Friday's Meeting: Hijinks* or Harmony?

*Note: I wanted to use "hijinks" but various references that I consulted in the wee hours had it as "high jinks." Since Dan picked my favored spelling, I am changing it.
Friday's special meeting initially was called to deal with a disputed resolution to appropriate funds to operate the city past March 31. But in a legal notice for the meeting, another resolution - giving permission for a religious procession - was added.

Now there is another change. The governing body will also vote on a resolution rescinding one just passed on March 20, namely:
RESOLUTION RESCINDING R 095-14 CANCELLING UNEXPENDED BALANCES OF THE GENERAL CAPITAL FUND.

During a budget presentation preceding the council meeting Thursday, Finance Director Ron West mentioned $655,000 in unspent capital funds as part of a strategy to increase revenues. Other strategies included a review of all "payment in lieu of taxes" or PILOT agreements, enhancing the tax collection rate and increasing the number of grants. The grants alone brought in $2.8 million last year to help the bottom line.

If the capital balances had been intended to revert to the general fund and now they will not, it would take a significant chunk out of the budget. Somebody needs to explain Friday night exactly what the proposed action means to the budget.

The city now has three financial minds at work in the administration. Mayor Adrian O. Mapp attained state certification as a chief financial officer and serves in that capacity in another municipality. Ron West previously served as the city's finance director and knows the city's fiscal issues well. The administration is phasing out the part-time chief financial officer that the city has relied on for five to seven hours per week and will have a full-time CFO for the first time since 2007 in the person of Ulrich "Al" Steinberg, whom Mapp praised highly for his experience. At the Jan. 27 meeting where Steinberg's hiring was approved unanimously, the audience broke into applause.

So the 2014 budget as presented by the administration should be well thought out. The council voted Thursday to introduce the budget, meaning it has passed from the administration to the governing body for review and amendment before final passage. The council now has a budget consultant from a firm hired Thursday as well.

With all this talent on the case, one hopes the city will not see anything like the 2012 budget fiasco in which a state review of the figures revealed a $1.5 million shortfall. There was more intrigue later when Eric Berry, the city administrator at the time, tried to get the state to wrest away the council's powers over the introduced budget. After the budget passed in June and the dust settled, the murkiness remained when the former finance director was unable to state the tax rate when asked at a council meeting.

Can there be a new model of collegiality between the two branches in the new administration? The focus has to be on the good of the city at large and its fiscal health. Friday's meeting may set a tone for the rest of the budget process and even for the future of the city. Resident Jean Black summed it up Thursday with her comment, "When are you all gonna agree and get the town working?"

--Bernice

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