Portsmouth Economic Development Committee Chair Rich Talipsky e-mailed me this account of last night's financial workshop.

A Town Process in Action - Point, Counterpoint, and Civility in Action
Rich Talipsky

Nearly 50 people who represented a very broad spectrum of fiscal, political, and personal views gathered at the Portsmouth Multi-Purpose Senior Center for three hours on Thursday April 30 to have a Town meeting. The group was not going to solve all the Town’s financial problems, but it turned out to be a unique display of ideas and opinions.

On a level playing field were participants who ranged from ordinary citizens to Town Councilors and a State Senator, all with a mutual purpose of discussing “closing the gap.” The “gap” being a large postulated difference between the Town’s spending compared to revenues collected between now and 2020 if our traditional spending habits of the last ten years continued. The concept of “closing the gap” was to curb traditional spending increases while brainstorming ways to generate revenue to arrive at a balanced budget.

The open discussion, coordinated by the Portsmouth Economic Development Committee and guided by an independent facilitator, allowed everything to be placed on large newsprint charts around the room. There were some comments about the futility of trying to characterize some things as “essential” instead of “critical” or “routine” instead of “unneeded” with respect to the Town’s future. (They did do some “dotmocracy” that even seemed OK to some previous “dotmocracy nay-sayers.”) No, it wasn’t perfect and we didn’t come to agreement on contentious issues. But, in the end, and everybody stayed to the end, they all agreed that is was a healthy exchange of ideas and listening to each others points of view.

The PEDC will now embark on the task of putting everything that was said during the March 21 and April 30 workshop sessions into something that the 11,950 (or so) voters in the Town that didn’t participate can understand. The PEDC will be crunching the data at open meetings about every couple weeks. They will normally be held on Tuesdays or Thursdays at about 5 PM and the Portsmouth Abbey Fine Arts Building. The meetings will be posted at the Town Hall and the RI State e-town Crier at least 48 hours in advance of each meeting. They welcome all people who desire to be part of the “solution” rather than sitting back and continuing to be part of the “problem”.

By the way, the two workshops did not cost the Town a dime, since the PEDC got donations from local businesses to fund the workshops. The March 31st workshop will be aired in two parts on NCTV (Cox Ch. 18) starting the week of May 4 and the April 30 workshop soon afterwards.

Editorial note: I was planning to cover this, but at 6pm last night, I was elbow-deep in php at work. Sigh. Thanks to Rich for passing this along.

From Maddie_C (promoted from comments):

The council voted to table the issue until early May so that they can hear from their lawyer and maybe understand better what the state is going to do.

There was a lot of talk about what the council can and can't do under the law with a reference to Rhode Island general laws section 16-7-23 which says of the school department's surplus: "All state and local funds unexpended by the end of the fiscal year of appropriation shall remain a surplus of the school committee and shall not revert to the municipality." That, plus school department attorney Updegrove read a section from the town charter that says the council has the power: "To transfer appropriations within the Town budget (exclusive of the School Department budget) not to exceed the total appropriated."

Taken together, that makes it seem like the council can't vote to take the school surplus money, but Town Finance director Faucher said he had spoken to the town solicitor who said they could take the money. The solicitor wasn't there to address it.

So, that uncertainty along with the fact that they'll know more about what the state is doing if they wait a bit more leading to the motion to table.

From Terri Cortvriend:

The Town Council met with the School Committee this evening prior to the School Committee’s regular meeting to discuss the fate of a surplus of $217K on the school side from the end of the 07/08 fiscal year. The Town Council has asked the school department to turn over this money to close a projected gap in the Town's current budget, but the school department has factored this surplus into the budget it just submitted for the 09/10 fiscal year. There was a good turnout of parents in the Council chambers, many from Elmhurst who wanted to hear the discussion.

The legalities were discussed at length. Title 16-7-23 clearly states that the money is to remain under the school department’s operational control. It was put forth by the Town Administration that while the town council could not take the surplus, it has been advised by counsel that it can reduce the school department’s appropriation for this current fiscal year. The town’s solicitor was not present to speak to this but school department's lawyer, Mr. Updegrove, was on hand and read from our Town Charter language that would seem to prohibit the action the Town is requesting. He also challenged the wisdom of voting to make a decision that would put the school department in a situation that they may feel they have to challenge through the legal process putting the town back where it was after the Tent Meeting.

Councilors Jim Seveney and Dennis Carnario expressed concern over robbing Peter to pay Paul and questioned the legality of the action. School Committee Chair Dick Carpenter and Dr. Lusi suggested that it was premature to act on the request with so many unknowns on both the school side and the town side. They asked for the discussion to be continued until early June where everyone would have a better sense of where they were. Dr. Lusi and Mr. Carpenter both personally pledged a willingness to work with the Town Council and put forth the idea that with more time they may be able to meet the council halfway.

This observer sensed a desire on the part of most council members to work cooperatively or to at least put off an outright confrontation between itself and the school committee, with the exception of Councilor Karen Gleason who put forth a motion to reduce the school department's appropriation. She reminded the school department that times are hard and that they should acknowledge that programs will need to be cut and that it was time to get back to the basics "of reading and writing and arithmetic." She admonished the school department for not being thankful that the town has always been so generous to the school department and that because the town gave money to the schools back in 2005 to close the gap that Dr Lusi discovered when she first arrived on the job, now was the time for the school department to return the favor. In the end, Gleason never got her motion voted on; Councilor Huck Little made a motion to table the discussion until the council could hear directly from its legal counsel. The matter was continued until May 4th at 6:00 pm in advance of a Council budget meeting already on the calendar. Only one member of the public was permitted to speak last night but in the interest of time Mr. McIntyre told the others that the Council would hear from them at the next meeting.

This observer stayed for the school committee meeting that directly followed the highlight of which was the student spotlight shown on Caleb Hilyard, a second grader from Hathaway, who organized a funding raising effort called “Change for Change” that was successful in raising $4,150 that will be used to build a new house in Haiti. It sounded as if the whole school supported Caleb in his efforts and the fundraising was turned into a learning opportunity for the second grade as they graphed and charted the money being raised in the form of a model house that the kids could watch being built brick by brick as the money came in. Members of Caleb’s class were on hand to support and acknowledge his hard work. It was a very gratifying and uplifting to learn of the success of this project and be included as an observer in the celebration of Caleb Hilyard.

The rest of the meeting was short and pretty uneventful. Ms. Tague presented the February and March Financials and projected that while adjustments would need to be made from various lines to cover shortages overall the department was on track to complete the 08/09 fiscal year on budget and perhaps with a small surplus (Perhaps this will be $ that can be used by the town?????)

The SC ratified a contract for natural gas that is projected to save the school department approximately $67K in the next 2 years. The food service contract for the next four years was also awarded to Chartwell’s (our existing provider) with no discussion. Despite a late start the meeting was adjourned before 9:00pm.

Editorial note: Many, many thanks to both Maddie_C and Terri for pitching in with coverage last night.

Guestblogger (and recent Portsmouth Town Council candidate) Mark J. Katzman reports on last night's meeting.

Mark J. Katzman

Thanks to everyone who supported me. Now that the election is over, I will continue to do what I’ve been doing for 2-3 years now: Go to town meetings, pay attention, ask questions, offer helpful suggestions, and disagree publicly when appropriate.

And from time-to-time, with Mr. McDaid’s forbearance, I may report on a meeting. Here is a report about what I saw, heard, and said at tonight's Town Council meeting:

The agenda was thin for tonight’s meeting, the last of the 2006-2008 Portsmouth Town Council. There were about 14 people in attendance. The discussion was matter-of-fact and uneventful, and all votes ended in unanimous approval except for one item: The draft Mission Statement of the Portsmouth Arts and Culture Committee. Councilor Karen Gleason was against it, apparently because it included language reflecting a desire to identify potential new or old buildings that might be conducive to development into some kind of Arts & Culture center.

Our Arts and Culture Committee was created to be creative, to look into all possibilities and identify projects with reasonably good chances for achieving success. Because this committee has only had one meeting so far (during which the draft Mission Statement was approved for submission to the Council) no one on or off the committee knows if there are old buildings that might be conducive to conversion for such a purpose, and until we investigate further we don’t know if there are any sponsors, government agencies, or private organizations that might be willing to help.

Ms. Gleason spoke at length and said that it was "clear to me" that "the real agenda" is to try to build some new venue, probably with the need to put out a bond issue. She wanted the language in the Mission Statement to somehow rule out consideration of the use of any new building. No one on the Council responded to her remarks.

I rose and addressed Council President Canario. I said that I believed that Ms. Gleason’s reasoning was faulty. For example, suppose someone rose to request a new playground for one of our neighborhoods. We might ask: would the neighbors be willing to contribute? Are there government programs that might help, or private individuals or sponsors? Might we actually need a bond issue? Right now we don’t know the answers to any of these questions. And using Ms. Gleason’s reasoning, we would be prohibited to ask any of these questions because of the remote possibility that it might lead to spending some unknown (today) sum of money. Furthermore, the possibility of any spending actually happening without requiring the Council’s full knowledge and approval is ZERO. Therefore, I feel Ms. Gleason’s strongly voiced concerns at this time are entirely misplaced.

The council voted 6-1 vote in favor of approving the Mission Statement. Ms. Gleason was the lone dissenting vote.

Editor's note: Last night was one of those rare occasions where the School Committee and Council meet on the same night. Thanks Mark!