Budgets mean choices. And City Manager Matt Zimmerman’s job this year is to make the choices a little clearer.
That’s because this year, the Emporia City Commission has asked for an outcome-based budgeting system, one in which every expense has its reason spelled out. It’s also because this year, commissioners want the public involved at an earlier stage, rather than invite everyone to a hearing in August when the process is almost over.
All of that means Zimmerman will have to get everyone up to speed very soon — including himself. Emporia’s new city manager has only been on the job for three weeks and he’s still trying to get the intuitive grasp of the financial picture that he knows he will need.
“When you’re doing a budget, it’s almost like doing a painting,” Zimmerman said. “An artist needs to have the whole picture in mind before he starts working. I have to have the budget in my whole mind so I know that if I change a number here, it’ll be reflected in 10 other places here. And I don’t think I have that feel yet.”
It’s not quite time to make the first brush strokes yet. But it is time to set up the canvas. On Wednesday, commissioners will look at a draft version of the city’s capital improvement plan, with suggested projects for the city through 2012. These would be items like a water line for the new Westar peaking plant ($100,000) or improving 18th Avenue between the turnpike and Americus Road ($1.1 million).
Once the commission sees that list, things start to move. A rough outline of the plan of attack for Zimmerman and the commission this year looks like this:
• Late May: A draft capital improvement plan will be sent to the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission for review and recommendations. A final plan will come back to the city commission as part of the budget review.
• Late May and early June: Begin budget review.
• Mid to late July: Public meetings on the budget and budget options, at locations around the community.
• Aug. 25: The deadline to file a city budget. A formal public hearing on the budget must be held before this date, after which the budget must be voted on.
It’s still a little too early to say what the numbers will look like for the 2008 budget, But based on some initial discussions, a few topics are starting to work their way toward the front of the line. Among them:
Reserves
In one sense, last year ended well for the city. It finished 2006 with a $370,000 surplus, a nice change from the start of the year when the city had to compensate for a sizable general fund shortfall.
But from Zimmerman’s perspective, that’s only a start. That surplus, he said, represents about a two-week reserve for the city. He’d rather see three months.
That’s a long-term goal, he acknowledged. Right now, even keeping a 5 percent reserve for the general fund is going to take some work.
“It’ll be difficult to fund all our programs and have a 5 percent reserve unless ‘07 is another good year,” Zimmerman said.
Enterprise
The city has always had “enterprise funds” in the budget that paid their own way through fees, such as the water and sewer services. But there are a few general fund areas that charge fees, too, while still getting significant city support — places like the golf course or the Jones Aquatic Center or White Auditorium. This year, some of those areas may get a little more enterprising.
Those decisions would have to be made on a case-by-case basis, Zimmerman said. For example, most swimming pools don’t make money anyway, so asking the aquatic center to raise rates probably wouldn’t work. And even in other areas, there may be only so much a customer is willing to pay before a subsidy becomes unavoidable.
“The golf course is ours. It’s not going away,” Zimmerman said as an example. “So if, hypothetically, we double the green fees and no one plays there, it’s counterproductive.”
Maintenance
This is a recurring issue from the days of former City Manager Steve Commons: just how much maintenance should the city pick up for the Emporia Recreation Commission and the Emporia Public Library? In both cases, the city owns the building, the agency runs the programs and the city performs routine maintenance.
But some things aren’t routine. When the Lee Beran Recreation Center needed a new heating and cooling unit for its indoor pool, the city agreed to pay the cost of a replacement. But if recreation officials wanted an upgrade — something that could handle the higher temperatures wanted by older swimmers — it would have to come up with the money itself.
Like enterprise funds, maintenance agreements are a balancing act. Cover too much and it gets expensive. Don’t cover enough and the fees get expensive instead.
Wages
City pay is another perennial issue, which isn’t surprising when two-thirds of the general fund comes from personnel. Zimmerman said it’s too soon to say whether a pay increase will be worked into the budget. But a wholesale revision of the pay system, which he and commissioners have discussed, would probably have to wait a year.
“Can we put together some basic information? Yes,” Zimmerman said. “But to have a whole final program (in place), that’s probably beyond our capabilities at this point.”
Other issues are on the horizon as well, such as commercial incentives and housing-code enforcement. And once the numbers start falling into place, it’s going to come down to choices. Is the money there to hire a housing-code inspector? An animal control officer? If revenues are tight, what do we cut to keep what we need?
The city may have navigated some of the worst budget storms last year. But there’s still some choppy water ahead.
“It took a while to get into the situation we’re in,” Zimmerman said. “It’s going to take a while to get it reversed.”