says point to everyone i'm gary rosen and welcome back to rosen's roundtable on w c c a t v in worcester massachusetts where again we have the best faile of the city and since  you know that and these a core services we're trying to maintain not extra services i mean we don't have a lot of you know overwhelmed with services if people call me all the time they want more services so you got to pay for it so there will be a two and a half percent tax increase  some new hires some new services keep the same services to six hundred forty the million dollar budget let's see what is that among the key investments in the fiscal budget funding the public schools at a level above the state's net school spending benchmark for the first time since two thousand and ten so a little more for the schools some goodies for them mainly money the proposed budget also allocates money for a new communications radio system for the police fire and public works department sounds like we need that in addition the operating budget has money a half a million dollars set aside for the first time this is the operating budget it's going to serve as the city's contribution to its long term liability for retire enough percent tax levy increase allowed in the state law he said that another four million additional property taxes generated from new construction during the past year the budget does call for the creation of a toll of seven new non school positions few new positions it height but see it funds police and fire recruit classes that will both begin soon after labor day that's important i think we need to police funding for a continuation of the police in so that's a two hundred seventy thousand dollar allocation the first was paid for by c s sex but i guess those funds have run dry the first to for eighty thousand in your allocations real quick four times eighty thirty four three hundred twenty thousand it's going to the fire department so the firefighters can buy a second set of troops out gear ok that's the clothing that they use the fires and so on certain responses i'm almost done here funding the public school for the first time in six he has already said that night school spending bench back above that six hundred to seven hundred thousand so we're doing a little better by our schools the city's minimum contribution level for the public schools is exceeded by one point one little better for the schools let's see the initial funding for the new seven billion dollars radio communication system used by several municipal departments police fire and so we talked about that two new parks positions said it last year as requested by the election commission seventy five thousand has been allocated for early voting to get more democrats just a little political are you democrats are watching all right gary thank you what do you think of this bare bones back to basics shot spotter budget well you know probably the city manager could probably add it all thirty million dollars to the budget to fun things that myself and many other people would be in favor of because you know we could still be paving more roads paving more sidewalks i mean there are a lot of things in addition that we can do  just mentioned but you know i don't disagree with many much of the list that you went through gary but there is there is one thing that the managers add to the budget water bodies here in this city of which that you want to overlook oh ok and here's why i would vote against it and i hope you listen to me so that you'll take the right votes and also wrong position you're taking right now because when you look at a budget  know you're not listening when you when you're when you look at a batch and you look at new positions in a budget as a city council or resident ministre do you have to ask one question is this a need or is this a want the things that we need should be funded this is a want ok this is not a need two hundred thousand dollars could be cut considering that the city council hasn't cut one pending one penny from at least the last two budgets i think they need to go in with a scalpel his the other thing and this is on the administration i said probably thirty million dollars more in spending i could probably favor but where are the consolidation ok where is for example something that's been talked about for thirty years and i give you credit gary you filed this probably thirty years ago and i'm schooled on it long ago talking about it but let's you know let's talk about merging little bit of a twist to it gary vecchio said about the water position because i think it's worth mention i understand his concern it's worth mentioning that there's a lot of bodies of water in the city of west with properties along those bodies  so depressed in value that if we had healthy vibrant bodies of water those property propose values would go through the roof in my opinion and that's more tax revenue so i think a lot more than the fifty thousand well i think is there in series if this we hire the right person  does his job and the property values go up i think in theory it could be a good investment but the lot is we have to say maybe after one year gary made we look take a look at say he it's not working oh is that cuts last minute i mean this would carry vacuous settable consolidation i couldn't agree more some of the conversation came up last night but some of the equipment that the city needs to buy a facility mobile i've been perplexed and so i became a city council how there is a separate set of a qui budget for snow removal once you get on school grounds i mean somebody is going down the road past the school by the city it was start and they can't go on the streets we learned last winter and it's best what we can't even do our road streets and sidewalks you want to add to schools its own budget vote should pay the same budget for their own budget for the city club for the school clerk which you just talked about their own budget for human resources it's the same issue maybe maybe i think i think that that's worth considering looking at i can tell this and i think gary's absolutely one hundred percent right  it should be discussed this budget season not just broached the should be discussed and then you know with the new superintendent on hopefully if i get the sense that marina is afford to go that way and i do i think hopefully you might get a little bit more give and take there and we automatically assume we have to fill that position and i'm at the assume we have to fill it at the same salary as a person that left them and i think to some of those positions could be left empty some of those positions could be filled by people are already in the system just given different responsibilities additional responsibilities and i think some of those positions should be funded at the same level salary the people left i mean there's cost savings there is a lot probably not but we have to start somewhere sounds good now the school department will like this where reducing believe that there are areas where the school actually has an argument that they get shortchanged here and there the charter school be a burst but it's one of them in my opinion so yeah i think that's a fair enough and maybe i'm wrong maybe my colleagues disagree but you know i mean to to it's less money we have to give the school so it's right it's six men have to fight it's fair to the schools outro ok let's move on so soon we'll have a new police chief yes actually by the time to longest single tenure in the past seventy years for a police chief that was good and of course succeeded by steve sergeant who has served as one of his four deputies recent deputies stevens served as a deputy chief of nine years with the district attorney's office he disciplined offices for breaches of ethics and protocol and lot of things like that let's see there were dried out controversies including complaints of excessive force by takers to think of the a fe pretty tough to do on their feet in october oh they did this back in october they must to know now that the chief was leaving but no there was no retirement going let's see what's about to hear something good things about steve and this is what you wrote he city understanding of the challenges facing police in the twenty first century is also committed to ensuring the wished the police department is transparent and accountable to the communities augustus talking  well respected member of the wish to believe that i am serving it every rank in a multiple multitude of roles including patrol detective bureau gang you it invites this judge of the two my understanding is any one of them would have made a good chief i know steve sargent i've known him for over twenty years i think he's i think it was an excellent choice i think he's going to do a fine job you know and i think that hill will continue the things that are important to me as as both a just a resident taxpayer but as a as a neighborhood leader you know he he's going to continue i know the shot spotter he's going to continue community policing he's going to continue the summer impact programs also important the one thing that i hope that the wish the police department takes more of a proactive approach with that many police departments need to is with distracted driving it is awful it's an epidemic in the city of poster to keep other drivers pedestrians people on bikes everybody safe we need to crack down on to be driving i'm not talking i mean as somebody who walks five to seven miles a day i mean i see people reading while they're driving eating while they driving obviously on their cell phones all the driving texting while they're driving distracted driving is one of the biggest problems we have in the city you know if you think about it would make us streets safer it would make it safer for everybody eventually i honestly believe it would bring our auto insurance wrightstown our medical rates i mean with people getting injured young in the police department i was young as a lawyer and got to know each other because now i respected him and other people the department respect him as well that's a sign of a good literary he commands respect and he gets along well with with his other officers he certainly knows the job fact technically supposed to be some to move up to fill that position role but this post to be able to new deputy chief position we wrote it on for to deal with us officer discipline i forgot exactly we characterized it so we voted for that citizen i want to see a police department it's a little bit more transparent i think that chief jim had a lot of good accomplishments i really do you know but i think he really did i don't know if it was a personal thing with him or just you know know that the next time he plays in the media versus city hall game i still think it's cheating because he is with the police department not city hall and they only won because what game are you talking about had a media versus city hall kickball game and you can see that