Budget cuts no easy task for High Springs Commission

After two nights of debate ended in a standoff between High Springs city commissioners unwilling to budge from their respective platforms, a motion was finally passed for first approval of a draft budget for the 2010-2011 fiscal year, despite the failure to reach a unanimous consensus.

During the Aug. 23 meeting Monday night, Commissioner Eric May introduced a controversial proposal to amend the budget to cut the positions of both police and fire chief and combine the two departments under the management of a single public safety director, which would then operate under two subdivisions, with a captain overseeing the fire-rescue division and a lieutenant overseeing the police division.

Coupled with this change, two part-time fire positions that had previously been cut would be reinstated in the budget.

This proposal, in its entirety, was approved with a 3 to 2 vote on Monday. Commissioners Eric May, Dean Davis and John Hill voted in favor of it, while Commissioner Larry Travis and Mayor Bill Coughlin were in dissent.

In the original budget proposal presented to the commission by City Manager Jim Drumm, a janitorial maintenance position was cut, and a facilities worker position was changed to seasonal rather than year-round.

The commission had since reinstated the maintenance position and restored the facility worker position to year-round in the budget.

During the Monday meeting, Commissioner May proposed to once again eliminate the maintenance position and cut the facility worker position back to seasonal, while reapportioning those funds to reinstate a full-time police officer position that had been cut. This motion also passed with a 3 to 2 vote, this time with May, Travis and Hill in favor and Davis and Coughlin in dissent.

Another motion was passed to cut the director of public works position and split the department into two divisions to be headed by two superintendent positions, one of which the city manager had originally proposed to cut.

Tuesday night, the commission continued where it left off in its tug-of-war over which city positions to save.  The meeting started at the High Springs garden club, because City Hall was occupied.

There was little room and even less air circulating in the small room full of residents eager for their turn to speak. Less than half an hour into it, however, the mayor received news that the regular City Hall venue had opened up, 20-minute recess was declared.

Despite the relief of central air conditioning, the debate only grew more heated after the meeting reconvened. When the floor was opened for public input, about 14 residents offered comments, an overwhelming majority of which focused on protesting the cuts of the police and fire chiefs and subsequent merging of the two departments under one public safety director.  

One resident said he had been getting phone calls all day from people “freaking out” over what they heard had happened at Monday’s meeting.

Even among those who said they did not necessarily think it was a bad idea, there was a consensus that such a decision should only be made on the basis of extensive research and discussion, rather than committing to it in the budget after only two nights of debate since its proposal.

In the attempt to gain preliminary approval of the budget, with the concern in mind of notifying city employees sooner rather than later whether their jobs will be cut, commissioners eventually began to make motions to adopt specified versions of the draft.

Following one failed motion and more back and forth between commissioners, commissioner Larry Travis moved to approve the draft budget including the police and fire chief positions, cutting the two part time fire positions, reinstating the maintenance worker and restoring the facility worker position to year round, while cutting the full time police position, retaining the public works department under one director position and cutting one of the two public works superintendent positions.

The motion to approve the budget draft with these changes passed 4 to 1, with commissioner May in dissent. He said he could not support this version because it cuts out the full time police officer position, which he said is one of his priorities to maintain.

On another note, Mayor Coughlin stated that the commission would continue to try to find a way to add the public works superintendent position back in if at all possible.

Drumm later said that the commission is looking at reinstating the second superintendent at least as a part-time position. And on Tuesday, they opted to take $18,000 from cemetery reserve funds and move it to the general fund, where money could then be re-apportioned appropriately to pay for cemetery costs and for the seond public works superintendent.

The next budget meeting is scheduled for Aug. 30, followed by another Sept. 2. The final budget meeting is scheduled for Septe. 27, which is when the commission will take a vote to approve the final 2010-2011 fiscal year budget.