Council reviews proposed budget changes
Department heads asked to cut 3.5 percent from budgetsby ANNE BLANKENSHIP Daily Freeman-Journal Managing Editor
The City Council of Webster City took a look Thursday night at a series of proposed budget changes meant to cut costs as the city heads toward the next fiscal year.
The council met Wednesday night to review the capital improvement and capital equipment budget requests. Thursday night's meeting focused on the city's operating budget.
City Manager Ed Sadler offered about a dozen recommendations for creating savings in the budget. His recommendations included:
Requests from outside programs, such as Youth and Family Services, MIDAS, and the Retired Senior Volunteer Program would be frozen at the current level of funding.
Delay numerous water and wastewater projects based on the projected loss of water and wastewater revenue.
Reduce the general fund yearly allocations to equipment reserves, avoiding unnecessarily large cash balances.
Delete all nonessential equipment and capital projects in the General Fund.
Cut all non-required travel and training in all agencies.
Reduce allocation to the Webster City Chamber and Business/Industry by $20,000.
Cut out all nonessential overtime.
Freeze wages for non-union employees for the coming year. Sadler asked to reserve the right to offer one-time bonuses or additional time off in lieu of raises. He added that the current budget has a 2.5 percent raise for non-union employees.
Cut 3.5 percent from the operation budgets of all departments with General Fund budgets.
Sadler also provided the council with the proposed cuts from the various departments. Police Chief Pat Segar said in a memo that he expected to see a savings of $24,000, as the department should be able to cut overtime expenses when two new officers graduate from the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy. Segar also stated that training costs had exceeded the budget in the past two fiscal years due to the hiring of five new officers.
Sadler said the Fire Department proposed to cut costs by reducing training drills from 24 to 12 per year, and by reducing its training budget. Total savings for the Fire Department under that proposal would be $12,250.
The street department proposed reducing the amount of line painting that is contracted. The department memo recommended painting Second and Superior streets each year, and other streets on a rotating basis. The department would also trim the budget for street lighting by $16,551, stating that actual expenses for the past three years on that item was below what was budgeted.
Kent Harfst, assistant city manager and director of recreation and public grounds, offered several ways to create savings from his department. With the retirement of one full-time employee, Harfst said the janitorial position would be replaced with a part-time employee, for a savings of $12,000. The part-time staffer would be responsible for cleaning, and other full-time employees would handle maintenance concerns, according to Harfst.
He also proposed shortening the season for public grounds employees, beginning on April 8 instead of April 1, and continuing through to Oct. 1 instead of Oct. 31. That would create a savings of $11,700. The expense for winterizing the depot would be cut from $4,860 to $1,860, saving $3,000. He also advocated reducing the Fuller Hall contractual services, by $4,000, and cutting outdoor recreational contractual services by $2,300. His final recommendation was to eliminate travel and training expenses, except where mandatory for certifications. That would save an additional $1,000, he said.
City Planning Director Karla Wetzler proposed cutting $5,000 from the planning, zoning and inspection departments. The reduction would come from miscellaneous contractual services in the inspection department budget.
Public Works Administration pared $2,800 from its budget, cutting costs in consulting and professional fees, operating materials and supplies, office supplies, and travel.
Sadler said he was able to cut $12,412 from the special events budgets. The savings came from eliminating a citywide cleanup in the next fiscal year, and also from cutting the City Council account by $2,000. That fund was used for special event donation requests, he said.
The council members commended the department heads for finding the savings, and told Sadler to move ahead with the figures for the budget hearing at the Feb. 15 council meeting.
"This one (budget) has all the tricks I could pull out," he said. "It won't be that easy next year."
"Next year will require a lot of thinking outside the box," said Mayor Janet Adams.
Sadler also asked if the council would like to consider offering incentives to the departments to find more savings.
"Typically, what I've seen before is they get a portion of the savings back to use on something the department wants or needs, like special piece of equipment," he said.
"I think there is real merit in offering incentives," said Councilwoman Linda Conaway. "Above all else, I don't want to ask the public for more money."
Contact Anne Blankenship at editor@freemanjournal.net or call 832-4350.
