Mayor Joseph Polisena told the Sun Rise on Tuesday morning that the town has furloughed its part-time employees, but has yet to lay off any full-time workers at Town Hall.
Polisena said he made that decision in order to prevent full-time and part-time workers from being too close to one another at Town Hall and for economic concerns. The mayor said he is drafting a letter to send to the Johnston delegation of the General Assembly to plead for level funding.
“I’m very concerned, extremely concerned about the finances of the country, but not only that, it’s going to trickle down to the states and the cities and towns,” Polisena said. “We’ll be happy – I’ve spoken to my colleagues in government, other mayors and town administrators and they agree – as long as we’re level-funded, we’ll be OK. We’ll take some hits, with the meals tax, and that’s fine. We can absorb that.”
Polisena said the town has been able to avoid laying off full-time employees because it has been “running lean” since he entered office in 2007. He said unless the town receives severe cuts in funding, it should be able to bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’re about 60 people down from when I took over in 2007. I always say this town has been on a diet when it comes to spending,” he said. “If we get cut, I don’t know what we’re going to do. We’re holding off on doing our budget. We’ve started looking at numbers. I’ve got to wait and see what the General Assembly puts out.”
Polisena has always waited for the General Assembly to sort out budget matters before filing a concrete proposal at the town level. For this example, he said, if the town received $5 million less in aid, he would start out with a deficit that size rather than being able to do some planning around it.
He urged the members of the Johnston delegation – which includes Reps. Mario Mendez, Deborah Fellela, Stephen Ucci and Gregory Constantino and Sens. Frank Lombardo III and Stephen Archambault — to “fight for the town they represent.” He did acknowledge that some of them, like Mendez and Archambault, represent multiple municipalities.
“I’ll remind them all politics is local,” he said. “We haven’t raised taxes in three years. I would like to continue that non-raising of taxes, provided we don’t get cut. It’s going to be up to the General Assembly members of Johnston that they put their foot down and say, ‘Listen, we’re fighting for our taxpayers.’ They represent Johnston.”
Polisena said the town’s current financial situation is OK, but added again that “any type of tax increase rests on their shoulders” when referring to the state delegation. He mentioned a conference call from last week with other local leaders and the League of Cities of Towns, during which he encouraged other mayors and town administrators to get in touch with their General Assembly members.
“They need to fight for their cities and towns, and some of the other reps represent other communities, so I’m sure the other leaders in those communities will probably be echoing what I’m saying,” the mayor said. “I understand things are tough, but we didn’t create this. Our residents didn’t create this, but we have to make sure we are level-funded, especially with the aid the state is getting, thanks to Sen. Jack Reed, by the way, which is great.”
Polisena said Town Hall continues to run on schedule, welcoming residents in by appointment as people continue to obtain marriage licenses, birth certificates and more. A new piece of plexiglass was installed at the town clerk’s office courtesy of the school department, an addition the mayor said will continue to prove useful even after the pandemic subsides.
“So the women and men behind the town clerk’s office are protected and we’ll continue with that obviously – even if this goes away and two years from now, a year from now it’s, ‘Coronavirus, what’s that?’ – it’s always nice to have because you have flu season and you've got other things. We’re very happy to put that in,” he said.
Polisena estimated the town has spent upwards of $40,000 on cleaning supplies alone, ranging from bleach and hand sanitizer to hand wipes and Lysol spray. Every staff member is wearing masks and gloves, as well as adhering to social distancing protocols.
“We’re hoping that we get reimbursed,” he said. “We haven't gone overboard, but we’re making sure that our people are protected.”
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