The Morning News
Local News for Northwest Arkansas
City Set To Approve Budget
By Skip Descant
THE MORNING NEWS
FAYETTEVILLE -- Nancy Allen called it "an early Christmas."
Allen, a member of the Fayetteville City Council, was referring to the extra employee at the Yvonne Richardson Center she'd lobbied hard for. It was her last big goal before leaving the council at the end of the year.
The new position, which would aid in the center's programing needs, was just one of the final nuggets neatly laid into place during what may turn out to be the city's last budget workshop Monday afternoon. The full council is expected to pass Fayetteville's $119.5 million city budget at tonight's meeting.
At a prior meeting the council had decided to siphon $300,000 from the street overlay program to balance the budget, rather than dipping into the city's reserve funds.
But at the last minute during Monday's meeting, Ron Petrie, the city's head engineer, alerted the council that the bridge replacement fund -- a cost-share program the city has with the state -- would not need to be as heavily funded as it had in the past. Petrie suggested moving $240,000 from this fund to the overlay project.
"We have sufficient funds now for 2009, so we could this money into our overlay program," Petrie told the council. That brought on a hearty round of oohs and aahs by the council.
"Well, do we even need to have another budget meeting?" Mayor Dan Coody said. The council indicated it was ready to move forward with the proposed budget as presented.
What did not come up at the budget meeting was any discussion about a cost-of-living raise for employees. At past meetings the council suggested various options such as exploring what it would cost to fund a 2 percent to 7 percent cost-of-living raise. But at Monday's meeting the room went quiet after the mayor proposed the question.
"Is there anyone who would like to talk about cost-of-living adjustments, now's the time to do it," Coody said.
No hands went up.
During his campaign, mayor-elect Lioneld Jordan spoke often about the need to "try to find the money" for cost-of-living raises. He even proposed the possibility of selling the city-owned Tyson Mexican Original plant property. Neither that option, nor an increase in property taxes to finance raises, surfaced at Monday's meeting.
]All employees are eligible for merit-based raises, standard with nonuniform employees, or the step raises, common to uniformed employees.
But city employees can expect to find "service awards" in their December paychecks. The council approved a budget adjustment of up to $50,000 to fund the $100-per-employee awards -- which appear strangely as end-of-year bonuses. New employees with fewer than six months in service get $50. The awards were common in past years, though the council suspended them last year when sales taxes came in less than projected.
Kyle Cook, a council member from Ward 2, suggested that the service awards be increased if the city finished the year in the black.
"We may want to disperse any money left over to employees, also," Cook said.
And the extra employee to be hired by the Yvonne Richardson Center will be funded by the already budgeted -- but unfilled -- Fayetteville cable administrator slot formerly occupied by Marvin Hilton.
By The Numbers
2009 Budget Summary (Proposed)
Total Budget -- $119,461,938
Largest Outlay
General Fund -- $35,801,900 30 percent
Water & Sewer -- $29,668,929 25 percent
Solid Waste -- $9,239,250 12 percent
Source: Staff Report
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