Marion City Council held three committee meetings Tuesday evening to discuss three topics; a budget review, sewer improvement contract, and combining the positions of Safety Director and Service Director.
The Finance Committee held their monthly budget review, but discussed very few details. With the income tax deadline this week, committee chair Ralph Cumston said they would have a much better view of what the rest of the year will hold soon.
As of the end of March, the City of Marion had expenses of $4,292,872 versus revenues of $3,979,700, meaning the City spent about $313,172 more than they have brought in this year. If the carryover from 2011 is taken into account, the City is showing a deficit of about $70,000.
Mayor Scott Schertzer said he will meet Wednesday with department heads and the auditor, as he does every other week, to discuss budgets and continue discussions on cost cutting measures. He said that continues to me more and more difficult after the City has reduced their budget from $19 million down to $15.8 million over the past five years.
Schertzer suggested that Council members take some time to read through the City of Marion’s tax code and see if they see areas that could be tweaked to help the City’s revenue.
Councilman Dale Osborn said he thinks the negative spending at this point is a direct result of the payouts required to those who were laid off at the beginning of the year. Regardless, he said he thinks Council has some “tough decisions to make down the road.”
The members of the Finance Committee agreed that April is a big revenue month and it will give them the best look at the City’s financial picture.
The Streets and Sewers Committee approved awarding a contract to Helms & Sons Excavating, Inc. for the May Street Sewer Improvement Project. Terry Lively, the City Engineer, said that while the City has never worked with this company before, he said their references all checked out.
Marion resident Charlie Blevins spoke to the committee about the issue of raw sewage backing up into basements. He said since 1971 he has only had one year when the sewage did not back up. Blevins explained that while Service Director Jay Shoup is working on a report of possible solutions and that he has been updating him regularly, he wants Council to remember that this is a health priority and hopes to keep the issue on the top of their minds.
Blevins said he gets concerned when Council announces projects to repair sidewalks, explaining that he feels stopping the sewage from backing up is more important than having a nice sidewalk to walk on.
The last meeting of the evening was the Municipal Services, Parks, and Recreation Committee which was to discuss a proposal by Councilman Ayers Ratliff to re-combine the Safety and Service Directors into one position. Ratliff had attempted to have his proposal added to the Council agenda at their last meeting, but failed to get the required support.
Because Ratliff was not in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting, it was explained that he had a “very important work meeting,” the issue was tabled until the next committee meeting.
While there was no discussion on the issue, Mayor Schertzer provided information that showed a 50 percent decrease in salaries for administration positions, including the Mayor’s Office, City Garage, Waste Water Treatment Plant, and Engineer’s Office.
While Schertzer did split the Safety/Service Director position in two after he took office several years ago, he says the Service Director’s salary is now completely paid from enterprise funds which do not come from General Fund dollars. He says the funding source reflects the work the Service Director has been doing for the Engineer’s Office and other departments.
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