President, McIntyre put a discussion item on the agenda to float the notion of a 3% spending cap and a freeze on town hiring. The two Democrats on the Council, Canario and Seveney, offered cautions. "I would like to see backup to say that 3% would maintain what the town currently has," said Canario, who worried that a hard cap could impact needed services such as DPW. A hard cap, Seveney argued, could unintentionally "lose sight of the implications of our decisions when we make a budget. That's my concern," he said. "We don't know what we don't know."

New councilor Jeff Plumb Plumb said the Council should be willing to explore the idea of attrition. "One way you reduce costs is not replacing people when they retire," he said, comparing it to downsizing in the private sector. "If we're going to reduce staff, we need to reduce staff," he said, citing an opening in the Department of Public Works (DPW).

"You can't compare the town to a business," responded Canario. "At some point, in the DPW when you're down a truck, that's a whole route that doesn't get plowed. It's a whole different scenario."

Then DPW director Dave Kehew took the podium to offer a perspective. "As far as our staff, we are minimally staffed to begin with," he explained. "Take snow — hiring a guy with a truck would cost us more money. In a big snowstorm, not only is the Deputy Director out plowing, but I'm out there as well."

Plumb said that he had only used DPW as an example. After the meeting, he joked with reporters, "I'm not going to get my road plowed, am I?"

McIntyre reassured the Council, and the public, that no hard cap had been implemented (indeed, no vote was taken) and that "Issues will all be addressed during the budget hearings."

In other business, the Council voted to advertise for a new Town Solicitor (deadline for receiving resumes and letters of interest is December 29). Former councilor and attorney Len Katzman urged the Council to "keep it local," saying that Portsmouth has some very good attorneys, and suggested that one criterion be someone who has "modern legal tools" like e-mail and electronic document prep, since that means "paying for less time."

The Council also approved a $20/year fee for overnight parking of horse trailers at Glen Farm, and decided to send two members, Seveney and Plumb, to the upcoming school department strategic planning session.

With the upcoming holiday break, the next council meeting will be January 12.