The Emporia Gazette

May 28, 2012

• Headlines
• Sports
• Forums
• Weather
• Classifieds

• Help
• Log in
• Home

• E-mail story
• Post a comment
• iPod friendly version

Emporia city commissioners began working on a very preliminary draft of the fiscal year 2011 budget on Wednesday with recommendations that included some changes to the current 2010 budget to increase the amount of projected cash available to carry over to the next year.

A first step to increase revenue for 2011, proposed by City Manager Matt Zimmerman, is to leave unfilled some staff positions in the last six months of the 2010 budget. These include an animal control officer, an emergency medical technician and a police officer.

Moving to staff positions in the 2011 budget, Zimmerman proposed leaving vacant:

• the park superintendent,

• director of administrative services,

• director of planning and zoning,

• a new mechanic position,

• deputy police chief,

• police officer,

• animal control officer,

• emergency medical technician,

• part-time engineering technician and

• two Maintenance I positions at the golf course and parks department.

He also proposed denying requests for increased part-time hours at the golf course and parks department.

Commissioners were not happy about the proposals but acknowledged there were few alternatives.

“The unfortunate fact is that we are not going to be able to fund those positions,” said Commissioner Julie Johnson. “I think we have put a tremendous burden on the staff we have.”

Commissioner Bobbie Agler agreed that hard decisions are necessary for the 2011 budget, but was worried about stopping there.

“We cannot just look at 11 because it will repeat itself in 12 and 13,” he said about economic conditions that are causing less revenue as well as changes at the state and federal level that are keeping revenue from returning to local governments.

A second draft will be discussed at the July 28 study session. The commission plans to approve the 2011 budget at its Aug. 19 action meeting, which will include a formal public hearing.

East side

Also during their study session, commissioners heard a request from Al Slappy, president of the East Side Community Group, for the city to complete construction of restrooms at Eastside Park at Ninth Avenue and East Street. Adding the restrooms is the final piece of the park’s Phase I, which has already seen a large shelter built and a playground installed.

The project is expected to cost $53,000.

Mark McAnarney, assistant city commissioner, suggested that commissioners might consider using monies from the sale of Kahola Lake that have been set aside to benefit the Emporia parks system.

Adding the restrooms is expected to help increase use of the park. Slappy noted that many childcare providers as well as large groups are hesitant to use the park without the facilities.

Said Mayor Jim Kessler, “It seems the consensus is you’d like to move this forward and find a way to pay for it.”

In other business, commissioners:

• directed staff to negotiate a new contract for new water meters with automatic reader capabilities. The city will save money to pay for the project out of the water utility fund within three to four years. The vendor has offered to waive installation fees if the city purchases 1,500 meters per year for three years or 2,000 per year for four years. That would net a savings of $218,000. The project would pay for itself in less than 10 years.

• heard from Mike Novak, city engineer, more information about a proposal to create a maintenance and improvement program for the city’s storm water drainage system. Novak’s proposal included creating a new utility fund — similar to the sanitation and water funds — that would assess fees on property owners to build up revenue to pay for maintenance and improvements.