Alderman Race Final

The list for candidates for the position of Alderman has been determined. The deadline to file for the position was on Monday at 5pm. There are five seats open this year and six people running for them. Four candidates (Allaire, Davis, Notte and Robinson) are returning incumbents. The two challengers this year will be Ed Larson and Daniel White.

Ed Larson is a retired police officer serving 27 years for the Rutland City Police Department. While Dan White is returning for his fourth attempt at getting a seat inside the rail.

One seat was vacated this year by Roy Thomas serving the last ten years on the Board of Alderman. RTU have successfully placed on the ballot this year an article that will limit the term of the Board of Alderman and the Mayor. This would place term limits into effect for these positions and cap them at serving for a total of ten years. Some have argued this is specifically targeting two members of the BOA, this charter change would target anybody running for these positions. It all depends on how long you have been in office. Alderman Thomas would have been subject to this article, but he has chosen not to run for re-election. This does not stop them from running for a different office within City Hall.

City Budget will be voted on as a Whole

The Rutland City Board of Alderman on Tuesday passed the City Budget funding article to be placed on the ballot as a whole. Meaning the voters would vote on the overall budget, instead of voting on a department by department basis. The latter would have allow the voters to decide which departments they support and which ones they may think are overinflated. The Board decided to vote as a whole so the voters would not pit one department against another.

The voters overwhelming supported allowing them to approve the city budget last year at town meeting day.

The voters should have the final say on which departments they would like to have their money spent on. This would not pit one department against another, it would pit the voters against a department or departments. After all, it is our money and should be able to decide where and how much we would like to spend.

The final budget number claimed by the Board of Alderman to be voted on will be $17,601,335.

Now this will not include all the bonds, special projects, school funding increases, etc..... It is projected if all theses projects are approved a household value of $150,000 could have their taxes increase by approx. $450.00 per year. The tax rate is the information that needs to be made public. Many people are unaware of by voting yes to these articles, how much there taxes will go up. Some very good questions to be asked at the Public informational meeting to be held in the near future by the Board of Alderman and Department heads.

Library pulls plug on Berwick Relocation

Months after the Library Board of Trustees, surprised the public and the Board of Alderman by exclaiming they needed to relocate, not have backed out of that idea. The Library was looking at teaming up with the Housing Trust of Rutland County and the Rutland Redevelopment Authority to make the move one block west because of problems with their current rent free building. The problem claim are mostly due to water and moisture issues, stemming from roof leakage and ground water seepage into the basement area.

Library Board of Trustees claimed they decided not to make the move because of purely financial reasons. They stated the Housing Trust led them to believe the cost would be manageable for them, well turns out that was not the case.

The Library does not pay rent for current location, which begs the question of why the City does not quit-claim deed the property to the Library. This would hold the Library accountable to do necessary repairs with the operating money received from the various towns.

The Board of Alderman approved on Tuesday the place in front of the voters an article asking for $500,000 loan not to be less than a 10 year term, not to exceed a 4.25% interest rate. This loan will go to pay for immediate repairs to alleviate water and moisture issues within the Library.

VEH Report presented to legislature

Vermonter's for Economic Health presented their statistics to the State Legislature, compiled from our state and national budgets. To view please click here - very scary! But we continue to spend, spend and spend here in the City.

Mayor Claims No Knowledge of Lawsuit Filed by Father against City

On December 31st 2009, Downtown Landlord's filed suit against the City, State and Marble Valley Regional Transit District. The suit claims flooding, caused by the named defendants, damaged their property during storms in June 2008 and August 2009.

The suit does not state damages caused by the flooding during the storm of April 2007.

The suit claims negligently designing, building and maintaining infrastructure, including sewer and waste water lines, catch basins and the transit center itself, that contributed to the flooding in the basements of the buildings that abut the transit center.

One of the plaintiff's, Gus Louras (The Mayor's Father), commented on Friday stating "the Mayor has no connection to this lawsuit. "

Mayor Christopher Louras stated "he had absolutely no knowledge that Sam Frank Inc. was a party to a lawsuit and frankly, I had no idea that any suit was filed against the city on this matter. The city attorney has wisely kept me uninformed out of concern for ignorant individuals jumping to conclusions about any potential ties between me and Sam Frank Inc."

Listed on the Mayor's election website: "Upon returning to Rutland to raise his family, Chris joined his brother Nico, his sister Valerie Fothergill, and his father Gus in running Sam Frank Inc., a regional wholesale distributor of grocery, tobacco and candy products serving stores throughout central and southern Vermont. Here he has gained twelve years of invaluable experience with the day-to-day management, operation and oversight of a multi-million dollar business and learned how to relate those lessons-learned to running a municipality."

One chef downtown has stated the Mayor advised downtown business owners effected by the flood to sue the city?

Back in the April 2007 storm the city hired an outside service company to clean and removed all debris from the waste water drains. Hartigan, from Stowe VT, was hired to make sure all drains were clear from debris to alleviate flooding in the future. If the suit claims infrastructure was not properly maintained, this could be placed on the lap of his honor, Mayor Louras.

Now we will wait and see where this lawsuit goes, but one could expect a capital improvement project be annouced from the Mayor in the very near future. By incorporating a lawsuit he will try to scare the taxpayers into more bonding. Note: the wastewater projects due to be completed this year, do not have this project on the radar. Must not have been such a big concern, until now? Will those so-called ignorant people believe one more lie from this Mayor?

Alderman Vote Down Police Union Contract

The contract, which lays out the pay scale, benefits and other conditions for most of the department's uniformed and civilian employees, expired on June 30. Under the terms of the expired agreement, the department's union employees will continue to abide by the former contract until a new one is ratified.

But a proposed contract negotiated between the union and the city's administration failed to muster aldermanic approval when it came up for a vote at a recent meeting. After discussing the confidential contract during an executive session, the board returned to an open session to vote 6-2 against the contract.

Aldermen Robert Barrett, Kevin Coleman, Sharon Davis, Tom DePoy, David Dress and Christopher Robinson voted to reject the contract while Aldermen William Notte and Joe Tilden voted for it. Aldermen Joanne Slattery and Roy Thomas were not present for the vote.

RTU Explains Ballot Articles

Some members of The Rutland Taxpayers United attended the first public hearing of the articles to be placed on the ballot in March. Members explained why they supported the articles and what the intended results would be if passed.

"We estimate that if the changes were made, the city would save about $450,000 and on the school side the savings would be $600,000, " said Dawn Hance. "Add them together and we're talking about saving more than $1 million. That's one way to save money for the taxpayers."

We're often told we can't cut money from the budget without cutting city services. This is one way to do it. " added city resident Shawn Pemrick.

Presently, all city employees except for those in the police union pay either 10 percent of their premium or 4 percent of their base salary. Presently, city police pay no part of their health care expenses. However, the police contract is under negotiation.

Alderman Approve Mayor's Budget with Little Cuts

The final budget meeting was held by the Board of Alderman on Tuesday night. $74,000 out of a $18,000,000 budget was cut. Most of the Mayor's projects were approved, clearing way for the voters to have the final say on the budget in March. Copy of the article in the Herald can be found here. Some members of the Rutland Taxpayers United were on hand to discuss some budget items and new ways of providing current city services.

Health insurance seems to be the glaring current expediture that can be controlled easily. This year the taxpayers will have the vote if city employees should be required to pay a minimum of 20% of their health insurance. Please vote "YES" for this article to provide the same level of city services with reduced cost to the taxpayer.

During the meeting a comparison was done between the South Burlington and Rutland Fire & Police departments health insurance premiums. Resident and RTU member, Shawn Pemrick, stated South Burlington (same population as Rutland) health insurance premiums for the Fire Department were $500,000 less than Rutland's. The Police department was also $500,000 less than Rutland's as well. The Board of Alderman need to do their homework and start comparing what we spend and look for alternative cost control measures.