Norwich — Vocal opposition to several proposed cuts to the city and school budgets was partially successful Monday night, as the aldermen rejected a plan to cut a caseworker from the Human Services Department, kept the school budget at a 2 percent spending increase and reduced by half the cut in the Otis Library budget.

The council reviewed proposed budget cuts line by line late Monday following nearly two hours of public comment, mostly opposing cuts some called "embarrassing" and draconian."

The aldermen at times voted along party lines, with the five Republicans supporting cutting two clerk positions — one from the assessor's office and one from city clerk's office — while the two Democrats on the council opposed the cuts. The council also voted 5-2 along party lines to eliminate a vacant firefighter position from the central city fire department.

But vote tallies varied, as the aldermen rejected Alderwoman Joanne Philbrick's proposal to cut $740,000 from the proposed school budget, leaving it with just a 1 percent increase over this year. Philbrick conceded defeat on that plan and joined the council in voting unanimously against the cut.

Republican Alderman William Nash then attempted to raise the school budget by $518,000, essentially to absorb the increase in tuition to Norwich Free Academy, but the proposal failed 4-3.

The aldermen also voted 4-3 to preserve the Human Services caseworker position after city staff and representatives from other nonprofit social service agencies and one church strongly objected to the cut. They argued that the caseworker more than made up for the salary by bringing additional grant money, fuel assistance and rental assistance funding to the city.

The vote drew applause from many of the more than 100 people in the audience who stayed late into the evening to hear the budget deliberations.

Otis Library had been targeted for a $130,000 reduction in the Republican proposal, a move that drew sharp public criticism as it came just one week after the library was named one of the top five libraries in the nation, receiving a 2016 National Medal for Museum and Library Services.

Republican Alderman Alderman Jerry Martin suggesting cutting the reduction nearly in half, restoring $63,000 to the budget for a cut of $67,000. The aldermen approved that plan unanimously.

The three-hour budget deliberation effort resulted in an overall cut to the combined city and school budget of $197,447, cutting 0.13 mills from City Manager John Salomone's initial proposed $123.9 million budget. With the changes, the proposed budget would mean a citywide tax increase of 0.6 mills.

A second public hearing on the budget will be held next Monday at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.

c.bessette@theday.com