Amador County – The Sutter Creek City Council on Tuesday approved a draft city budget that was shy $72,000, but also OK’d a line-item repair to balance the budget concessions to be made through employee negotiations. Acting City Manager Sean Rabe said the budget included no raises for employees and only half of what the Amador County Recreation Agency requested for the city’s annual, optional membership fees. Rabe said if the council wants to pay all of the fees to ACRA, they are “going to have to sharpen the pencil further.” The council agreed to do just that, voting 4-0 to approve the preliminary budget and to pay all ACRA fees. Mayor Pro Tempore Tim Murphy pushed the council to pay the full amount, noting that other cities were paying half or even none of the costs. Councilman Pat Crosby agreed, saying he would “like to throw that up as a challenge to the other entities to come up with the full amount.” The council OK’d the ACRA budget of $13,405, and will come back to verify the numbers, along with the entire budget. Rabe said he was not recommending approval of a negative budget balance, but instead recommended approving the budget with a $59,000 deficit, and a line item to make up the difference with concessions to be determined. With the ACRA fees, it became a $72,400 deficit. Asked for more detail of the preliminary budget, Finance manager Joe Aguilar said “this is a process” and “we still need to talk to employee groups,” then they can publish finalized details to the budget. Rabe said: “When we started the budget process, we anticipated a $300,000 shortfall.” That dropped to $59,000, which the city will try to even out with negotiations, along with the ACRA membership fees. Resident Bart Weatherly asked if Sutter Creek would be looking at combining police coverage with Amador City, which he said is ending its law enforcement contract with the Amador County Sheriff’s Office. Rabe said “it is definitely a worthwhile thing to look at.” Sutter Creek’s preliminary budget included $1,437,000 in general fund expenditures, down $237,000 from the previous year. Revenues were estimated at $1,378,000. Rabe said “full time equivalent” workers included 4 in administration, office and parks & recreation; 5 in the police department (with 2 paid by grants); and 4.4 workers handling water and sewer. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Thursday, 08 July 2010 06:06
Sutter Creek OKs Preliminary Budget With $72K Deficit
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