by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
The City Council ad hoc budget committee gave a little and took a little Tuesday afternoon in an attempt to both find ways to save money and preserve vital City services.
Led by Council members Jack Webb and Stephen Joost and Council Auditor Kirk Sherman and his staff, the committee has met several times over the past several weeks to determine how much, if any, of the 2 percent of the City departments’ budgets put below the line will be restored or not. Sherman and his staff were directed to examine the budgets line-by-line, dollar-for-dollar with the understanding that just about nothing was off limits. During the course of those meetings, department heads have pled their cases to keep their portion of the City’s overall $960 million budget.
Tuesday, the committee opted to continue to fund a private management company for the City-owned Ed Ball Building. However, they suggested Public Works Director Joey Duncan do a cost analysis and determine if it would be cheaper for the City to manage the building starting Oct. 1, when next fiscal year begins.
Currently, there is about $48,000 left on the contract, one Duncan said the City is obligated to honor. Duncan said in addition to managing the building, the company also performs much of the maintenance, something he said is important given the building’s age.
“It’s a 50-year-old building,” said Duncan. “The more and more we use it, the more we find things that need to be done.”
Duncan explained that when the City purchased the building from Wachovia, the bank was the primary tenant and had a contract with the management company. That contract came with the purchase and was supposed to last until Wachovia was out.
“Wachovia left a year early and the contract runs through this year,” explained Duncan. “It’s an older building and it has different kinds of needs.”
The contract is for $1.3 million annually. Duncan said he will look into the City managing it, but told the committee it will take a budget capable of funding one building engineer, at least seven full-time employees and related costs.
“Logically, there would be savings, but I have to look at the numbers,” said Duncan. “The contract doesn’t expire until the end of the year. I don’t have the option of letting them go.”
Joost said he’s fine with restoring the $48,000 left on the contract.
“I am not an expert and am relying on Joey Duncan’s testimony and I will go with restoring the funds,” said Joost. “If we have private tenants, then we have to maintain it. That’s our fiduciary responsibility.”
The committee decided to defer any decisions on the Public Library budget.
At the last meeting, Sherman expressed a desire to better understand how the Main Library’s conference center is funded. It was determined that much of the center’s budget comes from the library’s general fund. However, the Library Trust Fund isn’t used to help defray the cost of maintaining and manning the center.
“There is legislation before Council that will address this formally,” said Sherman. “We will get together later this week and look at this. We are pretty much there; we just need to work out some numbers. We will work out the details and bring them to the Council committees and the library staff.”
The biggest debate Tuesday centered on how the Bradham Brooks Northwest regional library should be classified and whether or not that classification could affect how the library is funded. According to Sherman, the usage figures from the library indicate it should be classified as a branch or community library. Such a classification would result in fewer hours and less staff.
Roslyn Phillips, director of the Recreation & Community Services Department, went to bat on behalf of the library she says she frequents often.
“It’s in an area where there’s a challenge with the schools,” she said. “There is always a waiting line for the computers. I hope you don’t do anything to restrict the hours.”
Webb said it isn’t the committee’s job to restrict library hours, but rather to determine where taxpayer dollars can be saved.
“Our job is to look at fairness and we should continue to look,” he said. “We will be faced with the same realities next budget session. That’s the purpose of this exercise.”
Carolyn Williams, deputy director of the public library, argued the library is an educational supplement to many of the area’s students and residents.
“The branch does speak to the educational needs of the schools,” she said. “It’s quite heavily used.”
The committee ultimately opted to restore the funding for the library, but will look at the matter again.