Mayor: growth, not just taxes, the answer
By Joey Berlin
Originally published 12:55 p.m., April 22, 2008
Updated 12:55 p.m., April 22, 2008
Bob Agler assumed Emporia’s mayoral duties last week after one of the more eventful and tumultuous 12-month periods in the city’s recent history. Late last week, The Gazette asked Agler about the city’s priorities for the coming year, taxes and the state of Emporia.
Q Given the form of government that Emporia has, does going from vice-mayor to mayor change anything for you personally?
A I guess the answer is both a yes and a no. But the nice thing about the form of government we have is that it is a manager-commissioner form of government, and basically each of the commissioners are equal regardless of whether one is serving as mayor, or vice-mayor, or any other special committee. So from that standpoint, I’m still one of the five. ...
Now having said that, however, under the mayor-commission form, all resolutions, a lot of the official documents are signed by the mayor ... on behalf of the commission. So from that standpoint, it’s kind of the last step, maybe, of acceptability of the document. I mean, at least I feel a little bit higher fiduciary responsibility.
You run the meetings, which — you always hate to admit — but that probably means you better be a little bit better prepared, or at least as well-prepared as anybody else is. So I anticipate there will be a little bit more activity on that, more of a direct interface with the city manager. And then the mayor often is the official representative of the city in ceremonial-type things, and already I’ve had three invitations to speak and make a welcome talk, or something of that type. Really, probably, the main change I anticipate is a little more demand in time, which comes with the territory.
Q As you know, at the last goal-setting meeting, the commission set its top three priorities as the budget, community development and employee motivation and development. Talk briefly about each of those — what needs to be done to address those three things?
A The budget — being a CPA, of course, it’s an area I’m a little more informed about historically from a professional standpoint. ... The general opinion, both on and off the commission, is that property tax levels are already pretty stressed. We’re working with somewhat of an unknown yet as to the impact the layoffs at Tyson are going to have on future revenues, and by future, actually we’re already into it. ... So the first question we have to be very sensitive to is what changes are there going to be in existing revenues? Hence, in my mind, and I think several of our minds, puts us back more to a business basis in that we have X available revenues ... and then what priorities do we have to make in order to fit within those existing revenues and what’s the shortfall, what’s the delta, if any?
Obviously, it’s going to have some significant impact on the other two (priorities), because normally, when you say community improvement ... you’re normally thinking in terms of throwing dollars at it. And I think a very positive thing that’s happening there is that we’ve got a pretty good team working right now that is not just the city, but the chamber of commerce, Main Street, visitors bureau, the county. ... We’ve just gotta be a lot smarter with the funds that are available and take advantage of the enthusiasm I think that is kind of rebuilding. Because we still have one of the best communities in the state. ...
Employee development is a very critical aspect or component of not just the city government, but in any government. ... It’s not things that make the city, it’s the people that make the city, the good service that’s given. And if you’re gonna have top-notch people, you’re gonna have to pay ’em reasonably — maybe not at the very top, but certainly not at the bottom, and definitely in the market area of wages. And that’s why the (wage and classification study) was done. ...
Q The (capital improvement plan) is daunting revenue-wise. It’s $11 million next year, it’s $47 million over the next five. Can next year’s CIP be funded without gouging taxpayers?
A The short answer, in my opinion, is no. ... Now, I don’t particularly care for the term “gouging the taxpayers,” because if I say with that specific question, then that isn’t an option. That’s where I think the communication comes in, and really, there’s only about three things you can do with the capital improvement program: Fund it totally, which would necessitate a tax increase. Fund it partially with taxes and borrowed money — that’s what’s been done too much in the past. Third, just go through and take another critical look, and revamp, re-evaluate the necessity of what’s been presented. In other words, take another look at prioritizing — can we stretch the utilization of vehicles another year, two years? ...
I personally do not think an option — and this is strictly me talking, not on behalf of any the rest of the commission — to go all the way, one way or the other, is a poor decision. To say we’re gonna fund $11 million next year ... if you consider something like a sales tax deal, (you can) only raise so much. If you think in terms of a mill levy, only raises $150,000 per mill, and you put 20 mills on there, there’s $3 million. Well, I don’t want my taxes raised 20 mills, and I don’t know of anybody in town who would. ...
Is the full (CIP) going to get funded? Huh-uh ... We can’t afford to go into debt that much, because just on a personal situation, it’s gotta be paid back. It’s a good heavy mill levy already. Our best solution is to grow — grow in a healthy manner.
Q Are there any issues that haven’t been addressed recently by the commission that you would like to see addressed on some upcoming agendas, some things that haven’t been talked about much?
A For the most part, I really think everything’s on the table. Probably a burning topic to me that is on the table, and I forgot to mention it during the budgeting discussion, is that government typically only looks at one year at a time, as opposed to a business that’s always constantly working on a three-(year) to a five to a long-term plan. And that’s gonna be part of the process this year. ... My findings, historically, have been that that will help avoid some mistakes that could fall in the area of robbing Peter to pay Paul. ...
Other topics, I think everybody probably has their own (pet issues). Very frankly, I think they probably still need to be discussed as they come along, because I think it’s better to discuss them and make a conscious decision that that’s something that’s gonna have to wait. If you look at the three- to five-year plan, then where would you fit it in, unless we get the funding to go along with it? ... Open communication is going to be so critical.
Q All things considered, is Emporia in good shape?
A Yes. Yes. There are a lot of municipalities that are in far, far worse shape than we are. Are we in as good a shape as we’d like to be? No. But we’re not gonna have to have a 50 percent layoff, we’re not gonna have to shut down a bunch of roads or anything of that type. I mean, really, it’s a matter of taking it where we’re at (and) moving forward. And you don’t overcome the last 15 years in a matter of one or two years.
I think the dialogue last year was excellent in that I think hopefully there is not anybody out in the public that at least hasn’t had an opportunity to really see what the financial situation was. Hopefully we communicate it in such a way that ‘Hey, we’re not down and out.’ But it is past time that we be careful, and you need business up and down the streets. The ones that are still in business today did this (long-term planning) a couple of years ago.
I’m a firm believer that we’ve gotta operate like a business. When you have a $30-million-plus, $35 million budget, that’s a pretty big business, in my eyes.
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