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Already reeling from projected reductions in interest income of about $226,744 for 2009, Onalaska Common Council members received more bad news.
With information obtained just hours before the June 9 meeting, Mayor Mike Giese told members the city would be experiencing a 14.7 percent cut in shared revenue for 2010 if the state’s Joint Finance Committee’s budget proposal made it through the Assembly and Senate unchanged. Holmen, by comparison, faces a 6.3 percent cut.
According to a memo Giese obtained that was written by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau dated June 9, Onalaska would receive $605,161 in shared revenue in 2010. The city received $709,780 in 2009.
With anticipated cost increases and reductions in investment interest income as well as the proposed state budget cut, the city is looking at dealing with a $439,657 shortfall for 2010, Giese said.
Giese summarized expected cost increases and interest income reductions for the general fund in 2010. Landfill fees are expected to increase by more than $11,000. The city’s contribution to the Wisconsin Retirement System is expected to increase about 1 percent or $32,109, and the mayor, after talking with various insurers, assumes a 10 percent increase in the city’s share of health and dental premiums.
Giese also said the city will only take in about $143,000 in interest income this year, 39 percent less than the $370,000 expected, and he anticipates only $220,000 for interest income in 2010.
To make matters worse, Giese said ongoing negotiations with the Onalaska Professional Police Association are not very fruitful. “We are exchanging offers with the union,” Giese said. “It looks like it will go to binding arbitration.”
Under that scenario, Giese said, the arbitrator would make a decision that involves taking the entire offer of one side or the other, with no compromise. But the final determination won’t be made until fall, when the city will be well into budgeting for 2010.
Likely budgetary actions, according to Giese, would be freezing salaries for non-union employees in 2010. “We’ll also have to look at further reductions,” Giese said. “One is furloughs or close City Hall for a day to reduce expenses.”
Budget concerns sparked contentious discussions about advertising and posting for filling vacancies in the fire and police departments. Alderman Tim Miller suffered two defeats in trying to stop the posting and advertising for a firefighter/EMT to replace a departing staff member and a police officer vacancy. The police vacancy was created by the promotion of Sgt. Troy Miller to assistant police chief.
“Tough decisions have to be made and I’ll start,” Miller said.
Miller’s motions were defeated. Council members expressed agreement with the need to start making hard decisions, but they said emergency services was not the place to start.
Fire station grantAn equally contentious discussion arose when Fire Chief Don Dominick requested authority to apply for a $1.6 million grant for construction of a new fire station. The grant is federal stimulus money available under the American Recovery and Resources Act.
Aspenson wanted to know if the city would be allowed to turn the funds down if the grant was awarded. Dominick responded that communities had declined grants after they were awarded.
“Don’t we need land?” Miller asked. The grant is for construction of a building, not for land acquisition costs.
Dominick said the city has time because the grant funds would not be available until September 2010. “There are several areas broken down for favorability or preference given to a community,” Dominick said. “One is that a new building is in the comprehensive plan. The other is that you have purchased property. We’ve had this in the master plan since 2004.”
In its 2009 capital improvement projects deliberations, the council removed $310,000 from the budget for the purchase of five acres of land on the east side of the city on Highway 16. Dominick is hoping that can be restored in the 2010 budget.
Dominick is struggling with staffing issues that increase response times to fires, especially to the east and south of the city. The current average response time to the Menard’s area is 8 minutes, 20 seconds. The highest average response time Dominick has tracked is to the Medary area at 15 minutes, 49 seconds. The lowest average response time is 5 minutes, 45 seconds for fires within a mile and a half of the station.
The response time to the Franciscan Skemp clinic and the new Globe University is about nine minutes, Dominick said.
Due to staffing only three full-time firefighters on any shift, city firefighters have to wait for a fourth, half-time firefighter to arrive at the station before a truck can be dispatched to a fire.
National fire protection standards require a fire department send a minimum of four firefighters within four minutes of a call.
With a building on the east side of the city, firefighters’ exposure to danger would be reduced and survivability of occupants much improved, Dominick said.
Higher response times also means higher insurance rates for the city, residents and businesses. One of the criteria for establishing rates is how far away a home or business is from the nearest fire station and response times.
AppointmentsThe council approved appointment of Diane Oldani Wulf to the Harbor Commission and Jennifer Kaczorowski to the Library Commission.
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Black Lab wrote on Jun 16, 2009 6:41 PM:
Those working in government, your pay or hours will be cut. Something has to give. Expect that. "