By CECILIA FOX
Record Herald Writer
Courtesy of the Weekly Record Herald; Printed 12-23-11
TIPP CITY – At the last meeting of 2011, the city council focused on next year’s operating budget and discussed last minute amendments before adopting the proposed 2012 annual budget.
The 2012 operating budget proposes $39, 257,034 in total appropriations and was reviewed by council during its Nov. 28 workshop. General Fund appropriations are projected at $5,801,022 and revenue is expected to increase by 3.14 percent over 2010 estimates. A deficit of $134,000 is projected, however a small surplus of $40,000 in the general fund is expected.
The budget was revised at the workshop to remove one of two requested additional seasonal employees in the Park Department, cutting about $4,008 in wages from the budget. The property maintenance expenditures were also reduced by $2,500.
Councilmember Joe Gibson proposed more budget reductions to council, listing nine areas where spending could be reduced or eliminated. Gibson proposed that the city eliminate the proposed $60,000 expenditure on council health insurance.
Currently, Mayor Dee Gillis, Council President Pat Hale, and council members John Kessler and George Lovett participate in the insurance plan and pay 12 percent of the premium as required, with the city paying 88 percent. Gibson participates and reimburses the city 100 percent of the premium. Council members Kaitlyn Black and Brian Budding do not take insurance but receive the opt-out fee of $1,800.
“I spent a lot of time on this this past March trying to work out a couple of compromises with council concerning this very issue,” said Hale, who proposed giving up the health insurance but increasing the pay to be in line with what other communities pay their city council.
Budding said that he considered that option a pay raise, which he does not support.
Lovett stated, “Unless you’re going to bring a wage increase along with taking away the health insurance, you’re asking council to serve for $1000 dollars a year. I think that’s patently unfair.”
Gibson also suggested cutting spending in the following areas: employing an in-house billing system for EMS services, eliminating outside contractors for park maintenance, cutting spending on Fourth of July fireworks, and reducing the contingency fund. All of Gibson’s proposed spending cuts were voted down by the council and the 2012 operating budget was adopted as is.
Included in the 2012 budget is a wage increase for members of the city’s volunteer fire department, the department’s first wage increase since 2004. Wages for active duty firefighters will increase from $11 per hour to $12 and for fire inspectors from $9 to $12.
The Council also approved the appointment of David J. Caldwell as the city’s new Director of Law following Joseph Moore’s retirement after more than 30 years of service to the city.
Another member leaving council is Lovett, who served for two terms. Gillis presented Lovett with a plaque commemorating his eight years of service on the council.
“My only hope is that, in a couple of years, people of your caliber in this community will step up and run again and we can populate this council with folks who have your dedication and your concern,” said Mark Mabelitini, thanking Councilman Lovett for his service during the citizen comments portion of the meeting.
He then added, “And maybe we can let some folks get back to their college studies, or running their businesses, or having a talk show maybe on KIT-TV.”
In other action, council approved a resolution for the reconstruction County Road 25-A project. This project will reconstruct the road from State Route 571 to just south of Michaels Road, upgrading the two lane roadway to a five lane roadway to match the existing profile north of West Main Street. Although this project was recommended to cut by the Citizens Capital Improvment Planning committee, Tipp City’s funding portion has dropped from $1 million from the capital improvement fund to $785,000 out of the electric fund.
“In my opinion, the grant application for 25-A was made significantly more palatable with the restructuring of its proposed financing,” said CIP committee chairman Mike McDermott.
Of the total $4.2 million, the other monies break down to about $2.5 million from Ohio Department of Transportation, $700,000 from the Ohio Public Works Commission, $35,000 from Monroe Township, and $210,000 from Miami County. Tipp City is paying $785,000 out of the Electric Fund. According to City Manager Jon Crusey, of the $734,000 committed from the Electric Fund, $500,000 was already budgeted to complete part the electric line extensions along County Road 25-A related to the substation No. 4 project.
####
