City Council narrows proposed budget to 1 mill hike, with promise of further discussion next week

City Council tabled the proposed 2021 budget Thursday, looking to meet in a week to perhaps finalize it.

Before doing so, however, council removed another $434,000 out of Mayor Derek Slaughter's proposed spending plan, reducing the proposed tax increase in the millage rate to 1 mill.

But council remains unsatisfied, calling on Slaughter to find ways to further reduce his proposed spending plan.

"We made good progress and accomplished a lot, lowering the burden on taxpayers," Councilwoman Liz Miele said. "I'd like to see us go further."

Miele said she wants to see more effort from council and the administration to get the size of the tax increase lower for taxpayers.

Council discussed income from Bowman Field naming rights and will be increasing the cable and television franchise fee to add to the balance. It trimmed overtime and compensation time of police and removed the pool operation and equipment expenses as it reviews a plan to repair the pool water leak. It may decide to outsource the departments of recreation and information technology, go digital rather than depend on paper documents and it took a look at management and operations of River Valley Transit, the city bus service and Hiawatha Riverboat Paddlewheeler operator.

"We need to find more," Miele said.

She laid out the prep-work done thus far by council.

"Council has found a little better than $1 million," she said.

A mill of tax in the city equates to $860,000.

Council reduced the tax rate by 1.5 mills.

Slaughter presented a proposed budget of $29.7 million and called for a 2.5-mill tax increase.

Miele further noted how the departments have stepped up and found places to save money, but said they want more contribution and ideas from the administration, specifically the mayor.

"The council has not heard a lot from the top down, administratively, on ways to tighten the belt," Miele said. "I challenge the administration to find $434,000 between this week and next."

"The administration will continue to review the budget and work with City Council to reduce the burden on the taxpayers," Slaughter said Friday.

It was a night when council took out the red pen. It dove into public safety departments, specifically finding ways to cut expenses projected for the bureaus of Police and Fire. With assistance from Damon R. Hagan, city police chief, and Mark Killian, city fire chief, council targeted overtime.

Councilman Adam Yoder began the discussion.

"I understand the need from a public safety perspective, but especially this level of overtime I think we need to do better managing it or push for more mutual aid, maybe state police, South Williamsport and Old Lycoming Township," Yoder said.

"Mutual aid is a two-way street and we need to do a better job leveraging that," Yoder said.

The police budget is about $10.7 million and fire $7.5 million. Yoder addressed each chief asking them to minimize each of those budgets and line items for overtime, and asked for the administration to push to use that strategy to save money while keeping the city safe and not losing service.

Yoder said he wanted to reduce each line item by $30,000. That would be $90,000 taken out of overtime and comp time for police and overtime for fire, he said.

Councilman Jon Mackey, a retired Philadelphia police officer, asked Hagan how much of the $180,000 of proposed budgeted overtime next year would be allocated to two officers working with the Lycoming County Narcotics Enforcement Unit.

Hagan said the rough numbers from January to the middle of November were -- if the officers were on patrol -- $70,000 could have been prevented if the officers spread out overtime and comp time.

"They can choose either-or," Hagan said. "When they work overtime, they can use overtime or comp time."

Hagan said the department has been hindered by a reduction overall of four officers on the complement.

Hagan reminded the council overtime is affected by special assignments, an officer assigned to the U.S. Marshals Service, two on the county task force, a school resource officer, unforeseen events such as pregnancy, injuries, suspensions, terminations, and how long cadets are in academy and graduate and when they are hired during the year.

Hagan said he changed the department minimum manpower back to what it was, assigning the officers to the narcotics enforcement knowing it would create conditions for overtime to increase but realizing the extraordinary value the two officers added to the unit and the dramatic effect it has on city public safety.

Hagan said the situation of limited manpower was heightened recently with officers out with COVID-19 and state police having to handle an incident involving a shooting on Penn Street.

"We don't believe overtime is mismanaged but … the more staff we have the less overtime and the less staff the more overtime."

He said if the city lowered police overtime from $180,000 to $160,000 the department will need to make changes to services. Hagan didn't elaborate on what those might be.

Mackey asked Hagan if the city pulled its two officers from the narcotics enforcement what would be the appropriate amount of overtime and comp time estimated that could be pulled from the proposed budget.

Hagan said $15,000 to $20,000 in each category.

"It is ugly, chief," Councilman David Banks said. "It is ugly either way."

Council voted to cut overtime down from $180,000 to $160,000 for police and compensation time from $180,000 to $165,000.

Banks asked Killian to address overtime estimates of more than $230,000.

"The vast majority is to maintain minimum staffing," Killian said.

Killian said the department has reduced overtime by $150,000 over the past three years.

Killian said the department put the administrative chief on the floor, has eight persons assigned each shift, six firefighters Monday through Friday and seven on nights and weekends.

Killian said reducing overtime much further would potentially lead to putting an engine out of service, eliminating the alliance the city has with Old Lycoming Township. The alliance began more than 20 years ago.

"Our overtime numbers are projected to come in lower than expected," Killian said.

It is not prudent, specifically around vacation times, because shifts must be filled, the chief said. Killian said he has been working with the firefighters' union on creative solutions for how and when vacation time is used. He said such discussions are ongoing. Council listened and expects to discuss the fire overtime further.

In other areas, council discussed removing $70,000 assigned for Bowman Field and money set aside for the stadium in prior years as it anticipates potential income from stadium naming rights.

It considered the idea of borrowing, in the form of a note, given the low interest rates, to finance several items, including repairs and future direction to take at the Memorial Park swimming pool.

Other areas cuts were found include negotiating with attorneys of the city Bureau of Law, heading toward paperless government in terms of reports and correspondence, cutting an assistant controller position, outsourcing the information technology department, outsourcing potentially the recreation department and potentially outsourcing the engineering department.

Another potential source of additional balancing for the city is the relationship with and ongoing subsidy of River Valley Transit.

The city provides trash services to the bus company, and the transit arm remains in the city pension plan and health care cooperative, Miele said.

Nothing is provided for damage or depreciation of the streets, she said.

The transit arm owns $20 million in land and improved assets and pays no rent and no payment in lieu of taxes, Miele said.

"A hefty part of the budget goes toward meeting past pension obligations," she said.

"I would suggest we find places in which the city has been subsidizing RVT for years and ways to balance that and realize income for the city. We love and respect our transit arm. The upshot of it is we need to find more cuts."

Yoder also asked whether any of the Community Development Block Grant money which is allocated for economic development could be leveraged in some way to offset or even enhance the needs of the general fund.

The vote to table the proposed budget was 6-0 with Allison, Miele, Bonnie Katz, Banks, Yoder and Mackey approving. Councilman Vincent Pulizzi was absent.

The next council meeting to address the budget issue is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday. It will be done remotely and will be available on YouTube. To find it, go to the city website and follow the directions.