Fordyce countered, “We hired them. They are working for us. We are not working for them. We need to watch our monies.” City Administrator Gene Albaugh said the only other option available to the city if the council did not want allow employees to eat while on the clock, would be to use city employees to do the job instead. He said city employees used to do the work that the AWA currently covers, but the city found that it was not cost efficient. The council then got back to budget issues and Gardner reported on the city’s revenue. In the fiscal year of 05-06 the cities revenue totaled $546,743 while in 06-07 it had grown to $566,838. Gardner reported that while the city had been spiraling downward, they are now on an upward trend and the revenue has been growing every year. He reported that the cities current deficit is $28,000.

During the report Gardner requested at least 5 thousand dollars for community promotion. He explained that under the proposal $500 would be spent towards the rodeo, $1,000 to promote the fair, $2,000 to blue grass festival, $1,000 to chamber of commerce to promote the City, and $500 to the Amador Economic Development Committee. Fordyce immediately questioned donating the amount of money suggested to the rodeo and blue grass festival, when City employees don’t even receive retirement benefits.  She asked, “Are we that flush to spend taxes on these events?” Gardner said in the past local businesses have been supported quite a bit when local events came to town. Council Member Mike O’Meara said, “You have got to put out a little bit to get anything. $5,000 dollars out of the whole (budget) is next to nothing.

Those events bring out a lot of people.”  Gardner then reported that a disproportional amount of the existing budget has been spent towards attorney fees and subsequently suggested that the City consider that while examining the budget. “Our attorney’s have charged an exorbitant amount of money for a considerable amount of time. I’m not saying that they don’t do good work but they are expensive.” Gardner then revealed that for the current fiscal year through April the City of Plymouth has spent close to $150,000 in attorney fees. He also reported that the attorneys have been working on fighting the Ione Band of Mi-Wok’s proposed casino, the Plymouth pipeline, water, sewer and risk management. For the overall budget Gardner reported that relative to other cities in the county, Plymouth is doing okay. The budget will be discussed more in depth during a public hearing at this weeks Plymouth City Council meeting which will be held at 7pm on Thursday