RI Board of Elections review ballots as candidates Pedro and Katzman look on.

Today's three-hour recount process at the RI Board of Elections (BoE) left the results of the Portsmouth Town Council race unchanged, as Liz Pedro (R) maintained a one-vote lead over next place finisher Len Katzman (D). At the end of the day, Pedro won by a count of 3791 to 3790 for Katzman.

"I congratulate Ms. Pedro on a good race and wish her well on the council," Katzman said in a statement sent to media late this afternoon. "I want to thank all those who voted for me, and thanks are due as well to the Portsmouth Democratic Party for their support of my candidacy. I am exceptionally pleased that Portsmouth Democrats won a controlling number of seats on the Town Council and accomplished a complete sweep of the School Committee races. Although I had hoped to serve alongside them, I am very satisfied with the overall result of the Portsmouth election. I wish all newly-elected Portsmouth officeholders the best as they take on the challenges of government for the next two years."

The recount process went smoothly, as the Portsmouth Canvassing team, led by Madeline Pencak, were assisted by BoE staffers in referring ballots through a half-dozen readers. Machines conducted most of the tally, with a handful of ballots from each district that had to be reviewed by a two-member panel of the Board of Elections. The entire process was supervised by Executive Director Robert Kando, who was was called on in at least one case to review a ballot.

Notable in the recount process were the ballots rejected for overvotes in the 4-year School Committee race, where a number of voters had marked four names.

The town of Portsmouth announced the upcoming budget schedule in an e-mail to news media this afternoon. All meetings take place at 7pm in the Town Council chambers except as noted.

April 30: Capital Improvement Plan
May 1: Police, Fire DPW
May 2: All other budgets
May 3 6:30pm Portsmouth Library: Council-School Committee budget collaboration workshop.
May 7: Budget Workshop Panel #3 - State Mandates - Pension Experience Study
May 14: Regular Town Council Meeting
May 15: School Budget and Adopt Provisional Budget
June 13, 7pm, Portsmouth Middle School: Public Budget Hearing
June 25: Council adopts budget

Editorial note: I'm intrigued (and mildly amused) that the kumbaya session between the Council and School Committee was scheduled for neutral turf at the Library. I guess it was either that or Fort Butts with brass knuckles...

Tomorrow night, June 22 at 7pm in the PMS theater, the Portsmouth Town Council holds the final public hearing on the 2011-12 budget, and everyone is encouraged to attend and weigh in on the the Council's proposal. You can read the top line here, or download the whole package from the Town web site.

If you've been following along, you know that this budget is not as bad as it could have been. If you support the schools and want to keep town services from being slashed any further, you might want to show up and thank the Council for their work.

I'm not saying this is a *good* budget, but remember, they have one more bite at the apple when they formally enact the ordinance next week. A word in their ear might help them resist when folks from the PCC get up and tell them to take that last opportunity to cut.

Update: Added time and location in lede. D'oh. Multitasking.

The Portsmouth Town Council, at their budget meeting this week, tentatively cut the line item for Director of Business development, a position with responsibility for attracting and supporting commercial activity in town. Bill Clark has held this part-time position for the past 8 years.

Reaction to the decision has been immediate from members of the Portsmouth Economic Development Committee (PEDC). Doug Smith authored a post on Portsmouth Patch, "Why is Portsmouth Self-destructing?" where he notes that Clark's role "represents just about the minimum that Portsmouth can do to be considered friendly to businesses." And Andrew Kelly has started an online campaign to e-mail the Council asking them to reconsider their decision. Nut graf from Kelly: "Given the increasing burden of taxes that fall on homeowners in this Town, is this decision to abandon business development in the best interests of your constituents?"

When contacted for an official response, PEDC Chair Rich Talipsky replied by e-mail, and it deserves quoting at length:

After provisionally approving the funding of Bill Clark as Portsmouth's Director of Business Development on May 11, the Town Council, apparently without any warning, decided to eliminate his funding at their budget meeting of May 19.

The PEDC intends to strongly recommend that the Town Council reconsider funding for the Director of Business Development in the Town FY 2011-2012 Budget.

Mr. Clark’s service in assisting the PEDC has been exceptional. His continued service as the Town’s Director of Business Development is vital to the economic health of the Town and essential to the continued effectiveness of the PEDC. The tax revenues provided by our businesses generate much more revenue to the Town than they command in Town services. This revenue is absolutely critical to the economic solvency of the Town. In the face of an erosion of the business tax base in the 1990’s from 18 percent to nearly 10 percent, the PEDC recommended the creation of a full-time Director of Business Development as an essential part of a strategy to mitigate the decline. The Town Council approved a part-time consultant position in 2002. In the selection process, the Town was exceptionally fortunate to find Bill Clark who had the knowledge, experience, and personality to take on the exceptionally challenging job. Bill Clark immediately established himself as the central point of contact for Town business development as an advocate of both current and prospective businesses.

Since 2001, the Town’s business tax base has steadied out at about 10 percent. The mitigation of the eroding tax base can be directly attributable to the PEDC becoming much more proactive in the activities that affect the business climate in Portsmouth. Although it would be naive to assume that the efforts of Bill Clark were sole contributors to the tax base stabilization, it is clear that Bill has been a critical element in the strategy of the PEDC towards the improvement of the business climate of the Town.

The value of a position like that of Director of Business Development is very hard to quantify in that it involves many activities on which no exact economic value can be placed. During his time as Director of Business Development, Bill has established himself as a trusted partner to Town businesses, the Town Staff, Boards and Committees, Newport County organizations such as the Aquidneck Island Planning Commission, Aquidneck Island Land Trust and Newport County Chamber of Commerce (which has continued to support Portsmouth despite their Portsmouth Town funding being eliminated in the current year’s budget) and State and Federal agencies. He has engendered support from local businesses and non-profit institutions (like the Portsmouth Abbey) in both monetary donations and use of facilities to host PEDC strategic planning events. Losing Bill would leave a void as he acts as a clearinghouse for business development issues and provides an exceptional array of services and information. He represents the Town at meetings with economic advisors at the State and National levels who are decision makers on funding programs and paths that provide needed additional revenue for the Town.

We feel that the position of Director of Business Development, and in particular the performance of Bill Clark in the job, is very critical to the long-term economic survival of the Town. He is the face of the motto that the Town displays – “Every Business Counts.” Portsmouth only gets one chance to make a first impression to gain a new business; we need Bill Clark to continue making this best possible first impression. The PEDC considers that the retention of Bill Clark in his position of Director Business Development is exceptionally important to our work.

Richard Talipsky, Chair. Portsmouth EDC

Full disclosure: I have covered PEDC meetings over the past few years, and I have great respect for both the work they do and for Bill Clark. I would recommend you take 30 seconds and send the Council an e-mail before Tuesday — you can do it with one click with Kelly's online petition.

So you...thought you...might like to...go to the show

The Portsmouth School Committee held a public forum on the school budget and contract at PHS last night where an audience of about 150 (mostly teachers) were kept at arms length for two hours.

Whether school committee chair Cynthia Perrotti intended it or not, the layout for the evening said everything: members of the committee were ensconced behind tables way up on the stage, with the three Republicans stage right and the three nominal Democrats on the left. Between them rose the enormous screen where vice-chair Jon Harris did his 20-minute PowerPoint routine. Teachers could only speak from the floor of the auditorium and were denied the opportunity to use the big screen. Perrotti graciously gave Joe Cassady, the president of the teachers' union, an extra couple of minutes at the mike, so he had 5 minutes to offer their side.

I half expected stagehands to come out with enormous cardboard bricks and begin to build a wall.

Harris spent his time waggling a laser pointer at pie charts and explaining why there was no money, blaming the S3050 tax cap and the funding formula, but neglecting to mention the advocacy by members of the school committee in opposition to last year's override referendum. Guess that didn't fit on the slide.

Harris outlined the same offer described in the school committee's release of last week, with more steps and lower increases, and urged the teachers to be grateful and compare themselves to "the unemployed person who's looking for a job."

"I don't understand what you don't get," he said to Cassady at one point.

"I can tell," Cassady responded.

Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying.

Harris also said that the teachers should be glad to work in Portsmouth because it "delivers to you children who are given something at home." When pressed, he clarified "I didn't say wealthy. I said we deliver a demographic. A socioeconomic standing in town" which he asserted "is a driver for test scores."

Oooh, ah. Mother should I build a Wall?

About two dozen teachers took their turn at the microphone, critiquing the nature of the forum, the public release of information last week, the salary levels on the proposed steps relative to other towns, their willingness to compromise, their feeling that the negotiations had not been "civil and ethical."

Did you ever wonder why we had to run for shelter when the promise of a brave new world unfurled beneath a clear blue sky?

PCC member Jeff Richard played the part of the surrogate band, and with a fine sense of audience, told the members of the local NEA "The problem is not you, the problem is your union," before going on to claim that "it's impossible to pay your taxes in town," and that this was just part of a "national movement" to question public-sector unions.

You'd better run.

Dave Croston made what I consider to be last night's most authentic contribution by the school committee. He pointedly came down from the stage, prompting a remark from Perrotti, and used the same microphone as the teachers, and he spoke from the heart.

"You guys are incredible," he said to the teachers. "This is not about you." And then he named the elephant in the room. "We tried to address this with the referendum last October." It might be time, he said to face the fact that "this town doesn't want to invest in education." He described the shortfall in the budget, and how the upcoming year was being balanced with the fund balance, and that while the $300K difference in salaries might be found in that fund, "If we use that $300K of one-time cash, it will never again be in our appropriation." He added, "We're in an impossible position here."

"I want to give $300K to teachers," said Croston. "I walked for a week to get $300K for teachers. We lost."

There must have been a door there in the wall, when I came in...

In my opinion, Croston is the only one on the committee with credibility on this issue. There are people up there who opposed the referendum last year, and now they sit, crying poverty as their excuse and demanding sacrifice.

It will be interesting to see what the committee's next move is. Will they even go back to the table, or opt to head straight for arbitration?

Perhaps, as Croston suggested, the only successful end game is another referendum. "I'm at your disposal," he said last night. But with the PCC faction on the Council and school committee, and the perpetual agitprop campaign run by the anti-taxers in town, I think everyone knows that would be tough.

After all it's not easy...Banging your heart against some mad bugger's wall.

Editorial note: I can't believe I got through an entire story using "The Wall" as an extended metaphor for a school committee meeting without using, well, you know which song. Heard melodies are sweet, u.s.w.

The Portsmouth Economic Development Committee (PEDC) has launched a new survey, looking for input on questions around financial options and choices for the town, according to a statement sent to local media.

The survey takes about five minutes to complete, and can be found on the home page of the PEDC Website.

Disclaimer: Written substantially from a press release.

By a 5-1 vote (with Dennis Canario absent, and Tailgunner Gleason the lone "no") the Portsmouth Town Council tonight approved the school committee's deficit reduction plan, including the use of one-time revenues to increase the bottom line by $380K and preserve student programs for this year.

The key question, which both Keith Hamilton and Council President Peter McIntyre asked the town solicitor, Andre D'Andrea, to weigh in on was the legality of the change. Once he answered in the affirmative, several on the Council seemed reassured.

Tailgunner had to ask a few questions and PCC, Inc. President Larry Fitzmorris was in the audience, pointing out to people nearby something in their referendum flier, but in the end, he did not raise his hand, and the vote proceeded.

I personally thanked the members of the Council for their votes, especially Huck Little, Jeff Plumb, and Peter McIntyre. Tonight, they did the right thing, and I thank them. And Hamilton and Jim Seveney, of course.

It is not much: The vote allows the schools to proceed to use up all their fund balance, drain the Medicaid account, ARRA funds, and sports gate receipts, but it preserves sports and a little more arts for this year. Next year, there will be a $980K hole to dig out of.

But for tonight, it is enough. Thanks to the Council for the courage to do the right thing.

Responding to the referendum vote that affirmed the budget set by the Council, at tonight's Portsmouth School Committee meeting, the administration delivered a set of expenditure reductions and use of one-time revenues to balance the budget for the 2010-11 school year. And for a while, it looked like they just might have found a solution: by expending all Medicaid funds, emptying the fund balance, using one-time ARRA money, and taking the gate receipts from football and basketball, it seemed that the committee might make it through this year (although it would mean starting next year with a $982,000 structural deficit.)

There was only one problem: the PCC said they can't use the funds.

You heard that right. Those funds that the PCC said the school committee "discovered," and which they used as evidence that the referendum was unnecessary?

The position taken this evening by Larry Fitzmorris, President of the PCC, was that adding those funds would be illegal.

Follow me down the rabbit hole, if you will.

The first action the school committee took this evening was to formally adopt the budget approved by the Council and affirmed by Portsmouth voters at the referendum. Update: To be very clear, the vote to accept the budget was unanimous, 7-0. Since that budget produced a deficit, the committee, as required by law, then considered a deficit reduction plan.

"When you see this plan," said school committee chair Dick Carpender, "There is going to be the utilization of one-time money." He warned that some people would jump to conclusions: "They're going to jump up and say see, they had the money all the time. But although this gets us through this year," said Carpender, "This has a tremendous impact on next year." What Carpender was trying to make clear is that this was not found money; this money was budgeted in successive years to address the loss of ARRA funding and the impending state funding formula cut.

But in order to maintain programs this year, the committee considered using the entire Medicaid balance ($140K), the entire fund balance ($116K) and the entire 2010 ARRA one-time funds ($124K), for a total of $380K of of one-time monies. That's a far cry from the $700,000 that the PCC "bag of rocks" flier asserted that the schools had "discovered."

School finance director Mark Dunham also outlined expenditure cuts: a $15K reduction to supplies, $50K for one less school bus, cuts to art and music, middle school and JV sports, and $290K in "contractual adjustments." Taken together, the added revenues and reduced expenditures would balance the budget. Carpender added to the mix the idea of using the gate receipts, which are earmarked for athletics, to preserve the PMS and JV sports programs.

Supt. Lusi warned the committee that this was cutting things very close. "I just want to respectfully submit that additional costs can come down the pike," she said."If the goal is to empty out every last plus, when the minuses come along they will become increasingly difficult, if not impossible to manage."

By a 6-1 vote, with Cynthia Perrotti the lone "no," the deficit plan was approved.

The next item was the legally required notification to the Town Council and the RI Auditor General of their deficit reduction plan. And that's where PCC, Inc. President Larry Fitzmorris objected. His position was that the use of one-time money was illegal.

"The town council sets your budget," said Fitzmorris. "You guys don't get to set the operational budget."

Carpender asked about the PCC position in the runup to the referendum. "If the argument was, 'you have the money,' and now, you're going to stand up there and tell me we can't do that, why did you spend the last three weeks telling everyone in the world we could do that?" Carpender pressed him. "Is it your suggestion that we cannot go to the Council and they cannot change it?"

"Absolutely you cannot," said Fitzmorris.

Carpernder indicated one of the PCC's fliers. "In all these advertisements, where you said, they have the money, now you're saying we can't do this?"

"You're breaking the law," said Fitzmorris.

If I understand his argument, Fitzmorris was saying that because the Town Council sets the bottom line budget for the schools, and because that budget had been positively affirmed by the referendum, the addition of one-time revenues which would exceed the approved number was unlawful. And since the schools are required to have a balanced budget, it appeared that the only way to balance the budget would be through cuts to get to the bottom line.

Supt. Lusi asked. "Are you saying that the revenue, that you and other people said we had, now cannot be used?"

"No," said Fitzmorris.

"Then walk me through the steps," said Lusi.

"We all recognize that this fiscal year is very difficult," said Fitzmorris. "The school committee does not operate in a vacuum. The municipal departments lost $1.4M from revenue. We are in a financial crisis. This year has been a real bad year. If the school department wishes to do so, the school committee can manage its cost structures. Labor and health care are rising a bit faster than your revenue is, that's the core problem," said Fitzmorris. "If the administration wishes to solve the instabilities, you have an opportunity to do that."

Did he answer the question?

I didn't think so. Lusi tried again.

"Respectfully, the argumemnt was put forward that the school department had revenues," said Lusi. "I read the results of the budget referendum as saying no more taxes, and that it was felt that we should use the money at our disposal. Clearly, from your perspective, I got it wrong again."

"I didn't say you can't use the one-time revenue," said Fitzmorris.

But he didn't say how they could, either.

The school committee voted, 6-0, to proceed with the deficit reduction notification. Cynthia Perrotti abstained, saying "I don't understand."

I'm not going to bother putting a disclosure on this post. You know I'm running for the school committee, you know I supported the referendum. And while I was disappointed with the result, and very concerned about what the use of one-time revenue would mean for the budget next year, I could understand people making the argument. Use the one-time funds now, get through the year. And if that's what the people of Portsmouth want, then the school committee and administration need to respond.

And they did. They came back with the best plan possible under the circumstances. It wasn't pretty. Any budget with a million-dollar structural deficit going into the next year is pretty awful.

But to go through all that, and then have the PCC stand up and say, no, wait, you can't use that money either. You need to cut the full $765K.

That's just not right. I do not believe that's what the people of Portsmouth thought they were voting for when they chose Option 1.

Update: Added a line emphasizing that the vote to accept the Town Council/referendum budget was unanimous, 7-0.

In a web newsletter this morning, the Rhode Island Statewide Coalition (RISC), the statewide affiliate of the Portsmouth Concerned Citizens (PCC), ran a celebratory piece on yesterday's defeat of the school budget referendum, spotlighting the PCC's work in defeating the measure, and attacking all the local Democratic candidates, as well as Portsmouth superintendent Susan Lusi.

The membership of the PCC voted unanimously on September 7 to oppose the Referendum proposal, and the taxpayers group subsequently launched a vigorous campaign to defeat the budget increase. The PCC cited the existing department surplus of approximately $1 million and the current recession as reasons to reject the proposal.

The Referendum was scheduled after a group of citizens, supporting a higher budget for the Department, successfully raised a petition of approximately 1,500 signatures to place the proposal on the ballot. If successful, it would have increased the school budget by $765,301. School Superintendent Dr. Susan Lusi led an extensive public campaign in support of the proposed budget increase, with all Democratic candidates for Council and the School Committee publically supporting the measure. Council member and candidate Dennis Canario originally proposed the Referendum to the Committee.— RISC newsletter, 10/6/10

The PCC like to talk about transparancy [sic], but they made their plan to defeat the referendum at a secret meeting to which only members are admitted and executed their "vigorous campaign" in the last weekend, offering no time for response or dialog.

Despite multiple debunkings of the "$1 million" surplus (see here, for example), they continue to use this talking point. And notice that they are now going directly after the Superintendent, Dr. Lusi, characterizing her attempts to set the record straight as an "extensive public campaign." Can there be any doubt now about the nature of the "management changes" the Republican candidates have called for?

Full disclosure: I am a Democratic candidate for Portsmouth school committee, and I supported the referendum.

By a 57-43% margin, the voters of Portsmouth defeated a referendum question which would have restored $765K cut from the school budget by the Town Council. Turnout was strong, with 3,888 votes cast, and the proposal to restore the budget lost by substantial margins in every precinct. Portsmouth Patch has the full breakdown.

I want to take this opportunity to thank Dave Croston and all the Save Our Schools volunteers who waved signs, carried petitions, honked horns, talked with neighbors, and, most important, kept telling the truth. We can hold our head high knowing that we did our best, and we took the high ground.

This was an amazing display of participatory democracy — the first referendum in Portsmouth history — and we should acknowledge and celebrate the work we all put in. I'm proud to have been part of this effort.

The voters of Portsmouth have spoken. Tomorrow, we will begin to move forward from here.

Be just, and fear not.