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SOUTH BEND & SAINT JOSEPH COUNTY HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION 235-9798 175rouvrOWNW011 Mu Wednesday, September 10, 2003 TO: Commission Treasurer Catherine Hostetler Commission Members FROM: Karen R. Hammond -Nash, Director RE: 2004 Budget The newspaper announced that the County Council has approved 2004 Department budgets. However, Council has a policy of distributing the data regarding budget approvals only through Wendy House in the Auditor's Office. At the time of this mailing, Wendy has not yet received that data from the Council. She will call me when she does, which may or may not be before the Monday HPC meeting. As you may know, the County Commissioners asked department heads to keep their total budget requests equal to their 2003 budgets, but suggested that raises might be given to employees by moving money from other accounts within the department budget. About two thirds of the county departments, plus HPC, accordingly sought to fund raises by reducing part time or contractual services budgets. The County Commission, according to my information, approved the requested raises in some departments, and did not approve them in others, HOWEVER, the matching reductions that department heads offered WERE written into the Commissioners budget in — I understand — every case. The County Council, at a meeting with department heads last Thursday, considered refusing ALL raises and enforcing ALL reductions; refusing all raises but not requiring reductions in part time help; and various other permutations. When individual directors were invited to speak, I pointed out that our Assistant Director position requires a 4 -year degree and a knowledge of or degree in architecture, and that that the present salary of $23,500 is low for such a requirement. We had sought a raise of $1,000 for Julie and the same amount for me, and the County Commissioners had recommended only $500 for Julie, while reducing our contractual services budget by $2,000. I did receive an assurance that the Council members would consider the matter further. I also heard privately from Dennis Schafer that he and other council members might look favorably on annual bonuses, rather than raises, because bonuses are not built into subsequent budgets. I would refer this matter to our budget committee of Catherine Hostetler and Jerry Ujdak, for consideration and possible action in October or November. Note that our 2003 Contractual services allocation is $31,000, and the County Commissioners proposed 2004 allocation is $29,000. Of that amount, we expect to spend just under $16,000 for inspector services, about $2,000 for transcription services, leaving about $13,000 this year, and probably only $11,000 next year, for paying for such things as engineering or archeological surveys, forestry or landscape surveys, extra printing, and/or matching grant programs.