Residents who spoke during the May 20 public hearing urged the City Council to scrutinize several parts of the proposed budgets and local operations, including trash-collection costs, ambulance response and billing, and transparency around school governance.

Christopher Rice, a resident, reviewed line items in the operating and CIP budgets and repeatedly urged councilors to cut “fluff” and to scrutinize line-item spending. Rice flagged trash-collection as a high-cost item and urged competitive bidding or service adjustments. “$350,000 could be cut out of this line… $600,000 can be cut out of this line,” Rice said, urging councilors to consider switching pickup schedules or negotiating contracts.

Rice also questioned the costs of equipment and vehicle procurement across departments and said the city should “sharpen our pencils” to find savings rather than draw on the unassigned fund balance.

Several residents raised concerns about ambulance response times and billing. Susan Rice said her household experienced a 17-minute ambulance response for a non-life-threatening call; she said the driver’s routing added miles that increased the billed amount and that administrative staff later agreed to correct the billing. “The paramedic in the back did a wonderful job… but 17 minutes is an awful lot if you have that type of condition,” she said.

Tom Kosinski, who also identified himself as a state representative, criticized the city’s expenditures on property acquisition and questioned whether infrastructure needs such as paving should take priority over new property purchases.

Susan Rice and other speakers also urged the council to respect the legal independence of the school board. Rice cited state statutes and the Rochester City Charter when reminding the council that the school board is the policy-making body for school operations and that the council’s exclusive role is to appropriate funds.

Separately, Colin Cooper of the Rochester Veterans Council asked the council and community to participate in the Memorial Day parade and provided logistics and sponsor details for the event; his remarks were procedural and focused on community participation.

Speakers repeatedly asked for greater transparency in minutes, timely posting of documents and clearer public access to budget materials. Susan Rice said she had trouble obtaining meeting minutes before the hearing and told the council she was “a little pissed off” at the difficulty receiving records in the promised timeframe.