BIDDEFORD — Reductions of city staff positions will likely be the result of the proposed $26.1 million city budget for fiscal year 2015, to which the city council gave initial approval on Monday.
After 3 1/2 hours of at times tense discussion, the council voted in favor of the budget, which is a 1.59 percent increase over the current year. A final vote is scheduled for May 28.
Including the school and county portions, the entire proposed fiscal year 2015 budget is $61.7 million. Of this, local property taxpayers would be responsible for paying $43 million, a 1.92 percent increase over the current year.
In an attempt to reduce the budget, several amendments were made, most of which were submitted by first-term Councilor Robert Quattrone. He proposed the elimination of several positions, such as the facilities manager, a part-time electrical inspector, a recreation programmer, and the comptroller, who works for both the wastewater and public works departments.
These amendments failed, as they were opposed by the majority of the council and several residents.
“Before you start nickel-and-diming,” said resident James Emerson, it’s important to look at the services provided through those positions “rather than a head count.”
An effort by Council President John McCurry to eliminate the $57,000 social service budget, which pays for items like local food pantries and emergency housing, also failed. Rather than the city paying small amounts toward these agencies, said McCurry, residents could donate to organizations they want to support.
Councilor Brad Cote objected to cutting the social service budget, and said about the discussion on the issue, “I don’t think I’ve ever been so embarrassed to be a city councilor.”
McCurry also made an amendment, which passed, to add $250,000 to the wastewater budget in order to decrease the amount paid by sewer users.
With this increase, the amount of local taxes needed to finance the budget rose by more than 2.5 percent. That action “upset the apple cart,” said Mayor Alan Casavant.
Councilor Marc Lessard proposed an amendment to reduce the proposed increase to 1.92 percent.
While several councilors questioned the need to pick an arbitrary number to pin the budget to, the majority of council members supported Lessard’s proposal.
As part of his amendment, Lessard specified that the budget reduction could not come from the more than $300,000 contingency fund that was established. Throughout the budget process, Lessard has championed a contingency fund that could be used to pay for unplanned city investments or “in case the deal of the century comes to the city.”
Lessard’s amendment leaves it up to City Manager John Bubier to make decisions about what budget cuts would be made.
Finance Director Curt Koehler said with the magnitude of the cut that is needed, about $220,000, it is likely that staffing reductions will result.
The city council will take up the whole budget for final approval on May 28 at 7 p.m. at City Hall. However, the proposed $33.6 million K-12 education portion of the budget won’t be final until it is approved by the public. A school budget validation referendum is scheduled for June 10.
— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.
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