Remarks by Michelle M. Dionne
114 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 3 of 5
“Yeah, I'm good now. Okay, very good. Thank you, I'm sorry.”
“I'm trying to be calm, because I am not calm today.”
“I am not calm, so I am trying really hard. So, I was in the meeting on Thursday afternoon. You, president, myself, city administrator, the CFO, and the director of human resources. We thought we reached a compromise. We talked about an MOA. I understand that the administration keeps saying, it's the 40,000, it's the 40,000, it's the 40,000. We have brought up other issues. We had a problem with the EMS stabilization account. We reduced that number, which made the budget unbalanced. It had to be balanced. We're still discussing transportation. And I find it very interesting. So there's a…”
“At one of our meetings, and I don't remember which one it was, but I'm sure you'll remember, not necessarily the meeting, but the conversation. I don't remember if it was on Thursday or if it was prior to that when I was there with Counselor Canual. I don't remember.”
“I will clarify. I will answer that. You have every reason to ask that question. So some of us attended budget meetings. So I don't know if this happened in one of the budget meetings or if it happened in the meeting that we had with them on Thursday afternoon.”
“No, it wasn't a budget meeting. Well, I suppose it sort of was.”
“I understand that, but it's my only opportunity to ask him these questions.”
“No, I will yield if we're going to do that. He's going to come back to the table. I have no problem with that.”
“Motion to address the appropriation line by line.”
“So I want to go back to that meeting because I will say an agreement was, a compromise was reached. I don't want to use the wrong words. A compromise was reached. Council President and myself made it very clear. We can't bind this body to a decision. that we had to take everything back to the council. I went so far as to say neither one of us can talk to the entire council. We had to split the council up so that we didn't violate any open meeting laws or anything else. And everybody understood that, that when we walked out of that office, that was not a, we didn't, it was not a sign sealed…”
“So it, okay. but it was contingent upon this body voting and agreeing and a corporation council signing the MOA. And that, to date, to this minute, has not happened. So the contingency was not met. It's not you and it's not us stopping this for $40,000. The corporation refusing to sign the MOA is what's stopping our move forward movement. And I'm going to call it forward movement because that's what we agreed to. We can try to move forward. We, in good faith, want to move forward.”
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
“And I'm telling you, and believe me, I will give you credit for your efforts. I truly do. And I want people to know you did make an effort. But so did we. We're not done moving yet.”
“But I think the issue is more not about moving forward. It's more there were contingencies, and they weren't met. So it's not the council refusing. It's contingencies weren't met. And you also did say, we're going to send you a draft MOA, which you did. YOU DID. AND YOU LOOK AT IT, YOU LOOK IT OVER, YOU TWEAK IT, YOU CHANGE ANYTHING YOU WANT, AND YOU SEND IT BACK TO US. CORRECT. AND WE DID.”
“And we did agree. Yes, you can keep it in the law department budget. And we compromise. Correct. Your compromise was keep it in that budget. Our compromise was let's have an MOA. So that outlines exactly how it moves forward, what is able to be done, what isn't, so that it would be in writing so that everybody would know exactly the details of how we would be able to use legal. But unfortunately, again, I go back to our cooperation council is not willing to do that.”
“And I agree with you. So at this point, I would also like to emphasize, because the world is convinced it's the city council being stubborn, it's only the $40,000, and it is not. And I know there are councils here tonight who want to speak. They want to address their issues. I have something myself that I want to address with transportation. So yes, we're not done with budget talks. I just wanted to clarify, and it's much better for you and I to sit face to face so everybody can hear our dialogue. So it's not he said, she said. Misconstrued, I just wanted everything to be clear for everyone.”
“I agree. I agree. Again, we agree. So before we go line by line in the budget, I would like councils to be able to talk about their concerns with the budget if we can do it that way.”
“We did not approve the school department budget.”
“No, we did not. On June 3rd, you did. No, we did not. Listen, hear me out. We approved a line item. The line item was the school department budget. the appropriation was never changed or reduced to fund the school department so we skipped a step not even realizing we skipped it and because we skipped that step and it was never funded we never approved the school department budget that's correct that's where i was that's where i was going that's exactly where no it's okay that's that's you clarified it but that that's”
“um so actually another issue just came up that i hadn't even considered so our trash is not resolved yet we don't have a definitive number for trash what do you mean are you talking about the contract the contract the contract hasn't been settled so we don't have a definitive number we do what's in the budget it won't go up”
“But I guess yet again, OK, it won't exceed, perhaps. And it shouldn't. You're right. No, it can't. You're right. Right. But again, so we're voting on a number that could change.”
“okay but there's also been discussions matt thomas has had discussions with capital with easy um to extend the contract we have now for two weeks so that there's no interruption so that trash can be paid”
“It's 30 days. Okay. I think it was said to Yeah, so that's even better. So it's been extended by the contract has been extended by 30 days. So we're not in jeopardy at this moment. Not at all. No. So. So trash will continue. Trash will get paid. So again,”
“Yes, so yes, which is important for people to know that as well. It does not stop government. It doesn't change it. Nobody, people who don't pay attention aren't even going to know that anything happened. Correct. It's more work. I get it. It's just the department that's correct. I get it.”
“And I would certainly, certainly think, certainly think and hope that within 90 days we could all finally come to an agreement on the budget, an agreement on the problems we're having, and move forward. I mean, I don't understand why we can't. But again, I'm not saying that's what's gonna happen. I'm only one person. It takes an entire body. But I do have one more question. So now you were talking about McKinney-Vento, if there's a deficit in transportation. Originally at a meeting, I thought you said you were going to use circuit breaker money to cover it. It's both.”