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Council may be forced to make extensive cuts to city budget

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Written by Brian McCauley

Wednesday, 15 July 2009 08:00

Paola city officials are planning some hard-hitting budget cuts, including the possibility of freezing salaries and eliminating positions, in order to offset a deficit in the city’s general fund.

Many of the cost-saving options were discussed by Paola City Council members during a work session Thursday night.

According to a memorandum from City Manager Jay Wieland and City Clerk Dan Droste, the proposed general fund budget for 2010 had a negative balance of $625,767 in Wieland’s recommended version and $742,157 in the department requested version. The council members went over a variety of options to close the gap.

Some actions being strongly considered include freezing salaries for all employees, raising the general fund mill levy by 2.76 mills, not filling an open police officer position and eliminating a secretarial position for the department, allowing the city treasurer to forgo his salary, eliminating two positions in the street department and reducing or eliminating amounts being saved for upgrades in equipment for different city departments. Other cash transfers, such as an annual $25,000 deposit in anticipation of a new skate park, also would be eliminated.

The severe cuts may not even be enough, and some more extreme options also were mentioned, such as implementing a one-day furlough each month in which the employees would not get paid.

Council members said Thursday they want to make keeping staff their top priority. They were scheduled to continue their budget discussion during another work session following the Paola City Council meeting Tuesday. The results of Tuesday’s meeting were unavailable at press time.

If the suggested cuts are implemented, the city would have a projected cash carry over of $363,071 for 2009 and $279,608 for 2010. They’re numbers none of the council members felt comfortable with, and Councilman Jack Rowlett Jr. specifically said he would like to see the carryover for 2010 be at least $100,000 more. The other council members agreed but struggled to find how that much more money could be cut from the budget without affecting more staff.

City staff was a focal point during the meeting, with council members searching for ways to keep from cutting positions, and Public Works Director Gerry Bieker pleading for the council to take money from equipment funds and anywhere else besides cutting his staff.

“If you don’t have people, you don’t have a city,” Bieker said. “I think the people at Public Works have justified their positions.”

Wieland said if any staff is cut, he will work to ensure the positions are not permanently lost.

“We realize those are drastic things,” Wieland said after reviewing the proposed staff cuts. “One of the concerns is that once positions like these are gone, they’re gone. It would be a top priority of mine to get that funding back up as soon as we could.”

Councilman Jim Pritchard said he too wants to keep staff, but he supports the decisions of Wieland and his staff because they were hired as professionals to make such decisions. Councilman Pete Bell disagreed.

“I don’t rely on professionals,” Bell said. “The reserves have dropped under the tutelage of professionals.”

Without cutting more staff, more savings may have to come from a further increase of the city’s mill levy, which affects the tax rate in which city residents pay property taxes. Bell disagreed with that as well.

“You can always raise taxes, but this is hardly the time to raise taxes,” Bell said.

Mayor Artie Stuteville agreed that the cuts were difficult to map out, but she showed support for Wieland and the city staff for their work.

“When things are good, it’s easy to make decisions. When things are tough, and you know you are affecting people personally, the decisions are very difficult,” Stuteville said. “This council has been the most generous to employees than any other council I have ever served on.”

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