I am becoming a little more optimistic about the way we’re handling the budget process. Jim Costello and John Pribonic both indicated that they are willing to provide solutions to this unacceptable budget.
The three of us agreed it would be good to bring our department heads together with their counterparts from other cities to share ideas to save money and provide better services. It could be as simple as a Saturday breakfast once or twice a year per position. Every city has a few “winner ideas” per year that are win-win situations for the taxpayers. We want to steal those from other cities, and it would be great to share what we have come up with, too.
I presented my tentative plans for budget cuts. One cut is $100,000 in managerial salaries. The top 30 salary earners (not including union employees, contract employees, or those whose salaries the charter protects) will each give up between 3 percent and 5 percent of their 2010 salaries to help cut the deficit. Elected officials will pay up too, but the charter puts constraints on that.
I have identified a total of more than $600,000 in budget cuts. I will meet with John Earle and John Baranek on Monday to determine how feasible they are. After that, I will post them on this site. The goal is to find cuts that are fair and that only minimally affect the services we provide to citizens.
Monday is a pretty big meeting. The finance committee will convene at 6 to discuss the budget. From what I hear, attendance will be high.