The mayor and his spit and polish chief financial officer Eric Demas are way behind the curve at the present moment with the new budget hanging in the balance.
The bond rating so coveted by the city won’t be helping very much in overcoming the terrifying financial crisis it is facing right now.
In just a few weeks, the city will be forced to figure out a way to support itself financially given the cruel results of the Coronavirus on the local economy and how the city’s treasury will be effected.
The mayor and his financial chief and the city council and the school department with the school committee all need to be right now preparing for the financial cave-in, a shortfall of funding like no other ever experienced in modern times, and very likely to change the course of the local economy for many years to come.
As it stands today, speculation is rife that there could be more than 100 city employee layoffs and drastic reductions in budget figures for every department even if the state comes through with added funding for the cities and towns.
The situation is believed to be substantially worse for the school department, where so much funding is relied upon from the state to keep afloat from year to year.
All elected public officials and the mayor and his financial chief need to be brought together to gather forces to make this possible doomsday fight.
Not meeting regularly right now or at all is like a great blizzard preparing to paralyze the city with no preparations being made to meet the challenge.
The mayor needs to get on the ball with this…and fast.