After 25 hours of scrutinizing each city department’s expenditures line-by-line, the City Council approved the 2009-10 budget with nearly $1.5 million in expense cuts.
To balance the budget, the council scaled back the Community Police Academy, an employee wellness program, employee recognition programs, city employees’ conference attendance and the public education budget.
The council suspended popular community events like the Pumpkin Race, Halloween Carnival, Holiday Crafts Night, Family Kite Festival and Metlox Art Series.
“Those are icing on the cake,” said Mayor Portia Cohen. “Now there’s an opportunity for the private sector to pitch in more. We need to rely on them to make these things happen.”
The council also eliminated their Chamber of Commerce allocation, free parking at metered spots in the holiday season, an allocation for the tree committee, and neighborhood traffic management programs.
“Those programs are good for us in great times, but we’re scaling back,” said Councilmember Mitch Ward. “When times pick up, we’ll bring them back.”
The council also eliminated seven vacant employee positions to save $620,000, but council members avoided staff layoffs, City Finance Director Bruce Moe said.
All of the cuts trimmed the city’s expenditures by about $1.5 million, lowering the 2009-10 deficit to $1.5 million, which includes a $1.3 million donation to the school district, Moe said.
“We recognize we may ultimately need to do more. At midyear we’ll see if we’ve done enough,” said Councilmember Nick Tell. “The key thing is not to use reserves for operating losses.”
The adopted budget leaves an unreserved general fund balance of nearly $1.9 million at the end of fiscal year 2009-10. The city’s financial reserve of 20 percent is maintained as is the $4 million economic uncertainty reserve, Moe said.
Residents applauded the council for its transparency throughout the weeks-long process and for allowing a dialogue between the council, city staff and residents about line-by-line issues.
When Moe first presented the budget in May, the council was faced with a $3 million deficit, expected to swell to a $16 million five-year deficit. At the time, Moe said the city would exhaust its economic uncertainty funds for 2010-11 and drain its financial policy reserves to $681,000 by the end of 2014.
Revenues to the city dropped by $2.4 million from 2008-09 to 2009-10.
During three full days of budget study sessions, residents flooded the community room pressuring the City Council to cut big ticket items to prevent an eventual dip into reserves.
“The state crisis has hit,” said resident Dave Wachtfogel at one session. “If you don’t make cuts, we’ll all be dead in the water.”
Councilmember Richard Montgomery said residents have approached him, shocked that the Council balanced the budget without layoffs.
“What more could you ask for?” he said. “Maybe our parks won’t be as clean, but you won’t see a change in the service level.”
The 2009-10 budget will take effect on July 1. ER