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Council members cut but also add to close deficit
MONROE- A majority of the mayor’s recommendations to close a $300,000 budget gap were accepted by the City Council last week, but some council-added new expenditures brought the 2010 budget deficit down to $190,600.
The council unanimously voted to fully fund the YMCA contract for an added $26,000 expense, reduce attorney fees by $50,000 and killed a $30,000 estimate to have a consultant find a new city administrator.
Councilman Kurt Goering successfully fought to keep a parks employee within the department instead of moving the employee to public works.
The council will tackle this week a 1 percent property tax and a 5 percent water utility tax proposed by Mayor Donnetta Walser. Walser decided to drop a proposal to establish a garbage tax. If the council approves both, it will generate $186,394 for the city coffers.
The proposed budget assumes the council will adopt a 1 percent property tax increase.
The 5 percent water tax would increase rates for an average consumer by $1.89 and stick the Department of Corrections with an estimated $1,792.44 water bill. The city, through Walser’s work, now can bill the DOC for water per a new contract negotiated earlier this year.
“They won’t be happy but no one is,” Walser said, noting the DOC has had a “free ride” for years. The DOC uses 168 million gallons of water a year.
Council members were mixed on the idea of raising the water tax. Councilman John Stima said taxpayers have paid enough.
The council also fought to fully fund the YMCA at an added cost of $26,000 to the general fund. Walser’s proposed budget funded the YMCA for nine months in 2010. The council in 2005 entered a 15-year contract with the YMCA at $131,000 a year to provide certain free services for residents, but the council did not designate funding for the expenditure.
“We cut our parks to fund the YMCA. It’s really discouraging, so we have to cut both,” Walser said.
Instead the council decided to fund both.
The audience of YMCA supporters and city workers had mixed reactions.
In citizen comments, police officer Javier Patton urged the council to reconsider the YMCA contract, concerned that the city may have a big cost ahead from the Meredith Mechling public records lawsuit. The City Council rejected a $192,000 settlement earlier this month. The city recently lost the suit in the state Court of Appeals.
Most other comments were from YMCA supporters.
In other news, Stima announced that mayor-elect Robert Zimmerman has a plan to cut $250,000 from the budget upon entering office, per a conversation he had with Zimmerman.
Stima was tight-lipped on Zimmerman’s plan, but said, “I’ve been told they were basically (cuts to) administration.”
The audience, largely city workers, gave hushed responses to that news.
Stima pitched early on not making cuts but instead using the city’s rainy day fund to plug the $300,000 deficit, an idea met with discontent by some on council.
After the meeting, Councilman Mitch Ruth, who did not know details of Zimmerman’s plan, said he believes Zimmerman could cut the budget by $250,000.
“If (Zimmerman) said it, he has to perform,” Ruth said. “If he doesn’t, he cuts his own throat.”
Walser said she was “surprised they were entertaining using the revenue stabilization fund. We worked hard to maintain it.”
The fund has about $800,000 available but is the last money reserve the city has to operate.
The council unanimously voted to keep a parks employee in the parks department, funded through the general fund, instead of moving the employee to public works, which is funded with utility revenues. The cost to the general fund is $81,000.
Parks director Mike Farrell said after the meeting progress was made. His department was defunded by 26 percent between 2008 and 2009. Farrell fought the proposed employee swap by the mayor because parks maintenance would be hindered.
Monroe’s contracted law firm Ogden Murphy Wallace will work from a $100,000 budget next year, a $50,000 decrease.
By MICHAEL WHITNEY
Published Nov. 25, 2009
