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In effort to fix budget, U.City courts citizens for ideas
(by Heather Wadsworth - April 21, 2008)
University City hosted a public hearing to give citizens a chance to provide their input for the 2008-09 budget that the city council is currently preparing.
This is the second year for the city to offer citizens a chance to make their voices heard regarding the budget before it is finalized.
Janet Watson, deputy city manager and director of finance, said that she is not aware of any other city that holds a public hearing before the budget is finalized, although all cities are required to hold a public hearing after the annual budget is finalized.
Watson gave a presentation at the start of the meeting to explain the basics of the city’s budget. She said that the general fund is the largest portion of the budget and pays for services such as police and fire protection, maintenance, recreation programs, inspections, code enforcement and other functions.
Watson explained that if current trends continue, the city’s revenues would continue to decrease over the next few years as expenditures increase, resulting in a growing deficit for the city. Watson estimated that by 2013, the city’s deficit could be near $4 million.
The council’s current plan for reducing the city’s expenditures is to eliminate 12 staff positions, half of which are now vacant, Watson said. To balance the 2008 budget, the city laid off 12 people and left seven positions vacant after the people who held them left or retired.
After Watson’s presentation, citizens gave additional suggestions for ways to balance the books.
Ralph Bowser said that the city would be able to earn more money by attracting economic development.
“The city’s economic development needs full-time attention,” Bowser said. “Assigning it to Lehman Walker [director of community development] as a part-time job isn’t working. We need someone good at sophisticated development that will keep big-box stores out.”
Richard Dockett said that focusing on the commercial development of Olive Boulevard would help to bolster the city’s tax base. He also mentioned the economic advantage of citizens participating in recycling.
“The streamed recycling needs to be expanded on because we pay by the tonnage for waste to be removed, but recycling gives money back to the city,” Dockett said.
Dockett was referring to the single-stream recycling program that the city recently adopted. Rather than requiring residents to separate their recycling into categories, the program allows them to put all recyclables into a single container.
“The city pays $400,000 annually on dumping fees, and if more residents recycled, the city would pay less for dumping fees,” Watson said in a follow-up phone interview.
Elsie Glickert, a former council member, said the council needs to radically streamline the structure at City Hall.
“In the mid ’60s, the city had a population of 51,000 and now has a population of 37,000. We eliminated 25 positions in one budget. If we could do it then, you can do it now,” Glickert said. “We have perfectly capable fire chiefs and police chiefs. We now have an assistant fire chief and an assistant police chief, and we didn’t then. How about an administrative safety secretary instead?”
Edward McCarthy told the council that he would like to see all of the city’s financial information displayed on the city’s website and be accessible at all times.
McCarthy also proposed that the city offer its maintenance services, such as tree-trimming and street plowing, to private neighborhoods at a lower price than these neighborhoods pay their current vendors.
Mayor Joe Adams thanked citizens for being involved in the budget process.
“Thanks to citizens for coming out, because this is where we spend your money,” Adams said. “Though University City is going through tough times, we’re not the only ones,” he said.
The city’s financial year runs from July 1 to June 30.
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