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U.City explores more ideas for improving budget picture
(by Kara Krekeler - April 01, 2008)
Just a year after laying off city employees and reducing services, University City is again considering drastic cost-cutting measures to salvage its budget.
The city council began discussing options at its March 24 meeting and hopes to get a few more ideas from citizens at a public budget hearing April 14.
University City Deputy City Manager and Finance Director Janet Watson said that the potential layoffs would be similar to those implemented last year and could affect many city departments, although she said she isn’t sure which ones or how many positions might be lost. “They’re still potentials at this point,” she said.
Last year, the city balanced its books by laying off 12 people and leaving seven positions unfilled after people left or retired.
In addition to considering layoffs, the city has also proposed increasing recreation fees and seeking ways to consolidate certain services, including police victim services and community centers, with neighboring cities or other governmental entities.
According to a projection obtained from Watson, the city will face growing budget problems over the next five years, with a projected budget deficit of nearly $4 million by 2013. The cuts the city council is currently considering would only help out over the next two years but would give the city council time to look at larger issues that require more time for analysis, Watson said.
One of those larger issues is whether or not the city should consolidate its fire department into a fire district with other neighboring cities, but Watson said that if the council decides to pursue that option, it would be unlikely that a decision would be made quickly.
“This is a long-term issue if they decide they want to do it,” she said. “It’s not going to be decided soon.”
The council will begin researching the potential pros and cons of a fire district at a discussion session before its April 7 meeting.
Several of the proposed actions are similar to those suggested by an independent citizens financial task force, which met for six months in 2007 before offering final recommendations to the city council in December.
Those recommendations included looking into the feasibility of joining a fire district; raising fees at Centennial Commons and the Heman Park Community Pool; implementing a more streamlined recycling program; cracking down on delinquent waste- management payments; and charging for evening parking at the large municipal lots in the Loop.
“We were looking strictly at the numbers,” said task-force chairman John Solodar, who said that the group considered layoffs out of its purview. “We knew we had a budget problem, and we just wanted to examine ways that we could save money and raise money. We were an independent task force that wasn’t tied to the city council or to anybody’s political agenda.”
Watson attributed part of the city’s budget problem to the economy, which she said has been changing over the last several years.
“Basically, our revenues are flat to slightly rising, so when you think about [expenditures such as] salaries, benefits and fuel, all of those are rising much faster,” she said. “Our revenues are just not keeping up with our expenditures.”
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