City Council Begins 2021 Budget Reviews
August 4, 2020 at 4:18 a.m.
City Council Begins 2021 Budget Reviews
By David [email protected]
There are 26 pay periods for the city for 2021 instead of 27 so all the department budgets reflected that decrease. All the departments also provided 1% increases to their employees. The council is just hearing the budget proposals at this time and have not taken any action on them. At their next meeting, the council will hear from the rest of the city departments.
Warsaw Police Department Chief Scott Whitaker has two additional police officers in the 2021 budget for a total of 42, even though the department has yet to have 40.
“The biggest item probably out of this budget, you’ll note, is the request for two additional police officers,” Whitaker said. “Currently, we’re at 40, as far as the 2020 budget. The 2019 and 2020 budgets were at 40 officers. Unfortunately, we can not get to the point where we can actually have 40 officers. We weren’t able to this year. In fact, we’re at 36 currently and 38 is the most we’ve actually been at. We’re still attempting to increase our staff. The problem is, with retirements and such, it’s been very difficult to maintain the numbers.”
The pension in the budget was taken out and moved to its own fund. Whitaker said that was because “of the ability to take pension funds from the old pension plan that we basically had for the course of a number of years that we weren’t able to access and the city wasn’t able to use. And it was brought to our attention that there were some exceptions, and with that exception, those funds could be used to pay toward the actual contributions the city makes for the 77 police and fire pension fund.”
Last year, that amount was $449,300, which was moved to the pension fund.
Thallemer said, “The pension fund – the clerk-treasurer’s office did a great job of digging into this to find out what we could and what we couldn’t do. I think you’ll note those pension funds had been increasing. They had been reimbursed by the state pension fund. We were investing them and growing. Even at a small rate, a tax rate we finally eliminated, we still had over $1 million in both police and fire pensions. We found out that was one way we could utilize these funds, to decrease these general fund expenses. Obviously, this is going to be very significant. Hopefully, we can do it at least another year.”
Clerk-Treasurer Lynne Christiansen said it would not affect what the “pensioners” get each month “because we practically get that reimbursed back by the state anyway each year.”
Whitaker also said the police department is pursuing purchasing five vehicles in 2021, with four to be paid out of the police budget for $134,000. The fifth car would be paid for out of the law enforcement continuing education budget. Those five cars are subject to the department adding officers and the vehicle replacement plan.
The total of the proposed police budget is $5,302,205, a decrease of 5.93% over the 2020 budget of $5,636,465. Most of that is due to the police pension moving to another fund for 2021.
The other two budgets Whitaker presented were the continuing law education fund at $39,500, which is generated from fees; and the police pension fund at $730,412.
Parks Superintendent Larry Plummer presented his two budgets, as they were presented to the Parks Board previously. The Parks Board unanimously approved the budgets. For the parks fund, the proposed 2021 budget is $2,574,750, a 5.5% decrease over the 2020 budget; and the parks nonreverting fund, generated from activity fees, is $18,350, about the same as the 2020 budget.
Street Superintendent Dustin Dillon presented five proposed budgets.
In discussing the street department fund, he said under professional services he had “quite an increase” to hire a consulting firm to look at the city’s trash routes. Professional services is proposed at $52,337 for 2021, while the 2020 budget item was $39,000.
“If you use Center Street for an example, just Center Street alone, from the street department down to Argonne, it’s five different trash days. So no matter what day you go down through Center Street, you’re seeing trash cans out on Center Street. And Market Street, Clark Street, Fort Wayne – there’s multiple ones,” Dillon said, so he wants to hire someone with a “little more know-how” to help redraw the trash routes.
The total for that budget is proposed at $5,508,798, a 2.5% increase over 2020’s $5,372,105.
The wheel tax fund is generated from the tax on license plates. The city’s budget for 2021 in that fund is proposed at $325,000, a $25,000 increase.
The motor vehicle highway fund is proposed at $165,000, a 45% decrease from 2020’s budget of $300,000; with the restricted MVH fund at $165,000, down 45% from 2020’s $300,000. State law mandates that at least 50% of the MVH fund must be used toward road improvements, which is why there’s a restricted MVH fund.
Thallemer said, “There’s some discussion down at the state to try to lighten up on that, so if we run into issues, that we don’t have to worry about restricting that. However, that is to be determined and may come sooner rather than later.”
He said the pandemic also has cut down on the revenue sources for the street department’s budgets, and the state has suspended the Community Crossings street grant program on the second call.
The last budget Dillon presented was for local roads and streets, which is proposed at $125,000 for 2021, a 50% decrease from 2020’s budget of $250,000.
Thallemer presented budgets for his office ($234,909, a 32% increase that includes the new position of an information systems manager); city council ($1,488,884, a 2.3% increase that includes $209,687 for nonprofit requests); EDIT fund ($2,284,000, which is an increase from the 2020 budget of $1,627,000); riverboat fund ($250,000, the same as 2020); rainy day fund ($500,000); and the cumulative capital development fund ($805,000, a 14% increase over 2020’s $705,000).
Christiansen then presented her three budgets. The 2021 clerk-treasurer’s office budget is proposed at $194,345, a 3.4% decrease over 2020’s $201,187. The cumulative capital improvement fund was presented for 2021 at $75,000, while the general bond fund was given as $259,700.
The rest of the city’s departments will go before the city council Aug. 17.
There are 26 pay periods for the city for 2021 instead of 27 so all the department budgets reflected that decrease. All the departments also provided 1% increases to their employees. The council is just hearing the budget proposals at this time and have not taken any action on them. At their next meeting, the council will hear from the rest of the city departments.
Warsaw Police Department Chief Scott Whitaker has two additional police officers in the 2021 budget for a total of 42, even though the department has yet to have 40.
“The biggest item probably out of this budget, you’ll note, is the request for two additional police officers,” Whitaker said. “Currently, we’re at 40, as far as the 2020 budget. The 2019 and 2020 budgets were at 40 officers. Unfortunately, we can not get to the point where we can actually have 40 officers. We weren’t able to this year. In fact, we’re at 36 currently and 38 is the most we’ve actually been at. We’re still attempting to increase our staff. The problem is, with retirements and such, it’s been very difficult to maintain the numbers.”
The pension in the budget was taken out and moved to its own fund. Whitaker said that was because “of the ability to take pension funds from the old pension plan that we basically had for the course of a number of years that we weren’t able to access and the city wasn’t able to use. And it was brought to our attention that there were some exceptions, and with that exception, those funds could be used to pay toward the actual contributions the city makes for the 77 police and fire pension fund.”
Last year, that amount was $449,300, which was moved to the pension fund.
Thallemer said, “The pension fund – the clerk-treasurer’s office did a great job of digging into this to find out what we could and what we couldn’t do. I think you’ll note those pension funds had been increasing. They had been reimbursed by the state pension fund. We were investing them and growing. Even at a small rate, a tax rate we finally eliminated, we still had over $1 million in both police and fire pensions. We found out that was one way we could utilize these funds, to decrease these general fund expenses. Obviously, this is going to be very significant. Hopefully, we can do it at least another year.”
Clerk-Treasurer Lynne Christiansen said it would not affect what the “pensioners” get each month “because we practically get that reimbursed back by the state anyway each year.”
Whitaker also said the police department is pursuing purchasing five vehicles in 2021, with four to be paid out of the police budget for $134,000. The fifth car would be paid for out of the law enforcement continuing education budget. Those five cars are subject to the department adding officers and the vehicle replacement plan.
The total of the proposed police budget is $5,302,205, a decrease of 5.93% over the 2020 budget of $5,636,465. Most of that is due to the police pension moving to another fund for 2021.
The other two budgets Whitaker presented were the continuing law education fund at $39,500, which is generated from fees; and the police pension fund at $730,412.
Parks Superintendent Larry Plummer presented his two budgets, as they were presented to the Parks Board previously. The Parks Board unanimously approved the budgets. For the parks fund, the proposed 2021 budget is $2,574,750, a 5.5% decrease over the 2020 budget; and the parks nonreverting fund, generated from activity fees, is $18,350, about the same as the 2020 budget.
Street Superintendent Dustin Dillon presented five proposed budgets.
In discussing the street department fund, he said under professional services he had “quite an increase” to hire a consulting firm to look at the city’s trash routes. Professional services is proposed at $52,337 for 2021, while the 2020 budget item was $39,000.
“If you use Center Street for an example, just Center Street alone, from the street department down to Argonne, it’s five different trash days. So no matter what day you go down through Center Street, you’re seeing trash cans out on Center Street. And Market Street, Clark Street, Fort Wayne – there’s multiple ones,” Dillon said, so he wants to hire someone with a “little more know-how” to help redraw the trash routes.
The total for that budget is proposed at $5,508,798, a 2.5% increase over 2020’s $5,372,105.
The wheel tax fund is generated from the tax on license plates. The city’s budget for 2021 in that fund is proposed at $325,000, a $25,000 increase.
The motor vehicle highway fund is proposed at $165,000, a 45% decrease from 2020’s budget of $300,000; with the restricted MVH fund at $165,000, down 45% from 2020’s $300,000. State law mandates that at least 50% of the MVH fund must be used toward road improvements, which is why there’s a restricted MVH fund.
Thallemer said, “There’s some discussion down at the state to try to lighten up on that, so if we run into issues, that we don’t have to worry about restricting that. However, that is to be determined and may come sooner rather than later.”
He said the pandemic also has cut down on the revenue sources for the street department’s budgets, and the state has suspended the Community Crossings street grant program on the second call.
The last budget Dillon presented was for local roads and streets, which is proposed at $125,000 for 2021, a 50% decrease from 2020’s budget of $250,000.
Thallemer presented budgets for his office ($234,909, a 32% increase that includes the new position of an information systems manager); city council ($1,488,884, a 2.3% increase that includes $209,687 for nonprofit requests); EDIT fund ($2,284,000, which is an increase from the 2020 budget of $1,627,000); riverboat fund ($250,000, the same as 2020); rainy day fund ($500,000); and the cumulative capital development fund ($805,000, a 14% increase over 2020’s $705,000).
Christiansen then presented her three budgets. The 2021 clerk-treasurer’s office budget is proposed at $194,345, a 3.4% decrease over 2020’s $201,187. The cumulative capital improvement fund was presented for 2021 at $75,000, while the general bond fund was given as $259,700.
The rest of the city’s departments will go before the city council Aug. 17.
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