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City commissioners consider rate increases

By Russ Morgan (Contact)

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Emporia city commissioners have a tough job ahead of them as they continue to work on the city’s budget for fiscal year 2010.

Commissioners spent Tuesday morning looking at the second draft of the utility funds to find ways to balance the water, sewer and solid waste budgets.

The water fund has been hit hard by the city’s sharp decrease in water sales, and commissioners heard a number of recommendations for how to mitigate those losses and keep the utility funds balanced.

In 2007, the city raised sewer rates 30 percent to avoid an operating deficit and to build reserves to pay for capital improvements instead of bonding projects out. Water rates also were raised, but the drop in water sales has eliminated what gains there might have been.

City Manager Matt Zimmerman said it is difficult to keep the three utility funds separate because of their relationship to each other, and recommended a mix of solutions to balance them.

Zimmerman proposed a 19 percent increase in water rates, a 19 percent decrease in sewer rates and a 16 percent increase in solid waste rates. The end result would be an increase of about 29 cents per month for the average homeowner, Zimmerman said.

He also proposed reducing a total of four positions from the water fund -- three of them currently vacant, with one employee set to retire. One of those positions could be paid for out of the sewer fund, for a net loss of three positions.

Zimmerman also proposed cutting water main repairs on Whildin Street and Neosho Street, while keeping the water main replacement on Commercial Street before the 2011 KLINK resurfacing project there.

Commissioners expressed concerns about the proposed changes.

“If we decrease sewer rates, then are we abandoning our policy of setting up our rate structure to build up funds to pay for needed improvements?” Commissioner Julie Johnson asked.

“It is not my intention to abandon that strategy,” Zimmerman said. “It’s my intention, based on the decisions the commission’s made the last two years as we’ve seen water sales going down, to try and limit the increase to the minimum necessary by offsetting some costs, and that’s starting to build reserves while also setting the rates sufficient to meet our 20 percent reserve.”

Mayor Jeff Longbine asked what the effect of eliminating positions would be on the water department.

“I’m not saying I’m opposed to staff reductions, in fact I think they probably are going to have to be done, but I would like to know what you feel like would be the net effect on services is going to be and how we’re going to handle the reduction of staff,” Longbine said.

City Clerk Susan Mendoza said eliminating one meter reader position could lead to a cut in hours staff would be available for service calls.

“We would still be able to do that from 8 to 5 the first half of the month, and then the second half we’d be limited to two hours, 3 to 5, because we’re reading meters all that time,” Mendoza said. “It would have an effect on the maintenance work we do. ...”

Mendoza added that the problems might be mitigated if the meter reading schedule were spread out across the month instead of being packed into two weeks.

“We’re too top-heavy for the first half of the month, so my goal before the first of next year is to get the reading schedules evened out,” she said. “If we could accomplish that, I think our service would go back to what it is currently.”

Commissioners reached a consensus on the recommendations, but stressed that they needed to look at the utility funds in conjunction with the general fund before any definite changes are made.

Comments

mythoughts (anonymous) says...

Can't get blood from a turnip, no matter how hard you try. I'm being nickel and dimed to death. 29 cents here, 15 cents there, 80 cents the other place. You people are bleeding us dry!

July 21, 2009 at 4:41 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Steve_Corbin (anonymous) says...

What's that old saying?

If your facts don't dazzle them,

Baffle them with bulls---!

July 21, 2009 at 4:47 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

admireed (anonymous) says...

mythoughts, what are your suggestions on how to solve this utility budget problem?

July 21, 2009 at 4:50 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

spectator (anonymous) says...

City commissioners consider rate increases ? No, the increases *will* take effect, there is no 'consideration'. And I apologize for butting in here ed, but why can't we reduce the cm's salary ? Or at least freeze it before the commission gives him another $5K raise ? Is he worth $100,000 / year + perks he's getting ?

July 21, 2009 at 5:30 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

gold66801 (anonymous) says...

the cm in my opinion is worth about $25,000 a year he sure isn,t worth $100,000 thats just stupid on the citys part.tell me what he does to offset his salary????????????????????

July 21, 2009 at 5:51 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

methusla (anonymous) says...

You know to me a 19 % increase one place, a 19 % decrease in another place and a 16% increase in yet another, still amounts to a 16% increase, overall. And if your total combined water, sewer and solid waste rate already averages, for instance $ 51 per month, the increase for your average $ 51 per mo. homeowner will be $ 8.16 per mo., quite a bit more than .29 per mo stated by the City Manager .
Sounds like a bate and switch maneuver to me.

July 21, 2009 at 6:05 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

methusla (anonymous) says...

I believe that the Citys whole wage structure needs to be studied and evaluated. There are probably people getting paid way more than their job description calls for or their performance merits.
I know years ago for instance, trash truck drivers, etc. were getting paid for a full 8 hours work, even if they only worked 4 or possibly 6 hours. At that time everyone wanted to be a trash or garbage truck driver, or truck crew.
I don't know whether that is still the norm for today or not. If it is that needs to be eliminated .
There are many things in the budget that need to be looked at very closely. I have already looked at the budget and have noted some things that are questionable.
But I hope the revised budget will be made available to the public on the Citys web site so I or others may compare it to the initial budget draft.

July 21, 2009 at 6:15 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

justthefacts (anonymous) says...

Spectator, just an impression: it appears you most certainly dislike our current city manager, and based on your observations have had an employer=employee issue. I have to question how objective you are. Why trash the position. The people you elected to represent you feel his performance is ok and worth merit. I sense you feel your position is undervalued. Why not try to work positively to change it rather than hiding behind a user ID and meet with him and fix the problem???

July 21, 2009 at 10:22 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

hottopics (anonymous) says...

No one should be getting a pay increase with the economy and this city's budget issues. Sad that it will come to someone else losing their job, benefits and security because of the lack of money being spent wisely.
As for the CM's salary....no one whined about it when they thought he was coming to the rescue.

July 21, 2009 at 10:56 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

rabblerouser (anonymous) says...

Also, with the economy and so many people just trying to get by, how can the city justify spending $180,000 to expand a pond at the golf course. The residence of Emporia should really take a close look at the Emporia Budget and see where their taxes are being spent! Our Mayor and commissions should also take a look at the budgets of similar size cities to see where they are saving money. Garden City has a population of about 2000 more residence than Emporia and many positions have less employees and lower salaries. Maybe we should send them on a fact finding mission? I encourage all Emporians to look at the City Budget at: http://www.emporia-kansas.gov/pdf/200...

July 22, 2009 at 4:29 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

rabblerouser (anonymous) says...

By the way, if anyone here would like to look up Garden City's budget and scroll down and compare services side by side (Jeff), here is their website: http://www.garden-city.org/cityofgard...

July 22, 2009 at 4:35 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

madpoet (anonymous) says...

justthefacts, why do you assume that specator is a city employee? I sure am not and agree that the city manager is overpaid and underworked. A triple digit income for a manager for a town the size of Emporia seems excessive to me. And when he spouts off absurb notions like tourists coming to Emporia from KC if we only had a train stop it makes me want to shake him to see if he has any brains to rattle!

July 22, 2009 at 9:15 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

been_there (anonymous) says...

OK - So I looked at the budget. Don't even want to get into Personnel issues, however, tell me why 2 squad cars in 2008 were going to cost $46,000 and now 3 are going to cost $100,500? I thought the auto industry was making deals to get rid of their inventory. AND, why do we need new lawnmowers for every department? Come on, $126,000 worth of new lawnmowers!!!!! Half of that being for the Golf Course, and you only use them 6 months out of the year!! Why can't the GC and the Airport share? And the Parks and the Civic Center share? Hell, why can't the Parks dept just pay one or two people 40 hours a week to mow everything? And then, almost $400,000 total to the GC, for mowers and repairs/maint? Where are the fees going that the folks are paying when they use the GC? Why don't you just tile the Golf Shop and then you won't have to replace the carpet ever again?! I'm just saying, I have to seriously look at where I'm spending my money, try to make every dollar stretch. Why can the city spend money instead of spending a little time repairing or maintaining the stuff that they have?! Perhaps if the folks operating the equipment on a daily basis treated it like it was their own, it wouldn't need replaced so often!!

July 22, 2009 at 10:42 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

yev_kassem (anonymous) says...

I agree that every item needs to be looked into and I hope that alot of the citizens of Emporia show up and give their input. I know I will be there.

Regarding, Zimmerman's pay, for what he is responsible for and for the stress that he is under right now trying to help budget this mess, he is probably paid fairly. I, for one, would not want his job. That being said, I also don't think he nor anyone deserves a raise at this time. Actually, maybe some people do "deserve" a raise, I just don't think anyone should get one. Any reasonable person would understand why.

July 22, 2009 at 12:04 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

yev_kassem (anonymous) says...

I do have another thought. I think if I were the city manager, I would look into what jobs can be consolidated. If there was a department of say 10 people each making 40k/year and we could do the job with 6 people and possibly pay them 45k/year to do it...I think you would have to consider that. The people who get to stay would have to work harder so they are compensated for that.

July 22, 2009 at 12:07 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

under_score (anonymous) says...

I could have the city and county budgets fixed in less than a month. I would come in with the red pen and pretty much kill every new project and purchase that was not absolutely necessary, and I'd be making that determination myself. I would also be cutting jobs. Sorry, private business has to do it, so should government. Maybe that would light a fire under them and they'd be a little more polite and a little less incompetent.

under_score for temporary god of Lyon County and Emporia.

1 month people, that's all I'd need and then I'd step down. Who's with me???

July 22, 2009 at 12:23 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

bizquikboy (anonymous) says...

It would be nice if they could make this increase based on a persons income so that poor people don't have to carry a disproportionate amount of the increase based on wages...

July 22, 2009 at 12:29 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

yev_kassem (anonymous) says...

bizquikboy--

Theoretically they do make it based on an individuals income. In theory, the more wealthy people buy more expensive cars and houses and the less wealthy people buy less expensive cars and houses. Also the "wealthier" people tend to buy more things and use more services than the less "wealthy" person.

July 22, 2009 at 1 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

yev_kassem (anonymous) says...

under_score

That is exactly what needs to be done but it is much easier said than done.

I think every department head needs to come to the city manager and explain why they need what they "need" and also just go under the assumption of a 20% less operating budget. Then we can see just how creative some of these people are.

July 22, 2009 at 1:03 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

bizquikboy (anonymous) says...

Does a wealthier person drink more water than a poor person? Does a wealthier person go poo more than a poor person?

July 22, 2009 at 2:24 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

under_score (anonymous) says...

I don't know about a poor person drinking less water that a wealthy person but I do imagine they shower less. Poor people are generally quite dirty. At least the ones I see dumpster diving around town.

July 22, 2009 at 2:29 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

yev_kassem (anonymous) says...

bizquikboy--

Maybe they drink about the same but they use water to fill their pools and water their big lawns.

I imagine they go poo about the same. :-)

July 22, 2009 at 2:41 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

rabblerouser (anonymous) says...

"I think every department head needs to come to the city manager and explain why they need what they "need" and also just go under the assumption of a 20% less operating budget. Then we can see just how creative some of these people are."
Exactly!

What it comes down to is "Accountability". Our city employees from the Mayor to the department heads down to the city laborers need to be held accountable for the tax dollars they are spending. We are asking nothing unreasonable. We are only asking for value for our tax dollars and only services that are absolutely neccessary. In these economic conditions, this is all that we can really afford!

July 22, 2009 at 2:54 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

giggles (anonymous) says...

Justthefacts and hottopics, you must be living in a bubble if you did not notice how many people did not want the CM. There were a great many of us who thought that if you couldn't do it with the comissioners group, why add to the pile? Now we have another person who can't seem to round up our budget, but they get paid, out of the budget no less.

You know what might work? Give him a set salary, but if the budget isn't balanced and we are in the red he doesn't get paid. He would have to balance the budget, and in order to get paid, make sure that there was enough surplus to be paid with. I bet we would have it balanced then. BTW, the set salary I am thinking of would not be 100,000$. This town is too small to sustain such a measure.
I too have thought that all of the lawn mowers and expanding the pond was far fetched. I don't know how anyone can utter such things and not expect someone to be steamed about something that probably isn't absolutely necessary. Seriously, did all of the mowers die at the same time? Puh-leez! Give me a break from all of this nonsense!

July 22, 2009 at 4:02 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Paccifier (anonymous) says...

You need to remember that most things listed in the budget right now are the things that the city departments feel need to be done, or ought to be done, not that will be done. It is like a kid's Christmas List- Everything they want in the Sears Christmas Book is there, but they know that not everything will be under the tree. The budget will be arrived at in large part by many things on the list being cut out, maybe like that pond. The CM and Commission are asking for input from the community as to what we think is important to spend limited funds on. They know that not everything can be funded. The CM is doing a good job, but he is also following a goals driven list from the Commission. The Commission is having the public meetings to ask for our help on what is important, so be there to help.

July 22, 2009 at 5:16 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

seriouslyfolks (anonymous) says...

One year for Christmas my parents got me Frogger for my Atari from the Sears catalog. It was awesome!

July 22, 2009 at 6:49 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

methusla (anonymous) says...

I have gone thru the proposed budget and red inked quite a few items that I personally deem unnecessar expeditures and in doing so have come up with a budget that is $3+ million less than the one that is currently proposed.
However even my revised budget is still approx. $418+ thousand more than estimated City receipts, but is better than $ 4,268,886 more than City receipts.

July 22, 2009 at 8:09 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

rabblerouser (anonymous) says...

I hope you take your red inked budget to the next city meeting. They need all the input they can get. Sounds like the present budget was intentionally inflated (Pond expansoin etc.) so they could trim out the fat and then take credit for it show everyone how hard they worked to save our tax dollars.

July 22, 2009 at 9:02 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

methusla (anonymous) says...

rabblerouser
I fully intend to take my red ink, bleeding budget to the next budget hearing !
The only reason I can think of for a golf course pond expansion is there are not enough golfers losing balls in the existing one, golf balls that is .

July 22, 2009 at 9:37 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

methusla (anonymous) says...

I left needed things in the budget, such as street repairs, resurfacing, sewer repairs, replacement, watermain inspection, repairs.
But I cut everything that I depicted as unnecessary " FAT " expenditures.
And I still have some suggestions on what to cut back on in the way of unnecessary services and subsidy funding that just may eliminate the $418 + thousand dollars my revised budget expenditures is over the Citys receipts, therefore balancing the budget. There may not be any surplus, but neither will there be a debt balance either.
I imagine my revised budget will meet some very stiff resistance !

July 22, 2009 at 9:46 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

yev_kassem (anonymous) says...

I really think we need to have the departments justify why they need whatever equipment they say they do. Do we really need new squad cars or can we get by with what we have? Do we really need to fix "X" street or can it wait?

There needs to be a priority list made up of all the requests. We do what we can when we have the money. Obviously things can change, but there needs to be some kind of justification for spending the money.

Honestly, we can all sit around and say we should cut this and that but there really might be a good reason for some of these projects to be done. I think the public needs to know WHY these projects need to be done not just what they WANT done.

July 23, 2009 at 10:04 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

under_score (anonymous) says...

Let's start by saying we are not going into debt over this budget. Now that we've established that, let's talk about what we will pay for. Then, we'll construct a big cage and let the department heads fight in a round robin UFC style tournament. If you win the fight for x budget item you get to keep it. We will also sell tickets to this event which can be heavily advertised in surrounding communities as well. I think this would also bring in a lot of money to the community from all over the state and maybe even country to watch this event. Brilliant!!!

July 23, 2009 at 12:47 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

yev_kassem (anonymous) says...

I think that is a fabulous idea under_score and it would be most entertaining.

July 23, 2009 at 2:22 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

slimbolen99 (anonymous) says...

As for the golf course:
1. The carpet does not need replaced. It's fine. If it did need replaced, and it's going to cost $7,000, you're getting ripped off. I put new hardwood floors and carpet in a house twice the square footage for less than that.

2. You don't HAVE TO enlarge the pond. They have several other ponds that are plenty big. If they would manage the water they have, the wouldn't need a bigger pond.

3. The parking lot needs patched, not repaired to the tune of $85,000.

4. Then mens room DOES need some help. It's like a roadside truckstop bathroom!

5. No way you need to lease 8 more golf carts. There's plenty there.

July 23, 2009 at 2:23 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

under_score (anonymous) says...

I don't understand how that golf course isn't paying for itself. It is a nice golf course, nicest one around by a long shot. One thing that could be improved is the manager, can't remember his name but I went out there to golf during college and he was a real a-hole. I haven't been back since. If others are like me, and I know there are quite a few, then maybe getting him to step down would increase business. Not even sure if they need more business though. Plus, he does do a good job taking care of that course so maybe the trade off is fine.

July 23, 2009 at 2:30 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

methusla (anonymous) says...

If you have a copy of the rough draft of the proposed 2010 budget you will see numerous items to be purchased, that may cost less to repair or rebuild to like new specs., which would cost less than new purchases.
And slimbolen99 has hit onto something about the cost of carpet for the golf course. This also goes for a lot of other, what I like to call inflated " FAT " expenditures on the budget, which I red-inked. I think that just about everyone in todays world knows that governments, all levels of government, are way overcharged for everything, from paper clips to equipment ! Just look at the recent news item about a former city engineer and a construction company !
If our governments and elected officials do not start checking the validity of costs of items and services provided to our Citys, Countys, States and Federal Governments, comparing or shopping for the lower price , instead of just buying and spending, willy-nilly or favoring certain friends of the government officials, the budget problems of the Citys, Countys, States and Country is going to continue out of control until every single level of government, in this Country, is bankrupt .
I am very curious to see what cuts and revisions have been made to the rough draft of the 2010 budget, during the Commissions budget study session.
I have been calling the CMs office, to inquire when a copy of the revised 2010 budget will be available to the public. However I keep getting a recording saying the receptionist is not at her desk and to leave a message and noone else evidently is authorized to answer the phone.
I for one would like to see a copy of the revised 2010 budget before the public hearing on July 30 th at Timmerman School. I would like to compare the revised copy to the origional initial draft copy to see what changes have been made.

July 23, 2009 at 3:13 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

methusla (anonymous) says...

I did manage to find out that the revised budget should be available to the public on the City gov. website ( http://www.emporia-kansas.gov/), on Monday, or Tuesday of next week.
I am definately print a copy of it and I urge everyone who is interested to print a copy of it also.
I would like to also urge every interested citizen to attend the next public budget hearing at Timmerman School on July 30th at I believe 7:00 P.M. and get involved with your suggestions and recommendations.

July 23, 2009 at 3:23 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )