City commission sets priorities
By Joey Berlin
Originally published 01:39 p.m., March 25, 2008
Updated 01:39 p.m., March 25, 2008
With the mass layoffs at the Tyson Fresh Meats plant creating uncertainty about the city’s budget, the Emporia City Commission seems set to adopt its budget as its No. 1 focus for this year.
The city’s second goal-setting session of the year Monday night at the Emporia Water Treatment Plant focused on taking the goals identified at the last session and putting them into a preliminary order of priorities. The priority order could change later based on other goal-setting sessions and on public input; the commission decided it wanted to give citizens as many opportunities as needed to have a voice in the goal-setting process.
Commissioner Jeff Longbine was the first to propose making the budget the top priority, which other commissioners agreed was the right thing to do. The commission decided to divide its issues into a high-priority tier, which included the top three items, and a medium-priority tier, in which the commission listed items four through nine.
Ranking No. 2 on Monday night’s list was community development. In the No. 3 spot was the issue ranked as last year’s top priority, employee motivation and development.
“I guess in my mind, if you’re trying to go one to 10, the budget’s always got to be (number) one,” Longbine said. “Because it’s going to drive everything else.”
“I was going to say the same thing,” Commissioner Jim Kessler added, “particularly this year.”
The commission decided its No. 2 priority, community development, would encompass economic, commercial and industrial development, as well as improving the community’s aesthetics. Longbine said he thought the city was on the right track in that area, with the Building Futures campaign, the Buxton retail development study and the Community Initiated Development campaign.
Longbine proposed having employee development as priority number three with no argument from other commissioners. He mentioned several aspects of that issue, including manager training, staffing levels and implementing the pay scale and classifications resulting from the city’s wage and compensation study.
Mayor Julie Johnson agreed that the three issues made up the high-priority tier.
“I would say given what has happened recently, that those are three really good top priorities for us to have,” she said. “I think budget is just something that is a constant that we have to deal with.
“I think last year we made a commitment to the employees, and I think that keeping that as one of our highest priorities is important. And I think the concept of community development — (with) economic development, retail development, some of the aesthetics of the community — is important, because I think it addresses what has happened in the past year, since the last time we did this.”
Housing issues were ranked No. 4, at the top of the commission’s medium-priority tier, followed by maintaining and growing the community’s inclusiveness at No. 5 and studying the issue of introducing a storm water utility at No. 6.
A review of the park system and the city’s governance model with the Emporia Recreation Commission was ranked No. 7. During the first half of the meeting, there was discussion about whether Assistant City Manager Mark McAnarney, who has been running the parks department in the absence of a parks director, was being spread too thin. McAnarney wasn’t present at the meeting.
“Is it fair to continue to ask Mark to do both jobs?” Longbine asked City Manager Matt Zimmerman. “Is it something that we can’t afford to do otherwise?”
“No, it’s not fair,” Zimmerman said, “and yes, he is spreading himself too thin.”
No. 8 on the city’s list was looking into the possible runway extension at Emporia Municipal Airport. The ninth and final goal commissioners ranked was to examine customer service training in the building department.
Intertwined with the discussion of putting the budget process at the top of the list was a discussion about how many public meetings would be held to discuss priorities. At the last goal-setting session, commissioners seemed to be leaning toward having three public meetings: One near the beginning of the budget-forming process, one in the middle of the process, and one near the end. On Monday night, commissioners seemed open to possibly having more public hearings than that, but didn’t commit to a set number.
“I guess I lean more towards having as many as we need,” Longbine said, “because I think not only is that an opportunity for us to get educated, it’s an opportunity for us to educate the public on what the budget situation is.”
Johnson advocated playing the situation by ear, seeing how many public meetings were needed as the process went on. The general consensus was to follow that strategy, having the first meeting early in the process.
The city decided to shoot for having its next goal-setting session in the context of a regular biweekly work session. Zimmerman said the commission would aim for the April 9 work session.