After several hours of review Friday, the City Council Finance Committee filled about half of the $22 million hole it needed to overcome for a balanced operational budget.
For now, the other $11 million will be shared among public safety, parks, public works and anything funded by the general fund. That sharing will come through extraordinary lapses equal to a little more than 2.4 percent for every departmental budget.
“How do you hold someone harmless?” asked Chair Richard Clark, when the question arose as to whether any departments were excluded.
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The group has to have the budget and capital improvement plan ready for the public and full council by its Tuesday meeting. Imposing the lapses required the committee to waive the rules it created last year, when Mayor Alvin Brown had close to $60 million worth of unidentified cuts within the budget he proposed.
Members can still affect the lapse figure by offering amendments Tuesday and again during the Sept. 23 meeting. Clark said he’d send an email to each member telling them to bring such amendments in writing. Those who want cuts restored should also identify where the money will come from, he said.
The across-the-board cuts are in addition to decisions the group has made in the past month during several daylong review sessions.
Earlier in the day and with the figure resting at $22 million, members made a few choices to whittle away the deficit.
The biggest came from reducing the city’s pension contribution to the Police and Fire Pension fund by more than $6 million, an issue that arose and has been in question since the beginning. The Council Auditor’s Office initially recommended the plan be funded at about $11 million more than the $153 million actuary report says is required. That dropped when some public safety positions were eliminated, but finance members decided to go with what was in the report rather than heed the auditor’s advice.
Other cuts came in the form of reducing overtime and part-time hours for employees, reducing flower-bedding services and cleanup for parks and imposing additional lapses in the mayor’s office.
The group will spend the remainder of the afternoon reviewing the capital improvement plan.
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