And Live from Cranston it's the 2009-10 Budget Public Hearing!!

7:39PM
Councilman Lupino gets a smackdown for talking out of order. He just wanted to say he couldn't hear. LOL

And after a few more speakers, that's a wrap!! Not as much bloodshed as I expected.

7:23PM
The leader of the Cranston police union is up. He says, this is not a business the employees are the nuts and bolts. He calls out Navarro for saying 446k is not much of consequence. He calls it irresponsible. He urges no layoffs AND says other unions may not come to the table if the Council doesn't move on the contract. The Council, as if in unison, recoils. Definitely this Council wants to be at the negotiating table. It seems though, the unions are very comfortable negotiating with Fung.

He leaves to the biggest applause yet.

7:18 PM
Steven Bloom states the Mayor's budget is a political budget. I'm not sure what he means by that. He says the Council's tabling of the police contract has hand-tied the Mayor's ability to negotiate. He asks the Council what is their alternative? He too leaves to applause, and Republicans are applauding as well.

7:08 PM

A man is talking about the lay offs in the budget and how he’s sick and tired of the union being blamed for not making concessions. He leaves to applause. I’m guessing the Union is here in full force.And now…Paul Voletta President of Firefighters Union. He’s mad, mad about Garabedian talking about how much firefighters get paid. He’s talked for two minutes and it’s about debunking Garabedian and seemingly exhorting the Council to understand that the Cranston Firefighters are overpaid. He's now talking about what would happen if 9 Firefighters were laid off. He states the savings would be 124k-ish, but the cost associated with the layoff (e.g. unemployment, overtime for other workers, etc) would be approximately 251k. He too leaves to applause.

6:57 PM
Next came Mark Lucas. He's bringing facts regarding five councilor's who were on previous councils and made some bad budget decisions. So far, all speakers have mentioned political gamesmanship. Former Councilman Aram Garabedian is speaking now. He says the voters also spoke by electing nine Democrats to the council. Garabedian says the state ranks 4th in pay for public employees, non-public employees are ranked 23rd. This is the issue for Rhode Island, according to Garabedian. He is outraged to think anyone would contemplate a tax increase at this time. Hmm...his four minutes are going fast.

Garabedian seems to be insinuating that Fung not meeting with the Council prior to negotiations may have been a bad move. Ok, I can understand that but it seems that if that doesn't happen, the Council is merely crying b/c they weren't at the party. That doesn't negate the fact that there is a contract that needs to be voted upon...

6:42 PM
I don't see my Councilman. I don't have my glasses on but...Cranston GOP Chairman, Jim Quinlan, is telling the Council to please support the Mayor's budget and is a bit appalled by some comments made by councilmembers. One councilman's comments can be found here.

6:38 PM
So here we go. There aren't that many people here oddly enough. On Monday the auditorium was half-way filled, and now it's not even 10 percent. Might this be a reason why bad (read: unresponsive) legislators get elected over and over and over again in Rhode Island?