Hello Neighbors & Friends,
Summer weather has arrived in Providence - and June is a month of so many celebrations! We raised the Pride flag last night on City Hall, and I am looking forward to the parade and celebrations to come. There are Juneteenth commemorations and events happening throughout the month - including the large festival on June 22nd! And an early Happy Father's Day to all the dads and father figures in the community!
There's been a lot going on at City Hall & our City -- so I'll just jump right in!
Upcoming Meetings & Events:
City Budget:
The Council will be releasing our proposed changes to Mayor Smiley's proposed budget in the coming days. We will be holding a second public hearing on Tuesday, June 11th at 5:30pm in Council Chambers. You can also submit letters to the City Clerk's office at: CityClerk@providenceri.gov
Special Committee on the Environment and Resiliency:
Join us for our June meeting of the Special Committee on the Environment and Resiliency on Wednesday June 12th at 5:30. This month, we will be hearing presentations about composting initiatives happening across the community - including from some PPSD students! You can also find details to join via Zoom or YouTube on the agenda posted on the City's open meetings portal.
Other Upcoming Meetings: All official city meetings can be found on the open meetings portal.
North Main Street Task Force: Wednesday June 26th at 5:30pm - 3rd Floor of City Hall.
Finance Committee: Every Tuesday at 5:30pm on the 3rd Floor of City Hall. (With budget season, there have been extra meetings that are posted on the Open Meetings portal).
Full Council Meetings are at 6pm in Council Chambers on these dates: June 20th; July 11th, and July 18th. (Reminder: The Council takes a 1 month recess in August).
Upcoming Events:
There are a lot of exciting events coming up in our neighborhood, City, and City Hall! Check these out!
Parlour on the Block - June 22nd, 12pm - 8pm
Join our friends at the Parlour on North Main Street for a block party and celebration on June 22nd! Parlour on the Block Party is an opportunity for The Parlour to bring the community together to enjoy live music from local and regional & national musicians. It will be a family-friendly event with face painting, touch a truck, live music and more. They will also spotlight two major local issues: the continuing impact of the opioid crisis and the planned revitalization of the North Main Street Corridor. See more details on their Facebook page.
Juneteenth RI Annual Festival: June 22nd at 195 District Park: JuneteenthRI is working hard on events throughout the month to commemorate Juneteenth, culminating in their annual festival -- this year in the 195 District Park!
Latino Open House at Providence City Hall: June 26th at 5:30 - 6:30
Chief of Staff June Rose is continuing their series of Open Houses for members of the Community to connect with the Council and City Hall! Join us for Latino Open House on June 26th at 5:30!
Programs & Updates to Know About!
Providence Comprehensive Plan: The City Plan Commission will be holding a Public Hearing on the Administration's Draft Comprehensive Plan on June 18th at 4:45pm at 444 Westminster Street (and on Zoom). The latest version of the Comprehensive Plan + info about the Public hearing are available on this website. After the City Plan Commission (CPC) approves the plan, it will be transmitted to the Council. We will hold public hearings and include public comment on the Plan, and I will have at least one neighborhood meeting to hear your input. Thank you to the neighbors who have already shared their input with me directly!
Summer Programs at Roger Williams Memorial: Did you know that we have a National Park in Ward 3?! The Roger Williams Memorial on North Main Street is one of only a very few National Memorials outside of DC! They have a lot of really fantastic summer programs that you can learn about on their website.
School Board Elections: This fall, there will be an election for 5 school board seats. The seats will represent regions of the City. Our neighborhood is in a region with Wards 1 & 2. To find out more about the regions and how to run in this nonpartisan election, please click this link.
Providence Water Lead Pipe Replacement Program: Thanks to federal grant funding, Providence Water will be conducting free private side lead pipe replacements for eligible properties in Ward 3. I encourage you to participate and remove a known source of lead from your property and minimize lead levels at your tap. To learn more and to see if your home is eligible, visit provwater.com/lead or call (401) 575-0776.
My Recent Work on Council: It's been a very busy month since my last newsletter, and I wanted to give you a sense of the things I have been focused on and where I have been spending my time!
The City's Budget: April - June is "budget season" for Council. The Mayor and his team present their proposed budget to the Council in mid/late April. After that, the Finance Committee (on which I serve) reviews every major department's budget and priorities in a series of public meetings. We have been meeting most Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights for the last several weeks to not only review the budget but to also conduct the regular business of the finance committee. I am proud of the transparent and open process we have been engaged in -- and our final public hearing will be on June 11th (see above). I expect the Committee will vote our amended budget out of committee on Thursday June 13th. It will then be sent to the full Council. The budget is technically a series of ordinances allowing for staffing and funding levels - so it needs to pass the full Council twice.
School Buildings: In addition to the regular budget conversations, we have also met with PPSD and RIDE about not only the operational budget of the schools, but the historic investment we are making in our school buildings as a City. In order to take advantage of a time-limited 91% reimbursement rate from the State for school construction, we have had to review hundreds of millions of dollars of proposed investments and proposed bond funding. Voters will see a $400 million bond on the ballot in November 2024, and I am proud of the work we are doing to modernize and ensure our children learn in buildings that are modern and demonstrate how important they and their education are to us.
RIPTA Bus Hub: In April, the Special Committee on the Environment and Resiliency that I chair heard testimony from RIPTA stakeholders concerned about the proposed changes to the RIPTA bus hub. Many felt that they had never had the opportunity to publicly comment and be heard, and it was important for me to give people the opportunity to share their experiences on the record. After that meeting, I sponsored a Resolution calling on RIPTA and State leaders to include Kennedy Plaza in their deliberations and to call for the inclusion & centering the voices of RIPTA riders and stakeholders in the decisionmaking around the future of the RIPTA bus hub. You can see that Resolution (which passed unanimously and was sent to RIPTA and the Mayor) here. RIPTA is holding a series of meetings to get input on the future of the hub. You can find out more information here.
Charter School Lease for Carl Lauro School: Recently, Council received a request from the Mayor to approve a 30-year, $1/year lease of the Carl Lauro School to a partnership to expand the Achievement First and Excel Academy charter Schools. Council President Miller & I met together with the leadership of Achievement First and Excel and toured an existing Achievement First school -- and I asked a lot of questions about their operations and the plans they have for physical building (which was closed by RIDE last year in part because of expensive deficiencies in the building). I also asked questions of PPSD about the funding the City provides to the charters (more than $30 million/year). We held a public hearing on the proposed lease and heard many hours of testimony from families and teachers (which you can watch a recording of through the City's open meetings portal). I voted No in Committee and the Finance Committee recommended to the full Council to deny this lease (4-1). I will repeat my vote to deny the lease when it comes before the full Council. Ultimately, I spent time listening and learning and do not believe that this is the best use for this City-owned building, no is this expansion in the best interest in serving all Providence students at this time. I appreciate all of the parents and teachers who reached out to me ahead of the vote and the time that Excel and Achievement First took to discuss this decision with me and my colleagues. I'm happy to dig into this more at our next Ward-wide meeting in July if folks have questions/concerns.
Tax Stabilization Agreements: I will dig into this further in a future newsletter, but Council has now passed several Tax Stabilization Agreements (and also denied a set of TSAs). As you may have seen in the news, we had not as a body passed any TSAs for our first year, and are digging back into this process after a thorough review. The TSA guiding ordinance requires a number of conditions to be met (including labor standards) to be eligible for consideration. Ultimately, I see the TSA as a tool that when used properly can ensure that properties that are currently underutilized (and not paying taxes or paying very low taxes because of the state of the property) can be developed into functional spaces while also setting them on a short-term path to paying full taxes for these improved uses of the building. But it cannot be used a give-away for properties that do not meet the criteria. I'm excited to see the new housing that gets developed from the TSAs that we approved and will dive more into this mechanism in a future newsletter.
Gratitude: It is such an honor to serve as your City Councilor in Ward 3! I take this role very seriously and am so grateful for all of the people who reach out with their thoughts, ideas, and concerns. As we finalize the City's budget, I am also looking forward to having a little more time to be present in the Community and spend time with you all (and more quickly respond to your emails & calls once I'm not in committee every night - ha!)! I know we can't always agree 100% on everything that happens at City Hall, but I am grateful to this smart community who is willing to listen to each other, have conversations and discussion, and work together to improve our City every day. Please continue to reach out any time by replying to this note! You can also follow me in between newsletters on Facebook& Twitter.
My Best,
Councilwoman Sue AnderBois
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