Commerce’s proposed budget for the 2012-13 fiscal year continues to be a work in progress, but following a budget work session Monday night, at least the Commerce City Council has a plan.
By consensus, the council agreed on a budget scenario that proposes to leave the council with a $72,134 surplus while closing the $219,982 revenue gap with a property tax increase, cost cuts in liability and health insurance and a $22,000 increase in occupational tax rates for businesses.
The plan proposes to give Christmas bonuses of $250 for full-time employees and $100 for part-time workers, prorated for those employed for less than a year.
City manager Clarence Bryant offered five budget-fixing scenarios, all of which contained a 1.5-mill property tax hike, the insurance savings and the occupational tax increases. What separated the scenarios were the differences in plans for employee compensation, ranging from the flat-amount Christmas bonus to a 2.5-percent cost of living adjustment (COLA).
That was the sticking point for the council too, but after more than an hour of discussion, Mayor Clark Hill achieved a consensus to pursue the scenario with the least amount of compensation for city employees, Christmas bonuses that would amount to an outlay of only $35,000.
Councilmen Mark Fitzpatrick and Johnny Eubanks favored a scenario offering a 1.25-percent COLA, but members Keith Burchett, Darren Owensby and Steve Perry expressed a preference for the Christmas bonus instead.
Monday’s action is by no means final, but it gives accounting manager James Wascher a budget figure he can use in the required budget advertisement to be published in The Commerce News.
Council members also expressed hope that, should the city’s revenue be sufficient, they can come back later in the year and give employees a better Christmas bonus or even a COLA.
“There’s not one of us here that doesn’t want to give them more money, but we’re scared to,” Burchett commented near the end of the discussion.
Bryant, who retires June 30, advised the council to make a pay adjustment, arguing that the city’s pay plan is “five years behind” other governments, a situation “that will catch up with you just as quick as not buying vehicles.” He called the budget scenario with the COLA “better for the city” because of its treatment of employees.
Eubanks agreed. “If you don’t start moving the (salary) base, it’s going to be like our vehicles, and pretty soon you’re way out of line.”
But Hill and the others pointed to the upcoming renegotiations with Jackson County over the new local option sales tax (LOST) distribution formula. Because its population did not grow as rapidly as did the rest of the county, Commerce stands to get a smaller share of LOST money. Just how much smaller remains to be seen. The budget anticipates a $120,000 reduction, but a much larger reduction is possible.
“With so many unknowns, I’m uncomfortable with giving a raise and then (if LOST revenue is a lot lower) taking it back,” he said. “There is nothing to keep us from giving a raise in November, or February, if things are going well.”
Commerce employees have not had a raise in four years, Bryant pointed out. Perry reminded him that teachers, with stagnant salaries and with furlough days, are actually making less money than they were four years ago.
Perry also signaled his support for pay raises if conditions allow them.
“If it gets better, I want to give them more money,” he stated.
The 1.5-mill tax increase is not set in stone either. Bryant and Hill expressed hope that the actual figure — which won’t be determined until the tax digest is finalized — could be less.
“The millage rate could be 1.2,” Bryant observed, because it (the tax digest) hasn’t been determined.”
“There is a potential that our tax digest went up,” Hill said. “If that happened, to come up with that $247,500, the millage rate may not be as high. It could very well be less.”
During the discussion, the council also wrestled with the idea of letting police officers drive their patrol cars home. They reached no conclusions, but Wascher presented several scenarios — and their costs — for consideration.
The move, if implemented, is designed to reduce the number of officers who leave for another agency. Three officers left the force last year.
“That’s a $100,000 (training) cost,” Hill said.
The scenarios Wascher offered would cost the city from $19,408 to $52,218 a year, depending on how many officers are allowed to drive vehicles home. Thirty-five percent of the officers live in Commerce, but others live as far away as Smyrna.
“I don’t think you have to do it for anyone but the patrol officers,” Bryant advised. “Certainly not the administrative staff, and I wouldn’t do it for CID (the investigators).”
In addition to being a financial benefit to the officers, the drive-home cars are seen as a crime deterrent in the officers’ neighborhoods and as an incentive for officers to take more “ownership” of their vehicles.
City staff will consult with police chief John Gaissert, and the matter could be brought up again and implemented through a budget amendment.
The council hopes to approve the 2012-13 budget at its June 11 meeting.
