Dunkirk weighs its options (09/01/06)

DUNKIRK - Options for trimming expenses in the city's 2007 budget and beyond were explored Thursday night during a special council workshop session.

Proposals ranged from reducing the size of the police department by one full-time officer to billing city property owners $8 a month for trash collection to dropping the number of full-time firefighters from three to one.

Other ideas involved putting a freeze on hiring, limiting overtime expenses, sharing city vehicles between departments, buying gasoline and diesel fuel in bulk, and adopting more centralized purchasing procedures.

Expanding the city's property tax base through annexation of homes on the southeast edges of the city was also discussed. Council members pointed out that many of these homes border the city boundaries and are already benefiting from several city services such as police and fire protection and the availability of city water.

Some of these homes do have septic fields and if they were all connected to the city's sanitary sewer system, a liftstation would probably need to be built in that area, councilman Larry Smith said.

However, in the long run, the additional property tax revenue would probably compensate for the construction of the liftstation, city officials pointed out.

Mayor Sam Hubbard scheduled Thursday evening's special council session with the idea of discussing just such ideas, all aimed at cutting expenses from the city's 2007 budget proposal.

At the start of the meeting Hubbard pointed out that over the last several years, city budget totals have remained fairly consistent with $1.5 million for 2004, $1.4 million for 2005, $1.3 million for 2006 and $1.4 million for 2007. However, he noted that the city's net assessed valuation figures have varied dramatically from $63 million in 2004 to $53 million in 2005 to $39 million in 2006 and a projected $46 million in 2007.

Hubbard said he didn't understand why there has been so much fluctuation.

Next the mayor suggested several ideas for cutting the budget and asked other council members to do the same.

Hubbard started out with relatively small cuts such as dropping $6,000 from the police department budget which had been earmarked toward the purchase of a new squad car, as well as $4,000 from the police overtime budget with the idea of watching the overtime hours more closely.

Also Hubbard pointed out that the proposed budget figures already reflect a two and half percent increase in pay for hourly employees, a 15 percent hike in the amount of money allocated for diesel fuel and gasoline, and a projected eight percent increase in the cost of employee health insurance.

Hubbard said that several years ago, the city participated in a federal program whereby a new police officer was hired with federal funds for a three-year period. However, it's now been more than three years, and city taxpayers are paying all the bills for this additional police officer. Hubbard said maybe it's time to reduce the force from six to five full-time officers.

Councilman Tom Johnson presented a prepared list of budget-cutting ideas. These included eliminating the position of health and safety officer and turning those duties over to the police department, only paving streets every two years, putting a freeze on hiring, annexation of properties, leasing police cars, having city crews handle the annual fall collection of leaves instead of paying for that service, and having the park caretaker pay his own utility bills at the city-owned house in the park where he lives rent-free.

Councilman Jim Doughty also proposed several suggestions for budget cuts. "We may have to do some drastic things," he said.

Doughty re-introduced the idea of putting an $8 a month charge on all city water bills for trash pickup service. This would free up about $100,000 in property tax revenues to cover other expenses, Doughty said.

Other possible cost-saving measures, proposed by Doughty, included deep cuts in the street department's paving budget, not having local police station dispatchers, and operating with a completely volunteer fire department with the exception of one person - the fire chief.

Concerning the city swimming pool budget, Doughty said that he really didn't look at that too closely, as he viewed the pool as a quality of life benefit to the town. "We're finally starting to draw people to (the new homes at) Quincy Place, and in at least two instances I was told the pool was a big deciding factor," Doughty said.

Doughty continued that large budget cuts will inevitably involve reducing personnel.

"What you've got to realize is that when you start cutting personnel, you cut services," Hubbard responded.

The mayor added that after studying former councilman Dan Watson's suggestion about eliminating the city's 24-hour police dispatcher service, Hubbard said he would rather eliminate one full-time police officer. Hubbard said the dispatchers serve numerous functions which are important to the city. The mayor added that he and police chief Arnold Clevenger had investigated using cell phones for more police communication functions if the dispatchers were eliminated. However, Hubbard said cell phone reception is not reliable in Dunkirk, especially in the downtown area where there are numerous old brick buildings.

Councilman Larry Smith added that the city's water and sewer plant emergency alarms are all tied into the local police station and monitored by Dunkirk's dispatchers. Without the dispatchers, this system would have to all be changed, he pointed out.

Dunkirk resident Ron Robinette said he strongly discouraged laying off any dispatchers, but he also didn't want to see an $8 charge put on his water bill. City clerk-treasurer Jane Kesler told him that a separate trash bill could be sent to residents, but it would cost more than just marking the $8 charge on the water bills. However, Robinette persisted that he didn't like the idea, saying: "You guys are tripping over a dime to save a penny."

As Thursday night's session concluded, Kesler said the budget was scheduled for a second reading and adoption at the 7 p.m. Sept. 11 city council session. She said budget cuts could be made at that time. "Do some hard thinking on what you want to cut between now and Sept. 11," Kesler said.[[In-content Ad]]