The City Council’s Ways and Means Committee spent two spring sessions on money questions large and small: a $778,536 fire engine in March, and on Monday, April 13, an audit request it cut by more than 90 percent, $150,000 for a water and sewer department that had already blown through its emergency budget, and $40,000 in newspaper advertising that set off Councilor Peter Pietrantonio.
The audit
The administration asked for $115,000, then $107,000, for the annual outside audit, now done by Roselli Clark and Associates. Chief Administrative and Financial Officer Omar Boukili said the former firm, CBIZ, is gone: “We had a very difficult time buttoning up our FY24 audit, that took us five or six months on top of what it should have taken us.” Council President Stephanie Smith found about $98,000 already in the account, said the audit costs $107,000, and refused to park $205,000 in a line that past administrations had raided for legal fees. The committee amended the appropriation to $12,000 on a 4-0 roll call. Smith said she is “100 percent in favor of an internal controls audit” if the administration comes back with an invoice.
Water and sewer
Water superintendent Ernie Lariviere asked for $150,000 from retained earnings. “Presently, I have $520 in the emergency account,” he said. Two sewer collapses on Third Street, in front of United Rentals and near Collins Door, and one at 152 Hancock Street cost $192,000; a water main break on Beacham Street cost $39,000. Total emergency repairs this year: $303,000 against a $150,000 budget, covered by raiding his pipes-and-fittings line. The sewer “is over 100 years old.” Pietrantonio blamed Lower Broadway development: “All this development we’re doing, we don’t have any infrastructure down there.” He apologized for saying Lariviere “stole” from other accounts: “I come from the village.” Smith wanted assurance that unused money returns to the enterprise fund, not free cash, before the council vote. The committee recommended it.
Newspaper ads
Councilor Katy Rogers asked how a $40,000 advertising appropriation would be split between the Everett Independent and the Everett Advocate. Boukili said ads will be standardized and split evenly until June. Pietrantonio said last year’s split was lopsided toward the Advocate. “Personally, I think we should give Advocate nothing, not a dime,” he said. Smith noted the council had cut $120,000 from a $180,000 request last budget and struck the words “legally required” because the money also pays for event ads.
Also
- A $43,103.44 donation from Second and Vine LLC, care of Block Properties, to buy a Bluebike station at Second and Vine streets, required by the planning board. Pietrantonio wanted to see exactly where it goes; transportation planner Eric Molinari said it would sit on the developer’s property with wider sidewalks. Recommended so the bikes arrive by late summer.
- On March 23 the committee backed the $780,000 fire apparatus appropriation. Deputy Chief Sabato LoRusso said the $778,536 engine replaces Engine 3, a 2010 Pierce at the Ferry Street station, and arrives in 150 to 180 days instead of “two and a half to three years” for a custom build. Boukili said free cash stood “a little under 3 million.” Pietrantonio: “Everyone says it’s free cash, but, I mean, really, it’s not free cash.” Boukili agreed: “It is absolutely not free. It’s unallocated funds.”
