Woonsocket Budget Commission Sets Friday Agenda

Woonsocket's Budget Commisson has posted the agenda for its first meeting Friday morning at 10:30 a.m. at City Hall, 169 Main St.

Yesterday, Gov. Lincoln Chafee announced the five-member committee had been appointed by Rosemary Booth Galoogly, director of the department of revenue.

The appointed Commission members are Peder Schaefer, Associate Director of the League of Cities and Towns; William Sequino, Town Manager of East Greenwich; and retired school business officer Dina Dutremble. By law, the other two members of the commission are Mayor Leo Fontaine and Woonsocket City Council President John Ward.

"Though the appointment of a Budget Commission does not offer immediate relief of all our concerns, it does afford the option of having State Aid to Education advanced, which may be necessary to allow our schools to continue functioning for the remainder of the year. This in turn will afford the time required to address the other longer term needs as we were hoping to do with the time afforded by the supplemental tax." Fontaine wrote in his letter to the Department of Revenue supporting the Woonsocket City Council's request for a budget commission.

The first item on the Budget Commission's agenda will be an introduction of the members, then election of a chair for the Commission, followed by presentations from Woonsocket Finance Director Thomas Bruce and Woonsocket Schools Superintendent Giovanna Donoyan on the city's financial status, the proposed FY 2013 budget and the supplemental tax legislation. The entire agenda has been attached to this article.