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Politics & Government

$129 Million Budget to Go Before Full Council

Committee cuts about $90K out of budget amid escalating tensions between Mayor Driscoll and several councilors.

The Council's Committee on Administration and Finance completed weeks of review on the proposed 2012 city budget Tuesday night. The committee cut about $90,000 out of the mayor's $129,083,585, said Jason Silva, Mayor Kimberley Driscoll's chief of staff.

Some of those cuts, including reductions in proposed pay increases for several department heads, may be restored by the full council when it meets to approve the budget tommorrow. The council could also make other cuts.

Amid tensions between Driscoll and several councilors over the budget, Ward 5 Councilor John Ronan continued his campaign to limit raises for city employees to 2 1/2 percent. He persuaded a majority of the committee to cut the proposed pay raise for Personnel Director Lisa Cammarata by $1,777 and for Parking Director James Hacker by $2,738.

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Ronan said the city should not be giving out large raises when the economy is still struggling. He noted that other cities like Beverly and Peabody are not giving employees raises this year.

Councilor-at-Large Thomas Furey disagreed with Ronan's cuts.

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“This is just wrong,” he said.

The mayor said she has proposed pay increases higher than 2 1/2 percent for some department heads that have been underpaid according to a recent salary survey of surrounding cities.

“We have an opportunity to put ourselves in a position to retain some good people,” Driscoll said.

She praised both Cammarata and Hacker. For Hacker, she said, his department brings in more than $2 million for the city. “He's out there working on Sundays and Friday nights,” she said.

Ronan failed to win a motion to eliminate $10,000 from the parking department's budget that is allocated for a shelter over the pay machines at a lot on Church Street. The councilor objected to the expenditure because it was included in a line item that was labeled “miscellaneous office supplies," he said.

He suggested that it was an attempt by the mayor and finance director Richard Viscay to hide the expenditure.

Viscay admitted it was a mistake and apologized for the error. When Ronan persisted in trying to remove the $10,000 from the budget, Viscay bristled, saying “It is disheartening to pick on one error in the budget and accuse us of being disingenuous.”

Ward 6 Councilor Paul Prevey, who voted with Ronan to limit the pay increases, opposed eliminating the funds for the shelter because it is needed, he said. Lot patrons complain that in rainy or snowy weather, they have trouble using the cash and credit card machines because the money and cards get wet, Hacker said.

Originally Hacker had proposed building three shelters for parking lots, but the cost estimates were too high to do them all in one year. So only the double pay machine at the Church Street lot will get a shelter this year, if it is approved by the full council.

The committee also approved another $10,000 to clean and paint the stairwells at the Museum Mall lot, which he said was used last winter as a restroom.

The mayor and Ronan also disagreed over his statement that the cities of Beverly and Peabody, which are about the same size and have the same demographics as Salem, operate on budgets that are a third less than Salem's.

“It is unfair and untrue to say our budget is one third larger than Beverly and Peabody,” the mayor said.

Ronan said he had read details about the other cities' budgets in the newspaper.

The mayor offered to send him a copy of the memo she wrote last year when he raised the issue. That memo to the council said the difference between Beverly's and Salem's budgets was $3.5 million.

In that memo, the mayor wrote: “Clearly, there is not a 20 million dollar difference in expenses between the two communities – I hope we can agree on that.”

The mayor and Ronan also did not see eye to eye on the water and sewer department's $6,000 a year copy and scanning machine.

“For $500 a month, you can lease a Mercedes,” Ronan said.

The mayor responded: “But will it copy?”

“No,” Ronan said. “But it will drive you someplace.”

His effort to cut $1,500 out of the budget for the copier failed.

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