Finance Committee Gives Go-Ahead On Fire Department Budget Increase

The Finance Committee approved an approximately budget increase for the on Thursday.

In a series of presentations by department heads and questions by councilors, the committee approved recommendations for some departments' budgets and asked others to scale back their proposed increases.

Earlier this month, Mayor Daryl Finizio proposed an for the 2013 fiscal year. This represents a 6.4 percent increase over the current fiscal year and would increase the mill rate by 4.97 mills to 30.28.

“This whole budget this year is going to be finding nickels and dimes to come up with something more reasonable,” said Councilor Adam Sprecace.

The Finance Committee will hold meetings on . Committee chairman Michael Passero said at least two more meetings will be scheduled, likely in the week of April 22.

Fire department

Chairman Michael Passero, a firefighter, abstained from the discussion on the fire department. However, Sprecace and Councilors John Maynard agreed in a vote to appropriate the $8,422,464 requested by the department. This request revised the initial proposal of $8,834,931.

The department received $7,250,315 in last year’s budget deliberations. It is estimated that it will overrun this budget and spend $8,121,952.

Chief Ron Samul said the proposed increase is about 3.7 percent when compared to the cost of what it took to run the department as opposed to what was budgeted for the current fiscal year. He said the requested increase over what will be spent this year is a result of contractual salary raises, OpSail 2012 costs, and increased costs for benefits.

Samul said the department is not funding capital projects or six vacant positions for the 2013 fiscal year. He also said the budget might be double-counting a $290,000 SAFER grant and that it funds the match for a FIRE grant, of which 90 percent is reimbursable.

“To be perfectly honest with you, we were underfunded in some of the line items last year,” said Samul.

Sprecace questioned why projected ambulance revenues have decreased from $1,264,000 in the 2011 fiscal year to $1.2 million in this fiscal year and $1.25 million in 2013, since a . Samul said the number of calls remains steady, but revenue is affected by insurance reimbursement and the ability of some patients to pay.

Sprecace also asked why the ambulance overtime increased from an estimated $277,000 this year (a budget overrun of $162,000) to a request of $466,000. Samul said it was a result of salaries of ambulance crews, the on-duty strength increasing to 18 people in this fiscal year, and four vacancies in the ambulance division resulting in more overtime.

During his budget proposal, Finizio suggested that the committee could save up to $2.5 million in the fire department budget. He said this could be accomplished by negotiating with the firefighters’ union to reduce overtime and potentially closing one of the city’s tree fire stations.

Maynard criticized this proposal, thanking the department for its response to a Thursday morning fire on Bank Street.

“That is why we shouldn’t even be hearing rumors about a fire station being closed,” he said.

The committee also approved the $21,600 for Department of Emergency Management.

Department of Public Works

Timothy Hanser, director the , said both his department and the fire department based their budgets on actual spending rather than what was budgeted for the current fiscal year. Both departments are projected to overrun their appropriated budgets and say their proposals reflect operational costs.

“The number we should be looking at is what we actually spent this year, as opposed to what was budgeted, because it’s a much more realistic number,” said Hanser.

Public Works had a $9,182,014 budget for the year, but is expected to spend $9,444,661. The 2013 proposal for the department is $9,794,729.

Hanser said about $400,000 of the increase is due to contractual salary increases of two percent or 2.5 percent for the two unions within the department. He is also proposing a restructuring of the department, eliminating three positions and adding five. One change would cut two division manager positions and replace them with deputy director positions at a salary savings of about $17,000. The department is also proposing the elimination of a vacant mechanic’s position and addition of an engineer and two heating, ventilation, and air conditioning technicians.

Passero said he was not sure whether the addition of an engineer would represent a savings over contracted services. The committee agreed to ask Hanser to return to the committee with a budget proposal with an increase of only $400,000 over the current year’s budget.

Other departments

The budget calls for $618,095 to the department itself and $455,372 for the . Kristin Havrilla Clarke, director of the department, said the biggest change to the department is about $108,000 in additional personnel costs, including the creation of her own position.

The committee asked Clarke to prepare a budget with a $43,000 reduction to each department. Councilors also expressed concerns at a possible reduction in funds for , which is included in the Office of Development and Planning budget in the proposal, and voted to transfer this item to the City Council budget.

Tammy Daugherty, Finizio’s office administrator, said the $390,802 budget for the mayor’s office is about $7,000 more than the 2011 city manager’s budget. She said personnel costs increased due to the shift from a two-person staff to a four-person staff, but that several stipends and reimbursements were removed and that the office would be willing to flat fund the budget.

The committee approved a $385,000 budget for the office.

The requested $645,000, while Finizio’s budget proposal reduced the budget to $615,000. The committee approved a $620,000 budget.

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