The City Council approved $300,000 for positions in Mayor Marc Laredo’s new administration Monday night.

The money will pay the salaries of Chief of Community Services John Rice and Chief of Staff Dana Hanson as well as Chief Financial Officer Maureen Lemieux, who stayed on temporarily but is planning to retire before the end of the fiscal year in June.

The Finance Committee had unanimously approved the money transfers.

$100,000 will come from the Elections Department, specifically from money that was set for preliminary elections last September, which never took place because no races required one.

“Therefore, these wages that are specific to another election, such as administering security poll workers, those particular wages are not needed.”

Another $100,000 will come from the Human Resources Department, because there are open positions there that were budgeted for but won’t be filled before June.

And $100,000 will come from the Division of Public Works, with money also set for positions that won’t be filled before June.

Grossman said both Lemieux and Chief Operating Officer Josh Morse told the Finance Committee the community services role was needed to help take pressure off 

“The COO–being a singular person with management responsibility for essentially every department, other than the Financial Services Department and the public school–is really triple-scheduled every hour of the day for meetings and commitments and not able to fulfill as many of the project deliverables or really kind of move the ball forward in ways that we would want our COO to be able to do in overseeing the work of the city, in interacting with the City Council, and, most importantly, interacting and being present with the public,” she said.

And the chief of staff position, held by Dana Hanson, also helps balance the workflow and demands of City Hall.

“We’ve probably already seen how hands-on that position is, how communicative Ms. [Dana] Hanson, who has been serving in that role since the new administration took office on Jan. 1, is, certainly in communicating and liaising with all of us, and the public, and the all of the wonderful staff members we have in the city,” Grossman said.

Councilor Randy Block said that while he doesn’t oppose the spending, he wants the Council to consider the expense when it comes to the next fiscal year’s budget.

“I think that deferring to the mayor regarding the staffing that he thinks he needs in order to run the city. It’s a wise thing to do,” Block said. “However, I will point out that $300,000 for half a year annualizes at $600,000, and that seemed to me to be a lot for two full-time positions and an overlap with the CFO. That doesn’t mean that this should be less than $300,000, but I thought that we should at least discuss that and be aware that that’s what this proposal is.”

Councilor Andrea Kelley asked what would happen if the city ends up with special elections (if a city councilor or School Committee members steps down, for example) between now and June 30. But, as Council President John Oliver noted,

You can watch the entire meeting on NewTV’s YouTube channel.