Council looks to utilize extra funds in budget

The Waynesboro City Council directed City Manager Mike Hamp during its Wednesday work session to restore the two furlough days for city staff in his proposed fiscal year 2010 budget.

The four members of council present – Councilwoman Nancy Dowdy was absent due to illness – asked Hamp to find the $81,960 in general fund savings, as well as savings for employees funded through enterprise funds, in exchange for restoring the workdays for all full-time classified city employees.

Hamp, in presenting a new add/delete list showing the latest expenses and savings in the budget to the council, projected the city to come out $16,051 ahead, which city staff has recommended moving to a contingency fund. He proposed restoration of $26,000 to the Heritage Foundation, as well as $48,400 in wages and benefits for a program coordinator in the Parks and Recreation Department.

Vice Mayor Frank Lucente said he favored keeping the cut in place for the Heritage Foundation, and said he did not support restoring the program coordinator position in the budget. Lucente wanted to use those savings, combined with reserves, to restore the furlough days.

Councilman Bruce Allen disagreed with Lucente about the program coordinator position, saying the Department of Parks and Recreation is going through too much stress without the position.

Loss of the program coordinator, Hamp said, was due to a promotion within the department and said it was not an intentional deletion.

“At the time the position went into the hiring freeze,” Hamp said. “It was never taken out of the hiring freeze when we developed the budget. So it was an omission on my part, and I offer it for consideration.”

Councilwoman Lorie Smith said she wants the furlough days restored, but disagreed with Lucente about how to restore them. She proposed going forward with one furlough day in the first half of the FY 2010, if no further cuts were made to save both days, and determine then whether the second day would be necessary.

Hamp said the restoration of the proposed furlough days would have a positive impact on the city staff’s morale.

“I think it would mean a lot to the employees,” Hamp said, noting that the action would be “a pretty good motivator to try and figure out how to earn that back through savings in other places.”

The Heritage Foundation money to be restored, Hamp said, was an increase from his proposed zero funding for it, but about $11,000 less than its current funding.

The council did support Hamp’s proposal to transfer the $340,973 landfill post-closure fund from the reserves to the general fund, which he said was an accounting measure.

The move, Hamp said, is primarily, because the city no longer puts trash in the landfill, there’s no associated revenue source for it. 

Lucente said he feared that the money would get lost in the general fund, but after assurances from Budget Director Pat Nicosia that the city would closely track the money, he accepted the move.