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Chair says revised budget will let Lowell reach 203 firefighters, vows no layoffs
Summary
The meeting speaker thanked union leaders and said the revised budget before the council would restore the city—irefighting ranks to 203, pledged no layoffs, and noted the fire union and bargaining units made concessions including an 11-month pause on cost-of-living adjustments.
The Chair told the council that the revised budget before the council aims to restore the city—irefighting ranks to 203 and pledged, "I, in turn, committed to not laying off any firefighters."
The statement came as the Chair thanked firefighter union leadership and singled out Mr. Lait for "a very productive conversation" earlier in the week. The Chair said Mr. Leight, Mr. Potter and the speaker had met again and that "the fire department union has committed to working with their members to explore opportunities to financially assist the city and to try to lower overtime costs."
The Chair cast the revised spending plan as the mechanism to reach the staffing target, saying, "The revised budget before the council will allow us to get to the 203 firefighters that we deserve." The speaker offered that commitment in the context of bargaining-unit concessions: several units paused cost-of-living adjustments for 11 months. The Chair thanked those employees and said their sacrifices "helped prevent deeper cuts, and that is the spirit of Lowell."
The transcript did not record a vote or further procedural action on the budget. The revised budget remained before the council at the close of the recorded remarks.
