More news from last night’s meeting
Jun 26th, 2008 by Paul Leighton
There was a lot going on at last night’s City Council meeting, and not many people there to watch it. By the time the finance committee made its vote on the school budget, at about 10:30 p.m., there were literally no members of the public in the audience at City Hall. Just councilors, city officials, two reporters and a cable TV person.
Here are some notes from the meeting that didn’t make it into today’s Salem News:
– Mayor Bill Scanlon agreed to lower the inspection fee charged to owners of multi-family buildings from $250 to $200. The inspections are required once every five years. The fee was $75, but Building Commissioner Steve Frederickson said the inspections weren’t being done due to lack of manpower. He raised the fee to $250 in order to help pay for a new inspector’s position.
Some councilors objected to the increase, in particular Ward 3 Councilor John Burke, who said the fee was essentially going from $0 to $250 because the inspections haven’t been done for years. “I think it’s unfair,” he said.
Scanlon said the push for the inspections was triggered by last December’s fire at 390 Cabot St., which was caused by faulty electricial repairs that had never been inspected.
“It’s essential that we get on with doing this because one day there will be something terrible that happens,” Scanlon said. “We’ve seen neighboring communities that have had fatalities in fires. We’ve been very fortunate.”
– Scanlon, Finance Director John Dunn and City Council President Tim Flaherty all countered a point made by some school supporters at Monday’s hearing who noted that the “general government” line in the budget had gone up 12.6 percent. Scanlon said that has gone up so much because about $600,000 is being kept in the “reserve for unforeseen” account, and half of that money is being allocated to the schools.
– Will the full council support the finance committee’s recommendation (by a 2-1 vote) to cut the trash fee from $100 to $80? If you’re keeping score at home, Flaherty and Don Martin voted for the cut last night, and John Burke suggested slicing it back to the original $75. Judith Cronin, Kevin Hobin and Bill Coughlin said it should stay at $100. Wes Slate and Pat Grimes didn’t say either way, and Maureen Troubetaris was absent.
– The finance committee made only one cut last night, chopping $10,000 from a $25,000 budget line to pay outside clerical help to take minutes at all board and commission meetings. That was an $18,000 increase over last year. Scanlon said it’s an effort to get the meeting minutes recorded in a more timely fashion and posted on the city’s Web site.
“One objective I have in the back of my mind is to shine our Web site up a little bit,” Scanlon said.
Cronin said members of the committees could take the minutes themselves. Scanlon agreed to cut the budget by $10,000.
– Councilors noted the many complaints they hear about the condition of the streets. Scanlon promised help is on the way. He said the city has about $1 million worth of “Chapter 90 money” — money from the state to pay for paving — that the city is about to spend.
“It won’t solve everything, but you’ll see a significant amount of paving being done this summer,” he said.
– Scanlon said not all is doom and gloom on the revenue side of the budget. He said the senior apartment complex proposed for Conant Street would bring in $250,000 in taxes for the city. He also said the city has gotten “several” offers for the McKay School that were higher than the previous two offers of $1 million and $600,000.
“We’ve got to be careful not to look at the dark side or the bright side of everything,” he said. “It’s a mixed package.”
