MOUNT VERNON — A vigorous budget discussion between city administration, current and incoming council members on Monday yielded the results for which Councilman Sam Barone was looking.
In opening the budget workshop session, Barone, chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee, set forth three goals that he wanted to accomplish:
- Confirm the commitment made to voters and safety-service agencies to add three more firefighters and one additional police officer
- Establish a reserve fund
- Adjust the current allocation of revenue so that the city can fulfill its promise of paying serious attention to infrastructure
Regarding creating a reserve fund, Barone said, “That’s the prudent thing, that’s what businesses do.”
The group agreed to create a new line item account in the general fund titled Reserve Fund. Each year, 0.5 percent of the general fund appropriations will go into the fund. Auditor Terry Scott said that if the reserve fund was in effect for 2017, the city would have put around $650,000 (0.5 percent of $12 million) into the fund. Money in the reserve fund will be used for three things:
- Unforeseen events such as natural disasters or major, unexpected breakdowns or repairs
- Unforeseen opportunities such as new grants that require a city match
- Declining economic trends during which the city does not have enough money to operate
“You are the controlling agent whether the current administration or future administrations dip into those funds,” Scott told council members. Incumbent and incoming council members agreed on a two-thirds requirement of council members (five votes) to release the funds.
To tackle infrastructure problems, council will revise the way it allocates revenue. Following is the current allocation, which has been in effect since the early 1980s:
- General fund 81%
- Streets 3%
- Cemetery 4%
- Capital improvements 10%
- Police pension 1%
- Fire pension 1%
The new allocation reduces the amount going into the general fund, increases the amount going into capital improvements and creates a new account specifically for roads and bridges:
- General fund 52%
- Streets 3%
- Cemetery 4%
- Capital improvements 19.5%
- Police pension 1%
- Fire pension 1%
- Roads and bridges 19.5%
Barone said that creating a roads and bridges fund allows the city to complete projects on a “program, not piecemeal.”
On the issue of adding three more firefighters and one more police officer, incoming council member Chris Menapace questioned the benefit of adding one extra firefighter per shift. “Why are we adhering to our promise when it doesn’t benefit us operationally?” he asked.
Current council members, along with Mayor Richard Mavis and Safety-service Director Joel Daniels, felt strongly that the city should add the new positions because they were a major part of the income tax levy campaign voters approved in November.
At its Dec. 11 council meeting, council members will vote on several pieces of legislation implementing the changes council discussed in the workshop session:
- Create a fund to hold the new 0.5 percent income tax money
- Create a roads and bridges account
- Change the allocation formula
- Create a reserve account
Increase the number of firefighters and police officers
Daniels requested the firefighter and police legislation be passed as an emergency because the process to hire and train the new firefighters is already underway.
