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Malden City Council approves budget despite resistance
The Malden City Council Tuesday approved Mayor Gary Christenson's $152.8 million fiscal 2013 spending plan in an 8-3 vote after an emerging coalition of fiscal conservatives, led by Ward 6 Councilor Neil C. Kinnon, tried and failed 10 times to trim thousands from next year's bottom line.
"City budgets should be like your personal checkbook," Kinnon said. "This was not an exercise in that. There were no cuts."
He was joined, for the most part, by three other councilors who make up the conservative voices. During the budget process, they have called for fiscal restraint and savings, saying the city's $5 million reserves are well below state averages. Councilors David D'Arcangelo, James Nestor, and occasionally Craig Spadafora joined Kinnon in a push to reign in spending. Spadafora voted with the majority in approving the budget with D'Arcangelo, Kinnon and Nestor voting against.
Mayor Gary Christenson, meanwhile, defended his first municipal budget since taking office in January, and said he shuffled 20 government jobs to free up cash so the city may pay for priority services for veterans, seniors, and teens.
"I want to make sure this council knows that for the last five months, it wasn't 'let's add new initiatives,'" Christenson said. "We didn't backfill 13 positions. I could have chosen to fill [them] and keep the status quo" but instead I restructured, he said. "We need to keep our eyes on the big picture."
Much of Kinnon's ire was focused on school spending, which this year jumped more than $5 million from last year's figures, to $56.16 million. The increase was unprecedented, Kinnon said, and outstrips any other department in year-over-year growth.
"At what point does that eat up the whole budget?" Kinnon asked.
Before the final 8-3 vote approving the budget, Kinnon offered eight amendments that contained $1.45 million in last-minute cuts. D'Arcangelo followed with two more, worth roughly $517,000. All eight of Kinnon's proposals and the two offered by D'Arcangelo failed in roll-call votes.
Among Kinnon's biggest-ticket proposals was the removal of $500,000 from the school department operating budget.
"If they need it, they can come back," Kinnon said of the school money.
He also asked to take out $525,000 of new spending on water and sewer projects, trim a combined $212,500 from the school department reserve account and accounting expenses, and suggested slashing nearly half of the $112,448 budget for a new Malden teen center, a centerpiece priority of the mayor's.
"I'm not against teens, I'm not against a teen center," Kinnon said, suggesting that low response rates on students surveys about the center indicated a lack of interest. "The demand nobody is sure exists."
Instead, he suggested providing every high school student with a voucher for a Malden YMCA membership, and said that rushing to lease property now could trap the city into paying higher costs later, especially if fewer children participate than expected.
A task force assembled by Christenson recommended in April that the city rent about 5,500 square feet of space at 1 Salem St., steps from Malden High School, for the teen center. Instead, Kinnon suggested the teen center should be piloted at the high school, which he described as having ample room to spare.
"It is a building, unlike the buildings that are being looked at, that has a gym in it, has a pool in it," Kinnon said. "Like any start-up you try to go slow and you try to build off of something else."
He also asked his colleagues to curtail the mayor's staff budget by $50,000, and to eliminate one management position and cut the salary for another city worker.
Not every effort to tweak was defeated, however. In early deliberations, the council decided to retain control of city compliance officers, who are sometimes councilors' most direct form of recourse when they receive citizen complaints pertaining to building or property code.
The other adjustment to Christenson's reorganization will keep the animal control officer under the Permits, Inspections, and Planning Department, instead of the Police Department as suggested by the mayor.
Major additions by the councilors include $25,000 to maintain the Bike to The Sea path that is now under construction; $25,000 to plant new trees citywide; and $12,552 more for the Teen Center, which may be ready to open by September. Offsetting the costs will be a $56,636 reduction in the city's roughly $5 million reserves, and $20,221 saved from a city worker who reduced his hours to part time.
Matt Byrne can be reached at mbyrne.globe@globe.com.
"City budgets should be like your personal checkbook," Kinnon said. "This was not an exercise in that. There were no cuts."
He was joined, for the most part, by three other councilors who make up the conservative voices. During the budget process, they have called for fiscal restraint and savings, saying the city's $5 million reserves are well below state averages. Councilors David D'Arcangelo, James Nestor, and occasionally Craig Spadafora joined Kinnon in a push to reign in spending. Spadafora voted with the majority in approving the budget with D'Arcangelo, Kinnon and Nestor voting against.
Mayor Gary Christenson, meanwhile, defended his first municipal budget since taking office in January, and said he shuffled 20 government jobs to free up cash so the city may pay for priority services for veterans, seniors, and teens.
"I want to make sure this council knows that for the last five months, it wasn't 'let's add new initiatives,'" Christenson said. "We didn't backfill 13 positions. I could have chosen to fill [them] and keep the status quo" but instead I restructured, he said. "We need to keep our eyes on the big picture."
Much of Kinnon's ire was focused on school spending, which this year jumped more than $5 million from last year's figures, to $56.16 million. The increase was unprecedented, Kinnon said, and outstrips any other department in year-over-year growth.
"At what point does that eat up the whole budget?" Kinnon asked.
Before the final 8-3 vote approving the budget, Kinnon offered eight amendments that contained $1.45 million in last-minute cuts. D'Arcangelo followed with two more, worth roughly $517,000. All eight of Kinnon's proposals and the two offered by D'Arcangelo failed in roll-call votes.
Among Kinnon's biggest-ticket proposals was the removal of $500,000 from the school department operating budget.
"If they need it, they can come back," Kinnon said of the school money.
He also asked to take out $525,000 of new spending on water and sewer projects, trim a combined $212,500 from the school department reserve account and accounting expenses, and suggested slashing nearly half of the $112,448 budget for a new Malden teen center, a centerpiece priority of the mayor's.
"I'm not against teens, I'm not against a teen center," Kinnon said, suggesting that low response rates on students surveys about the center indicated a lack of interest. "The demand nobody is sure exists."
Instead, he suggested providing every high school student with a voucher for a Malden YMCA membership, and said that rushing to lease property now could trap the city into paying higher costs later, especially if fewer children participate than expected.
A task force assembled by Christenson recommended in April that the city rent about 5,500 square feet of space at 1 Salem St., steps from Malden High School, for the teen center. Instead, Kinnon suggested the teen center should be piloted at the high school, which he described as having ample room to spare.
"It is a building, unlike the buildings that are being looked at, that has a gym in it, has a pool in it," Kinnon said. "Like any start-up you try to go slow and you try to build off of something else."
He also asked his colleagues to curtail the mayor's staff budget by $50,000, and to eliminate one management position and cut the salary for another city worker.
Not every effort to tweak was defeated, however. In early deliberations, the council decided to retain control of city compliance officers, who are sometimes councilors' most direct form of recourse when they receive citizen complaints pertaining to building or property code.
The other adjustment to Christenson's reorganization will keep the animal control officer under the Permits, Inspections, and Planning Department, instead of the Police Department as suggested by the mayor.
Major additions by the councilors include $25,000 to maintain the Bike to The Sea path that is now under construction; $25,000 to plant new trees citywide; and $12,552 more for the Teen Center, which may be ready to open by September. Offsetting the costs will be a $56,636 reduction in the city's roughly $5 million reserves, and $20,221 saved from a city worker who reduced his hours to part time.
Matt Byrne can be reached at mbyrne.globe@globe.com.
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