The first of four State of the City addresses by Mayor Greg Verga saw the second-term mayor field questions about a variety of topics, from the November educators’ strike to the city’s wind turbines.
Verga spoke to the more than 25 people in attendance Thursday evening in the second-floor lecture hall at Gloucester High about the need to finally take on the long-postponed project to upgrade the Essex Avenue wastewater treatment plant.
“This is not a glamorous project, but everybody flushes,” he quipped.
Among the laundry list of projects Verga spoke about funded by American Rescue Plan Act money was the restoration of the peeling outside of the Legion Memorial Building on Washington Street using $1.3 million in ARPA funds. It was a project kick-started by a $40,000 fundraiser by American Legion Post 3’s members, he said.
The renovation of Green Street Park with a state-of-the-art softball field, a walking path, exercise equipment and a resurfaced basketball court used $280,000 in ARPA funds, he said. The majority of money, about $2.3 million, for the project came from a 2019 loan order tied to paying for items that were were ineligible for reimbursement by the Massachusetts School Building Authority when East Veterans Elementary School was built.
“As we move forward, there will be challenges,” Verga said, “including most importantly the budget cycle. Gloucester is adjusting to the post-pandemic financial landscape as federal and state support decreases. That, coupled with our limited growth due to Proposition 2½, presents challenges for the upcoming budget cycle.”
Verga, who recently announced his run for a third term, said the benefit of paid parental leave would be a key component to help retain and recruit city employees.
In light of the teachers and paraprofessionals strike in November, Gloucester High life skills teacher Sean Lilly said the relationship between the mayor’s office, the School Committee and educators “was ruptured, borderline irrevocably, during the work stoppage,” he said. He asked how Verga might rebuild those relationships.
“The first thing is we have to build our budget, and fund our schools as fully as we can,” Verga said. “These are going to have to be not just political things, but these are going to have to be one-on-one conversations. And there was rupture, there is no question about it.”
“I think it’s fair to say that both sides had a part in that, I hope you would agree with that. And if you don’t then it’s going to be difficult to heal the rupture,” Verga said, talking about the schools’ importance to the city. “But I’m committed to healing the rupture. I’ve got two grandkids in our schools and they will be in the system for at least another 10 years.”
“We’ll be watching and we’ll be listening,” Lilly said.
Potholes, turbines
Rich Carlson of Rocky Neck asked about Verga’s plans to fix potholes on private roads.
Verga said this has long been an issue, one he tried to address during his first term with a working group which came up with a number of recommendations.
“To be very clear, it was made abundantly clear to us the city cannot spend public funds on private roads,” except for emergency repairs. Instead, Verga touted the city’s betterment process that has seen neighbors work with the city, which the takes on the road project, with the cost spread out over 10 years on neighbors’ tax bills.
Asked about the city’s two wind turbines, the mayor said the city issued a permit and partnered with a private company in a revenue-sharing agreement, and they came online in 2012.
The city has no control over the turbines or their maintenance, but has benefited from an average of $300,000 annually over the past 12 years, Verga said. The city had budgeted for $350,000 this fiscal year, but he noted the turbines have seen significant downtime in recent months.
“Is the alternative to take them down?” Verga said. “It doesn’t cost us anything. And they have been permitted and it’s private property.”
On city’s schools
Gloucester High teacher Eric Leigh noted the mayor had spoken about investments in the school’s vocational department, but he said, “I think it’s very important for you to realize the lack of investment that has been made in education here in Gloucester and how we are losing people who are long-time educators, including our paras, who are going to other districts.”
“And I have to say based upon what happened during your responsibility sitting on the School Committee, I’m extremely disappointed not only in your actions but in your lack of actions,” Leigh said. Verga is a committee member because of his office.
“We sat as educators and all we want is some of the things you are now talking about, here, paid family medical leave.”
Leigh said the School Committee’s initial offer was five days of paid parental leave. He said educators could not even get an email answered within five days.
Verga said last year the city plugged $1 million of ARPA funding into the school budget.
As to Leigh’s question about whether money for the schools was instead used to fund sea walls, Verga said money for the flood barriers at Gloucester High and the Essex Avenue wastewater plant did not come from the state’s Student Opportunity Act, but were paid for through grants that came to the city before he was mayor, and the city had borrowed the money for the project before he came into office.
On paid parental leave, Verga noted: “Yes, your bargaining units raised a good point. It’s spreading like wildfire among the other unions. That’s why we are looking at it seriously, now. And in the end, yes, there was the original offer from the School Committee was very few days. The offer that we settled on in the contract in November was quite significantly more than that.”
Verga said pay was raised significantly for both paraprofessionals and teachers under the new contracts agreed to in November.