City of Revere FY14 Budget Submission
June 18, 2013
Dear Resident,
This past week we submitted the FY14 budget to the Revere City Council in the amount of $154,060,170 for its review and adoption. The budget documentation that was provided to the City Council in prior years had always seemed incomplete and overly cumbersome. Since becoming Mayor, I have taken on the responsibility to resolve this issue, and provide the Council, and the public, with what I believe, is a more transparent and user-friendly document. At the end of the last fiscal year, we began working on this process, and under the direction of our Director of Finance, George Anzuoni, and with the assistance of City Auditor, Laurie Giardella, the first stage of this plan has been accomplished.
The budget submitted was the end result of many, many hours of hard work that included the aforementioned Department Heads, me, as well as the cooperation of all departments throughout City government. Also, as you may know, we have partnered with the Edward J. Collins Center for Government at the University of Massachusetts. The City had originally applied for, and received, a grant to implement what is commonly known as Citi-Stat. This, in turn, allowed us to go forward with phase two which was implemented in February of this year. With their assistance (Collins Center), my staff and I have reviewed the budgeted results of three major departments; Police, Fire, and DPW. This is being done on a regular monthly basis. In doing so, we have started to see patterns/trends that will allow us to not only budget more appropriately, but to operate more efficiently and effectively.
This year’s budget includes information never before seen in our annual budget documents. Mission Statements, Organizational Charts, and Goal Setting are all now part of what you and the City Council will see prior to setting the budget in each fiscal year. This was obviously a departure from the norm as far as what was requested from each department head and they are to be commended in helping us implement this somewhat difficult change to the budget process.
Once a complete organizational review was completed, goals were set which affected individual departmental objectives. This is all in an effort to improve services to our residents. As mentioned earlier, the major departments we began discussions with this year deal with the following;
Police/Fire/Public Safety: The recent marathon bombings that took place in the City of Boston this past April reconfirmed the importance of what public safety means to our community. In order to ensure that this City remains protected from violent crimes and other natural disasters, the budgets of these departments have been increased. The City/Revere Fire Department had received a “Safer Grant” in September of 2011. This grant supported 10 firefighters for a period of two years. The funding from this grant will end on September 30, 2013. Therefore, a decision was made to continue the employment of these firefighters and as you will see, three quarters of the salaries and costs for these positions has been appropriated in the Fire Department budget.
The Police Department, under the direction of newly appointed Police Chief, Joseph Cafarelli and the Metro North SWAT Team, were recently highlighted for their work in capturing the second terrorist suspect in connection with the Marathon Day Bombings. They have implemented routine foot patrols and are now staffing a newly opened sub-station on Pleasant St. To assist them in implementing these much needed changes, we provided the department with four additional officers. Further, I have instituted a policy that the City pre-hires a police officer upon a pending retirement or otherwise scheduled departure in order to keep the compliment of officers at a steady, workable level. It is also our contention that overtime currently being spent will be reduced and thus, provide for additional presence of patrol officers on the streets. It has always been my objective to have police officers do police work as opposed to other, more administrative functions such as managing details, performing crime analysis, and MIS. As you review this budget you will notice that these functions are to be filled by civilians. The MIS person for the Police and Fire will be shared and funded out of the City MIS Department.
The Inspectional Services Department personnel have been increased as a result of an employee transfer from the Weights and Measures Department. This department plans to implement ticketing through the 40U statute which will not only increase revenue for the city, but will also place more impact on the enforcement, and timeliness of collections for these violations. We are in the active planning phase of implementing the 40U process.
With regards to the Parks and Recreation Department, I believe we all share the belief that our youth are a priority. Through thoughtful and innovative programming, it is my desire to increase participation in more frequent and more rewarding recreational activities. In order to achieve these goals I have included budgeted positions at the lowest level of the pay scale to assist in this implementation.
Also, we are anticipating the opening of the Regional Emergency Call Center (RECC) in conjunction with the Town of Winthrop. A place holder has been included in this budget. The full costs for this RECC is unknown at this time as a portion of the positions will be funded with funds from the State E911 and/or the Town of Winthrop.
In closing, I would like to once again express my appreciation to all department heads for their cooperation in this new venture. This is a work in progress. My long term goal is to submit a budget in future years that is in accordance with the guidelines of the Government Financial Officers Association of America. I look forward to meeting with the City Council to discuss this budget as we continue to build the future of this great city, as partners.
Sincerely,
Daniel Rizzo
Mayor