Council Mtg 12/14

Very contentious Council Meeting this past Monday. Council made the layoffs official (4 votes for). Fire Chief said he will retire on 1/15. Very sad to have gotten to this point.

Lots of public discussion. Each side brought out their most eloquent backers. Lots of non MM Fire guys in the room.

Melissa Schmit brought great ideas to Council and pushed hard for them.
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This is a broad base set of interventions that shares the sacrifice fairly, across all departments and all residents.
1). Maintain lower department spending…………….in base
2). Keep police role vacant…………………………..in base
3). Keep reduced hours building inspector…………..in base
4). Zero salary increase for 2010…………………….in base
5). Layoff one maintenance employee……………….55,000 Re: largest group with non-emergency responsibilities.
6).Furlough all employees 10 days in 2010…………...60,000
7). Trash fully funded…………………………………110,000
*stickers $1 to $2
*annual household $55 to $90/Rental $35 to $60
Trash numbers may change. Waiting on estimate of savings on curbside pick-up.
8). New properly tax proposed at .75 mills……… …...100.000 ($68 per 300K home)

Total $325,000
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I provided some of these ideas to Finance Committee in November, so I was concerned when objection raised of "too late".

Another objection: Garbage rate hike is a tax increase. I disagree. This is simply passing through Rumpke's rate hike in Aug. Trash needs to be self funding just like other amenities like the Pool. And with comprehensive education to reduce waste, increase can be offset.

Another objection: furloughs are not sustainable. That is true, but they are more flexible as the economy improves. Better income next year? Don't need to do them again. Layoffs are so much more permanent.

Melissa's recos will be the starting point for our work in 2010. Unfortunately, we're only about 1/3 through the deficit with the above.

Well done Melissa.

Other topics of note:
Dennis Wolter is head of Safety Committee
Village will end 2010 -$250K, w $1Million in the General Fund


Cortney