The Pumpkin Race, Halloween Carnival, Pet Appreciation Day and the Metlox and Arts Manhattan series are among next year’s budget casualties. To trim just over $1 million from their budget, City Council suspended those programs along with neighborhood traffic management, holiday parking meter bagging, the Tree Committee and a majority of city staff’s conferences during 18 hours of budget study sessions over the past two weeks.
The city’s $210,000 allocation to the Chamber of Commerce to help fund brochures, community event supplies, city decorations and marketing campaigns was also eliminated. Council member Mitch Ward asked Chamber President Helen Duncan to return to Council with ideas for effectively helping small businesses and Council can later decide to fund Chamber projects on a case by case basis.
The suspensions reduced the city’s 2009-2010 deficit from $3 million to $1.9 million and scaled its $16 million five-year projected deficit down to $4 million. The cuts will spare the city from having to dig into its financial policy reserves or economic uncertainty funds, according to finance director Bruce Moe.
Vocal residents pressured Council to focus on cutting big numbers to prevent an eventual dip into reserves after one study session was spent mulling over $1000 or $2000 programs.
“You’re playing around with pennies,” resident Dave Wachtfogel said. “You are nice people. You don’t want to tell the old people they’re not going to get their food. Let staff be the throat cutters. The state crisis has hit…if you don’t make cuts, we’ll all be dead in the water.”
One contentious big budget item is a four percent management salary increase, totaling $312,000, for the 25 percent of city employees who are not union members.
“(The increase) is needed to keep adequate distance between supervisors and subordinates,” said City Manager Geoff Dolan.
The increase simply moves the top of the salary range by four percent, he said. Any raises would be merit-based and not automatic, he said.
Mayor Portia Cohen staunchly opposed the increase, calling it unrealistic in these economic times and insensitive to the private sector.
“I don’t want to underpay our employees, but I can not in good conscience tell someone who’s been laid off in the private sector that their taxes will go to pay increases,” she said. “Raising management’s salary just because people below them are getting raises, there’s something wrong with that.”
Councilmember Nick Tell countered that not increasing the salary range could encourage the employees to unionize.
Dolan argued that if city salaries aren’t competitive, promising new employees might choose other cities.
The council postponed deciding on the raises pending a report by staff on what surrounding cities pay.
Wachtfogel said public employees have become greedy and have extraordinary pensions.
“There has to be some connect between what’s going on in the country,” he said. “People suffering think you’re unwilling to suffer with them.”
“Managers are getting close to their employees…well, grin and bear it for a couple years,” said former city planning commissioner Gerry O’Connor.
O’Connor said he was all for City Council making big number cuts that are visible — such as eliminating community events.
“But I’m not for doing any of it if we’re handing out raises,” he said.
The Council has also eliminated one police officer position, at a savings of $144,000, a vacant associate planner position, saving $102,000 and reduced their landscaping contract by 40 percent to save nearly $200,000.
The City Council is expected to adopt the budget at its June 16 meeting. The new budget will take effect on July 1. ER