Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE – The task of ironing out a city budget for 2009 that began earlier this fall continued Monday night as City Council met and reviewed the latest revised figures. All councilors were present for the session, except Ron McPherson who remains home recovering from heart surgery.
Staff photo/Kathy McCarty
CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS met with Presque Isle department heads recently, holding a number of workshops to iron out the details of the city’s 2009 budget. Here, Council Vice Chairman Ed Nickerson and Council Chairman Walt Elish, pictured in front of the flag, go over some of the figures with those in attendance. Those in attendance, in addition to Nickerson and Elish, pictured counterclockwise, from left: Councilman Don Gardner; Scott Wardwell, airport manager; Sonja Plummer-Morgan, librarian; Pat Webb, finance director; Darrell White, fire chief; Chris Beaulieu, director, Parks and Recreation Department; Ken Arndt, director, Planning and Development; and Larry Clark, executive director, Industrial Council. Council is expected to vote on a final draft of the 2009 budget later this month.
Recent workshops saw councilors asking department heads to do what they could to reduce requests as much as possible to try to prevent a mil increase for taxpayers. Councilor G. Melvin Hovey proposed a reduction of up to $340,000 – a savings he indicated could be achieved with “minimal impact to community services.” Hovey said he’d like to see the budget remain at its 2008 level of $13.1 million.
With that in mind, City Manager Tom Stevens met with Hovey and department heads to try to pare down figures as much as possible.
“A number of changes to the budget were proposed. The Council met in budget workshops to follow up on those; that produced the budget update. This is the first complete budget update, A-Z,” Stevens told Council during Monday’s session.
“The budget, at this point, is about $13.5 million, with revenues of about $7.3 million and a net of $6.1 million. That’s about a 4.4 percent change,” said Stevens.
Stevens said the biggest area of savings was an adjustment for fuel costs for various departments.
“We had a number of suggestions for reductions to consider. Fuel prices have changed again, resulting in a net reduction in the budget,” said Stevens.
The revisions, according to Stevens, brought the budget down by nearly $200,000, leaving Council approximately $144,000 short of the $340,000 figure.
“Establishing a city ambulance service, funding for The Aroostook Medical Center’s ambulance and staffing at the fire department remain unresolved issues” that could affect the budget’s final figure, said Stevens.
“If Council still had a $340,000 net benchmark, it’s about $144,000 short of that mark so far. Areas of revenues have changed; expenses have changed. If Council is still seeking a $144,000 reduction, for a benchmark net $6 million budget, there are a number of places indicated where it could come from,” Stevens continued.
Stevens said there were some assumptions made, including the fact the city wouldn’t be running at the surplus it had in 2008.
“We’re not putting as much in and we’re only keeping two months’ (worth of money) in surplus. It won’t create as much of a surplus for 2009,” he said.
Stevens said the county’s budget was showing a 3.4 percent increase but that that didn’t mean the increase will be the same in 2009.
“It’s based on valuation,” said Stevens.
Another unknown factor is the effect SAD 1’s budget will have on the city’s end figure, since the legislature won’t meet until January.
“They’ll (SAD 1) will be wrestling with their own budget as well,” he said.
Councilman Calvin Hall wanted to emphasize that the budget hasn’t been finalized yet and that no increases have been made to the mil rate as of yet.
“The mil rate is confusing to citizens. I don’t think anyone on the Council has gone on record as supporting mil rate increases,” said Hall.
Hall also noted that cuts were only a matter of discussion at this point.
“I didn’t state I was in favor (of cuts), we’re merely discussing. I don’t want (Council) to lose site of our vision. We’re putting things in the budget to make the city more efficient and to better serve the community,” said Hall.
Hovey said his position was to reduce the budget.
“When we look at our budget, my position has been we need to be at least the same budget as last year – no increase to our budget. It can be done easily, in my opinion, with another $200,000 coming out easily with no impact on services,” said Hovey.
“If we eliminate the full $340,000, I could be persuaded to support (the 2009 budget). I believe we can take considerably more out of the budget and not impact services,” he said.
The big element, as far as Hovey was concerned, was the fire department.
“I’ve not been presented with any factual evidence by management or the fire department that we can’t manage with half the staff and depend more on volunteers,” said Hovey. “We’re way overstaffed. Even with five people on staff, we have $38,000 in the budget for overtime and call-ins. That $38,000 could be eliminated and we could eliminate three full-time people. I cannot vote for a budget that means a mil increase.”
Councilor Jennifer Trombley said the Council has asked the department heads to scrutinize their budgets over and over again.
“I think if we all agree as a Council to reduce the budget by $340,000, then we should leave it in the hands of the department heads to determine where it comes from,” said Trombley, adding, “It isn’t fair for us to hash it out since we’re not professionals in any of those departments.”
Councilor Don Gardner said he agreed with Trombley, noting it’s “easy to say ‘let’s cut three firefighters,’ but they all have faces. It’s not easy to say ‘you and you and you are going.’ That extra person on the team is backup. There’s always someone outside a structure – to have someone there in case something goes terribly wrong,” said Gardner. “I have a real problem endangering personnel in order to save a few dollars. I can’t say, ‘We saved thousands, but it cost a man his life.’”
Of the $312,000 Council asked Stevens and staff to find, Council Chairman Walt Elish said they came back with $160,000.
“A couple items that would have an impact of approximately $144,000 involves the fire department and ambulance service. We can’t make a decision on ambulance, pending further discussion, but would like to get feedback from the Council on the fire department,” said Elish. “If the Council opposes, we’d take the fire department off the table for discussion.”
Council Vice Chairman Ed Nickerson wanted more information on call-back fees and other figures.
“I don’t understand the overtime. Is there absolute need to call back every time?” asked Nickerson.
Fire Chief Darrell White explained how call-back works.
“We operate with a five-man crew. Airport calls takes one person, leaving four at the station. But when there’s someone out sick or on vacation, taking comp time or training, that leaves us with three at the station. That’s when we require call-backs – personnel from other shifts are called in to cover for the absence,” said White.
White said call-backs are only used when the department is down to a four-man crew on a given shift. When possible, White himself covers for absent personnel.
Hovey questioned why the department couldn’t depend on volunteers for that, like most other communities with volunteer departments.
“Most other communities don’t cover an airport, which requires a lot of training. If you look at surrounding communities, they do 10-14 calls a year. They’re not called as much as we are,” said White.
White said relying on a volunteer force can be difficult for a number of reasons.
“Take for example the structure fire last week. The call came in at 1 p.m. We had two volunteers show up. That’s why we had to call Caribou, Easton and Fort Fairfield (for mutual aid) for added manpower,” said White. “The same happened this last week in Caribou; they had the same thing happen with the fire they covered. We did have volunteers show up that day in Presque Isle, but most came in after 5 p.m. when they got done their jobs. Employers don’t let them (volunteers) go like they used to, because it affects production. And volunteers don’t get paid for volunteering what their regular paid work pays.”
Hovey wanted White to provide “factual evidence from communities who have volunteers.”
“Is their firefighting service less than yours?” asked Hovey.
With a full-time staff, there’s a big difference in response time, said White.
“If you have a fire at your residence and you call 9-1-1 right now, there’s five guys at the station who can be at your home in 3-4 minutes. Volunteers in the winter have to clean off their cars, get their gear in the car, get to the station,” White said.
Gardner sought to turn Hovey’s question around, asking to see “factual evidence that the volunteer departments actually do do what Mel says they do.”
“It’s a service-level discussion. We can look at staffing patterns, see how they compare to ours,” said Stevens.
Elish noted the Council, overall, appeared to have little interest in cutting staff at the fire department.
Hall said considering all the work that had gone into reducing the budget, he was pleased with the results thus far.
“Looking at the $144,275 that’s all that remains to get to the $340,000 figure, we’ve done remarkably well. I could support everything in there so far,” said Hall. “We challenged department heads to come up with $340,000. They came up with all but $144,000. That was herculean as it is. I think we should wrap it up as it is.”
Gardner said he agreed with Hall.
“They’ve done a heck of a job,” said Gardner.
With the exception of Hovey, councilors appeared to be in favor of keeping the fire station staffed at its present level.
Trombley suggested cuts could perhaps be made to equipment purchases. But Stevens said all that would do was bump the purchase to the next year’s budget.
“The need for a police car or plow truck doesn’t go away,” said Stevens, “and could mean increased maintenance costs. By keeping a fairly consistent replacement schedule, it prevents maintenance costs in the long run.”
Stevens added, however, that that was one of the “least intrusive possibilities.”
As the budget discussion neared an end for the evening, Elish summed it up for the Council by saying, “with the exception of one unresolved item, we’re pretty much ok with the budget.”
In other news, Council made plans to meet with the Caribou City Council at the NMDC offices in Caribou on Tuesday, Dec. 2, to discuss the proposed bypass and how it will affect both communities. More on that meeting will follow in a future issue of the Star-Herald and Aroostook-Republican. Council also made plans to be on hand for the Dec. 10 appearance of the Army Corps of Engineers, who will be holding a public meeting at the Presque Isle Middle School to discuss bypass issues with interested individuals.
Council’s next session will be held Monday, Dec. 15, at 6 p.m. at City Hall. Sessions are open to the public and the public is encouraged to participate. The city’s 2009 budget will be the priority topic for that session, with councilors making their final decision on the matter at that time. For more information, contact 764-4485.
