Items coming out of finance for the City Council

Motions made at last week's City Council budget session are on this coming week's agenda.
Councilor Lukes has two requests for information:

• that the City Manager quantify the services Human Resources provides to the Worcester Public Schools.
• that the City Manager quantify the services the DPW Central Garage division provides to the Worcester Public Schools.

Quick one first: the only way in which WPS interacts with the garage at all is all WPS vehicles get their gas from the DPW Central Garage; we're required to. And we pay the city for the gas. For those interested, it comes out of account 500141-92000, which is vehicle maintenance. For a total of 62 vehicles (of which 42 are special education buses owned and operated by WPS), we last year budgeted $471,659 for all maintenance and fuel for the year. I do not believe that we have transferred funds into or out of this account, so that would be about what we spent. And some of that was payment to the city for gas.

On Human Resources: the city-side HR department (WPS has one, too) provides the civil service list (for those positions requiring it), workers compensation support, and benefits support. Interestingly these services are not, but could be, included in the city's list of in-kind services to count towards net school spending. However, adding these would require reopening that negotiation, which the city is unwilling to do. The WPS HR department fulfills all other HR functions for the over 3000 employees of the Worcester Public Schools.

Councilor Eddy, taking notice of the parents' petition* has requested:

• that the City Manager "provide a sample of what 9.3 million dollars in cuts would look like to the FY2013 budget and what would a 9.3 million dollar increase in taxes would look like if City Council were to increase the Worcester Public School budget as they have requested." 

Aha! First, unless Councilor Eddy is being unclear in his antecedents, he is ascribing the creation of the petition requesting the Worcester Public Schools be funded at 3% over foundation to...the Worcester Public Schools.
I've heard some fine rumors swirling about who created the petition (and there are some doozies!), but I actually know this one: it wasn't administration. It wasn't the School Committee. I was at the meeting where the parents decided to create the petition--it was the last CPPAC meeting, which is a public meeting--and, yes, it was actual parents who generated this. So, sorry, but you can't decide that this is "just the schools" requesting more funds. This time, it's parents--and, from a quick glance at the petition, rank-and-file voters-- you're going to have to answer to.
Requesting "a sample" is always a fun one; speaking as a maker of motions, that's definitely an invitation to use one's imagination. Expect some dire forecasts on this one.
And of course, it's the old "you can't possibly have a safe city AND properly-provided for schools!" argument. Again.

* close to hitting 400