As municipal budget season reaches its climax, Ink Link News Assistant Editor Andrew Sylvia sat down with Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais to catch up on the state of things as seen from city hall and the city as a whole.
Awaiting a decision on the city budget
The Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen met on May 19, but tabled making any decision on a city budget proposed by Aldermen June Trisciani and Jim Burkush.
Ruais said that there is currently no pre-judgement regarding continuing offline deliberation between members of the board and himself when it comes to what the final decisions will be regarding the city and school district budgets, also stating that he hopes to strike a balance between the needs of the city, school district and taxpayers.
Regarding that prohibition on pre-judgement, the mayor said that he would not respond to the comments of some Aldermen that a tax cap override is necessary to find the funding needed for two pending police union contracts. Instead, Ruais noted the importance of filling what is currently 27 vacancies in the sworn officer roster of the Manchester Police Department, both in terms of public safety as well as the city’s budget since unfilled positions must be filled by current officers being offered overtime pay to work in addition to their normal shifts.
While he noted that other municipalities across the state are also struggling with filling their police rosters, he also said that many other municipalities are offering significant bonuses for qualified officers. Additionally, the city’s recently completed compensation study indicates that Manchester will have to pay more to attract and retain qualified police candidates
“I’ll take a look when I see the next iteration of the budget. I think it’s important right now to continue to meet and have these conversations because I think those contracts are essential,” said Ruais.
Resolving those contracts this year will also be critical given the focus needed to approve 11 other municipal union contracts next year.
Following comments during the May 19 meeting from a series of disabled individuals struggling with navigating deteriorating parts of the city’s sidewalks and other pedestrian-focused areas, Ruais referenced investments made into road repair in his proposed city budget as well as the Department of Public Works’ road repair schedule, which takes community needs into account alongside the depth of damage on a road or sidewalk and time since its last renovation.
Longer term insights on the school budget
In addition to the Fiscal Year ’27 city budget, the school district’s budget also requires a final decision from the Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen. At the May 26 Board of School Committee meeting, Vice Chair Jim O’Connell believed that the current status quo where the Board of School Committee recommends a school budget for the Aldermen to approve is not sustainable for a variety of reasons.
For years, there has been an intellectual tug-of-war between people who feel that the Board of School Committee should be able to approve its own budgets and people who feel the exact opposite and think they should have all of their authority in the school budget process ceded to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.
Ruais says that he could not support giving independent taxing authority to the Board of School Committee, but would need to look at any proposals relegating the Board of School Committee and giving the Board of Mayor and Aldermen full control given that there are numerous references to school boards within state law that would need to be taken into account for any changes from the current status quo.
Homeless veterans are a thing of the past
Ruais took the time to note that his administration has housed 121 homeless people identified as veterans as of May 26. In September 2024, Ruais and other local organizations set the goal of eliminating veteran homelessness in the city. At that time, 47 homeless veterans had been identified, with all of those individuals’ obtaining homes and keeping those homes since then, according to Ruais.
During his tenure, Ruais’ approach toward addressing the matter of homelessness in the city has been compartmentalizing the city’s homeless population into more manageable cohorts and then trying to identify the needs of those groups, such as in the case of the veterans. Housing specifically geared toward homeless families is being developed in the near future and a shelter for the elderly and infirm on Elm Street has taken the place of the Beech Street Shelter.
However, even with more specialized action plans, there is still plenty of overlap between the various subgroups in the city’s homeless population and homeless individuals themselves also have distinctly unique and complex needs that ensure there is still work to be done.
“I recognize that challenge still exists in this space, so this is not mission accomplished, but I do believe that we are making slow and steady progress to get people into treatment, get people housed, get people jobs, and get people proper documentation they might need for substance use disorder (treatment) or mental health,” he said. “Often times it takes multiple times to get someone connected to services, so I think it’s important that 4,835 provider connections have been made because it takes time to build up the trust for someone to ask for help.”
Does Taco Tour put Manchester on the map?
The final week of May brought Taco Tour back to downtown Manchester, but are people from outside the city talking about Manchester when it comes to things like Taco Tour. Ruais thinks the short answer is yes since the city was named the third best small city in America, but the longer answer is that events like Taco Tour give a chance for the city to put itself in a good light to outsiders.
As of May 26, he noted that the city’s street ambassador team has picked up 132,000 pounds of trash downtown in addition to powerwashing 663 block faces, removing 1,124 stickers and picking up 265 pieces of “oversized” debris.
When it comes to his favorite taco, Ruais was less forthcoming, although he said that the tacos made by the Manchester Fire Department at their Merrimack Street headquarters last year were phenomenal.