LYNN — Mayor Thomas M. McGee has requested that the City Council approve a $6.84 million budget amendment, which would increase city spending for fiscal year 2021 to approximately $383 million.
The City Council is scheduled to vote on the budget amendment at their next meeting, Tuesday, Dec. 8.
McGee and the city’s Chief Financial Officer Michael Bertino said the additional funding that would be added to the budget stems from a higher than anticipated state aid allocation.
Although the state budget has not yet been finalized, McGee said city officials are depending on Lynn’s new projected state aid allocation, $223 million, an amount that has tentatively been agreed upon by Gov. Charlie Baker, and members of both legislative bodies, the state Senate and House of Representatives.
“When we put our budget in earlier in the year, we were very conservative because we weren’t sure what the state numbers would be,” said McGee. “Things were (looking) very dire back then. Those state numbers weren’t as bad as we anticipated. Most of that additional funding backfilled the dollars we had cut out of the original budget.”
For example, McGee said the additional funding will allow the city to hire an additional public health nurse, and fill two Information Technology (IT) positions, explaining that the reliance on technology during the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of “beefing up” the city’s IT staff.
The funding will also allow the city to create a new position, a diversity, equity and inclusion officer, who will be focused on increasing diversity in the community and city government, particularly in terms of its hiring practices, McGee said.
McGee said the “much needed addition” of a diversity officer aligns with the city’s “renewed commitment to ending systemic racism across all sectors, so that we may achieve equity and justice for all Lynners.”
The supplemental budget amendment also includes $4 million to meet the city’s net school spending requirements and funding for increased demand of online library material, McGee said.
Money has also been set aside for collective bargaining agreements, which wasn’t part of the initial budget, Bertino added.
Some of the funding has been allocated for other city service line items that had to be cut in the spring to balance the initial budget, such as spring street sweeping, yard waste clean-up and pond treatment, McGee said.
“We cut the frequency of some services,” said Bertino. “Now we’re able to restore them, including the compost and certain other programs we would do in the spring and the fall. It’s basically trying to put back what was taken to keep the city moving forward.”
“This is kind of a unique circumstance because we were really flying in the dark earlier in the year with what we anticipated,” McGee added. “This budget is reflective of the ongoing pandemic and the uncertainty that we had with the initial state budget.
“We’re very confident of this supplemental budget and what we need to do to address the needs in the city government right now.”
The City Council will also be asked to approve a separate order next Tuesday that would consist of a $630,000 transfer from the city’s free cash account.
The transfer would be used for the purchase of a Fire Department ambulance and portable radios, the city’s obligation for three federal grants recently awarded for a new fire ladder truck, and COVID cleaning supplies and equipment, and funding to update the municipal flood plan.
