Amador County – The Ione City Council plans a special meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday for a current fiscal year budget workshop to look at ways to handle a $500,000 General Fund deficit.

Interim City Manager Jeff Butzlaff, in a memo Thursday to all city employees said the public workshop will try to get the public and staff’s input “to help reduce our current half million dollar General Fund deficit as much as possible, as soon as possible.”

He said “although a lot of attention is being given to net General Fund employee costs (since they make up two-thirds of the city’s overall annual General Fund expenditures) please also realize that the other one-third (nearly $600,000) consists of the net General Fund operational costs for each city department, division and function.” He said “to the extent that we can reduce operational costs substantially” then “we can thereby spare having to make such cuts in personnel costs.” He suggested $100,000 in reductions as a goal for personnel costs.

Butzlaff said “what we should really be trying to do, therefore, is come up with an overall General Fund reduction plan that is balanced as much as possible between personnel costs and non-personnel operational costs.”

He said the public workshop will continue work begun at a staff meeting Oct. 3 “to come up with ideas and suggestions for cost reductions, and possible concessions and sacrifices (employees) may be willing to make to help keep the city organization as intact as possible.”

He said staff continues “investigating such alternatives as retirement incentive programs that some employees may find of benefit, and which would help us reduce personnel costs to a more sustainable level within our now severe General Fund revenue limitations.”

At the workshop, Butzlaff said City Council, staff and the public “will begin discussing such various cost-cutting alternatives” and all employees were encouraged prior to that workshop to “bring forward any and all cost reduction suggestions or offers you may have by then.” He also encouraged employees to “personally attend the workshop to observe, and possibly actively participate in, the consideration of alternative cost-reduction approaches.”

In a report for last week’s meeting, Butzlaff said the city budget took two unexpected “hits,” including the “requirement to pay back to the state $153,000 in misallocated sales tax revenues from fiscal year 2008-2009, and the significant reduction of over $160,000 in property tax in lieu of (vehicle license fee) funding, due to Amador County Unified School District” becoming classified and designated as a “Basic Aid” district. Butzlaff said “on an annual basis the city is now confronting a totally unsustainable General Fund Budget deficit of over $500,000.”

The public budget workshop is 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 12 at City Hall.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.