Councilors OK final tax-cap compliant budget totaling $142.1 million

TJ Jean, right, by podim, is sworn in as City Councilor by city attorney Terrence O'Rourke during Tuesday night's meeting held at City Hall (City video screen capture)

ROCHESTER - Rochester got a budget, Tebbetts Road got a reprieve and Rochester Police got an apology during Tuesday night's City Council meeting held for the first time in more than a year inside council chambers at City Hall.

The only councilor not in chambers was Jeremy Hutchinson who has refused to attend in-person unless all are masked; and Pete Lachapelle, who had been excused from Tuesday's meeting.

The official budget numbers were released today with a final operating budget for both city and schools of $142.1 million.

The only major funding change approved narrowly was a $260,000 outlay from the unassigned fund balance to the schools to allow them to avoid cutting four and a half positions for the upcoming academic year.

The transfer required a three-fourths vote for approval from the council, which was approved 9-3, with Tom Abbott, David Walker and Don Hamann voting against it. Walker reasoned he would have preferred having the schools come back in November if they needed a supplemental, but Mayor Caroline McCarley said with the students coming back after a year filled with uncertainty and a large portion of remote learning, this was no time to hold back school funding.

Both the school and city side budgets are tax-cap compliant.

Also during last night's meeting City Councilor Palana Belken apologized for remarks she made at last week's City Council workshop in which she argued for nonfunding a budget item for two full-time patrol officers and accused Rochester Police of harassing the homeless.

"We could put more money into the police department and it's not going to stop crime," she said. "A lot of our crimes in Rochester are not violent."

After Councilor Chris Rice responded by saying he was against the motion and that police are going above and beyond their normal duties to help folks on the street, Belken replied, "In my field of work I do street outreach and I know there's plenty of time to harass people that don't have homes, and take their stuff and cut up their tent, so ..."

"So, I don't think that's here in Rochester," Rice interrupted.

"It is," Belken added.

On Tuesday night Belken sounded a mea culpa, saying, "Last week I made an accusation against the Rochester Police Department. It was not grounded in evidence, and I would like to take a moment to apologize to Chief (Paul) Toussaint and the rest of the department and my fellow councilors."

At the start of the meeting former mayor TJ Jean was installed as a new Ward 5 City Councilor replacing former councilor Doug Lachance who resigned earlier this spring after accusations surfaced of past sexual conduct with a minor.

Another candidate to fill the term withdrew his name making Jean's selection academic, and he was unanimously approved.

Meanwhile, the City Council voted to table Tebbetts Road's 9-1-1 renumbering, asking a subcommittee to continue to explore any ways they could mitigate the number of address changes along the road.

Assistant Rochester Fire Chief Tim Wilder said there may be little the department can do considering state 9-1-1 dictates, but they would see if there are any potential alternative options.