By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
City Manager Shawna Burkhart told city council members today they will have to make
deep cuts in city spending next year, including trimming more than 25 jobs, to begin
addressing a budget shortfall of more than $6 million.
Burkhart presented council members with a list of just over $3 million in proposed
reductions to next year’s city expenses during a special work session at City Hall this
morning.
Burkhart stood at the podium and spoke to the council at the start of the meeting.
She said, “I hope to make this as painless as possible, but we are in a shortfall. We are
approximately $6,646,550 short for the year. That is revenues to expenses, so what we
have provided to you today is a list, and this is a short and sweet list, but it’s very
impactful, of cuts that we’ve made in the last week to diligently cut this budget and make
it as tight as possible.”
Burkhart then went over the list, which began with a total of $1,465,500 worth of
additional transfers into the city’s general fund from its enterprise funds.
That list includes an additional $938,000 transfer in from the water fund, an additional
$238,2000 transfer in from the wastewater fund, an additional $138,200 transfer in from
the gas fund and an additional $138,200 transfer in from the refuse fund. The list also
shows an increase in $12,700 in revenue from increasing indirect costs for the city’s
Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program.
Burkhart then turned her attention to proposed cuts in the city’s workforce.
She said, “But the most difficult discussion we have today is a reduction of force. What is
a reduction in force? It is basically a layoff of positions with the city. There is no way to
eat down on a deficit of this size without affecting personnel and without affecting
programs.
“So, today, you have before you a working document of mine that I’ve put together. We
have touched one program substantially, and that would be facility maintenance. We are
reorganizing that in this scenario, if you were to approve it, but this would also have a
reduction in force of 24 full-time employees, four part-time employees. That’s a total,
over all funds, in the general fund, of. . . $748,300,” Burkhart added.
She told the council, “There is much concern. There is much discernment that went into
this, by not just myself, but the HR (human resources) director, and all directors who
have been consulted. Much thought, much discernment, and we don’t come in lightly
with this recommendation.”
The city manager then reviewed the rest of her recommendations, which include a hiring
lag of three months on frozen positions, a move that is estimated to trim $131,200 from
next year’s expenses.
Burkhart said, “Originally in our budget, we had three months for police officers, because
there is such a lag in hiring, but then we applied that, in this scenario, to all vacancies. Please note that most vacancies that are left on these charts are predominantly water, fire, police and dispatch. Not all, but the majority of them are, and so we have put those at a
three month (lag).
“What does that mean? If we found someone today to fill a vacancy in, say, police or fire,
we would allow them to hire them immediately, but the other vacancies, we would then
decrease by three months, or at least one of those vacancies decrease by three months, so
that we can continue to hire at a regular pace, as quickly as possible, because I know they
need staffing, but we would take off the vacancies that would remain,” the city manager
explained.
Other cuts include the removal of $25,500 in fixed asset requests and removing a
$807,500 transfer out of the general fund to the city’s capital improvement plan.
Burkhart recommended decreasing by $124,100 a line item for operating costs – supplies
and decreasing by $90,300 a line item for operating costs – contractual.
She also recommended removing a $65,600 line item for “city manager salary reserve.”
“That was (put in the budget) in case there was ever a change in management, that you
would have that budgeted, but that does not necessarily need to be budgeted. It can be
done through a budget amendment, so we have taken that out,” Burkhart said.
She also reduced the city’s $70,000 budget for Fourth of July activities by $15,000,
removed $20,000 in funding for the Bethel Center, a local charitable organization;
removed the $90,000 payment to Val Verde County as the city’s share of operating the
local women’s shelter, removed the position of city parks director for a savings of
$94,600 and cut by $35,000 a line item for chemicals to eradicate the Arundo donax
(carrizo cane) along the San Felipe Creek.
Burkhart also recommended deleting $25,800 from the city budget for the 830GO app,
which she said is “not being fully utilized.”
“We keep advertising it, but we don’t get much usage, and so we are presenting today to
take that out,” she said.
Burkhart next reviewed recommended additions to the budget, including $100,000 in
contractual services for facility maintenance.
“Because we have cut that (department) budget, approximately nine positions, I believe,
and so with reorganization, we would have to contract out some things that would need to
be contracted out, such as a new air conditioner, et cetera. But this is for the entire city
and all facilities,” she said.
The recommendation also includes a $166,500 transfer to municipal facilities for the
civic center and other facilities and a $775,000 expense titled “adding a portion of fleet
expenditures to the general fund.”
Another expense was listed as “reducing transfers out to fleet,” of $887,400.
Another listed expense is $32,800 to “add Paul Poag Theatre division to the general
fund,” and $32,800 in “reduce transfer out to Paul Poag Theatre.”
The final item was $44,200 in reducing transfers out to special revenue funds like PEG,
WIC, Transportation and Nutrition.
The total changes amount to $3,018,050, Burkhart told the council.
“This brings the revenues and expenses for our second draft to $3,018,050 in the
negative,” Burkhart said.
The city manager then went over the general fund balances based on the recommended
cuts.
“So, we’ll start out with a beginning fund balance of $13,937,762. We have revenue
coming in of $28,848,400, expenditures of $31,997,650, with an ending fund balance of
$10,788,512. That being approximately a net change in fund balance of $3,149,250 in the
negative. We have to put money back for our reserved fund balance of $119,496, with
our unassigned fund balance being $10,669,016.
“So the question before you today is twofold. Are there additional ideas that you would
like to bring to the table for us to vet, if you will, and find out how much savings we can
achieve that we haven’t shown you in here? Are there things you would like to take off
this list?
“Are there items that you would like to include? Are there items you would like to
exclude from this list and finally, how much fund balance are you willing to use to
balance the budget, and we would like to be at a zero fund balance, but as much as I’ve
studied the numbers, as much as finance and the directors have studied the numbers, this
is where we are today,” Burkhart said.
Burkhart said she also presented the council with an updated organizational chart, as well
as a sheet depicting the historical data of the city’s property tax rate.
The council then spent the rest of the approximately two-hour-long meeting asking
questions about the recommended cuts. (See separate story.)
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
