Divided City Council Approves 2012-13 Budget

The City Council voted 3-2 Thursday to enact budget resolutions for the upcoming fiscal year. The city's capital improvements and operating budgets total nearly $415.7 million, according to a staff report.

Councilwoman Lili Bosse and Vice Mayor John Mirisch dissented on the vote.

The initial budget presented by city staff in May had a budget gap of $5.15 million. To close the gap, the following one-time reductions were made:

• Reduce General Fund accruals for small equipment/furniture replacement by $200,000.
• Reduce General Fund accruals for Information Technology equipment replacements by $200,000.
• Reduce General Fund charges by Fund 48 (PAL Fund) by $860,000.
• Extend the useful lives of underutilized vehicles by one-year and realize General Fund savings of $290,000.
• Reduce the intended General Fund contribution to Capital Improvement Projects by $1.5 million, lowering total contributions to capital projects to last year’s level of $8.5 million.
• Transfer $100,000 of Fund 48 fund balance to the General Fund.
• Carry over $2 million of anticipated year end revenue exceeding budget and budget expenditure savings from FY 2011/12.

City staff was able to trim an additional $899,100 from the budget by making the following departmental cuts:

• Policy & Management—$109,600
• City Attorney—$38,000
• Administrative Services—$112,700
• Police—$146,100
• Fire—$100,000
• Information Technology—$102,000
• Public Works—$250,000
• Community Services—$40,700

"I would have preferred to have seen this before tonight to have had time to digest it and see what we think is a priority," Bosse said, referring to the final version of the proposed budget on which council members voted. "I can't ever support something if I'm just looking at it for the first time." 

The councilwoman questioned several specific budget items, including a police officer position that was going to be cut in an earlier budget draft, staff reductions that could lead to a decrease in public services and a $10 million expenditure for constructing a Public Works Department storage facility.

Vice Mayor John Mirisch called for maximizing the value of the city's expenditures.

"That's always been sort of the dichotomy—well, you've either got to pay more or reduce services," Mirisch said. "There's always the third or the fourth way, which is no, let's get better value for money, let's take what we have and make it go further. That's the most difficult way, but that's the one I think we should be relentlessly pursuing."

The vice mayor also said the budget "does not go far enough in making the systemic changes that we can and need to be making." Mirisch suggested a freeze on hiring new city employees and giving greater attention to coming up with management strategies that don't decrease the level of services to residents or raise fees.

Mayor William Brien responded that the $37 million and 91 job cuts over the last four years haven't significantly "impacted the critical services that we provide," such as the police and fire departments, schools and Public Works.

Councilman Barry Brucker said that approving the budget sends an important message to the community that the council has made progress on the city's fiscal obligations. 

"We've got a multi-hundred million-dollar budget and I know everyone of us has some line item that we may not be happy with, but in the big picture I think it's incumbent upon us to factor all of that in and say ... is it still worth sending the message to the community that we're supportive of the funding?" Brucker said.

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