07-13-09 Common Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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REGULAR MEETING JULY 13, 2009 shared cost curb and sidewalk program; the commercial corridor program that have made significant improvement to the entrances to the City of South Bend; the after school support that the City had provided; support for some of the social services group in town, those have all gone by the wayside. In addition, they continue to look toward technology for energy savings and for efficiencies in the delivery of service. He stated that they have changed all the traffic signals to LED lighting, saving approximately $200,000 in energy costs. They have looked to a more efficient method of using methane at the Waste Water Treatment Plant, again a significant amount of energy savings there. The grid computing system in partnership with the University of Notre Dame is helping to reduce heating cost at greenhouse and conservatories. He stated that they expect to technology in their combined sewers and they meet the long term control plan needs to reduce cost long term for the rate payers in that regard. So there are many initiatives that have been undertaken, earlier this year, the Council approved the reduction in 2009 Budget of approximately 3 million dollars, in 2008, with fine oversight by department heads they under spent the budget by 4 million dollars which gave some reserves to be able to carry into this year to help meet the significant lose of revenue for this year as well. He stated that he understands that this is a difficult decision in difficult times for many families in St. Joseph County, certainly in the larger region and throughout the nation. Nevertheless, from his perspective the only things worst than enacted a local income tax tonight would be no enacting a local income tax tonight because of the dire cuts in services that would need to be done to live within the budget of the 22 million dollars of lost revenue. He urged the Council to vote favorably. Councilmember Henry Davis asked if cuts have been made for ten (10) years, how long has this circuit breaker HEA 1001 been enacted. Mayor Luecke stated that HEA 1001 was enacted in 2008, so the significant loss of revenue do to the property tax caps were understood in 2007 with some discussion about property tax in 2008 when it became official and in 2009 and 2010 are when the full impact of the caps will take place. Councilmember Henry Davis asked if the cuts that were made from 2000 to 2007, are as significant as what is being experienced now? Mayor Luecke stated certainly. If they had not made those cuts the city would have been in a much direr situation than they are. He pointed out that his administration and department heads have looked to find efficiencies in the delivery of services for a number of years, not driven just by the HEA 1001, but driven by the City’s desire to provide the best services at the best costs for the residents. Councilmember Rouse asked if the total cuts would equal around 200 people being cut form the workforce. Mayor Luecke stated that if there is no new revenue, the projection is that the city would have to cut about 200 full time employees from the payroll. Councilmember Rouse asked the Mayor to reiterate those services, facilities, good and services that would also have to be cut. Mayor Luecke stated that this is not a final list of cuts because the Council will need to review and act on the 2010 budget and there will be further discussion with regard to that. The cuts are across the board, all departments will participate. The Mayor’s Office will have a 30% cut; as well as Legal; Code; Administration & Finance; Police, Fire and Parks, with Police Fire and Parks being the largest departments that the City has in the property tax supported funds. He stated that it has been projected in the Police Department they would have to have nineteen (19) fewer police officers and well as eliminating twelve (12) civilian positions. The Fire Department would have forty-five (45) fewer fire fighters. Parks and Recreation would look at twenty-seven (27) fewer employees, and see some facility closings as well. The attempt was to look at the budget for 2010 and be able to keep year round facilities open, seasonal facilities would be the ones that would suffer the brunt such as city pool would close at Potawatomi along with 12