The Emporia City Commission wanted budget suggestions Wednesday night. It got them.
About 20 people attended the special meeting at the civic auditorium, but it was not a passive crowd. Some wanted trails. At least one asked for better storm water drainage. Others asked about beautification, or library maintenance, or health insurance.
In other words, it was just the kind of start the city wanted for the budget process.
"We have had pre-budget hearings in the past, but it was always in the context of a regular meeting and attendance was not overwhelming," Mayor Julie Johnson said to the crowd. "So it's very gratifying to see you all here tonight."
Many of the suggestions from the crowd dealt with quality-of-life issues.William Borst, for example, wanted to see the city move a little faster on building biking and walking trails.
"Whenever there's a study of needs for Emporia, trails are always a high priority, but for a number of years there haven't been any trails built," Borst said. "I do feel a need to put trail development and construction on the agenda."
"Planning gets it started," he said. "And the longer we put off the planning, the longer we put off the trails."
Trails were on the list of requests for former city commissioner Tom Myers as well, along with more funding for animal control, a city planner, downtown public restrooms and a better look for the "gateways" to town. He wrapped up the list with a request for faster repairs of potholes.
"I love standing out here," he joked. "This is much better."
Chuck Hanna renewed a request from last October, for better drainage around 18th Avenue, Oxford Drive and Morningside Drive. Water frequently backs up in that area during heavy rains.
Hanna said he made it through the last spring rains by using sandbags, but added "I don't want to have to do this every time it rains."
Assistant City Manager Mark McAnarney said that City Engineer Keith Beatty had studied the situation.
"We're trying to keep it in-house and we have one designer, so it's taking some time," McAnarney said.
Library board member Jan Laurent made a pitch as well for more help on library maintenance, saying that bricks needed to be sealed and windows needed to be replaced.
"We've had water damage in the children's section," she said. "First it was a trickle, then the trickle became a little creek and we're concerned it may become a small river."
She also asked for some more basic housekeeping help -- such as taking care of the dead grass and branches near the east entrance -- some attention to C of E Park and adding a police position to help show city staff how to identify and cool down aggressive behavior. Dealing with that has been an issue for library staff, Laurent said.
"There's issues at the recreation center," she said. "There's issues at the zoo. It's unfortunately part of the times we live in."
KB Thomas Jr. suggested the city spend a little money to register with Loopnet, a commercial real estate database. A recent Wichita Eagle article attributed much of that city's growth to its involvement with that site, which it called "the eBay of commercial real estate."
"There's a lot of California buyers that, when they see a piece of property in Kansas, think it's dirt cheap," Thomas said.
Hitting closer to home for the commission, Becky Mathis asked that the city take a closer look at its health insurance package. The time may have come to go with another company rather than self-insure, she said.
"We should at least look into it," Commissioner Jim Kessler said. "I have had insurance people tell me they could do it cheaper and with better coverage."
Commissioner Jeff Longbine agreed, but said that a long-term solution needed to be found rather than a one-year fix.
"Jumping around and hoping next year will be better doesn't often work," he said.
Commissioner Bobbie Agler, meanwhile, brought up the question of the bill.
"We've heard a lot about wants," he told the audience. "What about costs? Are you satisfied with your current taxes? Do you want them to go down? To go up?"
Myers poked his hand in the air.
"I see one for up," Agler said with a grin.
"Not mine," Myers said, pointing to the person in the next seat. "His!"
Goal setting
A salary study will be a high priority for the city over the next year, commissioners decided.
City Manager Matt Zimmerman said that wage pressure seems to be telling on the city.
"We've had four police officers resign in the last three weeks," Zimmerman said. "That's telling us something."
Agler and Longbine said it was important to know what the real values of the city's positions were and whether Emporia's pay package was still competitive
"Do we have the positions correctly priced?" Agler said. "If the answer is yes, we need to go with it. If it's going to cost another million dollars, we need to find a way to fund it. We are a service industry and if we don't run ourselves as a service industry, we're going to be in trouble."
The commission began looking at other priorities, but soon found it was all too easy to name high priorities. Zimmerman urged them to take a little time to think, before narrowing the list at another session.
"We have a room full of other goals," he said, pointing at the butcher paper taped to the walls that showed suggested goals from earlier sessions. "We can't do all of these things without major, major increases in funding. So can we figure out what should be considered important, and what may be less important, and what should be our multi-year goals?"
"Small funds"
Commissioners also briefly reviewed several of the "small funds" in the budget Wednesday night, areas that either don't draw from the property tax, or draw only a small amount, or aren't completely under the city commission's control.
These include:
F The library fund, a four-mill budget that is set by the library board.
F The library's employee benefits fund, which covers KPERS, worker's compensation and health insurance for the library's nine full-time employees.
F The industrial fund, which collects only $1,000 a year to keep the fund open in case it's needed. Most industrial development these days is done through city sales tax instead.
F The special park fund, which gets about $75,000 a year from the alcohol tax on clubs and drinking establishments.
F The special street fund, which gets its money from gasoline taxes.
F The drug forfeiture fund, funded by property seized in drug crime. The money can then be used for certain police purchases.
Comments
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daveedailey (anonymous) says...
There should be plenty of money in the street fund since the price of gasoline is so high!!!! They better think twice about pay raises especially with taxes on the rise. Go ahead guys, you are so far behind the times now. You do this and you will see more people leave this area. The only reason KB wants Loopnet is because houses are not moving in this town. I am anxious for election time because my vote is sure changing. Keep it up, and you find out just how bad of shape this town is really in. You do not see the illlegals buying real estate or Tyson for that matter.
May 31, 2007 at 10:32 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
dayjob55 (anonymous) says...
I like the idea of a salary study. The problem is going to be finding a city with all of the problems Emporia has that is about the same size as Emporia with the same needs as Emporia to make sure that salary study is a viable study. By the way - how much is THAT study going to cost the taxpayers. I love Emporia just as much as the next guy but I also like a roof over my head, food on my table & a vehicle in my driveway. The way taxes are going I may not have any of those. Do the people running this town/county/state have any idea what it's like to live in the real world on a limited income with continually rising expenses? I think not. To look at the list of those "in charge" around here I see people with a lot of disposable incomes making decisions the rest of us have to live with and can't afford. No wonder people/businesses/jobs keep leaving this town & county. If I could find a buyer for my house I'd be out of this high taxed area in a New York minute!
May 31, 2007 at 11:06 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
daveedailey (anonymous) says...
I hear you Dayjob. This town is getting lower and lower class all the time. Those of us who have to make an honest living can no longer afford to be here. I do not believe the people "in charge" have a clue as to how to do a study. Why is Wichita growing? Read about them. They protect their town by bringing in more and more industry, decent houses with minimum tax. They care about their town. Wichita is now the largest city in Kansas. Jobs with great salaries are excellent there. I am with you and selling my house and getting out of here. They can have their non tax paying business that will pull out in ten years or so because they can go elsewhere for no tax or little tax. The only town I can think of close to us that might compare is Burlington. But when you compare the two, Burlington has more to offer because they were smart enough to allow the nuclear plant. Emporia should have been as smart, but nooooo, how stupid can the leaders of our town get???
May 31, 2007 at 11:34 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
srochat (Scott Rochat) says...
Regarding the original comment ...
Actually, rising gas prices don't help the special street fund as much as you think. The city gets a set rate of so many cents per gallon, no matter what the pump price is. In fact, higher prices can hurt the city -- if people start driving less and buying less gas, less money goes in the fund.
May 31, 2007 at 12:50 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
daveedailey (anonymous) says...
Thank you Scott for the info. I appreciate feed back especially when we have questions. I really hope you (the gazette) consider publishing some of the posts because I do not think some of the leaders of this city and county know what is being said. I think it would help to get the word out as to how people really feel about what goes on around here. Thank you!
May 31, 2007 at 1:01 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
bob (anonymous) says...
Why does the city need to pay another person to do a salary study??? Don't we already pay the city manager $115,000/year to do things like this??
May 31, 2007 at 10:37 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
MelissaE (anonymous) says...
$115k? In Emporia?
That is approximately 4 times the salary of "regular" Emporians.
Disgraceful.
Maybe the next election should consist of LOWERING salaries of all Emporia and Lyon County officials.
M
May 31, 2007 at 11:42 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
tunit (anonymous) says...
No Melissa, they had to pay him that much to bring him to this town. Nobody in their right mind would do it for under 100k. Just look at all the problems. I don't think you could pay me enough to take that job. But we all know that those problems won't go away, he will pull down 115k a year for not doing any "real" work, and Emporia will be in the same place in 2-3 years when he quits.
June 1, 2007 at 7:37 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
daveedailey (anonymous) says...
It is really sad here, that they would have to bring some one from out of town. Of course this town is real well known to hire out of towners for everything such as construction. They yell shop Emporia but do you here HIRE LOCALS? We also have problems getting doctors and keeping them. So far the majority do not come because there is nothing to offer them such as a town with shopping, fine arts etc. The only doctors they seem to be able to get are the ones that NRH offers mega bucks. Like I have mentioned before you do not see the CEO's of companys living here. Why is that? This city leaders are known to waste money, so nothing really surprises. There are local people that they could hire to do the very same job, and there would not be any money paid to support where they eat, drink, sleep and be merry!!
June 1, 2007 at 8:08 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Phil_Dillon (anonymous) says...
During the commission campaign I advocated reducing the city's portion of the mill levy by 10 mills so that we could free up disposable income for average Emporians. I also advocated giving pay raises to front line employees, especially fire and police. I also advocated a full review and restructuring of management positions at the city level, believing that the city was/is top heavy.
In terms of tax breaks my position was that we needed to pay more attention to small business, particularly in the downtown area, instead of giving breaks to large corporations like they have over the past twenty years.
I argued forcefully that we needed to finally do something about the slum lords in this city who profit at the expense of people living on this city's economic margins.
The positions weren't enough to get me elected. They weren't popular to some of the vested interests here in town. When I dissected the results I found that in the northwest precincts (those represented by all three who were elected) over 50% of those registered voted. In the south and downtown precincts (my strongest areas) less than 10% of those registered actually voted.
This is not complain. The election was what it was. I had the opportunity make my positions known and simply didn't get enough votes to win.
But, if things are ever going to change here a couple of things are going to have to happen. First, people outside the business community are going to have to overcome their apathy and vote. Second, we need to develop slates of reform candidates to counter the business first mentality in city government. Third, we need to stay attuned to what's going on in city government and hold it accountable. For example, I think the RDA needs a comprehensive review. How can it be that the city funds this agency to the tune of $250K per year and get so little in return? How come the RDA doesn't have to open its meetings to the public? Fourth, we need to form grassroots organizations to counter the clout of the business troika. If the truth be known, there are more of us than them.
June 1, 2007 at 8:51 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
daveedailey (anonymous) says...
Sorry Phil, I do not trust or believe anything you say. You lied in your blog and heaven only knows what else.There is a reason you did not make city comission. You are like most politicians who have a forked tongue. I also know you tried to get into a mothers site on the internet. You also posed as a doctor. You better think again if you think people will listen to you now. I would not give you the time of day.
June 1, 2007 at 8:59 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Phil_Dillon (anonymous) says...
Dave
I wasn't asking for any votes in my comment. What I was saying was that the people of this city need to get involved in its affairs if things are to change.
Unfortunately this has been made into something personal and hateful. It does nothing to advance the interests of average Emporians, yourself included
June 1, 2007 at 9:18 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
daveedailey (anonymous) says...
What you are saying, maybe is true but I believe your motives are just to try and make a name for yourself. I agree we need newer and younger blood in the county and city offices. I want facts and figures and I think all of that should be published. I also think that people should learn to read between the lines. All I understand from this meeting is to spend, spend and spend some more. KB wants loopnet for his own gain, and I do not believe that we should help pay for it. Noone will sell houses here unless things change.
June 1, 2007 at 9:41 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Phil_Dillon (anonymous) says...
Dave
I can say that my interest isn't personal. Some have asked if I'm going to run again and my position is that I'd rather be in a position to support people to can effect positive change here. That's what I was talking about when I mentioned slates of reform candidates. There have to be capable people in other parts of town besides the northwest. I'd also like to see ideas like changing the current at large seats on the commission to five district specific seats, representing the whole community. For example, a seat representing south Emporia, another representing downtown and east, another representing northwest, etc. That would take some negotiating for content on a ballot petition and some legwork to get that type of petition on the ballot, but it could be done.
My interest is more in results than in personal gain. I'm happily retired and have had enough professional accomplishments to satisfy any need for noteriety.
While I wasn't at the meeting I agree with you that it seemed to be more about how many pet projects people wanted done than trying to reduce the cost of city government while taking care of essentials like infrastructure. I can tell you it won't be easy. These problems have gone on for a long time and we're in deep trouble. Incomes here are low and taxes are exceptionally high. It's a toxic mix and adding more projects to it all may only serve to make things worse.
June 1, 2007 at 10:45 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )