Budget Board OKs Hiring of Coaches, Transfer of Cash for Cemetery

At its shortest meeting to date, the East Providence Budget Commission met Thursday afternoon, July 18, in City Hall to handle a variety of personnel matters – its only role in the city right now.

Vice Chair Steve Bannon, sitting in for an absent Diane Brennan, the chair, glanced at the clock after about 15 minutes and said the board could be setting a record for its shortest meeting.

Here is how the board handled the personnel items on a brief agenda:

• Gave City Manager Peter Graczykowski the authority to terminate a housing rehabilitation specialist in the planning department if money cannot be found to continue paying for the position. The post has been funded by the federal HUD. 
• Approved requests to post and fill city and school custodian positions that have been vacant because of retirements. 
• Approved the summer staff for the Recreation Department and Recreation Center.
• Approved the hiring of a part-time staff member at the East Providence Animal Control Center. 
• Approved the hiring of a head coach and an assistant coach for the boy’s soccer team at East Providence High School.
• Approved the hiring of two varsity and one assistant freshman football coaches and a head football cheerleading coach.

East Providence Finance Director Malcolm Moore also provide an update on the city’s cash flow -- a separate non-personnel issue. By the end of July, Moore said, almost 70 percent of taxes should be collected.

The city also will be making a $23 million repayment of TANS (tax-anticipatory notes) on Aug. 2, leaving a cash balance of $28 million, he said.