City Council Recap – Many Council Regulars Absent and Little Stadium Matters Lead to Abbreviated Meeting

By Robert Haugh

With only one stadium-related item on the agenda, the June 27 Council meeting lacked fireworks, theater and post-midnight discussions we’ve grown accustomed to. Quite a lot was accomplished in a meeting that lasted only 2-½ hours:

• The 2017-2018 operating budget of $729,056,031 and 2017-2018 capital improvement budget of $127,387,298 were approved with brief discussion on a few issues raised at the last Council meeting.
• The Stadium Finance Director/treasurer/auditor was separated into two positions – Stadium Authority treasurer and Stadium Authority auditor as recommended by the Civil Grand Jury over a year ago.
• An item about the Police Chief wanting a five percent salary increase, retroactive to Dec. 18, 2016 was continued by the City Manager. This should be interesting when it comes back.
• Two individuals made statements during  the public comment period about David’s Restaurant. Both urged the Council to renew the lease and claimed that Council members have told people the facility is closed. But they provided no evidence. We’ve not heard anything about this. There are two pending legal matters regarding David’s.
• Council moved to accept a recommendation that the S.E.S. Hall shall pay the 2017-2018 permit fee (as of the new fiscal year on July 1, 2017) of $240 for six events, on one permit application, rather than the existing fees of over $700 for each event. It was suggested that the City Attorney bring back options for fee waivers for community and civic groups that host events open to the community. The permits were for auctions in the facility parking lot relating to festival and parade events at the 121-year-old Portuguese community hall.
• Nancy Biagini was appointed to the Historical and Landmarks Commission. Congrats.
• Vice Mayor Dominic Caserta was absent.