Local News

Budget Reduction: Council sets special meeting for after it receives mayor’s plan

Marietta City Council discussed its plans Monday on how it will respond to the mayor's and city adminstration's cost-savings plan when it is presented to council in May.

During an audit committee meeting Monday, Ward 1 Councilman Michael Scales, who is also the audit committee chair, talked about the financial state of the city and what he wants council to do once Mayor Josh Schlicher gives council a financial recovery plan for the city on May 20.

"On (March 31) the general fund had $221,813.34 available after encumbrances and expenses were taken out, that's how much cash we had, bottom line," Scales said during the audit committee meeting. "Well people say we have money, oh, we do have money but we have a lot of money in the water and sewer because it takes a lot of money to run the water and sewer plant and also the 200 funds which includes streets."

He said that when you look at a breakdown of the general fund the city has about $8,400,000 in salaries and benefits yet to be paid and $1.5 million to run the city for everything else and when you look at what they have to run the city it is tight. He said unless something is done the city could end the year $875,000 in the red.

"I'm waiting, and I'm sure the other council members are waiting, for the mayor and his administration," Scales said.

Scales is referring to a directive he gave the mayor, city administration and department heads this month to come up with a plan for long term sustainable cost savings to bring city revenue in line with expenses during a joint finance and employee relations committees meeting April 15. During that meeting council settled on May 20 as the deadline by which the plan should be given to council. Council then passed a resolution during a special council meeting April 24 that formally directed the mayor to provide a sustainable plan of recovery for city finances by May 20. Council's desire for a cost-savings plan is a result of a performance audit that predicts the city's general fund will be empty as early as 2025. In March, council proposed cutting staff, merging the Marietta/Belpre Health Department and county health department and switching city income tax collection to a third party vendor thereby reducing the number of city tax department staff as possible ways to save $1.2 million. During an April 11 public meeting on the city's audit, Schlicher suggested no staff cuts and instead closing the Marietta Aquatic Center this year.

This led to an uproar in the community, but eventually Schlicher worked out a deal with the city's pool management company and the MAC is now set to open this year.

Scales said during the audit committee meeting Monday that he thinks once council receives the mayor's plan for cuts on May 20 that he would like to have a special council meeting on May 27 to discuss modifying Ordinance 1 (24-25) and to have a first reading of an ordinance to modify it.

The ordinance set the appropriation amounts for the city's fiscal year 2024 budget, which totals $39,023,988.

"What the deal is, we are going to revise ordinance No.1 (24-25) and we're going to revise it downward to the tune of $1.2 million in the general fund," Scales said.

He also said he would also like to have a special meeting on the Monday following May 27 to perform a second reading of an ordinance modifying Ordinance No. 1 (24-25). He stated he would discuss the idea with his fellow council members to see if they agree during an audit committee meeting scheduled for Monday night.

During the finance committee meeting Monday night, Scales told those in attendance about Monday morning's audit committee meeting, the two special meetings and the ordinance he wants to modify Ordinance No. 1 (24-25)

Marietta Director of Budget and Purchasing Mitch Dimmerling pointed out that May 27 is Memorial Day, so Scales moved the date of the first special meeting to May 28. Scales specified the date for the second special meeting he wants is June 3.

"That way it gives us three weeks to prepare and know what's going on ... If and when there's a layoff we have to pay the employees out for what they have on the books plus we have to do some payment to unemployment, so we need to have all that ready so we know exactly where we stand by (June 28)," Scales said.

June 28 is the date that council agreed on in March by which they want cost-saving measures in place.

"That's how I would like to proceed," Scales said and then he asked if anyone had questions or comments.

Ward 2 Councilman Bret Allphin, Ward 3 Councilman Bill Gossett and At-Large Councilman Ben Rutherford all attended the finance committee meeting and none of them had questions or made comments. No one in the audience asked questions or commented either.

Another measure related to cost savings that was addressed Monday night during the finance committee meeting was a transfer. Dimmerling told council that he transferred money from engineering salaries to contract services. Scales stated the amount of the transfer was $111,720.

"As we all know we did not get the assistant engineer position filled ... so what I did was I spoke with the mayor and safety services director and I am reappropriating the assistant engineer's salary and benefits over to contract services," Dimmerling said.

According to Dimmerling, the money will pay the firm the city is contracting with to perform its engineering services and the city has received the first invoice from the contractor which is for two months. He said if project statuses stay the same and the workload is able to be executed as it is now, the city should only need half of the $111,720. Dimmerling cautioned that he did not want to sell the amount needed short and then have to ask for more money in October.

Other issues discussed at the audit committee and finance committee meetings include:

*During the audit committee meeting, City Auditor Sherri Hess said the city is receiving 5.12% interest on its investments and the bank told her that the interest rate would increase some.

*During the finance committee meeting council discussed two transfers, $100,000 being moved to appropriate Community Development Block Grant funds for the city's Housing Rehabilitation Assistance Program and $5,000 being moved from the fire levy fund to fund additional fire truck repairs.

The next city council meeting is May 2 at 7:30 p.m. in Room 10 of the Marietta Armory.